Warhammer: Age of Sigmar

War makes for strange alliances - and so it is for the free city of the Colonnade, which must turn to the Mother of Nightmares and her dynasty of monsters to defend themselves against the hordes of Chaos. The Colonnade, a free city, is the jewel of Ghur, obsessed with purity in a realm of bestial savagery. But now, it faces annihilation at the hands of an unstoppable beastherd. In a desperate gamble, Councillor Atella Reigehren requests the aid of a being anathema to the Colonnade. She seeks Lauka Vai, the Mother of Nightmares, and her dynasty of monsters, the Avengorii.

In the dark corners of the Mortal Realms, the mad and mysterious Gloomspite Gitz go to war, following the trail of their abominable lunar deity. Nowhere is beyond the sight of the Bad Moon—not even those places under Sigmar’s protection, like the sweltering city of Draconium. Beneath the scalding rains of Aqshy, the city is a boiling pot of tension, its regent praying to Sigmar for guidance while Watch Captain Helena Morthan douses the fires of anarchy: blades drawn in the streets, heretical doomsayers preaching the end of days, and insects eating watchmen alive.

Rising from the gloom-shrouded cults of Ulgu, the empire of the Daughters of Khaine now dominates the Realm of Shadow. These matriarchal witch-aelves are graceful masters of death who revel in spilling blood, and whose opposition to Chaos borders on mania. Proud governors of their own ruthless agendas, it is their devotion to Khaine, the ancient aelven god of murder, the Daughters seek to prove above all—and alongside it, the favour of his high priestess, Morathi. To this end, a Khainite would bleed the realms dry in dedication to her cause.

The Siege of Excelsis is over at last, and the survivors count the costs amidst the rubble of their city. Even for Galen and Doralia ven Denst, two of the most feared witch hunters in the Order of Azyr, the horrors they have witnessed are not so easily dismissed. Struggling with the traumas inflicted by the siege, Doralia's concerns only grow when her father disappears into the wilds of Ghur. As she sets off on his trail, Doralia begins to suspect that Galen is hunting down a dark secret from their past - one that might hold the key to a new threat rising to engulf Excelsis.

Ulfenkarn is a city of nightmares. Its vampiric rulers have indulged their bloodlust in every shadow-clad alley, turning the once-proud metropolis into a charnel house. Already crushed beneath the tyranny of Radukar the Wolf and his Thirsting Court, a spate of vicious murders plunges the mortal inhabitants into fresh terror. Emerging to uncover a connection between the attacks is an unlikely group of heroes: a vampire hunter from Carstinia; a slum-born vigilante; a ruthless wizard; and a soldier who is the last survivor of her noble bloodline.

A single, harrowing trial stands between supplicant Ferendir and a life of loyal service to his Alarith temple. But on the day of the young aelf’s final initiation, a Slaaneshi warhost descends upon his mountain home, leaving slaughter and destruction in their wake and stealing a long-hidden Lumineth treasure of terrible power. His world now torn asunder, Ferendir and his stalwart masters, Serath and Desriel, are forced to navigate a realm at war to stop the depraved warriors of the Dark Prince.

In the deathly realm of Shyish, the Twinned Towns of Westreach and Eastdale exist on the edge of annihilation. Once in each generation, the hosts of Lady Olynder rise from their tombs to slaughter the towns’ inhabitants, and for centuries the nighthaunts have been turned back, but only after the fiercest of battles. Now, the wizards in the ancient Belvegrod lighthouse have deciphered a prophetic vision that offers a chance to break the curse placed upon the city.

As the War for the Realm of Life continues, Lord-Castellant Lorrus Grymn leads the battered remnants of the Steel Souls warrior chamber against the sargasso-citadels of the Verdant Bay. The Hallowed Knights claim victory, but at a terrible cost - Grymn is lost to Realm of Chaos. Now Gardus, newly reforged and fresh from the destruction of the Scabrous Sprawl, must lead his warriors into the foetid heart of Nurgle's realm in search of the Lord-Castellant, where they must once more brave the horrors of the Realm of Decay....

Throughout the Realmgate Wars, Sigmar’s centuries-long crusade against Chaos in the Mortal Realms, there has never been a hero like Hamilcar Bear-Eater, famed Lord Castellant of the Astral Templars. Would Gardus have charged headlong into the stronghold of Uxor Untamed with a mere handful of warriors at his back? Would Vandus have had the foresight or magnetism to drink himself euphoric, start a war with the Skarabrak lodge, and then wake come morning to a sore head and fifty thousand moonclan berserkers avowed to Sigmar’s cause? No. Only Hamilcar.

For Thelana Evenfall, Lumineth loreseeker and tutor at the Lyceum Fundamental in the city of Settler's Gain, the weapon is a footnote—the shadow of a rumour buried under mountains of long-forgotten lore. But when whispers of its whereabouts resurface, the vying factions within Hysh emerge to claim its power. From trusted allies to insidious cults, Thelana must navigate a treacherous landscape of clashing armies, political machinations and betrayals within betrayals, all in a desperate effort to defend the powerless from the all-powerful and to ask the unanswerable question:

Take your first steps into the adrenaline-fuelled fiction of the Mortal Realms with a thrilling collection of tales, including an action-packed novella pitting noble Stormcast Eternals against the sinister denizens of Ghur. Whether you're a hardened veteran or dipping your toes into the realms for the first time, these 19 new stories introduce you to the various factions as the Age of Sigmar enters the Era of the Beast.

Archaon, the Everchosen, is the most powerful and feared of all the great Champions of the Dark Gods. Warlords of immense cruelty, who have waged innumerable campaigns of suffering and slaughter, thirst to fight by his side. Such Knights of Ruin are known as the Varanguard. Though Vanik the Black Pilgrim’s blade drips with the blood of conquered empires, he is yet to prove himself worthy of ascension into the Fifth Circle of the Varanguard. At last, he faces his final quest.

The duardin are a proud folk, renowned throughout the Mortal Realms for their peerless craftsmanship and their stubbornness in battle. They are also a divided people. But whether they dwell in the stone halls of their doomed ancestors, in the furnace heat of Fyreslayer lodges, or free from the anchor of their traditions in skyborne cities, they share a common legend—that of an aged traveller, a wanderer, whose timely arrival will avert calamity and right intractable wrongs.

Paragons of the Stormcast Eternals, the Hammers of Sigmar take stern pride in their motto: first to be forged, never to fail. But when rumours reach Hammerhal of an old foe rising in the wastelands of the Great Parch, three of these warriors will be tested to their limits – and grapple with their roles as members of this warrior elite. Ferant Tidebreaker, a recently forged Liberator, struggles with his sense of unworthiness as he is assigned to the Hammerhands.