In our last episode in the series on the End Time,  we covered the rise of the forces of Chaos in the  

Old World of Warhammer Fantasy Universe. Now, with  Norsca firmly under the command of the Legions of  

Chaos, the Vanguard of Archaon would march south  towards their next target - The Realm of the Ice  

Queen, a nation built upon the constant need to  prepare for the inevitability of threats from  

the north and over the World’s Edge Mountains.  Welcome to the second episode in our series,  

where we will cover Kislev’s  defense against the Chaos.  

"You look down on us and think we are little  better than barbarians, but you should be glad  

we are, for without us here, the northern tribes  would be dining on the flesh of your children in  

your burning homes. But for the courage that  flows in our veins would your lands be theirs.  

Look down on us? You should get on  your knees and thank us every day!" 

—Vitalia Kovash, Kislevite Winged Lancer 

Kislev was ruled by a line of mighty Tzars and  Tzarinas, monarchs representing the regal ancestry  

of horse-warriors of the Eastern Steppes thousands  and thousands of years prior. He or she is the  

ultimate authority of all spiritual, military,  and legal matters of their territory that has  

consistently and successfully balanced the need to  defend their northern border from Chaos assaults  

and the requirement to cooperate with  their southern siblings of humanity. 

When the Tzar Boris Bokha was slain in an ambush  by Chaos horse-warriors hailing from the Eastern  

Steppes during a defense of Kislev’s northern  border, the last and greatest Tzarina would be  

crowned in 2517 IC.: Katarin the Ice Queen.  Hers was a heavy burden, for she assumed a  

great yoke of responsibility to her not only  her people, but to the whole world, to stave  

off the tide of doom from the Northern Wastes. When she was younger she was allowed to study  

Ice Magic - a particularly dangerous branch of  arcane mastery. Able to command the icy soul  

of Kislev itself in great feats of deadly and  wonderful splendor, some even began to wonder  

if she was the reincarnation of the first  Tzarina, Miska, also the master of Ice Magic. 

Katarin rose to the throne of Kislev when  her father perished. At her coronation,  

she amassed her Ice Magic to create a grand Palace  of Ice, where she would rule firmly and fairly.  

Unlike her father, the Ice Queen governed  through agents and generals, instead of  

commanding from the front and would only appear  on the battlefield in the most crucial times.  

However, when she led the charge, she was  always astride a great, glimmering steed of  

winter majesty, with shining flanks of ice  crystals and a breath like a winter wind.  

With such power over the elements and devotion  from her soldiers, there was clear proof that  

she had the blood of the first Kislevite  Rulers flowing strongly through her veins. 

Katarin, in addition to her two gloriously frigid  mounts she would bring into battle, bore two  

legendary pieces of wargear. FearFrost was a blade  forged by the first female ruler of Kislev, Miska,  

and passed down to each succeeding Tzarina. Only  a Tzarina could wield Fearfrost, and when a man  

would attempt to even lift the blade he would  find himself frozen to death within a heartbeat.  

Infused with Ice Magic, the intense cold  of the weapon turned even a single scratch  

into a deadly affair. The Crystal Cloak was a  cloak that Katarin wore, enveloping her with a  

swirling mist of dancing ice crystals that  served as the ultimate defense. Together,  

they blessed Katarin with the destructive  power of Deep Winter on the battlefield.

"You all know I bore no heirs. But  I have all my sons and daughters  

here with me today. On this rain-soaked  hill, we are all one people, one land.  

Today we fight for Kislev! Today we fight for her  lost sons and daughters, for her proud mothers and  

fathers! Kislev is people, and people are Kislev!" —Tzarina Katarin, the Ice Queen of Kislev 

One of the Ice Queen’s first initiatives as  Tzarina was to see the end of an incursion  

of Aelfric Cyenwulf’s wolven warriors,  accursed and Khorne worshiping regiments  

of this Chaos Champion’s armies. Marching  further inland to Urszbeya, or Ursun’s Teeth,  

the Ice Queen left the capital to ensure  the sacred valley would remain protected.  

With this vital misstep, a Herald of Archaon  saw the perfect opportunity to invade Kislev. 

Vardek Crom the Conqueror marched south  into the icy plains of Kislev territory.  

Much to his surprise, he met with resistance, not  by a great army of secret Kislev reserves, but by  

a much more notorious warmonger - the legendary  Grimgor Ironhide. The green-skinned warmaster  

grew tired of slaughtering Skaven, and set forth  to intercept Vardek’s advancing legions in a  

surprise flank. Grimgor was determined to test  the proclaimed might of these Chaos servants,  

and charged forth to meet Vardek in single combat. Grimgor and Vardek clashed blades for hours - each  

determined to prove themselves as the  superior force of fury upon the world.  

The orc submitted himself fully to this  righteous fight against the Champion of Chaos,  

and in his moment of blindness, Vardek bolstered  his legions to decimate Grimgor’s supporting army.  

With the mighty Greenskin now and  truly alone on the battlefield,  

Crom disarmed Grimgor with a final  and commanding sweep of his blade. 

Crom spared Grimgor in a strange  gesture, perhaps of respect, or pity,  

though it is likely that the Champion’s motives  will never truly be known. With incomprehensible  

rage boiling within the Greenskin’s soul,  Grimgor retreated to Haute Passe. There,  

Grimgor would set to work immediately, determined  to see this personal grudge to the end.  

He summoned orcs and goblins from all within his  sphere of influence, who upon hearing the great  

bravery of Grimgor, amassed in the largest WAAAGH!  ever seen in history. Meanwhile, with Grimgor’s  

antics largely unknown to Vardek Crom, the armies  of Chaos advanced to the Kislevite town of Praag. 

This Bastion of the North, Praag, has been granted  the title of the Cursed City, forever locked in a  

ceaseless cycle of rebuilding, defending onslaught  after onslaught of threats from the North.  

The people residing within Praag had  been corrupted with mutation and madness,  

remaining under the mentality of siege defense  forever. Even with such constant destruction  

and death among their streets, the citizens of  Praag remain defiant. In times of fragile peace,  

the city was blessed with prosperous trade through  the river Lynsk. This made Praag a ripe target for  

raiding and siege, and with head attack from the  North, Chaos corruption would sink its roots into  

the city and warp the health of those that lived  there. Subterfuge and corruption was also common,  

particularly among the Vampire agents planted  among the citizens and government of Praag. 

With Praag’s proximity to Troll country, the city  was a tempting target for the Troll King, Throgg.  

Most in the Old World know Trolls as great beasts  of limited foresight and intelligence. Yet,  

when the forces of Chaos closed  in on the border of Troll Country,  

the minds of these monsters warped into unusually  cunning, grim desires. Throgg, the greatest in  

stature and newfound intelligence, announces that  he will usher in a new destiny for the world:  

to enslave the hubris of Man, starting with the  accursed wealth and defensive position of Praag. 

"It is the hubris of men to see their own destiny  in all things. Von Carstein. The Everchosen.  

Dead men. Exalted men. In their skin they are all  still men. This... will be the Age of the Beast." 

—Throgg, King of the Trolls 

Determined to be the first to establish a  new Ice Palace for his hordes of Trolls,  

Throgg began his assault on the Mountain  Gate, north-most defense of the great city.  

Once the gates had been destroyed, he  met with a great beast hunter of Kislev,  

Ilja of Murova. Astride a great bear of Kislev,  he fought valiantly against the mad Troll King,  

but ultimately met his demise when the  Throgg crushed them both at their defense  

of the broken Mountain Gate. Without the  leadership of the legendary monster hunter,  

Kislev’s defensive bastion fell to the Troll  King, who established a palace of Ice for  

himself and his kin to summon further  warriors to enact the Age of the Beast. 

As if losing the greatest defensive outpost  against the North wasn’t damning enough,  

the Kislevite port of Erengrad soon met a  maritime assault by the fleet of Gutrot Spume,  

who had only recently sunk the last Nordic Dwarf  fleet. Erengrad, without the support of Praag’s  

defiant forces to support her vulnerable port in  the Starivoda Bay, sustained a massive assault  

from the infamous Plague Fleet. Safely anchored  in the port without a challenge from the shore,  

Gutrot’s fleet fired volleys of pox-infected  projectiles directly into the city. Great disease  

and suffering afflicted all who dared to make a  defense within the city, and soon Erengrad had  

become a doomed ulcer upon the land, a diseased  mockery of its once bustling life of trade. 

The defensive shell around Kislev’s capital  had sundered under the pressure of overwhelming  

numbers from the North. The Ice Queen had still  yet to return from her initiative in Ursun’s  

Teeth, and her forces were still recovering  from the costly defense of this region  

so sacred to Kislev. Another opportunity such  as this was too tempting to the Chaos Champions,  

and so Mordrek the Damned rose to the  challenge and besieged the heart of Kislev. 

"Let Mordrek be a warning to all those  who would seek fame and life eternal  

from the daemon gods of Chaos, for he has  both these things and yet he is damned." 

—Hugo Lazzare's "Grim stories  and cautionary tales.” 

Mordek himself was blessed, or cursed, with  true immortality. He had suffered deaths,  

many violent and bloody, only to be resurrected  again to serve the Chaos Gods. Underneath his  

armor his body writhes and mutates, ever changing  from the constant resurrection of his form.  

It is rumored that his freedom from this  damned state of being is to slay in the  

name of his infernal masters, who will never  tire of their games played upon mortal matters. 

Mordek commanded three gifts of Chaos’ power.  

The Sword of Change, which mutated any foe that  had the misfortune of being struck into hideous  

Chaos Spawn. He was often astride a Chaos Steed,  a demonic mockery of a proud warrior’s companion.  

With a nearly impenetrable suit of Chaos  Armor, Mordek was very skilled at twisting  

his enemies into his own puppets: killing beasts  of chaos that rend their once-comrades to shreds. 

The Damned Count assaulted the city and charged  into the heart of the capital to confront the  

authority of the Winged Lancers of Kislev’s  Gryphon Legion. The champions of chaos crashed  

like dark waves on white shores, sowing terror and  destruction within the last Kislevite defenders.  

Mordek drew his blade and pierced the heart  of the Legion, determined to demonstrate the  

might and authority over chaos. Sweeping his  blade against the tide of oncoming Lancers,  

his blade smited each opponent and transformed  them into twisted, rabid beasts of Chaos. With  

a point of his sword towards the Legion’s captain,  he ordered the new swarm of Chaos Spawn to devour  

their previous captain alive… The captain of  the Legion was devoured in front of his men,  

and with morale shattered, Kislev’s capital  melted in submission to Mordek’s armies. 

When the Ice Queen finally returned from  her defense against Cyenwulf’s assault,  

she did not find the splendor of her home to  comfort her. Instead, she found the desolation of  

Chaos’ touch upon the ancestral capital. Despite  her best efforts to rally support in the Bokha  

Palace, the net of established regiments began  to strangle the palace’s limited reinforcements.  

To ensure that the Ice Queen may carry on the  legacy of Kislev’s defiance towards Chaos,  

a sacrificial charge of Ungols, who were  ancient residents of Kislev’s plains,  

provided the Tzarina enough time and a  clear enough route to escape past the  

armies of Mordek and flee to the fallen city  of Erengrad where she thought that she may find  

valiant warriors to help take back the capital. "The strength of Kislev lies in you all. The land  

has called you all here, and it is here that you  will put that strength to the test defying Chaos.  

There is power in this land, and tomorrow  it will run in all your veins. Use it well." 

—The Ice Queen of Kislev.[2a] Katarin marched north with speed  

and with a few valiant few who still clung to hope  for their destroyed homeland. When the Ice Queen  

entered the port city of Erengrad, she witnessed  firsthand the horror of Gutrot’s maritime siege.  

The populace was sick and dying, afflicted with  innumerable disgusting diseases. When it seemed  

that the Ice Queen had a brief moment to guide her  people towards an escape south towards the Empire,  

a roaming army of Beastmen closed in to  secure the death of all those remaining.  

Remaining within the city alongside agents of  the Empire’s Bright Order, Katarin summoned a  

storm of ice and fire in a final push to loosen  the foothold Chaos had secured upon the world. 

From the doomed city of Kislev, and  unbothered by the raging storm over Erengrad,  

the Chaos hordes descended south towards  the foot of Balthasar Gelt’s Golden Bastion,  

eager to further their trail of apocalyptic  destruction. Our series on the End Times will  

continue, and we are planning to cover the  battles of all major fantasy, sci-fi and  

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