Set upon an altar of black iron in the Blighted Isle, the Sword of Khaine waits as it has waited since the dawn of the world. It is the very weapon of Khaine, the murder-god of the elves, and whoever draws it from the altar is made invincible in war — no foe may stand against the wielder, no blade may find their flesh. But the price of that gift is the wielder's soul, for the sword drowns all thought beneath an unquenchable thirst for slaughter, until the bearer knows nothing but killing.
For uncounted centuries the High Elf Realms have kept grim vigil over the Blighted Isle, for they understand that to unsheathe the Widowmaker is to unleash a doom upon the whole world. The blade offers salvation and damnation in the same breath: victory over every enemy, purchased with the ruin of the one who wields it.
The Dark Elves hold no such restraint. To the followers of the Witch King, the sword is the ultimate prize, and more than once their armies have sought to seize it and turn its endless carnage against their sundered kin. Elven prophecy holds that when the Widowmaker is finally drawn in earnest, it shall herald the last war of the elves — a slaughter without end, unleashed upon a world already sliding into darkness.
The reliquary continues
