Durthu

"Ahksi-do-ka-kau! (Axe-wielding filth!)"

– Durthu, utilizing reverse Dwarf diplomacy.

"Wo-ka-koah, fu-du-dah-truk-Dwarfs! (My heart is rotten with hatred for all Dwarfs!)"

– Durthu, telling Dwarf diplomats to suck his tree root.

"I will nourish my soils with your alcoholic blood! I will fashion myself with your skulls!"

Durthu, also known as "Oakheart" (when directly translated from Elvish), the Optimus Pine, was one of the many ancient treemen born in Athel Loren way before Chaos appeared, but he got incredibly bitter after countless years of battle (unlike Lizardmen who are also immortal but don't suffer mental breakdowns). He's best known for being incredibly racist against all man-like things, mostly towards Dwarfs because those hairy, short-footed, axe-wielding scum hacked him down long ago. Unlike his other racist tree brethren like Drycha, Durthu is cool headed among them and sane enough to not hate everyone (whereas the others, especially Drycha, are even opposed to the Wood Elves, some to the point of hindering Orion's rebirth).

In the Beginning

Back before the world was invaded by Chaos, Athel Loren was a peaceful place and treemen were much nicer. Only the Elves from Ulthuan visited the damned place and may have had a few unspeakable orgies with the local tree creatures. Durthu during that time was much nicer too, teaching the Elves how to care for trees and other hippy shit, since they weren't expecting to face anything serious like war.

They were proven so very wrong.

The First Chaos Invasion

When the polar gate at the North collapsed and Chaos Daemons began slaughtering everything that moved (as well as anything that didn't), Athel Loren's far-reaching roots, which had spread all over the world at this point, were burned and chewed by the demons. Durthu and his kind fought side by side with the Elves not only in Athel Loren, but also at the heart of Ulthuan: Avelorn, where a similar magical forest resided.

To the demons, Durthu and his kind were considered a similar form of existence to their own, so they were a little unnerved, so much so they decided it was better to just go for the Elves for their juicy souls. In order to protect her children, Astarielle, the first Everqueen asked Durthu to protect her heirs in exchange for Elven workers' help tending the trees of Athel Loren. As soon as an agreement was made, she was slain by N'kari while Durthu took off to Athel Loren with her two brats: Morelion and Yvraine.

When Durthu returned, he found the forest he knew and loved was ravaged by war. His kin embraced the concept of xenophobia for the first time and had transformed into hateful tree creatures better suited for battle. His two treeman friends Coeddil (Drycha's turbo-racist buddy) and Adanhu also adapted to these changes so much that they demanded that the two brats Durthu had bought had to be slain. However, Durthu basically told his pals to calm their roots down and convinced Adanhu to change his mind. Coeddil wasn't persuaded, but he was out-voted so had to go along with it.

Adanhu agreed to Durthu's decision, only if the two brats were to put to sleep in a magical slumber (aka magical cryo-chamber) until Ulthuan and Athel Loren were rebuilt. And so the heirs of Astarielle survived. Unbeknownst to everyone however, their father, Aenarion, would start a second family out of despair over the loss of Astarielle and his two children (or so he thought) as well as having the sword of Khaine sapping his sanity, providing fuel for upcoming tragedies.

Fuck the Dwarfs, Fuck Malekith, Fuck EVERYONE!

After the two brats' return, Yvraine became the new Everqueen and Morelion became her guard. Durthu during this time was busy repairing Athel Loren, as the forest suffered severe deforestation thanks to the Chaos reaming. Durthu also had the desire to rebuild Avelorn, but was too busy to do so.

Things pretty much remained like this for years until Malekith defected from the High Elves, created the Dark Elves and instigated the War of the Beard, sparking the most dreadful display of bloodshed and betrayal in Warhammer history. After the war ended with Phoenix King Caledor II's death, many of the elves living at Athel Loren declared their own independence from Ulthuan, but the Dwarfs didn't give a shit about that and so they came over, righting their grudges and venting their remaining anger at the Elves of Athel Loren.

Unfortunately for the treefolk of Athel Loren, this had to happen during winter, when the trees weren't able to do much. The dwarfen pillagers fatally wounded Durthu, which sparked his inner hatred for all Dwarfs as well as their axes. The dwarfs were eventually driven off by the Elves with their run and shoot tactics, making the slow and tired Dwarfs rage quit back to their mountain holds.

This conflict sparked even more racism and xenophobia from the trees, such that Adanhu and Coeddil began loudly arguing in front of the Elves about their fate. Tired and still reeling from the Dwarf axe attack, Durthu stood silent during the debate, no longer able to trust his own judgement.

With a little help from the goddess Ariel, the Elves were officially declared citizens of the forest (forming the Wood Elves faction) and were tasked to take care of forest in exchange for equal protection by the trees. Durthu, however, was unmoved by the development due to being traumatized by the wars and hatred. Although he is still more cool headed compared to his treeman brothers, he is now more suited to war and hatred than ever, wielding a gigantic sword that makes Guts' look tiny in comparison while fashioning himself with the skulls of his enemies. Beastman, Dwarfs, Chaos, Orcs, Undeads, Vampires and Bretonnians, fuck em, FUCK THEM ALL.

Despite his sword having no name in the rulebook, it was called the Sword of Daith in Total War: Warhammer. The weapon is unique because it is about the size of his root leg (I mean just look at the fucking size of that thing on the right image!) and it was forged by Daith, a blind Elven smith (the dude is the incarnate of the Elven forge god Vaul, but still, that blade is bigger than any humanoid being! how in Khaine's name is he able to hammer a metal that big while being blind at the same time?). So fuck those cunts who claimed the Dwarfs are the only good smiths in the setting!

The End Times

At some point, Alarielle came through to Athel Loren, pleading for the forest to help with her daughter's predicament. This, alongside the the illnesses of both Ariel and the Oak of Ages, had made negotiations very tense, but Durthu managed to convince the trees to aid her. This...did not come to pass and the result was fuck-mothering Nagash returning from the dead once more. Alarielle decides to then merge with Ariel, thus becoming the literal embodiment of life and the new queen of Athel Loren.

Alarielle would be followed by Tyrion, driven mad by the combination of Teclis' dickery, his daughter's death, Malekith becoming the Phoenix King and drawing the Widowmaker, making him the avatar of Khaine. Durthu would stand in the Everqueen's defense alongside the Wood Elves and those High Elves that defected from Tyrion's insanity. Durthu himself would come face to face with the mad prince, who had just murdered Orion, and managed to toss that prissy bitch clear across the battlefield. This act of unmitigated badass, alongside Alarielle out-wizarding Morathi despite her injuries, was enough to rout the battle.

At the battle where Be'lakor assaulted the Oak of Ages, he finally mercy killed his buddy Coeddil whom had gone mad from Chaos influence (and Coeddil's ally buddy Drycha was slained by Malekith the ETERNITY KING). He then took on a motherfucking Bloodthirster and probably a bunch of Bloodletters as side dishes. After Allarielle had slain Hellebron, she was in a near death condition. Durthu was in agony, for he knew their enemies were too powerful for them to handle. Even he, an ancient yet powerful being, was unable to prevent the destruction of the world. He unleashed a great burning flame from his sword and purged the surrounding demons. Durthu then decided to sacrifice what remained of his lifespan to save Alarielle, just like how one of his brethren long ago had sacrificed himself and prevented the Everqueen's soul succumbing to corruption. He threw his sword and skewered a Great Unclean One like a roast pig then made his way to Alarielle's side to give her his life force. When Durthu was done, Allarielle was saved, but what remained of him was simply no more, but a motionless, ordinary tree.

Age of Sigmar

Alarielle, upon taking control of the realm of life, had seed pods that housed the souls of countless folks who were slain during the world-that-was. While it's not certain that Durthu himself was among those soulpods, he was also resurrected in a sense. Among the ranks of the Sylvaneth are the "Spirits of Durthu", a caste of treemen who represent the original's implacable loyalty and great wisdom and serve only the Everqueen rather than any clan. While their primary task is to act as ambassadors, ensuring that the various Sylvaneth glades adhere to their goddess' will and fostering what alliances they can with the other mortal races, they also act as bodyguards to any vital figures and are very powerful warriors. Most notorious of these are the Sons of Durthu, an elite brotherhood of these ancient treemen who served as Alarielle's personal bodyguards since her very first steps and claim a direct lineage to the dude himself.

In Total War: WARHAMMER

Durthu appears as the one of the only two Legendary Lords next to Orion being the Wood Elves faction in the first game. Durthu is a FUCKING MONSTER IN COMBAT! Not only does he deal insanely good melee damage with that giant sword of his, he is in fact designed for killing infantry blobs (aka tarpit) judging from his abilities alone. First, he has the Lamentations of Despair, which is kinda like a shotgun of greenish magical energy that obliterates anything in front of him (is called shotgun because it has short casting range and it obliterates anything in it target). Since Durthu is a Lore of Beasts caster, he gets the Flock of Doom spell that deals AOE direct damage, as well as enhancement spells that buff him to stay in the fight longer. Finally, his Sword of Daith has its own unique ability that deals direct damage and decreases armor stats of those around him. Still, being a Treeman, Durthu is weak to flame damage, so he isn't a reliable DISTRACTION CARNIFEX, but he sure as hell will fuck up the front line!

In the campaign, he leads the faction of Argwylon in upper Athel Loren. His settlement is apparently next to a Dwarf hold, which is ESSENTIAL for him to wreck the damn place and claim it as his own. He used to be called "Tree Hitler", which he got the title from an old bug, where his campaign AI would conquer every settlements around him and turning them into forest, as well as from his hateful diplomacy dialogue, where he insults the diplomats with his jarring Treeman language (supposedly Elvish? Durthu is an Elvish name after all...).

With the Twisted and Twilight DLC came out, he now has the ability to upgrade his tree spirit units like how the Greenskins upgrade their boyz with scraps, making him a tree warboss rather than tree Hitler.

His reputation for being a tree Hitler also got revoked twice with the introduction of Drycha as a FLC lord, who has Coeddil, the ORIGINAL TREE HITLER by her side.

Gallery

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  His derpy old model

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  Those who stared his broken eye funnily will be used as a fertilizer, ALIVE.

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  FUCK DARK ELVES

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  Only in Warhammer can you experience a battle between a pissed off eons old treeman, wielding a big red sword the size of his leg vs another eons old lizardman with a prosthetic laser cannon arm, armed with spears that could kill anything while riding on top of a dinosaur.