It’s been a while since we made the first cryptic announcement of a return to the Old World in 2019. Many of you have clamoured to know more and now it’s time for Rob Alderman of the Warhammer Studio to explore the gripping setting of Warhammer: The Old World in more detail than ever before.
Rob: We've hinted at the unprecedented amount of work that has gone into this new game and its setting. In candlelit secrecy behind the great oaken portcullis doors of the Warhammer Studio, the Old World team has dedicated countless hours to research and playtesting. Our goal was to create a game that captures the best elements of all the editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, but at the same time providing new and exciting rules, and fresh challenges to overcome.
The Old World
One of the most important aspects of Warhammer: the Old World is the setting itself. Obviously, this is the World-that-Was, a world of legend destroyed by the machinations of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos at the culmination of the End Times – an event that doomed the denizens of the Old World to oblivion and heralded the birth of the Mortal Realms and the Age of Sigmar.
It's important to remember, though, that even though the setting is returning, these events still happened, and that the Old World was destroyed. The End Times had long been foreshadowed in the background of Warhammer Fantasy Battle.
The Great War Against Chaos
With the end of the world well documented, the design team wanted to explore the earlier history of the Old World in more depth, to examine events in the history of Warhammer in more detail than ever before. But which part of its long and storied history should they focus on? Go too far back in time – to the War of the Beard or the time of Sigmar for example – and the setting would have become unfamiliar.
This led us to events well known to fans of the Old World, the Great War Against Chaos and the Siege of Praag, two centuries before the End Times. More precisely, we decided to look into the decades prior to this legendary world-changing event. In those years before the Chaos Lord Asavar Kull led his armies south against the nations of Men and Dwarfs, the Empire of Man was not the unified nation that bravely faced the armies of Archaon that players of Warhammer Fantasy Battle will remember. Instead, it was deeply divided and ravaged by war following long centuries without the unifying presence of a single Emperor.
Anarchy in the Empire
Following the death of the famed Emperor Mandred von Zelt, the Elector Counts were unable to decide upon a successor and, when the Countess of Talabecland and the Count of Stirland mobilised their armies to claim the imperial throne by force, the lands of the Empire fell into civil war.
In the centuries that followed numerous claimants to the imperial throne emerged, deepening the divides between the provinces of the Empire and prolonging the civil war. Thus, at the time Warhammer: The Old World is set, in the years before the Siege of Praag, the Empire stands divided – riven by intrigue and beset by internecine war. Of the many provinces that once formed the Empire, four stand tall, their mighty rulers pressing their claim for the imperial throne and hoping to reunify the fractured realm.
The Barony of Westerland
Ruled by Elspeth Magritta VI, Westerland is a wealthy province, its merchant-lords grown fat on the trade that flows through Marienburg's vast harbours.
The Grand County of Osterland
Ruled from the great city of Middenheim by Count Sigismund Ulric, Osterland is home to the Wolf Emperors of the north, fierce devotees of Ulric.
The Principality of Reikland
Occupying the heartland of Sigmar's Empire, the Reikland is ruled by the pious Prince Wilhelm I of Altdorf, a devout servant of the Empire's patron deity.
The Grand Duchy of Talabec
The largest and most culturally diverse of the four provinces, Talabec is ruled from the great walled city of Talabheim by Duke Ludwig XII.
In Warhammer: The Old World, we discover an Empire weakened by centuries of civil war, vulnerable to the ever-present threat posed by rampaging armies of invaders. Beastmen Brayherds surge from the deep forests, burning and defiling all that stands before them. From the moors and mountains come roving bands of Orcs and Goblins, looting and pillaging, while in distant and forgotten lands ancient kings sit upon crumbling thrones, planning the reconquest of the lands of the living. Yet beyond these present threats looms the spectre of something far greater – the armies of Asavar Kull amassing in the north.
While we know that the Empire would ultimately unify under the leadership of the great Magnus the Pious and turn back the armies of Chaos, at what cost will this unity come? There are many stories to tell of the years before the Great War against Chaos, and the desperate ruination of the End Times. Truly, Warhammer: the Old World promises to reveal much about the world that was, in ways sure to captivate fans of the Old World old and young…
Thanks Rob, that’s certainly a lot to look forward to. You can keep up to date with all the latest news about Warhammer: The Old World by signing up to the Warhammer Community newsletter.