It’s here, folks. Warhammer: The Old World is back, with 20-year-old models being resold for those who like them. With brand-new rules and even some new models, the original setting of Warhammer is back — or a part of it, for sure. One of the topics surrounding this revived version of Warhammer Fantasy is the split between the main factions and legacy factions. Main factions get rules in either Forces of Fantasy or Ravening Hordes books, and their model lines are re-released and they get support in the form of new models. Legacy factions get rules in PDF, no extras, and no new models. As with so many decisions made by Games Workshop, the reasoning for this is split between narrative and business decisions.
Narrative of The Old World is set during the especially tumultuous time in the Empire when there was no central authority and Chaos was on the rise. It is the year 2276 IC, only a few scant decades before The Great War Against Chaos started. A few decades of wars saw the Skaven and Vampire Counts essentially being driven out of the Empire (and also Skaven are having a massive civil war right now), and the incursions of Chaos are not so strong yet that Daemon armies would start manifesting. Outside of Old World, the Lizardmen, Dark Elves, Chaos Dwarfs and Ogre Kingdoms are doing their own thing, and thus have no important impact on the events of this story. But also these aforementioned factions (except for Chaos Dwarfs which are out of production) are the ones that have fully realized factions and model lines in Age of Sigmar. When people buy Soulblight Gravelords models, are they using them in Age of Sigmar or The Old World, or more importantly, in which profit bracket does that go? This has not been confirmed officially by any means, but it is a logical reason for moving the focus away from certain factions and reintroducing others.
But what if I told you that there was a time when the situation was the other way around? During the early first years of Warhammer Fantasy, The Old World — lands of Empire, Bretonnia, and others — were not focused or even fleshed out that much. In these days of yore, when the world of fantasy wargaming was young, and when Warhammer wasn’t the industry giant we know and love, the narratives of Warhammer Fantasy were focused on the New World.
New World — a continent in two parts
New World is the Warhammer Fantasy’s equivalent to Americas — split between north and south continents, with a narrow isthmus connecting the two landmasses. North used to be called just “The New World”, but is probably nowadays known better as Naggaroth, the home of the Dark Elves. The southern continent is known as Lustria. Both names echo the real-life ideas of colonialists and sailors who called the newly discovered continent “The new world”, and how especially the southern half of the world was considered to be full of gold — sweet, sweet lustrous gold. We’ll get back to this theme of colonialism later. These sorts of exotic fantasy lands are a staple of the genre, but Warhammer Fantasy makes it a very visible and important part of the products they sell early on.
Lustria is first mentioned by name in the first Citadel Compendium from 1983, in a mini-campaign called The Legend of Kremlo the Slann. Written by Richard Halliwell (remember that name), the story is set in the Norse colony of Skeggi in Lustria, where a Slann called Kremlo is adopted by the local Norse chieftain, and later becomes the leader when other Slann kill his adoptive father. In 1984’s first Citadel Journal (there were a lot of these small periodicals), in a progress report of the future products, there is a mention that Richard Halliwell is almost completed writing “his script for Lustria — a complete role-playing continent for Warhammer.” This was supposed to be a playing aid in the fashion of the then-also planned Realm of Chaos book, including maps, and descriptions of cities, peoples, and lands of Lustria. This was never published, but Warhammer was not done with Lustria or the New World in general. In the second Citadel Compendium, the continent was fleshed out more by Halliwell in Rigg’s Shrine, a scenario all about the Amazons of Lustria. Enemies of both the Slann and the chauvinist Norse, the Amazons were the first native human culture of the continent.
The 2nd edition came out in 1984 and was sold as a boxed set that came with a scenario ready to play out of the box called The Magnificent Sven, written by, you guessed it, Richard Halliwell. Set once again in Lustria, the narrative is a play on the Seven Samurai formula of having a ragtag band of misfits protecting a village from raiders; A disgraced dwarf named Sven Haslefriesian, a punk berserker Juggo Jorikson, claustrophobic wizard Aygar, an elven competitive archer on a holiday (and early recurring character) Riolta Snow, Amazon rebel Korra Lakota, one-legged Norseman Karl Ustracutter and halfling stowaway Raidocks Timmowit. Against them are again the Slanni, but this time they are way more sympathetic, their status as subjects of colonial genocide being noted in their introduction text. In the same year, in Battle Bestiary, Lustria is described and the two human cultures native to it are mentioned — Amazons and (sigh)Pygmies — and interestingly, the text references Lustria and Slanni’s status as colonized people there to the real-world history of Aztecs of Mexico.
In the same book, the timeline of the world is shown, and the status quo of the current age is declared; elves of Ulthuan have a monopoly on the sea trade, but that is in decline since humans of the Old World have started colonizing the Lustria, New World and New Coast (they ran out of names here). In late 1985 came the scenario pack Bloodbath at Orc’s Drift by Ian Page, Gary Chalk, and Joe Dever. I’ve already written about the details of this scenario way back in 2021, but the important part is that it is set in the northern part of the New World, beyond the Dark Elf lands. The “colonial principalities” of elves, dwarfs, and humans had united under the banner of King Laeron, who had defeated the goblin armies in the aptly named “Goblin Wars of Ramalia”. As noted before, the narrative and the setup echo the Zulu wars and the battles of Isandlawana and Rorke’s Drift, especially its cinematic adaptation, just called Zulu. But unlike Halliwell’s Lustria, the New World does not seem to be echoing any historical period of North America.
But why though
The last three scenario packs published for the 2nd edition were centered on the Old World. When the 3rd edition came out in 1988, the game moved for the first time closer to what we understand as “modern Warhammer” with larger armies, plastic models were on the market and the setting shifted, ever so slightly. The history of the Empire was fleshed out, and the lens shifted more firmly to the Old World itself. Slann still ruled in Lustria, and they were given rules in 1991’s Warhammer Armies (as were the extremely racist Pygmies), but Amazons were out. By the 4th edition, Slann were gone, until they came back in the 5th edition as the leaders of the Lizardmen faction. Lustria was their home still, but the vibe was different. Skeggi was still there, but Amazons were turned from a native tribe of women (who reproduced parthenogenetically) into offspring of Norse colonists. There was the Lustria supplement for the 6th edition, which mostly gives different rules for Lizardmen and Skaven, and some rules for fighting in the jungles, but the focus didn’t stay there for long and the vibe was different. Lizardmen of Lustria are not subjects of colonialism in the text itself, and the raids into their cities are described more from the perspective of “fuck around and find out” for the hapless humans. It’s cool if lacking in thematic depth.
But why was Warhammer Fantasy so preoccupied with Lustria and New World? Why wasn’t the Old World the central narrative environment, as it is now? While there are some cultural and even political elements at play there (the UK’s relationship with countries like Brazil and Argentine in the 20th century was…complicated), I honestly think it all starts and ends with Richard “Hal” Halliwell, one of the original creators of Warhammer. According to Rick Priestley (writing in a Facebook post), Halliwell had worked on a full and detailed map of Lustria and that part of the setting was certainly his brainchild, a concept he had before Warhammer was even out. Priestley also noted that Halliwell had driven the Pan-American highway on a motorcycle, and a lot of inspiration for Lustria came from this trip. Halliwell had a fascination with the Mesoamerican cultures, and that was evident in his drive to make Lustria an important stage in Warhammer.
Warhammer Fantasy started very differently than we know it now. The game was different, and the world too, but the mood of the setting was different as well. In these scenarios written by Halliwell, we see the mischievous, radical, and even anti-colonial spirit of the game where the heroes are a collection of anarchists, drunks, and queer people (Korra “is really impressed” with Riolta Snow), and the enemy — well, from one point of view— are victims of colonialism who cling to the vestiges of their old empire. Lustria provided a stage for these tales, eschewing the more traditional takes on fantasy worlds that dominated the genre at the time. It’s not perfect, and it veers off to exoticism and downright racism, but even with warts and all, Halliwell’s original take on Lustria remains a fascinating and original creation in fantasy canon.
I think the running thread in this text is to remember the work of Richard Halliwell. As noted, Halliwell was one of the original creators of Warhammer with Bryan Ansell and Rick Priestley, but he did work on a lot more than just that. After working hard on multiple Warhammer Fantasy projects from 1981–1987, he left the Warhammer design team to develop his projects. These included the Judge Dredd board game Block Mania, the racing game Dark Future and finally in 1989, he was the credited creator of Space Hulk, for which he won the 1990 Origins Award for Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Boardgame. Halliwell left Games Workshop not soon after, leaving game design. After being robbed and arrested in Thailand, and losing his house and all of his possessions in 2010, Halliwell “almost died while living on the streets”. He was able to survive thanks to the Framework Housing Association. Halliwell died in 2021, at the age of 62. White Dwarf had a small text insert to notify his passing. It read:
Richard Fretson Halliwell. 1959–2021. Game Designer. Warhammer, Space Hulk, Dark Future. RIP.
And I don’t know, I think the guy who created so much of Warhammer would have deserved more than three sentences, in an easily missable text insert on the last pages of White Dwarf. After the loss of Ansell in December, it’s important to remember how few of the original creators and writers of this thing we love are still alive.
Only time will tell if Ansell gets the same three sentences.
Aasa T
Sources
Halliwell, Richard. 1983. The Legend of Kremlo the Slann. In the Citadel Compendium (1). Edited by Bryan Ansell et al.
Halliwell, Richard. 1984. Rigg’s Shrine. In the Citadel Compendium (2). Edited by Bryan Ansell et al.
Citadel Journal #1. 1984. Bubbling Under. Author unknown.
Halliwell, Richard. 1984. The Magnificent Sven. In Warhammer Fantasy Battles (2nd edition). Written by Bryan Ansell, Richard Halliwell, and Rick Priestley. Games Workshop.
Page, Ian, Chalk, Gary, Dever, Joe. 1985. Blood bath at Orc’s Drift. Games Workshop.
Rick Priestley’s story from Lost Warhammer: Lustria, 16.1.2017. https://awesomeliesblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/lost-warhammer-lustria/
Richard Halliwell’s story from BoardgameGeek’s forum post, 1.9.2010. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/434489/article/5473486#5473486
White Dwarf 469. October 2021.
