Hello and welcome to this instalment of my Where to Start With Black Library article series, where I’m offering suggestions for good entry points into BL’s various ranges, and attempting to demystify Warhammer fiction a little bit. Historically, Black Library hasn’t provided much in the way of guidance regarding its massive range of stories, so I was pleased to see a recent (at the time I’m writing this) Warhammer Community article offering suggestions for where to start with Age of Sigmar books exploring the Grand Alliance Order – the ‘good guys’ (ish) of the Mortal Realms. While I applaud the intentions of this article, I didn’t think it was very thorough, and I didn’t necessarily agree with all of its suggestions, so I’ve put together an article myself on the same topic.
For anyone unfamiliar, the Grand Alliances are the way in which the many factions of Age of Sigmar are loosely grouped together, organised into four groupings: Chaos, Death, Destruction and Order. I do already have an article in which I offer a few suggestions for my personal favourite stories focusing on each of the four Grand Alliances, so check that out if you’re interested. In the case of Grand Alliance Order, it makes sense to dig a little deeper as there are so many factions making up this grouping (9, according to the Games Workshop website, the most of any Grand Alliance), each of them really quite different. We’re not talking variations on a theme like Chaos or Death, but rather fully distinct factions with wildly varying character and identity.
The WarCom article does include some excellent books, but in my opinion it misses out a lot of the variety by concentrating too much on relatively similar stories. There are dedicated books available which offer great insight into all but one of the Order factions, and I think it’s a shame to focus so much on Stormcast and Gotrek Gurnisson, and not talk about the Idoneth Deepkin, Kharadron Overlords, Cities of Sigmar, Sylvaneth and Daughters of Khaine. With that in mind, I’m going to take a look at each faction and recommend a book (or series) or two for each one – I can’t claim to have read every Age of Sigmar story, but I can talk about the books I have read, and in some cases offer links to author interviews too. By all means go with the WarCom suggestions if you just want a very quick introduction to these factions, but if you’d like something more thorough…read on!
So without further ado, let’s take each faction in alphabetical order and look at where to start with their Black Library stories.
Cities of Sigmar
If you want the most human (and, theoretically, most relatable) Age of Sigmar faction – at least in terms of BL stories – then look no further than the Cities of Sigmar. These stories are about the only places you’re going to find regular, ordinary humans (alongside a few other races), without the Sigmar-granted strength of the Stormcast Eternals or the strange powers wielded by some of the other factions, so they tend to be fairly grounded as AoS fiction goes. Within this faction, my recommendation for where to start would be Nick Horth’s Callis and Toll stories.
These focus on the witch hunter duo Armand Callis and Hanniver Toll as they hunt down the forces of darkness, beginning in the city of Excelsis. Toll is your classic witch hunter, albeit perhaps a little less hardline than some, while Callis starts off as a corporal in the Freeguild before getting caught up with the Order of Azyr, and between them they offer a brilliantly human, ordinary viewpoint on regular life in the Mortal Realms. This is still AoS so there are plenty of grand plots for them to foil of the course of their (at times enjoyably swashbuckling) adventures, and spectacular sights and experiences to be had, but it’s all shown from that human POV that gives everything a more relatable feel than stories featuring Stormcast Eternals or more overtly fantasy factions.
The main arc of the Callis and Toll stories (thus far) is as follows (click on the links for my reviews where available):
- City of Secrets (novella/very short novel)
- The Old Ways (short story)
- The Silver Shard (novel)
If you want to read more like this, the series branches off to cover a couple of previously secondary characters in:
- Heart of Winter (novella – featuring Arika Zenthe from City of Secrets)
- The Manse of Mirrors (short story – featuring Shev Arclis from The Silver Shard)
- Thieves’ Paradise (novella – featuring Shev Arclis again)
You could also try Andy Clark’s excellent (albeit frequently icky) novel Gloomspite – the Gloomspite Gitz are heavily present but as the antagonists, while the regular human protagonists are relatable and very entertaining.
Daughters of Khaine
Drawing upon and expanding on the old-school Warhammer concept of witch elves (witch aelves now, I suppose), the Daughters of Khaine are a really cool part of Grand Alliance Order – if nothing else, because they’re a reminder that just because we’re talking ‘Order’ doesn’t mean we’re necessarily talking ‘the good guys’. It’s that whole idea of ‘these vicious, blood-drenched aelves are utterly terrifying but they’re…on our side?’ – what’s not to like about that? Sadly, they’re rather under-represented in BL fiction as of yet, but there is at least one full-length book for you Daughters fans to check out – Covens of Blood by Jamie Crisalli, Liane Merciel and Anna Stephens.
A quick disclaimer: I haven’t yet read this, so I can’t comment on the story itself. That being said, I think it’s an interesting idea to cover three of the various DoK covens by way of a portmanteau novel – i.e. a trio of linked novellas. I chatted to all three of the featured authors for an interview about Covens of Blood (which you can find by following this link) and it sounds pretty cool, as an opportunity to get a few different viewpoints on the faction. It’s also good to see a rare novel-length BL book written by women – in particular one featuring a female-only faction – as there are still too few of those.
As an extra suggestion, you could try the short story Galene of Ulgu by Timandra Whitecastle (which I have read, and enjoyed – check out my review here) – it’s obviously a shorter piece with less time to dig into its characters, but there’s some good stuff in there!
Fyreslayers
The flame-haired (and bearded) Fyreslayers were one of the first new factions to be introduced in Age of Sigmar, and while they still haven’t had a dedicated novel all of their own (Gotrek is a Slayer, not a Fyreslayer, so his novels don’t count) they have had a fair few short stories, and they crop up elsewhere too. There are few things that shout Warhammer as much as any kind of dwarf/duardin Slayer, whether death-seeking Old World Trollslayers or mercenary Fyreslayers in search of Ur-gold across the Mortal Realms, and in my opinion at least it’s always fun to read about these guys. If you’re looking for stories focusing purely on Fyreslayers then I’d say your best bet is the imaginatively-titled Fyreslayers anthology featuring four short stories by three different authors.
Unlike Covens of Blood, there are no narrative connections between these stories, just four tales of different Fyreslayer lodges which explore a little of what life is like for these particular duardin characters. These are quite early AoS stories dating back to about 2017 I think, and I wouldn’t necessarily say that any of them are super-memorable compared to more recent releases, but they’re all solid stories at the very least. I’ve reviewed all four of them, and you can find all of those reviews (alongside those for a few other Fyreslayer-related tales) by clicking on this link.
Gotrek Gurnisson
Ok, so I mentioned Gotrek earlier, and technically everyone’s favourite grumpy Slayer doesn’t belong to any of the individual factions within Grand Alliance Order, given that he’s basically a throwback to the Old World. He really doesn’t like being called a duardin (he’s very much a dwarf) and he’s pretty disparaging of the Fyreslayers, so I wouldn’t include him in either the Cities of Sigmar or Fyreslayer factions…however not only is he a pretty important character in terms of AoS fiction but his stories are great, so it’s definitely worth mentioning him in this article. There is also a Fyreslayer link, as the first Realmslayer audio drama (which introduces him back into the Mortal Realms) does feature Fyreslayer characters quite heavily.
If you’re not familiar with Gotrek, your best bet is to go back to where it all started in the Old World with Trollslayer and take it from there (and maybe check out my Nounslayer interviews with the various authors who have written his stories most frequently). If you’ve read all of his earlier stories and want to see what he gets up to in the Mortal Realms, I would suggest starting with Realmslayer (the first one) and then going on to either the sequel (Blood of the Old World) or the first AoS novel Ghoulslayer. You don’t have to listen to the audios if you don’t want to, but a) they’ll give you the full picture and b) Gotrek is played by Brian Blessed (amazing), so they’re very much worth picking up if you can! There are various short stories (and a novella) too, but between Realmslayer and Ghoulslayer you’ll have the best entry points to the series.
Idoneth Deepkin
One of the most brilliantly bizarre factions in the Mortal Realms, the ocean-dwelling aelves of the Deepkin are a great example of how Age of Sigmar can take fairly standard fantasy archetypes – elves, in this case – and run with them to create something totally mad, and in this case genuinely creepy. Of all the aelven factions they feel the furthest away from the old Dark/High/Wood Elves of yesteryear, and the BL fiction they’ve featured in so far has done a great job of emphasising just how strange they are, what with their soul stealing, deep sea beasts and the suffocating, eerie Ethersea. There’s only one Idoneth novel so far – David Guymer’s The Court of the Blind King – but it’s an excellent place to start!
All the cool, creepy stuff I’ve already mentioned is covered nicely in this novel, but it also does a great job of exploring the sort of political infighting that’s rife within the ranks of the Deepkin. All Warhammer stories tend to have plenty of action and adventure, and this is no different, but it also comes packed full of intrigue and subtle maneuvering for power that helps lend it quite a different feel to a lot of BL stories. It’s wonderfully atmospheric and evocative too, and it really does do a good job all round of not just introducing the Deepkin but really digging into what life is like among these underwater aelves. It also has a squigray (sadly only briefly) which means it’s automatically awesome, in my view! Check out my review here, and my interview with David Guymer.
See also David Guymer’s short stories The Learning, for a look at life as an embailor (the Idoneth who tame all the horrible deep sea monsters), and The Sea Taketh, for an outside perspective on the Deepkin in an unusual take on the duardin/aelf rivalry.
Kharadron Overlords
If the sea-dwelling Idoneth Deepkin represent a move away from the usual elf tropes, the skyfaring Kharadron Overlords do something similar for fantasy dwarf (or in this case duardin) archetypes. After all, dwarfs usually live deep underground and tend to be stolid and resistant to change…but not so the Kharadron, who live in great technologically-empowered skyports and skim the clouds in their sky-vessels of iron and aether-gold. What I particularly like about this faction is the way that they still feel like dwarfs, just developed along one particular line of reasoning – in this case following the mercantile and gold-obsessed aspects of their character.
Compared to most of the other Order factions there’s actually a reasonable amount of Kharadron fiction out there, with my personal favourite being the series that begins with CL Werner’s Overlords of the Iron Dragon. These are straight-up fantasy adventure stories packed full of skyborne swashbuckling, evil wizards, dragons, sky pirates and loads of other good stuff, and to me they represent Werner at his best. They’re quick, easy reads and basically just a lot of fun, and I can’t believe WarCom didn’t even mention this series when talking about Grand Alliance Order! If you enjoy Overlords, also check out the short story Shiprats, the brilliant audio drama Guns of the Black Eagle, and then the second novel Profit’s Ruin. You can find all of my Kharadron reviews and author interviews via this link.
Lumineth Realm-Lords
Of all the Order factions, the Lumineth perhaps feel the closest to their Old World ancestors, which in this case are the noble, severe, magic-wielding High Elves. To be fair they’re far from a straight-up duplicate of the old High Elves, but the influences are clear to see, and for me that’s no bad thing given that I always loved characters like Tyrion, Teclis and Eltharion. As one of the most recent factions to be introduced you might think there wouldn’t have been enough time for the Lumineth to feature very much in recent BL fiction, but while they haven’t yet had many short stories (or appeared anywhere as antagonists or supporting characters), they have had two novels to themselves already!
I’ve only read one of these novels, so can’t talk about both of them with equal confidence, but I can say with absolute certainty that I thought Richard Strachan’s The End of Enlightenment was bloomin’ brilliant! It gave me all the High Elf nostalgia that I wanted, while at the same time pointing out what’s new and interesting about the Lumineth in their own right, not to mention offering a welcome reminder of just how good Strachan’s writing is. Have a read of my review here for more details, and my interview with Richard about the novel too. In terms of the other Lumineth novel, Dale Lucas’ Realm-Lords, while I haven’t read it myself you can find out a bit more about it in my interview with Dale here (and this is the book that WarCom recommended for the Lumineth).
Seraphon
From what I understand, the Seraphon are probably the faction that’s retained the most character and identity from their Old World days, having survived the End Times only to (I think) turn into beings of starlight rather than flesh and blood (which I suppose fits in more with the AoS aesthetic). That’s pretty cool, however they’re the only faction to not have at least one Black Library story directly featuring them. They make the occasional brief appearance in a few stories here and there, but that’s it – which I think is to be expected given that they’re properly inhuman, so effectively portraying their point of view is likely to be tricky. That’s a shame for Lizardmen Seraphon fans, but I’m not expecting the situation to change any time soon. Of course BL could prove me wrong, which would be a nice surprise!
Stormcast Eternals
Where most of the other Order factions have had to make do with the occasional novel here and there, the Stormcast – as the unashamed figureheads of Age of Sigmar – have had LOADS of stories all to themselves. Personally I’m fine with that, as I think there’s loads of opportunities for interesting storytelling with them, especially as the wider lore of the Mortal Realms develops. I’ve seen people suggesting that they’re little more than fantasy Space Marines, but when you look beyond the basic facts there’s much more to them than that. As authors continue to explore different angles and perspectives on Stormcast stories it’s becoming increasingly clear that while on the surface they might seem to be Sigmar’s heroic poster boys, when you dig a little deeper there’s a lot more going on.
Now, I know a lot of people like starting at the beginning…but in terms of Stormcast fiction I would strongly suggest you don’t start with the Realmgate Wars series. There’s some good stuff in there, but as a series it represents the authors, and BL/GW as a whole, still getting to grips with Age of Sigmar…and the later releases are largely more engaging and satisfying. Personally, I don’t agree with WarCom suggesting Sacrosanct & Other Stories as the place to start – there are some good stories in there, but there are better Stormcast books than the novella Sacrosanct, and the overall mix of short stories is fine without being standout. Josh Reynolds’ Soul Wars, however, is a great place to start…but I think it’s worth looking at a few different options.
- A standalone novel: if you just want a single story that gives you a solid overview of the Stormcast Eternals, go with Soul Wars for a great story with really good characters. You really can’t go wrong with this.
- A bigger series: if you’ve enjoyed Soul Wars, or just prefer a broader series, Josh Reynolds’ Hallowed Knights stories are well worth checking out. You could, if you want, start with Josh’s novella in War Storm and read through a few of the Realmgate Wars stories, but I’d suggest jumping straight in with the novel Plague Garden and going from there. You’ve then got a novella (Hammerhal – which is a much better ‘starter’ story than Sacrosanct), various short stories, a short audio drama and a second novel – check out all my reviews here.
- A bit of fun: my personal favourite Stormcast novel is still Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods by David Guymer, and I’m consistently disappointed that BL hasn’t commissioned another Hamilcar novel yet! Not only is Hamilcar probably the most entertaining character in all of AoS fiction, but his bluntly honest and deeply amusing point of view actually allows for some really interesting observations on the Mortal Realms. Check out my review of Champion of the Gods, and my interview with David Guymer.
Sylvaneth
Last but not least are the Sylvaneth, who alongside the Fyreslayers are one of the earliest new factions to be introduced to Age of Sigmar. Developed out from the concept of Dryads and Treeman from the Old World, they have some of the characteristics of the old Wood Elves (not least their worship of Alarielle), only a bit creepier and a lot woodier. For all that they’ve been a part of AoS almost from the beginning, there still hasn’t been a full Sylvaneth novel as yet (well, maybe Beastgrave counts, but I haven’t read that yet so can’t say for certain), but they did get a short story anthology featuring some really great stories, and a standalone short story that’s up there with the best AoS fiction published so far.
The anthology (following the Fyreslayer naming convention) is just called Sylvaneth, and is another one of the early AoS releases. All the featured stories are pretty great, although if memory serves my favourite was Robbie MacNiven’s Heartwood, and it’s good to see stories told from really quite inhuman perspectives. Ok, not as inhuman as the Seraphon perhaps, but the Sylvaneth are pretty strange and unusual! That’s a good place to start, but I can also recommend Robert Rath’s The Garden of Mortal Delights, which features a Branchwych held captive by a Slaaneshi lord, and is absolutely fantastic! You can find all of my Sylvaneth reviews at this link.
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So there you go, another fairly hefty, thorough and hopefully useful guide to my recommendations of where to start with Age of Sigmar stories – remember I’m just focusing on factions included in the Grand Alliance Order. If you found this useful and you’d like me to take a look at some or all of the other three Grand Alliances, get in touch to let me know!
Please feel free to get in touch in the comments below or on Twitter if you have any questions, or to let me know how you get on with these stories, otherwise I hope you enjoy whichever story/stories you decide to pick up – happy reading!
See also: all of my other articles in the ‘Where to start with Black Library’ range.
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