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Bastion Stair Exterior

Within the Realm of Chaos, the Outer Realm of Khorne is girded by a titanic wall or cliff of deepest red and blackened iron that stretches unbroken from one end of the horizon to the other. The Bastion Stair marks the only entrance into his domain.

Overview[]

Surrounded by pinnacles, columns, and arches of blood and carved bone, the Bastion Stair is built as a fortress and prison. Daemons, chained to the walls and steps in unbreakable bonds of spiked iron, scream and thrash at their imprisonment, hurling terrible epithets at anyone unfortunate enough to be close at hand. The steps of the Bastion Stairs are enormous and were never designed to be trod upon by mortal feet—climbing them is more akin to scaling a mountain. The higher it climbs to dizzying heights, the more horrors can be viewed. Gibbering mouths emerge here and there in the steps and walls, praising the name and deeds of Khorne in their Daemonic tongue. Profane runes and bloodstained sacrifice stones, some still bearing the bodies of their victims, can be seen no matter where a person turns. The geometry of the stairs conforms to no logic or sanity and seems to twist and ripple into itself in confusing knots and gravity-defying angles.

The Bastion boasts smaller landings, some of which are of such a massive scale that a castle could easily fit on them and still have room to spare. Daemons and other creatures of Chaos dance and cavort here, gleefully killing each other in a wanton display of blood and slaughter. At no point, however, does any traveller see another normal living creature or beast once they take the first steps of the Bastion Stair — even carrion crows avoid the apparent bounty of corpses and dangling bodies that line its walls and steps.

The Fields and Meadows of Khorne[]

Khornite Dungeon

A hallway within the Bastion Stair.

Journeying up the Bastion Stair seems to take an eternity—the laws of time, cause and effect, and movement collapse under the weight of such a monstrosity. But still, there are those that somehow manage to reach the top of the Stairs and find themselves again on flat ground, but this time within the Inner Realm of the Blood God, on the Fields and Meadows of Khorne.

Unlike the twisting insanity of the Bastion Stair, the Fields and Meadows are neat and orderly, but still horrific. The fields of Khorne are lined with row after endless row of bloody corpses lashed to stakes like a grotesquery of bean plants. Blackened flowers, engorged on blood, grow from the corpses; they are "watered" through a series of aqueducts and ditches filled with gore. Untold thousands of Daemons are charged with the upkeep of these fields, vomiting blood on the fruits and voiding their bowels to fertilise the terrible flora. New corpses are planted every moment, with a tenderness and concern that seems so out of place in such a macabre location. The whole scene is one of blood—even the sky unceasingly burns an angry red. The stench of a slaughterhouse intermingles with the curiously-sweet scent of the blackened flowers and fruit.

Source[]

  • Warhammer Fantasy RPG 2nd ED -- Tome of Corruption (pg. 205)
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