The banner of the Legion of Azgorh commanded by Drazhoath the Ashen as depicted in Total War: Warhammer III.
The Legion of Azgorh are the Chaos Dwarf forces that garrison the bleak and foreboding Black Fortress in the southern Dark Lands.[1c] The duty of this potent army of Chaos Dwarfs and their Hobgoblin slave-soldiers is to raid across the River Ruin and patrol the savage wastes of the surrounding regions to maintain the Chaos Dwarfs' tentative dominion over the deadly, monster-plagued expanse.[1b]
History[]
The Legion of Azgorh is a mighty standing army which ranges across the desolation of the southern Dark Lands, escorts the far-flung Chaos Dwarf slave caravans through the Howling Wastes and stands as a bulwark against frequent invasions of Ogres, Orcs and worse from the east. Even among their own kind, the warriors of the Black Fortress are renowned for their brutality and warlike nature, and far removed as it is from Zharr-Naggrund and the favour of the great temple it is often a place of internal exile for those who have suffered in the savage politics of the Chaos Dwarf empire.[1a]
The hellish caverns deep beneath the Black Fortress are also home to the Infernal Guard -- a cult of disgraced Chaos Dwarf warriors enslaved to the master of the Black Fortress who must redeem themselves in the eyes of their god Hashut and the Dhrath-Zharr or die in the attempt.[1a]
The Legion of Azgorh marches to war.
For many centuries the Lord of the Black Fortress and commander of the Legion has been Sorcerer-Prophet Drazhoath the Ashen, a bitter rival of his fellow sorcerer-prophet Astragoth Ironhand, the High Priest of Hashut, feared and respected in equal measure by the Chaos Dwarfs bound to his service as a ruthless general and a powerful wielder of Hashut's sacred fire.[1a]
It was this army of black iron, shot and sinew that confronted the Champion of Nurgle Tamurkhan's great horde on the blasted crossing ground, and divisions of which would later accompany the Maggot Lord in his attack on the Empire.[1c]
Notable Lords[]
- Azgorh - Ancient Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer who crafted the Daemonspite Crucible. He likely founded both the Black Fortress and the Legion of Azgorh.[1b]
- Drazhoath the Ashen - Drazhoath is the last known Lord of the Black Fortress. He defended it in 2510 IC from the hordes of the Champion of Nurgle Tamurkhan, and then allied with that great horde of the Warriors of Chaos to invade the Old World. The Maggot Lord's path ultimately took him to the great city of Nuln in the Empire, which his vast horde of Northmen besieged. Tamurkhan hoped that by claiming this city of Men for the Chaos Gods he would ascend the so-called Throne of Chaos and achieve apotheosis as a Daemon Prince of Nurgle. But his ambitions were not to be, for the courageous defenders of the Empire managed to defeat Tamurkhan's ever-dwindling horde. Tamurkhan himself was slain during his own ritual of ascension through the dual efforts of the Amethyst Wizard Elspeth von Draken and Theodore Bruckner, the headsman and personal Judicial Champion of the Elector Countess Emmanuelle von Leibwitz of Nuln. Drazhoath and the Legion of Azgorh participated in the Battle of Nuln, but melted away once Tamurkhan had been slain, loaded down with plunder and slaves seized during the horde's march across the Eastern Steppes, the Border Princes, and Wissenland.