1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,399 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:11,400 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is The 3 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:14,760 Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow 4 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:19,680 Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters 5 00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:27,200 Speaker 2: in time. On today's special omnibus episode of Stuff to 6 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:29,840 Speaker 2: Blow Your minds The Monster Fact, We're going to dive 7 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:33,080 Speaker 2: into a little Chaos undivided if you will. We have 8 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:37,040 Speaker 2: all four previously published episodes of The Monster Fact concerning 9 00:00:37,080 --> 00:00:42,159 Speaker 2: the chaos demons of Games Workshops Warhammer forty thousand universe 10 00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:47,519 Speaker 2: rank and file beside each other. So upburst, let's get 11 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:51,839 Speaker 2: to know the blood God Corn. In this episode, I'm 12 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:55,680 Speaker 2: beginning a four part Monster Fact series on the four 13 00:00:55,800 --> 00:01:00,200 Speaker 2: main demonic factions in Games Workshops Warhammer for four forty 14 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:06,000 Speaker 2: thousand univers So first, a little background. The fictional far 15 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 2: future forty case setting depicts an interstellar human imperium with 16 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:15,920 Speaker 2: various dark, fantasy and medieval elements. This aggressive imperium is 17 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:20,480 Speaker 2: challenged on all sides by equally warlike alien societies, but 18 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:24,720 Speaker 2: they also face the threat of chaos. In the forty 19 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:28,120 Speaker 2: kse setting, the demons of Chaos exist in a psychic 20 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:32,760 Speaker 2: dimension called the warp, but they can spill over into 21 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:36,840 Speaker 2: what is called real space through various methods and exploits, 22 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:40,320 Speaker 2: so in this setting, demons are not the mere creation 23 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:44,920 Speaker 2: of religion or occultism, but an actual spiritual and physical 24 00:01:44,959 --> 00:01:49,520 Speaker 2: threat to humanity. Heretical drift on a far flung planet 25 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 2: can mean far more than just mere rebellion. It can 26 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 2: lead to a demonic incursion that consumes billions of souls. 27 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:01,040 Speaker 2: There are various ways to divide up factions in a 28 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:04,120 Speaker 2: created world like this, but forty K largely splits the 29 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:08,880 Speaker 2: forces of chaos into four distinct flavors, red, blue, green, 30 00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:14,840 Speaker 2: and purple, representing bloodthirst, chaotic change, pestilence, and hedonism, each 31 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:19,120 Speaker 2: a major conduit of mortal emotions and mortal souls in 32 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:24,120 Speaker 2: the fictional forty first millennium, with each conduit accreting into 33 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 2: a powerful entity known as a chaos god. They are 34 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:35,160 Speaker 2: corn Zinchnurgle, and Slannesh. There are other lesser chaos gods 35 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:37,640 Speaker 2: as well, but these are the four main factions, and 36 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:40,440 Speaker 2: while they sometimes come to a working agreement with each other, 37 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 2: they're mostly at war amongst themselves. In what is referred 38 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:47,480 Speaker 2: to as the great game. In this episode, we'll start 39 00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:50,400 Speaker 2: with Corn as the so called Blood God is a 40 00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:53,920 Speaker 2: lot more direct. He's powered by mortal violence and war. 41 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 2: He's all about rivers of blood and pyramids of bone. 42 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:00,840 Speaker 2: His favorite color is obviously red, and he's not dig 43 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 2: on subtlety. His demonic Hords and mortal followers dig horns 44 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:09,520 Speaker 2: and blades. They spill blood for the Blood God. So 45 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 2: really there's not much to elaborate on here. However, in 46 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:18,400 Speaker 2: browsing through the ninth edition Chaos Demons Codex from Games Workshop, 47 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,400 Speaker 2: I simply couldn't let the unit known as a skull 48 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:25,800 Speaker 2: cannon pass without comment. There's a lot of talk of 49 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:28,560 Speaker 2: skull harvesting with some of the other Corn units, and 50 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:31,800 Speaker 2: this one amounts to a big honking heavy metal cannon. 51 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:35,800 Speaker 2: A couple of red demons called blood Letters crew the weapon, 52 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:39,520 Speaker 2: loading it up with the fresh remains of slain enemy soldiers. 53 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:43,360 Speaker 2: The cannon breaks everything down and then fires flaming skulls 54 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:50,160 Speaker 2: across the battlefield, again fittingly direct. Thus far, in actual 55 00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:55,320 Speaker 2: human warfare, skulls and heads have proven poor missiles, but 56 00:03:55,440 --> 00:03:59,560 Speaker 2: the presentation of decapitated heads to the enemy has a 57 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:03,120 Speaker 2: long history with plentiful examples to be found in the 58 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:07,800 Speaker 2: classical and ancient world. The heads of enemy dead might 59 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:11,040 Speaker 2: be delivered directly to enemy lines. They might be placed 60 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:15,160 Speaker 2: on spikes or what have you. Ruth Schuster, writing for 61 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:19,680 Speaker 2: Hauritz in twenty eighteen, points out that Iron Age Gauls 62 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:23,600 Speaker 2: even developed a resin based embalming method to ensure the 63 00:04:23,960 --> 00:04:28,360 Speaker 2: captured heads of their enemies didn't rot too fast. As 64 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:31,920 Speaker 2: Peter Francopin points out in his book The First Crusade 65 00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:35,679 Speaker 2: The Call from the East, the Crusades saw a lot 66 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:38,680 Speaker 2: of head taking on both sides, and there are Western 67 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 2: accounts of crusader heads being catapulted back into their siege 68 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:46,960 Speaker 2: camps in order to hurt morale. The same terror tactics 69 00:04:47,279 --> 00:04:50,120 Speaker 2: were said to have been used by French crusader coasts 70 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:53,640 Speaker 2: as well. This according to the French themselves in the 71 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:57,560 Speaker 2: Old French Crusader Cycle. According to Sarah Grace Heller in 72 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:02,160 Speaker 2: twenty eleven's Terror in the Old French Crusade Cycle, Various 73 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:05,440 Speaker 2: other catapult Age accounts describe the launching of dead bodies 74 00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:08,600 Speaker 2: into camps and besieged cities as a means of terror 75 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:14,680 Speaker 2: and or biological attack. The age of the cannon presented 76 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:19,080 Speaker 2: various new ideas of how canons might be used in 77 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:22,599 Speaker 2: one way or another to spread human remains. None of 78 00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:27,120 Speaker 2: these methods use the remains as ammo against other combatants, 79 00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:31,480 Speaker 2: but are worth noting. Nonetheless, the execution method known as 80 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,359 Speaker 2: blowing from a gun often entailed the strapping of a 81 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:37,039 Speaker 2: live victim to the mouth of a cannon, resulting in 82 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:40,760 Speaker 2: partial or complete scattering of the remains. On the other 83 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:44,360 Speaker 2: end of the spectrum, cremated ashes are on occasions spread 84 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:48,680 Speaker 2: by cannon fire as a desired dramatic, funerary rite in 85 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 2: modern times. In a broader sense, however, the use of 86 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:56,920 Speaker 2: human remains as weapons dates back to prehistory. Europeans were 87 00:05:56,960 --> 00:06:00,400 Speaker 2: crafting human bones into weapons at least ten thousand years ago, 88 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:04,280 Speaker 2: a practice that continued into recent centuries for other far 89 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:09,840 Speaker 2: flung cultures, at least for symbolic and spiritual reasons. Now, 90 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:13,000 Speaker 2: as far as the creation and veneration of artifacts made 91 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:15,720 Speaker 2: from human bones goes, this is the kind of thing 92 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:19,640 Speaker 2: that's probably lost on the chaos god Corn. All he 93 00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:23,039 Speaker 2: cares about is the hacking of the stabbing, and of 94 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:28,599 Speaker 2: course the occasional explosively propelled pyrotechnic human skull. And now 95 00:06:28,640 --> 00:06:34,480 Speaker 2: for something completely different, Zinch, the Changer of Ways. It's 96 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:38,360 Speaker 2: time to turn our attention to the next chaos god, Zinch. 97 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:42,440 Speaker 2: Now that's traditionally spelled with a silent tea, but you 98 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:45,520 Speaker 2: can really spell the entity's name anyway you want to. 99 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:48,800 Speaker 2: I think Zinch would appreciate that, especially if you put 100 00:06:48,839 --> 00:06:51,880 Speaker 2: a great deal of thought into the exercise and mix 101 00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:55,000 Speaker 2: things up a lot. After all, he is the changer 102 00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:59,920 Speaker 2: of ways and the demonic master of mutation, trickery and prophet. 103 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:05,280 Speaker 2: Zinch's focus on change is sometimes perplexing because, of course, 104 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:09,359 Speaker 2: change is not inherently evil or ruinous. As described in 105 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:14,000 Speaker 2: the ninth edition Chaos Demon Codex from Game's Workshop, change 106 00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:17,320 Speaker 2: is largely the bait by which the dark god draws 107 00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:21,400 Speaker 2: in his followers. He promises change, he promises wisdom or 108 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:26,800 Speaker 2: insight into the future, but what he actually delivers is manipulation, confusion, 109 00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:31,840 Speaker 2: plots within plots, and ultimately more out of control transformation 110 00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:36,840 Speaker 2: than anyone saying or mortal can comprehend. The vice he 111 00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:42,920 Speaker 2: feeds upon is unchecked mortal ambition and deception. As such, 112 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:46,440 Speaker 2: Zinch is one of two chaos gods along with Slenesh, 113 00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:51,880 Speaker 2: who exhibits strong fostian elements. He offers tempting immediate rewards 114 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:57,040 Speaker 2: in exchange for a great cost of unimaginable nature. The 115 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:01,200 Speaker 2: battle forces of Zench are, of course, bonker imp like 116 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:06,440 Speaker 2: pink horrors swarm across an ever changing, ever recreated battlefield, 117 00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:10,120 Speaker 2: splitting into blue horrors upon defeet, which in turn fall 118 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:14,320 Speaker 2: to become flaming brimstone horrors. Now these are the lowest 119 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:18,360 Speaker 2: of Zinch's forces, but his generals are the great blue 120 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:22,840 Speaker 2: Avian monstrosities known as the Lords of Change, and the 121 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:26,200 Speaker 2: most dangerous of these is an individual Lord of Change 122 00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:31,440 Speaker 2: known as Carryos Fate Weaver. The oracle of Zinch. Carryos 123 00:08:31,480 --> 00:08:35,679 Speaker 2: manifests as a great two headed lord of change, resplendent 124 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:42,240 Speaker 2: in blue feathers, kaleidoscopic wings, and countless gleaming eyes. Fittingly, 125 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:45,280 Speaker 2: there are some enthralling elements to unwrap in this entity. 126 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:48,840 Speaker 2: Beginning with its name, Fate Weaver speaks for itself, but 127 00:08:48,880 --> 00:08:52,280 Speaker 2: the demon's first name is the ancient Greek for the right, 128 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:56,559 Speaker 2: critical or opportune moment, and in modern Greek time and weather, 129 00:08:57,760 --> 00:08:59,920 Speaker 2: it is written that the two heads of Carryos Fate 130 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,640 Speaker 2: Weaver are all seen. One looks backwards into the past 131 00:09:03,920 --> 00:09:07,480 Speaker 2: and the other forward into the future. The symbolism brings 132 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:11,199 Speaker 2: to mind various concepts from real world religion and iconography, 133 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:15,000 Speaker 2: such as the two faced Janus of Roman tradition, who 134 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:18,559 Speaker 2: is god of beginnings and endings, of transitions and doorways. 135 00:09:19,320 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 2: The image also brings to mind Hecady, the Greek goddess 136 00:09:23,040 --> 00:09:26,480 Speaker 2: who is often presented as triple faced or triple bodied. 137 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:29,960 Speaker 2: She is a goddess of crossroads who presents a different 138 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:33,200 Speaker 2: form to each direction, so we might easily think of 139 00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:38,480 Speaker 2: both Janus and Hecaday as gods of change, as well, 140 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:42,680 Speaker 2: as Robert Mills points out in Jesus as Monster, published 141 00:09:42,679 --> 00:09:45,439 Speaker 2: in the two thousand and three book The Monstrous Middle Ages. 142 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:48,280 Speaker 2: From the twelfth century onward, there is also a tradition 143 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:52,719 Speaker 2: in Christian iconography of depicting Christ with three human faces 144 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:56,520 Speaker 2: or three human heads, as a way of visually depicting 145 00:09:56,760 --> 00:10:01,040 Speaker 2: the Holy Trinity or three in one god, Christ and 146 00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:05,400 Speaker 2: Holy Spirit. Mills points out that this is fairly remarkable 147 00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:11,079 Speaker 2: because these divine images coexisted with monstrous depictions of three 148 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:15,280 Speaker 2: faced creatures in medieval bestiaries and of course, we also 149 00:10:15,360 --> 00:10:20,120 Speaker 2: have the three faced Satan in Dante's Inferno. The bird 150 00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:23,079 Speaker 2: heads of Carryos, Fate Weaver, and the other lords of 151 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:26,240 Speaker 2: Change are also quite interesting. Certainly, there are plenty of 152 00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:30,400 Speaker 2: examples of real world gods and goddesses with Avian features 153 00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:32,599 Speaker 2: like this, But I also can't help but think of 154 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:36,800 Speaker 2: a specific medieval depiction of Jesus Christ with the head 155 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:41,440 Speaker 2: and long neck of a bird. Mills discusses this as well. 156 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:44,600 Speaker 2: The example he points to in the English Book of 157 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:49,080 Speaker 2: Hours in Psalter circa thirteen hundred, depicts a strange human 158 00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:53,199 Speaker 2: bird hybrid with a long neck and long vulture like beak. 159 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:58,600 Speaker 2: The creature's loincloth, philosophic air, and body positioning strongly reflect 160 00:10:58,800 --> 00:11:03,480 Speaker 2: depictions of Christ. Mills wonders if this perplexing creature is 161 00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:06,800 Speaker 2: a reference to the bird men described in the Guesta 162 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:10,480 Speaker 2: roman Arum or Deeds of the Romans, from roughly the 163 00:11:10,480 --> 00:11:14,840 Speaker 2: same time period. In this book, birdmen with long necks 164 00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:18,200 Speaker 2: and beaks are described as fitting judges because of the 165 00:11:18,320 --> 00:11:22,400 Speaker 2: distance between their heart and their voice. By virtue of 166 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:26,760 Speaker 2: their long beaks and necks, see words rise up from 167 00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:30,160 Speaker 2: the heart through the neck to the lips and the 168 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:33,080 Speaker 2: longer they have to travel, the more time we have 169 00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:37,720 Speaker 2: to consider them and craft them for public consumption. In 170 00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:41,120 Speaker 2: other words, the Avian Christ might be a commentary on 171 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:44,800 Speaker 2: the holy value of contemplation and the need to balance 172 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:49,080 Speaker 2: justice and mercy. So with the Lord of Change and 173 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:53,480 Speaker 2: other agents of zinch, perhaps we see a similar symbolic effect, 174 00:11:54,120 --> 00:12:01,000 Speaker 2: only demonically perverted. The chaos God celebrates contemplation, but only 175 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:05,440 Speaker 2: in the form of endless scheming and deception. Words travel 176 00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:09,040 Speaker 2: long between his heart and his voice, because every whisper 177 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:15,000 Speaker 2: is finely tuned to ensnare, bewilder and manipulate mortals to 178 00:12:15,120 --> 00:12:30,120 Speaker 2: further his own labyrinthine schemes. Up next, let's get uncomfortably 179 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:34,720 Speaker 2: close to the plague God Nurgle. Today we turn our 180 00:12:34,760 --> 00:12:39,320 Speaker 2: attention to the plague god Nurgle, the master of contagion 181 00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:43,920 Speaker 2: and general grossness. His demonic minions are foul oozing and 182 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:48,680 Speaker 2: bloated wrecks. His mortal followers also willingly give their bodies 183 00:12:48,679 --> 00:12:52,560 Speaker 2: and souls over to this sort of corruption. From the 184 00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:55,920 Speaker 2: top of his ranks, the monstrous great unclean one, to 185 00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:59,559 Speaker 2: the lowly swarms of gurglings, we see a common likeness 186 00:13:00,160 --> 00:13:06,160 Speaker 2: to resemble NRGYL himself, rotund, toad like humanoids with rupturing 187 00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:10,640 Speaker 2: guts and rot toothed grins. As such, it's easy to 188 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:15,199 Speaker 2: Equatenrgyl with the Christian deadly sins of sloth and gluttony, 189 00:13:15,720 --> 00:13:19,880 Speaker 2: but the ninth edition Chaos Demon's Codex from game's workshop 190 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:23,920 Speaker 2: tells us that Nrgyl is actually empowered by mortal suffering 191 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:27,800 Speaker 2: and despair. It is when famines and pestilence are at 192 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:31,920 Speaker 2: their worst in the universe and vast interstellar populations lose 193 00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:36,439 Speaker 2: all hope that Nergyl advances on their souls and physical worlds. 194 00:13:36,920 --> 00:13:39,800 Speaker 2: He offers them a bit of twisted wisdom. It is 195 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:43,439 Speaker 2: not courage to resist disease and corruption. It is courage 196 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:48,040 Speaker 2: to give in to these forces and to Embracenrgyl's blessings. 197 00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:52,160 Speaker 2: Nrgle's name was of course inspired by the ancient Babylonian 198 00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:56,480 Speaker 2: god Nergal, a god of pestilence, famine, and war who 199 00:13:56,480 --> 00:13:58,880 Speaker 2: could be called upon to protect his worshippers from these 200 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:04,040 Speaker 2: very forces. He also became associated with the samarro Acadian underworld. 201 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:08,120 Speaker 2: Forty K'snurgyl is in many ways a darker and more 202 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:12,679 Speaker 2: twisted take on these elements on the battlefield, the demonic 203 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:16,480 Speaker 2: forces of Nergyl make for quite a grotesque horde, full 204 00:14:16,559 --> 00:14:21,960 Speaker 2: of humanoid plague bearers and great sluglike monstrosities. There's also 205 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:26,000 Speaker 2: a dark whimsie to such units as the grand cultivator 206 00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:31,360 Speaker 2: Horticulus Slimux on his snail demon Mount Mulch, as well 207 00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:35,240 Speaker 2: as the capering Blessed Nurglings. But of course we have 208 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:39,560 Speaker 2: to focus in on the Herald of Nergyl, Sloppity Bile Piper. 209 00:14:40,640 --> 00:14:43,800 Speaker 2: Like other plague bearer demons, he's a green skinned humanoid 210 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:47,400 Speaker 2: bursting with infection and decay, but he's also a jolly 211 00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:52,000 Speaker 2: soul full of song and twisted mirth. The Kodex tells 212 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:55,280 Speaker 2: us that he prances on the battlefield infected by a 213 00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:59,840 Speaker 2: deadly and highly contagious laughing disease. In one hand, he 214 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:03,480 Speaker 2: rip suggests merit, decorated with his own face, of course, 215 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:07,600 Speaker 2: as well as a steaming mass of guts fashioned into 216 00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:12,040 Speaker 2: a set of bagpipes, which he plays. His performance hastens 217 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:15,080 Speaker 2: the troops, but the Kodex tells us that it's uncertain 218 00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:19,960 Speaker 2: if this is accomplished via inspiration or annoyance. He spreads 219 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:23,359 Speaker 2: the dancing plague as he cavorts, and when he eventually 220 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:26,640 Speaker 2: falls on the battlefield, his own body will turn into 221 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:29,680 Speaker 2: the next set of gut pipes for the next herald 222 00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:32,440 Speaker 2: to take up and play. Now, there's a lot of 223 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:35,560 Speaker 2: fun gallows humor to this unit, but it also may 224 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:39,960 Speaker 2: raise some interesting questions about actual bagpipes. For starters, we 225 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:43,240 Speaker 2: should clarify that while bagpipes are strongly associated with Scottish 226 00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:46,600 Speaker 2: and Irish tradition, some form of bagpipes have been played 227 00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:49,760 Speaker 2: for centuries across Europe and parts of Asia and Africa 228 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:53,640 Speaker 2: in different cultural traditions. It does seem that animal stomachs 229 00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:56,640 Speaker 2: were used in the creation of bagpipes on occasion, such 230 00:15:56,640 --> 00:16:01,280 Speaker 2: as the stomachs of sheep or seals, but most bagpipes 231 00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:03,120 Speaker 2: you encounter today are going to be made out of 232 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:07,479 Speaker 2: synthetic materials or animal hides. In some cases, the bagpipe 233 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 2: may be made from a largely intact skin, with the 234 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:14,480 Speaker 2: various stalks of the bagpipes connecting to where the limbs 235 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:17,720 Speaker 2: and head of the animal would have previously attached. So 236 00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:20,920 Speaker 2: on one level, the notion of bagpipes made from flesh 237 00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:25,080 Speaker 2: is not that far removed from their material origins. Additionally, 238 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:28,400 Speaker 2: there is something to the way bagpipes inhale and exhale 239 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:32,280 Speaker 2: that encourages the animal comparison ohen. Of course, the TV 240 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:37,280 Speaker 2: series Garth Morangi's Dark Place exploited this quite humorously in 241 00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:40,440 Speaker 2: the episode Scotch Mist, in which an animate pair of 242 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:45,160 Speaker 2: bagpipes attacks the main character. As for the comparison to 243 00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:48,800 Speaker 2: be made between bagpipes and human entrails, I actually found 244 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:51,560 Speaker 2: an interesting treatment of this in the eighteen fifty humor 245 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:56,240 Speaker 2: book Memoirs of a Stomach by Sydney Whiting. The author, 246 00:16:56,440 --> 00:17:00,359 Speaker 2: writing as a human stomach, compares itself to the bagpipe 247 00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:04,040 Speaker 2: and shares a supposed origin story of the musical instrument. 248 00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:07,760 Speaker 2: In it, a necromancer reanimates the stomach of a fallen 249 00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:11,320 Speaker 2: Scottish warrior as bagpipes. Allow me to read a bit 250 00:17:11,359 --> 00:17:15,520 Speaker 2: of it to you quote, there sat the weird king 251 00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:19,439 Speaker 2: wand in hand, and there lay the digestive organs of 252 00:17:19,480 --> 00:17:23,119 Speaker 2: the departed. At length, he uttered a few strange words, and, 253 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:26,240 Speaker 2: tracing some hieroglyphics in the air with his royal finger, 254 00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:30,480 Speaker 2: he exclaimed aloud, change thou thy form a thing of 255 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:34,560 Speaker 2: mighty use. When in the living clay, And on thy tube, 256 00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:37,840 Speaker 2: let there be stops and keynotes. And in thy bag 257 00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:40,640 Speaker 2: let there be wind. And let the natives of this 258 00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:44,080 Speaker 2: region have cunning to play upon thee. And let thy 259 00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:47,600 Speaker 2: tones be ever as the shrieks of a tortured man, 260 00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:51,160 Speaker 2: so that the Erinus may be satisfied. And let thou 261 00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:55,720 Speaker 2: be called now and hereafter bagpipe, so that what I 262 00:17:55,800 --> 00:17:59,600 Speaker 2: spoke may come to pass, even unto the letter he said, 263 00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:03,439 Speaker 2: and his astonished retainers raised from the earth the first 264 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:07,760 Speaker 2: instrument bearing that name born unto Scotland. Now again, this 265 00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:10,080 Speaker 2: is a work of humor and should not be interpreted 266 00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:13,600 Speaker 2: as Scottish lore. If anything, I detect some possible anti 267 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:17,320 Speaker 2: Scottish sentiments to the work, But suffice to say that 268 00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:20,399 Speaker 2: grandfather nrgl was not the first to snicker at the 269 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:24,080 Speaker 2: idea of stomachs as bagpipes. It's also worth noting that 270 00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:28,159 Speaker 2: laughing plagues have occurred in the real world, likely cases 271 00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:31,600 Speaker 2: of mass hysteria. But this is another story and shall 272 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:38,119 Speaker 2: be told another time. Last, but certainly not least, we 273 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:44,679 Speaker 2: have a date with Slannesh, the Lord of Excess. In 274 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:47,399 Speaker 2: forty k Lore, we are told that Slanesh is the 275 00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:52,320 Speaker 2: youngest of the chaos gods, having only truly accreted out 276 00:18:52,359 --> 00:18:55,760 Speaker 2: of mortal souls and emotions with the fall of the 277 00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:59,960 Speaker 2: decadent al Dari civilization, an event that all but destroy 278 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:04,280 Speaker 2: Roid the Aldari and pour open a massive warp rift 279 00:19:04,640 --> 00:19:08,960 Speaker 2: known as the Eye of Terror. Slanesh's domain is that 280 00:19:09,119 --> 00:19:14,720 Speaker 2: of hedonistic excess, but also that of need, want, and obsession. 281 00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:20,800 Speaker 2: The demons that manifest in Slanesh's service are alluring contradictions 282 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:25,959 Speaker 2: that blur the line between pleasure and pain, desire and revulsion. 283 00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:30,880 Speaker 2: The demonets of Slnesh make up most of the chaos 284 00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:34,960 Speaker 2: God's battle force, and they feature some favored characteristics of 285 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:40,080 Speaker 2: Slanesh's servants. They are humanoid beings with pale flesh and 286 00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:45,399 Speaker 2: long purple hair, alluring yet also equally ghoulish. Their feet 287 00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:49,560 Speaker 2: and legs are reminiscent of reptiles or birds, bring to 288 00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:52,639 Speaker 2: mind such real world mythic traditions as that of harpies 289 00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:56,880 Speaker 2: and succuby. Oh. Yes, and they also have crab claws, 290 00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:00,159 Speaker 2: lots of crab claws, something that doesn't really connect to 291 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,320 Speaker 2: any mythic or folklore traditions that I'm aware of, but 292 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:06,239 Speaker 2: they absolutely make it work, and it has become a 293 00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:11,760 Speaker 2: signature aspect of their look. Demonets also appear bilaterally asymmetrical, 294 00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:15,159 Speaker 2: particularly in the chest region, where one side features a 295 00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:18,520 Speaker 2: female breast and the other a male breast. While titillation 296 00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:21,520 Speaker 2: is clearly part of this design, it also strongly echoes 297 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:26,000 Speaker 2: the male female duality in the symbolism of Bathome from 298 00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:31,360 Speaker 2: occult in Western esoteric traditions. This influence is especially prevalent 299 00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:36,880 Speaker 2: in the Towering Keeper of Secrets the deadly Slaneshy demon champions, 300 00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:41,560 Speaker 2: which often, especially in recent depictions, features strong goat like 301 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:47,960 Speaker 2: characteristics such as foot and head reminiscent of Bathome. But 302 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:50,640 Speaker 2: there's another servant of Slanesh that I'd like to talk 303 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:55,400 Speaker 2: about here, and that's the Mask of Slannesh. This purple 304 00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:58,359 Speaker 2: hued herald once danced in the good graces of the 305 00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:02,720 Speaker 2: Lord of Excess. To the ninth edition Chaos Demons Codex 306 00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:06,000 Speaker 2: from Games Workshop, the Mask fell out of favor with 307 00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:10,000 Speaker 2: Slenesh and is now cursed to dance and cavort forever 308 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:15,280 Speaker 2: across strange realms and battlefields. The dance of the Mask 309 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:20,680 Speaker 2: emboldened surrounding Sleneschi forces, but also in sourcells enemy troops 310 00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:25,240 Speaker 2: to join into its spiraling dance, where it slices them 311 00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:29,119 Speaker 2: to exotic ribbons of flesh. This, of course, brings to 312 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:33,320 Speaker 2: mind a famous mania from our own history, the dancing 313 00:21:33,359 --> 00:21:37,680 Speaker 2: plagues of the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries. Its pointed out 314 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:41,119 Speaker 2: by John Waller in a Forgotten Plague, Making Sense of 315 00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:44,320 Speaker 2: Dancing Mania, published in two thousand and nine in The Lancet. 316 00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:48,280 Speaker 2: A certain degree of embellishment stains some of these accounts, 317 00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:51,760 Speaker 2: but cases in thirteen seventy four in fifteen eighteen are 318 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:57,199 Speaker 2: pretty well documented. Most sources agree that dancing plague incidents 319 00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:01,080 Speaker 2: involved groups of individuals swept up in long bouts of 320 00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:05,840 Speaker 2: involuntary dancing. The dancers cried out in pain or pleaded 321 00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:09,320 Speaker 2: for mercy. In some accounts they danced until they died. 322 00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:13,200 Speaker 2: While enigmatic and certainly hard to believe from a modern perspective, 323 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:17,760 Speaker 2: dancing plagues are not without skeptical explanation. Whiler explores a 324 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:21,640 Speaker 2: few leading ideas in the paper. First, there's the possibility 325 00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:25,480 Speaker 2: of urgit poisoning, a topic we've discussed in depth. Unstuff 326 00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:28,320 Speaker 2: to blow your mind before. It's caused by the consumption 327 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:32,280 Speaker 2: of fungus infected grains that can lead to nightmarish altered 328 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:36,760 Speaker 2: states of consciousness. Wiler also discusses the possibility that the 329 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:40,520 Speaker 2: dancers could have been in an involuntary trance state, something 330 00:22:40,560 --> 00:22:43,920 Speaker 2: people are far more susceptible to during states of intense 331 00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:49,159 Speaker 2: psychological distress, and these centuries certainly provided plenty of stressors. 332 00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:54,000 Speaker 2: This explanation also required exposure to a pre existing belief 333 00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:58,200 Speaker 2: about dancing plagues, and in these cases the cause would 334 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:01,520 Speaker 2: be believed to be of a spirit or a curse, 335 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,560 Speaker 2: and there is evidence for this in art, literature, and 336 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:09,240 Speaker 2: law from these time periods in regions, so Waller writes, quote, 337 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:13,280 Speaker 2: every so often, when physical and mental distress rendered people 338 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:17,920 Speaker 2: more than usually suggestible, the specter of the dancing plague 339 00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:21,720 Speaker 2: could quickly return. All it then took was for one 340 00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:24,920 Speaker 2: or a few poor souls, believing themselves to have been 341 00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:28,920 Speaker 2: subject to the curse, to slip into a spontaneous trance. 342 00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:34,760 Speaker 2: Then they would unconsciously act out the part of the accursed, dancing, 343 00:23:35,160 --> 00:23:40,280 Speaker 2: leaping and hopping for days on end. It's a different 344 00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:44,639 Speaker 2: sort of compulsion than that found among the followers of Slanesh, 345 00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:48,240 Speaker 2: but there are other examples of mass hysteria or mass 346 00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:53,520 Speaker 2: psychogenic illness to consider, such as laughing epidemics and witchcraft panics, 347 00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:56,400 Speaker 2: though of course Slanesh doesn't have to work through such 348 00:23:56,480 --> 00:24:03,520 Speaker 2: real world means to control people. I hope you enjoyed 349 00:24:03,520 --> 00:24:05,919 Speaker 2: the series and I'm always looking for new ideas to 350 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:09,200 Speaker 2: explore on the monster fact, the Artifact, or some other 351 00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:13,479 Speaker 2: spin on the short form format. Tune in for additional 352 00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:16,560 Speaker 2: episodes each week. As always, you can email us at 353 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:27,560 Speaker 2: contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 354 00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:30,639 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 355 00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:33,520 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 356 00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:36,440 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.