Death in other realms? - Help me, please!

[TMS]

I'm still new to the fluff that Age of Sigmar has built up around itself but I'm looking to invest more into the second edition, and I need some help catching up with this thing in particular.

So we have the different mortal realms that are all pretty neatly divided between the factions - Nagash's got Shyish, Sigmar is in Azyr, Greenskins in Ghur, and so on. The inhabitants correspond well with the wind of magic that built the realm but I've also seen others discuss how to theme and model armies (including death) from the different realms. Skeletons from the realm of metal, light or fire, for example.

So, how exactly are the realms maintained and governed? Are things and people free to inhabit the realms as they please? With Sigmar being at war with Nagash, how is the situation looking for death in Azyr?

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

I've just got the new core book, so I can actually help with AoS fluff queries.

So it turns out that whilst each realm has something of a primary faction (Orruks in Ghur etc), each faction exists for various reasons in other realms. For the living races it's pretty simple, humans are introduced to each by Sigmar early on, dwarfs migrate looking for gold and so on.

For the dead, there's a couple of different reasons:

• Necromancy is still prevalent across the realms for the same reasons as before, and so they raise the dead in their realm (all the different magics work in the different realms, but stronger in their own realm)
• Invasions from Shyish as has attempted either directly or via subterfuge to gain more land. A good example of this was a piece of land in the Realm of Life (Ghur) that was ceeded to Nagash by Alarielle in order to agree to a truce
• The recent necroquake now appears to have spread the power of death across all realms, allowing the dead to rise of their own accord
• Then there is of course the usual vampires spreading secretly to raise their own bases of power, and Wight Kings in AoS are intelligent in their own right now, rather than being mindless followers

So, plenty of reasons for the dead to be in each realm

 

[TMS]

Thanks for your reply, DoN. I've been taking my sweet time catching up with the fluff in the core book and you look to be absolutely right. I'll end up going with the good old underworld for my army of the dead, boring as it may be. :)

 

[Menkeroth]

Nearly all the factions live in all realms so they differ greatly in appearance because of that - a feature I like the most in the new world. Ghoul flesh eater courts are everywhere, likewise other vampires I guess, and probably deathrattle kingdoms too. Death mages travel from corners of the realms to study under Arkhan. But Shyish as a whole belongs to Nagash alone, of course - if only technically as great a portion of it is still under Chaos control.

 

[TMS]

Yeah, that's definitely a good thing that they decided to open it up that way. It'd be awfully stale otherwise!

 

[Menkeroth]

Exactly. It gives lots of possibilities for converting and painting which I've never seen before anywhere. In Death especially benefit such factions as ghouls and probably ghosts.