It’s been a few weeks since Warhammer+ burst onto the scene, but this awesome subscription service gets better with each passing week as new episodes of Citadel Colour Masterclass, Battle Report, and more are added.
Today, Warhammer+ subscribers will also be treated to a brand new show – taking you on a journey into the worlds of Warhammer Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 – Loremasters. Before we learn all about how the show was created, check out what else is being added to Warhammer+ this week…
To mark the debut of Loremasters, we caught up with Wade Pryce, one of the learned sages who’s hosting the show, to learn what it’s all about.
Warhammer Community: First things first – should we call you Wade or the Loremaster?
Wade: Please, call me Wade – only my mother calls me 'the Loremaster', even though I've asked her not to.
I think it's important to note that Loremasters has an 's' at the end. After all, there are lots of experts on different aspects of the lore in the Warhammer Studio and writing for Black Library. What you'll see in Loremasters is the result of lots of cool conversations and information taken from classic lore and behind-the-scenes documents. It's my privilege to be able to share it with people.
WarCom: Sounds fun! So, what’s the show all about?
Wade: Loremasters is a show dedicated to the rich background of the worlds of Warhammer – the personalities, places, and events that make Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Age of Sigmar what they are.
I spent about 12 years working in the Warhammer Studio and have been fortunate enough to regularly talk with the writers and various Black Library authors for podcasts and other projects I've worked on since.
Loremasters is an opportunity to share some of that accumulated wisdom with viewers and present it in an authoritative way, in videos put together by very talented producers. And, crucially, it will confirm how a lot of weird Warhammer words are supposed to be pronounced.
WarCom: What can you tell us about the first episode?
Wade: The first episode is about Abaddon the Despoiler, the dread Warmaster of Chaos. How he attained that position has been fairly well documented across several editions of Warhammer 40,000 codexes and different Black Library books – particularly The Horus Heresy, the Siege of Terra series, and the accounts of Iskandar Khayon in Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Black Legion novels.
Yet Abaddon is a frequently misunderstood character. Some people seem to think he spent 10,000 years just trying to destroy Cadia. Or they don't realise that 'Black Crusade' is only a name retrospectively given by members of the Imperium to campaigns in Abaddon's Long War they’ve never really understood the importance of. So he seemed like a good first subject to tackle, highlighting key themes and dispelling bad memes.
WarCom: How do you create an episode of Loremasters? The research process must be pretty intense…
Wade: We'll be talking about characters, some of whom are truly ancient, and wars that are bigger than anything we've ever experienced in our own history, which makes presenting an exhaustive deep-dive into every aspect of them in a single video next to impossible.
As such, the process involves identifying the key information we'd like to get across to viewers in each episode, then assembling the words and imagery that best explain that. It's a little bit like writing an essay that answers a specific question, but you get to use the entire back catalogue of Warhammer art to make your points as well as words.
This approach also means we can return to topics and explore other parts of the lore surrounding these characters from other angles in the future.
WarCom: Now that you've spent all that time researching him, has your opinion of Abaddon changed at all?
Wade: One of the oldest quotes attributed to Abaddon is: "Horus was weak. Horus was a fool. He had the whole galaxy within his grasp, and he let it slip away". That's always been the essence of Abaddon's character. He wants to do better than his Primarch and conquer the galaxy for himself – not for the Chaos Gods and without becoming their pawn as Horus did.
Reading his journey through The Horus Heresy and Siege of Terra novels, you see how Ezekyle Abaddon went from once revering Horus to becoming disgusted at his weakness and blaming him for his ultimate failure to defeat the nascent Imperium on Terra.
His scorn comes across in that quote, and it shows how fully he embraces his destiny as Horus' successor.
I'd say working on this episode reinforced my opinion that Abaddon is one of the most important characters in the Warhammer 40,000 setting, as he’s the only figure who can truly unite the forces of Chaos against the Imperium in significant numbers. The Long War between those loyal to the Emperor and those sworn to Chaos – and to Abaddon as the foremost champion of the Dark Gods – is at the heart of Warhammer 40,000.
WarCom: What can viewers expect from future episodes?
Wade: The first few episodes revolve around major characters in the 41st Millennium and the Mortal Realms, some of whom have origin stories going back thousands of years and spanning other realities.
We know there are many strands of stories to pull together and loads of artwork to show that will make great videos. We definitely intend to cover important events, places, and armies as well – they're all part of the Warhammer lore.
A number of these topics are covered in publications that are available to Warhammer+ subscribers in the Warhammer Vault, so we want to make sure Loremasters offers additional insights beyond just reading out the background from those books.Thanks for your insight, Wade! The inaugural episode of Loremasters joins Warhammer+ today, along with these other additions to the service – including episode three of Angels of Death, no less.
If you haven’t already, subscribe to Warhammer+ now to catch up on all the exclusive shows, animations, classic lore, and much more besides.