The Races of Warhammer Online

[Garthilk]

The realms of the Warhammer World are in a constant state of war. Good versus Evil and the many shades of grey in between make the world a dangerous, violent ever-changing place. Although enemies in the past, the Dwarfs and High Elves have continuously come to the aid of Men, while the Forces of Darkness scheme and plot with and against each other to bring about the destruction of the Forces of Order.

Humans
Founded by the great and holy Sigmar, the Empire of Man is the largest and most powerful human realm in the Warhammer World. Within its vast borders lie dark forests, raging rivers and sprawling cities. An Emperor and a handful of mighty nobles known as the Elector Counts rule the Empire. Although it has had many internal troubles in the past, the current Emperor Karl Franz has managed to keep the Empire unified and strong. Although composed of many different regions, the majority of the citizens of the Empire worship Sigmar or Ulric.

Both these gods have countless followers, clergy and even entire Knightly Orders dedicated to them. Militarily the Empire is by far the most flexible and well rounded force in the Warhammer World. The armies of the Empire boast many devastating war machines combined with rows of highly trained and disciplined infantry. Swords, spears, halberds and firearms are the mainstay equipment of the Empire's soldiers who come from all walks of life. Supporting the professional infantry are the famous Knightly Orders; it is the sons of Empire nobles or those of its more wealthy citizens who often serve in these elite warrior regiments. Led by great nobles, ingenious Engineers, fanatical warrior-clergy and the powerful wizards of the Colleges of Magic, the Empire is a force to be reckoned with.

Dwarfs
The Dwarfs are an ancient and industrious race that is long past its prime. Their once-great empire of Karak Ankor now lies in ruins and many of the Dwarfs' mighty mountain holds have been abandoned or conquered by Orcs and Goblins, with whom the Dwarfs have warred for centuries. It is not uncommon to hear a Dwarf wistfully recall the great glories of the past, observing bitterly that nothing the Dwarfs do in this day and age can compare to the majesty of what once was.

An enormously proud people, the Dwarfs are quick to react to any slight, real or imagined, and remember any such infraction for years, even passing on the responsibility of vengeance to their heirs through their Books of Grudges. It is perhaps because of their obstinate pride that the Dwarfs refuse to openly admit that their culture is slowly creeping towards its nadir. Inwardly, however, they know that they are a doomed race. This gives them a uniquely dour outlook upon the world and perhaps explains their great fondness for drowning their sorrows in tankard after tankard of ale.

In fact, the only thing that the Dwarfs love more than a good mug of ale is gold. A Dwarf in the throes of goldlust is a thing to behold. The race's legendary drive and stamina is brought into sharp relief when they are presented with the opportunity to acquire gold. As miners and experts on ore and metals, the Dwarfs are without peer. Items of Dwarf craftsmanship and engineering are the most valuable in all the world, revered even by the Elves.

The fates of the Dwarfs and men of the Empire are inextricably intertwined.Ever since the day Sigmar united the tribes of men in the defense of the Dwarfs at the Battle of Black Fire Pass, the stout warrior-folk have honored their oath to come to the aid of men in times of need. With the fate of the Empire now hanging in the balance, it seems that this old debt may soon come to call.

Guides:
A Wayfarers Guide to Dwarf Grudges

High Elves
The High Elves are an extremely ancient race who have mastered magic, navigation and war. The High Elves are universally tall, fey and lithe. They are the most swift and graceful of races and hold a great, if somewhat disturbing, beauty. The High Elves are indeed almost physically flawless and rarely succumb to disease or mutation and can live for hundreds even thousands of years. Perhaps their only drawback is that they are quite frail and suffer physical injury much easier compared to heartier races. Although their swift fleets are found all over the world, the home of the High Elves is the great Isle of Ulthuan, a magical land that is all but distant legend to the races of the Old World.

The leader of the High Elves is the Phoenix King Finubar the Seafarer, a modern king who believes in trade and dealings with the new race of Men. His armies contain ranks of tall, swift light infantry armed primarily with longbows or spears. Elite High Elven warriors carry larger weapons such as halberds, hunting axes and wear heavy armour. It is even rumoured that the greatest High Elf warriors can wield two-handed swords as quickly and accurately as if they were a single-handed blade. Courageous nobles or the very powerful and wise Mages of Ulthuan often lead the armies of the High Elves. With these great and ancient leaders, the High Elven fleets and armies are swift, deadly and ready to strike anywhere in the Warhammer World.

Dark Elves
The Dark Elves or Druchii as they are also known, are an evil and twisted race. Although almost physically identical to High Elves (they are, after all, the same race who split in a ruthless civil war) the similarities end there. Dark Elves are bloodthirsty, murderous and described by some to be entirely evil. Naggaroth, the Land of Chill, is their home. Naggaroth is a cold, bleak and unforgiving land of many dangers. From this home the Druchii raid the rest of the Warhammer World, traveling on their floating fortresses known as the Black Arks. The Dark Elves worship Khaine, the God of Murder, whose many followers revel in sacrifice and inflicting gruesome death on lesser beings.

Malekith, Witch King of the Dark Elves, leads his people in their unwavering goal to bring Ulthuan and its hated kin to their knees. Whether directly or not, every action by the Dark Elves is focused on bringing about this goal. Sometimes it is direct assaults on the shores of Ulthuan or the manipulation of other races to draw High Elf armies away. In any case the Dark Elves are singular in their purpose. The armies of the Dark Elves are fast, light and quite similar to their hated High Elf kin. The main difference is that the Dark Elves use Dark Magic and go to war with savage allies unseen in High Elf Armies. Great beasts such as Hydras and cruel harpies are herded along to fight in the Druchii wars. The Dark Elves are known to employ more murderous individuals than the High Elves as well, such as the frenzied Witch Elves of Khaine or the feared Dark Elf Assassins. It is difficult to find a more evil and twisted race anywhere in the Warhammer World; for the Dark Elves consider everyone to be prey.

Orcs & Goblins
The Orcs and Goblins are a menace to the Old World; no other race causes Man and especially the Dwarfs so much trouble. The Orcs and Goblins are almost limitless in number and tear across the Old World seeking battle. It is battle that Orcs always have been, and always will be concerned with. Politics, scheming and other intricacies are unknown to them. Orcs are large, muscular, have green skin and huge almost tusk-like teeth. They are horribly violent and will fight anyone, anywhere for no reason other than for the sake of fighting. Orcs can take a significant amount of physical punishment and still be able to inflict gruesome damage to an enemy. Although technologically primitive, Orcs are not stupid. They often display a cunning on the battlefield that has caught many Old World generals off guard.

Goblins, however, are the complete opposite. Small, weedy and maliciously intelligent, they are the little cousins of the Orcs. The life of a Goblin is often short and full of abuse. Whether they meet their end as an Orc meal or as live ammunition for on of their twisted war machines, Goblins do not have it easy. Although Orcs (and even some Goblins) have great and mighty Warbosses, there is no one Orc or Goblin who leads the entire race. Orcs fight each other just as quickly as they would fight others and it is because of this that they have yet to permanently overrun the Old World. Orc and Goblin armies contain mobs of tough, strong and brutal Orc warriors, supported by cruel Goblin war machines. Orcs and Goblins are led by Warbosses and Shamans. Warbosses are absolutely massive and will tower over the tallest men and outweigh them many times over. Shamans can use surrounding Orc energy to invoke the power of the gods Gork and Mork to devastate entire armies. Once the animosity in their ranks subsides, all these elements combined create a massive green tidal wave that smashes into the opposition leading to a brutal, deadly and utterly catastrophic battle.

Guides:
A Wayfarers Guide to the Waaagh!

Chaos Humans
First and foremost Chaos, by its nature, is limitless in variation and possibilities. Chaos is what made the Warhammer World the utterly dangerous and dark place that it is. Although the taint of Chaos can be found in nearly every corner of the world, it originates primarily from the Chaos wastes. The Chaos wastes are a dark and ruined land that holds little material worth and few if any natural resources. The Chaos Gods Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh rule over this realm and have limitless devoted followers ready to do their bidding. These followers are collectively known as the Hordes of Chaos and are made up of an infinite variation of beings, mortal and otherwise. Although the Hordes of Chaos contain men from many different northern tribes, the epitome of the Chaos Warrior is the Norscan. Norscans are tall, strong and violent beyond measure. They consider men of the south to be weak, feeble and ripe for plunder. Many Norscans worship the Gods of Chaos and in doing so eventually become the dreaded Warriors of Chaos: mortals who's sole goal is to earn the favour of their patron god. Gaining such favour often involves bringing death to as many people as possible in their god's fashion. Like Orcs, there is no one leader of Chaos. Every few generations, however, a mighty Chaos Lord will gain the favour of the Gods, gather the hordes and launch a mighty invasion south.

These armies contain marauders, beastmen and daemons and are led by the ultra-elite Knights of Chaos. When closing for battle, ranged weaponry is forgone for devastating magic and daemon summoning. It is in close combat, however, that the Hordes of Chaos are justly feared. For most, to engage in close combat with the Warriors of Chaos is a road to certain death. More than any other realm, the Hordes of Chaos pose a constant threat to every race in the Warhammer World. With these deadly and mighty races bracing for this long and bitter war of wars, the opportunity for final vengeance and the settling of old scores approaches. Some fight for survival, others honour, vengeance or even just for the sake of fighting. In any case the Age of Reckoning is at hand; none will be spared.

[Garthilk]

I would like to thank community member Jesse for his contribution. Jesse if you don't know is a very well read Warhammer gamer. He's even got quite a bit of writing talent from the looks of things. Great guide Jesse, I look forward to see what you roll out next.

[Stridbjørn]

Great guide to Warhammer, but there is one error I noticed. Jesse wrote " A vast majority of the hordes, however, come in the form of Norscan Marauders.". I m quite certain that most of the marauders come from the Kurgan tribes, and others from The Hung and Tong. You can read more about it in "Darkness Rising" and "Liber Chaotica: Khorne". The norscans are just caught between the "civilized world" and the chaos wastes. Meaning that some whorship chaos, and others don´t.

[Jesse]

Originally Posted by Stridbjørn

Great guide to Warhammer, but there is one error I noticed. Jesse wrote " A vast majority of the hordes, however, come in the form of Norscan Marauders.". I m quite certain that most of the marauders come from the Kurgan tribes, and others from The Hung and Tong. You can read more about it in "Darkness Rising" and "Liber Chaotica: Khorne". The norscans are just caught between the "civilized world" and the chaos wastes. Meaning that some whorship chaos, and others don´t.

I appreciate your criticism. The 6th Edition Hordes of Chaos book is what I follow and there are plenty of examples confirming that:

a) The majority of Marauders/Chaos Warriors are Norscan.

b) Most Norscans are touched by/worship Chaos.

Most MOUNTED marauders are Kurgan. The Marauders who plunder the Old World in Longships and who eventually become Chaos Warriors are Norscans. I actually wrote a huge post on Warhammer Offline about this very subject with quotes from the Hordes of Chaos book etc. to prove my point. Sadly, I cannot recover the post. Chaos, like I said, is infinite in variations and possibilities. I therefore took the most common sight and made it the norm, just like Games Worskhop does. There are no Hung or Tong miniatures and only one unit of Kurgan (Mounted Marauders). The rest of the Chaos human miniatures line are obviously Norscan. It is my personal guess Mythic will be going the same route. When you think "Chaos Warrior", the stereotypical image you have in your head is a Chaos Worshipping Norscan: a large fully armoured warrior covered in spikes, fur and carrying an axe. That is what I went with when writing the article. We all know that anyone, anywhere can be lured by Chaos (hell Archaon, Lord of the End Times was a man of the Empire!), but I kept it general.

[Stridbjørn]

You see I haven´t read the 6th edition book, since I don´t play warhammer anymore, just reads novels and other books about Warhammer It´s difficult to say who´s right and who´s wrong since the books says different things. I highly recommend all Warhammer fans out there to read "Darkness Rising" and The Liber Chaotica books. They give alot of information about The Old World and its struggles.

Anyway the article you wrote is great

Sorry about my poor english

[Morg]

Nice article. But it should have more paragraphs to make reading easier (especially the Orc and Dwarfs text).

[Unshra]

Great information and I agree with Morg but I think the Choas Humans needs to be split. Other then that it's easy to ready and understand.

Thanks for the update and keep up the good work. ^_^

-Unshra

[Echani]

A very nice guide, and well written. Especially useful to those of us who aren't quite as up to date on our Warhammer lore

[Pendrako]

That's a great summary of each race. You've properly captured the essence of each in a few paragraphs, which I know is harder than it sounds . Good job.

I do have to pull you up on this though:

Originally Posted by Jesse

I appreciate your criticism. The 6th Edition Hordes of Chaos book is what I follow and there are plenty of examples confirming that:

a) The majority of Marauders/Chaos Warriors are Norscan.

b) Most Norscans are touched by/worship Chaos.

I think you're misinterpreting what is written in the army book. When describing the forces of Chaos the text refers to the Northlands and the Northmen, meaning all the lands and the marauding barbaric tribes living north of the Old World. This includes both the various tribes of the Kurgan and the Norse, with the Norse making up just a small fraction of the hordes of Chaos.

There are some Norse tribes which are relatively civilized, maintaining trading links with major ports like Marienburg. They worship the gods of Chaos, but usually under different identities than usual. The main source of followers of Chaos is deep in the heart of the northern wastes where the power of the Realm of Chaos is strong, from the steppes inhabited by the Kurgan tribes, which is where the major invasions into Kislev and the Empire are usually conceived.

[Jesse]

Originally Posted by Pendrako

That's a great summary of each race. You've properly captured the essence of each in a few paragraphs, which I know is harder than it sounds . Good job.

I do have to pull you up on this though:


I think you're misinterpreting what is written in the army book. When describing the forces of Chaos the text refers to the Northlands and the Northmen, meaning all the lands and the marauding barbaric tribes living north of the Old World. This includes both the various tribes of the Kurgan and the Norse, with the Norse making up just a small fraction of the hordes of Chaos.

There are some Norse tribes which are relatively civilized, maintaining trading links with major ports like Marienburg. They worship the gods of Chaos, but usually under different identities than usual. The main source of followers of Chaos is deep in the heart of the northern wastes where the power of the Realm of Chaos is strong, from the steppes inhabited by the Kurgan tribes, which is where the major invasions into Kislev and the Empire are usually conceived.

Originally Posted by Jesse

Chaos, like I said, is infinite in variations and possibilities. I therefore took the most common sight and made it the norm, just like Games Worskhop does. There are no Hung or Tong miniatures and only one unit of Kurgan (Mounted Marauders). The rest of the Chaos human miniatures line are obviously Norscan.

Yay I just quoted myself, that doesn't happen everyday. In our own history ( on which Warhammer is loosely based ), Northmen and Norsemen are interchangable. Perhaps you misinterpreted the book? The true answer is, no one did. Games Worskhop hasn't exactly maintained a unchanged story/IP in its 23 year span as we all know. In 6th edition (current) Chaos material, Chaos Maurader and Chaos Warrior miniatures are Norscans; they have horned helmets, axes and lots of fur. The vast majority of the artwork is, you guessed it, of Norscans. Also, unless you're ready to do some heavy miniature converting then most Chaos table top armies out there contain primarily, yep, Norscans. If I had written every little detail about the Hordes of Chaos, then the Chaos section would have been a page long at least. When writing up a summary, generalization is a necessary evil. It's not like I said the followers of Nurgle enjoy planting flowers and the warriors of Khorne read poetry for the Poetry God. I will, however, find a less controversial way of brining forward the Norscan theme in my article. Thanks for your criticism.

[Silver]

I think saying Norscans are a majority of marauders/chaos warriors is making some huge assumptions

a lot of the writtings about marauders are made from an imperial/old world point of view

Very few are seen From the Dark elf side ... and nothing is said almost about the tribes north of nagaroth, that could be much bigger

its like saying that the empire is the main body of humans with no knowledge on Cathay

[Garthilk]

I think what people are forgetting is that you have to cram in 7 races in 1500 words, complete with massive back stories, details, histories with rich characters and stories. Religions, varieties the likes unseen in many fantasy worlds. For the purpose of the "preview" there are going to be some generalities. I wouldn't get too tied up on 5 words of the preview. Or the generalities of Chaos. Instead it's a primer, an introduction into the world that many people have little or no knowledge of. If you bombard people with minutia they're going to become disinterested.

Jesse did a good job summarizing the diverse and varied world of Warhammer.

[deedlit]

Originally Posted by Garthilk

If you bombard people with minutia they're going to become disinterested.
Jesse did a good job summarizing the diverse and varied world of Warhammer.

Agreed on the disinterested part, i think people who play Warhammer Fantasy table top
game are interested in knowing the history as for the normal gamers who love sitting
behin theyre PC's and playing online games it could get way to booring, some even think
like Greenskins ... SMASH WHAAAAaaaagghhh KILL.

Keep it easy and simple for some in the game and put the books of history on the site.

[Jesse]

Originally Posted by Jesse

It is my personal guess Mythic will be going the same route. When you think "Chaos Warrior", the stereotypical image you have in your head is a Chaos Worshipping Norscan: a large fully armoured warrior covered in spikes, fur and carrying an axe. That is what I went with when writing the article.

"On the Chaos side, you have, well, the legions of Chaos (basically they're crazed, demon-worshipping Norsemen with really cool armor)"

From: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/warhammer-online/700105p1.html


Yeah it's just one preview a year+ away from release, but it makes my choice of writing all that much more applicable.

[Sinnix]

[FONT="Century Gothic"]What are the playable races in the MMORPG?[/FONT]