Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)

The Empire.

The Empire is a government that features in Warhammer Fantasy.

History

The Empire was a nation of humans that was founded in the Old World by Sigmar Heldenhammer of the Unberogen tribe who was a very charismatic and powerful barbarian warlord. Sigmar was the son of the tribal leader of the Unberogen, Bjorn where at a young age he came to save the dwarfen king Kurgan from a greenskin raiding party. The king gifted the tribe with Ghal-Maraz (Translation: "skull splitter") with this mighty warhammer becoming the symbol of all Sigmar.

Around this time, the land was inhabited by many primitive tribes such as the Unberogen, Teutogens, Jeutones, Ungols and Bretoni. The tribes were often at war with one another, raiding for anything they needed or just to establish their power in the region. Sigmar's father Bjorn had already forged strong links with nearby tribes, but to unite the tribes under one banner was unprecedented and many feared it was an impossibility.

Unlike the peaceful agricultural tribes like the Belthani that had preceded them in migrating into the heart of the Old World, the newcomers were aggressive and the bearers of a culture based on raiding each other for cattle and women. While they could not stand up to the greenskins' iron weapons, their bronze blades and chariots were more than a match for the obsidian and flint of the existing Old World Human tribes. Within a century of their arrival, the ancestors of the Teutogen, the Unberogen and the other founding Imperial tribes had displaced the older peoples and taken the best lands of the central Old World for themselves. For centuries afterward, the tribes alternately traded and made war on each other, uniting only to face an external threat, then squabbling and turning on each other when the threat had passed. The shield provided by the Dwarfholds of the Worlds Edge Mountains gave some protection, but as Dwarfen power declined, increasing numbers of Orc and Goblin warbands found their way through into Human lands. They made their hideouts deep within the forests or among the rugged hills and raided the nearby Human tribes. Even worse creatures would find their way through the high mountain passes from the south and east, including Chaos Warriors looking for glory for their Dark Gods and mutants looking for food and slaughter

Overview

Government

The Emperor was both head-of-state of the Empire and commander-in-chief of its armies, the real power within the Empire was held by the 10 Elector Counts, of which the Emperor was one. Upon the death of an Emperor the throne does not automatically pass to his heir. Instead, an election is held by the 15 Electors - the 10 Elector Counts, the Elder of the Moot, the Ar-Ulric and each of the Grand Theogonist and his two Arch Lectors - to select a new Emperor from among the Elector Counts. Each of them casts a vote, and the candidate with the most votes becomes Emperor.

Culture

The forces of the Empire.

The Knightly Orders of the Empire are a heroic brotherhood of armoured warriors who ride into battle atop mighty barded warhorses and sometimes other, more exotic creatures into battle. Knights are magnificent figures, clad in gleaming full plate armour crafted by Dwarfen smiths, armed with weaponry of the finest quality. To become a Knight is also to become one of the most elite warriors the Empire has to offer.

Organizations within the Empire included:

• Colleges of Magic :
• Imperial Engineers School :
• Imperial Gunnery School :
• Imperial Ostlanders :
• Knights of the White Wolf :
• Reiksguard :
• Ostland Black Guard :
• Teutogen Guard :
• Swords of Ulric :
• Cult of Sigmar :
• Sisters of Sigmar :
• Association of Wise Wizards :
• Fellowship of the Shroud :
• Imperial Road Warden Service :
• Imperial Navy :

The Empire's military forces consisted of:

• Hunting Hounds of Middenland :
• Empire Swordsmen :
• Empire Halberdier :
• Empire Spearmen :
• Free Companys :
• Handgunners :
• Empire Archers :
• Empire Crossbowmen :
• Greatswords :
• Flagellants :
• Warriors of Ulric :
• Warrior Priest of Sigmar :
• Empire Knights :
• Demigryph Knights :
• Pistoliers :
• Outriders :
• Captain of the Empire :
• Witch Hunter :

Dwarves that lived within the territory of the Empire were known as Imperial Dwarfs.

Technology

Weapons used by the Empire included:

• Hochland long rifle :

Among the warmachines of the Empire included:

• Empire Great Cannon :
• Empire Mortar :
• Helblaster Volley Gun :
• Helstorm Rocket Battery :
• Steam Tank :

In terms of naval ships, the Empires forces included:

• Imperial War Galley :
• Wolf Ship :

Territory

The Empire was not a centralised nation, but rather a feudal confederacy of 11 large and semi-independent provinces, bound together by common interests, history, language, religion, and culture.

Among the territory of the Empire included:

• Averland :
• Hochland :
• Middenland :
• Nordland :
• Ostland :
• Ostermark :
• Reikland :

Members

• Sigmar :
• Magnus the Pious :
• Emperor Karl Franz I :
• Kurt Helborg :
• Ludwig Schwarzhelm :
• Volkmar the Grim :
• Balthasar Gelt :
• Elspeth von Draken :
• Aldebrand Ludenhof :
• Boris Todbringer :
• Marius Leitdorf :
• Valmir von Raukov :
• Markus Wulfhart :
• Luthor Huss :
• Valten :
• Mandred Skavenslayer :

Notes

• The Empire were created by Games Workshop and featured in the setting of the Warhammer Fantasy universe.

In other media

Video games

• In Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, the Empire were a playable faction within the real-time strategy video game. The story mode had players capable of taking the Empire's campaign mode where they played as Stefan von Kessel who was a captain in the army of Ostermark under Count Otto Gruber. Players could also choose of the three playable sub-factions in the Empire that included; Ostermark, Nuln and Talabecland armies.
• In Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the Empire appeared as a playable faction within the MMORPG video game. Players were part of the Order of the Griffon that consisted of highly skilled soldiers, wizards and devotees of the Cult of Sigmar that fought against the gravest threats of the Empire. It was a new force created by Emperor Karl Franz with the aid of the Grand Theogonist of the Cult of Sigmar, the Supreme Patriarch of the Colleges of Magic and the Grand Master of the Reiksguard The Order was designed to be an integral part of the Imperial army that was an elite unit that answered only to the Emperor with authority that superseded the Elector Counts and their provincial generals. This allowed them to be free from bureaucratic constraints in order to swiftly coordinate the defences of the northern provinces against the Chaos incursion. The Order of the Griffon ranged from aristocrats to common born with them consisting of loyal citizens that were willing to fight to defend the Empire. Players could choose to become one of the four playable classes that included Knight of the Blazing Sun, Witch Hunter, Warrior Priest and Bright Wizard.
• In Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide, the Empire was the playable faction consisting of a warband of four players in the action based cooperative video game. Players were a band of characters consisting of the Witch Hunter Victor Saltzpyre, Waywatcher Kerillian, Empire Soldier Markus Kruber, Dwarf Ranger Bardin Goreksson and the Bright Wizard Sienna Fuegonasus who were fighting Skaven during the Endtimes in the city of Ubersreik.
• In Total War: Warhammer, the Empire was a playable faction in the turn-based strategy video game.
• In Mordheim: City of the Damned, the Empire was playable as two factions in the turn based tactical video game. Players could either play as Human Mercenaries from the Empire's province of Reikland or as the Sisters of Sigmar based at the Rock fortress lying at the River Stir in the southern part of Mordheim with both groups being warbands representing the Order faction. Set in the Imperial Year 1999, they were factions at the city of Mordheim that were battling over a crashed comet that had landed in the settlement.
• In Warhammer: Chaosbane, the Empire featured in the setting of the action role-playing game. Set two hundred years after the Great War Against Chaos, the player character served as the personal champion of Magnus the Pious, slayer of the Chaos Everchosen Asavar Kul, and soon to become Emperor of the fractured Empire. Imperial characters among the roster included Konrad Vollen who was an Empire Soldier specializing in sword and shield and the DLC introduced Jurgen Heider who was an Imperial Witch Hunter using pistols and blades. The initial story involved a Chaos sorceress and her cultists entering Magnus' tower in the Imperial city of Nuln, and placing him under a curse. The player character was initially accused of the crime by Heinrich Voss, Magnus' chief witch hunter, before the High Elven archmage Teclis, High Loremaster of Hoeth, intervened. Fearing the Empire's collapse if Magnus died, Teclis tasked the player with hunting down a cult dedicated to Nurgle, the Chaos God of disease and decay, in Nuln's sewers. The player confronted the cult's leader, Friedrich Kessler, who gloated that the 'Harbinger', the sorceress who cursed Magnus, had promised to help him become the successor to Asavar Kul. However, he was instead sacrificed to summon the Great Unclean One, the Greater Daemon of Nurgle.

Appearances

• Warhammer Armies: Empire:

External Links

• Lexicanum Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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