Ghur
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G’day mates. Welcome to the Australia of the Mortal Realms. Ghur is the Realm of Beasts and one of the most dead ‘ard places you’ll ever find.
Fun note; the name Ghur likely originates from the onomatopoeia for growling, which is "grrrr!"
Overview
On the surface, it appears to be absolutely pristine. Clear blue skies. Wide open savannas. Clean water. And herds upon herds of creatures and other magnificent fauna. But that’s only the physical attributes. In actuality, Ghur is what you get if you throw Fenris, Cretacia, Nocturne, and Catachan together in a foul bowl, add a small dosage of Chaos, mix it together, then eat the whole fucking thing and shit it out.
It is a brutal, brutal realm, resulting in the creation of equally brutal inhabitants, from Humans and Orruks to creatures almost analogous to Tyranids, even the land may want to get on the action. Mountains will shake to create avalanches in order to destroy a forest that took root there. Rivers slowly chip away at the land around it for more room to flow. Tectonic plates will grind against each other to produce rough and uneven terrain to prevent roaming warbands from traveling across them. Everything here is part of a giant food chain, and everything is simultaneously predator and prey.
The (crazy) people who live in Ghur are master survivalists, typically living in nomadic societies or building small easily movable structures. The few traditional cities tend to build massive spike-traps as moats around their city in order to skewer any giant monster that tries to renact a Godzilla film. If these traps work, the city typically gets enough meat to feed itself for a month. Seers and other mystics have learned how to read the realm’s constantly shifting landscape and create charts that map out when the land will change and how much it changes. Expectedly, said charts are quite expensive and typically only city officials, military commanders, and high level merchants can afford them.
Might makes right is the defining law of the Realm and you’d be a fool not to follow it. Expectedly, the forces of Destruction are the most prevalent here, being the birthplace of the Ironjawz Orruks, the home base for the largest Ogor Mawtribes, and possessing the largest gatherings of Gargants in any realm. Another noteworthy faction are the Beastmen of the Allherd Greatfray, whose herds are spread to every corner of Ghur and beyond. On each continent of Ghur can be found herdstones or other ruinous glyphs depicting the conquests of the Beastmen, reminding everyone just how far their influence is.
Gorkamorka is in charge of this realm, but in this case it's less because of a harmonious bond - though Gorkamorka's primal nature resonates with Ghur - but due to the fact that Gorkamorka is the strongest being native to the realm.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of Stormcasts in the tribal and barbaric Astral Templars trace their former mortal lives to this Realm.
History
While the other Realms had near existential crises over the Age of Chaos, Ghur basically looked at the incoming Chaos hordes and said “Fuck yeah! Christmas came early!” The natives of Ghur were ecstatic to have fresh bodies to fight against and new food to hunt. Over time and numerous Chaos Vanguards, the people become stronger and hardier. This is best exemplified with the Orruks, who would become so strong and big that they would eventually become the very first Ironjawz.
Continents and Landmarks
Carcass Donse
A long time ago, the landmass of Donse was home to the Drogrukh, a huge race of centauroid non-Chaos beings who nevertheless had a rather bestial appearance, despite not being Beasts of Chaos. These titanic beings carved their cities into a series of Plateaus and Mesas, and were rather peaceful despite their size and strength, having worked together with their neighbors, the Draconith, to push the Thunderscorn Dragon-Ogors out from their shared territory. But the son of the Drogrukh king, Kragnos, held a deep streak of aggression in his heart, and so was exiled by his father when Kragnos beat his own brother to a pulp for claiming the beautiful Drogrukh woman who Kragnos coveted. Accepting his exile, Kragnos and a warband of his closest friends decided to become a group of Murderhobos, hunting giant monsters and destroying early Empires of Men. Kragnos eventually gained the title of Godhood when he claimed his legendary mace and shield, the latter of which had managed to chip Gorkamorka's tooth when the Great Green God tried to eat it. Unfortunately, Kragnos decided to go to war against the Draconith dragons of Thondia, and when the dragons were able to kill his non-God adventuring party, he went into a deep Barbarian Rage, and killed many Draconith, and in his fury crushed many of the eggs of the Draconith into scrambled abortion. The Draconith, with the aid of Lord Kroak, managed to trap Kragnos in a mountain, and feeling a deep fury at the death of the majority of their species' unborn, decided to unleash their own genocide upon the innocents of Donse, murdering the Drogrukh race in a fiery genocide. Today, the Carcass Donse is a dead land, being slowly devoured by Thondia, the ruins of the Drogrukh civilization crumbling. Only the End of Empires, Kragnos, is left of the once-proud Drogrukh.
Rhondol
Nearly as old as Donse, Rhondol is described as a land of rivers and rage. The abundant rivers in this continent are infamous for their unpredictability, always shifting and changing and just as likely to drag you under as they are to over flow and drown a nearby town stead. Any place that isn’t a river or a mountain top is a fenlands, marshes, and swamplands. Such is the savage nature of these waterways that a common saying among Ghur’s inhabitants is “supping of Rhondol’s waters” when describing their surliest and oldest of warriors. The most fervent of Gorkamorka’s followers believe that the water in Rhondol is empowered by the green god’s wrath.
Mountains of Maraz
To the north of Rhondol lays a collection of jagged peaks and cavernous maws known as the Mountains of Maraz. It was here that Gorkamorka was trapped by the living avalanche Drakatoa and subsequently freed by Sigmar. The two deities brawled across the plains for twelve days, creating the mountains seem today. The Mountains of Maraz became a holy sight for early Sigmarite pilgrims, who constructed many temples and shrines nearby these hallowed lands. Of course when Gorkamorka called his First Great Waaagh!, many of them were demolished and torn asunder. Those that survived the tide of destruction where subsequently reduced to rubble in the Age of Chaos.
The Tuskvault
One of Sigmar’s many illusion hidden Stormvaults, built specifically to house the Basha Shard, a splinter of Gorkamorka’s club. No one knew of the vault’s location until the Necroquake fucked everything up. A coalition of Destruction led by Gordrakk and Skragrott assaulted the Tuskvault but were repelled by an alliance of Stormcast Eternals, Fyreslayers, and Sylvaneth. The Tuskvault was buried under a mountain’s worth of rubble and Loonstone, and the Basha Shard was lost once more.
Thondia
The largest continent in the Ghurish Heartlands and where the bulk of the current storyline takes place.
The Gnarlwood
A jungle of carnivorous plants created from a crashed Seraphon temple ship. The copious amounts of ancient magic and other treasures makes it a prime target for many wandering warbands.
The Great Gutfort
The mountainous fortress of the Meatfist Mawtribe. While it’s of course a place of great reverence for the Ogors, most natives of Ghur will turn to face the gluttonous bastion in respect. Warglutts and Alfrostuns regularly leave its gates on raids and then return with heaps of treasure and food. All the loot is gathered together by the Overtyrant Globb Glittermaw and then used to throw celebratory feasts to flaunt their wealth. The Gutfort itself has been targeted on numerous occasions by Chaos hordes, Stormcast chambers, Ossirarch legions, and even rival Mawtribes. Its defense is handled by the lesser tribes/gatherings of Ogors in the Meatfist; only the most prestigious are allowed on the mawpath alongside Globb, who is seldom actually seen at his own Gutfort since he’s constantly out raiding.
Excelsis
Home base of the Knights Excelsior and one of the most zealous places of worship to the Hammer God. It is a very “black and white” morality place where no quarter is given for even the tiniest hint of infidelity, and all loyalists must constantly prove their zealotry to the point where flagellants look rational in comparison. Funnily enough, the city has been targeted by several chaos forces, from Slaanesh manipulating the Stormcast garrison to “purge the city of all heretics” to break one of the chains imprisoning him, to numerous Tzeentch cabals plotting the city’s downfall. Most recently, the city was attacked from below by a Skaven invasion, before being besieged by the Great Waaagh! of Gordrakk and the newly awakened Kragnos. And while THAT was going down, a Slaaneshi cult rose up too and attacked the city from within. It was only thanks to the surprise arrival of Lord Kroak and Morathi-Khaine that the sea of enemies was parted, though Excelsis has since been decimated.
Beastgrave
A colossal and ominous living mountain made from the corpses of (presumably) dead god beasts. Those who gaze upon its looming visage are filled with mixed feelings of curiosity and repulsion. It’s described as a Lovecraftian nightmare; an eldritch place with a will of its own that calls to many people far and wide through dreams/visions, beckoning them to come to Beastgrave to claim fame, fortune, or whatever it is that person wants most. Those hapless few that do heed the call will find themselves wandering endlessly in its cavernous interior, either killed by other adventurers or by Beastgrave itself and consumed. It’s kind of like FB’s Great Maw in a sense, the comparisons becoming more apparent when you meet the primitive tribe of Neanderthals that live at the base of Beastgrave and regularly offer live sacrifices to the mountain. Most recently, the mountain has become even more treacherous when Nagash’s Necroquake shook the Realms and caused the cursed city of Shadespire to meld with Beastgrave. Now the immortal denizens of the Shyish city stalk the mountain, rousing long dead corpses within Beastgrave and drawing more potential prey into its insatiable insides. However, the sheer amount of death magic suddenly appearing in its cavernous guts caused Beastgrave to basically vomit up pools of viscous Amber, revealing its deepest and most treacherous passages collectively called Direchasm.
Sascathran Desert
A vast plain of shifting sand dotted with ruins of long past civilizations. The real point of interest though is what lies beneath, the hive-like catacombs and fortresses the Avengori Dynasty call home. From this underground kingdom, the Vengorian Lords strike out to hunt monsters and slake their thirst. Not too far out from the desert is the shattered remains of a free city called the Collonade, serving as a warning to anyone who tries to betray the Avengorii.
Bestiary
- Angujakkak: Kaiju sized monsters, also called Grey Kings, that are apparently hybrids of Deepwater Troggoths and Mega-squids. One used to be the guardian of the City of Sigmar Nemisuvik in Ghur.
- Vulture-stings: Named by Herdchief Groth the Rootcutter, these dog-sized bees will inject venom into live prey and then follow them until the prey expires. Then the droning insects feast upon the corpse. Additionally, like real insects, they are fond of sweet nectar like substances, like the blood-sap of Sylvaneth. They have some instinctive ‘honor system’, as when a vulture-sting chooses/stings a target, no other scavenger will attempt to steal its prize.
- Sankrit: A species of humanoid reptilian beings with clawed knuckles. Once had an Empire at the northern edge of the Sea of Bones, but were slaughtered by Hamilcar Bear Eater, and their meat turned into rations.
- Snarlfangs: Large wolves with venomous saliva they use to enfeeble prey. The Gitmob Grots will steal newborn snarlfangs and use them as savage mounts. Each wolf and rider are bound together when the snarlfang pup first meets its Grot rider. However this won’t stop the snarlfangs from turning on the grots should they be provoked enough.
- Puffed Spinetoad: A venomous amphibian that secretes toxic slime from the row of spikes on its back. Said slime is commonly harvested for coating blades and arrow tips.
- Rhondholian Bamboo: The bamboo that grows in Rhondol is covered in tiny biting mouths that have taken fingers and even whole hands from many a novice woodcutter.
- Grox: The Imperium of Man's favorite food besides Soylens Viridians apparently also lives in Ghur. In particular, a Skaven Assassin named Flych Tattertail kept a Grox ear as a lucky charm.
Trivia
- The realmstone of Ghur is called Amberbone due to its cosmetic similarity to actual bones except for its faint glow. Being a manifestation of the realm's magic, Amberbone is capable of corrupting those who touch it. At the weakest, this might just channel some innate primal aggression, but its most extreme cases involve people transforming into savage monsters.
Gallery
| The Nine Realms of the Age of Sigmar | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hysh | ||||
| Ghur | Chamon | |||
| Aqshy | Realm of Chaos | Ghyran | ||
| Shyish | Azyr | |||
| Ulgu | ||||