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"It would seem sensible, wouldn't it? After all, it would be bitterly ironic if we survived all our adventures only to get ourselves killed in some back-alley in this god-forsaken place."

Tyrion, during his return to Skeggi after reclaiming Sunfang[2b]

Skeggi is the oldest and largest settlement of Men in the New World. It is the gateway to Lustria through which the adventurers and plunderers of the Old World seek their fortune. Foremost amongst these are the settlement's founders, the Norscans, whose greed for gold is as great as their lust for battle.[1a]

History[]

Origins[]

"A Norscan seaman is like an Empire politician: full of lies."

—Captain Alessandri, Tilean trader[4i]
Skeggi New

The location of the Norscan settlement of Skeggi on the Isthmus of Lustria.

The Norscans are a race of warriors, and their gods are the Dark Gods of the End Times. When the Realm of Chaos expands and the beasts of nightmare are made flesh, the Norscans answer the call to arms and march to war alongside the warriors of the Dark Gods, slaying all who cross their path and burning that which they cannot plunder.[1a]

But few such men idly await the call of the Ruinous Powers to make war, and instead set forth upon longships to plunder all the lands of the Known World. Through countless generations of raiding, the Men of Norsca have become prodigiously skilled seafarers, boasting (occasionally truthfully) the ability to out-sail even the fleets of the High Elves of Lothern.[1a]

Among the greatest of the Norscan seamen was the legendary Losteriksson, who, in the year 888 of the Imperial Calendar, made landfall upon the coast of the New World, opening up the unexplored continent of Lustria to the predations of Mankind and forever altering the course of the Great Plan of the mysterious Old Ones.[1a]

Losteriksson's expedition was not the first Norscan penetration into the seas around Lustria; his was just the first successful one. There had been other adventurers who had worked their way down the coast of Naggaroth towards the unknown continent of Lustria. Since these expeditions came to a bad end, with no-one left to tell the tale, they do not feature in any Norscan sagas, leaving Losteriksson to claim all the fame for discovering Lustria himself.[3c]

Early Exploration[]

The Norscan adventurer Losteriksson was the first Old Worlder to land on the coast of Lustria and live to tell the tale. As soon as his three longships anchored off the coast, the men were plagued by sickness caused by insect bites. Leaving the sick warriors behind to guard the ships Losteriksson headed inland with the rest of his warriors in search of treasure. At first Losteriksson had no idea what the interior of the new land contained, but assumed that there would be temples and cities to plunder just like there were in Ulthuan and Naggaroth. However, he was hoping for more luck than in those two lands, which were rather too resolutely defended for his liking.[1b][3a]

After a long trek through the jungle and with only half his party still alive, Losteriksson emerged among the overgrown ruins of a deserted temple-city. This was exactly what Losteriksson had been hoping for. His men spread out to ransack the place. Some meagre items of gold were found in various vaults and crypts after a full day's search, although several warriors disappeared in the process. Losteriksson decided to return to his boats while the going was good, intending to return again with a bigger expedition to probe deeper into the jungle.[1b][3a]

Eventually Losteriksson and a handful of warriors reached the beach to find the boats deserted. Their men had gone, and not even their bones were left. Their fate was unknown. There were now so few Norscans left that the share of the gold made all the survivors quite rich. This gave every man the impression that Lustria was a place where one could get rich. None stopped to consider the odds of surviving to enjoy those riches.[1b][3a]

Losteriksson could now return to Norsca with honour and the dowry for his beloved Inga. Norscans being excellent seafarers, all the ships returned safely, despite the diminished crews. Soon word spread throughout Norsca of a new land overflowing with gold. Warriors flocked to Losteriksson's new and magnificent hall, built with his share of the gold, and clamoured for him to lead a new expedition to Lustria.[1b][3a]

Foundation of Skeggi (888 IC)[]

Warhammer Skeggi

A Norscan and an Imperial standing shoulder to shoulder in Skeggi.

On their first expedition to Lustria, Losteriksson's men had erected great stone cairns to mark the long promontory and the sheltered bay behind it. Losteriksson swore he would return to build his new world on that spot. Here was presaged a new age of the Norscans, a new land for them to grow and prosper in, to farm like the soft southerners, and leave behind a hard life on the seas.[4I]

At length, five years after his first expedition Losteriksson ordered five new longships to be built.[4I] Under his leadership, these sailed southwards loaded not only with Norscan warriors eager for riches, but also their wives and farm animals. The expedition reached Lustria after a long and arduous voyage in which some of the ships were lost. Losteriksson navigated along the coast to find the great cairn which his men had raised to mark their previous landfall. The place was found and the longships were beached. Within a few days, the Norscans had built a stockade around their ships.[1b][1c][3b] The colonists included whole families from the Bjornling tribe to which Losteriksson belonged, as well as many thralls to do the construction and other labour.[4I]

After the great stockade was erected, longhouses, slaughterhouses, and a vast drinking hall soon followed.[4I] The new land was rich in timber and the Humans' axes were sharp, so it was not long before a true Norscan settlement had taken shape, complete with a timbered hall. The jungle was cleared back for hundreds of yards, which did much to alleviate the sickness brought by the insects. The Norscans fed on fruit instead of the stodgy porridge of their homeland, and the meat of the great reptile beasts that they hunted in the jungle roasted well on their spits. Lack of ale was a serious problem, until the first crop of corn was harvested. However, the hives of the huge tropical bees provided honey to make a mead which surpassed anything in Norsca.[1c][1d][3b]

Losteriksson's wife, Solweig, gave birth to a daughter in the first month after the Norscan settlement. The new Norscan colony was then named Skeggi, in honour of her, who was the first Old World child to be born in the new land.[1d][4I] The girl died of gumrot only a few days later, but the spirit of the colony was undiminished.[4I]

Adjustment to the new environment proved difficult: there were no whales to hunt or seals for skins as there were in the frigid Sea of Claws. Jungle pigs were farmed and added to the Norscans' seafood diet; skins for clothing and bedding were replaced with grass weaves. The strange tropical mead of Skeggi, made from honey taken from bees the size of dogs, is mildly hallucinogenic and sweeter than any other known beverage.[4I]

Yet soon enough, the pale-skinned Norscans acclimatised to the heat and the sun, although new arrivals from Norsca -- nicknamed "ice bears" due to the fact that they were so poorly acclimated to life in a tropical jungle -- were easily spotted. It was not paradise, for the jungle was cruel with disease and infection and ever-marauding beasts, but there were many Norscans who would gleefully take their chances with the random fates of the hot south before they would ever bear another frozen winter. After all, the Norscans are used to life and death flipping like a coin, and in Lustria the odds were slightly more in favour of life. They fit in well in the jungled lands, and they soon prospered.[4I]

At first Losteriksson forbade anyone from going into the jungle.[1d] Yet just a few hundred miles inland stands Hexoatl, one of the great temple-cities of the Lizardmen, and dozens of temple-cities stand between there and the beach. As dangerous as the dark paths into the jungle were, they were certain to lead to wealth beyond imagination. This was a great annoyance to the young Norscan warriors eager for riches and soon many were disobeying Losteriksson.[4i]

Small groups went their own way and never returned. At least one or two bands did find riches elsewhere and returned to Norsca, encouraging even more Norscans to make the long voyage to Lustria. Thus longships laden with more settlers turned up from time to time at Skeggi to swell the population.[1d][3b] Within a decade of its founding, the settlement was a thriving town, the gateway to the New World for the natives of the Old. Each year, ever more adventurers would pass through its port, and ever more gold and slaves would return through it to the Old World and Norsca.[1d]

Unfortunately, one of the more reckless bands of Norscan warriors must have stumbled upon a temple-city which was still inhabited by Lizardmen. No doubt they attempted to seize something precious and got away with it. Losteriksson and the settlers of Skeggi only found out about this when a vast horde of Skinks suddenly emerged from the jungle and swarmed across the settlers' hard-won fields.[3b]

The settlers retreated back into the stockade behind a shield wall of warriors. Every Norscan farmed his plot with his axe and shield beside him, which was just as well. The Skinks besieged the stockade, showering the settlers with poisoned arrows and javelins. The situation seemed hopeless until Losteriksson ordered all the Lustrian treasure accumulated in Skeggi to be thrown over the rampart. His warriors reluctantly obeyed. The Skinks stopped shooting and several crested leaders scurried out to inspect the items. The Norscans observed their hissing conversations as they debated the hoard, picking up each item and discarding it. Then, taking only a single gold plaque inscribed with glyphs, they turned away and led their fellows back into the jungle without a backward glance.[3b]

The Norscans waited a few moments before rushing out to recover their remaining treasure. Obviously the Skink officers, who were in fact Piqipoqi and Qupacoco, had been sent by the Slann of Hexoatl to recover a particular item of great value to them. The rest of the gold was nothing more than trivial trash as far as they were concerned. None of the Norscans had failed to notice that the Skink leaders and many of their warriors were absolutely dripping with silver and jade trinkets and jewellery.[3b]

And so the Norscan settlement survived and prospered. For many years, the Norscans were content to probe into the interior and search the ruins which they found for treasure. Of those who went too far, none returned and so the great temple-cities of the interior remained hidden from their greed. Norscans being Norscans -- great travellers, drinkers and boasters -- the tale of the fabled wealth of Lustria was now the talk of the taverns of Bretonnia, Estalia, Tilea and the Empire as drunken Norscans related their wild tales before falling senseless under the table. Needless to say, the rumours of gold fired the interest of any Dwarfs who overheard them.[3b]

The Slann had known all along about the founding of Skeggi and the plague of gold-lusting Human strangers that was about to break their tranquility, as it had been predicted on the great plaque of the three hundredth cycle of the two moons in Itza. The Old Ones had calculated every stage in the evolution of the new Lizardmen spawnings. The great Slann of the Second Spawning had calibrated the predictions to take account of the accelerated evolution caused by the collapse of the polar warp gates. All the Slann mage-priests knew of the events via the lines of telepathy across their lands, and gave these instructions to their servants: "Xla Xaurux quaha tec oxltl huac izqua tlann iq zxlan!" ("Raise Saurus and prepare the weapons of war, for a time of tribulation is upon us!").[3c]

Recent History[]

WFRP Lustria 0065 Skeggi Third 0.-copy

The Norscan settlement of Skeggi in Lustria, as seen from the sea.

Over the centuries since its foundation, Skeggi has become a prosperous port, thanks to the tithe its inhabitants enforce upon all who pass through it. But it is a lawless place, where petty chieftains rule and bands of itinerant adventurers hold sway. The many drinking dens, brothels and slave markets are the centres of power, lairs from which the brokers of such power rule their small empires.[1d]

The streets of Skeggi throng with two-way traffic. In one direction pass those fresh ashore after many weeks of sailing across the Great Ocean, impatient to find their fortune within the gold-strewn depths of the Lustrian jungles. In the other direction pass those returning from the green hells of Lustria, and these either bear the thousand-yard stare of those who have seen friends killed by unspeakable horrors for no gain whatsoever, or the furtive visage of those who carry untold wealth secreted under stinking rags. More often, the former is the case.[1d]

Thefts and raids have become more and more common in recent years. When the new jarl, Sammi Fiorgeirsson, strangled Losteriksson and took over Skeggi, he declared the jungle the enemy. Since then, Skeggi has been in a long, slow war with the great rainforest. Thralls slash and burn swathes of jungle away each winter only to watch it grow back in summer, but more territory is slowly secured and expanded. At the same time, raids on Lizardmen sites have become a primary source of income. Half of the proud warrior gangs who went into the jungle would never return, but the sacred relics they tore from walls and altars could be sold for a king's ransom in Marienburg or Altdorf. Skeggi had its first export product, and it would make the colony rich.[4i]

Of course, the Lizardmen were enraged by the violent intrusions and thefts. At first they believed the slaughter of any Humans they came across would suffice as a warning. As the invaders grew bolder, stronger, and better supplied, and their thefts more brazen and more invasive, the Lizardmen knew they had to act. A great army was sent to exterminate the settlement.[4i]

They were almost successful, but the Norscans are most fierce when defending their homes. Unable to cut the city off from the sea, the colonists could continue to get food, weapons, and soldiers from home. After a decade-long siege, the Lizardmen retreated back into the jungle, and Skeggi remained. As a cruel irony, the Lizardmen's attacks on the settlement actually kept Skeggi alive. For the Norscans know no law, and swiftly divide into warring factions in whatever settlements they make.[4i]

Yet fighting to save themselves from the Lizardmen's siege gave them unity, purpose, and cohesion. And so the cycle repeats, over and over. The greed of the Norscans makes them bolder in their sorties into the jungle and hungrier to be free from their bonds to their king. Then, just as the city might destroy itself in factional in-fighting, they unite to save their skins when the Lizardmen inevitably come again in response to their raids on the interior.[4i]

Over the centuries there have been several close calls. Once the Lizardmen managed to get the sodden city to burn, but the Norscans stood in the water and fought back with flaming spears. Another time, the Skink Priests called down meteors, drowning the city in great tsunamis, but it seems that the Norscans cannot be easily killed by fire or by water.[4i]

Around 2273 IC (XI, 110), the High Elf Prince Tyrion of Ulthuan hired Men from Skeggi for an expedition he was leading into the jungles of Lustria to recover the long-lost magical sword of Caledor Dragontamer, Sunfang. The expedition proved successful at the recovery of the ancient High Elven artefact.[2a]

Estalian Quarrels With Norscans[]

Recently, tensions between Estalians and Norscans in Skeggi have been escalating, leading to new episodes of violence. A heated argument between an Estalian diestro and a seven-foot-tall Norscan over the morality of piracy quickly escalated in a local tavern. The Estalian, overcome by cowardice, threw a purse at a bystander and promised that his second would take his place in the duel.[4e]

In another incident, after decades of bloodshed, an Estalian pirate hunter and his arch-nemesis, a notorious pirate captain, are attempting to negotiate peace in Skeggi. However, both sides are secretly willing to pay anyone who can ensure the other's death in "random street violence."[4b]

Geography[]

General Layout[]

Skeggi has been described as a "rotten sinkhole," and there are two main factors that combine to make this a wholly accurate description of the place. Firstly, the site chosen by Losteriksson for his landfall was in fact one of the wettest on the entire stretch of the coast, to the extent that many buildings must be constructed upon tall stilts in order to keep their occupiers at least partially dry during the biannual flood season. The second reason is that Norscans rarely build in stone, preferring instead their traditional timber buildings. Unfortunately, where the good old ways of doing things worked fine for their ancestors, they are not so effective in the sinking mire in which their descendants chose to establish their Lustrian settlement, and hence the dwellings of Skeggi are invariably ramshackle and rotten to the core, and in constant need of rebuilding.[1e]

The greatest and most stable feature of the settlement is the stockade built by Losteriksson himself at the time of his second landing, and this has been expanded over the centuries to create a formidable fortification surrounding the port, and extended outwards into the sea to form a seawall within which vessels may gain a measure of safe harbour (at a cost of course).[1e]

At the centre of the bustling port still stands the original mound of stones placed there by Losteriksson to mark the location of his first landing, and this too has been greatly built up, making it a mighty monument to the Norscans' Dark Gods.[1e]

Upon the founding of the settlement, Losteriksson cleared the jungle surrounding Skeggi, and this has had to be carried out annually ever since, lest the voracious jungle flora reclaim the land. This is a task generally forced upon prisoners and thralls, for the diseases spread by the insects of the marshes generally make it a lethal duty. Over the centuries the area of jungle cleared has expanded as the settlement grew, and Skeggi now accounts for a great swathe of land.[1e]

Due to the waterlogged nature of the land around Skeggi, the only dependable route into and out of the settlement is by sea. The marshes all around are in a constant state of flux as the water table rises and recedes, flooding any roads anyone is foolish enough to have built. As a consequence, the jungles around Skeggi are crisscrossed with a network of small tracks and pathways, but very few usable roads. The moment a traveller leaves the dubious safety of the clearings surrounding the settlement, they are plunged straight into the dense jungle, and all the perils that reside therein.[1e]

Notable Locations[]

"To greet the Elector Count of Hochland, I had to bow at the waist ten times along the Great Hall, never making eye contact. To greet the king of Skeggi, I had to climb hand over hand up a rickety staircase. 'Tis the same always, with Human kings -- they want you bent over."

—Friggen Kaldouttir, Dwarf veteran
Skeggi Layout

A map of Skeggi[4c]

Skeggi is an oddly shaped city, shoved about by the demands of its rude geography. The huge, long cape sticks out far into the sea, and then behind it the bay curves for miles along the ragged beach. Slowly, the beach gives way to silty soil and then climbs up to a rocky scarp about a mile inland. The city rests in its shadow. The ramshackle harbour is dominated by a stockade that extends hundreds of yards into the bay -- and dozens of yards into the air, where it contains a whole district of its own as buildings sway high above the sea.[4d]

Teetering wooden towers are the most common form of building throughout the city. Skeggi is built on shifting sand and soft loam, and all the original buildings were slowly sucked under the surface or washed away. Not understanding how to build outside of a cold climate, the Norscans also had no solution to deal with waste. The streets became nothing but gutters of filth. The town had to go up to survive.[4d]

In the north, the Norscans build with sturdy timber that only grows tougher in the freezing cold. Here, the use of wood was a disaster; in the Lustrian heat, it buckles and rots. So not only is each house built on stilts, it is often built on the remnants of the house that collapsed below it, or a twisted floor or roof that eventually turned in on itself. Yet somehow, the Norscan longhouse design survives, and these elevated structures are rarely small single dwellings, but rather long halls, kinked and half-connected in places, occupied by dozens at a time.[4d]

Beyond the Scarp, the ground is firmer and the stilts give way to ground-floor buildings, but the Norscan longhouse and sharp-peaked roof design are ever-present, giving the tropical farmland an eerie, out of place look. Since the western end of the city is typically given over to farmers and the poor, flat land has become a symbol of poverty and powerlessness. In Skeggi, the higher your house stands above the ground, the higher your standing in society.[4d]

Beachside, this has combined with the high dunes and the ongoing erosion to create a city of gullies and gulches. During the rainy season Skeggi's roads become mud-strewn trenches with the walls of earth four to six feet high on either side. Entry to buildings closer to the waterside is by steep steps or ladders, or even just handholds in the dirt. In many places, this makes foot traffic maddeningly slow; it backs up in open squares or cross-corners, waiting for passage one way to stop so it can flow in reverse. If one has business in a nearby district it is typically easier to take a bridge (or leap) across rather than go all the way down and back up again.[4d]

This vertical lifestyle means the primary function of thralls and servants is hauling huge loads of goods up ladders and pulleys. It also means a lot of accidents from falling goods or workers. Crime also works vertically: with the aid of long poles or anchored ropes, thieves can snatch things from a gutter-walker and swing up to a level above their victim. This strengthens the sense that height is king in Skeggi: everything you have can be stolen by the person above you -- even your roof to make their new house floor.[4d]

Corpse Reef[]

The silt of Skeggi does not hold the dead. Instead, they are thrown into the sea to the north of the cape. The warm water bloats the corpses until they rise to be gleefully devoured by terrifying giant gulls and scavenging ripperdactyls. The mortal skeleton is not nearly as strong as coral, but over the centuries, the two have grown together to create a razor-sharp reef that prevents any ship from travelling to or from the beach.[4e]

Bone Pickers do however tread the coast, risking being devoured by hungry birds and swarming eels to pick precious metals from what they can reach. It's extremely dangerous, but better than being a thrall.[4e]

The Eureka[]

The Stockade is an entire town district, only arranged vertically, barely forty metres across at its widest point. About halfway up sits the Eureka, a tavern named for the word in the Classical tongue that translates as "I see it!" Skeggi has a pidgin language that borrows words from the present day Estalian, Tilean, Classical, and Norse languages, but in the Eureka, it is the first three that dominate.[4e]

The tavern is the unofficial centre of the Estalian community in the city, both long expatriates and new arrivals. Since it is the closest inn to the docks, it also has insight into every ship that lays or hauls anchor, and its cargo. Tileans are tolerated here ("at least they aren't Norsemen") and find it full of things they miss from home, but it is Estalian songs they sing and toasts they raise. If you want to know the lay of the city, you need to speak Norse; if you want to know the shipping news, you better speak Estalian.[4e]

The Playa[]

Another Classical word, this time for "beach," describes the sandy semi-swamp that weaves beyond, over, under, around and between the docklands. The Playa is the first place every arrival sets foot. Here then is the first chance for small and medium operators to remove every last cent from those arriving, and then direct them to spend more at their establishments slightly further inland. There are hundreds of these hawkers and bawds, and they know no restraint, for they will be brutally beaten if they do not make their quotas.[4e]

The Playa is pure chaos. If it nets them extra, every dark deed, including murder, can be bought from the hawkers. A seaman may receive a dozen propositions in his first steps, and if no competitor can go any lower than the last bid, the winner may find a sharp object heading towards their back. The arrivals are never injured, but nobody gets to the accommodations of the Foreigners District free of blood splatter. It is a cruel and violent life, but if a hawker falls, well, they should have fought harder to make the deal -- it is just the way of the beach.[4e]

Keðja Nes[]

"Take me with you, please! I cannot bear it here another moment! Please! Take me with you! I beg of you!"

—Deserted Driffa, Ex-sailor aboard the wargalley Manann's Trident, now a beggar of the Skeggi dock.

A nes is a Norse word for a promontory or spit, and one indeed spits out far into the bay. As a sandy, desolate port of call, hard to access except by small boat, it is used to contain the local population of thralls awaiting sale. The heavy chains around their necks explain the place's name.[4f]

Although thralls have a desperate, destitute existence, when they are on the Nes, they are left to their own devices to survive, which can be far better than being worked to death. They can live on fish from the sea, and the warm climate is often beneficial compared to being held captive in the hold of a ship. They lack any will or awareness to organise, but if an outside agitator came along, the Nes could brew a rebellion in just a few months, and the city could easily fall.[4f]

Recently the thralls have seen a strange aquatic creature that rises and falls from the waters around their promontory and across Corpse Reef. It has a neck like a swan yet its back is like a whale's, and it crawls like a giant ape. It is in fact a Dwarf Nautilus, a steam-powered underwater vessel used for reconnaissance and covert strikes. Destroying the craft could win the respect of the Norscans, but would risk angering the Dwarfs of Barak Varr.[4f]

Eriksson's Tower[]

When Losteriksson "discovered" Lustria and went home to fetch a party of Norscan settlers to found Skeggi, he stacked a twenty-foot-high pile of stones at the top of the dune ridge so he could find his way back again. Ever since, the pile has been the symbol of the city. It is considered good luck to add stones to it every time one returns or sets out on a new venture.[4f]

Sitting at a central crossroads, the stack has become the default city square. When the king needs to make a proclamation, she or her men climb to the top, lift up a torch, and yell it at the top of their lungs. Lesser news is also announced at the foot of the stones, either personally or hammered onto the rocks or wooden stakes nearby. Anyone looking for work or workers walks the dirty boulevard and joins the masses huddled around the signs and hawkers, and the street merchants who sell to the crowd.[4f]

Rauður District[]

Behind the Playa is the Foreigners District, where visitors stay for sometimes months at a time, and alongside is the Explorer's District, where explorers equip themselves for the expeditions ahead. Between the two runs a broad, flattened-down road, the home of Skeggi's extensive vice dens. As one of the busiest harbours in the Known World, the businesses of the Rauður District are as numerous as they are bustling, with services offered all day and night for a range of prices.[4g]

Chain Rock[]

Not far from Eriksson's Tower stands a huge spur of rock that has also collected stones over the centuries. A thousand years ago, a great metal loop was hammered into the stone and chains attached, with manacles on the end. Most days, there are one or two citizens with the manacles around their necks, feet, or hands, fighting off other prisoners or folks from the crowd, or dodging any detritus being thrown their way.[4g]

Sometimes this is a punishment. Sometimes Norscan men will chain themselves up to prove their strength. Sometimes the crowd or some jakkers will free a prisoner who fights well, or at least throw them food to keep them alive. Sometimes a captive grows thin enough to slip their shackles, or turns mad and mauls their fellow prisoners. This is Skeggi, and there are no rules governing how a captive should be chained or freed -- only a show which passes the time. It runs all night, too, with torches to illuminate the participants.[4g]

The Scarp[]

Until you get a few miles beyond its shadow, the Scarp is the only solid piece of rock in the city. It towers half a mile into the air, most of it a sheer granite surface that only birds and madmen seek to climb. Indeed, the top third is bedecked with all the varieties of raptors of the coast: razorbeaks, seahawks, albatross, sternes, regrettes, baffins, and one even see the occasional cormorant or shag.[4g]

So tough is the climb, but so prevalent are the seabirds, that a common way for a Norscan warrior to prove himself worthy of joining a jakker gang, becoming a sterk, or addressing the king is to retrieve a live bird or bird's nest from the top of the Scarp. Even better than doing so is falling off in the attempt and gaining some hideous wound to brag about for the rest of your days. Anyone wishing to make an impression in Skeggi (and not willing to truck with the Dark Gods like the Norscan shaman-sorcerers, the vitki) usually has to climb the Scarp eventually.[4g]

King's Hill[]

The secondary peak of the Scarp is the highest point in the city besides the mountain, the pile of houses on stilts at the top stretching even further into the sky, and on top of that sits the Highholt, the king's ruling seat. Height is power, so no house may be taller than the king's. Many kings of Skeggi have tried to prove they are greater than their predecessors by building ever higher, while others have expanded the buildings at the peak to allow for more comfort or companions.[4g]

The Norscans call it a rugl -- a tumbling-down mess. It has the added effect of making it hard to climb all the way up to seek an audience, keeping away troublemakers and time-wasters (and ensuring the king has to rely on bondsmen and advisors to know what is going on below).[4g]

"King" Adella of the Thousand Mouths, the present ruler of Skeggi, has decided to test her court's mettle by insisting her advisors run up the hill to the Highholt every morning, and has installed deadfalls, traps, and hidden blades to make it even more strenuous (and entertaining). She is more and more alone these days, although her mutant mouths keep her company.[4g]

Government[]

"I’ve been to Sartosa, city of pirates. It has law. I've heard tales of the Dark Elves and the laws that bind them. I've trucked with agents of the Khemrian revenants, and even they have a kind of law. But Skeggi? Skeggi has no law."

—Hilaire Bellecoq, Bretonnian explorer

Norscan society is a brutal hierarchy where power and standing is determined by bloodshed and braggadocio. The strongest rise above simple farmers and serfs to become warriors and bondsmen, and the strongest of those will become jarls or kings of their tribe. Much of that society has been preserved in Skeggi, but some traditions have waned, and what were unspoken rules and rites were found to have no power to enforce them. There is a king in Skeggi, most of the time, but their power is ill-defined and their rule unsound. Some kings rule with force, some with terror, some with cunning; either way, their reign rarely lasts long.[4j]

Power is wielded through loyalty, and the strongest links are between roving gangs known as jakkers. These groups usually consist of six to two dozen individuals, also called jakkers. They will be ruled by a sterk, or strongman, and his most loyal bondsmen. The sterk and his bondsmen keep order through intense social bonding, reinforced with ritual humiliation of each other and outsiders, as well as rites of challenge, risk, and shared self-harm. Those who lack the strength and fury of the leaders can survive in a jakker by making themselves targets of abuse and ridicule, or by having some useful skill or gift.[4j]

Seers and the shamans called vitkis are among such folk, but they lack the formal role in Skeggi society they have in the north. Most kings of the settlement keep a vitki in their retinue, but only because it is the best way to stay protected from gods, spirits, and those with their own arcane resources. One does not become king of Skeggi without taking every possible precaution.[4j]

Jakkers tend to rule over small districts of the town -- hills, corners, and valleys -- and come together to protect larger sections. Above these groupings are three Vakts, or "Guards": the Dodvakt, the Veslvakt, and the Jarlvakt. The Dodvakt works to protect the sea, the harbour, and the Stockade, the Veslvakt guards the western palisades from jungle incursions, and the Jarlvakt protects the king and the streets in the centre of town around King's Hill and the royal residence, called the Highholt.[4j]

Technically, all three city guards owe allegiance to the king, but only the Jarlvakt can really be trusted by the monarch. A king of Skeggi must intimidate and placate all three of the guards if he or she wishes to stay king.[4j]

The Vakts can call groups of jakkers in to support them, but they cannot oblige this support. Norscan culture is built around browbeating others with tales of one's own strength in battle; likewise part of the politics of Skeggi is convincing others you have the largest army ready to fight. It doesn't have to be true, it just has to be believed.[4j]

There are two other power bases in Skeggi: the traders, who bring in hundreds of thralls every month to sell, and the "handlers." The latter term encompasses the merchants and commercial middlemen who deal with all the visitors, goods-carriers, and explorers, as well as the jungle guides and bodyguards they hire for those arrivals. Neither group has a formal position nor many warriors at their side (although jakkers resident in their home streets may support them), but they have the support of the king because they keep Skeggi running and wealthy, respectively. Reminding the more violent factions that these two forces are equally important is an ongoing struggle, often coming to actual blows.[4j]

Old Worlders who are not used to bonded service will find the streets of Skeggi shocking. Although at first the jakkers appear to be nothing but roving gangs of thugs or criminal gangs, each is effectively a landlord, served by farmers and labourers who give them food and shelter, and with dozens or more thralls at hand to fill their cups with wine, mead, or blood, however the mood may strike. A thrall's life is no less horrifying in Skeggi than in Norsca, but at least in Skeggi there is more possibility of escape, typically by jumping onto a departing ship. The Dodvakt are constantly on the lookout for this, and the traders guard their product fiercely, but thralls have nothing to lose.[4j]

Despite the lawlessness of the town, there are some rules that persist unspoken. One is that the proud Norscan warriors of Skeggi will be served by labourers and have plenty of thralls to spare. A thrall uprising is impossible: the idea is not even dreamt of. Not yet, at least. The other enduring law of Skeggi is that Skeggi must survive.[4j]

As much as every faction and every jakker and every bondsman is loyal -- often only as far as they are fearful -- every warrior of Skeggi will come together to support the city. This is not just military fealty. Every year at midsummer, for example, everyone in Skeggi, from the king down to the lowliest thrall, gets together and cleans the streets of corpses and sewage, and those found shirking are bullied and shamed into joining.[4k]

Religion[]

"The gods are like our fathers -- laughing at us when we fall, impatient for us to learn, lonely for us to visit them."

—Sigrid Sun-Starer, blind Seer

The Norscans believe in four primal forces that guide the universe: the savagery of battle, the delights of bodily lusts, the certainty of death, and the unpredictability of change. Most Norscans adopt euphemistic titles for these four forces, such as "the Raven" or "the Plague Father" (both titles for Nurgle), though they could not deny in good faith that these are the four major gods of Chaos.[4m]

Each god they revere reflects some aspect of these forces in the life of the Norscans, and prayers usually include either ritual sacrifice, scarification of one's flesh, or offering a totem. These fetish items are carved or painted in the image of the god, which may come from stories or one's own dreams or visions. Many Norscan villages have a cave or barrow on the outskirts where the sacrifices or totems are placed or buried. Snowfalls and the land bending under the seismic forces of Chaos usually take care of any persistent build-up of bodies and votive items over the centuries.[4m]

In Skeggi, however, the cave cut into the Scarp is dry and unreached by the tides, and nothing has ever been cleaned out of it. The cave gradually filled up with rotting corpses, severed limbs, and terrifying coral statues, bleached white like the bones around them. The cave eventually became a pile, and then a second peak. Blood-running gutters lead up to this mound, and the stink of it dominates the city, even over the stink of the Corpse Reef. But the Dark Gods never stop demanding sacrifice. If you are wealthy or powerful, you can send your own vitki to the mountain known as "Godspile" to make sacrifices for you. Otherwise you must tread through the gore and slime yourself to add your token and hope the gods will take note.[4m]

In Norsca, every tribe has seers, vitkis, prophets and visionaries, and they beseech their gods for counsel and omens every day. In Skeggi, this remains true, but there is no system or formality to it. Seers are chosen by the gods, revealed when they have terrible dreams and visions of the past and future. Vitki are those who have power beyond just visions, or the determination to beseech the gods directly. Vitki are self-proclaimed: one simply assures their sterk or the city in general that they are one of the chosen who speaks with the gods.[4m]

Of course, it is useful to prove this, so vitki will scar their flesh with symbols of the gods and adopt strange ways to assure those offering bounty for their services that they are both able to endure any hardship and are truly not of this earth. Some bedeck themselves in filth or gore, others adopt strange artforms or habits or diets. The stiltwalkers and pole-sitters crisscross the city on huge bamboo supports to prove they are high among the gods, while also keeping them from sitting in the filthy streets.[4m]

The gods of the Norscans are not just found on the piles of Godspile: icons and symbols are carved into wood, stone, and flesh all around the town. Almost all of these gods are terrifying and bizarre, and in some cases involve syncretic mixing with Lizardmen religion. All of it looks blasphemous, and indeed Chaos-tainted. In Skeggi, some of these icons have unusual designs, but it does not take an anthropologist to realise that the four forces worshipped there are the four major Chaos Gods.[4m]

The Norscans have no fear of Chaos, and treat its mutations and deformities as blessings. Witch hunters and other loyal servants of Sigmar may thus be inclined to burn the city to ashes, and they are free to try. But the Old World is hungry for the treasures of Lustria, and that means it requires Skeggi to remain standing. Doing business in the port means tolerating its typically Norscan attitudes towards the Ruinous Powers.[4m]

Economy[]

The Great Western Ocean facilitates trade. High quality Imperial manufactured goods and machinery can be traded for great quantities of Estalian steel and Tilean mercenaries in the Old World's southern ports. Guns, ships, and steel are sent into the jungles of Lustria to extract the treasures of the Lizardmen temple-cities. Loot from Lustria is sold back to the southern princes and the profits return to Altdorf and Marienburg. For an investment of a few hundred crowns, one can earn back ten times or more.[4h]

The odds are long, but like all great games of chance, they pay out just enough to tempt, just enough to destroy. The exchange eats the lives and livelihoods of thousands every year. And the great bloodsucking tick sitting on this open vein is Skeggi.[4h]

Whether outfitting for a landing further along the coast, setting out from the town itself, or simply providing the goods explorers need, every ship that comes to Lustria stops in Skeggi. Every trip across the Great Western Ocean leaves even the strongest vessel in need of water, biscuits, and sailcloth by the time they reach the other side, and Skeggi is the most reliable place to get everything. Skeggi is small in permanent population, but its harbour is as busy as many Old World ports of much greater size. The fact that there is no proper tax system keeps prices fluid and fierce competition helps some get rich, and only a modest number get swindled. And since most ships just want to make a sale and leave, the docks are the least anarchic place in Skeggi. The area still sees plenty of violence and murder, but rarely in such a way as to disrupt business.[4h]

Things change for those seeking to explore the jungle. They need to moor and acquire the true cash crop of the city: the expedition outfit. Explorers from the Old World have men and steel, but they need proper spiked boots for the jungle swamps, cooler clothes for the hot climate and food supplies that will endure the moisture, machetes, mosquito nets, antivenom kits, climbing harnesses, pick axes, maps, compasses, waterskins, rope, iron spikes and a hammer, knapsacks to keep it all in, bearers to carry it all, and scouts.[4h]

Most merchants of Skeggi have realised that the moment the Old World explorer sets off into the jungle, they cease to be profitable, so many will try to make sure they either never leave, or they are flat broke by the time they do. Many sell entirely fictional things, such as Cold One repellent, bat swatters, pale stones that turn black in the presence of a Vampire, moon compasses, and Official Saurian Phrase Books; others will offer well-designed fakes of maps, journals, charcoal sketches, or lost artefacts that surely point to a fortune almost found. Whilst they browse such goods, explorers may lose their crew, temporarily or permanently, to flesh-pots, Lotus dens, and gambling rings, or just to the ubiquitous casual violence.[4h]

The Old Worlders go home with empty pockets and Skeggi grows ever richer. And without remorse.[4h]

The economy of Skeggi is wildly unstable but it is rooted somewhat in the economy of the Old World nations and what they will pay. Many merchants in town think Skeggi should mint its own currency. Anyone trying to equip a mission, bargain a sale, or pay a vitki for a vision will be approached to convert their money into the new currency. However the value of these coins is of course dubious, but if they can be passed on to someone else for more than it cost them, the problem is solved.[4h]

Inhabitants[]

From their coastal stronghold, the Norscans of Skeggi launch raids that reach into every corner of the continent of Lustria and beyond. To the north lies Naggaroth, and numerous Norscan chieftains have proved insane enough to launch raids against the vicious Dark Elves.[1e]

To the west the jungles are packed with Lizardmen sites ripe for the plunder, and some Norscans have even survived the deadly traps planted within to deter treasure hunters such as themselves. Further west still lies the temple-city of Hexoatl, a vast metropolis teeming with Lizardmen -- to date, no Norscan has been foolhardy enough to attempt an attack upon it, though it is only a matter of time before some blustering warleader decides to gather an expedition.[1e]

For those Norscans who have grown up in Skeggi, the sweltering climate is no detriment to them, as it often is to newcomers from the Old World to Skeggi. Instead, they have become adept at negotiating the jungle pathways and at survival through hunting its beasts. A few have even braved the dank caves within which Cold Ones lay their eggs, stealing away with one of their young, to rear and break it, and to ride it to battle. Such a thing is rare, and causes great consternation amongst the Lizardmen, who see it, and the very presence of the Norscans in Lustria, as a disruption of the sacred Great Plan of the Old Ones.[1e]

Forces of Skeggi[]

Pile of Lizardmen skulls

A pile of skulls taken from Lizardmen defeated by the warriors of Skeggi.

Though no one man has ruled over the people of Skeggi since the days of Losteriksson, there have been moments in the settlement's long history when its fractious inhabitants have united, if only for a short time, behind a single, strong war leader.[1e]

Given its status as a refuge for the most bloodthirsty and piratical of Norscan warbands, Skeggi has found itself the target of punitive attacks by the Lizardmen and other races, often seeking return of some priceless artefact stolen from their most sacred of sites. As great as the righteous anger of such a party may well be, the zeal with which the Norscans will defend their collective honour and general right to plunder is invariably greater. Many a besieger has sought to reduce Skeggi, only to be driven off into the jungle by hordes of very angry, and often very drunk, Norscans.[1e]

The Norscan warleaders of Skeggi are no less warlike than their cousins in the frigid lands of Norsca. They may forgo the wearing of heavy plate armour due to the sweltering heat of Lustria, but they are well-equipped, and blessed with the gifts of their patron Dark Gods. Some ride to battle upon the backs of snarling Cold Ones, leading the warhird of Skeggi to battle in search of pillage and blood.[1f]

If a disaster hit the town for long enough, it might finally be threatened with extinction. The Norscans can and will fight any army, but even they cannot long outlast the spread of rampant green that is the Lustrian jungle. But for now, Skeggi survives. Nobody really knows how, but it is what Skeggi is good at doing. It is not a wealthy city or a safe city or a kind city. It is not even a sane city. But it is a persistent city. And in the savage world of Lustria, that is worth a fortune.[4b]

Dodvakt - Deathkeepers[]

Two centuries after the famous expedition of Marco Colombo, the Night of the Restless Dead occurred. Far to the south, the Vampire Lord Luthor Harkon's Undead kingdom of the Vampire Coast had until then been of no importance to the settlement, but as Zombie Pirates conquered the sea, Skeggi found a new enemy.[4b]

A makeshift navy was developed to guard from seaborne attacks. To this day, this collection of marauders call themselves the Dodvakt -- the "Deathkeepers." Their formation proved prescient: in the centuries to come, both Estalia and Tilea would also try to take the Norscan settlement by force, to ensure they had domination of the sea in the New World.[4b]

Veslvakt - Sneak-Guard[]

In 2376 IC, the great magic spell that protects the continent of Lustria was strengthened by the Skink Priests, and the jungle itself set its sights on swallowing Skeggi whole. The vines and undergrowth crept forward at twice their previous speed, stealing back the pig farms and plantations and filling them swiftly with every kind of venomous reptile, monstrous insect, and more.

By this time, the Dodvakt had become a default fishing guild when there were no more Undead to fight; from the farm-owners the city now built a Veslvakt, the "Sneak-Guard," to slay any Lizardmen they might see, and to hack away at the jungle vines threatening their farmland in between. They are just enough: for the last few centuries, Skeggi's land area has been at a fragile equilibrium in the war against the advance of the jungle.[4b]

Sources[]

  • 1: White Dwarf 309
    • 1a: pg. 70
    • 1b: pg. 71
    • 1c: pg. 72
    • 1d: pg. 73
    • 1e: pg. 74
    • 1f: pg. 75
  • 2 Tyrion and Teclis: Sword of Caledor (Novel) by William King
  • 3 Warhammer Armies: Lizardmen (5th Edition)
    • 3a: pg. 11
    • 3b: pg. 12
    • 3c: pg. 13
  • 4: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Lustria (RPG)
    • 4a: pg. 42
    • 4b: pg. 39
    • 4c: pg. 47
    • 4d: pg. 46
    • 4e: pg. 48
    • 4f: pg. 49
    • 4g: pg. 50
    • 4h: pg. 45
    • 4i: pg. 37
    • 4j: pg. 40
    • 4k: pg. 41
    • 4l: pg. 38
    • 4m: pg. 43
    • 4n: pg. 211