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Lore Introduction – The Path to Glory (Slaves to Darkness)

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Whispers in the dark

Pinpointing precisely when the first Slave to Darkness was born is difficult to achieve. Since the dawn of time within the mortal realms the Chaos Gods’ tendrils would reach through and warp reality, whispering dark thoughts to anyone who would listen. Khorne would urge Generals to strive for evermore glory, Tzeentch would encourage further study into the arcane, Slaanesh would speak of pleasure to aristocrats and artists alike, and father Nurgle would call out to those who lived off the land. It is when the first of these individuals gave in to the dark voices which lurked within and pledged themselves to these mysterious forces that the first Slave to Darkness came into the Mortal Realms.

A crippling defeat

Sigmar and his Pantheon were the all-powerful Gods who sought to shepherd all the races within the mortal realms. Aware of the existence of Chaos, they prepared for the eventual day that the Ruinous Powers would invade the mortal realms. As the age of Chaos began, the daemons poured in, slaughtering all who did not join them. At the battle of the Burning Skies Sigmar was betrayed by Nagash, and in turn was decisively defeated, retreating into Azyr. Those few who remained would either be forced to concede and accept the Chaos gods as their own or be slaughtered in the wake of their victory.

The Great Game

Tzeentch, Nurgle, Khorne, Slaanesh, and the Great Horned Rat though allied against Sigmar and the forces of order, are only allies of convenience when it suits them best. Otherwise, they forever compete within The Great Game, in which each god seeks to dominate the others within the realm of Chaos. This Game of course extends well within the mortal realms, where they constantly vie for control of land, resources, and followers.

Archaon the Everchosen

Perhaps the greatest encapsulation of the Great Game is no other than Archaon. The mortal champion of Chaos, accepting gifts from all gods, but pledging himself to none. Archaon is a mortal, who is speculated to have lived for eons, having ushered in the end of the world that was, and potentially having destroyed other realities since then. His ultimate goal is to pierce into the realm of Azyr, and destroy the last bastion of Order and Sigmar along with it.

The Dark Master

Belakor, the first Daemon Prince to have ever existed, as Archaeon, has existed since the formation of the world that was. Indeed prior to the existence of any Everchosen having been crowned, the ruinous powers would compete over his soul as they now do for Archaon. Belakor would go on to betray the Gods, in an attempt to serve his own purposes, and would in turn fall right into their trap. Cursed to forever crown the Everchosen, but never become him, Belakor lives in a state of pure envy. Envy of the great Archaon, to whom so many swear their loyalty. Belakor, seeks to usurp Archaon’s place within the eyes of the Chaos Gods, and return himself to the glory of his past.

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Lore Introduction – Raiders from the Deep (Idoneth Deepkin)

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Welcome to the first in a new series of articles where we run through the lore of the Age of Sigmar factions.

These are intended to give you a little flavour into the faction, and hopefully give you an understanding on what drives them.

The World That Was

The story of the Idoneth begins way back in the world that was, right after the forces of chaos forced their way in, and right before they ultimately conquered it. During this time there was a sect of Aelves who worshipped the god known as Mathlann. God of both sea and storm and known as the lord of the Deep, Mathlann was primarily worshipped by sea fairing Aelves, and explorers. When the Chaos gods began to consume the souls of all living creatures, Mathlann sought to protect the few he could from them, and so he took a contingent of his followers and hid them at the deepest depths of the oceans. Despite this, Slaanesh could sense more souls still, and would root out each remote enclave one by one until every single aelvan soul was devoured.

The Age of Myth

During the age of Myth, what remained of the Aelvan pantheon awoke, and sadly Mathlann was not amongst those who survived. Teclis, Tyrion, and Malerion awoke in a world which lacked any Aelves to rule over, and as such devised a plan to capture Slaanesh and pry the souls from his gullet. Each of the three main gods would receive a share of the souls, and Teclis would be the first to receive them. Those souls which were first pulled from Slaanesh, turned out to be those of the idoneth. Those original souls would come to be known as the Cythai.

No Rest for the Wicked

After escaping both from Teclis and Slaanesh, the Cythai found themselves within the throes of a new horror. The combination of Corruption from Slaanesh, Purification ritual from Teclis, and the lack of a God to draw from led the majority of Idoneth to be born with Waning souls. Many of their offspring fail to live past infancy, and those that do (the Namarti) , have drastically shortened life spans. Some would be born with proper souls (Akhelians) and this disparity between the two would go on to form the basic structure of Idoneth society. To ensure their survival something would need to be done. Adapting the magic that Teclis had taught them they would form a new school of magic revolving around the removal of and transmutation of souls. Unfortunately, the souls of Sea life would not be enough to sustain that of an Idoneth body for any more than a couple of days, the only alternative was to seek out greater prey. The Idoneth would form raiding parties that would ascend from the depths raid coastal settlements taking with them the souls of the fallen back to their enclaves. To ensure secrecy, the Idoneth would weave spells to erase the memories of survivors.