Kings of War Lore: Northern Alliance

Greetings, and welcome to a new article series, where I will be taking us through the lore of various Kings of War factions. My goals with these overviews are to showcase some of the army artwork, lore, and background while giving some review of what I think about it. First up, I wanted to pick one of the more unique Kings of War armies, the Northern Alliance. For future articles, I plan to take requests based on feedback left on this article, so if you have an army you want me to explore the background of comment and tell me!

You can find the other articles on this topic here.

Founding the Northern Alliance

An unremarkable elf, Talannar, was exiled, “for bringing great shame upon his kin.” What exactly that sin was remains a mystery, perhaps Talannar spoke out that elves aren’t nearly the best at shooting their lore claims to be… who knows. (*Update: apparently in the Elf section this Sin is covered, while in the Northern Alliance section stating it is unknown and not recorded, which is an odd choice)

But the elf prince, banished from his home, wandered around for centuries alone, and the elf kingdoms never expected to hear from him again. Well, surprise, surprise. That didn’t quite happen. Talannar eventually made his way to the North, where he traded his rings, apparently “priceless heirlooms” for the loyalty of a tribe of ogres. He then used these mercenaries to begin carving out his first settlements, and eventually a kingdom (must have been some rings!).

Somewhere in these early stages, Talannar recruited local tribes of Snow Trolls, which are apparently cleverer than traditional trolls. These tribes of trolls would soon form an important component in the Northern Alliance defense and construction groups. Local tribes of human tribesmen also began joining the group.

These early attempts were tough, as building a kingdom in the lands of ice and snow is apparently not super easy. Between the weather, a lack of traditional building resources, and regular attacks from orcs and goblins, gaining a foothold proved challenging. Maybe that is why no one did it before Talannar… hmmmmmm…

According to the Kings of War rulebook “The threat became so great that the snow trolls tasked with the bulk of the foundational construction work were diverted instead to support the ogre mercenaries in a bid to hold off the invaders. Over a decade, many violent clashes resulted in ongoing delays, and on two occasions, vast swaths of defenses and building work were destroyed by greenskins breaking through the lines.”

These issues were worsened by the fact that Talannar, the dude responsible for pulling together this new civilization, was frequently gone. Apparently he was off recruiting and on diplomatic missions, but all on his own, when no one could follow him (not suspicious at all). “Those that tried to track him, concerned for their leader’s safety, eventually lost their prey as a squall of icy wind or a flurry of blinding snow forced them to lose sight.”

Stuff Gets Worse

After these initial decades of construction, shit really hits the fan. Vast greenskin hordes were swarming through the peaks, basically devoted to eradicating the fledgling alliance. Outposts and remote tribes were rapidly wiped out, and the alliance members all fled back to Blackridge, the largest alliance settlement, braced for their heroic stand.

The details are poorly written here, as the paragraph before discussing this major assault, we are told how Talannar was gone, but after describing how badly the Alliance was getting their butts handed to them, we are told Talannar formed a plan?! In my reading, it seemed like he was gone… so more than a little odd. But, accepting that he was gone, and now miraculously back within two paragraphs, Talannar formed a plan.

Basically, the Alliance would abandon Blackridge, and do a “controlled retreat” (flee) up into the mountains, aiming for a place called Wraithsight. This was apparently, “A haunted place that turned even the strongest and most stalwart into gibbering wrecks.” Yeah, great plan guy… starting to see why he was exiled.

Well, this was naturally not well received, but after displaying his magical prowess/strength, by glowing and “warming the air,” people decided to follow him (seriously that is what happened).

The Retreat

Taking all the mages and ice queens he could find, Talannar rushed ahead to “forge” a path for the Alliance. This retreat is brutal on the Alliance, with heroic last stands, avalanches, and other hazards killing many, but apparently not enough to really matter much. My favorite segment is about the frost giant “Grimjaw Igurdottir.”

Grimjaw sacrificed herself to save hundreds of clansfolk and elves as they made their way, embattled, through Hykrim pass. Sickly green beams of light blazed from a cadre of orc godspeakers, carving a monstrously huge sheet of ice from the cliff face which plunged into the chasm below. The orcs screamed in delight at the expected massacre below. Sensing the danger, Grimjaw threw down her weapons and caught the massive berg with a bone-crunching impact. Mortally wounded, Grimjaw held the ice aloft as the refugees escaped around her. For three agonizing hours, she endured the crushing weight as more snow, rock, and ice rained down upon her. As the last of the Alliance’s peoples passed beneath her, the green skin pursuers were close on their heels. As they hacked and slashed at her dying body, Grimjaw let the strength ebb away from her muscles and the immense mass of ice and rock came crushing down to seal her fate.

This moment with Grimjaw encapsulates this retreat well, and we will just ignore how stupid it was for green skins to attack the giant holding up the mass of ice.

Finally, after two months of retreating, with food running low (holy crap, how did they last two months?!), they reached their goal, the haunted and spooky place called Wraithsight, and in astonishment they saw, “A majestic city… framed by the twin peaks of Usmund and Burglot. A vast, glittering blue wall surrounded the construction and ran as far left and right as could be seen. Beyond the wall, the elegant spires and buildings could be seen and in the distance, at the heart of the city, rose an imposing and beautiful citadel, an enormous bastion of azure blue ice and jet black obsidian.”

In front of the gates, the Alliance’s frequently absent ruler rode out, with yet another army behind him and on the walls?! So the Alliance was saved and given its new, permanent home. This begs the question, where did this army come from, and could Talannar have gotten them sooner? Perhaps my girl Grimjaw would still be alive!

There are some nice hints here. Where did Talannar get the magical power to erect this city? In the Kings of War lore, Winter was an important foe against most of the world in ancient history, defeated, but leaving a scar on the land. Could Talannar be tapping into the same force?

Unsurprisingly, with a new super base, and a new army, the greenskins are promptly defeated and the Northern Alliance, given a better home base, is able to start carving out a territory of their own, forming new ice/obsidian cities, and basically gaining more followers.

Again, the timeline gets a little messy, because early in the lore it says that after establishing this city and naming it, he began drawing followers from everywhere, but in the creation of the city we are told about all the Alliance’s followers too…

The Lands of Chill

So this impressive city is called… Chill. Yes, I know, honestly, this name is incredibly silly and campy. It’s like that kid who named their black cat or dog Shadow… real original. The lore tries to justify it by saying it’s ” a simple word known to many folk in many tongues, and, in an act that would horrify his forebears, threw open his court to all who would come before him.”

So basically, lots of races know the word Chill, and to embody that, this word was chosen. I’m calling BS, there are many names that could have been chosen with far more meaning. Hell, why not name it “Wraithsight,” for the area it was built, far more evocative and memorable? But, Mantic has a shaky history of naming things in their world already, so I guess we are stuck with Chill.

With Chill formed, the Northern Alliance has become a beacon to the disenfranchised around Pannithor. It draws homeless Free Dwarves, unwilling to join their Imperial cousins, it pulls in fellow elves, northern tribesmen, trolls, giants, and for some reason Naiads. Basically it is a home for outcasts.

This does an excellent job of playing up the tension between the various dwarf factions. Basically, after the Abyssal Dwarves invaded South, most of the Free Dwarf lands were conquered, and the Free Dwarves, having fled into Imperial Dwarf lands, are sort of second class citizens. So, many decide to instead head north, to this promised land of the outcast. This is incredibly interesting, and I would love to see this expanded on some, as it is a storyline without the Abyss or Basilea at its core.

Naturally, there are some interesting kernels of elven lore here. The elves of Mantica (yet another dumb name) are extremely dour, they feel guilty for causing the god war, and so aren’t very happy people. However, in Chill, the laughter of elven children can be found, something specifically pointed out as rare in the core elven nations of the South. Perhaps, Talannar’s initial sin was trying to shed the centuries of guilt surrounding the god war?

The notable exception to this home for outcasts rule is the Naiads. According to the rulebook, Talannar contacted the Green Lady and the Trident King of Myrrhimm “for aid in the coming wars,” and for some undisclosed reason, these neutral forces agreed, and sent dour Naiads from the icy waters of the North. No idea why they agreed to this, there are some vague mentions of Talannar’s “promises,” but this seems like a pretty major alliance to leave completely in the dark…

A Few Other Things of Interest

Chill is not left with just the outcasts from afar, Talannar has drawn in the native tribal peoples’ of the North and has forged them into a more organized front. During his many diplomatic missions abroad, one assumes part of that was recruiting these diverse peoples. In a burst of inspiration, Talannar maintained the traditional military and social hierarchies of northern tribesmen throughout his domain, making it easier to incorporate the various skalds, huscarls, and thegns into his forces.

Some of these people were once part of the Varangur tribes, but many others were just human tribesmen. These people brought with them a culture of the hunter lifestyle, complete with many domesticated Tundra Wolves and other beasts of the north like Frostfangs (called by some tribes Direfangs) and Chimeras. This provides a compelling reason why this army has more monstrous choices, and the models reflect this foundation in a nomadic and tribal lifestyle well.

Perhaps most interestingly, Talannar has somehow managed to pull in the allegiance of the rarely seen Frost Giants, beings who fought alongside Winter and were massacred when the war was lost. We are uncertain how Talannar gained their allegiance, but this is yet another tie to the ancient past of Winter, that along with the mysterious magic Talannar wields, that other mages can’t figure out, hints at a potentially sinister core to this fledgling nation.

Thoughts

Overall, I think the Northern Alliance has some of Mantic’s strongest lore. It’s fascinating, with enough variety and motives to make creating armies around it fun. The lore for the most part holds up, though there are some pretty bad plot holes that I pointed out.

I also want to note that the range for Northern Alliance is one of the best Mantic creates, and they really fit the lore well!

If, after reading that, you are wondering how to build an NA army, check out our army review here.

But, enough about my thoughts, what are all of yours? Did I get the NA lore correct, or do you disagree? What faction would you like me to cover next? Comment on this article (or where ever I post it)!