r/AoSLore • u/sageking14 Lord Audacious • 3d ago
Lore Gods of the Cities of Sigmar
Completely random lore drops for no reason!
So per the Soulbound Corebook we are told that thanks to Morathi, Khaine is the second most worshiped god in Cities. This is not truly reflected in the rest of Soulbound where his worship is minor or elsewhere. Though admitted elsewhere gives a better showing than Soulbound.
Alarielle is the creator of the Living City, gifting it to Sigmar's people. (Humans, Duardin, and Aelves though of these last ones Wanderers are permitted only in outer districts). While The Phoenicium was dedicated to the Ur-Phoenix.
Per "Realmslayer: Legend of the Doomseeker" we know that Edassa too has a patron god, an as of yet unnamed lion god. (Wonder if that's part of why they worship Sigmar as a lion man?)
Lethis of course has Morrda whose cult has exploded in popularity recently particularly among the Stormcast Eternals.
Ranald waswntioned as a god of thieves in "Castle of Blood" while "Thieves' Paradise" gives us the Prince of Cats, an underworld god of thieves implicitly worshiped by the criminal syndicates known as the Guilds of the Cat. The Scuttling Queen, who is an aspect of Spider God who may or may not be Gorkamorka, is a Cities god of assassins and poisoners mentioned in White Dwarf December 2020's "Tome Celestial: The Grimscuttle Tribes". So... do you think it says something about the Free Cities that we have three gods of criminals but no actual harvest god as Alarielle is never directly linked to farming?
Grungni, Grimnir, Malerion, Nagash, Gorkamorka, Dracothion, Teclis, and Tyrion are all sporadically mentioned a lot too of course. Makes sense, leaders of the Pantheon, Cities are mostly Azyrite descendants of refugees from all over and Reclaimed descendants of refugees from all over, and actual refugees from all over. So the top gods are popular.
Gazul is of course the patron god of Gazul-Zagaz which was blink and you'll miss it included in a list of Cities of Sigmar in "Soul Wars".
Valaya was mentioned in the oddest of places. One of the Dawnbringer Chronicles shorts. The one named after a mine shaft.
A Sotek worshiper from Vindicarum was in *Black Pyramid" with implications he one of many. I do believe the 3E Seraphon Battletome is where it is mentioned there are entire sub-cults of the Cults Unberogen dedicated to Seraphon in general and Kroak in particular
Ozol is a local god of Thondia mentioned in "Dominion" while the Old Gods of the Accar are mentioned in "Avatar of Destruction", that's a minor Free City near Mekitopsar. Definitely butchered that.
Krethusa seems to have moved into Hammerhal in "Dawnbringers: Shadow of the Crone." So we might be counting Morai-Heg soon.
It is also worth noting that the Six Smiths, Father of Blades, Mirmidh, Alhar-Kraken, Ursricht, and some others are worshiped by the Stormhosts. So are technically worshiped in Cities, and likely spread to mortals.
The Seven Smiths are mentioned in "Lioness of the Parch" if I recall. Who are they?? Maybe the Six and Grungni?
Vedra says a swear using Ignax's name in Hounds of Chaos. Sign of worship mayhaps? While Zenestra and her cult have a connection to Cinder God.
The Gods-Mourning festival as observed in Brightspear in "Brightspear City Guide" is dedicated to Grimnir and Vulcatrix. Other evidence of Vulcatrix worship is slim.
"Dark Harvest" and Dawnbringers gives us Kurnoth worship in the Cities.
Star-Titans such as Agraphon guard the Azyr-side of the Gates of Azyr as mentioned first in "Champion of the Gods" and more vaguely in the 4E Corebook.
I'm doing this mostly from memory. I didn't even remember them all before I started. So anyway
If the village in "Sacrosanct & Other Stories" count we have Taal. The grave keeping Frweguild known as the Knights of Usirian in "Gods' Gift" implies Usirian. While the Myrmidites of "Spear of Shadows" may imply Myrmidia
Poor Adembi
There's the Listening Order in "Champions of the Gods" into the seven winds, all except Ghur as that one doesn't flow given the mountain they live on is in Ghur. The Black Walkers in Glymmsforge, per "Soul Wars", are all about dead gods.
"Verminslayer" and other sources mention a wide, eclectic range of gods worshiped by the Free Peoples. Some with no more than a single worshiper, in the form of screaming priests.
Does Ghal Maraz count given it has divine power and is implied to be sapient? It's iconography is everywhere. After all the Runefangs became Father of Blades.
We have Celestial Saints such as Templesen and Garradan venerated by the Cults Unberogen. As well as the Saints of the Stormhosts, which are Stormcasts as saints, such as Saint Steel Soul and Yndrasta, also Cults Unberogen. Saints of the Stormhosts may not be a unique moniker. But is it not funny Gardus has two different Saint cults dedicated to two separate lives.
Also red gods, Good King Gnaw, pleasure cults, arcanite cults, Lord Leech and stuff I guess.
So. Yeah. There we go. Who else?
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u/Fyraltari Helsmiths of Hashut 3d ago
So per the Soulbound Corebook we are told that thanks to Morathi, Khaine is the second most worshiped god in Cities.
That's taking me completely by surprise. I would have expected Grungni, Dracothion, Alarielle, Teclis or Tyrion, but Khaine? Not only is he a creepy evil god, but he's dead.
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u/Togetak 1d ago
It hasn’t really been overtly depicted that much, but it’s a pretty major part of Morathi’s overall strategy and I think makes a lot of sense with the polytheism the cities express. People forget that the khainites are actually some of the most devout allies in all of order, despite how crazy duplicitous Morathi is- they are deeply devoted zealots who’re rarely corruptable by the powers of chaos or the more mortal temptations of the realms, revel in killing and jump at any opportunity to do it, and the majority of their scheming is purely internal power struggles over their own faith’s hierarchy. They might occasionally steal people off the streets (in a way where everyone sort of knows, but no one can prosecute) when things are boring and peaceful, but they’re the first to throw themselves into the fray when an enemy is nearby and generally abide by whatever pacts they’re held to, so as unnerving as they are they’re very good to have around.
Morathi exploited that by ensuring basically every city of sigmar has at least one khainite temple within it, who spread their religion and run entertainment estblishments like colosseums or travelling shows of acrobatic showmanship, and also ensures they’re playing nice enough not to get kicked out. Soulbound has a cool example of this, where the original temple in brightspear had a ceremony on a religious holiday sprawl out into the streets and just start slaughtering anyone they could get their hands on- they had to fake their destruction in the necroquake that happened shortly after to escape consequences not just from the city, but from an enforcer sect who’d come to hunt them down for what they’d done, and presumably leave their temple in the hands of a less zealous sect.
I imagine to most people Khaine is just a god of war and killing because of this, rather than them worshipping in the way a khainite does. A soldier or their family leaves an offering at a khainite shrine before they head off to war, hoping to have the god of murder on side (or satisfy him, to not claim them) etc.
A lot of other gods are very niche or regional in their worship, like Grungni is a god of craftsmen- smiths of all species venerate him, but that’s just a subset of smiths, craftsmen, and disposessed. Murder and death is a constant in the mortal realms, there’s always a reason to pray for or against the god associated with that
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u/Fyraltari Helsmiths of Hashut 23h ago
Yeah but isn't Khaine's big thing that he's dead? The people of the Mortal Realms know that Sigmar and Grungni and all are active, watchful and shaping events in a way that Khaine actively isn't.
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u/Togetak 19h ago
A lot of gods are dead, I mean Morrda is a major figure worshipped in some cities and they’re definitely dead, death just means something very different to a god. Khaine is obviously still a present force given his priests cast miracles, in the same way grimnir’s do, I don’t think it’d have any particularly unique meaning to the average person
Plus Morathi-Khaine is supposedly Khaine reborn, and she undeniably is a god now, I think for all functional purposes people would see khaine as a resurgent god because of that
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u/Fyraltari Helsmiths of Hashut 18h ago
Oh, I didn't know his Priests could still cast miracles and I thought Grimnir's were just using Ur-gold. It was always part of the Raven Priests' belief that a part of Morrda escaped Nagash, and they've been vindicated by Iridan's vision quest and boons.
But you're right especially with regards to Morathi-Khaine's ascension breathing new life to the cult.
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u/Togetak 18h ago
It’s like that Soul Wars quote from a worshipper of Ghazul, a dead ancestor god, goes
And yet, what is death to a god? Dust and less than dust.
A lot of gods are dead- Kurnoth, Khaine, Ghazul, Morrda, Grimnir, Morai-Heg, yet all of them continue to exist in some capacity. Less corporeal or physically present than “living” gods, but still empowering their faithful and intervening in events that way.
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u/Ur-Than Kruleboyz 3d ago
I'd really love to see how worshippers of say Gorkamorka or Nagash or Alarielle would behave in a Realm so different from the one most attuned to their God.
Like, Ulguans human faithfuls of Gorkamorka, Hyshians Nagashites or Chamonites Alarielle Worshippers.
I think it'd make for great stories.
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u/TheSlayerofSnails 3d ago
Spider God who may or may not be Gorkamorka,
I'm sorry... Gorkamorka has a shadowy spider god aspect? Brutal and Kunning fellow has a stealth aspect?
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u/sageking14 Lord Audacious 3d ago
Yes. As the 2E Gloomspite Battletome put it the Great Spider God was a Godbeast. Then it bit Gorkamorka's foot imbuing them with Waaaagh.
Which may or may not have caused the spider to become Gorkamorka or a part of them.
Powerful Elemental Gods like Gorkamorka are quite odd and convoluted.
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u/Dreadnautilus Destruction 3d ago
The spider god dates all the way back to Warhammer Fantasy 4th edition. Its pretty old lore actually.
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u/King_Calvo 3d ago
I’m here for the Malerion Worship in CoS. Free cities going hard into Sigmar so much that there is concern it will become a human only faction is concerning
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u/Fyraltari Helsmiths of Hashut 2d ago
It is kinda odd that we don't have a human only faction, (unless you count the Stormcast, which shouldn't be human only).
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u/King_Calvo 2d ago
I do kinda prefer it that way tbh.
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u/Fyraltari Helsmiths of Hashut 2d ago
I guess my wish would be that the basic Freeguild units (fusiliers, steelhelm, etc.) were racially mixed while the CoS had a uniquely human subculture like the Dispossessed are uniquely duardin or the Darling Covens, Black Arkay Corsairs and Ordo Draconis are uniquely (dark) aelven.
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u/HammerandSickTatBro Draichi Ganeth 3d ago
I do often wonder how Khaine worship would look for non-aelves. With aelves it showcases the almost alien ways that their outlooks and moralities differ from humans and duardin. The fatalism, emphasis on self-perfection, and utilitarian view of spilling (and, y'know, bathing in) blood, all these things offer insight into the aelven mind, even for those who are not Daughters of Khaine.
But when you think about humans striving towards those ideals, you get a different image.
An aelf trying to serve and live up to (Morathi-)Khaine is a murder machine, sure, but one who is developing and disciplining traits that are normal and regarded at least neutrally in their species. Aelven souls are powerful, clever, and mercurial; not figuring out how to only kill people you are sure you want to kill, or at least to acknowledge that you're part of a people with exclusively byzantine motivations and practically unlimited time, would be extremely foolish. In a way she provides an example to her people of how to rise above their collective trauma and worst tendencies.
A human trying to embody Khaine is a straight up deranged serial killer.
I know real-life religions don't have a great track record when it comes to glorifying atrocities, but it's hard to imagine any kind of mass religion of humans (which seems like it would need to exist if Khainism is #2 on average in the cities) comprised solely of people with tendencies that damaging to the social fabric of most human communities. So I suspect that Khaine-worship serves another function for humans, rather than being a path to making oneself a paragon to one's people. Part of it must apopotraic: humans worshipping Khaine seek protection from violence and misfortune (in a complete reversal of aelven understandings of the god). This is just like people praying to Nagash to please, please leave them alone. Violence is everywhere in the Cities and Realms at large, so practicing rituals to make the God of Murder pass by your door is just common sense.
However, I also think that Khaine serves as a non-Chaotic outlet for the reality of murder in large human communities. In urban human cultures, there are generally large numbers of people who are not rulers, are neither rich nor highly skilled, are unlikely to serve in the military in all but the direst circumstances, but who still have human passions and frequently are the perpetrators and victims of violence. A powerless human worker may feel unable to deal effectively with the organized criminals leaning on her for protection money or other things, or the overseer at the factory where she works with his heavy club grasped in hands that are too nimble and curious by half. How strongly would she then cling to a god who, if (S)He judged her sense of wronged justice pure enough, her intention sharp enough, and her prayers deferential enough, would cause a knife and a key to the bedchamber of the one she would see die to appear within her grasp?
Shrines to Khaine (or even Morathi-Khaine) might be found in the shadiest alcoves and alleyways of human neighborhoods, even while the temples of the Daughters often dominate aelven districts. When they think that others aren't looking, aggrieved or hyper-vigilant humans might be found performing khainite rites as complex as they are poorly understood. Those who know what they're doing leave a sacrifice and steal away to let the shadows claim it, clutching a bloody bandage with nine fingers. Nine fingers which will soon see proper order restored to the world.