u/sageking14

So it is no secret that the community has largely had a lukewarm reception to the Cult of the Wheel for numerous different reasons. But with the new Forgepriests, I feel it is worth highlighting some other major and/or interesting Cults Unberogen.

So that's what this dossier will be for. This is gonna be a simple bulletin list cause a lot are lacking in info. But maybe we'll get more in time:

• Order of the Dove: The Order is a mendicant order who makes agreements to join reclamation crusades as healers in exchange for getting to build hospices in the new cities founded in the wake of these crusades. Venerate Sigmar as the Caretaker of Humanity.
• Brethren of the Bolt: The lightning-addled Brethren of the Bolt worship Sigmar's aspect as a bringer of Azyr's divine lighting. Seen as fanatical even among the Cults Unberogen, each member is a being who found their calling after being stricken by electricity in one manner or another. The cult believes the Realms are theirs for the taking by divine mandate.
• Cult of the Comet: Also known as the Cometarian Missionaries are a religious sect headquartered in the Realm of Azyr. A restrictive cult best known for sending its missionaries far afield, such as to doomed Mournhold.
• Blessed Fulgurians: Basically less than nothing is known about these guys but the 3E Cities of Sigmar Battletome did mention them as a major cult.
• Burner-Cults: To the burner-cults of Hammerhal Aqsha, Sigmar is the raging fire left behind where lightning strikes. During the horrors of the Shudderblight they were convinced by Zanta Falora and Fente, two of the traitors killed on the Eve of Four Killings, to turn poor districts like Kindle Heights into raging bonfires.
• Deacons and Brothers of the Chain: Another Cult in Hammerhal with not a lot on them. But interesting enough to add as they engage in votive flagellation.
• Deaconite Guard: While not a Cult Unberogen in and of themselves, the Deaconite Guard serve as the personal bodyguard of Supreme Pontifex Elethrus Vinx in Hammerhal Aqsha and her Fortress Cathedral. Think of Vinx as the Pope of Popes, she who all other cult leaders and Pontifexes and High Priests and Theogonists technically must adhere to, this includes Zenestra who is a Pontifex.
• Priests of the Anvil: Scant lore so far but of a cheerful sort. The Priests of the Anvil are stated to be one of Hammerhal's largest and oldest cults, its influence on par with the Cult of the Wheel.
• Church of Azyr: Coming from older lore such as the Soulbound Corebook and predating the Cults Unberogen as a concept is the Church of Azyr. Once holding ultimate authority but this has since been retconned. What we do know is it is headed by the Arch War-Priestess below whom may be twelve Grand Theogonists of Azyr.
• Fulguritic Daughters: An order of nuns, they are not permitted to partake in alcohol.
• Disciples of the Witness
• Kroak Sub-Cults: The 2023 Seraphon Battletome mentioned that ever since the Siege of Excelsis a number of sects in Excelsis have started worshiping Kroak as a guardian Spirit as part of their Sigmarite doctrine.
• Disciples of the Witness: Born in the turmoil of Mournhold becoming Ulfenkarn. This Cult came to believe Radukar was an avatar of the God-King.
• Cult of Ash and Flame: Street gang turned doomsday cult, the Cult of Ash and Flame believed all in Ulfenkarn were damned with only cleansing fire being salvation.
• Saint Cults: Cults dedicated to saints such as Saint Garradan of Demesnus and Saint Steel Soul, who are the same guy, are known to exist among the Cults Unberogen.
• Brethren of the Forge: The Cult to which the Mallus Forgepriests belong views Sigmar as a crafter of civilization and wars, as well as the hammer ready to strike the enemies of all mortalkind. They also view meteoric iron as a divine gift that must be forged into blessed weaponry. They appear to be crafters, smiths, and laborers as well as bringers of purification who can remove corruption wherever they tread or orate.

So let's kick off today with a controversy, this dumb mutt hates the Fallout franchise too to bottom. But rather than getting into any politics or gameplay aspects, my reasoning is purely philosophical.

There's scrap piled high in residential areas, usable buildings left to ruin and fester. There is trash on the floor. To me that screams that this version of humanity has given up, and that's indeed a constant theme and then there's all the civilizations made collapsing for nonsense reasons.

I don't believe humanity gives up. That ain't a positive statement either as we can see in Age of Sigmar. The Reaver City of Carngrad is a testament to the indomitable, unwavering will of humanity to persevere in the most hostile environments.

Every crumbling walk in Carngrad is shored up, every spire claim, every ruin picked clean, every bit of scrap converted, surrounding it are skinning camps to turn every ounce of material from dead beasts and slaves into valuable hides, meats, claws, teeth, bones, weapons, and so on.

Age of Sigmar gives me what Fallout doesn't, in the opinion of a dumb mutt, a showing of how humanity would act in a post-apocalypse.

We'd simply rebuild societies immediately. They'd be different, weird, chaotic. Some would be raiders like Carngrad's folk while others would be like Sigmarite Strongpoints or even lurklairs or skinning camps or anything really. People build and create, it is what they are good at.

In Age of Sigmar endless fallen civilizations ancient and recent for the realms, and magpies that we mortals are. Everyone is out there picking them clean, turning them into new cities, sweeping the trash off the floor. The Realms are a scavenger's paradise.

What are your favorite examples of scavenging and scrapping in this High Fantasy post apocalypse?

Aqshy gets Telantr snake people and Graz bat people; Hysh gets sphinxes both evil and non-evil flavor; the oceans have three different empires of fish people; Shyish gets moon-wolfmen; Azyr gets all the sapient dragons and gryphbeasts; and Ghur, well it gets everything.

So Realmwalkers! I posit, claim, hope against mad hope, Ghyran gets Beaverfolk building massive dam cities that redirect rivers.

Cities of wood and detritus! Rather than foes to the Sylvaneth they should be allies or at least neutral. Chittering little lake communities built not on coal power but the streams and rivers they claim.

A society completely reliant on riverine travel, lumber industries, water sorcery, woodworking, fishing, and what have you.

I would say their centers of power are isolated Laketowns that struggle to maintain control of the waterways they rely on for commerce, industry, food, and survival. Constantly fighting the horrors of the Green Realm.

Now the archenemy of these Beavers couldn't be more obvious. Kruleboyz. The wars they'd wage over the appropriate ways to terraform the waterways!

Thoughts? Opinions? Additions?

Among the many things that I am no good at absorbing is military tactics, fighting styles, formation preferences, and the like. But I know it is there. I know myriad regiments of renown, ability boxes, ancient Warscroll Battalions, novels, Battletome descriptions, and more lay out the fighting styles of hosts major and minor.

For example the Iron Thanes prefer to emulate persistence and ambush hunting in their tactics, as one might expect from a Ghurish Stormhost. While the equally Ghurish warriors of the Kraken Blades instead prefer operating at retinue level employing flanking and skirmishing tactics, in emulation of a kraken's tendrils.

So today my fellow Realmwalkers. I ask you, what can you share about the rest? What do you know about the tactics of the Stormhosts both major and minor? Or about the tactics and strategies of the different chamber types? Dare I even ask, would you be so kind as to tell me and others the fighting styles and tactics known about any of the unit types?

As of "Grombrindal: Legend of the White Dwarf", we have confirmation that members of the Freeguild Command Corps so not have to be human.

One might argue that's obvious but lore confirmation is always a help to many. In this case the short "All That Could Be" stars War Surgeon Ormund Haakerson.

Interestingly, though Haakerson states he's the only Duardin in high command of his crusade he isn't surprised at the existence of a Duardin Command Corps Arch-Knight, which Grombrindal is disguised as. Nor is any other character in the story. They're just surprised such an Arch-Knight is there given he wasn't before.

We can likely assume Aelves can also fill these positions, and that both species could hold the others. Even the position of Marshal, as officers of both species in the Freeguilds are known.

Any thoughts or opinions on this information?

So I have been noticing that a truly staggering number of newbies are under the impression that all Stormhosts are akin to the Anvils of the Heldenhammer in being aloof, grim, stoic individuals who interact little with mortals.

So I call upon you old timers and Stormcast fans! Let us discuss all the mundane things Stormcast Eternals do: Like shopping, drinking in taverns, hanging out in libraries, feasting, partying, and more besides.

I'll start by noting that both "Soulbound: Brightspear City Guide" and "Nadir" in the "Harrowdeep Anthology" present Eternals visiting pubs as pretty common.

Then there's "Yndrasta: The Celestial Spear" which has Yndrasta recall a time when Hamilcar Bear-Eater invited her to attend a feast with him and some of his mortal auxiliary friends. Appropriately awkward.

Yurik Velzaine of the Emberwatch admits to being a fan of Azyrite dramaturges in "Chronicles of Embergard - Blood in the Mines".

So what can you add my friends? Let's humanize the Eternals for those worried or convinced they may not be.

>In one direction the road stretched away to the vanishing point, disappearing into the shimmering heat haze of the plains. In the other direction, where the mountains thrust themselves out into the desert, lay the Voltdrang of the Volturung lodges. It was many miles away yet, but so vast in scale that they could easily see it from their new vantage.

A whole mountainside had been refashioned into the roaring face of Grimnir-at-war. His curled beard cascaded down the rocks to merge with those of the plains. His craggy brows made a stepped series of battlements. His eyes were giant windows, also fortified, between a hooked nose topped with a rampart. The lower jaw of his roaring mouth disappeared under the stone. A huge throat went into the cliff. At the bottom of it was a massive pair of stone gates whose fyresteel reinforcements glinted in the sun.

Part II of "The Volturung Road"

The Voltdrang is a massive face of a war aspect of Grimnir carved into the side of the Firespike Mountains of the Broken Plains denoting the outer boundary of the Volturung terrirory.

To Volari fans. Yes that's right, the Volturung lodges (those are their term for kingdoms) live on a massive desert continent named the Broken Plains. Ain't that a fascinating thing to know?

>The Fyreslayers were already feeling daunted when a tremendous peal of trumpets blasted out from the Voltdrang. They blared across the silent desert. With no other noise to challenge them, they seemed to go on forever. ‘The gates! They’re opening!’ said Tulgamar-Grimnir. A muted cheer went up from the column. The rattling of the gate mechanism came to them cleanly, again for the lack of any other noise to compete. Shouting and the sound of marching feet echoed around the wide throat of Grimnir, followed by more trumpets.

Part II of "The Volturung Road"

The face is the front gate to the main lodge's capital by the way.

>The mountains around the Voltdrang were home to numerous holds. The Ulgaen’s passage along the highways linking them brought a variety of reactions. Some among the Volturung lodges were sympathetic to their plight, while others were openly hostile, telling them their domain was full and that the Ulgaen should seek some other place to settle.

Ulgathern-Grimnir honoured those expressions of fellowship with small gifts of gold, and stoically bore the opprobrium of the rest.

As they proceeded, the mountains reduced in magnificence. The smattering of volcanoes became none at all. The Fyreslayers’ affinity to the earth’s heat told the Ulgaen that the earthblood retreated far underground there, almost out of notice. The last holds they passed were little more than outposts, modest in size and means. Nubby hills covered in sandy terraced fields replaced the soaring ridges and peaks. Farmers watched them from under their wide-brimmed hats, or ignored them as they drove their plough- goats to score the earth.

Two giant watchtowers closing the mouth of a shallow valley marked the end of the Volturung kin-lodges’ territory. Ulgaen-Grimnir and his brothers stopped to confer with the karl of the watch there, and were directed onwards.

Part II of "The Volturung Road"

I know it isn't a lot but the full breadth of a lodge is so rarely described that folk can easily assume there's nothing more to them to Magmaholds. So I'm hoping these couple of excerpts showing they got gates, farms, watchtowers, and more can help folk.

What other details do the rest of you Realmwalkers know about the assets and territories of lodges?

The article just ominously says it will be out "Soon". I assume tomorrow? Also there's a new free Cities Regiment of Renown PDF and a Zenestra's Zealots free PDF. Both have a light dusting of new lore if you want something to peruse for half an hour or so.

> No one person, be they human, Stormcast or duardin, could be considered more instrumental in Horncrag’s development than Warden King Brunjr Brøddenstal. He had passed a mere eight years ago, and his presence loomed large over the clan. Brunjr had long led the Ekforzil from his seat in Excelsis, and the clan had been instrumental in the reconstruction effort after the god of earthquakes, Kragnos, had nearly levelled the city at the dawn of the so-called Era of the Beast. When the leaders of divine Azyrheim decreed that the cities of Sigmar’s domain must again set forth to settle the realms, the warden king had been quick to tie the clan to a Dawnbringer Crusade destined for the opposite coast of Thondia. Carved reliefs, lining either side of the concourse leading to the assembly chamber, commemorated that crusade. The depictions were amalgams of Azyrite Idealism perspective, the bright pigments of Ourareg hide paintings, and blocky duardin stonecraft. It was a confusing clash of aesthetics. Breyja, however, thought it held a strange, if somewhat clumsy, beauty. It reminded the citizens that Horncrag was built and maintained by all of their efforts.

Grombrindal: Legend of the White Dwarf

Best Laid Schemes, Chapter Two

After a meeting of the Conclave of Horncrag, a colony of the Dominion of Sigmar established on the western coast of Thondia by an Excelsian Dawnbringer Crusade, a young Warden Queen reminisces about her dead father and the artwork lining the halls to the Conclave chamber that represent her city's history.

Interestingly rather than one art style the relief is a blend of an Azyrite, Dispossessed, and Ourareg artistic traditions. The latter are a nomadic people native to the region, who have thrown their lot in with the new City.

Also the city is built around the skull of Yykkrana, a Muskox Godbeast.

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

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

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

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

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

This Thread is NOT to be used to

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

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

-Real-world politics.

-Making unhelpful statements like "just Google it"

-Asking for specific (long) excerpts or files

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Part I of "Volturung Road"

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

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

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

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

City of Ash Handbook, Pg. 28

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

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

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

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

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

But! Apology is off-topic!

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

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

Lovely addition to Cities!

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

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

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

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

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

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