Months had passed since the battle of the mountain of Mulhacén, or more commonly as it is now called Bone Mountain.
As a result of the battle the ratmen attacks in the south had ceased, although there were still reports of small rat bands going around scavenging for food.
The battle had been extremely costly and foolish. Most of the trained professional soldiers of Iberia had died, leaving most of Iberia lawless and undefended.
Bands of brigands and thieves roamed the land looting villages left without men to protect it. While the women were turned into their playthings and defiled.
The war against the rats had also inspired many villagers to form peasant armies of their own. These armies had moved north towards the Pyrenees mountain ranges to join the French in their struggle against the rats.
But along the way many smaller peasant forces had been lost as a new enemy had emerged. From the forests, hills and mountains inland had emerged a long-forgotten enemy. They were the beastmen, a very savage and primitive race with few females. When attacking the peasants traveling through the forest roads. They struck from all sides chanting their war cries, tossing their javelins and axes. Then when going into close combat they charged in an unorganized mob from all sides and proceeded to slaughter all the men with their primitive axes and clubs. When the killing ended they ate the men, tied up the screaming and sobbing women and took them back to replenish their numbers.
Many of their number were beastly goat-like people. On two hoofed hind legs, they stood tall as men and with small horns. While some of them stood much taller and were blessed with massive horns like a majestic goat. But thanks to their savage nature many females didn't make it to adulthood or had short lives, so they needed to rely on animals or other human-like sentient creatures for recreation.
There were also some rarer species amongst them. Centaurs, half horse and half goatman. They are the fast-moving cavalry of their race. Like with the goatmen the centaur's pride and symbol of status is the size of their horns.
Then at the highest peaks of the mountains lay the harpys. Half bird, half women. They are an interesting species of beastmen. Able to spawn more of their kind on their own and also able to bear children of their partners if one were able to catch them. They are a very useful species used for the spawning of new beastmen and also the conquering of high places.
Sensing the humanities weakness they had decided to strike once more in hopes of reclaiming the lowlands. Many villages had been raided and peasant armies had been ambushed.
The beastmen had learned animal husbandry and so spared all the farm animals for their later use. The foodstuffs and all valuable tools were gathered and taken back to their mountain homes. And as for the people, all the men were killed and the women were taken for later breeding purposes.
Now as the countryside was being ravaged by brigands and beastmen. The surviving nobility had decided to close themselves off to the outside world. They hid in their castles far away from the populated cities. News of King Uther's death and Prince Antonio's failure and debauchery had spread. News of all of this had sparked massive riots in the cities. People demanded answers, why had their fathers, sons, husbands and brothers died in such massive numbers for a rat-loving prince?
To appease the people the King of Aragon had arrested Antonio and Xixi. They had been imprisoned in the tallest tower of the highest peak in Madrid. And Antonio's second brother was placed as crown prince while the third brother took the second spot in succession, leaving Antonio dead last.
But this was not enough the people demanded their execution, leaving the king with a hard decision to make. For Antonio was still his son and the husband of the now queen and ruler of Andalusia. The economy was stable now as the harvest had been gathered before the war but winter was here and the coming year would be uncertain. With so much loss of life, crop yields would suffer and famine would follow. Unifying Iberia was more important now than ever before, for it could bring much-needed stability to the real.
But was not his only concern, as the Arabians had started a recolonization of Granada and it's surrounding vacant lands. Independent lords of Arabia not supported by the Sultan had started to build fortresses and move their own people into the lands.
News of this infuriated the king to no end. But as his remaining forces fought the ratmen in the north he was left powerless, not able to do anything about the Arabians. All he could do was send emissaries to them in hopes that the Arabians would back off peacefully.
Far to the East from the Alps rat swarms moved in all directions consuming everything in their path. As such no help was coming to Iberia and the Arabs were left to do as they pleased.
But as Europe fought with the rats and beastmen, another threat approached humanity from the Far East.
From the desert of Persia, savage bloodthirsty green hordes marched west towards the Mediterranean Sea. These greenskin monsters were truly amazing creatures.
Just like in the period known as the war in heaven, that had brought the many races to earth. In a similar fashion, the greenskins had come here also.
It happened a hundred years ago. In the night sky, a great star made of metal had fallen down from the heavens to the Persian desert. And from that star, the greenskins had emerged. At first, they were only a handful in number, only capable of raiding small farms. But as time went on they started to threaten villages.
At first, the task of dealing with this new threat was left to the local lords. But they quickly discovered how fearsome the greenskins were. No normal man could face a greenskin orc, as they were called in singular combat. Smaller greenskins called Goblins that had noses similar to the Jews could be easily killed by a singular warrior. But these small greedy and cunning creatures never travelled alone and they preferred to ambush their enemies.
After realising just how great of a threat the greenskins were it had already been too late. With each successful battle and day that passed their numbers had just grown.
Then they had started to loot and burn entire towns and cities. Despite fierce resistance from the Arabian armies over the hundred years of war, the Greenskins had still managed to spread further and further.
Now with the fall of Persia, all land routes to the great Eastern Empires of Ind and Ming had been lost. In hopes of stopping this green tide from spreading further, the Arabians had resorted to desperate ancient lost magic. But doing so had only caused further calamity. The resurrected legions of old, meant to protect Araby had turned into their enemies. Fueled by their hatred for the living the undead legions awoken From the Egyptian pyramids started to cleanse the land of the living.
Now facing all these threats the Arabs had hoped to find allies in Europe but right before help could arrive the rat war had begun.
Now left alone and divided they were left alone to face this desperate situation.
Up in the Northeast, on the snow-covered grounds of Russia. As if sensing the weakness of humanity, great beastmen hordes of centaur's had started to move west from the arid steps of the East.
The Hung, the greatest of all beastmen tribes in the east now migrated west towards the fertile lands of modern-day Ukraine.
Standing between them was only one great nation. Kislev the Empire that ruled over all of Eastern Europe. It is an Empire known for its fertile lands and compassionate, generous and hardworking people. It also is a land of great thinkers and artists. It's alcohol is the strongest in all of Europe as is it's bear cavalry.
After defeating the dark dwarves of the Ural mountains a great period of peace and prosperity had followed. But now the Empires armies stand on the river Volga prepared to face this new coming enemy.