V is for Viydagg

Religious scholars quietly hold debate on the nature of the gods. Sometimes these debates are written down and collected, immediately becoming heretical texts that can find those possessing them in some very serious extra judicial trouble.

One such work that circulated in history studies on Bretonnia is On the Viydagg and The Lady of the Lake, look at daemons of law in Bretonnia by Merovech De Boutellier. Unlike some “heretical" texts, passages of this work are rumored to have been read to the Emperor, who allegedly said of the kingdom to the west after the reading, “It is a silly place." The book, religious in tone, is understood in the Empire to be a critical work on Bretonnia's ruling class of Knights. To possess a copy in Bretonnia however is to be fed alive to the truffle hounds.

The Viydagg is said to be a daemon of light, created by the gods, and sometimes called a “Life Elemental." The Viydagg appears as a beautiful maiden standing 10 feet tall in flowing robes. The descriptions of the Viydagg by witnesses have reported she is “remarkable in her likeness to the goddess of Bretonnia, the Lady of the Lake." These “testimonies" earn the book its heretical label in Bretonnia.

Some religious scholars believe the Viydagg to be a messenger of gods, summoned in response to the presence of the Death Elemental, the Mardagg, a daemon of the Ruinous Powers.

The Viydagg may simply be another enigmatic form of divine power or manifestation of the Winds of Magic and have nothing at all to do with the Bretonnian's goddess. Maybe the nigh immortal elven maidens of Athel Loren in the heart of Bretonnia can offer some explanations.

Editor's Notes

The Viydagg and Mardagg are creatures from the first edition of Warhammer and were lost to the setting lore in later editions. As the gods in the first edition also are aligned to Law or Chaos, so were the Viydagg and Mardagg. The summoning of a Mardagg by a cultist of the Ruinous Powers or a necromancer carried a mechanical chance of a Viydagg appearing. A great daemon battle would ensue.



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