The Slaver (caution advised for sensitive readers)

Despite being fairly easy to make, this was one of the toughest conversions I've done.

The problem was not the technical abilities required, it was the fact of what I was seeking to portray.

Slaanesh. The most vile of the Chaos Gods. Now, let me explain this perspective. Let's start with the obvious but sadly necessary to explain point: Slaanesh is not a sex god. Sex is nothing bad or to be afraid of,  but Slaanesh most certainly is. The source material is fairly clear about this, although sadly perhaps not as much as it once was. The reason why Slaanesh seems to manifest through sexualised creatures is that sexuality is an area of our lives which is most conditional on trust and obedience of societal rules and the area where we tend to be least rational. Simply put, a violation of boundaries in this area makes us extremely uncomfortable. And that's what Slaanesh is. Slaanesh was devised, I think, as the Chaos God of going too far. Excess. That excess could as easily take the form of gluttony, vainglory... potentially even puritanism when it goads the puritan into sadistic excesses of judgemental behaviour. Slaanesh is selfishness, nihilism, cruelty and sadism. It is to put yourself before others at all times, and to place your own sensation above any sense of a greater purpose or responsibility. And the ever more extremes of Slaaneshi behaviour mean that you really don't want to meet them.

I'll admit that in making this model, I immediately committed another stupid hobby-ism: you'll far more often find conversions of female models into Slaanesh than other chaos forces. This is an absurdity: there's absolutely no in-universe or real world evidence to suggest that women would be more likely to fall to Slaanesh than men. So I apologise for that. I like to believe that I am above this obnoxious pigeon-holing of women. I felt much more comfortable about sharing the more empowering images of the female Commissar and the Norse Queen. But in an area where misogyny seems resurgent and the industrial scale of sexual misconduct against women has become clearer, this monster is perhaps fitting. 

The recipe is quite easy. The steed of Slaanesh is from the Hellstriders kit. The Slaver herself is an Vampire Counts Coven Throne Vampire. Her head is from a chariot daemonette and her whip arm is from a Hellstrider too. The weeping slave is from Brother Vinni and the gagged slave is from Kingom Death. The rather suggestive mushroom is from one of the GW basing kits from a few years back, as are the ice crystals (painted with Blood for the Blood God to make them look like blood-stalagmites). The chains are cheap jeweller's chain. 

I'd like to talk briefly about paint. You'll notice that the slavers have a fairly healthy flesh tone, whereas the Slaver is chalky pallid with burning eyes. My idea with this is that she has become so obsessed with her own beauty that she's undertaken grotesque surgeries and treatments until she's become a caricature of herself - apparently unaware that her slaves look more like real people than she does. She has become a nightmarish figure of cosmetic exactness. There's nothing beautiful left in her. 

EDIT: Right. I've seen some troubling comments about this. This piece is in no way an endorsement of any kind of sexual abuse. It is not some sort of attempt to stick it to 'PC'. I do not and will not accept misogyny in my life. I will not have my hobby used as a way to promote bigotry of ANY kind. And since human trafficking and slavery are very current issues, any person who is made uncomfortable by this piece has EVERY RIGHT TO BE. It is not meant as a comfortable piece. 

One last thing. I you don't like my saying this last part, take a good hard look at yourself and ask your who is really the easy offended little flower.