Vampires are among the most powerful predators to inhabit the worlds of Warhammer, with a legacy of necromantic dominion stretching back to the early days of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Despite their mastery over death, however, they’ve never been quite immune to their
owndemise – more than a few vampires have been struck down by valiant mortal heroes (or bitter undead rivals).
Yet such malevolent spirits are hard to still. By travelling to prominent battlegrounds and other sites of mass slaughter, a fallen vampire’s servants could infuse their undead remains with dark power, and return them to the land of the (un)living. All they needed was a means of transporting their coffins – and what better than a stylish Black Coach?
In the World-that-Was, the primary purpose of a Black Coach was to ferry the remains of powerful vampires around the realm without risking exposure to the sun, drawn by a pair of undead horses known as nightmares, and steered by a sinister, scythe-wielding wraith. The vampire’s body could rest comfortably in peace, even as the magical aura of their coach nourished them with palpable waves of deathly energy.
While much of the Warhammer world changed around it, this paragon of classic Vampire Counts design remained in vogue right up until the End Times brought everything crashing down. In the new and tumultuous land that followed, undead spirits arose to curse the living, pulling stylish new carriages.
Reports that a certain Mortarch of Night had anything to do with their design are entirely unsubstantiated.
These new Black Coaches are far more than baroque hearses. They carry the remains of powerful undead beings – not just Vampire Lords, but Necromancers, Wight Kings, liches, and even stranger entities. Trapped in immortal slumber, these relics act as powerful nexuses of Death magic. The coach’s ethereal mass floats across the battlefield like a ship sailing through air, while mournful spirits lash out at those who would dare get in its way.
As the new Black Coach belongs to the Nighthaunt, rather than the vampiric Soulblight Gravelords, it takes on a more ghostly appearance with its skeletal steeds now wreathed in wispy ectoplasm, while the coach itself is no longer bound by terrestrial means. This makes it no less able to crush the living beneath its iron wheels, however, and the souls stripped from those it runs down are potent fuel for the passenger’s resurrection.
One curious feature of the original Black Coach was that it used previously existing skeleton horse miniatures to pull it, which naturally had bases of their own. This meant that the model at first had no base at all, and then later came supplied with an extra long and wide square base to fit everything on at once.
No doubt inspired by the opulence of the Black Coach, other means of travel soon cropped up among the undead. A rather more grisly example is the Corpse Cart, first meant to carry hundreds of plague victims from the few remaining settlements of Sylvania, then a fearsome war engine infused with an abundance of Death magic.
Though not vampires themselves, Necromancers often found themselves running in the same circles, and came to desire a post-death processional of their own. Known as Mortis Engines, these spectral amalgamations of restless spirits, wailing banshees, and galloping revenants are a true sight to behold, though perhaps a little chaotic for the refined sensibilities of the Black Coach passengers.
One enterprising spirit, Awlrach the Drowner, prefers to ride the remains of his old ship into battle. As a notorious boatman who threw his passengers overboard in life, it just goes to show that even Nagash has a sense of humour.
With the forces of Death cowed by the death of their god, it only remains to be seen what their undead architects can dream up for the future. If the vampires of Shyish have anything to say about it, though, you can bet it’ll be just as stately and regal as the Black Coach of old.
