"I accept your king's sword oath, and I give mine to him. We will be as brothers in battle, and the lands of the Ostagoths will not fall. I give you my word on this, and my word is iron."
- —King Sigmar of the Unberogens, accepting the pleas of the Ostagoths for aid against the Greenskins.[2a]
Map of the tribal territories of Men in what would become the Empire during the reign of Emperor Sigmar Heldenhammer. The Ostagoths lived in the northeastern region of the Human tribes' lands, near to the Worlds Edge Mountains.
The Ostagoths were an ancient war-like tribe of Human barbarians populating the lands of what would become Ostermark, and as such, they are the ethnic ancestors of the present-day Ostermarkers. Orcs, Goblins, and Trolls frequently raided the lands of the Ostagoths in the days before Sigmar founded the Empire of Man. Stout defenders of their homes and fortified villages, the Ostagoths learned to value cooperation between the tribes of Men, realising that they were stronger together than apart.[1a]
However, despite their desire for the unity of Mankind, they were utterly helpless when a mighty Greenskin horde swept out from the Worlds Edge Mountains and invaded their tribal holdings. They had come in a green tide from the eastern mountains, burning and destroying all in their path. Entire Ostagoth settlements had been razed to the ground. No plunder had been taken and no captives hauled away, for the Greenskins had simply slaughtered the people of the east for the sheer enjoyment of the deed. Fields were burned and all the forces that King Adelhard, ruler of the Ostagoths, could muster were swept away before the might of the Orc host. Braying, chanting Orc warriors in patchwork armour offered no mercy, and the scattered Ostagoths were no match for the brutal killers.
The Men of the East fought on, their king rallying as many warriors to his banner as possible, while the survivors of the swift invasion fled into the west. Some were even camped around Taalaheim, seat of King Krugar of the Taleutens, but fearing the Greenskins would drive onwards, many refugees had continued west into the lands of the Unberogen.[2a]
From there, Galin Veneva, ambassador of King Adelhard of the Ostagoths, begged King Sigmar of the Unberogen for his aid in stopping his people from being ground into extinction. Moved by the plight of the Ostagoths, Sigmar accepted the sword-oath of King Adelhard and went forth with a great army which smashed the Greenskins back across the mountains. So grateful were the Ostagoths that they sent a large contigent of axe-men to the First Battle of Black Fire Pass. After that, the Ostagoths became a proud, founding member of the Empire.[1a][2a]
Trivia[]
The Ostagoths are named after the Ostrogoths, a Germanic tribe from Sweden who migrated south-eastwards towards the territory of present-day Ukraine. There, the tribes lived for a time as a semi-nomadic confederation before they were driven off by the invading hordes of Huns migrating from the east, forcing the Ostrogoths to migrate into the Western Roman Empire as fugitives.
Like their real-life counterparts, the Ostagoths migrated from their original homeland because of constant attacks by the Greenskins. Like the Ostrogoths, the Ostagoths were also semi-nomadic.