Gordrakk is the biggest and the baddest orruk Ironjaw Megaboss about, and he claims all greenskins for his Great Waaagh!. With his twin axes, Smasha and Kunnin’, he lops off heads and cracks open skulls, while beneath his iron-shod boots, the Megaboss' huge Maw-krusha, Bigteef, crushes enemies to pulp, or bursts their innards with a deafening bellow.[1]
History[]
Every orruk has heard of Gordrakk, the Fist of Gork. His name is the warcry upon the lips of a billion charging Ironjawz, the screams of dying men crushed under hobnailed orruk boots, and the thunderous chant of marching greenskins as they spill out across the realms. Chosen by Gorkamorka, Gordrakk will cover all the realms withthe hordes of his Great Waaagh!.[1a]
During the Age of Chaos, the minions of the Dark Gods tried to enslave the Ironjawz of Ghur, building countless Dreadholds throughout the wild kingdoms. Taking exception to these edifices, Gork slammed his continent-sized fist into the Wildheart, a monolithic green storm of energy descending from the sky to pound the fortresses into the ground. When Gork’s fist vanished, it left behind a smouldering fragment of knucklebone,and as the green fires seared away its surface, a hulking Megaboss was revealed. Whether or not this tale of his origins is true, Gordrakk has become known as the Fist of Gork and does nothing to dispute the story. Some even say that in Gordrakk’s good eye, one can still see the bunched knuckles of Gork, a moment before the Megaboss smashes their face in.[1a]
Even by the standards of the Ironjawz, Gordrakk is a warrior of vicious cunning and bestial ferocity. The scars of his rampages can be seen across the Mortal Realms in desolate fields of broken bodies and mangled iron stretching out as far as the eye can see. His twin axes, Smasha and Kunnin’, have claimed the heads of heroes and kings alike, one weapon blessed withbrutal cunning by Mork, the other with the cunning brutality of Gork. Theese blades were once a single great axe known as the Worldchoppa, but Gordrakk broke it in two so he could do more killing.[1a][1e]
As befits a Megaboss as mean as Gordrakk, he rides a ferocious mount to war. Covered in thick calloused scales, Bigteef is a humongous Maw-krusha with beady eyes and yellowed teeth. In battle, the beast wades through combats, pounding enemies to pulp, even as Gordrakk hacks open bodies and crushes skulls with his twin axes. There are many tales told by wild-eyed Weirdnobs and babbling Warchanters as to how a belligerent beast like Bigteef came to submit to the yoke of Gordrakk. Some tell of how the Maw-krusha was so vicious that anything he looked at died of fright, their hearts bursting before he even got his claws into them. Cunningly, rather than stare Bigteef down, Gordrakk engaged him in a yelling contest instead. The noise caused an avalanche to drop a nearby mountain top on them, after which Gordrakk put a hood over Bigteef’s head to claim him. Other orruks say that Gordrakk is so much like Gork that he came with brutality to spare, and one day he wrung the surplus out of his fists and onto the ground, where it grew into Bigteef on the spot.[1a]
As powerful as Bigteef is, Gordrakk’s true threat to the realms extends beyond the reach of his axes or mount. As the Megaboss of Megabosses, Gordrakk draws all forces that thrive on destruction to him. All orruks flock to fight in his Great Waaagh!, and even grots raise their tiny voices in cries of battle. Gargants, ogors, troggoths and more charge alongside them, adding their power to the destructive violence Gordrakk unleashes. If the Ironjawz are a combative tornado spinning across the Mortal Realms, Gordrakk is standing in its eye. As the Age of Sigmar dawns, the shadow of Gordrakk stretches across the Mortal Realms like a great raised fist. Chaos castellans keep a wary eye on the horizon, and in the depths of their holds, the fyreslayers feel the ground shaking, while in the wilds of Ghyran the sylvaneth sense that a great predator draws near. Even the Stormcast Eternals can feel a growing rumbling fit to rival the Storm of Sigmar in all its fury.[1a]
The Growling Gates[]
The Growling Gates sprawled across the Beastfens. Six interconnected portals, they spread out around a central stronghold known as the Gorelight Gatefort, whose tallest spire shimmered with an ancient Realmgate. It was this central gate that connected all six portals to the fortress, but whose original destination lay in Hysh. For an age, Chaos tyrants had used the web of Realmgates to rule the surrounding lands with an iron fist. These were the enemies Pergus Brightshield and his Stormcast Eternals expected to face as they rode the lightning down toward the Growling Gates, his Strike Chamber attacking each of the portals at once. Little did the Stormcasts know, they were about to spring a trap.[1b]
Gordrakk had been pleased to see the first storm clouds gathering over the Growling Gates. His Weirdnobs had been right about where the lightning warriors would strike. Heeding Gordrakk’s call, his Megafist had led tens of thousands of Ironjawz against the gates, stomping the Chaos defenders into the dust. The last of the Chaos forces had been finished off by his warclan, the Fang-krushas, and both the Gorelight Gatefort and the outlying portals now belonged to the Ironjawz. Gordrakk had faced Sigmar’s Stormcast Eternals before and knew just how tough they could be, and so he had prepared some surprises for them.[1b]
Pergus’ warriors stepped from the lightning onto the Gorelight Gatefort itself, his Judicators and Liberators spreading out and reacting quickly to the Chaos defenders lining the battlements. Bolts sang out, hammers crashed into steel and bodies tumbled to the ground as Pergus led his warriors ina charge toward the foe. For a moment, he thought his enemy broken, only to discover the fortress’ defenders were no more than corpses crudely propped up to appear alive.[1b]
With their formation dangerously spread out, the Hammers of Sigmar had only a moment to react as a deafening ‘Waaagh!’ assailed their eardrums, and out of the keep charged a huge mob of Ironjawz. Just before the orruks hit, the Liberators nearest to Pergus clanged together into a shield wall, but dozens more vanished under the green stampede. Iron slammed against sigmarite, and choppas rained down on golden helms as hammers thudded into green flesh. In moments, the Lord-Celestant and his men were enveloped by the Fang-krushas, reduced to a small golden island in a roiling sea of green.[1b]
Around the Growling Gates, the rest of the Stormcast Eternals fared no better than their lord. Some were caught by surprise as Ironjawz ran directly into the midst of the falling lightning bolts to attack, while others were assailed by Weirdnob Shamans, drunk on glowing green energy, who vomited death over the invaders. Under the crackling torrent some were blown to bits and others turned to vapour, while some lightning bolts were even turned back into the sky, disgorging their warriors hundreds of feet above the battlefield. For all the tricks, traps and sheer brutality of the Ironjawz, however, the Stormcasts fought back like true heroes of Azyr, not willing to give an inch before the ambushing greenskins.[1b]
Perched on a broken rampart of the Gorelight Gatefort’s outer defences, Gordrakk watched and waited. This battle had only just begun, and duffing up the Stormcast Eternals was only part of his grand plan.[1b]
Across the Beastfens battle raged. While Lord-Celestant Pergus tried to wrest control of the Gorelight Gatefort from the Fang-krushas, the Stormcast Eternals at the outer gates fought furiously against greenskins from dozens of other warclans to link up with their brethren. A squad of Prosecutors swooped through the island portal of Hornwillow Arch to emerge from the mountainous Clawstone Deepway. Th ewinged warriors arrived just in time to save the last Liberators gathered around the gate, breaking up a charging Brutefist with a rain of crackling hammers. Decimators that had cleared out the orruks infesting the Eyrie of Echoes broke free into the battles around Desolation’s Door, driving back Ardfists with iron-cleaving blows. Lord-Relictor Dedrac himself fought to reclaim the Gleamgloom Passage, calling down arcing bolts from the storm to blast apart mobs of Ironjawz as a handful of Liberators fought valiantly at his side.[1c]
The successes of the Stormcasts, however, were but grazing blows upon the hide of a great beast. The warclans under Gordrakk numbered in the dozens, the Fang-krushas, Ironsunz and Zogboy’s Choppas among the greenskins rampaging against the invaders. Brutefists forced shrinking knots of Stormcasts against the magical gateways, smashing them down into the piles of Chaos dead that still littered the ground. As they fell, Sigmar’s warriors flashed back into the sky, much to the chagrin of the orruks who weren’t done pounding them. On the cliffs before the Mirrored Path, Ironjawz grappled with the invaders. The burly orruks hurled Stormcasts off the edge, and just as often were borne with them to their deaths. In the confines of the Bloodhaunt Woods, Gorefists trampled everything in sight, as gruntas snorted and bit. Over it all was the thundering beat of the Warchanters, which shook even the huge Gorelight Gatefort to its skull-lined foundations.[1c]
Outside the walls of the Chaos bastion, Dakkbad Grotkicker and his Ironsunz waited for their chance to get stuck in. Some of the Ironjawz were already trying to barge their way through the warriors in front. A look from Gordrakk stopped the Megaboss in his tracks. Gordrakk was keeping the bulk of his force, and his best boys, back from the Gorelight Gatefort. A rumble of suppressed rage passed through the mass of Ironjawz, but none were foolish enough to cross the Fist of Gork.[1c]
Atop the massive Chaos keep, Pergushad cleared the ground around the central Realmgate, connecting him to his chamber and allowing a bloodied but defiant Dedrac to emerge via the Gleamgloom Passage with a dozen Liberators. With the arrival of the Lord-Relictor, the arcane mechanisms on the gate could be realigned to open the way to Hysh, and reinforcements from Celestrium could finally be called to turn the tide.[1c]
One by one, the Growling Gates werere taken by the Ironjawz, bellowing lines of Brutes downing the few Stormcasts that remained in a tide of choppas and fists. Soon all that was left of the Strike Chamber was the thin cordon Pergus had created around the gate to Hysh.The Lord-Celestant knew their only hope of reinforcement was to realign the gate and call forth fresh warriors from Celestrium. He gave the signal, and over the hammering clash of arms and bestial screams of the Ironjawz, Lord-Relictor Dedrac began the incantations to manipulate the gate’s wards. Spells woven at the beginning of the Age of Chaos began to unwind, and with a whisper of movement, invisible cogs spun to life. Gordrakk grinned as the gate began to shudder – then roared in anger as Dakkbad, tired of waiting, finally let loose his Ironsunz.[1d]
Where a moment before there had been only a steady, but stymied, flow of orruks, a flood of greenskins was unleashed. Atop his Maw-krusha Skullzcrakka, Dakkbad punched a hole in the Liberator lines, his boss choppas corched by lightning as Stormcasts fell under its blade. At his back, Brutes,Gore-gruntas and Ardboys poured into the courtyard around the Realmgate, while Weirdnobs, shaking with the power of the Waaagh!, loosed green bolts into the fray. All the while, the drumming of the Warchanters carried over the battle, firing up the Ironjawz with its relentless tempo. With a look, Pergus and Dedrac shared the same thought: the orruks could not be allowed a path into Celestrium. Though he knew it would mean his death, Dedrac cut his chant short, and the magical seals crackled back into place.[1d]
Gordrakk bellowed loud enough to be heard from one end of the battle tothe other. Incensed that Dakkbad had ruined his plans, he swooped toward the battle on his Maw-krusha, Bigteef. He considered giving the Megaboss a good kicking – but that could wait. As Gordrakk crashed down among the Stormcasts, Dedrac raised his staff to summon lightning and strike him down, but the orruk’s axe, Kunnin’, cut right through it, taking off the Lord-Relictor’s head. Pergus leapt forward, his own blade catching a blow from Gordrakk’s axe a second before it would have gutted him. But it only prolonged his life by seconds. With his back against the gate, Pergus was driven to the ground under the Maw-krusha’s fists. A moment before Gordrakk’s twin axes fell upon his skull, Pergus vowed vengeance with his last breath.[1d]
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