Malign Portents – Nagash, Saviour of Mortals
Forsaken by Sigmar, set upon by Nurgle, a village in dire need receives help from the unlikeliest source.
The Malign Portents hide an unfolding story that, piece by piece reveals new information about the battles at the heart of the Realm of Death. Order. Chaos. Destruction. Death. All four race towards each other and certain doom. We’ve seen the videos and the signs. But it doesn’t end there – Games Workshop has been releasing a slow drip of information in the form of short stories on the website.
Today, we get a story that really makes you rethink the phrase “The Age of Hope is Dead.” In Grim Deliverance, we get the story of Osma, a healer trying desperately to stave off the end of her village. Beset by foul pestilence that causes victims to burst with bile and razor toothed, plague-ridden maggots, all hope seems gone.
Until an unlikely saviour shows up, and proves that Hope may be Dead. But that Death is no end. This one, in particular is fascinating to me–minor spoilers, but it’s an emissary of Nagash who offers them help. And as they are beset by Nurgle, and the powers of Death seem to be putting a stop to his bilious advancement, maybe it’s worth realizing that the only hope any in the mortal realms have is Death. I’m not sure what the big narrative is going to build towards, everyone seems to have their own goals–but if the big conflict is Death vs. Chaos, but especially Nurgle, I am into it.
It would be something new. Something different from GW. And from the stories, it seems like Sigmar isn’t doing the usual thing of being good but grim (and boring), but rather Nagash is playing “Hero.”
And if that’s the gray area we’re stepping into, I’m jazzed. And like the good kind of jazz that you’d listen to in an old-fashioned nightclub at 2 or 3 am, not the stuff in your aunt’s multi-disc cd player that she puts on whenever it’s time to break out the rosé at dinner parties.
The Cycle Interrupted is a short story from the point of view of Horticulous Slimux. What should be a quick kill turns out to hide more secrets than actions.
Death at the Door is the tale of a man who wants to protect his home, but all is not what it seems.
A Bountiful Wager is another short from Horticulous Slimux. Something doesn’t stink right in the Garden of Nurgle and he intends to find out what’s going on. With the help of some friends…
We’ll see soon enough what all the hubbub is about. And doubtless there will be more Sigmarines charging in to blah blah whatever, but for now, things feel cool and grim and dark in a way they usually don’t. So let’s soak this up while we can.
Maybe it’s time to pick up one of those start collecting Death kits after all–except start collecting death sounds like the surest way to end up on the wrong side of a Mindhunter.
