The Monstrefact: Chaos Daemons of Tzeentch

In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the chaos daemons of Tzeentch from Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe… (Part 2 of 4)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. Hi,
my name is Robert Lamb and this is The Monster Fact,
a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind
focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. In

(00:23):
the last episode of The Monster Fact, we discussed the
basics of chaos demonology within the fictional far future universe
of games Workshops Warhammer forty thousand. We began with the
oldest chaos god, Corn, borne out of the accreted energy
of mortal violence. Today, it's time to turn our attention

(00:45):
to the next chaos god, Zench. Now that's traditionally spelled
with a silent tea, but you can really spell the
entity's name anyway you want to. I think Zench would
appreciate that, especially if you put a great deal of
thought into the exercise and mix things up alight. After all,
he is the changer of ways and the demonic master

(01:07):
of mutation, trickery and prophecy. Zinch's focus on change is
sometimes perplexing because, of course, change is not inherently evil
or ruinous. As described in the ninth edition Chaos demon
Codex from Game's Workshop, change is largely the bait by
which the dark god draws in his followers. He promises change,

(01:30):
He promises wisdom or insight into the future. But what
he actually delivers his manipulation, confusion, plots within plots, and
ultimately more out of control transformation than anyone's sane or
mortal can comprehend. The vice he feeds upon is unchecked
mortal ambition and deception. As such, Zinch is one of

(01:53):
two chaos gods, along with Slinesh, who exhibits strong Fostian elements.
He offers tempting immediate rewards in exchange for a great
cost of unimaginable nature. The battle forces of Zinch are,
of course, bonkers, imp like pink horrors, swarm across an
ever changing, ever recreated battlefield, splitting into blue horrors upon defeat,

(02:19):
which in turn fall to become flaming brimstone horrors. Now,
these are the lowest of Zinch's forces, but his generals
are the great blue Avian monstrosities known as the Lords
of Change, and the most dangerous of these is an
individual Lord of Change known as Carrios Fate Weaver, the
oracle of Zinch, Kryos Manifests is a great two headed

(02:43):
lord of change, resplendent in blue feathers, kaleidoscopic wings, and
countless gleaming eyes. Fittingly, there are some enthralling elements to
unwrap in this entity. Beginning with its name, Fate Weaver
speaks for itself, but the demon's first name is the
ancient Greek for the right, critical or opportune moment, and

(03:04):
in modern Greek time and weather, it is written that
the two heads of carry Us Fate Weaver are all seen.
One looks backwards into the past and the other forward
into the future. The symbolism brings to mind various concepts
from real world religion and iconography, such as the two
faced Janus of Roman tradition, who is god of beginnings

(03:26):
and endings, of transitions and doorways. The image also brings
to mind hecade the Greek goddess who is often presented
as triple faced or triple bodied. She is a goddess
of crossroads who presents a different form to each direction,
So we might easily think of both Janus and Hecadae
as gods of change, as well, as Robert Mills points

(03:50):
out in Jesus as Monster, published in the two thousand
and three book the Monstrous Middle Ages. From the twelfth
century onward. There is also a tradition in Christian iconography
of depicting Christ with three human faces or three human heads,
as a way of visually depicting the Holy Trinity or
three in one God, Christ and Holy Spirit. Mills points

(04:13):
out that this is fairly remarkable because these divine images
coexisted with monstrous depictions of three faced creatures in medieval bestiaries,
and of course we also have the three faced Satan
in Dante's Inferno. The bird heads of carry Us, Fate, Weaver,
and the other lords of Change are also quite interesting. Certainly,

(04:35):
there are plenty of examples of real world gods and
goddesses with Avian features like this, But I also can't
help but think of a specific medieval depiction of Jesus
Christ with the head and long neck of a bird.
Mills discusses this as well. The example he points to
in the English Book of Hours and Salter circa thirteen hundred,

(04:57):
depicts a strange human bird high with a long neck
and long vulture like beak. The creatures loincloth, philosophic air,
and body positioning strongly reflect depictions of Christ Mills wonders
if this perplexing creature is a reference to the burden
end described in the Guest of Roman Arum or Deeds

(05:18):
of the Romans from roughly the same time period. In
this book, birdmen with long necks and beaks are described
as fitting judges because of the distance between their heart
and their voice. By virtue of their long beaks and necks,
see words rise up from the heart through the neck

(05:39):
to the lips, and the longer they have to travel,
the more time we have to consider them and craft
them for public consumption. In other words, the Avian Christ
might be a commentary on the holy value of contemplation
and the need to balance justice and mercy. So with
the Lord of Change and other agents Zinch, perhaps we

(06:01):
see a similar symbolic effect, only demonically perverted. The Chaos
God celebrates contemplation, but only in the form of endless
scheming and deception. Words travel along between his heart and
his voice because every whisper is finally tuned to ensnare,

(06:22):
bewilder and manipulate mortals to further his own labyrinthine schemes.
We'll continue through the chaos factions in this manner over
the next two weeks, so tune in for the Monster
Fact each Wednesday and the Stuff to Blow Your Mind
podcast feed. As always, you can email us at contact
at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to

(06:52):
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