Warhammer Fantasy Gods

Any decent elf race in a fantasy setting always has a group of Gods to call on for support and the three elf races of Warhammer, High, Dark and Wood are no exception and are lucky enough to have two pantheons to look up to (although what you feel to one or both pantheons will differ greatly depending on what type of elf you are. It is a tad complicated).

Note: Due to the End Times the current status of the elf gods is a bit murky: Lileath claims to be the sole god(dess) left of both side of the pantheon but for all we know this is some big trick to pull the wool over the Chaos Gods' eyes (except perhaps Tzeentch). Considering this, watch this space for updates when we get more confirmation if the Gods really are 40k scale screwed over.

The Elf Gods of Warhammer

Another nice way to customize your armies, and GW uses adding more elf gods both as a way to cheap out and have some more fluff that affects nothing so it's not really an update to the plot of Warhammer, and at the same time differentiate ass-kicking High Elves from the Eldar. If you thought High Elf standard runes were complex looking, each god has a very large rune as a name. Each name-rune doubles as a picture of themselves in abstract, as well as a few hidden images (like Lileath being both the devil horned invocation of magic that early High Elf models had, the twin moons, herself seated in an elegant pose, and a few standard High Elf runes mixed throughout). Many of these emblems appear fully on High Elf shields, banners, capes, and any other flat or ripply surface really.

Unlike the 40k Eldar gods who mostly god nommed or raped into oblivion by Slaanesh, High Elf gods are quite powerful and can go toe to toe with the Chaos gods. Mostly they spend their time bickering like any pantheon however, or else elevating their champions/favored type of infantry in dick measuring contests of "who's mini got more kills that battle". Also, Khaine is less of a dick to the other gods and the mortals than his 40k equivalent, instead preferring to play it like Khorne and start/watch fights rather than actually participate in them.

In the most recent editions the elf gods had a fluff update and were divided into a positive side (the cadai gods of the heavens) and a negative side (the cytharai gods of the underworld). This is in keeping with GW's desire to show the elves as a race torn between the light and the dark, good and evil, their racial soul all meanings and mystical. This is about as subtle and 'deep' as it sounds and a brick to the face won't be so obvious. Still, it is a nice extra touch and did give us a bunch of new gods to play with.

High Elves worship the Cadai light gods and simply try not to piss off the Cytharai by being pansies (which they fail at). Wood Elves worship some, and the others they've modified the mythos of to be more Wood Elf-y (see how they have got Isha and Kurnous bought back to their 'earthy roots). Dark Elves entirely ignore the light side of the pantheon, and worship the darkest aspects of the darker gods (who don't seem to care much about the twisting of the myth since the DEs are the only ones actively worshiping them, and someone getting your myths wrong is better than nobody).

The humans of Albion worship their own version of a few of the Elf gods as well, and it's possible some masquerade as the gods of the Old World. By all accounts for example, the Lady of the Lake much just be the Wood Elf demi-god avatar Ariel in disguise! Shock horror.

Cadai

• Asuryan, the Creator

• Vaul, the Maker

• Isha, the Mother

• Kurnous, the Hunter

• Hoeth, Lord of Wisdom

• Lileath, the Maiden

• Loec, the Shadow Dancer

• Mathlann, Lord of the Deeps

Cytharai

• Khaine, the Bloody-Handed God

• Ereth Khial, the Pale Queen

• Nethu, Keeper of the Last Door

• Anath Raema, the Savage Huntress

• Morai-Heg, the Crone

• Hekarti, Mistress of Magic

• Atharti, Lady of Desire

• Ladrielle, Lady of Mists

• Estreuth, Lord of Hunger

• Addaioth, Bringer of Fire

• Eldrazor, Lord of Blades

• Ellinill, Lord of Destruction

• Hukon, the Sunderer

• Drakira, Queen of Vengeance