r/AoSLore

Greetings and Salutations Gate Seekers and Lore Pilgrims, and welcome to yet another "No Stupid Questions" thread

Do you have something you want to discuss something or had a question, but don't want to make an entire post for it?

Then feel free to strike up the discussion or ask the question here

In this thread, you can ask anything about AoS (or even WHFB) lore, the fluff, characters, background, and other AoS things.

Community members are encouraged to be helpful and to provide sources and links that can aid new, curious, and returning Lore Pilgrims

This Thread is NOT to be used to

-Ask "What If/Who would win" scenarios.

-Strike up Tabletop discussions. However, questions regarding how something from the tabletop is handled in the lore are fine.

-Real-world politics.

-Making unhelpful statements like "just Google it"

-Asking for specific (long) excerpts or files

Remember to be kind and that everyone started out new, even you.

Realmsphere magic mentioned. Also neat rules and lore

So in WH40K there is the Dark King aspect of the emperor, does a aspect of Sigma like such exist in AOS or is he simply too pure? Would Nagash fill the role to a degree as the Dark King is effectively the god of 40k's obliteration.,

There's the Eight Winds, Dark Magic, High Magic, Grudge Magic, a hundred more obscure schools besides. There's casual folk magic like minor cantrips or alchemy. Solid crafts like Runecraft and Soul Magic.

A truly mind-bogglingly massive amount of topics. Yet I barely understand any of it, and honestly I've always gravitated toward being a Fighter-type so even with explanations I might not get it. Yet still I ask.

What can those of you with a mind more oriented towards magic tell me? After all even if I don't get it posts like these are good for all those seekers lurking in the shadows. Yearning to learn but not sure what to ask.

And don't be afraid to get down and dirty by throwing Magic 101 or Basic Spells at me! Knowing is one thing but truly understanding that knowledge comes with discourse and listening!

Hello Realmwalkers,

What's the best battletome in the current edition and why?

,+ what edition battletome is the best for your faction?

So lately I started a little project on the Lexicanum to make Creature and Beast categories for each Realm.

Ya know. So folk like you can actually figure out what animals and plants originate or belong to any given realm without having to go through hundreds of articles.

So this got me thinking. I know for a fact at least two of our frequent community members are biologists. So why not ask what their thoughts on the setting's go at them are?

>Behind Ulgathern were his six brothers, gathered before the great statue of Grimnir in their coats of gold. Behind them were the guildmasters of both lodges. The stout matrons and males of the Mining and Gleaning Fellowships, the Kin-gather Matrons, the battlesmiths and loremasters and brewmistresses and a dozen others. The leadership of each lodge occupied the chequered floor on either side of the temple’s central aisle in strict orders of hierarchy, in most respects mirror images of each other.

Part I of "Volturung Road"

I don't got much to say or add other than sharing this so folk know Fyreslayers have non-Fyrd and non-Zharrgrimm leadership in the form of matrons, guild leaders, and things.

To clarify the title. The story has four Ulgaen lodges: Ulgaen-ar, Ulgaen-zumar, Ulgaen-dumar, and Ulgaen-kumar. The latter three scion lodges of the first which in turn is a scion of Volturung.

Post inspired by u/King_Of_BlackMarsh who asked a question about what can a pacifist possibly do in Zharrdrengi society a few days back. So I figured: A lot of people are probably curious about that.

I simply adore 40K and plan on using the Gotrek and Felix books to get into fantasy soon but I’m really interested in AoS as well and was particularly curious if there were any standout audiobooks specifically that would serve as a great entry into the setting?

>There is no singular church or temple that governs religious life across the Dominion of Sigmar. Instead there are the Cults Unberogen, a dizzying array of sects (sanctioned and otherwise) that worship Sigmar in various guises. The Brethren of the Forge are one such cult. They revere the God-King as a crafter of both empire and war, a hammer to crush all who threaten mortalkind. Meteoric iron is divine, a comet-borne gift from Sigmar's realm of Azyr, and the Mallus Forgepriests will fight (words I can't see) to claim any scrap of the substance.

City of Ash Handbook, Pg. 28

Working from a review video. So can only make out part of it. The excerpt on the Forgepriests is a decent bit longer than what I wrote up.

Interesting that Dominion of Sigmar is appearing more and more as the official name rather than Sigmar's Empire or Sigmarite Empire. Kinda like it. Dominion is more generic but feels more apt given much like the Holy Roman Empire that inspired it, Sigmar's civilization is a rather bizarre empire.

So good news. It appears the Mallus Forgepriests all belong to a Cult Unberogen known as the Brethren of the Forge. Good news because it gives us a prominent, model-represented major cult that has much nicer doctrine than the Cult of the Wheel.

As a start they see Sigmar as a defender of all mortals not just humanity. Which I feel is a definite boon to hear as that's more proof even if models are lost, in lore Cities remain multispecies.

Course I recently helped fix up the Cities' template on the Lex to separate extant and retired models. So like, Mutt deeply apologizes to all of you frustrated over model purges for not recognizing just how BRUTAL the culls have been. I definitely get the arguments that Freeguilds now take up way more focus than ever before. Dumb Mutt's fault for being lore only.

But! Apology is off-topic!

So-So. Brethren of the Forge. Worship Sigmar as a crafter of empires and wars, a hammer that smacks evil-doers. Venerate meteoric iron as a divine gift, generally view Sigmar as egalitarian in his defense of mortals.

From other stuff we know they can purify the ground better than Battlepriests through song and marching, associations with Power Metal are inevitable I am sure. Especially as they are crafters as much as warriors.

Lovely addition to Cities!

Ya know one of my favorite parts of the Cities of Sigmar is the presence of steam-wagons and World Wars style diesel transport vehicles just exist.

They're right there in Cities being driven by folk dressed up as knights and the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. We've all seen the Cogforts, we know this to be true.

But I'm actually curious. Are any of you engineers by trade or mechanics or gearheads? If so what are your thoughts on the engineworks we've seen and read about available to Cities? Or the endrinworks of the Kharadron? Or daemon engines of the Helsmiths and Chaos at large?

Personally, I know almost nothing about engineering. So would love to hear your insights and thoughts.

Hey, sorry, this seems like a really stupid question. I'm wasn't really sure where to post this either, so I'd understand if this gets removed

I'm not very well versed on the lore of AOS or Fantasy, but it's to my understanding that the main chaos pantheon and the realm of chaos (or warp) are the same across AOS, Fantasy, and 40k, and four main gods of chaos actively perceive all of the realms simultaneously.

Here's where the stupid question part comes in.

If the Realm of Chaos is fundamentally the same multidimensional realm that links different the worlds of all of the settings, hypothetically, could they send stuff through from one realm to another? And if they can, why don't they? I know certain characters, such as Kairos Fateweaver and the Changeling appear in both 40k and AOS, and I know certain types of warriors, such as tzaangors, appear in both settings. So hypothetically, couldn't the chaos gods just send a contingent of traitor space marines to lay waste to the forces of order? could they just replace Abaddon the Despoiler with Archaon the Everchosen, who is way cooler and more competent anyway? did gw just not think of this? am I stupid? please let me know

Warm tides to you all, my fellow Realmwalkers. So lately there's a lot more of you running around who are new. So I figured I'd share a quick bullet point list of the commonly used languages of the setting.

These are mentioned sporadically, haphazardly all across the setting's hundreds of sources. So getting a rough idea of who speaks what can be hard. So I figured it might help:

• Azyrite languages: The Azyrite languages, Azyri, the Celestial Tongues, star-tongue, and the many other names for this language group are the big one. These are the common tongues of the Dominion of Sigmar, among both Free Cities and Stormhosts, used widely by their trading partners.
• Khazalid: Khazalid dates back to World-That-Was, though like Azyrite it has grown into a language family. These are the common tongues of the Fyreslayers, Dispossessed, Kharadron, and Ironweld.
• Kharadrid: The Khazalid language that has developed among the Baraks of the Kharadron. Has its own dialects and regional variations.
• Zharralid: This language family may or may not be descended from Khazalid but it is similar. These languages are used by the Helsmiths/Zharrdron and Hobgrots.
• Aelfish: The Aelfish languages most likely descend from the Eltharin languages of the Elves. Myriad unnamed languages in this group are the common tongues of the myriad City Aelf cultures, Idoneth, Khainites, and Lumineth.
• Dark Tongues: The languages of Daemons leeched into the Realms thanks to Tzeentch. Used by Daemons as well as many followers of Chaos. I think we have a picture of the Tzeentchian Dark Tongue alphabet?
• Beast-Tongues: A collective term for the common tongues of the Gor-folk. I believe WHFB confirmed these descend from Dark Tongue.
• Queekish: The common tongue of the Skaven, a scant few others have been mentioned so it is no longer their only one. If you ever wondered why Skaven speak with so many verbal tics it may in part because because Queekish appears to use more physical components.
• Language of the Skinks: The as of yet unnamed language used by the Skinks of the Seraphon Constellations. This language includes verbal components, body language, hand gestures, scale color changes, and more. This is a big part of why Skinks struggle to fully convey their meaning to others.
• Ogorspeak or Basic Ogorspeak: The most common language used by Ogors, especially those of the Mawtribes. Originating as the Gutbuster language. As opposed to.
• Svorignar: The languages of the Beastclaw Raiders. They prefer to use Ogorspeak when communicating with non-Beastclaws, even other Ogors. But these languages are what they use to communicate with themselves.
• Orrukish languages: The Orrukish languages are the common tongues of the Warclans. You know these roughly if you're a Warhammer fans. Lots of usage of Gitz, zoggit, knowwotz. My friend Ur-Than theorizes this might mean that Orrukish took many loan words from Azyrite and other Order languages back when Orruks were in the Pantheon of Order's Great Alliance in the Age of Myth. One might also assume Grots speak Orrukish languages what with the similarities.
• Agloraxi: The language of the fallen Agloraxi Empire. Now before you judge the name. Bare in mind we are typing in the English language of the English people.
• Dragon-Tongue: The language spoken by Stardrakes and Dracoths, understood by their Stormcast allies.

There are many other named languages in the setting. And I am ever working to catalog them all. Many have almost no lore, others a staggering amount.

Others like Azyrite are narratively translated to whatever language the novel is written in and therefore has few of its rules and details explained. As that would make it confusing when a book says Bork-Bork is a Lork word translating to the common Azyrite as "Book". So narrative need means we'll likely never know what it's meant to be like. Outside the runes and squiggles on Stormcast gear.

But anyway. I hope this dossier was helpful as an intro, a mere foundation, to knowing what are more or less the common languages (a lot) of the factions use. The setting is still growing and finding itself, so it is incomplete for now.

I understand that arrogance among elves is a standard recurring trait in most fantasy settings, and that in the case of the Lumineth, much of that arrogance is arguably earned.

At the same time though, I do find the mental image of an aelf going, "what the hell are you?" upon first encountering a towering Stormcast Eternal to be particularly funny. The aelves look to their lengthy lifespans, advanced civilizations, and heightened senses and magical attunement to justify their supposed superiority, but I wonder how they initially reacted when humans who could not only match but even surpass them in these different areas suddenly began appearing.

Hi everyone,

I welcome you back into another entry of my series “Fun with Flags Gods”. We have already reached entry 9 in this series. So, thank you all for your support and interest in these mad ramblings of mine.

Today I want to talk about Death. Because I am going to die. And you are going to die. We are all going to die eventually. It’s one of the great fix points in existence after birth and taxes (and germ layer differentiation if you ask developmental biologist). And people were always aware of it. Therefore, death gods or various believes about death and the afterlife played a huge role in various religions and cultures. So today I want to talk about Nagash yes. But due to how large the field of death is in RL and in Warhammer, I will also include the other death deities.

Also, for the 10^(th) entry I will discuss Alarielle, Rhea/Isha and the various gods that inspired them, in case you are curious.

Having said all these things, I hope you enjoy this entry. And if you are interested in previous ones, you can find them here: Kurnoth, Morghur, Behemat, Dracothion, Sigmar, Mathlann, Morathi-Khaine, Hashut

With this all said, I hope you have a lot of fun reading through today’s topic :)

1. The Gods, the myth, the legend:

L.: Mictlantecuhtli (Age of Mythology Retold), C.: Osiris (AoMR), R.: Hel (AoMR)

As I mentioned before death is a universal constant and as such death gods exist in every culture. And death is usually a topic people like to avoid talking about in our modern society. It is an “issue for later” and in our everyday life it is indeed a rare event to have someone you know die, especially if you are younger. But in the past death was much more common. For example, the ratio of children dying was a lot higher. Depending on the era and culture it was common that 50% of children die before their 3^(rd) birthday and then another quarter or so dying before their 16^(th). And this is the reason for the myth that no one got old back then. When people say that humans in the past didn’t get older than 30 years old, it is the average life expectancy. Much like how the average life expectancy in modern industrialized countries is somewhere between 70 and 80 years old but was just around 60 years half a century ago. This does not mean there are noone older than 60 back then, just that many young people died too. And in ancient and medieval times this high child mortality was a major driver as to why the average age limit was so low. Next to other additional sources of death at a younger age of course, such as hunger and diseases. But it is still an important one. So old people in their 80s were a thing too in medieval times and else, just rarer than today.

In any case you can see how much more common death used to be in such times and how different cultures had their own mechanisms to deal with it. For example, it is very common to treat young children as “not fully human” or still “connected to the spirit world” or you have stories about child-killing gods/demons or else to explain the huge children mortality and deal with the issue psychology. This difference in treating young children and older people often resulted in different funeral rites for children too. E.g. the myth of Carthage sacrificing children may have been hostile propaganda for Carthaginians having different funeral rites for dead children than for adults. And people who hated Carthage and its punic homeland (romans, greeks, isrealites) interpreted as sacrifices instead for propaganda reasons. But in other cultures, children were not given proper names before their fifth birthday or were only christened after three years or else. To avoid strong attachments to better deal with the trauma of losing a child.

Having talked about dying children a lot, lets focus on death gods instead. These gods usually come into various categories: First are the death gods, who are personifications of the concept of death itself. These entities include among others Thanatos, the Greek personification of death itself, or Lamaschtu, a Sumerian goddess responsible for killing children.

Then are the underworld gods, who are responsible for running the afterlife itself. These gods include among other Hades from Greek mythology, Osiris from Egyptian mythology, Hel from norse mythology, or Ereshkigal from Sumerian mythology, Mictlantecuhtli in Aztec mythology etc*.* These gods are running the underworld themselves.

Then you had psychopomps, gods and beings whose job it was to guide you from the realm of the living unto the afterlife. This job was frequently given as extra features to other gods, especially those associated with traveling or with crossing barriers. Such as Pan/Hermes or Artemis, or the roman god Janus. Beacuse death is the final journey and also the ultimate crossing.

And of course, you had gods responsible for different aspects of death like funeral rites. For which Anubis is a prominent example as the god of mummification. Or how the ferrymen Charon deamnded drachmen as payment for bringing people to the underworld. Hence the greek custom to place a coin unto the dead body.

As death is a scary thing in our modern society, and Christian influences on our culture push Satan as the ruler of hell, it’s easy to fall into the “Hades is Satan” trope, in which such underworld deities are evil gods. But to ancient cultures this was not the case. Indeed, it is rare to find outright hostile death gods. Most of the time they are not more (im)moral than any other god but instead are just trying to do their job. They frequently appear as antagonists in stories, but this is primarily because the protagonist ventures into the underworld to take something from there or to establish dominance over it. Things the underworld deities naturally object to, because it is their job and their cosmic domain that is infringed upon. But besides that, underworld deities seem to be mostly chill and content, unlike other kinds of gods.

But of course, death is a scary thing too. And if your underworld was not a pleasant place (like the Asphodian Meadows, Niflheim or the sumerian underworld), then you didn’t look towards it. But even if your culture had an overall positive view on the afterlife, dying prematurely is something you do not want either. Therefore, you would avoid getting the attention of a death/underworld deity. E.g. by not having huge temples or by avoiding saying their name. For this reason, the Greeks liked to use euphemisms for Hades or Persephone to not invoke their attention such as the Dread Queen or the Mistress for Persephone. And because the underworld and the regular world are often meant to be separated this also means that death gods do not play strong roles in many mythologies beyond underworld related stuff. For example, we have the story of Osiris death and him becoming the ruler of the underworld. But afterwards his focus is solely on underworld business and only once is he phoned in by the other gods to settle the succession dispute between Horus and Seth. And Hades rarely appears outside of underworld/death centered tales too.

Regarding underworlds themselves it is also quite common for cultures to have multiple ones. For example, in norse mythology you had an afterlife with Valhalla for the glorious dead, and Niflheim for the unworthy dead. But you also had the afterlife ruled by Freyr/Freya, who could also invite their chosen ones there, in addition to Ran and Aegir, who claimed the souls of all those who drowned. Meanwhile in Greek mythology Hades was another term for the whole underworld, but the area had sections. E.g. the asphodel meadows were for all those souls who were neither great nor bad but ordinary. They lived as bodyless shades. Meanwhile Elysium is a paradisal area where the souls of great heroes and virtuous people reside. And Tartarus was then the area where the most wicked and evil people are punished. In Aztec myth you Mictlan, which had 9 levels. It would take years and trials to go from the lower ones to the better upper ones. Though warriors dying in battle, women in childbirth and people drowning had other afterlives or maybe started at higher levels.  Similarly, the Egyptian underworld, the duat, also had many layers. Most prominently are 12 levels of the underworld Ra passes by during his journey of the night. With one, the Aaru the fields of reed, being the are most people wanted to end up. There people would be given a position like the one they had in life. Such as a farmer being a farmer in the afterlife, a king a king and so on. But with the bonus that it was a pleasant afterlife without the burdens of the mortal world. And one where certain jobs could be done by Ushabti, small statues people placed in tombs. If you had a proper sent off with various artefacts, you could relax in this afterlife.  And typically, the deceased soul would be judged before being out into one of these levels. In Greek myth King Minos was one of these judges, whereas in Egyptian mythology Osiris was the judge, Anubis presented the evidence (i.e. you heart) and put it on a scale, the god Thoth often was the scribe taking notes, and the goddess Ammit would devour your heart, and thus soul, if you were too evil to be granted entrance, erasing you from existence.

And of course**, rebirth and reincarnation are also things which show up again and again**. This is most famous among Hinduism and Buddhistic-inspired faiths but also appears in some shamanistic cultures. But this concept also existed in various middle eastern cultures or in some Greek cults. Especially mystery cults centered around Dionysius.

Of course, whilst death is scary, the dead can be as well. As such there have been lots of stories about the dead returning in one shape or another to wreak havoc. In this context it should be mentioned that Necromancy means summoning the dead spirits for communication originally. It expanded over the ages into different fields. But the idea of humans being able to revive the deceased into an undead state is something that became popular much later. Especially the novel Frankenstein established how we today think of necromancy, as in it a corpse is revived via *scientific* means. And essentially all modern depictions of Necromancy and the creation of undead are based on this story in one way or the other, even if its magic and not science making the undead. Other influences such as Voodoo or previous folk beliefs play a more reduced role. But originally undeath was more of a random state of being caused by improper burials, specific circumstances of the death or unfinished business in life. For this reason, and because certain afterlives demand care and attention from their relatives, proper funeral rites were especially important in most cultures. Also, funeral rites are an important psychological tool to deal with the loss of someone.

1. Of gods and a man: Morr, Morai-Hag, Nagash and co

Pre End Times Artwork of Nagash in WFB

In WFB we have various death and underworld gods. Most prominent is for example Morr, the god of death in the Old World. He is the god of death but also the underworld and, of ravens and of dreams, through which he can sent prophetic dreams. He is also the husband of Verena, goddess of truth, justice and knowledge. His main job is keeping the souls and corpses of humans safe from necromancers and chaos. For this reason, his cult created Gardens of Morr, i.e. cemeteries, in which the souls and corpses are safe from necromancers if treated accordingly. Indeed, the priests of Morr and various knightly orders dedicated to his name are premier anti-necromantic units. They are especially active in Sylvania in the Empire. With various prayers and miracles of Morr being specifically meant to harm or nullify undead. Overall Morr fits the Hades archetype quite well, as he is not an evil deity, but one focused on his job and adamant about the living and the dead being separated. In addition, his association with dreams/sleep is also something shared frequently with other stories about death. Sleep is often referred to as the small brother of death, which is reflected in stories and gods about them. E.g. the hero Gilgamesh, on a quest to reach immortality, is asked to first defeat sleep. Which he fails at. Also of note is that Morr is a god worshipped far beyond the empire’s borders. With the center of his cult sitting in Tilea, but him being worshipped all over to Kislev.

In ancient Nehekhara you instead had Usurian as the main death god. And it seems that Usurian was much more open to let souls back into the world of the living. Because even prior to Nagash the nehekharians had already created lots of magical rites to imbue the souls of warriors into statues or animate corpses to a degree. Indeed, people of noble descent could make bargains with Usurian. Such as the character Apophas, who was a cruel murderer. He was able to reach an accord with Usurian. The serial killer could return to the living, if he found a soul of equal value to himself. But now soul is equal to another and thus he is roaming the world as an undead assassin with a body of flesh-eating scarabs. During the (horrible) End Times Usurian was consumed by Nagash which also seemingly ended Morr, implying that the two gods are the same. It also added further lore that the mounts Manfred, Neferata and Arkhan use are beasts of Usurian who stalked his underworld to punish horrible people and to keep it safe, before they were enslaved by Nagash.

Elves have two death-related goddesses. First Morai-Heg is the goddess of fate, dreams, ravens and death. Essentially all that Morr does minus running the afterlife. It could very well be, that the two gods are the same but under a different name, as many deities in WFB are suggested to be. That later job of underworld ruler belonged to Ereth Khial, the pale queen, the elven goddess of the underworld. Once Ereth tried to become Asuyrans consort but was rejected. As a result, she is bitter and harasses things Asuryan likes, like elves. Therefore, her afterlife is a tortures place, and elven souls are enthralled as slaves and soldiers, with whom she one day plans to conquer Asuryans throne. I dunno about you but an army of ghost elves attacking Asuryans main domain sounds epic and awesome. But like so many other cool plot points it was completely forgotten by the End Times… Anyhow if an elf dies unprotected, they have three options. First and most likely, Slaanesh finds his souls and eats him. Second-most likely Ereth Khial gets you and you get enslaved in her realm. And third and most unlikely another elven god gets your soul and protects you. As both Slaanesh and Ereth Khial are not good options in the minds of Asur and Asrai, the former binds their souls into waystones upon death, and the other become one with Athel Loren. Ereth Khial is obviously based on Ereshkhigal. And she is weird insofar as she is “hades is satan” played straight, whereas Morr and Usurian are more in line with real world death gods. Also, personally I find it weird that she isn’t prominent among the dark elves. Her backstory (being rejected by a ruler, exiled into a distant land, planning to take back what is hers by “right”) is just the Dark Elf backstory. And the dark elves have no proper protection against death unlike Asur or Asrai. So, them worshipping Ereth Khigal extensively should be there way to protect themselves against Slaanesh. Probably with he hopes of getting senior positions in Ereths underworld ghost army. But no, the goddess rarely shows up, because why give the Dark Elves a complex, semi-sensible culture if we can focus instead even more on Khaine, murder and slaves!

Gazul meanwhile is the death god of the dwarfen ancestor gods. It is important for him that he may be a brother of Grimnir, Valaya and Grugni. Though as he started the practice of ancestor worhship among dwarfs, it would make more sense if he was a son of Grimnir IMO. Because then he would have actual ancestors to start venerating and a death god being the son of a war god makes thematic sense. First comes war, then death. In any case Gazul is something of a weird dwarf in his depictions. For example, he is the only dwarfen character commonly depicted with a sword instead of an axe. And he and his cults are the protectors of dwarfen tombs, which are sealed off chambers within the mountains, protected by powerful anti-necromantic runes. But Gazul seems to allow dwarfen ghosts to return too. First, we have Grombrindal, who is Snorri Whitebeard return from the dead in WFB, after Malerion broke his promise of friendship between dwarfs and elves and caused the dwarf/elf war. And second, we have other dwarfen specters appear in various media, most prominently in Total War Warhammer.

Finally, Nagash. The Great Necromancer, the first Necromancer. To cover his basics, which are big: Nagash was born in ancient Nehekhara. Which was WFBs non-egypt. A collection of city states ruled by the primary capital of Khemri. And it was obsessed with death and resurrection, as the primary magical institution of Nehekhara, the Mortiary Cult, had promised generations of kings and queens they could be resurrected after their death in an eternal, everlasting body and rule forever as living gods. Over the millennia this cult grew into a state within the state and the firstborn son, in this case Nagash, was handed over to the cult a an apprentice whereas the second one, Nagash brother, became the heir of Khemri.

Nagash, even as a mortal, was an narcistic and envious dude and found this especially unfair. However, by combing the teachings of the cults with Dark Magic he learned from Dark Elf prisoners he created first Necromancy as we know it. Necromancy is a subset of Dhar, i.e. Dark Magic. If two or more winds are put together without harmony (very difficult) you get Dhar immediately. Dhar is very powerful but also a corruptive form of magic that can do great physical and mental harm to its wielder as well as harming the environment its cast in. Death Magic is the prime counter to necromancy, as death magic is all about preserving the natural order of life and death. But at the same time many necromancers learn death magic too, as many of its elements show up in necromancy in an inverted or corrupted form.

Nagash also created the Elixir of Immortality. And then he killed his brother and took over the kingdom (there is a book series about Nagash mortal life, but as with many other Black Library novels it is infamous among fans for being loose/contractionary with the lore of the main series). Nagash bled Nehekhara dry to build his Black Pyramid until a revolt forced him out of the country. Nagash went east to found Nagashizzhar and crafted many powerful artefacts in this exile, such as his crown. Around this time, he also cast a great ritual that cursed every human on the planet to become a ghoul, if they ever engaged in cannibalism.  Nagash then returned to Nehekhara with vengeance and in a massive war he slowly broke down the defenders. He cursed the not-nile to become a toxic, life draining water, and then cast a ritual that would kill every living being on the planet. He was stopped by the Skaven, who armed the last living nehekharan and king, Alcadizzar, with the Fellblade. A weapon so potent and dangerous even holding it could kill you. Alcadizzar managed to slice Nagash to pieces and the skaven then picked up all body parts they could find and burn him in a warpstone furnace to never have him show up again. But they overlooked his hand.

Nagash was thus not fully dead. Whether he was tortured in the afterlife or something else happens when he is out of the picture, depends on the edition. IIRC in earlier editions this torture or the Fellblade are also the reasons why he showed up weaker, after being a god in all but name in his battle with Alcadizzar. But Nagash reformed molecule by molecule in his Black Pyramid, which no Tomb King (undead nehekharians resurrected by Nagash last spell) could break. However, the Tomb Kings were very angry at Nagash and he fleed before Settra. At the same time his crown has found its way to Sigmar, who got influenced by it, as if it were the One Ring. Nagash wanted his crown back but lost and was struck down by Sigmar.

Nagash then made his strongest return in the End Times. And his story started promising. He consumed Usurian and Valaya and became a proper god. He could easily have been the second main threat to the planet after chaos. But instead of having an interesting storyline, the Skaven blew up his pyramid, seriously depowered him and Nagash was forced to ally with the other factions against chaos. Then the world went boom.

3.      The more the merrier: Death gods in AoS

AoS Artwork of Nagash

Now in AoS the underworld is a very established place with Shyish containing every underworld any culture believes in, be they paradise or hell or something in between. Which for some reason means we only see stereotypical gothic horror places instead of elysian fields, Valhalla the Field of Reeds or else. The underworlds of real life are very diverse but Shyish seems not to be. In the background perhaps but not in the parts people engage with.

Now each underworld has its own death god and thus there are lots of background deities like the Prince of Cats, Lauchon the Soulseeker, Hadrax and many more sprinkled in here and there. But the most important death gods in AoS are IMO the following:

First of Morrda is Morr 2.0. But he is a different entity in AoS. He is still associated with Ravens, but now he is not the caretaker of dead souls as in WFB. Instead, he is about death as peaceful oblivion. An element best exemplified by the Ruination chamber and their ritual of permanently killing a stormcast too damaged to be reforged. This could be important with Shyishs original purpose, as the dead souls would dissolve into nothingness at the edge of the realm, before Nagash broke it. So Morrdas original purpose could have been to oversee this procedure. But speculation aside Morrda was supposedly killed by Nagash and absorbed. Hence Nagash is also worshipped by some as Nagash-Morr. But Morrda seems to have survived, as his powers and relics still influence the realm. Not only with the Ruination chamber, but also with the prayers and miracles of his priesthood the raven priests. He is again also an anti-undead deity.  In addition, Morrda is the primary deity of Lethis. Morrda also has Morr-Gryphs and Gryph-Stalker as associated creatures next to the classical raven.

It is also true that Morai-Heg is still considered the goddess of fate and death. How/if she is still related to Morrda (who is himself a changed character) is up to debate. Though they still share elements, especially the raven motive. And Morai-Hag has not done much thus far except choosing Krethusa as her prophet and seemingly working on a plan to revive the various elven gods. Which she may have set in motion long ago, as “raven worshipping monks” from Shyish convinced Teclis/Tyrion, Malerion/Morathi to chain Slaanesh and to extract souls. Something a raven-asscoated death goddess who can see the future could arrange. IMO this is a better plotline as “tzeentch did it”. Though we have no information on Ereth Khial as of now.

Ouboroth is named after the Ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail and thus symbolizing infinite cycles. But this snake god is the opposite, as it is all about the definitive end and hard cut cessation of existing, in contrast to Morrdas peaceful oblivion. In this regard it is close to the goddess Ammit. Ammit was a chimera with the body of a hippo, the paws of a lion and the head of a crocodile. And it was her job to consume the heart (which also contained the soul in Egyptian mythology) of anyone who failed the judgement in the afterlife. Which would cause the person to cease completely. Ouboroth was such a powerful deity, that Nagash apparently could not slay him directly. Instead, the vampire Sekhar weakened him over time. Still a fragment of this deity is still hanging around as Sekhars personal assistant. With the threat being that this fragment of the god could reform the proper deity if it were to get enough power, i.e. feed enough on mortal souls. It could be, that a similar fate befell Morrda. I.e. the main god was destroyed by Nagash, but a fragment survived and was since then able to reform into proper godhood or is close to be. Still, it is interesting that Ouboroth is part of a trend were vampires get animal companions/mounts who are more interesting and unique as characters than the vampires they serf.

An honorable mention also goes to Gazul, who is not only part of the setting, but apparently was also able to hide away most of the dwarfen afterlife’s in AoS, so that Nagash cannot access and enslave them. He was also active during the time of Valaya and co before Sigmar arrived in the setting, but what he did back then or since has not been explored indepth, like with most other ancestor gods.

And last but not least we have Nagash again, who is now more prominent than ever before. He does not need a proper introduction, as he is one of the primary entities in AoS and the entire Grand Alliance of Death runs around him and his Mortarchs. Nagash reappered in AoS being trapped under a huge burial mount and was rescued by Sigmar after some deliberation. How did Nagash end up there and who/what trapped him we do not know. But Nagash then went on a merry journey with Sigmar bringing order to the realms and slaying tyrant gods and worse creatures,  whilst his undead creations helped establish civilization. However he also went on an about and killed, consumed and enslaved various other death gods until he remained the prime deity of Shyish. But Nagash stayed true to his ways and secretly wished to dominate all of creation. Which led to him breaking up with Sigmar, being beaten by Archaeon and showing his triumphant return in the Necroquake. Which didn’t work as intended due to Skaven, but it did pervert Shyishs nature, much like how Nagash necromancy perverts the spirits of the dead. He was then defeated by Teclis and his allies and is since then waiting to reform his body and to return to the realms at large.

 Important is that Nagash is not the god of death/the dead but the god of undeath in AoS. The dead are the natural inhabitants of Shyish. So, all the mortals who died and reform as spirits, ghost and what have ya in the various underworlds of Shyish. By contrast the undead are those same entities enslaved and corrupted by Nagashs necromancy, which is itself a corrupted form of death magic, as far as I understand. But Nagash wants to be the sole ruler of Shyish and has consumed, killed or enslaved a lot of other death gods. But death gods are hard to kill, new afterlife’s spring into being and Nagashs claim for Shyish is very fragmentary. So, whilst Nagash is as of now the prime deity of the realm, there are plenty of other death gods running around too.  Furthermore, worship of mortals shapes gods in AoS. And as Nagash wanted to be the sole death gods, various very distinct cults and believes started to affect him. Which caused different aspects of Nagash to form and act differently from Prime Nagash from time to time. Such as Nagash-Morr or the Black Child. Still Nagash is interesting insofar as he is a god but does not represent any of the duties death gods normally have. Yes, he is the de facto ruler of the underworld, but he does not care for the natural order of life and death or the sanctity of death and instead perverts it to his own liking.  He is more in line with your typical dark lords such as Sauron or other beings from fantasy settings rather than any real death gods.

Interesting for all the death gods I mentioned thus far is that in AoS a strong focus lies on oblivion/ the cessation of existence. Such was with Morrda and Ouboroth, but also with the story line of the Stomrcast Eternals and the message of eternal life being a burden. Even gods such as Sigmar and Teclis long for the day where they can shed their mantle as gods and become one with the realms. So, an important theme of AoS seems to be the issues of immortality and the benefits of a finite life. By contrast classical death gods that govern underworlds and afterlife’s are absent or exist as lore blurbs as of now.

4.      Death comes for all

Settra and Nagash clash in the End Times

Having introduced the various gods of death from WFB and AoS the question is where we could go from here. Talking just about the story potentials of Nagash and his servants could fill the entire thing. So, I will try to be more broard.

-          As of now Nagash is still reforming his body after his physical form was destroyed in a battle with Teclis and his allies. Prior to the recent “leaks” it was rumoured that Nagash would go on the offensive against the skaven once he reformed. So that he can finally get a win against the ratmen and strike out his losses.  In this regard it is always possible to introduce new death factions and new mortarchs as his servants and to explore his relationship with the realm of Shyish and the various factions through this lense. I made my own fan-concepts for such occasions (which can be seen here if you are interested (Undead Pirates, Frankenstein Undead). In any case there is lots of room for new undead factions and mortarchs and we could perhaps also see a return from old WFB concepts but refreshed for AoS. I prefer original AoS characters over WFB returnees for example and I think we have way too many vampire mortarchs too. But Azhag the Slaugtherer was basicly an honorary Mortarch in WFB and Virion the Grim also has a cool idea behind him. Such concepts could be well worth reinterpreting for AoS IMO.

-          Morrda could make a proper showing, bringing us a proper death god on orders side. This would be interesting, as the CoS have a lot of “undead” influecnes around them. Not only do the dead live side by side with the living in CoS in Shyish, but even the other cities have these influences. Such as the Soul Shepherds whose job it is to guide the dying mortals of the CoS into an afterlife safe from Nagash. Their Corpus Somni servant is very undead coded. Same for the relique bearers, who carries the mortal remnants of previous commanders. Through these remains the previous commanders can provide strategic information (or nonsense). So talking to deceased, i.e. original necromancy. With Morrdas proper return these “undead” elements of the CoS could be reinforced, adding to the diversity of these places.

-          With the rumored release of a reworked “old school” dwarfen faction for AoS we could see the various ancestor gods making a proper entry in AoS, including Gazul. As mentioned even in WFB/Total War Warhammer the ancestors of the dwarfs could become avatars of vengeance to aid their fellow dwarfs. Given how much more common such things are in AoS, I could see Gazul releasing the souls of dwarfen warriors from their tombs as units or advisors for the new dwarfen faction. Which would highlicht the ancestor worship, as the ancestors would not just be distant beings to venerate and emulate, but beings who could aid you in the now.

-          Due to Morai-Hegs focus on reviving the elven gods of old we could see a return of Ereth Khial. Which would be an interesting topic, as she would have to find herself a place in Syhishs underworlds. In addition, her main motive (her jealousy/desire of Asuryan) is not present in this setting. So, she could have an entirely new motivation, perhaps even becoming a more benevolent deity or simply the desire to usurp Nagash as the new tyrant of Shyish. Either way perhaps we are now able to see the army of ghosts she has been building up for all of WFBs lifespan joining an apocalyptic battle.

-          Whether Morai-Heg revives Ereth Khial, Gazul and Morrda come out of hiding or new death gods arise or old ones are repowered, chances are that we may see divine opposition against Nagash arise in the not so distant future. Which would likely cause a war for the afterlives, in which Nagash fights these order-aligned/independent death deities for dominion over Shyish itself.  Essentially a great war of the dead vs the undead.

-          Lastly as an honourable mention, as per the 4^(th) edition core book we have a depiction of Shyish with multiple levels in a downward spiral. Essentially more realm discs below the primary discs we know and love. Future additions could further explore these new and unknown aspects of Shiysh itself and how various factions try to get dominion over these regions.

 

5.      The end

So, this is the end of my essay for Nagash and the other major death gods in Warhammer. What is your opinion on death, death gods and the afterlifes in Warhammer?

I for one would love to see more creativity and diversity in Shyish. For a realm where every afterlife is possible, I find it very monotonous to have all afterlifes focus on gothic horror worlds and even for the positive death gods like Morr to be gothic horror figures. I would wish for more cheerful or friendly afterlives and deities, like many death gods are.

But what do you think? How do you like the various death gods and especially Nagash? And where do you think could they go with these entities in the future?

>Listen, child, and heed me well
A grave warning you must fear
Get to bed and silent stay
Lest the blackened cap might hear
Shuttered must the windows be
Your eyes, quickly, close them fast
Or the Bad Moon's light you'll see
And the sight will be your last

>It comes now, rising high above
It's heard your hue and cry
The Bad Moon fills the velvet dark
And beady is its eye
Those naughty children that it sees
Know Sigmar cannot save
Grobi the Blackcap comes for all
A-squirming from his cave 

>A crown upon the Loonking's head
A staff clutched in his hand
Both twisted by the fungus moon
Both blackened like his heart
Don't let him see you, little one
Don't let him hear you cry
Or down into the darksome depths
He'll bear you off to die
- Azyrheimer nursery rhyme

The novel Gloomspite by Andy Clark has parts of a nursery rhyme at the start of each of its acts. I hadn't seen it posted in full before, so I figured I'd transcribe it. I listened to the audio book though, so I may have gotten one or two things incorrect.

Anyway, I love this rhyme! It makes the Gloomspite Gitz and the Bad Moon so creepy, plus I love the fairy tale vibes of it. The Gitz are often comic relief, but the novel does a great job showing how terrifying they can be. The threat they pose feels genuinely apocalyptic.

I highly recommend the novel to Gitz fans, or anyone looking for a nice horror story. I was uncertain about the heroes' fates right up until the final page.