Baron Klatz

Haha, keeping up is a hobby in of itself. I got multiple bookcases for my library of warhammer books and even then some are out in storage. I say if you’re having trouble then use the wikis, find lore blogs like Age of Miniatures or AoS Shorts has- Or a surprisingly good one here on Beastgrave from a mostly 40k blog: http://ageofwarhammer.blogspot.com/2019/09/beastgrave-lore.html?m=1 - sit back and listen to 2+Tough’s lore discussions on YouTube or go and ask questions on the AoSLore sub-Reddit. I will say I hope GW do more lore tomes like with Thondia, I’ve been hooked on mine and I’d love it if they’d expand to more tomes that aren’t anchored by having rules but just go off on delving into the setting. The Warhammer+ vault feels a bit like that with the tomes being all lore and no rules so if they wanted to recycle that content and publish it in Lore campaign omnibuses I’d be fully on board. Stuff like the River of Souls from the 2016 Ironjawz tome need attention again.

Yeah, AoS3 has been a pretty enlightening experience that “oh no it’s trash!” means “oh no I can’t spam and wipe the enemy out with this!”. Stormcast tome especially where people kept saying anything other than Draconith or Annihilators is a bad build but then a guy goes and gets second place at Adepticon with an army of shooters and chariots lead by three Knight-Heraldors that were deemed too nerfed into the ground to use. Through meta eyes “make it balance” means make everything broken.

This I can agree with. More meat on the battletomes is always a plus. Seems they made a trade back in 2017, before the battletomes were more focused on introducing new heroes and big army battles that went with the Battleplan section in a Narrative story combo like the Bonesplitterz one which laid out a quick scenario story, told about the hero’s background, gave the battleplan so players could fight out the scenario and then told what happened at the end(this case after ambushing the Stormcasts and making them fall off their star road down into Ghur the orruks won and began dancing around the dying Dracoth and Stardrake bodies as they bolted back up into Azyr, hoping to be blessed by their monster energy. Zogruk himself headbutts a Stardrake in the skull which causes it to bemusedly accept defeat and bolt up with the rest of the army) Now those battleplan are just tacked on little fight maps. BUT the Battletomes are now bigger on giving out sub-factions, the innerlands maps of their Realm, linking together the history of army with all it’s other stories and side games and do delve on the backstory on major characters. The recent NightHaunt tome has been good on this with it’s updated map and talking about Olynder’s past which are huge step ups from the previous tomes of pre-2017. reviewer on it: “Speaking of Olynder, we get a two page spread called the Haunted Empire that shows where Sylontum, the capital of Dolorum, is, and how the Nighthaunt have spread across the realm from there. We also learn more about the kingdom of Dolorum before it fell to Nagash. It was founded in the underworld of those who saw injustice, but did not speak up against it. It also conquered much of the surrounding lands, including the island of Tzlid, the current home of the Unmade warcry warband. After Olynder's takeover of the kingdom, and its fall in the Age of Chaos, it became the new seat of power for the Nighthaunt forces. For the timeline we get 5 1/2 full pages of new entries! I particularly like the story about Vholdian Keranus, who became the first of Nagash's Lord Executioners during the Age of Myth. We also get the origins of the Quicksilver Dead in the ruins of Elixia, the origins of Awlrach the Drowner, and another of my favorites featuring the Scarlet Doom. In Khul's Ravage in Aqshy, a Dawnbringer Crusade is trying to reclaim the land. So much blood is spilled by the forces of Khorne and souls consigned to death, that the ghosts rise from the pools of blood scattering the land. They then proceed to completely slaughter the Khornate forces, before approaching the Dawnbringers in parley, allowing them safe passage back to their city. We also get all of the major events you would expect, from the Soul Wars, to the events of Forbidden Power and Broken Realms. We even get mention of conflict on the island of Tzlid and someone named the Flayed Prince, who used to be an ally of Olynder's. The final entry has the Nighthaunt instilling the fear of death into the Sons of Behemat after Olynder turns one of their number into a scattering of black rose petals. There's a ton to dig into in here in general.” (That last bit was in the Sons of Behemat tome too. They couldn’t touch the NightHaunt as their fear from Olynder turning their leader into rose petals spread. It’d take getting taught from the Drakkfoot Bonesplitterz tribe who specialize in fighting the daemons & ghosts of Aqshy how they can physically stomp on the NightHaunt which lead to their “Sole Wars”.) It’s a pretty good trade for how much it links the more nebulous parts of the setting together with all the other materials so there’s connections while also leaving everything open for whatever you want to put in. Though I will say I find “battletomes not giving enough” a bit funny from a Kharadron player. Kharadron and Stormcasts are blessed with the most filled out books. Just look how massive their lexicanum entry is: https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kharadron_Overlords But to understand it you really only need the Corebook and your favorite faction tome. The rest of the material builds on it and gives you a reason to keep collecting and diving in further to the ecosystem. That’s pretty much been a Warhammer staple for decades now like a huge fishing net of scattered lore. When I first got into it as a teen I just grabbed some Empire & Bret books from Barnes and Nobles. The books gave fun stories but little info on how the world worked so I actually thought Brets were imperials in the past before gunpowder. Wasn’t until I got the BRB that everything was explained since warhammer books tend to be faction-only focused giving glimpses of the worlds through one view.(and God-king knows how hollow they’d all be without the RPG’s) They’ve been better about it with the community articles. The faction focus stuff and even videos to help. https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/06/05/faction-focus-index/ https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/05/12/your-intro-to-the-mortal-realms-may-12gw-homepage-post-4/ https://ageofsigmar.com/explore-the-realms/order/ But more my rant was on that “I don’t get the world’s basics” part. There’s two bloody AoS wikis that are a easy click and read away, that’s way more than people had in the distant past that had to juggle multiple books to figure these things out. https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Mortal_Realms https://ageofsigmar.fandom.com/wiki/Mortal_Realms and that’s not even getting into all the lore videos and blogs out there that have setting summaries to welcome new hobbyists.

Pictured, Reddit and Twitter fighting over if the Belakor Legionnaires are supposed to be Romans, Japanese or late-medieval armored: Some are really going at it about that like there can be only one influence in a high fantasy setting. It’s a great thing though, we’ve seen how the Mortal Realms design like to put multiple unrelated cultures in a blender and then spice them up with an elemental specialty. If the Legionnaires turn of to be chaos-corrupted Hammerhal soldiers(can’t really be Excelsis-based since they have to use steelsilk in place of metal plate as Ghur lacks metals and these guys definitely don’t) then getting a Roman-Euro-Arfrican-Japanese mix would fit swimmingly with the diverse melting pot of Aqshy and be expanded on it’s stuff like the Flame Scions who are essentially gladiator samurais. I actually recently helped out a guy make a TK character in Soulbound using the Grave Guard archetype. When you add-in that Wight Kings can be affected by their realm like Aqshy Wights being conquest focused and bloodthirsty while Hyshians are philosophical tacticians it adds more variety to the Deathrattle “tomb” kingdoms you can have your skeleton warrior come from as they march pass ivory citizens silently chopping trees and chucking pale cornfields of finger-bone stems and teeth kernels to expand their fiefdom. Also there’s a stellar Deathrattle name generator I found for him: https://www.realmofplastic.com/hobby-blog/character-name-generator-deathrattle-wights

Give me ultra high cosmic mythological fantasy or give me death! That comment is just the top level laziness I’ve been talking about all over this thread. ”Waaa! It’s not Earth, how can I possibly understand anything now? Having to spend 5 minutes reading a basic wiki summary of how a different world works takes too long.” Like F. I get different tastes but come on with that, the Sylvaneth just got a whole article that explains the 4 seasons in the mortal realms that affects their bodies, the Deepkin literally use the tides as a weapon, Gloomspite Gitz show how gobbos can challenge the gods and warp entire continents thanks to their mad moon worship, the Lumineth have wheats all over their big bases to show how they’re healing the lands allowing food to grow and the Mega-gargant kraken-eater has a fishing boat with dead crewmen on him and Stormcasts & Kharadron are all about weather control with their storms and flying equipment. And that’s just basics, just scratch the surface with something like Soulbound and you immediately see cities and farmlands(below Edassa) on the main Great Parch map. Didn’t get Soulbound? Oh well the Corebook has it too. Bother to look into the lore and you actually find things like holidays, the timeframes being longer than our daily time depending on Hysh’s rotation, how North and South work with the edges and gods affecting compasses on the planes, the tons of different currencies like common wood trinkets being a sign of nobility in Chamon and Aqshy, culinary practices like Aqshy bakers being famous as they have tunnels going straight to magma vents, Azyr known for it’s expansive Sky-fishing industry and the Ironweld have armored tractor threshers in Ghyran to harvest huge crops while warding off angered Dreadwood Sylvaneth attacks. IT’S VERY MUCH FILLED IN AND GETS EXPANDED ALL THE TIME! https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cuisine_of_the_Mortal_Realms https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Azyrite_Calendar https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Realmsphere https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Category:Currencies (as noted there’s over 50 types throughout the Realms with Aqua Ghyra being the universal pay) I’m ranting I know but so much of the Mortal Realms lore is reflected in the models, their rules and in every book happy to point out a cool new twist on how people live there. No excuse, saying “the high fantasy doesn’t make sense to me” is exactly no different than people back in the early 2000’s saying “Warhammer is just a World of Warcraft knock-off, I’m not wasting time scratching past the surface stuff.” Doesn’t click for you? That’s fine, everyone’s got different tastes. But the fleshing out criticisms aren’t justified in the slightest when we have so much material now ranging from books, articles, campaigns, side-games, warhammer quest, magazines and rpg supplements that fill the lore out.

Gonna say indigenous(maybe technically Seraphon since the Realmshaper engine is rewriting the land?), Nurgle froggie on the head alchemist has three-eyes so a sharp tooth one just leans into it being normal with Ghur a very dangerous realm like with the monster squirrel behind Yndraste or how the Snarlfang wolves have Komodo dragon venom.

I did get a laugh out of “private army” and then pics that look like they crammed WW1 helmets down over their horns. But honestly they look great to me. Hoping this is the direction with Freeguild soldiers for that mixed Roman & town guard look that’s pretty unique for Warhammer and goes with how AoS likes to throw multiple ideas into a blender for random styles. Just shave off the Chaos bits and even add a few more points to the buckles to be like the multi-pointed Stormcast belt buckles and they’re good to go for Order. Also new Reforged comic with now named Mustori. I will devote my hobby life to giving these bestest celestial bois the attention they deserve. On that note the comic creator posted the start of his paperwork loaded army yesterday: Gonna be really cool and really funny with how many are kitbashed fighting the true horror. Bureaucracy. 📚

Lexicanum guy who’s pretty good at getting ahold of info in advance. I was gonna post the actually clear picture of Eternus he has too but obviously leaked pics aren’t allowed here. So I’ll DM you it. Yeah this definitely marks a power shift to Belakor and his daemon legions. could possibly play into the Aqshy theory with Archaon leaning on the blood God’s followers like Khul and Valkia since they won’t care about those plans as it just means more bloodshed even after Order, Death and Destruction are defeated and the new civil war begins.

Well well, little bit of interesting news from the StD battletome leakers. Lorewise what’s happened is Kragnos got Grand Marshall Archaon so riled up that he let slip his ultimate plan to turn on the Dark Gods after the Realms have been dealt with(this is why since the beginning he’s cemented his power at All-Gates, not because it allows full access for his legions into the Realms but because it’s the only place Chaos can freely enter them. He controls their access and can turn it off like a spigot) causing his eighth circle of Varanguard(he still retains the majority, that’s why he had them worship him rather than the Dark Gods) to abandon him and join Belakor in their ongoing civil war to lead Chaos. That’s where the new character Eternus is from. A Varanguard that left Archaon and signed up for Belakor’s Bootleg Stormcast program to become immortal like them(though noticeably tethered further to Belakor). Another noted speech mishap is from Vandus Hammerhand, he was in the middle of a presentation but the soul wound Archaon gave him flared up alongside the mounting prophecy paranoia his numerous reforgings have granted him(sometimes he sees an important event like Malign Portents and sometimes he sees maddening things) since AoS2 and he had a meltdown that caused him to be suspended from duty and put in a holding cell. Nothing big there(he’ll obviously be put back on duty again once recovered, war eternal doesn’t have time for PTSD. Seriously, they lost Sigmar’s initial vacation privilege plans because the threats from the Soul Wars were too many to spare any Stormcasts so the time to rest was short-lived) but it does make me have a release theory to go with my Aqshy Season of War one. Mainly my hunch is in AoS4 we’ll have a ten year anniversary opportunity, I think we could see 2025 in Aqshy with both a big update on Blades of Khorne and the return of Khul to the narrative after he returns from trying to re-re-conquer the Orb Infernia(remember he did conquer the sub-realm and flew it around Aqshy causing rampant bloodlust but we blasted it with a giant time cannon that reversed all his victories and put him back at square one) as “Aqshy’s bane”(throw in potential new Valkia model here for, ugh, nostalgia bait and mirror to Yndraste) and a big update on the Stormcast Warrior Chamber for a callback as the two armies of Gold & Red that heralded Age of Sigmar’s first launch. Lot of initial model lines for both being updated to include female kits for Marauders and Liberators. Especially Liberator females, they’ve been teasing us far too long and even do it in the current Core rules book with that cool design that also has traces of the other chambers like the Sacrosanct soul flasks to show they picked up tricks from their Lightning kin over the centuries they fought together. Meanwhile Vandus becomes a Knight-Questor like Hamilcar Bear-Eater did as both are sent out to find a solution to their soul problems(Vandus’ soul wound and Hamilcar’s soul link to Ikit. Hopefully both get models as well) I’d like/imagine something close to what this kitbasher did with Vandus keeping his iconic flashy helm but get beefed up Lord-Thunderstrike armor and a huge stormhammer so he can venture safely to Chaos held zones and seek a solution while occasionally butting heads with his nemesis Khul as they keep killing eachother over and over again(Khorne brings back Khul) over the wastes and cities of Aqshy in his ongoing self-recovery arc. Besides that obvious hope for big Fyreslayer update in their native Realm and Dawners launch to kick off the edition as they’re mainly used to represent Hammerhal Aqshy forces and God-king willing where we’ll see Agloraxi Fire-mage tech and flaming pauldrons like in the Ironweld blueprints. Thanks for coming to my Baron talk. May the God-king be with you on your Journey through the infinite Realms. ⚡️ 🔥

I hope so with the spider legs. Would be a nice mirror to the Ironweld Cog Forts which all use spider legs to traverse the shifting realmscapes.

Ah, they could probably get an expy like the ice kingdoms in the colder sub-realms of Chamon or the oriental mountain-top cities, that were built to escape the Age of Chaos below, the Kharadron do aerial trades with for tapestries made entirely from crushed precious minerals but obviously they wouldn’t be one-to-ones as the World-that-was and Mortal Realms have entirely different origins of creation.(see what happened to the Lumineth) Like you can’t get bear Russia in a place where the bears are clockwork and lands giant turning gears nor a dragon empire with just human subjects when we have the Draconith empire that shows they can build empires with dragons alone.(not canonically one-to-one anyway, that’s what fan creations are for)

That’s like word for word the same situation 40k and especially Wfb fans are in. Compared to the past at least it’s better now as GW actually advertise their stuff and know how to run websites compared to me and my friends back when having to find out the books even existed by Barnes and Nobles stocking them and FantasyFlight’s very questionable Rpg practices costing at least $150 just to ship a book over here. Like yeah all that stuff has to be collected by obsessives but that’s what the hobby will make of you anyway and the fandoms start sharing it all online to help newbies. Like if fan wiki’s/lexicanums didn’t exist then anyone coming in from Total War would be completely lost, bar none. Those random and expensive omnibuses they’re selling aren’t what’s turning an entire gaming community into World-that-was lore aficionados. Oh thanks for the correction! Definitely super pricey but can’t complain about that style. We need more epic fantasy armor like that to match the lore, only historical dress certainly wouldn’t come out of a setting where you can find a sleeping God-beasts in the void vast enough to cross realities on like a bridge.(Realmslayer with how Avatar-Gotrek got to Ghur from Ghyran by walking on it’s back) My bet is just Forge World advertising to AoS like upgrade kits. Cathay kits for Realm of Hysh humans to copy that oriental vibe from their Lumineth neighbors with the possible Sentinels stand-ins for the solar-powered robots in Settlers Gain and Kislev for Ghur troops, specifically Izalend with it’s goddess frozen lands & harbor, gold-armored troops and “bears”(well if you count the three-headed Kattanaks that breathe frost beams to freeze prey as such since they look like bears). Would be the best way to recoup losses if the specialist game goes south due to resin and the inflated pricing making rank-and-file unfeasible.

Surprised no one mentioned this yet(well probably on rumors somewhere likely) but new AoS horror novel cover dropped on a Beast-Hunter and Witch Hunter from Shyish: Now first thought was “Ooh, this could hint at my hope for Ghur barbarian reclaimed and Order of Azyr to head the first big CoS to Dawners reboot) but then I noticed the Beast-Hunter has a fully prosthetic arm. Talking to the lexicanum guys and they said that stuff has been showing up more and more after Soulbound Steam and Steel dropped because(like the Mallus armor) they detailed a lot of Freeguild technology and medical advancements made by the Ironweld: These can very well be hints for future Dawner units as since the Sylvaneth battletome doesn’t have the cursed city Kurnothi aelf in it(she was a Sylvaneth unit before with a special glade) that’d point out why they have advanced Ghyran equipment too. Lastly, guy posted his amazing Sisters of Battle conversion to Lionesses of Edassa greatswords- Which look amazing: -And that reminded me of Prince Jordain, the Freeguild commander from Realmslayer: His royalty attire and religious heavy icons could mirror those from the 3D concept hints(remember all the fancy monarch looking stuff made of little circles?)

Soulbound tweet that Clara-Marie is the cover artist for Era of the Beast as she continues on from her already amazing art done for Champions of Death. (Hopefully the connection is enough to get us more Avengorii dynasty and Vengorian Lord supplements as Ghur is their domain🤞)

Pretty much countless. The Realms keep making new ones, God-beasts like the Lode-griffon were stated to come From Outside the Realms(which tracks with hints of other realms out there besides the main 8 bug ones), Sigmar has many of the more dangerous ones locked away guarding his Stormvaults and the Sons of Behemat are growing into new God-beasts. So you can make it anything you want. The 12-headed Megalodon and lord of sharks in Ghur the Bonesplitterz swim after? The living avalanche of amber that engulfed Gorkamorka and got repelled by Sigmar? A God-beast that’s just eyes and tentacles in the aether above? Go wild! Always a fun direction to take things, especially with the already colorful deserts of the Metal Realm being made of silver scales or gold specks instead of sand. With how advanced Chamon was compared to Ghur(domed city sky-bridges, sentient automatons and mecha-beasts, etc). Could be used either to advance themselves into steampunk slaanesh to take over the savage regions or let it all lose and instead of the Metal realm fragment defending itself from Ghur the Slaaneshites corrupt it into a virus so it begins spreading turning wildlife into robots and giant bones into metallic obelisks they can hollow out into iron fortresses. Hedonite leader might just enjoy a cleaner looking landscape so unleashed the Chamon fragment to terraform the continent, kinda like a Dr.Eggman vibe going on.

After seeing the Gnarlwood map I’m hoping those ghoul rumor engines are now for the Deadfang Tower Flesh-Eater Court- And yes that’s a Flesh-Eaters symbol and not Soulblight: https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Category:Death_Runemarks (come on guys, you know vampires like flashier dragon and monster symbols rather than go “I’m a bat!” route) So it ends up being like the Grymwatch who went to Beastgrave to slay a terrible monster for their king, so too the Deadfangs are on crusade as noble knights that erected a tower outside the monster forest to go on a royal hunt. 2. Ironjawz, with their UnderWorlds warbands in rotation it’d be nice for the super-sized orruks to get something flashy here. Maybe an all Gore-Gruntas wild hogs(go for Mad Max motorcycle gang but monsters vibe) band who dominate the ground fighting forcing warbands to stay up high or use obstacles or platforms to avoid their overpowering speed & attacks so they don’t get krumped. Tho the Wild Hogz are counting on the meat trees to force them back down. 3. Fyreslayers, never enough Fyreslayers love and who better for Camp Fortune to hire than mercenaries that can hurl lava to burn down a forest of carnivorous trees and clear a path to the Seraphon spaceship first? Edit: K’daai would be a great Fyreslayers unit. The Corebook already notes the Life Flood from Ghyran caused Aqshy to manifest dancing Fire elementals(so more jaunty and mischievous spirits than dark and grim daemons) so that could be something they easily tame via their lava priests and Fyre runes.

Sorry for the double-post but just had an epiphany why most of the Witch Hunter armor(Hexbane & Jelsen especially) is so chunky and looks crudely beaten into shape: From Soulbound on Devoted of Sigmar armor- “Armour of Mallus is a collective term for rare suits of armour crafted by smiths dedicated to the God-King of Azyr. These armours are made from pieces of Sigmarite fragments of Mallus that have been scattered across the Mortal Realms. These rare suits of armour are well-known for their durability, as well as being heavily imbued with Azyrite temporal magic. Magical Properties: When the wearer of a suit of this armour finds themselves in the heat of battle, the threads of their own fate and that of their opponent is revealed unto the wearer's mind's eye, revealing the past and future of both individuals to the mind's eye of the wearer, those sections where their fates intersect give off a bright glow. The wearer can use this to learn of their enemy's past, machinations, intent, and even their future.” That also explains the Crossbowman wearing a Stormcast-like mask. They’re made from similar celestial Sigmarite materials from meteorites getting pounded into shape.(if I had to guess* the Ven Densts probably had connections to duardin smiths to smooth theirs out while the rest were human smiths not great at shaping meteors but still determined). Furthering why they’re the Order of Azyr(Heaven). Edit*: Yeah, Ven Densts learned runecrafting at Settler’s Gain and come from a lineage back in the Age of Myth from where famous heroes like Ionus Cryptborn the Stormcast are from. So they definitely had duardin connections to treat their meteoric armor. “Galen has mastered the art of etching tiny runes of banishment, an aspect of runecraft both him and his daughter had learnt in Settler’s Gain .” https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ven_Denst_Dynasty

That would be the best outcome. Cities of Sigmar being a BIG project that slowly gets updated and added onto every edition so by AoS10 it becomes a huge army with variety shaped by sub-factions from every realm. Like right now a suitable update would just focus on the human side to add in new Order of Azyr units(spread Sigmar’s religion in Ghur to rehabilitate neutral Chaos tribes and inspire more heroes for Stormcast Reforging) and some Reclaimed tribesmen Freeguild that act as Catachan’s with increased bravery, ambushing and explosive experts with fruit bombs before they charge in with barbarian claymores. Possible Privateer Corsair update too because of Bilgewater which is the 4th great Thondia city as a mobile pirate den built within the carcass/ribs of a vast leviathan’s floating corpse. Plus new Stronghold Cities in the other Realms that allow Coalitions for different flavors like Ulgu Misthavn sub-faction for Daughters of Khaine or Chamon Vindicarum for Kharadron,etc.

Oh nah, Dawncrusades are in multiple realms. Realm of Life where the Sylvaneth are aiding them(some with the intention of turning on the Settlers to take out the Wanderers & industrialists after they help clear out the Nurgle remnants): Realm of Death where the Corebook mentions the heroic ghosts of Hallost aid the mortals in expanding as well the NightHaunt tome has a cool story of the blood ghost sub-faction spawning from pools of blood made by Khornite attacks on Dawners to slaughter the Chaos warriors and then parley with the humans to return to their city in peace. And the Realm of Fire is seeing the most expansions between Daughters of Khaine “Blood crusades” traveling alongside Dawners to carve a bloody path through chaos tribes and mark holy territory for Morathi-Khaine, Fyreslayer allies in both pay and those urged on by alliances to vanguard the Dawners and have been instrumental in claiming fiery mountain peaks & acid islands for new settlements and the Stormcast Liberators and Sequitors march out alongside Hammerhalians Dawners to protect them and in grimmer instances have to be reforged to tell what disaster, chaotic evil or unknown eldritch circumstance ended that crusade. They’re big in Chamon too. Ghur is just a campaign focus right now alongside the God-king wanting a bigger empire there as the hearty warrior souls of that Realm have proven excellent for both mortal Reclaimed soldiers(Kragnos novel has the former-chaos tribesmen aiding Azyrites as they killed and eat Ogors, crafty enough to hunt through the dangerous terrain and fashion “fruit bombs” from the deadly flora. Basically AoS Catachans) and attune easiest to the Thunderstrike armor’s demand for a strong soul to wear. Yndraste and a great many of the current ones are from Ghur. Edit: Oh, and I fully agree with wanting humans to have updated looks to match the strange Realms they live in. However as far as Azyrites go I’m actually okay with just a Victorian update to their clothes. Them basically living in space and like Hexbane’s dealing with Moon daemons feels like a shout-out to Baron Munchasen and his trip to the moon where he outwits the gigantic Moon King(who of course is played by the hammy and beloved Robin Williams). (I liked that the moon king & queen used those neck saucers to connect to their bodies) Edit edit: haha, that actually reminded me there are giant floating Stormcast heads in Azyr. You talk to one in the Tempestfall VR game.

The Warpriest disappeared around the end of 2018 with the other Silver Tower heroes save the Knight-quester and Darkoath. That’s what it made it notable when the Doomseeker came back for the 2019 Fyreslayer Battletome.(which made narrative sense, century had past since Silver Tower so he’d be dead. Soulbound was able to pick him back up as the ritual makes mortals near-immortal) GW’s been implementing a lot of Cubicle7’s stuff. Their Anvilgard supplements lead up to Broken Realms and showed the forces behind the city coup of Anvilgard into Har Kuron. Their AoS3 trailer shows off pictures from Soulbound as the Lord-Imperitant travels the halls of the celestial city. The official Ghur map features a Melusai shrine city that Cubicle7 made. The short novel “Monsters” is about Yndraste meeting a Soulbound human who bonded with his magic axe and has been alive serving Grungni since the Age of Myth over a thousand years ago as before Stormcasts it was the Soulbound who were Sigmar and pantheon’s champions.(tying into the Soulbound lore and why Gorkamorka & Nagash know how to make their own as they were apart of the pantheon back then. There was also a magic weapon supplement at the short story’s release that goes into magic weapon creations for stuff like the magic axe) The recent Sylvaneth battletome outright talks about Soulbound Pretty sure Soulbound is the reason we’re getting humans at all as it gets around the biggest AoS issue for mortals. The narrative that keeps skipping decades and centuries alongside the gods. A lot of in-lore human heroes(and hidden villains) are dead now by age so they’ll likely lean on Soulbound human generals in the CoS update to keep them going over the next centuries and across realms that stretch over life-times.(might finally get the Warpriest back too to tie-in and for the religious elements) Already went over why religion isn’t a bad thing. Stormcasts and Sigmarite priests alike worship figures like Alarielle, Tyrion, Grungni and God-beasts alongside the God-king. He’s not exclusive and merciless at all like the 40k God-emperor’s faith is(which I think is the main concern of worries people here that we’re going 40k).

Another point is one players have been making recently, the latest point changes have made it very disadvantageous to take Freeguild Guards over Dreadspear Darklings as now they both 85 points but the Dreadspear is better all round. That could be a subtle nudge to stop collecting humans as the rework is gonna focus on them mostly to make them fit with the Realms instead and leave the rest of the Cities the same(as elder races are less quick to change than short-lived humans so it fits aesthetically they’re the biggest on matching the new setting)

I just can’t get the Debbie downer mindset behind this. Like sure the CoS update is gonna focus heavily on humans as it’s their only place to shine compared to all the aelf & duardin books but it’s not like it was decided last minute. It’s like what Phil Kelly said in the Gnarlwood video, a lot of that stuff was built up since the beginning of AoS when they were just small lore blurbs they could only expand on down the line. GW and Cubicle7 haven’t spent years setting up cosmopolitan cities and even recent novels of mixed race places, Stormcasts worshipping other gods besides Sigmar who’s big on helping everyone, every WQ game from Silver Tower to Cursed City having multiple Order races work together with even Champions of Destruction noting Orruks can find themselves in Freeguild city service before wandering on to the next fight just to immediately go back on it all and say it’s every race for themself. Like geez, have Some faith they want to make it interesting like the rest of AoS has been on creative ideas.

Non-humans don’t have to worship Sigmar, simply holding to their oaths like those Aelf Corsairs did in Broken Realms when they defended the human guards from Morathi’s insurgents would be enough as they’re still loyally serving Sigmar. A big governing power in the Realms is the Grand Conclave in Azyr and that has members of every Order race represented.(and is copied for the other major cities like the ruling Conclave of Hammerhal, 122 rulers from Aqshy & 122 rulers from Ghyran) I just imagine Cities will get streamlined down into Order of Azyr, Ironweld and Exiled Aelves so though they likely get design changes to replace the old looks it’ll still give a variety of unit choices ranging from zealots to pirates. That way it can also be used to fit with the Realms. Examples: Ghyran- human priests representing both Sigmar and Alarielle with Aelven outlaw units guarding their forested flanks while Sylvaneth coalition units teleport through the realm roots and take the enemy by surprise as hammer, bolt and branch unite to cleanse the pure green havens. Chamon- clanking Ironweld machines with echo of duardin engineer swearing ringing about form the vanguard against an encroaching daemon horde as Witch hunters unload with their upgraded blessed guns to banish both daemon and sorcery as Kharadron mercenary skyfleets flank the daemons for an aetheric volley and drop off marines to pincer the foe between holy & aether shot. Shyish- Black armored and wraith-like Stormcasts march forward with hordes of raving zealots in their wake, hoping to prove themselves in the eyes of these messengers of the God-kings. As lightning arcs down claiming heroic warriors and even valiant dead ones on both sides, the air grows heavy and damp as the lightning of eel lances join the electrifying battle and the Deepkin allies from the ports of Lethis claim their own share of the spirits there. Still a mixing pot through and through.

Won’t lie. I’m quite flummoxed where this “If you’re a Sigmar zealot then you hate everything non-human” idea is coming from. We’ve got the God-king who even after being betrayed still seeks diplomatic solutions with both Nagash and Gorkamorka to return them to the pantheon as he also called a truce with Morathi-Khaine(even before Grungni vouched for her he called off the attack on Har Kuron because he knew a civil war was just what Belakor wanted to destroy Order). And he spares God-beasts that aren’t a threat and allows their worship like in Edassa and those that can’t control their violence are put to work in protecting Stormvaults. Lower we have the Stormcasts who are diplomats and erstwhile allies to all gods, god-beasts and races and jumped to work with Ironjawz to reconquer the Eight-Points, tried their best to save Behemat from madness, take in Reclaimed tribes of repentant chaos worshippers & reforged former chaos champions and worked alongside Neferata and the undead to save Shyish from Chaos. And people now think that all dries up at the ground level mortals who are constantly shown to admire and follow their shining Stormcast lords into making Sigmar’s dream of a United pantheon and peace among all races and Realms again a reality? Like heck, why am I hearing “maybe some aelves will fit in if they worship Sigmar” when we’ve got dozen of examples of humans worshipping duardin and aelven gods in Cities right down to the Sigmarite warpriests themselves: https://cubicle7games.com/aos-soulbound-excelsior-warpriest/ “Devoted of Sigmar You are a warrior-priest of the God-King, willing to do anything in the name of your divine liege. The Mortal Realms are huge, and there are times when the high throne of Azyr can feel very far away indeed. The Excelsior Warpriest is the most zealous of Sigmar’s devoted, gladly carrying the word of the God-King to places that have not felt the light of Sigendil in generations. The miracles that an Excelsior Warpriest can perform vary depending on the proclivities of the individual priest and, to a decidedly lesser extent, on the needs of the mission in question. With the power of faith alone a warpriest can heal the sick and the lame, but just as easily scour the life of the tainted, the possessed and the wicked of spirit. While predominantly a product of the Sigmarite faith, the culture of Azyr has marched into the Mortal Realms with its armies and put down roots with its settlers. Hammerhall-Ghyra is known to harbour warpriests devoted to Alarielle, while groups dedicated to Tyrion the Blind King scour the hinterlands of Hysh. Doubtless there are many such groups in the Mortal Realms carrying the light of their gods on the flat of a war hammer in the example of the Excelsior Warpriest.” I don’t see a single reason to worry. Even if Cities cranks up the Sigmar zeal craziness to 12 that just means they’re devoted to a God-king who wants more peace and friendly mixing among the gods, their followers & countless races of the Realms. 100%! some of my favorite bits is Archaon starting Warcry in the first place because both the All-Gates defeat and Necroquake destabilized the Nexus leaving valuable Chaos kingdoms & empires stranded so he’s doing a rally cry to consolidate their power(like Iron Golems taking notes on the massive catacomb industry complexes to upgrade their own dragon forces at home) while the recent Fyreslayers battletome shows how Blood knights might make war with the Deathrattle kingdoms so they can clear land to set up human blood-thrall villages to sustain their numbers. And I love the lore that Ossiarchs prefer easier to supply and patrol land empires so though they have navies they prefer to just summon porous bone artificial landmasses so they can just connect their empires and conquests across oceans for quicker transports and troop movements(ships got nothing on bone golems who can force March night and day without food or rest). ”The Ossiarch Empire has a large navy containing ships grown from processed bone-matter but for the empire to function at maximum efficiency they have developed the art of crafting wide structures of porous osseous matter that float. Grown one by one and linked through the magic of the Mortisans they connect landmasses across vast oceans”

Would’ve been nice for their flames to beat back the crazed Dreadwood Sylvaneth but to be fair it’s the industrial city in the Realm of Life. Fyreslayer activity is pretty scant there compared to the heroes on the cover who all have history there(remember Ghyran’s where the first Idoneth big exposure was and made the first treaties with Order as apology to the attack on the Khainites aiding Alarielle) edit: plus that’s the main adventure team through Soulbound.