The Age of Chaos was a devastating era when the forces of Chaos overwhelmed the Mortal Realms after the collapse of the Pantheon of Order. For centuries, Chaos reigned supreme — Khorne’s legions drowned civilizations in blood, Nurgle’s plagues consumed entire nations, Tzeentch’s sorcerers reshaped reality, and Slaanesh’s followers enslaved millions. It was the darkest period in the history of the Mortal Realms, and it only ended when Sigmar unleashed the Stormcast Eternals to reclaim what was lost.
The Age of Chaos is one of the defining eras in Age of Sigmar lore. It explains why the Mortal Realms are shattered, war-torn places rather than the paradises they once were during the Age of Myth. It explains why civilisation in the realms is fragile and precarious — because it was almost entirely destroyed. And it explains Sigmar’s fury and determination to reclaim what was lost, no matter the cost.
What Caused the Age of Chaos?
The Age of Chaos didn’t begin with a single event — it was the culmination of creeping corruption and the catastrophic failure of the Pantheon of Order.
The Collapse of the Pantheon
During the Age of Myth, Sigmar had united the gods of the Mortal Realms into a Pantheon of Order — Nagash, Gorkamorka, Alarielle, Grimnir, Grungni, Tyrion, Teclis, and Malerion all worked together under Sigmar’s leadership. This alliance brought civilisation, prosperity, and relative peace to the realms. Cities thrived, trade routes connected the realms through Realmgates, and the forces of Chaos were held at bay.
But the Pantheon was fragile. Nagash’s treachery, Gorkamorka’s restlessness, and growing tensions between the gods weakened their unity. Chaos cultists infiltrated the civilisations the gods had built, sowing corruption from within. When the Pantheon finally shattered — each god retreating to their own concerns — the Mortal Realms were left without coordinated defence.
The Chaos Invasion
With the Pantheon broken, the Dark Gods saw their opportunity. Archaon the Everchosen, the supreme champion of Chaos Undivided, led the invasion. His armies poured through corrupted Realmgates and overwhelmed realm after realm. The mortal civilisations that Sigmar had built were destroyed in waves of fire, plague, sorcery, and excess.
Each Chaos God sent their greatest champions and legions:
- Khorne — Bloodthirsters and Bloodbound warriors carved through armies and populations alike, turning entire regions into blood-soaked killing fields. The Realm of Aqshy (Fire) suffered particularly under Khorne’s assault.
- Nurgle — Plaguebearers and Rotbringers spread supernatural disease that consumed nations in days. The Realm of Ghyran (Life), Alarielle’s domain, was almost entirely overrun by Nurgle’s corruption — forests turned to rot, rivers became poison, and the goddess herself was forced into hiding.
- Tzeentch — Horrors and Arcanites twisted reality itself, reshaping geography, corrupting magical ley lines, and turning scholars and mages to the service of the Changer of Ways. The Realm of Chamon (Metal) was particularly affected by Tzeentchian sorcery.
- Slaanesh — Though Slaanesh was imprisoned (captured by the Aelven gods), his followers — the Hedonites — still rampaged across the realms, spreading excess, addiction, and cruel pleasure in their wake.
How Long Did the Age of Chaos Last?
The exact duration is deliberately vague in the lore — Games Workshop describes it as spanning “centuries” or “an age.” Time in the Mortal Realms doesn’t function identically to the mortal world, and records from the period are fragmentary at best (most civilisations that kept records were destroyed).
What’s clear is that the Age of Chaos lasted long enough to:
- Destroy virtually every civilisation built during the Age of Myth
- Corrupt entire Realms to near-uninhabitability
- Force Sigmar to retreat to Azyr (the Realm of Heavens) and seal the gates for the duration
- Allow Chaos warlords to establish permanent domains across the realms
- Create generations of mortals who knew nothing but Chaos rule
What Happened to Sigmar During the Age of Chaos?
When the Chaos invasion became overwhelming, Sigmar made a controversial and painful decision: he retreated. He sealed the gates of Azyr, the Realm of Heavens, and withdrew his forces behind them. The mortal civilisations of the other realms were left to their fate.
Behind the sealed gates, Sigmar was not idle. He spent the centuries of the Age of Chaos preparing his revenge:
The Forging of the Stormcast Eternals
With the help of Grungni, the duardin god of smithing, Sigmar created the Stormcast Eternals — mortal heroes reforged by divine lightning into immortal warriors. Each Stormcast was a hero who had fallen fighting Chaos, their soul caught by Sigmar at the moment of death and reforged on the Anvil of Apotheosis in Azyr.
The Stormcast were Sigmar’s ultimate weapon: warriors who could not truly die (their souls returned to Azyr for Reforging upon death), clad in sigmarite armour, wielding weapons of divine power. He forged thousands of them across the centuries, organising them into Stormhosts and training them for the reconquest to come.
Building Azyr’s Defences
Sigmar fortified Azyr into an impregnable bastion. The realm became the last refuge of free civilisation — survivors who had fled the other realms rebuilt in Azyr under Sigmar’s protection. Cities like Azyrheim grew into massive metropolises, and the forces of Order within Azyr grew in strength and number.
What Happened to the Other Gods?
Alarielle
The goddess of Life retreated deep into the heartwood of Ghyran as Nurgle’s forces overran her realm. She entered a state of hibernation, planting herself as a soulpod to survive the corruption. She would not emerge until the Stormcast Eternals came to Ghyran and helped reignite her war against Nurgle.
Nagash
The God of Death retreated to Shyish (the Realm of Death) and was defeated by Archaon in a devastating battle. Nagash was shattered but not destroyed — he spent the Age of Chaos slowly reforming and plotting his own reconquest, which would eventually become the Necroquake and the foundation of the Ossiarch Bonereapers.
Gorkamorka
The twin-natured god of destruction revelled in the endless warfare but ultimately proved too chaotic and uncontrollable for even the Chaos Gods to deal with permanently. Gorkamorka fought everyone — Chaos included — across the realms without allegiance or strategy.
The Aelven Gods (Tyrion, Teclis, Malerion)
The Aelven gods occupied themselves with capturing Slaanesh and extracting the Aelven souls the Dark Prince had consumed during the destruction of the World-That-Was. Teclis used the reclaimed souls to create the Lumineth Realm-Lords; Tyrion forged the Vanari; and Malerion created the Daughters of Khaine (through Morathi) and the Scáthborn. This soul-reclamation project occupied them through most of the Age of Chaos.
How Did the Age of Chaos End?
The Age of Chaos ended with a thunderclap — literally. Sigmar finally opened the gates of Azyr and unleashed the Stormcast Eternals upon the Chaos-held realms. This event is called the Realmgate Wars, and it marks the beginning of the Age of Sigmar.
The first Stormcast struck the Brimstone Peninsula in Aqshy, smashing into the forces of Khorne’s Goretide. The Stormcast Eternals were devastating — immune to fear, supernaturally powerful, and incapable of permanent death. For the first time in centuries, the forces of Chaos were pushed back.
But the reconquest was far from complete. The Stormcast reclaimed Realmgates and established beachheads, but the damage done during the Age of Chaos was immense. Entire civilisations were gone. Populations were decimated or enslaved. The landscape itself was corrupted. The Age of Sigmar is, in many ways, the long aftermath of the Age of Chaos — a world struggling to rebuild amid ongoing conflict.
What Was Life Like During the Age of Chaos?
For Mortals
For ordinary people in the Mortal Realms, the Age of Chaos was a nightmare with no waking. Civilisations that had flourished under the Pantheon’s protection were destroyed within years. Survivors fled, hid, or submitted to Chaos rule. Many mortals — out of desperation, fear, or corruption — turned to worshipping the Dark Gods. Entire populations were born, lived, and died under Chaos dominion knowing nothing else.
For Chaos Warlords
The Age of Chaos was a golden age for the servants of the Dark Gods. Warlords carved out personal empires across the realms. Daemon Princes walked freely. Dark fortresses and corrupted cities sprang up on the ruins of the old civilisation. Internal rivalry between the Chaos Gods’ followers was constant — Khornate armies fought Nurglite forces as often as they fought the remaining forces of Order.
For the Realms Themselves
The Mortal Realms were physically and metaphysically damaged. Ghyran rotted under Nurgle’s touch. Aqshy burned with unnatural fire. Chamon’s metal landscapes twisted into impossible geometries. Shyish’s death magic grew unstable. Even the Realmgates — the portals connecting the realms — were corrupted, destroyed, or seized by Chaos forces.
How Does the Age of Chaos Affect the Current Setting?
The Age of Chaos is the foundational trauma of the Age of Sigmar setting. Its effects are everywhere:
- Ruined civilisations — The shattered remains of Age of Myth cities dot the landscape. These ruins serve as dungeons, battlefields, and sources of ancient artefacts.
- Stormvaults — Sigmar’s hidden vaults, sealed during the Age of Chaos, contain dangerous artifacts now being rediscovered.
- Mistrust of the gods — Many mortal populations blame Sigmar for abandoning them during the Age of Chaos. This resentment fuels anti-Sigmarite sentiment and Chaos recruitment even in the current age.
- Chaos-held territories — Large portions of every realm remain under Chaos control. The Stormcast have reclaimed key locations, but the reconquest is far from complete.
- The Stormcast’s burden — Every Stormcast Eternal is a hero who died fighting Chaos during the Age of Chaos. Their memories of that era drive their determination to prevent it from happening again — even as Reforging slowly erodes those memories.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Age of Chaos similar to the End Times in Warhammer Fantasy?
There are parallels — both involve Chaos overwhelming civilisation — but they’re distinct events. The End Times destroyed the World-That-Was entirely, leading to the creation of the Mortal Realms. The Age of Chaos devastated the Mortal Realms but didn’t destroy them. The realms survived and are being reclaimed. The tone is different too: the End Times were an ending, while the Age of Chaos is a backdrop for a story of reconquest and rebuilding.
Could the Age of Chaos happen again?
This is a constant fear in the setting. Archaon and the forces of Chaos are still active and powerful. If the forces of Order lose cohesion again — which constantly threatens to happen due to internal conflicts between Sigmar, Nagash, and the other gods — a second Age of Chaos is entirely possible. Several narrative arcs have explored this threat.
Did anyone survive the Age of Chaos outside Azyr?
Yes. Scattered mortal communities survived by hiding in remote locations, underground, in magical sanctuaries, or by making compromises with Chaos powers. The Fyreslayers (Grimnir’s duardin followers) survived in their forge-temples. Some human tribes survived in Ghur’s wilderness. These survivor communities are important in the lore — they represent the resilience of mortal populations and often have complicated feelings about Sigmar’s return.
Why didn’t Sigmar intervene sooner?
This is one of the great moral questions of the setting. Sigmar’s defenders argue he needed time to forge the Stormcast — intervening prematurely would have failed and left no reserve force. His critics (including many mortals who survived the Age of Chaos) argue he abandoned them to save himself. The truth is probably both: Sigmar made a strategic calculation that required sacrificing millions of mortal lives. Whether that was justified is a central theme of Age of Sigmar’s narrative.
Which realm suffered most during the Age of Chaos?
Ghyran (the Realm of Life) arguably suffered most because Nurgle’s corruption was uniquely suited to destroying a realm of living things. Forests rotted, rivers turned toxic, and the goddess Alarielle herself was driven into hiding. However, every realm suffered catastrophically. Aqshy was drenched in blood by Khorne, Chamon was twisted by Tzeentch, and Shyish saw Nagash himself broken by Archaon.
What was the Age of Myth?
The Age of Myth was the era before the Age of Chaos, when Sigmar and his Pantheon of Order explored and civilised the Mortal Realms. Gods like Nagash, Alarielle, Gorkamorka and Grungni fought alongside Sigmar, and great cities and trade routes linked the realms through Realmgates. It ended when the Pantheon fractured, opening the way for the Chaos invasion.
What was the Battle of Burning Skies?
The Battle of Burning Skies was the clash at the Allpoints where Nagash betrayed Sigmar by withdrawing his forces mid-battle. Without the undead legions, Sigmar’s armies were overwhelmed by Archaon’s hosts and the Pantheon of Order effectively fell apart. It’s one of the key events that left the realms open to Chaos and led Sigmar to seal the gates of Azyr.
What are the Eightpoints?
The Eightpoints is the realm at the centre of the Mortal Realms that connects to each of them, once called the Allpoints. Archaon conquered it during the Age of Chaos and rules from his fortress, the Varanspire. Because it links all the realms, it let Chaos armies strike anywhere and remains Archaon’s seat of power in the current setting.
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