Appearance

Baaagh appears on the mortal plane as a hulking armoured juggernaut. His monstrous armour, protecting him from head to toe, is horrifyingly secured to his skeleton by large bolts capped with iron spikes. This fusion of flesh and iron makes Baaagh one with his armour, protecting him from even the most grievous wounds that would strike any other dead.

On his head, bolted to his shoulders and his skull, rests a terrifying great helm. Protruding from every inch of its surface are jagged rusted spikes, none more gruesome than the two that sit above his eyes, caked in gore and puss. Baaagh, known for his liberal use of headbutts in battle, utilises them for maximum carnage at every given opportunity. From behind the dark and rusted slits of his face plate pours a never ending stream of vibrant red blood. When Baaagh enters combat and his bloodlust takes hold, the torrent of blood increases, leaving vast pools of crimson in his wake. None have seen the face of Baaagh, but when he speaks it is always in an Orcish dialect. Many assume he is an Orc, but no one can say for certain.

In combat Baaagh requires no fancy magic fire swords, weak poison knitting needles or stupid dancing cutlery. Nor does he employ the use of the rotting corpses of already defeated weaklings. When slaughter is required, Baaagh uses either his massive battled scarred axe or his own spiked and armoured fists. Should his traditional methods of destruction fail him, Baaagh has been known to employ any weapons close at hand, including the limbs of his enemies. Baaagh’s strength and fury is unparalleled among the gods and even many Firstborn. No armour can deflect his blows, no weapon can parry his strike, and no threshold can delay his thirst for violence. When bloodlust overcomes the Heart Eater he is nigh unstoppable. The more frenzied Baaagh becomes, the greater the carnage and devastation he leaves behind.

Baaagh is known to possess an Orb of Power known as Shimm. While Shimm is said to be capable of controlling great forces of elemental magic, Baaagh does not often use it. Though Baaagh seems not to care much for the Orb he refuses to relinquish it, unless whoever desires it can best him in combat.

Tenets

The tenets of Baaagh are not traditional in any sense. Rather than words passed down through holy text or divine prayer, they are taken from blood drawn pictures, left on a stone walls. These tenets, rumoured to be drawn by the Bloodletter himself, were found by his faithful in a network of caves deep in the heart of the Berphauntian forests. These drawings made in blood speak the will of the Heart Eater. The images depict what he expects of his favoured, though the desired interpretation is not always obvious.

Tenet 1

Tenet 2

Tenet 3

Tenet 4

Tenet 5

Tenet 6

Celestial Heaven: Bloodfire

Just as Roland’s Heaven guards the Realms of Light against the numberless hordes of the Demonic, so does Baaagh’s Heaven, simply called Bloodfire, guard the Realms of Dark in its own way. Although it borders the Hellstack Plane, Bloodfire is no fortress. There are no shining and immaculate stone walls upon which the Demonic hordes are set to break, nor are there any shining castles manned by resolute and disciplined soldiers. Indeed, at first glance, an outside observer might be puzzled by the fact that any Demon can seemingly walk in unopposed. And that much is true; any Demon seeking to invade can simply do so. There are no defences set to stop them. However, those very same Demons will soon learn why for Baaagh’s faithful enjoy almost nothing more than a good demon hunt. When the Lords of Hell have marshalled greater armies against Baaagh, they are inevitably met by an even greater horde of shrieking berserkers that see their invasion as a nice bit of sport. Any Demons not sent back screaming to their home plane are inevitably bound with chains of servitude and set towards a number of tasks that must be done but are nonetheless unbefitting of a true Baaaghite’s attention.

The landscape of Baaagh’s Heaven is both profoundly ugly and treacherous, for Baaagh abhors both beauty and weakness. An impossible huge ocean of putrid, stinking blood surrounds the various islands upon which Baaagh’s worshipers find their eternal reward. While they do differ slightly, there is a certain commonality of features found among them. Vast plains of gore-slicked mud and plates of pitted stone stretch in between jagged mountains of basalt and obsidian, while rivers of blood and magma flow in a near-constant stream from their open peaks and into the depths of the Blood Ocean. There is no sun in the blood-red sky, and the only form of light is a dim red glow that is diffused throughout the Realm. Nothing else besides his followers live in Baaagh’s Realm, be it animal or plant. Everything built in his Realm appears as if it was erected from rusted scrap metal, rotted wood, and bloody mud dredged forth from the rivers of blood that flow throughout the Realm or have washed up upon the shore of the Blood Ocean. Forges pound pig iron into weapons suitable for bloodshed, while rickety taverns serve the kind of alcoholic swill that must always accompany a boastful tale of slaughter and bloodshed. These buildings tend to come together in small settlements ruled by the strongest of Baaagh’s chosen in the area and often spend most of their time making war upon each other, all for the glory of Baaagh.

A powerful aura of healing that suffuses the entire Realm ensures that a true death is all but impossible, as any fatal or incapacitating wound is healed in mere minutes. Baaagh’s wish is for blood to be shed, not death to be inflicted. The very same enchantment also increases aggression and loosens inhibitions, and berserk rages launched over the smallest of slights are extremely frequent. In fact, anyone able to maintain their composure for any length of time would likely be seen as extremely odd by the natives of the Realm.

Daily life for Baaagh’s supplicants is a simple one. You fight, and you spill blood. All day, every day. Occasionally a worshipper might need to prepare for a fight by securing a new weapon, or they might have a particularly noteworthy story to tell over drinks. But, for the most part, those now-dead mortals present spend all their time either fighting demons, the spirits Baaagh summons for his mock battles, or each other. At all times, Baaagh’s Heaven is nothing more and nothing less than a never-ending orgy of glorified violence.

Realms Within The Bloodfire

• The Blood Pits

For some worshipers of Baaagh, the endless yet oft-pointless violence of his Realm can often lack a certain “something.” It’s not so much that they dislike constant bloodshed, far from it, but these followers prefer a little more purpose or fanfare surrounding their bloodshed. These attitudes are more common amongst Baaagh’s non-Goblinoid followers, and to satisfy them, Baaagh created the Blood Pits. Located centrally within Baaagh’s Heaven, these towering edifices of bloodstained, pitted iron rise out of the gore-soaked muck like the arms of a man trying to free himself from an early grave. Each structure is set into the shape of a rough oval approximately 188 metres in length and 156 metres in width and serves as a massive gladiatorial arena where his followers compete for standing, prizes, and glory. Imprisoned demons serve as clerks, announcers, and trainers to the constant stream of gladiators seeking to prove themselves better at spilling blood than anyone else, dead or alive. Thousands of spectators flock to these arenas regularly to watch the fights from the stands and compete in the chaos below. The arena’s floor itself can be changed to suit any battle, and on one day, the spectators might witness a naval battle upon a sea of blood while watching a fight between two long-dead Chosen.

• The Gore-Summit

In the centre of the Realm, if there can be said to be a centre, there sits a great black mountain of granite belching forth plumes of ash and rivers of magma. This is the Gore-summit, the ‘holiest’ place in all the Heaven, for this is where Baaagh Himself resides when in his Divine Realm. Belching a sulfuric cloud of ash, the approach to the Gore-summit chokes and burns the eyes and throat, but this is only the beginning. Those that wish to be within the presence of their great God must battle fiercely to do so and as He resides at the summit. The ascent can be described as nothing more than a battlefield utterly choked in carnage. Those that seek a moment’s rest within the caves that pock-mark the surface of the mountain find themselves subject to new forms of warfare within the claustrophobic dank interior of the mountain. Even the very surface of the mountain itself will test those that seek to climb it, as it often shakes as if though it was alive and wrathful, causing avalanches of stone to tumble down the mountainside. There are no safe paths on the Gore-summit; however, should a faithful conquer their foes and reach the summit, they will find a grand and terrible arena built of the broken weapons of the conquered and the victorious. Its floor is a fine powder made of the powdered bone of the murdered, blackened by the blood of untold sacrifices. Upon its granite walls are carved the tenets of Baaagh so that a supplicant might never forget what they are fighting for or why. Within that arena, those who have fought to the summit fight for one final honour; the personal attention of Baaagh. For it is here that the God of Bloodshed spends his time when not personally engaged in his domain, entertained by the very finest of those able to kill their way to the top. It is whispered to those who would seek to ascend to the height of the Gore-summit that if a petitioner should sufficiently please the Heart-taker with their slaughter, they may ask one question of Baaagh. He almost always answers that question by cutting the petitioner in half with his axe, but sometimes, on very rare occasions, he bestows a mighty boon upon them. Some mortal worshipers of Baaagh have even claimed to have earned a second life on the mortal plane this way.

• The Killing Fields 

The history of the goblinoid races is painful; despite their ferocity and skill in battle, defeat at the hands of the more “civilized” races is all too familiar to their kind. The scars left behind by these centuries of persecution and genocide do not fade easily, even when their spirits ascend to their eternal reward in Baaagh’s presence. This especially irks Baaagh himself, and some have even quietly whispered that the creation of the Killing Fields is his attempt to heal the mental anguish of his fallen followers in his own way.

Each day a new battle takes place upon the Killing Fields, and each battle is one that the worshipers of Baaagh had lost when they drew breath. Countless spirits flock to the area to take part, and each day has a different battle. Some are larger in scope, with entire ravaging hordes sweeping over armies of their foes, while others might be smaller in scale and involve only a small warband or two. It is said that Baaagh and Baaagh alone chooses both which battle will take place that day, and populates said battle with the spirits that his followers will slay. There is little rhyme or reason to his choices, with only Saturday’s battle being a constant in the ever-revolving carousel of conflicts. Victory is certain in these battles; although it is not freely given, Baaagh’s followers ultimately cannot lose these assaults.

There is no conflict that has wounded the worshipers of Baaagh more than the genocide of Clan Sprawn. The mightiest single clan of Goblinoids ever to exist, brought low by magic and treachery, slaughtered en-masse without even a chance to properly honour Baaagh with a river of spilled blood. Thus, every Saturday, a great battle is enacted upon the Killing Fields, a battle in which every single Spirit that resides in Baaagh’s Realm takes part. They face an army of spirits formed into the shape of Berphaunt’s legions of pinkskins, and each warband competes for the honour of slaughtering enough humans to make it through to the Emperor and slay him in single combat. The victor then ascends to the Berphauntian Throne, wearing the Emperor’s skinned face and bloodstained crown as if they were the most glorious of kingly raiments. That particular worshipper is celebrated like a king for a week, right up until the next assault begins. Some of Baaagh’s more skilled Chosen have managed to remain as King for several months before losing their “throne” to another challenger.