Chaos Dwarfs

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NO HAT SHALL BE GREATER THAN MINE!

In the deep past of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, the Dwarfs spread far and wide across the Old World. Along the way, they reached a place they called the "Great Skull Land", after all the ancient bones (and especially skulls) scattered there. Though it was rich in minerals, most of them decided that this place was best left alone, but a few were so stubborn, even compared to their fellow Dwarfs, that they decided to live there, to prove that they could.

Unfortunately, this place was infested by Chaos. Though the Dwarfs that chose to live in the blasted wastes were hardy, even they were not immune to corruption, and they slowly changed over time. The transformation was not simple; for many long years, they only barely survived, as they abandoned or were abandoned by their own gods, but eventually they found favor with Hashut, the bull-like Father of Darkness, learning the secrets of daemon-smithing in exchange for sacrifices. While nobody would describe the Dwarfs as a friendly people, the present-day Chaos Dwarfs are tyrannical and merciless, driven by a need to subjugate all before them, while retaining their mastery of craftsmanship and industry, and backed by stubbornness. Their land is now dominated by Zharr-Naggrund, the obsidian City of Fire and Desolation, and it is from there that they send armies to conquer the land.

Like the regular Dwarfs, their armies are composed of small, elite units, backed by powerful war machines, but Chaos Dwarfs employ Hashut's sorcery where their cousins instinctively distrust magic. Chaos Dwarf machines often have daemons bound inside, and their ammunition may be charged with dark alchemy. To round out the army, Chaos Dwarfs employ legions of slaves, especially Orcs and Goblins, both as meat-shields in battle and as an expendable workforce in the mines and forges. And yet, a group of six Norscans led by a Chaos Champion can easily slaughter their way through one of their cities (Yet only because the writer of that story gave the Norscans EXBAWKSHUEG Plot Armor).

Unlike regular dwarfs, they make use of terrible magical powers, gifts from their bull-god Hashut. However, because dwarfs were never meant to use magic, its power slowly but inevitably turns their sorcerers to stone. At first, they regard these changes with pride, glorying in them as badges of honor celebrating their victory over the very forces of nature. As time goes by, though, they start to worry more and more about it. In-game, the rules mirror this: miscasting with a Chaos dwarf requires a toughness check. At first, failure means gaining a permanent point of Toughness, but as time goes by the side effects stop being cool.

The Chaos Dwarves, while evil and all are not really expansionistic and have more than enough slaves as is, they do sell stuff though. They also got a Mesopotamian thing going for them. They make their way economically by selling weapons and armour to the Norse.

Despite how awesome these guys are they were ditched by GW as they weren't selling so much to newbie players as much as vanilla chaos, orks or elves were. For ages they existed only as a dim fond memory to the veterans of the hobby. They did one new model set, the hell cannon and it's attending Chaos Dwarf crew but little else. Lo and behold though Forge World has flown to the rescue. You can now buy some brillant new chaos dwarf models and get the rules to use to play with them. Hopefully a full army of these will be over the horizon soon enough.