Undead (Warhammer)

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Undead in the Warhammer Fantasy setting can refer to both the Undead in general and to the undivided army of Warhammer Fantasy Battle tabletop game prior to splitting the concept into two covered by separate supplements: the Vampire Counts and the Tomb Kings.

The Undead were introduced into Warhammer Fantasy Battle in the very earliest editions, and include most of the undead concepts seen in other fantasy setting: zombies, animated skeletons, mummies etc. The undead were included in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, in particular the adventure Lichemaster, and in other games taken from the same setting. Rules for fleets of undead ships were published for the naval game Man O'War in the semi-offical Citadel Journal (Number 6 of the 2nd series) but were never actively supported with miniatures.

Contents 1 Distribution 2 Development of the undead in the Warhammer setting 3 The undead 4 Undead characters 5 Liber Necris 6 Notes 7 References 8 See also

[edit] Distribution

The undead are chiefly found in the Empire of the Old World (Sylvania), the lands of the Tomb Kings (Nehekhara), which includes Nagashizzar, the fortress city of Nagash the Great Necromancer (Cripple Peak) and the Vampire Coast (Lustria).

[edit] Development of the undead in the Warhammer setting

Within the setting the origins of all the undead are given as the results of the work of Nagash. His attempt to raise an army using animated dead bodies caused the creation of the Tomb Kings. An elixir that he had developed to prolong life created the first vampires out of those who abused it, and so lead to the line of the Vampire Counts.

Within the development of the Warhammer Fantasy battle game Nagash did not appear as a fully described character until 1994 with the release of the first Warhammer Armies: Undead book. Before then the undead and a number of "Undead Army" characters had been described but not with any great amount of background.

[edit] The undead

The undead of the Warhammer setting include several staples of the fantasy undead as interpreted by Games Workshop. Included among the undead are:

• Necromancers; though living they are generally the masters of the forces of the undead.
• Liches; former necromancers who are now a form of animated corpse but still powerful wizards
• Wights; an undead skeleton creature, that still has some form of independent thought
• Mummies; similar in respects to Wights but preserved differently
• Wraiths; bodiless spirits that can still interact with the physical world, these are described as being what remains of sorcerors

• Ghouls; not strictly undead but not human anymore either, ghouls feed on corpses
• Vampires

• Carrion; are the reanimated corpses of giant birds that were destroyed by the great incursion of Chaos.
• Skeletons and Zombies; are no more than corpses in various states of decay moved by the spells or mental effort of some controlling master.

Most all of the true undead cause "fear" or "terror" within the structure of the Warhammer Fantasy battle game and some can only be attacked by magical means. Another important factor within the game is that of "instability"; being for the most part creatures animated by magical means they are dependent on the controlling sorceror (the army general in Warhammer Fantasy Battle) and the flow of magic within the game. In some editions of the game this meant that the loss of the army general effectively led to the possibility of instant destruction of most of the undead units.

[edit] Undead characters

• Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster

One of the oldest undead characters in WFB, having been the subject of two scenarios for the earliest Editions of WFB: Terror of The Lichemaster (a boxed set for 2nd ed in 1986 complete with card buildings) and in an edition of the Citadel Journal in three way fight with Skaven and warrior monks of Taal (and a robot) as his enemies. There was also Lichemaster for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) in 1990 and a scenario for Warmaster that returned to the theme of this battle of "La Maisontaal". More recently (White Dwarf 309) he appeared for later versions in Return of the Lichemaster. Once a mighty necromancer Kemmler undergoes a fall from power and is only revitalised by making a pact which gives him the chaos sword that once the property of Krell the Undead a former Chaos Warrior. The Sword is now his power source for his magic.

• Nagash

First and greatest of necromancers

• Krell the Undead
• Arkhan the Black
• Dieter Hellsnicht, Doomlord of Middenheim

• Genevieve Dieudonné - a vampire who appears in a number of novels by Jack Yeovil

• Von Carstein vampires
  • Vlad - A powerful vampire count, killed at the Siege of Altdorf by the Grand Theogonist
  • Isabella - His wife, who committed suicide at the Siege of Altdorf
  • Manfred - Descendant of Vlad, a Vampire count and a mighty sorcerer as well having studied the art unlike most Vampires.

• Constance Drachenfels, the Great Enchanter

First appearing in the novel Drachenfels by Jack Yeovil and subequently in Castle Drachenfels for WFRP Drachenfels is a magician who cheats death by taking over the mind and soul of one of those at the killing and subsequently uses them to kill the others who were there and taking body parts to complete the transformation but who is killed by an actor/playwright (Detlef Sierck invoking Sigmar and using a war hammer) and Genevieive.

[edit] Liber Necris

Liber Necris (mock latin:"Book of the dead") is a source of background material describing the different kinds of Undead creatures and concepts of necromancy that appear in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. Written by Polish author Marijan Von Staufer, it was first published by The Black Library, an imprint of Games Workshop's publishing division BL Publishing, in June 2006.^[1]

Liber Necris is a fictional book written in an entirely in-setting style, purportedly by Mannfred von Carstein, one of the Vampire counts as his own encyclopaedic description of his kind.

There have been a number of books of the dead mentioned in the background material - the nine "Books of Nagash", the Liber Mortis of Van Hel - but none of these has ever appeared as more than passing references or small passages,

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Catalogue entry on The Black Library's web site. www.blacklibrary.com. The Black Library. Retrieved on January 11, 2007.

[edit] References

• Cavatore, Alessio; Tuomas Pirinen, Space McQuirk (2001). Vampire Counts. Games Workshop. ISBN 1-84154-080-3. 
• Cavatore, Alessio; Anothony Reynolds, Gav Thorpe (2002). Tomb Kings. Games Workshop. ISBN 1-84154-336-5. 
• Barson, Michelle (Editor) (2004). The Undead Collectors Guide. Games Workshop. ISBN 1-84154-565-1. 
• Jervis, Johnson; Bill King (1994). The Undead. Games Workshop. ISBN 1-872372-67-8. 
• Pirinen, Tuomas; Alessio Cavatore (1999). Vampire Counts. Games Workshop. ISBN 1-869893-75-1. 

[edit] See also

v • d • e Warhammer Fantasy
Major Games:	Warhammer Fantasy Battle • Warmaster • Mordheim • Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay • Man O' War • Warhammer Ancient Battles
Nations and races:	Bretonnia • Chaos • Chaos Dwarfs • Dark Elves • Dogs of War • Dwarfs • The Empire • High Elves • Kislev • Lizardmen • Ogres • Orcs & Goblins • Skaven • Undead (Tomb Kings & Vampire Counts) • Wood Elves
Places:	The Old World • Araby • Cathay • Lustria • Ulthuan • Southlands • Naggaroth • Dark Lands • Albion •
People:	List of major characters
More:	List of creatures in Warhammer Fantasy • Warhammer Fantasy deities • Lores of Magic