Shortly before the new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar was revealed to the world, we had the opportunity to sit down with some of the team responsible for the new rules, lore and miniatures. We wanted to know everything, from the design process and concepting to the immaculate paint jobs adorning the incredible new models, and over the course of the next week we’ll be publishing the results of our conversations.
Today, we dive right into the heroic yet sombre world of the Ruination chambers of the Stormcast Eternals – an elite force of soul-scarred immortals who yearn for final death as their humanity wears thin.
Warhammer Community: The new units from the Ruination chambers have a very different feel to other Stormcast Eternals – how did the studio come up with their character and backstory?
Darren, Design Lead: We started with lots of concept art – some of which has been in development for a number of years from John Blanche’s original sketches, and some of it much more modern.
Sam, Design Manager: Back then, we started with the idea that the Stormcast Eternals were very Realm-specific warriors – some were fiery, others shadowy, and so on. When we started having early conversations about the new miniatures, we looked at these concepts and there were some that were very moody, ornate, and perhaps even partly dead. We explored these ideas with Ben and Phil in the studio and we started to create a new background with this new visual identity.
Darren: There was so much concept art that the challenge was bringing together all of the elements that we liked from that work into a cohesive vision. In contrast to the Skaven, where we have nearly forty years of design to pull from, Stormcast Eternals don’t have that heritage, and so trying to find a new spin on them is something to approach delicately.
Sam: Steve – who primarily worked on the Skaven this time – had worked on the thunderstrike armour for the Dominion box, which had this new proportion. The Skaventide design was about taking the reins from that place, and Steve was a very helpful person to consult on it.
Darren: One thing that was on my mind with the project is that while Skaven and some of the Warhamer 40,000 factions are these decades-old institutions that people have been building, painting and playing with for years, how do we inject that same feel into Stormcast Eternals? How do we make it so that someone who buys and paints a Stormcast Eternal gets the urge to collect a whole army and fall in love with the range and the setting?
Ben, Warhammer Age of Sigmar Product Developer: Studio stalwart Jervis always used to say something similar when working on projects: “How do I find the part of this that I love? What’s the hook that interests me, because if it interests me it will interest someone else.”
Darren: For the Stormcast Eternals, that was taking what we already had and building on it, but also taking some of them back to that concept art, adding grit and a classic gothic feeling. Stormcast Eternals are heroic and clean-cut, and while we didn’t want to abandon that aspect, we still wanted to add grittier hooks in.
Sam: Conceptually, these started as Stormcast Eternals who were too close to the edge, locked up in monasteries and kept from deteriorating further by attendants. We then expanded that into the fully fleshed out lore of the Ruination chambers, but that original vibe we had – of Stormcast kept in the moment by chanted prayers and incantations – followed through into the miniatures.
Darren: We wanted to add a bit of mortality to these immortal characters, a real morbid edge to a range of miniatures that is quite heroic in other places. Putting them close to the edge, making them feel a bit withered and drawn… it adds a new dimension to these characters that we haven’t seen before.
Phil, Warhammer Age of Sigmar Narrative Lead: We didn’t stray too far from those initial concepts when we started fleshing out the lore for the Ruination chambers either, it just evolved more. These are Stormcast that are out there, secluded in their Bleak Citadels, but they still have stories and agency and background. They paint the walls of their chamber with images from their history, they write down things they remember, they spend a lot of time meditating so they don’t lose themselves. They still have that tragic quality, but it’s tempered by the core Stormcast narrative.
Warhammer Community: How did those ideas then translate into the design and creation of the miniatures?
Darren: Christian, who worked on Ushoran, started with the Lord-Vigilant, which was the first miniature from this range that was completed – we’d worked up some concepts, and we tasked him with going to make the most imposing and badass mounted character he could. He smiled, went away, and came back with this miniature which nailed the mood we’d been talking about in the concept stage, and set the tone for the rest of the new models. Everything came from that – heavier, faceted, detailed, gritter.
We also did a lot of work with helmets because we knew we wanted these large, ornate collars, but that clashed with previous, stylised helmets and you can’t have both. We decided to settle for the heads being quite modest, and focussed on the collars representing their position in the hierarchy instead.
Sam: We wanted the Ruination chambers feeling quite elite, and realised quite quickly that it works better when they are among the higher echelons rather than serving as core troops. Instead, you see the elite Reclusians and Prosecutors, supported by Liberators and others from the Warrior chambers.
Phil: That’s essentially how they are. These are veteran warriors choosing to go out in a blaze of glory.
Max, ‘Eavy Metal Content Lead: This was also important when painting them. The impact on their soul is magnified over time, and they become more immune to magic and Chaos-taint as they lose more of what makes them human. They become more like weapons, and the less “noble” colours and details reflect that.
Darren: The development of the updated Liberators was equally involved. We started thinking about the original image of the Liberator with the hammer and shield, and it was such a strong and potent visual that we wanted to stick with it. We updated the armoured suit a little, making it into thunderstrike armour, but also keeping it heavy and combative, with those hammers and shields front and centre.
There are more subtle changes, too – the new armour has had a martial glow up, with larger vambraces and reinforced nose bridges on the mask that add an extra brutal edge. The starter set includes a choice of helmets, some fantastic bare heads, and extra weapon options.
Phil: Your basic Liberator is still that heroic warrior, reforged into units that are sent off to fight Chaos, Death, or Destruction. Over time they might become a Liberator-Prime, or maybe even a Lord-Celestant if they are daring and courageous enough… but perhaps after a few too many Reforgings they may enter the Ruination chambers instead, and at that point they’d become a Reclusian.
Darren: The three-model Reclusian unit is in the Skaventide launch set, too, and they epitomise the style of the Stormcast Eternals from the Ruination chambers, acting as a great contrast to the more streamlined and clean Liberators. Their Memorian attendants are great because they add flavour and character to the unit, but there’s another reason we wanted to have them in the box – they give the faction a real sense of scale. If you hand a Stormcast Eternal to a new fan, they might easily assume that’s just how big humans are in this model range, but the Memorians give you a proper reference point – even more so than the Skaven, who are quite hunched and small.
Steve: A classic thing we’ve done over the years is provide the context of a Space Marine next to an Imperial Guardsman, and this set gets it right in your hands – Skaven next to Memorians, then Stormcast Eternals, and then mounts and war machines.
Warhammer Community: What inspired the decision to have silver-clad Stormcast Eternals feature in the Skaventide launch set, rather than the traditional gold?
Max: At the beginning we wanted to figure out a paint scheme that matched the darker and grittier tone of the box set, but we knew these still had to be exemplars of their Stormhosts, so we stayed away from making them have their own unique colour scheme. We didn’t want to add too many layers of complexity, and didn’t want to suggest a particular unit had to be one specific colour, so ultimately we decided to simply focus on a different Stormhost for the launch box. It helps us present Stormcast Eternals more holistically – it isn’t always the Hammers of Sigmar at the forefront of every major conflict in the Mortal Realms, after all.
The Hallowed Knights give us a new perspective to explore, but because we’ve done alternatives in different colour schemes you’ll still get to see the Ruination chambers reflected in multiple Stormhosts. We decided to focus on a new Stormhost for a change, to see a new angle, and to highlight the idea that Stormcast Eternals come in more colours than just gold.
Ben: It’s a fairly huge statement piece – we’ve followed this through in every aspect of the game, from the background, the presentation, and the photography to the paint, the miniatures, and the rules. We’re taking a hard look at everything, and making it feel like a completely fresh new edition rather than an additive edition.
Max: We want to use this as a chance to focus on the rich variety of the world, so we didn’t want to keep the focus permanently on the Hammers of Sigmar.
Steve: Presenting the new colour scheme via Liberators also means you immediately see this new scheme on a Stormcast Eternal in the most classical sense, but presented differently. There’s new types of Stormcast Eternal in new colour schemes, but there’s still that baseline for us to reference – it’s almost like permission for the rest of the units to be in those colours too.
Darren: Across the range, we’ve worked on some new iconography, too. The death face of Sigmar – the skull visage – is appearing more often on shields and armour. The beastmarks that are commonplace on Stormcast Eternal pauldrons are rendered skeletal on the Ruination chambers, adding to that dour vibe. We played up the idea of the purifying flame as a motif across different miniatures and weapons, which gave the painters some more room to approach spot colours across the factions. You also get corvid beasts turning up with Gryph-crows, which are a less heroic style of heraldic creature associated with death and gloom.
Phil: That’s built into the narrative too. On one level the Ruination chambers yearn for death and oblivion, and so they have a connection to the death god Morrda – a sort of a positive death god in contrast to Nagash. Some people still worship Morrda, a god that essentially represents that final gothic death and oblivion, and with the Stormcast Eternals maintaining a pantheistic religion they often pay tribute to other gods like Alarielle. The Ruination chamber in particular honours the Bleak Raven, who offers a more kind and peaceful end compared to the tyrannical mastery of death and undeath that Nagash represents. That’s why they have an affinity with these corvid-like creatures – the dark pinions of death.
Warhammer Community: Are there any design elements that you feel are particularly characterful, or tell the story of the Ruination Chamber well?
Darren: The Prosecutors are following the same design language as the rest of the Ruination chamber, with slightly heavier, faceted armour and greaves with creases rather than soft rounded edges. This time we went with a flame motif rather than a sunburst, as their previous incarnation felt a little out of place with the flames that had appeared across the rest of the range. It’s also a much more dynamic material, allowing for a flowing appearance that’s closer to feathered wings.
In the development stage we played around with lots of designs, but that specific crested helmet, round shield, and spear design almost always stayed in the rotation. That’s the classic Prosecutor image, and we didn’t want to move away from it.
There are lots of small details on the Ruination chamber miniatures that further the new tone – for example, they’ve got chainmail instead of scalemail which adds a grittier texture. They also wield axes, which are heavy, brutal cutting weapons that provide a big contrast to the classic hammers, swords, spears. We wanted axes with a flame motif in particular, while historically those would have been lighting bolt or sunburst designs, and a lot of the early concepts explored this flame imagery which was a lot more baroque.
That flame motif does extra duty in reference to the twin-tailed comet, while also appearing as the purifying flame that they bring to the Mortal Realms to scour out all the evil. We brought those flame shapes into the weapons and the armour, making them feel more ancient and worn rather than more clean and modern.
Steve: We also added chains to these Stormcast Eternals. That’s not a texture you’ll usually see on them, as we usually opt for ropes and cords, so this adds a bit more depth.
Max: It all comes back to the fact that these elements make them more brutal, indicating that the loss in humanity from repeated Reforgings is a grim side-effect for these characters. It’s cool to see the throughline from the way that core motifs and things like weapon choices reflect the brutality of it, and it’s all been thought through. We spoke about this idea that there’s a cost to everything, a pro and a con to everything, and at the dawn of Warhammer Age of Sigmar it was perhaps all positive for the Stormcast Eternals. But now we’ve reached the point where the cost of standing up against Chaos, Death, and Destruction is becoming more and more visible.
Steve: As bright and shiny as Stormcast Eternals have been from the start, narratively they’ve always been a desperation measure from Sigmar. The more we expand upon the design philosophy of the Ruination chambers and give them unique details, the more it becomes blatant that Sigmar’s plan is perhaps extremely desperate, rather than the hopeful opportunism it first appeared to be.
Phil: With this slow erosion of the soul, you’re starting to get to a stage where you think perhaps Nagash has a point! What’s interesting here is that the miniatures for Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and the narrative, all evolve in real-time. Sigmar didn’t tell these people they were going to go through hell over and over, we’ve learnt that with them, and the miniature design reflects that by letting us watch them change over time.
Steve: It’s coming up on 10 years since we introduced Stormcast Eternals, and now we’ve got to this position with them, you can’t help but wonder – where will we be in ten more years?
Thanks guys! We’ll have more from the Warhammer Age of Sigmar team later this week as they muse over lore developments, ratty fiends, and more. Don’t forget to pre-order your own copy of Skaventide this Saturday to get your hands on the grim and gritty warriors of the Ruination chambers for yourself, along with a massive Core Book packed with fresh new lore on the trials and tribulations of Sigmar’s supposedly immortal heroes.