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Apologies if this has already been asked lots of times, but I couldn't find anything related using the search function.
What does the world of Age of Sigmar look like?
I read the 1d4chan article (most of the other hobby sites are blocked by my local network) and I am still no closer to visualizing what the heck the world looks like? I mean, I get that it consists of "realms," and I can picture what some of these look like: Aqshy = volcanoes & lava flows; Ghyran = forests of trees etc. But I am still no closer to understanding how all of these realms form the world of Age of Sigmar. Is each realm a geographical area on the same planet or is each realm an individual planet in space or is each realm a different "dimension" in the "multiverse?" Does the concept of planets & space even exist in Age of Sigmar? Did the concept of planets & space ever exist in Warhammer Fantasy?
It's Norse Mythology in GW wrapping paper. Each realm is essentially its own plane of existence. They have Asgard and everything. A realm for light elves, a realm for dark elves, a realm for Fire...I mean Fyre beings. Considering AoS was a big push to making everything copy-writable they sure took a lot of direct ''artistic inspiration'' directly from Norse mythology.
Let's not forget the colonialistic them that is kind-of creeping out from City of Secrets. I'd like to see the setting be a XV-XVIth century of sorts in a fantasy setting.
As with many things Warhammer there's a lot of direct lifting from the works of Michael Moorcock. In particular The Dragon in the Sword with its depiction of interconnected realms fighting off Chaos, but more broadly the Stormcast's method of reincarnation is an incomplete reflection of the Eternal Champion as well.
As with that book, picture a series of interconnected parallel worlds. Each with similar enough rules that entities from one universe can survive in the other, but different enough that the people living there are very differently adapted to those environments. They're able to travel from one universe to another by way of realmgate and, presumably, engage in trade, Alliance's, etc, in addition to the war stuff.
On a more narrative meta scale, we're still in the early early history of this universe. To use Dwarf Fortress' era naming conventions we're in an Age of Myth, where gods occasionally take breaks from making the sun move and stride across the earth waging war with other gods while the measly denzins watch on in awe.
Each realm is somewhat analogous to a plane from MTG, not exactly a 'world' per say. They may be infinite but the fluff has been vague on this point. Each of the eight realms has a theme that it's named after, and some have additional layers on that (Azyr is civilized, Aqshy is Khorne-corrupted, Gyran is Nurgle-corrupted). However, to say that a certain realm 'looks' a certain way would be like saying irl Earth looks a certain way. There is tons of variation and what a given area looks like can be completely different from what another area looks like.
For example; the Brimstone Peninsula of Aqshy (where the starter kit is set) is a blasted desert with few living things, pockmarked by sulfurous geysers, leaking volcanic smoke and eruptions of boiling blood where once there may have been lava, all surrounded by a green acidic sea. But that's just one area. Another portion of Aqshy where one of the novels takes place (Black Rift) is crater so large that entire nations fit within it, and the ecosystem is an overgrown jungle. Yet elsewhere is the cinderpines, a quake-ridden valley filled with pines that release fiery sparks when disrupted.
Large portions of the realms are relatively 'normal' like expansive grassy plains in Gur, but mythic fantasy-level terrain is just as common.
Planes of Existence seem like the best way to put it. It all depends on where you are in each realm as well.
The realm of Metal has a bunch of different planets that you could go to. One of them is covered by a metallic crust but inside is an entire world with an Oracle stuck in a statue that everyone wants to go to.
Captain Joystick wrote: On a more narrative meta scale, we're still in the early early history of this universe. To use Dwarf Fortress' era naming conventions we're in an Age of Myth, where gods occasionally take breaks from making the sun move and stride across the earth waging war with other gods while the measly denzins watch on in awe.
Not exactly. There actually was an Age of Myth in AoS, literally by that name. This is when Sigmar united the gods into a great Pantheon and everything was relatively OK. Chaos rolled in and beat the crap out of everyone, Sigmar retreated into Azyr and locked the doors behind him, and the 400-year Age of Chaos followed. Age of Sigmar takes place after that 400 years when Sigmar launches his assault to reclaim the other 7 realms from Chaos. Aside from Alarielle the gods are fighting by proxy, sending their minions into battle in their stead.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/01/16 20:25:00
Also the realms end they detail this in the pantheon short story. The edges of the realm are like the north of the warhammer world that lead into the realm of chaos pieces of land are randomly made and latch onto the realms. It's also through realms end that chaos got its first foothold and began corrupting people.
This is detailed in the lore thread there is also a map of ghyran. Each realm is about the size of the warhammer world. How they expand gives GW room to add stuff when needed.
NinthMusketeer wrote:To say that a certain realm 'looks' a certain way would be like saying irl Earth looks a certain way.
But I can say what Earth looks like: it looks like an oblate spheroid, orbiting a star on the edge of a galaxy, hurtling through space!
Lou_Cypher wrote:Planes of Existence seem like the best way to put it. It all depends on where you are in each realm as well.
The realm of Metal has a bunch of different planets that you could go to. One of them is covered by a metallic crust but inside is an entire world with an Oracle stuck in a statue that everyone wants to go to.
I guess "planes of existence" fits with what I understand so far. I'm glad to see the notion of planets & space still exists too. Between immortal super warriors & gods made flesh, I was worried that nothing about the Mortal Realms could be relatable. On the subject of gods & mortal realms, are all of the realms described "mortal?" Is Azyr? Do mortals live in Azyr, or is it all Sigmarines and dragons? Was Azyr, the first realm shown to Sigmar, and if so, in what realm did the World that Was exist? Does Sigmar live in Azyr? What kind of stuff does he do there? Does he eat super noodles and brush his teeth? Where do normal people live? Is there any conflict/strife/warfare in Azyr or is it basically heaven?
Sorry for all the questions, but I've found almost everything I've read on the subject to be abstract & unimaginable.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/01/16 21:07:48
NinthMusketeer wrote: Not exactly. There actually was an Age of Myth in AoS, literally by that name. This is when Sigmar united the gods into a great Pantheon and everything was relatively OK. Chaos rolled in and beat the crap out of everyone, Sigmar retreated into Azyr and locked the doors behind him, and the 400-year Age of Chaos followed. Age of Sigmar takes place after that 400 years when Sigmar launches his assault to reclaim the other 7 realms from Chaos. Aside from Alarielle the gods are fighting by proxy, sending their minions into battle in their stead.
That's a good point. I was thinking of Alarielle when I said that, but perhaps an Age of Legends is the more appropriate label now. The chief combatants are legendary figures that directly serve the various pantheon or massive warbands that embody in themselves the legendary epic struggles of stories that grow bigger and more impressive with every retelling.
Regardless, they've basically engineered an escape clause allowing them to shift focus to regular people by way of a time-skip. Either they keep the setting and allow the realms to be populated by humans, aelfs, and duradin, or they have a cataclysmic event that smashes the realms together to create what we know as the Old World, or even a New Old World, let it sit for another 1000 years and bam! The tales of these times are told of in churches and around campfires, invoked by new champions of a diminished age in the never-ending struggle between order and chaos.
NinthMusketeer wrote:To say that a certain realm 'looks' a certain way would be like saying irl Earth looks a certain way.
But I can say what Earth looks like: it looks like an oblate spheroid, orbiting a star on the edge of a galaxy, hurtling through space!
Lou_Cypher wrote:Planes of Existence seem like the best way to put it. It all depends on where you are in each realm as well.
The realm of Metal has a bunch of different planets that you could go to. One of them is covered by a metallic crust but inside is an entire world with an Oracle stuck in a statue that everyone wants to go to.
I guess "planes of existence" fits with what I understand so far. I'm glad to see the notion of planets & space still exists too. Between immortal super warriors & gods made flesh, I was worried that nothing about the Mortal Realms could be relatable. On the subject of gods & mortal realms, are all of the realms described "mortal?" Is Azyr? Do mortals live in Azyr, or is it all Sigmarines and dragons? Was Azyr, the first realm shown to Sigmar, and if so, in what realm did the World that Was exist? Does Sigmar live in Azyr? What kind of stuff does he do there? Does he eat super noodles and brush his teeth? Where do normal people live? Is there any conflict/strife/warfare in Azyr or is it basically heaven?
Sorry for all the questions, but I've found almost everything I've read on the subject to be abstract & unimaginable.
Normal people live in all the realms, all the realms are the mortal realms it's just that the respective incarnate from end times went to the respective realm that suited them and their powers also other planets do indeed exist it's noted after the end times in the everchosen battletome Archaon ran around the realm of chaos and through it conquered and destroyed other worlds.
Also in the cities all the races live there Aelf, Duardin and Humans they are not segregated like fantasy, some factions do indeed still live on their own little groups by themselves like the fyreslayers (they also visit the cities time to time) and the sylvaneth. They have normal cities in the realm, there are normal places along with the crazy magic stuff case example there are tree's and grass in all the realms but let's say the realm of metal? They have a little bit more iron in them compared to other places. Think of a blend of low and high fantasy.
Also I imagine the warhammer world was it's own planet perhaps in it's own realm of space when it blew up sigmar was stranded on it's core floating in the void until he met the celestial godbeast and showed him the mortal realms, In the city of secrets novel a chunk of the core of the warhammer world is stuck in ghur on the coast.
I recommend to also read my lore thread and the city of secrets section to get an understanding of the situation of people living in ayzr and the natives of other realms they seems to be a undertone of racism/discrimination going on.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2017/01/16 22:53:32
Ginjitzu wrote: Apologies if this has already been asked lots of times, but I couldn't find anything related using the search function.
What does the world of Age of Sigmar look like?
I'm so confused...
I thought I might pop in with a literal answer to this question, Ginjitsu.
Because, it is planes of existence, mythological, etc etc. But, that doesn't really paint a picture in your head if you haven't seen the illustrations in the books.
In each AOS book, there have been maps of the region the story is taking place in. Often, this will look something like the floating islands in the movie Avatar, as if big hunks of rock were torn off of a planet, leaving the top populated with grass, oceans, mountains, etc, and the bottom a jagged spike of rock. You get the impression that one could walk off the edge of the world, or tunnel too deeply and fall out the bottom.
Now, each realm is not one floating rock - often a map will show numerous flying rocks, sometimes with no explanation of how one could get from one to the other. Sometimes, getting from one to the other is a major plot point, such as when the Stormcast have to climb a waterfall of molten metal, by having a dragon distract the other dragon who's breath heats the metal above to make it liquid. With the metal cooled it becomes a solid column they can climb to the level above. If you can visualize that, you can imagine both the style and mythical quality of the adventures in the realms. Another way of getting around are "Realmgates", portals between the realms and locations within realms, which are so important the entire storyline has been dedicated to reclaiming them so far.
Thankfully, many areas we visit are so big that it looks like a conventional map. But, even then, things can be very surreal. Take the realm of Aqshy. This illustration appeared in the book Godbeasts:
That's the Ashlands, and above it the sun. Of course, the sun isn't a star, but a "god beast", in this case a fire dragon, which has been chained to the planet to keep it from rampaging around. The part of the realm its chained to is then chained to another part, creating floating islands.
It doesn't make a lot of sense, but for the type of stories AoS wants to tell its perfect. You have oceans full of dangers to sail, massive chains for whole armies to try to climb, endless varieties of locations, and of course gigantic monsters. The only downside it that the strangeness can sometimes make it hard to identify with, as it can be hard to understand how mortals could survive in a world as topsy turvey as this, even without Chaos rampaging around.
On one last note - see how you can see stars and space out past the Ashlands? The "cosmos" clearly appears in the mortal realms. What hasn't been established, to the best of my knowledge, is if the realms are all under the same big "sky." For instance, the Seraphon (lizardmen) have space ships and are powered by starlight, but I've never been clear if they can fly from one realm to the next, as physical locations in the same greater cosmos, or if the realms are "Alternate dimensions", and thus all have their own "outer space."
Lots of questions to be answered, but trust that most of the time, the game is about fantasy warriors duking it out in chaos-infested realms, and all of this greater weirdness is relegated to the background.
That's okay for stories and stuff. It doesn't really inspire the war gamer in me to want to launch a campaign to conquer it though. Not like looking at a map of Armageddon or Ulthuan anyways...
Wight Lord wrote: That's okay for stories and stuff. It doesn't really inspire the war gamer in me to want to launch a campaign to conquer it though. Not like looking at a map of Armageddon or Ulthuan anyways...
HM, do these inspire you or do they trouble you because you can't see where the world ends? They have landmarks etc., but aren't drawn in the same "cartography" style the old maps were.
I would like to think GW copied the idea from Warlock video game.
Here is an example
Agies Grimm:The "Learn to play, bro" mentality is mostly just a way for someone to try to shame you by implying that their metaphorical nerd-wiener is bigger than yours. Which, ironically, I think nerds do even more vehemently than jocks.
Everything is made up and the points don't matter. 40K or Who's Line is it Anyway?
Auticus wrote: Or in summation: its ok to exploit shoddy points because those are rules and gamers exist to find rules loopholes (they are still "legal"), but if the same force can be composed without structure, it emotionally feels "wrong".
Yeah they are suppose to be floating islands. I just couldn't find a pic of it from far away.
Agies Grimm:The "Learn to play, bro" mentality is mostly just a way for someone to try to shame you by implying that their metaphorical nerd-wiener is bigger than yours. Which, ironically, I think nerds do even more vehemently than jocks.
Everything is made up and the points don't matter. 40K or Who's Line is it Anyway?
Auticus wrote: Or in summation: its ok to exploit shoddy points because those are rules and gamers exist to find rules loopholes (they are still "legal"), but if the same force can be composed without structure, it emotionally feels "wrong".
NinthMusketeer wrote: Not really. There actually was an Age of Myth in AoS, literally by that name. This is when Sigmar united the gods into a great Pantheon and everything was relatively OK. Chaos rolled in and beat the crap out of everyone, Sigmar retreated into Azyr and locked the doors behind him, and the 400-year Age of Chaos followed. Age of Sigmar takes place after that 400 years when Sigmar launches his assault to reclaim the other 7 realms from Chaos. Aside from Alarielle the gods are fighting by proxy, sending their minions into battle in their stead.
That's a good point. I was thinking of Alarielle when I said that, but perhaps an Age of Legends is the more appropriate label now. The chief combatants are legendary figures that directly serve the various pantheon or massive warbands that embody in themselves the legendary epic struggles of stories that grow bigger and more impressive with every retelling.
Regardless, they've basically engineered an escape clause allowing them to shift focus to regular people by way of a time-skip. Either they keep the setting and allow the realms to be populated by humans, aelfs, and duradin, or they have a cataclysmic event that smashes the realms together to create what we know as the Old World, or even a New Old World, let it sit for another 1000 years and bam! The tales of these times are told of in churches and around campfires, invoked by new champions of a diminished age in the never-ending struggle between order and chaos.
It would seem quite the backward step to me to go from a setting that has 8 realms of endless developments, battles, intrigues and exploration to 1 world of limited scope.
Though an interesting twist I would like is if the World-that-was appeared out of nowhere and it's inhabitants (minus all the well known heroes, new generation) begin going about their business as usual with only passing memories of the End Times, noting that there's something Off about the world now. Animals act unnatural, mutations occur more often, dwarfs find a strange layer underground that can't be penetrated, Orcs are a rarity with beastmen and skaven seemingly taking their place and the jungles of Lustria are near deserted.
The twist is that while Sigmar claimed the core of the Old World and uses it to battle chaos the forces of chaos have claimed the crust and plan to use it against Order as a daemon incubator that feeds on the emotions of the world's inhabitants until the beast within it is ready to hatch...
A realm for light elves, a realm for dark elves,
Actually, it's only guessed at what's in the light realm. The high aelves were building glorious empires alongside those of the other mortal races throughout the realms during the age of myth and nearly all retreated to Azyrheim besides the few aelven knights and scouts that stayed in the realms to fight chaos.
There's nothing really saying there's more of them in the light realm besides Tyrion being the god of light.
I would like to think GW copied the idea from Warlock video game.
First off, cool game.
Secondly, I imagine there were alot of high fantasy sources(like Exalted,Final fantasy, MTG, God of War, Dark Souls) that inspired alot of AoS's mythical landscapes.
To me the first map I saw instantly hit me with nostalgia of the 90's fantasy board games I loved as a kid that had pictures and cards of floating islands, palaces made of ice, sea monsters creating whirlpools and giants chained down in chasms or under waterfalls.
Crimson wrote: This setting so needs to have flying ships.
Well the Steamhead Duardin are a steampunk army that are heavily hinted to be all about air warfare. There's also Grots sky pirates in the background.
The Aelven empires also had the Swifthawk Agents who were mainly a aerial scout/messenger force that had fortresses built on the undersides of floating continents. With the reclamation of the realms it's noted they're making these fortresses war-worthy once more.
So yeah, need more skyfaring stuff. (Haha, imagine a Man-of-war game using airships instead!)
Wight Lord wrote: I'm sure Forgeworld is working on the Sigmarine Thunderhawk as we speak.
Hmm, well between their prosecutors and ability to travel by Sigmar's storms would they need a airship?
I guess they could do a holy ark that resembles the Empire ship from Dread fleet. That'd be cool.
Ginjitzu wrote: Apologies if this has already been asked lots of times, but I couldn't find anything related using the search function. What does the world of Age of Sigmar look like? I'm so confused...
I thought I might pop in with a literal answer to this question, Ginjitsu.
Because, it is planes of existence, mythological, etc etc. But, that doesn't really paint a picture in your head if you haven't seen the illustrations in the books.
In each AOS book, there have been maps of the region the story is taking place in. Often, this will look something like the floating islands in the movie Avatar, as if big hunks of rock were torn off of a planet, leaving the top populated with grass, oceans, mountains, etc, and the bottom a jagged spike of rock. You get the impression that one could walk off the edge of the world, or tunnel too deeply and fall out the bottom.
Now, each realm is not one floating rock - often a map will show numerous flying rocks, sometimes with no explanation of how one could get from one to the other. Sometimes, getting from one to the other is a major plot point, such as when the Stormcast have to climb a waterfall of molten metal, by having a dragon distract the other dragon who's breath heats the metal above to make it liquid. With the metal cooled it becomes a solid column they can climb to the level above. If you can visualize that, you can imagine both the style and mythical quality of the adventures in the realms. Another way of getting around are "Realmgates", portals between the realms and locations within realms, which are so important the entire storyline has been dedicated to reclaiming them so far.
Thankfully, many areas we visit are so big that it looks like a conventional map. But, even then, things can be very surreal. Take the realm of Aqshy. This illustration appeared in the book Godbeasts:
That's the Ashlands, and above it the sun. Of course, the sun isn't a star, but a "god beast", in this case a fire dragon, which has been chained to the planet to keep it from rampaging around. The part of the realm its chained to is then chained to another part, creating floating islands.
It doesn't make a lot of sense, but for the type of stories AoS wants to tell its perfect. You have oceans full of dangers to sail, massive chains for whole armies to try to climb, endless varieties of locations, and of course gigantic monsters. The only downside it that the strangeness can sometimes make it hard to identify with, as it can be hard to understand how mortals could survive in a world as topsy turvey as this, even without Chaos rampaging around.
On one last note - see how you can see stars and space out past the Ashlands? The "cosmos" clearly appears in the mortal realms. What hasn't been established, to the best of my knowledge, is if the realms are all under the same big "sky." For instance, the Seraphon (lizardmen) have space ships and are powered by starlight, but I've never been clear if they can fly from one realm to the next, as physical locations in the same greater cosmos, or if the realms are "Alternate dimensions", and thus all have their own "outer space."
Lots of questions to be answered, but trust that most of the time, the game is about fantasy warriors duking it out in chaos-infested realms, and all of this greater weirdness is relegated to the background.
Wow! Thank's Oggthrok. This addressed pretty much every concern or question I had.
Based on the picture & your description, surreal sounds like a massive understatement. I would say outright flying rodent gak trippy. I guess I should invest in some of the literature if I want to get a better idea; I'm hoping to get Battletome: Sylvaneth for my brthday at the end of the month, so hopefully it's got some good artwork on Ghyran. That said, is the literature generally any good? I'm concerned about what you said about the strangeness making it hard to identify with. I'm fine with such a setting providing a backdrop for the game & models, but in terms of reading material, I'm generally more interested in well fleshed out, identifiable characters with solid arcs than I am in an Alice in Wonderland style, mushroom laced, hallucinogenic joyride.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2017/01/19 11:55:06
Based on the picture & your description, surreal sounds like a massive understatement. I would say outright flying rodent gak trippy. I guess I should invest in some of the literature if I want to get a better idea; I'm hoping to get Battletome: Sylvaneth for my brthday at the end of the month, so hopefully it's got some good artwork on Ghyran.
That said, is the literature generally any good? I'm concerned about what you said about the strangeness making it hard to identify with. I'm fine with such a setting providing a backdrop for the game & models, but in terms of reading material, I'm generally more interested in well fleshed out, identifiable characters with solid arcs than I am in an Alice in Wonderland style, mushroom laced, hallucinogenic joyride.
To be honest, no the books aren't that good if you're not a fan. I am a fan and have to force myself a little to like it, but this is the Black library, not Remarque and I guess it is to be expected. Your best bet for the sylvaneth would be "Legends of the Age of Sigmar:Sylvaneth". Regardless, if you are a big fan, read them all. Even with all their shortcomings I don't regret spending the time (no rAgrets right
Spoiler:
)
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2017/01/19 12:27:27
For some reason, I still think this is just one world. It's a huge world, maybe Jupiter sized but doesn't look like Earth anymore or reassembles earth I should say. Each "plain" is a huge continent and nobody has developed the technology to do oceanic travel so it seems like the "old days" when the earth was flat.
Yes we have magical portals that let travel continent to continent.
It's either this or I imagine it like I said before Warlock 2, I just can't comprehend on GW version of infinite sized "realms" that just make no sense.
Agies Grimm:The "Learn to play, bro" mentality is mostly just a way for someone to try to shame you by implying that their metaphorical nerd-wiener is bigger than yours. Which, ironically, I think nerds do even more vehemently than jocks.
Everything is made up and the points don't matter. 40K or Who's Line is it Anyway?
Auticus wrote: Or in summation: its ok to exploit shoddy points because those are rules and gamers exist to find rules loopholes (they are still "legal"), but if the same force can be composed without structure, it emotionally feels "wrong".
Apart from the different worlds interpretation, I like to think of it as one whole world with Azyr being the sky above and beyound (it is being hinted in the novels as the stars are the same for all realms - seraphon descend from them, Dracothion also lends a hand from time to time etc), Shyish being the literal underworlds below (like the greek underworld, nordic realm of Hel etc.), Chaos being something like Tartarus and all other realms lying between them. Like Glorantha - the sky is above, the underworld is below, the world is between and all this floats in the void as one big conglomeration.
To me, I see it like most depictions of Yggdrasil show the nine realms connected.
Just replace the tree with Realmgate being the connection and the top part of the tree that Asgard is usually being depicted as built around is Azyrheim around the core of the Old World.
Wow! Thank's Oggthrok. This addressed pretty much every concern or question I had.
Excellent, I'm glad to be of service!
Ginjitzu wrote: Based on the picture & your description, surreal sounds like a massive understatement. I would say outright flying rodent gak trippy. I guess I should invest in some of the literature if I want to get a better idea; I'm hoping to get Battletome: Sylvaneth for my brthday at the end of the month, so hopefully it's got some good artwork on Ghyran. That said, is the literature generally any good? I'm concerned about what you said about the strangeness making it hard to identify with.
The literature can be a mixed bag, to be fair. In particular, the first six months of Age of Sigmar was, in my opinion, very rough. GW started the new story at this moment when Sigmar was launching his attack to retake the mortal realms from Chaos, and starting the story there was jarring at best. Because, GW was saying "Finally, Sigmar will take back what was lost to Chaos!" and all of us buying the starter set were kind of shrugging and going "Um, what did he lose to Chaos again?" Because, we never got a clear depiction of what the mortal realms were prior to the arrival of Chaos, and only the vaguest sense afterward. Worse, there was a complete focus at first on just two forces, the Stormcast and Khorne Bloodbound. And, all they covered in those early stories were scenes of battle. You could read whole books, and get to the end knowing only that two armies fought over a barren landscape, and Chaos lost. 95% of those early stories were burly warriors swinging weapons into each other, and sometimes two different armies would be depicted in different novels, and you would be hard pressed to tell one from the other.
In Pantheon, we are finally getting a sense of what the world was like before the Chaos invasion, and it feels much more grounded. The gods had a Mount Olympus style meeting place, that is today abandoned as the alliance of gods fractured fighting Chaos. We see human cities in Ghyran populated by normal men and women who have children and concern themselves with families. Places exist in relatively stable space, and we even get to see that the realms are not infinite, and that at the edges of reality are where Chaos originates. It packs a lot into just twenty pages or so. And, interestingly, we see that the gods are not race based - humans might worship Teclis or Alarielle, and at one time all gods submitted to Sigmar.
For exploring the setting of AoS though, my best experiences have been in the later Realmgate Wars campaign books. After the first one, they get out of the Bloodbound rut somewhat, and we get to see the imaginative environments and other armies of the setting, and for me it came much more to life. But, be forewarned - this is still a setting where a nurgle pirate fleet master rides to battle overland on the back of a gargantuan squid that slap-slithers its way across the surface of the world. It's a place where goblins live on a "Tor" that is a giant crescent in the sky attached to the ground by a beanstalk, and one end of the crescent is birth, and the other is death, and all of the seasons play out upon its surface, and you just have to accept that and trust there's a point to it being that way. It's also a setting where we never establish if the Stormcast sleep or eat. A big deal is made that some debased Khorne warriors are cannibals, but it's never hinted what, or if, the rest of the Chaos forces eat, as humans appear to be the only thing in their environment that isn't a molten rock.
It's not yet a coherent setting, and I badly miss the archaic renaissance decay of the Old World's Empire. But the over the top adventures, and freedom you have to create any setting or society you want in this world, is still a lot of fun. At least to me
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/01/19 23:52:06
If I recall correctly, the Tarsus/Rammus audiobooks do state that stormcasts need to sleep and eat regularly. Perhaps with slightly less frequency but.they still need to.
Plus there's that decadence too in AoS, just look at City of Secrets.
