The Cults of She Who Thirsts & The Bloody Handed God
The Black Elves of Svartalfheim have forsaken the old gods of Vaniheim & Asgard. Having fallen from grace so long ago when these worlds were young, most Black Elves are atheistic in belief, though hasn't stopped some families cling on to spiritual beliefs that will surely do more harm in the long run than provide redemption to this race. Most Black Elves that follow a deity usually follows those that are of the left-hand path. The Drow sect in particular, are the most well-known, and follow Lolth, the demonic queen of spiders & intrigue. Powerful in the extreme they can easily dominate others of their kin, by spinning webs of deceit & loyalty throughout a Black Elf settlement. Two cults stand separate though, both belonging to the subsect of the Dark Elves. These are cults belonging to the gods belonging to the Far Realms, She Who Thirsts and The Bloody-Handed God.
She Who Thirsts first arose as an object of worship by certain Dark Elf families & clans, who in their arrogant hubris, thought nothing of breaking taboos mixed with an obsessive perfection in everything they do. Cannibalism, sexual perversion, mass slaughter, sadism & masochism, genocide, and an obsessive need to prove their own superiority over all others led to a spark of a god / goddess to grow and latch on to these families. From there it grew, feeding on the souls of the Dark Elves who worshipped it. Strengthened, it grew to a form of 'godhood', and marked these families from then on. Every death of these Dark Elves, and both the sacrifices made by them, and other murders carried out in his/her/it's name makes it stronger. Appearing as a god to some, a goddess to others, it can also appear as intersex or androgynous to yet more. Other races have felt the touch of this deity and some fear it while others celebrate it. The deity appears as to how one wants it to appear, yet always appears as a divinely beautiful being as only a god could. Most know it as She Who Thirsts, yet a few magic users, clerics, and occultists know it by another name, as Slaanesh. Sometimes Slaanesh will send his/her servants to help their followers, and each is a mix of bovine, crab, and human features. A few are insectile. In all cases they have ability to befuddle the minds of mortals by using narcotics of unknown origin, illusions, and an inbuilt ability to circumvent the minds of mortals to appear as desirable as possible to those who view them.
The Bloody-Handed God is a killer incarnate. The Dark Elves who worship him are killers and savages through and through. Each family that follows this deity knows him as Mensha Khaine, and believes him to be the first Elf to have killed another of his kind. Believed to have been thrown into the Far Realms as a punishment, he absorbed enough energy to have become divine, and when the Dark Elves started to call out his name during sacrifices, and acts of murder & carnage, they felt him reach out and reach out into their souls. Knowing the power he can grant his followers, the most militant followers became expert warriors akin to other races paladins, while others took up the mantle of assassins, both of which are powerful forces with families following one path or the other. A few of the most devoted female Dark Elves of this creed have became clerics wearing only the barest of armour, and fighting with sacred sacrificial knives, calling themselves either Blood Brides or Brides of Khaine. They use spells to increase their power in combat and fall between the paladin & assassin families.
Type
Geopolitical, Theocracy
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