Editing Warhammer Meta-Setting (section)

====Age of Sigmar cycle====
It's unclear if the [[Warhammer: Age of Sigmar|Age of Sigmar]] counts as a cycle, or is the time between cycles. The problem is the world in the [[Warhammer: Age of Sigmar#The Age of Sigmar|the Age of Sigmar]] still exists as a number Realms made from each of the [[Warhammer Magic|Winds of Magic]], implying that the Winds of Magic are consistent across each Cycle, and and compared to the last cycle there is nothing we would understand as a 'planet'. If this is a Cycle and not just the period of time between cycles, where the realms will collapse into a single planet, that says there is a high degree of variances between the actual make up of the world between Cycles. The Fantasy Cycle was just one planet, in total, not part of a larger galaxy that presumable also would have been unmade.

The date we got from the Warhammer High Elf army books, 4500, is the start of reign of the first Phoenix King [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)#Aenarion the Defender|Aenarion the Defender]], who became king in the wake of the first chaos incursions into the world. We don't have any dates before that, as the [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Asur]] didn't keep calendars before and the [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dawi]] never shared (and also, their dating system ''also'' takes this as year zero: when [[Valaya]] erected the Pillars of Karaz-a-Karak). This means that from the point chaos first begins to invade in bulk to the end is somewhere in the ball park of 4.5 thousand years. In [[Warhammer: Age of Sigmar|Age of Sigmar]] canon the point where chaos broke into the world would either be the [[Warhammer: Age of Sigmar#The Age of Chaos|Age of Chaos]] or the later part of the [[Warhammer: Age of Sigmar#The Age of Myth|Age of Myth]], so from that point Sigmar's got him self 4.5 thousand years until the next cycle assuming that's a constant.

Here's where things start unraveling; when Chaos first came to the Mortal Realms, they ''WON''. All organized resistance was crushed except for [[Sigmar]]'s realm of [[Azyr]], the chaos hordes being left to raid and despoil all of the now-isolated kingdoms and empires of the other seven realms. They then proceeded to putter around aimlessly while [[Sigmar]] got his counterattack ready, making no attempt to destroy the world and dragging their fights with the remaining centers of resistance out as far as they could. The time period the game is set 500 years later (reference: The Realmgate Wars - All-Gates, page 4), when the powers of Order are finally striking back to reclaim a world that Chaos has dominated for half a millennium.

*The counterpoint is that something similar happened to the [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|High Elves]]. Chaos invaded and they got their shit kicked until [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)#Aenarion the Defender|Aenarion the Defender]] became the Phoenix King and the [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|High Elves]] started writing dates down. While it did not last an age, there was a large period of time where chaos ran rampart across the world before the elves got it's shit together to pull together win by deus ex machina (Caledor's vortex). So this pattern of chaos coming, then receding at first does not seem to be unprecedented.
*On the other hand, this time [[Sigmar]] is here, alive and kicking, the Celestant-Prime can purify Chaos-enslaved people with [[Ghal-Maraz]] (though only if they still have some sliver of soul that can be saved, not [[Daemon Prince|Daemon Princes]]), and the novels have shown even [[Nurgle]] can get hurt by the power of [[Azyr]], while things are still on the balance it's the first time the potentiality of a real victory against Chaos is plausible.
*To further elaborate on that last point, the [[Chaos Gods]] might decide that this cycle they'll continue the eternal stalemate, so as to avoid potential destruction.