Age of Reckoning and The end times

[chielvdv]

This is a post on lore so if it's not of your interest this might be wortht skipping.

So I just started reading the new End Times lore and was wondering how the Age of Reckoning ended.
I know that the tabletop game did not realy play on the events from the game but still... did GW just ignore it or is there actual lore behind the fact that Archaon is now sitting the bronze and skull throne in the Inevetable City and that Karl Franz is still the Emperor?

So the Age of Reckoning began with the rise of Tchar' Zanek as leader of the Raven Host, he sought to wipe out the Empire and united a **** load of chaos tribes and started marching on the Empires of Man. Meanwhile, Malekith wanted revenge on his High Elf kin and saw a good opportunity with the rise of a new Chaos Warlord. So he deviced a plan to seek out an Ork Warboss that could unite the Orc tribes and go on a bloody rampage all over the dwarves. He found Grumlok, created an amulet that granted the Ork amazing strenght and toughness and it allowed Malekith to control the Ork.

So now the Empire and the Dwarves were under siege so they called upon their Elven allies to aid them, they did so and now Malekith could sweep in with his Black Arc.

So that is the beginning of the Age of Reckoning and what the game is all about, but now with the End Times, both Grumlok and Tchar' Zanek are gone. Archaon the Everchosen sits in the Inevitable City preparing to once more invade the Empire but Malekith, Karl Franz, Thorgrim and Finubar are still around.

So is there any backstory as to where Tchar'Zanek has been defeated or just retreated back into the Chaos Wastes? Where did Grumlok go? I read one of the 3 novels written during the age of reckoning but it said nothing of this sort.

So if anyone knows, could you enlighten me please? Would be much appreciated!

Cheers

[WarriorPriest]

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[Valayare]

Age of Reckoning is/was an alternative narrative to Storm of Chaos (from 2004) which played out in the tabletop game. There are a couple of Black Library novels set during WAR and a graphic novel was released with the limited edition game, but it never as such concluded, the stories were set at the beginning/within WAR. Storm of Chaos Ended with an Order victory, i.e. Middenheim was saved, Archaon (the Everchosen in the tabletop setting) got defeated and returned back to the northern wastes. In nutshell, Orcs and Goblins and Skaven "kind of" came out of it all well too.

Sadly, Storm of Chaos and hence WAR have been reconned by GW and outcomes redacted in favour of the End Times.

Personally, as an "old schooler" I despise the whole End Times thing, not only is it badly written and shows complete disregard and disrespect for those authors that spent 20 years crafting the Warhammer world setting, it is a badly rushed internal contrivance by the GW board to make money at the expense of integrity and the Warhammer story. Sad times.

[Telen]

Yes the Age of Reckoning was an alternate timeline to Storm of Chaos. The fact it broke lore so many times meant it already had offended alot of Warhammer fans before the game even started to get a bad reputation for a dull campaign and awful class balance. Dwarves running around Ulthuan, Orcs not trying to kill each other every five minutes, Malekith supplying magic items to Orc Warlords for their birthdays? Isnt he thoughtful. were just some of the odd happenings.

Interesting Storm of Chaos was a player battles influenced storyline that really suffered due to balance aswell. At the time Chaos hadnt got all the cool monstrous infantry and cavalry picks they have now and pretty much failed at getting any momentum in the campaign. They had to give Chaos a push to move the narrative to get them to middenheim when they had hardly made it out of the Chaos Wastes. Pretty much only Tomb Kings and Skaven managed to get anywhere as they were the only destruction armies that werent totally underpowered against order. So yeah War has never had much luck with balance breaking everything they do.

You can tell by the End Times that the GW heads have given Gav Thorpe a list of armies and models that dont sell and he should kill off. Reads like a GRR Martin novel on amphetamines. There are rumors that 9th is going to be the end of fantasy. Who knows. Wouldnt surprise me as they did try to relaunch the fantasy armies the last couple of years and space marines alone still outsell the whole of fantasy.

[Luth]

Don't forget the male dark elf sorcerers:

On the battlefield, Sorcerers destroy whole legions of warriors with the slightest movement of their hand. In the Warhammer Lore, apart from the first Sorcerers who allied with Malekith during the Sundering, male Sorcerers are technically banished from Naggaroth and are hunted and killed by the convents of Sorceresses. This is due to a prophecy the Elf mage Caledor Dragontamer gave when Aenarion drew the Sword of Khaine: "A 'Dark Lord' (whom Malekith believes to be himself) would die at that hands of one 'skilled in the Dark Arts'."
However in the Age of Reckoning Malekith has announced an amnesty on male Sorcerers, as long as they join the forces taking part in the invasion of Ulthuan.
Source

A long time ago, i read somewhere else that in WAR dark elf mounts were made bigger than they should be (lore-wise), to make the destruction side more appealing to new players. As far as i remember this was an official mythic post.

[Tesq]

1) Archaon suck!!!
2) it's dead!!!
3) i killed him!!!
4) everchosen title was alredy then claimed by me 2 years ago ....
5) all of this was a tzeench plot


Look at my signature and deal with it

[chielvdv]

This is what I feared, os it's just an alernate reality to some other lore written for the tabletop game.

I also fear that the end of fantasy is nearby and I would hate it if 40k took over, I hate the lore, franchise and everything about it.

Now that I am reading the end times it realy feels like GW wants to just end all of if (hence the name) and i truly it poorly written. I am enjoying the story so far but still, the writing itself could have been much better and more detailed.

I truly hope GW won't stop with fantasy as it is the thing they became big with. And if they do I will never, ever buy another GW product again.

[NeneEilserv]

It does feel like Games Workshop have found 'Fantasy' to be a burden in recent years, this move just kind of stamps that fact into place ... but maybe we're wrong.
I know I have every reason to dislike Games Workshop almost as much as EA (though not quite) and don't care for 40K what-so-ever!
I will watch this conversation with much interest on any other news. Most I knew beforehand, but have enjoyed your discussions.

[Scedion]

They're not gonna end Warhammer Fantasy otherwise they will lose a big batch of mindless sheep who buy their stuff and beside they cant throw away all the effort and work they put into Bretonnia they kick ass

Spoiler:

Found out the FEy Enchantress died **** but the glorious Green Knight saved Bretonnia from all the **** up **** like the hardcore badass he is

But also I gotta ask what do you people thing about them combining the armies you know with
Tomb kings and Vampire Counts into Undead Legions
Beastmen and Warriors of Chaos into Legions of Chaos
High Elves, Mighty Wood Elves and Dark Elves into Host of the Eternity King

and I have a feeling that Bretonnia, The Empire and the dwarves will combine into a new armour or maybe 2 of the 3
but while the combining the forces is a cool thing I think people will miss the conflicts between the various Elves and how Nagash also warred with the Counts etc.

Also unrelated but Warhammer 40k is probably more popular because its a very unique universe and its more expanded with more lore and stuff in it

[chielvdv]

Honestly I don't like it, it's a cool idea to have going on on the side but not in vanilla. I hope 9th editions will still have VC as a seperate race and I know that it has been combined to raise the sales of armies that are underperforming.

So I like the idea as a fun side thing but not as the actual standard for the boardgame. And I'm against the Host of the Eternity King, that just feels completely wrong!