Yet another Eru-kin off the painting list. After attending BOYL 2019 and seeing so many colourful Slann I was inspired to veer away from the usual green and experiment with something else.
This particular figure has been painted as a Champion of Xiatapek, the Slann god of violence, brutality and rage. Represented as a monkey, Xiatapek shares many traits with Khaine and Khorne: it is a warrior god that revels in bloodletting and the ritual killing of opponents.
Xiatapek's colours are black and vermilion. His temples are often built of black stone and his ritual weapons are the mace and the macahuitl, often equipped with obsidian blades, but many sacrifices are also carried on without weapons: victims are beaten to death with fists, kicks and headbutts, and their throats are then ripped open with a bite.
Followers of Xiatapek are rightly feared by anyone with common sense, as they are often violent adrenaline junkies just looking for trouble. Many among them are protagonists or mercenaries. In battle, they spurn complicated tactics in favour of sudden charges that are as likely to take the enemy by surprise as they are to end in a bloodbath on both sides.
In spite of the bad reputation of its devotees, Xiatapek is a surprisingly popular god and almost every Slann settlement has a temple or shrine devoted to him. He is, in fact, a slayer of monsters and daemons and images of him are often carved on doors to protect a household from dangers and ill-fortune. Before going to war, it is customary to offer a sacrifice to him among Imperial and Savage Slann alike.
A secondary aspect of Xiatapek is the dominion of fear. He is said to be able to instil fear in enemies and remove it from the heart of its followers. Priests of Xiatapek are often completely immune to any fear and they are known to celebrate festivals with competitions of courage that involve walking on this poles over gaping pits or being covered in poisonous snakes or scorpions.
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