Stormcast Eternals

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"To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty."

-Maximilien Robespierre

The Stormcast Eternals are the primary type of soldiers used by Sigmar in order to fight Chaos during the Age of Sigmar, and thus are the posterboys of the new line.

Fans of Warhammer consider them something akin to space marines given their similarities in fluff (An elite military force of engineered super-soldiers, personally designed by a god-ruler to be his warriors to combat unfathomably terrifying Lovecraftian horrors that normal men would simply despair at.) and model design (Namely thick/all-enclosing armor with heug pauldrons; Because any god ruler knows that the size of one's pauldrons is directly proportional to how awesome they are.), often using the term "Sigmarines" to refer to them. Additionally, given their non-spaceborne nature, they can also be hilariously referred to as "Ground Marines".

What are the Stormcast Eternals?

They are made from mortal warriors taken away by the God-King Sigmar and augmented with mystic energies and given fancy new weapons and armour made of Sigmarite. The universal trait to all the Eternals is that they opposed Chaos whenever it appeared, though certain chambers work on details like faith or vengeance.

Curiously enough, Eternals can be both male and female and not necessarily human, although the only named characters presented so far were originally male humans and a single male undead skeleton. Considering that the process of making a Stormcast is more mystical than any genetic modifications and that the person in question will not eventually remember who they are in the end, it is very likely that any non-Chaos mortal could become one. The only real specific that is considered is that the undead tend to become Lord-Relictors, who are able to see the spirits and thus are able to anchor his kin to Sigmar's Realm of Azyr. That said, however, the Eternal part of their name is rather relative: Their souls are constantly coveted by Nagash because he's too greedy and the supply of Sigmarite is limited, with each reforging taking more supplies and more of the Stormcast's memories are lost.

Aside from stomping Chaos, their main goal is uncovering the Realmgates: Portals to other Realms. By securing them, they gain another route back to Azyr or to any of the other realms, so a small retinue of Stormcasts has to stay behind to guard it.

Rank and Military

When each mortal is reforged, they are immediately put into a strenuous training ritual meant to hone them into superhuman hammer-swinging engines of holy war. Once the big man is satisfied, he then groups them into Stormhosts, the equivalents of Space Marine Chapters, and there they train with each other in a massive coliseum that Malerion gifted him back when there was an alliance. These stormhosts are then broken into Chambers (Companies) with each having several conclaves organized by specialty.

Lords Celestant: The top dogs in the chambers, these are the mightiest of heroes among the Chambers, gifted a larger portion of Sigmar's power in order to become great leaders. Some opt to fun with hammers and swords, while other find Dracoths (Giant dragons that shoot lightning).
Lords Relictor: Usually undead and wizards, these guys are able to see the spiritual realm, the souls that swirl around. Their job is to use their skeletal relics to anchor the Stormcasts to Azyr so their souls don't accidentally end up Daemon chow or part of Nagash's kindgom of skellingtons.
Lords Castellant: These guys are support-based, their tests involving conquering their fears. If successful, they get a pet Gryph-hound and a special warding lantern that illuminates his fellow Sigmarines and incinerates Chaos.
Knights Heraldor: These guys have giant horns that shoot lightning. Because STORMS.
Knights Vexillor: Unlike the other jobs, these guys are actually chosen in a contest. A shitton of Stormcasts enter the Coliseum, smack each other to not-quite death (The Coliseum makes sure everyone leaves refreshed because...Malerion didn't have a mood swing when he made it). The winner gets to hold an awesome standard.
Knights Azyros: The closets thing to Scout Leaders, these guys have lanterns to help illuminate the realms so Sigmar can see all the way from his palace. Also, the lanterns burn chaos.
Knights Venator: Shootier flying Sigmarines, these guys are master archers with magical arrows and own pet Star-Eagles.

Liberators: The ground-floor. The goons. The average Liberator is a walking tank, capable of wielding either melee weapons or shields to protect his pals from anything deadlier.
Judicators: Liberators who traded in their shields and hammers for bows (plain or crossbows). Some even get lucky and get a mega-bow that fires thunderbolts. THE BOWS ARE MAGIC! YEEEEEEEEEEAH!!!!!!!
Prosecutors: They're like Liberators, but they got wings. They tend to spearhead the assault with their speed, throwing either magical returning hammers or magical returning spears. Or they could just smash with said weapons.
Retributors: Massive piles of Sigmarite who serve in the Paladin Chambers. These guys carry massive hammers to squash things.
Protectors: Despite the name, these Paladins only wield glaives. Glaives that are actually capable of generating magical force fields.
Decimators: Paladins with fuckhueg axes.

Notable Stormhosts

Hammers of Sigmar: The first Stormhost. They wield Blue and Gold and pride themselves on being the posterboys of AoS
Hallowed Knights: Stormhost #4. They wear silver and blue and are pretty zealous about killing Chaos.
Celestial Vindicators: Stormhost #6. They're vengeful motherfuckers who declared vengeance back as mortals and thus are united by their grudges. Who knows? Maybe they're secretly Dwar-DUARDIN.

Notable Fan-created Stormhosts

Forgesworn Eternals: A Duardin Stormhost wearing silver and red.

Notable Stormcasts

Ghal Maraz, Celestant-Prime: The alpha, the first Eternal ever forged by Sigmar. It's unknown just who he might be, but it's said he was a mighty king from the past (making people immediately guess either Settra or Karl Franz. Turns out he's neither). Despite how much power he put into it, the process was still incomplete, so Sigmar decided to put him in a chamber to preserve the project because he spent too much as it is. However, once he recovered Ghal Maraz, he was able to finish the process and get a giant golden angel to join the ranks. GW was then struck by retardation and instead of trying to make some cool name, just named him after his hammer, in canon the guy just don't remember who he was so he just decided to use the name of his weapon.
Vandus Hammerhand: The first named hero among the Eternals, a Lord-Celestant of the Hammers of Sigmar who rides a Dracoth. Apparently, he once fought off against a Khornate Lord known as Ghorgos Khul as a mortal and almost died before being forged, and instead became a giant gold-plated badass instead of just a human one. He's considered the hero of the Starter Set and is responsible for finding Ghal Maraz.
Thostos Bladestorm: Footslogging Lord Celestant of the Celestial Vindicators. Impulsive jackass. Died a couple of times so now Nagash has part of his soul, he still wants to give Chaos a beating.
Tarsus Bullheart: Footslogging Lord Celestant of a chamber named after him, the Bullhearts, and protagonist of the Realmgate Wars audio-books. Broody guy who's obsessed with duty and lets his hammer do the talking for him. (spoilers ahead): Once a human from the realm of Shyish called Tarsem, he lived in a place called Helstone. During the Age of Chaos he fought alongside Mannfred Von Carstein but, Mannfred being Mannfred, Mannfred abandoned them to save his own skin and Tarsem was taken by Sigmar and reforged. Now the Stormcast Tarsus, Sigmar sends him and some of his warriors to the realm of Shyish to find Nagash and parley. Along the way they find Mannfred, now a prisoner of the Khornates. They free him in exchange for his guidance and assistance in finding Nagash. After entering the underworld (and an incident with the doorman; Arkhan), Nagash appears before the Stormcast and Mannfred. This goes as well as you'd expect. Mannfred flees in disgrace and all the Stormcast except Tarsus are killed. MTarsus sacrifices himself to distract Nagash and free his brethren's souls. Nagash traps Tarsus' soul and plans to rip as many of Sigmar's secrets from him as he can.

Gallery

Compare and contrast
A formation of Stormcast Eternals. Of course, GW had to use gold, blue, and white, so that we'd know they're the greatest of them all.
GROUND MARINES! CHARGE!
Only thing missing are pseudo-bolters and they're officially Sigmarines.
This looks oddly familiar
Ground Marine Assault Squads
In the grim darkness of the far past, there is only war
Ground Marines vs Chaos Ground Marines.
Victory for the God Empero-..err, God-King of man!
A Ground Marine Lord Relictor
The venerable Lord Celestant Boreale, giving one of his glorious speeches
One of these is not like the others...