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Broken Realms: Morathi - SPOILER Discussion + Lore Summary


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Pretty sure it's Belakor, the description fits, the repeated use of the words dark & master, having Skaven work for him etc.

But they know what they're doing, they left enough in there that people would start losing their ****** about it possibly being Malerion 

As for the impossible maybe it's a plan to kill off comments under Warhammer instagram posts and destroy the endless, eternal moaning

"herp, derp bring back fanta-" *poisoned shuriken to the throat*

 

 

Edited by JPjr
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2 minutes ago, Kaleb Daark said:

So, reading the latest broken realms short story, who do we think the Winged shadow is, and who do we think the impossible eternal is?

I was thinking Belakor? Sounds too evil to be  Malerion. I'm thinking the eternal is Nagash - impossible to kill death perhaps? 

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6 minutes ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

I'm going to throw out the possibility that the target is Nagash and the shadow lord is a new up-and-coming vampire. This could be the beginning of the narrative setup to explain how Soulblight become their own thing.

Could be- I did think that but just how it talks about Nagash - it seems to be more of an equal rather than an overlord. Could be one of the Original Vampires maybe who knew Nagash in life? I'd still go for Belakor over throwing Nagash/breaking his grip on death [which would explain the Soulblight doing their own thing]. 

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3 minutes ago, silverstu said:

Could be- I did think that but just how it talks about Nagash - it seems to be more of an equal rather than an overlord. Could be one of the Original Vampires maybe who knew Nagash in life? I'd still go for Belakor over throwing Nagash/breaking his grip on death [which would explain the Soulblight doing their own thing]. 

I think that's a good theory, as well. I don't know much about Belakor, but it seems he has some association with shadow and is occasionally referred to as the Dark Master. Plus, we have this image which could be the wing of a new Belakor model:

2020-10-20.jpg

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13 minutes ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

The Shadow Lord definitely could be the being that rescued Ven Brecht. And Ven Brecht has all these connections to vampires in his background.

That makes the most sense yeah. I’m too primed for aelves - so shadow lord immediately made me think of Malerion, but this leading into Soulblight seems the most logical explanation. 

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32 minutes ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

I think that's a good theory, as well. I don't know much about Belakor, but it seems he has some association with shadow and is occasionally referred to as the Dark Master. Plus, we have this image which could be the wing of a new Belakor model:

2020-10-20.jpg

I really hope so.

As a sculptor at the design studio I'd be pooping myself if I got asked to re-imagine that model, since the original is such an epic piece.

For any sculptor, that's some pretty massive  iconic boots to fill.

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Quoting the last sentence: ‘To destroy the impossible,’ said the winged monstrosity, rising from its shadowy throne. ‘And in doing so, to bring about the end of the eternal.’

 

It's true that the eternal could be Nagash, but there ir a Big Waaagh trying to hit Excelsior. Destroy the impossible could mean destroying the gates to Azyr, and then bring the end of the eternal (stormcast eternals) could mean Sigmar?

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On 2/18/2021 at 11:29 AM, Lord of the Isle said:

Everyone at least agreed it’s ven Brecht’s ‘saviour’, whether that be vamp, Mal or Be’l?

I believed this at first, but after the Belakor reveal, I think Ven Brecht's saviour and the subject of this short story are different beings. Specifically, I think Ven Brecht was saved by a vampire. I still believe those are coming sooner rather than later. I now think the monstrous shadow in the short story was Belakor, though.

I don't know a lot about AoS lore, but I have been doing some research about what might possibly happen in Broken Realms. I posted this in the rumour thread, too, but I think it has a place here as well.

First, we have this prophecy to from a few weeks ago:

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The gate will shatter! The earth will tear! The sky shall eat the storm, and the serpent’s tide will rise! The Changer’s riddle is born anew by the splitting mirror of the Dark Prince!

Since we got confirmation of Belakor, I think it's safe to assume he's the Dark Prince. Let's take a look at his short story, too. What is he planning?

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‘To destroy the impossible,’ said the winged monstrosity, rising from its shadowy throne. ‘And in doing so, to bring about the end of the eternal.’

So could it be that he's planning to destroy some kind of important mirror? I found this on a wiki, about a guy named Sanasay Bayla:

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In the Age of Myth, Sanasay dwelt with his wife and children in the city of Andamar in the Realm of Ghyran and there was acclaimed as the finest thinker in the realm as well as the powerful mage. However despite his renown; happy family life and unmatched powers he grew restless, wanting a challenge and to find his true purpose in life. He sought the advice of the god, Teclis the Wise who impressed with his skills, set him on the path to find his way to Realm's End, a place of purest magic where he could gain untold knowledge and eternal life, but he also warned him that his quest may not bring him the satisfaction he sought.

He travelled to the Iron Temples to Grungni in the Realm of Chamon’s Ferron Vale and to the gates of where he sought where he was confronted by Afrener the guardian of the gate, the wolf at the door - a massive beast that only Death could kill. He finally was forced to plead a favour from Nagash himself who granted his wish in exchange for 500 years’ service upon his inevitable death. Finally he reached the object of his quest and found a daemon of Tzeentch waiting, although he did not at first recognise such a mythical creature.

Following a confrontation with that entity he returned home to his family but also warned the Pantheon that Chaos was now encroaching on the Mortal Realms and he created a potent magical artefact, the Mirror of Bayla for them to scry any location in the realms.

The mirror is currently located on Mount Celestian in Azyr, at the Court of the Gods:

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Court of the Gods

At the centre of the city were temples and at their centre a tower of blue light- at its summit was the Court of the Gods, a colonnaded space from whose vantage all the Mortal Realms could be seen.

Thrones fit for the gods ringed it – bone for Nagash, white marble for Tyrion, silver for Teclis, dark stone for Malerion, fire-hued amber for Grimnir and rustless steel for his brother, Grungni. Alarielle's was of pale heartwood rooted in the stone, while Sigmar’s own gleamed golden. The thrones looked inward to the legendary Mirror of Bayla.

It was left deserted towards the end of the Age of Myth as the gods went their own ways and remained unused for millennia. After Sigmar had launched the new war against Chaos in the Age of Sigmar and his stormcast had found and awakened the goddess of life, he asked Alarielle to join him there once again to discuss matters beyond the war.

From what I can gather, Sigmar and the Pantheon of Order use the mirror as a tool in their defense against chaos. Specifically, there is a mention on one of the wikis that it was created in response to the growing threat of Tzeentch:

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Mirror of Bayla: The most powerful mage of Realm of Ghyran Sanasay Bayla quests for Realm's End aided by many of the Pantheon. At the end of his long journey he discovers the growing threat of Tzeentch and crafts a magical mirror for the gods to view anywhere they wish.

Makes sense that it's harder for Tzeentch to keep his plans secret if the gods of order can view any location in the realms at any time.

It all seems to fit pretty well. Sanasay Bayla was apparently referenced in a recent Soulbound book, so it's not too bad of a pull. Maybe one of you has read the short story "Pantheon" which is apparently where most of this info comes from and has some better perspective on the mirror and how important it is.

 

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Honestly, that short story wasn't great, and was apparently written before the whole AOS cosmos was well established in Malign Portents and AOS2. The fact that Soulbound refers to old fluff is also worrying.

The "Dark Prince" was always Slaanesh's name (in WFB and 40k too). Slaanesh loves mirror and we know the Hedonites are too going to Excelsis, so the prophecy probably refers to the Newborn escaping Uhl-Gysh. 

Be'lakor is another separate story arc IMO. We'll have to see if it was him at the end of BR : Morathi, and if so why he'd free a Stormcast. Then if his goal is Azyr.... Maybe he possessed him (if such thing is even possible for a SCE) ?

 

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22 minutes ago, HorticulusTGA said:

Honestly, that short story wasn't great, and was apparently written before the whole AOS cosmos was well established in Malign Portents and AOS2. The fact that Soulbound refers to old fluff is also worrying.

The "Dark Prince" was always Slaanesh's name (in WFB and 40k too). Slaanesh loves mirror and we know the Hedonites are too going to Excelsis, so the prophecy probably refers to the Newborn escaping Uhl-Gysh.

I was thinking the same with respect to the Dark Prince and Slaanesh at first. But GW has just been making so many connections between the term "prince" and Belakor in their recent preview. His reveal video is titled "The Rise of the First Prince", and the articel on Warhammer community has this to say:

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We’re not going to give away too much right now, except to say that this is all tied in with the princely third book in the Broken Realms saga.

Plus, the recent short story really plays up the shadow angle, as does Belakors new model. I have seen him refered to as The Dark Master in some places, as well. I think the "dark prince" bit might be misdirection: The term would usually refer to Slaanesh, and that's why we were all thinking of that, but it could plausibly describe Belakor as well. That's how prophecies are in fiction, right? You think they mean one thing but it turns out to be another.

27 minutes ago, HorticulusTGA said:

Be'lakor is another separate story arc IMO. We'll have to see if it was him at the end of BR : Morathi, and if so why he'd free a Stormcast. Then if his goal is Azyr.... Maybe he possessed him (if such thing is even possible for a SCE) ?

I personally still think that was a vampire, since we know Soulblight is coming and vampires were foreshadowed in his back story. I don't remember how exactly the creature was described in BR: Morathi, though. I only remember leathery wings, but if there was a mention of shadows as well, I think the case for Belakor looks stronger.

If it was Belakor, we would have to speculate about what he has to gain from Ven Brecht escaping. The most obvious would be that Ven Brecht is able to inform Sigmar about what Morathi is doing after being freed. If Belakor is trying to gain access to Azyr to destroy something important there, this might make that easier in some way.

On another note, I now believe that "Broken Realms" might refer to the fracturing of the Grand Alliances. At least, we have hints of that in three of the the four alliances right now. Morathi and the Idoneth are scheming against Sigmar, Gravelords are plausibly working against Nagash and Belakor does not seem entirely satisfied with what Archeon is doing. It's a fairly shaky hypothesis right now, but what's the fun in only predicting stuff when it's nearly confirmed? 😎

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2 hours ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

(...)

On another note, I now believe that "Broken Realms" might refer to the fracturing of the Grand Alliances. At least, we have hints of that in three of the the four alliances right now. Morathi and the Idoneth are scheming against Sigmar, Gravelords are plausibly working against Nagash and Belakor does not seem entirely satisfied with what Archeon is doing. It's a fairly shaky hypothesis right now, but what's the fun in only predicting stuff when it's nearly confirmed? 😎

That was my theory too. 

But even Death Grand Alliance is already shaky. 

We know one of the Ossiarch legions (the burning one) realizes that Nagash want to use them as Kamikaze and are not happy about that.

FEC was always mostly anti-Nagash (they even helped Order defend Lethis against the Legion of Grief, and fight against the OBR in the last White Dwarf).

Manfred is a treacherous being and a few Vampires can always follow him.

Idoneth on the Order side often fight among themselves.

Just like Morathi backstabber Sigmar and stole Anvilgard, Alarielle will rage quite against the Free cities soon-ish.

Teclis does whatever he wants. 

Malerion tricked Sigmar already with the Gladiatorum. (Well, apparently Sigmar and Morathi..

Spoiler

agreed to a truce (going by the new DoK BT).)

Be'lakor and Archaon fought together against Katakros and Olynder but we know they hate each other, so there will be problems soon. And Chaos and Destruction on a wider scale are always about interstine wars so "Grand Alliance" yeah not so much :P

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do you think that we'll get a reveal of what it is that Malerion did with the Gladiatorium?

We know that he can see into it, thereby seeing straight away what chambers and fighters Sigmar has, but I'm wondering if there's anything more sinister than that.  Right at the very beginning of AoS the part that goes missing in every stormcast as the price of reforging is the bit that has Sigmar stumped and scratching his head. Do you think that Malerion is behind this?

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