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Bandit

2022-09-20T23:56:46Z

2600:387:C:6F32:0:0:0:8: /* History */

[[File:Skyrim bandit.jpg|thumb|right|300px|"Never should have come here"]]

For the sake of this article a '''Bandit''' is a type of criminal which has removed him/herself from the bulk of society, dwells mainly in the wilderness (or in the seedier parts of a population center) and makes a living engaging by various means of armed robbery (or "banditry"). Since there is strength in numbers, bandits will often gang up, and depending on their infamy and wealth these numbers can range anywhere from a handful of thieves, to having enough to rival a nation's armed forces and possibly seize power. Solo bandits also exist, although they're either such highly proficient robbers that they don't need any help (or against the idea of sharing their spoils), or a rookie with more balls than brains.

There are various permutations of this, but the common theme is that if you traveled from town to town there was a good chance that you'd be waylaid by armed people which would try to extract the valuables from your person by force.

== History ==
In general for most of the history of civilization crime was bad. '''Really Bad.''' The worst areas of the modern first world pale in comparison to what was normal in the middle ages as far as crime goes. This was a time where most people were dirt poor and for most civilizations there was no form of police that cared about anyone other than the nobility or do more than nab the odd fellow they deem suspicious and scare a few more for a bit. In the Middle Ages, towns would have guards who'd protect the gates and deal with riots, laws that required that random townsfolk or volunteers to patrol the streets at night with torches and chase away suspicious people, bounties were put out for thieves captured and rich people would have guys patrol their neighborhoods to catch anyone who looked suspicious. The countryside did not even have that and there were many nooks and crannies where ne'er-do-wells could lurk. And since most people lived in the countryside or sparsely populated villages, outlaws were an ever-present danger outside the boundaries of their homes. Empires such as Rome or China during the high points of the various dynasties and countries where things were stable like Edo Japan were somewhat better as they could have law enforcement forces, garrisons and patrols of rural areas, though they'd still be considered lawless by modern standards. The development of even somewhat modern policing (in terms of a dedicated full time professional law enforcement agency funded and run by the government, and who weren't just part of the army), which only really began to happen after the [[Renaissance]], led to a reduction; even then, the problem of banditry was a serious one well into the [[Industrial Revolution]], and in some places, the 20th century and/or the present day.

On the same note the worse off a country was, the more bandits it produced. In particular, armies, particularly mercenary armies, had a tendency when ill-disciplined or when badly losing to spin-off into banditry; until the 18th century, it was a common and frequently necessary tactic to pillage the countryside in order to support an army on foreign soil, and, well, people tend to do what they know. Even in modern times, if your country of residence has a lot of civil strife in the form of civil wars, economic collapse, or just has remote destitute outbacks with corruption being rife, you’re more likely to have desperate people turning to banditry to feed themselves.

For a further example of "war leads to bandits", if your cottage gets burned by a party of knights (possibly the ones who are supposed to be protecting ''you'') on a raid and the choice is letting your family starve or stealing some stuff from some passing merchant who never sold anything you could afford or a tax collector who's been bleeding people dry at the best of times, a fair number of people would steal from them. Robin Hood might have been a work of fiction, but men who steal from the rich and give to the poor when taxes were too high are not unprecedented. How much of this is altruism and how much of it was public relations would be something that varies from case to case. After all, if you provide a bit of treasure to people who have little enough to begin with, they're less likely to rat you out to the local knight (who they probably hate anyway for taxing them to hell and back, as mentioned above).

The above took on a further twist in the context of regions that had recently been conquered by rival countries (e.g. Greece following its conquest by the Ottoman Empire). Deprived of direct military force and with no other options to retaliate against their occupiers, their inhabitants sometimes took to banditry as a form of guerrilla warfare. As above, this was frequently supported by the commoners, who had no love for their new masters.

When did the age of banditry end? Well, that varies according to your definition of "banditry". The three most notable permutations of the concept for our purposes are:
* Highwaymen and Muggers, who target travelers.
* Robbers, who target individual buildings (banks, jewelery stores, etc).
* Raiders, who target entire towns and farms.

The era of Raiders ends with the birth of the modern army, who no longer needed to plunder in order to eat. The era of the Highwayman ends with either the train (train robbers are usually, well, more Robbers than Highwaymen; see below for more) or the invention of an effective Highway Patrol. Large scale robbery usually ends with the birth of the aforementioned dedicated police, with at least some people who follow up on things; nowadays the most important part of robbery planning is ''getting away with it'', which requires either a safe place to hide (a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty, forex) or good anonymity.

Some notable Real Life historical banditry:

*The end of the warring states period and rise of the shogunate created a brief golden age of banditry in Japan, as entire armies of samurai were suddenly no longer necessary and unemployed, many becoming bandits if they were unable or unwilling to make a living any other way.
* The Qin Dynasty fell in part because the penalty for reporting late (death) was the same as that for rebellion (death again), thus neatly creating a bandit and rebellion problem, among other things.
** Banditry was usually a part of the negative feedback loops which did Chinese dynasties in: corruption leads to a lack of funds for police and infrastructure projects in X province, infrastructure decays and the police spend more time shaking people down than fighting bandits, bandits operate unimpeded while the economy suffers (incidentally leading more people to get into banditry because there's no legitimate work to go around), which leads to budget cuts across the board which leads to more corruption.
* Alexander "Sawney" Bean, a guy in 16th century Scotland who started a whole family of bandits who decided that they didn't need the gold so much as they just wanted to eat people. And most of the grandchildren were the products of incest. I mean, if you're going to break one law, why not break them all? It took a manhunt led by the king himself to track them down.
* There were many outlaws during the period of the Wild West (in no small part due to the absence of an established police force) who get romanticized, like Billy The Kid, Jesse James, and Butch Cassidy. Many of them were portrayed as either Americanized Robin Hoods or free, unbound spirits that exemplified the Wild West, among other things. Although going past the romanticism, there was little evidence (if any at all) that proves they were anything more than proficient, opportunistic bandits that the simplefolk made stories about and eventually caught on as fact in the public mind. People tend to, incorrectly, take their existence and fame as evidence the west was swarming with criminals when it statistically had far lower crime rate than the east and most settlements went years without major crime.
** Side note: Many of the most notable figures had their origin in small scale "range wars", usually with both sides reaching for legal justification for their acts. [[Wikipedia:Category:Range_wars_and_feuds_of_the_American_Old_West | Wikipedia has articles on these conflicts]].
* There was also an outbreak of Bank Robbery during the 1930s that was later romanticized, with such names as "Pretty Boy" Floyd, John Dillinger, "Baby Face" Nelson, Bonnie and Clyde, and Willie "Falsely Attributed as Saying 'I Rob Banks Because That's Where the Money Is'" Sutton. Particularly with the Great Depression, Dust Bowl, and the US armories not being staffed by a permanent garrison (the US didn’t really have a permanent standing army until the Cold War).
* Mexican history is positively littered with bandit revolutionaries; [[wikipedia:Pancho Villa|Pancho Villa]] is probably the most notable, and among other things, he actually starred in a few Hollywood films about his exploits (yes, seriously), and provoked [[Wikipedia:Pancho Villa Expedition|a full military response]] when he attacked the US town of Columbus, New Mexico. And seeing how Mexico has always had unrest to a certain degree in remote parts of the country, bandits ranging from migrant smugglers to drug runners still persist in the remote deserts to this day.

== Role in Tabletop Games ==
Bandits are great upper-low tier villains for a campaign, as they can come from diverse backgrounds with plenty of legroom to work with and typically don't lend themselves to sympathetic views. They can either be desperate townsfolk mugging passers-by to survive, a couple of assholes who can't be bothered to earn an honest living, to a unit of veteran soldiers who went rogue after realizing banditry is more favorable than serving in the military, or just having no other choice, either due to being on the losing side, or due to winding up on the wrong side of the law for some other reason. Additionally, just about any race with some semblance of sapience can become bandits. As intelligent human(oid) foes, they can employ nearly any tactic humanoids are capable of and are the only real option for low level humanoid enemies aside from [[Cultist]]s.

This leads to a variety of quest ideas from: some guys jump the party wanting to loot your stuff, there are some jerks out there robbing people on the highways that the King wants taken care of, to a well-organized crime syndicate who has total control over the region that you have to bring down or play nice with.

==Popular bandit archetypes==
*Mugger - Lowly miscreants who prey on civilians in a population center for petty valuables, relying on the element of surprise and a settlement's weapon laws to ensure that their victim doesn't retaliate. They usually don't put up too much of a fight and will run if they realize there's even a hint of risk they'll get caught (or worse, mobbed by the angry citizenfolk).

*Highwayman - Your stereotypical fantasy bandit. Highwaymen prey on travelers, primarily on unsecured highways (as highways linked to major cities and were established trade routes: a lot of money, rich folk, and trade goods regularly flowed through them), holding them up for whatever they can carry and disappearing into their hideout to count and distribute the spoils. That said, they're fully capable of sticking people up in any other location that suits them.

*Raider - Bandits who take a more direct approach and the other common archetype. They're much like highwaymen, but they prefer to invade poorly defended areas (like villages and small encampments) to pillage their goods and retreat to their hideout before an armed response force is mustered. Rinse and repeat. Also, throughout history but most commonly in the Bronze and Dark Ages, raiding was the most common type of warfare conducted, so the difference between state-sanctioned raiding and actual bandit raiding was very often pedantic. In fact, the former tended to devolve into the latter as soon as the raiders noticed they could get more money by raiding than they could from military pay- or when a war ended and left the raiders with no skills they could use in peacetime.

*Bank robber - One of the most popular in the list. Bank robbers are groups of men who rob banks by: going inside weapons drawn, and forcibly steal the bank's contents using brutal force, then making a quick getaway whilst attempting to evade the law. They're pretty popular in modern settings, getting into intricate planning segments to ensure they get in and out as quick as possible, high-speed vehicle chases, and heated gunfights with the law as they fight tooth and nail to escape with their haul.

*Train robber - Popularized by old American wild west movies. Train robbers basically rob moving trains of any loot they might have, and since trains were the most reliable form of quick transportation between cities in the old west: they normally carried plenty of valuables (and trains were also normally boarded by rich folk wishing to cross the country). Contrary to popular belief, they rarely jumped from their horses to get on trains (as this was incredibly risky, and hard to pull off from a physics standpoint), and would normally board the train like regular passengers, before signaling to the gang to commence the heist. To get off the train: they normally forced the engineer to engage the brakes. Alternately, they had some way to stop the train at roughly the right point (again, confederate who boards and then holds up the engineer, or one of the many legitimate ways to get a train to stop (doing stuff to the rail, etc.)), or alternately derail the train; either way, historically, passengers were small fry that a robber wouldn't be that interested in; the focus was usually on gold or payroll that was being shipped alongside them in safes.

*[[Slavery|Slavers]] - Normally considered the most despicable of all bandits. Bandits don't usually bother with kidnapping, as a ransom is typically too problematic for anyone but a well-connected syndicate to handle (as you need to find someone willing to shell out a lot of money for this person, then ensure they can't trace you back), and taking captives brings in a lot more heat than than usual. And even then, trying to move live cargo around and trying to find a good buyer for them comes with it's own sets of problems. Its simply a lot more efficient for most groups to hold people up and take their good stuff, then leave them alone; after all, inanimate goods generally don't fight back or escape (although see "Cattle Rustlers" below).
:Slavers however, say "fuck that", and in addition to the usual fighting and looting, they'll take prisoners home to sell on the slave market, with their captives' welfare usually being an afterthought, unless they were important/valuable enough to ensure the extra hassle of keeping them well fed and maintained. Slave raiders are terrifying to civilianfolk: while its depressing you can always get material possessions back one way or another. But how're you going to cope with losing friends and family? Once they're sold off, it's highly likely you're never going to see your loved ones again, and you'll be tormented to death not knowing if they're still alive or not. Hence, slave raiders typically attract the most attention, either from law enforcement and or local militia, as anyone incharge will want them gone as soon as possible (and from a less moral PoV but one that might be more common in a society that uses slaves itself: slavers are taking away your workers and taxpayers, how dare they cut into your fortunes and cost you good money to hunt them down?).

*[[Viking|Sea Raider]] - A fearsome cross with a [[Pirate]]. A Sea Raider raids coastal settlements then gets on their boat and runs away before the local lord can assemble his forces to deal with them. Among bandit types they have the narrative advantage of not needing even a temporary settlement to engage in their acts (allowing them to not just be criminals but ''foreign'' criminals) and being able to rip off all that cool Viking stuff. It was also believed for decades that sea raiders caused the collapse of several civilizations at the end of the Bronze Age.

*Banditos - Bandits with a little more ethnic flair thrown in, these are wild-west bandits with ponchos, sombreros, and pistolés representing the general lawlessness of the early Texan border (and then romanticized in western fiction.) They're also known for their ravishing handlebar mustaches. Actors that are actually Hispanic are completely optional. [[Webcomics|May or may not ride raptors into battle.]]

*Marauders - In the middle east there were a fair number of places where it was too dry to raise crops but you could raise sheep, goats or camels which were home to various nomadic pastoral peoples who'd supplement their income by trade, weaving, dealing in odds and ends and some banditry on the side. Since a tribe of nomads would be a set of family units who'd been at this way of life for centuries or millennia, they tended to have a more sustainable outlook about things: kill a merchant and you can rob him for everything once, shake his caravan down for some stuff and let him go with and you can do it again and again.

*Cattle Rustlers - Men who steal cows. Common in Westerns, but were a problem wherever free range animals were a thing (sheep rustlers were and are a thing, for example, and in fact are still a problem in Scotland as of 2019). Cattle were just the most valuable animals, and the most likely to require a gang to steal; domesticated cattle are goddamn '''big'''--small cows weigh "only" 600 pounds(270 kg), but the big ones can get up to 2500 pounds (1100 kg). Why all the risk for cows, though? Well, back in the olden days a single healthy specimen of cattle would fetch anywhere between $20 (or around $500 today, adjusted for inflation) to $90 ($2,300 adjusted for 2020 inflation). And if you wanted to diversify your earnings, you could always process them for milk, meat, hides, and fertilizer (bones and unusable organs). To top it off unlike a chest of gold, bundle of swords or a Ming Vase, cows can move themselves and you can lead them along. As you can imagine, whatever you did: you had a lot of mileage with cattle, and any cattle rancher worth their salt would gladly put a round through you in a heartbeat, if you so much as think of stealing one of their livestock.

*Any Asian historically set action-focused work will usually have bandits, due to the usual reasons: They make good asskicking-fodder, and in most historical eras require almost no setup or explanation. Usually more likely to be de-romanticized and non-glamorous than American or European bandits. While there are some heroic bandits in such works, they are usually either cases of the Bandit being misguided (and thus become Heroes under the patronage/tutelage of an Old Master(tm) or other parochial figure), or the result of state corruption (and thus usually willing to turn away from banditry when that becomes a realistic option); either way, if they're to be in any way Heroic, the Banditry is an act of desparation. As mentioned above, China had frequent bandit problems in its history, leading, among other things, to the rise of the Shaolin monks and their brand of Kung-Fu for self defense.

== See Also ==
*[[Pirate]] - The bandits of the sea.

[[Category: History]]

Word Bearers

2022-08-14T15:48:02Z

2600:387:C:6F32:0:0:0:8:

{{Infobox Traitor Legion
|Name = Word Bearers
|Heraldry = [[Image:Post-Heresy Daemon Head.jpg|250px]]
|Battle Cry = Verses from the Book of Lorgar
|Original Name = Imperial Heralds
|Number = XVII
|Primarch = [[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]]
|Original Homeworld = [[Colchis]]
|Current Homeworld = [[Sicarus]]
|Champion = [[Erebus]], [[Kor Phaeron]]
|Specialty = Mass Indoctrination, Summoning [[Daemon]]s, Cult Uprisings.
|Strength = Legion strength
|Allegiance = [[Chaos Undivided]]
|Colours = Dark crimson with steel trim
}}
{{heresy}}
{{topquote|By its very nature, theology tends - and under certain conditions, must always tend - to become demonology.|Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus}}
{{topquote|From the fires of betrayal unto the blood of revenge we bring the name of Lorgar, the Bearer of the Word, the favoured son of Chaos, all praise be given unto him. From those what would not heed we offer praise to those who do, that they might turn their gaze our way and gift us with the boon of pain, to turn the galaxy red with blood, and feed the hunger of the gods.|Excerpt from the three hundred and forty-first Book of the Epistles of Lorgar}}
{{topquote|We are twice armed if we fight with faith.|Plato}}

The '''Word Bearers''' (or '''Bird Wearers''' if they serve Tzeentch) are a legion of [[Chaos Space Marines]], sons of the [[Primarch]] [[Lorgar]], and the most infamous army of zealous, violent [[Space Marine|demigods of war]] this side of the [[Eye of Terror]]. Their bloody, thunderous, bellicose fury would make the [[Black Templars]] blush if they weren't so [[Heresy|GOD DAMN HERETICAL]]. Imagine a Legion of bioengineered psychopathic Jehovah's Witness Space Marauders, and instead of knocking on your door and asking if you want to talk about Jesus they knock your door down and ask which end of a daemon summoning you want to be on.

==History==
[[File:WBPreHeresy.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Their pre-heresy colors bring a whole new meaning to the term Grey Tide.]]
There is a phenomenon of psychology that some people are prone to zealotry. It does not matter what they believe in, when they come to believe in something they believe in it with all their heart. This type of individual who is likely to end up becoming a fanatical member to a certain ideology will, if they somehow become disillusioned with it, often find it easier to adopt an opposing or opposite ideology and be just as fanatical to said new cause rather than simply moderating their commitment to their first ideology as needed and making caveats and exceptions to its general principles. The Word Bearers and Lorgar in particular are this phenomenon at its most extreme.

===Early History===
The Emperor used the genetic templates of the Primarchs to create the Legiones Astartes after the powers of Chaos stole the gestating Primarchs. Those who received gene-seed from template number seventeen stood apart from their brother Astartes in duty and outlook. They fought with utter devotion and a fanatical zeal. Their original recruits were drawn from the sons of defeated enemies, raised to know the crimes of their fathers and the price of the Emperor's forgiveness. Thus while the other Legions went to war with righteousness, the XVIIth fought with the cold fury that only the condemned and redeemed could know. While other Legions took some time to acquire formal names, the XVIIth was named the Imperial Heralds almost immediately after their founding. This was due to their early role: to deliver the Emperor's ultimatum of submission or destruction.
Upon defeating an enemy, the Imperial Heralds would empty their libraries and records of any contents deemed heretical or sorcerous. Condemned works, individuals, and buildings would be destroyed in the name of the Imperial Truth (though they also tended to exterminate the entire population of the places they conquered; see Antarctica). The Imperial Heralds repeated this process all across Terra during the Unification Wars. This gave the Imperial Heralds a rarely-spoken nickname among the greater Imperium: the Iconoclasts.

===Great Crusade===
[[File:WBHeresy.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Looks like Lorgar finally put some paint on his models.]]
The planet Colchis was full of people that worshiped a watered down version of chaos. Primarch XVII was adopted by Kor Phaeron, one of the chief priests, and given the name Lorgar. Lorgar received a vision of the Emperor and formed a religion around him, leading to a six-year religious civil war that Lorgar's faction eventually won, shortly before the Emperor came to Colchis. During the Great Crusade, they bore the word of the Emperor to new worlds, wiping out any traces of dissenting faiths as they assimilated cultures into the Imperial way of life, including enforcing the worship of the God-Emperor. Seriously though these guys were like the [[Black Templars]] on super-steroids, as they were at Legion strength, lacked the moderation of the Inquisition, and had their Primarch to guide them.

Their thorough attention to this kept them far behind the pace of other expeditionary fleets and drew the ire of the Emperor. He repeatedly made it clear that he did not consider himself a god and wanted Lorgar to knock it off and catch up with the other fleets. Lorgar responded by penning the original Lectitio Divinitatus, which would much later form the core of the beliefs of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor. Finally, the Emperor had enough and ordered the Ultramarines to make an example of him. They torched the city of Monarchia, capital of the planet Khur and custom designed by Lorgar, and called the entire Word Bearers legion to kneel in its ashes before Guilliman, Malcador, and the Emperor.

To say Lorgar was devastated would be an understatement. He spent an entire month in seclusion, taking only the advice of Kor Phaeron and First Chaplain Erebus. They revealed to him that they had kept the old faith alive and that many worlds appeared to have religions that aligned with it, suggesting a more primal truth than worship of the God-Emperor. They convinced Lorgar that the primordial truth was truer than the Imperial Truth and he took his legion on a pilgrimage to the Eye of Terror to learn more about Chaos.

Whereas the Word Bearers were the slowest to conquer planets before Monarchia, they became the fastest after. Lorgar would casually order his legion to slaughter every man, woman and child on any planet that refused to bow to Imperial rule.

===Chaos===
[[File:Daemon world by majesticchicken.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Okay, so the Imperial Cult might not exactly be hot chicken wings with thousand island sauce, but worshiping Chaos might not be the best alternative.]]
They were the guys who used to be really, really, really loyal to the [[Emprah]]. Like, these guys used to be the Church of the Emprah. After the [[Horus Heresy]], they became the complete opposite. Now they go around fucking up the Emprah's sepulchre planets, relic worlds, and cardinal worlds, setting up cathedrals to the [[Chaos Gods]] in their places. They are also notable for being the one [[Chaos]] legion to still have [[Chaplain]]s, known as [[Dark Apostle]]s, which is probably because they invented the idea of Space Marine preachers and no other traitor Legions wanted them after the Horus Heresy was over, because there is little sense in having morale officers in a Chaos force. Unlike the other Chaos legions and renegade chapters, [[Red Corsairs]] notwithstanding, these guys actually managed to sort of keep their shit together rather than having everyone with a slightly fancier costume take his ball and go home. They're sorta like [[grimdark]] Chaos Taliban. Except the Word Bearers make the Taliban look like sissies in comparison.

Their hobbies include human sacrifice, prayers to the [[Chaos Gods]], [[daemon]] summoning, and occult study.

[[File:Dark_apostle_by_kunkka.jpg|250px|left|thumb|Well hello there unbeliever. Would you mind a small theological chat?]]
[[Erebus|First Chaplain Erebus]] [[Matt Ward|(Fucked be his name)]] was actually pretty much the driving force behind Horus turning to Chaos. At the climax of ''Horus Rising'', Erebus steals a weapon from the [[Interex]], which caused them to get all butthurt and blame [[Horus]] and the Luna Wolves for the theft. In the next book, ''False Gods'', Horus and the merry Luna Wolves take a trip to Davin IV on Erebus's advice, during which all hell breaks loose and Horus takes some wounds and comes as close as a [[primarch]] can to a near-death experience (he basically took a nap). [[Abaddon]], having as many daddy issues as Horus, decided it'd be a good idea to follow the advice of Erebus and take Horus to a local temple run by the serpent-worshiping locals, where it was said he could be healed. Erebus sent Horus into a trance and basically whispered sweet nothings about [[Chaos]] into his ear the entire time, planting the very first seed of corruption.

==Word Bearers Today==
After 10,000 years of violence, terror, destruction, and fervent worship of the Ruinous Powers, combined with the orchestration the Horus Heresy, the Word Bearers have achieved god-tier infamy status unmatched by [[Black Legion|nearly]] ANY OTHER CHAOS WORSHIPERS. The Black Legion has proven to be a much greater threat to the Imperium overall, but the Word Bearers' sheer zealous hatred for the Imperium and the Imperial Cult propels them to some truly legendary status. It truly cannot be overstated. The Word Bearers trilogy by Anthony Reynolds has some good examples, and include a Chaos Lord and his Terminator bodyguards taking on an Imperator Titan and WINNING, a Dark Apostle killing a Space Marine Captain with his bare hands, the main character summoning Daemonettes without any rituals and setting them on a Dark Eldar Archon...

Despite this fanaticism, however, they are the most uniform Traitor Legion by quite a lot, and one of the most organised and structured ones (Iron Warriors are more organized within their autonomous Grand Companies, but every Company is its own political entity; the Black Legion are generally only uniform during a Black Crusade; and while the Alpha Legion is capable of amazing feats its' also extremely divided, maybe even more so than the other Legions).
As such, combined with their surprisingly understandable and HUMAN conflict during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, the Word Bearers function as a true brotherhood. Backstabbing is mostly minimal (which is quite of an irony considering they are led by the two biggest backstabbing cunts ever), command hierarchy is mostly respected, the Marines themselves are comrades or sometimes even FRIENDS, and great honors are given to those who fall in battle and those who rise to power. However, it is not accurate to say that they join hands and sing the gospel of love in comparison to other Legions though, as [[Grimdark|bitter rivalries can surface, the Leaders of a Grand Host can...."Excommunicate" you if they aren't a fan of your interpretations of the faith, and, in true Chaos Space Marine fashion, the strong are strongest alone.]] As for the aforementioned backstabbing cunts, Kor Phaeron and Erebus apparently cannot stand each other anymore, and have spent the last ten millennia scheming and plotting against each other while Lorgar's been on vacation. Many of the Word Bearers have lined up behind one or the other, depending on who they think is stronger/has a better vision for the legion's future, and they will openly talk shit about the one they don't like, even if they're conversing with someone who's loyal to the other guy.

Lorgar's also gotten off his daemonic ass and has started leading his Legion once more in a massed Jehovah's Witness March. Well, maybe; the novel ''Apocalypse'' implies that he's still on his millennia-long gap year, and that the Legion has different ideas about what will get him to come back.

Also, the [[Ultima Founding|newly founded]] [[Covenant of Fire]] are [[Bullshit|totally]] a [[Salamanders]] successor Chapter, and not [[Belisarius Cawl]]'s attempt at using leftover Word Bearers gene-seed to create [[Primaris Space Marines]]. Just ignore the identical Chapter badge, suspiciously similar colour scheme, and near-identical MO to the Imperial Heralds-era XVII Legion.

==Organization==
Yeah, we know what you're thinking: organization? Of a Traitor Legion? While it may surprise you, the Word Bearers still function as an organized Legion (though much looser than the Legiones Astartes). Ironically, their uttermost commitment to Chaos as a religion gives them a semblance of order (DOUBLE HERESY?) As such, they have a clearly designated hierarchy and command structure. Lorgar always remained the ultimate master of the Word Bearers but during his self-imposed silence/penance/... the Legion organized as such:

*'''Master of the Faith''': The ''de jure'' head of the Word Bearers in Lorgar's absence, currently held by First Captain [[Kor Phaeron]].

*'''Chief Dark Apostle''': The head of the priesthood, and true power behind the throne of the Legion, currently held by [[Erebus]].

*'''Dark Council''': A collection of Dark Apostles who oversee the overall actions of the Legion, and confirm the ascension of other Dark Apostles.

*'''Dark Apostle''': spiritual leader of a Host, the primary organization of the Word Bearers following the Horus Heresy. Dark Apostles are confirmed by the Dark Council and in turn make the decisions of the rank and advancement for the Host.

*'''First Acolyte''': Direct assistant to a Dark Apostle, with many having a Sith-like "master in need of a strong underling to get shit done" - "disciple that is powerful but who wants his master's place and more power" relationship.

*'''Coryphaus''': The senior military commander of a host, comparable to a [[Chapter Master]] or [[First Captain]]. The Coryphaus leads the Host's returns during religious ceremonies (and trust us, the Word Bearers have a lot of religious ceremonies) and makes all tactical decisions during actual combat, freeing up the Dark Apostle to better commune with the Chaos Gods.

*'''Icon Bearers''': A Word Bearer charged with carrying the Icon of the XVII Legion in battle, similar to a Company Standard Bearer in a [[Space Marine Chapter]].

*'''Champion''': The leader of Word Bearer squads, know as coteries. Comparable to a Squad Captain from the Legiones Astartes.

*'''Aspiring Champion''': Another Squad leader, comparable to a [[Brother-Sergeant|Sergeant]].

*'''Anointed''': The [[Terminator]]s of a Host.

*'''Gal Vorbak''': The [[Possessed Marine]]s of a Host.

*'''Warrior-Brother''': The rank and file soldiers of a host.

==Daily Rituals==

*04:00: Morning Prayer: The Word Bearers are roused from their cells to begin the day with sermons from the Book of Lorgar read by the Dark Apostle. Prayer lasts four hours, one dedicated to each of the Chaos Gods.
*08:00: Morning Firing Rites: The Word Bearers engage in target practice, often using human slaves captured during raids and cardboard cutouts of Ultramarines
*09:00: Battle Practice: The Word Bearers descend to the practice cages for training. Popular targets include captured Fire Warriors who don't even know what hand to hand combat is.
*12:00: Midday Meal: A light meal is prepared by the Legion Serfs. They are frugal with meals, as all intake of nonessential sustenance is considered indulgent and obstructive to enlightenment. Basically a permanent fast.
*12:30: Tactical Indoctrination: The Word Bearers gather for a tactical briefing, showing which planets they will be invading, and locations of cathedrals to the False Emperor which must be destroyed. Cultists who have demonstrated enough daily heretical devotion are dispatched to go door to door in Imperial neighborhoods with the Book of Lorgar, inquiring "Excuse me sir, do you have a moment to talk about CHAOS?"
*14:00: Evening Firing Rites: The Word Bearers gather for target practice. Popular targets include wounded Sororitas and the Fire Warriors who didn't die earlier
*15:00: Evening Prayer: The Word Bearers gather for the Dark Apostle to lead them in prayer. Pacts are often made during Evening Prayer, and Marines may be blessed with possession.
*19:00: Evening Meal: A light meal is prepared by the Legion Serfs. Sometimes the Legion Serfs are the light meal.
*20:00: Evening Maintenance: Word Bearers will be stripped of their [[Power Armour]] (assuming they can still remove it) for repairs to be completed. Sometimes Warrior-Brothers will see the Apothecary to check on the status of mutations.
*21:00: Choir Practice: The Word Bearers gather in their 100s for Choir Practice. Said Choir Practice will usually involve instruments made out of orphans and some kind of daemonically possessed organ pipes. Dark dirges and gospel-style hymns dedicated to the Ruinous Powers in dead eldritch languages are popular. Usually at the end of it sweeties are had.
*22:00: Flagellation: The Word Bearers flog themselves for an extra hour to prove their dedication to the Chaos gods. Those without whips may punch themselves in the face, or put their hand on their daemonically possessed stoves.
*23:00: Extra Prayer: The Word Bearers have another prayer. Because why not?
*00:00: Rest Period: The Word Bearers retire to their cells for rest.

==Famous Word Bearers==

*[[Lorgar]]: Primarch of the Word Bearers, the Urizen, Chosen of Chaos, and one of the reasons why the Imperium can't have nice things. He was the first to begin worshipping the Emperor as a deity and suffered some major daddy issues when the Emperor told him to knock it off by having the Smurfs set one of the Bearers' shrine cities on fire. Went on to make his crisis of faith everyone else's problem, barrelling full-tilt into Chaos worship and committing many atrocities prior to and during the Horus Heresy. Has been on a ten-millennia-long gap year since the end of the Heresy, though at one point he came out of hiding long enough to get his shit kicked in by a Warp-altered Corax.
*[[Kor Phaeron]]: Lorgar's foster father, Master of the Faith, First Captain of the Word Bearers, and colossal dickhead extraordinaire. He was a priest of the [[Chaos|dominant religion]] on Colchis and regularly beat Lorgar for talking back to him until Lorgar got too big for him to get away with it. Was too old to become a full Space Marine, so Lorgar had him made into a sort of half-Astartes so he could tag along with the Word Bearers. He repaid the favor by helping corrupt Lorgar into Chaos worship after the Emprah smacked him over the head at Monarchia. Tried corrupting Roboute Guilliman at the [[Battle of Calth]], only for Rowboat to go full [[RIP AND TEAR]] and yank one of his hearts out, causing him to run like a little bitch. He and Erebus have been fighting over leadership of the legion ever since the end of the Heresy.
*[[Erebus]]: Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers and also a colossal dickhead. He killed a kid named Erebus on Colchis, stole his identity, and became a wholehearted servant of Chaos by the time the Emperor rocked up to Colchis. He was inducted into the Word Bearers and rose to the rank of First Chaplain. This put him in position to corrupt Lorgar, Calas Typhon, and Horus and spread the warrior lodges through the other traitor legions, which turned out to be the most success he ever had. Spent the rest of the Horus Heresy getting shat on by everyone around him, including Kharn, who half-killed him for murdering Argel Tal; Lorgar, who told Kharn what Erebus had done; and Horus, who skinned his douchebag face off for yelling at him. He's been locked in a cold-ish war with Kor Phaeron for leadership of the legion since the end of the Heresy.
*[[Argel Tal]]: Captain of the 7th Assault Company of the Serrated Suns Chapter, one of the few survivors of Lorgar's road trip into the Eye of Terror, and subsequently captain of the Gal Vorbak, the first [[Possessed Marine|Possessed Marines]]. He was possibly one of the most bro-tier Marines in the galaxy, having managed to make friends with Kharn and a ''Custodian'' of all people, and seemed genuinely upset by some of the nastier things he was asked to do in service to Chaos. Was prophesied to "die in the shadow of great wings", which he and everyone else took to mean he would die fighting Sanguinius, until Erebus pulled a sneaky and murdered him on Nuceria while standing under a gigantic aquila atop a downed Titan. Apparently this happened because Argel would have kept Kharn from going off the deep end and somehow caused the traitors to lose the war if he'd lived. Goddammit Erebus.
*Maloq Kartho: Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers. He was present for the Battle of Calth and the subsequent Underworld War, during which he was shanked by Remus Ventanus with an athame and somehow avoided dying by ascending to daemonhood as the daemon prince M'Kar. Ultimately died ten thousand years later when Ventanus' ghost gave [[Uriel Ventris]] M'Kar's true name and the athame he'd used on him, both of which Ventris passed on to Marneus Calgar, who slew M'Kar once and for all.
*[[The Anchorite]]: A Word Bearer of unknown name and origin who initially followed his legion and primarch into Chaos worship, only to become disillusioned with all of them at Calth, when he realized that the Word Bearers were only perpetuating an endless cycle of vengeance that would accomplish nothing. He surrendered to the Ultramarines and was spared by Guilliman, who later sent him to be imprisoned on Terra. He returned to worshipping the Emperor while locked up and helped promulgate the Lectitio Divinitatus. Attempted suicide at some point out of guilt over his actions and was interred in a Contemptor Dreadnought and kept hidden on the cardinal world of Almace until a Word Bearer fleet turned up to try and "liberate" him some time after the Cicatrix Maledictum opened. [[Awesome|He promptly manifested the powers of a Living Saint and kicked the holy shit out of his erstwhile brethren]].
*Barthusa Narek: Word Bearer who remained loyal to the Emperor and turned on his own legion, planning to assassinate Lorgar for damning the Word Bearers with Chaos worship. Was arrested for apparently killing Vulkan on Macragge, but later got busted out by a Knight-Errant who tried to mind-wipe him. He killed the guy and absorbed some of his memories, which gave him a temporary identity crisis. Was later recruited by [[Eldrad]] to help wipe out the Cabal, and once that job was done he rejoined the Word Bearers so he could take his shot at Lorgar. Whatever became of him remains unknown, though he obviously didn't succeed in offing his pops.
*[[Zardu Layak]]: Dark Apostle and captain of the Unspeaking Chapter who pledged never to let anyone but the Chaos gods see his face and walked around with an entourage of warriors enslaved by their own daemonic swords. Rose through the ranks to become one of Horus' closest confidants by the end of the Heresy and brought his 5,000 Word Bearers along for the Siege of Terra after Lorgar tried to teamkill Horus and was promptly booted out. Died fighting Rogal Dorn at the Lion's Gate and exploded into a portal that let daemons manifest on Terra for the first time.

In [[Dawn of War|Dark Crusade,]] the Dark Apostle [[Eliphas]] leads a warband of Word Bearers to take over Kronus. [[Awesome]] ensues.

In the videogame [[Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate]], an ENTIRE Word Bearers ARMY OF 10,000 MARINES is lead by the Chaos LORD Zymran, who is the main antagonist of the game. Apart from sounding MANLY, he does nothing but taunt the Ultramarines like a saturday morning cartoon villain (''Seriously all he needs is that large mustache to twirl and he'll be as contrived as the [[Abbadon|Warmaster]] himself''). Ultimately somewhat forgettable.

There's also a guy named Marduk from the book series, that shows how one can get shit done despite being a villain and how to do proper [[just as planned]] [[Tzeentch|out-plotting your rivals by factoring their plots into your own]]. Sadly for Marduk, he is being completely overshadowed in awesomeness in his own books by his terminator Coryphaus, Kol Badar, who for instance takes an Imperator Titan out by entombing himself and his squad just next to where it'll be forced to pass, revive just in time to hop aboard the leg bastion and then storming in and slaughtering the whole crew. And that's just in the first book.

Amongst [[/tg/]], the most famous Word Bearer would be [[Dranon]].

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[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Space Marines]][[Category:Word Bearers]]