Playing the Empire & Chaos Starting Areas

"War is everywhere" has long been the game's mantra, and from the get-go Warhammer Online's six races and three racial pairings - Empire vs. Chaos, Elves vs. Dark Elves, and Dwarves vs. Greenskins - are designed to feel "pitted against one another in an ancient, epic feud" - all within a backdrop of struggle between the forces of Order and Destruction. The first of those racial pairings was the highlight for the event; EA Mythic gave us the chance to play about 40 minutes of the Empire and Chaos starting areas.

First up: the Empire, a race struggling to survive. "It's about survival... breed and fight, if they don't do this, they're going to be wiped out," was how the energetic Creative Director Paul Barnett described the humans. (For more info on the Empire, please check out the highly entertaining video of Paul Barnett explaining the Empire classes.)We got a firsthand taste of that desperation when we logged in as Empire characters, Bright Wizards to be specific. The starting area in Nordwind in under attack by Chaos marauders, and our first task was to raise an army from among the farmers and counter attack. As our 30 minutes in Nordwind progressed, we executed traitorous farmers who turned towards Chaos, returned fire on the Hellcannons bombarding the city, freed and healed captured soldiers, and progressed toward the ultimate goal of progressing the public quest to slaying the Chaos giant that was spotted wondering the area.

The Chaos starting area also involved an Empire village (a different one), though this time we were on the other side of the Hellcannon muzzle. The forces of Chaos, according to Barnett, aren't simply demonic in nature. "When we say chaos, people instantly think that we mean the devil. It isn't that at all. It is custard falling from the sky, it is trees made of barbeque ribs, it is rivers of glass... it's chaos! It's corruption! It's creating eyeballs where there shouldn't be." As such, Chaos players start at a portal (covered with lots of eyeballs where there shouldn't be) surrounded by tainted land just outside an Empire village. The quests here were far darker, gathering body parts as ammunition, hunting down villagers, and generally being a disruptive nuisance.

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