Pantheon

Black Library Advent Calendar 2016 #20

by Guy Haley

In the age before Chaos, during a time of myth, the pantheon of gods ruled at Sigmar’s hand. As dark times return to the Mortal Realms, Sigmar beseeches the goddess Alarielle to heed a tale of those better years, one he hopes will restore not only her faith but the faith of all noble creatures. Heed then the saga of the mage Bayla who seeks the Realms' End, a mythic place believed to hold a great secret. Beseeching the aid of wise Teclis and dread Nagash, Bayla's desire for knowledge and the fulfilment of his quest blinds him to the danger in his midst, one that could imperil his very soul.

Read it because
Sigmar's quest to reunite his old pantheon of gods has been one of the underlying themes of the Age of Sigmar so far, but we haven't seen much of the time when they did stand together. Well, here's your chance.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Ebooks, Short Stories, High Fantasy

23 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 16, 2016

About the author

Guy Haley is the author of over 50 novels and novellas. His original fiction includes Crash, Champion of Mars, and the Richards and Klein, Dreaming Cities, and the Gates of the World series (as K M McKinley). However, he is best known as a prolific contributor to Games Workshop's Black Library imprint.

When not writing, he'll be out doing something dangerous in the wild, learning languages or gaming.

Reviews

[Sarah Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short story, excellent insight into Sigmar and a very enjoyable story that kind of brought back this feeling of childhood fables. It is the best $4 I’ve spent.

[David Guymer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't often review short stories (bad habit) but this one I enjoyed so much that an exception had to be made. With Sigmar himself summoning Alarielle to the former parliament of the gods and a large part of the tale set during the Age of Myth, it pretty much tells you all you need to know about the Age of Sigmar and probably tells you more than any other full novel is going to. An entertaining story in its own right, but read it for the lore if nothing else.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of points for simply being different than the “battle report” or “extended battle report” fiction that has gone before so far. This one has the air of a fable, and throws some interesting light on the lore of the Mortal Realms, and what went on in the Age of Myth. Worth your time simply for that, and to get to meet some of the divinities that fight on the side of Order now and have done in the past.

This one certainly puts the cap permanently on the notion that AoS is a more hopeful setting than either of its predecessors. At least for now. Worth reading, on its own merit, because it’s something different, and because of its lore significance.

[75338 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t bother. Games Workshop wanted to take their fairly good if slow selling fantasy world, and turn it into a more copyright business friendly franchise. They succeeded. It’s confusing, Disjointed, not compelling, not fun. Try reading some of the older books, they rock.

This book is just utterly boring, and not even remotely conducive to making the reader want to have anything further to do with the franchise as it stands now.

[Eric Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. Very short and doesn’t reveal anything new but has an interesting feel to it and we get a look any a brief interaction between gods.

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and sweet, well-written and fairly captivating for its length.

[T R Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Pantheon' is an interesting short story that has Sigmar telling Alarielle a story in the hope that she will aid him like she did in the past. There is very little in the way of action in this story, and so probably won’t be for everyone, but it does have some nice scenes throughout, and the main character of Sigmar’s story gets some reasonable development. It is also interesting to see Mount Celestian, where the Gods once held court. Even though I believe some things in it have since been changed by subsequent lore, much of Sigmar’s story can still be seen as apocryphal. Overall, Pantheon is quite interesting from a lore point of view as it gives us a look some events that took place during the Age of Myth, but it is still rather basic.

[Michael Dodd · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the highest peak in the realm of Azyr, Sigmar waits amidst the remnants of past glories for a visitation from a fellow deity. With his Stormcast Eternals taking the fight to Chaos across all of the realms, he’s now turning his mind to a later stage of his plans.

Read the rest of the review at https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/20...

[Chris Dennison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story is absolutely amazing. Haley demonstrates that he has a total understanding of his subject matter and imparts this knowledge in a concise story that adds so much to our understanding of the gods of the mortal realms. This could quite possibly be the best Age of Sigmar story so far.

[Dan Findlay-Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good read - enjoyed an insight into the time that went before