"You are promoting nothing but cowardice Hepsus. You sit there, full of your own self-importance, and boast about how you will lead our people forwards. But this is an act of Foolishness. We are a Tribe of Warriors. We honor the Blood God."
- —Eris, enraged at Hepsus' call to settle the Schwarzvolf tribe permanently and cease warring
Eris was one of the twin daughters of the Khornate Daemon Princess Valkia the Bloody, born while she was still mortal, and her husband Deron. She was the identical twin of Valkia's other daughter Bellona. Valkia named her after her own late mother.[1a]
Eris would eventually succeed her mother as the chieftain of the combined Schwarzvolf and Bloody Hand tribes of Norsca, though she would be slain by the hand of her own mother when she returned to the mortal world in a quest for venegeance against her former people.
History[]
Early Life[]
The twins bore a similar feral beauty to their mother, perhaps even greater than hers. Identical twins, they had inherited their father's olive skin, but their mother's dark hair and dark green eyes.[1c]
Eris would never share a particularly close bond with her mother, nor would her sister. However, she was the Gorequeen's spitting image at the age of sixteen: tempermental and stubborn. By contrast, Bellona was cool-headed and diplomatic.[1d]
The twin girls were a disappointment to their father, Deron, who wanted strapping sons to carry on his legacy and lead the combined host of the Schwarzvolf and Bloody Hand tribes of Norsca. However, Valkia was pleased by her daughters and whatever tenderness she had left in her heart she showed only to the twins. Shortly her birth, Eris was blessed in a ritual that invoked the Ruinous Powers; that same night she lost her father, who was murdered at the hands of Valkia.[1a][1b]
Later, when Eris was sixteen, she fell for the charms of the Slaaneshi Daemon Prince Locephax, unable to see through the Daemon's deceptions. Alongside Bellona, Eris was present when her mother duelled and defeated the Daemon Prince.[1c]
Sometime after the Locephax's defeat and before the Gorequeen's journey to the Chaos Wastes as part of her vow to present the Daemon Prince's skull to Khorne, Valkia arranged marriages for her daughters and placed Olan, a young but capable scout, in charge of the tribe. Eris raged against the decision, which caused Valkia to physically reprimand her. There were no heartfelt farewells between the Norscan women when they departed. Valkia made it known to her people that should she be slain on her journey, one of her daughters would replace her as the chieftain of the tribe, and ideally they both would rule.[1d]
Edan, the tribe's godspeaker, was the one who finally broke the news of Valkia's death in the Chaos Wastes to her daughters. Bellona accepted it with tight-lipped silence, but Eris, never one to trust her uncle, demanded the full details while settling her hand on the pommel of her blade threateningly. It had not escaped her notice how Edan would look at her mother with a cold shrewdness.
She did not believe Edan's lies about witnessing Valkia's death and hearing her dying words that it was Hepsus, the tribe's warspeaker, who should take over the leadership of the Schwarzvolf tribe, not either of her daughters. Eris attacked Edan when the godspeaker suggested she was disrespecting Valkia's last wishes with her defiance and disbelief. Bellona stopped the confrontation before it grew too violent, offering a diplomatic solution instead.[1d]
Leading the Schwarzvolf[]
At a tribal meeting known as "the Circle," Eris and Bellona spoke with Hepsus along with the other tribal elders. Hepsus counseled that the Schwarzvwolf were now powerful enough that there was no more need for reaving and pillaging. He further insulted Eris, calling her stupid and foolish and telling her to shut her mouth, words that proved to be his undoing when Eris murdered him before the rest of the gathered tribesmen.[1d]
With Hepsus' death, Eris and Bellona assumed leadership of the tribe. After a later rebellion fractured them into warring factions, it was Edan who suggested they take non-Schwarzvwolf spouses to unify the tribe once more. However, though fate or her own machinations, Eris never married and never bore a child like her sister. It was Bellona who carried the heir to the chieftainship of the Schwarzvolf, but her original husband died and her new spouse, Hrafi, murdered her and cut her unborn child from her belly. This loss left Eris truly alone for the very first time in her life, and her view of the world permanently darkened.[1e]
Facing Valkia[]
"This must end."
- —A fully grown Eris faces her resurrected mother, the Daemon Princess Valkia
Years passed after the death of Eris' twin sister and mother, with only the scheming Edan remaining as her closest family member. Still, her uncle sought to be rid of her and she, too, desired his death as she suspected he had had a hand in the demise of both her mother and sister.[1f]
Eris proved to be a poor leader of the Schwarzvolf tribe on her own. Under her leadership, many good and skilled warriors died, and the tribe took on a sedentary way of life dedicated to agriculture which made it a constant target for other Norscan raiders. Edan fell to the temptations of Slaanesh, having been poisoned by Slaaneshi corruption years before during Valkia's battle with Locephax.
When Valkia finally returned to the mortal world as a Daemon Princess of Khorne and raised Kormak from the dead as a Champion of Khorne to aid her quest for vengeance against the betrayers among her old tribe, rumours swept down from the Chaos Wastes of a monstrous host of barbarians, Beastmen, and Bloodletters moving towards Schwarzvolf lands. Edan paid these stories no heed, but Eris was wise enough to prepare for any eventuality.[1f]
Valkia's army of vengeance ultimately reached Schwarzvolf territory, and Eris took her forces to face her daemonic mother in battle. Eris still recognised Valkia as her mother, but felt no affection for the daemonic foe that now stood before her. The Daemon Princess' assault on her people enraged her, and she sought to end the slaughter even if it meant the death of her own mother. Of course, a mortal warrior like Eris could not match the Daemon Princess in battle, and eventually, when Valkia tired of toying with her daughter, she impaled Eris upon her spear and slew her. However, Valkia promised to reward her daughter for fighting and dying well.[1f]
This reward was the addition of Eris' skull to the Skull Throne of Khorne in the Realm of Chaos by Valkia herself.[1f]