The Remnant Kingdom

The Remnant Kingdom is the oldest civilisation on Avernus bar none (on a technicality) and the most powerful non-Guardian kingdom. Apparently, the Kingdom is setting a long-buried plan into action and consolidating its strength in preparation for the next incursion. The Kingdom is populated by every known form of Troll, barring the long-extinct True Trolls.

## The People

The main folk of the Kingdom are Trolls, as might be expected although there are many more varieties of Troll within its borders than anywhere else in the world. To explain Trolls take on their unique traits, depending on exposure to solid materials during their infancy and young adolescence, but there are strict (if sometimes nonsensical) demarcations on *what* counts as a solid.

In general, there seems to be a certain degree of strength and regularity to the material’s structure that is required by the Trolls and within these limits, the Trolls still display a great amount of variability. For example, the Stone Trolls can meld with seemingly any form of stone from obsidian to sandstone but are stopped upon reaching a patch of iron ore.

In “nature” there are only three types of “natural” troll, the Stone, Ice and Wood troll. Even then the last is debatable, as they initially existed only within the Barrier Trees, with the Remnant Kingdom having to recreate them to live outside of the vast weapons.

In the Kingdom’s borders, however, there are numerous species of Troll that are otherwise too specialised in their composition to exist anywhere else.

In order of significance of numbers, metal, gem, ceramic, crystal, glass and polymer Troll subspecies all live within the kingdom as a result of its experiments in trying to understand their capacity to understand their own forms. Although they started as experiments, they are equal citizens within the Kingdom, with the same rights as the “natural” subspecies, and share their capacity to “shift” through materials, a degree of innate control over their substance, and enhanced strength against metals (although this is pronounced in metallic trolls, who are reportedly some of the most terrifying combatants imaginable.)

Trolls make up the majority of the population, but there are a surprising number of other species living amongst them as permanent citizens. Orkwings make up the majority, but several other peoples live there either as migrants, refugees or in the case of a surprisingly large number of Therondy Dragons, mercenaries attracted by the vast wealth of the Kingdom.

## Powers and Technology

### Powers

#### An Overview

Grandmaster Aria spent four years working with the Remnant Kingdom get an idea of what their Psychic Disciplines do and how compatible they are with your psykers.

Transmutation is a discipline focused entirely around the Transmutation of Matter and is by far the most used of the Remnant Kingdom Disciplines, having far more practitioners then all of the other disciplines put together. Transmutation is the art of changing matter, and while it is possible to change living beings with it it is highly challenging, though Troll’s strange exitance allows for them to easily modify the non-organic part of their body.

The first tier is the Tier of Form, and it involves reshaping already existing material to suit your needs. All Transmuters start here and develop their skills from simple bending of matter all the way to creating complex machinery out of existing chemicals. Barring a few specialists, this is considered the apprentice Tier.

The second tier is the Chemical Tier, which allows the Transmuters to reshape the chemical bonds within matter to fit his goals. This allows the creation of most chemicals and alloys out of their elemental components and it is at this level that you are considered to be a proper Transmuter.

The third tier is the Elemental Tier, which allows changing the elemental composition of matter. This allows for the creation of all but the most exotic materials out of any given ingredients, and in the hands of an expert can even create nanomaterals wholesale. This Tier is considered to be the domain of experts, and many Transmuters fail to reach it.

The fourth tier is the Exotic Tier, which allows the creation of matter in various exotic and strange states. While the most well known is anti-matter there is a massive range of states of matter that a master of the Exotic Tier can create. Reaching this Tier is considered to be the mark of a Master Transmuter and therefore as worthy of respect.

The fifth and final tier is the Conceptional Tier, which allows the creation of psychically active materials. These range from simple psy-active materials which can be produced in large amounts to psychic masterworks of incredible power. Those Trasmuters who reach this Tier are considered to be at the pinnacle of their art and are respected throughout the Rement Kingdom.

According to Aria your psykers should be able to reach the first two tiers of transmutation given time, with maybe a few gifted geniuses reaching the third after centuries of practice. The final two tiers however are out of the reach of humanity.

The second Discipline is Analysis, which is a discipline focused on the accumulation and investigation of information. Compared to Divination, Analysis is focused more on the analysis of what is currently present rather than going for distance or attempting to predict the future. While it has its uses on the battlefield the main use of this Discipline is in research.

Aria tells you that many of the techniques within this discipline should be usable by your psykers, and will be of great value to your psychic researchers.

Reconstruction is a discipline that melds Analysis and Transmutation and allows for Trolls to restore something to its original condition. Its main limitation is the high level of understanding that the Troll must possess of the original condition in order to restore an item, making it most useful for battlefield repair and self-healing.

Aria tells you that this discipline should be usable by your psykers, though only at the lower levels.

Spatial Manipulation is a Discipline focused around bending space. Grown out of the Trolls' strange nature this is a discipline that allows for expanding and shrinking spaces at early levels, and the creation of pocket dimensions at high levels.

According to Aria this field is compatible enough with your psykers for them to learn how to expand and shrink areas, but not enough for the creation of pocket dimensions.

The Trolls of the Remnant Kingdom have developed an unbroken psychic tradition that is now sixty million years old. That simple statement does little to capture the magnitude of this achievement, with even the Eldar now being unable to say the same due to what they lost during the Fall. Their closest competition were the Sirens of Var’jinash, but the shattering of their empire lost much knowledge and splintered their tradition into several distinct directions.

With all this being said, the Remnant’s tradition began from a much lower base than the eldar and its capacity to grow has been restricted by the scale of the Kingdom itself. Then again, the same can be said for humanities research on Avernus and as we’ve seen the Planet acts as a natural research amplifier in this regard, one the Trolls have eagerly taken advantage of.

The key to understanding the Remnant’s development is understanding the affinity of trolls and their focus as a people.

Affinity determines what powers a race is generally predisposed towards. As an example, Humans tend towards “fast” and impermanent effects like pyromancy, which is believed to be related to our relatively short lives compared to many other beings and certainly rapid life schedules.

By contrast, focus is determined more by the culture of a specific society. With this it is far more of a chicken and egg quandary, as a particular tradition might emerge because certain traits are emphasised and so are allowed to experiment, or it may be due to the active or unconscious desire within the society for that kind of power.

Again using humans, the technomancy of Callamus is the result of focus which depending upon one's predilections can be taken as an example of focus manifesting either way. Furthermore, it can be difficult to distinguish focus from affinity at times and vice versa.

Astartes Chapters offer an interesting microcosm into this dichotomy. Due to their connection to their primarchs, who are in turn Archetype holders, they have incredibly strong innate affinities and focuses. However, as chapters diverge and their focus shifts they begin to create new traditions that retain strong affinity links. The Carcharodons are one such example, retaining connections to stealth and shadow due to their still existing affinity to Corvus Corax, but with a much more brutal, predator and prey oriented psychic style.

Trolls tend towards an affinity for Matter. Indeed each of the original three races has an affinity for one of the three naturally occurring (non plasma) states of matter, the Sirens being liquid and the Orkwings air.

For the Trolls this means that their psychic traditions tend towards strength, permanence and the physical world, but finds difficulty enacting conceptual and insubstantial techniques. In most ways they are the closest one can get to the “real” in the use of the immaterium.

The Kingdom of the Remant’s focus has shifted several times over its long history, as different means of attending their end goal were decided upon. Initially it was Repair, before shifting to Understand and finally Rediscover. When they had their revelation that their goal was impossible, their focus seems to have shifted again and is in a state of some flux.

Due to the combination of these factors, the Trolls have developed numerous powers based on study of their innate abilities, hoping they would lead to their restoration as true trolls and subsequently a large number of other techniques with the view of finding the route back to their former state through “new” methods.

As an exact list of their developed techniques is impractical to compile we shall cleave to their more impressive accomplishments.

#### Matter Manipulation

Prime amongst these is simply Matter Manipulation. Seemingly the final stage of various types of physical manipulations it is absolute control over the physical world, with no restrictions or upper limits save for the users own creativity and knowledge. To a trained Troll transmuting an enemy into water, or turning their blood into oxygen is as simple as breathing, with the effect being truly permanent. The only protection seems to be strong wards, but even then the Trolls are masters at bypassing these by transforming the physical makeup or anchors of the wards into something else.

The only real inhibitor of this power is the degree of knowledge required to effectively make use of it, as by all other objective measures it is remarkably efficient in terms of power, relatively easy to control and has seemingly endless uses both for war and peace.

#### Space

Often less noted, and significantly less developed is the Kingdom’s insight into Space which was obtained from the study of their own bodies. Trolls are the seamless intermingling of a pair of bodies, the organic one which they are born with and a second inorganic one they develop as they grow into adults and by studying how these two interact with one another the Trolls have learned how to create “bent” and “pocket” spaces. To humans daemonology operates on some of the same principals, albeit not to the same extent, with the Trolls expanding their cities and traps considerably through use of these spaces.

#### Analysis

One of the Troll’s “secret” or at least not advertised abilities is Analysis. This is less a discipline and more an umbrella of thousands of assorted techniques that all lend themselves towards the accumulation and investigation of information such as gathering information on a structure. Postcognition also falls into this category with the Kingdom having developed their understanding of that art to a high degree during their final search for the secrets of the True Trolls. At its upper limit, Trolls of the Kingdom can tell with a glance many of the secrets, weaknesses and strengths of an enemy, people or structure that would otherwise be hidden from them, find patterns in absolute chaos or brute force the solution to quandaries that are otherwise completely obscured. It is also apparently able to get around their near-total inability at telepathy to an extent. As with most of their powers it is based around the material. So while able to tell at a glance where a weak spot in a tank is it requires a master to use it to “cheat” a social interaction with it and an only a handful could try and piece together a potential future based on data sets.

#### Reconstruction

Reconstruction is usually underestimated in its utility. It is a group of techniques that allows the Trolls to restore something to its original condition, usually starting off from post cognition as a base. Theoretically, it is one of the most useful powers in existence as so much has been lost at this point, but for anything, but the most simple of items, the Troll using the power must be able to understand the object in question. While analysis techniques can bridge the gap in areas, an extremely intricate machine like the STC or a very conceptual/psychically active weapon would be highly difficult to restore requiring a massive amount of research first. Furthermore while theoretically possible to use on living beings, their souls interfere with the process, making it significantly more difficult.

The exception is when used on the self, as assuming one has knowledge of their own being, restoring it via reconstruction is greatly simplified. The Trolls take advantage of this to essentially give themselves an impressive degree of self-regeneration, continually restoring their bodies (as well as arms, armour etc.) to a previous state. Its utility in repairing defences is even greater, putting the trolls with their manipulation abilities and ability to revoke damage to defences among some of the best siege engineers in the galaxy.

### Technology

What sets the Trolls apart from most of the Peoples, aside from just sheer age, is that they are also one of the few advanced users of material technology on Avernus. Indeed their knowledge in that area is almost equal to humanities own, if not surpassing it in certain aspects. Initial research in this area was done to advance their understanding of the fundamentals of reality in hopes of improving other areas of investigation, with other inventions being happy coincidences that improved their standard of living. Over time they began to use conventional technology in more areas before subsequently combining it with their psychic powers to create an even more potent melding of the two.

To use the scale of advancement provided by Muspelheim, the Kingdom of the Remnant can be considered TL 18-19 in terms of material tech and an even higher level of psychic comprehension. The combined tech level puts them above humanity currently, certainly matching some of the Dark Age’s heights in terms of sophistication according to Vlad.

#### An Overview

After spending four years studying the technology of the Remnant Kingdom, Archmagos Tranth has prepared a summary of what they do better than you, and what you can learn from them.

The first field in which they are significantly more advanced than you is material, with the Trolls having access to a wide range of materials significantly better than your equivalents. This is also the field that will require the most work for you to make use of, as the majority of their production methods make heavy use of their Transmutation. It is possible without it though, you just need to improve on their rather specialised conventional production methods. Exploration of this field could lead to minor to moderate boosts to almost any field as your base materials improve in quality, and cost. The Trolls better understanding of material science may also allow them to significantly reduce the time and cost of making the more advanced materials you currently produce, such as Angelsteel or Ultra-Dense Matter. You might also be able to learn to create Orichalcum in small quantities, giving you access to a psychically conductive material harder than even Angelsteel.

Next is their highly advanced vehicular technology, where they seem to have combined a deep understanding of the laws of physics and material science to create significantly more effective vehicles, though lacking compared to yours in the use of the more exotic effects such as most force fields and anti-gravity generators.

Linked to this are their cybernetics and power armour designs,which possess several notable improvements to your current designs in some ways, even after accounting for the superior materials. The main issue however is how much their more interesting designs rely on the weird makeup of trolls to function, meaning that they may not be usable by humans even after major redesigns.

Finally are their weapons, which are mostly highly advanced munitions deployment systems, many of which could be best compared to greatly improved bolters and missile launchers. This should able to provide a resurgence in an area of weapons technology that has fallen behind in recent decades, especially combined with the variable and devastating ammunition types that they make use of. Trollish weapons will be restricted to the most well-supplied units, however, due to the issues with providing their ammunition without the Transmutation based production methods that they rely on.

#### Vehicles, Armours and Cybernetics: Examination

Archmagos Tranth spent six years studying the Vehicles, Armours and Cybernetics of the Remant Kingdom in order to see what he could learn from them.

To begin with he found that the Remant Kingdom had notably more effective artificial muscles and servos, allowing for power armour and cybernetics to be notably stronger. These improvements carry on to the vehicular scale, allowing for boosts to the speed and strength of walkers and the turn speed of turrets.

The next notable improvement is an incredibly effective way of layering and alloying various types of armours on a microscopic scale with different properties to create a result that has the strengths of all its company, and the weaknesses of none. Even without using the advanced materials that the Remant Kingdom is able to produce this will allow you to create far better armour, though not cheaply.

The third improvement is far less clear cut, being a matter of computational architecture. He tells you that the Remant Kingdoms methods are equally effective to yours but very different. As such while changing over would require a massive amount of retraining and redesigning for the Mechancius as a whole and have no notable improvements, the differences would ensure that it is near impossible for anyone familiar with the standard human technologies to hack or, and more importantly that any backdoors left in the code by the Void Dragon are removed.

#### Weaponry: Examination

Archmagos Tranth has spent a lot of time examining the Remnant Kingdoms weapons technologies in order to determine what technologies are worth using or have interesting ideas. While most of them are based on the exotic forms of ammunition that their transmutation allows there are two lines of weapons that he considers worth using.

To begin with, he tells you that the Trolls main rifle seems to be a combination of bolter and impaler weaponry, being a coilgun that launches one of a wide variety of ammunitions, many of which are self-propelled. The true advancements of the weapon however are the complex targeting system, which allows for a high degree of accuracy with a wide range of ammunition in combat, and the ammunition magazine/loader, which allows a level of control over the ammunition fired that few weapons can match, and even less as quickly. The Remnant Battle Rifle is a highly flexible and effective combat weapon that can compare favourably even with Neutron Rifles but requires a large variety of advanced ammunition to make proper use of. Variations exist for weapons of all scales, up to and including Macrocannons.

Next are the Homing Missles that Trolls use for the majority of their long-ranged AT and AA firepower. These missiles are a little larger and notably more expensive than your current versions but are able to home in on their designated target allowing for major improvements in accuracy. Their onboard sensors and cognition are even advanced enough to target selected parts of a target vehicle or go for the maximum possible number of targets in AOE if targeting infantry. Again there is a wide range of variations of this technology for different scales and target types, including a set of dedicated AA missiles and basic grenades.

#### Materials

Much of this psy-tech is in the materials used in them, with the Trolls having a seemingly endless ability to manufacture advanced psycically active components. A fairly large chunk of Avernus’s geological and mineralogical anomalies may have originated as, or were inspired by the Trolls research into this field, with matter manipulation in particular seemingly giving them a great edge.

Perhaps the most well known material they have created is Orichalcum, a metal inspired by study of The Eternal’s own metallic hide. Although bronze in colouration the metal is lighter than paper, but stronger than high grade adamantium, while taking to enhancement both psychic and material with immeasurable ease. Although relatively common within the Kingdom itself, it is a rare and highly valuable commodity beyond its borders in especially high demand amongst crafters such as the Deep Sea Sirens.

Rumours say that their greatest inventions in this area are a type of crystal derived from intensive study of a piece of the Black Crystal Jewelry. As all of Avernus’s ancient peoples have some history with one of these items it should come as no surprise that the Kingdom has been a frequent holder of some of them. Instead of being worn by a great hero, instead the Crystals are studied when in their possession and eventually “released” back into the wilds to be picked up by some other creature. The Trolls have some of the best understanding of their capabilities, but like all others no real idea of how they work even after sixty million years. A few of their greatest scholars thought they might be close to comprehending the simplest parts of their operations, but even then their theories were generally proven incorrect.

However, the Crystals have been a source of much inspiration to the Trolls. With a specially designed forge deep beneath Avernus’s crust, within and without of the Caverns, through great sacrifice and cost of their greatest artisans they can forge strange crystals of their own. Each tiny gem represents an immense cost for the Kingdom of the Remnant and so far they have stockpiled them away. Like many of the Kingdom’s projects there are rumours abound as to the end goal of these jewels, but the truth is suspected to be both more terrifying and impressive than any can guess.

#### Mechanics

They have similar understanding of mechanics to take advantage of these materials. The Trolls are infamous for their construction of war machines that would have already been incredibly potent by sheer materium standards before adding in the Trollish pilots and psytech materials which put them into the realm of the absurd. Some of these shall be elaborated on in the military section. Their civilian applications are also wide ranging, albeit more specialised for their people than most. Even before those enhancements they are still in possession of extremely advanced manufacturing and extraction technology.

#### Augmentations

Finally the Trolls show an immense understanding of Augmentations. This is perhaps unsurprising, given their long research into their own bodies, but the results are impressive nonetheless. Of course it is much more complex (and risky) to augment a troll than a human, given the interplay of their dual bodies, but the potential effects can also be doubled by extension. Regardless the Trolls possess significant cybernetic, genetic and psychic insights into improving individuals, which culminate in their War-Forged, but other sorts of augmentations exist throughout their society, others arguably even more drastic than the War-Forged.

#### Geomantic Taps

The final (for now) notable element this report will touch on are “Taps.” A very important accomplishment, this marks the Kingdom as a People of great mastery on Avernus, as “taps” are a means to use the power of the Geomantic web, specifically to power artefacts and runes.

This is separate to the methods of the lizardmen\*, who are reportedly impressed by any people who learns how to make them rather than the “conventional” method of using the geomantic web which relies on individual psykers of strong will. A tap is instead a device capable of channeling the power of the web and running it into something. Given the practically infinite energy of the web it allows a People to construct super projects up to the limit of the amount of energy they can safely draw.
\*To hear them say it, that any on Avernus have learned how is remarkable, but how they are doing it can be best described as “brute force” at best.

Only a handful of People have ever learned how to fashion taps and deploying one requires an Arcane Fulcrum, but an example of one in action can be seen in the old Queendoms. Each of the settlements that is directly descended from the Empire of Varjin’ash is built around a tapped Fulcrum, which in turn powers a gargantuan array of true runes, so monumental in scale and power that it beggars belief.

The arrays around the empire's capital were said to have been strong enough even Alyrasin could not have breached them, with only the World revoking the fulcrums that powered them allowing the Dragon entry to the city.

In the modern era the Queendoms do not know how to make new taps, merely how to maintain the ones they have. *Extremely* rarely a new one will be discovered in repairable condition in one of the empire's ruins and put to use. Some queendoms claim they are getting close to recreating them, but confirming this is difficult at best.

Certainly with time and research they have created things equallying them, such as the Azure Isles Sirens, whose Queendom lacked an array seeing as it was mostly a holiday destination for the nobility and so developed the warding speciality they exemplify to compensate, eventually creating the wards Ridcully has failed to breach since.

What we know for certain is the Kingdom does know how to make more Taps and theirs are of remarkable potency, their understanding of psychic materials allowing them to construct taps with exceedingly high tolerances around which they place some of their few permanent cities. What is unclear is what devices these taps power currently and even more chillingly what they could power.

## History

### The Early Kingdom

The Remnant Kingdom was founded in the aftermath of the death of the True Trolls by some of the young adults and children who managed to make it through with access to some of their parents' legacy. Settling in the region of Avernus now known as their battle-field, they do in fact predate the Lizardmen’s civilisations by virtue of technicality. Their kingdom was created before the split between the Saurus and Skinks was formalised, making the Lizardmen as a whole undoubtedly older, but the specific Empires younger by a few years.

For the next sixty million years the Kingdom has been focused upon its singular goal, the recreation of the True Troll, the original genus of the species.

Whereas modern Trolls are capable of existing as only a single solid substance simultaneously with their biological bodies, the True Trolls were able to become anything they wanted to or needed to be, combined with a much greater degree of innate control over matter in general. They were considered to be the magnum opus of the World’s initial trio of projects that it created under the Old Ones and impressive enough that the latter even sent some of the Trolls to war against the Necrons, where their capacity to replicate even necrodermis allowed them to turn the tide on several fronts.

During the first incursion, the True Trolls died.

Their numbers replenished slowly as is typical of a race with such innate strength, but their population was lower than normal due to the Old Ones taking so many and then being savaged by the primal daemons’ rush on the Slann. When the forces of the ancient Khorne, led by its first Childe came, it was too much, too soon, and they were at last obliterated. They managed to save their children who had not yet gone through the trials needed to awaken their full nature as True Trolls. Unfortunately, none of their offspring knew how to undertake the tasks required, so the secrets to their transformation were lost with their forebears.

In this way, the Trolls can be seen as a broken, half people. A shattered remnant of a once far greater people and so the Trolls of the Kingdom endeavoured to restore themselves from such an ignoble state. To do the impossible; recreate the genius of the World combined with the coaching of the Old Ones.

Thus their history for sixty million years was mostly the same, in a time called The Age of Reclamation. A never-ending cycle of research and development, pursuing innumerable paths of progress each one leading to no success but building their knowledge and power ever higher. At the same time, the Kingdom itself remained insular and isolated, rarely ever interacting with the outside world and even hiding its existence, traits which remain in the Kingdom to this day albeit to lesser extents.

The only aspect to which the Kingdom devotes as much attention as its investigations has traditionally been its military, creating a warmachine to defend them against all possible foes. They still remember that their forefathers fell and refuse to never again be in danger of falling. It is a point of pride that they have beaten the odds time and again as the Kingdom has never been completely overrun, nor have they lost all their cities. Almost no assault has ever managed to threaten them save for the Daemons of Chaos, and they successfully resisted even the ancient Khan with his horde, the Empire of Var’Jinash, and a thousand other foes. Whenever they are attacked, it is a similar notion that ensures that their response is utterly overwhelming to discourage any thought of a further assault.

As a result of their defences and military, most of Avernus’s kingdoms have prefered to leave them alone. The Var’jinash Empire purportedly was the closest to destroying them and likely could have, but the resulting clash would have caused so much damage they were told in no uncertain terms by the World’s representatives to cease and for both sides to make reparations.\*
\* The conflict between the two had been started by an overconfident Siren Queen who had raided the Kingdom out of a desire for exotic soul-slaves. After the Empress refused to hear their case as quickly as they wished, the Kingdom, in what passes for their idea of “proportionate” response, stormed the Queen’s city, killed almost every siren within it before obliterating it with a volcanic eruption for good measure.

The Remnant’s activities are the same almost until the modern-day. However, 200,000 years ago, a “great weeping” erupted from the Kingdom, which shut its borders entirely and attempted to keep out everyone and everything, even the Border Lions and the other agents of the World. That they were almost successful alone says a great deal.

### The Weeping

It was not until years later that the Kingdom tearfully began to open out into the World again, calling together a meeting of all the Troll tribes to inform them that their work was complete...and a failure.

The Kingdom knew how to recreate the True Trolls and why doing so was impossible. To make them the World had incorporated a pair of materials that flatly could not be made. The first had been stolen from the Necrons and the C’tan, which was used to stabilize their bodies as they changed, the second a substance which enabled this change to begin with and was the product of the Old Ones. After sixty million years both had decayed to nothing within their bodies while simultaneously being incomprehensibly advanced. The Kingdom had attempted *everything* within their power to recreate them, investigating the past directly through the time plains, petitioned Great Ones and through some unknown method had called upon the World itself to seek help or answers.

The response was final and devastating.

Even the World could not remake what it had used in those primordial experiments. It did not fully understand the technology of the Star Gods or the Necrons and the Old One in question was *its* maker, Loqukasi. The creator of the Wolf of the Apocalypse, the World Serpent, an apology to the universe for the Wolf’s existence and finally the architect/parent to the Mother of Death when the Old One, at last, lost itself in madness. The greatest life spinner of the Old Ones, whose genius the World had failed to emulate for its entire existence.

The Remnant’s tale stunned, appalled, and brought the delegates of the other tribes to their knees. Many of their histories had been based on the hope the Kingdom brought, that one day they could be *Trolls* again. That was gone now, and much like the Kingdom before them, they began to weep.

The Kingdom’s representatives marshalled themselves and called for them to order. They would not allow their kindred to fall to despair as they had, for the World had in its own way shown them a future, should they wish to grasp it. They spoke of their achievements and of those of their brethren. Of the Trolls who had come so far from what they were, and in so many ways were as extraordinary as their predecessors. Perhaps even more so.

For sixty million years the Kingdom had focused upon recreating what was lost, but had never turned its eyes towards what they could make that was new, or even bothered to evaluate their own progress. Everything was a means towards a singular end, with each investigated path a new failure, but as the World had shown they had not failed. They had discovered miracles that had not benefited their current goal, used them as tools and weapons, but had failed to understand how extraordinary their achievements were.

It was a bitter wound that they had been dealt to them. It had shaped their species for its entire existence and the pain of that loss would perhaps never be entirely gone...but they had grown strong from it as well. Now it was time for them, as a race to surpass that ancient loss.

This was the new drive of the Kingdom of the Remnant.

From that day the Kingdom has entered the second phase of its civilisation, The Age of the Future.

### The Age of the Future

Its priorities for research have changed, its civilisation has shifted and the People as a whole have become far more active in the affairs of Avernus generally, although it is a role they still seem very uncertain of.

Their attentions have mostly been centred upon uplifting the various groups of the Trolls spread across the World and protecting and aiding various Peoples. For example, the Animancers were forced to cease their assaults on other peoples by their intervention.

However, it is known that the Trolls are preparing something, although their ultimate plan can only be guessed at.

### The Age of Expansion

Recently, a new age had started for the Remnant Kingdom. A few years before the Grand Incursion, the forces of Sanity have managed to kill the Destroyer, capturing a C'tan's body intact. With that, the Trolls and the World finally had the missing components required to complete their work. Within a week, the necessary modifications to bring back the True Trolls were complete.

While too young to have participated in the battles of the Incursion of Doom, the fact that all the Trolls born in the Kingdom are now True Trolls is one the full effect of which is yet to be seen. Yet there is no doubt that with both that and the Unbinding of the World allowing them expansion beyond it, the impact of the Trolls on the galaxy will be a far-reaching one.

Despite technically no longer being a *remnant*, the Kingdom has chosen to retain the name, believing the sixty million years of their history should not be discarded on a technicality.

## Culture

Dour and focused was, and to a point still is, the usual descriptor of the Kingdom’s people. Typically they are not ones for celebration or even joy, as for much of their history, any and all “successes” have to them been reminders that they have once more failed in their ultimate goal.

Despite this rather pessimistic view the Remnant was mostly able to channel it into a culture of productivity, close love for one's fellows and following the revelations and “failure” of the Kingdom, appreciation of what one has in the moment. This newer change is credited with a significant drop in the level of depression that was once endemic to the People.

In general the culture of the Remnant is far “healthier” now than it has ever been as they take a chance to experience the world that they have created as themselves, rather than seeing themselves broken husks of what they should be and are growing to self-appreciate rather than perpetually self-deprecating their persons.

They have combined this with a still very active inquisitive streak that seems built into their civilisation’s foundations to expand their horizons in most areas, whether scientific or artistic.

However, the Kingdom’s culture comes with a large degree of uncertainty on the issue of other Peoples. They have long memories, particularly on the empires of their fellow Firstborn and how those eventually ended in sorrow, and are very aware of how they essentially left many of their own people to exist in a sorry state. Indeed their isolation has likely cost much, which the Trolls are aware of, but are unsure of how to go about solving.

They are far more familiar with Guardians than other peoples and are frequently uncertain how to act without causing more harm, to say nothing of a good strand of paranoia and mistrust for those outside the kingdom, which has taken millennia to disperse. In the last few thousand-hundred years they seem to be gaining more confidence in this capacity and are taking an active role amongst the Peoples of Avernus, starting with their fellow trolls who seem eager to listen to them.

### Goverment

The Government of the Kingdom is Monarchical, to a point.

The Kingdom has three Monarchs, the Ruler of War, the Ruler of Land and the Ruler of Knowledge, all of whom serve terms of one hundred years and each acting as supreme within their own area of responsibility.

The Ruler of War manages the Kingdom’s armies and defences.

The Ruler of Land cultivates the Kingdom’s resources and cities.

The Ruler of Knowledge advances the Kingdom’s comprehension and techniques.

These positions are not hereditary and are selected by popular vote from the population, who elect several candidates for each role. Subsequently these appointees must demonstrate their skill within their respective fields to ensure a candidate’s competence and popularity.

Beneath each Ruler is a senate, similarly elected by the population, that advises, helps to run the day to day affairs of their area of government, and acts as an opposition when needed. When a Ruler is believed to be breaking the laws or acting to the detriment of the Kingdom, the Senate may impeach the Ruler to justify their actions.

During times of great need, all three Rulers and senates will come together to create a Tetrarchy and Parliament, while the most desperate moments have caused them to elect one of the Rulers as a sole dictator, until the crisis has ended.

The final main arm of their government is the judicial one, which is kept independent through stringent, binding oaths of office to prevent factionalism or partisan interests from entering their judgement as much as possible.

This is far from what their government began as, which was once a very simple monarchy, but time and internal upheaval have seen the trolls renew it, refurbish and refine it, often preemptively to try and avoid stagnation and collapse.

Beneath this their civilisation is a strange combination of devolution, with individual cities having a great deal of independence in how they manage their own affairs, combined with large amounts of regulation. The best way of putting it is that most of the time there is no need for the government to do anything and the citizens can get on with their lives, but when something is brought to their attention there is an expectation of obedience.

The only exceptions to this are of course the defences of the Kingdom, as is to be expected for most Peoples, and a large, comprehensive social security system. For the most part an individual’s needs and wants are catered to within the kingdom, while all are expected to be educated to a high level, be well-fed, and capable of contributing to the Kingdom.

### Artefacts

Befitting a civilisation so old the Kingdom has built up a seemingly absurd number of relics over the course of its existence, albeit far eclipsed by the Saurus.

In no small part these numbers owe to their own highly skilled crafting tradition, but it also has to do with the Trolls acquisition of numerous other items from outside their kingdom. Scavenging the legacies of other peoples in hopes of insights, as well as active cooperation in hopes of finding new ideas has led to many items both mundane and fantastic being forged.

The report will focus on four for the time being.

#### Gegruntavrik, The Hammer of the Warrior King

First Gegruntavrik, The Hammer of the Warrior King. A vast construct of supremely advanced technology and ancient history, the weapon is weighted in such a way that it seems more fit for a Primarch to carry rather than any mortal. It is a testament to the strength of the Trolls that their greatest lift, never mind wield such a weapon.

Its crystalline head is formed of expertly melded and sculpted gemstones that stores the potential strength of its wielder until they unleash it in an assault, with some Kings reportedly wielding the hammer with enough force to shake the roots of the mountains themselves. However, its greater strength perhaps lies in the technology locked within the weapon, as a seemingly unreplicatable device directs the released attack towards the weakest part of its target. Any cracks or vulnerabilities are struck with the total force of the blow shattering all save the most perfect weapons instantly.

The hammer has been the defacto symbol of office of the Ruler of War for an age, ever since the long forgotten time of the original Warrior King. However, its usual barer is the Greatest Warrior of the Kingdom, the Dauntless Warrior.

#### Astrsisnabellous, The Stave of the Infinite Earth

Second is Astrsisnabellous, The Stave of the Infinite Earth. One of two famous projects of cooperation between the three original peoples, the Stave is the master work of the Legendary Siren Smith Sav’athenas. The greatest Runesmith of her time and arguably the best they ever made since Var’Jinash herself Sav’athenas was well known for her unique relationship with the World Serpent, who willingly allowed them to carve a sliver from one of its titanic scales.

Upon Avernus to be gifted a scale of the Serpent is to be known as trusted, for the Jormungand gives of itself only rarely, knowing full well what could be fashioned from its hide.

Sav’athenas was not content to merely take the scale and work alone. Instead she wished to construct what would be her then magnum opus and called together masters from both the Ork-Wings and the Kingdom to assist her.

With their control over the air and all that was ephemeral the Ork-Wings attuned the staff to the ethereal powers of the aethyr and dreams, granting it control over these incorrageable things. The Trolls meanwhile grounded it within reality clasping to it, metals and stone that would dissipate all that would harm its wielder and permit the stave to touch upon the earth to feel the power within.

Sav’athenas at last went about her work, and brought to the scales the story of infinity. Breathing into its mind the concept that defined its progenitor, before imbuing it with a spark of stability she stole from a star. Lastly gripped by a fay mood she carved a story of control into the object, to shield it from any who lacked discipline and empower those that were worthy of it.

At last she looked upon her work, one of the mighest relics made by mortal hands and sighed in disappointment, for she felt unsatisfied in the result.

While she was perhaps dissatisfied, the rest of the World has lived in both awe and fear of the Staff formed from the hide of the World Serpent and carved with the True Runes of Infinity, Stability and Control. Alone it magnifies the power of a psyker manyfold and if one is aware of it, allows its barer to draw from the Geomantic web more than any other save the World and the Lizardmen themselves.

However, a dark legacy lies upon the staff. The desire for power endemic to the hearts of mortals, which calls out to and covets the Stave. While it shall burn alive all those of chaos that lay a finger upon it, malice is far from a unique trait to Chaos. In ages past some of the most vile of the People have taken up the Staff and used it to enact their tyrannic will, alongside many of the Greatest Heroes who have saved countless lives in the process. Often the two are one and the same, the latter becoming the former eaten and hollow due to the strength so readily available from the staff.

Mayhaps its maker foresaw this eventuality? It would explain her dissatisfaction, for the Staff is as powerful as it is seemingly doomed, as only those with the strongest will can resist its unintentional siren’s song, for its power seems to only truly come to life when used by one who is actually kind. In those moments a power strides forth seemingly none can overcome.

The Trolls have been the Guardians of the Staff for many millions of years now. Rarely has a trusted sage or warrior been permitted to take it up, but always for a single battle. It is said they are searching for one who they trust to be worthy of its gift.

#### Colossus of Kromis: Valstrau

Third is the Colossus of Kromis: Valstrau. A vast machine of burnished carven stone, the titanic entity represents some of the Troll’s oldest meldings of technology and psychic knowledge. Designed in the shape of a massive Loxodonta, steam occasionally billows forth from various nooks and crevices across the construct in a manner reminiscent of a trumpetting call, while its internal mechanisms are a fascinating combination of self sustaining clockwork, steam power and the fascinating mechanisms of the Kingdom.

The Colossus is the final survivor of some of the Troll’s first non effigaic titans, ones which were so successful that all subsequent iterations call back to them in fairly direct ways. While the modern ones are significantly more advanced Valstrau has been enriched with such experience and age that it has a nigh sacred place in the Troll’s civilisation with power to match.

Indeed it is so old that whatever passes for a “consciousness” amongst such constructs is strong enough for it to go “wild.” As it is able to gather the resources needed to maintain itself in the day to day on its own it returns to the Kingdom intermittently, usually for repairs to systems that it cannot make alone.

Alone it is still a warmachine of titanic proportions, and possesses firepower to match with vast las weapons, energy barriers, macro cannon esque broadsides firing anomalous shells, tusks imbued with power-fields of withering strength and even stranger weapons. The two it is most famous for are innate geomancy that it has enough refined control over to create its own defences (or earthquakes) or speed its way towards its opponent and its “charge” which seems to build up more momentum and force than is possible.

Once the Colossus was one of five, masterminded by the Trollish genius whose name is still attached to the Titan, but over millions of years the others have fallen in a manner even the Trolls cannot repair. While they have their designs and Kromis’s notes there is either something about the Sculptor’s own work that they are missing or an effect of becoming an artefact that they are missing. Nevertheless, the Trolls wish to reanimate the other Colossi, not merely because each was designed to have unique powers when working with another, but because the Valstrau mourns the loss of its kin.

## Territory

The Kingdom controls an extremely large region (around 2500 KM in length and 400KM in width at its thickest point) that is essentially all the mountains to the east past Tarascon. It consists primarily of vast mountains, with a handful of large lakes, valleys and active volcanoes. Given the Trolls' nature, for the most part, they live within, or beneath the mountains directly and are able to use mass-scale geomancy to close any and all entrances that are open to other peoples.

Indeed they can move their cities entirely using geomancy, something they seem to do every few years for at least their outlying settlements to confuse those that might attack them. Even then, the least of their settlements is a near-impenetrable bastion by any other standard. A few of their settlements are fixed in place due to functioning as an essential part of their infrastructure.

The Kingdom’s settlements can be found almost everywhere in their region, taking advantage of the copious volume provided by the mountains and the Troll’s own nature. From cities that *are* behemothian redwood trees that grow tall enough to reach the upper atmosphere, ice palaces at the bottom of frozen lakes in which the lives of uncountable generations can be seen preserved, underground cities just barely above the caverns and at least one city riding the convection currents of an active (possibly sapient) volcano, the Trolls have colonised and developed every possible city site, then gone out and created many more.

Finally, the Kingdom’s lands extend even further, technically speaking out of Avernus entirely. Each of the original three species are affiliated with a particular state of matter and with that connection seems to have come the ability to discover and enable stable travel into the sub-realm of that matter. Although an incredibly hostile place the Trolls are probably the closest one can get to a materially born native of that realm, and have taken the opportunity to build within and mine its resources. (OOC note Strangely their site is a far greater distance from the world’s own than one would expect, perhaps due to a quirk of distance within the realm, or the space warping of wherever the world began its exploration.)

There are several non-natural additions to this land, the most obvious being a system of “tunnels” that branches out from them. More bands of specific materials that Trolls can meld with, this branch off all across the world allowing the Kingdom to easily traverse vast distances in a matter of moments which has given them a reputation for being near omnipresent.

Second are more general alterations to the terrain itself, which has become unimaginably “tamed” by the Trolls, in a manner of speaking. It would be more accurate to say that the Trolls have modified it to be as hostile to their enemies as possible, turning their own region into its own vast fortress, while ensuring that within their home territory a troll’s natural advantages are given as much emphasis as possible.

Third is the sheer amount of warp energy present in the region. This is not entirely the Troll’s doing, as much of it comes from the geomantic web, overwhich they have little direct control. In the last million years they learned how to create small arcane fulcrums artificially, however they have usually been trusted by the World to the point that it has allowed several to exist within the region for an extremely long time. The presence of so many ancient sites of power has affected the realm considerably and attracts many dangerous creatures to the Trolls from all corners.

The final major note on the Trolls lands is how dangerous they are. Due to their constant habitation it is unclear if this is an innate property of the land, or simply the World focusing so much attention on them due to their strength. Whatever the case maybe the Kingdom of the Remnant is regularly assaulted by wildlife of sufficient ferocity and power to topple any other Avernite People. Indeed they are not infrequently a test for Cavern creatures that are to be released onto the surface permanently, or the target of Weapons to ensure that they keep their edge. Their colony in Solid Storage is not exempt from this, as the creatures Avernus has created within that realm also attack with equal vigor. The end result is that most assaults on their land by this point are liable to be obliterated before even finding one of their cities by the Wildlife already rampaging in search themselves.

The Trolls for their part seem somewhat proud of their place as such a focal point of Avernus’s attention and that they can play this role, but it is far from a task they relish.

## Military

While small on the scale of the wider universe, the Kingdom of Remnant possess absurdly compact martial prowess. Humanity should be well aware of the potential power of the Trolls, having seen those of the spine collapse mountains upon the heads of demons and destroy titans by sending them hurtling into pits amongst many other feats.

These things are, but childs play to the kingdom, who combines their innate physical strength, physic might and technological superiority together into an almost literally undefeatable battle line.

As a base, each troll is clad in a suit of powered armour that is designed to constantly amplify their strength while perpetually activating their metal strength power and retaining access to their meld travelling. Furthermore, each troll is trained to take the best advantage of their abilities to enact ambushes and constantly shift the balance of power further into their advantage. For example, a common device available to Trolls are explosively sealed pocket dimensions of their solid. When released the solid coats the area giving the Trolls just that much more control over their immediate environment.

When combined with their own militia system, extensive array of war machines, excellent information gathering and extensive groups of hero units the Kingdom’s military might surpasses every other people on Avernus and then some.

According to the Eldar, their assessment of the Trolls places their regular troops as equal to a named full-grown Krork in terms of capability. In their opinion, this is almost unprecedented and makes them willing to accept aid from the Kingdom if they are willing to offer it, and very glad that they will have such an ally come the incursion.

This may be the baseline to the Trolls, but they do have more advanced units at their behest.

### Formations

#### Warforged

Foremost amongst them are the “War-Forged” Trolls. A group which numbers just over 10,000 they are to a troll what an astartes is to a human, given the singularly best augmentations and training the Kingdom can provide. The final stage of the process is the artificial replacement of their material body with one of the Kingdom’s most powerful psychic substances. For example a metal troll may have its flesh replaced with a high grade alloy of Mythril and Orichalchum. Whatever the case possessing a body of these materials is usually impossible on account of their highly warp touched nature and a majority of candidates die in the process.

Those that survive are nearly unstoppable, capable of enduring even the fury of Exalted for a few minutes individually, crushing almost any other lesser foe as long as they do not grow over-confident and possessing a suit of enhanced powers melded with sheer skill and master crafted equipment that make them utterly horrific to even consider fighting.

Once more in the eldar’s estimation these War-Forged are at the least equal in strength to the Krork and Eldar’s own super elites, possibly even more so due to staggering levels of veterancy, but are significantly less numerous. War-Forged are seemingly immortal until slain\* but successfully making even one costs excessively more resources than an astartes to the point that on a cost by cost basis one could create at least a few hundred astartes per War-Forged. The ones the Kingdom currently has have been built up over millennia and are each a terrifying master of their craft.
\*So far nothing, but utter obliteration (either physical or true death of the soul) has proved sufficient to kill a War-Forged off for good. Their meta-material bodies are capable of enduring and anchoring their soul through just about any other attack, and the trolls themselves can remain functional for even longer. There are numerous stories of War-Forged lost in incursions eventually swimming out of the World’s Mantle for example, having been delayed on account of the extremely dangerous magma ecosystem more than anything else.

#### Orders

Below them in power are “Orders” devoted to extreme and complex uses of matter manipulation, such as one that generates anti-matter or another who learned how to split atoms. These are watched with intense paranoia for obvious reasons, but their results are certainly not in doubt. The latter especially has a technique/device unique to their upper orders that somehow “focuses” the entire force of the atomic blast into a single point. It is apparently similar in function, if not in form, to the Jokareo’s miniaturized titan weapons, delivering an equal if not greater attack at the cost of many more restrictions on its use, consequences if somehow damaged and having many more impacts in the area of collateral damage. They are merely some of the better known due to the sheer scale of their usual attacks, but the dark matter order and plasma manipulators are no less potent.

### Technologies

#### Mannequins

Regardless, a core part of the Troll’s military are “Mannequins.” Knowing that they’re a race which does not lend itself towards rapid reproduction, the Trolls have endeavoured to minimise the number of deaths they can take amongst their actual population. Mannequins are the cannon fodder created in their place, although it is a rather vague term. In its original incarnation a Mannequin was simply an animated lump of material, controlled by a Troll of good skill that could be destroyed and damaged without thought or fear. Initially quite slow moving or coordinated, they were often quite effective due to the sheer strength and durability of an animated hulk of stone, ice or wood, particularly when the Troll was skilled enough to repair them on the fly.

With the addition of new species and advancements in technology Mannequins now combine the base concept with something similar to the Mechanicus’s robots and the Tau’s drones. Cheap mass producible, psychic computers, stored within immensely durable bodies linked to a central troll controller who monitors and directs their actions. Preferably from an extreme distance.

This places Mannequins in a strange position of costing far more than a typical chaffe unit, but falling within a region of cost benefit that moves them into an extremely strong position compared to the norm. They are able to perform their core function, bogging down, wearing on and delaying the enemy, exceedingly well because of their sheer endurance, while the level of damage they can dish out in return is not inconsiderable. Furthermore most controllers have a degree of intimate knowledge of their Mannequins so as long as they are not totally destroyed, or the controller killed, they can be repaired and maintained extremely cheaply.

#### Effigies

The principals of the Mannequins were applied (albeit in the opposite direction) to the Effigies. These are instead the go to titan units of the Trolls, with a group of trained experts coming together to create a mountainous construct of metal or rock. Alone potent, but when combined with the incorporation of power generators, proper gears and the like the end result is almost hideously dangerous. While those in training are usually identifiable by a certain roughness to their construction, similar to an Orkish Idol, fully trained and well-ordered teams are like unto vast trolls, bristling with weapons and remarkably maneuverable, especially when on terrain where the Trolls can make full use of their melding capabilities.

#### Colossi

The mighty Colossi are the Troll’s most feared titan scale units. Usually built in emulation of respected Avernite wildlife, Colossi are ferocious combinations of supremely advanced technology and psychic power. Only a single troll is needed to command them, but they must be a warrior of impeccable character and immense will power, for the process of creating a Colossus imbues them memory of the ones that came before them. Although how sentient they are is debatable, Colossi are *born* knowing what is right and what is wrong and will not stomach the latter under any circumstance.

#### The Mountains

Their final, infamous weapons are simply known as The Mountains. About as literal as a weapon can get the Trolls have only a few, but they are the animation of one of the mountains that make up their home. As large as a full scale capital ship with weapons to match, clad in eternal stone and able to simply crush most enemies with sheer bulk, the how of making one is almost entirely unclear. The only words they have to say on the subject is that they are “made” not “converted” phrasing which is very similar to that of the Krork when speaking of their infamous War Worlds.

### Tactics

During incursions the Kingdom generally took a defensive role, rarely going on the offensive and trying to preserve their experiments. In the last 200,000 years they have taken a much more active role, intervening to protect numerous Peoples that were at risk of death, and although not always succeeding they have managed to save several. In the Nurgle incursion, they had planned to march to Itza’s defence, but their forces were kept in place by the second largest concentration of Nurgle’s forces on Avernus outside of the First City itself, with Nurgle refusing to allow its daemons to retreat. Long experience told it that if the Trolls were able to reinforce the defenders any chance of victory was lost.

Thus when Nurgle finally retreated, of the thirty five honoured it had sent against the Kingdom, not a single one returned to the warp.

The military of the remnant kingdom is largely defined by their ability to glide through materials, with the vast majority of their tactics designed to exploit this power. This is not to say that the more offensive uses of their power are not heavily used, merely that their strategies are based upon manipulating the terrain to achieve a total mobility advantage. Most remnant forces are designed to either engage from close range in short bursts or lay down sustained fire from long range, forcing the enemy to attempt to close through prepared killing fields.

The initial phase of combat usually consists of a set of probing attacks, where the kingdom’s forces will attempt the most basic and wide-scale applications of their powers. First, will be a broad-scale attempt to transmute the enemy, and their equipment, into explosives or hypergolic substances. This is primarily to ascertain information about the enemy’s psychic defenses, with any damage dealt being considered an unexpected stroke of luck.

Should the enemy's defenses prove not to affect an area around them, the next probe will be converting the local atmosphere into an explosive or corrosive substance. The attack is designed for efficiency rather than potency, as such will not be able to increase the atmosphere mass, and will be limited to simple substances, nevertheless, the blast, as well as the resulting vacuum, posses significant force. The blat waves usually provide useful information on the nature of the enemy’s more physically originated defenses, revealing protective force fields, anchoring techniques, as well as disrupting many forms of active stealth through simple brute force disruption. Ideally, the shockwaves will also disrupt the enemy’s formations, but more often than not anything seeking the trolls out can weather such blasts without serious disruption.

The final probe will typically be transmuting the ground beneath the enemy’s feet into some hazardous or difficult to traverse substance. Molten silver, a non-newtonian fluid, acid, superfine dust, or simply flammable gases. This is considered the first actual attack, intended to slow the enemy as well as tease out their intended method of traversing hostile terrain.

That this devastating psychic barrage is considered merely a probing attack, is a testament both to the lethality of the kingdom, and the might of its foes. Should their enemy survive the initial strikes, the true fight begins, as they now must cross a prepared killing ground. The most common method of preparing a killing ground is known as the “needlestack” a chaotic seeming jumble of massive spikes of varying substances released or shaped from spatial pockets. This creates a confusing 3-dimensional labyrinth full of traps, pitfalls, and dead ends.

Despite its appearance, the layout of each needlestack is painstakingly designed to give the kingdom as much of an advantage as possible. Allowing all types of trolls near perfectly free movement throughout the maze, and ensuring it is possible to quickly open and close firing lanes for artillery and long-range units by simply altering a handful of the massive spines. Constructs and war beasts will be liberally scattered throughout the maze, providing constant pressure and attrition to any attempting to cross it, while troll hunter-killer teams engage in brutal hit and run attacks against key targets.

On the other side of these needlestacks are terminus fortresses, rapidly assembled fortresses to engage the hopefully scattered and attrited enemy once they cross the killing field. This is of course far from the only such killing ground in their arsenal, the needlestack simply being the most common and general of such killing grounds. Kingdom officer training emphasizes knowing which type of killing field to employ, as well as when it is worth the effort to pivot to a different type.

## Relations

Befitting their status as Avernus’s oldest continuous civilisation of people, the Kingdom is looked upon with a great degree of reverence and respect by the other peoples of Avernus. However, the mystery that they have surrounded themselves with combined with the myths of their wroth means that most are cautious about approaching them. With their increasing involvement in outside affairs they are starting to be looked up to and admired as ideals to aspire towards, especially after their rebuke of the Animancers, who felt confident in their ability to test their strength.

The Fae too are known to fear the Trolls, having their own horror story of an overconfident court who believed the slugged materials would make for easy prey and were crushed in response.

They have an odd relationship with the Church of the Seeker. While the Kingdom reveres the Seeker in their own way, having much respect for the Great One of Knowledge whom they have entretied in the past, simultaneously the Church of that God is looked upon with immense suspicion. In the past they have enthusiastically aided the Troll’s search, but when allowed into the Kingdom the Seekers invariably are expelled for attempting to take that which has not been offered.

The other Troll nations in particular look upon the Remnant as the epitome of their race, although they refuse to simply join them. Ancient pride and millions of years of cultural divergence ensures that they remain separate, especially as several tribes have ventured down the path of the primal warp. Nevertheless the Kingdom has some plan involving the siblings so long set aside and for now they seem eager to participate.

Furthermore the Termites have declared the Trolls their “rivals” something they’ve never given up on. This is almost exclusively on the side of the Termites, as the Kingdom looks at them with a mixture of disbelief and horror. Amongst the peoples the Termites are the only one who can claim to be their clear superiors in material technology, with the Termites seeing the Trolls as a challenge to their dominance. Living on such accelerated schedules the Termites will occasionally create devices to spy on the Kingdom, see their projects, decide to “one up them” create some new doomsday device and promptly obliterate the majority of their species. The Trolls in turn watch with stunned disbelief as,

1. Not only have they not succeeded in permanently killing themselves off, which in itself is mindbogoling considering the sheer number of self inflicted genocides they undergo in a decade long period.
2. Furthermore the World keeps them around despite the number of times they have almost destroyed both it and everything up to a Segmentum around Avernus.
3. And that regardless of all of that the Termites technology on average is still more advanced than theirs is and grows at an unbelievable rate if they can keep themselves from self-destructing for more than a decade.

The Trolls have done their best in the past to stop the Termites, but nothing they do has ever really worked. Never the less as some of Avernus’s best technical experts they have taken and successfully reverse engineered some Termite devices, then recreated them in a form compatible with beings larger than fine hairs, as Termite technology does not scale well in the slightest. Amongst this was a salvaged Termite battleship, which the Trolls have…”copied.”

As the Termites are currently undergoing the longest period of cooperation that the Trolls have ever seen (since the start of preparing for Isha’s rescue going on around 120 years now) they have started to accelerate their development at a rate the Trolls are both astounded and terrified of. They were even more disturbed when the Termites sent a message of...cooperation. It was apparently worded in such a way that it came across more as a design competition combined with a destruction derby, but while apparently very nervous they have accepted the offer...for now.

Amongst their cousins the Sirens and the Orkwings, the Kingdom is looked upon with mixed feelings. Mostly positive amongst the Orkwings who regard them fondly, but with far more envious eyes from many Sirens especially those of the Azure Isles. In the Kingdom they see a reflection of their ancient empire and what was lost to their people. On the other hand the Trolls share a very close bond with the Sirens of the Deep and Searing Seas, the former trading Cavern items and master-working rune craft, the latter are eager to exchange goods and services for enchanted items the Trolls are usually unable to create, both covetting the materials of the Kingdom.

The Frigid Sea Sirens are also close to the Trolls, or at least as much as they are with any other people. Given their position and self appointed duties, the Kingdom supplies them with resources and has even replaced their Geomantic Tap when necessary, so long as they continue to aid the Penguin’s eternal vigil.

The Khoswe remind the Trolls both of themselves, and the Termites. The Kingdom sees much of their own quest for old glories in the Khoswe desire to be “complete” and the same self destructive recklessness that plagues the termites. The Remnant has taken a somewhat paternal stance towards the young people, seeking to guide them towards a less self destructive path. So far, they have largely failed. Nevertheless, the ratmen have proven a useful local ally to assist in stabilizing the former holdings of the Idra’skarian empire. How much assistance should be provided to their research programs is hotly debated, with many fearing that if gifted with more potent technology the Khoswe may well exterminate themselves.

The Remnant Kingdom at one point had a rocky relationship with the Shifters, seeing in them their ability to turn into myriad species as a reminder or perhaps the key of what they had lost. This and their desperation resulted in dubious experimentation on members of their species, in what is now seen as a mark of shame by the Remnant Kingdom. After the Great Weeping, the Remnant Kingdom made efforts at and succeeded with reconciling with the Shifters, and the benefits of their cooperation are telling.

Finally Lulana has mentioned recently that the Kingdom has offered to help protect and supply the Nynye with extra materials and support as they rebuild what was lost, including some experts with post cognition to aid them in rediscovering the lost secrets of the Hierarchies. They apparently see a kindred spirit in loss and do not wish for the Nynye to fall down a similar path as they.

In general the Kingdom occupies a strange place in the World’s Hierarchy that few have held in the past. As the strongest people and especially one so old, they have long memories and experience with many Guardians, Weapons, Great Ones and the Lizard Men. In a way they can be considered allies to them, especially as they grow to act beyond their borders with more relish.

When asked about them, Vlad said that they were perfectly cordial to the Ancient Helheimers who traded with them both knowledge and materials. He knows that they gave some insight that allowed a Helheim expert to crack the secret of statis technology, while in exchange humanity gave them some secrets of genetic engineering related to the Navigators. There were other trades, but those were the major ones and for the most part Helheim was content to leave them to their affairs.

On the subject of modern humans they appear conflicted as most Avernites are, but are glad that we reigned in our attacks on the mountain trolls before they felt the need to become involved. According to a brief conversation with their representative they think we are doing a good job of moving past the Imperium and think that while a horrendous period we (and especially Saint Lin) are to be commended for trying to learn from our mistakes. We should remain confident and that they would be grateful to continue spreading our technology, even suggesting a talk on that matter. They also mentioned that they would likely open up official diplomatic contact soon, as they are with several other peoples currently with hopes of discussing trades for knowledge and resources.

Areatha said that she has never been ill treated by them, but beyond being a tourist there she has rarely had need to interact with them much. They are often busy, she rarely had the need. Furthermore while a good researcher, the fact that much of what she creates cannot be replicated without difficulty limited its utility to the Trolls. Regardless she, like most Avernites, looks to the Kingdom with a fair degree of awe.

Amongst those highest of Avernus, the Trolls have a close relationship with Providence, the mouthpiece of the World and the shaper of the materium, as their minds can be considered alike in spirit if not in nature as well as a kinship with The Eternal, having even been allowed to analyse the metal that makes up its body. They failed to learn much from it directly, but it did inspire them to create one of their most sought after creations, Orichalcum.

For the rest of the Peoples perhaps strangest aspect of all is that they know (or perhaps knew) a method of contacting the World directly. According to He-Who-Walks-Obliquely, “This is not in the manner you think and such a conversation would have been overwhelmingly one-sided”. The fact they can in any capacity sets them apart from all known races on Avernus.

The Orks are odd in that they are all over the Kingdom, perhaps the largest concentration of the species is found in their mountains, but the orks seem utterly oblivious to their existence. Instead they are far more interested in fighting the seemingly endless number of monsters that come to attack them and pay the Trolls no mind, a situation they seem to prefer, even as they make notes on the Orks capabilities.

Finally the Eldar have contacted them recently, owing to their ongoing survey of Avernus in preparation for the Incursion. Although talks are still ongoing, the Kingdom has so far indicated a desire to cooperate with the Ynnari, but cannot aid them militarily at this stage. While their forces would be a considerable boost to the Eldar, they are preparing for the incursion. After it ends, however, they will devote as much as they can to aiding them, as they recognise how dire the situation is. For now they are supplying the Eldar with as many materials as they can spare and assisting them in surveying Avernus and contacting the Peoples. The Eldar are apparently relieved to know that when the time comes they’ll have such a potent ally already present. Interestingly they have also requested the Eldar put them in contact with crafters who are in need of materials to work. The Eldar have accepted out of curiosity on behalf of some of the Avatars of Vaul and Vulkan has reportedly expressed some interest.