Warhammer (setting)

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Warhammer or Warhammer Fantasy is a fantasy setting created by Games Workshop, in which many games of that company are set, the best known ones being the Warhammer Fantasy Battle wargame, and the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay role-playing game. There is also a related science fiction setting called Warhammer 40,000.

It is notable for its "dark and gritty" aspect, and its background world, which features a culture very like Renaissance Germany crossed with Tolkien's Middle-earth - with very Moorcockian Chaos forces just offstage or out of sight. It is populated with stock fantasy races such as Humans, Dark Elves, High Elves, Dwarfs, Undead, Orcs and Goblins, Lizardman, Ogre Kingdoms, etc.

The setting has undergone some retcons in the recent editions of the wargame, including changing the Old Slann into the Old Ones, and omission of the Chaos God Malal. In the past, most players of the role-playing game chose to ignore the setting changes, however the current second edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay has been updated to fit the current version of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles world.

Currently there are 15 different supported armies: Beastmen, Bretonnia, Dark Elves, Daemons of Chaos Dwarfs, High Elves, Lizardmen, Ogre Kingdoms, Orcs and Goblins, Skaven, Empire, Tomb Kings, Vampire Counts, Warriors of Chaos, Wood Elves. Then there are some smaller forces including Chaos Dwarfs, Dogs of War, and Kislev.

Geography

The world of Warhammer is similar in climate to Earth. In fact, most of its landmasses, (human) cultures and ethnicities in the area are roughly analogous to the geography of Earth. These similarities were originally implicitly explained by reference to a race who went around the universe creating similar worlds. Correspondence between places in the Warhammer world and in the real one, with varying degrees of subtlety includes:

Collecting

Like 40K, Warhammer is considered expensive, even by collectors. A reasonable army usually costs upwards of $200 (which yields around 1500 points) but some consider this a fair price to pay, for it is still cheaper than many other hobbies.

Warhammer games

Wargames

Role-playing games

Board games

Collectible card games

Computer games

Warhammer books

Outside of games, there have also been numerous novels and short stories by various authors set in the Warhammer world, the most famous of which are the Gotrek and Felix novels by William King.

Early in his career, Kim Newman wrote several Warhammer novels under the name 'Jack Yeovil'. Some elements from these books (in particular his heroine Genevieve Dieudonne) later reappeared in the award-winning Anno Dracula series.

The Art of Warhammer contains art from the Warhammer setting.

See also

External links

This article is based upon Warhammer Fantasy from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and is subject to GNU Licence for free documentation. There is a list of authors in the Wikipedia, which can be edited.