Okay, so an extremely powerful being who resides in both the Realm of Chaos (known as the Immaterium) and the Real World (known as Terra) creates new life. However, its plan for this life is cut short when Chaos comes into the world through two Chaos Gates, one at each of the poles of the world. It is drawn there by the use of magic, which comes from Chaos and which the Elves have the most extravagant mastery of.

The Chaos resides in the Immaterium, where it forms into numerous daemons and four Chaos Gods, each shaped by the hearts and minds of living beings - one who is the embodiment of war, one who manipulates time and space itself in a great conspiracy, one who subscribes to the survival of the fittest and uses disease and poison to make it so, and one who despises simplicity and reveres luxury and charm.

The daemons are defeated by the ancient Elves and the first being. In doing so, however, the amount of magic in the world is significantly reduced, and the Elven cities are cast into danger or ruin. In addition, magic is now irrevocably tied to Chaos, and the slightest mistake when casting a spell could cause a daemonic incursion.

With the immediate threat of Chaos gone and the Elves in disorder, other races rise up. The stout, mountain-dwelling Gnomes, the cunning and scavenging Goblins, the marauding and mindless Orcs and the young and adaptable Humans.

War takes place between these beings, and they weaken eachother so much that, when the next great Chaos incursion happens, they fail and are swept away (basically what might have happened in the first SoC), by a combination of Dark Magic, Daemons, and the Chaos-touched warriors, mighty foes who have been blessed with mutation and gothic-looking armour with and eight-pointed star on it by the Chaos Gods.

Devoid of any further sport, the Chaos Gods recreate their own twisted vision of the world within the Immaterium, spawning Chaos super-soldiers to fight eachother. In the future of this world, there is only war.


So it's basically a Warhammer Alternate Universe fanfic, with some of the more original elements replaced by such cliche fantasy stock as the Gaia stand-in Aya, and the Dwarfs being called Gnomes (presumably to appeal more to the Warcraft crowd). The Alternate Universe bit comes in during the First Chaos Incursion (the one with Magnus the Pious) - this is the universe where Chaos won and then got bored.

I'm sure it'll still be a good game, but for the love of pete, guys, if you want to make a Warhammer Fantasy Game, at least have the rocks to ask Games Workshop, first!

EDIT: Holy ****! This guy actually has the Symbol of Khorne studded all over him, with a Chaos Star belt buckle and a Flesh Hound at his side!
And the guy on the left of the website has a Chaos Star on his chest!
And the Orcs look exactly the same!
I guess the Orcs ride these, too.
Is that you, Archaon? What have they done to you?

This isn't inspired by. This isn't a tribute. This is outright ****ing plagiarism. They've copy-and-pasted a plot summary of the Warhammer World, with the more original bits cut out, and they've copy-and-pasted concept art that looks like it was done on an off-day at Warhammer World, with the more original bits left in!

Nicely informed accusation , but you can still be wrong , waiting for some official answer to what you said though.

everyone who is interested in chaos wheel history try this link -
http://altreligion.about.com/library/gl ... swheel.htm
It explains that chaos wheel symbol not belongs to games workshop. Only if games workshop purchased the symbol from Moorcock.
Any other comparison for the characters is stupid because every fantasy world has elfs, orcs, animals etc...
You should go to WOW forums and try to argue with blizzard about thier game style.

Well it's more an argue with Tolkien i'd say

No.

Most Fantasy, I will grant you, contains extremely similar concepts, and in many cases Games Workshop is a popularizer/combiner of concepts, rather than a creator, but in doing so they have, over a period of years, created an IP that is recognisably unique. Their dwarfs have less in common with Tolkein's Dwarfs than most, and those things that they do have in common (stubborness, axes, shortness and beards) are exaggerated to the level of Refuge in Audacity. Games Workshop Elves are, although very obviously 'inspired' by Tolkein's, possessed of a unique flavour all their own, albeit one largely formed from the cast-off themes of Atlantean myths, Greek history and legend, and other (far too numerous to count) sources.

So, then, we can assume there are varying degrees of 'theft' when it comes to other peoples ideas. Tolkein, for example, is credited with being the father of the genre - most ideas that are skimmed from his are taken part and parcel with the Fantasy Genre. No-one bats an eyelid at the idea that Elves are an immortal, pointy-eared dying race, for example. It would considered fine (although cliche) to use these concepts to base a more original race of Elves around.

Elves who worship something called the Valar, with an incredibly similar pantheon, creation story, accepted visual style, and language, on the other hand, would not. Even Eragon didn't stoop that low, and it's a fairly blatant plunderer of older, better books in a genre filled with imitation.

In Warhammer, any one piece of 'intellectual theft' about a race can be immediately countered by at least one way in which that idea has been differently skewed from its original source (if there is one), as well as ten different ideas, whether original or from other sources, that further separate the two. This is why, for all the more obvious points of inspiration can be easily identified, references and off-beat influences and twisted (or just over-the-top GRIMDARK) versions of original concepts (or simply black humour) pop up with such frequency that the Warhammer Universe can be considered a work of its own merit, and a rather popular one at that.

What I'm trying to get across is that there's a difference between spending years putting together a collage that combines themes and ideas from hundreds of sources into one grand picture, tied together by original work and time into something new, and someone photocopying that same collage and claiming it as their own because "the thing I photocopied wasn't original, either".

This is why, for all it spawns flame wars in its wake, I don't (much, anyway) mind the 'similarities' between Warcraft and Warhammer. They have points of obvious 'inspiration', sure, but also points of entirely new material, and provide an entirely different feel (hope vs GRIMDARK, high fantasy vs low fantasy, slapstick and punny vs black humour and punny), despite their similarites. Forged by Chaos doesn't manage this. It doesn't even try. Its points of divergence and originality are both few and in name only (quite literally - easily recognisable renaming is rife throughout the whole plot). This is why it is a work of plagiarism, rather than inspiration, tribute, or reference.

There was also a stew metaphor I came up with, where Tolkein, Moorcock, etc were the meat, but original work and bizarre/historical/pop/mythological/humourous references were the flavouring - without them the stew would just be boiled meat, and vastly less popular. I guess FbC is the boiled meat, here? Or, perhaps, a photograph of the delightful stew that is Warhammer, eaten Goon's Show-style for imaginary sustenance?

Quite possible , but then again we have only seen so much of this game , i think you are jumping to conclusions.
Yes, when i saw the models, warhammer spring to mind the next second , and about the story , hmm too little to make a complete impression.
At the moment i'm keeping an open mind and waiting for some mroe info/videos/screenshots or artwork.
You are making a good point, but without enough evidence though.

[quote=Dwel]You are making a good point, but without enough evidence though.[/quote]

Really? Because I'm pretty sure...
*checks GW IP infringement policy*
No, I'm certain that just the artwork of the Khornate Chaos Warrior is enough to get Panzar Studios sued.

EDIT: forget it... allready posted...

In my view, fantasy theme are used by hundreds of well-know companies, and, some times, their projects looks just like twins. If we like to judge from the concept itself – Tyranids concept have pretty much in common with Alien scenario. Who holds copyrights for orcs, gnomes, elves and vampires? As far as I know – nobody… If we will call every armored warrior – Archaon, and every sword – Excalibur, pretty soon all the industry comes to its end. So, as soon as Chaos theme and fantasy itself has no one and only owner – all we can discuss are the legal issues of using registered elements. As already mentioned, Chaos star was used by Moorcock as a symbol of chaos, but this sign itself was well-know long before and used as a geographical quadrant plus intermediate directions. And this sign is the only one, what can be questioned here. All current concepts looks like drawn by the same hand, and they are pretty unique for me, far from photocopying. 3D models are pretty distinguished too, crafted well by concepts and have noticeable “studio touch”. So, I hope remarkable engine and original (I’m insisting) artworks have pretty high chances to succeed.

Let’s wait for screenshots, or may be even demo, and then everyone decide to itself. BTW, why so rude topic name? Let’s save emotions for euro 2008 finale

^ What he said!