The Dark Elf Civil War (I think we need a better name for that, open to suggestions.)
Fluff Background: After the bloody Chaos invasion, the entire world has been destabilized. The New World is now a time of crisis, and its main inhabitants, the Dark Elves, are rocked by the recent growth of Chaos. Malekith, ever the opportunist, has seized this time to purge the Asur from their single settlement of Arnhelm in the New World. As is usual, he pursues this course with almost reckless abandon.
The rise of the Cult of Pleasure has caused a serious rift in the regularly rigid Dark Elf society. Those followers of Slaanesh, never content but forced by decree to remain underground, have become bold and worship Slaanesh openly. Remnants of the followers of Slaanesh have invaded from the north, the east, and the south and the Druchii are divided.
Malekith, usually ruling his people with quite literally an iron fist, has remained strangely quiet concerning the Cult of Pleasure. Only issuing a single decree that the Druchii should “purge the land of the infidels” has caused greater confusion and for now strife, ever the Druchii way, has taken hold of the land of Naggaroth. Perhaps this is yet another example of Malekith’s maneuverings, for he leads his people ever under the weight of his conviction that the weak shall die so that the strong shall prevail. <expand fluff>
Background: This is mainly a civil war between the Cult of Pleasure and the Dark Elves who worship Khaine. However other races may factor into the campaign as indicated below. The campaign is not designed to cause the complete annihilation of one faction; that should not be the end goal. Instead the end result should be somehow bittersweet to both sides. I will leave it up to the Campaign Managers (CM) (Underway and Jeff Leong) to decide how that is to be, based upon what the members do.
The campaign is meant to be fluid. Human logic will dictate where things go based up where the members force it. The battlereport will be designed with a large amount of leeway to choose sides, and no player will be restricted to one side or one army. Druchii are a pack of backstabbing bastards after all. Based upon what the members do in their battlereports the CM will decide the next battlesites and scenarios.
However the initial setup of the campaign has to be rigidly defined of course.
Initial Setup: These are divided into several locations.
The Northern Wastes – the CoP has arrived with backing of Chaos left over from the SoC. They will attempt to push past the watchtowers and attack Har Ganeth and Ghrond, and push through to Naggarond itself. The first battlesite will be in the Northern wastes around the towers. Combatants : CoP, DE, Khainites, Chaos, Orcs and Goblins (fight on either side, just want to fight, therefore though they may choose a side during a Batrep, its an indirect effect as they are not really on any side).
Ghrond – here is a site of most of the skirmish games, not a site of pitched battles. The CoP has infiltrated Ghrond and will attempt to seize and destroy one of the last Cauldrons and destroy the Temple. They are also attempting to seize the Watchtower from the Sorceresses and watch the Chaos winds in order to gain insight. These skirmishes will attempt affect the other battles between the CoP and the Khainites, ie: in the Northern Wastes. I’ll leave it up to the CM to decide where to go with that. Combatants : CoP, DE, Khainites.
Karond Kar – the returning CoP and its followers from the Lustrian amphibious invasion have been denied entry into Karond Kar by the Khainites. They are encamped on the plains around Karond Kar. With the current northern invasion, they attack. Some of the citizens of Karond Kar have deployed their armies for either side. First battlesite plains outside Karond Kar. Combatants: CoP, DE, Khainites, Human Followers of Slaanesh (Empire, Dogs of War. Human armies may NOT include priests, BUT one of their wizards may use a Chaos magic lore).
Arnhelm – Malekith leads an army to remove the troublesome colony of Arnhelm from the New World. First battlesite is in the Black Spine Mountains. The effect of these battles on the other battlesites will be determined by the CM. Combatants: Dark Elves and High Elves.
Ancient Dwarven Stronghold – Dwarven Lord <insert name> leads an army in a bid to retrieve a lost Dwarven artifact <insert name and fluff> deep in an old mine. Malekith has dispatched Dark Elf warriors under <insert name> to “roast those dwarves on a pint sized spit”. Unfortunately for the Dwarves and the Dark Elves, there are other combatants seeking the treasure: the Skaven. A three way fight. How this battlesite will swing the campaign is up to the CM but it could be that if the DE retrieve the artifact it could be used to affect the invasion in the north. Combatants: Dwarves, DE, Skaven.
Southern Reaches – The CoP, returning from Lustria is waylaid by the Khainites. Also an alliance has been forged between the Khainites and their Dark Elf followers and the Lizardmen. Ever stoic and rational, the Lizardmen recognize an opportunity to weaken the DE in this strange alliance. Moreover, arriving from the west across the boundless western seas are strange armies of undead seeking something unknown. Both the Khainites and the CoP each claim to have allies in the undead forces, and conversely each claim that the other is using the undead for their own means. What truth is to be learned over the coming year? Combatants: DE, CoP, Khainites, Undead Armies (VC,TK), Lizardmen.
Battlereport Mechanics: The person will log onto the website and choose the place to enter their battlereport. Then they will fill out a pre-set form including their email and the email of the player they played against for full points. Losers will also enter a Batrep indicating their loss. This requires both players to enter reports for a verified win.
The person’s own computer will automatically send an email through their own account to our campaign recorder. This means that people will need to have Eudora or Outlook express (both free programs) running on their computer with the pop set properly. This can even be done for yahoo addresses so it shouldn’t be a problem for anyone who uses the internet. This is being done to reduce cheating and prevent false accounts being registered on the Druchii.net main site. People submitting false reports by making multiple email accounts will have their account blocked. Our Head Statistician will record the wins and losses and track suspicious accounts sending multiple reports and block those accounts.
Battlesite Mechanics: Basically each battlesite will have a starting ‘seed’ number. This will determine the ease of pushing the battlesites outcome in one or the other direction. IE: the seed for the Northern Towers battlesite may be 50 Khaine victories vs 50 CoP victories. When a player enters a battlereport, say for Khaine it turns into 51 Khaine vs 50 CoP. 51/101*100% = Khaine moves ahead by 0.5%. Arnhelm, on the other hand may have a starting seed of 1000 HE victories to 0 DE victories. As you can see it will require a lot of DE victories to move the Arnhelm defence in any direction.
Games that are verified wins, which mean the opponent has also registered his loss to the winners email will count as 10 points. Therefore verified games are weighed a lot higher to reduce the cheating effect.
Other battlesites may effect the seeds of other battlesites.
Heres a set of scenarios I want designed by the Convent. It is a main hinge of the initial campaign.
Setting Ghrond The North Tower
Background Ghrond lies in the bitterly cold north of the Witch King’s domain. In shape it is like the great city of Naggarond, yet in size it is far smaller, a fortress to be garrisoned rather than a place in which to dwell. Its single massive tower, grim, black, and slender like a spear, rises from its mountain spur.
From this tower sorcerers watch over the ever shifting Realm of Chaos, place of the gods and source of all magical power for good and ill alike. Within the Realm of Chaos the lands seethe with energy, rising like the sea, whilst the air is bathed in competing colours of sorcery, turning and twisting, howling and crying like the wind. The sorcerers observe the changes in the Realm of Chaos, for it is said that the patterns of change hold the secrets to the future, and that all secrets are contained therein for those who dare lo look.
Every day dark clad riders gallop away from the tower of Ghrond bearing the reports of its guardians to Naggarond. These foretell of things to come, of auspicious moments when the Witch King's armies may meet with success, or of tile growing power of his enemies, from these observations the Witch King plots his strategies and launches his armies upon the world.
From Page 9 of the 5th Ed DE Book
Ghrond was granted to the house of Kalanth and as the bastion of the Cult of Khaela Mensha Khaine.
From Page 60 of the 6th Ed DE Book
Fluff: Ready to make their bid for power, the Cult, has attempted to take over the tower to increase their power in Slaanesh by learning of the winds of magic and sorcery, as well as knock out the heart of the cult.
Mechanics: these are to be skirmish style battles, each one set at different levels. ie: a skirmish battle as the CoP attempt to enter the undercity of the temple and is prevented by the Khainites. ie: a second skirmish battle set in the basement of the tower. ie: a third battle set in the top of the tower for final control. A skirmish set in the temple over the cauldron of blood.
Each skirmish will be released at a set time by the campaign managers and will affect the outcomes of some of the battles between the cult and the khainites.
I expect that the members of the Convent should be able to participate in the campaign if they so wish. However I also trust them to divorce themselves from the knowledge and insight they may have gained from this background I presented.
What the convent needs to do is design two scenarios to start. Both are skirmish or max 500 pt battles depending on how you want to do it.
One skirmish is to be set in the basement/walls/outside (whatever you decide) of the Temple of Khaine in which the CoP is attempting to invade the temple. They are trying to get the remaining Cauldron. This first skirmish will not yet involve the Cauldron but that will be the final skirmish scenario.
One skirmish is to be set in the basement of the Watchtower which the CoP is attempting to seize from the Sorceresses to use to watch the winds of magic and gain insight. This will also be divided into two scenarios but we need the first one done.
Try and get a rough draft of the scenarios done by the next Sunday. Anayrin will take over from here, so report to him.