1 00:00:03,279 --> 00:00:09,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. Hi, 2 00:00:10,039 --> 00:00:12,800 Speaker 1: my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Monster Fact, 3 00:00:13,240 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 1: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 4 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:20,280 Speaker 1: focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. 5 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:26,840 Speaker 1: In this episode, we will finish our look at the 6 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:31,280 Speaker 1: four chaos gods of the fictional far future universe in 7 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:36,720 Speaker 1: Games Workshops Warhammer forty thousand. In previous episodes, we looked 8 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:42,479 Speaker 1: at Bloodthirsty Corn, the hyper protean Zinch, and the plague 9 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 1: lord Nergle. Today we enter the domain of Slanesh, the 10 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:51,280 Speaker 1: Lord of Excess. In forty k Lore, we are told 11 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: that Slanesh is the youngest of the chaos gods, having 12 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:59,680 Speaker 1: only truly accreted out of mortal souls and emotions with 13 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:04,240 Speaker 1: the fall of the decadent Aldari civilization, an event that 14 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:07,920 Speaker 1: all but destroy the Alvari and pour open a massive 15 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:13,399 Speaker 1: warp rift known as the Eye of Terror. Slanesh's domain 16 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:18,560 Speaker 1: is that of hedonistic excess, but also that of need, want, 17 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:24,200 Speaker 1: and obsession. The demons that manifest in Slanesh's service are 18 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: alluring contradictions that blur the line between pleasure and pain, 19 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:35,120 Speaker 1: desire and revulsion. The demonets of Slanesh make up most 20 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:38,119 Speaker 1: of the chaos God's battle force, and they feature some 21 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:43,600 Speaker 1: favored characteristics of Slanesh's servants. They are humanoid beings with 22 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:49,120 Speaker 1: pale flesh and long purple hair, alluring yet also equally ghoulish. 23 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:54,120 Speaker 1: Their feet and legs are reminiscent of reptiles or birds, 24 00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:56,800 Speaker 1: bringing to mind such real world mythic traditions as that 25 00:01:56,880 --> 00:02:00,840 Speaker 1: of harpies and succubie. Oh yes, and they also have 26 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:04,720 Speaker 1: crab claws, lots of crab claws, something that doesn't really 27 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:07,880 Speaker 1: connect to any mythic or folkloric traditions that I'm aware of, 28 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:11,080 Speaker 1: but they absolutely make it work and it has become 29 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:16,720 Speaker 1: a signature aspect of their look. Demonets also appear bilaterally asymmetrical, 30 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:20,160 Speaker 1: particularly in the chest region, where one side features a 31 00:02:20,200 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 1: female breast and the other a male breast. While titillation 32 00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:26,560 Speaker 1: is clearly part of this design, it also strongly echoes 33 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:31,000 Speaker 1: the male female duality in the symbolism of bathom from 34 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:36,359 Speaker 1: occult in Western esoteric traditions. This influence is especially prevalent 35 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:41,840 Speaker 1: in the Towering Keeper of Secrets, the deadly Slaneshi demon champions, 36 00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:47,639 Speaker 1: which often, especially in recent depictions, feature strong goatlike characteristics 37 00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:53,200 Speaker 1: such as foot and head reminiscent of Bathomea. But there's 38 00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:56,200 Speaker 1: another servant of Slanesh that I'd like to talk about here, 39 00:02:56,400 --> 00:03:01,359 Speaker 1: and that's the Mask of Slanesh. This purple hued Harold 40 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:04,200 Speaker 1: once danced in the good graces of the Lord of Excess. 41 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:08,200 Speaker 1: But according to the ninth edition Chaos Demons Codex from 42 00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:11,600 Speaker 1: Games Workshop, the Mask fell out of favor with Slenesh 43 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:15,799 Speaker 1: and is now cursed to dance and cavort forever across 44 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:21,200 Speaker 1: strange realms and battlefields. The dance of the Mask emboldened 45 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:25,800 Speaker 1: surrounding Slaneshi forces, but also in sourcel's enemy troops to 46 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,359 Speaker 1: join into its spiraling dance, where it slices them to 47 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:34,520 Speaker 1: exotic ribbons of flesh. This, of course, brings to mind 48 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:38,760 Speaker 1: a famous mania from our own history, the dancing plagues 49 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:42,880 Speaker 1: off the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries, as pointed out by 50 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 1: John Waller in a Forgotten Plague, Making Sense of Dancing Mania, 51 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:49,680 Speaker 1: published in two thousand and nine in The Lancet. A 52 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:53,520 Speaker 1: certain degree of embellishment stains some of these accounts, but 53 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:57,120 Speaker 1: cases in thirteen seventy four in fifteen eighteen are pretty 54 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: well documented. Most sources agree that dancing plague incidents involved 55 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:07,680 Speaker 1: groups of individuals swept up in long bouts of involuntary dancing. 56 00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:11,520 Speaker 1: The dancers cried out in pain or pleaded for mercy. 57 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:16,520 Speaker 1: In some accounts, they danced until they died. While enigmatic 58 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:19,360 Speaker 1: and certainly hard to believe from a modern perspective, dancing 59 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:23,760 Speaker 1: plagues are not without skeptical explanation. Wilder explores a few 60 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:27,479 Speaker 1: leading ideas in the paper. First, there's the possibility of 61 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:31,159 Speaker 1: urgot poisoning, a topic we've discussed in depth on Stuff 62 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:34,080 Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind before. It's caused by the consumption 63 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:37,960 Speaker 1: of fungus infected grains that can lead to nightmarish altered 64 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:42,440 Speaker 1: states of consciousness. Waller also discusses the possibility that the 65 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:46,240 Speaker 1: dancers could have been in an involuntary trance state, something 66 00:04:46,279 --> 00:04:49,600 Speaker 1: people are far more susceptible to during states of intense 67 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:55,440 Speaker 1: psychological distress, and these centuries certainly provided plenty of stressors. 68 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:59,599 Speaker 1: This explanation also require exposure to a pre existing belief 69 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:03,840 Speaker 1: about dancing plagues, and in these cases, the cause would 70 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:06,640 Speaker 1: be believed to be some sort of a spirit or 71 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:10,120 Speaker 1: a curse, and there is evidence for this in art, literature, 72 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:14,200 Speaker 1: and law from these time periods and regions. So Waller 73 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:18,120 Speaker 1: writes quote every so often, when physical and mental distress 74 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:22,680 Speaker 1: rendered people more than usually suggestible, the specter of the 75 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:26,919 Speaker 1: dancing plague could quickly return. All it then took was 76 00:05:26,960 --> 00:05:30,200 Speaker 1: for one or a few poor souls, believing themselves to 77 00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:33,279 Speaker 1: have been subject to the curse, to slip into a 78 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:38,240 Speaker 1: spontaneous trance. Then they would unconsciously act out the part 79 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:43,960 Speaker 1: of the accursed, dancing, leaping and hopping for days on end. 80 00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:48,520 Speaker 1: It's a different sort of compulsion than that found among 81 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 1: the followers of Slanesh, but there are other examples of 82 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:56,480 Speaker 1: mass hysteria or mass psychogenic illness to consider, such as 83 00:05:56,600 --> 00:06:01,080 Speaker 1: laughing epidemics and witchcraft panics, though of course slantash doesn't 84 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:04,760 Speaker 1: have to work through such real world means to control people. 85 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:08,520 Speaker 1: That's all for this monster fact series, but I think 86 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:11,240 Speaker 1: I'm going to continue the basic format here, with future 87 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:17,400 Speaker 1: episodes drawing on groups of creatures from other fandoms and 88 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:21,960 Speaker 1: other traditions. So tune in for additional episodes each Wednesday. 89 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:25,720 Speaker 1: And the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed. As always, 90 00:06:25,800 --> 00:06:29,080 Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow 91 00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:44,080 Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is 92 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:47,360 Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, 93 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:50,760 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listening 94 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:51,680 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.