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Night Lords

2023-05-27T18:25:21Z

2A02:1808:86:1EC6:A987:3466:4F45:AE21:

{{Infobox Traitor Legion
|Name = Night Lords
|Heraldry = [[File:Nightlordslogo.png|250px]]
|Battle Cry = "We have come for you!" or "Ave Dominus Nox!" or “ Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible...”
|Number = VIII
|Primarch = [[Konrad Curze]]
|Original Homeworld = [[Nostramo]]
|Current Homeworld = Unknown
|Champion = Krieg Acerbus (Daemon Prince). Could also be Decimus or Zso Sahaal if you’re not a chaosfag
|Specialty = Stealth, guerrilla warfare, and terror tactics
|Strength = Unknown
|Allegiance = Depends on the warband (at least with regards to the Ruinous Powers. Otherwise, it's mostly to themselves).
|Colours = Midnight Blue, with Brass trim, and living lightning effects across the armor. *Apply blood liberally, or as needed.*
}}
{{Template:Heresy}}
{{topquote|Because the Wolves kill cleanly, and we do not. They also kill quickly, and we have never done that, either. They fight, they win, and they stalk back to their ships with their tails held high. If they were ever ordered to destroy another Legion, they would do it by hurling warrior against warrior, seeking to grind their enemies down with the admirable delusions of the 'noble savage'. If we were ever ordered to assault another Legion, we would virus bomb their recruitment worlds; slaughter their serfs and slaves; poison their gene-seed repositories and spend the next dozen decades watching them die slow, humiliating deaths. Night after night, raid after raid, we'd overwhelm stragglers from their fleets and bleach their skulls to hang from our armour, until none remained. But that isn't the quick execution the Emperor needs, is it? The Wolves go for the throat. We go for the eyes. Then the tongue. Then the hands. Then the feet. Then we skin the crippled remains, and offer it up as an example to any still bearing witness. The Wolves were warriors before they became soldiers. We were murderers first, last, and always!|[[Sevatar|Jago Sevatarion]]}}

{{topquote|When I was Bruce Wayne, I thought that with enough preparation, I would '''always''' win. But I was '''wrong'''. I was trapped in an unwinnable war, refusing to see the obvious answers '''right''' in front of me. The answers that are so '''clear''' to me now with victory right around the corner. To win, you need to '''adapt''', and to adapt, you need to be able to '''laugh''' away all the restraints. '''Everything''' holding you back. You see... a Batman who laughs... is a Batman who '''always''' wins. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!|The Batman Who Laughs}}

{{topquote|The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us but we don't ask for their love. Only for their fear.|Heinrich Himmler}}

The Night Lords [[Space Marine]] Legion consists of some of the most batshit(HA!)-crazy emos in the entire Chaos faction. Think of them as a hybrid of [[Raven Guard]] and [[Blood Angels]]. They sneaky beaky, but they also jump assault to rip faces off. [[grimdark|They get off to catching their enemies, skinning them alive and crucifying them, all the while recording it for later.]] Also notable for having a strong vampire motif and playing too much Mortal Kombat; they're scary creatures that live in the dark but scorn the [[Chaos Gods]], much like the [[Vampire Counts]]. Their backstory is surprisingly compelling and deep, but they are nevertheless bitter, brutal, terrifying assholes whose battle cries include "We have come for you!" or "Ave Dominus Nox" (translated as "-Hail the Lord of the Night-").

==History==
[[File:Oh shit the batmarines by sonicbrew-d2z88fe.jpg|200px|left|thumb|Masters of Ambush]]
{{topquote | I wanted to be a hero... and look how that turned out. |Talos Valcoran, evidencing how most Traitor members of the Legiones Astartes feel}}

Originally incepted by the Emperor to be a terror weapon, the VIIIth Legion's recruit pool originated from the worst Terra's criminals; monsters who had been put in vast, underground prison complexes to keep them away from the rest of the populace. These criminals would occasionally have offspring who, if by some miracle they survived past infancy, would come to be known by their fellows as "the night's children". Pale and silent, they were so accustomed to the horrors of these prison complexes, having known nothing else, that they were avoided by even the boldest of killers. These pale children would be the VIIIth Legion's first recruits. The Geneseed of Konrad Curze transformed the already pale skin of these children to bone-white, and darked their eyes to black. Already accustomed to the low light conditions of the underground prisons, these new Astartes found that, with the implantation of the Geneseed, they had developed the ability to see in complete darkness. However, they also found that they needed the HUD of their Power Armor to operate in daylight conditions. As such, they quickly came to prefer night time engagements. Seemingly because they were simply so used to it, the VIIIth Legion quickly developed a dark reputation for dealing with their foes with such brutality that it surpassed the rumors surrounding even the VIth and XIIth Legions.

They got their start on Terra when the Emperor sent them against a recidivist kingdom known as the Crimson Walkers. Having learned of their defiance of his edicts despite having pledged themselves to his cause, the Emperor decided that their treachery required... retribution. When asked how he wished to deal with the traitors, he is recorded merely to have said "[[awesome|Send the Eighth]]". So the VIIIth were sent, and the horor they enacted upon the Crimson Walkers was so terrible that the VIIIth in and of itself became a deterrent against recidivism. They would continue upon this path for the rest of the Crusade, typically being used to quell uprisings, or in cases where the most terrible butchery would send a useful message to others.

Eventually, Imperial forces would stumble upon the VIIIth's Primarch Konrad Curze. When [[Chaos]] abducted the infant [[Primarch]]s, they were scattered across the galaxy. Poor lil Konrad ended up on Nostramo, a world of perpetual darkness. And unlike the other Primarchs who were found by the inhabitants of a planet (highly debatable) and taken care of, Konrad was left all alone to fend for himself, [[Grimdark|in a world that was a dark, lawless land]]. But who's to say it would've been better? So then he grew up, he became like the Batman of the 31st millennium, where he punished the corrupt and the evil. Unlike Batman, he had no compunctions about killing them in the most gruesome manner possible (and displaying the corpses) to the point the sewers were clogged with bodies. [[Grimdark|Strangely enough, this was actually considered an improvement]]. So yeah, he became such a popular icon that the people of Nostramo basically fixed their shitty society because they feared that the "Night Haunter" would screw their asses to unimaginable levels, thus making him Vlad the Impaler IN SPESS!!! It says something about his world that, even as Vlad the Impaler, he was still clearly quite the good guy.

Curze tried to be a good leader for his people, but there was one thing he was just unable to do: delegate. So when [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Big.E]] came rolling by and took him along for [[Great Crusade|a good scrap all over the galaxy]], it didn't take long for Nostramo to fall back into crime, anarchy and the like. With the scary thing in the night gone kicking ass AnywhereButHere, it suddenly wasn't scary anymore. Insult to injury, Nostramo provided most aspirants for the Night Lords, and soon only those that thrived in such a lawless environment ascended to become Space Marines... with all the complications one could imagine. Despite the psycho-indoctrination, many Night Lords were serial-killers and sociopaths, hiding their bloodlust beneath a thin veneer of loyalty to the Crusade, and this rot slowly but surely spread to the Legion as a whole.

They also have an unhealthy addiction to flying and lightning. They are known for scaring the hell out of civilians for shits and giggles, and also known for being insanely giant fucking nutheads. Wherever the Night Lords strike, they leave corpses and signs of their assault on display and generally make it look like all the Segmentum's worst metal bands had a gig in the exact same area at the exact same time.

Despite being "traitors" they claim not to be terribly fond of the Chaos Gods. It varies between warbands but many make little to no use of daemons (unless they are warp talons because they really fit well with the “flying and lightning” mentioned above), so they're more of a renegade legion than an unclean one. Which makes them less likely to (accidentally) become possessed. It won't matter though, because they are fucking insane anyway, not only because of their combat doctrines, but also because they have been around for a very long time.
Notable exceptions include Krieg Acerbus, a [[Daemon Prince]] currently leading the largest warband of Night Lords, who also happen to be hardcore, full-on '''bat'''shit chaos worshippers. There's also the first claw's Uzas, who's all about blood for the [[Khorne|Blood God]]. In fact, earlier incarnations of the background listed them as a Khornate Legion, and Khorne smiles upon those who murder for the sake of murder, even one's allies, which Night Lords do whenever they can. However, because they're in denial about their religion, they neither get the goodies of the Chaos Gods, nor the technology of the [[Imperium]]. So whenever loyalists show up with assault cannons, stormbolters, cyclone missile launchers, land speeders, drop-pods, and hunter killer missiles they silently cry in the night. Or take it out on them by kicking the shit out of the local chapter of [[Ultramarines|Ultramarines]].

== Tactics ==
{{topquote|I am the thing that keeps you up at night. The fear that haunts every dark corner of your mind. I will never rest. And neither will you.|Slade “Deathstroke” Wilson}}

{{topquote|BOO!"|Warcry of the night lords when they sneak up on you}}

Night Lord warbands, for the most part, are somewhat sensible in that they don't just send in their marines to die in droves. So, they generally don't titty-rush the nearest Titan for the lulz unless said Titan is REALLY fucking their mojo up. When they do engage in direct combat, they generally prefer complete overwhelming force to ensure minimal losses, maximum carnage, and enough skulls to stick on their pauldrons. So, they're pretty much a chaos version of [[Reasonable Marines]]. Including the [[Alpha Legion]] too, obviously (maybe?).

Considering what fluff says about them, it seems likely the Night Lords Legion conquered worlds during the Great Crusade by rarely waging actual war. They probably did it the Night Haunter way. Show up, declare Lex Imperialis, and '''punish''' violation of the emperor's law by using stealth and terror. They can get anywhere, be anywhere, and they're always watching ''you''. They don't have to fight you as you are just '''''that horribly outmatched'''''. In cases of legitimate military threats, WMDs, phosphex, rad weapons, and other nasty things can be gleefully used.

Or just take pieces from their leader's little girl. Bit by bit. Without kidnapping her. From her bedroom. Over and over and ruining any attempt to move her (or take bits even after she's in their most secure location). You see, that is ''far'' more terrifying than kidnapping her and sending pieces back. Especially preceding each taking with "We have come for you".

Back when Curze was still somewhat sane, the point of the terror tactics was to basically destroy a foes' morale to thoroughly and so quickly that the casualties, though beyond brutal individually, would actually be significantly fewer than those most other Legions inflicted. Those few would suffer unspeakable horrors, but the many who bore witness would surrender without the need for further bloodshed. [[Just as planned|If all went as planned]], the planet would be delivered to the Imperium with its population, infrastructure, and industrial capabilities almost completely intact, and ''thoroughly'' compliant.

Despite their brutality, the Night Lords as a Legion were actually very tactically minded in their assaults if facing anything worthwhile. This was almost entirely down to the fact that nobody particularly wanted to die rather than anything else; being smart about fighting tends to cause fewer casualties. They ultimately ended up being a sadistic reflection of the Raven Guard in terms of their tactical doctrines, and the two Legions pre-Corax had a ''lot'' in common. They liked to fight indirectly if they were either at a disadvantage or were on-par with their opponents. They would strike at logistics networks, supply lines, weapons depots, etc, all in an attempt to bleed an enemy over time, and would only go for the kill when they knew the battle was winnable. Additionally, nothing in terms of weaponry or strategy was ever off the table, least of all for moral reasons. Chemical weapons, radiation saturation, Phosphex munitions, biological weapons, straight-up Exterminatus; if the Night Lords thought it might help them to win, it was always an option. Concepts like honor were considered to be a fool's prize at best, and contemptibly stupid at worst. If an enemy could be baited into a trap by, say, slaughtering civilians, they would happily do so.

When actually engaging a foe, the Night Lords prefered to make extensive use of infiltration tactics. After all, it's harder to kill what you don't know is there. In fact, the Night Lords were amongst the sneakiest of all the Legions, with only the Raven Guard and Alpha Legion rivaling their understanding of covert operations. However, they were no strangers to open battle; it was just virtually always option B. In such scenarios, they preferred utilizing small, company sized formations, and had a larger than normal number of Breacher Squads in their infantry divisions. They also preferred the use of fast vehicles to heavy armor, typically aircraft like the Storm Eagles if they could help it. Similarly, they liked to deploy jump-pack equipped infantry in the name of speed. Bikes, jetbikes, and fast troop transports like Rhinos were also favored. They did still utilize heavy and super-heavy armor when needed, but their armor pool was not so extensive as a Legion like the Iron Hands or Iron Warriors. Nor, for that matter, was their artillery pool. They did have a surprising amount of armor when compared to Legions outside the Iron Whatevers, as all of the Night Lords various companies were expected to maintain their own vehicle pool for independent operations.

When they took a position, they tended to fortify it with automated weapons platforms like the Tarantula Sentry rather than use Astartes to man them. Oftentimes they would use these static defensive areas as kill-zones for herding terrified defenders or civilians into automated gunfire. Their prefered tactics outside of just scaring the bejesus out of foes was simple but effective, and not dissimilar to that which the Imperial Fists utilized. They would locate defensive weaknesses, exploit them with Breacher Squads, APCs or other quick, heavy hitting units, and then attempt to break the foe into smaller groups to destroy them piecemeal. They also liked just driving dozer-prowed tanks over their enemies. Why more Legions didn't think to use such an effective killing method is a bit strange but there we are.

In terms of their elite units, they employed a large number of what were called Terror Squads, which were basically Assault Marines who were particularly good, even amongst the Night Lords, at committing war crimes against their foes. Another was the Night Raptors, who were an even more elite sort of Assault Squad equipped with jump packs who preferred ripping their foes apart in melee. These guys were just as nuts as the Terror Squads, but more specialized as shock troops. There also existed two variants of elite Terminators; the Contekar and the Atramentar (Both of which got their 30k rules screwed over by some biased know-it-all idiot over at Forgeworld). They functioned as essentially the same sort of unit, with the Atramentar as the 1st Company of the Contekar. Under the command of Sevatar, both groups of Terminators were sadistic screwballs of the highest order but could control their impulses, unlike the Terror Squad marines. They were extremely fractious and unruly, obeying orders only from someone they feared/respected enough to do so. Sevatar, and of course Curze, were the only members of the Legion powerful enough to reign them in.

'''ALTERNATIVELY:'''

They make use of their sneakiness and fuck shit up that way. Striking behind enemy lines, ambushes, sabotaging generators and command centers, etc. Knowing this, one considers them being pretty sensible. In one-on-one combat a Night Lord will do his best to make sure he has the upper hand, and thus resort to cheat tactics by breaking every rule possible and use every dirty trick to avoid being 'on equal footing' with the opponent. Just like [[Dark Eldar|certain slimy BDSM pricks]]. Despite considering honor to be a fool's prize, they often excelled in individual combat. In fact, their Heresy-era First Captain, [[Sevatar]], was on-par with Sigismund himself, who was widely considered to be the greatest Astartes melee fighter of all time. On that note, the Legion's character was known to be one of, as you might expect, a sort of nihilistic sadism with a''lot'' of dark humor thrown in for a good measure. Sevatar himself is known both in and out-of-universe as one of the snarkiest motherfuckers in the entire setting, and he was far from alone amongst the Legion in that regard.

They like unconventional shock-and-awe tactics (read: Terror with a capital T). One of them, Talos, disabled a ship's bridge by doing a fifteen-second-long vox-amplified scream, which, thanks to his three lungs and superhumanly strong vocal cords, blew out every unprotected eardrum in the room and put many of the bridge staff in a coma. Another method was to '''kill a planet's population from fright''' when they broadcasted a horrible snuff movie over the comm waves. More methods include impaling innocents in hard-to-reach areas and spamming the local Internet (or whatever passes for it) with video broadcasts made of extremely scary jump-scares, torture footage and sounds, sort of a superhuman Los Zetas/ISIS/Internet Troll hybrid on crack.

If they can't use fear as a tactic, they will always resort to trying to break morale by sabotaging objectives of strategic import or executing leaders and commanders. And if all else fails, well, they're still freaking Space Marines and can just, y'know, kick the absolute shit out of everyone the old-fashioned way.

'''BUT:'''

This isn't to say that their tactics make them unstoppable. Terror-tactics only work well on people who can be scared, meaning that their preferred operations tend not to work well on other [[Space Marines]], [[Eldar]], [[Necrons]], [[Tyranids]], [[Orks]], or any sort of [[Ecclesiarchy|fanatical]] [[Chaos Cults|religious]] [[Genestealer Cult|zealots]], meaning that [[Imperial Guard]] are one of their favorite targets. There are individually stellar warriors at various aspects of warfare among their ranks--close-combat champions who'd acquit themselves well against any Astarte's, strategists and tacticians who pull off some incredible victories, but there aren't enough of these standouts, and they don't have a legion-wide focus on anything except terror. If anything, their big saving grace is they're competent enough to leg it when a fight isn't winnable. However, they were still competent enough outside of their terror tactics as a Legion that they fought the Dark Angels to a stalemate for around 3 years, and were ultimately only defeated due to the Lion acquiring a [[Tuchulcha|plot device]] which broke all the rules of Warp travel. Also, Curze confronted the Lion at one point during this series of battles and gave the game away by telling the Lion that he was basically just stalling him. Bit stupid that, but sadly Curze was always a bit of a spaz.

Especially noteworthy is that the last time they really had to fight face-to-face, mano-a-mano, was right after the Heresy, when the [[Ultramarines|Toilet Marines]] came looking for them on their fortress world of Tsagualsa. The Night Lords got slaughtered. Now, to be fair, by that time it was a while since they replenished their numbers after the Heresy. Additionally, in their stupidity, they chose to "bunker down" instead of using their typical hit-and-run tactics. Not to mention the fact that many warbands were not present, the Legion having started to split up after the death of Konrad and Sevatar. Also, the character recounting this, when challenged by another about "losing to the Ultramarines", points out that it wasn't JUST the Ultramarines chapter, but every successor chapter as well. He comments on [[Howling Griffons]] working side-by-side by [[Novamarines]], while being supported by [[Genesis Chapter]] flanking maneuvers. He comments on how every single chapter involved was running by the same playbook (The [[Codex Astartes]]), in perfect unison, and pretty much without any dissension or rebellion (unlike the Night Lords). The result was that the Night Lords were pinned down, outflanked, bombarded, assaulted (or counter-assaulted), besieged and simply fucked over in every way in a textbook fashion. The Night Lords lost so badly that they fragmented and were never united as a whole force ever again (although there were signs of a semi-reunification in the period leading up to the [[13th Black Crusade]]). And before you cry some "Wardian bullshit", this was in the Night Lords own book, written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|a pretty cool guy]] (actually it was Games-Workshop's fluff that limited the Night Lords.). Besides, against a legion fighting in co-ordination, it was a given who would win, not bullshit. Notice the Codex Astartes clearly works well...when working with at least a thousand Marines or multiple Chapters together (as opposed to individual companies...something Astartes are largely too stupid to realize, apparently).

On that note, Night Lords aren't terribly big on helping each other out. Oh they won't usually just outright shoot each other in the back (usually being the operative word) but they operate far more like a group of space pirates than professional soldiers. As such, while they may be formidable individually, they tend to not work very well in large groups. This holds doubly true for large groups that lack a commander strong enough to hold them together. Both Curze and Sevatar were powerful enough to do this while they commanded, but after Curze died and Sevatar probably died, nobody else quite managed it.

Bear in mind that upon returning to this fortress planet, the Night Lords proceeded to get revenge on the Ultramarine Genesis Chapter, defeating them with the time-honored strategy of [[Skaven|blowing up the fucking moon]]. Why fight fair when you have nukes?

[[Huron Blackheart]] worked out the best way to use the Night Lords: as an advance force for performing a crippling first strike on the enemy. When he assaulted the [[Marines Errant|Marines-Errant]] in their home base, he asked for a detachment of Night Lords to find a way to let his main force into the Marines-Errant fortress. So, a squad of Night Lords scaled into the [[fortress-monastery]] and drew off the Marines-Errant and their serfs while a squad of Night Lords Raptors went higher up the fortress and destroyed the actual shield generators.
So you offer them something they want, tell them what to fuck up, let them work out the details on their own and do their thing and, as Huron found out, don't expect them to help much in the actual fighting afterward (which to be fair Huron neither expected nor wanted) nor should you [[Blood Ravens|leave any shiny toys for them to elope with]] while you're busy (now that dit piss Huron off! [[butthurt|Royally!]]). They employ Tohruk ogryns as well.

==Fun Facts==
*It is believed they're linked to [[Scary Marines]].
*They are one of the few Astartes legions who actually think ambushing is a good idea, rather than standing in front of a line of guns and charging it.
*<strike>*NANANANANANANANANANANANANA BATMAN!</strike> ''Enough of this, we will write upon your neckbeard skin an explanation of why we find such jokes awful, but first, we need your fingerbones as styli.''
*Kids check under their beds for the boogie man; the boogie man checks under his bed for Astartes; Astartes check under their beds for their captains; First Company Captains check under their beds for the Night Haunter.
*Konrad Curze ''is'' that thing that goes bump in the night... and he's heading this way.
*The Night Lords know all of the things you're afraid of, and they think they are utter shit-- wait 'til they show you what true horror is...
*The first, most brutal hour of any attack by the Night Lords against is more commonly called "Candyland Hour" for all good children...
*The Night Lords once discovered records of an ancient Terran mythological figure called "Santa Claus". Reading about this fat jolly man, they couldn't help but be both amused and annoyed with his jovial antics. They ''were'' impressed with his ability to get into any habitation block, no matter how well fortified (and assumed warp trickery was at play), his army of slaves in his polar fortress and his almost Orwellian list of "naughty and nice", but couldn't really understand the whole gift giving thing: good children don't get presents, they get the greatest gift of all! They get to live! Bad children... will be made an example of in the style of the Night Haunter and his criminal mob bosses. We'll see who's naughty and nice then.
*The Night Haunter used to keep a record of who was naughty and who was nice... and then severely punished those kids who were naughty (it involved disemboweling). Today, his sons don't keep a record-- they just disembowel whoever might be in the vicinity, naughty or niceness be damned.
*Upon reading about this 'Santa Claus' figure most Night Lords assumed he used some sort of jetbike or skimmer to get around; furthermore upon discovering that bad children get "lumps of coal" for their bad behavior in their stockings, the Night Lords hit upon a great idea: once a year they would deliver coal to all the children on a particular imperial world because "they are bad and thus must be vindicated". Coal themed terrorism was rampant. In what was known as "Ash Thursday" or the Night of 1000 Sorrows, the Night Lords proceeded to unleash a planetwide coal-themed reign of terror upon a hapless imperial world: coal was shoved in their stockings...and in their throats...then ignited; the local Mechanicus weather machine was set ablaze making it rain ash; various coal trucks were detonated raining coal onto hapless Imperial citizens; local water purification centers were destroyed (coal is used for cleaning); and countless Adeptus Mechanicus kidney dialysis machines were smashed. Then they set the weather machine to "snow" and took all the coal back into space so they'd freeze in their habitation blocks and let a note that said "next Sanguinala be a little nicer".
*Further research into the concept of Santa Claus led them to stumble upon an ancient documentary series about the Dark Age of Technology known as Futurama. In viewing this series, they discovered to their delight that Santa Claus was in fact a bloodthirsty, unstoppable Man of Iron who dispensed presents to the nice and punished the naughty. But ''nobody'' was ever nice enough to meet his standards, and so he horribly murdered virtually everyone he came across. Realizing that this was essentially exactly what the Night Haunter did on a daily basis, the Night Lords decided every year to dedicate their Sanguinala celebration to this sort of activity.
*Nostramo is described as being like Gotham City, if Gotham City had no lights, there was another Gotham City on top of it, and only mob bosses and rich scumbags got to enjoy sunlight and medicine. Also everyone had guns and Batman ate his victims. Oh did we mention the Night Haunter was so bad he made everyone "nice"? Yeah. Curze killed so fucking many criminals that the survivors were too scared to do crime anymore. At least until Curze left the planet.
*They stick bats in their helmets to help them fly.
*They don't get Daemons or other warp dickery, so they always go to sleep with ease without all the voices in their heads (other than their own psychotic subconsciousness).
* [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]] (AKA the newest edition to the Bald Brotherhood of Awesome 40K Writers) has made them fucking GREAT. 10th Company GETS SHIT DONE!
*When the [[Word Bearers]], [[Iron Warriors]], the [[Alpha Legion]], or [[Black Legion]] (the only four legions that really give two shits about [[Chaos Undivided]] and even then the Iron Warriors aren't the biggest fans of it and the Alpha Legion are closet loyalists-- ''or are they really?'') try to recruit them for their next great Black Crusade, the Night Lords usually tell them to piss off and send the messengers back in a box (or several).
*They are also the origin of the Raptor and Warp Talon units, the Chaos version of Assault Marines.
*They're probably lucky that those other legions are typically too busy to deal with probably the least threatening of the Chaos Space Marine Legions.
*They are probably as old as you could normally count, because they don't hang around in the [[Warp]] so much. Sort of. The [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]] Night Lords book mentions Talos remembering the defeat at Terra as being only a few decades from his perspective due to chilling in the Warp. He does mention his bestie is getting crow's feet though from time outside of the warp. Since every single example of Astartes age never mentions them dying of age (including a lost company of Luna Wolves re-discovered by Abaddon eight thousand years after the Horus Heresy and a Salamander whose armor was fused to his ship ten thousand years ago was found by loyalists still alive), it's safe to say that yes, Astartes are freaking immortal. Stress-related physical aging of features, though, would be totally unsurprising. Even Space Marines can only take so much shit and see so much horror before it gets to them.
*That's not to say that the Night Lords aren't pants-shittingly terrifying. They know what they're good at and they stick to it.
*They've had enough common sense to survive for this long, despite having so many disadvantages compared to the other eight legions.
*Of course, this is relative, because when we talk about "sensible" in the context of Chaos, we mean "will hang you with your own intestines just for the hilarity of it", rather than "completely ignore the enemy army to attack a strategically worthless town to make sacrifices for the Dark Gods." It helps that their attacks are so low-key (except for the bombing a planet once and causing a MASSIVE psychic scream by torturing a bunch of astropaths and sending dozens of planets into psy-communicating-blank) that the Night Lords are not prioritized and actively hunted by the Imperium. Otherwise they'd likely be wiped out in short order (as mentioned above with the [[Ultramarines|guys that have a toilet seat as their insignia]] kicking their asses). DOWN WITH THE BLUE-TRDZ!(Ehem)I mean smurfs...
*Of all the Night Lords Warbands there are mainly three "Chaos" Lords that still lead based on their vision of The Night Haunter's Legacy:
**First there is Zso Sahaal, the "Talonmaster", former First Captain of the Legion. He was a Terran Legionnaire appointed by the Night Haunter following Sevatar's death. His flight from the rest of the Legion with the Corona Nox, the rightful crown of the Primarch's successor, earned him the title "The Betrayer" to some within the Legion, but he saw Curze's use of fear as focused and controlled in its use. Could be considered defunct, as no one had heard from him for ten thousand years, the First Company dissolved rather than follow him, and as soon as he got back into the setting, no one took his claims seriously of Curze making him his heir. Will likely never get further development, as his main writer left on bad terms with Games Workshop two decades ago.
**Next is Krieg Acerbus, a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided, whose name is a combo of Latin and German meaning "violent war" (real subtle GW). Also known as the Axemaster, he leads the largest warband of Night Lords in the galaxy and claims that Curze wished his sons to terrorize the Imperium and devour its fear. He and Sahaal battled for the Corona Nox; Sahaal kept the crown, but [[Imotekh the Stormlord|lost an arm]].
**Lastly, there is Talos Valcoran. Formerly an [[Apothecary]] during the Heresy/Great Crusade, he bore the titles "Prophet of the VIII Legion" and "Soul Hunter". He earned the title of Soul Hunter for pursuing and killing M'Shen, the Callidus assassin that killed the primarch, for vengeance and out of love for his father rather than greed (a difference in ideology that he would come to despise his brethren for to some extent). He was also known for prophetic powers like his gene-father, earning him the title "Prophet of the VIII Legion". Eventually he came to succeed his Company Captain/Warband Leader, Vandred Anrathi in leading the Warband of the Exalted, following the Fall of Vilamus. Under Talos' command, it was renamed to the [[Broken Aquila|Warband of the Broken Aquila]]. He later died on Tsagualsa at the hands of the Phoenix Lord Jain Zar of the Howling Banshees. He succeeded in ''killing'' her (though "kill" is a strong term when it comes to Phoenix Lords) in a spectacular display of determination and vengeance, taking her down with him. Talos believed that the Night Lords were betrayed by the Imperium, and were its truest weapon of terror when called upon before the Emperor betrayed them. Talos' gene-seed would later be inherited by Decimus (who might be the son of Octavia, who was the navigator of the ship and Septimus, another slave and a ''friend'' of Talos in the warband), who in turn assumed command of his Warband and gained his gift of foresight.
*The Night Lords' character can be pretty well summed up with this song --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XncuY4wLaA8
**Or this one --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2wzpfPFBlw
**''Ahem''; https://youtube.com/watch?v=sApYX_R4LRo
**No, you're both wrong! It's ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIPGyKGuWeA this]'' song. It's proven [http://media.moddb.com/cache/images/groups/1/3/2055/thumb_620x2000/2013-04-21-RegularMarine43.1.png more than effective against Imperial Guard regiments]
**This is the one --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dy28ef-_tA
**''cough'' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqds0B_meys
**(You might be forgetting this one —-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQPWAJWAYNQ
**Maybe this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFqjDXy9s5A
**This one's obvious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSaDPc1Cs5U
**Or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz1mEMiNPHQ
**Seriously? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGSxJ-K1vL8
*The Night Lords actually treat their serfs pretty decently for a traitor legion. It's still not particularly pleasant, but it's better than being used as a [[Emperor's Children|sex toy]], a [[Word Bearers|sacrifice]], a [[World Eaters|punching bag]], a [[Death Guard|zombie]], or getting eaten because the last meal was improperly prepared (it does happen on occasion) or being used for target practice for lulz etc.
** To be fair, they do still randomly punch serfs into paste and/or hunt them for sport. Oh and they make them live in perpetual darkness too, because this is a Night Lord ship and you just have to get used to it. But they do at least seem to acknowledge that they need the serfs to survive. Sure, the serfs are 100% literal slaves but they are actually useful.
*They actually gave the idea of the vampire imagery to the Blood Angels.
*Once, a warband of Night Lords decided it would be fun to fuck with some Dark Eldars. In turn, the Dark Eldar Haemonculi hunted them down to a random planed, covered said world in perpetual darkness by blocking the planet's sun, then sent Mandrakes ( Dark Eldar who live in a subrealm of total darkness ). The Mandrakes assaulted the Night Lords so badly, appearing at random from the darkness, so much so that, after the Dark Eldar left and sunlight came back on, the Nigh Lords slept with the lights on at night from then on.

==Night Lords Character==
The character of the Night Lords is a bit...complicated. On one hand, sure, they are a legion of professional sadists, murderers, and (literal) terrorists that delight in preying upon the weak and defenseless at every opportunity. That's their MO. On the other hand, the Night Lords' actual personalities and motivations are surprisingly deep, varied, and intact, more so than probably any other Traitor Legion (especially after 10,000 years). They run the full gamut between bloodthirsty savages that believe terrorizing and killing are goals in and of themselves, and embittered philosophers that believe their methods once did and should still have purpose. Hell, there can even be the occasional comedian, cracking snide (and sometimes genuinely funny) jokes to his brothers while they carve their way through the screaming masses. With all those wildly differing personalities, the Night Lords are also about as dysfunctional a brotherhood as it gets, even by Traitor standards. They are (tenuously) bound by loyalty to Legion and Primarch, and may fight and die for each other on the battlefield, but off of it they ''all'' hate each other to some extent, and are in constant and heated disagreement as to the precise nature of their Legion and Primarch, and just how they ''should'' be fighting the Long War. Given just how batshit Curze was, they’re also ''all'' both right and wrong at the same time.

The Night Lords also have a bit of a dichotomy in regards to their treatment of slaves, with non-essential personnel being free to hunt for shits and giggles, while higher level officers and artificers are usually valued and protected to the point where they can have casual conversations and banter with the Astartes. The latter is something you don't see even in a good chunk of ''Loyalist'' chapters.

This all means it’s entirely possible that there are warbands of loyalist Night Lords out there. Crazy thought for a crazy(ier) Legion.

==Notable Members==
*[[Konrad Curze]]: The Night Haunter, primarch of the Night Lords, and batshit crazy mofo. Is what you'd get as the result of a teleporter accident involving Batman, Frank Castle, and Bill the Butcher. He was utterly convinced that his visions of the future were infallible and didn't react well whenever someone suggested or proved otherwise. Spent the Heresy dicking with the Dark Angels and Ultramarines until the Lion captured him a few times and broke his back. Let himself get shot by a Callidus assassin after the Heresy was over to prove his point about punishing evildoers.
*[[Sevatar]]: AKA Jago Sevatarion, but don't call him that [[Rip and tear|if you like having your skin attached to your body]]. First Captain of the Night Lords during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. He was a snarky asshole who coined the battle cry "Death to the False Emperor!" and was also a psyker whose suppressed powers were slowly killing him. He may or may not be dead.
*Gendor Skraivok: The Painted Count, Captain of the 45th Company and makeup aficionado. Was secretly undermining Curze in collaboration with his family on Nostramo for the lulz. Became ''de facto'' commander of the Night Lords at the [[Siege of Terra]], up until Raldoron kicked him off the Palace walls and he got sucked into the Warp to be tortured for four millennia by the daemon living in his sword because he was stupid enough to make a deal with it. Is now a daemon prince.
*Fel Zharost: Chief Librarian of the legion during the Great Crusade and a rare Terran-born Night Lord. Got kicked out after attacking Sevatar because he was upset about what the legion had become. Hid out on Terra for a while until Malcador recruited him for the Knights-Errant. He probably became Khyron, one of the first eight [[Grey Knights]].
*Mawdrym Llansahai: Primus Medicae who was so bugfuck crazy and bloodthirsty that even the other Night Lords couldn't stand him. He was busted for performing unsanctioned vivisections and other nasty experiments and forced to paint his gauntlets red, the mark of a condemned man in the VIII Legion. Survived multiple assassination attempts by his own side and continued to be a crazy torturing psycho throughout the Heresy.
*[[Talos (Warhammer 40,000)|Talos Valcoran]]: The Soul Hunter, formerly an Apothecary of the Night Lords' 10th Company. He inherited Papa Konrad's gift of foresight, which was just as good for his mental stability as it was for Curze's. He hunted down and killed M'Shen in the name of revenge, then later cut himself loose from his warband after a few millennia of them just dicking around and torturing people for the lulz and went on a tear through the Imperium, getting shit done in a badass way. Pulled a mutual kill with [[Jain Zar]].
*Zso Sahaal: Star of the first Night Lords-focused Black Library book. Allegedly the chosen heir of Konrad Curze and one of the pioneers/leaders of the Raptors during the Great Crusade, Sahaal was notable/mocked for being a true follower of Curze's mantra that fear was a weapon to be wielded for greater purpose and believed that the Emperor had genuinely betrayed the Night Lords. Due to Eldar machinations, he spent 10,000 years in the Warp and emerged into the 41st Millennium knowing nothing about the current state of the galaxy. When he summoned the Night Lords to a planet he was busy terrorizing as he tried to recover one of the Night Haunter's relics, he discovered just how 10,000 years of the Long War had twisted the Night Lords into true monsters. Supposedly he tried to reclaim leadership of the Legion and was laughed off as just another pretender. As the author of his book is no longer with Black Library, it's not likely he will be revisited, but he has been referred to in [[Horus Heresy]] novels.
*Krieg Acerbus: Axemaster and current leader of the largest Night Lords warband in the galaxy. Ascended to daemonhood at some point, making him one of the rare Night Lords who is fully onboard with Chaos. His name translates from German (Krieg) and Latin (Acerbus) to "harsh/severe/violent war", just in case he wasn't enough of an edgelord already. Believed himself to be the Night Haunter's chosen heir and relished spreading fear, terror, and slaughter for their own sake.
*Decimus: New leader of Talos' warband after Talos blew himself up to kill Jain Zar. Inherited Talos' gene-seed, along with his gift of foresight and all the cool gear of the dead Night Lords who'd been in the warband.
*Lucoryphus: Raptor Commander, and the first Traitor Astartes to land on the Imperial Palace Walls during the Siege of Terra. Commands the Bleeding Eye, comprised of the best of Night Lord Chaos Raptors and Warp Talons. Currently serving as one of Decimus's lieutenants.

==Nightly Rituals==
17:00 - The Night Lords awake. It takes them a while to safely get down from their caves.

17:30 - Evening Meal. The Night Lords have a light meal by drinking the blood of captured civilians.

18:00 - Evening Firing Rites. The Night Lords conduct covert firing practice on unsuspecting Imperial citizens or Chaos worshipers. The Night Lords' serfs can't tell the exact period their masters strike as they often see a skinned and maimed body the moment they look away. Unlike traditional legions: kill-shots are considered a demerit and everyone is constantly perfecting their art of making the most efficient and painful wounding shot.

19:00 - Evening Terror Tactics. The Night Lords warm up by terrorizing the planet they will be raiding later in the night. Again the serfs have no idea when or how their masters accomplish this without getting caught.

20:45 - Snack Break. The Night Lords take a fifteen miniute break for milk and cookies. Naturally enough, the contents of the cookies varies, from being made from bone meal and blood to macadamia nut. Skeleton designs drawn on in white icing are personalised, but mandatory.

21:00 - Tactical Indoctrination. The Night Lords finally assemble in the stratagem-ampitheatre and plan out how to maximize the amount of terror they can bring about hapless populace of tonight's world. Serfs are typically commanded out of the room to spare them the nightmares of whatever they hear their masters discuss inside.

01:00 - Nighttime Firing Rites. Now the Night Lords strike. Unlike raids from other legions, there is only a ten percent death rate amongst their targets. Everyone else is helplessly maimed by bolter shots to the knees and elbows.

02:00 - Nighttime Terror Tactics. Here the Night Lords test their true skill as hunters of the dark. Those who manage to survive their opening salvos are sadistically hunted down and maimed slowly.

05:00 - "Decorating". Anyone still alive is dismembered and their still-living corpse nailed to a wall inspire fear. The Night Lords then finish up by activating an enemy distress call so that their friends can appreciate their work.

08:00 - Morning Meal. A feast is prepared by the serfs. This time the Night Lords have given up on their act and sit and munch down on the food.

09:00 - Free Time. The Night Lords occupy their free time by watching and reading an antique and legendary proto-Night Lord who calls himself as 'Batman'. Night Lords are often inspired by this ancient Terran vigilante of justice and terror and often tries their best to mimic him (whilst selectively ignoring the foolish decision to avoid killing his prey). It should also be noted of popular reading is a delightful novel series set in M3 called "The Punisher" written by ancient Terran scribe Garth Ennis. The night lords find Frank Castle's hard boiled murder sprees to be a delightful romp. For comedy, the sons of Curze amuse themselves with laughter when the character "Jigsaw" shows up.

12:00 - Rest Period. The Night Lords go back to their caves, hang upside down with their legs and prepare to sleep.

==Gallery==
<center><gallery>
File:Soul Hunter cover.jpg
File:Throne of Lies cover.jpg
File:Blood Reaver cover.jpg|According to Lexicanum, a depiction of Talos Valcoran, the Soul Hunter.
File:Void Stalker cover.jpg|Definitely not in a Batman pose.
File:Bak3.jpg|I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky...
File:Night Lords Champion by warp zero.jpg|'Sup, Darkclaw?
File:1174923365695wq1vj1.png|Masters of Stealth
File:Feel_that_FEAR.jpg
File:NL 3.jpg|That guardsman will be FINE, he swears.
</gallery></center>

{{Template:Chaos-Official}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Space Marines]]

Thousand Sons

2023-05-27T18:15:24Z

2A02:1808:86:1EC6:A987:3466:4F45:AE21:

{{Infobox Traitor Legion
|Name = Thousand Sons
|Heraldry = [[File:Thousandsonslogo.jpg|250px]]
|Battle Cry = "All is dust..."
|Number = XV
|Primarch = [[Magnus the Red]]
|Original Homeworld = [[Prospero]]
|Current Homeworld = [[Sortiarius]] (latin for sorcerer), also known as the Planet of the Sorcerers
|Champion/Chapter Master= [[Ahzek Ahriman]]
|Specialty = [[Psyker]]s, [[Chaos Sorcerer]]s, [[Just as Planned]], [[Reasonable Marines|Taking key points with minimal casualties]]
|Strength = Each one of the Nine Cult contains hundreds of Sorcerers leading thousands of Rubricae, giving somewhere under 10,000 Sons in total.
|Allegiance = [[Tzeentch]],([[Just as Planned|And whoever is working for him at the time]]), [[Reasonable Marines| whoever asks for their aid that is not a xeno]]
|Colours = Dark teal and yellow with gold trim , post M.31 ,although some warbands may adopt alternate color schemes (Pre-Heresy: Red with Gold trim)
}}
{{heresy}}

{{Topquote|The point was to learn what it was we feared more: being misunderstood or being betrayed.|Adam Levin, ''The Instructions''}}
{{Topquote|The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance|Thousand Sons catchphrase/motto pre-heresy}}
{{Topquote|Everything is dust in the wind.|Kansas, ''Dust in the Wind''}}
{{Topquote|I'm cold and there are [[Space Wolves|wolves]] after me.|Abe Simpson, ''The Simpsons''}}

The Thousand Sons are a [[Chaos]] Space Marine legion that fully devote themselves to [[Tzeentch]]...which may not make them chaos marines at all given the mollusk's tendencies. Their Primarch is [[Magnus the Red]], an extremely psychically powerful Daemon Primarch with one eye and a magnificent red mane. The legion, when founded, had a mutation in the gene-seed that caused uncontrollable mutation that led to quick death (presumably because it was corrupted by the warp). Magnus became desperate in saving his legion, so he made a pact with Tzeentch and sacrificed one of his eyes to seal the deal. By that time only about 1000 marines remained alive. [[Not as planned|Turns out]] this sacrifice was in vain because Tzeentch [[Troll|tricked]] Magnus into believing that the deed was done, when in fact the sacrifice was only done to post-pone the mutation in the gene-seed. During the siege of their home planet Prospero by [[Space Wolves|those damned furries]], the Thousand Sons started to succumb to random mutation and turn [[Chaos Spawn|into something that must not be named]] before dying violent deaths.
Later, on the Planet of the Sorcerers, Ahzek Ahriman of the Thousand Sons cast the Rubric of Ahriman to save the legion again, but failed, [[Grimdark|as their mortal bodies were turned into dust and their souls bound to their power armor forever]].

No, seriously. Incredibly pissed-off dust. Due to this, they have the single coolest battle cry ever. A far reaching, otherworldly whisper into the soul, "All is dust", which makes it all the more terrifying and awesome. Unfortunately, being literal dust means that their one true weakness is the almighty vacuum cleaner. Luckily, the Imperium has still not caught on to this, so for now... ALL IS STILL DUST HA HA HA! Though it is entirely possible that the STC necessary to create vacuum cleaners remains lost.

They are also the only known Traitor Legion to still have their own PDF equivalent called the [[Prospero Spireguard|Spireguard]] which used to defend Prospero back in the Great Crusade and is now defending Sortiarius. Spireguards unlike the raging retards of other Chaos Cultists are well disciplined and thought well of by the Thousand Sons, acting more like an armed and trained militia rather then a rag-tag team of drug addicts and serial killers. This is to not only pay sentimental homage to their original home but it also allows allied support for the Thousand Sons during a campaign to kick the [[Space Wolves|furries]] in their hairy ass nuts. Therefore making the Thousand Sons one of the few [[Reasonable Marines|reasonable traitor legions]] that is not [[Alpha Legion]] or [[Blood Gorgons]].

==History==
[[File:TSEarly.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Pre-Magnus Thousand Sons looking pretty schwing!]]
===Pre-heresy===
The Thousand Sons were one of the late developed legions, being used primarily by the [[Emperor|Big E]] to wipe the floor with whatever remaining resistance there was on Terra during the aftermath of the [[Unification Wars]]. Their creation began during a particularly violent Warp storm which cut Terra off from the rest of the galaxy for a short time. The Crusade ground to a halt for this time period, but the Emperor just shrugged His [[Pauldron|shoulders]] and got to work on other matters. Personally choosing the most genetically stable candidates He could find, the Emperor gathered up as many as met His criteria and implanted them with Magnus's Geneseed. The Legion's creation was extremely slow due to these restrictive criteria, but nobody besides the Emperor knew, aside from genetic stability, what these criteria actually were. After He had successfully implanted 1000 of these individuals, enough to meet the alpha stage of Legion building, He christened them the Thousand Sons. Initially, the Thousand Sons seemed not to be particularly noteworthy in any way; in fact their late creation saw them miss out on the Solar Reclamation completely. They were competent to be sure, but so were all the other Legions, most of whom had developed some particularly outstanding characteristic or other. Additionally, most had by this time a number of nigh-on impossible campaigns to their name, like the IX and XVI Legions, or spectacular exploits of valor and skill at arms, like the XVIII Legion. Yet despite being so apparently mundane, the Thousand Sons were noted to carry, almost to a man, an attitude of smug superiority. They, at least, clearly thought that they were worthy of their auspicious beginnings and special attention from the Emperor. This attitude, combined with them having done nothing to earn it in the eyes of the other Legions, set the stage for the Thousand Sons being rather isolated.

Then, about 20 years into the Crusade, the Thousand Sons began all at once to exhibit psychic powers, finally explaining why the Emperor had spent so much time and effort on them. With these new powers, they became one of the killiest of all the legions, with their powers offsetting their small numbers. It was now apparent why the Legion had received so much personal attention from the Emperor in its creation, and reactions to the revelation that they were all psykers was... mixed. Some thought that making psychic Astartes was a fantastic idea; it just made the killiest weapon in the Imperial arsenal all the more deadly. Most however, did not take this viewpoint. With the Age of Strife having ended within living memory, practically nobody in the Imperium had a particularly tolerant view of psykers. The horrific abominations wrought by mad sorcerers and Warp priests upon Terra and beyond, not to mention all the psychic xenos flitting about, had caused the vast majority of humans to look upon psykers with fear at best, and murderous hysteria at worst. As such, where the Thousand Sons had been regarded with annoyance by other Legions, now they were looked upon with genuine loathing by many of them. The Death Guard and Emperor's Children point blank refused to work with them, and their list of detractors would only grow larger over time. Nevertheless, they were tolerated because they were totally awesome, used their abilities to wondrous effect in service of the Imperium, and in general were exceptionally badass (Superhuman warrior-monk magicians for the win!!). Additionally, despite most in the Imperial Armed Forces hating them due to being psykers, the Emperor never issued any sort of censure of the Thousand Sons. As such, everyone essentially just had to let them be. Their honor roll started to balloon in size and quality, and for a time, they filled a niche of being the guys to call when a psychic enemy needed killing. Even the Emperor Himself utilized them on a number of occasions to combat the horrific psychic xenos known as the [[Khrave]].
[[File:TSHH.jpg|150px|thumb|left|Leave it to the nerdiest of the Primarchs to just self-insert for his legion's colors.]]

As time passed, the Thousand Sons became more and more skilled and powerful with their psychic abilities, but it came with a significant price. They began, in ever increasing numbers, to suffer from an utterly horrific condition known as the Flesh Change. At its most basic, it was an instantaneous mutation into a [[Chaos Spawn|That-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named]] that seemed to have exceedingly limited predictability in both onset and predisposition. From the very first case onward, even the TSons could see that their use of Warp sorcery was clearly one of the factors that was either causing or exacerbating this problem. However, the TSons arrogantly saw their powers as their indisputable right to wield, and doubled and tripled down on their usage. Needless to say, this put them in a very precarious position. They had initially alienated most of the other Legions by being asshats, and then the realization that they were all psykers had turned that dislike to hatred for many. Now, they were literally turning into half-transformed ''The Thing'' entities at random. If anyone found out about their degeneration, half the Imperium would be calling for their outright extermination, while the other half would look on with tepid support for these calls. As such, they did everything they could to hide the Flesh Change. But the problem would only grow worse over time due both to the Thousand Sons using ever increasing amounts of Warp sorcery, and the near completely random nature of the mutations' onset. So the only way to keep their secret was to just stay away from literally anyone who might report them. Part of this meant that TSons in active war zones would oftentimes just up and leave without explanation (the actual reason being they suspected the Flesh Change coming on but were obviously not going to tell anyone). This just made everyone dislike them even more due to how unreliable they started becoming for no apparent reason.

It was all for naught however, as Malcador's agents, along with the Divisios Telepathica and Biologis, eventually all found out anyway. They all concluded the fairly obvious; the Flesh Change was a series of mutations brought on by a combination of some genetic flaw in the Legion's geneseed combined with their use of Warp sorcery. The bulk of the transformations had occurred while Legionaries had been using their powers, and the usage of Warp energies in general was well known to cause horrific mutations. But rather bizarrely for the most arguably nerdy of all the Legions, no matter how obvious it became that their sorcery was either the root of, or horribly exacerbating, the Flesh Change, the TSons pridefully continued to use their powers. It got so bad that when their Primarch Magnus was found upon Prospero, there were only (ironically) about a thousand of them left. One important thing to note however was that none of the other Astartes Legions seemingly discovered the existence of the Flesh Change, or [[Alpha Legion|if they perhaps did]], they kept it to themselves. So all things considered, the TSons actually did a remarkably good job of hiding their tendency to turn into literal '''NOPE''' at the tip of a hat. The Emperor, who would obviously have known about the Flesh Change since Malcador knew, also never decided to have them destroyed, or even told them to tone down the Warp phuckery just a bit. One would think He might have, given the time and effort it took to make them. But the Emperor was, despite all His genius, bizarrely detached from certain, seemingly important aspects of His Imperium.

Eventually, the Crusade progressed far enough to make planetfall upon Prospero, whereupon Magnus was introduced to his Legion. He was obviously delighted to finally meet his sons but that meeting was sorely tainted by the fact that they basically all had incurable space cancer. Magnus's first priority was obviously to find a way to cure his Legion; if he couldn't he wouldn't ''have'' a Legion much longer. He searched desperately for a way to alleviate the Thousand Sons' problem. He looked through every dataslate the Mechanicum Biologis possessed on psykers, every scroll in Tizca, every xenos tristies on the Warp that he could get his hands on, every scrap of information the Divisio Telepathica could offer. He even pried the brains of Malcador and the Emperor, and still he found no solutions; only infuriating dead ends and paths to nowhere. Of course, just as with the rest of his Legion, it seemingly never occurred to Magnus that maybe constantly channeling the most intensely mutagenic thing in existence through one's body might have had something to do with the problem...

With his Legion quickly running out of time, and no solutions forthcoming, Magnus began to grow truly desperate. Then one day, deep in psychic meditation, he [[Just as Planned|happened upon]] the [[Tzeentch|The Cuttlefish of Cthulhu]] giggling away in the depths of the Warp. As previously mentioned, Magnus apparently made some sort of pact with Tzeentch without truly understanding what Tzeentch was, and certainly not that he had been responsible for the Flesh Change in the first place. It is also not known for sure how or why Magnus thought that dealing with Tzeentch would fix anything, though his reasoning may have been slightly sinister. Or just unfathomably stupid, and [[EPIC FAIL|get used to that bit of irony when it comes to Magnus and his boys]]. It is speculated by some that Magnus ''did'' in fact have some small idea of what Tzeentch was when he dealt with him. Not that he was the practically omnipotent, omniscient god of [[Just as Planned|aetheric dickery]], but that he was a phenomenally powerful, exceedingly dangerous, denizen of the Immaterium. One that, incidentally, Magnus probably knew full well not to screw with. But desperate, out of options, and arrogant as ever, he struck his bargain, and the rest is history. Tzeentch seemingly agreed to whatever pact Magnus had presented or pretended to lose whatever wager he had proposed, and so the Flesh Change would quiet down for a while. Magnus wasted no time thereafter in reorganizing his Legion to his exacting specifications, forming an extremely esoteric system of ranks and divisions of expertise that rivaled even the Dark Angels for sheer inscrutability (though honestly neither system was ''that'' complicated, even if Magnus and the Lion liked to think otherwise). With their Primarch's genetic material having stabilized their geneseed, the Tzeentchian pact having stopped the Flesh Change, and the ease with which the populace of Prospero could be implanted with the TSons geneseed, things started genuinely looking up for the Nerdstartes.

During the next bit of the Crusade, the TSons, now rid of their Warp pimples, started to show their faces in public again. They struck up a friendship with the [[White Scars]] Legion and their Primarch [[Jaghatai Khan]]. Both Legions respected scholarship, and both had a significant number of trained psykers in their Legions who were present even before the Librarius initiative. The primary difference between the two was that the Khan and his sons possessed common sense and restraint, while Magnus and his possessed neither. Despite this difference in how they approached the Warp, their Legions got on swimmingly, and together they would become the backbone of the Librarius project. This project's idea was that, as all the Legions had psychically sensitive Astartes, it made sense to formalize some system of training for them so that they didn't spontaneously explode amongst their battle-brothers. So the Khan, Sanguinius, and particularly Magnus, began exporting some of the training regiments that the psykers of their own Legions used to their brothers. The idea quickly caught on with many of the other Primarchs, though they ran the gambit between loving the idea and thinking it was outright abominable. Some, like Guilliman, thought it was a splendid idea to not only introduce some order to a pretty random element of the Legions (Guilliman loves his order after all), but to render unto the Legions yet another exceedingly useful tool. Others, like Konrad Curze, greeted the idea with total indifference. Still others, chief amongst them Mortarion, hated the idea so much that they refused to allow any Astartes in their Legion to practice Warpcraft. As such, no consensus was ever reached amongst the Primarchs as to whether the Librarius should be adopted wholescale, and so each Legion just did its own thing as per usual. Most did adopt the Librarius structure however.

Though Sanguinius was involved in the initiative's inception, he seemingly had no particularly close relationship with either Magnus or the Khan (though to be fair, a mere acquaintance with Sanguinius had the same level of comradery as close friendship with most other Primarchs). Similarly, the Blood Angels seemed not to have had a close relationship with the TSons, though the two Legions were perfectly cordial towards one another. The Scars would later go on to become the only known Sworn Brothers of the Thousand Sons, and this close bond lasted until the Burning of Prospero. For some completely unknown reason, the TSons and Alpha Legion apparently absolutely hated each other. As in even the Space Wolves were willing to at least ''work'' with the TSons, but the Alpha Legion hated the TSons as much as the Death Guard did, and nobody is quite sure why. Additionally, that animosity was reciprocated just as strongly, again without any public facing reason. One of the theories about this (though unconfirmed) is that the Alpha Legion may have discovered the existence of the Flesh Change, as poking their noses into other people's secrets was their bread and butter. It would make sense as to why the Thousand Sons hated them so much; if word ever got out about ''that'', even the Emperor Himself would have had a hard time keeping the TSons from being straight up annihilated by the other Legions. It would also make sense as to why the Alpha Legion shared the TSons' hatred. Knowing that the TSon next to you might just turn into [[Chaos Spawn|the most horrifying collection of asymmetries known to man]] at random would probably have put even the Night Lords off of working with them. Other than that, the Death Guard as previously noted still hated the TSons, the Emperor's Children still hated them, the Space Wolves would grow to hate them, and everyone else, in the short term at least, seemingly kept their low-level annoyance with them. Magnus was personally known to have been at least somewhat close to Perturabo as well (relatively speaking of course), but no mention is made of their Legions having interacted much.

However, the Thousands Sons' luck ran out eventually. After some decades of Crusading, Magnus and his Legion were called to the [[Council of Nikaea]]: a grand gathering of the Emperor and most of His sons to decide if the Astartes should be allowed to use warp based abilities unsupervised. Magnus attended Council in high spirits, thinking that it was going to be an neutral, scholastic conclave where he would be allowed to extol the virtues of unrestricted psykers. What he didn't count on was that the Thousand Sons, and Magnus in particular, had managed to piss off a ''lot'' of the other Astartes Legions and their Primarchs. Even those Primarchs who supported the Librarius initiative couldn't really defend the Thousand Sons rampant use of Warp powers or Magnus's general attitude. A few of them even sent representatives who were told to support the continuation of the Librarius, but condemn Magnus in particular. Dorn and the Lion were foremost amongst them, though they gave no particular reason as to why. Rather than being an open forum, the whole thing essentially turned into a trial of Magnus and the TSons. One in which they had few friends, but seemingly more than their fair share of enemies.

While Magnus's discovery had been a godsend for the Thousand Sons in most ways, he caused them to develop a number of additional quirks that got under nearly everyone's skin. On top of the Thousand Sons' attitude problems, insular nature and the general loathing of psykers in the Imperium, they had developed an obnoxious habit of completely disregarding the Crusade's military needs if some bit of obscure "lore" caught their attention. Whether it be human, xenos, or otherwise, if the TSons caught so much as a whiff of anything related to the Warp, they would be off to study and collect it. This tendency was entirely down to Magnus himself, as his insatiable curiosity had quickly rubbed off on all the mini-Magnuses that comprised his Legion. It had become such a problem that the Thousand Sons were known to just up and leave active warzones without telling anyone if they found something more interesting to occupy them. Unlike during the days of the Flesh Change, it was not just individual TSons leaving, or small groups. Now ''entire Thousand Sons Expeditionary forces'' would simply vanish without a word if they thought something more worthy of their attention was over the horizon. While this was not recorded to have had any disastrous consequences for the forces involved, one must imagine that anybody who was left holding the proverbial bag would have been royally pissed. They would also completely ignore pleas for aid from other Legions, sometimes for literal ''years'', while they tinkered with whatever [[Blood Ravens|shiny Warp bauble they had most recently happened upon]]. This happened to [[Leman Russ]] on at least one occasion, and was known to have been one of the factors as to why the TSons pissed him off so much.

On top of all that, the TSons had also gotten into at least two serious conflicts with other Legions when they tried to preserve some bit of heretical lore in defiance of Imperial law. An incident upon Ark Reach Secundus saw Magnus and Russ nearly come to blows over a historical repository upon that Magnus wanted to preserve and Russ wanted to destroy. The Space Wolves and Thousand Sons engaged in a small scale skirmish, but the Thousand Sons used non-lethal Warp abilities to disable the small number of Space Wolves who charged them. Sadly however, the Flesh Change decided to pop back up at exactly that time, and one of the TSons turned into an aborted Shoggoth right in front of Leman Russ. Disgusted and horrified, Russ wasted no time in dispatching the former legionnaire. This for some reason pissed off Magnus and the surrounding TSons (which is a little silly as they of all people knew that their former brother was best put out of his misery) and the two Primarchs nearly began brawling. However, Lorgar stepped between them. Lorgar's silver tongue combined with the fact that both Russ and Magnus quite liked him saw the latter two Primarchs stand down. Another such incident involved the Night Lords. Another heretical library had been found by a joint Night Lords/Thousand Sons Crusade force, and the Thousand Sons had so wanted it preserved that they had occupied the building and put up a psychic shield around it. The Night Lords however were under orders to destroy it, as per standard Imperial military policy regarding heretical information. Curze was in overall command of the campaign, and so brought up a massive amount of field artillery to pulverize the structure. The Thousand Sons would not budge however, and began a game of chicken with the Night Lords. The Thousand Sons for whatever reason bet that a group of psychotic mass murdering torturers, decked in skulls and flayed skin, wouldn't blow up a building with TSons still inside. Remember what was previously said about unfathomable stupidity being a pattern?

At any rate, the two Primarchs had met in person aboard the ''Gloriana-class'' Nightfall to discuss the fate of the library. Magnus plead his case to Curze that the knowledge in the library was not heretical by nature, and that he and the TSons could put it to use for the betterment of humanity. Curze, as one might expect, was completely unsympathetic. After letting Magnus talk for a bit, Curze simply pointed out that he was technically 100% right in his decision to the destroy the library, and that being technically right is the only kind of right that matters when it comes to the law. Magnus tried for a bit of brotherly favor or fraternity, but as one might again expect, Curze wasn't having any of that either. He also tried to argue that, as the self-proclaimed expert on the Warp, he was the one best suited to judge whether or not the library should stand or fall. Curze basically just rolled his eyes, and then ordered the planned artillery strike on the library with the Thousand Sons still inside. The psychic shield held through the first bombardment, but Curze made it absolutely clear that he was more than willing to have the Nightfall completely glass the place if that's what it took. Since he technically didn't have a leg to stand on (he was trying to save an obviously heretical library after all), Magnus very saltily pulled his forces back and Curze leveled the building.

Needless to say, the Thousand Sons had made a lot of unnecessary enemies with their solipsistic douchbaggery, and Magnus ended up having to try to defend all these actions without much in the way of backup at the Council. Sadly for the Thousand Sons, Magnus ended up making a pretty significant ass of himself in front of the Emperor (which is something considering that his primary detractor was ''Mortarion'' of all people). To be fair to the sapient stinkcloud however, Mortarion made a number of quite salient points against the dangers of psychic powers, and Magnus failed in his rebuttal to actually address any of them. The Emperor thus decided that He'd given the Thousand Sons and Magnus far too much leeway in their pursuit of power and knowledge. To keep other Legions from further experimentation, He put the kibosh on the Librarius initiative as a whole, and forbade the use of psychic powers in Astartes combat. However, He did not issue any formal sanctions against anyone at the Council, as He essentially admitted that His directives had been implicit. He'd been relying on the individual Astartes Legions to act with an abundance of caution that the Thousand Sons and Magnus simply did not have. Had Jaghatai Khan, with his common sense and mustache, represented the psyker cause at the Council, there's a good chance things would have been different. Alas, he was so far afield that by the time word of the Council's decision on the Librarius even reached him, the Heresy had already started.

The Thousand Sons were forced to dissolve their Librarius along with everyone else, except for the White Scars, who ignored it, the World Eaters, whose Librarium was so small they didn't even bother disbanding it, the Space Wolves who believed that their [[Rune Priest|librarians]] somehow weren't working with the warp (and who the Emperor made an exception for), and the Word Bearers, who were already [[Heresy|quietly sacrificing people to chaos]]. Obviously, this had a far larger impact on the Thousand Sons than on any other Legion. Psychic powers had essentially formed the core of the Legion's combat doctrine and character, and they were sorely missed in the next few of their campaigns. Predictably however, Magnus didn't give a shit either and headed home to Prospero to continue being a sorcerer in secret. The Thousand Sons in general actually did go along with the ban for a short time, but quickly realized that, as long as they stopped being so flashy with their powers, there wasn't really anyone around to tattle on them. As such, they quickly started back up again, and simply avoided using their powers around anyone who might tell the Emperor. There would be rumors sure, but the Thousand Sons figured that there would be rumors even if they actually did hold to the ban.

===Heresy===
[[File:A Thousand Sons.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Welcome to Prospero Bitch!]]
Before the actual start of the [[Horus Heresy]], Magnus learned of [[Horus]]' corruption and used his powers of sorcery to warn the [[Empra]] about his oh-most-favored son's impending treachery, and that his favored son, if not stopped, was about to [[FATAL|fuck everything up]] and destroy everything the Emperor had sought to build. Unfortunately Magnus' contacting the Emperor in this fashion could not have occurred at a worse time: it caused the Webway portal and the Golden Throne which the Emperor was building to suffer a Blue Screen of Death (Windows has stopped responding. In the grim darkness of the far future there is only Windows Vista) and become damaged beyond repair, and in addition caused a massive psychic blowout across all of Terra, crippling Astropath communication and inducing psychosis-related rebellions and suicides world-wide (see Outcast Dead novel).

<s>Only slightly</s> Way too bummed that he had screwed-up the Emperor's master-plan, Magnus headed back to Prospero in order to prepare to receive the Empra's mercy (read: to be killed in a very cruel way) and sent the Sons' fleet to buy some drinks. Meanwhile, the [[Emperor]], royally pissed at Magnus for damaging the Throne and unwilling to believe his most favored son could betray him, sent the [[Space Wolves]] to arrest him. Horus, who was digging Chaos already, pulled a move worthy of [[Eldrad|Eldrad Ulthran]] in terms of dickery, and sent a fake message to [[Leman Russ]] - with orders to destroy the Thousand Sons instead. Russ had, even before receiving these orders, seemingly been preparing for a worst-case scenario with Magnus (if one takes a charitable viewpoint). When Constantin Valdor arrived at Beta-Garmon from Terra, he found that Russ had been busy arming his Legion to the absolute teeth with proscribed Dark Age tech, Phosphex and other Destroyer-grade weaponry, and Exterminatus level devices beyond that. Valdor was somewhat surprised by this, but it is inconceivable that Russ wouldn't have told him about Horus's change of orders, and so the whole thing appeared to have been on the up-and-up.

However, Leman was to have something of a bro moment despite Magnus being perhaps his least favorite sibling. Though seemingly being 100% on-board with completely wiping out the Thousand Sons and killing Magnus, he apparently either had some hidden doubts as to Horus's orders, or a last minute change of heart. So when he got into Prospero's orbit, he tried to contact Magnus via both vox channels and a Thousand Sons plant within his Legion that he had become aware of (as in a spy, not a psychic vegetable). However Magnus had put up what amounted to a physic bubble preventing outside communications via any aetheric means, and nobody was picking up the vox. After about an hour's worth of agitated pacing on Leman's part and stoic waiting on [[Constantin Valdor]]'s part, the two decided that they'd been more than chivalrous enough, and the Loyalist fleet opened fire on Prospero. Fortunately, there was basically only one city on Prospero; Tizca, and that was so well shielded that despite an Exterminatus level bombardment, the city was unscathed. The Thousand Sons of course had absolutely no idea what the fuck had just happened, and because Magnus had told them to sit tight when asked, they did so even when the initial Loyalist ground assault began. The city's human auxillia however, were not given any such instructions. As far as they could tell, their world had just been subjected to the single worst military disaster in its history, and their Astartes custodians didn't seem to care. They therefore hurried to both engage whoever was attacking them and evacuate the civilians in Tizca's outer sections. There, the confused human soldiers encountered the vanguard of the Wolves, aaannd... well, they met the fate of all mortals who tangle with Astartes. Worse in fact, as few Legions were quite so butcherous as the Space Wolves. They put up a heroic and highly effective fight, inasmuch as baseline humans could against Astartes, but they died to a man in mere minutes.

After some time getting report after report that the human auxillia and civilians were being slaughtered in droves by the Wolves, Chief Librarian [[Ahzek Ahriman]] decided to ignore his Primarch's orders and, in a show of true manliness, led the Thousand Sons and the Spireguard in a defence of the capital. Outnumbered something like five to one against not only the Wolves but the [[Adeptus Custodes]] and the [[Sisters of Silence]], the TSons managed to inflict heavy casualties to the Wolves thanks to both their innate powers and a psychic teleportation network built into Tizca. They were able to use it to precision hit-and-run ambushes upon the Wolves, and then teleport away in the resulting confusion to go do it somewhere else. This not only had the result of allowing the TSons to completely outmaneuver the Wolves, but caused the Wolves to think that there were far more enemies in far more locations than there actually were. This, combined with telepathic assaults on the Wolves' perceptions, slowed their pace considerably, and inflicted far more casualties on the VI Legion than would have otherwise been possible. After a short time wreaking merry havoc amongst the Wolves, Valdor, his Custodes, and the Sisters of Silence joined the fray. They were countered by the [[Sekhmet Terminators]] or the TSons 1st Company, and the the elite duelists of the Khenetai. They died to a man, but managed to wound Valdor slightly and kill about 500 of the Sisters. Meanwhile, the TSons also launched a desperate attack on Russ and his Varagyr Terminators. Led by Auramagma, Captain of the 8th Fellowship, the attack failed after Auramagma himself had a massive psychic fireblast reflected back at him by some innate ability of Russ. Despite these setbacks, the TSons continued to make an exceptional showing of themselves... right up until the Flesh Change once again reared its ugly head. Quite literally. With their home and people under threat of complete destruction, the TSons had been using every psychic trick in the book to gain the upper hand, and this unprecedented use of psychic energy had caused a huge Warp storm to form over Tizca. The more Warp energy the TSons used, the more powerful the storm became, which fed their power in turn. This process started a massive feedback loop which caused psychic energy to build up in Tizca like a static charge, and it eventually exploded in the Thousand Sons collective faces. Once the right amount of energy had collected, the Thousand Sons suddenly started mutating into [[Chaos Spawn|horrific Warp gribblies]] en masse without any warning. The TSons immediately realized that the Flesh Change was back with a vengeance, and this had a horrific effect not just on the TSons' numbers (and bodies), but on morale. Not only that, but even the most die-hard Warp enthusiast amongst the TSons could no longer pretend as though the Warp was not responsible for the Flesh Change. As such, many of them toned down or completely stopped using their powers in the battle. Needless to say, in a battle where their psychic powers were essentially the only thing keeping them from being overrun, losing them was an absolute catastrophe.

The defensive line was pushed back to the Pyramid of Photep, Magnus' HQ and last shelter for the civilians. Magnus finally joined the battle, unable to watch his Sons get massacred any more, and decided to challenge Leman Russ in single combat. While he put up a good fight, even breaking Russ's breastplate and piercing one of his hearts, Russ eventually beat Magnus down. Just before being hacked to pieces by the angry brother and as the Wolves started to close in on the remnant of his Legion, Magnus gave himself over to Tzeentch. He and the rest of the Thousand Sons reappeared on the Planet of the Sorcerers. Magnus swore vengeance against Russ and the other Marines who had stupidly ignored his warnings, and started plotting against the Wolves and the rest of the Imperium that betrayed him. Which is of course quite idiotic as Magnus at no point until '''AFTER''' Russ had crippled him even ''attempted'' to talk to his brother.

''Inferno'' puts a different set of events to describe the end of the Battle of Prospero. In-universe, an examination by the Adeptus Astra Telepathica reveals that only a being such as [[Tzeentch]] could have teleported anyone across the galaxy, and as always, [[Sindri Myr|power demands sacrifice]]. The writer goes on to mention that some insane scholars theorized that [[What|rather than transporting the remaining survivors of the Thousand Sons, Tzeentch only teleported Ahriman to the Planet of the Sorcerers, consuming his remaining brother Legionaries as a sacrifice to fuel the act. Every other Thousand Son after that point was a duplicate created by Tzeentch to have Ahriman cast the Rubric]]. However, this theory falls a bit flat when one realizes that, if there had been no actual Thousand Sons, there would not have been any point in casting the Rubric. Unless the entire thing was actually just done for the [[lulz]], which would be indescribably retarded but also very Tzeentchean.

After these events [[Tzeentch]] walked up and sat on his throne in the Hidden Library, at which point he conjured a [[martini]] glass full of salty tears and sipped from it. He then set it down on the arm rest, held his hands together, chuckled and muttered "[[Just As Planned]]".

===[[Rubric Marines]]===
[[File:1297640558332.jpg|250px|right|thumb|The Thousand Sons' custom/basic infantry unit:The Rubric Marine.]]
{{topquote|'''Just as planned!'''|Ahzek Ahriman, who'd never been so wrong in his life before (or after) that}}

''(Aka The Day Management changed all the employment terms and conditions and forgot to inform the workforce, not even a memo. The Unions were pissed.)''

As mentioned previously, the Thousand Sons' army was at one point 66% dust. This was primarily because of [[Ahzek Ahriman]]'s FML spell: The Rubric of Ahriman.[[File:1288054902571.jpg|right|thumb|They didn't take the news well...]] This rite damned everyone without psychic powers to be [[Grimdark|turned into ash and their soul to be sealed for all eternity into their permanently sealed armor unless the armor itself is broken]]; until [[Games Workshop]] gets its head out of its ass (which will probably never happen), it also damned those WITH psychic powers, as Gee Dubs [[Derp|is now claiming]] most of the Scarab Occult Terminators were psykers who got Rubricked, which also means that only the most powerful psykers lived through the spell.
Originally this was supposed to stop the mutations they were experiencing, as the Burning of Prospero had seen the Flesh Change return worse than ever before. Figuring out his own method from Magnus' spellbooks, Ahriman crafted a ritual that caused any Marines with mutations to either survive with their mutations cured and psychic powers augmented - or turned to dust if they weren't strong enough to resist the change. It's worth noting that Ahriman's plan was actually to cure the whole Legion of mutations, but the Warp being the Warp, [[FAIL|things got out of hand]]. Suffice to say Magnus was [[rage|fucking pissed]] and sought to kill Ahriman, but Tzeentch [[troll|applauded]] Ahriman and saved his ass. The spirit-armor Marines became known as Rubric Marines. Of course, in an ironically Tzeentchean sort of way, the spell did indeed cure the Flesh Change. No flesh, no Flesh Change after all. So it worked exactly as intended. Just... well, [[Not as Planned|not as planned]]

Rubric Marines are automatons - without a strong guiding presence, they lapse into a passive state - they are immortal beyond even a Space Marine's immortality and thus make the perfect guardians for the libraries and bases of the Thousand Sons. When guided by a Sorcerer or placed in the front lines against a foe, their old battle-hunger returns and they move with more of a sense of purpose. They obey orders without hesitation, and know no fear. Or much else for that matter. Making them far more fearsome, their Sorcerers equip them with modified bolter rounds that are enchanted to explode into bursts of white-hot warp-fire on impact, burning through armor with incredible speed. Additionally, since they're functionally animated suits of armor, they possess phenomenally strong supernatural protection due to their construction and are a bitch to kill as a result. They are, however, incredibly slow.

Whilst the current generation of Rubric Marines date back to the Thousand Sons' expulsion of Ahriman, it's believed they have the ability to make more by using altered and notably scaled-down versions of the rite that resulted in the Rubric. Even with this, however, the creation of them is lengthy and time-consuming, ergo guaranteeing that their enemies will slowly whittle down their numbers by drowning them in corpses, which is pretty much the tactic used by the Imperials against chaos marines constantly. Though, like all major Chaos Marine forces, the Thousand Sons have their own armies of lesser men: Surprisingly non-traitor Chaos Guard called Spireguard, which is used to drown their enemies in corpses or to tie up Imperial meatshields whilst Rubric Marines and Sorcerers do the jobs that matter. In editions past it was mentioned, that Thousand Sons Sorcerers can reanimate killed (broken?) Rubric Marines with a simple yet time-consuming ritual and Magnus himself can somehow bring back fallen Sorcerers in his super-awesome Black Tower on the Sorcerers Planet. All of this was possible due to how the Rubric made the souls of both Golems and Sorcerers all but immune to the powers of Warp so they cannot be nommed by daemons - although, as [[Erebus]] showed in "Betrayer", it is quite possible (though not easy) to resurrect even one whose soul "was torn apart and eaten by daemons". It was never retconned, so we can assume that this fluff is still valid, and no matter how many Thousand Sons you've killed, they'll always [[Commissar Yarrick|come]] [[Anval Thawn|back]] [[Lugft Huron|from]] the [[Necrons|dead]]. At least they wouldn't do it right the next second, just after you've killed them.

Tabletop-wise Rubric marines are of debatable use. Yes they're fearless, are fairly good at being shooty, especially if their bolters are enchanted, has a +4 invul save, so basically, they rape any kind of infantry that doesn't have the toughness of a Terminator. But on the downside, they're slow like termies and aren't necessarily as tough as them, they're nearly useless if the sorcerer leading them dies, they don't wow anyone in CQC, and overall they're hard to use for beginners. Overall, sort of a bridge between the shootiness of Slaanesh Noise Marines, toughness of Nurgle Plague Marines, and the fearlessness of Khornate Berzerkers. Throw them in a [[METAL BOXES|Rhino]] and let the games begin. You really have to know what you're doing with these guys. They CAN do quite awesome, but you need to use them right. And having Tzeentch smile upon you (in a way) never hurts.

The Thousand Sons have a distinctive battle cry [[Grimdark|''"All is Dust."'']] Only the relatively rare standard Marines they have however, scream it - instead, the sorcerers typically emit it [[Awesome|as a sonorous chant, accompanied by flickers of warp-light as the squad emerges from seemingly nowhere]].
[[File:All Is Dust by MajesticChicken.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Ahzek Ahriman, aka The One Who Psy-Bolts your Ass to Death.]]

===Post-Rubric===
Like most other Chaos legions, the Thousand Sons broke their coherence after the Heresy and split into small warbands, or in their case "warcovens" (because space witches). Those warcovens are usually not just small, but ''tiny'', with few of them having more than four or five sorcerers and a few dozen golems. As the Thousand Sons fleet survived the burning of Prospero and the Rubric pretty much unscratched, every single one of these covens usually has at least one cruiser-class ship and probably a few escort wings, and it's not uncommon for them to fill these ships with some nasty shit like Dark Mechanicum robots, daemon engines, summoned daemons, or animated constructs to make sure they're safe from boarding parties despite their numerical disadvantage when it comes to clashes with other CSM warbands. They usually hire themselves as mercenaries for bigger warbands, Dark Mechanicum forges, or the Black Legion, in exchange for resources, knowledge, and magical trinkets, which they then move to their base of operations on the Soritarius, the Sorcerers' planet; there, they can study them and nerd out in their libraries, while plotting to outshine each other in "the nerdiest sorcerer of the Galaxy" contest. While many of them no longer hold much love for their daemonic Primarch (no surprises here as his good and noble aspect was consumed in the creation of Ianus / Janus, the first supposed Grand Master of the Grey Knights), their loyalty to him stems from the simple fact that he's capable of bringing dead sorcerers back to life without even need for their corpses, with a nice bonus of having the access to the Soritarius' resources and research facilities. Still, some warcovens (like Ahriman's Prodigal Sons) went rogue and cut their ties with their new homeworld, and [[Iskandar Khayon|some]] decided to [[Black Legion|wear black]] and join [[Abaddon|the Despoiler]] in his [[Long War]] - in fact pretty much all of the Black Legion's top-ranked sorcerers and diviners are ex-Thousand Sons, and they are amongst the most valued members of the legion, some even part of Abaddon's inner circle.

With the redo of the Thousand Sons line, the above has been quite heavily retconned. While some did break from the Legion, many remained within its ranks; splitting into Thrallbands (Small Companies) and Sects (Small Chapters). While they are members of the Legion none are exactly loyal (although there are some standout cases of those who are). Each individual brother serves his own purposes and sees his group as a way of personal advancement. In the same way, the leaders of groups serve Magnus only because of the resources and connections that come with being in the Legion. Even the Rehati and their Cult Command (Magnus’ Inner Circle, kinda) are implied to all be scheming against each other, and even him to an extent. This is not that dissimilar to the old lore, as each group is essentially its own warband, generally doing what it wants. While using the resources of Sortarious in exchange for occasionally helping out in the Cults aims, in fact, some groups (mostly from the Cult of Duplicity) have been exiled for disobedience/team killing yet still remain in the cult because they are useful. So basically nothing changed much apart from we now have a legion of autistic space wizards fumbling about as they fail to purge the space furries because Bob's too busy dicking Dave over.

===Wrath of Magnus===
{{Topquote|ENOUGH! You are all my sons, born of my blood. Some loyal and faithful through the ages; some wayward and treacherous, walking their own paths. But the crimes of the past mean nothing. All paths have led back here. [[Awesome|The Blade of Fate hangs above Fenris; together, we shall drive it deep into the icy earth of that worthless world.]]|Magnus the Red}}

As of recently, Magnus has gotten off his ass and returned some semblance of unity and order to his legion (which had been falling apart for ten thousand years) in a colossal scheme of [[Just as Planned]] to royally fuck up the Space Yiffs, involving Daemons, Wulfen, and Bringing the Planet of the sorcerers into the material realm. Doing this, they used the fact that the Wulfen only appeared when [[Daemons]] appeared to trick the [[Grey Knights]] and [[Dark Angels]] into thinking that the Wolves had fallen to chaos. This ended with a dead Wolf Lord, the majority of the Fenrisian population being either killed or Sterilised by the Grey Knights, the chapter crippled very badly, and currently bitching and crying their way to [[Cadia]] to recover.

Seeing the way [[Mortarion|Morty]] launched the invasion of the [[Scourge Stars]], the Sons realized that they needed a place too. So, they took [[Stygius Sector|several planets from the Imperium]], including the homeworld of the [[Mordian Iron Guard|Mordian Guardsmen]] but ultimately they were repelled by the combined forces of [[Ulthwe]] and the Imperium.

===Hope for redemption?===
Out of all the Chaos Legions, the Thousand Sons are the most sympathetic. Yes, they have went out of their way to mass cleanse Fenris and kill the Space Wolves, but [[Black Templars|a lot]] [[Imperial Fists|of]] [[Inquisition |people]] [[Dark Angels|hate]] them. However, it has been established by various books that the majority of the Sons hate being Tzeentch puppets. When attacking the Imperium, most sorcerers seek for justice or forbidden knowledge. Magnus himself hates serving the Chaos God even though his mind was reshaped to serve. The Primarch and his Legion are basically slaves. The Thousands Sons also attacked the Sons of Horus, which led to the events that saved the Shattered legions.

In short, there are only two possible chances for salvation since the Rubric:
# Ahriman's mission to save his brothers leads to a possible separation of the Legion from Chaos. Seeing how well that worked the first two times he tried his Rubric, a third one is not any more likely to work.
# If the separation of Magnus' soul is possible. It could be undone in theory (although given the nature of Daemon Princes, the chances of this are abysmal), but Magnus has actively prevented the Thousand Sons from trying.

In conclusion, to put it bluntly, it is near impossible. If it were to happen, most of the Legion is likely to die in the process. Besides, Magnus most likely doesn't want to go back to the Imperium anymore anyway. ''Fury of Magnus'' reveals that the Emperor offered him a chance to return to the Imperial fold at the head of the [[Grey Knights]], and Magnus rejected it because it would have meant abandoning his sons to Chaos, which he considered too dear a price to pay. Furthermore, he attempted to kill the Emperor and forever repudiated him afterward, and the odds of his having changed his mind after 10,000 years of constant war are pretty small. It was originally thought that if the Thousand Sons found out about the Sons of Horus' involvement in the destruction of Prospero, Magnus would go after him. As it turns out, though, Magnus already knew that Horus had interfered by changing Russ' orders from "arrest Magnus and haul his ass back to Terra" to "wipe him and his legion off the face of the galaxy", and he still blames the Emperor and Malcador for sending the [[Leman Russ|primarch]] and [[Space Wolves|legion]] because Magnus is a fucking idiot.

== Legion Disposition ==

===Pre-Heresy===
The Thousand Sons had Nine Fellowships, each of which roughly equivalent to a normal Chapter. The Legionaries of the Fellowships were further divided into Cults, each with their own Psychic Specialty. They are listed below in no particular order.
*'''Corvidae''': The Corvidae were the Seers of the Thousand Sons. They traveled the Warp in search of all outcomes of the future. Ahriman was their Magister Templi. Magnus' equerry, Amon, who was his adoptive father, was also Corvidae.
*'''Pyrae''': As the name suggests, the Pyrae were a Cult focused on offensive spells, mainly fire (Perhaps they like the Salamanders). Khalophis was the Magister Templi, who died from warp overload at the Burning of Prospero, due to possessing a warlord titan, killing many Vikings.
*'''Raptora''': The Raptora used powers of Telekinesis to form kine shields and punch shit with their mind. Their Magister Templi was Phosis T’kar, one of the few marines who managed to scare the shit out of a Custodian.
*'''Pavoni''': The Pavoni were the masters of Biomancy and Fleshcrafting, and were known to be vain enough to rival the Emperor's Children. Their Magister Templi is Haathor Maat, who was so beautiful Fulgrim tried to get him for his Legion once.
*'''Athanaeans''': The Athanaeans were the telepaths of the Thousand Sons, and were capable of mind control (They usually couldn't control someone completely, merely alter their thoughts - e.g. make them think enemies were allies.) and mind reading. They were useful in finding out enemy strategies. Their Magister Templi was Baleq Uthizzar.

===Post-Heresy===
After the Rubric of Ahriman, Magnus replaced the Legion's Nine Fellowships with Nine Cults. Each of them specializing in a facet of Tzeentch. while these cults may wax and wane in power, there are always nine.

At the top of the Legion is Magnus the Red and his Rehati. Each of the Rehati is a Magister Templi, and one of the most powerful and favored Daemon Princes or Exalted Sorcerers in the legion. At the head of each Cult is a Magister Templi and his coven of nine powerful Exalted Sorcerers or Daemon Princes, who help him run the Cult. These Cults are a gathering of unnumbered Sects that are lead by Sorcerers, who, whilst inherently self-serving, are nonetheless working towards the same common purpose.

*'''Cult of Prophecy:''' These guys are guided by the incessant whispers that bleed from the warp. They divine the outcomes of multiple futures, and seek out events that can be twisted to their own purpose.
*'''Cult of Time:''' They view the flow of time as an unwrought resource that can be shaped into a weapon. By their victories, ripples are sent both forwards and backwards in time, so that their enemies may be defeated before they are even engaged. One particularly cool example of a Time Sorcerer is when a squad of Imperial Fists were [[Troll|forced to relive the same events over and over until all of them died]].
*'''Cult of Mutation:''' They embrace the warping of flesh, and also the warping of reality itself. By their hand civilised planets are transformed into Daemon worlds, and entire populations moulded into grotesque abominations and various assorted gribblies.
*'''Cult of Scheming:''' To them, the creation of convoluted plots is to them a form of profane worship. Every conquest and withdrawal is a perfectly planned manoeuvre, a single step that leads towards some unseen master stroke. Naturally, the phrase [[Just As Planned]] applies most naturally to these guys.
*'''Cult of Magic:''' Dedicated to the pure and unfettered use of sorcery, their bloody campaigns are launched to secure arcane objects held by Imperial, xenos and other Chaos forces, making them part Tomb Raider part Space Wizard. These artefacts are used as foci in the weaving of devastating spells.
*'''Cult of Knowledge:''' These guys are drawn to the myriad curiosities hidden throughout the galaxy, particularly tomes of eldritch learnings, dark secrets and paradoxical logics. Through such lore, the cult is able to extrapolate the weaknesses in their enemies, and in the fabric of reality itself.
*'''Cult of Change:''' Anathema to order. They are the great unravellers, launching their armies wherever civilisation and reason exist. Similarly, in places of utter anarchy, the cult appears to impose their ever-shifting will. The most chaotic of the bunch, tied with the Cult of Mutation.
*'''Cult of Duplicity:''' Is a unique within the Legion in that it both is and is not guided by a unified desire. The Sorcerers of this cult are by their very nature deceivers, at once appearing fractured and singular in their purpose. As such, it is impossible to know whether the sects within the cult are acting independently or as part of a singular, terrifying plan.
*'''Cult of Manipulation:''' Using its tendrillar web of influence to sway the actions of its enemies. Vast networks of mortal and daemonic spies allow the cult to oversee their plots as they unfold through assassination, possession and the wreaking of pure havoc. Easily some of the most dickish.

Consisting of multiple Thrallbands, each Sect is lead by an Arch Magister who's an Exalted Sorcerer or a Daemon Prince with his Retinue, Familiars and Bodyguards. They have their own color scheme that is assigned by their Arch Magister, to distinguish them from other Sects. Thrallbands consist of nine lesser Sorcerer Thralls under the command of a Magister, who is a Sorcerer, Exalted Sorcerer or Daemon Prince. Beneath the Magister and his favorite wizards are lesser thralls – Aspiring Sorcerers and Scarab Occult Sorcerers who direct the ranks of lifeless Rubricae and Scarab Occult Terminators. Thrallbands may go on their missions alone, or with other Thrallbands. Some Thrallbands may have been exiled from Sortiarius, or left to do their own thing. Regardless, they always work towards furthering the Cult's goals, whether they know it or not.

Not much detail is given as to how the Thousand Sons' armory of vehicles works post-rubric, beyond the fact that they ''do'' still have and use vehicles, old legion leftovers as well as new stuff they stole. It's probably safe to assume that it's all maintained and piloted either by human cultists or [[Beastmen (40k)#Tzaangors|Tzaangors]] these days with maybe a few leftover Rubric Tech<s>marines</s>nomancers.

Also, it should be reminded that they are still '''NEEEERDS''' to their core as, when or if there is a Chaos raid on a Imperial planet and the Thousand Sons are called, they only end up [[Rage|pissing off the local Cult leader]]. Why? Because rather than [[Chaos Space Marines|raping and pillaging like any good Chaos member]], the Thousand Sons just ends up visiting the [[Derp|local museum, library or private art collection for a sight-seeing tour.]] Also, rather than trying to overthrow or destabilise an Imperial world like most Chaos-affiliated factions, the Thousand Sons use their sponsored Cults to become [[This Guy|collectors of items and people they are interested in.]] This means that when summoned, these bookworms tend to simply leave with the [[Troll|Cult's artefacts and best sorcerous practitioners not long after]]. [[RAGE|Pissing off their allies even further]]. Hmmm...a small army of space geeks swooping down and being 'graciously gifted' with artifacts that is not theirs? [[Blood Ravens|Where have we heard this before?]]

[[Tl;dr]], they are one of the nicest factions of Chaos Space Marines, but Tzeentch-damn it are they unreliable.

===Notable Thrallbands===
* '''The [[Prodigal Sons]]''': [[Ahriman|Ahriman's]] Warband. They're the unofficial posterboys of the Sons.
* '''The Tizcan Host''': They are known for their delusion that the Rubric [[What|is a feasible way of achieving purity]], and they announce their prescence on the battlefield by launching down massive iridescent rays of light. As you do.
* '''The Sect of the Red Echo''': Once known for their calmness, they are now known for causing such havoc that those in the Cult of Time can supposedly hear the screams of their victims in the Warp following them wherever they go.
* '''The Crystal Harbingers''': The cool kids that get to dive into the very centers of the [[Silver Tower of Tzeentch]]s to find out various secrets, daemonic bargains, and other such chaotic things to use to fuck with the Imperium.
*'''The Hermetic Blades''': As a Sub-Sect of the Cult of Mutation, the Hermetic Blades believe that flesh is a prison of the soul (or at least, those in the Blades that ''have'' flesh do). They tend to take prisoners back to Sortarius to subject them to gruesome and soulflaying tortures.
*'''The Blades of Magnus''': One of the more unique and interesting Warbands. The Blades of Magnus are apart of the Cult of Manipulation and had a very very radical plan. They spent ten thousand years trying to FREE Magnus's soul from the control of that bird birdy bastard Tzeentch. This unfortunately did not go just as planned and [[Grimdark|they had their souls annihilated while Magnus psychically possess their bodies like automatons.]] They now are refer as the One Who Was (Insert Name) and walk around as Magnus' puppets. This not only tells us how much the Thousand Sons hate Tzeentch but that they do want to be free. Also RIP.
* '''The Brotherhood of Dust''': A warband created by Amon, exiled Captain of the 9th Relationship, that aimed to free the Legion from Rubric by destroying it. They tried to capture Ahriman to get his knowledge on the curse, but failed and were mostly destroyed; with Amon being bested by Ahriman. The majority were absorbed into the Prodigal Sons.

==Connections with the [[Blood Ravens]]?==
It's never proven to be absolutely [[canon]], but in the "A Thousand Sons" novel from the Horus Heresy book series, there are some hints that the Blood Ravens stemmed from a Thousand Sons cult who remained loyal to the Emperor, which was a large force of Thousand Sons marines who were sent outside Prospero before the Space Wolves came to fuck the whole planet over. Specifically, the most painfully obvious of the hints is this particular line from the novel where a [[remembrancer]] is using divination:

<center>'''''It's too late... the [[Space Wolves|Wolf]] is at the door and it hungers for blood. Oh, Throne... no, the blood! The Ravens, I see them too. The lost sons and a Raven of blood. They cry out for salvation and knowledge, but it is denied!'''''</center>

Since these Marines never fought the Space Wolves and weren't drawn into Magnus' plans of heresy and revenge, or didn't even hear about it, after getting their planet bombed, they remained loyal to the Emprah. Probably because they, like Leman Russ, discovered after the fact that it was a trick. Sucks to be Russ when he found out.

In the ''Age of Darkness'' short story ''Rebirth'', Revuel Arvida is the last survivor of a scouting party from a ship that made it back to Prospero. The end of the story has him saying "knowledge is power" and focusing on the raven of the Corvidae cult on his pauldron (also, the rest of his armour is red). He gets off of Prospero with the help of the White Scars later, after surviving for ages alone without food or water whilst fighting psychneuin, then getting involved in a fight against Mortarion's bodyguards (need we add that this was a fight between the Terminator elites of two Legions, and Arvida survived despite being clad in regular power armour), and finally creating a psychic beacon to get his and the Scars' arses off the planet. Except that wasn't final, as he spent four years at war beside the Scars, fighting the flesh-change, bitch-slapping Eidolon with his psychic powers and guiding the entire Legion fleet to Terra through the Webway. Compare his name to "Azariah Vidya," the earliest recorded (though not the first) Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens.

Eventually though it was revealed that Arvida merged with his Tutelary spirit and/or a broken Shard of Magnus which he left behind on Terra when he broke the Golden Throne. The resulting amalgamation cured Arvida's body of mutations (but sealed around one of his eyes with scar tissue) and took the name "Ianius" ''(also the name of his Tutelary)'', later to be known as Janus, the founder and the first Supreme Grand Master of the [[Grey Knights]], especially since physical descriptions of Janus show him with a squint in one of his eyes. Much shit was flipped by TS, BR, and GK fans that day, while fans of Arvida were just glad to know that his tale wouldn't end as a That Which Must Not Be Named...On the other hand, it does not explain what happened to his gene-seed (assuming it was replaced by implants from the Emperor like Epimethius having his Dark Angel gene-seed replaced and sealed).

And note that the Blood Ravens have no idea which legion or chapter they originally came from and the fact that they produce an unusually higher number of Psykers than your average marine chapter and the Thousand Sons were known to have a large number of Psykers in their legion, as well as having a fetish for various flavours of knowledge. Also, the Thousand Sons' pre-heresy colours are strikingly similar to the Blood Ravens', the only difference is that instead of a white trim, the Blood Ravens use black, but the armour's overall colour and their helmet's visor colour are virtually the same.

Additionally, certain records were found upon Kronus that alluded to the Chapter's origin, yet Thule had them destroyed. Some suggest that the evidence was so damning as to link them to prove this theory. Alternatively, it may simply be that the records were in fact [[Azariah Kyras]]' perverted [[/d/]]eviant porn and Thule destroyed it because of the sheer amount of extra-heresy it contains that it would drive any lesser man to insanity.

There is some more evidence that the Blood Ravens are a Thousand Sons offshoot in the book ''[[Dawn of War]]: Tempest'', but '''that''' was written by [[C.S. Goto]], so take it with a grain of salt.

The November 2016 issue of White Dwarf, and later the July 2019 issue, almost explicitly state that Blood Ravens are an offshoot of the Thousand Sons, although the reason why they show no symptoms of the Flesh Change is not explained.

{{topquote|Rather nice chaps, I thought.|Brother-Captain Jefferies, Classy Marines Fourth Company}}

==Notable Members==
*[[Magnus the Red]]: Primarch of the Thousand Sons, Master of Prospero, the Crimson King. [[Meme|Did nothing wrong]]. He was, is, and forever will be a giant fucking nerd who is obsessed with collecting knowledge about everything, even the stuff he should probably have left alone.
*[[Ahriman|Ahzek Ahriman]]: Chief Librarian, Captain of the 1st Fellowship, and Magister-Templi of the Corvidae. Enacted the Rubric to try and stop the flesh-change from destroying the legion, and it totally worked, from a certain point of view. Has spent every hour of every day since trying to find a way into the Black Library so he can work out how to reverse the Rubric and restore the Sons to their normal selves. Has managed to collect a huge warband along the way and recently made up with Papa Magnus so they could go kick Space Wolf ass together.
*[[Iskandar Khayon]]: Some sorcerer who decided that the post-Heresy Thousand Sons were lame and joined Abaddon's new [[Black Legion|boy band]] instead. Claims to have kicked Magnus' ass personally to make him bitch down to the Warmaster. [[Mary Sue|Has a big tiddy goth Dark Eldar gf, a bitchin' sword made out of shards of Sanguinius' own weapon, and a Yugioh deck of bound daemons he can summon and dismiss whenever he wants]].
*Revuel Arvida: Random sergeant of the 4th Fellowship, hence why he wasn't on Prospero when the Space Wolves showed up to ask Magnus to come quietly, but came home later and shat his power armour when he saw what had happened. Ultimately joined up with the White Scars and helped them get back to Terra. The HH authors were continually teasing that he might be the founder of the [[Blood Ravens]], but then they yanked the rug out from under everyone by fusing him with a shard of Magnus to create Janus, the first Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights.
*Sanakht: The best swordsman in the Thousand Sons, making him basically the lone jock in a legion full of D&D playing nerds. He and Ahriman saved each other's lives, but later on Sanakht tried to betray Ahriman, who of course saw it coming, outplayed him, and used him as a host for the Athenaeum of Kallimakus.
*Amon: Captain of the 9th Fellowship, Commander of the Order of Blindness and Magnus' equerry. Looks like Ben Kingsley. He was Magnus' first tutor after the primarch fetched up on Prospero and was one of the first Prosperines inducted into the Legion. Ahriman killed him after the Heresy and took his armour.
*Phosis T'kar: Bro-tier Captain of the 2nd Fellowship, and Magister Templi of the Raptora Cult, who realised he was becoming a monster when he succumbed to the flesh-change and let Constantin Valdor kill him rather than deteriorate into a mindless blob.
*Madox: Chaos Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons. Has a long-running rivalry with [[Ragnar Blackmane]] because Blackmane keeps fucking up his plans. Has been "killed" several times, but it didn't stick until Blackmane stabbed him right in the middle of his face with the Spear of Russ while he was trying to enact a ritual to corrupt the Space Wolves' gene-seed reserves. Even after that, though, there are rumors that he's ''still'' alive.

==Daily Rituals of the Thousand Sons==
*'''04:00 - Morning Reveille:''' The Thousand Sons (at least the fleshbags) awake from their sarcophagi.

*'''04:10 - Rubric Inspection:''' The Thousand Sons Sorcerers inspect the Rubric Marines to see if some sense of normalcy has returned to them.

*'''05:00 - Morning Prayer:''' The Thousand Sons gather to pray that Tzeentch won't fuck them over and that the Imperium hasn't yet weaponized vacuum cleaners.

*'''06:00 - Morning Firing and Sorcery Rites:''' The Thousand Sons practice their shooting and magical skills on warp beasts.

*'''08:00 - Battle Practice:''' The Thousand Sons descend upon the twisted Pyramids on Sortiarius to test out their combat prowess.

*'''09:00 - Morning Meal:''' A morning meal is handed out to the non-Rubric Thousand Sons by the legion's psychic serfs. The Thousand Sons are more forgiving to their serfs as they are most likely psychic and thus, more likely to share common kinship.

*'''09:15 - Tactical Indoctrination:''' The Thousand Sons congregate and form plans to attract psykers from the Imperium and gather unknown knowledge.

*'''10:00 - Midday Prayers:''' The Thousand Sons gather to pray that Tzeentch won't fuck them over again.

*'''11:00 - Midday Meal:''' A light meal is prepared by the psychic serfs.

*'''12:00 - Sorcery Training:''' The Thousand Sons Sorcerers practice their magic tricks to further harness the warp.

*'''13:00 - Evening Firing and Sorcery Rites:''' The Thousand Sons practice their shooting and magical skills on even more warp beasts.

*'''15:00 - Battle Practice:''' The Thousand Sons continue to train in CQC so they can one day beat the [[Space Wolves|fucking furries.]]

*'''16:00 - Re-Education Time:''' The Thousand Sons lecture captured non-psychic Imperial humans on why their prejudice towards psykers are bad and why they should feel bad before sending them off as laborers. At the same time, they lecture captured psykers on why the Thousand Sons are there to protect and nurture them and why psykers are the next step in human evolution.

*'''18:00 - Evening Meal:''' A feast is prepared by the psychic serfs, which are cooked from the warp beasts that were hunted in the morning and afternoon.

*'''19:00 - Meeting up with Magnus:''' The Thousand Sons meet with their Primarch on issues concerning them such as the proposal to create a republic just to piss off the Imperium, equality between psykers and non-psykers, the state of the Imperium and humanity as a whole, Tzeentch being a dickhead and why he should not be trusted and why knowledge is power.

*'''20:00 - Sending 'Gifts' to the family:''' The Thousand Sons secretly steal some loyalist equipment and secretly give it to the [[Blood Ravens]] out of family kinship - the Blood Ravens have yet to realize the origin of these heretical trade deals. The Thousand Sons also try and send gifts and 'sorry' cards to their only friends, the [[White Scars]], [[Emperor's Children]] and [[Blood Angels]] for supporting them even during the failure of the Nikea Council. Suffice to say the gifts (except those given to the Blood Ravens) are always destroyed by the [[Inquisition]].

*'''21:00 - Nerdin' Out:''' The Thousand Sons nerd out in the great libraries on Sortiarius. Some use their free time to train captured psykers on how to safely use the warp while others continue to berate captured non-psykers on why the Imperium is bad. Some play [[Video game|video games]] and talk about ancient Terran epics such as [[Star Wars]] and [[Star Trek]], coincidentally those who play online video games may accidentally encounter [[Blood Angels|Dante and co. doing the exact same thing.]] Some venture back to their old home of [[Prospero]] to get some lost relics/knowledge.

*'''24:00 - Rest Period:''' The Thousand Sons rest in their sarcophagi.

==Writefaggotry==
* [[Ballad of the Thousand Sons]]
* [[Thousand Son and Guardswoman]]
* [[Confessions of a Wayward Son]]

==See Also==
* [[Codex - Thousand Sons]]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAtIJBE0m6g Feel free to play this whenever your sorcerers are unleashing enough psychic dakka to put the Imperial Guard to shame.]
* [https://youtu.be/RgjeHBW50L0 Or this.]
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Thousand Sons (9E)|Tactics on how to play them.]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Ahriman_and_the_Rubiks_Cube.jpg|Even with all of his powers, Tzeentch will never give up, even to Ahriman, the greatest of all riddles.
File:1297640512216.jpg|eh, warp lollipop.
File:1297640558332a.jpg|HUH. OK. RAPTORS. THAT MAKES SENSE...
File:1333070677403.jpg|Where are the Sorcerer Dreadnoughts GW? Then again, due to the state of the sons right now, it may be impossible to make dreadnoughts in the conventional sense.
File:1297640558332.jpg
File:Thousand sons on prospero.jpg|The golden years
File:Firstkeeper.jpg|[[Rule 63|ALL IS BUST]]
File:1kSons_Feel.png
File:Scarab_Occult.jpg| The Dust Terminators
File:Ahriman_Rubrics.jpg
</gallery>

{{Thousand Sons}}
{{Chaos-Official}}

Word Bearers

2023-05-27T18:10:41Z

2A02:1808:86:1EC6:A987:3466:4F45:AE21:

{{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}}
{{topquote|Power and dominion are taken by the will! By divine right, Hail and Kill!|Manowar}}

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: 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 XVII 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''' right from the start. This wasn't due to any favouritism, but because the Emperor had their role already figured out: to deliver the His ultimatum of submission or destruction, especially against enemies that opposed E-Money for ideological reasons.
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 again and again all across Terra during the Unification Wars, and during the early [[Great Crusade]]. This earned the Imperial Heralds a 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 of 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. Can be done in any order but for Chaos' sake don't put Khorne and Slaanesh prayers next to each other.
*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 approaches are ignoring defense and enduring pain like Nurgle would want and follow with attacks that are efficient like Khorne would want and without flaw like Slaanesh would want. Every now and then you should still do something unpredictacle like Tzeentch would want.
*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]].

{{Template:Chaos-Official}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Space Marines]][[Category:Word Bearers]]

World Eaters

2023-05-27T18:08:24Z

2A02:1808:86:1EC6:A987:3466:4F45:AE21:

{{heresy}}

{{Infobox Traitor Legion
|Name = World Eaters
|Heraldry = [[File:Worldeaterslogo.png|250px]]
|Battle Cry = Pre Skalathrax: Blood for the Primarch! Skulls for the Twelfth Legion! (I shit you not, this was their original battlecry) After Skalathrax:
{{BLAM|"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!"}}
|Original Name = War Hounds
|Number = XII
|Primarch = [[Angron]]
|Original Homeworld = Bodt (primary muster site), in no way Angron's homeworld of [[Nuceria]]
|Current Homeworld = Hell if we know (emphasis on [[Warp|'hell']])
|Champion = formerly [[Khârn|Khârn the Betrayer]] currently unknown.
|Specialty = [[Khorne Berzerkers]], mass infantry, annihilating everything in sight with chainweapons.
|Strength = A metric fuckton of Warbands, each with numbers ranging from 12 to 12000.
|Allegiance = [[Khorne]]
|Colours = Post-Horus Heresy: White body washed with the bright/dry blood of Imperial scum, with brass lines.
When Angron was found/early Horus Heresy: White body with Blue pauldrons and Blue power pack.
Great Crusade era: Blue body with White pauldrons
}}
{{Topquote|The Germans, perhaps, at first ill-treated the Jews because they hated them: afterwards they hated them much more because they had ill-treated them. The more cruel you are, the more you will hate; and the more you hate, the more cruel you will become-- and so on in a vicious cycle for ever.|C.S. Lewis}}
{{Topquote|Cry 'havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war, that this foul deed shall smell above the earth with carrion men, groaning for burial.| From the tragedy ''Julus Kasar'', by the ancient Terran dramaturge, Shakespire, ca. M2}}
{{Topquote|Because we couldn't be trusted. The Emperor needed a weapon that would never obey its own desires before those of the Imperium. He needed a weapon that would never bite the hand that feeds. The World Eaters were not that weapon. We've all drawn blades purely for the sake of shedding blood, and we've all felt the exultation of winning a war that never even needed to happen. We are not the tame, reliable pets that the Emperor wanted. The Wolves obey, when we would not. The Wolves can be trusted, when we never could. They have a discipline we lack, because their passions are not aflame with the Butcher's Nails buzzing in the back of their skulls. The Wolves will always come to heel when called. In that regard, it is a mystery why they name themselves wolves. They are tame, collared by the Emperor, obeying His every whim. But a wolf doesn't behave that way. Only a dog does. That is why we are the Eaters of Worlds, and the War Hounds no longer.| Captain [[Khârn]], of the World Eaters Legion's 8th Assault Company, from his unpublished treatise ''The Eighteen Legions''}}

The '''World Eaters''', worshipping [[Khorne]], are the canon [[Angry Marines]], a Chaos Legion (or rather a collection of various warbands that all share kinship in that legion) dedicated entirely to the principle of [[rage]]. Their Primarch's name is a pun on the fact that they're so damn angry ([[Angron]]). How the Big E in all his infinite wisdom did not see the betrayal coming of a legion called the fucking "WORLD EATERS" is beyond me, but maybe it's because they were originally called the War Hounds. Anyway, they use any kind of ECKSBAWKS HUEG melee weapon capable of putting Terminator armor to shame, a pistol, their Berzerker-styled power armor and [[Khorne]]'s everlasting [[rage]], which turns them angry beyond all reason so that they simply refuse to run away when spilling blood for the blood god, even if they're hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned by 100-1 (the Blood God isn't picky, it doesn't care whose blood it is:it must be spilled). It is unknown who pilots their tanks but they still have transports; it is very unlikely that the Khornate marines are driving their vehicles like their loyalist counterparts, as with their anger they will most probably use a Rhino as a makeshift powerfist instead of a transport and if somehow made to use a Rhino, they'll probably end up killing the driver and tear their way out of the vehicle onto the battlefield. ("We need a new driver, this one is dead!") Actually, they have drivers, but even they tend to prefer [[rip and tear]] which leads to them always having an axe or so in reach for the particular [http://1d4chan.org/wiki/File:Closer.jpg I ] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrrCY7dgaqs want to hit them with his sword].

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL19beIJSE0 Here is their anthem.]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTNZt5ae5w8&ab_channel=Debauchery-Topic and another]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFhKjbgfYJE&ab_channel=Debauchery-Topic and another anthem of bloody awesome!]
==Legion History==
[[File:World Eaters.jpg|400px|thumb|left|Before they went '''completely''' bonkers. A more accurate depiction would show Angron's armor with a fresh coat of chunky red paint. And hot damn does his armor look good, give that to the whole damn Legion.]]
From the beginning, the World Eaters, then called the War Hounds by the Emperor, were destined to travel a dark road. The initial recruits on Terra during the [[Unification Wars]] were picked from the most aggressive and bloodthirsty candidates, the legion usually being held in reserves for when Big E needed someone or something dead and [[get shit done|need it done fast]]. Once the [[Great Crusade]] kicked off, they became expert shock troops known to pacify worlds within less than a dozen hours. The majority of them were concentrated into an Expeditionary Fleet known as the "Bloody 13th", made up of various other human regiments and even Titans that just didn't give a shit about collateral damage. [[Sanguinius]], [[Red Thirst|ironically]], described them as a "carnival of monsters."

For their Primarch Angron, even as a baby, he didn't take any shit. The Eldar used their psychic powers to look into the future, and saw that if Angron ever grew to be a man, he would spend his whole life slaying everything in his path. 24/7, nonstop, all the fucking time. So the Eldar sent a contingent of elite warriors to kill him. But Angron tore their fucking eyeballs out so they couldn't see, then he ripped their fucking legs off so they couldn't run away, and he beat them into a bloody pile. Even as a literal infant, Khorne had his eye on the Primarch. To reiterate, Angron was only a kid when he did this. This really speaks volumes about his combat skills and the Eldar's [[Plot armor|hilarious ineptitude]] in combat.
[[File:Warhound_Mk II.jpg|thumb|250px|A War Hound Veteran Legionary, pre-Angron.]]
So after being found by humans this time he was brought to a city called Desh'ea, on a technologically advanced planet called [[Nuceria]]. Said city was run by a bunch of fat fucks whose only purpose in life was to build armies and make war with other city states. The best form of entertainment in Desh'ea, no, in Nuceria was watching slaves with rewired brains killing each other. Sounds like a nice place, am i right? But they fucked up when they enslaved Angron and made him a gladiator. How? You may ask, well, even Angron has his limits, I suppose. Then again he was a child at the time and made a terrible planetfall and fought with damn Eldar for his life. During this time, they tried to make Angron even more killy, but all methods failed due to his Primarch body. However, one method was successful: Butcher's Nails. What is the Butcher's Nails? It is a brain implant that drives the wearer to a berserker rage, and makes you unable to feel peace at all, unless you are butchering every goddamn thing on your path. It also has side effects like making the wearer of nails unable to sleep. Yes you heard it, '''ANGRON NEVER SLEPT''' since he was implanted with the nails on his childhood. Fucking Brutal. According to Khârn, they stunt the Serotonin in the brain as well. First he went all Conan the Barbarian on the other gladiators, but spared any who fought well despite the damn thing in his brains urging him to kill. Naturally, this earned him the respect of the other slaves, so he eventually went Spartacus on the ruler's fat asses and escaped with his buddies. Then word got out that there was a new fucking sheriff in town, even more guys started to defect, and pretty soon Angron had his own slave army ready to take over the whole planet. They started killing every warlord and their armies in sight non-stop, but eventually, Angron and his merry band of warriors faced a combined army of 7 warlords. They were readying themselves for their inevitable deaths because they were already outnumbered and outgunned, when the Emperor came down to talk to Angron, promising him an army of his own and a life of eternal war for humanity.

[[File:175px-WarHounds.jpeg|thumb|right|War Hounds Great Crusade icon, before the coming of Angron]]
But then, Angron said: "Fuck that shit, I'm taking care of business." And because the Emperor knew Angron would simply waste his life and [[Not as Planned|die in combat]], he forcefully beamed up Angron into his ship, just before the final assault, which naturally pissed off Angron for millennia to come because he didn't die along with his soldiers, thus earning an honorable death. This made Angron develop an ever-lasting [[Rage|hatred]] of his father that would eventually come back to bite him in his divine ass. This hatred was not helped by sending Angron and his sons to purge undesirables from the worlds liberated by the Legion. Imagine saving a planet from horrible alien overlords. Then your dad tells you to kill everyone who thinks ghosts are real and also kill everyone with cultural aspects he doesn’t approve of. Now you encounter a peaceful world of Space Amish. Your dad thinks Amish living is bad for humanity, so he orders you and your Legion to murder everyone. Yeah, you’re totally not going to become a pot liable to boil over the first chance you get.

Much later when Angron was about to be presented to the Astartes Legion he was going to command, the Emperor gathered the War Hounds' Captains and commanded them to persuade their father to be their leader ''without'' laying a hand on him. Still frothing and outraged that he'd been denied death alongside his brothers and sisters, Angron outright refused to command the then-War Hounds Legion, taking out his rage on his own legionnaires (since Big. E and his bananas had wisely made themselves scarce). You can pretty much imagine the results: Angron killed every Captain that tried to negotiate with him, up until he got to Captain [[Khârn]] who somehow managed to talk him down and get him to assume the title of Primarch of the War Hounds, which he subsequently renamed the "World Eaters". Khârn, who had climbed up the ranks as Angron had killed all the other higher ranking Captains, would then go on to be Angron's "cool head", assuming the rank of Angron's personal equerry, even after receiving the mental upgrades that turned the World Eaters more bloodthirsty than they already were. Seriously, a hell of a guy that Kharn.

With that business concluded, first stop for the World Eaters was this planet they were supposed to help conquer with the Luna Wolves and the Ultramarines. Angron and his Legion, who were itching to go down to the planet's surface and get their hands dirty, grew irritated at Horus and Guilliman as they held back the Imperial forces in order to make a plan of attack. Foreshadowing the future events on Istvaan III, Angron jumped the gun, ignored his two brothers and deployed himself and his forces straight into the thick of the enemy and engaged the rebels in bloody melee. Unable to cease shit from hitting the fan, the Luna Wolves and Ultramarines could only watch in horror as the World Eaters hacked the defenders apart and decimated everything in their path. Horus and especially Guilliman, who had always tried to minimize casualties and overall damage to a rebelling planet and its infrastructure, were obviously furious at Angron not only for trashing their well-laid plans but more importantly for slaughtering most of the population and leaving the planet in ruins. Even the Emperor himself, when he eventually heard about this, was angry as well but he could not do much to reprimand the already disobedient Primarch as he had other things to take care of.
[[File:WE_Vet_Early_Mk_II.png|thumb|250px|A World Eaters Legionary (pre-heresy).]]
Angron then had his worst idea ever: in order to improve his Legion, he ordered (poor) copies of his Butcher's Nails to be added first to new recruits then to everyone else, removing their ability to feel or care about fear but increasing their [[rage|aggression]] by large amounts. Only the few psykers still in the Legion were not implanted, and even then this was only because the damn things malfunctioned when implanted in a psyker causing him to [[HHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhnnnnnnngggggg-|EXPLODE IN A PSYCHIC BALL OF PURE RAGE]] in the process. The [[Emperor]] eventually banned this practice after the World Eaters exterminated all life on a planet in one night, but Angron didn't listen. As it eventually turned out, the implants were reacting abnormally to Angron's physiology; the Adeptus Mechanicus predicted that they would kill Angron before the end of the Great Crusade. After numerous attempts at removing them from other World Eaters resulted in the death of the subjects, the Emperor 'wisely' decided to hide this from Angron and his Legion and drop the subject, aggravating an already delicate situation. Instead of, y'know, using his god-like powers to separate their souls from their bodies, use biomancy to remove the Butcher's Nails, and then resurrect them. I mean, there is literally a [[Death Spectres|Chapter of Astartes]] who die and then will themselves back to life as their final trial to become Space Marines.

Leman Russ, acting both out of a sincere desire to help and on the orders of the Emperor to make Angron stop implanting the Butcher's Nails, attempted to talk some sense into his brother. Angron, furious that the Emperor was trying to have Russ push him around, attacked him in a fit of anger [It was recently revealed in the novel "Betrayer" that Russ did not come on order of the Emperor, but of his own accord in a (futile) effort to try and make Angron see what he had done to his sons]. The impromptu duel caused the dam to burst and a skirmish between the present forces broke out. In the end, Angron disarmed Russ, but in the process was surrounded by the Space Wolves, guaranteeing his own death if he tried to kill his brother. However, Russ called them off, insisting that he had proved his point and Angron did likewise, retreating with his sons. No one else was ever told what happened, but both Legions insisted they won, though no one was sure. Overall, the Space Wolves took more casualties and Angron had Russ pinned to the floor and disarmed, but Angron and the remaining World Eaters were outgunned and outmaneuvered, very likely being killed on the spot as well if Angron had gone through with killing Russ. In the end though, it proved futile: the Nails and Angron's own stubbornness had already broken down what rationality he had.
[[File:Chaos inthe imperium.jpg|310px|thumb|right|Let's get this bloody party started.]]
[[Horus]], [[Horus Heresy|corrupted and seeking to turn the Primarchs to his cause]], didn't have to do much to get Angron to [[heresy|side with him]], as all it took was to tell him that the Emperor was weak and to stir up his rage at preventing his honorable death on Nuceria. This might not have been the smartest of ideas as Angron proved to be uncontrollable, though, and Horus would more than once lament that those who sided with him weren't exactly [[Fulgrim|paragons]] [[Perturabo|of]] [[Night Haunter|mental stability]]. In the purging of the loyalists from the Traitor Legions on Istvaan III, Angron trashed Horus's plans for a clean [[Exterminatus]] by deploying to the surface to butcher the enemy, inevitably drawing out the slaughter and costing Horus precious time in consolidating his resources. They also participated in the battle on Istvaan V, where they massacred a fair share of the loyalists in bloody hand-to-hand combat. Angron even almost came to hands with [[Vulkan]] during the first part of that battle, challenging him to a duel; but heavy bombardment drove them apart before they could go mano-a-mano.

[[Lorgar]] later brought the World Eaters back to Nuceria during his Shadow Crusade alongside his own [[Word Bearers]], ostensibly to find any information about how to keep Angron from being killed by his implants. In reality, Lorgar knew that when Angron learned that his former masters claimed that he had fled from battle, the resulting [[rage]] produced by Angron (and the World Eaters' subsequent annihilation of all life on Nuceria) would allow Lorgar to perform a ritual that would turn Angron into a Daemon Prince while also generating a warpstorm large enough to completely cut off Ultramar from the rest of the Imperium. Guilliman tried to intervene and stop Lorgar from completing his ritual, but even he and his Blue Boys were no match for Angron and the World Eaters when really angry and they had to retreat from Nuceria after Angron thrashed Guilliman and ascended. To be fair though, in "Betrayer" Lorgar makes it quite clear when fighting Girlyman that he truly believed he was saving his brother. So it is not like he tricked Angron to go to Nuceria as part of some great Chaos Scheme with the end goal of turning him into a Daemon Prince. It was simply the only way how he saw he could save his brother from an otherwise inevitable death.

When the Legions of Horus attacked the Imperial Palace, the World Eaters were at the forefront of the Traitor Marines, rushing into the breach and killing the most inside the palace. Sadly, they lost when Horus was killed aboard his flagship, and the World Eaters with Angron fled to the [[Eye of Terror]]. Kharn himself was killed and his corpse dragged from the debris, but Khorne blessed him with a second chance and resurrected him to slaughter and maim for millennia to come.

==World Eaters Schism and Khârn==
[[Image:Worldeater-awesome.gif|thumb|right|250px|Second Edition World Eaters were ''awesome''. Believe it or not, this guy is actually an apothecary.]]
A hell of a guy by the name of [[Khârn]] comes from this Legion. Hell of a guy that Khârn is... Even if he single handily split his legion into countless warbands.

The World Eaters are not organized anymore (at least no more than any other Chaos Legion, except for the Word Bearers maybe which still operate as a legion, and the Thousand Sons who, despite being somewhat shattered, still answer the call of big daddy Magny). After the Heresy, the majority of the World Eaters legion stayed together whilst fleeing from the Imperium but rivalries and power plays continued to drive them apart. Angron had vanished into the Warp somewhere and the only other figurehead, Khârn himself, was in a comatose state after having his almost dead body dragged away from the Siege of Terra. The legion stumbled upon a planet in the warp, isolated by a barrier of normal space; a oasis of safety in the Warp. Unfortunately, the Emperor's Children had also found it. Half the Legion wanted to do their own thing, whilst half wanted to stay together and rebuild. Kharn suddenly woke up and proceeded to murder the shit out of an entire berserker assassination squad (no, really) that had been sent to off him. He then took authority over the leading legionary elements and proceeded to wreck pretty marine face.

The end result of this venture was that Khârn irrevocably split the Legion on [[Battle of Skalathrax|Skalathrax]] when the World Eaters were kicking the [[Emperor's Children|Emperor's Children's]] asses. Khârn got pissed off at his fellow Legionnaires for taking shelter from the Ice Cold Darkness, because the [[Grimdark|cold stuff on Skalathrax would freeze you to death]]. Khârn took a flamer and torched everyone's shelters and started killing everything in sight, while his fellow brothers fought for whatever shelters were left, even after [[FAIL|kicking the Emperor's Children's asses off the planet]]. The World Eaters are now fractured into Warbands, who sell their services to other Chaos Armies for the lulz (for the lul throne).

==Noteworthy Shenanigans==
*Cerberus Insurrection, where the legion engaged in a manly duel with [[Thunder Warriors|Thunder Warrior]] escapees, showing them the true power of rage (despite losing 4 to 5 for each Thunder Warrior, with the exception of [[Endryd Haar]], who single-handedly took out a Thunder Warrior by snapping his neck!). (Pre-Heresy)
*The Cleansing of Arrigata (Pre-Heresy campaign. This was noteworthy in that the World Eaters slaughtered the entire world's population in a single day.)
*Beat (and got beaten) the shit out of the Space Wolves when they were asked to come with them to get "Help by some doctors to make them not crazy anymore." A ridiculous battle, really. (Pre-Heresy)
*[[Battle of Isstvan III]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre|And Isstvan V]].
*The Shadow Crusade with Lorgar and his home boys, and making Rowboat Girlyman literally crawl away on Nuceria after getting his pompous blue ass kicked while Lorgar lol'ed.
*Most of [[Abaddon|Failbaddon's]] Black Crusades.
*Cholercaust Blood Crusade - The World Eaters and Khornate followers in general curb-stomp the Imperium into the ground, until they're turned back by the fucking [[Legion of the Damned]] (a force around 200 strong, mind you, or [[Gav Thorpe|as many as necessary]]) because GW loves its stagnation and if they continued on they would have gotten to Terra and killed the Big E. This is also clear evidence that Khornates are the only Chaos Worshipers who [[get shit done]].
*Doombreed's actually successful black crusade. ('Success' is [[skub|debatable]], since the Imperium still stands. Doombreed's crusade did inflict one hell of a lot of damage to the Imperium. And to Chaos' side as well, but Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows!)
*Angron's Dominion of Fire campaign, where 50,000 World Eaters and Angron wasted over 70 Imperial Sectors in two Centuries. That's one sector every 2.86 years... which means that Khorne must have blessed Angron with extra heroin-induced RAEG to get shit done ''this quickly.''
*First War of Armageddon. Where Angron <s>got raped by a Grey Knight</s> got his sword broken by a Grey Knight and proceeded to [[Rip and tear]].

==General need to know information==
[[File:WE_KhorneBerzerkers.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Can you believe they can drive a car? ROAD RAGE!!!]]
The World Eaters are all Berserkers, thanks to the Butcher's Nails. However, before Skalathrax, [[Heresy|not all of them were Khorne worshippers]], instead they were naytheists that couldn't give a shit about chaos. Kinda like the [[Night Lords]]. Considering the funky state of time in the warp, there is bound to be naytheist warbands of World Eaters, who swore to never worship chaos after the horror on Skalathrax. They use Chainaxes, one of the most brutal hand to hand weapons in the game and whole 40K. Also, Angron killed all of their librarians because they tried to kill Lorgar. One wishes that they were successful, because if Lorgar died, Angron would have finally died too, finally having his deathwish on his homeworld, after two centuries of brutal warfare, guilt, sadness and deathseeking. Fucking Word Bearers, they ruined the goddamn galaxy.
[[Image:Angaron.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Angron is not a happy chappy.]]
The helmets that Berserkers wear are representations of the Khorne Skull icon, or the mark of Khorne. It's like a cool stylized eight thing. Only not really, them being a straight ripoff of Conan's Snake Cult warriors' ones. Khorne's favorite number is eight, so every Khornate Warband organizes its marines into squads of 8 and its multiples. Scary shit. But this also proves that World Eaters are just big nerds with rage, because they can do on-the-spot mathematics in the middle of a combat scenario just so they can make sure they do everything in multiples (or factors) of eight. Bet the Loyalists can't do that. Bet the Blood Angels with THEIR prissy version of RAEG can't do that. Thus it is proved that Zerkers are smart and can drive tanks.

==Summary==
Ruthless, [[Manly Marines|manly]], bloody, and [[awesome]]. They are the most angry, awesome and brutal Space Marines out there, Closest Imperial equivalents are the [[Space Wolves]], [[Blood Angels]] or the [[Black Templars]]. Primarily due to the fact that they fight the exact same way. There's also the [[Flesh Tearers]], but those are basically actual Khornates who call Khorne "The Emperor".

==Trivia==

===Catch Phrase===

[[File:HGD.jpeg|250px|thumb|left|Despite the popular beliefs, they're not ''always'' angry. Just most of the time.]]

World Eaters use the most used catch phrase in [[Warhammer 40k|40k]] next to '''[[Ork|"WAAAAAAAAGH!!!!"]]''' or '''For the [[Emperor]]!''' They scream '''[[Khorne|BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD]]''' in combat, while taking skulls for the skull throne. It is unknown what they scream while taking blood for the blood god, but it is probably '''SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE.''' Luckily the two activities are rather interchangeable, but at home life gets rather confusing as they bellow MILK FOR THE KHORNE-FLAKES while filling out their tax returns, or howl "POPKHORNE!!!!!!" whenever anybody suggests a movie.

===Colours===
The World Eaters Pre-Heresy colour scheme was white and blue, both colors which believe it or not in many cultures ironically stand for calmness (blue) and purity (white), white being cultural and blue being a biological human reaction (since most shades of blue have been scientifically proven to calm and relax the human mind).
Blue and white are also the colours of the Finnish flag, so yeah that's yet another Nordic connection.
If you factor in the biological responses to those colors, though, they would make sense for use by Angron's legionnaires as the sight of them would help stem their RAEG just briefly enough to avoid attacking their battle-brothers ("Friendly Fire" being something the Emperor probably wouldn't have appreciated much).

However in Japan and other Asian cultures white stands for death, and often bloody death, as the white brings out the color red. Also, corpses tend to go pale due to blood loss and/or lack of blood flow to the skin. Meanwhile, blue was the favourite colour of Turkic and Mongolian nomadic empires, as it represented the clear blue sky of the steppe - [[Doombreed]] certainly approves.

While most World Eaters repainted their armour after embracing Khorne (what with the bronze trim), according to fluff, some World Eaters never repainted their armor, the red is simply layers of dry blood. Which doesn't make much sense because dried blood is brown due to the iron in the blood oxidizing, unless they just keep adding new layers of 'paint'. Then again, maybe the blood doesn't oxidize due to Khorne's shenannigans, but that would mean they are dripping blood wherever they go...

== Notable World Eaters ==

*'''[[Angron]]''': Primarch of the World Eaters, Lord of the Red Sands, Slave of Nuceria, and [[RIP AND TEAR]] incarnate. He was pretty bro-tier before he got the Butcher's Nails banged into his skull and turned into the Hulk with less impulse control. He screwed his legion over forever by demanding they accept the Butcher's Nails too even though he knew how awful they were. Ascended to daemonhood during the Shadow Crusade thanks to Lorgar and nowadays is one of Khorne's most favored servants. He's pissed about this because all he wants is to die, having been robbed of his glorious last stand on Nuceria.
*'''[[Khârn]]''': A pretty swell guy. Captain of the Eighth Assault Company, Angron's equerry, and the only person who could calm Angry Ron down when he was on a tear about not having killed anything recently enough. He died twice during the Heresy, but Khorne wasn't about to let such a swell dude stay dead. Destroyed his own legion at Skalathrax after the Heresy because they were being unmanly by taking shelter from the cold and became known as the Betrayer ever after.
*'''Gahlan Surlak''': Primus Medicae and the one who worked out how to make the Butcher's Nails work for Space Marines. Thanks a lot, jackass.
*'''Endryd Haar''': A giant even among Space Marines. Killed a [[Thunder Warriors|Thunder Warrior]] with his bare fucking hands in one of his first campaigns and refused to accept the Butcher's Nails when Angron forced them on the legion, since he was already angry enough not to need them. He split off from the World Eaters to do his own thing, then got arrested when he came back to Terra and learned that his dad and brothers had joined Horus. He busted out of jail and went blackshield for a while, though he ultimately rejoined the Imperium, leading a Shattered Legions warband to fuck traitors up. Died punching the shit out of Abaddon at the Siege of Terra, and even when he died his corpse pinned Abaddon long enough for the future Warmaster to nearly get killed by Garviel Loken.
*'''Macer Varren''': Loyalist World Eater and one of the first Horus Heresy characters ever named, way back in 1988. Joined the [[Knights-Errant]] after escaping to Terra and died just before the Siege when a Nurglite daemon tried to possess him and he blew himself up with a belt of grenades before it could take control.
*'''Dreagher''': A captain of the World Eaters during the Great Crusade, Horus Heresy, and Post-Heresy. Upon the rediscovery of Angron (and after Kharn managed to finally convince his Primarch to accept his legion after ripping up a few other War Hound Officers for 30K therapy), he was the one who was responsible for renaming the War Hounds Legion into the World Eaters.
*'''Delvarus''': World Eater centurion who often tag-teamed with [[Sigismund]] in the fighting pits prior to the Heresy and was assigned to the Triarii, the squads tasked with protecting the ''Conqueror''. Got shot in the face by Lotara Sarrin for abandoning his post to go fight Ultramarines and went to his room rather than risk pissing her off further. Later became a [[Possessed Marine]], joined the Black Legion, and was killed during the [[Legion Wars]] by Death Guard sorcerer Thagus Daravek.
*'''[[Crull]]''': Chaos Lord who uses sorcerers despite being pledged to Khorne and gets his ass kicked by [[Gorgutz]] on Lorn V. Has surprisingly nice teeth for a Khornate psycho.
*'''[[Lheorvine Ukris]]''': Snarky mofo who somehow kept it together despite being a World Eater and ultimately joined the Black Legion after stomping Emperor's Children asses on Harmony. Got his shit kicked in by some [[Blood Angels]] on Mackan during the 7th Black Crusade.
*'''[[Zhufor]]''': Chaos Lord who was originally from the [[Storm Lords]] chapter, but got taken prisoner by the World Eaters and decided being Khornate was more fun. Threw a big party on [[Vraks]].
*'''[[Lotara Sarrin]]''': Captain of Angron's flagship ''Conqueror'' and basically an honorary World Eater, which is a pretty big deal considering she was a squishy mortal. She was about as batshit aggressive as Angry Ron himself and had no sense of self-preservation, given she was willing to shoot a frothing mad World Eater Terminator in the face with a laspistol for backtalking her. Likes to [[Meme|FIRE THE URSUS CLAWS]]. She is confirmed to still be the captain of the ''Conqueror'', though she is now known as "The Mistress". She is also probably a daemon Princess/Daemonic Creature.
*'''[[The Consortium (Warhammer 40,000)|Arrian Zorzi]]''': a renegade WE Apothecary who threw his lot in with Fabius Bile and eventually became his 2nd in command. Likes (evil) gardening. Remarkable due to the fact he managed to overcome the Butcher's Nails influence with meditation and a highly disciplined mind.
*'''[[Lord Invocatus]]''': A World Eaters lord who was mentioned only a handful of times in the lore before being given rules in the 9E Codex. Known for riding a [[Juggernaut]] with a fucking chainsword strapped to its horn into battle. His warband is allied with [[The Brazen Beasts]].

==Daily Rituals==
04:00 - The World Eaters rise up from the mountain of corpses.

04:30 - Morning Practice. The World Eaters start [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheSpartanWay to train and work out.]

05:30 - Morning Meal. Nothing is prepared, the marines simply grab the nearest slave available, rip out their heads, and drink their blood. Eating their flesh is optional but encouraged for nutritional purposes. Eating yesterday's leftovers are also an option.

06:00 - Morning Firing Rites. The World Eaters conduct target practice. Marines attempt to practice marksmanship with their bolt pistols, but most if not all fail in this task. The practice typically ends with them simply throwing their pistols and axes at the target and mercilessly tackling them in frustration.

07:00 - Battle Practice. Not so much as practice as it is a giant gladiatorial game where the berzerkers fight just about anything: daemons, captured slaves, giant beasts, each other...etc.

14:00 - Tactical Indoctrination. Surviving marines are corralled into the briefing room, where the warlord simply shows a picture of the planet, the main objective, and the rest of the marines simply shout in approval. Injuries and fatalities arise from the more "overzealous" marines.

14:30 - Battle Practice. The marines now attempt to spar with each other. It isn't complete unless it ends up with a handful of fatalities.

19:30 - Evening Firing Rites. The marines now attempt marksmanship training in the dark. It usually just ends up with them using the muzzle flash of their guns as a flashlight so they can close in on the target. Some marines may now actually hit something with their guns while doing this, but it's usually another marine using the same tactic.

20:00 - Evening Meal. Typically, nothing is still prepared and the marines will simply use slaves for nourishment. Any slave or marine capable of cooking and still alive will attempt to create some dishes for their bloodthirsty brethren (blood sausage and blood stew are common favorites). Anything from warpspawn or slave innards can and will be used.

21:00 - Evening Practice. Battle is the greatest form of worship to Khorne, so the marines will proceed to battle each other in a massive moshpit.

23:40 - Rest Period. By this point, most of the marines have knocked each other out or killed the ones still awake. The slaves enjoy a few hours of peace until their psychotic masters wake up in a few hours.
{{World Eaters}}
{{Template:Chaos-Official}}

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Chaos]]

[[Category: Space Marines]]

Foresworn

2023-05-27T18:04:24Z

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{{Infobox CSM Warband
|Name = The Foresworn
|Heraldry = [[File:Foresworn Shoulder Pad.jpeg|150px]] The Word Bearers warbands heraldry, World Eaters use the same as their parent legion
|Battle Cry = Unknown
|Origin = [[Word Bearers]], [[World Eaters]]
|Warband Leader = '''WB:''' Kor Megron '''WE:''' Kossolax the Foresworn
|Base of Operations = Unknown
|Specialty =
|Strength = '''WB:''' 200 marines '''WE:''' Unknown
|Allegiance = '''WB:''' [[Chaos Undivided]] '''WE:''' [[Khorne]]
|Colours = '''WB:''' Red with silver trim '''WE:''' Red with brass trim
}}
{{stub}}
'''The Foresworn''' is the name of two Chaos Warbands, one from the [[World Eaters]] and the other from the [[Word Bearers]]. Apparently there aren't enough bad-ass gang names to go around, so the two buddy up and share one.

==Word Bearers==
The Foresworn are largely notable for various victories led by Kor Megron before the [[Horus Heresy]], including liberating and establishing Eydolim as a Shrine World. In 946.M41, Kor Megron returned as a [[Daemon Prince]] with the desire to wreck some shit there. He led an enormous army of Word Bearers, [[Night Lords]], [[Iron Warriors]] and [[Red Corsairs]] and destroyed almost everything he came across in the sector, but he got stabbed by the oh-so-great [[Ultramarines]]' 2nd Company Captain [[Cato Sicarius]] at the very last moment of the last battle, and was banished back to the [[Warp]]. And what did his army do? Stomped the Smurf and violated the Shrines? Of course not, you silly, we're talking about Ultramarines here. The Chaos forces just panicked and ran back into the Warp. God damn Ward & his [[Ultramarines|Ultrasmurf]] bullshit.

==World Eaters==
Led by Kossolax the Foresworn, a [[Chaos Lord]], they're known for involvement in the First War of [[Armageddon]] and then the 13th [[Black Crusade]]. Both times, they caused a lot of bloodshed but ultimately lost, only to get away to fight another day. Kossolax then attacked Agrippina after Cadia blew up as the leader of a big multi legion detachment sent by [[Abaddon]].

==Conclusion==
<S> It's hard to say which Warband sucks the most. One had their leader banished (though it should be noted that he was fighting Ultrasmurfs) and the other is known for never really taking hold of any planets they invade. Neither of them have their colours or insignia differ from their Traitor Legion parents so they can't even boast a bitchin' colour scheme. </S>

Considering one was fighting against the Mary Sues of Ward and the other is completely incapable of doing shit, it's not much of a challenge, Word Bearers beat World Eaters (somehow). On the other hand, while the World Eaters didn't accomplish much, they spilled a lot of blood, and isn't that their primary goal regardless?

Nevermind, the World Eaters got back to work.
{{Chaos-Official}}
[[Category:Word Bearers]]
[[Category:World Eaters]]

Deathmongers

2023-05-27T18:01:32Z

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{{Infobox CSM Warband
|Name = Deathmongers
|Heraldry = [[File:DeathmongersSymbol.jpg]]
|Battle Cry = Unknown
|Origin = Unknown
|Warband Leader = Unknown
|Base of Operations = Unknown
|Specialty = Unknown
|Strength = Unknown
|Allegiance = Nurgle probably judging from the symbol
|Colours = Grey with copper trim
}}

The Deathmongers are one of the [[Judged|thirty chapters]] which were lost during the [[Abyssal Crusade]]. They were known previously as the Brothers of the Anvil and during the Abyssal Crusade they were scouring the world of Belial IV (homeworld of the [[Shriekers]] Abeldar subspecies) in the [[Eye of Terror]] which got them captured by the Dark Eldar.
They had been captive for one year in the arenas of [[Commorragh]] before the survivors "escaped" the dark city back into the Materium. Now they are a bunch of insane fucks who became a Chaos Warband known as Deathmongers. Ever since, they waged a war of brutal destruction upon the Imperium. Their only lore mention aside from the Abyssal Crusade however, is an obscure engagement against the [[Angels Revenant]] during the Orphean War of Faith. And yes, we know their lore is nonsensical because the Dark Eldar being in the Eye of Terror is...not going to happen.

As the Deathmongers, they have become notorious for causing wanton destruction during their raids, to the point of [[Chaotic Stupid|giving up a possible victory just for the sake of causing more death and destruction]].

One questions remains: Why the fuck declare war on the Imperium when the Dark Eldar were the ones who used them as sex slaves?
Guess it wasn't grimdark enough.

<gallery>
File:DeathmongersMarine2.jpg|Generic boys
</gallery>

{{Chaos-Official}}

Death Shadows

2023-05-27T18:01:15Z

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{{Infobox CSM Warband
|Name = Death Shadows
|Battle Cry = Unknown
|Origin = [[Judged|Lionguard]] (Could be Dark Angels taking their previous name in consideration)
|Warband Leader = Unknown
|Base of Operations = Unknown
|Specialty = Sabotage and Terror Tactics
|Strength = Unknown, but known to have taken severe losses at least.
|Allegiance = Chaos Undivided
|Colours = Dark blue and black
}}
{{heresy}}

Death Shadows were previously known as the Lionguard and was one of the [[Judged|29 chapters which got corrupted]] during the [[Abyssal Crusade]]. Judging by their previous name, we can assume that they are a [[Dark Angels]] successor [[chapter]]. They've been part of the [[Bloodborn]] [[warband]] led by [[Honsou|Warsmith Honsou]].
After their failed attack on [[Ultramar]], the Death Shadows returned to their secret stronghold on the [[Fortress World]] of Sybari. Sometime in 745.M41, they were planning an attack against [[Macragge]], but [[Hive Fleet Behemoth]] came through and nom nomed Sybari and supposedly the Death Shadows as well.

There are rumors that some of them escaped and are now operating somewhere else, other sources say that they've been devoured and destroyed by the [[Tyranids]]. Most likely they didn't stick around and fucked off. It's not like Chaos Marines give a damn about their planets.

[[File:Darkshadowsmarine.jpg|left|thumb|We're Dark Angels in disguise]]

{{Chaos-Official}}

Red Corsairs

2023-05-27T18:00:11Z

2A02:1808:86:1EC6:A987:3466:4F45:AE21:

{{heresy}}
{{Infobox CSM Warband
|Name = Red Corsairs
|Heraldry = [[File:CorsairsEmblem.png|250px]]
|Battle Cry = A tirade of expletives and threats, transmitted across all vox-caster frequencies, "Shiver me timbers!", "YYYAAAAARRRRRG!" "Take what ye can, give nothing back!”, alternately they blast off Alestorm
|Origin = [[Astral Claws]], [[Tiger Claws]] (technically, they were absorbed into the Astral Claws and were defunct at time of the reform into the Red Corsairs), and various other chapters
|Warband Leader = [[Huron Blackheart]]
|Base of Operations = [[New Badab]] [[Chogoris|Yasan Sector]] '''Formerly:''' Badab Primaris
|Specialty = Piracy, infiltration, boarding tactics
|Strength = Roughly the size of a Pre-[[Horus Heresy|Heresy]] [[Space Marine Legions|Legion]]
|Allegiance = [[Chaos Undivided]], Themselves
|Colours = Red, Gold and Black.
}}

Space Pirate Space Marines? In my 40K? It's more likely than you'd think.

==Who They Are==
The Red Corsairs are a space pirate warband of renegade Marines; some following Chaos, some just in it [[Blood Ravens|for the plunder]] and self-aggrandizement. Even before their fall to chaos, these guys were considered the top-dogs in boarding actions, so piracy came pretty naturaly to them. Attacking from the [[Maelstrom]], which is kind of like the anus to the [[Eye of Terror]]'s vagina (no, really, the Night Lords of the [[Broken Aquila]] bitch about how filthy it is ''in comparison to the fucking Eye''), they raid and pillage all over the [[Imperium of Man]], stealing vehicles, armour, weapons, ships for their fleets, and basically anything in sight. Nailing it down does not help, as they would steal nails too, making them essentially the chaos [[Blood Ravens]]. They are well-known for their balls-out psychotic raids on Imperial Naval vessels and [[Indrick Boreale|SPESS MEHREEN]] battle barges, in which they use boarding torpedoes to land and then assault the ship, taking it over to add to their makeshift navy. The Corsairs also have a number of not-marines, ranging from mercenaries and assorted scum to slaves captured by the Corsairs for the purposes of tending to their ships and equipment. They have a near-constant influx of loyalist Marines because once it becomes known that you're a fucking pirate, the ladies and ladymen are all down with that shit.

Their core is mostly composed of former [[Astral Claws]], but much like the Black Legion they accept anyone who pledge his loyalty to their leader, and produce new marines from any gene-seed they can land their hands on, so you may find former loyalists (at lest a few Ultramarines and Space Wolves are confirmed), veterans of Heresy from the old legions, and a wide variety of Chaos-born neophytes, made with both traitor and loyalist gene-seed. With such a flexible recruitment policy it's not surprise Corsairs are the quickest growing Chaos force in entire Galaxy, and given time may even outgrow the Black Legion. It helps that you aren't even required to join Chaos to join the Red Corsairs. So long as you serve as an Astartes of the Red Corsairs, they couldn't care less what you worship.

==Leader==
Whilst the Corsairs operate in smaller strike groups, the ultimate leader of the Red Corsairs is the Pirate Lord of the [[Maelstrom]], [[Huron Blackheart]]. Formerly known as Lufgt Huron (a name which to this day, /tg/ is unable to pronounce(either "Loofght" or "Lufag")), Huron used to be the chapter master of the [[Astral Claws]]. They were assigned to guard and patrol the Maelstrom, an area of warp/real space overlap in Ultima Segmentum.

While a decent leader, years of being left sidelined left him bored and pissed off, and he eventually said "fuck this" and decided to take over the planet Badab, where he and the claws conquered the world for themselves and demanded tithes in the name of the Imperium - which they then kept for themselves, getting three other Space Marine chapters to join them in holding the world and turning into their own private little vacation-spot. Huron became known as the "Tyrant of Badab" for his forceful style of leadership. The Claws (and Huron) finally rushed past the moral event horizon when the Imperial Navy sent a small strike group to Badab to kick his ass.

Huron's forces repelled it, but the Imperial Navy had finally had enough of their shit and brought in a battery of heavy-duty ships to finish the job, and sent in [[Stormtrooper]]s, along with a shitton of Space Marines in the conflict that came to be known as the [[Badab War]]. Huron's forces took a major beating, and Huron himself got half of his fucking body blown off by a pissed-off [[Star Phantoms]] Captain packing a [[Meltagun]]. Legend has it, after a failed attempt at him he put his terminator boot on a dead strike team leader's chestplate (presumably to take a selfie), but the captain turned out not quite dead and shot him in the armpit point-blank with a melta instead. Oh, vanity. Barely alive, Huron's troops grabbed their master and hauled ass for the one area the Imperium wouldn't chase them through - the [[Maelstrom]]. After a few weeks, a shitload of bionics (he had to have most of the right side of his body replaced), and a little help from the Ruinous Powers, Lord Apothecary Garreon, Apothecary Secundus Variel, and Master of the Forge Armanneus Valthex (guys who had earned the nicknames "the Corpse Master", "the Flayer", and "the Alchemancer", respectively) successfully put Huron back together, and he began to rebuild his [[Red Corsair's Domain|personal empire]] through piracy, bit by bit.

Huron himself claims to be Chaos' answer to [[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken|Colonel "Vance Motherfucking Stubbs is my Poker Buddy" Straken]], but everyone knows that's a load of bullshit.

==Namesake & History==
"Corsair" means [[pirate]], and they use red "paint" to obliterate their former Chapter livery. Ergo, Red Corsairs. Not exactly a great name, but it's hard to argue that it doesn't work.

Historically though corsairs were not pirates in the traditional sense. A corsair would be someones commissioned by a certain government, say Spain or Britain, to operate freely against the navy or ships of another opposing government.

Basically a country might decide to let a captain raid their enemies stuff as long as the captain only hurt their enemies that is a win. As the navies of even the British empire could not completely control the open seas. But with time and as the practice waned the terms pirate and corsair started becoming interchangeable. And to a poor civilian merchant getting looted it does not really matter that the corsair has a license or not, to them both are pirates.

This makes the name corsair make some sense in context considering they are technically 'commissioned' by the Chaos Gods to raid the Imperium.

==Rise of the Red Corsairs and Fifth Edition==
Long before [[Matt Ward]] somehow managed to make the [[Ultramarines|Smurfs]] more hated than they already were - something [[/tg/]] had long since thought [[Troll|impossible]] - the Chaos Codex had gotten a reasonable update. Most of it was streamlining, pure and simple, but a lot of it was done with the intent to make Chaos forces of every stripe that much more viable and to put an end to the godless [[Gay|faggotry]] that was [[Emperor's Children]] [[FAIL|Noise Marine spam]] [[FATAL|raping]] entire armies in the opening salvo (for example). Players wanted more flexibility with their choices, more opportunities to play with unique options, (WTF are you smoking? CSM 4.0 took away so much stuff) and less ridiculously unbalanced exclusive shit that ruined everything (read: Iron Warriors fielding squads upon squads of Obliterators backed by [[Basilisk]]s). With so many changes to the system, Chaos largely got nerfed and saw marked improvements in a few areas ([[fail|at the cost of all the unique legion rules,]] [[herp|pages of]] [[derp|wargear]] [[brundlepenis|and mutations,]] [[AIDS|and anything else that made them stand out from vanilla marines]]), but since nobody liked the [[Black Legion]] or its [[derp|retarded]] leader [[Abaddon]], a long-available but largely unsung chapter, the Red Corsairs, got pushed into prominence...

...[[FAIL|before being cunt-punted back into a paragraph and Huron's special character page]] in favour of [[Crimson Slaughter|a bunch]] of no-name not-[[World Eaters]].

Vigilus Ablaze grants them tabletop rules, which are quite possibly the best out of any of the Chaos Space Marine subfactions. Not only can they advance and charge (the old generalist Renegade Chapter trait which already was pretty good), but now they get extra command points from detachments with three or more units. This is also in addition to an update on their war with the [[White Scars]]. Long story short, they wrecked shit and kidnapped Chapter Master Jubal Khan. The remaining Scars then had to stage a raid to free the hostages, but by this point Jubal was so damaged that he wouldn't be able to do much. As of present, they're still within the area and are continuing with raids around the sector as Huron establishes a new capital.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:CSM painschemes.jpg|New CSM model in Red Corsair colors (right)
Image:RedTermies.jpg|Red Corsair Terminators.
</gallery>

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

The Scourged

2023-05-27T17:57:41Z

2A02:1808:86:1EC6:A987:3466:4F45:AE21:

{{Infobox CSM Warband
|Name = The Scourged
|Heraldry = [[File:Scourged Shoulder Pad.png|150px]]
|Battle Cry = '''"THE LIES, THE LIES, THE LIES!!!!"'''
|Origin = Seekers of Truth
|Warband Leader = Gallus Herodicus
|Base of Operations = Unknown
|Specialty = Interrogation, insanity
|Strength = Unknown
|Allegiance = [[Tzeentch]]
|Colours = Dark blue and dark red with gold trim
}}

{{Topquote|Everybody lies.|Dr. Gregory House, the warband's [[Spiritual liege|spiritual liege]].}}

'''The Scourged''' are a Chaos Space Marine warband dedicated to [[Tzeentch]]. Formerly known as the '''Seekers of Truth''', they served under the [[Inquisition]]. This service amounted to murdering civilians the Inquisition deemed undesirable. Over time, this took its toll on the chapter, their services reducing their morale so low that that entire chapter began questioning their devotion to the Imperium.

Every night their Chapter Master, Gallus Herodicus, would pray to the [[Emperor]] for guidance and the ability to ascertain when men spoke the truth and when they spoke lies. The Emperor never answered his prayers, but one night Tzeentch was listening in and decided to grant Herodicus' request. Tzeentch, [[Just_as_planned|in his wisdom]], made it so that not just Herodicus, but the entire chapter would know when someone in the galaxy lied. Yes, [[Grimdark|''the galaxy'']]. The chapter only remained Loyalist for a matter of days before going rogue and vowing to tear down the Imperium of Man and the bedrock of lies it was built upon. Obviously afflicted with crippling insanity, but really, it's not their fault. They understand the truth now. That they managed to get ANYTHING done is a testament to how [[awesome]] these moralfags are.

The Scourged appear in both the fourth and sixth edition Chaos Space Marine codices as an example of a Tzeentch-aligned renegade chapter. Like [[The Flawless Host]], a single model appears painted in their colors, in this case a [[Chaos Sorcerer]] in [[Terminator]] armor. 8th edition gave them a brand new dark red color scheme in the Chaos Space Marines codex.
==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:CSM warband paint schemes.jpg|Heretic Astartes of the Scourged (right)
</gallery>

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

Dragon Warriors

2023-05-27T17:55:53Z

2A02:1808:86:1EC6:A987:3466:4F45:AE21:

{{Infobox CSM Warband
|Name = Dragon Warriors
|Heraldry = [[File:dragonwarriorsicon.jpg|200px|File under '[[Pauldrons]] LUCKY NUMBER EIGHT!']]
|Battle Cry = Unknown
|Origin = Unknown (Probably traitor Salamanders or a Salamander successor chapter)
|Warband Leader = Unknown
|Base of Operations = Unknown
|Specialty = Close quarters firefights (''Literal'' emphasis on the word, ''Fire'')
|Strength = Unknown
|Allegiance = Unknown
|Colours = Dark red with black trim
}}
[[File:Dragonw.jpg|400px|thumb|left|Good luck painting scales on minis. If you're a drug smuggler you can just buy forge world Alpha Legion chests.]]
The '''Dragon Warriors''' are a [[Chaos Space Marine]] warband specialized in short-range firefights, using [[melta]] and [[Flamer|flame weapons]] (OF COURSE THEY WOULD.THE NAME SAYS IT ALL!). They are among the archenemies of [[Salamanders]], wanting to see who are the best dragons in the galaxy, they even tried to capture the Salamanders homeworld, but failed... obviously. Just like many chapters created by GW, they are basically unused and lost to the lore. They got the potential to be a great warband, but with no fluff about them, kinda sucks ass. Fun thing about them tho, is their name is the same as the Salamanders Legion's original name. If they originated from a traitor Salamanders successor chapter, it could explain why the Salamanders don't acknowledge any of the other chapters believed to be their successors and why there are so few of them even though they have had thousands of years to rebuild their numbers.

Also, they have 3 peculiar members among their ranks: Lorkar, a former [[Marines Malevolent]] Astartes, Nihilan, A former Astartes of the [[Salamanders]] Chapter, now a Chaos Sorcerer and Vaitan Ushorak, former [[Chaplain]] of the [[Black Dragons]]. This also mean that they're most likely an undivided warband, as despite being red, having an eight, and liking fire weapons they have sorcerers so they can't be khornate.

Running a list of these guys with tons of melee, flamer, meltas, Vindicators and choppy daemon engines is fun as hell, even though you need to use the renegade legion trait an generic warlord traits and relics.
THANK YOU, GW!

{{Chaos-Official}}

The Pyre

2023-05-27T17:52:13Z

2A02:1808:86:1EC6:A987:3466:4F45:AE21:

{{Infobox CSM Warband
|Name = The Pyre
|Heraldry = [[File:The_Pyre_Shoulder_Pad.jpg]]
|Battle Cry = Unknown
|Origin = Unknown
|Warband Leader = Unknown
|Base of Operations = Unknown
|Specialty = Close quarters flamer battles
|Strength = Unknown
|Allegiance = Chaos Undivided
|Colours = Orange with black trim
}}

The Pyre, as the name suggests, are a warband of pyromaniacs which are active in the Jericho Reach. They've been first observed in 131.M41 by Imperial Forces near the Eye of Terror. They've been a thorn in the ass of the Imperium during the Achillus Crusade, making their fiery presence felt with Strike Cruisers and a Battle Barge. They seem to have enough traitors to deploy in the size of a company. They also seem to have fortification in the Vanity System, two of them being The Torch and The Crucible.
A bit of fluff, but sadly not that used. Another warband to be included in the "WHY THE FUCK DO WE EVEN EXIST?" list.

[[File:The_Pyre_Armor.png|thumb|left|Cheesy Cheetos]]

One of the Pyre's main attractions is Goethe Darkflame, a Chosen Terminator. His hate for the Imperium and the Emperor has been fanned for so long he can burst into flame in an instant. Is he a Chaos [[Flame Falcons|Flame Falcon]]? That would be cool. He seems to keep a grudge over the higher ranking members of The Pyre. Goethe hates to retreat and is highly praised by other Pyre renegade astartes for his prowess in battle

[[File:Lord_Darkflame.jpg|thumb|left|Goethe, The Extra Large cheesy flaming Cheeto]]

{{Chaos-Official}}