Future Lore Speculation (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)

[Dawi not Duardin]

Hey everyone!

First post and thread on the forum! I'm dipping my toes into Warhammer again for the first time since around the Storm of Chaos debacle and for the first time as an adult. I haven't started up an army yet, but I've been following the new releases and lore recently, and I'm really falling for it... I'm an old-school Dawi player and fan (I used to be active on Bugman's Brewery 15-20 years ago!), so I am somewhat cautiously waiting to see what will happen with the rumoured Dawi United until I start building an army.

Now, as I've been following the lore in some depth, I can't help but think about where things are going to go in it beyond Broken Realms and the start of 3rd edition. Hence, I thought I would start off with a Hot Take and speculate a bit based on it. I do however want to emphasize that I'm in no way affiliated with GW or "in the know" - I'm just someone who has had too much time on my hands while waiting for my Covid jab, so take what I say with a grain of salt. But still.

So. What has struck me now is that it seems very plausible to think that Kragnos and Yndrasta are AoS Khal Drogo and Daenerys. Just think about it.

Kragnos:

• Name sounds like "Khal Drogo."
• "Dothrukh" not "Dothraki" - potato, potatoe.
• Big, strong and brutish aesthetic.
• Half-humanoid, half-horse. ("The Stallion Who Mounts the World.")
• Leads force of barbarian-ish warriors.
• Destroyer of Dragons.

Yndrasta:

• Look at the name "Daenerys Targaryen." If you play with the letters for "Daenerys" you get stuff like "Yndraaes". Add that up with the first two letters of "Targaryen", you get "Yndraaes-Ta". So the name looks a lot like a reference - though a bit more subtle than Dothrukh/Dothraki.
• Light/bright aesthetic.
• Beast slayer... or should that be tamer?
• Ally of Dragons (w. Dracothion, etc).

So, again, I think it's very likely that Kragnos and Yndrasta are AoS takes on Drogo and Dany.

But that takes us to the speculation side. We don't know what this connection is going to imply, as these characters are super new. But here are two options in the light of the background material here.

• Either GW keeps them as enemies because they like their settings to be turned up to 11 in contrast with more grounded fantasy or sci-fi.
• Or... more interestingly, they go all in on the GoT theme and have these two reconcile their differences. Possibly this will herald a Sigmarite-Kragnos alliance with this Valkyrie riding her centaur-pony all the way into 4th edition? Like, as a monster hunter, she'll be the only one who can best him, and they'll need to fight a greater threat (Chaos rising). They could even become the AoS equivalent of Vlad and Isabella von Carstein?

Again this is speculation, but I hope you see where I'm coming from! Thoughts about this take? Or other thoughts about upcoming lore development in 3rd edition?

[MitGas]

Interesting post and insights/theories (the Daenaris name.... that's clever of you) - Kragnos is a Dothrukh? Now that's some lazy stealin'! But let's call it a homage.

Anyways, I can't see an Order/Destruction alliance personally unless there's a HUGE Chaos invasion - something the setting doesn't really leave room for as Chaos is pretty prevalent already, they don't need a crusade to be more of a threat, they are a threat already) although certain individuals from those could team up for sure. I certainly hope that Kragnos gets killed off (maybe next edition?) and that marks the return of dragons (I like dragons and if Kragnos is the reason they're gone, then sorry, Kragnos but it's your own damn fault) and Destruction having decentralized leadership. I'd kinda like that for Chaos as well, fits both factions. I know they won't kill off Archaon but I'd be all for pushing him more into the background (much like all those demigods) and giving some mortals the chance to shine. We're in the mortal realms after all.

 

... what would in theory make for a good teamup would be the return of a god-beast like Galrauch though. Order could ask for Kragnos help in dealing with him as Kragnos is THE dragon-slayer?

[Dawi not Duardin]

Thanks mate! 🙂

I'd love some more dragons back too. In particular, I'd like to see the speculation that Dracothion=Sotek confirmed. I'm sure old-school Lizards players might be sceptical, but it'd make sense as a way to tie Lizards and Stormcast together as Azyrites.

I don't mind Kragnos per se though, personally. It makes sense that a single entity like that could come in and upset the Orcs in one way or another. Orc warbosses are often somewhat one-dimensional: whether they are Gorbad, Gorfang, Morglum, Grimgor, or more recently Gordrakk, they all just kind of bash heads and sometimes torture a human or a dwarf and that's it. I was always more of a fan of Goblin or Shaman characters for Greenskins - and say what you want about Kragnoss, but at least he stands out. But... Presumably he can pave the way for a return of more dragon characters or units as enemies? This would probably generate a lot of tensions with an Yndrasta-Kragnos alliance, though. We probably can't have it all. 

[Dawi not Duardin]

UPDATE: Also, my apologies, I wrote Kragnos was a "Dothrukh", but he's apparently a "Drogrukh". Not that it matters for my point, though - that's clearly a play on "Drogo" and "Dothraki" regardless.

[RocketPropelledGrenade]

7 hours ago, Dawi not Duardin said:

UPDATE: Also, my apologies, I wrote Kragnos was a "Dothrukh", but he's apparently a "Drogrukh". Not that it matters for my point, though - that's clearly a play on "Drogo" and "Dothraki" regardless.

I think "clearly" is waaaaaay overstating this. Personally., my take is that a lot of fantasy names uses the same stylistic choices, and that's all that the similarities, such as they are, represent.

Otherwise we get things like "Morathi sounds like Arathi, so clearly the Daughters of Khaine will get a special battleplan revolving around the objectives from that one World of Warcraft battleground" or "Kruleboyz are going to a bonus to hurt Dalmations because their name is like Cruella."

Sometimes the evidence just isn't there. If you want to speculate, that's one thing, but calling it a clear sign is very different.

[MitGas]

1 hour ago, RocketPropelledGrenade said:

I think "clearly" is waaaaaay overstating this. Personally., my take is that a lot of fantasy names uses the same stylistic choices, and that's all that the similarities, such as they are, represent.

Otherwise we get things like "Morathi sounds like Arathi, so clearly the Daughters of Khaine will get a special battleplan revolving around the objectives from that one World of Warcraft battleground" or "Kruleboyz are going to a bonus to hurt Dalmations because their name is like Cruella."

Sometimes the evidence just isn't there. If you want to speculate, that's one thing, but calling it a clear sign is very different.

I think you're getting worked up over a linguistic technicality here. He might not be a native speaker, in the context of his theory it's a compelling and interesting statement. I totally get where he's coming from although it could obviously be coincidence. Personally I think it's a homage.

I also have a theory too: some random creature follows me around, it's nice to have a fan.

[Dawi not Duardin]

4 hours ago, RocketPropelledGrenade said:

I think "clearly" is waaaaaay overstating this. Personally., my take is that a lot of fantasy names uses the same stylistic choices, and that's all that the similarities, such as they are, represent.

Otherwise we get things like "Morathi sounds like Arathi, so clearly the Daughters of Khaine will get a special battleplan revolving around the objectives from that one World of Warcraft battleground" or "Kruleboyz are going to a bonus to hurt Dalmations because their name is like Cruella."

Sometimes the evidence just isn't there. If you want to speculate, that's one thing, but calling it a clear sign is very different.

Well, I wrote in the OP that you should take what I am posting here with a grain of salt. Of course what I'm saying is just a theory, and it's even a theory which is intended to be a hot take because it is fun to use to speculate rather than a theory which I'm presenting as something that's a serious stab at truth. (I've talked more about it with friends elsewhere than on here and they certainly don't seem to have minded some speculation.) But I'm absolutely not going to die on the hill that what I say in the OP or later in these posts is the full truth either: this is not a scientific article, it's a forum post for talking about fantasy lore.

Having said that, I do think there is a clear case to be made for thinking that "Drogrukh" sounds a lot like a combination of the words "Drogo" and "Dothraki", with some additional letters added. You can see that just from how similar the letters in the words are. 

And there are also strong background reasons for thinking that there might be something there. First, the rest of the points mentioned in the OP - or, as MitGas called it, "the context of [my] theory." Second, a lot of other AoS concepts are riffs on more familiar fantasy ones, e.g. trolls are now "Troggoths" or "Troggs" and elves are now "Aelves", but those are obviously modifications of the words "trolls" (possibly with reference to Throgg the Troll King) and "elves." Third, it's no news that GW very commonly riff on other concepts from elsewhere, whether from real life or in fantasy settings. It wouldn't be surprising if they were to riff on some concepts from GoT given its recent popularity. So... again, while I don't think I'm making a 100% waterproof case here, there are at least reasons for being open to the idea and then playing with it.

Edited June 6, 2021 by Dawi not Duardin