"In honour of our great god Khaela Mensha Khaine, the bloody-handed god of war and death, we bave built mighty temples across our lands. Here the chosen brides of Khaine, the Witch Elves, practice the ancient rites and sacrifices under the watchful eyes of the Hag Queens. Each of our cities has a temple, and the rulers are required to pay a tithe to the Hag ruling over the Witch Elves within the temple. One slave in ten that our raiders bring back to Naggarond belongs to the Temple, where a great honour awails them as they are sacrificed to Khaine. After opening their chests with knives purified by dark venom, the Hags bathe in their blood to restore their pact with the Lord of Murder. Few slaves understand or appreciate this great privilege."
- —Furion of Clar Karond[3a]
A dual-wielding Death Hag high priestess of the Cult of Khaine.
The Death Hags are the high priestesses of the Dark Elven Witch Elves who comprise the Cult of Khaine. They serve as the guardians of the mysteries of Khaine, the Elven god of war and murder.[2][5a]
Role
The war-skills of these Dark Elf priestesses of Khaine have been honed over centuries of fighting, and their battle-lust knows no limits, but the Hags and Death Hags that lead the Witch Elves are also privy to the innermost secrets of the Cult of Khaine. They bring to bear potions, poisons, and words of power, to affect weak minds or strike their owners down.[2][6a]
The Death Hags mix the noxious potions that drive the Witch Elves into their battle-rage, for only they know how to prepare the Witchbrew such that it does not kill the Witch Elves themselves. Such brews are made from a concoction of poisonous herbs and distilled from the blood of the Hag Queens, which each Witch Elf sips from a ceremonial goblet handed to them by the Hag. It is also the Hags who craft the noxious venoms with which the Witch Elves taint their blades. They carry ancient weapons from the vaults of the Khainite temples and they know how to wield the secret names of their god as obscene weapons that can befuddle their foes or afflict them with madness.[1b][2][3a][5a][6a]
Important to the Death Hags are the Cauldrons of Blood, ancient artefacts of Khaine each tended by a Death Hag called the "Keeper of the Cauldron", and two Hag attendants. It is within the cauldrons that the Hags mix their toxic potions, and each lies heavy with dark enchantments that, with the proper knowledge, a Death Hag can access to unleash the many blessings of Khaine.[1b][5a][6a]
Chief of these is the cauldron's ability to restore youth and vitality to those who bathe within it. As the sorceress Morathi kept the innermost secrets of the cauldron for herself, all others who utilise this unholy blessing must frequently repeat the bathing process or soon find themselves in their old and withered states once more.[1b][5a][6a]
Hag Queens
Above the regular Hags who are the champions of the Witch Elves, and the Death Hags, are the highest-ranking priestesses of the Cult of Khaine, known as the "Hag Queens," the most powerful Hags who lead their sisterhood. The Hag Queens are extremely ancient; their crone-like bodies are vile and bent, and their laughter is a cackle of madness and withered lust.[6a]
How ancient, even the Hag Queens themselves find it hard to remember now. They are certainly the oldest of the Witch Elves, and suffice to say that when Naggaroth was still a new land of promise to the exiled Dark Elves, many centuries ago, they were already the oldest of their kin. The oldest of the Hag Queens have ruled over the Cult of Khaine for thousands of years.[4a][6a]
Witch Elves live in the temples of Khaine under the glowering eyes of their Hag Queens. When battle is done, the Hag Queens lead the Witch Elves back to the temples of Khaine where they bathe in cauldrons of warm blood and dance naked long into the night.[4a]
The Witch Elves howl with pleasure to see beating hearts torn from living breasts by the knives of the cackling Hag Queens. As they bathe in the sacrificial blood their shrivelled bodies are renewed once more, and they emerge reinvigorated with the power and beauty of youth. Most Hag Queens choose to bathe in the gore of maidens and innocents.[1a][4a]
Once a year, the Hag Queens take part in the riotous celebrations of Death Night. The Hag Queens lead the Witch Elves through the streets, and under their direction, they steal away any Dark Elves they find, often breaking into houses to drag the inhabitants to their bloody altars. Hundreds of Dark Elves are dragged to the altars and sacrificed, young and old, no matter their faithfulness to Khaine, and their blood fills the cauldrons for the Hag Queens to bathe in.[1b][4a]
Re-invigorated by the blood of the slain, the Hag Queens are at their most beautiful and frenetic. They become the most enchanting and voluptuous of all Elves, their strangely cadaverous beauty more powerful and captivating than any magic. Over the year they slowly revert into the haggard crones they really are, but, for that one night, they are wanton avatars of lustful slaughter -- true daughters of Khaine.[1b][4a]
Gifts of Khaine
- Cry of War - By screeching one of the seventeen secret names of Khaine, the Death Hag freezes her enemies with horror.[1b]
- Rune of Khaine - The Bloody-Handed God's gore-red Eltharin rune blazes upon the Death Hag's brow, marking her as one of the Lord of Murder's chosen.[1b]
- Witchbrew - Distilled from the blood of other Hag Queens, Witchbrew drives its imbibers into an ecstasy of destruction.[1b]
Sources
- 1: Warhammer Armies: Dark Elves (8th Edition)
- 2: Total War: Warhammer II (PC Game)
- 3: Warhammer Armies: Dark Elves (6th Edition)
- 3a: pg. 10
- 4: Warhammer Armies: Dark Elves (4th Edition)
- 4a: pp. 13, 29, 36
- 5: White Dwarf Magazine 259
- 5a: pg. 15
- 6: Warhammer Armies: Dark Elves (7th Edition)
- 6a: pp. 50-51
Gallery
