The Old World

The Old World is home to many of the ancient races of Warhammer such as Elves, Dwarfs and the Human kingdoms of Bretonnia, the Border Princes and the Empire. Yet the Old world is surrounded by deadly foes and is under constant attack from enemies that seek its ruin: from the north by the dark and deadly forces of the Chaos Gods and from within by Beastmen that infest the forrests, greenskins that breed in the mountains and skaven which tunnel under the very cobbled streets of cities gnawing at the roots of civilisation. It is a land guarded to the east by the Dwarven realm of the worlds edge mountains beyond which stretches the far and deadly Ash Lands, and to the west stretches the Great Ocean and the distant realms of the High Elves and their dark kin.

The Dark Lands

The Dark Lands, or Ash Lands as they are known by those who dwell there, were once full of fertile plains and valleys where the Dwarfs of the worlds edge mountains, their Elven allies and the young human tribes built many settlements. They traded with each other and with the kingdoms of Nippon and Ind further to the east.  The coming of Chaos, however, brought with it the seeds of war and corruption. Wracked by warp storms and earthquakes, the land tore itself apart, releasing sulphurous smoke into the skiy and blotting out the sun, truly becoming a place of darkness.

When the forces of Chaos were finally beaten back, expedition forces of the Dwarfs found to their horror that their distant eastern cousins had suffered a fate worse than death: they had been corrupted and twisted by the taint of Chaos into beings of evil who worshipped their dark, fiery God Hashut of the underworld and had allied themselves as slave masters to the hideous tribes of goblinoids and Orcs in this barren land. The Dwarfs reacted with horror and attacked those who were once their cousins before fleeing back to the west.  The Dwarfs reaction was seen as betrayal by the Chaos Dwarfs, as they were now known.  They were survivors who had managed to live through the wars and beat back the hordes of Chaos with their new found lore of Hashut that they had turned to in desperation. And so a deep hatred seeded itself in their blackened hearts and forever more they became mortal enemies of the western Dwarfs. Since then the Dark Lands has been at constant war with the western Old World, and any who cross the World’s Edge Mountains into these dark and twisted lands risk a painful death, or even worse, enslavement into the Chaos Dwarf obisidan mines.

The Southlands

Far to the south of the Old World, beyond the mysterious realm of Araby and the Land of the Dead, lies the continent known as the Southlands. Its northern lands mass is a barren wastelands of deserts, studded with dusty and deserted tomb-cities, while further south, it is a land of unspoiled jungle and swamp, isolated from the realms of man, Elf and Dwarf for uncounted centuries. Many brave or foolish explorers and treasure hunters have attempted to penetrate the thick jungles that make up the majority of the southern region of this land, but most are never seen or heard from again.

The precise locations of the temple-cities remain, on the whole, a mystery. Thousands of years ago, it is said that the Dwarfs journeyed along the mountain ridge that forms the spine of this great continent, and built a stronghold known in legend as Karak Zorn. Contact has since been lost. According to legend the original site was built upon an ancient hall of the Old Ones, buried deep beneath the mountains. What became of the Dwarfs has forever remained a mystery, but they were said to have disturbed an ancient power that had been trapped therein since the fall of the Old Ones many thousands of years ago.