Fanfic / Gatehammer Fantasy Battles

As the time of battle draws ever near, the Empire needs heroes like never before...

—Summary of Gatehammer Fantasy Battles

Gatehammer Fantasy Battles is Gate x Warhammer (with inspiration from Total War: Warhammer) crossover fanfic by IRUn (also known as Cirex Review on fanfcition.net).

In this Alternate Universe fanfic, the Gate on Alnus Hill opens to the Old World of the Warhammer universe, leading the Saderan Empire to invade this new world. Unfortunately for the Saderans, what they thought was an easy campaign to conquer new lands, capture slaves and acquire riches turns into a disaster when they find out the Old World is not a pleasant place. After being pushed back to Falmart by the Empire of Man led by Emperor Karl Franz, the Empire travels through the Gate and builds a fort known as Fort Griffon around it to prevent the Saderans from invading again. After four weeks of repelling the Saderans and their Vassal allies, Karl Franz decides to make Alnus Hill as part of the Empire and appoints his fourth son, Erhardt Franz Holswig Schliestein, as Margrave of Alnus Hill to not only protect Fort Griffon and prevent another Saderan invasion but also convert the surrounding lands under Empire control. However, other factions and powers of the Warhammer world also take an interest in the world beyond the Gate.

Gatehammer Fantasy Battles began as snippets on a Space Battles Thread before the author turn it into a proper story. The fanfic can be read on Space Battles and Fanfiction.net.

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Gatehammer Fantasy Battles provides examples of:

• Badass Preacher: Father Wilhelm, a Priest of Sigmar. Once the Daemons appear and the defenders of Italica appear to be losing hope of winning, Wilhelm rallies the troops with a Rousing Speech, kills some of the Daemons on his own and helps Rory and Giselle in killing Jhuin.
• Bad Boss:
  • Flavius of the Bandit army not only kills his men for disagreeing with him but also sacrifices them to summon Chaos Daemons.
  • King Remus send his men to their death to fight and bait the Dark Elves of Schwarz Forest into a trap he's preparing for the latter and use his magic powers to make the remaining soldiers go mad killing each other so he can raise them as his undead minions.
• Berserk Button: Never. Shave. A Dawi's. Beard. Just ask Zrozal.
• Big Damn Heroes: Happens to Erhardt frequently.
  • The first time is when he broke his leg and was about to be eaten by the Flame Dragon only to be saved in the nick of time by Vanon.
  • The second time happens during the Battle of Italica when a Chaos Spawn is about to jump him, Rory appears and kills it.
  • After that, Erhardt is about to be peppered with arrows fired by the bandit army until Myuute uses her magic to blow away the arrows to save him.
  • Later, Erhardt is gravely wounded trying to duel Walach Harkon, who gets impaled from behind by Pina before he can deal the finishing blow. Unfortunately, she's also seriously outclassed by Harkon, and they are both saved by Teclis joining the fight.
• Bilingual Backfire: During their first meeting, King Duran and his officers openly insult Erhardt and his men in their native tongue, only to be left speechless when Erhardt reveals he knows the local language and purposely acted ignorantly in front of them so they'd let their guards down.
• Brown Note: When Jhuin the Silent Screamer speaks, anyone nearby bleeds from their ears. Even a hundred miles away, a pregnant woman is affected by his speech which causes her to give birth to a misshapen stillborn.
• Bullying a Dragon: Zorzal attempts to gain the secrets to gunpowder and gain the edge over the Empire..... by interrogating a dwarf. There is no way this can end well for the Saderans.
  • It turns out this is a worst-case scenario for the Saderans, as once Zorzal gets the information he needs from the dwarf, he orders him killed... but first, they shave his beard. When he starts bragging about what he just did in front of Kregan's face, Kregan is NOT happy and he starts pulverizing his face before having his head sliced off.
• Cannon Fodder:
  • The bandit army is used this way by Jhuin in the Battle of Italica to test the strength of the allied defenders.
  • Remus deliberately uses his men this way during their war against the Falmart!Dark Elves to create an undead army.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • Zorzal doesn't believe the General of the Gate Expeditionary Force was defeated by "demihumans" (Beastmen) and the magic of the Empire of Man since, in Falmart, demihumans are weak and magic is not strong.
  • The Saderan senate refuses to believe Pina's warnings about Chaos and underestimates the threat it poses. Pina suspects that the real reason is that they (including Zorzal) refused to believe her is because they don't like her.
• Category Traitor: Due to the Coda Villagers accepting help and protection from the Empire of Man, Cato knows the Saderan Empire will brand them as traitors to be killed.
• Cavalry Betrayal: When King Duran and his army head to Italica, they are attacked by their former allies who they left at Fort Griffin, who have turned to banditry.
• Changed My Mind, Kid: The Dwarfs think little about the Gate and believe that it will bring trouble and therefore it must be destroyed. But they change their minds after learning that there are other dwarfs living in Falmart and decide to help the Empire of Man's mission in Falmart in order to meet their counterparts.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: King Duran has one, as he chose to stay in Italica and protect the city and Countess Formal from the bandit army rather than hightailing back to Elbe.
• Colony Drop: Celestial Wizard Markus cast a Comet of Cassandora on the Flame Dragon and fatally injuring it for good.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • When the Saderans end up fighting the Beastmen during their invasion of the Old World, Imperial Forces hold off attacking until both sides lose much of their numbers and exhaust themselves before finishing them off.
  • During the siege of Fort Griffin, Marius the Mad leads a series of night attacks on the Allied Kingdoms' camp, setting fires to tents and supplies, and killing military commanders in their beds and taking away their heads, and mounting them on pikes, displaying them before and causing demoralization on the Allied army, who are left leaderless and thus their entire chain of command broke down violently.
  • During a roadside skirmish against an advance party of bandits, Elven Shadow Warriors choose to eliminate the bandits' commanding officers and anyone that looks to be exerting authority. After all the bandits are killed, their corpses are burned and piled in the middle of the road to further delay the bandit army.
• Country Mouse: Tuka, an elf who lived in a Hidden Elf Village, is taken by Vanon to live in the Shining City of Ulthuan. Within a month, she is wearing high-quality clothes and tasting wines.
• Culture Clash: Despite the Old World and Falmart sharing some cultural similarities, there are vast exceptions. In which Falmart is a very standard Low Fantasy, while the Old World is a hodgepodge of both Low and High Fantasy, or somewhere in between.
  • Lelei finds the concept of an Elective Monarchy practiced in the Empire of Man to be very odd. She is also disturbed that mages and magic are treated with fear by humans, to the point that mages were automatically put to death centuries ago. As a result, she and Cato are constantly watched by the Witchhunter Victor Hausller, and treated with disdain by Sigmarite Warrior Priest Father Wilhelm.
  • High Elves are seen as strange by Falmarters, including Tuka, due to the fact that, from their perspective, they fight and almost behave like humans whereas Falmart elves stick to living in the forests and behave like country yokels by comparison.
  • Both Old World and Falmart humans have at least in common is their mutual racism towards demihumans, with the former seeing them as being no different from the mutants and Beastmen of the Old World.
• Cunning Linguist: Cato and Lelei serve as translators for Erhardt and the Imperials when speaking with the Falmart locals.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Despite sharing the same Middle Age-like tactics (though the Empire is honestly more Renaissance), the Empire is able to inflict huge casualties on the Saderans and their vassals thanks to their guns and magic.
  • Unlike canon, however, the curbstomp is far from one-sided, as each major confrontation between the Empire and Sadera lasts days or weeks, as opposed to the JSDF from canon, which manages to win their battles within the day.
• Dark and Troubled Past: When he was younger, Erhardt's first caretaker turned out to be a vampire, who fed on him and brainwashed him, making him attempt to poison his mother, then try to stab his father. Because of this, he fears vampires more than any foe, and it's heavily implied that this is why he worships Morr.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Empire may like to wear images of skulls and have priests devoted to the god of the Dead running around, but they are firmly good, even if it is Good Is Not Soft and Good Is Not Nice at times. This especially applies to Erhardt, who, alongside Sigmar, primarily worships Morr, the aforementioned god of death, wears black armour, and later becomes the champion of Morr, and gets a new suit of armour covered in runes containing death magic and inhabited by a Death Spirit.
• Dead Guy on Display: The defenders of Fort Griffin mount the heads of slain demihumans and officers of the Allied Kingdoms to demoralize their enemies. Afterward, the demihuman heads are still kept on display as an intimidation tactic.
• Deal with the Devil: After being convinced by the Adviser, Flavius made his pact to Tzeentch with promises of becoming a king. But he soon realized that he is screwed over into bearing eternal servitude to Tzeentch without any benefits at all.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • The Flame Dragon is killed by the Imperials and High Elves during the attack on the Coda refugees.
  • Duran gets his head pulverized by a Pink Horror during the Battle of Italica. But his son later resurrect his father back as a lich.
  • Hamilton is one of the casualties of the Battle of Italica.
  • Zorzal dies after instantly earning the wrath of the Dwarfs and having his head chopped off by Thane Kregan.
• Death by Childbirth: Turns out, when the father's species has pregnancies that last years and the mother's species has pregnancies that only last a few months, becoming pregnant with a half-Asur, half-Falmart elf may be lethal to the mother.
• Decapitated Army: The armies of the Allied Kingdoms who suffered in the siege of Fort Griffin is partly due to many of their more intelligent commanders killed in battle or assassinated in the Empire of Man's night attacks. This left their entire chain of command to fall into pieces as soldiers are left deeply demoralized, causing them to desert or violently turning against their surviving officers.
  • During a skirmish between an advance party of bandits and High Elves, Imperials, and Dwarfs, the Shadow Warriors immediately start taking out any commanding officer or authority figure, causing the bandits to fragment and to be completely annihilated.
  • Once Flavius and Jhuin are killed, the bandit army quickly dissolves where they either surrender, run away or continue fighting to the bitter end.
  • A very literal example happen when Zorzal meet his end by having his head sliced off by Kregan who displays it before the Imperial Army, causing them to give up and retreat.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • Due to her gender, Pina is not considered a warrior by her brother Zorzal and her father doesn't trust her to command a large army and go to war. In contrast, the High Elves do have women in their ranks and are treated equally. Although women fighting is no more common in the Empire than Sadera, Erhardt praises Pina as a skilled knight, even if it's her first time fighting a real battle.
  • The Empire of Man has no issues with torturing Saderan prisoners for information, and chopping off and displaying the heads of their enemies. Neither do they tolerate demihumans, whom they see and treat them as mutants. The Imperials make a decree for any Falmart (human) refugee seeking shelter at Alnus Hill must swear loyalty to the Empire or be turned away.
    • They do get slightly better, allowing demihumans to live around Alnus, and Erhardt takes a demihuman as an adviser.
  • Pina and Countess Formal are invited to witness suspected Chaos-tainted bandits being burnt alive at the stake. Erhardt is even perplexed as to why they were so visibly horrified.
  • The Empire has no problem with using overwhelming force to crush the riots formed by refugees.
• Disproportionate Retribution: When Zorzal boasts about what he did to one of Thane Kregan's rangers, the act that really pushes the latter's Berserk Button isn't the poor dwarf being killed and his head mounted on a pike. It's the fact his beard was shaved off first.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Flavius fails miserably at talking back at Jhuin the Silent Screamer, who responds with a Psychic Strangle and threatens to take away his tongue and replace it with "something venomous." This is enough to cow Flavius.
• Enemy Mine:
  • The Italican garrison, Pina's Rose Knights and King Duran's Army accept help from Erhardt's forces and his High Elven and Dwarfen allies against the bandit army led by glory seeking mercenary Flavius Ha Iulius who is being influenced by a Chaos Sorcerer.
  • During the Battle of Italica, Rory and Giselle work together to help Erhardt and his allies against the Chaos-supported bandit army.
• Eviler than Thou:
  • Flavius learns the hard way from Jhuin that he is not in charge of taking over Falmart.
  • Chaos and the Vampire Counts are the true villains over the Saderans.
• Extradimensional Shortcut: The reason why the Imperials and High Elves fear the second gate to Falmart and have it secured. Due to being located in the Shadowlands, the most highly contested territory between the High Elves and Dark Elves, they fear that if the Dark Elves knew where it went, they might use it as a backdoor to invade the Empire of Man and the Saderans might also use it as a way to invade Ulthuan.
• Expy: According to Word of God, Natter Bismark is basically a Sigmarite version of Cardinal Richelieu.
• Fantastic Racism: From both sides. The Saderans arrogantly see the Empire of Man as weak barbarians until they lost two separate battles to them, at which point they are still seen as barbarians, but far more dangerous. Not unlike the Saderans, the Empire of Man despise demihumans in Falmart, whom they see as mutants and they are not allowed to settle near Alnus Hill and are forcefully turned away. This is tame by comparison to the Empire's usual policy of killing mutants on sight.
  • The Dawi also see demihumans as mutants and treat the Falmart elves not so differently from theirs.
  • After Tuka is brought to Ulthuan by Vanon, she is looked down on by some of the High Elven nobility including Prince Madir as some country bumpkin. Thankfully, Vanon's family welcome Tuka with open arms.
  • Lelei is a little unsettled when she learns Mages in the Old World are treated with suspicion and fear with a Witch Hunter constantly keeping an eye on her and Cato while Mages in Falmart are treated as eccentrics but fairly.
• False Flag Operation: Emperor Molt agrees to give up Alnus province to the Empire of Man in exchange for peace but in truth it's a delaying tactic to rebuild his forces to one day retake Alnus, believing the new lands acquired by the Empire of Man will stretch their forces thin and the people of Alnus will rebel against their new rulers. Once opportunity arrives, he'll try to trick the Empire of Man to attack Falmart, justifying him to retake Alnus. The exact details of Molts' plan are currently unknown.
  • Unwitting Pawn: He was given the idea to do this by the adviser, a servant of Tzeentch. In a classical example of how the Changer of Ways works, this will indeed convince the Empire to strike first, but it will likely end with Molt burned to death.
• Genre Savvy:
  • Yao realizes something is wrong and orders her fellow Dark Elves to immediately evacuate from their homes after learning the war party that attacked the Elbe intruders were not only able to kill their experienced leader but also raise the dead as their undead minions.
  • Erhardt becomes suspicious with the peace treaty offered by Emperor Molt since the Saderans have more troops than the Empire of Man at Alnus and why would they sue for peace now when they are still that strong. Luckily, Pina is able to evade his suspicions by claiming Molt has taken his warnings about Chaos seriously hence the treaty.
  • Mannfred Von Carstein, being an immortal strategist, is highly suspicious of his "ally" The Adviser when his promise of providing him an army did not come and had sent spies to research on what exactly happened at Italica and capturing and interrogating a Chaos cultist; in which he not only deduce The Adviser's connections to Tzeentch but to advance his (and Sarthorael's) status after carefully planning to get rid of Jhuin at the hands of the Apostles.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: In one chapter, several locals at Alnus are interviewed over their mixed views on the Empire on Man. While some are grateful for Erhardt's rule, helping refugees settle in Alnus and treating his subjects, whether they be human, demi-humans, or elves, fairly. Others don't, who feel the people of the Empire are too grim and too racist by Saderan standards, excessively harsh with criminals or rioters, have no respect to the Falmart Gods while spreading their own, are lead by a Lector who is more politician than priest and their drinks are bad and beards ugly.
• I Lied: Said by the Adviser to Flavius after the latter realizes the Daemons he summoned are not serving him but the other way around.
• Improbable Age: Erhardt, is 19 years old, a veteran warrior, and commander of his own army. Pina, of a similar age and social status, is impressed but laments that due to her gender, her father will never give her command of her own army.
• In Spite of a Nail: Even though the Flame Dragon is dead, the Falmart!Dark Elves are threatened by the Vampire Counts, in which Mannfred von Carstein sees them as an obstacle to their plans and decides to have them exterminated.
• Killed Mid-Sentence:
  • A bandit officer is killed by a Shadow Warrior's arrow before he could command his forces.
    Bandit leader: "Hold the line! Don't let them-"
    Narration: His next words were cut off by an arrow going directly into his mouth, piercing his tongue to the back of his throat.
  • Another bandit gets suddenly stabbed and sacrificed by the Adviser for disrespecting Tzeentch.
  "This Tzeentch is not my god! Emroy is my God! And-"
• Language Barrier: There is some difficulty of communication between the Falmart locals and Imperials at first as they both speak different languages. Slowly, some Imperials start learning the local language thanks to the prisoners they captured, magic to speak with the souls of dead Saderans and later Cato and Lelei joining the Imperials and learning each other's language.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: If you haven't played Total War: Warhammer, then you have no idea who's the old man that's helping Flavius and his bandit army and his connection with the Forces of Chaos.
• Locked into Strangeness: Upon becoming Morr's champion, Erhardt's hair turns grey, alongside his skin going pale and his eyes pale green.
• The Man Behind the Man:
  • The Adviser not only manipulated Flavius but is also manipulating Emperor Molt as his Counselor.
  • Remus Elbe is subservient to Mannfred von Carstein.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Pina is disgusted that Emperor Molt's peace treaty with the Empire of Man is nothing more than delaying tactic to allow the Saderans to rebuild their forces and attack Alnus another time and has to tell the lie to Erhardt herself who she respects a lot. Nevertheless, she still does it out of her duty to the Saderan Empire. However, her loyalty is eventually pushed to the limits when she is deeply disgusted to learn that her father allegedly plans to marry her off to Erhardt and then murdering him while also getting rid of her hypothetical child.
• My God, What Have I Done?: As Flavius is dying after Pina cuts his throat, he realizes he was foolish in listening to the Adviser and converting his comrades to Tzeentch which didn't make them Kings and Queens but pawns to be slaughtered and asks for his comrades' forgiveness.
• Noble Bigot: Erhardt and the Imperials are merciful in taking in the Coda refugees and allowing them to settle in Alnus Hill (as long as they swear their fealty to the Empire), but refuse to allow demihumans in because they are deemed as mutants. Nevertheless, the demihumans are not killed but are told to leave instead, which is tame and "nicer" by Imperial standards.
• Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: Tuka is pregnant with Vanon's child, meaning it is half-Asur, half-Falmart elf. Deconstructed as Vanon is extremely worried about it, since the differences in their species may lead to Tuka not being able to survive the pregnancy, as Asur stay in the womb for several years, while Falmart elves have pregnancies the same length as humans. Teclis himself shows up to investigate, worried about what exactly the hybrid will be like.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Walach Harkon join Mannfred von Carstein's war against the alliance because he just want to fight and seeing this as an opportunity to bring blood to his new Order of the Blood Dragon.
• Number Two: Siegfried von Tempenhoff, Erhardt's friend and a veteran Reiksguard who serves as his second-in-command.
• Official Couple: Vanon and Tuka.
• Oh, Crap!: The Adviser lose his cool when Mannfred Von Carstein figured out his plot.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: The reason why the Warhammer Dwarfs came to Falmart. Upon learning there are Dwarfs living in Falmart, High King Thorgrim sends an expedition force to the Gate to find the Falmart's Dwarfs and see if there are any similarities between them or if they're just Dwarfs In Name Only.
• Out of Focus: Rory is out of focus after the Battle of Italica. This is because the author doesn't like Rory's character.
• The Paladin: Alongside the Bretonnian knights that show up, Erhardt arguably fits the bill after becoming Morr's champion, as he is a warrior devoted to a god and can use a relic of the god to channel magic that makes his strikes more effective against the undead, and also gains the ability to see the souls of those around him.
• Papa Wolf/Mama Bear: How did Karl Franz and Charlotte Franz react to their son Erhardt's caretaker, Matilda, turning out to be a vampire, who fed on him and brainwashed him so that he would try to kill his parents? His mother wants the Templars of Sigmar sent out to track the vampire down, and torture her so badly that her screams reach the Chaos gods and strike such fear into them that no one will try anything like that again. His father reacts to her saying this by walking out of the room to go vampire hunting
• Put on a Bus: Cato decides to leave Alnus and travels with the dwarfs as their interpreter.
• Properly Paranoid: The Empire of Man, High Elves, and Dwarfs already have reasons to be cautious in both their world and Falmart.
  • The Imperials are more concerned about burning the dead than looting their valuables to prevent an undead army from rising up.
• Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: While having plenty of professional soldiers in it, the alliance to defeat Mannfred consists of Saderans, Bretonnians, Reiklanders, elves, and mercenaries.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Erhardt saves the Coda refugees and allows them to stay near Fort Griffon to gain local knowledge of Falmart rather than torture them as suggested by a Witch Hunter. Furthermore, he appoints Cato and Lelei as his advisors to learn and understand the Saderan Empire and it's people even if they are Mages. He also hears out Myuute's urging that demihumans are not mutants and propose that they are resourceful as humans that could serve the Empire of Man, and appoint Myuute as one of his retainers.
  • Princess Pina convinces King Duran to put aside his hatred with her father so they can work together to defend Italica from the bandit army. She also accepts help from Erhardt and his allies in defending Italica since they need all of the help they can get.
• The Reveal:
  • There's a second Gate to Falmart. Unfortunately, it's located in a highly contested area between the High Elves and Dark Elves.
  • Chaos is present in Falmart; they have been present for over a year and have been secretly building an army (with Bunny Warriors among their ranks) to plan a surprise invasion of Sadera and all of Falmart.
  • The Vampire Counts of Von Carstein are controlling the Elbe Kingdom and the Adviser is manipulating Emperor Molt.
  • Mannfred Von Carstein correctly deduce that the Battle of Italica was part of The Adviser's and Sarthorael's real plan to permanently eliminate Jhuin, who was Sarthorael's rival, in order to elevate Sarthorael's status in Tzeentch's inner circle.
• Royal Brat: Vanon's liege, Prince Madir is rather arrogant for a High Elf but nevertheless he listens to Vanon's advice.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • King Duran and his army abandoned the Allied Kingdoms' very unsuccessful siege on Fort Griffin after realizing the potential breakdown and mutiny that will inevitably ensue among his allies. Later averted when he decides to stay and protect Italica from his former allies-turned-bandit army.
  • Myuute abandons the bandit army and defects to the Italican defenders after witnessing Flavius perform blood sacrifices on his own men to summon Chaos Daemons.
• Secret War: Everyone in Falmart was ignorant of a Chaos invasion that has been ongoing for over a year until the Adviser's appearance in Italica.
• Ship Tease: Between Erhardt and Pina. Both show attraction and give praises to each other. After the battle against the vampires, they spend the night together. Also, heavy ship tease between Vanon and Tuka before they became a couple.
• Shout-Out:
  • After Remus forces the Dark Elves of Falmart to retreat, he then says "Yes...Run home little elves...Hunt them down!"
  • One of the mercenary armies defending Fort Griffin is the Grudgebringers.
• The Siege: The Allied Kingdoms' attack on Fort Griffin goes not any different from any other medieval siege and lasted for almost a month. However, the Empire of Man has the higher advantage for controlling the Gate, allowing fresh soldiers and a steady stream of supplies to keeping the fort to outlast the siege. This ended with the Allied Kingdoms unable to breach Fort Griffin and imploded into desertions and mutiny due to demoralization and frustrations for being used in pointless and costly assaults.
  • While the Empire may be more technologically advanced than Sadera, it is nowhere near the level of the JSDF, so the siege of Alnus lasts over a period of months rather than days. In fact, this is why Vanon and his elves are the ones to rescue Tuka: by the time the Empire would have reached her village, she would have probably starved to death.
• Sinister Minister: Averted per Word of God. Natter Bismarck is ambitious as Satan, about twice as ruthless and half as pleasant, but he is a genuinely devout man who believes that what he is doing is best for the Cult of Sigmar and The Empire (and himself, in a "the rising tide lifts all boats" sort of way) with no indication (yet) that he is wrong.
• Spanner in the Works: The Gods of the Old World and Falmart actually allied together and given the permission to open Gates in the Old World to bring help to stop the Chaos invasion of Falmart. However, the Gods were supposed to contact their respective mortals of this alliance until an unknown force - very likely to be Tzeentch - severed the Gods' links to their Apostles. Thereby they were unable to warn the denizens of Falmart and the Old World about the Chaos invasion and ruining any chances of an alliance between the Saderans and the Empire.
  • Mannfred Von Carstein does become a big problem for The Adviser and Sarthorael as Mannfred was savvy to avoid being manipulated as a Unwitting Pawn after carefully discovering The Adviser's plot.
• Spare to the Throne: As the fourth son, Erhardt will only inherit a sum of his father's fortune while his older brothers will inherit lands with the oldest becoming Elector Count and possibly the next Emperor. His fortune changes once he becomes Margrave of Alnus Hill.
• Surrender Backfire: The King of Alguna tried to spare his people from the encroaching vampires by surrendering his crown to Mannfred von Cartstein. It goes very badly for the king, as Mannfred killed him for being an idiot and resurrected him as his own personal undead footstool.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Chaos Warriors, Norsemen, an exiled Chaos Dwarf, and the Skaven are working together to open a Gate between the Warhammer world and Falmart but they all can't stand or trust each other. It's only their common goal and enemies that stopping them from killing each other.
• Transhuman Treachery:
  • Kalterina is one of many Bunny Warriors who became a convert of Khorne to seek vengeance against Sadera for enslaving her people.
  • Prince Remus Elbe is turned into a vampire and is in league with the Vampire Counts to take over the Vassal Kingdoms in the name of the Midnight Aristocracy.
• Unexpected Character: Readers were surprised when they found out the Adviser from Total War: Warhammer not only appears but is the one who converted Flavius to Chaos. They were even more surprised to learn that he is also converting Molt as well.
• Unwitting Pawn: The Adviser and Sarthorael manipulate the Saderan Empire (primarily Emperor Molt) and the Chaos Warriors and their demihuman followers to pit them against each other not just to eliminate their enemies but garnering favor from Tzeentch while also using the Vampire Counts as "pest control" to out the Imperial and High Elves.
  • The Adviser uses Flavius to spread Chaos in Falmart, including summoning Daemons. Flavius was not too happy when he found out about this, but is threatened by Jhuin to continue serving Tzeentch or else. It later turns out that Flavius was just a cog in Sarthorael's real plan to kill off Jhuin.
  • However, Mannfred von Cartstein had long figure out that his so-called "alliance" with The Adviser was a sham and is going on his way to becoming emperor of both Falmart and the Old World after making his first priority to kill Tzeentch's chosen candidates, specifically The Adviser.
  • The Chaos Warriors are already aware of The Adviser's manipulations but only follow his request to stay hidden for a while to build up their forces before making their invasion of Falmart. All that matters is fighting and killing on their own terms and nothing more after that.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Zorzal completely loses his cool and starts begging for mercy when Kregan badly beats his face up to a pulp. He doesn't get his mercy before having his head chopped off.
• Villains Want Mercy: Zorzal tries to bargain for his life to Kregan by offering him anything. It doesn't work.
  Zorzal: Please! Please! Spare me! Spare me and I’ll give you anything!
  Kregan: Anything?
  Zorzal: Yes! Anything! Just name it!
  Kregan: Anything eh? Can you bring my kin back to life?
  Zorzal: I-I-
  Kregan: If ye can’t... Then what good are ye!
• Wham Episode:
  • Cato and Lelei's mission to trade with Italica on behalf of Erhardt takes a dark turn when Siegfried discovers the bandit army attacking Italica is in league with Chaos.
  • As the Battle of Italica begins, Rory is seen teaming up with Giselle.
  • Rory reveals to Erhardt that the Adviser and to extent Chaos has been secretly present in Falmart for over a year prior to the Gate appearing on Alnus Hill. Also, the Falmart gods are currently at war with Chaos and have been strangely silent with their Apostles.
  • At Elbe after the Battle of Italica, it is revealed King Duran's son made a deal with the Vampire Counts and plans to conquer the other vassal kingdoms using his new vampiric powers and resurrect his dead father into a lich.
  • On the night of the full moon following the clash between the Empire and the vampires, it's revealed that the Gates allows for celestial bodies to switch between the worlds when Morrsleib appears in the sky. This allows Mannfred to use a supercharged spell from one of Nagash's Books of the Dead to raise all of the dead from Elbe and beyond.
    • Even worse, Morrsleib causes several woodland animals to stand on two legs and bray at the moon, and causing many people (both human and demihumans) to mutate, meaning there are now Beastmen and mutants on the other side of the Gate.
  • Molt discovers not only has Bruno been working behind his back for forging fake letters under his name but his son Zorzal, who was thought to be dead, is still alive and working with Chaos along with his younger brother Diabo. Furthermore, Rory learns the Chaos Warriors are working together with the Norsca tribes, an exiled Chaos Dwarf the Skaven, and a number of other conspirators to open another Gate!
• What the Hell, Hero?: Myuute calls out Erhardt and the Empire of Man's racism towards demihumans. In which she stresses that demihumans are not mutants and monsters, and are separate races with their own custom and culture, and reasoning that they are more resourceful as humans that could benefit the Empire. Erhardt is convinced by Myuute's words, but points out that not everyone in the Empire would share his sentiment.
• You Have Failed Me: Mannfred inflicts this fate upon of his subordinates after he fails to stop the alliance attempting to destroy him.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After using Flavius and his bandit army to summon Jhuin and the Chaos daemons, rather than help them, the Adviser abandons them to be slaughtered by the Imperials and their allies as he continues his master's plans.

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