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The "logic" of the AoS setting?


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I too am one of the folks who have struggled with the AoS lore and, though I like the game itself better than WFB, I just haven't been able to drop a load of money into an army and feel excited without it being grounded in something substantive in the lore of the world.  My major gripe with the AoS cosmos was that I couldn't find any real reason to fight over it.  What am I fighting for?  There was a political structure to the old world that allowed me to relate to the motivations of the characters and armies within it.  I could understand why they were fighting.  Greed, Power, whatever.

In AoS, at least early on, they were fighting for gates.  Why?  Why not just stay in Azyr?  Why fight over a world with an acid ocean?  Are there people there trying to carve out a living in that world?  It seemed like there may have been a couple pockets of refugees or something, but nothing approaching any civilization.  Nor did it seem like the main motivation of the Stormcast were to liberate those poor folks, rather it was to secure the gates.  I read the novels and books through most of the realmgate wars and it was one meaningless fight after another.  Everything seemed empty or filled with ancient empty ruins hinting at a history that doesn't exist.

I drifted away from AoS because I just couldn't get into it.  There's plenty of space to be creative in the realms, but not much reason.  It would seem though that some of the lore that's come out over the last 6 months may have filled in some reasons.  Cities with actual people doing things?  That sounds great!  Maybe I left too soon.

I really appreciate some of the feedback folks have given on this thread.  I came back to this forum to see if anything may have changed and it seems it has...at least enough to give it another look.  I really like the idea, I think it was bottle's, that perhaps the story arc of AoS is the re-civilizing of the realms from a misty, chaotic past into something worth fighting for.

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The Gates are important for several reasons. Firstly, they are the major transport hubs of the realms, kind of like controlling railways, airports and highways in a modern conflict. Without them, you can't easily move large numbers of troops. Secondly, the gates were often well fortified before and after the coming of chaos, so they're geogeaphical strongpoints comparable to the walled cities and strongholds of the medieval era.

As for why he's fighting chaos, Sigmar has lost far too much to them to ignore the threat that the dark gods pose. They've already managed to gain access to Azyr once during the civil war, and could do again. Likewise many of the inhabitants of Azyr are effectively exiles, driven out of their ancestral homelands and wishing to reclaim it. Azyr will never truly be home to them. There are plenty of real world examples of this type of thinking, but they're mostly too politically sensitive to post about.

The levels of civilisation in the mortal realms prior to the realmgate wars varied, from hidden tribes who spend every day fleeing for their lives to whole cities that through strength or concealment have held out in isolation. As for the realms themselves,  while some of the more magically saturated areas of the realm of fire my have things like acid oceans, you can also find incredible resources like rare gems infused with magic thrown up by volcanic activity. In less magically saturated areas that volcanic activity gives you tropical island chains, hugely fertile soil and a warm temperate climate. Likewise you may find crystal forests in the realm of light, valuable beasts that can be hunted or tamed in Ghur, medicinal plants and rejuvenating springs in the realm of life, and ores with magical properties in Chamon. All resources worth fighting over for conventional reasons that have led empires to acquire territory for millennia.

Lastly for the rest of order you need to remember that living in Sigmar's realm means Sigmar's rules. For the Darkling Covens this no doubt restricts some of their less savory activities, whilst no doubt many aelves and duardin wish to be reunited with their own gods.

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So I picked up the newer Stormcast Battletome based on your comment xking and AGPO and the background and lore is much stronger and more compelling - and it falls in line with what you guys are saying above.  SO much more interesting.  I don't know if I was missing the big picture in the earlier books or if it just didn't have the direction it does now, but I'm diggin' it.  Real maps, places of importance and value, significant populations of people and a very solid reason to be.

I think GW would do well to come out with a Realms Atlas that maps out important areas of each of the worlds and provides some more realistic illustrations of the various realms.  It doesn't have to fill out every jot and tittle, but it would give us less creative types something to hang our hats on and get a little inspiration.

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1 hour ago, Akempist said:

So I picked up the newer Stormcast Battletome based on your comment xking and AGPO and the background and lore is much stronger and more compelling - and it falls in line with what you guys are saying above.  SO much more interesting.  I don't know if I was missing the big picture in the earlier books or if it just didn't have the direction it does now, but I'm diggin' it.  Real maps, places of importance and value, significant populations of people and a very solid reason to be.

I think GW would do well to come out with a Realms Atlas that maps out important areas of each of the worlds and provides some more realistic illustrations of the various realms.  It doesn't have to fill out every jot and tittle, but it would give us less creative types something to hang our hats on and get a little inspiration.

I think thats a point. When I read that somebody dislikes AoS background they often use the argument that the fraction are written in a way that all are only fighting and there is nothing else. The point they didn't see is, that most of the background is written in time of the Realmgate Wars, a time where most of realm is conquered by chaos and the other fractions had to fight or hide to survive. There was not the time for trading and intrigues beween fractions of order. These points are possible again after recapturing but not in publications during the first 1,5 years.

An Atlas like book would surely be interesting, but we didn't know how the realms are changing during time. We have the time were the realms are corrupted by chaos and in recaptured parts uncorrupted land again. And parts of the world had been destroyed during war (the fall of Behemat for example).

 

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57 minutes ago, xking said:

Wow!  Yeah, that looks great!  I probably wouldn't pick up the game just for the lore, but if they continue to develop the realms in that way I think they are certainly on the right track for earning some of my money...  Thanks for the link!

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See, I have yet to see any inspirational art posted here or in the dedicated thread that I cannot get my head around.  Any basic map made for AoS, though, is a complete mindjob, with all lack of overland scale or even visual perspective. 

GW really needs to put out a decent map of even a little part of a single realm, but in the style of GOOD maps, like the RPG 13th Age Dragon Empire world map.  Now, if something similar was put forth as an important part of Ghyran, for example, now THAT would make sense and pull me in!

DragonEmpireMap.jpg

 

But this?  Pretty as it is artistically, I shudder at this, because it's a complete mess:

IMG_0388.1440x1440-75.jpg

 

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