The Vermintide Story - Welcome to the End Times

Hello again, mayflies.

Up until now, I’ve shown you how to sharpen your daggers, execute the perfect block cancel, and erase Cataclysm monsters from existence in mere seconds. But while we are busy min-maxing our DPS and chasing green circles, have you ever stopped to look at the sky? Have you ever wondered why the world around us feels so decayed, so hopeless, and so beautifully close to total annihilation?

Welcome to the End Times.

We aren't just fighting a random fantasy war in Helmgart; we are standing at the absolute precipice of the apocalypse. The Chaos Gods are tearing reality apart, and the Old World is breathing its final, agonizing breaths.

After 2,000 hours of listening to the banter in Taal's Horn Keep, digging through obscure Warhammer Fantasy lore archives, and surviving the deepest pits of the Weaves, I’ve decided to put down my daggers for a moment to tell you a story. In this guide, I will break down the tragic, bloody, and heroic lore of Warhammer: Vermintide 2. We will uncover the dark pasts of the Ubersreik Five, the unholy alliance of our enemies, and the secrets of the mysterious Franz Lohner.

Grab a drink, sit back, and let's dive into the shadows. The history of this world is just as bloody as a Shade’s blade.

IF YOU HAVEN'T REVIEWED MY PREVIOUS GUIDES, PLEASE TAKE A LOOK.

To the untrained eye, our team is just a chaotic mess of bickering races. A dwarf yelling at an elf, a Witch Hunter threatening a pyromancer, and a depressed soldier trying to keep everyone sane. But there is a reason these five individuals are capable of slaughtering entire armies. They aren't just soldiers; they are broken souls with nothing left to lose.

Let’s look at who they really are:

Kerillian (The Waystalker / Handmaiden / Shade)
Since I am a Shade main, let's start with our favorite cloaked assassin. Kerillian hails from Athel Loren, the mystical forest of the Wood Elves. But she didn't leave by choice—she was exiled. Why? Because she peered into the future and saw a terrifying vision of the Ubersreik slaughter before it even happened. Her actions leading up to the End Times indirectly caused a catastrophe for her people, forcing her into the lands of men. As a Shade, she embraces the dark, cruel heritage of the Druchii (Dark Elves), channeling raw, remorseless malice into her blades. She calls everyone "mayflies" because to an immortal elf, human and dwarf lives pass by in the blink of an eye.

Victor Saltzpyre (The Witch Hunter Captain)
The man with one eye and zero tolerance for heresy. Saltzpyre belongs to the Order of the Silver Hammer. Years ago, he lost his eye during an encounter with a Skaven, and since then, he became obsessed with them. The tragic joke? The Empire’s high leadership actively denies the existence of ratmen to prevent mass panic. Saltzpyre was viewed as a lunatic by his own superiors for chasing "fairytale rat-monsters." He is rigid, fanatical, and fueled entirely by holy wrath.

Sienna Fuegonasus (The Bright Wizard)
Sienna is an Aqshy wizard, meaning she manipulates the Wind of Fire. But in Warhammer lore, magic is highly addictive. Sienna isn't just using fire; she is a literal addict. The rush of burning her enemies provides a dopamine hit so intense that she constantly battles insanity. At the start of the first game, she was actually Saltzpyre’s prisoner, being escorted to a trial for allegedly burning down a magistrate’s estate.

Markus Kruber (The Mercenary / Foot Knight / Grail Knight)
Kruber is a veteran Imperial soldier, but underneath his charming, alcohol-loving exterior lies massive PTSD. He used to command a highly capable squad, but a rogue Necromancer wiped out his entire unit with dark magic in an instant. Kruber was the sole survivor, left traumatized and disillusioned with the Imperial military. He was hired by Saltzpyre as extra muscle to help escort Sienna, which is how he ended up in this nightmare.

Bardin Goreksson (The Ranger Veteran)
Bardin is a dwarf with a golden heart and a dark burden. He is looking for Karak Zorn, a legendary, long-lost dwarf hold. Why? Because Bardin feels personally responsible for the fall of his home mountain, Karak Norn, and the death of his son. His cheerful songs and obsession with ale are a defense mechanism to mask a deep, crushing survivor's guilt.

In the vast universe of Warhammer, the forces of evil usually hate each other just as much as they hate us. Under normal circumstances, the Skaven (ratmen) and the Rotbloods (Chaos barbarians) would be ripping each other's throats out. But the apocalypse does strange things. To bring down the Empire of Man, they formed an unholy alliance known as The Dark Pact.

Here are the masterminds behind the armies you face in Cataclysm:

Rasknitt (The Grey Seer)
If you played the first Vermintide game, you know this rat. Rasknitt is a Grey Seer—a powerful, warpstone-snorting wizard-priest of the Skaven. After we kicked his furry butt out of Ubersreik, he didn't give up. Instead, he reached out to the frozen wastes of the North to find heavy muscle. Rasknitt is cunning, treacherous, and completely obsessed with creating the Skittergate, a massive teleportation portal fueled by raw Chaos magic. His goal? To teleport an infinite army of Chaos Northmen directly into the heart of the Empire.

Bödvarr Ribspreader (The Chaos Champion)
Bödvarr is the towering, axe-wielding absolute unit leading the Rotblood Tribe. The Rotbloods are Nurgle-worshiping barbarians from the frozen north. Nurgle is the Chaos God of disease, decay, and "plague-gifts." Bödvarr doesn't just fight for territory; he fights to spread iresome plagues, boils, and rot across Helmgart. He agreed to team up with Rasknitt because the Skittergate gave his tribe a direct, effortless highway to invade and infect the Empire without marching for months.

Burblespue Halescourge (The Sorcerer)
The bloated, flying, vomit-spewing sorcerer of Helmgart. Burblespue was actually a human nobleman from Helmgart who turned to Nurgle's dark magic for power. He uses his rot-magic to cause the terrifying sicknesses you see throughout the city, turning innocent citizens into mindless Chaos fanatics or bloated corpses.

Ever wondered how Vermintide 1 transitions into Vermintide 2?

At the end of the first game, after defending the city of Ubersreik, our heroes were unfortunately ambushed and captured by Rasknitt’s forces. We were stripped of our gear, thrown into iron cages, and dragged to an underground fortress beneath the fortress city of Helmgart.

This is exactly where the opening cinematic of Vermintide 2 begins:

The Sacrifice: Rasknitt finally builds his magnificent Skittergate and activates it. He places the Ubersreik Five in front of it, intending to use our life force and souls to stabilize the portal and bring Bödvarr’s entire army through.

The Malfunction: Luckily for us, Skaven technology is notorious for being unstable and held together by spit and duct tape. The Skittergate malfunctions, exploding violently and shattering our cages.

The Escape: Armed with nothing but rusty swords and scrap wood, we fight our way through the collapsing tunnels, slaughtering Skaven guards, and eventually escaping to the surface of Helmgart.

From that moment on, we are homeless refugees running for our lives, until a mysterious shadow guides us to a safe haven.

After escaping the ruins of Helmgart, the Ubersreik Five needed a hideout. We found refuge in Taal's Horn Keep, an abandoned fortress nestled high in the Grey Mountains. But how did a broken down band of heroes get a fully supplied fortress, an endless supply of weapons, and top-tier intelligence on enemy movements?

The answer lies with the man standing behind the map table: Franz Lohner.

To a casual player, Lohner just looks like a grumpy, cynical old innkeeper who used to run the Red Moon Inn in Ubersreik. But if you listen closely to his ambient dialogue and read the hidden lore journals scattered around the keep, you realize Lohner is one of the most dangerous men in the Empire:

The Spy Master: Lohner isn't just an innkeeper; he is a high-ranking agent of the Grudgebringers, a legendary mercenary order, and he commands a massive underground network of spies and informants across the Old World.

The Shadow's Connections: He has direct ties to Olesya (our resident shadow-wizard who drives the bridge of shadows portal) and even secretly communicates with the highest authorities of the Empire, including Emperor Karl Franz himself.

The Puppet Master: Why is he helping us? Because Lohner knows that the regular Imperial army is too bloated and slow to stop the Skaven threat. He uses the Ubersreik Five as his personal, elite black-ops squad to strike the Dark Pact where it hurts the most.

So, why does any of this matter when you're loading into a Cataclysm map with your daggers drawn?

Because every time we step into the Bridge of Shadows, we aren't just fighting for a green circle or a red item drop. We are delaying the inevitable. In the grand lore of Warhammer Fantasy's End Times, we already know the tragic truth: the world is going to end. The Chaos Gods will eventually win, and reality will shatter.

But until that final day comes, the Ubersreik Five stand as a defiant wall against the dark. An elf who lost her home, a fanatical witch hunter, a traumatized soldier, a guilt-ridden dwarf, and a magic-addict wizard—five broken people holding back the apocalypse with raw grit, steel, and shadow.

Now that you know the history, the blood, and the stakes behind every swing of your blade, go back out there. Put on your 160 Weave or 500 Deed frame, drop into the sefil streets of Helmgart, and show Rasknitt and Bödvarr why they should fear the shadows.

Thank you for reading the lore breakdown! If this gave you a new appreciation for the world we slice through every day, please rate, thumbs up, and favorite the guide.
For those who want to read the raw chronicles and official short stories directly from Fatshark's archives, make sure to check out:

https://www.vermintide.com/