Kingdom of the Arterial Steppe
WHERE BLOOD MAKES THE GRASS GROW
Among the sweeping plains of Hysh, there is perhaps none so blighted as the Arterial Steppe. This vast grassland is resplendent with wildlife, though it all seeks one thing and one thing above all--blood for the Blood God. Yea, it is that upon these lands stalk daemons and beasts alike with serrated teeth and horns sharpened into sword-points, but none are so fearsome as to challenge the masters of the savannah. High above, on a guarded plateau, sits the domain of King Tiberias Calore the Silver-blooded, one of Khorne’s Mighty Lords. From here, great conquests are begun in the name of the Blood God, to claim worthy skulls for the Brass Citadel and more subjects for the Mighty Lord to dominate. Throughout the Age of Chaos and yet still in the Age of Sigmar, the taint of the Arterial Steppe has bled through more and more of the Realm of Light, but even in this blood-darkened hellscape, King Tiberias finds no satisfaction. Not until he has what he truly desires. Not until he has one worthy enough to be called his Red Queen. “It is by no accident that we are here today. It is by Khorne’s will that we were forged into the glorious kingdom we are at present! If you only knew of the eightfold trials I endured to be so blessed, perhaps you would not speak so thoughtlessly…”Structure
In the interest of strengthening his kingdom, King Tiberias and the Bloodbound who serve him conduct their conquests in a highly specific fashion. Slaughterpriests serving as the clergymen of the territory divine when and where Khorne demands his offerings of battle, with a pair sent to lead the army to the sight of new conquests, with one of the king’s Bloodsecrators along to declare to dominion of the Silver-blooded. Often, a beast-taming Bloodstoker is tasked with herding a pair of fierce, skull-starved Khorgoraths into the heart of the enemy, the crack of their torturous whip the only thing able to control the creatures’ savage hunger. It is also the duty of the Bloodstoker to drive captured warriors, sacrifices, and most importantly, women, back to Calore’s castle once the battle is over.
Alongside these heroes are the king’s faithful knights, warriors of significant renown who, at some point or another, were deemed blessed by the Blood God. Clad in heavy blood-red plate armor lined with regal silver, these Blood Warriors are responsible for much of the carnage caused in Khorne’s name and are famed for the modification of their shields into Gorefists, capable of defense and supplementary offense. A large following of Bloodreavers shamble behind this royal procession, weapons and armor chained to their unnaturally musclebound bodies. This is the Honorless Horde, made up of lowly serfs deemed weak and destined to die as sacrifices to the Blood God. They are disciplined by a horribly mutated Exalted Deathbringer, whose inspired fear among the members of the Horde has led to the growth of horns upon the Deathbringer’s head.
The Honorless Horde is sent in first, filled with a murderous frenzy and brazen fury by the pair of Slaughterpriests exhorting them to glory, and forcefully draws the attention of the settlement’s most troublesome defenders, while the more mobile groups of knights are tasked with clearing out the weaker elements of the opposing force. As the last of the Bloodreavers are slain, the remaining defenders rise to see that they have become surrounded with no other choice but to surrender or suffer the same fate as their butchered enemies. Should they yield, the defenders are judged by the Slaughterpriests--representing the will of Khorne--and the Bloodsecrator--representing the will of the king. Those of good physical stock and martial prowess are offered a place in service to the king, be it as future knights or strategists or to serve in more mundane roles. Those judged as cowardly and weak-willed are allowed to live, but only among the damned Honorless Horde.
Culture
“Unto me you shall give an offering: eighty-eight daughters of your city. If Khorne does indeed favor this wretched place, you will have the honor of having finally revealed my Red Queen.”
Wealth, food, and power have long since been established as commonplace in the kingdom of the Arterial Steppe--a given, earned by right of conquest and through Khorne’s favor--and it is in the interest of keeping this favor that their expansion continues. It is similarly by way of these conquests that King Tiberias acquires a resource far more elusive and far more valuable to him than anything else: women.
This is not to say that the kingdom is absolutely devoid of females--quite the contrary--but more that the king’s desire for more is insatiable. He will not rest until his finds his perfect match, one such as she who was stolen from him long ago. To this end, it is tradition for the territories subjugated by the Silver-blooded to offer up their daughters for a ritual known as Queenstrial.
Taking place every eight years, Queenstrial is an event unlike any other on the Arterial Steppe, calling the attention of every major figure under the Silver-blooded’s dominion. For those beneath the King, Queenstrial presents an opportunity to curry favor with their leader by offering participants or otherwise a chance to establish the continuance of their bloodline. However, for the participants, Queenstrial is a desperate fight for survival.
Armed with little more than a simple blade and sparse armor, women deemed worthy to participate are tasked with surviving a series of grueling challenges in order to prove themselves before Khorne and the entire kingdom as worthy to claim the throne alongside King Tiberias. First, an aspirant must contest one of the Honorless Horde, before facing a chaotic beast of the Steppe (most commonly a Raptoryx or Rocktusk Prowler). By this stage, the weak-willed and unskilled have been rooted out and much of the nobles’ idle attentions are drawn more into focus as the strong reveal themselves. The third challenge pits aspirants against a hulking Bullgor, while the fourth pits them against one of the King’s own knights. Women who reach this stage catch the eye of the King’s servants, having proved themselves sufficiently strong enough to bear along the next generation of Blood Warriors and Skullcrushers. The knights aim not to claim the skull of their opposing aspirant, but rather to simply claim victory in single combat. Compared to the series of threats and bargains a knight has to make in order to even lay claim to these promising aspirants, ensuring the exhausted woman’s defeat is seemingly simple.
However, there are a rare few who overcome their more skilled opponents, who are so blessed by Khorne as to be able to persevere through a Blood Warrior’s relentless death throes and claim their skull. It is these few that draw the attention of the King himself. For their final trial, the King descends his throne and strikes the aspirant once with his reality-splitting axe. Only one woman has ever survived this attack: the Queen-Apparent, Evangeline.
Those who fail, those who prove unworthy, water the land with their blood, ensuring the grass of the Arterial Steppe grows evermore…
History
The story of the Silver-blooded’s obsession can be traced back to the very inception of the Age of Chaos. In this time, Tiberias Calore was the heir to one of an array of noble houses upon what would become the Arterial Steppe. He held no end of approval among them, having proved himself the staunchest defender of the territory and even curried significant favor with the priesthood of Sigmar, becoming betrothed to a priestess whose name has been lost to history. On the eve of their wedding day, the collective jealousy of Tiberias’s spurned lovers proved a tantalizing lure for the forces of Slaanesh’s Invaders, who descended upon the plain with little warning. At the urgings of his younger brother, Prince Maven, Tiberias fled with much the rest of the court, leaving his betrothed and her party to the mercy of their god. Lightning flashed and cracked across the sky, as the priests rejoined in summonings of Sigmar’s wrath. When the storm broke, not a single Sigmarite corpse could be found buried amongst the mounds of dead Daemonettes.
Enraged by the disappearance of his beloved and the destruction of his lands, Tiberias sought revenge against the bewitching Invaders and fell deep into the thrall of Khorne. Those “impure of blood” were slaughtered, their offerings to the Blood God reversing the damage wrought by the Slaaneshi by way of making the land all the more dangerous for those unfamiliar with it. The weak were routinely culled and cannibalized until, at last, only the most worthy remained under Tiberias’s rule. As bringer of this “return to glory”, the Silver-blooded was promptly declared sovereign ruler of the newly christened Arterial Steppe.
“Onward, my brothers! Let our offering of blood birth a war fit to please the Blood God!”
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