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Skaven

Battle Magic Lore

Unlike many Wizards who spend long hours in darkened rooms studying their arcane arts by candlelight, practitioners of Battle Magic tend to be hardy individuals, as at home on the battlefield as they are in their libraries. This is because, unlike other lores that may be studied, Battle Magic is openly offensive and tailored towards use upon the field of battle (which, given the Lore's name, should come as no surprise), and it is here that masters of the Lore hone their skill. Practitioners of Battle Magic are favoured by cunning generals all across the Old World and beyond, and their services are often in high demand. Many an opposing army has been undone by devastating fireballs cast from afar, found a cloying mist obscuring their view, their path blocked by a bend in the river that was not there before, or their courage sapped as arrows fell upon them with supernatural accuracy. Those that wield Battle Magic will draw their power from whichever of the Winds of Magic suits their purpose. They grasp at the red wind, summoning forth fire from the air to rain upon the enemy, the green wind to armour themselves with the strength of oak, the grey wind to cow and demoralise their foe, and more besides. To a Battle Mage, the incorporeal dangers of harnessing several Winds of Magic at once are of little concern – what matters most is turning the tide and ensuring swift victory. 

Battle Magic

Daemonology Lore

When a denizen of the Old World thinks of Daemons, they imagine the nightmare servants of the Chaos powers. Yet the pantheon of daemonic beings is far greater than this. Within the Realm of Chaos there dwells an infinite number of creatures that owe no allegiance to the Ruinous Powers. Such creatures often manifest within the mortal realm, some masquerading as elemental sprites, mischievous spirits of house and hearth, others possessing a host and bending it to their will. In truth, denizens of the Old World think of Daemons rarely, fearful that doing so might summon them forth! In this superstitious belief, Daemonologists are not like others. Through rituals and invocations shared and perfected within secretive covens, they endeavour to summon forth the most powerful of Daemons, hoping to entrap them and bind them to their will. Some use props in their craft, binding daemonic servants into mundane items such as books, oil lamps, staffs, even weapons of war. Thus bound, a Daemon becomes subservient to the Wizard that summoned it and must comply with its master's wishes. Yet Daemons are ever dishonest, their words and deeds selfish and cruel. Consequently, most Daemonologists quickly fall foul of the very beings they believed they had mastered. For all their mysticism and ritual, their secret orders and wealth of arcane knowledge, Daemonologists are not the enlightened seekers of truth many believe themselves to be. They are mere slaves to the powers they seek to master – there are no champions of Chaos, only the lost and the damned. 

Daemonology

Dark Magic Lore

With the collapse of the polar gates, Chaos came into the world. As it did, the pure and refined magic harnessed by the Old Ones came into contact with its influence for the first time within the mortal realm. Almost immediately, the corrupting power of Chaos began to work upon it as surely as it did the bodies and minds of mortals. Twisted and warped by Chaos, the unseen strands of colour that composed pure magic merged and bled into one another, causing the Winds of Magic to grow blackened and ever more unstable. Amongst the Elves of Ulthuan, there were those drawn to this phenomenon. Sensing a raw source of power, magic which could be mastered more easily, they began to experiment with its use. Quickly, most learned the dangers – that magic corrupted by Chaos would quickly corrupt those that sought to master it – yet there were those that persisted. Today, Dark Magic still torments the world. Wherever the touch of Chaos is felt most strongly, the Winds of Magic twist and coalesce into dark, roiling clouds. Many Wizards feel compelled to study and use Dark Magic, wielding it with careless abandon, enraptured by its potency and the apparent ease of its mastery. Yet those that dabble with Dark Magic are fools, for Dark Magic is like nothing so much as the raw stuff of chaos, and its use is a path to certain damnation and eternal servitude. 

Dark Magic

Elementalism Lore

Wizards that study Elementalism will often hide their art from the uneducated masses, for the powers they wield can easily be mistaken for darker arts such as Daemonology or Necromancy, summoning as they do elemental spirits from the ætheric netherworld. But for all the suspicion that haunts their study, their abilities are often in great demand. Many a farming community has sought out the aid of an Elementalist to end a period of drought; their ability to summon rain from a clear sky the difference between a prosperous and a failed harvest. Many a ship's captain will seek an Elementalist's services for long and dangerous voyages, hoping that their charms can deliver favourable winds and settle a restless ocean. Still other Elementalists conceal their craft behind a more mundane façade. Many a skilled blacksmith or farrier secretly manipulates the red wind to heat their forge and the iron that glows within it by arcane means, producing works of great wonder. Other Elementalists prefer to turn their magical powers to a different, more scientific purpose, melding arcane knowledge of the yellow wind and study of natural philosophy within the halls of academia to study alchemy. In battle, the powers an Elementalist wields are a considerable blessing, able as they are to disrupt the enemy lines, entrench and defend their own, and even cause the weapons of allies to burn with the heat of their forging whilst the armour of their foes crumbles to rust. 

Elementalism

Illusion Lore

Many Illusionists travel the Old World, manipulating the innocent and subjecting the unwary to their will. Others find shelter within the entourage of a powerful lord or lady, masquerading as entertainers before courtiers and guests. Almost all maintain a pretence of stagecraft in everything they do, carefully crafted charms working to befuddle the minds of those around them, lulling an audience into an almost trancelike state in which the Illusionist's victims remain convinced that, no matter how overt the magic practiced before their eyes, they are witnessing a simple mummers act. Behind this pretence, Illusionists practise a profane art which thrives upon deceit and misdirection. They work the Winds of Magic in subtle ways, crafting mirage images that fill the mind with counterfeit memories and imposter emotions. It is by these means that Illusionists are able to manipulate those around them, bending them to their will, causing them to react to realities that are not, in fact, real. Illusion is, perhaps, the most dangerous of lores, both for those that practise it as well as those that witness it. A careless Illusionist can find themselves drawn into their own deceits, the Winds of Magic entrapping them and pulling their mind into a world that does not truly exist. 

Illusion

Grey Seer

Regular Infantry

This sub-category covers all the roughly human-sized warriors of the Warhammer world, be they Men, Elves, Dwarfs, Orcs, Zombies and so on. Regular infantry will normally form the core of your Warhammer army, the troops upon which you rely to get the job done. Regular infantry can be expected to adopt almost any formation to fulfil any role. Due to their ubiquity, the basic rules of Warhammer: the Old World are written around regular infantry, so no additional rules apply to this troop type. 

Character

Some models will have the word 'Character' in brackets after their troop type, indicating that the model is a character. This section does not cover characters in detail. Instead, and because characters are such a powerful and important part of Warhammer: the Old World, they have a section all to themselves..

Warhammer: The Old World Online Rules Index

Grey Seer
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