Broken Realms: Teclis - SPOILER Discussion + Lore Summary

[The World Tree]

I guess the difference is that you are reading the actual book in that case, rather than a summary on a random website

[Shankelton]

So from my take on the summery, I liked it! Interesting parts to play for sure, and will have to read the whole thing to get full context of the end state of things.

My heart beats for news of what Grugni is doing under Chamon. I was also a bit surprised that the necroquake is implied to be undone in its entirety.

Elves are not for me personally, but seems to be some interesting lore building between the elven pantheon which is grand. They're an important faction for the lore even if I never plan to collect them.

At this point though, I just need art of the elves pulling Nagashs robes over his head and stuffing him in a locker

[Causalis]

Ah le sigh. Nagash defeated... again. Colour me surprised! (sarcasm)

GW is just really bad at writing meaningful/impactful stories for their antagonists. There is a HUGE gap between what they say Death does and what we actually read in the stories. From the battletomes and small stories, the Death armies and Nagash seem to be a huge threat to the other realms and everyone is quaking in their boots when the Bonereapers come knocking. But as soon as any form of serious resistance comes up, the whole Death faction seems like a cardhouse. I mean seriously, what did Nagash and his armies actually achieve?

• The black pyramid was built but the end goal of sucking all souls to Shyish didn't come to pass. 
• The Eightpoints weren't taken, even with Archaon absent and despite Katakros being hyped up as the best general to ever exist etc.
• Hell, in Soulwars the Nighthaunt didn't even manage to capture Glymmsforge!
• And now we have a book in which Nagash and his minions fail every single attempted goal? Seriously, GW? Every one of the three original Mortarchs failed? Couldn't even throw them the proverbial bone and have one of them succeed?
• And for me the most infuriating thing is that Nagash didn't learn a thing from his past defeats! Every time he throws himself into the melee he gets knocked on his ass. Against Sigmar, against Archaon and now against Teclis.

This sadly makes Nagash look like an incompetent fool. Of course he can't win his big goals because then every faction would just die and that's the end. But it is simply bad writing when you tell your readers that your villain "is really powerful, I swear yo!", only to have him defeated at every turn. 

[Mutton]

Maybe people need to actually read the story before judging its quality? You know, instead of just perusing the spark notes summary.

It's like reading a novel's wikipedia page and then reviewing the book.

[Envyus]

10 minutes ago, Causalis said:

 

• And now we have a book in which Nagash and his minions fail every single attempted goal? Seriously, GW? Every one of the three original Mortarchs failed? Couldn't even throw them the proverbial bone and have one of them succeed?

Mannfred deliberately sabotaged all three Mortarch Campaigns, including his own. 

[Clan's Cynic]

15 minutes ago, Causalis said:

I mean seriously, what did Nagash and his armies actually achieve?

To be fair, Lethis was a tactical victory that directly led to the Bonereapers.

[JustAsPlanned]

I swear it was never explicitly stated as to whether Glymmsforge fell or not. Also, does nobody remember the events of Forbidden Power? Lady Olynder and a ton of Nighthaunt charge into Lethis, actually takes out the Celestant-Prime and frees Katakros? 

Edited March 27, 2021 by JustAsPlanned

[Envyus]

The Eightpoints campaign is still ongoing. 

[Envyus]

Soulblight Gravelords will also likely cover the aftermath. 

[Whitefang]

I mean, what, people are really surprised of Naggy, who repeated failing, failing?

His fall is long overdue and he has been victorious for the whole AOS2.0
 

It’s good to know we can finally get rid of him for some time to embrace new death characters.

 

[Ungface]

The whole story reads like a 8 year old playground kids "my guy does this and this and this and this and this and this and you die, haha i win"

 

The setup for the ongoing narrative is cool but the execution was fanfic tier. GW need to hire some actual professional writers.

[Neverchosen]

2 hours ago, Rachmani said:

I’ll admit, the summary sounds... not bad, but rather super boring.

Easy victories aren‘t fun, they‘re meaningless (from a perspective of storytelling). Sacrifice gives meaning. Hardship gives meaning.

If the trip to Mordor was a big camping holiday, we wouldn‘t still be talking about LOTR. 
 

With that being said, I‘ll hold my judgement until I‘ve read the stuff myself. Too often summaries are tainted by the views of the one summarising them.

I do think that this is an interesting example as we are dealing with a different format for storytelling. Lord of the Rings was part of a greater narrative cycle including the Hobbit and the Silmarillion, but is ostensibly a stand alone narrative. Whereas BR: Teclis is a paratextual component of a tabletop wargame with an ongoing sequential narrative. Each instalment ends with the promise of more tales to tell and the end is always just outside of reach.

I think that Teclis was hurt fairly badly but defeated Nagash quite thoroughly. Yet despite it being a clear victory, Nagash will return angrier than ever. This is similar to other ongoing narratives such as Batman defeating the Joker, Laurie Strode standing up to Michael Myers, Bart and Lisa foiling Sideshow Bob's scheme, or James Bond quipping at Blofeld. The MCU had an issue with killing its villains and now seems to go out of the way to keep them alive, even when I would argue it was at the detriment of the narrative (I would prefer they not always rely on life and death stakes for the villains). This is a temporary setback in the villain's masterplan and they will return more deadly than ever, now with a greater personal stake in defeating the hero. Which will invariably result in the villain being relatively more successful but likely suffering an even greater defeat. But we had roughly an entire edition focused on Nagash and this defeat opens countless narrative opportunities for Death. So I am excited to see what happens with him off the table for a little while and also look forward to his Galvatron moment in which he arrives at Manfredd's coronation...

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by Neverchosen

[Acrozatarim]

This sounds like the sort of clearing of the slate that the setting needs with respect to Nagash, tbh. He's a throttle on the ability to do anything new or interesting with the Death factions, and to be a useable element of the setting he needs to a) take a backseat and b) have goals that aren't 'literally kill everyone, everywhere, forever'. He's worse than the ****** Chaos Gods.

Good to see that GW are willing to also have there be genuine victories that aren't 'Aha, it looks like a victory but...' or 'No-one gets to really win, everything switches back to the ~status quo~ again straight away'. That sort of faux 'balance' in outcomes just degrades the narrative into an indistinguishable slop where no-one can ever achieve anything meaningful.

As ever, the devil will be in the details of the story, but the broad strokes look like GW are following through on some interesting stuff with the BR series.

[Gaz Taylor]

+++ Mod Hat On +++
I’ve had a nice day playing with my son today after quite a busy and tough week at work and I was looking forward to reading about the LRL released and peoples thoughts on them. I did not expect to see some of you moaning and going on and on. 
 

Im not going to bother explaining about needing to play some games, actually reading the story and not a summary, or how we may have a new edition this year and things change. I’ve even developed a twitch when I see the phrase “Negative Play Experience”. 
 

This forum is to enjoy Age of Sigmar, especially in the times of a global pandemic where many of us are restricted about how we enjoy our hobby. I’m not expecting everybody to be fanboys but I do expect you at least give constructive criticism. If you can’t do this, this may not be the forum for you. 
 

So please, no more moaning. Be constructive and respectful to each other

[Mcthew]

So... Reading this thread through, a few questions spring to mind:

Has anyone here actually read the new BR book cover to cover?

Does this temporary destruction of Nagash and Arkhan mean you can't play them in games?

Does the defeat of Death (again) denigrate the Allegiance? I suppose compared to the constant defeats suffered by Order during the Realmgate Wars? Or compared to Destruction who don't have any gods in play and barely feature in any narrative book?

To put my questions in context, I too have Nagash and 3k worth of Death miniatures. Do I find the plot problematic? No. Do I think GW are writing narratives where Order prevail? No.

In fact, I think this is quite balanced and I'm quite stoked to see how Death rebound. And they will. Order, on the hand, are ready to rip themselves apart through divisions and you can just sense Chaos taking advantage.

Personally I think this is shaping up nicely and a fine change compared to the 1 act play of Malign Portents and the churn of the Realmgate Wars... just MHO though.

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by Mcthew

[Shankelton]

4 minutes ago, Mcthew said:

So... Reading this thread through, a few questions spring to mind:

Has anyone here actually read the new BR book cover to cover?

Does this temporary destruction of Nagash and Arkhan mean you can't play them in games?

Does the defeat of Death (again) denigrate the Allegiance? I suppose compared to the constant defeats suffered by Order during the Realmgate Wars? Or compared to Destruction who don't have any gods in play and barely feature in any narrative book?

To put my questions in context, I too have Nagash and 3k worth of Death miniatures. Do I find the plot problematic? No. Do I think GW are writing narratives where Order prevail? No.

In fact, I think this is quite balanced and I'm quite stoked to see how Death rebound. And they will. Order, on the hand, are ready to rip themselves apart through divisions and you can just sense Chaos taking advantage.

Personally I think this is shaping up nicely and a fine change compared to the 1 act play of Malign Portents and the churn of the Realmgate Wars... just MHO though.

 

100% agreed! 

[Envyus]

1 hour ago, Ungface said:

The whole story reads like a 8 year old playground kids "my guy does this and this and this and this and this and this and you die, haha i win"

 

The setup for the ongoing narrative is cool but the execution was fanfic tier. GW need to hire some actual professional writers.

Maybe you should read the book before making Judgments on the writing.

[Shankelton]

Something I quite love.

With death waning, and the necroquake undone. What does that mean for a world like the realms of magic? Will that ascending power of life mean the balance of things end up even more unstable? You can argue that Nagash and death is the epitome of an ordered cosmos (vampire scheming not withstanding). All is one in Nagash.

What kind of rampant chaos, or dare I say Destruction, can erupt from realms overflowing with life energys.

Would be awesome if in the future Nagash almost became the good guy for a spell, as the forces of order are faced with a cascading boom of growth in the realms. Needing deaths managing hand to right the balance.

[Chumphammer]

Arielle gonna go full Galadriel

Edited March 27, 2021 by Chumphammer

[Shankelton]

4 minutes ago, Chumphammer said:

Arielle gonna go full Galadriel

New warscroll confirmed!

[Rachmani]

It‘s not only Gal- ... errr ... Alarielle though.

Papa Nurgle will surely profit immensely from the circle of life steamrolling everyone.

[Talas]

1 hour ago, Mcthew said:

Does this temporary destruction of Nagash and Arkhan mean you can't play them in games?

The Celestant-Prime was destroyed back in Forbidden Power and no one questioned if he could still be played or not. I mean, death is just a set back in the Realms.

[Rachmani]

2 hours ago, Mutton said:

It's like reading a novel's wikipedia page and then reviewing the book.

I did that once in college. Professor was actually delighted by my knowledge >.< . Some wiki pages are really good!

Edited March 27, 2021 by Rachmani

[ian0delond]

Nagash being defeated, big time for Order, should have been the end of v2.

And yet still more BR to come.

[SeanMaguire1991]

I don't Arkhan is gone very long. Isn't the latest bit of fluff about Arkhan leading an Ossiarch invasion of Hysh set after BR Teclis?