Soulbound: Champions of Death - Soulblight Gravelords

Hey folks, and welcome back to another #MortalRealmsMonday. Last time, we gave an insight into some of the ethereal Nighthaunt Archetypes you’ll be playing in Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound: Champions of Death. This week, we’re venturing into the ancient castles and cities ruled by the terrifying Soulblight Gravelords!

Necromancer illustrated by Clara-Marie Morin, Vampire Lord, Blood Knight, Grave Guard, and Black Knight illustrated by Álvaro Jiménez.

Vampire Lord

You epitomise the Midnight Aristocracy, ruling the dead with bladework and spellcraft honed over lifetimes. 

Only Nagash and his Mortarchs can command the Vampire Lords. They are the sovereigns among the Soulblight Gravelords, their power earned over ages of warfare and study. Some spend long centuries honing their physical strength and reflexes, surpassing in experience even the oldest Aelven blademasters. Others refine their necromancy, and with a single contemptuous phrase they can boil a foe’s blood within their veins. Whether they sit atop reanimated, rotting dragons or gilded thrones in subjugated kingdoms, Vampire Lords delight in exposing the powerlessness of their foes. To resist them is to resist death itself.

Vampire Lords are skilled spellcasters, who have honed their skills over countless centuries to utilise the arcane power of the Lore of the Vampires. This macabre art can conjure creeping mist, drain the lifeforce for foes, or cause an enemy's very blood to boil.

Blood Knight

You balance bloodlust with chivalry, using your code of honour to control — or mask — your constant hunger.

Blood Knights are unmistakable on the battlefield, often dressed in bright crimson armour; and mounted atop skull-faced, undead chargers called Nightmares. Gore sprays around them as they slice open jugulars, after which the exultant, laughing Blood Knight licks their weapon clean. Looking upon these vampiric cavaliers, one is hard-pressed to tell the difference between them and the malformed beasts which they hold themselves above. But though they are ruthless, vain, and obsessed with taking lives, most Blood Knights also strive to maintain their sense of honour. 

A Blood Knight is a Rider of Ruin. Mounted atop their undead steed, they leave lesser enemies in their wake, trampling the weak underhoof and riding on towards a true challenge. 

Necromancer

You study death to wield it, though your peers say you go too far.

The Amethyst Battlemages of the Collegiate Arcane are quick to draw the line between them and Necromancers. A Necromancer knows no limits. They dig up corpses and dissect them still in their coffins, they experiment on the living and use gags of sinew to muffle their screaming. As the only truly living champions among the forces of Death, Necromancers are both universally reviled and needed. The most powerful use their arcane knowledge to become liche-lords worthy of respect, and at this point they can bargain with other Undead just like any Soulblight Vampire or Wight King.

Necromancers have mastered the forbidden Lore of the Deathmages. Harnessing this vile necromantic energy they can cause living flesh to decrepify, fill their foes with overwhelming dread, or cast deathly invocations to conjure undead minions from the earth.

Grave Guard

You swore an oath to defend someone or something forever, and in death you keep it.

Armoured skeletons, their weapons glowing with eerie light, stand watch over ancient mausoleums and burial grounds. At times, their lieges call for them to leave their posts and hold a battlefield line, but even then they strike down threats with unnerving watchfulness and a dispassionate economy of motion. These are the Grave Guard, honoured warriors who swore their eternal service to ancient royalty and who returned from the dead to keep that promise. They retain enough of their memories and individuality to reminisce with their rulers about the days of yore, but otherwise their sole focus is keeping their charge safe.

Every bone in a Grave Guard’s rattling form is sworn to defend your sacred charge, tirelessly upholding their Duty Beyond Death. A Grave Guard will tirelessly stand watch over their charge — for all eternity if they must.

Black Knight

You eternally seek new foes to ride down, for death has taken everything except the satisfaction of the charge.

In life, Black Knights were nobility whose wealth afforded them the equipment and training necessary to become honoured cavalry. In death, deprived of their lands, their riches, and their families, all they have left is the compulsion to ride. Neither knight nor mount tire as they seek their next bout, and their skeletal expressions hardly change as they skewer the living. But beneath the emotionless facade, Black Knights often take pride that they hold their privileged status past death, and they fight with the drive and desperation of warriors who have no other reason to exist.

A Black Knight is an Eternal Hunter, driven to complete a morbid duty such as hunting a sworn enemy, subjugating a rebellious city, or recovering an ancient lost artefact. Both they are their skeletal steed will not stop at nothing in pursuit of their prey.

Shop all Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound here.

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