Deep beneath the surface of Aqshy, warbands duke it out for precious emberstone and glory in the new edition of Warhammer Underworlds. The core set of the new edition takes its name from the ruined city of Embergard, which lies atop these tunnels and mines, but you might be wondering exactly why, in the aftermath of the realm-shattering Vermindoom, this particular pile of rubble is so important? Thankfully, the Warhammer Design Studio has you covered, with an introduction to the city and why it’s become such a focal point in the Hour of Ruin.
Warhammer Design Studio: Embergard was one of the two cities founded by the Twin-Tailed Crusade during the Dawnbringers campaign series. Its banner was planted by the Aqshian half of that grand venture – but it wasn’t exactly their plan when they set out. Disaster after disaster struck the crusade almost from its outset, and in the confusion, Pontifex Zenestra and her fanatical Cult of the Wheel effectively took control. It was Zenestra’s call, supposedly as a vision from holy Sigmar, to divert the crusade’s intended path towards the formerly ruined city and purge it of the undead lurking within.
Whatever Zenestra’s actual reasons were – it might have had something to do with the strange, wheel-like carvings found across the ancient architecture – her decision proved astute. Within the Ashenmont mountain on which the city stood, staggeringly immense veins of emberstone were discovered. The magical realmstone of Aqshy doesn’t just provide a potent infusion of aggression that any warrior could benefit from (at the teeny-tiny cost of occasionally going rage-crazy); it’s also highly combustible, and an essential fuel source for some of the Ironweld Arsenal’s most impressive technology.
Understanding that they had an extremely lucrative trading resource on their hand, the secular masters of Embergard had the city fortified at double time, and the mines quickly carved deep into the Ashenmont’s guts. Rumours of… other things lurking down in the dark were pushed aside. After all, Zenestra cleared out all the Necromancers and Nighthaunt they had found there, right?
Unfortunately, even before the Twin-Tailed Crusade had left Hammerhal there was a prophecy going around that one city founded in the campaign would stand, and one fall. Embergard, alas, drew the short straw – by which we mean “was caught at the very edge of the Vermindoom’s apocalyptic, realm-warping blast”.
Suffice to say that the property bubble burst pretty sharpish.
That, then, is where we find Embergard at the start of the new edition of both Warhammer Age of Sigmar and Warhammer Underworlds. A bright hope for the future blasted into ruin, where haggard survivors crawl through a damned city.
Amongst the ashes
The thing is, though: while Embergard as an urban stronghold might have been virtually annihilated, (and nobody’s quite sure what happened to Zenestra…) its ruin still holds immense strategic importance in the Hour of Ruin. Firstly, it’s positioned right at the tail-end of the Adamantine Chain, the mountains that are currently forming a natural firebreak against Skaven invading from the Gnaw. The rabid Great-Grand Gnawhorde of Vizzik Skour is hurling itself at these rocky ramparts every day, and if they can break through anywhere, they’ll be able to spill right into the vulnerable interior of the Great Parch.
Secondly, and maybe even more importantly, Embergard’s mines are still reachable, with all their veins of untapped emberstone. The engineers of Sigmar’s empire need this magical resource more than ever if they’re going to resist the Skaven menace, while desperate soldiers looking for an edge seek out any fragment of the stuff. So while Embergard will likely never be rebuilt, it can’t just be abandoned. Crack Freeguild shock-troops and Stormcast veterans have been stationed above ground, rebuilding the defences as best they can, while in the tunnels below roving bands of Stormcasts from the Vanguard chambers – the Emberwatch amongst them – make sure that the mines remain accessible to sanctioned excavation teams, and protected from any too-eager parties of scavengers. Including less officially-permitted Sigmarites who get greedy for the dangerous arcane substance…
There certainly are enemies aplenty lurking in the winding mine shafts of the Ashenmont, and – surprising no-one – the Skaven rank first and foremost amongst them. The perfidious ratmen would very much like to collapse Embergard entirely and use its levelled wreckage as their gateway into the Parch, whether by crushing it under the weight of their swarms, gnawing through the tunnels beneath the city streets, or sending shadow-clad agents to work sinister plots in the shadows. But the techno-arcane Warlocks of the Clans Skryre also crave getting their nasty little paws on all that emberstone. What exactly are they going to do with it? We both know the answer to that is “nothing good”. Unless you’re a Skryre player, in which case the answer is “what aren’t we going to do with it?”
Embergard is set to be a key battleground in the ongoing struggle for Aqshy. A victory here – even just one significant haul of emberstone being acquired by either side – could shift the balance of power in the Great Parch. Which, with the upcoming release of Warhammer Underworlds: Embergard, happens to be where you come in…
You can get involved by pre-ordering the core set for the new edition of Warhammer Underworlds on Saturday. The Skaven and the Stormcast Eternals aren’t the only factions fighting over over this ruined city – vengeful Seraphon and the minions of Grandfather Nurgle also have plans for the place, and even more warbands are due to plunder the place in the coming months.
