Great Sky War

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Great Sky War
Kharadron Overlords vs Disciples of Tzeentch 02.jpg
The Kharadron Overlords attacking a tzeentchian fortress.
Previous Event Sky Exodus
Major Battles Battle of the First Coalition, Fall of the Thantanik, Blockade of Barak-Zon
Great Epoch Age of Chaos, Age of Sigmar
Location Chamon, Spiral Crux
Status Ongoing
Combatants
Kharadron Overlords
Hammers of Sigmar
Disciples of Tzeentch
Commanders
Hurgrumm Brand
Brokk Grungsson
Drak Grolsson
Tetronomicar
Kairos Fateweaver
Watcher King
Ab-het
Losses
Destruction of Karak Ohrgaf Massive, Many tzeentchian leaders killed or sent back into the void.
Gains
Dominion over the Skies of the Mortal Realms by the Kharadron Overlords Unknown

The Great Sky War is a near-endless series of wars fought over the fate of Chamon and the control of its skyways. More broadly, the Great Sky War dictates the fate of the skies of the Mortal Realms.[1d][1c][1b]

During the Age of Chaos, Tzeentch initiated a plan destined to draw the entire Realm of Chamon into his Crystal Labyrinth. While this scheme is not entirely thwarted even now, the Kharadron Overlords have proved themselves a cunning and tenacious enemy. Over time, these skyfaring Duardin gradually retook control of the Lands of Gold, pushing ever further into tzeentchian territory.[6a][1d][1c]

Age of Chaos

Barak-Zon, first founded of the sky-ports.

Escape to the Clouds

The Great Sky War is initiated during the Sky Exodus, a period in which the Kharadron first sought refuge in the chamonic skies. While unimaginably harsh, these long years of retreat and adversity laid down the foundation of a formidable aerial superpower.[1e][1a]

Chamon’s stratosphere wasn’t the safe heaven that the duardin hoped for, however. As the sky-ports rise into the clouds, Tzeentch's armies gave pursuit.[1e] A desperate flight across the Realm of Metal ensues, forcing thousands of duardin pilots to sell their lives to keep the newfound aerial threats at bay.[1e] These titanic battles amongst the clouds were but the first engagements of the Great Sky War.[3a]

So deadly are the skies of Chamon that not every attempted retreat to the skies was rewarded with success. Out of the countless thousands of inhabitants of Karak Ohrgaf, only three lived to tell the tale of their nascent sky-port. The fate of the others is hinted at in gruesome details when twisted wrecks of skyvessels and mangled duardin corpses begin to rain down from the Chamonic clouds.[7a]

Turning Tides

As kharadron technology advances, they are able to turn the tides of the Great Sky War.

Bolstered by the aether-gold mined by the steamhead pioneers, the science of air travel progresses to the point that several sky-ports boast entire sky-fleets of skyvessels. New conflict erupts as the Disciples of Tzeentch seek to prey upon the kharadron air navies, but duardin war-technology became astonishingly advanced since the Opening of the Sky-Rift, and the forces of Chaos are hurled back on dozens of fronts.[4a]

Time of Reaving

It was precious aether-gold that offered some respite to the Kharadron Overlords. Innovating ever swifter and more efficient methods of extraction, the sky-ports undertook to drain dry every aetherstreams they came up upon.[1a]

Each of the sky-ports needed to gather an ever-increasing amount of aether-gold in order to safeguard their own survival at the expense of their duardin rivals. This frantic competition for resources caused old rivalries and buried grudges to resurface and - despite the ever-present threat of Chaos on the horizon - a civil war between the competing kharadron air powers seemed inevitable.[1a]

Conference of Madralta

On the verge of an all-out civil war that would spell disaster for the emergent civilisation, the leaders of the various sky-ports agreed to meet in council.[1a] Taking place on the floating island of Madralta, the Conference of Madralta saw the leaders of all the developing sky-ports maintain an uneasy truce in order to put an early end to the Time of Reaving.[2a][1a] Even if the debate was far from peaceful, violence frequently threatened to break out at the negotiation table, the imminent doom of their newly found way of life forced the kharadron to compromise.[1a] In an ultimate showcase of pragmatism, the duardin leaders establish a series of common laws that would allow all to prosper. The Kharadron Code was thus born.[1a]

Battle of the First Coalition

Following the Conference of Madralta, the now united Kharadron Empire decide to tackle the horizon spanning armada of the Tetronomicar above the Straits of Helsilver.[1e]

There, Hurgrumm Brand of Barak-Nar, first of the Kharadron Grand Admirals, masterminds a legendary victory that altered the fate of the skyways of the Mortal Realms. Outnumbered at least two to one, Hurgrumm Brand splits his fleet into multiple smaller formations capable of outmanoeuvring the monumental crystal barges of the Tetronomicar. Aboard Nazgrund, arguably the most legendary kharadron skyvessel, Grand Admiral Brand directs his swift forces to blast the daemonic crystal barges into shards one by one.[1e]

Though the Kharadron were ultimately victorious, Grand Admiral Hurgrumm Brand is slain during the battle, his flesh turned to silver by a Lord of Change.[1f] His victory lays down the core tenets of kharadron naval strategy and ensures their undisputed dominance of the Chamonic skies for more than a century.[1e]

Season of Strifre

Barak-Mhornar develops rune-markings of illusion able to conceal their skyvessels’s allegiance.[1e] Using this technology, corsairs of the Shadow Port begin to prey upon merchant convoys belonging to other sky-ports.[1e]

Urgent amendments to the Code prohibiting such piratical practices and a series of counterraids personally led by Brokk Grungsson put an end to the Season of Strife before open warfare breaks out.[2b][1e]

Age of Sigmar

Brokk Grungsson leading an assault.

Fall of the Thantanik

The titanic super-ship known as the Thantanik is hit amidships by a devastating sorcerous strike when engaged in an aerial battle with the Silver Tower of the Watcher King.[4a]

Even if scuppered and sinking fast, the fighting heart of the sky-fleet went on. The Thantanik ultimately rams the Silver Tower with such force that it activates the magical wards of the Tzeentchian citadel, teleporting it back into the void. The Thantanik's pyrrhic victory ends with the colossal ship crashing in the north-east of Moltania.[4a]

The event is used as a salutary lesson against the practice of building too large a skyvessel. As the Kharadron Overlords have it, only a rube invests all his aether-gold in one aerostill.[4a]

Great Sky Purge

After the Treaty of Vindicarum, the Angelos Conclaves of the Hammers of Sigmar begin to assist the Kharadron Overlords in their aerial conflict against the Disciples of Tzeentch.[1e][4a]

Though the lands of the Spiral Crux remain under Tzeentchian hands, many new airways and aether-gold mining routes are opened by a united push from the Kharadron and their sigmarite allies.[4a][8a]

Blockade of Barak-Zon

A tzeentchian convocation led by Kairos Fateweaver creates a gigantic arcane barrier around Barak-Zon.[2a] For ninety-nice days the sky-port remained besieged by the Change God’s faithfull.[2a]

Under the leadership of its High Admiral Brokk Grungsson, a confederation of sky-fleets hailing from every sky-port executes a daring massed ramming action.[2a] The Arkanaut Frigates assumed a line abreast formation and discharged so much firepower that the arcane chain and the besiegers were erased from existence.[1f] So devastating was the kharadron assault at the breaking of the blockade of Barak-Zon that it could be seen in broad daylight from the Kharzdon Mountains.[1f]

Drak Grolsson combatting Ab-het in the Azure Crown.

Aether War

Endrineer Drak Grolsson of Barak-Nar invents the Aethermatic Repulsion Field, a device that can ward off the sorcerous winds of the Spiral Crux. Similar versions of the device are rapidly developed by the other sky-ports, allowing all Kharadron to venture into regions long thought inimical to life, notably the magical ground zero of Griffon's Eyrie.[5a][1e]

The aether-gold rush set in motion during the Gorak-Drek led Barak-Nar to edges ever closer to Griffon's Eyrie.[3b] A sky-fleet led by Admiral Bjarnus Tragg utilises Grolsson's aetheric forcefield to venture into those toxic skies controlled by the Cult of the Transient Form.[5a]

The kharadron expedition discovers more than extensive aether-gold deposits, however, for they stumble upon a dark ritual that would see a deadly magical storm unleashed upon Barak-Nar, performed by Magister Ab-het and his Tzaangor Shamans.[3a] After his personal Ironclad, the Intrepid, suffers critical damage, Admiral Tragg commands Drak Grolsson to lead a small force to destroy the source of the aethermatic storm.[3c]

The Kharadrons make way towards the Azure Crown, located at the very centre of Chamon.[3b] The tzeentchian plot is thwarted, but the Great Sky War between the Disciples of Tzeentch and Kharadron intensifies.[8a]

The grand scheme of Tzeentch.

War for Reality

Not even truly appreciated by the Kharadron Overlords native to the Spiral Crux, the regions targeted by Tzeentch's wars have been methodically chosen to serve a grand purpose. Every conjuration and conquest is part of a wider reality binding skein of fate that binds the very stuff of reality, imbues it with the energies of chaos and brings it one step closer to becoming an annexe of Tzeentch’s Crystal Labyrinth.[5a]

The Kharadron discover a chain of crystalline sky-castles near the edge of the Spiral Crux's known atmospheric. The Geldraad's fears of an upcoming Tzeentchian plot were well-founded. The sky-castles descend and the Great Sky War reaches new heights of violence.[4a][2a]


Sources