At the Everqueens Command - The Long Hunt Lore

Today we will conclude the ghyran side of the Twintailed crusade as presented in Dawnbringers 3: The Long Hunt!
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[@LordOmnissiah]

Kurnoth was once known as Kuronous or Karnos in world that was aka Malus aka the setting for Warhammer Fantasy. He was a stag headed god of hunting as was seen as the Elven equivalent of the god Taal much like the Elven goddess Isha was the Elven equivalent of the human goddess Rhya. Kuronous was the consort to Isha, and he would often form an avatar known as Orion and lead the wood Elves of Malus on so called Wild hunts much like Belthanos is doing with the Sylvaneth in AOS. Isha meanwhile had two Avatars on Malus. Ariel was her avatar amongst the Wood Elves and Alarielle was her avatar amongst the High Elves. Alarielle later became the incarnate of the wind of life during the End times and after Malus was destroyed the two halves of Isha merged back together into the current Alarielle. Kuronous meanwhile seemingly reabsorbed his avatar Orion and became Kurnoth in the new realms that formed after Malus’ destruction only to die during the Battle of Tears that took place during the Age of Chaos. During that battle Kurnoth had been doing his best to fight off a Nurgle army lead by Horticulous Slimux after they invaded the Ghyran province named after Kurnoth, Kurnotheal. Unfortunately Kurnoth much like his old avatar Orion would wax and wane in power depending on the time of the year and so the Nurgle forces took advantage of this and struck him down when he entered his weakest state during winter. His seeming death left Alarielle distraught and she would hide herself away from others until the Age of Sigmar when she was unwillingly forced out of her seclusion and was forced to awaken in her most warlike aspect and draw her consort’s spear. This act also caused the birth of the Kurnothi hunter Sylvaneth. Unknown to everyone though Kurnoth was not fully killed as apparently a fragment of his power broke off during the Battle of Tears in the form of a green flame and struck a tree. This tree was later struck by the wave of life magic unleashed from Alarielle’s rite of life at the dawn of the Era of the Beast and that tree subsequently gave birth to Belthanos who has dedicated himself to leading the Kurnothi hunters in order to use the energy of the beings they hunt to keep Kurnoth’s flame burning until the god can possibly be reborn from that flame. Side note: Kurnoth and Belthanos like many Sylvaneth things is named and takes inspiration from Celtic and Greek beliefs. Kuronous/Karnos/Kurnoth is inspired from the horned Celtic god of the woods Cernunnos or Carnonos, while his avatar Orion was named after a Greek demigod Orion who was a famous hunter. Belthanos meanwhile is named after the Celtic holiday Beltane, which marked the beginning of summer and was celebrated by lighting special bonfires whose flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers and encourage growth for any people, crops, or livestock who happened to go near the flames or had the ashes sprinkled on them. Also Kurnoth’s 40k equivalent is believed dead following Slaanesh’s birth in that setting and Isha’s 40k equivalent is imprisoned by Nurgle who uses her as a test subject for his diseases which she does her best to secretly counter by magically whispering cures for said diseases into mortals ears when Nurgle is distracted. It’s possible AOS Alarielle is actually just a fragment of 40k Isha which explains Nurgle trying so hard to capture or kill her in AOS so he can take full possession of Isha.

[@RoccoYaBoy]

Absolutely nailed it, and keeps me wanting my Kurnothi

[@philipbowles5397]

I like the idea that Kurnoth is an echo of Kurnous rather than the same character, much as Morrda isn't the same character as Morr but fills the same role (and gods like Mathlann who survived in some form from the Warhammer World tend to keep their original names). I do think GW has underused the Isha connection with Alarielle - Alarielle is basically the full incarnation of a god from the Warhammer World, and the fact that she's the only being who's been shown to have the power to impact all of the realms with a single rite (apparently without anything like the preparation Nagash needed for the Necroquake) suggests she might be the most powerful being in the Realms other than the Chaos Gods when her power is ascendant. She is treated as a bit too much of a 'good guy' in this book, given how the gods in general are portrayed and given the Ariel portion of her personality which would probably be all too happy to see civilisation wiped away. Had I been writing it I'd have played with different possibilities: for instance she could well have released Kragnos deliberately to entice Kurnoth to awaken with worthy prey to hunt (and nothing here says it was an accident or even that she regretted it, just that she accepted it was her fault). At the very least I can imagine her being indifferent to the effects of her Rite on other inhabitants of the Realms. As another side note, the Orion-Ariel pairing and their seasonal waxing and waning is a nod to the English neopagan religion Wicca, which itself presumably took the idea from stories like Persephone in the underworld or the death and resurrection of Osiris in classical mythologies. The Wood Elves were heavily based on British folklore motifs and more recent invented traditions such as Wicca and of course Tolkien.

[@stackzyy9032]

back when i first got into aos i remember the battltome referring to Kurnoth as dead with the potential to come back but with the new lore that's come with Belthanos he's reffered to as dormant, maybe the rite of life reawakened him somewhat

[@philipbowles5397]

There was a recent White Dwarf lore piece on gods, which suggested they can't die permanently but can be reawakened over time. Which raises possibilities for Mathlann too. The fact that they introduced Kurnoth Hunters as far back as 1st edition suggests they may have had some plan all along to bring Kurnoth into the narrative somehow, though I'd always imagined something like a tree-revenant incarnation of Orion as his avatar rather than a tree riding a planthopper.

[@chandleresplin4122]

I loved that when you were talking about the allies of Aqshian Crusade you forgot to mention the deepkin. It was very lore accurate lol. Jokes aside, I have really enjoyed this series. You are awesome Doug.

[@FullMetalCondor]

There's some good Kurnoth stuff in the AoS novel "Dark Harvest", but I don't want to spoil anything.

[@stackzyy9032]

thanks i'll definitely be checking this out

[@philipbowles5397]

Kurnous was the huntsman god from the Warhammer World - he also exists in 40k, and the new Rangers kit includes a shrine depicting him suggesting that he's regarded as their patron but so far as I know he's never had any real attention paid to him in 40k: he exists there simply because all the elf gods do. In WFB he was the consort of the mother goddess Isha, which was mirrored by the two gods' avatars in Athel Loren: Orion and Ariel. In real-world terms Orion (and by extension Kurnous) is a fusion of the concepts of the 'horned god of the woods', which emerged in the 19th Century as an interpretation of horned god images from the Celtic and Classical worlds, and the Germanic myth of the Wild Hunt - specifically a horned ghost seemingly invented by Shakespeare, Herne the Hunter, who is among the mythical figures said to lead English versions of the Wild Hunt. Orion's model was basically Pan, the Classical incarnation of the horned god who was a faun, with a hunting horn (and spear) instead of pipes - which seems to be the reason tor many of the AoS Kurnothi aelves being depicted as fauns or otherwise with the lower bodies of deer. He uses hunting hounds, another nod to Herne. The Age of Sigmar character Kurnoth is clearly filling the same role, and was Alarielle's consort (Alarielle ate Ariel during the End Times and so became the avatar of Isha). There's an obvious implication that the two characters are one and the same, but I don't think that's ever been specified and no elven gods were known to survive the Age of Myth; Kurnoth also isn't necessarily an exclusively aelven god. It may equally be that he's a new character filling the same role in the setting, much as Morrda doesn't seem to be the same character as Morr. Alarielle's spear, which belonged to Kurnoth, is however essentially the same design as Orion's and that could be taken as an indication it's meant to be the same one - equally it could just be a nostalgia nod. I think GW has gone a bit back and forth on Kurnoth's fate and exactly what remnants of him are still around - it was always part of the storyline that he died and part of his essence (possibly his soulpod) was incorporated into Alarielle's spear, but I think the exact story has changed. The current version is that he was killed fighting Chaos, but I think there may have been an earlier version in which Alarielle killed him while extending her dominions. There has always been the tease that there is something left of him, and from the start the Sylvaneth range has had Kurnoth Hunters devoted to his memory. The Echoes of Doom battlebox makes mention of Alarielle releasing his spirit from time to time to go on the Wild Hunt, but that didn't make it into the battletome that followed a month later. Belthanos' Evergreen Hunt might be a replacement for that idea with a more copyrightable name, however there's a short story in this month's White Dwarf that suggests a Wild Hunt associated with 'Old Stag' (a name for Kurnoth coined I think in the Dark Harvest novel, AoS's take on The Wicker Man which currently seems to be non-canon in multiple ways) does still take place. Belthanos' own hunt may then be something different. Belthanos himself is the Orion stand-in - he's equipped with a spear, leaf cloak, and horn like the original model, and while he may not be an avatar of Kurnoth (then again, he may be - there's the hint that he was created on the day of Kurnoth's death, and perhaps he contains some of his essence) he is Kurnoth's link to the Mortal Realms: his Evergreen Hunt is essentially a religious duty (thematically, Belthanos should probably be a PRIEST) that he believes is needed to prevent Kurnoth from dying for good. Also, Kroak honing in on Belthanos and 'saying' "See? Kurnoth's not gone after all" does strongly imply that Belthanos is an avatar of Kurnoth.

[@loamy3227]

Hey Doug! I’d love to see a lore video on the Harbinger of Decay, he has super cool lore - and his model is one of my absolute favourites, both the old one and the new version.

[@mrspider7185]

I think Kurnoth is basically Orion, who was Ariel's (Alarielle) husband in warhammer. In warhammer, orion was god of the hunt, he was a satyr with antlers and had a big trident as well as a cloak of leaves. The new character they've just released is a massive nod to orion, and i wonder if belthanos is meant to be like an Avatar of kuranoth/orion

[@onemisterfranko]

A lot of stuff with these books seems to be setting up the launch of 4th. Getting the board ready if you will.

[@wargamerwilly8756]

This reminds me of Art Attack!

[@Frubs97]

I dont know i think they will add kurnothi to sylvaneth, not their own army

[@stackzyy9032]

the handful of kurnothi models we have are under the sylvaneth faction so that's probably true

[@philipbowles5397]

Certainly. My guess is that the Sylvaneth Warcry warband will be a Kurnothi hunting party - it allows a variety of different models including the pets that now seem obligatory in made-for-Warcry bands. Gossamids were first mentioned in Broken Realms so there's precedent for these stories referencing models that are coming down the line (though as Broken Realms was hit by covid-linked production issues, it's possible Gossamids were originally meant to accompany the book). There are references in the new story to deer-centaur archers, which don't yet have an option as Skaeth has a javelin.

[@TheGraham27]

Thanks for the video!! If that's the ending of the Long Hunt....where is Ionus Cryptborn?

[@user-cd8ke3it3w]

He helped Vandus a bit with Aqshy's crusade

[@nikotillmann9764]

Thanks for the double dragon reference! 😂

[@ArkBlanc]

I thought Kurnous was eaten by Slaanesh?

[@philipbowles5397]

Kurnoth may not be the same character, just a character from the Mortal Realms who fills the same role and/or was based on some surviving portion of his essence.

[@wargamerwilly8756]

Funky background

[@rodolfomaravillasduran8793]

Story time

[@KhorgosKhul]

😮