History of Warhammer Age of Sigmar – The Realmgate Wars

When Warhammer Age of Sigmar first arrived a decade ago, it unleashed a universe of incredible new possibilities. It’s been a huge journey, an epic ongoing tale of gods, monsters, heroes, and villains – all battling for the very soul of the Mortal Realms.

At the Hour of Ruin, as the Skaven pour through rents in reality and the Horned Rat takes his place in the pantheon of Chaos, fresh evil emerges. The din of industry and the wails of daemons now ring throughout the realms, and the Helsmiths of Hashut are getting ever closer.

On the precipice of this dark new chapter, we are here to celebrate 10 years in the Age of Sigmar, with a look back at its earliest history. Today, we’re taking a look at the very first edition…

A Storm Breaks on the Mortal Realms

Sigmar’s great defeat against Chaos marked the sad end of the Age of Myth, as the God-King was beaten back to Azyr with his tail between his legs. The other seven Mortal Realms were not so lucky, forced to suffer the Age of Chaos and all the wickedness that came with it.

Beaten and bruised, Sigmar refused to rest on his laurels, working with Grungni, the duardin god of the forges, on a new plan to wrest the realms back from the four Chaos gods. Sigmar began to snatch the souls of great warriors and noble heroes, working with Grungni to forge an immortal army: the Stormcast Eternals.* The Age of Sigmar dawned alongside the release of the first Warhammer Age of Sigmar boxed set – the God-King dispatched this new army of gleaming warriors across the realms, to arrive on battlefields everywhere upon cerulean bolts from the heavens.

Thus began the Realmgate Wars. The first step in Sigmar’s grand plan would be to reclaim Aqshy, the Realm of Fire, from Korghos Khul and his endless hordes of Khornate warriors. The charge was led by Vandus Hammerhand and the Hammers of Sigmar whose purpose was to liberate key realmgates – mysterious portals that connect the Eight Realms and allow for easy travel among them.

Old Enemies and Older Allies

Archaon was now master of the Eightpoints – a magical nexus offering easy access to all realms but Azyr. Securing the other gates would be of tantamount importance to Sigmar’s reconquest.

Sigmar was joined in his fight by old allies – the Fyreslayer descendants of Grimnir joined the fray, while the goddess Alarielle (a survivor, like Sigmar, of the World-that-Was) fought a harrowing war against the corrupting influence of Nurgle in the Realm of Life. She would eventually be reborn into her puissant war aspect, flanked by arboreal warriors. The Stormcast would soon be joined by the Celestant-Prime atop a swirling cosmic storm.

Standing against them was a horrifying new vision of Archaon atop his titanic mount Dorghar. These godlike characters came to define each faction.

Cities Rise, Chaos Follows

The forces of Death and Destruction were not idle. Nagash, another holdover from Archaon’s victory in the Old World, returned to Shyish deaf to Sigmar’s petitions for aid, while a collation of Ironjawz rampaged around smashing stuff up with the biggest boss of ‘em all: Gordrakk, the Fist of Gork. Hard fought victories in Ghyran cleared the ground to plant the Seeds of Hope, while burgeoning Cities of Sigmar were founded in territories reclaimed from Chaos. Perhaps most importantly, the foundations were laid for Hammerhal, the legendary Twin-tailed City protecting the realmgate that linked Ghyran to Aqshy on both sides.

These cities – the Living City, Greywater Fastness, and Phoenicium in Ghyran, and Anvilgard, Hallowheart, Tempest’s Eye, Excelsis, Misthåvn, and Vindicarum elsewhere – were safe havens for mortals willing to resettle lost lands under Sigmar’s banner. They provided trading opportunities that teased the long-absent Kharadron Overlords from the skies.

Sadly, everything comes with a price, and they quickly became hotbeds for Chaos Cults, with Tzeentch especially finding many ambitious followers to court amongst the teeming populace. Vindicarum paid the heaviest price, as the Celestial Vindicators slaughtered three quarters of the population in response to riots incited by the Stormcasts’ harsh crackdown against nascent cults.

Aelves and Duardin Assemble

Whole armies of armoured duardin riding airships descended from the skies to fight against tides of prismatic daemons as the Kharadron Overlords and Disciples of Tzeentch battled across the Realm of Metal. Not to be outdone by his cunning rival deity, Nurgle bolstered his Maggotkin forces with feculent new daemons, and mortals riding bloated flies.

Soon though, the time of the aelf would come, for what Warhammer setting can survive without haughty, pointy eared warriors? Morathi was plagued by visions of a future in which Slaanesh – imprisoned in a sub-realm known as Uhl-gysh by the aelven pantheon – would be victorious. Ever the proactive thinker, she started extracting more aelven souls from his belly, unwittingly breaking one of the magical chains binding the Dark Prince. From this soulstuff she created her monstrous Scáthborn followers, beings that resemble her true form – the winged leviathan known as the Shadow Queen.

In Shyish, Nagash was once more up to his old tricks and building another Black Pyramid. Individuals across the realms who were somehow attuned to these activities began receiving malign portents of terrible events to come. Back in the Realm of Death, the Skaven sensed a great realmstone cache and began tunnelling. In doing so, they accidentally drained a major sea, revealing an enclave of Idoneth Deepkin – the abandoned children of Teclis – who stepped out of the shadows.

Nagash Unveils his Malign Plan

On the eve of the completion of his Great Black Pyramid, with vast armies from every Grand Alliance converging on Nagashizzar, the Skaven once again accidentally thwarted the plans of the Supreme Lord of the Undead – turns out even a deity needs to hire pest control. The colossal pyramid began to bore into Shyish itself, sending a shockwave of death magic across the Mortal Realms. This event, known as the Necroquake, caused the nature of magic itself to change and gave Nagash even more power… but that’s a story for another edition.

We also got involved in smaller tales, with Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower pitting a brave group of adventurers against a powerful Gaunt Summoner in the depths of its ever-shifting Silver Tower. Warhammer Underworlds introduced us to the city of Shadespire, where trapped warriors would be forced to rise again and again to battle for glory – as the narrative of Warhammer Age of Sigmar progressed, the story of Underworlds ran parallel, its settings adding more colour and complexity to the vast and strange realms.