A discussion of the lore of AoS after 7 years

[Baron Klatz]

59 minutes ago, Skreech Verminking said:

Any skaven player hearing this would probably rather burn the game down.

Nonsense. Clans Pestilens players are always looking for ways to bring Nurgle’s children in as allies and vice-versa. They’d be great for being the 2 Chaos Alliance lords in Ghyran.

 

If I had to say the Lords there it’d be Horticulous for a slow and methodical gameplay in growing his gardens while Warpscreech from the God-beasts campaign is more high speed on getting those parasite engines up and running to drain the realmscape and appease Archaon so they can pull in more of his troops & daemons and unite with the chaos kingdoms there.

 

[JackOfBlades]

2 hours ago, Baron Klatz said:

 

 

Who's that armored hurricane?

[Beliman]

Archaon going full djinn 😅

[Gitzdee]

1 hour ago, Beliman said:

Archaon going full djinn 😅

🎼Mighty morphin... nvm.

Edited July 25, 2022 by Gitzdee

[Baron Klatz]

1 hour ago, JackOfBlades said:

Who's that armored hurricane?

Yeah, that was how Archaon communicated with his commanders during the God-beast campaign as they were spread across multiple Realms and he had tasks for each to take on a different God-beast so he could enslave them.

He took forms from flies, warp clouds and blood.

 

 

[Twisted Firaun]

6 hours ago, Beliman said:

Archaon going full djinn 😅

I'm stealing this idea in the name of LONG LOST NEHEKHARA! and my "Chaos-Middle East" themed army. 

[JackOfBlades]

4 hours ago, Baron Klatz said:

Yeah, that was how Archaon communicated with his commanders during the God-beast campaign as they were spread across multiple Realms and he had tasks for each to take on a different God-beast so he could enslave them.

He took forms from flies, warp clouds and blood.

 

 

And these pictures are found throughout the lore books themselves? 😍

[Baron Klatz]

1 minute ago, JackOfBlades said:

And these pictures are found throughout the lore books themselves? 😍

Yeah, they’re in the God-beast campaign tome. If it’s in the Warhammer+ vault you should be able to read it and look at the pics.

The Well of Eternity blog has a collection of AoS1 art per book they were in:

http://wellofeternitypl.blogspot.com/2016/04/artworks-from-age-of-sigmar-vi.html?m=1
 

http://wellofeternitypl.blogspot.com/2016/04/artworks-from-warhammer-age-of-sigmar-iv.html?m=1

[derpherp]

Speaking of AoS games:

Quote

New games launching in 2022/23 include major franchises Warhammer 40,000: Darktide and Bloodbowl 3, plus four more still awaiting release dates. In total there are 12 unreleased games in development and four new licences were signed in the year. We recognised one significant one in the income statement this year at £7.5 million with Nexon - note this is not all paid in cash at the time it is recognised. The cash is paid throughout the lifetime of the licence.

That's Nexon with a potential Genshin Impact style Age of Sigmar game.

I, uh, hope GW weren't silly enough to do a flat fee instead of a percent on that license. Genshin Impact made 2 Billion dollars in 2021. It would be amusingly painful if they only got a flat fee and then this nexon game made pentuple GW's entire yearly revenue.

7.5 mil is a huge chunk of change so it sounds like nexon are pretty serious about doing a big popular AoS game.

Edited July 26, 2022 by derpherp

[Baron Klatz]

Oh dang! Between that and Nexon recently getting a new CEO we might be rolling some of Tzeentch’s Destiny Dice for this MMO on it being a hit. 😮

 

 

[Enoby]

I think a potential problem that has to be overcome for an AoS game is who the player can actually play as. Unlike 40k, where you can slap a space marine or other Imperial on a game and call it a day, AoS has a much wider range of popular factions. 

If they make a Stormcast game, which are probably the most popular faction, then quite a few people won't be interested because they don't like the Stormcast aesthetic. And by "quite a few" I mean that, anecdotally, a majority players don't care all that much about Stormcast (not dislike, but just don't care enough to buy a game about them). Same as if they made a Chaos game, or an Orruk game, or a Vampire game, or whatever. No single faction is popular enough to get everyone in AoS interested (tbh, Chaos would probably be the most successful simply because it may get 40k players in). 

Of course, making an MMO style game where you can play anything and start in your own zone would be amazing, but also hard to do and unlikely. 

I do think the only faction that could appeal to most is Cities of Sigmar, simply because playing as a normal human is pretty relatable and you'd get the standard option of dwarves and a aelves too (and maybe Stormcast). 

Alternatively, you could do a Total War style game where you play as an army rather than a character, and they can include a lot of factions (just look at Total Warhammer), but that's a very specific type of game that Total War is already doing, so it may feel second fiddle to them.

Personally the best AoS game I can imagine is an expensive first person RPG where you can play as any faction and explore your own zones before going to others, and each faction would react to you differently. But I also accept that's a pipe dream and likely unobtainable (and if it was, the resources would be given to 40k). 

[Skreech Verminking]

On 7/25/2022 at 1:31 PM, Baron Klatz said:

Nonsense. Clans Pestilens players are always looking for ways to bring Nurgle’s children in as allies and vice-versa.

Last time I checked, clans pestilence were more interested in watching their nurgle allies die-die unhappily, while they stayed back watching, delightfully.

at least that is what my clan skryre army did, when I was taking part at a 2k (1k per person) team event.

my dear backstabbed friend took most of the blow.

Especially that of my doomwheel.

There can only be one victor here, and I aim to be that person yes-yes.

(ps: I rolled pretty poorly on the doomwheel) but at least my two foes weren’t certain who would take the part of moving the doomwheel.

was fun to watch)

[derpherp]

12 hours ago, Enoby said:

I think a potential problem that has to be overcome for an AoS game is who the player can actually play as. Unlike 40k, where you can slap a space marine or other Imperial on a game and call it a day, AoS has a much wider range of popular factions. 

If they make a Stormcast game, which are probably the most popular faction, then quite a few people won't be interested because they don't like the Stormcast aesthetic. And by "quite a few" I mean that, anecdotally, a majority players don't care all that much about Stormcast (not dislike, but just don't care enough to buy a game about them). Same as if they made a Chaos game, or an Orruk game, or a Vampire game, or whatever. No single faction is popular enough to get everyone in AoS interested (tbh, Chaos would probably be the most successful simply because it may get 40k players in). 

Of course, making an MMO style game where you can play anything and start in your own zone would be amazing, but also hard to do and unlikely. 

I do think the only faction that could appeal to most is Cities of Sigmar, simply because playing as a normal human is pretty relatable and you'd get the standard option of dwarves and a aelves too (and maybe Stormcast). 

Alternatively, you could do a Total War style game where you play as an army rather than a character, and they can include a lot of factions (just look at Total Warhammer), but that's a very specific type of game that Total War is already doing, so it may feel second fiddle to them.

Personally the best AoS game I can imagine is an expensive first person RPG where you can play as any faction and explore your own zones before going to others, and each faction would react to you differently. But I also accept that's a pipe dream and likely unobtainable (and if it was, the resources would be given to 40k). 

By the sounds of the Nexon game you can play as multiple characters, which is like Genshin Impact. You unlock more characters to play as you play the game and they add them in over time. Which probably eventually means more or less playing a character from any faction.

It's also supposedly multiplayer like genshin, and can be played on PC, console, and mobile like Genshin.

Sounds like theres a chance it might be a lot like your best AoS game tbh

 

[Gitzdee]

7 minutes ago, derpherp said:

By the sounds of the Nexon game you can play as multiple characters, which is like Genshin Impact. You unlock more characters to play as you play the game and they add them in over time. Which probably eventually means more or less playing a character from any faction.

It's also supposedly multiplayer like genshin, and can be played on PC, console, and mobile like Genshin.

Sounds like theres a chance it might be a lot like your best AoS game tbh

 

So its probably another microtransactions fest. If the story isnt any good ill pass. Wont like another hollow botw clone. Hope they come up with something good. Still waiting for a proper dawn of war sequel but the time of the RTS genre has passed into legend.

C&C/ Red Alert was the best, ill probably want an AoS version including the "awesome" cutscenes with actors and no animations.

[CommissarRotke]

On 7/24/2022 at 3:26 AM, Beliman said:

I think that's the main issue. If you need to read 7 books, 3 comics, 9 magazines, 6 interviews to understand one movie, then it's because the movie has a problem.

 

And how accessible is (was?) WHF or 40k lore, without all the loretubers? Probably about the same yes? I remember having to read all kinds of supplements, forums, and novels pre-lexicanum/youtube to find lore. It still comes down to putting in the effort, it's just easier now. and triply-easy for 40k because you bump into lore-disseminators so easily.

edit: I don't necessarily disagree with this being an issue, I'm just extremely tired of it not being applied to WHF or 40k. it is a problem for most IP-based media.

Edited July 27, 2022 by CommissarRotke

[Enoby]

1 hour ago, CommissarRotke said:

And how accessible is (was?) WHF or 40k lore, without all the loretubers? Probably about the same yes? I remember having to read all kinds of supplements, forums, and novels pre-lexicanum/youtube to find lore. It still comes down to putting in the effort, it's just easier now. and triply-easy for 40k because you bump into lore-disseminators so easily.

edit: I don't necessarily disagree with this being an issue, I'm just extremely tired of it not being applied to WHF or 40k. it is a problem for most IP-based media.

I agree that 40k isn't any more accessible without the loretubers and Co, but it can't be overlooked as to why people may feel AoS's lore is less accessible even if officially it's likely more accessible than 40k. Not saying you are saying to overlook it, but rather it's really hard to untangle this from people feeling AoS is less accessible. 

While not really the 'fault' of 40k or Fantasy, they did seem to have a much greater fan support in terms of Wikis etc. I've bought minimal (<5) 40k or Fantasy lore supplements and I feel I've somehow got to know their lore quite well despite not trying to learn it (and never playing Fantasy).

It's not a criticism of AoS, but unfortunately it seems like lore discussions and hubs are much less common to see than 40k or, to an extent, Fantasy. 

So unfortunately AoS may seem harder to learn about easily because there are fewer ways to learn about it for free. Thankfully there are some great YouTubers helping with that problem, but it's not quite there yet. Like I said, I've never given 40k much of a try and I don't like the lore much, but I feel I know nearly more 40k lore than AoS lore despite not really wanting to.  

Again, not the fault of any of the systems, but it's something that I think needs to be considered.

[Beliman]

51 minutes ago, CommissarRotke said:

And how accessible is (was?) WHF or 40k lore, without all the loretubers? Probably about the same yes? I remember having to read all kinds of supplements, forums, and novels pre-lexicanum/youtube to find lore. It still comes down to putting in the effort, it's just easier now. and triply-easy for 40k because you bump into lore-disseminators so easily.

edit: I don't necessarily disagree with this being an issue, I'm just extremely tired of it not being applied to WHF or 40k. it is a problem for most IP-based media.

I can't talk about 40k because it's in another league from any other wargame.

But I still think that Fantasy background was more accessible. You didn't need to read outside of your own army book to understand your army:

• You had 2 to 3 pages for each big name-characters, some of them even without rules to play.
• A chronology with special events (even if the events were from Black Library books).
• A few maps with rivers, small/big towns, mountains, etc.. and a small explanation about them.
• A few small stories
• Some of them had their own full langauge
• Their flags, sigils, crests, etc...
• If you army had a war with another, take in mind that both army books will depict the events with their own POV (and I'm not talking about a Garaktormun or the awakening of Kragnos).

That alone made the army books feel a lot more strightforward and easy to understand for my Little Me. 

Take in mind that people don't need a full knowledge of the setting or their army. Even if KOs are awesome, I miss some basic information to feel that they are "alive".

[Baron Klatz]

2 hours ago, Beliman said:

• You had 2 to 3 pages for each big name-characters, some of them even without rules to play.
• A chronology with special events (even if the events were from Black Library books).
• A few maps with rivers, small/big towns, mountains, etc.. and a small explanation about them.
• A few small stories
• Some of them had their own full langauge
• Their flags, sigils, crests, etc...
• If you army had a war with another, take in mind that both army books will depict the events with their own POV (and I'm not talking about a Garaktormun or the awakening of Kragnos).

Of those I think only points 1, 5* and 7 have weight but that’s because they don’t want you to focus so much on what’s been established but maximum “Your dudes” in how they want more generic leaders, path to glory warbands and armies fighting strange mysterious entities so you can build inspiration in a setting without limits.

Much more keeping things to AoS’ mythic scale than how the World-that-was focused on historical.

The rest of the points are pretty much there between the battletomes starting with a “where are we now” history section dating from the Age of Myth to the current timeline and what they did, a faction map of where their major stations are in a Realm, short stories and quotes on personal levels, explanations on places and kingdoms they’ve established and army icons for the sub-factions. It’s just on different scopes to be much more open than a smaller, more connected, world would have which I think is your complaint deep down.

They want to keep things expansive and nebulous.

*on language there used to be a lot more with the various Chaos Battletomes depicting the Dark Alphabets.

 

I think AoS’ only problem here when people are comparing the universes is just how new it is. Give it half a decade more time to expand itself into various fandoms and have larger established videogames so fans are throwing themselves to expand the wikis and lore and we’ll be set.

On 7/26/2022 at 12:56 PM, Skreech Verminking said:

Last time I checked, clans pestilence were more interested in watching their nurgle allies die-die unhappily, while they stayed back watching, delightfully.

 

They do at times but there’s plenty of Realmgate stories where they opened a gnawhole and charged in alongside the Nurgle forces to bust open a Stormcast shieldwall with pure numbers.

Maggotkin tome even recounts how Skaven plague-priests can serve as advisors to Nurgle warlords.

Similar situation as Clans Eshin are reporting to Belakor as their dark master to try and reclaim the Realm of Shadows.(which of course would be the 2 Chaos GA forces for that Realm)

17 hours ago, derpherp said:

By the sounds of the Nexon game you can play as multiple characters, which is like Genshin Impact. You unlock more characters to play as you play the game and they add them in over time. Which probably eventually means more or less playing a character from any faction.

It's also supposedly multiplayer like genshin, and can be played on PC, console, and mobile like Genshin.

Sounds like theres a chance it might be a lot like your best AoS game tbh

 

Yeah my hopes are certainly being raised.

Looking at their resume’ I hope their Vindictus devs are working on it.

That over-the-top style would perfectly fit Age of Sigmar and now the bikini mail would be justified with a Daughters of Khaine faction with Fyreslayers filling out the male side of that. 😁

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Baron Klatz

[CommissarRotke]

2 hours ago, Enoby said:

it's really hard to untangle this from people feeling AoS is less accessible. 

While not really the 'fault' of 40k or Fantasy, they did seem to have a much greater fan support in terms of Wikis etc. I've bought minimal (<5) 40k or Fantasy lore supplements and I feel I've somehow got to know their lore quite well despite not trying to learn it (and never playing Fantasy).

It's not a criticism of AoS, but unfortunately it seems like lore discussions and hubs are much less common to see than 40k or, to an extent, Fantasy. 

So unfortunately AoS may seem harder to learn about easily because there are fewer ways to learn about it for free. Thankfully there are some great YouTubers helping with that problem, but it's not quite there yet. Like I said, I've never given 40k much of a try and I don't like the lore much, but I feel I know nearly more 40k lore than AoS lore despite not really wanting to.  

Again, not the fault of any of the systems, but it's something that I think needs to be considered.

This is it yeah, I've been out of 40k for at least a decade and still end up learning lore completely unintentionally... And that's also part of my point: no one considers this an issue in 40k anymore because of how much fans stepped up to prevent this, but that never seems to be applied to the AOS discussion? That it really comes down to AOS not having the same level of loretube/wiki creators as 40k (and even WHF to a certain extent). 

I'll clarify I absolutely don't want to overlook people feeling AOS is less accessible, but rather that the discussion needs to address why AOS seems to be singled out, when AOS lore can also be a (free!) maze if you dig far enough.

2 hours ago, Beliman said:

I can't talk about 40k because it's in another league from any other wargame.

But I still think that Fantasy background was more accessible. You didn't need to read outside of your own army book to understand your army:

I think that's why we absolutely need to talk about 40k in this context, because of how utterly taken for granted and ubiquitous its labyrinthine lore is... because that is absolutely going to skew people's ideas of "accessibility" with lore. Me being able to know 40k lore against my will doesn't necessarily mean AOS has an accessibility problem, it can mean that 40k has an oversaturation problem too.

As for your second point, are some of the AOS battletomes that lacking? I realize I'm slightly spoiled for them as a Stormcast player (ours def has all of that list), but I can't imagine your extremely reasonable list not existing in any AOS army book  I also have an old DOK book that checks everything on that list iirc.

[Baron Klatz]

38 minutes ago, CommissarRotke said:

As for your second point, are some of the AOS battletomes that lacking? I realize I'm slightly spoiled for them as a Stormcast player (ours def has all of that list), but I can't imagine your extremely reasonable list not existing in any AOS army book  I also have an old DOK book that checks everything on that list iirc.

I’m looking through the new Fyreslayers tome and it’s only lacking points 1(obviously as it lacks named heroes besides the magazine and Warcry ones that get talked about in lore blurbs), 5 and 7(though it does have an interesting different take on the hostilities with their Kharadron example. In the Kharadron tome they’re mad about a Chamon mountain that contains both ur-gold and aether-gold the Fyreslayers won’t give up while in the Fyreslayers tome they point to a very recent development of war between factions as the skyport Barak-Mhornar has teleported itself to Ulgu and has taken over the Untold Peaks where aether-gold mingles with skyborne wisps of ur-gold causing them to cross blades in a vicious war with the Caengan Lodge who was there first).

It’s hard to believe the Kharadron Tomes would be lacking when they’re noted to be the most lore-heavy tomes focusing on civilization BUT a problem might just be that. Just like their army is unconventional to others(being crewmen that don’t use banners and such) their tome being about aerial empires isn’t exactly going to focus on the ground stuff.

Edited July 27, 2022 by Baron Klatz

[Enoby]

I own the Warhammer Fantasy RPG (WHFRPG) 2e Bestiary, and I've flicked through the Soulbound Bestiary.

I can't rate the Soulbound one as it was a very quick look through and not enough to give any sort of well formed opinion. However, one thing it didn't seem to have (and correct me if I'm wrong here) is the very personal touch that the WHFRPG Bestiary had. 

I don't think the bestiaries of an RPG will make or break a setting, but potentially it may shed light on why people found some of Fantasy's lore to be more engaging - one of the reasons people felt it was more down to earth.

So, in the Soulbound Bestiary I (understandably) went straight to the Slaanesh section. Now, it could well just be that section and I may have missed a lot (so for those who have read it in full, please correct me), but the lore consisted of a page or two to explain the faction, and a small bit of lore before each stat block which was relatively plain. 

It's certainly not bad - it's very standard for the other RPG bestaries I've seen - but the WHFRPG (2e) is probably the best Bestiary I've ever read for worldbuilding.

For those who haven't read it, the crux of it is that the book is split into two halves - one for everyone (so players and GM) that's all lore, and one for the GM only (that's stats). The lore section has a small chunk on a wide variety of factions, but more important has three viewpoints. These viewpoints are "The scholars eye", "the common view", and "in their own words". These are in addition to a description of the monster.

To give an example, we'll look at the section for Giants:

The common view

The scholar's eye

The "scholar's" eye

In their own words

(They have more than just one of these each for giants, but I chose my favourites) 

Each one of these quotes is filled with flavour, giving not just a perspective on the subject of the Bestiary entry but also on the people who commented on them. Even if Amorgbrandion never gets his own model, or even mentioned again, his short paragraph oozes with characterisation.

Compared to just saying "a giant is a massive brute with more brawn than brains..." and going on a descriptive paragraph about what a giant is, this gives all of that information and contributes to larger worldbuilding. 

I think the closest I've seen to this in AoS is the little Bestiary in Thondia, which was a really fun read. But I think AoS would really benefit from something like this the WHFRPG 2e Bestiary - something that gives a personal look into every faction in a way that's both characterised and funny. If instead of saying "A Painbringer is a prideful warrior of great skill and greater cruelty" they told me that combined with quotes from a witch hunter, a survivor of a raid, and one of the Painbringers themselves it would be fantastic. 

Also, if you haven't, I would really recommend reading the WHFRPG 2e Bestiary - it's a delightful read even if you don't care about Fantasy Battles. 

[Baron Klatz]

47 minutes ago, Enoby said:

So, in the Soulbound Bestiary I (understandably) went straight to the Slaanesh section. Now, it could well just be that section and I may have missed a lot (so for those who have read it in full, please correct me), but the lore consisted of a page or two to explain the faction, and a small bit of lore before each stat block which was relatively plain. 

Oh yeah, the Bestiary was more focused on cramming almost every AoS model in for players to build around rather than fleshing them out background-wise. That’s why there was precious few actually new creatures instead of stuff already on the tables they wanted to make compatible in both systems.

That said there was some sweet little stories in the book like the Magmadroth encounter:

If you’re wanting some real juicy Slaanesh lore not in their tome then you’ll likely be waiting for the Champions of Chaos supplement for the devs to really dive in.

On tome stuff for quotes though I’d like to point out the Fyreslayers stuff is very flavorful too and have a mercenary contracts section of tales.

 

 

[Gitzdee]

10 hours ago, Baron Klatz said:

 

Soul Calibur? Havent played that in a while.

[Beliman]

On 7/27/2022 at 10:48 PM, CommissarRotke said:

I think that's why we absolutely need to talk about 40k in this context, because of how utterly taken for granted and ubiquitous its labyrinthine lore is... because that is absolutely going to skew people's ideas of "accessibility" with lore. Me being able to know 40k lore against my will doesn't necessarily mean AOS has an accessibility problem, it can mean that 40k has an oversaturation problem too.

That's what I was talking about. 40k is in another league, it can't be compared to AoS or any other wargame/skirmish game. We need to stop looking at 40k, we have other settings that are more in line with AoS. Let's take a wide look to other wargames: Conquest, Malifaux, Infinity, Warmahordes,...

All of them have exclusive books dedicated to the lore and world-building (AoS has something like that in each Battletome), their armies and stories usually follow their named characters to make easier for the reader, some of them even having diferent versions to play with. And take in mind that all of this settings still have their own issues, but they try to be understrandable for the reader.

AoS needs a bit more because it's not as easy as any of them, and it comes from Fantasy, that had a really easy setting to follow (even if it wasn't completely explained in their army books), at least for me:

• I don't even know the leaders of my army, not a single name droped for any Council of Admirals or the Geldraad!
• I don't know if there is any diference between Khazalid and the NuKhazalid from (it should, after an entire age being split from the main roots...). Same with other societies that should have a diferent dialect or even language.
• I don't know how our currencies works. We have ghyran drops (soulbound), trade routes, contracts, Aether-gold shares/ ghalkrons, etc... and take in mind that wealth and power is the most important part of this society.
• We have shotguns, missiles and flying ships, in a setting that half of the armies don't have any flying military branch... that means a lot, in a meritocratic society that wealth is everything (artycle 2, point 1). I can even see some edgy sky-ports taking slaves to do the dirty work...
• I can't even answer a simple question: What time is it? I don't know how the wind cycles works. I mean, ALL the Code is mesured by wind cycles.

I can go on, but what I'm trying to say is that the most basic questions "who, where, when, why and how" need to be perfectly understandable, even if we don't have a full answer, and we don't have IRL logic to fill the gaps.

On 7/27/2022 at 9:16 PM, Baron Klatz said:

They want to keep things expansive and nebulous.

I think AoS’ only problem here when people are comparing the universes is just how new it is. Give it half a decade more time to expand itself into various fandoms and have larger established videogames so fans are throwing themselves to expand the wikis and lore and we’ll be set.

I think that's the problem. The setting is new, and not so easy to follow. As I said above, WE ARE NOT 40k. I think that I need to read the whole Soulbound, Corsairs of the Iron Dragon, Profit's Ruin and Code of the Skies to understand my favorite army, and there isn't any mention of them in tzeentch, skavens, Cities and KOs battletomes. I don't even know if this books are cannon...

If the setting doesn't reach the readers, it will feel empy and false.

Edited July 30, 2022 by Beliman
grammar

[Bosskelot]

10 hours ago, CommissarRotke said:

This is it yeah, I've been out of 40k for at least a decade and still end up learning lore completely unintentionally... And that's also part of my point: no one considers this an issue in 40k anymore because of how much fans stepped up to prevent this, but that never seems to be applied to the AOS discussion? That it really comes down to AOS not having the same level of loretube/wiki creators as 40k (and even WHF to a certain extent). 

I'll clarify I absolutely don't want to overlook people feeling AOS is less accessible, but rather that the discussion needs to address why AOS seems to be singled out, when AOS lore can also be a (free!) maze if you dig far enough.

Then the question needs to be asked; why is the AOS loretuber/wiki scene so lacking and why are lore discussion hubs so barren?

For a game we are repeatedly told is more popular than WHFB ever was you'd certainly expect more content about its lore or larger communities around it.

Just going by reddit, r/aoslore has 8600 members compared to the 175k of r/40klore. But this giant disparity isn't really reflected in the "main" subs where r/ageofsigmar has 180k members and r/warhammer40k has 500k. Still smaller but not by nearly as much.