Legend of Reikwald Max

My left foot sprouted three new toes / And from my brow some antlers rose

My yard long tongue lolls to and fros / And my left eye glows when I blow my nose

The Witch Hunters on my tail won't catch me / For I'm a bandit bold, and they can’t match me

They hunt me through the fields of wheat / And up the wald and down the street

‘Cause my teeth are green and my eyebrows meet / And I dance Westerland Hornpipes on cloven feet

The Witch Hunters on my tail won’t catch me / For I'm Reikwald Max, and they can’t match me

By the thirteen fingers of my right hand / I swear they'll never drive me from this land

‘Cause watching my backs are the boys from the band / Seven foot Gerd and four-eyed Brand

The Witch Hunters on my tail won't catch me / For I’m Reikwald Max, and they can’t match me.

– The Legend of Reikwald Max, a once popular rhyme among Reikland street children

This song (shown above) was once popular with Reikland street children. It was sung to accompany a game in which one child, the Witch Hunter, chased others. Those the Witch Hunter caught joined the chase. The last child caught became the Witch Hunter in the next game.

The lyrics refer to a figure from folklore. During the reign of Empress Beatrice the Monumentally Cruel many folk in the Reikland lived as outlaws in order to escape rapacious religious persecution. The bandit Max and his gang operated near the vilage of Teufelfeuer. They were remarkable in two ways. Firstly they regularly made gifts of their booty to those most burdened by Beatrice’s taxes. Secondly, whilst most of the outlaws were fully human, Max and his closest henchmen were mutants. For four years Max avoided the authorities, and became something of a local hero. However, his luck did not hold out forever. He was captured and taken to Altdorf for torture and execution. His horned head graced a spike on Altdorf ’s east gate as a warning against mutation and banditry for many years.

In the time of Magnus the Pious the moral guardians of Altdorf tried to alter the meaning of the game and song, to imply that the chaser was a mutant who corrupted those he caught. This new version did not catch on, so a by-law was passed to the effect that anyone found playing the game or singing the song would be flogged.

Max remained a popular boy’s name in the town of Teufelfeuer until 2011, when it was burned to the ground by the famous Witch Hunter Fabergus Heinzdork.

Source
Warhammer Fantasy RPG 3rd ED -- Book of Change

pg 15