Broken Realms: Be'lakor - SPOILER Discussion + Lore Summary

[Clan's Cynic]

Nagash and his ilk fall into this category. To start, they have no imagination and are generally too morose to manipulate without getting his hands dirty. Even though he has no respect for these beings,

Be’lakor isn’t above trying to use them for his own purposes.

Presumably this is the 'unlikely alliance' referenced in the pre-order article?

[sandlemad]

@HorticulusTGA Ah right, yes,  those are definitely consequential, even when they show a bit of gleeful misdirection.

[Lord of the Isle]

Funny that the article about how Belly has no friends actually hints at his surprise ally!

[Skreech Verminking]

6 hours ago, Charleston said:

Who wins? Who's nex

Skaven!!

yes-yes

[idn0971]

https://spruesandbrews.com/2021/04/17/broken-realms-belakor-review/

So the lore spoilers are out and the story looks amazing. Apparently Belakor destroys every realmgates in chamon and allies with nighthaunt to destroy all the stormcast in chamon who can no longer escape. And it's very likely that grugni is back.

I'm super excited to read the book for myself it seems like they are living up to the name broken realms

Edited April 17, 2021 by idn0971

[JustAsPlanned]

Wow... ALL the realmgates in Chamon except for the one in Vindicarum... that’s insane. And an entire Stormhost decimated as well. All those complaining about the good guys winning too much don’t really have much of a leg to stand on anymore do they?

Also GROMTHI????? GRUNGNI DUARDIN CONFIRMED??????

[idn0971]

Just now, JustAsPlanned said:

Wow... ALL the realmgates in Chamon except for the one in Vindicarum... that’s insane. And an entire Stormhost decimated as well. All those complaining about the good guys winning too much don’t really have much of a leg to stand on anymore do they?

Also GROMTHI????? GRUNGNI DUARDIN CONFIRMED??????

The way I read it the one in Vindicarum was destroyed as well the city just was not completely destroyed due to the arrival of KO and Grugni

[JustAsPlanned]

So Chamon is basically entirely isolated now. That’s have a LOT of implications - maybe reconnecting it to the rest of the realms is gonna be the shtick of the new Duardin?

[silverstu]

WOW that was amazing! Loved the great fleet of the KO arriving- thats epic! Not entirely sure thats Grungni- it might be Grombrindal [the White Dwarf] Grungni was never lost and how the character appears is more how the White Dwarf travels and operates, plus Gromthi looks a lot like Grombrindal . His enemies would be skaven/greenskins.. but yes BRING ON THE NEW DWARFS!

Love how grim it all sounds - the dwarfs are going to have their hands full getting through this .. Grungni will need to whip up some serious machinery to deal with the all the chaos unleashed and broken realm gates. The Kharadron have other paths to other realms I think .. interesting...

 

EDIT: We HAVE to have a Grombrindal/Grungni epic model!! [Both would be perfectly fine - maybe a return of the dwarf pantheon if Valaya returns as well - Grimnir will probably stay shattered..]

Edited April 17, 2021 by silverstu

[idn0971]

While I agree the description is similar to Grombrindal I think it is Grugni from the description of Gromthi's weapons which are a hammer and mining pick. These are the exact weapons and symbols of Grugni while Grombrindal used a war axe

[silverstu]

Just now, idn0971 said:

While I agree the description is similar to Grombrindal I think it is Grugni from the description of Gromthi's weapons which are a hammer and mining pick. These are the exact weapons and symbols of Grugni while Grombrindal used a war axe

Yeah that makes sense to me too - maybe they have the same way of travelling/appearing... 

[Whitefang]

So Stormcast can not be reforged anymore in many area, as expected 

[Kaleb Daark]

wow. just wow.

I never realised that a stormcast needed a realmgate to go back to azyr, I thought they just did in an act of god kind of way.

And I suppose the only way you could rebuild a realm gate is with the help of a dwarf god with a massive hammer and mining pick, after all, who else would be capable of that sort of skill, magic and arcane knowledge.

The big question for me is the dynamic between Belakor and Archaon which I think by design has remained beautifully absent from the narrative - which is great as we thought it was going to be about them.  Perhaps Belakor sees his ascension in the eyes of the dark gods, (and the fall of favour of Arky) as something which perversely has nothing to do with ever involving arky, thereby making him look just like nothing more than a blown up slaves to darkness mortal.

However, I suppose it also means that the gates of azyr cannot be assaulted by Arky, which has always been number one on his to do list, thereby taking away his one great driving goal and ambition.

And will AoS 3 herald a new period of non reforging stormcast? - I'm wondering if Sigmar has a backdoor contingency to allow the stormcast to get back to azyr by another means, or at the very least the white bearded dwarf has a chat with the sulky lightning god and bangs his head against the wall  and tells him get a grip.

I'm also hoping that Belakor has double bluffed the floating bedseet woman and will take her soul apart strand by strand for her 'curse' which I hope he can undo / has undone  on the sly by the time that hourglass runs out. (I'm not a fan of floating bedsheet woman).

I'm very much looking forward to Kragnos, and I really do believe, and these previous two books have shown, that the book will be a massive curveball in terms of who he is and what faction he has sway over, as lets face it if  BR Be'Lakor is anything to go by, nobody was expecting end times lite.

 

[Svalack]

I thought it was Grombrindal. White hair, ancestor as name. Showing up randomly. Seems to fit. I'm assuming he was sent by grungni who we know has a plan in motion. Maybe armed him with those weapons which was a symbol to belakor that hes back.

I would have expected grungni himself to be abit more noticeable and not blend in with a ship crew but maybe shape changing? 

Also there was  a lot of talk originally about kragnos having a dwarven shield/dwarven charms/trophies on it. Connected?

 

 

[silverstu]

It definitely looks like the dwarfs will be major players in 3rd ed- which I like.  From the spoilers its hard to understand exactly what happened to the realm gates as they are described as destroyed - then they are assaulted by Belakors forces. I'm fairly sure the KO don't rely solely on the realm gates to get around the realms  so they may have work arounds. Chamon being cut-off sounds very challenging for the forces there .. maybe the Seraphon will intervene to repair/replace the gates [which would make sense of Kroak's actions]. I'm temped to get this book for the narrative, they really are doing an ace job - 3rd ed setting is going to be class..

[warhammerspammer]

I'm in love with Tzeentch at the min and welcome the new box to get some tasty pink and blue horror additions to my army!

[Clan's Cynic]

A pleasant surprise to have the Dawi save the day. I agree with the others that the mysterious saviour is probably Grombrindal, not Grungi.

[Kaleb Daark]

56 minutes ago, Clan's Cynic said:

A pleasant surprise to have the Dawi save the day. I agree with the others that the mysterious saviour is probably Grombrindal, not Grungi.

I'm the opposite and I hope it is Grugni, or an aspect of him (maybe grombrindal is.. .who knows), and I really liked the whole very low key nature of it.

I like the idea that this deity has been hiding in plain sight.  He can see what's happened to his people, and how they have reacted and interpreted his losing in their own way without him influencing anything until the time came to reveal himself - which I believe is yet to come, especially now he knows that Bella is onto him being back in the mortal realms.

I think that the big heralding of his return will come, but it's been in his interest to remain incognito as I suppose it's also obfuscated him from the seeking eyes of other gods and his enemies - lets face it, the horned rat would have had anywhere he knew he was turned into a swiss cheese of gnawholes with assassins pouring out of them like sweets if he had a bead on him.

I think it's also a very dwarven thing to exercise great caution and play the long game until it was time, so I like this idea of the mysterious stranger who just seems to be in the right place and say the right things and then just melts away till the next time.  It also means that the secret of Ur gold wasn't discovered over and above it being a good currency to bribe fireslayers into taking on a job.

 

All I hiope for the dwarfs is that AoS moving forward writes them as a faction which unlike the old world, was trying to keep a crumbling dying civilisation from extinction at the hands of goblins and rats, now is a new power united in a newly realised  optimism and shared awakening in their power and strength and able to reclaim what was rightfully theirs.

 

Imagine if Karaknos was actually an ancient dwarf of legend or even an ancient storm vault level dwarf hold... Karak Nos (it won't be of course not, but it would be a great curveball if it was dwarf related).

Edited April 17, 2021 by Kaleb Daark

[silverstu]

I just love the idea of a Dwarf deity coming into play - it sets the dwarfs up to be a big player in 3rd ed- and thats with the KO throwing their weight around.  The thing with Belakor thinking the entity was lost also made me think of Grombridal rather than Grungni [but they could be the same thing]. I'm greedy so i'd like both but hasn't Grombridal just been touring the realms in WD articles? Plus Grungni has been in Asyr , unless that has hidden him in some way.

 

It will be interesting to see where they take the dwarfs next- they could deepen the KO or build a new united faction round them- either way more dwarfs is always good . 

You have to reckon though that 3rd ed will centre around stormcast/CoS and destruction forces before anything else- I'm not expecting any new Duardin models for a while yet...

[Clan's Cynic]

Grungi's never really been a secretive god, whilst as far bad as WHFB Grombindal's thing has been to show up out of nowhere in times of need and AoS has really doubled down on the "Hello my name is Brom McNotGrombindal, ignore that I came out of literally nowhere and am very skilled and wise. Incidentally we should really do this..."  That he's done this in a recent Gotrek story and in a series of (aptly titled) White Dwarf articles makes a coincidence unlikely unless this is now meant to be a trait of the Dawi Gods.

Also Grungi's been distant, but not secretive. I never got the impression anybody thought he was lost or missing, just off doing his thing for Sigmar and later in Chamon.

Grombindal as a "may be taken in any army led by a <Duradin> General" seems like perfect model material (let's just pretend the existing Dragonslayer painted with a white beard isn't him because it's not like anyone else does) whilst Grungi's always been depicted as behind his forge and not really rolling up his sleeves to get stuck in.

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by Clan's Cynic

[JackStreicher]

Holy ******! This story is insane(ly good)!

let‘s hope grombrindal will be united with Malerion at some point!

 

I wonder what this means for the Stormcasts. Almost 2-3 Hosts are gone, Sigmar has to release another chamber alongside a book it seems, to return those souls.

[King Under the Mountain]

Wow I did not expect it to be this book with major Dwarf lore consequences.  My excitment just went up 1000%.  I hope we dont have to wait long for the lore ramifications. 

[Neverchosen]

So this story was not at all what I expected, it is interesting that this may have some of the most world building of all the books so far. I do think the game contents feel a little shallow but the lore is amazingly expansive. 

I think the biggest surprise is how crazy awesome the Seraphon portion of the story was. I am really interested if Kroak is truly going to be the featured character of one of the BR titles as this mummified toad already has an epic showing!

Edited April 17, 2021 by Neverchosen

[Kaleb Daark]

1 hour ago, King Under the Mountain said:

Wow I did not expect it to be this book with major Dwarf lore consequences.  My excitment just went up 1000%.  I hope we dont have to wait long for the lore ramifications. 

absolutely.  Lets get them out of the cities yoke, there's only so much big trousers and feathery hats a dwarf can take.

[Shankelton]

Don't tell me we're getting Grugni's dwarves

Don't do this to my wallet.