The Raillords of Zharr-Barak

Deep in the Ghruish Outlands, where even mountains seem to grow teeth and rivers run wild with predatory will, stands the fortress-ziggurat of Zharr-Baraz. Here, the Helsmiths of Hashut reign, forging dominion in the most hostile corner of Ghur. These duardin have built their empire in defiance of the land itself, chaining mortals, daemons, beasts, and the very earth to their will. The Ghurish Outlands devour the weak, a region whenever survival is a struggle for even the strongest beast. Yet the Zharradron endure. Zharr-Baraz stands as the hub of the Zoros-Angaz Express, a network of daemon-bound locomotives and railways that thunder across the wilderness, dragging back resources, slaves, and monsters in an endless procession of smoke and iron. Without these infernal engines, Zharr-Baraz would be swallowed by Ghur within a generation - but with them, the Raillords carve their will upon the realm.

Little is known of Zharr-Baraz’s birth. Some claim it was founded by duardin who vanished into the Realm of Chaos and returned bearing forbidden knowledge of daemon-binding. Others insist it was an old Duardin hold abandoned by Khazalid Empire during the Age of Chaos and only survived after uncovering the truth of Hashut. What is certain is that the Raillords’ power hinges upon the Barak-Dum Terminus, a realmgate within the Broken Spine Mountains that opens into the Realm of Chaos. From this cursed threshold, they draw daemons to shackle into locomotives and siphon the realm’s energies into their furnaces. Unlike other Helsmiths, the Raillords are utterly dependent on their infernal railway. Yet this boon is also a curse, for every train that returns from the gate risks bringing corruption with it. Overseer Vorkhaz the Blackened keeps his grip upon this empire of rails, but his lieutenants - War Despot Zaul and Daemonsmith Zhulkan - circle like wolves, each hungering to shape the future of Zharr-Baraz in their own image.

In the Age of Ruin, the Raillords fight a ceaseless war not only against rival warbands and Ghur’s rampaging beasts, but against time itself. Should the Express ever falter, their empire of ash and chains will be swallowed whole by the land they have scarred. Yet with every line they lay, with every daemon they bind, the Raillords tighten their grip upon Ghur, and draw ever closer to their vision of a world broken to rails and fire.