Roleplay / A Dynasty of Dynamic Alcoholism

A Dynasty of Dynamic Alcoholism is a Warhammer Fantasy Forum Quest hosted by Sufficient Velocity.com and run by Torroar. It follows the tale of the drunkest Elector Count in the Empire, Frederick von Hohenzollern, as he rules over the province of Ostland and contends with problems of his land and wider Empire the only way he knows how: steel, gunpowder, and alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol.

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A Dynasty of Dynamic Alcoholism contains examples of:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade:
  • Ostland's Runefang, Brain Wounder, is one. The other Runefangs created by Alaric the Mad also qualify. They're all capable of cutting through just about everything that isn't intensely magical near-effortlessly.
  • Night's Razor, an obsidian blade found in the stomach of Zacharias' undead dragon, cuts nearly as well as a Runefang.
  • The Albish blades known as Teeth of Tlang are comparable to Runefangs in sharpness, which makes sense since they were forged for the Old Ones' favored Humans before the Great Catastrophe.
• Ace Pilot: Dreadlord Maranith, Caledor's Bane is the setting equivalent of this having killed several dragon riding Princes of Caledor in the past.
• Acquired Poison Immunity: After surviving what would be lethal doses of multiple Night Goblin poisons, Magnus von Hohenzollern gained a resistance to the general affects of poison.
• Acrofatic: Ogres are repeatedly noted to be much faster than they look, despite their massive size and guts. This is based on and backed up by their tabletop rules, where Ogres have a movement of six. (For context, Humans have a movement of four and ordinary horses have a movement of eight.)
• Action Bomb: The Warhammer World features several variations of these, from the warpstone consuming explosive squigs of the greenskins to the shackled of the Dark Elves to the explosive martyr Flagellants fielded by Ostland during the Second Battle of Salkalten.
• Action Girl: Kattarin and Natasha, Anna and Alexandra, Ortrud and Johannah, Veronika and Valentina... The list goes on and on.
• Albinos Are Freaks: Played With. While the rest of the Hohenzollerns have no problems with Agatha and Alisa, most others find them distinctly unnerving. However that is only partially due to their albinism, with the fact that they're wizards, their macabre interests and general non-albinism related creepiness.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Magnus von Hohenzollern, Mena von Kessel and Reinhardt Hedwig go on a days-long bender with some of the wizards and their most elite troops and get so blackout drunk, they wind up on Albion of all places.
• The Alcoholic: Ostland is a whole province of these, mostly because they live near the Forest of Shadows, filled with Vampires, Beastmen, Greenskins, and other assorted ever-present abominations. However, this trope holds true even after Zacharias' death and the Forest's cleansing. To be fair, when you have the world's most famous Dwarfen brewery in your province...
• Alien Blood:
  • Nipponese Shinobi possess this, their blood being grey and gaseous.
  • Johanna's blood is described as being like wet clay.
• Alternative Calendar: Being set in Warhammer Fantasy, The Empire uses a year that consists of 400 days divided into twelve 32- or 33-day months with six days falling outside of months, or fifty eight day weeks.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The Oni of Nippon have blue or red skin for reasons that have yet to be explained.
• Amazon Brigade: The Whitewings mercenary company was revealed to be composed entirely of female Bretonnian noble bastards living out their dreams of being knights
• Ancestor Veneration:
  • Ancestor worship is the religion of the Dwarfs, with their only Gods being the legendary Ancestor Gods who founded the Karaz Ankor.
  • According to the QM ancestor veneration is the main religion of Grand Cathay.
• Ancestral Weapon:
  • Brain Wounder, the Runefang of Ostland — the prologue of the quest involves Frederick being given the blade, which was just recovered at great cost from the people who massacred his family.
  • Runefangs in general, as well as Ghal Maraz, all qualify.
  • Special mention goes to the actual weapons once wielded by the living gods of the Dwarfs, some of which are still wielded by High King.
  • A more literal example are Nipponese Ghost Blades; swords with the souls of the wielder's ancestors willingly bound to them.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Various interludes change the POV from Frederick to completely different characters. Most recent ones involve the adventures of Frederick's twin daughters in Cathay and Nippon and the gathering of the Beasttide by Malagor the Fell Omen.
• And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating: Frederick's grand reward for saving Athel Loren twice in a single day? An exotic tree decorating the courtyard of Wulfenburg Castle. While it is implied that there might be more to the tree than meets the eye for the nonce it remains merely an example of this trope.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Bulls for the von Hohenzollerns.
    • Frederick quickly gains the moniker of "Steel Bull" for his deeds early in the quest.
    • Anna von Hohenzollern gains the moniker of "Gun Bull" for her skill with guns and cannonry.
    • Magnus von Hohenzollern eventually gains the moniker of "Screaming Bull" for his habit of screaming during combat in Karak Ungor after Frederick was separated from the armies.
    • Arthur von Hohenzollern gains the moniker of "The Black Bull of Ostland" for his heroic deeds performed in Sylvania.
  • Mena von Kessel is associated with wolves, pointing towards her devotion to Ulric, and to a lesser extent sea eagles, which are emblazoned on the heraldry of Nordland.
• Animals See in Monochrome: After being sent into the Flame of Ulric to be cleansed of corruption as a babe, Logan von Hohenzollern was blessed with eyes like a winter wolf, granting him night vision but also rendering him colorblind.
• Animated Armor: The Nipponese are in possession of whole units of these, animated by the spirits of their dead and called Wraith Armor.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Roland's son Charlemagne grew up to be a thuggish fallen knight and later a cultist of Slaanesh.
• A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma: Parodied with Frederick's complaint about his subordinates inability to obtain info about Hans Ludenhof.
  Frederick's thoughts: Hans Ludenhof is an enigma wrapped in a riddle inside a box made out of your subordinate’s incompetence.
• Armor and Magic Don't Mix: While this trope is generally played strait a few exceptions exist. Ice Witches possess a spell that allow the creation of temporary ice armor that doesn't interfere with the casting of spells, and ledstali is made of Ice Magic and as such doesn't interfere with the casting of such spells.
• Armor Is Useless: Played with. Every time Frederick enters a major (or even a minor) battle, you can expect that by the end of it his armor will be rendered completely unusable. This is more of a testament to the sheer strength and skill of the foes he tends to fight, though, and the trope is very much averted when seeing Ironbreakers ^note  Dwarf warriors clad in gromril armor, making them nearly invulnerable to most types of damage unless one gets a very lucky hit in action. High King Grudgebearer's gromril armor also saves him from an assassination attempt.
• Armor of Invincibility: Oskana the gryphon receives a breastplate inscribed with a Master Rune of Adamant, making her harder than granite and more impervious to damage than steel.
• Asian Lion Dogs: Naturally the Cathayans have these, with some of them being animated to serve as golems in Cathayan and Nippon armies.
• A Thicket of Spears:
  • Being based off the armies of Renaissance Germany it is only natural that Imperial spearmen, pikemen and halberdiers employ this tactic.
  • This tactic is also employed by the Eternal Guard of the Wood Elves, as will as their variants such as the Wildwood Vigilants of Cythral and the Brightspears of Laurelorn.
• Attack Reflector: Bokdrungni is inscribed with the Master Rune of Skella Valayadottir, which provides a 6+ chance of absorbing hostile spells and releasing the energy as a wielder-controlled blast.
• Badass Family: Every single member of the von Hohenzollern family kicks ass in their own way.
• Barbarous Barbary Bandits: Araby is home to these, and they occasionally raid the coast of the Sea of Claws, though none have done so during Frederick's rule of Ostland.
• Bash Brothers: Frederick is close friends with his Ogre bodyguard Urgdug Greatbellow — enough so that he considers him family, and his children all call Urdgug uncle.
• Bayonet Ya: Invented by Frederick von Hohenzollern on turn 35/2339 IC and called erdolchen, they are now standard equipment for all Ostland Handgunners.
• Bare-Fisted Monk:
  • The preferred weapon of practitioners of Cathayan Supernatural Martial Arts are their own bodies. Special mention goes to Princess An whose primary fighting style seems to be an exceptionally skilled variation of the Red Hare style.
  • Special mention must also go to Anpu a second generation Blood Dragon Vampire who has mastered just about every style under the sun.
• Berserk Button: Frederick's two big ones are the undead and harming his wife Natasha.
  • For the former, during the lead-up to Magnus' wedding Frederick and Urgdug were ambushed by undead Skaven and for the first time in years (both in and out of universe) Frederick's vison turned red with rage at the reminder of what killed his son.
  • For the latter, the second time Frederick gained the Engine of Rage trait was after Drycha almost killed Natasha during the battle of Lovely Laurelorn.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Ostland, Middenland, Talabecland and the Moot performed one on Nordland when Count Gruber tried to make it Nurgle's playground.
  • Numerous provinces of the Empire, as well as an army of Kislev (led by the Tzarina herself) come to the aid of Ostland when Zacharias the Everliving unleashes everything he has on the entire province.
  • Numerous Empire provinces join forces to take on the Orc and Chaos army besieging Nuln in the Battle of Three Armies as well.
  • When Frederick and Roland are on the verge of total defeat against Skulltaker, King Ungrim and Princess Fenna bursts into the tower they're in, with Ungrim taking on Skulltaker alongside Frederick... and winning.
  • Played with in Grombrindal's interlude. Imprisoned and tortured for months by Chaos Dwarfs in Karak Ungor, patiently waiting for a chance to escape, until Roland bursts into the torture chamber... giving Grombrindal the opening he needs to instantly break free from of his bindings and snap his captor's neck with his legs.
  • The forces of Nordland and the Eonir arrive during the Second Battle of Salkalten after sailing 150 miles in eight hours in time to board the Fortress of Eternal Torture.
• Big Eater: The Ogres and halflings of Ostland easily find common ground in their love of delicious food. Many Ogres have taken to worship of the halfling goddess Esmeralda - one of Her holy tenets is "no guest will go hungry", which provided a nice alternative to the cannibalistic cult of Great Maw that Ogres usually follow.
• BFS:
  • The Zweihanders wielded by the various regiments of Greatswords qualify, being nearly as long as their wielders are tall.
  • After ascending to daemonhood, Otto Gurber wielded a sword half as tall as his giant daemonic form and over a foot thick.
  • Night's Razor is an oversized two-handed sword able to cut near as well as a Runefang, and enchanted to be feather light for its wielder, who currently is Arthur von Hohenzollern.
  • The claymores wielded by some Albish Nobles are noted to be even larger than the zweihanders of Imperial Greatswords.
• BFG: The bull cannons wielded by the Thunderbringers and Maelstormbringers are so large, they are outright impossible to wield by a non-Ogre and blur the line between this and an full on artillery piece, being a full-sized cannon carried into battle by the aforementioned Ogres.
• The Big Guy: Urgdug serves this role within Frederick's inner circle, standing fifteen feet tall without his armor, strong enough to wield a weapon that could kill a group of men if it simply fell on them, and tough enough to rip his way out of an zombie dragon's stomach after being swallowed whole.
• Black Knight: Roland's son Charlemagne is about as large as his father, but other than that they have little in common. After he came of age, Charlemagne stole armor and weapons from the Grail Chapel his father built, left Brettonia and became a wandering murderer/rapist before joining up with a cult of Slaanesh.
• Blessed with Suck: Due to the circumstances of her conception Gwendolyn was born blessed by the Cytharai. She's extremely strong for her age, and unlike nearly every other child doesn't suffer a penalty when fighting adults. However she is struck with an urge to kill and spill blood, that of others if possible and her own if not.
• Blinded by Rage: Frederick, Magnus and Anna all have this trait to varying extents, though the they have tempered it through experience, learning and a magic misfire respectively.
• Bling of War: Averted by Frederick, who is repeatedly noted to have well-made but plain and utilitarian armor that frequently possesses minor damage from spars and skirmishes.
• Blood Knight:
  • Frederick has gotten dangerously close to becoming this on several occasions, which is an actual issue due to the existence of Khorne.
  • Crown Princess An provides a rather sympathetic example. While she does offer Nipponese armies the opportunity to surrender, she also flat out states that she hopes that they don't.
• Blood on the Debate Floor:
  • Frederick and Gunther get into a brief fistfight during the Third Elector's Meet.
  • That pales before the violence in the fifth Elector's Meet. The Sword of Justice Evangeline Hertwig gives an armored dropkick to the Staadholder of Marienburg Luise Kaufmann to knock a vial of poison out of her hand before ripping out all her teeth thirteen of which contain small vials of acid and reveals her to be a member of the Yellow Fang in front of the Emperor and Electors.
• Blue Blood: Played straight with most of the Knightly Orders that accept only noblemen, but averted with Bull Warriors after the Necrarch War. With its numbers reduced to a scant few soldiers, the Bull Warriors started recruiting from all layers of society.
• Bodyguarding a Badass:
  • Ostland's Greatswords are entrusted with the duty of guarding the von Hohenzollern family. Most of the adults don't need bodyguards, though, and Greatswords have an extremely high attrition rate just trying to keep up with their charges in battle.
  • During her invasion of Nippon An was assigned a contingent of Dragonguard. Being a millennia old Dragon she didn't really need it.
• Botanical Abomination: The Ixfernicth, a semi-intelligent parasitical fungus which existed since before the arrival of the Old Ones and has been revealed to be the reason that the Dwarfs abandoned the Middle Mountains. Those infected by its spores turn into horribly mutated Parasite Zombies.
• Brain Bleach: Frederick was in desperate need of this upon learning that Urgdug had fathered three hundred children.
  Frederick's thoughts: Morr, if it is at all possible, please shield my dreams so that the nightmare I know awaits does not come to me in my sleep.
• Breath Weapon: The Ancestor Golem Starhammer's Vengeance is not only an enormous construct of stone and metal Dual Wielding appropriately sized axes, it can also breath fire, as the Night Goblins besieging the rune forge learned to their dismay.
• Brick Joke:
  • Early in in the Nordland campaign, a blessed cannonball is shot into a portal to the Realm of Chaos. Near the end of the campaign, it flies back out and kills a Chaos Sorcerer, and is later mounted above the entrance of Wulfenburg's Engineering School.
  • After Grol was killed Torroar mentioned that his custom made Ninja Turtle Expy students were sold to someone else. Years later both in and out of universe they are encountered in Under-Tenshuto by Princess An and the Death Twins.
• Broke the Rating Scale: Four examples so far:
  • The Dwarf Warrior Guilds and Brewer Guilds opinions of Frederick are 11/10.
  • Bloodglade's opinion of Frederick is Inscrutable Yet Hungry/10 and the eldest treeman of Laurelorn, Lendrilin, has an opinion of Mourning Isolationist/10.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Natasha is greatly weakened after defeating Coeddil, incapable of using any magic, exhausted, barely capable of standing, becoming extremely cold to the touch, with parts of her hair becoming white and straw-like to the touch, the nails of her left hand becoming iron and having her left eye turn completely red and seeing heat.
• Bungled Suicide:
  • When Natasha and Frederick visit her after the death of her husband, Kattarin attempts to kill herself with a pistol, only surviving because it misfired.
  • Former Arch-lector Jung attempted to hang himself after being disgraced, but failed.
• Burn the Witch!: Being a citizen of the Empire and married to a Kislevite Ice Witch in the home province of Order of the Silver Hammer, it is only natural that Frederick has problems with this early on in the quest, with the Lord-Protector of Sigmar issuing orders to have Natasha killed if any of her children are born with the "taint" of magic.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • After failing his attempt to burn Frederick alive and being stripped of his office, most players didn't expect Jung to show up again, let alone be found by the Changeling, become a cultist of Tzeentch, and to have been the one to sabotage the Army of Ostland's cannons, as well as induce Frederick's vision at the Battle of the Bone Gate and his nightmares while he was unconscious in Karak Ungor.
  • After the Witch Hunters who were going to kill Frederick and Natasha for 'corruption' fled, most didn't spare a thought to them after no news from that front for a few years. They became Chaos cultists, joined up with the Changeling and Jung, infiltrated the Army of Ostland and were killed by Roland during the Final Battle of Karak Ungor.
• Cannot Cross Running Water: A weakness of some Vampires, amongst them Genevieve and Anpu.
• Carry a Big Stick:
  • Arthur's weapon was a mace before he obtained Night's Razor.
  • Urgdug's reward for saving the Throne of Power, the Axe of Grimnir and the Dammaz Kron is an enormous custom made club-spear made of gromril, wutroth and magma dragon bone called Rikkazenar, or Crusher of Kings.
  • Clubs in general serve as the weapons for Ogres of Ostland, a cultural carryover originating from their ancestors in the Mountains of Mourn.
  • These are the primary weapon of the appropriately named Hammerers.
  • Magnus obtains a runic hammer called Stonebreaker from Princess Fenna in Karak Ungor.
  • Drongrundum the runic warhammer of Grungni was lost during the fall of Karak Ungor. During the fight with him it was revealed that it was in the possession of Doomclaw, and after Thorgrim managed to nab it during the struggle he used it to obliterate Doomclaw.
• Chainsaw Good: Anna's primary melee weapon is the Shredder Axe, a custom made weapon created by Anna herself and described by the GM as a motorized buzz axe.
• Challenging the Chief: After being separated from the Great Throng, Urgdug challenges Ogre Tyrant Kruk to guts-out single combat for control of the Rockskull tribe of Karak Ungor in an attempt to gain soldiers for him and his otherwise isolated allies. Though there were some close calls, Urgdug emerged victorious.
• Chariot Pulled by Cats: In better days, elite Albish chariots were pulled by giant pigs.
• Chef of Iron: Cherag, Urdgug's wife, is an excellent chef and has quite a bit of skill with cleavers and the axe her husband found for her, and has joined in some of the yearly clearings of Ostland's forests.
• Chick Magnet : All of the hundreds of Ogre women approached Urgdug on their own initiative.
• Chubby Chef: Cherag Flourbelly is a chef/priestess at the Grand Kitchen of Esmeralda and is notably fat, even by Ogre standards.
• Church Militant: It's a Warhammer Fantasy quest, what did you expect? Many worshippers of Sigmar, Ulric, Manaan and Morr are trained to fight the forces of grimdark and are usually pretty good at it.
• Circle of Standing Stones:
  • The elven Waystone network is made up of a ton of these across the world, pulling the winds of magic to the Vortex where they are returned to the Realm of Chaos.
  • Beastmen herdstones are another example, being places where the Children of Chaos conduct their sacrifices and dark rituals to honor the Dark Gods.
  • Albion is littered with these, called Oghams, that suck much of the excess magic that would overwhelm the Vortex into the land of Albion, preventing the world from being overrun by Chaos. During Accursed Albion it is revealed that the Fimir have gained control of it and intend to use their power for their own wicked purposes.
• Citadel City:
  • Salkalten is most definitively this now, with six staggered walls, cannons, a sizeable garrison, a wall defending the seaward approach and artificial reefs. It's quite possibly the most heavily fortified port this side of Barak Varr. Then a pair of Black Arks came and wrecked the place.
  • Tenshuto, the capitol of Nippon is perhaps the most impressive example of this trope yet seen on screen. A massive city built into a mountain, Tenshuto is noted to be even more heavily fortified than Middenheim, which is itself an example of this trope.
• City on the Water: Dark Elf Black Arks, massive floating fortresses that were once the citadels of Malekith's followers before being giving the ability to float upon the water by the energies unleashed during the Sundering.
• Clear My Name: Frederick voluntarily undergoes three days of torture by Church of Sigmar to prove Chaos has not corrupted him.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Eldyra was on the receiving end of horrific amounts of torture after being captured by the Dark Elves. By the time Frederick reaches her (or rather she is brought to Frederick) she's lost all her higher brain functions from the shear amount of agony inflicted upon her.
• Cold Flames: The Flame of Ulric and its child the Iceborne Flame burn with the cold of winter.
• Colossus Climb: Frederick preforms one of these on Gruber during the Battle of Salzenmund.
• Combat by Champion:
  • Orion and Araloth the Bold attempt to settle the battle between their two armies this way. It falls apart when one of Orion's hound's attacks Araloth when he's distracted.
  • Crown Princess An offers Emperor Jubei a chance to settle the war between their two nations with this. Jubei refuses, citing the (perceived) treacherous nature of dragons.
• Combat Pragmatist: Magnus during his battle with Doomroar. He refuses an honorable duel and has archers and handgunners fire upon the Big Boss while they fight.
• Confirmed Bachelor: Alberich Rommel, the Elector Count of Reikland: "I don't have a wife, or children. I have never been interested in either – or anything or anyone else ever."
• Control Freak: Crown Princess An notes that Yi wasn't satisfied with the restraints that the seals place on Fangs, and wanted something more comprehensive. For reference Fangs are incapable of attacking any member of the Wu dynasty or disobeying the Emperor's commands without being immolated.
• Cool Crown: The Crown of Sorcery aka the Crown of Nagash. Thorgar the Blood Lord searched for it in the Badlands, thinking it the Crown of Domination. When he discovered that it wasn't he cast it, and much of Nagash's soul, into the Realm of Chaos as an offering to Khorne.
• Cool Sword:
  • The Runefang of Ostland, Brain Wounder, qualifies. An Absurdly Sharp Blade forged by Alaric the Mad over two thousand years ago as part of a set of blades gifted to the Chieftains of the twelve Human tribes that defeated the Orcs at the Battle of Blackfire Pass for their aid in the aforementioned battle.
  • Nipponese Ghost Blades, weapons with the souls of their wielder's ancestors willingly bound to the steel.
  • Albish Tooths of Tlang fit. Two-handed Absurdly Sharp Blades that cut as well as a runefang, crafted during the Golden Age of Albion, when the Old Ones walked the earth.
• Covered with Scars: Frederick's body probably has more scar tissue than regular skin at this point, especially after getting Swallowed Whole by a colossal squig. Then he gains more even after getting his body completely healed and blemish-free thanks to some High Elf magic.
• Crafted from Animals: Both Frederick's Fist of Defiance and Urgdug's Crusher of Kings are partially made of bone sourced from the elder magma dragon Drelgithrex.
• Creepy Child: Agatha and Alisa were this when they were younger, with their morbid interests, unsettling behavior and the fact that they murdered an apprentice of the Light College after they said that they would like to dissect Frederick to understand why he is so heavily touched by magic. While they're no longer children they're still ...
• Creepy Twins: Agatha and Alisa von Hohenzollern, the Death Twins, are very creepy due to their macabre interests and generally unsettling behavior, such as finishing each others sentences.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Akira, a samurai in service of the late Lord Tokusho is killed by a superheated kick to the groin that is then dragged up his body like "an incredibly dull knife made of pure heat" before reaching and destroying his head.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The Dark Elves assault on Nordland turned into this, with the Imperials and their Eonir allies driving them back into the sea and slaughtering them to the last.
• Cyborg: Soul Grinders are nightmarish combinations of daemon and machine, created in the Forge of Souls when a daemon is unwilling to wait for their body to reform and instead pledges themselves to the Forge in exchange for a cybernetic body. A pair of them are unleashed by Screamtaker during the Second Battle of Salkalten
• Dark Is Not Evil: After Ostland's near destruction in the Necrarch War, Morr became the most popular god in the province, with just about everyone adding an unspoken "and Morr" to the deity they worship.
• Deader than Dead:
  • Ortrud's sword Malevolentia inflicts True Death upon daemons. Frederick uses it to kill Gruber after he ascended to Daemon Princedom.
  • Teclis uses a ritual to inflict True Death upon the Blooodthirster at the Battle of the Three Armies.
• Deadly Upgrade: During his fight against Frederick Tullaris Dreadbringer is forced to used final gambit ability, Irrevocable Sacrifice, wherein he pledges his own blood and death to Khaine against Frederick in their final battle. It proves to be futile as Frederick killed Dreadbringer in single combat without receiving so much as a scratch in return.
• Death of a Child: Oskar von Hohenzollern is killed by a zombie controlled by Zacharias the Everliving in his assault on Wulfenburg Castle. The Hohenzollern family is quite traumatized by the incident. Frederick falls into a terrible rage that is only ended with Zacharias' death, and occasionally has flashbacks to that incident when he encounters the undead. The children all cope with it in various ways: Magnus trains to become a peerless warrior, Arthur develops an interest in Morr, Alexandra conceptualizes Ledstali and develops and obsession with that project, and Anna develops her interest in engineering.
• Death Seeker: Dwarf Slayers, such as Valma Bronzeheart and Ungrim Ironfist, seek to regain their lost honor through a glorious death in battle. Both of them succeed in their goal during the reclamation of Karak Ungor.
  • Later on during the Second Battle of Salkaltan Long Drong and his Slayer Pirates all meet their end boarding the Claw of Dominion.
• Decapitation Strike: Attempted by Zacharias at the start of the Necrarch War. Though his attempt at killing Frederick was unsuccessful he did succeed in slaying Frederick's five year old son Oskar and incapacitating Natasha.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Done three fold at the Second Battle of Salkalten. First when Frederick defeats Caledor's Bane in an aerial duel. Second when the Black Arks signal a retreat, the first time in history they have done so against Imperial forces. Thirdly when he killed Tullaris Dreadbringer, a veteran of millennia worth of battles and Chosen of Khaine in single combat.
• Defector from Decadence: The sorceress Hultressa, formerly Tanrala of Tiranoc, wants to defect to the Asur or Asrai and take her daughter with her. Her reason is that she doesn't want her daughter to grow up in the hellhole that is Dark Elf society. More specifically she want's an Avatar of Isha to break the hold the Cytharai have on her daughter's soul What's more she's intent on using Frederick as her in for either Ariel or the Everqueen.
• Defensive Feint Trap: Crown Princess An pills off a masterclass against her uncle during the Siege of Tenshuto. She pretends to be grievously injured by a the anti-dragon poison of Deathmaster Splinter in order to lure him into the open so that she can defeat him.
• Determinator: Frederick, straight up, to the point where it seems he can't fight in a major battle without coming within a hair's breadth of death and surviving nonetheless. This is also deconstructed: Frederick's constant brushes with death have strained his marriage significantly, and provided a rather unhealthy model for his kids. (The establishing character moment of Magnus von Hohenzollern was an attempt at replicating one of his father's unstoppable charges, which nearly got him killed by a giant horde of Night Goblins). In two separate instances, Frederick's determination almost led him into embrace of Solkan, during the Necrarch War, and Khorne, Khaine, Tzeentch, Nurgle, Sigmar, Ulric, Morr, Manaan, Taal, Shallya, Verena and Kakarol, the Ostland god of horses, during the reclamation of Karak Ungor.
• Deus ex Machina: At the end of Frederick's interrogation during the second Elector's Meet, Jung drags Frederick out of his cell, ties him to a stake that has been liberally coated in oil and before Frederick's family and the other Electors can stop him, shoves a burning torch into Frederick's chest. Through direct intervention by Sigmar, Frederick doesn't burn.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?:
  • Frederick refuses a deal with a Finger of Solkan for the power to defeat Zacharias the Everliving in exchange for becoming Solkan's servant.
  • Frederick manages to talk down an angry Ariel by comparing her actions to those of Caledor II and Caradryel, the two Phoenix Kings the Wood Elves hate the most.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The von Hohenzollern punch is the best punch.
  • Frederick, did you just perma-kill a Daemon Prince of Nurgle?
  • Frederick, did you just perma-kill a Bloodthirster?
  • Frederick, did you just kill the Overlord of the Necrarch bloodline?
  • Frederick, did you just kill one of the mightiest Beastmen ever?
  • Frederick, did you just kill a hybrid of Black Orc and a Daemon of Tzeentch?
  • Frederick, did you just kill fucking Skulltaker?
  • Natasha, did you just defeat Coeddil?
  • Frederick, did you just kill Orion?
  • Frederick, did you just kill the Avatar of Anath Raema?
  • Magnus, did you just kill the Dhar-Meargh of Albion?
  • Am Fear Mòr did you just kill Be'lakor(?)?
• Disinherited Child: Johanna was disinherited both legally and personally after becoming a Vampire. Her father (wrongly) believes that the real Johanna died in Ostland and the one currently running around is a sort of monster piloting her corpse.
• The Dividual: Agatha and Alisa von Hohenzollern. They're identical twins that have identical stats, equipment and (near) identical opinions thanks to their constant telepathic conversations.
• Divine Intervention: Even beyond the various miracles that certain priests can preform this has been known to happen.
  • Frederick survives being tied to a stake, drenched in oil and having a burning torch thrust upon him due to the intervention of Sigmar.
  • In Karak Ungor Frederick is brought back from the dead and made temporarily immortal due to the action of Gazul.
  • During the fight at the Tor of Dominance aboard the Claw of Dominion Isha convinces Hultressa to spare Frederick's life so as to enable her and Gwendolyn's escape from Druchii society.
• Doesn't Like Guns:
  • As does every self-respecting Bretonnian, Sir Roland falls under this trope.
  • Ulricians in general frown upon firearms and crossbows, holding them to be the weapons of weaklings and cowards.
• Does Not Like Magic:
  • The inhabitants of the Empire in general feel this way, particularly early in the quest. The announcement that Frederick married a Ice Witch sparks riots in Wulfenburg and the Lord Protector of Sigmar attempted to burn down the Colleges of Magic shortly after they were founded.
• Don't Go in the Woods: Going deep into the Forest of Shadows without a large and heavily armed party is a very bad idea, with a almost certain chance of death by bloodsedges, Beastmen, Goblins, bandits or worse. With the death of Zacharias the danger has lessened somewhat, though it's still dangerous, its not effectively suicide anymore.
• Doorstopper: At 2.7 million words and counting it's quite a hefty read.
• Doting Parent: Crown Princess An is extremely proud of her children as Zǐháo can attest.
• Dracolich:
  • Zombie dragons rank among the most powerful of undead and the most prized mounts among Vampires and necromancers. Zacharias', a former emperor dragon, served as his most prized servant and was slain by Urgdug at the Battle of the Black City after it ate him.
  • In their desperation to defeat the Cathayans the defenders of Tenshuto reanimate the corpse of Fong, a Cathayan dragon of the Wei dynasty who attempted to conquer Nippon.
• The Dragonslayer:
  • As his name Dragonrippa would indicate Urgdug managed to slay Zacharias the Everliving's most powerful servant an undead emperor dragon by ripping his way out of it's stomach after it devoured him whole before tearing out it's spine, causing it to crash into Zacharias' undead bonegrinder Giant.
  • Dreadlord Maranith, Caledor's Bane has slain several dragons ridden by Princes of Caledor, as his name suggests.
  • Urgdug achieves this feat again during the Second Battle of Salkalten, delivering the lethal blow to Venomfang.
  • Later during the same battle Long Drong kills the dragon of Maranith's son.
• Draw Aggro: Drycha uses her Goliathon dryad for this, attempting to gain the attention of the entire Asari army so she and and elite cadre can sneak in and kill Ariel
• Drinking Contest: Frederick has one with Josef Bugman to decide on whether or not he will start brewing again. He wins, if only just.
• The Dreaded: Zacharias the Everliving was this to the entire province of Ostland, having terrorized it's inhabitants for over two thousand years.
• Dual Wielding:
  • Before he lost part of his left arm Frederick wielded Brain Wounder with a hammer gifted to him by Magnus the Pious early in the quest.
  • Magnus von Hohenzollern wielded a sword and a warhammer similar to his father before obtaining Stonebreaker.
  • The Gronti-Duraz known as Starhammer's Vengance wielded twin axes like Grimnir, the Ancestor God it was modeled upon.
  • With the recovery of Drongrundum Thorgrim Grudgebearer has dual wielded it with the Axe of Grimnir
• Dumbass No More: Downplayed, but Urgdug's speech pattern takes a notable improvement, going from referring to Norscans as "smelly men" and cannons as "boom tubes" to having speech patterns indistinguishable from other characters.
• Dumb Muscle: Played Straight at first and later Averted by Urgdug, while at first he was no smarter than the average Ogre he quickly became much more intelligent.
• Dying Moment of Awesome:
  • Garagrim Ironfist, the Prince of Karak Kadrin, strives to play this trope straight. So far it always ended up subverted because Garagrim is too good to actually die.
  • And as of Karak Ungor's arc finale, Garagrim was outdone by his father, Ungrim the Slayer King, who (along with Frederick) took on Skulltaker. And won. He even got to watch what remained of the armies of the Skaven, Greenskins, and Chaos Dwarfs get drowned in magma as the final victory and full reclamation of Karak Ungor was achieved in his final moments, becoming the Last Slayer King.
  • Played completely straight with Valma Bronzeheart at the very beginning of Karak Ungor campaign.
  • Reinhardt Hertwig,^note The elder brother of Ortrud Hertwig, not her eldest son of the same name the last survivor of the original incarnation of the Order of the Everlasting Light, despite extensive physical corruption by Nurgle's Rot, manages to escape to Ostland's border and report what had happened in Nordland before asking to be executed, through sheer will and devotion to his duty.
• Eats Babies: Eskra Broodhorn eats one of her newly born children when it turns out to be a brey.
• Elemental Armor: Wielders of Ice Magic are capable of creating armor out of magical ice, mostly for themselves but occasionally for others.
• Elite Mooks:
  • Ostland has three varieties of them:
    • The Greatswords, the Count's household troops and bodyguard unit, heavily armored and superbly armed veterans.
    • The Maelstormbringers, Urgdug's personal squad of elite Thunderbringers, the toughest, biggest and smartest Ogres in Ostland.
    • The Champions of Ostland, skilled veterans armored in full plate and armed with high quality great axes, primarily composed of healed former Greatswords.
  • Dwarf Longbeards, Ironbreakers and Hammerers serve as this for the armies of the Karaz Ankor, with special mention going to the Longbeard variations of the latter two.
  • The Ruinhearts serve as this for Malagor, being his personal guard of Bestigors. Malagor's narration notes that many of them are large and strong enough that they would be Wargors and Beastlords in their own right if it wasn't for the fact that he half consumed and fully bound their souls.
  • The Golden Ten Thousand, also known as the Dragonguard, the Emperor of Cathay's bodyguard.
  • Fimm, the dedicated warrior caste of the Fimir are even larger and stronger than Shearls, not to mention better equipped trained and disciplined. Most of them are wiped out during the battle for the Great Ogham.
  • The Brightspears and Umbral Striders of Laurelorn. The former are apex Highborn Champions and the latter are apex Laurelorn Waystalkers. Both bear enchanted arms and armor of Brightgrove, the most magically powerful of the Canopy-Cities of Laurelorn. They're are some of the single most deadly elves in all of Laurelorn and cannot be deployed without the agreement of both the Lady of Brightgrove and the Glade Lord of all Laurelorn.
  • The Dead 'Eads, Ghazghka's cadre of Black Orcs decked out in gromril armor.
• Emotionless Girl: Anna, after her permafrost accident. While she can still, occasionally, feel emotion, it takes extreme situations to bring it out, and it will always fade. While there might be ways to mitigate this condition, it will never be fully cured.
• Enemy Mine: In a rather significant event, the Ulrican Wolf's Crusade came to aid of the Witch Hunter's Army in Sylvania, when the latter was attempting to purge the undead menace, and the alliance held strong until the war was over. This was a significant improvement in their relations, as the two churches have been in conflict for over two thousand years.
• Enemy Civil War:
  • Between the forces of Zacharias the Everliving and the forces of Chaos he hired as mercenaries. The resulting battle wrecks the Black City.
  • Between the Red Eye tribe, the Big Rippa tribe and the Skaven in Karak Ungor. Later the Big Rippa rebel against Mulgrumkul turning it into a four way Enemy Civil War.
  • Quite frequent among the forces of grimdark in general. After all, they hate each other just as much as they hate humanity.
  • During the fight at the Tor of Dominance Screamtaker's faction of Sorceresses fight Voidbringer's faction of Sorceresses, and both fight Dreadbringer and his Executioners.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: In their desperation to defeat the Legion of An the defenders of Tenshuto summon a horde of Slaanneshi daemons using dark ofuda made of Human skin. While the daemons do attack the Cathayans, they also assault the Nipponese because they were unbound. The resulting rampage does more damage to the Nipponese than the Cathayans.
• Evil Weapon: Emperor Jubei's sword. A immensely powerful daemonweapon of Slaanesh that initially took the form of an oversized katana, it was able to control the minds of those within its presence, forcing them to become it's wielder's allies. It also could shoot sword beams like a ghost blade and appears to have granted Jubei greatly increased strength and toughness, also like a ghost blade.
• The Exile: Frederick was banished to the irrelevant village of Jegow for insulting the Gods while his father was attempting to negotiate a loan from the Cult of Sigmar. It was due to his isolation that he survived the fate of the rest of his family, who were either killed by Chaos Knights attempting to reclaim Salkalten or by Chaos cultists in Wulfenburg.
• Eye Scream:
  • Zacharias the Everliving, after tearing out Urgdug's eye and swallowing it whole. He later gets it healed, though.
  • This is one of the favored methods of slaying Fimir in Accursed Albion, with victims ranging from Shearls to the Dhar-Meargh herself.
  • This is how Emperor Jubei was finally slain, Genevieve driving a blade through each of his eye sockets and into his brain.
• Face of a Thug: Arthur is perhaps the nicest of Frederick's children, calm, patient and humble, rouse to anger only by those who would seek to defile the dead. He also looks like a villain from some cheap fantasy novel when dressed for battle.
• Familiar: Agatha and Alisa crafted ones for themselves. They take the form of large, eyeless horned serpents, which has done nothing for their master's reputations for being creepy.
• Fantastic Drug: Lecoicael, used by the Wood Elves of Laurelorn. Based on the few descriptions of it and it's effects, it's basically magical marijuana.
• Fantastic Race Weapon Affinity:
  • The Dwarfs greatly favor weapons that are derived from tools such as axes, hammers and picks to the extent that only one Dwarf in the Warhammer is known to wield a sword, the Ancestor God Gazul. For ranged combat Dwarfs favor crossbows, handguns and the occasional throwing axe, and use cannons, stone throwers and bolt throwers as artillery.
  • The men of the Empire favor weapons similar to early renaissance Germany, albeit with a fantasy twist. Arming swords, pikes, halberds, zweihanders, warhammers, spears and lances make up the bulk of the melee weapons wielded by Imperial troops, with ranged weapons taking the form of bows, crossbows, matchlock firearms and assorted forms of cannon.
  • The Wood Elves favor longbows near exclusively for ranged combat, supplemented by the occasional javelin. For close combat they wield the finest standard issue spears in the world along with swords, daggers and great axes.
• Fantastic Slurs:
  • Ridden is an extremally derogatory term that some Cathayan dragons refer to the dragons of Ulthuan.
  • Broken is the term Cathayan dragons use to refer to the black dragons of Naggaroth.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: It's Warhammer, what do you expect?
  • The Holy Roman Empire for the Empire.
  • Medieval France for Bretonnia.
  • Renaissance Italy for Tilea.
  • A combination of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for Kislev.
  • Scandinavia during the Viking Age for Norsca.
  • Imperial China for Cathay.
  • Feudal Japan for Nippon.
  • Medieval, ancient and Vedic India for Ind.
  • The Islamic Middle East and North Africa for Araby.
  • The Caribbean in the Golden Age of Piracy for Sartosa.
  • The Pre-Roman Celtic British Isles for Albion.
• Fantasy Gun Control:
  • Averted like hell for Ostland. One of the positive starting traits Ostland had was that guns and gunpowder would always be supported by the province and after constructing the facilities to manufacture firearms and cannons of their own, the von Hohenzollerns haven't looked back, with Handgunners in every army and an absolutely massive artillery park for armies of their size.
  • Played straight with Middenland, who field no handgunners or cannons of their own due to the Cult of Ulric frowning upon gunpowder weaponry. Their starting penalty representing this was even called Fantasy Gun Control.
• Fantasy Metals:
  • In addition to the well known ithilmar and gromril a third variety has been introduced to the quest. Ledstali a form of magical metallic ice and the life's work of Alexandra von Hohenzollern. It's stronger than steel though not as strong as gromril, supple like leather and lethal for near anyone but ice witches to come into contact with for long periods.
  • The recently^note 2/8/23 introduced celestial dragon-steel of Grand Cathay. Personally crafted by the Golden Empress before she retired beneath Wu Tien Shan, exactly what it is as well as its properties are unknown besides it being gold in color.
  • Ossuary alloy is another one, based upon the real life Viking practice of introducing bones into the process of forging blades. Unlike real life it really does infuse the metal with the spirit/strength of the bones of the being put into the forging process. Particularly powerful reagents, such as coming from dragons, or extremely old but powerful wight kings, or so on, generally just approach the process as power boosting, making them that much stronger/tougher/sharper/magical/enchantment-accepting/holding.
• The Farmer and the Viper: An couldn't bring herself to kill Yi, thinking that spilling the blood of her own family would be a step too far. Yi repaid this kindness by engineering a massively destructive war between Nippon and Grand Cathay so that he could swoop in, save his homeland and claim the throne.
• Faster Than They Look: In line with their tabletop stats, Ogres are repeatedly noted to be this, capable of running almost as fast as a common workhorse and easily able to overtake men, Elves or Dwarfs.
• Fat and Proud: Like their Mourn counterparts the Ogres of Ostland put great value in the size of their guts. The bigger the belly of the Ogre, the more power, strength, wealth, food and respect the Ogre can expect to get in life. And yes, fellow Ogres will find them to be more alluring by the standards of Ogres
• Fee Fi Faux Pas: Frederick is prone to these, especially early in the quest before he obtained an average diplomacy stat.^note  Frederick's starting diplomacy stat was 6. An average Human has a 10.At one point early on he mentally thanks his wife for sparing the nobles from comments like "So I heard your son died in a ditch."
• Final Battle: The Battle of Caerniwlatgas is perhaps the best example of this trope thus far in the quest. Both the Albish and the Fimir bring the entirety of their fighting strength to fight one last climactic battle for the fate of Albion. Though they and their allies suffer heavy casualties, the Albish emerge victorious with the Fimir of Albion broken utterly, the few survivors scattered and will be hunted down to the last.
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Agatha and Alisa rarely finish a sentence by themselves, a habit that's more than a little creepy.
• Flesh Golem: Undead variations of these show up in the war against the Everliving. For example Urgdug slays a Necrarch riding a "thing that might have once been three bears and a woman with golden locks" in the opening stage of the war.
• Fluffy the Terrible: The arachnaroks possessed by the Red Eye have names such as Daisy, Bigsy and most terrible of them all Squeaky, the personal mount of the Red Eye Warlord Grishgak.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: A specialty of the Ogres of Ostland, demonstrated with devastating effectiveness at the Battle of Salzenmund and the battle outside of Karak Ungor.
• Food Porn: Not common but it occasionally appears, such as the feast prepared by Hagrid Baggins for his "war council" in the second Back Kitchen Dealings omake by the GM.
  A steaming roast turkey sat in the center, three roast chickens sitting around it like an honor guard. Thick pillowed mounds of mashed potatoes sat in heavy bowls, while three kinds of dressings sat waiting in their dishes. Butter drenched all three. Small onions waited in a small lake of cream sauce, amongst all the rest, protected by ranks and ranks of bacon and eggs. Cups of red fruit pudding had been placed near all five seats. There were even some Bretonnian dishes, beef bourguignon, two parfaits, and a bevy of meat pies from both pork and goat. Eighteen kinds of cheese, and three kinds of buttery crackers.
• Foreshadowing: In the Elector's Meet of 2331 Frederick notes that Alberich Rommel doesn't speak of a lover or children and the he can't remember hearing about either of those being mentioned in all his years as an Elector Count. Come the Elector's Meet of 2343 Rommel comes as close to telling Frederick that he's asexual as one can reasonably do so without modern vocabulary on the subject.
• Forged by the Gods: Ghal Maraz was created by the Dwarf ancestor god Smednir, Shaper of Ore.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: The first Elector's Meet represented a major break from the story's formula at the time, opening with Frederick having a drunken night on the town with Urgdug.
• Four-Star Badass:
  • Emperor Magnus the Pious is the undisputed greatest hero of the Empire, followed by Frederick.
  • Thorgrim Grudgebearer, High King of the Dwarfs, also qualifies. As does the Slayer King Ungrim.
• Frequently-Broken Unbreakable Vow: The various treaties between Laurelorn and the provinces of the Empire turn out to be this, with Naraiel stating that they usually face an invasion from either the Westerland, Middenland, Nordland or Drakenwald (back when it was still a province) once every two Human generations.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Genevieve Sandrine du Pointe du Lac Dieudonné, a Vampire who has become a friend of Frederick and aided him during the Necrarch War.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Frederick went from the exiled son of an Elector Count seemingly doomed to live out his life as the blacksmith of an irrelevant village to a man that killed two demigods in a row and changed Ostland from a backwater province to a force to be reckoned with.
• Frontline General: Frederick von Hohenzollern, Magnus the Pious, Magnus von Hohenzollern, Arthur von Hohenzollern, Lady Dawnstone, Orion, Thorgrim Grudgebearer and many others. It would be easier to list those that avert this trope than to list all the commanders that follow it.
• Functional Addict:
  • Despite being an alcoholic Frederick shows very few of the weaknesses associated with alcoholism.
  • Similarly to her father Anna possesses the Functional Drunkard trait.
• Gambit Pileup: Kislev is on the receiving end of one of these involving extremist Ranald cultists, extremist Venera cultists, the Bohka, Yellow Fang cultists, Torus Ivan Romanov, Skaven, and Lahmian Vampires.
• Gargle Blaster: Ogre made alcohol is apparently this, with one mug of it said to cause Humans to require immediate medical attention.
• Gemstone Motifs: The side stories set in Cathay feature these with Genevieve and Johanna being associated with jade at first and later onyx, Agatha, Alisa and Draken associated with amethyst, Princess An with agate, Anpu with black blood diamonds, Mitsuhide with morganite, Yi with jet and Léimíng with rubellite.
• Genius Bruiser:
  • Frederick is not only one of the greatest fighters in the Empire, but also a highly intelligent man, best shown in Karak Ungor where he uses on-the-spot trigonometry to help aim cannons.
  • Urgdug is not only massively strong, even by the standards of Ogres, but also extremely smart by Ogre standards, being well spoken and fully literate.
  • Grishgak, Warlord of the Red Eye tribe of Night Goblins was this full stop. He spoke perfect Reikspiel and devised several devastating traps and ambushes against the Dwarf and Human armies.
• Genius Loci: In addition to the obvious mentions of Athel Loren and Laurelorn, the Forest of Shadows is also semi-sapient, though not anywhere near to the extent of the former examples, with the trees and paths shifting when you're not looking so you get lost.
• Ghost Pirate: Luthor Harkon's Zombie Pirates of the Vampire Coast. With the purging of Sylvania they're the largest concentration of undead outside of Nehekhara.
• Giant Flyer:
  • Zacharias' undead emperor dragon was big enough to swallow Urgdug whole.
  • Princess An is described as being a hundred feet long in her true form, and her uncle Yi is even bigger at a hundred twenty feet.
  • Though she's smaller than the above examples Oskana is still the size of an elephant.
• Giant Mook:
  • The Ogres of Ostland serve this role in the Army of Ostland in five units. The Steelbacks, who are essentially Ironguts with superior armor, training and better quality weapons, the Thunderbringers who are essentially Leadbelchers but with superior armor and training, the Pulverizers who are an extra heavily armored unit of Ogres armed with ironfists and Ogre-sized spiked tower shields, the Ogre Archers who wield massive bows scaled for their size, and the Maelstormbringers, an elite unit of Thunderbringers who serve as Urgdug's personal squad.
  • The Fimir of Albion are an entire nation of these, with even the lesser shearls being compared to Pulverizers and Maelstormbringers in strength.
  • Trolls serve as these, mostly for the Greenskins, though they have shown up in Mulgrumkul's army. They're strong but stupid, and have a Healing Factor that is countered by fire.
  • Rat Ogres act as these for the Skaven.
  • Minotaurs are these for the Beastmen.
• Giant Spider: Various species of giant spiders ranging from the size of a horse to the size of a townhouse infest the forests of the the Warhammer World including the Forest of Shadows and serve as the favored mount of Forest Goblins.
• Gladiator Games: An officially organized pit fighting league, the Imperial Fighting League (or IFL) was organized on turn 32/2336 IC. It differs from the pit fighting that exists throughout the Empire in that it is legal and backed by the province's government and takes steps to avoid the killing of combatants. The IFL's first proper arena was created in Wulfenburg on turn 38/2341 IC.
• God-Eating: During the Battle of Tenshuto Anpu offhandidly mentions that the Oni devoured many of the Gods of Nippon.
• God in Human Form: Well elven form, but several Elf deities have avatars. Kurnous has Orion, Isha has Ariel and Alarielle the Everqueen, and Anath Raema had Vorteshka Flayerblade, at least before Frederick drove a spear through the heart of the latter.
• Going Native: The Ogre population of Ostland have gone native to a greater extent than any Ogre mercenary, abandoning the cannibalistic lifestyle they had when they first migrated to Ostland, adopting farming, Imperial religion and Ostland's culture and living as (somewhat) ordinary citizens of the province with most of them having civilian jobs.
• Golem:
  • The greenskins employ Rogue Idols on occasion, massive constructs of stone and trash animated by sheer WAAAGH! energy.
  • The Dwarfs have some of these, called gronti-duraz or Ancestor Golems, though they've lost the knowledge of how to build more. The small ones are of an ironbreaker based designs scaled up to the size of an Ogre, while the larger models are the size of a Giant.
  • The Albish have plant based golems in the form of fenbeasts, constructs formed out of the detritus of the swamps, bogs and fens of Albion and are given life by the souls of those that have died in them.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: In response to the Blood Bowl WAAAGH! heading towards Karaz-a-Karak Thorgrim calls on the Empire for assistance. And oh boy he gets it, with thirteen state armies, a bunch of knightly orders, all eight of Nuln's steam tanks, half the Patriarchs/Matriarchs of the Colleges of Magic, all the battle wizards and ten arcane battle altars heading to reinforce Karaz-a-Karak.
• Good Counterpart: The Ogres of Ostland serve as this to the Ogres from the Mountains of Mourn, possessing a sense of right and wrong and abandoning the worship of the Great Maw in favor of Esmeralda, Taal and Rhya, and generally living as upstanding Imperial citizens.
• Good Parents: Frederick and Natasha have been wonderfully supportive of their children. They supported their two eldest daughters when they went on their very unorthodox career paths. They allowed Arthur to fulfil his dream of becoming a priest of Morr despite their general impiety at the time. They didn't disown the Death Twins when it was learned that they had magic and took pains to visit them twice a year if possible. And they accepted Anna back into their home after she was deflowered and impregnated in Tilea and took pains to pass the resulting child as Anna's legitimate offspring.
• Great Bow:
  • The Ostland variant made for use by Ogres was invented by Frederick von Hohenzollern on turn 37/2341 IC.
  • The longbows of the Albish are noted to be almost comically large and shoot arrows the size of small spears.
  • During the Battle of Caerniwlatgas the Fimir are noted to employ archers. Given the size of Fimir this trope is definitely in effect.
• Greed: A trait that runs in Sabine's family, the Nassau. Sabine is constantly looking for ways to enrich herself, from buying up nearly a quarter of Wulfenburg's property, to investing in craftsmen, to setting up an pit fighting organization... the list goes on.
• Groin Attack:
  • Frederick uses a Hohenzollern Cocktail to set Orion's genitals on fire.
  • In Accursed Albion Reinhardt cuts off a Fimir member "the size of his forearm."
  • In Burning Agate, Stained Amethyst​ Crown Princess An delivers a superheated kick to the groin of an unfortunate samurai.
  • During Part 2 of Spikes, Horns, and Stone, Frederick emasculates Venomfang, Dreadlord Maranith's Black Dragon, with a blow from Brain Wounder.
• Gun Nut: Ostland is an entire province of these, with one of the starting advantages saying "For some reason, Ostlanders love firepower a whole lot. Efforts regarding gunpowder, cannons, and guns will be forever well met by your people."
• Heal It with Booze: Frederick's preferred method dealing with injuries in combat. The density of booze usually depends on the injury.
• Heavily Armored Mook:
  • The Greatswords and Champions of Ostland serve as this the the regular state troops of Ostland, having full plate to the latter's munition armor.
  • Ironbreakers serve as this to normal Dwarf warriors, wearing gromril full plate compared to the chainmail typical of the latter.
  • The Chaos Warriors and similar troops serve this role amongst the Human worshipers of Chaos.
  • Ostland Steelbacks and Thunderbringers are this to their Mountains of Mourn counterparts, with ¾ plate in comparison to the gutplates and scrap armor of the latter.
  • Even more heavily armored are the Pulverizers, wearing double layered plate armor, with additional padding, and wielding a Ogre sized iron plated spiked tower shield.
• Hellish Horse: The chaos steeds ridden by the knights of chaos at the First Battle of Salkalten qualify, with "the unnatural flesh coating them twisting nauseatingly in the sunlight."
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Urgdug has one of these during the early parts of the Karak Ungor campaign while Frederick is on deaths door after getting Swallowed Whole by a colossal squig. He tells Anna that he hasn't been eating, something so out of character for him that it causes Anna to briefly regain her emotions
  • Roland goes through one of those during the Karak Ungor campaign when his connection to the Lady is severed for a time. He comes back STRONG.
  • Roland suffers from another one when he finds out that his wife died of the red pox and son Charlemagne has become the antithesis of everything he stands for. He gets better later, and is quite angry at Charlemagne.
• Heroic RRoD: Frederick suffers this twice during Lovely Laurelorn. First after being turbobuffed enough to kill Orion and later when he exerts himself too much shortly after getting his everything healed. According to Word of God he nearly gained the enervated trait after that.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Former High Loremaster Cyeos sacrifices his life in order channel enough magic to eject the Eternity Stair compound from the Realm of Chaos
• Hero of Another Story:
  • The story is rife with them; periodically, Torroar randomly generated groups of NPCs, then rolled for their actions and adventures in the background. At this point, the surviving members of the first generation (all three of them) are just as dangerous and arguably have had just as much influence over the world as Freddy himself. After a while, however, upon reaching a self-determined saturation point Torroar stopped, as to avoid overload.
  • An even more literal example with Kislev: Torroar treats it like a separate quest with its own options, heroes and rolls, and plays things out accordingly.
  • It's practically a given that each of the marriage candidates for both Frederick and his son Magnus always become storied heroes in their own right (if they weren't already). Ortrud became one of the greatest leaders in Ostermark's history as it's Elector Count — and is highly respected and trusted by the Dwarfs for her unconditional and secret aid to them for years. Johanna became an even greater warrior, and, after becoming a Vampire under Genevieve's tutelage to master her hunger, is off in a monastery in Cathay to achieve these goals. Regina was knighted and became an ever-more famous and accomplished warrior, to the point of even becoming the Grand Theogonist's chosen warrior. Evangeline became a Chronicler of the Karak Ungor campaign, fighting alongside Dwarfs and working on publishing a book detailing the events of the campaign and later became the Sword of Justice.
• Hidden Elf Village: Laurelorn Forest, the home of a branch of Asrai later referred to as Eonir, is the finest example of this trope within the boundaries of the Empire. The Elves are violently isolationist and aggressively neutral. After Frederick's deeds during Lovely Laurelorn this becomes a Downplayed Trope when Naraiel Dawnstone decides to end this policy and begin interacting more openly with the outside world, namely the Northern Trident.
• Holy Burns Evil: The power of Sigmar is particularly effective against Vampires. During Genevieve's initial battle against Anpu he's quite shocked to discover this firsthand, having spent the past few millennia in the Far East.
• Honorary Uncle: Frederick's children all consider Urgdug to be their uncle due to his close relationship with their father.
• Hope Bringer: Thorgrim inadvertently serves as this to the Dwarfs. Due to the Reclamation of Karak Ungor taking just over a year instead of the expected fifteen the Dawi's belief that they are facing inescapable destruction has changed and for the first time in centuries they have genuine hopes of reclaiming their lost empire. This has manifested in, amongst other things, more births in the years since the reclamation of Karak Ungor than in the five centuries before it.
• Hopeless War: The Dwarfs have been fighting one since the Time of Woes, slowly dying by inches. This eventually becomes Averted after the Reclamation of Karak Ungor, with many Dawi at long last seeing light at the end of the tunnel, and as such the birth rates of the Karaz Ankor have skyrocketed.
• Horror Hunger: In Urgdug's view the influence of the Great Maw upon him and his kind is most definitively this, causing an unnatural unending hunger that all Ogres feel to an extent, with it becoming stronger with proximity to The Maw's priests, the Butchers and Slaughtermasters.
• Horse of a Different Color:
  • After some effort the razorbeaks that once served as the mounts of the Knights of the Shining Talon have been brought back to The Empire, which has allowed the Order to be refounded.
  • The Cold Ones of Naggarond serve as this for the Druchii. Being essentially oversized raptors they're considerably more formidable combatants than horses.
• Hostile Terraforming: Under the influence of Nurgle and his servants, Nordland became a blight-infested hellhole with most of the living beings undergoing mutations, in-life decay, soul corruption or all of the above. Thankfully, it got better afterwards... save for a few areas, and even those eventually turned back to normal.
• Hurt Foot Hop: The entire greenskin race suffers this as backlash from Gork (or possibly Mork) delivering "WUN GREAT BIG WHALLOPING KICK" the walls of Karaz-a-Karak.

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOG!!!!!! ME! BLEEDIN'! FOOOOOOOOOOT!!!​

—The Entire Greenskin Race

• Hypocrite: Dreadbringer becomes enraged at the call to retreat during the Second Battle of Salkalten, rushing his way to the Tor of Dominance to massacre those who ordered it. This is in spite of him retreating from a losing battle on at least one occasion, namely the battle where he killed Eldyr, Eldyra's father.
• An Ice Person:
  • Anna. Somewhat literally after her magic backfired on her in the middle of being rushed by a monster in Karak Ungor.
  • Natasha as a result of being a daughter of the Kislevite royal family. Alexandria has also inherited these powers from her mother.
  • The Ice Mages of Kislev all have this power, with Tzarina Kattarin the Bloody being the most powerful by quite a margin.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Maranith meets his end, run through with his own enchanted lance.
• Incendiary Exponent: During their duel both Boris Hirtzeller and Frederick were set on fire and continued fighting.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • Frederick invoked this in an attempt to Brain Bleach himself after learning that Urgdug had had slept with and impregnated hundreds of Ogre women.
  • Matriarch Maghda and Frederick's reaction to the revelation that two Black Arks are headed towards the Empire, bent on revenge for being denied Albion.
• In Spite of a Nail: Kattarin still earns the title of "the Bloody", for a massacre in spite of not becoming a Vampire like she did in canon.
• Instant Soprano: Orion exhibits this when he receives a Hohenzollern cocktail to the groin.
• Intelligent Forest: Athel Loren and Laurelorn. Both are capable of thought, though the minds of both seem to be very alien. Athel Loren is the elder and grander example by quite a wide margin, with Coeddil referring to Laurelorn as but a child. Both are capable of actively defending themselves from attacks by twisting paths, moving trees and directing dryads, treemen and other fae to its defense.
• Ironic Name: The Cathayan Princesses seem to have this going on.
  • An's name means peaceful, but she's a warmonger who started three simultaneous wars and allegedly killed the previous Crown Prince of Cathay.
  • Léimíng's name means thunder, but she's a diplomat nicknamed the "Smiling Flower".
• It Can Think: Grishgak, Warlord of the Red Eye tribe of Night Goblins reveals himself to be a rather frightening example of this trope. Due to imbibing warpstone brews of his own design he had became a Genius Bruiser by Night Goblin standards. He spoke Reikspiel without a the characteristic greenskin accent and devised multiple cunning plans to defeat the Great Throng and its allied Imperial armies. The first was an ambush at a bridge where the Red Eye forces were engaged with each other to lure the Dwarf and Human armies into a trap. The second was to cause an artificial cave in, which caused Frederick, Roland, Urgdug, a warrior priest and Thorgrim to be separated from the armies.
• It's Personal: The conflict with Drycha became this for Frederick after the near death of Natasha.
• Javelin Thrower: These were employed by both the Albish and Fimir during Accursed Albion.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Frederick von Hohenzollern comes across as this in a lot of circumstances. Gruff, tactless, easy to anger, irreverent, and not very diplomatic at all, he can easily seem like a belligerent drunkard when you first meet him. He is, however, utterly dependable, determined to do the right thing, selfless, extremely brave, and extremely kind and loyal to his friends. He's also completely unafraid to openly, publicly, and strongly show love for every member of his family, even his youngest twin daughters (whom are greatly touched by the Wind of Shyish, and creep most people out both by their albino appearance and unsettling behavior)—which is especially touching, given his own childhood of being effectively banished to a backwater village by his pious father for badmouthing Sigmar as a child. Frederick also cares little to nothing for old prejudices, making him one of the most receptive leaders in the Empire towards mages, and is quick to sympathize with, respect and appreciate non-Human races.
• Jousting Lance: The preferred weapon of the Dreadlord Maranith, Caledor's Bane is the lance Caledor's Bane. Etched with dragon's blood it is the very weapon Maranith used to kill several Dragon Princes of Caledor and their mounts in the past. It proves to be of little use against Frederick and co in the second part of Spikes, Horns, and Stone, and it is eventually used as the weapon that slays Maranith via impaling him through his mouth.
• Keep the Reward: Frederick refuses the rewards offered by an Elven Prince and the Everqueen for returning the material remains of his daughter and one of her handmaidens, respectively.
• Killer Bear Hug: Urgdug kills Kruk with one of these. It was rather graphic and well, lets just say Kruk's internal organs became rather external.
• Kill It Through Its Stomach: Several times giant monsters have eaten members of the von Hohenzollern family. On each occasion this has proven fatal... for the monsters.
• Kill It with Fire: The eventual fate of Clan Rictus, the Red Eye Tribe, the Big Rippa Tribe and the host of Mulgrumkul when the Great Throng breaks the locks of the Magma Plains and floods the whole area in molten rock.
• King Incognito:
  • During the first Elector's Meet Frederick disguises himself and Urgdug as common sellswords and goes out for a drink, causing multiple fights, meeting Gurni Baragosson and Genevieve, and top it off getting the inspiration for Thunderbringers.
  • Emperor Taizong disguised himself as one of Princess Léimíng's bodyguards to find out what she intends to do during her little trip to Nippon. Suffice to say both of his daughters were quite surprised at his presence.
• Kirin: Or rather Qi-Lin. They resemble large warhorses with extra big hooves and horns like a unicorn and coats of every shade of color that can be found in the clouds. The Legion of An fielded a group of noble-born men and women mounted atop them, who served as the best scouts in An's army.
• Knight Errant: Well, Questing Knight in the case of Roland. His saddle certainly has a lot of miles on it, what with him having traveled from Bretonnia to Cathay and back again over the course of several decades.
• Knighting: Urgdug was knighted for heroism during the Necrarch War in 2315/turn 12 and given lands as the Knight of Trofurt in 2342/turn 38.
• Knight Templar: Even when compared to the rest of his fellow Sigmarites, Arch Lector Jung managed to come off as a complete psycho while trying to frame Frederick as a heretic. To put it into perspective, Jung refused to back down even when three days of thorough interrogation and the personal intervention of Sigmar proved him wrong.
• Language Barrier: This shows up in Accursed Albion with none of the northern tribes speaking a word of Reikspiel, and the southern tribes speaking it somewhat poorly. It never becomes a serious problem though, and full on Truthsayers have Translation magic allowing them to ignore this entirely.
• Large and in Charge: Urgdug has become the overall commander of all the Ogres in the Army of Ostland and stands at 15 feet tall as of 2339, half again as tall as the average Ogre.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Skulltaker angrily rants that all of Frederick's achievements were due to dumb luck or as he puts it "the whims of a role of a die."
• Legacy Character: The title of Uncle Lommy, the Quinsberry Lodge's chief enforcer, has been passed from halfling to halfling over the years. Hagrid Baggins implies that he once held the that title before coming to Ostland.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Magma Plains of the Underdeeps of Karak Ungor are a sea of magma dotted with islands linked by bridges, some natural, some not. The final battle of Karak Ungor happened here, culminating with the Dwarfs and their allies breaking the magma locks and drowning the four enemy armies in lava.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Frederick and Helga's opinion on the Trouser Legs Ritual.
• Life Drain:
  • The Nipponese ghost blades have this effect, while also being extremally effective against the undead.
  • Certain spells of the lore of death have this effect, which the Death Twins and Draken used to great effect in Nippon
  • The Dusk Scythes wielded by Agatha and Alisa automatically provide this upon damaging an opponent with them.
• Lightning Gun: The Skaven employ these, primarily in the form of Warp Lightning Cannons, though in the fall of Festermarsh the Warlock-Engineer in charge was armed with a pistol sized variant.
• Little Miss Badass: Gwendolyn has a martial of twenty four at the age of eleven. What's more due to the circumstances of her conception she doesn't suffer a penalty when fighting adults. For reference Frederick's starting martial was twenty two, which got him described as one of the most proficient fighters in all of Ostland.
• Little "No": Drycha's reaction to Durthu slaying Coeddil.
  Drycha: "...no..."
• Living Legend: Frederick's deeds have become the stuff of song and story within his own lifetime.
• Living MacGuffin: Tzeentch hid the keys to Arianka's prison in mortals scattered throughout space and time. One of them is Roland.
• Lost Technology:
  • Much, if not most, of the Dwarfs Rune-lore has been lost over the centuries due to Runesmiths refusing to pass their knowledge down to apprentices they find unworthy of it. Which makes Kragg finding a book containing all the knowledge of a Runelord from the start of the Time of Woes quite a big deal.
  • The knowledge of how to create steam tanks was lost with the death of Leonardo da Miragliano, with even the most skilled engineers only capable of maintaining and modifying the shrinking number of existing models. At least until 2342 IC, when the Ostland School of Gunnery and Engineering manages to create new, larger, somewhat less advanced replacements using alcohol vapor engines as a power source.
  • The secrets of ironblasters, from their construction, the metallurgy involved in their creation and the meaning of the spiraling inside their barrels was lost with the extinction of their Sky-Titan creators. After Ostland obtains one during the Elector's Meet of 2331 IC, the School of Gunnery and Engineering spends the better part of a decade unlocking its secrets, creating similarly sized cannons of their own and gaining an understanding of rifling, which is referred to by the characters as blastweave.
  • Most of the knowledge that Albion's inhabitants had possessed in their golden age is long gone, from esoteric knowledge such as how to create Oghams, Tooths of Tlang, the Engines of the Gods to more mundane knowledge such as agriculture, ferrous metallurgy, and stonemasonry.
• Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Fate Points allow a character one reroll per "day" for every point they have. They also can be burned to allow a character to survive just about anything. The fate point Frederick obtained from the five year anniversary reward vote is burnt to allow him to survive when the Druchii aboard the Claw of Dominion defeated him.
• Ludicrous Mêlée Accuracy: Tyrion shows off his skills in his duel with Mena von Kessel, cutting out both her eyes in a single blow without damaging her nose.
• Made of Iron: Subverted. Frederick gets beaten a lot, and he's been saved from a certain death by magical healing so many times it became a Running Gag for a while.
• Magic Knight:
  • Thanks to her daily spars with her husband Natasha is more than capable of handling herself in close quarters combat. She also has the rare ability to cast spells while armored, even before receiving a suit of ledstali armor.
  • The Dark Sisters are an even better example of this trope than their mother, having emerged victorious in in Indi tournament through only their skill with their scythes and daggers.
  • Alexandra has become this by the time of the War of Bitter Ice. A master Ice Mage, a Droyaska and the owner of a custom made suit of ledstali armor she has become the finest example of this trope the Hohenzollern Dynasty has produced thus far.
• Magic Pants: Frederick luckily packed a pair of these for Lovely Laurelorn, with those being his only article of clothing to survive the potion of strength, Savage Beast of Horros and Throne of Vines empowered Flesh to Stone buff combo.
• Magic Potion:
  • These appear on rare occasions. The first was one of Teclis' healing potions given to Frederick to heal him after his rampage in the Black City. The second is a potion of strength made by Morai-Wen from, amongst other things, a bonegrinder Giant's spinal fluid, mashed Ogre stomach muscles, powdered troll bones, the testicles of an alpha gryphon, mushrooms used by Might Goblin fanatics, forest dragon blood and a substance that is heavily implied to be cocaine. She gave it to Frederick due to his noted habit of fighting enemy commanders and it helps him to completely demolish Orion.
  • Later while Frederick is aboard the Claw of Dominion Hultressa resorts to using these during her faux-interigation of Frederick, namely a potion of teeth, a potion of happiness and a potion of loyalty. Fredericks reaction to the first is a simple "ow" and he was able to partially resist the latter two.
• Magical Weapon: Like in Warhammer these are used by every faction in the world, though they are quite rare. To wit over the course of forty in universe years the Hohenzollerns (and Urgdug) have obtained a grand total of six or nine magic weapons, depending on if one counts an ironfist as a weapon or as armor.
• Magnum Opus: Ledstali the magical ice magic based material that Alexandra had spent decades of her life obsessed with. Stronger than steel and capable of self repair the project was finally completed in 2344, just in time for the Second Battle of Salkalten. Alexandra created two suits of armor made from ledstali to Frederick and Natasha.
• The Man Behind the Man: Yi, elder brother of Emperor Taizong and uncle of Crown Princess An was the one behind the rise of Emperor Akari Jubei and his invasion of Grand Cathay.
• Mark of the Supernatural:
  • Natasha's nails on her left hand have become iron, her left eye becomes solid red with a blue vertical slit for a pupil and her skin becomes freezing to the touch after channeling too much of the Ancient Widow's power to stop Coeddil.
  • Gwendolyn's solid black eyes are a sign of her blessing from the Cytharai.
• Massive Numbered Siblings:
  • Both Frederick's and Magnus' marriages have proven to be extremely fruitful, with eight children for the former and seven for the latter.
  • Frederick's parents Joseph and Anna had fifteen children, equal to Frederick and his firstborn son combined.
• Master Poisoner:
  • Alexandria received training in poisoning from a woman that Kattarin obtained from... somewhere. By 2344 her skills have advanced to the point that she has mastered the art of poisoning.
  • Pam Greenbriar, an associate of Hagrid, is one of the most infamous poisoners in Wulfenburg.
• Master Swordsman: Frederick has become this over the course of the quest, going from a man challenged by a Norscan Chieftain and a Doomknight to a man capable of easily killing two Treemen.
  • Alexandra has earned the title of Droyaska, or Swordmaster, by at least 2344, in time for the War of Bitter Ice.
  • While Tyrion doesn't get to show his skill in actual combat during Lovely Laurelorn, he beats Mena von Kessel and a substation portion of her Blue Wolves in back to back duels. During the first he cuts out both of Mena's eyes in a single blow without damaging her nose.
• Metallic Motifs: Empress Huang, and her son Emperor Taizong are associated with gold. The former is even known as the Golden Empress.
• Might Makes Right: Averted by the Ogres of Ostland, in contrast to their counterparts from the Mountains of Mourn. While they have a healthy respect for strength they follow the laws of the province just like the rest of the citizenry.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Club Tailed Pangolins are a combination of the extinct Giant Asian Pangolin and Doedicurus.
• Mob War: Wulfenburg becomes the battlefield for one of these, with Hagrid Baggins and his gang fighting to keep the Quinsberry Lodge out of the City.
• Molotov Cocktail: The Hohenzollern Cocktail, invented by Ostlanders. Which makes perfect sense, given that they have a love of explosions and alcohol in a province plagued with undead.
• Monochromatic Eyes: Gwendolyn has these as a sign of the Cytharai blessing her birth.
• Monowheel Mayhem: Skaven Doomwheels qualify, being essentially gigantic motorized hamster wheels with lightning cannons. They're as ridiculous as they sound and as dangerous as they are ridiculous.
• Monster Progenitor: Ghorros Warhoof, Father of All Centigors. With his death, an entire sub-race of Beastmen have a grudge against Frederick and his line.
• Moody Mount: Oskana is quite ill tempered. While she has never refused to allow Frederick to ride her she is quite likely to try to take a bite out of everyone save Frederick and Natasha who dares to get close. At one point Frederick notes that she's torn off limbs and disemboweled people when her stomach wasn't completely full.
• Mook Horror Show: Magnus inflicts one of these upon the Night Goblins under the command of Gitrip Eight-Arm after Anna was eaten by an arachnarok spider during his successful attempt to rescue her.
• Morph Weapon: Emperor Jubei's daemon weapon possessed the ability to change its form to the ideal weapon of its wielder. For Jubei it took the form of an oversized katana, for Johanna it changed between a guandao perfect for her and Stone Breaker, and it threw a fit trying to find a match for Anpu.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The Wight King created by Zacharias that Frederick fought and defeated in single combat at the Battle of the Black City possessed four arms and a weapon for each.
• Mundane Utility: Princess An uses her mastery over Chamon to use a golden tube as a bendy straw.
• Mystical White Hair: Alexandra gained this from a glacial surge during her service with Tzarina Kattarin.
• National Weapon: Handguns, cannons, and the steelfist (and its derivatives) have become this for Ostland.
• Nay-Theist: Frederick was one of these early in the quest, thinking the Gods to be useless for them having not destroyed the evils of the world. Being a Warhammer Fantasy quest this irreverent attitude caused multiple problems for him, not least from the Order of the Silver Hammer. He gradually grew out of this attitude over the course of the quest, culminating in him receiving a religious revelation during his fight against the Daemonfused Black Orc Warboss Zurkam Steelbrain in Karak Ungor.
• Near-Villain Victory:
  • Drycha's plan to distract the Wood Elf army with a goliath dryad that looks like her and sneaking past the army with a group of branchwraiths to assassinate Ariel almost worked, with only Frederick's quick thinking noticing the plan and he, Naieth and Eldyra being at hand to stop them.
  • The Fimir's plan to seize control of Albion's Ogham network comes a hairsbreadth away from succeeding before the Dhar-Meargh was slain by Magnus von Hohenzollern.
• Neck Lift: Sabine preforms this on Gustav Lorenz upon learning that he embezzled over one thousand crowns from the pay of dead mercenaries.
• Neck Snap:
  • This is how Oskar died, curtesy of a zombie Greatsword controlled by Zacharias.
  • Urgdug Kills Maranith's dragon Venomfang this way after stunning it with a blow to the head.
• Never Gets Drunk: Crown Princess An required several barrels of sake just to become a bit tipsy while she was celebrating her victories in Nippon.
• Ninja:
  • The Shinobi of Nippon. The descendants of Human sorcerers who had deliberately sought out arcane marks of Ulgu. Permanently changed by the Grey Wind, Shinobi are nearly invisible, even to the superhuman senses of Vampires, capable of great feats of agility and possess almost gaseous grey blood.
  • The assassins of Clan Eshin, Skaven who have learned the art of murder from the shinobi of Nippon and whose skills have allowed them to become one of the four Great Clans of Skavendom.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Sabine inflicts this on Schultzen for Human trafficking. Schultzen is beaten so badly that by the time Sabine is done her fists were hitting the ground rather than his skull.
• Noodle Incident:
  • The Trouser Legs Ritual. Whatever it is, it involves dancing and is extremely humiliating. Frederick and co. find it weird, and resolve to Let Us Never Speak of This Again.
  • Sabine did something to a man who insulted her family involving butter and a horse.
• No-One Could Have Survived That: Stated word for word after the explosion that resulted from Frederick permanently killing Otto Gruber.
• No Social Skills: Frederick, at least before Karak Ungor. Blunt, angry and drunk Frederick had, in no particular order, nearly gotten himself attacked by a Greatsword during the war against Zacharias, called a Dragon Prince an asshole before punching him in the face, asked Moro if she's willing to order halflings to move to Ostland, and demanded that a dispute be settled through trial by combat nearly once every two days for the first two years of his rule. It was so bad that the nobility of Ostland flocked to Natasha, a foreign priestess/witch, rather than deal with Frederick in court.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: Princess An spared the life of her uncle Yi, thinking that to kill one of the Wu Dynasty would be a step too far. Centuries latter it is revealed that Yi was the mastermind behind the fall of the Oda Clan, Jubei's rise to power and the resulting war between Cathay and Nippon which resulted in millions of deaths.
• Offing the Offspring: Natasha killed Logan's three Chaos tainted siblings with her bare hands after they tore their way out of her womb.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • While Frederick was fighting in Nordland Magnus the Pious defeated and slew Drachenfels.
  • In a blink and you'll miss it moment it's revealed that Urgdug defeated a daemonfused Orc Warboss while he was separated from the rest of the party in Karak Ungor.
  • While Frederick and co. were fighting in Karak Ungor Arthur went to Sylvania and slew the Vampires and undead at the Red Abby and Wolf Crag, as well as Helgrid Harkon.
  • Bernard Konig, a priest of Manann, swam over twenty leagues with crossbow bolts in his back and while fighting off sharks to report that two Black Arks are heading towards the Northern Trident bent on revenge for being denied Albion.
• Off the Rails: From the revelation that Alarielle's representative was herself, to the arrival and purification of Ariel to the attack by Coeddil and Drycha, to Frederick, Eldyra and Sunweaver being sucked into Athel Loren attempting to stop Drycha to the battle against Orion, Lovely Laurelorn was almost nothing but a series of escalating derails.
• Off with His Head!:
  • Frederick meets his end like this during a climatic battle at the finale of Karak Ungor campaign. Then he gets back up, thanks to a very special set of circumstances.
  • Frederick kills Drycha by decapitating her with a shot from his blastgun.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Gruber when he realizes that Frederick's army has in its possession no less than fifty six cannons.
  • Slugtongue's reaction to Frederick shattering his blades, leaving him unarmed against an a skilled swordsman armed with a runefang
  • Grol's reaction to Frederick not dying after being stabbed in the heart.
  • Morai-Wen (and just about everyone else) when they realize Drycha has an entire basket full of acorns from the Oak of Ages at her disposal.
  • Naieth the Prophetess' when she realizes that Drycha has snuck past most of the defenders of the Oak of Ages and is almost right on top of Ariel.
  • Frederick's (and basically everyone else's) reaction to being informed that the Blood Bowl WAAAGH! is heading north.
  • The entire Dark Elf army present at Salkalten go through one when they realize that the Claw of Dominion has signaled a retreat and will leave them behind if they don't get aboard fast enough.
• Older Than They Look: A common side effect of wielding magic. For example Natasha is noted to look like she's in her early thirties despite being in her fifties at the time.
• Old Soldier: Urgdug is in his seventies and has served with distinction in just about every war Ostland took part in in the past forty years.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: Frederick briefly wields one of his Greatsword's zweihanders this way to fight off Skaven assassins during the Reclamation of Karak Ungor.
• One-Man Army: Frederick von Hohenzollern, full-stop. His kids are no squigs either. Indeed, to a small but almost literal degree, when the Wood Elves of Laurelorn ask for his immediate help without giving him any details, expecting him to show up with an army to help Laurelorn at a time when its very existence is in extreme danger, but due to not knowing what the request was about, only brought himself, Urgdug, a modest number of Ogres and Greatsword bodyguards with him... and he successfully defeated a Beastmen invasion in the heart of Laurelorn anyway, managing to kill Ghorros Warhoof in the process, though he barely survives the battle, despite substantial magical healing support.
• One-Winged Angel: One of Drycha's dryads absorbs the power of a basket full of acorns from the Oak of Ages and transforms into a goliath of wood the size of a bonegrinder Giant.
• Oni: Oni are Nippon's local variant of ogres. They possess blue or red skin, bigger pointer teeth that sometimes jut through their teeth. In the past they eaten one of the most powerful Gods/spirits/elementals in Nippon.
• Only the Chosen May Wield:
  • The Spear of Kurnous doesn't react well to Frederick picking it up, trying to zap him with dark amber lightning. Were Frederick not under the effects of a Throne of Vines buffed Flesh to Stone spell it probably would have killed him, and even in spite of that it caused his heart to literally explode in his chest.
  • Nipponese ghost blades react rather violently to being picked up by those not of the right lineage.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: See that Food Porn entry up there? The next line is 'But not a bite of it had been touched.' Given that the feast is attended entirely by Halflings that alone speaks volumes of how bad the situation was.
• Order Is Not Good: Alluminas wants to create a world where there is no chaos, no disorder, no movement, no time, nothing but purest light.
• Our Genies Are Different: Much to the surprise of the Imperials, the Sidhe turn out to be the Ablish's name for what the wider world knows as Djinn. Alien and mercurial beings, most of them refuse to help the Albish during the Final Battle of Albion and choose to remain in hiding. Four of them do decide to help and they wreck havoc among the fimir at Caerniwlatgas, especially during the fimir's retreat and afterwards aid the Druids, Oracles and Truthsayers with the destruction of the aforementioned city.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: Albion is home to a race of Giants that are still semi-civilized and are much less degenerated then their mainland counterparts, with a mammoth based pastoral lifestyle supplemented by hunting and their own Kings. And they are indeed bigger, with the largest having heads that scrape the clouds.
• Our Ogres Are Hungrier: Ostland has the largest population of Ogres in The Empire. Notably, however, they differ greatly from their counterparts further east. They're educated, much more peaceful, don't eat everything they come across, and don't worship the Great Maw — much of which is thanks to the efforts of Frederick and his honorary-brother, Urgdug.
• Outliving One's Offspring:
  • Frederick and Natasha outlived their third son Oskar, who was slain by a zombie during the opening moves of the Necrarch War.
  • The three mutated children born with Logan don't survive long after their birth.
  • Zǐháo, a son of Crown Princess An and a member of the contingent of Golden Ten Thousand assigned to protect her during the invasion of Nippon was killed during the fight against the big block of Kensei during the Battle of Tenshuto.
  • Earlier forces of the Shimasu Clan slew Lien, another of An's sons.
• Overly Long Name:
  • Urgdug's full name is Lord Sir Captain Headmaster Urgdug Greatbellow Thunderbringer Daemonthumper Dragonrippa Giantbreaker Deathcheater Castleshatterer Maelstrombringer Beastcrush Overfather Monstertosser Ratsmasher Thronewielder Wormbreak Heartswallower Dragoneater Dal Bolg Tyrant Breaker Maw-Stomp Dawongr Treebreaker the Tremendously Sizable the Knight of Trofurt.
  • Kruk's full name is Kruk Boulderchomper Kineater Wall Smasher Deathcheater Rockbreaker Trollfeast Mawseeker.
• Pacifist: Karola is one of these, much to her father's annoyance. She hates the Hohenzollern spars and attempts to get out of them as soon as possible because she hates fighting. This is a somewhat troublesome trait given the nature of the world she lives in and her status as Magnus' heir. As such quite a bit of effort has been spent trying to make her change. At this point though most of the player base has concluded that its going to stick and so she'll either need a champion to bear Brain Wounder for her or be sent to join the Shallyans.
• Paper Talisman: The ofuda of Nippon. Charms imbued with multiple Winds from multiple monks that allow their users to "wield" Winds of Magic other than their own.
• Parasite Zombie: In 2344 Ostland's portion of the Middle Mountains is attacked by an army of these caused by the Ixfernicth, a semi-intelligent fungus that existed since before the arrival of the Old Ones. Those infected turn pale white have their skin slide off and begin oozing a slime that serves as a form of natural armor. They appear to avoid natural light, be it from the sun, Mannslieb or the stars, and so burrow underground during the day. It infects larger animals, including Humans, Dwarfs and dragons but plants are immune due to the fact that the Ixfernicth evolved in a world without such life.
• The Patriarch: Frederick serves as this for the Hohenzollerns.
• Pegasus: These exist in the Warhammer World. Two varieties have appeared so far; the common pegasi that are "ordinary" winged horses and the mounts of the Whitewings, and dark pegasi, black coated winged unicorns with a vicious and evil disposition that serve as a popular mount for Dark Elf Sorceresses.
• The Penance: For his role causing the deaths of half of the priests of Mannan in Ostland, Frederick sacrificed two Ravenships to Mannan via burning, donated all of his Greatships to the cult of Mannan and went through the most severe keelhauling available.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: The marriages of Frederick's oldest sons — as well as his own marriage — have blossomed wonderfully.
• Perpetual Frowner: Before releasing Starhammer's Vengeance upon the Goblins besieging him in the Runeforge of Karak Ungor, Kragg the Grim had not publicly smiled in over five hundred years.
• Pet Rat: Hagrid Baggins and his associates serve as this for the von Hohenzollerns, acting as part of their intelligence network.
• Pirate: Ostland has to deal with four varieties of them. Norscans, Druchii, Arabyans and Greenskins.
• Poisoned Weapons: A favorite of Night Goblins, as Magnus von Hohenzollern learns to his dismay.
• Politically-Active Princess:
  • Alexandra served as the royal aid to Tzarina Kattarin and later as Regent of Kislev
  • Crown Princess An of Grand Cathay is referred by Taizong as his Peacemaker. Which is to say that she is periodically unleashed upon the most powerful enemies of Cathay to destroy them with overwhelming military force.
  • Princess Léimíng on the other hand serves as Cathay's most skilled diplomat. And as the Shadow Under Heaven, i.e Chief Spymaster and head of the State Sec.
• Power Fist:
  • Variants of these inspired by the Ogre ironfist have become abundant and fashionable in the armies of Ostland.
  • Courtesy of Runelord Kragg, as a reward for Frederick saving the High King and the Dammaz Kron. It was destroyed destroying the Chaos Dwarf's false Throne of Power. Kragg isn't bothered by this (indeed, he seems quite pleased that something he made in the field, out of mere steel, in a few months' time, had such a glorious and significant end) and is making Frederick a new, better one made of gromril instead of steel and using Starhammer's book of Rune-lore.
  • The replacement has arrived and it doesn't disappoint. Made of gromril and magma dragon bone, engraved with a Rune of Warding, a Rune of Striking and the Master Rune of Skella Valayadottir, Bokdrungni or Fist of Defiance is without a doubt the most single valuable object in the Hohenzollern's possession after Brain Wounder.
• Powerful Pick: Pickaxes are one of the three or so types of melee weapons Dwarfs are willing to wield. There even exist runic war picks wielded by certain Dwarf heroes and champions.
• Power Makes Your Voice Deep: Doomclaw has a deep booming voice, emphasized by all of his lines being in bold text. Later it turns out he's using a machine to fake it.
• Power Tattoo: Agatha and Alisa obtain one of these as a reward from Yemaraja for their aid in slaying several Vampires and other undead during their travels with one of His champions. Yemaraja being the Indi Deva of the dead it takes the form of a noose around their necks.
• Powers via Possession: Natasha is briefly possessed by the Ancient Widow during the fight against Coeddil and became powerful enough to defeat him.
• Precision F-Strike: Frederick delivers one to Maranith before he slices off one of the wings of the dragon they're on top of.
• Private Military Contractors: The Old World is full of 'em and the Hohenzollerns make great use of them, having enough mercenaries under their employ to qualify as an army in their own right.
  • Other powers also make use of mercenaries, such as the city states of Tilea, the Bohka and Romanovs of Kislev, the Province of Averland and even the Dwarfs of the Karaz Ankor, though they mostly stick to hiring Dwarfen companies.
  • Marienburg has taken to leasing out all three of their state armies as mercenaries. While this undoubtably makes them a princely profit, it may leave the city undefended during times of danger.
  • In his eighteenth year Frederick von Hohenzollern^note The son of Arthur has decided to take up the life of a mercenary, though as of the Battle of Salkalten he hasn't left home yet.
• Punny Name The Overtyrant that Crown Princess An fought was named Bulqy. Being an Overtyrant he must have been rather rotund and bulky
• Pyromaniac: Princess Fenna Warren-Burner, The Royal Maverick of Karaz Ankor, takes a special delight in burning the enemies of Dawi. Considering she got her title from burning whole warrens' worth of Skaven, you can guess what her favorite targets are.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Frederick's first feat as Elector Count was retaking the port of Salkalten from Chaos raiders, and he has not slowed down ever since. Many political figures across the Empire embody this principle as well, most prominent ones being Emperor Magnus the Pious and his brother, Gunthar von Bildhofen.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Crown Princess An's reaction to her sister Léimíng's arrival in Tenshuto.
• Rasputinian Death: Anpu, 4th disciple of Abhorash suffers this, being burned by the light of Sigmar, pummeled by a dragon blood enhanced Johanna, tanking multiple Braking Bracers enhanced punches, twin Steal Life and Caress of Laniph spells cast by Agatha and Alisa, being stabbed with silver knives and special anti-vampire stakes, being forced into a river, a Purple Sun of Xereus, and finally being bitten and drained by Genevieve while being stabbed repeatedly by Agatha and Alisa and dying.
• Really Gets Around: Urgdug had been in bed with at least 300 Ogre women before falling for Cherag around or before turn 21.
• Red Baron:
  • After recovering from his injuries from the Nordland campaign well enough to move without difficulty Frederick earned the moniker Steel Bull.
  • Amongst Crown Princess An's titles are the Walking Pyre and the Storm of Crimson Disaster.
• Religion of Evil: This is a Warhammer so naturally these appear, be they Chaos worshipers, the Yellow Fang, the Cult of Khaine, the slaves of Hashut, the Cult of Ahalt the Drinker and so on and so forth.
• Retcon: Originally the third most powerful family in Kislev was named Putin. Due to the Russo-Ukrainian War the GM changed it to Fedokov.
• The Reveal: Happens every so often.
  • Zacharias the Everliving was the brother of Frederick's distant ancestor, which is why he hates him so much.
  • The current incarnation of Orion has fallen for the willies of Anath Raema and intends to kill Ariel.
  • The ruckus in Norsca that's seemed to have been happening for over a decade is being caused by a Slann Mage-Priest converting Norscans to the worship of the Old Ones.
  • Luise Kaufmann had been a Yellow Fang cultist for a decade, and her contributions to the Starbrook package were intentionally hurting the Empire
  • The Dwarfs left the Middle Mountains and pronounced them cursed due to a parasitic fungus living under the mountains that transforms those infected by it into Parasite Zombies; but not before causing all the hair on their faces to fall out
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
  • The war with Zacharias the Everliving was this for Freddy, having been kicked off by the attempted assassination of his family and successful murder of his son Oskar von Hohenzollern.
  • In Karak Ungor, Magnus goes absolutely apeshit after Anna gets eaten by a giant spider, and proceeds to slaughter the spider, the Goblins riding it, their bosses and pretty much all the greenskins he can reach in the battle... then carve Anna out of the spider and save her against all odds.
  • This is assumed to be the motivation behind Gorebash's implied plan to invade Naggaroth.
  • Frederick becomes so enraged at Natasha's near death at the hands of Drycha that he briefly gains a trait for it.
  • Similar to his father, Magnus briefly gained the Engine of Rage in response to the Dhar-Meargh nearly killing Mena.
  • At least part of the reason that An decided to begin her invasion of Nippon at Nishimisaki was because forces of the Shimasu clan were responsible for the death of her son Lien.
• Rousing Speech:
  • Frederick used to give these to his men before battle early in the quest, with the last time he did one in quite some time being at the Battle of the Black City. He finally gives another one before the Second Battle of Salkalten.
  • Crown Princess An gives one before the assault on Tenshuto begins.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something:
  • Magnus the Pious is not only the greatest warrior in the Empire but is also an excellent politician and administrator.
  • Kattarin has been doing her utmost to improve and repair Kislev's economy, infrastructure and military, even if she has to drag the nation kicking and screaming to modernization.
  • Thorgrim has been leading the Dwarfs on campaigns to reclaim their lost Holds and has spent a considerable sum of his personal fortune outfitting the Throng of Karaz-a-Karak with plate armor.
  • Considering this is Warhammer Fantasy, listing all the examples would take all day.
• Runic Magic: A specialty of the Dwarfs, with their Runesmiths and Runelords known for being the producers of some of the finest magical weapons in the setting, including Frederick's own blade Brain Wounder.
• Sacred Flames:
  • The Flame of Ulric located in the Grand Temple of Ulric in Middenheim, is a silver flame that burns with the cold of winter.
  • The Iceborne Flame, a child of the Flame of Ulric, was created through the destruction of the Blood Fane that has since become a sight of pilgrimage for Ulricians.
• Same-Sex Triplets: Frederick's first sons Magnus, Arthur and Oskar von Hohenzollern, though they are fraternal rather than identical.
• Samurai: These unsurprisingly exist in Nippon, where they make up the bulk of the nation's military might.
• Samus Is a Girl:The mercenary thane Kazul Goldeneye is revealed to be in truth Kazul Stonehammer, the estranged daughter of King Ulthar Stonehammer, much to the surprise of everyone not in the know.
  • During fight aboard the Claw of Dominion the Whitewings mercenary company is revealed to be composed entirely of women disguising themselves as men so that they can fight as knights.
• Sanity Slippage:
  • Zacharias the Everliving is reduced to a wreck by the time Frederick meets him again, unable to distinguish his long dead brother from Frederick and asking why he won't stay dead when Zacharias has killed him so many times.
  • Drycha isn't much better by the time Frederick reaches her, having been reduced to raving about how the spirits of Athel Loren will deny the Elves their aid this time and begging Coedil to save her.
• Schizo Tech: The engineers of Ostland have introduced primitive land mines, mass produced rifled firearms and cannon, parachutes, seed drills, socket bayonets, horse artillery, and bicycles to the Empire, which normally has a renaissance era technology base.
• Screaming Warrior: Magnus von Hohenzollern becomes one of these after his father is separated from the great throng, only pausing during battle to inhale a new breath so that he can continue screaming. This earned him the title of "The Screaming Bull".
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Most of the more cunning von Carstein's decide that skip town when the Witch Hunter Army and the Wolf Crusade reach Sylvania, figuring that they'll just have to wait a few centuries for it to blow over.
  • Much to the surprise of everyone the Dark Elf in control of the Claw of Dominion signals a retreat after being heavily boarded, outraging Dreadbringer, who was intent on continuing the assault and Screamtaker, who was furious that her Black Ark was being stolen out from under her. To give an idea of how unusual this was, no Ark had ever been defeated by Imperial forces before.
• The Secret of Long Pork Pies: Hagrid Baggins kills one of cousin Lommy's enforcers, bakes him into a pie and feeds it to Lommy. Hagrid outright claims that this was a specialty of his during his time in the Quinsberry Lodge.
• Self-Proclaimed Knight: The Whitewings were revealed to be composed of this during the fight at the Tor of Dominance. They're both bastards and women both of which disqualify one from knighthood in Bretonnia.
• Simple, yet Awesome: The enchantments on Brain Wounder qualify. Rather than setting it on fire. or increasing the wielder's strength to superhuman levels or healing its wielder when they wound an enemy Brain Wounder can simply near-effortlessly cut through just about everything that isn't intensely magical. However, this is more than enough for even an unskilled wielder to leave a trail of blood and bodies in their wake during battle.
• Sir Swears Alot: Due to a combination of chronic drunkenness and being partially raised by a foul mouthed slayer engineer Anna has acquired this. She even retains it after the glacial surge that costs her her emotions.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: After transforming into a Doomfire Dragon to defeat Drycha's Goliathon Morai-Wen finds that she can't change back. By 2344 the resulting personality degradation has advanced to the point that she has taken on a new name, Scaldrithraxa.
• Shotguns Are Just Better:
  • An improved version of the blunderbuss, Anna von Hohenzollern’s Short Range Explosive Shot Launcher or more simply the blastgun, was invented on turn 18/2321 IC.
  • A modified, heavier version of the blastgun designed specifically for use on horseback, known as Anna von Hohenzollern’s Heavy Short Range Explosive Shot Launcher or the heavy blastgun was invented on turn 39/2343 IC.
  • The Nipponese also field improved blunderbusses, called aiansutōmu, during the Invasion of Nippon.
• Shout-Out:
  • The three Black Orc warbosses operating in the Bonelands are Mag, Uruk, Thraka and they later reference another called Kull and later still are joined by a Warboss named Ghazghka. What do you get when you combine these? Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka.
  • Early on in Karak Ungor Garagrim shouts "SHOW ME WHAT PASSES FOR FURY AMONGST YOUR MISBEGOTTEN K-,”
  • In Jade, Amethyst, Molten Agate Johanna and Genevieve spout a modified version of Balthasar Gelt's (in)famous "Welcome to Estalia gentlemen" speech from Total War: Warhammer.
  • The personal troops of the Dragon Emperor of Cathay are the Golden Ten Thousand, similar to those of a certain other Emperor
  • Before the Battle of Tenshuto An proclaims that she and her army will leave the Nipponese a wasteland and it shall be peace.
  • During the Battle of Tenshuto An and the wizards face off against a Skaven Master Assassin named Bonesplinter and four mutant rat Ogres with metal shells covering their backs and armed in the same way as Michelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello and Raphael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
  • Stephan's 150 miles in 8 hour dash is referred to as the Kessel Run.
• Sinister Scythe: The preferred weapons of Agatha and Alisa, both of whom possess great skill with them. They even got a matching pair of magic scythes after their adventures in Cathay and Nippon.
• Slave Mooks: Dark Elf Shackled, Human slaves raised wholly in captivity, cruelly raised and cruelly trained, their souls swallowed up and bodies warped forever by the evil of Ghrond’s daughters. Stripped of all that had made them independent beings, the Dark Elves use them as expendable shock troops. Depending on the Supreme Sorceress involved in their creation, they might be nothing more than mindless chaff, handed rusted metal weapons and stripped naked, all the better to disturb their foes as they die. Or they might be garbed in heavy armor with weapons, infused with alchemy and magic to be granted strength and speed beyond their frames that will sustain them throughout the battle at the cost of burning out entirely by its end.
• Slumming It:
  • Frederick goes slumming with Urgdug during his trip to Nuln before the first Electors Meet, though before the meet prior. He makes friends with Gurni Baragorsson and Genevieve.
  • Also slumming during the first Electors Meet was Arch-Lector Gottfried's son. At the end of the night he's been left unconscious in a ditch courtesy of Frederick.
• Smarter Than You Look: Due to him being an impolite, angry, improper alcoholic with poor to mediocre conversational skills, most people assume Frederick is an idiot they can run circles around. Fuerbach, Starbrook and Kaufmann learned the hard way that underneath the angry drunkard is one of the most intelligent men in Ostland.
• Smash Mook:
  • Played with by the Ogres in Ostland's armies. While they are incredibly effective at the most common Ogre tactic (a head on charge) they have the intelligence and training to pull off complex maneuvers and combined arms tactics.
  • Played straight with the Ogres of the Mountains of Mourn, as well as trolls and rat ogres.
• Sniper Rifle: More archaic versions of these appear on occasion, namely the warplock jezzails of the Skaven and the mantis cannons of Grand Cathay.
• Someone to Remember Him By: Anna was impregnated by Giovanni Acciai de Miragliano during her brief trip to Tilea, however he was slain by Skaven assassins shortly afterwards.
• Spit Take: Hultressa's reaction to Frederick mentioning how he got decapitated once when asked about what sort of injuries he has suffered before.
• State Sec: The Chekist of Kislev, Kattarin's secret police, who were founded (or at least openly acknowledged) in 2327 IC.
• Statuesque Stunner: Albish women are just as tall as their men, with Aberfa, daughter of Mardudd and later Chieftess of the Glyldŵrlyr tribe, standing at 7'2''.
• Stock Wushu Weapons: The Cathayans, unsurprisingly, field these. Genevieve wielding a jian, and Johanna an oversized guandao. The Golden Ten Thousand are described as carrying a mixture of guandao, hook swords, and a form of flail.
• Storming the Castle:
  • The Legion of An assaults and captures multiple Nipponese castles during their invasion of Nippon, most notably the fortress capitol of Tenshuto.
  • The forces of Nordland under Stephan and the Eonir under Naraiel storm and capture the Fortress of Eternal Torture a Black Ark formerly under the command of Dreadlord Maranith.
• Stout Strength: While they appear quite tubby, Ogres are massive and exceptionally strong. Most of that outwardly-fat gut is given over to tremendous intestinal muscles, which is how they're able to get away with eating damn near anything they please.
• Stronger with Age: Nipponese ghost blades grow more powerful over the centuries as the souls of more of their wielders are added to them.
• Suffer the Slings: Slings are among the weapons used by the Perdición de Los Nórdicos mercenary company and Albish skirmishers.
• Supernatural Fear Inducer:
  • Slugtongue possessed a spell that had this effect. When it was cast on Frederick it caused him to break and run for the only time in the quests history.
  • Natasha's suit of ledstali armor, Cold Certainty, causes enemies to become terrified due to the visage of the Ancient Widow engraved on the front of the cuirass.
  • Agatha and Alisa's scythes, The Dusk Scythes have this as one of their enchantments, with the effect being similar to the Doom and Darkness spell.
• Supernatural Martial Arts: The various schools of Cathayan martial arts channel the winds of magic, allowing their users to produce superhuman and/or supernatural abilities in battle.
• Super-Toughness: Oskana's runic armor provides her with this, she's so tough when wearing it the even Urgdug wielding Crusher of Kings struggles to do more than annoy her, much to the gryphon's amusement.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: During the fight aboard the Claw of Dominion the Whitewings are revealed to be an entire company of these, bastard daughters of Bretonnian nobility disguising themselves as men so that they can fight as knights.
• Sword and Fist: Quite a literal example with Frederick's Runefang and enchanted steelfist.
• Sword Beam: Nipponese Ghost Blades are capable of unleashing these. The ones fired from Clan Lord blades are even capable of injuring an emperor dragon.
• Taken for Granite: The Chaos Dwarfs unnatural magic causes their sorcerers and daemon-smiths to eventually petrify. For example by the time of Karak Ungor Mulgrumkul has lost the use of his legs and has to be carried about on a palanquin.
• A Tankard of Moose Urine:
  • At one point Frederick notes that all the beer in Jegow during his exile tasted like piss.
  • Gazul warns that His brew might kill Frederick. He later explains that it would be because it tastes so horrible that Frederick might have thrown up until he died or his tongue might have shriveled up and choked him.
  • The Dwarfs' attempts to recreate Gazul's brew universally taste horrible, containing dirt and bits of bone.
• Tank Goodness:
  • The Steam Tanks created by Leonardo da Miragliano are massive smoke belching war machines that are the most fearsome weapons in the Empires arsenal. Armed with a steam cannon and steam vapor gun mounted in a turret these war machines are deployed only in the most dire of circumstances due to being irreplaceable and unreplaceable, with the most Imperial engineers can do is maintain and modify them. At least until...
  • As of Turn 38/2342 IC Frederick and his daughter Anna finally managed after many, MANY turns of work to reverse engineer and build their own copy of Leonardo da Miragliano's Steam Tank. Appropriately the first tank is called "The Horns" and unlike the original model, this one is powered by superheated alcoholic vapors.
  • The Skaven have their own version, created using the knowledge obtained from a destroyed steam tank. Called Rat Tanks, Clan Rictus fielded at least three of them in Karak Ungor.
• Telepathy: Agatha and Alisa possess this and frequently use this to communicate with each other, allowing them to have conversations between themselves that no one else can hear and thus further enhancing their creepiness.
• Tengu: These inhabit Nippon. Described by the QM as crow/raven people, shorter than Men but taller than Halflings with wing arms. It might be inferred that they were among the groups more loyal to Emperor Jubei as none of them joined An's army, unlike certain monks, Oni and shinobi.
• Time Abyss:
  • Emperor Taizong was alive before the coming of the Old Ones over 17,000 years ago. As was his brother Yi.
  • Princess An was "only" born shortly after the Old Ones' arrival.
• This Cannot Be!: Orion's reaction to Frederick stopping the Spear of Kurnous is to disbelievingly say "Impossible…!".
• Those Magnificent Flying Machines: On turn 29/2333 IC Anna managed to make the design for a flying machine that she obtained in Tilea, Anna von Hohenzollern's Miraculously Magnificent Aves Approximation Device or more simply wing-suits, functional, with launching devices for them, called Anna von Hohenzollern's Personage Launcher And Launcher Platforming Device, invented on turn 31/2335 IC as well as the first men being trained in their use, with full on flying fighters being introduced into all armies in turn 37/2341 IC.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: As of turn 37/2341 IC Ostland's armies now contain grenadiers.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: On full display during the "Accursed Albion" event. After Freddy's son Magnus and the other Trident heirs end up in Albion after some drunken escapades they and their troops end up agreeing to help the locals against the encroaching Fimir threat. During one big fight to recapture one of the magical Ogham Stones from some Fimir Dirachs (Sorcerers) Magnus, armed with Brain Wounder as a sign of trust from Freddy, ends up showing just how the sword got its name by throwing it straight through the eye of one of the two Dirachs. While effective Magnus internally admits it's not exactly the proper way to use a sword and wonders at what kind of chewing out Freddy will give him upon hearing how the family's ancestral weapon was used.
• Thunderbolt Iron: Gromril originates from the heavens and its ore is usually mixed with deposits of warpstone. Dwarfs go through the trouble of mining and refining it because they use it to produce some of the finest weapons and armors in the Warhammer world, and that's before you get to the fact that it is one of the best materials to inscribe runes on.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: These abound in the Warhammer World, and the most prominent ones in this quest are the Nine Books of Nagash. Nine tomes into which the Great Necromancer poured his knowledge into, they became scattered across the known world in the aftermath of his death. One of them came into the possession of W'soran, the progenitor of the Necrarch bloodline, and from there passed into the hands of Zacharias the Everliving. That book is presumed to have been destroyed in the mad vampires attempt at apotheosis. Another lied in the depths of Templehof and was claimed by a young Heinrich Kemmler. Kemmler spent the succeeding decades searching for the rest and has managed to obtain two more. One from a vampire lording over the ruins of Mortkid and and another from Arnaud the Eternal on and island in the Great Sea.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Frederick went from nearly dying against a Norscan Chieftain in his first major battle to killing two demigods in a row.
  • Sabine goes from a woman who almost fled upon learning that a Vampire, a Dark Elf and Skaven were involved in conspiracies at her wedding and with almost no knowledge of martial affairs, to a woman that participates in the daily von Hohenzollern sparrings and helped break a charge of bestigors with her husband.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Bugman's Best is the alcohol that Frederick is most often mentioned drinking by quite a wide margin.
• Training from Hell: The daily Hohenzollern spars involve fighting with live steel and giving and receiving what would be mortal wounds were it not for the Jade Wizards the family has on retainer.
• Translator Microbes: The Truthsayers of Albion have a spell that translates their speech into the native language of anyone who hears it.
• Treants: The Treemen of Athel Loren and Laurelorn are the oldest and most powerful of nature spirits that inhabit those enchanted woods, with the two eldest, Durthu and Coeddil, being able to remember a time before the Great Catastrophe. With the corruption and death of Coeddil Durthu is the only one of the elders that remains.
• Trick Bullet:
  • Skaven warplock jezzails fire bullets made of warpstone, causing them to inflict grievous and potentially mutative wounds.
  • The first (and so far only) of these to be used by the armies of the Empire are hollowburst bullets, which are basically hollow-point bullets in spherical form.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card:
  • Frederick von Hohenzollern Elector Count of Ostland, Grand Prince of Ostland, Margrave of the Northern March, Prince of Wulfenburg, Hero of Nordland, The Steel Bull of Ostland, Hero of Ostland, Slayer of the Everliving, the Unkillable, Steward of the Third Imperial Fleet, Gromril Belly, Dwarf Friend to Josef Bugman, Goldgiver, Graft of Guns, Count of Cannons, Creator of the Blue Steel Concordant, Slayer of Warhoof, True Dawongr, Zakdrungi a Dum,^note Crazed Vanquisher of Darkness Das Azul,^note The Dependable Unbaki a Thagi,^note Breaker of Traitors and Sarathlecaidromstryn.^note Defiant Noble Souled Ally of Hope
  • Lady Natasha von Hohenzollern Countess [of Ostland], Princess [of Ostland], The Ice Mother, The Bull's Leash, and Larhathalumalav.^note  Vengeful Savagery of Ice
  • Alexandra von Hohenzollern Princess of Ostland, Royal Aide of the Tzarina, Lady Whitecrest, The Rose Of Kislev City, Snowblood, Grandmaster Nadzirateli, Droyaska^note Swordmaster and Regent of Kislev.
  • Anna von Hohenzollern Princess of Ostland, Master Engineer of Ostland, Slayer's Student, Inventor, The Gun Bull, The Blackhand, Anna Bloodfrost, Salvatore d'Remas, Hero of Nuln.
  • Magnus von Hohenzollern Prince of Ostland, Heir Apparent of Ostland, Son of the Steel Bull, Magnus the Strong, Dwarf Friend to Gorrin the Chisel, Goblin Breaker, Dwarf Friend to Karak Ungor, The Screaming Bull, Magnus Redfist.
  • Arthur von Hohenzollern Prince of Ostland, High Priest of Morr, Founder of the Order of the Garden, Augur, Cleanser of Templehof, Scourge of Sylvania, Purgator of the Wolf Crag, Slayer of Helgrid Harkon, The Black Bull of Ostland, Baron Hohenzollern of Vogelsang.
  • Oskana the Gryphon, Firstborn Sky-Warden of Ostland, War-Partner of Frederick, Glorious Overseer of Wulfenburg, Swift-Soaring-Death-Nest-Defender.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: Kragg the Grim is the oldest, most skilled and most knowledgeable Runelord alive, having skill that few, if any, other Runesmiths have, such as the ability to carve runes directly onto the air with his fingers and being able to awaken one of the gronti-duraz. He proves that his titles aren't an idle boast when he uses several damaged Anvils of Doom to create a new one.
• Ultimate Forge:
  • Karag Dron was the once the only place that Anvils of Doom could be forged before its destruction by the dragon Drelgithrex. Kragg the Grim goes there to create a new Anvil using the remains of several destroyed ones.
  • The Forge of the Old Ones in Albion is an distinctly alien place where the Tooths of Tlang, Engines of the Gods, Giants and who knows what other wonders were made. Greatly damaged during the Great Catastrophe, it is now only capable of forging the bronze Claymores that serve as the favored weapon of Albish nobles.
• Unbreakable Weapons: Brain Wounder, Runefang of Ostland. Alaric the Mad really knew his job.
• The Unchosen One: Boudicca's birth wasn't heralded by any auspicious signs like the sun breaking through Albion's ever present clouds, or an oracle foreseeing a great destiny for her. She was an ordinary woman born to an unremarkable tribe. She proved to be one of the greatest leaders the Albish ever had, scouring the Greenskins from Albion and driving the monsters of the Isle to the Beast Peaks.
• Underground City:
  • Abundant in Warhammer Fantasy with the most notable examples being Dwarf karaks and Skaven undercites.
  • Wulfenburg also has a modest example built to accommodate it's large Dwarf population.
• Unexpected Successor: Frederick was the tenth son and fifteenth child his parents hand and as such was dead last in the order of inheritance, even before he was exiled to the irrelevant village of Jegow for his irreverence.
• Unicorn: These are among the fey creatures that inhabit Athel Loren. Their fully sentient and have their own leaders. In recognition for his role in avenging their predecessor's death the current Prince lobbied for Frederick not being killed by the Asari when he was in Athel Loren,
• Unstoppable Rage:
  • Frederick suffered from this after the death of one of his sons, Oskar. He got better, though. For a time.
  • Frederick suffers from this again after Drycha opened Natasha's throat. ^note  Natasha survived due to Sunweaver immediately healing the injury.
  • Magnus briefly gains this during the last stages of the Battle of Caerniwlatgas after Mena was nearly killed by the Dhar-Meargh.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The populace of Wulfenburg has long since gotten use to explosions in the gunnery and engineering school, as demonstrated when Sabine first comes to Wulfenburg.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Zacharias the Everliving, by the time Frederick got to him.
  • Drycha has two of these, first when Durthu declares her a threat to the forest and again when Durthu kills Coeddil for being corrupted by Nurgle.
• War Elephants: Amir-Ali's Tusked Riders, a mercenary company composed of a hundred of the beasts.
• Warrior Monk:
  • In addition to the normal variety of Sigmarite, Ulrician, Taalite and Myrmidian each of Ostland's armies employ multiple Warrior Priests of Morr.
  • Cathay possesses warrior monks of the eastern variety who possess great skill in Supernatural Martial Arts.
• We Are as Mayflies: This trope is in full effect when Eldyra learns that Frederick is only fifty two. Absolutely gobsmaked at Frederick aged appearance despite his young age by elven standards, she sputters that that's barely older than she is.
• Weredragon: Cathay's Dragon Emperor turns out to be an actual dragon that can assume human(oid) form, descendent of a long line of such dragons. Notably this was years before the reveal that this trope was in effect in GW canon Cathay in Total War: Warhammer III.
• Winged Humanoid: Sometime after the invasion of Nippon Johanna grew a pair of wings. She's able to hide them most of the time thanks to a combination of being a Lahmian and her skill at compressing her true stature.
• Winged Unicorn: The only known examples of these in the Warhammer World are dark pegasi, vicious, evil creatures that serve as the preferred mount of Druchii sorceresses.
• Wham Episode:
  • The Attack on Wulfenburg Castle. Zacharias the Everliving attacks Frederick's home, slays his son Oskar and grievously injures Natasha in the opening move of his all out war against Ostland.
  • The Elector's Meet of 2343. Rictus assassins and a chosen of Khaine are coming after Frederick, two Black Arks are heading towards the Northern Trident, the Orc's mega-WAAAGH!!! is heading towards Karaz-a-Karak causing Thorgrim to request aid from the Empire, Luise Kraufmann is revealed by the Sword of Justice to have been worshiping the Horned Rat for the past ten years in front of all the electors, along with three members of the ten most powerful families of Marienburg.
  • The War of Bitter Ice, Part 2​. The Kislevite powder keg finally explodes, with Lahmians, Skaven, extremist Venera cultists, extremist Ranald cultists, and Bohka supporters attacking the the Romanovs, killing a whole fourth of the dynasty and kidnaping the Tzarina.
• Wham Line:
  • The Elector's Meet of 2343 features two:
    • "My Emperor, I informed you of my seeking out of rest of the Yellow Fang in the city?" revealing that Luise Kaufmann was a member of the Cult of the Yellow Fang.
    • "WHERE HAS OTTO STEINROTH TAKEN MARIENBURG'S MERCHANT MARINE?!"^note In canon Otto Steinroth sailed to Ulthuan and sacked a city there, which got Marienburg sacked in retaliation. While its the nature of A Dynasty of Dynamic Alcoholism that events aren't guaranteed to unfold as they did in canon this almost certainly bodes ill.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: The Northern Trident heirs and some of their most elite forces go on a days long bender and sail to Albion.
• When Trees Attack: Bloodsedges are semi-mobile carnivorous trees that infest the forests of the Old World and have killed at least one von Hohenzollern in the past.
• Whip Sword: Sadrina possesses an enchanted urumi that is usually wrapped around her leg. It was gifted to her as part of a marriage proposal by an Indan Prince.
• Why Won't You Die?: In his and Frederick's final confrontation Zacharias shrieks that his brother, who he conflates with every male ruling Hohenzollern, won't! stay! DEAD!
• Wrong Turn at Albuquerque: Gorbash's WAAAGH! gets caught in a storm and somehow winds up in the Southern Wastes of all places.
• Xenofiction: The canon omake Feathers, Fury, Family was written by the GM from Oskana's perspective. Beyond not having the correct words/names for several things, she can apparently taste the Winds of Magic.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Time flows strangely in the forests of Athel Loren and Laurelorn. For examples Eldrya spend three days fighting her way through the Wildwood while Frederick was only in Athel Loren for a few hours and the Light of Summer took Sunweaver a year to make from her perspective while Frederick received it only a few hours after deciding to ask for a healing artifact as a reward for killing Ghorros.
• Younger Than They Look: Played With with Eldyra. She looks about the same as any other Elf, so Frederick is shocked when he learns that she is only forty one, over a decade younger than Frederick.
• Young Future Famous People:
  • Amongst the von Carsteins to sign up with Luthor Harkon after fleeing Sylvania is Nyklaus von Carstein, the future Count Noctilus.
  • In the weeks before the Dark Elves assault on the Northern Trident Frederick's forces are joined by Kerillian of Vermintide fame.
  • The Bonestrewn Path side stories focus on a (relatively) young Heinrich Kemmler whose managed to get his hands on one of the Nine Books of Nagash.
• You Killed My Father: An entire sub-race of Beastmen feel this way towards Frederick and his line after Frederick kills Ghorros Warhoof Father of All Centigors.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Logan von Hohenzollern and Regina Leitdorf pull one off against the entire Three Headed WAAAGH!!! as they attempt to force their way through the breach in the walls of Karaz-a-Karak.

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