The Auric Bastion, a great wall created through the combination of Colour Magic and Divine Magic protecting the Empire from invasion by the forces of Chaos to the north.
The Auric Bastion was a titanic wall empowered by faith and magic that ran along the northern border of the Empire during the End Times and was capable of repulsing all Daemons and the other forces of Chaos as they assaulted the Empire from Kislev and the Chaos Wastes to the north.[1][2]
The Auric Bastion eventually failed once the entire enterprise was seen by the Cult of Sigmar as having been tainted by the necromantic corruption of the wall's creator, Supreme Patriarch Balthasar Gelt of the Imperial Orders of Magic. [1][2]
History
Origins
In 2523 IC, during Sigmarite Grand Theogonist Volkmar the Grim's crusade against the Vampire Counts of Sylvania, a young man called Dieter, an uninspired and minor apprentice of Balthasar Gelt, the Supreme Patriarch of the Colleges of Magic, came to his master with an idea. By using the icons of faith that Mannfred von Carstein had cast out buried throughout the region, Gelt could combine magic and the divine power of faith in such as way as to imprison all Undead within the borders of that blighted region.[1a][1b][1c]
Gelt performed the ritual and the successful appearance of this "Wall of Faith," as it came to be known, bought him great respect and power. Dieter himself was found with his throat torn out soon after, which the Imperials assumed was an act of revenge by the Vampires but was in fact because Dieter had been replaced by a Tzeentchian Daemon and shape-shifter called the Changeling. Trapping Mannfred in Sylvania was an attempt by Tzeentch to prevent the Vampire Lord from playing his part in the resurrection of the Great Necromancer Nagash.[1a][1b][1c]
As the war on the Empire's northern border against the hordes of Chaos progressed, Gelt was visited by a mysterious woman, who unknown to Gelt, was actually an agent of the Vampire Lord Neferata. She gave Gelt a scroll and encouraged him to use it to construct a similar wall, on a much greater scale, to hold the forces of Chaos at bay.[1a][1b][1c]
Construction
In 2524 IC the Auric Bastion was constructed along the northern border of the Empire, though it included the very few areas of the shattered nation of Kislev that still remained unoccupied by the forces of Chaos. It ran from the Kislevite city of Erengrad in the north where it was defended by Valmir von Raukov, the Elector Count of Ostland and Boyar Syrgei Tannarov, commander of Erengrad, to Rackspire in the Worlds Edge Mountains to the east where command of the defence was with Wolfram Hertwig, the Elector Count of Ostermark. The central span was commanded by the Elector Count of Hochland, Aldebrand Ludenhof.[1d][1e][1f]
The land of the Empire itself was shifted and warped by the magic of the Imperial wizards as the priests of various faiths of the Old World Pantheon worked to reinforce and empower the wall so that it would serve as an anathema to Chaos Daemons. The living rock was too steep to climb, too smooth to get any hand (or claw) hold in and any damage it suffered was immediately healed by the mixture of magic and faith that had gone into its formation.[1d][1e][1f]
The greatest weakness of the bastion was that it required a constant stream of new magical energy to maintain it. Ritual circles ran the entire length of the wall, channeling faith and magic into it, pushing the wizards and priests employed within them to exhaustion or possibly even their death. Each time a wizard or priest had to be replaced their section of the wall became vulnerable and warbands of Human Chaos-worshippers and Daemons would break through. Every day the Imperial forces were forced to repel these breakthroughs, small though they comparatively may have been.[1d][1e][1f]
The biggest such breach resulted in the Defence of Alderfen, a battle where many Nurglite troops forced their way through and Wolfram Hertwig was slain. The day was saved only by the intervention of Valten, the Herald of Sigmar, and Vlad von Carstein, the original Vampire Count of Sylvania. After the battle, Vlad secretly took command of the Rackspire and while many more breaches occurred, along his stretch the defence proved much stronger. This eastern section of the great wall became known as the "Helreach."[1d][1e][1f]
Despite these breaches and continued bad luck the Auric Bastion served to halt to advance of the Chaos hordes into the Empire for some time.[1d][1e][1f]
Collapse
Over time as the End Times wore on, Supreme Patriarch Balthasar Gelt began to become suspicious about the "bad luck" the Auric Bastion kept suffering. He discovered Daemon spoor at the site of the Alderfen ritual circle that had failed and became convinced that there was a shape-shifting Daemon sabotaging the Imperial efforts along the bastion.[1g]
To this end he began his own secret investigation to try to uncover who the Daemon might be posing as, a mission he was supported in by the Ar-Ulric, Emil Valgeir. At the same time, Gelt was suffering from a continuing urge to wrestle under his control the mindless walking dead that had so recently become common in the Old World, although he only intended to use them for the defence of the Empire.[1g]
During this time Gelt was confronted by Vlad von Carstein. After being kidnapped by the Vampire Lord Gelt was forced to hear how he had been manipulated by von Carstein's old ally the Lahmian Vampire Lord Neferata into building the wall and that Vlad himself actually wanted to form an alliance against the common enemy of Chaos surging against the Empire and the Vampires alike from the north.[1g]
As a gesture of good faith Vlad released Gelt unharmed, with a powerful necromantic tome as a parting gift. As the war continued and Gelt became more and more drained both physically and emotionally, he began to see the value in von Carstein's offer. Eventually, he opened the book and revealed the secrets within.[1g]
Rumours soon reached Elector Count Aldebrand Ludenhof of Hochland of how Gelt whad begun to employ necromancy to bolster the defence of the bastion. Determined to discover the truth, Ludenhof travelled along the bastion and was appalled to discover the rumours were true. Gelt's attempts to convince Ludenhof of the necessity of his actions fell on deaf ears and, encouraged by Vlad von Carstein, Gelt confronted Ludenhof on the road before he could reveal what the wizard had done to the Empire at large. A series of unfortunate events resulted in Gelt's Undead servants killing Ludenhof.[1g]
Throwing himself further into what he considered the necessary evils to protect the Empire, Gelt received messages from Emil Valgeir suggesting that the priest's continued investigations into the Daemonic shape-shifter pointed to Valten, the so-called Herald of Sigmar. Gelt knew that Emperor Karl Franz was due to present the sacred warhammer Ghal Maraz at a great ceremony at Castle von Rauken and that if his suspicions were correct, the emperor's life was in great danger.[1g]
Gelt raced to stop the ceremony and expose the Daemonic assassin. Once at the ceremony he tried to convince the emperor of his concerns, but in his deranged state he was not believed. Desperate to buy himself more time to explain what was happening, he used magic to halt the advancing Reiksguard who were about to take him away. However due to his exhaustion and panic he accidentally unleashed necromancy.[1g]
Convinced that Gelt himself was now a threat to the emperor, the Imperial forces attacked him and Gelt raised the dead to defend himself and to kill Valten before he could reach the emperor. In truth, it was revealed that Emil Valgeir himself was the Tzeentchian Daemon known as the Changeling and he was slain, but Gelt was utterly disgraced by the revelation that he was now a hated necromancer and he was forced to flee to avoid arrest. The incident became known as "Gelt's Folly."[1g]
Gelt's Folly proved to be the beginning of the end for the Auric Bastion. In response to the exposure of Gelt's necromantic corruption, the Cult of Sigmar, by far the most powerful religious cult left in the Empire, refused to continue participating in the rituals required to strengthen the wall and keep it proof against Daemons. This led to a huge increase in the number of daily breaches of the barrier until eventually within a few weeks the bastion was finally torn down in multiple sections and the hordes of Chaos poured through into Imperial lands. The Auric Bastion had fallen, and the Empire lay open to ruin by the forces of Chaos.[2a]
Notable locations
- Alderfen (Village) - Alderfen is situated near the end of the Helreach opposite to Castle Rackspire.[1]
- Castle Rackspire (Fortress) - Castle Rackspire was a powerful fortress situated in the Worlds Edge Mountains, near Badenhof and Kislev's border.[1]
- Castle Skarlan (Fortress) - Castle Skarlan was an Imperial fortress where Elector Count Aldebrand Ludenhof oversaw his section of the border. This was probably after the death of Elector Count Wolfram Hertwig, because it was situated to the east and Elector Count Ludenhof was originally guarding the middle section of the wall. The castle was located about three days' ride from Alderfen.[1]
- Castle von Rauken (Fortress) - Castle von Rauken was the family fortress of Elector Count Valmir von Raukov. It was used as the gathering point and headquarters by the emperor and the commanders of the Imperial army.[1]
- Heffengen (Town) - Heffengen was a sizable fortress-town situated near the Auric Bastion. It provided a staging point for many Imperial officers.[1]
- Helreach - The Helreach was the name for the span of land which comprised the wall's eastern section all the way to Castle Rackspire.[1]
- Trzy Siostry/Wilhelmshügel (Standing Stones & Imperial Fortifications) - Trzy Siostry ("Three Sisters") was used by Imperial Magisters to keep the Auric Bastion up, while other Imperial forces were guarding the bastion. Imperial forces called this place Wilhelmshügel.[1]