Undead (Warhammer) - Undead Characters

Undead Characters

See also: List of Warhammer Fantasy characters

• Nagash

Nagash is the first and greatest of all Necromancers and is known as the father of Necromancy. His power had no equals but the high elf loremaster Teclis, the dark elf sorceress Morathi and the Ancient Slann of Lustria. His lair is Nagashizzar, a region where the living fear to go. Nagash was once human but due to his experiments with dark magic coupled with the effects of centuries of warpstone consumption, Nagash now stands well over 15 feet tall . His body is little more than bones covered with occasional mummified flesh, he carries the great sword Mortis, and wears armour fashioned by himself out of Meteoric Iron, called the Black Armour of Nagash. Nagash while still human was originally taught the basics of the Black Art from a captured Dark Elf warlock and his companion sorceresses (Malchior, Drutheira & Ashniel) who were marooned on the coastline of ancient Nehekhara. From their knowledge Nagash combined dark magic with the ritual embalming magic of the priests of Khemri to create the blasphemous art of Necromancy. Nagash is infamous throughout the history of the warhammer world, he caused widespread destruction and ruin where ever he and his armies marched.

• Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster

One of the oldest undead characters in WFB, having been the subject of two scenarios for the earliest Editions of WFB: Terror of The Lichmaster (a boxed set for 2nd ed in 1986 complete with card buildings) and in an edition of the Citadel Journal in a three way fight with Skaven and warrior monks of Taal as his enemies (called "The Battle for La Maisontaal"). There was also Lichemaster for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) in 1990 and a scenario for Warmaster that returned to the theme of this battle of "La Maisontaal". More recently (White Dwarf 309) he appeared for later versions in Return of the Lichemaster.

Kemmler was a master Necromancer, leading huge legions of the undead, with his own court of ambitious apprentices. As they grew they became rivals and one day attacked their master. Kemmler fled them, nearly breaking his body and mind in the process. For years he wandered the World's Edge Mountains on the run, until he stumbled upon the tomb of Krell, a powerful champion of Chaos in life, and later returned to Undeath by Nagash himself to become a 'Dark Lord of Nagash'. Krell was defeated after Sigmar's banishing of his master and entombed in a secret location. There Kemmler struck a pact with the Chaos gods to restore his power in return for spreading death and destruction in their name. They also granted him Krell as a gift—a powerful Wight Lord accomplice and bodyguard. Now the name of the Lichemaster once again strikes fear into the hearts of mortals, though with the shadowy hand of Nagash guiding them from behind the scenes...

A Recent event involving the two was the infamous battle at La Masiontaal Abbey where a Bretonnian monk stole a warpstone artifact from Skavenblight, home of the ratmen. Kemmler seeing the warpstone as potentially being very helpful in his own sorceries attacked the monk's home abbey at the same time as the Skaven did, seeking to take back their property. With the arrival of Bretonnian reinforcements the famous three-way battle ended with the Skaven taking their property back and Kemmler driven off by the knights of Bretonnia.

Even more recent was the 'Winter of Woe', a campaign against the Wood Elves where Kemmler tried to harness the power of the ancient standing stones in their woodland home. Attacking during winter, when the gods incarnate of the Wood Elves were in hibernation, gave the Necromancer great advantage over his living foes. Thanks to the assistance the famous treeman Druthu and other native spirits of the wood, the Necromancer was driven off, but not before causing serious damage to the forest. He returned to life later in history and a zombie horde led by him besieged castle Reikland only to be this time thwarted by the Dwarf Slayer Gotrek Gurnisson and his human companion Felix Jaegar.

• Krell

A gift from the Chaos gods to Heinrich Kemmler, Krell was once a Chaos warrior, and now he serves the Lichemaster in a terrible mockery of life. More fearsome now than he was in life, Krell serves as Kemmler's bodyguard.

• Arkhan the Black

The first general and most powerful pupil of Nagash. He was slain covering Nagash's retreat from the city of Khemri. The beauty of Necromancy means though that he was brought back later by Nagash's foul craft.

• Dieter Helsnicht, Doomlord of Middenheim

• Genevieve Dieudonné - a vampire who appears in a number of novels by Jack Yeovil

• Von Carstein vampires:

• Vlad - Probably the most notable of the Von Carstein Counts, he was a very noble, but very cold man. He waited for hundreds of years for the perfect time to strike the Empire, and when he marched on Altdorf, his victory looked assured. His army was massive. Vlad's crucial mistake was taking the Grand Theogonist on in single combat. The night before, Empire operatives had managed to steal Vlad's talismanic ring, the ring it is said, that while he possessed he could not be killed. The battle ended when the Grand Theogonist threw himself into Vlad, dragging him from the battlements of Altdorf in a deathly embrace. The two were impaled on the moat of stakes which had been placed around the city.

• Isabella - The devoted wife and lover of Vlad von Carstein, she was as noble as Vlad, but also more cruel. She regarded the living with a level of contempt which her sire did not. After Vlad's death she was captured and held prisoner in a temple. She denied Vlad's death, claiming that he would return to her. After some time she was convinced that he was truly dead, and ended her own life by stabbing herself with a stake.

• Konrad - The second most powerful of Vlad's gets, Konrad greedily assumed the throne after Vlad died, as Mannfred, Vlad's firstborn, mysteriously vanished following the incident. Konrad was a terrible ruler, he had respect for no one, and nothing. He was given to a terrible temper as well. While he ruled at Drakenhof, there was a terrible waste of blood. The devoted servants of Sylvania, whom Vlad had treated well—indeed, they felt graced to be chosen as Vlad's meal—became little more than 'cattle' to the new count. He eventually became so paranoid that the other vampires would destroy him that they eventually were left with no choice but to prove him right. He was killed at the battle of Grimm Moor, by a White Wolf of Middenheim whom Vlad had inducted into his inner circle.

• Mannfred - Vlad's first get. Mannfred was actually first in line to take the place of Vlad, however he mysteriously disappeared after the Count's untimely death. For many years Konrad was allowed to rule Sylvania, but as it turns out, Manfred had not been idle. He had gone on a quest to retrieve some very powerful artefacts from the lands of the Tomb Kings. When he returned, nearly more than 100 years after Vlad's death, Manfred was equipped with one of Nagash's nine books, a powerfully enchanted staff, and a cloak which rendered him nearly impossible to hit in combat and a ring that could bring him back from any death. It is this ring that allowed his sire Vlad to continue his war for so long. Additionally, he had become a very accomplished wizard, and this allowed him to do what Konrad could not—to march on the Empire without any fear of defeat. However, when Mannfred finally stood at the gates of Altdorf, as his sire had done so many years ago, yet another crushing defeat waited for him. All that was visible on the walls of the great city was the figure of Grand Theongist Kurt III. The tiny man had open in his hands Nagash's Liber Mortis, and he began reciting the spell of unbinding from its pages. Rage took Mannfred, but as his army began to crumble to dust, he was in no position to continue the assault. He was driven back, and finally cut down at Hel Fenn by the White Wolf, the once grand master of the order of the white wolf then turned undead. He took the ring and with the help of a dwarf hid himself for all time in the badlands to keep the ring from returning to evil hands.

• Constant Drachenfels, the Great Enchanter

First appearing in the novel Drachenfels by Jack Yeovil and subsequently in Castle Drachenfels for WFRP Drachenfels is a magician who cheats death by taking over the mind and soul of one of those at the killing and subsequently uses them to kill the others who were there and taking body parts to complete the transformation but who is killed by an actor/playwright (Detlef Sierck invoking Sigmar and using a war hammer) and Genevieive.

• Neferata

Queen of Lahmia and the founder of the Lahmian Sisterhood, a order of beautiful female vampires. She is also known as the Night Queen. Her agents have infiltrated many of the other factions throughout the world. She seeks to unite all the disparate undead groups under her rule and to rebuild the Temple of Blood. Khalida of the Tomb Kings is her cousin.