History NightmareFuel / Warhammer

-> I think it is important to mention something about the book. It has undergone a great change. I noticed it as soon as I opened the cover. The pages, where once they were clean, crisp parchment, had turned rotten. Only a short space of time has elapsed since I last saw the book, but it is as if it was kept in a damp room for many years. The pages are damp and moist with water; and the smell! I was forced to turn the leaves using tweezers, as I did not want the corruption to taint me. Towards the end of the book the rot seemed worse. The pages were covered in a viscous green slime. During the late hours, with the candle burning low, I swear I could see tiny things crawling in the slime, burrowing under the pages, spreading their infection.

* While this will become less nightmarish as you start to collect the models and immerse yourself in the lore, a lot of the miniatures can be downright horrifying if you examine them closely. The most obvious are the Chaos models, where the mutations are downright painful to look at (the Glottkin model has ''eyes growing out of it's pores''. it will induce trypophobia in you). And then there are the trophies...

*** It's strongly hinted that the Skaven instinctively wage perpetual war and throw their lives away because they breed like ... well, rats. Their two choices are grinding away their population in war or having a population explosion and dying of starvation.

* The "Malus Darkblade" series of novels, set in the ''WarhammerFantasy'' mythos, has the titular Dark Elf telling a human slave that the slave's fiance, the most beautiful slave girl on the ship, agreed to do whatever Malus asked if her man was set free instead of her (The dark elves have a custom of freeing one slave a trip, [[ForTheEvulz though Malus could have been saying that to mess with him]]). The slave is held in place, weeping, as Malus says how he had his fun with her, and then handed her over to his officers. Then they handed her to the crew, who was "Rougher." Malus describes the blood, and the pain she went through, and finishes by stating that she no longer wished to sacrifice herself for him and wanted to be freed instead. And then pulls out a small object. To this point, you're thinking "rape", of course. Then you remember that these are Dark Elves, and [[ColdBloodedTorture what their favorite hobby is]] [[FridgeHorror (although given their depravity that unfortunately doesn't rule out rape)]]... and you realize this at just about the point where Malus unfolds the item, which is the girl's skinned and tanned face, and hands it to the slave. "Here, I saved her pretty face for you! Give her a kiss!"

* You wouldn't think Wood Elves would be a good source of this, but the ''Warhammer'' take on them delivers. The elves themselves aren't so bad except for the fact they're unpredictable and AxCrazy, basically [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Legolas]] mixed with the mutants from ''Film/TheHillsHaveEyes''. It's Athel Loren's native... life, which you should worry about. Dryads initially appear as beautiful women and invite hapless fools into the forest with them, only to suddenly transform into horrible monsters and rip their victims to shreds. Some of the treekin are so insane that they just attack everything around them, including other treekin, and decorate themselves with the entrails and skeletons of their victims. What's worse, it's suggested that Athel Loren has deep-running roots connecting it to the forests of the world, and it's ''expanding to encompass the entire planet'', as it's growing outwards and even little outcroppings are beginning to spring up on other landmasses - you could be a sailor on the other side of the world, innocently embarking on an island to go looking for coconuts, and suddenly find yourself in a forest from hell.

* The first ''GotrekAndFelix'' book features a story in which the villain's hostages, the children of a local village, [[spoiler: are in fact experimental subjects and the mutants the heroes have been killing all the way through the story]].

* No mention of the Great Maw? A comet with a face that, when it hits the earth, creates a huge desert full of mutated beasts, then burrows through the earth, leaving a huge pit the size of an inland sea which is rimmed with undulating rows of teeth. And the Ogres worship this thing, and make pilgrimages to it. And whats more, it is rumored that it has burrowed through the core of the world and out the other side making a huge, fanged whirlpool. And, looking at a map of the warhammer world, you can see that the approximate location of this whirlpool is an area of sea marked 'no ships return from here'.

*** Clan Moulder's hat is creating monstrous creatures, they mutate ogres into part rat and part ogre, worse yet is the hell pit abomination, a gigantic monster with multiple rat heads, and the rest of its body is made of... well, there are these huge creatures called blindworms crawling around the same tunnels as the Skaven; a group of Skaven and a small army of their slaves went out one day, the survivors pulled one of these things back, and they put whatever parts of the damn thing they could into the abomination. The damn thing makes the regular chaos spawn look pleasant, that tells you how terrifying that thing is.

** The random mutations can be quite chilling, you teeth sticking out of your skin, lose two eyes and get a new one eye which only sees the winds of chaos, or transformed into a mindless mass of gibbering flesh.

** Every year they have the Night of Murder, where the Brides of Khaine (the AxCrazy Witch Elves) walk to the streets sacrificing anyone they find on the Altar of Khaine until the streets are said to run with blood. Worse, they steal babies on this night - any female babies are raised to become Witch Elves, male babies are thrown into a '''Boiling Cauldron of Blood''', those who survive this process are trained as Assassins. Most don't.
** Even among Dark Elves, the Shade tribes are considered savage. In addition to the usual Dark Elf depravity, several tribes are cannibals by choice, they mutilate their slaves for the sake of it, and their method for determining strong children. When babies are born they're left outdoors on the first night of their lives. Any babies that survive until morning are deemed fit to be raised among the tribes.

* The "Malus Darkblade" series of novels, set in the ''WarhammerFantasy'' mythos, has the titular Dark Elf telling a human slave that the slave's fiance, the most beautiful slave girl on the ship, agreed to do whatever Malus asked if her man was set free instead of her (The dark elves have a custom of freeing one slave a trip). The slave is held in place, weeping, as Malus says how he had his fun with her, and then handed her over to his officers. Then they handed her to the crew, who was "Rougher." Malus describes the blood, and the pain she went through... And then pulls out a small object. To this point, you're thinking "rape", of course. Then you remember that these are Dark Elves, and [[ColdBloodedTorture what their favorite hobby is]]... and you realize this at just about the point where Malus unfolds the item, which is the girl's skinned and tanned face, and hands it to the slave. "Here, I saved her pretty face for you! Give her a kiss!"

*** Clan Moulder's hat is creating monstrous creatures, they mutate ogres into part rat and part ogre, worse yet is the hell pit abomination, a gigantic monster with multiple rat heads, and the rest of its body is made of I have no idea. The damn thing makes the regular chaos spawn look pleasant, that tells you how terrifying that thing is.

* The first ''GotrekAndFelix'' book features a story in which the villain's hostages, the children of a local village, [[spoiler: are in fact experimental subjects and the mutants the heroes have been killing all the way through the story]].

* And of course then there's the dark elves, who are entirely dedicated to conquest and slaughter in the name of Khaine (with the occasional Slannesh worship thrown in). To give you an idea, every year they have the Night of Murder, where the Brides of Khaine (the AxCrazy Witch Elves) walk to the streets sacrificing anyone they find on the Altar of Khaine until the streets are said to run with blood. Worse, they steal babies on this night - any female baby their raise as one of the order, male babies they thrown into a '''Boiling Cauldron of Blood''', those very very few who happen to survive this process are trained as Assassins. Most don't.

* The Dark Elf Bloodwrack Medusa, anyone how gazes upon its eyes will burst with blood coming out of every pore in their body.

* No mention of the Great Maw? A comet with a face that, when it hits the earth, creates a huge desert full of mutated beasts, then burrows through the earth, leaving a huge pit the size of an inland sea which is rimmed with undulating rows of teeth. And the Ogres worship this thing, and make pilgrimages to it. And whats more, it is rumored that it has burrowed through the core of the world and out the other side making a huge, fanged whirlpool. And, looking at a map of the warhammer world, you can see that the approximate location of this whirlpool is an area of sea marked 'no ships return from here'. The worst thing was how much it reminded me of Tyranids, especially the 'all consuming hunger'.

* The first ''GotrekAndFelix'' book features a story in which the villain's hostages, the children of a local village, [[spoiler: are in fact experimental subjects and the mutants the heroes have been killing all the way through the story]]. That was the exact point at which I realised how grim the Warhammer world was.

* While later fluff and Editions transferred it over to Nurgle, early Editions listed mercy/compassion as one of the things Khorne was god of... How fucked must a world be for the god of bloodshed, slaughter, rage, destruction and patron to all Berserkers to count as a god of mercy?

* The "Malus Darkblade" series of novels, set in the ''WarhammerFantasy'' mythos, has the titular Dark Elf telling a human slave that the slave's fiance, the most beautiful slave girl on the ship, agreed to do whatever Malus asked if her man was set free instead of her (The dark elves have a custom of freeing one slave a trip). The slave is held in place, weeping, as Malus says how he had his fun with her, and then handed her over to his officers. Then they handed her to the crew, who was "Rougher." Malus describes the blood, and the pain she went through... And then pulls out a small object. To this point, you're thinking "rape", of course. Then you remember that these are Dark Elves, and what their favorite hobby is... and you realize this at just about the point where Malus unfolds the item, which is the girl's skinned and tanned face, and hands it to the slave. "Here, I saved her pretty face for you! Give her a kiss!"

*** This being the Skaven, it's unlikely they bothered with the "music" angle and just cut straight to the ratman ninjas.

* 40K may be hogging the horror, but... well, let's consider the Skaven. They are generally played for laughs - let's face it, this is an entire race of Rat-faced [[TheStarscream Starscreams]], how could that not be funny? Then you read the army book. Specifically, [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Hieronymous Bouscus]] screaming, over images of the utter abhorrence that is the Skaven city. One of their major clans will gleefully rip your brain out and stick it in a giant rat-horror ''ForTheEvulz''. Another one considers KillItWithFire, [[ShockAndAwe Kill It With Lightning]], and Kill It With Poisonous Gas entirely sensible ways of dealing with ''everything'', not caring if their own troops are caught in the blast. And then there's the pure shit-yourself-in-terror story of how the Skaven came to be...

** Let's talk Skaven, shall we? Long ago, the foolish ruler of a city-state called upon their aid then refused to pay them. In retaliation, the Skaven attacked and ''took'' their payment. The city itself was mostly intact, but the Ratmen took every single one of their children....
*** "The Pied Piper 40K"?

The NightmareFuel page for ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}''.

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* 40K may be hogging the Nightmare Fuel, but... well, let's consider the Skaven. They are generally played for laughs - let's face it, this is an entire race of Rat-faced [[TheStarscream Starscreams]], how could that not be funny? Then you read the army book. Specifically, [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Hieronymous Bouscus]] screaming, over images of the utter abhorrence that is the Skaven city. One of their major clans will gleefully rip your brain out and stick it in a giant rat-horror ''ForTheEvulz''. Another one considers KillItWithFire, [[ShockAndAwe Kill It With Lightning]], and Kill It With Poisonous Gas entirely sensible ways of dealing with ''everything'', not caring if their own troops are caught in the blast. And then there's the pure shit-yourself-in-terror story of how the Skaven came to be, which made DisasterDominoes Nightmare Fuel...

** Lets not forget the supposed origin story of the Skaven. Its pretty Nightmare fueled too. A peaceful town where humans live above ground and dwarves below in harmony decides to build a great cathedral. It takes many years, and they almost despair until a mysterious stranger offers to complete the tower in a single night if he is allowed to dedicate it to the gods. The townspeople agree and the tower is built with a great horned bell. The Bell tolls 13 times. Darkness floods the streets over the next few days. Warpstone falls from the sky in a horrific hail. Humans and dwarves turn against one another as deaths and violence escalate. After months, the humans force their way into the dwarven side of the city to demand aid, and only find gnawed bones, ruins, and thousands of bloodthirsty ratmen. The humans were annihilated that night.

** Dampening the nightmare fuel a bit is the fact that as long as you are not on their "to kill list" (Chaos, Skaven, Dark Elves), they ignore you as long as you don't provoke them (most non Skaven sacrifices are due to provocation). Adding to the nightmare fuel is how they can do horrific acts of brutality and genocide ([[KickTheSonOfABitch namely to things]] that pretty much deserve it) yet their minds are literately hard-wired to be incapable of feeling malice, more machine than man.

The NightmareFuel page for ''{{Warhammer}}''.

** Dampening the nightmare fuel a bit is the fact that as long as you are not on their "to kill list" (Chaos, Skaven, Dark Elves), they ignore you as long as you don't provoke them (most non Skaven sacrifices are due to provocation). Adding to the nightmare fuel is how they can do horrific acts of brutality and genocide ([[{{KickTheSonOfABitch}} namely to things]] that pretty much deserve it) yet their minds are literately hard-wired to be incapable of feeling malice, more machine than man.
* And Chaos. It's just as horrific as it is in 40K, except that now, they have armies of goat-headed psychopaths lurking in the forests. Let's not forget that at least some of those goat-headed psychopaths are born of human parents...

* Bretonnian Knights. [[LightningBruiser Killing machines on horseback]] with supernatural ward save. They treat their own footmen as [[CannonFodder cannon fodder]] and [[TheDungAges keep their peasants in squalor]], with ridiculous 90% tax rate. It sucks to be a Bretonnian. And they are assumed to be the good guys...