Karond Kar is a minor faction of Dark
Elves, introduced in Total War: Warhammer II.
Karond Kar, the "Tower of
Despair," also known as "Slaver's Gate," can be counted the
bleakest of all refuges. The citadel stands sentinel on the edge of the Sea of
Chill, perpetually battered by gale-force winds, icy rain and tidal waves the size
of mountains. Its folk can therefore be counted amongst the hardiest of a hard
people. Indeed, they have become so acclimatised to their frozen conditions
that more temperate climes cause them a measure of discomfort.
Karond Kar is known as Slaver's Gate for a
reason, for it is here that the great reaving fleets bring their living cargo.
Countless thousands die as they cross the wide seas to Karond Kar, stifled and
suffocated in the holds of slave ships or tortured to death for the amusement
of the black-hearted crews. Those are the lucky ones. When the survivors are
finally unloaded onto the ice-wreathed docks, they soon find that their torment
is just beginning. There is no escape from Karond Kar.
From the docks, the slaves are brutally
driven forth amidst jeering crowds, beaten onward by lash and scourge. Those
that stumble are trampled; those who slip their spiked chains are flayed, then
cast bodily into the icy ocean. Both forms of death are much appreciated by the
maddening spectators, who throw rocks to trip the panicked slaves and send
servants to break the chains whilst the captives are still dock-side, in the
hopes of inciting even more violence.
The slave markets are vast, and those
captives that make it to the wide open plazas beyond the docks are roughly
examined and divided by age and gender, destined to labour in mines and
quarries or drudge in the dungeons and kitchens of Naggaroth. Overlooking the
markets are the slave traders' palaces, slab-sided mansions decorated with the
scrimshawed bones of perished slaves.
Night and day, Karond Kar echoes with
tortured wails, for its sorcerers delight in binding together their captives'
souls to their mortal remains. Trapped between life and death, these wretches
haunt the streets of the Slaver's Gate, filling the dreams of their tormentors
with delicious images of suffering and pain.
The traders themselves seldom leave the
comforts of their opulent homes but can be occasionally lured into the
rain-drowned plazas by news of a particularly impressive bounty. A captured
High Elf is the most valuable of prizes, and a wealthy slaver will gladly trade
much of his remaining stock -- or even members of his own family -- for the
opportunity to bring such a sweetmeat before his patron's tender mercies.
For more commonplace cargoes, slavers hold
audiences and auctions within their chambers, playing off the greed of Corsair
captains to ensure a healthy profit. The slavemasters drive a hard bargain, and
no fleet leaves Karond Kar with wealth equal to its expectations. However, no
captain will challenge the terms of a trade once it has been completed, for
they know that Assassins aplenty lurk in the crowds, waiting silently for the
slavermasters' commissions. Better to leave Karond Kar with a light purse, they
reckon, than to never leave at all.
Type: Minor faction
Category: Dark Elves
Campaigns: Eye of the Vortex, Mortal
Empires
Inhabitants: Dark Elves
Type: Fortified Port-City
Location: Eastern Naggaroth
Population: Unknown
Allegiance: Hubris Rakarth, Malekith
Industry: Trade, Slavery, Piracy
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