The
cartographers of the Empire of Man depict the boundaries of its dominions through colorful
borders on exquisitely detailed maps.
They paint an understanding of a nation whose power and sovereignty extends universally
across its lands, over plains, rivers and forests.
Its rule is clearly defined and delineated between various Elector Counts, Dukes and
Barons.
The Empire portrayed on these maps does not exist in reality.
There are places in the heart of human civilization where to stray too far beyond the protective
watch of city walls, or to take just a few steps off the well-tread paths of the Imperial
highways is to enter another realm entirely.
Its borders will not be found on any map, but they can be felt.
Any traveler who ventures too far from the light of civilization will feel a growing
sense of unease that turns to dread before a final realization that they are no longer
in the dominions of man, but a kingdom of shadows, the realm of the Beastmen.
Twisted beyond recognition by the taint of Chaos, a multitude of different creatures
and sub-species make up the Beastmen race.
These can vary dramatically in size, appearance and intelligence, but all outwardly resemble
a contorted union between primitive man and wild beast.
They might have long rigid horns, the legs of goats, and the heads of oxen or other perverted
monsters.
Their bodies are grotesquely muscular and rows of wolf-like fangs sit uneasily within
their mouths.
It is rare that their matted fur is not encrusted with blood, excrement or other filth, a perfect
shelter for parasites and great colonies of ticks and fleas.
While their outward appearance evokes elements of the natural world, Beastmen are the artificial
offspring and pawns of the ruinous powers alone.
They are wild and crude, driven only by carnal lusts and a deep-seated sense of rage.
They are as destructive and unreasoning as a hurricane and as deadly as a virulent plague,
but they exist wholly outside the order of nature.
They are compelled to unleash carnage and despair across the world, not in the service
of the eternal cycle of life and death, but a malevolent and deliberate need to despoil.
Atavistic fury boils in every beastman, apparent in every gesture, glance or movement, and
only ever a moment away from exploding to the surface.
The influence of Chaos has made it such that any sign of civilization is abhorrent to their
kind.
Gleaming cities, marvels of engineering, great statues and works of art all the way down
to pristine clothing, emblazoned coats of arms and even bright colors elicit a powerful
reaction from Beastmen.
They can be overcome with the intense desire to destroy the offending element, stomping
it into the mud, tearing it to pieces or otherwise befouleling it.
Beastmen lack the ability to create or innovate, but possess a sick and bawdy sense of humor.
Any imagination or ingenuity they might possess expresses itself through their atrocities
alone.
The only tools they possess are intended for war, crude blades or tattered armor, cobbled
together from the spoils of battle.
Unlike the other mortal servants of the Chaos gods, the Beastmen are rarely granted resplendent
weapons or ornate armor.
Their race belongs entirely to the ruinous powers, and the dark gods have no need to
bargain with trinkets or promises in exchange for their souls.
Beastmen are wholly devoted to Chaos but their race is seen as a valuable tool rather than
favored subjects.
A beastman who accomplishes terrible deeds in the name of their deity however, can sometimes
earn a physical reward for their service.
These gifts usually exaggerate the bestial nature of the recipient, spectacular twisting
horns, razored claws that bleed poison, and if the creature is suitably worthy, sometimes
bodies of living flame, new limbs that end in screaming heads, and countless other such
mutations.
Such gifts are mainly granted to Beastmen chieftains, should a lower ranking member
of the herd be granted such a boon, they would likely take it as a sign they are destined
to command and issue a challenge for leadership.
Such challenges define what passes for Beastmen society.
They live in savage bands known as “warherds” which might consist of only a few dozen individuals
up to tens of thousands.
Violence simmers beneath every internal action and decision, with each beastmen seeking out
every opportunity to enforce their superiority.
Any display of weakness is exploited fully, so that only the bold and cunning might survive.
Every Beastmen can challenge their herd’s leader or another member at almost any time,
either formally or informally.
Through this brutal ever shifting hierarchy, each warherd is led by the strongest among
them.
A warherd’s chieftain is a primitive facsimile of the Kings of man.
They occupy the apex of tribal authority with the absolute right to command the herd as
he sees fit.
Known as a Beastlord, their supremacy is always tenuous, as commands will only be followed
so long as the chieftain has the strength to back them up.
Challenges to his power are common as power hungry members of the tribe continuously vie
for leadership.
Chieftains often have totems as symbols of their rule decorated with the hides of defeated
challengers.
It is inevitable however, that a younger and stronger beastman will ultimately triumph
in his challenge for leadership, and hang the former’s Chieftain’s hide from his
totem.
Beneath the Chieftain, most herds follow the same loose hierarchy, typically based on racial
lines.
Gors are the most common breed of Beastmen, large, powerful and numerous, they form the
spine of all the tribes living within the wider world.
Gors are larger and more muscular than the lesser Beastmen races, and most prominently
marked by their imposing horns, a symbol of status within the herd.
Gors will often color their horns with dyes or blood, to solidify their displays of rank
and power.
Particularly large or powerful Gors might earn a privileged position within the herd,
acquiring the rank of Bestigor.
Like the chieftain however, they will be constantly assailed with challenges for leadership.
Directly beneath the Gors are the Ungors, physically smaller than their brethren and
less numerous.
Their comparatively smaller horns mark them as workers, foot soldiers and victims humiliated
at the whims of their larger cousins.
They can never occupy the higher echelons of the tribe and are forced to endure a life
of poverty and misery, low even for the most foul beastman.
Lowest of the Beastmen are the Turnskins and Brays.
Turnskins were born fully human but warped by the ruinous powers and trapped between
the worlds of man and chaos, yet welcome in neither.
Brays by contrast are simply those born without horns, doomed to suffer no matter how physically
strong or cunning they might be.
Neither Brays or Turnskins last long within a Beastman horde with even those who have
proved their worth, cut down by rival aspirants.
Sufficiently large Beastmen warherds will attract to them, or violently tame, an assortment
of other such creatures that lurk within the darkest forests of the world.
First among these are Minotaurs, enormous bullheaded creatures towering even over the
largest bestigor.
These creatures, while technically a breed of Beastmen, live a nomadic existence, gathering
only with others of their kind and accompanying the largest, most powerful warherds alone.
Minotaurs are notorious for their endless hunger for blood and meat, but overconsumption
can trigger rapid growth and escalating mutations.
The most terrible cannibals among the minotaurs can grow as large as giants, and extrude additional
limbs, becoming a huge twisted creature known as a Ghorgon.
Warhounds, harpies, chaos spawn and Jabberslythes, together with other breeds of beastmen, can
sometimes be found within larger herds.
These are as much a danger to the beastmen themselves as any the herd would loose these
creatures upon.
It is through the iron will of a Beastlord alone that such a diverse collection of creatures
might be commanded.
Warheards do not conquer territory as men or dwarfs do, for they consider all the world
to be their kingdom and hunting ground.
They typically dwell within the deepest forests but rarely stay in one location for long.
Their encampments are crude, often nothing more than a raging pyre surrounded by rough
pelt barriers.
From here they launch raids into surrounding areas, before returning to conduct bloodthirsty
celebrations.
When the hunt grows dry, they move from one territory to the next through a vast network
of ancient trails known as the Beast Paths.
Together these form a spider web of paths that only the Beastmen can truly navigate.
They intertwine with all the lands of the civilized races, but, so overgrown that even
those who seek them out might never find them, save by chance.
Where the beastpaths intersect with one another, is usually in places of magical significance
or sites with some meaning to the Dark Powers.
Here, dire and forbidding headstones are erected, to which warherds offer tributes and sacrifices.
These are places of great significance to the Beastmen.
Any intrusion within a hundred leagues of a Herdstone would be immediately assaulted,
and no settlement within that perimeter would last longer than a single season.
When Beastmen are called to war, enormous pyres are lit at the base of headstones, imbued
with magical effects that cast long tendrils of colored smoke over the forest.
The movements of Beastmen across their paths are indecipherable with seemingly random changes
in direction and abrupt starts and stops.
Sometimes however, the movements of wholly separate beastmen herds hint at the presence
of some grand pattern, a plan guiding the movements of the entire race.
This plan might emanate from a place the Beastmen refer to as the Heart of the Dark.
It’s exact location is never spoken of, but many Beastmen undertake a kind of pilgrimage,
following the secret paths of the Beastways until they reach their destination.
The largest Herdstone is said to stand here, its base overgrown with twisting roots and
tunnels inhabited by Beastmen but also other nameless things.
Hideous rituals and performed here, sacrifices said to renew and empower the entire Beastmen
race.
How such a race came to inhabit the world is a story known only to those who have studied
the deepest secrets of existence.
Legends tell of an elder race named the Old Ones who shaped the world in a way that was
pleasing to them, and to the needs of some great plan.
An immense forgotten tragedy shattered their work and unleashed the forces of Chaos upon
the world.
Every continent bled like a wounded beast as the skies rained fire and the seas boiled.
The most devastated regions became strange and terrible cauldrons from which spewed forth
generation after generation of mutant men and beasts.
Even as the world slowly healed from such an onslaught and the primitive races raised
by the Old Ones founded their civilizations, tribes of these Beastmen and their night-bred
kin ruled the lands of what is today the Empire.
But the arrival of a man wielding a golden hammer ended the unchallenged rule of the
Beastmen, driving them back into the deepest forests.
This age today is remembered by all Beastmen, who long for a return to that primeval era
where man was little more than food, and they were the undisputed masters of the world.
The Beastmen have no method of marking the passage of years or the changing of one era
to the next, but they know that through industry and organization, the Empire of Man has pushed
them ever deeper into the wilderness.
Great Imperial bastions and watchtowers are built even in the heart of the Beastmen’s
territory but every warherd is united in the belief that these are but temporary, and an
age will surely come when they are cast down.
Only when the last of these are destroyed will the world finally again belong to the
Beastmen, and its lands home to nothing but the Endless Hunt.