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So I'm getting into AOS lore and I've remember that Nagash is the now playable lord and centerpiece for the Death Alliance faction. The question to me is how is the relationship between him any the following factions?
.Soulblight
.Bonereapers
.Flesheater courts
.Nighthaunt.

Do they all just suck it up and bow down to him unanimously or is there any sort of schism or strife between all these playable factions and their master? I am asking because I don't remember Nagash being the direct master over the Von Caresteins but I knew Arkhan would follow his master with the Tomb Kings.

How do each of the playable death alliance factions view or relate to their master?

Nagash is slightly insane and considers himself the supreme lord of all death in the Realms without question.

The Soulblight are his creation from the Old World - Vampires - and are bound to him by blood. The leaders are re-imagined from the Old World, not actually the old souls (though they could be buried deep); but recreated and slaved to Nagash's will.
Vampires show well that whilst they are bound to him, they do not want to be and consider that they can be independent and want to be independent. Many would take any pathway to true freedom.

Bonereapers are Nagash's own elite army. Forged from ground bone and souls. Many parts ground down and combined to create perfect constructs. They do have freedom of will and they are alive, but they are often quite focused on their given task above all else. They can also have issues because not just their minds and thoughts, but their very souls are formed from the fragments of others. This means they can be highly skilled, but also have issues of their own.

Flesheater Courts are basically insane vampires who are currently as close to "free" as one can get. They are free by virtue of being totally insane. They don't see themselves as cannibalistic vampires, but basically Bretonnians. Knights, squires, kings, maids, maidens, serfs and all. When they dine on a midden of dead corpses they see a fine table, white cloth, cutlery - the works.
Nagash does use them, but they are like a rabid dog - you point/nudge them to the right direction and let them loose, but he can't control them with his direct will like most of the others.

Nighthaunt are an offshoot of the vampire forces of old and like the rest are bound to Nagash. The souls of the departed.




Within the Realm of Death there are many sub-realms. Islands in the sea that are each the given afterlife of a living race or faction or group. Even the Skaven have one (despite the Great Horned Rat now being a Chaos Lord, the Skaven still die like normal and their souls head to the realm of death). Nagash wages war on all other underworlds, conquering them and making them "his". Both the living who inhabit the lands and the true dead.


It's complicated, but essentially he rules all and where he doesn't rule he is seeking to rule. His claim to ALL souls of the dead means he's openly at war with Chaos and now also wages war with Sigmar as Sigmar is "stealing" from Nagash the brightest and the best for his Stormcast.

Overall? Nagash is all, and all are one in Nagash. That means if Nagash wills it, his servants obey which accounts for all undead.

Each lord, be they vampire, lich, necromancer, spirit or zombie can make their own choices in terms of alliances, wars, or peace but if Nagash commands, all obey. Even the mordant Flesheat Courts are bound to the will of Nagash, although not as strongly as others due to their inherent madness and the contempt Old Rattlebones holds for them.

As for the Mortarchs:

Jaredthefox92 wrote:
but I knew Arkhan would follow his master with the Tomb Kings.

Tomb Kings so far haven't been directly represented within AoS. We know that there are some out there, as some of the cities on one of the early maps are identified as belonging to them. But they've never been shown up close, and they're not represented within the game. So far, there's been no sign of their characters aside from Arkhan, and the less said about him, the better, as far as the Khemrians were concerned.

One of the novels featured a Stormcast with some traits that suggested he *might* be Settra. The similarities appeared to be more of an easter egg than anything serious. However, the Stormcast in question was subsequently confirmed not to be Settra, and unceremoniously (permanently) killed. At the time, the public reception toward this particular Stormcast was mixed at best, so that might have had something to do with his abrupt demise. Or it could be that the character slipped past GW's editors, and TPTB want to keep Settra in reserve on the off-chance they decide to do something with the TK in the setting (not likely at this point, but we once said the same about the Squats).

Perhaps worth noting that the Nighthaunt all* exist as souls being punished. The nature of the crime determines the punishment and thus their unit identity in game. Nagash considers himself a 'just' god so while the punishments are generally fitting in theme they are far beyond what would be considered reasonable.

*Awlrach the Drowner being the exception who actually enjoys his work

Nagash is the God of Death, but not the only one. But he is working on it. Essentially finding and consuming other gods of death, and subsuming their realms and souls into his own.

However, he’s the only one with enough oomph to be a major player in The Realms.

As others have said, all the forces of Death have some level of autonomy, and not all were by any means planned.

If any force can be said to be Nagash’s own? It’s the Ossiarch. In many ways they’re the pinnacle of Necromancy. Not merely raised from the dead, but crafted from the dead. Even the lowliest steed is made from an amalgam of soul stuff. Split, sifted, refined. The higher the rank the greater the personal autonomy and freedom - but none can really go against Nagash’s wishes. It’s more freedom and intelligence to decide how to follow an order - not whether to follow it in the first place.

Vampires are Vampires. More or less free to bugger about being pains in the neck. They’re broadly able to set their own agendas and pursue their own goals. However, Nagash always retains the ability to override and overrule.

Night haunt are kind of a happy accident. They arose in vast numbers when Nagash’s plans went awry. They’re arguably closer to a force of nature than an organised force for the most part. But, Nagash and their Mortarch can extend control of them as needs be.

Flesh Eater Courts? Arguably not even Undead. Just wretched mortals cursed to madness by Nagash. Again largely left to their own devices, but their Vampiric masters remain at Nagash’s beck and call.

Afaik it hasn't been made clear if there are any other death gods left.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Afaik it hasn't been made clear if there are any other death gods left.

We know there's still multiple afterlives/undead realms that are not yet under Nagash's control. Many of his forces wage war constantly to take them under his domain.

We also know that on the living realms many minor gods are in reality Chaos Greater Demons pretending to be those gods. Often not even one demon but many and not from the same Patron either. So one tribe might be worshipping a Great Unclean one whilst another is worshipping a Keeper of Secrets. Both believe they are praying to the same separate god of their own.


So in theory one could surmise that any undead realm that isn't taken by Nagash nor Chaos could in theory have its very own god. However they'd be very weak by most standards. Or at least not worth of enough note to be detailed in much of the lore we read which is very dominated by the big gods.




Indeed I'd actually welcome GW being bold and having an unaligned group of minor gods and civilizations rising up as their own force in the realms. Those who are sick of both the gods of "old" and also of the Chaos Gods. Indeed we already kind of have the groundwork for that through hints at Gotrek since there's a very strong "unite the dwarves" theme going on in many of his AoS books.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Flesh Eater Courts? Arguably not even Undead. Just wretched mortals cursed to madness by Nagash. Again largely left to their own devices, but their Vampiric masters remain at Nagash’s beck and call.

Hidden among the ruins of the Mortal Realms thrive the Flesh-eater Courts. Bound by the madness of their Abhorrant Ghoul Kings, throngs of mordants live out their pitiful lives feasting upon the corpses provided by the endless war and strife of kingdom after kingdom. - Age of Sigmar faction guide.

They are ghouls and cannibals, but apparently delusional mortals. They see themselves as paragons of chivalric virtue, but those not so deluded would see grotesque and barbaric wretches squabbling over rotting humanoid flesh.

The first Flesheater was a vampire locked away in a tower and cursed by Nagash. He went utterly insane to the point where any he turns with his bite are also driven insane as well.

This means that basically every FeC has to be some form of vampiric creature. From the upper ranks who are clearly insane pureblood vampires; to ghouls who appear to be a bit like partly turned humans/elves/dwarves for the most part. Or just really low ranking vampires with very little power.

They also appear to have some necromancy but it appears to be much more rare; so they can have things like terrorgasts and zombiedragons, but no legions of skeletons/direwolves/zombies or the like.



In theory this makes them even more fearsome because their vast legions won't just die off after a mortal lifespan; they will keep living for much much longer as part of the vampire life cycle. So long as they gain foot.


I've got to admit the cannibalistic part is a touch odd when you consider many are ghoulish/vampiric; but I think its there to highlight how even vampires mostly just consume blood not flesh. At least not in the insane way FEC do.



That said I don't have the battletome and Ghouls could be more turned/twisted/mindcontrolled humans. So basically thralls

On the other potential Gods of Death? It kind of harks back to the original Realm of Chaos books.

There it’s made clear that Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh are simply the most powerful Chaos Warp entities, but by no means the only ones. Indeed the line between an especially powerful daemon and a minor-god is a fine one indeed.

All are warp entities after all, with the delineation therefore being more one of power than existence. And warp entities entirely independent of the big four absolutely do exist, albeit at the constant risk of being subsumed into a more powerful entity or god.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
On the other potential Gods of Death? It kind of harks back to the original Realm of Chaos books.

There it’s made clear that Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh are simply the most powerful Chaos Warp entities, but by no means the only ones. Indeed the line between an especially powerful daemon and a minor-god is a fine one indeed.

All are warp entities after all, with the delineation therefore being more one of power than existence. And warp entities entirely independent of the big four absolutely do exist, albeit at the constant risk of being subsumed into a more powerful entity or god.

I feel like this is lore that GW didn't focus on for a time and thus there's a generation who view the Big 4 as the only Chaos Gods and somehow separate from other warp entities.

I think that in more recent times GW has been revisiting and focusing on this bit of lore. AoS has the Great Horned Rat now as a Chaos God with the interesting twist that his followers don't enter the Warp when they die, but have their own (currently not ruled by Nagash) Afterlife in the Death Realm. I suspect we won't hear more on how the GHR works in the Warp until we get a big chunky update and focus on Skaven.

Meanwhile in 40K we've a WarpSmith who is said to be nearing the Great 4 in power, plus semi-regular reminders that Eldar and Ork gods exist in the Warp and that Tau and the Imperium might also have Gods (the Tau having the Greater Good whilst Imperials have what might be something of the Emperor forming in there even if its against the Emperor's own will - after all those blessings for the Sisters of Battle have to come from somewhere!).


But yes the 4 Chaos Gods are just the most insanely powerful. You can certainly find other demons in the warp that are not part of the Great 4, they are just lesser (though could still be plenty powerful and deadly). They likely also have a hard time getting access to the mortal realm because the Big 4 have a huge monopoly and dominance on that.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
On the other potential Gods of Death? It kind of harks back to the original Realm of Chaos books.

I mean, all the races had their own gods in Fantasy though, just that Nagash ate most of the Death gods already like Morr, Gazul, and Djaf.

When the Mortal Realms formed and civilisation along with them, new gods popped up as well, who Nagash also then ate most of. There was a short story all the way back in the Season of War IIRC where a band of Stormcast finds one of the remaining gods looking for an alliance, only for Nagash to manifest and consume the god as he had used the Stormcast to lure it out.

Also worth noting that, before the Age of Chaos, Nagash had near total control over the whole of Shyish; that's when he was consuming the other death gods. Accordingly, areas of Shyish not currently under Nagash's control generally were at some point in the past.

That said, I do recall a snippet from one of the short stories published around the launch of 3rd edition where Nagash was asking Grungni for the 'keys to the Duardin underworlds' which has a number of interesting implications. Obviously Grungni said no, but this was at the dawn of the Age of Chaos and a lot has happened since then.

Most recent Skaven fluff has them with several underworlds, Ruin (as detailed in Prince Maesa) being only one of them. It's somewhat vague though.

I find a lot of the mechanics of the AoS setting are very vague in how they work. It's the one big weakness of the setting in that it doesn't feel like there's a lot of strongly established rules on how it works; which means it gets added too here and there by different authors and that means bits change; or shift around; whilst some other aspects are hard to work out for yourself.

Realm of Metal and Death are two of the worst because they create so many questions for so few answers. How do you farm in a realm of metal; how do most factions manage to even have basic trade when almost all rare metals are common as anything; heck why aren't most factions fully steam punk because of the ease of access to metals and materials.


Death Realm raises a lot of questions, not least of which is the simple fact that it doesn't take very long before the dead souls/bodies outnumber the living by an insane value. Exponentially large in fact. In theory even if Nagash only held a tiny portion of Death; if he could march them out of that realm into others his legions would be insanely vast.
In theory the only one that could stand toe to toe with the Chaos Lords if they were able to manifest all the souls they took into themselves into warriors on the mortal plane.



Skaven are doubly interesting because them having an underworld in the Death Realm suggests that they are not going to the Great Horned one in the Chaos Realm. Which means he's got to be really weak compared ot the big 4 and also that his entire faction is operating differently.

It wouldn't surprise me if we saw a huge campaign event (built around the Skaven getting a big model update/new edition) where The GHR decides that he wants more power and thus creates some kind of effect that sucks the Skaven from Nagash's clutches and the Ruin Afterlife and fully into the Chaos Realm. Empowering himself; rattling the other 4 big gods (well 3 as one is still trapped) and denying Nagash the insanely vast legions of undead skaven.

Ah, on trade?

It’s Realmstone (which sounds like it might safe versions of Warpstone) that are the underlying currency. And if loose memory serves, each has its own unique and desirable property?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Ah, on trade?

It’s Realmstone (which sounds like it might safe versions of Warpstone) that are the underlying currency. And if loose memory serves, each has its own unique and desirable property?

Realmstone seems to vary and a lot of it seems to be what one would consider "higher" trade. So the kind of things gods, generals and nations trade in rather than your average person on the street or even minor trading groups.

So whilst a major trading group might trade with Ur Gold with the Khadorans for inter-realm trade - we've less idea what is traded for when you go to the fish market for some fish for the day.

I think Ruin, the Skaven afterlife is a sub realm so not technically part of Shyish?

https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ruin

Soulbound has Aqua Vitae as a common currency for trade and tries to work out how alot of these things work.

Some lore has that souls only normally remain in Syish for a given period of time but as with alot of the lore it can be somewhat contradictory.

 Overread wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Ah, on trade?

It’s Realmstone (which sounds like it might safe versions of Warpstone) that are the underlying currency. And if loose memory serves, each has its own unique and desirable property?

Realmstone seems to vary and a lot of it seems to be what one would consider "higher" trade. So the kind of things gods, generals and nations trade in rather than your average person on the street or even minor trading groups.

So whilst a major trading group might trade with Ur Gold with the Khadorans for inter-realm trade - we've less idea what is traded for when you go to the fish market for some fish for the day.

Well, the same could be said for Gold and currency in general. The tenner in my wallet is only worth £10 because the Government has said it is. Kind of. Money is weird when you think about it.

But it’s still currency that I use for all my trading, whether that’s buying from a shop, buying a beer, selling my crafty makes, second hand models etc.

Whilst not everyone in the Realms will ever necessarily see Realmstone, it’s still a base resource which drives trade. And each City or State will have its own Fiat Currency.

 Overread wrote:
Realmstone seems to vary and a lot of it seems to be what one would consider "higher" trade. So the kind of things gods, generals and nations trade in rather than your average person on the street or even minor trading groups.

So whilst a major trading group might trade with Ur Gold with the Khadorans for inter-realm trade - we've less idea what is traded for when you go to the fish market for some fish for the day.

I mean there's local currency and then there's interrealm currency. Local currency won't get expanded upon because its local and has no meaning outside a set story. It doesn't serve a purpose to say what Egboldof Township uses for its local economy when we know the Realm of Life has Realmstone, Aqua Ghyranis, and other trading currencies on the macro scale.
Inter-realm currency is goods like Aqua Ghyranis or Realmstone for the various Free Cities and peoples or indeed people themselves for the less "civilised" factions.
We know at the very least that the Cities of Sigmar use a coin based currency for payment of the Freeguilds as "Taking the Coin Malleus" is used in the same way "Take the King's Shilling" is.
Also I'm willing to bet that if people looked into the Crucible 7 RPGs for AoS there will be more info there. The various wikis just aren't as cultivated as say 40k Lexicanum.

 Gert wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Realmstone seems to vary and a lot of it seems to be what one would consider "higher" trade. So the kind of things gods, generals and nations trade in rather than your average person on the street or even minor trading groups.

So whilst a major trading group might trade with Ur Gold with the Khadorans for inter-realm trade - we've less idea what is traded for when you go to the fish market for some fish for the day.

I mean there's local currency and then there's interrealm currency. Local currency won't get expanded upon because its local and has no meaning outside a set story. It doesn't serve a purpose to say what Egboldof Township uses for its local economy when we know the Realm of Life has Realmstone, Aqua Ghyranis, and other trading currencies on the macro scale.
Inter-realm currency is goods like Aqua Ghyranis or Realmstone for the various Free Cities and peoples or indeed people themselves for the less "civilised" factions.
We know at the very least that the Cities of Sigmar use a coin based currency for payment of the Freeguilds as "Taking the Coin Malleus" is used in the same way "Take the King's Shilling" is.
Also I'm willing to bet that if people looked into the Crucible 7 RPGs for AoS there will be more info there. The various wikis just aren't as cultivated as say 40k Lexicanum.

We have been putting a lot of the excellent C7 material onto the Lex's in the last year or two.

 Overread wrote:


It wouldn't surprise me if we saw a huge campaign event (built around the Skaven getting a big model update/new edition) where The GHR decides that he wants more power and thus creates some kind of effect that sucks the Skaven from Nagash's clutches and the Ruin Afterlife and fully into the Chaos Realm. Empowering himself; rattling the other 4 big gods (well 3 as one is still trapped) and denying Nagash the insanely vast legions of undead skaven.

The undead skaven are fighting forces of Nagash. So sending them to warp would rather relieve Nagash from attacks.

Asfor trade realm of metal has...well metals. I can see them trade metals to other realms with less of that while receiving stuff they have less themselves.

 Overread wrote:
I find a lot of the mechanics of the AoS setting are very vague in how they work. It's the one big weakness of the setting in that it doesn't feel like there's a lot of strongly established rules on how it works; which means it gets added too here and there by different authors and that means bits change; or shift around; whilst some other aspects are hard to work out for yourself.

Agreed.

How do you farm in a realm of metal

Same way as anywhere else? Soil and rain still exist in Chamon after all.

how do most factions manage to even have basic trade when almost all rare metals are common as anything

They trade those metals to other realms where they are not so abundant.

heck why aren't most factions fully steam punk because of the ease of access to metals and materials

For starters, many of them are. Secondly there is a lot more that goes into the development of such tech than simply an abundance of metal.

not least of which is the simple fact that it doesn't take very long before the dead souls/bodies outnumber the living by an insane value.

Given that a vast portion of the Realms' population serves Chaos, those souls don't go to Shyish. Secondly, souls don't exist indefinitely; some individuals might, but generally speaking they gradually cease to exist as their energy returns to the realms. To say nothing of how many are consumed by Nagashi forces or the Nadir itself.

Skaven are doubly interesting because them having an underworld in the Death Realm suggests that they are not going to the Great Horned one in the Chaos Realm. Which means he's got to be really weak compared ot the big 4 and also that his entire faction is operating differently.

Keep in mind there is power in worship. Having the most populous race in the setting exclusively worshiping the same god (and with no chance of them converting to worship of anything else) is a pretty big asset for the GHR.

denying Nagash the insanely vast legions of undead skaven.

Pretty sure Nagash would have OBR salvage what useful bits they could rather than animate Skaven directly. He has a history with them after all...

The problem with trade is that it relies on major inter-realm trade which is rare, esp after the Age of Chaos shattered many of the realm gate networks and trade paths and settlements.

So even if you can trade abundant metal for food from Ghur; you're still lift with the issue of all those factions that don't have a working or any realmportal. Plus the issue of new settlements far out that won't yet have the size to command any inter-realm trade interest.

Plus how do you farm crops in a metal realm. Even if you've found soil; how do you live with the realities of a metal realm where you get huge rust-storms; or where the sky might rain down quicksilver.


These are not unsurmountable elements and the lore can flesh them out. I just feel like visually and story wise we don't have a handy big Tome that outlines how the world works.
In most fantasy its not too bad, but AoS very much grasps the bull by the horns and goes into full epic insane settings. Not impossible to live in, but very challenging and presenting things that would require adaptation.


And yes I oft pick on the Metal realm because its easy; but the Shadow Realm with its limited daylight; or the simple fact that the shadows are that thick over many regions; or perhaps Ghur itself. Heck one of the books about Vampires and the Vengorian Lords has a region of Ghur where the land changes on a whim - where it can be a field one day and a mountain the next. It never really covers just how the farmers tackle this kind of environment. The City itself is well covered in the story (even if it still leaves one pondering how they built it in the first place); but the concepts of how you can farm an environment which can change on a whim is tricky to envision.

Another farming problem for the Realm of Metal. Heavy metal poisoning, assuming the soil is local to the realm, and not imported from elsewhere. Even imported soil will eventually be tainted by heavy metals. But perhaps life expectancy is so short heavy metal poisoning is not an issue. What with Chaos and/or Death armies butchering their way through the realms every other year (or so it seems).

As for the realm of Shadow, I imagine they eat a lot of fungus. Fungus likes it dark and moist. This being AoS I suspect sometimes the fungus eats you.

 Overread wrote:
The problem with trade is that it relies on major inter-realm trade which is rare, esp after the Age of Chaos shattered many of the realm gate networks and trade paths and settlements.

These are not unsurmountable elements and the lore can flesh them out. I just feel like visually and story wise we don't have a handy big Tome that outlines how the world works.
In most fantasy its not too bad, but AoS very much grasps the bull by the horns and goes into full epic insane settings. Not impossible to live in, but very challenging and presenting things that would require adaptation.
.

We do have the Soulbound rpg which explores this in a nymber of "big books" eg:

Much commerce in the Mortal Realms is done through bartering and trade. However, as the cities of Sigmar have risen, currency has begun to be used more and more. Initially coin was trialed as a form of currency, but with the Kharadron Overlords having almost total control over the Spiral Crux of Chamon — where precious metals are commonplace — the idea was soon abandoned (much to the Duardin’s annoyance). Today, a steady form of currency exists in Aqua Ghyranis, the life-giving water from Ghyran. The magically infused water is kept in glass phials, spheres, flasks, or special reinforced kegs.

It goes into the exchange rates etc.

Though Aqua Ghyranis is becoming more popular as a standard currency, other cities, realms, and cultures have their own forms of currency, such as the Glimmerings found in Excelsis in Ghur — slivers of the Spear of Mallus which grant minor prophetic visions. Mages and nobles can often agree upon a value for realmstone — raw magical energy in crystallized form. An ounce of pure realmstone would be worth a handful of spheres of Aqua Ghyranis to the right buyer. Otherwise, realmstone has largely been rejected as a currency due to its unpredictable nature, supposed side effects, and the superstition surrounding it.

Bone is the state currency of the Ossiarch Empire, and amassing it is the singular focus of the Bonereaper legions - Purebone, the closest thing to a measurable currency in the Ossiarch Empire, is harvested only from mortals who perished in the prime of their life — untainted by illness or corruption. Though consuming Aqua Ghyranis provides no nourishment for one without life, and is in fact a thoroughly unpleasant experience for them, it still has many practical uses in Nagash’s domain. Aqua Ghyranis can counteract the taint of Chaos and sustain a living population offering fealty to the Great Necromancer. There is also Grave Coins

 Overread wrote:
Plus how do you farm crops in a metal realm. Even if you've found soil; how do you live with the realities of a metal realm where you get huge rust-storms; or where the sky might rain down quicksilver.

The entire realm isn't metal though, that's made abundantly clear. You aren't walking across chrome plated ground like that one Spongebob episode where Squidward goes to the future.

Life is hard in the more esoteric realms but those realms also tend to have ways around it like magic which makes sense when the very realms these civilisations live in are born of magic in the first place. This isn't like the Old World or planets in 40k where magic is either rare or drawn from actual hell, it's just another fact of life that people have to live with.

Thing is, life from a Realm is adapted to that Realm. Much of the life from Chamon is literally part-metal in some way, to say nothing of the Chaos-corrupted. Heavy metal poisoning almost certainly is exclusively a thing for life migrated/transported in from *other* realms and even then only the first generation or two.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Thing is, life from a Realm is adapted to that Realm. Much of the life from Chamon is literally part-metal in some way, to say nothing of the Chaos-corrupted. Heavy metal poisoning almost certainly is exclusively a thing for life migrated/transported in from *other* realms and even then only the first generation or two.

Which is interesting because the wildlife is often shown to include bits of metal, pistons and such - and yet the humans/orcs and other dominate races (who have also been living and breeding in these realms for generations) are not similarly affected. Indeed when it comes to how a realm affects its population it seems that the only one that really kind of does is the Shadow Realm with the Shadow Aelves in particular - other races (even the Daughters of Khaine who have been there just as long) don't seem to show the influence.


Now of course part of this is that GW can't make 8 different forms of every faction; but its interesting to note how "out of touch" the various dominant races are from the realms they live in on a biological level. Especially after so many generations. It kind of reinforces that they are not natural to the Realms; that they are from somewhere else even if the vast majority have no idea about the Old World as a thing (or only as far as legends which is likely half considered just a story than reality)

 Overread wrote:

Which is interesting because the wildlife is often shown to include bits of metal, pistons and such - and yet the humans/orcs and other dominate races (who have also been living and breeding in these realms for generations) are not similarly affected. Indeed when it comes to how a realm affects its population it seems that the only one that really kind of does is the Shadow Realm with the Shadow Aelves in particular - other races (even the Daughters of Khaine who have been there just as long) don't seem to show the influence.

IIRC, Morathi is explicitly messing with the physiology of her followers, so that's probably why they're not showing any elemental influences.

I'm still waiting impatiently for the Shadowelves to *finally* show up...At this point I have to wonder why the long delay, and whether GW has decided to quietly push them aside and hope players forget about Malerion.