Seasons of War Thonida - SPOILERS Narrative and Lore Discussion

[KingBrodd]

Gday guys just created this thread to discuss all the Lore and Narrative fallout from Seasons of War Thondia!! Obviously spoilers from here on out.

The biggest take away is...more Beasts of Chaos are surely coming!?

[Copywolf]

I almost wonder if the Beasts of Chaos "bonding" with the magic of the realms opens them up to being not strictly chaos? Potentially both chaos and non-chaos (probably destruction) as options.

Edited April 19, 2022 by Copywolf

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

I would be super stoked if the Era of the Beast turned out to not just be about the Destruction factions, but heavily involve all the other bestial factions such as Beasts of Chaos, Skaven, Flesh Eater Courts and Kurnothi/Sylvaneth as well. That would be really nice.

I think especially Beasts of Chaos are so under explored. They already have their long-time fans, but I think they could really get into their own if they got some developent in the plot. They might have more mass appeal than people generally give them credit for.

[KingBrodd]

51 minutes ago, Copywolf said:

I almost wonder if the Beasts of Chaos "bonding" with the magic of the realms opens them up to being not strictly chaos? Potentially both chaos and non-chaos (probably destruction) as options.

I did ponder this as well, as when Yndrasta and the other Stormcasts found those affected they didnt outright slay them as they wasnt the taint of Chaos upon them. Maybe itll be our first cross Alliance?

38 minutes ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

I would be super stoked if the Era of the Beast turned out to not just be about the Destruction factions, but heavily involve all the other bestial factions such as Beasts of Chaos, Skaven, Flesh Eater Courts and Kurnothi/Sylvaneth as well. That would be really nice.

I think especially Beasts of Chaos are so under explored. They already have their long-time fans, but I think they could really get into their own if they got some developent in the plot. They might have more mass appeal than people generally give them credit for.

I've always wanted Era of the Beast to include any of the monstrous or so Factions; Mawtribes, Sons of Behemat, Gloomspite, Warclans, Skaven, Seraphon, BOC, Sylvaneth, FEC anything bestial.

Oh absolutely if they made the BOC a force to be reckoned with in the narrative and again so in their models and rules I think people will flock to them.

They need a more narrative presence seeing as besides Skaven they are the most numerous of any Chaos aligned Faction.

[Snorri Nelriksson]

5 hours ago, Copywolf said:

I almost wonder if the Beasts of Chaos "bonding" with the magic of the realms opens them up to being not strictly chaos? Potentially both chaos and non-chaos (probably destruction) as options.

Consider what Morghur has become is highly unlikely,i could see them doubling down on his mutagenic abilities warping humanoids into beastmen and chaos spawns.
I'd hope he'll become a minor power of chaos in his own right heralding a new balance in the GA(minor god like Hashut,Zuvassin and so on).
Technically the winds were and are always "chaotic in nature" so i really doubt they'll change that(like warp in the 40K)...also it would undermine what beastman always were(true children of chaos).

Edited April 19, 2022 by Snorri Nelriksson

[Baron Klatz]

21 hours ago, Snorri Nelriksson said:

Technically the winds were and are always "chaotic in nature" so i really doubt they'll change that(like warp in the 40K)

They already kinda did. The purity of magic from the realms opposes Chaos on several levels. That’s why in the Age of Myth the Chaos denizens could only scratch and whisper at the realm-edges as the realms kept them out and even now they have a hard time moving through the realms without gateways because the winds of magic aren’t naturally chaos aligned without being corrupted and augmented by the Realm of Chaos first.

”The Great Horned Rat, like the other Dark Gods, was unable to send his agents to the Mortal Realms at first due to the purity of their magic and their ignorance of its natives about the Gods of Chaos. To gain access he tormented many Ghyranite tribes beset by verminous infestation with visions of baleful eyes in their dreams, turning them to his worship. They started to wear the pelts and tails of the largest vermin they could slay, and started dancing on their fours around the corpses of local rat-catchers. The next time the gravid moon rose green, the skaven were able to reach the realms and devoured these worshippers.”

“The magic of the forces of Chaos is unique in that is granted by the Dark Gods using the dark and corrupting forces of the Realm of Chaos to augment the magics of the Mortal Realms. Tzeentch, Slaanesh and Nurgle embrace wizardry and imbue their daemons, their wills made manifest, with abilities that reflect their domains and all other forms of corruption. The Skaven focus their magic into decay-oriented powers and twisted alchemical sciences. Khorne on the other hand despises all magic.”

“Realmstone, for the most part, is not malicious. Aside from realmstone corrupted by or aligned with Chaos, it is ambivalent about mortals as the mountains, rivers or skies.” 
(like heck, wealthy Aqshyians will crumble up Firestone and put it in their meals to enhance their vitality)

Even mixing magic together doesn’t cause chaos or Dhar anymore like with the warlocks of the-world-that-was. That’s why average battlemages can bring their known magic to another realm and still cast stuff like Metamorphis in Ghur. 

The magic of the Realms and Aetheric Void is very independent of Chaos.

21 hours ago, Snorri Nelriksson said:

also it would undermine what beastman always were(true children of chaos).

This part is true. That’s why stuff like Ogroids, Fomoroids and Sphiranxes are part of the Slaves of Darkness since they were naturally animal peoples of the Realms(Ogroids served Gorkamorka, Fomoroids built empires at the All-Gates nexus, Sphiranxes worked for god-Teclis in gathering knowledge) before Chaos enslaved them. So are not anywhere noted to affiliate with the Brayherds as they’re not naturally born to Chaos like them but taken.

However, we already have Reclaimed tribes of Marauders & Chaos worshippers who’ve been rehabilitated to live with Order again, Chaos Champions cleansed by Ghal Maraz that now make up brotherhoods of Redeemed Stormcasts and the main Deepkin novel mentions empires of daemons hiding under the seas that left Chaos(likely due to Realms Oceans being sinks of primordial magic that let them sever their connections to the Dark Gods).

So the power of the Elementals making neutral Beastmen and even giving some an “Out” from being born to Chaos and forced to serve it are highly possible.(you could probably get the same outcome just blasting them with Azyr and Hysh magic to cleanse Chaos just like Teclis did to restore the Lumineth from Slaanesh or Sigmar did with the Redeemed/Slaans did to claim a piece of the Realm of Chaos by flooding it with Azyr magic)

Though I doubt it’ll make cross-alliance Beastmen as Morghur will make sure they stay Beasts to Chaos under him it can cause a whole new(possibly Destruction) faction of turned mortals made into animal people from the realm magic, the natural beast spirits of Ghur being awakened and could call more realm-native beast people like the Aetar eagle people & Sanskrit draconians to that alliance that have no connection to Chaos but serve God-beasts like Behemat & Kragnos.

A “Krondspine Realmbeasts” race would be the ticket for a lot of players who want animal-people without the taint of chaos or constant need to destroy and corrupt everything so they can make peaceful tribes and allies to any Alliance they want.

Edited April 20, 2022 by Baron Klatz

[EonChao]

On 4/19/2022 at 2:34 PM, KingBrodd said:

Oh absolutely if they made the BOC a force to be reckoned with in the narrative and again so in their models and rules I think people will flock to them.

They need a more narrative presence seeing as besides Skaven they are the most numerous of any Chaos aligned Faction.

I was someone who during Warhammer Fantasy looked at Beastmen as just random boring Chaos cannon fodder. That attitude kind of carried over to AoS (although the Beastgrave models are fantastic) but reading the lore in the White Dwarf update made me want to get into them. I'm really looking forward to picking up the Thondia book in the near future to figure out more of them as a faction. If they got a few updated kits then I'd snap them up.

[Neverchosen]

I just started a new job so I will likely not get the time to pick this up but everything I have heard sounds amazing so far! 

Morghur has always been one of my favourite characters/entities and with a new release I might have to dip into some beastly allies 🐐

[Enoby]

9 hours ago, Neverchosen said:

I just started a new job so I will likely not get the time to pick this up but everything I have heard sounds amazing so far! 

Morghur has always been one of my favourite characters/entities and with a new release I might have to dip into some beastly allies 🐐

Congratulations on the new job!

I'm only passingly interested in a lot of AoS lore, but I really enjoyed Thondia's - an enjoyable read with every faction that's involved coming out looking good. 

[Neverchosen]

On 4/21/2022 at 8:46 AM, Enoby said:

Congratulations on the new job!

I'm only passingly interested in a lot of AoS lore, but I really enjoyed Thondia's - an enjoyable read with every faction that's involved coming out looking good. 

Thanks that means a lot! I can finally almost 'afford' my Hobby but now don't have nearly enough time for it. Trying to decide on if I should  reward myself with Be'Lakor or the upcoming Chaos Knight Box 😅

I have a weird relationship to Lore, I am happy it exists and it serves a source of inspiration or template for my own narratives... but I intentionally try and treat the established lore as the myths for my own games. Like the Chaos Gods are important to my Slaves to Darkness army, but they might only know them through whispers and not speak their names. Also the realms are not different dimensional plains but provinces or states... I have a lore friendly 'explanation' featuring realm gates, but in terms of my games it is just Shadowy Forests, Ashen Plains, or Brilliant and Bright Coasts. Other things do not correlate directly to the established lore like how my ogors are stone elementals and all the named characters get renamed and reimagined.

But the coolest part of events like this for me are how they sow the seeds of further possibilities. Unique Realm Incarnations and Morghur are particularly exciting. Based on 2+ Toughs overview of the events, I am also really happy that Yndrasta is getting some narrative weight behind her and that the Kruel Boyz and Bonesplitterz are getting to show their differences in direct relationship to each other. Plus it seems like the Beasts are more interesting and dynamic than they have been in the past. Morghur better get a massive and terrifying model or better yet be on the scale of the Great Horned Rat and have massive  avatars on the field.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Neverchosen