The Disciples of Khoptekha

## Disciples of Khoptekha

#### A Curse is Born

In the closing decades of the Age of Myth, the Chieftain of the **Khoptekha tribe** of Ghur sires twins. As the twins begin to mature the elder of the pair **Lyozs** distinguishes himself as a mighty and peerless warrior; master of the hunt and a fierce commander in many of the internecine wars that establish hierarchy and dominance amongst the Ghurish tribesmen however he forever remains in the shadow of his younger brother **Tahnkozs** who blessed with phenomenal magical powers of evocation and foresight is exalted by the tribe as marked by Sigmar.

Tahnkozs is named his father's heir, seeding further resentment in his brother. Lyozs begins traveling the regions of Ghur closest to the perimeter inimical in an effort to find answers for why his brother was chosen so while for all his might and skill he is forever seen as merely dutiful rather than exceptional.

It is after a battle with a megafauna of the Ghurish outlands that Lyozs finds his answer when he encounters a raven with two heads one azure and one golden and nine eyes deep within the Loonspawn Woods. The Raven speaks to Lyozs and teaches him the means by which he will obtain the acknowledgement he craves.

#### The Nine Faced Moon

Lyozs returns after four years in the wilderness to find his tribe flourishing after Tahnkozs' ascension as Chieftain following their father's death a year into Lyozs travels. Lyozs once a giant of a man with flowing red hair and jade green eyes is changed his mane shaved clean, his almost luminous green eyes flicker with sapphire light and his copper skin now a pale grey sheathed in jet black tattoos depicting symbols that strain the eyes to read and make flesh quiver at sight.

He marches to his brother's tent now a large structure of bone , hide and stone where once the tribe inhabited a small nomadic settlement of huts. Lyozs forces his way past the guards and presents himself wielding a spear frozen fire and a curved khopesh like sword almost as long as he is tall. He throws down his challenge to Tahnkozs for the right to rule.

Lyozs engages in an intense battle with his brother, his strength of arm vs his brother's arcane might; it is only at the point where his brother stands on the edge of victory that he exposes his new power gained from the two-headed Raven. He seizes the flames consuming his flesh causing them to become a shifting tempest of blues and purples that remake his ruined flesh before turning them upon Tahnkozs. His brother now writhing in the mutative flames begs for release as his body buckles and remakes itself into a monstrous spawn.

Tahnkozs now an enthralled monster under his brother's command has his soul ripped from his mutilated flesh and is consumed by the raven now perched upon Lyozs shoulder. The raven merges with Lyozs becoming a Tretchlet, the voice of Tanhkozs spilling from it's lipless maw.

#### An Order Born

Lyozs having seized leadership of the Tribe by right of victory renames the Khoptekha Tribe the **Disciples of Khoptekha**. He begins inducting his people in the ways of his new God through the teachings whispered to him by his new High Shaman "Tahnkozs".

### Age of Chaos

#### The Dawn of a New Age

The forces of Chaos enter the realms proper. The mortal realms are plunged into darkness.

#### Disciples of a New Order

Lyozs now known as **Lyozs the Nine-Sighted** mobilises his tribe heading for a realm gate to Chamon heading the call of the Changer of Ways. Along the way he begins to swell the ranks of the Disciples of Khoptekha as he assimilates human tribes and twistfrays. During this time he anoints the first of the **Nine Whispers** his chosen lieutenants when he conquers the Rampahk Tribe who had long been rivals of the Khoptekha. Naming the daughter of the tribes Shaman as his concubine and student their son **Taulozs** is marked at Birth with the Changers rune and becomes host to a Herald of Tzeentch.

#### Chamon Changed

Lyozs dispatches Taulozs at the head of fifty strong band of Arcanites to secure the town of Laefstrauss as the Disciples forward base. The town's population is rounded up and one in every nine are sacrificed to consecrate the settlement in Tzeentch's name. Upon the death of the ninety-ninth citizen a warband of Pink Horrors materialises in the town square and begin the process of reforging the settlement in the Changers image. Laefstrauss becomes known hereafter as the **Gibbering City**. The remaining citizens are given the choice of swearing allegiance to Lyozs and his master or being transformed into mindless spawn. A further one in every nine citizens is slain so that their blood can be used to baptise the converted; their souls forever bound to the structures of the Gibbering City as featureless babbling faces that manifest on every surface.

#### The Hunt Begins

Following the whispered imperatives of his Tretchlet Tahnkozs, Lyozs begins fortifying the Gibbering City as hunting parties gather slaves and captives to fulfill the Disciples needs; as with the cities founding one in every nine are sacrificed to the Changer in tribute and the survivors are given the choice of joining the Disciples or serving in slavery as one of the cities many spawn labourers.

One huntsman catches the eye of Lyozs, a young Tzaangor by the name of **Torgorr Raspbeak** originally of the **Shapeless Horn** twistfray. Torgorr raids the nearby settlement of Ganz Arbak bringing over twelve-hundted Dispossessed Duardin before the Nine-Sighted. The Duardin are culled in tribute and magically bound into servitude their innate tolerance for magical energies rendering them resilient to spawnification thus they are out to work as labourers, miners and craftsmen greatly improving the arms and armour of the Disciples. Lyozs rewards Torgorr warping his flesh and transforming him into a hulking nine limbed beast naming him Raid Lord and second of the Nine Whispers.

#### The Founding of a Nation

Two Centuries after it's founding the Gibbering City had become a towering citadel, at the peak of its nine tiers stood Lyozs the Nine-Sighted, The mighty warrior king of a legion of devotees pledged in body, mind and soul to service in the name of the Changer of Ways. It was here that Lyozs spear headed his campaign leading his elite regiments of Arcanites in conquest of neighboring lands.

First to fall were the fiefdoms Geltling Prince utilising it's subjects as fuel for great furnaces that melted down the Geltling's body of living gold to be reshaped into idols dedicated to the God of Change

Next came conquest of the Aelven conclave that lined the Mercury tide, a sixteen mile river of molten mercury. Lyozs had one in every nine Aelves spared the decimation and subjected to the ministrations of his son Taulozs that their bodies and minds be broken serving as vessels for Daemons to inhabit and thus were born Lyozs' honour guard the **Arcanatrazz Change Blades**. Numbering only ninty-nine they would earn their infamy in slaughters to come.

In the Quartz deserts south east of the Gibbering City Torgorr Raspbeak lead a horde of Tzaangors against local Greatfrays swelling his forces ranks as he went before reaching the Sapphire Cove and enslaving a tribe of Ogors who were put to work breaking apart the city sized gems that formed a natural barrier around the cove. The gems are hammered into the bodies of the Gargant Stomp who ruled over the Ogors previously and used as foci by the Tzaangor Enlightened to transform the Gargants into towering Chaos Spawn.

North of the Gibbering City as Lyozs oversees the fortification of the Realmgate that first brought the Disciples of Khoptekha to Chamon he dispatches a force of Pink and Blue Horrors under the command of Fluxmaster **Xxylsartkik** to the west to rest control of an arcane vault held by a Soulblight Lord. Xxylsartkik lay siege for nine eight days and nine nights and upon dawning of the Ninth day a great eye opened in the sky above the city, from the eye's pupil poured hundreds of screamers that scoured the vaults defences consuming any defenders they found mounting it's walls. With the vaults defences in disarray Xxylsartkik spoke a word of power and the vaults gate transmuted into a screeching fleshy mass which his legion of horrors reduced to rancid goo with their fire. The secrets and artifacts within the vault were pillaged by the Herald and returned to Lyozs.

Third amongst the Nine Whispers **Kyarlaea the Swallowsdottir** first drew the attention of Lyozs during the battles along Mercury Tide, establishing herself as a supremely talented young sorceress at the conflicts close she was called before the Nine-Sighted and reborn in her Lords warping flamea. At her command were placed nine hundred and ninety-nine Kairic Acolytes, Kyarlaeas forces set about securing a forward staging ground for the Khoptekha forces by corrupting villages, towns and cities along the western borders of the Gibbering Cities territorial limits. Her efforts bore fruit when six of the seven settlements raised the Khoptekha' colours before the month ended with the seventh regiment serving as a fodder for the rituals of Lyozs new spy mistress.

#### Khoptekhara the Empire of Crows

Having secured the borders of the Gibbering City a new nation was born Khoptekhara or as it came to be known in the histories; The Empire of Crows. Taulozs, Torgorr and Kyarlaea were dispatched to raid neighbouring kingdoms as Lyozs spent longer and longer in a vaguely conscious torpor while his Tretchlet watched sentinel.

#### Taulozs the Fireborn

Taulozs made his way to the Talabhani Hinterlands in search of a realmgate that would allow the Disciples of Khoptekha to push further into Chamon. It is here he encounters a trio of Oracles three young girls referred to be the locals as the Singing Sisters. The Sisters display a tremendous skill in divination that Taulozs believes will be invaluable to his father. He has the sisters bound in chains and taken with his warhost.

#### Torgorr the Great Bray

The bray herds of Torgorr Raspbeak roam the southern borders of the Empire of Crows capturing numerous ritual sites and arcane vaults as they go. It is on these raids that the Beastlord obtains the magical weapon that would come to be known as "Aspharos" the Tzaangor no mage is able to sense the potency of the weapons magical enchantments and elects to return it to Lyozs upon completion of his hunt for Arcana.

#### Kyarlaea of the Infinite Shards

Kyarlaea ordains through her divinations that Lyozs is to face insurrection from one amongst the daemonic hordes who serve within the Empire of Crows. It is at this time she becomes aware of Voljalene, a sorceress residing within the realm of Aqshy amongst the Vulkatral steppes. Kyarlaea leads a host Knights to the steppes and takes Voljalene captive.

Lyozs is presented the young girl as a gift, to be one of his concubines and one of the many maidens who serve him as priestesses. Lyozs is struck by the girl's beauty and phenomenal talent for binding daemons. He takes her as his bride and baptises her in the changers' flames. Arising from the warping part women, part arachnid, part bird she remains ever at her betrotheds side known now as **Volzjan the Weaver** the fourth member of the Nine Whispers.

## Organisation

### The Nine Whispers

* Taulozs Fireborn

Lyozs' child born after his ascension as a Curseling, Taulozs was bonded body and soul to a Tzeentchian Herald and burst fully formed from his mother's body in a torrent of warping flame. He is Lyozs' heir and second in command.

* Torgorr Raspbeak

A Tzaangor of the Shapeless Horn twistfray, Torgorr was elevated by Lyozs to the Whispers for bringing a large number of Duardin slaves to the Gibbering City. He serves as Lyozs Raid Lord.

* Kyarlaea Swallowsdottir

Lyozs spy mistress, Kyarlaea is a phenomenally talented young Sorceress with a skill for subterfuge and misdirection. While supremely skilled in her role she is held with suspicion by the other Whispers.

* Volzjan the Weaver

A spider-like mutant, Volzjan is Lyozs' bride and former chief concubine. She was elevated to the Whispers for her skill at manipulating and reading the often random paths of the lesser Realmgates. Beyond her skills in manipulating the gates she is an exceptionally skilled binder of Daemons.

* Brugni Balgrunsson

Lyozs' personal daemonsmith. Brugni is the tortured spirit of an Auric Runesmith sealed into a suit of living metal armour.

* Alaya Ayala

The Singing Sisters once triplet prophetesses who would scry the future through song. Taulozs procured them for his father and had the three bound together mentally with the third sister perishing; they remain one soul inhabiting two bodies.

* Xxylsartkik

A Fluxmaster Herald, Xxylsartkik is a hunter of rare and potent magics and magical Artifacts enslaved into bondage by Volzjan. It now returns its treasures to Lyozs whether it likes it or not.

* Dolfgrun

Dolfgrun is the commander of the Arcanatrazz Change Blades, a fusion of daemon and Aelf he is Lyozs' personal bodyguard and rarely travels further than ninety-nine steps from his master.

* The Wretchling

Lyozs' pet mutalith. Once the Lord of the Hedonite warband known as the Daughters of the Ascendant Union