Great Parch

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A overall view of the Great Parch and the surrounding areas.

The Great Parch, referred to as the Scarred Isle during the Realmgate Wars, is a sprawling continent of the Realm of Aqshy containing multiple landmasses and oceans. It is located in one of the Flameworlds called the Ashlands.[1b]

Characteristics

Inhabitants

The tribes of the Great Parch are known to be bombastic and restless and often tattoo scenes of their victories on their bodies. They live to fight, love and feast as often as possible.[1b]

The desert barbarians of this continent were the first to convert to chaos when hosts of daemons invaded during the Age of Chaos.[1b]

The tribes of the Great Parch traditionally use reds, yellows and oranges in their fashion. Those city-dwellers of high status however abandon these traditions to wear the whites, silvers and blues of Azyr, to try and hid their fiery and volatile nature behind a civilized and celestial appearance.[1b]

Economy

The Stormrift Realmgate connecting Hammerhal Aqsha and Ghyra

During the Age of Myth the nations of Aspiria and Bataar were the centre of trade of the Great Parch, with many trade goods being traded across the continent.[1b] Some examples are:

History

Age of Myths

The Prismatikon in the Great Parch
  • At the dawn of the Age, Ignax the Solar Drake duels Nagendra, the father of serpents, although she wins she is weak enough that Grimnir is able to catch and chain her to provide eternal light and fire for the Duardin. The eastern islands heavily damaged by this fight and the flesh shred from Nagendra's flank turn into the serpents of the south.[1b]
  • In the earliest days of the Age of Myth, before the coming of Sigmar, the mortals of Aqshy lived in fear of the Volc-Giants. Massive beings with little regards for anything smaller than them. In the end, they were all slain by Sigmar and all that is left are their skeletal remains in the deserts of the Flamescar Plateau.[6b]
  • After being freed by Sigmar, Grimnir tried to repay his debt immediately by slaying Vulcatrix in the Hills of Aqshy. The tumultuous clash flattened the lands into the Plains of Aqshy and resulted in the demise of both god and beast, with the hot coals of the Mother of Salamanders hatching new volcanoes where it landed including Vostargi Mont.[1b]
  • A magocracy arises that condems those without magical skill to slavery and creates the powerful Agloraxi Empire which creates immense magical artefacts such as the Prismatikon. [7a]
  • The Agloraxi retreat to their floating city of Ahramentia, focussing on esoteric matters and ceasing to demand tribute from others. [7a]
  • Sigmar wanders through the Great Parch and brings order and culture brought to this continent, allowing war and rivalry to be put aside so crops and life can begin anew. Due to the rise of trade the western regions of Bataar and Aspiria thrive and build great cities, while the areas of the Brazier, Aridian and Capilaria have the belligerent that they revert to savagery, worshiping Sigmar as the god of strength.[1b]
  • The Raging Tyrant Dromm rules for eight bloody years before he is overthrown by his sons and devoured. The Drommsend continue this practice of consuming their enemies to gain their strength.[1b]
  • Two great nations arise in the Great Parch, Bataar ruled by Merchant Kings and Aspiria by Wizard Lords, avoiding direct conflict by trade, negotiation and athletic competitions.[1b]
  • The Stormrift Realmgate, that will in another age will see Hammerhal constructed around it, heavily imports the Aqua Ghyranis from the Realm of Ghyran. This liquid quickly becomes a mainstay current of the arid central regions of the Great Parch.[1b]
  • The tribes of Capilaria are favoured by Sigmar, while the tribes of Aridian grow jealous. Both end in open warfare until Varrus Blackfist of the Direbrands brokers a truce.[1b]
  • Bataar continues to rise in power, creating a seabourne trading city as one of many wonders. The alchemical waste from Aspiria turns the sea to the north of the empire into a riot of colours, renaming it the Polychromatic Sea.[1b]
  • The Kindling Forests are ignited by Aspirian mages to deal with Orruk warbands invading the land bridge to the middle lands of the Great Parch. They turn into a magical barrier that limits the civilizing influence from the west, leading the middle tribes to fall into civil war. Aspiria and Bataar leave them to it and Aspiria fortifies the Bridge of Brine, creating the Steel Spike.[1b]
  • A cold war erupts between Aspiria and the Necromancers of Golvaria, the Aspirians trade with the smiths of the Direbrand Tribe and the Duardin of Vorstargi Mont for magical weapons. An alliance between the Golvarians and the Vitrolians is struck to attack the Aspirians, but its quickly broken by Bataar buying the Vitrolian loyality with gold. This ends in a crushing defeat and the Golvarians end up the butt of jokes of the Great Parch, while hold a grudge over it.[1b]
  • Attacked by Aspirian magical undead hunters, the Golvarians retreat to the Isle of Ghouls, making an alliance with the inbred cannibal dynasty that rules there.[1b]

Age of Chaos

A citadel of the Blades of Khorne during the Age of Chaos
  • The Red Feast: A challenge is called by Threx Skullbrand a Vanxian warlord - many tribes send warriors and the contest becomes increasingly bloody, Korghos Khul of the Aridian tribe becoming the champion. However when 888 champions are slain, a hole is torn in reality and the legions of Daemons come flooding through. [1b]
  • Khorne desires for Aqshy and invests a considerable ammount of Daemons into conquering the Great Parch, even attacking his brother gods, Tzeentch, Nurgle and the Great Horned Rat for supremacy.
  • Aspiria and Bataar retreat behind their formidable defenses and leave the barbarian tribes of Aridian, Golvaria, Flamescar and Capilaria to fight the invaders alone. As the slaughter continues many tribes turn to worshiping Khorne, to survive or satisfy their savage lusts. Amongst these hordes rises the Goretide led by Korghos Khul, growing in ever higher numbers by forcing those they capture the choice of dying of participating in a dark cannibalistic feast.[1b]
  • Nurgle sends a invasion of demons from the icy realm of Cotha, because of the hidden frozen realmgate to Ghyran at its heart.[1b]
  • A vast Plague Fleet attacks and destroys the Floating Market of Bataar. The region where wrecks from the week-long battle wash up ashore is known as the Armada's Bane. The imported and exported vessels of Aqua Ghyranis wash up ashore and are recovered, but some are tainted and spread disease instead.[1b]
  • The lands south of the Godbeast's Bite are conquered by brass-clad killers. Its people are enslaved to build the Dreadfort Spines and Calder City.[1b]
  • Khul conquers the land between the Vostargi Mont in Capilaria all the way to the Vitriolus Reach in the Brimstone Peninsula. The southernmost region is called the Khu'ls Ravage.[1b]
  • Khul ransacks the Isles of Gaitan and extinguishes their ever-flaming pagodas.
  • Khul raises the Jagtooth Forts on the coast of Khul's Ravage to defend the slave routes and the southernmost coast.[1b]
  • Khul begins to build a massive pyramid of skulls, the Red Pyramid of Khul, using millions of skulls from the tribes north of the Brimstone Peninsula, to mark the Gate of Wrath - a realmgate to the Realm of Chaos. He surrounds it with eight mighty skull clad towers. These towers anchored and feed the gate itself.[2][1b]
  • Due to Khul's attacks, the Scablands are formed from the large ammounts of spilled blood there.[1b]
  • The scions of Tzeentch wage war against the mages of Aspiria, a fight so intense the land itself begins to crumble. Less than a week later, Khorne's Legions join the fray by marching through the Obsidian Fortress and the Bridge of Brine and besiege the Steel Spike. As the invasions intensify the magocrats seal their citadel-cities behind in high ground and lock them behind magical wards to survive.[1b]
  • The Red Century: A hundred years of was between the tribes of the Great Parch and the Bloodbound, reinforced by the Daemons from the Clavis War, reaches its zenith. Sigmar's faithful are quickly falling in numbers due to attrition and the land itself becomes corrupted with the devastation. The seas become filled with grisly floatsam and waves of blood. The irrigation networks of Capilaria run on gore as the channels themselves become to appear like arteries. The heroes of the tribes begin to disappear in flashes of azure energy and its people are left starving and more easily conquered.[1b]
  • The Aspirian refuges are lured into the Vanx Littoral and Wrecker's Isle to their doom by chaos worshippers. They later join the fight for Aspiria and conquer the Aspirides islands.[1b]
  • The Gilded Track is conquered by Chaos warbands. The surviving merchants of Bataar are forced to carry their riches under the whip and barefoot along the once proud trade road - the Gilded Track quickly becomes known as the Bloodied Track.[1b]
  • The Bonesplitterz tribe dwelling in the Klarikkkaz Earthscar wage a fierce guerrilla war against the Daemonic hordes coming from the Clavis Eye. Slowly, they are driven back to their canyon as their prophets pray for Mork to give them a way out.[1b]
  • The Prismatikon is unleashed against the forces of Khorne, destroying an entire army of Daemons. This enraged the Blood God himself, which manifests a giant red fist and smashes the floating island from the sky. This deprives the defenders of the Great Parch from their magical constructs, making it more vulnerable.[1b]
  • Selpher Zaronax is dispatched by Archaon to keep over the stranglehold of Chaos over the Great Parch. He rises to prominence in north-east Golvaria and drives of the unquiet undead. He is so successful in this endeavor that the servants of Khorne are forced to search further out or turn on themselves to sate their addictive blood-lust.[1b]
  • Near the end of the Age, The Bloodbound under Korghos Khul seeks to wipe out the last vestiges of resistance on the Brimstone Peninsula, amongst the last to fall are the Direbrand Tribe led by Vendell Blackfist who would be reforged as Vandus Hammerhand.[2]

Age of Sigmar

Korghos Khul and Vandus Hammerhand during the Realmgate Wars
  • The Stormcast demolish the Jagtooth Forts and use the Brimstone Peninsula to secure the region as a staging post to attack the chaos forces spread all around the Great Parch. They reclaim significant potions of it from the Hammerhand Coast to the Reclaimed Demesnes.[1b]
  • Flames of Conquest: With the closure of the vast, fortified All-gate known as the Brimfire Gate, Khorne's iron grasp upon Aqshy was sorely weakened. The forces of Sigmar set about fortifying their conquered territory. Many fortified towns are built around the conquered Realmgates, by Lord-Castellants working in conjunction with Dispossessed from Azyr and the Ironweld Arsenal, which quickly expand into cities. First the great city of Hammerhal Aqsha was built, followed by Hallowheart, Tempest's Eye and Anvilgard. Colonists from Azyrheim and the surviving scattered tribes of Aqshy flocked to these new strongholds, the fires of hope rekindled in their hearts.[1b][3]
  • The Blazing Crusade: Supported by the strongholds of Aqshy raised in his name, Sigmar launched the next stage of his expansion in Aqshy. A series of lightning assaults across the lands of Aridian and Capilaria paved the way for Sigmar's forces to push into the Flamescar Plateau and other key regions. With the great city of Hammerhal acting as the fulcrum, the God-King's armies advanced outwards in all directions, seeking to crush several major threats bordering Sigmar's territory, and clear a path for the conquest of new lands.[3]
  • The Flesh-Eater Courts of the Isle of Ghoul try to make an alliance with the Stormcast against Chaos. Mistaking them for just cannibalistic reavers the Stormcast attack them, turning a possible alliance into a rivalry.[1b]
  • Wherever Chaos is defeated the inhabitants of the continent call upon the mages of Aspirian tradition to burn the land clean with magical flames. This works in many places and the lands are cleansed, allowing new life to grow. In these times the Jagtooth Forts are replaced with the Brimstone Keeps.[1b]
  • Many monuments to Stormcast are build on the Brimstone Beachhead as Stormcast consolidate their conquest on the southern regions of the Great parch. Many of the tribes see them as abominations, for they do not truly die, while others consider them as saviours.[1b]
  • The new cities thrive as the lands are reclaimed by Order, with art, fashion and philosophy starting to develop once again, not just in Aspiria and Bataar, but also in Hammerhal Aqsha and Callidium. Many of the citizens of these cities abandon the reds, oranges and yellows traditional of the tribes of the Great Parch and adopt the blue, white and silver of Azyr in order to appear more civilized and celestial in defiance to their Aqshian nature.[1b]
  • The Orb Infernia, the base of Korghos Khul and his daemon legions, travels across Aqshy bringing blood rains and Khorne's massive counter-offensive. The growth of civilization is desirable to both as it gives them and their legions something to attack and blood to spill.[1b]

Locations

A map of the Great Parch.

Landmasses

The Great Parch has the following landmasses:

The Scarred Isle and the Brimstone Peninsula can be seen on the disc of the Ashlands.

Islands

Other

Bodies of Water

Around the Great Parch there are the following seas:

Nearby Landmasses

Close to the Great Parch there are the following landmasses:

Inhabitants

Sources

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