Hashut’s Blessing:
Hellcannon
The Hellcannons of Chaos are terrible weapons, part Daemon and part war machine. Created by Chaos Dwarfs, they are sentient weapons that are loaded with the bodies of the slain. Hellcannons strip away the souls of the dead, firing them as missiles of pure Chaotic energy.
Credited to �?oWarhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Ashes of Middenheim: Paths of the Damned.�?� p. 6
Chaos Dwarfs
Common View
�?oThey wish to make the world a place of smoky darkness where hope and cheer are crimes punishable by immediate slavery and slow torture. Theirs is endless greed that neither time nor wealth can ever abate. They committed blasphemy by turning away from the Ancestor gods and practicing magic. Magic, I tell you! They are our greatest shame and they will be dealt with, in time.�?� �?" Cranneg Enlagsson, Dwarf Lorekeeper
�?oWhile I had not seen the markings of many Dwarf clans, I knew theirs were like no other. Twisted images of a red bull trampling upon the mountains and blood red soaked banners didn�?Tt seem like and Clan Dwarfs I knew. The fact that skinny wolf mounted Greenskins were among them pretty much settled the matter. We drew up our lines and prepared for a charge, but to our surprise, there wasn�?Tt one. We waited for a time, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. They regarded us impassively, their lines silent and unmoving. Finally, a captain ordered us forward and we charged across the field. When we were about half way across, the shelling began. They had ranged the entire field before the battle. Their cannons were phenomenally powerful. Their shells shook the land so hard, it moved like it was water. Many horses fell and broke their legs. As to the Kislevites and my fellow mercenaries, it was a slaughter. I managed to survive only because the unit I was with routed early. I later learned that those they didn�?Tt kill were taken away in chains, Sigmar alone knows where. I left Kislev soon after, with the taste of ashes in my mouth.�?� �?" Ernst Wolfenberg, Mercenary
�?oThe Dwarfs would have you believe that they are immune to the taint of Chaos, but it is not so. It is true that their hardy constitutions resist the effects of the warping longer than Humans and Mutants are fairly rare among them. Their Mutants often have skin that seems to be made of metal or stone. A number of them have the shape of centaurs, like the Centigors that run with the Beastmen hordes, only they have bodies that resemble stunted bulls. When I�?Tve tried to discuss this with the Dwarfs, reassuring them that I only wish to help them stamp out the taint of Chaos among their people, their reactions have been somewhat�?� extreme. Several times, I was told my head would be parted from my shoulders if I ever brought up the subject again, which leads me to believe that there must be more to the story. It is a shame really, their taciturn nature prevents them from employing my expertise to their advantage.�?� �?" Albrecht Kinear, Professor Emeritus at the University of Nuln
The Scholar�?Ts Eye
Chaos Dwarfs are estranged eastern kindred of the dwarf Kingdoms that surround the Empire. Many thousands of years ago, exploring Dwarfs left the northern edge of the World�?Ts Edge Mountains in search of gold and other precious metals. They found a vast inhospitable plain that was rich in minerals, which they named Zorn Uzkul, the Great Skull Land. Many despaired of the bleakness of that realm and returned to the southern kingdoms but a hardy, or perhaps, greedy few pressed on through the Mountains of Mourn. When the Realm of Chaos swept down from the north, the other dwarf clans thought their kindred dead, but Dwarfs do not die easily, nor do they submit to Chaos. They did not fall, but they were irrevocably changed by exposure to the taint.
�?oPicture everything that is admirable in the dwarfs; their great skill in war, their iron resolve, their dedicated craftsmanship, and their unwavering determination to survive and achieve their goals. Now take all of those traits and shudder as you see them employed at the service of Chaos. That is the horror of the Chaos Dwarf host. They are Dwarfs, but twisted into a foul parody of the noble warriors who have gallantly stood for so long at the side of the Empire. They have embraced the dark powers, willingly delving into the secrets of foul magic and losing much of what they once were in the process. As to what they�?Tve gained, who can say? Knowledge, perhaps, but many things are best left unknown.�?� �?" Eckhard, Nuln Scholar, Burned as a heretic
To survive the Realm of Chaos, the Chaos Dwarfs turned to the evil bull God, Hashut, whom they call the Father of Darkness. Hashut laid his �?oblessings�?� upon the, and for the first time, magic users arose among the Dwarf race. The Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers now rule the rest of their people with absolute authority, for they are not only powerful mages, they are also the priesthood of Hashut. They are strange and tortured beings, greatly skilled at the blending of magic into their ingenious engineering, but cursed. Dwarfs were never meant to wield the magic of Chaos and the price they pay is the Curse of Stone. Each Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer will, inevitably, one day slowly transform into an immobile stone statue. The change starts with their feet, which turn grey and useless, before progressing throughout the rest of their body. Many of them use their sorcerous engineering to construct new steam driven bodies for a time, but they too eventually succumb to the curse. Their immobile forms now line the road leading to the centre of their mighty empire, the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund, City of Fire and Desolation. The Tower is a terrible obsidian ziggurat that constantly throbs with the pounding of hammers and the screams of victims sacrificed in molten cauldrons to Hashut�?Ts greater glory. It is the labour of generations of slaves, surrounded by mountainous piles of displaced rock from the mines that gouge the landscape surround the tower and slag from the countless forges of the Chaos Dwarfs. At the apex of the tower sits a vast temple dedicated to Hashut, which is watched over by the fierce Bull Centaurs. Bull Centaurs long ago mutated from Chaos Dwarfs, doubtless after Hashut had an influence on the race. They have the lower bodies of bulls and the upper bodies of the heavily muscled but fanged Chaos Dwarfs. They are fearless and terrible, revelling only in the spilling of blood and glorifying the Father of Darkness.
The Chaos Dwarfs are relatively few, deeply arrogant and utterly selfish. Their many projects require a great many labourers and Hashut�?Ts sacrificial fires are never quenched, so their need for slaves is constant and overwhelming. All of their interactions with other races are either raids for slaves, or payment for the same. The Chaos Dwarfs use Hobgoblins to fill out their ranks, a curious arrangement that was not originally their idea though they�?Tve adapted to it.
�?oWhere then do they come from, these iron savages who frighten other Orcs into awestruck obedience, these �?~Black Orcs�?T? That is a grim tale best suited for long winter nights, but I will impart the substance of it. Long ago, the fell Chaos kindred of the Dwarfs needed a steady source of reliable troops. The Greenskin races that they had to deal with at the time they deemed less than adequate, so using their sorcery and a carefully applied breeding program, they set about creating a new strain of Orc. They sought to make them stronger, hardier and more intelligent that they could better carry out the will of the Chaos Dwarfs. They succeeded far beyond their expectations and desires. Black Orcs were the result of their labours and within a few short years of their creation, they began rebellion after rebellion in an unbroken line. At first, all of their revolts were easily crushed, as they were only a few Black Orcs leading hordes of lesser Orcs and Goblins, but as the numbers of the Black Orcs multiplied, the danger grew. Finally, they all but succeeded in taking Zharr-Naggrund and would�?Tve if not for the last minute betrayal by the Hobgoblins. Exactly what the Hobgoblins did to betray their cousins has never been verifiably recorded, and there are many versions of the tale. Suffice to say that the rest of the Greenskin races seem to hate the Hobgoblins with a passion and that the Black Orcs were finally driven en masse from the City of Fire and Desolation, never to return.�?� �?" Waldemar, Scholar of Nuln
Our Own Words
�?oWhere was Grimnir when our warriors were dying? Where was Valaya when our children sickened? When we called for aid in the deep places where we delved, it was not Grungni who answered our call, but mighty Hashut who delivered us in our time of need. Who are the real traitors here? Our kin who abandoned us to madness and death or we who only sought to survive against the forces of Chaos? One day there will be a reckoning and it will be the Sons of the Father of Darkness who will have the victory, not the weak willed spawn of the pathetic Ancestor Gods.�?� �?" Mordian Slagfist, Chaos Dwarf Warrior
�?oFools all. They know nothing of our great work, of what we have accomplished. Our kin will never progress while they continue to look to a meaningless past for guidance. The old Dwarf empires all fell, doesn�?Tt that seem like a significant sign of their weakness? Their adherence to �?~tradition�?T will be their downfall. I have accomplished feats with cannons, steam, and magic that they can only dream of. My people are prepared for the coming times, aligned with those who will be the final victors. We will have slaves in abundance for our aid to the forces of Chaos and that is well for it is blood that greases the cogs of Hashut�?Ts sacred machines.�?� �?" Vikram Flametongue, Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer
Credited to �?oWarhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Old World Bestiary.�?� pp. 17-19
Hobgoblins
Common View
�?�Their war cries came to us first; shrieking calls and piercing whistles mixed with the baying of wolves echoed over the ridge. We smelled them next, their stench carried on the foul winds that blew from their steppe homelands far to the east. A gaunt lone figure came over the rise, mounted on a massive wolf. He paused at the crest of the hill to stare down at us for a time. Finally, he raised a horn to his lips, sounded one echoing blast , and then charged our lines without hesitation. When his mount had loped perhaps a dozen paces in our direction, his troops flowed over the horizon like a wave. Their battle line stretched as far as I could see in both directions. Hundreds of Hobgoblins riding hundreds of wolves. They fired arrows as they came and such was their skill that far too many found their mark even though they raced forward over uneven ground as they shot. I have stood against many foes, but few as fell as the Hobgoblin troops of Zhorag Khan.�?� �?" Otmar Essel, Kislevite Warrior
�?�Oi! Dey�?Ts not proper Greenskins a�?Ttol are dey? Deys an alright shade �?~o green I�?Tll grant and dey�?Ts shifty enuff fer gobos, but dat�?Ts all dat�?Ts right about �?~em. Dey use poison! Poison! Like one �?~o dem stink�?Tn Ratmen! Da miserable gits sneak about and always go in fer two quick shivs in da dark. Never a propa scrap has ever come from dem Hobs, I�?Tll warrant. Dey play at being stuntie lackeys and dey cheat at dice. Still, dey�?Ts handy fer soaking up arrers when no others are �?~round.�?� �?" Warboss Clangor Gorespiller
�?�Foul, duplicitous wretches. While I despise the Greenskin hordes, at least there is some honesty to their savagery. They are as they are and while they all must surely be annihilated one day, they�?Tve not committed the greatest sin of joining the dark powers. Not so the Hobgoblins, for they are willing minions of Chaos. They march under the cursed banners of the host of Zharr-Naggrund, enslaving other races at the behest of their cruel and twisted Dwarf masters. Could there be anything more unnatural than Greenskins working for Dwarfs?!?�?� �?" Albrecht Kinear, Professor Emeritus at the University of Nuln
Scholar�?Ts Eye
Hobgoblins are one of the most numerous Greenskin races that infest the Old World; however, distinct from their many �?ocousins�?� the Hobgoblins are estranged from their kin. They do not march to war with Goblins, nor join in the great Orc Waaaghs, though they�?Tve been known to do it a bit of opportunistic looting alongside their brethren if the circumstances are right. Rather, the Hobgoblins have their own kingdom on the Great Steppes east of the World�?Ts Edge Mountain range where the legendary Hobgobla Khan rules them, after a fashion.
�?�Ahh, the shifting loyalties of the Hobgoblins. Of all the green races, they are surely the most slippery. Orcs are nearly always predictable. If you learn the tactics of one Orc, you are likely to know them all, though the exceptions are always warlords who rise to lead the biggest hordes. Goblins and their ilk are far cagier and the Goblin tribes that venerate the moon are downright evil. The Hobgoblins, though, are firm believers in keeping what they view as an entirely practical outlook, namely that those in power only get to stay that way by continually proving themselves. Hobgoblins respect strength and cunning alone, differing to those that they believe have both qualities in abundance. First time I had to command a Hobgoblin squad, I decked the first one that cheeked me and killed his wolf with my bare hands. That set the lot of them straight and I had no problems with them the rest of that campaign. Still, they constantly search for weakness in those around them and if ever they find it, they will pick on such an individual mercilessly until the target of their ridicule stands up for himself or dies. You can never entirely trust one of the squinty blighters, excepting that you can always trust him to do what he feels is best for his own interests at any given moment. This attitude must make ruling the Hobgoblin hordes of the Great Steppes harder than keeping an Ogre on limited rations, for they are an eternally factious race. I�?Tve lost track of the number of scraps I�?Tve had to break up amidst Hobgoblins and, well, just about everybody else. Scarred old mate of mine named Shoresh, least whys as close to a friend as I�?Tve ever had among them, seeing as he didn�?Tt stick me when he had the chance, told me there have been many Hobgobla Khans over time. Most fall in battle or are sorted out by assassination with great regularity. Only the infamous Morcar Kahn the Cunning managed to die of old age. I reckon it was the truth �?~cause Shoresh was drunk when he told me, but you can never tell with a Hob. Sneaky bastards the lot of �?~em. Why they fit in so well with us mercenaries, eh?�?� �?" Sergeant Uhler Carroburg, War Dog
The Hobgoblins have learned a great many unusual skills out on the Great Steppes. Their exposure to the far eastern empire of Cathay has made their elite fighters deadly in close combat. They favour pairs of twinned curved knives and quick poison.
�?�I kind of like these green-things. They show�?� promise.�?� �?" Rikkit�?Ttik, Clan Eshin �?oScholar�?�
Not long after the realm of Chaos finally swallowed the northern Dwarfholds, corrupted Dwarfs emerged in the east to make war on the Hobgoblins�?T most northerly tribes. After a great deal of blood was spilt on both sides, an accommodation was eventually reached with the tainted Dwarfs and when they march to war now, there are always Hobgoblins in their vanguard. That story, though, is but one version of the tale, the one the Hobgoblins tell other races. There are other descriptions of duplicity and betrayal involving the Black Orcs which none now speak of.
�?� They choose wisely, in the end. The Black Orcs never would�?Tve treated them as we do. I think they make for the finest cannon fodder. Indeed, they have been fodder for the Hellcannons. Their speed is unquestionably the most impressive trait about them. Certainly not the speed of their thoughts, of course, but of their mounts. We often range our cannon by gauging the movements of their forward lines. If a few of them get annihilated in the initial ranging shots, no great loss. None of us are under any illusions though. We regard them as eminently expendable. They betrayed their own, they will certainly betray us. In fact, many of their boldest Khans have made it quite clear that they will happily flee allowing us to be overrun if a battle ever turns against us. The arrangement is more than suitable. We detest them, they detest us, but all of us hate everybody else more.�?� �?" Halgir Ashbrewer, Chaos Dwarf Engineer
The Hobgoblins seem to have resisted the full mutating effects that exposure to Chaos can bring. Their shamans are rumoured to be capable of binding wind demons that sweep down from the north. Unlike the other Greenskin races, Hobgoblins seldom pursue war simply for the sake of battle. Their pragmatic nature applies in all things and the Empire holds little interest for them as anything other than a place to acquire loot and perhaps increase their personal glory, hence their relative rarity in the west of the Old World.
Our Own Words
�?�Dere�?Ts nuthin�?T in life as proper as hunt�?Tn from da back of a �?~ard taught wolf. Dere speed n�?T grace makes da world flow by as a dream. Prey who manage to give a good fight n�?T die with some dignity are way better dan dose wot scream and soil der britches, but I take whatever I catch all da same.�?� �?" Brodai, Hobgoblin Warrior
�?�Aye, some of us speak better than our uncouth brethren. Indeed, we do most things better than the others, except perhaps, die in droves. We leave that to the Goblins and the Orcs. My lads aren�?Tt particularly interested in falling on fields far from our beloved steppes, though we may be willing if the price is right. What are you offering? It will cost you extra if we have to leave anyone alive.�?� �?" Choknech, Hobgoblin Mercenary
Credited to �?oWarhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Old World Bestiary.�?� pp. 25-26
Chaos Dwarfs
The Chaos Dwarfs come form Dwarf clans that went too far north and were swept up into the Realm of Chaos millennia ago. Twisted and resentful of their brethren, they seek to blot out the light of the sun, eclipsing the entire world in the blackness favoured by their new patron, Hashut, the Father of Darkness. They know little of mercy or compassion, enslaving all other races that they encounter, save their occasional servants, the Hobgoblins. Chaos Dwarfs prefer to let others do their fighting for them but their finely crafted weapons and stout armour serve them well when battle calls.
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Chaos Dwarf sorcerers favour spells that harness destructive volcanic energy.
Until Chaos Dwarf magic can be dealt with in detail, you can simulate such sorcerers with the various Wizard careers and Arcane Lore (Fire). Their spells are quite similar to the Lore of Fire, but they use lava and ash in addition to flames.
Credited to �?oWarhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Old World bestiary.�?� p. 85
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Bull Centaurs, a hellish hybrid of Dwarf and beast, are fanatical servants of Hashut and provide the Chaos Dwarfs with elite shock troops.
Credited to �?oWarhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Old World bestiary.�?� p. 86
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Hobgoblins are one of the Greenskin races. They are both stronger and taller than Goblins. Indeed, the largest among the Hobgoblin tribes are as tall as any Orc. Their builds, though, are lean and wiry, unlike the muscled bulk of the Orcs. Hobgoblins ride snarling Giant Wolves (see page 96) that they�?Tve specifically bred for speed and savagery. They are expert mounted archers, often practising for days on end at hitting small targets while riding past going full tilt. They prefer hit and run tactics to stand up fights, though they will attack if they outnumber their opponents by more than three to one.
Credited to �?oWarhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Old World bestiary.�?� p. 100
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I should get it soon though. CDs basically use the same rules as normal Dwarfs, but can use magic. If I remember rightly, that’s the only difference. I am tempted to start a WHFRP game on here as CDs, BCs, HGs and BOs etc… (I can’t be bothered to lean to the left and open the book to check on the difference.)
Thanks…