Varanthax's Maw

From Age of Sigmar - Lexicanum
Revision as of 18:16, 1 December 2022 by Viktor (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search
The forge complex of Varanthax's Maw

Varanthax's Maw is a daemonic forge built into the skeleton of a long-dead drake on the Skullpike Mountains in Eightpoints.[1]

Overview

Situated on a volcanic peak of the Skullpike Mountains the Varanthax's Maw belches forth great clouds of ash. Beneath is a vast cavernous lair, an infernal place of smouldering lava flows and sulphurous smoke that fills lungs with hot air that burns like fire making even breathing torturous. Further down into the Maw, even more hellish realms exist with burning lakes of brimstone infested with cackling fire-daemons that stretch as far as the eye can see. [1]

The Maw also contains ancient treasures but the most valuable of all is the molten realmstone known as varanite. These attract many warbands that battle each other for the riches hidden beneath its catacombs.[1]

Varanite in the maw is mined by three gigantic bore-wyrms bound to frames of black iron, forming living drilling rigs that chewed their way hungrily into the depths of the Maw. Molten varanite is transported towards the surface through their cavernous gullets, and extracted and processed in the Maw’s upper floors by thousands of thrall-smiths. Here varanite is blended and tempered in a series of gruesome sacrificial rituals and transported to the distant Azyrite Arcway inside bloated daemon-crawlers, guarded by columns of ironclad infantry.[2b]

History

When Archaon learnt of the Varanite within the Maw he sent the Gaunt Summoner known as the Eater of Tomes to oversee the rapid expansion and industrialisation of the Maw. Thousands upon thousands of slaves were sent here to be worked to death in the process of extracting and channeling varanite. The varanite was then sent to the Azyrite arcway to corrupt the structure.[2a] However this was observed by Khainite Shadowstalkers sent to the Eightpoints and who brought back this information alongside some varanite.[2b][3]

This drew a force of Khainites and Stormcast Eternals resulting in the Battle of Varanthax’s Maw during which Morathi infiltrated the complex and stole the mined Varanite from the gullets of bore-wyrms. [2c]

Notable

  • Eater of Tomes, the Gaunt Summoner that oversees the varanite mining also has his quarters on the upper floors consisting of twisted laboratories and binding-chambers in which further research of varanite is conducted. [2a]

Sources