B

B –

Bonded Servitors – Of all the Witch-King's inhumane institutions, it was the Bonded Servitors- grasping men, women and aliens who proferred their very souls to the Witch-Lord's chief meta-intellegances in exchange for cybernetic and memetic upgrades- that most capture the plebian mind. Given that each Servitor had a unique disposition, acting as slave and representitive to a differant demonic master from beyond the Vale of Gammora, and subsequently unique powers and appearances that is the heart of their mystique.

Ultimately, it must be noted, works of popular imagination such as the Death-smith opera cycle, "Stygia, Reborn", merely pander to popular prejudices in presenting Bonded Servitors as dark-robed cackling madmen forming some kind of Fifth Column within the Imperium. This minor functionary has had the pleasure of speaking personally to Valliance Prime, Bonded Servitor of Sharad of Sharad, as he languishes on the very prison-world he built, the Land of Ninefold Immortal Sufferings. His words cannot be directly transrbied here out of considerations of both space and security, but suffice it to say that he avows under the strictest torture that no other Servitor survives to this day.

Similarly misleading are the writings of a certain guest of the Glorious Teijani Purer-than-Light's Exorsism Chamber, presenting the Servitors as mere soul-bonded beaurocrats, mystics and judges, paralell to the Lesser Consillium of the Loa advising to the Emperor Eternal. While it is accurate within a narrow scope to say that the Bonded Servitors were the administrators of the Witch-King's system of Demon-Camps and the lynchpin on his system of social control, the analogy is exactly that superficial. The Lesser Consillium of the Loa, a group this scholar has some personal experiance with, do place theie souls in jars, along with their private members, but their souls are neither damned nor devoured, and in consequence our immortality does not rely on the blood of our victms.

Misconceptions aside, there is little to note about the Bonded Servitors as a group- they served the Witch-King, and would have done so loyally as long as he continued to feed their masters from beyond the Veil of Gammora. Despite their absolute loyalty to the Witch-King, their ongoing intercine feud with the SPECTRE Corps doomed them in the Week of Bloody Gloves, in which over three quarters of their number met their fate.

See also: Sharad of Sharad, Week of Bloody Gloves.

Black Fires of Zureal – It is without a doubt, despite dispute in some so-called scholarly circles, that the forces of the Witch King resumed work in the ancient Black Fires of Zureal, mixing runic anti-necromancy with enhanced cybernetics to create the superweapons used across the Imperium in the years of the Crusade. One can only marvel at their efficiency, with a 5 year end turn around of 720,000 Reticulated Hive Feeders from a beginning stock of only 60 cubits of Berillium. Although it is speculated some of the weapons created there may have been responsible for the Undead Blight, no hard evidence has been found amongst the documents pertaining to Witch-King High Command, even in the private papers of the traitorous General Dragon, the Sand Wyrm. The most oblique and possibly connected reference was uncovered only 6 years previous

It is, however, of note that they developed the Moon Madness serum here for use against the Ape Lords of Raxis, stirring their inferior apish blood to new heights of violent depravity. The skillful feint at the Battle of Syrius Plain allowed them to infect a number of already combat crazed apes with the serum. Despite the efforts to hush-it up, including the noted Imperium-in-Exile propaganda film "Thus Passeth the Ape" and a commendation for their so-called Greatest, the Apes not only broke in the battle, but turned on their compatriots and allies as well, killing many of the process. It was only two weeks later that the Ape-Lords felt the full effects.

The so-called Year of the Mad Apes was a dangerous one for both sides, with their ravages based on an unprecedented skill at guerilla warfare. Berserker units, although not able to turn the tide of a carefully planned war, represented a spanner in the works of the slowly advancing ground war brought together by the Imperium-in-Exile forces. It is likely that had not the Moon Madness serum been deployed, the Witch-King would've lost the surface war much earlier. When the Ape-Lords eventually recovered, they attempted to make restitution for their role in the war by sharing some of their microchip technology. It is to this that the Imperium in Exile owes the ElectOrange Bible Cypher, and succeeded in ship-to-ship combat on the rings of Persimon-4; the outcome of which is well known.

Although some express qualms at this effort towards biological weapons and munitions, it is worth noting that the Witch-King's enemies had already begun to deploy the Shambling Divisions at a remarkable rate, and had already begun construction of the Device of Holy Radiance. It is often forgotten, given that it failed to end the war, that the DHR killed 61,000,000 Witch King civilians, when dropped on Fthagn at the height of tensions.

See also: ElectOrange Bible Cypher, Fthagn.