Realm of Ghur
| Mortal Realms: | Aqshy • Azyr • Chamon • Chaos • Ghur • Ghyran • Hysh • Shyish • Ulgu |
|---|
The Realm of Ghur, also known as the Realm of Beasts, is one of the eight Mortal Realms. A realm of untamed savagery where only the strongest can hope to survive.[1a][8e]
Contents
Symbol
The Rune that is used to represent the Realm of Ghur is the Arrow of the hunt, and it is a fitting icon for the wildest of all the realms, straight forward and unswerving. The peoples of Ghur will often carry bows or projectile weapons as their primary armament.[24] [25]
Characteristics
A reality of titanic monsters and primordial savagery, the Realm of Ghur is a place of conflict and wildness. The embodiment of hunger, brutality and the survival of the fittest, Ghur is a realm of life, but not in the same way as Ghyran. No, it represents life in competition with itself, the strong seeking to dominate the weak, predators hunting their prey and in turn being hunted themselves. For everything is both predator and prey. Gargantuan beasts clash with one another for the right to mate, carnivorous flora seek to ensnare animals the size of castles and grow tall on the blood of the slain, their roots drinking deep of the life fluids.[24] [25]
Even the lands themselves seek to conquer one another. Mountains slowly grind across the land, seeking to dominate the earth below, all the while the forest upon their slopes dig their roots ever deeper, in an attempt to consume the mountains.[24] [25] Some even believe that Ghur had already been overtaken by a bestial animus when the realms were created. [29a]
Ghur is composed of a near-endless string of jagged continents, each awe-inspiring in its primeval splendour. [24] [25]
Culture
The peoples of Ghur are straightforward, pragmatic and adaptable. Called Ghurites, they prefer to deal with any situation head-on, casting aside subtlety and guile. Ghur has more tribal peoples then any other realm, breeding mighty warrior cultures and fearsome warriors who revel in the thrill of battle rather than fear the possibility of death. Many Ghurites are also skilled hunters and trackers able to tame or kill a beast, for the hunt is beloved much as a matter of sport as it is of survival.[24] [25]
In the more civilized places, the people of Ghur tend to use whatever materials that are at hand for there settlements. Which usually are the ancient bones of long-dead titanic creatures. Their great cities are composed of stone and ivory with wall studded with giant iron spikes, to deter some monsters from attacking the settlement. Those creatures that persist in their attack are usually skewered on the spikes and are harvested for meat and materials. [24] [25]
Fashion in the realm is represented with the colors often associated with Ghur, Browns and amber. But there are other colors, White and ivory of bone and the reds of blood. Fur is also common among Ghurish fashion. [24] [25]
History
Age of Myth
- Flooding drives the Great Worms out of the cavernous depths beneath the Amber Steppes of Ghur and they begin to crawl across the Steppes, devouring everything in their path.[2]
- Sigmar found Gorkamorka trapped within the amber mass of Drakatoa, the living avalanche that ruled Ghyrria in the Realm of Beasts. With the help of Dracothion, Sigmar managed to free the greenskin god and drive back Drakatoa. Pleased to be freed and infuriated for requiring aid he attacked Dracothion, knocking him senseless in a single blow. Sigmar was moved to ire and attacked the two-headed god. The sheer destructive power of this twelve-day battle shook the Mortal Realms and created the Mountains of Maraz and the Gouge Canyons. This battle drew many beasts, as sunwyrm and shaggoth stood side-by-side agog at his fury and destructive power. Eventually the two gods grew tired, observed their ruined surroundings and the audience of monsters, and laughed. Seeing a god that could match his own battle-lust, he clasped Sigmar's hand and agreed to fight alongside him.[8b] To keep Gorkamorka and his greenskins belligerent nature in check, the God-Council sent him into the wilds of the Mortal Realms to battle monstrous beasts and other innumerable threats.[8c] During his role of monster-hunter he cleared the Ghurland plains.[8a]
Age of Sigmar
As the Age of Sigmar began, many of Ghur's bone-strewn continents were covered in ash by glowing rain.[8d] Many Dawnbringer Crusades are launched in Ghur, especially in the continent of Thondia.[29a]
Locations
Moons
Ghur has 2 moons: Koptus and Gnorl Half-Eaten. According to legend, the 3rd month Dronsor was eaten by Ghur.[28a]
Other locations
- Ghurish Heartlands
- Amber Steppes: Occasional grass strewn hills and craggy expanses of battered stone mark the many fallen empires and kingdoms that the great Waaagh!s of Gorkamorka had broken and the servants of Chaos had finished off. By the time of the Age of Sigmar, only a few nomadic tribesmen called the grasslands home[2][9]
- Lion Crag: A tower-like mesa that has been occupied since the Age of Myth; until the Realmgate Wars it was called Wolf Crag and its many tunnels had been claimed by beastmen. [9]
- Crawling City: A city-state built on the back of the Great Worm Shu'gohl.[2]
- Amberstone Watch[29a]
- Beastfens: A area that contains The Growling Gates[15]
- Beastgrave: A predatory living mountain that lures in explorers[27a]
- Beastplains: A place that was almost conquered by the Bloodwrought warband.[1][7]
- Black Marsh Barony: South of the Amber Steppes, known for good beer and giant turtles large enough to support castles on their backs, from whose excrement Torope Gold is extracted.[9]
- The Black Trough: a long scar running along the seabed, said to be created by Gorkamorka wading out to fight the Father of Krakigon[17a]
- Blasted Plain: A storm-lashed wasteland found in the forgotten reaches of Ghur, populated by savage nomads and wind-worshippers.[10a]
- Bloodbloom Fields: Also known as the Singing Steppes, is a field surrounded by ribcages of animals of impossible size covered in red grass and crimson flowers.[10b]
- Bone Desert: A vast sea of sand dunes sprinkled with the gigantic skeletons that may have given it its name, although others claim that the sand itself is bone dust.[20]
- Coast of Tusks[3]
- Darkdeep Ocean[10]
- Drowned Lands[29a]
- Druichan Forest: It spreads across a vast icy wilderness, within it the Heart of Winter was guarded by bitter Sylvaneth, the Aerchhoi. [19]
- Excelsis: A prophecy-rich city of Order built after the Realmgate Wars.[3]
- Forest of Gorch: Stretching for untold leagues and thick with unfeasible massive trees, it is a vast forest near the Coast of Tusks.[9]
- Gargantua Ridge: a place where the Bloodwrought warband fought with the Arcanites over dominion of the Beastplains.[7]
- Ghurland plains: A place that was cleared by Gorkamorka during his role of monster-hunter for the Great Alliance.[8a]
- The Gargant's Graveyard: A vast array of sun-bleached bones - many of these are the remains of thousands of gargants but there are also a substantial number of other skeletons from other races as well. Some of these ribcages and skulls are the size of duardin citadels. In the centre is the Big Skull from which the bones spread outwards like a grisly maze. [4]
- The Howling Labyrinth of Tzeentch: Legend is that the Daemoniac Conundrum enslaved thousands to build the Labyrinth atop the skull of Agorath known to the Orruks as the Big Skull.[4]
- Ghyrria: a place once ruled by Drakatoa.[8b]
- Gnawing Sea: The plains of monstrous bone that surround the Gnawing Sea are saturated with savage magic that attracts mighty predators – and those who would bind them.[6]
- Gouge Canyons: a place created by the battle between Gorkamorka and Sigmar.[8b]
- Great Excelsis Road[29a]
- Hornteeth Mountains: A long chain of sharp-peaked volcanoes, covered in black ash and dividing the praries from the Darkdeep Ocean, very little grows in the area due to the volcanic activity.[10]
- Izalend, the White City, is a port city surrounded and guarded by a magical wall of fire. [19]
- Jercho: A collection of city-states on the edge of the Sea of Bones, it survived the Age of Chaos intact and then in the next Age it was claimed for Sigmar by Hamilcar Bear-Eater[18]
- Krondspine Range[29a]
- Lentock: One of the major cities of the Realm.[26a]
- Moulderpit
- Mountains of Maraz: a place created by the battle between Gorkamorka and Sigmar.[8b]
- Ominod Sea
- Nemisuvik: A city in the Stormwilds Ocean that survived the Age of Chaos intact, protected by the Angujakkak. [23]
- Plain of Giants[4]
- Ravenous Steppes: Beneath them lurks the stronghold burrow of skaven Clan Rhukrit. [21a]
- Roaring Plains: Plains where the Manticore Realmgate is located.[11]
- Sea of Bones[18]
- Skyrealm: A floating continent, one of the twelve wonders of Ghur, composed of many floating islands connected by skybridges.[13]
- Thunderscorn Peaks[29a]
Realmgates
- Bantu's Gate
- The Growling Gates: A network of realmgates in the Beastfens, whose central gate once linked the Realm of Ghur to the Realm of Hysh.[15]
- The Jaws: This ancient realmgate is simply the jawbone of some long-dead monstrosity, thrust into the earth and split open by the axe of Gorkamorka to give his Orruks a road to conquer new lands in the Realm of Shyish, yet this had given little sport and so the god had sealed it again in disgust. Following the Realmgate Wars it was reopened by Ahazian Kel [9]
- Manticore Realmgate: A portal to Chamon located in the Roaring Plains.[11]
Whirlways
- Clawgaeta: Held by the Nautilar enclave of the Deepkin.[17b]
- Draktaer: Held by the Dhom-hain enclave.[17b]
- The Great Ghyrpit: Held by the Dhom-hain enclave of the Idoneth Deepkin.[17b]
Inhabitants
- Aelves
- Dhom-hain enclave of the Idoneth Deepkin[17]
- Ionrach enclave of the Idoneth Deepkin[17]
- Various Scourge Privateers fleets can be found in the Realm.
- Dragon Ogors[29a]
- Duardin
- Lofnir Lodge: Fyreslayers with large numbers of magmadroth's and who are often paid to march to war alongside the Ogor clans of the realm. [12]
- Gargants [9]
- Grots[9]
- Humans[5]
- Vurm-tai nomads: The worm-riders, horse clans of the Amber Steppes who took to following the migration routes of the Great Worms and picking over what was left in their wake, or simply raiding the caravans that travelled to and from the worm-cities.[9]
- Hunter-tribes of the Great Coil: Hunters who move vast haunches of meat thanks to Trade Pioneers.[26a]
- Treestriders of the Gnarlwood: Tribesfolk who reside in a deadly forest of groping vines, hunting strange species and gathering medicinal herbs.[26a]
- Ogors [12]
- Orruks[4][5]
- Sankrit: A reptilian race with a small empire at the northern edge of the Sea of Bones [18]
- Skaven
- Clan Rhukrit: They sweep across the Ravenous Plains with swarms of attack vehicles, followed by crawlburrows. [21a]
- Shaggoth[8b]
- Soulblight Vampires [16]
- The Avengorii: A dynasty that dwells in the Sascathran Dunes[16]
- Sylvaneth
- The Aerchhoi: Bitter and dangerous, they inhabit the Druichan Forest near the city of Izalend. [19]
Flora and Fauna
- Aether-tic
- Bore Wyrms[29a]
- Great Worms[2]
- Ice Bears[29a]
- Maw-krushas[29a]
- Rocktusk Prowlers[29a]
- Sunwyrms[8b]
- Thundertusks[29a]
Magic
The Realmsphere Magic and spells associated with the realm of Ghurare known as Amber Spells.[26b][26c] The Realmstone is known as Amberbone.[29a]
Sources
- 1: Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Primer 2015
- 1a: An age of War - The Mortal realms
- 2: Skaven Pestilens (novel) by Josh Reynolds
- 3: Season of War gaming aid from the WH AoS app, The Seeds of Hope.
- 4: The Realmgate Wars: Fury of Gork (novel) by Josh Reynolds
- 5: Mortarch of Night (novel) by Josh Reynolds and David Guymer
- 6: General's Handbook 2017, pg. 47
- 7: The Unending Storm by Nick Kyme
- 8: Warhammer: Age of Sigmar
- 9: Spear of Shadows (novel) by Josh Reynolds
- 10: Call of Archaon - Eye of the Storm.
- 11: Bladestorm
- 12: Battletome: Fyreslayers (2016) - Fyreslayers of the Realms
- 13: Battletome: Stormcast Eternals (2015), pg. 17-20
- 14: Legends of the Age of Sigmar Fyreslayers - The Volturung Road by Guy Haley p156
- 15: Battletome: Ironjawz (2016) - The Growling Gates, pg. 94-97
- 16: Battletome: Legions of Nagash (2018) - Soulblight Vampires, pg. 26-29
- 17: Battletome: Idoneth Deepkin (2018)
- 18: Bear Eater (short Story) by David Guymer
- 19: Heart of Winter (novella) by Nick Horth
- 20: The Bone Desert (short story) by Robbie MacNiven
- 21: Battletome: Skaven (2019)
- 21a: The Clans Skryre - pg. 24-25
- 23: Force of Personality (short story)
- 24: White Dwarf june 2019:The Realm of Beast pg. 20
- 25: Age of Sigmar: Core Book (2nd Edition)
- 26: Soulbound Core Rulebook
- 27: Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm Rulebook
- 27a:The Call of the Mountain, pg.5
- 28: Age of Sigmar: Core Book (3rd Edition)
- 28a: Cosmos Arcane, Pg. 70-71
- 29: Warhammer Age of Sigmar: General's Handbook 2021
- 29a: The Realm of the Beast, Pg. 4-5
