The Blighted Marshes, sometimes called the Blighted Marsh, the Zombie Swamps or the Zombie Marshes, lie in northwestern Tilea, stretching from the River Trino to the Abasko Mountains. In its depths hide the Skaven and the capital of their Under-Empire, the subterranean city of Skavenblight.[1][2][3][4][6a]
History[]
In the ancient past, the Blighted Marshes were supposedly the site of the city-state of Tylos. Nowadays, despite being a rightly feared place where the Undead and darker things are said to make their lairs, this does not stop the local lords of the Tilean city-state of Miragliano from using the marshes' tributaries to keep their convict hulks far from the prying eyes of honest citizens.[5a][7a]
The folk of Tobaro and Miragliano are aware that the Blighted Marshes are a stronghold of the Skaven. The Miraglianese are said to fight the loathsome ratmen on a regular basis. The Empire's conceit -- that the Skaven are mere myth -- is to them incomprehensible. So, too, do the folk of Tobaro fight the Skaven frequently, though not always on a conventional battlefield.[6a]
The always teeming population of the Skaven has until recently been held in check for nearly five centuries by their civil war. To grow again, the Lords of Decay who comrpise the Skaven Under-Empire's ruling Council of Thirteen looked to stop the clans from endlessly enslaving each other and instead, turn their beady eyes to other lands. Coordinated by the Grey Seers, a number of towns and villages that bordered the Blighted Marshes began to disappear.[3b]
Some of the Human settlements were left in burnt ruins, others ravaged by foul and mysterious plagues that struck suddenly and left no survivors. In some cases, a town might be plucked clean of citizens but left otherwise unmolested. These strange "ghost towns" were a wonder to travellers and caused much rumour and speculation, but not nearly as much as the great holes. A few villages were simply consumed, swallowed whole by miles-wide sinkholes. Searchers could, from the edge of the vast craters, see broken timbers and smashed remnants in the darkness far below.[3b]
Geography[]
From the shores of the northern Tilean sea to the foot of the Irrana Mountains a great morass of dismal marshland lies like a festering plague. This area is known as the Blighted Marshes: an ancient and terrible realm where death comes quickly to the unwary. A permanent, reeking mist cloaks the deep black pools and slimy reed beds from view. Sluggish, muddy channels wind through the mire mazelike and unfathomable, darkened on either bank by stretches of twisted stalks which resemble nothing so much as corn blackened in a fire. In places stagnant pools of murky water form, slicked with a dark iridescence where no living things grow.[1a]
To enter the Blighted Marshes is to walk to certain doom, inviting death in the bottomless murk or the jaws of the twisted beasts that inhabit the marsh. Very few brave its terrors, and those who do must be criminals, insane, or both, for there are no tales of gold or hidden treasures lying forgotten in its chill clutches to draw adventurers to the vast black marsh, reeking mist and toxic pools. No one dares to dwell near it, for fear of the dark secrets it harbours.[1a]
Unknown to the rest of the mortal world, deep in the rotting heart of the Blighted Marshes festers the vile capital of the Skaven Under-Empire -- Skavenblight. This shell of a once great city lies half-sunken in the noisome morass, a relic of the Men that lived there and a testimony to the corruption spread by the children of the Horned Rat.[1b]
Long before finding Skavenblight, a traveller in the marshes would come across one of the many rotting slave-hulks that rows listlessly through the turbid waters. Flotillas of tiny coracles cluster in their wake, occasionally swarming out to gather the black corn growing amidst the reed beds. Burly Skaven overseers ply the lash on miserable slaves struggling to make their quotas. They ignore the odd coracles which disappear into the mist or overturn with a splash. Escape through the marshes is impossible and the worst punishment that the grain-slaves can suffer is to be abandoned in that black morass.[1b]
Closer to the centre of the marshes, huge, solitary buildings rear up out of the murk, their narrow slit windows staring out accusingly over the water. Slave-hulks cluster darkly about the quays and an endless, trudging line of bent-backed figures carry baskets of corn inside. From within, a great grinding and squealing of turning mill-wheels echoes relentlessly. Greenish lights flicker and flash at the narrow windows as the great mills grind mutant corn, known as "black corn," between warpstone wheels to feed the starving ratmen hordes of Skavenblight.[1b]
Beyond the great mills a vague outline can be seen through the mist, an angular rise amidst the monotonous harness of the fens. Irregular tongues of fire leap up from it and a far-off rustling can be heard as of many sounds melded together by the distance. Moving closer, the indistinct bulk resolves itself into a great ruined city spreading out of the grey smog.[1b]
The veils of clammy mist writhing sluggishly across the marshes hide much of the ruins but the lines of old walls and arches can still be seen protruding from the sucking mud. Deeper into the city the land rises, and the buildings rear up higher on the firm ground. Broken houses mingle with shattered halls, while cracked paving stones tilt crazily up from deserted marketplaces.[1b]
Here and there the ground is pocked with dark tunnel mouths gouting flames or foul vapours and the earth trembles with rhythmic cadences from far below. Pale lights gleam high up in some of the tallest buildings, as if paying homage to the mighty structure which dominates them.[1b]
Skaven Clanfleets[]
From Skavenblight a deep trench had been dredged, reaching through the blighted marshes and emerging on the coast of the Tilean Sea. The ram-shackle vessels of the Skaven Clanfleets tirelessly trek up and down this dismal waterway, on unfathomable errands for the Skaven Warlords who dwell deep within Skavenblight.[8a]
In times of war, the Skaven Clanfleets emerge from their hidden marsh-side moorings, their great paddles splashing the fetid water as they head for the sea. The chimes of the Screaming Bells split the still air, the Warpfire Throwers roar, and the Clan Pestilens Deathburners blow gouts of hideous vapours across the marshes.[8a]
The Skaven Clanfleets assemble in the estuary of the immense canal, their banners hanging still in the damp, salt-laden air. From the Blighted Marshes they venture the length of the Tilean Sea. When the Skaven are afloat, cities such as Tobaro, Miragliano, Remas and even Luccini never really feel secure. They do not know when the tolling of the Screaming Bell will be heard, and when the warp-raiders will come to sear their villages and towns. When they do, the warfleets of Tilea -- and any Imperial allies who are at hand -- do battle with the Skaven Clanfleets, staining the sea and sky red with fire and blood.[8a]
The Skaven Clanfleets are not renowned for venturing much further than the Tilean Sea, but recently their clanships have been sighted off the Estalian Coast, and tales are told of Skaven vessels striking as far north as Brionne. No one can be sure if the Skaven Clanfleets venture southwards, but it seems likely that the mysterious lands of Araby and the Southlands are familiar and easier pickings for the Clanfleets. It is even harder to guess at the Skaven's desires and designs on these far-flung realms.[8a]
The Undead[]
There are tales of independent armies of skeletons and zombies in the haunted swamps of Tilea. The dead are often dropped into the mire with lead weights attached to their legs to keep them down, but some still break free and come back to the surface to seek the flesh of the living. It is the dire reputation of the Undead that has perhaps kept the neighbouring Men from penetrating the centre of the cursed swamp and discovering the terrible city of Skavenblight.[1a]
The Company of the Damned is a group of Undead mercenaries who were slain by treachery on the very edge of the Blighted Marshes and who returned to seek a terrible vengeance.[1a]
Greenskins[]
The Savage Orcs of the Ratskinz Tribe are nestled near the Irrana Mountains.[10a]
Notable Locations[]
- Glacier Lake - Glacier Lake is a frosted lake on the foothills of the Iranna Mountains. Here Heinrich Kemmler, the necromancer known as the "Lichemaster," investigated an ancient Chaos tomb in search of magical weapons.[9a]
- Skavenblight - Skavenblight, the capital of the subterranean Skaven Under-Empire, is also known as the "Great Undercity," because of the mass of tunnels and caverns stretching for miles below the Human city ruins. While some of the bigger buildings at the centre of the ruined city are still occupied and used, nine-tenths of Skavenblight is underground like some malevolent iceberg.[8a] No one knows the original name of the ruined city that lies above Skavenblight, or who truly lived there before the coming of the Skaven. No one knows what great lords ruled the land before the ratmen. The remorseless creeping progress of the black waters that have long since swallowed the ruined city's rich halls has destroyed any evidence of the former dwellers.[8a] Some historians dare to speculate that the ruined city could have been part of the legendary kingdom of Tylos.[5a][7a]
Sources[]
- 1: Warhammer Armies: Skaven (4th Edition)
- 2: Warhammer Armies: Skaven (6th Edition)
- 2a: pg. 7
- 3: Warhammer Armies: Skaven (7th Edition)
- 4: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition: Rulebook (RPG)
- 4a: pg. 279
- 5: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: The WRFP Companion (RPG)
- 5a: pg. 6
- 6: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: The Imperial Zoo (RPG)
- 6a: pg. 88
- 7: Warhammer Armies: Vampire Counts (7th Edition)
- 7a: pg. 7
- 8: Warhammer Man O' War: Rulebook (Specialist Game)
- 8a: pp. 51-52
- 9: Total War: Warhammer (PC Game)
- 9a: Chaos Tomb Blade mission
- 10: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Tribes and Tribulations (RPG)
- 10a: pg. 7