Morai-Heg
Morai-Heg, the Crone is a High Elf and Eldar goddess. She's old. VERY fucking old. Yes, High Elves/Eldar do grow old. She's THE goddess of fate, whereas Lileath just deals with prophesy.
Warhammer Fantasy
Morai-Heg looks older than any Elf-dar will likely ever look however. She's essentially the Fates of the pantheon in one body (and with both eyes). She grants prophesy to the elves when other gods ask it, she gets to re-arrange the stars at her will (which is why astrological signs aren't bullshit in Warhammer. Quite the contrary, you really can predict when shit hits the fan if you stargaze and it's all thanks to Morai-Heg).
Unlike the other gods, Morai-Heg doesn't have a duality to her. Despite being a goddess of the underworld, she is not evil. She's full True Neutral. She only does things that benefit her, and every event will benefit her. All beings, both those born and divine, will end up owing her more than they can ever pay by the time they die, probably because she manipulated it to be that way and no doubt causing a chain of divines undoing each other's requested changes in a clusterfuck of manipulation. She has an army of banshees that she uses as hunting dogs, sniffing out where great deaths will occur and either seeking to prevent them or hasten them as she sees fit (so yeah, that 6 you were hoping to roll or that 1 that lost you the game might be her fault).
Ravens are her mortal worshipers more than mortals, as her only shrine is at the Gaen Vale where all female elf gods have representation. As a result, being cruel to a raven really is unlucky especially if you are an archer or gunner. Non-archers call this superstition, but elven archers impart the wisdom of befriending ravens to even the races of the Old World when they can.
40k Version
It's interesting that while Lileath managed to predict (although without knowing the details) Slaanesh's birth, Morai-Heg apparently (see below) didn't know a single fucking thing about what was going to happen, but also did nothing to prevent it. Out of all the gods of the Eldar it's most likely that Tzeentch would have saved her (probably from trying to pay back one of the half a fucking million+ favors he'd have owed her from Fantasy since the two Warhammers share a multiverse with one Warp) but since we have the blanket statement that "no gods other than Khaine and Cegorach survived" then we have to assume that Morai-Heg wound up in Slaanesh's gut after a thorough multi-cock reaming. Then again Isha turned out alive so who knows.
Morai-Heg had a whole bunch of daughters, collectively known as the Howling Banshees, originally thought to have been begotten by Khaine, though recent fluff points to them having been fathered by the as-yet-to-be-born Ynnead (named Kaelis Vara'Lanthian), so just like Slaanesh there is a little bit of chronological fuckery going on, where both gods have a definite "birth" point, but have always been around and capable of doing things.
In any case, Morai-Heg sent her daughters to go pester Khaine and drive him mad enough that he would agree to cut off her hand so she could drink her own blood to gain the knowledge contained within. Guess that means that despite building the webway, the Old Ones never discovered they hypodermic needle? The Howling Banshees then were fostered off to the care of Khaine, where they became his next aspect of War.
The story continues, whereby the fingers of the severed hand were taken and forged into five uber-powerful swords capable of wielding the power of her soon-to-be-born husband Ynnead in the material realm and they were scattered throughout the Eldar empire until they needed it most. Marrying a God that should be the equivalent of a fetus? Huh...Guess Morai-Heg really do have an abundance in weird fetish fuel.
These new revelations allow us to draw some interesting conclusions regarding the "inevitable" fate of the Eldar:
- that Eldrad did not actually misappropriate the collective destiny of the species by awakening Ynnead early, since the croneswords were intended to be used by the Eldar to save themselves, but also required Ynnead to be "stirring" at the very least in order to power them. If everyone needed to die for Ynnead to be born, then how is a sword that uses his power going to save them?
- That if Morai-Heg seemingly could not foresee the birth of Slaanesh from the collective psyche of the Eldar, leading them to their inevitable doom, but foresaw the inevitable birth of Ynnead from the collective psyche of the Eldar, and that he was necessary for saving the Eldar from their "doom". One might assume that both gods are either one and the same from different perspectives, or are actually aspects of something greater still. Seeing as how Slaanesh easily represents the Eldar's collective "id" (uncoordinated instinct) while Ynnead may be the "ego" (conscious thought)
The High Elves and their gods of Warhammer Fantasy | |||
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Characters: | Eltharion - Everqueen - Teclis - Tyrion - Prince Imrik - Alith Anar | ||
Cadai: | Asuryan - Hoeth - Isha - Kurnous - Lileath - Loec - Mathlann - Vaul | ||
Cytharai: | Addaioth - Anath Raema - Atharti - Drakira Eldrazor - Ellinill - Ereth Khial - Estreuth - Hekarti Hukon - Khaine - Ladrielle - Morai-Heg - Nethu | ||
Events: | The War of the Beard - The invasion of Naggaroth | ||
Misc: | Ulthuan - The Vortex - Waystone - Widowmaker | ||
Appearances: | Blood Bowl - Dreadfleet - Mordheim - Warhammer Fantasy Battle |
The Gods of the Eldar |
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Asuryan - Cegorach - Isha - Kurnous - Khaine - Lileath - Morai-Heg - Vaul - Ynnead |