#flesheater

Bestial Human Vulture Hand drawn Ink art by William McAusland, writing by Colin Chapman and W. McAusland Bald-headed and ugly, bestial human vultures and condors are the least appealing of the bird-men, and their dietary preferences and reputations do nothing to endear them to human communities. They are carnivores with a decided preference for carrion. Indeed, they prefer carrion that is particularly ripe, as they say it adds an extra layer of flavor, and while they can eat fresh meat, they enjoy rotting flesh much more. This has given them a reputation as eaters of the dead, and grave-robbing has sometimes been attributed to them, often correctly. It is a rare human community that will accept one, even when accompanied by human and mutant human allies.

Of all the misconceptions common among those trusted with knowledge of the Great Enemy, the idea that the Prince of Pleasure is limited to sexual deviance is one that must be dispelled It is the master of pleasure and excess in all forms. There are numerous examples of other senses, feelings, and emotions being weaponized. Most prominent among them may be the Noise Marines of the Emperor's Children, twisted heretical Astartes who blast the holy warriors of the Emperor with sonic cannons.

Lesser known, the corpse-eating court of Malcarum, the Essengast. They began as a hunting lodge of affluent nobles, searching the wilderness of the pleasure world for rare game creatures and bragging around great fires as servants prepared a banquet following each hunt.

Eventually, war came to the system. Malcarum was forced to industrialize quickly. Great hive cities rose, poisoning the water, polluting the atmosphere, and collapsing the ecosystem.

But the hunts continued.

First, it was the megafauna of the underhives, sump-kroks, and spiders the size of tanks. Then, the mutants, the parodies of humanity that fled down-hive rather than accept judgment. Eventually, the lower hives became the hunting ground. They began to hunt the people of Malcarum.

Somewhere along the line, the banquets stopped being enough for them. They would eat until they were forced to purge, then eat some more. Then, the purging slowly vanished. Now, they never had quite enough. They would still be hungry when the embers smoldered in the pits. The hunger continued, compounding until they felt on the brink of starvation, nothing able to satisfy their excessive appetites. They began to kill indiscriminately, consuming the flesh of their victims without pause. Reports indicate they stopped intentionally killing altogether, preferring to track their prey and devour them alive wherever they fell.

The Sisters of the Vermillion Flame are said to have led the cleansing of Malcarum. By then, the nobles had devolved into mobs of twisted ghouls, their pale, corpse-like flesh stretched taut over their emaciated frames, their bones growing disproportionate to their bodies, spines erupting through the skin.

Their apparent extinction has not stopped the reports of small, bestial humanoids attacking people across the sector, though no substantial proof has ever been offered up.

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I wrote this as a bit of justification to incorporate a handful of Flesheater Courts models into my fledgling Slaanesh Daemon army. I wanted to go for a bit of a cryptid feel, but I think I lost the plot a bit and missed the mark on that one.

Recent pickups.