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| Ian Miller - The Marcher Fortress (1988) |
I've been recently reading through the Realm of Chaos books and they are truly incredible: not just for the wonderful artwork, but also for the atmospheric writing. It FEELS like Warhammer, doesn't it? Not a later, diluted, disinfected, retconned shadow of it.
Now, I have noticed one thing that really excites me about how Chaos is described here, and at the same time its lack puts me off in today's GW products. It's always been like this, but I just realized it: the cool thing about the old Chaos is that Man is its main agent in the world.
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| Ian Miller - The Chaos Knight (2008) |
Even in later settings, Mankind can be corrupted by Chaos, but in Oldhammer Mankind is the first and most important vehicle for the spread of Chaos. Not only the fears of Mankind feed the stuff the Warp is made of, but their actions also create fertile ground for the Ruinous Powers to root and conquer.
That's right - screw you Chaos Warriors! Go away, Beastmen, and eat your heart out, Skaven! Without Mankind, Chaos wouldn't be sure to conquer the Warhammer World. Man is dooming this world, dooming itself and all other races too.
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| Tony Ackland - Beastmen (1988) |
It is Man who fights back the elder races, plunders the cities of Lustria, raids the Elven shores and even burns his own brethren's villages. It is Man who, consciously or not, follows and fulfills the plans of the Chaos Gods: in fact, the tragic doom of many heroes is to attempt to set their own path while being in fact mere pawns, manipulated by the Powers of the Warp. Skaven live in fear of Man, buried like parasites under his cities, and Orcs are pushed into remote areas by the might of Mankind's armies. No one can stand against Men, except other Men of course!
I love how Man originally was central in the development of Chaos, and it is sad to see how much Mankind became irrelevant, first in Latehammer, and then in Age of Sigmar: Man there is bland, weak, surpassed: nowadays even the Champions of Mankind aren't human anymore, they are now Sigmarines, the "Stormcast Eternal" forged with the souls of heroes and bodies of sigmarite (sic!) to be larger than life. And that's precisely why Latehammer and Aos are unrelatable and boring settings.
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| Tony Ackland - Daemonologist (198?) |
So give us some nice barbarians, some hunters, some militiamen to fight our battles! Give us daemonologists, mutants and corrupted knights as villains! Bring back humanity to Warhammer! Are you listening, GW?
Do you guys agree? No? Let me know in the comments!
I totally agree, which is why 1st edition is always my preference, especially the Enemy Within campaign and the way that works as a theme. When starting with new players I always play up the mystery of chaos. Skaven are just legends and mutants are few and far between. To me, it's like Cthulhu where the Mythos is introduced gradually and the atmosphere and threat ramp up and the worst enemy is mankind.
RispondiEliminaExactly! The hidden horror theme is extremely important in WFRP - and a warband of generic monsters just won't do the trick.
EliminaVery good. I love your view on this! You're right. Powerful heroes in shiny armor are boring. We can play D&D for this.
RispondiElimina