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Favorite fluff so far


Sennyo

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So having finally caught up with most of the novels and having read the realm gate wars, grand alliance books, battletomes and season of war fluff, i have decided i want to know what part of the age of sigmar fluff do people enjoy the most so far if any. Also what fluff would you like expanded from the information we have as of now.

personally i think the best fluff that I've read is the Shadowblade assassins background and would love a bit more information on them. i also really like how the flesh eater court basically see themselves as brettionans.

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Gotta say every repackaging of old models into a faction tome with very new fluff has been great. Ghouls = FEC, Savage Orks = Bonesplittas, Ogres = BCR...nicely done. Course I love me Fyreslayers :) I like bits from the novels. A cool climactic battle turning point in Darius Hinks's first of two stories in Hammers of Sigmar.

Battletomes are great. If you like a faction/race pick up their Legends of XX BL novels. Otherwise the GRW as you please. I recommend the 8 audio dramas though, maybe before or in between reading the fluff.

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I generally have found AoS lore to be really lackluster so far, unlike most people I think the Realmgate Wars are uninspired and boring, and literally every Stormcast battle is the same. There are a few notable exceptions (Valkia has a decent appearance, and Neferata doesn't look as bad as she did in that horrible, horrible Josh Reynolds novel), but overall, I find the lore so far to be brutally below par.

Having that said - the Sylvaneth battletome is a true pleaure to read. It's well developed, it's internally consistent and it spins very nicely on from the old world with Alarielle and the hints at Orion and the Asrai still being present in spirit. By far the best product so far since the launch of AoS, and a benchmark for other books to reach for.

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3 minutes ago, Payce said:

I generally have found AoS lore to be really lackluster so far, unlike most people I think the Realmgate Wars are uninspired and boring, and literally every Stormcast battle is the same. There are a few notable exceptions (Valkia has a decent appearance, and Neferata doesn't look as bad as she did in that horrible, horrible Josh Reynolds novel), but overall, I find the lore so far to be brutally below par.

Having that said - the Sylvaneth battletome is a true pleaure to read. It's well developed, it's internally consistent and it spins very nicely on from the old world with Alarielle and the hints at Orion and the Asrai still being present in spirit. By far the best product so far since the launch of AoS, and a benchmark for other books to reach for.

Which Josh Reynolds novel do you mean? Warhammer or AoS (he did both)? Just curious.

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1 hour ago, Payce said:

I generally have found AoS lore to be really lackluster so far, unlike most people I think the Realmgate Wars are uninspired and boring, and literally every Stormcast battle is the same. There are a few notable exceptions (Valkia has a decent appearance, and Neferata doesn't look as bad as she did in that horrible, horrible Josh Reynolds novel), but overall, I find the lore so far to be brutally below par.

Having that said - the Sylvaneth battletome is a true pleaure to read. It's well developed, it's internally consistent and it spins very nicely on from the old world with Alarielle and the hints at Orion and the Asrai still being present in spirit. By far the best product so far since the launch of AoS, and a benchmark for other books to reach for.

I agree with the lackluster opinion entirely. It has been getting better though, and I can't really put my finger on why exactly. Maybe it's the focus away from the golden boys and onto some of the other factions, or that we're finally fleshing out the unknown world.

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I have recently started reading the Realmgate Wars series...up to book 3.

 

I am enjoying it, but it is not a raging page turner like some have been in the past. I am enjoying understanding the fluff, why things are the way they are. I am starting to wish list too- that as they fill out the backgrounds of certain named individuals (Vandus hammerhand, Korgus Khul, Celemnis [whatever the dead sword maker chick's name is], Thostos, Grymn, Ionus Cryptborn etc etc) that they will gain special character status within the next stormcast eternals and Khorne Bloodbound armies books.

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Dang, great topic, I love the fluff.  I'm not caught up, recently finished Warbeast and onto Fist of Gork (actually I've gone back and re-reading the Fall of Altdorf, love that book)

I've enjoyed the Stormcasts stories, I think the idea of that army is so cool.  Live forever, but with a heavy price.  The visual of the gigantic dragon skeleton that served as the walls for a castle being told by a creepy in the shadows necromancer to get up and run to a lake of lava, flop in and form a bridge for the Stormcasts, too cool, just loved the scale of it!

But of all the books, my favorite is unquestionably the Call of Archaon.  I'm not a big chaos guy so wasn't thrilled with the prospect of reading it.  But in the story you follow a champion of Tzeench, Nurgle, and Khorne as they vie to become Archaon's second in command.  Great premise for a story, and outside of the nurge guy I was rooting for them.  The Khorne champion despises Khorne, but fights for him to have the chance to meet him in person and crush him.  Awesome stuff, great reading for getting into the new Gorechosen game.

My only complaint is that the novels seemed at first to follow the big campaign books, now not so much.  I feel like I need to read those big books along with the novels to understand the fluff, but not positive on that.

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22 minutes ago, JokerLord said:

Dang, great topic, I love the fluff.  I'm not caught up, recently finished Warbeast and onto Fist of Gork (actually I've gone back and re-reading the Fall of Altdorf, love that book)

I've enjoyed the Stormcasts stories, I think the idea of that army is so cool.  Live forever, but with a heavy price.  The visual of the gigantic dragon skeleton that served as the walls for a castle being told by a creepy in the shadows necromancer to get up and run to a lake of lava, flop in and form a bridge for the Stormcasts, too cool, just loved the scale of it!

But of all the books, my favorite is unquestionably the Call of Archaon.  I'm not a big chaos guy so wasn't thrilled with the prospect of reading it.  But in the story you follow a champion of Tzeench, Nurgle, and Khorne as they vie to become Archaon's second in command.  Great premise for a story, and outside of the nurge guy I was rooting for them.  The Khorne champion despises Khorne, but fights for him to have the chance to meet him in person and crush him.  Awesome stuff, great reading for getting into the new Gorechosen game.

My only complaint is that the novels seemed at first to follow the big campaign books, now not so much.  I feel like I need to read those big books along with the novels to understand the fluff, but not positive on that.

It's been that way since the end times. To get the full story you had to read the campaign books and the BL novels. Case example in the recent campaign book Death only got two pages and a small story in a previous one. That story and the two pages were turned into a whole BL book to actually find out what Nagash and the Mortarch's are doing and what their goals are. 

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Well not quite, the first novel War Storm closely followed the fluff with the first big book, I read both.  The next big book, Quest for Gal Maraz also followed the second novel Gal Maraz, I read both.  It was these experiences that got me thinking this would stay the case with newer releases of novels and big books.  I don't think that is the case.

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32 minutes ago, JokerLord said:

Well not quite, the first novel War Storm closely followed the fluff with the first big book, I read both.  The next big book, Quest for Gal Maraz also followed the second novel Gal Maraz, I read both.  It was these experiences that got me thinking this would stay the case with newer releases of novels and big books.  I don't think that is the case.

The thing is the Black library novels have some parts of the campaign books left out which lends itself to the overall narrative. 

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I’ve had mixed feelings so far. I’ve struggled with the battles as I’ve never been a particular fan of massive battles, always find it hard to engage with them, especially when they are on such a massive scale (it’s the 40k problem). But at the same time loving the development of characters and the unveiling of world beyond the fighting. Loved the Fury of Gork for this reason, it did have massive fights, but at the same time it took the time to develop the characters, and show us more of the nature of the people/orruks/chaos scum. Also really enjoyed the Mortarch of the Night for the same reasons. We are still in the early stages, the old world had 30 years of fluff to work with. We’ve had so much in just 1 year, I’m genuinely excited to see how GW develop the world in years to come.

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I agree with the lackluster comment. AoS main book was REALLY bad for a book that should introduce a whole setting. Realmgate books were quite good scenario books, but almost always badish story and fluff books. With a couple of exception (Sylvaneth, Beastclaw, maybe Flesh Eater and Blood Bound) Battletomes are very bad fluff books. There is really no comparison with the epic army books released during 4th/5th edition WHFB, which were from that point repeated for 20 years. Fluff is something GW main studio (and not BL, which has been fine) has to work hard on AoS.

 

That being said, there are glints of hope. The last Realmgate book kept the bad format of scenario book with a little bit of fluff (it should be the other way around, like ET), but the fluff it had was actually good. It is the only time, except for a couple of BL novels, that I have wanted to keep reading. With Sylvaneth and Beastclaw being good fluff books (although they still completely lack of epic stories and characters that made 40k or WHFB; they have no Black Fire Pass, no HH, no Isle of the Dead and Aenarion, no Nagash and Alcadizaar; all of that is STILL missing on AoS) and the last Realmgate book going on a good track, there is still hope. But GW needs to change its game here. 

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You do also have to remember most of those events were just a few lines in the past and were expanded upon in the future. Like the horus heresy was pretty much just a few lines in the rogue trader but turned into an epic saga years later. 

Same happening here I can recall several events that could be turned into a book series. Mannfred explains that the coming of nagash when he respawned in the realm of death after the end times were pretty interesting. Plus various events in the age of myth. 

Or the war of bones Nagash Vs Archaon. To this date Nagash and Mannfred said that they lost due to sigmar's treachery or some sort we don't know their end of the story. Plus all those great battles? We are creating right now like the season of war hell I am pretty sure video games might be made out of that event in the future. 

Like the greywatcher fortress from season of war they noted the everqueen hated it and when that explosion was released she looked on in horror as the surrounding land was destroyed. That plot hook can be developed to add some tension to order. 

When whfb and 40k started it was pretty bare bones none of these epic events just a general setting like how AOS was at the start. It took YEARS to add all that meat on I personally believe for a reboot the information we got was pretty good compared to the past. 

Eh I dunno it's just me I think the issue is I think people were expecting waaay too much that 30 years worth of fluff was just going to appear out of the gate. It's not, it's going to take time even whfb was not all that good at the start. 

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Oh, I do agree with that Shinros. I just hope that GW is aware that its goal should be to produce their own HE vs Chaos, Black Fire Pass, HH, Nagash backstory, the Sundering, etc., in AoS. As far as they are aware of that goal, I think the future is indeed bright. 

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I need to read more of the narrative, but I've struggled to be overly inspired with the majority of what I have seen thus far.  I do quite like their approach to the Undead, as it's a touch reminiscent of the old Warhammer Armies: Undead, and this appeals to my nostalgia, but Sigmar Marines don't do anything for me, and I would also like to see a lot more development of the world and more of a rich tapestry on which to draw inspiration.  This, for me, is where Age of Sigmar is really lacking compared to the Warhammer Old World.  I hope that GW plans to rectify this over time.

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1 hour ago, Irisado said:

I need to read more of the narrative, but I've struggled to be overly inspired with the majority of what I have seen thus far.  I do quite like their approach to the Undead, as it's a touch reminiscent of the old Warhammer Armies: Undead, and this appeals to my nostalgia, but Sigmar Marines don't do anything for me, and I would also like to see a lot more development of the world and more of a rich tapestry on which to draw inspiration.  This, for me, is where Age of Sigmar is really lacking compared to the Warhammer Old World.  I hope that GW plans to rectify this over time.

We won't see more of that until the season of war fluff comes out and possibly AOS roleplay books. Since it was the role play books that go into what is it like for a "normal" person living in a fantasy world. As I said all of this takes time. One other thing I found an interesting interview with C.L werner on AOS. 

Whole interview here I say it's a good read. Apologies don't know how to get rid of the black bars it's easier to read on the website. 

http://www.mengelminiatures.com/2016/09/interview-cl-werner-on-aos.html


Tyler: You have contributed several stories to Age of Sigmar so far, the latest being Lord of Undeath. Which of these was your favorite to write, or which did you connect with the most?

Werner: Of the Age of Sigmar stories which have emerged from my pen (or keyboard) I would pick Lord of Undeath as the most engaging. It allowed me a broader range of characters to explore and, of course, the opportunity to play with my second favourite character in the setting: Nagash.

Tyler: In Lord of Undeath we get to see all of the Mortarchs and how they interact with both each other, and with Nagash himself. Can you tell us a bit about writing these often complex and duplicitous relationships?

Werner: When writing undead of the intelligent nature (as opposed to simplistic things like ghouls and zombies) you run into the very formidable aspect of their characters. These are beings of vast, almost inconceivable, experience. They have so much to draw upon, so much they have learned and endured already that they are far superior to even the most learned mortal. The flaw in the undead, however, is that they are very slow to adapt. Creatures like Mannfred and Neferata will keep slipping back into familiar patterns, resorting to old methodologies and practices.

At the same time, they are very cunning and utterly ruthless strategists. Their ploys aren't simply devised to bring immediate reward but may be aspects of a greater design that will play out down through centuries. The Mortarchs especially are engaged for a long game. My take on the Mortarchs was that Arkhan is completely devoted to Nagash, almost to a degree where he exists almost as a facet of his master. Mannfred, by contrast, is continually scheming to set himself beyond his master's reach. Neferata is somewhere between these two extremes – while she might share Mannfred's ambition she isn't going to expose herself to Nagash's wrath.

Tyler: Neferata gets the most page time in the story as far as the death characters go. She has always been one of the most interesting death characters to me, perhaps because she seems the most human in a way. How was it writing such a vile person who can also be very relatable at times?

Werner: In Lord of Undeath Queen Neferata is the readers' first contact with the hierarchy of Shyish and therefore assumes a greater presence throughout the story. She is, at her core, an inhuman monster clinging to pretensions of nobility. She revels in the trappings of royalty and the prestige of being sovereign of her kingdom. Yet this vision is twisted by her undead nature, leaving her with a macabre perception of what it means to rule.

She lacks empathy or compassion for anything, all of her servants and subjects are important to her only as possessions, things to make use of as she sees fit. If she has a redeeming, or at least relatable quality, it is her thirst for independence. Whether it is the conquest of Chaos or the dominance of Nagash, she ultimately wants to be free. Towards that end she will make use of anyone and anything – ruthlessly and even murderously. While her objective might be laudable, her methodology is nothing shy of horrific.

Tyler: Nagash is obviously a very important person in both AoS and Warhammer Fantasy before it. Was it a bit intimidating writing such a momentous character, especially with several scene from his point of view?

Werner: Nagash is a very daunting character to write, yet at the same time the Great Necromancer is one of the most enticing. I've wanted to do something with Nagash for a very long time, so getting my hands on him in Lord of Undeath was exciting. Doing so presented its own problems.

Nagash is far beyond even his Mortarchs so far as his mind is concerned. All the issues of writing the undead are compounded when writing a being that is the God of Death. Nagash is like a calculating chess master, planning every move several steps ahead of his opponent, foreseeing every possible variation and making contingencies to address them. Everything and everyone, be they mortals or gods, is simply a pawn in the grand schemes that Nagash has devised.

Tyler: You managed to make all of the Stormcast Eternal characters feel unique and believable, which is sometimes difficult to achieve with them. What challenges do you find when writing about Stormcasts?

Werner: Stormcast Eternals are quite different to write. Many of the passions and drives that motivate mortal man have been burned away in their reforging. What is left is a pure and complete devotion of Sigmar, an all-consuming sense of loyalty and duty. The Stormcasts share Sigmar's purpose and the only real fear they have is to fail in their obligations to the God-king.

While no Stormcast doubts Sigmar or the purity of their purpose, they may differ in their perspectives on how to achieve that shared goal. It is in that difference of perception that I think the personalities of the Anvils of the Heldenhammer are allowed to become distinct and peer out from being their sigmarite masks.


Writer's opinion on the setting. 

Tyler: What was your first reaction when you heard about the conclusion of the End Times and the dawn of the Age of Sigmar?

Werner: I think my reaction at learning of the End Times was one of concern, a worry about what would follow after the richness of Warhammer's Old World. With Age of Sigmar I think there is a setting that promises almost unlimited scope for exploration and development.

Grand vistas of magic and wonder that would have been appropriate only to the Chaos Wastes of Warhammer (if even then) are much more credible and approachable in Age of Sigmar. That lays an incredible degree of freedom for a writer to explore if their imagination is equal to the task.

Tyler: Do you find any major differences in how you have to approach writing an AoS story over a Warhammer Fantasy one?

Werner: The biggest difference between writing for Warhammer and writing for Age of Sigmar has proven to be that of scope. What I mean is that Warhammer was very much a ground-level fantasy setting. I'd write from a more focused and limited perspective. In the Old World, the fight for a single city was a thing of incredible moment. Age of Sigmar is much grander in scope. Here it isn't a question of cities, but of entire realms of existence.

Armies of incalculable size strive to conquer landscapes as vast as all the Empire. The stakes are much greater, the conflicts of a gargantuan scale. As a result the personalities of those engaged in this war have to be that much more epic. These aren't knights focused on defending a single village, but reforged immortals fighting to preserve reality itself!

I personally hold a similar opinion to Werner. whfb was stuck in a stagnate cycle IMO no matter how much I liked it. 40K had the advantage of being vast and stuff can be easily added to it. Case example the dark elves could never get anywhere with the high elves due to the simple fact it would invalidate them. Same with the vampire counts and the empire and various counts. 

Nothing could really be discovered in a sense. 

I personally like that the undead went back to the good old days so to speak. 

 

 

 


 

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