“Chaos Wastes” is the name fans often use for the lands of the Mortal Realms that the Dark Gods have conquered and twisted, but it isn’t a formal Age of Sigmar term. The name comes from the old Warhammer Fantasy setting, where the Chaos Wastes were a specific region at the top of the world. In Age of Sigmar, Chaos-held territory is spread across the realms, and its heart is a specific place: the Eightpoints, Archaon’s domain, and its wilderness, the Bloodwind Spoil.
This guide explains what the term means in an Age of Sigmar context, where Chaos holds the most ground, what the Eightpoints is and why it matters, how Chaos lands differ from the Realm of Chaos itself, and where these places show up on the tabletop.
Where Are the Chaos-Held Lands in the Mortal Realms?
During the Age of Chaos, the armies of the Dark Gods overran most of the Mortal Realms. Sigmar’s people fell back to Azyr, the Realm of Heavens, and sealed its gates, leaving the other realms to fight on alone. Much of the territory Chaos took during that era is still in its hands, and Chaos-held lands exist across the realms rather than in one place.
The gods’ followers left their mark on the realms they fought over. Nurgle’s long war in Ghyran, the Realm of Life, is one of the best-known examples, with great tracts of the realm rotting under his plagues. Aqshy, the Realm of Fire, saw some of the bloodiest campaigns by Khorne’s followers. In Shyish, the Realm of Death, Chaos invaded Nagash’s domain and the Great Necromancer was driven back during the Age of Chaos.
The details of any given region vary by book and campaign, and the Mortal Realms are vast enough that almost any strange landscape can exist somewhere. For an overview of each realm, see our guide to all 8 Mortal Realms.
The Eightpoints is the one place that is unambiguously Chaos’s own. It’s covered in more detail below.
How Does Chaos Change the Land?
Age of Sigmar doesn’t set out a step-by-step process for how land becomes corrupted. In most accounts, the lands Chaos holds long enough reflect the god that rules them, Chaos magic warps the landscape and its creatures, and daemons can manifest more easily where the Dark Gods’ power is strongest. Mortals who serve Chaos there may be rewarded with mutations, and many end up as Chaos Spawn.
Corruption is spiritual as much as physical. The Chaos Gods feed on mortal emotion, and many of their followers are people from the realms who turned to Chaos willingly, seeking power, revenge or survival. See our guides on Chaos Cultists and Chaos Spawn for more.
What Lives in Chaos-Held Lands?
Chaos territory is far from empty. Its inhabitants range from mindless beasts to cunning warlords.
Daemons
Where Chaos is strongest, daemons of all four gods — from lesser daemons to Bloodthirsters, Lords of Change, Great Unclean Ones and Keepers of Secrets — appear and fight. Their struggles often reflect the endless rivalry between the four Chaos Gods themselves.
Chaos Warbands
Mortal followers of Chaos make these lands their home. These range from small raiding parties to vast hosts. Slaves to Darkness warbands seek glory, plunder and the favour of the Dark Gods, and the most successful champions hope to be noticed by Archaon. The strongest may eventually earn daemonhood — or suffer the ignominious fate of spawndom.
Chaos Beasts and Monsters
Chaos Spawn stumble through the wilds, and Chaos-touched monsters of every kind hunt anything that enters their territory. Many are unique, each warped in its own way.
Mortals Caught in Between
Not everyone in Chaos-held territory is a willing servant. In the Eightpoints and elsewhere, there are tribes and scavengers trying to survive in the ruins of older civilisations, and some of them eventually turn to Chaos as the only path open to them.
Who Fights Back Against Chaos?
Taking ground back from Chaos is one of the central themes of Age of Sigmar.
Stormcast Eternals are Sigmar’s main weapon. Because they are reforged in Azyr when they die, they can be sent into the most dangerous places, although each reforging costs them a little of their humanity.
Cities of Sigmar forces settle and hold land. The Dawnbringer Crusades march out from the existing cities to found new settlements in dangerous territory, often around a realmstone-powered Realmshaper Engine that tames the land. Many of these crusades fail or are destroyed, and that tension between hope and loss is part of the setting’s tone.
Many other factions also fight Chaos for their own reasons, from the Sylvaneth and Lumineth Realm-lords to Nagash’s Soulblight and Nighthaunt armies.
What Is the Eightpoints and Why Does It Matter?
The Eightpoints is the most important Chaos-held territory in the Mortal Realms. It’s Archaon’s domain, and it sits at the junction of the realms.
It was originally known as the Allpoints, a region with Realmgates leading into each of the Mortal Realms, which made it a great crossroads during the Age of Myth. When Chaos conquered it during the Age of Chaos, Archaon made it his own and renamed it the Eightpoints, using its gates as the launching point for invasions.
The Eightpoints is dominated by the Varanspire, Archaon’s fortress. From there the Everchosen directs the Chaos war across the realms. Around it lies the Bloodwind Spoil, a vast ruined wilderness full of the remains of the Allpoints’ fallen civilisations, where warbands compete for Archaon’s attention.
Control of the Eightpoints means control of its gates, and with them the ability to strike into any realm. That’s why it has always mattered so much to both Sigmar and Archaon.
How Do Chaos-Held Lands Differ from the Realm of Chaos?
This is a common point of confusion for newcomers to Age of Sigmar lore.
The Realm of Chaos is a separate dimension — a sea of raw magical and emotional energy beyond the Mortal Realms, and the home of the Chaos Gods and their daemons. It follows no physical laws and is lethal to nearly all mortal beings.
Chaos-held lands are physical territories within the Mortal Realms that have been conquered and warped by Chaos. They’re still part of the material world, even if the Dark Gods’ influence is very strong there. Where that influence is strongest, daemons can cross over more easily.
What Role Do Chaos-Held Lands Play on the Tabletop?
The Warcry skirmish game was originally set in the Eightpoints. Its first narrative followed warbands fighting across the Bloodwind Spoil in the shadow of the Varanspire to win Archaon’s favour. Later Warcry settings have moved to other parts of the Mortal Realms.
In Age of Sigmar, the struggle over Chaos-held territory is the backdrop to many campaign books and battle plans, and to Path to Glory narrative campaigns. Check the current 4th Edition rules and campaign books for the specific rules they use.
For army building, the Slaves to Darkness battletome draws heavily on the lore of warbands competing for the Dark Gods’ favour. Beasts of Chaos also represent creatures of the Chaos wilds, but the faction’s place in Age of Sigmar has changed since 4th Edition launched, so check its current status in the Warhammer Age of Sigmar app before you buy in.
Can Chaos-Held Lands Be Reclaimed?
Yes, at least in part. Since the Realmgate Wars, Sigmar’s forces and their allies have retaken ground from Chaos across the realms, and the Cities of Sigmar have grown as a result. However, each reclaimed land is under constant threat, and Chaos has repeatedly taken territory back. The struggle between rebuilding civilisation and the ongoing pressure of Chaos is one of the defining themes of Age of Sigmar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the Chaos Wastes the same as the Old World’s Chaos Wastes?
Not exactly. In the Old World setting, the Chaos Wastes were the northern polar region where Chaos energy leaked through the collapsed Warp Gates. Age of Sigmar doesn’t have a single equivalent region; Chaos holds land across many realms, and its true heartland is the Eightpoints. Fans often use “Chaos Wastes” loosely for any of these lands.
Can normal humans survive in Chaos-held lands?
Some do, but at a cost. People live in the Eightpoints and other Chaos-held regions, often as tribes that serve or fear the local warlords, and many end up following Chaos themselves. Long-term survival without being touched by Chaos is very difficult.
Which Chaos God controls the most territory?
There’s no fixed answer, and it changes with the narrative. Each god’s followers have conquered different areas — Nurgle’s long campaign in Ghyran is a famous example — and the gods constantly fight each other as well as the realms. Archaon holds the Eightpoints in the name of Chaos as a whole rather than any single god.
Do the Chaos Wastes appear in any video games?
Yes, though mostly in the Old World setting rather than Age of Sigmar. Total War: Warhammer III features the Chaos Wastes on its campaign map, and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 has a roguelite mode called Chaos Wastes.
What is a Chaos Rift vs. a Chaos Waste?
Neither is a formal Age of Sigmar term. Fans usually use “rift” for a tear between the material world and the Realm of Chaos, and “waste” for corrupted land. The two are linked in the sense that daemons cross over more easily where Chaos is strongest.
Is there an equivalent of the Chaos Wastes in Warhammer 40k?
Yes. The closest equivalents are the Eye of Terror and the Great Rift, the Cicatrix Maledictum, where realspace and the Warp overlap. Daemon worlds inside these regions are ruled by daemon princes and twisted by the Chaos Gods, much as the most corrupted lands in the Mortal Realms are. Planets caught in Warp storms can be corrupted in a similar way.
What is the Bloodwind Spoil?
The Bloodwind Spoil is the vast, corrupted wilderness of the Eightpoints that surrounds Archaon’s Varanspire. It was the original setting of Warcry, where rival warbands fought for the Everchosen’s attention. It’s one of the clearest examples of Chaos-corrupted land in Age of Sigmar, full of ruins, monsters and the remains of the Allpoints’ fallen civilisations.
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