Part 1: The Soul of the Old World – Philosophy, Themes, and Vibe
Welcome to the Grimy, Grubby Heart of Fantasy 🖤
Let’s get one thing straight: this isn’t your typical high fantasy. 👑 There’s no shining, clear-cut “good guys” 😇, and evil isn’t some faraway shadow. 😈 Warhammer: The Old World is something else: a grimy, grubby, and grounded world that feels shockingly real.
Its greatest strength? It’s a twisted mirror of our own history, especially the chaotic European Renaissance and late Medieval periods. This isn’t a world of “long ago” myths. It’s a world of mud, blood, and black powder. 🩸💥 It’s a world where knights in shining armor 🐴 charge alongside (and sometimes over) soldiers firing crude, “cutting-edge” handguns. 🔫 It’s a world of faith 🙏 and superstition 👻, of new science 🧪 and political backstabbing 🔪, of steam-powered tanks ⚙️ and towering cathedrals ⛪.
This historical vibe is key. You don’t need to learn alien customs. You’re already familiar with the squalor, the class struggles, and the all-too-human corruption. 😒 Because the human stuff feels so real, the fantasy stuff—the magic ☄️, the daemons 👿, the rat-men in the sewers 🐀, and the monsters in the woods 🌲—feels immediate, invasive, and truly terrifying.
What is “Grimdark”? The Philosophy of a Hopeless World 😟
Warhammer (specifically its sci-fi sibling, Warhammer 40,000) literally invented the genre of “grimdark.” 🤘 But that term means more than just “dark and gritty” or violent. Grimdark, in the Warhammer sense, is a philosophy.
The defining feature of a grimdark setting is systemic failure. It’s a universe where institutions—governments 🏛️, religions 🙏, and social structures 👨👩👧👦—aren’t just flawed, they are systemically corrupt, broken, or doomed to fail. 🔥
In Warhammer: The Old World, doing the “right thing” is often impossible or pointless. The setting asks if moral clarity can even exist. 🤔 The Empire of Man, the biggest human nation, is a political mess on the verge of civil war, run by feuding, selfish nobles. 👑 The Kingdom of Bretonnia, a land of “chivalry,” is a functioning hypocrisy built on the brutal oppression of its peasants. 👩🌾 This is a world where even the “heroes” get a pass, because the whole system is rigged against morality.
The Paradoxical Hope: Why Warhammer: The Old World is Not Nihilistic 🤗
This is the profound emotional “punch” 🥊 that follows the grimdark “jab.” A world this bleak could just be nihilistic (meaningless), but Warhammer: The Old World smartly avoids that. Its core philosophy isn’t nihilistic; it’s tragic. 🎭
The setting’s “strange optimism” isn’t about the hope of winning. It’s about the power of endurance. 💪 Meaning isn’t found in success. Meaning is found in the individual’s choice to keep fighting, to hold the line, when the universe offers no hope of a happy ending. 💖
The 2024 revival of Warhammer: The Old World leans into this perfectly. The game is a prequel, set centuries before a world-ending apocalypse called “The End Times.” ⏳💥 This apocalypse is canon. It happens. We, the audience, know the world is doomed.
Some folks say this makes new stories “irrelevant.” We argue the exact opposite. This narrative structure is the setting’s most powerful device. It turns all of Warhammer: The Old World into a classic tragedy. 😭 We watch characters struggle, build, love, and hope, all while knowing their world, their struggles, and their entire civilization will eventually be consumed.
This foreknowledge doesn’t make their actions meaningless. It makes them profound. Every small victory, every act of defiance, every moment of hope ✨ is filled with a powerful, defiant pathos. The hope in Warhammer: The Old World isn’t the sweet hope of success. It’s the hard, bitter, and beautiful hope found only in defiance of a known, tragic fate.
A 1-2 Combo: The Gallows Humor That Makes the Dark Bearable 💀😂
A world this “grimy and grubby,” this soaked in tragedy, would be unbearable without a release valve. That valve is gallows humor. 😜
The humor of Warhammer: The Old World isn’t “comic relief” that breaks the tension; it’s a dark, cynical wit that comes from the horror. It’s the humor of Blackadder or Monty Python’s Holy Grail (which directly inspired Bretonnia!). It’s the laughter of soldiers in a muddy trench, of peasants who know they’re doomed. 🤷
This gallows humor is woven into the setting’s DNA:
- The Skaven: 🐀 An entire race of selfish, backstabbing rat-men whose grand, evil plans always, always fail because of their own egos and self-sabotage. They are a dark comedy of ambition.
- The Ogres: 🍗 Horrifying, gluttonous cannibals whose entire lore is, weirdly, written as violent slapstick.
- Gotrek & Felix: 🧔♂️👱♂️ The famous novel series perfectly balances epic tragedy with the cynical, witty banter of its two heroes.
- Warhammer: Vermintide 2: 🎮 This video game’s heroes, facing the literal apocalypse, cope by constantly trading witty, cynical, and hilarious insults.
This humor isn’t just a joke. It’s the philosophical buddy to the “paradoxical hope.” In a world where endurance is the only victory, gallows humor is the ultimate expression of that endurance. It’s the 1-2 punch of profound tragedy followed by a defiant, bitter laugh. 🤣
The Great Metaphor: The Eternal Struggle of Order vs. Chaos ☯️
The final philosophical pillar of Warhammer: The Old World is its central conflict. This isn’t just Good vs. Evil. 😇😈 It’s a far more complex and compelling struggle between two abstract, metaphysical concepts: Order and Chaos.
This whole idea was heavily inspired by the sci-fi author Michael Moorcock and his Elric saga.
- Chaos 🌀: This force isn’t innately “evil.” It’s the abstract concept of freedom. It’s the source of all passion, creativity, change, ambition, and life. But, taken to its extreme, Chaos “robs you of meaning” and “liberates you from sanity.” It’s freedom without limits, which becomes pure madness.
- Order (or Law) ⚖️: This force isn’t innately “good.” It’s the abstract concept of structure. It’s the source of all safety, society, reason, and stability. But, taken to its logical extreme, Order ends in “purity” and “unending stasis.” It’s structure without freedom, which becomes tyranny.
This distinction is the entire point of the setting. The profound tragedy of Warhammer: The Old World is that both extremes are equally undesirable. 😫
The “good” factions of Order, like the Empire and the High Elves, are deeply flawed because they trend toward oppressive stagnation, rigid hierarchies, and systemic cruelty. The “evil” factions of Chaos are compelling because they offer limitless freedom, power, and passion, but at the cost of your very self. 💔 The real, unwinnable war is the struggle to find a balance between these two crushing, metaphysical forces.
Part 2: The World That Was – A Deep Dive Into the Old World’s Fabric
A World of Black Powder 💥 and Bloody Swords ⚔️: The “Tech Level”
Warhammer: The Old World has a unique and deliberately messy technological fingerprint. It’s not a medieval world; it’s a world trapped in a violent, chaotic transition. 🌪️ Three distinct tech eras are forced to coexist on the same battlefield.
- Medieval Technology: 🏰 This is the world of knights in full plate armor, mighty castles, and stone-throwing trebuchets. It’s best represented by the Kingdom of Bretonnia, which actively scorns “modern” weapons.
- Renaissance Technology: 🔫 This is the “cutting edge.” The Dwarfs and the engineers of the Empire have harnessed the power of black powder. This brings cannons, mortars, crude but effective handguns, and pistols to the battlefield.
- Fantastical Technology: ⚙️ This is where science and magic collide. This includes the steam-powered, perpetually unreliable Steam Tanks of the Empire, the steam-driven Gyrocopters of the Dwarfs, and the utterly unhinged, warpstone-fueled technology of the Skaven.
A common question pops up: why’s tech so slow? 🐢 Guns have been around for ages, but swords still rule. This isn’t a plot hole; it’s a core theme.
Technological innovation is deliberately stifled. First, magic is a deterrent. Why spend a lifetime inventing a better rifle when a wizard can drop a comet on your enemies? ☄️ Second, the main innovators—the Dwarfs—are a deeply conservative race 👴 who distrust “newfangled” and “shoddy” contraptions. Finally, the world is in a constant state of survival. 😵 Endless, apocalyptic wars mean there’s no stable foundation for an industrial revolution. This technological stagnation is the story.
The Roaring Winds 🌬️: Magic in Warhammer: The Old World
Magic in Warhammer: The Old World isn’t the clean, safe, and academic magic of many fantasy settings. 🪄 It’s not a tool; it’s a force, and it’s fundamentally dangerous. ⚠️
The core idea is that all magic is raw, psychic energy flowing from the Realm of Chaos, an alternate dimension of pure emotion. 🌀 This energy blows into the real world in eight distinct “Winds” or “Colours.” 🌈 Each Wind matches a different aspect of existence and forms a “Lore” of magic. For example, Aqshy, the Red Wind, is the essence of fire and passion, used by Fire Mages. 🔥 Ulgu, the Grey Wind, is the essence of shadow and deception, used by Illusionists. 🌫️
The 2024 revival of Warhammer: The Old World makes a critical change. The new setting is before the legendary High Elf Teclis founded the Colleges of Magic. 🏫 This means that for humans, magic isn’t formalized yet. It’s more raw, disorganized, dangerous, and practiced by “Battle Wizards” and “Elementalists.” 🧙
The new tabletop game rules reflect this perfectly. In a major break from the past, there’s no separate ‘Magic Phase’. 🎲 Instead, magic is “even more prevalent” and is woven into every single phase of the game. Wizards cast spells in the Strategy phase, the Movement phase, the Shooting phase, and the Combat phase. 💥 This makes magic feel less like a fire-and-forget tool and more like an ever-present, chaotic, and uncontrollable force that saturates the whole battlefield.
The Gods of a Doomed World 🛐: Faith and Superstition
In the Old World, gods aren’t distant beings. They are real, flawed, tangible forces that grant power and demand sacrifice. The Empire of Man is a polytheistic society where many deities are openly worshipped. 🙏
The primary Human Pantheon includes:
- Sigmar: 💪 The patron god of the Empire. He was once a mortal man who united the human factions and became a god. He represents unity, civilization, and the state.
- Ulric: 🐺 The ancient god of winter, wolves, and war. He was the god worshipped by Sigmar himself! His cult is more primal and martial, and it maintains a fierce rivalry with the upstart Cult of Sigmar.
- Taal and Rhya: 🌳 The god and goddess of nature, the wild, and the harvest.
- Shallya: ❤️🩹 The goddess of mercy, healing, and compassion. She’s widely worshipped by the destitute and the suffering, especially in Bretonnia.
Other races have their own pantheons, like the Dwarfen Ancestor Gods 🍺, the intricate Elven Pantheon ✨, and the ancient Nehekharan gods of the Tomb Kings 🏺.
Faith is a part of daily life. It’s not just belief; it’s a series of tangible actions. Citizens say silent prayers (as blessings and curses), leave sacrifices at roadside shrines, attend temple ceremonies, and warriors shout battle prayers on the field. 🗣️ This faith is a desperate shield against the encroaching darkness.
Daily Life and Societal Squalor 🤢
For the vast majority of humans in Warhammer: The Old World, life… well, it stinks. 💩 It’s nasty, brutish, and short. The Empire of Man shows the rigid class structure that defines the setting.
- The Peasants: 👩🌾 This is the great majority of the population. Their lives are defined by grinding, seasonal labor. They’re crushed by taxes 💸, living in constant fear. They fear their nobles, they fear the endless wars, and they fear the Beastmen 🐐 and worse that haunt the forests just beyond their village walls.
- The Burghers & Merchants: 💰 This is the rising middle class in the cities. They’re the lifeblood of the economy, and a wealthy burgher might have more real power than a poor knight. This class is one of the few ways to move up in the world, yet they’re universally despised by the old nobility, who see them as “upstart peasants.” 😒
- The Nobles: 👑 This is the aristocracy. Their power is based on ancient bloodlines, land, and the soldiers they command. Their lives are a treacherous game of politics, strategic marriages, and protecting their privilege from… well, everyone.
This simmering class tension is the setting’s internal powder keg. 🧨 The nobles’ contempt for the burghers, and the peasants’ deep resentment of both, creates a deeply unstable society. This desperation, ambition, and inequality are the exact vulnerabilities that the Ruinous Powers of Chaos prey upon, making the Empire a fertile ground for corruption. 🤫
Crime and (Extreme) Punishment ⛓️🔥
Justice in Warhammer: The Old World is a brutal, public, and terrifying affair. 😱 The legal system cares less about justice and more about maintaining order and, above all, rooting out heresy.
Punishments are swift, violent, and theatrical, designed to inspire fear: the hangman’s noose 🪢 and the heretic’s pyre 🔥 are the most common sentences.
The greatest “crime” isn’t theft or murder. It’s any link to Chaos, mutation, or witchcraft. This is the domain of the Witch Hunters. 🕵️♂️ These individuals have terrifying power to investigate and pass judgment. They’re empowered to treat any crime as potential evidence of Chaotic taint. In one infamous example, an Imperial Witch Hunter had an entire town hanged for “Chaotic allegiance” when their real crime was just hiding grain from the tax collectors. 😬
This creates a society defined by profound paranoia. 😵💫 A failed crop, a deformed calf, or a personal feud with a neighbor could all lead to an accusation of heresy and a burning stake. This all-consuming fear is, paradoxically, what allows true threats to flourish. The Skaven Under-Empire, a literal civilization of “rat-men” 🐀, thrives beneath the Empire’s cities precisely because the authorities are trained to think anyone talking about “rat-men” is just delusional. 🤪 It’s the perfect, grimdark Catch-22.
Part 3: The Forces of Fantasy – A Guide to the “Good” Factions 😇
The factions of Warhammer: The Old World are split into two main categories, collected in two core rulebooks: Forces of Fantasy and Ravening Hordes. The Forces of Fantasy represent the “good” or “Order” aligned factions, though as we’ve seen, “good” is a very relative term. 😉
Table: The Factions of Warhammer: The Old World
This table gives a high-level overview of all major factions, their core identity, and their real-world inspiration, which is a key, unique part of the setting.
| Faction | Classification | Summary | Real-World Inspiration |
| The Empire of Man 🦁 | Core (Forces of Fantasy) | A fractured, renaissance-era human empire of faith, steel, and gunpowder. 💥 | Holy Roman Empire (c. 1500s) |
| Kingdom of Bretonnia ⚜️ | Core (Forces of Fantasy) | A feudal kingdom of noble knights 🐴, oppressed peasants 👩🌾, and Arthurian chivalry. | Medieval France & Arthurian Legend |
| Dwarfen Mountain Holds 🏔️ | Core (Forces of Fantasy) | A declining, stubborn race of miners and engineers obsessed with grudges 📓 and gold 💰. | Norse/Germanic Mythology, Viking Sagas |
| High Elf Realms 🏝️ | Core (Forces of Fantasy) | An ancient, aristocratic, and arrogant race of master mages Mages from a magical island. 🪄 | Mythical Atlantis, Plato’s Republic |
| Wood Elf Realms 🌳 | Core (Forces of Fantasy) | Isolationist, wild elves in a dangerous, symbiotic bond with a sentient forest. 🌲 | Celtic Mythology (Wild Hunt), English Folklore |
| Tomb Kings of Khemri 💀 | Core (Ravening Hordes) | An undead empire of souled skeletons seeking to restore their ancient, golden age. 🏺 | Ancient Egypt |
| Warriors of Chaos 🌀 | Core (Ravening Hordes) | Mortal tribes from the north who worship the dark gods, seeking power and mutation. 👿 | Vikings, Huns, Goths; Moorcock’s Elric |
| Beastmen Brayherds 🐐 | Core (Ravening Hordes) | Feral, anarchic mutants who despise all civilization and haunt the world’s forests. 🌲 | Pan-European “Wild Man” Myths, Satyrs |
| Orc & Goblin Tribes 🟢 | Core (Ravening Hordes) | A unruly, simple-minded green-skinned horde that exists only for the joy of a good fight. 👊 | Classic Fantasy Tropes, Mob Mentality |
| Skaven 🐀 | Legacy (PDF 📄) | A secret, backstabbing race of humanoid rats with brilliant-but-unstable tech. ⚡ | The Black Death, Paranoia |
| Vampire Counts 🧛 | Legacy (PDF 📄) | Soulless, aristocratic vampires commanding mindless undead hordes. 🧟 | Hammer Horror, Dracula |
| Other Legacy Factions | Legacy (PDF 📄) | Dark Elves, Lizardmen, Ogre Kingdoms, Daemons of Chaos, Chaos Dwarfs. |
The Empire of Man 🦁: The Bastion of Hypocrisy
- The Fractured Heart: Empire Society & PoliticsThe Empire is the largest and most powerful nation of Man in Warhammer: The Old World, but its defining feature is that they just can’t get along. 🤦 It’s a direct copy of the historic Holy Roman Empire.It’s an “elective monarchy” 🗳️, not an absolute one. The Emperor isn’t an all-powerful ruler. Real power is held by the 10 Elector Counts who rule the provinces, plus other key electors (like religious leaders). 👑 These rulers are fiercely independent, have their own powerful, uniformed “State Troops” 💂, and frequently ignore the Emperor. This friction often explodes into open rebellion and civil war.This fractured system is the central grimdark theme of the Empire. It’s the supposed bastion of humanity, yet it’s too busy fighting itself to deal with the real bad guys. 😬 This internal rot is its defining tragedy.
- A Crisis of Faith: The Cults of Sigmar and Ulric 🙏The Empire is polytheistic, but its spiritual life is defined by a rivalry between its two most powerful cults.
- The Cult of Sigmar: 💪 Worships the founder of the Empire, Sigmar Heldenhammer. It’s the official state religion, a force for political unity, and represents the “proper” part of the Empire. The Cult of Ulric: 🐺 This is the older, more primal cult. Ulric is the god of war, winter, and wolves. Sigmar himself was an Ulrican! This cult is martial, grim, and centered in the northern city of Middenheim.This religious tension mirrors the political tension. It’s a struggle between civilization (Sigmar) and primal strength (Ulric). This split has caused full-blown civil wars in the past ⚔️ and remains a constant, destabilizing fault line.
- Puff, Slash, and Gunpowder: Empire Aesthetics & Military 🎨The look of the Empire is one of its most iconic features, drawn right from the German Landsknecht mercenaries of the Renaissance.The aesthetic is “puff and slash”: flamboyant, colorful, and often mismatched uniforms with slashed sleeves and feathered hats. 🎩 This look reflects their military, which is a “combined arms” force where medieval and renaissance tech collide. Their armies are disciplined blocks of State Troops (halberdiers, spearmen, swordsmen) ⚔️, supported by the “new” tech of handgunners and cannons. 🔫 This infantry core is anchored by heavy cavalry from the Knightly Orders 🐴 and, in the timeline of Warhammer: The Old World, by disorganized but powerful elementalist and battle wizards. ☄️
The Kingdom of Bretonnia ⚜️: Chivalry’s Dark Joke
- The Two-Class World: Bretonnian SocietyThe Kingdom of Bretonnia is a land of stunning beauty and profound, soul-crushing hypocrisy. 😬 It’s a rigid, patriarchal feudal society based on medieval France and romantic Arthurian legend.Bretonnian society is cleanly split in two:
- The Nobility (Knights): 🐴 The 1% who rule. All male nobles are knights. Their entire life revolves around honor, glory, war, and a strict Code of Chivalry.
- The Peasantry (Serfs): 👩🌾 The 99% who serve. They are not free. They are brutally oppressed serfs, viewed by the nobility as almost sub-human. 🤢 They live in filth, are forbidden from education, and face starvation-level taxes, like the infamous “9/10ths tax” on their crops. 💸
- The Lady of the Lake: Faith, Secrets, and the Grail 💧The national religion is the Cult of the Lady of the Lake. She’s the patron goddess of chivalry and honor, the mystical being who grants blessings to her knights ✨ and sets them on the “Grail Quest”—a holy journey to find her and become a blessed, super-human Grail Knight.This cult is one of the few places in the Old World where women hold absolute, respected power. 💃 The cult is led by the Fay Enchantress, who technically outranks the King, and her attendant Damsels.However, this faith is another tool of class division. The peasantry is forbidden from worshiping the Lady directly, upon pain of death. 🚫 They’re considered “unworthy.” Instead, the peasants pray to other Old World gods, especially Shallya (goddess of mercy), for release from their suffering.The true nature of the Lady of theLake is the setting’s most profound and closely guarded secret. 🤫 It’s a truth that, if revealed, would shatter Bretonnian society. This secret reframes their entire culture, not as a divinely inspired quest for honor, but as a form of grand, albeit protective, manipulation.
- The Code of Chivalry: Philosophy and MilitaryBretonnian knights live and die by the Code Chivalric. Its commandments sound noble: “Serve the Lady,” “Defend the Domain,” “Protect the weak and fight for the right.” ❤️The hypocrisy, of course, is in the execution. “Protect the weak” is interpreted as protecting the weak from outside threats like Orcs, not from the nobility itself. 🙄 The code also famously forbids knights from using “dishonourable” ranged weapons like bows. 🏹❌This philosophy is perfectly mirrored in their military:
- Knights: 🐴 The army’s heart. Glorious, multi-colored units of the most powerful heavy cavalry in the Old World, divided by rank: young Knights Errant, veteran Knights of the Realm, holy Questing Knights, and the divine Grail Knights.
- Peasants: 💀 The army’s… chaff. Wretched, disposable levies of Men-at-Arms (spearmen) and Peasant Bowmen. They are marched onto the field in mobs to absorb enemy arrows and charges, dying in droves so that the knights can win the “real,” honorable-feeling fight. 😑
The Dwarfen Mountain Holds 🏔️: A People of Grudge and Gold
- A Culture of Decline: Society and Clans the Dwarfs (or Dawi, in their own tongue) are an ancient, proud, and declining race. 📉 Their golden age, when their mighty mountain-spanning empire was the envy of the world, is long over. Their society is rigid, traditional, patriarchal, and organized around two pillars: the family Clan 👨👩👧👦 and the massive, underground fortress-cities known as Karaks or Holds. 🏰The absolute engine of Dwarfen culture, however, is the Great Book of Grudges, or Dammaz Kron. 📓 This is not a metaphor. It is a literal, ancient book 📖, held by the Dwarfen High King, in which is recorded every single wrong, slight, or insult ever done to the Dwarfen race, from the burning of a hold to a trade deal with a short-changed payment. A grudge is written in the King’s blood 🩸 and can only be struck out after it has been avenged, whether through gold 💰 or (more often) blood. 🪓This Grudge system is the central metaphor for the Dwarfen people. It’s their greatest strength, giving them a unifying purpose and an unbreakable, stubborn resolve. It is also their most profound weakness. The Dwarfs are defined by their past. They are culturally incapable of moving on, forgiving, or adapting. 🤷 This unyielding conservatism is precisely why their once-great empire now lies in ruins, with most of their mighty Karaks lost to Greenskins and Skaven.
- Ancestors and Engineers: Religion and Technology ⚙️Dwarfs are not a spiritual people in the human sense. They distrust “newfangled” magic. 🪄 Instead, they revere their Ancestor Gods, who were the first of their race. Their temples are places of reflection and honoring tradition, not of worship. The main Ancestor Gods are:
- Grungni: ⛏️ The Father, god of mining, metalwork, and craft. Alaya: 🍺 The Earthmother, goddess of the hearth, healing, and (critically) brewing. Grimnir: 🪓 The Fearless, the ultimate warrior god. Gazul: 👻 The grim Lord of the Underearth, who protects the spirits of the dead.
- Runes: ✨ A reliable, “safe” form of magic bound directly into metal, allowing Runesmiths to craft weapons and armor of immense power. Black Powder: 💥 Dwarfs are the masters of gunpowder, fielding the most reliable cannons, organ guns (a r
The Elven Realms 🧝: Arrogance and Isolation
- A Sundered People: High Elves vs. Wood Elves Like the Dwarfs, the Elves are an ancient, fading race. ⏳ Biologically, all Elves in Warhammer: The Old World are one species. Their dramatic differences are purely cultural and philosophical, born from a cataclysmic civil war in their ancient past known as “The Sundering.” 💔
- The High Elves (Asur): 🏛️ These are the “aristocrats” of the world. 🧐 They live on the magical, fortified island-continent of Ulthuan. 🏝️ Their society is rigid, highly p
- The Wild Woods: Athel Loren and the Forest SpiritsFor the Wood Elves, their society is the forest. Athel Loren is not just a location; it’s a character. 🌲❤️ It’s a deeply magical place where time flows differently, and glades can be locked in eternal winter or endless spring.The Asrai live in a symbiotic, and often tense, relationship with the forest’s original, awakened inhabitants: the Forest Spirits. These include the mischievous Dryads, the mighty Treemen, and the ancient, sorrowful Ancients like Durthu.Their society is led by the demigod-like avatars of their forest gods, King Orion and Queen Ariel. Orion, in particular, embodies the “Wild Hunt” 🐎, a primal, terrifying force that periodically rampages out of the forest. The Wood Elves’ primary motivation is isolationism. Their goal is the protection of their forest home. They are described as “neither truly good nor evil” 😐; they will just as quickly slaughter a trespassing Bretonnian peasant as they will a rampaging Beastman.
Part 4: The Ravening Hordes – A Guide to the “Evil” & “Destructive” Factions 😈
The Ravening Hordes rulebook 📕 collects the primary antagonists of Warhammer: The Old World. This isn’t one “evil” bloc; rather, it’s a collection of factions motivated by starkly different philosophies of undeath, destruction, anarchy, and chaos.
The Tomb Kings of Khemri 💀🏺: Order in Undeath
- The 2024 Revival: The Kings Have Returned 👑The January 2024 launch of Warhammer: The Old World was spearheaded by the glorious return of the Tomb Kings of Khemri. This was their first major re-release since the end of the original Warhammer Fantasy Battle game.Critically, they aren’t just “back”; they are the driving force of the new narrative. 📜 The first major supplement, Arcane Journal: War of Settra’s Fury, details a massive, full-scale invasion launched by the great king Settra the Imperishable. This places the Tomb Kings as the setting’s current primary aggressors.
- The Philosophy of Undeath: Why They Are NOT Vampire CountsThis is the most crucial distinction for any new person to understand. ⚠️ The Old World has two major undead factions, and they are philosophical opposites.
- The Vampire Counts (a Legacy faction) are parasites. 🦟 They are selfish, soulless, rotting corpses who use dark magic (Necromancy) to animate and enslave mindless skeletons and zombies as cannon fodder. 🧟
- The Tomb Kings are people. 🧑🤝🧑 They are the entire original human civilization of Nehekhara, brought back from the afterlife by a Great Ritual. Crucially, this ritual didn’t just reanimate their bones; it called their souls back from the underworld and bound them to their skeletal bodies.
- Religion, Magic, and AestheticsThe aesthetic of the Tomb Kings is a pure, classic, and fantastical vision of Ancient Egypt. 🏜️ Their armies consist of mummified kings, endless legions of skeletal warriors in Egyptian regalia, fast-moving skeleton chariots 🐎, and massive, animated temple statues known as Ushabti. 🗿They still “worship” their ancient Nehekharan pantheon of desert gods (Ptra, God of the Sun ☀️; Asaph, Goddess of Vengeance 🐍; etc.). However, their relationship with their gods is… complicated. Their greatest king, Settra, famously “does not serve” 🚫; he views his gods as allies, not masters.Their magic is practiced by the Mortuary Cult. 🕯️ This is not the dark Necromancy of the Vampires. It is a form of high ritual magic, practiced by the immortal Liche Priests, which is designed to preserve, awaken, and maintain the spirits of the dead, not defile and enslave them. The Liche Priests are the ones who channel the magic that keeps the undead legions animated.
The Warriors of Chaos 🌀: Slaves to Freedom
- The Northern Factions: A Society of Ambition. The “Warriors of Chaos” are not a single, unified nation. They are a collection of human barbarian groups (like the Norscans and Kurgans) who eke out a brutal existence in the frozen, Chaos-tainted north. 🥶Their society is brutal and simple, based on strength and survival. The strongest warrior rules… until a stronger one kills them. ⚔️ These factions worship the four Chaos Gods and live to raid the “proper” and “weak” lands of the south. The “Path to Glory” 🛤️ is the core of their philosophy. Anyone from any race can become a Warrior of Chaos. It’s a choice: a mortal dedicates their life and soul to one of the Dark Gods in a desperate bargain for power, freedom, or glory. 🙏
- The Four Gods: Philosophy of the Ruinous PowersThis is the philosophical heart of the faction. The four great Chaos Gods aren’t just “evil deities”; they are the sentient, psychic reflections of all mortal emotions, gathered in the alternate dimension known as the Realm of Chaos.
- Khorne: 🩸 The Blood God. He is the embodiment of all rage, violence, anger, and martial pride.
- Tzeentch: 🔮 The Changer of Ways. He is the embodiment of all hope, ambition, scheming, change, and magic.
- Nurgle: 🤢 The Plague Lord. He is the embodiment of all despair, entropy, decay, and the twisted “acceptance” and “rebirth” that comes from it.
- Slaanesh: 💜 The Dark Prince. He is the embodiment of all excess, passion, desire, love, and the drive for perfection.
- “Gifts” and Mutation: The Metaphor of ChaosWhen a mortal warrior pleases their chosen god, they are given “gifts” as a reward. 🎁These gifts are physical mutations. The warrior’s body warps and changes: they may grow an extra arm 🐙, skin of iron, demonic features, or inhuman strength. This is the central metaphor of Chaos. The “gifts” are a physical representation of the warrior losing their humanity 💔, their self, to the single, all-consuming ideal their god represents.This “Path to Glory” has only two possible endings:
- Chaos Spawn: 😵 The fate of the vast majority. The warrior’s body and mind can’t handle the “gifts” and collapse. They devolve into a mindless, roaring mass of mutated flesh.
- Daemon Prince: 👿 The ultimate reward. The champion’s humanity is burned away entirely, and they are “ascended,” reborn as an immortal, all-powerful Daemon Prince, a true extension of their god’s will.
The Beastmen Brayherds 🐐: The Anarchy of Nature
- The Boogeymen in the Woods: Society and MotivationThe Beastmen (or Brayherds) are the true children of Chaos. 🐐 They are the primal “boogeymen” hiding in the dark forests and lonely wilderness of Warhammer: The Old World. 🌲👻 They are a terrifying mix of human cunning and primal, animal fury.Their origin is a source of horror for civilization. Beastmen are often born as mutants to human parents, who then abandon the “tainted” child in the woods to die. 😥 These children are “adopted” by the Brayherds and raised in a brutal, cutthroat society.This origin fuels their core philosophy. The Beastmen’s motivation is simple, primal, and profound: a burning, anarchic hatred of all civilization. 🔥🏛️ They hate the Empire and Bretonnia not just for what they do, but for what they are: symbols of Order, walls, farms, and structures that seek to tame the wild. They are anarchists 🏴 who despise all gods and all masters, seeking only to tear down the world and return it to a primal, bloody state. They are “pure rage incarnate,” 😡 a living metaphor for the untamable “id” that civilization desperately, and fruitlessly, tries to pave over.
- Beastmen vs. Warriors vs. OrcsLet’s clear this up, because it’s vital for a new person to distinguish the three great “horde” factions: 💡
- Orcs fight for the joy of a good scrap. 💪
- Warriors of Chaos fight for power and divine glory. 🙏
- Beastmen fight out of pure hatred and the desire to destroy. 😡
The Orcs & Goblins 🟢: The Green Menace
- Da Simple Philosophy: Gork and MorkThe Orcs & Goblins (or Greenskins) are, on the surface, the simplest and perhaps most “fun” faction in Warhammer: The Old World. 🥳Their philosophy is brutally simple: might makes right, and fighting is the sole point of existence. 👊 They don’t build, they don’t farm; they fight.Their religion is a perfect reflection of this. They worship two gods, Gork and Mork. 💚 This is where the setting’s gallows humor shines brightest. The one and only philosophical difference between their two gods is that “one is brutally cunning, and the other is cunningly brutal.” 🤣 The Greenskins themselves do not know, and do not care, which is which. It’s a perfect satire of complex theology. The only philosophy is to “punch first, ask which god later.”
- The WAAAGH! 📣: Society and WarfareGreenskin society is a violent, shifting food chain. 🔺 The biggest, strongest, and most brutal Orc is the Warboss. 👑 He rules absolutely… until another Orc grows big and strong enough to kill him and take over.Their unique “magic” is the WAAAGH!. ⚡ This is a collective psychic energy, an atmosphere of raw, green power, that is generated by a large, excited group of Greenskins. This energy makes them stronger, tougher, and more eager for a fight. The word WAAAGH! is used to describe this energy, the massive war cry that unleashes it 🗣️, and the massive, rampaging holy war (or, more accurately, giant mob) that results from it.The army itself is a chaotic but effective dynamic duo:
- Orcs: They are the brawn. Big, strong, green, and brutal. 💪 They form the battle line and ride giant, foul-tempered boars. 🐗
- Goblins: They are the brains… such as they are. 🧠 Goblins are small, numerous, cowardly, and cunning. They make up for their weakness with numbers and a bizarre array of “bizarre gizmos,” including:
- Fanatics: 😵💫 Goblins wildly swinging giant balls-and-chains.
- Doom Diver Catapults: 🚀 A catapult that launches a winged, helmeted Goblin as a living, steerable missile.
Part 5: The Legacy Factions – Ghosts of the Old World 👻
An exhaustive guide to Warhammer: The Old World must also cover the factions that aren’t in the new core rulebooks. These are the “Legacy” factions, the “ghosts” of the setting’s past who still haunt its fringes.
Why “Legacy”? A Guide to the Factions on the Sidelines 🤔
When Warhammer: The Old World was relaunched in 2024, Games Workshop announced that several factions from the original game—most notably Skaven, Vampire Counts, Dark Elves, Lizardmen, and Ogre Kingdoms—would be “Legacy” factions.
This means two critical things: ✌️
- They Have Rules: 📄 These factions are playable in Warhammer: The Old World! Full, free army lists were provided as downloadable PDFs.
- They Are Not Supported: 🚫 This is the catch. “Legacy” means they aren’t considered “legal” for official tournaments. 🏆 More importantly, they will not receive new models and are not part of the new, ongoing narrative.
The reason for this is twofold. First, it’s a meta-narrative choice to avoid “cannibalizing” sales from Warhammer: Age of Sigmar 💸, the “sequel” game where many of these factions (like Skaven and Lizardmen/Seraphon) are core, active parts of the setting.
Second, it’s a narrative choice. The new game is Warhammer: The Old World. By sidelining factions from other continents (like the Lizardmen of Lustria 🦎 or the Dark Elves of Naggaroth 🧝♀️), the designers have focused the story 🗺️, making it a more intimate and grounded tale about the conflicts within that specific geographical region. The current narrative is tightly focused on Settra’s invasion from the south 💀 and the Chaos raids from the north 🌀, allowing these events to breathe.
The Skaven Under-Empire 🐀: The Rat in the Walls
The Skaven are, for many, the quintessential Warhammer race. They are a secret, underground empire of humanoid rat-men 🐀, living in a sprawling “Under-Empire” that mimics and tunnels beneath every major city of the surface world.
Their society is a perfect, darkly comic parody of the Empire’s worst traits. It’s built on three pillars:
- Innate Paranoia: 😵 Skaven believe, correctly, that every other Skaven is plotting to kill them.
- Reflexive Backstabbing: 🔪 The only way to advance in Skaven society is to assassinate your superior and take their job.
- Delusion: 🤪 They are ruled by the Council of Thirteen. 1️⃣3️⃣ This is a body of the twelve most powerful Warlords, with the thirteenth, most important seat left empty, reserved for their god, the Great Horned Rat.
Their god is the key to their philosophy. The Great Horned Rat 🧀 is not one of the main four Chaos Gods. He is a separate, though equally powerful, entity. He is the Chaos God of Ruin and Entropy. 📉
He is born from the most base and selfish of all mortal emotions: desperation. 😩 He is the psychic echo of “the peasant who devours their family rather than starve.” The Skaven are his children, a perfect metaphor for the self-serving, verminous, treacherous, and ultimately self-defeating parts of the mortal soul.
The Vampire Counts 🧛: The Aristocracy of the Night
The Vampire Counts are the other great undead “Legacy” faction. They are a collection of immortal, aristocratic, and utterly selfish vampires. 🦇 As established, they are the philosophical opposite of the Tomb Kings. ↔️ They are not a nation; they are a parasitic curse. 🦟
Their society isn’t a kingdom, but a collection of warring, selfish Bloodlines, all descending from the first vampires and each embodying a different “trope” of horror:
- The Von Carsteins: 👑 The “Dracula” archetype. They are aristocratic, charming, politically ambitious, and seek to rule the Empire as its new, eternal monarchs.
- The Blood Dragons: ⚔️ The “Warrior” archetype. These vampires are obsessed with martial honor and perfecting the art of combat.
- The Necrarchs: 🧪 The “Mad Scientist” archetype. They are reclusive, grotesque, and master Necromancers, far more interested in forbidden lore than in ruling.
- The Strigoi: 🦇 The “Nosferatu” archetype. These are devolved, feral, and bestial vampires who haunt crypts and rule over ghouls.
- The Lahmians: 💃 The “Femme Fatale” archetype. A matriarchal line of female vampires who disdain open war, preferring to rule from the shadows through manipulation, assassination, and political control. 🤫
Their philosophy of undeath is one of control. Their armies are not loyal subjects. They are mindless zombies 🧟 and skeletons 💀, ripped from their graves by dark Necromancy and enslaved to the Vampire’s iron will. The Vampire Counts are the ultimate metaphor for a selfish, decadent, and parasitic aristocracy that literally feeds on the populace to maintain its own immortality.
Part 6: Your Ultimate Journey Guide – How to Explore Warhammer: The Old World 🗺️
This section provides a comprehensive portal for a new person to begin their journey. It focuses on the most modern and accessible entry points, including the 2024 tabletop revival, the must-play video games, and the essential reading and viewing lists.
Your Entry Point: The Tabletop Wargame (2024) 🎲
For those who want to command armies and participate in the new, unfolding narrative, the Warhammer: The Old World tabletop wargame is the flagship product, launched in January 2024.
A Beginner’s Guide on How to Start:
- Get the Core Rules: 📖 The first purchase is the Warhammer: The Old World Rulebook. This 352-page tome contains the complete core rules for movement, shooting, combat, and magic, as well as a deep dive into the new narrative and setting.
- Pick Your Side: 🧑🤝🧑 To build an army, you’ll need one of two “compendium” books:
- Forces of Fantasy: 😇 This book has the complete army lists for the “good” factions: Empire of Man, Kingdom of Bretonnia, Dwarfen Mountain Holds, High Elf Realms, and Wood Elf Realms.
- Ravening Hordes: 😈 This book has the lists for the “evil” and “destructive” factions: Tomb Kings of Khemri, Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen Brayherds, and Orc & Goblin Factions.
- Get Your Models: 🎨 The most cost-effective way to start is with one of the large “Core Set” boxes 🎁, which contain a full 1,250-point army for either Bretonnia or the Tomb Kings, plus the rulebook. Alternatively, “Battalion” boxes for other factions offer a solid starting core of units.
The “Living Game”: Arcane Journals and What’s Next (2025-2026) 🗓️
Warhammer: The Old World is not a static game. It’s a “living game” that is actively being expanded through a series of supplements called Arcane Journals. 📜 Each Journal focuses on one faction, adding new lore, new special characters, and new “Armies of Infamy” (thematic army lists).
The known and rumored roadmap for these releases is key to following the game’s narrative:
- 2024: 🚀 The launch year saw Arcane Journals for Bretonnia, Tomb Kings, Orcs & Goblins, and Warriors of Chaos.
- 2025: 📈 This year sees a rapid expansion.
- Wood Elves (May 2025)
- Beastmen (June 2025)
- Grand Cathay (Wave 1, July 2025) – A brand new faction! 🐉
- Matched Play Guide (July 2025)
- Grand Cathay (Wave 2, September 2025)
- Tomb Kings (Wave 2, October 2025)
- 2026-2027 (Rumored): 🐻 The faction of Kislev is heavily rumored to be the next major army release, likely for late 2026 or early 2027.
The Digital Battlefield: The Must-Play Video Games 🎮
For many, the most accessible and immersive way to experience the world is through its critically acclaimed video games. This “Holy Trinity” 🔱 of modern Warhammer gaming offers three distinct perspectives on the setting.
- The God’s-Eye View: Total War: Warhammer (Series I, II, & III) 🌍
- Why Play It? This trilogy, culminating in Total War: Warhammer III and its Immortal Empires campaign, is arguably the single greatest lore sandbox ever created for the Warhammer setting. 🤯 It’s a grand strategy game that lets you step into the shoes of an Elector Count, a Dwarfen High King, or a Greenskin Warboss. It’s the best way to learn the massive geography, the factional politics, and the sheer scale of the world.
- Note: This series is set during The End Times 💥, the apocalyptic period after the new Warhammer: The Old World tabletop game.
- The Rat’s-Eye View: Warhammer: Vermintide 2 🏃
- Why Play It? If Total War is the “God’s-Eye View,” Vermintide is the “Rat’s-Eye View.” 🤢 It’s a four-player, co-operative action game (like Left 4 Dead) set at the very beginning of The End Times.
- What It Teaches: This game is the perfect introduction to the vibe of the setting. You’ll feel the grimdark on a personal level. You’ll viscerally understand the unholy alliance between the Skaven 🐀 and the Nurgle-worshipping Chaos Warriors. 🤢 Most importantly, you’ll experience the setting’s quintessential gallows humor firsthand through the constant, brilliant, and witty banter between the game’s five heroes. 🤣
- The Scavenger’s-Eye View: Mordheim: City of the Damned 🏚️
- Why Play It? This is a cult-classic. Based on the beloved skirmish game, Mordheim is a tactical, turn-based strategy game.
- What It Teaches: This game teaches desperation. 😥 It’s not about saving the world; it’s about a small, desperate warband of scavengers (from factions like the Empire, Skaven, or Sisters of Sigmar) trying to find magical warpstone shards in a ruined city to sell, survive, and not die of mutation. This is the “street-level” grimdark, and it’s a masterpiece of tone.
Upcoming Games (2026-2027)
It’s important to set expectations. While Warhammer is a massive force in video games, most new announcements (like those at Warhammer Skulls 2025) are focused on the Warhammer 40,000 setting. 🚀 The Total War and Vermintide series remain the definitive digital experiences for this specific fantasy world.
Table: Your Media Journey Starter Pack 🚀
To begin your journey, just pick a path. This table provides a clear starting point based on what you like.
| If you like… | Your Best Starting Point is… | Why? |
| Grand Strategy & Building Empires 🌍 | Video Game: Total War: Warhammer III | This is the ultimate lore sandbox. It lets you command every faction and see the entire world in glorious, strategic detail. 🤯 |
| Co-op Action & Dark Humor 🤣 | Video Game: Warhammer: Vermintide 2 | This provides the perfect “ground-level” view of the grimdark, with thrilling co-op action and some of the best gallows humor in gaming. 🏃 |
| Telling Your Own Story 🎭 | RPG: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) 4e | This is the classic, gritty “Rat Catcher” experience. 🐀 It is deep, detailed, and simulates a perilous life in the Old World perfectly. |
| Heroic Adventure Stories ⚔️ | Book Series: Gotrek & Felix (Omnibus 1) | This is the quintessential Old World adventure. It’s a perfect tour of the world, its monsters, and its unique blend of gallows humor and tragedy. 🧔♂️👱♂️ |
| Building & Painting Models 🎨 | Tabletop Game: Warhammer: The Old World (Core Set) | This is the new 2024 game. 🎲 You can jump in with the launch factions (Bretonnia or Tomb Kings) and build your army from the ground up. |
Become a Hero: The Roleplaying Games (A Critical Choice) 🎭
For those who want to live in the Old World, there are two modern, excellent, and different tabletop roleplaying games. Understanding the distinction is crucial.
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition (WFRP 4e)
- The System: This is the classic, beloved, and notoriously “crunchy” D100 (percentile) system. 💯
- The Vibe: This is the original “grim and perilous” adventure. 😟 It’s famous for its unique “career” system, where characters begin not as heroes, but as commoners—Rat Catchers 🐀, stevedores ⚓, or grave robbers—and their main goal is simply to survive. It’s complex, gritty, and deeply simulates the “grubby” reality of the world.
- Warhammer: The Old World RPG (2025)
- The System: This is a brand new game 🆕, released in 2025. It uses a modern, streamlined D10 dice pool system.
- The Vibe: This is not WFRP 5th edition. It’s a completely separate game, designed from the ground up to be more accessible, faster-paced, and more narrative-focused than its older cousin. 💨 Critically, it’s set in the exact same new timeline (c. 2276) as the 2024 tabletop wargame, linking it directly to the new narrative.
The Choice: The two games offer different experiences. You should choose WFRP 4e if you want a deep, complex, and gritty simulation of a doomed world. You should choose The Old World RPG if you want a more modern, accessible, and narrative-focused adventure game that ties in directly with the new wargame releases.
The Stories of the World: Books 📚, Animation 🎬, and the AI Problem 🤖
- Where to Start Reading (Black Library)
- The #1 Recommendation: Gotrek & Felix 🧔♂️👱♂️The quintessential entry point. The Gotrek & Felix series, particularly the early omnibuses by William King, is the perfect “ground-level tour” of Warhammer: The Old World. It follows a doomed Dwarf Slayer (Gotrek) and the human poet (Felix) sworn to record his death. Their adventures are a perfect blend of high-stakes horror, epic action, and cynical gallows humor.
- The “Deep Lore” Picks: For those who want the “history” of the setting, the Legend of Sigmar omnibus details the founding of the Empire, and the Rise of Nagash omnibus explains the origin of all undeath in the world. 📜
- New Releases (2024-2025): Black Library (the Warhammer publishing house) is releasing new novels set in the Warhammer: The Old-World timeline, such as Lords of the Lance (which explores Bretonnian society). However, be aware that the release schedule is heavily dominated by Warhammer 40,000 novels. 🚀
- Official & Fan Animation (The 40k Problem)A new fan looking for Warhammer: The Old World shows or movies will quickly run into a wall: they barely exist. 😢 The vast majority of official animation is focused on Warhammer 40,000.
- The official streaming service, Warhammer+ 📺, features numerous animated series, but nearly all are set in the 41st Millennium (e.g., Angels of Death, Pariah Nexus) or Age of Sigmar (e.g., Blacktalon).
- What to Watch:
- Hammer and Bolter: 🔨 This is an animated anthology series on Warhammer+. While most episodes are 40k, a handful (like “Old Bale Eye”) are set in the fantasy Old World and are excellent, self-contained stories.
- Total War Trailers: 🔥 Ironically, the cinematic trailers and in-engine cinematics created for the Total War: Warhammer video game series are the highest-quality, most epic, and most lore-accurate cinematic representations of The Old World in existence.
- Fan Animations: 💖 The true passion of the community is visible in its fan films. While 99% of these are 40k-focused (like the legendary Astartes or The Awakening), they are a testament to the community’s creative power.
- A Modern Peril: The AI-Generated Content Problem 🤖⚠️As you begin your journey on platforms like YouTube, you’ll encounter a modern, digital peril. The Warhammer lore community is currently being flooded with low-quality, AI-generated “slop” content. 🗑️These channels often use AI-voices 🗣️ and steal artwork 🎨 and scripts from legitimate, human creators. This tide of “slop” is actively “drowning out” the real, passionate creators who built the community. This also leads to the spread of “meme lore”—false, exaggerated, or misunderstood information that is repeated so often by AI channels that it becomes mistaken for canon. 😵For a true, accurate, and high-quality journey into the lore, new folks are strongly encouraged to seek out the human creators. ❤️ Channels such as Loremaster of Sotek, GrimDark Narrator, The Book of Choyer, and PancreasNoWork are invaluable resources run by passionate experts who provide the “fun and profound” analysis this world deserves.
Table: Upcoming Media Roadmap (2025-2027) 🗓️
This table provides a quick-reference, forward-looking guide for new releases, based on official announcements and strong community rumors as of mid-2025.
| Media Type | Release | Date | Notes |
| Tabletop 🎲 | Arcane Journal: Wood Elves | May 31, 2025 | |
| Tabletop 🎲 | Arcane Journal: Beastmen | June 14, 2025 | |
| Tabletop 🎲 | Arcane Journal: Grand Cathay (Wave 1) | July 5, 2025 | 🐉 |
| Tabletop 🎲 | Matched Play Guide | July 5, 2025 | |
| RPG 🎭 | Warhammer: The Old World RPG (Core) | Est. July 2025 | 🆕 |
| Tabletop 🎲 | Arcane Journal: Grand Cathay (Wave 2) | Sept 6, 2025 | 🐉 |
| Tabletop 🎲 | Tomb Kings (Wave 2) | Oct 18, 2025 | 💀 |
| Video Game 🎮 | Dawn of War: Definitive Edition (40k) | Late 2025 | (This is 40k, not Old World) |
| Tabletop 🎲 | Arcane Journal: Kislev | Rumored 2026/2027 | 🐻 |
| Video Game 🎮 | Unnamed Old World Game | Rumored 2026+ | 🤔 |
Part 7: Beyond the Old World – Where to Go Next 🌌
The Godfathers of Grimdark: The Influences You Must Read 👨🦳📖
Warhammer: The Old World didn’t emerge from a vacuum. It was a rebellious child, born from a reaction against Tolkien and built from the DNA of two other “godfathers” of dark fantasy. To truly understand the why of the Old World, you’ve gotta read its influences.
- Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné
- This is the source code for Warhammer’s entire philosophy. 💻 Decades before Warhammer, Moorcock invented:
- The Law vs. Chaos Conflict: ☯️ The core philosophical struggle of the setting.
- The Chaos Gods: 🌀 The concept of sentient, patron gods of Chaos (like Elric’s patron, Arioch) who grant power in exchange for souls.
- The Symbols: ✴️ The eight-pointed star is the very symbol of Moorcock’s Chaos.
- The “Evil Elf”: 🧝♂️ The entire “Dark Elf” archetype, which Warhammer adopted, is a direct homage to Elric’s decadent, cruel, and ancient race, the Melnibonéans.
- Elric is the original tragic, doom-laden anti-hero, bound to a soul-stealing Chaos blade. His story is the essential philosophical primer.
- Glen Cook’s The Black Company
- If Moorcock provided the cosmic philosophy, Glen Cook provided the human tone. 🌎 The Black Company is often heralded as the “grandfather of grimdark.”
- Published in 1984, it was a revolutionary idea. It tells the story of a massive, epic war not from the perspective of kings and heroes, but from the “boots-on-the-ground” 🥾 perspective of a cynical, amoral, and weary company of mercenary soldiers.
- This is where Warhammer gets its “grubby” realism, its focus on the common soldier, and, most importantly, its gallows humor. 😂 The cynical, witty, and world-weary banter of the soldiers in the Black Company is the direct ancestor of the Imperial Guardsman, the Empire State Trooper, and the Vermintide heroes.
Modern Cousins: Dark Fantasy vs. Grimdark 🤔
Finally, you’ll see other “dark fantasy” franchises and assume they’re the same. They’re not. The philosophy differs in key, profound ways.
- The Witcher (Books & Games) 🐺
- The Comparison: The Witcher’s world is, on the surface, very similar: it’s a dark, monster-filled, and politically corrupt world based on European (specifically Slavic) history and folklore.
- The Difference: The Witcher is not grimdark. It’s “grounded fantasy.” 💖 The world is dark, but the story is deeply human. It’s filled with humor, romance, and dry wit. Most importantly, the individual has agency. The protagonist, Geralt, can make a difference. He can save people. He can achieve “good” (if often bittersweet) endings. The Witcher is cynical, but it is not hopeless.
- Berserk (Manga) ⚔️
- The Comparison: Kentaro Miura’s Berserk is one of the darkest, most violent, and most visually influential fantasy works ever created. 🎨 Its visual and thematic DNA (the “struggler,” demonic apostles, world-shattering betrayals) is deeply resonant with Warhammer.
- The Difference: Berserk is ultimately a story of hope. ☀️ It is not about enduring suffering; it is about overcoming it. The profound, oppressive darkness exists to make the light of the protagonist’s struggle shine brighter. Warhammer is about the hopelessness of the system; Berserk is about the defiant hope of the individual.
- Dragon Age (Games) 🐉
- The Comparison: This video game series is perhaps the closest structural cousin to Warhammer. 👯 It features a dark, recurring apocalyptic threat (The Blight), complex political infighting, and a world defined by morally grey choices.
- The Difference: Dragon Age is, at its heart, a classic “party-based” story. It is fundamentally hopeful. 😊 It believes in the power of companionship and that a small, fractured group of “grey” individuals can unite, overcome their differences, and save the world.
Warhammer: The Old World stands apart by fundamentally questioning this. 🧍 It presents a world so fractured, so corrupt, and so overshadowed by its own tragic, pre-written doom 💥, that “saving the world” is a fantasy.
The only true victory is to stand, to fight, and to laugh at the darkness, even as the end draws near. 🤘😂🖤
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