Also known as the Pale Queen, Ereth Khial is the supreme goddess of the Underworld, with her son, Nethu, its guardian. Long ago she attempted to seduce Asuryan and, when he resisted her, she grew enraged, stole the souls of the dead and hid them in the black pit, Mirai. The Pale Queen has never forgotten Asuryan's slight. Whilst he lies beyond her power, the Elves do not, so it is they who suffer Ereth Khial's wrath. Should a Waystone be destroyed, Ereth Khial sends the wraith-like rephallim to seize what souls they may, and bear them away to dwell in Mirai in eternal torment. Such thievery must be quick, for Slaanesh, the Dark Prince of Chaos, suffers no one -- not even the Pale Queen -- to take even the meanest of scraps from his table.
Ereth Khial's deeds may have made her outcast from Asuryan's court, but many of the Elves' darker deities acknowledge her as their mistress. Even so, she is seldom worshipped in Ulthuan. Most folk do not entreat Ereth Khial's blessings but hope to avoid her attention altogether, wearing sprigs of wyrdroot or blackhame to avert her vengeful gaze. Some Elves, however, think it better for their spirits to endure eternity in torment, rather than meet oblivion through Slaanesh's hunger, and thus secretly court the Pale Queen's fickle favour.
Such obsessions must perforce be kept secret, for the worship of Ereth Khial is widely considered the sign of a diseased or ill-adjusted mind. Those marked by the Pale Queen's touch are inevitably exiled or imprisoned should their terrible secrets be laid bare, yet her priests and celebrants have never been entirely eradicated from Ulthuan's shores.
In Naggaroth, Ereth Khial is a much courted deity, for the Dark Elves see their own betrayal echoed in her fate. The Pale Queen alone offers the Druchii some salvation from Slaanesh's hunger, for her own armies are forged from the stolen souls of the Elf-dead. This is not to say all the Elves who have ever died now labour in Ereth Khial's service, since countless souls remain bound to waystones and trees, and greater still have been devoured by the Dark Prince. Yet still, year after year, the Pale Queen's army grows. One day, her shadow legions will tear down Asuryan's vaunted creation in payment for his insults of old.
Though most Dark Elves care little for the fate of their souls, some fervently worship the Pale Queen, seeking to ensure that she will come to their aid when death claims them. It is far better, they believe, to perform abased service in the Underworld's grim embrace than to meet oblivion at Slaanesh's hand. Such ideals are woefully misguided, and it is probably little consolation that most will never find out how mistaken they are -- since Ereth Khial can risk only the subtlest of thefts from Slaanesh.
There is a rumour in Naggaroth, however, that there is one soul Ereth Khial yearns to seize beyond all others. In Malekith, the Pale Queen sees a consort whose ruthlessness is fit to match her own, and she has sworn that it is he who will one day lead her final vengeful assault on creation.
Source
- Warhammer Armies: High Elves 8th Edition -- p. 45
- Warhammer Armies: Dark Elves 8th Edition -- p. 44