#shorts #totalwar #warhammer
Immense creatures, larger than the towering Carnosaur, Dread Saurians are few in number and sacred to the Lizardmen, and the fury of each that prowls the fetid jungles is moderated only by the arcane power of the ceremonial armour that bedecks them. Without this precaution, even the power of the Slann could not hold them in check when they are unleashed. When a Dread Saurian lets out a triumphant cry, its roaring echos can be heard within the titled plazas of the Lizardmen cities as well as Lustria's deep jungles; a roar that all predatory reptiles both fear and respect. Protected by large armoured plates of gold and jewels inscribed with ancient prophecies, these mighty reptilian beasts often live within mountainous temples dedicated to the Old Ones. From here, they are kept in lavishly decorated chambers that are befit for a king, where the Skink Priests give up offerings of sacrifice to these mighty demi-gods. These ceremonial titans carry the most precious relics of ancient days, items of power left behind by the Old Ones. With these artifacts in their possession, the Dread Saurian are near indestructible when unleashed upon the enemy. When the Winds of Magic rise and a great storm draws close, the Slann Mage-Priests will stir and chant the ancient rituals of binding, shackling the captive Dread Saurians to their will, their legendary might being coveted by the sorcerers and wizards of younger races. Let loose upon the battlefield these reptilian monstrosities wreck terrible havoc upon the foe with both their fang-lined jaws and the divine blessing of the Old Ones.
Rogue Idols of Gork (or possibly Mork) are mighty, magical constructs with the ability to crush armored knights, batter city walls and just about anything else that gets in their way with their brutal fists. The construct is the embodiment of the spirit of the Waaagh!, a gigantic stone and scrap effigy built in the shape of the Greenskin gods of war. Arrows and broadswords break and shatter upon their rock bodies as they smash paths of destruction through an army, impervious to blows that rain down upon them since they lack the muscle and sinew to damage or blood to spill. Crudely fashioned from heaped stones and battlefield debris, they are unmentionably fetid and daubed with obscene glyphs and slogans. Some are no taller than a chapel door, the Orcs being so eager to fight that they devote little time to building them, but when Greenskins tribes gather together to form a huge Waaagh!, the Idols can grow to immense proportions as if one of the Greenskin Gods have come to witness the carnage their boyz are about to unleash. In war, Rogue Idols of Gork loom over almost everything, striding implacably forward with limbs the size of tree trunks and a malevolent grin on their leering face. Needing neither food nor rest they do not tire, destroying the first enemy they find and crush them in mere seconds, and then do the same to the next enemy, and then the next and so on until the enemy is either utterly destroyed or the Idol itself is pulverized. Such is the erratic nature of these monsters and the fickle power that animates them that although created by the powers of Orc Shamans, their control over them is tenuous at best, and they often rampage where they will, collapsing when the magic that animates them withers, only to reassemble themselves again as the winds of magic gather once more to storm force, sometimes years or even centuries later. At such times, often the only way to stop an idol is for a powerful Sorcerer to control it, but without a battle in which it can release its fury, his dominance over the creature is at best quite unpredictable.
