The battle saw reinforcements hurled in from both sides, and there the sylvaneth offered their first true gesture of aid to the Stormcasts.
Here, Lord-Celestant Gardus’ Hallowed Knights fought the daemon legions of Bolathrax, the Great Unclean One. Though all faced battle, none was more costly than the fight before the Gates of Dawn. Meanwhile, Sigmar’s Stormhosts flashed down to seize critical Realmgates. The Knights-Azyros took Sigmar’s light to the dark places of her domain, bearing their master’s word to the brooding queen. Long ago, Sigmar and Alarielle had been allies, and now the God-King sought to reforge those bonds. Exploding from the heavens amid blasts of crackling power, the Stormcast Eternals brought both salvation and retribution. But then came the thunder, and with it, Sigmar’s mighty storm. Noisome fogs and vast clouds of daemonic insects swarmed across the skies, and it seemed as though Rotwater Blight faced its final days. Just as summer must give way to winter, she retreated into cold dormancy, leaving her minions to struggle on as best they could. Yet, gradually, the horrific grind of the War of Life wore upon Alarielle’s spirit. Though vast woodlands withered and corrupted shimmerfalls rained poison upon the lands, still the sylvaneth hosts fought on. From within the vale of Athelwyrd, hidden deep in Rotwater Blight, Alarielle directed her subjects in their war against the armies of Grandfather Nurgle.
Life, however, is as adaptable as it is tenacious. The ragged banners of Nurgle jutted from every horizon, and entire civilisations turned to the Plague God’s worship rather than fall to the sickness that ravaged their lands. Vile contagions thickened the waterways into phlegmy gruel. Rot-clad daemons and bloated Blightkings carved down all who stood before them, their victims’ screams smothered by the drone of a billion flies. For five centuries their war of corruption had raged. Relentless as the waters of a filthy flood, Nurgle’s armies flowed in great number across the Jade Kingdoms. The War for the Jade Kingdoms Chapter 1: The Blighted Realm Ghyran's Plight