So, after their last average book, The Rise of Nagash, it was nice to see that this book was an improvement. While characters in this one still made a few stupid decisions (such as Kurt being to focused on repairing the walls and ignoring the plague or Vlad's arrogance in his fight with Otto which backfires), it was well within their character personalities and made sense. Sadly, due to the events in this book, there was no way I could talk about it without spoiling it.
The story itself is simple enough. After a great battle to try and stop the forces of Chaos goes bad, the forces of the Empire are shattered and lost. Schwarzhelm, Huss and Valten have gone missing, the Emperor Karl Franz appears to have fallen and a wounded Kurt Helborg returns to Altdorf to prepare for the inevitable assault. Balthasar Gelt fled after his failures and under suspicion of dealing with darker powers and so a new Supreme Patriarch was chosen, Martek of the Amber Order. This sort of makes sense model wise as they do have an Amber wizard on an Imperial Griffon, though I would have thought an Amethyst wizard would be more appropriate give the fact that the Lore of Death has become dominate. Oh yes, they do mention about the fact that the Lore of Death has been unchained and that it's power is drowning out the other lores and that the barrier between life and death is breaking down, which is a key point for the ending.
Vlad is the second main character in this book. Yes, if you remember, Nagash brought Vlad back to life (still no answer as to why) and that Vlad is personally trying to help the Empire against the forces to Chaos. Despite being a slave to Nagash, Vlad has his own agenda. He wants the Empire to recognise him as the Elector Count of of his region, which I like given the situation. He knows he's not the same Vlad that had once been all conquering and that Nagash only brought back what was needed. The fact he still has the same drive is a good thing. What I don't get is that it describes him and his famous ring, but in the last book it states the ring was lost long ago, so is this a copy or the original and how did he get it?
Bretonnia is also in it, with apparently Louen Leoncoeur being still alive (I'm very confused by all this Bretonnia confusing End Times lore), though no longer King of Bretonnia. His story is between him and the Lady, who for those who don't know is their Goddess and is basically the Lady of the Lake character. The Lady herself appears to be dying (as are most of the Warhammer Gods) and tells him that the fate of mankind will take place at the battle of Altdorf, but if he goes he will die. And so he struggles with his pride and his fate, constantly being tested until the end.
Finally there are the forces of Chaos with just about every Named Nurgle Character who has a model being in it (or at least mentioned). I admit that the triplets are the most entertaining. They are Otto the warrior, Ethrac the sorcerer and Ghurk the monster. While I despise anything Nurgle, I did enjoy these characters, who seem to really have the luck of their god up until the end.
Which brings me to the final battle. Act three is the final battle itself and ultimately sees the death of a number of Warhammer special characters. If we ignore the Greater Daemon Ku'gath the Plaguefather (since he's a Daemon and so returns to the realm of chaos....or, at least I think he did) then the first casualty would be Festus the Leechlord, which is quickly followed by Louen Leoncoeur. Then we get to the battle of the Imperial Palace. Here Vlad battles Otto, but his arrogance gets the better of him, discovering that the blood of a champion of Nurgle is not blood but polution. This poisons him, leaving him violently ill and is force to flee. We don't know if he will die, if Nagash will save him or if this poisoning will somehow convert him to chaos )or at least twist him). Otto does end up killing Kurt Helborg and eventually Karl Franz. The thing with Karl Franz is that he planned where to be and somehow new he had to be at the special alter of Ghal Maraz. Remember that barrier of life and death. well with it gone and the light of the two-tailed comet overhead shinning on the alter, the spirits of the other dead Emperors took Karl's body and became some sort of golden avatar and engulfed Altdorf in golden light, destroying all evil. The light is still shinning in the palace and no one has yet entered it, so we don't know if Karl Franz is dead or is in a state of resurrection.
These deaths may annoy Empire players as now most of their special characters are dead, while chaos just seems to have lost one. I won't count the Glottkin as it's a new release, though why bring out an expensive large model if it's already dead is beyond me. It did say that the Gutrot Spume and Epidemius the Tallyman were both leading armies in the battle, but of their fates there is no mention, so I can only assume they survived and retreated after the golden light incident.
The book does end saying that the End Times had come, but they had not brought the utter destruction the gods of the North desired.One wonders if the Empire can ever recover, but it does give some hope that good can still overcome evil. Overall, this book was much better then the last one and was much more enjoyable to read. The battle of Altdorf itself really shows just how bad things have fallen and I hope they can keep up the momentom with the next book, though what that one is about I still don't know.
Wait one minute, me have question. How did ugly-fat Festus get under Altdorf? For those of you ignorant-stupid man-things that don't know, in book Grey Seer the grand-great Grey Seer Thanquol goes to mighty city of Under-Altdorf. Has many Skaven and great-many Spies in man-thing city. That bloated puss lover could not have gotten in unnoticed and without conflict. Me suspect trechery from them, purhaps by trecherous Clan Pestilense. Yes-Yes, that's it. Festus no beat Skaven for control, Clan Pestilence must have turned to bad Nurgle god and let him in, those flea-fools. Great Horned Rat will be vengeful. Wait, why no Skaven in book? Foolish man-things will pay for this indignity.
~Grey Seer Skratchnsniff
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