In Forged By Chaos, the third novel based on Warhammer Online, author C.L. Werner takes on Dark Elves. Greenskins, and the forces of Chaos as they explore the Bastion Stair in search of the Spear of Myrmidia, a relic that could ensure their victory over the Empire of Man.

"FORGED BY CHAOS provides readers with a horrific look into the warped minds of the soldiers of Destruction – the megalomania of the Dark Elves, the destructive single-mindedness of the Greenskins, and the unholy obsessions of Chaos", said Jeff Hickman, Studio Executive Producer for Mythic Entertainment. "C.L. Werner provides a never-before-seen look at a single side of the Realm vs. Realm conflict, and shows just how fragile, and deadly, this alliance of dark powers can be."

I've always been a huge fan of fantasy novels from the bad guys' point-of-view, at least when they don't simply portray the villains as uglier heroes. Hopefully Werner gets it right! Forged By Chaos is now available at fine booksellers everywhere.

In a soothing letter to the community, Jeff Hickman, executive producer at Mythic, says that despite the turmoil at EA, Mythic will "remain committed to providing you with the best possible gaming experiences and customer support both now and in the future."

"At Mythic, we remain committed to our games and the passionate people who play them – we're going to continue to deliver the content and service that keeps you playing," Hickman writes. "We want to assure our community that we will maintain the same high level of customer support you've come to expect and continue to improve our games with an exciting schedule of patches, live events and new content."

With cuts at Mythic rumored to be deep, we genuinely hope that the developer is supported by its publisher to remain committed to the fanbase of all three titles. And that the bleeding stops soon, lest everyone be forced to play Pet Society.

Jeff Hickman - Executive Producer's Letter [Warhammer Herald via Joystiq]

New and returning players to Mythic's MMO Warhammer Online can now play the game as long as they'd like for free, provided they don't mind being capped at level 10 until they pony up some subscription fees. Yes, it's capped, but there's still plenty to do in the tier one lands of Nordland and Norsca. Players can take all the time they want trying out each of the game's 24 professions, participating in realm versus realm battlegrounds or delving into the newly-added Hunter's Vale dungeon.

In order to facilitate easy access to the game, Mythic has also introduced a new streaming client. After an initial download of around one gig, the rest of the world streams to the player's PC as they travel, making for a relatively quick and painless introduction to the world.

"With the introduction of the endless free trial and streaming client, we are making it easier than ever for a new player to join the WAR," said Jeff Hickman, executive producer, Mythic Entertainment. "We've worked hard to create a more informative and community driven new user experience, and now we are giving players an unlimited amount of time to explore the early parts of the game at their own pace. We are confident that players new and old will find all the enhancements we've made to WAR over the past year worthy of their time and commitment."

Interested? Visit http://www.warhammeronline.com/trial to sign up for endless level 10 limbo.

October 28th is when the floodgates open and a slow trickle of the Mac users who haven't already been playing Warhammer Online using emulation are unleashed upon the completely suspecting populace. Warhammer Online for the Mac will be exactly the same as the PC version, only the computers it is played on will be slightly more expensive and prettier to look at.

"We're incredibly excited to bring Warhammer Online and its enthralling Realm vs. Realm combat to the Mac community," said Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. "Come October 28th, the sides of Order and Destruction will be bolsters by a fresh recruit of Mac gamers experiencing for the first time exactly what we mean when we say that ‘WAR is everywhere!'"

The beta version is currently available for existing users and new Mac players to download and play in anticipation of the late October release. The game will be available for purchase come the 28th via digital download at Gametreeonline.com for $19.95.

I've played Warhammer Online with Mac users in the past, but it generally involved them rebooting and twisting dials, injecting strange substances into their machines. Thanks to TransGaming's Cider Portability Engine, Mac users will now be able to double-click an icon like the rest of us, or whatever it is they do with those odd little mice.

"The MMORPG audience continues to expand, and that means gamers eager to experience WAR aren't all playing on a PC," said Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. "We want as many players as possible to experience the glory of Realm vs. Realm combat, and bringing WAR to the Mac makes this an exciting reality."

Players can visit the Mac Warhammer website to download the beta and sign up for a free trial. The official version is due out this fall.

Sorry if I am a bit off when it comes to Mac terminology. It's not that I am PC biased. If I had the money, I'd buy a Mac in an instant, welcoming the feeling of being a complete computer virgin all over again.

Being a member of the video game press is fun, especially when simulated human remains wind up on your doorstep. My cats really appreciate this, as they are now running about chewing on hay and batting around the mummy wrapping I had to unfurl in order to reveal the Cartouche on the skull's forehead. Unravel the mystery of the Cartouche, and you could win one of 1,000 limited edition Scarab Amulet rewards Mythic is issuing to mark the launch of The Land of the Dead zone in Warhammer Online later this month.

Mythic is only issuing 5,000 Scarab Amulets, which summons a swarm of beetles that swirls about your character, with 1,000 tied to each skull. We're apparently one of five websites to receive one, which seems like a small number, but knowing four other people are opening boxes with skulls in them across the country makes me feel a little better.

So, how do we solve this code? Apparently the key to the cartouche has been broken up and scattered across the Warhammer Online blogosphere, meaning you will have to hunt, or wait until someone posts a link that shows up in Google. Once you've deciphered the code, you can visit your Warhammer Online account page to redeem it.

So, your task, should you chose to undertake it (Get it? Undertake? Skull? Is this thing on?), is to figure out what the symbols in the picture below mean. My task? Unwrapping the howling cat from the bandages he's managed to get tied around his legs. Ready? Break!

The war between Order and Destruction takes a southward turn this week, as artifacts unearthed in the southern deserts bring with them the wrath of the servants of the undying Tomb Kings. Over the next seven days, players on both sides will do battle with Liche Priests; undead creatures who have followed the Tomb Kings' artifacts to the north. Those who kill enough of the creatures and help their side recover the artifacts of the Nehekharan Kings will be rewarded with special titles - Grave Robber and The Eternal - along with a lovely pair of magical goggles, because nothing says powerful fantasy hero like a pair of purple goggles.

Check out the Dark Elf version of the goggles below, and visit the official event page for more information on how you can help tick off ancient undead beings, which is always a good idea.

In a battle six months in the making, members of the Destruction faction on European server Karak Eight Peaks laid siege to the Order capitol Altdorf. After a running 14-hour battle spent systematically taking over the city piece-by-piece, Destruction faced off against Order's leader Karl Franz and came out triumphant, capturing the city and placing the fallen king in a cage, all without using the exploits that made earlier successful sieges null and void.

For the many of you who've given Warhammer Online a pass, this is probably one of the biggest achievements the game has to offer. Having been playing the game on and off over the past month, I imagine the Destruction pride on that particular server must be completely unbearable at this point. Still, the best side won.

First legitimate city capture in Warhammer Online [Massively]

The two new berserker classes join Warhammer Online as part of the Call to Arms live expansion, which leads up to the opening of the expansive Land of the Dead dungeon in June. The Orc Choppa was a class originally slated to be in the game but cut before release, while the Dwarf Slayer replaces the originally planned Dwarf Hammerer, which was deemed far too boring to live.

"The Call to Arm has sounded, and the realms of Order and Destruction have welcomed two new combatants to the frontlines of WAR – the head-bashin' Orc Choppa and oath-sworn Dwarf Slayer," said Mark Jacobs, VP and General Manager of Mythic Entertainment. "These new careers are brutal, unrelenting fighters who will stop at nothing to claim victory over their opponents on the Realm vs. Realm battlefields."

Check out the official descriptions of the two new classes below!

The ornery and savage Choppa is an offensive juggernaut that embodies the love of a good fight found in every Orc. He has a one-track mind that is dead set on wreaking havoc on enemy lines and bashin' heads! Driven by an inexplicably strong bloodlust, the Choppa is a whirlwind of destruction on the battlefield with a … debatable sense of self-preservation.

The tattooed Slayer is the manifestation of the Dwarfs' obsession with honor, seeking only a heroic and honorable death in combat. However, dying quietly is simply not in his nature. In WAR, the Slayer is a ruthless and terrifying fighter, throwing himself into battle with no regard for his own well-being. He is a force to be reckoned with and relies on his ever-escalating rage to power each swing of his dual axes.

It's a common practice in the massively multiplayer online role-playing industry these days; popular games launch, opening server after server to deal with the flood of new players, and then a sizeable chunk of those players say no thank you, causing the servers to become barren, which leads to the inevitable sever merge. It happened with Age of Conan, and now Warhammer Online is preparing to close 43 North American and Oceania, with another 20 being closed in Europe. Forced player transfers were completed yesterday, leaving the remaining servers bursting with delicious player flavor.

Massive server merges aren't as much of a bad sign as they used to be. If anything, players who found the population too sparse previous might want to actually give Warhammer Online another try, now that everyone has been squished together.

Mythic To Close 63 Warhammer Online Servers [Gamasutra]

Warhammer has had a pretty standard refer-a-friend program up until now. Simply drag a pal into the game, and get 30 days free game time. Now they up the stakes with a special in-game pet and an experience-upping item for those who can pull in new players lite rats with a magic flute.

Folks who drag two new players to the game will receive an exclusive pet – the Imperial Hunting Hound for Order players, or the Warlord's Fell Hound for Destruction players. Those who manage to trick four newbies into playing will snag either a Rod of Service or the Collar of Servitude, items that increase experience and renown gain by 5%, with the ability to boost a realm-mates level to let him or her join you on your magical adventures.

Sounds like somebody is getting pretty desperate for fresh meat.

Recruit-A-Friend Program Details [Warhammer Online]

Bitter Rivals, running from March 3rd to March 10th, gives players a chance to unlock the new Dwarf Slayer and Orc Choppa classes by completing quests and participating in the new Twisting Tower Realm vs. Realm Scenario. In Twisting Tower, the forces of Order and Destruction battle for control of a ruined Chaos tower while a vengeful god rains fire down upon both armies. The event kicks off the massive Call to Arms live update, which culminates in June with the opening of a brand-new raid dungeon zone, The Land of the Dead.

Along with the launch of Bitter Rivals, Mythic has also opened the official forums for business, giving players an official place to bitch about balance issues, server lag, other players' moms - you know, the usual.

For more on the Bitter Rivals event, visit the official website. Otherwise, follow the link below to start name-calling and complaining.

Official Warhammer Online Forums [Mythic]

As part of Mythic's plan to draw new players to Warhammer Online in the face of their Call to Arms live expansion, the company has launched a free 10-day trial through Fileplanet, allowing players to give the game a very limited test drive. How limited? Aside from the time constraints, trial players are limited to the game's lowest level content and capital cities. trial players are also limited in what severs they can play on, so if they wish to party with their friends, said friends will have to use their daily free sever transfer to move to one of the trial-assigned servers. Boo.

Did I mention the offer is only available to Fileplanet subscribers?

While I don't understand why Mythic couldn't just let the trail players run wild for 10 days, they must have had their reasons for making the decision. Perhaps they want to keep populations from exploding, degrading the experience of the higher-level paying customers? I just would have thought making it easy for new players to join their friends online would have been a priority.

Still, free is free, and seeing as trials have been limited to the recruit-a-friend program up until now, at least they're finally allowing the friendless among us a chance to see what we've been missing, as long as we're willing to sign up for Fileplanet. At least the download will be quick.

Fileplanet Exclusive 10 Day Warhammer Online Trial [Fileplanet via Massively]

Responding to persistent rumours concerning the scale of layoffs at the company, GM Mark Jacobs has posted on the game's official site, confirming that, yes, there have been cuts, and also where those cuts have been made:

Since the launch last year, the demand for customer service has gone down as players become more familiar with the game. Obviously, demand for a large QA and play-testing staff also falls after launch. As a result, we saw a staff reduction which is in line with the company-wide initiative. In no way does this conflict with our commitment to customer service. Staffing numbers will always map to consumer needs – it goes up when we launch new products and expand popular ones, and comes back down as players become familiar with the game.

Glean what you will from that. Could core Mythic staffers have escaped EA's "company-wide initiative" by culling contract staff they were going to be cut anyway, once the game settled in? Maybe!

Course, there's also a lessened need for support staff when, as was announced during yesterday's EA conference call, it turns out the game's subscriber base has fallen from 700,000 to 300,000...

Update From Mythic [EA]

Nothing says loving like a knife in the back, and that's what you're likely to get if you participate in Warhammer Online's Night of Murder event, which kicks off this Friday, February 6th and lasts through the 15th. The disciples of the god of murder need victims, and players will do quite nicely. Throughout the even assassins will roam the city streets, with players earning influence rewards for completing daily tasks and killing enemy targets that have been marked for death - including enemy player characters.

From the description of the event at the Warhammer Herald, players won't even know they've been marked, so if you see a large group of enemy players coming your way, odds are they don't want hugs, no matter how cuddly soft you may be.

Unlike a traditional MMO expansion, A Call to Arms is being delivered over the course of several months, with several different live events leading up to the revelation of a whole new realm-versus-realm controlled dungeon, The Land of the Dead. "It's a little non-traditional in the way that MMOs do expansions, but we have so much that we are doing and so many things that are happening that we really felt it deserved that term applied to it," explains Hickman.

Call to Arms is the first major content update for Warhammer Online. Mythic spent the first months since release focusing on fixing bugs, improving performance, and getting the game up to speed. While Hickman wants to punctuate that they are nowhere near done tuning the game, they felt it was finally time to give the players something big and new.

"The Call To Arms expansion is important to us - it really focuses on three things. Retaining players...bringing back players who left for whatever reasons...and the new classes - now is the time to start a new character for any players who have never played before."

Several live events lead up to the final event in June. In late March we get our first look at two new classes, the Orc Choppa, which was previously cut from the game's initial release, and Dwarf Slayer - a Dwarf unable to complete his life oath, resigned to die in battle in order to regain his honor. The Slayer replaces the Dwarf Hammerer, also cut from the game's initial launch. Both are being introduced via a Bitter Rivals live event.

So why these two classes?

"We always liked the feeling of playing the Choppa...gritty and bestial...a heavy hitting, fast chopping maniac. It's just his mechanic was really raw, and just didn't feel right. Conversely, you look at the Hammerer, which was the other class that we cut, and the Hammerer was never our dream...when we went back to the drawing board, we knew we could make the Choppa better, but weren't sure what could make the Hammerer better."

"We went back to Games Workshop and said, "We really want to do the Slayer. How can we make this work?" And so we worked through the lore, worked with Games Workshop, and did whatever we could do to get the Slayer into the game."

As to how the classes play, both are berserker-type warriors, wearing little armor but making up for it in sheer toughness. Both will be able to buildup rage to fuel their abilities. Players can choose to keep their rage low and play cautious, or send the bar into the red, where they will deal more damage but also take more. Both should add an interesting new twist to the forces of Order and Destruction.

Once the new combatants are in place, the events begin to focus more and more on The Land of the Dead, a new area to the south that contains artifacts of great power of interest to both sides of the battle. A bridging event occurs in April, lasting 10 to 14 days, which "really focuses on looking southward, giving the players the first insight into what's happening down there."

Finally, in June, the Rise of the Tomb King event occurs - a massive race between the two opposing factions to open The Land of the Dead dungeon.

"The whole expansion arc kinda ties together a lot of different things, thematically based around finding, defeating, and gaining rewards out of the Tomb King dungeon."

Once the Land of the Dead opens, the struggle isn't over. Much like the Dark Age of Camelot dungeon Darkness Falls, The Land of the Dead is constantly contested.

"The Tomb King dungeon is really the brainchild of Darkness Falls. We really want to look at the things we did in Camelot, and pinpoint those things, make them better, and steal those things from Camelot and make them better. We need an RVR dungeon in Warhammer. We need a Darkness Falls."

Once one faction gains access to the dungeon, players can team up and work their way towards the grand pyramid in the center, but at any moment the dungeon can change hands, blocking access to their faction and flooding the dungeon with their enemies. It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't played Dark Age of Camelot, but the sense of tension generated by the mechanic is truly amazing.

So Call to Arms is set to change the face of Warhammer Online in a big way, but Mythic isn't planning on stopping there. Following another major update towards the end of the year, the company will begin looking at a boxed expansion for the game.

"Most likely we will (release a boxed expansion), we're still talking about it, but probably what's in store is something else free by the end of the year, and then I'm sure we're going to put a box on the shelves at some point. All in time and all at the right time. Right now the way we are doing this is exactly how we should be doing things. We've talked about a box, and right now there's a small team that meets once a week to discuss ideas for that, but in general we're all pretty focused on what we're doing right now."

For now, Warhammer Online will continue as it is, "Evolving instead of punching you in the face with new content."

Sounds good to me.

A Call To Arms isn't your normal expansion pack, but a "Live Expansion", which will be deployed over a series of months on the Warhammer Online servers, stretching from the end of March through early June. The expansion mainly consists of three live events. First, in late March, Mythic will roll out the Bitter Rivals event, which introduces two new classes to the game, with players who complete the event getting early access to the once canceled Orc Choppa and the all-new Dwarf slayer, both brutal bezerkers and bitter rivals, hence the event's name.

Then comes an event called Beyond the Sands, which introduces players to some new concepts to be revealed later, followed by the Rise of the Tomb Kings live event in May, which will see the forces of Order and Destruction racing to unlock the Land of the Dead for their realm.

Then, in June, the deserts of Nehekhara open to players with the addition of an RVR-gated dungeon zone. Much like the Dark Age of Camelot dungeon Darkness Falls, The Land of the Dead is constantly being contested by both sides, so gaining access only means you are safe until control falls to the other side. THat's when you start sweating, knowing that hordes of enemies are on their way in.

We'll have an interview up later today with Mythic's Jeff Hickman later today, who goes into more detail regarding "Call To Arms". For now, enjoy the first few bits of art from Warhammer Online's first major expansion.

Mark Jacobs isn't known for being quiet, so when his forums explode with panicked players worrying about the state of Mythic's Warhammer Online, he did what he could to clarify the situation.

As part of EA, all studios are expected to do their fair share to meet the expectations of our CEO.

It isn't any more complicated than that other than to say that we have a very large studio and pretty much every person there has been and will continue to work on WAR for quite a while (meaning we haven't started work on another game yet). When we launched, we had over 400+ people working on the game in one capacity or another so it's not like we had a small team at launch or even a small team now.

Yes, when EA says they are laying off 1,000 employees, they weren't just talking EA proper. They've got a rather big company, in case you hadn't noticed, so of course the satellite development studios are likely to get hit.

That, and an MMO development team is generally going to trim down a bit as the player base begins to settle down and they switch from full-on development to maintenance and updating, so really this shouldn't be much of surprise, and it definitely isn't anything Warhammer fans should panic over.

Mark Jacobs Posts In "Mythic layoffs affect QA, customer support" [Warhammer Alliance Forums]

As expected from our tiny, bearded friends, Keg End is all about beer, beer, and more beer. Players can hunt for the legendary Golden Stein to receive it's blessing, defeat special snotlings and ogres to gain explosive brews, or fluster their enemies with the new /boast emote, with rewards to be gained for doing it just right. There are special items to be won as well, such as a new title (The Drunkard), a special stein trophy, or an Elite reward called The Last Keg, which returns the owner to the city pub - Dwarven ingenuity at its finest. Players should also keep an eye out for The Battlebrew Backpack, a rare world drop (pictured) that makes for a very convenient way to completely destroy your liver.

Festivities run from December 17th to January 5th. Try not to get to drunk to remember.

WAR Live Event: Keg End [Warhammer Herald]

Servers have gone down this morning for the application of patch 1.1, which should be live as the servers come back online by or before 1PM Eastern time. Along with the previously mentioned player statues and the introduction of tank classes for Order and Dark Elf races, the patch also brings several mechanic additions and improvements that should make things go a bit more smoothly for players. The addition of a Main Assist mechanic should make sticking to your tank's target much easier, while the addition of one easy mode Player Quest in each chapter of tier one so solo players don't have to rely on playing well with others. Perhaps of the most interest to me is the addition of Influence rewards in open RVR areas, which just so happen to be my favorite places to be. Hit the link for the full details on patch 1.1, or just log on around 1PM and see for yourself.

News From the Front: Patch 1.1a Has Arrived! [Warhammer Online Herald]