The most exceptional of the Naja Orb Trackers are given the honour of riding into battle atop a Ratha, after displaying unerring aim in key battles. While this is a rare and genuine prize, most veteran Spitting Naja are displeased with this new arrangement as their solitary nature and guileful tactics are at odds with the use of such a visible form of warfare. Despite this, the Naja do learn to enjoy the benefits that a chariot can offer to their grim duty. With a mobile platform, the Naja can rapidly reach an enemy and let loose a volley of projectile venom before rumbling away before the enemy can strike back. The Naja disdain the use of the halberds or Reticulator netguns of the Sarpa charioteers, as they deem both as insulting to the biological weapons that they inherently possess and venerate the Blood Naga Queen for bestowing upon them such gifts. The snake-like flailed hooks are also absent from their chariots, as the Naja prefer to stay away from close combat.
Unlike the more cumbersome Chorakhe-drawn chariots of the Sarpa, the Naja chariots are drawn by a rare and haunting breed of Beastmen found only in Khuresh known as the Orobagor. With the head of a feral horse and unusually long hooved legs, these creatures appear like some abhorrent amalgamation of horse and ghoul. Their bodies continuously emit light smoke that smell of incense and their dark mane is composed of sharp spines. Often found lurking around forested hills staring blankly into the distance with milky eyes or stooped over the ground near the vicinity of large hag trees the emaciated-looking Orobagor seem listless upon cursory inspection until they start moving.
Also called the Phantom Werehorse, the Orobagor is another byproduct of primeval experiments abandoned to the wilds in the madness of the Incursion, heavily suffused with Dhar by the Hinterlands’ blighted environment. Though horse-headed Beastmen are an uncommon mutation within the myriad ranks of the Cloven Ones, the Werehorse of Khuresh is unique for its intrinsically magical nature. Naturally fast, the Orobagor’s aspect blurs into afterimages the longer one keeps their eyes on the creature, bewildering viewers of the being’s true position until the Werehorse is right on top of them or a mile away even as it seems stationary. As it travels, the Orobagor leaves sorcerous trails that wound reality, dragging objects and people that make contact with the shadowy strands into copses miles away, into regions of the Beast-Paths or in rare cases directly into the Dreaming Wood that permeates the damned peninsula in their wake. The undergrowth curls and splits before these creatures as they run pell-mell in chaotic races from one landmark to the next.
With their powerful legs and supernatural abilities the Orobagor is the swiftest Beastmen breed within Khuresh, outpacing even Centigors within the tangled jungles of the Hinterlands. Fully aware of their power, the Werehorses take sadistic pleasure in torturing the senses of sentient creatures that blunder into their Blood-Grounds and leading them astray to their doom.
Unsurprisingly, the Beastmen-hunting Orb Trackers view these beings as choice quarry and consider it a mark of distinction within their ranks to dominate teams of Orobagor as their slaves. Through the centuries of ceaseless hunts the Naja have perfected a ritual to reliably control the Phantom Werehorse, seeing potential in their uncanny gifts that would be better off serving the cause of the Blood Naga Queens.
The veteran Naja make use of ensorcelled flayed hides of Bray Shamans worn inside-out to ward off the strange magic of the Orobagor and in the event that they do get affected, simply guide themselves back to their prior location with their mutated Morrslieb-attuned eye. The Naja can disable the Werehorse’s powers temporarily with a well-aimed shot to the eye, though the creature will regenerate from the damage quite quickly. In this brief window of near-helplessness as the creature thrashes madly, the Naja deftly plucks the thickest spine out of the Orobagor’s mane and places it within a specially-constructed talisman of binding. Subdued thusly the Orobagor is placed under a curse of compulsion to serve its new master , which customarily leads to making up a team that draws the Naja’s Ratha.
The chariots of the Naja are typically longer than the Sarpa’s, as the six Orobagor that provide locomotion are each separately collared to a flexible chain-linked shaft that allows for easier means of changing direction. It bends in response to erratic movements, resulting in a distinctive type of lateral undulation that allows the Naja Chariot to weave its way in and out of combat.
Dubbed Mazeracers, the veteran Naja that employ teams of enslaved Orobagor are marked by a yellow and black band tracing their serpentine bodies. They comprise roughly half the vanguard of a marga’s forces and are deployed as solitary units in battle, as the Mazeracers are even more egotistical than other Naja and the confounding magic concentrated around the chariot endangers even their own allies. Through prolonged contact the Orobagor’s abilities infuse the chariot structure, allowing the steering Naja to misdirect and displace entire enemy regiments as the chariots skirt the army's flanks. The elite of these Naja charioteers are known to disappear and reappear at will in a blur as they careen down the twisting roads of unreality navigable only to them.
In 1715 IC, a splinter group of Greenskins from the WAAAGH of Gorbad Ironclaw traveled far to the East after his mysterious disappearance. Searching for their legendary Warboss, the Greenskins decide that travelling east in a singular direction is the best way of finding him. Not knowing much about directions or the terrain, the Greenskins decide that sticking near the sea is a good idea as “Da koast iz simple ta rememba.” While the Greenskins enjoy the fights that occur along the coastal settlements of the Sea of Dread, the Naga of the Hinterlands’ western coasts realise the danger posed by this marauding force. Even if the foolish Greenskins stick to their plan of following the coast, they will eventually reach Khuresh. Such a distraction is not required, especially during the season of research. While some Naga argue to create newer forms of Toil-Puppets or even a chance to catch this ‘Gorbad’, the majority want the force destroyed or at least rerouted. In response, a force of Snake Men is sent forward to harass the Greenskins while they are still in Ind, conducting daily ambushes and luring them to Indish cities.
With the Greenskins proving too numerous to confront directly, the Naja move through the night with unbelievable swiftness and harry the Greenskins constantly in the flanks, phasing back into the darkness while the Orcs can barely catch a glimpse of their assailants. Knowing the Greenskins adore fighting, the Naja charioteers thought to lure them away to a new northern direction. The plan is a success as the bewildered and blinded Orcs, led by the Orc Warboss Ollow ‘eadbeata, are led to the Mountains of Mourn where they suffer attrition from the elements and fall into fighting with a conspicuously green-painted Ogre. The Mountains of Mourn echoed to the sound of a very strange conflict until the Goldtooth tribe eventually restored order.
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