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I was a massive fan of the lore of the old fantasy world for well over a decade, I turned my back on it however after end times concluded so I am not really up to speed with the current AoS lore. So I am genuinely curious, do you like the AoS lore? Would you recommend someone who really liked to read novels and armybook short stories about the old world to catch up on AoS lore?

Yeah, I like the lore and its getting better the further into AoS’s life we go.

Like yourself, I was a huge fan of WHFB lore and I had and read pretty much all of their Black Library products set in the old setting, so I can admit that I was upset in some ways to see it go, and a bit apprehensive about the sparsity and general lack of clarity about the Mortal Realms.

There has been some stuff in the lore that I don’t care for (Seraphon lore in particular, though it seems to be changing), but the majority I have loved. Beastclaw Raiders and FEC lore I find as awesome and pretty inspired, and when they dropped early in AoS’s life, I knew the lore would grow in a positive direction.

BCR are cursed to keep moving lest they fall prey to the blizzards that follow them, but won’t kill them, just freeze them in place until they are freed. Thats horrifying when you think about it, and I love it. FEC lore is a combination of disturbing, tragic and comical. Even the lore of the Stormcasts, derided as “fantasy marines”, has layers to it when you actually read into their story. And the portrayal of Chaos has been pretty deep as well, with some great characters added throughout different mediums in AoS.

When AoS lore really “grew up” was when ‘City of Secrets’ by Nick Horth was released. Its really the first novel to portray everyday life for someone in the Mortal Realms, but still clearly references a much more fantastical world than what was portrayed in the old setting. Since that release, the lore has really taken off in very creative ways.

Part of what I like about this lore is that I feel I’m an active participant, watching it grow. I was there when Vandus Hammerhand first landed in the Mortal Realms, surveyed the devastation of Chaos and thought “Were we too late?”, to the ‘present’ day where cities of Free Peoples have sprung up in defiance of Chaos, though still in a precarious situation. I’m glad to be a part of the journey.

I'd have a skim of something like the aos lexicanum and get a quick skim of some of the factions before spending money on the books.
While it has come a long way since the start I still find it hard to get into the lore of aos. There's only one faction (Idoneth) I actually like without having to say 'but' afterwards.

A few thoughts:

1) The Realm War series of novels is basically the start of AoS story wise and it details the first days of the age when Sigmar throws open the Realm Portals and launches a massive assault upon the realms ravaged by Chaos after 500 years of the Age of Chaos.
They are, however, a bit heavy going in places and not the best lore builders as they are very much focused around Stormcast and battles. With little real building of the world in downtime between battles (and very little downtime). So they can feel rather weak lore wise.


They are still good reads, just far more action than depth in many ways, but they do establish many of the starting natures of the realms and the heroes and stormcast as well as several key races of the realms.



Since then the stories have grown a lot and the authors are much more in-tune with the setting. I started with Pestilens which is both an earlier story and also a war focused one; but its a fantastic read of the mad skaven and sets up the infinite wonders of the realms really well (the whole story is a massive war set with a city built atop the back of a vast moving wurm). You get a flavour of skaven, stormcast and seraphon in the story and a good sense of the AoS world setting.




That said if you wanted to try something out now you could try the new Inferno novels which have a selection of short stories, some set during the Age of Sigmar and some set during the very early days of the Age of chaos, showing peoples falling to the ever encroaching waves of chaos.

The Novella series are also fantastic reads and really top choices for some world building. Books like War Queen are really fantastic in not just showing the realms, but also the peoples. They also present a very refreshing take on chaos and the worship of the dark gods - showing peoples who are not all frothing at the mouth believes, who the chaos gods have to earn and compete for the belief of. All whilst battling with mortal desires and whims and attitudes.


Right now I'd strongly recommend the novella series for AoS (there 40K and necromunda ones are also great reads, but of course don't cover AoS). After that dip your toes into Inferno which require a touch more awarness of fantasy but otherwise are light stories.

After that I've enjoyed Pestilens but I've not pressed into many of the other bigger books yet.


You might also find this thread handy:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/762803.page

Most (all bar the latest) short stories for AoS are released in combined editions, often with other stories, so it should help you find the best way to make purchases.

Thank you for giving me some pointers here. I've read some summaries about what happend after the end times and it's not for me I have to say unfortunately.
I really tried to give the new lore a shot, but the basic premise is in my opinion kinda ridicolous and not very well written in terms of wordbuilding.
I have barely gotten over the fact that GW basically ripped off every fan of the old world lore with the end times books.

So thanks again for pointing me in the right direction to catch up with the lore, but I probably won't spend any money on AoS in the forseeable future....neither for books nor miniatures.

If you haven't bought "Myths and Revenants", you're doing yourself a huge disservice.

Damn, I just skipped it for a new Liber choatica whilst picking up some contrast paint today.

Actually scratch that damn, I don't regret buying the liber chaotica.

 Earth127 wrote:
Damn, I just skipped it for a new Liber choatica whilst picking up some contrast paint today.

Actually scratch that damn, I don't regret buying the liber chaotica.

Liber is utterly fantastic and really makes me wish

a) GW would release it fully not on any limited print run (which the current printing seems to be?)

b) do MORE for other factions.

Tiberias wrote:
I was a massive fan of the lore of the old fantasy world for well over a decade, I turned my back on it however after end times concluded so I am not really up to speed with the current AoS lore. So I am genuinely curious, do you like the AoS lore? Would you recommend someone who really liked to read novels and armybook short stories about the old world to catch up on AoS lore?

I am liking it more and more as they explore it - bit like how I grew up with the the Old World evolving

I would highly recomend the following to give a get you into the world(s)

Spear of Shadows by Josh Reynolds - a romp across various realms with a great and varied cast
https://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Spear_of_Shadows_(novel)

Callis and Toll; The Silver Shard - similar to above by Nick Horth.
https://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Callis_and_Toll:_The_Silver_Shard_(novel)

Heart of Winter - Novella by Nick Horth staring the rather wonderful Arika Zenthe

The Red Hours - Novella by Evan Dicken - more of a mystery but will be a good bridge in terms of style between the old world and AOS.

Anything by Josh Reynolds, he just gets the feel of Sigmar. The Silver Shard is a sequel to City of Secrets.

The original Realmgate Wars books is an ok starting point. Establishes some major characters from the Stormcast. Fun reads but not too much on the lore side.

Soul Wars is a fantastic read that leads into the current state of Sigmar, but again focuses mostly on Stormcast and Death.

I just wish there was more storys about everyday peoples and more about the other races like Dwarves, the Aelves, anything Destruction, and Deepkin/DoK could really use a fluff book.

I think we are getting some of those soon

Plus really looking forward to the AOS rpg as some of the main writters like JR are involved!

The Novellas give a bit more of a hint on regular people as do the short stories in Inferno. The "big books" tend to focus more on the big heroes and I don't think the BL system has ever really done any major books in the style of something like Game of Thrones or Malazan - ergo the BL tends to err closer toward heroic fiction rather than epic style writing.