Brass Citadel
The Brass Citadel is Khorne's fortress of an unfathomable scale, which towers over the battlefields of the Dominion of Khorne in the Realm of Chaos and stretches beyond the sky.[1][5a]
It is a symbol of Khorne's status as the undisputed master of war.[5a]
Contents
Architecture
The Brass Citadel is so impossibly vast that all other strongholds pale in comparison.[1] Its main gate is made of eight-pillared arches.[1] The fortress has eight main gates and eight main defensive towers on its outermost wall.[4c]
Its walls are so tall they scrape the clouds and are topped with great spiked crenelations.[5a] The metal of the walls is decorated with red-veined marble and is broken by jagged outcrops and serrated spurs of blood-stained brass, while every parapet is covered in gargoyles that can spew streams of molten meal on any besiegers.[3] Champions that have been slain in the many fighting pits hang from the gibbets, skinned and bleeding down the walls[2a] Champions who failed Khorne on the battlefield are impaled and hanged on the ramparts, forced to experience a dreadful lingering death.[5a] These failures bleed down the walls, pouring it into a vast moat of boiling blood and scalding gore.[2a][3][5a]
The Citadel is wreathed in the smoke of braziers, each fashioned from the skull of Daemon Lords.[5a]
It is always swelteringly hot within the Citadel and the air echoes with screams and the sound of clashing blades.[5a] There is a vast network of bloodstained corridors and arming chambers that connect the Citadel to it many blast furnaces, armouries, rage factories, prisons.[1][5a]
At the dark heart of the fortress lies the throne room, where the Brass Throne of the Blood God lies. The Brass throne is a mighty edifice that sits on an ever-growing mountain of skulls, each one representing a martial victory for his followers.[1][5a]
History
The Bloodthirster Skul'rath was the first to reach the citadel and to declare his defeat at the hands of the Stormcast Eternals, the first time such name was spoken there.[1]
Locations
- Fields of Damnation: Blood Legions not fighting on the skullfields beyond the walls or in the Mortal Realms are drilled mercilessly and beaten into shape here. In addition, it is here where Bloodthirsters compete with one another to determine their positions in the hierarchy.[4a][1b][5a]
- Lair of the Flesh Hounds: Cavernous lairs can be found beneath the citadel where the hounds gnaw upon the bones of their prey between hunts.[2c]
- Throne Room: Eight vast columns rise from a carpet of bone to an obsidian ceiling, the air laden with supressed rage and filled with the coppery stench of freshly-spilled blood coming from the myriad of abattoirs. Those who enter find themselves stained with blood from the humidity. Karanak prowls around the chamber whilst the Brass Throne sits atop a ever-growing mound of skulls.[2a][5a] At the rear of the chamber sits the Blood God's anvil, which constantly rings with the sounds of furnace-daemons at work. The entire throne room is lit by a raging fire fuelled by the souls of cowards who fled from battle.[4a]
- The Great Stockade: Also known as the Brass Pens.[4b] A vast enclosed steppe deep within the citadel where thousands of Juggernaut herds endlessly rove, clashing brutally with each other. Favoured Bloodletters are brought here to give them the chance to tame one of the Daemon beasts.[2b]
- Gates of the Vanquished: Gates that defeated daemons of Khorne must pass through if they were defeated in combat. To pass they must say their eight-syllable names to the Gatekeeper and declare who has bested them. [1]
- Helbrass: A furnace deep within the citadel where defeated daemons go after passing through the Gates of the Vanquished to be tested to see if they are worthy of receiving a new physical form.[4b]
Sources
- 1: Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, The Blood God's Domain
- 2: Battletome: Blades of Khorne (2017)
- 3: Wrath and Rapture booklet, pg. 5-6
- 4: Battletome: Blades of Khorne (2019)
- 5: Battletome: Blades of Khorne (2023)
- 5a: The Blood God's Domain, pg. 14
