"They say when the Axefather is pleased with our effort, the tides of the sky will flow and ebb with the darkest red, leached from the blood of our enemies. On the day that happens, Lille Venn, our people will rise far above all others."
- — Chieftain Merroc to his younger daughter, Valkia
Merroc was the chieftain of the Norscan tribe known as the Schwarzvolf, the seventh of his bloodline to hold the position. He had claimed the chieftainship from his own father at the age of sixteen and would go on to sire the future Khornate Daemon Princess Valkia the Bloody on his wife, Eris, at around the same age.
Merroc was a fearsome warrior, deeply scarred and disfigured from the battles he fought in over the next decade. Like all Schwarzvolf warriors, he was stocky and corded with muscle, with jet black hair. Along with Valkia, he had sired five more children. While he had hoped for a son to become his heir, all his male children were stillborn. His second daughter, Anya, had not even lasted a full year after her birth.
Merroc was eventually slain by Radek, his warspeaker, who had pledged loyalty to his daughter Valkia in lieu of Merroc himself.
History[]
"Tomorrow, when we have watered the earth with their blood, then we will drink."
- —Merroc, rallying his Warriors for War
Merroc was twenty-five when the Schwarzvolf went to war with a rival Norscan tribe, an old age for any Northmen to live to. Eventually, as a result of this conflict, Merroc's wife had been slain and for a time the chieftain lost the desire to try for more heirs. Merroc suspected he had been cursed by the Trickster, Tzeentch, with such misfortunes. The tribe's governing council of elders, known as "the Circle," were concerned about his lack of a male heir, but Merroc maintained that his daughter Valkia was as fearsome as any boy child and just as fit to rule the tribe.[1a]
Merroc married Eris, Valkia's mother, when she was fourteen and he himself was but sixteen. She became pregnant with Valkia shortly after their marriage, as well as several more children who followed. None but Valkia lived to see adulthood.[1b]
The year-long war between the Schwarzvolf and the rival tribe ultimately resolved itself in the favour of the Schwarzvolf. Shortly afterwards, Merroc took a second wife not much older than his ten-year-old daughter: the shield-maiden Kata. He fathered with Kata an additional three children: two daughters and his sole surviving son, Edan. While joyous at the birth of a healthy male heir at last, Merroc's relationship with his daughter soon began to deteriorate as he aged and grew weaker. This became all the more apparent when the chieftain was stricken by illness, a plague of the Fly Lord, and his once-muscular frame wasted away. Valkia found such weakness disgusting, an opinion she did not always keep to herself, which greatly worsened her relations with her father. [1b]
Whilst on a hunt with his daughter, Merroc heard news of a band of forty men approaching Schwarzvolf territory. Thinking them hostile raiders, it soon became clear these were but farmers and their children seeking shelter after their home village had been razed by another tribe of Norscan reavers, the Bloody Hand.[1b]
Led by the young man Eraich, Merroc saw the value in turning their men into warriors and learning from them how to work the land for crops, but Valkia determined this idea to simply be another sign of her father's weakness. Merroc, unable to ignore his daughter's blantant disrespect and having foreseen her challenge to his position, moved to defend himself and his title. However, it was the Warspeaker Radek who betrayed him before the duel could even begin.[1b]
Radek stabbed his chieftain in the back, denying him a final fight with Valkia, but sparing the tribe's princess from having to slay her own father.[1b]