[The Rumour Thread]

Indeed. Also for more evidence the Aqshy heraldry is a manticore & Gargoylian which heavily echoes Tahlia & the Command Corps-

 

and one of the pet mascots on the Fusiliers is an Dappled Efreet. A common vermin in Aqshy, walking fish evolved to escape the acidic seas.

 

On Realms, I can see them going 2 by 2 just so we don’t wait 7 editions for the full set.

Already noted Aqshy & Shyish which fits because Aqshy has a lot of ethereal threats, Death realmgates and even got hit by the first major undead menace of the Wraith Fleet.

so Ghur & Ghyran naturally, Azyr & Chamon for higher tier eccentric tech covered in orreries like the Hurricnum wizard wagon and then Ulgu & Hysh troops sharing moons, mysticism and surprisingly even blindfold warriors as there’s human Tyrion worshippers that are blind warrior monks while Ulgu’s Misthavn has sharpshooters that can fire accurately in pitch darkness but need eye-coverings anywhere with sunlight that will harm their eyes.

[The Rumour Thread]

49 minutes ago, Ejecutor said:

Why do current troops double for Aqshy and Shyish? Arent they from every realm?

Technically yes but aesthetics-wise they’re heavily implied to be Aqshy troops(thus why they’re shown off with Hammerhal Aqshy’s colors & leaders, plus little things like the value in the leaves on their equipment since greenery in Aqshy is rare) with some Warcom articles even calling them an Aqshy force.

With some obvious focuses on death like the skulls, ghost piper, talking mummy head and skull face-plates on both cavaliers & fusiliers.

(Honestly the Pontifex kinda sums it up in one model with Fire & death  )

Back in 2017 at warhammer World interviews they mentioned a focus they wanted for new humans was basing them on each Realm so I suspect releases down the line changing up that aesthetics a bit to represent other Realms and ideas.

Similar to Soulblight who right now have everything from medieval gothic, vampire samurai monks, Eurasian werewolves & skeleton warriors and now an high fantasy Egyptian leader on Ouroborus snake god. 
 

Cities of Sigmar is set-up to just as robust a mixing pot of Realms & culture flavors. 

[The Rumour Thread]

6 minutes ago, Ejecutor said:

CoS then? or SIlvaneth?

If they’re pushing away Kurnothi guesses then likely Freeguild of the two.

Could be how we get “greatswords” & monster cavalry back with the Ghyra side having monster mounts(giant beetle cavalry?) and wildkin with beast strength smashing enemies with massive clubs.(could double as a Ghur force just like the current troops double for both Aqshy & Shyish)

[The Rumour Thread]

46 minutes ago, EntMan said:

It's definitely from a Kin of the Stag warband.

Who in my mind at least could have a similar vibe to Darkoath. Why should Chaos get all the (re)wild(ed) humans?

I’ve been thinking with that little story note we could see blessed/mutated human Ghyranites that Order-mirror Belakor’s warband since that’s fallen Freeguild anyway.

[The Rumour Thread]

4 minutes ago, CommissarRotke said:

? warcom explicitly says "could be a Kurnothi"

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2024/02/27/the-rumour-engine-27th-february-2024/

Haha, read below the image.  

“Let’s be honest though, it’s none of those.”

I’m going with the Darkoath guesses on this one. Especially if they’re intended tribes to harass both the Ghyran & Aqshy crusades then stuff from both realms that give them a fiery plains Raider look while also foresty tribal stuff would be key.

Though I wonder if it could further afield to new Freeguild units from Hammerhal Ghyra? Certain “wildkin” and a commander we know could be decorating their own horns.

[The Rumour Thread]

3 minutes ago, CommissarRotke said:

combined forces of elves, dwarves and men will always hit better than elves and dwarves hating each other... truly a spectacle to see dwarven blacksmithing and gunpowder alongside elvish blacksmithing and magic

I ran out of reacts so quoting to say hear hear! 🍻 

Hopefully by the end of the Cities of Sigmar getting a full revamp down the editions we’ll have stalwart human soldiers raising shields alongside enchanted aelven spears & mighty duardin siege hammers pounding down the gates of chaos so the city-Ogors can tear into them(plus whatever race or even buffed up Gargoylians GW wants to add to their roster).

[The Rumour Thread]

3 minutes ago, Grungnisson said:

But then they'd also have to rename the Bugman's Bar at Warhammer World.

Jakkob Bugmansson XI’s time has come! 🍻 ✈️ 

[The Rumour Thread]

Just now, BarakUrbaz said:

That's just a recolored art of the Dragon Slayer from the Warhammer Fantasy Dwarfs army book. 

Oh, then I’ll stick by the Death pack nod at least. 😅

[The Rumour Thread]

10 minutes ago, The Lost Sigmarite said:

I remember this lazy attempt at Grombrindal in AoS... thank God the game has moved away from recycling WFB minis as characters like that.

Tbf, it wasn’t lazy but just short notice. At the time the WD had become a sales pamphlet and only saw reforms after Rountree pushed for specialist games and a revived White Dwarf again.

Unfortunately that anniversary & celebration for the revivals was only 6 months away so they had to use a model on hand.

For what it’s worth his artwork looks good, especially on the AoS Champions card.(which nice touch it was part of the Death faction packs, nod to him being a spirit.)

 

And worked narratively as he became a slayer for failing the World-that-Was but has changed back as, unlike Gotrek fully, has come to accept the Mortal Realms as a reforged spirit of the duardin people.

I think this meme hits his tone properly, especially for the AoS mindset:

[The Rumour Thread]

5 minutes ago, Twisted Firaun said:

Does anyone know what kind of daemon that icon is supposed to represent? It looks slaaneshi to me but I could be wrong.

Since that’s the Realm of Metal that Tzeentch covets it could be a Tzaangor birdmen as seen from above. 🐦 😄

 

[The Rumour Thread]

20 minutes ago, Danaork said:

where did this come ?

Hammerhal Herald back when they archived all the posters. Luckily they still do on the official AoS Facebook even though the Warhammer Community took that section down years ago.

Would be fun to see Elixia again, especially with the newest NightHaunt sub-faction hailing from there.

[The Rumour Thread]

Personally just happy to see anything from the Gallet book pop back up so will be grabbing up these magazines, the pictures totally made me flashback to the Thondia book which had the same way of sketching & marking the flora and fauna.

I’ll take a White Dwarf safari over nothing at all easily.  
 

Hopefully next edition the manufacturer side of things will be more stable so they can pump out the narrative Realms books again.🤞 

C’mon travelers tome to lost Elixia and the wilds of Chamon!

 

 

 

[The Rumour Thread]

Yeah, like Ol’ Firesnout that defended Anvilgard from Morathi’s assualt was the size of a moving city that dominated the landscape with it’s massive scale and had building-sized cannons.

Also go over to the Malign Portent archive and read “The Offer” for that fallen Cogfort which was big enough to both channel the city’s sorcerous barrier over itself and held 80 horses within it’s interior for the scouts to ride out.

“My Lord, forgive a doomed man his presumption, but what I say here cannot wait for slow passage through the ranks. This is the last operational report of the cogfort Light of Hope.

Our cogfort was proudest amongst all the mobile bastions of Hammerhal Aqsha. On her piston-driven legs, she carried us ever eastwards from the city walls, and the light of civilisation dawned anew in her wake. Chaos warbands broke like waves upon her ironclad flanks. The scourging processions followed her, while the sorcerous shield that protects our great city crackled ever from her highest vanes, linking her with the other cogforts that form the Outer Web. It was a proud duty, and one we did well.

I am rambling. No time for that.

Forgive me.

It is hard to

We skirted the arterials of the Heartblood Sea. I think it was a week ago. It may have been longer. Our orders were to press ahead, and to secure the Realmgates known as the Gates Below, which lead to Shyish. We were to watch over their approaches, prevent anything untoward slinking through them while the duardin pushed up with stock and stone to build permanent fortifications.

We settled a mile from the gates, fired anchoring harpoons and settled our telescopes on the Realmgates.

We had been pushing the fort hard, and the engineers were glad of the rest. None for the soldiery though; we dropped drawbridge and the scouts rode out, eighty men and steeds vanishing across the dusty steppes towards those distant glowing arches“

So the biggest range from walking castles to walking cities both of which can be easy for an interior battle over a newly commissioned one that’s under threat of sabotage while other warband members try to turn about the smaller artillery defenses, barrier generator and even steering section to cause the blazing winds to push fighters around.

[The Rumour Thread]

7 hours ago, KingBrodd said:

 

 

Id love a Mordheim style setting. I was really hoping that Cursed City would eventually become it with varying Warbands.

Really hope we get one set in Ulgu, seems the perfect place for a gloomy frontier town.

Hammerhal’s Cinderfall districts would work too. Once prosperous city blocks and merchant quarters turned to slums because Hammerhal keeps expanding outward so rapidly leaving the inner city areas to be cut off and impoverished would work really well for a Necromunda x Mordheim mix in the Mortal Realms.

You got everything from desperate fallen merchant warbands, Butchers that fell to Khorne worship with his pig king aspect and human Malerion cults, adventure guilds, Reclaimed looking for guard work and Ironweld engineers duking it out for control of the streets while Hammerhal itself is such a cosmopolitan city of a multitude of races from Khainites to Seraphon that there’s warband expansion there as well.

 

(and later they can easily expand the game into Hammerhal Ghyra, a Cogfort’s interiors, the Stormkeep, the underground glass-maker city beneath Aqsha, etc)

Also AoS can have a Mordheim “Wyrdstone” 2.0 with Aqua Ghyranis instead.

Fighting over valuable magic healing water that also acts as currency means your fights are more lucrative the better skilled you are at keeping your troops from getting unnecessarily injured and using up your Ghyranis reserves to heal/revive them which makes you poorer.

…or you can be ruthless and just have a War Surgeon hack the injured parts off and keep the healing water at the trade for a hobbled warband.(unless your an Ironweld or Duardin warband who knows their way around some combat-ready prosthetics)

[The Rumour Thread]

Yeah, her human form looks to be an illusion. However she does have holy power too as

Spoiler for the King Trugg fight in Reign of the Brute

-

she summons a giant wheel of light that invigorates the human fighters with it’s spoke beams while incinerating the grots it touches while when Trugg touched it he was sent flying into a mountain side and made a comical hole through it.

-

 

So she’s either a powerful Hyshian Lich mixing light and undeath or she is legit blessed by Sigmar and his wheel aspect(which Tbf can be pointed out with that conversation I quoted he had with Alarielle with the cycle of life) as we have seen him embrace necromantic powers before such as the Lord-Relictors who were former necromancers or Shyish princes that turned from Nagash and were reforged for their knowledge in soul control to protect the Stormcast souls returning to Azyr.(among other powerful death magics they unleash in the lore like bringing leviathan skeletons to life to topple fortresses)

[The Rumour Thread]

39 minutes ago, Ejecutor said:

Wow. I didn't see it. It is cool, but on the other hand, it feels so weird to have a collector ed from a DLC...

Tbf, it’s close to being a mini-sequel with how big it’s gonna be.

That said it IS a bit price gouging. Like I was gonna say “well if it’s reasonably priced” but that sucker costs $250!

In comparison I pre-ordered the Unicorn Overlord collector set and that was only $135 for twice the content and a 132 page artbook vs ER’s 40 page book.

 

Like I’m sure the statue is impressive but not $250 impressive unless GW announces you can officially use it as a Mega-Gargant or 40k Titan in tournaments. 😅

[The Rumour Thread]

3 minutes ago, Twisted Firaun said:

Hey @Baron Klatz, if you don’t build him can I do so instead? 

Haha, 100% go for it. My Death army is Ossiarchs anyway so that’s too big a rush for me right now.

Just noticed how much he looks like a Soulblight hero and wanted to give a shout to conversion hobbyists.  

[The Rumour Thread]

You guys see the new Elden Ring trailer & collector set this morning?

The new big bad looks super easy to make a replica of with the newest Soulblight Gravelord kits. (With the new Mortarch mish-mash RoR’s so you can combine in Awlrach & Ushoran you could get a great “Realms Between” Death army going)

[The Rumour Thread]

18 minutes ago, CommissarRotke said:

Where is this conversation from o.o

Short story “Pantheon” by Guy Haley which takes place after Alarielle is rescued from Nurgle’s forces and meets up with Sigmar again after centuries of being apart on the celestial mountain top of Highheim.

https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Pantheon_(short_story)

https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Mount_Celestian

[The Rumour Thread]

36 minutes ago, Ejecutor said:

What about Sigmar going mad and making all the non-stormcast inhabitants from Azyr leave? Feels weird we don't have Azyr as a CoS playable city, so I played around with this idea. Something happens (either the crack or something else) that ends up putting Sigmar on the point of leaving Azyr for the Stormcast.

I’d vastly prefer the Azyr cities being introduced becuase a crack in Azyr’s defenses happened and they’re venturing out to secure a bulkhead outside of it in the same vein the Ossiarchs built a massive fortress in front of the Shyish Realmgate to Eight-Points.(they can expand out from there as a need for defense resources for the “mother realm” and  conscriptions if you want really aggressive expansion reasons for being in other realms)

Sigmar just kicking out billions of innocents into the untamed frontier to get slaughtered would both be comically grimderp(and there are billions thanks to all the Realms refugees there multiplying after centuries of safety. Some of Azyr’s mountains are just stacked up houses on top of eachother there’s so many) and character assassination for the God-King. 
 

I know you said go mad but I really prefer the heroic leader he is now with the weight of godhood and protecting the mortals of the Realms on his shoulders trying to make things better for everyone.

 

“‘You are immortal,’ said Alarielle. ‘They will find your sympathy false.’

‘I did not seek to be so,’ said Sigmar. ‘I would have happily lived and died a mortal king. Some higher power had other plans for me.’ He looked at her earnestly. ‘Many chose Chaos because they had no other choice. They can be redeemed, even those whose hearts may seem black. But there are always those that seek to cheat death, and the lords of Chaos offer a way to do so, and are cunning enough to allow a few to ascend to become their immortal slaves. That is how they gained access to the realms in the first place. We became too distant from our charges, and they grew afraid. Chaos offered them immortality, of a sort. They did not know it was a trap.’

‘Then what do you want of me?’ said Alarielle.

‘You have held yourself aloof for many ages, my lady,’ he said. ‘It would aid us all in defeating the four powers for good if you went again among the mortals. Teach them your wisdom. You of all the gods understand the ebb and flow of mortality best, and that death is but a turning of the way.’

‘I do not know what becomes of the souls of men,’ she said. ‘Does even Nagash? You ask me to lie to them.’

‘Not at all,’ he said. ‘I wish you to invest in them a love of all that is natural and alive, to appreciate its power and fecundity. If they learn to follow the rhythm of life’s wondrous patterns, fewer of them will be tempted to fear its end. There always will be those who are incapable of fellow feeling, or whose greed outmatches their empathy,’ he said. ‘Many others can be saved by you.’

‘I cannot do this,’ she said. ‘What is the point? Chaos rules already.’

‘Cannot, or will not?’ said Sigmar. ‘You were worshipped all throughout Ghyran and beyond once, my lady. You can be again. You have become warlike to respond to a time of war, but you must reach inside yourself, and find that gentler creature you once were. We need to look beyond the end of this war, and prepare for peace. If we do not, then there will be another golden age, but soon enough Chaos will return and shatter the realms anew.’ “

[The Rumour Thread]

21 minutes ago, Gitzdee said:

I would love to learn more about Chamon, seems like a nice contrast to the Ghur/beast theme we had going on this edition. I think we will be seeing an Ulgu/ Hysh combo with a Malerion/ Tyrion. I think it might be the next "dawnbringers" story leading up to 5th edition. Just dont think its likely to get new Skaven, chorfs and malerion in the same edition. 

Agreed on all fronts there.

The Realm of Metal has so many interesting new locales to explore from seas of Liquid metal and golden roads paved by the Lantic empire to it’s sub-realms of floating “planet continents” and I always love seeing more of the Ironbark glades there and their close kinship to the duardin clans they saved during the Age of Chaos.

 

“Treelord Grundylach and Warden King Aedagrim are the joint  rulers  of  Karaznethil.  They  are  as  close  as  brothers,  and while stern when alone, they share inside jokes in each other’s  company,  grinning  beneath  their  beards.  Many  such  Sylvaneth-Duardin  pairings  exist  in  Karaznethil,  from  ‘Mossbeards’  who  grumble  away  the  days  together  to  Duardin  lineages  who  pledge  themselves  to  a  single  Noble  Spirit,  each  new  generation  befriending  each  new  reincarnation. 

Refuges of the Realms, Pg. 4 “

 

And yeah I doubt we’ll see Malerion soon. I imagine the Croneseer cult and River Lumineth are gonna be our Malerion & Tyrion stand-ins for 4th until they can add hype for 5th.

20 minutes ago, mawhis117 said:

There's another, longer story about Mannfred trying to steal Arkhan's stuff while he's dead temporarily by breaking into an old tomb only to have a flood of iundead rats come flooding out, with green light emanating from deeper in.

Yep. On Reddit people were showing off a blurb about it too.

Will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Maybe they want to move sub-factions even more towards Realm-specific to keep expanding on later?(like they’ve done with others such as Seraphon salamanders and handlers heavily tied to Aqshy, Snarlfangs opening up Grot influence in Ghur & Hysh and Stormcast getting new dragon friends from Ghur to tie their importance there instead of it being all Azyr for examples)

A Clans of ghost/ethereal rats would do for Shyish Skaven and the daemonic parts of Aqshy & Eight-Points.

Which if so, let’s go Fyreslayer Lodge Tangrim! Open up duardin flavors in Azyr with some duardin lightning samurai! 👏 ⚡️ 

 

[The Rumour Thread]

25 minutes ago, Gitzdee said:

Also seems to follow the Aqshy rumour. Solid guess.

Edit: funny thing is that SCE seem like they cant return.

Yeah, we went from rolling between Ulgu or Chamon next to Chamon or Aqshy. 😅

Still hope for Chamon though as the main realm focus with Aqshy as the big second.

And on Ruination chamber I meant return from the statues they’ve been locked in up in Azyr. They keep the souls too broken to be reforged properly up there so that works as “Returned” with them finally coming back to the battlefield for one final service.

Reforging is too baked into the identity of the faction and lore of the setting(especially Azyr which has multiple resurrection themes). That’d be like taking Runes away from Dawi. Some break but the majority stay strong with it.

15 minutes ago, CommissarRotke said:

if SCE can't return at all, half the Realms should be reclaimed from Chaos already

Indeed. Their immortality and ability to respawn back into the fight is one of the main things keeping the Realms from being overrun from all the other immortal forces out there attacking every corner of the Arcane Cosmos.

That’s not going anywhere. Ruination chamber may just show the final form of what abusing that privilege without a strong enough soul can cause(or those too tormented like the ones freed from the NightHaunt but unstable from the tortures)

If they’re anything like the Thunderous Ones from the Excelsior lore then I could see the more violent chambers viewing immortality as a cocoon of sorts until they reach the final stage after near a thousand years where they’re lightning encased in armor and exchange it and their humanity for barely restrained god powers turning opponents to ash just by looking at them. ⚡️ 

[The Rumour Thread]

3 hours ago, mawhis117 said:

I was intrigued by this short paragraph at the end of Dawnbringers 4 entitled "The Embergard Visitation"

  Hide contents

Even as the Dawners purged the last undead from Embergard's surface, passages were discovered leading into the mountains of Ashenmount. Within these catacombs were discovered two prizes: glowing veins of emberstone and the signs of a buried city of death. Yet rather than some new attack by the undead, all that met the crusaders was silence - though those who first began mining operations still murmured of phantasmal shapes scurrying though the blackness

 

Oh dang! Maybe we will see Clans Shrykt in AoS4 afterall as the new “Kruleboyz”?

AoS4 Era of the Returned. Skryre backed by phantasm Clans lost in immaterium between Realms vs Thunderstrike backed by the locked away hollowed lightning souls of the Ruination chamber?

(and the return theme running with Death being the hero and re-emerging races like the Gholemkind & Drogrukh)

[The Rumour Thread]

1 hour ago, CommissarRotke said:

alright that's even dwarfier 😅

A nice thing is, disregarding the Thryng who are hard-nosed conservatives, it being in the Code as guidelines and a clause does keep grudges from being as societally halting as they were since Kharadron(Mhornar & Drekki especially) can find loopholes to get rid of them, slip around them or more importantly put them on hold until much later when they can reasonably handle them(in comparison to old Grudges which could easily get a dawi killed because they obsessed over them as a major ruling)

A fun example is “The Book” has a changed meaning for them as something to chart new courses and better lucrative futures(in comparison as something to put past wrongs in and fume over)

@Vasshpit

I got caught up in the excitement yesterday so forgot to give more info on Grindworms. They had some extra info here and there through 2015-2017 and how Ghurian places around the Bone Sea dealt with them but we got our best look at them after the Nagash parley went wrong and the Stormcast pursued Mannfred into the Bone Sea.

 

There’s an interesting part where they’re such a threat that the massive paddleboats the Ironjawz use to traverse the Bone Sea desert have amplifiers to scare them away.

And now going by the new Andtor stuff there seems to be an ice variant in those lands. 
 

Dawner settlers reporting of entire settlements flash frozen mysteriously overnight. Later to be found the cause were giant ice worms who when they burst up from the ground they unknowingly unleash all the trapped Everwinter ice magic beneath the soil which geysers out and freezes everything around and they prey on the hapless frozen people around.

Would be a good unit for either Gitmob or Kruleboyz as powerful beasts they wrangle and then given a sub-species trait to go from sand Grindworm to ice worm.

[Warhammer - The Old World]

41 minutes ago, LordSolarMach said:

The real reason is likely GW not wanting for TWW to step on the toes of AoS: Realms of Ruin. 

With Space Marine 2’s “secret villain” revealed to be Tzeentch it’s likely Tzaangors will show up there too giving even more reason to specialize their IP license.