#morathi

New Daughters of Khaine art from the new battletome.

(morathi link)

We actually get to physically genuinely meet Nurgle and it’s such an awesome eldricht horrifying description.

It also does really good at showcasing what’s different about AoS compared to 40k. The weed of hope still exists. There’s heroes yet. Not fascists playing dress up, but genuine heroes who stand against all forms of evil because it’s the right thing to do. You can lock up Slaanesh. You can strike a blow against Nurgle and make him scream out in pain that’s heard across the worlds.

I hate to claim that maybe the power of friendship was the solution all along but uhhhhh it kind of was?

The brotherly love of Tyrion and Teclis and their willingness to work with Morathi and Malerion, two people that tried to harm and torture and kill them and theirs for ages is what sealed Slaanesh.

The love Gardus has for Grymn and the Steel Souls have for Gardus, and the trust all of them have for Sigmar and that Sigmar has in them, all of which freely given, is what hurt, actually *hurt* Nurgle.

And some of it fucks so incredibly vigorously and I don’t understand why more people aren’t all over it.

The cosmic family drama of the line of Aenarion is just absolutely delightful.

Basically Elf King Arthur (Aenarion) is the absolute worst and loves nothing but war and because of that his Guinevere and children all die. He then meets elf Morgana le Fey (Morathi). They both conclude “I can make them worse” but also “god damn the sexual chemistry is off the scale”.

They have a son, elf Mordred (Malekith), who is very good at lots of things but sucks ontologically.

Aenarion dies saving the world (but kind of from the disaster he sort of caused?) and the elf Round table are like “hell no is elf Mordred becoming king” and so the rig the sword in the stone.

In this instance the test to become king is to set yourself on fire. Only the pure of heart or whatever will survive, anyone else will die.

The round table cheat though. They pick who they want and then use magic to protect him from the flames. Malekith and Morathi are PISSED but while Morathi is scheming, Malekith yeets himself into the flames.

It goes poorly and he’s horrifically burned. However he doesn’t die.

Literally everyone is upset. Malekith because he’s toast, Morathi because her son is toast and not king but she’s also like “… hang on? Is he actually divine?!”, and the round table go from “lol idiot” to “oh fuck is he actually divine?!”

Malekith and Morathi get banished to America, and spend 10,000 years being in the most toxic Oedipal relationship imaginable and elf Camelot kind of carries on.

Eventually, elf Merlin (Teclis) is born but plot twist he’s one of a pair of twins and his brother is… elf Arthur 2 electric boogaloo (Tyrion).

There’s like a thing where various of elf Arthur’s descendants look like him or act like him or whatever and this is a semi blessing semi curse. This new kid though IS Arthur.

Like down to his very soul, he in all ways seems to be Arthur reborn (and turns out kinda is).

Everyone is upset.

Malekith hates, loves, fears, envy’s his dad/great grand nephew. Teclis is like “on the one hand he’s my brother on the other hand he’s going to ruin everything”. Round table are doing the Michael Scott biting lip and wincing face.

And Morathi literally upends like 10,000 years of history and politics because she’s willing to risk it all for that Arthussy.

It’s fantastic. They all suck and are drama queens and it’s brilliant.

And they wind up helping destroy the world they claim to want to save through the power of all sucking so much.

What’s even better though is through all the various IP shenanigans that resulted in GW giving up on Warhammer Fantasy, Morathi became probably the most interesting character in all their IP and a genuinely fascinating fantasy character in her own right.

Her arc goes from very tired and lazy “evil seductress ruins good man for own ends” through “wow this is fucked up she’s banging her own son because she sucks” to “ok actually this is all incredibly sad and complex and fucked up but her and her son are the only people either of them have and love each other as much as they they hate each other and live lost in the shadow of the husband/father that was never the man they remember but in each others arms then lies they tell themselves ring more true”.

And then it gets better.

Because Morathi survives the end of the world and then…

Turns herself into a god by EATING the deity she had spent 10,000 years worshipping.

Which honestly is so fucking cool.

She dedicated herself first to her husband, then to her son, and finally to her god.

She dedicated herself at all times to a man - a man who would save her or love her or protect her or give her the world.

And every single one, every single time, let her down.

And so eventually she just took the power for herself.

Also she’s a giant snake.