Origins of Sigmar: Tabletop Legendary Heroes – PRIME
A look at the origins of the man who became a god and birthed an Empire.
By now, everyone knows the God-King Sigmar, the mighty lord of the Stormcast, ruler of the Realm of Azyr, and namesake of the Age of Sigmar game. But do you know Sigmar the man, a young chieftain of the ancient World that Was who saw something greater among the warring tribes of humans in the north? Well, if you don’t, you’re in luck because here’s a quick biopic of the great hero, as captured in the Sigmar trilogy by legendary author Graham McNeill, and who his inspirations may have been.
We all know Sigmar, the hero who united the warring tribes of men and gave birth to a united Empire. He began in McNeill’s story as a young prince of the Unberogen tribe and defeated a marauding orc warlord, a powerful Chaos champion, and even Nagash himself before dying a hero, wielding the runic hammer Ghal-Maraz. In Age of Sigmar, he is the master of the realm of Azyr and lord of the Stormcast Eternals, sending them to the battlefield on bolts of lightning. But wait; god figure, loves to battle, wields a hammer, and related to lightning…who does that remind us of?
No one comes to mind…
Godly (Scandinavian) Origins
Sigmar is pretty clearly a Thor/Odin comparison (though the wintery god Ulric has a bit more of the Odin vibe). He is a tall, blonde man, he is a warrior king with powers beyond a mortal man, and he has a beautiful wife named Freya, a warrior maiden from the Asoborn tribe, a likely reference to the Aesir gods of Norse mythology (though in that pantheon Odin and Thor were Aesir and Freyja was instead a Vanir). Even his weapon/symbol of office Ghal-Maraz fits into the theme since it was forged by the smith god of the dwarves from the iron pulled from a twin-tailed comic (the omen of Sigmar’s birth) and bears extraordinary magical power.
Thor’s Fight with the Giants (1872) by Mårten Eskil Winge.
Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor, was also forged by Dwarves, and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and comics, it was forged from the heart of a dying star. They both are believed to return to the wielder’s hand, and both the Dwarven Master Runes carved into the golden head of Ghal-Maraz and the filigreed runic inscriptions of Mjolnir empower their wielder with extraordinary strength and vitality. Also of note, the hammer is the sign of Imperial rule, much in the same way that the MCU Mjolnir can only be lifted by the worthy.
Sigmar himself exists mostly as an outside figure, even in early Warhammer Fantasy. I myself was a little late to the game, only starting around 2003, but even then, he had a presence in the game both through Emperor Karl Franz and the young warrior Valten the Exalted. According to the lore, Valten was seen as the true chosen of Sigmar, and many within the Cult of Sigmar and Empire at large wanted Emperor Franz to step down. Franz refused, but he saw the truth in the young warrior’s claim and gifted him the hammer Ghal-Maraz. Valten would go on to champion the Empire against many foes, falling at last during the End Times when he challenged Archaon to single combat, only to be cut down by a scheming Verminlord. However, all was not lost as the breaking of Valten’s mortal body allowed Sigmar himself to re-enter the Mortal Realm.
The rest as they say is (Age of Sigmar) history.
As with many of Warhammer’s core characters and structures, Sigmar is lifted in large part from real-world history and folklore. There’s a lot more where that came from to discuss in the weeks ahead.
