Skarbrand
Skarbrand is a powerful exiled Bloodthirster. He was once the greatest of Khorne's champions but was cast down, mind stripped of all personality and thought and his body broken and tattered after he thought to challenge the Blood God himself. Now he is nothing more than a tortured shell filled with murderous hate, condemned to an eternity of indiscriminate slaughter.[1][2]
History
Before the Ages
Skarbrands many deeds of violence - such as tearing down Slaanesh's First Palace and slaying and binding two other Bloodthirsters into his axes, Slaughter and Carnage - elevate him to the right hand of Khorne, and he becomes a god to many mortal tribes. Seeing his hubris, Tzeentch stokes his rage and pride, resulting in Skarbrand attempting to kill Khorne himself. The Bloodthirster's mightiest blow merely scratches the Blood God's armour, and in response Khorne hurls Skarbrand from the tallest tower of the Brass Citadel. The force of the throw tears open Skarbrand's face and burns away his wings and his sanity.[3a][4b]
Age of Chaos
Archaon beseeches Khorne to bind Skarbrand as the Bloodthirster's rampages are interfering with his efforts to conquer the Mortal Realms. Khorne agrees, and forges the Brass Chain to restrain the Bloodthirster, choosing the Dreadhold of Bloodkeep in Aqshy to be Skarbrand's prison.[3c] Khorne grants Archaon the ability to summon Skarbrand via the efforts of his Gaunt Summoners.[3d]
Skarbrand leds the Axes of Skarbrand into the Shellwoods of Persiphone, felling several Sylvaneth wargroves.[1]
Age of Sigmar
Realmgate Wars
Seeing Nurgle's forces closing on Alarielle, Khorne hurls Skarbrand into Ghyran to deny the Plague God his prize. However, he is prevented from killing the dormant goddess by the machinations of the slann Xen'phantica, who protects the goddess' soulpod from his attacks and summons his seraphon to battle the legion of Khornate daemons who manifested alongside the Bloodthirster. Eventually, the slann succeeds in banishing Skarbrand back to whence he came.[3b]
Skarbrand is violently returned to Bloodkeep to find that a force of Stormcast Eternals and Fyreslayers have infiltrated the keep in an attempt to steal the Brass Chain in his absence. Facing a foe they are not prepared for, the invaders retreat, leaving Skarbrand to rage against the defenders of the keep.[3d]
Khorne sends Skarbrand to Asphyxia to battle the Tempest Lords aided by Celestant-Prime and the forces of Bloab Rotspawned. When Lord-Relictor Ionus Cryptborn activates a realmgate and sends the armies to the Unreachable Mountain, Skarbrand's rage is amplified by the Crystal Henge, sending a wave of anger across the Flameworlds and burning away the Plague of Atrophy that Nurgle had inflicted on Aqshy. However, the Henge explodes and its shards impale Skarbrand, banishing him.[4c]
After learning of the failed attack on Bloodkeep, Archaon has his Gaunt Summoners move the Brass Chain to the Brimfire Gate.[5a] When the Stormcast Eternals attack the gate, Skarbrand succeeds in breaking the weakened chain.[5b] He proceeds to rampage through the defenders of the Great Skullhold, the last fortress guarding the gate. By the time the Stormcast reach the Great Skullhold, there is no one else left to defend it, and Skarbrand is eventually brought down by Vandus Hammerhand.[5c]
Miniature
Skarbrand.
See Also
Sources
- 1: Battletome: Khorne Bloodbound (2015), pg. 23-24
- 2: Skarbrand product description
- 3: The Realmgate Wars: Balance of Power
- 4: The Realmgate Wars: Godbeasts
- 5: The Realmgate Wars: All-Gates