Sigmar

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Sigmar Heldenhammer
Sigmar, the warlord, battling Morkar, the First Everchosen of Chaos.
Sigmar, the emperor
Sigmar, a respected and somewhat older emperor.

Sigmar Heldenhammer is the patron god of The Empire. His sign is a two tailed comet. About 2500 years before the present time, he was a barbarian warlord who united several tribes and founded a new nation.

The Life of Sigmar

Birth and childhood

The Imperial Calendar (IC) which takes its starting date from Sigmar's coronation as Emperor, places his birth as the year -30 IC, in the Reikland area in the southwest of the Empire, to the Unberogen tribe, generally considered to have been one of the most powerful pre-Empire tribes. The night of his birth was marked with the appearance of a twin-tailed comet, which the human tribes took as a sign of great portent from the gods.

In the year -15, Sigmar is believed to have helped drive off a Goblin invasion of his village, and in the same year, led a punitive expedition against a Goblin war-party that was holding Kurgan Ironbeard, a king of the Dwarf people, a prisoner. In gratitude, Kurgan presented the young warrior with a magical rune-enchanted warhammer called Ghal Maraz ('Skull-splitter,' in the Dwarf Khazalid tongue).

Uniting the tribes

Sigmar then went on a campaign to unite the disparate tribes of the future Empire, and one by one they submitted, either by conquest or diplomacy. The most famous incident was his subjugation of the belligerent Teutogens, the largest and most powerful of the tribes, who lived near the Middle Mountains in the north central Empire, near the current location of the Middenheim City-State (Freistadt). Their chieftain, Artur, was defeated by Sigmar in single combat, and this is commonly held to have been the point at which Sigmar gained control of the tribes of the Empire.

Emperor

From that point onward, Sigmar embarked upon a campaign of purgation and liberation throughout all of the tribal lands, primarily against the Beastmen (Beasts of Chaos), the human followers of Chaos such as the Norse (as evidenced by his defeat of Morkar's invasion) and Goblinoid races (Orcs and Goblins), culminating in the First Battle of Black Fire Pass (IC -1), in present-day Averland, in the south-east of the Empire. Following this great victory, Sigmar returned in triumph to his native Reikland and was crowned Emperor Sigmar Heldenhammer I('Hero Hammer') at Reikdorf, the site of the current Imperial capital of Altdorf. This date remains the Empire's greatest holy day, as it marks Sigmar's coronation and abdication fifty years later (IC 50) - it is in the summer of the Imperial year, on the 18th day of the month of Sigmarzeit.

Sigmar set up the leaders of the twelve tribes that followed him as the Elector Counts of the Empire, a position that remains to this day. The Runefang swords, commissioned by Sigmar to the legendary Dwarf smith Alaric the Mad, were not finished before Sigmar's abdication, but nevertheless remain among the most potent symbols of Imperial rule.

Departure

In the fiftieth year of his reign, Sigmar put by his crown and set off into the east. Sources conflict on the details of what precisely motivated Sigmar to do this; some accounts claim he set off to return Ghal Maraz to the Dwarfs, but the famous rune-hammer has traditionally been the weapon of the ruling Emperor and the primary symbol/relic of the Sigmarite cult, founded by Johann Helstrum in IC 73. A number of heresies have sprung up regarding the authenticity of Ghal Maraz, but the official Imperial position is that the weapon wielded by the Emperors is the hammer of Sigmar.

Legacy

Following his disappearance, Sigmar passed over the World's Edge mountain range and no human ever saw him again. Since he was never known to have died, this may have played a large role in the early successes of the cult established in his honour. It is now the foremost religion in the Empire and is inextricably intertwined with the political, cultural, and national identity of the Empire and its people. Interestingly, Sigmar never claimed to be a deity and his own religious beliefs while alive are subject to conjecture, although tradition dictates that he was crowned Emperor by the High Priest of the cult of Ulric, the northern god of winter, wolves, and war. However, the priests and worshippers of Sigmar often receive measurable and often positive answers to their entreaties and petitions, suggesting that something with some measure of power is answering them. Many take this as a sign that Sigmar indeed is a god, and watches over the Empire.

The cults of Sigmar and Ulric do not get along well. The Ar-Ulric and the two Arch-Lectors of the Sigmarite faith, as well as the Grand Theogonist (the current one being Volkmar the Grim), all maintain a vote in the election of the Emperors. While the cult and its leaders are often corrupt and hip-deep in the Byzantine politics of the Empire, it is a faith that preaches courage, justice, honour, and the protection of the weak and innocent from evil. It is also nationalistic and sees the preservation of Sigmar's original holdings as a sacred duty. The church's iconography primarily centres around images directly connected to Sigmar himself: the comet and the hammer are the foremost of these. Also a popular national and religious symbol is the griffon, the personal heraldry of Emperor Magnus the Pious, who saved the Empire from disaster during the Great War Against Chaos in IC 2302-2303. It is likely that Magnus will be canonized as a saint within the next century.

Champion of Light?

It is a well-known theory among the theologians of the Old World that a Champion of Light arises to do battle with the forces of Chaos when they unify around their periodic leaders. Some believe that Sigmar may have been one of these, and a number have argued for Magnus the Pious as well. The most recent case came in the year IC 2522, under a young man named Valten of Lachenbad, who became the central figure around which the Empire rallied to fight Archaon the Everchosen in the recent Storm of Chaos event. Valten was especially noted for his incredible strength, instinctive leadership, and strength of will. Furthermore, he strongly resembled the appearance ascribed to Sigmar in Imperial legend, and sported a birthmark on his chest of Sigmar's legendary twin-tailed comet. Hailed as the 'spiritual leader of the Empire' by Emperor Karl Franz I and presented with Sigmar's own hammer Ghal Maraz, Valten was believed by many to be an avatar of Sigmar or the returned god under a different name. He was assassinated shortly after the war with Archaon ended, ostensibly by an assassin of the Skaven Clan Eshin (the warpstone dagger would suggest their involvement, although it was indicated in the text that count Boris Todbringer of Middenheim and the former Grand Theogonist Johann Esmer might have been involved), but this development was covered up by the Emperor and Valten's lieutenant, the Sigmarite warrior-monk and prophet Luthor Huss, who discovered Valten in the days before Archaon's invasion. It should be noted that only Valten's blood was found, not his body, suggesting that he may still be alive.

Cult of Sigmar

Following the abdication of Sigmar, a cult grew around him and began worshipping him as the founder of The Empire, today the cult is the official state religion of The Empire and is almost universally recognised.

The gods & goddesses of the Old World
Old Faith - Rhya - Taal - Ulric - Manann - Morr - Verena - Myrmidia - Shallya - Ranald - Handrich - Stromfels - Khaine - Sigmar - Lady of the Lake - Lucan & Luccina - Ursun - Dazh - Tor - Esmeralda

Notes & sources