Warhammer Fantasy is a fantasy setting created by Games Workshop, in which many games of that company are set, the best known ones being Warhammer Fantasy Battle, a table top wargame, and the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay pen-and-paper role-playing game, as well as the MMORPG, Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning, by Mythic Entertainment which was released September 18, 2008.Chaos is central to the setting, as the forces of Chaos are attempting unceasingly to tear the mortal world asunder. The world itself is populated with a variety of races such as humans, dark elves, high elves, dwarfs, undead, orcs, lizardmen, ogres, and other creatures familiar to many fantasy/role-playing settings.

Warhammer is notable for its "dark and gritty" background world, which features a culture similar in appearance to Renaissance Germany crossed with Tolkien's Middle-earth.The game thrived, and subsequent supplements added the particular background to the game. Each "Army List" included a partial history and some related aspects such as notable figures or short illustrative stories. With the publication of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay in 1987 the setting had moved from background to the game to a full-fledged fantasy setting.