The Vulture Lord

Warhammer Age of Sigmar

By: Richard Strachan

Narrated by: Richard Reed

A Zothar Athrabis novel.

Zothar is an Ossiarch Bonereaper who rules over a city in Shyish. He struck a bargain with Nagash to preserve the soul of his dead son, choosing a new host from the victor of the Games—a festival that takes place once each decade. When Zothar breaks tradition and raises Lycus, the current champion, as his own son, his actions incite a bloody rebellion amongst the citizens.

Listen to it because....

It’s a fascinating look at what passes for normal life in the realm of Shyish, where the living and the dead walk side by side, and everyday existence is filled with danger, adventure, and no shortage of bizarre and mystical creatures.

The Story:

In a forgotten corner of Shyish, the city of Lament prepares for the most important festival in its calendar, the Games—a series of events that will seal the fate of their victor.

Following the tragic death of his son many centuries ago, the cruel Vulture Lord, King Zothar Athrabis, made a terrible bargain with Nagash to preserve his child’s soul. Now, once every 10 years, the new champion of the Games must become host to the boy’s tormented spirit, while the old vessel is condemned to death. Most citizens of Lament deem this a great honour, but when the city’s newly crowned champion, Lycus, is taken by the king to raise as his own, his family question their sacrifice.

As the years pass and a new decade looms ever closer—and with it Lycus’ grisly fate—the Prince of Athrabis is caught between his duty to his new father and the prospect of escaping death to return to his old life. As fierce, bloody rebellion ensues, and Lycus is exposed to violent truths, he must decide once and for all where his loyalties lie.

Written by Richard Strachan. Narrated by Richard Reed. Running time 9 hours 46 mins (approx).

©2022 Games Workshop Limited (P)2022 Games Workshop Limited

A Captivating Story

The character development of this story is pretty solid. Overall it’s an enjoyable story to listen to. From the perspective of the narrator, you have a feeling of pity for any of the characters and the situations they’re put in. I very much enjoy stories that make you feel bad even for the bad guy that you know you are supposed to despise.

Amazing side to the ossiarch mind.

This book was not as I expected even after reading the overview. Expecting a story of mean dead guys just being mean dead guys surprised me when we got to see the ins and outs of an ossiarch mind. Yes, they are mean dead men but, with meaning and almost disdain towards it. Definitely worth a listen or read, you get another side of why the ossiarch do what they do, and get much more than you do in the lore of them than you will in the Lumineth books.

Blow burn, but a good burn

The whole story is very slow to get anywhere, but when it does it does turn out to be a pretty good story. It is also a nice book to get an idea of what the OBR faction is like. So yeah, If you can deal with a slow start book and like Age of Sigmar or the OBR faction I can give this one a recommendation.

Fantastic World Building!

The first half of this book really gave you a slice out of Shyish and told you an incredibly unique background and plot set up. Unlike most Black Library books, the non-Order factions had more character than I expected. The Bonereapers were still horrific but there were some characters that had more depth beyond a spooky boogeyman. Highly recommend if you want an interesting piece of the mortal realms

Pretty Good

The book overall was enjoyable, the take on obr as a faction was interesting, as its more of an interpersonal story. Some decisions made by the supporting cast were odd and stole too much screen/page time imo.

Narration was well done, and never distracted from the story. Overall pretty good.