Luthor Harkon was born twice, once when his life first began in a tribe of hillmen near Lahmia, and a second time after he was awakened from his coffin as a vampire, only to become the Pirate King, the most terrifying character along the dreaded Vampire Coast of Lustria and the high seas. Rightfully feared by experienced sailors from all over the world. Luthor Harkon terrorizes the seas in search of new servants to put under his command. His mind is an insane mix of personalities, all blending into each without warning and sparking the bold and unpredictable actions the pirate king is known for. Before diving into this episode, we want to thank the awesome channel Patrons that sponsor the project. With their contributions we were able to send emissaries and sailors across the sea and into the Vampire Coast to gather clues and information for this video. Thanks to them and everyone who enjoys, comments and shares the content. We hope you enjoy this episode. In a time before the birth of the legendary Sigmar Heldenhammer, a tribe of hillmen called the Harkoni lived near the city of Lahmia, in Nehekhara. Luthor Harkon, then known only as Lutr was a member of that tribe. His military career began when he was brought into the city of Lahmia by Abhorash after witnessing his skills in battle. He was in command of the harbor guard and unbeknownst to him, his future and destiny would be shaped on the water from then on. The city of Lahmia was eventually besieged by the enemies of Nagash, looking to end the threat of the necromancer once and for all. It is presumed that Luthor Harkon was given the Blood Kiss of vampirism around these troubled times. It is unknown what exactly happens to the life and soul of a human upon receiving the Blood Kiss. Some mortal priests suggest that they enter the Garden of Morr, the god of the dead, but are turned back because they are an abomination to the sight of the god. Scholars and wizards sometimes talk of them moving between the realms, trapped forever between this world and the next. Whatever the truth, every vampire awakens with a newly forged spirit. They retain the thoughts and memories of the mortal being they once were, but within them now resides a dark beast, driving them to hunt and prey, to revel in their every twisted vice, and to glory in all their dark desires. Some see this desire as a separate force—the Beast Within— whilst others believe it is simply the benefit of no longer being burdened with the weight of a soul. Sometime after Luthor Harkon was given the blood kiss of vampirism, he vanished from all memory and history. Many years passed before Harkon resurfaced in a rather unexpected twist of fate. In the year 876 of the Imperial Calendar, an Imperial merchant ship was attacked by vile Norscan pirates. Delighted with their plunder, the pirate men filled their vessel with whatever rich goods they laid their hands on. Among many other things, they loaded the coffin of none other than Luthor Harkon onto their ship. Little did the Norscan raiders know the death they brought upon the unfortunate Imperial sailors was a better end than the fate that awaited them. The Norscan ship eventually made its way towards the perilous waters of the South and to the mystical lands of Lustria in the New World. The pirates were then shrouded in a storm and the strong currents of the sea managed to wreck the ship in the eastern coast of Lustria. The creatures that crawled out of the shipwreck were not the same men as the Norscan raiders. Turned undead and enslaved, with pale skin and their eyes deprived of any sign of life, those damned pirates became the first servants to an undead figure with a desire for power. They emerged under the command of the Vampire Luthor Harkon. Having no memory of his former life and awoken from a long and dreadful sleep, Luthor embraced the misty lands and the cruel waters that surrounded it as his new home. Over time, the wild winds and unpredictable currents of the ocean brought many lifeless bodies to the coast, just within his reach. Unfortunately for those poor souls, none of them were granted their eternal sleep, instead, with the use of dark magic their broken bodies arose to march to the will of their new master. Luthor quickly established himself along the eastern coast of the continent of Lustria, with the help of uncountable undead pirates festooned with all manner of rusty and corroded weaponry, all reanimated bodies marching to his will in a putrescent tide of death. Many of these zombie pirates still hanging to the old weapons and guns they held so dearly in life. With time, this region became known as The Vampire Coast. The stretch of land on the eastern coastline of the continent of Lustria is a foggy place, full of pestilent jungles, deadly creatures and fetid swamps. The winds and currents along this coast are incredibly treacherous to unwary vessels and the sailors that are wise and experienced enough avoid going through this area at all costs. An unforgiving fate awaits in the thick mist hanging above the dangerous waters, for no ship that is lured into the fog can escape its impending doom and ultimately, the grasp of Luthor. It is said that even Elven ships are destined to meet a dire fate should they pass too close to the Vampire Coast, as not only treacherous winds and tides are the dangerous threats but the wailing of banshees that lure mariners to their doom on the rocks and ghostly ships that seem to come to existence out of the mists have also been reported by many. With time, Luthor’s army became swollen with the lifeless corpses of all manner of unfortunate mariners, reanimated through dark magic and destined to a cruel servitude. They sacked many of the nearby settlements by sheer force of numbers, they conquered portions of the deep jungle and many sacred places of the lizardmen that inhabited and protected the region. Luthor Harkon swiftly stablished a strong and menacing presence in land and sea alike. Soon enough, the vampire commanded his own undead pirate fleet. Harkon was already powerful, yet he desired so much more. His mind was set on seizing secret artifacts of the ancient civilizations kept in the Lizardmen cities and temples to enhance his magical abilities. As his wild dreams of domination grew in intensity, he went deeper into the continent of Lustria. His mindless forces marched into the gloomy marshes and cut through the thick green of the jungle. They eventually arrived in the seemingly abandoned Temple City of Huatl and found an untouched chamber inside. The vampire lord was already obsessing over the ancient secrets behind the door, yet, he was helpless against the powerful magic glyphs protecting the vault. His zombie servants fell one by one on their quest to open the door for their master. It seemed as if the glyphs of protection sucked the essence out of any that came too close. Maddened with failure and blinded by obsession, Luthor recklessly unleashed his own dark magic to break the seals of the chamber. However, the glyphs were more powerful than he anticipated and they began to drain the life force and magic powers out of his body as the chamber began to collapse around him. Harkon could neither move nor overpower the seals of protection when the walls began to crumble and fall apart, his sole life force being sucked away from his very core. The magic was way stronger than he could ever imagine. In agony, he tried to break free from the strong current of magic between himself and the glyphs. It took all of his willpower to break free from the grasp of the seals and he barely managed to escape the collapsing chamber before it all came crashing down. As the dust settled, Luthor understood he had saved himself from the grasp of the strong magic, however, in the depths of his dazed mind, he realized the steep price he had just paid. By breaking the invisible magical bond between himself and the glyphs, he had caused his mind to shatter into a dozen pieces. As Harkon staggered outside, sanity and control slowly faded away along with his magical abilities except for his command over his undead followers. The pieces of what was left of him each had their own personalities, each fighting a never-ending battle to control Luthor. At any given point his body is commanded by one of these personalities, until the mental strain becomes too much to handle and another completely different personality would emerge to take control of his actions. Yet, none could take full charge over the rest, and none could reign indefinitely. When none of his personalities could suppress the others, Luthor would be left paralyzed and lost in his own doomed existence, until eventually one of them would come to the surface. Torn apart from the inside, Luthor drifted further into lunacy and disarray, teetering in the brink of insanity. However, despite all of the craziness going on inside his head, all his personalities aligned in one sole purpose: to find a cure to mend the broken pieces together. So, Luthor began his quest to pursuit powerful Slann artifacts as he believed their magic could cure him. His undead servants combed through the humid jungles to find temples, hidden chambers and of upmost importance, the mummified remains of the Slanns. This distraught pursuit eventually led to the fury of the Lizardmen, who more than anything wished to stop the plunder of their treasures and relics. Any other horde of invaders would be claimed by the web of the jungle if not by the heat and the humidity of this unwelcoming land, however, the undead zombies of the pirate king were immune to the diseases of the jungle. By the year 930 of the Imperial Calendar, Lord Xltep of Itza ordered his cohorts to march against the undead menace, worried about the growing presence of the unnatural occupants of the Vampire Coast. The pirate king attempted to expand his realm more and more into the interior of the continent and steal the precious relics from the lands of Lustria. That would not be allowed. A mighty cohort of lizardmen warriors was put together. Hundreds of brutish yet disciplined creatures advanced through the jungle, heading towards the approaching undead force. Standing taller than a man and wielding obsinite-tipped spears and heavy clubs spiked with jagged stones, the Saurus warriors growled and hacked through the dense jungle. If that were not enough, the lizardmen army was also being supported by the legendary Kroxigor known as Nakai the Wanderer. A hulking creature that is revered all throughout the continent of Lustria as he hunts and kills every enemy that dares to defile the lands of the Lizardmen. The eldest and greatest of the Kroxigors has stood against powerful daemons during the tumultuous times of the Great catastrophe and has lived to keep reappearing thousands of years later, always when he is needed the most. Both armies clashed with fierce intensity, each looking to end the other. After a hard fought battle, the Mage-Priest and Nakai defeated Luthor Harkon’s lumbering hordes of drowned pirates and sailors at the Battle of the Eclipse, thus preventing the undead army from going deeper into the Lustrian continent. The defeat at the hands of the cold blooded lizardmen was bitter for Luthor Harkon. Yet, this setback did not stop him, but it pushed him even more to the dreams of finding a cure and having vengeance. He needed more servants in his army and so, he turned to the ocean to gather more. The feared vampire used magic to create a powerful enchantment to lure vessels towards the Vampire Coast. Hearing an unnatural siren-wail, the passing ships of the Great Ocean began to sail off-course, right to their dreadful end. The doomed sailors and warriors were first grasped by the cold fingers of death, only to be awoken by Harkon to join his undead horde. Soon after, the decaying shipwrecks of the Vampire Coast sailed again into the seas, carrying hulks full of zombie pirates. The undead servants with the aid of many monstrous creatures from the depths of the sea terrorized and sunk many unfortunate vessels, adding even more bodies to the coldblooded army and bringing them back to the Vampire Coast, quickly swelling their ranks in a cruel campaign of death that spanned through many years. It was in 1351 that Luthor Harkon marched once again towards the temple cities of the lizardmen. He was ready to bring his long overdue wrath upon the cold-blooded beasts. This time, his army was bigger than ever and the undead numbers were in the thousands. The shambling horde marched south on the Lizardmen's City of Axlotl. Many skinks attempted to stop their advance with hit and run tactics and rearguard attacks, but to no avail. Many pirates fell but the rest advanced like a tidal wave of terror and death. The undead threat was unstoppable. The vast zombie horde emerged from the soggy marshes near the temple city, surrounded by a heavy mist. The defenses of the city fell one by one, obstinate pillars standing tall on the temples crumbled and all was razed to the ground. It is said that no stone remained unturned as the zombies obliterated the place. The Skink Priests of the temple managed to evacuate some of the most precious relics but once the undead army was finished, Luthor Harkon walked away with many stolen magical artifacts of the Lizardmen. More than a century later, when new races started to arrive in Lustria, the pirate king was quick to see the opportunity in potential allies to grow his influence over the region. He sent enchanted ebony skulls as gifts to the most dreadful leaders of the newcomers. These items were powerful artifacts that, when broken, presented the owner the possibility to call the undead servants of Harkon to their aid. However, by summoning the drowned zombies of the pirate king, the caller would be forever in his debt. With every battle won and every temple ravaged, Luthor Harkon grew his roots deeper in the realm of the Lizardmen, expanding the withering blight through the Vampire Coast and beyond. With time, the Lizarmen have pushed back, only to be attacked again by the undead hordes. To keep his dominance over the eastern coast of Lustria, the pirate king makes use of the diverse variety of minions at his disposal. The vampire fleet captains are the ones in charge of keeping the vast hordes in check and always in control. From all the captured mariners that reach Luthor’s grasp, he chooses the captains carefully. The zombie pirates make the bulk of his deadly forces. Armed with all manner of rusty weapons way beyond their best times, the decadent zombies march completely under the vampire’s control. They are immune to fear, as they have no will or consciousness of themselves and they are also immune to the deadly weather effects and poisons from the jungles of Lustria, making them even deadlier for the lizardmen. Some corpses lurch from the waters swollen with noxious gases and liquefying tissues seeping from their rotten and tattered skin. When slain, their inflated forms explode in a poisonous shower of gases and diseased fluids. When facing an enemy, the undead hurl themselves into battle like a mindless horde trying to overrun their foe, however, the mariners love for their guns carries into their afterlife. The deck gunners are known to use a wide variety of corroded weapons with questionable accuracy, but the sheer power of these long ranged firearms have killed many overconfident foes. A mournghul is a thing of shadows and icy fogs. They are a thing neither dead nor alive, possess an insatiable hunger, and are malice personified. Despite their size, they can slip unseen through the darkness and even in broad daylight seems to waver like an evil mirage until they fasten their long, sharp claws around the victim's neck. When the Winds surge and arcane storms scream across the world, powerful binding scrolls can be fashioned to exert control over the walking nightmares, making it possible to create small bands of lesser Mournguls to do one's bidding The Depth Guard is the elite infantry of the Vampire Coast. Blood Knight warriors one and all, they are hand-picked by their masters and given the Blood Kiss, rather than being simply raised from the drowned rabble. Clad in eldritch armour, they are an unstoppable force on the field of battle, unrelenting in their advance. Luthor Harkon also has mighty reanimated hulks of flesh and rotting bone at his disposal. These creations are called Necrofex Colossus and are amongst the greatest workings of a necromancer’s dark arts. These colossal hulks vary in size and composition, but always hold true to the same basic form of a monstrous humanoid shape, akin to a giant, fashioned upon a frame of timber, iron or bone, onto which the flesh and musculature of the dead have been bound and shaped with scores or sometimes hundreds of corpses used in its creation. A giant of unliving flesh that fears neither pain nor injury. A walking vortex of deathly energy around which the souls of the damned howl. With so much unholy power concentrated in their forms, the Necrofex Colossus are no mere mindless thrall, but possess deathly wills and a dark appetite of its own. The enormous and oft-repaired monstrosity known as “Queen Bess” is Harkon’s pride and joy. The exact origin of Queen Bess is uncertain but, from the reports that have reached the Colleges of Nuln, it is likely to have begun life as nothing less than a Hell-Hammer Cannon, a modified variant of the more common Empire Wargalley that has been re-purposed for the use as a powerful siege-ship. It has since been refined and improved by the pirate king to meet his own needs. Even so, the Queen Bess remains one of the most powerful pieces of black powder artillery ever to grace the shores of Lustria and the entirety of the Warhammer world. The war in the Vampire Coast is constant and savage. Luthor Harkon continues to swell the ranks of his undead army with every passing day and his quest for power and sanity continues. He faces opposition from the lizardmen and other races that inhabit Lustria and the high seas but armed with a mighty and numerous army, Luthor Harkon will continue to terrorize the Vampire Coast and beyond until the End Times.
