“I have ever been the son of poverty, but I grew to become the husband of power.”
So spoke Han Shizhong upon his deathbed. True to his word, he was born into obscurity, the son of poor farmers much like millions of others in the vast and fecund Empire of Zhong Guo.
For all the inauspiciousness of his birth, though, Shizhong was blessed by Azyr with an analytical mind as sharp and clear as glass and as swift as a summer zephyr. In the constant warfare of the Age of Chaos, this allowed him to rise high in Zhong Guo’s army, winning impossible victory after victory.
His alliance and love affair with his future wife, the courtier Li Qiang, allowed him access to the Imperial Court and true power- together, they reformed Zhong Guo’s army, rebuilt its defenses and ushered in a century of security and prosperity.
Reforged, Shizhong was no less the leader than he had been in life- as a Lord Celestant of the Hammers of Sigmar, he proved versatile and ferocious, purging the taint of Chaos all across the Realms. It was this ability that brought him to the attention of Monique von Helminger, and which saw him maneuvered into serving in the armies of the Delegation during the war for Amasya.
In the aftermath of that war, with the opening of the Ghyrplunge, Shizhong volunteered to lead the first Delegation forces through to the other side, a handpicked squad of Prosecutors and Vanguard seeking to sound out how the new Realmgate might change the strategic situation in the city.
Those among his retinue who reached the Anvil of Apotheosis describe a freak storm falling upon them, dividing their ranks and leaving them nearly blinded by the swirling snow and ice. Out of the maelstrom came a titanic, shadowy figure, who struck them down one by one. And yet Han Shizhong was not among the number to be reforged.
A captive, a martyr, a survivor- Shizhong’s fate remains unknown, and yet many among the Expedition and beyond counted him as a friend, and are determined to find the truth…
