Gallet

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Gallet's landmass lies near the center of the Ghurish Heartlands.

Gallet is a wind-swept continent within the Ghurish Heartlands, neighboring Thondia to the northeast and Andtor to the southeast. It is riddled with chasms and underground caverns that harbour vicious prey.[1a]

Landscape

At first glance, Gallet does not appear a striking continent. It lacks the rugged splendour of its northern neighbor Thondia, where jutting mesas reach to the clouds and soaring mountain ranges seem to stretch on forever. By contrast, Gallet is bleak and wind-blasted, its few peaks worn away by hurricanes that periodically sweep from the Bitingsea. Gallet's surface is riddled with chasms and honeycombed by underground caverns, and these deep places are home to nightmarish, chitinous invertebrates that emerge at night to feed.[1a]

Tunnels

Whether this is mere fantasy or not, the violent weather patters that ravage Gallet make it dangerous to stay above ground without shelter. Only underground can travellers in Gallet find a measure of safety from the elements. Gallet is riddled with plunging canyons and and ravines that descend for hundreds of leagues into the darkness. The reason for this geological configuration is unclear. Some Ghurish legends state that long ago Gallet was invaded by creatures that bored great holes in the surface, while Azyrite scholars suggest that the damage is caused by violent tremors from nearby Thondia, as the alpha-continent seeks to consume Gallet entirely. Others blame the skaven, for these destructive ratmen dig deep into Gallet's core with their warpstone-powered gnaw-engines, drawing up bubbling liquids rife with amber magic. Far below the crust of this splintered continent is a cavernous and gloomy underworld, illuminated only by phospherescent flora that seems to thrive without water or light. Through untroubled by ragin hurricanes, dust storms, or brutal squalls of skull-pounding rain, many of these subterranean caverns are vast enough to hjouse entire cities.[1a]

Climate

Arid, cracked and constantly blasted by devastating cyclones, the continent of Gallet appears hostile to all but the hardiest forms of life. The roaring winds that blow in from the Bitingsea are strong enough to destroy crusading armies or bring down the walls of a free city. According to local legends, these winds are caused by the belloows of the predator-continent Rondhol, a landmass drawing incrementally closer to the Galletian coastline day by day.[1a]

Flora and Fauna

All forms of monstrous creatures thrive in Ghur, where the primal fury of the carnivore holds sway over all things. In Gallet, the dominant form of life is the arthropod. Insectoid and arachnoid predators of all size thrive here, lurking in their underground nests whenever the winds begin to rage, and emerging when night has fallen to hunt for food. Some these crawling things are no larger than a human's fist, while others are truly immense, such as the Arachnarok Spiders which tuck themselves into crevices in canyon walls, bursting forth whenever they sense a tremor of motion. The Spiderfang Grots run rampant here, worshipping these multi-limbed behemoths with wild-eyed fanaticism.[1a]

Regardless of their size, all these creatures are utterly deadly, whether they inject their prey with paralysing poisons or simply tear them apart with claws, pincers and mandibles. Those who seek shelter beneath the earth might think themselves safe at first, until they hear a distant click-clacking on stone, then a faint hissing that suddenly rises into a piercing screech as glistening, armored shapes with too many legs and eyes spill from gaps in the rock to surround them.[1a]

Resources

Amberbone

Given the horrors lurking beneath the surface of Gallet, it seems unlikely that any sane being would venture underground let alone seek to found outposts or settlements there. However, the gloomy caverns that wind through the landmass are so rich in magical resources that many great powers of the Mortal Realms have sent forth armies and militarised expeditions to secure these territories. Piles of glowing, fossilised bones can be found outside the lairs of underground monsters, their aura infusing the eggs of these creatures and causing their hatchling to grow unusually large and aggressive. Were a student of the arcane to inspect these lambient skeletal remains, they would find them to be laced with great quantities of Ghurish realmstone: amberbone.[1a]

Sometimes, the natural and magical become completely entwined: man-sized razorwasps mould their hives around clusters of amberbone, while Arachnaroks have been known to line their webs with the stuff, perhaps in an attempt to lure unwary prospectors to their domain. There are even rumours of bizarre elemental beings formed from pure realmstone that manifest as swarms of insectoid vermin, shredding their victims in a whirlwind of barbed chitin.[1a]

Other Assets

These underground tunnels hold other valuable assets: realmgates located within the yawning maws of long-dead titans, seams of rare minerals and precious silksteel - a substance woven from by gigantic arachnids that is supper and feather-like but capable of turning aside a musket ball.[1a]

Settlement

In the Age of Sigmar, the rapid expansion of the God-King's empire is driven by realmstone, and vast amounts of it is required to empower the construction of new cities and ensure the gears of industry continue to churn. Such a potent source of amberbone as Gallet's underground passageways cannot be abandoned and allowed to fall into the hands of civilisation's teeming enemies. So it is that the free cities of Ghur - Izalend and Excelsis foremost amongst them - have launched dozens of vast and well-equipped Dawnbringer Crusades into the depths of Gallet, headed by Dispossessed mining companies and drill-headed engines of the Ironweld Arsenal. The God-King's intrepid folk have successfully established a few strongholds within the vast underground caverns.[1a]

Warfare

Many ventures within Gallet's depths have met a grim fate, overwhelmed by billowing clouds of winged vermin. Others have become embroiled in ferocious ungerground fighting with old enemies of the God-King: such as rampaging greenskins, cave-dwelling ogors or Chaos-worshipping raiders hoping to sieze Gallet's priceless treasures for themselves. Such engagements rarely resemble the pitched battles that might be waged aboveground. The cramped and techerous surroundings channel warriors into claustrophobic killing grounds- tunnel mouths and low-roofed caverns, where rocks tumble from the ceiling to crush unfortunate soldiers and a single misstep might cause one to plunge into a bottomless abyss. Even by Ghurish standards, this is a truly horrendous environment to wage war.[1a]

Given the swelteringly hot atmosphere of the Gallet underground and the multitude of deadly flora and fauna, it is not surprising that those Dawnbringer Crusades that venture into such a nightmarishly hostile environment suffer horrendous attrition rates.[1b] Merely forcing a path through one narrow tunnel to another can cost scores of lives, as enemies emerge from hidden cervices to cut marching columns in half, dooming isolated vanguards to a gruesome fate. Even in the thick of a subterranean skirmish, the participants must be wary of stepping too close to cracks in the walls; they can never know when a talon or barbed tentacle might lash out, curling around their body before dragging them into the darkness. The screams and sounds of splintering bone that follow are enough to turn the stomach of most hardened soldiers.[1b]

Amongst the ranks of the Freeguild, sites such as the Arachnar Caves and Underchasm Gulch have become infamous, their names synonymous with suffering and death. Any young corporal who learns he is destined for such a battlefield turns weak at the knees and most at least contemplate absconding - until they recall the punishment handed out by Sigmar's Devoted for this dereliction of duty. Even those Dawnbringer Crusades that have successfully established Sigmarite Strongpoints far underground find themselves under constant attack, desperately clinging on to the resources they have claimed and hoping against hope that reinforcements find them soon. Their Nexus Siphon is all that shields them from the swarms of foes encircling them, its geomantic energy providing a barrier of spiritual protection that fades a little every day.[1b]

Veterans

Bled dry by the attritional nature of the fighting beneath Gallet, warrior factions struggling to control realmgates or deposits of amberbone turn to their most trusted veterans: the warriors who have survived the worst that Gallet's underworld has to throw at them. Accustomed to fighting in near total darkness in terrain where a single misplaced step could lead to one's doom, these expereinced troops provide a formidable spine around which their comrades can rally. The tactics and equipment of such units vary wildly; some are hulking brutes possessed of supernaturall resilience, while others are hard-bitten combat engineers or expert marksmen. What they share in common is an unconquerable spirit that allows them to endure the most inhospitable environments imaginable, whilst continuing to fight with skill and cunning. Dawnbringer Crusades depend on many such verteran formations, foremost amongst these are battle-hardened Stormcast Eternals - most commonly the Liberators and Vindictors - experienced in brutal and unglamorous frontline battle.[1b]

Sigmar's subterranean campaigns in Gallet have called upon the tunnel-fighting skills of duardin Longbeards, the disciplined precision of Freeguild Handgunners and the agility and skill of aelven Shadow Warriors. Of these, only a small percentage survive long enough to conquer their fears and master the unique challenges of warfare beneath the surface of Gallet. Those that do are worth their weight in gold to any Dawnbringer commander. Aside from the forces of Order, the ogor and orruk tribes are particularly well suited to the harsh conditions below, thanks to their brute strength and taste for close-quarters combat. On the other end of the scale, the Ossiarch Bonereapers and Nighthaunt are untroubled by the lack of fresh air and light. Meanwhile, the Skaven ratmen are naturally suited for the demands of subterranean combat.[1b]

Locations

Settlements

Bodies of Water

Regions

Sources

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