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And that's an educated guess I suppose.

I've been thinking about the last page of the ET:Khaine storybook, where Araloth steps through Lileath's portal into the new "haven" world.
Ereth Khial (Eldira) is already there, whipping it into shape and apparently a child of Araloth and Lileath.

My prediction is as such:
We know (from rumors) that 9th ED is going to have the storyline pushed 100 years into the future.
We know that Araloth saw his face on a statue of Asuryan and is now one of the first mortals (if not the first) to step into the new world. I'm sure there's some "first!" status going on there. I think it's safe to say that Araloth is the Asuryan of the new world.

For the next 99 years or so, we will be continuing the massive fight against the chaos gods until on year 100 everything is lost and somehow all the races get through the portals to the new world. Some followers of chaos get through so it's not too boring and the great four can show up sooner than anticipated.

What will this accomplish for GW:
ET events will not be retconned - they are the past of the nations of warhammer, but they are also the past of an entirely different world.
Different world! - restart of the entire IP (which will mostly have to do with renaming like we've seen with the imperial guard) and easy consolidation of some of the armies. New world also allows to redo some game mechanics completely. Different world - different physics - different magic.

It's a retcon because everything that happened during End Times has minimal effect on the present day (nobody is living among the ruins and the world is not a post-apocalyptic sight). It is also not a retcon because the End Times will be a permanent part of the history of the new world. The past that needs to be avoided at all costs (but will not be for obvious reasons)

And the cycle continues.

Interesting.

Yeah, that sounds pretty viable.

The benefit, I suppose, will be that 8th edition will be enshrined forever as the final set of rules for the old world. That might mean the existence of two warhammer games: old warhammer and new warhammer, where the two do not necessarily have to be exclusive (e.g. you could have a dark elf army in the frozen 8th edition warhammer and an all elves army in the new 9th edition warhammer world). Of course, GW would never support the old 8th edition version in tournaments etc, but it might have more chance to surviving on because, if you want to play in the old warhammer world, you have to play 8th ed.

I have a feeling that we will see an abundance of 'ally' rules in 9th.

Not sure about the retcon, but wouldn't surprise me to see that the elves have splintered again into factions, as they couldn't get along.

Back before the end times I heard rumours to this effect
End times to 'conclude'/send off in style the story of the warhammer world in style, then new edition with full reset of the setting with many new rules and ways of playing (units being able to adopt different formations that allow them to different things in game was mentioned)
Either way I am for a reset. It has worked for other IP but cant help feel trepidation about this being a much bigger change. It also means that that the end times are genuinely that: The end of the warhammer world. It would be rubbish if the end times happened and everything got better afterwards, what would they be called? The not quite end times?
One thing I have vowed to myself is that I am going to get hold of all the existing books to have a complete set of the current edition, not just for the rules but for the complete story. I gave really enjoyed 8th and I don't want to leave it all behind.

Let's face it, this is already Storm of Chaos attempt #2 - Valten's not dead, Archaon isn't humiliated and Grimgor hasn't really had much of a presence (yet).

They retconned that since it clearly wasn't the result they wanted and they'll probably water down the consequences of these books eventually (or if the sales tactic fails).

GW are trying to get people to buy stuff beyond their own armies...and presumably hope they go on to buy a full army of their allies as a consequence (which, to be fair, is how I started Chaos). I don't think they want all the armies to be too happy-clappy together with generic units otherwise there would be little point in adding a unit of Swordmasters if you already have a unit of Executioners, for example.

I think one of the things we'll notice is that a whole bunch of second tier or old special characters stop being sold while a whole new bunch who don't have a deep or overly important backstory come in to drive Warhammer's story forward and get different versions as a result (a la Warmachine, Valten and what we're seeing with Malekith).

As long as Elves are lead by a warhammer version of Darth Vader i will keep playing ^.^

I find allies rules to be great, a way to start a new army one unit at a time. It's a shame they are not more widely recognized (8th ed already has fully functional allies rules after all)

Dalamar wrote:As long as Elves are lead by a warhammer version of Darth Vader i will keep playing ^.^

I find allies rules to be great, a way to start a new army one unit at a time. It's a shame they are not more widely recognized (8th ed already has fully functional allies rules after all)

I don't think it helps that the rules aren't in the army books. In previous editions the books stated what you could have in terms of allies. Now it feels like it's hidden away in the main rule book.