Norsca

" Call us savages because we strike at you, but know this - it is we who are closest to the Ruinous Powers. We, most favoured of the gods shall burn your lands, revel in your suffering, and destroy you. Despair! For all that remains for you is the taste of northern steel and the end of your world. Such is the will of the Gods ." - Hallbjorn, Norse Marauder

Norsca  is a peninsula located in the far north of the world, populated by the Norscan tribes '''. ' It is a land steeped in the mutating energies of Chaos due to its proximity to the Chaos Wastes, known amongst the Northern tribes as the Shadowlands''. The Northmen of Norsca are without exception great warriors. Blessed with incredible strength at arms and fierce demeanors. It is the dream of nearly every Norsemen to join the ranks of the greatest warriors; to become Champions of Chaos and bear the marks of their Dark Gods.

Hard-bitten and war-like, the men of Norsca are the very epitome of the Warriors of Chaos.

The Land
"I spent a year in that hellish place. Can you believe it? For six months straight, it was dark, the sun barely came over the horizon. And let me tell you, those were the most dangerous six months of my life" - Mikel Kraus, Mercenary

Geography
Norsca is, for the most part, a frozen wasteland stalked by all manner of gruesome monsters. Such as Trolls, Giants, and nameless things that dwell beneath the mountains. Few cropsgrow here, for the land is as hard as iron and the howling winds cut like daggers of purest cold. A network of fjords and mist-clouded isles wreath the coasts, and it is from here that the Northmen build and tether the longships with which they terrorize the shores of the known world. In the lands of Norsca, scattered coastal settlements provide some respite from the harshness of the elements. But even they are regularly assaulted by Bloodkrakens and other such horrors. Further inland, the land gives way to frozen steppes where tribesmen hunt their game, taking care to avoid the bone-carpeted lairs of ice drakes. It is a grim, shadowy land where the weak do not live long. And where living means a constant fight for survival, supremacy, and the chance to appease the Dark Gods.

The seas of Norsca are even less hospitable. Black longships prowl the coast, mastered by terrible Chaos Champions. And it is from the ports of Norsca, the Chaos Reavers sail; eager to set the lands of the south to the torch. The icy waves of the Sea of Claws is itself as much the bane of sailors as the Chaos Marauders who stride it with their longships, with winds so cold they freeze the very spray, causing knives of cold to pierce the flesh and freeze extremities.

The country is famed for its forboding mountain peaks. Though they dominate the terrain, there are also stretches of dark pine forests doting the slopes, and some stretches of open plains. Norsca also has glacial seas that stretch down from the Northern Chaos Wastes. These ice fields form the Frozen Sea along the north. Beyond the eastern arm of that body of water lies the Eastern Steppes, where dwell the Kurgans, cousins to the Norscans and fellows to them in the worship and adoration of the Chaos Gods.

Landmarks
Aside from the natural features of this land, Norsca has a great many constructions dotting the landscape, erected by the savage Norsemen who call this dark land home. Massive Chaos Monoliths are a common site throughout the land, blasphemous constructions of stone raised to honour and commemorate the lives of great Chaos Champions who are either dead or ascended to daemonhood; in addition to their function of remembering the lives of great Norse heroes, the monoliths also function as markers of tribal territory. An example would be the Monolith of Borkill the Bloody-Handed, raised by the champion's fellow Skaelings to honour his victory over a Bonegrinder giant, or the Monolith of Kjarl Deathaxe, built on the shores of the Chaos Wastes to honour the Khornate Champion.

The Norscans are also famed for their great halls, immense buildings where the tribes feast and fight and muster for great invasions upon the coasts of the Old World. The most famous of these is the Hall of the Snaegr, located in southern Norsca in Skaeling tribal lands. It is home to the Snaegr tribe, devout and favoured followers of the Chaos God Khorne. One of the greatest chieftains of the Snaegr, Ulfr, was such a powerful champion that he was raised up by Khorne into Daemon Princehood, known to his tribesmen as U lfrdaemonkin, they summon this ancient champion to impart the Blessing of Khorne upon their later chieftains in an ancient ritual as old as Chaos itself.

In addition to all this, Chaos Citadels are also erected by the Norscan tribes, where the most powerful chieftains dwell. There are three ones known to have been constructed in Norsca: the Forbidden Citadel in Aesling lands, the Doomkeep in the lands of the Vargs, and the Tower of Khrakk in Baersonling lands.

The Norscans
"From the harsh snowlands they come, blue of eye and blonde of hair and tattooed upon arms, face and chest. Their eyes are mad with bloodlust, for blood they thirst, driven forth on the whims of the gods they seek to appease. Clad in few garments and wielding clumsy and brutal axes and maces, they rage against the civilized lands of the south, burning, pillaging and looting all before them as a sacrifice to their uncaring masters beyond the gates of hell in the northern wastes ." - the Liber Chaotica, penned by Richter Kleiss, Priest of Sigmar, declared insane 

The Norse are a distinctive race. Possessed of tall frames and extremely muscular builds, they are thought to be some of the strongest warriors in all the world. They often cultivate great masses of facial hair and massive beards, which they often braid and plait in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the Dwarfs. They tend to have red, blonde, black, brown, grey and white hair in old age. Norscan warriors often festoon tribal fetishes upon their person, such as the teeth of beasts, the heads of powerful enemies and talismans said to invoke the power of the Dark Gods. Most Norscans also bear tattoos and scarifications which display their fanatical devotion to Chaos. The folk of the Empire know the Norse as those who sail their longships to attack the southern lands, clad in fur and steel, a fierce race whose sons love nothing better than to charge into battle wielding sharp axes.

Over the centuries, the marauders from the above the Sea of Claws have always targeted Kislev and the northernmost lands of the Empire. The raids of the Norse have become increasingly brutal and deadly as the taint of Chaos has spread across the northern wastes. In times gone by, the battle-hardened Norsemen and Kurgans would forcibly settle the lands they jointly conquered, taking a local wife. Over time, as the grip of the Chaos Gods upon the world has increased, their influence in the northlands has increased exponentially.

The taint of Chaos is ever increasing and has ever been strongest in the North, due to its proximity to the gateway to the Realm of Chaos at the northernmost point of the world. For this reason, the hard warriors of Norsca have ever worshiped the Chaos Gods. Even if the names of these gods have been warped along with the minds of the Norse. While all the tribes recognize the Chaos Gods as their masters, they may pray and shout to a different name, but it is always the Ruinous Powers who are listening and who respond to their cries.

Thus, raids from the north seek not only to take gold, women and food for the sake of survival, but also to shed blood for the Gods. When the fur-cloaked warriors of Norsca emerge from their longships, their objective may not be to simply pillage, but to kill, maim and destroy in the names of the Chaos Gods.

The Norsemen are in a constant state of warfare. Both with each other, the other northern races, and with the civilized lands of the south. In ice-bound Kislev, where the border is less constant than the sea, the Ice Queen has had to continously reinforce the defenses of the frontier cities of Praag and Erengrad against the staggering ferocity of Norscan attacks.

In spite of their savagery, a few facets of society remain; namely, honour and loyalty. To one's kinsmen and allies. Few Northmen dare to displease their chieftains or tribal elders, for doing so risks being thrown into the wilds, with little hope of being accepted by another tribe.

Early History of the Norscans
In the northernmost lands of what is now known as the Empire lived the Udoses and Roppsmenn tribes. Further north beyond any of them, beyond even the Forest of Shadows, dwelt the Norsii tribes. Barbarians and worshipers of the Dark Gods who had come down from the Far North and settled the Reik Basin. The Northmen were brutal warriors, savages even by the standard of the other tribesmen who dwelled in the lands. Iron warriors, possessed of indomitable strength and power, utterly without mercy, the other tribes of the lands were prey to them, unwilling to bend their knees to the infernal masters of the Northern tribesmen. The legends of the time of Sigmar describe the depredations of the Northmen in no uncertain terms, speaking of towering warriors in black armour and horned helms, wielding great jagged axes and shields taller than any man, and towering horsemen on great destriers.

Masters of the fearsome Wolfships, the Norsii raiders were the terror of the northern coastlines. Leaving only death and smoking ruin in the wake of their catastrophic invasions.

The Norsii's reign of terror was finally ended when Sigmar rallied the tribes of the south and drove them back beyond the sea to the forsaken lands of the North. Against such a powerful foe, not even the Norsii could withstand, and so they were forced to retreat to the land that would later be known as Norsca; marshalling their forces and nursing an even greater hatred of the men who had ended their path of conquest.

In the 9 IC, the Norsii would later return in force with all the fury of their Dark Gods behind them. Rallied behind the leadership of a great chieftain and Champion of Khorne known as Cormac Bloodaxe, the Norsii raided the northern territories of the nascent Empire just as they had before; enslaving the Roppsmenn tribe to their will and launching a devastating attack on the Udoses tribe, killing their chieftain Wolfilla, himself a count of the Empire, and throwing the northerners into disarray. With the defense of the north shattered, the Norsii were able to strike further and further into Imperial lands, spreading terror and destruction everywhere they went.

This was only exacerbated by the fact that when Sigmar learned of the Norsii invasion, and the Roppsmenn's complicity in it, he marshalled his forces and waged a long, ardous campaign to crush them and drive them out of the Empire, for they had forfeited their place in it by aiding the savage Norsemen. This left the inner lands of the Empire also undefended against the wrath of the Northmen. The Roppsmenn tribe was all but annihilated by Sigmar, driven into the then unknown lands of the east, where they would come into conflict with the Ungols.

When Sigmar finally faced the Northmen, they had done what no other enemy had accomplished before or ever since, they handed Sigmar his first ever military defeat. Even the whirlwind fury of the Thuringian berserkers was little compared to the merciless battle-rage of the Norsii warriors. The axes and swords of the Norse were not the only foe Sigmar faced that day, for the Norsii had also enslaved the Kurgan and Hung tribes to their service, and so did the horsemen encircle Sigmar's host, hammering them with arrows while the Norsemen charged their lines, smashing into the southern warriors like the fist of the Blood God himself.

Faced with such opposition, Sigmar and his warriors retreated to Middenheim, forcing the Norsii into a long, protracted siege. Though the toll was high, the Empire eventually triumphed, when reinforcements from the other tribes converged upon the Norsii and defeated them. Once more, the Norsii were thrown back across the Sea of Claws, to the land of Norsca. Where their descendants live to this day, warring with each other and continuing to venerate cruel gods whose names civilized men do not speak.

The Norse Today
The Norscans, as they came to be called after settling in the north, have earned a reputation as relentless warriors feared throughout the Old World. In the past, they have invaded and conquered parts of the Empire, ruling areas there briefly before they return to their blasted fastness in the far north. An example of such is of Snorri Half-Hand who ravaged and conquered the Wasteland with a horde of Marauders at his back, renaming the area as "Vestland", and proclaiming himself Jarl. The later advent of the Black Plague led to the Norscans abandoning the city of Marienburg.

Another example is of the brief Norse rulership of Nordland, where the Norscans brutally conquered the northern province and governed it, as the Empire was incapable of sending armies to free the Nordlanders as a result of the Great Plague. Due to this, Norscan longships colonized the Nordland coast, enslaving the native Nordland population. Emperor Mandred Skavenslayer, pre-occupied with other threats, could also not answer their pleas, much to the horror of the northerners.

Yet the Norscans are most feared for the zeal with which they fight in the names of the gods of the North. In the year 2515 IC, a massive Chaos incursion poured out of Norsca, led by the fearsome Chaos Champion Lord Mortkin. The invasion was launched in retribution for the destruction of the Norse town of Ulfennik, against the Elector Count of Ostland, Valmir von Raukov, who had led the attack on Ulfennik. The Norscans ravaged most of Ostland and burned down the great city of Volganof as weregild for the destruction of Ulfennik. The son of the count, Oleg von Raukov, was also slain in the invasion.

In Sigmarzeit 2398 IC, one of the dread lords of Chaos, a legendary warrior-queen of Norsca known as Valkia the Bloody, consort to Khorne the Blood God himself, called the Northmen to take to their longboats and follow her across the Sea of Claws to wage war once more upon the people of Nordland. Valkia and her tribe fell upon the northern provinces like sea wolves. Their purpose not to enslave the Nordlanders, nor to enrichen themselves upon the spoils of their raids, but simply to shed blood in honour of the Norscan god of battle. Neither man, woman, child nor even livestock was spared sacrifice to the insatiable Blood God.

The Empire is not the only nation to endure the depredation of the Chaos reavers, Kislev as well has suffered from Norscan attacks in the past, being the border realm between the south and the terror of the north. During the Great War Against Chaos in 2302 IC, a mighty Chaos Lord known as Sven Bloody-Hand, lieutenant to the Kurgan warlord Asavar Kul, sacked the great port city of Erengrad before escaping back to the sea. More generally, Norse Chaos incursions from beyond the Chaos-tainted wilderness of Troll Country are a constant threat to the Kislevites. Though these attacks are mostly confined to small scale raids, on occasion, a powerful chieftain will arise in Norsca and bring the tribes together for a great invasion into the realm of the Ice Queen. Despite their reputation as fearless marauders, the Norscans have come to be weary of the Ice Witches of Kislev, and to kill one of these spellcasters is a cause for the Northmen to celebrate with gory and spectacular rituals invoking the Dark Gods. Much like the Nordlanders, the Kislevites are often the first to die to the jagged axes of the Norse.

The Norse also have come into conflict with the Northern Dwarfs of Kraka Drak. In 2302 IC, roughly concurrent with Asavar Kul's invasion, the Norse King Valmir Aesling declared himself to be the "Emperor of Chaos". Valmir was a ruthless and efficient leader of men, brooding and silent save for the often fatal burst of temper. He punished cowardice and insurbordination with the most gruesome torture he could devise and hated all the races of the Old World, including the Dwarfs, with a fiery passion. Valmir waged an ardous campaign, but managed to annihilate the hold, albeit at the cost of his own life.

Similarly, in the year 1396 IC, the Norse overran the Northern Dwarf Hold of Karak Ghulg under the command of Valkia the Bloody. Valkia ordered her fellow warriors to perform a grotesque act upon the defeated Dwarfs. They unfolded their enemies' bloody ribs, made naked their hearts and spread out their lungs. With their bleeding lights about their bodies, the Dwarfs appeared as though they had bloody wings, and so this vile execution was named the "Blood Raven", and continues to be used by the Norsemen.

Clearly, it would be easy to say that the Norsemen's relationship with the southern world is one of constant war. And while it may seem so, given the Norse propensity for combat and bloodlust, there are instances that show the Norse approach to the Old World may not always be one of war. Though typically larger and more powerful, the Northmen are not unlike their cousins to the south. In times of peace, it may be possible to see a trader from the North hawking his wares in the great markets of Marienburg, just as it is likely to see a Kurgan or a Hung trader do the same in Weijin to the East.

The Northmen are also explorers of incredible skill, as their longships allow them to range far south and west. In 888 IC, the warrior Losteriksson discovered the strange tropical land of Lustria in the New World; establishing the outpost of Skeggi upon its mangrove lined shores. In time, Skeggi became a mustering point for many Chaos Champions from Norsca and their bondsmen, as tales reached back north of battles with the Lizardmen of Lustria, and of the great riches to be found in the new land. In 954 IC, the Champions of Skeggi sailed back to their homeland, bringing with them such tales and returning to the continent with a great army of raiders. As the conflict intensified, more Warriors of Chaos from frozen Norsca set sail to the warm lands of the far south; driven by the lust for gold as well glory.

Most significantly, the Norscans have ever been at the forefront and vanguard of the Great Chaos Incursions, serving as warriors and leaders. In ages past, the first Everchosen to rise up and carry the banner of the gods, Morkar the Uniter, was a Norsii tribesman. Since then, the Norse have always served as the backbone of the great invasions from the north, when the gods' make the call to war they leave their settlements in force, eagerly marching beside the steel-clad Chaos Warriors and Knights who have risen from their ranks. Battering away all opposition and clearing the way into the Empire for the Kurgan horsemen of the east.

Now, with Champions of Norsca each serving as Archaon Everchosen's four highest lieutenants, the Norse stand ready to heed the call of their Dark Gods and usher in the final glorious battle that will bring the end to all things.

Norscan Culture
The Norscans as a single, unified people do not exist. They are instead broken into numerous tribal confederations at war with each other as much as the Kurgans to the East or the Empire to the South. These various tribes are often nations unto themselves; possessing varying pantheons of gods, traditions, heroes and tribal dialects.

The main tribes of Norsca, from which all others descend, are the Aeslings, Graelings, Vargs, Sarls, Kvelligs, Hastlings, Bjornlings, Skaelings and Baersonlings. There are also lesser tribes under them, such as the Snaegr, Sortsvinear, Ironpelt, Brennuns, Crow-Brothers, Wolfclaw and Stormravens.

The tribe forms the very core of Norscan identity. A Norscan will never identify himself as such, indeed, the very term "Norscan" is an Imperial labelling; he will instead identify himself based on his tribe and lineage. An Aesling will always think of himself as an Aesling; for their only loyalty is to their family, kin and to their gods.

Battle and faith are at the heart of Norse society. The tribes live for war and the shedding of blood, and the rivalries between them provide much opportunity for it. For instance; the Sarls of the south are the adversaries of the Aeslings in the north, and many times have the two come into conflict with each other; at the Battle of a Thousand Skulls, the Sarl Chaos Champion Wulfrik the Wanderer slew the Aesling King Torgald, earning the special enmity of the Aeslings.

Norscan Spirituality
""Khorne!" they roared, invoking the sacred battle-name of Kharnath the Blood God, Lord of Battles. "Khorne!" they howled until it seemed the walls must fall from the violence of their voices alone. "Khorne!" they shrieked as they gnashed their teeth and bit their shields." - Destruction of Wisborg

Norscan religion is based primarily around the worship of the Chaos Gods, by the various names the Norscans know them by. Commonly, the Norscans (like the other races who dwell around the Chaos Wastes) venerate the Chaos Gods in a pantheon, as a purely practical consideration, to draw upon all of their gifts and powers to better survive in the harsh north. However, many tribes do take a single Chaos God as their patron, who is seen as both the father and protector of that tribe, as well as the chieftain's own patron. In addition to the Chaos Gods themselves, the Northman pantheon also incorporates various Greater Daemons, fallen Chaos Champions, ancestors and various other lesser spirits; but it is always the Chaos Gods who reserve the highest degree of veneration. In the Norscan faith, there is no equivalent to the Kingdom of Morr, there is nothing after death save the Realm of the Dark Gods, and men shall only enter that holy place to sit at the right hand of their gods if they were strong and true warriors in life, cowards are cursed by the gods and reviled for all eternity. Thus, every Norscan fights with an insane fervour driven by this belief, which molds them into the perfect warriors of the Dark Gods.

In battle, the Norse look to Khorne, the War-God for strength. Shaman and vitki look to Tzeentch, the Raven, to unravel the mysteries of magic. And in times of plague, the Norse offer sacrifices to Nurgle, to placate the Crow-God and to persuade him to withold his blessings. The Norse see themselves as the closest of all the races of men to the Dark Gods, and thus see it as their duty to raid and ravage. Not just the south, but also their fellow worshipers of Chaos; the Kurgans to the east, and some even adventure in the True North, to slay the mightiest creatures of the Wastes to show their strength to their masters. The Norscans honour the Chaos Gods for their might, and the might they bestow upon them. As all Norscans are to some extent affected by the power of Chaos, they see the work of their gods in all things and are always vividly reminded of their potency. In comparison, the weak gods of the south are pitiful children before the might of the Dark Lords of the North.

In general, the Norse tend to revere Khorne, the Skull-King, the Lord of Battles, more fanatically than the other races of Chaos. The simple, brutal strictures of the Blood God's faith are pleasing to the Norse, and the behavior of the various Norse tribes dovetails neatly with what the Blood God expects from his followers. As a result, many tribes of Norsca take Khorne as their sole patron and most Chaos Shrines dedicated to him are found within Norse settlements. The Norscans also maintain a unique tradition in their version of Khornate worship; holding up the veneration of the Daemon Princess Valkia the Bloody. According to Norse sagas, she was once a fearsome warrior queen of one of the tribes of Norsca who was risen from her tribe to become the Shield-Maiden of the Blood God and the Bringer of Glory, the one who chooses the valiant dead to be taken into the Halls of the Blood God to fight on for all eternity. Many times in the past, Valkia has returned to the mortal plane to lead the Norscans to battle, and in her presence, the grim warriors of the north fight even harder - for where Valkia, the Axe-Father watches, and to any Norscan, the prospect of becoming his Chosen is a prize beyond all measure.

The Blood Raven

Virtually every man of the Norscan tribes is a warrior, and amongst warriors it is likely that the worship of Khorne, the Norscan God of Battle, will take root. Amongst the savage Norse, there is barely a tribe whose warriors do not include devotees of the Axe-Father. And it is from Khorne that this ritual first came to the Norscans, brought down by his chosen Valkia the Bloody.

In 1396 IC, Valkia appeared before a tribe of Norse warriors led by the Chaos Champion, King Bothvar. Bothvar and his warband had been waging a long war against the Norse Dwarfs to gain the pleasure of Khorne. Valkia appeared before him, an auspicious event for any devotee of Khorne. Valkia told Bothvar that while Khorne was pleased with his killing, he could yet do more to secure the favour of the god of war. Thus, Valkia taught the Blood Raven, which was then used by the Norsemen upon the Dwarfs. The first recipients of the gruesome execution.

The Blood Raven is an ancient torture, stretching back at least eleven centuries. Reserved by the Norse for their most hated enemies. It involves flaying the skin from the enemy's back, exposing the meat and muscle beneath. Then, with incredible strength, the ribs are bended outwards until they break. Then with even greater might, the lungs must be ripped out and placed on the upon the shoulders, causing the tortured creature to appear as if he has bloody wings. Among some tribes, this torture is also known as the Blood Eagle.

Weregild
It would be easy to decry the Norsemen as being lawless savages, with no care for the destruction and carnage they leave in their wake. Truly, they are a savage people, with little interests in other races beyond slaughtering or enslaving them. However, to decry the Norsemen's society as being totally without law is an incorrect assumption.

The weregild is one of the few laws that hold in all the steadings of Norsca. To put it simply, the weregild is the price paid by a murderer to the family of a victim of murder, or in compensation for some other crime. Weregild can be in the form of silver, cattle, slaves or even steel. The price of weregild depends on the importance of the individual killed or slighted, with Kings and Jarls occupying the highest echelons of importance in Norse society (though how one could face these terrible Chaos Champions in battle is hard to see).

The shaman of Norsca, however, have no worldy weregild attatched to them. Rather, it is the weregild of the gods that their murderers or enemies must pay. The Norscans respect their shaman and seers as those to whom the gods directly speak to (though the chieftains of Norsca, being Chaos Champions, also claim a special connection with the gods). Thus, no warrior of Norsca would dare raise his hand against a seer, for even the fearsome warriors of the north fear the retribution of their gods.

Of course, tribes dedicated to the Master of the Skull Throne have no reverence for spell-casters such as Chaos Sorcerers, and invariably slay the seers when they find them. Instead, Norsemen trbes who worship the Blood God have their own seers known as Bloodfathers, men who bear the Mark of Khorne and who receive visions of carnage and knowledge of battle from him. For even a devotee of Khorne to raise his hand against them is said to invite the displeasure of an already raging god.

Norscans in Battle
''"And then those sails appeared on the horizon. White, but dripping with the bloody symbols of their foul gods. And then came the black wood of the boats, dragged through the froth by tireless, muscled arms pulling on a hundred oars. I rang the warning bell from my lookout and me lads formed up, each one sweating at the arrival of these beasts. The crossbowmen loosed bolt after bolt, and many fell, but still the howling fiends ran up the beaches with no care for armour or shields. They looked like rabble, but fought like daemons, crashing through our lines, butchering men left and right, clubbing limbs into gore and hacking heads from bodies like they were attached with butter. I'll never forget that morning..." - ''Account transcribed from an Ostland sergeant, 2517 

The Norscans have a wholly deserved reputation for being incredible fighters. And how not? Their homeland is a haunted waste infested with terrifying beasts like Chaos Spawn and trolls, infused with the very essence of Chaos, and lashed by furious, freezing winds. Their gods are terrifying idols of darkness, who favour only the strong and demand the destruction of the weak. To their east are the bloodthirsty horse-nomads, to their south are the heirs of the greatest enemy and to their north is the very abode of their gods. It where living even a single day is a victory. And the Norse do not simply live, but thrive under the very shadow of the Chaos Gods.

The conditions of their environment and the strictures of their faith have forged them into a true warrior race. Each northman towers over any man of the Empire, their powerful bodies hardened by lives of ceaseless toil and endless war. They fight from birth, all of them with them the experience of hunting and fighting in the frozen wilds of Norsca behind them. Their endurance and strength built by centuries of living in a land that does not tolerate weakness, and again strengthened further by the influence of Chaos that infects all those who live so close to the Wastes.

In battle, the Norscans invoke the war-god Khorne, from the lowliest marauder to the highest Chosen (provided he does not serve an opposing power, of course). By bellowing and roaring his dark name, the Norsemen are driven into an uncontrollable battle-fury, whether by their own will or that of Khorne, who can say. The blood-crazed Khornate berserkers of Norsca are truly fearsome opponents, and many thousands have been undone by their psychotic, blood-lusting fury.

Whichever one of the Four they worship, each Norsemen is a fearless warrior. When set loose on the battlefield, each marauder is like a beast scenting blood. And they will not rest until their lust for death is sated. For they know that the Eyes of the Gods are upon them, judging their strength, testing their courage. They know those who fight well will be honoured by the gods, will receive their blessings and the marks of their favour. And so they fight with no regard for their lives, only for how many they can take. For death with sword in hand is the destiny of all men, whoever they are. And so when death comes, they do not court it like southlings, but rather embrace when it comes. A valorous death with blade in hand and the red ruin of their foes about them; an end to make their Dark Gods and their ancestors proud. The men of Norsca fear dishonour more than the kiss of the Valkyrie.

Trade
The Norscans are commonly described as a people with only two talents - producing lethal weapons of war and producing powerful warriors with the deadly will to use them. And such trade with the various people surrounding them, the horse-nomads to their east and the mutant bands to their north, will commonly center around the exchange of weaponry and armour. For it is in their smelting of metal and working of steel that the Norscans may be acknowledged when off the battle-field.

However, the Norscans are also known to trade with the Fire Dwarfs of the Great Skull Land. Over the centuries, trade delegations from Zharr Nagrund have made contact with the Norse tribes (with varying degrees of success) and have opened up some trade relations with them. The Norscans cannot hope to match the Dwarfs in the art of metallurgy, for the work of men is shoddy and exude compared to the mastery of the Sons of Grungni and Hashut. Indeed, the Norscans entertain trade relations with the Chaos Dwarfs in order to make use of their masterful weaponry and armour. The Norscan tribes thus trade furs, meat and, most importantly for the Dwarfs, slaves to buy their armaments.

Some few Norscan tribes also trade with the South. Though this is comparatively little compared to their commerce with the Kurgans. In times of peace, northmen can be found selling furs, gems, hunted game and other such things in Erengrad or Marienburg. Though this is often a contemptible position for any Norseman, and few will look upon it as a first resort.