Malign Portents

[Ar-Pharazôn]

If Nagash would end Chaos, he must be stopped. Why would anyone support Death over Nurgle's love, Khorne's rage, Tzeentch's pranks, and Slaanesh's [CENSORED]?

[EccentricCircle]

6 hours ago, ShadowSwordmaster said:

That part was really cool. It shows that GW thought about Nagash and the Grand Alliance of Death's role in the greater universe. I really like how Nagash more or less has a greater plan to deal with the other factions in the Mortal Realms with the Nercoquake and other things.

The idea that the final victory of the undead would destroy the chaos gods is quite an old idea. I know that Manfred says as much in the old Liber Necris lore book.

[Gorks Pokin' Finger]

New story is up https://malignportents.com/story/head-to-head/

And it's the return of everyone's favorite Bonesplitta, Gulgaz Stoneklaw, Big Boss of the Gutstompas. Pretty fun read. Brought back memories a bit of the old Orcs and Goblins 

[Rogue Explorator]

2 hours ago, Gorks Pokin' Finger said:

New story is up https://malignportents.com/story/head-to-head/

And it's the return of everyone's favorite Bonesplitta, Gulgaz Stoneklaw, Big Boss of the Gutstompas. Pretty fun read. Brought back memories a bit of the old Orcs and Goblins 

I really liked this one. There is nothing "new" in it, but it serves to reinforce and support the existing portrayal of the hordes of destruction and the surreal nature of the mortal Realms.

 

One thing though, so far it has always been obvious that Gulgaz is plain and simply nuts, but we have recently had a slew of Characters hearing voices and struck with similar visions and in all these cases Nagash was ultimately the one pulling the strings. Could his talking heads be another mouthpiece of big N?

[Kaleb Daark]

2 hours ago, xking said:

Nagash is a "self" appointed supreme god of death, who conqued the realm of death, killing countless billions of people and devoured an unknown number of  innocent  death gods, usurping them .  Not only that,  when Sigmar freed him, Nagash immediately began to plot a way to usurp the other incarnate gods. Meaning he was planing to betray Sigmar from the start.  Yet he complains about being betrayed and usurp and deciding for himself that all the dead belong to him.

 

Nagash is the definition  of a whiny hypocrite.

 

 

Source, Legions of Nagash battletome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

in End Times Nagash went into the realm of death and Killed Morr the original god of death, therefore, becoming the god of death by assuming his power.

So in one respect he's right.  As god of death , he wants all the souls of the dead to pass through into the underworld, however he's never relinquished his origins as the power hungry necromancer - and that's where the duality in  his persona lies for me.

I can see why as the death god he feels short changed by the others who have not let souls go to their rightful resting place, but by the same token he's not exactly letting the souls that do go to him find eternal rest in whatever form their faith see's an afterlife either,  instead moulding them into tools for his war machine.

Imagine (not that its going to happen) if it was Nagash who reveals where Slaanesh is hidden in an attempt to punish the elves for what they've done.

[Clan's Cynic]

So, the campaign part of Malign Portents is meant to continue this summer right? Or am I remembering it wrong?

[WarbossKurgan]

26 minutes ago, Clan's Cynic said:

So, the campaign part of Malign Portents is meant to continue this summer right? Or am I remembering it wrong?

Dread Solstice was the Malign Portents campaign and that has finished. Soul Wars is the next phase of the  AoS narrative and as far as I know we haven't heard about another campaign for that, but it would be great (if unprecedented) for there to be another campaign!

[Rogue Explorator]

One thing I find interesting is that Nagash was not the god of anything when he arrived in the Mortal Realms and he not only took that role by conquest, but did so with the backing and support of Sigmar, even though there was a working system of Underworlds and gods of the Dead already. This carries some hefty implications:

-If Nagash was not the god of his Realm uppon arrival, the other seven of Sigmars pantheon likely where not either.

-If there where other gods of Dead, then there likely where other gods of Life and the other Realms. Nagash has slain and devoured his rivals. What did the others, who where aware of his actions, do with theirs? After all, there are very few other gods around now (Dracothian and the Ur-Phoenix, that we know of). Was Grimnir fighting Vulcatrix a fight to stop a rampaging monster? Or a step to remove a rival god? What about all the "monsters" then that Sigmar and Gorkamorka have slain?

-That there where so many underworlds and gods formed from the beliefs of existing cultures around when Nagash was awoken throws a serious wrench in the narrative that Sigmar and his Pantheon brought civilisation to the mortal Realms. Sounds to me like the people of the Mortal Realms where well on their way of building civilisation themself.

It all paints the picture to me that the gods of Sigmars Pantheon where interlopers to the Mortal Realms who took over by force. Sure, the nicer ones propably did it mostly because they knew Chaos was coming and thought only they could stop it, though turning around and buggering of to do their own thing when it was time to stop Chaos sort of makes that a dishonest claim.

 

There is a lot of speculation in the above, of course. But some things are certain and should be kept in mind when discussing Nagashes role in the Age of Myth:

-The other gods where in on it

-The story of Sigmars Pantheon "founding civilisation in the mortal Realms" was not has bright and noble as initially told. Which is really not that surprising when you remember that it not only involved Nagash, but also Malerion, Morathi and Gorkamorka

-Sigmar has a looong history of commiting "necessary" evils that do not turn out so great

 

44 minutes ago, xking said:

It was not morr, it was Usirian.   I don't know what happened to morr.

I think the implication was Morr=Usirian. Not that it matters anymore, that was when he usurped the Death gods of the World-That-Was. His ursupation the role of Death God in the Mortal Realms is a seperate story.

1 hour ago, Clan's Cynic said:

So, the campaign part of Malign Portents is meant to continue this summer right? Or am I remembering it wrong?

The original announcement for Malign Portents was that there would be a follow up product to deal with the result, like Firestorm was for Seasons of War, though not necessarily in the same format. I do not think it was ever stated to come this Summer though.

I think as long as the stories continue, so does Malign Portents. Though with the MP main plot resolved for now, I would not be surprise with MP ending on the Soul Wars release.

I really hope GW will continue to give us regular short stories in some format, if they can sustain it. Aside from the fun speculating, I found the stories the best part of MP so far.

[MaatithoftheBrand]

1 hour ago, Clan's Cynic said:

So, the campaign part of Malign Portents is meant to continue this summer right? Or am I remembering it wrong?

According to staff in my local GW, there will be a big something happening in store this summer for AoS with a chance to use your models to make a real difference - he appeared to be hinting that this was an event type thing rather than just the one store but I might have misread that.

[shinros]

5 hours ago, xking said:

Nagash is a "self" appointed supreme god of death, who conqued the realm of death, killing countless billions of people and devoured an unknown number of  innocent  death gods, usurping them .  Not only that,  when Sigmar freed him, Nagash immediately began to plot a way to usurp the other incarnate gods. Meaning he was planing to betray Sigmar from the start.  Yet he complains about being betrayed and usurp and deciding for himself that all the dead belong to him.

 

Nagash is the definition  of a whiny hypocrite.

 

 

Source, Legions of Nagash battletome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But per the writer of LON Nagash is the end of chaos. Whatever Sigmar is doing is futile in the grand scheme of things. So yeah. Also he was not "self" appointed the pantheon and even sigmar agreed that Nagash is the god of death in the article. Souls not going to the underworld literally weakens him, Nagash even says in pantheon that souls passing on(dissipating) is pretty much the way of things. Going by spear of shadows whatever Nagash's plans are he is still doing his original job from the age of myth. 

Xking GW are trying to make it more "grey", if you are going to start whining about betrayers what of the aelf gods? Despite Nagash having his own plans he was the last to leave the pantheon. The aelf gods quit the field soon as they got a wiff of aelf souls and the everqueen went into hiding. Essentially chaos manipulated Nagash and sigmar to break the alliance by playing on their flaws. Sigmar's drive to defeat the enemy without consideration(pride) which caused him to lose his hammer and Nagash's well....selfishness in a sense. 

From the everchosen battle tome.

"Archaon has ever been a cunning general, able to discern the will of his foes. During battle of Burning skies, he played upon sigmar's pride to trick his foe into hurling Ghal Maraz into a rift in reality, denying the God king his magical hammer. In the vicious struggle for the Allpoints, Archaon manipulated Nagash's self serving nature to ensure the Great necromancer proved the downfall of his allies, leading to the capture of the allpoints by chaos forces."

[amysrevenge]

Really liked today's story. Finally one that isn't unmitigated gloom and horror.  Happy ending!

[Rogue Explorator]

53 minutes ago, shinros said:

But per the writer of LON Nagash is the end of chaos. Whatever Sigmar is doing is futile in the grand scheme of things. So yeah.

Since this seems such an important point to you, I have to ask:

What is the point of defeating Chaos this way?

 

It would still be the end of all life and all free will in the Mortal Realms. It is not like defeating Chaos in the Mortal Realms will destroy Chaos in the Warhammer multiverse at large (which we know exists from Battletome:Everchosen; Archaon ended other worlds between the Endtimes and his invasion of the Mortal Realms).

It would be fighting to win without care what one is fighting for.

Sigmar and the other gods of Order may have a lot of Skeletons in their closet, I certainly would not call them "good", but let us grant them that they are the only ones fighting to preserve people living their own life and keeping their own will. Saying that the GAs are various shades of grey is a bit much to me and trying to argue that Nagash is "really the good guy" is to me holds as little water as arguments the Chaos gods are.

AoS is more like various shades of grey, including some almost white ones (Vandus, Gardus, a few mortals, from what I can tell), in GA:Order, versus three different collections of off-black.

[shinros]

2 hours ago, Rogue Explorator said:

Since this seems such an important point to you, I have to ask:

What is the point of defeating Chaos this way?

 

It would still be the end of all life and all free will in the Mortal Realms. It is not like defeating Chaos in the Mortal Realms will destroy Chaos in the Warhammer multiverse at large (which we know exists from Battletome:Everchosen; Archaon ended other worlds between the Endtimes and his invasion of the Mortal Realms).

It would be fighting to win without care what one is fighting for.

Sigmar and the other gods of Order may have a lot of Skeletons in their closet, I certainly would not call them "good", but let us grant them that they are the only ones fighting to preserve people living their own life and keeping their own will. Saying that the GAs are various shades of grey is a bit much to me and trying to argue that Nagash is "really the good guy" is to me holds as little water as arguments the Chaos gods are.

AoS is more like various shades of grey, including some almost white ones (Vandus, Gardus, a few mortals, from what I can tell), in GA:Order, versus three different collections of off-black.

Never said nagash was a good guy I call him an iron fisted tyrant. That is what he is. Also in the same interview nick said if a god controlled all of the mortal realms they will be equvilant to a chaos god. If we look at the lore overall chaos views sigmar as an annoyance while nagash is a threat to them a clear one.

Now you bought up free will, yes nagash getting his way would remove what makes us people. Since he wants the living to worship his glory from life to death.

But then I asked myself one question, why would anyone follow nagash? I mean the gods of order are clearly "good" and some of them want their people to be well...people.

Now this is josh reynolds opinion.

Someone asked this same question on his ask fm. (I can't copy exactly since I am posting on my phone)

The reason why people flock to nagash is because compared to the other gods he is far more tangible in ways they are not.

Its why they held out during the age of chaos.

Nick even address this point in the interview. Why would people follow nagash?  Joe the farmer had nurgle drop a diease right on top of his heaad and you have all the chaos craziness going on aroud you. You pray to the gods of order and you get crikits, while nagash would offer his hand at a high cost. Most people will take it because of one reason, security.

So far what GW is doing is showing cracks in sigmars plan. And we all know how chaos works and how sigmar does things it will always be a problem.

What signar wants for the realms is a wonderful dream and I am glad thats how GW are treating it for thats all it is. Just look at the states of his cities.

That is why I find what is going on fascinating since as a mortal you have a choice. Follow sigmar you have some freedoms but its highly likely chaos will mutilate you or follow nagash who is not big on free will but your life and soul will be secured against the deprivations of chaos.

Nagash and sigmar are like two sides of the same coin. Hell I think if the gods were more like grungi things will be far better.

Right thats my stance. I am on a phone and at work so I could not explain my stance better. i hope that answers your question whether you agree with me or not.

 

[Rogue Explorator]

3 hours ago, shinros said:

Never said nagash was a good guy I call him an iron fisted tyrant. That is what he is. Also in the same interview nick said if a god controlled all of the mortal realms they will be equvilant to a chaos god. If we look at the lore overall chaos views sigmar as an annoyance while nagash is a threat to them a clear one.

Now you bought up free will, yes nagash getting his way would remove what makes us people. Since he wants the living to worship his glory from life to death.

I see. Tone is hard to gauge on the internet. I guess I mistook your posts as an ethical defense of Nagash, which seemed wonky. So I am glad we cleared that up.

3 hours ago, shinros said:

But then I asked myself one question, why would anyone follow nagash? I mean the gods of order are clearly "good" and some of them want their people to be well...people.

Now this is josh reynolds opinion.

Someone asked this same question on his ask fm. (I can't copy exactly since I am posting on my phone)

The reason why people flock to nagash is because compared to the other gods he is far more tangible in ways they are not.

Its why they held out during the age of chaos.

Nick even address this point in the interview. Why would people follow nagash?  Joe the farmer had nurgle drop a diease right on top of his heaad and you have all the chaos craziness going on aroud you. You pray to the gods of order and you get crikits, while nagash would offer his hand at a high cost. Most people will take it because of one reason, security.

So far what GW is doing is showing cracks in sigmars plan. And we all know how chaos works and how sigmar does things it will always be a problem.

What signar wants for the realms is a wonderful dream and I am glad thats how GW are treating it for thats all it is. Just look at the states of his cities.

That is why I find what is going on fascinating since as a mortal you have a choice. Follow sigmar you have some freedoms but its highly likely chaos will mutilate you or follow nagash who is not big on free will but your life and soul will be secured against the deprivations of chaos.

Nagash and sigmar are like two sides of the same coin. Hell I think if the gods were more like grungi things will be far better.

Right thats my stance. I am on a phone and at work so I could not explain my stance better. i hope that answers your question whether you agree with me or not.

 

No, I think once again we ultimately are in agreement.

I think, looking at it through the eyes of the Mortal Realms people, depending on their individual circumstances they can see Nagash and all gods of Chaos and Order alike as saviors or villains.

For example the Malign Portents events propably put up a nice bump into the Chaos gods recruitment drive, with Nagash unleashing terrors comparable with any daemon incursion, Sigmar and company showing a less than stellar crisis management and all the while many Reclaimed and Azyrites in the Free Cities and other new settlements might never have seen the horrors of Chaos firsthand.

[Kaleb Daark]

11 hours ago, xking said:

It was not morr, it was Usirian.   I don't know what happened to morr.

yup - he defeated Usurian which led to the destruction of morr, hinting that perhaps they were one and the same.

[HorticulusTGA]

https://malignportents.com/story/dying-star/ : Another great story ! Probably in my top 3,  with the Malerion / Morathi talk. 

... And it build on the best aspect of the Seraphon fluff : SPACE TEMPLE-SHIPS

It's IMO another fluff  "retcon" from AOS1 to AOS2 : the Seraphon are still material beings, spawned from pools inside the space ships (said space ships also seems to contain chunks of the World-that-was, apparently).

That doesn't mean they can't teleport anymore ; they are just beamed down from the ships or teleported by the Slaans.

TBH, I am glad of those kind of "retcons", because frankly the Seraphon Battletome was IMO lacking in terms of fluff, and the "memory deamon" was never convincing - now bring on the Celestial Magic High Tech Lizardmen GW !

[AaronWilson]

A little confused on this one, aren't Seraphon merely brought into the world by the Slanns will and are nothing more then a dream? This would suggest they're flesh and bone and spawned on said templeships. 

[Rogue Explorator]

21 minutes ago, HorticulusTGA said:

https://malignportents.com/story/dying-star/ : Another great story ! Probably in my top 3,  with the Malerion / Morathi talk. 

... And it build on the best aspect of the Seraphon fluff : SPACE TEMPLE-SHIPS

It's IMO another fluff  "retcon" from AOS1 to AOS2 : the Seraphon are still material beings, spawned from pools inside the space ships (said space ships also seems to contain chunks of the World-that-was, apparently).

That doesn't mean they can't teleport anymore ; they are just beamed down from the ships or teleported by the Slaans.

TBH, I am glad of those kind of "retcons", because frankly the Seraphon Battletome was IMO lacking in terms of fluff, and the "memory deamon" was never convincing - now bring on the Celestial Magic High Tech Lizardmen GW !

Absolutely loved this one.

This shows a lot of promise for the future of Seraphon, while drawing heavily from the Lizardmen of the World-That-Was.

I am not so sure how much of a retcon it is though. The Seraphon being "remembered" into existence was always worded so abstractly it could mean anything and anyway, only concerned the Seraphon in the Mortal Realms. As far as I remember, it had always been the case that the Seraphon among the stars of Azyr, far away from even the reach of Azyrheim, where the classical physical kind.

So in that case, the only new lore here is that Seraphon must be spawned among the Stars to be called to fight in the Realms and that their Starbarges are awesome. Seriously, I now want GW to create a mini-barge for the tabletop. And I do not think I am the only one.

 

Those conversions, by the way, are awesome as well. Are they yours?

 

[VoodooChileIRL]

Maybe that particular Slann remembers them having spawning chambers so they have spawning chambers.  And the memories of the Seraphon create new Seraphon from that same memory material. 

It's interesting the Seraphon Faction Focus doesn't state it outright one way or another.

Quote

Perhaps they hail from the celestial void. Perhaps they are mere memories, brought to life by their former masters. Perhaps they are something stranger still. What is without question is their utter dedication to the war with Chaos and their brutal effectiveness against all who would serve the Ruinous Powers.

 

[Kirjava13]

I suppose that's probably to give future writers wriggle room to do whatever they want with them.

[Blueraven84]

First good story on Seraphon, less Slann imaginary celestial daemon friends and more spawning pools, jungles and lizard spaceships thank you very much!

[Dragobeth]

1 hour ago, HorticulusTGA said:

https://malignportents.com/story/dying-star/ : Another great story ! Probably in my top 3,  with the Malerion / Morathi talk. 

... And it build on the best aspect of the Seraphon fluff : SPACE TEMPLE-SHIPS

It's IMO another fluff  "retcon" from AOS1 to AOS2 : the Seraphon are still material beings, spawned from pools inside the space ships (said space ships also seems to contain chunks of the World-that-was, apparently).

That doesn't mean they can't teleport anymore ; they are just beamed down from the ships or teleported by the Slaans.

TBH, I am glad of those kind of "retcons", because frankly the Seraphon Battletome was IMO lacking in terms of fluff, and the "memory deamon" was never convincing - now bring on the Celestial Magic High Tech Lizardmen GW !

I love those models

Did you make them? Any idea of the bit's origins used? O_O (Weapons are from the custodes but no idea about the rest)

EDIT: Oh, now that I look at them again those are necrons bits, I need to try it now, it's a great idea.

[Blueraven84]

23 minutes ago, VoodooChileIRL said:

Maybe that particular Slann remembers them having spawning chambers so they have spawning chambers.  And the memories of the Seraphon create new Seraphon from that same memory material. 

It's interesting the Seraphon Faction Focus doesn't state it outright one way or another.

 

Or maybe, just maybe they could throw the current Seraphon background to the trash bin and try to start fresh with brains this time... just a thought. Todays story was very inspiring to me as a old Lizardmen collector.

[RuneBrush]

Maybe it's all a dream...

30 minutes ago, Dragobeth said:

(Weapons are from the custodes but no idea about the rest)

Think they're from the Necron Lychguard, same with the shoulder pieces.  Shields have the same vibe.  Very cool!

[Morglum StormBasha]

Today’s seraphon story was brilliant. When they evacuated the old world it never made sense to me that there wouldn’t have been frozen spawn of saurus and skinks etc on the star ships. And they’ve now basically retconned it so that there were. So you can have magic simulcra seraphon or now you can have living breathing characters who can fight and die in the mortal realms. I know which i prefer and will now start collecting some as a result. 

Seraphon had been a massive creative misstep which they’ve rightfully acknowledged and now fixed.