I've been reading some earlier and current edition stuff.

The Eldritch Order of the Unblinking Eye cult in Eye for an Eye doesn't have a particular Ruinous Power noted as its devotion. It was busted up in Altdorf about 10 years ago, Lord von Bruner playing a role.

The wicked Van Horstmann, former Patriarch of Light, was revealed as a chaos cultist of Tzeentch by Vespasian Kant (who became and is current patriarch) and fled to create the Cabal (which did not exist until then), at an unspecified date.

Other edition materials note that "the unblinking withered eye" is a symbol of Tzeentch used by van Horstmann.

Does it work that the Eldritch Order of the Unblinking Eye was a Tzeentch cult to which Van Horstman belonged, that it being busted up was part of the events that unveiled him, that the "Unblinking Withered Eye" is his take on "version 2" of the original?

Is there any canon that this runs counter to?

Interesting point! I've always just considered it to be a cult of Tzeentch mainly because all cults in Warhammer are either cults of Tzeentch or just killing things.

I've never heard of it before this edition (or at least, don't remember reading about it). I assumed it was a Tzeentch cult, and it wasn't until you detailed the information on it here that I realised that it wasn't specified. It certainly sounds and feels like a Tzeentchian cult to me. Deliberately or not, that might be because we are so used to WFRP cults being Tzeentchian and the same may apply to the writer(s), although I suspect it was deliberately left unspecified to give GMs options.

It may also have been that they didn't want to get into the details of the differences between the chaos powers - seeing as they were intending to bring out expansions to do that. So it's probably supposed to officially be an 'undivided' cult. I think I've seen references that suggest that most chaos cultists in the Empire are 'undivided' because the detailed knowledge necessary to 'specialise' in chaos worship is pretty hard to come by, what with it being suppressed and all... It could easily be an undivided cult that tends towards Tzeentch - they possibly don't know that the all seeing / unblinking Eye is a Tzeentchian concept because they really don't know very much about the individual chaos gods.

doc_cthulhu said:

I think you meant to say Slaanesh.

Thanks, I'm tinkering the Winds of Change adventure a bit to account for characters being 3rd-4th rank when hitting it and to integrate into campaign.

The Eldritch Order's background info is that it was an "intelligenstia" type cult formed 50 years ago, and all but annihilated when infiltrated by witch hunters and dealt with by Lord Heismann von Bruner about 10 years ago. I have tied that to Von Horstmann's revelation and expulsion.

It's already in backstory of the apprentice Wizard of Light PC in my campaign that his original master was swept up in the purge that followed the cult's exposure (his actual guilt unclear), and the PC was transferred to a new master (player created the basic story, I filled in the cult identity etc.).

My current thoughts of weaving this into overall campaign are:

- Bobo is in bird (parakeet) form as a punishment from Tzeentch. 10 years ago, he was supposed to kill Lord Heissmann and the witch hunter who were unmasking the cult and failed, so has been bound into this humiliating form until such time as he can serve Tzeentch well enough to warrant return to his original form. Bobo's power over birds will also let him send a "swarm" of them to attack PC's if need be (perhaps a swarm from the shop's birds if an encounter is there - Bat Swarm w/out Night Vision essentially). He can't transform into a daemon voluntarily and if killed as a bird he normally just possesses another one nearby - he doesn't get his daemon form back until he pleases Tzeentch and as extra punishment is forbidden to harm Lord Heismann or the witch hunters who he failed to destroy before (nothing irks a daemon more than not beng able to destroy foes).

- Because Bobo can't transform into a full daemon (and get full use of his melee actions) and the PC's are higher level, there will be other foes added such as Horrors of Tzeentch (a henchmen group of them will be fun, rule being that @ henchman killed from original group creates 2 more until all the first ones are killed)

- Lord Heismann is still around in Ubersreik and its politics, he has extensive information about the cult due to ferreting out its members, he is an enemy to it and an asset though antagonistic to the heroes as they are Aschaffenberg faction, anti-Heismman graffiti will be discovered at the Old Worlde of Bird (Bobo doodling);

- the Witch Hunter who appears in Witch's Song, Matthias Krieger, is old enough to have been tooting about 10 years ago so he was one of the ones who helped take down the Eldritch Order and worked with Heismann. He doesn't brag but this will easily come out as his followers brag for him. If drawn into conversation about it he will talk about the ones who got away, that fellow who turned up causing trouble at Grunwald Manor a few months back, that " butter wouldn't melt in her mouth sweet young thing" (Ethel, not young then and not now), and speak with satisfaction of the daemon that howled in anger as its attack on the company of witch hunters guarding von Heismann failed - " Big fella like some nightmarish bird, I fancy his master wasn't happy with him!"

Hans, the wizard PC, will recognize the name from the inquisition and trials 10 years ago (Krieger will not recognize him, he was interviewed by College not witch hunters). The fact that Matthias Krieger helped take down the Eldritch Order and indirectly helped reveal and undo the corruption of the College of Light should make him a more meaningful person, someone with real accomplishments, for when the conflict with him starts.