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In the fictional world of the Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy setting, the 'Old World' is the north-western peninsula of the major landmass and is analogous to real world Europe.

The Old World is usually defined as the area of land west of the World Edge Mountains, north of Blood River and the Dwarf sea fortress of Barak Varr, and south of the Chaos Wastes. The Old World is home to the human nations of the Empire, Kislev, Bretonnia, Tilea, Estalia, the Border Princes, and Norsca, and also the non-human nations of Wood Elf Athel Loren, the Dwarf Strongholds of the World Edge Mountains and the Skaven 'Under Empire' of subterranean lairs. It is also home to nomadic tribes of Orcs and Goblins and Beastmen.

In ancient times the Old World was dominated by Dwarfs and High Elves who co-existed well until war broke out between those two peoples - the Dwarfs know this war as the "War of Vengeance", as the war stemmed from a grudge between the Dwarfs and the Elves, while the High Elves refer to it as the "War of the Beard", a trivial name because they felt that the war was an overreaction to their forcible shaving of the Dwarf King's ambassador. This saw the end of Elven rule and, along with a series of earthquakes and massive Greenskin invasions, broke the Dwarfs' military power. A few Elves remained in the Old World, most notably in Athel Loren, although they became almost unrecognisable from their High Elf kin. Since then humans have become the major civilised race in the region, often centred on old Elven cities. The first large human nation was the Empire - though the Tileans and Estalians debate this point - which remains the dominant power today. However, the Old World remains largely wilderness and there is plenty of space in the great forests, marshes, mountains and underground for other races to thrive and occasionally challenge the Empire's supremacy.

Gods of the Old World