Baron Klatz

That's neat, the Liberators in the upcoming StormGround game can give nearby allies a defense boost. Fingers crossed 3.0 gives them a rework or even a Stormhost trait like that. Would make the good ol' Liberator a worthwhile take and fit the new plotline of the older Chambers being more defensive until stuff like the new armor units can punch holes in the chaos storms for safer reforging.

Or better yet he one ups him by succeeding at the true Firebelly task. "Firebellies show their devotion to the Sun-Eater by praying to ash, flames, volcanoes and magma. They eat flammable fuel in magic rituals so that they can set their foes on fire and honor their god. Above all they seek to replicate the actions of their god and devour the sun, which the Mortal Realms has plenty in its countless skies. They hunt down a sun located not so high and their priests may be able to catch them and bring them down." So he sets off to eat a deadly magic flame on the Realm of Fire's edge but comes back not only a firebelly but an Aqshy sun rising up behind him, his body framed by a bite mark in the sun's lower parts.

Can't really agree. AoS1 started with chaos & Death cannibals everywhere over destroyed civilizations in almost every realm and Grand Marshall Archaon swarming Azyr's gates with millions of plague infested refugees that Sigmar couldn't let in and so watched get scythed down.("Hammers of Sigmar" was really descriptive in the animals tortured in chaos pits and villagers desperately living like savages and dressing as monsters to appease the daemons everywhere) Edit:the 2015 art from the Everchosen battletome hammers home the oppressive feel with the stark Berserk--manga-like art. AoS2 had a giant soul black hole that had the realms swarmed by billions of wraiths that went straight through fortresses and shackled screaming souls to Nagash while Endless Spells broke free from the edges and scoured mountains, armies and cities as living natural disasters that did everything from devour to reverse time. AoS3 seems to be following the same trend of NobleDark that the two armies are exemplifying. Good vs Evil to which it's always darkest before the dawn as all those evils are slowly defeated(Archaon forced to bide his time in Eight-points with his empires shattered and isolated & the Necroquake sealed so now prosperous life magic is flooding the realms and making settling colonies appealing again) AoS is doing a great balance of light and dark to keep the stakes high but also the rewards of defeating them all the greater as gods, races and civilizations prosper. Activision killed off Crash Bandicoot but GW will give his masks new homes. Just like the new Sylvaneth warsong heralded Silksong before it's own devs could.

I just want some buffed up Realmscape rules for the standard. Maybe even bring back the 2019 ones for Narrative but I can just reuse those so that's low priority. Also would like more models like the recent special Stormcast heroine that gets a bonus in the Realm of Shadow with her augurie enhanced armor guiding her as a upgraded version of Vanguard leader's realm compass. Very fluffy and a lot more they can do with that to make Realmscapes a more integral part of the gameplay. Otherwise they hit my other checkboxes(going by Gravelords)on reducing/capping hordes, simplifying weapon rules, making armies more "elite" and keeping the Double Turn but with extra benefits. Feeling like AoS1 steamlined again. Looking forward to the Era of Beasts and fighting to spread Order's light over the realms again.

Well this is a neat observation. "The map Warhammer Fest acknowledges the Lair of Dathuselai, a DOK temple that made its appearance in the most recent AOS Soulbound supplement released only a few weeks ago" Definitely one of the best things about this is how well connected AoS & Soulbound are that makes the setting really feel alive.

I think it'll depend how much they link up with the Gloomspite. If there's Bog-grots going around finding new hidden paths so the Loonking's forces can keep warping around and turning Order's precious cities into mushroom-zombie hives or moon crushed craters that'd be a serious matter for the new Stormcast to test their mettle against. Getting shadowkin involved would help too. With the Malerion story today that got me thinking how useful they'd be in that situation after Tyrion's little scouting force is over. It'd be a good way to have Malerion to get Sigmar to call Tyrion off as they can't fight anyway as long as Malerion stays in Ulgu which does just waste time when the realms are under siege again. "Also Teclis also can't go into Ulgu. That's made quite clear - the dichotomy of Hysh and Ulgu means Tyrion and Teclis can't go into Ulgu, and Malerion and Morathi can't go into Hysh (It also means that the classic "High Elves vs Dark Elves" confrontation can't really happen since neither side will ever be able to dominate or control the other's realm). They all can meet in Shyish, however, and the Hidden Gloaming between the two realms."

Skraggrot losing it over being cut off from his kingdom and mushroom sub-realm and summoning the Grotbag Scuttlers to fly him back would be a great way to reveal them for a new faction. Could tie-in to the Excelsis siege too as needing large chunks of the city's glimmering crystal to carve into divining moons-on-a-stiks for their vessels to navigate through the aether & chaos storm to re-enter Chamon. Gholemkin and even Aetar(the bird people of Ghur) showing up from events in both realms would a dream come true(and a nightmare for my wallet but so worth it )!

Now to be fair here it wasn't 1 tower dead = all the metal realmgates. It caused like half to be blasted by the feedback. After that Belakor had to send his daemon armies to seek and destroy the other half followed by a Skaven suicide warpbomb back-up plan. Kroak might've not counted on how far set-up Belakor was to finish the job rather than only half the realmgates in a realm known for it's aether void travel go offline for several years/decades leaving it in a still stable state. (Also leaves a hope spot that his daemons had to go manually destroy other gates. That leaves room for them missing some or the Tzeentch contingents deceived him for sacrificing their Silver Tower and plan to use remaining hidden gates as a way to get reinforcements)

I agree on the Silver Tower destruction seeming less impactful than the Realmgate disruption. I'm hoping we'll see repercussions to Tzeentch's forces in future supplements and the next book, stuff like they can't take advantage of the chaos storms without the tower's mobility & fire power and so begin rapidly losing ground in the Aether War and against rival chaos factions in Chamon. A "won the battle but lost the war" situation Belakor forces Tzeentch into as he dearly prizes the Realm of Metal and even back during "The Quest for Ghal Maraz" had tried to pull the entire realm into his chaos domain. Leading to ramifications of Tzeentch really pushing Archaon to take control of Belakor. As for Kroak he probably just shrugged and concluded it wouldn't affect the astromatrix and he'd eventually replace and fix all those realmgates. That it could take centuries as he takes his sweet time wasn't his problem.

Whoops, wasn't my intent. I thought the lack of the GW icon would disprove it as official. Here's the reddit link to the fan artist.

Really happy with how Cubicle7 are keeping track that Champions of Order, AoS Bestiary and Through Fire and Smoke keep hitting the #1 bestseller spots on Drivethrurpg. Keep pumping out those Mortal Realms goodness! On that, the new Refuges of the Realms has been really well received too with how it shines a spotlight on the more wholesome areas of the Realms. "AoS the tabletop rpg just introduced one starpriest that identifies as female after interacting with warmbloods constantly (floating around in a pyramid to intervene in people’s destiny and offer them safe harbor for a while, offering it even to stuff like chaos warriors they’ve foreseen will become chaos warlords so incompetent it actively harms the chaos gods’ plans) it sort of makes sense since she’s kind of assigned a matronly role in taking care of the guests and probably picked up that association from people" " the new Age of Sigmar Soulbound suppliment, Refuges of the Realms which is basically just a lot of cute little safe spaces for parties to run across while in the realms, another one is a set of aelf triplets who have a cabin and garden built on top of a big wandering mountain spirit (like a treeman but made of stone), who ferried them away to safety after their birth was taken as a sign of evil by their superstitious community" The Realm of Metal duardin x Sylvaneth refuge is especially cool. "Treelord Grundylach and Warden King Aedagrim are the joint rulers of Karaznethil. They are as close as brothers, and while stern when alone, they share inside jokes in each other’s company, grinning beneath their beards. Many such Sylvaneth-Duardin pairings exist in Karaznethil, from ‘Mossbeards’ who grumble away the days together to Duardin lineages who pledge themselves to a single Noble Spirit, each new generation befriending each new reincarnation. Refuges of the Realms, Pg. 4"

Yeah, the Silverway. https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Silverway It's also notable for being created by Chamon Duardin. So the Realm of Metal can eventually reconnect even without godly or Seraphon intervention. The brightside is their souls were taken by Nighthaunt instead of something like daemons tearing them apart. So that leaves an open plot-hook for any remaining Brotherhood Stormcasts or other Stormhosts to crusade to Shyish and reclaim the souls for reforging(if not something more shadowy like bargaining with Soulblight for them). Similar hope for the souls blocked from Azyr during the final battle. Stormcast souls are basically living lightning so if not forcibly captured they're gonna keep looking for a place to go. With Order winning the battle that means they're probably being stored in Stormkeeps similar to aelven soul storage strategies. A cool twist that could happen is if Kharadron step in to store their lightning souls. Could get Chamon mecha Stormcasts acting as bodies in the trapped metal realm until they find a way back.

That's actually even more to put in the Deepkin's favor besides the Broken Realms updates and UnderWorlds warband. Whenever God-Tyrion shows up with River aelementals they're gonna be a shoe-in for more Deepkin allies as fellow aelves that can breathe underwater and numerous water spirits whose light god was the one that stopped his brother from destroying the tragic race. This is a pretty frivolous want compared to the other early armies like Ironjawz, Fyreslayers and Skaven that need attention.

Skaven and Seraphon got some choice wins. Skaven were a big factor in the Age of Chaos in letting their Nurgle allies basically blitzkrieg much of the Realm of Life to where they still have such a devastating grip on it today and were the Archaon's crazed lynchpins in corrupting Behemat with their mecha spider cities and parasite engines warping country-sized land portions so they could impact the slumbering God-beast's massive body. Then they capped it off by foiling Nagash's last steps to conquer all the realms and now with chaos on the defensive they have to wait for their chance again while they expand their holdings through the realms be it their grey leaders convening in Hysh, gaining more territory in Eight-points'industrial catacombs, claiming new precious minerals and tech from Chamon by battling Flesh Eaters for the lost ruins and finding better gnaw-hole routes even if they end up digging into a Seraphon temple ship in aetheric orbit or drain a undead sea into Skavenblight. Seraphon are completely different in how active they protect the Order cities from chaos and interact with the people, booby trap chaos realmgates to cut off their transportations, teleport down to stop followers of Slaanesh from getting artifacts to see Slaanesh's prison and with the help of the Stormcast Jordain were able to flood a section of the Realm of Chaos with pure Azyr magic and claim it (probably the only successful invasion of chaos itself ever. Though points to Katakros for giving it an impressive try ). They're more secretive about it than the Stormcast but they protect the Mortal Realms just as much as they do, thus why they ally often as celestial brothers-in-arms. One my favorite lore entries is just them meteoring down to save a random city from being literally consumed by chaos. "A Hole in Chamon - The frozen city of Aslandas vanishes into a giant sinkhole ringed with teeth. The maw grows until a meteor crashes into its depths, and sounds of battle carry up from the dark." On another neat note, the upcoming TempestFall VR game has a dev blog where they're detailing the history of the Mortal Realms and lead up to how it'll tie in to their new game. I thought that was a very commendable effort on their part. https://steamcommunity.com/games/1337100/announcements/detail/4475982739454679490

Fellow on discord pointed out a White Dwarf story that would make some Magmadroth encounters interesting for those unaware of their chameleon side. " Did you guys read the short story of The Wanderer in the last WD? Interesting tidbit; Magmadroths are (limited) chameleons when inside caverns and can appear almost invisible" (Also more reasons on the pile why we need a AoS: Soulbound videogame. This would make an epic boss intro )

That cover art is absolutely epic! Mega-gargant wrestling an Ancient Magmadroth. And a 150 creatures, wow! I got a feeling it's gonna be more focused on the Realm of Fire(understandably to build off the others) but I hope some Ghur creatures pop up like the colossal crustaceans that held a ring of Dreadforts in the All-Gates campaign.

A Minigant. Size of an Ogor, half the hunger but twice the ferocity! (Years being looked down on by their titanic kin has done nothing for their temper)

"Bright shining gold" They have a little but they pack on the dark. So they'd fit, especially as they're undead specialists(many reforged from the undead) in both fighting and talking with them. The only reason I wouldn't want a Stormcast in Cursed City is because they already appeared in the previous two Quests and AoS is all about that glorious Mortal Realms variety. So I'm adamant on wanting Deepkin, Lumineth or any other strange race to prowl the haunted alleys of this new realm of death city.

There's already a shining Sigmarite priestess in there. A Lumineth priest breaking off from Teclis' Hysh invasion force to further spread the light or a even a dour black armored Anvil of Heldenhammer Stormcast or skull-helmed, former life necromancer/vampire, Relictor stormcast priest would fit with her divinity. It's all in the presentation. Just look at any AoS28 examples:

Yeah, that's why I put they can easily surprise us because trying to predict GW is like guessing where a bottle rocket without the stick is gonna fly. Like they discontinued the Doomseeker despite having a perfect army for him and then brought it back with the Fyreslayer update. Warhammer Quest's history is very random so using it as a basis is definitely us clutching at any straws. Yeah, the blocky body, strange head and bulky forearms kinda look like somebody tried to build an Orruk. Also yeah I hope the 8th hero is Deepkin(or Solaire Lumineth would be fine too in bringing the sun back into the city with their glowing body). The map has that old canal that could connect with them and certainly there's a ton of tempting lost souls in the city now.

Been meaning to bump this. Some great articles people missed out on: https://www.cubicle7games.com/aos-soulbound-encounter-design/ "Greetings once more, mortals and monsters! I’m Elaine, one of the staff writers at Cubicle 7. I am here today to talk to you all once more about the dark arts of crafting encounters for Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound. In my previous article, I painted some broad strokes about the themes and tone of Soulbound adventures and how you can make them feel uniquely Soulbound. But with this article I wanted to give you all a special treat, or three treats to be more precise! Below are two separate combat encounters made specifically to show some of the versatility of the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound system. Next week we’ll have the third (and biggest!) encounter, so be sure to check back." https://www.cubicle7games.com/aos-soulbound-encounter-design-part-2/ "The Mountain That Walks. The time has come. The ritual is complete. The mountain of corrupted living metal has uprooted itself from the horizon and begun to stomp towards the city under the control of Chaos. There is no time to mount an offensive. Only you can stop the Mountain That Walks.’ Fighting atop the Mountain That Walks provides a number of challenges. Every second round of combat, all characters standing or climbing on the Mountain must make a DN 4:1 Body (Reflexes) Test or fall Prone as the ground beneath their feet quakes and lurches with the Mountain’s unnatural movement. After four rounds of combat, the Mountain That Walks reaches the city and breaches the walls with ease. Every round after this, the Mountain destroys 2d6 buildings and the Doom track increases by 1, as countless lives are lost beneath the Mountain’s uncaring feet. If the Doom track reaches 10, the city is completely leveled. (Design Note: The environment here is a character itself, so we want regular reminders to the players that it isn’t just another mountain they are fighting atop. We also add a nice big ticking clock to this final encounter by giving the party a bird’s eye view of the destruction.) The Mountain That Walks will only cease its destructive rampage when three ritual sites are destroyed or cleansed. Each site is ten Zones away from each other site. The party will need to split up and prioritise the different sites if they are to prevent the entire city from being destroyed. " Finally, really cool fan commission for someone's Soulbound battle between the new Lumineth classes and the shadowy melusai agents of Ulgu. https://mobile.twitter.com/M_M_MK2/status/1343610567542657032 " Michael @M_M_MK2 Replying to @cubicle7 Y’all already made me write a campaign and comission an image of the antagonist, and I don’t even have a group yet. Hope there’s more amazing stuff coming. (Art by @ feyspeaker )"

It could be. But man that upper body build and head crest has me thinking it's something else. Even the thin Ogor breaker isn't rocking those long arms. Edit: looking closer I notice a ring around his head too besides the crest. If that's too snug to be a helmet...parts keeping the head together?

Warcry's a good caveat. They get passed the Ogor rule because it's one whole warband for AoS with a similar moveset(armored close combat) and doesn't use an Ogor keyword like the other warbands skip past aelves & duardin keyword worries. Warhammer Quest models get ported over as individual heroes with unique skills though. So if they're all Order the Ogor would need to fit somewhere in the main game where it currently doesn't. It's all still a mystery though and they can surprise us in a number of ways. The only hint we really have is the huge face pauldron as that's not something associated with them but could also be a red herring in itself for what race it is. Besides that the strange small crest and lump on his head along with the seeming lack of a gut could point away from an Ogor. Gholemkin would still check more boxes in my mind if the Kharadron and sky port connection is anything to base it on but we'll see!

Agreed. Long term this is a boon to Order as well as how she stopped Azyr from being invaded. It's a nasty blood price being paid for her ambitions and the Order pantheon will have to treat with her as an equal in matters but her empire can benefit them greatly and ruin chaos two-fold. Another point is the Realm of Fire is not only crawling with chaos hordes but even the Order races there are a double-edged blade like the Fuethan Deepkin. On one hand they've slaughtered chaos numerous times on the coasts by unleashing terrible ancient sea beasts or in lethal raids. In peace times though... "Following the Necroquake, the Free Cities become too tempting a target and the Fuethán launch raids across a dozen coastal regions to claim the souls of their inhabitants. The Redblades: Akhelian Guard who ride diamond-backed redfin Fangmora, famous for their feeding frenzies and who have depopulated whole areas of the coastlines of Aqshy." That could better handled if a snake goddess and her battle hardened melusai watched over the villages and had their stronger pact in place to focus on chaos instead. Similar case in her shadow agents making sure all Fyreslayer deals are exclusively with Order and not with Chaos. That said, Fuethan look badass though.

Hmm, honestly not sure. I can't find anything concrete on the articles or twitter either. Maybe it was mentioned in the stream or facebook? On reddit and some youtube videos pouring over the info for clues they kept claiming it's all Order so an Ogor wouldn't fit. I just thought I missed something. It's true it certainly wouldn't be unprecedented in the realms. The Shyish Kharadron port of Toba Lorchai has Orruk merchants and spider grot black market guards amongst duardin city authorities so if it is just hearsay it could be an Ironjawz from there also working with the Kharadron. Pros for it: the lore city in that realm. Soulbound coming out with Destruction heroes. Cons: Gordrakk's upcoming assault gonna make Destruction and a Order alliance messy right now. Tougher to push this as a Cities of Sigmar release afterwards(Gholemkin can at least be put under Duardin keywords like Kurnothi got Sylvaneth) So the possibilities are still open until someone can chime in with Order confirmation. Yeeeah, I'm calling it now. Ironweld are gonna get destroyed. Alarielle already went through this in Malign Portents, there's a point you just gotta pluck out that thorn in your side. Upside though. Though Greywater might get squished by the almighty green thumb it can pull a Misthaven and have a new mecha city appear in Chamon or even Ulgu(seedy dark machinaries between duardin and darklings) to keep spreading the realm cities beyond Life & Fire realms.