Check the Darklands out. Gorgoth, the Black Fortress, The Gates og Zharr, even frigging Zharr Naggrund is there.
As far as I know we are the only legacy faction officially represented on the map.
This ought to be a good sign.
6 Likes
Exciting!! Someone must have figured out the embedding and downloaded the map without the iconographyā¦ Iām looking at the source code - itās not just as simple as a .webp image.
<div class="map-container">
<div class="map-element" data-url="/map/{z}/{x}/{y}.webp?v=2502121546" data-overlay-frill-url="/media/bwtn5z31/map-overlay-frill.webp" data-collection="1187" data-center-lat="53.6673" data-center-lon="-3.9344">
<div class="map-overlay" style="--map-overlay-background-image: url('/media/mzojju12/map-overlay-background.webp?width=400&rnd=133501375669485251'); --map-overlay-background-color: #013d55">
<div class="map-overlay-close">
<img src="/images/cancel.svg" alt="Close" width="13" height="13" />
</div>
<div class="map-overlay-content">
<img class="map-overlay-icon" src="" alt="" />
<h3 class="map-info-name"></h3>
<div class="map-overlay-text"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="map-navigation">
<input type="image" src="/images/left.svg" alt="Left" width="7.5" height="13.5" />
<div class="map-info">
<span class="map-info-name"></span>
<button class="map-info-button btn--icon">i</button>
</div>
<input type="image" src="/images/right.svg" alt="Right" width="7.5" height="13.5" />
</div>
</div>
Itās that /map/{z}/{x}/{y}.webp?v=2502121546 bitā¦
~N
[edit] The one map thatās up on Reddit is only 2289 pixels wide. The one embedded on https://theoldworld.com/ is 6660 pixels wide. The reddit one had annoying seams at the edges from whoever stitched it together and itās not really readable. The Reddit one also has a good portion of the top and bottom cropped and is also missing the Chaos Wastes as well.
2 Likes
There are several changes to the Darklands that have been made.
They Moved the Black Fortress across the river, which ruins that one scene in Tamurkhan. The Flayed Rock has been moved East. Iām assuming that āFlayer Rockā is a typo. The settlement of Diretown is new to me. anyone heard of it before? There is also less hills between the River Andun and the Haunted Forest to the south.
Shattered Stone Bay went unlabelled but there is the new Sea Of Storms marked. The Scalded Delta has been renamed The Scolded Slough. The Fortress of Vorag was moved East. There isnāt a single Volcano in the Ash Ridge mountains marked on the map?
Kislev! Weāve had mentions of Eastern Kislevite colonies before but never like this. Check the cheeky skull too, just above Uzkulak. The Dark Citadel? Anyone know anything? new to me. Especially never seen anything ever marked on our previously unnamed lakes, Ozergrany and Ozeryatruk. We gotta get the Khazalid versions of those. So happy they named them. Wonder what the relationship between Uzkulak and Uzkulany is? Uzkulak looks like it barely has access to the Sea of Chaos.
They really expanded this part. In previous editions around where it now says āUngolsā it used to say Kul, or Hobgobla Khan. Both the Kul and Hobgobla Khan have been moved very far North of us.
Anyone notice any other changes?
3 Likes
Nice find, Uzkulak always had a hidden harbor, we also built an underground canal connecting the sea of chaos with The Falls of Doom and the river Ruin, so that our navy has access to two oceans. Uzkulany was introduced in warhammer total war 3. In the game it is a minor settlement of the chaos dwarfs but on this map it is clearly a Kislev city :(. I have no idea what the dark citadel isā¦
1 Like
Guess their graphics design folks didnāt notice their mistake with the forest layers being drawn over the label for āThe Haunted Forestāā¦
~N
4 Likes
Really cool tidbits in here. Very exciting!
With the return of Fantasy, itās like the Ravening Hordes days ago over again where we cling to all the bits of Chaos Dwarf lore and representation. 
Fun times.
2 Likes
6656x9818 pixels. Only 72 DPI (screen resolution). (size reduced by the server automatically)
Highest zoomed-in resolution from https://theoldworld.com site, stitched together without borders or tiling. I also took the liberty of removing the +/- zoom symbol overlays from the bottom right.
Thereās some dithering that happens on the interactive site if you scroll away and scroll back, or zoom in and zoom out. When you overlay what should be the same image the pixels bordering two colours have slightly different values each time - I suspect the embedded image content may be slightly better resolution, either that or itās being re-generated as a .webp image from a png or jpg source each time.
Anyway, enjoy. 
~N
[edit] Fixed a tiling artifact at Kurgazās Forge, updated image loaded above.
4 Likes
Nice. Now I have my new phone wallpaper. 
3 Likes
Sadly the site resizes the image, so itās significantly smaller and reduced to <1MB. If anyone wants the full-size image just pop me a PM on here with your e-mail address.
~N
Going back to the first references to Cathay on the Warhammer Community site I noticed the Hobgoblin tribes reference that Iād missed 3 years ago!
Overlaying the two current maps we have of the Old World on an older world map for reference I have circled the two spots on these maps that reference the Hobgoblin tribes. The (North) Eastern Steppes is an absolutely massive area. Me thinks I need to start working on my Hobgoblin Horde again 
For your consideration:
~N
3 Likes
It is a globe and we see a Mercator Projection on the map if I am not mistaken.
1 Like
LOL. The projection is also evident from the northern- and southern-most portions of the older Warhammer Fantasy maps. The āOld Worldā map has always had the influence of the Mercator projection imposed on it, whether the artists were intentionally thinking that way or not - Nonetheless I stand by my statement: āEastern Steppes is an absolutely massive area.ā
If we superimposed lines of latitude on the greyscale map above the portions of the Eastern Steppes are at roughly the same latitude as the northern parts associated with the Empire (later on), Norsca, and other common territories. This I already consider relatively large in the Warhammer Fantasy setting.
If we were to follow imaginary lines of longitude from the areas potentially occupied by the Hobgoblin Khans (assuming the two red circles represent eastern/western and northern/southern boundaries) then weāre still going from the eastern Darklands into Western Cathay - which is a massive area
If I need to qualify my statement further - itās just more massive of an area than I was thinking the Hobgoblins possibly had access to and clearly leaves a lot of scope for imagination, despite the map looking rather bleak up there. Perhaps time to dust off my plans for a northern desert Hobgoblin tribeā¦
~N
1 Like
Iāve noted a few more things. This is by no means exhaustive, but itās worth looking into for those of us here who are more involved in the Chaos Dwarf lore and background than just playing battle games on the table top. Iām not drawing in map information from Tamurkhan or elsewhere, just the current (Feb 2025 map and one of the most common Old World maps thatās been floating around for well over a decade now).
For starters, I took our old Old World map, that many of us are more familiar with, and aligned it as best I could in Photoshop. Iām not an expert at this kind of thing, but I do this fairly regularly for work (aligning brain imaging data from different imaging modalities and with differing resolutions) and there are software tools that automate image alignment - I did not use any tools except for Photoshop scaling and rotation. I could be wrong, but I donāt think itās going to be possible to get a 1:1 correspondence for the edges of the continents or other land masses. Nevertheless, I did my best (for now) alignment:
Iāll go over major details and minor details with regards to the Darklands, but this isnāt exhaustive, just a few notable things, so hereās what weāre talking about:
(For reference: Orange dots are old map locations of note from the old map, Red dots are the corresponding location on the new Old World map. Dark blue highlights the River Ruin from the old map, and Light blue is the river in the new Old World.)
Major details:
If my scaling and/or rotation was off significantly then all map locations should be progressively worse as you move farther out. What we see is that major map features (oceans, edges of the land, and mountains) are very well aligned.
The locations of The Falls of Doom, Crookback Mountain, and The Daemon Stump are almost exactly the same between map versions, but the placement of other areas differs. For example, the Gates of Zharr now appear to be shown much closer to the Plain of Zharr (although the gates are renamed (misnamed?) Gates of Zhurr on the new mapā¦ ugh).
The River Ruin takes a significantly different course between the two maps - HOWEVER - its origin at The Falls of Doom and its exit in the Scalded Delta perfectly align, and the river systems draining away from the Mountains of Mourn also match reasonably well. What this suggests to me is that there may be a narrative reason for the change in flow.
Separately, The Rib Peaks in the West edge of the Darklands in the current Old World map is completely new and replaces the Desolation of Drakenmoor.
Minor notes: The positions of most places of note are slightly different and donāt follow any particular trend (if we were to try and blame misalignment or poor scaling of the two maps). Iām attributing the difference in places to just the map-making process of the studio. Positions on the maps should likely always be taken as general locations, regardless what map weāre looking atā¦ although for narrative reasons this can be problematic if river or mountain placement changes. The River Ruin does alter some narrative details, as itās on the opposite side of The Daemon Stump and the Black Fortress now compared to our previous Old World mapā¦ and Flayed Rock is no longer as closely flanked by rivers, but does still sit along the banks of one riverway.
ā Are there any lore buffs who know why the Rib Peaks in the West edge of the Darklands in the current Old World map is replaced by the Desolation of Drakenmoor in our older maps? Or does anyone have background info on Drakenmoor?? If the studio doesnāt suggest a reason for the Desolation of Drakenmoor or why thereās a significant change in course of the River Ruin then I think the Chaos Dwarf community should absolutely take ownership of these details and come up with our own narrative. Maybe this could be something Artisans Contest worthy? I can already imagine several epic scenarios for both
~N
4 Likes
Desolation of Drakenmoor was an unexplained thing on the old map from 4th edition. Tamurkhan (p175) described The Nightmare of Drakenmoor as the result of a battle between Skaven and Chaos Dwarfs that tore of hole in the fabric of reality, letting daemons out to destroy both armies and ravage the lands around for a year afterwards. I canāt see any reason why it and Rib Peaks have both moved a bit further north.
I think Drakenmoor sounds more like a Vampire Counts name.
2 Likes
Thereās a sliver of mountains there in the current Old World map along with the larger mountain range thatās labeled Rib Peaks, so maybe itās just that the remaining mountain in that area after the reality-breaking events of the Skaven/Chaos Dwarf battle got stuck with the name for the larger mountain range?? Either that or it wasnāt thought out at all
1 Like
The multitude of typos in this Eastern portion of the map is disappointing and slightly shocking to me. Overall, as much as I am loving the Old World with my shiny new āOsterlundā (?) army, the attention to detail is lacking.
This is fantastic stuff! The change in flow of the River Ruin does make the river crossing scene in Tamurkhan at the Black Fortress confusing now that the Black Fortress isnāt on the other side of the river. This is especially a confusing change as it seems purposeful since they remembered to move The Sentinels accordingly.
We never knew much about Daemonās Stump anyway so the river snaking West of it changes nothing.
As for Drakenmoor, I always assumed it was an Empire term for some Mountain pass, South of Peak Pass. The Drakenmoor Gap. They also added an E to the end of it this edition. I think moving the Desolation North could make more sense, looks like a more open space where a Warhammer battle would occur. Does throw out my reasoning for the name.
1 Like