The Bone Heart

Within the horde beats the Bone Heart, the keepers of the bones that guide the horde in battle.

The Dreadhorde gathers and a hush falls across the wargrounds.

In the unnatural hush before battle a chant begins “bones, bones, bones, bones …” escalating until it cuts off. Masked figures step forward from the throng, each wearing a medallion of twinned raven skulls fused together to represent a heart. As cloaks and robes are pulled back, they bristle with weapons and eldritch power ripples the air around them. Pouches are drawn forth and a volunteer presents a shield.  A palpable energy gathers over the horde, the dry rattle of bones whispers across the battlefield and a handful of knuckles, skull fragments, and vertebrae are cast onto the shield - thus will the Dreadhorde fight.   The horde charges into battle like a breaking wave, for today we fight and the Dreadhorde grows stronger!

In the wargrounds the restless bones of the fallen seek messengers to bear their guidance. It may be what draws some to the wargrounds or perhaps it grows once they arrive, but some individuals, be they wretches or lords, begin to hear the whisper of the bones. A peasant fled to escape a brutal master or a bankrupt lord running from their debts, one day as they travel the wastelands they begin to dream promises of power, of freedom from fear, of the joy of chaos, of the voice the bones.  These dreams bleed into waking, “here” they whisper, “dig here”… “free us, we hold power” … “carry us with you, we bring knowledge” … “hold us in your heart for we are chaos unrepentant”.  As they gather bones, old from the ground or fresh from their fleshy prisons, power gathers to these that hold the bones in their heart, the bones grant abilities, the power to heal and to harm, to burn and freeze, to protect or to rip the life from a fallen foe. 

The Bone heart are less a cohesive force and more a collection of lone wanderers, only gathering in force where the dreadhorde gathers for battle. They fight as individuals scattered throughout the horde forces, claiming fresh bones from foes and allies alike for thus does the strength of the Dreadhorde grow.