Hello and welcome to this Rapid Fire interview here on Track of Words, where I’m very happy to be joined by Black Library author David Guymer to talk about his fantastic Age of Sigmar novel Grombrindal: Chronicles of the Wanderer. Released in October 2023 in audiobook, ebook and hardback (if you’re lucky enough to find one) editions, this is an unusual book in that it actually contains six short stories and a (short) novel, all exploring one of the most famous characters in Warhammer history. I loved it, so I was keen to talk to David about how this book came about, what the writing process was like, and (because I’m mean like that) whether David has a favourite from among these tales of Grombrindal.
There’s nothing spoilerific here, so you can safely enjoy this whether you’ve already read and loved Grombrindal: Chronicles of the Wanderer (like me) or you’re hoping to get a sense of what to expect from it.
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Track of Words: To begin with, for those who might not know…who is Grombrindal, why is he important, and why is he now the subject of a whole book?
David Guymer: Grombrindal is the legendary White Dwarf after whom the famous Games Workshop magazine is named (it’s possible that it’s the other way around…). He’s long been a feature in the lore of the Old World, cropping up every so often in venerable tomes like Gav Thorpe’s Grudge Bearer and even surviving through to the Age of Sigmar in the likes of Eight Lamentations and my own Realmslayer. His origins as White Dwarf’s namesake mean that he’s always been slightly tongue-in-cheek and has never been front and centre of his own story before. Games Workshop’s recent (-ish) Broken Realms storyline suggested big things on the horizon for him though, and it’s quite an honour to finally get the chance to give Grombrindal the novel his deeds deserve.
ToW: The short stories included in this book were first published in White Dwarf magazine, right? Could you tell us a bit about how that came to be, and what the idea was for them?
DG: I actually can’t remember! I’ve had to dig into my inbox and found this one from way back in July 2019. Apparently, I was still busy with re-writes for Lord of the First and planning an Anvils of the Heldenhammer novel that seems to have vanished into the aether the way these things do sometimes, but would I also be interested in writing six serialised short stories about Grombrindal to tie in with the release of a new miniature?
The rest is three years of pretty insane history.
ToW: Each story features a different set of characters, from a different branch of the duardin, with Grombrindal somehow involved in their tale. How did you decide what sorts of stories to tell with these, which perspectives to use for each one and what they would say about both Grombrindal, and the duardin as a whole?
DG: I was finding it difficult to come up with one storyline that I could tell across six parts whilst still exploring the legend of Grombrindal from all the duardin perspectives that I wanted to. The idea I eventually came up with was to use the legend itself as a framing device to tell six thematically linked but essentially standalone stories. In each one, Grombrindal would appear amongst a different duardin faction in their hour of crisis, assisting them in such a way as to say something about the duardin as a whole. From there, it was simply a case of sitting down with the lore of and having a think about what stories to tell, and what characters would best tell them. Some, like Protect With Honour, came from ideas I already had for other stories, whereas Maker’s Mark was largely my editor, Hannah’s, idea. Most originated somewhere in between.
ToW: I thought it worked well to have Grombrindal in each story but not the focus and not a POV character. Were you ever tempted to write from his perspective?
DG: No, not really. The whole conceit is that these are the stories about Grombrindal, rather than Grombrindal’s story. They’re the moments in which Grombrindal enters the lives of mortal duardin and makes a mark that will eventually become another story in the legend, which (I hope) then pays off in the sixth story of the original serialised run as we look back on from Grungni’s perspective. I’m sure it would be possible, depending on the story you want to tell, but with the idea I had for these it just wouldn’t have worked. Grombrindal is near enough omniscient and omnipresent in these stories. There’s no way I could have gone into his head without spoiling the mood.
There was one scene though, towards the end of the novel Lords of Stone, Fire, and Sky, that I’d written from Grombrindal’s point of view. It was something I wanted to do, just to get that glimpse of who he really was after all these stories, but it was edited out of the finished draft. And, for all the reasons I discussed above, probably for the best.
ToW: Grombrindal is a character who first came about in the Warhammer Old World, and has since moved into the lore of the Mortal Realms. Having written these stories, do you think he’s fundamentally changed much as a character now that he’s a part of Age of Sigmar?
DG: I think he’s actually the character who’s still most himself. With the possible exception of Gotrek Gurnisson. Grungni and Nagash for instance, also survivors from the Old World, both talk about how much they’ve forgotten, but Grombrindal remembers it all. His purpose has evolved a little, but it’s essentially unchanged. In the Old World, his purpose was to save the Dwarfs. Now, it’s to try and do what Grungni himself can’t and reunite the fractured duardin factions.
ToW: We don’t often get to see the different varieties of duardin – Dispossessed, Fyreslayers and Kharadron Overlords – all in one book. How do you approach writing about each variety, giving each their own sense of identity while also retaining their essential duardin-ness?
DG: It was fun to throw them together, particularly that opening battle scene of Lords of Stone, Fire, and Sky where the Dispossessed and Fyreslayer armies are facing off, each side picking out everything that’s wrong in the other. They’re so alike, and yet totally different. The challenge, and the fun, is identifying those differences and tweaking them up to eleven while the areas in which they’re similar get nudged down to nine. The Dispossessed and the Ironweld are the gruff, Tolkienesque Dwarfs we’re all familiar with, obsessed with grudges and the honour of their ancestors. The Fyreslayers are all of that too, to a degree, but they’re also hot-tempered and practise a bizarre form of religion through battle. The Kharadron are all of that as well, but they’re more hard-headed and pragmatic.
It’s the same kind of process when writing any archetypal group really. I still remember planning the characters for my first novel, Headtaker, and thinking along the same sorts of lines. Skaven are treacherous cowards. Ok. So here’s a Grey Seer character who so epitomises both of those traits that he never actually shows up to the battles at all. And what if Warlord Queek’s bodyguard was so afraid of him that it overrode his natural treachery and made him loyal? It’s about remaining true to what those archetypes are meant to be and finding the twist that’ll make them individuals.
ToW: Did you have any inkling while you were writing them that these stories would eventually be rolled up into a single volume?
DG: No, but it seemed to come organically from “maybe one day we’ll do this thing” to “we’re doing this thing” to “could you write a short novel to accompany this thing?”!
ToW: After the short stories comes a short novel – Lords of Stone, Fire and Sky – which pits a trio of duardin forces against each other, and also the oncoming threat of a vast Ogor horde. What was the inspiration behind this story?
DG: After writing the initial collection, I realised that I’d written Grombrindal into every imaginable scenario except for an actual battle. He gets closely battle-adjacent in The White-Bearded Ancestor and there’s a bit of fighting going on from afar in Protect with Honour, but I felt there was an omission there and that’s where the basic premise behind Lords of Stone, Fire, and Sky. That and having the word count to throw all of the major duardin factions into the one story and see how they interact.
ToW: What would you say readers need to know about the main characters in the novel, and the factions or forces they represent?
DG: I would hope that everything you need to know is in the novel itself, assuming at least that you’re halfway familiar with Age of Sigmar. Suffice to say that it’s set in a former stronghold of the now-extinct Khazalid Empire, currently occupied by a Fyreslayer lodge, a Dispossessed King recently returned from Azyrheim, and a Kharadron magnate, all of whom claim descent from the Last King of Karag Dawrkhaz. Unfortunately for them, an Ogor Mawpath is coming their way and they’re going to have to figure out a way to stand together or go the way of the Khazalid Empire.
ToW: It was great to read quite a lot from an Ogor perspective in this novel. How did you find writing these sections?
DG: Pretty tough, actually.
I talk about something similar in the Warhammer TV interview I did for Avatar of Destruction: I don’t want them to come across like orruks but they do need to sound different to your regular human point of view. It’s a tough act to balance every time, which basically involves lots of reading back and re-writes! What helped enormously was that the Beastclaw Raiders have this wonderfully distinct and realised culture; they’re migrating hunters, always travelling ahead of the Everwinter and with a tradition of oral storytelling that ties into the overarching theme of the Grombrindal stories.
It’s always nice when a plan comes together.
ToW: I know this is a mean question, but…do you have a favourite from amongst the stories in here? And if so, why?
DG: I don’t know if it’s mean, but it is tough, because I have favourite bits of all of them.
I like how The White Bearded Ancestor somehow works when it really shouldn’t.
I tend towards fast-paced, action-oriented stories, so telling the story of a brewery and its duardin inhabitants over a few hundred years in Old White-Beard’s Special was a departure for me and I’m very proud of it.
I love getting to introduce a bit of high fantasy style in Maker’s Mark.
My favourite favourite though is probably Protect With Honour. I’ve always been drawn to the Kharadron. They’re the most alike to the Dwarfs of old but, at the same time, the most different. And no one had yet written a story about them the way that I (in my infinite Dwarf wisdom) wanted them to be, which was as a kind of East India Company of the skies. Lots of separate, long-gestating ideas found their way into that story too, which is always satisfying to see. The Admiral who bought his command rather than earning it. The converted tanker. The idea that there’s a lot of competition for aether-gold and might it not be profitable for a Kharadron to find his fortune elsewhere? All the stuff involving Ulgu. It’s a good argument for keeping all your old ideas handy. So yeah, that one.
ToW: Do you think we’ll see more Grombrindal stories in future, whether from yourself or (like Gotrek) from various other authors?
DG: He’s already re-appeared in the pages of White Dwarf in Old White-Fur, which gives a new twist on the original stories by telling his legend from the point of view of the Skaven. An all-new short story also appeared at the end of November in Black Library’s character series. It’s called The Ancestors’ Hall and, while it’s another duardin-centred tale, people who know their duardin might guess from the title that it’s set in a particularly unique place.
As for more, there’s no plans at the moment. It’d be a challenge to come up with some fresh ideas after writing so many stories already, but that’s the beauty of doing this for a living – the ideas always find you somehow.
ToW: Finally, if you were to join one of the different groups of duardin, which would you choose and why?
DG: I like to imagine myself as a buccaneering Kharadron. An aether-khemist perhaps, living a long and comfortable life in a university high up in the skies and safely out of harm’s way. In reality though, I know I’m a Dispossessed, working odd jobs in a Free City somewhere, and grumbling about how things used to be.
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David Guymer is a scientist and writer from England. His work includes many novels in the New York Times-bestselling Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universes, notably Headtaker and Gotrek & Felix: Slayer, and the bestselling audio drama Realmslayer. He has also contributed to fantastical worlds in video games, tabletop RPGs, and board games.
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Thanks so much to David for agreeing to this interview as part of the 2022 Track of Words Advent Calendar, and (as always) for contributing such interesting answers. If you’re at all interested in Age of Sigmar fiction (or – dare I say it – even if you love the Old World and want to recapture a little of the old Warhammer magic) I can definitely recommend checking out Grombrindal – I really enjoyed it!
See also: all of the other David Guymer-related reviews and interviews on Track of Words
Grombrindal: Chronicles of the Wanderer is out now from Black Library. Check out the links below to order your copy:
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