Age of Sigmar: Wrath of the Everchosen Overview
We’ve got our hands on the new Wrath of the Everchosen book and we’re taking a tour – join us for the next chapter in Age of Sigmar: Soul Wars!
Death is on the march. Archaon is looking for Slaanesh. And the Varanspire is about to burn – things are getting crazy in the Eightpoints. It’s Wrath of the Everchosen:
A Quick History of the Mortal Realms
Wrath of the Everchosen pits the Ossiarch Bonereapers as the invading force vs the chaos horde within the Eightpoints (the Realmgate Nexus for the Mortal Realms). The Eightpoints used to be called the All-points before Archaon and Chaos moved in and kicked out everyone during the Age of Chaos. They’ve held a firm grim on the Eightpoints for a untold amount of time but their grip was slightly weakened when the forces of Sigmar and the Stormcast Eternals launched their assault on the Mortal Realms in order to liberate them.
Overtime, it seems that Chaos has been pushed back time and time again. With each realm and their champions rising up in different ways. The Grand Alliance of everyone vs Chaos might not be as strong, but each of the major factions (Death, Order, and Destruction) have managed to carve out their own territories and the Mortal Realms have been in that state for quite a while.
Then Nagash caused the Necroquake and really shook things up.
That big story beat then caused a ton of ripple effects throughout the Mortal Realms. One such event was the weakening of the Penumbral Engines and the reveal of Sigmar’s hidden Stormvaults. Oh and the increase in all those magical Endless Spells, too. Anyhow, you might remember that the Stormvaults weren’t all just storage places for hidden treasures – some of them were actually prisons. And one such vault contained the essence of Katakros.
Well, Katakros is one of the greatest generals in all of the Mortal Realms and he has been reunited with the Ossiarch Bonereapers and has since done a bunch to solidify control of Shyish (the Mortal Realm of Death). From that stable powerbase, he has launched an invasion on the Eightpoints which brings us to the current storyline of Wrath of the Everchosen.
Now, that was a pretty quick primer for Wrath of the Everchosen. We glossed over a ton of stuff. But from here on out, we’re going to get into some pretty heavy spoilers. Consider this your warning.
Spoiling the Status Quo
Perhaps you already saw the table of contents from the previews:
From this list you can get a general idea of what happens. While Archaon is away looking to free Slaanesh (who he does find, but has to pause mid-rescue to “save” the Varanspire), Katakros invades. He doesn’t just invade either – he kicks a whole lot of Chaos butt. The long and short of it is that Katakros manages to invade and take over the Death-gate in the Eightpoints. He establishes a massive fortification called the Arx Terminus and this stronghold uh…holds against the chaos forces that assail it.
If you’re familiar with how Death as a faction operates, then you know that every time a mortal falls that’s just one more soldier for Death – you can kind of guess how this goes. If Chaos attacks, that’s just more troopers for Death which they can then use to assault more mortals and recruit more soldiers. The major advantage that Chaos has is that they greatly outnumber Katakros and his Death army…for now.
Now, this all happens as Archaon is away (naturally). When Archaon returns, he’s plenty ticked off. And you can guess how this goes. Archaon launches an attack on Katakros (who is leading an army on the field of battle). The Everchosen pushes through, kills all of Katakros’ attendants and guards and squares off against the general in a duel. The duel is described as a whole lot of “parry, dodge, counter” type fighting. But, eventually, Archaon overpowers Katakros and plunges the Slayer of Kings into the undead general.
Kataros awakens back inside the Arx Terminus in a new body. Surprise – you can’t kill Death. In fact, Katakros had planned for this. He was essentially taking notes the entire fight. As he stands from his throne room in the Arx Terminus he begins to walk the halls where there are hundreds of Katakros-like statues lining the walls. Death is eternal and the battle for the Eightpoints is just beginning.
The big takeaways here are that:
- Chaos has found Slaanesh – the Aelves are either about to lose the Dark Prince or will have to move him. It’s almost like this sets-up some major change the Aelf factions…
- The Eightpoints has been invaded by Death. Maybe it should be called the Seven-points?
- Katakros vs Archaon is going to be a long, drawn out fight.
Things ARE shifting. Slowly. This is kind of typical for Games Workshop as they tend to move things forward a step or two at a time as the story builds. This wasn’t the a BIG climax, this was just another stone in the foundation of something more.
How About Those Rules?
This book is packed with Lore as you can probably tell. In fact, we even skipped over massive chunks (like Be’lakor’s role and so much more) – you’ll have to read it for yourself to get the full story. But it’s also stuffed with rules!
Inside the covers, you’ll get rules for:
- Wandering Monsters
- Wandering Endless Spells
- Siege Rules
- New Siege Allegiance Abilities for EVERY faction in the game
- 4 New Warscroll Battalions for Chaos
- 14 total new Chaos Allegiances
It’s a LOT. If you’re a Chaos player who plays a mortal, daemon or mixed army – this book is for you. If you want to run a classic “Chaos Undivided” list with forces from all four chaos gods in one list, this book will let you do that effectively. It’s got options!
Wrath of the Everchosen is up for Pre-order this weekend! Catch up on the lore, play with the new modes, and duke it out in the Eightpoints!
It’s Chaos vs Death in a battle for the Nexus of the Mortal Realms!
