[Archive] Sacred Number of Hashut

Dînadan:

As we’re trying to develop the background of the Chaos Dwarfs (spearheaded by Admiral), I just thought of something that I don’t think has been covered yet - the Sacred number of Hashut. Slaanesh is 6, Nurgle 7, Khorne 8 and Tzeentch is 9. Even the Horned Rat has one in 13, but as far as I’m aware there is no cannon number for Hashut (or for Malal, Necoho or Zuvassin for that matter).

So any ideas guys?

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Admiral:

Good initiative, Dînadan! I’ve wondered about this for a long time. I’d love to hear better ideas than mine, but here follows: Given the historical/religious basis of CDs in ancient Mesopotamia, it seems approriate that Hashut’s sacred numbers should be any of the traditional ones in Europe and the Middle East. So, either 3, 7, 9 or 12.

7 and 9 are already occupied, so either 12 or 3 could work. Twelve seems like a solid choice, since it’s higher than the main Chaos gods’ numbers and neighbour of the Horned Rat’s nr. 13, thus signalling a peripheral status for Hashut in the Chaos pantheon.

Proposal: 12

Of course, you could add spin it another way, such as arguing that 4 should be Hashut’s sacred number since bulls have four legs. But none of the main Chaos gods have a number below 6. Malal’s sacred number would probably be 5 or 10 if I may guess out of the blue.

@Herby: It might not have been prevalent in lore since 6th edition, but the Chaos gods have a sacred number each. Once, you got a free unit champion upgrade for Cult Marines in 40k CSM armies if the size of the squad was the patron deity’s sacred number. 8 Khorne Berzerkers, 6 Noise Marines, 7 Plague Marines, 9 Thousand Sons. :slight_smile:

tjub:

If I remember correctly Malal’s 11.

Dînadan:

Going by the Mesopotamian influence, an argument could be made for 60 as the Mesopotamians had a base 60 counting system and regarded 60 as the perfect number, however I think this is far to large, especially in relation to the other gods. However 60 is 12x5, so your suggestion of 12 could be a good compromise and could allow for the imagery of 60 to be drawn in without giving Hashut an absurdly high number.

As a side debate, to further flesh out the Chaos Dwarfs, how about giving them a number system in base 12 (or base whatever number we decide upon)? Would help make them stand out even more as their own race?

Also as a side note, I thought of this topic as an idea came to me for a fluff piece; something like when the ancestors of the Chaos Dwarfs were about to be wiped out they cried out X times for aid and on the Xth time Hashut answered, and the X ‘fathers’/leaders of them were chosen by Hashut and became the first X Sorcerer-Prophets, and Hashut imparted knowledge to them which were recorded in X Books of Prophecy (haven’t decided if each had one book or each had X books), and currently those books are scattered around the main fortress-cities and anyone who can unite all the books would gain power/knowledge/learn a dark and terrible secret/etc.

TheHoodedMan:

According to babylonian symbolism 10 was the number of their city god, Marduk. 14 was the number of the evil demons and also the number of the portals to the underworld (very appropriate).

2 has a meaning as well as a symbol for parting. And the chaos dwarfs parted from their original people.

cornixt:

I think that at one point it was vaguely suggested to be 4, being half of Khorne’s 8 who was previously closely associated with Chaos Dwarfs, and something mentioned in old fluff about bull daemons.

Admiral:

@Dînadan: Nice idea! One could also imagine the Chaos Dwarfs having several parallell counting systems, one of which is based on the number 12 or 60. :slight_smile:

Good input, folks, all of you! This thread is already filled with very good sacred number candidates. Numerous enough, in fact, that one solution to the matter which runs in the mystical vein would be to let Hashut’s sacred number be hidden and perhaps only revealed to the high priesthood. Maybe after arduous initiation rituals, ridiculously complex arcane studies and trials as confirmation of the Prophets’ power status.

The advantage of having Hashut’s sacred number being hidden would be to let the field remain open for whatever fluff additions GW/FW may make in the future, and add a veil of numerological mysticism to it. One could easily imagine a whole slew of potent “lesser numbers” that are known to be related in a complicated way to the inner sacred number, thoughnoone but a few choice initiates know the true maths revealing the sacred number.

Thus the numerous lesser numbers would be those available for everybody else of the Chaos Dwarfs, and these lesser numbers would probably have some mystical hierarchy and multiple meanings attached to each number. Perhaps one of these lesser numbers would even be the inner sacred number, hidden in plain sight of anybody steeped in that Dawi Zharr culture.

That way everybody can have their own bet as to what Hashut’s hidden sacred number is, and still come up with nice potent-laden numbers that could be used in fluff and stories for Daemonsmithing, rituals, arcane engineering calculations, you name it.

Would a hidden sacred number for Hashut be a practical “solution” until/if GW/FW reveal it in the future?

I’d like to hear what people think about it. :slight_smile:

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