Mordheim

Lore & Background

Mordheim's destruction is one of the Old World's great tragedies. A comet — known as the Twin-Tailed Comet — struck the city, reducing it to a smoking ruin. The survivors who returned found a place beyond the reach of any authority: no Empire garrison, no temple, no guild hall. What grew in the absence of law was a feral ecosystem of gangers, cultists, and monster-hunters who survived by taking what they could and killing what threatened them. In the Vermintide narrative, Mordheim functions as a pressure valve for the world's escalating chaos. The city is a magnet for those the Empire has cast out and for the unnatural forces that seek to exploit its ruins. The Gangers, Mordheim's most iconic denizens, operate small war-bands that raid, trade, and fight for territory across the ruined blocks. They are not mindless savages; they are survivors with codes, grudges, and a desperate pragmatism born of a place where the ground itself may collapse into a Skaven tunnel at any moment. The campaign positions the player characters as outsiders thrust into this ecosystem. They are not Mordheimers, and the city's inhabitants do not trust them. The conflict is layered: a factional struggle over resources and territory within the city, a larger supernatural threat that the factions are either exploiting or trying to contain, and the ever-present danger of the city's infrastructure itself — bridges that will not hold, floors that give way, and the ever-present possibility that the ruins are hiding something far older and more dangerous than the current squabbling.

In Their Own Story

The rain came sideways through the gap where the old cathedral's nave used to be, pooling in the hollows of shattered pews. Kaelen wiped the slurry from his visor and counted the bodies — six Gangers, their bandoliers still intact, their eyes open in the way that meant something had killed them fast and from below. The alley stank of rust and old blood. Somewhere under the cobblestones, something breathed with a wet, rhythmic rasp. He'd heard tales of the things that nested in Mordheim's forgotten cellars — Skaven warrens, mutant lairs, even a rumored pit where a shard of the comet that destroyed the city still pulsed with corrupt light. But this was different. The bodies weren't looted. Their weapons lay where they'd fallen. Whatever killed them wasn't hungry, and it wasn't interested in their gear. It was hunting for something else. Kaelen unslung his hammer and stepped over the nearest corpse, the rain washing the blood from his boots. The breathing grew louder.

Reader's Guide

SPOILERS AHEAD for the Mordheim campaign in Warhammer: Vermintide 2. The campaign opens with the player characters arriving in Mordheim, drawn by a threat that has the city's factions on edge. The first act establishes the urban environment: narrow streets, collapsing structures, and close-quarters combat against Gangers and their allies. The conflict is driven by a local power struggle — a faction within the city is pursuing an objective that threatens to destabilize the already fragile balance, and the players are caught in the crossfire. As the campaign progresses, the scope widens. What began as a local dispute reveals a larger supernatural or Chaos-aligned threat operating beneath the city. The player characters must navigate vertical environments — rooftops, stairwells, and underground tunnels — while the Gangers shift from adversaries to reluctant allies (or vice versa, depending on their choices). The stakes escalate from territorial control to the survival of the city's remaining population. The final act culminates in a confrontation with the primary antagonist, a boss encounter set within the ruined heart of Mordheim. The resolution does not restore the city to what it was — Mordheim is not meant to be saved, only endured. The characters leave with the knowledge that the ruins will keep producing monsters, and the next time they pass through, the balance will have shifted again. Note: Vermintide 2's Mordheim campaign is a fan-facing expansion of the broader Warhammer Fantasy setting. The city's core identity — ruined, lawless, monster-infested — is consistent with established canon, but the specific plot, characters, and events are original to the game and do not correspond to a particular novel or rulebook entry.

Did You Know?

• Mordheim's urban, vertical environment is a deliberate contrast to the forests and open fields of other Warhammer Fantasy settings, requiring different movement and combat strategies from players — you'll learn to love t
• In the broader Warhammer Fantasy setting, Mordheim's Gangers are a well-established faction with their own codes, war-bands, and cultural identity — they are survivors, not mere thugs.