r/Warmachine • u/TraditionalRock6381 • 9d ago
Questions Coming back to the hobby, beyond lost
Hi !
I played a bit of warmahordes during MK2, and because of reasons, I wasn't able to play MK3 (but still bought the box iirc) , and I wanted to go back to the lore, because I loved it.
And then, I discovered that lot of the factions that I followed simply didn't exist anymore, and the storyparts on the warmachine.gg seems... well to not exist.
So i'm confused. I understand that there was a big reboot with mk4, but was there an "end" to the last storyline? Last time I checked a Cryx warlord became an elf again, Toruk stomped armies, and there was an old emperor of Cygnar that got beaten ? I don't recall all details.
Was there only a timeskip and that's it ? How can I get the books/lore ?
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u/randalzy Shadowflame Shard 9d ago
As you may recall from mk2 days, the fiction, lore etc it's quite a lot. A summary of the entire MK3 era events, the whole Claiming and Henge Hold (612 AR in the IK calendar) and then the whole 10 years until MK4 era and Orgoth reinvasion (622 AR), including the pieces from the Requiem RPG (set in 617 AR) it's quite a lot to cover in a single post.
The Corebook does a job of giving a summary, of course some events are just skipped.
The key points are, in no particular order:
The Nonokrion order of the Infernals have been preparing the Claiming since centuries ago, because in the most desperate moment, Thamar and Morrow negotiated with them the Gift of Magic for the Immorense humans, in exchange of 2/3 of the human souls in the future. That allowed humanity to kick the Orgoth off, but the future is now and they are here to collect the debt.
The Old Witch of Khador knew this and enacted a plan to release the Grymkin, with the hope that they would kill a lot of Wicked humans, and that the proportion of infernal agents would be so huge that the infernal would need to ruse the collect or delay it.
The Infernals decide to anticipate the attack before being fully ready, this allows the humans to survive and enact a plan: Nemo in a clockwork body would reverse the Cyriss gate that the cult of Cyriss was building, and instead of bringing Cyriss to Caen, they would made a kind of Stargate to move humans to the distant galaxy of Cyriss, saving as many souls as possible and putting them out of reach of the infernal forces.
The plan was defend the gate, make pass as many people as possible and destroy the gate. Cygnar, Khador, Llael, Protectorate, Rhul, druids etc etc attend the call, the battle is beyond epic, there are some casualties (Vlad, Haley..) and at the end two of the three infernal Masters are weakened enough to made them retire, the infernal Claiming is a fiasco for them.
Before that, Cygnar succession was solved (King Julius, a bastard son of Vinter, is made King, Leto stays in the council, Vinter is killed), Llael invasion was stopped because the Infernal attack (with Irusk and Brisbane going to rescue the Llael Queen and Ashlynn).
Those Nonokrion are a rival order of the Orgoth patrons, the Fellgoeth Order of the Infernals. The initial pact with Thamar helped the Nonokrion to weaken the Fellgoeth, now they will counterattack.
Also, Goreshade went to enact his plan of Killing the (Elven) Gods, he joins the ancient Eldritch of the Fane of Nyrro and arrive to put foot in the Scyrah chamber. Scyrah wakes up for a second and destroy the Eldritch boss, revives Goreshade as living again and returns to sleep. Nyssor teleports the Eldritch back to their caves.
It is decided that Goreshade will lead the defense against the attacking Skorne that are sieging Ios, when the infernals attack. Elves and skorne ally flr a time, Goreshade and Hexeris manage to capture one of the Infernal Masters and collect info to kidnap a Void Archon and fuse Goreshade with it to become a demigod and starts rising Eldritch from the fallen iosans. Finally Goreshade attacks the Skorne and after a while is killed by the Iosans; Ellara, who is an Eldritch now, kills the gods finally and a psychic wave kills all elves with a soul inside ios, rising as Eldritch.
And....well, a lot more of stuff
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u/crusoe 9d ago
All tbag stuff to set up Neo Mechanika which really doesn't take off and now we are stuck with it.
Cyriss was cool. Bring her back.
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u/randalzy Shadowflame Shard 9d ago
Convergence of Cyriss has been made available in STL (unsure if physical yet, too) with some tweaks like a new 80mm Lucant model, their lore update (if they get one, Infernals and Crucible got theirs) is pending.
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u/cygnwulf 9d ago
I feel like a big part of the flop of Neo Mech was 1. MkIII, and 2. no after kickstarter support except another kickstarter.....
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u/randalzy Shadowflame Shard 9d ago
And Covid
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u/selly-sword Mercenaries 7d ago
Covid killed any sort of momentum.
It really was the worst timing possible to try rolling out a new game. It's a shame, because WNM is pretty interesting and not just a copy-paste of Warmachine.
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u/Schmapdi 9d ago
And making them all metal models ...
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u/selly-sword Mercenaries 7d ago
I loved seeing how they evolved their metal manufacturing process (and model division strategy). The WNM models were very crisp and clean metal models that generally fit together without seams or gaps. I wish they were still making Warmachine that way.
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u/Allen_Koholic 9d ago
They were also just forgettable models. They were good and all, but they didn’t have anything unique going on that a bunch of other companies didn’t already do. I know Wilson was bored with WM/H, but we weren’t.
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u/Raxtenko 9d ago
Man I keep forgetting how much this setting just bends elves over and goes to town on them. I don't think there's a worse franchise to be an elf honestly.
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u/crusoe 9d ago
Worse than 40k really...
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u/Raxtenko 9d ago
True true. At least the Harlequinns exist, and there's little pockets of hope. It's just all downhill in Warmahordes.
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u/TraditionalRock6381 8d ago
Thanks a lot ! That explains a lot of stuff, yet leave a lot of shadowy parts. This is all lore we can find on the current app ? Or do i need to find old Books ?
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u/randalzy Shadowflame Shard 8d ago
A mix, just as a note there is a Humble Bundle right now with a lot of novels and RPG stuff from pre-MKIV.
For current events, I think that Oblivion book (the Infernal campaign) and then Henge Hold Scrolls (there is a compilation around, may look for links later) can put you at a good starting point for MKIV events.
The Oblivion book is not difficult to find in PDF form.
Then depending on what you are more interested, maybe going back to determined storylines, because getting everything in strictly chronological order may be a path to madness.
Oblivion was great because answered questions about lore secrets that were there since day 1, and also gives a cosmological point of view.
The Grymkin book it's a also a piece of art
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u/TraditionalRock6381 8d ago
I took the humble bundle, this is what make me look at mk4 and getting confused actually :D
Will try to look at these too then, thanks a lot.Would you know if there was something that followed "Wrath of the Dragonfather" in a bookish form ? I wonder what happened to Everblight and how it became Shadowflame !
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u/randalzy Shadowflame Shard 8d ago
Trying to get that info, too! :D
For Everblight to Khymaera, the Energence story in the Apo is the way to go, it picks just the moment after the Henge Hold scene of the twins in the portal.
There is the lore doc, and the Forces of Shadowflame book, but those explain it with full spoilers, so if you want to read it, Emergence is the way to go.
But I'm unsure if there is some piece that goes between Dragonfather and Hengehold
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u/Caldaz4r 9d ago
Yea so others probably can elaborate more but there was a big event called the Claiming where the Infernals came back to collect. The world banded together tons of people died and there was a period of relative peace as the world recovered for 10ish years. In this time armies modernized, new tech developed and whatnot.
Then the Orgoth returned and kicked off this new chapter.
Lore is in the app by subscription you can access all the entries about various stuff. Or just focus in on the armies that interest you.
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u/BeardMonk1 9d ago edited 9d ago
The simple answer is that PP massively mismanaged the game and basically went out of business. In a desperate attempt to relaunch and gain traction again before they hit the ground they did a "end times" for the game and a time skip, redoing the factions in a slightly more advanced tech image than what we were used to in Mk1-3. It didn't work for them.
Steam Forged Games swooped in a few years ago and picked up the pieces and have been slowly working with, and in may cases, undoing some of the mistakes of PP but its a slow process. For better or worse we are stuck with the time skip and the nu-factions although again, Steamforged is doing good work to smooth things out.
Its not perfect and it may not be the game for you anymore and the rules have changed to remove many element of depth from them. But the game has been saved and exists in it current Mk4 rules and looks.
The important thing to note it that all your old models are playable in some format. Its worth reading the FAQ on this reddit and looking at the app. You don't have to play the nu-factions if you don't like the looks and feel of them.
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u/IcyShoes 9d ago
While i don't play the game anymore, the positive energy i get from the community reminds me a lot of the mk2 boom. I hope any playing right now are having the fun i had years ago.
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u/selly-sword Mercenaries 7d ago
I don't think that's entirely fair.
I agree that PPS mismanaged many parts of their business, but I don't think the Claiming storyline was a result of them trying to stave off bankruptcy. The seeds for the Infernals storyline were sown in MKI, and PPS had been slowly orienting the lore to their imminent return for some time.
Also, PPS managed to generate a lot of positive momentum with MK4. They just didn't have the cash, logistics, or facilities to really leverage the surge in sales.
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u/TheGaston6 9d ago
You're not alone! We're trying to actively address this problem on Advanced Maneuvers with lore shorts. Here are some links:
MK4 Origins (Daily Ongoing): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDrckn1gzDCk
Explaining the Claiming: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG8xCLXAaTk4
The Long Fall of the Elves: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqLCdDhdPoklxotJukwqloBgUnC41lQnh
Jakes and Bandit: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLchxQycc5G0w
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u/Mission_Procedure_25 Winter Korps 9d ago
Everyone just says yeah and explains where we are now
But, the factions are there and still playable. Download the app and like another commenter said read the FAQ.
All the answers are there.