u/MrS0bek

Hi everyone,

I am pleased to welcome you to entry 11 of this series of “Fun with Flags Gods” where we dive into the RL and fictious background of various gods and entities from Warhammer Fantasy and AoS. After hitting the 10-anniversary last time with Alarielle, people suggested to focus on Grungni today. So this time we are taking a look at our all-welcome smith Grungni and we will also peak a bit into his dwarfen lackeys. Because dwarfs have quite the long history in our folktales and sagas. Please note that I will use the term dwarf/dwarfs in this write up, instead of duardin or else for simplicities sake.

Otherwise I can only assume that you already know the drill, as we have reached entry 11 already. Thanks for your support and for the various comments and discussions, that arise from my mad ramblings :)

As always, you can read up the previous entries here if you are interested: Kurnoth, Morghur, Behemat (and giants), Dracothion (and dragons), Sigmar, Mathlann, Morathi-Khaine, Hashut, Nagash, Alarielle

As I assume you know this series by now I have not a lot to say anymore except have fun : )

 

1.      The Background: The gods, the myth the legend

L. Wayland killing Ämillias (Wilhelm von Kaulbach 1848), C. Hephaistos (Age of Mythology Retold), R. Ptah (AOMR)

Metalworking has been one of the most important discoveries in the history of humanity. So much so that we named entire periods after them, like the Iron and Bronze Age. Because with metal tools and items have so many benefits. Not are they much longer lasting but they also allowed for tools with entirely new processes such as ploughs and pickaxes or hollow structures like pots and pans which were great for heat transition. Among many other things. It was a life changer for sure. But at the same time, it also disrupted human society. Because the skill to work with metals is rare and requires a lot of training and effort. Similarly, it required special resources, which are often not locally available and need to be gathered from faraway places. This created new classes of people. Smiths and miners, who had to be supplied by farmers with food, and merchants and administrators to oversee and distribute the various resources. Long distance trade existed before as well, but it was far less organized and far less critical to a society than we see with the arrival of metal working. Such as the tin and copper routes of the Bronze Age. Copper is rarer than iron already, but tin is roughly as rare as uranium. The only larger mines able to feed the demand for tin in these times were on the British Island and in the Persian Hinterlands. A transcontinental trade network with norms for weight and sizes of tin units was established to fuel the bronze age societies in the Eastern Mediterranean. Due to the importance of these new resources control over them became also more important. In addition, metals were great to create weapons made solely for human vs human conflict. All this shifted society and created new elites, especially warrior elites. Which show up all over the world since metal weapons are introduced. Be it the princes of the myceneans, the Kshatriya caste in India, warrior nobles in germanian and celtic cultures and elsewhere. And this continues almost ‘til the modern day, such as with feudal systems of knights and samurai. This is reflected in lots of myths where various smith gods have the main job of supplying weapons or magical items to heroes and warriors.

However please keep in mind, that technology is not a straight line and lots of technologies employed relied on circumstances and economic incentives. We know of various highly organized cultures with astonishing buildings and technology, who did not or rarely use metal items. Like the Incan Empire or the various Mesoamerican cultures. Meanwhile various peoples in western Africa seemingly skipped bronze altogether and jumped straight to iron. And indeed, even though many history books and especially video games treat iron as an update to bronze, in reality it was not. Bronze has many benefits over iron, such as being much easier to shape, much easier to recycle/reuse, far more resistant to oxidation and being able to mass produce in great numbers. We have found remnants bronze workshops that could create hundredths of bronze items per day. By comparison iron is much more difficult to work with prior to industrial plants. Lots of complex objects like bells and cannons or statues could not be made out of iron prior to the industrial revolution in any economically feasible way. If both are in equal supply, bronze is a better material for most things. But as mentioned tin is rare and with the bronze age collapse many of these tin trade routes broke. Arguably the people then switched to iron out of necessity, which existed almost everywhere. But as mentioned it is hard to work with and difficult to make. So, people back then may even have seen it as a downgrade. And likely the knowhow to make iron existed before, but no one bothered. Due to making iron from ore being so difficult, meteoric iron was an often-used source, as the impact transformed the iron into an almost usable shape already. I heard stories about inuit using Iron tools for this reason, despite having no proper metallurgy, as several meteorites fell down in Greenland. On the opposite side we have Japanese forging techniques to make their famous blades and else. These were so complicated and tedious because the local iron in Japan is rare and of very poor quality. So, to get anything useful out of it, it has to undergo an even more tedious forging process.

This real-world history out of the way, I already mentioned how smith/craftsman characters are often reduced to providing armaments for heroes in many stories. This is true for lots of gods and beings. Most prominently is probably Hephaistos, the misshapen Greek god of the forge. His smithy was supposed to lie in the Vulcan Aetna in Sicily. And he had various groups assistants. One of these were the cyclopses. The first cyclops were children of Gaia and Uranos, much like the Titans. They were imprisoned in Tartarus by Uranos but freed by Zeus when he rebelled against Kronos. As thanks they crafted Zeus thunder bolts, Hades helmet of invisibility and the Trident of Poseidon.

Hephaistos has a main theme of being a disfigured being. Accoutns differ as to why but one of the most well-known stories is that his mother Hera was enraged by his baby looks and threw him of Olympus. The impact scarred him for life. There is another interesting, crippled smith in European folklore/mythology. Wayland the Smith, a character from various Germanic cultures who is also able to forge mighty weapons and even a flying machine to escape his captor. Among Waylands weapons are for example as a kitchen knive that effortlessly cuts the plate and the table too, if you use it for your breakfast. Or as you see in the picture above a sword effortlessly cutting through a helm and skull, without the smith even trying hard. The flying escape is something shared with the Greek inventor Daedalus, whose stories I assume you to be familiar with. There is also the first king of Attika Erichthonios, who a son of Hephaistos, but also crippled (he has snake legs and cannot walk). But he is an inventor too, as he developed the first chariot. There seems to be a mythological tradition in European cultures to associate smiths/craftsmen with crippled features and/or being imprisoned. The imprisoning part is easy to guess, as metalworking is a rare skill any ruler wanted to monopolize. Hence they take the craftsmen as a prisoner to not loose thier service. The cripple part however is unclear. Some people assume that some fumes and gases released by ores and forge fires may have created health issues which are represented this way in the stories. Such as working with arsenic copper (a predecessor to bronze) releasing small amounts of arsenic into the air. But we do not know whether this is the case for this motive.

However, craftsmen and smith characters are not just providers. They can be greedy, duplicitous and dangerous if feeling or being wronged. For example, Hephaistos does trap gods who wrong him and he once tried to force himself on Athena in one attican story. Meanwhile, Wayland the Smith has various stories. But the core is that another king traps and cripples him to be the sole beneficiary of his services. In turn Wayland kills the kings’ sons, turns their heads into golden drinking cups, and impregnates the king’s daughter before fleeing.  And Daedalus the inventor has similar dark sides to his story. Not only is he a complicit in creating the Minotaur and that resulting nastiness, but Daedalus also killed his own nephew when the young lad showed signs to surpass him.

Another famous god of smith and craftsmanship is the Egyptian god Ptah. In his main center of worship, Memphis, he is also attributed in some text to be the ultimate creator of the world itself, bringing it into existence by word and will. This idea of a created world ex nihilo is something we find in various semitic cultures, including in Abrahamic faiths. Otherwise, the world is usually created circumstantial as features appear and are then put into place by gods. Despite this important position Ptah did not become a primary state god like Ra. Because his cult was gathered around Memphis and Egypt had many such local variants of gods and goddess, each with another top deity and myths to support it. Instead, Ptahs most common position was that of the patron of smiths and craftsmen, and his symbols were found in various workshops across Egypt. Including the Valley of Kings and in the villages that crafted these graves.

Other important smith gods include Ogun, of the west African Yoruba people, Ame-no-Mahitotsu, the japanese kami of metal smiths, or the largely forgotten celtic god Gobanos. And for craftsmen themselves we also have other gods. Such as Athena/Minerva, a goddess who is good at weaving.

One keynote is that metalworking is often associated with magic. Because to outliers it is a very magical craft. With fire you can turn rocks into a substance that does not naturally occur in the world. And this substance can then be transformed into various useful tools and weapons. Objects with which you can plow your fields, slay your enemies or become nigh invincible. To a laymen this is as close to real magic as it gets. For this reason, metal objects were associated with lots of magical abilities. And this extended to the smiths themselves too. In eastern Africa there are various stories of smiths doubling and mages. With some being able to transform themselves into were-lions or were-hyenas. And smiths were responsible for creating both protective talismans as well as curse tablets and other items used in day-to-day magic. Next to properly important items for religious processions and else.

Now some of the most infamous smiths in mythology are giants and dwarfs. E.g. only a sword crafted by giants was able to kill Grendls Mother in Beowulf. Meanwhile even as far back as norse mythology dwarfs were infamous for being great craftsmen, with lots of stories about it. Such as Brokkr and Sindri creating the Hammer of Thor, a self-duplicating gold ring, Sifs new hair, Fenrirs unbreakbale chains or the golden boar for the god Freyr. However, dwarfs underwent a strong evolution since the norse times to our modern fantasy tropes. For example, to us terms like dwarf, troll and else are fixed categories. But for a norse person these were very vague terms. A troll could be a monster, or a hostile force or a personal enemy. A wolf attacking sheep could be a troll, as could be a highwayman or a murderer. Similarly, the line between elf and dwarf was fluid to norse. Down to many scholars arguing that the term svartalf (dark/black elf) is just a synonym for dwarf. But in some stories even a sentient needle was called a dwarf and had two dwarfen brothers. In addition, dwarfs were highly magical. Not just in their skill in craftsmanship, but in general. Dwarfs could curse people or treasures or transform themselves into dragon, like the dwarf Fafnir. So, dwarf did not have a definition as we would recognize it. The only larger unifying theme was that they were chthonic beings, i.e. creatures from the earth or below. Likely they started as earth spirits or minor gods, much like how nereids are minor ocean goddesses.

Around the late Middle Ages, we largely settled on dwarfs as small people with beards who live underground. But they could live anywhere underground, not just mountains. Any suspicious hole could be the home of a dwarf. Therefore, we have lots of stories all across Europe of local dwarfs and similar beings. And whilst they could be smiths, they still had strong naturalistic elements as well. Dwarfs could have powers over plants or flowing water in various stories. And they could be mischievous fay-like beings, both a danger and an aid depending on the tale. Only much later did we have a split, at least in the english-speaking sphere. The classic, naturalistic dwarfs are now called gnome. And the mountainous, industrial dwarfs stayed that way or were called dwarves, due to Tolkiens influence. Again, this is true for the anglosphere. German for example does not differentiate. Hence the garden gnomes are still called Gartenzwerge (garden dwarfs). And Tolkiens Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit largely determined our modern fantasy definition of a dwarf. Great craftsmen and miners who dwell in deep mines and mountain fortresses, digging into the earth, holding sacred oaths and disliking elves. His decision to place the naturalistic themes of woods and nature unto the elves created the gnome/dwarf divide I’d argue.

2.      Hear the hammer fall: Smith gods in Warhammer Fantasy

Thorek Ironbrow and his assistant Kraggi (Total War Warhammer 2)

Grungni is arguably only the second most important god of the dwarfs (after Valaya the mother goddess of all of dwarfenkind.) But certainly the most prominent one. Now in WFB ancestor gods work a bit different from regular gods, as dwarfs are deep into ancestor worship in general. Essentially any dead dwarf could be an ancestor god. But the term is usually used for those ancestors who are venerated by every dwarf. This includes Grungni, his bother Grimnir, their sister/wife Valaya and some of their first gen offspring (but not all like Grombindal/Snorri Whitebeard). These first ancestor gods gained their divine powers form the “glittering realm”. What this realm is, is not known, but one common fan conception is that it’s a special place where the Old Ones taught the ancestor gods all the things’ dwarfs should know. This made the ancestor gods far more powerful and magical than regular dwarfs. One could argue they are essentially dwarfen primarchs. Grungni was the first king of the dwarfs (that we know off) and created their entire lifestyle. He is claimed to have started the tradition of dwarfs living underground as he foresaw the coming of chaos. And Grungni started the migration of dwarfs to the north, spread the dwarfen empire from the non-africa regions of the Southlands all the way north into non-Scandinavia of Norsca, along the Worlds Edge Mountains. This empire is known as the Karaz Ankor, the everlasting realm. Various holds, especially Karaz-a-Karak, are said to have been founded by him. Grungni himself is the god of mining, crafting and smithing and has created various important items. Among them is the Throne of Power, the seat of the dwarfen high king and the only item containing the Rune of Eternity. As long as this rune endures, so do due dwarfs as a people. Other items include Ghal Maraz or the Axes of Grimnir. Grungni is worshipped by almost any dwarf, even by imperial ones in the empire. Indeed, some human smiths also venerate him. And he has temples in every Karak.

Two of Grungnis sons are also important ancestor gods. First Smednir, the god of ore refinement, i.e. turning ore into proper metal. And second the god Thungi, the god of rune crafting.  He discovered the process in Ankor Bryn, the glittering realm, and later taught his father too. Rune magic is a very special and unique process in WFB. Because in WFB dwarfs cannot do magic, unless they are heavily changed and corrupted, like with the chaos dwarfs. And they suffer the unique issue of turning to stone slowly if they cannot use their magic properly.  Indeed, dwarfs are largely resistant to magic, though to what extent depends strongly on the author. So instead of using magic like spellcasters, they instead trap magic into magical runes which they etch into various items. This is a tedious process as even minor mistakes could either violently unleash the trapped magic or worse create in a substandard product. But they are tremendously powerful items in turn. Runes also follow special rules. Some seem to be universal, but others are more the result of a dwarfen mindset. For example, no single item can hold more than three runes. Otherwise, the power would be too large, and the item would be destroyed. In addition, only one of the same runes can be placed on the item. It is called the rule of the jealous rune, but it could similarly mean an overcharge in magic for technical reasons. Also, no rune smith worth their ore would create a duplicate of the same item, because each one is a singular masterpiece beyond compare. Even if logic would dictate to have rune smiths churning out shields and helmets by the dozens with a rune of protection, they refuse for prideful reasons. Speaking of pride, Runesmiths are very, very tedious and hold their secrets tight. If they find no apprentice worth bestowing their secrets unto, they prefer to take the knowledge of their runecraft to the grave. Even if this knowledge would be critical to the dwarfen realm as a whole. This, doubled with the loss of many holds and the violent death of runesmiths, resulted in the loss of a lot of knowledge. Best that can then happen is that some runesmiths uncover old artefacts and try to relearn how to craft these runes. I mention this runesmithing, because only descendants of Grungni can cast runes in WFB. Runesmiths also tend to grow older than regular dwarfs, with Kragg the Grimm, Runelord of Karaz-a-Karak, being the oldest known dwarf with ca 1600 years. When dwarfs normally live around 300-400 years. This age, direct descent from Grungni and their critical skills and knowledge makes runesmiths/runelords as venerated as kings in dwarfen society.

Grungni himself ruled as king of the dwarfen empire before and during the first coming of chaos. It was his decision to hunker down in their holds, much to the charging of this brother Grimnir. And at the end of the Great War against Chaos, he abdicated the throne to his son Snorri Whitebeard, who would later become Grombrindal. Why Grugni and the other ancestor gods departed after the creation of the Great Vortex is not known. But it could be that they required a certain amount of magic to stay earthly and active, much like demon princes or the various dwarfen constructs like Rune Gholems. And the magic levels dropped to low after the Vortex was set up. Grugni himself does not appear in person from then on. But in the End Times the Runelord Thorek Ironbrow tries to find the Glittering Realm and to bring the ancestor gods back. He gets beaten by Nagash who consumes Valaya. And Grimnir has a cameo in the last Gotrek novel. As always, the End Times leave much to be desired.

However, to address the elf in the room, Grungni is not the only smith god of prominence. The other the elven god Vaul. And Vaul is basically Hephaistos but as an elf. Much like Wayland the Smith, Vaul is blind and crippled. Because Vaul challenged Khaine. In 40k lore it was to protect Isha and Kurnous, but in WFB this “war in heaven” among the elven gods is not that detailed if I recall. Anyhow Vaul is blinded and crippled and chained to his anvil, forever tasks to churn out weapons for Khaine. But Vaul accepts this fate, as the elves will need Khaine in the upcoming battles and they will need the weapons he provides. One of the most important weapons he forged was the Widowmaker, a ludicrously powerful item forged in the fire of the Father of Dragons Draugnir. This act of forging took a lot of Draugnirs essence and bonded the fates of dragons and elves together. There are many other artefacts of prominence as well. And the Priests of Vaul are the very best elven smiths there are. They ritually blind themselves too, losing their earthly sight but instead gaining divine/magical senses to become the greatest craftsman west of the Worlds Edge Mountains. They created various masterpieces. This includes Malekiths/Malerions armor, which was crafted by a Malekith supporter among the priesthood. This suit saved Malekiths life after he was rejected by Asuryans flames, but he cannot take it off even millennia later.  Vaul is also valued by all elven people. The wood elves know that you need good tools for your hunts. The dark elves also obviously like weapons, much like the high elves, albeit for different reasons. And each elven culture is said to contain a piece of him. Vauls original smithy is supposed to lie in the volcanoes of Caledor (much like Hephaistos), the dark elves carry has anvil and the wood elf Daith is rumoured to be his avatar, like Ariel and Orion are to Isha and Kurnous, (Hence in TWW we have three settlements called Vaul’s Anvil). Sadly, Daith is a loreblurb entity without much lore behind him. But his anvil of note is that the Swordmasters of Hoeth have no direct connection to Vaul but are themselves required to forge masterful blades. Teclis did this too.

3.      We are the smiths of our own destiny: Grungni in AoS

Artwork of Grungni in Age of Sigmar

In AoS Grungni returns in force. Due to the Helsmith story we now know that the dwarfen gods arose first among the order deities and separated the realms between them. With Grungni getting Chamon and Grimnir getting Aqshy. However, both gods were tricked by Hashut with cursed artefacts that drove them made and they chained themselves unto a mountain top until Sigmar freed them. As thanks both wanted to repay this debt with a service. And Grungni chose the long service to Sigmar.  Over the Age of Myth, he created various wondrous works, whilst his dwarfs created the Khazalid Empire across all the realms, but especially in Chamon. I could list the lots of Grugnis masterworks, but this would probably be too repetitive as lots of these entries focus on single sentence loreblurbs.

Also of note is that Grungni, like Teclis and Tyrion, had a very hands-off approach of his followers. He taught them all he knew and then wanted them to be creative and productive by themselves and craft their own wonders and societies.  And much like the two elven gods, this decision came to bite him in the back. With the coming of the Age of Chaos Grungni retreated into Azyr, leaving most of his dwarfs behind. Again, believing they had all the tools to take care of themselves. The short answer was that they didn’t. Either majority of holds were destroyed or abandoned for safe spots in Azyr. Many others turned to Hashut or were abandoned as its dwarfs fled to the skies to become the Kharadon Overlords. Some also survived by allying with the Sylavneth, like the dwarfen friends of the Ironbark Grove. But the central theme is that just believing/following Grungnis teachings seemed to have been insufficient to survive. And you had to adopt a new way of life to survive. Here we have another parallel between Grungni and Teclis of sorts. Both their people caused their ultimate doom themselves. The elves had the Spirefall, whereas the debacle with the Lode Griffon caused the main Tzeentch invasion of Chamon. But the reaction of the two gods was different. Teclis searched for an answer, contacted the aelementors and then taught his people new ways of life and reinvented their society. But the dwarfs of the khazalid empire had no such divine aid. And as mentioned before, those dwarfs who stuck to Grungnis teachings seem to have been the ones with the lowest chances of survival. Now Grungni knows this has been his greatest mistake and he tries to make amends for it in AoS. But I find this foil between Teclis and Grugni to be interesting.

Anyhow Grungni aided Sigmar by helping him establish Sigmarbulum, creating the Six Smiths and helping him establish the reforging process as well as designing most of the stormcast armaments. Again, here we have the theme of the smith gods primary role being to craft weapons for heroes and other gods rather than being the focus of a story themselves. But thankfully it does not stay this way. During the first parts of the Age of Sigmar Grugni disappears. Essentially, he makes a great tour of the realms, sulking over his past mistakes, making observations and plans to fix everything. He returns first to my knowledge in Broken Realms, where he secretly aids the Kharadon fleet over Vindicarum and later speaks on Morathis behalf during her trial. Afterwards he calls a great council to unify the various dwarfen peoples of the mortal realms, but this does not bear fruit thus far. Though he acknowledges that this process will be long and tedious, much like a piece of iron needs to be hit many, many times.

IMO Grungni is more powerful in AoS than he ever was in WFB. Not only does he craft some ridiculous, mind-boggling things (such as a fantasy space station), but also demigods (the six smiths) or an entire race (cog people of Odsin, though they have little to now lore). What is of note here is that his creations seem to function by themselves and seem sentient. By contrast Grungnis counterpart of Hashut as to use the essence of demons and godbeasts for his infernal machinery. This showcases Grugni as a greater craftsmen IMO. Also, Grungni seems to have control over all kinds of magic. Such as being able to reverse Teclis enlightenment eninges into penumbral enginges, i.e. turning a light-magic machine into one seemingly fed by shadow-magic. Or all the azyrite-infused armaments of the stormcast, or the seeds of iron for the sylvaneth. In short, he can seemingly craft everything, including new types of plants.

In turn Grungni is worshipped by almost anyone. His domain, the First Smithy, is open to anyone wanting to learn craftsmanship. And he counts not just dwarfs among his followers, but also elves, ogers and others. This broad worship makes Grungni one of the most “classical” gods, who are worshipped by everyone, because they are important to everyone. If you are a craftsman you venerate the main craftsman deity. In addition, Grungni is the 2nd most important god of the Stormcast, right after Sigmar. And arguably he has an equal if not greater influence on the Stormcast themselves as he had his hands in everything about their creations and equipment. He even returns during the Age of Beast to refine the stormstrike chariots or make thunderstrike armor the new standard.

But Grungni is no longer the straightforward dwarf he once was. He did do some shady things no proper dwarf from WFB would have done. Such as perverting the invention of another craftsman for duplicitous reasons, like turning Teclis Enlighenment Engines into the Penumbral Engines. Similarly, he was defending Morathi in a court secession, after she had arguably declared war on Sigmar by taking a city from him, risking the lives of thousands of stormcast and underwent a ritual that could have created havoc among the realms if it went wrong. This kind of politicking and protecting a traitor is not what any dwarf in WFB would have done. Then there is the abandonment of his people during the Age of Chaos which broke several things dwarfs in WFB hold sacrosanct. How correct or justified these things are is something people can and do debate a lot. But it is apparent that Grungni is a much more complicated and morally more ambiguous figure than he, or dwarfs in general, where in WFB.  Which interestingly befits many mythological smith/craftsmen characters, who I mentioned to have dark sides to them too. So AoS Grungni is no longer the honor-before-reason fantasy dwarf, but seemingly takes on more traits of smith gods, both positive and negative ones.

And to again mention Vaul for continuities sake, he has no appearance or proper mentioning’s in AoS as far as I am aware. Like the other elven gods, he is likely eaten by Slaanesh but with Morai-Hegs escape his essence could return too and the god could reform at one point.

4. Always have several irons in the fire

Picture fo the first smithy (AoS Soulbound core rulebook)

Having talked about Grungnis character and action in AoS central question would be where his story, and that of his followers, could continue. For this I think the best story beads would be the following:

-          Grungni refounds the Khazalid Empire and creates a new “classic dwarfen” faction. His objective of reunification of the various dwarfen people has been his main motive in 3^(rd) edition and continues. And various rumors claim that we will soon get a reinvented classic dwarf faction, with other rumors claiming that the Fyreslayers join them. Personally, I am not a fan of the latter, as I like the background fluff of the Fyreslayers a lot (even if their models are very boring). But whether and how this happens remains to be seen. In either way if we get the classic dwarf faction, then I hope it will work like the Lumineth. As in we get a new version of a classic fantasy faction (high elves) but reimagined with new lore and designs, rather than slightly changing the faction to make it work in AoS. Here I see quite the potential for a dwarfen faction, especially given how rune golems were a fan favorite part of dwarfs in WFB lore but never appeared on the tabletop. But given how much more frequent magic is in AoS and how Grugni already created several artificial races, we could see a return of golems or clockwork automata next to dwarfs, next to crazier powerful or esoteric weapon systems (anvil of doom 2.0 for example) or powerful rune magic.

-          As mentioned before, Hashut and Grungni are foils to each other. Both are deities of leadership, both create powerful technological constructs and both reshaped and attempt to reshape dwarfen cultures in AoS. With the release of the Helsmith it would be great if we could get Grugnis perspective of the Hashut stories we received, and to get some interplay between the two gods or priests of the two factions.

-          In the same vein it would be interesting to explore the relationship of Grungni with other gods. We know he is good buddies with Sigmar, but as of now Grungni is the only dwarfen god of the pantheon, as his brother is dead and the other dwarfen gods are missing. In this regard he is an isolated if not lonely deity. And whilst there are gods he shares many similarities, he also made rivals out of them. Such as when he reshaped Teclis invention. Other gods he aided, despite their obvious duplicity, like Morathi. It would be interesting to see how Grungni plays his own game of politics among Sigmars allies and gods and either tries to hold the pantheon together, even if the cost is high, or may fail to do so.

-          And I think it would be very important and interesting to explore how Grungni is worshipped in general by various people. Such as the Lumineth of Syar, who are great craftsmen and hold regular competitions were al kinds of sentient beings are invited to show of their craftsmanship. I am pretty sure that these lumineth hold Grungni in high regard. Same for the Ironbark sylvnaeth of Chamon, who are not only expert smiths themselves, but also have a close relationship with their local disposed, taking these dwarfs in a sheltering them during the Age of Chaos. To the point that both groups see the other as brothers. These are but two examples. Ogres are mentioned to be among Grungnis followers too. How does that look? How do all these different beings view Grungni? Still as a dwarf or as a syncretism of dwarf and whatever form they prefer? Etc.pp

-          In the same regard we may get to see monstrous apprentices of Grungni. In the myth we have the cyclopses and telchnids (seal-people), who are assistants of Hephaistos. And in AoS we have a plethora of monstrous creatures highly skilled in craftsmanship and smithing, such as the goronians (destruction minotaurs turned to chaos), or the Formoroids (cyclops-like natives of the Eightpoints. Former builders are now enslaved by chaos and destroying buildings instead of creating them). Perhaps some of these beings or other groups of creatures followed Grungni and found safety in Azyr or his First Smithy. And mayhaps they are now returning as allies of Stormcast, or the Cities of Sigmar or the refounded Khazalid Empire?

-          Of lastly course, Grungni is still employed by Sigmar too, and he could create new tools and armaments for the stormcast and their allies whenever they get an expansion. I mentioned in my Sigmar part how the logister and covenant chambers could have some very creative units. Especially the covenant chamber, who I like to think of as non-stormcast auxiliaries integrated into stormhost. For example, what kind of armament could Grungni invent for giants fighting next to stormcast?

 

5. The End

So, this has been our excursion into Grungnis forges. I hoped you enjoyed reading everything. For the next entry I decided on a double feature for both Tyrion and Myrmidia. Because the position of both gods is eerily similar between the settings. So, I guess there is a bright future ahead. With this pun I see myself out. Because I have to figure out what to say about the Horned Rat as well...

Hi everyone,

Welcome back to entry number 10 of this series called “Fun with Flags Gods”. I didn’t think I would go this far, so thank you all for your interested. Having talked about death last time, I think it is time to talk about life now. And for this anniversary it is also thematically sensible to talk about Alarielle, as the very first entry in this series was about her husband Kurnoth (all previous entries can be found here: Kurnoth, Morghur, Behemat,Dracothion, Sigmar, Mathlann, Morathi-Khaine, Hashut, Nagash

First off, I want to say that Alarielle is my favoritte god in AoS. Not only is she a very intrueging character, but the way she acts to various peoples and how various peoples rever her in turn makes me think the most of her as a classical god. Someone who is important to everyone, whether you are a human, a sylvaneth or even a beastlclaw oger.

But Alarielle is part of a very long legacy. Which I will now explore without further ado. As always have fun reading!

1. The Gods, the myth, the legend:

L. Rhea (Age of Mythology Retold), C. Gaia (AoMR), R. Demeter (AoMR)

The archetype behind Alarielle is very old. The Earthmother is one of the oldest divine archetypes and still present today. If we talk about “Mother Earth” we still invoke this kind of deity, albeit in a metaphorical way when talking about the natural world or the planet Earth itself. However, to people in the past this was not a metaphor. Believe in an earthmother, and her male counterpart the sykfather, shows up all across indo-european cultures and those influenced by them. For those not aware, many languages from Spain to northern India are part of the same language family. These are therefore called indo-european. And these first indo-europeans likely lived in the steppes around the northern Black Sea and were likely the first ones to ride horses and make great use of carriages. With this mobility they spread over a large area and brought not just their languages but also their myths and beliefs with them. This means not just language share the same roots, but also stories. Such as a Stormgod slaying a dragon (Zeus defeating Typhon, Thor killing Jormungandr, Indra defeating Vritra). Another common motive is the aforementioned duality of Skyfather or the Earthmother. (by contrast in ancient Egypt, who were not indo-europeans, Nut was the sky goddess and Geb the earth god for example).

Now myths shift and change and are not exactly the same in every culture. Still due to commonalities a pattern for this archetype emerges. Goddesses related to this archetype are for example the anaotolian goddess Cybele/Magna Mater and the Greek goddesses Gaia, Rhea and Demeter, the latin goddessesTellus, Ops and Ceres, norse Freya/Frigg or the indian godesses Bhumi and Sita amongst many, many others. But even in fables this archetype still appears. E.g. some scholars suggest that Frau Holle of Grims fables is a carryover from a pre-Christian nature and fertility goddess, due to her various powers over the seasons, wealth and crops.

Common attributes for the Earthmother are amongst other things an association with the natural world. Especially the fertility of the soil and of cultivated lands. Before the industrialization 90+% of all people lived in rural areas like villages and worked in agriculture. Agriculture was important to everyone’s everyday life. Something we may forget today when food is always available in the nearby shop. Hence gods and goddess associated with differences aspects of this field of work existed, such as gods for sowing, reaping, brewing beer and baking etc. And the Earthmother was the most prominent figure among this collection of gods. As such her symbols were often certain types of crops or farming tools and her worship and festivities focused on important agricultural dates and events.

Now as I pointed out in my first entry about Kurnoth, the natural world was divided in the minds of ancient peoples. You had the cultivated nature, i.e. the fields, orchards, meadows and else humans frequently use. And you had the wilderness outside of the borders of the civilized area. This does not mean that the wilderness is an alien place. Especially shepherds, hunters, foresters and travelers entered it frequently and were very familiar with it. But in the minds of ancient peoples this area it was a different domain and thus a different god ruled over it. An entity I label as the Horned god of which Cernuous and Pan are well known representatives. Still the Earthmother is frequently associated with the wholistic nature too. For example, there are plenty of myths which grant her control over the seasons. Such as when Frau Holle is able to let it snow in the mortal world, or when Demeter creates winter by decreeing all plants to stop growing. 

In addition, these goddesses are frequently associated not just with fertility and abundance of the soil and of plants, but fertility in general. Be it animal or human fertility. As such they are also always important mothers themselves. Most famous is for example Demeters daughter Persephone, who was fathered by Zeus, the skyfather figure. This connection between the skyfather and the earthmother spans across generations. Zeus and Demeters mother, Rhea, was also a fertility and agriculture focused entity. And her mother in turn was the earth goddess Gaia. And Uranos, the literal sky, fathered Rhea and Kronos with Gaia. And after Uranos is exiled Kronos takes over as the archetype only to be usurped by his son Zeus, another skyfather. This association of a mating earthmother and skyfather is simple. Because it is the rain falling from the sky that fertilizes the ground and allows crops to grow. Quite like semen impregnating a woman and lets her give birth.

Due to the association with life and the cycles of nature the Earth Mother was also frequently related to stories of death and rebirth or given authority over the dead. Again, I may point to Demeter and Persephone. In Mycenean Greece (ca 800-1200 years before what people think ancient Greece is) Demeter and Persephone were already worshipped as the “Mistresses” and were associated with the Underworld. And Persephone, who is the dread queen of the underworld, also ventures back into the realm of living at the end of winter to be with her mother. So, she enters the underworld with autumn/winter and exits it with spring.

And indeed, due to how dependent everyone was on agriculture, any drought or any bad harvest could indeed lead to starvation and death. Same for a winter too long or a summer too cold. As such the Earthmother was also not a goddess to be trifled with and could be dangerous and/or cruel too. Again, Demeter is the easiest figure to point out, due to how relatively well-preserved Greek myths are. In one Demeter cursed a King with endless hunger until he consumed himself as vengeance for striking down a sacred tree. Meanwhile Gaia would give birth to lots of monsters or raise gods against the current ruling generation of the heavens. And working in the fields can be a dangerous activity too. E.g. working under the scorching sun on a hot summers day without respite can lead to hallucinations, illness and even death. This has caused lots of stories about demons or ghosts stalking the fields, who are also in command by the earth goddess. So, the deity was not just about bounty but could also be dangerous and scary.

In addition, there were lots of powerful mystery cults around such divine figures, due to how broad and manifold and important the domains were. For example, in ancient Rome there existed the cult of Bona Dea (the good goddess), which is likely an offshoot of the Magna Mater cult. Her priestesses kept the true name of the goddess hidden however, same for the cult activities themselves. If the cult gathered all male beings, including animals, had to be removed from the area. And breaching such as meeting was a sacrilege most outrageous. So logically we know of one idiot who tried. Publius Clodius Pulcher tried to sneak himself into a meeting of this cult when they were gathering at Julius Caesars house (he had to leave and his wife led the procession if I recall correctly). That was the scandal of the decade to say the least.

So overall the Earthmother is arguably one of the most important kinds of god period. Her various cults and versions of worship crop up repeatedly and even in modern day we still use symbolism associated with this archetype.

1. The seasons turn forevermore: Isha, Ryha and co

Concept Art of Ariel (Total War Warhammer 2)

In WFB we have several gods and characters strongly aligned with the Earthmother archetype. First off, we have the human goddess Rhya, wife of Taal, mother of Manann and the goddess of fertility and life in general as well as crops and greenery specifically. Obviously, she is named after her Greek counterpart Rhea. She is worshipped by human cultures all over the Old World. And indeed, she is arguably the most prominent or second most prominent goddess of the Empire. Because outside of the few industrial hubs like Nuln or Altdorf the Empire is still an agrarian society and the vast majority of its populations live in villages and small towns. As such Rhya is prominent in these areas a lot. Not to mention her aspects of fertility and childbirth. Indeed, as Taal is the King of the Gods in the Old-World Pantheon and Rhya is his wife, this makes her the Queen of the gods. Her importance far outshines that of Sigmar in the daily lifes of the people. Now this may come as a surprise to some who haven’t read the Sigmar or Kurnoth entries, but Sigmar is far from being the most important god in the Empire. He is the state mascot deity yes, but in everyday life his importance was very reduced, and his cult disputed in many areas of the Empire itself. But in a wargame a war god like Sigmar is more prominent than a goddess of crops and fertility, even though Rhya is not to be trifled with like other nature goddesses. Her cult is also very widespread, even though politically it is fused with the Cult of Taal.

However, in WFB it was often implied that the elven and human gods are same entities viewed through different lenses. Much like Zeus and Jupiter were seen as the same deity by Greek and Romans. And Rhyas counterpart as the goddess of life, agriculture and fertility from the elven side was the elven goddess, Isha. Who, much like Rhya, was also married to a horned god of the wild lands. With Isha the mother role is especially pronounced as to her the entire elven species are her children. Her center of worship rested in the province of Avelorn, which was an idyllic place of beautiful gardens and somber landscapes. But she is also highly revered by the Wood Elves, who place her and her spouse Kurnous above Asuryan as the most important gods of their society. And even the Dark Elves, who prefer the Cythai i.e. darker elven gods like Khaine, tolerate Isha. Now in 40k Isha is an eldar goddess trapped by Nurgle, who tests every pox on this life goddess. But this is not the case in WFB, far from it. Because Isha is one of the most active deities in the setting, due to her having not one but two mortal representatives.

First is the Everqueen, a position taken on by Alarielle in WFB. The Everqueens are one of the two ruling positions of all High Elves and indeed they predate the post of Phoenix King by untold years. They are the most prestigious and most important position in Asur society. An Everqueen is an incarnation of Isha and has several special powers and abilities, such as life blooming around her or unnatural beings perishing by her touch, next to some of the most powerful magical abilities. The position is inherited from mother to daughter, with the princess’s title being that of the everchild. Ever since Asuryan was crowned Phoenix king every a newly crowned phoenix king is symbolically married to the current Everqueen. This is a ritual marriage, and its only aim is supposed to produce a new heiress to the Everqueen. What both partners do after this deed is done is unimportant. The current Everqueen in WFB is Alarielle the Radiant. IMO her lore is a bit murky as timeline wise it would work better if she was the daughter of Finubar, the current Phoenix King. And indeed, I recall correctly she was the daughter in earlier editions too. In any case Alarielle is the current Everqueen of Ulthuan and one of the most powerful elves on the planet, both politicly and regarding her magical powers. Previous Everqueens used this position to nurture and care for Ulthuan itself and rarely go involved into wars. But Alarielle is the exception. She actively defends Ulthuan and is ready to lead armies against dark elf and chaos invasions. In this she is guarded by the Handmaidens of the Everqueen, elite bodyguards’ female elves, as well as the Sisters of Avelorn, supreme archeresses from Avelorn. Also, Alarielle has a love affair with Tyrion, which is unorthodox as her firstborn child and heiress, Aliathra, is not Finubars daughter but Tyrions.

The second incarnation of Isha is Ariel, the Queen of Athel Loren and wife of Orion. Whereas the Everqueen is an incarnation of the goddess, Ariel is a proper demigoddess. She is an immortal being whose throne is in the Oak of Ages. Unlike Orion, who died and was reborn each year, Ariel was eternal and was overseeing and controlling his rebirths. Again, here the queen position is more important than the king position. Ariels war aspect is a huge elven being with large buttlerfly wings. Ariel is so connected to Athel Loren, that she can control the entire forest, and her powers exceed even that of most ancient tree spirits. In a ranking of the strongest magic users, she is likely one of the top contenders and is most likely the most powerful mage in the Old World itself. This is not just life magic, for whilst this type of magic is strong in Athel Loren, all 8 winds flow through the forest, and the Oak of Ages reacts accordingly depending on which wind is strongest. And indeed, Ariel is able to use all major lores, including High Magic (all 8 winds together in harmony) and even Dark Magic (all 8 winds together in disharmony, powerful but very dangerous). Ariel herself is a fickle entity much like the forest she rules over. And as she has only Athel Lorens survival in mind. But this dedication causes some issues, such as when she forces Morathi to teach her Dark Magic and this nearly corrupts her. Or when she attempts to consume Morrghurs essence. Morghur is her mortal enemy, because every incarnation of Morghur sooner or later tries to invade Athel Loren to kill Ariel. Ariel may also have children of her own with Naestra and & Arahan, special elven twins and her personal envoys. These elves have different rumors regarding her origins. Ranging from a single elf being split into two beings by Athel Lorens weirder magic to them being the children of Orion and Ariel. Ariel also has her own elite cadre of elves with the Sisters of the Thorn who are her handmaidens and bodyguards. The sisters of the thorn are very fay like in their manners and abilities and are feared as much as they are respected by the other wood elves. They are also very hard to kill, as a dead sister can be interred in the Oak of Ages and arise reborn in the new season.

These four characters are all very familiar to the earthmother concept I introduced before. The only greater divergence is that they are not married or in a relationship with the skyfather figure. Instead, the Everqueens are in consort with the Phoenix King, who represent Asuryan i.e. the sun. And Rhya, Isha and Ariel are in a relationship with their Cerunnous counterparts Taal, Kurnous and Orion. This is noteworthy as the the Earthmother and the Horned God are not seen in this kind of relationship in our folklores, even if it is fitting from a thematic point of view.

In the (horrible) End Times Ariel and Alarielle suffered a bad fate. Ariel, arguably the most powerful elf, was written out of the story with her being poisioned and drained by Lileaths machinations. And Alarielle absorbs Ariels powers into herself, even though her responsibilities lied on Ulthuan and she had never a strong connection to Athel Loren. Also, Aliathra, Alarielles daughter, was killed to resurrect Nagash. Random idiocy ensues which results in Alarielle, now in consort with Eternity King Malekith and the incarnate of Life, flees the destroyed Ulthuan for Athel Loren to set up shop there. Much to the dismay of the local forest spirits, who had already issues with the Wood Elves, but now dark, high and wood elves run around the woods. A rebellion ensues and is put down and the incarnates fail to stop the End of the World.

3.     Those who seed wind will harvest storm: Alarielle in AoS

Alarielle reborn during the Realmgate Wars

Now in AoS Alarielle is a much different character compared to her old WFB self. Indeed, it is easier to say that AoS Alarielle is more Ariel than WFB Alarielle. Where WFB Alarielle was focused on her fellow high elves and Ulthuan, AoS Alarielle seemingly does not care much for her elven followers, at least compared to the other elven gods. She did not partake in the rescue of elven souls and the binding of Slaanesh and instead focused primarily on the Slyvaneth as her children. In addition, she focusses a lot on Ghyran. And after her great Ritual of Life and the resurrection of the Oak of Ages she even thinks of Athel Loren, which was a place Ariel was the queen of and had her essence interwoven with, whereas Alarielle visited it only briefly during the End Times as far as I am aware. Next her winged appearances also bring to mind Ariels wings too. And also, she has no longer any relationship with Tyrion or even Malerion, but instead chose Kurnoth as her consort, much like Ariel had Orion as her consort. Though on the counter side Alarielles powerset has been limited. As Everqueen she had knowledge of High Magic and thus all 8 magical lores, but AoS Alarielle focusses more or less exclusively on life magic.

Despite this different characterization Alarielle is one of the most interesting and most active divine characters of the setting. For a quick rundown she created the sylvaneth and helped Kurnoth reform proper. She also sacrificed her hand to form the Lady of Vines, her demigod daughter. Notable is that she and Kurnoth do not seem to have children in the traditional way, which is otherwise expected of the Earthmother and was the case with her previous incarnations too. Also, unlike Ariel, Alarielle is not an eternal being but undergoes shifting cycles, similar to Orion in WFB. These cycles do not end in a dead state typically, but during the Age of Chaos exactly this happened and a soulpod of Alarielle had to be planted for the goddess to be reborn again.  In the narrative of the setting Alarielle and Kurnoth defended Ghyran against Nurgle. But when Kurnoth was killed, the main defenses were broken and Alarielle fell into a deep depression. Only after her rebirth did she start a counteroffensive with the stormcast and other order factions. From then on Alarielle was always at the forefront of important events, such as aiding the stormcast in Broken Realms Mortahi, aiding Teclis in Broken Realms Teclis or starting her ritual of life in Broken Realms Kragnos. Said Ritual of Life was the predominant influence over the 3^(rd) edition, with various factions strongly benefiting from it or suffering the consequences, as life magic rushed through the cosmos and reinvigorated everything. Then she was also the only active goddess in the dawnbringer series, helping the dragon twins and kroak to capture Kragnos again, as well as having some major story developments in 4^(th) edition sylvaneth book.

Alarielle is also important as she is seemingly on good terms with everyone in order and with some other factions. Next to Sigmar, she opens the realmgate to the Eight points for Morathis invasion. She is familiar not just with the dragon twins but also with Lord Kroak and holds an audience with them. Despite the Idoneth raiding the souls of the Sylvaneth, she recognizes their help and value in the War of Life. This goes so far as to sending her envoys into the capital of the Briomindar and blessing their chorrelium with life magic. And this despite the Idoneth officially being a godless people abandoned or ignored by divine entities. The Lumineth, especially those of Illatha, also highly venerate her. She also grows the Living City and is highly worshipped by the mortals of Ghyran and she even goes so far as to protect Greywater Fastness from the wrath of the Sylvaneth. And even among the ogres she is popular. Because the Beastclaw Raiders have a story of Alarielle blessing the ogers with the friendship of their great beasts, as the ogres ate some dangerous winter spirits and were cursed with the Everwinter ever since. In short, Alarielle behaves like a proper goddess. Even if a deity has a favored people, she is important to everyone and she blesses/interacts with everyone. Much like how Athens is supposedly Athenas favorite spot, but Athena is the goddess of war and knowledge for everyone.

Still the Sylvaneth are her primary concern, with whom she communicates via the Spirit Song. The spirit song is a magical field with which the Sylvaneth can share their innermost thoughts and be in turn influenced and shaped by others. Sylvaneth depends on this song that being cut off from it is like losing a massive part of themselves. Which can cause madness or trauma.  It is a semi-hivemind of sorts. Much like any computer is its own thing but can upload and download data from the Internet. And Alarielle has near absolute control over it can manipulate her “children”. This is indeed one of Alarielles has many dark sides. Not only is she without mercy when striking at the enemies of Ghyran, but she may also have created her own set of “wrong monsters” with the Outcast. These Sylvaneth are mad and murderous and cannot properly interact with the spirit song except with harmful tones of hatred and violence. No one knows where they come from as Alarielle was able to remove all memories of their creation from the minds of the Sylvaneth. So, this life goddess brainwashed and entire race of beings to forget something.

As of now in 4^(th) edition Alrielle has entered her autumn aspect and is now weaker than before, but far from powerless. Still the great acts of the past, such as the Rite of Life and lately an massive cleansing of the southern Everspring Swaithe have drained her a lot and she has to rest in Athelwyrd, her reclaimed capital, in regular intervals. To not leave Ghyran unprotected she is now demanding Kurnoths rebirth to be speed up.

4.      Spring, Summer, Atumn, Winter - the seasons never stop

Alarielle on her Wardroth Beetle

Having talked a lot about Alarielle and various life goddess in WFB where could this story go from here?

-          First and most likely Kurnoth will return in the near future. And eh brings with him the Kurnothi, a lot of beastmen-elves like satyrs and centaurs.  These will very likely be the new AoS version of Wood Elves and be an subfaction of the Sylvaneth overall. As we do not know who Kurnoth is in AoS, it would be very interesting to see how he and Alarielle will interact with each other.

-          Linked to Kurnoths return may be that Alarielle enters her winter aspect. Which could be a critical time for Ghyran, given how she was almost killed last time she was in it, and how Nurgle surley would want to take advantage of his and destroy all the good work she as done since AoS started. Which would cause another hot phase in the War of Life.

-          Alarielle could also create new kinds of Sylvaneth. This is something she has done throughout the lifespan of AoS frequently. Of note hereby is that the Sylvaneth were originally created from soulpods containing the essence of Athel Loren. Which meant forest spirits like Drycha could be reborn, but various Sylvaneth also contain souls from the Wood Elves, whose souls fused with Athel Loren after death. This is why several Sylvaneth are so elf-like in appearance. But there were lots of other beings who had their souls bound to Athel Loren, such as Great Eagles/Hawks and especially the Forest Dragons. I wonder how a Sylvaneth could look like whose soulpod was formed from a former dragon’s soul.

-          The secret of what or who the Outcast are could also be revealed in the future. Depending on what kind of reveal it is, this could create Sylvaneth who break off Alarielle and form an opposition to her. This could be the birth of an AoS version of Coedill and his lots. In WFB Coedill was Drychas master but sadly never had a model. He was an ancient treemen of equal rank to Durthu but hated the Wood Elves and wanted to kill them all. Therefore, he was imprisoned in Cythal, a dark and dangerous prison part of Athel Loren. A hot take: The Outcast could have been created when Alarielle wanted to revive one of the ancient Treelords (Durthu, Adanhu, Coedill) proper but sadly caught Coedill. And Coedills madness and wrath infected the spirit song and other sylvaneth, creating the first Outcast. Which would be another reason for Alarielle to be hesitant to plant Drychas soulpod, as she was very aligned with this ancient treemen.  (Sorry I just think Coedill is a cool character and want to see more of him).

-          Due to Alarielles importance for so many factions, including the CoS, it would be cool to see CoS units or characters dedicated to her. Such as CoS life wizards using her symbols, or various cults and priesthoods dedicated to her specifically.

-          If Kragnos makes a return at some point it would be interesting to see how he and Alarielle interact with each other. Because Alarielle was responsible for his first release and for his second imprisonment. In addition, the Sylvaneth of the heartwood glade were dedicated to killing this god. So out of all the divines, she has the most connective tissue with Kragnos and it could be interesting to see how my four-hooved darling would interact with her.

-          Indeed, due to Alarielles prominent position among all factions, including destruction once, it would be interesting to see how groups like ogers and giants view her. For the beastclaw raiders we already know a story where Alarielle is seen positively. But what about the Gutbusters, who are also benefiting highly from the abundant food of Ghyran?  Or those Darkoath tribes who only have a superficial understanding of chaos and thus may be open to venerate her too as a life giver? (There were several norscan tribes who worshipped gods of the Old-World pantheon next to their variants of the chaos gods for reference).

 

5.      The end

So, this has been it for Alarielle. As always, I hope you enjoy these kinds of essays. And I would like to know which deity you would like to see in the next entry, because I am out of ideas for now. Some people want the Horned Rat but it would be a great entry 13 and we need to fill the space until then :)

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?