Army of the Month: Da Great Khan

This is a very different style of Army of the Month then our usual format, while it is filled with amazing pictures of the featured army, it instead is told in a much more narrative approach, fitting the excitement and energy Ron (Da Great Khan) brings to the lore of his army.

While traveling the lengths of Mantica, a insolent, despicable, and frankly annoying greenskin captured me. He has held me prisoner in a windowless cell, filled with empty journals and a writing desk. The hateful creature enters my chambers sporadically; ranting for hours, in a disjointed and word vomit of information he calls “Da Histories,” interrupted of course by many mutterings of revenge and killings whenever an old grudge is brought up. That’s right, this month I bring you Da Great Khan and his Mungdroolian Empire!

The Mungdrool Empire, as Da Great Khan calls his territory, spans an expansive reach of Mantica, despite being imprisoned within Mount Yahmadda, I have been able to gather information to create a crude map of the territory, which unfortunately Da Great Khan has scrawled notes and territory names all over…

Spending over a year imprisoned by the Khan, I heard hundreds of hours of history, what follows is a condensed and structured version of the creation and expansion of the Mungdrool Empire, and the threat it represents to the lands of order.

The First Age

In the beginning, the greenskins, including the Mungdrool tribesmen, were slaves to abyssal dwarf overlords ruling over Mount Yahmadda. While this is known as a time of great suffering for Da Khan’s people, it also was a formative period, giving them access to information on magicks, mechanical contraptions, and other dark arts of the abyssal dwarves; knowledge that would give an essential edge to the greenskins once they threw off the yoke of servitude.

Early, in what Da Great Khan referred to as “Da First Age,” a great war, known only as “The God War” was being fought. Thousands died daily until the forces of good gained the upper hand. In punishment to the evil beings who fought them, the gods cast a comet down from the sky, striking the earth, creating the giant crater known as “Da Big Wok.” This also caused the first eruption of Mount Yahmadda!

In the ensuing chaos and destruction, Da Great Khan rose up, cast the shackles of servitude off of his people. Uniting the tribes (or smashing them together), Da Great Khan overwhelming the forces of the evil dwarves put his overlords to the sword, and claimed Mount Yahmadda for himself.

One surprising detail about this period I learned, despite the Mungdrool Tribe being so closely associated with wolf riders, this early version of the Empire had not learned the art of cavalry. Instead, shortly after venturing forth from Mount Yahmadda, the forces of Da Great Khan were assaulted by the nomadic tribes of the DarDar. These tribesmen were expert horsemen, and had a great advantage against the freshly formed Mungdrool Empire.

However, the DarDar had long hunted the semi-intelligent wargs that populate the lands surrounding Mount Yahmadda, and Da Great Khan, ever cunning, formed an alliance with these harassed warg packs, forming the first Da Howling Raiders of the Mungdrool Empire. The endless hordes of Mungdroolia and the rapid responses of Da Howling Raiders chased the DarDar far, far from Mount Yahmadda, never to be seen again. Thus ended the first age of the empire…

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The Second Age

After the defeat of the DarDar, the Second Age of the Mungdrool Empire began. This is a period that I call The Age of Great Expansion, a period defined by the “expansions” of the empire, which was proceeding to conquer and subjugate its neighbors.

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Some notable new acquisitions of the Empire include the Crooked Claw Clan, a tribe of orcs and later the Muddy Knuckle Tribe, a belligerent gang of trolls, that now serve the empire.

One of the most interesting details from this, was the epic conflict with the Spider Tribes of “Ick Woods,” named… I am assuming due to its Ickiness, at least that is what Da Khan kept muttering to himself when speaking of this campaign.

The Ick Spider Tribes managed to fend off the initial advances of Da Great Khan fairly well. The Khan spoke of the countless hordes he sent into the woods, only to be picked apart by the hit and run tactics of the Spider Riders. The Khan, not one to be dissuaded, stubbornly refused to give up his campaign of conquest, and unveiled a diabolical plan. You see, Da Khan, who had not fought on the front lines for some time, had spent decades tinkering and improving his empire’s use of the contraptions stolen from the Abyssal Dwarves.

With the stubborn resistance of the Spider Tribe, Da Great Khan found the perfect opportunity to test his contraptions, rolling them out in their hundreds. The sky was filled with explosions, as the Ick Wood was bombarded, lit on fire, and exploded perpetually for 10 days. The Ick Tribe was sent reeling from this firepower, the quickly sought to kneel before the mighty Khan. The Khan however, is not one to forget a slight, and continued to vindictively burn, shoot, and destroy the Ick Woods for another 10 days, until fully half of the forest lay in ruins. Only then would he see the Spider Tribes’ representatives.

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Perhaps most horrifying part of this conquest is the reaction from the Khan himself. While many rulers surely have made similarly cold decisions; even many, many years later the Khan couldn’t help but spend hours detailing the dozens of villages pillaged and burned, the countless lives taken in a senseless act of violence, his voice rising in volume and pitch, as he took great glee reveling in each wanton act of destruction his troops committed.

The zeal in the Khan’s chilled me more then anything I have seen to this date, and I truly hope that this being never reaches my homelands of The Kingdoms of Men.

As the Age of Expansion drew to a close, the Mungdrool empire encountered other major empires, including the lands of Warkinglandia to the West and Unplugged Turf to the East. These implacable foes (and friends) traded countless blows with the Mungdrools; however, at least for now, the Empire’s expansion has been halted.

Indeed, this age is ended with the creation of Da Great Wall to the East, to hold back the Unplugged threat, and “Da Other Great Wall,” to the West for similar reasons. This more defensive move from the Empire allowed longer term trade to flourish, and resulted in the creation of Da Dirt Road, a major rout of trade with both the East and the West.

The Third Age (Modern Times)

With the Empire so large, it was inevitable that they would meet people from further, and further, and with a ruler as spiteful and unstable as Da Great Khan, it was inevitable these meetings would result in violence. However, instead of expanding, the Mungdrool Empire seems to be attempting to improve their armies and soldiers, to better fight the widening variety of enemies they have.

Indeed, during the Edge of the Abyss, the Mungdrool Empire allied closely with Orc Town, helping wash the Land of Warkinglandia in blood, resulting in the fabled burning of the Grove of the Gryphacorn.

The Khan has acknowledged that he views the role of villain as one of deep responsibility, victory is less important to the Khan, now that he has his empire; instead, each battle he wants his enemies to remember the experience, win or lose. Each time the foul forces of the Mungdrool Empire turn up to the field, the Khan wishes to elicit a groan of “not these guys again!”

Perhaps the most frightening occurrence of this modern age is the Empire’s perfection of what Da Khan called ‘Gene Cooking,’ an abhorrent practice in which the dark mages of the Empire gather body parts across the battlefield, and throw them into “Da Genetic Soup,” and after hours of ritualistic magic, new creations rise from the cauldron.

The Mungdrool Guard are a new regiment of the empire, born purely from the terrifying Gene Cooking. They stand ten feet tall; however, frequently have features similar to the goblins of the mungdrool tribes. The Khan describes these guard as fanatically loyal, and terribly cunning, a terrifying prospect in the hands of a maniac like the Khan.

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This dark magic permeates the Mungdrool Empire, even in how the Khan fights on the battlefield. While in past ages he rode on his trusted cockatrice PekPek, now his Wizs have perfected the creation of a potion, which allows him to grow to massive proportions, temporarily at least. When he drinks his potion, in between maniacally cackling, his still high pitched voice can be heard chanting “Mega Khan, Mega Khan,” as he smashes his enemies to a pulp.

In a recent conflict, that the Khan referred to as a Clash of Kings ’19, he has taken to using a trio of fearsome Slashers, forming a formidable wedge to drive his army into the core of the enemy. This new tactic perhaps represents a shift in the overall tactics this new Clash forced the Khan to take.

As the Khan continues his rampages across the lands, I can only hope that the forces of order and good are as well prepared, as well equipped, and as cunning as this foe. I truly fear for the lands, as it is only a matter of time before the egomaniac that is Da Great Khan bursts forth and brings death and destruction of unheard levels across Mantica.

While I could spend a lot more time covering the hundreds of hours of dark mutterings Da Khan subjected me to, I will leave you with these words of “wisdom” direct from the Khan, “My entire empire is driven by passion, if the fighting and battles are flowing, I feel energized to work more at it, create, and being something new to the next fight. This community (I can only assume he means Warkinglandia) is fantastic, and if you get a good group going, you can feed off of each other’s passions, hyping each other up to new levels.”

I big shout out of thanks to Ron for taking the time to shower me with pictures of the Mungdrool Empire, and spending a great deal of time riveting me with tales of his conquests!