I walked across the
plain of bone beneath the brazen sky. All about were the skulls of the slain,
and among them grew black flowers, each twisted bloom a soul in thrall.
Crimson-flecked flies sucked at the red nectar in that field and the air tasted
bloody in my mouth. The black flowers nodded their heads as I passed and
whispered in the bitter-scented breeze. A distant Daemons shriek reached my
ears and the sound of tormented laughter drifted by and was swallowed by
silence.
And then I came to the
Tree of Damned Shades.
Living souls had hung
upon its branches and living souls had fed its roots in ages past. Twisted with
the pain of their misguided loyalty, the shades had made their pact and now had
their reward. Those same shades moaned their regret and agony, pleading for pity
from every branch and twig, save one whose deviant eye I met. I paused in the
glare of that eye. The Tree of Damned Shades spoke in a splintering voice,
crying out as if a thousand axes were tearing at its heartwood.
"By my broken
faith and darkened promises, a mortal walks in the garden of blood. Once my
roots taste of his mortal body, he is mine and I am he. A man... a man... I
will be free in flesh and bone. I will slay you for my master. Blood beyond
measure I will spill upon the battlefields of the world. Oh... freedom from
this wooden frame that I could once again march to the beat of my heart!”
The tree withered and
shook its dark branches and I fled, for my fate lay not with those trapped and
hideous souls...'
-Liber Malefic, Marius
Hollseher
The three-headed Chimera is one of the most fearsome of all
children of Chaos, a beast whose progenitors were so warped that it is now impossible
to say what manner of creatures they might once have been. Like all monsters
that dwell in or near to the Realm of Chaos, the Chimerae take many bizarre
shapes. However, Chimerae are more susceptible than most monsters to the
twisting power of Chaos. The heads of some Chimerae breathe fire in the manner of
Dragons, whilst other heads sprout razor-sharp fangs or jaws that drip with a
poisonous slime. Most Chimerae possess a fiendish tail that ends in a snapping
maw possessed of an intelligence and hunger of its own. There are even some
Chimerae, like those that dwell among the spires of the Bloodshriek Citadel
that are said to have bathed in the coruscating Winds of Magic at the summit of
the world. The skin of these Bloodshriek Chimerae is an ever-shifting pattern of
bright colours and hues, turning translucent one moment before running like molten
wax to cover and heal the rips and gashes in its tainted flesh the next.
Regardless of their exact form, all Chimerae share a savage and unpredictable
nature, and wherever their tri-throated roars are heard, death and carnage are
surely not far behind.
A particularly powerful Chaos Lord, or an insanely brave
Sorcerer, may sometimes try to bind a Chimera to his service, for the sheer
carnage they can wreak upon the battlefield is a spectacle bound to attract the
attention of the Dark Gods. It is said that only those truly favoured by Chaos
will have any hope of binding such a creature to their will, and a champion may
spend a lifetime searching for a Chimera, and never succeed, or else find his
prize and be torn apart by it moments later. However, those few who succeed in
their quest have at their disposal a monstrous creature of unbridled
destructive potential.
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