End Times Archaon Pdf 75
Jessia Adachi
"So soon the hour of fate comes around. The Everchosen stirs from his dark throne and prepares the blow that shall split the world asunder. Realms of old have fallen, lost beneath the fury of the northlands, or smothered by vermin from below. Some heroes battle on, too stubborn to realise all hope is lost. Their time is past, and a new age of Chaos and dismay beckons. Perhaps I am foolish also, for I fight with no hope of victory. I seek only to weaken the Dark Gods, to shake their hold upon the future. No other course remains; not to mortals, nor the Divine."
ArchaonFull NameArchaon
(Formerly Diederick Kastner)Reign2519-2528 ICPredecessorAsavar KulSuccessorNoneNoble HouseVarg tribeSeat of PowerNoneArchaon, born Diederick Kastner, and also known as the "Three-Eyed King," the "Herald of the Apocalypse" and the "Lord of the End Times," is the thirteenth and current Everchosen of Chaos and the last high king of Norsca. He is the self-proclaimed supreme Chaos Champion of the four major Chaos Gods in the form of Chaos Undivided who was sent to command the last and greatest Chaos invasion of the Known World during the apocalyptic age known simply as the End Times.
Of all the Everchosen of Chaos who have assailed the world over the ages, Archaon is by far the most ruthless and perhaps the most powerful. He decided the fate of entire nations, his sword laid waste to heroes and armies and his unbreakable will dominated those of the gods themselves.
Archaon is truly the bringer of the apocalypse, blessed with dreadful artefacts of ancient evil, each one bestowed as a reward for accomplishing impossible trials. In his journey, he claimed the legendary Six Treasures of Chaos which marked him as the Everchosen.
Upon retrieving the last of the treasures, the Crown of Domination, the first Daemon Prince Be'lakor performed the coronation that made Archaon the Lord of the End Times. As the crown was fully placed, the last spark of Archaon's humanity was finally extinguished, as he finally accepted the gods of Chaos to be the true rulers of the cosmos.
In the climax of the End Times, Archaon battled the God-King Sigmar reborn in the body of the Emperor Karl Franz and brought about the final end of the Known World as it was consumed by a tide of Chaos that unmade the very fabric of reality.
"Fear me mortals, for I am the Anointed, the favoured Son of Chaos, the Scourge of the World. The armies of the gods rally behind me, and it is by my will and by my sword that your weakling nations shall fall."
Archaon was originally known as Diederick Kastner, a highly devout and zealous templar of the Order of the Twin-Tailed Orb, born a scant few years after Magnus the Pious and the first Great War against Chaos. Though Diederick Kastner, the man who would in his despair take up the dreaded mantle of Archaon, Lord of the End Times, was born as an Imperial in the province of Nordland, it was foretold in the Liber Caelistior, the dread book of divination penned by Necrodomo the Insane, that North and South would meet in the Everchosen's blood.
And indeed this was so; for Archaon bears mixed Norscan and Nordlander heritage, his father having been a possessed champion from the Varg tribes who forced himself upon a cowering Imperial innocent during a raid that had seen his birth-village of Hargendorf burned to the ground in 2390IC.
With the death of his mother, and the hatred of his step-father for his bastard origins, the rape-spawned child would later go on to be adopted by a local Sigmarite Priest and become a Knight-Templar of the Order of the Twin-Tailed Orb, fighting valorously and faithfully in the service of the God-King Sigmar.
Upon the massive Holy Temple of Sigmar in Altdorf, the cursed Templar knelt before the Golden Statue of Sigmar and begged for a sign, to ask for his help from the darkness that had come to consume him. But the golden statue stood silent, and with its unspoken words, the Templar knew that it was hopeless.
He renounced the gods of the south but still affirmed his hatred for the dark gods of his father, accepting the cruel destiny engineered for him as a final means to repay the Fates for the evil they had done upon him. Thus did Diederick become Archaon the Everchosen, the Three-Eyed King, greatest of all the Champions of Chaos.
His deeds legend and his armies vast, innumerable foes of dauntless might lie bleeding in his calamitous stride. But deep inside, he wholly resents the Chaos Gods and the misery they have brought upon him.
Thus the half-Norscan warlord stood ready to fulfil his destiny and to usher at the end of all things, and in the very end, he faced the very god of his people that he had once called lord, and of all Mankind.
"Forged from the other world, six treasures shall he possess... Upon his head the crown shall see all, and open eyes will prove woe to mortal kind... Then shall he ride unto the World... Then will the World know that the last war has begun..."
So it was that Archaon journeyed into the Chaos Wastes for nearly 100 years, searching for the legendary artefacts that would exalt him and reveal his true destiny as the next Everchosen. The first treasure he sought was a unique Mark of Chaos, that bore the blessings of all four Ruinous Powers in unison. It combined all of the advantages of the individual Marks of Chaos, blessing the bearer with all their power.
The first part of Archaon's dark quest was to go to the Altar of Ultimate Darkness in Naggaroth and offer himself to the Chaos Gods to gain their favour and recognition. He gathered a small band of Chaos Warriors he called the Swords of Chaos and battled his way to a citadel so tall it appeared to pierce Morrslieb itself.
Inside the citadel, it was said to be blacker than even the heart of a Dark Elf soul, for when one of Archaon's followers attempted to light a torch, it was snuffed out instead by the all-consuming darkness. Archaon was unafraid and marched off alone with his steed into the darkness.
As he continued to march, an untold number of creatures had thrown themselves upon the potential Everchosen. In this dire moment, his loyal steed was consumed by these monsters and realising the death of a loyal friend he had known since his early years as a squire spurred Archaon into a killing frenzy. Within a matter of hours, he was able to slay hundreds of the misshapen monsters that had infested the mighty citadel, until finally his sword-arm turned numb and the ground grew slippery with the blood and gore of the fallen.
Rising up from the filth, Archaon reconsecrated the altar to the Gods of Chaos, offering up the hearts of the creatures that had crawled in and defiled it. When he emerged he bore the eternally burning Mark of Chaos on his forehead.
The next artifact he sought was the Armour of Morkar, the armour worn by the very first Everchosen. It made the wearer invulnerable to all but the most powerful of attacks, making the wearer nigh-unstoppable in the heat of combat. After leaving Naggaroth on a stolen ship made of black metal and pulled by a massive sea-drake, Archaon took leadership of a seafaring war band along the way to his destination.
They sailed to a mysterious land populated with savage half-humans. Neither sun nor moon had ever touched their pallid skin and after six days and six nights of battle, the city of these creatures had been reduced to rubble. Archaon delved deep into their necropolis until he found the Tomb of Morkar and the armour he sought.
However, as Archaon reached out to take it, the spirit of Morkar animated the armour and attacked him. The vengeful spirit laid down a relentless flurry of blows until Archaon cursed it in the language of the Unberogen tribe. The attack ceased for a moment, and Archaon smashed him aside, banishing the spirit of Morkar and allowing him to claim the armour as his own.
Then there was the Eye of Sheerian, which was named after the Tzeentchian Sorcerer who discovered it. Although on its own it grants the bearer prophetic powers, when placed in the Crown of Domination it allows the bearer to predict and avoid the attacks of the enemy.
After claiming the Armour of Morkar, Archaon set out to retrieve the Eye of Sheerian. At that time it lay in the lair of the Chaos Dragon Flamefang, who valued the Eye above all of its other treasures. Archaon placed his claim for the Eye by smashing his axe into Flamefang's head. Long did man and monster battle at the base of the Cliff of Beasts.
Flamefang breathed fire and even swallowed Archaon whole, but the Armour of Morkar protected him from its acidic stomach. Archaon hacked his way out of the dragon's gullet with the ferocity of a Flesh Hound, until Flamefang's throat was hacked to shreds and it died of exhaustion and blood loss. Archaon plucked the Eye of Sheerian from its place on the belly of the dragon and hung it around his neck as his rightful reward.
The next treasure to be won was the dreaded demonic mount of Agrammon. Alternatively known as "Dorghar," "Ghurshy'ish'phak," "Yrontalie," or the "Steed of the Apocalypse", this daemonic beast was stolen from the menagerie of the Daemon Prince Agrammon in the Realm of Chaos.
Archaon battled his way past the Daemons guarding Agrammon's palace and sneaked inside, hiding beneath a beast that was part man, part mammoth and part insect. Inside was every beast imaginable, and some that are not.
Archaon tracked Dorghar through the menagerie by its sulfurous stench. When he found it he vaulted on to its back. The Steed of the Apocalypse changed shape and burst into flames, but Archaon was able to break it like a wayward stallion and escape from the Realm of Chaos.
Eventually, he sought a legendary Chaos Blade, known by many as the Slayer of Kings which was the sacred blade of Vangel, the second Everchosen. He bound the Greater Daemon U'zuhl into the blade, and the millennia of imprisonment have sent it insane with rage and fury. It was said to rest at the top of Chimera Plateau, located near the roof of the world, where Archaon and his steed Dorghar has journeyed.
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