Wednesday 19 March 2014

Faith and Piety - Background for the Witch Hunter

Hail Children of Technology!

As promised, here is the fluff for my Witch Hunter warband, I'll be doing fluff for each of the warbands that I make and I have plans on doing a few so keep a look out. hope you enjoy and feel free to comment below.

The Order of the Golden Cross

Witch Hunter Warband


The Order of the Golden Cross was originally founded in Wurtbad, Stirland in the year of our lord Sigmar 2509, by the local militia as a perminent deterant to the public not to stray from the path of piety after numerous accounts of strange goings on in the city. No more than a bunch of thugs at its outset, the count had given the men full reign of the law and the power of executioner as long as they were to hold up the faith of Sigmar and the Emperors justice. Wurtbad itself was home to one of the only secret hideouts of the Brotherhood of the Shroud in the Empire; the secretive and logically driven sub-cult of the god Morr who's service was to rooting out the taint of undeath; so it was not long before the Brotherhood brought their attentions towards this new and carelessly agressive band of men.

Approaching their leader under cover of night, a member of the Brotherhood offered the order help in their cause with arms and training and even some of their own members to bolster the ranks. This first offer was refused and the Brother arrested and tried as a conspiritor against the order and an agitator. The Brother was taken to the Order's holdings, a manor-house within the city dubbed the Black Fort. No one had even been seen returning from its heavy iron-bound doors unless they were already a member of the order. 

The Brotherhood send out another plea to the order, finding one of the members in a tavern surrounded by company of an ill repute. The member of the order was adorned with jewels and fine clothes and had developed a paunch, he ignored the words of the Brother and quickly shunned him in favour of female comany and mead. The Brother asked the bartender from whence did such finery come and was told that the order had been sponsored by the Lady Monique Voldenbach, a noble who had appeared in the city not too long ago. Had the order been corrupted by wealth and other pleasures of the flesh?

The Brotherhood mobilised. Sending its best men to investigate this noble woman and find out what her agenda was in buying off the order. Seeking her out at the Voldenbach estate, the Brotherhood's finest slipped unbeknowst to her bodyguards at the gate and entered her home. What the Brotherhood were to find was not what they were expecting. Tomes of unspeakable horror lining her bookcases in an extensive library of necromanic knowledge, a dungeon-like cellar ladened with bones and the Lady herself in mid-ritual. The Lady was no lady at all but a foul vampire spawn, an ancient and powerful Lahmian!

Her plot unravelled in the minds of the Brothers present. Transfixing her bodyguards with her undead sorcery, posing herself as a noblewoman and inserting herself into the heriarchy of Wurtbad, taking control of the order by their desire for power and wealth; she was free to run riot and position herself to take the city, and by extention the entire province for her own! The Brotherhood would not stand for this but they needed help. 

Loosing their three best members to the vile creature upon their retreat from her manor, the Brothers were weakened considerably but not defeated. They saw that any accusation thrown in the open about the Lady Monique would bring about their end at the hands of her bodyguards and the order, so cunning had to be the weapon of choice. One of the Brotherhood's members secreted a note to the order telling them of a Ball that was to be held in the city a month from then and that each of the order was to be invited and that they should extend the invitation to their patron, offering her the chance to mingle with guests from as far as Tilea. 

The invitation worked wonders and soon the order was buzzing with excitement for this night of frivolity held in their honour. The night came and the order and their patron arrived at the ball but to a welcome they were not expecting. The main hall, which had been expected to be full of foreign dignitaries and fine food and wine was instead lined entirely with mirrors. The doors barred behind them to see no reflection of their patron apon the walls. drawing swords, the order turned upon their master and in a fit of bloody violence were nearly ripped limb from limb by the raging fury of the vampire. Escaping by smashing her way through the barred door and away into the night, the Lady Monique slipped through the grasp of the Brotherhood that night but they had suceeded in another way.

The Order of the Golden Cross was reformed that night. The surviving members becoming nothing more than prophets of doom, flagellants for their sins against the Lord Sigmar and making a pact with the Brotherhood of the Shroud to hunt down the Dark Lady Monique Voldenbach and slay her once and for all. Witch Hunters, Templar Knights, Scourges of the Unholy, Pious men of faith and many others from Stirland and neihboring provinces were to fill the ranks of the Golden Cross as well as priests of both Morr and Sigmar, working all together to find and kill the vile Vampiric taint from the lands of the empire forever.


 Hope you enjoyed that little peice of prose. I'll have more details on the current members of the warband and their individual backstories in the near future so stay tuned for that and as I mentioned above feel free to comment below about the story, witch hunters or anything else that takes your fancy.

So until next time, Keep your blades enriched with Deeds of Violence!

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