Warhammer: The Old World is so close you can practically smell the mortuary unguents. We’re so excited about it here in the Warhammer Community wizard’s tower that we summoned the team who designed the game for a series of round table articles. Our binding circle forced them to answer truthfully, so here’s what they told us on today’s topic – the lore of the World of Legend.
How does the narrative of Warhammer: The Old World drive its setting?
Jonathan: Warhammer: The Old World is an origin story for the apocalypse. Across the decades of Warhammer Fantasy Battle we covered the reign of Karl Franz, the rise of Archaon, and ultimately, the End Times. From the moment we’d established what the Empire was and what Chaos was, we’d destined Archaon to ascend and destroy that setting.
An early question for us was: “What was the Horus Heresy moment in the Old World? What was the Siege of Terra moment?” The conclusion we came to was that the Destruction of Praag and the Siege of Kislev were pivotal – the rise of Asavar Kul represented the true return of Chaos to the Old World.
Ever since the days of Sigmar, mighty champions of Chaos have risen every few centuries to claim the title of Everchosen and lead grand incursions from the Northern Wastes to further the power of Chaos. The Everchosen prior to Kul was possessed by Be’lakor and destroyed, so he didn’t achieve what the Ruinous Powers had hoped, which left Chaos with weakened influence in the years that followed. It’s Asavar Kul who rises up and destroys Praag, bringing Chaos back into the world. He’s defeated at Kislev, but while the nations of the Old World think that means Chaos has been driven back, the reality is that it’s a tipping point – something has changed in the world, and from that point on, it is doomed.
So how imminent are these events?
The date on the rulebooks is 2276 – that’s just a few decades before the Great War Against Chaos really kicks off. 2276 is specifically the year when Settra invades the Border Princes, which is a huge moment for the setting. You won’t see the Siege of Praag any time soon, but the wheels have been set in motion…
How much of the setting was created especially for Warhammer: The Old World, and how much of it was already established in past books?Jonathan: While I don’t think anyone had specifically planned for a game set in this period, there’s really very little that we’ve revealed in previous articles that wasn’t already there. When we look at the factions we’re focusing on, it all fits quite organically. The Skaven really aren’t around at this time in the established background – they’re fighting a civil war in the bowels of the earth, which causes them to practically vanish for a few centuries and become folklore.
The major Vampire Counts leaders aren’t around either, because the von Carsteins have just been defeated at Hel Fenn – as much as it's possible for a Vampire to be defeated. All this was there, and it all ties in with what we wanted to do, possibly better than we could have ever hoped.
Dan: There were some excellent foundations for us to build the next leg of the journey on.
Rob: There’s still enough space for us to explore, and our long-term aim is to discover this setting through developing model ranges (which we do a lot of) and creating army books, campaign books, and more. We are treating it as a whole playground of time that we can explore – we might do some of that sequentially, we might hop around, but our plan isn’t to start at the beginning and work our way, step-by-step, to the victory against Asavar Kul.
Will any characters be returning? Or is this a chance for new heroes and villains to be written?
Jonathan: There are a number of familiar characters around in this era, but some of them may not be seen because they’re not relevant to the story we’re telling and the areas where the primary conflicts are taking place.
Rob: Focusing on what’s immediately relevant – for the Tomb Kings, Settra the Imperishable is back! In Bretonnia, the Green Knight is also present – that’s pretty cool!
Jonathan: They are two examples of characters who have been around for hundreds or thousands of years, so naturally they’re around in this period too. When we get to future books, you’ll start to see other characters you recognise returning, but at a younger age. Kings may currently be princes…
Dan: There will definitely be characters people recognise, especially those who are longer-lived, but this is also a great chance for us to introduce new and timeline-appropriate characters. As an example, none of the characters from the Empire who were alive in the era of Karl Franz will be turning up, as they won’t yet have been born. Magnus the Pious isn’t a featured character just yet, but we might see heroes who are just as important introduced into the fiction and tabletop.
Rob: There will be characters in this era whose deeds or failures have a knock-on effect leading to the End Times, as well as ancestors or other relatives or predecessors of characters you know and love from Warhammer Fantasy Battle. That means those older characters are relevant anyway, without us needing to simply revisit that same character a second time.
Jonathan: In the Empire background especially, there are lots of family names that have been dropped in which we think people will be excited by. If you’ve been following the maps we’ve been doing from the beginning, there are a lot of hooks there.
Holly: There are a lot of nods to things there, and plenty of Easter eggs. Veteran Warhammer fans, those who have read rule books and novels going back 20-30 years, will recognise bits here and there – as well as ideas first seen in various editions of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Those books are a major reason why the world is now so fleshed out, and have been worked on by so many people from inside the studio.
Is there anything that’s drastically different about the world in this era?
Dan: Technology won’t be hugely different. A few things may be missing, and others will be treated as experimental in the time the game is set in – but you’ll still get cannons and mortars.
Rob: Another way to look at it, instead of “what won’t exist” is, “What technologies might exist during this time that have been forgotten or cast aside later on, and what does that tell us about the World of Legend versus the world of the End Times?”
Jonathan: As for how things change over time, look at Empire handguns. We could give soldiers of the Empire older style handguns with more primitive firing mechanisms, but they'd function pretty much identically in game. So we didn't do that because we want people to be able to get their old armies out, use them, and expand upon them without having to worry that such models are anachronistic.
Rob: In terms of magic, the Colleges of Magic will not feature because the Colleges don’t exist at this point. The Celestial Hurricanum and the Luminark of Hysh won’t be there either.
Jonathan: They’re creations of the Colleges of Magic, so they just wouldn’t exist at this point in time. You might be surprised at some of the things that do exist during that time though...
Rob: One of the interesting things we came across during our research was lore from the End Times about a specific Steam Tank used by Nuln, called “Deliverance” which was deployed during the Siege of Praag.
Jonathan: Steam Tanks are fascinating, because they were built several centuries ago, when the great engineer Leonardo De Miragliano was still alive. They’ve been around a long time, and there are actually more in the World of Legend period than during the End Times because they were newer, and fewer had been destroyed. This is a slightly more Golden Age, an age that knows a degree of peace compared to the End Times.
Giorgio: An interesting difference here. In this time frame, Steam Tanks are no longer a relic to be revered and studied – they were the shiny new product!
Jonathan: They are less disconnected from the inventor and their contemporaries, too.
Rob: There’s also less superstition. By the End Times, it was commonly claimed that there were only 12 Steam Tanks built, ever – but that’s the kind of mad myth that spread in the End Times. Really there were loads of them! That was just normal. This isn’t an age of vast crowds wandering through the Empire and flagellating themselves.
Jonathan: Some do that!
Rob: Some, definitely, but there are fewer than them! Far fewer.
Tomb Kings are listed among the Forces of Evil – was that always the case?
Dan: Settra’s understanding of his realm is that all lands beyond his borders are lands to be conquered by Settra and to submit to his glorious rule. And his rule is absolute and unchallengeable. If you don’t want to be ruled by him, he will kill you. Those are the two options: bend the knee, or die.
Jonathan: That’s Tomb Kings down to a T. There was a period in later Warhammer Fantasy Battle where morality got a little more grey, but this isn’t the world of the End Times, or the World-that-Was. This is the World of Legends – it’s where they’re born and come to life. We’ve tried to draw a clearer divide between Good and Evil, and the armies of good are very much the protectors of order.
Rob: We’re not trying to say that there are no shades of grey within this binary split, but that split is far more well defined now.
Jonathan: It’s difficult to buy the idea that an undying empire of skeletons, ruled over by the ultimate tyrant who in his life wanted to cross every horizon and subjugate everything he discovered… wouldn’t be evil? The mortuary cults and the entire idea of undeath exist because of Settra’s vanity and refusal to die. Nagash wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Settra’s refusal to die. The aggrandisement of self through the grand statuary and hieroglyphic writings of Nehekhara – it’s so self-centred and so selfish and tells us so much about how little the rulers of Nehekhara cared about their subjects that it cannot be anything but evil.
Rob: We’ve tried to capitalise on that with Nekhaph, Settra’s Herald. He has this huge scroll that he brings out ahead of the army. Before they arrive, he’s screeching all of Settra’s thousands of titles and epithets.
Jonathan: That list takes two hours or more to read out, and we’ve got a little bit of it in one of the side bars in the Tomb Kings of Khemri Arcane Journal…
Dan: Even that’s a non-exhaustive list. In life, Settra was a tyrannical monarch, and when he realised he was going to die before he conquered the world, he was so angry as to be inconsolable. When he realised that there would be land that would lay unconquered before he could reach immortality, it was more than he could bear.
Jonathan: In the End Times, Settra opposed Chaos, because he was not going to yield to Chaos. He’s too insane, even in undeath. That’s where we think the idea of the Tomb Kings being ‘good’ came from, and where we think the shades of grey perhaps muddied things a little too much. Neither Chaos nor Settra will let the people of the Old World get on with their lives.
The Kingdom of Bretonnia seems much as it was – are there any major changes?
Rob: For Bretonnia, the same classic symbolism and thematics that you’ll remember are still in use, but the main thing that’s changed visually is the way heraldry is presented, which shows a different side of Bretonnia from the chromatic parade you might be familiar with.
Jonathan: In the old days, Bretonnian armies were presented with mixed-and-matched heraldry, which tied into older ideas that every single Knight of the Realm had their own independent castle, and they all came from over the dukedoms to join battle together. What we wanted to do was consolidate how the Bretonnians worked a little – a Bretonnian army where every model wore different personal heraldry was a really aspirational image that you’d see in White Dwarf and army books, but as a hobby project it was easy to run out of steam on.
We didn’t want to remove heraldry, so we rethought things a little. We settled on the idea that most Knights of the Realm, including Pegasus Knights, would act as the retinue of a greater lord, and wear their colours – much like the lowborn Men-at-Arms. They may have their own land, their own servants, and their own responsibilities, but they’ll also spend a lot of time at court as professional soldiers and courtiers, which adds a sense of verisimilitude to how the Kingdoms operate.
Holly: We used that as a chance to analyse how heraldry works, how over time it will shift and change, and major and minor elements will get updates. Sometimes minor elements may be emphasised more for a reason, or a major element diminishes, and colours change – and through these changes, you can tell a story of what’s happened. In part, we are reverse-engineering from the heraldry of the End Times to where we are now.
Rob: Some of these ideas were picked up by the ‘Eavy Metal team – the high-ranking knights will wear colours that are consistent with their duke’s heraldry, but where there are tilting shields or similar features, the team took the time to paint those in a manner which reflected their personal heraldry.
Jonathan: This all works really well for when you’re building armies. Knights of the Realm are relatively humble, but you progress upwards to Questing Knights and Grail Knights, who are more individual and have more prominent personal heraldry. If you still want to do the classic mixed heraldry, there’s nothing stopping you. There will even be full rules for crusading armies, where knights from across the kingdom come together to undertake a grand crusade that is wreathed in colour and pageantry.
Dan: With every faction, we’re continuing to adhere to the foundational elements established in the written lore over the years. Bretonnian knights aren’t going to start carrying a gun – that’s dishonourable warfare!
Jonathan: We do explore the idea of Outcasts and Exiled Bretonnian Knights, however. They might be willing to bend the rules of chivalry a little more…
Rob: Even there, we’re drawing on ideas we established in earlier editions of Warhammer Fantasy battles. Exiled Bretonnians can call on bombards and black powder, but it’s still not the Knights that fire them!
Jonathan: Though their honour couldn’t really be more tarnished. They are knights who’ve gone into exile of their own volition because they won’t apologise for a wrongdoing – they won’t take a quest or do penance, so instead they take their whole family and their loyal serfs, and go and live somewhere else because they still believe they are right.
The unique insanity of Bretonnia is that everyone starts saying, “Well, isn’t that noble to sacrifice so much!” It becomes an honourable act, even though their honour is besmirched. At some point, they may be able to come back – but in the intervening time, of course they’ll justify using cannons, and reinforce their armies with murderers and ruffians.
Thanks guys – that was fascinating. We’ll be back tomorrow with a chat about design – both on the miniatures and the graphics.
