Warhammer’s Most Evil Empire

0:11 As the Dwarfs climbed snowy peaks to scope

0:13 out future Karaks for their grand realm,

0:15 a mysterious plateau beckoned on the horizon.

0:18 The clans gathered, all eager to stake

0:21 their claim on a parcel of earthen riches.

0:23 Yet what lay before them was a horrid landscape choked with sour volcanic smoke.

0:28 Though riches glittered temptingly within bubbling pools of tar,

0:32 even the most hardened mountaineers turned away.

0:35 Those that remained were adamant to reap the spoils.

0:38 Through unchecked greed and domination,

0:40 the Great Skull Land became something great indeed… and awful.

0:44 Welcome to the next video in our Series on the Races of the Warhammer World,

0:50 where we will cover the Chaos Dwarfs.

0:52 Chapter 1- Early History "The Chaos Dwarfs are a great shame to our people.

0:55 The signs were there for all to see, and yet we ignored them.

0:58 We're all Grungni's, yes?

1:00 Our blindness has led to the creation of an abomination in the east,

1:04 one it would do well for us to end." —Hagrag,

1:08 Dwarf Runesmith The Dwarfs that settled Zorn

1:11 Uzkul labored tirelessly to tame the wasteland.

1:14 Each acre of land was scoured for jewels and ores.

1:18 Early Karaks were strategically constructed for the most efficient factories.

1:22 Such a climate demanded perfect

1:24 planning and harshly punished any miscalculations.

1:26 Through remarkable persistence,

1:28 all of the Dark Land became a frontier for prosperity.

1:32 A great road through the heart of the cracked plain was built.

1:36 Trade and communication was secured to their cousins in the West,

1:39 and to the lands in the East.

1:41 On the fateful day of the Great Catastrophe, the ash-choked skies curdled.

1:46 Hellish lightning and tornadoes raked across the earth.

1:48 The Dwarfs in all reaches of the world fled into their deep fortresses.

1:53 Without the natural shield of the mountains,

1:56 the Dark Lands endured unimaginable suffering.

1:59 Magma burst violently from the ground.

2:02 Karaks sank into lakes of burning sulfur.

2:05 Legions of demons descended from all sides.

2:07 The pocket of abundance became a prison.

2:10 The Zorn Uzkul Dwarfs barely held out in their deepest fortresses.

2:14 Starving and withering,

2:16 they repeatedly sent messages of distress to their kin in the west.

2:20 But no aid came.

2:21 Dread crept through the ranks and contempt festered in their hearts.

2:25 Where were the legendary Ancestors Grimnir, Grungi, or Valaya they wondered.

2:30 Could it be that their kin damned them to annihilation?

2:33 Whispers arose from the darkness of impending doom:

2:36 promises of salvation and power.

2:38 A mysterious name grumbled through the clans,

2:41 demanding worship in exchange for generous blessings.

2:45 Hashut, a hungry dark god,

2:47 was eager to claim patronage from desperate Dwarf souls.

2:50 With little options, they embraced this mysterious entity.

2:54 Quietly, the Dark Lands were consumed by the warpstorms.

2:58 The Dwarfs in the mountains assumed the worst had happened,

3:01 oblivious to the grim truth.

3:03 By the time they managed to contact Zorn Uzkul once again,

3:06 the Dwarfs uncovered the unthinkably bleak aftermath.

3:09 Where grand karaks once rose triumphantly over the volcanic flats,

3:14 black fortresses belched ash into dark skies.

3:17 Tortured screams answered the ceaseless ringing of hammers.

3:20 The plains roared with infernal industry and malicious sorcery.

3:24 Worst yet were the denizens, their once-kin.

3:28 The Chaos Dwarfs had been twisted into a cruel

3:31 mockery of all that the Dwarfs valued.

3:33 They had become a merciless and domineering race entirely

3:36 devoted to the heinous demands of a Dark God.

3:40 However, one thing remained in common between them: grudges.

3:43 For the Dwarfs, the corruption of their priceless heirlooms was unforgivable.

3:47 But the Chaos Dwarfs hated them equally for leaving them to die.

3:51 For the rest of history, an incurable hatred kept them from reconciling.

3:56 The Everlasting Realms went so far as to deny

3:59 the very existence of the Chaos Dwarfs, whom they called the Dawi-Zharr.

4:02 They were forever a great shame and a persistent thorn in their side.

4:07 Chapter 2- The Chaos Dwarfs "You may curse us,

4:09 shun us, deny our existence, but that is no matter.

4:11 You have done so for centuries.

4:13 Had you not abandoned us, our vast family would never have been sundered.

4:17 Thanks to your cowardice, we are strong and mighty,

4:21 seeing the truths that have long been hidden from Dwarf eyes." —Gakroth,

4:25 Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer Translating to Fire Dwarfs,

4:29 the Dawi-Zharr were physically similar to their uncorrupted cousins.

4:32 Dwarves as a whole were resistant to magic and Chaos corruption; therefore,

4:36 the changes seen in the Chaos Dwarfs were comparatively mild to others.

4:41 What few mutations they displayed were considered gifts by Hashut.

4:45 Tusks, cloven hooves, and bull horns were among the most favoured alterations.

4:50 While their physical changes were mild,

4:52 the minds of the Chaos Dwarfs suffered a much more drastic transformation.

4:56 The renowned ingenuity of Dwarfs became a perverted parody.

5:00 They did not build for the joy of creation,

5:02 but for the explicit purpose to dominate the land and its inhabitants.

5:06 Without exception, all members of their race

5:08 were expected to provide constant value to society.

5:12 Men were warriors, craftsmen, smiths, and slavers from birth to death.

5:17 Women reared as many children as they could during their fertile years,

5:21 then were indoctrinated into a fanatical all-female

5:24 warrior society responsible for guarding Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers.

5:28 Dwarfs were never meant to wield magic, but the Chaos Dwarfs excelled in it.

5:33 As payment for their worship Hashut opened their minds

5:36 to a lore of earth, fire, and shadow.

5:38 Sorecerers were called Daemonsmiths and specialized

5:41 in the unholy marriage of machine and dark magic.

5:45 Though they were able to cast spells of great destructive power,

5:48 it came with a hidden cost.

5:50 Over time, the flesh of Daemonsmiths turned stone.

5:53 Starting from their feet,

5:55 each magic spell brought them closer to a total transformation into a statue.

6:00 Only through the exceedingly rare alchemical reagent known as the Blood

6:04 of Hashut were the Daemonsmiths able to delay their fate.

6:07 It enabled them to transpose petrification

6:09 onto their enemies and delay their own.

6:12 Chapter 3- Religion "It is forever dark under

6:14 the sun here at the heart of the world.

6:16 The smell of sulphur and of burning oil fills the air.

6:19 The cracking of whips and the wailing

6:21 of the slaves drowns out the clatter of machinery.

6:24 This is the future.

6:25 One day Hashut shall rise from his slumber

6:27 and trample the world beneath his brazen hooves.

6:30 The dead shall outnumber the living and those that remain shall be dragged

6:33 in chains to the pits of Zharr to toil for the greater glory of Hashut.

6:39 And all will be blessed Darkness." —From the prophecies of Astragoth,

6:43 High Priest of Hashut Hashut himself was rumoured

6:46 to be a minor chaos god or an archdaemon.

6:49 Called the Father of Darkness, he was a god of fire, greed, tyranny, and hatred.

6:54 Fire-temples built for his worship depicted him

6:57 in the likeness of a blazing bull.

6:59 Exactly how the Dwarfs sealed a pact with him remained a secret,

7:03 but inscriptions on temple walls all tell of the same story.

7:07 The Ancestor Gods abandoned them, and Hashut offered deliverance.

7:11 Within the temples, Daemonsmiths served as his priests.

7:14 The main method of worship involved casting

7:17 slaves into massive cauldrons of molten metal.

7:20 Hashut devoured their souls and granted

7:22 the Chaos Dwarfs forbidden knowledge of Daemon-fused machineries.

7:25 Every drop of blood shed brought them closer to their ultimate goal:

7:30 domination of the world.

7:32 Chapter 4- Society "The truth about the Chaos

7:33 Dwarfs is buried beneath lies and evasions,

7:35 for they are the great shame of the Dwarfs.

7:38 Ask any Dwarf, and they'll fiercely deny their existence.

7:41 But protestations aside, rumours of the great foundries in the Dark Lands,

7:45 of horrid Bull Centaurs, of great cauldrons filled with molten metal

7:50 hungrily devouring sacrifices to some blasphemous Dark

7:52 God ring all too true to be the result of idle speculation." —Otto Bloch,

7:58 Professor Emeritus of the University of Nuln Zorn

8:01 Uzkul served as the birthplace of Chaos Dwarf society,

8:04 but their territory grew to encompass the entirety of The Dark Lands.

8:09 Despite this expansion, it remained a shadowy and mysterious place

8:12 too perilous for the average explorer to investigate.

8:15 The lands themselves hosted an assortment of structures

8:19 from exposed strip mines to sleepless factories.

8:22 Chaos Dwarfs were not the only inhabitants of the lands,

8:25 but were the undisputed masters of the territory.

8:28 As the Chaos Dwarf empire further strayed from their ancestral roots,

8:32 significant changes to their society took hold.

8:34 Their runes took on a sharp, menacing aesthetic suitable for their dark crafts.

8:39 A cursed dialect evolved from their mother tongue

8:43 which incorporated portions of the Dark Tongue of Chaos.

8:46 They called this language Zharralid.

8:48 Chaos Dwarfs and their western cousins understood one another somewhat,

8:52 but Khazalid was seen by the western Dwarves

8:55 as an antiquated version of their superior modern tongue.

8:58 They refused to speak in anything but Zharralid,

9:01 viewing all other spoken languages as the product of lesser races.

9:05 The typical attire found in their civilization was quite grand.

9:09 Lamellar armour was made from metal scales and painted bright red.

9:13 Helmets were exceptionally tall and signified a Dwarf’s status in society.

9:17 The height of a helmet conferred importance,

9:20 and decorations designated an individual’s specific expertise.

9:23 All Chaos Dwarfs maintained a thick beard

9:26 styled in extravagant ways to accentuate their tusks.

9:30 Dwarves were master craftsmen,

9:32 but the products of the Dark Lands were much more sinister.

9:36 Finer creations kept within the empire

9:38 included dark devices powered by the occult.

9:40 The means of their creation were savagely guarded from all prying eyes.

9:45 To ensure survival in the most intense volcanic heat,

9:48 Blackshard Armour was forged by Daemonsmiths.

9:51 Suits were forged in blood and hellfire and were stronger than steel.

9:55 It made wearers immune to the oppressive heat of their homeland.

9:59 Lesser works, such as weapons and armour,

10:01 were traded with Chaos-worshipping tribes or nearby Ogre Kingdoms.

10:05 Though these armaments were mundane in the eyes of the Chaos Dwarfs,

10:08 they were still of superior quality when compared to the creations of Man.

10:13 In exchange for their weapons and armour,

10:15 the Chaos Dwarfs often received rare gems and metals.

10:18 But they most strongly desired vast quantities of slaves.

10:22 Their industries and blood sacrifices demanded many.

10:25 With the weapons provided, chaos-worshippers propagated the very violence

10:29 that created the slaves Chaos Dwarfs desired.

10:32 In turn, blood was spilled in Hashut’s name,

10:35 and the influence of their dark god reached beyond their borders.

10:39 "We do what we must to survive.

10:42 We’ve made many concessions and thrown our lots in with the Greenskins,

10:45 but as their masters, not as slaves.

10:47 Of course, our values would never have been compromised had

10:50 it not been for the betrayal of the past." —Zhorgrath,

10:55 Chaos Dwarf Engineer The Chaos Dwarf slave enterprise was on par

10:59 with the Dark Elves in sheer quantity and diversity of those it enslaved,

11:03 so much so that it made them a minority in their own nation.

11:07 All life other than Chaos Dwarfs was valued only as sacrifices

11:10 to Hashut or for the resources they could labour for.

11:14 They were livestock to be worked and slaughtered.

11:17 Their methods of maintaining compliance were exceptionally heinous,

11:20 and each race and beast had their own preferred use.

11:24 The most populous race of slaves were the Greenskins.

11:27 Favoured for their hardiness and resilience to the climate,

11:30 Orcs and Goblins were selected for toil in the mines and factories.

11:34 Hobgoblins were more than willing to betray their own for a measly

11:37 scrap of meaningless authority and were often made into overseers.

11:41 In times of war, masses of Greenskin

11:44 labourers often preceded the main Chaos Dwarf Army.

11:47 They weakened the enemy without cost to their callous masters.

11:51 Skaven were almost never seen amongst the labour camps.

11:54 The Chaos Dwarfs learned quickly that they were simply

11:57 too conniving and unpredictable to make for useful workers.

12:00 Worse yet, any more than one rat

12:03 man guaranteed the formation of schemes and sabotage.

12:06 The risk of unrest far exceeded the payoff,

12:08 which meant they were immediately worked to death

12:11 or thrown into molten metal in mass sacrifices.

12:14 Humans were regarded similarly to Greenskins, but considerably more fragile.

12:19 Instead, they were used for their ability to adapt to many

12:22 tasks and their swiftness in learning varied types of jobs.

12:26 Inversely, Ogres were reserved only for the most heavy-duty assignments.

12:29 But they were violent and difficult to control when enraged,

12:33 so great care was taken to keep them in line.

12:36 Elves were mutilated and bled to harvest alchemical reagents.

12:39 Beasts of Chaos pulled the chains of great wheels in shadowy mills.

12:45 But the worst was reserved for the race they hated the most: Dwarfs.

12:49 They were never sent to labour camps.

12:51 Instead, they were kept alive and taken

12:53 to the capital for extravagant and gory ritual sacrifice.

12:56 Contempt and resentment for the ancestors made

12:59 Dwarf sacrifices the most exciting of all,

13:02 and they were rumoured to fuel powerful enchantments.

13:05 There came a time when the Chaos Dwarfs desired to permanently

13:08 cull the infighting frequently seen in their hordes of Greenskin labourers.

13:12 The sorcerers devised a perverse experiment

13:14 that aimed to produce perfectly obedient Orcs.

13:18 Through magical reproduction, they took their largest and strongest

13:22 Greenskin slaves and created the Black Orcs.

13:24 The sorcerers succeeded in creating

13:26 Orcs with greater discipline and intelligence.

13:29 But they were never able to fully subdue their fiery, independent spirits.

13:34 They had inadvertently created the perfect breed of leader

13:37 capable of organizing many orcs and goblins under one banner.

13:40 Consequently, multiple slave armies rose up in a meticulously coordinated coup.

13:46 They were so successful that they not only managed to take control of the camps,

13:49 but they also pushed the entire Chaos Dwarf

13:52 military back to the heart of the empire.

13:54 Just as they were closing in on the Temple

13:57 of Hashut and were certain to annihilate the entire civilization,

14:00 the Hobgoblins turned on the Black Orcs.

14:02 The Dwarfs seized the small window of opportunity

14:05 and rapidly reclaimed control over the realm.

14:07 The punishments that were levied against the workforce were merciless,

14:11 and Hashut gorged on many souls in the aftermath.

14:14 The capital city of the Chaos Dwarves was

14:16 built in the Plain of Zharrduk and named Zharr-Naggrund.

14:19 It was the only city ever built by their race.

14:22 Carved out of obsidian, it reflected the eerie glow of a thousand furnaces.

14:27 It was a living workshop of steam-driven hammers and bubbling cauldrons.

14:31 Wheels groaned and whistles screamed,

14:33 never allowing the city a moment of silence.

14:36 The obscuring smoke cast the city in an unending gloomy twilight.

14:41 The city was a tiered fortress that ascended

14:43 to a single structure at the pinnacle.

14:45 There perched the Temple of Hashut.

14:48 The east and west gates led outwards on roads paved with gold and brass.

14:52 To the north, the River Ruin flowed

14:55 into the city and dove down into an enormous forge-factory.

14:58 Demonic machines were cooled,

15:00 and the steam was trapped to power impossibly complex engines.

15:04 Pure filth from industrial byproducts flowed out of the south gate of the city,

15:09 washing poisonous yellow pollution down to the Sea of Dread.

15:13 Zharr-Naggrund was also the seat of the government’s power.

15:15 The empire of the Chaos Dwarfs had no High King.

15:19 Instead, the Temple of Hashut hosted the conclave of Daemonsmiths

15:23 who dictated the laws and decrees of the nation.

15:25 Each sorcerer owned a district of the city

15:28 and had many workshops, forges, and slaves.

15:31 The conclave operated like a council,

15:33 with the strongest voice belonging to the eldest Daemonsmith.

15:37 Though the visible portion of the city was condensed in a single structure,

15:41 its true expanse existed in deep tunnels beneath the cracked surface.

15:45 Sprawling mazes of chiselled basalt crawled

15:47 throughout the underbelly of the Dark Lands.

15:50 Forgotten stripmines, abandoned holds,

15:52 and secret vaults twist into dangerous underpasses.

15:57 One such passageway was built to accommodate an expansive subterranean canal.

16:01 It linked the northern districts of Zharr-Naggrund with the Sea of Chaos.

16:06 From there, the Chaos Dwarf fleet sailed

16:08 north to satisfy the intense demand for slaves.

16:11 The canal passed through a secretive hold known as Uzkulak.

16:14 Built by the Dwarfs before the Great Catastrophe,

16:17 it was a bustling slave port and naval yard.

16:20 But it also hid many secrets.

16:22 The lower levels were forbidden except

16:24 for those condemned to suffer unimaginable torment.

16:28 Oathbreakers and blasphemers were sealed within places even

16:31 the masters of the city dared not delve.

16:34 Following the bowels of mineshafts southeast,

16:36 they opened to an expansive vent from a long-dormant volcano.

16:40 A vast trove of precious minerals was found

16:43 there in the early days of the empire.

16:45 But as the resources were gradually depleted,

16:47 it became one of the largest slave labour camps of the Chaos Dwarfs.

16:51 Most slaves were expected to work themselves

16:54 to death feeding the fires of furnaces or mining.

16:57 The great Tower of Gorgoth was built high above

16:59 the camps to observe the passage of slave caravans,

17:02 while an above ground road passed through the Gates

17:05 of Zharr and connected the Tower to Zharr-Naggrund.

17:08 Gorgoth was in direct competition with a stronghold called the Black Fortress.

17:12 Seated in the far southeast,

17:14 it was a military outpost for an elite army of Chaos Dwarfs.

17:18 The Legion of Azgorh was the primary defence against eastern invaders;

17:21 a garrison in a citadel that oozed magma and loomed over flaming caverns.

17:26 They also escorted slave caravans across the Howling Wastes.

17:29 Being so far from the capital and from the blessings of the Temple,

17:33 the denizens of the Black Fortress were exceptionally cruel.

17:37 Those who were exiled from Zharr-Naggrund went to The Black

17:40 Fortress to join the throng of ruthless and brutal warriors.

17:44 Though the Chaos Dwarfs were few in number,

17:46 their machines and foul magic were a potent ally to the forces of Chaos.

17:50 When the armies of the Black Fortress sallied out,

17:53 the ground shook with the impending fury of an active volcano.

17:57 The masters of demonic machinery were determined to enslave all

18:00 life and subjugate the world… for the glory of Hashut!

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