Did anything happen in 3e?

[Sception]

As we push into the second dawnbringers book, the narrative campaign cycle that seems intended to close out 3rd edition the way Broken Realms was supposed to close out 2nd edition - I'm kind of stuck wondering if anything even happened in terms of the overall game narrative in 3e?  Like major stuff was constantly happening in 2nd edition pretty much from the Malign Portents campaign that ushered it in through the Broken Realms book that closed it.  The timeline was constantly lurching forward centuries at a time, there were major campaigns across multiple Realms, various gods and pseudo-gods were constantly enacting major plans and schemes, several entire new factions burst onto the scene.  The state of the setting going into Broken Realms already felt so different from where it was when Soul Wars released, and then Broken Realms changed everything for everyone.  Even first edition, for as poorly defined as the setting was back then, constantly had major new stuff happening between the Realmgate Wars books (which were honestly so much more compelling than 'strife in thondia' or 'dawnbringers book 1') and 'points of light' campaign with the first cities of sigmar being built.

By contrast, it feels like the Realms are in exactly the same place now as they were where Broken Realms left off, as though nothing has happened at all in 3rd edition.  Kragnos still feels like a new potential threat who hasn't really done anything yet.  The Dawnbringer crusades were a big focus of the 3e core book lore, set to be the big new development in the setting, and what feels like the first of them to actually be launched in the canon have only just now left the gates of their home cities.  At the end of Broken Realms Be'Lakor was preparing for a major move to usurp Archaon and split Grand Alliance: Chaos down the middle, and now however many years later he's still preparing, still hasn't acted, still doesn't seem likely to act any time soon.  Broken Realms seemed intended to throw Order, Death, and Chaos into disarray and internal strife while for the first time giving Destruction a single figure to unite around into a coherent threat, but it feels the only grand alliance that the writers actually followed through on was Death - the alliance that was fading into the background after having the limelight in 2e anyway.  Be'Lakor never made his move so Chaos hasn't split, Order seems to be trucking along exactly the same despite Morathi's betrayal, and Destruction feels as disorganized and haphazard and, in the grand scheme, unthreatening as ever.  In contrast Death has been full of dynamic and interesting change with Nagash & Arkhan's boney hands off the wheel, leading to compelling developments from Soulblight civil war to Bonereapers feuding with other undead factions over skeletal resources to Nighthaunts outright allying with daemons, which makes it feel like the alliance that 3e is the least interested in is the only one with interesting stuff going on and the realm of death somehow being far more dynamic than the realm of the beasts in this so-called age of the beast.

...

But maybe it's just me, because I mostly focus on the Death factions, and they have receded into the background - fairly enough after having the limelight through so much of 2nd edition.  So naturally I'd be more aware of what was happening in Shyish, and less aware of what's going on in the rest of the game where the undead are taking a well earned vacation.

...

So I ask the rest of you...  what even happened in 3e?  What major events have transpired?  What major battles have happened, and what meaningful changes in circumstances came of it.  Has Kragnos actually /done/ anything?  Is there anything he's even trying to do that might have ramifications for any of the other realms, or even anyone in Ghur who doesn't have the misfortune of existing within his personal line of sight?  Have the orks or goblins or ogres or giants changed in any significant way as a result of Kragnos?  Has there been any friction in their societies from followers of their existing gods when this new earthquake guy showed up?  Has the actual landscape of Ghur changed in any way that in the long term would be distinguishable from the movements of their already constantly shifting continents?  What cities have been built or destroyed?  What heroes have risen to prominence or been killed?

I haven't heard anything about Stormcast being hampered by Be'Lakor's dark sky business recently - did that actually get resolved while I wasn't looking?  Or did the writers just forget about it?  Or is it still a big deal and I just haven't been paying close enough attention?  Have there been any significant moves in the hunt for Slaanesh?  Has Malerion stepped out of the shadows?  Has Tyrion?  Has Morathi actually done anything with her new godhood?  Have there been any repercussions for her betrayal?  Has Sigmar or Teclis or Grungni or Archaon or Be'Lakor or those named stormcast dragons or anybody actually done anything?  Are there any plots in the works?  Is there anything actively going on that might be at stake in the Dawnbringers campaign other than whether the realm of fire or the realm of life gets a new dot with a new settlement name written next to it on their map?  Has anything important actually happened in anybody's new Battletomes, or do their lore sections all basically run up to Broken Realms and just kind of trail off?  Has anything important to the overall setting narrative actually happened in any Black Library books, or are they all just individual adventures without ramifications extending beyond the local scale?  If I wanted to get a sense of the important narrative developments of 3rd edition, which books, if any, should I be looking to read?

[EntMan]

32 minutes ago, Sception said:

I haven't heard anything about Stormcast being hampered by Be'Lakor's dark sky business recently - did that actually get resolved while I wasn't looking? 

I'm pretty sure that was the in universe excuse for the change to shiney new Stormcast armour which overcomes the problem apparently.

[ScionOfOssia]

So for the Ossiarchs, the following has happened:

Archaon broke through the Arx Terminus with his flying Varanguard which resulted in the forces of Chaos being able to gain a beachhead, but fighting there has mostly stalled because of the next developments.

Because the Ossiarchs lost a lot of troops during Nagash’s gambit in Hysh and rebels inspired by the Lumineth’s incursions have been doing their best to defeat the Bonereapers, their efforts at expansion have halted as they’re pressed on all sides by threats. This has required them to use more unorthodox sources of bones such as beast bones. 
 

Unfortunately, because Ghur has been awakened by the Rite of Life, these Beast-Bone Ossiarchs are prone to explosive fits of rage and violence, resulting in a massive crisis. Fortunately, all of this is old hat to the Ivory Host who have basically been the stars of the OBR this edition, since their scrimshawed runes actually work to negate a massive amount of the effects of this awakening. They’ve been able to trade these secrets to other legions in exchange for bone stockpiles and soul matter. They were also the ones responsible for figuring out how to “break” the Krondspine Incarnate and allow them to use them as a weapon. There are apparently many benefits to ignoring Katakros’s restrictions on bones. 
 

The Null Myriad and Stalliarch Lords haven’t been idle this edition either though, since the Myriad have been gathering massive quantities of Grave-Sand for an unknown purpose but highly likely to be related to returning Arkhan The Black to “life”. The Stalliarch Lords have been launching counter-raids into Hysh and exterminating Aelven villages without mercy as revenge for their Dawnriders not breaking fast enough from their Deathrider formations. 
 

Ultimately, the Bonereapers have had a pretty solid showing this edition with massive “wins” for the Ivory Host, minor wins from the Null Myriad and Stalliarch Lords, and minimal showing from the Praetorians and Elites, while the Crematorians saw battle against Tzeentchian forces and have been scouting Lumnos using clandestine agents, but not much else. 

[Mutton]

Such is the consequence of running their narrative book series at the end of an edition cycle. We tread water until the final year.

[Sception]

1 hour ago, Mutton said:

Such is the consequence of running their narrative book series at the end of an edition cycle. We tread water until the final year.

I mean, 2nd edition had a narrative book series at the end of the edition AND regular stuff happening throughout.

[Sception]

5 hours ago, ScionOfOssia said:

So for the Ossiarchs, the following has happened:

I'm pretty familiar with what's gone down for the death factions, though I do appreciate this summary regardless.  It does kind of lean into my feeling that the only grand alliance to have been significantly impacted by the events of Broken Realms is Death, and thus Death factions and the realm of Death are the only places where anything interesting is actually happening, even though this edition was supposed to be about the realm of ghur and the rite of life and the age of beasts and the dawnbringer crusades.

But that has to be my own biased perspective as a player of undead factions only, right?  Other factions have to have been doing things, right?  Like there was 'strife in Thondia', wasn't there?  Didn't that amount to something?  Weren't there sides doing the strifing?  Weren't they strifing over something?  Somebody won that strife, and claimed some prize they were strifing over, and actually did something with the prized that they strifed so good and hard for, right? The Gelato Wars happened, yeah?  People were fighting over something in those caves and crevasses?  Surely two back to back GHB seasons amounted to something in the narrative?  And now there's Andtor?  Factions are actually doing stuff in Andtor, no?  It matters who wins and who loses there somehow, yeah?

Stuff happened in the Realmgate wars.  The factions involved were fighting for actual reasons, they wanted things, and the winners got some version of those things, however compromised, and the realms were changed for it happening.  Same with the points of light campaigns where the cities of sigmar were built under seige.  Or that weird blood moon situation.  Or the malign portents.  Or the Seige of Lethis in the Soul Wars - stuff happened in that seige, order fought off the nighthaunt assault and saved the city but lost the contents of the stormvault beneath, which in turn led to the introduction of katakros and the ossiarchs which impacted not just the lore but the game itself via a new death faction.  Later on ossiarch expansion tracing back to the Nighthaunt victory in Lethis reached into hysh and precipitated open war between Teclis and Nagash, and that in turn led to the banishment of Nagash and Arkhan.  They'll be back, sure, but they're currently /still/ out of action in the lore so BR:Teclis is still has an ongoing impact on the overall narrative in a way that it sort of feels like Thondia doesn't*.  With Nagash's banishment Teclis also cancelled out the Necroquake, just in time for Alarielle's rite of life - which was meant to balance out the Necroquake and restore magic in the realms to a neutral state - to instead spiral out of control unopposed, waking Kragnos and leading to the age of the beasts.  From the necroquake to the soul wars to the seige of lethis to the lumineth and ossiarchs emerging onto the scene (the former forced to take a more active role in the realms by the necroquake, the latter only finally completed because of it) to the bone tithe to these two new factions coming into direct conflict in broken realms teclis to the unexpectedly unopposed rite of life to kragnos, there's a continuing chain of Stuff Happening, with consequences branching out and feeding into Other Stuff Happening, right up until the release of the 3e big rulebook, and then... what?

Basically it felt like there were writers on the dev team were pushing constant narrative advancement throughout 1e (at least after its horribly rocky start) and 2e, and then it feels like everything just stopped dead with the release of 3e - at least outside of Death factions reacting to Nagash being taken off the board - and I'm left wondering if everything really did stop or if that's just a false impression I have because I got used to my guys being center stage and they're not anymore.

Edited September 25, 2023 by Sception

[Doko]

really nothing have happened this edition,only the new dawnbringer crusades.

and these crusades dont bring nothing exciting,only humans beins punching bags of everyone.

broken realms books were amazing but these dawnbringer books are boring to the point that i havent waste time reading them and i only read the sinopsis in reviews.

[sandlemad]

I’d agree with your overall assessment of this ed being light on ‘stuff’ but the whole big military technology/tactics revolution that’s come with the CoS revamp feels like something.

Linked to the Dawnbringer crusades but not wholly part of them, you had the mass roll out of relatively standardised shieldwall-and-firearms methods across the realms. Big pseudo-factories churning this stuff out, massed recruitment and the increased professionalisation of the Freeguilds, better supplied crusades, etc. This was in response to Kragnos and the Kruleboys’ early edition stuff, and then in turn led to the adoption by the Ironjaws of more spear formations and catching the new big pigs. All very miniatures-led but still, meaningful for the social and political landscape of the cities at least.

You also effectively had a coup in Hammerhal by Tahlia Vedra over the Azyrite establishment, which feels like something.

[Gitzdee]

I think we had a lot of setup this edition. We are really waiting for something big to happen. We got mentions of Chorfs, Kurnothi, Glareface Frazzlegitz, Malerion and a bunch more. One of those happening could have a huge impact on the mortal realms. 

[PJetski]

The big narrative push for Incarnates really fizzled out since they have only released a single model and everyone hates its rules.

[ScionOfOssia]

Their godforsaken color scheme for the thing probably didn’t help either- It looks like string cheese and stone, as opposed to amber and bone, and you couldn’t even buy it standalone for a while. It looks cool but they did it so unbelievably dirty on release. 

[Noserenda]

Yeah it does feel like the really strong narrative of second edition has fizzled out completely in third, just the problematic (and worse, boring) Dawnbringer crusades after a little bit of tidying up early on. Im hoping the end of edition campaign gets a rocket up its backside, the epic, rolling metaplot was a major selling point of AOS for me and some of our group.