AoS Malign Portents: Lost Memories & Mer-Murder
The Stormcast Eternals encounter the Idoneth Deepkin in the latest story from the Malign Portents. Be careful of the mists or you might find yourself lost and surrounded…
The Malign Portents short stories have been eye opening and have really explored a lot of the lore that is being established in the Age of Sigmar. In today’s tale we’re getting a first look at the interactions between the Stormcasts and the Idoneth Deepkin but, strangely, this might not be their first time meeting.
The story opens with Lord-Aquilor Khamastus Lightningfist and Hunter-Prime Elethria Stormlight leading their troops against a horde of thousands of undead. A necromantic coven has taken the town of Shaleview and turned it into an undead nightmare. Their mission was to exterminate the threat but apparently their ambush backfired and now they are doomed.
Fighting bravely, they end up on defensive and gravely outnumbered. That’s when the Idoneth show up to render aid.
Now, if you want to read the full story (you should, it’s a quick read) you can do that HERE. However, what I want to talk about are two facets that are mentioned. The first is how this story reinforces that when a Stormcast is re-forged, they don’t come back the same way. The story alludes to this twice – once with the following paragraph:
via Malign Portents
“He caught her glance, then immediately wished he hadn’t. The two had fought together across a hundred battlefields, and Khamastus had never seen such a look in Elethria’s eye. They’d all heard the whispers, muttered rumours of reforged warriors coming back… changed.”
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The next time they reference this change is when Khamastus comes face-to-face with the Deepkin leader Aemorthis. The Idoneth Deepkin lord greets Khamastus by name and yet Khamastus has no memory of this aelven lord. In fact, his second comments on this phenomenon:
” ‘Look not to me, Aemorthis,’ the robed figure said. ‘This is no obfuscation of the Isharann. Some other sorcery has clouded his memory, or else damaged it. He knows us not.’ “
I guess becoming a Stormcast Eternal should come with one of those surgeon general’s warnings…
The second facet I wanted to talk about was how these Deepkin fight – or rather, how they arrive on the battlefield with aetheric currents. From the previews that GW has teased, the Idoneth bring the currents of the Aethersea with them when they march to war. Lore-wise, this is represented by the mists and also the appearance of things looking like they are underwater. This is a cool way to explain how these fish-riding aelves can float around the battlefield.
Ride the Tide!
One last thing that the story mentions:
“Lord-Aquilor, we are of the Idoneth and we have fought at your side before, by the dictates of the secret alliance between our peoples and your lord Sigmar.”
Apparently the Deepkin have had a secret alliance with Sigmar for quite some time. This army gets more interesting the more I read about it. I can’t wait to get my hands on the Idoneth Deepkin book and learn all about this mysterious new faction.
What do you think of the Deepkin? And do you think we’ll learn what the final repercussions of the reforging are?
