Warhammer
Warhammer is often quoted as the name of the planet which acts as the host environment for both Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Warhammer Fantasy Battle. It was once considered to be part of 'The Warhammer Universe' which also acted as the host setting for Warhammer 40K and a wide range of other Games Workshop products. However, Games Workshop decided to abandon the concept of the Warhammer Universe leaving the current status and name of the planet formerly known as Warhammer in doubt.
WFRP Fragile Alliances has returned to the original concept as described in the early Game Workshop literature and Warhammer is once more assumed to be a planet on the outer edges of 'The Eye of Terror'. Though whether anyone living there is aware of this fact is doubtful and so what they call their home varies enormously.
WFRP Fragile Alliances has returned to the original concept as described in the early Game Workshop literature and Warhammer is once more assumed to be a planet on the outer edges of 'The Eye of Terror'. Though whether anyone living there is aware of this fact is doubtful and so what they call their home varies enormously.
Academic Fluff
Those mortals on the planet who actually think about the nature of the world around them at all probably imagine it to be a central location surrounded by a wasteland of chaos and wilderness. The existence of the twin moons and the visible star systems is probably enough for the more academic to reason the existence of celestial bodies that circumvent their world, but whether the practice of astrology has evolved sufficiently to begin theorising about the nature of the universe is less certain. There will certainly be many religious cults that see anything beyond the fringes of The Known World to be the realm of one or more of their gods and there are after all several authoritative works on the nature of The Realm of Chaos published with the authority of the Cult of Sigmar by people who claim to have visited these alternative realms and survived. This would appear to suggest that there is much more to the world than simply that which is known and occupied by mortals. How else could a mortal journey there and return? But whilst maps have been produced and circulated the actual locations of these realms remains uncertain, except that perhaps they lay beyond the chaos wastes. There is also a theory that the world may be multi-layered with several alternative worlds stacked one on top of the other, after all where else do the Skaven come from, and where do the Gnomes live? If so the realm of the gods could, in theory, be above the world. Which would explain how the gods manage to intervene so appropriately in mortal affairs, after all, if they were below the world how would they see what was happening. But that would make anyone claiming to have been there a liar, which is awkward. Of course, the existence of magic complicates all these debates, being used as the justification that makes even the most ridiculous theories plausible. Thus in visiting this world one can and will hear all manner of explanations none of which are likely to be accurate.Astrology
In his article 'The Evolution of the Warhammer Solar System', which appears in Liber Fanatica - Volume IV: The Academic’s Handbook, Wim van Gruisen attempts to summarise the current academic understanding of the Warhammer Solar System. He also cites two other works on the subject; The Burning Shore, a novel by Robert Earl and 'The Tome of Salvation' which was a planned publication expected to include astrological information at the time. What is clear from these academic sources is that astrology has identified at least seven celestial bodies and perhaps as many as ten. There has even been a somewhat misguided attempt to associate these celestial bodies with the colours of magic, but apparently, this became difficult once the number of planets rose beyond the number of acknowledged colours. The main purpose of these celestial bodies seems to be to determine the fate of the mortals living on the planet below, and they are considered to have considerable influence on predictions and divinations particularly those related to the nature of a mortal's inevitable death.There the lands of Slaanesh stretched out below it was a Fortress of whimsies and foibles. It was an unlovely thing, stained by war and victory. It's towers, higher than any palace, wounded the sky. Its gateways were gaping maws that could swallow and vomit forth whole armies. Its walls were darkened stone, veined in unnatural colours and streaked with rotted lime and mortar. Here, at the Marches of Slaanesh, was the Fortress, a sign of sovereignty, hated and condemned by Khorne's bloody-handed worshippers.
The Realm of Chaos is one of eternal mists and movement, the shifting, changing ground devoid of plants or life of any natural kind, the air swirling with impenetrable mists.– op cit
Alternative Name(s)
The Known World
Type
Planet
"To be sure, it was an inauspicious time to have a baby, I always said... Why Morrslieb was fat, Dragomas the Drake was in the ascendant, and the Big Cross was nowhere in the sky... That newborn babe was pulled from its mother, and I wasn’t surprised to see the babe touched..."——Lucretia, Wise Woman
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