Fimir

Fimir are a race from Warhammer Fantasy. They were one of the primary inventions (rather than knockoff or reinterpretation) made by Games Workshop but were dropped due to low popularity regardless. They remained canon, if sidelined.

Meta Origin And History

Warhammer had been born out of the fact Games Workshop was only a distributor of other games and their subordinate companies Citadel and Marauder (the two later merged) made minis for those IPs with some not selling as well (how many people need a unicorn in the first place, let alone more than one?). Warhammer turned the basics of D&D into a wargame to sell those minis, and when Games Workshop lost exclusive rights or the entire right to distribute an IP, they discontinued the line and rebranded them; for example the Broo minis they produced for Glorantha next year were rebranded Beastmen despite being the exact same sculpts.

Around the time of the explosion in Warhammer popularity as 2e transitioned into 3e (the first edition with a proper setting, and the inclusion of Chaos) as well as the imminent birth of Warhammer 40000 the CEO of GW, Brian Ansell, was looking to the bright future. He wanted Warhammer to have its own distinct copyrights, things recognizable as theirs and theirs alone (although it did not stop them from stealing from Moorcock and Starship Troopers wholesale). The most important innovation of this time was making Orcs green-skinned with red eyes and tusks, which spread into almost every other Orc in fiction since.

But Ansell wanted something truly belonging only to Warhammer. While Tony Ackland and later John Blanche with Adrian Smith largely created the distinctive "Warhammer" feel, Ackland's Daemonettes were still a concept taken from Moorcock and Blanche's Sisters Of Battle were in the same vein as GW's Judge Dredd models. Adrian's Warriors Of Chaos also were merely an extrapolation of the Deathdealer Conan The Barbarian.

So Ansell summoned two employees, Graeme Davis and Jes Goodwin and told them he wanted pictures, pictures of a unique concept (by using employees he unintentionally ensured GW would keep the rights to their creation, as many designers were hired part-time because it was cheaper and as a result kept the rights to everything they created; which is why everything Ackland designed exists only in old minis with the later ones changed enough to be their own). His specific words were in fact a race "to be as distinctive of Warhammer as the Broo are of Runequest". Sadly...Davis and Goodwin took him too literally, and completely ripped off Broo-again-with a bit of alteration (to their credit, more than Beastmen got) leaving GW with yet another ripoff. But Ansell loved it anyway, and Fimir were put into 3e.

Fimir are the combination of Broo with Formorians, monstrous but not FORTHEEVULZ, Feyfolk from Celtic myth.

Sadly, Fimir did not catch on with the public. Thanks to a horrible fuckup between concept and sculpt produced by Nick Bibby the Fimir wound up extremely large, Ogre-sized. This made them fairly expensive to buy a chunk of metal of. Their in-game stats reflected their intended only slightly larger than human (so Orc) size while their point cost was made higher to reflect large model size. Also, Fimir reproduction is explicitly rape and GW was trying to sell to the kiddies... So as a result Fimir were expensive to buy and were absolutely horrible foe their stats. Most players weren't interested in them unless solely for the fluff as a result, and instead of fixing what was wrong by giving them the appropriate stats Fimir were dropped in 4e along with the idea of them being GW's mascot. They only made it into one other work, the first Warhammer Quest as a monster.

But that wasn't the end. The fan magazine for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay called Warpstone made a 98 page expansion of the original threadbare Fimir lore (WFRP Bestiary, White Dwarf #102, 3e WFB) in issue 25. This caused a slow burning ember of love for them in the community (it should be noted that GW writers also read and sometimes borrowed from Warpstone).

GW put a minor reference to them in White Dwarf #310 in the Unwashed Masses army.

Fimir were also in a Black Library novel Empire.

Storm Of Magic fully resurrected Fimir with the Balefiend AKA Dirach. They were large sized like the original mistake models.

The 8th edition rules included a reference to Fimir as well.

Three models were supposed to be released for Monstrous Arcana, but were out on hold until Age Of Sigmar where they are previewed as getting a complete revival as an army.

Fluff

Fimir are a race of swamp-dwelling cyclops men with a beak and a scorpion tail. They originate with, but not a part of, Chaos as they are "part Daemon" (children of mortals and Daemons have appeared sporadically throughout Warhammer). Their skin tones are earthtones, dark greens and browns. They hate sunlight.

Fimir females, called Maerghs, are rarely born and are sterile. They lead the Fimir clans, and when a Meargh dies without a replacement her clan breaks apart into mercenaries that find work with other evil races. Dirachs are the Fimir who deal with Daemons. Both are generally magic users. Fimir have the ability to control mist.

Nobles are the next rank down, then Fianna Fimm AKA elite warriors. Warriors are, well, warriors.

The lowest rank are Shearls, slave Fimir.

Since female Fimir cannot reproduce, the race reproduces by raiding humans from out of the fog, enslaving and sacrificing men while raping the women.

Some Fimir ally with Gnoblar, a more mentally stable variant of greenskin.

That...is basically all the Fimir fluff there is.

Warpstone

Warpstone Fimir are the same as the above, but with more detail.

They are secretive and regarded as myth by most. They have a mostly hate relationship with Chaos, seeking either servitude from weak Daemons or patronage from minor (read: not the Four, Hashut, or Horned Rat) Chaos Gods. They will even serve gods like Morr who have access to Daemons (remember the Morghast?).

They believe their origins are a distant human kingdom called the Waterland, where the princess Maris fell in love with the Mud God Daemon Fimúl. Fimúl was killed (meaning sent back to the Warp and Maris fled with her hideous children to the swamps where she taught them their father's ways. Some Fimir believe in a kingdom called the Wandering Island where Maris and Fimúl (summoned back into the world) now rule while others believe their parents dwell among the humans somewhere. Its suggested in-universe the Waterland is the delta of the great river in Nehekhara or from Ind.

Fimir have very long lifespans, Mearghs surviving 2000 years or more.

Any information on Fimir is rare. Even knowledge of what they call themselves, most people refer to them as Bog Daemons or mistake them for some other monster like Trolls. Most knowledge of Fimir comes from Norse Dwarfs (who are politically neutral with them) and humans; other Dwarfs and even Elves know little of them.

Because Fimir have never been part of an important event and only raid unimportant communities, as well as the near impossibility of tracking them, they are largely unknown and those who are aware of them give them little thought. According to myth the Fimir created the Wasteland waging total war against Skaven for territory. Only once did Fimir unite, under a Meargh known as the Hell-Mother, and she began a war with the human tribes in the time of Sigmar around what would become Marienburg. The Fimir lost. Badly. The survivors swore to always remain secret and never unite.

Fimir have a written language for magic, and pass on most knowledge orally.

Fimir have a degree of immunity to swamp-related diseases but are extremely susceptible to venereal disease.

Fimir are found mostly around the Old World including Albion and Kislev.

Some Mearghs survive alone in the widlerness.