Druchii slave selective breeding? Allience with vampires?

[Morathi's great grandma]

Hi all,

I was wondering, as in Elfslayer there was a Dwarf who was born as a slave, if the Druchii would selectively breed slaves or let the slaves breed themselves? More details on Druchii slave masters would be apprecated.

Also, although it was mentioned that the Druchii dislike the vampires from having stolen their magic from their own, would there be an alliance, however short lived, between vampires and Dark Elves? Any examples?

Any reference, links, etc. would be greatly apprecated.

[Maldor]

I would imagine that as with historical slave-holding societies, Druchii would breed slaves selectively, if at all. Traits that would increase a slave's productivity, such as strength or endurance, would be selected for, within the limits of not breeding slaves that might become troublesome. Similarly, traits that were either useless or potentially dangerous in slaves, such as intelligence, would be selected against.

That said, I don't think Druchii conceive of their slaves as, say, American's or Roman's did (i.e. as a capital investment and status symbol to be valued like other luxuries), but rather see them as expendable. Therefore the idea of a Druchii putting effort into breeding and rearing slaves, which, with the exception of those made victims on the altars of Khaine, would be valueless until reaching an age in which they could be exploited, seems unlikely, and I doubt a Druchii would waste the time and resources to do so. If they did, it would be work for those very low on the social ladder. I think the vast majority of Druchii slaves are captured in raids, and their life expectancy is very short. The occasional pregnant female is sure to be captured, but it would be a rare thing for the child to survive into adulthood.

As for Vampires, I know of nothing specific, though as with any of out "allies" a vampire can certainly be used and manipulated, only to be disposed of when we have no more need for them.

[Drainial]

I tend to agree with Maldor, by and large slaves seem to have a very short life expectancy but that is for the ones doing to really dangerous dirty jobs. I think that for domestic slaves breeding might well be the preferred form as you can get them young and they are less likely to have any funny ideas like having some worth or value other than that which the market places on them. Slaves bread for flesh houses (to use the Darkblade term) also would seem more likely to be bread and selection makes a lot more sense than the slave masters just leaving the slaves free all night to do as they wish.

Moving onto vampires (though quite why that isn't in a separate topic entirely I am not sure) I cannot think of an actual example of them working together, indeed looking simply at geography it is hard to see where they would meet on a regular basis except perhaps on the vampire coast and... well, Harken is barking mad. Not the best ally really. There is (to my knowledge) no particular reason for them not to ally with one another, but nor is there any reason for them to do so though they are alike in many ways; near immortality, dark magic, dislike chaos, largely martial, arrogant beyond belief ect.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

[Venkh]

We enslave the living
They enslave the dead

That and both being 'intelligently evil'

You can always invent your own fluff for alliances but unfortunately for us we (and the skaven) have the stupidest ally rules in the 8th ed book.

Big shame as it effectively stops you creating a viable Cult of Slaanesh force using the rules in the BRB.

[Camaris]

We enslave the living
They enslave the dead

That and both being 'intelligently evil'

You can always invent your own fluff for alliances but unfortunately for us we (and the skaven) have the stupidest ally rules in the 8th ed book.

Big shame as it effectively stops you creating a viable Cult of Slaanesh force using the rules in the BRB.

I dunno, our ally rules kind of crack me up. It's always great when your ally fails that 4+ test at the beginning of the turn and you innocently look at him and say: "you mean you don't trust me?"

It is only fitting that the slaneshi warriors would distrust the slaneshi dark elves since holy khaine is so efficient at infiltrating them and destroying them.

[Morathi's great grandma]

First off, thank you for all your answers.

As to why the two subjects are linked, I thought that since there isn't much talk, and correct me on this if I'm wrong, on these two subjects I though I might as well linked them together, more easily accessed for those who browsed the Druchii fluff.

Now I'm wondering if it is possible for a Dark elf to become a vampire?

After all, it does mentioned that elf blood tasted like sweet wine in so many words in "Night's dark Master" so could a Dark Elf, witch elf cheat morathi and become a vampire while still young or have become young and become beautiful forever?

[Drainial]

There has been allot of talk on that, if you search around you can find a thread with long and exhaustive discussion but the conclusion pretty much falls into two camps.

1) The hard-line: No they can't because elves are too connected to the aeyther compared to humans and as such the sheer amount of energy they would need to consume (through blood) would be pretty much impossible without a slave farm and an I.V drip on constantly.

2) The soft line: It's a fantasy game and so long as GW doesn't explicitly say otherwise I will do as I like.

Personally I tend to go along with 1, though to begin with I was for 2. Find the old thread and you will probably see why.

[Maldor]

Elves are naturally long-lifed, and they do not fear the specter of death the way that humans do, and so they do not have the same impetus to cheat death the same way. When they do, they have their own dark magic and the Cauldron. Dark Elves are more likely to make daemonic pacts than resort to necromancy.

[Bounce]

My dark elf army is led by Vampires. I think the two work well together.

[Desmodeus]

Could they? Yeah...
Should they or would they? Probably not.

I've never heard of this aeyther causing incredible metabolism thing, but I doubt long lived, near eternally beautiful beings who despise weakness would voluntarily become bloodsuckers. They're already magically powerful, and more likely to die of treachery or combat than old age anyway, so why add a weakness to sunlight or silver? The only advantage I could see would be the boosted statline, but I agree with the idea that daemonic pacts are a more likely alternative for this.

Still, the Dark Kiss has been bestowed on unwilling individuals several times in the lore... Perhaps a vampire wanted to cause a bit of chaos, was ignorant of the circumstances or was simply irresponsible about granting his gifts?

(Since my comp' crashed, I no longer have the means to effectivley spell-check my posts; bear with me if I miss any typos.)

[The virgin forest]

On the breeding of slaves.

The most depraved and sinister darkies would probably go for it. My own lord does run a program for breeding broad-shouldered and muscular men that are 'well equipped'. Mishaps and unwanted pregnancies are usually ended, when they're given to his seer - as reading the future in the entrails of a creature in its womb, does add some extra clarity - or at least make a wondrous spectacle - to the reading.

Besides my lord though, I really doubt most druchii would care for slave breeding, as there are plenty of villages and coastal towns to raid and enslave, when new batches are needed

[Drainial]

But you need to outfit a ship and hire a crew and then sail around the world for months on end for an uncertain return. The risk involved is large, as is the initial outlay and the costs for transport and you still have to break and train the slaves when you get them home. Practicality wise I would say there are arguments both ways.