History TabletopGame / WarhammerTheEndTimes

* AnyoneCanDie: Hoo, boy. In the first book several factions must mourn one or two Special characters, even venerable names like [[spoiler: Heinrich Kemmler, Volkmar the grim, Morgiana Le Fay, Eltharion and more]] have been killed off, and the list is increasing; in fact, three out of the aforementioned four were killed by ''one character alone''. Probably no faction will be untouched by this trope when the dust settles.
** As of Book 4, you can add [[spoiler:Queek Headtaker, Belegar Ironhammer, Thorgrim Grudgebearer and basically all of the Lizardmen]]
** As of Book 5, [[spoiler: basically everyone.]]
* {{Artifact of Doom}}: Where do we even begin? From all the artifacts needed for the ritual of the return of Nagash (all of which were made by him and belonged to him once; one is actually his severed hand), to the [[InfinityMinusOneSword Fellblade]] that once killed him.

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Abhorash]] and [[FounderOfTheKingdom Gilles le Breton]] team up to fight the forces of Chaos one last time. We don't get to see it, but it was, presumably, one hell of a cavalry charge.

* BroadStrokes[=/=]DependingOnTheWriter: While the major events are the same between the game books and the novels, the details are often quite different. Part of this is that the novels treat earlier Black Library novels as canon and the rulebooks do not, resulting in oddities like major characters having different backstories and personalities or just flat-out not existing.

* {{Cutscene Power to The Max}}: The Skaven are able to defeat almost everyone else. Offscreen. To be entirely fair, it was always implied the only thing holding the Skaven back was their ChronicBackstabbingDisorder.

* {{Ubermensch}}: There's a few contenders for this;
** Malekith: He was directly responsible for the three elf factions in the game. The elves who chose to serve him during the civil war became the Dark Elves, while the elves who lived in the colonies he founded on what is now Bretonnia went on to become Wood Elves. The Wood Elves were then instrumental in the founding of Bretonnia. Malekith also indirectly caused the War of the Beard and agents working for him ended up prisoners in Nehekhara where they gave Nagash the knowledge he used to create necromancy which led to a lot more suffering.

* {{Cutscene Power to The Max}}: During the finale of the Warhammer Fantasy world, the Skaven, [[CreatorsPet in defiance of all reason]], get fanboyed to the max. They [[spoiler: destroy the Lizardman Empire. And the Dwarf Empire. And Brettonia. And Morsleib. And Tilea. And Nuln. And Estalia. They also blow up Nagash's Black Pyramid.]] Basically, the whole series should be reduced to one book called "The Skaven Are Just the Awesomest and Can Beat Everybody All at the Same Time." This gets reversed in the last entry; the surviving named Skaven characters inexplicably vanish from the narrative, and the Skaven are suddenly reduced to ineffectual cannon fodder for the main Chaos force (other than Skaven sappers taking out the Black Pyramid, but even then the army is mostly Nurgle daemons).

* TeasingCreator: Josh Reynolds tosses a lot of references and payoffs to his previous books into Lord of the End Times... including a few to the Abhorash novel rounding out the ''Blood of Nagash'' series that GW pulled the plug on, which he refuses to explain.

* KilledOffScreen: A lot of characters in The Curse of Khaine die off-screen in the third act. Especially jarring is [[spoiler:Morathi, given how important her character was in Malkeith's backstory]].

* {{Main/Avatar}}: The End Times introduces the concept of the "Incarnates", eight individuals who are the "Incarnates of the eight Winds of Magic". The "Winds Incarnate" were made by Teclis to create an opposing force to the Four Chaos Gods.

* '''The Fall of Altdorf''': This book follows the events mentioned in Part one: Nagash regarding the Empire and the subsequent fall back to Aldorf. In there the [[FourStarBadass Reikmarshall Kurt Helborg]] must organize the defense of the city aganist the forces of chaos, led by the Glottkin. But an unlikely ally appears...

** As of Book 4, you can add [[spoiler: Queek Headtaker, Belegar Ironhammer, Thorgrim Grudgebearer and basically all of the Lizardmen]]

* BackFromTheDead: Several, mainly in the Undead faction: Nagash the most prominent, but also Vlad Von Carstein is back. [[spoiler:Gilles the breton for Bretonnia, but since he is the Green Knight, it's more like {{Not quite Dead}}.]]

* {{Cutscene Power to The Max}}: During the finale of the Warhammer Fantasy world, the Skaven, [[CreatorsPet in defiance of all reason]], get fanboyed to the max. They [[spoiler: destroy the Lizardman Empire. And the Dwarf Empire. And Brettonia. And Morsleib. And Tilea. And Nuln. And Estalia. They also blow up Nagash's Black Pyramid.]] Basically, the whole series should be reduced to one book called "The Skaven Are Just the Awesomest and Can Beat Everybody All at the Same Time." This gets reversed in the last entry; the surviving named Skaven characters inexplicably vanish from the narrative, and the Skaven are suddenly reduced to innefectual cannon fodder for the main Chaos force (other than Skaven sappers taking out the Black Pyramid, but even then the army is mostly Nurgle daemons).

* QuirkyMinibossSquad: ''The Return of Nagash'' spends a good part of it's length following Manfred's vampire Templars, which are only mentioned as his elite cavalry unit elsewhere. There's an ambitious female power-behind-the-throne type, a thug she manipulated into power, a suicidally depressed newbie who's her former lover ([[spoiler:who she's [[SlapSlapKiss still]] in love with]]), the old leader who has devolved into a near bestial state, and a character who's blatantly the Warhammer version of [[Series/SesameStreet Count von Count]], complete with purple skin.

* ShaggyDogStory: Lileath deliberately prolonged the elf civil war and manipulated Brettonia through it's entire history (through her character The Lady) in order to create a hidden realm for her followers (both human and elf) and descendants to survive the end of the world. It's discovered by Chaos and presumably destroyed off-screen almost immediately.

* YouAreWhatYouHate: The Glottkin, one of the largest threats that beset the Empire, are Imperial by blood. Archaon also hates Norscans, Daemons, Gods and Chaos. Actually, Archaon [[OmnicidalManiac hates everything]], because after becoming the true Everchosen, all that remained of him was a dehumanized husk that lived on cold, seething, world-destroying hate. It goes without saying, but all individual Skaven hate their own race, along with other races, espically Lizardmen.

* YouAreWhatYouHate: The Glottkin, one of the largest threats that beset the Empire, are Imperial by blood. Archaon also hates Norscans, Daemons, Gods and Chaos. Actually, Archaon [[OmnicidalManiac hates everything.]], because after becoming the true Everchosen, all that remained of him was a dehumanized husk that lived on cold and seething hate for the gods. It goes without saying, but Skaven too, hate their own race.

* YouAreWhatYouHate: The Glottkin, one of the largest threats that beset the Empire, are Imperial by blood. Archaon also hates Norscans, Daemons, Gods and Chaos. Actually, Archaon [OmnicidalManiac hates everything.]] It goes without saying, but Skaven too, hate their own race.

* YouAreWhatYouHate: The Glottkin, one of the largest threats that beset the Empire, are Imperial by blood.

* {{Cutscene Power to The Max}}: During the finale of the Warhammer Fantasy world, the Skaven, [[CreatorsPet in defiance of all reason]], get fanboyed to the max. They [[spoiler: destroy the Lizardman Empire. And the Dwarf Empire. And Kislev. And Brettonia. And Morsleib. And Tilea. And Cathay. And Nuln. And Estalia. They also blow up Nagash's Black Pyramid.]] Basically, the whole series should be reduced to one book called "The Skaven Are Just the Awesomest and Can Beat Everybody All at the Same Time."

* {{Rewrite}}: Vashanesh, who had recently been written out of canon (and heavily implied to have been something Vlad made up to screw with Neferata), is written back into canon when it's confirmed he was Vlad's old identity.

* BroadStrokes[=/=]DependingOnTheWriter: While the major events are the same between the game books and the novels, the details are often quite different.

* {{Retcon}}: The End Times in there entirety are a retcon. Though no actual ''stories'' had been set later than 2522 IC (the 'present' of the setting at the point the End Times kick off) there were many references in previously published Warhammer fiction to much later dates with the FramingDevice of the ''Zavant'' stories explicitly having the Old World survive for at least another century, a paragraph in ''Beast in Velvets'' suggesting a text would inspire revolutions for centuries to come and so on.

* {{Retcon}}: The End Times in there entirety are a retcon. Though no actual ''stories'' had been set later than 2522 IC (the 'present' of the setting at the point the End Times kick off) there were many references in previously published Warhammer fiction to much later dates with the FramingDevice of the ''Zavant'' stories explicitly having the Old World survive for at least another century, a text in ''Beast in Velvets'' suggesting a text would inspire revolutions for centuries to come and so on.

* '''Warhammer: Rise of the Horned Rat''': A book chronicling the war between the Skaven and the Dwarves, mentioning that the Skaven are attacking all Dwarf holds but focusing on Kara Eight Peaks, and Karaz-a-Karak. It also features Thanquol's rise in status from an outcast Grey Seer to a major architect in the Skaven plan.