Warhammer Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Warhammer Wiki

"We spent our honeymoon at the family's summer house by the sea. One morning, when taking the air along the bluffs, the mist closed in. It was suddenly calm and strangely quiet. Then, out of nowhere… Bog Daemons! Huge, one-eyed, barrel-chested brutes. I was sent crashing to the ground with a swipe of a tail. Another bundled Greta up and threw her over its shoulder. Then they just vanished into the mist, as swiftly and as silently as they had appeared. I swear that is Verena's own truth."

—Oleg Grauhof, Reiklander merchant, shortly before being hanged for the murder of his wife.[3a]
Fimir 4th

A Fimir Warrior, who is a member of the Fimm caste.

The Fimir (pronounced "Fi-MEER"[13a]), also known in Human folk-lore as Bog-daemons[3a], Mist-daemons or Fog-devils[7a], are a race of cyclopean, amphibious humanoids loyal to Chaos that haunt bogs, fens and desolate moorlands throughout the northern and western Old World. Their remaining population is largely concentrated in the Wasteland and Norsca,[1a][13a] but tales spoke of other groups in the bleak island of Hybrasille and the mist-wreathed isle of Albion.[9a]

The strongholds of the Fimir take the form of forbidding, craggy piles of rock, crudely built in the semblance of the castles of more civilised races. Outsiders seldom stumble upon these settlements, for they are wreathed in thick mist, a miasma which is magically generated by the Fimir to shield their fortresses from prying eyes, and themselves from the harsh glare of the sun.[1a]

Fimir wizards are said to be highly skilled with the Lore of Shadow. The Wind of Ulgu does not only deceive individual people, it can keep secrets hidden from whole towns, or even from an entire society. For example, it is said that the Fimir, whose matriarchs the Meargh can create supernatural mists, use a magic that is powered by Ulgu. The Grey Wind of Magic hides their existence and conceals any trace of them from the Men of the Wasteland.[11a]

History

Origins

Fimir army by Paul Bonner

A Fimir unit marching to raid a settlement of Men.[10c]

Long before the rise of Men, possibly while the High Elves still ruled the Old World,[4a] the Fimir worshipped the Chaos Gods, and for a time enjoyed their favour. Alas, the Eye of the Gods was swiftly drawn to the more vibrant and amusing race of Mankind, and the Fimir were abandoned, reduced to seeking boons from bound Daemons where once they had enjoyed the blessings of gods.[1a]

However, the Fimir are still loyal to the Chaos Gods. They seek to destabilise the barrier between the mortal world and the Realm of Chaos, thus aiding the Chaos Gods in their ultimate victory, and so regain their favour.[1a]

At some point after the devastating War of the Beard between the empires of the High Elves and the Dwarfs, the Fimir turned their attention to the region of the western Old World that would eventually be known as the Wasteland. A virgin land of lush grasslands and bountiful woods, the Fimir settled in the northern Wasteland after the Dwarfs and High Elves both abandoned the area to tend to their weakened empires.[6a]

Warhammer Fimir

A Fimir Balefiend, also called a Dirach.

The Fimir started to remake the bountiful countryside of the region into a climate more suiting their dour tastes for bogs and moors. Eventually, they were confronted by the Skaven, who had claimed the southern Wasteland and were themselves transforming the land, poisoning the rivers, cracking the earth and cutting down the forests. Both races came to blows, with the ratmen pushing the Fimir back.[6a]

In the end the war between the two species resulted in a great cataclysm that devastated the area and decimated both sides. Whether either race was directly responsible or if it came as a by-product of their war is unknown. Great waves of magic washed over the land and the earth convulsed and cracked.[6a]

In a night, the strongholds of the Skaven and the fortresses of the Fimir were thrown down as the very bedrock heaved, broke and sank. Their armies were destroyed and their minions crushed or swallowed whole. By dawn the next day, only the land itself remained, nearly empty of life and hiding its wounds under a thick blanket of fog.[6a]

The modern Wasteland is filled with fogs, moorlands, swamps and marshes. It's sparsely populated by Men aside from the great commercial capital of the region at the city-state of Marienburg. But the Fimir still retain a presence in the region, now better shaped to their needs as a result of their war with the Skaven.[6b]

Nowadays, the Fimir are a dwindling and reclusive species, little given to leaving their swampy fastnesses, appearing only at dawn or dusk for the occasional raid for food and slaves.[1a][3a]

Total war Fimir Warrior Render 1

A Fimir warrior, or Fimm, as rendered for Total War: Warhammer.

The Fimir, degenerate and malign, have been reduced to plotting petty raids within their forlorn strongholds and nursing bitter hatred for those that now rule where once they were masters. Larger and more ferocious than their sorcerous Dirach brethren, with tails tipped with huge bony clubs, the Fimir of the Fimm caste are mighty warriors, their deathly, yellow-grey flesh all but immune to pain so that each can shrug off bows that would kill a man outright.[4a]

The Fimm now march forth from the few remaining hidden Fimir holds under dense blankets of fog -- summoned and controlled by primitive talismans forged in blood and bronze by the Dirach and their foul Fimir matriarchs, the Meargh, their goal to tear the warm-blooded screaming from their shattered homes and holdfasts.[4a]

Few wizards possess the means to call forth the Fimir from their places of hiding -- for these creatures swore ancient oaths of service to the Daemons of Chaos which were committed to binding scrolls of flayed skin in the blood of mortal races long since extinct, and fewer still dare to use them.[4a]

Those that do possess this dark knowledge can summon forth black, armoured warbands of the Fimir to walk the Old World once more, leaving nothing but death and destruction in their wake.[4a]

Notable Events

–20 IC - After his defeat by the Teutogens, Marius the Fen Wolf, first king of Jutonsryk, leads the Jutone tribe of Men west into what will eventually become the Westerland from Nordland. He commences a campaign to rid the River Reik's marshes in the region of marauding bands of Fimir.[11a]

Anatomy and Physiology

Different kind of Fimir

A Fimir Noble and the other castes of the Fimir as they were presented in the 1st Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.[8a]

Fimir are humanoid creatures, slightly larger than Humans, with great barrel-chests and powerful limbs. They have tails, the shape of which varies depending upon their social standing and age. Warriors of the Fimm caste have tails which end in clubs and maces, for example, whilst Fimir Nobles may have spiked or slashing tails. The Meargh and Dirach castes differ from the others in having horns and smooth tails.[2b]

Fimir are a cold-blooded species and have thick, protective yellow-grey,[4a] light green or buff skin,[2b] pointed snouts, jagged fangs, and a single baleful eye.[4a] All Fimir have only a single, cyclopean eye, and because of this they judge distances by light intensity rather than through stereoscopic accuracy.[2b]

The cyclopean eye of Fimir wizards can perceive the ebbs and flows of the Winds of Magic as easily as a Human eye perceives light and shade. This greater awareness of the Winds of Magic allows them to make the best use of any available magical power.[11c]

Every Fimir raiding party is able to generate its own mist. Fimir dislike bright sunlight. If Fimlr are deprived of their covering mist, they become dazed and confused.[10a]

The Fimir Warriors,[2b] also known as Fimm, are the strongest of the Fimir,[4a] with cruel bony clubs at the tips of their tails.[3a][4a]

The Dirach, on the other hand, possess witchsight in their singular eyes.[1a]

Total war Fimir Balefiend Render 8

A Fimir Balefiend or Dirach as rendered for Total War: Warhammer.

The Meargh matriarchs of the Fimir clans are unique in that their heads are covered in lank hair, as well as being horned and smooth-tailed like the Dirach.[2b]

The Fimir are obliged to raid and carry off captives in order to perpetuate themselves, for there are no fertile Fimir females. All Fimir are the result of the union of Fimir and captive Human women. In fact, the only female Fimir are the Meargh or witch-queens which rule their race. Witch-queens are powerful wizards and Chaos Sorcerers but hardly ever travel far from their fortresses.[2b][9a]

More commonly seen amongst Fimir raiding parties are the caste of male wizards, the Dirach, sometimes called "demon-fiends." Raiding parties may also have a number of Fimir slaves or Shearl in attendance, although these are looked down upon by the warriors themselves. The Fimir are said to hold concourse with the Daemons of Chaos, and they are masters of daemonology.[2b][9a]

Society

The heraldry of a Fimm noble

A Fimm Noble and the heraldry of a Fimir army.[10c]

Most Fimir are male. The only female Fimir are the Meargh, powerful spellcasters who rule the Fimir clans as their matriarchs. There is only one Meargh per clan, so if she has a daughter, the daughter will leave to form her own clan.[2a] The witch-queens are rarely seen except when their home fortress is in danger.[2b]

The Meargh is aided by a cabal of male sorcerers known as Dirach or Fimir Balefiends. The Fimm, who possess bony protrusions at the end of their tails that they use as clubs, make up the warrior caste of Fimir society, but the majority of clan members are the lowly, slave-like Shearls.[3a]

Important possessions to a Fimir clan are crude talismans that can summon a thick cover of mist and fog. Such talismans are carried by Fimir warbands on raids and expeditions.[4a]

Despite hating Mankind for stealing away the favour and attention of the Chaos Gods, Fimir warriors may make common cause with the Norscan tribes, as they both crave the attention of the Dark Gods, but even so, it is an uneasy and fractious alliance.[5]

Occasionally a Human witch will seek out a clan of Fimir, for it's rumoured that the race has the knowledge of summoning and controlling Daemons, a tempting prize for any would-be spellcaster.[3a]

Religion

""WHHHATTT ARE YOU DOING SSSTILLL HHHERE, VERMIN? WHHHY AREN'T YOU OUT SSSEARCHHHING FOR THHHAT TRAITOR? BY BALOR'SSS KILLING EYE, I'LL EAT YOUR LIVER IF HHHE ISSSN'T FFFOUND!!""

—Mother Skattach, Meargh of a small Fimir stronghold in Schadensumpf, the huge marsh to the west of Middenheim.[10b]

Little is known of the religion and deities of the Fimir. It may be that they worship certain of the more powerful Greater Daemons to whom they are allied. At least some groups of Fimir worship a deity called Balor, of whom little is known except that he is of immense size, and has one eye.

It said that several Fimir are needed to lift the eyelid, but when the eye is open it has the power to kill every living thing it looks upon.[10a]

One common symbol that is found repeated on Fimir banners, armour and equipment is a diamond-shape inside a larger, hollow diamond, with short rays projecting from the sides of the larger diamond. This is rumored to be a conventional symbol for "death-dealing eye," but, as is invariably the case with Fimir, little is known for certain.[10a]

Settlements

Rumored to be part Human and part Daemon, the Fimir haunt bogs, fens, and desolate moorlands. Their strongholds are forbidding, craggy piles of rock, crudely built in the semblance of a Human castle and constantly wreathed in mist. Frequently, the Fimir refurbish and occupy the ruins of ancient Human strongholds rather than building their own.[10a]

Some legends tell of a Fimir capital, a vast castle of obsidian rising from a craggy island called Hybrasille in some legends, surrounded by treacherous rocks and reefs. The location of this island is not known, but some accounts claim that it vanishes from time to time, to appear somewhere else.[10a]

Foreign Relations

The fearful Fimm raiders are the scourge of Human settlements along the coasts or the fenland margins of the Old World. They come forth seeking Human captives for whom a foul and hideous fate awaits and disappear back into the marshes. Large Fimir warbands, that might join forces with other races as allies, are the result of the sundering of Fimir clans. Restless and disturbed bands of Fimir (who have been banished from their clan's stronghold) become the allies of other destructive races such as Greenskins or Dark Elves.[10a]

Only the warrior caste Fimm and the elite Fianna Fimm, retainers of the Fimm Nobles, are likely to turn up as allies of other mortal races. Such contingents will certainly contain Dirach sorcerers or possibly even a Meargh, but the wretched Shearls, as the Fimir slave caste is known, perish with the sundering of the clan.[10a]

Marsh Magic

Fimir wizards are skilled in their own particular forms of magic which draw greatly on the power of Ulgu, the Grey Wind of Magic and the source of the Lore of Shadow. Some of the more notable spells available to the Meargh and Dirach of a Fimir clan include the following:[12c]

  • A Bite of Midges - The caster calls forth a great swirling cloud of midges to plague their foes with painful bites.[12c]
  • Despondent Slough - The ground between the feet of this spell's target becomes cold and sucking mud. Escape is not easy, and the more the target struggles to free themselves the more hopeless and dejected they become.[12c]
  • Inculcate Mizzle - The caster implores the clouds above the marshes to gather and issue forth a gentle but freezing, penetrating rain. Fimir find this sort of weather comforting.[11c]
  • Mystic Mist - Mystic Mist has the same effect as the Lore of Shadow spell Mystifying Miasma. The caster conjures forth a swirling mass of mist shot through with roiling shadow that confounds the senses. Anyone within the mist who are not mages of the Lore of Shadows are affected by the miasma.[12d]
  • O Mere Be More - This is a new spell the Meargh Mòna Mimn has been working on but has yet to perfect. In order to cast the spell, the wizard must stand on the edge of a marsh, one foot in water and the other on dry land. The edge of the marsh then creeps outward across the area of effect of the spell.[12c]
  • Turned Around - The caster curses their target into becoming confused and losing all sense of direction. In order for this spell to work the target must not be aware that it has been cast.[12c]

Notable Fimir

  • Mòna Mimn - Mòna Mimn is an insane Meargh of the Wasteland who has seen Men slowly kill her clan until they went extinct over bleak decades and who desires revenge against all Mankind. She hopes to use a waystone to turn the Old World into a vast cold mere, as everyone must experience the suffering she has known watching her clan slowly whittled down by the murderous actions of Men over the long decades.[12b]

Forces of the Fimir

Total War Fimir Warrior Render 3

A Fimir Warrior of the Fimm caste, as rendered for Total War: Warhammer. Note the bony protrusion on the tail which denote a member of the Fimir warrior caste.

  • Fianna Fimm – Fianna Fimm are the elite retainers of Fimm Nobles and are nearly always led by a noble. They are the noble's personal bodyguard and the fighting core of his retinue.[10a]
  • Fimm (Fimir Warrior) – A Fimm is a member of the Fimir warrior caste, and are strong enough to act as shock troops.[2b] These are the majority of warrior Fimir, and usually form the bulk of a Fimir military force or raiding band. They are the lowest level of the warrior caste.[10a]
  • Shearls - Shearls are the lowest ranked Fimir, treated as little more than lowly slaves by the upper castes. They are used as labourers and sometimes as cannon-fodder infantry, though they must be competently led by a Dirach or Fimm warrior as they lack discipline and martial courage.[2b]

Miniatures

Videos

Sources

  • 1: Storm of Magic (8th Edition)
    • 1a: pg. 134
  • 2: Warhammer: Armies: Rulebook (3rd Edition)
    • 2a: pg. 136
    • 2b: pp. 217-219
  • 3: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Core Rulebook (RPG)
    • 3a: pg. 320
  • 4: Monstrous Arcanum (8th Edition)
    • 4a: pg. 60
  • 5: Total War: Warhammer (PC Game)
  • 6:Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition: Marienburg - Sold Down the River (RPG)
    • 6a: pg. 7
    • 6b: pp. 8-9
  • 7: The Black Plague: Blighted Empire (Novel) by C.L. Werner
    • 7a: Ch. 10
  • 8: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition: Rulebook (RPG)
    • 8a: pg. 219
  • 9: Warhammer: The Old World Rulebook (Specialist Game)
    • 9a: pg. 183
  • 10: White Dwarf 102
  • 11: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Sea of Claws (RPG)
  • 12:Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Winds of Magic (RPG)
  • 13:Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Winds of Magic (RPG)
    • 13a: Norsca DLC

Gallery

Advertisement