Meanwhile, a fourth, secretive race stirs, their motives obscured by sinister plots and machinations. He tastes great weakness in the vortex – and great opportunity in its demise. The Witch King Malekith and his sadistic Dark Elf hordes spew forth from Naggaroth and their labyrinthine Black Arks. He, too, is intent on preventing cataclysm, though the methods of The Old Ones must prevail. Atop his palanquin-throne, the Slann Mage-Priest Mazdamundi directs his Lizardmen war-hosts as they surge northward from Lustria. Prince Tyrion, Defender of Ulthuan, guides the High Elves in their desperate efforts to stabilise the vortex as it roils above their home continent. The race is on, and the very fate of the world will lie in the hands of the victor. Yet others seek to harness its terrible energies for their own bitter purpose. Powerful forces move to heal the maelstrom and avert catastrophe. Now the Great Vortex falters, and the world again stands at the brink of ruin. Its purpose was to draw the Winds of Magic from the world as a sinkhole drains an ocean, and blast the Daemonic hordes back to the Realm of Chaos. Millennia ago, besieged by a Chaos invasion, a conclave of High Elf mages forged a vast, arcane vortex.
