Daemon Prince
In Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy Battle, people fall to Chaos for many reasons. Of these, the ones who desire power, sometimes called Chaos Champions, are most ambitious, and thus most likely to catch the attention of the Ruinous Powers.
Those who succeed in bringing glory to Chaos are rewarded with Daemon Princedom. They are granted a daemonic form and name, given power beyond any mortal, heretical or otherwise, and often placed at the command of an army, or a Daemon World.
Those who fail, or don't succeed fast enough, or who find themselves on the wrong end of a Chaos God on a bad day, or just don't bring enough glory fast enough, are "rewarded" with Chaos Spawn...OH SHI-dejrqeqemrwkqerwjrkewaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
In the Fantasy Flight Games WH40KRPG Black Crusade (RPG), this is what happens to a player character who reaches 100 Corruption with 100 Infamy. Should a PC reach 100 Corruption with less, he will be transformed into a Chaos Spaa... ha caught myself on that one, don't want to end up like my previous writer!
Now, that being said, it would make a lot of fucking sense to believe that Daemon Princes are some OP motherfuckers that can pwn anything that dares to put foot on their lawn. Well...you are pretty wrong. It is usually the Daemon Princes that tend to invade Imperial Worlds and end up getting their can kicked in by mortals whom they see as inferior beings of nothingness. They only perk they have is that if they get their ass chopped up they are banished to the Warp where they will derp around until they are called by the Chaos Gods once more to attempt and do some good.
Famous Daemon Princes
Daemon Primarchs
- Lorgar, Primarch of the Word Bearers.
- Perturabo, Primarch of the Iron Warriors
- Mortarion, Primarch of the Death Guard.
- Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters.
- Magnus the Red, Primarch of the Thousand Sons.
- Fulgrim, Primarch of the Emperor's Children, except it's actually just his body possessed by a Daemon. Or maybe not. Shit's weird at this point.
Dedicated to Khorne
- Doombreed, the first Daemon Prince of Khorne.
- Kraxnar, his bro in the original counter-based game "Warmaster" who was later replaced with some asshole called N'Kari.
- Azariah Kyras, heretical Chapter Master and Chief Librarian of the Blood Ravens and, apparently, Khornate Sorcerer. He still gets banished in DoW II: Retribution, but, again, Daemons are functionally immortal, so he'll be back eventually. Or maybe not- his ascension was only partly finished, which means he may still have been mortal.
- Sindri Myr, though it wasn't long before Gabriel Angelos banished him; seeing as Daemons are functionally immortal, it won't be long till he's back (or not since he was really just eaten).
Dedicated to Slaanesh
- Some Slaaneshi asshole called N'Kari... maybe. Nowadays (s)he's apparently a Greater Daemon.
- Ax'Senaea, a lady that was growing old and a sorcerer told her she could take a Keeper of Secrets into her body and use it to reverse her aging process. She summoned one and it went Just As Planned, for her that is, not the sorcerer. Yes, she actually took a Greater Daemon into her body, rendering it powerless, and drained it of all its strength before eventually it was cast back into the warp, through sheer willpower and arrogance. In fact, she did this THREE times, the subsequent attempts being done when she started aging again. When she got to the fourth one, Slaanesh had noticed her talent and turned into a daemon prince, and also as a jab to her servants for being too weak to defend themselves from a human.
- Doomrider, bike riding slaanesh prince on fire. Back in the old days he'd show up, wreck face and disappear back into the warp before the game's end. Now he's apparently a severed head in the White Scars' Fortress-Monastery.
- The Mistress of Spite, a horrifically fat daemon princess who ascended after singlehandedly eating the populations of entire worlds. Used to be one of N'Kari's girlfriends before he dumped her; she started taking over the Daemon World of Contrition to try and woo him back, but now she simply makes life there hell for the resident daemons for the sheer sake of feeding on their despair. Notable features include 6 horns, three arms (the third has a huge pincer for a hand) and horrifically vagina-like orifices on each forearm that are sheathes for razor-sharp extendable bone spurs.
- Azazel, the Prince of Damnation, literally the first Daemon Prince character to ever be playable (way back in Champions of Chaos). Said to have been the leader of the Gerreon Tribe in Warhammer Fantasy, but he betrayed Sigmar and fled to the Northern Wastes to serve Slaanesh. Looks like an incredibly beautiful angel, until one spots the horns that curl from his brow, the chitinous claw of his left hand, and the two-headed scorpion-like tail that sprouts behind him. So beautiful he can hypnotise anyone who looks at him and turn them into his slave.
Tzeentch
- Phokulozortis, a Daemon Prince residing in the Screaming Vortex. A shapeshifter who loves to answer botched summonings and bungled invocations whilst pretending to be the intended daemon, in which guise he feigns being the sorcerer's loyal minion, but secretly screws them over. In his true form, he has the many-mouthed tentacled mass of a lower body like a giant Flamer of Tzeentch, four arms, and three heads like those of a Lord of Change. Artwork vs. descriptive text contradicts each other if he has wings like a Lord of Change as well, though.
- Ghargatuloth, one of the most powerful Daemon Princes in existence, requiring over 300 Grey Knights invading a planet to kill it (there's obviously not better alternatives). His body is in essence a thousand-miles high erect penis with mouths and eyes. Despite massive amounts of Just As Planned with a plan taking a thousand years to fulfill, and allegedly being one of the most intelligent daemons that Tzeentch has ever created, he gets owned he fails again and again by the Grey Knights with plot twists so contrived and plot armor so thick that not even the Shaper Of Way's right hand had a chance.
Undivided
- Nemeroth, who got it even worse than Sindri: he was killed DURING his ascension rather than immediately afterward, which means he might not be back.
- M'kar, some loser from the Word Bearers whose only purpose for appearing in any fluff is get to his ass handed to him by the Space Marines. Ironically, he's taken more seriously in Grey Knights.
- Eliphas the Inheritor as of Dawn of War II: Retribution. Of course, Eliphas is so badass that becoming a Daemon Prince is a demotion for him.
- By which we mean, the Daemon Prince upgrade sucks (trading campaign exclusive upgrades for a unit designed for multiplayer balance), so you should never take it.
- Be'lakor, the very first Daemon Prince who was such a badass in life that Princehood was a demot-- wait, we just made that joke, didn't we? Shit. Well, anyway, he led the hordes of Chaos at the dawn of time, but then he became an arrogant bitch, so Tzeentch cursed him to Princehood and made him the Harbinger, who would crown the Everchosen of Chaos. In 40k, he was also the first Daemon Prince, as well as the first, last, and only Daemon Prince elevated by the joint action of all four Chaos Gods (with the exception of Lorgar and Perturabo, apparently). He was greatly involved in Abaddon's rise to power, although it's likely he plans to betray the Warmaster at some point in time (something Abaddon is fully prepared for). Quite notably, Be'lakor has shown a strong tendency to undermine the plans and ambitions of other Chaos Champions; although he himself believes this to be a product of his own free will and the desire to prove his own superiority over his potential rivals, it is in fact the result of all four Chaos Gods using him as a pawn to strike at one another.
In game
Warhammer 40k: The Daemon Prince is considered to be an HQ in both of the Chaos Codices (Although they can also be a Heavy Support choice instead if a Greater Daemon with the same alignment is an HQ in the Daemon codex. More on that later). They both also cost the same at 145 points without upgrades, and when one looks at their stats, they will be amazed and wonder why are they so cheap? Well, here's the catch: they MUST choose a Mark (Or a Daemon) of a Dark God, which will increase the point cost (with the exception of Be'lakor, who is the only Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided). Then you see it haves a crappy save, albeit an invernerable one,- So you also have to spend 20pts to give it a 3+ armour. Wings aren't needed unless your facing foes that ignores cover and/or can instant gib the Prince (Again, will explain that later on), or don't want to deep strike the Prince and want to get into combat fast. To top it off, you don't have any weapons to start with. Again, not required, but you'll be missing out on the awesome toys it can take (The Black Mace, Staff of Change, Blade of Blood, ect.). Now that cheap Monstrous Creature became expensive, and sometimes close to the same cost of a Land Raider.
There's something else one must consider when taking a Daemon Prince, and that they no longer have Eternal Warrior. This can be fixed by taking powers from the Biomancy table, but again, it increases the already expensive price tag, and the powers are random, so even if you go all out, you may end up wasting 75 points and still don't get Iron Arm. A Khorne Prince can't even take psychic powers, not that you want to anyway if you worship the Blood God. This means the Toughness value is dock to 5, and there's no other way to increase it (Except by buying Greater Gifts and trying to roll a one on the table, but obviously you should know the drawback to this). Some even argue that the Daemon Prince is overpriced for this reason, not just because of the needed upgrades, but the fact the damn thing can still be instant killed by Force Weapons, Railguns, and things of that nature. And given that you can take a Greater Daemon in the Chaos Daemons codex that are either equal cost or are much cheaper, why would you bother taking the Prince over their stronger counterpart?
But they do have some saving graces, and that they move to Heavy Support choice (In the Daemon Codex) when a Greater Daemon of the same god is taken as a HQ, so this means you can take a Keeper of Secrets (Cheapest MC out of the four), and then take the Daemon Prince with Wings, Warp Forged Armour, Lash of Dispair, and one or two Biomancy powers. The Prince suddenly becomes an awesome anti-air MC, albeit an expensive one, -That gives Daemons an Flying MC to fight against Flyers, Transports, and even horde units if you roll well. You can also run an army list around these if you want to run multiple Daemon Princes just for shits and giggles. As for Chaos Space Marines, their Prince can wield the Black Mace. The weapon is AP4, but when a Daemon Price takes it with him, he can dish out armour-ignoring wounds that can fuck up almost anything it comes across (thank you Monstrous Creature USR), so it makes their points cost worth it in the long run. It also comes with the extra Curse rule, which can completely remove ANYTHING that fails a toughness test in a 3" radius of the Prince (chances are low for more juicy targets, but somewhere in the grimdark future, the dice gods are laughing at your next victim)! Plus the fact that you can get lucky and turn one of your HQs/Champions into a Daemon Prince if they roll for it when they take Gift of Mutation.
So in short, the Daemon Prince is considered to be an expensive (Sometimes overpriced) rape train. Despite how it can get instant killed in a bad situation, and how much I've been bitching about the points cost when taking them to battle, the Daemon Prince is overall still a good choice, IF you can protect it and use them wisely.
Warhammer Fantasy: Coming soon (Sorry Folks!)