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Hello all, really getting into the swing of AoS, but I need some lore-related advice if you won't mind: What's a good realm for varied landscapes and empires? I basically want to invent a region in one or two (via realmgate) realms. I want to map it and come up with mini-armies and terrain to populate it, just to give me another creative project. But I want to have several different types of empires next to eachother, including Orruks, dwarves (or whatever they are now) maybe more generic Aelves depending on where I settle on, and a host of other races of my own whimsy with counts-as rules for the closest thing in the fluff. (If I wanted a mini army of Sirens or something, maybe make it all out of counts as chaos harpies or those winged DoK)

Anyhow, what realms would give me the widest choice of terrain and minor factions? I know I want to feature my own army of Greenskinz as the primary faction here, but as an organised empire (which is not typical, so I am aware). I am considering Ghur but not sure if it's fluffy to have very organised Orruk bands their, or Ghyran but I'm not sure how varied it is in landscape; Does it have seas/continents? Any plains or just forests? If anyone has other suggestions, I'm always open to them as I'm not too knowledgeable on the setting yet. Thanks!

Since the realms are ( near ) infinite, would just say go ahead and pick one yourself. I dont have a problem inventing the Dwarves of the Middle mountains in the Old world, when there was no dwarven settlement there in the official cannon.

You can do the cheeky shinanagins we are doing in my group, since for a lot of people one of the biggest issues people have with AoS is the lore/setting, cosmic fantasy is no everyone cup of tea, we took advantage of the tom foolery thata was the time canon and said it created a new world, that is a replica of the old world prior to the end times.

So its a cycle within a cycle. Bam, empire is back babe.

I shoved my "world" at the edge where things are supposed to be really unstable so they get ignored by the major players and I do what I like.

Each realm is like a disc, the outsides are more exposed to the magic of the realm and thus crazier while the centers are more normal. All of them have plenty of varied terrain with seas, forests, plains, mountains, etc. Think of each realm as a theme rather than a rule.

For more empire-minded Orruks I'd think Chamon (metal) would be the way to do.

Thank you all for your responses!

Ninth: I'm thinking Ghyran afterall. Isn't Chamon all flying islands and such? I don't know, what I need is to see more pictures of these places.

But supposing Ghyran, being the 'life' themed realm, has the widest variety of lifeforms and landscapes, I might do it.

 Lazzamore wrote:
Thank you all for your responses!

Ninth: I'm thinking Ghyran afterall. Isn't Chamon all flying islands and such? I don't know, what I need is to see more pictures of these places.

But supposing Ghyran, being the 'life' themed realm, has the widest variety of lifeforms and landscapes, I might do it.

Chamon has plenty of those, yes (not that it's exclusive to there) but if you go close to the realm's heartland it's fairly normal, plus it has plenty of pre-Reclamation organized societies.

Flying islands got a bit of focus in Chamon because the Kharadron are based there and they don't build ground-based settlements.

 Lazzamore wrote:
Anyhow, what realms would give me the widest choice of terrain and minor factions? I know I want to feature my own army of Greenskinz as the primary faction here, but as an organised empire (which is not typical, so I am aware). I am considering Ghur but not sure if it's fluffy to have very organised Orruk bands their, or Ghyran but I'm not sure how varied it is in landscape; Does it have seas/continents? Any plains or just forests? If anyone has other suggestions, I'm always open to them as I'm not too knowledgeable on the setting yet. Thanks!

I think you're on the right track; it seems like the realms are more themes than they are specific. I was really surprised when I read books in Shyish, and saw cities and living people there, and implied trade and agriculture. I get the idea that a realm can vary a great deal - the realm of fire might be a volcanic plain coated in ash or lava, but it could also be an Arabian inspired desert kingdom, a tropical jungle, or even a snowy tundra if high enough up in the mountains.

And, very much feel free to invent your own locations and empires and civilizations, as GW more than feels free to do when they write books. The realm of fire has oceans, the realm of life has deserts. Once in awhile we get a setting that appears twice, but the only thing consistent seems to be that everything has a legendary feel to it, lots of myths about how things were created and histories filled with gods. I think its up to the players to make it literal or legendary on a case by case basis.

 Lazzamore wrote:
Thank you all for your responses!

Ninth: I'm thinking Ghyran afterall. Isn't Chamon all flying islands and such? I don't know, what I need is to see more pictures of these places.

But supposing Ghyran, being the 'life' themed realm, has the widest variety of lifeforms and landscapes, I might do it.

Quite literally any of the realms can work. My Seraphon are based in a tropical jungle next to an endless steppe and floodplains surrounded by desert. All based in Aqshy. The Realm of Fire doesn't mean you're always looking at oceans of lava and erupting volcanos. It's all hot landscapes, so deserts, steppes and yes, tropical rainforests all fit the theme of Aqshy perfectly well.

Basically the closer you get to the centre the more "normal" things are. Want Dwarves in the mountains? Any realm would work. It's just that the ones in Ghyran might mine the roots of immense trees to gain minerals sucked out of the ground. Or the ones in Shyish tunnel into lost tombs to retrieve riches. Or the ones in Ghur the mountain is actually on the back of a gigantic turtle that swims endlessly across the oceans.