The Cult of Slaanesh

[John Rainbow]

The Cult of Slaanesh. Any ideas people or links to background? Evidently Dark Elves that have fallen to Chaos but is there anything else other than the old army list?

[HERO]

Outside of the rumor mill that the cult of Slaanesh for Dark Elves will be a kit, I've heard nothing more..

[SpellArcher]

I have my Storm of Chaos army ready and waiting in it's box!

[Francis]

The fluff is pretty much restricted to the old SoC book and parts from the Malus Darkblade series. As I am sure you guys know the cult of Slaanesh used to be the biggest religion among the Nagarythii before the sundering and it was quite widespread in other parts of Ulthuan as well. Morathi was its head and had close to complete control over the cult. When Malekith became the witch king he spent quite a lot of time destroying the cult and strengthening the church of Khaine in order to reduce the influence of his mother.

The cult however never disappeared entirely and reemerged from time to time down the centuries but was always driven under ground again by the executioners and assassins of the temple of Khaine. During the storm chaos Morathi brought the cult back to the surface and openly challenged the temple and Hellebronn.

The old SoC list included slaaneshi troops as well as dark elves and dark elves granted powers from slaanesh (elven chaos lords, quite a terrifying prospect).

[mcmulligan]

Its strongly implied that Morathi is in need of "rescuing" in the book, and Malekith assigns Malus to go and get her. Its also stated that treachery is also likely involved in the successes that the Chaos horde had in Naggoroth before being turned back by Malekith's return.

I would imagine Morathi is strongly linked into the treachery, and the cult of slaanesh as an extension of her treachery. The cult of slaanesh, aka the pleasure cult, has been in the fluff in one form or another since I can remember (pre-5th at the minimum), and Morathi has always been the leader, and her nature/backstory has always implied something sinister about her.

Since she has an old and hideous model (it really is bad), I would assume she either gets a new one, or gets killed off and no new model at all.

The only thing that isn't clear, is its actually a Khornite horde invading, not a Slaaneshi one.

[SpellArcher]

She's a Dark Elf.

Sinister goes with the territory.

[mcmulligan]

She's a Dark Elf.

Sinister goes with the territory.

haha, touche!

But even more so, her mysterious appearance to Aenarion when he "rescues" her from Daemons, the changes to Aenarion subsequently and his court, etc

There's been at various times pretty significant hints that Morathi has been a Daemon asset from the very beginning.

[SpellArcher]

Fair point.

You do have to be pretty far out to look spooky next to other Dark Elves but this character does it.

[finreir]

Morathai I'm 99% is possessed or controlled by slaneesh or a deamon of slaneesh it answers all the questions about her. I think before to long her son will kill her though #endtimes

[John Rainbow]

Excellent. Thanks guys.

[Asurion Whitestar]

Morathai I'm 99% is possessed or controlled by slaneesh or a deamon of slaneesh it answers all the questions about her. I think before to long her son will kill her though #endtimes

Did you seriously just hashtag the end times...

[John Rainbow]

Morathai I'm 99% is possessed or controlled by slaneesh or a deamon of slaneesh it answers all the questions about her. I think before to long her son will kill her though #endtimes

Did you seriously just hashtag the end times...

Haha. Hadn't noticed that! Lol.

[Galharen]

Well, cult of slaanesh was quite an amazing addition to dark elves army (as an alternative), with huge conversion potential. A good friend of mine, DE player, had converted the whole army to the CoS. Would be great to see it again

[SpellArcher]

Indeed, extremely cool.

I really shouldn't like Slaaneshi Daemons that much.

[Malossar]

I might actually get to play my cult of slaanesh again in legal play!??!

[SpellArcher]

Just when we thought our souls were safe Mal...

[Tethlis]

I did this write up for my club's forum, summarizing the Cult's old fluff from the Storm of Chaos. Might be useful for the sake of this discussion:

The Everchosen's invasion of the Old World was so cataclysmic that it impacted every other civilization the world over. On Ulthuan, the Asur's concern for the survival of the Empire was such that they dispatched a great portion of their military strength (primarily from Hoeth) to help combat the threat. Malekith, seeing a weakness in Ulthuan's defenses, launched a full-scale invasion of the island nation. Morathi, seeing an opportunity to bolster the strength of the invasion in support of her son as well as accumulate her own power base, set in motion a plan that she had cultivated since the times of the Sundering. Seeking to challenge the political and social influence of her rival, Hellebron, Morathi sought to renew the Cult of Slaanesh. Before the Sundering, a connection between Slaanesh and the Cult of Pleasure was always assumed, but never directly confirmed. When the Druchii fled to Naggaroth, worship of the Elven pantheon was officially declared law, with Khaine as the primary god. Many who worshiped Slaanesh were executed, while the rest were forced underground or banished to the North. Now, with the confusion of a world at war, Morathi and her coven traveled to the Chaos Wastes and directly invoked the will of Slaanesh. Manifesting and controlling six hundred and sixty six bands of six Daemonettes, she slaughtered her way through the human tribes of the North to bring them under her power. Viewing this lovely and mysterious sylvan creature as the chosen of the Dark Prince, the Northern clans ceased their raids upon Naggaroth and immediately swore fealty to Morathi. In addition to alleviating Chaos attacks on Naggaroth's northern borders, Morathi made the choice to bring the Anointed back into the fold. Survivors of the Sundering, as well as the purges by the Temple of Khaine, the Anointed's worship of Slaanesh is so extreme that they are the only Elves to ever be physically affected by the corrupting influence of Chaos. Having spent centuries in exile in the northern wastes, indulging in every excess, experiencing every form of violence, they hardly resemble the Elves they once were. Their pupils have dilated to such an extreme that their eyes are now jet orbs, devoid of any emotion except fierce desire. Their skin, no longer fair, is now shades of black, purple, blue, or even translucent. For many Anointed, the knowledge of basic speech has been driven from them. For Morathi's purposes though, they are perfect. As the Mistress of their chosen god, as well as their aegis against the wrath of the Khainites, the loyalty of the Anointed provides Morathi with an asset she could never find elsewhere in Druchii culture: trustworthy lieutenants.

With the return of the Anointed, and the patronage of Morathi, underground sects of the Cult have rallied to her banner. In particular, the garrisons of the Northern Watchtowers as well as the nomadic Shade tribes, far from the wrathful eye of the Khainites, frequently in direct contact with the essence of Chaos, and (in the case of the watchtower garrisons) no longer needed since the abatement of the Chaos raids, they flocked to the Cult en masse. With the Temple of Khaine divided by its own internecine warfare, as well as active campaigns in distant Ulthuan, political and martial opposition to the Cult of Slaanesh is a fraction of what it had been. Now, with her own personal army, Morathi and her coven go in search of new weapons to unleash in the war against the Asur.

[John Rainbow]

Very cool. Thanks Tethlis. The passage also gives us some idea of possible plot-arcs for the End Times too I should think.

[Tethlis]

I love the Cult of Slaanesh. It's what originally got me playing Dark Elves, and the conversion opportunities and possibilities for a great theme army were practically limitless. It was a truly fantastic force, fun to play and fun to model. If we once again see a hybrid of Dark Elf, Chaos and Daemon units, combined with some fun new possibilities like a new Anointed unit profile or the possibility for Sorceresses to use the Lore of Slaanesh, I'll definitely dive head-first into that project.

For the record too, the thing that kept that whole force balanced was that you couldn't use Khainite units (no Execs, no Witch Elves, no Cauldron) and were limited (obviously) to Slaanesh Daemon and WoC units.

[Viale]

Was that back in the old awesome days where they had alternative armylists in the armybooks? such as the awesome Von Carstein undead/empire hybrid army?

[Tethlis]

Was that back in the old awesome days where they had alternative armylists in the armybooks? such as the awesome Von Carstein undead/empire hybrid army?

Yeah, they had several of those lists in the old Storm of Chaos book. The Lothern Sea Patrol, the Daemonic Legion (before they were their own book), Empire army of Middenheim, Legion of Sylvania, Slayer Army of Karak Kadrin, and so on. Fantastic stuff.

[Sea_Dragon]

In the old list could you take a spell caster with a slaanesh lore? I can't remember but I'm sure you could. I seem to remember that the druchii anointed was pretty beastly.

[SpellArcher]

Anointed could take either Lore of Slaanesh or Dark Magic. I had a Sorcerer on Slaanesh too.

Slightly better stats than the Witch King and true ASF with a GW were pretty killy for those days.

[Giladis]

Annoined was a beast

He was

M6 Ws8 Bs7 S5 T4 W3 I9 A5 Ld9

5+ Ward Save against mundane attacks
Hatred (High Elves)
Mark of Slaanesh (ItP)
He could also take up to two levels of either Dark or Slaanesh magic and was given +1 to cast

They had their special Daemonic Gifts, could take Slaanesh Daemonic Gifts from the Hordes of Chaos, they could also use magic items from Dark Shadows, Storm of Chaos, Dark Elf and Hordes of Chaos (Slaanesh only) books.

I still remember running mine with Draich of Dark power (+2S, KB use two hands), ASF, Blood Armour (for every wound inflicted improve armour save by 1 - it worked with shooting attacks and magic) and Repeater Crossbow. He would be accompanied with a unit of 23 Devotees of Slaanesh (Witches witouth Poison and Frenzy). To round up the package he was L2 Dark Magic caster (hoping for a soul stealer) - all for a meager 425 points


edit@ oh and the unit had a special rule that halved the WS and In of the opponents in b-t-b

[SpellArcher]

I liked the gift that let him function as a BSB for Slaanesh-marked units.



Mine killed Ben Curry's Oldblood. Still got tabled after missing one chance to save the game sadly. For some reason I'd gone with Sword of Striking but against elves it was awesome sauce. I had the 3-wound Steed because it looked too cool not to.

[Sea_Dragon]

The annionted seems awesome, let's hope for a list reprise.

[John Rainbow]

Seems like lists like all of those in Storm of Magic are coming back with the End Times. I quite like the idea of Empire/Vamps allies - lots of room for modeling potential!