I was very tempted to have a Dawi-Zhaar image, but I was already at the low end of the word limit so I nixed the idea.
Secondly, thanks for the cameo
@J.Logan
No problem. I thought the Guns were a good way of emphasizing an alternate timeline that felt wildly unusual for those within Age of Sigmar's setting to behold. Even moreso than
@Warden's Saurmurai of the Dragon Isles.
Also included were two of
@Mr.Crocodile's works. The elf girl hugging a Kroxigor is one of my favourite oneshots in his Lustria Unleashes series, just because of how cute it is, and I imagine that the image was just the exact same picture included in that short. The other, the human with gold ringed eyes, is meant to be a reference to this "Herald of the Old Ones" though after the fact I was uncertain how well I remembered the titular herald's description and whether I wad remembering correctly the gold rings in his eyes.
Archaon getting booted in the nads by Grimgor Ironhide (not that anybody knew Grimgor's name, that being a detail lost to history) is a reference to the canonical ending of the Storm of Chaos event, before GeeDubs retconed it for the End Times. According to the Warhammer RPG of the day, that was the move that win Grimgor the battle. Or I am once again misremembering details. But I just wanted to go out on a moment of levity, remembered that there was at one time a canonical event that ended with the most feared man of the setting being booted in the gentleman's sausage and thought "why not".
Not alternate histories or references to any fan stories, but Thorgrim Grudgebearer and Karl Franz had cameos, but like Grimgor, the name is lost to most of those of the Realms.
Why set it in Age of Sigmar? Because I had a feeling that AoS wouldn't get much representation, and I felt like experimenting. AoS is one of those settings where you can be far more open for exploration in strange and unusual details, it's basically Warhammer planescape. The Sanctum of Divergent Histories felt like the kind of unusual discovery that would be found in the Realms, with a lingering mystery as to its origins.
I didn't include a reference to my Outland Legion, because I felt it would have been the marker that made it too obviously me, and it would have felt needlessly self indulgent besides. And this way, I left it open for myself to say that this was part of the same timeline as the Legion exists (the original plan always included them getting to survive into Age of Sigmar).
Tobias Greymantle is a character I might explore again later down the line. The idea in my head is that in his youth he was an Indiana Jones type character, a glorified tomb raider, but not for wealth but a legitimate passion for uncovering history and helping the Realms to learn that history.
Elmyra was something of a thought experiment of "so skink is living along the warmbloods as a peer, how did that shape her?" And in her case, having a name that was warmbloodified to a feminine name feels like as good a reason as any for her to shrug and say "ok, guess I'm officially a female then. Anything I need to know specifically as a female? No? Then let's just move on."
Alternate idea for my entry included an Oceans 11 styled art heist. Would have included teeth clenched teamwork as a member of the team would have been a skaven who was hired as a consultant, a wood elf who is finding the while thing so absurd that he's going along with it just because it's so hilarious to him, and a Dawi who insists he is the Old World's greatest gymnast, which he isn't, but everybody is too afraid to tell him because they aren't sure if he'll put them in the book for insulting him. And the skink and saurus who would have been the Lustrian representation.
Shelved that idea, because I knew after ten minutes of consideration that I could never condense that into the word limit.
