Stormkeep
Stormkeep are imposing citadels that protect captured Realmgates and the cities created around them during the Age of Sigmar.[1]
These fortresses are manned by Stormcast Eternals.[1]
Contents
Construction
Built around Realmgates, they are found in truly inhospitable places, however the engineers and architects loyal to Sigmar are as tenacious as they are inventive and by artifice, engineering or sheer force of will, the challenges presented by each Realmgate are overcome. Then the Stormkeep is fortified with battlements while the Realmgate itself must be reinforced with arcane wards and heavy gates to prevent invaders coming through to attack the keep from the inside. The first defences built around a claimed Realmgate are simple keeps and curtain walls which are then reinforced with towering buttresses and cannon nests built along crenellated ramparts to the exacting specifications of the Ironweld Arsenal. Moats are dug, rivers rerouted, and reservoirs and rain-gathering sluice networks are established in those lands too dry to sustain a swiftly growing population. Concentric ring of fortifications are completed around the original site and soon the work on another ring begins. These growing cities are under constant attack and for them no defence is too much.[2a]
The Lord-Celestants of the Stormhosts commission vast statues of the heroes that liberated the Realmgate, some of which are enchanted to breathe lightning or drop enormous hammers against attckers. As the Stormkeeps grow they are expanded with archery batteries, spiral staircases, star-fort walls, cloud-piercing spires, gilded minarets, spytowers, overseer colonnades, balustrades, boulevards and promenades. Lord-Castellants fit the Stormkeeps with colossal orreries to delve deeper into the secrets of the stars.[2a]
Holy artefacts known as Celestine Writs are given to the leaders of the Stormhosts, granting Sigmar and his Stormhosts control over the Realmgates around which a Stormkeep will be built, as well as the lands surrounding it.[4a]
Functions
The main function of the Stormkeeps are to defend the realmgates and the Cities of Sigmar which grow around them. In them Stormcast Eternals take up residence in its halls, temples and meditation vaults while the leaders look to the skies from scryer-arenas, observatoriums and cells open to the sky to read the celestial portents and even astral project their souls to divine the optimum deployment of troops and defences. In addition to its military functions they also become centres of learning and study. Archives of lore are assembled from scholarly collections imported from Azyr and combined with soot-blackened tomes and cartographical texts recovered from the old cities burnt to the ground by the forces of Chaos which are further expanded with new texts penned by vast teams of scriptors and calligraphists committed to the parchment of the histories of the free cities. In the most civilized regions texts and images are replicated via cog-wheeled printing presses, intaglio, etchings made with sulphurvitriol, or simply the fine art of painstaking quillmanship. These archives have become so vast that the Stormcast Eternals are able to continue the fight against Chaos even when not in the field by studying histories and maps for local knowledge that could help tip the balance in the fight against the dark powers.[2a]
Together with the Lord-Arcanums and Knight-Incantors , the Lord-Ordinators have created vast crackling batteries of celestial power that form a metaphysical link between a Stormkeep and the underspires of the Sigmarabulum known as Star Bridges which speed the Stormcast Eternals back to Azyr when slain near a Stormkeep, ensuring swift and safe passage so they might be reforged quickly. This allows them to return in a matter of days and may even rejoin the same battle or siege that saw them slain. These cosmic links are maintained at full strength by the dissolution of souls, a resource provided by the Sacrosanct Chamber as they are experts at capturing errant spirits. In some cases Stormcast Eternals, who have committed acts they believe to be beyond redemption, willingly contribute their final energies to power the Star Bridges and are blasted to nothingness, their soul-stuff used to keep the Star Bridge bright. In return, their names are etched into the Annals Tempestus that line the walls of each Lord-Arcanum’s sanctum, their sins forgiven.[2a]
Known Keeps
- Argent Sanctum in Hammerhal Ghyra.[9a]
- Black Nexus in Anvilgard [2a]
- Castle Regal in Tempest's Eye [6a]
- Celestrine Cathedral in Hallowheart [2a]
- Celsorium, destroyed by a vast horde of Ogors and survivors frozen by the everwinter [2a]
- Consecralium in Excelsis [2a]
- Empyrean Bastion of the Sigmarite Brotherhood in the Realm of Chamon. [3a]
- Fort Ignis in the Brimstone Peninsula [2a]
- Fort Venger in Vindicarum.[8a]
- Golden Castrum in the Phoenicium [7]
- Goldforge: The Stormkeep found at the heart of the fortress city of Vandium, in the Great Parch of Aqshy.[6a]
- Grand Necropolis in Lethis. The foremost stormkeep of the Anvils of the Heldenhammer.[5a]
- Oakenspire in the Living City [5a]
- Perspicarium in Hammerhal Aqsha [2a]
- Shining Citadel in Hallowheart The foremost stormkeep of the Hallowed Knights.[7]
- Tower of Ravenstar pulled down from within after its thrice-reforged Lord-Castellant showed too much contempt for the common people [2a]
Known cities with Stormkeeps,
- Glymmsforge: Realm of Shyish[1]
Sources
- 1: Malign Portents, The Mortal Realms, pg. 12-15
- 2: Battletome: Stormcast Eternals (2018)
- 2a: The Works of Sigmar Rise High, pg.16-19
- 3: Code of the Skies (novella)
- 3a: Chapter Five, pg. 53-65
- 4: Soulbound Brightspear City Guide
- 4a: Chapter Two: Guide to Brightspear
- 5: White Dwarf Vol 3 No 36,
- 5a: Tome Celestial: The Sempiternals pg. 18-35
- 6: Soulbound Core Rulebook
- 6a: Chapter 9: The Great Parch
- 7: Battletome: Cities of Sigmar (2019) pg. 22
- 8: Broken Realms: Be'lakor
- 8a: The Siege of Vindicarum, Pg. 56-57
- 9: Battletome: Stormcast Eternals (2021)
- 9a: Bastions of the Tempest, pg.14-17