A Mandrake's Creation

I was flicking through some old white dwarfs last night from 3rd ed when the mandrakes were first released. Not too many details at that point, but one that caught my eye that I liked the look of was that Mandrakes were some of the last DE to escape the fall, and were changed by that experience somehow.

I do like Aroshamash's point though, reminds me a bit of the film Chronicles of Riddick, the sequel to pitch black and the necromungan (seriously, how is that not a rip off of GW?) commader passing beyond this realm to somewhere else and being irrevocably altered by the journey.

All i know for certain about them is that they are demons.

In latest FAQ about Grey Knights there is complete list of what is demon for the sake of using their special anti-demon weapons and mandrakes are in.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that they are daemons just because anti-daemon weapons affect them, they work on the avatar as well, and that's not a daemon. The FAQ merely confirms that they count as daemons for the purposes of those particular weapons.

They are the Eldar version of Manbearpig. They are half Eldar, half demon, half Warp Beast.

The_Burning_Eye wrote:

I wouldn't go so far as to say that they are daemons just because anti-daemon weapons affect them, they work on the avatar as well, and that's not a daemon. The FAQ merely confirms that they count as daemons for the purposes of those particular weapons.

Actually for all intent and purpose the Avatar is a daemon. He is a Warp Entity made of chaos. Sure, he isnt Chaos (see... the capital makes a difference ;P ) but if the weapon is strong against the Chaos Gods, it will do the same thing against anything made from the warp.

ok point taken, the codex states it's 'to all intents and purposes' it's a daemon and will be affected by weapons and abilities that affect daemons. It does raise an interesting point though, in that the mandrake entry says nothing of the kind, just that they exist 'partially in a dimension of pure shadow'. Given that the codices are written by the same guy I'd have thought if Mandrakes were part daemon, it would have been mentioned. Seems to me like the 5++ save is due to them being incorporeal, not daemonic.

My guess therefore would be that anti-daemon weapons work against them because they're intended to return their target to their original dimension, and therefore the part of mandrakes that exists in the shadow realm is susceptible to this? Doesn't mention anywhere that Mandrakes are part of the warp as far as i can see, in fact it seems to suggest something else entirely.