"And he did smite and destroy his enemies with great vengeance and furious anger."
- —Translation from inscriptions in the tomb of King Amenemhetum of Zandri.[2b]
Zandri, the "Fleetport of Terror," once known as "The City of the Waves,"[5b] was once a wealthy and powerful port city of Nehekhara,[5b] now the realm of the Undead Tomb Kings called the Land of the Dead. Zandri commands the waters off the coast of the Great Mortis Delta. Qu'aph, the god of serpents and subtlety in the Nehekharan Pantheon, is the patron god of the city.[5a]
In the city's harbour at the mouth of the Great Mortis River, ancient barges still float, writhing with dark magical energy and crewed by skeletons who bend their backs at the oars to the resonant boom of drums and the cracks of their taskmaster's whips.[6a]
Along the waters of the miles-wide Great Mortis River, and across the Charnel Deeps,[6a] and the Great Ocean to the north, the Tomb Fleets bring the terror of lost Nehekhara to distant realms. These imposing Undead armadas set out laden with skeletal legions and vengeful rulers thirsty for conquest, and return with blood-slick weapons and recovered treasures, plundered from Nehekhara in ages past.[1a]
Zandrians are also called Zadrinites.[9][11a]
History[]
Origins[]
Zandri is located on the Great Mortis Delta of the Land of the Dead.
Zandri once derived its wealth and importance from the city of the same name, the port that controlled traffic along the waters of the miles-wide Great Vitae River and across the Great Ocean to the north.[6a]
Before the time when the priest-king Settra prevailed over them, there were many kings in many places in Nehekhara and their names are not remembered, save for Nehek of whom it is said that in his time no one lived in cities. Then afterwards came Zakash who was king in Zandri. In his time, it is said, writing was invented.[2c]
War Against Khemri[]
The Land of the Dead in ca. 2276 IC showing the city of Zandri's exact location near the Great Mortis Delta and the borders of its domains.[6a][7a]
In ca. -1950 IC, in a time when Zandri was a vassal state of Khemri, the port city-state sent a tribute of many hundreds of slaves; slaves that Khemri's ruler Nagash required to build a pyramid for himself, one that would be his palace and abode in life for he had no plans to die. Amongst the slaves was a rare prize indeed, a cage containing the tall, pale forms of three unconscious Druchii.[11a]
The people of Nehekhara had had little contact at all with the Elder Races and knew of them only through legend and from the various tales of nightmare from kingdoms such as Zandri that lay upon the estuary of the River Vitae. For though the Zadrinites did not know precisely who and what the Druchii were, they had suffered long from the predations of Dark Elf pirate-slavers from the cold lands of Naggaroth. The three that lay heavily drugged in the cage sent to Khemri had been found washed up on a beach near to the city of Zandri after a vicious storm.[11a]
Rather than have them killed and their bodies burned, as would have been his more usual policy, Priest-King Nekumet of Zandri ordered the Druchii to be drugged with a concentrate of Black Lotus and, while they were still unconscious, had them bound with chains of the heaviest bronze and sent to Khemri as a "gift". This one act was to be the doom of all Nehekhara as the prisoners with time taught Nagash the twisted arts of Dark Magic, allowing him to develop the black art of necromancy.[11a]
Other accounts of these legendary times tell that in -1967 IC the priest-king of Zandri started a war against Khemri over a trade dispute, with the intention of usurping the power of Khemri as the greatest city-state of Nehekhara.[5d]
King of the Southern Realms[]
Location of the Tomb of Amenemhetum and his ancient Nehekharan domains in what is now Tilea and the Border Princes during the reign of King Alcadizaar the Conqueror of Khemri, ca. -1200 IC.[2e]
Another of Zandri's greatest rulers was Tomb King Amenemhetum the Great. During his reign he built a vast fleet of warships and sailed the oceans of the Old World, conquering the lands across the seas in the name of Ualatep, the vulture god.[2a]
His kingdom extended into the lands of what is now Tilea, Tobaro, and the Border Princes.[2e]
Under Amenemhetum's rule Zandri became a fabulously wealthy city.[2a]
Wrath of the Earth (ca. 2266 IC)[]
In ca. 2266 IC Zandri experienced a catastrophic earthquake caused during the conjunction of two celestial bodies, Morrslieb and Ranald's Raven, leading to the destruction of its towers, which fell on the fleet gathered at its docks, and the ruination of its sea-based fortifications. This event greatly diminished the city's military strength and naval capabilities for more than a decade.[10a]
At Present[]
Now the city of Zandri is all but destroyed, and the streets are quiet, but the seas still stir with unnatural life.[2a]
When the Liche Lord Nagash awoke the Tomb Kings to unlife, they waged war on each other. In death, as he had in life, Amenemhetum was content to be ruler of the oceans, and so ancient Nehekharan vessels, still as glorious as they were when the king still lived, ply the waters once more,[2a] scouring the coasts of Araby and Tilea once again.[4a]
Even in death it is said Amenemhetum continues to raid the mortal world, his ships ceaselessly sailing the seas, rowed by skeleton slaves doomed to an eternity at the oars. No coast is safe and even the most experienced captains know to steer clear when they sight his fleet.[2a]
The coast around the Mortis River Delta is filled with the sunken wrecks of pirate ships that have foolishly attacked his fleet in search of treasure.[2a]
From centuries long past, the Tomb Fleets of Zandri bring the terror of ancient Nehekhara to distant realms. These imposing armadas set out laden with skeletal legions and vengeful rulers thirsty for conquest.[6a]
Sack of Zandri (2522 IC)[]
The city of Zandri as depicted in concept art for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.
When Captain Jaego Roth was in search of the bounty he needed to muster the sea-lords of the pirate island of Sartosa to his cause, he undertook a daring raid into the southern seas, fighting his way through the perilous Nehekharan waters and making landfall on the borders of the coastal city of Zandri in 2522 IC. Using his ship the Heldenhammer as a sea-going fortress, Captain Roth mounted a lightning raid upon the tomb-structures that clustered around the walls of the city of Zandri itself.[3a]
Though these tombs were the resting places of lesser Nehekharan nobles, they contained enough treasure to make a merchant prince weep -- treasure to which the audacious Roth and his pirates helped themselves, narrowly escaping the desert revenants and animated statuary that rose to block their escape.[3a]
Roth was not fool enough to believe he could escape retribution entirely, but in seeking to recruit more allies to his cause with stolen gold, he had earned himself a powerful and determined enemy. King Amanhotep, a miser in life and a madman in death, knew the location of every gold coin and jewel in his empire. Vowing revenge, he summoned the mightiest war barque in his navy, the Curse of Zandri, and commanded that the tombs that Roth had raided be taken apart, stone by stone, and rebuilt into the warship itself.[3a]
Thousands of Skeleton Warriors and animated Ushabti statues laboured night and day to build pyramids, obelisks and Necrolith Colossi into the war barque's hull. The hooded Necrosphinx of Zandri was torn down and reconstructed as the Curse of Zandri's figurehead, and the four Necrolith Colossi of the city walls were built into its hull, ready to power the warship forward or sweep the decks of enemy vessels clear with massive ritual halberds when the time of battle came. The Liche Priests and Necrotects of Zandri used their ancient magic to bind the animated titans to the vessel's sides, and King Amanhotep himself oversaw the mounting of the Great Blade of Kharpesh upon its prow.[3a]
The Land of the Dead, formerly Nehekhara
Finally, the arching structure that rose above the mighty warship's deck was rebuilt to hold a gigantic sapphire -- the fabled Jewel of the River Mortis, heirloom of the sun god Ptra himself. By channelling the solar energies harvested by King Amanhotep's pyramidal tomb into the Jewel, the Curse of Zandri could direct a great beam of burning light from its arcing stern into an enemy vessel.[3a]
The Curse of Zandri was complete -- a warship built specifically to locate and destroy the impudent mortals who had raided Zandrian property. Amanhotep vowed that for every ounce of gold stolen, he would consume a Human pirate's soul. Under the blinding sun he swore an oath that he would find Roth and destroy him utterly as a lesson to the upstart civilisations of the north.[3a]
Through the divinations of his Liche High Priests, Amanhotep learned that Captain Roth was on a quest of his own. The mortal sought to destroy one of the Vampire Counts who had once roamed the Land of the Dead. Using the ancient star magic of Nehekhara, Amanhotep journeyed through the stormy seas to the Galleon's Graveyard. There he made a pact with the piratical Vampire Lord Noctilus, intending to use him as bait until his quarry revealed himself.[3a]
Notable Events[]
- ca. -2500 IC - The Rise of Nehekhara. During this time there were many kings and their names are not remembered, save for Nehek, who founded the city of Khemri. Thereafter, other cities were raised, but these kings warred upon each other and there was much strife in the land.[1b] One of them was Zakash, king of Zandri. In his time, it is said, writing was invented.[2c]
- -1968 IC - A cabal of Dark Elves are driven off course by storms and are shipwrecked in Nehekhara[1b] on a beach near to the city of Zandri. Rather than have them killed and their bodies burned, as would have been his more usual policy, the king ordered the Druchii to be drugged with a concentrate of Black Lotus and, while they were still unconscious, had them bound with chains to the heaviest bronze and sent to Khemri as a "gift".[11a] Nagash captures and imprisons the pale-skinned foreigners and learns the secrets of Dark Magic from them.[1b]
- -1967 IC - Nekumet Priest-King of Zandri starts a war against Khemri over trade disputes, a conflict aimed to position Zandri as the supreme force of Nehekhara.[5d]
- 2 (-1150 IC) - Settra, recently awakened into Undeath, acclimates himself as the foremost amongst the Awakened Ones in the land of Nehekhara and lord of the nercopolis of Khemri. He is brought tribute from the lords of Zandri, Numas and Rasetra.[1b]
- 275 (-877 IC) - Strife in the necropolis of Zandri.[2d]
- 697 (-455 IC) - King Qu'a of Zandri and King Rapesh of Numas form an alliance and attempt to overthrow Settra. The King of Khemri is only saved from an assassin's magical blade by the intervention of his bodyguard, Nekaph. The rebel kings battle against Khemri's legions for seven days and seven nights, but Settra prevails, and the defeated kings slink back to their tombs. Settra orders their pyramids toppled and commands his Tomb Guard to drag their mummified corpses from their resting places whereupon they are set ablaze, and their charred skeletons are shattered beneath the heavy wheels of Settra's golden chariot.[1b]
- 916 to 921 (-241 to -236 IC) - The Chariot Wars. King Behedesh of Zandri utterly destroys both the Black Wolves Goblins and the Gouging Tusks Orcs in a merciless campaign that concludes in the heart of the Badlands with an epic battle involving over seven thousand chariots.[1b]
- 2294 (1167 IC) - Zandri is assaulted by a Black Ark of Naggaroth. The Dark Elves' numerous War Hydras are only killed when Necrolith Colossi drag them into the Great Mortis River and drown them beneath the poisonous waters.[1b]
- 2543 (1416 IC) - During the Fourth Quest of Duke Theuderic de Fois, King Kerathop II of Zandri reawakens to slay the Bretonnian forces outright. Years later, Allun Gartner, Translator and Curator of the Great Museum of Altdorf would confirm the events after Benabic de Bordeleaux, Theuderic's great-grandson, hired an adventurer to bring back rubbings of Nehekharan hieroglyphs from the great obelisk to the north of Zandri.[8a]
- 2588 (1461 IC) - The coming of sorcerers from among the desert dwellers seeking scrolls. They ransack the necropolis of Zandri and slay many Liche Priests who were guarding the scrolls. They then come onto Khemri and break into the tombs of kings, causing them to awaken in wrath. Great slaughter is made among them.[1b]
- 2603 (1476 IC) - A mighty horde made up of numerous warriors of unknown tribes, clad in iron, come into Nehekhara from the lands of the desert dwellers. They fought against the Tomb Kings of Zandri but turn not in Khemri. Having passed thus across the desert, they disappear into the wilderness. Some among them despoiled tombs and seize gold and also scrolls of the priests.[1b]
- Unknown Date (1492 IC) - The Tilean explorer Marco Colombo "discovers" the continent of Lustria. Upon his return, his ships are laden with gold, and he is lauded across Tilea. Word of his discovery soon spreads, swiftly followed by a veritable armada of treasure seekers setting sail for the New World, intent on following his example. With the lands north of the Chaos Wastes relatively quiet, the followers of Chaos are abroad, setting sail for the corners of the globe in order to win glory for their dread masters. Many Norscan pirates attack ships of the other races at sea to reach the riches of Lustria. At the same time, other Norscan reavers wait until they have landed upon the shores of Lustria to ambush other Old World explorers in lands that the Norscans themselves have already explored long before the newcomers. The followers of Chaos are eager to find even more rewards on the continent, from gold, slaves, magical artifacts, and even the many extracts of exotic plants which are particularly attractive to the followers of Slaanesh. With the necropolis of Zandri so recently desecrated, the Tomb Kings seek revenge upon the mortals of the world. A seafaring Tomb King has risen once more, and mustered his ghostly fleet. Perhaps it is the fleet of Settra himself.[12a][12b]
- ca. 3693 (ca. 2266 IC) - Zandri experienced a catastrophic earthquake caused by a conjunction of celestial bodies, leading to the destruction of its towers, the annihilation of its naval fleet, and the ruination of its sea fortifications. This event greatly diminished the city's strength and naval capabilities for more than a decade.[10a]
- ca. 3703 (ca. 2276 IC) - A Bretonnian expedition directed towards Khemri passed through Zandri’s territories without encountering resistance, thanks to the earthquake that had occurred ten years earlier.[10a]
- 3656 (2506 IC) - Bands of Tileans come into Nehekhara seeking to despoil its necropoli and carry off its gold. They despoil tombs in Zandri. King Behedesh and King Memnesh fight against them many times, desisting not in the attack while they remained in the Land of the Dead.[1b]
- 3649 (2522 IC) - The Sartosan pirate Jaego Roth raids Zandri in search of treasures. From there, he sails west to El-Khabbath in Araby. He uses the gold gathered to form the Grand Alliance, a fleet created to avenge Sartosa against the Vampire Admiral Noctilus, who had previously raided it. King Amanhotep the Intolerant personally pursues Jaego to retrieve his treasure, even going so far as to ally with Noctilus's cursed Dreadfleet.[9a]
Geography[]
At the height of its glory, Zandri was a city of towering obelisks, colossal effigies of animal-faced gods and stoic rulers, and majestic buildings constructed from polished marble and golden sandstone. Its wide streets were lined with waving palm fronds, and its vast wharves were bustling hubs of trade and naval power, thronged with fleets of traders and warships. The city's markets overflowed with exotic goods sourced from every corner of the Known World, embodying the wealth and sophistication of the Nehekharan Empire.[10b]
Zandri's magnificence came to an end with the fall of Nehekhara, brought about by the actions of the ancient necromancer Nagash. The city is now a ruin, haunted by the echoes of its past glory.[10b]
Zandri is now characterized by tumbled stone, collapsed towers, and obelisks resembling the bones of ancient titans. Windows gape like empty eye sockets in the bleached facades of its once-grand buildings. The city's streets are filled with sand and bones, swept by a mournful wind.[10b]
A vast palace overlooking the city is veined with necrotic black vines, a chilling symbol of the necromantic blight that overcame Nehekhara. A towering lighthouse, partially collapsed, still stands as a testament to the skill of its ancient builders, who were able to build a structure taller than the grandest castles of Bretonnia. Its black and silver stonework, though cracked and pitted with age, retains a golden finial that glows undimmed amidst the decay.[10b]
Notable Locations[]
Harbour[]
The harbour of Zandri, once alive with commerce, was clogged with the wrecks of ancient ships during the 23rd century IC due to a natural disaster that damaged the Undead navy beyond repair. Efforts to navigate its waters are met with resistance from the rotted remains of these vessels.[10b]
Notable Zandrians[]
- Amanhotep the Intolerant - The Tomb King of Zandri during the 26th century IC.[9a]
- Amenemhetum the Great - The greatest of the priest-kings of Zandri, Amenemhetum led the armies of Nehekhara to expand across the Black Gulf in the territories of what would become Tilea, part of Estalia and the Border Princes.[2a]
- Amn-nasir - Amn-nasir was the son of Nekumet, the priest-king of Zandri who made war on Khemri in ca. -1950 IC in an attempt to displace it as the greatest power in ancient Nehekhara.[5b]
- Nekumet - Nekumet was the priest-king of Zandri in ca. -1950 IC.[5b] He battled Khetep, Grand Hierophant of Khemri,[5c] father of Nagash,[5b] for control of his city with swift and decisive victories, thanks in no small part to Zandri's large force of northern mercenary troops.[5c] Nagash considered him a thoughtful and devious man, as he had invited the war with Khemri over a trade dispute in -1967 IC, seeking to have Zandri supplant Khemri as the preeminent power in Nehekhara.[5d]
- Shep-khet - Shep-khet is the Hierophant of Qu'aph, god of serpents and subtlety.[5b]
Trivia[]
Zandri may be based on Alexandria, a great seaport in northern Egypt well-known throughout the ancient Mediterranean. Before its founding by Alexander the Great following his conquest of Egypt, it was a small fishing village named Rakotis.
Zandri Dust, a Citadel miniatures colour, takes its name from this city-state.
Sources[]
- 1: Warhammer Armies: Tomb Kings (8th Edition)
- 2: Warhammer Armies: Tomb Kings (6th Edition)
- 3: Dreadfleet Rulebook (Specialty Game)
- 3a: pp. 60-61
- 4: Gotrek and Felix: The Serpent Queen (Novel) by Josh Reynolds
- 4a: Ch. 6
- 5: Nagash the Sorcerer (Novel) by Mike Lee
- 6: Warhammer: The Old World website
- 6a: Explore the Old World (Interactive Map)
- 7: Warhammer The Old World: Arcane Journal - Tomb Kings of Khemri (Specialist Game)
- 7a: pg. 6
- 8: White Dwarf 277
- 8a: pp. 34-53
- 9: Dreadfleet (Novel) by Phil Kelly
- 9a: Ch. 5
- 10: Lords of the Lance (Novel) by Graham McNeill
- 11: Liber Necris (Lore Book)
- 11a: pg. 13
- 12: White Dwarf 305