Warpstone

Fictional record. This page describes a mining commodity from a fictional setting, not a real material. Information is based on the cited canon, with adaptations and interpretation distinguished where necessary. It is kept separate from the real MineArchive corpus — see Fictional.

Solidified Chaos: a glowing green crystalline substance of the Warhammer world, the raw stuff of magic made solid, mined and hoarded by the Skaven, sought by alchemists, and forbidden in the Empire on pain of death. Humans call it wyrdstone; to the Skaven it is god-stone.

Where it occurs

Most warpstone falls as meteorites broken from Morrslieb, the Chaos moon, the greater part landing in the Dark Lands, and powdered warpstone blows south on the winds from the Northern Wastes. Lumps are usually about the size of a fist. The great comet-falls left the richest grounds: the ruined city of Mordheim, destroyed in Imperial Year 1999; the ancient city of Kavzar, now Skavenblight; the Warpstone Desolation east of the Great Maw; Sylvania, where smaller meteorites rained down during the Great Plague; and Cripple Peak, where Nagash built his fortress. It also forms where the undead have been active, and powerful sorcerers can crystallise small pieces from a strong enough current of Dark Magic.

How it's obtained

The Skaven mine it, and their slaves do the digging: the Warlock Engineer Narshift's remark that touching warpstone often is dangerous but that is what slaves are for sums up the method. The Dwarf physician Farin Northri of Karak Zulvor studied the effects of warpstone ore and dust on Dwarf miners and described a Warpstone Sickness in three stages, by exposure of under an hour, under a day and longer. At Mordheim the comet's fragments were gathered rather than mined: warbands from across the Old World fought over the ruins for them, the premise of the 1999 skirmish game of that name. Raw warpstone is refined by the Skaven Grey Seers into a grey powder that can be used with some control, and minted into warpstone tokens that serve the Under-Empire as currency.

Properties

A bright emerald-green crystal that seems to swallow the light around it and gives off a black and queasy greenish glow. It is faceted like flint, slightly warm, and has no smell. It is the ultimate magical substance, and deadly: prolonged exposure brings madness, mutation, illness and death, a pinch swallowed dooms the eater to catastrophic warping of body and mind, and it is addictive beyond any natural drug. Northri's first stage, after a minute to an hour, is weariness, nausea, nosebleeds and temporary blindness; the second, after up to a day, a false euphoria followed by minor mutations; the third, after longer, major mutations with no cure. The Skaven tolerate it better than other races, which does not make it safe for them.

Why it's valuable

No people need warpstone as the Skaven do. It is the energy source of their magic and their machines, from the warpfire thrower and the poisoned wind globe to the doomwheel and the screaming bell, an ingredient in their breeding experiments, their currency and, to them, the gift of the Horned Rat. In the Empire its possession has been forbidden for centuries, and under Magnus the Pious the penalty became death; witch hunters pursue traffickers because it makes mutants. The rarity makes it fabulously valuable in the right circles, a single ounce enough to buy a duchy, and legends from the fall of Mordheim that it turns lead into gold, heals the sick and restores youth keep alchemists and fools reaching for it. Nagash fed on it during his flight from Nehekhara, and the Dwarfs, who mistrust it utterly, touched it once: Alaric the Mad used warpstone to make the Nemesis Crown, and sealed it away when he saw what he had done.

Uses

Skaven weaponry and engines, charms, poisons, potions and currency; the fuel of Grey Seer sorcery; the raw material of mutation; a catalyst in alchemical transmutation and in the darkest necromancy. The High Elves refuse it altogether, making their own power stones that hold a single Wind of Magic without warpstone's corruption.

Canon & adaptations

The sources argue about what it is. Among the Skaven the religious view holds it to be the leavings of the Horned Rat and the secular view fragments of the moon Morrslieb. The Loremasters of Hoeth hold that the Old Ones made it to power devices such as the polar gates, and that it is not corrupting in itself but gathers the Winds of Magic into Dhar the longer it sits in the world. Mannfred von Carstein's research called it concentrated Sekhem, the soul-force of living things, cut off from the Aethyr. Lexicanum notes that its own article still wants citations, and the wiki's trivia section observes the obvious likeness to radioactive material as popular fiction portrays it.

Related fictional records

Karak Eight Peaks, Gromril

Recorded claims

Each claim is marked with its basis — explicit canon, MineArchive inference, adaptation only, or fandom interpretation — and attached to the source(s) below. Where tellings disagree, both are kept.

• Warpstone is solidified Chaos; most of it falls as meteorites from the moon Morrslieb, and the great comet-falls at Mordheim, Skavenblight, Sylvania and Cripple Peak left the richest grounds. (MineArchive inference) ^1,2
• The Skaven mine warpstone using slaves, and the Grey Seers refine the raw stone into a grey powder that can be used with some control. (MineArchive inference) ^1,2
• The Dwarf physician Farin Northri described a three-stage Warpstone Sickness in miners exposed to warpstone ore and dust, ending in incurable mutation after more than a day's exposure. (MineArchive inference) ¹
• Possession of warpstone in the Empire carries the death penalty since Magnus the Pious, yet a single ounce is said to be enough to buy a duchy. (MineArchive inference) ¹
• A comet destroyed the city of Mordheim in Imperial Year 1999 and scattered wyrdstone through the ruins, which warbands from across the Old World then fought over. (MineArchive inference) ^2,3
• Skaven lore divides between warpstone as the leavings of the Horned Rat and as fragments of the moon Morrslieb; the Loremasters of Hoeth hold it to be a power source made by the Old Ones. (MineArchive inference, disputed) ¹

Sources

1. (interpretation) Warpstone — Warhammer Fantasy Wiki — Warhammer Fantasy Wiki (Fandom), citing Warhammer Armies: Skaven (4th and 7th ed.), WFRP Realms of Sorcery pp.43-44, Liber Necris pp.17, 60, Warhammer Armies: Vampire Counts (8th ed.) p.7, WFRP Tome of Corruption p.89, The Loathsome Ratmen p.21, Old World Bestiary p.38, WFRP 4th ed. rulebook p.233 and the novels Grey Seer and Nagash Immortal; read through the wiki's MediaWiki API
2. (interpretation) Warpstone — Lexicanum — Lexicanum (Warhammer: The Old World), citing Warhammer Armies: Skaven (4th ed.) p.10, Old World Bestiary p.38, Rise of Nagash p.419 and Monstrous Arcanum p.57; read from a 2024 Wayback capture
3. (interpretation) Mordheim — Wikipedia — Wikipedia, citing the 1999 Mordheim rulebook

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026