The Emerald Wardens

When Sigmar closed the Gates of Azyr, he consigned countless millions to the darkest of fates. Yet while the God-King turned his face from the mortal realms, many brave souls continued to fight on, even after their nations had been conquered by the barbaric hordes of Chaos. Hopelessly outmatched, theirs was a war fought with brains rather than brawn, in the shadows where sabotage and assassination were the tactics of choice. Those few who could not, would not, stand aside and let their conquerors obliterate all that had come before quickly learnt the value of misdirection, intelligence and subtlety. Those with magical talent soon became indispensable to the resistance, providing advanced warning of raids and determining who was telling the truth while those skilled in less subtle arts focused on destroying the fell monuments to the ruinous powers and places of worship that allowed daemons to enter the mortal realms.

Despite countless precautions, all of these partisans eventually came to grisly and unspeakable ends, either denounced by collaborators or hunted down by warbands created with the express purpose of weeding out dissent. To the surprise of their persecutors, as the executor’s axe fell often the condemned would vanish in a flash of lightning. Witnesses sympathetic to their plight would whisper that perhaps the gods of order had not forsaken them and the cycle of retaliation and reprisal would begin again.

Once the souls arrived in blessed Sigmaron and forged into Stormcast Eternals, they were amazed to find that Sigmar had not entirely forsaken them after all. However, this was of cold comfort to many for prior to their deaths they had been forced to make many terrible decisions — thanks in part to the bloody reprisals their occupiers would met out after every successful raid or assassination — and had been forced to watch their loved ones endure unspeakable hardship and the foulest of treatment at the hands of the ruinous powers. Even their initial forging had not expunged the pain of their memories and while they carried out their training with commendable diligence, there were some among the God-King’s council who feared that he had erred in creating such a troubled legion of warriors.

When the storm broke and the Emerald Wardens were at last unleashed, many of their number experienced no small measure of catharsis as they at long last were able to vent their fury upon their oppressors. However, on too many occasions, the Wardens would carry the day only for one of their number to collapse in mute horror as they witnessed all that remained of their former lands after centuries under the warping touch of Chaos.

 As the initial conflicts wore on, those who returned with their memories of their mortal lives burnt away by through their return to the Anvil of Apotheosis were looked upon by their fellows with a mixture of envy and pity, for there were no small number to whom their recollections of the past still defined them, no matter how painful they were to bear. For some, the memories of the past grew louder, not fainter with time. After more than one Emerald Warden deliberately died so that they may be reforged in the hope of losing their guilt to the Anvil of Apotheosis, large quantities of water from Lake Lethis in Shyish were procured at great expense so painful memories might be lost without the need for such drastic measures.

However, many of the Stormhost’s high command were concerned that in the rush to forget the horrors of the past, it might be deprived of valuable experience and information that might be invaluable when disseminated in secret to those mortals looking to throw off the brutal rule of Chaos, To this end, a small suborder was founded — the Unburdeners — with the task of recording all of the Emerald Wardens’ mortal memories, no matter how painful. When one of the Stormhost asks to drink of the waters of Lethis, tradition requires that they spend many hours telling an Unburdener every detail from their past, so that it may be recorded on vellum and stored in the Grey Chamber.

Some of the Emerald Wardens that have undergone repeated reforging seemed suffused with a fey emerald light while others would spontaneously recite seemingly nonsensical phrases that would later be recognised as true prophecies.

The grim demeanour of the Emerald Wardens is starting to lighten. When they were first posted to the Tallowlands, a significant minority of the Stormhost saw the deployment as one prompted either by Sigmar’s wish to keep them out of his sight least they prickle his conscience or in the foolhardy belief that time spent away from the horrors of full unbridled war would eventually salve their wounds. However, in establishing the Stormkeep of Zo and its supporting network of fortifications and waystations, the Emerald Wardens now lay claim to those who now fall in righteous battle within the Tallowlands — souls that have not languished under the yoke of the ruinous powers and are therefore free of the bitterness that lurks in the heart of some of its longest-serving members.

While this recent development has started to salve the wounds of the Stormhost’s past, it has only widened the isolation between it and its peers, as some of the more traditional Stormhosts fear that the number of souls who have spent their lives in service to the Everqueen entering the ranks of the Emerald Wardens makes its loyalty to Sigmar suspect. There are also some who look less than charitably upon the Wardens’ penchant for tricks, feigned retreats and misdirection, not to mention their tendency to speak in riddles and spout prophecy disguised as nonsensical gibberish.

However, none can question the remarkable battle record the Emerald Wardens have won nor the many battles in which they have fought in perfect synchronicity with their Sylvaneth allies.

After the fall of the Sinian Empire, the Emerald Wardens spent the best part of a decade warring against a tangled mess of barbarians, goblins, orcs and other more foul things, all seeking to take advantage of the sudden power vacuum and raid the Empire’s territory to their savage hearts’ content.

As would be expected, given their history, the Emerald Wardens maintain large Sacrosanct and Vanguard Chambers, with the latter comprising souls gathered from those who harried the hosts of chaos from the wild places of the mortal realms. Wardens of the Sacrosanct Chamber are frequent visitors to the Celestial College, where they can often be seen discussing the latest signs and portents with the College’s most accomplished wizards.

In the wake of the Necroquake, the Emerald Wardens have been given new orders. With the Penumbral Engines no longer working as Grungni intended,  Sigmar has recalled that two Grand Stormvaults are located within the Tallowlands — the Bloodied Briar and the Nightmare Hive. The former takes its name from the huge tangle of thorns that surrounds it, said to have been created by Alarielle herself at the God-King’s request and filled with dire artefacts plundered from Shyish in the hope that the life-magic coursing through Ghyran might counteract their potency. The Nightmare Hive on the other hand is filled with the most dangerous creatures, spells and magical constructions that the Everqueen and Sigmar discovered when they explored Ghyran together. Recently, the Emerald Wardens have heard rumours of a force of undead constructs moving slowly towards the Bloodied Briar. With no wish to repeat the Anvils of the Heldenhammer’s defeat at the Midnight Tomb, the Emerald Wardens are taking no chances and are preparing to crush this threat with overwhelming force.

Battlecraft
The Emerald Wardens rely heavily on illusion, misdirection and manoeuvrability. Their Lord-Celestants often seek to bewilder their opponents through their ability to call in reinforcements from Azyr and the speed of their Prosecutors. The Stormhost is also well known for its lateral thinking — At the great battle of Morlan-Zen, the Lords of the Fly watched in horror as what should have been an unstoppable wave of Beasts of Nurgle halted in its charge due to a battlefield that had been seeded with all manner of squeaky toys and shiny baubles the night before. Worse was to come when a squad of Vanguard-Hunters let off a great display of magical fireworks to the rear of the Rotbringer host, prompting the Beasts to excitedly crash through their allies’ ranks in an effort to get a better view of the aerial display.

Heraldry
While the colours of the Emerald Wardens closely resemble those of the Celestial Vindicators — a state of affairs some attribute to either an unimaginative and somewhat lazy scribe or a great surplus of viridium, the magical mineral used to tint sigmarite green —the finish of their armour is far more polished. While the similarity is something of a sore spot between the Celestial Vindicators and the Emerald Wardens, it has also proven to be an asset, given their contrasting approaches to war. Many battles have been won by the enemy expecting a full frontal assault only to die to a thousand cuts, or for the precautions required to guard against frequent raids making them easy prey for a spear-tip thrust to the heart of their host.