The Lumineth Realm-Lords is an upcoming army for the tabletop wargame Warhammer: The Age of Sigmar.
They are a reimagining of the High Elfs from Warhammer: Fantasy Battles, and they are scheduled to be released some time during the first half of 2020.
In this article, we have gathered everything revealed about the new army so far, from lore to miniatures and game rules.
Background and lore for the Lumineth Realm-Lords
The Lumineth Realm-Lords are a race of Aelves in the Mortal Realms, the setting for Age of Sigmar.
They were created by the Aelven gods Teclis and Tyrion from Aelf souls recovered from the bloated belly of the Chaos God of Excess, Slaanesh, while they kept him captured between the realms of Light and Shadow.
The natural home of the Lumineth is Hysh, the Realm of Light, which is a realm of perfection and enlightenment, and they embody the ideals of their homelands in everything they do.
When the Lumineth were placed in Hysh by Teclis and Tyrion, they were still affected by having been eaten by a Chaos god, and they nearly destroyed themselves in a terrible civil war.
To atone for what they did to the realm, and to cut themselves off from the vulnerability to Chaos that comes from out-of-control emotions, the Lumineth reformed their society into monastic orders that worshipped and drew power from an alliance with one of four geomantic powers of their lands:
Mountain, River, Wind and Zenith.
Each member of the Lumineth Realm-Lords dedicates her entire life to perfecting the teachings of one of the four orders, which makes the Aelves of Hysh disciplined and focused like few others, but this isn’t enough to keep the influence of Slaanesh at bay:
They also channel all of their emotions into Aetherquartz crystals, which in turn amplify the powers of Hysh in the bearer.
The more Lumineth aelves use these crystals, the more powerful they become, but they also become colder and less able to convey any emotions.
Apart from dedicating themselves to the geomantic powers, each Lumineth nation in Hysh also dedicates itself to one of the Twin Gods that created them.
The Teclian nations Syar, Iliatha, Ymetrica, and Zaitrec worship the teachings of Teclis, which makes their culture focused on knowledge and wisdom.
The Tyrionic nations Oultrai, Aurathrai, Helon and Alumnia follow Tyrion’s path, which makes them exceptional warriors.
The Lumineth show their allegiance and connection to the powers they worship through runes inscribed on their armor and jewelry, such as this Runic Mandala that represents the four Geomantic powers.
(If you want to know more about the lore behind the AoS world, we got an article on it here)
In battle, the Lumineth are a disciplined fighting force with many units that resemble how High Elfs worked in Warhammer Fantasy:
Phalanxes of Spearmen, fast cavalry units and powerful wizards.
Release Date of The Lumineth Realm-Lords
The Lumineth Realm-Lords army was first announced at the Las Vegas Open Preview Seminar on January 24 2020.
The trailers for the new army hinted that the army was supposed to be released in April 2020, but since the Games Workshop production facilities were closed due to safety measures against the COVID-19 pandemic, the release of the army was postponed.
The first release for the army will be the Lumineth Realm-Lords Army box, which was revealed at GW’s second online preview in April. It went up for preorder on GW’s webstore on June 20, 2020
The box will include the hero Light of Eltharion , a unit of Auralan Wardens and a a unit of Vanari Dawnriders, plus the battletome and a set of special Lumineth dice. Rest of army will be released later.
They are selling fast, so getting one while they are in stock might be a good idea.
Get your own Lumineth box while in stock!
What units and heroes will be included in the Lumineth Realm-Lords faction?
The Lumineth Realm-Lords army is made up of 10 different kits:
Teclis
Teclis, and his companion Celenar, Spirit of Hysh (that’s the winged lion with the mask) is the grand centerpiece of the army.
The Aelven God himself is modeled floating in the air in front of his companion, and to represent the Lumineth’s symbiosis with the realm of Hysh, Celenar is not his mount or pet, but is modeled as something close to his equal in a form of partnership.
From previews of White Dwarf issue 454 we know that Teclis will be able to autocast 4 spells each hero phase. They can still be unbound, but have a casting value of 10 (so they’re not easy to unbind). One of his spells let Lumineth units within 18 inches ignore wounds on a roll of 5+, while another forces the enemy to spend 2 command points instead of one on their command abilities.
He can also auto-unbind an enemy spell and endless spell each turn.
Teclis is the one half of the Lumineth pantheon that’s been revealed so far. Maybe Tyrion will also get a model one day, but we haven’t seen it yet.
Light of Eltharion
The Light of Eltharion is another named Hero for the Lumineth Realm-Lords.
He is the resurrected version of a renowned High Elf hero from the Warhammer Fantasy universe, but he has been resurrected as pure light, which means he is represented on the tabletop as a model with armor and weapons, but no body.
The model is a beautiful piece of design, sculpted to look truly hollow (his cape flutters in the wind from a direction that can only have gone through the armor where the body should have been).
Rules-wise, Eltharion will be a duelist Hero with a 3+ save and 7 Wounds.
He has a special ability, Spirit Armour, that allows him to ignore any modifiers to his saves, and weapon attacks that hit him must halve their damage output for those attacks.
He has 2 melee weapons:
Fangsword of Eltharion, which has 4 attacks at -3 rend and D3 damage. The Fangsword adds 1 to its wound rolls if Eltharion charged in the same turn, and if the unmodified wound roll for an attack with the sword is 6, a Mortal Wound is added to its damage output.
Cellenari Blade, which has 2 attacks at -1 Rend and also D3 damage.
Both weapons are affected by their wielder’s Supreme Swordmaster ability, which lets him ignore negative modifiers to hit rolls, and on an unmodified hit roll of 6, that hit is resolved twice instead of once.
The most recent preview article also mentions that he has a shooting attack, but we don’t know its specific rules yet.
Again, we will update this as soon as we know more about his rules.
Avalenor, the Stoneheart King
Avalenor, the Stoneheart King is another named Hero for the Lumineth Realm-Lords.
He is a Mountain Spirit that has allied with the Lumineth, and he is the Character version of the gigantic Spirit of the Mountain model kit that will be one of the Behemoth unit options for the Lumineth.
According to translated leaks of the German version of the battletome, Avalenor can give +1 attacks to D3 Alarith Aelf units within 24 inches (so basically the Stoneguard). If he is within 12 inches of an Alarith Stonemage, he can act like he has taken 0 wounds when consulting his Damage Table, which means that he doesn’t lose attacks or abilities from taking damage.
Alarith Stonemage
The Alarith Stonemason is a Wizard of the Mountain clan, which can buff other units and deal elemental damage to enemies.
It has an ability called the Stonemage Stance, which renders Stoneguard units within 12 inches unable to pile in, but grants them -1 rend in return.
Scinari Cathallar
The Scinari Cathallar is a Lumineth Hero who uses the Aetherquartz-stored negative emotions of nearby friendly units to attack enemy units.
In the battleshock phase, the Cathallar can force enemy units to take battleshock tests instead of Lumineth units near her, and she also has a spell that allows her to roll 2d6 each time a chosen enemy unit tries to move, charge or pile in. If she rolls higher than that unit’s Bravery, the unit can’t make that move.
Vanari Auralan Wardens
The Auralan Wardens are the battleline spear infantry of the Lumineth Realm-Lords. They come in units of 10, and all carry spears and shields in a phalanx formation.
Their spears have a range of 3 inches, and get +1 to wound rolls and -1 to rend against enemies that have charged in the same turn.
Their weapons do mortal wounds on unmodified rolls of 6, and they can cast a spell that let them do the mortal wounds on a 5+ roll instead.
Like the other Vanari units, they also have the Shining Company rule, which gives them a +1 to save rolls as long as each model in the unit’s base is touching the base of 2 or more other models from the same unit. The drawback of this tactic is that they can’t run, charge or pile in while using this rule.
Vanari Dawnriders
Vanari Dawnriders are the lightning-swift elite cavalry of the Lumineth armies.
They are very fast with a Move characteristic of 14, and they get a +1 to wound and -1 Rend to attacks when they charge.
At the start of combat, they can choose to add 1 to their Attacks, but then they can only attack enemies with a Wounds characteristic of 1 or 2, or add 2 to their attacks, but only against enemies with 1 Wound per model.
Like the Wardens, they have a spell that let’s their weapons do Mortal Wounds on a 5+.
Vanari Auralan Sentinels
The Auralan Sentinels is a ranged infantry unit for the Lumineth Realm-Lords, with ten models carrying heavy three-stringed longbows.
Along with the Dawnriders and wardens, they form a classical ancient military core of spear infantry, fast cavalry and ranged support to a Lumineth army.
They have an ability that lets them pick one unit within 30 inches that isn’t visible to them. They can then attack this unit anyway, but with a weaker attack profile than their normal ranged attacks.
Alarith Stoneguard
The Alarith Stoneguard is an elite infantry unit. They follow the teachings of the Mountain clan, and look like miniature Aelven versions of the Spirit of the Mountain behemoths.
They are armed with heavy stonehammers, but it has also been hinted that you can equip them with war-picks with a hammer on one side and a piercing blade on the other.
Their standard bearer lets them re-roll battleshock tests.
They can also take advantage of the unique Alarith rule Tectonic Force, which lets them move enemies around and into reach of other Alarith units:
Alarith Spirit of the Mountain
The Spirit of the Mountain is a gigantic Behemoth model for the Lumineth Realm-Lords.
It carries a huge stone hammer, and it is the unnamed version of the Mountain King model pictured above. It has many of the same rules as Avalenor, but can only add 1 attacks to 1 Alarith-Aelf unit rather than d3 units, and the bonuses from the two different heroes do not stack.
What are the new rules for the Lumineth Realm-Lords army?
So far, we know that the Lumineth Realm-Lords on the tabletop will be defined by various bonuses from worshipping different geomantic powers, and that the influence of both wizardly Teclis and martial Tyrion will determine how a specific Lumineth army list works.
While we still don’t know all of the Lumineth rules, many of their allegiance abilities have been revealed:
Lightning Reactions let Lumineth players pick 2 units to attack each time it is their turn to pick in the combat phase:
Getting to pick twice the number of units to fight every time it is your turn in the combat phase is a big advantage, but it also encourages you to actually charge with multiple units at the same time, and take advantage of synergies between them.
Aether-Quartz Reserve is a resource available once to every Lumineth unit, which lets the units gain a bonus to a hit roll, cast an extra spell, reroll a casting roll or gain a bonus to a save against an attack. If used, the unit loses 1 Bravery (very much like Kharadron aether-gold, which I am sure is something the Skyfarers have now added to their long list of grudges). A Scinari Cathallar can reverse this loss of Bravery once per phase by taking an Aether-Quartz-using unit’s -1 to Bravery and giving it to an enemy unit instead.
We will update this rules section as soon as we know more about Allegiance Abilities, subfactions and warscroll rules.
Endless Spells
The Lumineth Realmlords have access to 3 unique Endless Spells:
- The Sanctum of Amyntok, which is a ritual circle that gives -1 to hit rolls made against models in that circle, and gives those models a +1 to save rolls. It also lets models within that circle that were targeted by attacks do mortal wounds to enemies within 3 inches of the circle on a dice roll: on a 1-3, no damage is done, on a 4-5, 1 Mortal Wound is made, and on a 6, D3 Mortal Wounds.
- The Hyshian Twinstones empower wizards. When it is set up, a d6 is placed beside it. Every time a spell is succesfully cast within 12 inches of the model, the number on the dice increases, which gives casters within its sphere of influence some as of yet unspecified bonuses.
- The Rune of Petrification debuffs enemies. At the beginning and end of the movement phase, each non-Lumineth unit within 6 inches of the model suffers D3 Mortal Wounds on a roll of 4 or more, and each of those units must also subtract one from its run and charge rolls.
Order your Lumineth box today!
