Unified Warhammer Fantasy thread

I've been wondering for a while now, how much in-universe continuity is there intended to be between the races/species/factions in Age of Sigmar and those in Warhammer Fantasy? What I mean is, the basic sequence of events as I've understood it boils down to:

1. Old World goes boom.
2. A dozen or so gods and mortal souls-turned-gods kinda float through the Realm of Chaos or outer space or something for a while and wind up in the Mortal Realms.
3. New races are created, sometimes using the souls of the old mortal peoples and sometimes not, to populate the new Realms.
4. Generations pass, Chaos comes along, events enventuate, and we end up in the present setting.

So. The impression I had originally was that the AoS peoples aren't actually continuations of the Fantasy ones, except perhaps that their first generation was made using the souls of the last of the former, but is that actually correct? Does modern material depict the Aelves and Duardin and Ogors and whatnot as actually being the descendants/successors of the old elves and dwarves and ogres and the rest, or as effectively being entirely new species created in the image of the older ones?

It's complicated due to the Multiple-Choice Past of the less civilized races and GW's preference of writing ancient history in Shrouded in Myth terms when talking from the perspective of the current timeline, even if said historic events are detailed elsewhere (see how the events of the Horus Heresy books are referenced in the Codices for 40K).

Chaos is the same as always (although the Beastmen seem to have spontainiously spawned in the Mortal Realms due to the corruption of Chaos), as are the Seraphon/Lizardmen (although there seem to be far more Slann than there used to be, and they have been given a boost by the zodiacal godbeast Dracothion), and those Death characters around during Age of Sigmar have had their souls recreated by Nagash to serve him once again.

The vast majority of aelves (the Daughters of Khaine, Sylveneth, Lumineth, Idoneth, and Malerion's faction who should be getting some information this edition if my prediction of Ulgu being the next focused Realm is correct) were explicitly created by the aelven gods from souls rescued from Slaanesh's belly but they rarely retain much, if any, of their previous life. Those aelves that side with Sigmar are a little different as, from what I remember, weren't created by the aelven gods and could be decedents of survivors.

The duardin meanwhile do seem to descendants of the Dwarfs of the world-that-was (there are at least two families descended from Josef Bugman), but their culture has evolved and changed quite a bit, especially the Fyreslayers and Kharadron.

Humans, like the duardin, seem to be descendants in some way but have been through so many extinction level events over the various ages that their is little to no continuation of culture.

Most of the Destruction races have Multiple-Choice Past, and don't really care about where they came from anyway, but some seem to be decedents of godbeasts rather than survivors of the world-that-was, with the gargents being the children of the massive Behemat, and squigs originating from Boingob. Troggoths don't appear to be direct dependents of Trolls either, with some in-universe scholars think they spawned from magical gundge. Ogors seem a bit different to the Ogres of Warhammer as well, as their hunger seems to be biological rather than the curse of the Great Maw (which doesn't exist in the Mortal Realms) and seem to be able to go for longer without eating, even if it does drive them a bit insane.

EDIT to add something I forgot: The realms were populated before the Ascended Gods (Sigmar, Nagash, the duardin & aelf deities) awoke in the Mortal Realms, though those populations were still primitive at the time. Gorkamorka is a bit of a mystery but seems to have been abroud in the realms for a lot longer than the Ascended.

Edited by SebastianGray on Feb 14th 2022 at 12:54:58 PM

Double post for Today on Warhammer Community: The Age of Sigmar Event exclusive model is the Kruleboyz Swampcalla Shaman, Mugruk Da Watcha◊. I like his Eye Squig.

That's a nice model! He reminds me of Drek'Thar in the Warcraft-games, especially in the cancelled Lord of the Clans. If I were to buy Murgruk, then I'll convert him into Drek'Thar, for my Warcraft-conversion project.

The link between fantasy and age of sigmar is there but as mythologies backstory, probably to use familiar chararter but without having a new setting having to read the 30 years of fantasy to get it.

Hello. Forgive me for asking, but which Order or Death factions are the best for beginners, both in terms of rules and complexity of painting models? I was getting tempted to try it out.

I can't help much (as I don't care about rules and have only painted a handful of models, with many of those being Warhammer Underworlds models which are easy-fit) but I will say that Neferata was an absolute pain to put together when I painted her.

Your Neferata looks amazing. Nice work.

Thanks.

It's only a rough guide, but if you want to get some idea on how complicated a the kits are you could always look at the sprues of GW's website to see how fiddly the pieces are.

As far as I know, Stormcast Eternals, Seraphon and Nighthaunt are considered to be beginner friendly in terms of rules and painting. But, I was curious if Deepkin, Kharadron or Soulblight are also considered easy to assemble and paint or easy to play.

I haven't really looked into the Idoneth or Kharadron models as I am not great at painting monsters that don't have fur and find big kits such as the sky-vessels and leviathans to be a chore to build. As for the Soulblight Gravelords, I haven't got around to the new Deathrattle Skeletons yet but looking at their sprues they may be a bit less fiddly than the old WFB skeletons, but still fiddly.

Double post for Today on Warhammer Community: The first Warhammer: Old World update of the year: Grand Cathay map

Maps are always cool. I am interested in the Warpstone Desert to the West.

I hope this takes us closer to seeing miniatures of those Cathay units from Total War. Ditto for the Kislevites.

Mostly known information, but a progress report is always nice and I do love a good map.

The map is good but I will said it kinda look empty, is pretty much the same issue I have with bretonia and empire map: those area of yellow make feel empty for some reason.

Cursed City is coming back in March, but only for two weeks and made to order. I am tempted, but I've decided that it better be under 200€ for me to consider buying the game, preferably 150€ at the most.

Today on Warhammer Community: A Warhammer Underworlds Zombie

Hot on the heels of Blackpowder’s Buccaneers comes the next warband for Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep – The Exiled Dead. Meet Coyl◊, one of their fighters, and see what has brought them to the shadowy underwater caverns of Ulgu.

Coyl is an arcwalker, animated by the Force Dynamic, an arcano-electric force that flows through all things. Led by their shadowy leader, the Exiled Dead have made their way down to Harrowdeep for purposes unknown.

Coyl uses his borrowed limb as a deadly weapon, which has been super-powered with forbidden technology◊.

We’ll have more on the Exiled Dead soon, including a look at the full warband and how they play in Warhammer Underworlds. So get ready for their arrival by picking up the Harrowdeep boxed set and sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss any of the updates.

Interesting. In Blood Bowl enhanced zombies are part of the Necromantic Horror undead team so the Exiled Dead could be Deathmage and Deadwalker warband.

Double post for a brief look at the adapticon reveals (Added some videos):

1. Necromancer Warhammer Underworlds warband

The Necromancer looks a little like a Necromunda Delaque or a Genestealer Cult Magus.

2. Norse Blood Bowl

I like the Ride of the Valkyries remix in the video. The Beer-Pigs◊ are cool too.

3. Realm of Beasts campaign pack

4. Nighthaunt character

Very cool model.

Edited by SebastianGray on Mar 24th 2022 at 8:18:13 AM

That Norse Blood Bowl team looks great! as usual with BB, I can see a lot of potential for these as part of a more typical skirmish-game set in the Old World. With minimal conversion these figures will make for an excellent band of fantasy-vikings out to plunder.

Yeah they are very nice. It is always good to see Norse who haven't been fully corrupted by Chaos.

One of the thing that has bothered me a bit about the Warhammer universe is that the barbarian-archetype is almost entirely made up of Chaos-worshipers, without really anyone to fit the Barbarian Hero trope, or even just neutral-ish fantasy-vikings. These Norscans look like they can be used for both classic Chaos Marauders and all sorts of non-evil barbarians, like the Uthgardt of Icewind Dale. Another thing I like about this team is that they look like a fantasy-equivalent of Space Marines.

Well the early Empire was formed of various barbarian tribes united under Sigmar.

Funny thing is that way way way back in the Oldhammer days, the Norse were fairly unconnected to Chaos — the Chaos Warriors were just this mysterious group of marauders from the North Pole, and the Norse were simply regular barbarians who so happened to be the first people invaded by the former when they periodically swept south. The Norse weren't nice people — they were still reavers, pillagers, the whole Viking package — but they weren't trying to destroy the world, at least.

This carried over to some degree into the first couple editions of modern Warhammer. At least the first edition of the RPG made a distinction between the northern and southern Norscans; the northerners were Chaos-worshippers to the marrow, but the southerners were less extreme about it, worshipped some Imperial gods alongside the Chaos pantheon, and were capable and willing to trade with the southern nations or work as mercenaries for them.

Yeah, I think the last time non-Chaos Norscans were mentioned in WFB was 5th Edition with their colony in Lustria (it was mentioned in later sources but, if I remember correctly, they were Chaos worshipers by then). The last actual model for a non-Chaos Norsecan in the WFB universe (i.e. not Blood Bowl which has always had them) was the Barbarian from the original edition of Warhammer Quest◊.

I'd barely count them, unless if they play a heavy role in a Gaiden Game set during Sigmar's lifetime. Could have been interesting if some of those barbarians had pulled away from the Empire, due to feeling constricted by the new civilized ways of their kinsmen. I'm picturing a group of wild-men living on the fringes of the Imperial realm, having an uneasy relationship with the Empire and being a bulwark against outside attackers. They'd still be Sigmar-worshippers, but like Tempus/Tempos in the Forgotten Realms, these guys worship him in a more tribal manner and feel contempt towards the mainstream Sigmarite church of the Empire.

I much prefer that characterization, that there is variety among the Norscans. I like barbarians that are capable of being heroic, or at least opportunistic in ways that make them almost accidentally be the good guys of certain scenarios.