The start of a legacy: The Cult of the Vile Rose (+UPDATE 1)
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 2:30 am
So, I'm attempting to revamp and redo all of my druchii models and try to get them up to the standard I had always hoped for! However I also wish to really sketch out a background fluff with an initial army list in mind and then sculp/change it as the list progresses and likely my opinion of the background along with it until I am happy with a firm final result...
Fleshing out/basics:
- the cult began a nomadic and scouting war party clan of Hedron and Skaera Darkeyes: a prominent highborn and prophetess before the Sundering, that patrolled the Shadowlands for future daemonic or greenskinned incursions. Skaera sired a sons and 2 daughters with Hedron.
- quickly became intoxicated and obsessed over the cults of cythari and outwardly expressed these tendencies.
- Skaera supported lady morathi through predicting the future and teaching her the art of precognition. In return Skaera was rewarded with dark teachings of sorcery and the dark art.
- The sundering saw Skaera support Morathi and Hedron take the side of his king in the fight for their kingdom.
- However during the fighting, their son was slain by a caledorian dragon knight. Hedron and Skaera vowed to avenge their beloved prodigy.
- Following the sundering, the Darkeye clan seperated from the main druchii force and took to occupying and forcing a way of life in the blackspine mountains: Skaera breaking the will of many winged, baleeyed beasts to better protect and scout their territory against the other slowly establishing Shade colonies - notably that of House Maglen: the famed explored of the underworld sea.
- Indeed it was the Darkeyes that instigated the expulsion of Kaledor Maglen and his family from Clar Kharond and began a new, albeit brief stranglehold over the city that saw increased prosperity for the Darkeyes until control was wrested back, but not before one of the Maglen's black arks had seen all of its crew slain and the vessel stolen during a night of one horrific storm. Some of the few witnesses who were lucky enough to survived being outside during the red lightning storm whisper that the Ark had lifted up into the air as if the clouds themselves gave the lumps of black rock and turrents an eerie ability to hover and fly away.
- However prior to the Clar Kharond plot, the Darkeyes had never been a prosperous clan, until the discovery of an extraordinarily rare and precious commodity: the black needled rose. The petals being a two-toned mix of purple and blue in colour contrasted greatly with the strangely vibrant and lush green of the stem and leaves of the plant: colours that the Darkeye family went on to adopt as their own personal heraldry in years to come.
- The discovery of the plant was made by none other than Skaera and Hedron's 4th daugher (since arriving they had successfully had another 3 sons and 2 daughters) Viele 'the winter wolf', who had been deemed dead following a hunting expedition deep into the forested lakes west of Hag Graef. There, she and her small party came across the young manticore they had been pursuing as part of the rites of age to become an adult. They had tracked the beast along to a very dark and sizeable valley set high in the Iron Mountains and overlooking the larger glacial valley itself. Thick slate and granite rocks littered the valley with very occasional pockets of swamp and stagnant still water, fed by a mountain stream at the top of the valley. The monster did not appear to be alive and seemed to lay dead amongst a thicket of these wonderous flowers, blooming even in the heart of winter. Immediately two of her retinue stalked forward, urathiens ready to fire should the beast still be in its death throes, for steam rose from its body and it had clearly died only mere hours before Viele's arrival.
- As the two dark riders leant close to the kill, without warning one of the elves cried out in anguish as he had cut his trouser on the sharp thorns of the roses and within seconds had collapsed onto the flank of the manticore.
- Apparently the beast had not yet died, and roused by the contact of the first dark rider, it attempted to turn around on the other rider who fired several bolts into the beast's exposed belly even as its knife like claw took the elf through the chin and into his cranial cavity.
- Viele immediately realised the danger that the flowers posed, and though near death, the beast had not given up yet and staggered to its feet, the limp corpses of the now dead riders trampled under its muscled legs.
- The creature turned onto the next nearest rider and began a slow and limped but lolloping run, wings beating slowly to try and aid its charge. What then passed saw Viele slay the manticore by leaping atop its back whilst it attacked another rider. She plunged her khaine etched cermonial thumb claw into the monster's eye, puncturing the cerebelum and paralysing the creature; leaving its now still form to die a slow death having brutally savaged another two of her party members. Her lover, and former raven herald remained as the only other survivor.
- Viele then cut a very thick chunk of hair from the young manticore's mane and used the thick brissles to wrap around and pluck one of the plants from its resting place.
- The plant was explored and dissected obsessively by Viele upon her return to the clan's outpost, but eventually light of her finding was uncovered by her mother when the beasts head showed traces of an unknown poison: indeed Skaera's slave who picked up the head had dropped dead on the floor scant minutes afterwards. Viele was instructed to take Hedron, Skaera and her sisters - a sorcerous pair of twins to the site of her findings.
- The sight of such a verdant field of these beautiful but utterly deadly flowers immediately drew Skaera and Hedron to the same conclusion as their young daughter: these flower's could spell great power for themselves. The family's luck it seems was finally on the rise.
- The clan's outpost location was entirely uprooted and in small groups the clan's entire population migrated to the secret valley of the vile rose, many were blindfolded to maintain the secret of its location, and few were entrusted to learn of the value of their new found hope. The manticore
- Over time, this distrust of many of the lesser members of the Darkeye clan meant a new strict order and policed system began with fortifying the area as much to keep their people from escaping as it was for outsiders to enter into the valley, though the vast majority of the lesser members of the Darkeyes did not realise this and obeyed unquestionably.
- Cultivation of the plant began in earnest and Viele became the chief envoy for House Vile as they became known in the wider druchii society. It was Viele's role to source a consistent buyer and one who would pay greatly for this discovery. However Viele knew that this would not work in the longer term for her family: and that in fact her own aspirations would greatly serve those of her family and mean she finally had the freedom to escape that damned valley. Her plan required intiation into the cult of Khaine and to become a priestess of the god of murder, using the family's poison as a bargaining tool. She wrote a letter explaining this to her family and had her lover deliver it personally before was never heard from again for a decade.
- However Viele's poison had gained a great deal of interest from the Hag Queens who had quickly realised the scope of its use and had even assigned a small amount to one of the assassins on an important kill. They had been pleased with the results and named the potent liquid 'Manbane' after the gender of the first assassinated target to die of its effects.
- The Darkeyes began and established a long standing agreement with the cults of Khaine across the Naggarothi cities, and this became cemented when Viele was one day revealed to have excelled in the Temple and become a death hag herself, which meant the Darkeyes gained access to the use of assassins and even could call on Viele Manbane's (as she was now known) own brides of Khaine: the bloodsirens.
The Darkeyes remain a fiercely resilient people, surviving in their own secret city, cultivating not only the land's greatest poison but also the increased revenue had meant new training initiatives: taming the horrific and terrifying beasts that plague the land around and upon occasion in the past attempted to assault the secret city, despite the powerful black etched runes of disguise and stealth that Skaera and the twins had carved around the fortress walls. A tunnel network had been established beneath the valley and allowed for a few exit or entrance points, including a discovery to the west of an entrance into the the underworld sea: a site where the Darkeye fleet is said to remain docked, though few have ever set eye on the cleverly hidden Shade Port.
Since their attempt on Clar Kharond, the Darkeyes have kept their cards close to their chest as they always do, however many hear whispers of aspiration to claim the ironfrost glacier and the altar of ultimate darkness itself: an objective that Morathi herself sought to understand and use in the brief rise of the pleasure cults before Malekith returned to the captial and quelled the uprising and near civil war between the Khainites and Slaanesh worshippers. But who knows of the aspirations of such a powerful and secretive family: a family that Malekith is said to use as his own secret police to keep the other noble families at bay from his throne...
Fleshing out/basics:
- the cult began a nomadic and scouting war party clan of Hedron and Skaera Darkeyes: a prominent highborn and prophetess before the Sundering, that patrolled the Shadowlands for future daemonic or greenskinned incursions. Skaera sired a sons and 2 daughters with Hedron.
- quickly became intoxicated and obsessed over the cults of cythari and outwardly expressed these tendencies.
- Skaera supported lady morathi through predicting the future and teaching her the art of precognition. In return Skaera was rewarded with dark teachings of sorcery and the dark art.
- The sundering saw Skaera support Morathi and Hedron take the side of his king in the fight for their kingdom.
- However during the fighting, their son was slain by a caledorian dragon knight. Hedron and Skaera vowed to avenge their beloved prodigy.
- Following the sundering, the Darkeye clan seperated from the main druchii force and took to occupying and forcing a way of life in the blackspine mountains: Skaera breaking the will of many winged, baleeyed beasts to better protect and scout their territory against the other slowly establishing Shade colonies - notably that of House Maglen: the famed explored of the underworld sea.
- Indeed it was the Darkeyes that instigated the expulsion of Kaledor Maglen and his family from Clar Kharond and began a new, albeit brief stranglehold over the city that saw increased prosperity for the Darkeyes until control was wrested back, but not before one of the Maglen's black arks had seen all of its crew slain and the vessel stolen during a night of one horrific storm. Some of the few witnesses who were lucky enough to survived being outside during the red lightning storm whisper that the Ark had lifted up into the air as if the clouds themselves gave the lumps of black rock and turrents an eerie ability to hover and fly away.
- However prior to the Clar Kharond plot, the Darkeyes had never been a prosperous clan, until the discovery of an extraordinarily rare and precious commodity: the black needled rose. The petals being a two-toned mix of purple and blue in colour contrasted greatly with the strangely vibrant and lush green of the stem and leaves of the plant: colours that the Darkeye family went on to adopt as their own personal heraldry in years to come.
- The discovery of the plant was made by none other than Skaera and Hedron's 4th daugher (since arriving they had successfully had another 3 sons and 2 daughters) Viele 'the winter wolf', who had been deemed dead following a hunting expedition deep into the forested lakes west of Hag Graef. There, she and her small party came across the young manticore they had been pursuing as part of the rites of age to become an adult. They had tracked the beast along to a very dark and sizeable valley set high in the Iron Mountains and overlooking the larger glacial valley itself. Thick slate and granite rocks littered the valley with very occasional pockets of swamp and stagnant still water, fed by a mountain stream at the top of the valley. The monster did not appear to be alive and seemed to lay dead amongst a thicket of these wonderous flowers, blooming even in the heart of winter. Immediately two of her retinue stalked forward, urathiens ready to fire should the beast still be in its death throes, for steam rose from its body and it had clearly died only mere hours before Viele's arrival.
- As the two dark riders leant close to the kill, without warning one of the elves cried out in anguish as he had cut his trouser on the sharp thorns of the roses and within seconds had collapsed onto the flank of the manticore.
- Apparently the beast had not yet died, and roused by the contact of the first dark rider, it attempted to turn around on the other rider who fired several bolts into the beast's exposed belly even as its knife like claw took the elf through the chin and into his cranial cavity.
- Viele immediately realised the danger that the flowers posed, and though near death, the beast had not given up yet and staggered to its feet, the limp corpses of the now dead riders trampled under its muscled legs.
- The creature turned onto the next nearest rider and began a slow and limped but lolloping run, wings beating slowly to try and aid its charge. What then passed saw Viele slay the manticore by leaping atop its back whilst it attacked another rider. She plunged her khaine etched cermonial thumb claw into the monster's eye, puncturing the cerebelum and paralysing the creature; leaving its now still form to die a slow death having brutally savaged another two of her party members. Her lover, and former raven herald remained as the only other survivor.
- Viele then cut a very thick chunk of hair from the young manticore's mane and used the thick brissles to wrap around and pluck one of the plants from its resting place.
- The plant was explored and dissected obsessively by Viele upon her return to the clan's outpost, but eventually light of her finding was uncovered by her mother when the beasts head showed traces of an unknown poison: indeed Skaera's slave who picked up the head had dropped dead on the floor scant minutes afterwards. Viele was instructed to take Hedron, Skaera and her sisters - a sorcerous pair of twins to the site of her findings.
- The sight of such a verdant field of these beautiful but utterly deadly flowers immediately drew Skaera and Hedron to the same conclusion as their young daughter: these flower's could spell great power for themselves. The family's luck it seems was finally on the rise.
- The clan's outpost location was entirely uprooted and in small groups the clan's entire population migrated to the secret valley of the vile rose, many were blindfolded to maintain the secret of its location, and few were entrusted to learn of the value of their new found hope. The manticore
- Over time, this distrust of many of the lesser members of the Darkeye clan meant a new strict order and policed system began with fortifying the area as much to keep their people from escaping as it was for outsiders to enter into the valley, though the vast majority of the lesser members of the Darkeyes did not realise this and obeyed unquestionably.
- Cultivation of the plant began in earnest and Viele became the chief envoy for House Vile as they became known in the wider druchii society. It was Viele's role to source a consistent buyer and one who would pay greatly for this discovery. However Viele knew that this would not work in the longer term for her family: and that in fact her own aspirations would greatly serve those of her family and mean she finally had the freedom to escape that damned valley. Her plan required intiation into the cult of Khaine and to become a priestess of the god of murder, using the family's poison as a bargaining tool. She wrote a letter explaining this to her family and had her lover deliver it personally before was never heard from again for a decade.
- However Viele's poison had gained a great deal of interest from the Hag Queens who had quickly realised the scope of its use and had even assigned a small amount to one of the assassins on an important kill. They had been pleased with the results and named the potent liquid 'Manbane' after the gender of the first assassinated target to die of its effects.
- The Darkeyes began and established a long standing agreement with the cults of Khaine across the Naggarothi cities, and this became cemented when Viele was one day revealed to have excelled in the Temple and become a death hag herself, which meant the Darkeyes gained access to the use of assassins and even could call on Viele Manbane's (as she was now known) own brides of Khaine: the bloodsirens.
The Darkeyes remain a fiercely resilient people, surviving in their own secret city, cultivating not only the land's greatest poison but also the increased revenue had meant new training initiatives: taming the horrific and terrifying beasts that plague the land around and upon occasion in the past attempted to assault the secret city, despite the powerful black etched runes of disguise and stealth that Skaera and the twins had carved around the fortress walls. A tunnel network had been established beneath the valley and allowed for a few exit or entrance points, including a discovery to the west of an entrance into the the underworld sea: a site where the Darkeye fleet is said to remain docked, though few have ever set eye on the cleverly hidden Shade Port.
Since their attempt on Clar Kharond, the Darkeyes have kept their cards close to their chest as they always do, however many hear whispers of aspiration to claim the ironfrost glacier and the altar of ultimate darkness itself: an objective that Morathi herself sought to understand and use in the brief rise of the pleasure cults before Malekith returned to the captial and quelled the uprising and near civil war between the Khainites and Slaanesh worshippers. But who knows of the aspirations of such a powerful and secretive family: a family that Malekith is said to use as his own secret police to keep the other noble families at bay from his throne...