The Many Forms of Greater Daemons

Introduction

Greater Daemons are the most characteristic ‘big bads’ of the Warhammer world.  While other settings have dragons and giants and evil liches, Greater Daemons are so wrapped up in the mythology of chaos that they are particular to Warhammer.  They are evocative antagonists -- inhuman, inscrutable and immensely powerful.

And yet when it comes down to it they can be disappointingly less than chaotic.  It’s apparent that their descriptions has always been shaped by the miniature line, which requires that they be relatively solid and predicatble to make the ‘fluff’ match the figures.  As a result we have the perverse result that all Bloodthirsters apparently look much the same.

Moreover, they are so powerful, and the power level of WFRP is so low, that they are unusable in most conditions.  Unless the characters have an army behind or beside them or the GM introduces some sort of secret weakness or macguffin to help the party, a greater daemon will kill any party sent against them.  This restricts them to being used as plot devices.  While they can be potent in that role, it can prevent the climatic show down and limit the GM’s and party’s options to ‘not confront the daemon’ or ‘total party kill.’

The article below attempts to address both of these problems, by introducing new forms for daemons to take that are both stranger and less powerful.

The Many and Varied Forms of Greater Daemons

By Ela’Thil, Elven daemon hunter

Among those of of our profession, the most common forms of greater daemons are well known.  We know that the great, rotting bulk of the Great Unclean Ones, the glassy feathers of the Lords of Change, the fire and blood of the Bloodthirsters and the seductive sinews of the Keepers of Secrets.

Yet chaos is, first and foremost, chaotic, and these are simply the most archetypical forms, the ones that echo strongest in the minds of mortals and thus in the realms of chaos.  But they are not their only forms.

In general, daemons have an immaterial form, a partially materialized form and a materialized form.  The archetypical forms listed above are the fully materialized forms.   Finally, they can also possess mortals and thus achieve a more direct link with the material world.

The immaterial forms are the most varied.  A Great Unclean one might be a vast cloud of flies, a miasma, or an invisible pestilence.  A Lord of Change could be a pillar of many-colored fire, a many-colored array of lights or a shifting mirage on the horizon.  Bloodthirsters can be great floods of blood or raging infernos, and a Keeper of Secrets might be an intoxicating fog.  The immaterial forms are the easiest for a Daemon to assume -- on the nights when Morrslieb is full or in places touched by chaos or places touched by horror or places where magic has become stagnant and corrup they may travel the earth in these forms unbidden.  But these forms are the least powerful and the most unstable -- a turn in the Winds of Magic, a prayer to a god or even a merry song and a peal of laughter (from the right voice) may dissipate them.  In these forms daemons are more like spells than creatures -- they may light something afire, or afflict it with disease, or drive a man insane or possess him, but they cannot move physical objects etc.

The semi-material forms are more definite.  Lords of Change might appear like the disks of Tzeentch, covered in eyes and shifting faces or like a semi-solid flood of magic, while Great Unclean ones might be a shambling horde of diseased creatures or smaller daemons.  Bloodthirsters are typically winds made of blades or a phalanx of animated brass armor, and Keepers of Secrets are often swarms of fleshy, sinuous serpents.  Typically, these daemons have been summoned -- summoning semi-material daemons and summoning daemons into a host is much easier than summoning a materialized daemon, so most degenerate men that engage in such practices call forth daemons in this form.  Semi-material daemons can strike and kill a man and can move objects (if their form allows it), but they are not tough.  They are particularly weak against magic -- spells of banishment can dissipate them without too much trouble.  But someone without spells or enchanted items will find himself up against a mighty foe indeed.

We have already spoken of how fully materialized daemons appear.  These daemons can walk the world like a normal creature, with only a slight instability.  Banishing them (without destroying their ‘bodies’) is very difficult indeed without ritual magic.  They are always summoned, or come down from the north with the chaos hordes.  In all my years, I have seen one.  Of my party of 20 hunters, only I am alive to write this now.

GM Notes

The following are some general notes about using greater daemons in their various forms in your games.

Immaterial daemons are intelligent environmental effects.  They have no profile, and interact with the world in a single way.  An immaterial daemon of Tzeentch might make an entire area count as though it is deep within the umbra of the realm of chaos -- forcing normal toughness rolls to resist mutation and increasing the number of chaos dice rolled by casters.  Alternately, such a daemon might inflict terrible visions on the PCs, forcing them to roll to avoid gaining insanity points.  Note that any individual that goes insane in the vicinity of an immaterial daemon must roll against willpower to resist possession.

Semi-Material daemons are varied.  In this form Greater Daemons have access to all their skills and spells, but their profile is much reduced.  Many of them will have the Immaterial talent, to reflect their resistance to mundane weapons.

For example, here is the semi-material form of a Lord of Change, in the form of a great disk:

WS	BS	T	S	Ag	Int	WP	Fel
57	45	4	5	54	83	83	57
W	A	TB	SB	M	Mag	IP	FP
37	4	4	5	8	3	x	3

Skills and Talents: As Lord of Change

For greater daemons who are possessing characters or creatures, use the ‘exalted daemon’ career.