Previously.
Outside the city of Magritta.
The Greenskin Great Warboss, Gorkamorka Wyvern.
Following Gork and Mork's Chosen, Gorkamorka—the first Great Warboss to launch a Great WAAAAAGH! after the End Times—this second Great Warboss to launch a Great WAAAAAGH! was now beginning to realize something was wrong with the northern campaign.
A single defeat for Bald Beast, a capable Warboss under the Great Warboss's command, might not mean much. But running into setbacks twice in a row when ordered to besiege and remove the two thorns on the inevitable path of their northern advance proved one thing very clearly:
The situation was starting to slip out of the Great Warboss's control.
Gorkamorka was not a traditional Greenskin warlord. To put it roughly: he was a Great Warboss who leaned toward rationality and strategy among Greenskins, akin to a rather brutal and belligerent ruler among humans.
The Great Warboss realized his plan needed to speed up a bit; he couldn't just keep his massive army camped outside the city walls waiting for the Magrittans to physically submit.
So, after the news from Magus arrived, the Great Warboss launched a massive siege assault. They even broke through three layers of city walls at one point, and the banners of Gork and Mork were already fluttering on the wall's watchtowers.
The acting Prince's Council was even ready to ignite their gunpowder, blow up the entire city—and then try to run away using teleportation magic.
Yet the Great Warboss stopped sending follow-up troops into the city. Waiting for the Magrittans to counterattack and retake the city gates, he let them discover in horror through the breaches that a massive, even more elite Greenskin warband was waiting outside the walls. Under the command of the Wyvern Guard, as long as the Great Warboss ordered them to assault, the defensive line the Magrittans had just reclaimed would be in immediate danger of being lost again.
But the Great Warboss didn't move. After letting the defenders see the disparity in strength between the two sides, he had the guards retreat, as if he had just sent them on an armed stroll.
To intimidate the enemy.
The defenders' morale plummeted. Uncertain of the Greenskin butcher's bizarre intentions, and compounded by the prolonged siege, unease spread rapidly along the city walls. Subsequently, the Great Warboss immediately sent his envoy into the city...
If Al knew the demands proposed during the negotiations with the Magrittans by the instigator of this Greenskin invasion—the first formidable enemy he expected to face in the mid-game, Great Warboss Gorkamorka Wyvern—and the purpose behind his launching of this WAAAAAGH!, the boy would definitely be shocked pale, then not know whether to laugh or cry:
A tiny little Estalia.
Simultaneously visited by two foreign kings of different races, but both harboring the same goal: to conquer this land and its people.
One was a Beastman, a race infamous for Chaos corruption, the "filth of this world."
The other was a Greenskin Orc, the "cancer of the world," symbolizing savagery and brutality.
Two races—one evil, corrupt, and filthy; the other savage, brainless, and destructive... In short, neither should have anything to do with "ruling," let alone ruling a human kingdom. Yet their leaders coincidentally set their sights on this southern twin kingdom blessed by the Goddess Myrmidia.
It's hard to say whether it was the fortune or misfortune of the people of this land.
Estalia: First of all, I have a brother kingdom [Tilea], but you haven't even spared him a single glance up to this point.
The Great Warboss's envoy acted very leniently this time. He (a Vampire Coast pirate) brought the Great Warboss's pardon, stating:
You humans suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of the Guadaz River. Now, the Great Warboss's vanguard has swept up your routed soldiers, broken Veling and Magus, and is about to head north to flatten Demontrei;
The Northerners are shivering in fear inside the city of Bilbali, not daring at all to send out their precious army to block the advance of the Great Warboss's troops. They only hope to wait for reinforcements and miracles while defending their city. But even if we can't take Bilbali, your South will definitely be completely occupied by the Greenskins;
The Great Warboss has already demonstrated his power and patience. He can breach Magritta's defenses right now. But because he doesn't want this "city whose unique charm even Greenskins can feel" to be destroyed by the flames of war (so that even if you Southerners reclaim it later, you'll forever be subordinate to the Northerners, cackle cackle), representing the Great Warboss's ultimate mercy, he conveys the following points:
First, the people of Magritta must immediately submit to Great Warboss Wyvern and must no longer fight against the Greenskin army;
Second, the city council must send representatives outside the city to seek an audience with the Greenskin Warlord and express their submission;
Third, hand over a quarter of the wealth in this metropolis as a city ransom, and disband or hand over a quarter of your troops to be employed by the Greenskins, just like the precedent set many years ago when the Tileans hired Greenskins;
Fourth, all the ransom paid by the Magrittans will be used to hire Magrittan soldiers and engineers, and purchase their ordnance and provisions. The Great Warboss promises that all the wealth will return to the Magrittans, including the loot plundered during the southern war, which will all be handed over to or used on Magritta;
Fifth, after Magritta submits to the Great Warboss, they must guarantee that starting in one year, they will dispatch an army to join the Great Warboss's command and participate in combat. The Great Warboss will treat the Magrittans as cooperative partners. Later, after marching east to conquer Tilea or taking down the North, he will hand the southern lands over to the Magrittans, on the condition that the Southerners support the Greenskins' Great WAAAAAGH! war.
Conversely, if the Magrittans choose to continue resisting, the Great Warboss will show no more pity. He will immediately launch a general assault, raze Magritta to the ground, turn the entire South into a barren wasteland, and continue his attack north and east. If the Estalians gather a massive coalition of allies, the Great Warboss will sweep the entire southern land, capture all Southerners as Greenskin slaves, and cross the sea back to the Badlands.
That way, even if the Estalians ultimately win, the entire South will have been beaten to a pulp, never able to recover its previous prosperity and status. Because the Northerners will seize this opportunity to forever stand above the kingdom!
Whether it was Greenskins taking the initiative to seek peace talks, or these decent-looking negotiation demands, none of it seemed like something a Greenskin could do.
But time didn't wait for the Magrittans to recover from their shock. The pirate cannons and Greenskin scrap lobbers once again bombarded the city walls.
This time, the deterrent intent was even heavier. They specifically targeted the areas that were still barely stable, continuously creating terrifying explosions and noise, slowly prying open the minds of the Magrittans.
The arduous and grueling siege had lasted for nearly half a year.
Although this grand seaport metropolis had abundant reserves, manpower was always difficult to replenish, and the people's will was growing exhausted by the day.
Frankly speaking, if the enemy outside the city wasn't the Greenskin race, but—for example, the grand army of neighboring Tilea—those conditions wouldn't be considered extremely harsh.
The first condition was basically nonsense, the second was the same.
The third issue regarding the ransom didn't specify an exact number, leaving room for negotiation. As for the troops, if they surrendered, it wouldn't matter even if the troop demand doubled, and vice versa.
The fourth condition, that the Greenskins would use the reparations to hire and purchase Magrittan resources, was unimaginable to many. Those green-skinned blockheads whose brains only thought about chop-chop-chop, eat-until-full-then-chop-chop-chop, and chop-until-tired-then-eat-eat-eat, actually possessed this kind of awareness?
These formal terms, which didn't sound like something a Greenskin would say, actually made many people ponder if there really was a possibility of negotiating peace with that special, strange Greenskin Great Warboss, "Gorkamorka Wyvern"?