Broken Realms: Morathi - SPOILER Discussion + Lore Summary

[CeleFAZE]

Interesting thing to note here: Sigvald was considered the son of Slaanesh in the world that was. Regardless of what the mirror from else in the story might hold, there's a nonzero chance that we could be seeing either Sigvald reborn as a proper demigod, or a new, similar entity.

I'm really excited to see where this goes.

[Fulcanelli]

16 minutes ago, CeleFAZE said:

Interesting thing to note here: Sigvald was considered the son of Slaanesh in the world that was. Regardless of what the mirror from else in the story might hold, there's a nonzero chance that we could be seeing either Sigvald reborn as a proper demigod, or a new, similar entity.

I'm really excited to see where this goes.

Interesting indeed.

And this give me an idea, not so illogical... maybe someone has already thought about it.
What if:

=

Probably not, but still.

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

7 minutes ago, Fulcanelli said:

Interesting indeed.

And this give me an idea, not so illogical... maybe someone has already thought about it.

[...]

I feel like that could be a real possibility! It's certainly one of the best fits for that rumour engine that I have seen. If I remember correctly, at the time people were speculating that it could be a vampire or elf thing, but the elf releases have come and gone with no rapier in sight, and the sword does not look super deathy to me.

[silverstu]

3 hours ago, Lord of the Isle said:

Unless he isn’t!

Yeah that could be interesting if he managed to escape .. the greatest Phoenix King would fit very well in AoS- might clash a bit with Teclis and Tyrion, he was pretty hot headed..

[Lord of the Isle]

A lot of people seem to have joined the dots between the Defender and the Newborn, to be less coy! I am not at all sure how I feel about this possibility...

[El Syf]

20 minutes ago, silverstu said:

Yeah that could be interesting if he managed to escape .. the greatest Phoenix King would fit very well in AoS- might clash a bit with Teclis and Tyrion, he was pretty hot headed..

All Aelves in warhammer are that way though, with the distinct exception of Malekith who as the end times proved turned out to just be right about everything!

[Lord of the Isle]

Mally def has his hotheaded moments too, or at least had. And technically the chilled out Wood Elves were most right about everything!

There are occasional sensible long termist elves in old lore. Phoenix King Caradryel comes to mind. New lore...not sure. Volturnos? And say what you like about Morathi, she’s played this one pretty well so far it seems, from her point of view anyway

[Fulcanelli]

2 hours ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

I feel like that could be a real possibility! It's certainly one of the best fits for that rumour engine that I have seen. If I remember correctly, at the time people were speculating that it could be a vampire or elf thing, but the elf releases have come and gone with no rapier in sight, and the sword does not look super deathy to me.

I too think that rumour doesn't look deathy at all, not even Soulblight.
It could be elfish, but if the Newborn was Sigvald it would fit well. 

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

40 minutes ago, Fulcanelli said:

I too think that rumour doesn't look deathy at all, not even Soulblight.
It could be elfish, but if the Newborn was Sigvald it would fit well. 

The only thing that makes me skeptical is that (correct me if I'm wrong) the Newborn is described as pretty monstrous, while this arm seems to belong to a regular human dude. I don't think they will go for a shape change gimmick again after they just did away with it for Morathi.

[Public Universal Duardin]

I hate how well the rumour engine looks like Sigvald...because now I will only face disappointment when it's merely a vampirate and not the strange son of Slaanesh!

[sandlemad]

I would really be shocked if that turned out to be anything other than a vampire. There's blood-drop icons on both the blade and the bracer, the pommel looks like a gothic bottle of blood, the protrusions from the blade resemble those of old vampire models (incl. the vampire-inspired Mephiston), and the combined straight quillons and curved handguard is a characteristic of the post-7th ed. WHFB vampires. 

It's also of a piece with the other sword we've seen previewed.

[Doko]

That arms sems have litle details to be a epic named hero, i would tell is from a troop

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

31 minutes ago, sandlemad said:

It's also of a piece with the other sword we've seen previewed.

I feel that sword is probably part of the new Death army, because the weird hand looks like it could belong to one of whatever Johann has been running away from recently.

[Kaleb Daark]

now, were the offspring of Slaanesh to have a snakelike lower body, and be heroic demigod size, potentially it could mean that you might get a Son of slaanesh named charachter or  Slaanesh / Fulgrim daemon prince dual kit.

hmmm..

[King Under the Mountain]

Having spent a good chunk of the day reading this new release, my mind goes back to an interview that someone at GW did sometime around "Storm of Chaos" (aging my self a bit) where they said Fantasy was a lot harder to write sweeping large scale stories because in 40k losing a planet is a Tuesday while in Fantasy losing a city would have massive consequences to their setting.  

Now with Broken Realms (and also Soul Wars before this) I can see why they built the setting of Age of Sigmar to be what it is.  In this book we have Morathi gaining godhood, betraying all of her old allies, allying with the Idoneth, taking over one of the most fleshed out cities in the story and oh yeah, Slannesh gave birth.  This is all in the first part of what will probably be a 4 or 5 part long story arc.  After playing Fantasy for well over a decade where the setting never change, its so crazy to me to see such story progression here. 

Kudo to GW and I hope the next chapters of the Broken Realms will be equally as enjoyable.


P.S

Broken Realms: Grungi release date when? 

 

Edited November 14, 2020 by King Under the Mountain
spelling, cant English good

[Overread]

AoS still suffers somewhat from the same 40K effect because of how massive the Realms are. I think one difference is that within the Grand Alliances there's room to move things around somewhat between owners without affecting the actual game side of things. I think AoS would improve if we got a proper timeline established beyond major events (which in smaller stories are not always mentioned specifically as in relation to the events in the story). 

 

As for the Morathi story, half way through it now and one thing comes to mind very quickly. The suspicious absence of the Lizardmen/Seraphon. Indeed they hardly get even a general background mention in this tale which is interesting when you consider that of the armies of Order they are alongside Stormcast and DoK in being very much focused on the destruction/removal of Chaos. In theory they should be standing shoulder to shoulder and yet they are not. They do appear to stand very strongly in stories like Pestilens, but it seems that since the Realm Wars began they've not marched en-mass against the Great Enemy. Indeed with the Necroquake you'd have thought the Slaan mages would have responded. 

I'm getting a feeling that the Seraphon are a sleeping tiger that is likely going to appear roused to war at some stage and likely might deal a mighty blow against any who might stand against them. For all that the Aelf Gods have words said about their magical prowess, the Slaan are not gods yet appear to wield godlike magics themselves. If anyone is going to give the likes of the Aelves and Nagash a run for magic its going to be Slaan. 

[Overread]

And I've finally read through it, so a few thoughts

1) It amazes me how vampire-like Morathi has become. Not only working blood magics, but now consuming, like a soul vampire (Idoneth style) the souls of many of the most powerful Aelves who remained within Slaanesh's belly. She called them forth in a great tide and consumed them en-mass and was then reborn from blood.

2) Aenarion appears to have escaped and has a powerful soul that seems to remember itself. It would be interesting to see if he's snared by Sigmar or Nagash and reforged by either of them or if he drifts and perhaps finds his way to the two Aelf Brothers to be remade by them. 

3) Morathi gifted many souls to the Idoneth and it appears that she intends to continue gifting them. This suggests two things

a) That Slaanesh's belly is still very very full of dead souls. 

b) That the Idoneth might now get some soul-reforged models of their own since they are now getting souls, when before they were left out of the soul gifting. 

4) The Seraphon are mysteriously missing in the story - noted above in a post of its own

5) The child that Slaanesh birthed appears at this moment to be a creation of Slaanesh. Likely a creature created to be a focal point to unit the various groups under one banner. Since Slaanesh's forces have been blighted with more civil war than normal for a Chaos God since Slaanesh is absent to restore order at key moments. 

However at the same time Slaanesh was bloated with the souls of his brothers. It might be that this child could be the demonic version of Acharon - a creature birthed from Slaanesh, but having influence from the other three. A creature the other gods would fear for it could rise and be born to unit Chaos fully if it came into its full power. 

6) Both Reaper Bolts and Shadowflame are mentioned as war engines during the siege. It might well be that this is a hint for what might come to DoK if they get their own light war engines. A bolt thrower of some kind and a fire thrower. It would be neat to get such weapons! 

7 Morathi is now using her Khinerai and Melusai in full open war. Gone is their previous lore in the Battletome that they are hidden and kept super secret, now they marched (well slithered and flew) with the ranks of Stormcast. So they are very much out in the open. Though the Covens short stories do show that they still operate in the shadows (its even shown that Morathi can bless them with illusions to appear as normal aelves, much like she, before her ascension, used illusion magic to hide her feral body).

Minor shame that shadow weapon forging isn't shown for the Khinerai (in the tome its mentioned that their javelins are summoned from shadow); though its likely an oversight since they carry no quiver and thus it must be assumed if they are throwing them that they are creating more from shadow during the battle.

8 ) It would be supposed that at the end of all this Morathi now has a greater stream of souls coming to her from Slaanesh, but we get no hint that its affected the other gods. The tide of souls will continue, but likely with Idoneth and Slaanesh getting greater numbers - perhaps her son as wel if he bahaves himself.

9) Morathi has made bold steps, but lets not forget she still only occupies a corner of the realm of shadow and has much land to capture if she wants her race to be a major player in major battles on their own; which she will need since she just stabbed the stormcast in the back. 

[Clan's Cynic]

6 hours ago, King Under the Mountain said:

Having spent a good chunk of the day reading this new release, my mind goes back to an interview that someone at GW did sometime around "Storm of Chaos" (aging my self a bit) where they said Fantasy was a lot harder to write sweeping large scale stories because in 40k losing a planet is a Tuesday while in Fantasy losing a city would have massive consequences to their setting.  
 

I honestly disagree that Fantasy couldn't have sweeping, large scale stories. It doesn't stop other earth-sized settings, why would Fantasy have been any different?

Let's not forget they retconned the original Eye of Terror campaign because they didn't get the result they wanted as well(Chaos loses, Imperium holds the line) despite the scope of 40k's setting being larger than AoS still. It wasn't so much scale that was the problem but the writers at GW wanting to have their cake and to eat it - claim they wanted players to have an impact, so long as the results went the way GW wanted.

Edited November 14, 2020 by Clan's Cynic

[King Under the Mountain]

57 minutes ago, Clan's Cynic said:

I honestly disagree that Fantasy couldn't have sweeping, large scale stories. It doesn't stop other earth-sized settings, why would Fantasy have been any different?

Let's not forget they retconned the original Eye of Terror campaign because they didn't get the result they wanted as well(Chaos loses, Imperium holds the line) despite the scope of 40k's setting being larger than AoS still. It wasn't so much scale that was the problem but the writers at GW wanting to have their cake and to eat it - claim they wanted players to have an impact, so long as the results went the way GW wanted.

I completely agree with your first part and was quoting (from a distant memory) a GW interview.  

Old GW was held back mostly out of fear of moving the setting along in any compacity (both IPs) and I am glad that new GW has embraced ongoing narrative, it makes each new release more exciting, to me at least.

 

[Icegoat]

1 hour ago, King Under the Mountain said:

I completely agree with your first part and was quoting (from a distant memory) a GW interview.  

Old GW was held back mostly out of fear of moving the setting along in any compacity (both IPs) and I am glad that new GW has embraced ongoing narrative, it makes each new release more exciting, to me at least.

 

Exciting until your 5000 point mixed dark elf freeguild anvilguard army gets squatted? Ongoing narrative is very exciting when it's not your army being destroyed I  mean I remember nagash and glottkin coming out during end times and i was estactic.  But looking back brettonia and Tomb kings both got squatted in those books. It doesnt always work out so well. 

The biggest problem AoS has with the ongoing narrative stuff is all the new army releases mean they keep having to be shoe horned in later or what were they just sleeping?  I mean malekiths mummy just became a twin souled god and yet lord of ulgu god of shadow doesnt even feature or have an opinion on any of it. It's a bit odd.

[Lord of the Isle]

Anvilgard resistance still lives!

and I think they’re handling mysterious Mally’s long game quite intriguingly and cunningly so far

[sandlemad]

1 hour ago, Icegoat said:

Exciting until your 5000 point mixed dark elf freeguild anvilguard army gets squatted? Ongoing narrative is very exciting when it's not your army being destroyed I  mean I remember nagash and glottkin coming out during end times and i was estactic.  But looking back brettonia and Tomb kings both got squatted in those books. It doesnt always work out so well. 

Gonna quote myself here.

On 11/7/2020 at 11:33 PM, sandlemad said:

The annexation of Anvilgard by rights should offer a host of interesting background opportunities for folks who are interested in the faction in much the same way that the destruction of Cadia did for folks with Cadian armies.

If you're an Anvilgard CoS player, what does it mean to Your Dudes to know that they city has been taken by a once-ally? How do they feel about elves? How do they feel about folks they once fought alongside? What about Sigmar, where was he? Or the Anvils of the Heldenhammer, why did they not protect the citizens? Or the Kharadron, do they intend to shrug and continue trading?

What will Your Dudes do, join up with a government in exile? Attempt to undermine this new goddess's influence? Vocally decry her while still fighting chaos/Nagash/etc? Push for a crusade against Har Kuron? Refuse to fight alongside the Darkling Covens or Scourge Privateers of other cities? Launch partisan attacks against Morathi's new empire? Grind their teeth, bury their bitterness and find common cause against larger existential threats? 

Any of these would easily be enough to build a characterful army around and of course if you don't care about such things, the book seems to be explicit that you can use the same rules as before.

Anvilgard hasn't been squatted. If an Anvilgard collector/player/whatever doesn't like these developments, that's fine, but it's wrong for them or anyone to act like there aren't interesting creative options to take for Your Dudes.

• Maybe the freeguild soldiers are now cannon-fodder, slave-soldiers marked for death on the battlefield or eventually on the altar (think Sevatar's red gauntlets in the Horus Heresy books). Is there a rebellion brewing? Have any of the freeguild soldiers turned to the worship of this powerful new shadow goddess, since Sigmar was so patently unable to aid them?
• Maybe the humans are 'let go' and hired back surreptitiously as mercenaries because your quietly dissident elven commander wants to keep them as part of his military strength without drawing Morathi's eye or causing trouble back in Har Kuron. What happens when Morathi's shadow agents come sniffing about...?
• Maybe your whole force is part of the fractured Anvilgard-in-exile military, led by cold-blooded elven warriors who'd still rather die than turn on their human brothers-in-arms. How do they feel about the new goddess and their lost city? Are they harried and desperately trying to get word to Azyrheim?

All those are perfectly adequate themes for an army or for adjusting the theme of an existing army and I thought them up in 5 minutes.

Cadia after the loss of their homeworld, Biel-Tan in the aftermath of their schism, Middenheim post-Storm of Chaos (but pre-8th ed.), all these offered new contexts and opportunities. If an Anvilgard player doesn't want to take these new opportunities, that's their right, but that is a choice. If they want nothing for their army but "Anvilgard fossilised in amber at a very specific moment in time and nothing but", that's fine as well, the book specifically says you can play that too, just any player using a Tycho/Azhag/Gorthor/Vlad von Carstein/Helm Hammerhand would.

 

Edited November 14, 2020 by sandlemad

[Kaleb Daark]

On 11/8/2020 at 10:22 AM, Lord of the Isle said:

If the Newborn is truly its parent’s worthy child and heir it may not even want to release its sire/mother

Ok, what if the newborn is actually a crafty way of old ‘nesh slipping his bonds without the  pointy ears realising?

imagine if he just feeds it more if himself piece by piece until too late the pointy’s realise that the trapped Slaanesh is nothing but an illusion.

the Slaanesh battletome makes mention that he’s been chipping away at those  bonds and replacing them with illusory ones.

that would be a bit special wouldn’t it !

and he’d have a massive new piece of headwear even bigger than Tickle-ars’ hat.

[Overread]

Slaanesh might also have been planning this child for a long while and waiting for the right moment to unleash it. Then suddenly Morathi provides this moment, yet at the same time fills his belly with souls from the other Chaos gods (quite a lot of them too). Add to that her own dealings and this child might not be quite how Slaanesh intended. 

There's a lot of interesting ways it can go; we don't even know if it will get a model. It might be a god on the battlefield; or it might be so far removed and powerful that it can't appear. 

[NinthMusketeer]

I would comment that Morathi's super-soul-steal seems (to me at least) to have clearly been a result of her ritual and not an ongoing thing. She got the resources, did the ritual, stoles some souls, ascended, and now its done. There isn't any fluff or snippet to suggest that this 'extra' soul stealing continues. Also worth noting that the only souls she was actually after to consume were the Phoenix Kings, because each had a shard of divinity (and souls of the Cythai, for bargaining power). She only ate those ones; it explicitly states she cast others aside. And again, this was part of the ritual. Morathi hasn't turned into a rampant soul-eater; she only wanted the spark of divinity from the Phoenix Kings, and did not care one bit to consume any others.

I would also note, as others have, that nothing has been squatted. DoK khinerai and melusai were still kept hidden--they aren't anymore but that does not change them being such in the past. And in all likelyhood they probably are still kept hidden to a notable degree. Meanwhile Anvilguard has not ceased to exist, it has been conquered and renamed but the city itself is both still there and still existed in the past. Further, there will be plenty of Anvilguard forces that were out on campaign when the city was captured so Anvilguard armies are still very much a thing.

Finally, this doesn't necessarily mean open war between all Stormcast/Free Cities and DoK. The forces of Order are not so well established that they can cast off such a powerful ally, and while Sigmar will no doubt be furious he is also a God looking at the bigger picture. We have to wait and see; it could very well end up as a strange double-standard where CoS are at war with Morathi's forces as a nation but also not at war with all DoK as a religion. It also makes me think of how Eldar-Imperium interactions are in 40k, with the two ostensibly being at war but in reality it's a complicated mix.

Edited November 14, 2020 by NinthMusketeer