New Arrivals

In 35PC the world of Palurin first became aware of a new threat to the free peoples of the lands, when Dark Elf corsairs were sighted for the first time by the principle nations of Canaur and Cullinor. Otto II was informed by his scouts that they had seen the raiders roving the lands of Armaethor to the south, and that pioneers setting out in that direction had not been seen or heard from in many weeks.

The Lizar

dmen Empire in Cullinor had better information. They knew that the Dark Elves had arrived some years before and had already set up the beginnings of kingdom on the Isle of Arvin, east of Armaethor, separated by the straits of Angfang. Realising this new power posed a real threat to their own interests, and those of Palurin in general, The great Slaan sent an army south in 35PC.

Once again the Ogre mercenaries of Graag were thrown into the fray and came upon a host of raiding corsairs in the scrublands of Armaethor. After scattering these forces the Ogre forces soon realised a much larger force of Dark Elves had crossed the straits and already controlled much of the land. In late 35PC a mighty battle occurred near the Dark Elf landing grounds and the strength of the Ogre forces broke the Dark Elf host and forced them from the land.

The first Dark elf war, as it later became known, saw further raids by Dark Elf forces and the Lizardmen were forced to keep large standing army in that land to prevent their enemy from moving north. After several smaller inconclu

sive battles in early 44PC, the war came to a climax that summer, when the two nations pitted their entire strength against each other in a titanic struggle for the future of Armaethor.

The battle was close fought, with both sides suffering dreadful losses, but the will of the Dark Elves to dominate Armaethor prevailed, and the Slaan’s armies were cast down before them. The Lizardmen, receiving news of a beastman outbreak far to the north grudgingly accepted that they could not overthrow the Dark Elves for now, and withdrew their forces, leaving the southern parts of Canaur and Cullinor at the mercy of Dark Elf dominion.

Further north, far from the reptilian kingdom itself, another threat loomed large. Tales of forests full of beasts which walked like mea

n abounded between 40 and 46PC, before the mighty warhost of Ug, united by his power, marched south out of the dark woods of the north.

The beastmen horde, numbering countless thousands fell upon the tribes of men of Canabrin, and many turned to the Kaalroen Empire to halt the tide. Tragean, beset by enemies to the north and south, but seeing that the defeat of Ug’s beastmen would secure the dominion of Chaos over all of Canabrin, sent an army north in 47PC, and on the plains to the south of the forest the army of Phallacia met Ug’s army face to face.

The battle of the plains was a brutal affair, with the Chaos warriors inflicting enormous casualties on Ug’s beastmen hordes, but the power of the warlord himself was undeniable, and he smashed apart the Phallacian armies, the defeat leaving a bitter taste in Tragaen’s mouth and thwarting his northward expansion plans, at least for a while.

Ug’s dominion continued to grow, and refugees from Canabrin fled south and west, forced over the mountains by the Kaalroens, who now had no interest in defending the nomadic tribes to the north of their realm. Eventually the Ogres of Graag decided to intervene when Ug’s army reached great dividing mountains, but even the might of the Ogre army could not stop Ug, who scythed through their ranks wreaking utter destruction.

The Ogres fled from Canabrin and by 60PC the beastmen dominion had grown to cover much of the forests of the north under a shadow of fear.