Beneath the Boughs of Athel Loren! Lorebeards w/ Andy Law & Loremaster of Sotek

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[@x0lopossum]

3:34 where Athel Loren came from 18:20 I wonder why so many tree spirits are wild and impulsive, why dont they form civilizations similar to the elves, dwarves, and humans? 41:50 Morghur is a god eater!?! 48:00 Athel Loren is old 49:30 the Weave 1:03:20 How Athel Loren adapted to combat Chaos... Or how Chaos changed Athel Loren 🤔 1:11:20 8th edition forest Spirit problem 1:14:00 I was surprised fire spites were a thing. 1:16:30 Athel Loren is constantly trying to spread but the elves want to contain it out of fear that it spreading would thin the magic in Athel Loren. So they put Waystones around Athel Loren that prevent it from spreading beyond them. Athel Loren does not think like a person, it things like a plant that us just trying ro grow... Athel Loren and many otger denisens of the forest thinks its being constrained by the wood elves, this leads to constant conflict in Athel Loren. Atgel Loren is constantly at war with itself. 1:21:00 Time and space does not work normally in Athel Loren + other features of Athel Loren. 1:25:00 Brettonian night Athel Loren story 1:26:39 Wood Elves do not build like other elves do. 1:29:12 The wood elves lost the Lore of Athel Loeen in 8th edition 1:33:11 Season do not work normally in Athel Loren, for example: some parts of the forest are stuck in eternal winter or eternal summer or etc 1:41:39 Wood elves and zoats and stuff are like beneficial microorganisms to Athel Loren. Athel Loren is like pur bosy and the eood elves are like beneficial gut bacteria or like those mite things on our skin that eat dead skin. 1:45:20 All elves think theyre the best elves, and wood elves are extreme isolationist. Also most things that live in Athel Loren are isolationists, mot just tye wood elves. 1:52:17 The diversity of lifestyles of Wood Elf kingdoms 1:57:00 The Elves of Averlorn also know tree singing 2:02:50 Where the deepest waters in Athel Loren can be found. 🌲🌲🏡WOOD ELF KINGDOMS DEEP DIVES 2:03:23 [Talsyn] the heartland of Athel Loren, its like Reikland. Dryads steal Elven children!?! 2:07:18 [Arranoc, the summerlands/summerstrand] It's always summer here. The Vaults of winter are here, were a bunch of deamons and possibly Slaanesh deamons reside. Non wood elf travelers party and live here for years but are eventually sacrificed to yhe vault of winter hy dryads when they are saturated enough with happiness. Also Rockjaw the Ogre's story. 2:18:25 [Argwylon, the Moonspring Glaves] This is the wayer realm, and water spirits live here. The elves here are extremely pretentious and arrogant and are not liked all that much by other wood elves. They keep the most records about elven history in Athel Loren through dancing and songs. These epbes are the most high elf like elves in Athel Loren. They also are the only wood elves that have retained the knowledge to soeak to great eagles and other beasts. All the other wood elves have lost their knowledge of the languages of beasts. 2:26:20 [Modryn, the Nights Glens] Its always night here. It used to be the realm of star light, but now the only sorce of light here are the spirits. Wood elf Dark magic masters live here. Morsleep can't reach here. 2:32:28 [Cavaroc, the Skymark Reaches] This is not a forest, this is a great planes biome area. You could call these lands the horse lands. These guys loves war and wildhunts. Its also the easiest to invade because there are far less trees than the other regions of athel Loren. Bretonnians and other non elven factions love to settle in these lands, and the local wood elves here live fighting them because they're warlike. 2:35:16 [Atylwyth, the Winterheart]. It's always winter here. This place serves as a prison for violent/evil forest spirits. These criminal forest spirits are imprisoned in ice statues and look at people that pass by them here. The wood elves here are really sturdy and warlike as well. Martial capability is loved here. There are the least active forest spirits here cause most of the ones here are asleep. 2:37:40 [Cythral, the Wildwood]. The most horrifying and dangerous place in Athel Loren. It's the closest thing to forest hell. Intruders in these lands rarely come out alive. It's kinda like a prison here, because the elves that live here ensure nothing comes in, and nothing comes out. Horrifying monsters and spirits that are evil and unhappy live hear. Large terrible beasts live here, Coeddil the evil tree man elder lives here, evil shapeshifters that can topple kingdoms with identity theft live here, things that slay greater daemons casually live here etc... the elves here are protecting the rest of the world from terrible horrors that want to escape from Cythral. Wildwood rangers live here and they are like elven Witchunters that hunt evil spirits, daemons and beasts. 2:43:10 [Tirsyth, the Ashenhall], It's always Autumn here and its very depressing. Lots of death happens here. 2:47:30 [Wydrioth, the Pine Crags]. Is live a fortress kingdom because theyve been invaded by Greenskins a lot. Sisters of Twilight are associated with this place. Insane types of trees called skycrown trees/Oaks that are interwoven with rocks that form walls against Waaaghs. These elves love riding hawks and war. Is also a land of mazes. 2:51:20 [Fyr Darric, the Trickster's Wood] This is one of the weirdest parts of Athel Loren. War Dancees are from here. This is Loecs lans. The wood elves here are super nomadic. The only settlement here really is like a hall wehwew war dancers go. This is a land of laughter... in a unhwholsome way. They like telling miral stories here. Gladiatory matches happen here all the time. They also love jokes here maybe. 2:55:48 [Torgovann, the Forge of Starlight] Wood Elf Vaul's Anvil is here. But this might be the real one because the Avatar of Vaul; Lord Daith, is here. He has crafted some insanely quality things throughout the Warhammer history are here. The greatest wood elf artisans and weapon smiths and blacksmith are here. Most people don't know Daith is the Avatar of Vaul, it's a relatively well kept secret. The forest spirits here love warmth of the forges and industry here, but the elves here are protective of the spirits here and make sure they don't burn themselves on the fires that come from the industry. 3:00:10 [Anmyr, the Witherhold] Is the One Wood Elf Kingdom with a heavy beastmen presence. This is because Morghur (the beast man lord that always attacks the wood elves) has claimed this land as his own. This is the most chaos corrupted wood elf kingdom as well. The elves here are losing the battle against the beastmen here and are struggling in stopping the corruption here from spreading to the rest of Athel Loren. Some say it will take divine intervention to destroy the corruption here. Forest spirits are dying and being drivin to insanity because of this corruption... This is also Drycha's homeland. 🏔️🏔️⛰️End of the Wood Elf kingdoms list 3:06:09 Sotek's theory about wood elves becoming fundamentally changed by Athel Loren on a deep level. 3:08:30 Beatmen thrive in Athel Loren because they have their own beastpaths that go into there, they often go to places wood elves go to. Greenskins (especially forest goblins), wandering ogre tribes, and Skaven live in/attack Athel Loreb as well. Dwarves occasionally attack it to.

[@alexandrejose8362]

Great work, dude. People, help it get to the top comments.

[@Zictive]

You are a godsend good sir 🎉🎉🎉

[@tristanbuckley7730]

Pah, as a Dawi this stream makes my beard bristle and my writing hand twitch

[@pieguy5323]

It was always interesting to me that the wood elves out of all of them have the elven god of forges with them. Really fun choice thanks for the stream!

[@Bermaetel]

Neither have I YOU GUYS ROCK SO HARD A DWARVEN THROUGH IS LOOKING TO SETTLE UNDER YOUR SHADE

[@patrickmcginty3234]

Given the adaptability of humans, would it have been possible for an early tribe to find itself there at some point and survive?

[@GoldenKaos]

Yeah, they’re called Beastmen ;)

[@patrickmcginty3234]

@@GoldenKaos Very funny. I mean an actual human population that has made its way into the forest and somehow survived.

[@guitarjacksonblue]

​​@@patrickmcginty3234 No way. They would either die by the myriad dangers of the woods or get picked off by waystalkers or beastmen. Speaking of which i think GoldenKaos got a point. Athel Loren imprints on its denizens. The Asrai are fundamentally changed by it and Durthus pact. They would probably mutate in some kind of weave-mutant. Maybe like non-chaos aligned beastmen. But you could easily write a story about a tribe of early bretonnians or belthani even, who wander in and come right back out the same way, only that 2500 years have passed 🤷‍♂️

[@GoldenKaos]

@@patrickmcginty3234 I refer you to my previous statement. Winky face aside, I think you underestimate how serious that answer actually is.

[@cangirayicel7639]

​@@patrickmcginty3234beastmen are mutated humans

[@stephenlucas8836]

Just now imagining someone cultist breaking some waystone, and learn they are not to keep things out but things in, as tree start skittering out like a wave of of spiders (see Red Crab Migration) and lay waste to the britonia land as knights charge them with lances.

[@hangebza6625]

Fun fact as the steppe/meadow realm was mentioned: most species of deer are actually day active steppe animals, not unlike gazelles. Back then megafauna would keep europes forests at bay by eating most of the younger planets, creating open park-like areas. I am talking about elks (moose to americans), red deer, european bisons, ur ox and many more. Hunted by lions went extinct in europe ca 1000bc) and other big predators. However human hunting killed most big animals, making the forests denser. And what open space remained were used for cattle and agriculture. Thus various deer were pushed deep into the forests and adopted a night active lifestyle to circumvent humans better. But if given the oppurtunity they return quickly to being day active animals of the open land.

[@SpiceCh]

1:38:00 now I want to see kit bashed wild riders riding on cold ones 😅

[@faceoctopus4571]

1:32:36 If there was a bias, I think GW stumbled into getting it right anyways. Charles Keeling measured carbon dioxide levels over time and what he found is that when you look at carbon dioxide levels over the course of a year, it goes up and down in a way that resembles a sign wave. This fluctuation has been attributed to a combination of *growing/spreading photosynthetic organisms* taking carbon out of the atmosphere, *freshly dead plant matter* releasing carbon into the atmosphere, and *the significant asymmetry between how much land is in the northern hemisphere and how much is in the southern hemisphere.* (side note: overall, the amount of carbon is higher each year. Which is what Keeling set out to test. This change over time is called the Keeling Curve).

[@willfeen]

you had me at coconut in Athel Loren

[@ryanjones6384]

Regarding mining, I have a mental image of a tended grove, where there's an ongoing relation with particular spirits. Metal would be slowly leeched up from below and formed into harvestable deposits over long spans of time.

[@Scabrot4022]

Forest Spirit faction is what I'm hoping for. I've been trying to find dryads with bows to use but no luck so far

[@shadician]

Great stream. I knew next to nothing about Athel Loren, now I am desperate for a WFRP adventure book based there! Much cooler place than I expected.

[@patrickmcginty3234]

I may have a theory about the reason why the Old Ones have created the Elves. I believe that the Elves were purposefully created to act as caretakers to the places set up by the Old Ones and their Lizardmen armies, namely the Geomantic Web and the Oak of Ages. While the Lizardmen and the Slann were potent weapons and builders, at the end of the day, they are blunt instruments that lacked the subtlety and adaptability required for such a task. While Durthu was the one who came up with the idea of using the Elves as caretakers of Athel Loren, I believe the Old Ones had set things up for this to eventually happen. Ulthuan is a floating continent, which is what prevented the Skaven from digging their tunnels underneath it, and the protection provided by the Elven gods was potent enough to fend off the daemonic legions during the height of the Cataclysm. And yet the Oak of Ages was able to extend its roots into Averlorn, forming a connection between Ulthuan and Athel Loren. Once the Cataclysm ended, the Elves went on to create colonies across the world, establishing outposts on important nexus points that the Lizardmen were no longer in a position to protect. It was only when the High Elves were leaving to return to Ulthuan after the War of the Beard when individuals began to be drawn into Athel Loren's depths to settle there and eventually become the Wood Elves. I may give the Wood Elves crap for some of the biggest mistakes they have made, but they were able to protect Athel Loren and the Oak of Ages right up until the End Times. There is also the fact that the Oak of Ages was able to somehow make its way into the realm of Ghyran in Age of Sigmar, where it was revived by Alarielle, causing a wave of Life Magic to ripple across the Mortal Realms. I would love to see this theory explored as you guys discuss the Oak of Ages in detail.

[@valeriemagpie384]

Wood Elves are the powerhouse of the cell?

[@PatrickOMulligan]

Vault of Winter civilization? It was Bela'kors civilization all along.

[@SpiceCh]

🎶🎵🎶

[@nickwalton2267]

Athel Loren sounds very much like the Fey Wild of D&D

[@shadician]

I hate how peope tend to put all elves in one basket because "They're all elves!". So all elves living in forests are the same, all 'Wood Elves'. It's a bit like assuming all humans living in cities would hold the same views, all know each other and act the same with a single leader. Imagine we had an army book 'The City Humans' 🤷‍♂️ Far more interesting, realistic and rich to imagine there are all kinds of divergences between elves living in different forests.

[@PatrickOMulligan]

Racism.

[@danielbutchers998]

So if the fire slayers are putting women into battle are the Dawi no longer a dying race? Because with any race the limiting factor on how many kids they can have is how many women they have so to risk the lives of your women as a dying race is to actively make your situation worse, this is not a comment on dawi women’s ability to fight just the logic of it, maybe have them as a special home guard unit that in the law they only fight in defence of the hold in extreme situations or times when the males are away if the dawi are still a dying race

[@zdthane]

Hell ya my Psycho forest friends. Wood elf superiority!

[@swampselkie]

I really, really wish the WE army list better represented the diversity of Athel Loren's spirits that you discuss here.

[@sharku117]

WOOOO never been this early, Take my comment and like dark algorithm gods!

[@goggariS]

Could you say the name of the bretonnia knight story you refer to at around 1:25:00 mark? Annoying that the title got left out

[@keitholiver6152]

Zoats, stag cav, beasts. 3 units in total war not in the setting Must say Andy Law is great, get him on here as much as you can fantastic to listen too

[@sinsinsinat5377]

The quality of lorebeards is degrading, its mostly talked about non relevant stuff(other topics of warhammer), history of how game workshop developed the ideas(its good to have those but maybe dedicate less time), and too many super chat responses. For instance for this one it was better to explain all the wood elf realms more in detail. The realm of winter wasnt explained nor what is truly the oak of ages...I guess lorebeards doesnt go as deep dive and there is lots of interruptions keeping it from doing so.

[@Vulpes89]

I agree man they need to structure it better. Superchats pay but they get annoying