Welcome to the Warhammer Online Grab Bag, where your friendly neighborhood community manager will answer the most popular, and most interesting, questions in a new regular feature. Many things aren't yet certain, so try to be patient with us. Trust me - we're as eager as you are to see the features finalized, so that we can hear what you've got to say.

Grab Bag #4, Supersize Lore Edition

Before we begin, let's take a moment of silence to consider the poor, poor translators, who must take all this extra large grab bag, written in often-slangy English, and turn it into excellent French, German, Italian, and Spanish. I salute you all!

Q: How will the Eight Winds of Magic work in WAR?

A: In the interests of game balance, playability, and so forth, the current plan (according to Big Steve Marvin, Lead System Designer) is that "…they will be used as magic resistances. Every spell will have a wind type, and the target's resists for that wind will help protect them from damage."

Big Steve correctly guesses that many of you were hoping for something a little more complex for such an interesting part of the Warhammer world. And if I know my developers, this system will most likely evolve a little further before launch. A launch that is more than a year away. But if the plan evolves to the extent that our imaginations first tried to take it… well, let's say that elaborate romantic systems on paper sometimes either look good and suck to play, or look simple and rock to play. We've been doing this for a lot of years; we're pretty good at telling the difference. Rest assured that final decisions certainly won't be made without player feedback and testing.

Q: It's been discussed that there will be characters from Warhammer lore in the game, but to what extent? Will Malekith be waiting to greet you as you and your guild journey to destroy Narrgoroth? Will Archaon fight alongside his fellow Chaotic worshippers as they raze Pragg to the ground once more?

A: MD: "We’d be remiss not to feature characters from the Warhammer world in WAR. Just how many we can cram in depends on the character art budget and how much sleep Mr. Gershowitz doesn’t need :) Rest assured, though, we have plans to bring you many recognizable and cool Warhammer IP characters. In fact, in many cases, you’ll not only meet them – you’ll fight them! This is WAR, after all! :)" (Sanya here: If you're new to these parts, "Mr. Gershowitz" is AKA Adam Gershowitz AKA Mythic-Gersh, and we put on his business card that he's the Lead Character Artist for WAR, which basically means he's responsible for all bipedal life forms in the game. A "character art budget" can mean several things, but mainly how much space all of the characters take up on the server. If we go "over budget," players wind up with lag and other problems best avoided in an RVR game.)

Q: Which Major Cities can we expect to see in WAR (for the other Armies)?

A: MD: Each of the six armies in WAR will have a city that acts as that army’s home base. Usually this is the capital city for that army’s race. For example, High Elf players will be able to visit Lothern, while Dwarf players can go to Karaz-a-Karak. These are the cities that enemy armies can siege and even occupy for awhile. At the present time, these six cities are the only ones we’re planning to do for launch.

Q: While Sigmar is the most "famous" god worshipped in the empire, there's a whole pantheon of deities whose religions survive and are still extremely popular in the old world (empire included). Morr, the god of death, Mannan, god of the seas, Shallya, goddes of healing, Ulric, god of winter, Myrmidia, goddes of war, Verena, Goddess of justice and learning, and others. Will we see those religions portrayed at least in NPC dialogues, temples and quests?

A: MD: Absolutely! You’ll hear mention of these other Gods in NPC dialogue, and you’ll even meet some of their servants, like the Sisters of Shallya.

Q: In the Barak Varr's backstory we can see mention of Long Drong and his slayer pirates. Can we expect to see other regiments of renown as NPC in the final game?

A: MD: We hope so. We understand the importance of working as much of the great Warhammer IP into the game as we can, but we have to balance that against the many other character art needs that we have. It’s a bit early to say for sure, but as we get closer to launch you might spot some more information about additional regiments of renown. As always, the best place to look is the newsletter ;)

Q: Will there be quests or parts of the backstory related to some of the evil and undercover cults that are connected with the Mourkain background (the cult of Nagash and the cult of Strigos)?

A: MD: The Empire is filled with all manner of strange and evil cults. I can’t go into any detail about which ones you can expect to see in the game just yet, as we haven’t really started working at that level of detail with the Empire and Chaos pairing. Keep your eyes on your newsletters, though, and maybe you’ll learn more soon.

Q: What happened to Strigos? Isn't that the proper name for the Mourkain Empire?

A: MD: When we started crafting our backstory, GW suggested that we use the 4th edition army books as our primary references. These books are packed full of lore, and so we were happy to oblige. In the fourth edition undead book, Strigos is not mentioned. Rather, the capital city and Empire of the Mourkain people (called Morgheim by modern Imperial scholars) are referred to simply as "Mourkain". When it came to our attention that the Vampire Counts army book has some different information, we contacted GW to ask for their advice. They suggested that we stick with Mourkain, and so we did.

Q: What is the relationship of the plague to the invasion of the Empire by the Tzeentch warhost? Aren't plagues more in the domain of Nurgle, the Chaos god of disease and decay?

A: MD: Ah, the inscrutable Tzeentch. You really only ever know one thing about the way Tzeentch works, and that is that you cannot possibly fathom how Tzeentch works. Would it be beyond him to use misdirection or cloak his schemes by using the device of a rival Chaos god? Certainly not! Is it strange that the plague causes a transformation in its victims, but causes no decay? It might seem strange if you think the plague is Nurgle's doing. As with any good mystery, the devil is in the details, and we won't spoil the surprise by giving those away. These are questions you'll just have to answer for yourself.

Q: In the Age of Reckoning, are you saying whether the Storm of Chaos happened or not?

A: MD: We have permission to use assets from the Storm of Chaos if we wish to, but we don't really want to get into the specifics of how these two events might interrelate. Rather, we'll just focus on the Age of Reckoning and let the players come to their own conclusions. I know that's probably not as clear an answer as some of you were hoping for, but it’s the best I can give you.

Q: Why are you having the Dark Elves control the greenskins?

A: MD: They aren't. I've spent a lot of time scanning through the various WAR community forums and this is one of the biggest misconceptions I've encountered. All that Malekith did was set events in motion. The greenskins hardly need to be told to attack the Dwarfs or to start a Waaagh! - these are all things they'd happily do anyway. Malekith simply pointed them in the first direction and empowered Grumlok and Gazbag to be particularly effective Warbosses. As the Age of Reckoning dawns, the Orcs and Goblins are very much acting of their volition.

Q: The backstory seems a little shallow, like it was just made to set up a big war. Does it get any more interesting in the details?

A: MD: This is long one, so bear with me if you will.

The backstory's primary goal is to set up a big war, yes. Does it get any deeper than that? Absolutely! We've only released the "high-level" backstory. This is the story as told in very broad strokes. I spend most of my day finding ways to make that story come alive at a much smaller level. In fact, the story has several levels to it. Let me explain:

There's the story of the entire world, which is the one that we've shown you. A big war breaks out, drawing six factions into a huge, world-spanning conflict. There's the story of the Dwarf and Greenskin conflict in particular. The greenskins have captured Karak Eight Peaks and are gathering for a big Waaagh! to march on Karaz-a-Karak and exterminate the Dwarfs once and for all. Meanwhile, the Dwarfs, determined to drive the invading greenskins out of Karak Eight Peaks, have set out on an ambitious task – to create the most powerful weapons in the history of their race. The finest warriors of the age will carry these mighty weapons into battle and lead the Dwarf army to victory.

Let's zoom in another level. There's the story of Barak Varr, the sole Dwarf harbor in their entire realm. A vital strategic center, the port has come under attack by a rogue tribe of Orcs who were on their way to join the big Waaagh! at "Eight Peaks", as the Orcs call it. The Bloody Sun Boyz have to get these misguided Orcs back on the road to the Waaagh, and the Dwarfs have to protect their vital port. There are fierce battles all throughout Barak Varr as the two factions fight for control in a battle that could greatly influence the outcome of the war.

Zooming in one more level, we come to a specific, and very important, area within Barak Varr – the Bar Dawazbak, or Dwarf's Head Gate. This gate is all that stands between the ravening Orc horde and the overland road to the Great Cove, the massive port where the Dwarf dock their ironclads. There's a ferocious contest taking place here as the Dwarfs struggle to keep the gate repaired despite the best efforts of the greenskins' Rock Lobbers. A power struggle is taking place in the greenskin camp as Lug, a high-ranking Black Orc from the Bloody Sun Boyz tribe attempts to assert his dominance over the leader of the One Tusk Orcs, Nogaz. On the other side of the gate, the Dwarfs, short on supplies and men, fight desperately to prevent their port from being overrun.

There's a lot more to the story than what we've revealed so far. The backstory permeates all of our content, and if we do our jobs right, you'll see it just about everywhere you look when you're in the game. Just about any time you have a huge war, you'll find great stories. If you don't believe me, watch Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan. The Age of Reckoning is no different, and I think you'll really like some of what we have in store for you. Keep in mind, however, than when the game launches, the story passes from our hands into yours. We'll set the table for you, but it's you, the players, who will really bring that story to life.

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Who is MD? Matt Daniels is the fellow who provided all the answers but the top one this month. That's because one, it was a Lore Theme Column, and he's That Guy. Two, many of the other questions involved systems and combat decisions still very much under discussion at this time. The LoreMat, as he shall hence be known, has been faithfully reading forums and his email from the Herald weenies, and has been itching to clear up all this stuff for you. Please buy that man a slushie if you ever see him out of his Mythic cage.

What a crazy, crazy month it's been. Y'all, one popular theme this month in the questions file was stuff to do with EA. Everything that could be said on the subject… has been said, either by me or by Mark. You can ask just about any reporter, I've said the same things in private, only with a few more choice words for people who rubbed my feathers the wrong way.

See you next month, everyone.