The 2014, near-end of 8th Edition supplement for Warhammer
Fantasy (coming before the Beastmen, Skaven, and Bretonnia updates only). Or as
least it was released as if a supplement at first. In truth, it makes
across-the-board changes to the core rules of the game, and if one player has a
copy then it's the most up to date version, no permission needed. The FAQ
released in the latter half of October 2014 made it quite clear that End Times
replaces the Big Red Book rules.
With its release, Storm of Chaos is now non-canon in its
entirety as an alternate universe alongside Warhammer Online, and remains only
as optional alternate rules (and expensive models who have little to no purpose
except as proxies).
In the story of the Warhammer Fantasy universe, the End
Times is where every prophesy made by anyone either comes true or is proven
wrong regarding the ultimate fate of the setting; either as a past-tense meal
for Chaos within the multiverse, or as the first (known) setting to free itself
from the grasp of The Four (and friends). The big plotters like Tzeentch,
Be'lakor, and the Horned Rat to Asuryan, Loec, Sigmar, and Morai-Heg are all
finally revealing their hands and eying the pot. Unlike 40k where Chaos winning
is a foregone conclusion, everything is up in the air and nobody knows how
things are going to turn out.
The last time this happened (Storm of Chaos, as mentioned earlier)
Chaos was set to trump everything in the setting and usher in unending
darkness/oblivion but in fan games to decide how the story was set to go (which
were meant to enforce the status quo by both sides winning and losing equally)
they lost horribly time after time regardless of who they were matched against
(in fact, the only faction in the "Forces of Chaos" that made
meaningful gains was the Tomb Kings who were attached for a very flimsy fluff
reason), so GW decided to write their own version where Archaon somehow managed
to appear outside the gates of Middenheim despite having not been able to break
out of his starting area while the Tomb Kings apparently just ed off back to
Nehekhara. Even THIS battle he lost. Rather than have the Empire triumph over
the Warriors of Chaos, GW wrote a story in which a single Orc sucker punched
the head of the big bad and thereby defeating all Chaos forever. This time GW
selected a popular character this time and kept every faction fully involved.
Said character is Nagash, a THE lich who plans to make all life into unlife,
then invade the Warp and become a THE Chaos God.
Major characters were killed, others resurrected or brought
back into modern fluff for the event.
In addition, a "new" army was brought into the
game as a combination of two armies, Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings (plus some
unique options and mechanics), into Undead Legion which echoes a time in
earlier editions when Undead was one army.
On October 22, 2014 Games Workshop officially made End Times
a part of vanilla Warhammer Fantasy, making Undead Legion a legitimate army,
Lore of Undeath a legit core Lore able to be taken by any Wizard in the game,
and a 50% allowance for Lords and a 50% allowance for Heroes (25% Core still mandatory). Praise the Chaos Pharaoh of
Phalanges!
The Fluff
Beastmen
Same old story.
Raiding the Brets and Empire, getting filled full of holes by Wood Elves. This
time though, Chaos is surging so it can be surmised they're doing pretty well.
But in the end, they'll probably just end up as the redshirts at the front of
Archaon's army.
Malagor had been
told by the Gods to stop Nagash's ascension. He did an admirable job of
trolling Skeletor's flunkies to prevent his resurrection but ultimately failed
(obviously). This was probably due to the vast power difference between the
Undead and Beastmen lists, but he still deserves credit for trying.
Bretonnia
Half the
population of Bretonnia has been wiped out by war and plague.
Morgiana le Fay,
the Fay Enchantress and daughter of the Lady, was turned into a vampire by
Mannfred. After being used as a plaything to unleash on captive Bretonnians for
lulz, she was lead to a sacrificial alter and bled out over a cauldron
alongside Aliathra and Volkmar to summon Nagash's spirit.
Bretonnian
nobility has gone the way of Sylvanian nobility, with vampirism spreading in
the ranks.
Mallobaude,
bastard son of the king, (aka "Not-Mordred") has lead Bretonnia in a
cluster civil war. He was supported by Arkhan the Black while the dukes of
Carcassonne, Lyonesse, and Artois rose up in his support.
King Louen
Leoncoeur fought Mallobaude in battle, and it was initially believed he was
killed. He then conquered every Bretonnian city he attacked and killed every
opponent who he fought without a scratch.
The Green Knight
was revealed to be Gilles Le Breton, founder of Bretonnia. Le Breton is
functionally immortal, having become the demigod servant of the Lady. He has
retaken his place as True (God) King of Bretonnia, and in an uncharacteristic
display of things going well for Bretonnia he killed Mallobaude, beat (most of)
the undead out of his nation, and is preparing Errantry War against the
Destruction armies of the setting. All of them.
Louen Leoncoeur
was revealed to be alive, and he's not exactly pleased with his demotion from
king to champion. Despite this, after being informed by the Lady that the
Germans are the key to the safety of the world, he dutifully lead a huge army
of Bretonnian knights (including his own personal RAF of Pegasus Knights)
through Athel Loren and against the forces of Chaos, saving the Empire (for
now). Louen himself dies in the temple of Shallya at the hands of Festus the
Leechlord, after killing Ku'Gath the Plaguefather.
Daemons of Chaos
Chaos Gods are
sitting back and jazzing Chaos into the material plane and otherwise doing all
of Jack and shit after Jack left town. Nurgle, who's power waxes to become the
strongest Chaos God and wanes to the weakest depending on the state of the
mortal world, is supercharged right now thanks to the happenings (mainly all
the rotting zombies about).
Chaos Gods of
Order are doing even less than that.
Be'lakor is doing
all the heavy lifting for Chaos, and is trying to get Nagash out of the way. As
usual, he acts like he's got shit under control and everyone is his bitch like
Tzeentch with a 2-inch "Widowmaker".
The largest force
of Daemons ever to appear in the material plane, surpassing even the fall of
the Warp Gates, has appeared in the Chaos Wastes. Pledged entirely to Archaon
(rather than any of the Chaos Gods or their various champions), they are
awaiting the word to march.
Dark Elves
A huge army of
Warriors of Chaos besieged Naggaroth, and Malekith may have used the
opportunity to assassinate Morathi. Malus Darkblade makes a small cameo; still
kicking and scheming, that dastardly.
Malekith's plans
to rape Ulthuan are on hold while he deals with the Chaos army, meaning he may
just care about Naggaroth more than the Phoenix Throne. He's also in contact
with Teclis.
Dwarfs
Dwarfs, with their
massive huge army of technologically advanced sturdy and stubborn, are debating
retreating to their Holds and retaking everything from the Goblins once and for
all then hiding like Wood Elves thus becoming irrelevant (Tolkien's Curse) or
suicidally using that army to up Chaos/Nagash and save the Keebs and Humans
(remember that "Human" is Dwarfish for "suck").
Either way, the
Slayers will pick the latter route.
Thorek Ironbrow
suicided by overcharging his anvil as a nuke (to be fair, the anvil was already
cracked and so blowing up was the only thing it could do, and he was already
fatally wounded). The result was massive destruction of the Undead of Nagash, forcing
them out of the Dwarf Holds. However Neferata still escaped with a relic snack
for Naggy. Thorek also opened Valayas Gate, doing so is supposed to lead them
to another golden age but Nagash went through instead and drained the sleeping
Valaya of her stored up magic. Presumably the gate's still open and she isn't
dead (since it never specifically says Nagash ate her, just her magic, and it
also says he only reached divinity when he ate Usirian) and presumably there's
still another Dwarf God just inside of it.
High Elves
The Annuli, long
thought to be the realm of the Gods where Daemons sometimes invade from for
some reason, have been leaking Daemons like Games Workshop releases Space
Marine models (heyo!). Whether this is because the High Elf Gods were booted
out of the Warp like the Woodies say, or because everyone who got close had
Warpdust high induced hallucinations, or if they were just that ing dumb is
unclear.
Finubar the
Seafarer has locked himself in a tower to figure shit out, and if what Arkhan
says is anything to go by (as well as Teclis's horror upon finding him) he is
now dead.
Aliathra is
revealed to be Tyrion's daughter, not Finubar's. She's now dead, having been
used as the last sacrifice to resurrect Nagash.
Tyrion is still an
emo brooding prick. But now he's an emo brooding prick that stuffed up royally
(literally, he cuckolded the Phoenix King), so Teclis wants him to lead the
High Elf armies in Finubar's absence.
Teclis is
manipulating everyone like a mortal Be'lakor. He did everything short of
slapping Tyrion due to his cheap shit, he's trying to get the Empire in
fighting shape, and he's possibly manipulating Dark Elves into a race-wide An
Hero. He also intentionally let Aliathra get sacrificed in order to bring Nagash
back, since she's actually Tyrion's secret bastard and thusly her blood
"infected" Nagash with Anerion's curse, rather than giving him the
double-dose of divine power he expected from a true Everchild.
Eltharion the Grim
is dead. Kicked ass, took names, did NOT save the girl. Went out like the grim
hero he was, incinerated aged to dust by Arkhan the Black.
Caledor has
seceded from the Phoenix Throne. Because that worked out so well the first
time.
Regardless of how
things turn out, Dragons (at least the intelligent ones) will go extinct
according to their own prophesy.
Alarielle is
heading to the Old World to save the Wood Elves.
The high elves are
apparently about to drop the idiot ball of all idiot balls and screw over their
entire race with their petty shit as Ulthuan is drug into ANOTHER civil war,
with GW claiming that now the Asur prove "they aren't a race of
good". .
Lizardmen
Having lost most
of the Temple Cities and with most of the jungle on fire, the remaining Slann have
declared the plans of the Old Ones to have failed and are preparing for a mass
Exodus. To where isn't known.
Ogre Kingdoms
The Mountains of
Mourn have been lost to the eruption of the volcano the Firebellies worship as
a war god sibling to the Great Maw, and taking it as a sign the fleeing Ogre
tribes are rushing to join other (as in all) factions in this World War.
Greasus Goldtooth
has taken advantage of the situation to declare himself leader of all Ogres.
There's another
mass migration as the entire Ogre race starts to leave (evacuate) the Mountains
of Mourn.
Orcs & Goblins
Grimgor Ironhide
is gettin' his pimp hand ready and marching for the northern wastes to
challenge the chaos champions.
Skarsnik is still
flashy.
Wurrzag, realizing
that the above two are so much cooler than he is, has decided they will be the
chosen champions of Gork and Mork. He has begun a mighty quest to inform them
of the fact.
Grom the Paunch
remains dead HAH.
The Orcs as a
whole are supercharged on WAAAGH energy and have stopped all of their
infighting. Nobody knows which side they'll ultimately end up on.
Skaven
Skaven are
invading the world, and have taken most of Lustria and large chunks of the Old
World. They are doing so on command from the Horned Rat, showing he may be
making his move to become the rat inside Chaos God Nagash's ribcage.
The Horned Rat
grew tired of the current chief Grey Seer and incinerated him.
Clan Skryre have invented a portable
communication device called the Farsqueaker. Six-nipple selfies and furry
dickpics are the newest plagues to the world. More importantly, the Skaven
CIA/Homeland Security taskforce along with Horned Rat evangelism has united the
Skaven for the first time in their history.
The Empire
With the retcon
that Storm of Chaos never happened, Volkmar the Grim has been saved from his
time spent as the personal banner of Be'lakor. So GW decided he deserved an
even worse fate. He gets butthurt when Mannfred decides to quit the Empire and
he goes off, alone, to have a chat with the vampire. Clearly that didn't go as
well as Volkmar (and only Volkmar) expected, and he was captured. In captivity
he was constantly plagued with nightmares of Nagash, and was brutally beaten to
an inch of his life and only kept alive through magic. After putting him
through the worst shit you can imagine (GW must HATE this guy), he finally was
sacrificed along with Aliathra and the Fey Enchantress. During their ritual to
resurrect Nagash, Volkmar's hand was chopped off and replaced by Nagash's, all
Vecna-style, allowing Nagash to (very painfully) takes possession of his body,
and mutating it to become the new Nagash we all know and love. Being a daemon's
flag doesn't sound so bad after all...
Some time ago, a
minion of Queen Neferata gave Balthazar Gelt, head of the Colleges of Magic and
the Gold Order, a scroll containing information that Gelt used to create a
magical set of uber anti-chaos wards; using ritual circles all around the
countryside fueled by both arcane and divine magics, he created a HUGE stone
wall (which contained a Great Unclean One), too high for any Chaos monstrosity
to fly over and capable of healing any damage inflicted to it. This wall
surrounded the borders of (what was once) Kislev and kept the hordes of Chaos
out, but was constantly in danger of being breached. Seeing this, Vlad secretly
gave Gelt a copy of one of Nagash's books, and Gelt was tempted to reading it.
At one climatic battle where Chaos managed to breach the wall and kill all of
Gelt's mystic allies, he was left with the choice between raising the dead and
having a breach he could not stop. Thinking it was for the good of the Empire,
he chose the former option. Having switched to Necromancy from Metal magic, he
started playing with corpses and being pretty outspoken about using the undead
in place of regular soldiers. After being outed publicly, he was confronted by
Aldebrand Ludenhof, the local Elector Count, whom he killed after the count
tried to kill him after refusing to see things his way. The wards failed as a
result of Gelt's actions (the Sigmarites refused to have anything to do with
him, including helping with the wards, which as mentioned need their faith to
work), the Gold Order dissolved in the wake of Witch Hunter inquisitions while
the Colleges of Magic appointed a new head. Regardless, Necromancy has begun to
spread through the Empire.
Archaon
immediately ordered an invasion after that to help out the recently freed Great
Unclean One, lead by Aekold Helbrass. Aekold, lacking the patience to follow
instructions, destroyed Kislev instead sending refugees running to the Empire.
Crom was sent off to a fight he'd probably die in. He also sent a very large
chunk of Nurgle's champions, including three great Warriors lords and the ing
Glottkin, to cut down south and destroy Altdorf.
As the combined
forces of the Empire waited to make a stand against Crom's force, they were
joined by Gelt and Vlad's massive Undead army (and his PR campaign looking for
recruits) who are now keeping Archaon and the combined forces of Chaos at bay
(despite some Blood Dragons having other ideas).
Karl Franz and
Deathclaw were bested by the leader of the Blood Dragons that broke from Vlad's
relief forces (who turned to Khorne worship, of all the vampires they were
probably the worst ones to send up north) in solo combat against him and his
dragon. After taking a sword through the chest and falling hundreds of feet to
the ground and somehow surviving, he crawled his way to a Chaos camp where
Deathclaw was awaiting slaughter. The two managed to make their way through the
massive hordes of Chaos back to Altdorf, where he took command of the defense
forces. After Louen Leoncoeur's men broke through the Chaos lines, Karl was
left dying by Otto Glott on the Altar of Sigmar. He became host to Sigmar's
holy power as well as the souls of every Emperor and every major human hero too
awesome to be forgotten, becoming the true God Emperor of Warhammer Fantasy.
His holy visage burned away all Undead, all Chaos, and even the dirt, dust,
oil, weeds, the remnants of the plague victims in the quarantined districts
that have been rotting away for decades, and so forth until Altdorf (what remained)
was a city of light. Deathclaw fought a Chaos Spawn during the battle and has
not been seen since.
During the battle,
the forces of Chaos directed most of their efforts against the various temples
of the human pantheon. Barring the powers of Sigmar in Valten/Karl Franz and
the powers of Morr that were stolen by Nagash, the human pantheon is too
diminished to be a factor now.
Kurt Helborg was
killed by Otto Glott in the battle as well.
Vlad's forces
mopped up all the Chaos forces left outside the city. Festus was personally
killed by Vlad, who then drank Otto's blood which wasn't a good idea
considering he's a nurgle champion forcing him to off.
Schwarzhelm,
Luthor Huss, plus Valten and Ghal Maraz are MIA from the battle in Altdorf.
Nulndon still stands.
Marienburg,
Carroburg, and Altdorf are the three cities destroyed by Nurgle's forces.
Altdorf is still in human hands.
Genevieve Sandrine
du Pointe du Lac Dieudonné is now canon, thanks to Drachy being canon again.
Somewhere in the Empire, a Wuxia French Lahmian/Blood Dragon Vampire blessed by
Sigmar and her epic level Bard hubby are waiting to up the first Chaos or Nagashi minions who try
to leave her inn without leaving a tip.
