Baron Klatz

Oh neat. From the Cubicle 7 facebook they announced E.N World took surveys of the most anticipated rpg's of 2020 and Age of Sigmar: SoulBound made 5th place out of 10! https://www.enworld.org/threads/here-are-2020s-most-anticipated-tabletop-rpgs.669761/

Well a realm of magic metals, made up of thousands of floating continents, trees /animals that are metal hybrids and usually exotic natives like Chamon desert dwellers in light-metal garbs, oriental mountain-folk making metallic tapestries from crushed jade and silver thread or the native tribes seen in "Red Hour" who have actual-gold tattoos because precious minerals are everywhere to where even the Lantic Empire made solid gold roads to all it's fortresses there. If you don't like fantastical or over-the-top then the realm of metal isn't for you. But hey, that leaves 7 other realms for you so you'll likely find something better to your tastes elsewhere.

Yeah, I feel it's an exotic choice. Chamon's all about the surreal. Like right next to his picture in the white dwarf version it goes to talk about how that realm is much more fluid than the others in it's make-up and eldritch to where looking at the constantly forming edges can lead one to madness. With how they go in about the strange alchemical properties of Chamon and it's metals I wouldn't be surprised if his metal clothes bend easily but harden on impacts as well making that more comfortable than it appears. That's a neat thing about Chamon, you'd think "metal" means solid and rigid like how most genres portray an earth element but instead they went for more a water element with the realm always shifting and changing emphasizing it's alchemy side.(and why Tzeentch desires it)

Oh definitely, they lost their forge kingdoms after the Realmgate wars and Order took back most of Aqshy's heartlands but the Furnace kings coming back for another big chaos offensive and rebuilding their dreadholds and chaos forges would make a great faction release (plus more scenery and siege terrain ). Haha, honestly wouldn't be surprised. Even the meat in Chamon has metal pits in it that people have to spit out. The art is from the AoS corebook(plus last years white dwarfs for each realm overview). Every realm section describing them in the book starts with a human from that realm. Basically take that realm's concept, turn it into clothes and accesories cranked up to twelve and you got them. Huge reason why I'm looking forward to an actual human release. These designs are wild and would be fantastic immersion for playing in the Mortal Realms.

Oh man, if they actually give us a Realm of Metal "Empire" to go along with the story of how Order's making significant footholds there instead of a Greywater Fastness Freeguild i'd lose my mind. It would account for the steampunk elements hinted but with the corebook there's Warcry mixable races they can put in like Cogmen and Gholemkin from the corebook, all kinds of mechanized creatures as well as the giant lizard mounts used by crossbowmen from "Red Hour" that have steel gums to eat metal, they can revamp the duardin and aelven units into using more tech and bigger armor and we could finally see one of the new realm humans they've been showing off in the corebook and white dwarfs become models which i'd love to see the designs expanded on. I won't be able to throw my wallet at them fast enough.

Oh 100% same. I hope it leads up to some choice Warcry art in the future. I absolutely loved their Shadespire one. Oh fingers crossed. There's so much potential there and from what they can pull out of the Greywater lore. Imagine a mini-Cogfort centerpiece! I am VERY interested in that too if it's the case. I bet it's our good friend Bottles who was behind Hinterlands AoS skirmishs before he got hired by GW post-2016 and now works on Warcry. A true AoS MVP.

Will do! Seeing as you had problems with recruits twice now I bet that'll be my luck.

There's a point. Dracothion is worshipped by the Seraphon and is a primordial God-beast thus making it an "Old One" in this case. (and they did retcon the pox brothers to be from the Mortal Realms instead of Norsca so a similar one to make Old Ones God-beasts "all along" that seed worlds isn't beyond possibility especially if they keep pushing that Dracothion was Sotek) However I think they do mean Whitewolf's version. Or maybe they'll leave it completely vague while semi-combining the two versions so we can keep butting our heads and bringing up interest for them because Whitewolf was right that Old Ones are actually GW.

Then it's likely they won't be. Understandable though, not having the divine blessings in their blood or aether-tight sealed armor of the other Order factions it would be asking soldiers to charge into an overwhelming chaos world where the air would mutate them. Looks like proxy work then. Kharadron = Ironweld Vanguard = Anvilgard Fyreslayers = Phoenicium (ironically enough)

If CoS do get cards (lorewise I could understand not just because the Varanspire is a suicide mission for them) i'd wonder at the lore and force for it? I see 2 possible forces: Anvilgard: It's dour soldiers, pirates and raiders emboldened by the possibility of joining the dead-to-life ranks of the Anvil Stormhost, they're a scouting force in support of the Vanguard with demigryphs, spearmen and privateer corsairs that goes behind enemy lines to see Archaon's movements with the possibility of catching mighty beasts from the Spire to bring home and profit/train for defense. Greywater: The formidable war-machines of the Ironweld called to action and the Stonebreaker Battalion freeguild assembled of skilled duardin experienced in destroying chaos bulwarks, they make a powerful assault to try and disrupt the realmgates the All-gates war was unable too. Suicide mission? Perhaps but the Architect genius of Greywater waved away all doubt with the correct paperwork even if it could weaken Order's defenses abroad... Oh please yes!

It's to each their own. Writers go back and forth on these things but even if follow none of them it's still clear they're making a good balance between the cosmic and grounded elements of the setting Just like Ogors got their regular stuff along with Thunderbellies living up in lightning-torn floating continents they ride down on foes from while flinging around alchemy magic they mastered. So we probably will get some cold bloods as per the "evolving memories" plotline they established in the beginning but as it is with AoS they'll leave a realm's worth of elbow room for all narratives, blood or daemon. Edit: To put us back on track I'm looking forward to the terrain. Nice representation of the fallen Order empires the Eight-points once was and claimed by chaos and wilderness. "Of course, all of these warbands will need somewhere to fight! The Ravaged Lands: Souldrain Forest takes your battles into the woodlands around the Varanspire, providing you with new challenges and thematic terrain."

Haha, that is the interesting part of it. Where they fit between the original god-beasts who were the primordial rulers of the Mortal Realms that kept the numerous mortal races in their place and then Sigmar and his pantheon's coming. With how powerful the God-beasts were (Sigmar having to do hit-and-run tactics on a few even) it's possible they were chased out before Sigmar arrived. That leaves some room for their failed attempts to make civilization which angered the God-beasts.

No no, I fully meant the Old Ones from the World-that-was. Universe hoping space scientists still don't compare to actual gods. However your Tome of Champions evidence does support they'll get mentions again at least in the new Seraphon tome while still balancing out their place as star daemons as by the charged by the heavens fluff. It'll be an interesting lore expansion Indeed. Makes me wonder if that's why they could speak in a fast release so some new Seraphon models can go with it? Probably wishful thinking though. Good to see Ossiarchs coming so soon. The campaign book would be odd without them.

Oh yeah, it was just narrative lore building. I'm not too convinced on the Old Ones yet. 5 years and only one mention doesn't really give them the impact they once had as the Gods so easily trump them and are they main forces that shape th realms, like at best it could be the pantheon that had them make a few gates before they and the mortal races did it themselves. We'll see though. As for the dying Slann story it's already told in the Seraphon battletome that the memories evolve. A second-in-command Starpriest would have centuries to solidify and take over. Edit: Oh haha, I mistook what you meant. You meant the spawning process wasn't them being remembered in. That needs some official explaining but I took it just that they were developing just like they replicated the star temples into armadas compared to when they took off from the World-that-was. Having an entire realm of life magic likely sped up that progress for pool research. Anyway, the Spire Tyrants are looking cool. Love the race diversity. I hope Freeguild gets that one day.

Yeah, they explained that back in 2017 with the city builder that since they are evolving memories(mention from their battletome) some Seraphon can "go native" which is how they can be in players cities. https://www.reddit.com/r/ageofsigmar/comments/8qn0qa/i_dont_think_the_seraphon_spawning_pools_are_a/ So while the old ones might be a throw-away line for narrative they'll still build on this to allow more sub-factions and justify their presence with a party in the AoS rpg along with the main core of their lore still being "star daemons" in constellation armadas as that let's them be anywhere in the lore and a active force in the story.

Indeed. It helps open up the narrative. A Realmgate in your background can be anything from a gift from your diety to prosper your land with trade, an ancient relic of a lost race your people built around for safety, a construct made of magic rifts/hidden aelven ways/gnaw-holes that was forgotten after a war and can even be a local event of your city paying highly skilled duardin clans or the eldritch council to create one to open up travel for their expanding economy. Lots of possibilities.

Indeed a tiny one and certainly a reason we need more. In the descriptions of smaller God-beasts ranging from gigantic dragons to mystical elk-like creatures in Ghyran it gives a lot of room for more models of them (and hopefully a Destruction faction one day). Ah, thank you for the quote. So there is a recent precedent even though there's other sources that show Realmgates are products of gods, wizards and duardin as well. (The rifts between realms sometimes occur naturally so sometimes it's just a case of making a concrete structure out of them) The "Realmgates of all kinds" bit gives them elbow room to add Old Ones to the list. That is a nice Seraphon shout-out though to how effective Slann were at manipulating them during the Age of Chaos. With what would take a cadre of mages to do a single Slann was enough to reroute a gate into a "death-gate" to slaughter unwary chaos forces using it.

Perhaps a pity if it is that soon. Could get the StD treatment but I worry a launch that soon will mean a basic update like last year's. They at least need a few new kits. I'd prefer it after Hysh aelves, the wait will be worth it if they have time for a huge release. Oh definitely different. the World-that-was Old Ones had Star vessels(mentioned in the 7th edition BRB on how greenskins spores clung to them and got to the world) and were basically scientists with creating gateways and the few mortal races there. The God-beasts are on a whole different level between being primordial gods and their very presence shifting multiple continents like the lode gryphon of Chamon or the former Shyish god-beast that made multiple death sub-realms. Heck, the current powers that be have Alarielle creating thousands of new races at once or mortals making chrono cannons that can reverse a whole world's/sub-realm's timeline on top of how far Seraphon have come with their own constellation star armadas. Frankly the Old Ones are old news.

Yeah, It's probably something the Slann left at the beginning. They conceivably got to the Mortal Realms first before the gods traveling through the chaos realm did and finally Sigmar. The Age of Myth speaks of many unbelievable wonders created by gods, god-beasts and magical empires but the Old Ones aren't even mentioned in the Seraphon tome as far as I know. All the wonders were made by he current powers. The greatest realmgate, the SilverWay that can realign to any realm, was a Duardin creation in Chamon for instance. https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Silverway It's been centuries since those times and Sigmar's been putting things in vaults so I wouldn't be surprised if it was something a Slann overlooked (back when the Order civilizations were building early empires there) when the All-gates was captured and need their artifact recovered before Archaon notices it.

I probably should when I get more spare time. I know every bit of info helps.

They're both full on gods. " Age of Myth Tyrion and Teclis awoke from a long enchanted slumber in the realm of Hysh. The two brothers understood without knowing how that Hysh was theirs to shape as well as to protect and serve. Tyrion and Teclis searched the realm for their people, the aelves, but found no sign of them. In time the two encountered Sigmar and learned that aelves were unknown in the realms outside the city of Azyrheim. The two aelven deities agreed to join Sigmar's pantheon." They both have multiple accounts of followers (usually human & aelf) and have been talked about in the pantheon. You overthought it but points for effort. Every realm has it's own celestial bodies created from the expanding realm edges so you'll find just as many suns and moons in Aqshy as you would in Ghur (though acting differently like Aqshy moons that get close to the surface and pull things into the atmosphere and Ghur suns that run randomly through the skies like animals). Teclis' moon imagery is in reference to his former goddess Lileath and will likely be an aspect of his worship with Hysh's moons. We'll have to see where that goes and what sub-factions come out of it.

He looks great! Very fitting for a god of light. I'm finding it funny to see some older fan salt that he should be crippled weak wizard and not a light samurai but too bad, Gods don't roll like that. I'm betting he has an alt form like the other alven gods Morathi and the Deepkin manifestation. He's been described before as a being of light energy without a body so it wouldn't surprise me if that's him when he goes giant. Looking forward to the new light aelves, this bodes well for enough stylistic changes to make them their own thing like the Hysh version of Fyreslayers. Plus can't wait to see what flaws they have that Teclis is trying to hide.

This is true but the gods can be very discreet in how they communicate with their people. It doesn't have to be an actual conversation but just the act of worship brings a connection between realms that connect the followers with their God. (To such an extent that Stormcasts refused to interrupt a little girl's prayers to Nagash because it could open a rift). It's between that, how the gods can warp their people and just how they can personally view and see through them that can cause a more cosmic King Fisher effect that I mentioned. There's a good conversation in the comments here on how even a "dead God" of the duardin can be effected by his worshippers and vice-versa with even Nagash being susceptible. To each their own. At least it can happen outside order like a Grot translating order tongue for a Ironjawz warboss or a Tzeentch beastmen acting as a mediator for the dark tongue.

In the mortal realms the Gods can speak to their people everyday though. That the setting has the Gods literally walking amongst their people and keeping the civilizations together is where the "real world linguistics" falls apart as a problem. Slight shifts do happen though as I said, the realms affect their natives to have accents in different manners while the ancient dead and Anvils of Heldenhammer do speakin more archaic forms. Edit: An important thing in warhammer religion is that what you worship both changes the god and changes you. Just by worshipping Sigmar multiple civilizations will find their people shaped by his power, just as Nagash shapes his people and Chaos extremely changes theirs.

They're not colonial, Stormcasts are natives going back to their lands to liberate them. They are those builders, cooks, messengers from distant lands that thanks to the order pantheon are able to come together and only find differing accents in all their languages like Azyrite is more musical sounding while Aqshy is gruff and quick. Eevika said it best that it's how the gods brought every individual together. Basically Sigmar perfected the tower of Babel before chaos broke it. Fine though if it annoys you but it's just not a problem the realms have as it's not civilization dependent but God dependent. Everyone literally speaks the language of the Gods. Edit: Another thing to consider is how King Fisher the gods are upon their people and realms. They can see through the eyes of all their followers, speak with them and even affect them in strange ways. Regulating all speeches for a more connected Order would not be out of the realms of possibility.