Mammoths,[1a] also known as Ice Mammoths when their skin is covered in ice,[4a] are massive mammals very much like elephants, although larger and possessed of a shaggy coat of hair.[1a]
History[]
Mammoths were once common creatures of the mortal world, before the Old Ones brought the planet closer to its sun, warming the climate and driving back the frozen wastes. Today, only a few of these huge and majestic monstrosities survive to roam the northern world.[1a]
The Sky Titans once herded mammoths as domestic animals, on the lower slopes of the Ancient Giant Lands. Many of these herds were slaughtered by the migrating Ogres during War in the Sky.[2a]
These gargantuan beasts were first encountered by the Ogres among the younger races of mortals, and theose ever-ravenous humanoids at first thought that they had reached some golden realm of plenty, a veritable promised land of red meat. They were utterly unprepared for herd animals as fierce and dangerous as these mammoths, however, and many Ogres found that, instead of a gluttonous feast, they were instead gored by mighty tusks, or stomped to death beneath thunderous hooves.[4b]
The Ogres swiftly learned that the only way to pull down such creatures was to work together, separating a single beast from the pack -- much as they had observed the giant wolves hunting the snowy slopes. Noting the growing losses amongst their herds, the Sky Titans were soon made aware of this ugly new threat that had climbed the mountains to assail them.[4b]
Role[]
In Norsca, Mammoths are occasionally hunted, and their mighty tusks presented in tribute to awestruck ambassadors.[1a]
Due to exposure to the raw magic of Chaos, many of the Norscan mammoths have mutated into larger and more aggressive forms, with extra tusks. These creatures are captured as infants and raised by the Norscans to serve them, and unleashed on the battlefield as Chaos War Mammoths.[1a]
In the Old World, mammoths exist only within menageries and circuses, where they attract huge crowds.[1a]
Ice Mammoths[]
Ice Mammoths are icicle-encrusted pachyderms of colossal size, each equipped with lengthy tusks. It would take an entire pack of starving-mad Mourn fangs, or something massive like a Frost Dragon, to dare a head-on confrontation with a fully grown bull mammoth.[4a] Even the Warhounds of Chaos are known to run down to prey on the children and young ice mammoths.[5a]
Feral Mammoths[]
Roaming across the frozen north are the woolly colossi of the Old World -- the gargantuan Feral Mammoths. With their elephantine trunks and great curved tusks, they are not unlike living mountains, feeding off the thorny barrens and causing the ground to quake as they follow their endless migration paths.[3a]
The Norscans frequently seek them out as abandoned calves, for if a mammoth is trained early enough, it can be brought into battle as a highly effective trampling weapon that can easily reduce enemies to bloody ground-smears. Exposure to Chaos-tainted materials has resulted in some of the species mutating into larger and more aggressive versions of the regular feral variety, sometimes sprouting extra horns that make them desirable to be ridden into battle as Chaos War Mammoths.[3a]
Notable Units[]
- Great Mawherd of Bloodfjord - Once a legendary herd of savage mammoths, this group of the great pachyderms in service to the warriors of Norsca has been reduced to just four descendants.[3a]
Trivia[]
The mammoths of the Known World are based on real life Woolly Mammoths.