Warhammer 2 Norsca

[Doria Vilcan]

Say what you will of us, call us heathens because we deny your weak pretender-god. Call us savages because we strike at you, but know this -- it is we who are closest to the Ruinous Powers. We, most favoured of the gods, shall burn your lands, revel in your suffering, and destroy you. Despair! For all that remains for you is the taste of northern steel and the end of your world. Such is the will of the gods."

NorscaAn Imperial map of the lands of Norsca to the north of the civilised realms of the Old World.LocationNorthern Old WorldClimateArctic tundraGeographical

RegionsSea of ClawsConstituent

StatesBaersonling's Camp

Aesling's Conclave

Sarl Encampment

Graeling MootDominant

RacesMen

FimirMinor

RacesTrollsNorsca is a frigid, arctic peninsula and Human cultural region located in the far north of the Old World, though not officially considered a cultural or historical part of it by southern scholars. Norsca lies on the very doorstep of the northern Chaos Wastes themselves. It is bordered to the south by the freezing waters of the Sea of Claws, to the north by the Sea of Chaos and the Chaos Wastes, and to the east by the roving Kurgan tribes of the Eastern Steppes.[1a]

Norsca is inhabited by a race of savage and ferocious Men known variously as Norscans, Norsemen or the Norse. Long ago, in the time of Sigmar, when these people still inhabited the northern lands of what would become the Empire, they were known as the Norsii.[1a]

Suffused with the unholy energies of Chaos by its proximity to the ruined Warp Gate of the Old Ones that lies at the northern pole of the Known World, Norsca is a brutal realm where no one ruler holds sway. Instead, the bleak and brutal landscape is divided amongst the barbaric kingdoms and territories of many bloodthirsty and warlike tribes of Northmen, ruled by dark-armoured Chaos Champions and Chaos Lords blessed by the favour of the Chaos Gods, and who are thus held up as akin to royalty by their brethren.[7c]

Fur-clad warriors and berserkers of hairy brawn, the wrathful barbarians of Norsca sail the seas in fearsome longships and unleash their devastating fury upon the civilised realms of the south. Warlike and cruel, the Norscans are the very epitome of the Warriors of Chaos; fanatically devoted champions of the Dark Gods and the baneful scourge of their foes.[1a][2a][3a] The brutality of Norscan raids has been felt as far abroad as the Witch King's baleful Dark Elven domain of Naggaroth, as well as the mysterious Far Eastern empire of mighty Grand Cathay,[35] for the Men of Norsca are reckoned to be perhaps the most adept sailors and navigators in all the Known World;[1a] unequaled by any in their courage and reckless thirst for conquest.[1a][2a][3a]

Norscans are, without exception, great warriors, blessed with incredible strength at arms and fearsome demeanours.[7b][51b] It is the dream of nearly every member of this fierce people to ascend to the ranks of the greatest warriors -- to become mighty Champions of Chaos and bear the dread marks of their ruinous gods' favour.[7c][51b]

Norsca is a savage and brutal land, plagued by lethal winters for more than half the year, and worse, lashed perpetually by raging gales of Chaos energies howling down from the ancient ruins of the Old Ones' fallen Warp Gate resting at the very heart of the northern Chaos Wastes.[7a] As such, no sane Human being would be able to survive in this harsh wasteland with their sanity intact.

It is for this reason that most, if not all the tribes of the Norscans, are affected to some extent by the power of Chaos, causing their flesh to warp and mutate through the influences of their gods, and their minds to be plunged into the darkest depths of the most violent insanity. The Norscans see these alterations as the "blessings" of their dreadful deities, which empower them to strive above and conquer all who oppose them. Barbarous, hard-bitten and war-like, the Men of Norsca form the hardendec core of the armies of the Warriors of Chaos.[1a]

There are many different theories amongst the scholars of the Old World regarding the origins of the Norscans. Some aver that the Norscans are the descendants of Daemons, a race of bloodthirsty monsters whose very existence is at odds with the natural order,[7a] while others argue that they are a race of Giants and kin to the hulking denizens of the Ogre Kingdoms. Yet others submit that the Norsemen are supernatural creatures of ice and snow, born of the merciless winds of winter.[7a]

In truth, the ethnogenesis of the Norscans begins with their ancestors, the Norsii, an ancient tribe of northern barbarians who had long venerated the Chaos Gods, particularly the Blood God Kharneth. Ancient sagas record that during the cataclysmic events of the Fall of the Old Ones, when Chaos first burst forth into the Known World, that tribes of primitive Men made common cause with the Daemonic hordes, creating unholy pacts with Chaos' dark lords and binding their people to their worship. Thus were born the first of the Warriors of Chaos, and the Norsii were among those first tribes of the Northmen to pledge their souls to Chaos, alongside the ancestors of the Kurgan and Hung. Riding as the vanguard of the Chaos hordes, these barbarous mortal tribes brought ruin and devastation upon the gleaming kingdoms of Dwarf and Elf, and so were the mighty bastions of Order humbled by their brutal onslaught,[3d] and untold millions were slain.

The much later records of the Norse Dwarf clans, most significant being the Chronicle of Dread Yngvarr Iovarsson, make mention of several specific tribes of warlike Men, far outstripping the tribes of what would become the Empire in their savagery and bellicosity, migrating and settling in the northernmost parts of the Old World, these being the lands later to become Kislev, Nordland, and Ostland. Most significant among these groups were the horse-bound Ungols, the grim Frikings, the Tor-worshiping Roppsmenn, and, most notably, the savage, bloodbound Norsii tribes, such as the brutal warriors of the ferocious Iron Wolves clan, and others besides.[12a]

The migration of the northern tribes of Men is dated reliably in the Norse Dwarf chronicles as having taken place in -1012 IC, putting it roughly 20 years prior to the later Blackfire Pass migration of the Hunberokin, Teutokin, Merokin, and other Imperial precursor tribes.[12a] The Norsii settled in their new homelands, raiding and pillaging their neighbours for additional resources and to catch the eyes of their malefic deities.[8]

Imperial legends from before the age of Sigmar narrate how, having been pushed to their limits by the conquests of the Norsii, the southerly tribes had banded together into a great host to push the Norsii to the uttermost northern lands of the Reik Basin, confining the brutal raiders to the lands above the Middle Mountains for centuries.[8] Other Norsii clans were driven yet further back to the Chaos Wastes themselves, where they were believed by the southern tribes to have perished. This was not the case, however, and it was in these unholy lands that the Norsii were able to indulge themselves more freely in the gifts of the Chaos Gods, and connect themselves more deeply with the darkest aspects of their violent beliefs. These black-armoured Chaos Marauders would return to their kinfolk in black-prowed longships, rising to lead their kinsmen in warfare.[7a]

As one of the earliest Human tribes to settle the Reik Basin, the Norsii may have also participated in the massacre of the peaceful agriculturist tribes that had settled the area previously. Likely alongside the Roppsmenn and the Teutogens, the Norsii are also known to have contended mightily with the Udoses, having raided and despoiled the lands of their enemies on countless occasions. In 9 IC, the Norsii under their High King Cormac Bloodaxe assaulted the Udoses' capital city and slew King Wolfilla and his entire family, crucifying their bodies upon the walls of their own palace.[9]

Barbarous and warlike, even beyond that of the Teutogen or the Ungols, the Norsii were ever the bane of their southerly neighbours, despised and feared for their brutality and consummate skill at warfare. It was only under the rule of Sigmar Heldenhammer that the ferocious Sea-Wolves of the Norsii were held at bay, and finally driven from the Empire for all time to people their bleak homeland in the Chaos Wastes.[8]

As the chosen people of the Ruinous Powers, the Norsii had seen it as their right and duty to butcher and plunder the tribes of the south, laying low all who dared to oppose them, virtually unchallenged until the rise of blessed Sigmar.[8]

Pleased by the ferocity of their servants, the Dark Gods bestowed the Norsii with the blessings of Chaos, increasing their indomitable might and making them as wolves amongst sheep. Forever on the fringes of the southern lands, the Norsii became a fearsome race of skilled fighters, and many vicegerents of the Dark Gods had served as advisers to the northern tribes, guiding and shaping their destinies, preparing the Norsii for their role as the harbingers of the End Times.

The depredations of the Norsii are described in grandiose terms by the legends of the age of Sigmar; speaking of hulking Norscans bedecked in heavy black plate, wielding brutal axes and kite shields taller than any man. Of towering armoured horsemen hefting huge iron lances, mounted upon great destriers with burning red eyes. Of dark shamans who summoned forth Daemons of blood and fire to fight alongside the armies of the Norsii. Of dark, majestic warrior-kings of unsurpassed martial might, who dwelt within black halls of iron and beheaded and gutted their enemies within their fortresses in praise of the cruel gods they so faithfully worshipped. Indeed, few had faced the warhosts of the Norsemen and lived to speak of it; those who had tried were simply butchered violently and left as a sacrifice to the brazen war-god of the Northmen.[26]

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