As long as I've been playing Warhammer, I've been creating backstories for my characters and updating the lore as significant events happen in games I've played or in the evolution of the rules.
It has been eight years since my previous army showcase: A Legacy of Death. During that time, I have added several new units and characters, and the Legion's story has progressed through the Age of Sigmar. Now, we have come full circle back to The Old World. The benefit of Vampire Counts is that the undead characters can essentially live forever, so the necromancer Nieman Kimmel and the von Koss vampires would have been around during the year 2276. In fact, as you will read below, my vampires had their origins during Walach's reign at Blood Keep in 1887!
This post is a collection of all the lore I've presented in the past, with updates to incorporate new units and characters, and carry their narrative beyond the End Times into the Age of Sigmar.
For comparison, here is what the army looked like in 2016:
And now, here is the Legion of the Infernal Skull in 2024. (That's 510 models!)
The Origins of the Legion
The
necromancer lord Nieman Kimmel has been waging a war against the living
for more years than memory can count. What began as a bitter, spiteful
old man seeking a path to his own immortality, has grown into a hateful
quest to extinguish all other life. As Nieman Kimmel crosses the
world, uncovering flesh-bound tomes of necromantic lore, those slain
during his campaign have risen to serve their Lord in an ever-growing
legion of undeath.
The
Infernal Skull is his icon, and he has emblazoned it into the very
being of his most powerful warriors– The skulls of wights animated by
Kimmel's magic burn with an unholy hellfire. The Legion of the Infernal Skull marches under flaming banners, fulfilling their Lord Nieman Kimmel's quest to render all life to ashes.
In life Korak was a necromancer known for preying on villagers for his grizzly experiments. Eventually, the village elders discovered his lair and slew him, entombing Korak's body in a barrow mound protected by powerful spells. The necromancer lord, Nieman Kimmel, discovered Korak’s tomb and released him to serve as his undead lieutenant. Korak returned to the village where he was defeated, and murdered everyone. As The Crimson Reapers, they are now eternally enslaved to Korak and do the wraith’s foul bidding.
Korak the Grim became Nieman Kimmel's most trusted servant. As a reward for the many years of loyal service, Kimmel returned to Korak's tomb and recovered the remains of the long-dead necromancer. The brittle fragments of bone were carefully enshrined in a reliquary, around which a mortis engine was constructed. When atop this mighty chariot, the wraith was able to tap into the powerful necromantic magic that still imbued the remnants of his material form. With this new power, Korak comanded the Legion's spectral forces, and bound the other spirits and wraiths, sustaining them with his own will.
In the Legion of the Infernal Skull, the backbone of the army's spectral aspect is formed by spirits and wraiths that are directly shackled to the will of Korak the Grim. But, as the army proceeds on its bloody campaign, other souls are drawn into the fold –harvested from the inhabitants of the realm, or collected from enemies slain in battle. Their tortured souls bound into subjugation, these Phantom Lamenters are pressed into battle where their only solace comes from finding others to share in their agony.
For many years Kimmel and Korak fought side-by-side and with each victory, the ranks of the army swelled. Other necromancers like Toht Nhemisis and Samus Garz took up the banner of the Infernal Skull, seduced by Kimmel's promises of power. But the Necromancer Lord was reaching far beyond the limits of his capacity for understanding. He sought to wield knowledge from books, the very sight of which would drive ordinary men mad. His overreach would be his undoing. Deep in the Southlands, faced with the absolute arcane mastery of the Slann mage priests who dwelt there, Kimmel's power was utterly drained. The Necromancr Lord who had single-handedly controlled thousands of animated skeletons could only watch as they clattered to lifeless piles of bone. Alive, but a shell of his former self, Nieman Kimmel retreated North with the remnants of his Legion.
Kimmel's Necromantic Disciples
Not much is known about this elderly necromancer, other than that he hails from the South near the Khemrian empire. Toht Nhemisis joined the Legion of the Infernal Skull's ranks early during Nieman Kimmel's ascention to power, and has been a seemingly loyal servant to his dark master. When the Von Koss vampires wrested control of the Legion, and it appeared there would be a schism in the high command between the vampire family and those loyal to Kimmel, Toht Nhemisis chose neither side. Instead he swore fealty to the army itself, bound to honor the Infernal Skull, regardless of who carried the banner.
Samus Garz has long vied for Kimmel's position as master of the Legion. While never openly challenging his Lord, Samus has many times attempted to access the necromantic tomes that Kimmel deemed forbidden to his subordinates. Once, when caught in the master's library, Samus was forced to read from the Cursed Book until half the flesh was seared from his face. However, his strives to learn more of the dark arts have increased his necromantic ability above Kimmel's other disciples. In fact it was Samus Garz who sustained enough of the army to escape the Southlands after Kimmel's failure, and he has been the prime necromancer ever since. It is a position he hopes to make permanent by finishing off his weakened master, but that crimson-hooded wraith is always watching...
The Von Koss Vampires
In
the lands of the Empire, the vampire Walach Harken had overthrown
the Knightly Order of the Blood Dragons. These once noble Imperial
knights were transformed into vampires and wights, and Walach reigned
secretly over the undead Order for decades...
Seth
von Koss was a man of the Empire, a knight of the Order of the Blood
Dragon. When transformed into a servant of darkness, he fought at
Walach's side for years. After the horrible truth about the Blood
Dragons was discovered and the Empire's Templar Knights finally razed
the Blood Keep, Seth was among the many to escape into the surrounding
countryside. Although the Order had fallen, it was not extinguished, and
Seth remains one of many surviving vampires who still fight to this day
in the name of the Blood Dragon.
When Seth von Koss fled the ruins of Blood Keep, he sought out his younger brother Dimitri. The two had not seen each other in decades, and truth be told, Dimitri believed his brother to be long dead, killed in service to the Empire. So when Seth showed up at Dimitri's door it was at first a joyous reunion. But Seth could not hide what he was for long and, although horrified, Dimitri could not turn his brother away. This was his undoing, and eventually Seth cursed his brother with vampirism.
Marduk is the cousin of Dimitri and Seth von Koss. Whereas Seth gained his vampirism directly from the blood of Harkon, Marduk was turned by Dimitri. Being so many generations removed from the source bloodline, the vampirism has had a maddening effect. Marduk has become a brutal, nearly feral killer, barely able to be controlled by his cousins.
Seth worked to restore his former knightly regiments, and among the Hellfire Knights are some of the original wights that had served him during the days of Walach's reign. Under Seth's tutelage, Dimitri's fighting prowess was honed, and the two brought slaughter upon the lands of the Empire.
As their army grew they were drawn to the necromancer Nieman Kimmel and his legion of undeath. They found themselves slaves to Kimmel's power and served him for years in the Legion of the Infernal Skull, imbuing the regiments of skeletons and wights with their martial prowess. But when the necromancer's dark magic eventually failed, it allowed Seth the opportunity to wrest control for himself, and now the von Koss vampires lead the mighty undead warhost.
The Reign of the Vampire Counts
Before falling into ruin centuries ago, Von Koss Keep was a functioning fortress of the Empire. Many of the soldiers that once loyally served the Imperial garrison were entombed in the catacombs beneath the keep's foundation, while others rest in the now overgrown battlefields surrounding it. When the von Koss vampires claimed the fortress for their own, those fallen soldiers were resurrected and now form the the Red Guard. Though bound by necromantic magic, these undead warriors fight vigilantly to protect the keep as though they still remember their oaths sworn long ago. Dimirti von Koss uses these skeletons as his personal retinue. Awakened by his dark invocations, fallen soldiers crawl out of the earth to join the Red Guard's ever growing ranks.
The most feared lieutenants of Seth von Koss are the nameless wight kings freed from tombs whose only markings were the invisible binding runes that imprisoned them. Known only as the Sepulchral Sentinels, they wordlessly relay Seth's commands to his legions, and mercilessly slay any who oppose his will.
Viktor von Harkon was a vampire who served alongside Seth von Koss during Walach's reign over the knightly order of the Blood Dragon. When Blood Keep fell, many of the vampires were slain, but those who survived scattered into the surrounding lands. Viktor spent the following years building his reputation as a feared Vampire Count by cutting a bloody swath through the Old World, but finally met his end in the kingdom of Bretonnia.
When Seth von Koss took command of the Legion of the Infernal Skull,
he dispatched his minions to scour the countryside in search of barrows
and tombs that might contain the remains of his fallen brethren. During
a campaign into the heart of Bretonnia, Seth unearthed the resting
place of Viktor, and reunited him with other fallen knights of the Blood
Dragon.
Viktor now commands the Blood Knights of the Crimson Inferno, an honor-bound brotherhood of martial killers eager to slay any who stand before them.
Seth von Koss and Luthor Vogstihl both served in the Empire's knightly Order of the Blood Dragon. Luthor was the standard bearer for one of the infantry regiments under Seth's command, and was one of his fiercest warriors. When the vampire Walach Harkon seized control of Blood Keep, the pair succumbed to his immortal curse. After their Order was finally overthrown by the Church of Sigmar, the two who had fought side by side for countless years, became separated.
Driven
out and hunted, Luthor went into hiding. Speed, stealth, and
subterfuge became his trade, and the vampire made his way as an assassin
for hire. It was rumored that the Red Shadow,
as some called him, could enter the highest, most impenetrable tower
and escape unseen. The carnage he left behind, however, could not be
easily overlooked. His methodology was perfect for when the murder
needed to convey a particular message.
Luthor
Vogstihl was on such an assignment when he came face to face with Seth
von Koss. Seth immediately recognized the presence of the intruder, and
parried Luthor's initial strike. The two fought to a standstill before
each recognized his old friend. Impressed with how much Luthor's
fighting prowess had grown, Seth offered him a position in the Legion of the Infernal Skull.
It was the first time Luthor had ever failed or abandoned an
assignment, and although he was honor-bound to protect the identity of
his client, he accepted the opportunity to leave the shadows and live as
a proud warrior once again.
The Banshee Who Would Be Queen
Over the centuries, the vampire lord Seth Von Koss has lured many maidens to his bedchambers. He loved each for a time, but the story was always the same– bored with their company, disenchanted by their fading beauty, or merely giving in to his bloodlust, Seth brought all of his romances to a tragic end. His lovers were unceremoniously discarded, their bodies entombed and their souls left to wander the catacombs below Von Koss Keep.
Olivia the First Betrothed, had spent many years by Seth's side. When she ultimately succumbed to vampirism, Seth slew her rather than share his throne. Condemned to the catacombs, she watched for countless years as more of Seth's lovers were cast down. Olivia was able to siphon a portion of spirit energy from each of these new handmaids, maintaining her own beauty and exerting control over her growing Sisterhood of Sorrow.
The necromancer Nieman Kimmel discovered the mass grave below the keep and found the spirits singing their songs of abandonment. Time had turned their sorrowful grief into spite-filled hatred, hatred not just for their former lover, but for everything and everyone. Hate was an emotion that Kimmel understood well, and knew how to use to his advantage. He tasked the wraith Korak the Grim with binding the banshees, promising them revenge against the one who had wronged them.
Now freed from their prison of grief, Olivia leads her sisters in a war against all life. Her Choir of Death sings a song imbued with the pain and sorrow of a thousand years, and deliver that suffering upon any who hear their cries. Until a time of their own choosing, Kimmel and Korak's necromantic binding prevents the Choir of Death from directing their fury at Lord Seth Von Koss. Olivia has no choice but to wait for her ultimate revenge. She can wait as long as necessary– For the dead, time is infinite and hatred is a rose that blooms eternal.
A man may be lured by the sound of distant, mournful singing– perhaps the lamentation of a widow and her handmaids. As he draws closer, seeking to offer his condolences, their woeful elegy turns to a shrill cry of rage, the banshees' voices unifying as one. The final image he sees is their faces twisting in anguish before his heart seizes in terror and his body is torn to shreds by spectral daggers.
Marduk the Ghoul King
While the Blood Dragon vampires organized the Legion of the Infernal Skull's
regimental units to match their own martial disciplines, dire wolves
slathered and howled on the fringes of the army's battle line. These
feral hounds are the "pets" of the maddened vampire Marduk "the Wolf"
Von Koss, who fights alongside the beasts, charging into the fray on
horseback or even on foot with an unnatural, lupine speed.
Shunned by his cousins Seth and Dimitri due to his bestial ways, Marduk grew more and more feral as he spent time in the wild among the packs of wolves, and ravenous ghouls. Seth eventually declared him King of the Ghouls, and although he has no faith in Marduk's tactical acumen, he knows that the Ghoul King can be summoned when sheer brutality and terror is called for.
As the Ghoul King's power increased, others were attracted to his menagerie of fell beasts. Despite his feral nature, Marduk still possessed the ability to exert dominion over other creatures of the night. From leagues away they would hear his call, and the sky would darken as hundreds of leather-winged creatures flocked to the battlefield. Thus it was that Lucinda Vale and her Winged Coven were summoned to fight at Marduk's side...
Some of the most ancient cemeteries contain sprawling complexes of tombs and mausoleums. These "miniature necropolises" can be nearly as large as a small town, and the inhabitants do not always rest peacefully.
For decades, the Legend of Lucinda Vale was a ghost story that parents told their children– If you stay out after dark, the Winged Lady will get you. But this story was true. The vampire would slip out of her tomb under the light of the moon. The swarming of bats often heralded her awakening, and the wiser townsfolk knew to postpone a visit to a relative's grave or keep the children indoors if too many of the fell creatures were in the air.
The city of crypts was Lucinda's domain, and she would occasionally use her dark magic to awaken others of her kind, or to raise skeletal conscripts to fight off invaders, sometimes protecting neighboring settlements of humans, for whom Lucinda had a fondness as one would for a pet or, perhaps, livestock.
The tomb of the Vengorian Lord Mordrak von Skorr had always fascinated Lucinda, Once an exalted resting place for the powerful vampire and his minions, it had long ago been consecrated by Templar knights and their priests, forever binding him inside. She spent countless years attempting to overcome the protective wards, and eventually weakened them enough to allow him to break free. Set loose, Mordrak's thirst consumed whole villages as he reconstituted himself, transforming into a monstrous form that rivaled vargheists and varghulfs alike.
Mordrak became Lucinda's loyal servant and protector. But while she had a curious fondness for humans, he shared no such compassion. The Vengorian Lord's bestial wrath terrorized nearby towns until Lucinda intervened. She struck a dark bargain with the elders of the surrounding settlements– She would keep her servant in check –and use her undead minions to stave off invading forces– as long as they offer a tithe. The elders agreed and there has been peace between the undead and humans for many years. No one willingly visits the city of crypts anymore, and the bones of those brought there litter the steps of of the tombs. The local children are still lectured about straying too far from home and staying out after dark, but unsuspecting travelers receive no such warning. In fact, many who journey here are never seen again...
The Ghoul King's increasing power and new allies began to make Lord Seth von Koss uneasy. Seth was not concerned that his cousin might attempt to wrest control of the Legion from him, but simply that Marduk might be growing beyond Seth's ability to control at all. He set his comrade Luthor Vogstihl to keep an eye on Marduk, knowing that he could rely on the Red Shadow to handle things should the situation take a turn for the worse...
The Tragedy of Geheimnisnacht
Lord Seth von Koss had scoured nearly every inch of the Empire in his search for the remains of warriors that had once served him at Blood Keep. With every barrow and mass grave uncovered, his ranks of wights had grown. Countless dire wolves and fell creatures were flocking to Marduk the Ghoul King. On the eve of Geheimnisnacht, the one night each year when the Winds of Magic were strongest, the vampires lead the Legion of the Infernal Skull on the greatest campaign of slaughter the army had ever seen.
During
the battle, the unforgiving Winds of Magic ravaged wizards on both
sides of the battlefield. Marduk himself succumbed to the effects of a
dimensional cascade and was ripped from the mortal world.
***
As
the magical energies swirled around him, Marduk felt as though a dark
force reached into his chest and seized his lifeless heart. The world
before him was rent open and a black void consumed his vision. Daemonic
hands pulled him forward and his world became chaos.
Marduk
was frozen for a moment as unimaginable horrors reeled before him like
some perverse stage play. He could feel the flesh beginning to tear from
his body as gibbering daemons with claws like fish hooks grabbed him.
Then he felt the headsman's axe still firmly in his grip; Marduk was
never without it.
Marduk
Von Koss, Marduk the Wolf, Marduk the Ghoul King knew only slaughter.
And pain. And hatred. This was not chaos, this was paradise. He would
show these creatures the true meaning of terror, for eternity.
***
A
voice echoed through Marduk's mind, beckoning him. Was it Nieman
Kimmel? Would that narcissistic necromancer awaken the Ghoul King from
the joyous bliss of his never ending murder-dream? No, it was something
far more powerful, a presence not felt in the Old World for an age.
Marduk awoke in a field. He suspected it was the battlefield from which he had been taken. But where a city had once stood, now ruins decorated the landscape. On the horizon he could see jagged mountain peaks rising as others crumbled. The sky was awash with lightning. What had become of the world he had left behind?
Another voice, different from the one that had summoned him, sang out in the night. Marduk followed the shrill cry to its source atop a craggy peak. From the gloom of a cave, piercing red eyes glowed and a creature lunged out of the darkness. Marduk grappled with the fell beast and plunged his fangs into its neck, drinking what little blood the dessicated monster had to offer. He climbed atop the Terrorgheist, now bound to the Ghoul king's will. Wolkhar, the Night Bringer he called it. It's leathery wings bore them aloft, and where they went, death followed.
The End Times
As all-out war rages across the Old World, powers beyond comprehension set to work bringing about the return of Nagash. The Great Necromancer summons Mortarchs to his cause, and dispatches his deadliest warriors to herald his coming. Seth von Koss has set the Legion of the Infernal Skull on a course to follow Nagash, the Supreme Lord of the Undead, on his dark crusade.
The von Koss vampires hold dominion over most of their Lieutenants in the Legion of the Infernal Skull, but this nameless, faceless wraith was appointed by Nagash himself. The Infernal Headsman was tasked with enforcing the Great Necromancer's will, whether that be hunting and eliminating threats on the battlefield, or punishing failure within the ranks of the Legion.
While he would never openly oppose the will of Nagash, Lord Seth Von Koss does not appreciate being assigned a minder, and is suspicious of what the wraith's true intention might be. Seth has given the Headsman command of one of the Legion's most powerful units– The Execution Guard. But this munificent appointment is actually a ploy to keep the Headsman in check, for many of those wights have faithfully served the vampire lord since their days in the Blood Keep and would face oblivion before allowing harm to befall their master.
The return of Nagash to the Old World has imbued the minions of undeath with more power than ever, uniting the Vampire Counts and newly awakened Tomb Kings in a single conquest of destruction. Tomb Prince Selketta, from the Baltizzar Necropolis, has journeyed North at the behest of his King to form a coalition with the von Koss vampires. The King of Baltizzar will need allies when Nagash eventually comes for him...
Obliteration and the Age of Sigmar
Korak remembered the sky turning to blood, the ground roiling like the sea. He had flown to the top of the citadel, which –somehow– still stood amid the crashing waves of carnage. At the tower's parapet he found his master, Nieman Kimmel. The necromancer was gesturing wildly to the air, saying something that Korak couldn't quite make out over the cacophony of the world ending. At first, Korak had thought that Kimmel was invoking an incantation that might stop the Storm of Chaos, but he soon realized that the necromancer was simply pointing to the sky where the warp moon used to be... and laughing.
Time had little meaning to Korak the Grim. The wraith was beyond death... The past, the future, it was all the same to him. His years as a mortal man were but a drop in an endless ocean of eternity. Eons in the void passed without measure, every moment focused on his burning hatred of the living.
The Congregation of the Crimson Shroud
After experiencing nothing for so long, Korak experienced... something. Like a shipwrecked sailor washing ashore, he was brought to the sands of Shyish on the wave of death magic that was released by the great necroquake. Souls were everywhere in this new realm, and with the Crimson Reapers again by his side, Korak began the grim task of harvesting them. Some souls he recognized from a time long ago, and he still held dominion over them– Banshees and other wraiths. Korak assigned them as jailors and lieutenants to oversee his growing congregation. One soul in particular was absent, however– that of his former master. If Nieman Kimmel's immortal soul had survived beyond the void, Korak would find it.
The souls of the Crimson Reapers have been shackled to the will of Korak the Grim since long before the Age of Myth. Their servitude dates back to the World That Was, when they still had physical forms– A skeletal legion, the population of an entire village slain and bound to do the bidding of the Red-Hooded Wraith. Eons of time could not sever his hold over their eternal souls, and as Korak materialized in the Realm of Shyish, so too did his dreaded Crimson Reapers.
The Vampire Queen Olivia von Koss
After her resurrection, the Vampire Queen had her own free will for the first time in centuries, and was ready to hunt down and destroy Seth von Koss. But Olivia had existed in a state of ethereal twilight for so long that the material world had become, more or less, imperceptible. Her spectral cohorts were more real to her than any physical environment, and her hatred had blinded her to everything but the living essence of her victims– which she and her Sisterhood of Sorrow took great pleasure in extinguishing.
Inspiring!
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