Hashut
- –
EnkiduHashut after being Isekai'd into Warhammer Fantasy
Hashut, the Father of Darkness is the patron of the Chaos Dwarfs in Warhammer Fantasy and Age of Sigmar. He's portrayed as a great, blazing bull, wreathed in smoke and shadow. Bulls are a common theme for him, along with fire and oppression. Not blood though...
It is pronounced "Ha-shoot".
History[edit]
When the polar gates of the Old Ones were destroyed, the dwarfs of the Dark Lands were affected by the overflowing chaos energies more than their western cousins, mostly because they didn't have mountain fortresses to hide in. Slowly but surely, these dwarfs began to mutate in body, mind, and soul, growing as dark and twisted as the land in which they resided. As their numbers dwindled and the horrors increased, the dwarfs found themselves seemingly cut off from their Ancestor Gods, who admittedly had their hands completely full dealing with the absolute clusterf**k of the post-war Dwarf realm in the east and trying to figure out how the hell they could counteract the doom that was upon them. The oldest lore states that the chaos dwarfs first encountered Hashut while trying to build a hold in one of the Dark Land mountains in a desperate attempt to escape the winds of chaos. While digging, the future Chaos Dwarfs found a strange gate sealed shut with all kinds of evil looking glyphs and dark magic runes that killed one of the dwarfs that tried to touch them. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it one of the sealing runes had been damaged by an earthquake allowing the imprisoned demon to speak to those outside the cage (with early lore seeming to indicate he might be a daemon of Khorne who went rogue and started to use magic eventually becoming too powerful to kill and forcing Khorne to seal him away, though that might no longer be the case). Apparently being the kind of guy not to miss out on a good opportunity, the powerful Chaos demon stepped in when the dwarfs were down to only a meager few survivors and offered them a deal: patronage and protection in return for subjugation and sacrifice. Twisted, broken, and abandoned, the dwarfs agreed. And weirdly enough, it kind of worked out for the now Chaos Dwarfs. Their numbers and power grew under Hashut's protection and he granted them secret knowledge, including powerful sorceries that fused seamlessly with natural dwarfen ingenuity to create mighty arcane engines of destruction, conquest, and industry. He also granted them the means to acquire mastery of powerful bull-like monstrosities known as the Great Taurus and Lammasu and granted special mutations in the form of bull-like features to create a dedicated warrior class to serve his new priesthood. With Hashut's backing, the Chaos Dwarfs proved more than capable of carrying out their end of the deal, conquering the foes that surrounded them, enslaving many survivors and sacrificing even more to the Father of Darkness' hungry maw. The Chaos Dwarf empire thusly became powerful, if small, and its denizens thrived as much as could be expected in the Dark Lands.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and when the The End Times rolled around, Gork & Mork krumped Hashut good (pretty justifiable considering the unmitigated oppression and suffering the Chaos Dwarfs had subjected orcs and goblins to during the course of their existence) and thusly he disappeared. But, somehow, he popped right back up in the Age of Sigmar, doing his same schtick but with new pawns. This time, a Runeson of the ancient Vostarg attempted to reclaim his lodge from Chaos. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for Hashut, it didn't go so well and the Runeson and his army were never seen again. Instead, those brave explorers visiting the ancient ruins of his lost lodges have found twisted monuments dedicated to "The First Prophet" of a "Father of Darkness". Hashut's back, baby, and he's ready to partttaaayyy never get any models or mentions ever again. exert his influence again through the Horns of Hashut warband in the realm of Ghur.
Nature[edit]
Hashut is an interesting being, because even though he's technically a "god", he's nowhere close to the Big Four. Rather, much like the Horned Rat, Hashut is more likely a very powerful daemon who hit on a good thing and grew even more powerful because of it. Whether he embodies a specific aspect of the emotional spectrum is unclear because even though he seems to feed mostly on suffering and subjugation, that's not necessarily a unique trait when it comes to Chaos. Hashut seems to have an explicit connection with fire, heat, and bulls, with his sacrifices usually combining all three as chosen victims are cooked in bull-shaped cauldrons full of lava or roasted alive in bull-shaped burning chambers. One Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer Lord even has a bull-shaped wall that he attaches his victims to before spraying them down with lava pumped through pressure hoses. Exactly why Hashut loves fire and bulls so much is also unclear, but hey, a Chaos god's gotta have an aesthetic and apparently nobody had done flaming bulls yet so here we are. Though explanation for it can be quite simple: Hashut was most likely modeled after the Biblical Moloch that was associated with everything mentioned above, with burning human sacrifices to it continuing to up until Romans EXTERMINATUS'D Carthage, though Moloch actually one-ups Hashut in evilness since his human sacrifices were exclusively required to be _children_ . Aside from this, "burning people in a bull shaped statue" is also related with torture device called the "Brazen Bull" designated by orders of an ancient schizoid tyrant of Sicilian city of Akragas, Phalaris.
Oddly enough, of all the Chaos "gods" in the setting, Hashut arguably seems to count among the least brutal when it comes to how he treats his followers. Though the Chaos Dwarfs are undoubtedly twisted and incredibly evil thanks to his patronage, Hashut doesn't go out of his way to mess with them like a certain blue, bird-lovin' mofo, force them to fight for eternity for his favor, "bless" them with horrific diseases, murder-rape them, or encourage constant scheming and backstabbing to the point of near-permanent paranoia. Even though some Chaos Dwarfs are mutated, it's usually seen as a good thing, with Bull Centaurs forming a sort of "holy warrior" caste within the society of the Dawi Zharr. The only exception would be the slowly-turning-to-rock mutations of the Sorcerer caste, but then again, that might not be Hashut's doing as Dwarfs were never intended to use magic, and they do gain pretty impressive powers in return for that trade off. So even though he's a grim, malignant dude, in general Hashut seems to be happy to back the Chaos Dwarfs up on their business as long as he gets the cut he wants. That and he did basically save their race from destruction, though at the price of their souls and sanity, but the Chaos Dwarfs honestly don't seem to mind that much all things considered. Honestly, it's nice to see such a positive working relationship in the setting.
Given that the Chaos Dwarfs follow Hashut exclusively, it could be argued that he was uniquely qualified for the job. He had just the right combination of dark power, personality and made the right demands in exchange for his blessings to get at least a few of the normally unyielding Dawi to bend the knee to his cause when in extremis.
It is currently unknown whether Hashut is responsible for the super tall hats that the Chaos Dwarfs like to wear, but honestly, it was probably part of the pact that they had to wear ridiculous headgear. Depending on your point of view, that might have been the most evil or kindest thing he ever did to them.
Age of Sigmar[edit]
HE LIVES!!!! The latest war-band for Warcry announced at Warhammer Fest 2022 all but confirms his continued existence in the Mortal Realms, introduced through the "Horns of Hashut", an all human force who worship Hashut and are lead by a so called Ruinator Alpha who wears a sick looking horned helmet that looks like a bull’s head, and wields what looks like a bident, a flail, and some ash grenades they can throw to blind the enemy...also they can breath fire! Sorcerers dedicated to Hashut seem to be able to cast fire, shadow and daemonology related spells. According to Warcom the human followers serve as a vanguard for the Babylonian stunties we all know and love, softening up or outright clearing out any opposition before the Chaos Duardin show up. This does bring up the interesting and unexplored concept of Hashut being a Chaos God not worshipped exclusively by the Chaos Dwarfs. According to Warcom the Horns are currently in the middle of a turf war over in Ghur with troops belonging to Be'lakor (whose trying to trigger a schism in the rest of the forces of chaos he can exploit), some troops belonging to Archaon (whose just doing his usual “conquer everything for chaos and rub his success in Be’lakor’s face shtick”), and some guerilla fighters of the Rotmire Creed (former alchemists of Excelsis lead by a Witherlord who worship Nurgle as the Lord Leech ) who were promised elixirs of immortality if they corrupt a piece of the realm of Ghur filled with carnivorous plants called the Gnarlwood. The reason this particular piece of the continent of Thondia is so sought after is that at the center of this place in the so called Ravening Ruin is a bunch of Seraphon artifacts and a major source of life energy. This crucible of life energy formed around the Realm-shaper engine of a crashed Seraphon temple-ship named Talaxis, creating a ferocious forest which Nurgle wants to corrupt but Hashut wants his followers to instead burn down and turn into a fiery desert before then harnessing the energy there to build and power more daemon forges. Ironically Hashut despite being a chaos god is probably one of the best suited to deal with Nurgle thanks to his followers predilection for killing things with fire from their flamethrowers and whatnot. Whether or not this penchant for fire will help them against Archaon and Be'lakor’s troops though remains to be seen.
See Also[edit]
- Chaos Dwarfs - His worshippers
- K'daai - His daemons
- Vashtorr - His 40k equivalent
| The Chaos Gods of Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy | |
|---|---|
| Four Main Chaos Gods: | Khorne - Nurgle - Slaanesh - Tzeentch |
| Other Gods of Chaos: | Archaon - Hashut - Horned Rat - Nuffle Malal - Morghur - Necoho - Zuvassin |
| Chaos Gods of Law: | Alluminas - Arianka - Solkan the Avenger |