Blacktalon episode 1

A new series released today on Warhammer+ and I started watching it today. Blacktalon is an Age of Sigmar show, focusing on Stormcast Eternals, specifically and unsurprisingly on Neave Blacktalon. The first episode is good, and it's got me hooked for more, but it also reminds me about how behind I am on Sigmar lore. I know little about the AoS setting. I've not read a game book, played a game, or Black Library novel set in Age of Sigmar, and this is definitely a series made for existing fans.

This review contains spoilers, so don't read on if you haven't seen the episode yet.

Reforged

The first episode in this series shows Blacktalon being "reforged". That is, she's been killed by some powerful and noxious foe, but she's a Stormcast Eternal so when she dies she returns to Azyr and is reforged by Sigmar. It seems, however, that death has a small price. When you're reforged, you lose something, and in Blacktalon's case, at least this time around, she's lost some significant memories.

I'll admit that I don't love that the series is opening with a hint of the [very old] amnesia trope, but luckily it's got a light touch. Blacktalon is still Blacktalon, it's just that she doesn't quite recall the circumstances around her death. As the episode progresses, bits and pieces of the recent past come back to her, until she's able to determine that she'd been battling for an outpost against the minions of Nurgle. But someone else, aside from her and her opponent, had been present during the fight. Due to the infectious nature of Nurgle, that could be problematic, and so with the help of a sorceress, Blacktalon hunts down the soldier who'd been there to witness her death.

When she finds him wandering the wastelands, she confirms that he'd been infected by something. Maybe I'm supposed to know what it is, but my lack of knowledge about AoS keeps me in darkness. I mean, I assume it's a really bad thing. It doesn't look good, whatever it is. Anyway, the sorceress takes the pestilent blob for further study, and all the Stormcast Eternals admit that they should have supported Blacktalon in her efforts to remember stuff, and they're all back in Azyr in time for tea.

Before the episode ends, though, Blacktalon receives a mysterious message from someone she apparently commissioned before her most recent death. He has information for her, and a fragment of someone's weapon. Whose weapon? I guess we'll have to wait to find out.

Age of Sigmar

Here are some random observations about this episode, from a relative newbie to AoS.

• I like the AoS setting. From the shows I've seen so far, and the boxed games I've gazed at at the Warhammer store, it feels like Fantasy Mad Max, or even like a little bit of Dark Sun from 2nd Edition AD&D.
• I like that the Stormcast Eternals aren't just fantasy Space Marines or Primarchs. They feel unique, a little fragile and yet powerful. I really like the diversity among them, too. I don't think it's bad that there's a lack of diversity within Space Marines, because that's pretty appropriate for what Space Marines are supposed to be, but I'm happy that Stormcast Eternals are different from one another.
• The sorceress, whom I know nothing about and may well be really really famous, is a very cool character. I like her power, and I like her desire to study potentially dangerous Nurgleblobs.

If you've got a Warhammer+ account, or you're considering getting one, this is yet another animated series that may make an account worth your while. I've been enjoying all the shows so far, and I'm already looking forward to the next episode of Blacktalon.