Editing Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (section)

== Setting ==

Although the setting is occasionally [[J.R.R. Tolkien|Tolkienesque]], it generally takes far more inspiration from the real world, being essentially an alternate universe version of Europe circa the 1500s. Most of the game is set in a fantasy version of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire Holy Roman Empire] (a medieval superstate in what is now Germany comprised of thousands of bickering states, some of the very smallest were just one city and the immediate surrounding land; also the most non-indicative name for anything ever besides the minigun, as it was not an empire, not Roman, and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation not particularly holy either]). Cities and central governments have begun to rise, but it brings with it crime, corruption and general rot. Your local doctor has much the same skillset as your local butcher, and the insane are hounded out of fear daemons have touched them, except here there ''really is'' a chance they were. Firearms are fairly common but also fairly inaccurate and the actually affordable ones are scarily likely to catastrophically fail and shred your forearms with shrapnel. Similarly magic exists, but every time you cast a spell you are literally putting your soul on the line as you may be horribly mutated by eldritch energy or just sucked into the Warp and raped by daemons for all eternity if the invocation goes wrong. Doom stalks the countryside, the dopey inbreds are being left to fend for themselves while the nobles bicker in their courts, and there are no heroes - you lot will have to do. The world is probably doomed ([[Warhammer: Age of Sigmar|and it is in the long run]]), but maybe the village beyond yon hill can still be saved, and if not, maybe at least one orphan girl in that village can be. Or if you can't even save her, you can at least save for your retirement - the Old World sucks enough already, you want to spend your twilight years penniless and freezing in the basement of a tavern?

Outside of the very-German Empire, there are other nations. Bretonnia is the stand-in for France, with a dash of King Arthur's England, an ass-backwards place where the nobles are utterly infallible and also worship some Lovecraftian Lady of the Lake who turns them into half-elf ubermensch. [[Kislev]] is a fantasy version of medieval Russia that would make Ivan the Terrible himself shit with terror because it lies right on the edge of the Chaos Wastes and the country has been invaded several times by mutants, daemons and bloodthirsty giants in black armour forged in the fires of Hell itself, but Kislevian ice is hard to crack and it has never once fallen in spite of it. The Norscans (who often fight the Empire and Kislev) are 8-foot tall [[vikings]] on crack. South of the Empire is the Border Princes (the Balkans) where pirates and scallywags wrangle with petty nobles who are not so different from them, Estalia (Spain and Aragon) and Tilea (Italy). Across the sea to the west lies this world's version of Atlantis, where the elves come from. The east of the continent has the World's Edge Mountains (the Urals), home to dwarfs, greenskins and fat, Mongolian ogres.

Humans are the dominant race within the Old World, but by no means do they call the world theirs - as well as their (dubious) [[dwarf]] and [[elf]] allies, they are opposed by [[beastmen]], [[orc]]s, [[daemon]]s, [[troll]]s, and all manner of other horrible things that may inflict loss of life and limb.

There are four races in the main game: Humans, elves, dwarfs and halflings:
* Humans have balanced stats and the widest selection of possible careers with the best progression. They can come from all walks of life and various places. The rulebook snarkily points out that you should know about these and how to play them. Usually most human characters are from the Empire but this can encompass Bretonnians, Kislevites, Estalians, Tileans and even people from further away.
* Dwarfs are an ancient race nominally allied with humanity, their empire was shattered by a cataclysm and a war with the elves long ago and now they are dying out, in part because they wage constant war with basically everyone. See, dwarfs in this world are pathologically obsessed with retribution (and it is implied their gods punish them if they ever try to forgive and forget); a human noble once found an army of angry dwarfs seeking to kill him and ransack his castle because centuries ago his ancestor cheated the dwarf stonecutters he employed to build it out of twelve pennies, then after they won they went home and listed all the casualties in the battle as a separate grudge to be settled again later. They have decent stats but skew towards "slow but strong" and have their own unique career options. One particularly famous dwarf career is the Slayer: if you dishonour yourself in dwarf society, you chop your mop into a bright orange mohawk and fight the enemies of the dwarfs until they kill you. Progression in this career goes Troll Slayer, Giant Slayer, Dragon Slayer and finally Daemon Slayer, just in case you can't find something big enough or mean enough to kill you. Slayers are honour-bound to never wear armour (after all armour is for people who actually want to survive) and have only three non-combat skills, Dodge, Intimidate and Consume Alcohol - in other words the only use for a Slayer outside of a fight, is ''starting one''.
* Elves are pretty, talented with magic and have a glorious and tragic history. If you are an elf either you are from one of the hidden forest enclaves in human territory ("Asrai" or wood elf), or one of the great trade cities like Marienburg or Altdorf or perhaps a traveller from Ulthuan itself ("Asur" or high elf) or even an infiltrator from the western continent on the other side of Ulthuan ("Druchi" or dark elf, who split from the Asur and caused the Dwarf-Elf war through false flag attacks, said war also caused some colonists to get left behind by retreating Asur, creating the Asrai). They have excellent stats, a base movement as fast as a horse, don't need to pay tuition fees if you want to be a mage, access to one of the best ranged weapons in the game (the elfbow), and their unique career list lacks a lot of the suckier options (like the peasant). The obvious downside to being an elf however, is that you are an elf and expected to roleplay as one. Elves are hated in most places for being snobby jackholes and any given country town is populated by superstitous racists who fully subscribe to the philosophy ''"Around elves, watch yourselves"'' and will cheerfully greet you with torches and chopping implements. Many parts of the world have an "Ear tax" that applies to elves - basically, you pay a silver or you lose an ear.
* Halflings are short humanoids who hail from the Moot, a minor province of the Empire. In the old days, halflings used to be scouts and skirmishers in the armies of the Empire so they got rewarded with half of Stirland and a vote in Imperial elections (that hardly ever matters in practice but the halflings like to remind everyone of it). Halflings are the inverse of the elves. They have miserable stats, the lowest strength, weapon skill and toughness scores and the lowest number of wounds. So why play one? Two reasons. First, because halflings are practically immune to Chaos corruption - they can juggle pieces of wyrdstone with no ill effects when other races trying that can expect for their lower jaw to fall out and be replaced by tentacles. Second, because they are the only race who won't face racism... much, because nobody actually cares enough about halflings to hate them. And despite being mostly a joke race, a halfling mercenary character with a decent arquebus or crossbow can actually be quite a threat in combat.

4th edition seems to be intent on slowly raising the playable races list (which is fair, as technically 2nd edition allowed you to play a [[Skaven]], a [[Vampire]] or a [[Chaos Champion]]), giving players the option to play as an [[Ogre]] (which are ludicrously overpowered) or a [[Gnome]] (a race which hadn't existed in the setting since 1st edition).