Warhammer the Old World – History and Timeline

History and Timeline

-15000: The Time of Creation begins with the arrival of the Old Ones.  The Time of Dragons comes to an end.

-15000 to -5600: The servants of the Old Ones, The Slann, settle in Lustria and undertake many great works.  The landmasses are shifted, creating new continents and oceans.  The Geomantic Web is constructed, allowing magic to flow around the world, stabilizing the new lands and fueling great and arcane machineries.  The world itself is moved through the void, bringing it closer to tis distant sun, warming its surface and making it more habitable for new races, enabling the Old Ones to raise them from barbarism and learn the ways of civilization.

-5700: Having mastered magic, the Celestial Dragon learns to take human form and rises to rule over the primitive tribes of the east.  He takes the Moon Dragon as his mate, and together they have nine Dragon children.

-5600: The Great Cataclysm.  For reasons unknown, the polar gates collapse.  In a moment, the Old Ones are ripped from the world.  Perished or banished, they will never return.  Through the broken gates pours a torrent of magic so great that the Geomantic Web shatters.  As the magical machinery of the Old Ones crumbles, pure chaos is unleashed into reality where it coalesces into warpstone, great chunks of which rain form the skies even as the Chaos moon, Morrslieb , forms in the heavens above.    Where these land, the world becomes warped and mutated.  As the first and greatest Storm of Magic ravages the young world, daemonic legions manifest, heralding the arrival of their dark masters.  Many of the oldest and most powerful Slann are overwhelmed by the Storms of Magic and stuck down.

-5589: The remaining Slann and their Lizardmen armies desperately rally to face the threat.  Daemonic incursions throughout the Geomantic Web cause reality to twist and tear to accommodate the encroaching Realm of Chaos.  The temple-cities of the Slann are besieged by hosts of shrieking Daemons.  Despite their best efforts, many cities in Lustria and the Southlands are overrun.  Yet more Slann and inconceivable numbers of Lizardmen are slain by the servants of Chaos, but their armies stand resolute, defending the works of their lost masters.

-5000 to -4500: In the company of their Ancestor Gods the Dwarfs begin their slow colonisation of the Worlds Edge Mountains, pressing north as far as the borders of the Realm of Chaos, south as far as the coast of the Sour Sea, and west along the Pale Sisters.  As their realm expands, they delve ever deeper from treasures and rpecious minerals to feed their forges and fuel their industries.  Grimnir meets and befriends Caledor Dragontamer.

-4500: The War against Chaos.  In Ulthuan, Aenarion is recognized as the leader of his people when he passes unscathed through the sacred flame that burns beneath the Shrine of Asuryan.  In the Worlds Edge Mountains, as many a mountain fastness is besieged by hordes of Daemons, mutated beasts and primitive Men, the Ancestor God Grimnir takes up his axe and heads north, journeying through lands warped by Chaos and beyond the shattered polar gate, into the Realm of Chaos itself.

-4499: Aenarion allies with Caledor Dragontamer, mightiest of all Elven mages.  Mounted upon the great dragon Indraugnir and wearing the crown of the Phoenix King, Aenarion leads an army of Elf Dragonriders against the host of Daemons that besieged their lands, driving them into the sea.  With the forces of Chaos seemingly defeated, a fragile peace descents over Ulthuan and Aenarion marries Astarielle, making her his Everqueen.

-4470: Aenarion’s peace is proven short-lived when the forces of Chaos attack Avelorn.  The Everqueen is slain within her sacred groves and her infant children.  Yvraine and Morelion are believed stolen away by the Ruinous Powers.  Wracked with rage and grief, Aenarion makes haste to the Blighted Isle where he draws the Sword of Khaine. Armed with the most terrible of Weapons, the first Phoenix King becomes a grim avatar of bloody-handed death.

-4460: At his court of Nagarythe, Aenarion takes Morathi as his bride and she soon bears him a son.  Caledor Dragontamer concludes that to end the ceaseless incursions of the deamonic legions, the wild Winds of magic that lash Ulthuan must be stilled.  work beings to repair and expand the ancient network of standing stones which has stood upon Ulthuan since the dawn of time.

-4450: In Lustria, the four centuries-long siege of Itza is finally broken by the eldritch might of Lord Kroak.  To save its temple-city from daemonic hordes, the oldest living Slann sacrifices its life, though death is to prove little hindrance to so powerful a creature and its immortal spirit begins one last invocation to banish the daemonic legions from the world and avert the doom of the remaining temple-cities.

-4420: On the Isle of the Dead, Caledor Dragontamer unleases a vortex that will syphon the raging Winds of Magic back into the Realm of Chaos, settling the Storms of Magic that have raged for centuries.  Struck down in battle, Aenarion is wounded almost unto death.  Hist last act is to return the accursed Sword of Khaine to the Blighted Isle.  In the east, the Celestial Dragon and his nine children drive the daemonic hosts from their lands.  In Lustria, the shade of Lord Kroak completes an invocation begun decades ago.  Far to the north, beyond the borders of reality, the wrath of Grimnir is unleashed.

-4419: The age of Recovery.  With Aenarion lsot, a new Phoenix King is chosen.  Malerion, Aenarion’s youthful son, is passed over and the honor is given to Bel Shanaar.  The coronation marks the end of the war against Chaos and the star of the great period of rebuilding and discovery.

-4300: The Dwarfs of the Worlds Edge Mountains venture east, journeying across barren uplands which they name ‘Zorn Uzkul’ (the Great Skull Land).  West of the Mountains of Mourn, they settle upon the mineral-rich Plain of Zharr.

-4164: Elves make landfall upon the western coast of the Old World, quickly establishing settlements around promising harbors.

-4119: Elven settlers and Dwarf prospectors meet and renew the friendship formed between Grigmnir and Caledor Dragontamer.  Trade be the races is brisk and an alliance is formed to drive the remnants of Chaos back into the primordial forests.  As Elven colonies prosper, wealth begins to flow back to Ulthuan, and the Dwarfs begin to found many new strongholds.

-4000 to -3500: As the Dwarfs of Zorn Uzkul delves far beneath the surface, contact with the Dwarfs of the World’s Edge Mountains becomes infrequent.  The western Dwarfs believe the easterners to have perished in distnt lands.  The eastern Dwarfs, believing themselves forsaken by their peers and their gods alike, gradually turn to the worship of Hashut, Father of Darkness.

-3000: As the power of Cathay grows in the east, the Celestial Dragon takes the mantle of Emperor and names his lands the empire of Grand Cathay.  Seeing the protection of the Dragon from the horrors of the north, or the monsters of the Mountains of Mourn, thousands of human tribes settle in the growing nation.

-2751: Bel Shanaar is assassinated at the Shrine of Asuryan and, revealing his treachery, Malerion proclaims himself Phoenix King.  The would-be usurper steps into the sacred flames of Sauryan to prove his worth but is found wanting and emerges horrifically burned.  Civil wars erupts across Ulthuan.

-2750: The Celestial Dragon Emperor uses his Astromancers to crash a warpstone meteorite into the lands of the Ogres, killing two-thirds of them and carving out the Great Maw.  The impact and resultant dust storms also create the Warpstone Desert, forming a barrier with the west along the edge of the Mountains of Mourn.

-2723: The Sundering.  At the height of the civil war upon Ulthuan, Malerion attempts to harness the power trapped within the Great Vortex and bring forth the realm of Chaos once more.  Hist catastrophic failure unleashes energies that devastate the land, causing much of Ulthuan to be engulfed by the ocean waves.  Malerion and his treacherous armies flee to Naggaroth.

-2700: The Dawi Zharr march into the Dark Lands and the Mountains of Mourn, conquering and enslaving many Orc and Goblin tribes to work their ever growing network of mines beneath the Dark Lands and Mountains of Mourn.

-2500: Settra unifies the disparate necropolis cities of Nehekhara, making it the first and greatest true human empire.

-2200: The armies of Ulthuan take the Blighted Isle from the forces of Malerion but the victory celebrations are short-lived.  The Elven fleet is beset by storms as it returns home and many ships are sunk.  The flagship of the Phoenix King is wrecked upon the coast of Naggaroth and Caledor the Conqueror is lost beneath the waves.

-2198: With the coronation of Caledor II, an uneasy peace settles over Ulthuan.  The survivors of the civil war begin rebuilding their ruined lands, whilst Malerion, the Dread-King, consolidates hi power in Naggaroth.

-2016: Karond Kar is founded in Naggaroth.

-2005: The Great Betrayal.  Dwarf traders are ambushed and murdered, Dwarf settlements are plundered and honest Dwarf craftsmen cheated of their gold.  The Dwarfs believe the Elves are to blame.  Their attackers are in fact raiders sent by Malerion to sow dissent between the two races.  Many Elves are slain by Dwarf travelers believing themselves under attack.  The Elves retaliate in kind.  Soon both sides being to muster their armies.

-2000: Nagash is born to King Khetep of Khemri.

-1997: Hoping to avert war, the Dwarf High King, Gotrek Starbreaker, sends an ambassador to Ulthuan.  Dwarf demands are met with arrogance and the ambassador is shaved of his beard and sent home.  The resulting war, known variously as the War of the Beard and the War of Vengeance, will rage for several centuries.  Elf colonies in the Old World bear the brunt of the hostilities and many Elven settlements built inland are sacked and razed, forcing their inhabitants back to their coastal strongholds.  The port of Tor Alessi is besieged many times.  Dwarfs chop down entire virgin forests to fuel their war effort and spite the Elves.

-1974: Snorri Halfhand, son of Gotrek Starbreaker, is slain by King Caledor II after challenging the Elf to single combat.

-1968: An Elven ship, carrying mages from the court of the Dread-King, is driven off-course by storms and forced to dock in Khemri, Nagash studies their magic.  Morgrim, cousin of Snorri Halfhand, kills the Elf Lord Imladrik at the Battle of Oeragor.

-1959: Nagash slays the Priest King of Khemri and seizes power.

-1950 to-1750: Nagash distils and elixir from human blood that prolongs his fading youth, which he then shares with certain depraved nobles chosen to rule under him.  Over the following centuries, these nobles come to see themselves as gods and the city’s population as cattle.  As their span of life extends beyond that of ordinary mortals they shun the light and seek out cool, dark places to hide in from the burning day.  Nagash orders the construction of the Black Pyramid, one of the largest structures ever built by Man.

-1800: In Cathay, work begins on the Great Bastion.  This impenetrable fortress wall a quarter mile high will span league upon league along the border of Cathay, presenting an insurmountable barrier against the incursions of the Hobgobla-Kahns and growing numbers of barbarous humans that make up the Marauder tribes.

-1750 to -1600: The many Priest Kings of Nehekhara form a great confederation against Nagash.  After more than a century of warfare, Nagash’s power is broken and he is forced to flee north.  The nobles of Lahmia secretly steal away Nagash’s books and seek to emulate his Dark Magic.

-1600: Nagash’s wanderings take him to Cripple Peak.  Here, Nagash discovers warpstone and begins to experiment, using the raw stuff of chaos to fuel his already potent magics.

-1560: Caledor II is killed by Gotrek Starbreaker at the Battle of Three Towers and the Phoenix Crown is lost.  Victorious, the Dwarfs return to the mountains and refuse to fight any more.  The War of Vengeance is over.

-1501: Caledor’s heir, Caradryel, recalls Ulthuan’s armies from the Old World, leaving the colonies unguarded.  Caradryel tells the colonists that if they wish to enjoy the protection of Ulthuan, they should return there.  Many reluctantly abandon the Old World but others decide to stay.  The coastal cities decline and , in time, are abandoned.

-1500: The Time of Woes.  Across the world terrible earthquakes and volcanic eruptions strike.  In Cathay, sections of the Great Bastion collapse and hordes o marauding tribes raid deep into the nation.  In the Worlds Edge Mountains, the Dwarf empire faces disaster, communication between many holds is lost and anarchy reigns.  In the chaos Karak Ungor falls to a Goblin invasion, the foul creatures bursting into the hold through great rents caused by the seismic activity.  Beneath Cripple Peak, Nagash uses his legions of undead to mine ever more warpstone from the trembling earth.  Many of the Elf colonists remaining in the Old World venture into Athel Loren in search of shelter as their settlements fall to ruin.

-1499: Karak Varn on the banks of the Black Water, flooded barely a year before when earthquakes split the rock from which it was carved, is overrun by Skaven, loathsome ratmen that tunnel form beneath the earth.  It is the second Dwarf hold to fall, but many more will follow in the years ahead.

-1498: Orc Warlord Argor Foespike ousts the Dwarfs of the Dragonback Mountains and establishes the Orc lair knows as Mount Bloodhorn.

-1457: The gold mines at Gunbad, the largest and richest mines in the Worlds Edge Mountains, fall to the Night Goblins after many years of sporadic fighting.

-1387 to -1367: The Silver Road Wars are fought between Dwarfs and Goblins.  At their height, only one in five Dwarfen caravans survives the journey through the Goblin-invested Deadrock Gap.

-1362: After many years and many hard-fought battles, the Dwarfs abandon the last of their mines and smaller settlements in the easter reaches of the Worlds Edge Mountains.

-1350: Gripple Peak is attacked and besieged from beneath by Skaven hungry for warspstone, but Nagash has grown powerful in this exile and the attack falters, becoming a bitter siege.  Eventually a settlement is reached between Nagash and his enemeis, and many valuable resources captured y the Skaven are traded with the Necormancer in return for Warpstone mined below Cripple Peak.

-1250: Thunder Mountain erupts, driving ORcs, Goblins and Trolls northwards, towards Karaz-a-Karak.  A period of bitter fighting known as the Troll Wars follows.

-1245: King Morgrim Balckbeard leads his forces southwards to reclaim the mountains around Mad Dog Pass.  Another Dwarf army heads east and briefly recaptures Mount Gunbad.  Many other fallen Dwarf holds are attacked and besieged by the Vengeful Dwarfs.  Over the next 300 years, the Dwarfs continue to re-establish their hold over and under the mountains.  The Underway is partially cleared in places, and some minor holds are retaken.  The tombs of many ancestors are refurbished.  The Time of Woes has ended.

-1200: The nobles of Lahmia become corrupted by the study of Nagah’s works, devolving into foul revenants that feed hungrily upon the blood of the living.  Rumors of this reach the other great cities of Nehekhara.  Lahmia is invaded and the followers of Nagash are defeated by a coalition of Preist Kings led by Alcadizaar the Conqueror.

-1185: Kadrin Redmane, the Dwarf Runesmith, leads an expedition into the ruins of Karak Varn where he discovers a rich vein of gromril and petitions the High King to allow him to resettle the old stronghold.  Miners flock to Karak Varn and gromril begins to flood into the High King’s coffers.

-1163: Nagash brings war to Nehekhara but is defeated by the formidable might of Alcadizaar.  In his rage, Nagash unleashes terrible plagues and curses upon the land, striking down millions, but leaving Alcadizaar healthy and unahrmed, alone in a land of the dead and the dying.  Nagash’s legions march into Nehekhara all but unopposed and Alcadizaar is brought in chains to Cripple Peak.

-1151: The Great Ritual.  Nagash undertakes a great ritual that will awaken the land of Nehekhara into undeath.  Nagash’s treacherous allies free King Alcadizaar who, wielding a weapon of terrible power crafted by the Skaven, cuts down Nagash and flees with the Great Necomancer’s crown, a potent artefact imbued with a portion of its owner’s essence.  So great is the power unleased by the Great Ritual that the awekened legions of the Tomb Kings remain animated.

-1147: The body of Alcadizaar, and with it Nagash’s crown, is discovered by Kadon.  Possesed by the shade of Nagash, the shaman founds the city of Mourkain.

-1136: Kadrin Redmane is ambushed and killed.  His last act is to throw his rune hammer far out into the Black Water to prevent it falling into the hands of the enemy.  Following Kadrin’s death, the Dwarfs hold on Karak Varn becomes increasingly tenuous.

-1125: The Winter of Woe.  In Athel Loren, ARiel and Orion become King and Queen in the woods.

-1095: The Battle of Loren.  Morghur, the Lord of Skulls, and his Beastmen herd attack AThel Loren.

-1000: The lands surrounding Athel Loren are settled by people of the warlike Bretonni tribe.  They learn of the Elves in the forest, and fear venturing too far into the forest itself.

-813: The Battle of Anguish.  In Athel Lroen Morghur the Corruptor is slain following a great battle in what forever after will be known as the Glade of Woe.

-700: Elven seafarers report human shepherds grazing their flocks amid the tumbled ruins of former Elf cities.

-666: Wars of the Green Moon.  Morrslieb hangs large in the northern sky for more than a month.  mortal and daemonic servants of the Chaos battle ferociously within the Chaos Wastes for control of the magic storms.

-513: The fall of Karak Eight Peaks.  For more than a century, the greatest Dwarf hold resists invasion, but its doom descents suddenly when its wells are poisoned and its tunnels filled with deadly gases.  King Lunn orders the tombs of the kings of old to rune-sealed, and the hold is abandoned.  The King vows his home will be reclaimed one day.

-469: Orcs destroy the Dwarf hold of Karak Azgal but abandon it when they find no treasure.  The Orcs then capture Karak Drazh, renaming it the Black Crag.  Now all the mountains between Mad Dog Pass and Karak Eight Peaks are in Orc and Goblin hands.

-370: Orc Warboss Ugrok Beard Burner leads a Waaagh! to the Dwarf capital of Karaz-a-Karak.  The Dwarf High King Logan Proudbeard is captured and humiliated, but the Orcs are driven back and defeated at the Battle of Black Water.  The newly invented Dwarf cannon plays a large part in the Orc defeat (an the messy beheading of Warboss Ugrok).

-250: The Dwarfs intensify the trading with the growing tribes of Men that dwell west of the Worlds Edge Mountains, in the Lands that are to become the Empire.  Serval expeditions are launched into the Forest of Loren, never to be seen again.

-200: The Cult of Chi’an Chi (as Tzeentch is known in the East) becomes popular amongst the aristocracy of the city of the Beichai in Cathay.  Mourkain is sacked by Waaagh! Craktoof.

-150: The first black Orcs are seen fighting in the vanguard of the armies of the Dawi Zharr.  Within 50 years they revolt and war breaks out within Zharr-Naggrund.  Many Black Orcs escape to the Worlds Edge mountains and Mountains of Mourn.

-50: Artur, king of the Teutogens, discovers the Fauschlag Rock (later known as Ulricsberg), and enlist the aid of the Dwarfs to build a fortress that will be known as Milldenheim.

-40: Nagash is reborn.  He assumes the Tomb Kings will obey his orders, but they do not and he is forced to retreat to Cripple Peak.  Nagash finds his fortress overrun by his enemies, and drivers them all out in a single night.

-30: Sigmar is born to the chief of the Unberogen tribe.

-15: King Kurgan Ironbeard of Karaz-a-Krrak is rescued from Orcs by Sigmar, RPince of the Unberogen tribe.  From the meeting a great alliance between the races of Dwarfs and Men is forged.  In gratitude for his rescue the Dwarf King gifts to Sigmar the rune hammer Ghal Maraz, or Skull Splitter, an ancient heirloom of the King’s clan.

-8: Upon the death of his father, Sigmar becomes chief of the Unberogen tribe.

-1: At the battle of Black Fire Pass, a massive Orc army is annihilated by the armies of Sigmar and Kurgan Ironbeard.  The Orc and Goblin hordes are driven from the lands.

Year 0: A twin-tailed comet appears in the heavens.

1: Sigmar is crowned Emperor by the High Preist of Ulric.  Many Dwarfs settle within the Empire, where they help the humans build their first cities.  Dwarf masons, carpenters and smiths are much in demand, and Dwarf workmanship is admired everywhere.

1 to 15: In search of his lost crown, Nagash travels nth where he raises a huge Undead army and attacks the fledgling Empire.  At the Battle of the River Reik, Nagash is felled by Sigmar and his army almost completely destroyed.

50: After a half century of prosperity, Sigmar relinquishes his throne and vanishes into the east.  The system of Elector Counts is established whereby the provincial leaders elect one of their number to be Emperor.

73: The spreading cult of Sigmar receives its first Grand Theogonist Johan Helsturm.  Sigmar becomes the patron god of the Empire he founded.

501: Marienburg is absorbed by the Empire during the reign of Emperor Sigimund II.

577: The Bretonni tribes face a great incursion of Orcs and Goblins that descends from the Grey and Apuccini Mountains.  Orc Warlords demand tribute from the Bretonni tribes, but are rejected.  For the next 400 years the Bretonni fight the Orc hordes.

698: Representatives of the Phoenix King arrive in Cathay.  They return laden with silk, jade and spices.  Trade between east and west beings to florish.

977: Giles le Breton begins to unite the Bretonnians into a single nation.  He fights twelve batts and is victorious in every one, conquering all the lands west of the Grey Mountains and creating the land of Bretonnia.

1017: Norse raider establish a stronghold on the island of Sartosa.

1111: Unleased by the Skaven, the Black Plague sweeps through the Old World and many settlements are abandoned due to falling populations.  In Sylvania, the Necromancer Frederick van Hal raises a huge Undead army form the bodies of the plague’s victims and a long war begins against armies of the Skaven invaders.

1115: The death of Emperor Boris GoldgPlague.  His reign is memorable only for the high levels of corruption and taxation it brought.

1124: Van Hal is assassinated and his Undead horde wiped out.  The Skaven, weakened by war, are defeated and driven back underground by Count Mandred Skaven Slayer, Count Mandred is elected Emperor.

1142: King Guillaune defeats the Orcs at the Battle Amandur and drives them from Bretonnia once more.

1152: Emperor Mandred Skaven Slayer is assassinated.  The Elector Counts cannot agree upon a successor and the Empire divides into self-governing provinces.

1175: Settra leads a large raiding force against Bretonnia.  He is met at Savage Point by a Bretonnian fleet lead by Admiral Henri Lamorte.  Settra’s fleet is heavily defeated but he escapes, vowing revenge.

1360: Grand Duchess Ottilia of Talabecland declares herself Empress and war erupts between Talabecland and Stirland.

1494: Khan-Queen Miska daughter of Radii Bokha, leads the Gospodars through the High Pass, driving back the Ungol tribes.

1524: Under Khan-Queen Shoika, work begins on building the great Gospodar capital, Kislev, Shika, daughter of Miska, takes the title of Tzarina.

1547: The Count of Middenheim proclaims himself Emperor.  There are now three Emperors, non of which commands much loyalty amongst the other provinces.  In time, hostilities wane between factions and each emperor effectively rules an independent state.

1681: The Night of the Restless dead.  Nagash returns to life once again, 1,666 years after he was slain by Sigmar.  For one night throughout the known world, the dead stir and walk the land, sowing terror and confusion amongst the living.  Many Vampries come out of hiding and wage war to increase their domains.  Countless villages and towns are overrun and destroyed before the night of terror ends.

1707: Waagh! Ironclaw erupts into the Empire through Black Fire Pass.  Much of the Southern corner of the Empire is acked and burned.  Count Eldred of Solland is slain and the Runefang of Solland taken.  At the Battle of Grunberg, the Orc Warboss is badly wounded and his Waaagh! loses impetus.  The Orc breaks up, leaving the eastern half of the empire in ruins.

1757: Sartosa becomes the lair of pirates.

1797: In Sylvania the Vampire Vlad von Carstein marries Countess Isabella von Drak.  Over the following two centuries, the remaining aristocratic families of the province are infected with the curse of Vampirism.

1850: Far beneath the surface of the world, the Skaven Under-Empire erupts into a vicious and protracted civil war.  For several centuries, the loathsome ratmen seem to vanish into myth, leading many scholars to doubt their existence at all.