Darius Hinks - Sigvald

This is a dark age, a bloody age, an age of daemons and ofsorcery. It is an age of battle and death, and of the worlds ending. Amidst allof the fire, flame and fury it is a time, too, of mighty heroes, of bold deeds and great courage.

At the heart of the Old World sprawls the Empire, the largestand most powerful of the human realms. Known for its engineers, sorcerers, traders and soldiers, it is a land of great mountains, mighty rivers, dark forests and vast cities. And from his throne in Altdorf reigns the Emperor Karl-Franz, sacred descendant of the founder of these lands, Sigmar, and wielder of his magical warhammer.

But these are far from civilised times. Across the length andbreadth of the Old World, from the knightly palaces of Bretonnia to ice-bound Kislev in the far north, come rumblings of war. In the towering Worlds EdgeMountains, the orc tribes are gathering for another assault. Bandits and renegades harry the wild southern lands of the Border Princes. There are rumours of rat-things, the skaven, emerging from the sewers and swamps across the land. And from the northern wildernesses there is the ever-present threat of Chaos, of daemons and beastmen corrupted by the foul powers of the Dark Gods. As the time of battle draws ever near, the Empire needs heroes like never before.

Prince Sigvald the Magnificent

A champion of Slaanesh

Freyds

Sigvalds wife; Princess of the Gilded Palace

Oddrn (Narrerback)

Chancellor of the Gilded Palace

Baron Gustav Schler

A proud Empire knight, recently arrived at the Gilded Palace

Doctor Rusas Schliemann

Formerly an Empire scholar, now a devotee of Slaanesh

Ansgallr the Famished

Freyds guardian

Vga-Bari

A captain of the Decadent Host

Hazl

Viga-Baris chief surgeon

Brother Brmann

Vga-Baris mute slave

nka

Sigvalds most powerful sorcerer

Hauk

Chieftain of a Norscan tribe called the Fallen

Svla the Witch

A Norscan queen and prophet (wife of Hauk)

Svrd

A young Norscan tribesman (Hauk and Svlas son)

Valdr the Old

An elderly Norscan tribesman (Hauks oldest friend)

Ungaur the Blessed

A Norscan shaman and religious rival of Svla

Rurik Iron Fist

Chieftain of the Drekar tribe

Halldrr the Black

A Kurgan chieftain

Sturll the Hewer

A Norscan chieftain

Lrden

A Norscan scout

strid

A young Norscan woman

rsla

An elderly Norscan witch

Vltar the Wolf

A deity worshipped by the Fallen

Mord Huk

A champion of Khorne, with the head of a ferocious hound

Olandr

The lone inhabitant of a remote island off the coast of the Chaos Wastes

Belus Pl

A daemon of Slaanesh

Einvarr

Belus Pls envoy

Galrauch

A two-headed Tzeentchian dragon

Bargau the Soulless

An ancient immortal from prehistory

A man emerged from the shadows, his bulky frame silhouettedby the glow of a single candle. As the light danced around him it revealed other shapes: the walls of a small hut hung with animal bones, scraps of parchment scattered across the ground, and, in the centre of the room, a pale corpse, strapped to a sacrificial stone and scored with dozens of precise, angular knife wounds. The body was surrounded by a fan of sparkling crimson as its blood drained down a network of narrow channels, before pattering into a collection of hammered brass cups.

Ive given you our bravest, grunted the man, waving at thebody and staring into the darkness. His voice sounded harsh and strange, as if there was something metallic in his mouth, and as he turned towards the candlelight, it revealed a snarling wolfskin, draped over his head. Now willyou speak?

There was no reply. The only sound came from the blood, splashing into the cups.

The man rose up to his full, impressive height and kicked one of them across the ground, filling the chamber with noise and splattering blood up the wall. Whats the answer? he cried, pounding his fist on the corpseschest.

Still there was no reply and the man cursed, dropping a long, curved knife to the ground as he turned to leave.

Only then did he notice the wall. The blood he had kicked from the cup was forming itself into shapes as it trickled downwards, scrawling words across the ancient stone.

He gasped and stumbled to a halt. Then he grabbed the candle and held it up to the glistening characters. His eyes widened in recognition as he realised it was a fragment of an old saga.

He leant closer and began to read.

Across the ice,

through the snow,

a Geld-Prince,

swaddled in lust.

He cursed again and smeared the blood across the wall,frantically wiping his palms over the uneven stone until every trace of the words had been obscured.

For a few seconds he stood in silence, trembling and glaring at the bloody rock. Then he muttered a single word, his voice full of fear.

Sigvald.

Far in the distance, beneath the grumbling black belly of thesky, a triangular star had appeared. It had not been visible from the other side of the valley, but now it was unmistakeable: a glittering bauble, hung low over cruel, magisterial peaks. The baron massaged his sunken cheeks and leant forward in his saddle, peering out across a vast, frozen lake, hypnotised by the flickering light. For nearly three months he had led his men north, into regions of madness and endless night, and all the time, his determination had been ebbing awayleeched out of him by the appalling visions he had endured. Now,with fewer than six hundred men left and his body ruined by starvation and cold, he wondered if his mind had finally gone. There were no stars in the Shadowlands, only eternal darkness. Yet, when he rubbed his eyes and looked again, the light was still there, taunting him.

He looked down at his wasted limbs and asked himself if, even now, he might find what he came for. Could this be hope? he whispered.

He pointed the light out to his men and they nodded weakly in reply, steering their dying horses after him as he clattered across the ice.

The soldiers climbed the other side of the valley and after a while they realised it was not a star at all. They shook their heads in wonder as they saw that the light was a beautiful castle, hanging impossibly in the sky. The building flashed and glittered in the moonlight as immense banks of snow spiralled around it. It was made entirely of gold.