Taurox

It is not just the warherds of the Gors and Ungors that are rising up in greater numbers than ever before. All across Talabecland there spread legends of a giant bullheaded fiend with a body of living brass. It is told that this monstrous warrior marches at the head of a column of armoured Minotaurs fully a mile long, and that whenever the scent of flesh is carried upon the wind, the column breaks into a stampede. The tales are corroborated by sentries across the Old World who have seen the forests scarred and torn down by the Minotaur army’s rampage as it passes below. Outriders following this trail of devastation on the swiftest of horses have reported its passage through and over market towns, armoured barracks, Flagellant camps, sacred temples and riverside wharfs, leaving nothing but ruin and great smears of blood that extend out of the other side of each site for many leagues. Of the inhabitants of these unfortunate locales there is invariably no sign other than the odd scattered boot or broken sword. Most disturbing of all, the outriders swear that the Brass Bull’s army is heading directly for Talabheim, and growing larger with each passing week.

History
Taurox the Brass Bull, Slaughterhorn, Bloodbeast, The Brazen One is an unstoppable force; a roaring, snorting engine of destruction virtually impervious to physical harm. Cast in the form of a grotesquely muscled Doombull, Taurox looms over his followers, a mountain of living brass with curving, bladed horns and a gnashing metal maw that constantly drools with gore.

The Brass Bull was not always a metallic monstrosity. Once a fearsome chieftain of the Minotaur tribes, Taurox enforced his brutal will upon the lesser beasts of the forest by felling any creature who dared meet his stern gaze and then devouring them alive. The Brass Bull was merciless beyond measure, and the ground at his feet was ever wet with the freshly spilled blood of friend and foe alike.

So it was that one night an emissary of the fell powers crawled into the mortal realm from the devastated remains of one of Taurox’s rivals. The hell-borne nightmare was sinewy and crimson-skinned, coiled with unholy energy, and it met Taurox’s gaze with its hollow black eyes. This proved to be a costly mistake. Before it could utter a single syllable in its dark tongue, Taurox grabbed it by its wattled throat and bit off its head.

There was a moment’s silence, then a violent thrashing as Taurox spasmed and shook, seized by a vision of a world awash with blood and afloat with corpses. Taurox roared and screamed, biting and clawing at himself in his convulsions before taking up his axes and slaying every one of his tribe one by one.

But he did not stop there. For a year and a day, Taurox raged across the lands in a blind rampage, killing every living thing he could find. Tribes of Beastmen, covens of witches, nomadic Strigany caravans, mercenary Ogres, Empire patrols, proud knights, two-headed Giants, all fell to Taurox’s boundless wrath. When he came upon the vale of Lietberg he killed so many citizens that a river of blood was born at his feet. Exhausted, Taurox collapsed in the crimson stream, and he would have died then and there, for his energies were completely spent. But the dark ones had uses for him still.

Under a scarlet moon, Taurox was reborn. He rose up and bellowed his defiance, blood cascading from his now-brazen frame, for the gods had rewarded his fell deeds with a body of shining metal. No more would he tire, no more would he have a moment’s respite from the rage that consumed him. Taurox drank deep of the gory river he had made, and the blood sluiced and boiled inside his brass body, giving him unholy vitality. Clashing his rune-enscribed axes together in savage pride, Taurox set off once more and began the slaughter anew. This time he did not stop, and the Brass Bull will not stop until he is somehow put in the grave once and for all.

Source

 * Warhammer Armies: Beastmen (7th Edition) pp. 27, 58

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