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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 14:43:08 GMT
In their mystic rituals, in monotone labour and in the rearing of their children the Chaos Dwarfs of Zharr Naggrund, and all its domains, sing. Be they doomladen dirges, rattling recitations of religious script or just simple work verses, songs are part of Dawi Zharr culture just as they are for other races.
The nature of Chaos Dwarf songs reflects their cruel nature and experiences in life. These are not songs about innocent joy, and very rarely about romantic love or homesickness. Instead they bear the grim worldview of the songs' composers and everyday singers.
These songs have very often a moral aim which would appear twisted if not sickening to many other peoples in the Warhammer world, as is the case with all lore of Chaos Dwarf folk culture. These are stanzas of death and slavery, of exploitation and heinous ritual. They record in the public memory of Chaos Dwarfs the dramatic high points in their long history filled with strife, suffering and ruthless drive for dominance and power.
Often these songs are partially or wholly undecipherable to outside listeners, even if they were to understand the Dawi Zharr language. So embedded are Chaos Dwarf life and thinking in mysticism that most cultural expressions through song would be difficult to interpret at best should any translator and scholar wish to do so.
Instead it is usually through the formative world of Chaos Dwarf childhood that their culture's values and expectations can be uncoded via stories and songs.
Chaos Dwarf children, just like most other children in the Warhammer world, live like "little adults" to quickly mature and get prepared for their often predestined adult life. Many of the songs and stories which surround the youngest are complicated adult works shared by all in family or clan gatherings. This is fundamentally no different from other races' way of life.
Even so, there exists a flaura of Chaos Dwarf children songs, who are relatively simple and generally taught to the youngest by their mothers. These are rhyme songs which, if translated, can be understood well by outside observers, since they should be intelligible to Dawi Zharr children in relatively early development.
Some parts of Chaos Dwarf children songs may be advanced enough to be lost on Human children's ears. This is because both western Dwarfs and eastern Chaos Dwarfs are intelligent races with lives of longevity and slow maturing periods. As such, many Dwarf beardlings possess more knowledge and skill in the crafts than most Human elders.
Even small Dwarf children are often able to grasp concepts which would be complicated for young Human adults. Chaos Dwarfs are no different in this regard from their distant kin. The contrast with Dwarf verses lies instead in the songs' content.
One have to understand that Chaos Dwarf songs at an early age helps instill a moral sense where greed, domination, contempt for others and complete submission to hierarchy all vie with each other and combine to create the merciless character of the Chaos Dwarf people and their monstrous empire.
These are songs of bloodshed and hardship, of carnage and conquest, of failure and damnation. They are glimpses into the psyche of these enigmatic slavers and engineers. And they are not for those weak of guts and heart.
These are the songs of the Blacksmiths of Chaos.
Chaos Dwarf Melodies & Sound Impressions
1. Zharr-Naggrund
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:14:43 GMT
Written by: AdmiralIllustrated by: Forgefire
O Hashut in Thy Power
O Hashut in Thy power let our whole armour be hard, that we Thine Temple still may guard.
O Hashut in Thy power let all our blades be sharp, that we Thine foul slaves may carp.
O Hashut in Thy power let our guns' aim be true, that we may sacrifice Thy due.
O Hashut in Thy power let our war machines be strong, that we may slay him who do Thy wrong.
O Hashut in Thy power let Your slaves us obey, that we may stand fast in the fray.
O Hashut in Thy power let our Daemons be chained, that we our foe may crush bloodstained.
O Hashut in Thy power let Bull Centaurs in wrath fume mad, that they may feasting upon slaves be glad.
O Hashut in Thy power let our holy winged spawn be up high, that we on wings our foe to doom may fly.
O Hashut in Thy power let our sacred sorcery be best, that we may burn out our vile foe's chest
O Hashut in Thy power let our faith in You be great, that we our foe may truly hate.
- Chaos Dwarf battlefield hymn |
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:16:50 GMT
Written by: MalificantAll at once a mighty herd of red eyed cattle he saw.... a plowin' through the ragged sky.... and up the cloudy draws...
Their brands were still on fire and their hoofs were made of steel their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky 'because he saw the riders coming hard and he heard their mournful cry... |
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:17:40 GMT
Break or be Broken
See! Hear! Know!
We are the forsaken ones, in the thrall of dread Dark God, our dedication absolute...
Hearts of stone, and fevered minds, the Dark God's own, the broken kind's.
Break! Break! Break or be broken!
See! Hear! Know!
We are the toiling ones, cursed by ancestors and gods, our damnation assured...
Wills of steel, madness chained, the master's heel, the honour stained.
Break! Break! Break or be broken!
See! Hear! Know!
We are the chosen ones, erecting greatest works, to His dominion claim...
Souls on fire, a world to scour, the hardship dire, the hunger for power.
Break! Break! Break or be broken!
Break! Break! Break or be broken!
Break! Break! Break or be broken!
- Chaos Dwarf Cult Song |
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:19:49 GMT
See the dumb Greenskin trampled hard, hear the mutilated Elven bard, smell pulverized Undead Grave Guard, crush lowly Lizardman's skull shard, eat barbaric Ogre's cut-off lard.
All for Hashut!
See the goblinsss Daemon in our law hear our false cousin moan with awe, smell the foul Skaven gutted raw, crush the vile Human's feeble jaw, eat ugly Ungor with tusked maw.
All for Hashut!
See the whole world become our clay, hear lord Hashut his rivals slay, smell the fires burn night and day, crush the weak's skull to pave our way, eat the slave's flesh that you did flay.
All for Hashut!
- Chaos Dwarf marching song |
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:26:03 GMT
Written by: AdmiralIllustrated by: Raul "knightinflames" GomesPerformed by: MadHatter Kill, Maim, BurnMantra AudioYour ancestors were lowly scum!
Your fathers were all drunk on rum!
Your mothers were a bunch of hags!
Your children are all dressed in rags!
Your grave won't even be an urn!
For we will...
Kill! Maim! Burn!
Your newborn were drowned in a lake!
Your grandmother's spine did you break!
Your oaths are all false wicked lies!
Your stinking honour attracts flies!
Your souls will all as ghosts return!
For we will...
Kill! Maim! Burn!
Your god 's a filthy heathen swine!
Your booze is vinegar not wine!
Your home 's a hut built out of dung!
Your dirty deeds will see you hung!
Your guts will even carrion spurn!
For we will...
Kill! Maim! Burn!
- Chaos Dwarf battle taunt song |
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:34:46 GMT
O Great and holy Father of Darkness I do beseech thee, that Your mighty wrath will not destroy me.
Hashut, crush us not!
For this defeat we're deeply shamed and less than hogs, our abandoned corpses are to be torn by dogs.
Hashut, crush us not!
Yet find mercy in Your divine heart and spare our lives, lest we cannot serve You, nor could our wives.
Hashut, crush us not!
O bull god, we will cover our humiliated beards in ashes, our flesh is already scarred by gashes.
Hashut, crush us not!
Yet for this bitter defeat we will bring You victory eightfold, and make the whole world into Your stronghold.
Hashut, crush us not!
O Father of Darkness Your might on earth must we reclaim, or else vile Daemons our souls will maim.
Hashut, crush us not!
This we promise, this we swear, to victory Your power bear, and we leave the judgement in Your godly care.
Hashut, crush us not!
- Chaos Dwarf preliminary defeat prayer, to be sung whilst retreating until full rites and penitence can be undertaken |
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:35:49 GMT
"By the River of Ruin we lay and bled dry, when we remembered Zharr-Naggrund. There on the ashen banks, we gasped in the mud, for there our foes pulled our shamed beards, our tormentors demanded admission of loss, they goblinswled, 'Now tell us of Zharr-Naggrund!'
How can we tell of the city of the Father, while in an outcast land? If I forget you, Zharr-Naggrund, may my soul be grisly devoured come death. May my ravaged head be displayed on a pike, if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Zharr-Naggrund, to be my gravest loss.
Remember, o Father, what the Black Orcs did, on the day Zharr-Naggrund burned. 'Tear it down,' they roared, 'tear it down to its foundations!' Bastard Tamurkhan, doomed to destruction, blessed be the one who repays you, for what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants, and dashes them against the rocks.
By the River of Ruin we lay and bled dry, when we remembered Zharr-Naggrund."
- Infernal Guard hymn |
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:37:28 GMT
At the Black Fortress Inn was great joy, song and dance, they'd conquered through Hashut not luck or pure chance. Bragging and drinking still armed with their axes, one lone silent dwarf and the great Morrslieb waxes.
Cannons and rockets had boomed with a roar, spreading fire and death through the High Elven core. The elf's weak advance had stopped dead in it's track, when their comrades laid burned - all twisted and black.
The lone silent dwarf, neither angry nor sad, stared hungry at maidens, with thoughts that where bad. He lashed out with arm to the maid that was near, and slapped her quite hard (with a laugh) on her rear.
Her eyes burned with fire she claw'd and gave shout, one black oily hand he doth pressed front her mouth. The drunk frisky dwarf smell'd of sweat, coal and musks, when she severed that hand with one bite of her tusks.
Bullcentaur guards dragged him swiftly in feet, and he slammed like a toy into walls, stone and street. They ate him for dinner, stew'ed dwarf-a'la-alan, for the maid was the wife of the clans Dark Castellan.
- Chaos Dwarf folksong, first sung after the battle of Anurell's Tomb. |
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:40:00 GMT
A plan had been hatched when the green moon degressed, for Prophet Neburak to seek fortune in far west.
Orc guts were read raw as altar's fires waned modest, signs for an axeman whom Hashut power would vest.
Then two Dark Castellans kneeled down to Neburak at Bullfest, and at his order they from scalemail undressed.
In front of his great harem they then in craft of death excessed, in the arena they from black orc's fists did axes wrest.
The Dark Castellans then with axeswings all arena orcs processed, in front of the Prophet they could not have done their least.
As per the Prophet Neburak's will they completed their contest, when the weaker dwarf's skull by an axe was compressed.
Dark Castellan gory Urik as the lonely victor was adressed, and high Neburak to Urik his plan then confessed.
His slaves toiled till they died as army's bagage was assessed, for Neburak all his treasure in this venture did invest.
He set forth with a grand army whipped to never let it rest, yet its aim the high council could only have guessed.
Before the host's advance all ugly orc and goblinkin was pressed, as tribes in the mountains and Dark Lands could attest.
When goblinsog-Hoogla Khan to high Neburak spoke out of jest, the Prophet drew dagger and stabbed him in the chest.
The foul Karaks of old locked gates and were greatly depressed, as we marched through the pass without any request.
With our raids in Border Princes we found knights out on a quest, who instead of lady found themselves most distressed.
Men were enslaved and children torn from mother's breast, our march saw lesser peoples by Hashut suppressed.
At the ford of river Orco goblins did then our campaign arrest, yet we conquered in blood and harshly oppresssed.
Thus bolstering our ranks with fresh green slave troops to detest, we march round Blighted Marshes to reach the vile pest.
Then Neburak bridged swamps with raft walkways which he blessed, and Dark Castellan Urik entered Skavenblight at his behest.
Grim Urik led but two thousand warriors into ratmen's giant nest, then created blackest panic when he fearshards did digest.
Skaven climbed the walls and clawed their throats without bequest, as Urik the Dreaded made himself the ratmen's guest.
In the darkest of all terrors rat killed rat as they egressed, under cover of panic Urik's chosen thus progressed.
Skavenblight in chaos into wildest civil war disgressed, and Urik violently heathen chambers now accessed.
The Stormvermin guards in chamber had in rusty armour dressed, tall Fangleader shrieked that we had too far transgressed.
Dreaded Urik led our charge and cut off the Fangleader's crest, frightening its minions as axeman the rat corpse messed.
In bloody pursuit of the mob we found among trampled unrest, one Grey Seer in coma with his bloodshot rat eyes stressed.
Horned ratman gnawing all his warpstone had one nasty life regressed, yet gave one Daemon life like the Skaven god made manifest.
In challenge to craven Verminlord Urik roared what he possessed, raising darkforged axehead high to show the Daemon who's best.
In a hellish confrontation gaining the Dark Gods' interest, dreaded Urik for Hashut and his Prophet passed the test.
Since back again in Zharr-Naggrund Neburak's might many impressed, we suspect what from that chamber Urik for him did harvest.
- Chaos Dwarf rhyme song, to be sung to accompanying music |
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:45:51 GMT
Daughter, kneel. As my mother told me at ripening age, so do I now tell you at ripening age. Tell you about your plight in life, as mother and ever oath-bound wife.
At Zharr Naggrund the walls climb heights, and the Dark Lands crawl beneath our sights. Our slaves are legion, our warriors cruel. The Gods decree, the Blacksmiths rule. Our merchant men trade Hashut's wares, at Temple lies His greatest shares.
Know, Dawi Zharr's our people's name, by Hashut's law we play this game. We live, we worship, toil and die. And never ask, the answer lie. Our race's creations reach out wide, that Chaos may in glory ride.
The men enslave and work and fight, and build domain of rawest might. But power claims expense of blood. And always must we breathe in mud. The coal that burned must be replaced, or else our fate is be displaced.
All womenfolk take men to lift, and bear their seed as Hashut's gift. Our people's fate lies in our wombs. To give us heirs to seal our tombs. Without our effort, be no clan, nor will wars see our solid man.
So grab your husband, is Hashut's will, that we may thrive in battle's mill. Lash your offspring, whip your slaves. Give hardful lives, not softful graves. Know the duty, serve Him thus, and Zharr Naggrund be ruled by us.
- What a Chaos Dwarf mother told her daughter |
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:49:09 GMT
To war, to war, to war, to war, to holy war we go, to power, domination win and crush foe's every toe, to heathen lands with enemies' bones sow, for the high Father Hashut wills it so!
And for this holy war we mine and forge, and whip the backs of slaves 'til they disgorge, and lock up Daemons in armour to torch, and slave bones on our altars also scorch.
To war, to war, to war, to war, to holy war we go, to power, domination win and crush foe's every toe, to heathen lands with enemies' bones sow, for the high Father Hashut wills it so!
And for this holy war we march to battle, and take over the foes' all herds and cattle, and make in fear them their rotten teeth rattle, and cut short their goblinsss, vile heathen prattle.
To war, to war, to war, to war, to holy war we go, to power, domination win and crush foe's every toe, to heathen lands with enemies' bones sow, for the high Father Hashut wills it so!
And for this holy war we have no fear, and won't drop a single weakling's tear, and maintains our decent common sneer, and raise high these skulls cup with ashen beer!
To war, to war, to war, to war, to holy war we go, to power, domination win and crush foe's every toe, to heathen lands with enemies' bones sow, for the high Father Hashut wills it so!
Ho!
- Chaos Dwarf drinking song |
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:51:04 GMT
Shovel Coal
"The bull aflame, threw the merwyrm out far, and branded her for harlotry. In sea she crashed, in sea she remains, in wait to swallow us whole.
Wey woe, clear an' spit, boil it, broil it dry. Shovel coal, as hull gives in, in rush of sea we die.
Some the gods made fine, yet others foul, and scum to steam on the sea. With iron 'round throat, and drowning agape, we toil 'neath whip and blade.
Wey woe, curs'd water, boil it, broil it dry. Shovel coal, as hull gives in, in rush of sea we die.
Twain moons has coupled, and warned us starkly, turn 'round for port at once. Yet here we roam, the seas astorm, as her maw close all around.
Wey woe, curs'd water, boil it, broil it dry. Shovel coal, as hull gives in, in rush of sea we die.
Flames hiss, steam scalds, cast head o'er heel, decks groan as rivets pop. Shriek of metal, wound torn through plates, ableed the depths claim our souls.
Wey woe, curs'd water, boil it, broil it dry. Shovel coal, as hull gives in, in rush of sea we die.
The bull aflame, threw the merwyrm out far, and branded her for harlotry. In sea she crashed, in sea she remains, in wait to swallow us whole."
- Chaos Dwarf sailor's song [/i][/span][/div] |
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:52:38 GMT
"Oh...
We'll run for life an' clan an' Bull God!
Run! Run! Run!
We'll run on stone an' empty stomach!
Run! Run! Run!
We'll run in ranks abreast an' water!
Run! Run! Run!
We'll run to famine, death an' hardship!
Run! Run! Run!
We'll run by foe an' feud an' harlot!
Run! Run! Run!
We'll run through hail an' mighty fire!
Run! Run! Run!
We'll run down slave an' rabble Goblin!
Run! Run! Run!
And we'll run from vengeful Daemon spirit!
Run! Run! Run!
For we'll run like hell on to the task! Yay, we'll even run fast if you ask!
But we all run on blood and ashen beer, So harken and spit out a cheer!"
- Chaos Dwarf drinking song, famously performed to fists pounding tables while a misbehaving slave is chased unto death by the drunkest in the drinking company |
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Post by admiral on Feb 13, 2019 16:54:43 GMT
[align=center]
Gate of Contempt
"They pick at lice, the dumb their wise.
Enthroned in glory dark, am I hereby proclaimed insane, by inert lowly simpletons who care but for the grain?
Great works in stone they quietly bemoan as heavy drain, and ask why giant portal must be built in empty plain?
O why, o why?
They are but mice, can't see the prize.
I swear to holy Hashut and by His rending horns twain, stragglers and doubters will be whipped back into lane.
Appeasing Father's molten fury I will ramp up all the slain, and by this hill o' skulls and bones remake our terrain.
O why, o why?
With reddened eyes, their deathly cries.
Restful joy of hale and lowly thrall remains our foulest stain, so burden them with labour and lock on the rusty chain!
Their bones will snap, their backs will break for cruelty, their bane, will haunt their dreams and breath awake alike under my reign!
O why, o why?
They mouthed their lies, we cut their ties.
The smallfolk may complain and whine, as they die off like flies, but I, o mighty one, am risen to the skies!"
- Chaos Dwarf song from the construction of the Gates of Zharr, during the reign of Zhargon the Great |
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