The name of Kragnos was a forgotten one – not since before Sigmar’s reign has he walked among the Mortal Realms. Now, he’s set to return in Broken Realms: Kragnos this Saturday. Whether you’ll be following him into battle or desperately shoring up your defences against his attacks, it pays to learn all you can about the god of earthquakes.
Before the time of men, duardin, aelves, and even greenskins, the entirety of the Ghurish Heartlands was ruled by many monstrous races that towered over the lesser mortals of the era. One of these tribes was the Drogrukh, powerful centauroid beings that, despite their great strength and capacity for war, lived in harmony with the land.
Legend has it that Kragnos was born to the rulers of Donse, the central nation of the Drogrukh, and while his people were content to only take what they needed to survive, Kragnos wanted more. Scolded for beating his brother to a pulp over the right to court the same mare, the bad-tempered warrior struck out across Ghur with only a small band of trusted companions for company.
As they grew skilled in the arts of war, these Drogrukh fashioned weapons and armour from exposed streams of magma, with Kragnos digging out the heart of a supercharged geomantic nexus to create his prized Dread Mace. It was around this time that he also recovered the shield, Tuskbreaker, from a deep ravine, having been hurled there in fury when Gorkamorka chipped his tooth testing the great bronze shield like a man might test a gold coin.
The orruks of Ghur began to gather around Kragnos, impressed by tales of his rampant destruction, and for his part, Kragnos respected their single-minded brutality and stubbornness. Shamans offered up the marrow of slain monsters and hoards of priceless amberbone, which the Drogrukh champion was all too happy to gorge on.
As his diet of realmstone and monster marrow concentrated the primordial energies of Ghur into him, Kragnos began to exhibit abilities beyond any mortal warrior. His ascent to power was marked by the crushing of countless civilisations until word spread across the Mortal Realms of ‘The End of Empires’ whose arrival spelt doom for all.
While the ground had always shaken at his footfalls, it now cracked and sundered wherever Kragnos went. At the Battle of Blood Gulch, an enormous fissure opened up and swallowed the monster-hunting Garagga barbarians whole, giving rise to his legend as the god of earthquakes.
Soon Kragnos’ gaze turned to the Draconith. Once respected allies of the Drogrukh, now they were merely the latest challenge to his growing power. In an apocalyptic conflict that rendered both races all but extinct, Kragnos crushed the drakes and their home – but little did he know, this conquest would prove to be his undoing.
After the battle, Kragnos looked around him to see the broken bodies of many of his friends. In his rage, he vowed to wipe out the Draconith from history, trampling every clutch of eggs he could find. Sounds like a perfectly rational, if a bit messy, response to us.
As he hunted down the last of dragonkind, the surviving Draconith princes beseeched the aid of the ancient intellect, known only as Lord Kroak. The regal slann hatched a plan that saw Kragnos drawn into battle atop a great mountain and finally, with the Great Drake Dracothion itself lending its divine power, sealed the Earthquake God within its granite heart.
What will happen now that Kragnos has escaped his prison to roam the Mortal Realms once more? You’ll have to pre-order Broken Realms: Kragnos on Saturday to find out, and it might just be time to muster a few more units for your army if you’re not on his side.
Not only does the god of earthquakes have a fascinating backstory, he’s got some pretty awesome rules too. Check out his warscroll to see just how destructive Kragnos is on the tabletop.
