The return of the elves was something we have long expected. The panzees (No, no, sorry, wrong universe), have been silent for quite some time with only the odd slight appearance or cameo offering confirmation that they are a part of this new setting. Most of what players were given links almost entirely to the fact a few were reborn as Stormcast Eternals while She Who Thirsts' absence was down to their actions.
So, to have a faction reappear wasn't too much of a surprise. What is something of a shock is how initially traditionalist their look was. At a brief glance, the Daughters of Khaine are just a Wytch Cult given its own army, with a few familiar faces showing up. They even still worship Khaine as well, Cauldron of Blood and all. However, while there are certainly more than a few similarities to be made, the key differences lie in how they have adapted, evolved and stand in the world. Just as the Kharadron Overlords evolved from the more machine-minded Dwarves, the Khainite Dark Elves have become something distinctly different in this new setting.
The Good
What is going to surprise many people very early on is how well the Daughters of Khaine work in their intended role. An old problem with both the Dark Elves and Dark Eldar is how Games Workshop is repeatedly trying to force them into an evil-but-allied-with-the-good-guys role, which hasn't quite worked. This has been especially bad the latter case where the Craftworld Eldar's brightlance to the face policy keeps being rescinded until the Dark Eldar are effectively welcome in their homes. The latter started to have this hit hard during The End Times as well, especially during the revelation surrounding Malekith. Here though? It's the same thing but more effectively executed.
Much of the story behind the faction is spent expressing how the Daughters came to power, and where that came from. It takes a considerable amount of time to even fully express just how and where they developed to justify their position within the world. Much of this surrounds Morathi, their founder, and in many cases, her role within the larger aelf society is one borne of necessity over a true source of trust. While she undergoes a major character shift and it is made clear that her opposition to Chaos is unquestionable, the fact the leaders of all other aelf factions know of her scheming means she's treated with suspicion. This naturally extends to her followers and, even without their darker aspects, it's only enhanced further thanks to their workship of a seemingly dead god.
A very curious point stems from how the book's lore also takes a considerable amount of time to comment on other armies. Much of this is done to help emphaise the Daughters' position in their eyes, but it nevertheless also gives a good deal of insight into them. As the first look into the aelves as a whole, the lore fills in a lot of details. A big one surrounds the sudden shift in body and design, but also just how they recovered and seemingly rebuilt despite the substantial losses they took during past conflicts. A large chunk of it even directly links into Morathi's own altered status along with their victory over an old enemy.
The timeline behind this army is quite substantial, and while it repeats much of the initial story covered at the start, it also helps to fill in a few gaps it glosses over. While normally this would be a cause to dock the book a few points over repeating known information, it actually works in its favour. One is a very mythical tale clearly set up to be a legendary epic of sorts, with titanic figures, and a woman rising to power. The other is a far less aggrandized version, and the fact one skims over a few moments or even suggests minor alterations helps to impress that Morathi's account might not be wholly true. Plus, it also has to be said, it's an easier way to go back and check through events as well.
When the book finishes up with its history of the army as a whole, it takes some time to go into each of the units. This is what you would normally expect, with some artwork accompanied by some text outlining who and what they are. Almost every book by Games Workshop does this, but a few have been learning to use this to their advantage. In this case, the descriptions and lore are used to cover a few notable physical alterations present in their kind. It outlines their role within their larger society, what aspect of Khaine's will they favour and even how their faith is interperated. Most of this does naturally boil down to killing, but it's a better take on things than the usual directly military version of things.
The book does take some time to also flesh out the minor factions even beyond this, and each is immediately distinct from one another. This is more down to the artwork than words, but it makes one thing clear: This is a diverse and varied army. They might share many aspects but they are ultimately unique from one another, and this is executed better than just using a single template image with a few colours swapped about.
The Bad
The most distinctive problem lies largely with this armybook's presentation - as a saga. The entire history is built up as some ongoing journey, and a constant effort to reclaim power. This might have worked well if it were covering a people in general, but unfortunately, much of it instead follows Morathi on her own. The character has undergone a notable rebirth both in direction and in design, and the origin of her new powers makes sense in terms of where the army's inspiration stems from. The problem is that, rather than simply being a critical part of the overall story, she is almost the complete whole of it.
Read any part of the Daughters' history, everything from its distant origins to later actions and then try to remove Morathi from any point in it. You'll soon realise that you can't, as she encompasses the whole of their history. It's the old problem which dominated the previous two editions of Warhammer 40,000, where characters stopped becoming simply part of an army and instead became its whole. Because of this factor, anything which does not directly involve Morathi quickly becomes relatively sparse or unremarkable.
Another quite notable issue stems from the fact that the book never quite seems to push far enough with the more evil aspects of the faction. They fit into an odd morally grey area, this is true, and as mentioned before they do work into the Dark Elves idea authors kept trying to force the aforementioned army into. However, with all that being said, the book keeps seeming to pull its punches. There's nothing quite like the more vicious moments or dark humour found in the likes of the Vampire Counts books to really give this a bit more of an edge. It's not as if Games Workshop didn't have a few ideas in mind either, as The Prynce And The Serpente parody video depicted. The book didn't need too many of these moments, just one or two-page length or five paragraph long short stories to give it more of a bite.
Finally, the actual land in which the Daughters live is extremely sparsely described. A few of the previous examples from this setting suffered from a similar flaw, but they did at least give you a general impression of what life was like for them. Basic colours, aesthetics, or even a general atmosphere work well up to a point, but you need more than that to solidly define it. Say what you will about some of the previous settings, but with the Empire, Ulthan, Naggaroth and the like it was easy to think of just what they were like. It's much more nebulous here.
The Artwork
Whatever the criticisms of the story might be, there is nothing wrong with the art in the slightest. This is an excellent take on the faction overall, and thematically it's one of the best ones we've seen in a while. I say this as - while the work in Kharadron Overlords was spectacular - those in Daughters of Khaine had a much more uphill battle. It needed to make the army look appealing and reflect the more sensual aspects without it looking overtly glorified or exploited in ways. While it does admittedly dip into that territory a few times - especially on the cover - in looking at it I am personally reminded less of fantasy porn than Conan or John Carter stories. The nudity is part of the overall aesthetic more than anything else.
This is made clear due to how it balances the traditional sketchiness of older works with more detailed tones of current artists. It's a great balance between the different worlds and, while it wouldn't work with every army, this is a solid take which shows both sides of the overall force: The untrustworthy fanatics and the reborn armies waging war against Chaos.
The Verdict
The overall verdict behind Daughters of Khaine's lore is that it makes a halfway decent start, but it's lacking in substance. The ability to build up a Conan style saga fits with the army's aesthetic and world, while the links to other forces does help to give it a sense of grandeur. However, the focus on the creation of a journey and those who survived it really makes this feel like it's just Morathi and some cannon fodder over a full nation in of itself.
For all its flaws, the Sylvaneth did more or less the same thing but with a better sense of world-building and establishing the force as an identity in its own right. As such, old fans of the Dark Elves will likely take interest in this new force, but I wouldn't blame anyone for looking into many of the others for inspiration due to the better backgrounds.
So, that's the lore done. Next time we move onto the first set of rules and all that this army uses on the battlefield.
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