The Ages of the Mortal Realms: Myth, Chaos, Sigmar, Beast

History in the Mortal Realms is not measured in centuries but in ages, movements of the story so vast that each one changed what it meant to be alive. There have been golden dawns and endless nights, resurrections and catastrophes, and the whole sprawling saga can feel impossible to hold in the head at once. Yet the shape of it is surprisingly simple. Four great ages carry the tale from the birth of paradise to the desperate present, and knowing them in order turns a bewildering setting into a story you can actually follow.

The Age of Myth[edit]

In the beginning there was wonder. After the death of the world that came before, the magic of its passing gathered into the eight Mortal Realms, and into that raw creation came Sigmar, a god who had survived the end of everything. He explored the young realms, woke and befriended other divine beings, and forged a pantheon of gods who together raised civilizations of impossible splendour. Cities of gold and crystal rose beside rivers of light, mortals prospered under the protection of their gods, and the miracles of the age were so great that later generations would struggle to believe they had ever been real.

It could not last, and in truth its ending was seeded in its glory. The gods grew proud and began to quarrel; some withdrew into their own designs, and the bonds of the pantheon frayed. Into those cracks something ancient and patient was already pressing.

The Age of Chaos[edit]

The dream ended in fire. The Dark Gods breached the realms, and their champions poured through in numbers beyond counting, led by the mortal warlords who would become the Slaves to Darkness. Betrayal shattered the pantheon from within, the gods turned from one another at the very moment they most needed unity, and realm by realm the great civilizations burned. This was the Age of Chaos, and it was the longest and darkest night the realms have ever known.

When victory became impossible, Sigmar made a terrible choice. He retreated to Azyr, the Realm of Heavens, gathered what refugees he could, and sealed the gates of heaven behind him. For generations the other realms belonged to Chaos while the God-King, in secret, prepared his answer. He would return, but not with the armies he had lost. He would return with something entirely new.

The Age of Sigmar[edit]

The current age opened with a thunderclap. The gates of Azyr burst wide and the Stormcast Eternals, Sigmar's immortal warriors forged from the souls of fallen heroes, fell upon the hosts of Chaos like a storm breaking. The campaigns that followed, the Realmgate Wars, were fought to seize the ancient portals binding the realms together and to reopen the roads for the free peoples. Slowly, at ruinous cost, the tide began to turn.

Behind the Stormcast spearhead came the settlers. As reconquered ground was secured, the survivors of Azyr and their allies poured out to build anew, founding the great free cities that would become the Cities of Sigmar. For the first time in living memory, civilization was advancing rather than retreating. But the realms had other gods besides Sigmar, and one of them had been waiting a very long time.

The Soul Wars[edit]

Just as the light seemed to be winning, Nagash, the Great Necromancer, sprang a design centuries in the making. His vast engine of death-magic unleashed the Necroquake, a tidal wave of amethyst power that rolled through every realm at once, tearing the veil between the living and the dead. Out of that catastrophe poured the Nighthaunt, endless processions of vengeful ghosts, and the long horror known as the Soul Wars began. It is a chapter large enough to demand its own telling, in the Soul Wars and the Necroquake.

The Era of the Beast[edit]

The most recent turning of the age dragged the story into the wilds. The focus of the great wars shifted to Ghur, the savage Realm of Beasts, where the very land hunts the living and civilization must be clawed out of a world that wants it dead. Into this brutal era erupted new terrors, among them a colossal god of destruction whose freedom heralded ruin, and the awakening of the Sons of Behemat, mountainous giants who stride out of legend to flatten the works of smaller folk. It is an age when the green tide of the Orruk Warclans surges with fresh fury and the frontier grows wilder by the season.

Yet even here, mortals refuse to yield. Great columns of settlers march out from the free cities on desperate expeditions to plant new strongholds in hostile realms, gambling their lives on the belief that the age of building is not yet over. The current era is defined by that stubborn courage: civilization pushing outward into a world that has every intention of devouring it.

Reading the Ages[edit]

Laid end to end, the four ages tell one continuous story: paradise, catastrophe, defiance, and the hard, uncertain present. Myth gave the realms their splendour; Chaos took it away; Sigmar's storm won back a foothold; and the ages since have tested whether that foothold can ever truly become a home. The beauty of the setting is that the story is still being written, its outcome genuinely unknown, its heroes and horrors still on the march. If you want to see where it all began in fuller detail, start with What Is Age of Sigmar?, and follow the ages forward as the map of the realms fills in around you.