silly question.... do daemons have skulls?

[Lord Kallozar]

a silly question probably, and one that I fear might get laughed at - but I do ask it in good faith and good reason. my mate is planning a DIY chaos marine force and for his warbands insignia he is thinking of having the skull of a daemon. he is quite sure that daemons have skulls (a skeletal frame in general actually) where as I was unsure if daemons do as they are just ethereal forms made manifest from warp stuff and not true flesh and bone..... but I could be wrong completely.

 

so guys, do daemons (and I mean any daemon for example a bloodthirster/great unclean one/keeper of secrets etc etc) have skeletons/skulls?

 

cheers.

[Chandrian]

"What is this guy talking about of cou....O...OOO Good point!!!!"  *likes post*

[Forté]

Personally, no. Which is a big bugbear with me and some of GW's sculpts. When a daemon is killed it dissipates, which would leave no trophy to hold up or stand on. Same with Necrons too but that's a whole other topic.

 

The only way to hold a daemon really is a stasis field on to bind it to a body.

[Lucien Eilam]

There are a few Grey Knights components featuring severed Daemon heads.

 

The Exorcists Chapter have a Daemon skull as their icon.

 

I imagine Daemon anatomy depends on how they choose to manifest, perhaps coloured by the perceptions and expectations of the mortals responsible for its summoning. It can have a skull if it wants one.

[JeffTibbetts]

I'd say their forms mimic life enough that they'd have a structure. Though it might be made of the stuff of nightmares, they follow consistent (more or less) patterns. Take Nurgle's daemons, for example. They don't 'need' guts, and their 'flesh' isn't real, and therefore couldn't actually be rotting in the sense that they're being broken down by microorganisms like bacteria. That is, however, the form that pleaseth Papa, so that's what they look like. Alternatively, Tzeentch is far less beholden to traditional concepts of mimicking real creatures, so Flamers are described as being almost fungal in nature. I'd argue they don't have skeletons. Make sense? 

[Phantomzero17]

I believe it varies from manifestation to manifestation.  The stronger a particular daemon's connection to the physical realm the more likely it will leave behind a body for pilfering though I would assume that it would eventually dissipate.  And on the other side the spectrum the ones with less connection to the physical world would just fade away like smoke.

 

We have some sculpts with daemon skulls and somehow someway we need to justify the white scars ability to encase them for sometime so they can put them on a pointy-stick.

[Kol Saresk]

The thing is, both you and your buddy are right.

 

Daemon manifest in the real world one of two ways. Either they manifest as warp energy pouring through a rift, in which case they are noncorporeal until they choose otherwise, or they possess physical bodies. When they go through the second method, they actually have a physical body and they shape it according to their will. In other words, they have a skull.

 

Now, there is an interesting side note. In places like the Eye of Terror or the Maelstrom, were the Immaterium and Materium meet and collide and essentially become one, even if temporary, the daemons still manifest as warp energy, but they do have a physical form, as evidenced by Ss'll Sh'kar's skull being taken as a trophy in the novel Daemonworld. It is plausible this skull could be warded to maintain a physical form, even when removed from any contact with the Imperium.

 

So your buddy actually does have a plausible method for having a daemon skull as a banner.

[Trevak Dal]

I thought that daemons were often transmuted flesh from sacrifices or the like, which would explain the blood/gore/bones and all.

 

[Kol Saresk]

Again, it depends on the specific method of manifestation. In many instances where they materialize as warp energy, that blood/gore/bones evaporates once it becomes separate from their main body.

[Lord Kallozar]

Cheers for the feedback guys. ok so I am guessing that from the overall opinion that daemons do/can have a skeletal structure but that structure will vanish with the rest of the daemon once it "dies"?

[Kol Saresk]

Unless it is possessing a physical body or that structure is bound to the material plane in some manner.

[Xenith]

Entirely up to you.

 

Daemonmancy is a particular art form. If one can summon a daemon or bind it to their cause, I'm sure one could also find ritual to keep parts of it in the material world.

 

Instances include: The face of a daemon prince attached to Valkia the Bloody's Shield.

 

The horns at the top of the Black Staff of Ahriman were taken from a daemon prince.

 

Bloodletters and other daemons of Khorne would have skulls as a point of their existence.

[tdemayo]

As I recall there daemon skins and skulls as bits in a few ranges: the Beastmen come to mind.  I think there are demon bits on the shields.

[Noctus Cornix]

I thought that daemons were often transmuted flesh from sacrifices or the like, which would explain the blood/gore/bones and all.

 

This.

 

To me, Daemons are not a tangible thing. Outside of the eye of terror, they do not have physical forms and even that is such a thing that can only be described as headache inducing, a confusing and mind rending experience to see a daemon in its purest form. 

 

The most commonly seen form of a daemon is through sacrifice. In that situation, it is usually only through acts of violence and suffering that such creatures manifest. In this they are still only a spiritual creature, latching on to the material realm to shape its form. Flesh is the most common method of sacrifice, offering up human lives and blood to draw warp creatures towards the material realm. Think of it like daemonic possession, except it is not a matter of sharing the same body nor is it a struggle for control. Rather the human flesh has more or less become clay, molded into something truly horrifying yet still tangible. This is why all the daemons I make, save for Greater Daemons, are made with somewhat of a 'human' aspect to them, made from flesh, blood, and bone twisted into something alltogether inhuman.

 

 

http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac352/Noctus-Cornix/20140907_204913_zpsbb746fd6.jpg

[incinerator950]

Soul Grinders the exception that their hulkframes sustain them.

[NoLifeKing]

There are multiple mentions in the lore of daemons having skulls and bones. For example: two of the CSM relics are said to have been made out of bones taken from daemon princes or greater daemons. Not to mention that above the grey knights big feast table is hanged a skull of a daemon in which the daemon itself is imprisoned. Of course it seems quite paradoxical for daemon to leave behind physical bones as they don't have a body of flesh and bone to begin with, but as we all know… the stuff of warp rarely goes along with logic and science. 

But as i see it: the skulls, bones and other parts of them the daemon may leave behind upon its death on mortal plane would be made of sacrificial flesh blood and bone that was used to summon it or it had possessed in order to manifest itself in the material realm. 

so yeah i would agree that daemons do have Skulls and bones in some cases.

[tdemayo]

Short answer: daemons have skulls when it would be cool, and melt when it wouldn't be.

[Loesh]

Personally, no. Which is a big bugbear with me and some of GW's sculpts. When a daemon is killed it dissipates, which would leave no trophy to hold up or stand on. Same with Necrons too but that's a whole other topic.

 

The only way to hold a daemon really is a stasis field on to bind it to a body.

 

I distinctly remember that Slaaneshi could skin Bloodletters and treat their skin to use as a handle wrap or decoration, as well as tear out Bloodthirster spines and fashion them into weapons. Perhaps there is something magical that allows its corpse to remain in the material plane.

[tylerw]

There is also the Daemon World book where (SPOILERSSSSSS)
 

 

 

a Tzneeze worshiper who rules most of the planet digs up old bones of a daemon prince of Corn.  He manifests later in the book (well, he's freed, I think is what actually happened) and in place of the bones that she had displayed as exhibits, he had brass plates and such.

[Jacinda]

Short answer: daemons have skulls when it would be cool, and melt when it wouldn't be.

I would go with this. If you need a daemon skill, just write a sutablly difficult or strenuoius task as to why the skull was not banished.

 

Korgath slamed his fist into the bloodletter's face and the daemon dropped to his knses then pitched forward on the floor. Korgath leapt in the air and came down hard driving a knee into the daemon's back. The daemon's body ruptured from the preassure and split all down one side. Ribs broke away from the crushed spine as offal and blood exploded outward from the preasure. Before the infernal creature could disapate, the marine grabbed the daemons head with both hands and ripped it away from the body. The daemon was banished and the remaining flesh melted away, but the head remained frimly in the grasp of the marine. Through sheer force of will, Korgath would not let his trophy slip from his grasp. The bloodletter would have to return to his Lord of Skulls without a skull of his own.