The jungles of Lustria were charred and bloodied, totally ravaged by caustic green warpfire.
After the Skaven’s hard-won destruction of the Lizardmen’s temples and strongholds,
the Slann departed for the stars. Hope for the southern continent was lost,
while in the north, the Witch King Malekith made a daring decision to abandon his mother
and his kingdom to invade Ulthuan and claim the throne of the Phoenix King.
Even during the End Times, the timeless conflict between High Elves and Dark Elves raged on,
but the Witch King’s final invasion into Ulthuan would shatter the thousand-year status quo, and
force both factions to make impossible decisions as the world around them burned. Welcome to
our latest episode on the End Times of Warhammer Fantasy, where we will cover the Fall of Ulthuan.
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[Intro into High Elven history]
"We will never forget that which has been taken from us. Ulthuan belongs to me. If it
takes a thousand years, ten thousand years, I will claim my rightful place as king. I am the
son of Aenarion. It is my destiny." —Malekith, Witch King of Naggaroth
In the early history of the Warhammer World, Ulthuan and the Asur, or High Elves,
were responsible for creating the Great Vortex within the Inner Sea. Since then, that vortex
had faithfully siphoned the excess magic from the catastrophic failure of the polar gates made by
the Old Ones. The Isle of Ulthuan itself was a hollow ring, protecting the Great Vortex by the
ten High Elven Kingdoms which encircled it. Each of these Kingdoms was ruled by its own High Elf
prince or Princess, and each province commanded their own armies and had its own strategies to
deal with both foreign and domestic threats. Proof of the continent’s eternal turmoil with the Dark
Elves could be found in the north and east of the continent, the coasts sunken beneath the waves.
While the continent was host to eternal turmoil, it was also the home of the world’s
remaining Dragons, which would play a shocking role in the coming invasion.
"With the service of this bound daemon we shall be able to move so swiftly that our
enemies will not know where we are or how to stop us before it is too late.
We will be able to amass our forces to overwhelm our enemies before they know
what has hit them. This more than anything else will give us a victory. This time all
of Ulthuan will be ours. This time we will succeed. This time victory is inevitable."
—Witch King Malekith, enacting the Invasion of Ulthuan.
Malekith’s invasion into Ulthuan began from the west, led by Lokhir Fellheart, a dark elf
corsair of noble birth. The seasoned captain of the dark-elven fleets emerged from the mists of
a dark storm and surprised the high-elven patrol vessels that guarded the seas west of Tiranoc.
Prince Morvai, returning from another battle, desperately rallied his kingdom and countered
Fellheart’s assault with an armada of his own. Yet, as Morvai’s fleets chased Fellheart’s
squadrons away from the broken coastline, they fell into a masterfully laid trap. Thousands of
high elves were lost in the maritime skirmish, and Morvai himself succumbed to the poison of a
carefully placed assassin’s blade. The prince was laid to rest, and with many of Tiranoc’s
warriors distracted by Lokhir’s retreat, the true assault began at the Battle for Eagle Gate.
[Begin Battle for Eagle Gate] The garrison at Eagle Gate,
led by Prince Yvarn, had suffered catastrophic damage during the previous wars of reclamation.
Six of the eight walls had been breached, still unrepaired by the time the dark-elven
armies approached from the north. Moreover, the famed twins Loremaster Teclis and Prince Tyrion
could not contribute to the redoubt’s defense, for they were across the world
attempting to free Aliathra the Everchild from the terrible ritual to revive Nagash.
On the other side, the Knights of Hag Graef were led by Malus Darkblade. Malus had been given the
honour of leading the land invasion, for his own body hosted the Slaanesh demon Tz’arkan, Drinker
of Worlds. Since these dread knights had no time to prepare siege weapons, they made a reckless
charge toward the six breached walls of the Eagle Gate, having no time to prepare siege weapons.
A rain of high-elven arrows pelted the advancing army from the walls, preventing Malus’ forces from
erecting suitable war machines to challenge the garrisoned gate guards. Thinning the dark-elven
infantry successfully, Malus was forced to retreat north and prepare a second advance.
The ruthless dark-elven leader announced that any of his knights that dared to disobey coming orders
would be executed. The next night, Malus’ armies rushed the gates again, but the dark elves still
could not make any real progress toward capturing the stronghold. The field before the Eagle Gate
was bloodied with thousands of dark elven bodies, but the high elves suffered minimal casualties.
Enraged by the ineffectiveness of his assault, Malus was forced to call upon his reserves:
the Knights of the Burning Dark, the household knights of Malus himself who were mounted upon
speeding cold-blooded raptors. The knights joined Darkblade’s side and tried to force
their way through the breached walls faster than the Eagle Gate garrison could fend them off.
However, the time squandered by Malus had allowed reinforcements to arrive at the Eagle Gate.
To challenge the cavalry charging the Eagle Gate, Chracian Hunters and Ellyrion Knights
rode out of the breached gates with Prince Yvarn and crashed into Malus’ reserve just
outside of the stronghold. High above the clouds, high-elven phoenixes dove down onto
the dark-elven infantry and began burning a path for the high-elven reinforcements
towards the rearguard of Malus’ armies. The dark-elven invasion was brought to a decisive
halt. Unable to contain his rage, Malus succumbed to the Slaanesh demon hosted within his blade.
Exploding with renewed demonic power, the dark elf warrior submitted himself entirely to the
whims of the demon within, slaughtering friend and foe as he carved a bloody path to Prince Yvarn.
The two clashed as their armies surrounded their flanks. Suddenly, the high elven prince was
beheaded by Tz’arkan’s demonic claws, causing a change in the tide of battle which finally forced
the high elves to rout and retreat back to the safety of the battered stronghold. Even still, the
dark elven rearguard was suddenly smashed into by silver chariots, heralding what was thought to be
the final repulsion of the Witch King’s invasion. Then, more forces arrived… The famed dragons of
Caledor blotted the blue sky above. The high elves of Eagle Gate looked up in awe
at the reinforcements summoned to their side. Their awe quickly turned to horror,
however, as the beasts unleashed a carpet of dragon fire not upon the dark elves, but upon
their own kind. Caledor had betrayed the other nine high elven kingdoms, and at this moment,
Eagle Gate was seized by the dragons and secured for the victory of the Witch King’s armies.
"The cycle of history repeats itself, much to the Dark God's merriment. We approach the hour
of the last Phoenix, when only Asuryan's fading power can save us from thirsting Khaine. The
fate of the elves now relies upon two realms; one doomed to perish in fire and slaughter,
and one that shall endure whilst I have strength to defend it. Mortals shall assume divine roles,
the heirs of Aenarion will fight the final battle, and the accursed Windowmaker shall be
freed from its prison of stone..." —Prophecy of the End Times
All of Ulthuan was shocked by the revelation of Caledor’s betrayal. As the survivors fled the
Eagle Gate, the dragons perched themselves atop a nearby mountain, unable to bring themselves
to slaughter their own as they escaped to the princedoms still loyal to the Phoenix King.
A secret agent of Morathi, the Witch King’s mother, was quietly sent to Malus during the chaos
of the war and banished the demon of Slaanesh back into Malus’ blade to restore his senses.
Once his mind and body were under his control again, Malus ordered his remaining soldiers
to secure control of the Eagle Gate. Here, the Witch King arrived to plot the second
phase of his invasion into Ulthuan. Malekith, Loremaster Teclis, and Imrik,
Prince of Caledor and Lord of Dragons, met at the stronghold to discuss their next steps.
The Loremaster made great strides to convince Malekith that the proof of the true End Times
was undeniable and that the preservation of their race lay in the affirmation that the
Witch King was the true heir of Aenarion the Defender, first of the Phoenix Kings.
While his own twin brother plotted against Ulthuan with Malekith, Tyrion,
the greatest living High Elven warrior and long assumed heir of Aenarion, returned to Ulthuan.
After failing to save Aliathra from Mannfred’s ritual to revive Nagash, Tyrion demanded that the
Phoenix King explain Caledor’s betrayal. Marching into King’s quarters, Tyrion discovered, to his
horror, that the Phoenix monarch had committed suicide. The violent evidence of the Finubar’s
death was plastered on the walls, the Bloodletter demon summoned by Malekith nowhere to be seen.
Finubar’s bloodied remains were gathered at the Sea of Dreams for a funeral.
The Phoenix King was buried at Sea, and Tyrion was elected unanimously by the remaining faithful
princedoms as Regent of Ulthuan. In his first act as Regent, Tyrion imprisoned the Caledorian
Princes for their betrayal of the homeland and called for a counteroffensive against Malekith
and the occupied Eagle Gate. However, the high elven council pleaded with Tyrion to reconsider,
as the death of two rulers in the same year would certainly crush the morale of the entire isle.
With neither family nor friends at his side, Tyrion continued to rally any elf
still loyal to Ulthuan, and soon, he slowly felt the corruption of power overcoming him…
After the first month of Tyrion’s regency, rumours poured in of Malekith’s next move. Widowmaker,
the Sword of Khaine, a weapon storied to be the weapon belonging to the elven god of war,
was the Witch King’s next target. Seizing it would grant Malekith the murderous power of Widowmaker,
but the weapon itself was embedded in the Blighted Isle to the far north. A race between Malekith
and Tyrion ensued, each rushing to the blade in an attempt to deprive the other of its ancient power.
Ignoring the cries for reconsideration from his council, Teclis gathered an
army for himself and made for the Blighted Isle. Malekith’s armies advanced over the mountains,
with Teclis emphasizing that Tyrion mustn’t be allowed to seize the Widowmaker, even if
it meant that the weapon would instead fall into the Witch King’s hands. Simultaneously arriving
at the shores of the Blighted Isle, the armies of Malekith and Tyrion collided in a bloody blitz.
The two elven warriors raced to the blade, prepared to kill the other for the strength
sealed within. Mad with power and broken by the betrayal of his own brother and the Dragon Lord,
Tyrion claimed the Sword of Khaine and proclaimed himself the ruler of all of Ulthuan.
Malekith’s own mother pledged support for Tyrion, and all of Ulthuan and Naggaroth
split their true loyalties between the True Phoenix King and the Avatar of Khaine.
Warning Malekith, Teclis advised the dark elven king that the only hope of victory over his
brother and the dark gods was in the unravelling of the Vortex. By unbinding the winds of magic and
sealing one within Malekith, Teclis hoped to make the king equal in power to the gods themselves.
Yet Malekith was cautious, having only just recently claimed the Pheonix Throne for himself
as the rightful heir. Everqueen Alarielle denied Tyrion, refusing to be the Everqueen of a tyrant,
thereby gutting his legitimate right as the new Phoenix King. In yet another gut punch
to Tyrion’s position, Alarielle secured the support of the Wood Elves for Malekith just
as the final hours of Ulthuan were upon them… In the chaos of political turmoil, thousands
of elves perished in the following conflicts to control the Vortex. Eventually, the unified forces
of the dark, high, and wood elves secured victory over Tyrion’s faithful. The vortex unravelled,
the wood-elven king Orion was killed by Tyrion in the ensuing battle, and in the absence of
the vortex, the entire isle of Ulthuan sank into the sea. With the eight winds unbound, Malekith
absorbed the wind of Ulgu to become the Incarnate of Asuryan, and Tyrion absorbed the wind of Hysh
to become the Incarnate of Khaine. In the realms of men, Karl Franz absorbed the wind of Azyr to
become the Incarnate of Sigmar during the battle for Altdorf. Malekith, the True Phoenix King,
with his Everqueen Alarielle and the remaining elves, escaped the doomed isle through the world
roots to Athel Loren, where the Eternity King reigned until the final days of the End Times.
[Pan east to the Greenskin Arc] “Everfing I see is mine. All da
uvver bits are mine too - I just ain't got there yet. When we reach da end of da whole world,
we'll turn around and march back." —Grimgor Ironhide, Black Orc Warboss
While the winds of magic escape the broken vortex and the sinking high elven island, the
wind of Ghur sails far to the east, binding to the Greenskin responsible for the biggest WAAGH! the
Warhammer world had ever seen. Grimgor Ironhide, renowned by his kind as the Green Slaughterer,
rampaged east after his embarrassing defeat at the hands of Vardek Krom in the early invasion
of Kislev. Empowered by the wind of Ghur and attracting the attention of the Great Green
Prophet, the Greenskins would prove an unlikely ally against the descending armies of Chaos.
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