Editing Albion

'''Albion''' is an archaic name for Great Britain from back in the Iron Age, when the Celts ruled and the Romans were only just starting to poke their noses this far into Europe. As a result, it's a very popular name in fantasy for a Britain stand-in. Expect to see [[Barbarian]]s, [[Druid]]s, [[Fey]] and sometimes [[Roman Empire|Romans]].

==Warhammer Fantasy==
Funnily enough, despite being mostly ignored in the modern era, Albion was one of the first human nations to be featured in Warhammer, alongside similarly forgotten [[Nippon]] all the way back in First Edition. Yeah, much earlier than [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|The Empire]] and almost two decades before [[Bretonnia]]. Their army in 1st ED is called '''Prince Wilhelm's Expedition''' and features generic medieval Western European army with Knights, Longbows and Men-At-Arms, which is opposed to the Norse invaders who wants to take over Albion. tl;dr Albion initially was an early prototype of future Bretonnia, but it didn't stick too well and was dropped and replaced with a more Celtic type setting...

Now Albion appears in the [[Warhammer Fantasy]] setting as its version of Roman-era Great Britain. Sitting in the seas west of [[Bretonnia]] and [[Norsca]], Albion is home to one of the oldest human civilizations on the planet, but very little is known about it because the island is shrouded by a magical field of concealing mists and has been for thousands of years.

In the ancient days when [[Chaos]] first ravaged the world, the Druids of Albion were one of the forces who worked to contain the destructive forces of magic. Like the High Elves of Ulthuan, they came up with the idea to perform powerful magical rituals to transform their island into a living sinkhole for magic, draining it away - it's implied, if not but alright stated, that Caeldor's Great Vortex wouldn't have worked if Albion hadn't been working on their project at the same time.

With the aid of the local [[giant|giants]], the Druids erected a network of menhirs in strange circular patterns; these "Ogham Stones" acted as lodestones for the wild magic that blew from the great polar rifts, siphoning it and discharging it directly into the earth. The Druids also erected great fields of mist, to shield Albion from ambitious Chaos worshippers who might be tempted to destroy the Ogham Stones and thus empower Chaos' grip on the world.

Of course, these actions had their punishments - Albion became a dismal land of eternal rain and mist, with monster-choked sodden forests interspersing great swamps and fens, and its people slowly declined into inbred barbarism on par with the [[Orcs & Goblins|Savage Orcs]], but hey, this is [[Dark Fantasy]]; what were you expecting?

Albion came to the Warhammer World's attention in 2001 (real-time), when [[Games Workshop]] launched the Dark Shadows seasonal campaign. The basic idea is that a mysterious entity called the Dark Master (later revealed to be [[Be'lakor]]) had corrupted a portion of the druids of Albion, who had set about trying to destroy or pervert the Ogham Stones in order to channel their power to the Dark Master. This disrupted the warding spells that had shielded Albion for all those centuries, and both the fallen druids ("Dark Emissaries") and their light side counterparts ("Truthsayers") began seeking out armies in the rest of the world and luring them there to Albion to fight their battles for them. This was covered in the form of a free mini-booklet providing Albion's lore, stats for the druids as mercenaries (as well as their Fenbeast guardians), linked narrative missions, a unique environment table, unique rules for handling the unpredictable effects of Albion's Ogham Stones on the Winds of Magic, and a unique weather table.

The Dark Shadows campaign was covered in [[White Dwarf]] - specifically, the July, August, September, October, November, and December of 2001 issues. The results would be finalized in April 2002's issue. One of these issues provided rules for recovering magical relics left behind by the Old Ones during your campaign on the island - which, since this was 5th or 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy, were clearly homages to devices from [[Warhammer 40,000]].

Albion has had very little impact on the Warhammer world; the events of the Dark Shadows campaign were mostly ignored by subsequent editions of Warhammer Fantasy. The 6th edition Lizardmen book ended its timeline with Kroq-gar being tasked by Mazdamundi to spearhead the foundation of a new temple city in Albion, with the scar-chieftain choosing the first batch of new saurus spawned there as his personal guard (where the spawning pools came from is a mystery, much as how did they spawn the specialized cold one riding breed of saurus on a dinosaurless island). This plotline was more or less dropped in later editions.

A guy called Mike Headden did create an Albion army for [[Warmaster]], which made it into the Warmaster Trial Armies Compendium of 2009; here, it was presented as a force of fairly generic human warriors supported by slingers, cavalry and chariots, with more exotic units consisting of ogres, giants, packs of wolfhounds, giant eagles (which can also double as steeds for your leaders), and fenbeasts. They are led by a generic human chieftain and can take a Truthsayer (well, Druid) as the army's wizard. You can find it here: http://wm-selector.appspot.com/pdfs/Warmaster_Trial_Armies_2009.pdf

Albion did feature in the [[Gotrek & Felix]] novel "Giantslayer", where it claims that there exists an elite subgroup of female druids called Oracles, who posses prophetic abilities, and they are defended by spear-wielding warrior-women known as the Maiden-Guard.

[[Warhammer Army Project]] created their own take on an Albion army, and we have a page about it over here: [[Warhammer_Army_Project/Albion]]. Their version is much more fantastical, mixing Warhammer style parodies of famous British/Scottish/Irish figures of history/myth with inspiration from 2000AD's [[Slaine]] and more generic Celtic lore. [[Centaur]]s, [[Pixie]]s, [[Giant]]s and [[Mastodon]]s all show up.

==Mutant: Heirs of Doom==
Albion naturally appears in [[Mutant: Heirs of Doom]] as its take on Britain.

===History===
The most commonly acknowledged calendar in Albion is the Meteorite Calendar(M.C.). It started 92 years ago and is going backwards from the number 100.

100 M.C. A cloudy night, a stone fell down from the sky and hit the channel between Albion and Ireland. It closed the gap between the two islands and made them one. The druids of the clans close to the impact had visions of the Ancestors. The oldest of them, Frassie Mxdonken, heard a voice that came with a message. "In hundred years. Be prepared!" Noone knows for sure what will then, but the most common assumption is that the Antecedents spirits will rise and guide Albion to greatness. The meteor has since become a holy site.

There also happens to be a Lizardmen City somewhere on the Island.

===Geography===
The southern border of Albion is an anicent wall. It goes from th Kharl's Sea in the west to the Worse Maelstrom in the east. It is dozen badger's heigts and on top of are terror robots mounted.

===Albionic Badgers===
The Albionic badgers are a branch of mutated animals that have long lived together in clans. This has endowed their society with a rather peculiar feudal culture whose origins have been lost in the mists of time and the geography’s ardous extent. What’s evident is that the badgers’ society is reeking with war-like ideas and values and that every individual is trained to fight teeth and clawto defend their earth and lands. They are lacking their own industrial technology; They don’t have steampower, nor any production of gun-powder. They do however utilize higher technologies to some extent, and artefacts from the old times are usually more common with the Albion-badgers than with many other inhabitants of the [plats] world, but their prefered technology and weaponry is most usually below the standard of most others. They usually go into battle with a major focus on melee and have a trademark weapon of choice: The heavy, two-handed sword so called ”Klejmore”, and have even developed a branch of fighting specialized in using these clunky swords. Although the techniques of this peculiar style are quite difficult to learn, and even harder to master, an accomplished Klejmore-fighter is an opponent not to be taken lightly and have been known to be very dangerous to anyone foolish enough to cross their paths on hostile grounds. Klejmore-fighting is a new [Trained Skill] that’s available to [Earlier occupations] with access to [Martial Arts]. First and foremost it’s meant for soldiers and other members of the warrior-clans who possesses knowledge of the technique, but all Albion-badgers may of course learn Klejmore-fighting as time goes on. Klejmore-fighting is generally not taught to non-Albions but a non-Albion [RP] may possibly learn the skill from an Albion-badger [RP].

====Albionic Badgers as PCs====
Albion-badgers may leave their colonies and clans for different reasons, but the grounds for such a decision are always very good. It can possibly be outcasts, outlaws, or other odd characters that are looking for fortune outside the protective, although demanding, custody of the clans, or a PC may be an official from [plats] or [plats], being on a trading-route, exploring or even being on a diplomatic inquiry to the [[Pyrisamfundet]].

[[Category: Mutant: Heirs of Doom]]
{{Regions and areas of the Old World}}
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]