The Monstrefact: Chaos Daemons of Tzeentch

of mortal violence. Today, it's time to turn our attention 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

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,

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 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,

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 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 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 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 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 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, 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, 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 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 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

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, 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

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