"He had welded together a coalition of desert tribes and minor caliphates without any help, Daemonic or otherwise. He'd turned his own small kingdom into a vigorous empire within a few short years. That's when the trouble started. Heading north, Jaffar's army had crashed into Estalia like a thunderbolt and subsequently provoked the Crusades..."
- —Hector Goetz, Knight of the Blazing Sun, discussing the origin of Jaffar, Sultan of All Araby.[4a]
Jaffar, once the Sultan of All Araby, was a powerful daemonologist and sorcerer who, in 1435 IC, united all the city-states of Araby and ruled as their undisputed sultan for fifteen years.[3a] He was known to have been in prolonged contact with some of the mightiest Djinn of that land, although many surmise that their lies led to his downfall.[3a][6a]
Few sultans would be so bold as to take to the field personally, yet Jaffar led a powerful army into Estalia and besieged the Tilean city of Tobaro, thus triggering the events that would lead to the disastrous Great Crusade Against Araby by the armies of Bretonnia and the Empire.[7a]
Jaffar's Palace Guard fell during the battle of Al-Haikk, defeated by the Chevaliers de Couronne, a regiment of Bretonnia's Knights of the Realm.[8a]
History[]
Originally the lord of a small Arabyan city-state, Jaffar managed to unite the nomadic tribes of the desert using charisma and his ability to summon powerful elemental beings known as Djinn. Soon he had conquered the Arabyan cities of Al-Haikk, Copher, Martek and Lashiek and formed the Sultanate of Araby.[1][2][3a]
During his reign, slowly but inexorably, the presence of the Great Necromancer Nagash's spirit corrupted the lands around Cripple Peak further and evil creatures once more flocked to the potent Liche's lair, drawn by his unwholesome presence. Such gatherings could not go unnoticed forever and soon tales came to the ears of Sultan Jaffar that a great evil now dwelt once more in the Desolation around Cripple Peak.[9a]
The Skaven allied themselves with the new Sultan of All Araby and traded their services of espionage and assassination in exchange for warpstone. After several years of this arrangement, the Skaven managed to convince Jaffar that Estalia planned an attack on Araby. The sultan then preemptively invaded Estalia, conquering Magritta and laying an unsuccessful siege to the Tilean city of Tobaro.[1][2][3a]
In what would become known as the Crusades, thousands of knights from the Empire and Bretonnia, as well as mercenaries from Tilea, came to support the Estalians. In a year, Jaffar's army had been driven from Estalia and the sultan fought a slow battle against the pursuing crusaders as tribe after tribe grew tired of his tyranny and retreated into the desert. In 1451 IC, Jaffar's forces were finally defeated by the armies of King Louis the Righteous of Bretonnia in the Battle of Al Haikk and the sultanate collapsed in its wake. Jaffar himself died that day, pierced through the back by a Bretonnian lance as he attempted to flee.[1][2][3a]
Conference of Brass[]
After his demise, the sultan's tale was forever immortalised upon a tapestry belonging to the Order of the Blazing Sun, the infamous (at least among members of the order) Conference of Brass, which depicted the sultan-sorcerer Jaffar making his dark compact with the powers of Chaos. As with all art commissioned or created by members of the Order of the Blazing Sun, the depiction is based upon what is known of the truth of the story with almost religious rigidity.[4a]
Jaffar, rather than being demonised, is depicted upon the tapestry as the handsome if rather ordinary man he had reportedly been. Clad in colorful silks and armour wrought of the black iron favored by the Daemon-worshippers of the desert, he is shown in the centre of a ruined arena, raising his hands in awe at the sight of the Daemonic throng watching him from the stands. Whether the sultan did, in fact, summon Daemons to his banner is a matter of some conjecture among Imperial scholars of the present day. Even the historians of the Order of the Blazing Sun aren't entirely positive that Jaffar wasn't in the end, simply an excellent military strategist and politician.[4a]
Alas, even if no mortal can remember it, during the Crusades Jaffar did in fact enter into a desperate pact with the two-headed Tzeentchian Lord of Change Kairos Fateweaver, and unleashed a tumult of terror upon the battlefield. As the noble host of Bretonnia's Knights Errant met with the sultan's forces, the skies rained blood, living whirlwinds of sand emerged to wreak havoc and vast Daemonic pylons thrust out of the whirling dunes.[5a]
Canon Conflict[]
In White Dwarf 305 the author mistakenly referred to Sultan Jaffar as an unnamed prince of Araby from Jaffar.[10a]
Trivia[]
Jaffar's name and status could be a reference to Sultan Jafar in the Aladdin animated movies created by the Walt Disney Company. He could also be reminiscent of the character those moves were was based on, an Indian general of the 1790s named Mir Jafar, who was particularly infamous for selling out the then-reigning Nawab (leader) of Bengal to the British in order to usurp the title. This was similar to the animated Jafar's plot to overthrow the legitimate sultan in the movie, although, unlike Mir Jafar, Jafar failed.
Sources[]
- 1: Warhammer Armies: Skaven (5th Edition), pg. 22
- 2: Warhammer Armies: Bretonnia (5th Edition), pgs. 13, 33
- 3: Warhammer Armies: Dogs of War (5th Edition)
- 3a: pg. 89
- 4: Warhammer: Knight of the Blazing Sun (Novel) by Josh Reynolds
- 4a: Ch. 2
- 5: Storm of Magic (8th Edition)
- 5a: pg. 21
- 6: Town Cryer 21
- 6a: pg. 17
- 7: Warmaster: Armies (Specialist Game)
- 7a: pg. 49
- 8: White Dwarf 205
- 8a: pg. 59
- 9: White Dwarf 362
- 9a: pg. 127
- 10: White Dwarf 305
- 10a: pg. 32