Lore Question: Mordenheim

**IrishBlood** · April 06, 2012, 09:34 PM

I've always wondered about the city, since it starts off with such a massive stack of chaos units guarding it. whats its position in the grand scheme of things? I know the skaven tried to blow it up, but they were stopped right, so how did the empire lose the city?

This is just something i was curious about and has bugged me for some time

**oberst_ag** · April 06, 2012, 11:44 PM

The bribed the emperor so he let them go.

**Posantio of Umbria** · April 07, 2012, 10:03 AM

Originally Posted by oberst_ag

The bribed the emperor so he let them go.

That would be Marienburg, who bought independence from the notoriously incompetent emperor Boris Goldgather. Boris was extremely extravagant and always in need of more money for his palaces and parties. Also greatly neglecting the Imperial army... which was of course extremely stupid given the nature of the warhammer world!
And of course, during Grom the Paunch's waagh into the Empire (and later to Ulthuan) and almost lost the Empire by being a coward who cared only for his own safety and did nothing to stop the Goblin Warlord, he even moved the Capital from Nuln to Altdorf to save his skin (Nuln was sacked, including his Golden Palace)... Karl Franz's Grandfather, Wilhelm of Holsweig-Schliestein, the Prince of Reikland stepped up to the defence of the Empire and after Grom left Boris was deposed and Wilhelm elected Emperor in his stead.

**oberst_ag** · April 07, 2012, 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by Posantio of Umbria

That would be Marienburg, who bought independence from the notoriously incompetent emperor Boris Goldgather. Boris was extremely extravagant and always in need of more money for his palaces and parties. Also greatly neglecting the Imperial army... which was of course extremely stupid given the nature of the warhammer world!
And of course, during Grom the Paunch's waagh into the Empire (and later to Ulthuan) and almost lost the Empire by being a coward who cared only for his own safety and did nothing to stop the Goblin Warlord, he even moved the Capital from Nuln to Altdorf to save his skin (Nuln was sacked, including his Golden Palace)... Karl Franz's Grandfather, Wilhelm of Holsweig-Schliestein, the Prince of Reikland stepped up to the defence of the Empire and after Grom left Boris was deposed and Wilhelm elected Emperor in his stead.

Oh yes i was tired and missread

sily me.

**Posantio of Umbria** · April 08, 2012, 04:20 AM

No biggie, I was wrong about which emperor sold Marienburg though! 't was not Boris Goldgather, but Dieter IV, according to the pop-up if you move an agent/army into the Marienburg area.

**Ichon** · April 07, 2012, 01:02 AM

A meteor of warpstone hit Mordenheim about 500 years before CoW begins and turned most who remained after the blast into mutants, some humans remained outwardly the same but twisted inwardly. Bands from all the Chaos and undead cultures descended on Mordenheim to gather warpstone and savage fighting ensued. Witch hunters and some other humans from the Empire entered the city to cleanse it while Skaven tunneled to try and retrieve warpstone from beneath. It's not exactly clear what the status of the city is in 2500 that I know of... the walls exist and much of the upper city has been cleansed(at least outwardly, more humans there worship Chaos than any other place in the Empire) while the Skaven still lurk below are mostly of clan Eshin still but other clans know of the warpstone now there is very little left, or at least that is what said aloud.

The doom hemisphere was blow Middenheim not Mordenheim.

**IrishBlood** · April 07, 2012, 06:00 AM

Originally Posted by Ichon

A meteor of warpstone hit Mordenheim about 500 years before CoW begins and turned most who remained after the blast into mutants, some humans remained outwardly the same but twisted inwardly. Bands from all the Chaos and undead cultures descended on Mordenheim to gather warpstone and savage fighting ensued. Witch hunters and some other humans from the Empire entered the city to cleanse it while Skaven tunneled to try and retrieve warpstone from beneath. It's not exactly clear what the status of the city is in 2500 that I know of... the walls exist and much of the upper city has been cleansed(at least outwardly, more humans there worship Chaos than any other place in the Empire) while the Skaven still lurk below are mostly of clan Eshin still but other clans know of the warpstone now there is very little left, or at least that is what said aloud.

The doom hemisphere was blow Middenheim not Mordenheim.

Ahh ok, well in that case maybe the city should be garrisoned with alot more heritic empire units as opposed to regular chaos ones.

It seems a bit strange that the emperor wouldnt have ordered the complete purge of the city, send a full army and have them wipe the place off the face of the earth, as opposed to just having witchhunters try to clean things up by themselves. Oh well, im sure the various emperors in their wisdom knew what they were doing

Ahhhhh I always get confused between the various cities

cheers for the info, + rep

**Ekaddon** · April 07, 2012, 06:04 AM

Mordheim is the city you are looking for, not Mordenheim.

There is/was a tabletop game set in the city of Mordheim, with witch hunters, gangs and warbands. Info is readily available by google. As well as the lore/rulebooks that provide even more background.

**Himster** · April 07, 2012, 09:11 AM

It shouldn't count as a city by rights. It's been flatened, it's a field of ruins occupied by rival gangs (not armies), it is rich in resources, but is contaminated (far worse than Praag) it cannot be rebuilt.

It was destroyed by a twin tailed comet (heralding the return of Sigmar in the guise of Magnus the pious) containing the entity called Be'lakor (the dark master/shadowlord) the first mortal elevated to daemonhood, who is plagued by vanity and ego, and immense power. As punisment for his up-startedness the chaos gods punished him with banishment and insanity and as further punishment he's forced to crown the ever-chosen (a position he thinks he deserves), at the moment of their coronations he is permitted sanity and can come to the mortal realm, temporarily. When he was meant to crown Asavar-Kul he disobeyed the gods and crashed to earth (Mordheim) to take mortal form and destroy Asavar-Kul and take his place as the ever-chosen to lead the forces of chaos to final victory. But his power was tied to Mordheim and could not physically leave, after a time of commanding his followers to gather warp-stone to power a spell to release him he gives up. His next attempt was in Albion, later he tried to take the Crown of domination from Archaon at his coronation, but failed. He's now powerful to take physical form in the storm of chaos.

There's an interesting conspiracy surrounding Be'lakor. Some people posit that he is the replacement for Malal (the fifth chaos God) who was invented by a writer who no longer works for GW, so Malal is no longer an official part of warhammer mythology, Be'lakor is very similar to Malal.

Anyway: nobody can hold mordheim, there is no single populaion, every faction lays claim to it. At the end of the last great war Magnus Pious set what remined of the ruins alight, but afraid of the taint as he was never ventured within to inspect the destruction, some of the ruins remain, there is still warp-stone and warbands still vie for control. Magnus also erased all reference to the city from all available history books. In my view what should be in CoW is no city but rather a grouping of very valuable resource/trading points, and rebel assassins/merchants to make taking advantage of these resources risky.

**fireblade** · April 10, 2012, 01:08 AM

Originally Posted by Himster

It was destroyed by a twin tailed comet (heralding the return of Sigmar in the guise of Magnus the pious) containing the entity called Be'lakor (the dark master/shadowlord) the first mortal elevated to daemonhood, who is plagued by vanity and ego, and immense power. As punisment for his up-startedness the chaos gods punished him with banishment and insanity and as further punishment he's forced to crown the ever-chosen (a position he thinks he deserves), at the moment of their coronations he is permitted sanity and can come to the mortal realm, temporarily. When he was meant to crown Asavar-Kul he disobeyed the gods and crashed to earth (Mordheim) to take mortal form and destroy Asavar-Kul and take his place as the ever-chosen to lead the forces of chaos to final victory. But his power was tied to Mordheim and could not physically leave, after a time of commanding his followers to gather warp-stone to power a spell to release him he gives up. His next attempt was in Albion, later he tried to take the Crown of domination from Archaon at his coronation, but failed. He's now powerful to take physical form in the storm of chaos.

Well, that's not exactly correct.

The appearance of the twin-tailed comet that coincided with the destruction of Mordheim was 200 years before magnus the pious and Asavar Kul. Be'lakor did attempt to break free from the curse placed on him by the chaos gods, but that was before he had to crown Asavar-Kul. According to the sixth edition army book: warriors of Chaos, Be'Lakor, seeing his attempts to break free in mordheim fail, was forced to crown Asavar-Kul.

Him trying to take the crown of Domination from Archaon, I don't really recall where the source for that one is.

Yeah I think there is some mention of Mordheim having some population by 2500 as it was 2200 that the city was burned

Mordheim was destroyed in 1999, not 2200.

**Ichon** · April 10, 2012, 12:31 PM

Originally Posted by fireblade

Mordheim was destroyed in 1999, not 2200.

The comet came in 1999, Magnus the Pious after fighting in Kislev on his way back sent his army to Mordheim and burned the remaining Mordheim in 2200 as there was still alot of Chaos activity there but it wasn't a functioning city at that point. However the wooden buildings burned and much of the rest of the city was damaged by the intense heat as some small pieces of warpstone and dust remained which melted in the fire releasing Chaos energy in uncontrolled manner. Most of the walls and parts of the undercity remained after the fire however and for heretics, beastmen, and Skaven the city remains a draw both due to its history and the small chance of some remaining warpstone being present. Clan Eshin has reported to the Council that there is hardly any warpstone left... however whether that is really true or not is difficult to know and Clan Eshin still defends their tunnels there so?

**Himster** · April 11, 2012, 06:41 AM

Originally Posted by fireblade

Well, that's not exactly correct.

The appearance of the twin-tailed comet that coincided with the destruction of Mordheim was 200 years before magnus the pious and Asavar Kul. Be'lakor did attempt to break free from the curse placed on him by the chaos gods, but that was before he had to crown Asavar-Kul. According to the sixth edition army book: warriors of Chaos, Be'Lakor, seeing his attempts to break free in mordheim fail, was forced to crown Asavar-Kul.

Ah yes. I thought there were only 3 comets.........I put two and two together (so to speak), but there were actually four comets.

Him trying to take the crown of Domination from Archaon, I don't really recall where the source for that one is.

White Dwarf 270. It's roughly the same story in the warriors of chaos, but there's more detail in the white dwarf, like the details of the battle between archaon and the bloodthirster and how archaon nearly drowns in a canal of blood but is saved by his sword. Kickass stuff.

**Ichon** · April 07, 2012, 11:36 AM

Yeah I think there is some mention of Mordheim having some population by 2500 as it was 2200 that the city was burned. The walls, sewers and most of undercity survived burning. Necromancers and warbands are mostly gone hut heretics, beastmen, and skaven are still around. If Skaven are given a city within Empire it would be a decent.choice. The current 10,000 population is a bit much though I think.