Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. Hi,
Speaker 1: my name is Robert Lamb and this is The Monster Fact,
Speaker 1: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind
Speaker 1: focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. In
Speaker 1: the last episode of The Monster Fact, we discussed the
Speaker 1: basics of chaos demonology within the fictional far future universe
Speaker 1: of games Workshops Warhammer forty thousand. We began with the
Speaker 1: oldest chaos god, Corn, borne out of the accreted energy
Speaker 1: of mortal violence. Today, it's time to turn our attention
Speaker 1: to the next chaos god, Zench. Now that's traditionally spelled
Speaker 1: with a silent tea, but you can really spell the
Speaker 1: entity's name anyway you want to. I think Zench would
Speaker 1: appreciate that, especially if you put a great deal of
Speaker 1: thought into the exercise and mix things up alight. After all,
Speaker 1: he is the changer of ways and the demonic master
Speaker 1: of mutation, trickery and prophecy. Zinch's focus on change is
Speaker 1: sometimes perplexing because, of course, change is not inherently evil
Speaker 1: or ruinous. As described in the ninth edition Chaos demon
Speaker 1: Codex from Game's Workshop, change is largely the bait by
Speaker 1: which the dark god draws in his followers. He promises change,
Speaker 1: He promises wisdom or insight into the future. But what
Speaker 1: he actually delivers his manipulation, confusion, plots within plots, and
Speaker 1: ultimately more out of control transformation than anyone's sane or
Speaker 1: mortal can comprehend. The vice he feeds upon is unchecked
Speaker 1: mortal ambition and deception. As such, Zinch is one of
Speaker 1: two chaos gods, along with Slinesh, who exhibits strong Fostian elements.
Speaker 1: He offers tempting immediate rewards in exchange for a great
Speaker 1: cost of unimaginable nature. The battle forces of Zinch are,
Speaker 1: of course, bonkers, imp like pink horrors, swarm across an
Speaker 1: ever changing, ever recreated battlefield, splitting into blue horrors upon defeat,
Speaker 1: which in turn fall to become flaming brimstone horrors. Now,
Speaker 1: these are the lowest of Zinch's forces, but his generals
Speaker 1: are the great blue Avian monstrosities known as the Lords
Speaker 1: of Change, and the most dangerous of these is an
Speaker 1: individual Lord of Change known as Carrios Fate Weaver, the
Speaker 1: oracle of Zinch, Kryos Manifests is a great two headed
Speaker 1: lord of change, resplendent in blue feathers, kaleidoscopic wings, and
Speaker 1: countless gleaming eyes. Fittingly, there are some enthralling elements to
Speaker 1: unwrap in this entity. Beginning with its name, Fate Weaver
Speaker 1: speaks for itself, but the demon's first name is the
Speaker 1: ancient Greek for the right, critical or opportune moment, and
Speaker 1: in modern Greek time and weather, it is written that
Speaker 1: the two heads of carry Us Fate Weaver are all seen.
Speaker 1: One looks backwards into the past and the other forward
Speaker 1: into the future. The symbolism brings to mind various concepts
Speaker 1: from real world religion and iconography, such as the two
Speaker 1: faced Janus of Roman tradition, who is god of beginnings
Speaker 1: and endings, of transitions and doorways. The image also brings
Speaker 1: to mind hecade the Greek goddess who is often presented
Speaker 1: as triple faced or triple bodied. She is a goddess
Speaker 1: of crossroads who presents a different form to each direction,
Speaker 1: So we might easily think of both Janus and Hecadae
Speaker 1: as gods of change, as well, as Robert Mills points
Speaker 1: out in Jesus as Monster, published in the two thousand
Speaker 1: and three book the Monstrous Middle Ages. From the twelfth
Speaker 1: century onward. There is also a tradition in Christian iconography
Speaker 1: of depicting Christ with three human faces or three human heads,
Speaker 1: as a way of visually depicting the Holy Trinity or
Speaker 1: three in one God, Christ and Holy Spirit. Mills points
Speaker 1: out that this is fairly remarkable because these divine images
Speaker 1: coexisted with monstrous depictions of three faced creatures in medieval bestiaries,
Speaker 1: and of course we also have the three faced Satan
Speaker 1: in Dante's Inferno. The bird heads of carry Us, Fate, Weaver,
Speaker 1: and the other lords of Change are also quite interesting. Certainly,
Speaker 1: there are plenty of examples of real world gods and
Speaker 1: goddesses with Avian features like this, But I also can't
Speaker 1: help but think of a specific medieval depiction of Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ with the head and long neck of a bird.
Speaker 1: Mills discusses this as well. The example he points to
Speaker 1: in the English Book of Hours and Salter circa thirteen hundred,
Speaker 1: depicts a strange human bird high with a long neck
Speaker 1: and long vulture like beak. The creatures loincloth, philosophic air,
Speaker 1: and body positioning strongly reflect depictions of Christ Mills wonders
Speaker 1: if this perplexing creature is a reference to the burden
Speaker 1: end described in the Guest of Roman Arum or Deeds
Speaker 1: of the Romans from roughly the same time period. In
Speaker 1: this book, birdmen with long necks and beaks are described
Speaker 1: as fitting judges because of the distance between their heart
Speaker 1: and their voice. By virtue of their long beaks and necks,
Speaker 1: see words rise up from the heart through the neck
Speaker 1: to the lips, and the longer they have to travel,
Speaker 1: the more time we have to consider them and craft
Speaker 1: them for public consumption. In other words, the Avian Christ
Speaker 1: might be a commentary on the holy value of contemplation
Speaker 1: and the need to balance justice and mercy. So with
Speaker 1: the Lord of Change and other agents Zinch, perhaps we
Speaker 1: see a similar symbolic effect, only demonically perverted. The Chaos
Speaker 1: God celebrates contemplation, but only in the form of endless
Speaker 1: scheming and deception. Words travel along between his heart and
Speaker 1: his voice because every whisper is finally tuned to ensnare,
Speaker 1: bewilder and manipulate mortals to further his own labyrinthine schemes.
Speaker 1: We'll continue through the chaos factions in this manner over
Speaker 1: the next two weeks, so tune in for the Monster
Speaker 1: Fact each Wednesday and the Stuff to Blow Your Mind
Speaker 1: podcast feed. As always, you can email us at contact
Speaker 1: at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to
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