Age of Sigmar: ‘Horned Rat Is Finally The Fifth Chaos God’ & More Lore Threads We Want Resolved
Warhammer: Age of Sigmar is launching a new edition and story beats are hitting. Here’s a new one as well as a few we’d like to see resolved.
Well lore-fans get ready for some shifts in the narrative. Things in the Mortal Realms are feeling the aftershocks of the Vermintide for sure. The “Hour of Ruin” is upon the realms and Gnawholes are popping up everywhere. The Skaven are ascendant and the turmoil is just beginning. Furthermore, Games Workshop has confirmed that the Chaos pantheon is changed moving forward. The Horned Rat has taken his seat at the table — for real this time.
Horned Rat Rises
Well there you have it, folks. It’s GW official now: The Great Horned Rat is the fifth member of the Chaos Pantheon. There’s certainly some implications with this one. For starters The Great Horned Rat has basically been struggling for recognition as a member of the Chaos Pantheon since Age of Sigmar launched. At first, it seemed like maybe he was trying to steal Slaanesh’s spot. This has been teased since the very beginning.
And now he’s very much an “equal” with the big four. It’s also mentioned that he had some help from none other than Archaon. Now I’m wondering what his play is here. Why would Archaon want to destabilize the pantheon? And why would he trust the Great Horned Rat? Perhaps he doesn’t and really just wants literal chaos to spur forth again. Personally, I think he might of just been bored with the status quo and wanted to shake things up a bit.
Will Slaanesh Be Free?
Is this the edition we finally see Slaanesh break loose from the Chains of Paradox? What we do know is that they are weaker than they have ever been. Archaon also knows the location of Slaanesh and even broke a few of those chains before he had to retreat. We also saw Slaanesh “give birth” to Dexcessa and Synessa as those chains were weakened. With the Skaven causing all this mischief in the Mortal Realms perhaps the Hedonites of Slaanesh will finally be able to free their imprisoned Chaos God. Plus, with the Great Horned Rat finally taking a seat at the table (for real this time, we promise ~GW) then Slaanesh has some real motivation to get free.
Will We Finally Get Umbraneth?
Is this finally the edition we’ll see the Shadow Aelves arrive in force? Fans have been wanting an Umbraneth faction for years at this point. Plus Malerion is still haunting the background of the lore and has interactions with Morathi. We’ve even seen GW tease them out a few times but then nothing materializes. It’s like trying to grab a shadow…
With the arrival of the fourth edition of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar will the Shadow Aelves finally get a full army release to help battle the Skaven? Or maybe they’ve been busy keeping Slaanesh imprisoned and if Slaanesh breaks free perhaps these Umbraneth will be let loose to make war. There’s a million ways GW could make it work but I think it’s just going to come down to if they have the planning and bandwidth to actually release a new army and still maintain the current ones. Here’s hoping!
No More Soul To Reforge?
With the opening of the Ruination Chamber and the release of these battle-harden Stormcast Eternals, GW is keeping things a little vague about what happens with their “final” deaths.
This is one of the threads that GW has opened up and it’s a perplexing one for sure. I don’t know what the ramificaitons of becoming a “lightning gheist” is but that sounds pretty terrible. Also, one of the other alternatives is to have the Lord Terminos “put them to rest” but what happens after is the mystery. Nagash already has beef with the Soul-thief Sigmar. Now, those souls he stole are getting sent to “total oblivion” apparently. What’s going to happen with those Stormcast souls? Also, are the Stormcast Eternals really cool with this plan? I wonder if they aren’t all on board with this whole “fight until our souls are destroyed” plan. Sounds like seeds of Heresy to me…
More Threads To Unravel
At the end of the Soul Wars Nagash was beaten and banished. The Lumineth Realm-lords stood triumphant over Death as Teclis blazed the light of Hysh across the Mortal Realms and broke the Necroquake curse. But Death doesn’t say dead and the light will burn out eventually. Personally, I’m wondering what Nagash is plotting. He’s the type of guy that will learn from his mistakes and is very patient. He’s got beef with the Skaven for messing with his plans from before as well. Will Death make a comeback this edition?
What about the rest of the Order Pantheon? Morathi has a secret sect to deal with. Alarielle is still dealing with Nurgle in the Realm of Life. What’s going on with the White Dwarf — will he unite the Kharadron Overlords and Fyreslayers? And what of the Seraphon and their strange plans?
There’s a bunch of threads that are being woven in the Age of Sigmar. I don’t know how many of them will get tied up this edition but I can’t wait to find out!
What are some plot threads you hope GW resolves in the next edition?
