Black Fortress

Guardian of the south-eastern reaches of the Chaos Dwarf realm, the Black Fortress is a vast, jagged citadel stained black by the volcanic fires of the rocky plateau on which it sits. Along with the Tower of Gorgoth, it vies for prominence and power as the second most important fortress-citadel of the Chaos Dwarfs beyond their heartland on the Plain of Zharrduk. But while the Tower of Gorgoth exists to stand watch over a slew of deep mines and caverns, the purpose of the Black Fortress is as a purely military outpost, and is headquarters for the Legion of Azgorh. The legion is a mighty standing army which ranges across the desolation of the southern Dark Lands, escorts the far-flung slave caravans through the Howling Wastes and stands as a bulwark against frequent invasions of Ogres, Orcs and worse from across River Ruin in the east. Even among their own kind, the warriors of the Black Fortress are renowned for their brutality and warlike nature, and far removed as it is from Zharr-Naggrund and the favour of the great temple it is often a place of internal exile for those who have suffered in the savage politics of the empire.

The hellish caverns deep beneath the Black Fortress are also home to the Infernal Guard - a cult of disgraced warriors enslaved to the master of the Black Fortress who must redeem themselves in the eyes of Hashut and the Dhrazh-Zharr or die in the attempt. For many centuries the lord of the Black Fortress and commander of the Legion has been the Sorcerer-Prophet Drazhoath the Ashen, a bitter rival of Lord Astragoth, feared and respected in equal measure by the Chaos Dwarfs bound to his service as a ruthless general and powerful wielder of Hashut's sacred fire.