The world of Warhammer Fantasy is also a world of magic: it is what grants many of the most powerful figures in the setting their power. The source of this great power is the 8 Winds of Magic, whose origin, however, is a realm full of horrors.
Magic in the world of Warhammer Fantasy is a powerful but also unpredictable force. Its users are among the most powerful people in the entire setting, some of them can shake entire mountains. One toad even caused the universe to stand still for a brief moment with its magic, such is the power of this force.
The source of this unbridled power are special winds: the 8 Winds of Magic. These flow from the realm of Chaos, a terrible place outside reality, into the Old World. The realm of Chaos is also the home of the Chaos Gods Nurgle, Tzeentch, Khorne, and Slaanesh – powerful entities that seek the destruction of all order.
In the Old World, each of the 8 Winds of Magic is assigned a different color: the Wind of Hysh is associated with the color white, Chamon with gold, and so on. However, the winds usually remain invisible to the eye. Some races cannot even use them at all, such as the Dwarfs – unless they belong to the evil variant (and even then at a high price).
A small part of these winds is concentrated and solidifies into Warpstone. The green-glimmering material possesses enormous amounts of energy and is something that the Skaven (rodents of unusual size) are particularly fond of. They use it in all their machines and weapons.
Each wind possesses special properties and thus represents different elements of the world. Therefore, each wind is also associated with a different lore of magic.
The 8 Winds of Magic in detail can be found on the next page.
