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So, this is an issue I've been hung up on. If Age of Sigmar was a completely new setting, that is a complete reboot that used some concepts/names/races from the Old World, this would not be an issue. But the Seraphon are a race that have an explicit line of continuity from the Old World, and as I've been reading through the new battletome (my first AoS battletome, and I've also been reading the background in the Main Rulebook I bought a week ago), there's some contradictions.

Old World: Old Ones populate world with races. Slann are spawned in six generations, with none of the first generation with direct experiences of the Old Ones remaining (saving Lord Kroak's mummy). Each generation decreases in power and knowledge of the Great Plan.

Mortal Realms: Old Ones built the realmgates (?) and the Slann were there to help - and there is a reference again to Slann having been spawned in generations (although without gameplay effects). No living Slann have distinct memories of the Old Ones, but some at least interacted with them. So did when the lizardmen all took off in their temple-ships from the Old World, did they encounter the Old Ones again? Did the sixth generation Slann become the new first generation Slann? They are still referred to as a dying race - there's a finite number of them in the world. So are all the Slann that were alive in the Old World still present in Age of Sigmar (at least until they get killed in battle)? These answers are not forthcoming in the Seraphon battletome, and I think they left it ambiguous to prevent having to answer those questions ~ presumably because they want AoS to stand on its own as a setting, without constantly referring to the events of the Old World or the End Times. Which is fair enough, but when you have this specific relocation of actual named Slann characters to the Mortal Realms, it provokes these sorts of questions.

While we're at it, were the Mortal Realms already populated when Sigmar showed up? Or did he have to create all the humans? Same with elves and dwarves - Teclis and Tyrion worked to free elven souls from Slaanesh, but were there already elves there? Where did the Ogres come from? And why does Sigmar forgive Gorkamorka for killing Dracothian so quickly? These are questions I have. These are answers I want.

Alrighty, I will start with the last paragraph since that is the most simple to answer:

-They were already populated when Sigmar arrived.

-We do not know how the various races were created, bar a couple exceptions like Sylvaneth and Idoneth. It could be that they are descendants of refugees from the Old World. It could also be that the Old Ones populated the Realms with the same races they populated the Old World with.

-Dracothian is still alive, he even has dialogue in the realmgate wars fluff.


As for the main line of inquiry...

The fluff does not say if Slann were around to help with building the realmgates--only that the Old Ones made them. Certainly the Slann we currently have are literally the same ones from the Old World that escaped. Their temple-ships are the same ones that lifted off from the surface of the Old World when the Skaven shot down Morrslieb. They left, drifted for a while, and encountered Dracothian. It is all but stated that this interaction then led to Dracothian bringing or showing them the way to the skies of Azyr, but the specifics of how are left to theories.

It is also stated the possibility (likelihood, even) that the Old Ones are responsible for or had something to do with the creation of the eight realms, which would link back to the 'how did all the races get here' question.

Does that answer your questions?

That pretty much does! As I read the battletome, I understood it to say that the Old Ones and Slann collaborated on the Realm Gates sometime before the Age of Myth, but your reading of it makes more sense. Thank you for clarifying.

Re: Dracothian, the way that the Core Rulebook describes the forming of the Pantheon is that Sigmar and Dracothian encounter Gorkamorka, and Gorkamorka kills Dracothian so Sigmar and Gorkamorka fight for twelve days until they're laughing about it and best buds. Let me re-read it.

I see my mistake. It says "Dracothian was struck down", not that he was killed. He's not mentioned in the rest of the section on the Age of Chaos so I just made the wrong assumption.

Happy to help!

I think the idea we are supposed to get is that the chaos gates in Old world were just part of the "realmgate" network that the old ones built as they travelled around, way back when? So it's not a new development after Old world exploded.

I think the picture will become clearer with the eventual relaunch. We do know there are other worlds other than the Old World. Or at least were, before Archaon got to them.

I didn't know about the Old ones connecting to the realms were like this! I just want to know how intensive the Great plans are. did they plan for the old world to blow up into the eight Relms?

We don't know what any of their plans really were, it is left mysterious.

The Old World did not turn into the eight realms; the remains of it are actually are in the skies of Azyr. Mallus, the metal core that the main stormcast base is built orbiting. It is possible the eight realms already existed during the times of WHFB, we have no precise knowledge as to how those timelines match up.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
We don't know what any of their plans really were, it is left mysterious.

The Old World did not turn into the eight realms; the remains of it are actually are in the skies of Azyr. Mallus, the metal core that the main stormcast base is built orbiting. It is possible the eight realms already existed during the times of WHFB, we have no precise knowledge as to how those timelines match up.

I guess I misspoke then, already knew about it not actually being the old world, but I was shortening it. Still, fair point. We don’t know about that much about the age of myth before sigmar woke up, so I guess they could exist at the same time with old one created races already on it. Would be interesting to hear more about it!

Do the Old Ones have anything to do with Dracothion/the magic space dragon that caught Sigmar in the beginning? Seems like making that would be their thing.

There is nothing to suggest a connection. That Dracothian seemed to not know of the Slann (and vice versa) when they met lightly implies he is something different. But it is always possible since we have no information on his origins at all.

Slightly disappointing honestly. If you can make a load of elves you should at least make space dragons, what a waste of time. But it's hardly a giant problem in AoS.

Well Dracothian is a godbeast, so if the Old Ones made the eight realms and Dracothian arose from the energies of those realms, then they did make him by proxy.