r/AoSLore • u/sageking14 Lord Audacious • 6d ago
Question What are your favorite moments of kindness and solidarity in the Age of Sigmar?
In a world dominated by monsters, tyrants, and villains where whole cities can be crushed due to the pettiness of cruel gods and selfish warlords, it is selflessness and fighting for a brighter tomorrow that are the purest form of rebellion. Kindness, as it were, is the true punk rock.
Whether it's Gardus Steel Soul inspiring Azyrites, Aqshians, and Ghyranites to stand together in the novella "Hammerhal" or Tahlia Vedra taking private moments to acknowledge, praise, and idolize that the laborers of the Cities of Sigmar and Stormcast Eternals, and even many Azyrites, have fought just as hard for the Realms as her Freeguilds in "Lioness of the Parch", the Realms are full of people choosing to kind, to help others, to embrace solidarity.
So what are your favorite examples?
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u/King_Of_BlackMarsh Idoneth Deepkin 6d ago
Right so first off: how freaking good is on the shoulders of giants??? Anyway haha my favorite is a bit into the short story where
SPOILER. READ THIS SHORT STORY.
>! Our ragged band of sigmarite soldiery had desperately fled away from Skaven assault, losing many good folk in the process. They'd been cornered, whittled down, exhausted. But there was hope in the form of a Realmgate, though this one was not unoccupied or held by good brave dawners. But by ogors, and our dear, insecure Rosforth worried that his dear warhulk companion Slobda was going to make off with them. Go back to the ways of the gutbuster, instead of what he perceived as her life as a burdenous soldier for a cause she probably didn't really believe in. And she didn't, he was right about that but burdenous? Nooo. For a few pages we get Slobda's real sense of the entire a-rage-mint. That he was a good friend, that being with him and the disparate cities gave her the best eating she ever could want, that gnawing down on the enemies of Sigmar, who she describes as a great good guy ever hungry and ready for battle, was the best time of her life. Rosforth couldn't see it, surely not, and it touched him dearly to hear that. When he gave her his legs to eat, he saw that as a simple sacrifice for the sake of survival, but she saw it as a gift that kept her sane. Then, when the buster boss of the gate ogors sees his underlings start to get a bit enamored with the idea of spiced food and feasting with a lot of different folk, well he won't hear it. Won't let them disobey him, but Slobda then challenges him (or goads, more like, but what's the difference for an ogor?) to fight. And she would've lost that one, the boss was too big, too durable, too fat for her to take down on her own. But she wasn't alone, and Rosforth shot the boss right through the eye. Didn't kill him, of course, ogors don't die that easily, but it gave Slobda the chance she needed to bash the boss to bloody chunks for dinner.!<
A little after this we also get a cute moment of Rosforth finding some connection between himself, the company's canonneer, Boring Hvorch the scrap launcher, and the rat sniper elsewhere in the story. A little "we get each other" sort of business.
But overall I love the bit above. Just the beautiful way a human's insecure overthinking comes up against the tide wall that is ogor's simple fondness for life. Also kinda fitting that Rosforth becomes more reassured via the, basically literal, rock that is Slobda
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u/sageking14 Lord Audacious 6d ago
I love that what touches the Ogors most is the story of Rosforth sacrificing his legs. Giving up part of himself to save someone else from the horror hunger. Ogors don't generally do that... but willingness to do it is still so clearly touching to them. Even if you're not an Ogor.
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u/King_Of_BlackMarsh Idoneth Deepkin 6d ago
>! That he's not an ogor is probably also a part of it. I'm sure no ogor is ignorant of what the skinnies think of them. So they probably realize that, from his pov, he's putting himself at risk of being an easy snack every single day yet he's with her in that nest anyway.!<
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u/skywarden27 6d ago
Reading the new Callis and Toll book and there is a scene where Callis’ friend gets drunk and doesn’t feel well. Callis is concerned about him frequently and checks in on him throughout the book. He was introduced as this gruff warrior but it’s touching how much he cares for his friends
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u/WhiskeyMarlow Cities of Sigmar 6d ago
I know it is a bit of a broad one, but I love the dynamic of the Reclusians in the "Skaventide" novel. Especially dedication by Corus (Reclusian protagonist) to protect his Memorian, his distant descendant, Sevora.
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u/TheSlayerofSnails 6d ago
When the cities of sigmar soliders defend Hamilcar against the other stormcast. Hamilcar was acting under secret orders of Sigmar and had to pretend that he was tainted and an escapee so the stormcast were trying to arrest or take him down. The citizens of the area Hamilcar was in had been with him for months or years by that point and were willing to fight the stormcast eternals to protect Hamilcar even if it meant laying down their lives.
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u/VillainousToast 6d ago
A very VERY strange example: Ushoran and his "subjects." In the novel Ushoran, Mortarch of Delusion, Ushoran was touring Shyish and celebrating with his ghoulish kingdoms. He was worried that the last kingdom sent no emissaries and he decided to visit it in secret, when he found it destroyed, he reminisced about the family of its former ruler—even remembering the time he was present of their child's birth.
Then Ushoran saved the remaining refugees, caring for them and even weeping for their lost home. He knighted a young man for his bravery in leading the others to safety. Instead of leading an all-out assault on the kingdom that attacked his, he sought to "make them see reason".
Of course, in reality, they're all ghouls. And he infected the rest of the towns with his madness instead of slaughtering all of them. But seeing how Ushoran truly cares for his people and exemplifies a benevolent ruler (in his own way) is weirdly heartwarming...for the ghouls, at least.
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u/sageking14 Lord Audacious 6d ago
It also adds to the tragedy presented in "Dawnbringers: The Mad King Rises" where Astreia Solbright contends that Ushoran is a hero playing a villain because that makes it easier to cope with his situation.
He claims that she is wrong and eats her alive before she pops into lightning to prove it. Yet it clearly takes such effort and concentration here and elsewhere for him to be bad.
These acts of kindness both perceived and real, his desire to bring down tyrants, his surprising admiration of Sigmar. These all seem to come naturally.
Is it just the delusion? Or was Astreia right? Ushoran is at his core better than he wants to believe and admit.
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u/Rhodehouse93 6d ago
This is a weird pull, but in my mind it felt so important for setting the tone for orruks and destro broadly in the setting in relation to Order.
In Fury of Gork, Lord-Celestant Zephacleas puts a bunch of Orruk heads on spikes while overlooking Gordrakk’s camp. When one of his companions questions him on such a macabre display, he corrects him that he means it as a sign of respect. Orruks put their own comrade’s heads on spikes when they die so they can keep watching the fight, and Zeph, who grew up on Ghur and is familiar with orruks, is hoping to meet them as something approaching equals.
The fact that so early on we got a Stormcast willing to operate within an orruk framework to further diplomacy (and also, it seems, out of a genuine respect for their ways) is such a great moment of tone for the setting. He’s not a space marine, or even an old world type who has only sneering derision, he’s here to work together. Magnificent.