The fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 (Warhammer 40,000) is very well thought out and has a rich history in which key stages can be identified. The first of these can be called the birth of the Emperor in 9000 BC and the birth of the Gods of Chaos - Khorne, Tzeentch and Nurgle - in 8000 BC.
Exploring the habitable universe
In the 22nd century, humans colonized Mars and began to explore interstellar travel. The breakthrough happened several thousand years later with the discovery of the Warp (Universal Extra-material Interspace, Immaterium, Empyrean, Ether, Ocean of Souls, Realm of Chaos), in which it was possible to travel at superluminal speeds. The expansion lasted ten thousand years and spanned a million worlds.
In the 21st millennium, unfamiliar races were discovered - the Eldar (elven-like humanoids) and Orcs (half-humanoids, half-plants). Wars began with them and between the people themselves.
Psyker navigators appeared - people with a special gene who can influence the world with the help of the powers of the Warp and make travel in it faster and safer. And then the demons of Chaos, the inhabitants of the Warp, entered the scene. They possessed psykers, causing great damage to people and ships.
Warp storms hit the world, making interstellar travel impossible, and the empire fell apart into small pieces. The Era of Isolation of the free settlers began, parallel to which the Age of Breakthrough went first, and then the Age of Trade.
In the 25th millennium, the fading civilization of the Eldar created the Virgin Worlds - mastered the lifeless planets. Later, most of them will die.
The Adeptus Mechanicus, the technocrats of the Imperium based on Mars, have come to grips with the exploration of the habitable universe.
In the 28th Millennium, many Freesman worlds perished after the invasion of a huge fleet of Orks, which marked the beginning of the Age of Wars.
First Foundation
In the 30th millennium, the Emperor of Mankind (aka the God Emperor or simply the Emperor), an ancient powerful psyker, founded the Astronomicon, a psionic navigation system, and launched the Great Crusade to retake the colonies. For 200 years, he united the human worlds into the Imperium.
Horus Heresy
From his own genetic material, the Emperor created 20 primarchs, who later became the leaders of the legions of the Imperium from biomodified Space Marines. But the forces of Chaos scattered capsules with unborn primarchs around the world. And when the Emperor finally found them, many had already changed greatly under the influence of Chaos - both in body and in outlook.
But they remained loyal to him until the betrayal of the Warmaster - Primarch Horus, deceived by Chaos - and the primarchs and legions that followed him, called the Chaos Space Marines. A long civil war began, which went down in history as the Horus Heresy. As a result, the Emperor defeated Horus, but he himself was mortally wounded and connected by the tech-priests of Mars to the Golden Throne - a special life support complex. Where it has been for a hundred centuries.
Fall of the Eldar
The era is also marked by the Fall of the Eldar - the death of almost the entire civilization of the Eldar due to the psionic cry of the newborn god of Chaos Slaanesh. Their sector of space was swallowed up by a gigantic black hole, the Eye of Terror. Only those who had previously flown away on Craftworlds, colossal starships, survived.
These events are called "Warhammer 30,000" in the game world.
The Lords of Terra, in order to avoid a repeat of the Horus Heresy, undertook a global reorganization of the Space Marine Legions in the 21st year of the 31st Millennium and created the Space Marine Chapters, smaller divisions of the best warriors of mankind, 1000 people each. So the largest surviving Ultramarines Legion of the war was divided into 23 successor Chapters, bearing the gene-seed of the founding primarchs.
Codex Astartes
The Primarch of the Ultramarines Legion, Roboute Guilliman, streamlined the structure of the Imperial Guard, Imperial Navy and Space Marines, creating the Codex Astartes. It includes everything from insignia to tactics for campaigning to take over the planet. For many Orders, this book is sacred.
Over the next ten thousand years, 26 more bases were held to maintain the number of loyal troops. They went through with varying degrees of success, one of which is known as the Cursed Foundation due to strong mutations resulting in loss of control over the Marine. The new Chapters create the Adeptus Mechanicus from the preserved gene-seed of the existing Chapters, growing progenoids in the bodies of slaves and implanting them into Space Marines.
Belief in the Divine Emperor became the binding force of the Imperium. But she also became the cause of the appearance of many fanatics. Ironically, the Emperor himself denied the existence of any gods (although he knew about the Gods of Chaos), and under him the Imperium was an exclusively atheistic state.
At the end of the 35th millennium, the first contact with the then primitive Tau civilization occurred.
Age of Apostasy
By the 36th Millennium, the Imperium was torn apart by internal conflicts. There were bloody battles for power on Terra. The leaders of the Officio Assassinorum, the Imperial organization of elite assassins, also perished. After that, a special department of the Inquisition was created to supervise her. The weakened outskirts were constantly attacked by orcs and other races.
The end of the 38th millennium marked the incident at Skopos. The buildings of the Adeptus Mechanicus were captured by unknown aliens - necrons (necrons, a race of mechanical warriors created from necrontyrs, ancient humanoids). The troops sent to destroy them suffered heavy losses and retreated. It was possible to destroy the enemy only by orbital bombardment.
In the 40th Millennium, a group of traitorous tech-priests travel to the Eye of Terror to build the giant planet-killer ship, led by Abaddon the Despoiler, leader of the Chaos Space Marines.
gothic war
The Gothic War began in the year 138 of the 41st millennium. She is known for the grandiose space battles. Abaddon raised a huge fleet and led the forces of Chaos into the Gothic sector. With a blast wave, the sector is cut off from the Warp, and the world is isolated.
The distant planet Purgatory was destroyed along with the population. One after another, the defensive orbital fortresses fell.
By 142, the forces of the Imperium began to stabilize the situation on individual fronts. In addition, given the border zone, numerous clashes began between the Chaos fleet and the Ork fleet. The ships of the Eldar also came against them.
In 150, the Battle of Gesefman was a turning point. The forces of the Imperium forced the remnants of the Chaos fleet to retreat back into the Warp.
Tyranid Wars
In the year 745 of the 41st millennium, the first contact with a previously unknown race, the tyranids, occurred. A research station on the planet Tyran was destroyed by their Hive Fleet Behemoth. The tyranids devoured planets, turning them into rocky wastelands. The fleet was driven back, but the First Ultramarines Squad was completely destroyed as a result of the battles.
Two hundred years later, a new mass invasion of the tyranids began with the hive-fleet "Kraken". He was defeated with the help of the Eldar. Hive Fleet Leviathan was on its way to Holy Terra, nearly destroyed, but still continuing to pinpoint Imperial worlds.
Wars for Armageddon
At the end of the 41st Millennium, the planet Armageddon, one of the most important navigational hubs of the Imperium, experienced an invasion of orks led by Ghazghkull, which turned into bloody war. Only the appearance of Space Marines - Ultramarines, Salamanders and Blood Angels - could turn the tide of the war in favor of people.
A significant number of orcs were killed, but many of them fled into the jungle and are still being hunted by kill teams. Cities lay in ruins, before their restoration was still far away. This is the aftermath of the second war for Armagedlon. The first occurred fifteen hundred years before it, when the demons of Chaos tried to capture the planet.
A few decades later, the third war for Armageddon occurred, known as the Return of the Beast. Ghazghkull returned with the largest fleet in ten thousand years and swept through the sector despite the planet's reinforced defenses. The imperial fleet that came to the rescue was better equipped, but several times smaller in number. After prolonged battles in space and on the planet, the Orks were driven back, but both sides suffered heavy losses, and Armageddon was almost destroyed.
By the year 999 of the 41st Millennium, the Necrons resume their attacks and the threat of a new invasion of the forces of Chaos is discovered. These and other events of the 40th and 41st millennia are the basis for the latest editions of the game and, in particular, the Warhammer 40,000: Dark Vengeance starter set.
What is so attractive about the dark and bleak world of Warhammer 40,000? There is some gothic charm in Warhammer. Something like that brought popularity to Bram Stoker's Dracula. Gothic fiction. A world in which fall and decay can be traced human civilization. Not its heyday, or, on the contrary, the lowest point of development, followed by an ascent, namely, the path into darkness, long, but inevitable. So, welcome to the world of Warhammer 40,000. A world where science fiction meets fantasy, where the knights of light are products of genetic engineering, where the supreme god of people lives in a sarcophagus created by priests of the Machine God, where demons are armed with plasma rifles, where faith has visible power, and the offspring of an angel are vampires.
At the beginning
Human history in Warhammer 40,000 begins in the 15th millennium. That is, there was something before this period, but it does not matter. It was then that humanity began to settle in the stars. Slowly at first, using primitive sublight starships with a sleeping crew, humanity reached out to other worlds. The colonies were founded haphazardly and did not come into contact with each other. Then, after 5,000 years of such mastery, the warp drive was invented, a drive that made it possible to move through warp space much faster and more easily than just through space. Ships in the warp were piloted by navigators, humans whose genetics allowed them to sense the warp and its currents. Mankind rushed towards the stars like a full-flowing river overflowing its banks (or, in the words of Eldrad Ultran, like the bubonic plague). The warp was taken for granted by everyone, and no one knew that the warp was as densely populated as a mangy yard dog. The creatures from the warp, which were later called demons, did not then have the proper strength, for their greatest victory was yet to come. They watched people, listened to their thoughts, feelings and built insidious and cruel plans for the enslavement and destruction of mankind (and what other plans can demons build?). For ten thousand years, humanity has spread across space, met with other races, communicated and traded with the Eldar, fought with the Orcs, dabbled in internecine wars and conquests. But on the 25th millennium, the peaceful existence of mankind ended. Of course, later the Eldar, burdened with guilt and arrogance, said that the people who led to the Fall were to blame for everything, but we know the truth.
Fall of the Eldar
The ancient and powerful Eldar civilization existed long before the first ancestor of man turned over a stone to extract worms from under it for dinner. Powerful psionics (or psykers, as they say here) - they put the power of the warp itself at their service. Obeying their songs and spells, their cities grew right out of the ground, and grew into the most beautiful and unique creations. Their souls were so strong that they conquered death itself and, dying, did not disappear from the face of the universe like an extinguished candle flame, but were reborn in new generations, living life after life. Their souls waited in the warp for the birth of an eldar child, to imbue its virgin mind with the power and knowledge of hundreds of centuries. But, as often happens, wonderful Life not disposed to the troubles associated with the birth of children. Even in the material shell, the Eldar were immortal, and for hundreds of years no one wanted to interrupt feasts and entertainment even for the sake of their relatives, who were waiting in the warp for the opportunity to be reborn. Gradually, the incorporeal souls of the Eldar became more and more in the warp, and, at one fine (or rather terrible) moment, the demons of the warp dealt a mortal blow to the Eldar civilization. In one second, the souls of the Eldar lost their integrity and individuality, and the released energy led to the birth of a superdemon, or rather, the god of chaos, Slaanesh. The young god, united with the rest of the gods of chaos - Horn, Nurgle and Tsinch, rushed into the real world. A monstrous tear in the fabric of the universe was formed at the site of the center of the Eldar empire, and billions of Eldar were absorbed by the power of Slaanesh. A huge whirlwind, a monstrous tuft of warp in the real world was called the Eye of Terror. Through it, the demons rushed to devour and enslave the universe. Many human colonies fell victim to the madness of the demons. It turned out that the navigator gene, which was considered a blessing, is also a curse of people. The ability to sense the warp also meant increased vulnerability to daemon attacks. Deprived of material bodies in the real world, demons inhabited the minds of human psykers, bringing madness, death and destruction through them. Space and the warp have gone mad. In many places, the warp broke into the real world, and the most powerful warp storms swirled over vast spaces, cutting off the human worlds from each other and from the Earth, because not a single navigator dared to go through the warp storm, risking their mind and soul itself. Human civilization has disintegrated into thousands of pieces. Unable to pass through the enraged warp, the population of many planets plunged into barbarism, or, worse, fell prey to demons or other alien races. The golden age of human civilization ended before it really began.
Emperor
For almost 5,000 years, the galaxy was shaken by the mighty tides of the warp. Human colonies fought demons, eldar, orcs, genestealers and other evil spirits, defending their right to exist. Earth, isolated from the rest of space by warp storms, existed on its own, having no influence on other human worlds. Technology was in decline, and the only custodians of the knowledge of the Golden Age were the tech-priests of Mars who worshiped the Machine God. It was at this time that a man was born on Earth who was to change the face of the galaxy for the next 10,000 years. No one now remembers his real name, but everyone knows him as the Emperor. His childhood, youth and even maturity are also shrouded in obscurity. For the first time, he became something more than just a man when he came, accompanied by supporters, to the capital of one of the many states of the Earth and conquered the entire state in one night, crushing an army of many thousands with the force of a detachment in which there were not even hundreds of soldiers. Having become the ruler, he began to systematically conquer the Earth until he became the sole ruler of the cradle of mankind. The backbone of the Emperor and the main force of his army were the first Space Marines, genetically enhanced human warriors. Created by the Emperor, they were inhumanly strong, agile, tenacious and fast, an order of magnitude superior to the possibilities common man and on equal terms fighting even with demons. But the Emperor was also a psyker, the strongest in the history of the human race. By the time the Emperor conquered Earth, the warp storms in the galaxy had begun to subside and eventually cease altogether, making interstellar travel possible again. Who knows, maybe the will of the Emperor did it. Having conquered the Earth, the Emperor began to prepare for the great Crusade into the galaxy in order to reunite the fragmented humanity in order to jointly confront the threat of chaos and aliens. To do this, the Emperor created 12 supermarines, the Primarchs, who were destined for the role of leaders and commanders in the future campaign. The deeds of the Emperor could not fail to attract the attention of the most important enemy of mankind, Chaos. The gods of chaos sent their faithful servants, the Winds of the Warp, to the Earth, and they swirled the Earth in a wild storm, stole the incubators with the unborn primarchs and scattered them across the galaxy. The touch of the will of the Chaos Gods poisoned the primarchs and disrupted the Emperor's plan to create ideal people. Primarchs were born in different parts of the galaxy, and each of them had a flaw. One of them was born one-eyed like a cyclops, the other received the wings of an angel, and some, having no physical defects, carried the poison of chaos, which sharpened their will and strength from within. Nevertheless, the Emperor, having started the Great Crusade, eventually returned all the primarchs to himself, and those, recognizing the Emperor as the creator and lord, faithfully served him in the field of the great war.
The greatest of the primarchs was Horus. He was the very first creation of the Emperor and the most beloved. There was no equal to Horus on the battlefield, and other primarchs bowed to his strength and will. But the poison of chaos was also strong in Horus, and thousands of voices whispered to him in every way about his strength, will, and that he was more worthy than his creator to become the ruler of mankind. For a long time Horus resisted this whisper, but could not stand it, and his pride overcame his loyalty to the Emperor. After finishing crusade Horus rebelled and went to war against his creator. The greatest of mankind's warriors, the Space Marines, are divided into two warring camps. Of the twenty Legions of the Emperor, only nine remained loyal to their master, nine more joined Horus, and two legions were lost in the fires of war. Like biblical wheels of fire, war rolled across the vastness of the newly created human empire. Not only the Marines fought each other, but the Imperial Guard units and the Titanic Legions also participated in this war. The war lasted a long time and with varying success, but, in the end, Horus overcame the resistance of the loyal troops and his ships rushed to Earth, the heart of the Empire, the home of the Emperor. The most bloody and stubborn battle took place around the imperial palace. The best forces of loyal Marines defended it, and the most fanatical of the followers of Chaos rushed to its walls. In the end, seeing that he was losing, the Emperor made the only correct decision. Together with two loyal primarchs and a troop of Terminator heavy infantry, he transported himself to the battle barge of Horus to strike at the very heart of the rebellion.
A titanic battle took place on the barge. In it fell the angel-winged Sanguinus, primarch of the Blood Angels, fell at the hands of Horus, covering his master-Emperor with himself. Another primarch of the Imperial Fists, Rogal Dorn, in a personal duel defeated two Princes of Chaos from the retinue of Horus, and thus covered himself with unfading glory. The duel between the Emperor and Horus ended tragically for both sides. Horus fell slain at the hand of the Emperor, and his last thought was the unbearable awareness of the depth and blackness of his fall. The Emperor was mortally wounded and would certainly have died if Rogal Dorn had not saved him. He carried his master's body back to the dilapidated palace, where the other seven loyal primarchs had gathered after driving the demoralized and scattered Chaos forces. They bitterly mourned the inevitable death of their master. Of them all, only Lerman Russ, Primarch of the Star Wolves, did not weep.
And it was he who came up with the thought that pierced the darkness of despair and brought the solution. He called upon his followers, the Iron Priests of the Star Wolves, and they called upon the aid of the tech-priests of Mars to create the Golden Throne, a sarcophagus in which a stasis field maintained physical life in the Emperor's body. As a powerful psyker, the Emperor, while in stasis, could mentally communicate with his followers. Thus the light of the Empire was saved. From that moment on, the Golden Throne of the Earth became the center of the Empire of Humanity in every sense. The Emperor is the source of the power of the Astromicon, a warp beacon that allows one to travel through the warp without fear of daemonic traps. The Emperor, by the power of his thought, communicates with the current rulers of the Earth, the High Lords, who rule in the name of the Emperor and at his word.
Conclusion
That's actually all. Although no. Not all. This is only the past of the Empire. Distant past. The empire has been in existence for over 10,000 years, and its history is filled with wars and bloodshed. Thousands of enemies dream of destroying the bastion of light and order in the galaxy, but so far no one has succeeded. In order to tell about the real empire and its enemies, you will need a less voluminous article than this one. Each of the primarchs founded their own Space Marine Chapter, with their own traditions and orders. The Chaos Marines, retreating into the Eye of Terror, are plotting to destroy the False Emperor and want to wash humanity from the face of the galaxy with rivers of blood. The Eldar split into four peoples, and each of them went his own way in the difficult task of survival in a hostile galaxy. Orcs, as before, roam the galaxy in search of battles and battles. Imperial Guard vigilantly stands guard over law and order in the worlds of the Empire. Together with them, the Sisters of Battle carry the light of the Emperor, powerful and beautiful, like angels, servants of the cult of the God-Emperor. And beyond the galaxy, the Tyranid Overmind may already be preparing another invasion by innumerable planet-eater hordes. On the sands of the desert planets move, like skeletal ghosts, the metal warriors of the Necron.
Not everyone knows, but Warhammer 40k is not the first series board games created by Games Workshop. A few years before the first wars broke out in the distant world of the future, a game made in the gloomy colors of dark fantasy saw the light, and it was called Warhammer Fantasy Battles(or Warhammer FB)
General information
So, Warhammer Fantasy Battles was released back in 1983. The setting itself was invented by the great, let's not be afraid of this word, Michael Moorcock. Actually, hence all these flirting with Chaos, moving between worlds and the general gloomy tone of the story. However, Warhammer Fantasy Battles did not get into the Multiverse - the author sold his ideas to Games Workshop, they creatively finalized them, rethought them in some places, added hundreds of references to various works, as well as allusions to our home world, and it turned out what happened.
Of course, the incredible glory of the forty-thousander pushed the fantasy, from which it all began, into the background, but one cannot fail to note the obvious fact: Warhammer Fantasy Battles spawned Warhammer 40k, not vice versa.
Everything starts sometime
It all started about seventeen thousand years ago, when the Ancients appeared in the world. Unknown and powerful creatures who decided that they had found a good place to live. They ruled space and perhaps time. They were able to create life and in general most of all resembled gods.
Having settled in a new place, they began to create intelligent creatures to help themselves. The first were the slanns - humanoid reptiles. But the Ancients continued their delightful experiments, creating and populating the empty lands with more and more creatures. Some of them were declared unusable and destroyed, some received a start in life. The latter include elves, humans and gnomes.
And some wound up on their own and wanted to spit on all attempts to eradicate them. Yes, we are, of course, talking about the orcs - the indestructible weeds of the world of Warhammer Fantasy Battles.
And so it went. The ancients went about their business, experimented and generally enjoyed life, until one of these very experiments ended in disaster.
Fall and Chaos
The power of the Ancients knew no bounds. And one day they decided that it would be nice to create a way to move between worlds. Perhaps they wanted to find new world for experiments, or they wanted to discover new horizons and travel further. Someone believes that the Ancients suffered something like a shipwreck and were just trying to get out of the planet on which they were locked by chance. Who knows? The result was terrible.
Gates were built at the north and south poles, linking reality with the immaterium. What happened next is not known for certain. A terrible explosion literally tore the Gates to pieces, which scattered throughout the world of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and the pure energy of the Warp flooded the poles, turning them into a springboard of Chaos in the world.
What became of the Ancients is unknown. They either died, or were corrupted by Chaos, or they safely moved to another place. For the rest of their children, this did not make it any easier, for the incredible energy of the Warp gave birth to dark gods and demons.
Chaos, hungry and greedy, rushed into the material world, sweeping away everything in its path.
The Slann were the first to rise against the terrible threat. Lizards died by the millions, the ancient empire literally ceased to exist. It was no easier for the dwarves, whose underground halls were devastated by irresistible force, and the elves, almost completely killed by demons.
And when it seemed that everything was lost, the forces of order nevertheless wrested victory from the clutches of Chaos - the great elf Kalendor managed to complete the sealing ritual, as a result of which most of the forces of Chaos were locked at the poles.
Life after horror
After that, intelligent races had to adapt to new realities - Chaos, albeit locked, continued to influence, enslave and change.
However, centuries succeeded each other, old wounds healed little by little, elves, dwarves, people and other creations of the Ancients got to know each other and, at the very least, learned to live together.
These were no longer golden ages under the protection of the Ancients. Wars succeeded one another, and blood poured generously on the ground, but after the nightmare of Chaos, even such an existence was perceived as a blessing.
Little by little, human states grew and strengthened, first of all, the great Nehekhara.
Years passed, which united into centuries, and those into millennia. A fratricidal civil war broke out among the elves, the dwarves are more and more bogged down in futile battles with the orcs, in the empire of Nehekhara Warhammer Fantasy Battles a terrible squabble for power begins, which will eventually turn a powerful state into a necropolis.
And in the Old World, meanwhile, human tribes live and develop, in one of which the great Sigmar will be born.
Empire and its enemies
Yes, Sigmar was born as a common man in the Unberogen tribe. After the death of his father, he inherited power, and it was then that the talent of the young barbarian was revealed. Together with the dwarves, he led a series of incredibly successful campaigns against the orcs, and after that he began to unite people. The year in which he received the imperial crown at Reikdorf was the first year of a new era.
And after that new empire begins to grow and develop at such a speed that all enemies can only grit their teeth and cry. For half a century, Sigmar personally ruled his state, after which he removed the crown and disappeared.
No one else saw him, but the influence of this man was so great that after a miserable twenty years his cult spread throughout the state. So a simple man became a guardian god.
After that, the Empire grows and develops for a long time, repulsing numerous enemy attacks. But every year the influence of Chaos, which has been accumulating and accumulating strength for these long millennia, is also growing.
The mighty hordes of barbarian tribes worshiping the gods of Chaos multiplied and multiplied, and every year their attacks became stronger and more dangerous. The Chaos Dwarves have made a passage to the north of the continent and established their strongholds there.
Chaos waited.
Great War and Rebirth
And in 2301, the dark forces finally went on the attack. They fell on Kislev - one of the states of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, formed after the split of the Empire (a decent amount of territories separated from it then).
One after another, human armies perished, and hordes of savages destroyed, plundered and burned everything they could reach.
The apotheosis of madness was the siege of Praag, which was destroyed and twisted by the pure power of Chaos.
However, Chaos was not destined to triumph again - Magnus the Righteous, a nobleman from Nuln, decided the fate of the campaign under the walls of Kislev. Of course, in this great battle, everyone showed their worth - imperial soldiers, and Kislev winged hussars, and gnomes. But I must admit, without Magnus, there would be no victory.
Everything eventually ends
However, it was the swan song of the forces of Order. In 2521, the Two-Tailed Comet heralded the end of time. Chaos, like a wave, spilled over the borders of its prison, and its creatures hit everywhere.
One by one, human kingdoms fell. The dwarves died in their halls, the slans in the jungle.
All the skill of the elves could not save them from their inevitable fate.
Peace Warhammer Fantasy Battles died.
Only a few of each race escaped - those whom Sigmar, who had truly become a god, transported from a dying reality to other, friendlier places.
Thus ended the history of the world, but not of the board game.
The guys from Games Workshop have restarted the setting, proudly calling their new creation the Age of Sigmar. And this means that the endless war will continue again. This time, in other places.
When the sun goes down
And the world goes into darkness
The flame tears the darkness
And ale pours into goblets -
Shall we sing sagas
how the gnomes compose!
Sigmar Saga, Warhammer Rulebook
... The disorganized ranks of the goblins parted and released three green short men, frantically swinging huge cast-iron balls on chains. The fanatics crashed into the left flank of the Breton regiment and began their deadly path, crushing bones and decapitating heads. Having lost about half of their soldiers, the Bretons trembled and were ready to flee, but from afar they heard the clatter of hooves. It could only be the valiant Kislev Lancers! The Breton commander had already opened his mouth to order the men to regroup, but a stray ogre cannonball had left him unable to speak forever. The fight continued.
curved mirror
Name: Warhammer Fantasy
emergence: 1981 new era our world
Creators: Games Workshop
Origin: miniature military tactical board game
Manifestations: computer games, collectible card game, literature
Many fantasy writers and game developers go out of their way to make their world as original as possible. Someone move the action in Southern Hemisphere in order to “bring down stereotypes”, someone goes inside a hollow planet or to a space station, someone adds robots to their universe, endows its inhabitants with several lives, or somehow invents themselves. Occasionally it turns out really original.
But there is another school, to which several very good authors also belong. These, on the contrary, try to make their world as recognizable as possible. So, for example, Videsse Harry Turtledava is arranged: typical Byzantium with its environs, only the west and east have changed places. This approach opens up entirely new possibilities. First, there is no need to dig into the details: as soon as the reader understands what this or that nation is like, he will think of the rest himself. Secondly, you can endlessly play on all sorts of puns, grotesque parallels with reality, and so on.
The fantasy "Hammer of War" is of this type.
Take a look at the map. Immediately striking are the slightly crumpled Americas, Africa, Antarctica. True, Eurasia was rather crippled, and in the area bermuda triangle some overgrown atoll dangles. Let's take a closer look at "Eurasia" ... In the east - Katai, next to it - the kingdom of Indus. In "Europe" the names are not so familiar, but something native is heard in them: Estalia, Bretonnia, Praag, Altdorf ...
Let's take a closer look...
Humanity
Humans are the most necessary, most numerous and most diverse race in almost any fantasy world. In the "Hammer of War" they settled throughout "Eurasia" and represent a motley kaleidoscope of nations, religions and cultures.
Empire
The center of human civilization is the Empire, apparently the largest of the monolithic states of this world. It occupies the middle of the local "Europe" and consists of a number of counties, the owners of which - electors, or electors - elect the emperor, as was the case in the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. At the moment, Emperor Karl Franz is elected and rules.
The most influential religion in the Empire is the belief in Sigmar, the once-mortal hero who pushed back the hordes of Chaos. There are others, like the cult of the Wolf Father Ulrik. Faith, in general, is not imposed, there are enough "heretics" and even atheists. IN Lately the Sigmarite faith had weakened somewhat due to corruption among the priests, but the young and energetic reformer and soothsayer Luther Hus corrected the matter. Science, trade, crafts flourish in the Empire. Here are located the University, Engineering Academy, magic guilds.
The Empire is the center of opposition to Chaos. But it is not at all an “ideal kingdom” and not a “bastion of goodness”. There are also ideological fighters against evil, and those who simply honestly do their duty, and ordinary burghers, who mainly care about their wallets ... there are also many who, for one reason or another, indulged in Chaos. But since it is no secret to anyone how dangerous life is outside the more or less protected borders of the Empire, most realize that the state must be protected and protected. Each county, in case of need, exposes big army, which includes common soldiers, sword-bearing guards, noble knights, and rabble of uncertain origin - free companies.
The military force of the Empire is not only numerous, but also diverse. Its basis is infantry (the most popular weapon is a halberd or musket), the “spear point” is knightly orders, and main feature- military equipment from engineering academy city of Nuln.
The fact is that gunpowder is known in the world of the Hammer of War. It was invented relatively recently by gnome engineers - and fraternally (or maybe for an appropriate amount) shared with allies from the Empire. They approached the issue on a grand scale - and now the range of "barrels" from imperial gunsmiths is much greater than the gnomes. In addition to the musket and cannon (which they have doubled), there are multi-barreled guns, and mortars, and something like a sniper rifle, and “death to all living things” - a nine-barreled mitrailleuse gun.
But this is not all: in order to finally suppress common sense with the power of the human mind, the gun is mounted on cart wheels, covered with armor and placed under the cover of a steam boiler. This monster is called a "tank": it will crush the darkness of enemies until the cauldron blasts.
The empire is large and far from all of its territory respect the central government. The counts are trying to “cleanse” their lands, but there are enough wild forests, wastelands and just the outskirts, where there is no, no, and you will meet an orc, a rat, and even worse. But these are real flowers compared to what begins beyond the borders of the state of Karl Franz.
Chaos
Evil in the world of the Hammer of War is abundant and varied, but it also has an ideological basis. It's called Chaos. Chaos is a cult of power and permissiveness, which is worshiped by many thousands. The focus of faith is four gods: Khorne, the god of war and murder, Tzeentch, the god of distortion, transformation and black magic, Nurgle, the god of decay and infection, and Slaanesh, the god of forbidden pleasures. Each of this nice company has its own army - these are demons, and beastmen, and people, and other creatures. Usually they work together, but this is not at all necessary.
Those who have decided to bow to Chaos gather in the north of the world. There they go natural selection, indulge in all sorts of abominations, and from time to time, when the gods call, they come to the southern lands to establish the "true faith". So far, they have regularly received paws, but all this cost the Imperials and their allies by no means cheap. Moreover, in the backyards of the Empire and other human lands, gangs of unfinished beastmen settled, and in some places in the cities - unidentified allies of Chaos.
The creatures of Chaos do not differ in aesthetic appearance, but they are effective on the battlefield.
Chaos works not only with fire and sword - that would be too stupid. On the contrary, in his arsenal - all and all kinds of temptation. Have you been offended? Do you want revenge? The servant of Khorne will put an ax into your hand in time, and then you won’t wash off - you’ll have to go to the forest gang. Do you like to enjoy your life? Surely you will like something spicy from Slaanesh. Looking for the secrets of the universe? Tzeentch has been aware of them for a long time. Unless Nurgle with his buboes and lice is hard to somehow attract a random victim, although he has his own methods.
Interestingly, the evil races abundantly breeding in this world are in no hurry to swear allegiance to Chaos. Most of his servants, except for beastmen and demons - ordinary people. Of course, there is a cult of Slaanesh among the dark elves, sometimes the undead support the banners of Chaos, and the rats, by and large, are the fruit of a chaos experiment ... but still, they rarely appear side by side. And in the last invasion, the brave orcs of Grimgor spoiled a lot of blood for the Chaos.
Bretonnia
And here is the stronghold of goodness and high ideals. True, to be quite frank, not so much "good" as "knight's honor" ... But these are details.
Bretonnia is the land of chivalry serving fair ladies and the Lady of the Lake (they have her instead of a goddess). The destiny of the rest of the male population is to serve the noble masters and hope with all their might to get spurs. To do this, they are sometimes given the honor to enter the battlefield with a bow or a spear, covering the skin only with a canvas shirt: whoever survives has a chance ...
In battle, the Bretons look impressive. Decorated armor, figurines on helmets, banners... Pegasi and a hippogriff soar above. Knights-errant, seekers of the Grail, and those who have already found it ... Somewhere in the middle of the knight's wedges, on white horses - lovely ladies: they provide magical support and inspire men to exploits.
Bretonnia is located in the southwest of the Empire, in general, where France is supposed to be. Its lands are vast and plentiful: still, it takes a lot of land to equip so many knights!
On the frontiers
Once upon a time, the northern borders of the Empire were actively harassed by the Nors. You know, so bearded, with winged helmets. Some of them do this even now, but already under the command of the Chaos leaders. However, those who were lucky enough to survive between the hammer and the anvil still sometimes rob, and sometimes sell their swords in the service of one side or another.
But the inhabitants of the cold eastern steppes, the Kislevites, are in a strong alliance with the Empire. Their Tsar Boris, riding a faithful polar bear, and later his daughter, Tsarina Katerina, came to the aid of the Empire more than once. Kislev is the name of their main city. There are others: Praag, Erengrad (in honor of Ehrenburg, or what?). This country is great, but there are not very many people in it. But he is belligerent and true to his word. The strength of the Kislevites is in the famous winged lancers (no, they don’t fly, they just have wings behind their backs: in our history, these protected the Polish hussars from the Tatar lasso), horse archers and infantry, called “mowers” (kossars).
Estalia is a country on the southwestern edge of the continent, on a characteristic square peninsula. In the big war and big politics, its participation is small: the locals have enough problems with the Arabs (yes, that's what they are called here). An excess of fighting spirit is realized in bullfighting.
Moving east of Estalia, you will see the peninsula of Tilea jutting out deep into the sea. At first glance, it has nothing to do with a shoe, and yet it is Italy in person. There is no single government in Tilea, it is a lot of cities and duchies engaged in trade, art and petty internal squabbles. It is extremely rare that Tilea deigns to enter into full-scale fighting. An exception is sometimes made for the northern neighbors - rats.
However, if you decide that the armored train of the Tileans has been standing on a siding for many years, and you can only see them on the battlefield on major holidays - this is by no means the case. On the contrary, the Tileans make up almost the majority among the large caste of mercenaries - "dogs of war". Often, each of the warring parties enlists the support of the Tilean condottiere. The Tilean is calm about the prospect of facing his own brother on the battlefield - such is the service, it is dangerous and difficult, but it is well paid.
The signature weapon of the Tileans is a long pike, like the Macedonian sarissa, which strikes through three lines of soldiers. However, mercenaries do not shy away from other novelties, such as a giant pavese shield or cunning daggers with a grip for an enemy sword.
In order to fully describe the customs of the Tileans, I will say that mercenary regiments are often accompanied by a “sponsor” with a chest of money instead of a battle banner. As soon as the formation begins to sag, he shouts: “Everyone, two ducats of increase!” - and encouraged soldiers rush forward.
The borderland is "smeared" along the borders of the Empire. Bandits, orcs, mercenaries and other diverse living creatures are found here, and microscopic armies of microscopic lords do not even pretend to maintain order. You will pass by - pass. Better - quickly.
Arabs and Cathay
These countries are still less known than some even more distant lands, but it is not difficult to guess from the names what awaits us there. Sooner or later we will know for sure. Maybe even this year.
Gnomes
The gnome is a small, stubborn, quarrelsome, but somewhere inside a good-natured creature. It consists of five parts: beard, axe, armor, grunt and engineering. The ax can be replaced with a gun, pickaxe or other tool, and the rest - the necessary parts.
Dwarves live, as expected, in the mountains, where they have several fairly large cities. But in general, the heyday of the gnome race is behind us. Now there are too few of them, and history has prepared for them the role of a permanent ally of the Empire. However, they defend their cities themselves, and very successfully.
You can't call gnomes slow-witted. They invented gunpowder. As well as the steam engine and other small joys of life. Alas, people happily borrowed all this from them, and dwarf technology today is probably not the best in the world. But in terms of creating magical, or rather, runic items, they have no equal even now.
Dwarfs fight predictably: infantry, infantry, two more infantry and several cannons. For lovers of the exotic - a steam helicopter. Combat tactics basically boil down to the principle: "We have always stood here, and we stand, and we will stand here!" The paws of the gnomes are short, and therefore cunning maneuvers with flank coverage are not given to them.
If you see a gnome with a bright red crest on the top of his head - save yourself. This guy once committed a crime. The gnomes have one punishment for such: they voluntarily go to the trolls. From now on, they dye their hair red and seek a glorious death. Usually, the search process delivers a lot of unpleasant minutes to others, and not only to those who have reason to consider themselves an enemy. By the way, a certain Felix Jaeger, an imperial minstrel, wrote an entertaining book about this, "The Troll Master", which was also published here.
Orcs and goblins
Here, these cute creatures do not represent universal evil, as in Tolkien, which does not prevent the neighbors from hating them. The Greenskins are a race of merry gouges for whom there is no greater joy than to clean someone's face. The reason is not required: if one has a fist, and the other has a physiognomy, this is already a reason to bring them into contact.
The warriors of Chaos will attack when ordered, the dark elves - feeling an easy victory, and the orcs - if the leader's left heel wants it. They appear out of nowhere at any time of the year and would be the scourge of the whole world if their good-natured nature did not force them to reduce their own numbers in peacetime as effectively as their enemies would.
It is not clear what relationship the orcs are with the goblins. Both are green-skinned, but the goblins are half their size and lighter in skin. There are even smaller creatures - Snotlings. According to some (canonical) versions, a Snotling, if he grows up and lives, becomes a goblin; that, having passed natural selection - an orc; well, if the orc becomes mature and old - the skin becomes dark, and he goes into the elite, into the black orcs. Other (equally canonical) versions vehemently deny this: apparently, they were written by the orcs themselves, who did not want to be suspected of such a relationship ...
On the battlefield, the orc horde looks as unpredictable as in peacetime. Firstly, nothing prevents them, right under the fire of imperial artillery, from starting to find out who spat on whose boots, with the immediate tearing off of the spittle to the guilty. Secondly, most of their military innovations work on the principle of "whom God will send", often reducing their ranks.
No self-respecting horse will carry a stinking orc. Therefore, the horse for them is a meat animal, and the orcs ride on gloomy brown pigs, which are sublimely called boars. Goblins do not get pigs - they have to be content with wolves. This strengthens their morale: if you don’t kill the enemy, the wolf will still get his dinner, and it’s not hard to guess how exactly…
ogres
Orcs have distant relatives - ogres and giants. If the giants are lone heroes, then the ogres have recently begun to unite in their own "kingdoms" in the far north. Ogres are no less than orcs a good judge of a good scuffle, but they still have another vital interest. Ogre loves to eat. Tasty and, most importantly, a lot. This, however, goes well with the desire to fight.
The main organ of the ogre is the belly. He is always covered with a special iron shield. Without a shield, only a berserker can go into battle; hence the national Ogre proverb - "not sparing your belly." However, the ogres have a head not only to eat it (although mostly, of course ...). They came up with the idea that it is irrational to fight with whom they have to. Why piss everyone off? In the civilized world, this is supposed to be, as his ... casus belli. What is it, the ogres, however, are unknown, but why not rely on the opinion of specialists? Therefore, ogres with the greatest willingness to fight for others. They are hired wholesale and retail; many, for example, serve the Empire. As a result, everyone is happy: the belly rumbles full, and no one is offended by the ogre. He, one might say, fought for a holy cause. Grace!
In addition, the ogres have learned that in war they kill. To kill less, they breed gnoblars - the same goblins, only in profile. Their combat mission is to collect arrows, cannonballs and bullets while their masters take on the Prime Danger.
Attempts to perch, following the example of relatives, on a fighting pig failed: the pig was crushed soft-boiled. But even here there was a way out - under the name "woolly polar rhinoceros". True, the ogres still don’t ride it very much, but they made a chariot.
And the ogres have mastered gunpowder. True, where they take it is unclear, apparently - in the Empire. They liked the gun very much, but they did not understand why the carriage was needed. The Ogre belly is a much more reliable focus. So the ogres became one of the few races that fought with firearms. One word - intellectuals!
ratmen
The rat tribe clearly arrived in the world of Warhammer from other fantasy genres. In essence, these are typical "evil mutants" hostile to all living things. Officially, the rats are called Skaven, most accurately translated as "vultures" (by analogy with "vultures" - scavenger). This evil spirit lives mainly under the mountains that separate Tilea from the rest of the civilized world; but, since there are dungeons everywhere, there is a risk of meeting a rat everywhere. And not just one: as Sheckley's character said, where he met one monkey with a machete, fifty more are sitting in the bushes. In the case of rats, feel free to add a couple of zeros. There are rat populations on other continents as well; for example, they have created a lot of problems for the lizards and sometimes encroach even on the pyramids of the Tomb Kings.
The rat family owes its existence to a harmful fossil, which they extract in large quantities and are used both internally and externally. It is called warpstone (in a successful Russian translation - “rotten stone”) and serves as a local analogue of uranium. However, the matter has not yet reached the peaceful atom, or Hiroshima, but ...
Not only that, a rotten stone is a source of mutations. Although on the battlefield the rats are mostly taken by numbers, they have a lot of engineers, lovers of strange guns, big guns and lightning bolts; the source of energy which is you know what.
Rats are divided into four main clans and a bunch of small ones. Skrir is in charge of the aforementioned weapons; Eshin specializes in undercover operations and assassinations; pestilence - on the spread of the plague (which they worship as a deity); the deformers continue the work of mutations, breeding obscene creatures like rat ogres.
Fighting rats are alien to any heroics. Even if they are personally led by the Gray Prophet riding on a groaning tocsin, it is natural for them to escape from the battlefield and by no means shameful. According to the rat proverb, "he who runs away the fastest - lives the longest." Vivacity gives cowardly rodents a number: the larger the crowd, the braver it is. Even rat heroes (yes, it happens sometimes...) often inspire soldiers to battle from the back row. Such here it is mysterious - rat prowess.
Like orcs, rats do not respect the lives of either enemies or friends (but, unlike them, they value their own). They are pragmatic people: if there is a chance to cover ten people and twenty rats with a shell, this is a reason to command: “Ply!”. According to another rat saying, "what-what, and there will always be new rats."
elves
You probably noticed on the map in the area of the notorious triangle a kind of ... Bermuda circle. Correctly it is called Ulthuan. Elves live there - not ordinary, but higher ones. Forsaken wood elves inhabited the Loren thicket on the border of Bretonnia, little is known about them, but they prefer not to meddle in the forest without permission. And the rebels - the dark elves fled to Naggaroth (in our world, the Americans own their land).
The dark elves of the Warhammer, unlike their cousins from the Forgotten Realms, can boast of snow-white skin.
As befits them, elves are famous for their sharp eyes (used for aiming) and talent for magic. At the same time, the high elves prefer magic, the forest elves are “a little illiterate” and value the bow more, and the dark ones, as expected, made a repeating crossbow out of the bow. All this is mainly in order not to engage in close combat. Although the elven armies serve blademasters and other specialists in artistic cutting and serving of the enemy, they are forever let down by the fragility and fragility of the body. They die easily, and elven military science requires to reckon with losses: elves do not know how to breed at the speed of rats or orcs. Wood elves even prefer to hide in the forests, unleashing rabid dryads and treemen on the enemy.
In their free time from magic and onions, elves are engaged in fine arts: poetry, painting (dark - dead painting), and so on. They love domestic animals, especially dragons and eagles; in Naggaroth, the fashion of the season is fighting hydras: they are unpretentious in feeding and do not require frequent walking.
Fallen but alive
A long time ago, in a completely different world, the aphorism sounded: "Mercenaries do not die: they go into the Abyss to regroup." In the universe of the "Hammer of War" this principle is quite relevant.
They say it all started several thousand years ago in the hot desert country of Nekekhara. It was there that the first king-priest Settra appeared, who decided that a miserable 70 years was too short a time to serve the pharaoh, and it was even more illogical to limit the time of the pharaoh's activities for the benefit of his native Nekekhara to such a period. From this important decision to the moment when the canning of the deceased non-Kehakharians acquired an industrial scale, not much time passed. And by our time, legions of them would have accumulated if it were not for the fact that, in order to ensure their own afterlife, the desert inhabitants gradually forgot to multiply.
Now this country is called Khemri, and its rulers are called the Tomb Kings. They mastered the art of taking with them to the afterlife any decorative living creatures such as scorpions and vultures, and those subjects who did not show proper moral qualities during their lifetime were allowed to make bone giants. The only good news is that the Tomb Kings have not yet mastered the way from Khemri across the sea ... and, by and large, they do not really need these barbaric cold lands. Therefore, only lizards from the southern jungle and nomadic Arabs often have the pleasure of observing the military science of antiquity in all its glory.
But for those who want to observe the wonders of necromancy with their own eyes, it is not at all necessary to travel so far. In the same southern regions, a lady named Lamia has mastered a more pleasant way of unlife, which does not require the abandonment of physical pleasures of all kinds. It may not be as highly spiritual as the Khemri exercises, but it is much more attractive, and therefore the Lamia method has spread widely in the north.
So, for example, not far from the imperial borders, a former imperial nobleman lives for himself and does not grieve - their excellency Count von Karstein. He transformed his subjects no worse than the Khemrians, only scorpions did not take root in a temperate climate (did not try on?), And they had to bring up replacements from wolves and bats. But the count's court is brilliant, and only the most valuable varieties of blood are served at the table.
In the swamps closer to Kislev and in some places there are feral representatives of the vampire tribe - the strigs. Former Breton and Imperial knights make excellent fighters of the Blood Dragon clan. Well, the family of the old woman Lamia also did not die out. There is where to go to the young death-lover.
Of course, the activities of the vampire counts do not meet with understanding from others. But those around are mortal, and vampires are not quite. So all critics of the vampire lifestyle are invited to come in five hundred years - there, they say, we'll talk.
To date, the undead do not pose a key threat to the world, having ceded this role to Chaos. But the days of the great necromancer Nagash (and attempts to revive him) are still remembered with horror. By the way, the last such attempt was already under Karl Franz.
lizards
Have you ever wondered that this world was created by a god (or gods) so imperfect? Everything is very simple: it has not been completed yet. We brazenly settled right on the construction site and now we complain that cement is being carried by, garbage is pouring from the rafters, and someone has been hit on the back of the neck by a portal crane hook.
So, while we are all trying to settle down among the piles of bricks as best we can, the lizards continue to build. They know the master plan. They served the Ancients. The main work is being done in the jungles of Lustria (aka - South America) and the second tropical continent. But sometimes you have to do something off the court.
The work is headed by slanns - engineers and foremen of the Ancients. These blocks of intellect, shaped like big green toads, are immersed in the contemplation of huge labor corns on their belly. They know how to do it, know all the magic in the world and live for millennia. Slann - that sounds proud.
As you can see, the teams are well organized and clearly specialized. But that's not all: the lizards serve a lot of unintelligent, but related life forms. Instead of a bulldozer and a tank, a monumental stegodon serves, the view from above is provided by hymenopterous terradons, salamanders disinfect entire areas of the area with their spit, well, and the so-called “cold” reptiles are used as personal transport - reptiles slightly larger than a horse. By the way, the dark elves borrowed these creatures from the lizards and thus threatened the quarterly plan.
Warhammer on the table
The main purpose for which the world of the "Hammer of War" was created was for the needs of the military tactical game Warhammer Fantasy Battles, the most popular of its kind.
Most of the races described in this review, you can easily settle at home; To do this, you need to purchase a set of figurines, paint them yourself or with someone's help - and prove the superiority of the chosen race to everyone who doubts it on the gaming table.
It would seem that nowadays, when there are a couple of hundred computer strategies a year, such entertainment should die out on its own: after all, not a single computer game will require you to purchase a bunch of figures, and then paint them with a brush. However, nothing of the sort. And the reason here is not only in the beauty of the game (you won’t see it - you won’t imagine it!), And not even in the joy of fighting a living opponent. The tactical depth and richness of Warhammer's capabilities is far greater than any PC game I know of. At the same time, the parties are so dynamic that one can only be amazed at the foolishness of computer developers, who have not yet embodied anything like this on the monitor.
For those who find it difficult to acquire a large army, there is one more, similar game- Mordheim. It does not take place epic battles, but battles of small groups of fighters. Collect for her "ammunition" is much easier.
In addition, there is also a card game - WarCry. Regular MF readers are already familiar with it: on the poster of the April issue for this year, we printed a demo version of this CCG. The mechanics embedded in it are quite unusual, in any case, only the ignorant can call it a clone of Magic The Gathering. Unfortunately, let us down a little ... the strongest side of Warhammer is style. The texts on the cards are reduced to assurances of the coolness or resilience of a particular unit - and this is after the hilarious notes in MTG!
And, finally, it would be strange if role-playing adventures were not led in such a stylish world. There is a special set of Warhammer Roleplaying rules, and there is also enough originality here. Role system involves choosing a career - in youth, in adulthood, and so on. That is, at first the hero was a blacksmith's apprentice, then he enlisted as a soldier, then ... Something similar happened in one of the greatest computer RPGs of all time - Darklands.
Card "Hammer of War" is also published in Russian.
Warhammer on PC
But here the "Hammer of War" was much less fortunate. Unfortunately, there are only two computer games in this universe - Shadow of the Horned Rat and Dark Omen. The last one is seven years old.
The hero of these games is Morgan Bernhard, the captain of the "dogs of war", that is, a mercenary. Gradually, he collects a whole mercenary army - with infantry, cavalry, cannons, magicians - with which he decides the fate of the world, while not forgetting about the interests of his own wallet. After all, soldiers, you know, demand a salary, and no matter how important the events are, one should not forget about the profitability of battles ...
In the first game, the hero was opposed by one of the most interesting races - ratmen (and not only them). Alas, the "Shadow of the Horned Rat" had one serious drawback: the ill-conceived interface. Intuitive it could not be called with all desire.
This was corrected in Dark Omen, a game that immediately took its place in the pantheon of great strategies. The enemies here are undead and partly orcs. The undead don't run from the battlefield, which makes the game a little less subtle, but it's not that big of a deal. The main thing is that it became convenient to play. In addition, they removed the idea that the cannons explode on their own from the tabletop Warhammer, and this made the game much more interesting.
If you haven't played it, be sure to try it. And don't be put off by outdated graphics. It's worth it.
Warhammer: Dark Omen deserves the closest attention not only for fans of retro games.
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The world of the Hammer of War is a place where a wide variety of fantasy genres intersect. Fantasy and steampunk, gothic and alternative geography, legends of the North and South, East and West... Perhaps few fictional universes can boast of such diversity and such loving writing. And this means that we will return more than once to the freely spreading continents and islands of this world. Both on the pages of our magazine and on the battlefields.
Fantasy Warhammer is a world in which you would hardly want to live. If we compare it with some of the historical periods on our planet, then the closest will be the early New Age in Europe, but although we attribute the rise of science, art, humanistic values to that period, in Warhammer Fantasy almost no attention is paid to this, because in the center of attention is the war of all against all. Or rather, all with Chaos.
For more than thirty years, Warhammer Fantasy has accumulated stories, names, peoples and rules. Released a week ago Total War: Warhammer based on the latest, eighth edition of the setting. The latest in every sense - Games Workshop officially stopped supporting old world and built on his bones a new one. But before that, we'll get there.
The main thing is that Total War: Warhammer, along with upcoming additions and sequels (and Creative Assembly has already stated that they intend to make a trilogy) is a kind of swan song of the world, which at some point was completely lost in the shadow of the related Warhammer 40K (again, no way not related to the fantasy Warhammer, except for millions of hypotheses and a few matching names). And this world in many ways still has not been equal.
We already have something about Warhammer Fantasy. But what about restoring the big picture? Humans, Orcs, Vampires, Chaos, Elves, Ratmen, Sigmar, Gork and Mork... who are these people? And what's the point anyway?
In order to roughly imagine the structure of the world, it is easiest to decompose it according to the peoples inhabiting it.
People
Empire - just Empire - the largest country in the Old World. From her position, most of the stories about Warhammer are told, this is such a protagonist state. Once upon a time, it was founded by a man named Sigmar - the local Conan the barbarian, who united under him many human tribes, made friends with the dwarves and together with them defeated the horde of orcs in the legendary battle at the Black Fire Pass, was crowned emperor, ruled for half a century, in in the process, effortlessly giving a kick to the northern chaosites and the undead of the necromancer Nagash, and then left somewhere. He was never seen again, but since then Sigmar has been worshiped as a god. Now the Empire is something like the Holy Roman Empire, with Electors, the Inquisition and the Reiksguard. It is ruled by Emperor Karl Franz - not immortal, unlike the Emperor of Mankind from Warhammer 40K, but still tough enough to fly into battle on a gryphon.
The second most important human kingdom (and importance in Warhammer is measured primarily by the presence of its army book with background and information about the mechanics of the troops) is Bretonnia. In the early editions of Warhammer, special emphasis was placed on the fact that the main feature of Bretonnia is moss and decadence, but now it is primarily a country with its own kings Arthur and knights, but at the same time based, it seems, on our France. And they also worship their Lady of the Lake, who actually manipulates the Bretons to do the dirty work for the wood elves.
Kislev Tsar Boris on horseback, of course, on a bear.
Kislev is Russia. Rather, something in between all the Slavic states, where it is always cold, there is a bear cavalry and villages with names like "Kursk". Far to the east stretches the largest human state in principle - Cathay, copied (you never guess) from China. Tilea, mowing under Italy, is several independent city-states that get along with each other in an anarchic, but even order. There are England, Japan, Arabia and so on. We will not talk about the northern tribes here - these guys are marching under the banner of Chaos.
Elves and dwarves
Unlike the Imperium from Warhammer 40K, the Sigmar Empire is quite capable of getting along with other races. Elves and dwarves are the usual allies of humans, and together these three races are closest to traditional fantasy goodness. With traditional fantasy gimmicks, like elves being good wizards and vile hedonists, and dwarves drinking and inventing.
But they also have purely Warhammer cockroaches. For example, one of the main dwarven relics is a huge Book of Grudges, in which they record, which is logical, all the times when someone somehow offended them. Not paid for work - insult. Incorrectly addressed by name - insult. Dwarves atone for grievances in the old fashioned way: with an ax in the forehead. Death cults are also popular among dwarves. When a dwarf loses something important or realizes that he has lived his life wrong, he puts his hair in an orange mohawk and goes to look for a fight in which he is guaranteed to be killed. But here is a paradox: dwarves are also not supposed to succumb, therefore, even if they run into a troll, they risk becoming victorious.
Dwarves themselves are incapable of magic, but they are so stubborn that they tamp it into the things they make.
With elves, things are a bit more complicated simply because they historically divided into three varieties. The dark elves fought off the higher ones in the course of civil war when their leader Malekith was not allowed to become the elven phoenix king (which is typical, in the course of recent events it was established that this was destined for him), and now they sail the seas, rob everything in a row, worship the elven god of war and fire Khaine (not to be confused with Khorne), and at times, when no one is looking, to the lustful Slaanesh. Wood elves are friends with the evil spirits of the forest, often turn on the psychopath mode and, in principle, have already come to terms with the fact that Chaos has won, and there is no point in doing anything. And the higher ones are just arrogant bastards who are gradually dying out. But lawful good.
The Warhammer Fantasy rules say that you can take the miniatures of one army and play as another army. Say, the world is big, much is unknown in it, and if you can beautifully explain how you got orc-vampires, then the flag is in your teeth.
tomb kings
Even when the people of the future Empire lived in grass huts, the kingdom of Nehekhara, suspiciously similar to our Ancient Egypt, flourished in the world of Warhammer. It was from here that Nagash came from - the greatest necromancer and the biggest asshole in history, at whose suggestion all the dead kings of Nehekhara rose from their tombs along with hordes of their weak-willed assistants and began to rule on the now dead land. So they are now called - the kings of the tombs. They have Egyptian chariots, war sphinxes and are incredibly stylish.
Vampires
The first vampires appeared in approximately the same place as the Tomb Kings, but a little earlier. The ovampire court of Queen Neferata was banished, and subsequently found a place in the Old World - and away we go.
It is interesting that the vampires in Warhammer, even though they lead the lower undead, treat people like animals, and generally make a terrible impression, do not necessarily turn out to be hostile towards others. There are enough peaceful vampires in the world who quietly integrate into society, keep their "masquerade" and buy blood in their black markets. And the really evil and powerful vampires are fighting not to plunge the world into chaos, but like everyone else normal people- to amuse the ego and predatory ambitions.
Skaven
Little disgusting rats. Their deity - the Horned Rat - once ordered them to be fruitful and multiply with all their might in order to take over the world. Since then they have been doing this.
There are a lot of Skaven, but they are not stupid, and they are surprisingly well tech-savvy. Almost all of their technology is powered by warpstone - in fact, Chaos in physical form, which, if mishandled, begins to cause irreversible mutations. The skaven, however, managed to put him to their service.
In addition, the Skaven are known for their ninjas, bioterrorism, and the fact that any meanness is considered good form. They betray everyone: allies (even Nagash got a lot from them) and each other. Haven't betrayed anyone for a long time? It's time to fix it right now.
Chaos
Chaos - driving force almost all Warhammer stories. Everyone can fight as much as they want with everyone, but in the end the chaosites will come and finish everyone off so that they have to work together.
The manifestations of Chaos are personified by the gods, among whom four are distinguished - Tzeentch, Nurgle, Slaanesh and Khorne. Sometimes a fifth, Malal, is attributed here, but in the context of Fantasy, he is remembered once in a hundred, if you are very lucky. And in fact, the gods of Chaos are not that evil - they just have specific hobbies! And these hobbies are transferred to what is happening in the world. Khorne is all about rage, war, and being gutted alive. And the androgynous Slaanesh, for example, turns people into enchanting perverts. And he is watching.
Archaon - the greatest of the leaders of the Chaos, who managed to finish off the world of Warhammer.
Fighting for Chaos is mainly northerners of various kinds, similar either to Scandinavians or Mongols (there are wastelands in the north, where the influence of Chaos is especially great), mutated and stupefied beastmen who despise civilization in any form, well, demons are not as strong as in 40K, but much more numerous. The Chaosites are led by Archaon the Forever Chosen - once a follower of Sigmar, who once became so angry that he switched to the dark side of the force. Like all the Forever Chosen before him, he is mortal, but everyone seems to have forgotten about this for a long time.
Greenskins
With the orcs, everything is quite simple: Chaos brings death with pathos madness, and these are just having a good time. And when they're having a good time, trust me, you'll want to be as far away from them as possible.
But they are not evil, no! It happened that the greenskins raided their beloved Kislev, and after some time they joyfully defeated a detachment of Chaosites, the same Kislev besiegers. It doesn't matter to them who to beat - the main thing is that the orcs cannot do without a good mess. Otherwise, they'll just start chopping each other. They are accompanied by small goblins, on whom it is also very convenient to vent rage.
And one of the greatest Orc warriors, Grimgor Ironhide, was once lucky to single-handedly take down Archaon to prove his superiority. In that big story event (it was called Storm of Chaos), the outcome was supposed to be decided after players from all over the world sent in the results of their games. Chaos lost most of the time. Games Workshop did not expect such an ending, but they were forced to go on about it - an ordinary Orcish warboss, without straining, defeated the Antichrist and, as a result, the entire army of Chaos.
Subsequently, this version of events was recognized as non-canonical. But we remember.
lizardmen
Aztec lizards riding dinosaurs. Almost organically - the worst enemies of Chaos. Once upon a time, they were created by the Old Gods (and in Warhammer, of course, there were Old Gods too), leaving them instructions on what to do next. The problem is that lizardmen do not always correctly understand what is written there, and therefore sometimes they engage in enchanting nonsense. But they are good.
And also their slann - huge toad-priests, not related to Slaanesh - the most powerful magicians in all of Warhammer Fantasy, whom the Ancients left to keep an eye on the world. They don't turn out very well, really.
ogres
Ogres are sure: the fatter your belly, the stronger you are. Arch-tyrant Greasus Goldtooth - the greatest of the ogre leaders - is so fat that a hundred small goblin-like gnoblars have to wear it. And all because ogres love to eat. Even though they have their own kingdoms, many ogres choose to be mercenaries in order to travel a lot and try new foods. Often - those whom they just finished off.
Interesting fact: Ogres are responsible for the degeneration of mountain giants. Due to constant culinary forays, the descendants of a once intelligent people now walk in blunt brute force in the ranks of the greenskins along with the trolls.
* * *
For Warhammer, apocalyptic sentiment is the norm. Wars, plague, ancient prophecies, mad preachers with their "The end is near!" have always been there.
But in Warhammer Fantasy, the end has come.
IN 2014 Games Workshop has launched an extension for the eighth edition called The End Times. What happened there? In short: Chaos rallied again, struck... and won. Roughly speaking, everyone died, and the world crumbled into pieces.
But Sigmar returned, swam on the nothingness left of the old world, and decided to make a new one. All this resulted in WarhammerAgeofSigmar. And although there are similar races (even old miniatures can be used - there are separate sets of rules for them) and many familiar names (for example, the orc gods Gork and Mork united into one whole Gorkamorka, but Nagash remained Nagash), but on the other hand - this a completely different world that does not take into account the events of Warhammer Fantasy. And the rules of the game are different. Far less detailed.
And in Age of Sigmar, their own spacemarines appeared - only not space ones and are called Eternal Stormcasters, and instead of storm bolters they shoot from bolt stormers. Really.
Games Workshop's motivation is clear: against the backdrop of Warhammer 40K, the once-important Warhammer Fantasy is completely lost, and it's completely out of hand for beginners to delve into it. But there are too many interesting things left in the old universe to simply take and get rid of them. Almost all of the old fans have taken to the reboot with hostility, and they too can be understood.
In the summer, however, they promise to update the rules, and it is possible that Age of Sigmar has a future. But even if this story has a bad ending, it doesn't look like Warhammer Fantasy games will stop being made. After Vermintide and the latest Total War, the developers seem to be just getting the hang of it.
