Warhammer - [Zavant Konniger 01] - Zavant - Gordon Rennie (v1.0) (pdf).pdf

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A WARHAMMER NOVEL
ZAVANT
Gordon Rennie
(A Flandrel & Undead Scan v1.0)
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This is a dark age, a bloody age, an age of daemons and of sorcery. It is an age of
battle and death, and of the world’s ending. Amidst all of the fire, flame and fury it
is a time, too, of mighty heroes, of bold deeds and great courage.
At the heart of the Old World sprawls the Empire, the largest and most powerful of
the human realms. Known for its engineers, sorcerers, traders and soldiers, it is a
land of great mountains, mighty rivers, dark forests and vast cities. And from his
throne in Altdorf reigns the Emperor Karl-Franz, sacred descendant of the
founder of these lands, Sigmar, and wielder of his magical warhammer.
But these are far from civilised times. Across the length and breadth of the Old
World, from the knightly palaces of Bretonnia to ice-bound Kislev in the far north,
come rumblings of war. In the towering World’s Edge Mountains, the orc tribes
are gathering for another assault. Bandits and renegades harry the wild southern
lands of the Border Princes. There are rumours of rat-things, the skaven, emerging
from the sewers and swamps across the land. And from the northern wildernesses
there is the ever-present threat of Chaos, of daemons and beastmen corrupted by
the foul powers of the Dark Gods. As the time of battle draws ever near, the Empire
needs heroes like never before.
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INTRODUCTION
Being a short discourse on the considerable and regrettable misconceptions and
falsehoods attending to the deeds and reputation of the subject of this
biography, as ruminated on by your humble author.
In any serious discussion concerning the study of the lore of the heretical and
forbidden, no true student of the field can ever fail at some point to mention the work
of Zavant Konniger, the famed and self-styled “sage-detective” of Altdorf. While
there are many—particularly amongst the clergy of the Church of Sigmar and the
members of the Altdorf Colleges of Magic—that would strongly challenge some of
Konniger’s most contentious findings and theories, there can be no disagreement that
texts such as
Principia Chaotica: A Treatise on the Dark Powers
and
Out of Araby:
A Most Hazardous Field Investigation of the Tomb Cities of Khemri
are still amongst
the most exhaustive and authoritative accounts we have of the ways and natures of
some of mankind’s greatest and most terrible foes.
Considering the amount of knowledge amassed by Konniger and the debt all later
opponents of the hidden and malefic owe to his researches, it is frustrating indeed
that so little is known about the man himself. Certainly, his name is still remembered
the length and breadth of the Old World, but all too often the details of the
recollections of the man and his deeds are confused and fragmentary. Indeed, in
several backward provinces of the Empire and beyond, it is popularly believed that
tales of the legendary sage-detective and his adventures are wholly fictitious!
Regretfully, the work of other supposed chroniclers of Konniger’s life and times
have muddied the waters for any subsequent serious scholarly investigation of the
man and his deeds, and when undertaking such a momentous task, one must first
work hard to separate fact from fiction. Almost certainly, the stories of Konniger’s
confrontation with fiends such as Mannfred von Carstein or his apprehension of
“Springheeled Jacques”, the fabled (and utterly fictitious, as my researches have
proven) ghostly killer from the back-alleys of Gisoreux, can be safely labelled as
tavern tales fit only to be believed by foolish drunkards.
But what then are we to make of other tales of Konniger and his exploits? Did he
truly, as he himself claims in his written account of the expedition, travel to and
explore the dark mysteries of the tomb cities of the Land of the Dead?
Or what of his records of his explorations of the Under-Empire? Even today,
prominent figures in this rarefied field of study of ours still hotly contest the
existence of the depraved rat-things known in certain quarters as “skaven”. What
then are we to make of the map fragments—apparently drawn and annotated in
Konniger’s own distinctive hand—showing what purports to be an extensive and
completely unknown labyrinth of tunnels and underways honeycombing the earth
beneath our beloved Empire? Could Konniger have entered and at least partially,
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mapped such a place, which he termed the “Under-Empire”, a name which has now
come into common currency amongst those of us involved in such arcane matters?
Some scholars dismiss Konniger’s Under-Empire theory as further proof that he did
indeed succumb to a form of creeping madness in his latter years, brought on—as
several of his many critics, notably those within the Holy Church would attest—by
his ill-advised and heretical dabbling in the ways of the Dark Powers. Perhaps,
though, such objections are born out of fear and of a state of wilful ignorance in
defiance of the uncomfortable and unwelcome fact that this world and our place in it
may be far less secure than we would ever wish them to be.
On a lighter note, it is also my happy duty as biographer to dispel some of the
common misconceptions about Konniger, not merely those such as scurrilous
falsehoods detailed in
The Private Life of the Great Sage-Detective of Altdorf, As
Recounted by his Faithful Manservant and Companion
(a tawdry Moot-published
pamphlet; the less said about it, the better) but also those partial truths which
somehow seem to have become part of the Konniger legend. For example, it is
sometimes popularly believed that Konniger travelled for some time in the company
of that most fearsome of dwarf slayers, Gotrek Gurnisson. My wise and astute
readers will, of course, immediately recognise that such legends have confused
Konniger with the person of Felix Jaeger, a minor poet of the same era who is known
to have served as the trollslayer’s companion for quite some time. It should be
known, however, that in my continuing researches for this work, I have lately turned
up intriguing information that suggests that Konniger may indeed have once crossed
paths with the illustrious trollslayer and his human companion.
Alas, the truth of this possible encounter awaits full verification, and I beg my
readers’ patience and indulgence in the hope that the details of this intriguing and
hitherto unknown incident may form part of the narrative of one of the later volumes
of this work.
With so many truths, half-truths, lies and foolish legends concerning Konniger in
circulation, it can be bewildering to know exactly what to truly believe. Madman or
genius? Heretic or the greatest mind of his age? Foolish amateur dilettante or noble
and foremost opponent of the enemies of the mankind?
The truth, good reader, is to be found herein…
—from
Konniger, the Enigma of Altdorf,
by Dominik van Graal (Nuln University
Press, in the Year of Lord Sigmar, 2604).
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