Reference index / the old world
The Old World Factions
From the knightly orders of Bretonnia to the ratmen beneath the world: every faction of the Old World, grouped by allegiance, with regiments, characters, and chronicle entries.
Order
- Dwarfen Mountain HoldsGrand Alliance OrderThe holds of the Karaz Ankor in the Old World era, reclaiming lost settlements under Alrik Alriksson through royal armies and engineering expeditions.
- Empire of ManGrand Alliance OrderSigmar's divided human realm in the Old World era: rival claimants, regional armies and traditions that predate Karl Franz and the Colleges of Magic.
- Grand CathayThe vast and ancient Dragon Empire of the far east, ruled by the immortal Celestial Dragon-Emperor and his dragon children, whose jade legions and Great Bastion hold the harmony of the world against Chaos.
- High Elf RealmsGrand Alliance OrderUlthuan's High Elves combine citizen regiments, specialist warriors and magic with overseas strongholds, maritime trade and mainland diplomacy.
- Kingdom of BretonniaGrand Alliance OrderA human kingdom of knights, dukedoms and peasant levies, shaped by the Lady of the Lake and the Grail quest. Its Old World setting must be distinguished from later Warhammer Fantasy history.
- KislevThe harsh northern realm of Tzars and ice-witches that stands as the Old World's frozen shield, where bear-riders and winged lancers bleed to hold back the endless hordes of Chaos.
- LizardmenThe cold-blooded servants of the Old Ones, spawned in the jungles of Lustria to enact a cosmic design older than history and steered by immortal slann mage-priests from temple-cities drowned in green.
- Wood Elf RealmsGrand Alliance OrderThe asrai of Athel Loren: hidden kindreds of elves bound by ancient pact to a living, hungry forest whose borders admit no trespasser and whose arrows grant no mercy.
Chaos
- Beastmen BrayherdsGrand Alliance ChaosThe children of Chaos: horned herds that haunt every dark forest of the Old World, gathering at bloodstained herdstones to drag the works of man back into the mud.
- Chaos DwarfsThe dawi-zharr of Zharr-Naggrund: dwarfs twisted by Chaos into cruel masters of fire, iron, and slavery, who worship Hashut the Father of Darkness and forge their empire from smoke and screaming.
- Daemons of ChaosThe unified daemonic legions of the four Ruinous Powers made manifest in the Old World: rage, pestilence, sorcery, and excess given form, spilling through the thin places of the world to make war on reality itself.
- SkavenThe teeming ratmen of the Under-Empire beneath the Old World: a numberless, treacherous race of warpstone-worshippers who would already rule the world if they could only stop betraying one another.
- Warriors of ChaosGrand Alliance ChaosThe Dark Gods' mortal legions: Norscan, Kurgan, and Hung northmen who trade hearth and homeland for black iron and terrible gifts, climbing the ladder of damnation toward daemonhood or spawndom.
Death
- Tomb Kings of KhemriGrand Alliance DeathThe ancient god-kings of Nehekhara, cheated of their promised paradise by Nagash's great ritual and risen in bone to reclaim an empire they never agreed to stop ruling.
- Vampire CountsGrand Alliance DeathThe aristocratic undead of Sylvania: a dynasty of vampire lords who rule the dead as subjects, keep the living as tenants, and have pursued the Empire's crown across three great wars.
Destruction
- Dark ElvesThe druchii of Naggaroth: beautiful, merciless kin of the elves, raiders and slavers who worship the Lord of Murder and serve the immortal spite of the Witch King.
- Ogre KingdomsMercenary giants of the Mountains of Mourn who worship a god-sized hole in the world called the Great Maw, and who go to war for the oldest reason of all: they are hungry, and someone else has food.
- Orc & Goblin TribesGrand Alliance DestructionThe green tide of the Old World: numberless tribes of brutal orcs and malicious goblins forever massing beneath crude banners into the Waaagh!, the rolling avalanche of violence that has battered civilization since before its first walls were raised.