Warcraft lore vs Warhammer fantasy lore

[Nork]

Which franchise has got better lore and why?

[Stelio Kontos]

Warhammer races seem even more one-note than Warcraft races. All orks are dumb gits, all dwarfs are grudge-obsessed grumps, all Asur are arrogant prima donnas, all Druchii are 14 yr old internet edgelords.

Lizardmen are cool though. Lord Kroak is a WMD in Warhammer Total War 2.

[Skulltaker]

The stuff written by GW writers? Pretty meh. Especially the recent stuff. But the world explored in the novels and Pen&Paper is pretty good. I'd say it's impossible to say which is 'better', since they are rather different.

[ParanoiD84]

Warhammer by far and it's nearing it's one thousand novels and it's one of the most fleshed out ip's there is.

Black library have tons of amazing authors too.

One example is world building and teasing events like the War in heavens and dark age of technology we know next to nothing about it and when GW desides they want to build on that they have hundreds of novels easily they can write on just those 2 events.

Or one very recent event and a major plot line for the lore, also something that's just been teased all the way back to the eisenhorn novels.

From Penitent by Dan Abnett


It's been revealed that the Yellow King is no other then Constantine Valdor and he's been away in a pocket dimention called the City of Dust creating a army of blanks and winged daemons called Grails.

He's motives are to find out the true name of the God Emperor, some say it's to heal him and some say it's to controll him.

Major reveal as the yellow king has been hinted as far back as the eisenhorn novels.

But about fantasy yeah can't freaking wait for the old world to return with tons of new lore.

[Nork]

Warhammer races seem even more one-note than Warcraft races. All orks are dumb gits, all dwarfs are grudge-obsessed grumps, all Asur are arrogant prima donnas, all Druchii are 14 yr old internet edgelords.

Lizardmen are cool though. Lord Kroak is a WMD in Warhammer Total War 2.

I don't think that's true at all. The easiest example I can give you are the vampire counts. They have different personalities and objectives and you cannot put them all together under one banner. There are races that are less developed than others, but that doesn't mean they are all the same.

[Calfredd]

Well Warcraft lore is still being added to and you are the one who claimed Warhammer Fantasy has failed and stagnated so wouldn't that make WoW winner by default?

[Daedius]

Warhammer has so much lore, mainly due to it being a galaxy spanning thing so loads of authors can make up whatever...

Warcraft pretty much has to revolve around Azeroth and its denizens.

Find Warhammer more interesting.

Edit -- talking about 40k which I don't think the OP was talking about...

[Nork]

Well Warcraft lore is still being added to and you are the one who claimed Warhammer Fantasy has failed and stagnated so wouldn't that make WoW winner by default?

What does that have to do with the question itself? I'm asking about other people's points of view. Besides, I didn't say Warhammer's lore is worse than Warcraft's.

[Stelio Kontos]

I don't think that's true at all. The easiest example I can give you are the vampire counts. They have different personalities and objectives and you cannot put them all together under one banner. There are races that are less developed than others, but that doesn't mean they are all the same.

Yeah, but the cringe of Chaos and the Druchii keep me from ever being able to take Warhammer very seriously. Same for WH40k. It's even more into the cringe grimdark stuff. The villains aren't compelling at all, for the most part. For me at least. One-note villains who are just out to torture, destroy, and wear dark eyeliner aren't interesting.

I like some aspects of both Warhammer (Lizardmen) and Warhammer 40k (Tau), but for the most part it's really just pulp fantasy like Conan was before. Which has its place, though.

[Arrashi]

Warcarft lore: Some crying boy-princess and some depressed orcs or something.
Warhammer lore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoK20MzDtTg

[Fencers]

I don't know shit about Warcraft lore, but Warhammer's lore is pretty darn fun.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Yeah, but the cringe of Chaos and the Druchii keep me from ever being able to take Warhammer very seriously. Same for WH40k. It's even more into the cringe grimdark stuff. The villains aren't compelling at all, for the most part. For me at least. One-note villains who are just out to torture, destroy, and wear dark eyeliner aren't interesting.

I like some aspects of both Warhammer (Lizardmen) and Warhammer 40k (Tau), but for the most part it's really just pulp fantasy like Conan was before. Which has its place, though.

If you want some multi layered chaos villains for 40k you should read the Fabius bile trilogy there incredibly well done.

On topic, there’s just no contest warhammer has writers leagues above any thing wow has ever done and there mostly not limited in what they can do because of a game.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Could never get into Warhammer, but I think that's because I didn't really have a good starting point to try any of the games. I'm not a big fan of tabletop board games (isn't Warhammer a tabletop?) and I couldn't really figure out which video games to try first.

[Verdugo]

At least Warhammer demons/daemons are considered a serious threat. Warcraft turned them into comic relief.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Could never get into Warhammer, but I think that's because I didn't really have a good starting point to try any of the games. I'm not a big fan of tabletop board games (isn't Warhammer a tabletop?) and I couldn't really figure out which video games to try first.

As some one who got into war hammer from the vermintide games I’d say it’s a pretty good place to start. You won’t get bogged down with stuff like total war and the character banter is good at introducing places/characters/things for you to jump off of.

[ParanoiD84]

As some one who got into war hammer from the vermintide games I’d say it’s a pretty good place to start. You won’t get bogged down with stuff like total war and the character banter is good at introducing places/characters/things for you to jump off of.

The banter is amazing and the most important thing i hope they continue with in Darktide, just hope the characters you play as are as interesting and funny with the banter there and it's gonna be hard topping those in vermintide, i mean Saltzpyre is just to awesome

Well atleast there will be a Ministorum Priest in Darktide with the whole burn the heretic teme so lets hope.

[Primohastat]

I'm in the Warhammer Fantasy universe since early 90's. So naturally I learned it thoroughly, by playing WFRolePlay, then learning tabletop WFBattle, then early RTS'es like Dark Omen. Also read tons of lore books. Lore books where Conan The Destroyer walks among man under disquise of bard Felix. Where troll slayer Gotrek can take direct hit from demonic powered catapult (or was it trebuchet?), get up and resume like nothing happened. Where they build a tank powered by horses walking on conveyor belts and travel thousands of miles into chaos wastes where air alone can kill all living creatures. If you think Warcraft lore has some insultingly stupid plots, Warhammer Fantasy can surprise you

But thats just books/stories based on real RPG sessions with all the stupid things that come out of a dice rolls.

Warhammer Fantasy universe is consistent. It is unlikely that you will find something out of place. And it is DARK. No fooling around, no heroic deeds, everything has a price paid in blood. Be it using magic or warfare or legendary artifacts.

Warcraft universe is the opposite. More fun stuff. Dark graphics but not dark setting.
Universe build on Warcraft 3 and Wow is a mix of everything, fairytales, high fantasy, space adventures, absurd epic events, steampunk, lore books ignoring game physics, game logic denying lore, etc. There is literally nothing you can soak with and then discuss it with bunch of fellow gamers for days. It feels shallow and not worth to pursue.

Warhammer have a very strong ties with genre defining Tolkien universe. So if you (or a person you would like to invite to Warhammer) saw Lord of the Rings/Hobbit saga, you will find yourself in this universe very quickly. Elven magic is best, dwarfs can carry a whole forge on their back, halfings are born thiefs and humans... Well, humans are average on everything therefore boring. Chaos is always bad. Orcs are bad. Undead are not fairies, they strike fear in the hearts of the living. Using Demonology/Necromancy is bad. Set in medieval times with some rare magical appearances that dont break immersion (look at the dwarven forges in Hobbit movie, makes no sense, but its cool). You can't get lost in this. It can indeed encourage you study history to later fact check game developers/writers ideas

Warcraft on the other hand, it is a quick start for a newbie. You just need to play Warcraft 3 campaign (can be tough to do it since classic is no longer available on battle.net, dunno if reforged delivers the same experience). Then read some Wrath of the Lich King expansion level stories. Then you stop. And move on to other franchise because anthing else you read or play in this universe sucks lorewise and destroys great story you just experienced. You read one book from before Wotlk, like Rise of the Horde or Beyond the Dark portal and you will learn that Draenei to orcs were like 2021 USA military to 1800 Zulu tribes in africa. And the knowledge that they could easily wipe out Legion, ShaPandas, Deathwing and what not would just make whole Warcraft not worth of your time.

Not sure if it makes sense, I had few beers already

[Svifnymr]

I think Warcraft is much more concentrated, a few main storylines that rule the entire setting. Warhammer has a lot broader basis, so some of them are just dumb, others are excellent, so sheer volume goes to Warhammer overall I'd think. Warhammer also has the old world Fantasy and the Age of Sigmar stuff, let alone the 30k/40k stuff.

Excepting the novels, the Seraphon/ Lizardmen are great fun lore wise. Not so edgy as the other fantasy races, but they're still a militant force out to destroy chaos from their spaceship ziggurats.

[Triceron]

I stopped following WFB lore after the whole shift to Age of Sigmar.

How are people liking it so far? I'm still a fan of anything pre-End Times, so Total War and Vermintide would be my ideal timeline for WFB. I tried getting into the new stuff but it's just too out there, not what I imagine Warhammer should have become. Not a fan of the elemental realms, not a fan of race mergers, not a fan of the splinter factions. It didn't feel like a natural progression of the lore, more like some fan fiction written by someone who wanted space marines added to WFB.

[Svifnymr]

I stopped following WFB lore after the whole shift to Age of Sigmar.

How are people liking it so far? I'm still a fan of anything pre-End Times, so Total War and Vermintide would be my ideal timeline for WFB. I tried getting into the new stuff but it's just too out there, not what I imagine Warhammer should have become. Not a fan of the elemental realms, not a fan of race mergers, not a fan of the splinter factions. It didn't feel like a natural progression of the lore, more like some fan fiction written by someone who wanted space marines added to WFB.

I only recently got into Warhammer (back in Ye Olden Days, I was a Battletech guy), but as I mentioned above the main thing is that all the Warhammer lines right now have so many books, it's probably easy to find something you like (or, dislike) fiction wise. Game wise, while the Stormcast Eternals may have seemed like Space Marines, I don't think they're anywhere near as popular. Space Marines dominate the sales, but Age of Sigmar spread it's influence out more. Hell, I started with Seraphon because I wanted to paint dinosaurs. Most of the models are literally WFB models (half of them finecast!), but the army is still picked up and played and competitive.
Their lore is similar, Lord Kroak may have died in the World That Was, but that doesn't mean he's not still slinging spells from his corpse. When the old world blew up, the Slann loaded all the Lizardmen into Zigurats and took off into space. Now they're back to keep fighting chaos just like they used to.