Warhammer Fantasy (later renamed Warhammer: The Old World) is a fictional fantasy universe created by Games Workshop and used in many of its games, including the table top wargame Warhammer, the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) pen-and-paper role-playing game, and a number of video games: the MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the strategy games Total War: Warhammer, Total War: Warhammer II, Total War: Warhammer III and Total War: Warhammer 40,000, and the two first-person shooter games in the Warhammer Vermintide series, Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide and Warhammer: Vermintide 2, among many others. Warhammer is notable for its “dark and gritty” background world, which references a range of historical cultures such as the Holy Roman Empire, Mesoamerica, ancient Egypt, and medieval France, and is populated with a variety of races such as humans, high elves, dark elves, wood elves, dwarfs, undead, orcs, lizardmen, and other creatures familiar to many fantasy/role-playing settings. The development of the setting began with the release of a game simply called “Warhammer” in 1983. In 2014, Games Workshop introduced The End Times, a setting-wide event that culminated in the destruction of the Warhammer world. The setting is followed by a soft reboot known as Warhammer Age of Sigmar, created in 2015. In 2024, Warhammer Fantasy was brought back in a reboot known as Warhammer The Old World, which brings a new version of the old rules and updated models.
Background
The Warhammer world drew inspiration from Tolkien’s Middle-earth, but also from Robert E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian) and Michael Moorcock (Elric of Melniboné), as well as real-world history, particularly European history. What is recognisable as the Warhammer World began with the expansion material to the first edition of the game Warhammer, but was formulated as a distinct setting with a world map in the second edition. The Warhammer World borrowed considerably from historical events and other fantasy fiction settings. The Old World is recognisably Europe approximating to various historical periods including the Renaissance—the Empire being set over what was the Holy Roman Empire—medieval France, Roman Italy and Celtic Britain. Many events are lifted and modified directly from history, including the Black Plague and the Moorish invasion of Spain, and others from original fantasy sources. Like Middle-earth, Warhammer's Dwarfs are declining in population, the Elves have mostly departed for homelands in the West, and a Great Necromancer is reborn after the defeats in his Southern stronghold.
Races and nations The world of Warhammer Fantasy has some of the largest distribution of races and cultures in pop fantasy.
Mankind One of the world's most prominent, and often one of the most susceptible to the corrupting influence of Chaos. Most of the featured human nations are based in the Old World (analogous to real Europe): The Empire (Holy Roman Empire), Bretonnia (France and Arthurian Britain), and Kislev (Slavs of Russia, Poland, and Ukraine). Further east of them is another powerful human civilisation known as Grand Cathay (corresponding to China). There is also Nippon (Japan), Ind (India) and Araby (based loosely on the various Middle Eastern powers that ruled throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, most notably the Ottoman Empire).
Old Ones Many factions, such as the Elves, the Lizardmen, the Ogres and the Halflings, have been created by the Old Ones: star-travelling gods responsible for the creation of most of the setting's sentient races. These Old Ones were brought low by the daemonic forces inadvertently unleashed by the collapse of their Warp Gates (one on the North Pole and one on the South Pole), leaving their creations to fend for themselves. This backstory also provides an easy explanation for the presence of a variety of familiar fantasy races. Ogres and Halflings, for example, are closely related. Both are resistant to the mutating effects of Chaos energies (fuelled by hearty appetites and efficient metabolisms), but have opposite physical templates.
Elves The Elves were the first civilised race to walk the Warhammer world. Brought into creation by the Old Ones, the Elves showed a natural talent for magic and superlative martial skills. The once thriving civilisation of the Elves was torn asunder many thousands of years ago by a bitter civil war, resulting in the sundering of the race into three distinct kindreds: the cruel, twisted, slave-trading Dark Elves, the proud, noble and magical High Elves who continue the ancient traditions from before the sundering, and a third group as the rustic, sylvan and mysterious Wood Elves. The High Elves inhabit the magical island of Ulthuan (analogous to Atlantis), while the Dark Elves inhabit the continent of Naggaroth (correspondent to North America in the real world), a desolate icy wilderness and the Wood Elves live in the forests of Athel Loren in the Old World.
Chaos
Many races have fallen to, or been corrupted by Chaos. The barbaric Warriors of Chaos (formerly called "Hordes of Chaos") invade the civilised nations from the far northern Chaos Wastes. Beastmen, the human-animal hybrid products of Chaos, are found in the dark forests of the entire Warhammer world. The Chaos forces are the personified flaws of sapient beings; the inner daemons of living things come back through a magic medium as literal daemons to torment and kill. The ultimate victory of these forces is often hinted at, highlighting a strong assumption that sentient beings are fundamentally flawed and will eventually bring about their own destruction via the forces of Chaos. The possibility of the victory of Chaos is a major theme in the End Times campaign.
Dwarfs Dwarfs are an ancient, gritty, and determined race integral in the founding of the Empire. A large amount of the Empire's industry and mechanisms were provided by the Dwarfs. Dwarfs are the greatest craftsmen in the Warhammer World, a skill largely matched by the Chaos Dwarfs who split from their brothers after being corrupted by Chaos. Their language is called Khazalid, written using a runic-like script called Klinkarhun.
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