The Dawnbringer Crusades are the perilous expeditions launched from the free cities to reclaim the wilds of the Mortal Realms and plant new settlements in lands still ruled by monsters and Chaos. In an age when civilisation clings to a handful of fortified enclaves, these crusades represent Sigmar's boldest gamble: that the realms can be won back not only by conquest but by the slow, stubborn spread of ordinary people building new homes.
Each crusade sets out from an established city as a great column of pilgrims, soldiers, artisans, and faithful, escorted by the regiments of the Cities of Sigmar and, when fortune allows, the storm-forged might of the Stormcast Eternals. They carry with them everything needed to raise a new settlement from nothing, and their goal is to reach a chosen site, drive out whatever dwells there, and light a beacon of civilisation in the dark.
The crusades are named for the hope they carry, but the reality is brutal. For every city successfully founded, countless columns are ambushed, starved, or annihilated in the wilds, their bones left to mark roads that lead nowhere. Yet the crusades continue, driven by desperation and faith alike, for the peoples of Order understand that a civilisation which stops expanding has already begun to die. Each dawnbringer column is a fragile candle carried into an endless night.