A place that my armies can call home.......

A place that my armies can call home.......

I have spent some time building new armies and planning future projects but then I had a thought....just the one thought though, life is too complicated to have too many!  What about the big picture.  Where do my little men (and women) fit in the world?  Gaj and I have started to play/plan a loose narrative campaign and I really enjoy the story telling element, especially that the actions taken now can have repercussions later on.  So our campaign will start to define a small part of the Border Princes but what about the surrounding land.  In particular “The Empire” up north.

Now what does this empire look like in my mind.  Let me invite you into my head and you can see for yourself.  No don’t go there!  That is for my eyes only.  Anyway here it is “The Empire” in its glory, a large powerful but politically and religiously divided state.  Having played WFRP 1^st edition in my youth my vision is based on this.  I will set my games at the conclusion of the “Empire in Flames” scenario which finished the “Enemy Within” campaign.  Here is a quick rundown of what has happened based on my memory.  If you are actually playing this role-play campaign, look away now.

At the end of “Empire in Flames” a great many things have happened.  Emperor Karl Franz (who was a blithering weak idiot) is dead.  His heir (who was revealed to be a chaos mutant) is dead.  Boris Todbringer is dead and his illegitimate son Henry Todbringer is the new emperor (and also revealed to be a direct blood relative of Sigmar).  There are many opportunities for the player’s characters, for example if you have a competent wizard they could become the new head of Imperial College of Magic in Middenheim.  Basically at the end all is well....or is it? I can see a different and more interesting future. 

Let us look at the new emperor.  His position has to be a worry for some of the other Elector Counts who prefer a weak and ineffective emperor.  Basically a man who is unlikely to meddle in their internal affairs.  Henry Todbringer (Emperor and the new Prince of Altdorf) is a strong charismatic man whose own sister is now the ruler of Middenheim, and he has married the Countess Emanuelle (I think that was her name...) of Nuln.  The Countess of Nuln also holds power over Wissenland. This makes him very powerful indeed.  I would have thought that this would challenge the ‘old order’ a fair bit.  I think there is scope for some Byzantine politics here.   Then what about the wounds, both physical and psychological, that have resulted from recent the civil war (yes that happened to) and the religious persecution of Sigmarites and Ulricans by each other.  Would this just be forgotten, I don’t think so.  And what about the cult of the “Purple Hand” who had such a large part to play in the recent events....would they just give up?  There are a lot of questions to be answered here.

I want my Empire to be based on this.....in chaos with conflicts and assassinations a plenty.  Thus wide open for unrestricted narrative campaigning.  

What do you think?  Do you have a version of Warhammer that you set your projects in or do you not bother with such things?

 

Regards

 

Andre