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Allurian

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"A soldier denied the route to rout fights with the ferocity of a White Lion"

—Teachings of Allurian[3]

Allurian was a Sapherian High Elf historian and tactician of particular interest in the Cult of Myrmidia.[1a][5a]

History[]

Considered by many to be the greatest High Elf tactician who ever lived, Allurian (-3567 IC to -967 IC) wrote her earliest treatises on grand strategy during the reign of Bel Shanaar the Explorer. Allurian was a keen observer of politics and the study of the cultures and behaviours of species throughout the world, and her insights were even credited for the many military successes of Caledor the Conqueror (-2749 IC to -2199 IC). Allurian was a battlefield advisor to many of the Phoenix Kings until the reign of Tethlis the Slayer (-996 IC to -692 IC). She died alongside her king, and, like him, the manner of her death is unclear and a cause of much argument.[1a]

It would be a grave mistake to call Allurian a Myrmidian, for she worshipped the Elven Pantheon and died nearly a millennium before the cult of Myrmidia came into being. However, since the translation and publication of her collected Elven War Studies, it would be fair to say that most serious Myrmidians are scholars of Allurian. Allurian’s advice may be over 5000 years old at this point, but her insights into the most efficient strategies remain true even in the age of roaring cannon fire. ‘Understand Allurian,’ priests of Myrmidia say, ‘and no enemy will ever survive contact with your plans.’ The only text that Myrmidians rate as highly as a guide to how to prosecute warfare is The Book of War.[1a]

The library of the Temple of Myrmidia Incazzata in Altdorf contains books on strategy, warfare, siegecraft, and diplomacy—from treatises on the tactics of the warlike Teutogens to Allurian's Elven War Studies, which seems to advocate winning wars by avoiding battles.[2a]

Thanks to Tilean translations of Allurian’s War Studies, human scholars gained knowledge of Asur history.[6a]

Many Myrmidians swear by Berndt Lavaspear’s The Dwarf Art of War, though the Dwarf is not as celebrated as Allurian. His text is seen as a reaction to the High Elf ’s work, and he devotes huge sections to nit-picking complaints regarding Allurian’s occasional oversights rather than providing workable alternatives of his own. That said, his advocates suggest that a synthesis of Allurian’s insight and Berndt’s critique makes for a truly versatile master strategist.[1a]

Quotes[]

"A Dwarf sees a battlefield in a good place to fight, an Elf sees a battlefield in a good place to win."

—Allurian’s aphorism particulary despised by Ulricans[1d]

"A speedy and forceful transition to the assault — the shining spear of retribution — is what every effective defence ought to strive for."

—Attributed to Allurian, -3325 IC[1b]

"They say she walked with them, taught them to use a spear, showed them great art, learning, thruth, honour - she sounds like an elf to me."

—Suriel Lianllach, High Elf Envoy.[4a]

"The only possible way an attacker can carry one of those accursed stone forts is to advance under the heaviest barrage of missiles possible. This is where Elf forces achieve their greatest successes. The defenders, unable to spread out, are ripe for slaughter beneath a cloud of arrows, and cannot deploy much effective missile fire of their own, hampered by the limited arcs of fire within their walls."

—Attributed to Allurian, -3325 IC[1c]

"I contend that the history of the knight can be traced back to the twelve tribes who settled in these lands around three thousand years ago. The Sapherian historian Allurian notes in his Elven War Studies that there has, for millennia, been an elven tradition of shock cavalry units. He posits that, as elves lived in the Old World when humans first settled there, the tribesmen may have copied the idea, or the concept may have been preserved down the centuries through oral tales and ‘ folk memory’. If correct, this theory suggests that the knightly orders of our glorious Empire share a common lineage with the finest of elven cavalry, such as the illustrious silver helms."

—Excerpt from The Invincible Armies of the Empire, by Bertram Lehrer, a self-proclaimed expert of knights' history[5a]

"Herr Lehrer’s theories owe more to an unseemly fixation on all things elven than any genuine scholarship. That Allurian, who by all accounts has never left Ulthuan, should be cited as an expert on human history over and above our own quite able historians is patently ridiculous. The fact remains that the early tribes used horses as transportation, not as beasts of war. The Asoborn Queen Freya famously rode a chariot at the battle of Black Fire Pass - and this is the closest reference we can find to the supposed brigades of knights purported by Herr Lehrer. It might seem patriotic to name Sigmar as the first knight, but it is also wrong."

—Commentary of an excerpt from The Invincible Armies of the Empire, by Bertram Lehrer, a self-proclaimed expert of knights' history[5a]

Sources[]

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