Welcome, explorer, to the ultimate journey guide! 🗺️ You’re standing on the edge of a new universe 🌌, a cosmos of myth, magic, and glorious, screaming heavy metal. 🤘 This is Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and it is, to put it mildly, a lot.
But don’t panic! 😅 You have a guide. This isn’t just an encyclopedia. We are not here to simply list what things are. We’re here to understand the why. We’ll find the profound metaphors, the hidden tragedies, the dark humor, and the roaring, thunderous heart of it all. ❤️🔥 This is a universe that demands passion, and this guide will provide it.
So, grab your magical-lightning-hammer ⚡🔨, and let’s begin!
🌎 Part 1: The Big Idea – What is Warhammer Age of Sigmar?
💥 So, Your World Blew Up. What’s Next?
Let’s get this out of the way. Warhammer Age of Sigmar is a post-apocalyptic story. It’s the direct sequel to an older, darker game called Warhammer Fantasy Battle. And that world? It was destroyed. Utterly. It exploded. 🤯
The hero-god of that old world, Sigmar, survived. He clung to the molten metal core of the planet-that-was 😥, a tiny flicker of hope in an endless void. He was flung through space until he was found by a great celestial dragon named Dracothion. 🐲 This cosmic being showed Sigmar a new cosmos: eight vast planes of existence, all linked by magical portals. 🚪 These were the Mortal Realms.
This is the core premise. Warhammer Age of Sigmar is not a story about preventing the apocalypse. The apocalypse already happened. 💀 This is a story about what the survivors build in the ashes of the old world. It’s a tale of gods, monsters, and ordinary people all trying to forge a new future after the end of all things.
☀️ The Grand Philosophy: Why Warhammer Age of Sigmar is Not Grimdark
This is the most important thing you need to understand. The old Warhammer Fantasy was a “Dark Fantasy” or “Grimdark” setting. 💀 It was defined by its “grounded” and pessimistic tone. It was a “dying husk” of a world, and its stories were about the “long war to stave off extinction”. Victory was impossible, and hope was a fool’s game. 😔
Warhammer Age of Sigmar is different. It’s “High Fantasy” 🌈, “Epic Fantasy” 🏞️, and, most accurately, “Heroic Fantasy“. 🦸
This isn’t just a marketing slogan; it’s the fundamental philosophy of the universe. The old world was a story about “a grizzled bear struggling against the inevitable as he is being killed by a thousand cuts”. 🐻 Warhammer Age of Sigmar is the story of “a phoenix rising from ashes”. 🐦🔥
In this new universe, hope is real. ✨ It’s a tangible, powerful force. But it’s not a guarantee. This is a setting built on consequential hope. Victories actually matter! 🏆 You can reclaim land, build new cities, and forge a better tomorrow. But failure is equally real and devastating. 😭 This makes the despair, when it comes, even darker, because it’s a failure or a choice—not just the default state of reality. The setting is “post-apocalyptic”, and the entire story is about the struggle to rebuild. 🛠️
📚 How Warhammer Age of Sigmar Contrasts With Other Genres
Because it’s so “high fantasy,” Warhammer Age of Sigmar often gets compared to other titans of the genre. Let’s draw some lines.
- Versus Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings is often described as “hard fantasy” or “historical fantasy”. 🧐 Its magic is subtle, powerful, and rare. 🤫 Its world is grounded in deep linguistics and an Earth-like geography. Warhammer Age of Sigmar is “mythical fantasy” 💥 with the volume “dialed to 11”. 🎸 Magic isn’t subtle; it’s the literal substance of reality. The realms aren’t just a planet; they are eight separate, magical-physical planes of existence.
- Versus Warhammer Fantasy: The predecessor was (mostly) “grounded”. 🏰 Its human factions were direct analogues for real-world nations. Warhammer Age of Sigmar is not grounded at all. It’s a “Norse Mythology inspired setting” ⚡ of impossible landscapes, where gods openly walk among mortals. 🤯
This table breaks down the core differences in the fantasy landscape.
Table 1: Warhammer Age of Sigmar vs. Other Fantasy
| Feature | Warhammer Age of Sigmar | Warhammer Fantasy (Old World) | J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth |
| Core Genre | Mythic / Heroic Fantasy 🦸♂️ | Dark / Grounded Fantasy 💀 | Hard / Historical Fantasy 📜 |
| Magic Level | Extremely High 💥 | High, but regimented 📉 | Very Low / Subtle 🤫 |
| Core Tone | Hopeful, but Tragic 😢 | Grim, Inevitable Decline 😔 | Earnest, Somber, Wondrous ✨ |
| Metaphor | A phoenix rising from ashes 🐦🔥 | A bear dying by 1000 cuts 🐻 | A good world worth fighting for 🌍 |
🤘 The Vibe: Where Heavy Metal Meets High Myth
So, what does Warhammer Age of Sigmar feel like? It feels BIG. 🔊 The aesthetic is bombastic, over-the-top, and proud of it.
This is a universe where the main heroes are seven-foot-tall demigods forged from lightning and souls, who ride storms into battle. ⚡️ It’s a universe where one of the main “good guy” factions is a civilization of steampunk dwarves (called Duardin) who live in floating sky-cities ☁️ and command fleets of ironclad battleships. 🚢 It’s a universe where “continents are literally in an eternal fist fight with eachother”. 👊
Warhammer Age of Sigmar is not subtle. It joyfully embraces the “Rule of Cool.” 😎 It’s a setting that fundamentally asks, “What if a heavy metal album cover was a universe?” 🎸 And the answer is glorious.
📜 Part 2: The Story So Far – A Three-Act Cosmic Tragedy
The history of the Mortal Realms is divided into three great ages. This is the grand narrative of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.
Act I: The Age of Myth – A Paradise Built 🏞️
This is the “once upon a time.” 📖 After Sigmar’s discovery of the Mortal Realms, he set out to explore. He learned to traverse the realms using the magical Realmgates—doorways connecting the different planes. 🚪
He was not alone. He found other survivors from the World-That-Was, or beings of godlike power. He gathered them into a “Pantheon of Order“. 🤝 This council included Nagash (the God of Death 💀), the Aelven twins Teclis (Light 💡) and Tyrion (also Light), Morathi (Shadow 🐍), and even Gorkamorka (the two-headed God of Destruction 👊).
Together, they ushered in a golden age. 🌟 Gods and mortals built “great architectural accomplishments and technological wonders”. Civilizations flourished, and hope was abundant.
Act II: The Age of Chaos – A Paradise Lost 🔥
This is the fall. 🍂 The golden age was shattered by the “Great Betrayal“. 💔 The Pantheon fractured. Nagash, in his arrogance, sought to dominate all. Gorkamorka grew bored. The alliance fell apart.
Into this division came a new, ultimate enemy: Chaos. The four Ruinous Powers—Khorne 🩸, Tzeentch 🌀, Nurgle 🤢, and Slaanesh 💜—found their way into the Mortal Realms. They were led by Archaon the Everchosen, the ultimate champion of Chaos.
This is the central tragic moment of the Warhammer Age of Sigmar universe. Sigmar, his alliances broken and his forces waning, “paniced”. 😱 He retreated to his own realm, Azyr (the Realm of Heavens), and “sealed himself… off from the rest of the realms”. 🔒
He abandoned them. 😥
For five hundred years, an era known as the Age of Chaos, the Ruinous Powers rampaged unopposed. 😭 The “great architectural accomplishments… were lost, torn down and replaced by dark effigies”. Civilizations crumbled. Mortals turned to the worship of Chaos simply to survive. This is the “post-apocalyptic” world that the game begins in—a cosmos drowning in darkness.
Act III: The Age of Sigmar – A War of Reckoning ⚔️
This is the comeback! 💪 While sealed in Azyr, Sigmar was not idle. He was forging a new army. He gathered the souls of the greatest mortal heroes who died fighting Chaos and, using divine magic, he reforged them into immortal warriors. ⚡️
They are the Stormcast Eternals.
At the dawn of the Age of Sigmar, he unleashed his new army. They descended from the heavens in a “storm of lightning,” 🌩️ a “military campaign known as the Realmgate Wars“. Their one, primary objective: to reclaim the vital Realmgates that connect the realms. 🚪
This war re-established a foothold for Order. The Stormcast Eternals liberated key areas and, alongside mortal survivors, began to found new “bastions of hope”—the Cities of Sigmar. 🏙️ This is the current status quo: a desperate, ongoing war to reclaim what was lost.
👻 The Second Great War: The Necroquake and the Soul Wars
The story of Warhammer Age of Sigmar didn’t stop with the Realmgate Wars. A new power rose to challenge both Order and Chaos.
Nagash, the God of Death 💀, had been plotting. He was furious at Sigmar for “stealing” the souls of heroes to create the Stormcast Eternals—souls that Nagash believed belonged to him. 😡 He decided to end the game. He began a “grand ritual” to claim every single soul in the Mortal Realms, living and dead. He would become the one, true god.
He almost succeeded. But he failed to account for the universe’s ultimate agents of anarchy: the Skaven. 🐀
The Skaven are a race of malevolent, treacherous rat-men. They’re not just another faction; they’re a cosmological force. They are the embodiment of selfish, short-sighted entropy. 😂 This is their narrative purpose: to prevent any one power from ever achieving total victory. They “accidentally thwarted” Nagash’s grand plan. A group of Skaven “corrupted his grand ritual,” seeking to siphon its power for themselves.
The ritual’s failure was catastrophic. 💥 It didn’t give Nagash control, but instead exploded outward as the Necroquake. 🌊 This “wave of death magic” washed over all eight realms. It didn’t kill everyone, but it super-charged undeath. Millions of new ghosts (the Nighthaunt 👻) rose from their graves, and Nagash unleashed them upon the living. This began the “Soul Wars,” the second great conflict of the Age of Sigmar.
🐀 The Current Crisis (2025-2026): The Vermindoom
This brings us to the present day and the new 4th Edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. The Skaven, the accidental catalysts of the last war, have finally made their own move.
Their god, the Great Horned Rat, has gathered enough power to ascend. 📈 He has taken his place at the “cool kids table” as the fifth Chaos God, an equal to the other four. 🐀👑
To celebrate this “Hour of Ruin” ⌛, the Skaven have unleashed their grandest, most mind-boggling plan: the Vermindoom. This was a “cataclysmic warpstone explosion” that has literally gnawed holes in the fabric of reality. 🧀 Blight City, the Skaven capital, is spilling out into the realms. This is the current, up-to-date storyline. 🚨 The rats are ascending, and the realms are breaking.
🗺️ Part 3: The Stage – A Tour of the Eight Mortal Realms
The setting of Warhammer Age of Sigmar is its most unique feature. This isn’t one world. It’s a new, mythic cosmology.
🌌 A New Kind of Universe
The Mortal Realms are not planets. They are “vast and diverse planes of existence”. 🪄 Imagine eight separate, “giant, largely flat crystallisation[s] of magic”, all floating in a cosmic void. Each realm was formed from one of the “Winds of Magic” from the Old World. 💨
These realms are not just “themed” locations. They are “living embodiments of their respective magical essences”. This means the geography is the philosophy. The realms are active, metaphysical landscapes where the environment itself is a character.
In Ghur, the Realm of Beasts 🦁, a “feeling of hunger and the hunt permeates the air… infectious in its primal simplicity”. In Chamon, the Realm of Metal ⚙️, you find a land of “shifting alchemy” where rivers flow with mercury.
This is the why of the setting. A battle in Aqshy (the Realm of Fire 🔥) isn’t just a battle in a hot place; it’s a conflict defined by passion, rage, and explosive fury. A quest in Hysh (the Realm of Light 💡) isn’t just a journey to a bright place; it’s a quest for truth, knowledge, and an arrogant, alienating perfection.
🚪 Getting Around: Realmgates
Travel between these infinite planes is possible through Realmgates. These are magical doorways, and they are the single most important strategic resource in the cosmos. 🔑 The entire Realmgate Wars were fought to control them.
Table 2: The Eight Mortal Realms: A Visitor’s Guide 🧳
This is your essential, (mostly) safe travel guide to the eight realms of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.
| Realm | Wind of Magic | Core Concept | The Vibe (A Visitor’s Guide) |
| Azyr | Heavens 🌌 | Order, Fate, Time ⌛ | “The Celestial Fortress.” Sigmar’s home. The only realm untouched by Chaos. Gated community, 10/10, very safe, zero nightlife. 😇 |
| Aqshy | Fire 🔥 | Passion, Rage, Heat 😡 | “The Land of Fury.” Everything is on fire. The people are on fire (metaphorically). Volcanoes, deserts. Bring sunscreen. And a sword. 🥵 |
| Ghyran | Life 🌳 | Nature, Growth, Fertility 🌿 | “The Verdant War.” A lush paradise. Unfortunately, Nurgle (God of Plague) also loves life. Everything is too alive. 0/10, the pollen will kill you. 🤧 |
| Shyish | Death 💀 | Death, Endings, Order ⚰️ | “The Land of the Dead.” Nagash’s kingdom. A realm of “twilight and endless sorrow”. Surprisingly orderly, if you’re into that. The economy is based on souls. 💰 |
| Hysh | Light 💡 | Truth, Knowledge, Perfection 💎 | “The Realm of Logic.” Home to the Aelven gods Teclis and Tyrion. A land of impossible geometry and pure reason. Prone to arrogance. 0/10, the locals will correct your grammar. 🤓 |
| Ulgu | Shadow 🤫 | Deception, Secrets, Mystery ❓ | “The Realm of Lies.” Home to the Aelven god Morathi. A land of “constant grey and darkness”. You can’t trust the maps, the people, or the rocks. Good for spies. 🕵️ |
| Chamon | Metal ⚙️ | Transmutation, Logic, Change 🔩 | “The Shifting Realm.” The continents are “literally in an eternal fist fight”. 👊 Mountains gleam with metal. Rivers flow with mercury. Home to steampunk dwarves. 🧑🔧 |
| Ghur | Beasts 🦁 | Primalism, Hunger, Primalism 🐾 | “The Primal Land.” A land of “colossal predators and barbaric tribes”. Everything wants to eat you. Worships Gorkamorka. 10/10, if you are an Orruk. 🍽️ |
🔗 The Nexus: The Eightpoints, The Realm That Connects Them All
There’s one other place. A “central sub-realm” that’s the lynchpin of the cosmos. 📍 It was once known as the Allpoints, a crossroads that contained Realmgates to all eight of the Mortal Realms. During the Age of Myth, it was a cosmopolitan center of trade and travel 🤝, the ultimate symbol of Sigmar’s unified paradise.
That’s why its fall was so devastating. 💔
Today, it’s known as the Eightpoints. It’s the “domain of Archaon the Everchosen“. 😈 He rules it from his “monumental fortress-citadel,” the Varanspire. 🏰
The transformation of the Allpoints to the Eightpoints (named for the eight-pointed star of Chaos) is one of the most powerful metaphors in Warhammer Age of Sigmar. It was the place that connected everyone, the heart of Order’s dream of unity. Its fall to Archaon represents the ultimate victory of Chaos: the centralized, total corruption of the very concept of connection. It’s the dark, corrupted heart of the realms.
🎭 Part 4: The Actors – The Four Grand Alliances
The countless factions vying for control of the realms are grouped into four “Grand Alliances“. But these are not four equal “teams.”
🤔 What is a Grand Alliance? (And What it Isn’t)
These are “loose terms used mostly out of universe” to help categorize the factions.
- Grand Alliance Order 😇: This is the most “real” of the alliances. It’s a loose coalition, built around Sigmar’s old Pantheon of Order and bound by “treaties and agreements”. 📜 Their shared philosophy is a belief in “civilisation” and opposition to Chaos. 🏙️
- Grand Alliance Chaos 😈: This is a collection of factions all bound to the service of the Chaos Gods. They would never call themselves a “Grand Alliance,” as they’re constantly backstabbing each other. 🔪
- Grand Alliance Death 💀: This is not an alliance. It’s a monarchy. 👑 It’s “all pawns of Nagash,” the God of Death. If you’re undead, you work for him, whether you realize it or not.
- Grand Alliance Destruction 👊: This is not a team. It’s a vibe. 😎 No Orruk, Grot (goblin), or Gargant (giant) would ever “think of themselves as part of some ‘grand alliance’”. They’re united by a shared god, Gorkamorka, and a simple, brutal philosophy: “might makes right“. 💪
Table 3: The Grand Alliances: At a Glance 👀
Here’s a quick-reference guide to the “big four” and their core philosophies.
| Alliance | Core Philosophy | Key Gods / Leaders | Key Factions |
| ORDER 😇 | Civilization, Hope, Structure 🏙️ | Sigmar, Alarielle, Teclis 🙏 | Stormcast Eternals ⚡, Cities of Sigmar 🧑🤝🧑, Kharadron Overlords ☁️ |
| CHAOS 😈 | Freedom, Ambition, Corruption 🔥 | The 4 Chaos Gods + The Horned Rat 🐀 | Slaves to Darkness ⚔️, Skaven 🐀, Blades of Khorne 🩸 |
| DEATH 💀 | Tyranny, Order, Obedience 👑 | Nagash (and only Nagash) 😑 | Ossiarch Bonereapers 🦴, Soulblight Gravelords 🧛, Nighthaunt 👻 |
| DESTRUCTION 👊 | Primal Energy, Might, Hunger 🍽️ | Gorkamorka 💪 | Orruk Warclans 🟢, Gloomspite Gitz 🍄, Ogor Mawtribes 🥘 |
🌍 Part 5: Deep Dives – Cultures of the Mortal Realms
This is where the real journey begins. To truly understand Warhammer Age of Sigmar, we must look at the people who live and die in it. We must explore their cultures, their beliefs, their daily lives, and their darkest secrets.
⚡ DEEP DIVE: The Stormcast Eternals (Order)
- The Concept: Sigmar’s immortal, lightning-forged demigods. 🦸 They’re the “face” of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. They’re the souls of mortal heroes, snatched at the very moment of their death, and “reforged” on the divine “Anvil of Apotheosis”. ✨
- Aesthetics & Fashion: They’re encased in armor made of Sigmarite, a blessed, indestructible metal. 🛡️ Their most notable feature is the “Mask Impassive,” a death mask fused to their armor that gives them a “stoic expression”. 🎭 Their armor is often adorned with “Honour Parchments” proclaiming their victories.
- The look of the Stormcast Eternals has famously evolved. Their initial 2015 aesthetic was often criticized by fans as “Sigmarines” (a fantasy version of Warhammer 40,000’s Space Marines) 😅. However, the newer 4th Edition (2024) designs have been hailed as a “gothic, grimdark delight,” full of “sinister, gothic, and baroque” detail. 🦇 This aesthetic evolution is not just a marketing change; it perfectly reflects the maturation of their lore. The Stormcast are moving from simple, clean-cut heroes to tragic, haunted, and “sinister” figures, mirroring the terrible cost of their immortality. 😥
- The Reforging: The Tragic Flaw 💔
- This is their central philosophical hook. The Stormcast Eternals are immortal, but….
- When a Stormcast is “slain,” their soul doesn’t go to the underworld. Instead, it “is born anew,” rocketing back to Azyr as a bolt of lightning 🌩️ to be “reforged” on the Anvil of Apotheosis and sent back into the fray.
- This process is imperfect. 😥 With every reforging, they lose a piece of themselves. They suffer “memory loss,” “identity loss,” and “emotion loss”. 🧩 They “begin to lose empathy”. They “begin to see morality in absolutes”. With each death, they become less the human hero they were and more of an “uncaring demigod, focused only on winning an endless war”. 🤖 This is their horror: they are doomed to save the world, but at the cost of the very humanity they’re fighting for.
- Culture & Daily Life:
- Stormcast aren’t mindless robots. They live in massive Stormkeeps, which are fortresses often garrisoned in the heart of a City of Sigmar. 🏰 They have a culture defined by their struggle against the Flaw. To hold onto their humanity, they “paint the walls of their chamber with images from their history” and “write down things they remember”. ✍️ This is a beautiful, tragic detail of a warrior desperately trying to remember his own name.
- They also don’t just “respawn” from every wound. Non-fatal injuries are treated by their priests (Lord-Relictors) in a “Hall of Restoration” within their Stormkeep. ❤️🩹
- Stormhosts (Sub-factions): The Stormcast aren’t a monolith. They’re divided into different “Stormhosts,” each with its own culture, armor color, and flaw.
- Hallowed Knights: The silver-armored paladins. 😇 They’re known for their piety, faith, and steady resolve. They are the classic “heroes”.
- Anvils of the Heldenhammer: The “sinister” black-armored host. 🤫 They are “dark and brooding,” with an “archaic mindset”. Because they were forged during a dark time, they are uniquely obsessed with death and “fear… their final demise”.
🏙️ DEEP DIVE: The Cities of Sigmar (Order)
- The Concept: These are the “regular people”. 🧑🤝🧑 The Cities of Sigmar (also called Free Cities) are the “bastions of hope” built in the lands reclaimed by the Stormcast. They’re the heart of the “Order” civilization, a “melting pot” of humans, aelves (elves), and duardin (dwarves) living side-by-side. 👨👩👧👦
- Aesthetics & Fashion: This is the most diverse faction. It’s not just “medieval.” The classic look for the Freeguilds (their armies) is a German Renaissance-style soldier with “feathered hats” and pike-and-shot weapons. 💂 But the lore is explicit: this is a multicultural universe. There are “african, caribean and aztec themed cities” mentioned in the lore. 🌎
- Fashion: The diverse origins of the citizens are reflected in their fashion. Aqshians (from the Realm of Fire 🔥) are “flashy,” wearing reds and oranges. Azyrites (from the Realm of Heaven 🌌) are “affluent,” preferring whites, blues, and silvers. Tattoos are popular. The Darkling Covens (city aelves) wear “dark colours and sharp edges”.
- Society, Politics & Guilds:
- The government of a Free City is, in theory, democratic. 🗳️ They’re ruled by “Grand Conclaves” where delegates are elevated by “merit”.
- In practice, the politics of the Cities of Sigmar are a complex, fascinating, and often corrupt mirror of modern-day struggles. This isn’t a feudal kingdom. It’s a world of “modern-level capitalism” 💰, class warfare 😠, and industrial pollution. 🏭 Real power is held by massive guilds like the Ironweld Arsenal (the engineers) and the Freeguilds (the army).
- The city of Greywater Fastness is the ultimate example. It’s the realms’ “biggest weapons manufacturer”. 🔫 Its Grand Conclave rules “in name only”. The true rulers are the “Council of the Forge,” a cabal of industrialists who own the factories and “can simply make the entire city grind to a halt if they don’t get what they want”. 😒 The city is also choked with “smog and acid rains” from its “huge industrial factories”. This is a “post-industrial revolution” society, flaws and all.
- Daily Life & Culture:
- Standard of Living: For an “average” person, life can be surprisingly high-tech. The blend of magic and engineering means that “fully functional limb replacements” 🦾 and “mechanical chairs with spider legs that can climb… stairs” 🕷️ are available and relatively cheap.
- The “But”: This modern life is offset by “poverty and class division.” The “rich live fantastic lives and the poor struggle in slums”. 😥
- Cuisine: The cities have a “wide variety” of food, from “mobile food-carts” 🥡 to “high-class restaurants.” 🍽️ The most popular drink is “Twin-Tailed Ale,” 🍺 served in countless taverns. Bread is a staple. In Ghyran, the Realm of Life 🌳, the diet is… different. They primarily eat “native insects, some of which can grow to the size of a carthorse”. 🦗
- Media: They have mass media! 📰 “Newspapers” like the Hammerhal Herald are mass-produced on “cog-wheeled printing presses.” There are even broadsheet sellers on street corners who will, “for a small fee, read them aloud to passersby”.
- Gender & Sexuality: The lore is explicit on this point. The Cities of Sigmar “tend towards inclusivity regarding gender identity and sexuality”. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
- Crime & Punishment:
- This is no utopia. Crime is rampant. The city of Misthavn is a “classic pirate refuge”. 🏴☠️ Organized crime syndicates like the “Blackscale Coil” secretly ruled the city of Anvilgard for years. 🐍 There are even drug problems. The slums of Hallowheart are “filled with crystal junkies” addicted to “aether-quartz,” which is described as basically fantasy crystal meth. 💎
☁️ DEEP DIVE: The Kharadron Overlords (Order)
- The Concept: Steampunk, capitalist, sky-faring Duardin (dwarves). 🧑🔧 During the Age of Chaos, they abandoned their mountain homes (and their gods) and fled to the skies, where they built “powerful airships” 🚢 and a new empire.
- Aesthetics: Pure, glorious “steampunk aesthetic“. ⚙️ They’re “nautical themed duardin” ⚓ who wear heavy, sealed armor and fly in “skyvessels” that look like 19th-century ironclad warships mixed with zeppelins.
- Society & Politics: The Kharadron Code 📜
- This is their core. Their society is not ruled by kings or gods. They’re “mostly secular” and “prefer to rely on their own science and ingenuity”. 🧠
- They’re a society built on “meritocracy and pragmatism”. Their entire civilization is governed by the Kharadron Code, a massively complex legal document and constitution that governs everything—from warfare to commerce. ⚖️ The Code is made of “artycles,” sub-clauses, and thousands of amendments. They’re “driven by a need for profit as much as by honor”. 💰 They are “traders first, fighters second“.
- Technology & Daily Life:
- Kharadron live in “massive floating metropolises” called Sky-ports. ☁️ Their entire “techno-arcane” society is powered by one substance: Aether-gold. 🪙
- This substance is “the lifeblood of the Kharadron empire”, and it’s the key to understanding them. Aether-gold is a lighter-than-air gas-in-a-mineral that they mine from the clouds. And it’s the single best, and most humorous, metaphor in the setting. 😂
- The Kharadron Overlords are a profound satire of cutthroat, unregulated capitalism. Their entire society is based on a legalistic “Code” of profit. Their primary resource, “aether-gold,” is simultaneously:
- Their Fuel: It makes their ships fly. ⛽
- Their Currency: It is their standard of wealth. 💲
- Their Ammunition: Their “Aethercannons” fire “a supercharged blast of aether-gold”. 💥
- A Pollutant: It’s “extremely caustic, highly dangerous, almost radioactive, and very hazardous to one’s health”. ☢️
- This is the punchline. 🤣 The Kharadron are a flying, bearded personification of the Industrial Revolution. Their sky-ports suffer from “smog and acidic rain showers”. 🤢 Their pursuit of aether-gold has led to unique industrial diseases like “sky-miner’s consumption” and the “dreaded glowlung”. 😵 They’re obsessed with profit while being, quite literally, poisoned to death by their own money.
🌊 DEEP DIVE: The Idoneth Deepkin (Order)
- The Concept: Tragic, soul-stealing sea aelves. 🧜 To the coastal peoples of the realms, they’re a “myth” or a “story of daemons from the sea”. 😱 They are, in essence, “Atlantis meets Drukahri“.
- Aesthetics: A beautiful and terrifying “blend of elven and oceanic themes”. 🐠 Their warriors ride giant, bonded sea-monsters like Allopexes (war-sharks 🦈), Fangmora Eels 🐍, and colossal, shelled Leviadons (giant turtles 🐢).
- The Tragic Soul-Curse 💔
- This is their entire story. They are a “failed” experiment. 😥 They were created by the Aelven god Teclis, who rescued Aelven souls from the belly of the Chaos God Slaanesh. But the souls were “corroded”.
- Their souls are “withering”. 🍂 Only one in every hundred Idoneth is born with a “noble” or “true” soul. The other 99—the Namarti—are born with “withering souls” and will die in infancy unless something is done.
- The Harvest: To survive, the Idoneth must raid. ⚔️ They “periodically leave their enclaves” and “travel the whirlways of the sea” to attack coastal settlements and “harvest souls“. 👻 These stolen souls are then implanted into their Namarti children, allowing them to live.
- Society & Castes: Their society is a “starkly divided” caste system. 📋
- The Akhelian: The true-souled warrior elite. The knights and generals. ⚔️
- The Isharann: The true-souled magical caste. The priests, soul-scryers, and mages. ✨
- The Namarti: The 99%. The “lowest and most populous caste”. 😔 They are born blind, and though they’re the ones saved by the soul-raids, they are treated as “little more than slaves” by the upper castes.
- Rituals & Culture: When the Idoneth raid, their Isharann mages “directing the ethersea” (an illusion of a phantom ocean) and “wipe the minds of their victims“. 🤯 They leave behind only “half-remembered nightmares”. As one source chillingly puts it: “people don’t know the Deepkin killed Dave because they forgot Dave ever existed“. 🥶
- This faction is a devastating exploration of generational trauma and survival ethics. They are victims—first of Slaanesh, then of their creator Teclis, who tried to destroy his “failed” children. 😭 They have become monsters by necessity. Their “evil” act (the soul-raid) is not for power, pleasure, or ambition. It’s done for the literal survival of their children. 👶
- This creates a profound moral conflict: are they villains, or are they the realms’ most tragic heroes? 🤔 This trauma is perpetuated in their society. The upper castes are “taught… to be quite vicious” and to suppress all emotion in terror of Slaanesh. They enforce this brutal, cruel society on the “lesser” Namarti, who (once given a soul) ironically experience emotions more powerfully than the true-souled. The Idoneth enforce their own trauma on each new generation.
😈 DEEP DIVE: The Slaves to Darkness (Chaos)
- The Concept: The mortal followers of Chaos. 🤘 They’re not just one faction, but a vast collection of “barbaric warriors riding across burning plains” 🪓 and “hidden cultists plotting the downfall of their own city”. 🤫
- Aesthetics: This is the classic “heavy metal” look. 🎸 Spiked armor, horns, fur, and a palpable sense of menace. The new “Darkoath” sub-faction adds a strong “Conan the Barbarian” or “Mad Max” vibe.
- Culture & Daily Life:
- This is one of the most shocking and important facts about Warhammer Age of Sigmar. The Cities of Sigmar are not the norm. The Slaves to Darkness factions are the “most prevalent human culture in the Mortal Realms”. 😲
- Chaos isn’t just an invading army; it’s the default culture for most mortals. Most humans in the realms are born, live, and die worshipping the Dark Gods, not because they’re innately “evil,” but because for 500 years, it was the only way to survive the Age of Chaos. 🤷
- Life in the Eightpoints, the capital of Chaos, is a “chaos infested hellscape,” but it’s not a monolith. It has “plenty of biomes and cultures”. There are “cities… governed by crime syndicates/mafias,” 💼 “gladiator pits,” 🏟️ and sprawling markets.
- Rituals & Beliefs:
- A warrior follows the “Path to Glory“. 🏆 They seek to attract the “Eye of the Gods”. 👁️ When a champion slaughters an enemy HERO or MONSTER, they get to “roll 2D6 and get a blessing from the Eye of the Gods table”. This can be a boon, like “Unholy Resilience” or “Slaughterer’s Strength”. 💪 But the Gods are fickle. A champion can just as easily be “Snubbed by the Gods… or worse, attract the unwelcome attention of a deity ready to ‘bless’ them with a one-way ticket to Spawndom”. 🦑
- Archaon, the Everchosen:
- The leader of the Slaves to Darkness is Archaon, the “Exalted Grand Marshal of Chaos”. 👑 He rules the Eightpoints from his fortress, the Varanspire, a “monumental” citadel built in “eight concentric circles”. 🏰 His goal is simple. Having already destroyed one world, he now seeks to “conquer all of creation and slay/enslave the gods himself”. He holds a special, burning grudge for his hated foe, Sigmar. 😡
🐀 DEEP DIVE: The Skaven (Chaos)
- The Concept: A “hideous amalgamation of man and rodent”. 🏃🐀 The “maniacal ratmen” who live in a vast, sprawling “Under-Empire“. 🚇
- Aesthetics: A “vermintide” of chittering, filthy, hunchbacked rat-men. Their aesthetic is a unique “steampunk-horror,” ⚙️☣️ combining ramshackle technology with plague, mutation, and treacherous magic.
- Society & Philosophy:
- To understand the Skaven, you must understand their god: The Great Horned Rat. 🐀 He’s the embodiment of “disaster and collapse” and “desperation”. He is, as the lore states, “what mortals become in their most despicable moments: self-serving vermin“. 😬
- Their society is a perfect reflection of this. It’s a “stinking hive of brutal violence”. 😵 Every single Skaven “firmly believes that they are the greatest being that has ever lived” 🏆. They are also “highly untrusting, thinking that their peers are out to get them, which in fairness is usually true”. 😂 Their entire culture is driven by treachery, backstabbing, and craven self-preservation. 🔪
- The Great Clans: Skaven society is dominated by four “Great Clans,” each specializing in a different form of treachery.
- Clans Skryre: The mad scientists. 🧑🔬 They create “infernal engines” and “experimental and crude technology,” like the “Warp-lightning Cannon” and the infamous “Ratling Gun”. 💥
- Clans Pestilens: The plague monks. 🤢 Fanatical, disease-ridden cultists who worship the “Great Corruptor” aspect of their god, a twisted perversion of the Chaos God Nurgle.
- Clans Moulder: The beast-breeders. 🧬 “Master Moulders” who are “expert at breeding and mutating other living beings”. They create “unnatural creatures” like the giant, stitched-together Hell Pit Abomination and the hulking Rat Ogres. 👹
- Clans Eshin: The “stealthy assassins”. 🥷 These are, literally, ninja rats.
- Technology & Culture:
- Skaven technology is fueled by Warpstone—”chaos energy in solid form”. 💎
- The Skaven are the perfect, dark-comedy parody of mortal ambition. They embody all the Chaos Gods’ aspects, but in a perverted, cowardly form (Khorne’s violence as backstabbing, Nurgle’s plague as entropy, Tzeentch’s schemes as paranoia, etc.). 🤣 Their technology is brilliant, but it’s fundamentally broken by their own nature.
- This is their core concept. The Dwarves (Duardin) are stifled by Tradition. The Skaven are stifled by Unreliability. 😅 Their technology is amazing, but it’s just as likely to blow up in their own faces. The “Ratling Gun… likes to just jam and be a piece of shit”. 😒 They’re a race of geniuses who are too selfish, untrusting, and cowardly to ever truly win. They are what mortals become when ruled entirely by their worst, “verminous” impulses.
- Their capital is Blight City, a “ramshackle metropolis” in its own sub-realm that “gnaw[s] at the roots of reality”. 🧀
👑 DEEP DIVE: The Flesh-eater Courts (Death)
- The Concept: This is the faction with the “1-2 combo” of humor 😂 and horror 😱. They are “courts of madness”. On the surface, they’re hordes of ravenous, cannibalistic ghouls. 🧟 But they are “utterly convinced that their cannibalistic feasts are splendid and grandiose visions of nobility”. 🧐
- Aesthetics: To an outsider: horrific, naked, filth-covered cannibals feasting on corpses. 🤢 To themselves: Shining knights in polished armor ✨, noble ladies in fine silks 💃, and regal kings sitting on golden thrones. 👑
- The Grand Delusion:
- This isn’t simple madness. It’s a magical curse 🪄, an “infectious madness” spread by their leaders, the Abhorrant Ghoul Kings (who are themselves a line of monstrous, delusional vampires).
- This delusion is shared. It’s a psychic aura. A ghoul “sees themself as a regal knight, [and] all the other ghoul[s] will sees them as a knight”. 🤯 It’s a collective, magical hallucination.
- Culture, Feasts & Rituals:
- Their daily life is a horrific parody of a noble, chivalric court.
- Feasts: They “gather feasts made from the flesh of the living and the dead”. 🍽️
- Rituals: A “promotion” in the court involves being “blessed to drink a cup of the king’s blood.” 🍷 In their minds, they “understand as drinking wine from their master’s table”.
- Culture: They create “art.” 🎨 They have “heraldry on it[heir] throne”. They build altars.
- Rationalization: How do they explain… oddities? The lore addresses this. How do they rationalize their monstrous mutations? Wings are seen as “a divine blessing” or proof that they are “angelic figures” 😇 or riding a “Pegasus”. 🐎 Their giant, monstrous leaders are rationalized as “riding a mighty hippogriff”. It’s “dream logic”. 😴
- The Grand Delusion is arguably the most profound metaphor in Warhammer Age of Sigmar. It’s a terrifying, heartbreaking exploration of delusion, trauma, and the human need to create meaning. 💔 They are victims of a magical plague who have, in response, constructed an entire, functional, and noble society to cope with their horrific reality.
- They’re not “evil” in the traditional sense. In their minds, they are the heroes. 🦸 When a Ghoul King sees a procession of ghosts, his delusion makes him see “frightened refugees.” He then “raised his armies to ‘protect’ them”. They are good, chivalrous people trapped in a horrific existence, and their minds have broken to protect them. This is Don Quixote as a horror movie, and it’s the perfect 1-2 punch of horror and tragedy.
- Key Character: Ushoran, Mortarch of Delusion. He’s the “progenitor” of the curse, the “Carrion King,” and the “Mad King of ghouls”. 👑
🦴 DEEP DIVE: The Ossiarch Bonereapers (Death)
- The Concept: Nagash’s perfect, elite, soulless army. 🦾 These are not the mindless skeletons of old. They are “bone golems“, a “brand-new form of unlife”. Each one is “purpose-built for war” and “constructed from the bones and souls of dozens or even hundreds of mortals” by “artisan[s]” called Mortisans. 🧑🎨
- Aesthetics: A “Roman empire made by bone golems“. 🏛️ They’re an army of perfect, unnatural bone-constructs, often with multiple faces or arms, clad in ornate, funereal armor.
- Society: The Necrotopia 🥶
- This is Nagash’s grand vision for the cosmos: a “lifeless Necrotopia”. It’s a “hellish utopia“.
- The Ossiarch Bonereapers are a terrifying metaphor for totalitarian, collectivist order. 📏 They are what happens when “civilization” is taken to its absolute, logical, and soulless extreme.
- Social Structure: They have a “strict caste system”. 📋 You are created for a “designated role” (soldier, general, artisan) and “you can never rise in rank, but can fall… as a punishment”.
- The “Soul”: Their souls are “gestalt”. 🧩 The Mortisans “splice” them together “from a blend of spiritual shards”. During this creation, “useless notions of mercy and compassion are discarded”. 🚫
- The “Utopia”: In their perfect bone-cities, they “build what they are supposed to, make their art… bow to their rulers, and then go back to their perfunctory homes… And they are happy about it”. 😱 Why? Because “every part of them that would desire more has been chiseled off of their gestalt souls”. They aren’t “evil” in the chaotic sense; they’re the ultimate, sterile, bureaucratic tyranny.
- The Bone Tithe:
- This is their primary “cultural” interaction. They are the “bone IRS“. 💰 They “ask” their mortal vassals for a “Bone Tithe“—a “regular offering of bone matter”.
- How mortals acquire this bone is “irrelevant”. 🤷
- Some dig up graves. ⚰️
- Some are forced to “cut off limbs to make enough to match the tithe”. 🔪
- Sometimes, the Ossiarchs “just give an outrageously high tithe demand… and then use that as an excuse to kill everyone and harvest their bones that way”. 💀
- This is all managed by the Master of the Bone Tithe.
- Key Character: Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis. One of the “finest strategic minds to walk the realms”. 🧐 He’s Nagash’s supreme general and the ruler of the Ossiarch legions. 🎖️
🍄 DEEP DIVE: The Gloomspite Gitz (Destruction)
- The Concept: A “loose coalition” of Moonclan Grots (goblins 👺), Spiderfang Grots (goblins on giant spiders 🕷️), and Troggoths (trolls 👹).
- Aesthetics: “Frenzied mushrooms and endless night”. 🍄 Their models are “wacky and fun” 🤪, featuring bouncing, fang-filled “Squigs” (think rabid red beach balls with teeth), mushroom-addled shamans, and black-robed goblins. But this humor hides a deep menace; the novel Gloomspite is described as a “cracking good horror” story. 📖
- Religion & Culture: The Bad Moon 🌙
- The Gitz are “united in the worship of the Bad Moon“.
- This isn’t a metaphor. The Bad Moon is an “actual astral body” 😲, a “malevolent celestial body” that hurtles erratically through the cosmos.
- Its “malevolent influence” shines down on the realms, causing the “gloomspite“—a “frenzied energy that compels them to kill and swarm out of their lairs”. 😵
- This faction perfectly blends horror and humor. They’re a terrifyingly alien force of nature (worshipping a malevolent, sentient moon) that is also darkly hilarious. 😂 They represent madness, anarchy, and the terror of the dark, damp, unknown places of the world. 😨
- Skragrott’s Fungal Asylum:
- This is a perfect piece of Warhammer Age of Sigmar lore. Skragrott the Loonking is the Gitz’ leader, and he’s the only one who can predict the Bad Moon’s erratic path. 🔮
- How? He created a “secret… sub-dimension” called the Fungal Asylum. 🍄
- He kidnaps mortal “scryers and seers” from other races.
- He then uses his magic staff to transform them into “wailing prophetic fungus” called “Scryshrooms“. 🤯
- He then “divines the future” by listening to their “mad babblings”. 😵 This is the “funny and profound” combo in its purest form.
🟢 DEEP DIVE: The Orruk Warclans (Destruction)
- The Concept: The Orruks (Orcs) of the Mortal Realms. They are the avatars of Gorkamorka, the God of Destruction. 👊 They are divided by philosophy: “Brutal but Kunnin’” and “Kunnin’ but Brutal“.
- Aesthetics & Sub-factions:
- Ironjawz: The “Brutal” side. 💥 They’re the “biggest and toughest orruks,” clad in “heavy plate armour” (which they call ‘pig-iron’) and riding giant, tusked “Maw-Krushas” (which look like dragons that skipped leg day 🦖).
- Kruleboyz: The “Kunnin’” side. 🤫 A “newest threat” to the realms, these are lanky, sneaky, and cruel Orruks who dwell in swamps. They use poison ☠️, traps, and lumbering swamp-beasts to win.
- Culture: The Waaagh! 📣
- This is their unifying force. The Waaagh! is not just a warcry. It’s a “spiritual energy” ✨, a “magical energy that can be utilized by shamans”. It’s a “frenzied energy” (like the Gloomspite) that builds in the Orruks, drawing in other Destruction races, until it explodes in a “campaign of brutal violence”. 🌪️
- Rituals & Beliefs:
- Orruk magic (“Lore of the Weird” 🌀) is just percussive belief. 🥁 Their priests are shamans who literally pound on things until reality changes. Their “prayers” include:
- “Fixin’ Beat“: A “hammered beat” that is “invigorating, healing a nearby Ironjawz unit”. ❤️🩹
- “Get ’em Beat“: A “pounding beat” that “inspires nearby Ironjawz to charger harder at their foes”. 🏃♂️
- Their “spells” include headbutting the air so hard it projects “a wave of green energy that seeks out enemy bosses to nut”. 🤕
- Orruk magic (“Lore of the Weird” 🌀) is just percussive belief. 🥁 Their priests are shamans who literally pound on things until reality changes. Their “prayers” include:
- Key Characters: Gordrakk, the Fist of Gork, is the “Main Character” of Destruction, the biggest Ironjawz Megaboss. 💪 He recently gained a rival in Kragnos, the End of Empires, an ancient, centauroid “God of Earthquakes” 🐃 who was freed by the Necroquake and immediately joined the party.
📺 Part 6: Your Journey Begins – The Warhammer Age of Sigmar Media Guide
You have the lore. You have the philosophy. Now, it’s time to experience the realms. 🤩 This is your spoiler-free guide to the novels, games, and shows of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.
🧭 The Core Philosophy: Where to Start Your Journey
The Warhammer Age of Sigmar universe is vast. The “best” place to start depends on what kind of explorer you are. Do you want the 30,000-foot view? 🦅 The ground-level story? 🕵️ Or do you want to get your hands dirty? 🛠️
This table provides a simple “Starter Kit” for your journey.
Table 4: Your Warhammer Age of Sigmar Media Journey (Starter Kit) 🎁
| Media Type | The “Quick & Dirty” Start ⚡ | The “Deep Lore” Start 📜 | The “I Learn By Doing” Start 🛠️ |
| Animation 🎬 | Blacktalon on Warhammer+ | Hammer and Bolter: “Double or Nothing” | N/A |
| Novel 📚 | City of Secrets by Nick Horth | Soul Wars by Josh Reynolds | N/A |
| Game 🎮 | Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin | Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound (TTRPG) 🎲 | Warhammer Age of Sigmar (The Tabletop Game) 🧑🎨 |
📚 The Novels: Where to Start with Black Library
The Black Library is the publishing arm of Games Workshop. Its novels are the single best way to absorb the Warhammer Age of Sigmar lore.
Best Beginner Novels (Spoiler-Free)
- City of Secrets & The Silver Shard (by Nick Horth): This is the perfect “ground level look” at the setting. 🕵️ It follows the witch hunter Callis and Toll, a human-and-aelf detective duo, as they navigate the crime, politics, and cults of a City of Sigmar. It makes the world feel real.
- Soul Wars (by Josh Reynolds): This is the best overview of the grand, cosmic conflict. 🌌 It tells the story of the Necroquake and the subsequent war between the Stormcast Eternals and Nagash’s Nighthaunt legions. 👻 If you want to understand the “big picture,” start here.
- Gloomspite (by Andy Clark): If you want to understand the “horror” side of the setting, read this. 😱 It’s a “cracking good horror” novel that is “borderline apocalyptic”. It shows just how terrifying the “funny” goblin faction truly is. 🍄
Essential Character Sagas (The Classics)
- Gotrek Gurnisson: The ultimate legacy character. 🧔 Gotrek is a Slayer—a dwarf who has sworn an oath to find a glorious death in battle—from the Old World. He survived its destruction and was thrown into the Mortal Realms, and he is very angry about it. 😠 His novels are a fantastic “fish out of water” story, as this old-world avatar of rage (who is now voiced by the legendary BRIAN BLESSED in the audio dramas 🗣️) tries to make sense of a new, magical universe he hates. He’s accompanied by the new hero Maleneth.
- Gotrek Reading Order: Start with the audio drama Realmslayer. Then move to the novels: Ghoulslayer ➡️ Gitslayer ➡️ Soulslayer ➡️ Blightslayer.
- Hamilcar Bear-Eater: The first and most beloved AoS-native fan-favorite character. 🥰 Hamilcar is a “boisterous” Lord-Castellant of the Stormcast Eternals who “loves himself” as much as he loves Sigmar. 😂 He’s the star of the “most fun” Hammer and Bolter episode and the novel Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods. Start there.
The Main Story: Key Narrative Arcs
- The Realmgate Wars: This was the “launch” storyline for Warhammer Age of Sigmar (1st Edition), detailing Sigmar’s initial reconquest. ⚔️
- The Broken Realms Saga: This was the major narrative of the 2nd and 3rd Editions. 🐍 It details Morathi’s “diabolical plan” and “shattered” alliances, which resulted in her “ascension” to godhood.
- The Vermindoom & Hour of Ruin: This is the current 4th Edition (2024-2025) narrative. 🐀 It details the rise of the Skaven and the Great Horned Rat.
Upcoming & Recent Novels (2024-2025) 🗓️
- Verminslayer: Gotrek’s newest novel, set for a 2025 release.
- Ushoran: Mortarch of Delusion: A 2024 novel exploring the newly returned Carrion King. 👑
- Abraxia: Spear of the Everchosen: A 2024 novel focusing on one of Archaon’s new lieutenants.
- Gotrek and Maleneth: The Omnibus: A new omnibus collecting his novels, scheduled for 2025.
🎮 The Video Games: Controlling the Realms
The video game landscape for Warhammer Age of Sigmar is its biggest weakness and, simultaneously, its greatest opportunity. 😥 The community is desperate for a “breakout good game” on par with Total War (which is Fantasy) or Dawn of War (40k). The lack of a “killer app” video game is what holds AoS back from the pop culture dominance of its sci-fi sibling.
That said, there are several solid titles to explore.
Deep Dive: Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin (2023)
- Genre: Real-Time Strategy (RTS). 🖥️
- Spoiler-Free Review: This is the big one. It’s a “gorgeous” game 😍 with a “rich, character driven story” co-written by acclaimed Black Library author Gav Thorpe.
- How it Plays: This is not a base-building game like Command & Conquer or StarCraft. The gameplay is entirely tactical, focused on unit counters and capturing control points. It’s much more similar to Dawn of War II or Company of Heroes. 🧐
- Verdict: A solid game with a great campaign. Its multiplayer is “hampered by the lack of players”. 😕 It’s “pretty good” and absolutely “worth it on sale“. 💸
Other Digital Adventures
- Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground (2021): A turn-based, hex-grid strategy game, similar to Warhammer 40,000: Gladius.
- Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall (2021): A VR-only 🥽 action-adventure game where you play as a Stormcast Eternal.
- Mobile Games: There are several, including Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower (a dungeon crawler) 📱, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realm War (a card-game-RTS hybrid), and Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Champions (a TCG). 🃏 The official Warhammer Age of Sigmar App is a digital companion for the tabletop game.
Upcoming Games (2025-2026) 🚨
This is a critical finding for this guide: There are currently no major Warhammer Age of Sigmar video games announced on the 2025-2026 roadmap. 🚫 The “roadmap” articles you may find online refer to the release schedule for tabletop models and battletomes, not video games. This remains the franchise’s biggest missed opportunity.
🎬 The Animated Shows: Watching the War (Warhammer+)
Your best bet for Warhammer Age of Sigmar animation is the Warhammer+ streaming service.
- Blacktalon: A full, multi-episode series following a fan-favorite Stormcast Eternal, Neve Blacktalon. 🗡️ For many, this show “is what… got [them] into Age of Sigmar”.
- Hammer and Bolter: An anthology series.
- Must-Watch Episode: “Double or Nothing”. ⭐ This episode stars the one and only Hamilcar Bear-Eater. 😂 It’s the “most fun” episode of the entire anthology and perfectly captures his arrogant, boisterous, and heroic character.
UPCOMING: Sigmar’s Toll (September 2025) 🚀
This is the most important upcoming piece of Warhammer Age of Sigmar media.
- What It Is: A “new animated series” set for the Autumn 2025 season. 🍂
- Why It’s a Big Deal: It’s a three-part series and, crucially, the “first Age of Sigmar animation presented in a fully realistic style“. 😲
- This promises to be an “intense, cinematic entry point” to the setting and will likely set a new standard for Warhammer media. Keep your eyes peeled for this in September 2025! 🗓️
🎲 The Tabletop RPG: Living the Lore
If you want to live in the Mortal Realms, your best bet is the official tabletop roleplaying game, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound.
This game is designed from the ground up to perfectly emulate the “high fantasy” 🦸 and “mythic” 💥 feel of the setting. It’s the perfect contrast to the older, “grim and gritty” Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP).
The difference is one of philosophy.
- In WFRP, you “might play a literal rat catcher.” 🐀 A “single Orc can result in a TPK for a starting out group”. ☠️
- In Soulbound, you “have become death, destroyer of worlds. And then you start earning XP”. 💥
One reviewer perfectly summarized the tonal difference as “The Witcher vs. The Avengers“. 🦸♂️ Soulbound is an “excellent RPG for an epic fantasy”. It’s “deliberately over the top” and “high-powered”, casting you as heroes chosen by the gods to undertake impossible quests.
🚀 Part 7: Beyond the Realms – Where to Go Next?
Your journey is far from over. Warhammer Age of Sigmar is a universe that invites you to be a part of it.
🛠️ A Tool For Your Own Journey: Morphological Analysis
You were asked to find a way to “think outside the box” and “have fun.” So, let’s use a professional creative’s tool. Morphological Analysis is a “creative thinking tool” 🧠 developed by an astronomer named Fritz Zwicky for exploring “possible solutions to a multi-dimensional… complex problem”.
In simple terms, it’s a “Morphological Box”—a grid that helps you brainstorm new ideas by combining different parameters. 💡 The setting of Warhammer Age of Sigmar is “purposely vague” and a “sandbox”. 🏖️ It wants you to create your own stories.
Let’s use this tool to create our own faction. Just pick one item from each column.
Table 5: The “Create-A-Faction” Morphological Box 🎁
| Column 1: Home Realm | Column 2: Core Race | Column 3: Core Philosophy | Column 4: Tragic Flaw |
| Aqshy (Fire) 🔥 | Human 🧑🤝🧑 | Civilization / Order 🏙️ | They are haunted by their ancestors’ ghosts. 👻 |
| Ghur (Beasts) 🦁 | Aelf (Elf) 🧝 | Greed / Profit 💰 | Their emotions are literally toxic to them. 🤢 |
| Ulgu (Shadow) 🤫 | Duardin (Dwarf) 🧑🔧 | Delusion / False Nobility 👑 | They must consume memories to survive. 🧠 |
| Shyish (Death) 💀 | Undead Construct 🤖 | Primal Hunger 🍽️ | They are being slowly consumed by their own god. 😵 |
| Chamon (Metal) ⚙️ | Rat-men 🐀 | Pursuit of Perfection 💎 | They forget their own faces with every victory. 🎭 |
Try it. A race of Aelves from Ghur who live by a philosophy of Greed / Profit, but whose Emotions are literally toxic to them? That’s a Warhammer Age of Sigmar faction. ✅
A Duardin kingdom in Shyish obsessed with Civilization, but They must consume memories to survive? That’s a Warhammer Age of Sigmar faction. ✅ The possibilities are endless.
🌌 Crossovers: Does Warhammer Age of Sigmar Connect to 40k?
This is a common question. The short answer is: Kind of, but not really. 🤷♂️
The two universes (Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000) are separate. However, they share a “multiverse” connection through the Realm of Chaos. The four great Chaos Gods—Khorne 🩸, Tzeentch 🌀, Nurgle 🤢, and Slaanesh 💜—are the exact same beings in both universes.
There are other hints and fan theories, but for all narrative purposes, they’re separate stories.
❤️ If You Liked Warhammer Age of Sigmar, You’ll Love…
If this journey has lit a fire in you, here are other universes that share the same “mythic fantasy” DNA.
- Dungeons & Dragons (Planescape / Spelljammer): This is the most direct parallel. Planescape is a multiverse of “elemental realms” and “planes” connected by portals. 🚪 It shares the “cosmological” feel of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.
- Magic: The Gathering: A competing “multiverse” setting, with “Planeswalkers” who travel between worlds (called “planes”). 🃏
- The Stormlight Archive (by Brandon Sanderson): Compares on a power-level. ⚡ The Knights Radiant are “high-powered” heroes, and the series explores mental health (like Kaladin’s depression 😔) in a way that resonates deeply with the “flawed” heroes of the Stormcast Eternals.
- The Death Gate Cycle (by Weis & Hickman): A classic. A world “sundered… into multiple elemental realms”. 🌀
- Warcraft: A similar “big franchise, lots of tie in media” ⚔️, with a high-magic, high-conflict, colorful aesthetic.
- Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion: The original “Chaos” multiverse. 🗡️ If you like Archaon and the Slaves to Darkness, you must read the stories of Elric of Melniboné, the original Champion of Chaos.
🏁 Conclusion: Your Journey, Your Story
The central metaphor of Warhammer Age of Sigmar is rebirth. 🐦🔥
The destruction of the Old World was controversial, but it “happened”. It was a necessary fire that allowed a “phoenix” to rise from the ashes.
The entire setting is built on this theme. The Stormcast Eternals are reforged. ⚡ The Sylvaneth (tree-people 🌳) are reborn from soul-pods. Nagash seeks to remake all life into his perfect, deathless Necrotopia. 💀 The forces of Chaos seek to corrupt and change everything into their own image. 🔥
The Warhammer Age of Sigmar universe is vast, and much of it is “purposely vague”. This isn’t a flaw; it’s an invitation. 💌 It’s a “sandbox” 🏖️ designed for you to play in. The creators have given you the gods, the monsters, and the magic. Now, the story is yours to tell.
Your journey is just beginning. ✨
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