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Hrothgarr Bloodrage - Norscan Legendary Lord

Originally posted by The Havamal, Stanza 127:

When you are at war,
call it war,
and give your enemies no peace.

This mod adds a Khorne-Norsca hybrid faction called the Ysgrimlings to the Immortal Empires campaign. The faction takes the place of the Aesling tribe on the map, and indeed the Ysgrimlings are a lineage of the Aeslings, specifically one that is completely dedicated to Khornate worship.

The faction benefits from various mechanics shared with the Exiles of Khorne faction, such as Bloodletting and Khornate Corruption. It also lifts the Warband Upgrade mechanic from the Warriors of Chaos, enabling you to upgrade Norscan Marauders all the way up to Chosen of Khorne. In addition, the faction can directly recruit Khorne Mortal and Daemonic units at faction specific buildings, including Bloodthirsters. The faction also has access to a selection of Khornate RoRs. Finally, razing in the Name of the Hound spawns Blood Hosts that may be enhanced by researching faction-specific technologies.

This mod also redoes the Brutes of the Hound RoR from vanilla to make them more impressive and powerful in combat, while also allowing them to benefit from the new Khornate abilities added in Warhammer 3. It also vastly improves Killgore Slaymaim, making him a truly terrifying hero and a worthy reward for reaching full favour with Khorne.

Faction Leader: Hrothgarr Bloodrage

Hrothgarr, son of Grímarr, gore-soaked Warlord of Khorne, the Berserker King, the Fist of Kharneth, the Claw of the Hound, and the Bloodrager. Perhaps the greatest of all the Lords of Khorne, unrivalled in his strength and ferocity. A hoary figure of blood-soaked sagas, he has ruled as War-King over the Ysgrimlings – perhaps the most brutal and esteemed tribe of Khornate warriors in all the North – for veritable centuries.

Hrothgarr Bloodrage is a Chaos Lord of Khorne of my own devising, an ancient warrior king and drenglig berserker (a berserker of a drengr quality, drengr being the Old Norse heroic masculine ideal). His model, art, backstory, ancillaries, abilities, animations, mechanics, mount, and skeleton are all fully customised. Being solely dedicated to Khorne, Hrothgarr can only raze for the Hound, and is essentially locked out of gaining the blessings of any other Chaos Gods, but as Khorne's ultimate champion, his god has endowed him gifts that more than compensate.

Hrothgarr, gameplay wise, is essentially like a human version of Skarbrand, and is similarly as lethal in combat. In fact, I've only ever seen Skarbrand actually come close to killing him. His skill-tree, like that of Skarbrand and the Exalted Bloodthirsters, is solely focused on increasing his damage in combat, meaning that all his character skills boost weapon damage. His tree culminates in an upgrade of his innate berserking ability that enables him to decimate any foe in his path.

At rank 21 Hrothgarr unlocks his mount - a massive black-maned Flesh Hound known as Valtýrsgandr, the Monster of the Slaughter God, said to be the get of the three-headed Karanak. Mounted atop the great daemonic wolf he becomes nigh invincible in battle.

Much like Archaon with his Swords of Chaos and Sigvald with his Mirror Guard, Hrothgarr has his own faction-specific RoR known as the Blóðvaskrar, the Bloody Valiants. Aspiring Champions of Khorne with a similar profile to the Severed Claw, they are anti-infantry behemoths who are capable of tearing bloody swathes through the ranks of their master's foes.

Unique Agent: Valfarr Windirsson

Upon completing a mission to slaughter 5000 enemies in battle, Valfarr, son of Windir, the Axe-Thane of Ysgrimheim, will be recruited at your capitol of Ysgrimstaad. Valfarr is a mighty melee combatant only somewhat less capable than Hrothgarr himself, unique and immortal. If you choose to play against the Ysgrimlings, he appears automatically at the start of the game for you to fight.

Like Hrothgarr, Valfarr spreads Khornate corruption and possesses skills that allow him to defeat nearly any foe in melee combat. At rank 21 he too unlocks a unique custom mount - the monstrous mutated bear known as Beinngnjóstr - Bonegrinder.

New Lords & Heroes: Marauder Chieftain of the Hound and Warspeakers

While playing the Ysgrimlings, you will be able to spend 10 favour with the Hound to raise any Marauder Chieftain who has reached rank 5 to become ferocious champions of Khorne known as Marauder Chieftains of the Hound. They excel at melee combat and have access to 3 mount options including Juggernauts, Gorebeast Chariots, and Chaos Mammoths of Khorne.

All Norscan factions will also be able to recruit Warspeakers of Khorne, shamans who excel at melee combat and enhancing the fighting prowess of Norscan armies. They also have access to Barded Warhorses, Juggernauts, and Chaos Mammoths of Khorne.


Compatibility

Not incompatible with anything as far as I know, which admittedly isn't very far because I barely play the game anymore.

Wrt Cataph's Kraka Drak overhaul, mostly compatible. The only problem is that you have this useless extra army that you can't move because of how Cataph's KD start script works, but you can just dismiss them I guess. Don't quite think I can solve this since it's part of the scripting of an unrelated mod that I'm not the creator of.

Bugs

1. When upgrading Chaos Warriors of Khorne up to Chosen, etc. the tooltip may tell you that you require a certain WoC technology (which it will also check as you having researched). This is basically a tooltip error and you can still upgrade your units with no consequences, but it is annoying for me personally.

Future Plans

1. Make new animation set for Hrothgarr on Valtýrsgandr.

Thanks

Special thanks to CJ3200 for his wonderful work with the script that governs Hrothgarr's ancillary quest chains.