From: "G.G.Lepper" <ZZA95GGL@sheffield.ac.uk>
Subject: WFRP: South Lands...

  Hey, I don't think I've seen anything on the Southlands 
recently...so I'll post an idea or two, just a little sketch of whats 
happened down there for the last few thousand years!  If you read 
this, you're then obliged to respond.  Remember that!

THE SOUTHLANDS
  Ah, the lovely Southlands, flora and fauna unique to the area.  One 
of the unexplored places of the continent.  Small tribes of humans 
live there in relative harmony with their environment, if not with 
their neighbors...

THE SLANN
  In the hierarchy of ancient space travelling Slann society, amonst 
the greatest and wisest of the Slann, there were the gahdSlann.  
There were three known.  
  The first, and greatest, was Mazdamundi, now Emperor of the Slann 
Empire in Lustria.  His site was located where his capital is now.  
He was the one responsible for the seeding of Elves and Dwarves, he 
then turned this over to his protege...
  His protege, lived at a large Slann settlement and spaceport in the 
Southlands.  His name is forgotten, it's doubtful in Mazdamundi even 
remembers.... This gahdSlann eventually started seeding and developing 
humanity under the guidance of Mazdamundi.
  The third, was working on the Steppes between Kislev and Imperial 
Cathay.  What his duties were, no one remembers...
  What's important, is what each did when the disaster struck.  
  Mazdamundi, the greatest, before it happened, had a premonition.  
All the gahdSlann were hooked up to devices, communicating with the 
Slann Empire.  These devices, which partly consisted of a strange 
mirror (which Mazdamundi uses to this day, to watch over his Empire 
in Lustria...) operated by opening a tunnel through the void.  When 
the entire Slann portal system collapsed, the tides of Warp (Chaos) 
flooded into the system with catastropic effects.  Mazdamundi, 
forewarned, destroyed the portal, and all the satellites in space 
orbiting, that were part of the system.  He therefore survived, and 
lives to this day.
  The one in the steppes, was taken unaware, and the void flowed 
through him, into the machinery and had a chain effect, destroying 
all the Slann ouposts in the Steppes with massive Warp explosions.
  The gahdSlann in the South lands, the one working on humans, was 
a gifted and innovative one.  That's why Mazdamundi had placed the 
human research in his hands.  He too was connected to the same 
system.  When the Warp struck him through the portal, he 
instinctively channeled it through his mind, instead of closing the 
portal.  As it flowed into his mind, the Warp permeated every aspect 
of his being...He tried in those few precious moments of time to 
channel it, to alter it, to force it to take shape.  When he realized 
that this was impossible, before he could be consumed, he projected 
the Warp flow from his mind to all the Slann under his control.  He 
simply couldn't contain it, and it was this final act of self 
preservation that doomed the Slann in the Southlands.
  The projection had disasterous effects.  Within seconds of the 
intial Warp Portal collapse, and the consequent projection of the 
Warp, the minds of most Slann, and their physical being were utterly 
consumed.  Slann's head exploded, their bodies blew apart...Some were 
sucked into the void, others had their minds or body terribly 
mishaped.  The majority of buildings disappeared in explosions like 
those in the Steppes...
  The human savages, under control of the Slann, suddenly found their 
masters dead or raving mad.  In a bloody uprising, the humans killed 
their owners, and tore down their former prisons.  The Slann were 
broken.  A few mishapen, ugly mad Slann crawled off into the 
jungles...twisted shadows of a fallen Empire.  
  Over the years, the humans gradually worked their way north, 
although a few stayed behind.
  However, for the gahdSlann in the Southlands, not all was over.  As 
he was projecting the Warp instantaneosly...Mazdamundi had managed to 
shut the Warp gates.  The ones at the poles he was to late to save, 
they had blown open, and also destroyed Slann outposts at the poles.  
A few other gates remained open, beyond Mazdamundi's control, and a 
handful were not even disturbed by the disaster.
  With the portal to his mind closed, the ghadSlann of the Southlands 
discovered, with his last sentient thought, that he had himself 
became a sort of portal...
  The void did not yet have the Chaos gods, they were manifestations 
that came later to imprint themselves from the impressions of the 
developing races...
  The gahdSlann had attempted to impose order on the Void and failed. 
His whole being was imbued with the warp, and lay half way between 
reality and the Void (later known as the Chaos realms).  His 
impressions were amongst the first impressed into the Void.  In 
essence, he became the first Chaos god!
  
THE RESHAPING  
  He lay crippled, his mirror and devices shattered, inside a 
partially destroyed Slann pyramid.  He lay there for thousands of 
years, half dead, entirely insane, and eternally damned.  He has, and 
will continue, to escape the notice of the Chaos gods, not belonging 
in the Realms, nor in reality.  His mind and body crippled, he lay 
there, gradually swelling with the power of the Warp, as it still 
contiued to leak in minute amounts into his body.  From his throne, 
his body spilled as it grew out of the rooms, through cracks, in 
ventilation shafts, down electrical lines.  His body gradually took 
over the ancient Slann machinery over thousands of years.  His 
pyramid had escaped the majority of the destruction (his act of self 
preservation).  In time, his body had joined with the technology of 
the building.  He has become a portal to the warp, a chaos god, and a 
living building.  Deep in the heart of the building lies his bloated 
body filling the central chambers and creeping along the arteries and 
pathways of the pyramid.
  
TODAY...
  Lately, in the past few hundred years, the pyramid looks 
unoccupied.  Deep inside, the machinery and the gahdSlann are coming 
alive...forgotten Slann portals in the area flicker open, machinery 
long lost in the jungle switch on, startling the nearby wildlife.
  With the strange occurances in the jungle, the witchdoctor and 
wise man of a local tribe, urged the chief and the warriors, to seek 
out the danger.  They left.  A few days later, they returned.  They 
grabbed the other members of the tribe and dragged them screaming to 
a strange humming pyramid in the center of the jungle...
  Over the years, four other tribes have fallen prey to the 
gahdSlann.  Dominated by the awesome Psionics, magic, and technology 
controlled by the gahdSlann, he has become worshipped by the local 
humans.  Strange daemons now come and go, summoned by foul sacrafices 
by the humans.  These subjugated tribes sometimes bear an ancient 
relics of the Slann,  powerful weapons capable of incredible 
destruction.
  For now, the majority of tribes fear the Daemon haunted living 
pyramid, with it's foul servants and bloodthirsty human guards.  The 
human minions are nearly crazed automatons of an unthinking monster.  
It is feared that things could change.  Many tribes are not even 
aware of the danger, but with everyday the creeping strength of the 
things in the jungle, more and more become conscious of the danger.  
More and more fear...