Aqshy
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The realm of fire, wrath, anger, passion, love and barbecue. It's pretty much what would happen if Australia, Mordor and the realms from Conan the Barbarian were mashed together, set on fire and thrown into a volcano. It is also Khorne's favorite chew-toy and many of his most famous warriors originate here. Unlike the Elemental Planes of Fire, Aqshy isn't a perpetual firestorm. Just as the Realm of Beasts isn't a single, giant superbeast to crawl around in, the Realm of Fire is more a place where fire is encouraged to happen and grow. There are volcanoes and lava flows, but also scrublands, sulfurous swamps, and chaparrals (even though most publications focus on the nasty, burning aspect of Aqshy.) It is basically a rip-off from Magic the Gathering's color red, expanded into an entire dimension.
History[edit]
Back in ye olden days, Aqshy was the home of the DwarfenDuardin god Grimnir, who went around killing monsters and engaging in grand scale terraforming via swinging his axe. Then he got himself shattered while trying to kill a burning salamander the size of a mountain. The most commonly-held belief is that he was turned into shards of Ur-Gold, which the Fyreslayers will slavishly hunt down and hammer onto their skin as magically-infused runes of power. It was also home to the Volc-Giants, the Fire Giant schtick equivalent to the Jotunbergs of Ghyran's Ice Giant schtick. The Volc-Giants were massive, comparable in size to the godbeast Behemat, and brutal slavers who saw mortals only fit to be slaves and used in wars against the armies of other Volc-giants, like a living game of Warhammer. Sigmar killed them all in the Age of Myth, liberating the people from their cruel rule.
At some later point, a Magocracy called the Algoraxians came into power across the Great Parch. As with other Magocracies in fiction, these people treated non-magicians as slaves while they spent their time building all sorts of weird shit including literal magical titans. Of course, they got so obsessed with their research that they'd begin secluding themselves in pursuit of magical power - all perfectly placed for Tzeentch to come and corrupt them and take over their greatest tower, which would later become the Free City of Brightspear. While heavily damaged by Tzeentch's forces much of the former nation has been reconquered by the returning armies of Order, with Brightspear becoming a defacto capital of the region. Though Tzeentch's minions still contest many regions.
At this time another great power came about in the Great Parch known as the trading empire of Bataar. This civilizaitons of traders and Bankers came to prosperity by the manufacture of a high-demand fabric know as Firesilk that was harvested from their Flamespider herds. Eventually creating their capial known as the Floating City (as it actually floats and is made from hundreds of ships that were tied/hammered together). This came in handy when their lands were ravanged by Khornes legions were they took refuge in the sky while many of their people were enslaved by the Chaos hordes. Eventually got the last laugh however as with Sigmars return they used vast stockpiles of hidden gold reserves to hire armies of Fyreslayers from Vostarg Mont to help reconquer their lands and free their surviving people. The empire of Bataar has since returned to being a major trading hub for the greater continent.
When the Age of Chaos came, Khorne wanted to secure himself the coolest, most metal realm he could find. This was surprisingly not Chamon, which got claimed by Tzeentch, but Aqshy. The next few centuries, his followers had a grand old time slapping around local tribes, sacking cities and building giant pyramids out of skulls. Unfortunately, this happy murder-party could not go on forever, as a nice gentleman called Sigmar decided to send out his shiny new toys, the Stormcast Eternals, to kick the shit out of the skull fetishists. After the initial fighting had died down somewhat, Sigmar began building new cities in the Realm of Fire as his first step in re-stabilizing the realms and presumably pissing off Khorne.
Locations and People[edit]
Aqshy, like most realms, is pretty big and varied in population. One of the most detailed parts of it is The Great Parch, the very centre of the realm where a lot of important stuff to the setting occurred, up to and including the first counter-attack against Chaos that heralded the so-called Age of Sigmar. It contains some of the most important Cities of Sigmar in the Setting, such as Anvilgard, Hallowheart, and the Aqshy half of Hammerhal (creatively named Hammerhal Aqsha).
Fire Djinn most likely originate from Aqshy.
A subspecies of Troggoth lives in Aqshy known as the Sulphurbreath Troggoth.
A Halfling Subspecies known as the Rockwrist Halfings lives here. They have indigo blood and periwinkle skin.
A race of Duardin from Ulgu emigrated here, known as the Shadow Duardin.
The Graz are a race of bat-apes descended from humans who dwell in the caves under Aspiria.
The Telantr are a humanoid reptilian race that dwell in caverns under Aspiria as well, and whose warriors, the Arrow-Tongues, can spit poison.
Factions Present[edit]
- Blades of Khorne: Before the Age of Sigmar, Khorne had been trying pretty hard to conquer this realm because of how well this aesthetic meshed with his own. However, this would also be the first place where Sigmar would bring down his golden supermen to ruin his shit.
- Cities of Sigmar/Stormcast Eternals: As mentioned above, there are quite a few cities present in Aqshy, and many of them were founded by Sigmar's golden men. Of note among them are the Hammers of Sigmar, who are based in Hammerhal, and the Anvils of the Heldenhammer, who founded Anvilgard. After the Vermindoom burst out of the Great Parch, Sigmar had to send out the Ruination Chamber because the warp corruption went up to Chernobyl-level bad.
- Daughters of Khaine: Definitely have a place now that they've conquered the abovementioned city of Anvilgard and now own it, having rechristened it as Har Kuron. Though they were never exactly unwelcome elsewhere, they now have a definitive monument to Morathi's power as an ascended war god.
- Fyreslayers: Of course this entire faction calls the realm home. After all, this was the realm of their god and is now his grave. Several Lodges call this home, most notable among them being the Vostarg Lodge.
- Idoneth Deepkin: Home of the Fuethán Conclave, who are best known for collecting all sorts of giant fire-spewing sea monsters. Of course, they're also considered the most impulsive and ruthless of the Idoneth. Did I even mention how their Fangmora eels are BLOOD-RED?
- Skaven: They blew up an entire third of the Great Parch! Seriously, they blasted it so hard Blight City grew out of it like a warpstone tumor.
Trivia[edit]
- Despite being inside a realmSPHERE, most continents are at about the same level.
- Most places are named after fire-related things (like the Brimstone Peninsula, for example), even though most of the Realm is not on fire.
- Aqshy, more than any other realm, got devastated by the Age of Chaos, with many continents getting smashed into smaller pieces. This unfortunately made travel very hard, and subsequently made realmgates or any means of rapid transportation - especially ones that involve flying - highly prized in this realm.
- Nurgle apparently once tried to take over Aqshy, but Skarbrand got so pissed at this, his wrath literally killed every bacteria in a thousand-mile radius.
- The realmstone of Aqshy is called Emberstone, creatively enough. This stone seems to constantly emanate a heat that can be felt not only physically, but also mentally as some seem to claim that this stone can resonate and amplify certain emotions. Because of these properties, Emberstone is often used in equipment, be it in burning weapons, armor wreathed in protective flames, or more conventional and non-military uses.
The Nine Realms of the Age of Sigmar | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Hysh | ||||
Ghur | Chamon | |||
Aqshy | Realm of Chaos Eightpoints |
Ghyran | ||
Shyish | Azyr | |||
Ulgu |