WARHAMMER BASIC HISTORY

(From "The Ambassador" by Graham McNeill)
This is a dark age, a bloody age, an age of demons and of sorcery. It is an age of battle and death, and of the world's ending. Amidst all of the fire, flame and fury it is a time, too, of mighty heroes, of bold deeds and great courage.

At the heart of the Old World sprawls the Empire, the largest and most powerful of the human realms. Known for its engineers, sorcerers, traders and soldiers, it is a land of great mountains, mighty rivers, dark forests and vast cities. And from his throne in Altdorf reigns the Emperor Karl-Franz, sacred descendant of the founder of these lands, Sigmar, and wielder of his magical warhammer.

But these are far from civilized times. Across the length and breadth of the Old World, from the knightly palaces of Bretonnia to ice-bound Kislev in the far north, come rumblings of war. In the towering World's Edge Mountains, the orc tribes are gathering for another assault. Bandits and renegades harry the wild southern lands of the Border Princes. There are rumors of rat-things, the Skaven, emerging from the sewers and swamps across the land. And, from the northern wildernesses, there is the ever-present threat of Chaos, of demons and beastmen corrupted by the foul powers of the Dark Gods. As the time of battle draws ever near, the Empire needs heroes like never before.

NOTE: This introduction was written for a time set twenty years in the future of when Goe Orthrond, our current campaign, is set, though it is no less accurate.