The Rumour Thread

[Warfiend]

9 hours ago, LuminethMage said:

It makes kind of sense, Lumineth are open to ally with the Idoneth, Teclis might feel remorse (and he is still their creator) and there is not bad blood between them and Tyrion at all. The Idoneth on the other hand won't generally ally with the Lumineth (Idoneth can't take Lumenth as allies right now). So generally you could say the Idoneth still refuse to take help from the Lumineth, but are some enclaves which are open to help out Lumineth if invited by the Lumineth to do so under certain circumstances. That would fit also with the "lore friendly" multiplayer ally table they just released in the GHB2020 where Lumineth and Idoneth can only ally as a "desperate coalition". 

@Gistradagis I really doubt the Malerion's faction will turn out to be Chaos aligned. It wouldn't make much sense with the history of his character. It looks like he used his share of Aelven souls though to make Shadow Demons out of them, so they might look similar to a Chaos faction. 

I find the DoK as they are more interesting than if they just would make another Chaos faction out of them. 

I think it might be possible that Malerion doesn’t have actual shadow demons in his army. Like we’ve seen from the few shadow aelves teased so far they wield the shadow like cloaks and I think the shadow demons are possibly another way that these aelves can manifest the shadows around them.

After all they are deceivers. 

Edited July 28, 2020 by Warfiend

[Lord of the Isle]

Well that is a clever point but when Malerion found Morathi she was attended by clearly real shadow daemons...

[JPjr]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/07/28/the-rumour-engine-july-28th-2020/

GOTHIC SOULBLIGHT VIBES

Edited July 28, 2020 by JPjr

[Black_Templar_Lad]

Could also be a Dark Angels, perhaps Ravenwing. They do like their ravens and keys.

[Bayul]

Wake me up when they show an undead parrot.

[KingBrodd]

Yes finally a Rumour Engine that could very well be AOS!! Could it go with the Ghoulish arm we saw with the Sword? Maybe Soulblight? Maybe part of a model for the Warhammer Quest boxed set? 

[PraetorDragoon]

6 minutes ago, KingBrodd said:

Yes finally a Rumour Engine that could very well be AOS!! Could it go with the Ghoulish arm we saw with the Sword? Maybe Soulblight? Maybe part of a model for the Warhammer Quest boxed set? 

What about an army of Giant Crows?

[EccentricCircle]

Death Battletome: Corpsepickers/ Chaos Battletome: Murder of Crows/ Space Marines confirmed!

I really like the look of this one. The key in its mouth is a great little addition. I could see a gothic vampire faction for sure.

[NkfPanda]

Really hoping for a new Death faction this Halloween and not new Skirmish game models! (Cool games but no one in my area really plays them much)

[Lord of the Isle]

Poe Crow puts me in mind of a human Bards of the Realms faction

Led by Byron and Rochester esque noble patron fop poets

Mighty blind wizards like Homer & Milton

Mysterious Elizabethan dramatist espionage Shakespeare/Marlowe style assassins

Skirmish infantry of starving embittered knife wielding hack writers plagiarists journalists literary critics

Opium addicted maniac elite murderers and duellists wielding giant quills

Terrifying Muses

No idea which Grand Alliance!

[sandlemad]

I could see Soulblight, it's suitably gothic and it could be the key to something like Blood Keep? Ossiarchs also have an association with crows/ravens (see the cavalry and the birdmaster on Katakros's base) so maybe to go with the previous Ossiarch hint(s)? Though I think the existing examples have all been skull-headed undead constructs rather than seemingly alive crows.

Or yeah, something 40k. Ravenwing have their associations with... ravens and also keys. Or the Space Wolves character Njal Stormcaller, he's known for his psyber-raven but then that has a rather spiffy bionic eye.

[MitGas]

2 hours ago, JPjr said:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/07/28/the-rumour-engine-july-28th-2020/

GOTHIC SOULBLIGHT VIBES

Something Bloodborne-esque would be interesting indeed.

[JackThorne]

3 hours ago, JPjr said:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/07/28/the-rumour-engine-july-28th-2020/

GOTHIC SOULBLIGHT VIBES

But how can that be? It's not a bat.

[The Brotherhood of Necros]

Vlad would often stand amongst the crows on the battlements of Castle Drakenhof...

[Yeled]

On 7/27/2020 at 11:29 AM, alghero81 said:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/07/27/the-aelven-pantheon/
 

Nothing new but they point out to Malerion doing no-good and the Khainite warband: “We’ll have to wait and see to find out – but, perhaps, not for long. ”

I'm very intrigued by this Khainite warband as it is basically outright stated that it belongs to Morathi...and yet it's nothing like her Daughters of Khaine faction. I thought for sure shadow aelves would belong to exclusively to Malerion, but here we have an example that says otherwise. So how do they fit in? Does she have another group in Ulgu outside of the DoK? Are they a subfaction? Will they be allowed in a DoK army in AoS? Is this a unique phenomenon? 

[sandlemad]

17 minutes ago, Yeled said:

I'm very intrigued by this Khainite warband as it is basically outright stated that it belongs to Morathi...and yet it's nothing like her Daughters of Khaine faction. I thought for sure shadow aelves would belong to exclusively to Malerion, but here we have an example that says otherwise. So how do they fit in? Does she have another group in Ulgu outside of the DoK? Are they a subfaction? Will they be allowed in a DoK army in AoS? Is this a unique phenomenon? 

We'll have to see but the idea of keeping a cadre of spies and assassins that can manipulate the shadows of Ulgu is definitely something that would appeal to Morathi. The DoK are a powerful force but ultimately a pretty bloodthirsty cult of fanatics. Given their queen's goals, a more subtle weapon would probably be called for at least some of the time.

In terms of their shadowy powers, this seems to be coming from Morathi herself based on how the trailer says that they were reborn. Sounds like they could be a new variant of Scathborn mutant, though they seem a little un-grotesque for that. Maybe it's a power she can grant? She does turn people into gorgons after all, giving them shadow-magic might not be that difficult by comparison.

I'd imagine that for now they'll fit into a DoK army in much the same way as the Kurnothi UW warband fits into a Sylvaneth army.

[Ganigumo]

18 hours ago, Gistradagis said:

I lowkey (highkey) wish Malerion comes out with his dark elves and they happen to be Chaos, rather than the "we were bad but now we're good" meme-style of Morathi and daughters. You don't even need to make them allies per se to the Chaos God armies, just like how Skaven really isn't allied with them. A darker mirror to the Lumineth, and perhaps a more interesting take than "more elves for Order, but this time edgier."

Morathi seems more directly opposed to Slaanesh than chaos in general due to her history. A lot of the things they do does seem like it might be feeding khorne (blood for the blood god, murder, etc), and since Khaine is "dead" there is potential there for morathi to get "usurped" again but by a different chaos god this time. 

As far as Malerion's elves go I imagine his motivation will be to improve the elves. Morathi seeks power, Teclis seeks to recreate the old , Allarielle abandoned the old, and Malerion will seek to improve the elves. Specifically I'm imagining elves with dragon elements since Malerion is part dragon, but anything could do really. It would be reminiscent of the dark eldar, with stuff like scourges, wracks, mandrakes, etc. The elves of the old world weren't strong enough and malerion can use his power to make them better.

Also they've been dropping hints at the new dark elves being soon, but it does seem unlikely we'd just get a new army. I'm betting Orruk Warclans is the way battletomes will go though, and this new battletome will be "Aelves of Hysh" and contain the updated DoK rules, as well as the malerion stuff. Lumineth realmlords was also built in a way to accomodate the introduction of teclian forces in the same way.

[Aelfric]

5 hours ago, Bayul said:

Wake me up when they show an undead parrot.

Does it have to be a Norwegian Blue?

[KriticalKhan]

I see the Warcry band's connection to Morathi being the result of one of two things

1. It's a lore-based justification to explain a real-world problem: these guys are out before the army that they're designed to be a part of, so GW wrote an explanation to fit them in the closest currently existing force. It's the same situation as the Kurnothi/Sylvaneth and Snarlfangs/Gloomspite.

2. There is not Malekith dark elf revival, and the Shadow Elves will be an expansion to the DoK. This is going off the Warcom article that implied that Malekith doesn't even exist and it's all some scheme Morathi came up with. I don't like this idea so I'm going to pretend it's the first.

It'll be interesting to see whether or not the DoK will remain as an independent force after the release of the Shadow Elves. We might end up with a Warclans/Mawtribes situation, regardless of whether or not Malekith ends up being a real character.

[KingBrodd]

I really hope the 3 Starter Sets for 40K drop in October or with the New Codexes. I really don't want another pure 40K week between now and the , I know there are many more to come but this is a guaranteed one.

[Kramer]

2 hours ago, KriticalKhan said:

I see the Warcry band's connection to Morathi being the result of one of two things

1. It's a lore-based justification to explain a real-world problem: these guys are out before the army that they're designed to be a part of, so GW wrote an explanation to fit them in the closest currently existing force. It's the same situation as the Kurnothi/Sylvaneth and Snarlfangs/Gloomspite.

2. There is not Malekith dark elf revival, and the Shadow Elves will be an expansion to the DoK. This is going off the Warcom article that implied that Malekith doesn't even exist and it's all some scheme Morathi came up with. I don't like this idea so I'm going to pretend it's the first.

It'll be interesting to see whether or not the DoK will remain as an independent force after the release of the Shadow Elves. We might end up with a Warclans/Mawtribes situation, regardless of whether or not Malekith ends up being a real character.

can I just say for an alternative option. All males in DoK society are killed, enslaved or become weird sightless and mounted wizards. But the fluff for the executioners says they might worship Khaine. 
‘Skull- masked warriors wielding two- handed blades known as draichs, these aelves have devoted themselves entirely to the art of slaughter. Some say that they worship the aelf god Khaine, Lord of Murder, but the Executioners do not speak of their faith – indeed, they seldom speak
at all – to those outside their order.’

so that would mean they would worship Morathi. So these might be from that or a similar order from the free cities that worship Khaine/Morathi. 

[Mutton]

Log Entry Day 196:

Still no AoS news. Things are dire. I'm starting to forget how the Activation Wars work and the names of all the Fyreslayer units...

Edited July 28, 2020 by Mutton

[alghero81]

3 hours ago, KriticalKhan said:

I see the Warcry band's connection to Morathi being the result of one of two things

1. It's a lore-based justification to explain a real-world problem: these guys are out before the army that they're designed to be a part of, so GW wrote an explanation to fit them in the closest currently existing force. It's the same situation as the Kurnothi/Sylvaneth and Snarlfangs/Gloomspite.

2. There is not Malekith dark elf revival, and the Shadow Elves will be an expansion to the DoK. This is going off the Warcom article that implied that Malekith doesn't even exist and it's all some scheme Morathi came up with. I don't like this idea so I'm going to pretend it's the first.

It'll be interesting to see whether or not the DoK will remain as an independent force after the release of the Shadow Elves. We might end up with a Warclans/Mawtribes situation, regardless of whether or not Malekith ends up being a real character.

The Recent Aelven Pantheon article however states Malerion is plotting in the darkness and shadow daemons are in his employ. Also the classic lore states that Tyrion, Teclis and Malerion found Morathi, so I wouldn’t see much in that article unless we are close to a giant retcon. Morathi does have a pinch for using males as cannon fodder, so after wizard knights having spies would still fit the same trend. If every Warhammer underworld warband would one day have its own army we would be inundated by new armies... some will remain just hints...

On the topic of Skaven not getting anything I can’t believe GW let the year of the rat pass by without even a single wink...

In the End Times Nagash had 9 mortarchs. At the moment he has 5, of which 2 brand new.  Is it possible death is going towards that direction? It seems the old symbology is kept in the new armies and models although reimagined in AoS context. So a vampire faction with a new mortarch would not be impossible...

[The Brotherhood of Necros]

What if Malerion did exist but Morathi has since disposed of him in order to assume control of Ulgu?

As someone else mentioned in the thread, shadow daemons were first referenced as being discovered ‘in the company’ of Morathi.

Some time between the Age of Myth / whenever we last know of Malerion’s actions in the timeline and now, she could have replaced him without anyone else knowing, using his influence and status to further her own goals and ambitions (in exactly the same way that she is already using Khaine — she has form!).

His employ of the same shadow daemons we knew Morathi associated herself with and the article about there being no Malerion could be pieces of the puzzle... 

 ... It’s not like she hasn’t tried to challenge him before! 

[LuminethMage]

12 hours ago, Warfiend said:

I think it might be possible that Malerion doesn’t have actual shadow demons in his army. Like we’ve seen from the few shadow aelves teased so far they wield the shadow like cloaks and I think the shadow demons are possibly another way that these aelves can manifest the shadows around them.

After all they are deceivers. 

The Ulgu aelves that we have seen so far are all Morathi’s and CoS, including the warband and that is coming. 

The demons in the Lumineth BT are called “shadow demons”, “darksome demons”, “creatures” that live in a “lair” and then get “utterly annihilated” by streams of light. It sounds more like real demons. 

If they don’t make one army out of DoK and Malerion’s aelves, while keeping all the CoS aelves, I think they’ll separate them artistically. And going for a more non-aelven style would be a possibility to do that. But that doesn’t mean of course that Malerion’s forces will only consist of shadow demons, and for sure they’ll have some shadow magic using aelves. Malerion could even have humans in his army, as they pose the majority of the population of Ulgu.