8th Ed. The full tale of the End Times: Archaon

I’m back and it’s time to do this. Been very busy and this took forever to write, but nonetheless here it is.

So without further ado, let’s get to the fluff of what happened in End Times: Archaon. Note I will be adding parts in from the additional fluff book Lord of the End Times that you could buy.

Middenheim

Our story begins in the falling of the city of the White Wolf. Here we receive a much more detailed version of the fall of the city from Gregor Martark’s perspective (the last Supreme Patriarch of the Empire) and see a number of encounters. Valten slaughters virtually every Chaos special character not mentioned in any of the other books, leading to him killing individuals like Wulfrik the Wanderer. Also for those fans of Brunner the Bounty Hunter out there, this book reveals that he fought in Middenheim like a boss and managed to put a few blows in on Archaon before he fell to the Slayer of Kings.

Middenheim falls and a number of survivors escapes. One of these survivors is a man named Wendel Volker (who was a character from Sigmar’s Blood and the Rise of Nagash) who took a portion of Ulric’s flame into him. See the Thanquol post for more details of the destruction of Middenheim.

In the prologue for the book we learn the fate of the rest of the world, which is basically that everything not crushed and burned by the destruction of the Chaos moon has been conquered by Skaven or orcs and golbins to the east. A brief mention is given that although it is known that Lustria was destroyed, none know what befell the Lizardmen themselves.

This prologue ends by examining that Nagash has returned to Sylvania to absorb the power he grounded there, all of the Elves have rallied to Athel Loren as their final sanctuary, and all that remains of the Empire, the Dwarfs, and Bretonnia are fighting in Averheim. Also we see Kairos Fateweaver is murdered by Archaon who sacrifices the greater daemon to Khorne, which pleases the Blood God enough to send the head of his Blood Hunt, Ka’Bandha of the Third Host.

Averheim

In Averheim the situation is desperate beyond measure. The city is under assault by the greatest of what remains of Tzeentch’s forces led by Vilitch the Cursling. Hellcannon batteries slam into the city that contains the Karl Franz the Emperor and all of his remaining allies. He is not alone, however, with him has ridden Ludwig Schwarzhelm, the Bretonnian’s led by Jerrod who was a friend of King Leon and leads the Bretonnian cavalry even now to the end of the world, and the remainder of the Dwarfs from the East led by the Slayer King Ungrim Ironfist as well as a throng of Dwarfs and their war machines from Zhufbar. As such, this alliance of three nations stands against the horde of the Cursling.

Epic battles raged across the city as each of the great nations held a wall against the tide of Skaven, Beastmen, Daemons, and Warriors of Chaos assaulting them from without. However it became clear that so long as the batteries continued firing, the city’s walls would eventually collapse leading to the fall of the last city. So Karl Franz reached deep into the Lore of Heavens to form a swirling vortex of magic to teleport him and his personal army through to the ruined city of Bolgen to take out the largest concentration of Hellcannons and hopefully break the siege.

The battle for Bolgen begins. Karl Franz had some luck in that before coming to the city Vilitch had begun a ritual to ripe upon a portal to the Realm of Chaos for reinforcements just before the attack began, causing him to be forced to maintain the portal instead of defending his camp. The forces of Order crash into the camp and tear it to shreds, collapsing and free a massive amount of hellcannons and breaking the backbone of Vilitch’s siege. The Chaos champion finishes his ritual summoning, but due to the attack it is not nearly as successful as he desired and the horde that attacks is beaten back by the Emperor’s troops as they all retreat back through Karl Franz’s portal to Averheim. Vilitch in a rage attempts to follow them, but gets trapped within the portal as both sides close about him. He finds himself in the crystal maze of Tzeentch and is informed the God of hope as seen fit to grant his request, which confuses Vilitch as he didn’t make any request. To his horror, his conjoined twin was the one who prayed to Tzeentch to reverse their fortunes, so now the brother becomes whole of mind again and Vilitch devolves into a drooling, mindless attachment. Thomas (his brother) then leads them out of the Realm of Chaos to fates unknown.
As he’s escaping Bolgen, the Emperor sees far on the horizon an army without end marching on his last city. Archaon Everchosen has come with his massive hordes to end this war.

The Emperor in desperation sends a plea to Vlad von Castein and Nagash for aid in holding back the tide of Chaos and helping them defend Averheim. Nagash quickly decides the matter is beneath him and he couldn’t care less if Averheim falls. However, Vlad decides to ride to the city’s defense and he is joined by his student and former Supreme Patriarch Balthasar Gelt. Gelt spends his time approaching the city purging his mind of all knowledge of the lore of Necromancy and feels much of his old strength return as he gets closer to Averheim, recalling the feel of the Lore of Metal and allowing it to surge through him.

Archaon’s army arrives at the field before Averheim and it is abundantly clear that this host in service to the Blood God rather than Chaos Undivided as was Archaon’s usual way of things. With this new horde at his command, Archaon moves in on the city, his generals being Skarr Bloodwrath (new special character), Valkia the Gorequeen, and Scyla Anfingrimm (the spawn of chaos special character from WoC book).

The assault begins, instead of the lengthy siege expected by the defenders, the horde of Archaon hurls itself in its entirety at the walls with no regard for strategy or tactics. As massive monsters and siege weapons grant access to the walls and tearing the gates apart. Despite the sky-darkening amount of shot coming from the defenders it becomes quite clear Averheim is going to be overwhelmed. The Emperor speaks with Jerrod of Bretonnia and the two decide upon a final charge in an attempt to kill the Everchosen. Meanwhile Ungrim the Incarnate of Fire and Gotri Hammerson, Runelord of Zhufbar fight on the walls in an attempt to stifle the hordes coming at them.

The dwarfs fight a brave battles amongst the walls, Ungrim leading them in mighty battles as they destroy wave after wave of blood-crazed enemies. Eventually he ends up dueling the mighty Scyla, but the beast was no match and Ungrim sends the wicked spawn to his death. The dwarfs rally once more and push to help the Emperor kill Archaon.
Duke Jerrod rides in alongside Ludwig and Karl Franz directly into the Swords of Chaos, Archaon’s personal guard. As the battle continues, the combination of Bretonnian charges and Imperial gunnery barrages slaughters wave after wave of northmen, but alas more always come. Duke Jerrod lances and kills Skarr Bloodwrath (though he’ll be more important later) and continues the fight. The Emperor Karl Franz and Archaon begin their duel.

Balthasar Gelt arrives amongst the slaughter and moves to support the dwarfs. Refusing to give in to the desire to use Necromancy, he reached deep into the Wind of Chamon (Metal) and went to the Dwarfs aid, blasting the enemy with searing magic and bringing the Dwarfs Runework back to life to help them power through their enemies.

Meanwhile, the charge of the Emperor carried him onwards closer to Archaon. As the two became close to one another, Valkia descends from the sky and crashes into Ludwig Schwarzhelm, desiring to claim his skull for Khorne. The two battle and Ludwig appears to gain the upper-hand before Valkia dismounts and disarms him. As a final act of defiance, Ludwig brings the Imperial Standard up and impales Valkia on it as she charged and pierced his heart with her spear. Both die. Roughly at this point, the Emperor and Archaon finally charge one another.
The Dwarfs continue fighting with Gelt in their midst. After some moral deliberation, Gelt decides to take in the Wind of Metal he can feel gathering about him and becomes the Incarnate of Metal. At this point he begins to cast his ultimate spell, known as “The Crucible.”

Karl Franz and Archaon battle one another in a duel to decide the fate of all things. As Karl Franz unleashes lightning and Archaon unleashing the terrible sorceries of Tzeentch, hammer of lightning clashing against the Slayer of Kings, Deathclaw vying against Dorghor the battle around them raged. However, as the Emperor manages to score a blow on Archaon he leaves his own defenses open, which results in Archaon lashing out and managing to disable Deathwing, casting Karl Franz to the ground. Archaon rides down the Emperor and slashes a gash in the man’s shoulder before some dialogue takes place. This results in Archaon using the power of Tzeentch to strip the power of Azyr (Heavens) from Karl Franz and casting it back into the void. He then prepares to strike the killing blow, but this is the exact moment Gelt’s spell goes off.

The Crucible is a mighty spell that allows a sorcerer to turn those around him into living metal and then melt them, using the winds of magic to then teleport them to a new location where they then reform into normal flesh and blood, thus did the Imperial and Bretonnian forces receive a massive unexpected group of Dwarf reinforcements right in the center of the battle. The dwarfs crashed into the forces of Archaon’s host and just as Archaon brings his sword down to end Karl Franz, Ungrim Ironfist runs up and deflects the strike, then proceeds to beat Archaon back with a flurry of blows.

Despite this, Averheim has fallen and all who reside within are doomed to die no matter how hard they may fight at this point. Gelt summons a massive barrier of silver to protect the remaining defenders as they discuss a strategy. After a brief conversation, the allies of Order decide their best option is to flee, however not everyone will be able to be transported by Gelt’s spell. So Ungrim Ironfist offers that he and his slayer host from the World Edge Mountains will stand and fight till the very end. So Gelt teleports the remaining defenders south of the city and they all begin to flee towards Athel Loren. Ungrim Ironfist battles against Archaon’s hordes but despite having the Lore of Fire he falls and the lore escapes back into the world. With his death, Ironfist scorches Averheim and kills most everyone within.
Vlad marks the death of Ironfist but arrives too late to aid the Emperor and his allies, so he returns to Sylvania.

 

Sylvania

Nagash had returned to the bleak land and was now resting in his Black Pyramid set at the place of his recent resurrection as he continued to absorb the massive amounts of death magic he had gathered over the millennia. This attracted the attention of the Chaos Gods, who threw army after army at the bone walls protecting the former province only to fail time and time again without Nagash so much as getting up. The Chaos Gods knew that if Nagash finished absorbing all of the magic he held, it was quite likely the Great Necromancer would be able to take on the Four Greater Powers.

However, Grandfather Nurgle had one final great plan to enact to attempt to stop Nagash. He sent a massive plague army of daemons with three of his mightiest Greater Daemons of Nurgle led by none other than Isabella von Carstein, returned to unlife by Nurgle before Nagash could find her soul and had a daemon bound to her soul to corrupt her memories so the vampiress was convinced Vlad and the others hatred and used her. So with her new terrifying powers of a twisted union of undead and Nurgle’s life-giving corruption she led her force against Nagash.
Mannfred von Carstein moved to oppose her. The defenders held up in the Grim Moor and as the enemy came into sight it was clear the Undead massively outnumbered the daemons arrayed against them.

However, the Daemons of Nurgle had one other on their side in the shape of the Nameless, another one of Nagash’s Mortarchs turned to Chaos. He had possessed the body of Luther Huss (who was separated in the escape from Middenheim) and his mastery over the Undead was unmatched by any. So did the battle for Sylvania begin.
Eventually, Mannfred loses this fight and narrowly escapes, for so powerful has Isabella become that if she lays but a single touch upon a member of the undead, they shall rot from the inside and perish. So he retreats to the Dead and Buried, an inn closer towards Nagash’s pyramid where he is met by Vlad and Luthor Harkon the Pirate King (from our own shores).

The three mortrarchs battle against the tide of daemons and undead but are no match for the control of the Nameless over the shambling thousands of corpses and Isabella’s terrifying new power. Luthor and Manfredd destroy a Great Unclean One, but as they flee from Isabella Manfredd chops off Luthor’s arm and sends the Vampire back down where he fights but is ultimately killed by Isabella.

Vlad faces off against the Nameless in the body of Luthor Huss and the two battle for a time. Realizing that his side is losing, Vlad enacts a desperate plan in order to slay the Nameless, for although normally he probably could’ve handled the other Mortarch, Vlad still had the corrupted blade of the Glottkin coursing through his veins and stood little chance with such poison within him. However, it is at this point that Vlad uses his magic to bring back to life thousands of additional corpses.

The Nameless is amused by this and sends out his soul to gather up all of these various fragments, but as he does so the vampire taunts Luthor Huss for allowing himself to be taken over by the Nameless. Essentially calling Luthor everything from a false believer to a coward, the Warrior Priest becomes beyond enraged and finally breaks free of the Nameless’ control due to the spirit having spread its control over so many corpses and Vlad smashing at the defenses to give Huss a chance. As Luthor Huss becomes a raging inferno of holy light and fire from his rage, the Nameless has no where to run and is obliterated from existence. The two fight side by side out of desperation before Isabella manages to sneak up on Luthor and kill him, she then touches and brings down Vlad.

Manfredd returns to Sylvania to find Arkhan the Black has already raised an army of Undead. The Liche had low hopes for Manfredd and summoned the full might of Khemri and Sylvania to cast back Nurgle’s horde alongside Neferata, Khalida, Krell, and a number of other Tomb Kings and vampires. This massive battle begins outside of the Black Pyramid, where it has become clear Nurgle is attempting to rouse Nagash and destroy his pyramid.
After an extremely long battle and Isabella making her way towards the Pyramid to take down Nagash, Nagash finally gets irritated at all of the noise and comes out to direct the battle himself. During this time, a force of Skaven led by the somehow still alive Ikit Claw burrows into the Pyramid and is met with a defense force of Ushabati led by a Necromancer who brings battle to them. Above the fight continues to rage and eventually the Undead begin to gain a massive upper-hand, however Nurgle decides it’s time for dues ex machina.

Nurgle, the God himself, leans against his great Cauldron and spills his gifts onto the battlefield. A massive pool of green pus and slime covers the ground and plaguebearers begin to drag themselves out of it even as they dragged corpses beneath. Thus the battle continued to rage and many duels took place, until finally Nagash reveals himself.
About this time, Ikit Claw has prepared a few Warpbombs deep with the Black Pyramid as his forces hold of those of Varisoth the Necromancer. Realizing that his is losing, the ratman decides to abandon his entire army and flees back into the tunnels after he sets two bombs and hopes sympathetic explosions will do the trick. This causes the collapse of Nagash’s pyramid.

Enraged beyond words, Nagash unleashes a horrifyingly powerful spell that quite simply kills every single daemon in attendance and only Isabella escapes as she fled the moment the first explosion went off. Nagash resurrects all of his forces, leaves Neferata in control of Sylvania and leads his host towards Athel Loren to make common cause with what forces remain against the Dark Gods, for without his reservoir of Death Magic he no longer can face all of them alone.

 

Athel Loren

The final realm of the Elves found itself under a mighty siege despite the sheer power of the armies beneath the boughs. Slaanesh made his major move against some of the realms of the Wood Elves, the land of Arranac (the Summerglade) was twisted and cast into an eternal winter, and although saved by Dark Elves and fellow Wood elves, new portals to the Realm of Chaos opened all over and the region was abandoned. The realm of Anmyr fell to the hordes of Morghur as he rose once again to plague the asrai. Pretty much all of the realms were besieged in one way or another, including Drycha finally freely the mad ancient Coeddil and his cruel spirit host of dryads and treemen. He killed those sent to contain him until finally Alith Anar arrived and harried the spirit army enough to practically halt their advances.

Hellebron’s own forces fought as well, though before long her blood-crazed religion result in a tragic amount of elves killing one another during a fight against daemons, so Malekith and Alarielle chose to ban the Cult of Blood and exile Hellebron, which incensed the witch elf. Here she brooded upon her options and Be’lakor is revealed as he sneaks into her dreams and begins to poison the mind of Hellebron even further, warning that she will die at the hands of the Everqueen. The Crone Queen quickly gives into Chaos and pledges herself to the Dark Gods.

Meanwhile, the Lore of Fire continues wandering masterless, though a number of individuals do try to take it into themselves all fail with often deadly results. This is how Egrimm van Horstmann dies.

The surviving forces of Bretonnians, Dwarfs, and Imprerial forces continue to march for Athel Loren and are constantly abused by rogue monsters and greenskins, pursued by the greatest warriors of the Blood God led by the recently revived Skarr Bloodwrath (his special ability is he has a high likelihood of coming back to life repeatedly). Be’lakor attempts to sway Skarr to ally with him and hold off on pursuing the Emperor in favor of a more tactical approach, but Bloodwrath tells Be’lakor to screw off and pursues even faster to upset the Shadow Lord. As the Emperor’s forces enter Athel Loren they continue making way to find Elven allies while making certain not to chop any trees so as not to incur the wrath of the forest. Skarr and his men pursue into the forest, which immediately alerts the Elves to their presence. The forest and elves fell upon Skarr’s forces, but the Blood God’s wrath would not be so easily defeated and he continued to gain ground on the Emperor.

As the forces of Order reached the Chasm of Echoes, the dwarfs decide they’ve had enough of running and tell the humans to go on without them as the valley would be an optimal defensive position. Balthasar Gelt also stay with the Dwarfs to aid them, and the Dwarfs quite honestly believe he is blessed by Grungni due to his insane effect on Runes for just being near them (they don’t understand the lores business).

The dwarfs set up an impressive gunline and blast the charging enemy to bits over and over as they defend the narrow valley, but none-the-less the servants of Khorne continue to make progress. Skarr leads a charge to the dwarfs, but before he is able to make contact Gelt casts Final Transmutation and turns the chaos champion and much of his army into gold statues. However, now it’s Khorne’s turn for deus ex machina.

The Chaos God himself plunges his insanely huge sword into reality and cuts a massive flaming crevice through the battle. This blow insta-kills a number of dwarfs and also undoes Gelt’s spell bringing many Khornites back to life, including Skarr Bloodwrath again. The battle continues, but due to Khorne’s interference the Dwarfs are now trapped in a melee battle against a more powerful foe.

After a brief fight, Caradryan arrives with a host of Elves and crashes into the forces of Khorne, tipping the battle once more in the favor of Order. Skarr Bloodwrath attacks the Elf general and kills Ashtari, Caradryan’s frost phoenix, but the elf returns the favor by severing the celebrating champion’s spine. At this point the elf is mobbed by warriors, but in his moment of vengeful rage the Lore of Fire sees him as a host and binds itself to him, rebirthing
Caradryan and his phoenix Ashtari (now a Flame phoenix) and crushing the forces of Khorne.

During this fight Be’lakor makes his moves and binds the daemons of the Vault of Winter to his aid, he also meets with Drycha and Coeddil and convinces the spirit host to join him, then gathering Hellebron’s forces he makes his move. Be’lakor causes Naieth the Prophetess of the Wood Elves to be consumed by a Chaos portal and die as she was far-seeing about Archaon and the Daemon Prince alerted the Everchosen to her observation, leading to her destruction.

As daemons from the Vault of Winter poured out of the place were Naeith once lived, Hellebron’s army swarmed towards the Oak of Ages while Drycha and Coeddil launch their assault as well from the hidden paths of the forest, causing a three-pronged attack on the ancient tree.

A massive battle erupts in the glade as the Host of Shadow (Malekith) and the Host of Life (Alarielle) stand to fight back the forces of Be’lakor. To the east the forces of Hellebron fought those of Naestra & Arahan, to the north Malekith waged against Slaanesh’s Carnival of Silence, and finally to the south Alarielle and Durthu fought against Drycha and Coeddil’s forces.

During the epic battle, Durthu slays his ancient brother Coeddil as the ancient treeman attempts to slay Alarielle. The Carnival of Silence is mostly butchered by Malekith and he turns his attention elsewhere during the battle. Hellebron leads her forces towards Alarielle recklessly, exposing her flanks and getting her own forces slaughtered though she somehow still manages to make headway. During the battle Shadowblade falls from the Oak of Ages to kill Malekith, but the Eternity King was ready for him and after a battle atop Seraphon’s back Malekith kills Shadowblade. However, he did manage to poison Malekith and although the Incarnate of Shadow built up a resistance enough to survive, he is still weakened.

Hellebron begins to make notable progress and advances on Alarielle while Drycha engages the poisoned Malekith and pushing him back. With all notable threats engaged, Be’lakor finally enters the fray and goes to the Oak of Ages, where he plunges his claws into the tree and begins to corrupt it. This causes all of the forest spirits in attendance to cry out in pain and collapse under the sheer suffering, and Drycha tries to save the Oak, but Malekith beheads her as she turns away from him.

Thinking he’s won, Be’lakor begins to laugh until a bright light issues forth from the rent in the tree and burns him. The Daemon Prince backs away and to his horror and elf rises out of the wound in the great tree. Stepping forth from the light is the reason Teclis stole the Flame of Ulric, the corpse of Ariel, the Wind of Light, and the body of Tyrion.

Tyrion, Incarnate of Light, stepped forth from the Oak of Ages and engages Be’lakor.

The Daemon Prince quickly realizes he’s outmatched and sighted so he flees the battle. Imrik arrives with reinforcements and the rest of the aggressing forces are crushed. Be’lakor and Hellebron both escape.
The Elves meet a quick council to decide the fate of Tyrion. Teclis reveals his entire plan and manages to convince the council of elves thanks to help from Lileath (elven goddess that is also the Lady of the Lake) and the council accepts Tyrion on to their side.

At this point Caradryan arrives with the force of Bretonnians, Imperials, and Dwarfs he assisted and after some deliberation the council of elves decides to welcome them into Athel Loren. The next council gathering then included the Emperor, who seemed to have some unknown relationship with Tyrion, Duke Jerrod of Quenelles, and the Runelord Gotri Hammerson. After some brief discussion, word comes that a terrifyingly massive army of Undead has arrived on the border of the forest led by none other than Nagash himself.

As the army of Elves, Men, and Dwarfs combine their forces for a battle, Manfredd von Carstein is sent to tell the leaders of the gathered host that Nagash wishes to parley.

After a great debate about whether or not to allow Nagash to join them (the entire conversation of which Arkhan and Manfredd spoke for Nagash because the Great Necromancer knew he was strong enough to give the gathered 6 incarnates a hard time if they forced his hand and considered them too insignificant to speak to) the incarnates eventually agree to allow Nagash on to their council and so the Council of Incarnates is formed and meets for the first time.

However, in order to gain the trust of the Incarnates, Nagash speaks up and offers to give them the one responsible for the death of Aliathra (Tyrion and Alarielle’s daughter) and so he hands over Manfredd von Carstein. Manfredd is imprisoned beneath the Oak of Ages to have his life sapped away and spent forgotten as the fate of the world is decided. After being sealed away, Vlad (who we discover survived thanks to his ring and now is purified of the Glottkin’s corruption) visits Manfredd and basically warns his remaining son to stay down there or perhaps do something sensible for once before leaving, leaving Manfredd enraged.

The Council meets and debates various ideas on how to handle the threat posed by Archaon Everchosen and each member has differing ideas and they are constantly at an impasse. The council briefly halts to deal with the final invasion by Morghur, and as Imrik and other Incarnates struggle to hold back the tide of Beastmen and Daemons, Nagash comes forward and pretty much obliterates the entire army with a single move stunning much of the Council and reminding them all he’s still in another league. There also appears to be a curious relationship between Nagash and Karl Franz.

Deep within the Oak of Ages, Be’lakor appears from the shadow to speak with Manfredd. The Daemon Prince offers freedom if Mannfred will sign over his soul, but the vampire refuses. Instead, he offers information he learned just before Nagash imprisoned and handed him over when Lileath was trying to convince the Incarnates to heed her advice by giving all of her Elven Goddess names. Be’lakor, desiring the blood of a goddess, frees Mannfred and goes after Lileath.

Mannfred, however, decides he would rather cheat the Daemon of his prize, so he goes to Duke Jerrod and reveals to the Bretonnian that his Lady was none other than Lileath of the Elves and their people had been manipulated from the very beginning. Jerrod bursts his way into a Council meeting and demands to speak to Lileath alone, to which she ascends.

Duke Jerrod demands an explanation, but to his horror finds out that Mannfred spoke true. Bretonnia was created by an Elven God as a way to provide cattle to protect the Elven nations. She manipulated the Bretonnians, allowed them all to be murdered and destroyed, and denied them the chance of having any real pantheon so she could accomplish her own selfish goals. She tries to convince him that his entire nation’s sacrifice was not in vain as the souls of all deceased Bretonnians were denied death and actually went on to defend the world that Lileath created for her daughter and Araloth. This only enrages Jerrod as he is disgusted to learn that even in death she continues to use and manipulate them.

Sadly for Lileath (who if you can’t tell I despise for being a bitch) Be’lakor learns of this hidden realm as he is in the shadows listening to the entire conversation. As Jerrod decides he is going to kill Lileath for her abuse of his people, the daemon surges forth to take Lileath for himself. In a moment of chivalrous nature, the Duke decides to defend Lileath and battles against the daemon Prince. He suffers injuries, but him and Lileath are saved as Tyrion and Malekith ride up and capture Be’lakor within a prison of light and shadow.

At this point Jerrod reports to the rest of the Bretonnians what he has learned. In defiance of Lileath’s last request of him, the Duke refuses to stand by the Incarnates and rides out of Athel Loren. While leaving he meets Vlad and the vampire sends two of his own to guide the Bretonnians to a Abbey in the Grey Mountains where news has spread Gilles le Breton is making his final stand against the apocalypse. Also riding alongside King Breton is none other than the legendary vampire Abhornash, first of the Blood Dragons. The two legendary knights are fighting side by side to try and save that part of the world. Thus do the Bretonnians ride out to aid their King and their part in this tale ends.
Vlad brings with him to Athel Loren Eldyra, Tyrion’s student who was captured by Mannfred and Lileath revealed to have become the Elven Goddess of death reincarnated. She was the one who created Lileath’s Haven using the thousands upon thousands of souls perished from Ulthuan’s destruction as its foundation. She has grown sick of her existence and begs Tyrion to kill her, which he does much to Vlad’s irritation.

A lot of dialogue happens before the council meets again, but now their final challenge assaults Athel Loren. During a purging of more Beastmen, Imrik is killed as the Blood Hunt, Khorne’s most powerful force of daemons, erupts into Athel Loren with orders from Archaon to take Karl Franz’s skull and bring his flesh to the Everchosen.
While this force marches towards the Kingsglade, the Incarnates interrogate Be’lakor. Without much prompting (cause he hates Archaon more than anyone) Be’lakor reveals the plan of the Lord of Chaos. Archaon had found an artifact deep within the rock Middenheim was built upon. If the artifact from the time of the Old Ones were to be activated and abused by the servants of Chaos, it could be detonated to form a new entrance to the Realm of Chaos right there in Middenheim. This would unbalance the world’s geometric grid that has held the Realm of Chaos in check all of these millennia. With this new portal opened, Chaos would consume all. Be’lakor for punishment is sealed within a ruby on the Everqueen’s crown so that he may never return to the Realm of Chaos and inform them of the Incarnates plans.

At this point the Bloodhunt quite literally bursts unto the scene and a massive fight begins. Ka’Bandha (the Bloodthirster Archaon summoned) leads the hunt against the gathered force of the Incarnates. With their armies spread out, the Incarnates are hard pressed to defend themselves and an insane battle breaks out with the Incarnates slowly but surely losing more and more ground.

Just before this battle Lileath revealed to Teclis everything she had done, for she had led to the doom of most of the world in the hopes to cripple the Chaos Gods enough to protect her new world and she strongly believed there was no hope to defeat the Gods. Teclis did not know this and felt rage and despair at her deception. Despite this, Lileath gets her just deserts because she realizes that the Haven has vanished from her sight and seems to have been somehow lost or destroyed, so all of her manipulation was for nothing.

In a final desperate act, Lileath commands Teclis to kill her and use her power to teleport all of the Incarnates to Middenheim so that they may stop Archaon. Reluctantly, he agrees and kills Lileath, using what was left of her godly power to teleport all of the Incarnates.

 

Middenheim

Teclis’ spell works and teleports all of the Incarnates and their respective armies to Middenheim, though the bad news is that they’re all spread out from one another, but each incarnate starts to push forward towards the center of the city where Archaon dug a giant pit in the ground.

Teclis had the unfortunate luck of teleporting himself directly into Archaon’s throne room and is captured by the Everchosen. Here he sees all of Archaon’s gathered champions. Mannfred and Hellebron have both come to pledge allegiance to Archaon as well as another mysterious figure from the far south… Also in attendance are individuals such as the shamed Throgg who lost Praag to Gotrek and Felix, but managed to survive his fall at the end of that book, Sigvald the Magnificient, a Verminlord, and various other champions. Each are sent out to engage the Incarnates armies.

This seems like a good time to mention that for some random reason that probably had to do with the writer of Thanquol not understanding what was going on, Thanquol is killed by Archaon after the invasion of Middenheim (off-screen) and it’s assumed most of the Council and all other prominent Skaven die as well off screen.

Malekith

The Eternity King battles against the Verminlord and his army, but is lured into a trap where he realizes too late that the Skaven have led another invading force to the fight, but this is none other than the Incarnate of Beasts accidentally picked up by Teclis and so Grimgor Ironhide and his Beast WAAAGH!!! of Ogres and Greenskins floods into the fight against both sides.

During the battle, Malekith is almost killed by Skaven Assassins, but it saved by none other than Grombrindal (the White Dwarf) and Malekith realizes it’s his oldest and only friend Snorri Whitebeard. The Eternity King gets slapped by a cold dose of guilt at what he did to the dwarfs, but Snorri leaves to continue fighting without many words said between the two.

Malekith fights Grimgor and after a round realizes he’s going to lose this fight so he comes up with another plan. During the fight Malekith comes before Grimgor and offers his sword, saying that Grimgor is vastly superior and all of Elves surrender to his might. This pleases the orc quite a bit, and he accepts the Elves into his WAAAGH!!! However, upon being informed that Archaon called him a weakling, the Orc Warlord gets angry and murders all of the Skaven as he pushes forward towards Archaon.

Nagash

The Great Necromancer arrives with his massive army and immediately begins slaughtering his way through Archaon’s defenses. After winning fairly easily, he suddenly finds himself against a massive horde of Slaanesh daemonettes and the battle becomes a grind. Krell goes up toe to toe against Sigvald the Magnificent. Arkhan also directs most of Nagash’s forces as the Incarnate of Death unleashes horrific powers against the enemy.

The duel with Krell and Sigvald reaches a climax and the Wight King manages to disarm Sigvald and scratches the Chaos champions shield before then tearing off a piece of his face. With his looks being his greatest source of pride, Sigvald upon seeing himself in his mirror shield goes into a rage and slams Krell to the ground before beating the wight to death with his fists, breaking all of his fingers and mangling his form. As he cries out to the Gods in despair, Throgg walks up behind him and crushes the prince of Slaanesh for trying to kill them earlier since Sigvald would rather betray the Troll King than work with him. Throgg battles against Arkhan, but eventually Nagash comes up and kills the troll with a single blow.

A giant lumbers up to strike Nagash, but the giant is butchered by none other than Settra the Imperishable! Settra demands Nagash go and kill the Chaos Gods for offending him because Settra refuses to serve anyone and the Gods were presumptuous in thinking he would work for them in order to have his revenge on Nagash. So Arkhan and Settra hold back the tides while Nagash continues on towards the center of the city.

Allarielle

The Everqueen, greatly weakened from Athel Loren taking so much damage earlier, finds herself greatly weakened as a horde of Khornite followers led by Hellebron comes bearing down on her host. Durthu leads the charge and the titanic battle begins in earnest. Vlad arrives but decides not to get involved unless it looks as though the Everqueen might stand a chance, which at the moment she doesn’t appear to. However…

Balthasar Gelt

With a massive explosion, the walls around the Host of Life explode, the debris crushing scores of Khornites as the dwarfs march forward with Gotri Hammerson and Balthasar at their head. Dwarfen war machines eradicate entire sections of Hellebrons host and the dwarfs rush in, cutting the Crone Queen’s forces in half. Durthu leaves Allarielle’s side and her request to go kill a massive Bloodthirster, which he does quite easily.

However, as the treeman leaves her side, Hellebron finally fights her way up to Aliathra. Hellebron stabs her, but before the killing blow can land the Everqueen puts a hand to Hellebron’s head and cures the elf of her madness. In the confusion as she realizes what she’s done over the last few thousand years, Allarielle uses Hellebron’s own dagger to kill the Crone Queen.

Allarielle collapses and in a rage Durthu comes over and wrecks havoc on the Khornites’s line. Vlad comes in and begins to resurrect bodies as he fights his way through. In a final act, Durthu decides to give all of his life to restore the energy within the Everqueen, restoring her to life. This sacrifice is the death of the ancient treeman (who was probably the age of the eldest slann, possibly older) but brings back Allarielle with much of her power. However, they’re still overwhelmed so the dwarfs tell Balthasar Gelt to go and they’ll hold the line.

Balthasar grabs Allarielle and the two of them go riding towards the center of the city and leave their armies behind to hold back the tide. Vlad climbs a building and finds Isabella and Mannfred awaiting him. Mannfred flees, and the two lovers engage in their final battle. Vlad battles Isabella and decides he can’t stand seeing her blinded by a daemon of Nurgle.

In his final move, Vlad puts his ring of resurrection on a finger of Isabella and casts both of them from the wall, where they both have their hearts impaled by a stake at the bottom. The familiarity of this death is not lost on Vlad. So passes Vlad von Carstein in an effort to save the one his loves.

The Dwarfs, like the awesome badasses they are, plant their standards and prepare for the final battle that they are fairly certain their going to lose. As they prime their weapons for their last stand, the White Dwarf, Snorri Whitebeard, First High King of the Dwarfs appears and joins Gotri Hammerson and the Zhufbar Dwarfs. As he stands there, much to the living dwarfs amazement, the High King calls upon every Dwarf to stand in their shield wall one last time to defend the world. So comes forth every fallen Dwarf hero; Ungrim Ironfist, Throgrim Grudgebearer, King Alfrik of Karak Hirn, Runelord Thorek Ironbrow, Kragg the Grim, and Snorri Whitebeard standing on a shield held by Josef Bugman and Gotrek Gurnisson. The dwarfs sing proudly as their enemy charges and the folk of the mountains make their last stand.

Caradryan

The Incarnate of Fire finds himself almost immediately besieged by a massive horde of Chaos servants, but in a moment of reasonable brilliance spreads out the lore of Fire to all of his army which makes him only stronger as when fire spreads it grows more intense. He leads his force in an epic fight though much to his irritation none other than Ka’Bandha arrives to bring him to battle. The Incarnate of Fire is little match for the Blodthirster how in the battle of Athel Loren was able to hold off multiple Incarnates at once. Without aid he will fall, however…

Tyrion and Karl Franz

The Emperor and Tyrion appeared roughly right next to one another and the two quickly combined their cavalry forces and smashed their way through waves of enemies. Tyrion power of Light magic is the antithesis to Chaos and so he was the best Incarnate at clearing through hordes of enemies without slowing.
The two ride to the aid of Caradryan and the battle against Ka’Bandha begins in earnest. However, even the 3 are no match and Karl Franz gets blasted through a ceiling into the throne room Archaon was using before the Everchosen descended to guard the artifact. Caradryan is killed as Ka’Bandha crushes his chest under a hoof, and so passes the Incarnate of Fire…again.

As Tyrion struggles to hold off Ka’Bandha, all of the other Incarnates arrive except for Malekith and Grimgor. However, within the former temple of Ulric the Emperor finds none other than Ghal Maraz itself, and the Daemon Prince Azazel who he kills with a single blow.

With his hammer returned, the lightning of Azyr comes surging back into the Emperor and he steps out to confront Ka’Bandha who had begun to battle Nagash. Walking out of the dust, it is revealed the Emperor is no longer Karl Franz…for the true Karl Franz died when he was struck down by the Glottkin’s blade…

Sigmar Heldenhammer has returned

The first Emperor of man had been cast in the Wind of Azyr upon his death by Tzeentch and had been trapped in the Vortex of the Elves all of these millennia watching his Empire struggle from a distance as much like Caledor Dragontamer he was damned to that eternal magic siphon. However, when Teclis undid the Vortex the wind surged and entered the dying body of Karl Franz, which Sigmar Heldenhammer was able to then take.

Sigmar walks up to the Bloodthirster Ka’Bandha and kills the previously unstoppable creature in but two swift blows. He makes small talk with the Incarnates and they descend into the depths after Archaon.

As a quick note on Grimgor Ironhide, he had been rather busy during the End Times. Grimgor went east and gathered up his forces, allying with Da Great Green Prophet Wurzag and leading his forces where he destroyed Cathay and much of Ind. He broke the Great Wall and killed the Jade Dragon Emperor. Then crossing the Mountains of Mourn he came across Greasus Goldtooth the Overtyrant and killed the ogre lord with his own weapon, then he slaughtered all of the Ogre Kingdoms special characters and the Ogres decided to bow to him as during this fight the Wind of Ghur entered him. Grimgor then allied with Golgfag Maneater and the Beasts WAAAGH!!! went on to destroy all of the Chaos Dwarf holds, including Zharr Naggrund. Then he and a large portion of his force teleported to middenheim.

The Incarnates battle through massive amounts of Skaven and finally come to the chamber, where the artifact has already mostly awakened and time is running terribly short. The Chaos Gods each send a host of daemons, though it is noted that Slaanesh sends his worst Keeper of Secrets because he didn’t really want the world to end.

 

The Final Battle

The incarnates clash against Archaon’s Swords of Chaos and his daemonic forces. Grimgor’s Da Immortalz (his black orcs) slam into Archaon’s forces while Nagash’s undead horde rage against the daemons. Teclis is freed by Malekith and regains his equipment so he joins the battle to decide the fate of the world.

Grimgor finally comes face to face with Archaon and the two begin their rather infamous rematch (after the horribleness that was the Storm of Chaos) and the battle is insane as Grimgor is clearly far superior in strength to Archaon. During the fight, Grimgor headbutts Archaon, crushing the Eye of Sheerian which removes Archaon’s ability to see the future for dodging and takes away his magical prowess. Archaon releases the Daemon within his blade and finally manages to best Grimgor, cutting the orc down and casting the Lore of Beasts out.

Sigmar then moves forward and Archaon and the Emperor of mankind finally have their true duel. Archaon tries to strip the lore of Heavens again, but with Ghal Maraz in his hands Sigmar’s too powerful, plus Archaon losing the Eye of Sheerian crippled his magic capabilities. The two engage in the world’s last duel, trading blows as Dorghor and Deathclaw try to slaughter one another.

Sigmar tells Archaon (calling him his given name of Diederick Kastner) that had he remained pure he would have banished Chaos forever from the world, but instead he was weak and gave into daemons and the Dark Gods. Archaon, enraged, refuses to acknowledge him as a god and strikes down Deathclaw. Sigmar returns the favor and kills Dorghor with a blow from his hammer.

The duel continues and after his shield is destroyed by Sigmar, Archaon manages to disarms the Emperor and gloats as he goes in for the final blow…

Sigmar resolutely quotes the end of the prophecy that drove Archaon to madness, which tells that the Everchosen would be defeated by a Hero of Light. Saying this, Sigmar forms the shape of the two-tailed comet with his hand and generates a massive amount of lightning from it before grabbing the Slayer of Kings by the blade. With a daemonic shriek, the blade shatters into hundreds of fragments and Archaon is left defenseless.

Sigmar roars with divine fury and punches Archaon twice, sending the Everchosen off a cliff into an endless chasm.

At this point the Incarnates gather round the expanding portal into a new realm of Chaos as the device successfully has been activated to detonate. Using their massive energies and wills, the incarnates manage to cage the expanding portal. Teclis takes both the lores of Fire and Beasts into himself, which begins to literally tear him apart, but he refuses to give in. Slowly, but surely, the Incarnates begin to bring the portal under control and start reducing it in size.

At this point Mannfred shows up and has a decision to make. If he aids the Incarnates and takes either Fire or Beasts into himself it is quite likely they will be able to seal the portal and save the world. Or he can give in to the Chaos Gods and doom the world.

Big surprise, Mannfred in his damned selfishness decides he’d rather serve Chaos than Nagash or help the world survive. He walks up behind Balthasar Gelt and impales the man from behind, killing him instantly and losing the Wind of Metal. Teclis tries to take in this third wind but is consumed and burns to ash in the process. Mannfred attempts to consume the portal itself, but he’s far too inferior and the portal mutates his eyes to make him go blind. Tyrion then approaches the Vampire and impales him from behind and uses his sword to light Mannfred on fire from the inside, giving the bastard a painful death though he deserved worse.

The portal expands in a shockwave a consumes all magic from the gathered Incarnates. This cripples Sigmar for so much of his essence is bound to the lore of Heavens. Nagash attempts to overpower the forces of Chaos, but even with his monstrous willpower he eventually fails and goes roaring into the abyss and he disintegrates to dust.
A falling boulder falls to crush Allarielle, but for reasons never expressed Malekith pushes her out of the way and his leg is crushed instead. Sigmar gets up to help Malekith, but never makes it…

Archaon hurls himself over the cliff edge as he climbed back up and slams into Sigmar. Both heavily wounded and exhausted, they battle over the Ghal Maraz and both of them go hurtling over the precipice into oblivion wrestling over the hammer.

Tyrion and Allarielle hold hands standing by Malekith as the portal explodes and consumes them all.

Arkhan meets with Neferata outside in Middenheim. There’s enough time for him to tell her that Settra died saving him and they both find Isabella von Carstein, purified of the daemon that has possessed her and warped so much of her. Neferata and Arkhan share a moment as ancient lovers before Arkhan reveals he has discovered that the curse Aliathra (the Everchild) put on him before he killed her wasn’t a curse at all, but a gift. This gift allowed him to give great power to a certain individual within the new portal, so he stayed behind as Neferata and Isabella fled back to Sylvania to give this power.

Khalida, Neferata, and Isabella all stand side by side as the new portal slowly consume everything in the Warhammer world. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and nothing to be done. So those left hold close together and face the end on a united front.

Chaos consumes the entire world and it turns into a disgusting, cancerous looking ball floating out in space. After the world is consumed the Chaos Gods grow bored and leave to begin the Great Game elsewhere on other planets of their choosing.

However…

In leaving so early the Chaos Gods failed to notice a small pinprick of light within the darkness that was once the world. The core of the planet, a small cold sphere of endless light, remained as did a mysterious figure who tumbled down through nothingness for what may have been an eternity. He saw the light and gripped on to it with the force to shatter mountains. After a time he regained his memories, his strength, and his name. With an act of all of his strength, he focused all that remained of himself onto the orb of light.

“And in the void, a miracle took place.”

“It was the End Times.”

“But it was also the beginning…”

The End.

 

I probably misspelled a bunch a words and know I probably goofed up a number of Vampire Count names, but I'm exhausted so deal with it! Hope y'all enjoyed.

Also parts I forgot to add that weren't super important.

The Beastman special character Moonclaw takes over Averheim after Archaon retreats north.

Wendel Volker, the guy Ulric resides in, plays a moderately significant role in the end. He tries to kill Teclis upon finding the elf in Athel Loren and basically informs the council and Sigmar what Teclis did. Sigmar doesn't really forgive Teclis, but he understands why the wizard did it. Ulric continues to fight and makes it down to the final battle with Archaon. He gives Sigmar time to call the lightning to strike down Archaon as the God of Winter wraps his arms around the Everchosen's legs, disabling the chaos lord long enough to allow Sigmar to strike him down.

Important things to note is that this author clearly tried to wrap up all the really weird lose ends that the pervious authors used, the Thanquol was extremely bad about this. The Nagash author had the last page dedicated to Settra's resurrection, only for Settra to come back for one page in the little book as he's not even mentioned in the main version. Thanquol and Boneripper are killed off-screen by Archaon despite being one of the three main characters of Thanquol....and getting his name own an entire part of the End Times. Would've much rather he died fighting Gotrek and Felix or the last of the Dwarfs. We never find out about Verminking or the other multitude of Skaven special characters that survive part 4. Seems the Skaven writer was very misinformed and an idiot, which is befitting I suppose.

No alternate realities survive this book. Honestly I'm suspicious that Games Workshop decided to change their original plan of creating alternative worlds due to community backlash. They set up well for the "bubble" theory with the first 4 books, but then Part 5 showed up and killed off every bubble idea off screen...which was really strange considering almost the entire premise of End Times: Khaine was creating this new world for the Elves to continue to grow in.

But who knows, we'll find out in a little over a month so till then I guess we'll just have to chill and see what happens. I'll gladly answer any questions here. Hope you all enjoyed.

 

Firstly, wow! Thank you for this review - it clearly took a lot of time and energy and you've written it very well. I really appreciate the effort.

Secondly, I have no inclination to go back to Warhammer Fantasy if this is any indication of what we can expect from future fluff. I've not been impressed by most of this 'End Times' writing and story and it's just getting worse. Thank god it's over. I am living in in the vain hope that this will all be discounted and we can return to an actual story and world which follows rules and doesn't just throw in c*** and lame story-telling techniques every few minutes. Seriously, this level of writing is dire and I hope that's why they're actively advertising for fluff writers.

 

Thanks Overlord. Once again you did a fantastic job of retelling the story. I am curious to see what happens in 9th. Thanks again!

 

TL; DR

However, I do appreciate that you've put alot of effort in this. Many big, shiny, expensive kudos to you.
I like summaries

 

Read it. Thanks, Overlord, you've obviously put a lot of effort into this; I've been trying to find an extensive summary of the fluff for ages.

Just a shame no LM characters made it into the final book. I'd always imagined Tenhenhuan would play a far more significant role...

 

If you enjoy these summaries of the End Times, be sure to hit the Like buttons under each post! Also would there be any interest in me writing books 1-3?

 

Thanks for summarising / spoilering the whole mess. I gave up reading or being bothered about the fluff at the 5/6 retcon transition. GW has inspired me to become a bullet points only sort of gamer.

Where are the Chaos Gods wandering off to if there are no alternate realities / other planets?

So, bottom line for Warhammer's planet, it:
a) blew up into a bajillion pieces; there is a ring or asteroid belt remaining
b) was swallowed by a chaos portal / warp rift thing; the orbit is largely clean & empty
c) there is nothing left but a shining metal core; which may or may not be on the original orbit
d) ????

I hope they don't hire new fluff writers or waste money or time writing new back story.

• I have an army of Lizards; its home base is a lost city in a steamy, swampy jungle...
• The End.

 

I have 2 questions, but first of all GRAT JOB fellow saurian, you are trully a loremaster.


1. What is this treachery that Lileath did witch angeered Teclis in such a way?

2. I'm very interested in the ogre part of the book (they are my second army), in what way are they mentioned, how did grimgor defeat Greasus and all other named characters and so fort...

 

I'm pretty sure it's not all realities that are lost, especially considering that GW has made efforts to drop in easter eggs linking WFB with 40k. My interpretation is that now the Warhmmaer World has been sucked into the Realm of Chaos all that's left is a portal into Chaos, or it's become a particularly potent Daemon Planet. The 'Lord of The End Times' book does mention stars going out, but I thought that was from the perspective for the last surviving people on the world as they're consumed by Chaos.

Correction: you have an army of Lizards; its home base is a lost city in a steamy, swampy jungle in space!

Lileath encouraged Teclis to employ his scheme by making him think there was some hope of saving the world, when she didn't believe it herself and just wanted to create the Haven whilst the rest of the elves, and the world, sacrificed themselves so as to stave off Chaos a little longer.

 

Thanks for this. Great read and very detailed. Quite the soapopera -stylish plot they have created for this End Times.

Just one thought, as it was mentioned that the chaos gods left maybe they will instead squat the WoC book...?
Seriously though, thanks a bunch!

BR
Agrem

 

My thanks! I really should change my name to Loremaster of Serpents, hahaha. Anyway...

1. Lileath lied to Teclis in that she tricked him into believing that everything he had done was to defeat the Chaos Gods. Lileath however knew this was impossible and instead of planning properly so that they might be actually defeated she assumed the forces of Order would lose so told Teclis to do all of the terrible things he did (lead to Tyrion's death, destroy the Vortex and Ulthuan, doom Middenheim to destruction by stealing Ulric's flame, etc.). It's briefly mentioned that had Lileath not lied to Teclis it is possible other options would have been taken, such as leaving the flame of Ulric intact which likely would have protected Middenheim and turned that fight in to a drawn out siege perhaps the forces of Order could have broken. These alternate choices may well have allowed a chance to kill the very Chaos Gods themselves had the Incarnates banded up to fight them, but Lileath was convinced they would fail so she sacrificed everyone for her own selfish desire of protecting "The Haven" (her new world where her daughter and Araloth went). This is why Teclis felt betrayed, much like the Bretonnians, she used him.

2. The Ogres mention is exceptionally brief and only in the fluff book that comes with the main ones. Grimgor ran into Greasus Goldtooth's army as the orcs were heading east towards the Mountains of Mourn and Greasus was going west to chase down everyone that thought they could leave his kingdom without notice. The two armies clashed and in the end Grimgor killed the Over-tyrant by smashing the Ogre's skull with Greasus' own weapon. He then faced off and killed the other leaders of the army (the other special characters) and killed those he perceived as challenging him from his own faction (including Borgut, his right-hand orc). After he killed Greasus is when the wind of Ghur (Beasts) bound to him. He then went on his mad rampage with a combined army of Greenskins, Ogres, and Giants and conquered Nippon, Cathay, and the Dark Lands. (Throwing down the Chaos Dwarfs thanks to Golgfag Maneater, who I have no idea how he got from Karak Eight Peaks collapsing to east of the World Edge Mountains)

 

You're welcome! And man I hope they squat Warriors, haha, but I doubt it. It's quite likely in whatever fashion humans return so will chaos, but then again who knows it may just be Daemons/Beastmen for a time. It is presented in the last page that a number of Chaos champions may have ascended or been crushed by the Dark Gods, but due to the insanity of the end it is unknowable...at least til 9th occurs.

 

I may have accidentally confused you, but I didn't mean to suggest that ALL alternate realities and planets were destroyed by the Chaos Gods. Otherwise my near last statement of the Chaos Gods moving on to begin the Great Game anew on other planets wouldn't make much sense! The warhammer world itself is destroyed, but what I meant was that also destroyed was all of the other realities warhammer entities CREATED in order to survive the End Times, such as Lileath's "Haven" for the Elves. It is not clear how, but these were all apparently destroyed just before the final battle in Middenheim.

Also, it is mostly option B. The warhammer world (there's a picture of it which makes it pretty clear cut) turns into a new planet sized Realm of Chaos opening in the void of space. This results in the planet looking like a massive dark red...tumor would be the easiest way to describe it. However in the darkness of what once was our world the entity that is likely Sigmar found the planet's core (though I think it's referring to a more spiritual core or something the Old Ones left behind rather than the planet's literal core, but that's up for interpretation) and that's what he latches onto and uses to create "The Miracle".

And shush, I'm excited for the new backstory explaining how everything goes down. I've enjoyed the End Times and I think most would if they had the money and time (which most understandably don't) to sit down and read all 5 and their additional books. The Lizardmen will most likely return from the stars (assuming we're not fighting across planets or something I can't foresee yet) and I'm curious what will have changed about them in the centuries following the End Times.

 

They will never squat warriors of chaos. Odds are that the chaos factions will be combined, but warriors will definitely be a part of it. The only way Chaos gets squatted is if warhammer itself is squatted.

 

Lizardmen confirmed for 40k