Age of Sigmar: Origins of the Warriors of the Storm – PRIME
The Stormcast aren’t the only immortal sky warriors…or the first.
There are tons of exciting armies in the game of Age of Sigmar, from phalanxes of sinister undead collecting tithes of bones to hordes of wild greenskins bent on destroying the trappings of civilization. However, perhaps the most iconic of all the armies are the golden-clad warriors of Sigmar, the reborn heroes of the Stormcast Eternals. The primary guardians of Order, they arrive from their home plane of Azyr on bolts of lightning to smite the foes of the God-King with blade and hammer. They are warriors almost without equal, forged from the souls of great heroes that died in the service of Sigmar or one of the settlements he protects. However, unique as they are, like all things in fantasy, they have their roots in the real world, and armored warriors descending from the sky on the back of lightning bolts have been around for longer than you might think.
Enter the Norse
The first and most obvious comparison that can be made is the Einherjar, literally translated from Old Norse as “army of one” or “those who fight alone”, the spirits of great Norse warriors that were carried to Valhalla by the Valkyries. As the Stormcast are forged from souls of great warriors from the Realms or those Sigmar deemed worthy, the ranks Einherjar are filled with warriors that died valiantly in battle and were selected by either Odin or Freya to enter the glorious Norse afterlife. Within Valhalla, they drink mead drawn from the udder of the goat Heidrun, hunt and feast on the beast Sæhrimnir that is reborn every night, and train to fight in Ragnarok, the great battle that ends the world and the gods before it is born anew.
They are also connected to Hjaðningavig, a legendary, never-ending battle written about in several Germanic myths and is said to last until Ragnarok. Already you can see several similarities between the Einherjar and the warriors of Sigmar, to say nothing of Sigmar’s Odin-like qualities. The Stormcast are tasked with fighting an eternal war against the forces of Chaos, Death, and Destruction, and without extraordinary effort on the part of their foes, can never truly die, instead returning to the Realm of Azyr as bolts of living lightning. In much the same way, the warriors of Valhalla fight, die, and are reborn again and again to fight an endless war against one another and the other threats to the Nine Worlds, preparing for their final battle. In addition, many of the weapons wielded by the Stormcast bear a strong resemblance to weapons wielded by ancient Norse warriors (though the newer Thunderstrike variants also have a very Greco-Roman flair, but we’ll cover that later).
This is especially true when you think that a good deal of their weaponry is Duardin make, as it was forged by Grungni and therefore bears the runic symbols and harsh edges commonly associated with ancient Scandinavian and Norse weaponry, specifically the single-bladed bearded axes. It isn’t just the Einherjar that the Stormcast design pulls from Norse mythology, as several of their warriors also resemble the winged Valkyries. Even the manner that the Stormcast travel is similar to how the Æsir reached Midgard, the Bifrost, which resembled a massive beam of light and could easily be equivocated to bolts of magical lightning.
Onto Southern Europe
To a slightly lesser, but not insubstantial, degree, the Stormcast Eternals are also based on traditional Greco-Roman warriors, as seen in their armor, weapons, and the design of some of their mounts/warmachines, especially the new Thunderstrike variants. The shaped, close-fitting armor is especially reminiscent of standard Roman centurion garb, and the strong leonine iconography speaks to Greek armor styles and ornamentation. As far as weaponry goes, the long spears are very similar to the Greek doru wielded by Hoplite warriors. The Gryph-Hounds also follow the trait of Romans and Greeks employing war dogs, especially with the new rules allowing them to keep an eye out for incoming reinforcements since that is the roles war dogs primarily served in those militaries. The chariots dropping alongside the new battletome with the first wave of reinforcements also bear a strong resemblance to the ones used by the Greeks in battle, specifically the Mycenaeans, with the style of two warbeasts pulling a chariot on either side of a central pole carrying two charioteers, a driver and a fighter, usually armed with either javelins, a spear, or a short riding bow (though not the same kind wielded by the Mongols).
Though not as heavily based in fantasy as many of the other Age of Sigmar armies, the Stormcast Eternals are nonetheless well-suited for the magical realms of warfare and strife. They are the paramount warriors, and one of the few forces that seem to be acting solely for the greater good, with no thought of selfishness or glory. They are the avenging warriors of Azyr, here to smite the enemies of Sigmar and woe betide anyone that stands between them and their goal.
