Hag Graef is a Dark Elves faction in Total War: Warhammer
II.
Hag Graef the Black Crag is a sinister and foreboding place,
built at the bottom of a cold, dark canyon and completely surrounded by
mountains of bare rock that stretch into the clouds. It is a city permanently
in shadow, for no sunlight ever reaches its walls. Hag Graef is a place of
twisted and impossible architecture. Its eight black towers rise from the
canyon floor like the ossified remains of some loathsome cephalopod. Between
the towers are strung walkways, platforms and bridges of every shape and size.
Some are fashioned from withered timber and soot-stained bone, others are
crafted from jagged stone or woven from the silk of monstrous spiders.
The larger platforms are so massive as to be towns and
villages in their own right, and are supported by gantryworks of iron and
stone. It is upon these that the majority of Hag Graef's citizenry dwell,
crammed into crooked mansions of cinderbrick and fire-blackened wood; the
towers are home only to the city's most powerful Dreadlords. Cramped
conditions, combined with the Dark Elves' peremptory nature, ensure that rivalries
flare into violence with alarming regularity. Those who do not walk cautiously
through Hag Graef's webwork of streets have their throats slit and bodies
heaved into the morass of sewage and rotting flesh that covers the canyon
floor.
Overview
The rocks below Hag Graef are honeycombed with mines and
quarries that are, in turn, threaded through with chain gangs of slaves who
claw iron and jet-black stone from the belly of the world. This is the most
miserable of existences, toiling far from any natural light, starved on all but
the meanest food and chilled to the bone by the piercing wind that howls
through the tunnels. Even after death there is no respite -- the mines are
riddled with veins of warpstone, whose baleful power animates the dead and
keeps them labouring until they collapse into piles of worn bones.[1a] Driven
by the wealth of its mines, Hag Graef has risen to become Naggaroth's second
city. In fact, it is so prosperous that its armies and influence overshadow
even those of Naggarond. So eager are Hag Graef's people to escape their
abyssal home that the forced conscription present in other cities is completely
unnecessary here. Indeed, over the centuries, Hag Graef has earned a reputation
for producing, if not the most disciplined fighters, then certainly the most
desperate. The city's mercenary rulers, ever eager for profit, have taken to
selling warriors into service elsewhere in Naggaroth, taking with it the
opportunity to infiltrate spies.
So rich is Hag Graef in soldiery, slave and coin that were
its eight great families ever truly united of purpose, they could doubtless
overthrow the Witch King. Naturally, Malekith is aware of this, and spares no
effort in keeping the Dark Crag's nobles at one another's throats. He need
scarcely bother -- with so much wealth at stake, intrigue and betrayal are
already rife. Hag Graef's greatest prize is the position of First Dreadlord --
he who holds this title is the nominal ruler of the city, and all its domains.
The First Dreadlord sets the tariffs that govern the city's trade and is an
excellent position to take a cut of the all merchantry. With this wealth comes
a life of patronage and grand opulence beyond the dreams of other Elves, but
few incumbents survive long in office.
Indeed, many of Hag Graef's social elite consider the lavish
ceremony of ascension to be little more than the official opening of a new
round in a particularly deadly game. None of this deters the city's nobles from
competing for the First Dreadlord's chains of office. Arrogance is as rife here
as it is in any other quarter of Naggaroth, and no Dark Elf believes himself
foolish enough to end his rule shot, stabbed, poisoned, garrotted or beheaded
-- he cannot be persuaded of the danger, even though these things have happened
to previous rulers more times than can be counted. Life is scarcely less
competitive elsewhere in Hag Graef. The eight families constantly vie with one
another for the First Dreadlord's favour, even as they plot to have him
violently removed from office. Even family ties do not guarantee loyalty --
many a brother or daughter has risen to new heights over the corpses of their
siblings thanks to a timely use of poison or by pressing enough gold into an
Assassin's hand.
It should, therefore, not be surprising that Khainite
Assassin cults flourish nowhere in Naggaroth so well as they do in Hag Graef,
where there are always Dreadlords seeking to remove rivals or in need of
protection from the machinations of their enemies (or their friends). Even so,
there are insufficient hired blades to meet the incredible demand, and an
Assassin might well answer to a hundred different masters over the course of a
year. As a result, many Assassins sew their mouths closed, sever their own
vocal chords or nail their jaws shut to ensure they are no longer physically
capable of revealing an employer's identity.
Type: Faction
Category: Dark Elves
Inhabitants: Dark Elves
Type: Fortress-City
Location: Northern Naggaroth
Population: Unknown
Allegiance: Malus Darkblade, Malekith
Industry: Trade, Slavery, Mining
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