Warhammer Meta-Setting

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Hinted towards in the original fluff, revealed during the End Times and expanded upon in the Age of Sigmar, the Warhammer Fantasy universe isn't, as previously thought, a single universe ever assailed by Chaos, but rather one universe out of many. The Warhammer Fantasy universe (and maybe the 40k universe as well, as some things hint towards), are, in fact, a perpetual cycle of birth, stagnation and destruction, with every cycle ending with Chaos consuming as much of the worlds as it can, sating themselves and giving time for the powers of Order to recollect themselves, recreate the universe and gather the souls of the last one into the new ones.

How this fits with 40k is not know, but at least it is know that the Warp has connections to both the Fantasy and 40k universe, and that the Chaos Gods from the two settings are the same.

The Cycle

When Chaos wins in a cycle and devours it, the universe is left as a half-empty void, with the surviving souls bobbing around, alongside leftovers from the old world and what not. The surviving characters are (usually) the ones who can be considered gods or half-gods (since they'll be bound up into powers about as strong as Chaos, such as the Magical Winds). From here on, it's essentially a free-for-all, with the vying Gods now having the ability to take the raw magic of the universe and form it into something, the way they like. The general world is created by a sort of godly being by the name of Dracothian, a dragon made of starlight, who's only role in life is to recreate a physical world for the beings of the new one to live in - As such, he's more of a custodian of the Warhammer worlds than anything, as he's not shown to have any other effect on the universe.

The new gods are then essentially allowed to do whatever they want with the universe - Nothing stops them from just faffin' about. Many of them will likely want to fight Chaos with as much Order as they can muster. It is normal for them to create new races or form new armies that are made to fight Chaos, but since no one has been able to stave the Chaos Gods forever, no one seeems to be able to make an army that can actually resist Chaos completely, or at least win a something against Chaos.

Just as the worlds, realms and universes are formed, Chaos gets it's shit up and running, and after having picked the last few mortal souls out of their corrupted, jagged teeth, begin taking on the physical world again and corrupts it as much as possible. Though they might lose many times before any actual damage has been done to the physical world, a little corruption at a time will let the thirsting Gods enjoy a little refreshing souls from time to time, while planning out new ways to kill the world off for good. The Chaos Gods often have mutually exclusive goals in every Cycle, as some of them enjoy wracking up shit better than others do, so they rarely have the entire force of Chaos behind them, just as the different Gods left from the last cycle might have their own agendas to pursue.

Then, when Chaos finally get tired of the current Cycle, or when a Chaos Champion goes "fuck this" and decides to take reality for a spin, Chaos goes all out and begins taking over the Material worlds, until the worlds are so strained that they can't keep themselves running and the Gods of the Cycle can't keep it together anymore, the world simply rips itself apart. All creation is engulfed in the Warp, and everything goes back to the Void it started as, while the Chaos Gods go snack on souls and the old Gods are flung into the chaos, and new Gods are created as new powers break free and take hold of new champions...

... And then the Cycle begins anew.

Known Cycles and their Gods

As far as we know, the Fantasy and 40k Warhammers are seperated in terms of their timeline - The End Times has hinted towards the current 40k timeline and the Fantasy timeline being parallel to each other, only being connected by the Warp. An example: the Skaven managed to come in contact with beings that spoke something like elvish, but with a weird accent - The cowards propmtly destroyed their gadget of of course, but you don't get better hints than that. It's possible that the Warp screws this up big time, since time doesn't really work there, but as far as we know, the Cycles are seperate in the two settings.

Fantasy

The Fantasy Cycle.

Yo, whata ya want from me. What Cycle name could you come up with, huh?

This is essentially Warhammer Fantasy as we know it - It is compromised of one planet, has some different Gods from different pantheons and, of course, Chaos. The Fantasy world was destroyed in the The End Times, when Chaos upped it's game, Archaon went beserk, Sigmar came back into the Emperors body, the moon (no, the other one) was blown up and the Lord of Death ate three gods. Long story.

The gods of this world were, presumably, leftovers from the last one - The first ones to have an influence on the created world seems to be the Old Ones, who supposedly created all the races, including, but not limited to, the humans, elves, ogres and dwarves, all in the pursuit of making the perfect anti-chaotic race. When that didn't end well (all races being suspectible to Chaos in one way or other), they created the Lizardmen, who worked, but were both misplaced (being placed far from anything of importance) and too few to do an actual difference. It's unclear of the old fluff is still holding about the creation of the other races, but since the elven gods are also leftovers from an old universe, it's unlikely.

Speaking of elven gods, the elven pantheon is one of the most active ones in the Fantasy world, as the all, and especially Asuryan, are actively battling Chaos.

- - - Unfinished - - -

So who the hell is the Architect of this shit?

• * * Work in Process * * *