I read somewhere that they look so emotionless, so statuesque because Chaos feeds on emotions. Showing none, looking like a sigmarite golem feeling nothing off puts Chaos very badly.

Wow.. really marks every Stormcast Battleline Unit as a tragic figure... "I am here to fight Chaos and save the world.. because I missed the chance to die defending my wife/husband and children".. :(

The Emperor of Mankind doesn't just sit there. He's powering the Astronomicon and keeping the Gods of Chaos at bay. He now has a text-to-speech device which allows him to directly communicate with his subjects once more. As of late, he started doing just that via podcasts.

All that stuff about how dying and returning causes Stormcast to become more feral in their fighting makes me think we're in for Chaos Stormcast Eternals at some point...

..."and they shall know no fear".

pulling warrior before dying is how you get angron. do you wanna have angrons?

by taking away the very memory and identity of troopers. Sigmar is slowly making a plan not only an unlimited supply of army, but a grand “plot” to starve the chaos gods. Cuz chaos god’s power largely depends on emotion, right?

By far, best AoS lore videos on KZfaq. You add so much depth and dimensions with your analysis. Please don't stop doing this!!

I used to play Brittannia, and I used to say that the greatest dishonor for a knight was to survive the battle. The entire point of them becoming immortal was so that they could chase death forever. Stormcast are not even allowed this as there individualism and personality gets stripped away. Ouch.

"Stormcast never die" *Vol'jin voice*

30+ of age, trying to return to the hobby. Things have really changed. Thanks for explaining, very good video. The philosophical part of GW-games is gold, it's something to ponder while painting. I was reading "Silver Tower" the other day, in which a Stormcast removed his helmet and was described as 'younger than you'd think, with scars in his face and a blank stare in his eyes' (not quoted exactly). Reminded me of the videogame 'Space Marine', when said protagonist shows a sign of being in pain and someone says '...so you are human, after all' and he answers 'more than you will ever know, lieutenant'. The motif is that behind every uniform there is an individual. But losing the mere knowledge of who you are (or were) due to conflict is worse than death. Forgive my wall of text.

Sigmarines= Fantasy/magic Space marines= si/fi future It's how they wrote their story by the same creators of 2 awesome games. I dig 'em both!

Well Roman cavalry supposed to have military masks which supposed to strike fear cause they looked lifeless to strike fear into enemies.

I actually wonder what would happen if a Stormcast Eternal decided to confront Sigmar about these questions.

I had dismissed AoS entirely just because of the conjecture of others on the internet, but your videos have ultimately opened my eyes. AoS is so much more than I had originally perceived, and I feel like everyone else who are fans of Fantasy Battles and not AoS, have lost sight of what makes Warhammer great. Maybe some people just buck change due to fear of losing something they love, but what I think makes Warhammer so amazing is that sense of wonder, the sense that there's so much more than meets the eye, the sense that you don't know the absolute truth. There is just so much going on with the lore (more so now than ever) that it becomes somewhat intrinsic, but at the same time, that's what makes it all the more interesting. If everyone could just garner that sense of wonder they had at first, when they were introduced to Warhammer Fantasy Battles, then they would realize how unique and ideal this story has become. As times goes on, it seems like more people are jumping on board, as the lore gets more fleshed out, but I sincerely believe that it is people like you, @TwoPlusTough , that really provide the bridge for people to finally understand and realize the direction, that I now believe, perfectly suits the Warhammer universe. And this makes me all the more excited for what is to come for the series. If anyone has made it this far in my comment, and you're still stalwart in your defense that AoS is complete garbage, I implore you to reconsider. Maybe you'll come to love the change, just like I have.

I would add that the Emperor of Mankind does interact as a deity sometimes. For example his living saints and maybe the Legion of the Dammed

Yes to lore videos! I love delving deeper into these kind of mythological stories and I like your presentation too.

I want to make a huge thank you for these. I've recently gotten into AoS and Warhammer as a whole, and these have helped to understand and find things to enjoy more about the world, so thank you for incredible storytelling and wonderful foundations of the facts and theories to work from and build a knowledge with. Also........ Stormcast are hella sad when ya think about it I feel. The thought of eventually losing all memory of who you used to be is a horrifying thought.

I LOVE your work. The philosophical look you take and how in depth you get has totally changed how I see AoS. I was a fan of WHFB back in the day and I was playing AoS at launch but the lore was so chaotic (no pun intended) I left but the awesome new models and your great videos have got me back in deep. Thank you 🙏❤

I like this format quite a bit. Perhaps you could structure episodes in kinda a dual format, where first you go over what the faction/character/lore is ('the facts') and then the second half could be why they are interesting. I think it could work well for episodes going forward.

Just found this Chanel, love it. I almost totally disdained AoS until I found your Chanel. Now I’d consider collecting and certainly enjoying the Lore. If I was financially better off I’d be chipping in. Did think they were basically just Space Marines in WHFB, now I’m seeing them more as Necrons in waiting...

I'm thinking by torturing his soldiers Sigmar is basicly turning evil to defeat the chaos gods. He uses their means against them but becomes the very thing he was fighting. That's pretty cool, it reminds me of the reason behind why Gandalf or Galadriel doesn't use the one ring against Sauron to defeat him. But in Age of Sigmar we actually kinda get to se this storyline play out.. I guess, maybe? Great video anyway, gave me a whole new pespective on the stormcasts.

This holy army sounds more like an army of damned. Kinda like the necrons I feel.

I really like what you are doing. I find that you have an interesting perspective on the lore, you are well spoken, and you voice is comfortable. My father once told me before an examn to; Say what you want to say, say it, and say it again. Introduction, what are we gonna hear, the lore in it self and a recap or something like that. Your ending with comparing them to space marines hit the nail on what most people are either thinking or have heard from others. So far I've very much enjoyed all of your videos and I like that you try different ways of doing it. Your videos on Start Collecting boxes made me buy the Seraphon, and I knew exactly what I got. So thanks a bunch, and I'll keep coming back for more.

I was a huge WHFB fan for years, and End Times transition to AoS really soured me on the entire franchise. I just was not digging Sigmarines. When I moved overseas in 2015 I wound up selling my army rather than carting it halfway around the world with me and fully leaving the hobby. Not too long ago I found your series of videos on Age of Sigmar, and they've inspired me to give it another go. Thanks for putting together such great content!

I've been looking for something like this for ages. Really enjoyed it. Please keep them coming. Great use of artwork and music too

Hey man just getting into age of sigmar and really love your storytelling on the subjects hope you keep up the good work I'm very keen to hear more lore :)

I am brand new to warhammer, I am 29 years old just getting into it for a hobby. Your video on this is so good, I brought the box starter set of stormcast eternals and this helps me understand so much about them and weirdly enough gives me a lot of respect for them as I sit here gluing them together haha. Anyways just saying love the content and I’m gonna go listen to more.

It's a really nive vidéo. Thanks for it. I was one of those who only thaught of the Stormcast as Space MArines. But now, you made me realize they are a whole other thing. And interesting with that. Thanks :)

Give it up Lt Dan. Join Sigmar and become eternal.

Someone please tell me that Karl Franz was reforged ? 😤😔

Hey mate you should consider converting these lore episodes to podcast format, that would be really cool and easy to listen to. Love the episode!

I do love debating and discussing fantasy lore and philosophy. Definitely need more videos like this to show to my friends for great topics and discussion. Thanks for making this. It's an amazing take on the lore.

'They shall be my finest warriors, these mortals who give of themselves to me. Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them. They will be of iron will and thunderous wrath, forged with the might of Ghal Miraz, strengthened by my holy will. In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest weapons will they be armed. They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them. They will have tactics, strategies and blessings so that no foe can best them in battle. They are my bulwark against Chaos. They are the Defenders of my realms. They are my Stormcast Eternals, my Sigmarines, and they shall know no fear.' -Sigmar, (probably)

Man, bouncing between your new and old stuff, its amazing the way your presentation and quality of the audio itself has gotten better over time! THe content has always been stellar though, you've sold me on the stormcast.

The main point, strength and pleasure of Warhammer is the invention of "My Dudes". Create my own homemade homebrew custom characters, armies, colour schemes, emblems, stories and so on. And only the Warhammer Age of Sigmar and 40k (also Necromunda and Blood Bowl) allow you to do this fully and naturally. This tradition has been going on since the First Edition of the 40k, so the first priority will always be the creation of your own unique Space Marine Chapter. But I am extremely grateful that there is an opportunity to repeat it again in such an interesting and fresh world as Mortal Realms!

Great video with some really good points, I'm expecting Karl Franz to come back as some awesome SCE

Playing Soulbound, and our GM also runs AoS Tabletop so while the RPG Lore is some months behind the Tabletop, we're fortunate enough for the games to be as close to 1:1 parity as possible! We are incredibly grateful for everything our GM brings to the table...even his soul-crushing lack of hesitation to TPK us if we fuck up! Really makes the game *feel* like AoS.

Really liking the formatting of this lore vid, I honesty didn't know much (if anything) about the Stormcast Eternals and pretty much dismissed them as just fantasy spacemarines but now I'm seriously considering starting an army for them. The lore is actually really interesting.

Stormcasts, for me are still pretty much the same as Space Marine. Yes, I know you brought up how they are created differently, but when you look at the base of those things, it is the same, GW just swapped a word. Space Marine = losing your humanity. Stormcasts = losing your identity. But I'll still admit that with what you said, I'll from now on view them under a different light.

13:24 "the word is _identity_ " Doug, I thought that *music starts playing* "B-b-b-bird bird bird, bird is the word"? :-) On a more serious note, I learned a lot from watching this video and it really stimulated my interest in the lore. I have gained a new appreciation for the Stormcast Eternals. The Gregorian chanting as background music worked really well and provided the right sense of majesty (for lack of a better term) to emphasize the divine nature of Sigmar.

I’ve always played 40k on and off and just recently got into fantasy due to my friend that started playing it and I’ve been building a stormcast eternal army, this has been great to listen to while I’m applying my base coat to my army! Love it and keep it up!

You touched on a really good point with how they are on the outside as opposed to who they really are on the inside. I think we only need to look at ourselves in real life to know the answer to that. Human beings often show their best selves out in the open, but behind closed doors you just don’t know what’s really going on until you know for sure. But ultimately, putting on a brave face and going on head strong is what people do every day. So for the stormcast eternals looking almighty and powerful on the outside, and also within, but still having the emotional fragility that we all have, whether big or small is a touching part of who they really are.

I think that anyone who died or was about to die fighting Chaos as a mortal would see the power that Chaos has and recognize that after their reforging they are on par with that. I also think that they know what their mission is and who they protect. I feel like those are fundamental differences between what Chaos is (and what Chaos seeks to do) and what Stormcast Eternals are. I think that they probably don't see themselves as anything like Chaos or even the other side of the same coin. At worst I feel like they might feel like how Sigmar works is an ends justifying means proposition: Sigmar uses powers similar to Chaos to fight Chaos. But I don't think that they see any of themselves in Chaos.

This is very helpful because I am building my stormcast eternals army now and knowing the lore just gives me a lot more of a reason to build a bigger armie

This is an amazing video. Never been a fan of space marines... kinda put stormcast in the same box. I see the error of my ways. Can't see my self buying any stormcast. But I don't hate them no more.

drawing parallels to 40k, stormcast remind me of necrons. They lost much of their identity and memories in bio-transference but supposedly they can also loose more if they die and get teleported back. In a way semi-mindless automata is what their final destiny might be as welll, with those that retain more of who they were (or find new purpose in their new life and memories) becoming the higher rank commanders

This was amazing to listen! I really liked to hear your perspective on Stormcasts about their ''worldview'' and uncertainty. I am not playing the game, just collecting the miniatures/building their own worlds and making my own stories about the armies - so it's awesome to hear someone on youtube that's not talking only about game rules/points/battle reps/,... but making this fantasy universe a personal experience filled with your own imagination. Thank you for sharing this with the rest of us!

I love your philosphical/theological approach to the lore. Subbed.

I’m really glad I found your channel. Starved to learn more about AoS - and your channel seems amazing!!

The Stormcast resurrection lifecycle reminds me of the way the New Cylons get rebirthed into Clone bodies on the Battlestar Galactica reboot BSG. In the later episodes they go into “what it’s like to be an eternally rebirthed entity” and how a mind can cope (or go insane) (or get addicted to) with that enforced lifecycle... it’s an awesome phylisophical exploration of Virtual Immortality in a reforged/mortal body.

Hey, I'm just getting started in the WH world. Right now I'm trying to learn all I can about this lore and your videos are simply amazing. I like the way you approach and try to explian things. Greetings from México!

I’m barely getting into AoS and warhammer in general and lore videos like this really help me catch up and get a feel for the game and characters. I liked this video a lot and really made me see a new side to the storm cast, definitely checking out your other lore videos!

I am mainly a 40k player, and was looking to understand these guys as i seem em in gw, After this video it inspired me to get some!

Plz do specific warhost, like a video on Hallowed Knights or Anvils of the Heldenhammers and so on 😊👍🏻

For those who are wondering about Torglug the despised, who was mentioned in this video, he the first case of a chaos lord (of Nurgle) being converted to the good side. Pretty interesting stuff, don't think that ever happened anywhere else.

if the storm cast start loosing their identity they could rebel against Sigmar! I see Horus heresy mark II coming around the corner

I see Chaos Eternals and it makes me excited.

Yes please do more lore videos, I really want a KZfaq channel that explains aos lore not just 40k or is too salty about fantasy being ended to actually talk about it.

Personally I don’t know much in the way of AoS lore. Love the format, hope we’ll see some more.

. The amount of life you brought to this army is astounding. I am inspired to continue my collection of this army, not just in models but lore and artwork. Now when I see their art, thier depictions, I see so much more. I appreacite the depthness and insight you have given me on the Stormcast.

Great video, I never knew this much about the Stormcast Eternals. AoS is becoming my favorite Warhammer series now.

Only 1:30 in and you already got my subscription. I just ordered the starter set and have played a game with my 40k Chaos Marines as substitutes (Ironic I know) I love the Storm cast eternals because they seem to have the Best paliadin looking, demon hunting, Arrow slinging, beast taming bunch.

Suuuuper late on my part so I expect no response, but wanted to point out a few things that could have been brought up; -On top of the threat of being perma-killed by powerful chaos demons/champions or mages, it is also possible at a certain point for the stormcast to not be reforgeable. This is more often the case with stormcast who have been killed many times and it results in those working the soul forges needing to salvage what they can and moving on. The implacations of this are actually pretty grim as it means that unlike most souls which remain largely intact after death, stormcast eventually lose everything, becoming somewhat powerful but ultimately empty spirits. -Little side note on the God-Emperor in 40k, before the golden throne he certainly wasn't a diety, but given how many trillions of humans have been worshipping him for 10000 years, plus the fact that he was already a powerful psycher has actually boosted him to somewhere near chaos god levels of power, and this is exemplified by things like Imperial Saints; essentially daemons of the Emperor (the warp after all is a place where a persons emotions and beliefs are made manifest, it's not too far a stretch to say that this gives the Emperor great power since so many countless humans believed/believe in him)

I'm just getting into AoS, this was a really interesting bit of lore, so essentially Stormcast Eternals are in a living death? They're technically alive but they're losing themselves and what makes life worth living, what's life without memories or loved ones?

Thanks for the video! I’m just getting into my first GW game Shadespire and have been trying to learn more about the lore. Love the style you took with focusing on what makes the faction interesting, not just the raw facts. Any suggestions for where to start if I wanted to check out some Age of Sigmar novels?

I find the stormcast to be really unsettling in both their lore and their appearance. I dig it, they're not the posterboys of everything great.

Fantastic! One thing that struck me (as I was reading the BL novels) was that the effects of reforging can be quite different from stormcast to stormcast. Sometimes reforging takes a serious toll (Theuderis Silverhelm), whereas other times the effects are more subtle (Ionus Cryptborne). This adds to the mystery of it all, and I'm curious to see where the authors take this (e.g., how will Nagash ultimately deal with the fact that sigmar's blessing allows the stormcast to "cheat death"). What I hope is that sigmar has a plan; Perhaps each stormcast has an eventual "pure" form that multiple reforgings will slowly bring to the fore. Different individuals (and perhaps different storhmosts) will have different inner strengths that are revealed as they slowly lose their humanity. There are some hints towards this idea in the latest battletome (e.g., the blackshields).

what stands out the most is the fact that sigma gave his warriors the shittiest wargear. unless the army us magically super light. but if that's the case then you have an entire army with super magic wargear and no one using magic.

Discovering Age of Sigmar coming from 40k, here, and by the 15th minute mark in this video, a thought struck me, and never left : these are not vague medieval "space marines". Oh no. They are the Thousand Sons. They are the Thousand Sons if they had stayed good and the Emperor himself had turned them into soulless golems. And I find that absolutely terrifying.

(I know it is almost 2 yeras old now, but I just came across this video) Amazing work on this video. I have a Stormcast Eternals army and I have to say that when I first looked into starting in AoS, I didn't even consider them as an option, you know, being the poster-boys and all that. I usually find "order alligned" factions backstory kind of simple and lame in fantasy fiction (good guys are good and the rest are bad) BUT as I delved into SE's lore, I found them more and more interesting, because of that "duality" that you so eloquently explained. Precisely because of the lore is why I chose Anvils of Heldenhammer as my Stormhost (and it would be amazing if you could do a similar video for them, or any other stormhost you prefer, really). It would be cool to see some sort of Horus' Heresy in Aos, where maybe the Chaos Gods or Nagash discover the weakness of the reforging and find a way to corrupt it...

Dude!!! This video was AWSOME, keep doing them, the format is great, narrative mixed with analysis. Great Job!

you have inspired me to start playing, ive watched and am watching all of these series'. they are my go to for quick lore references and help in decisions with which armies to go after. thank you from the bottom of my heart and keep doing what you do.

I'd love a video about the realm of death and how it works! Especially the rattlebones and vampires

O boy, Sigmar did what the Emperor did to Agrond, that's totally not gonna backfire at all ;).

Actually, the lore behind Space Wolves are that they are snatched from worlds where they were brave warriors, so this mirrors the Space Wolf lore closely.

I'm new to this world.. I'm a total war player (im a history guy) but i can delve into a bit of fantasy every now and then especially if the creators did their legwork and created some history behind it to scratch that itch for me. Being completely new to this universe what are the essentials i should know going in to the game as well as how does this connect to 40k bc i don't know how all of these time periods connect.. also is age of chaos the same as the end times

I can get behind all the back story bits as to how they create a unique identity and what not, though that doesn't fix the biggest issue they create (at least for me), which is that they mess with the dynamics of the other factions to a point where they serve to harm what's already there. What role do they serve to fill? They're essentially super soldiers which are powered by their god. You know what this sounds like? Chaos Warriors and Bretonnian Grail Knights. Chaos Warriors served to essentially identify their faction, being an elite group of warriors who live to serve their evil gods. Now they have a near exact copy of themselves, but they serve a good god. Sure, the Bretonnians had them, but they were nearly strictly on cavalry and served to compliment their weak infantry. Not to mention their entire society and religion revolved around them instead of simply being made a thing last minute. Could've at least made them something like an army of priests of Sigmar. That way they could've made an identity that's not simply "anti-chaos" and even expanded upon their previous foundations, but instead they harmed the identities of two factions, by simply making super humans a thing. Now that I've finished my rant, gotta say, nice video. It helped me understand them, but I still think they did more harm than good.

Another point of the similarities of space marines and storm cast are storm cast main color scheme and the ultra marines scheme are reverses of the other dorm cast being gold with blue and the original GW poster boys being blue Witt gold

This video was amazing and I will be looking at my Stormcast army with new eyes. My one critisism is that quite often you blow into the mic and it makes rather loud noise. But the content was really good and I'm looking forward to the next video :D

In The end of lord of undeath. Nagash planed to recreate The Great ritual 2.0 this will stop anyone dying returning to their God and go to him instead. This will be intresting firstly beacuse that will create doubt in The chaos lines since they will not be one with The chaos gods upon death and as well as The storm casts.

love these lore vids. few throughts on 40k. I think that theres a good chance the emperor in 40k did want to be seen as a god, and engineered the situation where he would be accepted as such. He went against religion and hence destroyed all other gods, but he can see into the future and knew what he was doing, where it was going. He also did perform some very godly actions. Furthermore, theres a good chance he actually IS god, the books describe him existing before mankind, so if that is to be believed hes not human, he appears human because thats how he chooses to appear. There is a good chance he is one of the aliens who created the human race, that he is literally the god and creator of mankind and that is why he appears as a god to them, its encoded into the species to see him as divine.

Such a great video! Great job on defining what makes the stormcast unique in a objective fun way.

Fallen/chaos stormcast. Killed that many times they are easily corrupted by chaos. Retaining their dexterity but are husks of their former selves like the thousand sons or necrons

Liked it a lot. Going in depth was a great idea

So your saying when a stormcast eternal dies enough we get good guy necrons? 🤔

My god...... an army of Angrons

Two things: One) Power does not equal godhood. It's a low bar to say that Sigmar and the such are literal gods anymore than a wizard would seem "godlike" to a powerless peasant. Two) The nature of chaos demons and stormcast eternals does not signify anything about their morality. Just because they are similar in nature to the Chaos powers, doesn't mean their existence is the same. That would be like saying EVERY magic spell or EVERY weapon is the exact same just because their natures are similar between each other. The rules of the Warhammer universe are the same for a lot of the entities within, therefore Chaos of COURSE has similar means to some of the other entities in the universe such as Sigmar.

This is awesom! I would love for you to do one on fyreslayers if at all possible.

Hi. I referenced your channel and in particular this video as a great place to learn what makes the Stormcast Lore interesting. I hope you don’t mind? Let me know if you do and I’ll remove the link to this video from the description 🙂

Very interesting and enjoyable, especially for someone new to warhammer like myself, thanks for a great video!

sigmar was a man and so were the stormcast. were the chaos gods once men? or was sigmar a god before he was a man?

Now imagine if Marvel’s Thor powered by the Odinforce did the same thing to humanity and it’s heroes

I like this format a lot and look forward to future lore videos :).

Super good vid. Ya religion and mortal life experience are massive differences.

I miss the Grail Knights.

It was a great video Dough, it sparked my interest in the lore of the novels.

Thanks for this amazing video, please more ! loving the Lore

I like the way you do lore videos, it make me think about it too.

I'm thinking that Stormcast and Nighthaunt factions should be in Total War Warhammer III when it comes out. Or not. But it would be great.