"Mounts for our dark kin. Their blood lust is the reflection of the dark lord of Murder to whose service they are consecrated. Fear the Manticore not merely for what it is; fear it because the presence of one signals the approach of our estranged brethren. Sooner face a dozen Manticore than the one who would dare to ride one into battle."
- —Filanas, Elvish Vagabond
A grotesque Manticore accompaning a Chaos army
Manticores are huge, leonine beasts that soar on leathery wings. They are amongst the most powerful of all the predators that live in the north’s mountain ranges. The mutating power of Chaos ensures that no two Manticores are truly alike. Some have manes of writhing serpents, others pelts of iron scales, and many sprout spiked tails with a poison strong enough to boil a man’s blood in his veins. However, all Manticores are berserk killers saturated with primal fury. They are so fierce that they are held by the Dark Elves to be incarnations of Khaine, God of Murder.[1a]
There are rumours that certain Elves practice the breeding of Manticores amidst the black obsidian peaks of the mountain ranges that dominate the Land of Chill, far to the west of the Old World. How they manage to tame such vicious creatures is unknown, though many stories indicate that the Elves of that land are every bit as fierce as the Manticore they raise. Scholars that ask too many questions about such matters tend to find few answers or a messy death.[2a]
