Storm of Chaos Online Campaign

The Storm of Chaos was a massive narrative campaign created by Games Workshop for their Warhammer Fantasy setting, played in the northern hemisphere summer of 2004 . Like its predecessor (the Eye of Terror Campaign) and its successor (The War of the Ring Online Campaign), it was extremely popular, and attracted several thousand players.

The basic premise was that players of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Mordheim, and Warmaster were invited to register the results of their games at the Storm of Chaos Website, where a tactical map of the north of the Empire existed. Upon registering a battle, one army would be counted attacker, the other defender. Depending on which side the results favoured, either the attackers or the defenders would get a little more of the map, and occasionally some side benefits.

Campaign background

For several centuries, the Lord Archaon sought the six treasures of Chaos: The Armor, the Eye, the Blade, the Mark, the Steed, and the Crown. According to the myths of Chaos worshippers, the one who manages to gain them all will become the Everchosen, Lord of the End Times, the champion of the gods destined bring about the final triumph of Chaos. He finally managed to gain the six treasures in the year 2521 IC. At the same time, the Chaos Warlord Surtha Lenk attacked Kislev and pushed through to the Empire, sacking the Ostland capital of Wolfenburg before being crushed by Imperial reinforcements.

At the same time, Luthor Huss, a self-styled prophet of Sigmar, had started to challenge the hierarchy of the church of Sigmar. Huss claimed that the priesthood had become corrupt and decadent, ignoring the teachings of Grand Theogonist Volkmar the Grim and abandoning Sigmar's mission. Volkmar raised an army and journeyed to Kislev to confront Archaon. They lost, Volkmar was slain, and the war altar of Sigmar was cast down. A new Grand Theogonist, Johann Esmer, was elected, and was the epitome of everything that Luthor Huss and other grassroots clerics despised.

Trapped in the Kislevite city of Praag, the Tzarina Katarin asked for aid from her old Dwarven ally Ungrim Ironfist, the Slayer King of Karak Kadrin, who responded by sending his armies, led by his son Garagrim Ironfist, to their aid.

As the horde of Archaon rampaged through Kislev and into the Empire, Emperor Karl Franz invited envoys from the neighbouring kingdoms, as well as representatives of the High Elves and from the Dwarfs to the "Conclave of Light". Here, he successfully gained the support of Bretonnia, the Dwarfs and the High Elves. Huss had in the meantime found a young man named Valten who bore striking physical resemblance to Sigmar as is described in the legends, except for a birthmark shaped like a twin-tailed comet, the main symbol of the Sigmarite church. Valten was also highly skilled in battle and had a will-power to endure wounds that would kill a normal man. Huss and his following travelled to Altdorf, the capital city of The Empire, where they demanded that Valten be recognised as the reincarnation of Sigmar and so proclaim him Emperor, ignoring the immense civil unrest such a declaration would cause. By now, it was late spring, and Karl Franz, both pragmatic politician and devout Sigmarite, could neither ignore nor accept Huss's demands. In the end, he proclaimed Valten was the "spiritual heir" of Sigmar, recognising that he was blessed to some degree, but wisely retained rulership for himself.

In the summer of the year IC (Imperial Calendar) 2522 Archaon attacked The Empire with the specific goal of desecrating the city of Middenheim, a holy site to the followers of Ulric, a warrior god who is second in popularity only to Sigmar.

Characters active during the campaign

Aftermath of the campaign

According to Games Workshop, the Storm of Chaos affected the whole world. Still, at the end of the campaign, the world seems to have regained its Status quo ante. Gav Thorpe, the games designer who wrote the campaign, has stated that this was intentional and that the consequences of the Storm of Chaos will be up to the individual players.

The Storm of Chaos was rendered non-canon by the more recent End Times books, which made massive overarching changes to the rules, armies, factions and canon of the game, notably by removing several armies and completely changing the army selection system.

References

  1. ↑ Children of the Horned Rat.
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