<strong><em>(APOLOGIES FOR TYPOES AND THE UNCLEAN STATE OF TEXT - I shall endeavor to reread and improve the text soon - meanwhile i need to discuss something with our local thread gm before I round up)</em></strong><br/>Held in the hand of the powerful woman, the glowing orb bestowed sight beyond sight... it allowed one to gaze into oblivion and beyond.<br/>The world before her gaze was... intrigueing. Large and disparate with massive continents and several islandgroups.<br/>The north was ice, swamp and mountain. Here the military warrior-state of Khone reigned supreme, the eternal bulwark against the hordes of anarchy and plunderers... but they were also imperialists and conquerors to the core. Their Legions having initiated expansion beyond the border to gain the resources needed to end the greenskin horde and tribal barbarian threats. But also to avenge themselves upon the decadent and dissmive south where the sophisticated city states and confederations grew rich while they held the enemy at bay...<br/>To the east desert and tundra. Here the nomads and amazons lived. Isolationist slavers and allies to the Southern nations. They indulged in piracy and had the largest foothold on islands far from the main continent. To the west forest and lakes. Here the elves and forestdwellers reigned, lovers of beauty and nature with a great magical inclination. Above them one found the barbaric kingdoms.<br/>At a mere command the woman of regal authority and infernal might forced the glowing consctruct to zoom into the snowy region. Past the Khonish capital, the huge Fortress City known as Keep Khone, beyond the icy river of Cryonis, through the swamps holding Khone’s terrible Tower of Bone where Necromancer’s plyed their art to serve their utalitarian regime…<br/>As her gaze went furter she passed mountains, one of many Black Legion fortresses ever watchful for the enemy. And finally she arrived where she desired to be… the Great Pass of Frostwind.<br/>Here she saw a distant force of innumberable foes. Tribal barbarian berserkers, Orcish warbands… allied with the City State Phalanx, the Amazon sword dancers and the nomad horsemen. Large Eliphaunt warbeasts towered among them and fiercesome Razorfangs were leashed by Beastmasters. As they snarled and growled eager to dig their fanged mouths into Khonish meat, a series of constructs were deployed… catapults and a dozen circles of High Mages from the nation of Magi took up place. The latest to come were the druids and archers of the Elves, aided by the Ranger-folk and their Enchantresses.<br/>The most massive and imposing military force in the history of this real had been gathered in one place. All of them united in their desire to stop the people fielded before them…<br/><br/>The enemies of Khone had foolishly united, not realizing that Khone’s fall would not alleviate their fates… the very Orcish hordes, barbarians and slavers that had joined this army would not be stopped and take all the rich states and deluded Elves held dear.<br/><br/>Line after line of Khonish Legionnaries had formed up. Black armor with silver trimming, their leaders having purple or red plumes on their helmets. They also had more silver trimmings on armor and weapons. A mixture of chainmale and plates, leathers and the likes offered optimal protection. Large shields with a vicious spoke in the center used for ‘pushing’ into enemies gave them great protection. All of them had a dagger and sword. All of them held a firm spear of above average height.<br/>Each cohort had a standardbeaerer and an officer.<br/>These were the core of the army.<br/>The disciplined men of Khone. Upholding their ‘virtus’ and honor at all costs. Bitter and cynical due to the fate bestowed upon them by the actions of southerners and barbaric invaders for generations. Their birthight within reach. All clean shaven bar some of the officers of noble blood, many of them wore fur capes.<br/>Fur of the black dire wolves or the Great Frost Bear was used a lot and  some standards displayed their stuffed heads or the Silver Great Scorpion that was Khone’s symbol.<br/>On hills and strategic locations lighter armed Legionnary Repeater crossbowmen had taken place, covered by veteran pikemen. Their deadly bolts would fire at a rapid pace and pierce all but the best of armors. Allied troops from the conquered City States and the barbarian tribes that had remained loyal to their conquerors for 2 generations stood there too, protecting the wings.<br/>The barbarians fielded large units of cavalry, having learned that their berserkers were outdated but cavalry was a necessity… it made them useful, appreciated and rewarded. They like the conquered City States had become the ‘chosen few’, those who had partial citizenship.<br/>The allied Phalanx had adopted a red and black colorscheme, indicatin affiliation and the Khonish need for homogenity, while still maintaining symbol and color variations that made it clear that they were not the same. The spearwall was supported by trackers , veteran Islanders drafted from the vicious northern Khonish islands.<br/>They too had ‘virtus’. They too were seen as honorable. They had much to loose today.<br/>Whereas the Elven Druids glowed with a natural feel, and the haughty Magi radiated with a wide spectrum of magical essences when preparing their art, the Necromancers of the Tower of Bone were surrounded by the eerie green and purple aura’s of their trade. As pragmatic as their Khonish kin, they used whatever means necessary to defend and serve their nation. Cold, wind and death itself served them but the eerily clad Necromancers knew they would be sorely tested for magical superiority rested with the enemy…<br/>Large constructs had been placed along the line, bolt throwers, onagers and the latest in war weaponry… the fiercesome Hellfury Cannons and Flameguns. The loyal and reliable Dwarves of the mountains, honorable, stubborn like their Khonish peers manned them. A firm detachment of heavily armoured Dwarven combattants stood here and their. Axe and hammer in hand, their helmets horned, their beards long. They would crush the hated elves and barbarians and test out their newest creations while singing the songs of ancient grudge and oaths forgotten by all but the Dwarven Clans themselves.<br/>All the Khonish men were tall, muscular, pale of skin and ravenblack of hair. Here and there a woman was among them, sharing similar traits though slightly shorter. In Khone all women were expected to defend their homes… and those unwed and childless could expect to be drafted.<br/>Nobody questioned their resolve, they too had ‘virtus’ and honor.<br/><br/>The heart and soul of the army was in place already though. Riding nightmareish warhorses and clad in obsidian armor, the Black Knights of Khone had formed up. If the Legions were the shield then these men and women were the aristocratic and indomitable hammer of Khone.<br/>Blackguards of the Order of Bane, they worshipped the national God of War and discipline, training and peerless loyalty were indoctrinated into them.<br/>They were Khone…<br/>And their leader was Khone…<br/><br/>The woman hissed in delight, surpressing a purr as her ‘prey’ came into sight. That rarest of specimens… that sweet nectar craved by evil. A mortal man of talent and will, selfrighteous and defiant, arrogant in defiance of his creator and getting away with it through cunning against the odds of fate. Delicious…<br/><br/>All the Black Knights wore elaborate eerie armors incrested with arcane Dwarven armor. Their weapons  made of the finest steel. But one man stood out. His armor was black as the night but the ornamentation of his baroque armor was golden. His elaborate helmet, long black fur cape intimidating presence made him stand out.<br/><br/>He was the one holding the title ‘Dark Knight’, the Black Baron of Khone. Oldest heir to his father’s throne and the reason that in a single generation Khone’s slowly dwindling might had reached an apex unseen for two centuries.<br/>As he stood on the icy hill, he ignored the blizzard that temporarily kept the forces apart. He was used to the cold of his homeland, more than the enemy. It was one of the reasons he had allowed them to advance so far. The climate crippled many of them.  Hunger and disease, scarcity of forageable food had given him an advantage. But above all… it felt fitting.<br/>A giant even by Khonish standards, he patted the side of Nightraid’s neck. The eerie horse made a pleased noise.<br/>Magnus Thane glanced back, in the distance he saw the pass and beyond it lay his frigid resource-rich home. The Mountain Scorpion, the Ice Wolf, the Dire Wolf, the great white bears of the North. For all its savagery it was a resource-rich beautiful land. It was his. Bestowed upon him by his mother.<br/>He turned his gaze to his hand and closed it into a gauntleted fist.<br/>He stared at it in silent contemplation.<br/>His cunning, his strategic brilliance and his reforms had led him to reviving Khone from what had seemed an inevitable decline. But did he suffer from hubris? For if he failed today… all would be for naught. Khone would end. They would not stop till Keep Khone itself was in ruins.<br/>He opened his hand… a gauntlet that opened. “But if I’m victorious today…” he murmured to himself. He closed the hand, seemingly crushing the heart of the enemy army in the distance.<br/>‘All shall fall to Khone in time’ he thought.<br/>“My lord?” came a calm female voice. His reverie broken, he shifted his attention to the female Black Knight. The Knight Commander led the cavalry as his second and served as titular leader of his bodyguard i all circumstances.<br/>“Nothing Lady Auren.” He said. “Tell the lances of knights to stand ready… ‘We’ shall charge when the time is opportune..” he said.<br/>The woman in black armor nodded her head, slammed a gauntleted hand into her chestplate, the signature military greeting of Khone, before turning her inkblack armored warhorse to join the large contingent of Black Knights.<br/><br/>Finally ruckuss of musical instruments across the field… the enemy army began to march as the blizzard died down. The next moments were tense as the enemy opened fire, much too soon. Their rockthrowers missed target by much. Thane drew his sword. A baroque blade incrested with magical runes much like his armor. It had a distinctly regal feel. The sharp large blade was a bastard sword though given his size it could just as well have been a longsword.<br/>He suddenly signalled and the Dwarven Engineer roared his command with a the voice of an old yet strong man. “FIRE!!”<br/>The Catapults and Hellfuries shot first. Cannonball and rock hitting the enemy ranks.<br/>Thane did not expect it to break the enemy but it would slow them and above all have a dreadful impact on enemy morale.<br/>Eventually the ballistae began to fire and strange Dwarven contraptions based on the Khonish repeater crossbow. These machines were a collection of tubes that rotated and unleashed entire barrages of massive ballistae bolts. Larger specimens were fired by the traditional ballista. They pierced enemy ranks and caused killed many.<br/>The enemy had readjusted their own engines and managed to strike a few serious blows in turn.<br/><br/>Thane’s gaze wandered to the Necromancers. Magical powers pushed against each other in the sky, shifting concentrations allowing some mages to unleash powerful spells. The sky flickered with purples, greens, reds, blues and yellows.<br/>Dead enemies rose up as undead and attacked their own allies, fiery objects descended from the skies onto the Legionnaries and their allies. Magical bolts were shot in both directions. A great beast was summoned from the icy waters by the enemy druids but felled before it managed to reach the Khonish lines, two Hellfury Cannons combining fire to kill the enormous worm-like creature.<br/><br/>And then the chaos of true battle began. Phalanxes met, the Khonish shieldwall faced the berserkers and their Orcish allies. Man versus beast. Dwarf versus Hoplite. Barbarian light lancer against nomad horse archer.<br/>The lines held of course and Thane motioned the right wink to began the flanking manoeuvre.<br/>The Repeater Crossbowmen opened fire, going for the thick of the enemy mass, aiming for the lightly armored Orcs and Barbarians who brought strength and massive weapons but only leather armors and hints of chainmail.<br/>The lines held indeed but even so the sheer mass of the enemy was hard to withstand. The pressure of the enemy lines pressing forward caused the enemy many deaths yet despite the easy kills, the weight of number was exhausting his rockhard men. A man could only go so far. Units retreated and new ones filled the gap to allow their fellow cohorts to rest and recover.<br/>Thane issued another order, given the ruckuss, he did so to the hornblowers next to him.  They blew the agreed signal, causing the Flameguns were put to use. Having positioned them in a way to scorch the central troops, the damage was optimal.<br/>Time went slow for Thane, he had to take everything into account, react to the slightest variance, the slightest change.<br/>Especially when the huge tusked beasts of the Steppenvolk appeared on the scene, he had to redirect the trackers and a large contingent of specialized veteran pikemen to deal with them.<br/>As time went on, the two forces continued to maul each other. The magical superiority of the enemy casters negated by the firepower of Thane’s Dwarven batteries. In the end it came down to discipline and the well-timed use of his troops.<br/>As the enemy horse archers played cat and mouse with the barbarian horsemen, Thane saw that the Amazon sword dancers moved into the fray. Attacking the left wing’s flank, their unarmored bodies allowed speed and their skill caused great damage as the allied troops were exhausted and pinned by the Hoplite troops. The time had come to turn the tide.<br/>His gut instinct told him that this was the moment…<br/><br/>“Bane, Lord of War. Master of Swords. Bringer of dominion. Grant me victory” Thane whispered. He turned his warhorse and slowly moved to his forces.<br/>“Black Knights!!!” he roared “Finally it is time for us to show these miscreants our mettle. They think they can defeat us by swarming us. By uniting against their superiors… so their debauchery endures… so their raids can continue. They are sorely mistaken. They only made it easy for us… now we don’t have to bother to look for them. They’ve lined up nicely to meet Khonish steel and courage!!!” he said, raising his blade. The Black Knights roared.<br/>“We are the Black Knights. The greatest fighting force this world has ever seen. United we shall crush our foes and cut through their ranks like a hot knife through butter. And remeber… we fight for the very survival of Khone… and dominion over all WHEN we inevitably cursh them all!” another roar came as a response.<br/>Taking the leading position, he sheathed his sword and took a large silvertipped black lance. His shield depicted a golden skull with atop it a silver Scorpion.<br/>“Glory to Khone! For honor! For duty! For Order! CHARGE!” and as one they rode forth. Thane had done this dozens of times throughout his eventful life. But this time it mattered the most. This time it was truly destiny or eradication.<br/>His icy blue gaze saw the enemy flank doom up quick enough as these strong almost mytical chargers felt the bloodlust rise in them. The armoured chargers and their even more armored riders a veritable speartip ready to drive into the enemy.<br/><br/>The enemy spun a trap of their own, they had planned to send troops shrouded in magic to attack from behind… the unfortunate fools appeared only to be unintentionally run over by charging knights. They never even stopped, the armored elite troops of the enemy simply cast asside, their remnants taken out by a group of Praetorians held behind just for this eventuality… instead of a fierce decisive battle, they found an easy and quick skirmish before them. The plumed veterans that usually served in Keep Khone and the most crucial strongholds and campaigns, formed up in a square and slowly marched onwards to prepare to reinforce where needed. Their Tribune ordering the horn to be blown, to inspire the men.<br/><br/>The charge went on meanwhile, the caped riders wheeled and slammed into the back of the lightly armored amazons. Scantily clad beauties of great skill, they were like leafs before the hurricane. Their blades and intimidating cries nothing before the resolve, discipline and hardyness of the knights. Deeper they plunged, chaos rippling across the enemy force.<br/>And thus strategy soon divolved into tactical decisions and as the decisive moment came… a struggle for survival. Thane smiled, the die was cast, now to see where it landed…<br/><br/>His lance had broken already, imbedded in the chest of an Amazon Princess, mounted he had plunged through the enemy. He did not grow weary, gore on his armor, he was a giant in the playground, doing what a noble of Khone did best… bring glorious death to the enemies of his people.<br/>Unexpected chaos had locked the Knights in. But he had ordered an all out attack thanks to the hornblower near him. The musician knight had only just fallen. The Banner Bearer nearby had quickly grabbed the ceremonial horn in hand, sounding it once more. The Cavalry Banner was beautiful depicting Thane’s personal crest. The Golden Skull with the Silver Scorpion on a black background. Atop the banner’s black pole was a silver Dragon’s head.<br/>The momentum of their demoralizing charge combined with the all out attack had turned the tide but there was still much fighting to be had.<br/>Beheading a fleeing hoplite, he turned and blocked the blow of a desperate elf wielding a scimitar, Thane’s ornamented blade dug deep into the man’s skin. Part of the Knights had eluded the mass and slammed into the Elven archers to the back, shattering the firesupport and now veering to hit the mages. The Magi lost their concentration, allowing the weakened Necromancers to lash back with a localized blizzard blinding the remaining enemy archers and engine crews.<br/><br/>Thane was pushed of his horse. A greenskinned orc hovered over him, it’s inhuman muscles allowing it a firm grip on him. Despite this the towering man of Khone dispatched him before being throttled, by plunging his dagger into the creature’s gut and twisting with great eagerness.<br/>Casually throwing him asside, the legendary Khonish warlord rose up. The wind played with his fur cape as he gave his Runic Blade a casual twirl with an air of flair and drama.<br/>He only now truly realized how many lay dead around him. Thirty if not more men of all sorts that had dared to challeng him. Dismembered, gutted, stabbed and slashed, one had his skull crushed by his large booted foot. He cared not. They deserved it.<br/>His body ached with exchaustion. He breathed heavily but was undaunted.<br/>His icy gaze fluttered over the ranks around him. The enemy was about to break.<br/>“Glory to Khone!” he roared. Raising his sword. The Knight Captain came to a halt next to him, offering him the reins of his own horse. Everywhere he heard his warcry echoed.<br/>The enemy broke…  they fled.<br/>Sheathing his blade, Thane removed his helmet, revealing the features of a handsome but austere man. A black finely trimmed goatee, a frowning pair of eyebrows and pale skin. Piercing blue eyes and lips that could on rare occassion offer a woman a smile that would make them melt on that rare occassion that the man of ambition and duty became a man of flesh and emotion.<br/>His inkblack hair was messy at the moment. He had sweated and overall he looked a muddy gorey figure from a nightmareish place. He smiled lightly “Khone Eternal. Bane be praised” he said with gravitas. “My New Age undreamt of nears…”<br/><br/>She had found him, she watched as the giant mortal reigned his men in with authority and fearlessness. He imposed his will on them almost casually. He ordered the barbarians and some of the Knights to pursue… to crush them all while the army rallied.<br/>She felt glee at what would come next. Irony or a blessing in disguise? He would be plucked away, cursed to return only at specific moments, time barely passing their but in the timeless place of the Inferno… much mental time would pass.<br/>The game would be… ‘interesting’. The purpose clear to her and no other. Hellish mistress or subservient plaything. It all served purpose… as did the next thing…<br/><br/>The swarm that doomed up beyond the horizon was accompagnied by a reddening sky and the chittering of winged imps and devils. They came and purged the Khonish enemies, crippling their states for a decade to come. Leaderless, anarchy would ensure but then the swarm moved forward.<br/>“Well…” Thane said as he looked up. “That’s  new…” he said with a cool even tone.<br/>He spoke unphased despite the strange and extradimensional horror before him “More agents of chaos it seems… and though they made sure our victory is exceptionally final… i think they plan to do more than just snack on lesser men and women”.<br/>He turned his gaze to the woman next to him. “Knight Captain call back the outriders, form up the ranks…” he said.<br/>“M…milord?” she asked for a moment taken aback by the aborration that appeared at the outskirts of the former battlefield.<br/>“Today I will win two historical battles… so  I decided… so it shall be…” he slid on his metal-winged helmet and mounted his warhorse. Flicking the reins, he gathered his knights.<br/>Hell was on the march and it looked intent on claiming Khone.<br/>For once the Lord Strategist of Khone made a mistake. Khone was not the objective… he was.<br/>And if the watcher beyond the infernal veil would get some amusement out of seeing him display his ‘qualities’ for her gruesome amusement, all the better to the queen.<br/>Lines were formed but uncertainty ruled. For distant flames erupting from the ground indicated new arrivals… large winged and horned forms holding gigantic weapons, marching forward.<br/>The Queen laughed unheard by mortal ears. Let the games begin!<br/>