In the year 15 of the Old World Sigmar, Founder of the Empire of Man, slew Nagash at the battle of the River Reik. This was Nagash’s second death and a great many of his followers were destroyed. Some fled and joined with the Vampires of Sylvania, others, hotly pursued by the Imperial Army, turned eastward and travelled for many months. The Necromancer Vampires Nerkan, Varosh and Hagesh led this portion of the army. Tension was high among these three but each knew they needed the others to survive. The three drank blood from their living retainers until they either died or became lesser vampires.
The survivors that had not become vampires perished, and the undead soldiers that followed were allowed to crumble into dust so that the Necromancers magic could be turned to their survival. After two years of wanderings the group found themselves in the mountains north of Cathay, here they found a monastery of dark warrior monks, known as the Ko’lan on the edge of a mountain lake.
The vampires took refuge at the monastery and learned the monks fighting skills, magic and of the secrets of the mountain lake. They were told to drink the water of the lake to cure them of the curse of vampirism. As they had been told the lake's water cured them of their need for blood. The magic of the water mixed with the vampire blood still within them. It increased their already great strength and rejuvenated their bodies so that they did not suffer from the decay that plagued the Liche Priests of Khemri, granting them true immortality. But this power came at a price. By drinking the water of the lake they had become bound to it. The further they were from its waters, the weaker they became. The lake itself became stronger and weaker as the seasons passed. In the summer, when the lake was deepest, the power pulsing from it was great. It was weakest in winter months when the lake was frozen.
The monks of the mountains had tricked the Khemrians in the hopes of making them their willing servants. They had not anticipated the effect the water would have on one affected by vampirism. When Nerkan and Hagesh realised the monks' treachery, their rage was terrible. Nerkan challenged the Ko’lan Master to a fight and easily defeated him, as was dictated by their code, the monks submitted to Nerkan’s leadership. The Khemrians were no longer vampires and from this day forth, were known as the Shangri La.
To keep their power strong in the winter months the Shangri La were forced to commit souls to a cauldron of the water kept unfrozen within the great monastery. The Shangri La raided northern Cathay to steal away peasants for this very purpose. As the years passed the Shangri La multiplied and built a great city named Xanadu on the shores of the mystic lake.
Then one day, when the winds blew strong across the mountaintops, a great Dragon of the Orient attacked Xanadu. It burned the great city the Shangri La had constructed to ash and killed Nerkan and Varosh. The flames from the burning city evaporated the waters of the great lake. Xi Jin, a student of Varosh used the necromantic arts kill and resurrect the Dragon as his servant, riding upon its back and commanding its power he declared himself Emperor of Shangri La.
Xi Jin was crowned within the day and began to rebuild the shattered civilisation. The great burning, as it was to become known, had destroyed almost all of Shangri La’s people, weakened its power, and turned Xanadu to ash. Hunger became rampant and the survivors fed on the flesh of the dead, in time becoming Ghouls similar to those of the Old World. In an attempt to raise the waters of the great lake to their original level Xi Jin resurrected an almighty war host and led them into Cathay. The war host rampaged across Cathay until an alliance of Warlords turned them back. Despite his best efforts, Xi Jin was unable to bring back the power possessed by his tutors.
Instead Xi Jin ordered his finest scholars to read the ancient scrolls that had survived the fire to try find an alternative power; none was found. The more inventive of them, most notably Dai Jimo, created new and horrifying weapons to capture souls on the battlefield and bring them to Cathay to be thrown into the great lake. These weapons included the Soul Stealer, an engine of war in the shape of a great claw that wrenched the souls from all whom stood before it. Another of Dai’s creations were the globes of eternity, These small globes were built into the swords of the remaining Shangri La who had not devolved into Ghouls, these swords could now capture the soul from the victim of its blade. Xi studied hard and learned new magiks and, some say, made a pact with a chaos god in return for the services of his demons, he also learned to how to bring life to the terracotta statues in Xanadu and augmented his army with a great number of them.
With these new weapons and new knowledge of the arts of necromancy, Xi resurrected a new great war host and marched into Cathay, but this time the alliance of warlords was there to meet him. The great armies clashed upon the Plains of the Ulay river and the Alliance was defeated unable to resist Dai’s weapons and Xi’s magic. As the Warhost pushed deeper into Cathay and the distance to the great lake increased Xi’s magic began to weaken and his control over his undead minions and demons loosened.
When the Alliance attacked Xi again the battle was hopelessly one-sided, Xi was unable to command his minions and the demons vanished into the warp, as his minions crumbled around him, Xi and the men hat made up the honour guard fled the battle to return to Xanadu.
It was over 300 years before the population of Shangri La was able to prepare a new great war host and enough raids had taken place to allow the resurrection of an army. As this new threat makes ready, the Northern Alliance of Cathay arm themselves and gather new members to the Alliance in the hopes that it will be enough to hold back the soldiers of Shangri la.
Shangri-La Army Selector
Name | Type | Attack | Hits | Armour | Cmd | Size |Points | Min/Max |Special
Soulless Ones | Inf | 2 | 3 | 6+ | - | 3 | 40 | 2/- | 1
Death Riders | Cav | 2/1| 3 | 5+ | - | 3 | 75 | 2/- | 1
Peasants | Inf | 3 | 3 | 0 | - | 3 | 30 | -/- | 2
Daemons | Inf | 4 | 3 | 5+ | - | 3 | 75 | -/2 | 3, 4
Golems | Inf | 4 | 4 | 5+ | - | 3 | 110 | -/2 | 1
Daemon flyers | Mon | 2 | 3 | 5+ | - | 3 | 80 | -/1 | 3, 4
Soul Stealer | Art | 1/3 | 2 | 0 | - | 1 | 70 | -/1 | 1, 6
Dragon | Mon | 8/3 | 8 | 4+ | - | 1 | 200 | -/1 | 1
Kampaku | Gen | +1 | - | - | 10 | - | 175 | 1 | 8, 9
Priest | Wiz | 0 | - | - | 8 | - | 90 | -/2 | 9
Daemon Lord | Hero | +2 | - | - | 8 | - | 140 | -/1 | 10
Dragon | Mount | +4/3 | - | - | - | - | 100 | -/1 | 7
1. Undead. Undead troops are quite beyond any feelings of revulsion, fear, trepidation or anything else for that matter. They are dead and as such nothing holds any real terror for them. Conversely the spells that bind them to life allow only the most rudimentary or specialised intelligence. The following rules apply to all units. Undead units never act on initiative. An Undead unit only moves in the Command phase if given orders. Undead units are unaffected by the -1 Command penalty for enemy within 20cm. Undead units are unaffected by the -1 Combat penalty for fighting terrifying troops. Undead units are unaffected by the Confusion rule - they cannot become confused for any reason.
2. Peasants. A unit of peasants suffers an additional -1 Command penalty when given an order. However, this penalty is waived if the peasant unit is part of a brigade that includes at least one non-peasant unit. Peasants cannot use initiative to charge – though they can use initiative to evade as usual. When they charge they receive no bonus attack modifier for doing so.
3. Daemon Allies. Orders given to Daemons by the Kampaku or a Priest incur a minus 1 penalty.
4. Daemonic Instability. At the start of the player's own Command phase, before making any initiative moves, all Daemon units that have taken at least 1 casualty (ie. lost at least one stand out of 3) must make a 'daemonic instability' test. Roll a D6. If the unit has lost 2 stands (ie has only 1 stand remaining from 3) deduct 1 from the roll:
0-1 The unit is destroyed – the daemons fade away and are absorbed back into the Realm of Chaos from which they came. If a character is with the unit it is destroyed too.
2-3 The unit becomes confused – if not already confused the stand becomes confused as it is torn between this world and the next.
4-5 No effect – unless the unit is confused in which case it ceases to be confused as it is favoured with the invigorating power of Chaos.
6 The unit feels the power of the gods. As a result it attacks the closest enemy within initiative range. If there is no enemy in initiative range the unit ignores command penalties for the lost stand till its next turn.
5. Daemon Flyers. These can fly. Daemon flyers are an exception to the normal conventions for basing monsters in that they face the long edge of the stand in the same way as infantry rather than the short edge as most other monsters.
6. Soul Stealer. Ignores defended and fortified status for drive back purposes. If a unit is driven back by a soul stealer it must do so even if this forces friends to make way. If a unit does not make way for a unit attacked by a soul stealer any stands that cannot move from the attacked unit are destroyed.
7. Dragon. Cannot fly, causes terror, 20cm range.
8. Cauldron of Power. The General has a cauldron of water from the great lake in the mountains, which is the source of the power for the army's characters. When the army is not fighting the water disappears but when in combat the flow of souls raises its level. To represent this, for each turn after the first that the army is not in combat a -1 command penalty is applied to the Kampaku and Priests however the command value cannot go below 8 for the Kampaku and 6 for the Priests. Please note it does not matter which side charges or instigates a combat, so long as Shangri La Units are fighting.
9. Spellcaster. Uses the spells from the Vampire Counts army selector.
10. Daemon Lord. Can fly, causes terror.
