This thread is to discuss your concepts for the Bad four (Hashut, The Horned Rat, Zuvassin and Khaine). First I’ll give you some Background on each God (except Hashut). Then tell you what I want to know.
The Horned Rat is basically a rat, his sacred number is 13 and he seems to be allied with Nurgle (or likes his technique lol). His servants preach of teh Great Ascendancy, the time when the rats will rise up and overwhelm the defences of the Old World. He is known to have some Demons (The Vermin Lords).
Zuvassin is the god of trickery, and delights to send the plans of other gods awry. No-one knows much about him, apart from his symbol which is an upside down Y and often drawn wrong. He has no known Demons.
Khaine is (depending on your view) the god of murder and slaughter. Very similar to Khorne in fact. He harvests souls on Souls Night and does lots of other nasty stuff involving blood and guts.
Well, the Horned Rat would look similar to the old-school Vermin Lord, I guess (only better modelled): big and looming, standing on it’s hindlegs. Since it’s a daemon, weakpoints would be Light and High Magic, or maybe a giant rattrap. As long as there’s divine cheese to lure it, of course.
His daemons are known already; the Vermin Lords themselves.
The Horned Rat’s reason for fighting? Mating, power, food?
Don’t know much about Zuvassin though: maybe it could walk the earth in disguise, sometimes showing itself as a beautiful maiden, sometimes as an old hooded man, sometimes as a nimble rogue. Since it delights in sending plans awry, I doubt it would look like a mighty warrior or a powerful wizard, since this would attract unwanted attention from other forces, daemons, warriors etc. Keep him simple and inconspicuous.
Gamblers could encounter him in a disguise and only find out afterwards. When their souls are forfeit, or something along those lines.
Khaine is the Elven God of Murder and hatred, but depending on the way you worship him (i.e. High Elves), he’s the aspect of Life as well: no Life without Death, and Khaine is especially useful when preparing for battle.
If you worship him in the way the Dark Elves do, he is murder incarnate and worshipped only because of the pure delight of killing itself. No other reason than just spilling blood.
The Eldar Avatar would be a good model, since one of Khaine’s features is the ever-bloody hand.
Fighting style: elf-like. That would mean fast, fluent, excuisitely-crafted blades (or a spear, perhaps). No axes, maces, hammers or the likes: he’s basically an Elven God, which would mean grace and elegance. Even if it is in a very dark, grim and above all, bloody matter.
The army-style: use Dark Elves.
Weak-points: Lore of Life, Light, Heavens and High. And flowers. Send in a squad of suicide-hippies to cuddle him and mellow him down.
Depending on the history we give the god, it could vary a lot.My favourite slant is Hashut as the off-spring of Khorne. Basically a greater demon who achieved god-hood. I’d like to see him fighting to destroy Khorne and as a God he’s one of the few that can do it, using his mechanical minions
I think a cool ultimate goal would be to overrun Khorne, by using his demonic engines. These are powered by the souls of the dead (Which is why he teamed up with Khaine, who does the same sort of thing). To get them he needs to kill Morr first.
What would their “realm” look like (in Chaos)?
It would be a massive factory with experimental grounds, representing all that is bad about machines and all that is bad about pollution. The steam and smog from this factory pumps into the realms of the Dream Lands, weakening the defences and preparing it for the reaping.
What would their Demon’s look like?
There are no known Demon’s of Hashut, but I would imagine them as clanking humanoids with guns and claws (imagine less high tec Borg). Greater Demon’s could have tank treads etc.
How would the army play (fast or slow etc.)?
I would imagine a slow army that has lots of short ranged firepower and good close combat potential. You manoveur into position, release a couple of rounds of shooting then waddle towards the massacre. Their small mobility makes it hard to get into combat when the enemy doesn’t want it however.
What would it’s strong point be?
High armour and toughness.
What would it’s weak point be?
Slow and hard to play against cannon and gunlines.
I agree with that conept of Hashut, but would add in things like Bull Centaurs (or similar), Great Taurses and Lammassu.
As to the other gods: The Horned rat is fairly well defined, but you could also say that the Grey Seers and Clan Moulder etc have links to Tzeentch (the source of their love of warpstone mayhaps?)…
Zuvassin: Look at Loki from Norse cosmology. He is a trickster God. I’d also recommend that you look at Odin, although he is closer to Tzeentch, but still has a tendency for trickery/guises and the like. As for daemons, inconspicuous people and hermits etc, visually. As for how they play, they should be very weak, but have very disruptive powers. Almost everything int heir army should be basic stats or worse, but can disrupt the enmy in various ways (think Pavane of Slaanesh and reducing stats and affecting die rolls).
Khaine: An elven version of a Khorne army essentially. Not the brutal barbarism of Khorne, nor his beserker rage, but the cold-hearted and cool-headed killing machine of an elf that does nothing but want to slaughter…
> Why they are fighting (what do they want)?
Hashut: Souls to slave in his factories and such like.
The Horned Rat: To feed.
Zuvassin: The game is everything.
Khaine: The flow of blood makes his power stronger.
> What would their “realm” look like (in Chaos)?
Hashut: As the Chaos Dwarf realm, but perhaps with more factories.
The Horned Rat: A warren of tunnel systems with bloated pregnant rats birthing everywhere.
Zuvassin: Not what it appears. It will trick you into killing yourself or giving up your possessions etc.
Khaine: Marble palace with blood-filled water features.
> What would their Demon’s look like?
Hashut: Organic robots, bull centauroids, great tauruses, lammasus etc. Maybe lava and ash golems. (Lava for the fires and ash for the shadows. Think rock/fire elemental and air elemental.)
The Horned Rat: Vermin lords as greater daemons, various rat-things for the rest.
Zuvassin: Cloaked and mysterious figures as well as average seeming people or the sorts that you want to avoid. Gamblers and such like in particular.
Khaine: Elf-bloodletter crossbreeds? Not literally get an elf and a bloodletter. Maybe an armoured wood elf wardancer (without ribbons and crap) with a bloodletter head, refined to be more elven… (Just to get the image across). Avatars of Khaine as well (Got one if you want to buy it and play about with it? )
> How would the army play (fast or slow etc.)?
Hashut: Slow, powerful at short range, tough. Okay at combat.
The Horned Rat: Horde and fast, but generally weakish. Much like a no-gun version of Skaven.
Zuvassin: Already described.
Khaine: Assassins, war dancers and daemonettes combined with Eshin as a rough idea of play style.
> What would it’s strong point be?
Hashut: Shooting within 12" and breath weapons, very resilient.
The Horned Rat: Sheer numbers.
Zuvassin: MAJOR disruption.
Khaine: Swift and deadly.
> What would it’s weak point be?
Hashut: Slow and mediocre long range/combat ability.
The Horned Rat: low stats.
Zuvassin: low stats and reliance upon disruption.
Khaine: No hard-hitting power or ranged stuff (maybe?)
I would suggest that core troops have a 6+ ward save, not 5+, just to show that they are weaker. However, they will be more likely to be armoured: Hashut gets lots of 3+ and 4+ saves in particular…
It was discussed in the other thread, but you’re right in that he wouldn’t. then again, he wouldn;t work with himself. It;s why Malal armies are near impossible to find because they end up killing each other, lol :’
Khaine is also the Brother of Morr, and desires to invade the Shadow Land and steal the souls of the dead, which gives him vital motivation. Add in the fact that we know more about Khaine than Malal and we have our reasons.
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