Lizardmen

"Before Elves, before Dwarfs, before Men, the Old Ones arrived upon this world. Then came Chaos and the Great Plan of the Old Ones was unmade. We are the last of their servants, and only by our hand shall the Great Plan be restored, with the total defeat of the usurping younger races."

- Inscription upon the eastern boundary stone of the temple-city of Hexoatl.

The Lizardmen, sometimes known as the Cold Ones, the Servants of the Old Ones or even the Children of the Gods are an ancient, cold-blooded race of reptilians that were at one time the first and oldest races within the Warhammer World. Long before the rise of the new races such as the Dwarfs or Elves, the Lizardmen ruled supreme. Alien, enigmatic, and without mercy, the Lizardmen will stop at nothing to restore order to this chaotic world. Such is what they were made to do, for they are the ancient servants of the Old Ones, the one true Defenders of the World.

Since the days of their creation, the Lizardmen have been at the forefront of the battle for the world’s survival. Their armies are anchored by savage warriors spawned for the sole purpose of war and augmented with titanic reptilian beasts whose tread shakes the earth. Their enigmatic leaders are powerful wizards and wield magics beyond the keen of mere mortals.

While much has been lost over the long ages of warfare against the many foes of order, the Lizardmen still fight on - unleashing their cold-blooded savagery upon any who would stand in the way of their sacred mission. Beneath totems of gold, the Lizardmen march to war, the ground trembling from the approach of their armies. They go to battle for reasons indecipherable to others, an ancient plan known only to themselves. For they are the rightful inheritors of the world and it is their sacred, if inscrutable, duty to restore order across the planet. If this means the wholesale eradication of races outside of the Great Plan, then so be it.

History
Utterly enigmatic, the Lizardmen have been stranded by their creators, the Old Ones, left to contemplate a world irrevocably changed. Over the millennia, the Lizardmen have sought after the clear guidance once supplied by their almighty creators. Against the growing threat of an age-old enemy, the Lizardmen have slowly come to the realisation that there is no gain in lamenting a bygone age, and that the time to enact the Great Plan is upon them. From temple-cities and ancient ruins they issue forth, emerging out of the jungle to coldly implement their vision upon the world.

Dawn of Creation (-10,000 to -5600 IC)
The origin of the Lizardmen is a tale that goes back to a primeval era when the world was dark and largely encased by thick sheets of ice. Long before Chaos came to the world, in a time before Elves, Dwarfs or Men, the land was ruled by titanic monsters. These enormous creatures battled for dominance and the warmest regions, those nearest the equatorial band, became the most highly contested zones. Some of these life forms were unthinking creatures of pure instinct, others were established civilizations that rose and fell in that forgotten age. Of that time of eternal twilight there is little knowledge, although buried ruins and descendant creatures still remain.

Into this brutal age came a mysterious race of god-like beings that plied the heavens in silvered ships. These strangers, known as the Old Ones, came from beyond the stars where they ruled an empire that spanned not just the cosmos, but time itself. Their technology was advanced beyond imagination — to them, astrology and astronomy, science and magic were all one and the same. Each world in the Old Ones’ empire was linked by a gateway. Some were small portals, allowing an individual to travel inconceivable distances with but a single step. Others, often situated in the cold void of space, were portals so large that vessels the size of moons could pass through. In their travels across the endless expanse of the universe, one planet caught their eye, for they saw in it a unique and boundless potential.

The Old Ones decreed that this world would have a central place in their unknowable plans and stellar gates at either pole were created to allow easy access to this hopeful new colony. Before the designs for their newest planet could be fully set in motion, the Old Ones had to reshape it to better fit their needs. Using powers beyond mortal comprehension, they shifted the planet’s orbit towards the warming sun. In time, the ice sheets retreated, verdant forests soon growing to cover over the newly revealed land.

Children of the Gods
The Old Ones created servants to tend to their needs. Thus was the first spawning of the Slann Mage-Priests begun. They were the grand viziers, trusted creatures of prodigious intellect, and the only beings able to withstand direct contact with the near-omnipotent Old Ones and comprehend their teachings. It was the Slann who were to guide the lesser races whose creation would soon follow. For upon the world, the Old Ones had encountered many primitive creatures, including those that would one day be transformed into the first Elves, Dwarfs and Men. Powerful and far-sighted, the Old Ones could shape new life forms even from these imperfect materials. They did encounter some creatures whose existence was incompatible with their future plans. As the climate warmed, the Saurus were created to destroy these anomalies and soon vast armies marched to war — a fight to eradicate those native races that needed to be removed.

The Old Ones frequently used the polar gateways to travel the cosmos, but in the meantime they created further spawnings of Slann to execute their plans. While the Saurus brought order to the world with their brutal campaigns of destruction, greater projects were undertaken. By command of the Old Ones, the Slann established the rainforest temple-cities in the region that would one day become Lustria. The Skinks were the technicians and the overseers; it was their role to direct the beasts of burden to haul and heft the heavy loads. In this manner, the Lizardmen built fabulous structures that rose high above the steaming jungles.

The Old Ones’ instructions to the Slann were very specific as to the locations where the temple-cities, and the many other architectural wonders, were constructed across the globe. Each one was raised up purposefully to form a vital nexus in a world-spanning ‘geomantic web’, an interlinked matrix of natural earth-energy that encompassed the planet. Each site was linked to the next and the Old Ones were able to draw upon this vast reservoir of energy to manipulate untold devices and enchantments of great power. The Slann Mage-Priests were also able to tap into the geomantic web, and with its energies they could shift continents and further aid the unknowable plans of the Old Ones. So long as each link remained connected, they could be used to telepathically communicate with one another over vast distances. By entering a trance, the Mage-Priests could transmit pure thoughts and hold councils of communion.

The Great Catastrophe (-5600 to -4420 IC)
All was not well with the world, however. Distressing signs began to manifest outside the gateways at the planet’s poles. They were but portals to another dimension, and it was from there that trouble arose. In the swirling madness of that otherworldly realm, nascent beings stirred, malign intelligences that resented the Old Ones’ trespasses. Disaster came suddenly. Whether due to enemy attacks or structural failure, the Old Ones’ great polar gates, the means by which they traversed the stars, collapsed upon themselves. The eldritch machineries of the gates crashed down upon the world in a burning hail of star-metal. Simultaneously, the poles of the world imploded, opening rifts into the beyond. Chaos spewed forth from the spirit realm.

Meteors of congealed magic, a substance known as warpstone, left weirdling contrails that set the skies aflame. The planet shuddered under thunderous impacts, with some meteorites burrowing like animals, gnawing deep into the world’s foundation. A layer of warpstone dust was cast into the air, its mutating properties causing untold atrocities. Across the globe, the seas churned and the forest canopies shook, convulsing with grotesque growth. Where the northern gateway had once been, there now throbbed a second moon, a green satellite made of pure warpstone -- Morrslieb. Many cries were lifted to that sickly orb, as hideously twisted creatures were born, howling in their agony.

As their portals collapsed, the Old Ones disappeared, their fate unknown. Yet the disaster could have been worse, if the Old Ones’ most powerful servants, the Slann, had not staved off complete destruction by sealing much of the rent in reality. So great was the strain of that undertaking that half of their number were slain — their brains melted by the incongruity of Chaos. Despite their sacrifice, the Slann could only shrink the gap; they could neither close it nor stem the tide of magical energy that swept the planet. The Old Ones were gone, and the Lizardmen and the fledgling races were now abandoned before a new and diabolical foe.

The World Besieged
In the wake of the clouds of magic came the daemonic legions of the Chaos Gods. They crystallised out of the swirling madness, materialising in numbers beyond count. Each Daemon was a powerful facet of its master, an unnatural being that burned with the urge to destroy. And so the war for the mortal realm was begun. Faced with annihilation, the remaining Slann rallied, mustering armies the sizes of which have never been seen in the world since. The Daemons attacked everywhere, but the Lizardmen bore the brunt of the attack. What followed was a series of terrible wars, titanic clashes that spanned continents, lasted centuries and claimed untold lives.

The Saurus met the daemonic tide, able to match their ferocity and return it in kind, but the might of the Lizardmen did not rest solely with its armies. The Slann, atop their pyramid-temples, gathered the rampant magical energies to fuel spells of unprecedented destruction. They gulped in the magic-infused air and belched forth firestorms, unleashed tidal waves, or split the earth asunder to lay waste to the invaders. In the war’s opening stages, the Slann proved more powerful than even the most magically adept of the Daemons. However, as the Chaos energies and unending reinforcements continued to flood into the world, the balance began to shift.

The Crumbling of Civilization
As the Chaos energies ebbed stronger, the Slann felt their powers dim, their spells growing harder to control. Even a minute error while manipulating magical forces resulted in horrific mishap — many Slann suffered mind-shredding backlashes or were lost to their own incandescent miscues. While the unconstrained Winds of Magic sapped the Slann, it conversely invigorated the Daemons, for they were born of the unnatural stuff and could readily shape it for their own use. As the magical supremacy shifted, so too did the war.

On the battlefields, titans made of pure fury smashed into the Saurus cohorts until the land was awash with blood. Plague monsters and beasts of living brass hurtled headlong into cold-blooded colossi, while above, flying reptiles battled batwinged behemoths for control of the skies. Despite mauling their daemonic foes, the Lizardmen were driven back. The Slann drew ever more upon their nexus of power, using its grounding to steady the unstable energies swirling around them. In desperation, they enchanted the jungle, turning their surroundings into a deathtrap full of carnivorous plants, living quicksand pits and teeming swarms of insects whose stings could crack Dragon scale. Rivers were redirected to impede the daemonic advance and volcanoes rose and erupted to slow their hellish progress. Yet still, the fell legions rampaged onwards. The Lizardmen withdrew to their temple-cities, bastions of order amongst a sea of Chaos.

For a time, even the relentless minions of the Dark Gods were checked as the Lizardmen exacted a tremendous toll. Giant reptilian beasts waded into the tumult, crushing paths through the hellish hordes before being lost to sight beneath the writhing masses. Strange devices left by the Old Ones were unleashed, artefacts of power that melted away the opposition by the thousands. Heedless of their losses, the Daemons continued to batter away at the protective barriers conjured by the Slann to protect each temple-city.

Eventually, the Daemons devised a way to breach the wards and Xahutec was the first to fall, its inhabitants slaughtered and its sky-scraping pyramids cast down. It began a chain reaction, weakening the magical barriers erected over each other temple-city in turn. So Huatl, Tlanxla, and Xhotl fell in quick succession. At Xhotl, the Slann Mage-Priests managed to hold out long enough to send warnings to the remaining cities, allowing them to employ suitable counterspells. The Daemons were stymied for a period, yet they were unrelenting. They devised new devilries to defeat each defence, unleashing a plague to overcome Chaqua, levelling Quezotec with the sonic barrage of a billion slaughtered souls in agony, and summoning shadowy tentacles to drag the great triangular temple-city of Zarmuda deep under the sea, where its force dome eventually cracked. After a thousand years of battle, only a handful of temple-cities stood, each a bastion protected by the greatest of the remaining Slann.

The Defence of Itza
At last the way was clear for the Daemons to besiege Itza, the First City and lynchpin of the Lizardmen’s arcane defences. Itza was under the protection of Lord Kroak, first of all Slann spawned upon the world and the mightiest of mages. The energy dome that surrounded Itza crackled with energy, turning Daemons to dust as they railed against it. Yet after years of strain, even Lord Kroak could sustain such mystic walls no longer, and with a final surge, he exploded the barrier outwards, flattening the surrounding jungle. A hundred thousand Daemons were banished in an instant. Nevertheless, the remainder swarmed into Itza.

Of all that long war, no battle was more fiercely fought than the one amongst the streets of Itza. Only an epic stand by Lord Kroak’s army of Temple Guard prevented the Daemons from overrunning the Great Pyramid. For many days and nights, the elite Saurus warriors stood firm on the lofty Bridge of Stars. Using his reservoirs of energy, Lord Kroak prepared his final incantations. As the last of the Temple Guard was cut down, Lord Kroak spouted forth spells that were the preserve of gods, raining fire from the heavens to vaporise the foe. Time stood still as the fabric of the universe strained at the outpour of sheer power.

Yet eventually even Lord Kroak succumbed. A dozen Bloodthirsters, protected by the favour of their dark god Khorne, fought through the deluge of spells and reached the top of the pyramid. There, they fell upon Lord Kroak’s form, ripping him apart in a savage instant. So overcharged with arcane energies was Lord Kroak that his spirit fought on, refusing to let even death hinder him. Set free of his flesh, Kroak’s radiant will soared above the ruins, scourging the invaders with a divine light that was like unto a second sun. The First City was saved.

Although Itza was delivered, the war raged on. Across the globe, the younger races also faced the Daemon legions. Despite retreating to their mountain holds, the Dwarfs had been decimated. The Elves of Ulthuan suffered tremendous loss, but in the end, their mages enacted the Great Ritual - a spell that created a vast vortex that drained away swathes of the magic that flooded the world. Deprived of their lifeblood of magical energy, the Daemons disappeared back to their seething realm, yet the world was irrevocably damaged, now transformed into a world saturated with magic and monsters.

The Age of Isolation (-4419 to -1500 IC)
With the Daemons of Chaos banished, a new era dawned over Lustria. The Lizardmen issued forth from amongst the ruins of their temple-cities to a blasted, smoking wasteland. The Slann ordered their minions to begin reconstructing that which they could. This task was urgent and gave the Mage-Priests time to meditate upon the proper way to advance. The struggle for survival against the Daemons had allowed no time to contemplate a future bereft of the Old Ones. The Lizardmen were uninterrupted during their rebuilding as the rest of the civilised races were also recovering from war, and because Lustria had grown treacherous. To tread upon that continent was to invite death, as predatory beasts, tropical diseases and all manner of deadly flora still remained — the residual effect of the Slann’s many defensive spells and perhaps the corrupting taint of Chaos.

It was the intention of the Slann to fortify their own defences before re-establishing contact with the younger races. They certainly intended to continue their monitoring duties and most probably their mentoring roles to those under-developed projects begun by the Old Ones. But in this new age, the Slann soon discovered that even their best-constructed designs now seemed error-prone and displeasingly flawed. Details slipped away from the leaders of the Lizardmen and they spent much time contemplating why.

The Slann struggled to remember the rituals they had routinely performed before the coming of Chaos. Over a thousand years had passed since those days, and there were no longer any Slann of the First Spawning to guide them — none had survived. Of those Slann that remained, there was not one amongst their number that had entered the presence of an Old One. It was a lengthy task simply establishing which nodes of the geomantic web were still serviceable, as many sites had been damaged or destroyed. The Great Catastrophe had a lingering effect upon the Slann, for they had looked into the swirl of pure Chaos and that image had imprinted itself upon their orderly minds. It clouded their consciousnesses and dimmed their memories. Long rests were required to sustain them after serious bouts of deeper thinking. Yet despite the fact that they were but shadows of their former selves, the Slann remained masters of the mystic arts, their arcane skills unsurpassed by other mortals.

Although the Great Ritual of the Elves had driven much of the power of Chaos away, it had not banished it entirely. The poles of the world still writhed under its corrupting sway and the world still suffered an influx of its energies, ebbing and flowing in a patternless way. The Slann identified the tremendous threats already seeking to undermine the Elves’ vortex at the centre of their island home of Ulthuan. Were it to stop draining the world’s magic, the Daemons would soon reappear. Thus did the Slann begin their greatest undertaking of this new age. What remained of the geomantic web was used to strengthen the Great Warding — a string of lesser siphons, defences and sentinels that would keep the Realm of Chaos at bay and secretly lend its power to the vortex of the Elves. Many Mage-Priests spent the following millennia attending exclusively to this task alone.

The remaining Slann Mage-Priests set about piecing together the Great Plan. Immediately before the Great Catastrophe, the Old Ones had dictated instructions and predictions onto many plaques of stone or gold. The remnants of the god-like beings’ intentions were now scattered throughout the world, often buried in ruins. Those sacred plaques that were recovered were studied and their meanings mulled over. Since those days, the Lizardmen have continued to scour the world in order to recover more such artefacts. Even the suspicion of such an item being found was sufficient to rouse a Mage-Priest from deep contemplation, and for a mighty host to be dispatched to retrieve it.

The Long Decline
While the daily activity of the long-lived Slann slowed, new spawnings of Skinks and Saurus were continually generated at all the remaining temple-cities. As the Slann withdrew into their own cerebral worlds, the Skink Priests - the most intelligent of their kind — became the daily leaders of the Lizardmen. It was their ceaseless industry that restored the temple-cities, rebuilding everything for which they had architectural plans. It was they who ordered the overgrown jungle cut back to develop the roads between temple-cities.

And so, over the years, the Lizardmen, once the most advanced civilisation to walk the world, regressed to a primitive state. The Old Ones took on the aspect of distant gods, worshipped by the Lizardmen and called upon in times of need by the Skinks. They began to make bloody sacrifices to attract the attention of their missing gods. The relics that they collected upon the orders of the Slann were held in wonder; all hope of understanding the technology or their function lost, replaced with superstitious ceremony and ritual.

The Rise of the Warmbloods
In the wake of the Great Catastrophe, the first of the younger races to set foot upon Lustria were the High Elves. Only the most learned of Elven mages had even an inkling of the beings that dwelt in the southern jungles, and they expected to find only ruins. On a mangrove-choked shore on the isthmus of Pahuax, a graceful ship pierced the steamy veil. To tread the soil of Lustria was deeply significant for the explorers, for their race had been forbidden to leave Ulthuan and they suspected they now trespassed in the hall of gods. Skink watchers noted the intruders before they had marched a hundred paces. When runners arrived to deliver word to what remained of the temple-city of Pahuax, the Mage-Priest Huinitenuchli was roused from his recuperative slumber. He was still recovering from the battle of Xuhua Lake, and had yet to fully regain his previous vigour. Displeased that his slumber was disturbed, he uttered a number of orders to his attendants that were indecipherable, yet undeniably offensive, before lapsing back into sleep. Shorn of their master’s wisdom, the Skinks were forced to deal with the High Elves as best they could. As such, they adopted a watch to see what the fair-skinned trespassers would do.

The High Elves, sickened by the cloying heat, had already suffered losses to bloodwasps, piranha-lizards and the jungle itself. After twenty days, their captain led only a score of survivors to stand in the shadow of the bronze gates of the great city of Pahuax. By this time, Lord Huinitenuchli had awakened. He was carried to the Star Chamber at the apex of the Golden Pyramid where he ordered the intruders to be brought before him, so that he might look upon them and determine their place in the Great Plan.

With proper ceremony, the Elves were brought into Pahuax. They walked what remained of the city’s processional avenue. Even in its ruined state, the Elves gazed in awe at the majesty of the architecture and the hulking Temple Guard that flanked them. They climbed the steep stairs to the top of the Golden Pyramid, their skin tingling from the powerful confluence of the geomantic nexus. Complete silence fell, as Huinitenuchli appeared not to register their presence. At long length, the Mage-Priest’s eye focused upon the beings before him and he croaked out a single sentence before lapsing into unmoving repose. The Skink Priests attending Huinitenuchli erupted in excited chatter as they debated the meaning of the Mage-Priest’s utterance. Finally, the most senior of their kind pointed at the High Elves and declared that Huinitenuchli had said, ‘They should not be here’.

In an instant, the Temple Guard closed in around the Elves. Seeing their peril, the Elves drew their own weapons and bedlam erupted. The Temple Guard instinctively protected their master and half of the Elves were cut down. The High Elves’ captain led a desperate fighting retreat down the steps and through the vast city gates. They were allowed to escape, but even so, only the captain and a handful of warriors ever made it back to their ship. Many months later, wracked by disease, the captain brought word back to the Phoenix King, Bel Shanaar, of the cold-blooded creatures of the jungle. It would be many years before the Elves of Ulthuan dared to set foot in Lustria again.

In time, the other younger races discovered the hidden continent of Lustria and attempted to penetrate its depths. Most that set foot upon its golden coastlines died a gruesome death before travelling far into the jungle. Others succeeded in plundering outlying sites, stealing away treasures sufficiently valuable to establish entire empires in the lands from whence they came. The coming of these races was, to a degree, predicted. Where once the Slann had been tasked with controlling every step in the development of the approved mortal races, now they could plainly see that entropy had crept into the Great Plan.

The Rat and the Serpent (-1399 to 100 IC)
One of the most significant events in the history of the Lizardmen was the rise of the cult of the Serpent God, Sotek. Traditionally, the gods of the Lizardmen were, and still are, the Old Ones: such shadowy entities as Tlaxcotl, Chotec, Quatl, Tzunki, Xapiti, Huanchi and the inscrutable Тероk. Sotek was a new god, an upstart god of the Skinks who has now risen to reign as the pre-eminent god of the Lizardmen, eclipsing much worship of the mysterious Old Ones.

Amongst the sacred plaques of Chaqua there existed a passage not found in the inscriptions of any other temple-city. This was known as the Prophecy of Sotek, and it predicted a cataclysmic invasion of Lustria by two-legged vermin. It said the ruination would last centuries and must be borne. It foretold of the fall of many temple-cities, including Chaqua, and the spreading of a terrible plague. However, this Time of the Rodent would be brought to an end when the mighty Sotek would appear, and his coming would be heralded by the forked tongue of the serpent.

The Prophecy Comes True
It was not until a virulent pestilence arrived in Chaqua that the Prophecy of Sotek was brought forth from long neglect and scrutinised in detail. A careful analysis required months of study, and in the meantime, thousands of Skinks sickened and died. Even worse, the spawning pools were infected, as it was not fully-formed Skinks that emerged out of the primordial liquids of Chaqua’s spawning pools, as was custom, but instead foul, malformed creatures that crawled forth to mercifully die within a few hours.

Chaqua’s Slann Mage-Priests were alarmed, sending war patrols to sweep the nearby jungle. South of the temple-city they discovered a vile new race that had infested the nearby ruins of Quetza. They were rat-men that walked upright and bore the taint of corruption. The Skaven were already established in Lustria; the pox-ridden Clan Pestilens, disease-worshipping monks of their loathsome race, had gnawed out vast warrens and undertunnels. After harsh skirmishes, the Skinks returned bearing Skaven captives. The Slann knew these twisted beings were not part of the Great Plan and said so. The Skaven were to be studied in hopes of finding a cure for their entropic maladies. However, unbeknownst to the Lizardmen, the captives brought something else to Chaqua.

The temple-city was soon fully in the grip of plague, and even the Mage-Priests showed the unmistakable signs. They withdrew into council to consider the matter and after several days of fevered contemplation, the sickly Mage-Priests agreed that the time spoken of in the prophecy was at hand. Looking to the sky, they saw through eyes made rheumy by contagion the distant gleaming of a heavenly portent. As the light in the sky grew stronger, its twin tails began to look like the tongue of an enormous serpent. When the light was visible even in the daytime, the Mage-Priests succumbed to their maladies. The remaining Temple Guard bore their masters into the pyramids, sealing them from within. So passed the venerable Mage-Priests of Chaqua. Leadership of the city’s survivors fell to the Skink Priests who had, until recently, served the Slann. The greatest of their number was Tehenhauin, who recovered the plaques relating to Sotek and carried them at the head of a great column of survivors leaving Chaqua. He sought to warn all Lizardmen of the impending danger and rally them for revenge.

A Century of Battle
travelled across Lustria, preaching the Prophecy of Sotek. He claimed that the Serpent God would rise to deliver the Lizardmen from plague and rat-spawn, but the god could only become manifest if given his proper due — and as payment Sotek dem anded millions of ratmen to be sacrificed in his name. Skinks took to this new cult, but the Mage-Priests held it in disdain, refusing to acknowledge Sotek, for no mention of his name could be found in any other of the ancient plaques. This disbelief became increasingly difficult to maintain in the face of the plague’s devastation and the oncoming tide of ratmen. All across Lustria, Skaven armies emerged from the underground, bursting forth to overrun outposts, ruins and even fully occupied temple-cities. travelled across Lustria, preaching the Prophecy of Sotek. He claimed that the Serpent God would rise to deliver the Lizardmen from plague and rat-spawn, but the god could only become manifest if given his proper due — and as payment Sotek dem anded millions of ratmen to be sacrificed in his name. Skinks took to this new cult, but the Mage-Priests held it in disdain, refusing to acknowledge Sotek, for no mention of his name could be found in any other of the ancient plaques. This disbelief became increasingly difficult to maintain in the face of the plague’s devastation and the oncoming tide of ratmen. All across Lustria, Skaven armies emerged from the underground, bursting forth to overrun outposts, ruins and even fully occupied temple-cities.

All of Lustria was soon plunged into an age of war, pestilence and bloodshed. As the Slann meditated on the right course of action, it was Tehenhauin who rose up to lead the Lizardmen. He proclaimed himself the Prophet of Sotek and his fiery oratories — consisting of much chittering on the subjects of Skaven-slaying and growing the power of the Serpent God - became very popular amongst the Skinks. He gathered an army around him and fought wherever the Skaven were most numerous. Neither side showed the slightest mercy towards the other. Screeching Skaven hordes threw themselves upon the temple-cites, while Skink war-parties scoured the jungle, seeking out entrances to the ratmen’s underground lairs. Without consulting the Mage-Priests, Tehenhauin ordered forth the Engines of the Gods, arcane devices of great destructive power left behind by the Old Ones. The Skaven were blasted into ashes by the thousands.

The years turned to decades and still the conflict raged on, the comet waxing stronger. Tehenhauin exhorted his followers to capture and sacrifice more of the cursed vermin. With each battle, the number of Skaven rendered unto the Serpent God swelled. Although the coming of Sotek was foretold by prophecy and heralded by the comet, Tehenhauin claimed it was still necessary to grant the new god many sacrifices to assure his full might upon his arrival.

After a century of open battle, the war reached its bloody climax. Although he led his host to many victories in that time, it was the battle of Gwakmol Crater where Tehenhauin caused the most slaughter. There, so many cowering Skaven were captured that their long columns took days to pass as the Lizardmen herded them deeper into the jungle. Upon the crumbling altar of some long-lost and forgotten god, Tehenhauin began the most potent ceremony he had yet led. So many Skaven were slain that their streams of blood ran into the River Amaxon, turning it crimson. While the twin-tailed comet filled the sky, throughout the jungles a writhing carpet of snakes crawled forth. From that day onward, the power of Sotek coursed through Lustria and Tehenhauin’s forces proved to be all but unstoppable.

The Rise of Sotek
The Prophet of Sotek, and his armies, drove the Skaven back, breaking their armies and slaughtering them as they fled. The many armies of ratmen retreated back to their last remaining stronghold, the ruins beneath Quetza. There, Clan Pestilens’ leader, Lord Nurglitch, gathered his Plague Lords for desperate council. Mustering into a single horde, the Plague Lords led their clan in a breakout attempt. Suffering enormous losses, they pierced the encircling Lizardmen and fought their way many hundreds of miles to the coast. Every step was contested, for Tehenhauin strove for nothing less than total annihilation of the vile ratmen.

The final battle was fought upon the vitrified shores of Fuming Serpent Island. There, the Skaven attempted to flee the continent, for Lord Nurglitch had seen enough of Lustria and hoped to establish a new base in the Southlands. By tricking a quarter of his army into performing a sacrificial delaying action, the rest of the ratmen deserted their kin and sailed eastwards on a ramshackle fleet. What happened next is the stuff of legend. With a menacing hiss, the Skinks claim that a serpent of unimaginable size, none other than Sotek himself, rose from the bubbling volcano. Accompanied by slithering snake-spawn, the Serpent God plunged into the sea in pursuit of the fleeing Skaven. Such is the myth of Sotek.

With the Skaven defeated, the Slann Mage-Priests could no longer ignore the power of the new Skink god. They declared a Great Convergence - a physical meeting of the Mage-Priests, as had not been done since the age of the Old Ones. Every single Slann was conveyed to Itza, where they gathered in solemn convocation. Tehenhauin, the Prophet of Sotek, was summoned to speak before the Slann, although by their orders his words were not recorded. None but those present know what truths were revealed, but in the council’s wake, the Mage-Priests declared it was fitting that Sotek be venerated and that pyramid-temples be built in his honour.

Reoccurring Malignancy
Clan Pestilens had been expelled from Lustria, although there were still many signs of their malignant passing. The temple-city of Chaqua was re-opened, although the sealed pyramids were left untouched. The warrens beneath Quetza remained tainted beyond redemption. Swarms of serpents guarded the twisting tunnels, but no Lizardmen could set foot therein and survive the plagues that still lingered there. Henceforth, Quetza would be called ‘the Defiled’ and left to the jungle, although Skink patrols assured nothing escaped in or out of that cursed region. The long war had instilled in the Lizardmen a cold contempt for the twisted ratmen that would long endure. Having taken each other’s measure, the two races would clash many more times. Whenever the Lizardmen and Skaven face each other, Sotek and the Horned Rat, the verminous god of the Skaven, enact once more their eternal struggle. Even in their deepest trances, the Slann still listen for the gnawing below. The Lizardmen no longer stood upon the cusp of a new era, but had fully entered it. This was to be an age of blood, sacrifice, and the worship of savage and inscrutable gods.

The Age of Strife
For ages, Lustria was a hidden continent, a nigh-impregnable realm whose forbidding jungles deterred almost all invaders. Yet a new era was underway, and the younger races were increasingly drawn to the Lizardmen’s lands, covetous of their wonders and wishing to see for themselves if the rumours of cities of gold were true.

A number of these intrusions were lone raids, of little concern to the Slann. They used such opportunities to observe the younger races. While Mage-Priests were wholly obsessed with the discovery and protection of the ancient plaques and sacred sites, they were dismissive of golden trinkets or baubles. Thus, the most tumbledown, vine-choked ruin in the depths of the wilderness might be under heavy guard, while jewel-encrusted statues of purest gold were wholly abandoned to the jungle. Their Skink underlings were far less forgiving, however, and would seek to obtain orders to retrieve objects of even the least significance. When denied their wont, the boldest leaders of their kind fabricated excuses to attack invaders, tolerating no others in their domain.

When enemies came in greater numbers, as they began to do with more frequency in this new era, it was the job of the Skink patrols to alert the armies of the nearest major outpost or temple-city. None of the invaders could stand before the might of a fully deployed Saurus host, but these larger-scale attacks upon Lustria shook the lethargy from the Slann Mage-Priests. The world was changing again.

They came from Naggaroth
The most prolific raiders were the Dark Elves of Naggaroth. Using their far-seeing ability, the Mage-Priests had watched the civil war on Ulthuan and had long pondered its meaning. To the Mage-Priests, these twisted creatures were scarcely distinguishable from any other of their kind. The Lizardmen had scant contact with any Elves following the disastrous encounter at Pahuax. The Slann Mage-Priests had, at first, allowed the Dark Elves to enter Lustria unopposed, or rather, not faced by the Lizardmen themselves — the jungle’s natural defences were unavoidable. In this way the Slann hoped to gain insight on the Elves’ intentions. What the Mage-Priests saw only served to confirm their opinion that the younger races had deviated far from the Great Plan. It was their shared telepathic determination that any contact with such a race of creatures could only lead to conflict.

The Dark Elves were arriving in Lustria in larger forces since their discovery of the Black Way, an underground network of subterranean rivers and seas that stretched all the way from the cold lands of Naggaroth. Armies of Dark Elves had been using this route to emerge in the heart of Lustria, allowing them to avoid the lethal dangers of the jungle. The passive approach of the Slann came to an end with the desecration of the Monument of Izzatal and the Elven attempt to capture the Skink Priests from the floating temple of Chotec, but perhaps the most damaging of the Dark Elf assaults was the theft of the Star Stela of Quetli.

The stelae are stone slabs inscribed with eldritch symbols and the Star Stela was an especially prized artefact, for the stone held the secrets of star alignment. Even as the Dark Elves hauled their plunder through the Black Way, the Mage-Priest Tepec-Inzi of Itza was startled awake, roused from a decades-long trance. He sensed the ramifications of the Star Stela in the wrong hands. Acting in great haste, the Mage-Priest mustered an army and transported it all the way to the grey shores of the Ashen Coast — intercepting the Dark Elves as they emerged from the Black Way.

The battle that ensued was remarkable for its ferocity, for the Dark Elves had no intention of being cheated of their prize. Tepec-Inzi left the battle plan in the hands of his trusted Saurus leader, Gor-Rok, whose albino scales marked him as blessed by the Old Ones. Given the order to ‘retrieve’, Gor-Rok met the Dark Elf assault head-on. He famously used his massive stone shield to smash the opposing commander’s chariot into splinters. When stabbed through the chest, Gor-Rok refused to die, instead pulling his assailant towards him by drawing the iron lance through his own body until he was close enough for his jaws to rip out the Elf’s throat. Steadily, the Lizardmen forced their foe back against the cruel breakers of the underground sea. Only after the battle had ended and Gor-Rok had retrieved the Star Stela was the Dark Elven weapon removed from the mighty Saurus’ blood-slicked form. The Star Stela was returned to its rightful place in the temple-city of Itza, where henceforth it would be protected by the Temple Guard, lest any attempt to steal it again. Furthermore, all Dark Elf raids into Lustria from that time onwards were to be met in force, and Skink patrols were assigned to scout deep into the Black Way.

The coming of Man
The first humans to land upon the coasts of Lustria were from Norsca. Led by an infamous Norscan adventurer, Losteriksson, Northmen crossed the seas and ransacked an overgrown ruin they found near Lustria’s coast. Heedless of the blasphemy they had just committed against the Old Ones, the men loaded their longboats with golden artefacts and sailed for home.

It was not long before word of their riches spread throughout the growing realms of Men, and many ships sailed west to find their fortune. Few survived the perilous journey and most that did were slain in the jungle — eaten by enormous reptilian creatures, swallowed by sentient quicksand or overcome by tropical disease. The Norse, however, led by the returning Losteriksson, succeeded in establishing a settlement on the isthmus — a colony named Skeggi. Fearing what might lurk in the hinterlands, Losteriksson forbade his followers from entering the deep jungle, instead concentrating on building a stockade fort and collecting the gold and precious stones from the ruined watch posts along the coastline. Not all of his followers listened, however, and one reckless band probed the thick jungle, stumbling across a site of great riches that was guarded by the Lizardmen. The humans seized what they could before fleeing to their base.

Losteriksson only discovered what had happened when an army of Lizardmen emerged out of the jungle, encircling the settlement. The Norse believed themselves doomed, but Losteriksson ordered all treasure to be cast over the log ramparts. Recovering only a single glyph-inscribed plaque, the enigmatic Lizardmen left without a backward glance. Unbeknownst to the humans, the army had been sent to recover a particular item; gold and jewels did not concern the Lizardmen, though they represented a fortune.

And so Skeggi survived, in time becoming a prosperous base from which the men of the north would launch many ventures. Although raiding parties that intruded deep into the jungles never returned, those that stuck to the coastlines found sites ripe for plunder. The wonders, and treasures, of the great temple-cities of the interior of Lustria remained hidden. On the orders of the Slann Mage-Priests, the Lizardmen endured the minor raids, for they had far greater matters on which to focus their much-needed meditations.

The ancient enemy
It was not only greedy treasure hunters that the Northmen brought with them to Lustria when they established their settlement of Skeggi. The fierce tribal men carried with them their warlike gods - erecting crude idols and performing barbaric ceremonies in their honour. The names attached to these deities by their human worshippers had not been previously heard upon Lustria, but the continent had felt their power before. Strange stirrings not sensed for millennia disturbed the meditations of the Mage-Priests, echoes from the distant past reverberating from the mind of one Slann to another. Chaos once more walked upon the shores of Lustria, this time carried in the souls of the men of the north.

What awakened the Slann to the re-emerging threat of Chaos was the tragedy of Lord Zhul, the master Mage-Priest of Xahutec. Lord Zhul was especially steeped in the lore and study of the Old Ones and his wisdom was legendary, yet during his few waking hours, he began to issue irrational orders. When Lord Zhul’s Skink attendants considered his latest words, it was observed that he made contrary pronouncements only when his palanquin was positioned to face the rising of the northern constellation at the zenith day of each month. The alignment, as tracked along the geomantic web, passed directly over the ruined pyramid-temple of Tlencan. Suspecting this might be the root of the confusion, an expedition in strength was launched to discover what marred the tranquillity of Lord Zhul’s thoughts.

The overgrown ruins of Tlencan were located on an island off the Scorpion Coast. Led by Skink Chief Quzipantuti, the Lizardmen force travelled quickly, mighty Bastiladons crushing paths through the jungle while a flight of Terradons scouted the path ahead. Once there, an investigation of the vine-covered ruins ensued. In the uppermost chamber, in the holy pool of power reserved for Mage-Priests, there slumped a vile Daemon Prince. Quzipantuti saw that a blade of Elven forging transfixed the creature, its innards glowing like lava. The wounded Daemon had followed the lines of the geomantic web, hoping to leech the power to restore itself.

Quzipantuti knew that the Daemon must be destroyed, but before the Skink Chief could summon his army, the Daemon had called upon its patron. Balefire spewed from the pyramid and a swarm of iridescent and crimson Daemons emerged from out of the air itself to do battle. They were met by a storm of javelins and barbed darts and, though many fell, the Daemons pressed home their attack, tearing through the Skink cohorts and crashing into the Saurus lines.

So fierce was the Daemon attack that they cut down half the reptilian warriors and would have swept them away altogether were it not for a timely charge by the Bastiladons. Thick armoured plates protecting them from harm, the enormous beasts waded through the Daemons, crushing more with every stride of their trunk-like legs. Twin Arks of Sotek borne on the creatures’ backs poured forth serpents beyond number. Perhaps Sotek, or the Old Ones themselves, took outrage at the contamination of the temple, for the serpents were joined by further swarms from the jungles. A living sea of serpents, a veritable tidal wave not seen since the wars with the Skaven, swept over the Daemons and into the pyramid-temple itself. There, they entered the topmost chamber and assailed the wounded Daemon Prince, their venom overcoming even that unnatural creature. With their leader gone, the Daemon army vanished completely.

At the very moment the Daemon Prince succumbed, Lord Zhul gave a feeble croak and perished. The mental duel to keep his thoughts pure had finally defeated him. His body was prepared with resin and bedecked with gold to rest within the crypt of the Great Pyramid, to be honoured as long as the Lizardmen realm stands, yet his loss was not in vain, for it opened the minds of his fellow Mage-Priests, alerting them to the return of that most malign of influences. Chaos was no longer invading Lustria only through its mutated offspring or the stained souls of the younger races.

Lord Mazdamundi awakened
Despite the upsurge of invaders entering Lustria, some of the eldest and most powerful of Slann Mage-Priests could not be roused. The great Lord Mazdamundi, the oldest Slann still alive, was especially groggy and his Skink Priests despaired of ever wholly waking their exalted charge. It took a spectacular display of greed and hubris to finally impel Lord Mazdamundi to a fully awoken state.

On three separate occasions, El Cadavo, a mercenary captain, established a settlement upon the Isthmus of Pahuax, always naming it ‘Cadavo’ after himself. Each time, Skink patrols eagerly sent back word and the Skink Priests climbed high onto the Great Pyramid of Hexoatl. There, Lord Mazdamundi reclined - slumped in concentration, his eyes glazed and his prodigious tongue lolling. None of those wakings went well, but each ended with the groggy Slann acquiescing to the Skink request to drive off the invaders. It was like a Stegadon tail swatting away a bloodwasp. None believed the humans would be so foolish as to return.

When the Skink Priests, with anxious glee, reported that El Cadavo had, indeed, returned and established a new settlement again, Lord Mazdamundi’s eyes opened wide for the first time in ages. His contemplations had now been disturbed three times in a decade - to a Slann but the blink of an eye. So Lord Mazdamundi made his preparations and read the constellations, learning that he was destined to be awoken yet again unless he took matters into his own hands. The Mage-Priest ordered his throne placed upon the back of the largest Stegadon and marched to meet the intruders.

Lord Mazdamundi was determined to see the settlement destroyed once and for all, as a warning to all those who would dare invade the realm of the Lizardmen. The Slann unleashed such immense power that the tectonic plates shifted beneath the human encampment. A terrible earthquake shattered the region, reducing Cadavo to ruins. When the dust settled, all its defenders had been crushed to a bloody pulp. Satisfied that the troublesome warmbloods would trouble him no more, Lord Mazdamundi returned to Hexoatl, with a mind to resume his contemplation of the great mysteries of the universe once again. Yet his blood was stirred, and his slumbers were not again so deep.

The Nether-Thing
It was during the year of the Jade Star Sea that the largest Daemon incursion since the Great Catastrophe came to Lustria. Its leader was Slaa'Ulaan, a Daemon referred to in ancient stone tablets as ‘the nether-thing of the second moon’. Slaa'Ulaan was amongst the most destructive and vile of fiends during the Great Catastrophe and had been responsible for the capture of many Mage-Priests, all of whom were sacrificed in obscene rituals. It was the great Lord Huinitenuchli of Pahuax who had finally banished the foul Daemon at Xuhua Lake all those years ago.

When Slaa'Ulaan returned to Lustria many thousands of years later, Lord Huinitenuchli, who had relocated to Xlanhuapec, could not be roused. Only Lord Tenuchli, subordinate Mage-Priest to the great Lord Huinitenuchli, could be awakened. Accompanied by Chakax, the Prime Guardian of the City of Mists, Lord Tenuchli led an expedition to the Pillars of Unseen Constellations and there found the full might of Chaos assembled.

The battle that ensued was a one-sided massacre, for the Saurus warriors were made sluggish by the arcane energies that flowed forth from the corrupted site. Slaa'Ulaan led the slaughter-filled charge and strode amongst the Lizardmen, snipping off heads and striking down whole ranks at a time, while the Saurus struggled to raise their weapons, so sapped were they of strength. In scant moments, only Lord Tenuchli remained, with Chakax immobile by his side.

Slaa'Ulaan charged the Prime Guardian, believing him incapacitated by magic, but Chakax was able to shrug off the disorienting spells and was only static because as of yet there was no direct threat to himself or the Mage-Priest he guarded. As Slaa'Ulaan neared, Chakax exploded into violent motion, pulping the Daemon into a steaming mass of bubbling daemonic ichor. Yet even in its death throes, the great Daemon directed its last energies into an arcane blast aimed at Lord Tenuchli. Chakax saved the Slann from instant death by stepping in front of part of the blast, yet Lord Tenuchli was badly wounded, his throne crashing to the ground. With Slaa'Ulaan’s death, the daemonic host dissipated, leaving only Chakax and the wounded Lord Tenuchli alive. With orders to stay by his Mage-Priest’s side, Chakax could only stand immobile, unable to seek help. A cycle of the moon passed before a patrol found them and escorted the unconscious Slann back to the City of Mists, the faithful Eternity Warden keeping pace every step of the way.

The Awakening
A new era was beginning, for more and more often the Slann were awoken from contemplation by nightmares; beset with waking visions and ancient memories of daemonic attack. Led by the rejuvenated Lord Mazdamundi, the Mage-Priests felt the great forces stirring in the world once more, sensing with their mighty minds the waxing of Chaos at the distant poles. Although still troubled by soporific fits, the Mage-Priests committed themselves to opposing Chaos, and sought to counter its influence wherever it was discovered.

At any given time, up to half of the Mage-Priests still living are engaged upon the monumental task of confronting Chaos. From their places of power - most often atop pyramid-temples — the spirit-selves of the Slann Mage-Priests battle in the ether against foes that would expand the Realm of Chaos over the entire world.

It was not coincidence that as the strongest surge of mystical energy seen in millennia erupted out of the north, the largest horde of mortal servants of Chaos invaded the northern reaches of the Old World in what was known in those lands as the Great War against Chaos. Though the Lizardmen did not march against the forces of darkness, every Mage-Priest pooled their powers so that the Chaos incursion might be repelled. Through their combined wills, the Slann dampened the influence of the Chaos Gods and denied Daemons the chance of entering the fray themselves. Though Magnus the Pious - the great hero of the Empire who led the defence of the human realms — never knew of it, without the endeavours of the Slann, his armies would have been ravaged by Chaos Sorcerers with unlimited powers, as well as beset by the full might of the Daemon legions.

At this time, the Slann also detected a subtle instability in the mystic vortex maintained by the Elves of Ulthuan. The workings of the Great Ritual were weakening, in danger of ultimate collapse. The Slann leant their own efforts to form mighty magical bulwarks around the Elven spell, helping to maintain the vortex with power drawn from the geomantic web. To date, the High Elven Loremasters remain unaware of this mystical aid, though perhaps the wisest of them suspect that a power other than their own is also at work.

The return of the Ratmen
Skink patrols had long watched the boundaries of Quetza, the Defiled City, guarding against the return of the Skaven. Suspicions were raised when many of these patrols suddenly went missing: the Skink Astromancer Tetto'eko had foretold the Skaven’s return, and had seen in the stars that the Lizardmen were quickly coming to a junction in the course of the Old Ones’ plans. When no Slann could be awoken, he led a mighty force out of Tlaxtlan himself.

The army approached the Defiled City, Tetto'eko at its head, mounted atop his stone palanquin, when suddenly he relayed a series of sharp commands. Dutifully, the Saurus shifted from their marching columns into fighting ranks and none too soon. Moments later, the ground caved in and a tide of filthy ratmen erupted from below. The Skaven had returned to Lustria, and in numbers beyond counting. Were it not for Tetto'eko’s foresight, the Lizardmen cohort would have been instantaneously surrounded and overwhelmed.

As it was, the Skaven were forced to attack the front of the Lizardmen battle lines and many of the degenerative ratmen were slain. However, it was a price the invaders were willing to pay, for not only did they outnumber their reptilian foes a hundred to one but, during the tumult, their secret weapons were able to deploy. Small teams of ratmen carrying devious fire-throwing devices came forward, unleashing torrents of tainted flame to incinerate many Saurus. As the brunt of their numbers slowly pushed the Lizardmen back, a strange portent occurred. The Chaos Moon, hanging low in the sky, slipped from view as the true moon eclipsed it. This sign gave hope to the Lizardmen, and in it, Tetto'eko read many things — including the key to victory and the dire consequences should his Lizardmen army fail.

For the next few hours, Tettoeko chittered out high-pitched commands, all of which were followed to the letter by the army, and each manoeuvre came just in time to blunt a forthcoming Skaven attack or counter some devious trick of the ratmen that was otherwise destined to overtax the precarious Lizardmen defence and turn the battle into a rout. The Saurus Cold One cavalry did not question the command to charge suddenly into the thick mists on their right flank, but when they did so they smashed aside Rat Ogre packs that were hauling massive constructions into place — war machines whose enfilading fire would have obliterated Tetto’eko’s forces. Skaven tunnelling teams bored up from below to discover not vulnerable flanks, but waiting Salamander hunting packs. Soon, the smell of burnt rat filled the battlefield. Again and again, the outnumbered Lizardmen staved off defeat with timely counter-attacks, each time mustering the ideal retaliation. Infiltrating Skaven Assassins were revealed and slain before they could employ their poisoned blades, and Skaven weapon teams were destroyed even as they prepared to fire — their own demise often causing a chain reaction of explosions that ran down the Skaven lines as further diabolical devices burst into flames.

With the immediate threats stymied for the moment, Tetto'eko closed his eyes and drew upon the Winds of Magic, reaching out to the heavens. Employing his prodigious will, the mighty Skink Priest pulled an unseen giant celestial object from out of orbit in the heavens above, bringing it crashing down upon the deserted city of Quetza. With a thunderous impact, the comet fell to earth, collapsing the tunnels underneath the city and stemming the endless tide of Skaven reinforcements. The remaining ratmen, a cowardly lot, sprayed their musk and fled - only to be cut down by the pursuing Saurus or preyed upon by the many hungry creatures awaiting in the surrounding jungle.

By his mighty deed, Tetto'eko won the battle and steered the fate of the Lizardmen to victory where their defeat had seemed inevitable. However, the Astromancer scried the stars, and the message was unequivocal: the rat stars waxed strong. A vast network of tunnels was revealed to Tetto'eko; far beneath the surface of the earth, it stretched across the world, and each passage was choked with malevolent vermin kind. Led by their loathsome god, they were coming to Lustria; indeed, many of their agents were already in place. The Lizardmen must ready themselves for another war against the Children of the Horned Rat.

Growing disorder
The increased watchfulness of the Lizardmen proved wise, as the Mage-Priests detected a subtle ripple in the geomantic web and a straining of the Great Warding. The spirit-forms of the Slann traced the lines of disturbance until they reached the Spear of the Gods, a mighty column of glittering crystal rising a mile into the sky from the stormy waters of the Sea of Squalls. From this vantage point, the Slann determined the source of the trouble lay in the Turtle Isles, a thousand milelong chain of islands skirting the west coast of Lustria.

To find out more, the Slann sent out an expedition of Terradon Riders, which were joined by a Skink Oracle. The Oracle guided his Troglodon, following the strange scent of magic - swimming through monster-infested waters to allow the Mage-Priests to see through his eyes. It was not hard to pinpoint the disturbance; an incandescent pillar of light rose miles into ominously swirling clouds. At the base, the Oracle discovered a ziggurat of purest gold. A site of great power in the days of the Old Ones, this once-sacred nexus had become uncoupled from the grid and long been forgotten by the Slann. Yet it had not gone undetected by the Dark Gods, who had sent their minions to befoul it.

The sea-faring human tribes, Marauders of the north, had defiled the pyramid, unleashing ancient powers that they did not understand. At the end of their ritual, the barbarians had been slain by the forces released, yet the pawns had played their part. With its corruption, the Golden Ziggurat was fully unlinked from the geomantic web, and the spells weaving together the Great Warding grew a fraction weaker.

For the Lizardmen, some unintentional good came out of the defiling of the Golden Ziggurat. Deep in the innermost chambers of the structure, the Skink Oracle found a plinth whereupon foul sacrifices had recently taken place. There also was a scattering of sacred plaques; the relic crypts had been opened in the barbarians’ quest for treasures, but they had not recognised the glyphs or the inherent value in the stone tablets. The Oracle, however, did - instantly identifying that these were a segment of the Great Plan of the Old Ones — left forgotten on this forsaken island many ages ago.

The Great Warding falters
No sooner had the lost plaques been delivered to Hexoatl than other disturbances reverberated across the geomantic web. The Mage-Priests could not distinguish a source, and those Slann not engaged in studying the newly found plaques sought out that which was increasingly putting pressure on the arcane sentinels that helped keep the power of Chaos at bay. There was no single answer, for at dozens of points across the globe, the sea-faring human tribes of the northlands sought out ancient waystones. Some sites, like the Golden Ziggurat, were left deserted in the wild places of the world, while others were defended by various creatures or races; in many cases, Elves, attracted by the unseen power, had established colonies atop the older ruins, unintentionally serving as guards over the distant nodes. With fire and slaughter, the Northmen stormed these garrisons, and cast down the standing stones, rededicating them to their own Dark Gods. The effect on the geomantic web was felt keenly, as each lost site weakened the whole.

It was clear to the Slann that Chaos was ascendant, and they predicted that the attacks on the nexus points could only be followed by a direct assault upon Lustria itself. Yet Lustria is vast, and where the foe might strike was hidden from their foresight. The mind-miasma that had affected the Mage-Priests since the Great Catastrophe was intensifying, and each Slann felt his orderly and tranquil thoughts pulled in all directions. With the depletion of so many sacred sites, for a time all balance was lost and the Mage-Priests were blind to what was about to occur.

From the jungles north of Hexoatl came a vast army, a force composed of thousands of mortal servants of Chaos. A mercenary throng of Dark Elves from Naggaroth led them, acting as scouts for the hordes from the north. At the head of the force, atop a smoke-belching Dragon the shade of midnight, rode a being of purest evil - Vashnaar the Tormentor, an anointed Champion of the Dark Gods.

Hexoatl encircled
With the sentinel stones not functioning, the Chaos armies marched undetected into Lustria. It was Hexoatl’s Master of Skies, a Skink Chief named Tiktaq'to, who first sighted the invaders. Atop his Terradon, he swiftly sent word to Hexoatl but, to his dismay, Lord Mazdamundi was absent; secreted atop a jungle ruin contemplating the recently discovered plaques. All of the other Mage-Priests were in trances and would not awake for days.

Assuming command of the army of Hexoatl, Tiktaq'to set to the city’s defence before leading a series of hit and run attacks to slow the foe down. For three days and nights, Tiktaq'to and his aerial army of Terradon Riders harried the approaching advance. They struck from above, launched counter-attacks and dropped boulders to crash into marching columns. On the fourth day, with his enemy seething with rage and seeking an opportunity to swat the irritating nuisance, Tiktaq'to lured many tribes of barbarian horsemen and Naggarothi cavalry into the Bloodleech Swamp, where they were cut down by ambush. Despite the losses, the Chaos forces advanced to dominate all approaches to Hexoatl.

As the two great forces began to clash in earnest, several of the younger Slann awoke and terrible blasts of sorcerous power rent the skies asunder. In the midst of the sprawling carnage, Vashnaar dealt death. Backed by the Chaos Gods, none could stand before him. Although the Saurus fought with cold-blooded discipline, they were driven backwards until the Chaos host was at the gates of the temple-city, and the siege of Hexoatl began. While Chaos Sorcerers and Slann lit the air with mystic duels, Vashnaar the Tormentor ordered up batteries of war machines the like of which had never been seen in Lustria. All gears, cogs and vast rune-etched barrels, they were siege engines twisted to contain the tortured souls of Daemons. Their fire was fury made manifest, and they rained blazing hellshot to smash apart the stone blocks of Hexoatl’s walls, creating gaping holes. Into those breaches, Vashnaar ordered his heavily armoured warriors, the elite killers of his army. In their vanguard raced mutated behemoths, muscle-bound monsters made of teeth and rage.

Time and again, the defenders of Hexoatl repulsed the Chaos attacks at the walls. From the jungles came aerial assaults led by Tiktaq'to, and the wings of his airborne assaults blotted out the sun. Many of the foes’ war machines were smashed, but after two cycles of the moon had passed, the battle was still ongoing, and it could only be a matter of time before the forces of Chaos entered the city. However, on the sixty-third day of the siege, everything changed.

As the sun rose over the margin of the world, a saurian roar came from the mist-wreathed jungle. The forces of Chaos stood dumbfounded as they sought the source of this bellow, and the earth began to shake under a heavy tread. The jungle itself erupted; a mighty Carnosaur led the surge, Kroq-Gar, the great Saurus war-leader on its back, and behind him came an army of Cold One cavalry. To meet this new threat, Vashnaar the Tormentor mounted his Dragon and charged. Yet Kroq-G ar’s army was not alone.

Gathering the might of Lustria about him, in an army whose power had not been seen since the Great Catastrophe, came Lord Mazdamundi. He rode upon a Stegadon so large that the jungle parted in its wake. The ancient judgement of the Old Ones burned in the Slann’s eyes, and at his command, the earth was rent, a gap that swallowed half of the Chaos host before the true battle began. And what a battle it was - Kroq-Gar and Vashnaar were locked in combat, each the equal of the other. Reptilian titans of an elder age clashed with the monstrosities of the north. With a blaring of war horns, the gates of Hexoatl were flung open and the defenders sallied forth to join the fray. Steel-clad barbarians crashed into the scaled Saurus warriors and the carnage was total.

By dusk, Lord Mazdamundi and Kroq-Gar stood upon the batdefield and surveyed their victory. The jungle was flattened in a twenty-mile ring and the dead lay in mountainous piles. Vashnaar’s severed head hung from Kroq-Gar’s saddle and the hooves of Mazdamundi’s Stegadon were crimson with the blood. The forces of Chaos had been defeated and Hexoatl was saved.

The message from the Old Ones
With Vashnaar’s defeat, the pressure upon the Great Warding lessened, but did not disappear. The Slann reasoned that Vashnaar had taken advantage of an upsurge in the power of Chaos and that others would follow in his wake. Lord Mazdamundi announced that he had deciphered the meaning of the plaques found on the Turtle Isles, saying they were composed mere days before the Great Catastrophe and their message was incontrovertible. They stated that the Great Plan could not proceed until all the corrupting elements that were sure to be introduced by the looming disaster were eliminated. Foremost amongst these would be the followers of Chaos. All such creatures, the plaques claimed, must be expunged and, as Lord Mazdamundi pointed out, anything less would be a failure of their duties to the Old Ones. The true power of Chaos was stirring in the world once more, and the Lizardmen must rise to meet it. Those younger races that would not join them against the common foe must be considered enemies. A time of vast battles, Lord Mazdamundi pronounced, was at hand.

Species
Feared and misunderstood by all who know of their existence, the Lizardmen are not a single race but rather a cohesive society composed of distinct species: Slann, Saurus, Skinks and Kroxigor. All are considered alien by the other races of the world — for they are weirdly impassive, coldly steadfast, and completely without mercy — yet each of the species perfectly fulfils a different role in the Great Plan.

Slann
The undisputed leaders of the Lizardmen are the Slann, bloated and barely mobile toad-like creatures whose magical powers are greater even than those of the Elven Loremasters. Of all the Lizardmen species, the Slann are the least numerous, with perhaps only a few hundred in existence and no sign of their numbers ever being replenished. When roused, the long-lived Slann can move mountains with their minds, displaying a mastery over the sorcerous arts that belies their sluggish physical appearance.

Saurus
Serving beneath the Slann are the reptilian Saurus, the soldiers of the Lizardmen. They are strong and obedient warriors, protected by natural scales and hard bony plates. In battle, they wield heavy clubs spiked with jagged stone or metal. Their claws, tails and powerful jaws are weapons as well, their mouths opening wide to reveal rows of sharp teeth. It is the Saurus’ role to attack any whom the Slann declare are foes, and they follow these orders with a singleminded savagery that is frightening and efficient in equal measure.

Skinks
In contrast to the hardened ferocity of the Saurus, who are spawned for combat and guardian duties, the Skinks are more mentally and physically agile. It is they who are the artisans and administrators of Lizardmen society. Although diminutive and skittish, Skinks also have a role on the battlefield, where they make fast and nimble scouts. In potent cohorts, they rain poisoned darts and javelins upon their foes, proving a useful complement to the Saurus. Skinks are highly organised and the most sociable of the Lizardmen; it is they who direct the Kroxigor, hulking bipedal crocodilian creatures whose strength is used to build temple-cities and smash foes to a pulp. Skinks also capture and train many of the reptilian beasts found in the surrounding jungles.

Kroxigor
Kroxigor are heavy laborers in Lizardmen cities, and can also be used to terrible effect in battle. Although they resemble gigantic, broad-shouldered Saurus, they have a lot more in common with the Skinks, for the two are spawned from the same pools, frequently at the same time, and they frequently perform different tasks together. They are large, but fairly simple-minded, with their gigantic weapons typically chained to their wrists to keep them from dropping them during battle, due to their natural instinct to use their razor-sharp claws and teeth. Kroxigors are giant crocodilian creatures whose bodies consist of slabs of sinewy muscle and a massive jaw bristling with razor-sharp teeth. They are exceptionally resilient and can survive a score of blows that would fell a lesser being. Kroxigors are devastating on the battlefield - unleashed as shock troops to break the back of an enemy battleline, they plough into enemy regiments with blood-curdling roars and massacre all before them.

Denizens of Lustria
Although their armies once roamed across the whole world, ages ago the Lizardmen retreated back to their original stronghold — the vast, jungle-covered continent of Lustria. Much of that great land is wilderness stalked by fearsome predators long extinct elsewhere. Over the aeons, the Lizardmen have developed or learned to harness many of these reptilian creatures, using them both as beasts of burden and as devastating shock troops in war.

Massive armoured brutes, such as Stegadons and Bastiladons, use their bulk to clear pathways and crude roads, ploughing over full-grown trees as if they were reeds. Packs of raptorial Cold Ones are captured and used as mounts for the Saurus. In the skies, Skinks can be seen soaring on the backs of leathery-winged reptiles known as Terradons and Ripperdactyls. There are venom-spitting lizards larger than horses, spike-covered beasts and colossal saurians that tower over even the Giants of the north. From the bloodthirsty roar of the Carnosaur to the undulating shriek of the Troglodon, the jungles are filled with the primordial sounds of reptilian monsters.

Military
The Lizardmen are an ancient race and had proven themselves victorious on battlefields long before the fledgling races such as Elves, Dwarfs or Men could stand upright on their feet. Theirs is the power that scoured races untold from existence and reshaped the very surface of the world. By their will and the might of their armies have the Dark Gods been thwarted. Yet defence is not enough - once again the Lizardmen have reawakened to their great purpose, crusading outwards once more to restore order.

Heroes

 * Slann Mage-Priests.


 * Saurus Leaders (Oldbloods and Scar-Veterans).


 * Skink Priests.


 * Skink Chiefs.

Core Units

 * Saurus Warriors.


 * Skinks (Cohorts and Skirmishers).

Special Units

 * Temple Guard.


 * Chameleon Skinks.


 * Cold One Riders.


 * Kroxigor.


 * Terradon Riders.


 * Ripperdactyl Riders.

Bestiary

 * Jungle swarms.


 * Salamander.


 * Razordon.


 * Stegadon.


 * Bastiladon.


 * Troglodon.

Notable Lizardmen

 * Lord Kroak - First of the Slann Mage-Priests, killed and turned into a Relic Priest after the Great Catastrophe.


 * Lord Mazdamundi - Lord of Hexoatl, and oldest living Slann.


 * Kroq-Gar - Saurus Oldblood.


 * Gor-Rok - Albino Saurus Leader of Itza.


 * Chakax - Eternity Warden of Xlanhuapec.


 * Nakai the Wanderer - Errant Kroxigor that appears when a major battle is about to take place.


 * Tehenhauin - Skink Prophet of Sotek, the Serpent God.


 * Oxyotl - Chameleon Skink Chief.


 * Tetto'eko - Chief Astromancer of Tlaxtlan.


 * Tiktaq'to - Master of Skies of Hexoatl.