Viydagg: A Forgotten WFRP Monster
The Viydagg is an artefact of a time before the Warhammer mythos had truly come together. It (or rather, she) has appeared in an official WFRP publication only once, in the Bestiary chapter of the WFRP 1st edition rulebook. I think it’s safe to say that neither Games Workshop nor Cubicle 7 has any plans to use her in the future.
The Life Elemental, Death Elemental, and Plague Elemental were Citadel miniatures dating back to before the publication of WFRP, and I gave them WFRP stats and backstories, along with new names since they clearly were not Elementals. The Death Elemental became a the Mardagg, a Greater Demon of Khorne (the ‘Daemon’ spelling came later), the Plague Elemental became the Mabrothrax, a Greater Daemon of Nurgle – and the Life Elemental became the Viydagg, a Greater Demon of Law who upheld the laws of life and nature.
The original miniatures ad, from the Third Citadel Compendium (1985). The same issue presented game stats for the Life, Death, and Plague Elementals in Warhammer 2nd edition.
The Life and Death Elementals. Image borrowed from the Stuff of Legends web site.
These three were left behind as the Warhammer mythos coalesced and developed. The Greater Daemons of the Ruinous Powers became standardized with the publication of Realm of Chaos, and the Gods of Law dropped out, replaced for the most part by Sigmar and his witch hunters. And that’s no bad thing.
Still, I decided that it would be a nice intellectual exercise to reimagine the Viydagg for WFRP 4th edition, adapting her backstory to fit the present state of the Warhammer mythos. See what you think – and let me have your comments, corrections, and suggestions in the comments below.
Needless to say, what follows is extremely unofficial, completely optional, and does not constitute any challenge to copyrights held by Games Workshop, Cubicle 7, or anyone else.
The Viydagg
The Viydagg is an avatar of the goddess Rhya, and appears in the Old World only in exceptional circumstances. Her name means “life-giver” in the ancient tongue of the Taleutens, among whom her worship was most widespread. Several Talabecland folk-tales tell of her appearing in the aftermath of the Great War against Chaos, restoring the land’s fertility and healing the blights left behind by the forces of Chaos. On a handful of occasions, she even entered combat against a Greater Daemon.
The Viydagg has the appearance of a beautiful woman more than ten feet tall. Flowers grow on her garments and twine through her hair. She normally goes about her work silently, ignoring the mortals around her, though devout followers of Rhya or Taal have sometimes been favoured with a word or two.
| M | WS | BS | S | T | I | Ag | Dex | Int | WP | Fel | W |
| 6 | 90 | 93 | 100 | 120 | 100 | 105 | 90 | 90 | 120 | 100 | 92 |
Traits: Blessed (Rhya), Distracting (Beauty), Divine 7+ (see below), Invoke (Rhya), Night Vision, Size (Large), Terror 2, Tracker, Zone of Life (see below)
New Traits
Divine (Target)
The creature’s essence is divine power, which sustains it completely. It does not require food, water, air, rest, or anything else that a living creature might need.
All its attacks are Magical. Roll 1d10 after any blow is received: if the creature rolls the Target number or higher, the blow is ignored even if it is a critical. Should the creature be reduced to 0 Wounds, its essence returns to the realm of Rhya immediately, removing it from play.
Aura of Life
The creature is wreathed in an aura of life and fertility which extends in a radius of 12 yards. No creature with the Undead Trait may enter this zone, and any creature with the Corruption Trait must make a Hard (-20) Willpower Test each round while within the zone, gaining one Fatigued Condition for each failure.
In addition, the wind of Ghyran blows so strongly within the zone that all spells and magical effects powered by Ghyran gain a +30 bonus to all relevant Tests, while all spells and effects powered by Dhar or Shyish suffer a -30 penalty.
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Graeme Davis 
Great post, Graeme! I compared it with the section devoted to her in Bestiary to the first edition rulebook and something came to my mind. The Viydagg could be the Greater Daemon of Old Faith as well. So, what just happened to the Old Faith, Druids and Druidic Priests in the latest installment of the Warhammer World (I mean WFRP 4th edition)?
I just read the passages about the Old Faith and Druids, and these ideas and rules I consider great! (Well, except for permitted weapons, armor and shields, but it’s just obsolete.) And all of that would be worth restoring them back to the setting.
Moreover, The Viydagg could also be the Greater Daemons of Arianka, like Mardagg the Greater Daemon of Khaine, following this lead (this is my suggestion). The passage concerning Viydagg seems that this is what you suggested in the WFRP first edition rulebook. And this leads to the next big question: is there a chance to bring Warhammer back to the 4th edition pantheon of the Gods of Law and – especially – Malal, the renegade Chaos God?
Both of these issues do not seem to me the same, because while Malal and the comic strip about Caleb Daark lead to the copyright problems, but the Old Faith and Druids – probably not. What do you think about that?
Best,
Druids and the Old Faith were among many things from WFRP 1 that dropped out of the developing Warhammer mythos. In WFRP 4 the cults of Taal and Rhya serve much the same purpose, and the Old Faith might be an ancient form of that religion, surviving only in the remotest areas. Perhaps I’ll write down some thoughts on that topic in a future post.
I love this. The Old Faith and Rhya are things I like to work with with the Great Mother and Rhya being confused etc.. I set my campaign in Averland and like to have fragments of “what came before” lurking about. I admit I found the 1st edition gods of law etc. a bit hard to work with (my campaign has hit hiccups with player availability and rule system changes, haven’t updated public bits much for ages been re).
I love your re-imaginings of these old WFRP creatures – great work!
The Viydagg seems to me like a precursor (whether intentional or not) of Ariel from the WFB Wood Elves range. Could be a link to be made there.
Elementals of Fire, Beasts and Death are all in the WFB8 supplement Monstrous Arcanum (although the death elemental appears as a two headed dragon thing rather than a grim reaper). So I think an Elemental of Life still fits pretty well.
Graeme, love your work! I hope you will find it honorable that I placed a “lesser” Vidyagg in my upcoming Ratter adventure in Axe Bite Pass.