Dînadan:
[align=center]The Serpent Within[/align]
“In the distant times long before the world there were many Gods of Chaos and each had his own domain. In this time they lived in relative peace with each other, but there was one who could not abide the others. Malal despised the others and sought to see them brought low. Taking the form of a great two headed serpent, one head black as obsidian the other white as the driven snow, he did make war on his kin and consumed them. Four only escaped his betrayal, Khorne the God of Honour, Nurgle the God of Vitality, Tzeentch the God of Magics and Slaanesh the God of Beauty who was but a child. Malal could not abide the thought of them living and pursued them to the ends of the Realm of Chaos where upon he ensnared young Slaanesh. The Serpent took the Prince back to his lair, a rock in the centre of the Broiling Sea, for in that time the Gods did love their brother dearly and thus did Malal seek to use Slaanesh as bait to draw them to him so he could consume them.
Enraged by the kidnapping of their beloved brother, Khorne, Nurgle and Tzeentch vowed to slay the Serpent and rescue the child. They took refuge in the Forge of Souls, hoping to find weapons to aid them in their venture where they found that one other had escaped Malal. Hashut, Smith of the Gods and their uncle, gifted them with gear; to Khorne a bronze breastplate to guard against the Serpent’s fangs; to Nurgle a bow with ten arrows dipped in the blood of the God of Poisons and the Tzeentch a cloak wreathed in Shadows. The brothers pleaded with their uncle to come with them and fight alongside them, but he refused and turned back to his forge, vowing to craft a mighty weapon to slay Malal if they would but tarry. But the brothers, consumed by worry, did not listen and set out immediately.
In the dead of night they snuck up to the shores of the Broiling Sea, hoping to catch the Serpent as he slumbered, but to their dismay, one head slept while the other watched the shore with lidless eyes. The brothers took shelter in a cave to make a new plan whereupon they found two more Gods to have escaped Malal. Grievously wounded, the God of Doubt decried their plan as doomed to fail and refused to help but his brother, the God of Unmaking, pledged his knife to their cause. And so on the morn they set out on their quest.
Standing on the shore, Khorne bellowed a challenge, but the Serpent remained on his island. Nurgle standing high on the cliffs, drew his bow and let loose an arrow and then another. Hissing in anger, the Serpent plunged into the Broiling Sea and swam to meet Khorne’s challenge. Drawing his bow once more, Nurgle loosed six more arrows, striking true with each. As he drew the ninth, the God of Unmaking struck, plunging his knife deep into Nurgle’s breast, felling him, for the knife was seeped in the venom that dripped from the fangs of Malal’s white head. The God of Unmaking had been entranced by Malal’s hypnotic gaze and was in his thrall. He raised the knife to strike once more, but at that moment the eighth God to have escaped the Serpent’s betrayal revealed himself. The God of Opportunity had gone unnoticed for he had taken the form of a lowly rodent, a form beneath the notice of the prideful Gods of Chaos. Seizing the chance to curry favour with the four brothers, he lunged at the betrayer and drove him over the cliff and into the Sea.
With his brothers distracting the Serpent, Tzeentch used his new cloak and his sorcery to fly out to the island and spirited Slaanesh away to safety and thus did not see the God of Unmaking’s betrayal. Nor did Khorne, for though he was a mighty warrior, he was hard pressed by the Serpent’s assault. They duelled for hours and Khorne grew weary. Seizing the opportunity, the Serpent coiled around him and crushed him with his bulk. Thinking himself done for, Khorne struck with his axe, but lightning quick, the Serpent snatched it from his grasp and tossed it aside.
Then, unlooked for, Tzeentch arrived once more on wings of shadow. He had spirited his two brothers to safety, taking them to their uncle’s forge for safety whereupon he had found Hashut had finished the weapon he had been working on. The God of Magics handed the enscorceled sword to his brother and withdrew once more. Filled with strength anew, Khorne shirked off the Serpent’s coils and hewed at him. Malal recoiled hissing, for never before had he felt such pain. Bellowing in rage, Khorne did strike once more slicing both heads from the body with one blow. Cursing the name Malal, the God of Honour cast the heads into a deep pit and hurled a mountain atop it to seal the traitor in forever.
His strength spent, he collapsed at the foot of the mountain where he was found by his brothers and uncle who hewed four palaces from the mountaintop for his nephews before returning to his forge. The brothers named the mountain Khaosus and declared themselves the Kings of the Realm. They cursed the God of Doubt for his naysaying, the God of Undoing for his treachery and the God of Opportunity for his cowardice, for though he had helped them, he had only done so to try and win their favour. Seeing that they four were now the only Gods, they cast lots for the domains of their fallen kin. To Khorne went the Sky, to Nurgle the Land, to Slaanesh the Sea and to Tzeentch the Aether.
And hence forth they did rule and were changed. Khorne embodied the wrath of the raging wind; Nurgle the resilience of unyielding rock; Slaanesh the dichotomy of the ocean that rages above yet is calm beneath the waves; Tzeentch the fickleness of the netherworld. And their rule did last for Ages beyond count, but in time darkness gnawed at their hearts for in their dreams Malal whispered to them and in time they did come to make war upon each other and Malal did smile for in doing so they sealed their Doom for from thence forth it became the Nature of Chaos to be self defeating and to turn upon itself and ever since Chaos has been fated to always sabotage itself in its moment of triumph and doomed to always lose.”
- One of the earliest myths in the heretical text the Khaosiad. This myth is notable in that most of its features are not mentioned elsewhere unlike many of the other myths in the Khaosiad which reference each other or repeat another myth but with minor differences. It is also notable for its contradictions with later myths, most notably the existence of Hashut which is of particular interest to Dawi Zharr scholars. The accepted reconciliation by those who have read it is that due to the original scrolls being written in a very archaic script and tongue that it is in fact a mistranslation and that the mentioned God should be Haz’hūt rather than Hash’ūt and it is believed that he was an earlier God whose domain was subsumed by Hashut at some point. However there are some who doubt this explanation as there is no record of such a god and thus the myth is either in error or is a forgery. Others still point out that within the Realm of Chaos, time, as mortals understand it, has no meaning and thus it is entirely possible for Hashut to be born later and still help out the Great Four at an earlier point.
