Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Challenges in working on Araby

While my co-author works on Cathay, I look to the south and ponder how to deal with Araby and the Southlands someday. One of the issues with Hams and covering that area is that, well, Araby mostly only existed for the Crusades to exist (and if you look at my writing on that, you know

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Challenges in Working on Cathay

Cathay is not easy to write about. Part of the reason you haven’t seen as much material on them here is that there isn’t as much to work with, but that’s only half of the problem. Not only is there an awful lot less official material, but Cathay differs immensely from Actual Historical China in

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: The Incident: Imrik, Miao-Ying, and Mistranslation

As alluded in the update on Dragon Princes, Prince Imrik caused The Incident with Cathay during a diplomatic visit to the great city at Nan Gau. The elves were discussing potential assistance to the Great Bastion’s defenses, possibly sharing some of their knowledge in enchantment and magical construction in return for better deals on tea

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fluff: The Creation and Design of the Halfling

The Halflings are unusual in being a Creation built during the Great Collapse. The Old Ones were desperately looking for anything that would be immune to the Great Beast, and so they produced the Halflings. Every single element of their design was created to help them resist it. They are incapable of doing magic, like

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Nurglites and Runoff

It is time to examine the Cults of the Dark Gods during the Industrial Period. While the conventional threat of Chaos armies has been lessened (though not eliminated, who knows what might change?) the cults of the south continue their work. In a period riven with social unrest and injustice, where the authorities are prone

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: The End of the Shartaks

Humans and others called them the Dragon Ogres, but their name for themselves was the Shartaks. They were (like many of the native species of the world) a long-lived, partially reptilian race, with the unique trait that they never stopped growing throughout their lives. When the Old Ones came, they were devastated like all the

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: The Sword of Infection: The Tong

                “We are the Sword of Infection, the blade that spreads Chaos. Those who stand against us will stand no longer. Kneel or die.” Is a translation from Daemonic of the standard announcement that the Tong have taken the field. The Tong were long the most feared of all the Peoples of Chaos. Where they

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Greenskin Biology and Social Structure Basics

Greenskins are poorly understood by the world at large because their biology works very differently to other sapient species. They were not designed like the many Creation species, nor are they original natives like the Dragons, Shartaks, and Fimir. It’s unknown if they are an invasive species accidentally carried here on the Old Ones’ initial

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Why Orcs?

Why am I writing about orcs and gobbos all of a sudden? Partly, Blood Bowl putting me in the mind of it after watching the Argonorks play. Partly I’ve been playing X-Piratez again and the Ubers feel rather Orky (and the Lokk’Narr are explicitly goblins). But more importantly, it comes from working on the Lizards.

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Bigness and Black Orcs

                The Chaos Dwarfs will tell you that they created the Black Orcs, a race of superior orcs who served as overseers for their slaves and eventually rallied them against the Chorfs in a great rebellion. They will go on and on about how contact with them gave some of their incredibly traits to orcs

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Da Gunz’ o’ Gork n’ Mork

The 2600s have not been a fun time so far for the orcs and goblins, though that might turn around soon. The world at large is happy to ignore them now, relegating them to the old stories about how Sigmar got his crown and occasionally celebrating victories by the Imperial Army over ‘orcish savages’. The

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Swordelfs

The canon version of the Swordsmasters is full of stuff about how they only find their true fulfilment when they’re slaughtering their enemies, since they need full speed combat to show off their skills, or how every individual Swordsmaster has a completely unique style but also they just start twirling their swords and advancing on

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Mighty Elfotype: The Asrai Highborn

The Highborn of the Asrai were members of families particularly loyal to Ariel and the Inner Glades. Being originally Ulthuani and not possessed of the same urge towards Republicanism as the Eonir, when Ariel was first establishing things after assuming her position as the supposed Avatar of Isha and Queen of the Asrai it never

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Ratfight Lustria

The Skaven are the most persistent threat to Lustria, something the Lizardmen find a little confusing. These weird little rats didn’t even exist during the original invasion. Many of the defenses of Lustria are set up with several assumptions: Invaders from the Old World care about losses to some degree, and demons don’t but can

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Skinks: HOLA SKINKS!

“You have been born for the kindest of purposes. You will be a boon to your friends, and you will show others the way to the Great Plan. No matter what you face, never cease your eternal chase.” These are the words every Skink hears when they come out of the spawning pool. Unlike Saurus

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Saurus: You Will Find Your Place

“You have been born for the greatest of purposes: You will be a shield to your friends and a hammer against your enemies. You will stand in defense of the Great Plan. You will be one of the tools that mends the world, and in time, you will find your place.” These words are the

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Kroxigors: Ziggurats Are Cool, I Like Ziggurats

The simplest way to think of a Krox is the power loader scene from Aliens. Kroxigors were created as heavy industrial drones, even bigger and stronger than Saurus. They’re designed to lift huge stones, do huge construction work, pull up trees with their bare claws, and otherwise exert huge amounts of force right where it

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: State Your Name, Occupation, and Gender: Lizardman, Lizardman, and Lizardman

One of the ways the lizards are tremendously different from their neighboring humans is simple: They have absolutely no biological sexual drive. They can’t reproduce ‘naturally’. The spawning pools are how more lizards are made. They also have no native social conception of gender. The name ‘lizardman’ is honestly a little odd to them, given

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: The Tree Is Generally Less Aggressive: Treemen

Treemen are generally far less aggressive than Dryads. They don’t like to be hasty, and smashing people to paste is hasty. While the Loren hosts the largest number of Treemen in the world, they live in every forest and jungle outside of Lustria. Yes, jungle; you can run into jungle or rainforest Treemen in Kuresh.

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Drycha the Branchwraith: The Tree Is Extremely Aggressive

Drycha the Branchwraith is one of the reasons to assume the Tree Spirits are sapient, unlike demons. If the elves and Ariel truly had control of the Tree Spirits, it’s very unlikely any would act like Drycha, who has constantly been a thorn in their side (very literally). Some say she was corrupted by defeating

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Norse Dwarfs

The Norse Dwarfs are unusual folk. There’s a wide variety of them, as a surprising number of holds managed to survive the long separation after the frog-born volcano and earthquake incidents that ended the original dwarven empire. Dwarfs are tough folk, and they resisted the supernatural plagues of the north better than most. Not only

Warhammer Fluff Post: “And with that, Deathmaster, I leave-leave you prepare.”

                The Deathmaster. A title they made up specifically for Snikch. Normally, it’s hyperbole to claim someone is one of the most lethal individuals in the world. Not so with Snikch, the most famed of all of Eshin’s silent killers. Some of his most daring kills include Valten, the supposed avatar of Sigmar, Nurglitch during

Warhammer Fluff Post: Halflings in the 2600s, Basics

The humble halfling rarely gets discussed in the grand sweep of historical epic. For the most part, this is by design; the Moot is mostly happy to be the Moot. Halflings are heavily assimilated into the Empire to the point that most humans don’t notice them as anything unusual, much like dwarfs. The Moot has

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff Post: Blood Bowl!

                So, I’m starting to get into updated Blood Bowl (which itself is a fascinating strategy game worth its own article on how it uses randomness) and I think it’s time to break some writer’s block by going into Blood Bowl in the 2600s. I’m sorry for the relatively sparse updates last week. Working on

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: The Reikstag: BUT WHAT OF PARLIAMENT!?

If you ask the average citizen of the Empire in the 2600s to describe the workings of government, they will shrug, say a few things about it working like Sigmar says, mention some of the local customs of governance wherever you are, and get on with life. Most of the Empire cannot tell you its

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Truck, Train, and Tank: Weapons of the Great Horned Rat War

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpk3GU1OmTY Just perfect for Clan Mors Skaven showed up in the last storyline in Hams, and by God, I’d almost forgotten just how much I love writing for those little maniacs. Something about their manic energy and tendency to explode just speaks to me. Their constant failures are part of it, but another part of

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: The White Sword, Redeemer of the Damned

The White Sword currently sits in the Imperial armory after its recovery by famed archeologist Wilhelmina Schmidt in 2527. It is one of the most bizarre magical treasures in the Empire, being as it was originally a Chaos Weapon of all things. An immensely powerful weapon forged for an Everchosen who, for some reason, did

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Organization and Marks of the Cult of Gundred

We spoke earlier about Gundred and his new position in the industrial age, but that does not tell you much about the growing organization of his cult. An elven character on encountering them in Talabheim in the 2630s expressed shock: 50 years ago, when she arrived in the Old World, they were just bands of

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Elves, Violence, and Soldiery

Elves and violence have a complicated relationship. Aenarion the Defender taught them to hold spears in a line in the first place, implying there was no organized Ulthuani martial tradition before the Collapse. There were elves who knew how to fight, but organized elven soldiery was only seen in Lustria (and did not survive, along

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Khemri in the 2600s.

Egyptology! It was a big and fashionable thing in Europe. However, in keeping with the fact that it’s surprisingly hard to be as plunder-happy as Europe was in reality in Hams, attempts to do ‘archeology’ British Museum style have traditionally run into a problem: The ancient Egyptians of Hams are undead sure but they’re still

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: The Design of a Chaos Warrior and the Weapons That Kill Them

Chaos Warriors and Chaos Armor were originally designed for the War in Heaven. You’d think as a result that black powder revolvers and 19th century cannon wouldn’t be such a problem for them; they were designed to fight in a war that involved titans of biological and magical power who had impossibly advanced technology, right?

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: The Long Road of the Ear Bill

                This came up in last evening’s game: When the protagonists arrived in Altdorf, they found a sight much like the Victoria title screen up above. People celebrating in the street after the passage of some major political reform. In this case, it was a bill to finally abolish and make illicit ear taxes, passed

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Hunters in the 2600s

                The Witch Hunters are undergoing another of their major changes in the 2600s, particularly after the Ordo Fidelus incident. Specifically, many Ordo Fidelus Hunters were found to be operating under the aegis of sympathetic nobility or officials, under the old laws that allowed local authorities to charter Hunters. As a result, those old laws

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: The Shadow of the Beast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuMZSoqqAoc (I absolutely knew what I was doing naming it this)                 The Shadow of the Beast came up in one of the stories about the Beastmen no longer under its control. It’s what some of them call the memories of their time controlled by the Great Beast; after all, most adult Beastmen who have

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Chaos Is Not Cosmic

Chaos tries to have cosmic horror flavoring. It does not work. Why not? Our Chaos is a cosmic horror, but standard Chaos isn’t. Part of the problem of a lot of attempts at cosmic horror is that they take cosmic horror as a matter of power, rather than flavor and concept. It’s very powerful and

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: The Lesser Devastation of the Storm

The Storm of Chaos was a short, sharp war that did plenty of damage to the areas the forces of Chaos passed through. Except the damage it did was piddly (even in canon, where it’s hyped up as near-apocalyptic) compared to real-world 17th and 18th century warfare, and for a very specific reason: it was

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Hochland Arsenal: A new rifle? Loaded from the back!? Without a hammer!?! And it needs a new manual of arms!?!?!

Hochland Arsenal in Hergig is part of the province’s attempt to modernize its capital city, something that was briefly interrupted by its sack during the Storm of Chaos but that proceeds apace in the 2600s. Hochland suffered plenty in the Storm, but the most visible damage was to Hergig itself, being one of the only

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Amazon in the 2600s

Amazon is having a good century if you ask the plantation owners. As discussed in the Amazon Slavery update, plantation economies and slavery have become much more essential to the wealthiest in Amazon society since they began to open up to the world in the 2540s. The destruction of Mazdamundi and the re-ascension of Lord

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Myrmidianism in the 2600s

Myrmidianism is one of the major world religions. The Empire prefers Sigmarism, obviously, but they are just about the only ones who do; it is notable how little Sigmar is worshipped outside of his country. Myrmidianism, on the other hand, has had notably more success sending out missionaries and trying to preach in other lands.

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Flagellants, Friars, and Penitents

The Flagellant Orders of the Empire are something that has fallen in and out of favor over the land’s long history. Curiously, they are a primarily Sigmarite phenomena, something that has seen much debate over why among scholars and theologians. After all, Sigmar himself probably wouldn’t approve of wounding yourself constantly (seems a silly way

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: The Lord of Murder, Human Edition

Khaine is in a curious place in human lands, not simply in the 2600s but throughout all of history. Khaine is a legitimate God, acknowledged as a God and with an open place in myth as Morr’s brother. He is also outlawed in every human society that acknowledges him. This is because while Khaine is

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: The Empire in the 2600s

The 2600s are already being called the Imperial Century, primarily in Imperial circles. The country was the first to industrialize its economy, and it was already a large and wealthy nation; now it is reaping immense benefits (on the macro level) even as it sees itself riven with social injustice and unrest. Grand Cathay is

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: Kislev in the 2600s

Kislev is not having a good century. Losing a major war with territorial concessions to an upstart Norsca was not good for them. It has done immense damage to the authority of the Tsar and there are whispers that he will soon be deposed, though the cleverer boyars have realized this is one of their

Continuing Samayim: Long Lives and Polio

One of the curious things in a lot of fantasy is the assumption that an organism that can potentially live for 1000 years (or whatever length we’re doing for elves/dragons/whatnot) often will. While it is true that ‘average lifespan’ statistics are often distorted by times of high infant mortality, there’s also the simple fact that

Continuing Samayim: Delicious Food

You knew it was coming. Nobody can write a fantasy setting without writing about the food. It’s like fantasy author law, up there with ‘accidentally or on purpose create the conditions for racially motivated genocide’ (I’m looking at you Redwall) or ‘Have elves in it’. Though rather than a loving description of fantasy food (I’m

Continuing Samayim: The Horror, The Horror…

In Dominions, one of the main inspirations for Samayim, the Horrors effectively serve as a punishment for using certain kinds of magic, a way to fuck with people, or an anti-stalemate measure (if there’s no Pantokrator for too long the Horrors invade, start destroying the victory thrones, and lowering how many must be controlled to

Continuing Samayim: Effects of elective adoption on sexual morality in Samayim

So this is a bit of an odd topic, but an important one. You may have noticed in the nations and cultures so far in Samayim that there is a long tradition of legally accepted adoption. This is for an unusual reason: Political marriages and alliances still happen in cases where people are of different

Sacred and Profane: Enoch, Son of Jared

It is well established by now that this blog is whatever the heck I feel like writing about at the time, and I feel like writing more about my weird bible fanfic bible fanfic (the repetition is important! This article will get into why) urban fantasy setting. I’d have the campaign writeup from the discord

Continuing Samayim: Peoples of Samayim: The Exiles

The Exiles are meant to be a people without a nation, city, or other large organizing principle. This is because of one of the many, many divine curses laid upon individuals and groups in the setting. I mentioned them in the Hints of the Pantokrator update, but they deserve a little more (as do most

Continuing Samayim: The Golden Republic of Sambai

The Golden Republic of Sambai recently declared its dominion over all of the island of Sambai, southeast of mainland Khemer. The last holdouts had, at last, joined the Republic 30 years ago. They are one of the only republican governments in Samayim, and one of the rare nations that has done away with the idea

Continuing Samayim: Ashdod, Land of Giants

Ashdod, the Land of the Giants, is an adaptation of the Dominions nation Ashdod. It’s notably different in how it fits into Samayim and the setting being generally ‘brighter’ at start, but I adore MA Ashdod as an example of the nations changing with the ages in Dominions. Changing from an insane Nephilim venerating blood

Continuing Samayim: Technology in Samayim

Technology in Samayim follows from a simple principle: This is not a world where ‘listen up you primitive screwheads’ applies. Much of the technological side of the setting comes out of how ancient the roots of many modern or revolutionary technologies truly are. For instance, cotton processing in the Rivers region is an extremely labor

Continuing Samayim: By His Works, Know Him: Hints of the Pantokrator

“You are Pantokrator. You reign supreme. All others have been cast down, enslaved, banished, or imprisoned by your hand. You light the sun in the morning and quench it in the evening. All moves by your hand. You give or withhold all blessings and life as you see fit.” A paraphrase of Dominions’ victory quote,

Continuing Samayim: Eromor: Histories of Jealousy and Diligence

Eromor is the northern power of Akkadi, while the Rivers and Heavenly City sit on the southern part of the continent. Eromor radiates out from seemingly inhospitable northern mountain ranges, which are considered prime land by the dwarves who farm their plateaus, tend their herds on the slopes, and work and live in the deep

Continuing Samayim: Magic in Samayim

Magic is an important part of the world of Samayim. It is common, but not ubiquitous. Every culture has magical traditions they hew to, whether academic, mystical, religious, or a combination of the three, and every culture makes use of magic. Magic use is integrated into the economic, military, and political life of the world,

Continuing Samayim: The Continents of the World

Well, even if the group didn’t work out due to scheduling, I still enjoy writing about the world of Samayim, so I’m going to continue doing so. ‘Bronze-age ish fantasy’ is fun. Today we’ll be talking about the general land masses and continents now that I have those worked out. The actual continents are Celem

Planet of the Blue Rose Supplemental: Basics of the Syndicate Worlds

Arguably once the richest and most powerful human realm in the galaxy, the Syndicate Worlds has recently begun a long, slow, and violent collapse. The demands of its century long war with the Alliance and generations of pent up restiveness among its populace have combined to start breaking the empire apart. Star systems, singly and

Warhammer Fluff: The Challenges of Reform Slaanesh

o, one of the things I’d like to address about the Reformed Slaaneshi: They are important to the story and get a lot of attention, but it’s important to remember they aren’t a major power. Someone like Joan is immensely personally powerful (even without her armor and gear, she can take a hit like an

Warhammer Fluff: 2600s Wizbiz

As a forward to today’s update, I’d like to mention it owes a great deal to the excellent Realms of Sorcery sourcebook in 2e WHFRP. As does Myth. Really, Realms of Sorcery just has excellent fluff and does a good job (generally) of making magic in the Empire weird and messy without an excess of

Warhammer Fluff: The world is changing. Slaanesh is changing. That is how it should be, if Chaos cannot change.

This post authored by kommy! Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure and Lord of Excess, is a god (Or goddess. Slaanesh is all genders and none.) with a long and dark history in the Old World. Her nature fundamentally shifted by the events of Joan’s campaign, the pleasure god’s cults are in massive flux in the

Warhammer Fluff: Gundred, Dancing on the Necks of those Below

Gundred was originally a minor god of cattle rustling and banditry, primarily worshipped in the Border Princes and southeastern Empire. He has, however, hit his big break. Handrich worshippers noted that Gundred’s followers enjoyed inflicting terror and pain and making money from doing it, and why, they had money to pay to fellows who would

Warhammer Fluff: Handrich and The March of Profits

Handrich is the God of Commerce, who promises that wealth will trickle down and begs that all of society be aimed at investment. His first temple in Marienburg has become the world’s first international stock market, selling shares in all manner of ventures and investments across the sea and across the Empire. He has grown

Warhammer Fluff Post: Sigmar’s Throne Lies Empty of Those Who Speak For Justice: The Empty Throne Movement of the 2600s

The Empty Throne movement is an internal Sigmarite faction that has never garnered much favor with the Lectors and the Grand Theoganist, though that may be a result of who the Theoganist was for most of the late 2500s and early 2600s. Most of its members are theologians and parish priests, as well as a

Myth Fluff Post: Dryads: Trees To Meet You

Hark Vark Norway! I’m writing this from Southern Gower, by which I mean Kristiansaand Norway. Flights and everything went fine; I think I might be over my phobia some. But as I promised, now that the terror is done and I’m on the long boat trip back to America while visiting a bunch of the

Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: GRIMMMMNIRRRRRRRR

I guess dwarfs got a week of their own after all, though it’s much more specifically Warhams Dwarfs and not talking about Dwarfs in general. Though I should probably do a writeup on Myrgard and Stoneheim sometime too. But today I’d like to talk about everyone’s favorite spikey-haired, tattooed blenders, the Slayers. And specifically on

Warhammer Fantasy: Origins and Effects of Dwarven Diaspora

It’s kind of funny; working on dwarf stuff has been fun and shown there’s more I can do with hams dwarfs than I initially thought, which exactly mirrors the process of discovering I enjoyed working with hams elfs. It sort of reminds me of how I used to think I hated cats yet made an

Warhammer Fantasy: Umgak, Frivolity, and Good Solid Dawi Craftdwarfship

I’ve been working on some more dwarf stuff, and thought I’d bring it up here. I have a very long European trip coming up soon so that will probably lead to updates at odd hours from time zones but I’m probably still going to be writing during it, but it’s also messing with my anxiety

Myth Side Story: Recruitment Day

Where once recruitment duty had been effectively a day off, sitting at a table full of brochures and information about the Templar Orders and their history in silent meditation while the city of Madrigal passed them by, now it was busy. Brother-Sergeant Auguste reflected that he missed the old days; sorting through potential recruits was

Myth Fluff Update: The Trials of Herons

The Heron Trials choose seven warriors every seven years, since the founding of the Heron Order (before they were the Heron Guard). In the modern world, those trials take the form of military exercises and formalized combat in the style of a tournament, partly from the influence of Captain Astrid. With no Emperor, the Captain

Myth Side Update: The Gate and the Star

It hadn’t even been that long and she could already tell she’d changed. It was impossible to stay the same when you saw all that you saw, feeling the colors of the world flowing and moving and changing and being able to reach out to a dream and make it happen. Not to mention the

Myth Side Update: The Origin Of Textings

Well, because it was asked for, most of the team broke up with the end of the Builder war to go do whatever they felt they needed to elsewhere in Myth. But Aina, Garrick, and a few others stuck around the Spire and Eik, especially as it was due to become the center of the

Myth Side Update: The Awakening of Private Mitchel

It had been a rough couple weeks, but when hadn’t it been a rough couple weeks? Ever since the fucking mess at the Keep, everything had just gotten worse and worse. Yeah, things were a little better now, the Watcher hadn’t taken Scales, that crazy bitch up in the north was apparently kicking the Builder

Myth Fluff Update: Left and Right in the Empire

Well, no Files for a bit due to travel and other interruptions, but hey, Myth is picking back up with Omar’s political career as we work towards where 4 will start, so that will probably please some of the readers here. In the meantime, let us talk about the origin of the terms Left and

The Actual Age of Actual Sigmar: The Wonders of the Dwarfs

While the dwarfs were recovering from their own nightmare at the hands of the Worst Frog and facing continued presses from the orcs and other traditional foes, to the people of the Reik Basin they looked like a superpower. Whole armies clad in wonderous steel and powerful mail. Great halls that shone with gold and

Actual Age of Actual Sigmar: Unberogen Ulricanism

So, we talked about the Teutogens and their henotheism, let’s talk about the Unberogen. We’ll get into the more ‘obscure’ tribes later but I wanted to start with the big two. The Unbergogen were Ulricans, like the Teutogens, but a major difference is that they view Ulric as the chief a tribe or household of

Warhammer of 2600s: Karl Franz der Grosse

Upon its commission, the steamship Karl Franz der Grosse was heralded as the start of a new era for the Old World and beyond. It was no warship, but a passenger ship. It was designed to carry up to a thousand passengers and some cargo to and fro across the ocean. Other ships had carried

Warhammer Fluff Update: A True Druchii Has Family

Family is deeply important to the Druchii, on both levels of society. One of Morathi’s programs as Queen (or whatever you call her title this century) has been encouraging them to have children, and without the influence of the Vortex, it’s much easier for Druchii than Asur. Mind, without the influence of Ulthuan, raising children

Warhammer Fluff Update: The Host of Naggaroth

The host of the Druchii is feared throughout the Old World, according to the Druchii. Officers will call their units things like “Bleakswords” and tell you of how all their swordselfs are dashing duelists who are masters of the blade and each believe they’re the finest warrior in the world. This wouldn’t be news to

Warhammer Fluff Update: The Bloody Hand

Khaine is the chief god of the Druchii interpretation of the Elven pantheon. In most Elven societies, Khaine is a God of last resort, with small numbers of shrines and followers. This is on account of his portfolio: While it is normally translated as ‘The God of Murder’ from Eltharin, it has a much more

Warhammer Fluff: Oh Give Me A Home Where The Chaos Moose Roam

The Shades are a subject of plenty of fiction and mythology in Naggaroth. These are the Druchii who neither live in the cities nor the plantations and ‘developed’ rural areas, the Dark Elfs of the frontier. Many are descendants of outlaws and exiles defeated in this or that power struggle who managed to found successful-enough

Warhammer Fluff: Dark Canada

The Druchii. One of the most centralized, personalized, and authoritarian states in Warhams. Yes, even moreso than the Chaos Dwarfs, considering they’re an insane mess of priests, officials, businessdwarfs, and military officials. In Naggaroth, all roads eventually lead to one place and that place is Malekith the Witch King. For five thousand years, he has

Lustria Fluff: The Slaan

The Slaan were pre-designed, long before coming to the colony at Heaven. As has been mentioned before, the Old Ones have never been able to develop truly sapient magical or mechanical constructs. Any time the Old Ones deploy a ‘true’ AI, it is a biological construct or an imprisoned Old One sentenced to the harshest

Warhammer Character Profile: Luther Huss

                Huss is a fascinating character. I’ve looked up what I can about his official character and it’s insane that you’re meant to like this man. He is meant to be depicted as a harsh, but inspiring reformer who opposes the weakness and decadence of his cult and tries to push it to fight hard

Warhams Thoughts: The Victimhood of the Peoples of Chaos

So, you might be wondering why Wil has bogged down some. This is because writing a story about Kislev right now is a little difficult, considering current events; I’ll get to it in a bit, but for now I’m going to be focusing more on general setting writing. Besides, I’ve been enjoying doing it. So

Warhammer Fluff Update: Beastmen Basics

The Beastmen. The eternal jobbers of Chaos, forever serving it and getting stomped on so that the actual Warriors and other forces can come off better. There’s an interesting bit of meta-history in the Beastmen, namely in that they were originally going to be much more prominent and vicious in Warhammer (and pretty inspired by

Myth Fluff Update: The Battleship Ibis

Every now and then I just get the urge to write something different. In this case, this urge is somewhat (mostly) inspired by my love of Rule the Waves 2, the most exciting game about spreadsheets you’ll ever play. A naval simulator about cursing at torpedoes and the naval secretary whenever the bastard reads another

Short Update: The Debt of Creation

This may be a short one; remember how I thought I had things resolved yesterday? Lol. Had to spend all morning on the phone for what turned out to be an error where they couldn’t find a reason for it because there WAS no error, it was a mistake by the employee that called me

Lustria Fluff: Holder of the Royal Laser Cannon

Fuck it, let’s have some more fitness madness. I’m dealing with a problem with my hands that is making typing a bit tougher (some mixups with getting my anti-arthritis medication, hopefully to be sorted soon) so I’m just kinda writing whatever the hell I feel like for the next bit. So let’s talk about Amazon

Lustria Fluff: Amazon Slavery

One more Lustria Post before we go back to Wil, today we’re going to be talking about a more sensitive topic. Namely, the tradition of slavery and the way it gets much worse (not that it was ever good) over the 2500s/2600s in Lustria. I understand this parallels some serious historical issues, including one of

Lustria Fluff: Amazon Religion and Magic

This is a posting of notes I had towards my own Lustria book. They would probably see some adjustment (specifically in which Arcane/Divine spells get mixed together and reflavored for their unusual Lores; they get a few too many spells at moment) but the basic principles are here! The Amazons worship the aspects of the

Elf Only Island: A Draft Of Chosen of Asuryan

So, while we’ve been traveling, my longtime friend, GM, and co-author kommy decided to spend a lot of time working on their own elf book. I’ve been saying we’d do this, and so here it is! I think a lot of it came out quite well so far. There will probably be more added to

Lustria Stuff: Amazon Careers, or Martial Arts Is Justice

Well, I don’t have my mechanical notes on them with me so I can’t give the direct stats, but I thought I’d give a sampling of what the Amazon Careers are like fluff wise and how they fit into things. The simplest is Huntress, a Basic career for Amazon soldiers who have just joined a

Warhammer Fluff Update: State Your First Name, Last Name, and Occupation. Lizardman, Lizardman, and Lizardman.

I’ve been promising our scaley friends for a long time, so it’s finally time for the Lizardmen’s basic profile. Note, this is the Lizardmen, not the Slaan. So Skinks and Saurus and such. Kroxigor too but they’re a little less PC-friendly (just because they’re massive and very physically powerful and it can be tough to

Warhammer Fluff Update: Visit Lustria, Where Only 95% of the Plants Can Somehow Kill You

Lustria: A land where the plants are trying to kill you, the dinosaurs are biological drones left behind by aliens, and the primary human nation is an Aztec-Norse fusion of cheerfully optimistic fitness nuts worshipping their own conception of what the ancient aliens must have been like. It’s an exciting place. And quite important to

Warhammer General Fluff: Dragon!

The Warhammer Dragons have always been interesting, going back to 1e’s fluff for them, for the simple fact that they aren’t just evil monsters that exist to be superbosses for huge piles of money. They are, and always have been, fully sapient and highly intelligent beings who had their own society and civilization until the

Warhammer Industrial Roleplay Character Profile: Emperor Otto von Auerwald

Emperor Otto von Auerwald was elected to his position in 2616, at the age of 40. A noble of Reikland, as many Emperors have been in the recent centuries, he was a former Imperial diplomat who had served as an ambassador to Ulthuan, Kislev, and Tilea in his younger days, as well as a trained

Further Elf Republic: Foreign Adventures

Eonir foreign relations are an interesting subject specifically because they are far less isolationist than other elfs. This was partly inspired by a reading of WHFRP 1e, where the original Wood Elfs were much less isolationist and more open to dealing with other species for a simple and effective reason: They had to be. They

The Eonir Republic: The Other Wood Elfs

The Eonir are the elves of the Laurelorn Forest, the other major nation of Wood Elves in the Old World. They are rather different from the Asrai, being as they lack the solid black eyes and bizarre modifications imposed by Queen Ariel. Much like Druchii, they are physically similar to Asur, though red hair is

Warhammer Industrial Roleplay Introductory Fluff

So, I don’t have access easily to all my logs and notes while traveling, so I’m afraid we won’t be able to update Wil while I’m out and about. But I should have plenty of time to write in general, so expect musings on RPG design and theory, but also plenty of general fluff. Today,

Character Profile: Jodis Svensdottir

                Since she’s about to cross Wil’s path in Praag, it’s time to introduce Jodis Svensdottir a little more. She’s a counterpart to Wil in many ways, being a Lahmian who doesn’t look anything like you expect from a Lahmian but who is utterly loyal to their goals as a bloodline. She was originally a

Warhammer Fluff Post: Tyrion, Brother of Teclis

I like doing the fluff posts, dangit. Wil will resume soon, fear not. Today, though, I am inspired by Elf Happenings to talk about a famous elf (our current campaign is in and exploring Ulthuan, so you can probably expect more stuff about Our Ulthuan over the next while). So today let’s talk about Tyrion,

WHFRP Profile: Josephine the Huntress

I want to come back into writing and Hams by introducing the very first Warhammer Fantasy PC to get a campaign: Josephine, a 16 year old Hunter from Bretonnia. She grew up on the edges of the Athel Loren as a poacher after losing her village to Beastmen and struggling to survive as an outlawed

‘Character’ Profile: Archaon the Everchosen

This isn’t quite a character profile (though it will contain what is ‘true’ about the fellow in our timeline) but more a meditation on one of the worst characters in Warhammer. A true character profile would require more of a character, after all. It’s a counterpart to the short Ghal Maraz article, and like linking

Warhammer Fluff Update: Some Thoughts On THE Warhammer

                So, I’ll still be making these fluff updates sometimes, and this is one I’ve pondered for a little while. Ghal Maraz is an interesting part of Warhams; the ultimate weapon, one of the most powerful magical weapons in the entire setting, and it’s generally wielded by an Emperor who is mostly a decent-ish human

The Fimir: The Forgotten

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S5Qo2MXn4g For the Fimir. One of the important things to remember, and one of the things that influenced our portrayal of the Old Ones, is that their coming and their alteration of the planet’s orbit caused multiple genocides even in canon. The Shartaks, the Dragons, and the Fimir are the three sentient species known in

Chorf O’ Clock Day 2: Second Shift

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqvb_n8NZJ8 It’s time to talk about chorf economy: Where there’s a whip, there’s way!                 The chorfs are notorious as slavers, the same as the Druchii, some of the Norse clans before the changes of the 2600s, and the Amazons (We’ll get into the Amazons and Slavery when we get into Lustria more later). To

Chorf O’ Clock, Day One!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcY5lWJ45U mood music for the Chorfs. They will add your true name to their Ledger of Hate should you cross them! Well, I told you about Hashut to get to the Chorfs. The Chaos Dwarfs are an interesting part of the forces of Chaos for several reasons: One is their relationship to their God and

Hashut, The Father of Darkness

Today, before we get to the Chorfs proper, I’ll be covering our Hashut. Hashut in normal WHF is a pretty cool example of how the Chaos Gods could’ve been done better; ours is changed less because it was necessary (standard Hashut works perfectly for his role) and more because it fit our overarching story. I

Myth 3: The Afterword

So, it’s time for the last of the Myth 3 updates, the retrospective/final author’s notes. Myth 3 is a very important game to me; Myth 2 established the Metal Age some but it was a rocky road caused by a lot of changes from notes to play, among other things. Myth 3 is the game

Myth Side Update: The Silver Wind

Silver Magic is the first new Magic to appear in recorded history. Early Age of Reason writings and scattered records from the late Age of Shadow suggest that Mazzarin was somehow the ‘first Astromancer’, but that was often taken as a title, or something to do with the purge of Magi in the Age of

Myth Fluff Update: Ghul Basics

The Ghul are an odd people. They are one of the most populous species in Myth, the only one to rival humans; there are probably about as many Ghul scattered across the world as there are humans. They live in city-hives of varying size, generally underground; in past Ages the Ghul often lived nomadic existences

Myth Side Update: The War in the East

So, the original War in the East is effectively over, so I’d like to take some time to talk about the storyline and its evolution over the lifetime of Myth. It’s a story that has never directly featured in the games that were completed. There are two ‘cancelled’ Myth games that didn’t get very far

Myth Side Update: Imperialism

It’s time to talk about Imperialism, because it’s going to come up in the DLC Arc anyway. As you might have guessed from Sarrir’s proto/eco-fascist stance on the glorification of naturalistic violence as one of the purposes of Moagim’s philosophy (and by the prior update about Shiver encountering Neo-Imperialism at the start of her political

Myth Side Update: Shiver And The Adventure Of Ultranationalist Neo-Imperialism

“Oh, Haplogroups. You talked to Sokolov, then. Oh, no. The boy is useful, but he has some odd ideas. Did he think you were an Imperial just because you’re a touch darker?” Shiver chuckled. “Yes.” Thank the Gods, that wasn’t the core of this group, “I’m afraid I might’ve hit him, though.” Kapchenko narrowed his

Myth Side Update: The Mantle of the Gods

I’m a bit drained today so I’m going to do an ‘update for me’, so to speak rather than continuing the story itself at the moment. Today I’d like to talk about some of the intentional metafiction of the Gods and what they represent for the world, and how they lead into the themes of

Myth Side Update: Shiver Encounters Advanced Race Theory

There’ll probably be a few of these over time just because ‘Ancient warlord from the golden age nationalists and fascists idolize encounters modern concepts of nationalism’ is very funny to me. These don’t come from any of the games, exactly, they’re just inspired by the fact that Shiver’s time between waking up and becoming Commander

Myth Update: The State of the War, Early Summer 1004

With all these perspectives, it can be a little confusing to keep up on where, exactly, the war is. Particularly as we don’t have any PC perspectives in the EU army; the War in the East is mostly outside of the Myth games so far. Most of the Eastern Front is off-screen, until later. So

Myth Fluff Update: Character Profile: Freya Whose Arm Is Long

Hey, been awhile since there was one of these, huh? I don’t really count Tolman’s, as he’s not a particularly complicated guy. Freya Whose Arm Is Long is important, though, and she only shows up in a side story run in WHFRP about the early rebuilding of Muirthemne before becoming an important character in the

Myth Fluff Update: Guest Article: The Orders of Magic in the Metal Age, Lurching to Accidental Wizardocracy

The writer for Omar and my long-time GM Kommy wanted to write his own article on how the Orders of Magic ended up the powerful supranational organizations they are in the late Metal Age, so here we go! An extra update for the day. To explain the Orders of Magic in the Metal Age, it

Myth: The Shadow War: Side Update: Polisci 302 Paper

Omar Hakimi Sept. 21st, 999 MA Polisci 302 A Headless Body: The Impossibility of Reform in the Modern Imperial Senate                 The Imperial Senate stands as one of the most famous reforms introduced by Empress Catherine O’Donnel after the War of the Leveler. The Empress herself said, both publicly and in her private writings, that

Myth: The Shadow War: Dossiers So Far

Imperial Intelligence Report on Mutation within MuirthemneThis Document is Classified as SECRETSharing this document with unauthorized persons will result in criminal prosecution and termination of employment. Summary:Like all other large cities and population centers, Muirthemne is home to a sizable mutant population. Like all these others, mutants prefer to hide themselves from normal society. The

Feng Shui Update: 1969 and the Soviet Union as a Faction!

A rare Sunday update! I felt like writing some of the Feng Shui stuff from our home games, so here comes the Soviets and a time of spies, superscience, and cold war intrigue! The 1969 Juncture replaced the 1996 Juncture in one of our Feng Shui campaigns, and was fun enough that we’ve kept it

Myth Fluff Update: Myrkridia Basics

With Grrulf introduced, it’s time to talk about the Myrkridia in the Metal Age. They’ve had a pretty mixed age from their perspective! The early part was pretty good, where the world was scattered and bleeding after the terrible War of the Leveler, but there wasn’t a critical mass of angry wolfbats to re-enact the

Myth Quick Fluff Update: Space and Myth

Because there was a question about it in the comments: In the late Metal Age, Myth has been to its moon, and sent probes throughout its solar system. They have satellites crisscrossing the sky, providing GPS and communications. They’ve long known other worlds exist, because of the Fetch, but they don’t know how to get

Myth Fluff Post: The Age of Shadows and some Ancient History

Well, it’s time for some ancient history because it’s about to get referenced anyway. Keep in mind some of what’s here is not material any of the current characters know of! The Age of Shadows is a major reason there’s so little record of anything prior to the Age of Reason (And the Wolf Age

Myth 3 Fluff Update: Gower Basics

                Gower is very changed from its original appearance in the game Myth: The Fallen Lords, in part because it’s on the other side of the damned world (what was Gower in the game map is now just a part of the East). Gower is a large landmass to the northwest of Tandem and the

Forces of the Dark: The First Generation Army of the Builder

Builder’s initial armies are very different from his later armies, as these represent his ‘white board’ planning for what he would need for a successful army. All Builder forces prefer shooting to hand to hand combat; he considers the idea of hand to hand mostly an outdated waste of time and barely plans for it,

Fallen Profiles: The Builder

Doctor Alan Westridge was there when the first machine decided, because he helped make it so. Westridge had been a prominent young star of the Gold Order nearly all his life at that point, when he helped make Myth’s first general purposes computers and helped to found the theories that would guide much of modern

Myth: The Metal Age: War Update, the Situation after Covenant on May 30th, 1003 MA

So, that was the Battle of Covenant, one of the really big elements of Myth 2. I wish it was better earned, considering; having the bits that just weren’t there would have also helped a lot with establishing the rivalry with Shaper further. But either way the battle itself is a good look at what

Myth 2 Fluff Update: Fallen Profile: The Watcher

He shared a billing with the Deceiver last time, but she’s not around now, so the Watcher gets his own solo profile at last for the Metal Age. He is, in many ways, the man he was. The man he has always been. He has adapted to a new Age, certainly, and a new role,

Myth Fluff Update: Fir’Bolg Basics

Alright, I feel frisky, so today we’re going to take a stab at a fluff update I’ve started and then stopped like six times by now because it’s hard to summarize a people in 5-7 pages! It’s time for our buddies the Fir’Bolg, as seen with Nos and Yin. Fir’Bolg are human-like, extremely so, to

Myth Fluff Update: Emperor Majarin, the Last Emperor

Since it’s Friday, let’s take a little break from the constant gunfire, monsters, and screaming in Covenant and talk about an important historical figure and what he meant for one of the most poisonous ideologies ever developed. Mind, Myth wouldn’t call it ‘fascism’. They don’t have Rome, and Majarin wasn’t from the West, where you

Myth 2 Fluff Update: Armies of the Dark, The Watcher

The army of the Watcher is, perhaps, the closest to the original Armies of the Dark. He is what most people imagine when they imagine a Fallen Lord: An incredibly powerful sorcerer who can kill hundreds of mortal foes, walk through artillery fire, shrug off dozens of lesser Magi, and challenge multiple Avatara. Unlike the

Myth 2 Fluff Update: Eastern Union Basics

By the time of the Battle of Covenant, the Eastern Union exists again. Officially. They haven’t declared war yet; they’re waiting for Covenant and the reshuffling of troops from the Eastern border to get that started. But they’re certainly going to. Particularly considering they’re under General Shiver, now, who’ve set up an office in Kalingrad

Myth 2 Fluff Update: Policing, Private Weapons, Militia, and Civil Defense

It’s going to come up as we get into the Battle of Covenant (and unfortunately, skip the entire building of the Chapter House and all, I’m still kind of upset to discover that’s why I didn’t remember that chapter at all) so I think it’s time to talk a little about how having actual evil

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fluff Update: The Great Beast of Chaos

What’s this? A Warhammer update? Yes, I’m still working on Warhammer occasionally, I like promised. This time it’s time to talk about the rewrite of the Great Beast of Chaos in detail. The Great Beast is the origin of Chaos in our timeline, the fundamental force behind its actions. It is utterly without a personality

Myth 2: Armies of the Dark: The Shaper

Now that a bunch of the army of the Shaper has actually shown up in gameplay, it’s time for one of these posts again, in the vein of the Armies of the Light and Dark bits from Myth 1! I’ll be going into some of the mechanics and gimmicks of the Shaper’s army, though these

Myth 2 Fluff Update: The Nine of the Metal Age

I promise we’ll get back to the plot soon! But I just realized I never actually wrote up The Nine of the Metal Age. As in, I don’t even have a clear set of notes on them like I did for the ones in the Wind Age, they’ve just shown up in and out of

Myth 2 Fluff Update: Cath Bruig Empire Basics

The eternal Empire, the beacon of the Wolf Age. When the Cath Bruig collapsed in the end of the Wind Age it terrified all of Myth; the whole of the world had assumed Muirthemne itself was invincible. And yet out of the ashes, Empress Catherine O’Donnel worked tirelessly to bring the Empire back from the

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fluff Update: Mazdamundi, The Frog of 2020

                What’s this? An actual Warhammer update? I promised them again, didn’t I? Besides, how better to bid goodbye to 2020 than the disaster frog himself, one of the biggest assholes in all of Warhammer, Mazdamundi? Lord of the Solar City, First of the (surviving) Slaan, Master of Geomancy, Bearer of the Great Plan, Master

Myth 2 Fluff Update: The Church of the Light Victorious

One of the unfortunate things about Myth 2 being somewhat transitional is that it didn’t cover the actual theology of the Chant of Light as much as it probably should have. Some of this is because the nature of the Dark wasn’t really elaborated until Myth 3, some is a remnant of the original 40kisms

Myth 2 Fluff Update: Basics of the Western Federation

The Western Federation is a relatively young nation, made of relatively old nations. Small ones. The West had traditionally centered around its great cities, with their subordinate towns and villages forming a state around a great coastal or river city for each state (With Covenant as the one exception on the east of Bragada). The

Myth 2: Omnia Vincit Lux Fluff Update: The Shaper

Because the heroes already have her basic biography thanks to the wonders of ‘oh god it’s really hard to erase an entire social media history’, the Shaper will be getting a profile quite early in the story! As you saw in the main updates, Marjoly DuClare did not have a particularly cushy life. She was

Myth 2 Fluff Update: Armed Forces of Myth: The Heron Guard of Muirthemne

                Since their Captain has shown up, it’s time to talk about the modern Herons a little, since they’re fun. The Heron Guard should, technically, be disbanded and should be taking the oath of the Journeyman again since they not only failed to protect their Emperor, but most of the current Herons turned on him

Myth 2 Fluff Update: The Office of Supernatural Affairs

The OSA is one of the West’s main shields against Dark wizardry, cults, and other sinister forces. They were founded in the 960s by an act of the Federal Assembly and the agreement of all member states that the Federal government required a dedicated anti-Dark task-force, after a disastrous operation in Tandem where regular police

Early Thoughts on Myth 2, the Church, and Perspective

Myth 2 is from the point of view of a deeply conservative organization. At least, it certainly is early on; many of the members of the Templars are there because they think an apocalyptic hell-war awaits at the end of an Age. They’re correct, though not really for the reasons they think they are. Most

Myth 2 Fluff Update: Arms, Armor, and Organization of the Templars of the Light Victorious

This is the first in a series of general fluff and mechanics posts on the Metal Age, its arms, armor, militaries, nations, and other issues that will come up as we get through the story. This information is all based on ‘where things ended up’ rather than where they necessarily began, so to speak, so

Myth 2: Omnia Vincit Lux: The Metal Age Overview

So, rather than a long series of posts on the history of the Metal Age, I think it’s best to just go into the particularly important events because their legacy is the legacy that leads to the conflict near the end of the Age. Also a bit on what the nations of Myth look like

Myth History AND Fallen Profiles: The Watcher and the Deceiver

So this is gonna be an extra long one since I need to get three things in one update. This is the Deceiver and the Watcher’s story, at the same time, and also a bit on the Age of Iron I’ve been hinting at since it’s required to understand either of them. As was mentioned

Myth: Fallen Profiles: Shiver

Shiver fell early in the campaign, but she didn’t fall early in the war. Her actions as one of Balor’s generals tells a great deal about her dream. Every Fallen is animated by a great and terrible dream, a desire that overrides everything else. When the Head said that Shiver’s weakness was vanity, he wasn’t