Editing Nobledark Imperium Chaos Guard (section)

=== Blood Pact Organization ===

The commanding military officers of the Blood Pact are known as Gaurs. Gaurs are comparable to Lord Generals of the Imperial Guard, though compared to Lord Generals and their various Imperial counterparts Blood Pact Gaurs are expected to be more independent, being responsible for providing food and munitions to their troops and are supposed to make tactical decisions on their own with minimal input from those above them. This makes Blood Pact troops hard to starve out or catch unaware, but it also means they are less cohesive and prone to infighting than Imperial regiments as they often do not communicate as well and tend to squabble over supplies due to their opportunistic survivalist attitude.
 
Below the Gaurs in the Blood Pact hierarchy are the Etogaurs (roughly translated as “sub-Gaur”), each of whom command a consanguinity, a group of forces roughly comparable in number to an Imperial battalion, making them roughly analogous to an Imperial General. Further below them are the Damogaurs (which roughly translates to “sub-sub-Gaur”, with implications of inferiority), who command regiment-sized groups known as philia and are roughly comparable to Imperial colonels. Individual captains are known as Sirdar, though they differ from the Imperial counterpart in that they are expected to lead from the front and fight like champions, as one would expect from a society of Khornates. Blood Pact titles are used as suffixes, so a soldier named Vesh with the rank of Etogaur would be known as “Vesh Etogaur”.
 
The rank of Gaur and its diminutives is named after Urlock Gaur, an Urshii general and war criminal who had a thing for bloodletting and flaying people alive, who served Doombreed back before he ascended to Daemon Princedom and was merely the Despot of Ursh. Urlock Gaur loyally served Ursh for many years, both under the Last Despot and his uncle Ganzorig the Great. Magnus the Red knew of Urlock Gaur, having served under the Last Despot’s uncle as well, and he was pretty sure it was Gaur that was leading the chase that drove him into the Forbidden Mountains. Gaur was a close friend and beloved parental figure to the Last Despot, as Ganzorig spent most of his time ruling the biggest nation on Earth as well as serving as the god-king of the Urshii religion and therefore had little time to raise a child. Indeed, given that The Last Despot typically mutilated people as an example to others if they failed him, the fact that Urlock Gaur wasn't killed for failing to come back with Magnus was an extreme and possibly unprecedented act of generosity on the Last Despot's part. Gaur eventually met his end when an IED flipped his armored personnel carrier during Corax’s rebellion. Gaur was lucky enough to survive the initial blast but was unlucky enough to find himself surrounded by unhappy former slaves with access to weapons, who chased Gaur down, killed him, and buried him in a shallow, unmarked grave.
 
The original Urlock Gaur is still around after a fashion. As the pinnacle of Urshii loyalty, Gaur is one of the old monsters Doombreed keeps resurrecting time after time to serve as his right hand, albeit as a patchwork creature of cadaverous flesh and shadow. Urlock Gaur's resurrection is a considerable investment as Doombreed is made out of warp power given by Khorne and it isn't infinite. To resurrect and keep Urlock Gaur alive as a daemon he has to sacrifice a piece of his own essence or get a loan from his patron. In terms of the Blood Pact’s hierarchy, Urlock Gaur is ''the'' Gaur, second only to Doombreed himself in authority. Even other Gaurs defer to the originator of their title, even if on paper they are of equal rank. Blood Pact soldiers may refer to one Gaur or another, but when they talk about the Gaur, there is no question of whom they speak. Indeed, given his relationship with Doombreed, Gaur is one of the few people who can speak his mind to the Daemon Prince and survive. Doombreed doesn't publicly defer to Gaur, for what self-respecting god-king would ever allow themselves to be corrected by one of the little people, but he doesn't have him killed outright and does respect his judgement.