Yesterday, we braved the Wastes to beseech boons of insight from two wizened seers upon a blasted moor, in order to learn what the Warriors of Chaos are up to in the World of Legend. Today we make that journey again, this time to uncover cursed knowledge from a forbidden tome – Arcane Journal: Warriors of Chaos.
Danny: There are two named characters in this Arcane Journal. The first, Galrauch, is very similar to his original incarnation from the era of Karl Franz, a very powerful dragon corrupted by a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch. The indomitable spirit of the ancient dragon continues to battle for control of its body and sometimes even wins for a bit – unsure what else to do he tries to destroy himself so he can’t unleash his wrath on the world.
JTY: We’ve tried to honour what made him unique – but we made him more reliable. When he first appeared in Warhammer Fantasy Battles, his rules were quite chaotic! I always felt that he was a lot of points to waste if you rolled badly and he did everything you didn’t want him to do. So now Galrauch becomes less effective when his spirit regains control, but he is no longer useless, and that’s important when you are paying 400 points or more for a model.
The classic model will be coming back in metal for anyone who missed out – though it has been slightly delayed from the initial release. His profile is not dissimilar these days, but modified appropriately for the new game, and he is a Behemoth. Behemoths are good in Warhammer: The Old World, and he is now definitely worth his points – a big, powerful, Terror-causing Dragon who will rip opponents to bits. He’s a Wizard as well, so you get everything you could want from him.
The new character, Frydaal the Chainmaker, is the epitome of a Norscan who feels the lure, turns to Chaos, and sets out on the Path to Glory. She travels north, battles other Chaos champions in the northern wastes, and returns to Norsca infused with the power of Chaos. She’s a champion of Chaos Undivided, not sworn to any one god.
Danny: In game, she’s very much between an Exalted Champion and Chaos Lord in power level. She’s a prolific fighter who buffs some of your mortal units like Marauders and Marauder Horsemen, as well as the additional units featured in one of the two Armies of Infamy, the Wolves of the Sea.
Frydaal is the inspiration for this force – she is a raider at heart who descends from the north aboard a fleet of Wolfships to prowl the coasts of the realms of man, pillaging and spreading the corruption of Chaos wherever she goes. Note that while she’s powerful and central to the story we are telling, she’s not one of the great champions of her age – she’s a harbinger of what the future could hold if the people of the Empire remain ineffective in defence of their borders.
JTY: She’s significant in so far as she heralds worse things to come. She’s important in her own right, but it’s fair to say that most Chaos champions who don’t go on to become great lords or ascend to daemonhood are heralding something else. This is a thread that runs through Chaos in general – one champion always presages the next big thing. They’re damned by their own decisions. These champions (willingly) become slaves to darkness in the pursuit of glory, but the big joke that’s always played on them is that the glory is someone else’s. She’s got a miniature coming, and she looks really good.
The narrative that unfolds around her starts with her ships raiding Hollum on the northern coast of the Empire, in the Wasteland. The campaign map should give you a sign of things to come – over a period of years she carves out her own little fiefdom near Marienberg, which is still part of the Empire at this juncture, and one of the major claimants to the throne. In fact, Empress Magritta has one of the more legitimate claims of the four candidates.
Danny: As the raiding continues, the more the power of Chaos grows. Beastmen appear in the woods, they are building dark monuments and drawing dark magics to the region. Corruption is seeping in.
In this scenario we see the first structured response from the Empire to the increase in Norscan raids. Over winter Magritta amassed an army of sellswords to bulk up her own standing army, keeping them fed and trained. She’s marched them north with the coming of spring, in the knowledge that the Norscans will be straight on their Wolfships as soon as the Sea of Claws thaws, ready for another season of raiding. The hope is that an army will be waiting to meet Frydaal as she lands – but unfortunately for the Empire, Frydaal braved the end of winter and got there early. She’s lying in wait, and the Imperial army is now looking less well dug in than they might have been. This is the first real, proper battle between the two forces of this era.
JTY: Do the Norscans gain a foothold and establish an enclave, or will they be driven off the mainland and forced back into opportunistic seasonal raiding?
Danny: We don’t show what happens – the last narrative moment is Frydaal bowing before the monument in Hollum, asking the gods to watch as she demolishes this Empire army in their name. We’d actually very much enjoy it if people emailed in their results of this battle – we’d love to know how it happened on your tabletop!
JTY: We plan to keep making Arcane Journals – these allow us to tell stories that progress over time, which is a change in how we do things at Warhammer. Previously we’d release a big book telling a grand story, and then leave it at that until the next edition. Arcane Journals give us the change in perspective to tell smaller stories which we have the option to revisit later on. We’ve already talked about the war in the Border Princes and the reclamation of Kazad Vosk, for instance.
Danny: We’ve got a huge sandbox to play in, so we won’t just concentrate on the leadup to Praag. These smaller books are a liberating creative process: we can dive into a story and then press pause on it. The scenarios are left open-ended, so players can imagine the results for themselves. Frydaal might utterly defeat the Empire force sent to kill her, or she could be sent packing back to Norsca.
We will likely see more of Frydaal as the timeline progresses. She’s arrived upon the shores of the Empire and intends to stay, she has a base of operations in the ruins of Hollum, she has erected a monument to the gods. Aarnau has already been sacked, so raiding parties could cross the river. The story will continue for years…
We’ll be taking a closer look at both new Armies of Infamy tomorrow, and at the rest of the rules for Warriors of Chaos.