Gotrek and Felix
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Gotrek and Felix is a series of novels written by William King set in the fictional Warhammer Fantasy universe. They chronicle the adventurers of a Dwarven Slayer named Gotrek Gurnisson and his poet/insurrectionist companion, Felix Jaeger. As a Slayer, Gotrek seeks a glorious death in battle to atone for his unknown sins; Felix, bound to him by a Dwarven oath incurred after a drunken binge of epic proportions, is tasked with writing of his heroic exploits and ultimately recording his death. Felix, however, has long since come to adopt the opinion that "Anything capable of killing The Slayer would finish me off shortly afterwards".
As well as appaering in the novels they have also been incoprated into the Warhammer Fantasy Battle game appearing initially as hero characters for the Dwarf army and then later in the Dogs of War army book.
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[edit] Appearance
Gotrek has the typical appearance of Dwarven Slayer: heavily muscled and tattooed with a beard and hair in a coloured mohawk. He is missing an eye which was lost in a battle with goblins and favours a heavy rune axe as a weapon. Felix is a human with a swordman's physique and long blonde hair, who favors a chain shirt and red cloak. He is the younger son of the Jaeger noble family, but was thrown out after killing a rival in a duel and leading riots against an unpopular window tax in Altdorf.
In terms of combat ability, the two characters are quite different. In a fight, Gotrek becomes a nigh-unstoppable engine of destruction, against which nothing has thus far been able to stand for very long. Felix, on the other hand, swiftly learned that the best place for him to be in a melee is at Gotrek's side, not out of any particular sense of fellowship, but more because anything getting past his own guard will likely be butchered by the dwarf in short order. Nevertheless, Felix is himself an accomplished swordsman quite capable of holding his own in any fight.
The pair are armed with magical weaponry. Felix wields Karaghul, a blade with a dragon hilt recovered from the fallen hold of Karak Eight Peaks; a relic of the Order of the Fiery Heart templars, it was forged for the purpose of slaying dragons.
Gotrek wields an enormous battleaxe imbued with immense magical potency by ancient dwarven runic magic. He gained this weapon during his first excursion into the northern Chaos Wastes, where he recovered it from the dead son of King Thangrim Firebeard. In the Warhammer Fantasy board game, Gotrek's axe is similar in power to the axe wielded by the dwarven king, Thorgrim Grudgebearer. This weapon was the Runemaster's Axe of the lost dwarven horde of Karag Dum, and supposedly previously belonged to the dwarven deity Grimnir. Although the link is rarely, if ever, directly stated, the suggestion appears to be that the second, and more powerful of Grimnir's axes is now wielded by Gotrek Gurnisson. The elven mage Teclis once read the magical aura of Gotrek, and determined that immense power is flowing from the axe and subtly changing The Slayer into something greater than an ordinary dwarf (see the novel "Giant Slayer").
[edit] Gotrek and Felix Novels
The series is comprised of the following:
- Trollslayer
- Skavenslayer
- Daemonslayer
- Dragonslayer
- Beastslayer
- Vampireslayer
- Giantslayer
- Orcslayer (written by Nathan Long)
The series from Trollslayer to Beastslayer have been collected in Gotrek and Felix Omnibus I and II.
The pair have been in several short stories as well.
