Kings of War Lore: Forces of the Abyss

Greetings, and welcome to an article series, where I will be taking us through the lore of various Kings of War factions. My goals with these overviews are to showcase some of the army artwork, lore, and background while giving some review of what I think about it. I plan to choose future factions based on feedback left on this article, so if you have an army you want me to explore the background of comment and tell me!

You can find other articles on this topic here.

Creation of the Abyss

To get to the creation of the Abyss, we have to dig into the ancient history of Pannithor, during the God War. The God War took place after the Celetians split into their Shining One and Wicked One forms. At the end of this conflict, Domivar the Unyielding faced Oskan the Deceiver (the being who started the God Wars).

During this apocalyptic confrontation, Domivar wrested away Oskan’s wicked axe, and swung it towards the ground as hard as he could. The impact was devastating, “The ground cracked beneath it, splintering for miles in either direction. The gap widened like a beastly maw, the red glow of the world’s very core rising up in a flash of heat.” All the negative energy, sorrow, and souls taken by Oskan’s dagger and axe were pulled into this rift, which began to drag everything into it. The Wicked Ones and their followers were sucked into the rift in the ground.

There is an amazing piece of artwork for this moment, probably one of the best pieces in the entire rulebook.

This rift became both the prison and home of the Abyssals, representing a physical and metaphysical rift in the world. Imprisoning the wickedness of the Abyssals, but also creating a weeping wound in the world, that oozed out their corruption, and slowly spread in influence and size.

The Abyss Now

27 remaining Wicked Ones rest in their prison, trapped, each Wicked One has their own personality and traits, almost like domains in Dungeons and Dragons. This creates some great potential for personality in these dark gods but is not explored nearly enough.

A few notable Wicked Ones mentioned:

Akshun’arha the Carrion Goddess, Mother of Vampires: is little more than a wraith, a sliver of the goddess she once was. Most of her divine power was bound to mummified Ophidians and other undead, in an attempt to escape from the Abyss, but many of these were destroyed. She is rumored to have sent emissaries to awaken the Ahmunites (Empire of Dust) from their long slumber. She also created the first vampires.

Kyron the Dark Smith: who can call the power of the oceans, but whose power ebbs and flows, like the tides he controls. Kyron helped forge the orcs and is hated by the Herd since he is the twisted half of their god and creator, Brave Kyron (some iffy name choices here, but still cool).

These Wicked Ones have the potential to inject some much-needed individuality into the Abyssals, but sadly are currently not widely explored.

Within the lore section of the main rulebook, there is an excellent short vignette, depicting the struggles of a high paladin against the Abyssals. Here is a short excerpt, but you should really check it out yourself (page 200-201).

Gnatius shook his head. Other memories jostled for supremacy in his mind. He remembered discovering a book in the cloisters of some desecrated monastery. He remembered seeing brother monks, eyes plucked from their heads, driven mad by what they had read. Was that real? Or a dream? It had been in the mountains north of Basilea, had it not? They were to seek out the hellish things that had corrupted those monks…

‘My Lord, I say again we must leave,’ Vaelleri urged. “Tell me, Lord, is your mind… compromised?”

Gnatius pulled away from the woman, suddenly angry. ‘I am High Paladin of the House of Embers!’ he said. ‘My mind is gated and barred against the influence of the Wicked Ones. If there is sorcery afoot, I shall uncover it, and destroy it, as I always have.’

Honestly pretty epic, and does a great job depicting the fight against the Abyss.

In the most recent time, the Abyss was rising in strength, with demons pouring into reality and the great rift expanding ever outward. The Abyssal Dwarves and their allies overran the Halpi Mountains, sending the Free Dwarves to flee, homeless across The Great Cataract, into Imperial Dwarf lands.

The Brotherhood, formed to be a bastion against the Abyss, was shattered, their remnants scattered across Mantica. The forces of nearly every people not directly allied with the Abyss came together, and, led by the Green Lady began a desperate fight against the Abyss. A great wall and fortification was erected to stop the tides of Abyssals from flowing West.

Eventually, while goblins burned parts of her sacred forest, the Green lady led a council of many wizards and melted part of the Frozen Sea; the water rushed south. Flooding the home of the ogres, the Mammoth Steppe, but pouring into the gaping wound of the Abyss itself, quenching its expanding fires, and destroying its marauding legions. The advancement of the Great Rift, was for now halted, though the fresh lands claimed by it were lost.

The poor Ogres sort of get screwed, their lands flooded and ruined.

The Abyss Itself

The majority of the rest of the lore is centered on the different “Circles of Damnation” in the Abyss, very similar to Inferno, a 14th-century Italian poem tracking the travels of Dante through Hell, which describes 9 Circles of Hell.

This imagery, combined with the foundation in the God War, creates themes of Abyssals being much closer to Judeo-Christian demons and devils, then the otherworldly beings of another plane of existence. The Wicked Ones are literally the negative sides of the Celestial they split from, representing the evil that was in that being, and their servants reflect this origin. This conflict between good and evil, between the Wicked Ones and the Shining Ones, and between the good and evil factions of Kings of War, for better or for worse defines a lot of the story of Mantica.

I do not plan to go through each individual circle, but if you are intrigued by them I would recommend checking the book out. The first circle is for the weakest of Abyssals, and the mortals that are enslaved work there, or worship there. The deeper into the Abyss you go, the more powerful the beings become, and more the reality warps.

Powerful Abyssals can rise through the ranks, by gaining power in their home circle, and then advancing to new positions of power within the Abyss. Each circle has a different makeup, with the Second Circle “a wildland, a blasted waste inhabited by bestial creatures of raw strength and rage.” While the Fourth Circle, “is a plane of fire, which feeds the volcanic pits that mark the bounds between the Dark and mortal realm,” unsurprisingly, Efreet and Flamebearers claim the Fourth Circle as their home.

I personally do not find the Circles of Damnation interesting. The rulebook spends most of the space discussing Abyssals discussing these circles. Rarely, if ever, will my battles take place in the Abyss. Instead, I would want more time spent on what Abyssal armies are like on the outside.

How do they get out of the Abyss? What common cults and groups are there that worship Abyssals and why? Does that worship vary from Wicked One to Wicked One? Do the goals differ when not fighting on the fringes of the Abyss, since land claimed far away cannot be for the Rift’s expansion?

These are questions I found myself wondering and exploring for the Abyssals. I don’t want them all answered, but some answered would be great, to players more of a framework to use. In many ways, lore for Kings of War is a way to enhance the flavor of army design and games, but when focused purely on one location that others cannot enter, it is difficult to picture Abyssals outside the Rift.

Totally Not Chaos

Ok, so elephant in the room, the Forces of the Abyss have a very, VERY similar backstory and feel to the old Warhammer Fantasy Forces of Chaos. Yes WFB borrowed heavily from Lovecraft and many other sources as well, but it’s extremely difficult to read the Forces of the Abyss lore and not think its the K-Mart brand of Chaos.

This “homage” to WFB greatly weakens the core story and lore of Kings of War. The Abyss is at the core of SO many conflicts in the lore. The Wicked Ones are responsible in one way or another, for almost every Evil army, which means during story events, the Abyss will often be the main big bad.

Unlike Chaos, the Abyss lacks individuality and variation within the faction. They are all red-skinned, vaguely demonic beings, that serve ancient and nefarious masters. The lore has the foundation to create some individuality, by expanding on the personality of the Wicked Ones, discussing how their personalities vary and their armies may vary.

We don’t need new rules for this, but rather lore to help hobbyists decide how to build an army, and how it should look.

For instance, the Carrion-Goddess, she, as a weaker being, probably doesn’t have the loyalty of many Archfiends, since they are the most powerful and most ambitious of the Abyssals. But, she maintains multiple links with the Empire of Dust and the Undead. If I wanted an army for the Carrion-Goddess, I think I would take a lot of Abyssal Ghouls, as they fit the carrion theme, Empire of Dust allies, and avoid taking Archfiends or Fiends.

I could see specific sects of Succubi serving her, so I would take some Succubi too. Now a Carrion-Goddess probably has a lot of corpse iconography, so perhaps my color choices while painting reflect that. Rather then traditional reds, maybe her forces are corpse-like pale, with rotten green hues, or blood spattering. And now I have a rough selection for my army, and color scheme, that represents my lore, if this was actually canon (it’s not) then players would begin to recognize this and know why I was playing with this type of army.

This enriches the overall gaming experience, and makes me excited to play the army, and buy more models. As more lore for my subfaction comes out, I’ll probably buy more models to reflect these changes. Lore can do a lot to make building an army a more rewarding and fun experience.

With a little expansion into the individual Wicked Ones, Mantic could really create some much-needed individuality in the Abyssal forces.

Conclusion

The Abyss is frankly some of my least liked Mantic lore. I find the Abyssals uninspiring, and unoriginal. Because they are so central to the lore of Kings of War, even worse, they are at the center of so much of the conflicts in the world.

However, despite some of the blandness on display, the foundation for an interesting army and faction is there. I think talented hobbyists and storytellers can already play with the kernels given and create something awesome, but for those of us not quite so skilled, I really want more love and attention brought to what makes the Abyss unique, and how they interact in the world. They and their followers need to be more than a red wave of fangs and wings. I don’t want every Abyssal army to feel exactly the same in the story being told in my mind, instead I want space the play with it, create something unique, and that creates lasting memories.