"‘In the Lands of Gold, men make wonders of dross, and dross of wonders."
- —The Auric Tiers: A Concise History of Azgal, by Scalian Cohl
The Soaring Eagle, the symbol of Chamon, the Realm of Metal
The Realm of Chamon, also known simply as Chamon, the Realm of Metal and the "Lands of Gold," is one of the eight Mortal Realms of the Cosmos Arcane that originally coalesced out of the magical energy of the Wind of Magic of the same name and the scattered remains of Mallus, the World-That-Was. It is a realm where transmutation of one material into another, especially metals, is law and iron deserts, bronze mountains, seas of silver and plains of brass are real.
The Realm of Metal is where transience is the only certainty. A realm ever in flux, not simply expanding as Aqshy, the Realm of Fire, does, but swelling and shrinking with unseen cosmic tides. Unlike the other realmspheres, Chamon's many lands do not exist as anything resembling a central plane or disc. They are a series of wildly varied sub-realms which drift within Chamon's firmament, linked by portals and undiscovered mystical bonds.
Chamon's domains are imminently mutable, changing fleetingly, melding and breaking apart in a slow dance that has forced its inhabitants to continuously adapt. The lands that float closest to the verdant core, including the great sub-realm of the Spiral Crux, have pure water and edible greenery. But the further away from this centre, the less habitable the realm becomes. Trees develop glinting, brassy or silvery bark, and water becomes acidic. Liquid gold rains from gleaming clouds, and the air becomes heavy with iron particles. Even the wildlife changes to become defined by metal -- shimmering flocks of metallic songbirds carve iridescent trails across the sky, as rust-furred predator-constructs stalk iron-limbed herd-beasts through copper grasses.
Opinions vary greatly as to reasons for Chamon's unique nature. The metallurgic sages of the Crucible Prongs claim that the realm's unpredictability is because of a natural entropic process. In contrast, the philosophers of Alum insist that Chamon is gripped by a celestial malady millennia in the making, and that it could be stopped or even reversed if the proper alchemical ritual is applied.
A map of some of the various sub-realms of Chamon
To survive their ever-shifting realm, Chamon's people learned long ago to adapt and embrace the unknown. Indeed, many learn to take advantage of the fluid nature of the realm. In the Swarf Isles, for instance, oxide-hunters scrape the air and the earth with alchemical nets, collecting the exotic hues that stain their surroundings. Amidst the heights of the Impassable Peaks, aether-merchants sift precious metals from the clouds, to be purified and sold on to foreign merchants. Professional beast-hunters stalk giant, ripple-scaled ferrosaurs in the humid jungles of the south, while pirates from Bandit's Point ply the Straits of Helsilver in craft cultivated from the shimmering reefs of metal-infused coral that grow along the coast.
Whatever its cause, Chamon's constantly changing nature appeals to the Chaos God Tzeentch, the god of change and intrigue, who chose the Realm of Metal for his fiefdom in the Mortal Realms during the Age of Chaos. Chamonite, Chamon's quicksilver realmstone, grants alchemical power to cause arcane transformation to any that can discern its secrets. Such a prize was irresistible to the Changer of the Ways. The signs of Tzeentch's influence are present throughout the outskirts of the realm, and despite the constant efforts of the forces of Order, continue to spread even within the central Spiral Crux.
Just prior to the Age of Chaos, much of Chamon's central lands were twisted and broken by a Godbeast called the Lode-griffon. The magnetic beast is thought to have been drawn by the masses of chamonite, though many believe the Architect of Fate had a hand in its choice of lair. After numerous failed attempts to rid their lands of the Lode-griffon, nine aethermancers were sent to slay the beast. Unbeknownst to all, one of the aethermancers was one of the nine infamous Gaunt Summoners of Tzeentch in disguise.
While their ritual killed the Lode-griffon, its death scream tore open a portal to Tzeentch's domain in the Realm of Chaos, the crystalline Realm of the Sorcerer. The resulting invasion of daemons tore the lands of the Spiral Crux apart. Many great kingdoms perished soon thereafter as Tzeentch worked a mighty spell to rain transmutive warpfire from the skies. Unnatural things were born of that rain, and changed Chamon's lands forever.
The great kingdoms of the Spiral Crux fought for as long as they could, but many were broken by the machinations of Tzeench's servants -- and a few by their own hubris. The rest went into hiding in the coming of Sigmar's Tempest at the dawn of the Age of Sigmar. Not all survived, but remnants of the once great kingdoms still exist and have begun to reclaim their former glory in the aftermath of the Realmgate Wars.
The alchemists of the Viscid Flux practice their mercurial craft again, while new clockwork automatons from Prosperis walk the streets of the Free Cities and the legendary bladesmiths of Odrenn sing once more over their liquid-core blades.
The great sub-realm of Chamon known as the Spiral Crux.
Many of Chamon's duardin clans survived Tzeentch's onslaught by seeking sanctuary in the skies, abandoning the cursed daemon-haunted ground. These clans grew to become the technologically advanced Kharadron Overlords, one of the most potent political and military bodies in all of the Mortal Realms. Directed by their famous (or infamous) Kharadron Code, the sky-ports of the Kharadron are governed by an Admirals Council made up of the most successful officers from their varied fleets, but ruled by their need for aether-gold, a mystical metallic substance which collects amidst the clouds of the realm.
Aether-gold is naturally lighter-than-air, but in large volumes it can also change the weather and can cause madness when it rains down from the clouds. The Kharadron Overlords harvest it by vacuuming up the clouds and using alchemical processes to turn it into ingots. The physical properties of aether-gold are not fully known; the Kharadron use it to lift their ships and sky-ports, but they are researching other uses for it.
When the Garaktormun -- "Great Gale of Death" -- the Kharadron name for the Necroquake of Nagash, swept over Chamon, the great aether-gold streams that the various sky-ports had laid claim to were utterly disrupted. While other folk may have been daunted, the Kharadron have freely embraced the Gorak-drek, the "Great Venture" and, sensing new opportunities for profit and glory, have sailed into many skies formerly unknown to their air-ships in search of them.
Tzeentch, ever-greedy, has not loosened his grip upon the Lands of Gold. Teeming flocks of Tzaangor haunt the coasts and forests, and hordes of daemons claim the skies of the outer realm, waging an unending war with the Kharadron fleets. The newly-established cities are not free from the shadow of the Great Conspirator either, as Tzeentchian cults work to bring the newly established order crashing down.
Chamon is home to many of the glorious Cities of Sigmar, new centers of civilisation inhabited by the Free Peoples in the Age of Sigmar.
Many who dare to travel to Chamon come to exploit the Lands of Gold's fabled treasures or reclaim that which was lost. Ironweld agents seek the ruins of Cypria, somewhere in western Chamon, looking to rediscover the secrets of its fabled clockwork legions. The wizards of the Collegiate Arcane have come to plumb the alchemical knowledge of the realm's metallurgic sages and alchemical magi. Some Dispossessed duardin return to search for their ancestral holds, but seldom find naught but ash and ruin.
Most such fortune-seekers find only death -- consumed by daemons, warped by some piece of Chaos-touched landscape, eaten by shark-like birds that "swim" through the air, or engulfed by burning fish that descend from flickering clouds. Since the coming of the Necroquake, deadwalkers haunt many of Chamon's realms, and plagues of tottering, bloodless corpses have forced Vindicarum's authorities to quarantine that city's slums.
The spirits of the fallen are said to gather in great numbers in shattered Anvrok, led by a being called the Silver Maiden. The Stormcast Eternals present in the realm because Sigmar hopes to rekindle his ancient alliance from the Age of Myth with the duardin and reclaim the Silverway from Tzeentch, believe she is no friend to Nagash, indeed, some say that she may be what remains of the legendary blade smith, Celemnis, though that doesn't make her or her ethereal cohort any less deadly to outsiders.
Much of Ayadah has been seized by the Gloomspite Gitz, who spill out into the surrounding lands in ever-increasing hordes. The Grots are led by the brilliant, but crazed, Skragrott, the self-titled "Loonking." Skragrott rules a great and ever-increasing number of Grot tribes from a lurklair beneath Skrappa Spill said to rival Hammerhal in size.
Despite Chamon's many dangers, it's still thought to be a land blessed with riches. The majority soon learn that the Lands of Gold are fit for naught but desperate fools.
Runemark
The runemark of Chamon, the Soaring Eagle
The runemark of the Realm of Chamon is the Soaring Eagle, representative of the nobility and power of the realm. It is notable that many of the peoples of Chamon prize avian familiars which come in a myriad of forms -- magical, mechanical, organic and even spectral.
Characteristics
A reality glittering with endless untapped wealth, the Realm of Chamon is a place of science, industry and change. Like the Wind of Magic that created it, Chamon is the physical and metaphorical embodiment of metal, logic, engineering and transmutation. In some places iron may spontaneously transmute into sapphire or ale may be transmuted into water. In other places, the lands might behave more like some enormous great machine, the lands moving in clockwork synchronisation.
Chamon's firmament is ever-shifting but certain sub-realms abide, giving shape to the so-called "Lands of Gold." Instead of one, single plate in a unified realmsphere, Chamon consists of a dizzying variety of distinct domains that hang in the Chamon firmament, each linked to the others by portals and mystical bonds. In Azyr it is often depicted as the physical embodiment of the laboratory of some godly alchemist.
Current Events
The dour duardin traditionalists of the sky-port of Barak-Thryng are slow to ask for assistance, which is why their plea for aid is so unusual. The Kharadron frigate, The Thirsty Pilgrim, crashed in the Yhorn Mountains on the way to Barak-Urbaz. The fallen crew managed to send out a distress signal before they were cut off.
While the Kharadron are very worried for their people, they are even more concerned about The Thirsty Pilgrim's cargo. The frigate bore an entire hold full of the legendary Grumgar Brothers' Hoppery's just-released ale, Copper Fire. Brewmasters Kulrin and Vulrin Grumgar have already declared Copper Fire to be their masterpiece and it is widely anticipated throughout the Kharadron sky-ports.
Unless something is done, the brothers' new fine, dark ale will soon be finding its way down the gullets of Grots and Troggoths, a concept so horrifying to them that it renders duardin of all creeds near-speechless.
Sources
- Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Core Book (2nd Edition), pp. 102-107
- Warhammer Age of Sigmar Roleplay - Soulbound - Rulebook (RPG), pp. 172-173
- White Dwarf Weekly 75-76
- White Dwarf (February 2019), "The Realm of Metal," pp. 86-87
- Kharadron Overlords: Developers (Video)