Disciples of Tzeentch

The Disciples of Tzeentch are a faction of the Grand Alliance of Chaos composed of the mortal and daemonic servants of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of change and intrigue.

"Changer of Ways," the "Master of Fortune," the "Great Conspirator" and the "Architect of Fate" -- these are just some of the names of Tzeentch. A brother Chaos God to Nurgle, Khorne and Slaanesh, and often an ally of the Horned Rat, he is the undisputed master of the arcane arts of magic.

His followers, daemon and mortal alike, swarm over the Mortal Realms in scintillating glory, searing the land with coruscating flames of change. Tzaangor tribes raid ancient places of knowledge while mortal Chaos Cultists work in secret to advance their god's unknowable goals. Tzeentch's plans are manifold, and he revels in watching each unravel.

History[]

Origins[]

Anarchy incarnate, the god Tzeentch is known by many titles, including the Changer of the Ways, the Master of Fortune, the Great Conspirator and the Architect of Fate. Tzeentch's domains are magic and guile, for he is the god of sorcery and deceit. Schemes, plots, and machinations are his delight.

Tzeentch is one of the Greater Chaos powers, a brother god to Khorne, Nurgle and Slaanesh, and often an ally to the pantheon's newcomer, the Great Horned Rat. Even amongst gods, Tzeentch is the undisputed master of the arcane arts, for magic is the most potent of all agents of change. This does not mean Tzeentch is above sullying his hands with war - rather that he much prefers to win battles through guile and sorcery over brute force. He favours the cunning over the strong, the manipulative over the violent. In his true shape, Tzeentch is the most outlandish of the Dark Gods. His skin crawls with constantly changing faces that leer and mock any who dare to gaze upon him. As Tzeentch speaks,

these faces appear and disappear, some repeating his words with subtle differences, or perhaps providing mocking commentary to cast doubt upon the original words. Ever shifting, nothing of Tzeentch feels definitive - even his purpose is unimaginably complex, his schemes beyond the ken of mortals. Yet Tzeentch's growing ascendancy after Sigmar's return to the Mortal Realms and the battles of the Realmgate Wars hints at plans long nursed to fruition. Embedded deep within Sigmar's grand cities, mortal cultists work in secret to advance his unknowable goals, while Tzaangor tribes raid the ancient places of the realms in search of lost treasures and esoteric knowledge. Should the need arise, Tzeentch sends his daemonic hosts forth in all their scintillating glory, to sear the land with the coruscating flames of change.

The Great Game[]

The never-ending struggle of each of the Chaos Gods to gain dominion over the others is known to Tzeentch as the Great Game. To the most masterful of schemers, this game offers not just endless amusement, but also boundless opportunities. Not only does Tzeentch constantly seek to further his own ambitions, but he is equally voracious in his desire to manipulate or counteract the best-laid plans of his rivals. Through convoluted machinations Tzeentch has subverted his brother gods time and again.

The Realm of Chaos is Tzeentch's playground for the Great Game. There, he instigates infighting - a pursuit of which the god never tires. One of his most infamous deeds in the Great Game was to beguile Khorne's greatest Bloodthirster, Skarbrand, into attacking his patron. It was Tzeentch's magic that crystallised the cycles of Nurgle's Garden and, although few know the full tale, it was Tzeentch's plotting that led to Slaanesh's absence. The battles for control of the Mortal Realms have only added new challenges to the Great Game.

Tzeentch's plots are manifold, but none are simple. Revelling in complication, Tzeentch's plans can appear contradictory to those few observers able to detect his influence, for he is patient and willing to wait long centuries for his obtuse intrigues to bear fruit. And Tzeentch is fickle, prone to adding elaborate intricacies to his own plots, or perhaps introducing obstacles to impede them. Indeed, the Architect of Fate rejoices in the construction of each plan as much as he revels in watching it unravel.

Across the realms the Lord of Sorcery spins his impossibly complex webs of secrecy, and servants long embedded in the foundations of Sigmar's realm sow the seeds of madness and fear. Where Khorne and Nurgle seek to destroy and despoil the cities of the God-King, Tzeentch plays a far longer game. In civilisation there is subtlety, complexity, mechanism and machination. Through cunning and manipulation, Tzeentch's power blossoms in this new age of reason and intrigue.

As Sigmar's followers returned to the Mortal Realms, their ranks were infiltrated. The daemon known as the Changeling used doppelganger magic to sabotage many of the new cities of their growing civilisations. By its gilded tongue it led countless of the God-King's faithful astray. Like a spark that begins an inferno, so did the Changeling foster a hundred new cults dedicated to magic, change, knowledge and, ultimately, to Tzeentch. By its hand entire cities have already risen up in rebellion, casting down their rulers into the flames of change. Others remain outwardly loyal while heresy and sedition flow through their bloodstream like a cancer, only waiting for the right moment to strike.

The Changeling's plots had not yet reached fruition when Sigmar's agents unveiled the daemon in the twin city of Hammerhal, at the centre of a web of sorcery and lies. With warpfire and daemon hosts, the Changeling fought its way to freedom, leaving its foes in doubt and with growing suspicions ' though such was its true goal all along. Now the time of change draws nearer, and the creature's twisted plans lead to a confluence of Tzeentch's triumph.

From the Crystal Labyrinth[]

There is nothing that Tzeentch sets his iridescent eyes upon that he does not wish to seize for his own, to control and to manipulate, to change at his whim. So does the Architect of Fate sit at the centre of the Crystal Labyrinth, like a spider on a web, forever hatching plots and sending them forth.

Rivalling Khorne’s domain in size, the Crystal Labyrinth’s shimmering brilliance is a stark contrast to the Blood God’s ruddy wastelands. Countless glittering pathways spring from the sprawling maze. Everywhere Horrors scuttle about, using their magics to grow further crystal corridors. At the heart of the Labyrinth stands the Impossible Fortress, but scattered across the tangled outer regions are nine strongholds arranged in an ever-changing hierarchy -- the Fractal Fortresses. Each of these kaleidoscopic spires is home to one of the nine legions, known as convocations, that Tzeentch favours at any given time, and is ruled by its most powerful daemon. There, the titular Overseer receives commands from Tzeentch himself, in turn relaying their own version of those orders outwards to the subordinate convocations, who compete to earn their god’s approval and occupy one of the fortresses. The number of convocations is in constant flux, though it is never fewer than, and is always a multiple of, nine.

Within the Realm of Chaos Tzeentch’s daemons battle those of the other Dark Gods, staving off invasions or seeking to claim territory. Alliances are forged, broken, and forged again, yet none can finagle in or out of such treaties with as much skill as the minions of the Great Schemer. Tzeentch covets the Mortal Realms as well, and his forces actively pursue hundreds of different plots, such as shifting the strands of fate or covertly inveigling mortal recruits to serve in Arcanite Cults. Like their patron, the convocations seek sources of magic, spread anarchy, and corrupt ambitions. When illusion or manipulation fail, however, they resort to more direct methods, setting battlefields alight with volleys of spells and sheets of warpfire.

Eternal Rivalry[]

Far beyond the light of sun or star, removed from all reason and reality, lies the Realm of Chaos. There, the Chaos Gods strive against one another in a never-ending power struggle. As one god grows in strength, so do the others conspire against him. Common cause will unite the disparate powers, but even then each god angles to ensure that they emerge from the alliance in a better position than the others. In the endless scheming, none of the gods fare so well as Tzeentch, and he delights in manipulating them all - tormenting ever-raging Khorne or endlessly baiting crass, melodramatic Slaanesh.

However, every Chaos God has his opposite, another whose nature is the antithesis of his own. For Tzeentch, that special foe is Nurgle. The Lord of Decay provides Tzeentch his fiercest rivalry. To Tzeentch's hope and ambition, his demand for change, Nurgle counters with opposing ideologies - a resigned despair that accepts how things are, a willingness to not just be content with the base or mundane, but to actually wallow in it. In their endless battles, Tzeentch pits his ceaseless evolution against the stagnant loop of Nurgle's closed cycle of life and death. Tzeentch, who delights in his carefully laid plans, is appalled to watch Nurgle's slovenly and indiscriminate destruction, his jovial acceptance of the natural order. The two powers never miss an opportunity to match forces against one another, be it battles over boundaries in the Realm of Chaos, expansionist wars in the Mortal Realms or even political intrigues amongst the Cities of Sigmar.

Of late, Tzeentch has gained the upper hand. In Ghyran, where once Nurgle reigned nearly unchallenged, the decaying Kingdom of Bul'ghoh was toppled due to the machinations of Kairos Fateweaver. From beside Nurgle's Great Cauldron itself the Changeling aided the Blue Scribes in stealing a seven-volume set of tomes listing cures for the Plague God's most potent diseases, and on the borders of Nurgle's Garden the Swamp of Ages was crystallised during the War of Slime and Fire. Yet it does not all go Tzeentch's way, and none of his minions dare mention the disaster at Lom'nagini near their patron.

Children of Change[]

The daemons of Tzeentch are made of insanity and mayhem, the antithesis of order and law. In battle they present a maddening foe, chortling maniacally as they blast apart their enemies with dazzling spells and mimicking their agony as multicoloured flames burn away their victimsвЂ™ souls.

Sources[]

Battletome: Disciples of Tzeentch (2nd Edition)