"Sickly, sinful, spectacles stand, shuffle, shamble and saunter shamelessly in mine scandalized sight! I suggest a solution... Surely such sedition should sour and succumb to Sigvald - the salacious, scandalous and sensational servant of Slaanesh! Son of Succubi, scion of sordid acts and slayer of squalid serfs! See how I stroll, stride, swagger and swirl, spin, slash and stab at stupid, senseless scum! Soon they shall swoon, shall seek solace and death from sundry torments wrought on them by my strategic, severing, scintillating shower of shimmering strikes! Send for the sword - summon Sliverslash!"
- —Prince Sigvald, addressing his warhost.[5]
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Sigvald the Magnificent, the Geld-Prince and Chaos Lord of Slaanesh
Sigvald the Magnificent, often simply called Prince Sigvald, and known as the "Geld-Prince" and the "Prince of the Decadent Host," is amongst the most infamous of the Champions of Slaanesh and Chaos Lords in the Old World, made legend by his prowess on the battlefield and his disturbing yet angelic beauty. Though he appears to be little more than sixteen summers of age, Sigvald the Magnificent has blighted the mortal world for over three hundred years.[1a]
Any who the prince deems to be ugly, crude or irritating he has put to the blade, sometimes eradicating whole cities on a whim. Slaanesh spoils his adopted son as an indulgent father, and Sigvald's wild excesses only serve to elevate him further in the Dark Prince's favour.
Jaded and capricious in the extreme, Sigvald the Magnificent ever strives to plumb new depths of cruelty in his conquests. He inspires fanatical devotion in his followers, for they know that in the aftermath of battle, they may sate their most unholy lusts without restraint.[1a]
The icon of Sigvald the Magnificent and the Decadent Host, his Warriors of Chaos army in Total War: Warhammer III.
The personification of beauty on the outside, but utter moral rot within, the Geld-Prince rides at the head of an army of utterly devoted followers who would give their lives for him without a second thought. Dozens of exotic females attend to his every whim and desire, and his elite honour guard, called the Mirror Guard, bear mirrored shields so that Sigvald might bask in his own divine glory at all times. Such are the depths of Sigvald's self-obsession that he will even call his retainers to attend him with their mirrors in the midst of battle, preening and murmuring compliments to himself as men plunge into battle and die all around him.[1a]
Sigvald's baroque plate armour remains forever untarnished by age or the tiniest fleck of dirt, and warm, perfumed air surrounds him even during the fiercest blizzard. The ground itself reshapes itself to let Sigvald pass, and his feet float an inch above the world's surface so that his boots are never touched by the mud or gore of the battlefield. He has defeated warriors twice his size with a contemptuous flick of his rapier, for Sigvald the Magnificent is the chosen scion of Slaanesh, his every wish granted in exchange for an eternity of depravity.[1a]
History
"Every particle in the cosmos is attracted and repelled by its companions. From tiny pieces of matter that make up your flesh, to the distant flaming luminaries that trail across the night sky, everything is in constant motion. Movement is the key, baron, in everything. Do you understand? Stasis is the only real danger to any of us – stasis and boredom."
- —Prince Sigvald.[4b]
Sigvald in combat.
Sigvald was once the son of a powerful Norscan warlord-king whose dark desires led him to carnal and unnatural acts. When a child was born from the union of the warlord and his own sister, the bastard infant was handsome indeed. His hair was like spun gold and his skin was unblemished, save for a tiny horned birthmark on the back of his neck. [1a]
At first, Sigvald's every wish was made manifest. However, the prince's excesses eventually grew too obscene even for his father and, when his fondness for Human flesh was discovered, Sigvald was banished. [1a]
The boy-prince feigned dismay, but when his father retired for bed, Sigvald slew him with his own blade. The boy-prince left the tribe, reasoning that a man of his calibre would thrive in the Chaos Wastes. And thrive he did, but not through honest toil. Before the next dawn, the young warrior had a new patron in the form of Slaanesh, the Chaos God of pleasure and pain, who had found the Norscan prince to be a man after his own black heart.[1a] Only his blood-brother Oddrún would accompany him.[4o]
Sigvald as rendered for Total War: Warhammer.
Originally, Sigvald and his blood-brother served in the retinue of the Slaaneshi Chaos Champion Einvarr, until Einvarr decided to introduce Sigvald to his patron.[4o] He came upon a small valley nestled between a small mountain range, deep within the heart of the Chaos Wastes. It was here that he found a serene and beautiful landscape, completely shielded from the horrors which rage across the northern hellscape.[4j]
It was from here that Sigvald, in his desire for perfection, gave his soul to a Slaaneshi Daemonic entity known only as Belus Pül. In exchange for his patronage, Sigvald promised the Daemon that he would follow his dream and indulge himself in every kind of decadence no matter how slight. With his soul sold to the Daemon, Sigvald was given the power he needed to acquire anything he so desired.[4j] Oddrún refused and was instead punished with a mutated body, although his mind remained his own.[4o]
In response to Sigvald taking up the mantle of a Chaos Champion of Slaanesh, Khorne punished the tribe that had raised Sigvald, withholding his favour for as long as Sigvald would live. The tribe dwindled and was soon known only as "the Fallen."[4f]
Lord of the Gilded Palace
"Countless wretched millions toil in obscurity and die, daily, unknown; nothing but fleas on the carcass of history, while you, Sigvald, have been allotted a place in the greatest of all games. You have a chance to burn a light through all that miserable dross. Can’t you see? All the universe’s infinite potential is contained within your tiny, blessed frame. "
- —Slaanesh addressing his Champion.[4o]
Sigvald the Magnificent as depicted in Total War: Warhammer.
In his hundredth year, Sigvald and the Decadent Host managed to seize the Gilded Palace, a Chaos fortress in the upper north of the Chaos Wastes close to the ruins of the northern Polar Gate. For two hundred years, Sigvald and the Decadent Host resided in the palace, only leading forays into the world if the Geld-Prince was struck by a mood.[4e]
From his court, Sigvald amassed vast treasures that would catch his eye, gathering them in his palace and then letting them rot as his attention wandered elsewhere.[4b] He also set out to capture beautiful maidens to take as his wives, burning down cities in their pursuit, only to lose interest once he had taken the object of his desire into his palace.[4c] If they began to show signs of age, he removed their skin and encased them in porcelain to preserve their beauty forever.[4i] All the while, he neglected his forces, with only a thousand warriors remaining in his service.[4e]
This only changed when Baron Gustav Schüler, a disgraced noble from the Empire, joined his ranks. The baron desired Sigvald's wife at the time, Princess Freydís, and told Sigvald that a neighbouring Chaos Champion, Mord Huk, was stealing parts of his land and was in possession of an artefact of great power, a skull taken directly from the throne of Khorne.[4d]
Laying siege to Ör, the fortress of Mord Huk, Sigvald rode an air chariot drawn by great white eagles, landing on the walls while the Hellcannons of the Khornate warriors reaped a terrible toll among his followers. Dispatching the gun teams alone, his troops managed to take the first circle. Yet their few numbers did not manage to stand against the defences of the Chaos bastion. Refusing to accept defeat, Sigvald instead ventured to meet his Daemonic patron in order to bargain for the power necessary to take what he wanted.[4h]
Upon arrival in the grove of Belus Pül, the Daemon Belus Pül admonished Sigvald for neglecting him. He would only aid him if the prince would succeed at three trials.[4j] The first was to take one of the talons of Galrauch, the first Chaos Dragon. Against all odds, Sigvald and what remained of his warband achieved this deed by turning the Dragon against itself when they used an Elvish song to trigger Galrauch's memories of the time when he was a proud Dragon in service to Ulthuan.[4k]
Yet during the fight, Sigvald received disfiguring wounds and the next quest was to slay the Bargau, a creature dating back to the days before the Great Catastrophe. Taking only his trusted ally Oddrún with him, Sigvald reached the cursed forest where the creature dwelled. While the creature had no soul and could not be killed by conventional means, Sigvald instead torched the forest it called home, severing its ties to the mortal world.[4l]
The final trial was to present his naked spirit to Slaanesh, by stepping into the Realm of Chaos itself through the Lucid Gate.[4m] Against the warnings of Oddrún, Sigvald attempted the ritual to open the gate, which ended with his body being consumed by flames.[4n]
In the Realm of Chaos, Sigvald's soul relived the events that had led him to embrace Slaanesh and was then confronted by the Chaos God himself, who appeared in the most beautiful form Sigvald could fathom -- his own. Slaanesh told him that he was not a heartless brute and that if he truly wanted to die or find a way to return to his old life, he would grant it. Yet Sigvald, invigorated by the sheer beauty of the god wearing his own face, vowed to live again to taste life's pleasures and Slaanesh granted him a new mortal body, one even more perfect than the one that had burned to ash, as well as mirrored plate armour and a magical sword crafted specifically for him.[4o] Slaanesh also replaced Belus Pül as Sigvald's patron, freeing Sigvald to take revenge against the Daemon for the previous humiliations. [4p]
As he returned to the Gilded Palace in his new mortal body, Sigvald found the armies of Mord Huk besieging it. Determined to finally claim his prize, the Chaos Champion bedazzled the enemy forces with his sheer beauty alone to face the Champion of Khorne. He was attacked by the remnants of his former tribe, the Fallen, but the Chaos Knights formerly in service to Mord Huk turned on them, hacking them down to the last man. With the aid of loyal Oddrún, Sigvald managed to be victorious.[4q]
In the victory celebration that followed, Sigvald's remaining forces demolished the Gilded Palace, yet the prince no longer cared. The skull that Baron Gustav Schüler claimed to be an aretefact of Khorne in the possession of Mord Huk turned out to simply be an ordinary skull a lie told so that Schüler could flee with Sigvald's wife Freydís. Yet for Sigvald, all of these things were now of only secondary importance. Instead, he decided to leave his palace behind and head south, to see the Imperial capital of Altdorf for himself.[4r]
Sigvald's Folly
"My beautiful children! We have idled long enough. Between us we have created an idyll the like of which the world has never seen. Whole nations of men have come and gone, never dreaming that such pleasures were possible. No one has experienced the things we have. No one has done the things we have. "
- —Prince Sigvald, calling for war.[4f]
Sigvald as depicted in 8th Edition.
In the year 211 of the 11th Phoenix King, the year 2374 IC as the Men of the Empire counted time, having long felt aggrieved that the folk of Ulthuan were renowned for more fulsome and golden locks than he, Prince Sigvald took ship to the island-continent of the High Elves, his goal to scalp every Elf who crossed his path. With him travelled an army of blood-hungry Chaos Warriors, who cared not why Sigvald brought war to the High Elven realm, so long as there was plunder to be taken and the glory of the Dark Gods to be earned.[3a]
Princess Eldyra, by now a general in her own right, led the Asur counterattack. Initially unsure of the Chaos horde's size, Eldrya elected to harry the force as it headed inland. Charioteers were tasked with hunting down and eliminating Sigvald's scouts, whilst Shadow Warriors launched daring night-time raids to destroy supplies, slay horses and assassinate the Chaos Lord's lieutenants.
At Eldyra's direction, spells of concealment hid High Elven towns, waystones, and mansions from the oncoming Chaos foe. Harried and blinded, Sigvald's army was soon lost in the Cothique highlands.[3a]
Division then set in amongst the ranks of the forces of Chaos ranks, for there was little plunder, and no glory at all in enduring the lethal pinpricks of the Shadow Warriors' attacks. Sigvald had to defeat ever more frequent challenges to his leadership, yet pride would not allow him to turn back or compromise his goals.[3a]
Soon, he had slain as many of his own lieutenants as had the Shadow Warriors who plagued his advance. It was in the midst of one such death-duel, begun by a hulking brute named Dranak Goredrinker, that Eldrya finally unleashed her attack.[3a]
Pennants streaming, great spear-formations of Silver Helms pierced the heart of the Chaos army, slaying a great many of the Northmen before they could even form up. Even then, the Chaos Warriors could have prevailed, had Sigvald found it within himself to set aside his enmity with Goredrinker for a few hours. As it was, Sigvald's vain refusal to halt the death-duel for such a trifling occurrence as an enemy attack cost his army dear.
By the time night fell, the High Elves had won a crushing victory. Goredrinker had fallen to Sigvald's silver blade, and what little remained of the Chaos army had scattered and fled. For his part, Sigvald simply wandered off in the final stages of the battle, hacking down any who tried to stop him. Goredrinker's spilt blood had reminded the prince of a particularly rancorous bottle of Bretonnian wine he had once sampled, and he was suddenly minded to wreak vengeance on its creators.[3a]
Other Campaigns
In 2514 IC, Sigvald broke one of his nails on the armour of a Warrior Priest whilst leading his armies into Ostland. He informed his lieutenants that he would wreak his revenge accordingly on that province but in truth, the Geld-Prince marshalled his servants to reclaim the fossilised skull of a Slaaneshi Keeper of Secrets, lying beneath a Skullshrine just south of the border of Ostland. With the skull, he hoped to transform his flesh into marble, so that such blemishes would not happen again.[9a]
In 2518 IC, Sigvald razed the township of Chamburg, because the wine it produced was not to his taste.[2a]
At an unspecified point, Sigvald travelled to Araby, where he crossed paths with the Liche Arkhan the Black.[8c]
End Times
"I am without even my sword-boy, or my mirror-eunuchs. How am I expected to perform without my mirror-eunuchs? "
- —Sigvald complaining about having to fight during the Battle for Middenheim.[8b]
Archaon, the thirteenth and final Everchosen of Chaos Undivided, recruited Sigvald to his cause to bring about the End Times, raising him as his lieutenant to represent the followers of Slaanesh in the combined armies of the Chaos Gods. Under Sigvald's command, the armies of Chaos ravaged Kislev, with even Slaanesh impressed by the ever-more imaginative acts of slaughter and debasement Sigvald unleashed.[6a]
After Archaon's forces took the city of Middenheim in 2527 IC, Sigvald was present along with Wulfrik the Wanderer and Valnir the Reaper when Valten, the Herald of Sigmar, entered the ruined city to slay Archaon. When Valnir and Wulfrik began to quarrel over who would be the first to do battle against Valten, Sigvald lost interest and walked away to take his fill of what remained of the city.[8a]
During the final battle for Middenheim, Archaon summoned Sigvald from his pleasure-halls amidst the ruins of Parravon. As far as Sigvald was concerned, the wars of the End Times could be left to others, as long as he could spend the final hours of the mortal world in a feast of depravity. Yet Sigvald knew better than to oppose the Everchosen and thus readied himself to fight the Doomed Legion led by the Undead Wight and Mortarch of Despair, Krell, in the ruins of Middenheim.[7a] Sigvald took particular insult at being paired with the Troll King, Throgg, to defend the centre of the Chaos line and the pair came to blows at the ruins of the despoiled Temple of Ulric. Sigvald left the Troll King for dead, unaware or not caring about the regenerative abilities possessed by all Trolls, before joining the fight.[7b]
Leading a legion of Daemonettes and Kurgan Chaos Warriors to face the Wights under the command of Krell, an old hatred had awakened in the Undead Chaos Champion, of battles between followers of Slaanesh and Khorne older than the Empire.[7a] The pair began their duel, with Krell continuing to fight even as Sigvald's sword Silverslash was embedded in his Undead torso. When the Geld-Prince tried to free his blade from Krell's dead flesh, he received a grievous wound across his head that ruined the left half of his face, whose reflection he saw in his own discarded shield.[7b]
At that moment, Sigvald went berserk, overcome by a rage more befitting of a Khornate champion. Even when Krell's axe shattered Silverslash, Sigvald sprang forward and bore him to the ground. Slamming Silverslash's broken hilt into Krell's eye sockets, Sigvald pounded the Wight's skull into dust with his bare hands, screaming in incoherent hate as his own fingers broke each time he landed a punch. Once Krell's surrounding witchlight faded into final death, Sigvald slumped back, discovering that his hands were crushed and bloody ruins, and that as a result he was likely unable to even wield a weapon.[7c]
Yet Sigvald did not have to live long with his disfigurement. As he screamed his despair and anger into the sky, the head of a stone maul crashed into the side of his head, splitting his skull open and splattering brain-matter across Krell's cold corpse. The Troll King Throgg pummelled Sigvald into nothing more than a bloody pulp, repaying his previous defeat at the arrogant Geld-Prince's hands, before urinating upon his ruined corpse.[7c]
Wargear
Sigvald's personal emblem is a circle enclosed by a semi-circle, with a line pointing out from its centre, framed by spirals of lily petals.[4o]
- Sliverslash - Prince Sigvald's sword is forged from a sliver of Slaanesh's own blade. It moves like quicksilver, striking its foes down in a flurry of lightning-quick blows.[1a]
- Auric Armour - The Auric Armour is a sculpted suit of plate armour forged from ensorcelled gold. Tendrils of dark energy constantly caress the skin of the wearer, rejuvenating his flesh and closing his wounds with a tender touch.[1a]
Miniatures
Sources
- 1: Warhammer Armies: Warriors of Chaos (8th Edition)
- 1a: pg. 53
- 2: Warhammer Armies: Warriors of Chaos (7th Edition)
- 3: Warhammer Armies: High Elves (8th Edition)
- 3a: pg. 31
- 4: Sigvald (Novel) by Darius Hinks
- 5: Total War: Warhammer
- 6: The End Times Vol. II: Glottkin (8th Edition)
- 6a: pg. 9
- 7: The End Times Vol. V: Archaon (8th Edition)
- 8: The Lord of the End Times (Novel) by Josh Reynolds
- 9: White Dwarf 345 (UK)
- 9a: pg. 65