Index Daemonica: The followers of Murv'hee (Liber Challenge)

[Grand Master Belial]

This one came out of blue and is definitely unique. Any C&C is welcome.

 

Daemon Warband of Murv’hee

 

Warband Leader's name, origins, ultimate aim (if applicable):

In the pantheon of Chaos Gods, Murv’hee is a lesser being whose power is derived from the superstitious races of the galaxy. Often thought to be a minion of Tzeentch, Murv’hee is usually in conflict with the Chaos God. Most of his followers tend to be human warriors and throughout history had always been invoked in order for him to stay out of the orderly affairs of the human beings. An intriguing request, worship for a god to do nothing. The entity that became Murv’hee was always noted to be a prankster by unravelling the carefully laid plans or dooming efforts to failure. But to be worshiped and gain power to stay out of the way allowed the god to gain strength and to interfere with the machinations of the non-worshipers. 

 

This allowed the god to gain enough strength to recruit followers and other daemonic minions in an effort to spread their own form of Chaos across the galaxy. Many of the first followers were members of the Imperial Army who knew so little of what had happened in the Immaterium. They would worship their Emperor and praise him openly, but all the while they held more tightly to the notion that if they did not mollify Murv’hee then their actions in battle would be fruitless and they would die a meaningless death. With the onset of the Heresy, Murv’hee was able to take isolated groups of warriors and visit them in their dreams and instilling in them the fear that as long as they continue in their worship, they would not see their efforts wasted. Even amongst the Astartes, there were a few open to Murv’hee’s advice. With silent prayers, the warriors would fight while the minions of Murv’hee would assault the minds of the foe and make them encounter a myriad of mechanical problems and misplaced equipment.

 

As the control became absolute, he would then lead his warbands through visions to gather and them to battle against non-followers or to assist others that have worshiped Murv’hee. The gifts he would impart on his full followers would allow them to become invisible at will and a nimble agility to make them hard to pin down in hand-to-hand combat as well as giving them daemon-sight. They can then move silently amongst the non-followers and wreak havoc with their gear and to also counter the machinations of another god. Tzeentch in particular, has been the target for many of Murv’hee’s daemon attacks. Though his forces are far smaller than the Changer of Ways, he has caused the Greater God a near constant stream of failures. Tzeentch is caught in his own conundrum, if he acknowledges Murv’hee in his grand designs then the lesser god gains great power but to continue to ignore him would see more designs fail. Only the fleeting attention span of the greater god has allowed him to continue to choose the latter path and to fail to acknowledge his own failures.

 

Notable members of Warband:

PVT Samuel James - A simple private in the Imperial Army, he had heard of the infamous ’15 Hours.’ Noted for being clumsy, was constantly given the nickname ‘Murphy’ since everything that could go wrong, did in his presence. Little did the group of soldiers know that there was another presence that acknowledged the same name. PVT James would continually repeat in his head begging Murphy to stay away. As such, the minions of the god stayed away and helped make PVT James the lucky charm of the unit. When not in battle, he would go back to being clumsy, but with the invocations before battle and the soldier’s talking about his superstitious practices to his comrades had the whole unit doing the same before every battle and coming out  of the battle relatively unscathed. After crossing over becoming wholly devoted to Murv’hee, PVT James stopped being clumsy and would lead groups of worshipers behind the lines without any fear of discovery and would wreak havoc on the equipment of the foe. When the battle took place, victory was quickly attained as the series of catastrophic mishaps took place behind enemy lines and hardly a shot had to be fired. But of the group with Samuel James, there was no sign.

 

As a daemonic entity, Samuel James continues to wreak havoc against the enemies of humanity. In a strange twist of fate, when humans stand up against the Imperium and its tyranny, Murv’hee is there to aid the rogue element and Samuel James leads groups of minions behind Imperium lines to cause problems and allow the secessionists a fighting chance to survive and to join Murv’hee’s ranks as daemonic minions.

 

Astartes Manus Sauroc - Manus had heard of Murphy before becoming an Astartes in the Ultramarines Legion. The level of perfection required of each brother in the Legion would have been staggering to any but another Astartes and even that is a stretch. Manus could never fully remove the notion that if he didn’t recheck his equipment and go over battle drills extra times then the old notion of Murphy would come and see him defeated in battle. These constant nods to Murv’hee would see the marine become heavily decorated and become a Sergeant of a squad. As the thoughts of Lodges spread amongst several legions of Astartes, Manus had heard the tales and brought up the notion of Murphy. Many of his squad had heard the same and even quietly paid respect to Murphy so that they would no fail in a crucial point of the battle. This revelation allowed the squad to make it a part of pre-battle preparations. Those that didn’t take the warnings to heart would encounter some form of stumbling built that would see the marine fall — instilling the faith in Murphy further in the survivors. Prior to a battle, Manus received a vision of the missions impending failure, but should they continue to put their faith in Murphy, they would be delivered from the battle. Every member of the squad received the same vision and as one they made the choice to put their faith in Murphy. As they boarded the Stormbird, they knew it would be for the last time. The Stormbird was shot out of space but the squad was no longer aboard.

 

As dedicated servants of Murv’hee, they shock the non-followers of Murv’hee by appearing out of nowhere and attacking the non-followers, all the while chanting phrases that would remain embedded in the heads of any survivors. “For forgetting to pay respects to Murv’hee, you are doomed to fail.”

 

Notable battles or conflicts joined:

Murv’hee follows the vast battle fleets of the Astra Militarum for many of them are quiet followers, but it is the campaign zones that see the highest concentration of the followers and the machinations of the Chaos God. Murv’hee has been able to use ships transitioning through the Immaterium to transport his followers across the stars. The daemonic minions do not require large stores of the essence of the Warp to survive in the Material realm. As such, as a ship departs the Warp back into realspace, Murv’hee’s minions follow in the wake and will attach themselves to the ship once the Gellar field drops. Should any minion be hidden within the ship, it will allow the others to board via a failure of some pressure hatch somewhere on the ship that is easily chalked up to stress from the translation.

 

Once aboard, they instill the idea that they need to remember Murv’hee or they may fail in their endeavours. Those that follow the advice are then assisted in the upcoming battles and will be followed for as long as possible. 

 

Any other information of interest:

The Navis Nobilite are able to see the minions of Murv’hee even when invisible, but the Navigators think of them as nothing more that Immaterium gremlins and indeed at Murv’hee’s direction, the followers do not actively interfere with the Warp seers. They wait until the Navigator is busy or has closed their Warp Eye before doing anything in their presence. As such, the Navigators have passed on knowledge that they are harmless beings that disappear once back in realspace.

 

The only other way of reliably detecting the presence of Murv’hee’s daemons is through the Emperor’s Tarot. The mind of a psyker is usually so barricaded to attack that they do not perceive those hiding beside them in the background. 

 

While Murv’hee has been postulated to be the Eldar Laughing God, they are not the same being though Murv’hee is aware of the patron of the Harlequins and a measure of respect is given to the being. Indeed, while the Eldar continue to fight primarily against Slaanesh, Murv’hee continues to thwart the machinations of Tzeentch and has on several occasions thwarted the attempts of Ahirman from gaining access to the Black Library. Ahirman faces the same conundrum as his patron but on a smaller scale. Whenever the Sorcerer attempts to plan for the influence of Murv’hee, the mere thought increases the strength of the influence. But with his soul promised to Tzeentch, there is nothing the sorcerer can offer Murv’hee to placate him.

 

Murv’hee is a very old being and knows the value of patience, he has seen the ebb and flow of power from the Big Four while his own power base has grown slowly but is stable in comparison. Papa Nurgle has found Murv’hee particularly entertaining and has allowed his minions free rein within his gardens from time to time just to see what would come about from a failure due to Murv’hee’s influence. At least three new creations have been created as a result and two of them have become a part of the ecosystem of Catachan.

[EesiOh]

i will admit that I have only skim read your work. But so far it seems really good, my one concern is how he is getting followers from the Tau considering that they dont register in the warp at all 

[Grand Master Belial]

I admit that I am not up to date on the latest fluff, but I thought they still have souls like everyone else, they just don't have any strong enough to use be a psyker because that spark is so dim in the entire race.

But, I can easily cut them out and be human centric. I'll let others respond first before I make any edits.

Side note: I tried to use the Thought Experiments to develop this and originally I planned to use the old fluff around Malal but then as I thought about it. The beings of the warp are manifestations of our thoughts, dreams and desires. If Murphy's Law exists today, imagine that collective thought after 40 millenia. And yes, I did tempt Murv'hee and he got me good at work.

[Doctor Perils]

According to the Warhammer Wiki, their minds "barely register in the Warp at all". So it's possible, but probably quite complicated. Nothing however is stopping you from using other races in the galaxy (as long as it's not necrons or tyranids): their are many other races that fight for Chaos, including the Loxatl for instance.

 

Ow, for the Murphy's Law at work...

[Teetengee]

I like it.
Although the tau bit does seem a little tacked on.

[Grand Master Belial]

With humans interacting with the T’au and some even becoming servants, Murv’hee has taken to recruiting the young race into his ranks and has enjoyed seeing the confused faces when their weapons that had performed perfectly suddenly start developing little quirks.

Removed the above