The Skorne were a warlike race native to the planet Caen. For much of Immoren’s history a trackless expanse of sand and wind and a terrifying deep chasm has divided west from east. Recently forces from either side of the divided continent have clashed with bloody consequence as a result of the Skorne Empire’s dreams of conquest. Skorne are both a nation and a people, arisen from a variety of feuding tribes that dominated the harsh and unforgiving environment of eastern Immoren. They learned to survive and even prosper despite the cruelties of their rugged lands, and their civilization has forged them into peerless warriors with a pragmatic disregard for pain and death. Warriors to the core, the skorne use dark arts called mortitheurgy to push their bodies past normal limits and to fight on past death. Even when death claims them, their souls are preserved in sacral stones to empower ancestral guardians, walking statues eager to join battle.
After the events of the Gi’ru Conflict, the Skorne became involved of the First Multiverse War and were a member of the Coalition of Independent States.
History[]
Early History[]
The Skorne were a nomadic race that lived in the southern areas of eastern Immoren. To the north existed the Elven Empire of Lyoss. The Skorne often raided vulnerable regions of the vast empire of Lyoss and the Elves called them “the godless,” “faithless,” and the “shunned", however the Skorne took those insults with pride and considered the Elves to be weak and pampered by their gods. But the spiritual awakening of the Skorne began with Voskune who found the fundamentals of exaltation. Voskune studied the connection between the body and the spirit. He dissected both the living and the dead to understand this fundamental connection and for this he plucked out his own eye to study it and then replaced it with a device of smooth crystal that allowed him to perceive vital essence. Fascination by the moment of death, he was the first to perceive that on expiration the soul of a Skorne was thrown into the Void to experience endless pain and agony where they are driven mad. He was shaken by the revelations that this would be his fate as well but couldn't complete his work. Ten generations later two masters named Ishoul and Kaleed achieved a breakthrough. Ishoul discovered that cutting and polishing certain stones will pull at a spirit, drawing it as water is absorbed into a sponge. Ishoul and Kaleed spent their lives working with these stones. Following Voskune’s, each replaced an eye with an artifact to perceive spirits, as all extollers since have done likewise.
The dominar of the masters’ house, a venerable warlord named Vuxoris, the inventor of the hoksune code asked Ishoul and Kaleed to preserve his spirit so his lore would not fade. They captured Vuxoris’ essence in a great polished piece of obsidian and watched as the stone transformed with a lattice of powerful energy, preserving him in immortality. He could thereafter be contacted, although this required a draining and elaborate ritual. Kaleed was astonished to realize the stone now emanated great power and manifested strange phenomena. This stone became a treasured with countless wars over ownership of the First Exalted. The Sjorne also learned that smaller pieces carved from a sacral stone could be incorporated into weapons and armor, thereby imbuing those items with some shadow of ancestral power. This was done sparingly to preserve the integrity of the original stone, yet over time some ancient stones were slowly carved away piece by piece. In the following ages the first sacral stone would eventually be lost.
Another great ancestor was the warrior-philosopher named Morkaash. He focused on learning anatomy and the infliction of pain and agony. Morkaash believed sublime enlightenment was a result of suffering, and he sought to understand the mechanisms by which living bodies function. Morkaash tested himself against the great beasts by conquering them in battle, taming them, and bending them to his will. His knowledge carried on after his death, and his followers improved their techniques over many lifetimes resulting in the chirurgeons and paingivers. Some, often extollers continued to devote themselves to deeper mysteries, giving rise to mortitheurgy. The fundamental tenets of mortitheurgy are that there is great power released by the flesh as it undergoes transition and that blood and pain have innate potency.
The destruction of Lyoss brought massive changes to the Skorne and many died in the massive disasters that followed but unlike the elves the Skorne were hardened and soon started raiding elf refugees fleeing west and taking over what was once Lyoss. However the disasters following the cataclysm forced the Skorne to abandon their nomadic ways and start building permanent shelters but the fractured houses continued to vie with one another, both for dominance and for crucial resources. Slowly the storms receded and the weather stabilized. While Skorne cities prospered, the eternal war of houses continued with renewed passion. Many more were exalted and new areas were colonized while lesser species ,including many tribes of cyclops savages from the desert were conquered.
Rise of an Empire[]
One warlord named Vaactash of House Balaash carved out a territory north of Halaak by slaughter and careful political manuevering and ruled longer than any other archdominar on record, surviving countless duels and assassination attempts. In death he was exalted. The ruling of his house went first to his son, who did not long endure; then to his grandson; and finally to his granddaughter Archdomina Makeda. Then Vinter Raelthorne IValso known as the Conqueror emerged from the west, beginning the First Unification war, he fought and conquered village by village striking down hundreds of Skorne warriors and gathered a large following. After conquering several houses and defeating their champions he marched towards the largest city of the Skorne, Halaak. The hoksune code could not accept a master of this caliber arising who had not heard the words of Vuxoris. Some skorne believed him to be a skorne soul reborn in human flesh and became known as the Reborn. Adherents argued that he had cast aside the inferior species of his birth to return to his true people and would elevate us to a new era of greatness. The Conqueror did not deny these tales and even encouraged them. In Halaak he faced the forces of House Balaash and Archdomina Makeda and after a battle that saw many Skorne warriors dead. Vinter defeated Makeda in a duel.
The fact that one man without the vitality of warbeasts defeated her Makeda that Vinter Raelthorne was in fact the Reborn and became his most ardent supporter and a true believer in his cult which was instrumental in completing the First Unification. For the first time in its history, the skorne were united. Vinter spoke of the great wealth in the west, of the fertile land and the weak species that populated its expanse. He offered the promise of conquest. For that he proposed the construction of a great bridge to cross the Abyss and allow the Skorne march to the west. Seven years after the First Unification and before this bridge was complete, the Conqueror grew impatient and personally led an army across the great desert. However his temper, distrust of his subordinates and impatience resulted in many dominars seeking to overthrow him. Hearing no news of victory despite Vinter’s lengthy absence, the conspirators in Halaak believed the Conqueror had died in this campaign and rebelled but Makeda of House Balaash had held fast to her convictions. She had weathered assassination attempts, retreated into her fortress during the strife in Halaak, and fought off all who would lay siege to her house. Soon Vinter returned. In what would become known as the Second Unification, the Conqueror fell on the betrayers, who soon endured torments beyond imagination at the hands of his personal paingiver, Morghoul. They were slaughtered and refused the rites of the extollers as a lesson to their heirs. For her loyalty, the Conqueror bestowed on Makeda the dominion of the western empire and tasked her to lead her army into those fertile lands to subjugate all who opposed him.
Vinter named himself the Supreme Archdominar and began reforming the empire. These included consolidating many houses, implementing improvements in military weapons manufacture, and establishing other programs necessary to govern what had once been a fractured people. Efforts were made to train soldiers from different houses under the same banner and integrate them into a single fighting force instead of seperate forces. The meaning of ranks like tyrant, lord tyrant, and dominar shifted to have specific military authority. The strategy of the Army of the Western Reaches secured a permanent supply chain between the west and the Abyssal Fortress, which protected the bridge across the great chasm in the Stormlands, through a number of intermediate fortresses. The army would then build and defend a number of larger fortresses just east of the human kingdoms, in the Bloodstone Marches. Creating permanent, self-sustaining settlements there would allow to wage war without relying too heavily on the distant homelands.
During battles east Corvis, the Skorne encountered the Trollkin which they named duzusk. While Makeda’s army fortified its position east of the Black River, the Skorne also led strikes on the human border positions, forcing them to allocate defenders across a long stretch of border while gathering intel about their capabilities and resources. These attacks were coordinated with allies retained by the Conqueror in his former homelands, including the desert scout Saxon Orrik, and mercenaries led by Asheth Magnus. These western allies provided meaningful intelligence on the disposition of enemy troops to exploit Cygnar’s weaknesses. Plans were laid to assault Eastwall while Cygnar was engaged with the Protectorate. But the Conqueror suddenly ordered to besiege Fort Falk instead hundreds of miles to the north. Makeda faithfully carried out the sovereign’s will. The army threw itself into a futile and ill-prepared assault on Fort Falk and fought until skorne corpses glutted the river.
Master Tormentor Morghoul interrogated Asheth Magnus and learned the truth of Vinter’s deception. Even Makeda was eventually forced to face the fact that the Conqueror must be overthrown if the Skorne Empire were to survive and prosper. Vinter had hoped to weaken Cygnar’s and Makeda’s armies simultaneously. Makeda's army marched on the Abyssal Fortress and reclaimed it for the skorne. Vinter Raelthorne fled and Makeda claimed the title of Supreme Archdomina of the Skorne Empire.
The Gi’ru Conflict[]
“You... Amauri-khans and this Republic think you are so high and mighty, that the Great Skare Empire should mingle with your kind? You may have our thanks as a way by not killing you. But do not expect us to work with you!”
A Venator Dakar to the American military Officers and Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The Skorn Empire was suddenly attacked by strange invaders unknown to them when they tried to attack a Menoth outpost to raise, the creatures they fought were known as the Chimera and were overwhelmed by their superior advance technology, not even their slave beasts were a match for theme even the All Terrain Armored Transport vehicles of the Galactic Empire. Realising the creatures they relied and hunted to serve as their mounts could not defeat them, many were forced to adapt to new situations to fight them but could take months or longer to defend their territories. However, the word of the Kingdom of Cygnar and the Protectorate of Menoth for the first time made a mutual pact to drive off the Combine from the planet with their new allies known as the United States of America. The Great Houses gathered for first contact with the Americans and brushed off their attempt for an alliance and be of their own, rather than share the spoils of war they gathered from the prisoners they interrogated and study the technologies.
They fought against the new Alliance to keep up and raided when the Allies and Combine’s new faction known as the Axis, stealing the technologies and gained the knowledge of dimensional travel between worlds. The Empire saw this as an opportunity to begin their research into interstellar and seek new worlds to plunder and conquer for the new age of the Skorne Empire.
First Multiverse War[]
A century later after achieving knowledge and travel to alternate though gates with the assistance of the Coalition of Independent States, the Skorne gained a new interest genetic technologies to create the first generations of bio-warbeasts after the native Titans were heavily protected by the Alliance, they made their first target in the in the Golmar Universe.
At some point near the end of the war, the Scorn competed against other empires such as the Semerian Commonwealth, the Hutts, and Skaven, etc.
They were ultimately defeated and forced into signing a treaty with the Alliance.
Culture and Society[]
Technology[]
Since the majority of the Skorne were driven from their homeworld, the Skorne traded technologies with the Coalition members and soon favoured genetic engineered creatures for combat. They had limited access to interstellar technologies and favoured using gates to jump between worlds for surprise attacks.
Trivia[]
Notes[]