Ostland Questions...

[Durpp]

Anyone know where I can find background on Ostland during the Great War Against Chaos?
Or if there isn't a place I can find it know the answers to a couple questions about Ostland at that time?

1: Who was the Elector Count at that time, and his mannerisms.
2: Did Castle von Rauken exist at that time?/ Any associated back story with that particular caste.
3: Were there any keeps/large towns/ cities that did exist, but are now destroyed? And how were they destroyed?

If anyone has information on this I will be eternally thankful.

Thanks!

[Athelassan]

There's not much. I don't think the forces of Asavar Kul really penetrated far into Ostland: there might have been the odd scouting party or raid but most of his forces were stalled at the sieges of Erengrad and Kislev, so there probably won't be many fortresses that were destroyed during it.

I don't think there's anything much on the Castle von Rauken either. I have a sneaking suspicion it's been mentioned in some historical event other than the one in Ludwig Schwartzhelm's background but I couldn't for the life of me tell you what. I'd vote that it was already built by the time of the Great War.

Regarding the Elector Count, older background (the Jack Yeovil novels and WFRP1) suggest that the von Raukovs have not been in charge very long. At the start of Karl Franz's reign the ruling house were the von Konigswalds, who appear to have been in power for some time and I would go with them as the Counts/Grand Princes at the time of the Great War. The individual Count has never been named, though. (They were succeeded early in KF's reign by Hals von Tasseninck; it's assumed that von Raukov seized power soon after. However I have no doubt that some revisionist or ignorant studio writer will at some point produce background saying that the von Raukovs were Counts in 250 IC or something.)

[TheDungen]

They should really add A time of legends trilogy for the great war against chaos. And the war of the beard.

[Athelassan]

One on the War of the Beard is being done; the first book will be out soonish.

I'm ambivalent on the need for a novel series for everything. It can be really quite good (the Sundering, Dead Winter) or appalling (Sigmar) or just-about-adequate but not much like the existing background (Nagash, Vampire Wars) and I'd rather have no novels than bad ones. I think the GWAC has been rehashed enough times already, to be honest.

[Durpp]

Sweet!
This has been most informative, thank you all very much!

Also, I was reading up on some of this stuff and found a note about the count of Ostland being a man named, Count Bavaric of Ostland. Would this make him the Elector Count? Or just some Count? And if he was the Elector Count, anybody happen to know his last name?

[Athelassan]

Where did you find the background? Context might help (I'd be interested anyway).

Unfortunately there's no consistent usage of the titles for Elector Counts; ironically, the confusion largely stems from the attempt to simplify the background on electoral politics by making all the provinces electoral in ~4th edition. Some writers call them Elector Counts, some just Counts, and some, especially in older background, will use their provincial titles (Grand Prince, Grand Duke etc.), or even a subsidiary one (Graf Boris?). Count Bavaric could thus be the Elector, or just a random nobleman. If he's referred to as "Count of Ostland" it's probably a fair bet he's the Elector. If he's an "Ostland Count" it's likely they meant an Elector, but it could go either way.

[Durpp]

Certainly,
"The message reached Wolfenburg, where Count Bavaric of Ostland still held out."- Warriors of Chaos 7th ed. p26 (bottom right-hand corner)

From what Athelassan said it seems that he would probably be just a regular Count... though I know how fishy that political system is, especially with all of the original Counts being titled just that, by Sigmar.

[woodster17]

One on the War of the Beard is being done; the first book will be out soonish.

I'm ambivalent on the need for a novel series for everything. It can be really quite good (the Sundering, Dead Winter) or appalling (Sigmar) or just-about-adequate but not much like the existing background (Nagash, Vampire Wars) and I'd rather have no novels than bad ones. I think the GWAC has been rehashed enough times already, to be honest.

Vampire Wars were excellent I found, although I enjoy anything about Vampires. 'The Great Betrayal' is what the War of Vengeance book is called according to BL. Another Time of Legends series is due to be released early next year aswell with Neferata. Delight in more Vampires!

[TheDungen]

Who is writing the war of the beard books? Gav?

[woodster17]

No Nick Kyme, another name from games development past! Josh Reynolds is on the Neferata series.

[Athelassan]

Durpp: from that it sounds to me like he was actually the Elector Count.

If I remember rightly, the War of the Beard/Vengeance books are planned as a Gav Thorpe/Nick Kyme collaboration, although I'm not sure whether that means they'll be writing books alternately or co-authoring all of them. It looks like it's the former, along the lines of the Horus Heresy series.

I enjoyed the Vampire Wars books too at the time, fwiw, but I never thought they worked that well within the parameters of the setting. Tonally they were off somehow: that Steve is a horror writer at heart really shone through. I also got a sense that he was for the most part more interested in his own characters than in the "official" ones, and I was rather disappointed with the way, for instance, the family squabbles in Dominion were dealt with so quickly and easily. Hans was only in the book for about three pages! From what he said afterwards, there was a lot of wrestling between him and the editors to try to get the story he wanted to tell in line with the official background, and sometimes the compromise didn't work brilliantly. I don't know why the same rigour wasn't applied to Nagash, either.

There was supposed to be a new, more faithful "retelling" of the events of the Vampire Wars in a ToL series by Gav Thorpe, but apparently that's now been put on indefinite hiatus/cancelled, which is a shame, because I was rather looking forward to it.

I'll be interested to see Neferata. I hope that Josh Reynolds can rein in those few elements of his writing that I find infuriating, because he's not a bad storyteller otherwise.

[Lord Zarkov]

There was supposed to be a new, more faithful "retelling" of the events of the Vampire Wars in a ToL series by Gav Thorpe, but apparently that's now been put on indefinite hiatus/cancelled, which is a shame, because I was rather looking forward to it.

Has it? I was under the impression it was meant to be in the third trilogy of trilogies, which would be a few years away now as the first three books in the second are only just beginning to come out.

Would make sense to come after what appears to be a Vampire Masters trilogy in the second set.

[woodster17]

What's the third trilogy in the second set then after the War of Vengeance and the Vampire Masters?

[Lord Zarkov]

The one starting with Dead Winter covering Boris Goldgather, the Skaven Plague, Manfred Skavenslayer, and the rise of Vanhal.

Edit: The Black Plague Trilogy

[TheDungen]

Nick Kyme does books? i thought he was the layout guy at white dwarf?

[Lord Zarkov]

Nick Kyme's done a couple of Dwarf books (Grudgelore plus another that I can't remember the name of) and some Salamander books for 40K. Never read any of them though.

[Athelassan]

I got the impression at BLL! last year that the plan was to do the Black Plague, the War of Venegeful Beards and the Vampire Wars do-over as the second set of trilogies. It seems that the Vampire Wars have been replaced with the Vampire Masters sequence; I suppose it's still possible we'll get the Vampire Wars after that.

I'll be interested to see some of the Vampire Masters books because I thought the Nagash novels did a pretty terrible job of introducing the characters. Vashanesh, Maatmeses and Herakhte were absent altogether, and Ushoran was rather different (not, I thought, better). Maybe the trilogy will just focus on Neferata, Abhorash and W'Soran to avoid the issue.

[Durpp]

Do you guys know what an Ostlander's favorite type of booze is?
This is a serious question haha need it for fluff.

[Athelassan]

They are apparently increasingly fond of vodka (Sigmar's Heirs) although also seem to drink a fair amount of beer. Plus stone soup, of course.

[Durpp]

Sweet, thank you very much!