Storm of Chaos

The Storm of Chaos (2521-2522 IC) was the great Chaotic assault intended to conquer first Kislev and the Empire, and then the rest of the Old World, launched by the Forces of Chaos under the leadership of the Champion of Chaos Undivided known as Archaon the Everchosen, the "Lord of the End Times." The Storm of Chaos broke over the northern territories of Kislev and the Empire of Man in 2521 IC and was finally broken by a potent grand alliance of Men, High Elves and the Dwarfs at the Battle of Middenheim in 2522 IC.

The Storm of Chaos was also a massive narrative campaign created by Games Workshop for the Warhammer Fantasy Battles tabletop miniatures wargame setting, played as an international tournament in the summer of 2004.

History
The days of peace after Emperor Karl-Franz' ascension to the throne were all too short and by 2521 IC, word reached Altdorf of a new threat in the north. A Chaos army under the Chaos Lord Surtha Lenk invaded Kislev once more and smashed into the territories of the Empire. The forces of Kislev and the Empire were handed several bloody defeats and the city of Wolfenburg was brutally sacked and despoiled by the Forces of Chaos. Lenk's forces were finally defeated at the Battle of Mazhorod. At first it seemed the Chaos threat had ended, but is soon became apparent that Surtha Lenk's army was merely the vanguard of a much larger Chaos force. The true enemy of the Empire was a mighty Champion of Chaos Undivided named Archaon, known as the "Lord of the End Times," for his ambition was nothing less than to augur in the final consumption of the Warhammer World by the Chaos Gods.

Archaon had united armies dedicated to all of the Ruinous Powers under the banner of Chaos Undivided and legions of Chaos Warriors and Beastmen dedicated to Nurgle, Tzeentch, Slaanesh and Khorne marched to war under his command. Dvine signs and portents all foretold the inevitability of an attack, one even greater than that faced by Magnus the Pious during the Great War against Chaos. Knowing that he would need to gather all the forces he could to defeat Archaon, the Emperor invited the Elector Counts of the Empire, and indeed the whole of the forces of Order in the Old World, including the Dwarfs and the peoples of Estalia, Tilea and Bretonnia, to a great council in Altdorf in 2521 IC known as the Conclave of Light. Many answered the call, even the High Elves of Ulthuan, and the mighty Archmage Teclis once again walked the streets of Altdorf. At the Conclave the rulers of Man, Elf and Dwarf agreed to set aside their disputes to fight under the banner of Order against the threat of Chaos Undivided.

And yet, all was not stable within the Empire. The threat of Archaon's invasion had made the Chaos Cults bold across the Empire and even decent people fell back on forbidden ways and secretly prayed to the Dark Gods of Chaos for mercy, as they had done before the coming of Magnus the Pious. Yet, another movement was already afoot to stir the better angels of Men's natures. The Sigmarite warrior-priest Luthor Huss had claimed that he had found Sigmar himself, bodily reincarnated in the powerful body of a lowly blacksmith's son named Valten. Whatever the truth, a desperate people needed to believe in something and they flocked to Huss' banner, forging a Sigmarite Crusade of the fanatical and the just plain frightened. At Altdorf, Luthor Huss presented Valten to Emperor Karl-Franz and proclaimed him Sigmar Reborn. Huss had rallied a great deal of political support among the common people and thus the Emperor could not simply dismiss his claims without risking a religious schism or fanatical violence in the streets. Karl-Franz presented Valten with the magical warhammer Ghal Maraz and dubbed him the Champion of Sigmar, though he prudently retained rulership of the Empire and command of its armies for himself. The Emperor called upon the Elector Counts to muster their forces and he ordered the Imperial Banner to be unfurled for war.

Archaon launched his great invasion in 2522 IC, sweeping again through Kislev and into the northeastern Empire. Ostland was overrun, whilst Grand Count von Raukov's forces fought a desperate delaying action. Graf Boris Todbringer led his forces from Middenheim, whilst the armies of Hochland and Nordland tried to join him. Archaon's forces were too powerful, however, and the Imperial armies fell back to Middenheim, where Archaon laid siege. All waited for the Emperor to arrive with reinforcements and all wondered if Valten was truly their divine saviour come again in his Empire's time of greatest need.

On the 62nd day of the war, the armies of the Emperor and Valten arrived at Middenheim. Archaon withdrew his siege to prepare for battle, which was finally joined at the village of Sokh. For four days the battle raged, with the forces of the Empire barely holding their own, aided by contingents sent by the Dwarfs and the High Elves. Valten nearly killed Archaon in single combat at the base of the Ulricsberg, only to be laid low himself by the Lord of the End Times. His life was spared by the sudden betrayal of Archaon by his Orc allies, which forced him to withdraw from the field of battle and regroup, though Valten was later slain by a Skaven assassin while still unconscious in Middenheim. Finally, the arrival of the Undead army of the von Carstein line of Vampires from cursed Sylvania tipped the scales, breaking Archaon's troops and forcing his outright retreat from the walls of Middenheim. At first it seemed that the Empire had only exchanged its Chaotic invader for an Undead one, but the Vampire Count Manfred von Carstein, faced by an assemblage of the mightiest men of the Empire and their Elf and Dwarf allies, turned his decaying army around and returned to Sylvania, more than happy to wait for a more felicitous moment to seize the Empire for himself and his Undead hordes. Weeping, Luthor Huss carried the Hammer of Sigmar back to the Emperor. Yet the Emperor knew that his people needed hope in the aftermath of what the Men of the Empire were already calling the Storm of Chaos, and he told Huss, now the Grand Theogonist of Sigmar, to tell the populace that Sigmar had returned to the realm of the Gods once more but had left his warhammer to the Emperor as a sign of trust and that he would return one day when the Empire needed him the most.

Today, in the year 2522 IC, the Empire is not yet safe, but it has gained some crucial time to recover its strength before the next threat rears its head. Archaon's nightmarish minions of Chaos have scattered and he himself has retreated to the ancient Brass Keep in the Empire's Middle Mountains to lick his wounds and plot his next campaign to destroy the hopes of Mankind. At the same time, the Storm of Chaos has battered the Imperial armies and the Emperor and his Counts need time to rebuild.

The Empire itself is sorely wounded at present. The north and northeast are in utter ruins, with Ostland in particular in the worst shape, having borne the savage brunt of Archaon's invasion and the depredations of the Forces of Chaos. Hochland also suffered greatly, with many of its towns and villages overrun, along with eastern Middenland and Nordland. Nor is the danger now over. Although Imperial forces defeated the Forces of Disorder at the Battle of Middenheim, the remnants of all their armies, Chaotic and Greenskin alike, have retreated into the vast woods and forests of the Empire, from which they now launch raids on surviving Imperial settlements or small groups of travellers, merchants and soldiers. And where monsters and mutants do not roam, Human bandits do. Neither the Imperial roads nor the rivers are safe and only a fool would travel without an armed escort.

The dislocation of the Empire's population in the northeast was also massively disruptive to the realm's health. Those who were not killed or mutated face a slow death by starvation and exposure to the elements. Famine is almost certain, for Archaon's troops burned what crops they did not steal. Farmers either fled or died defending their steadings and the destruction of provincial records means that many land-titles are in dispute, delaying new planting. Trade is at a near-standstill and some areas have been forced to rely on a barter economy. Civilisation itself seems on the verge of collapse in the northeastern Empire with reports of cannibalism and the spread of Chaos Cults reaching ears in Altdorf. The southern and western provinces of the Empire fared much better, for their lands did not become battlefields. Yet they face their own difficulties. The disruption of trade and commerce has led to supply shortages, spurring inflation and a flood of refugees has moved into western Middenland, Talabecland and Stirland, putting a strain on those provinces' cities and the goodwill of their people. Nor has it escaped the Electors of some of the southern Imperial provinces that the war presented an opportunity to settle some old scores with their northern counterparts.

All in all, the Empire today has more than its fair share of problems that call for the attentions of those special men and women who are willing and crazy enough to take up the mantle of heroes...

Factions

 * Archaon's Swords of Chaos warband and Chaos Horde
 * The Daemonic Legions of Chaos
 * The Imperial Army of Middenland
 * Orc Warboss Grimgor Ironhide's WAAAGH!
 * The Dwarf Slayers of Karak Kadrin
 * The Dark Elf Cult of Slaanesh
 * The Vampire Counts' Army of Sylvania
 * The Bretonnian Armies of the Errantry War
 * Skaven Clan Eshin
 * High Elf Sea Patrol (Lothern Sea Guard)

Notable Participants

 * Archaon - The Everchosen, the" Lord of the End Times," Champion of Chaos Undivided and leader of the Swords of Chaos warband.
 * Ar-Ulric Emil Valgeir, High Priest of Ulric
 * Be'lakor, the Dark Master, a daemonic power that had been punished by the Chaos Gods for thinking he was their equal. Be'lakor was finally released from his prison to perform the coronation of Archaon as the Everchosen of the Ruinous Powers, a position he himself coveted.
 * Borgut Facebeater - An Orc Nob and Grimgor Ironhide's second-in-command.
 * Boris Todbringer - Elector Count of Middenland.
 * Deathmaster Sniktch - the most skillful Skaven assassin in the world. Thought to have been the assassin of Valten.
 * Emperor Karl Franz - or more properly: 'His most Imperial Highness, Emperor Karl-Franz Holswig-Schliestein, Grand Prince of Altdorf, Count of the Reikland, Protector of the Empire'.
 * Feytor the Tainted - One of Archaon's four lieutenants. A Chaos Lord devoted to the Plague Lord Nurgle.
 * Garagrim Ironfist - The son of the Dwarf Ungrim Ironfist, Garagrim had devised a plan to rid his family line of its dishonour. By dying in combat as his father's champion, Garagrim believed he would prove the worthiness of the Ironfist bloodline. He was killed when a Chaos Giant fell on him as it died, thus fulfilling his Slayer vow.
 * Grimgor Ironhide - The greatest living Orc Warboss suffered defeat at the hands of Crom the Conqueror a couple of months before Archaon's Chaos Horde attacked the Empire. Shamed and now in a risky position, Grimgor kept control over his Orc WAAAGH! only by claiming that the Orc God Gork had given him a religious vision. Guided by this vision he ordered the massacre of all the Goblins in his army. He later managed to defeat Archaon in single combat before the gates of Middenheim, effectively ending the Storm of Chaos by badly wounding the Chaos Lord. Thus satisfied at the level of carnage he had unleashed, the Orc Warboss quit the field.
 * Haargroth the Blooded One - Haargroth was a peasant boy who proved his mettle in combat, and became a Chaos Lord devoted to the Blood God Khorne and one of Archaon's four lieutenants. He was slain by Ar-Ulric Valgeir during the Battle of Middenheim.
 * Johan Esmer - The weak-willed Grand Theogonist of Sigmar, Esmer was central in the opening phases of the Storm of Chaos.
 * Kordel Shorgaar - One of Archaon's lieutenants and the standard bearer of the Swords of Chaos.
 * Mannfred von Carstein - The Count of Sylvania and a powerful Vampire lord who used the political instability caused by Archaon's invasion of the Empire to launch his own invasion of the Empire with a massive army of Undead in a bid to become its new master like the von Carstein Vampires before him.
 * Melekh the Changer - One of Archaon's four lieutenants and a Chaos Lord devoted to Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways. He was executed by Archaon.
 * Morathi - The Hag Queen of the Dark Elves. Morathi once more swore her loyalty to Slaanesh, the Prince of Chaos, and led the Dark Elf Cult of Slaaneshi forces in an invasion of the Lizardmen city-states of Lustria in an attempt to parallel Archaon's accomplishments in the New World even as the Everchosen sought to conquer the Old World.
 * Luthor Huss - The self-styled "Prophet of Sigmar" who spoke up against the corruption and complacency that was rampant among the Sigmarite priesthood before the Storm of Chaos.
 * Styrkaar - A Norscan prince and one of Archaon's four lieutenants. A Chaos Lord devoted to the Prince of Chaos, Slaanesh.
 * Teclis - Teclis was the greatest of the High Elven High Mages. Teclis had always worried about the place of Mankind in the struggle between Chaos and Order because of humanity's easy susceptibility to Chaotic corruption, and was therefore eager to once again help the human Empire in battle when the next great Chaotic incursion swept over the lands of Mankind. It was Teclis who presented Valten with the magical steed Althandir, and banished Be'lakor's Daemonic Legions back to the Warp at the Battle of Middenheim.
 * Valten, Exalted of Sigmar - Valten was the young man who Luthor Huss claimed was the reincarnation of the Imperial warrior God Sigmar. He was defeated by Archaon in battle before the walls of Middenheim and was later assassinated by the Skaven assassin, Deathmaster Sniktch.
 * Vardek Crom the Conqueror, Herald of Archaon - A Chaos Lord who was Archaon's second-in-command of the Swords of Chaos warband. During the Storm of Chaos, Vardek Crom was supposed to manoeuvre his troops so that they could attack the Empire's frontiers from the east. Vardek Crom defeated the Orc Warboss Grimgor Ironhide in single combat, leading to the Orc’s shaming and his determination to find redemption at the Battle of Middenheim where he defeated Archaon, Crom's superior, in personal combat. At the end of the campaign, he is presumed to have died, leading an army of Chaos-loyal Kurgan tribesmen through Sylvania, the Vampire Count Mannfred Von Carstein’s cursed homeland.
 * Volkmar the Grim - The resurrected former Grand Theogonist of Sigmar whose death at the hands of Archaon had marked the start of the Swords of Chaos' invasion of the Empire.
 * Ungrim Ironfist - The "Slayer King", or more properly, the King of the Dwarfhold of Karak Kadrin.
 * Sea Lord Aislinn - Admiral of the High Elven fleet deployed from Ulthuan to aid the Empire against the Forces of Chaos.