"There are those within my Order that believe the Dread Maw originally comes from the distant Hinterlands of Khuresh. Nightmarish tales involving the fabled Blood Naga Queens say that the Dread Maw were created -- not born, created -- to prevent easy travel from the west. Such tales could be entirely dismissed as irrelevant hearsay, if not for the fact that a cult dedicated to those distant horrors was uncovered in Sylvania just a few years ago -- one that had been attempting to enact a terrible blood ritual that would summon a Dread Maw even unto the Empire."
- —Kistiane Brockdorf, Jade Wizard, on the Dread Maw[6a]
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Snakemen, also called Naga, are a race of intelligent and ancient beings who combine serpentine and humanoid attributes. They are native to the Far Eastern Hinterlands of Khuresh where they are ruled by their Blood Naga queens. Their reputation among the other peoples of the Known World is universally evil and deadly.[3a]
History[]
There are many night-haunted legends emanating from the fetid jungles and deadly wastes of the far Hinterlands of Khuresh. Stories abound of the dread Snakemen and the foul and nightmarish Blood Naga queens who rule there, and it is a realm where Men are no more than hunted prey, and blood and souls are the only coin in trade.[3b] The lives of the frightful serpent-Naga of dim Khuresh are said to be counted as the ages of the Known World, and their appetite for blood shames even the ancient Vampire queens of thrice-cursed Lahmia.[3a]
Another nightmarish tale involving the fabled Blood Naga Queens say that the serpentine creature known as Dread Maw were created to prevent easy travel from the west. Such tales could be entirely dismissed as irrelevant hearsay, if not for the fact that a cult dedicated to these horrors was uncovered in Sylvania just a few years ago.[6a]
Rarely do artefacts of this fell civilisation reach the Old World and all are steeped in blood and misunderstood power. One such artefact is the White Sistrum, a strange, ivory-graven rattle-drum shaped like an hourglass, whose discordant music brings madness and death, and evokes the terrible rites of the Naga -- invoking their power and the slaughter of forgotten ages when the cold-blooded serpents of Chaos held the mortal world in a stranglehold of terror.[3b]
One more strange treasure known in the Old World is a Khuresh Blood Naga crown, held among the possessions of Lord Bedauer-Schmidt in Salzenmund.[7a]
It is unclear whether these Snakemen also correspond to the three big concentrations of Beastmen located to the north, centre and south of the Khuresh peninsula,[1a] or if they are in any way related to the Lost City of the Old Ones that lies in the centre of the Khuresh jungles, of which nothing is known except its location.[2a]
Miniatures[]
.jpg "S'Sirron Fangthrane (2).jpg (66 KB)")
.jpg "Slararet Slintered Fang (3).jpg (76 KB)")
Trivia[]
A range of Snakemen miniatures were released in the mid 1980's, during the 3rd Edition of Warhammer. However, they never received any rules or official background. They were not mentioned again in the lore until the 6th Edition, almost 20 years later.[5]
In the non-canon Blood Bowl series, there is at least one Snakemen team -- the Kureshi Kobras.[4a]
In Indian mythology, a Naga is a member of a semi-divine race, part human, part cobra in form, associated with water and sometimes with mystical initiation.
Sources[]
- 1: Warhammer Armies: Beasts of Chaos (6th Edition)
- 1a: pg. 17
- 2: Warhammer: Rulebook (8th Edition)
- 2a: pp. 160-161
- 3: Monstrous Arcanum
- 4: Blood Bowl: Death Zone - Season One! (2016)
- 4a: pg. 36
- 5: Warhammer Armies: The Lost and the Damned (3rd Edition)
- 6: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: The Imperial Zoo (RPG)
- 6a: pg. 22
- 7: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Salzenmund - City Of Salt & Silver (RPG)
- 7a: pg. 50
Gallery[]
![Concentrations of Beastmen in the Known World[1a]](/wiki/File:800px-Beastmen_Map.jpg "800px-Beastmen Map.jpg (1.27 MB)")
