The Chaos Wastes

(text from Hordes of Chaos, by Games Workshop)

The Realm of Chaos

As you approach the center of the Wastes, You would find yourself labouring beneath a storm-shaken sky – a turbulent, broiling darkness pierced by lightning and blasted by roaring thunder. Here you would witness the rebellion of nature, where even the elements are said to be torn between the mortal and immortal worlds. Gargantuan pillars of black and broken stone stretch far to the left and right and beyond the horizon. These marker stones surround the angry blackness of Chaos like gigantic teeth about the gaping maw of an impossibly titanic entity.

Were you to step over that boundary, you would not find yourself lashed by storm or shrouded by night but swallowed into a region of infinite space altogether removed from the mortal world. As words alone are incapable of describing that which lies beyond Oblivion’s veil, no more can mere mortal thought convey the weave in the fabric of the timeless multiverse.

The Wastes

About the Realm of Chaos, the borderlands of the mortal world form a ring of shadow that surrounds the ultimate darkness within, For this reason, the lands of the North are also known as the Shadowlands, the Umbra Chaotica, or the Chaos Wastes. This broad region is part of the material world but inevitably tainted by the close proximity of Chaos. The Realm of Chaos radiates an intense and dangerous energy over the entire globe. This is the warping energy that wizards regard as the soruce of all magic. Lying close to the borders of Chaos, the Northlands are unavoidably saturated with this energy and only as the distance from the pole increases does the power of Chaos gradually weaken.

The Men who dwell in the Northlands are, for the most part, barbarous and savage compared to those who live in the settled lands of the South. They are not physically unlike other Men and, in times of peace, merchants from the North can be found trading their wares in the markets of cosmopolitan cities such are Marienburg in the west and Weijin in the East. Yet in other respects they are unlike other men, worshipping outlandish gods and living lives that are altogether harsher and more primitive. Most importantly of all, they live within the shadow of the Realm of Chaos and as such cannot wholly escape its power.

The Kurgan

The Kurgan are a raven haired, dark-skinned and powerfully built race, quite unlike Old Worlders in appearance. They are said to be equally at home on foot or on horseback. When the armies of Chaos gather to invade the old World, it is the Kurgan that come most eagerly and in the greatest numbers, for they are a numerous people compares to the other tribes of Chaos. Their lordship extends far to the East and to the South beyond the shadow of Chaos. It is the warrior of the northernmost tribes who are the fiercest and most likely to be chosen by their gods.

The Hung

The Hung are an oriental race – perhaps shorter and more squat than the people of Cathay but otherwise resembling them. They are reckoned the greatest of all horsemen and are said to learn to ride before they learn even to walk. Northwards, the land is too poor and mountainous to support their horses, and the steeds of the Hung are typically small, tough beasts that can survive where larger warhorses would quickly starve. Here the tribes hunt the mutant monsters amongst the snow-clad mountains, gathering their strength to raid the soft lands of Cathay to the South.

The Norse

To the North of the Old World live the Norse tribes: fierce barbarians, fur-clad and warlike – the very epitome of the Warriors of Chaos. Their mountainous sea-bound land is haunted by all manner of twisted monstrous creatures, notably mutant trolls and giants, and by nameless things that live deep under the mountains. They are warriors at sea as well as on land – building longships in which they harass the Southern lands and undertake journets far to the West. The Norse have pale skin after the manner of Men of the Empire. They are generally held to be tall and strong, and many have red or fair hair. Those that live the greatest distance from the Realm of Chaos are the least favoured of their gods – and the most likely to be seen openly in more civilized lands as a result.