Baron Klatz

I’m thinking the new city of Embergard. Those volcanoes were already home to Skaven & Duardin for centuries. Also enjoying how much mileage GW get out of their title words. Realms of Ruin Lady of Ruin Ruination Chamber I’ll be amazed if the Skaven don’t have Ruinator weapons/mechs.

Gotta say that still looks too Lordly to be just a unit trooper but we’ll see in a few days how much Azyrian crow my thoughts will eat.

Haha, seems my guess at Ruination having lightning gheists as prosecutor fast fliers was closer than I thought. 😅 I hope it’s a dual-kit to make either regular Thunderstrike angels or ghostly Ruination ones so you can keep your faction heroically heavenly with proper immortals or choose “Death Company” builds & keywords for last chancers on a important mission.

Empire, Asur, Asrai fans that saw their figures shoot out into the void after CoS jettisoned them before they could get them:

Ehh, still pressing X to doubt. Lots of factions have been on “out of stock” roller coasters for a good while now with half their lines gone. Easy to chalk up to production problems.

If that is a Thunderstrike Retributor looking more like Dhoraz Giant-fell then maybe the Ruination Chamber isn’t all last reforged Stormcast afterall but a mix of those with ruined souls & those that bring ruin by powerful weapons?(maybe the guesses at it being the artillery chamber weren’t far off then 😄) I guess as the last 3 specialist chambers they could do some mixings for certain jobs.(especially since rare one-shot soldiers getting overwhelmed everywhere means the Chamber likely wouldn’t last long on it’s own) Edit: Haha, funny shower thought. What if the unit on the cover has most of the hammer hidden because that’s where the ruined soul is? I was thinking about Dark Souls 2 and it crossed my mind what would happen if they weaponized those statues they lock broken souls away in like you can do with a statue of the wicked queen? Also completes the death-mask aesthetic of on their masks, pauldrons, armor, shields and now weapons. 😄

We could see another Lord-Relictor in that style watching over the Ruinators. They need their Death Company Chaplain afterall(unless Ionus is supposed to be that)

I imagine either towards the end of 4th edition or near start of 5th. That’ll be Order(Stormcast) vs Death and in Broken Realms Malerion said his agents in the Realm of Death found souls important to the Lumineth so that sounds like a good connection between the two to reveal himself.

With his Like react today of the cover Corebook art being a unit and not a character I wonder if It’s a SCE Command Corps situation since the character looks so fancy? Group of Lord level characters acting together in a unit trying to keep eachother alive while letting loose with near god-level powers? SCE Soulbound.

This Vizzik is a false god! There is only one cat god of Warhammer, glorious Nunu and his impregnable fortress of the gods! 🐱

It is indeed. 😁 Worth pointing out those are what they’re trying to heal, thus the Resurrection Crusade and Stormcast like Astreia Solbright trying to find ways to make souls stronger on each reforge so there’s less parts to lose. That’s why in Mad King she tried to convince Ushoran to come back as the Sombre Paladin and use his healing powers which, back in the Age of Myth when he watched over the dead, could mend broken souls. However Sigmar doesn’t have time to wait for such miracles after being through multiple apocalypses now and a lot of his precautions to fortify the reforged are stripped away from the constant new threats. Like before Malign Portents Stormcast Eternals were actually given temporary leave after each reforging so they could clear their heads with a vacation of sorts and fight the flaws that way. But then Nagash flooded the realms with billions of murder ghosts so the leave had to be cut because he couldn’t spare the manpower to defend everyone. So now they’d sent back in usually as soon as they’re back off the forge to hold Order’s tenuous footholds. “Much is demanded of those to whom much is given.”

The last one is very interesting when paired with the “ethereal rat shapes” seen in Mad King. If not Clans Shrykt directly the Skaven seem to be going more daemony with so much time in the Realm of Chaos.

I’d say this is the main thing to remember here. Remember all the conspiracy theories about Kragnos’ reveal with people making crazier and crazier assumptions like he was a messed up reincarnation of Orion from the splintered spear and it just was “new centaur god that likes to smash eggs”? The “Lie” is never going to be as grand as people are saying it is, just a excuse for new cool models. Also yeah, Sigmar isn’t a tyrant. In “Yndrasta: the Celestial Spear” he is actively helping Yndrasta remember her past to not lose herself and if they keep him like he is in “Pantheon” & “Soul Wars” he’s not exactly bad dude pushing others to fight for him. That’s basically what happens. They lose parts of themselves and to fill the void Azyr magic flows in and replaces the human parts lost. It’s partly an ongoing theme with Azyr that forces there resurrect but there’s a cost as the cold void starts seeping in be it lost Stormcast humanity, the mental deterioration of the Slann making them forget their old friends so they manifest back slightly off(because they forgot what they looked like) and Stardrakes & Dracoths needing to go through a lengthy rebirth phase through their solar gems to avoid the worst of it on their species.

She’s probably just using shadow magic to either travel by shrouded realmgates like the Shadowstalkers do when they use the Umbral Web to teleport through shadows or communicating through an shadow avatar similar to the Ulgu Eshin clans when they make shadow clones.

I feel that’s just the faithful powers she’s pulling from Sigmar & his followers similar to what the Lord-Relictors do despite being innately necromatic magic users. Native origin-wise she seems to be Aqshyian having been in Hammerhal for over a century and it’s possible that’s why she has that “snuff out the candle” ability combining the two.(and if you want to reeeally stretch it the “Hysh wheel powers” theories also could tie into multiple factions that see Hysh as a refined flame akin to Aqshy such as the FEC Blisterskins do, Aqshy ghouls that worship Hysh’s light) Tahlia may be more liked but Zenestra is easily the most fascinating character of CoS. 😄

Lol, I love the commitment to the French soldiers bit.😆 Zenestra’s crusade makes a lot more sense in context when you figure she’s going for the Realmgates leading to Shyish. She herself is a dual being & power of Aqshy & Shyish so if she can build a city that links both Realms her power will be immense. And on the warp flame striking gold & heavens, as easy as it is to see the gold being Stormcast I wonder if that’s also a hint towards Chamon, the Realm of Gold, for their plans that will end up pulling in the duardin as they use the resources as a staging ground to try and pierce Azyr?(and also put AoS4 in Chamon as the new realm focus)

Some retailers can’t get more battletomes and apparently they went out of stock on some parts of the GW site. But that’s about it and really no clue if that is just production problems. Mostly it’s just a popular theory though because AoS & 40k bounce & test ideas off eachother.

Indeed. They’re related to celestial eagles but turned from Sigmar and settled in the highest peaks of Ghur. They wear basic steel armor and warding jewelry plus gild their talons making them terrifying foes. Fans even did a Soulbound profile for them: “ In appearance they resemble Aetherwings and Star-eagles but on a vast scale, growing to be twice the size of a Flamespyre Phoenix. Females have larger and more powerful claws and beaks than the males. The Aetar are one of many native peoples of the vast Gorwood region who refuse to accept Sigmar's rule, and were not particularly accepting of his return. When Ikrit finally laid siege to Seven Words, the Aetar came to aid the free city. Though they sought vengeance against the Skaven, rather than seeking to save the city itself. The Aetar have developed a warrior culture with a militant aristocracy. These warriors are known as Eagle Knights and are organized into phalanxes. They wear jewellery and armour, covering the neck and breast in steel and topaz, whilst their rulers bear golden circlets atop their heads. A single Eagle Knight can contend with and even defeat a Prosecutor retinue and a Knight-Azyros. They despise the minions of Chaos, just like many others races of the Mortal Realms. Males can demonstrate their prowess and vitality to both rivals and potential mates by making displays high in the sky and at high speed - normally only hatchlings being forced to stay on solid ground.”

Honestly that’d be a good compromise especially since AoS4 will be Chaos on the rise which means Death & Destruction will be back on the sidelines picking their opportunities. Same as when Death was on the rise in AoS2 so Destruction and even some Chaos elements were backing Order to survive. And AoS3 saw Chaos & Death fall to a lot of infighting which can be partly chalked up to Kragnos’ influence since the novel confirmed he causes fissures in people too.(so it was rather fitting he caused Archaon to lose his sh$t and start yelling about the Dark Gods that lost him most of the 8th circle of Varanguard to Belakor and stirred that civil war up)

Haha, AoS successor to Dogs of War & where the Beasts of Chaos ended up. Beasts of War. 😄

If they don’t go as an ally in a Kruleboyz battletome(very similar themes there & both Destruction) I hope they can do a Scions of the Realms faction that’s a big mishmash of all the exotic beastial forces out there like Silent People & Aetar banning together

Which sucks as I love him and his model but wouldn’t be the first time a Stormcast went down against a great evil(May your trapped soul somehow find rest, Thostos Bladestorm 🫡) As long as he gives good account of himself and makes Chaos pay for his days as “grub” I’ll be happy(at least Tornus is being spared and even got to shine in the books) If he goes then hopefully the next tome marks how all the tens of thousands of slaves he freed from chaos strongholds make him a glorious statue in thanks to go alongside those of Jactos, Thostos, Grymn and the various ones Tornus & the Redeemed built at the battlefield the Sigmarite Brotherhood were lost at after the Redeemed destroyed the daemon fortresses there. Vandus though is likely to become a Thunderstrike or possibly a Ruination character with that “lightning man” apparition that keeps coming towards him being his future self. Profiles is the biggy. $200-$250 for just a some core(few by Skaven standards who’ll probably need 2 to 3 boxes) will make any Skaven fan scurry away if the majority of the force is more wacky warmachines & behemoths that don’t fit. Haha, gonna be putting that through Google translate late. Happy things like Sap Volcanoes is bizarre in most languages though.

Space out releases. With a new edition every 3 years and Stormcast Eternals the face of everyone of those they’re gonna need an easy design force to balance out all the crazy new stuff. Having Thunderstrike refreshes stretched out for like 4 editions gives the designers a lot of breathing room as well as collectors(like myself) who want a healthy mix of both styles. Ah, so Skaven winning by sneaky cheating instead of honorable battle. Full flavor either way then. 😄

I mean, who thought the tyranids could beat the marines? online popularity doesn’t translate to tourney numbers by a long shot. Heck, 2020 tourney statistics in Northern Europe easily had SCE outnumber Skaven as 160 vs 30 on average. And if Skaven do prevail it’s not like they haven’t earned it having some of the oldest models right now.

Would love to see some Seeds of Hope global campaign antics again. That was such a fun time to see the three cities fought over and swing with player feedback & GW dropping GA buffs for each alliance on Facebook every few months until the conclusion. Cherry on top if it’s a fight over the new Ghyran settlement as a continuation of the Seeds of Hope cities.