Baron Klatz

I second a Troggoth Hag character. I really liked their lore that they were intelligent enough to serve as envoys for their Troggoth tribes and we do actually have a in-lore character one thanks to the Gloomspite White Dwarf that showed her off alongside angler fish River troggs and a secret Troggoth sub-realm they all go to called the Droogrind. “The Old Lady of the Bog is a Troggoth matriarch that lives in the swamps of Verdia, known for her cunning and malice. She has never been recorded to leave her abode deep in the swamps, but her brood of Fellwater Troggoths - known for their luminescent glows and angler light-stalks - certainly do, luring many a frontiersmen to their death. There are many rumours about what she does with these captives - some believe that she has bartered an accord with the twisted Sylvaneth who dwell in these swamps, trading them higher unfortunate humans in exchange for arcane trinkets, whilst others claim that she sacrifices them in the light of the Bad Moon, opening up gateways to the shadowy Troggoth underworld- the Droogrind” Failing that, anyone remember Skroug from the 2019 AoS Mercenary Companies? He’d be a great comeback for the Sons of Behemat and act as another mercenary choice for Death, Order & Destruction as he allows them some Beasts of Chaos ally options. “Skroug’s Menagerie The Chaos gargant known as Skroug is the owner of one of the Mortal Realms’ most unconventional mercenary companies, hiring himself out alongside a menagerie of bizarre chaos beasts. This mercenary company is perfect for narrative gamers looking to make their army a little bit more grimdark. Or perhaps you’re looking for an excuse to use the fancy new Furies in your army when Warcry comes out! For gamers, this mercenary company lets you get more out of your units by allowing Skroug to act like a Hero with access to a range of command abilities.” https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/06/10/the-generals-handbook-2019-mercenary-companiesgw-homepage-post-2/

That’s a good to point out. CoS needs to explore it’s own diverse mortal religions in the future like one past short story that had blind human warrior monks in a Aqshy valley that worshipped Tyrion or the city of Edassa in the middle of the Great Parch that worships both Sigmar and the nearby fire God-beasts that prowl the region. Another point of note I hope they address one day is giving CoS their own Realm Native non-human races to parallel the realm beast people Slaves to Darkness has. if I had to go down a twisted mirror list: Fomoroids - Gholemkin (the stone race of people that are noted to hang out in Chamon ports already. Strong bois) Sphiranx - Cogmen(the Chamonian mechanical race created by Grungni before he abandoned them for other pursuits. A analytical race to make up for their lack of numbers) Ogroid - Aetar(very powerful astral eagle people in the Ghur peaks. Despite being giant birds they wear armor and jewelry and are said to even out-duel a Knight-Venator in the skies) Centauroid - Valay(the secretive squid smiths that live at the depths beside the Deepkin, they collect and forge realmstone from the sea floor and like to play deadly word games) or alternatively Silent People nomads. A few of the insect people that broke off from their migratory swarms to live in catacombs beneath cities. Matches the Centauroid as both sport multiple arms and are a very rare sight too.

Hopefully in a few months. Them dropping “How to Play UnderWorlds Nethermaze” videos this morning has me hopeful. I’d love to see the new models soon, their bigger change to the Rivals Format to cut the bloat and hopefully teases of the next UnderWorlds setting by the end of the year. With the Shadow Moon Daemon twist being they’ve stolen everyone’s shadows and put ethereal parasites in their place as they passed through to Hysh(kinda ironically going from being free of the Katophane curse to a new Ulgu curse) my bet is we’ll get an opposite “high and dry” location like a top a megalith in Helon to try and burn out the parasites with the searing Hysh moons. ☀️

Oh it’s not exclusive but rather more options than the singular, that’s what I meant by fully. Like how the Phoenicium city aelves worship the Ur-Phoenix God-beast and can have faith alongside Alarielle since it dwells in her realm while also being religious towards Tyrion/Teclis as the Ur-Phoenix gets reborn in a crystal valley in Hysh rather than say how Sylvaneth or Lumineth are purely devoted to one set of gods. Same as how city aelves could lean towards Grungni as a smith god to learn from(probably exile worthy behavior from a Lumineth’s egocentric view) or Ironweld Duardin can create plant guns and even take a nod from the Root-king duardin in forging Sylvaneth soul-pods and paying respects to Alarielle. Of course this all just theory-crafting until we see where GW land on the final product. I imagine global crisis that’s changed production schedules and how they need to rearrange focus on releases probably caused a world of difference from back in 2017 when they said they wanted to make humans from each Realm. (I kinda wonder if they’ll just do Devoted of Sigmar+ to callback the AoS1 days of when it was just them and Stormcasts fighting Chaos to reclaim civilization through crusades. I dare not hope for something like multiple supplements on each realm that all eventually fit together like a Thondia Reclaimed guard update and then a Hammerhal gold cloak one for Aqshy, etc.) An opinion worth it’s weight in Aether-gold. ⛅️

I’d say it was mostly because of focusing on the nerfs while in a AoS2 mindset. Losing their extra move ability where that was a big boon in run & charge heavy AoS2 and going from guaranteed mortal wound terrain blast to 90% chance of causing it all seemed like downers. Taken in 3.0’s change to smaller boards meaning harder to avoid terrain, Totem keywords being big to broadcast commands like a General can and Heraldor’s overall attack and defense buffs to make them much tougher in combat and they got off a lot better than the simplified warscroll would suggest.

It’s Doko, he always goes on exaggeration tantrums. Just ignore and move on until he finally reaches his limit and posts a big “Why I’m leaving and the hobby is doomed x 99999!” post. 😛 Also interesting thought. I wonder if Dispossessed and City Aelves might get grouped and rebooted under Ironweld(who basically are duardin central anyway with all the engineers, mechanics, masons and mining operations there) and Aelven Exiles. The latter because Soulbound’s Ulfenkarn archetype is gonna be called that and it’s a name title given more attention in the Prince Maesa omnibus as he’s a exile aelf prince. If Cities of Sigmar focuses mainly on Wanderers(exiles from Ghyran) and Darklings/Scourge Privateers(exiles from most upright societies) I could see it along with why they don’t fully submit to the main aelven gods like Alarielle or Morathi-Khaine but keep their independence in the cities. Could help organize things under Humans, Ironweld Duardin and Aelven Exiles.

Now here I disagree(I like the rest tho) because juxtapositions like those make for some really fun lore like Hysh duardin using concentrated moonlight to forge aetherquartz and Ironweld Cogsmiths actually making their motto “I can turn anything into a gun” very literal as Soulbound:Steam and Steel has examples of Ghyran Ironweld making plant guns out of local flora. As for Wanderers, they need Greywater because it’s the only place in Ghyran besides the outskirts of the Living City that doesn’t have Sylvaneth put a target on their backs(remember they still hate them as traitors). And indeed Greywater gives them an opportunity to fight back against the dreadful dryads

Yeah, Warhammer lore has always been 12-years and up material just like all their games.(which you know, is where you wanna be for a toy soldier franchise) Thus world-that-was Archaon at “The Shrine of Ultimate Darkness”. Just accept the narmy bits and enjoy the epic settings all the same. 👍

Gazooks! Big Era of Beasts update coming and playable Draconith archetype is confirmed! Resurrect the Draconith empire in Dracothion’s name!

Oh this is a fun topic. Big shout-out to the second place taker at Adepticon in March 2022: Thunder of Stormchariots and Doots of Doom. Jakub Golec – Stormcast Eternals – Second Place Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm) – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Dominating Presence – Triumphs: Inspired – Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley Leaders Knight-Heraldor (105)* Knight-Heraldor (105)* Knight-Heraldor (105)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Spell: Chain Lightning Battleline 10 x Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (380)* – Reinforced x 1 2 x Thunderbolt crossbow 5 x Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (190)* 1 x Thunderbolt crossbow 5 x Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (190)* 1 x Thunderbolt crossbow Units 1 x Stormstrike Chariot (165)** 1 x Stormstrike Chariot (165)** 1 x Stormstrike Chariot (165)** 1 x Stormstrike Chariot (165)** 1 x Stormstrike Chariot (165)** 3 x The Farstriders (90)** Core Battalions *Battle Regiment **Redemption Brotherhood Additional Enhancements Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley Total: 1990 / 2000 Reinforced Units: 1 / 4 Allies: 0 / 400 Wounds: 118 Drops: 2 The strategy of a devastating shooting list with the hard-hitting chariots causing enemies to take cover only for the trio of Knight-Heraldors to step in and start blasting the terrain with music and lightning bolts is brilliant! The now overlooked Heraldors ended up being his ace in the hole on making the terrain a death trap. Also this guy’s Gryph-hound legion list. Why no chariots? Because he needed room for more gryph-hounds. Good boi respect.

Here you go: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/03/05/broken-realms-fiction-enlightenment/ You gotta look up “Broken Realms Fiction” on their search engine and keep scrolling because the stories are buried beneath a hundred posts. It’s in my to-do list to get a link page up for them and the Forbidden Power short stories there.(thankfully they’re not on a seperate site like Malign Portents was or they’d be erased by now instead of just buried and forgotten so they can always be dug back up)

Ohh, nice selection. I’d recommend getting “The End of Enlightenment”. It’s a great story on it’s own but I really appreciate the part that showed the utter confusion between the Lumineth and Ossiarchs facing off for the first time. It addresses the oddity of what it’s like in a setting where new armies can literally pop up out of nowhere and indeed, both sides were perplexed as hell at “strange Deathrattle” that have bones of steel, multiple arms and switch fighting styles on the fly and horned glowy aelves armed with weapons that make you explode from the inside-out with sunlight and control gravity with flying rocks & mountains. The aftermath of the start-up battle is both sides going to their areas of knowledge to find out what they even just fought!

Going through some past art and I noticed the teases looked a lot like the holy skull staff the Dark Souls-looking plague doctor has from the 2017 Firestorm campaign Living City(Nurgle’s rise was at this time before the Maggotkin’s first big unveiling at Christmas before 2018, so the fear of illness tone) I’d love to get him as a Ghyran Freeguild representative with the red contrasting all the green leaves & flower iconography and any wooden armor on the new troops.

For general Realms lore they just need to double down on the Season of War formula and keep releasing more Thondia style tomes for every Realm. Between that, the Core Books and Battletomes now focusing on a realm map it’s quickly getting very fleshed out.(to say nothing of Soulbound’s works) Though if they ever wanted to release a Mortal Realms Encyclopedia I’d pre-order that on the spot.

On one hand fair point but on the otherhand I’m not sure they ever given the wrong impression either. Like I got both Stormcast tomes from 2.0 & 3.0 here and they go into that reforgings can take a number of things including memories while going into very heroic or odd humorous stuff like Hallowed Knights following diseased marchers in secret to make sure the sanctum they go to honors them and a famous Vanguard leader who was raised in a cave by Gryph-hounds. Those really drive an interest to look further into their lore. I guess it’s fair to say rulebook-wise it’s only giving the bare minimum to encourage you into the Battletomes and novels but I don’t see the problem with that either as that’s not the rule book’s main function. I apologized for sounding elitist earlier on this subject but I do stand by that it does feel like some critics are judging without a fair assessment. Even without the books there’s lots of wikis and reviews by others people can look into to get an idea of the setting. Eh, it can but it could also spell the end for those followers if they get swallowed up by other powers(literally in the case of so many Shyish kingdoms that disappeared after Nagash ate their gods) with full gods behind them as that society just lost it’s powers with it’s god. It’d have to be handled with care whichever the scenario. Okay your heart’s in the right place but the mere thought of GW making a limited site with poor search qualities that could see their legal teams shut down the Lexicanum as a competitor made my heart skip a beat in terror. 😧 Seriously people, all you wanting free and detailed lore, just use the bloody Lexicanum and Wiki fans work hard on to update for the current lore. https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kharadron_Overlords https://ageofsigmar.fandom.com/wiki/Kharadron_Overlords (examples because Kharadrons have so much to their background. Feel free to look up Age of Myth and God-beast Zodiac pantheon too among other stuff too!)

Definitely grab the Omnibuses then. They’re fantastic for getting a really nice view of the setting through so many short stories that peek into every facet of Mortal Realms life. Like take your “I wish reforging didn’t take just personality away” complaint. One of many good novel sources is “Sacrosanct and Other Stories” that shows it takes other things away with Knight-Incantor Arnhault. He’s super friendly, charismatic and heroic to where he jumps in to both defend a distant village(whose trade is mining from faults opened by a river of burning dragon blood) and tells his troops to hold when they see a young girl perform a ritual to Nagash as he points to an old mural in a temple that showed how the death god was once the God-king’s right hand and those practicing his worship deserve respect. He’s been reforged “countless times” before though so what did he lose? His memories. Throughout the story he keeps bringing up his favorite guide book to Ghur and reciting it any time he gets a chance and going on how it’s his dream to one day meet the writer he so admires. At the end of the story his brothers whisper among each other that it’s a secret they don’t have the heart to tell him that He is that scholar that wrote about these lands they’re in. The area around the village was even his mortal birthplace. But he’s forgotten it all and the past him that wrote the guides may as well be a different person now. Honestly this is why I wish more people around here used IMO or start with “I haven’t read much but from my view” because this is how misinformation gets started. It is what it is though. 🤷 As has been said before, AoS just needs a good game to get people worked up to actually visit the lexicanum and wikis at the very least instead of being content to go off of limited info. Would solve a lot of problems. Monkey’s paw curls and now both Tyrion and Malerion are gone. 😛 (remember how much that one reporter article stressed out the community because they thought Malerion was killed offscreen?) But nah, I don’t see that as very compelling when less gods means less avenues to explore with worshippers and how the realms are shaped. If anything we need more to expand the cosmic politics and give mortals more choices. Besides we see with Grimnir that death to a god is usually an inconvenience as long as they have believers that can one day restore their physical form.(not that different from Elden Ring, you’re mostly just killing demigods with the actual “gods” being the assigned avatars of even greater beings we only see the will of) ”What is death to a God? Dust, and less than dust.” -Dirge of Dust and Steel.

No new figures would be fine by me, Shadows Over Hammerhal already showed how good the game can get with just reused models but a heavier focus on the adventure & delving into the city. Just do the Silver Tower hero packs that were a nice vary collection of heroes for a cheap bundle and add some cool lore why they’re exploring the Order/Death city that’s on the edge of the abyss and we’re golden. Great for painting projects and now can even be Anvil of Apotheosis bits or if they’re more narratively linked and Grand Alliance focused then allies for AoS proper(though proxying with a lore flair is also fun)

Tbf they are written that way in the Realmgate Wars. The first book “Gates of Azyr” has a Stormcast kneel down to a scared civilian and take off his helmet to show her he’s not a soulless golem, “Warstorm” has Thostos pretty humble to his new duty as a Stormcast and in awe of a foreign realm(going from Beasts to Metal), and the whole arc of the Bull Hearts first freeing Mannfred from his torture by Chaos and then chasing after him where they parlayed with vampire monks and spared greenskins (their Lord-Relictor even pleading with a Ironjawz that they should be allies while said Brute was shoving his skull-helmed face into the ground) did a lot to show they weren’t Astartes but their own thing as demigod paladins from Heaven. I think the Astartes focus was more on how they operated, spoke to eachother as “Brother” and general stoicism in the face of insane Chaos forces.(Though second book shows they certainly know fear as that was the Chaos ambush that had an illusion which showed their lost loved ones that made the Stormcasts break rank and even the Judicators panic fire into their own troops when the ambush was at full climax) I get AoS1 had rocky first steps in establishing the finer details of the setting and unsure of how to move forward but I think it gets bashed way more than it deserves.

Oh that’s a Azyrite city. The implication being the Gloomspite are going to bring their own twisted fairytale heaven to a city of the heavens. Destruction doesn’t really do cities but military structures and Gloomspite asylums. Cities mean relaxation and peace where-as Greenskins and Ogors always want to be on the move or in action with the very forts they build liable to be knocked down: ”When I first came to these lands, I zoggin’ hated ’em,’ Gordrakk rumbled. Urgak flinched in surprise. He hadn’t expected the Fist of Gork to answer – much less to change the subject. ‘Chaos boys that puked everywhere or split in half or laughed when you smashed ’em. Dead gits who snap like twigs. Tree-gits and stunties and pointy ears, all off hidin’. Some of the Chaos boys, they could fight, but it weren’t many. But then, the Hammer God sent his lads.’ Gordrakk’s eyes lit up with a vicious light at the memory. ‘Big armour. Big weapons. Good in a scrap. Zog me, Urgak, dey even came back fer more when you smashed ’em!’ Gordrakk’s green hand crashed against the Megaboss’s shoulder, staggering Urgak. ‘Finally, I thought – ’ere’s a proppa fight. An’ fer a time, that was enough.’ ‘An’ den, they let me down,’ Gordrakk seemed almost to sigh. A lesser being might have mistaken the sound for wistfulness. Urgak knew it was frustration. It was always frustration. Smasha and Kunnin’ twitched as the Fist of Gork’s tapped his fingers on their grips. ‘They started buildin’ cities. They started throwin’ about magic. They hid gubbinz in places like this,’ he gestured around the inner sanctum. ‘That’s when I realised, Urgak. The storm lads – they’re just like all da uvvers. Just like every other git not worthy of fightin’ me.’ ‘Dere’s gotta be someone out there worthy of gettin’ krumped by you, boss.’ ‘The Hammer God.’ “ There’s some outliers like the merchant orruks and bodyguard spider clan of the Kharadron port Toba Lorchai or the Freeguild orruks in the Champions of Destruction Rpg supplement that see temporary service before moving on to other battles.

I guess you mean cheery nice. Because it seemed a lot of Stormcasts were nice like Vandus, Ionus Cryptborn and the Bull-hearts like Tarsus who befriended Mannfred and his forces as a whole who spared captured greenskins and parlayed with the vampires in Shyish. But I guess that’s more stoic niceness? Regardless, happy you were able to make Gardus into who he is and the more light-hearted nature gave us other great characters like Hamilcar and Knight-incantor Arnhault who are very charismatic. Eh, tidier than Order vs Destruction of the past(sorry Novakai). Even now with Blood bowl making teams based on that it causes a lot of players a skeptical look that greenskins & druchii would work together to represent the dark gods. Nevermind undead who are extremely anti-chaos by nature. I’ve seen way more praise by new comers to the Warhammer franchise that the Grand Alliances dividing Death & Destruction(Gorkamorka) up into it’s own thing is a lot more sensible and makes the faction alliances easier to understand.(Total War has helped with this by making Ogres talk and act just like Orks/Orruks) Edit: very concise-

I’d be amazed if they’re not Maggotkin to a degree. Even without noting they’re not in the Slaves to Darkness tome the first guy looks right out of Dark Soul’s Blight town with the rot swamp name & theme. I feel that’s the most consistent rule of Chaos. Gather them in one place and they’ll battle eachother before the other Grand Alliances like with the Orb Infernia sub-realm over Aqshy. Sure they could unite and take control of the planetoid to re-conquer the Realm below but instead they separated into four continents while Seraphon entrenched in the center to keep them seperate and divided.

Counter-point: the huge changes in history that took years to decades of evolution and trial and error to perfect. This is especially true when you’re on the mostly unexplored frontier of something new. 40k certainly wasn’t perfect from the get-go and had many inspirations to draw from at the time. I’ve no doubt given the same timeframe of development Age of Sigmar will be just as impressive in all it’s cosmic glory. Edit: on Grand Alliances I find “not a merry Waaagh” pretty much the point. Each is an ecosystem within themselves and be fully cohesive that allows each Alliance to grow in an opposing way rather than all go one direction. Chaos has Skaven and Brayherds that do their own thing away from the big 4. Death has Flesh Eater Courts & Soulblights that can be independent of Nagash’s control. Destruction has Gloomspite that follow the mad moon god away from Gorkamorka’s straight forward might/hunger and now Kruleboyz who are willing to deal with darker powers and be underhanded unlike many other orruks and Ogors who still lean towards their old Order alliance ways of hunting monsters and destroying corruption that threatens Gorkamorka.(thus why the Ogroids were kicked out of Destruction for giving into Chaos) and Order has it all in abundance as they’re not forces made an organization but disparate survivors banding together that can spearhead into any direction it wants to go be it possible-chaos-mercenary Fyreslayers or lawful evil Khainites. I theorize Dawners will make the Order races closer coalitions(for that Deepkin navy thing) but they’re there to show maximum “alliance of empire builders convenience” that can be shaped anyway a player wants. From shining angel cities of soaring magi-tech skyscrapers to shadowy drug cartel towns with gladiator pits.

Stormcast and Starborne Seraphon players right there with you! I’d love them to do a moon colonizing campaign at some point with so much recent focus on the main moons of each Realm. Can’t let the Maggotkin(Ghyran’s rotten moons), NightHaunt and Malerion beat us in the space race. But also yeah on the theming bit, I feel like since Broken Realms they’re doing a scatter shot approach to get the “anything goes” theme AoS excels at. Want high and over-the-top epic fantasy? We got big god fights and space battles in magi-ships galore. Want heavy metal? Belakor, Morathi-Khaine swimming through a God’s guts and Slaanesh giving birth to hell twins. You want Bloodborne villager faire? Cursed City/Warhammer Quest and the slew of Witch Hunters while swamp orruks hunt settlers in wild frontiers. Want Science Fantasy? We got Kharadron fighting Chaos for an orbital laser, mad scientist vampires with Tesla zombies and moon daemons & living shadow stars that float after people. Want fantastical peoples focus? The resurrection of a ancient dragon peoples empire battling a god-beast that’s the last of his race and tree people spreading cosmic roots among multiple dimensions to heal the worlds and spread their soul seeds. AoS doesn’t have a strong central theme but I think a huge boon to it’s skyrocketing success is how it caters to a diverse number of tastes and ideas that fit seamlessly in it’s setting where everything can happen.

On the metal boots on aelven statue bit. Those look like the Stormcast design minus the rivets: Very form-fitting and you can see the lighter armored “Achilles Heel” at the back. I’m thinking this year’s next Knight-Questor model. If Hysh based then it could be a new take on the Knight-Azyros to go with all the Angel flying themes in the Realm of Light and why it’s on a high base. Lack of rivets could either be because of the higher station having better living armor to meld the parts together or a subtle showcase that time is passing and Grungni is improving the designs to their former smooth glory(instead of having to use rivets and braces because he rushed the Thunderstrike out in a few years compared to 500 years of preparation in the Age of Chaos) Something a bit like Soulbound’s take:

Noice! Best of luck with the novel. And yeah, I think AoS 3.0 and onward will more and more meet your expectations. Just going off your horror list the Krondspine resembles your hungry skeletal Ghur spirits and with UnderWorlds in Ulgu we got moon daemons that are stealing people’s shadows and replacing them with ethereal parasites that grow in Hysh’s eternal light which are very much in your ballpark of ideas: "There are all sorts of non-Chaos horrors in the Mortal Realms. Here are possibly a few: In Ghyran, it's possibly the Gardynals - predatory plants that resemble caves, houses, or even citadels, and devour those who seek shelter within them. They travel with the monsoons, and nestle in areas near the largest concentrations of prey, allowing as many as possible to enter before snapping shut their jaws and prowling away. In Hysh, it could be the Sun Dogs, which stalk and devour the shadows of the unwary. The effects of this are unpleasant, for nature abhors a vacuum and if one's shadow is missing, something may grow to replace it. In Ulgu, there are similar beasts, called Shirkers, which eat the light from their victims's eyes, and blind them. Their howls lead their prey deeper into the umbral maze of the Realm of Shadows, before the packs descend to nip at their victim's sight, until they are lost, alone and blind, in the shadow-lands. In Aqshy, it might be the Fire Clown - a jovial, unsettling wanderer who fills the unlucky with heated emotions of all sorts, leading to unfortunate, inevitable consequences, or else makes them spontaneously combust with mirth. In Ghur, there's the Hungry Wind, a maelstrom of cannibal spirits that strips the flesh from those caught outdoors when it blows through. These spirits are nnot of Shyish, or of Chaos...some whisper that they might be the manifestation of Ghur itself.” With Cubicle7 still needing to release their Age of Sigmar Horrors of the Realms supplement I hope we can see more idea parallels. 😍