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Lizardmen

2023-05-31T00:33:34Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:910C:B95D:FD56:AE05: /* Saurus */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Seraphon|Logo=Lizardy.jpeg|Alliance=Order|Lore=Lizardmen|Motto=Aztec dinosaurs riding bigger dinosaurs that shoot lasers and fuck shit up. This is how Lizardmen do.}}

{{Topquote|Here I come, drop your jaws to the floor I'm riding on my mighty laser-shooting dinosaur!|Angus MacSix, ''Laser-Shooting Dinosaur''}}

{{Topquote|A powerful AI system tasked with ensuring your safety might imprison you at home. If you asked for happiness, it might hook you up to a life support and ceaselessly stimulate your brain's pleasure centers. If you don't provide the AI with a very big library of preferred behaviors or an ironclad means for it to deduce what behavior you prefer, you'll be stuck with whatever it comes up with. And since it's a highly complex system, you may never understand it well enough to make sure you've got it right.|James Barrat}}

{{Topquote|What are you doing in my swamp?!|Shrek}}

The '''Lizardmen''' are a faction in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battles]]; with the coming of the [[Age of Sigmar]] they have been re-named "'''Seraphon'''". A variation on the [[Lizardfolk]] theme, they are a civilisation of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mayincatec Mayaincatec], [[Chaos]]-hating, reptilian creatures. Prior to Age of Sigmar they were the isolationist survivors of an ancient empire that lived in [[Lustria]], the Warhammer World's analogue to South America. As Seraphon they were reborn as creatures of star magic who live above the Mortal Realms, descending to fight as per the inscrutable will of their masters.
Except, as per the recent retcon, they’re back to being flesh and blood reptiles, just infused with Azyrite magic. They do not have a [[Warhammer 40000]] counterpart, only factions that take after various bits of them; like a caste system like Tau and having a core belief in some metaphysical movement, and being a wholly organic, genderless army with subspecies, like Tyranids (technically, the Slann were mentioned in the old editions, in the role vaguely similar to Fantasy version, but they are said to be extinct).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilian_conspiracy_theory They also run the government (don't blame me, I voted for the Skaven)].

== Meta History ==
Lizardmen are one of the factions of WFB that had [[Retcon|major changes in their lore]], like [[Orcs & Goblins]], for example. Back when [[Games Workshop]] was selling overstocked [[Dungeons & Dragons]] minis, the British overlords decided to <s>rip off</s> "borrow" [[Slaad]] into their slowly developing setting. Due to that, pre-4th Edition Slanns were not fat lazy toads, and instead were bipedal frogmen dressed as Maya-Aztec hybrids with names lifted from the menu of cocktail bars. Slanns and Lizardmen were not the same species - former were degenerate incestuous [[Old Ones (Warhammer)|Old Ones]], and the latter were just [[Lizardfolk]].

Aside from Lizardmen and Cold Ones, old Slanns also employed other races as their warrior-slaves and administrator-slaves. Those included [[Troglodyte|Troglodytes]] (dumb giant crocs), [[Amazons]] and [[Pygmies (Warhammer Fantasy)|Pygmies]]. Most of them, however, didn't survive for long. Around the 4th Edition, major changes to the lore made Slanns just another of Old Ones' tools and made them smartest and the most magical Lizardmen. Pygmies were replaced with Skinks, Troglodytes with Kroxigors, and Amazons... still aren't retconned, like [[Zoat|Zoats]] and [[Fimir]]. It is unknown what was the catalysis of these changes , but probably GW were just trying to avoid copyright issues (and accusations of racism in Pygmies' case).
==History==
[[File:FUCK YOU CHAOS.jpg|400px|right]]
Way back when the [[Old Ones#Warhammer Fantasy|Old Ones]] entered the world, they decided they'd need some extra help in <s>messing this world up</s> guiding this world to its destiny. So, they created the first of the Lizardmen, the Slann. The Slann are obese but highly-magical frog-men that spend most of their days sitting around meditating. The Old Ones, realizing the Slann wouldn't be useful for much when it came to manual labor, then created the rest of the Lizardmen, including the Saurus, Skinks, and Kroxigor. They then left the Lizardmen to make some [[elf|elves]], [[dwarf|dwarfs]], and [[human]]s. In return, the Slann used their new servants to COMMIT MULTIPLE GENOCIDES on the native races of the World, with massive armies of Saurus hunting down and annihilating the races that the Old Ones told them to (notably, the only race that was a target of the Lizardmen's genocidal campaigns and survived are [[Orcs and Goblins|everyone's favorite fungus footballers]]).

However, the Fall of the [[Eldar]] then happe-- wait a minute, wrong universe. <s>Or is it?</s> The [[Webway|dimensional gate]] the Old Ones had come through collapsed, crashing into the north of the Warhammer World and opening a portal to the <s>[[Warp]]</s> [[Realm of Chaos]]. The Lizardmen and Elves had to team up to defeat the [[Daemon]]s that started pouring through the portal. Eventually the Elves managed to redirect the flow of magic into a portal at the center of the island home, [[Ulthuan]], but not before much awesomeness on the part of the Lizardmen. And by awesomeness we mean billions of Saurus' fighting for centuries continuously in battles that spanned continents against an enemy that could warp reality. Little did the elves know, the Slann actually did much of the work on the great vortex, and without them continuously sending magical aid it probably would have collapsed a long time ago. The Slann are also responsible for maintaining the great warding, but don't ever tell the elves that or they'll throw a hissy fit.

Lizardmen for the most part are fairly primitive by the standards of the Warhammer world. Even orcs can take iron and forge it into new choppas and make chariots. Lizardmen mostly use stone tools and weapons with some bronze bits here and there. Only the beastmen are more primitive and they have brains hardwired to despise all that is artificial. This might lead you to underestimate them in battle, but the fact that they use stone swords is a secondary consideration when you consider that the ones wielding them are three meter long semi-sapient therapod dinosaurs with really durable scales. One area where they do make a lot of use of metalworking is in gold plates, which they have a lot of. These they use to keep records and important bits of information on because they live in damp stone cities in the middle of rainforests where paper would fairly quickly rot away. Other species, for reasons the Lizardmen have a hard time understanding, have an odd obsession for this yellow metal beyond simply valuing its corrosion resistance and try to steal these plates to melt them down. This really gets under their scales.

Despite being fairly isolated, they deal with just about everyone. their main problems are [[Dark Elves|emo elves]] to the north and regular human pirates and colonists. They also have a long-standing feud against [[furry|Skavens]]. Recently, the Slann have been getting off their asses and realizing that the threat needs to be met head on, so apparently they have massive armies stationed fighting all over the world, from Brettonia to the southern chaos wastes. Why they never pop up in anyone else's fluff is a mystery, though not so much when you realize they barely have fluff to begin with. They are also similar to [[Tomb Kings|tomb kings]] and [[Grandpa Dreadnought]] with their "get the hell off my lawn" policies.

===The End Times===
With the release of ''The End Times: Thanquol'', the fourth book in [[The End Times]] series, the Slann forsee that The Great Plan of the Old Ones will fail. The apocalypse begins with the Lizardmen defending their lands from a Daemonic invasion that rivals the initial Chaos Incursion after the Great Catastrophe (somehow, despite the Polar Warpgates not changing and the Elven Vortex still happily sucking up all the Magic). Unfortunately, whilst the Lizardmen put on a smashing show in stemming the [[Daemon|Daemons]], warpstone meteors rain down upon Lustria; the [[Skaven]] Grey Seers had been taught by their Daemonic [[Verminlord|Verminlords]] how to circumvent the Slann's magic and try to bring the [[Morrslieb|chaos moon]] closer to the world. This knocks out all the Slann as they try to protect the continent, just in time for the ''entirety'' of the Skaven Clan Pestilens to invade Lustria. As the booby traps set by the Lizardmen are bespoke for Daemons they do nothing to stem the Skaven tide other than giving a few headaches. Cue rampant swarms of rat-men spreading plague, burning forests, and killing Lizardmen like it's going out of fashion.

Clan Skryre, not to be out done by those pesky Grey Seers, decide to go one step further and actually blow up the chaos moon with a giant cannon. As continent-sized chunks of warpstone plummet towards the planet the Lizardmen decide that it's very likely their plan has failed and flee in their temple-pyramids-now-spaceships. The Slann use their mind-powers to disintegrate these fragments, however blowing up their brains under the magical strain. Even as the Slann die still more chunks head for the world, taking the mummified uber-Slann Lord Kroak to will himself back to life in order to contain the rest of the chunks to only fall on Lustria and the Southlands, whilst securing parts of Lustria in magical bubbles and lifting them off the world.

As such only a few Slann now exist, floating about in space.

===Age of Sigmar===
With the release of GW's re-packaged fantasy game [[Age of Sigmar]] the Lizardmen were given the IP-friendly name 'Seraphon', and were reskinned as "Daemons of Order" (now retconned) whose bodies flow with Azyrite energy (i.e. the Lizardmen now have lightning for blood).

The Seraphon went through some extensive retcons and revisions between the various editions as it was obvious that they were trying to figure out what exactly they were. Finally some concretes were extablished.

====Age of Myth====
Following the destruction of the old-world, the Seraphon were left drifting in the stellar void for ages. As they flew, the magics powering their ships began to disipate and their technologies began failing. As lizard beings, the cold of the void did not do them any favours and the Seraphon began dying out. Only the Slaan, empowered by their natural magicial might, were immune. Not wanting to lose their servants, they ordered the surviving seraphon to enter a form bio-stasis until they could find salvation. Eventually their vessels were discovered by the great godbeast Dracothian in the void near the Mortal Realms. Sensing this beast, the Slaan telepathically made contact with him and relaid the story of the destruction of their world, the nature of chaos and the hardships they endured coming to the realms. Dracothian shed tears of divine magic at the tale of the Seraphon and the Slaan managed to follow them into the skies of the realm of Azyr. The magics of the realm reenergized their depowered ships and all their arcane technology. Finding salvation at last, they reignited the spawning pools and began reviving their forces. Its unknown if any of the original Seraphon crew survived their stasis to the Mortal Realms as even the Slaans ancient memory can't remember exactly, though it is heavily implied some indeed did.

While in high Azyr
, the Slaan and their seraphon servants became infused completely with holy magics, becoming infused with pure Azerite magic. As beings of the heavens, they actually glowed when in the presence of the other realms realities, shining as if possessed. This effect led to the belief that they were spirits or demons of some kind.

The Slaan now having a respite, began the long process of deciding what to do next. Many despaired as they believed they had failed in their duty when the old world was destroyed. Surely the plan had failed without it. However many pointed out that the Great Plan involved the workings of reality itself, not functioning of singular world. In addition, during their scrying of the Mortal realms many races that had previously been touched by the old ones (Humans, Aleves etc) were present, with even artefacts of the Old Ones existing in the Realms somehow (even ones previously thought lost in the world-that-was) surely this meant that the mortal realms were essential in the Old Ones overall plans for the cosmos. The Slaan debated this for decades before finally deciding to continue with their great work in these new realms, helped along by the wise council of Lord Kroak the most powerful of all of them. As they knew that it was only a matter of time before chaos again returned to claim these realms. The various Slaan and their Temple-Ships dispersed to begin work on their own contributions to the Old Ones work. Some took it upon themselves to offer their technology and teachings to certain civilizations (such as the Agoraxi of Aqshy fame) to prepare them better for Chaos's coming. Or subtly influencing or eradicating these emerging cultures when it suited their designs. While others looked to safeguard sites of Old Ones relics or technology, or ley-lines of the Astromatrix (essentially currents of magical energy that crisscross the realms) from danger or corruption. It was during this time the two types of Seraphon became fully realized: The Starborne who remained above (or even underneath!) the realms in their temple ships, remaining suffused with primarily the power of Azyr. And the Coalesced, those Seraphon who landed their ships in the realms proper and became more suffused with those realms respective energies, becoming beings of flesh and blood but more savage in turn. Using their Exodus Engines and arcane terraforming machinery they could literally remake the lands surrounding their temple cities into jungles native to the realm they were in, allowing further defense of their new home bases.

During this time one of the most important events to occur was the rise of God Kragnos. The destruction god had gone to war against the Draconith empire and was massacring any he came across. Pleading for help, they made contact with the vaunted Lord Kroak and struck a deal with the ancient Slaan. Kroak had degreed that Kragnos existence was against the designs of the great plan and had to be removed from the equation. Together with the remaining Draconic mage-leaders and even their mutual benefactor Dracothian, they managed to overpower mad god and seal him in a prison completely removed from the rest of space-time, ending his rampage. As per the deal the Draconith handed over their remaining eggs to the safekeeping of the Starborne Seraphon, for through their great scrying arcane-machinery they saw a time when they would need to be prepared for a great calamity in the future.

====Age of Chaos====
Under Construction

===Constellations===
Each Seraphon belongs to a host of warriors named after a constellation from High Azyr.
*'''Dracothion’s Tail''': The posterboy subfaction with the best magic and Slann Starmasters around. They are the most attuned to Azyr and very much employ the standard Slann tactic of slowly planning things out and waiting for the Great Plan to line up exactly before acting.
*'''Fangs of Sotek''': Not the second coming of [[Tehenhauin]] sadly, but rather the more proactive cousin of the Dracothion’s Tail. They primarily use skinks and are the most direct in their involvement with the forces of Order. They even have groups of skink priests and chiefs set up in the [[Cities of Sigmar]] to weed out any potential chaos influence.
*'''Koatl’s Claw''': Remember those feral Lizardmen from the Dragon Isles that GW refused to talk about? Well now you got rules and lore for their AoS counterparts! This army of Saurus was royally screwed by the Clans Pestilens and forced to land their flying temple in Ghur after their Slann was mortally wounded and the Skinks went insane. Within the Realm of Beasts, they quickly devolved into savage predators, tearing into any and all who dare set foot in their jungles. This extends even to those who revered the reptiles, such as a Wanderers enclave who wished to thank the Seraphon for unwittingly saving them.
*'''Thunder Lizard''': A Coalesced host originally from Chamon, they specialize in massive war beasts and are tasked with safeguarding the various weapons bunkers of Old One technology. They’ve been dispatched across the edges of realms to reign in the more uncontrollable points of magic and recently this has led to them clashing with [[Ossiarch Bonereapers|Nagash's anti-magic bone boys]]. Most recently they became unwitting pawns of [[Be'lakor]] as he manipulated them into nuking a Silver Tower which triggered a chain reaction of realmgate explosions and now most of Chamon is shrouded in chaos-corrupted clouds.

==Mating Habits==
Yes, there's an entire section dedicated to their mating habits. However, while this will certainly disappoint the scalies out there, oddly enough Lizardmen don't have any. No joking. Despite being called Lizard''men'', the entire species (or whatever it's called given that speciation is determined by a lack of reliable inter-fertility between two populations) is composed of sexless individuals to whom sexual reproduction is as alien as a 360-degree field of view is to a human.

But this raises the question: if they don't have any functional reproductive organs, then how do new Lizardmen come about?

Well, there are big, bubbling pools of murky liquid at the heart of each temple-city. These were created by the Old Ones at the dawn of time and scheduled to produce new Lizardmen on a timetable unknowable to any but the long-gone Old Ones. The rate at which the Lizardmen spawn is assumed to be quite high, as they are constantly being worn down in battles of attrition. One source has the pools thrashing non-stop to keep up with a never ending tide of daemons. The new Lizardmen walk as fully formed adults out of the pools and are instinctively able to understand their role in society. They're then toweled off, logged in the records and sent to where they are needed. Each new batch (or Spawning) is usually composed of one specific type of Lizardman and has traits which are distinctly of that batch. Needless to say, as they are the foundation of their civilization, the Lizardmen are very protective of these pools, especially since they can't build more and don't really know how to repair the ones that get broken (usually due to Skaven involvement). If you get close to one (''if'' you get close to one), you will almost certainly get your face eaten. [[Tyranids|Hey, that sounds familiar...]]

It should also be noted that all Lizardmen, with the exception of the Skinks, are biologically immortal. They don't age, they simply get stronger and more skilled at what they do. So their attrition rates are lower than humans. It also means that the greatest Lizardmen warriors are centuries, if not [[Swarmlord|millenia old and are veterans of thousands of battles.]] [[Orks|Hey, that also]] [[Space Marine|sounds familiar...]]

So to sum up while Lizardmen look, walk and talk like Aztec dinosaurs, they are little more than a biological variant of robots: mass-produced, pre-programmed and single-minded. They have little to no free will, no goal in life besides those implanted into them upon spawning, and much like robots they often do stupid things due to logical errors in their programming or coming across things that the programmers did not see coming.

==Subspecies==
Like Orcs and beastmen, Lizardmen are divided into a number of distinct subspecies, each fulfilling a distinct role in society and in battle.

===Slann===
The '''Slann''' are the THICCCCC, magic frogs we were talking about above. They're among the most powerful wizards in the entirety of the Warhammer World, and taught the High Elves most of what they know about magic. In previous Lizardmen army books, they had a more active role in leading the species, but apparently they are now more sleepy. Slann are perhaps most known for their extremely lazy appearance. While it is true that their nap time is often spent pondering incredibly important problems with the scraps of instructions they have been left to save the world, and thanklessly channeling raw magical power so the rest of the world doesn't collapse on a daily basis, they are still obese toadmen known for sleeping their way through periods of global catastrophe, and showing up on mobility scooters that run on magical energy when one finally gets annoyed enough by its Skink attendants to get shit done.

When Slann decide to get shit done as a group, the results can quite literally change the face of the world in short order, such as the time a bunch of Slann decided to rearrange some tectonic plates to improve the world's feng shui, and accidentally fucked the Dwarfs over for the rest of time in the process.

Slann are sorted by generation, with the oldest generations being the strongest, and that power diminishing with each successive generation. The first generation is all dead at this point (with one only sorta dead exception that is a testament to just how powerful the OG frog sumbitches were), and the defacto leader of the Lizardmen is a second generation, which is also considered quite rare. Also, there are no longer any more Slann being spawned, so the ones still alive are part of a dying species... welp, [[grimdark]]. [[The End Times|End Times]] spoiler: All the Slanns are dead or gone. Many were killed by Skaven after being rendered unconscious from stopping the moon from falling, and the rest either left in their pyramid ships or died blowing up continent sized pieces of the chaos moon that the Skaven blew up with Mazdamundi sacrificing himself to blow up like 60% of the Chaos moon fragments by himself and buying the planet a few more years. Even Lord Kroak joined the party. In Age of Sigmar it's revealed some Slann survived, but their numbers dwindled until only five were left. [[Lord Kroak]] is back too. It's uncertain whether he is one of the five survivors or whether it's Kroak and five other Slann. Honestly not that surprising for Lord Kroak, death is probably just a mildly irritating inconvenience to him. Kroak now serves as racial leader in Age of Sigmar.

===Saurus===
[[File:AwesomeLizardmen.png|400px|right|thumb|SURAS ITZ]]
'''Saurus''' are the main footsoldiers of the Lizardmen and, by and large, the "face" of the army. A "face" that could rip a man in half. The average Saurus is a semi humanoid scaled therapod 2.5 meters long with a bite that can take off a grown man's arm, a tail strong enough to smash their ribcage and scales as hard as chainmail. On top of that, they carry at least a huge Macuahuitl and a bladed shield. They may seem slow and dimwitted, but don't let that fool you, it's not that they're dumb, they just only care about warfare. Saurus that manage to survive for a very long time do begin to pick up other skills and overall intelligence, eventually becoming good enough at things besides biting people's faces off that they can serve as agents, commanders, or other more unusual roles, though a Saurus growing away from something directly related to combat or warfare is all but unheard of.

Saurus themselves have a few variations, depending on their spawnings. Most of them are regular warriors with colour variations (some of which are taken as signs of greatness, like albinism for Gor-Rok). The two main variations of Saurus are:
* '''Temple Guard''': An elite group of Saurus, spawned to instinctively guard the temples and Slann, their spawning has ingrained this purpose so much they've been know to kill a Skink helper just because he looked at a Slann funny.
* '''Cold One Riders''': Saurus with the ability to get near, control and ride Cold Ones into battle. They produce the same smell as their mounts and have adapted for their feet's claws to grip Cold One' scales more efficiently, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd9D_7f7zCM you know you want them].

Additionally, during sixth edition the Saurus could be spawned under the blessing of one, and sometimes two or even three for oldbloods, of the Old Ones (which were also named and detailed as having certain portfolios). This granted these Sacred Spawning with some benefits as well as recognizable visual clues:

*'''Tzunki''': Saurus blessed by Tzunki, Old One of water, have green colored scales and show quicker reactions than the regular model, while also being adapted to a semi acquatic lifestyle like skinks.
*'''Itzl''': this blessing somewhat survived in fluff, as newer editions state that cold one riders are a specialized breed with a dinosaur-like smell and hooks for grabbing on scales and that some lizardmen like Kroq-gar are instinctively able to attune to Carnosaurs. All Saurus characters who wanted a mount had to pick this.
*'''Quetzl''': this blessing from the divine Old One warrior manifests as additional bone spurs and hardened scales, which grants added protection. Kroq-gar had this as well.
*'''Huanchi''': no canon look for the Saurus chosen by the jaguar-god Old One of earth and night, but we can assume they are supposed to be more drab or camouflaged as it makes them more stealthy and able to get through harsh terrain without breaking a sweat.
*'''Sotek''': blood for the serpent god! Unsurprisingly, this is for Skinks as well as Saurus, cause Sotek cares not whence the blood flows, and it makes lizardmen even more aggressive, as well as red-crested.
*'''Tlazcotl''': Saurus are already near unflinching, but the yellow-scaled chosen of Tlazcotl took a page of 40K and ran with it as they Know No Fear- as well as no Terror and no other psychology effect.
*'''Chotec''': the Old One of the Sun also makes his orange-scaled Saurus less sluggish, filling them with the power of the sun, except it tranlsates to sprinting speed more than fighting reactions.
*'''Tepok''': the lizardmen apparently had a Coatl themed Old One, and their color was purple and they made Saurus highly resistant to magic.
*'''Xhotl''': only Kroq-gar had this, and he kept it throughout the editions as it is the blessing that provides him and his mount with a magical forcefield and zaps with magic anyone who manages to get through. As this blessing only showed up in Saurus from the lost city of Xhotl (named after the Old One Xhotl, which clearly was not the god of creativity), Kroq-gar is the last recipient of it.
*'''Blessed Mark of the Old Ones''': this was the only one who could not manifest together with any other spawning, as it meant that the Saurus (or Skink!) character bearing it was marked for greatness by all the old ones. It made the chosen lizard albino, a concept that got folded into the character of Gor Rok.

And the two commander ranks of Saurus are:
* '''Oldbloods''': The oldest, strongest, and most cunning of the Saurus caste. They are the Generals of the Lizardmen, and got the rank by being the meanest kids on the block through millennia of fighting just about everyone.
* '''Scar-Veterans''': Saurus Champions who are exactly what it says on the tin: veterans who got through their fair share of battles and are on their way to Oldblood status. They either travel the world alone, seeking lost relics or battle, or lead their fellow lizardmen as secondary commanders.

===Skinks===
'''Skinks''' are the smallest type of Lizardmen and the smartest save for Slanns. They are about Skaven sized and a bit leaner and while not particularly strong they are quick, dexterous and nimble. They act as the farmers, administrators, priests and artisans of Lizardmen society. They are the most versatile and flexible of Lizardmen and probably the one which would be best suited to have a friendly conversation with a Human. Despite their small size, they can be a formidable military force, as they have highly-accurate poisoned blowpipes (<strike>they used to have bows and arrows which got retconned for some reason</strike>). A few of them can use magic, not at Slann levels of course, but still. They are also the caretakers for most of the dinosaurs used by the Lizardmen, and thus are [[Awesome]]. Awesome enough to get their own [[meme]] (that didn't really survive through the newer editions): "remove X, replace with Skinks."

They are also cute.

*'''Skink Priests''': Born to manipulate the winds of magic and attend to the prophecies of events yet to occur, Priests are the highest-ranking members of the skink caste and can lead entire armies as well as cast spells with devastating precision. They occasionally have to take the reigns and make the hard decicions for the Lizardmen when a Slann won't wake up. Unsurprisingly, they are the most vulnerable in close combat. They historically come in Heavens and Beast flavors.
*'''Skink Chiefs''': Born to lead with exceptional cunning and tenacity, Chiefs are responsible for overseeing patrols, construction, message delivery, and commanding armies in battle. Skink Chiefs usually fight atop a dinosaur and with blowpipes but when the situation boils down to close combat, they can run circles around the enemy with their speed and agility in a dance of death.
*'''Skink Braves''': Veterans who have survived several battles and display more combat aptitude than regular skinks. Braves will fight alongside each other in their own cohorts or command regular skink cohorts.

*'''Chameleon Skinks''': An extraordinarily rare subspecies that is dedicated to scouting, infiltration, ambush, and hunting. They have the unique ability to manipulate the color and texture of their skin which is the biological equivalent of an integral cloaking device, allowing them to blend in flawlessly with the surrounding area. More badass than the moniker of stealth specialists may have you believe.
*'''Red Crested Skinks''': The alpha variation of the Skink species is blessed with being faster, stronger, sharper and brighter than their peers. Much better warriors than the average Skink as a result. The Temple-City of Chaqua was known for a spawning of Red Crested Skinks before being depopulated and ruined by a terrible plague.

*'''Skinks''': The basic Skink is a workhorse of the Lizardmen, filling light combat roles or as riders and support gunners to the various dinos the Lizardmen bring to battle, but much more so filling out the vast majority of crafting, managerial, logistics, and other work that a society needs done to function. As mentioned, besides the Slann, the basic Skink is far more intelligent, skilled, and flexible in role than any other class of Lizardman. If you can think of something necessary to a society or war engine that hasn't been mentioned, rest assured that a Skink somewhere is scampering along doing it. By far the most numerous member of the Lizardmen, or of the various Skink castes outlined here. Also known for being one of the most adorable things in Fantasy that are absolutely worth the mauling you'd get trying to hug one.

===Kroxigor===
'''Kroxigor''' are to Skinks what Ogres are to [[Halfling]]s (at least in the Warhammer World): giant powerful but dumber versions. They're essentially giant bipedal crocodiles who spawned at the same time and in the same ponds as skinks. They're the main workers and builders of the Lizardmen, which also means they are the least bright as they were literally created with menial labor as their purpose. As such they rely on skinks for direction in almost about everything, and if left by their own devices they will act based on their animal insticts: when marching to war the Skinks tie heavy clubs to the wrists of Kroxigors, so that they do not throw the weapons away in the attempt to [[RIP AND TEAR]] the enemy barehan- ehm clawed, and in battle they often work together with Skinks, forming units termed "Skrox" by the fans. '''HOWEVER''', in a cooperative collaboration between GW and CA, Kroxigors have been given something of a sanctioned lore rework in Total War: Warhammer 2 in which they become smarter and stronger with age like the Saurus, meaning that they're not so dependent on skinks for directions and can finally lead Lizardmen armies in battle (also, [[Awesome|they death roll motherfuckers like actual crocodiles]]). The capacity to lead still seems to be a rarity amongst the Kroxigor, but they are much less likely [[Derp|to have an aneurysm out of sheer idiocy if left to their own devices]]. This change has been positively welcomed as a breath of fresh air and goes a long way to explaining the backstory of Nakai, the Wanderer.

* '''Kroxigor Ancients''': These Kroxigors have lived for several millennia and are much stronger and more intelligent than their younger kin, making them significantly more dangerous.

==DINOSAWZ==
Lizardmen are also known for their use of [[dinosaur]]s found on their native continent of Lustria. Thus they have the best monsters and cavalry period. Dinosaurs bitch. Like fucking Jurassic Park. <s>(and like Jurassic Park they are fantasy dinosaurs with little basis in science and firm roots in awesomeness)</s>

===Stegadons===
Probably the most well known dinosaur used by the Lizardmen, this stubborn, motherfucking Triceratops hits like a freight train and can trample all who oppose the Lizardmen underneath his feet. Stegadons are, unsurprisingly given the harsh nature of Lustria being a continent sized Catachan, angry all the fucking time, extremely territorial and not obligatory herbivores, which adds even more thrill to the life of Skink handlers. They usually carry Howdahs on their back which include a Skink crew, and a FUCKHUEG bow. As the stegadons age, their tempers cool and they will be able to carry either 2 massive blowpipes which fire buckets of dice, or a mystical Engine of the Gods that can buff, or shoot lightning bolts like a [[video games|Red Alert]] Tesla coil.

===Carnosaurs===
This guy is based on the large and awesome theropod dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus, Gigantosaurus, and Allosaurus, and can [[RIP AND TEAR|rip the throats out of Dragons]], knocking them down a peg like the pussies they are. In fact, the reason there are no dragons in Lustria is because [[Awesome|Carnosaurs kept hunting and killing them]] so they decided to settle somewhere less hostile. The newest version of the model adds additional cool factor by including a killing claw like the ones seen on Dromaeosaurs, such as Velociraptor. They also have pretty well-developed arms for a theropod, so make short arm jokes at your peril. Only the beardliest of Saurus can ride them, as even the babies can rip a human in half: once again it is up to the unlucky skinks to steal eggs from a Carnosaur nest, which might very well be the most dangerous place in the wilderness of Lustria, dodge an enraged Carnosaur mother and raise baby dinosaurs that can very well take a skink's head off in a single bite. Even when fully trained, for a lack of better term, Carnosaurs are constantly twitching around the edges and even the most strong-willed Saurus oldblood rider knows that when a Carnosaur tastes blood, all they can do is sit tight and enjoy the ride as everything the Lizardmen army beholds get torn a new [[Anal Circumference]]. In summary they spill blood in the name of the Old Ones and don't give a shit about that pushover [[Khorne]].

===Troglodons===
Looks like a Blind ''Spinosaurus aegyptiacus'', freaking [[Awesome|awesome]] and anybody would pay money to see it fight a Carnosaur Jurassic Park style. For some reason a Skink can ride them. This is because they team up and search for the lost plaques of the Old-Ones in a 1970's buddy cop film. Despite their blindness, they are potent hunters that use their poisonous spit as a deadly ranged prelude to a charge.

===Bastiladons===
The Lustrian equivalent of Ankylosaurus mixed with a Scutosaurus, the walking tank of dinosaurs, and the first recipient of a 2+ Scaly Skin save. Even a big Dragon, T-rex (ahem, CARNOSAUR), or Greater Daemon sometimes struggle to get through. Perhaps to the relief of Skink handlers, these guys are somewhat more chill that the other dinosaurs and their thicc armor means they are able to carry some of the more unwieldy devices of the Old Ones: the ark of Sotek which constantly vomits poisonous snakes (they can't really bite the armored Bastiladon who can safely waltz around with the tide of sneks coming from its back) or the Solar Engine of Chotec, a literal laser cannon that overheats so hard when firing that other non-naturally insulated beings can't hope to carry one around without risking fifth degree burnings.
Despite their more easygoing nature, they are still quite capable at breaking the bones of whatever poor saps were ordered to stand in the way of one, and their tail clubs can shatter some monstrous knees, though they rarely attain the refined destructive potential of a Stegadon or Carnosaur.

===Cold Ones===
Not to be confused with the [[Old Ones]], Cold Ones are basically [[Awesome|velociraptor-like animals that are used as cavalry.]] They are also used by the [[Dark Elves (Warhammer)|Dark Elves]], who have much cooler Cold Ones. The official, in-universe explanation for this discrepancy is that the two types are related-but-distinct breeds of Cold One; the cool ones are native to [[Naggaroth]] and based off of irl Velociraptors, whereas the derpy ones are native to [[Lustria]] and based off of Spinosauroids.
For once, the Skinks are not left with the short straw as Cold Ones naturally respond the innate magnetism of Itzl-blessed Saurus and the two form a very close couple... no, not *that* kind of couple, what is wrong with you?

Perhaps ironically, they are not [[Meme|clever girls]] in the slightest, and are noted as being very dull-witted, and easily overwhelmed by chaotic situations, adding to the importance of the bond between rider and mount.

In related news, playing against Ironjawz is a great opportunity to have a Cold One with the Boyz. *rimshot*

===Horned Ones===
A relative of the Cold Ones that are rare in Lustria, but prominent in the Southlands (the Warhammer World equivalent of Africa). They are distinguished from their counterparts by the fact that they are smarter, slightly faster and are based upon ''pachycephalosaurus'' with sharp teeth. Generally better than Cold Ones in every way, but are too rare to field in any significant numbers. They used to have their own models, known as Tichi-Huichi's Horned One Riders, serving as a unit in Dogs of War armies. Lizardmen mercenaries? Do want!

===Salamanders===
Not technically a Dinosaur but is still [[Awesome|awesome]]. The older models seem to be based off of Dimetrodon (again not really a dinosaur(<strike> not dinosaurs at all, but a synapsid </strike> ) and shoot flaming poison like living artillery. They are escorted by teams of Skink handlers who do their best to convince the fire breathing critters to spit in the right direction, while not getting roasted or mauled in the process. While primarily used for their ranged applications, Salamanders are perfectly capable war beasts in their own right, which makes dealing with them a troublesome conundrum for commanders. They were given a new model in AoS, as well as a “fancier” name: the Spawn of Chotec. They’re implanted with Old One technology that their skink handlers use to direct their fiery fury, in a manner similar to a cat being led around with a laser pointer.

===Razordons===
Looks like what would happen if a Kentrosaurus was on steroids. Shoots out spikes at [[Memes| Sufficient Velocity]]. Very nasty, and usually has the side affects of being pinned to a wall like a "Lets pin the tail of a Donkey" game. Deployed in a manner very similar to Salamanders.

===Terradons===
Not a Dinosaur, just an average looking Pteranodon, but as large as a car. Terradons are the sneaky flyers of Lustria, hovering above the canopy for days at a time in search of unaware prey- that is, anything smaller. In battle, Skinks riding them employ primarily ranged weapons, and have the mounts carry large rocks to drop on unsuspecting warm-bloods. Their new models are also very sexy, unlike their retarded brothers.

===Ripperdactyls===
Just look at the name. GW is really phoning it in now aren't they. Otherwise, its a Pterosaur similar to the Terradon but with more of a basis in Pterosaurs like Rhamphorhynchus. These googly eyed bastards, like most of the dinosaur in this list, are simmering pots of pent up aggressions and hold the distinction of being the one cavalry unit where the mount does all the job while the rider tries desperately to hold on. Clearly for the genius tactical minds of Skink Chiefs this flying meatgrinder is not enough, so they have Chameleon Skinks hide Lustrian Bloat Toads (favorite prey of Ripperdactyls) into the pouches of unlucky invaders before sending the Rippers to rip them a new one. Think seagulls swarming pizza leftovers on a beach, but each seagull is bigger than a man and screaming for blood, and some lizard asshole snuck some pepperoni into your pockets.

===Raptadons===
Brand new feathered raptor dinos introduced in the 2023 Seraphon refresh for AoS. They are ridden by skinks and are described as lightning fast, intelligent, and deadly. They are also the first dinos to bear feathers, and are likely an attempt by GW to align with modern paleo theories. The scales vs feathers argument now coming to a game table near you! They come in two varieties, the ranged skirmisher raptadon hunters, and the melee focused raptadon chargers.

===Aggradons===
Replacing the Cold Ones (at least in AoS), Aggradons serve as the fierce heavy cavalry of Saurus riders. Unlike the feathered raptadons, aggradons remain fully scaled, Jurassic Park-esk raptors that are violent murder machines that only the boldest and most skilled Saurus can tame. The longer they remain in battle, the more their bloodlust flares up (translating to more claw and jaw attacks as turns pass by in extended combat). Scar-Veterans are known to also ride aggradons.

===Dread Saurians===
Following GW's desire to create big monsters for Forge World to sell, the Dread Saurian was given rules in the Monstrous Arcanum Vol.1 (More was planned, obviously) and was awesome. This thing is larger than even the Carnosaur, is pretty rare and is so powerful that even the Slann can't control it without bedecking it in glyph-inscribed armour. These things are captured, presumably as eggs, and placed inside mountainside Temples, there they are worshipped as a physical manifestation of the Old Ones power. However, when shit hits the fan, a Slann will order a Temples gates unlocked and he'll release the power of the Dread Saurian on Lizardmens enemies. While the Dread Saurians stats are slightly better than a Carnosaur and has the same D3 Wounds bite, its main power comes from its options (which, for some reason, aren't restricted to just Lizardmen, derp). This includes turning it into a ghost (making it Ethereal), giving it Flaming Impact Hits, putting a huge stone disc on its neck to boost it's Toughness to 8(!) at the expense of 2 less Movement, but probably the most amusing (and something Creed would appreciate) is giving it the Ambushers special rule. Nothing says "fuck your Warmachines" quite like a T7 3+ monster charging you. All these buffs are named after Old Ones worshipped by the Lizardmen. Stick it in a list with Kroak and watch as it takes down whatever models you want it to. If it dies? Just use skele-frog to summon him back to continue his rampage. Can easily take Alarielle with this method.

This isn't the only interesting thing about it. It had a strange development history. It was released in Monstrous Arcanum Vol.1 before Lizardmen 8th edition by Forge World. In the book, the art depicted it as a sail-less Spinosaurus, yet when the model (finally) arrived, it had lost it's crocodile-like head, got more spikes and was now too-swole-to-control. We asked Forge World's Facebook page (when it had a Q&A) why it changed and were told, simply, "She wanted to change it". While this was a simple answer, it was clearly bullshit, as, when 8th Edition Lizardmen was released, we suddenly had a Troglodon, which was essentially a blind Spinosaurus. What clearly happened was a classic "Failure to Communicate" by GW between its departments. The artist for FW was told to design a "1UP" of the Carnosaur, so based it on a Spinosaurus, the only known carnivore bigger than a T-Rex (Gigantosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus want words), then when the time came to actually design the model, FW learnt that the Troglodon had been designed. Thus, not wanting to make a "1UP" of a brand new model, they redesigned it to what it is now. But it gets more interesting still! In the Lustria Campaign Book, there is a conversion model of an Arcanodon with a EoTG's on top. If you compare the Arcanodon's pose with the Dread Saurian, it's nearly identical.

Fun Fact! The Dread Saurian model is so big, a human-sized model can fit inside its mouth. Conversion time, people!

As of 01/10/2023 the Dread Saurian model was discontinued from Forgeworld (Alongside most of the FW AoS range), rest in peace big lizard.

===More Dinosaurs===
Since the Lizardmen have pretty much every iconic Dinosaur, the only thing they are missing now is a massive Sauropod like ''Amphicoelias fragillimus''...That . Would . Be . [[Awesome|Awesome]]. A Thunder-Lizard perhaps? Otherwise they could add it as the Arcanadon which used to exist back from the Lustria Sourcebook (although it is still in the fluff.)

There are several mentions of dinosaurs that the Lizardmen have, which don't have rules or models. Pliodons are described acting as "living ferries across the wide canals", while Voxosaurs "emitted their piercing screams to sound alarms" - A bit like a rooster, I imagine. One could pretty freely imagine a whole host of Flintstones-esque dinosaurs filling various appliance roles, if you wanted to take the piss out of it. As mentioned, the others are Thunder Lizards and Arcanadons.

==Soulbound==
While initially missing from the available options for [[Age of Sigmar Roleplay]], there was eventually the web supplement ''Stars and Scales'' that allowed players to take the role of a scary star-lizardman, and they're predictably very unique compared to most beings. Due to their nature as star-formed entities bound to their Slann Masters and a great plan that is ineffable to all but their star-frogs, the Seraphon are incapable of contributing or using Soulfire akin to the [[Stormcast Eternals]].
As with the wargame, the Seraphon are split between both the well-protected Saurus and the nimble Skinks as well as the ''Starborne'' Seraphon (Those who are composed of starlight and thus can blind those who harm them) and the ''Coalesced'' Seraphon (Those who adapted to their realms rather than the stars and became more aggressive but poor diplomats.)

As for backgrounds, Seraphon heroes can pick from the following Constellations to hail from:
*'''Dracothion's Tail (Starborne only):''' As Dracothion aided Sigmar in the forming of the mortal realms, so too do these Seraphon come to aid the champions of the gods when the stars deem it right. This constellation is one of the very few to have several Slann on hand, and they have taught their disciples some of their arcane wisdom. Heroes from this constellation can spend Mettle to teleport, potentially blinding anyone near them when they arrive in a flash of light.
*'''Fangs of Sotek (Starborne only):''' Perhaps the faction of Seraphon most familiar to the mortal realms, the Fangs of Sotek have often lent their aid to the heroes of order when it so suits them. This is not for the sake of altruism so much as it is for the sake of keeping their potential allies and foes under tight observation and manipulation. Heroes from this constellation have an easier time communicating with other species and are much swifter when the battle begins to quickly silence the opposition.
*'''Koatl's Claw (Coalesced Only):''' The result of Skaven sabotage causing their pyramid-ship to crash into the realm of Ghur and crippling their Slann. Any Seraphon spawned since this incident are now utterly unhinged, bent on waging war on any foe in pursuit for some sort of satisfaction. Heroes from this constellation deal more damage the worse they are injured, but suffer the inability to manage long-term plans.
*'''Thunder Lizard (Coalesced Only):''' The Thunder Lizard will accomplish its agendas with no compromise and no quarter - After all, they only see their plan as the ideal. Though they may join a Binding for the sake of accomplishing a common goal, it will not be one that will always benefit their mortal allies, and they will not accept any deviations from the plan. Heroes from this constellation are wardens of ancient treasures and thus start play with one such relic as well as the ability to double their training when dealing with Seraphon relics - On top of that, the ''Animal Friend'' talent is now available to all archetypes.

The supplement provides a paltry two archetypes available to only the Seraphon. Skinks get '''Skink Starpriest''', and Saurus get '''Saurus Oldblood'''.

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen|Tactics/Lizardmen]]
* [[Warhammer/Tactics/6th_Edition/Lizardmen|Lizardmen tactics for the glorious 6th edition]]
*[[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Seraphon]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3CmxjTFv_Y How you make Total Warhammer II more awesome than Total Warhammer? Add the Lizardmen!]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHalXjs0cDA&ab_channel=LouiseMcClafferty Musical accompaniment for playing Lizardmen/Seraphon. Be honest, did you think it was going to be anything else?]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Lizardmen (Warhammer Fantasy)]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.lustria-online.com/ Lustria-Online.com, the main Lizardmen and Seraphon army forum.]
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{{Lizardmen Troops}}
{{Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle}}
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==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
File:Slann and their Magical Force Fields.jpg|Look into this frog's eyes. He's half-asleep, probably drunk, and he's ''still'' going toe-to-toe against a Lord of Change in a magic fight.
File:A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.jpg|A typical Lizardmen city.
File:ThunderLizard.jpg|Please GW. I beg you. ADD THIS (Even if it's ripping off Dinotopia, with some change it'd be a good original idea)
File:ScaliePorn.png|Even Lizards need to beat one off sometimes.
File:Lizard lesbian kiss.jpg | Lizard woman are lesbians!?
File:Seraphon_AKA_Lizardmen_VS_Cowardly_Wizards.jpg|Seraphon riding Derpasaurus
File:Skink.PNG|Love makes us do strange things in our fanon. Like <strike>reinterpreting the Great Plan</strike> <strike>Commiting Heresy</strike> being circumventive and discordant.
File:TWWH2_-_XFHuPdk.jpg|Lizardmen "Watercraft." Watercraft may be a misnomer, seeing as [[Derp|they're completely made of stone]] and are instead projecting a magical repulsion field from the hulls that allows them to skim over the water or at least maintain an artificial buoyancy to prevent them from sinking into the ocean.
File:TWWH2_-_tk5cjjsi56r41.jpg|There's a difference between "can't" and "won't".
File:Warhammer_-_1576358548147.png|Gold may not corrode over the centuries, but it can still break.
File:TWWH2_-_1588681734_Adorable.png|When you're cursed with cuteness and overwhelming adoration.
File:TWWH2_-_Metallurgical_Confusion.PNG|The writers can't make up their mind in regards to armor composition.
File:Warhammer_-_A_confused_painter.PNG|For those who were wondering: GW has never specified a proper way to paint Lizardmen.
File:TWWH2_-_ym4otcpy6csa1.jpg|Visiting Lustria may result in instant regret instead of easy money.
</gallery>
</center>

Lizardmen

2023-05-31T00:11:34Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:910C:B95D:FD56:AE05: /* Age of Myth */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Seraphon|Logo=Lizardy.jpeg|Alliance=Order|Lore=Lizardmen|Motto=Aztec dinosaurs riding bigger dinosaurs that shoot lasers and fuck shit up. This is how Lizardmen do.}}

{{Topquote|Here I come, drop your jaws to the floor I'm riding on my mighty laser-shooting dinosaur!|Angus MacSix, ''Laser-Shooting Dinosaur''}}

{{Topquote|A powerful AI system tasked with ensuring your safety might imprison you at home. If you asked for happiness, it might hook you up to a life support and ceaselessly stimulate your brain's pleasure centers. If you don't provide the AI with a very big library of preferred behaviors or an ironclad means for it to deduce what behavior you prefer, you'll be stuck with whatever it comes up with. And since it's a highly complex system, you may never understand it well enough to make sure you've got it right.|James Barrat}}

{{Topquote|What are you doing in my swamp?!|Shrek}}

The '''Lizardmen''' are a faction in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battles]]; with the coming of the [[Age of Sigmar]] they have been re-named "'''Seraphon'''". A variation on the [[Lizardfolk]] theme, they are a civilisation of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mayincatec Mayaincatec], [[Chaos]]-hating, reptilian creatures. Prior to Age of Sigmar they were the isolationist survivors of an ancient empire that lived in [[Lustria]], the Warhammer World's analogue to South America. As Seraphon they were reborn as creatures of star magic who live above the Mortal Realms, descending to fight as per the inscrutable will of their masters.
Except, as per the recent retcon, they’re back to being flesh and blood reptiles, just infused with Azyrite magic. They do not have a [[Warhammer 40000]] counterpart, only factions that take after various bits of them; like a caste system like Tau and having a core belief in some metaphysical movement, and being a wholly organic, genderless army with subspecies, like Tyranids (technically, the Slann were mentioned in the old editions, in the role vaguely similar to Fantasy version, but they are said to be extinct).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilian_conspiracy_theory They also run the government (don't blame me, I voted for the Skaven)].

== Meta History ==
Lizardmen are one of the factions of WFB that had [[Retcon|major changes in their lore]], like [[Orcs & Goblins]], for example. Back when [[Games Workshop]] was selling overstocked [[Dungeons & Dragons]] minis, the British overlords decided to <s>rip off</s> "borrow" [[Slaad]] into their slowly developing setting. Due to that, pre-4th Edition Slanns were not fat lazy toads, and instead were bipedal frogmen dressed as Maya-Aztec hybrids with names lifted from the menu of cocktail bars. Slanns and Lizardmen were not the same species - former were degenerate incestuous [[Old Ones (Warhammer)|Old Ones]], and the latter were just [[Lizardfolk]].

Aside from Lizardmen and Cold Ones, old Slanns also employed other races as their warrior-slaves and administrator-slaves. Those included [[Troglodyte|Troglodytes]] (dumb giant crocs), [[Amazons]] and [[Pygmies (Warhammer Fantasy)|Pygmies]]. Most of them, however, didn't survive for long. Around the 4th Edition, major changes to the lore made Slanns just another of Old Ones' tools and made them smartest and the most magical Lizardmen. Pygmies were replaced with Skinks, Troglodytes with Kroxigors, and Amazons... still aren't retconned, like [[Zoat|Zoats]] and [[Fimir]]. It is unknown what was the catalysis of these changes , but probably GW were just trying to avoid copyright issues (and accusations of racism in Pygmies' case).
==History==
[[File:FUCK YOU CHAOS.jpg|400px|right]]
Way back when the [[Old Ones#Warhammer Fantasy|Old Ones]] entered the world, they decided they'd need some extra help in <s>messing this world up</s> guiding this world to its destiny. So, they created the first of the Lizardmen, the Slann. The Slann are obese but highly-magical frog-men that spend most of their days sitting around meditating. The Old Ones, realizing the Slann wouldn't be useful for much when it came to manual labor, then created the rest of the Lizardmen, including the Saurus, Skinks, and Kroxigor. They then left the Lizardmen to make some [[elf|elves]], [[dwarf|dwarfs]], and [[human]]s. In return, the Slann used their new servants to COMMIT MULTIPLE GENOCIDES on the native races of the World, with massive armies of Saurus hunting down and annihilating the races that the Old Ones told them to (notably, the only race that was a target of the Lizardmen's genocidal campaigns and survived are [[Orcs and Goblins|everyone's favorite fungus footballers]]).

However, the Fall of the [[Eldar]] then happe-- wait a minute, wrong universe. <s>Or is it?</s> The [[Webway|dimensional gate]] the Old Ones had come through collapsed, crashing into the north of the Warhammer World and opening a portal to the <s>[[Warp]]</s> [[Realm of Chaos]]. The Lizardmen and Elves had to team up to defeat the [[Daemon]]s that started pouring through the portal. Eventually the Elves managed to redirect the flow of magic into a portal at the center of the island home, [[Ulthuan]], but not before much awesomeness on the part of the Lizardmen. And by awesomeness we mean billions of Saurus' fighting for centuries continuously in battles that spanned continents against an enemy that could warp reality. Little did the elves know, the Slann actually did much of the work on the great vortex, and without them continuously sending magical aid it probably would have collapsed a long time ago. The Slann are also responsible for maintaining the great warding, but don't ever tell the elves that or they'll throw a hissy fit.

Lizardmen for the most part are fairly primitive by the standards of the Warhammer world. Even orcs can take iron and forge it into new choppas and make chariots. Lizardmen mostly use stone tools and weapons with some bronze bits here and there. Only the beastmen are more primitive and they have brains hardwired to despise all that is artificial. This might lead you to underestimate them in battle, but the fact that they use stone swords is a secondary consideration when you consider that the ones wielding them are three meter long semi-sapient therapod dinosaurs with really durable scales. One area where they do make a lot of use of metalworking is in gold plates, which they have a lot of. These they use to keep records and important bits of information on because they live in damp stone cities in the middle of rainforests where paper would fairly quickly rot away. Other species, for reasons the Lizardmen have a hard time understanding, have an odd obsession for this yellow metal beyond simply valuing its corrosion resistance and try to steal these plates to melt them down. This really gets under their scales.

Despite being fairly isolated, they deal with just about everyone. their main problems are [[Dark Elves|emo elves]] to the north and regular human pirates and colonists. They also have a long-standing feud against [[furry|Skavens]]. Recently, the Slann have been getting off their asses and realizing that the threat needs to be met head on, so apparently they have massive armies stationed fighting all over the world, from Brettonia to the southern chaos wastes. Why they never pop up in anyone else's fluff is a mystery, though not so much when you realize they barely have fluff to begin with. They are also similar to [[Tomb Kings|tomb kings]] and [[Grandpa Dreadnought]] with their "get the hell off my lawn" policies.

===The End Times===
With the release of ''The End Times: Thanquol'', the fourth book in [[The End Times]] series, the Slann forsee that The Great Plan of the Old Ones will fail. The apocalypse begins with the Lizardmen defending their lands from a Daemonic invasion that rivals the initial Chaos Incursion after the Great Catastrophe (somehow, despite the Polar Warpgates not changing and the Elven Vortex still happily sucking up all the Magic). Unfortunately, whilst the Lizardmen put on a smashing show in stemming the [[Daemon|Daemons]], warpstone meteors rain down upon Lustria; the [[Skaven]] Grey Seers had been taught by their Daemonic [[Verminlord|Verminlords]] how to circumvent the Slann's magic and try to bring the [[Morrslieb|chaos moon]] closer to the world. This knocks out all the Slann as they try to protect the continent, just in time for the ''entirety'' of the Skaven Clan Pestilens to invade Lustria. As the booby traps set by the Lizardmen are bespoke for Daemons they do nothing to stem the Skaven tide other than giving a few headaches. Cue rampant swarms of rat-men spreading plague, burning forests, and killing Lizardmen like it's going out of fashion.

Clan Skryre, not to be out done by those pesky Grey Seers, decide to go one step further and actually blow up the chaos moon with a giant cannon. As continent-sized chunks of warpstone plummet towards the planet the Lizardmen decide that it's very likely their plan has failed and flee in their temple-pyramids-now-spaceships. The Slann use their mind-powers to disintegrate these fragments, however blowing up their brains under the magical strain. Even as the Slann die still more chunks head for the world, taking the mummified uber-Slann Lord Kroak to will himself back to life in order to contain the rest of the chunks to only fall on Lustria and the Southlands, whilst securing parts of Lustria in magical bubbles and lifting them off the world.

As such only a few Slann now exist, floating about in space.

===Age of Sigmar===
With the release of GW's re-packaged fantasy game [[Age of Sigmar]] the Lizardmen were given the IP-friendly name 'Seraphon', and were reskinned as "Daemons of Order" (now retconned) whose bodies flow with Azyrite energy (i.e. the Lizardmen now have lightning for blood).

The Seraphon went through some extensive retcons and revisions between the various editions as it was obvious that they were trying to figure out what exactly they were. Finally some concretes were extablished.

====Age of Myth====
Following the destruction of the old-world, the Seraphon were left drifting in the stellar void for ages. As they flew, the magics powering their ships began to disipate and their technologies began failing. As lizard beings, the cold of the void did not do them any favours and the Seraphon began dying out. Only the Slaan, empowered by their natural magicial might, were immune. Not wanting to lose their servants, they ordered the surviving seraphon to enter a form bio-stasis until they could find salvation. Eventually their vessels were discovered by the great godbeast Dracothian in the void near the Mortal Realms. Sensing this beast, the Slaan telepathically made contact with him and relaid the story of the destruction of their world, the nature of chaos and the hardships they endured coming to the realms. Dracothian shed tears of divine magic at the tale of the Seraphon and the Slaan managed to follow them into the skies of the realm of Azyr. The magics of the realm reenergized their depowered ships and all their arcane technology. Finding salvation at last, they reignited the spawning pools and began reviving their forces. Its unknown if any of the original Seraphon crew survived their stasis to the Mortal Realms as even the Slaans ancient memory can't remember exactly, though it is heavily implied some indeed did.

While in high Azyr
, the Slaan and their seraphon servants became infused completely with holy magics, becoming infused with pure Azerite magic. As beings of the heavens, they actually glowed when in the presence of the other realms realities, shining as if possessed. This effect led to the belief that they were spirits or demons of some kind.

The Slaan now having a respite, began the long process of deciding what to do next. Many despaired as they believed they had failed in their duty when the old world was destroyed. Surely the plan had failed without it. However many pointed out that the Great Plan involved the workings of reality itself, not functioning of singular world. In addition, during their scrying of the Mortal realms many races that had previously been touched by the old ones (Humans, Aleves etc) were present, with even artefacts of the Old Ones existing in the Realms somehow (even ones previously thought lost in the world-that-was) surely this meant that the mortal realms were essential in the Old Ones overall plans for the cosmos. The Slaan debated this for decades before finally deciding to continue with their great work in these new realms, helped along by the wise council of Lord Kroak the most powerful of all of them. As they knew that it was only a matter of time before chaos again returned to claim these realms. The various Slaan and their Temple-Ships dispersed to begin work on their own contributions to the Old Ones work. Some took it upon themselves to offer their technology and teachings to certain civilizations (such as the Agoraxi of Aqshy fame) to prepare them better for Chaos's coming. Or subtly influencing or eradicating these emerging cultures when it suited their designs. While others looked to safeguard sites of Old Ones relics or technology, or ley-lines of the Astromatrix (essentially currents of magical energy that crisscross the realms) from danger or corruption. It was during this time the two types of Seraphon became fully realized: The Starborne who remained above (or even underneath!) the realms in their temple ships, remaining suffused with primarily the power of Azyr. And the Coalesced, those Seraphon who landed their ships in the realms proper and became more suffused with those realms respective energies, becoming beings of flesh and blood but more savage in turn. Using their Exodus Engines and arcane terraforming machinery they could literally remake the lands surrounding their temple cities into jungles native to the realm they were in, allowing further defense of their new home bases.

During this time one of the most important events to occur was the rise of God Kragnos. The destruction god had gone to war against the Draconith empire and was massacring any he came across. Pleading for help, they made contact with the vaunted Lord Kroak and struck a deal with the ancient Slaan. Kroak had degreed that Kragnos existence was against the designs of the great plan and had to be removed from the equation. Together with the remaining Draconic mage-leaders and even their mutual benefactor Dracothian, they managed to overpower mad god and seal him in a prison completely removed from the rest of space-time, ending his rampage. As per the deal the Draconith handed over their remaining eggs to the safekeeping of the Starborne Seraphon, for through their great scrying arcane-machinery they saw a time when they would need to be prepared for a great calamity in the future.

====Age of Chaos====
Under Construction

===Constellations===
Each Seraphon belongs to a host of warriors named after a constellation from High Azyr.
*'''Dracothion’s Tail''': The posterboy subfaction with the best magic and Slann Starmasters around. They are the most attuned to Azyr and very much employ the standard Slann tactic of slowly planning things out and waiting for the Great Plan to line up exactly before acting.
*'''Fangs of Sotek''': Not the second coming of [[Tehenhauin]] sadly, but rather the more proactive cousin of the Dracothion’s Tail. They primarily use skinks and are the most direct in their involvement with the forces of Order. They even have groups of skink priests and chiefs set up in the [[Cities of Sigmar]] to weed out any potential chaos influence.
*'''Koatl’s Claw''': Remember those feral Lizardmen from the Dragon Isles that GW refused to talk about? Well now you got rules and lore for their AoS counterparts! This army of Saurus was royally screwed by the Clans Pestilens and forced to land their flying temple in Ghur after their Slann was mortally wounded and the Skinks went insane. Within the Realm of Beasts, they quickly devolved into savage predators, tearing into any and all who dare set foot in their jungles. This extends even to those who revered the reptiles, such as a Wanderers enclave who wished to thank the Seraphon for unwittingly saving them.
*'''Thunder Lizard''': A Coalesced host originally from Chamon, they specialize in massive war beasts and are tasked with safeguarding the various weapons bunkers of Old One technology. They’ve been dispatched across the edges of realms to reign in the more uncontrollable points of magic and recently this has led to them clashing with [[Ossiarch Bonereapers|Nagash's anti-magic bone boys]]. Most recently they became unwitting pawns of [[Be'lakor]] as he manipulated them into nuking a Silver Tower which triggered a chain reaction of realmgate explosions and now most of Chamon is shrouded in chaos-corrupted clouds.

==Mating Habits==
Yes, there's an entire section dedicated to their mating habits. However, while this will certainly disappoint the scalies out there, oddly enough Lizardmen don't have any. No joking. Despite being called Lizard''men'', the entire species (or whatever it's called given that speciation is determined by a lack of reliable inter-fertility between two populations) is composed of sexless individuals to whom sexual reproduction is as alien as a 360-degree field of view is to a human.

But this raises the question: if they don't have any functional reproductive organs, then how do new Lizardmen come about?

Well, there are big, bubbling pools of murky liquid at the heart of each temple-city. These were created by the Old Ones at the dawn of time and scheduled to produce new Lizardmen on a timetable unknowable to any but the long-gone Old Ones. The rate at which the Lizardmen spawn is assumed to be quite high, as they are constantly being worn down in battles of attrition. One source has the pools thrashing non-stop to keep up with a never ending tide of daemons. The new Lizardmen walk as fully formed adults out of the pools and are instinctively able to understand their role in society. They're then toweled off, logged in the records and sent to where they are needed. Each new batch (or Spawning) is usually composed of one specific type of Lizardman and has traits which are distinctly of that batch. Needless to say, as they are the foundation of their civilization, the Lizardmen are very protective of these pools, especially since they can't build more and don't really know how to repair the ones that get broken (usually due to Skaven involvement). If you get close to one (''if'' you get close to one), you will almost certainly get your face eaten. [[Tyranids|Hey, that sounds familiar...]]

It should also be noted that all Lizardmen, with the exception of the Skinks, are biologically immortal. They don't age, they simply get stronger and more skilled at what they do. So their attrition rates are lower than humans. It also means that the greatest Lizardmen warriors are centuries, if not [[Swarmlord|millenia old and are veterans of thousands of battles.]] [[Orks|Hey, that also]] [[Space Marine|sounds familiar...]]

So to sum up while Lizardmen look, walk and talk like Aztec dinosaurs, they are little more than a biological variant of robots: mass-produced, pre-programmed and single-minded. They have little to no free will, no goal in life besides those implanted into them upon spawning, and much like robots they often do stupid things due to logical errors in their programming or coming across things that the programmers did not see coming.

==Subspecies==
Like Orcs and beastmen, Lizardmen are divided into a number of distinct subspecies, each fulfilling a distinct role in society and in battle.

===Slann===
The '''Slann''' are the THICCCCC, magic frogs we were talking about above. They're among the most powerful wizards in the entirety of the Warhammer World, and taught the High Elves most of what they know about magic. In previous Lizardmen army books, they had a more active role in leading the species, but apparently they are now more sleepy. Slann are perhaps most known for their extremely lazy appearance. While it is true that their nap time is often spent pondering incredibly important problems with the scraps of instructions they have been left to save the world, and thanklessly channeling raw magical power so the rest of the world doesn't collapse on a daily basis, they are still obese toadmen known for sleeping their way through periods of global catastrophe, and showing up on mobility scooters that run on magical energy when one finally gets annoyed enough by its Skink attendants to get shit done.

When Slann decide to get shit done as a group, the results can quite literally change the face of the world in short order, such as the time a bunch of Slann decided to rearrange some tectonic plates to improve the world's feng shui, and accidentally fucked the Dwarfs over for the rest of time in the process.

Slann are sorted by generation, with the oldest generations being the strongest, and that power diminishing with each successive generation. The first generation is all dead at this point (with one only sorta dead exception that is a testament to just how powerful the OG frog sumbitches were), and the defacto leader of the Lizardmen is a second generation, which is also considered quite rare. Also, there are no longer any more Slann being spawned, so the ones still alive are part of a dying species... welp, [[grimdark]]. [[The End Times|End Times]] spoiler: All the Slanns are dead or gone. Many were killed by Skaven after being rendered unconscious from stopping the moon from falling, and the rest either left in their pyramid ships or died blowing up continent sized pieces of the chaos moon that the Skaven blew up with Mazdamundi sacrificing himself to blow up like 60% of the Chaos moon fragments by himself and buying the planet a few more years. Even Lord Kroak joined the party. In Age of Sigmar it's revealed some Slann survived, but their numbers dwindled until only five were left. [[Lord Kroak]] is back too. It's uncertain whether he is one of the five survivors or whether it's Kroak and five other Slann. Honestly not that surprising for Lord Kroak, death is probably just a mildly irritating inconvenience to him. Kroak now serves as racial leader in Age of Sigmar.

===Saurus===
[[File:AwesomeLizardmen.png|400px|right|thumb|SURAS ITZ]]
'''Saurus''' are the main footsoldiers of the Lizardmen and, by and large, the "face" of the army. A "face" that could rip a man in half. The average Saurus is a semi humanoid scaled therapod 2.5 meters long with a bite that can take off a grown man's arm, a tail strong enough to smash their ribcage and scales as hard as chainmail. On top of that, they carry at least a huge Macuahuitl and a bladed shield. They may seem slow and dimwitted, but don't let that fool you, it's not that they're dumb, they just only care about warfare. Saurus that manage to survive for a very long time do begin to pick up other skills and overall intelligence, eventually becoming good enough at things besides biting people's faces off that they can serve as agents, commanders, or other more unusual roles, though a Saurus growing away from something directly related to combat or warfare is all but unheard of.

Saurus themselves have a few variations, depending on their spawnings. Most of them are regular warriors with colour variations (some of which are taken as signs of greatness, like albinism for Gor-Rok). The two main variations of Saurus are:
* '''Temple Guard''': An elite group of Saurus, spawned to instinctively guard the temples and Slann, their spawning has ingrained this purpose so much they've been know to kill a Skink helper just because he looked at a Slann funny.
* '''Cold One Riders''': Saurus with the ability to get near, control and ride Cold Ones into battle. They produce the same smell as their mounts and have adapted for their feet's claws to grip Cold One' scales more efficiently,[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd9D_7f7zCM you know you want them].

Additionally, during sixth edition the Saurus could be spawned under the blessing of one, and sometimes two or even three for oldbloods, of the Old Ones (which were also named and detailed as having certain portfolios). This granted these Sacred Spawning with some benefits as well as recognizable visual clues:

*'''Tzunki''': Saurus blessed by Tzunki, Old One of water, have green colored scales and show quicker reactions than the regular model, while also being adapted to a semi acquatic lifestyle like skinks.
*'''Itzl''': this blessing somewhat survived in fluff, as newer editions state that cold one riders are a specialized breed with a dinosaur-like smell and hooks for grabbing on scales and that some lizardmen like Kroq-gar are instinctively able to attune to Carnosaurs. All Saurus characters who wanted a mount had to pick this.
*'''Quetzl''': this blessing from the divine Old One warrior manifests as additional bone spurs and hardened scales, which grants added protection. Kroq-gar had this as well.
*'''Huanchi''': no canon look for the Saurus chosen by the jaguar-god Old One of earth and night, but we can assume they are supposed to be more drab or camouflaged as it makes them more stealthy and able to get through harsh terrain without breaking a sweat.
*'''Sotek''': blood for the serpent god! Unsurprisingly, this is for Skinks as well as Saurus, cause Sotek cares not whence the blood flows, and it makes lizardmen even more aggressive, as well as red-crested.
*'''Tlazcotl''': Saurus are already near unflinching, but the yellow-scaled chosen of Tlazcotl took a page of 40K and ran with it as they Know No Fear- as well as no Terror and no other psychology effect.
*'''Chotec''': the Old One of the Sun also makes his orange-scaled Saurus less sluggish, filling them with the power of the sun, except it tranlsates to sprinting speed more than fighting reactions.
*'''Tepok''': the lizardmen apparently had a Coatl themed Old One, and their color was purple and they made Saurus highly resistant to magic.
*'''Xhotl''': only Kroq-gar had this, and he kept it throughout the editions as it is the blessing that provides him and his mount with a magical forcefield and zaps with magic anyone who manages to get through. As this blessing only showed up in Saurus from the lost city of Xhotl (named after the Old One Xhotl, which clearly was not the god of creativity), Kroq-gar is the last recipient of it.
*'''Blessed Mark of the Old Ones''': this was the only one who could not manifest together with any other spawning, as it meant that the Saurus (or Skink!) character bearing it was marked for greatness by all the old ones. It made the chosen lizard albino, a concept that got folded into the character of Gor Rok.

And the two commander ranks of Saurus are:
* '''Oldbloods''': The oldest, strongest, and most cunning of the Saurus caste. They are the Generals of the Lizardmen, and got the rank by being the meanest kids on the block through millennia of fighting just about everyone.
* '''Scar-Veterans''': Saurus Champions who are exactly what it says on the tin: veterans who got through their fair share of battles and are on their way to Oldblood status. They either travel the world alone, seeking lost relics or battle, or lead their fellow lizardmen as secondary commanders.

===Skinks===
'''Skinks''' are the smallest type of Lizardmen and the smartest save for Slanns. They are about Skaven sized and a bit leaner and while not particularly strong they are quick, dexterous and nimble. They act as the farmers, administrators, priests and artisans of Lizardmen society. They are the most versatile and flexible of Lizardmen and probably the one which would be best suited to have a friendly conversation with a Human. Despite their small size, they can be a formidable military force, as they have highly-accurate poisoned blowpipes (<strike>they used to have bows and arrows which got retconned for some reason</strike>). A few of them can use magic, not at Slann levels of course, but still. They are also the caretakers for most of the dinosaurs used by the Lizardmen, and thus are [[Awesome]]. Awesome enough to get their own [[meme]] (that didn't really survive through the newer editions): "remove X, replace with Skinks."

They are also cute.

*'''Skink Priests''': Born to manipulate the winds of magic and attend to the prophecies of events yet to occur, Priests are the highest-ranking members of the skink caste and can lead entire armies as well as cast spells with devastating precision. They occasionally have to take the reigns and make the hard decicions for the Lizardmen when a Slann won't wake up. Unsurprisingly, they are the most vulnerable in close combat. They historically come in Heavens and Beast flavors.
*'''Skink Chiefs''': Born to lead with exceptional cunning and tenacity, Chiefs are responsible for overseeing patrols, construction, message delivery, and commanding armies in battle. Skink Chiefs usually fight atop a dinosaur and with blowpipes but when the situation boils down to close combat, they can run circles around the enemy with their speed and agility in a dance of death.
*'''Skink Braves''': Veterans who have survived several battles and display more combat aptitude than regular skinks. Braves will fight alongside each other in their own cohorts or command regular skink cohorts.

*'''Chameleon Skinks''': An extraordinarily rare subspecies that is dedicated to scouting, infiltration, ambush, and hunting. They have the unique ability to manipulate the color and texture of their skin which is the biological equivalent of an integral cloaking device, allowing them to blend in flawlessly with the surrounding area. More badass than the moniker of stealth specialists may have you believe.
*'''Red Crested Skinks''': The alpha variation of the Skink species is blessed with being faster, stronger, sharper and brighter than their peers. Much better warriors than the average Skink as a result. The Temple-City of Chaqua was known for a spawning of Red Crested Skinks before being depopulated and ruined by a terrible plague.

*'''Skinks''': The basic Skink is a workhorse of the Lizardmen, filling light combat roles or as riders and support gunners to the various dinos the Lizardmen bring to battle, but much more so filling out the vast majority of crafting, managerial, logistics, and other work that a society needs done to function. As mentioned, besides the Slann, the basic Skink is far more intelligent, skilled, and flexible in role than any other class of Lizardman. If you can think of something necessary to a society or war engine that hasn't been mentioned, rest assured that a Skink somewhere is scampering along doing it. By far the most numerous member of the Lizardmen, or of the various Skink castes outlined here. Also known for being one of the most adorable things in Fantasy that are absolutely worth the mauling you'd get trying to hug one.

===Kroxigor===
'''Kroxigor''' are to Skinks what Ogres are to [[Halfling]]s (at least in the Warhammer World): giant powerful but dumber versions. They're essentially giant bipedal crocodiles who spawned at the same time and in the same ponds as skinks. They're the main workers and builders of the Lizardmen, which also means they are the least bright as they were literally created with menial labor as their purpose. As such they rely on skinks for direction in almost about everything, and if left by their own devices they will act based on their animal insticts: when marching to war the Skinks tie heavy clubs to the wrists of Kroxigors, so that they do not throw the weapons away in the attempt to [[RIP AND TEAR]] the enemy barehan- ehm clawed, and in battle they often work together with Skinks, forming units termed "Skrox" by the fans. '''HOWEVER''', in a cooperative collaboration between GW and CA, Kroxigors have been given something of a sanctioned lore rework in Total War: Warhammer 2 in which they become smarter and stronger with age like the Saurus, meaning that they're not so dependent on skinks for directions and can finally lead Lizardmen armies in battle (also, [[Awesome|they death roll motherfuckers like actual crocodiles]]). The capacity to lead still seems to be a rarity amongst the Kroxigor, but they are much less likely [[Derp|to have an aneurysm out of sheer idiocy if left to their own devices]]. This change has been positively welcomed as a breath of fresh air and goes a long way to explaining the backstory of Nakai, the Wanderer.

* '''Kroxigor Ancients''': These Kroxigors have lived for several millennia and are much stronger and more intelligent than their younger kin, making them significantly more dangerous.

==DINOSAWZ==
Lizardmen are also known for their use of [[dinosaur]]s found on their native continent of Lustria. Thus they have the best monsters and cavalry period. Dinosaurs bitch. Like fucking Jurassic Park. <s>(and like Jurassic Park they are fantasy dinosaurs with little basis in science and firm roots in awesomeness)</s>

===Stegadons===
Probably the most well known dinosaur used by the Lizardmen, this stubborn, motherfucking Triceratops hits like a freight train and can trample all who oppose the Lizardmen underneath his feet. Stegadons are, unsurprisingly given the harsh nature of Lustria being a continent sized Catachan, angry all the fucking time, extremely territorial and not obligatory herbivores, which adds even more thrill to the life of Skink handlers. They usually carry Howdahs on their back which include a Skink crew, and a FUCKHUEG bow. As the stegadons age, their tempers cool and they will be able to carry either 2 massive blowpipes which fire buckets of dice, or a mystical Engine of the Gods that can buff, or shoot lightning bolts like a [[video games|Red Alert]] Tesla coil.

===Carnosaurs===
This guy is based on the large and awesome theropod dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus, Gigantosaurus, and Allosaurus, and can [[RIP AND TEAR|rip the throats out of Dragons]], knocking them down a peg like the pussies they are. In fact, the reason there are no dragons in Lustria is because [[Awesome|Carnosaurs kept hunting and killing them]] so they decided to settle somewhere less hostile. The newest version of the model adds additional cool factor by including a killing claw like the ones seen on Dromaeosaurs, such as Velociraptor. They also have pretty well-developed arms for a theropod, so make short arm jokes at your peril. Only the beardliest of Saurus can ride them, as even the babies can rip a human in half: once again it is up to the unlucky skinks to steal eggs from a Carnosaur nest, which might very well be the most dangerous place in the wilderness of Lustria, dodge an enraged Carnosaur mother and raise baby dinosaurs that can very well take a skink's head off in a single bite. Even when fully trained, for a lack of better term, Carnosaurs are constantly twitching around the edges and even the most strong-willed Saurus oldblood rider knows that when a Carnosaur tastes blood, all they can do is sit tight and enjoy the ride as everything the Lizardmen army beholds get torn a new [[Anal Circumference]]. In summary they spill blood in the name of the Old Ones and don't give a shit about that pushover [[Khorne]].

===Troglodons===
Looks like a Blind ''Spinosaurus aegyptiacus'', freaking [[Awesome|awesome]] and anybody would pay money to see it fight a Carnosaur Jurassic Park style. For some reason a Skink can ride them. This is because they team up and search for the lost plaques of the Old-Ones in a 1970's buddy cop film. Despite their blindness, they are potent hunters that use their poisonous spit as a deadly ranged prelude to a charge.

===Bastiladons===
The Lustrian equivalent of Ankylosaurus mixed with a Scutosaurus, the walking tank of dinosaurs, and the first recipient of a 2+ Scaly Skin save. Even a big Dragon, T-rex (ahem, CARNOSAUR), or Greater Daemon sometimes struggle to get through. Perhaps to the relief of Skink handlers, these guys are somewhat more chill that the other dinosaurs and their thicc armor means they are able to carry some of the more unwieldy devices of the Old Ones: the ark of Sotek which constantly vomits poisonous snakes (they can't really bite the armored Bastiladon who can safely waltz around with the tide of sneks coming from its back) or the Solar Engine of Chotec, a literal laser cannon that overheats so hard when firing that other non-naturally insulated beings can't hope to carry one around without risking fifth degree burnings.
Despite their more easygoing nature, they are still quite capable at breaking the bones of whatever poor saps were ordered to stand in the way of one, and their tail clubs can shatter some monstrous knees, though they rarely attain the refined destructive potential of a Stegadon or Carnosaur.

===Cold Ones===
Not to be confused with the [[Old Ones]], Cold Ones are basically [[Awesome|velociraptor-like animals that are used as cavalry.]] They are also used by the [[Dark Elves (Warhammer)|Dark Elves]], who have much cooler Cold Ones. The official, in-universe explanation for this discrepancy is that the two types are related-but-distinct breeds of Cold One; the cool ones are native to [[Naggaroth]] and based off of irl Velociraptors, whereas the derpy ones are native to [[Lustria]] and based off of Spinosauroids.
For once, the Skinks are not left with the short straw as Cold Ones naturally respond the innate magnetism of Itzl-blessed Saurus and the two form a very close couple... no, not *that* kind of couple, what is wrong with you?

Perhaps ironically, they are not [[Meme|clever girls]] in the slightest, and are noted as being very dull-witted, and easily overwhelmed by chaotic situations, adding to the importance of the bond between rider and mount.

In related news, playing against Ironjawz is a great opportunity to have a Cold One with the Boyz. *rimshot*

===Horned Ones===
A relative of the Cold Ones that are rare in Lustria, but prominent in the Southlands (the Warhammer World equivalent of Africa). They are distinguished from their counterparts by the fact that they are smarter, slightly faster and are based upon ''pachycephalosaurus'' with sharp teeth. Generally better than Cold Ones in every way, but are too rare to field in any significant numbers. They used to have their own models, known as Tichi-Huichi's Horned One Riders, serving as a unit in Dogs of War armies. Lizardmen mercenaries? Do want!

===Salamanders===
Not technically a Dinosaur but is still [[Awesome|awesome]]. The older models seem to be based off of Dimetrodon (again not really a dinosaur(<strike> not dinosaurs at all, but a synapsid </strike> ) and shoot flaming poison like living artillery. They are escorted by teams of Skink handlers who do their best to convince the fire breathing critters to spit in the right direction, while not getting roasted or mauled in the process. While primarily used for their ranged applications, Salamanders are perfectly capable war beasts in their own right, which makes dealing with them a troublesome conundrum for commanders. They were given a new model in AoS, as well as a “fancier” name: the Spawn of Chotec. They’re implanted with Old One technology that their skink handlers use to direct their fiery fury, in a manner similar to a cat being led around with a laser pointer.

===Razordons===
Looks like what would happen if a Kentrosaurus was on steroids. Shoots out spikes at [[Memes| Sufficient Velocity]]. Very nasty, and usually has the side affects of being pinned to a wall like a "Lets pin the tail of a Donkey" game. Deployed in a manner very similar to Salamanders.

===Terradons===
Not a Dinosaur, just an average looking Pteranodon, but as large as a car. Terradons are the sneaky flyers of Lustria, hovering above the canopy for days at a time in search of unaware prey- that is, anything smaller. In battle, Skinks riding them employ primarily ranged weapons, and have the mounts carry large rocks to drop on unsuspecting warm-bloods. Their new models are also very sexy, unlike their retarded brothers.

===Ripperdactyls===
Just look at the name. GW is really phoning it in now aren't they. Otherwise, its a Pterosaur similar to the Terradon but with more of a basis in Pterosaurs like Rhamphorhynchus. These googly eyed bastards, like most of the dinosaur in this list, are simmering pots of pent up aggressions and hold the distinction of being the one cavalry unit where the mount does all the job while the rider tries desperately to hold on. Clearly for the genius tactical minds of Skink Chiefs this flying meatgrinder is not enough, so they have Chameleon Skinks hide Lustrian Bloat Toads (favorite prey of Ripperdactyls) into the pouches of unlucky invaders before sending the Rippers to rip them a new one. Think seagulls swarming pizza leftovers on a beach, but each seagull is bigger than a man and screaming for blood, and some lizard asshole snuck some pepperoni into your pockets.

===Raptadons===
Brand new feathered raptor dinos introduced in the 2023 Seraphon refresh for AoS. They are ridden by skinks and are described as lightning fast, intelligent, and deadly. They are also the first dinos to bear feathers, and are likely an attempt by GW to align with modern paleo theories. The scales vs feathers argument now coming to a game table near you! They come in two varieties, the ranged skirmisher raptadon hunters, and the melee focused raptadon chargers.

===Aggradons===
Replacing the Cold Ones (at least in AoS), Aggradons serve as the fierce heavy cavalry of Saurus riders. Unlike the feathered raptadons, aggradons remain fully scaled, Jurassic Park-esk raptors that are violent murder machines that only the boldest and most skilled Saurus can tame. The longer they remain in battle, the more their bloodlust flares up (translating to more claw and jaw attacks as turns pass by in extended combat). Scar-Veterans are known to also ride aggradons.

===Dread Saurians===
Following GW's desire to create big monsters for Forge World to sell, the Dread Saurian was given rules in the Monstrous Arcanum Vol.1 (More was planned, obviously) and was awesome. This thing is larger than even the Carnosaur, is pretty rare and is so powerful that even the Slann can't control it without bedecking it in glyph-inscribed armour. These things are captured, presumably as eggs, and placed inside mountainside Temples, there they are worshipped as a physical manifestation of the Old Ones power. However, when shit hits the fan, a Slann will order a Temples gates unlocked and he'll release the power of the Dread Saurian on Lizardmens enemies. While the Dread Saurians stats are slightly better than a Carnosaur and has the same D3 Wounds bite, its main power comes from its options (which, for some reason, aren't restricted to just Lizardmen, derp). This includes turning it into a ghost (making it Ethereal), giving it Flaming Impact Hits, putting a huge stone disc on its neck to boost it's Toughness to 8(!) at the expense of 2 less Movement, but probably the most amusing (and something Creed would appreciate) is giving it the Ambushers special rule. Nothing says "fuck your Warmachines" quite like a T7 3+ monster charging you. All these buffs are named after Old Ones worshipped by the Lizardmen. Stick it in a list with Kroak and watch as it takes down whatever models you want it to. If it dies? Just use skele-frog to summon him back to continue his rampage. Can easily take Alarielle with this method.

This isn't the only interesting thing about it. It had a strange development history. It was released in Monstrous Arcanum Vol.1 before Lizardmen 8th edition by Forge World. In the book, the art depicted it as a sail-less Spinosaurus, yet when the model (finally) arrived, it had lost it's crocodile-like head, got more spikes and was now too-swole-to-control. We asked Forge World's Facebook page (when it had a Q&A) why it changed and were told, simply, "She wanted to change it". While this was a simple answer, it was clearly bullshit, as, when 8th Edition Lizardmen was released, we suddenly had a Troglodon, which was essentially a blind Spinosaurus. What clearly happened was a classic "Failure to Communicate" by GW between its departments. The artist for FW was told to design a "1UP" of the Carnosaur, so based it on a Spinosaurus, the only known carnivore bigger than a T-Rex (Gigantosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus want words), then when the time came to actually design the model, FW learnt that the Troglodon had been designed. Thus, not wanting to make a "1UP" of a brand new model, they redesigned it to what it is now. But it gets more interesting still! In the Lustria Campaign Book, there is a conversion model of an Arcanodon with a EoTG's on top. If you compare the Arcanodon's pose with the Dread Saurian, it's nearly identical.

Fun Fact! The Dread Saurian model is so big, a human-sized model can fit inside its mouth. Conversion time, people!

As of 01/10/2023 the Dread Saurian model was discontinued from Forgeworld (Alongside most of the FW AoS range), rest in peace big lizard.

===More Dinosaurs===
Since the Lizardmen have pretty much every iconic Dinosaur, the only thing they are missing now is a massive Sauropod like ''Amphicoelias fragillimus''...That . Would . Be . [[Awesome|Awesome]]. A Thunder-Lizard perhaps? Otherwise they could add it as the Arcanadon which used to exist back from the Lustria Sourcebook (although it is still in the fluff.)

There are several mentions of dinosaurs that the Lizardmen have, which don't have rules or models. Pliodons are described acting as "living ferries across the wide canals", while Voxosaurs "emitted their piercing screams to sound alarms" - A bit like a rooster, I imagine. One could pretty freely imagine a whole host of Flintstones-esque dinosaurs filling various appliance roles, if you wanted to take the piss out of it. As mentioned, the others are Thunder Lizards and Arcanadons.

==Soulbound==
While initially missing from the available options for [[Age of Sigmar Roleplay]], there was eventually the web supplement ''Stars and Scales'' that allowed players to take the role of a scary star-lizardman, and they're predictably very unique compared to most beings. Due to their nature as star-formed entities bound to their Slann Masters and a great plan that is ineffable to all but their star-frogs, the Seraphon are incapable of contributing or using Soulfire akin to the [[Stormcast Eternals]].
As with the wargame, the Seraphon are split between both the well-protected Saurus and the nimble Skinks as well as the ''Starborne'' Seraphon (Those who are composed of starlight and thus can blind those who harm them) and the ''Coalesced'' Seraphon (Those who adapted to their realms rather than the stars and became more aggressive but poor diplomats.)

As for backgrounds, Seraphon heroes can pick from the following Constellations to hail from:
*'''Dracothion's Tail (Starborne only):''' As Dracothion aided Sigmar in the forming of the mortal realms, so too do these Seraphon come to aid the champions of the gods when the stars deem it right. This constellation is one of the very few to have several Slann on hand, and they have taught their disciples some of their arcane wisdom. Heroes from this constellation can spend Mettle to teleport, potentially blinding anyone near them when they arrive in a flash of light.
*'''Fangs of Sotek (Starborne only):''' Perhaps the faction of Seraphon most familiar to the mortal realms, the Fangs of Sotek have often lent their aid to the heroes of order when it so suits them. This is not for the sake of altruism so much as it is for the sake of keeping their potential allies and foes under tight observation and manipulation. Heroes from this constellation have an easier time communicating with other species and are much swifter when the battle begins to quickly silence the opposition.
*'''Koatl's Claw (Coalesced Only):''' The result of Skaven sabotage causing their pyramid-ship to crash into the realm of Ghur and crippling their Slann. Any Seraphon spawned since this incident are now utterly unhinged, bent on waging war on any foe in pursuit for some sort of satisfaction. Heroes from this constellation deal more damage the worse they are injured, but suffer the inability to manage long-term plans.
*'''Thunder Lizard (Coalesced Only):''' The Thunder Lizard will accomplish its agendas with no compromise and no quarter - After all, they only see their plan as the ideal. Though they may join a Binding for the sake of accomplishing a common goal, it will not be one that will always benefit their mortal allies, and they will not accept any deviations from the plan. Heroes from this constellation are wardens of ancient treasures and thus start play with one such relic as well as the ability to double their training when dealing with Seraphon relics - On top of that, the ''Animal Friend'' talent is now available to all archetypes.

The supplement provides a paltry two archetypes available to only the Seraphon. Skinks get '''Skink Starpriest''', and Saurus get '''Saurus Oldblood'''.

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen|Tactics/Lizardmen]]
* [[Warhammer/Tactics/6th_Edition/Lizardmen|Lizardmen tactics for the glorious 6th edition]]
*[[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Seraphon]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3CmxjTFv_Y How you make Total Warhammer II more awesome than Total Warhammer? Add the Lizardmen!]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHalXjs0cDA&ab_channel=LouiseMcClafferty Musical accompaniment for playing Lizardmen/Seraphon. Be honest, did you think it was going to be anything else?]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Lizardmen (Warhammer Fantasy)]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.lustria-online.com/ Lustria-Online.com, the main Lizardmen and Seraphon army forum.]
{{Template:Lizardmen_Characters}}
{{Lizardmen Troops}}
{{Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle}}
{{Template:Playable Factions in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar}}

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
File:Slann and their Magical Force Fields.jpg|Look into this frog's eyes. He's half-asleep, probably drunk, and he's ''still'' going toe-to-toe against a Lord of Change in a magic fight.
File:A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.jpg|A typical Lizardmen city.
File:ThunderLizard.jpg|Please GW. I beg you. ADD THIS (Even if it's ripping off Dinotopia, with some change it'd be a good original idea)
File:ScaliePorn.png|Even Lizards need to beat one off sometimes.
File:Lizard lesbian kiss.jpg | Lizard woman are lesbians!?
File:Seraphon_AKA_Lizardmen_VS_Cowardly_Wizards.jpg|Seraphon riding Derpasaurus
File:Skink.PNG|Love makes us do strange things in our fanon. Like <strike>reinterpreting the Great Plan</strike> <strike>Commiting Heresy</strike> being circumventive and discordant.
File:TWWH2_-_XFHuPdk.jpg|Lizardmen "Watercraft." Watercraft may be a misnomer, seeing as [[Derp|they're completely made of stone]] and are instead projecting a magical repulsion field from the hulls that allows them to skim over the water or at least maintain an artificial buoyancy to prevent them from sinking into the ocean.
File:TWWH2_-_tk5cjjsi56r41.jpg|There's a difference between "can't" and "won't".
File:Warhammer_-_1576358548147.png|Gold may not corrode over the centuries, but it can still break.
File:TWWH2_-_1588681734_Adorable.png|When you're cursed with cuteness and overwhelming adoration.
File:TWWH2_-_Metallurgical_Confusion.PNG|The writers can't make up their mind in regards to armor composition.
File:Warhammer_-_A_confused_painter.PNG|For those who were wondering: GW has never specified a proper way to paint Lizardmen.
File:TWWH2_-_ym4otcpy6csa1.jpg|Visiting Lustria may result in instant regret instead of easy money.
</gallery>
</center>

Lizardmen

2023-05-30T23:59:27Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:910C:B95D:FD56:AE05: /* The End Times */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Seraphon|Logo=Lizardy.jpeg|Alliance=Order|Lore=Lizardmen|Motto=Aztec dinosaurs riding bigger dinosaurs that shoot lasers and fuck shit up. This is how Lizardmen do.}}

{{Topquote|Here I come, drop your jaws to the floor I'm riding on my mighty laser-shooting dinosaur!|Angus MacSix, ''Laser-Shooting Dinosaur''}}

{{Topquote|A powerful AI system tasked with ensuring your safety might imprison you at home. If you asked for happiness, it might hook you up to a life support and ceaselessly stimulate your brain's pleasure centers. If you don't provide the AI with a very big library of preferred behaviors or an ironclad means for it to deduce what behavior you prefer, you'll be stuck with whatever it comes up with. And since it's a highly complex system, you may never understand it well enough to make sure you've got it right.|James Barrat}}

{{Topquote|What are you doing in my swamp?!|Shrek}}

The '''Lizardmen''' are a faction in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battles]]; with the coming of the [[Age of Sigmar]] they have been re-named "'''Seraphon'''". A variation on the [[Lizardfolk]] theme, they are a civilisation of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mayincatec Mayaincatec], [[Chaos]]-hating, reptilian creatures. Prior to Age of Sigmar they were the isolationist survivors of an ancient empire that lived in [[Lustria]], the Warhammer World's analogue to South America. As Seraphon they were reborn as creatures of star magic who live above the Mortal Realms, descending to fight as per the inscrutable will of their masters.
Except, as per the recent retcon, they’re back to being flesh and blood reptiles, just infused with Azyrite magic. They do not have a [[Warhammer 40000]] counterpart, only factions that take after various bits of them; like a caste system like Tau and having a core belief in some metaphysical movement, and being a wholly organic, genderless army with subspecies, like Tyranids (technically, the Slann were mentioned in the old editions, in the role vaguely similar to Fantasy version, but they are said to be extinct).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilian_conspiracy_theory They also run the government (don't blame me, I voted for the Skaven)].

== Meta History ==
Lizardmen are one of the factions of WFB that had [[Retcon|major changes in their lore]], like [[Orcs & Goblins]], for example. Back when [[Games Workshop]] was selling overstocked [[Dungeons & Dragons]] minis, the British overlords decided to <s>rip off</s> "borrow" [[Slaad]] into their slowly developing setting. Due to that, pre-4th Edition Slanns were not fat lazy toads, and instead were bipedal frogmen dressed as Maya-Aztec hybrids with names lifted from the menu of cocktail bars. Slanns and Lizardmen were not the same species - former were degenerate incestuous [[Old Ones (Warhammer)|Old Ones]], and the latter were just [[Lizardfolk]].

Aside from Lizardmen and Cold Ones, old Slanns also employed other races as their warrior-slaves and administrator-slaves. Those included [[Troglodyte|Troglodytes]] (dumb giant crocs), [[Amazons]] and [[Pygmies (Warhammer Fantasy)|Pygmies]]. Most of them, however, didn't survive for long. Around the 4th Edition, major changes to the lore made Slanns just another of Old Ones' tools and made them smartest and the most magical Lizardmen. Pygmies were replaced with Skinks, Troglodytes with Kroxigors, and Amazons... still aren't retconned, like [[Zoat|Zoats]] and [[Fimir]]. It is unknown what was the catalysis of these changes , but probably GW were just trying to avoid copyright issues (and accusations of racism in Pygmies' case).
==History==
[[File:FUCK YOU CHAOS.jpg|400px|right]]
Way back when the [[Old Ones#Warhammer Fantasy|Old Ones]] entered the world, they decided they'd need some extra help in <s>messing this world up</s> guiding this world to its destiny. So, they created the first of the Lizardmen, the Slann. The Slann are obese but highly-magical frog-men that spend most of their days sitting around meditating. The Old Ones, realizing the Slann wouldn't be useful for much when it came to manual labor, then created the rest of the Lizardmen, including the Saurus, Skinks, and Kroxigor. They then left the Lizardmen to make some [[elf|elves]], [[dwarf|dwarfs]], and [[human]]s. In return, the Slann used their new servants to COMMIT MULTIPLE GENOCIDES on the native races of the World, with massive armies of Saurus hunting down and annihilating the races that the Old Ones told them to (notably, the only race that was a target of the Lizardmen's genocidal campaigns and survived are [[Orcs and Goblins|everyone's favorite fungus footballers]]).

However, the Fall of the [[Eldar]] then happe-- wait a minute, wrong universe. <s>Or is it?</s> The [[Webway|dimensional gate]] the Old Ones had come through collapsed, crashing into the north of the Warhammer World and opening a portal to the <s>[[Warp]]</s> [[Realm of Chaos]]. The Lizardmen and Elves had to team up to defeat the [[Daemon]]s that started pouring through the portal. Eventually the Elves managed to redirect the flow of magic into a portal at the center of the island home, [[Ulthuan]], but not before much awesomeness on the part of the Lizardmen. And by awesomeness we mean billions of Saurus' fighting for centuries continuously in battles that spanned continents against an enemy that could warp reality. Little did the elves know, the Slann actually did much of the work on the great vortex, and without them continuously sending magical aid it probably would have collapsed a long time ago. The Slann are also responsible for maintaining the great warding, but don't ever tell the elves that or they'll throw a hissy fit.

Lizardmen for the most part are fairly primitive by the standards of the Warhammer world. Even orcs can take iron and forge it into new choppas and make chariots. Lizardmen mostly use stone tools and weapons with some bronze bits here and there. Only the beastmen are more primitive and they have brains hardwired to despise all that is artificial. This might lead you to underestimate them in battle, but the fact that they use stone swords is a secondary consideration when you consider that the ones wielding them are three meter long semi-sapient therapod dinosaurs with really durable scales. One area where they do make a lot of use of metalworking is in gold plates, which they have a lot of. These they use to keep records and important bits of information on because they live in damp stone cities in the middle of rainforests where paper would fairly quickly rot away. Other species, for reasons the Lizardmen have a hard time understanding, have an odd obsession for this yellow metal beyond simply valuing its corrosion resistance and try to steal these plates to melt them down. This really gets under their scales.

Despite being fairly isolated, they deal with just about everyone. their main problems are [[Dark Elves|emo elves]] to the north and regular human pirates and colonists. They also have a long-standing feud against [[furry|Skavens]]. Recently, the Slann have been getting off their asses and realizing that the threat needs to be met head on, so apparently they have massive armies stationed fighting all over the world, from Brettonia to the southern chaos wastes. Why they never pop up in anyone else's fluff is a mystery, though not so much when you realize they barely have fluff to begin with. They are also similar to [[Tomb Kings|tomb kings]] and [[Grandpa Dreadnought]] with their "get the hell off my lawn" policies.

===The End Times===
With the release of ''The End Times: Thanquol'', the fourth book in [[The End Times]] series, the Slann forsee that The Great Plan of the Old Ones will fail. The apocalypse begins with the Lizardmen defending their lands from a Daemonic invasion that rivals the initial Chaos Incursion after the Great Catastrophe (somehow, despite the Polar Warpgates not changing and the Elven Vortex still happily sucking up all the Magic). Unfortunately, whilst the Lizardmen put on a smashing show in stemming the [[Daemon|Daemons]], warpstone meteors rain down upon Lustria; the [[Skaven]] Grey Seers had been taught by their Daemonic [[Verminlord|Verminlords]] how to circumvent the Slann's magic and try to bring the [[Morrslieb|chaos moon]] closer to the world. This knocks out all the Slann as they try to protect the continent, just in time for the ''entirety'' of the Skaven Clan Pestilens to invade Lustria. As the booby traps set by the Lizardmen are bespoke for Daemons they do nothing to stem the Skaven tide other than giving a few headaches. Cue rampant swarms of rat-men spreading plague, burning forests, and killing Lizardmen like it's going out of fashion.

Clan Skryre, not to be out done by those pesky Grey Seers, decide to go one step further and actually blow up the chaos moon with a giant cannon. As continent-sized chunks of warpstone plummet towards the planet the Lizardmen decide that it's very likely their plan has failed and flee in their temple-pyramids-now-spaceships. The Slann use their mind-powers to disintegrate these fragments, however blowing up their brains under the magical strain. Even as the Slann die still more chunks head for the world, taking the mummified uber-Slann Lord Kroak to will himself back to life in order to contain the rest of the chunks to only fall on Lustria and the Southlands, whilst securing parts of Lustria in magical bubbles and lifting them off the world.

As such only a few Slann now exist, floating about in space.

===Age of Sigmar===
With the release of GW's re-packaged fantasy game [[Age of Sigmar]] the Lizardmen were given the IP-friendly name 'Seraphon', and were reskinned as "Daemons of Order" (now retconned) whose bodies flow with Azyrite energy (i.e. the Lizardmen now have lightning for blood).

The Seraphon went through some extensive retcons and revisions between the various editions as it was obvious that they were trying to figure out what exactly they were. Finally some concretes were extablished.

====Age of Myth====
Following the destrcution of the old-world the Seraphon were left drifting in the stellar void for ages. As they flew the magics powering their ships began to disipate and their technologies began failing. As lizard beings the cold of the void did not do them any favours and the Seraphon began dieing out. Only the Slaan empowered by their natural magicial might were immune. Not wanting to lose their servants they ordered the surviving seraphon to enter a form bio-stasis until they could find salvation. Eventually their vessels were discovered the great godbeast Dracothian in the void near the Mortal Realms. Sensing this beast the Slaan telepathically made contact with him and relaid the story, from the destruction of their world, the nature of chaos and the hardships they endured coming to the realms. Dracothian shed tears of divine magic at the tale of the Seraphon and the Slaan managed to follow them into the skies of the realm of Azyr. The magics of the realm reenergized their depowerd ships and all their arcane technology. Finding salvation at last they reignited the spawning pools and began reviving their foreces. Its unknown if any of the original Seraphon crew survived their stasis to the Mortal Realms as even the Slaans ancient memeory can't remember exactly, though it is heavily implied some indeed did.

While in high Azyr the Slaan and their seraphon servants became infused compelelty with holy magics, becoming infused with pure Azerite magic. As beings of the heavens they actually glowed when in the presence of the other realms realities, shining as if possessed. This effect led to the belief that they were spirits or demons of some kind.

The Slaan now having a respite than began the long process of deciding what to do next. Many despaired as they believed they had failed in their duty when the old world was destroyed. Surely the plan had failed without it. However many pointed out that the Great Plan involved the workings of reality itself, not functioning of singular world. In addition, during their scrying of the Mortal realms many races that had previously been touched by the old ones (Humans, Aleves etc) were present, with even artefacts of the Old Ones existing in the Realms somehow (even ones previously thought lost in the world-that-was) surely this meant that the mortal realms were essential in the Old Ones overall plans for the cosmos. The Slaan debated this for decades before finally deciding to continue with their great work in these new realms, helped along by the wise council of Lord Kroak the most powerful of all of them. As they knew that it was only a matter of time before chaos again returned to claim these realms. The Various Slaan and Temple-Ships dispersed to begin work on their own contributtions to the Old Ones work. Some took it upon themselves to offer their technology and teachings to certain civilizations (such as the Agoraxi of Aqshy fame) to prepare them better for Chaos's coming. Or else subtly influencing or eradicating these emerging cultures when it suited their designs. While others looked to safeguard sites of Old Ones relics or technology, or ley-lines of the Astromatrix (essentially currents of magical energy that crisscross the realms) from danger or corruption. It was during this time the two types of Seraphon became fully realized: The Starborne who remained above (or even underneath!) the realms in their temple ships, remaining suffused with primarily the power of Azyr. And the Coalenced, those Seraphon who landed their ships in the realms proper and became more suffused with those realms respective energies, becoming being truly of Flesh and blood but more savage in turn. Using their Exodus Engines and arcane terraforming machinery they could literally remake the lands surrounding their temple cities into jungles native to the realm they were in, allowing further defense of their new home bases.

During this time one of the most important events to occur was the rise of God Kragnos. The destruction god had gone to war against the Draconith empire and was massacering any he came across. Pleading for help they made Contact with the vaunted Lord Kroak and struck a deal with the ancient Slaan. Kroak had degreed that Kragnos existence was against the designs of the great plan and had to be removed from the equation. Together with the remaining Draconic mage-leaders and even their mutual benefactor Dracothian they managed to overpower mad god and seal him in a prison completelhy removed from the rest of space-time, ending his rampage. As per the deal the Draconith handed over their remaining eggs to the safekeeping of the Starborne Seraphon, for through their great scrying arcane-machinery they saw a time when they would need to be prepared for a great calamity in the future.

====Age of Chaos====
Under Construction

===Constellations===
Each Seraphon belongs to a host of warriors named after a constellation from High Azyr.
*'''Dracothion’s Tail''': The posterboy subfaction with the best magic and Slann Starmasters around. They are the most attuned to Azyr and very much employ the standard Slann tactic of slowly planning things out and waiting for the Great Plan to line up exactly before acting.
*'''Fangs of Sotek''': Not the second coming of [[Tehenhauin]] sadly, but rather the more proactive cousin of the Dracothion’s Tail. They primarily use skinks and are the most direct in their involvement with the forces of Order. They even have groups of skink priests and chiefs set up in the [[Cities of Sigmar]] to weed out any potential chaos influence.
*'''Koatl’s Claw''': Remember those feral Lizardmen from the Dragon Isles that GW refused to talk about? Well now you got rules and lore for their AoS counterparts! This army of Saurus was royally screwed by the Clans Pestilens and forced to land their flying temple in Ghur after their Slann was mortally wounded and the Skinks went insane. Within the Realm of Beasts, they quickly devolved into savage predators, tearing into any and all who dare set foot in their jungles. This extends even to those who revered the reptiles, such as a Wanderers enclave who wished to thank the Seraphon for unwittingly saving them.
*'''Thunder Lizard''': A Coalesced host originally from Chamon, they specialize in massive war beasts and are tasked with safeguarding the various weapons bunkers of Old One technology. They’ve been dispatched across the edges of realms to reign in the more uncontrollable points of magic and recently this has led to them clashing with [[Ossiarch Bonereapers|Nagash's anti-magic bone boys]]. Most recently they became unwitting pawns of [[Be'lakor]] as he manipulated them into nuking a Silver Tower which triggered a chain reaction of realmgate explosions and now most of Chamon is shrouded in chaos-corrupted clouds.

==Mating Habits==
Yes, there's an entire section dedicated to their mating habits. However, while this will certainly disappoint the scalies out there, oddly enough Lizardmen don't have any. No joking. Despite being called Lizard''men'', the entire species (or whatever it's called given that speciation is determined by a lack of reliable inter-fertility between two populations) is composed of sexless individuals to whom sexual reproduction is as alien as a 360-degree field of view is to a human.

But this raises the question: if they don't have any functional reproductive organs, then how do new Lizardmen come about?

Well, there are big, bubbling pools of murky liquid at the heart of each temple-city. These were created by the Old Ones at the dawn of time and scheduled to produce new Lizardmen on a timetable unknowable to any but the long-gone Old Ones. The rate at which the Lizardmen spawn is assumed to be quite high, as they are constantly being worn down in battles of attrition. One source has the pools thrashing non-stop to keep up with a never ending tide of daemons. The new Lizardmen walk as fully formed adults out of the pools and are instinctively able to understand their role in society. They're then toweled off, logged in the records and sent to where they are needed. Each new batch (or Spawning) is usually composed of one specific type of Lizardman and has traits which are distinctly of that batch. Needless to say, as they are the foundation of their civilization, the Lizardmen are very protective of these pools, especially since they can't build more and don't really know how to repair the ones that get broken (usually due to Skaven involvement). If you get close to one (''if'' you get close to one), you will almost certainly get your face eaten. [[Tyranids|Hey, that sounds familiar...]]

It should also be noted that all Lizardmen, with the exception of the Skinks, are biologically immortal. They don't age, they simply get stronger and more skilled at what they do. So their attrition rates are lower than humans. It also means that the greatest Lizardmen warriors are centuries, if not [[Swarmlord|millenia old and are veterans of thousands of battles.]] [[Orks|Hey, that also]] [[Space Marine|sounds familiar...]]

So to sum up while Lizardmen look, walk and talk like Aztec dinosaurs, they are little more than a biological variant of robots: mass-produced, pre-programmed and single-minded. They have little to no free will, no goal in life besides those implanted into them upon spawning, and much like robots they often do stupid things due to logical errors in their programming or coming across things that the programmers did not see coming.

==Subspecies==
Like Orcs and beastmen, Lizardmen are divided into a number of distinct subspecies, each fulfilling a distinct role in society and in battle.

===Slann===
The '''Slann''' are the THICCCCC, magic frogs we were talking about above. They're among the most powerful wizards in the entirety of the Warhammer World, and taught the High Elves most of what they know about magic. In previous Lizardmen army books, they had a more active role in leading the species, but apparently they are now more sleepy. Slann are perhaps most known for their extremely lazy appearance. While it is true that their nap time is often spent pondering incredibly important problems with the scraps of instructions they have been left to save the world, and thanklessly channeling raw magical power so the rest of the world doesn't collapse on a daily basis, they are still obese toadmen known for sleeping their way through periods of global catastrophe, and showing up on mobility scooters that run on magical energy when one finally gets annoyed enough by its Skink attendants to get shit done.

When Slann decide to get shit done as a group, the results can quite literally change the face of the world in short order, such as the time a bunch of Slann decided to rearrange some tectonic plates to improve the world's feng shui, and accidentally fucked the Dwarfs over for the rest of time in the process.

Slann are sorted by generation, with the oldest generations being the strongest, and that power diminishing with each successive generation. The first generation is all dead at this point (with one only sorta dead exception that is a testament to just how powerful the OG frog sumbitches were), and the defacto leader of the Lizardmen is a second generation, which is also considered quite rare. Also, there are no longer any more Slann being spawned, so the ones still alive are part of a dying species... welp, [[grimdark]]. [[The End Times|End Times]] spoiler: All the Slanns are dead or gone. Many were killed by Skaven after being rendered unconscious from stopping the moon from falling, and the rest either left in their pyramid ships or died blowing up continent sized pieces of the chaos moon that the Skaven blew up with Mazdamundi sacrificing himself to blow up like 60% of the Chaos moon fragments by himself and buying the planet a few more years. Even Lord Kroak joined the party. In Age of Sigmar it's revealed some Slann survived, but their numbers dwindled until only five were left. [[Lord Kroak]] is back too. It's uncertain whether he is one of the five survivors or whether it's Kroak and five other Slann. Honestly not that surprising for Lord Kroak, death is probably just a mildly irritating inconvenience to him. Kroak now serves as racial leader in Age of Sigmar.

===Saurus===
[[File:AwesomeLizardmen.png|400px|right|thumb|SURAS ITZ]]
'''Saurus''' are the main footsoldiers of the Lizardmen and, by and large, the "face" of the army. A "face" that could rip a man in half. The average Saurus is a semi humanoid scaled therapod 2.5 meters long with a bite that can take off a grown man's arm, a tail strong enough to smash their ribcage and scales as hard as chainmail. On top of that, they carry at least a huge Macuahuitl and a bladed shield. They may seem slow and dimwitted, but don't let that fool you, it's not that they're dumb, they just only care about warfare. Saurus that manage to survive for a very long time do begin to pick up other skills and overall intelligence, eventually becoming good enough at things besides biting people's faces off that they can serve as agents, commanders, or other more unusual roles, though a Saurus growing away from something directly related to combat or warfare is all but unheard of.

Saurus themselves have a few variations, depending on their spawnings. Most of them are regular warriors with colour variations (some of which are taken as signs of greatness, like albinism for Gor-Rok). The two main variations of Saurus are:
* '''Temple Guard''': An elite group of Saurus, spawned to instinctively guard the temples and Slann, their spawning has ingrained this purpose so much they've been know to kill a Skink helper just because he looked at a Slann funny.
* '''Cold One Riders''': Saurus with the ability to get near, control and ride Cold Ones into battle. They produce the same smell as their mounts and have adapted for their feet's claws to grip Cold One' scales more efficiently,[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd9D_7f7zCM you know you want them].

Additionally, during sixth edition the Saurus could be spawned under the blessing of one, and sometimes two or even three for oldbloods, of the Old Ones (which were also named and detailed as having certain portfolios). This granted these Sacred Spawning with some benefits as well as recognizable visual clues:

*'''Tzunki''': Saurus blessed by Tzunki, Old One of water, have green colored scales and show quicker reactions than the regular model, while also being adapted to a semi acquatic lifestyle like skinks.
*'''Itzl''': this blessing somewhat survived in fluff, as newer editions state that cold one riders are a specialized breed with a dinosaur-like smell and hooks for grabbing on scales and that some lizardmen like Kroq-gar are instinctively able to attune to Carnosaurs. All Saurus characters who wanted a mount had to pick this.
*'''Quetzl''': this blessing from the divine Old One warrior manifests as additional bone spurs and hardened scales, which grants added protection. Kroq-gar had this as well.
*'''Huanchi''': no canon look for the Saurus chosen by the jaguar-god Old One of earth and night, but we can assume they are supposed to be more drab or camouflaged as it makes them more stealthy and able to get through harsh terrain without breaking a sweat.
*'''Sotek''': blood for the serpent god! Unsurprisingly, this is for Skinks as well as Saurus, cause Sotek cares not whence the blood flows, and it makes lizardmen even more aggressive, as well as red-crested.
*'''Tlazcotl''': Saurus are already near unflinching, but the yellow-scaled chosen of Tlazcotl took a page of 40K and ran with it as they Know No Fear- as well as no Terror and no other psychology effect.
*'''Chotec''': the Old One of the Sun also makes his orange-scaled Saurus less sluggish, filling them with the power of the sun, except it tranlsates to sprinting speed more than fighting reactions.
*'''Tepok''': the lizardmen apparently had a Coatl themed Old One, and their color was purple and they made Saurus highly resistant to magic.
*'''Xhotl''': only Kroq-gar had this, and he kept it throughout the editions as it is the blessing that provides him and his mount with a magical forcefield and zaps with magic anyone who manages to get through. As this blessing only showed up in Saurus from the lost city of Xhotl (named after the Old One Xhotl, which clearly was not the god of creativity), Kroq-gar is the last recipient of it.
*'''Blessed Mark of the Old Ones''': this was the only one who could not manifest together with any other spawning, as it meant that the Saurus (or Skink!) character bearing it was marked for greatness by all the old ones. It made the chosen lizard albino, a concept that got folded into the character of Gor Rok.

And the two commander ranks of Saurus are:
* '''Oldbloods''': The oldest, strongest, and most cunning of the Saurus caste. They are the Generals of the Lizardmen, and got the rank by being the meanest kids on the block through millennia of fighting just about everyone.
* '''Scar-Veterans''': Saurus Champions who are exactly what it says on the tin: veterans who got through their fair share of battles and are on their way to Oldblood status. They either travel the world alone, seeking lost relics or battle, or lead their fellow lizardmen as secondary commanders.

===Skinks===
'''Skinks''' are the smallest type of Lizardmen and the smartest save for Slanns. They are about Skaven sized and a bit leaner and while not particularly strong they are quick, dexterous and nimble. They act as the farmers, administrators, priests and artisans of Lizardmen society. They are the most versatile and flexible of Lizardmen and probably the one which would be best suited to have a friendly conversation with a Human. Despite their small size, they can be a formidable military force, as they have highly-accurate poisoned blowpipes (<strike>they used to have bows and arrows which got retconned for some reason</strike>). A few of them can use magic, not at Slann levels of course, but still. They are also the caretakers for most of the dinosaurs used by the Lizardmen, and thus are [[Awesome]]. Awesome enough to get their own [[meme]] (that didn't really survive through the newer editions): "remove X, replace with Skinks."

They are also cute.

*'''Skink Priests''': Born to manipulate the winds of magic and attend to the prophecies of events yet to occur, Priests are the highest-ranking members of the skink caste and can lead entire armies as well as cast spells with devastating precision. They occasionally have to take the reigns and make the hard decicions for the Lizardmen when a Slann won't wake up. Unsurprisingly, they are the most vulnerable in close combat. They historically come in Heavens and Beast flavors.
*'''Skink Chiefs''': Born to lead with exceptional cunning and tenacity, Chiefs are responsible for overseeing patrols, construction, message delivery, and commanding armies in battle. Skink Chiefs usually fight atop a dinosaur and with blowpipes but when the situation boils down to close combat, they can run circles around the enemy with their speed and agility in a dance of death.
*'''Skink Braves''': Veterans who have survived several battles and display more combat aptitude than regular skinks. Braves will fight alongside each other in their own cohorts or command regular skink cohorts.

*'''Chameleon Skinks''': An extraordinarily rare subspecies that is dedicated to scouting, infiltration, ambush, and hunting. They have the unique ability to manipulate the color and texture of their skin which is the biological equivalent of an integral cloaking device, allowing them to blend in flawlessly with the surrounding area. More badass than the moniker of stealth specialists may have you believe.
*'''Red Crested Skinks''': The alpha variation of the Skink species is blessed with being faster, stronger, sharper and brighter than their peers. Much better warriors than the average Skink as a result. The Temple-City of Chaqua was known for a spawning of Red Crested Skinks before being depopulated and ruined by a terrible plague.

*'''Skinks''': The basic Skink is a workhorse of the Lizardmen, filling light combat roles or as riders and support gunners to the various dinos the Lizardmen bring to battle, but much more so filling out the vast majority of crafting, managerial, logistics, and other work that a society needs done to function. As mentioned, besides the Slann, the basic Skink is far more intelligent, skilled, and flexible in role than any other class of Lizardman. If you can think of something necessary to a society or war engine that hasn't been mentioned, rest assured that a Skink somewhere is scampering along doing it. By far the most numerous member of the Lizardmen, or of the various Skink castes outlined here. Also known for being one of the most adorable things in Fantasy that are absolutely worth the mauling you'd get trying to hug one.

===Kroxigor===
'''Kroxigor''' are to Skinks what Ogres are to [[Halfling]]s (at least in the Warhammer World): giant powerful but dumber versions. They're essentially giant bipedal crocodiles who spawned at the same time and in the same ponds as skinks. They're the main workers and builders of the Lizardmen, which also means they are the least bright as they were literally created with menial labor as their purpose. As such they rely on skinks for direction in almost about everything, and if left by their own devices they will act based on their animal insticts: when marching to war the Skinks tie heavy clubs to the wrists of Kroxigors, so that they do not throw the weapons away in the attempt to [[RIP AND TEAR]] the enemy barehan- ehm clawed, and in battle they often work together with Skinks, forming units termed "Skrox" by the fans. '''HOWEVER''', in a cooperative collaboration between GW and CA, Kroxigors have been given something of a sanctioned lore rework in Total War: Warhammer 2 in which they become smarter and stronger with age like the Saurus, meaning that they're not so dependent on skinks for directions and can finally lead Lizardmen armies in battle (also, [[Awesome|they death roll motherfuckers like actual crocodiles]]). The capacity to lead still seems to be a rarity amongst the Kroxigor, but they are much less likely [[Derp|to have an aneurysm out of sheer idiocy if left to their own devices]]. This change has been positively welcomed as a breath of fresh air and goes a long way to explaining the backstory of Nakai, the Wanderer.

* '''Kroxigor Ancients''': These Kroxigors have lived for several millennia and are much stronger and more intelligent than their younger kin, making them significantly more dangerous.

==DINOSAWZ==
Lizardmen are also known for their use of [[dinosaur]]s found on their native continent of Lustria. Thus they have the best monsters and cavalry period. Dinosaurs bitch. Like fucking Jurassic Park. <s>(and like Jurassic Park they are fantasy dinosaurs with little basis in science and firm roots in awesomeness)</s>

===Stegadons===
Probably the most well known dinosaur used by the Lizardmen, this stubborn, motherfucking Triceratops hits like a freight train and can trample all who oppose the Lizardmen underneath his feet. Stegadons are, unsurprisingly given the harsh nature of Lustria being a continent sized Catachan, angry all the fucking time, extremely territorial and not obligatory herbivores, which adds even more thrill to the life of Skink handlers. They usually carry Howdahs on their back which include a Skink crew, and a FUCKHUEG bow. As the stegadons age, their tempers cool and they will be able to carry either 2 massive blowpipes which fire buckets of dice, or a mystical Engine of the Gods that can buff, or shoot lightning bolts like a [[video games|Red Alert]] Tesla coil.

===Carnosaurs===
This guy is based on the large and awesome theropod dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus, Gigantosaurus, and Allosaurus, and can [[RIP AND TEAR|rip the throats out of Dragons]], knocking them down a peg like the pussies they are. In fact, the reason there are no dragons in Lustria is because [[Awesome|Carnosaurs kept hunting and killing them]] so they decided to settle somewhere less hostile. The newest version of the model adds additional cool factor by including a killing claw like the ones seen on Dromaeosaurs, such as Velociraptor. They also have pretty well-developed arms for a theropod, so make short arm jokes at your peril. Only the beardliest of Saurus can ride them, as even the babies can rip a human in half: once again it is up to the unlucky skinks to steal eggs from a Carnosaur nest, which might very well be the most dangerous place in the wilderness of Lustria, dodge an enraged Carnosaur mother and raise baby dinosaurs that can very well take a skink's head off in a single bite. Even when fully trained, for a lack of better term, Carnosaurs are constantly twitching around the edges and even the most strong-willed Saurus oldblood rider knows that when a Carnosaur tastes blood, all they can do is sit tight and enjoy the ride as everything the Lizardmen army beholds get torn a new [[Anal Circumference]]. In summary they spill blood in the name of the Old Ones and don't give a shit about that pushover [[Khorne]].

===Troglodons===
Looks like a Blind ''Spinosaurus aegyptiacus'', freaking [[Awesome|awesome]] and anybody would pay money to see it fight a Carnosaur Jurassic Park style. For some reason a Skink can ride them. This is because they team up and search for the lost plaques of the Old-Ones in a 1970's buddy cop film. Despite their blindness, they are potent hunters that use their poisonous spit as a deadly ranged prelude to a charge.

===Bastiladons===
The Lustrian equivalent of Ankylosaurus mixed with a Scutosaurus, the walking tank of dinosaurs, and the first recipient of a 2+ Scaly Skin save. Even a big Dragon, T-rex (ahem, CARNOSAUR), or Greater Daemon sometimes struggle to get through. Perhaps to the relief of Skink handlers, these guys are somewhat more chill that the other dinosaurs and their thicc armor means they are able to carry some of the more unwieldy devices of the Old Ones: the ark of Sotek which constantly vomits poisonous snakes (they can't really bite the armored Bastiladon who can safely waltz around with the tide of sneks coming from its back) or the Solar Engine of Chotec, a literal laser cannon that overheats so hard when firing that other non-naturally insulated beings can't hope to carry one around without risking fifth degree burnings.
Despite their more easygoing nature, they are still quite capable at breaking the bones of whatever poor saps were ordered to stand in the way of one, and their tail clubs can shatter some monstrous knees, though they rarely attain the refined destructive potential of a Stegadon or Carnosaur.

===Cold Ones===
Not to be confused with the [[Old Ones]], Cold Ones are basically [[Awesome|velociraptor-like animals that are used as cavalry.]] They are also used by the [[Dark Elves (Warhammer)|Dark Elves]], who have much cooler Cold Ones. The official, in-universe explanation for this discrepancy is that the two types are related-but-distinct breeds of Cold One; the cool ones are native to [[Naggaroth]] and based off of irl Velociraptors, whereas the derpy ones are native to [[Lustria]] and based off of Spinosauroids.
For once, the Skinks are not left with the short straw as Cold Ones naturally respond the innate magnetism of Itzl-blessed Saurus and the two form a very close couple... no, not *that* kind of couple, what is wrong with you?

Perhaps ironically, they are not [[Meme|clever girls]] in the slightest, and are noted as being very dull-witted, and easily overwhelmed by chaotic situations, adding to the importance of the bond between rider and mount.

In related news, playing against Ironjawz is a great opportunity to have a Cold One with the Boyz. *rimshot*

===Horned Ones===
A relative of the Cold Ones that are rare in Lustria, but prominent in the Southlands (the Warhammer World equivalent of Africa). They are distinguished from their counterparts by the fact that they are smarter, slightly faster and are based upon ''pachycephalosaurus'' with sharp teeth. Generally better than Cold Ones in every way, but are too rare to field in any significant numbers. They used to have their own models, known as Tichi-Huichi's Horned One Riders, serving as a unit in Dogs of War armies. Lizardmen mercenaries? Do want!

===Salamanders===
Not technically a Dinosaur but is still [[Awesome|awesome]]. The older models seem to be based off of Dimetrodon (again not really a dinosaur(<strike> not dinosaurs at all, but a synapsid </strike> ) and shoot flaming poison like living artillery. They are escorted by teams of Skink handlers who do their best to convince the fire breathing critters to spit in the right direction, while not getting roasted or mauled in the process. While primarily used for their ranged applications, Salamanders are perfectly capable war beasts in their own right, which makes dealing with them a troublesome conundrum for commanders. They were given a new model in AoS, as well as a “fancier” name: the Spawn of Chotec. They’re implanted with Old One technology that their skink handlers use to direct their fiery fury, in a manner similar to a cat being led around with a laser pointer.

===Razordons===
Looks like what would happen if a Kentrosaurus was on steroids. Shoots out spikes at [[Memes| Sufficient Velocity]]. Very nasty, and usually has the side affects of being pinned to a wall like a "Lets pin the tail of a Donkey" game. Deployed in a manner very similar to Salamanders.

===Terradons===
Not a Dinosaur, just an average looking Pteranodon, but as large as a car. Terradons are the sneaky flyers of Lustria, hovering above the canopy for days at a time in search of unaware prey- that is, anything smaller. In battle, Skinks riding them employ primarily ranged weapons, and have the mounts carry large rocks to drop on unsuspecting warm-bloods. Their new models are also very sexy, unlike their retarded brothers.

===Ripperdactyls===
Just look at the name. GW is really phoning it in now aren't they. Otherwise, its a Pterosaur similar to the Terradon but with more of a basis in Pterosaurs like Rhamphorhynchus. These googly eyed bastards, like most of the dinosaur in this list, are simmering pots of pent up aggressions and hold the distinction of being the one cavalry unit where the mount does all the job while the rider tries desperately to hold on. Clearly for the genius tactical minds of Skink Chiefs this flying meatgrinder is not enough, so they have Chameleon Skinks hide Lustrian Bloat Toads (favorite prey of Ripperdactyls) into the pouches of unlucky invaders before sending the Rippers to rip them a new one. Think seagulls swarming pizza leftovers on a beach, but each seagull is bigger than a man and screaming for blood, and some lizard asshole snuck some pepperoni into your pockets.

===Raptadons===
Brand new feathered raptor dinos introduced in the 2023 Seraphon refresh for AoS. They are ridden by skinks and are described as lightning fast, intelligent, and deadly. They are also the first dinos to bear feathers, and are likely an attempt by GW to align with modern paleo theories. The scales vs feathers argument now coming to a game table near you! They come in two varieties, the ranged skirmisher raptadon hunters, and the melee focused raptadon chargers.

===Aggradons===
Replacing the Cold Ones (at least in AoS), Aggradons serve as the fierce heavy cavalry of Saurus riders. Unlike the feathered raptadons, aggradons remain fully scaled, Jurassic Park-esk raptors that are violent murder machines that only the boldest and most skilled Saurus can tame. The longer they remain in battle, the more their bloodlust flares up (translating to more claw and jaw attacks as turns pass by in extended combat). Scar-Veterans are known to also ride aggradons.

===Dread Saurians===
Following GW's desire to create big monsters for Forge World to sell, the Dread Saurian was given rules in the Monstrous Arcanum Vol.1 (More was planned, obviously) and was awesome. This thing is larger than even the Carnosaur, is pretty rare and is so powerful that even the Slann can't control it without bedecking it in glyph-inscribed armour. These things are captured, presumably as eggs, and placed inside mountainside Temples, there they are worshipped as a physical manifestation of the Old Ones power. However, when shit hits the fan, a Slann will order a Temples gates unlocked and he'll release the power of the Dread Saurian on Lizardmens enemies. While the Dread Saurians stats are slightly better than a Carnosaur and has the same D3 Wounds bite, its main power comes from its options (which, for some reason, aren't restricted to just Lizardmen, derp). This includes turning it into a ghost (making it Ethereal), giving it Flaming Impact Hits, putting a huge stone disc on its neck to boost it's Toughness to 8(!) at the expense of 2 less Movement, but probably the most amusing (and something Creed would appreciate) is giving it the Ambushers special rule. Nothing says "fuck your Warmachines" quite like a T7 3+ monster charging you. All these buffs are named after Old Ones worshipped by the Lizardmen. Stick it in a list with Kroak and watch as it takes down whatever models you want it to. If it dies? Just use skele-frog to summon him back to continue his rampage. Can easily take Alarielle with this method.

This isn't the only interesting thing about it. It had a strange development history. It was released in Monstrous Arcanum Vol.1 before Lizardmen 8th edition by Forge World. In the book, the art depicted it as a sail-less Spinosaurus, yet when the model (finally) arrived, it had lost it's crocodile-like head, got more spikes and was now too-swole-to-control. We asked Forge World's Facebook page (when it had a Q&A) why it changed and were told, simply, "She wanted to change it". While this was a simple answer, it was clearly bullshit, as, when 8th Edition Lizardmen was released, we suddenly had a Troglodon, which was essentially a blind Spinosaurus. What clearly happened was a classic "Failure to Communicate" by GW between its departments. The artist for FW was told to design a "1UP" of the Carnosaur, so based it on a Spinosaurus, the only known carnivore bigger than a T-Rex (Gigantosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus want words), then when the time came to actually design the model, FW learnt that the Troglodon had been designed. Thus, not wanting to make a "1UP" of a brand new model, they redesigned it to what it is now. But it gets more interesting still! In the Lustria Campaign Book, there is a conversion model of an Arcanodon with a EoTG's on top. If you compare the Arcanodon's pose with the Dread Saurian, it's nearly identical.

Fun Fact! The Dread Saurian model is so big, a human-sized model can fit inside its mouth. Conversion time, people!

As of 01/10/2023 the Dread Saurian model was discontinued from Forgeworld (Alongside most of the FW AoS range), rest in peace big lizard.

===More Dinosaurs===
Since the Lizardmen have pretty much every iconic Dinosaur, the only thing they are missing now is a massive Sauropod like ''Amphicoelias fragillimus''...That . Would . Be . [[Awesome|Awesome]]. A Thunder-Lizard perhaps? Otherwise they could add it as the Arcanadon which used to exist back from the Lustria Sourcebook (although it is still in the fluff.)

There are several mentions of dinosaurs that the Lizardmen have, which don't have rules or models. Pliodons are described acting as "living ferries across the wide canals", while Voxosaurs "emitted their piercing screams to sound alarms" - A bit like a rooster, I imagine. One could pretty freely imagine a whole host of Flintstones-esque dinosaurs filling various appliance roles, if you wanted to take the piss out of it. As mentioned, the others are Thunder Lizards and Arcanadons.

==Soulbound==
While initially missing from the available options for [[Age of Sigmar Roleplay]], there was eventually the web supplement ''Stars and Scales'' that allowed players to take the role of a scary star-lizardman, and they're predictably very unique compared to most beings. Due to their nature as star-formed entities bound to their Slann Masters and a great plan that is ineffable to all but their star-frogs, the Seraphon are incapable of contributing or using Soulfire akin to the [[Stormcast Eternals]].
As with the wargame, the Seraphon are split between both the well-protected Saurus and the nimble Skinks as well as the ''Starborne'' Seraphon (Those who are composed of starlight and thus can blind those who harm them) and the ''Coalesced'' Seraphon (Those who adapted to their realms rather than the stars and became more aggressive but poor diplomats.)

As for backgrounds, Seraphon heroes can pick from the following Constellations to hail from:
*'''Dracothion's Tail (Starborne only):''' As Dracothion aided Sigmar in the forming of the mortal realms, so too do these Seraphon come to aid the champions of the gods when the stars deem it right. This constellation is one of the very few to have several Slann on hand, and they have taught their disciples some of their arcane wisdom. Heroes from this constellation can spend Mettle to teleport, potentially blinding anyone near them when they arrive in a flash of light.
*'''Fangs of Sotek (Starborne only):''' Perhaps the faction of Seraphon most familiar to the mortal realms, the Fangs of Sotek have often lent their aid to the heroes of order when it so suits them. This is not for the sake of altruism so much as it is for the sake of keeping their potential allies and foes under tight observation and manipulation. Heroes from this constellation have an easier time communicating with other species and are much swifter when the battle begins to quickly silence the opposition.
*'''Koatl's Claw (Coalesced Only):''' The result of Skaven sabotage causing their pyramid-ship to crash into the realm of Ghur and crippling their Slann. Any Seraphon spawned since this incident are now utterly unhinged, bent on waging war on any foe in pursuit for some sort of satisfaction. Heroes from this constellation deal more damage the worse they are injured, but suffer the inability to manage long-term plans.
*'''Thunder Lizard (Coalesced Only):''' The Thunder Lizard will accomplish its agendas with no compromise and no quarter - After all, they only see their plan as the ideal. Though they may join a Binding for the sake of accomplishing a common goal, it will not be one that will always benefit their mortal allies, and they will not accept any deviations from the plan. Heroes from this constellation are wardens of ancient treasures and thus start play with one such relic as well as the ability to double their training when dealing with Seraphon relics - On top of that, the ''Animal Friend'' talent is now available to all archetypes.

The supplement provides a paltry two archetypes available to only the Seraphon. Skinks get '''Skink Starpriest''', and Saurus get '''Saurus Oldblood'''.

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen|Tactics/Lizardmen]]
* [[Warhammer/Tactics/6th_Edition/Lizardmen|Lizardmen tactics for the glorious 6th edition]]
*[[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Seraphon]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3CmxjTFv_Y How you make Total Warhammer II more awesome than Total Warhammer? Add the Lizardmen!]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHalXjs0cDA&ab_channel=LouiseMcClafferty Musical accompaniment for playing Lizardmen/Seraphon. Be honest, did you think it was going to be anything else?]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Lizardmen (Warhammer Fantasy)]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.lustria-online.com/ Lustria-Online.com, the main Lizardmen and Seraphon army forum.]
{{Template:Lizardmen_Characters}}
{{Lizardmen Troops}}
{{Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle}}
{{Template:Playable Factions in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar}}

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
File:Slann and their Magical Force Fields.jpg|Look into this frog's eyes. He's half-asleep, probably drunk, and he's ''still'' going toe-to-toe against a Lord of Change in a magic fight.
File:A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.jpg|A typical Lizardmen city.
File:ThunderLizard.jpg|Please GW. I beg you. ADD THIS (Even if it's ripping off Dinotopia, with some change it'd be a good original idea)
File:ScaliePorn.png|Even Lizards need to beat one off sometimes.
File:Lizard lesbian kiss.jpg | Lizard woman are lesbians!?
File:Seraphon_AKA_Lizardmen_VS_Cowardly_Wizards.jpg|Seraphon riding Derpasaurus
File:Skink.PNG|Love makes us do strange things in our fanon. Like <strike>reinterpreting the Great Plan</strike> <strike>Commiting Heresy</strike> being circumventive and discordant.
File:TWWH2_-_XFHuPdk.jpg|Lizardmen "Watercraft." Watercraft may be a misnomer, seeing as [[Derp|they're completely made of stone]] and are instead projecting a magical repulsion field from the hulls that allows them to skim over the water or at least maintain an artificial buoyancy to prevent them from sinking into the ocean.
File:TWWH2_-_tk5cjjsi56r41.jpg|There's a difference between "can't" and "won't".
File:Warhammer_-_1576358548147.png|Gold may not corrode over the centuries, but it can still break.
File:TWWH2_-_1588681734_Adorable.png|When you're cursed with cuteness and overwhelming adoration.
File:TWWH2_-_Metallurgical_Confusion.PNG|The writers can't make up their mind in regards to armor composition.
File:Warhammer_-_A_confused_painter.PNG|For those who were wondering: GW has never specified a proper way to paint Lizardmen.
File:TWWH2_-_ym4otcpy6csa1.jpg|Visiting Lustria may result in instant regret instead of easy money.
</gallery>
</center>

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves

2023-05-28T10:31:28Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:910C:B95D:FD56:AE05: /* Multiplayer Strategies */

{{Topquote|Skulls for Khaine! Blood for Khaine!|Game battle chant for the Dark Elves. [[Khorne|Why does it sound familiar...]]}}
{{Topquote|Sa'anishar! (Shields and spears!)|Slightly more original game battle chant for the Dark Elves.}}
This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the Dark Elves.

==Why Play Dark Elves==
*Because you'd like your elves to take their arrogance to the next level and just start murdering people for the crime of not being elves.
*Because you believe that everything looks roughly 1000 times better when covered in spikes.
*Because you enjoy the inherent power fantasy that comes from playing a big spiky asshole out to conquer and enslave.
*You like a versatile unit roster with some serious killing power.
*Because being the good guy is just so boring sometimes.

===Pros===
*'''Flexibility''': One of the Druchii's biggest strengths that really can't be understated. While a lot of other factions are forced into a single tactic, the Druchii have more battlefield options than pretty much any other faction in the game, even the High Elves. While they are best at offense thanks to Murderous Prowess, their wide selection of unique units and powerful characters means they can also play defense, kite, use a heavy monster focus, combined arms, and all-around whatever tactic you can think of.
*'''AP for Days''': If you're playing Dark Elves and having a hard time with armoured troops, you're playing them wrong. A large chunk of the roster has majority AP damage, so armor should be the least of your concerns.
*'''Solid Range''': While you may not be the shootiest of factions, the Dark Elves are more than capable. They are fully capable of melting enemy units before they close to melee with the right build.
*'''Anti-large''': The Druchii are renowned for their beast-hunting prowess, and it shows in the game. Most of your unit archetypes have at least one solid anti-large option, whether it be monsters, infantry, or chariots.
*'''Mobility''': You're not as good at it as the Asrai, but Dark Elves have some of the best light cav and missile chariots in the game, if not ''the'' best. Combine that with infantry like Witch Elves and Sisters of Slaughter, and you are able to get around the battlefield pretty damn fast. Light Cav tactics are a favorite among Dark Elf players.
*'''Powerful Lords''': When it comes to lord options, you are spoiled for choice. Most of their lords are at the very least decent and some like Malekith can carry an entire army to victory if given the time.
*'''Strong Heroes''': While you aren't quite the Vampire Counts when it comes to character prowess, your heroes are still very, very good. Death Hags and Masters in particular provide great utility on the battlefield on top of powerful melee stats, and Sorceresses, like all elven casters, are a hero you really can't go wrong with.
*'''Strong Economy''': Your economy is god-tier, and this is even before you bring in trade. Raking in high numbers of slaves all but guarantees that your cash flow reaches insane levels which you can further boost by abusing the Master hero who reduces slave decay to the point that they literally cannot decay anymore. Combine this with the extremely generous discounts on Black Arks and your pockets will never be empty again.
*'''Naval Supremacy''': An often overlooked, but still important feature is that your Black Arks can dominate the oceans of the world and keeping your homeland secure from any threats. The only faction that rivals your naval power are (big surprise here) the Vampire Coast.

===Cons===
*'''Frail''': Okay, so you don't have it as bad as the Wood Elves, since many of your units are bringing actual armor to the fight, but you're still a glass cannon rush faction. Running into a faction that can simply outlast your burst of melee damage once Murderous Prowess proccs, can and will give you a lot of trouble.
*'''Limited Range''': Their ranged units aren't bad, in fact, Darkshards and Shades are extremely good, but they don't shoot very far. Even some [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] units will outrange you, and most factions will get one or two shots off before you get in position.
*'''Lack of Healing''': You're the only Elven faction with no multi-target healing. The only thing you have is Soul Stealer, which only heals the caster. Combine this with your low health pools, and your units will die a lot faster than their tanky statline might lead you to believe.
*'''Expensive''': Not as much as High Elves, but still pretty pricey. Expect to be outnumbered most of the time.
*'''Poor Public Order''': Being the quarrelsome lot that they are, Dark Elves suffer from a multitude of public order penalties (especially once you have a lot of slaves) and don't have a lot of tools to counter them; managing it can quickly devolve into a frantic nightmare, particularly on high difficulties.
*'''No Encampments''': If you are away from your territory, you can't recruit new guys while encamping. This can be offset somewhat with Black Arks, though that's not an option in regions far from the coast.
*'''Temperamental Economy''': You make a ton of money when your slave count is high, but your income will nosedive if you go a couple turns without winning battles. This problem is exacerbated in Immortal Empires where slave decline is % based across your entire empire. True to lore, your economy will crumble the moment you run out of enemies.
*'''Powercreep''': Dark Elves really haven't had the best transition from game 2 to 3. The rework to your slavery system made it way less interactive and a ton of different campaigns got bumped up in difficulty. Building Black Arks is still fun but they require a huge investment. They're certainly one of the factions on the radar for a potential update.
*'''DLC''': Scourgerunners and Supreme Sorceresses are some of your best units. They also cost extra. As with most Non DLC factions, you will need to pay extra money to be consistent in multiplayer.

==Universal Traits==
*'''Murderous Prowess''': A passive, army-wide ability that gives all units on the map considerable offensive bonuses after you hit a certain threshold of kills (usually around 30-50% of the enemy force). Hard to time right and difficult to control, but extremely effective regardless. Seeing your Corsairs, Shades, and whatnot go into overdrive for 90 seconds is a scary and satisfying spectacle to behold. For a few units, the effect lasts 120 seconds instead of 90. Good in WH2, but terrifying in WH3 where Murderous Prowess also regenerates 1% vigor per second. Watch your entire army get a second wind and go from exhausted to fresh when it triggers.
*'''Slaves''': You get slaves by raiding, winning battles, and looting/sacking settlements. Slaves go to your cities to do the crapwork and are gradually worked to death turn by turn. The Druchii can make a hell of a lot of money by capturing slaves. However the more slaves you've got the harder it is to control them, which leads to unrest.
*'''Black Arks''': A special kind of campaign unit that acts as one of the two true "navies" in the entire game, Black Arks can only exist on the water but they are essentially floating garrisoned cities that can also let your other armies recruit and exchange from them. A powerful incentive for any Druchii player to adopt the raiding lifestyle and an excellent tool for mobile defence across Naggaroth's extensive coastline.

==Lords==

===Legendary Lords===
*'''[[Malekith]]''': Warhammer's rendition of Darth Vader with severe mummy issues arrived on the scene, and he doesn't mess around. This dude is among ''the'' best Legendary Lords in the game bar none. A monster of a Hybrid LL, he is everything the likes of Azhag the Slaughterer and Arkhan the Black wish they could be. He punches hard, gets a Dragon relatively early on and his spellcasting doesn't disappoint either. His economy buffs are ridiculously strong, boosting an already ridiculous economy. His buffs to Black Guard and Dragons are also very useful. You can hardly go wrong with Malekith.
*'''[[Morathi]]''' : Morathi is a ''very'' weird animal (There's gotta be a sex joke in here somewhere). Unlike many other Legendary Lords, her skill tree is the only one in the game where you actually get to make meaningful choices, as she can alternate between ridiculously powerful spellcasting and good backline harasser, both paths are viable. What sets her apart from other Caster Lords as her spellcasting is concerned is that, like Teclis, she doesn't specialize in single Lore and her pool of spells draws from the Lores of Dark, Death, and Shadows and favors all-out offensive spells from all of them. Arguably the second-best Caster Lord in the game, just behind Teclis. Unfortunately her campaign mechanics are badly broken, she has to spread corruption but doesn't get public order benefits from it, only downsides. This makes her campaign more difficult than you'd expect simply due to serous public order issues. They even nerfed the building in quintex that made the public order manageable for no apparent reason. With Immortal Empire's she now spreads Slaanesh corruption and her public order issues have been fixed, she can also recruit both regular and Exalted dDemonettes from her public order building. which is a nice step in the right direction. They forgot to make them affected by her red skill/techs as usual though. Honestly she is just begging for a dedicated rework to make her into a hybrid faction at this point, it would be awesome to see a true cult of Slaanesh faction. I don't know why they didn't give her the cultist of Slaanesh hero given that they are literally Dark Elf cultists. They did unfortunately significantly nerf her enchanting beauty and her weapons debuff abilities so she cant tank melee stats into the ground just by existing anymore, despite other lords like demon princes having aura's of similar power in campaign. Bizarrely they also removed her -50% upkeep for hero's, I guess someone was convinced her faction was too good, despite none of it being super strong or unique (vampires get -50% hero upkeep and way more from bloodlines).
*'''[[Hellebron]] (DLC)''' : Hellebron exists in her own little niche. Barely armored like Witch Elves, but really, really bloody fast and a buffmachine for your already busted murdermachine frontline. She excels in prolonged combat, preferably against lightly armored chaff and will rack a high kill count very quickly but will cave against elite units and other single entity monsters or characters.
: Get a unique campaign mechanic of her vitality slowly draining way and have to progressively sacrifice more slaves during the Death Night to keep the faction buffed instead of Debuffed, but also create a new stack of frenzied elves to attack [[Ulthwe]].
*'''[[Lokhir Fellheart]] (FLC)''' : Lord of the [[Black Ark]]s. He is a cheaper blender lord in comparison to Hellebron, being a well-armored Infantry blender while on foot like a Vlad von Carstein without magic. CA also gave him his own Dragon mount which only make him better than a Dread Lord on dragon when he pops his attack buffs.
:the Druchii pirate lord starts in the thunder dome that is Lustria but can have a lot of freedom by starting with a middle settlement that is a Black Ark.
*'''[[Malus Darkblade]] (DLC)''': An unremarkable lord until he lets the daemon take over, and then he is a melee powerhouse. Using Malus in combat is like burning a candle wick, his Tz'arkan form and abilities are powerful but drain his hit points so know when he should be in daemon or Malus mode. He does have Resistance and Healing in combat so he won't burn out as fast in a fight. Switching to daemon mode restores all his health and vigor and makes him unbreakable so it's best to wait until the last moment before switching.
:in campaign his battle with his inner daemon is a game mechanic, with having a possession meter, giving you greater campaign bonuses while Malus is mostly in control, but as Tz'arkan slowly takes over, he gains greater battle prowess but at the cost of large penalties to your empire. You control the possession by drinking a potion that gets progressively more expensive until you finish his storyline to make it free. Tz'arkan will also offer an additional quest to increase the possession but with very good payoffs. For your start position, you get a Black Ark in the Southern Land, in addition, have your traditional Druchii hold, [[Hag Graef]], that you can sell for a lot of money but have to listen to [[Malekith]] (which will be an AI) or make it harder by having to run and protect the dame place yourself while also declaring on the big cheese. -disappointingly he is actually more effective if you confederate him then if you play as him, confederated he gets the benefits of full possession with no downsides. making him insanely tanky. His faction benefits are actually more of a hassle than they are helpful.
*'''Rakarth (FLC)''' Your man you pick if you want to go for a full monster build. He comes with heavy armor and Anti Large to deal with enemy big monsters while also providing buffs to his own beasties. He will also have a Scourgerunner for skirmishing, a Manticore and a Dragon for a straight up brawl. He serves as your best counter to mounters, with his whip being able to strip Fear and Terror from monsters (leaving said monsters susceptible to fear and terror) and armor that gives him buffs as enemy monsters are around him. He's also being voiced by [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Ramsay Bolton]].

===Generic Lords===
*'''Dread Lord (Melee & Ranged)''': Your two generic lord with one focused on melee and has a shield while the other is a hybrid that focuses on shooting. In multiplayer, their ability change to help them buff their respective areas, Sword & Shield having buffs to melee attacks and debuffing enemy damage, while Sword & Crossbow supports other crossbows unit while also being a sniper, and gives a burst bonus to Ld. Note that the lords have almost identical melee stats once you put them on a black dragon and the melee lord looses her shield when mounted on one while the ranged lord keeps his ranged weapon. at high levels i cant see much reason to use the melee version instead but she will be better in melee until they get the dragon.
*'''Supreme Sorceress (DLC)''': Makes a Sorceress as a lord for money-saving cost. Somewhat feeble in combat until she levels up enough to get a black dragon mount, after which she fights better than many dedicated melee lords. Student of the Dark Tower is an amazing skill, providing lower cooldowns, reserves, and miscast reduction all in one. These girls are pretty much your best generic lord in a faction with already pretty strong lords.
*'''High Beastmaster (DLC)''': Your monster hunter Lord. Though he looks like a chronic masturbator, he can fill a surprising amount of battlefield roles. Not as tanky in melee as a Dread Lord but deals a good amount of anti-large damage in addition to his burst of additional weapon strength. Also is supportive by giving a single unit a big buff as they charge into melee (don't yet specify anything except can't be used on characters, so go crazy on an Executioners charge). Can Come on a Scouregrunner Chariot(roll though everyone while armed with a ballast) or ride a Manticore which has proven to be cost-effective flying monsters. Can give a big boost to cold ones and monsters in campaign as well as recruiting them faster. If running cavalry or monster stacks, likely your best option. The big MA/MD/ and charge boost they give colds ones really makes them preform better.

==Heroes==
*'''Death Hag''' : Single-entity Witch Elves dialed up to 11. Death Hags excel as extremely vicious infantry blenders with a lot of speed of behind them and, as an added bonus, a variety of buff abilities that make them even deadlier. They tend to get the shorter end of the stick against dedicated duelist characters and their only mount option consists of the Cauldron of Blood, which, to be frank, is a waste, since it sacrifices offensive power and speed for more durability, something that Death Hags with their high Melee Defense don't really need. - I’m not sure what the above was talking about, death hags kinda suck on foot like most foot heroes, the mount is good vs infantry and makes them actually pretty tough plus buffs nearby units. Always mount in campaign, foot may have more use in multiplayer I guess.
*'''Sorceress''' : Caster bitches in the flavours of Death, Dark, Shadows, Beasts, and Fire. Better than most other caster types, and Morathi has some great factionwide buffs for them.
*'''Khainite Assassin''' : Good on campaign map, terrible in an actual fight. To expand, Khainite Assassins get high assassination chance, and are really useful at deleting enemy characters from the game. This is exacerbated by some good hero action buffs from techs, and from a few lord skills. Their passive ability increases the amount of slave income in the province they are in, which sounds useful on paper, but isn't really needed since Dark Elves make all the money they could ever want after a while. Their 'scavenge' ability can help armies pick up more money in the early game as well. In battle, they're a dedicated character duelist meant to sneak around the back line with their vanguard and stalk, and kill enemy high-value stuff with a powerful short-ranged missile attack and pretty good melee stats. Honestly though, in melee they kind of underperform vs other duelists, and they're pretty squishy on top of it all. Their ranged attack is... fine, I guess? But it's super slow to reload and very short ranged. This is on top of the fact that they DON'T GET A MOUNT which really limits their mobility, and therefore their usefulness in battle. Seriously, these guys are tailor made to be flying around on manticores or something! Even a freaking horse would increase their usefulness incredibly. As it is, they'll probably get surrounded and killed off pretty quickly. Death Hags and Masters are really, really good heroes, and will fill every battlefield role that you could want, while Sorceresses and your regular missile units can provide crazy ranged utility. Keep these guys for killing off enemy heroes and scouting other provinces on the campaign map.
*'''Master (DLC)''' : Tyrants in Training who never graduate in game to Dreadlords :(Masters are your tanky Dark Elf hero. You can’t really overuse these, they are amazing. Ap anti large heavily armored high stat combat monsters with great mount options, the guardian skill, easy recruitment from a tier 3 building, the ability to reduce slave decline to zero if stacked, access to martial names of power granting incredibly powerful bonuses, easy to recruit at level 9 and up in any 4 city province. A doom stack of these with the regeneration or hunger/frenzy skill name of power and access to the extra melee attack army wide or leadership reduction traits is probably the campaigns deadliest hero doomstack, rivaling or beating Isabella vampire stacks or lizardmen hero spam. Really, really good heroes. And easier to spam then any comparable hero. Recommend cold one for ground duty (extra armor and ap) or Pegasus for flying (fast and flying with good charge but no shield). Foot is ok too but generally mounts are more than worth it for mobility alone. Immortal empires removed their role in the slave mechanic but they are still extremely stong melee hero's, probably use them in your armies exclusively now.

==Units==

===Infantry===

*'''Dreadspears''': Your most basic spearmen unit in the DE roster. They're... alright? They lack an offensive punch and High Elf Spearman performs better at the job they are supposed to be doing, being to hold the line to stop enemy cavalry punching through to your precious archers. They work fine in the early game, as well as being cheap, but don't rely on them for too long. stats are even better with Immortal empires now.
**'''The Hellebronai (RoR)''': Dreadspears that are a bit better in general with poison attacks.
*'''Bleakswords''': The offensive counterpart to Dreadspears. With the release of immortal empires they are now surprisingly very solid and killy basic infantry, there's a lot more reason to use them over spears now and they are going to be a very cost effective chaff unit in both multiplayer and campaign.
*'''Black Ark Corsairs''' : ...These guys. Oh, these guys. Frail as all hell, but worth it. Corsairs should make up the majority of melee troops of your midgame armies as soon as they become available. Their raw damage output as well as their armour (having a value of 90, putting them on the same level as dwarf warriors!) makes them a solid frontline and they will cut down all basic infantry used against them with ease and surprising speed. Their easy availability combined with a reasonable price make sure they are always a good choice, especially against horde-centric factions. One glaring weakness is their lack of AP damage. - whoever wrote the above likes corsairs way too much, they’re good but non synergistic with usual dark elf campaign strategies of crossbow spam. And they aren’t worth using after the early game. You can honestly never use them and just go dreadspears/bleakswords and darkshards and usually do better in the early campaign. I hear they are nice in multiplayer, but campaign wise meh.
*'''[[Witch Elves]]''': Talk about glass cannons, Witch Elves are a really weird bunch. They have no armour, but (try to) compensate for this with 20% physical resistance and a 5% ward save after you research technologies. In exchange, they excel in melee attack and apply debuffs to enemy forces attacked by them. The debuff in itself is very unique, as it not only debuffs enemy melee stats but also sends them on a rampage; causing them to stay way longer in a fight which they otherwise would be comfortable with. This is especially useful against all elven factions, since you can lure their expensive specialized elite tropps in matchups that they are not equipped to deal with (i.e. Swordmasters against a Hydra or a Dragon) and ''reliably keep them there''. Well at least as long as your Witch Elves survive the encounter, which, given that their only defense is a meager 28 melee defense and a 5% ward save, might not be that long. no real reason to use them unless you just need/want the rampage ability. sisters of slaughter are much better.
**'''Sisters of Singing Doom (RoR)''' : Schizo witch elves with slightly improved melee stats, a steep cost markup, and fear/terror. Generally not worth it, they still cause rampage on hit which is the last thing you want when you're trying to scare a unit away. Save some money and bring vanilla witch elves if you want to rampage enemies or a Manticore if you want to terror bomb them.
*'''Sisters of Slaughter (DLC)''': They wear even less clothes than Witch Elves do, yet are more resilient. Their extremely high melee defense and their 20% physical resistance make them surprisingly tough. As one of the few resilient Dark Elven melee units, their job is to hold the line and grind down other infantry where their poisoned attacks, melee defense, and bonus vs. infantry lets them reliably come out on top. In addition, they have a unique passive that boosts their melee defense and physical resist even more if they are losing their current encounter, which makes them surprisingly viable as a tarpit against enemies like black orks who would otherwise dumpster them. Competes with black guard as your best frontline infantry. Keep in mind that their high melee defense doesn't protect them from missiles or impact damage from enemies on the charge. Back them up with dreadspears or black guard so they don't become the red paintjob on an enemy chariot.
*'''Executioners''': The offensive counterpart to the Black Guards, your ol' reliable murderers of heavy armoured elite troops and anything in between. They won't last long, but kill everything in their path. Frail, especially against missiles, but as a Dark Elf player, you're used to that. I don’t recommend these, they’re fragile, slow and they have weirdly low melee stats compacted to your other elite units. You can replace these with cold one dread knights even. Seriously with the change to primal instincts dread knights have massively higher stats especially with beast master lords skills. And otherwise fill the exact same role but do it better and faster. they got a slight buff and immune to psych so that's something. if you insist on using them, the Name of power khaine marked gives them 15% ward save and reduced upkeep, which is actually very solid.
**'''Blades of the Blood Queen (RoR)''' : Gets frenzy + an aura that gives physical resistance to nearby heroes + lords. Very skippable since their stats are low for an elite infantry unit and your lord will probably be on a mobile mount instead of hiding with the infantry.
*'''Black Guard''': Extremely beefy, these are your dedicated elite line holders and monster slayers. Remember murderous prowess makes them into an absolute force of destruction. And they have very good stats, the only downside is knowing that they’ll never be as awesome as Phoenix guard. Even if they can be offensively much deadlier the survivability of Phoenix guard is insane. they received stat buffs and murderous mastery with immortal empires so are even better now.
*'''Daemonettes''': Exclusive to Morathi's campaign. basically way better witch elves for the same cost, but not effected by red skills or techs because they always forget to do that.
*'''Exalted Daemonettes''': Also exclusive to Morathi's campaign, actually a really good option, they are like way better executioners with no armor, hold the line with sisters of slaughter and flanking with these will be potentially extremely strong. throw in morathi's debuffs and a Bloodwrack shrine and you should destroy any infantry in the game frightfully quickly. Really you can argue that the dark elves much more well-rounded roster actually uses exalted daemonettes better than the Slaanesh factions.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''Darkshards''': Basic Dark Elf ranged unit and all and all pretty darn good for the entire game. Indirect fire with pretty good AP makes them very useful, especially when focusing on firing key targets into oblivion. For a little extra, you can get these guys with shields which makes them excellent in an arrow exchange, which is important given [[High Elves|who one of your biggest foes is]] always go shields.
**'''The Bolt-Fiends (ROR)''' : The cool thing about these guys is that they degrade and nullify shields.
*'''Black Ark Corsairs (Repeater Handbows)''': A mixed bag, making up for the relative lack of skirmish units in the Dark Elf roster. Surprisingly mobile and difficult to catch, their biggest strength is easily their flexibility. Nice vs skaven early on.
*'''Shades''': Don't let the low model count discourage you, Shades rank among the best Missile Troops in the game. The high rate of Fire, high damage output, and even decent in melee, especially with greatswords. Actually not really that much better than dark shards if you just use them as archers, much more expensive for only slightly better ranged performance. However if combined with a shadowdart name of power lord can be as good or better than sisters of avelorn. 210 or more range, crazy ap, and better in melee than the sisters by a large margin due to AP and anti infantry. Even with all that taken into account you need a specific name of power, some later technologies, and the red skill tree to make them as good/slightly better than the sisters. And they cost 50% more upkeep with great swords than sisters do. Which really just shows how op sisters are in campaign.

===Cavalry===
*'''Dark Riders''': Your extremely quick light cavalry, comparable to most other units of their class. One key feature is that they are actually fast enough to chase down most other missile cavalry. If your micromanagement skills hold up, Dark Riders can terrorize the enemy backline very efficiently and do so at the highest speed any base game cavalry unit offers, but they get vaporized the instant their charge bonus wears off, so will need to keep the cycle charges going. One of those units you should probably not use in campaign but can be good in multiplayer.
*'''Dark Riders (Crossbows)''': Ranged harassment cavalry. As using repeater Crossbows, they fire two shots of primarily AP damage. As always Useful to annoying poke an enemy to death but also those higher armor units that are normally resistant to those shenanigans. (most other factions only get close-range hand axes or more squisher handguns).
**'''The Raven Heralds (ROR)''': Rather distinct from their vanilla Dark Riders, these guys ride Dark Pegusii and can fly around the battlefield. Usually passed up for vanilla crossbow dark riders since the raven heralds have fewer models and vanilla dark riders already have the speed to stay out of trouble.
*'''Doomfire Warlocks (DLC)''': Really, really weird hybrid unit. In melee they have actually pretty good attack with magic and poison and charge, plus an aoe melee attack animation. They also have 40% physical resist to help keep them alive. One key advantage they have over comparable light to medium cavalry is their ability to fling around the Doombolt spell from the Lore of Dark and Soulblight from the Lord of Death as bound spells. A unit of these is pretty much always useful if nothing else, plus they look great. They lose access to their bound spells if they drop below 50% HP, so fire them off early so you don't lose them later.
**'''Slaanesh's Harvesters (ROR)''' : Doomfire warlocks with a slightly increased statline that replaces doombolt with soulstealer to drain the HP from single entities. While they're usable in campaign, they're completely unusable in multiplayer where they're more expensive than Grail Knights and Demigryphs.
*'''Cold One Knights''': they were considered bad because of rampage but primal instincts was reworked later in total warhammer 2 so that it only triggered at 20% health and then again for the third game its been changed and the rampage is gone completely, now primal instincts gives buffs to combat stats at low leadership. They are actually cost effective now. Took a long time to come into their own but it was worth the wait.
*'''Cold One Dread Knights''': They were considered bad because of rampage but primal instincts was reworked later in total warhammer 2 so that it only triggered at 20% health and then again for the third game its been changed and the rampage is gone completely, now primal instincts gives buffs to combat stats at low leadership. They are actually cost effective now. Took a long time to come into their own but it was worth the wait. The dread knights aren't going to be the go-to over the regular ones but they are a solid unit now.
**'''Knights of the Ebon Claw (ROR)''':

===Chariots===
*'''Cold One Chariot''' : A chariot pulled by dinosaurs. They're pretty much meant to be your anti-infantry melee chariot, and they have ap and an ok charge bonus which is nice. They also have a small ranged attack, but don't go using them as a missile chariot, that's what Sourgerunners are for. These guys are overshadowed by Scourgerunners due to the sheer amount of utility and killing power the former brings to the table, but as a melee chariot they can be decent especially in Malekith's army.
*'''Scourgerunner Chariot''' : One of the best units in your roster, Scourgerunner Chariots are your jack of all trades chariot, that has a special boon in being on the very few ranged units in the game that get a bonus vs. large on their ranged attacks. Their key advantage is that they also move at Dark Rider speed, which makes them extremely difficult to catch or even hit, and in a pinch, they can even reliably dispatch basic missile troops and infantry, thanks to a bonus vs. infantry. Bring 3-4 of these guys and have them work as a team, and they can swing battles for you.
**'''The Ravagers of Rakarth (ROR)''' : A scourgerunner chariot with poisoned attacks and a persistent AOE ability that slows down all enemies around it. Get one if you plan to use multiple scourgerunners to delete isolated monsters/infantry.

===Artillery===
*'''Reaper Bolt Thrower''': Essentially identical to the High Elf counterpart (in spite of the significantly more badass name), the Reaper is likewise probably not going to be winning any prizes for the best artillery piece. Alright, it does hit a bit harder and has a smidge less range, but this is not something people would notice much in most situations. Nevertheless, it remains a useful and versatile addition to a Dark Elf army. Just don't go in expecting a WMD. Like the repeater, they possess two firing modes and can be particularly useful for sniping enemy artillery. In short a decent, if not exactly exceptional, artillery unit.
*'''Bloodwrack Shrine (DLC)''': A Bloodwrack Medusa with a Go-Cart. Despite being described as a chariot don't use it as such, it's too slow to pass through a unit. Use it more like a Mortis Engine or Grail Relique, and you'll find it's a surprisingly versatile unit with support ability, decent melee stats, and even a ranged attack. Provides +7 MA and -7 MD to nearby allies/enemies respectively. Similar in purpose to the high elf frost Phoenix but offensive. Quite effective if you want your melee units buffed. Plus ok ranged damage from the Medusa herself.

===Monsters===
*'''Harpies''': Harpies fulfill essentially the same role as war hound and fell bat units. They're intended to be fast-moving harassers best used to hunt down or disrupt enemy missile units and artillery crews. When used in their intended capacity they can get some work done, just don't expect them to do much against anything with actual staying power. Even some of the sturdier archer units can prove a bit too much for them. If you're up against an opponent with a heavy focus on ranged firepower they can be a valuable addition. However, sending them in unsupported against basically anything else is a good way to end up with a whole lot of dead bat-ladies. Rakarth makes then a lot better, giving them bonus Melee Attack as well as a smidge of AP damage.
**'''The Crows of Khaine (ROR)''': Basically Harpies with Fear and the ability to regenerate when fighting. Surprisingly tanky because of it, just watch out for units that counter them.
*'''Feral Manticore''': Surprisingly good backline harasser. Manticores make Harpies pretty much obsolete and make for great mid-tier carnage against everything that doesn't have a bonus against large. They are very susceptible to Rampage, so take care of them. Manticores are best taken in groups of 2-4 in order to kill targets fast enough that they don’t die themselves. Paired with a flying master they can make a fast deadly Air Force for cheap which can act as a single unit killing gank squad. Can usually staggerlock foot heroes. And usually outfight other aerial units short of dragons or heroes.
*'''War Hydra''': One of your standout units, there are lots of nasty surprises with the Hydra, which acts as your standard frontline melee monster. One of its core features is its flexibility; it's effective against a lot of targets and can reliably hunt down infantry thanks to its speed and breath attack. It tends to get the short end of the stick against other monsters and anti large. In campaign you can get these 25% cheaper from a klar karond building. Super cheap and easy to spam regenerating monster.
**'''The Chill of Sontar (ROR)''' : Same regenerating monstery goodness as a normal hydra, though it replaces its flaming breath in exchange for one that slows down whatever it hits.
*'''Kharibdyss (DLC)''' : OMNOMNOMNOM. A Hydra on steroids, trades the regeneration factor and flaming breath for poisoned attacks, anti-large, and lots of AP goodness. Works best against armoured monsters, so if the enemy brings big scary beasts it can go toe to toe. If you want to blend infantry though, you’re better off with the Hydra.
*'''Bloodwrack Medusa (DLC)''': Combination monster and short rate direct fire artillery. Can delete chunks of elite infantry very quickly. These snake waifus have really great utility, but need to be micro'd well to reap the rewards. They aren't like most monsters in the game, so don't send them into melee and forget about them. Their speed, powerful ranged attack, mass and charge bonus means that you should be using them almost like a chariot. Have them blast infantry from range, charge into melee for a short time, and then escape to do it all over again. Got a pretty decent buff to their melee stats in Immortal empires to make them a more well rounded pick.
**'''The Siren of Red Ruin (ROR)''' : Same as a normal Medusa, but gains a AOE ability that causes moderate damage to all enemies around her.
*'''Black Dragon''' : Evil Dragonny Goodness. Roughly equivalent to a moon dragon in terms of killyness and retains the devastating breath attack, high mass, and good mobility that other dragons have. More difficult to use than high/wood elf dragons dark elves don't have the lores of magic to heal it.

===Rakarth Campaign Units===
*'''Feral Cold Ones''' :
*'''Explosive Squig''' :
*'''Giant Wolves''' :
*'''Sabretusk Pack''' :
*'''Feral Bears''' :
*'''Feral Mammoth''' :
*'''Feral Stegadon''' :
*'''Feral Carnosaur''' :

==Tactics==
===Multiplayer Strategies===
Long, Long ago in the distant times of 2017 Dark Elves where one of the top factions in the game with their massive amount of AP, powerful Lords and flexible army. Unfortunately after years of being beaten with the Nerf Bat they have fallen from grace. As of the Twisted and the Twilight patch they are considered low tier they really only have one viable tactic, relying on Scourgerunners and Crossbow Dark Riders. Now just because they are considered low tier doesn't mean you can't win with them as they still have some favorable match ups. As of right now, you are a bit of a one trick pony so you may have to get creative.

*'''Beastmen''': Fighting a bunch of naked goats calls your AP specialty into question, but you have quite a few ways to make this matchup work if you're clever. Witch Elves will trade well into any infantry the beastie boys bring, and while they won't beat Bestigors, making them rampage into your lines where they can't sustain themselves can give you quite an advantage. Dark rider crossbows, usually an auto-include in most Dark Elf builds, are much more risky here due to Ungor raiders and the inherent speed of the beastmen army. You'll have a harder time getting value out of them. On the other hand, Scourgerunners throw a big middle finger to any monsters the Beastmen are foolish enough to bring (the one notable exception being the Cygor, which can be quite difficult to deal with if you don't shut it down early), so bringing some of your own monsters can be good way to clear out the remaining support.
*'''Bretonnia''': Their cavalry and airforce outclass yours, and that's where all their funds are going to be, so you'll be stuck playing the battle on their terms. Witch Elves to rampage those expensive cav options are going to be a good idea, and this is one of the few times where spending a bit extra for some Black Guard can be super valuable. Masters and Beastmasters can be great against cavalry as well, and are worth considering.
*'''Chaos Daemons''':
*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': Dark Dwarves vs. Dark Elves. To show the stunties who the superior edgy splinter faction is, you're going to have to deal with their ranged prowess. At the time of this writing, Chaos Dwarves have only been out for a little while, so the following is subject to change as new strategies come out, but at the moment this seems like a quite interesting matchup, though I'd say the druchii have a slight edge. Both factions rely on momentum, have armor and ap, and great character choices. However, broadly speaking, they have the ranged advantage while you have the melee and mobility advantage. You'll win the chaff fight laughably, as dreadspears, bleakswords, witch elves, and sisters will run rampant over their nasty skulkers and orc/goblin fodder, but with blunderbusses, the ironsworn bombs, and their great artillery, on top of lore of Hashut which is great at blob destroying, your infantry is gonna get shot to hell even with good micro. *If* you micro them well and avoid ranged fire as much as possible, Dark Rider Crossbows can do a lot here. They are always a great tool in your arsenal, but here they can provide a ton of utility with their mobility and ability to target big monsters as well as armored up infantry, and even cycle charge artillery crews in a pinch. Now, a good player will know this and be looking to swarm you with bull centaurs and wolf riders, so make sure you have units to screen. The oft-maligned Cold One Knights w/ lances (STILL in need of a buff imo) will trade very well with bull centaurs and k'daai, and they have some ranged protection as well making them a good niche pick. In terms of characters, Malus is probably going to be your lord of choice here as frankly he has been a monster since the advent of Warhammer 3, and can take any lord the Dawi'Zharr can offer in a melee fight. Lore of Shadows or Dark is also a useful tool for dealing armor piercing damage and grinding down ironsworn.
*'''Chaos Warriors''': What used to be a stomp in your favor is now a bit more balanced with the IE update. Dark Elves of course are specialists in dealing with slow-moving heavily armored factions, but the Chaos Warriors now have a few tools you need to watch out for. Some fast fliers, like doom knights, might give you a hard time since they're difficult to shoot and pack quite a punch. Valkia and Azazel don't have much in the way of utility, but are small hitboxes flying around the screen and are great at dueling even your awesome spiky lords. They can also try going super wide use hellstriders and low-armor infantry to keep you on your toes, while backing up with elite stuff. To counter this strategy, remember that you're one of the very few factions that can meet the Warriors on their own terms and win. Forget the skirmish and ranged stuff and just go full tin-can opener with Executioners and Witch Elves/ Sisters. This matchup is tougher now, but make no mistake, it's still well in hand for a smart druchii player.
*'''Dark Elves''': This mirror-match can actually get pretty interesting. I wouldn't bother too much with Scourgerunners here. Both players probably aren't going to be relying on their big threats to win the day, and even if they do, your ap missiles can give even a Hydra a hard time. Victory is probably going to come down to smart ranged play and good use of elite infantry. Harpies are a good choice to tie down Darkshards, and use your Dark Rider Crossbows to take out and Black Guard or Executioners on the field. Dark Riders with lances or shields can also be a good choice to get into that terrifying crossbow line.
*'''Dwarfs''': Sure, you could try your usual skirmish tactics, you have the heavy AP to pierce your opponent's stunties. Unfortunately, they have the firepower to shut down a lot of your ranged units before you can get close enough to return the favor, and rune of slowness can be disastrous, tarpitting key units at really inconvenient times. What is a much more interesting build that doesn't play into the Dawi's strengths is a heavy metal melee rush. You're one of the VERY few factions that can reliably cut through all that armor with ease, along with Chaos Warriors and Slaanesh. Bring a couple executioners, bleakswords (Blades of the Blood Queen RoR can be a powerhouse if used right), and maybe a Master, and spread yourself out so they can't take advantage of their range advantage. Bring a couple skirmishers/chariots to shut down their artillery, but don't focus too much on ranged power or monsters. As for lord choice, Lokhir on foot is a good option for dueling any single entities, or crossbow dreadlord for his armor-piercing ranged options. If you want a magical lord instead, the Lore of Dark magic is great here, with cheap ap spells, or soul stealer to nuke the slow dwarf infantry blobs.
*'''Empire''': In campaign, this is a highly interesting and very fun matchup since both armies have such flexible rosters. In multiplayer though... you got your work cut out for you. Even with some slight improvements to cold one knights, they just won't stand up to Empire heavy cav, and you'll have a hell of a time trying to lean on your infantry while they're being cycle-charged by demigryphs. They can also keep up in the skirmish department, with pistoliers and outriders doing their job competently. Harpies can deal with them, but require some micro. Putting your money into a hero goon squad, and perhaps relying on magic to get some ranged damage in, either with Morathi or a sorceress hero, can be an unexpected tactic that might pay some dividends. You'll rip them apart in melee, but the approach is really what will determine the battle.
*'''Grand Cathay''': You'll win an infantry grind easily, and you should be able to chunk through the Terracotta Sentinels and sky junks with your ranged no problem. Their mobile artillery and solid lord choices and be tough to deal with though. I'd recommend Malus on Spite or Malekith on Seraphon with Soul Stealer (though the latter is quite expensive). Remember, the Cathayan army has to stay together to take maximum advantage of their harmony bonuses, so while they have skirmishers, they are quite limited and you'll be able to mop them up. That also means that with your faster-than-average army, you'll be able to pick and choose your engagements quite well. Don't spend too long on the approach though, that artillery is no joke, and watch out for missile mirror dickery.
*'''Greenskins''': Flex rosters? Benefit from prolonged melee combat? Aggressive infantry and magic? Fast movers and skirmishers? Yup, these two armies share quite a few competencies. While the greenskins are more resilient, they're also lower leadership, and much worse at taking out large threats. This is one of the matchups where an infantry grind won't automatically go in your favor. Executioners might trade well with even Black Orcs, but bringing elite infantry here is just asking for them to get blown up with doom divers and Rogue Idol shots, or bad nasty skulker trades. Their monsters usually have a ridiculous amount of hp, but you're one of the best factions in the game at shredding through it with your crossbows and Scourgerunners. Just remember they have good skirmish power too, and you don't want to waste your ammo on a bunch of spider riders. In a pinch, a Kharybdiss can also help quite a bit at dueling lords and monsters, and the boyz lack a lot in the way of ap ranged or anti-large to shut them down. You might further consider bringing a monster or Lore of Fire to counter Trolls who with their missile and magic resist are hard to shut down.
*'''High Elves''': The Asur cling to tradition! This is a pretty balanced matchup that will test both sides' knowledge and micro. You will destroy them in the infantry grind, especially because by the time Murderous Prowess pops, most of their units will be damaged enough to lose their martial prowess. Furthermore, Scourgerunners will kite any dragons or other monsters they bring into the End Times (but watch out for Bolt Throwers!). What you're really going to have to worry about is their heavy cav, since Dragon Princes will flatten your forces without good Scourgerunner play, and archers which outrange yours. Light cavalry is the best way to zone out the archers, and ap volleys and skirmishers are a good way to lessen the impact of their heavy cav. If you're confident in your anti-large capability and shutting down any Sisters of Avelorn, a Hydra can really do a lot for you with it's missile resist and regen. Play to your strengths, use murderous prowess well, and Malekith will be chilling with his feet up on the Phoenix Throne in no time!
*'''Khorne''': Just shove a spiky arrow up Skarbrand's ass and call it a day. Fighting slow, heavily armored factions is well within the druchii wheelhouse, and while Khorne isn't exactly plodding in pace, you're faster than them by a mile. What you're going to have to watch out for is War Hounds that are super fast and can tarpit your stuff. The Dark Elves can be quite a threat in melee if they choose, but Khorne can out-fight even your best troops, so don't challenge them on their own terms, just lean into your skirmish and missile potential and you can carry the day.
*'''Kislev''': You'll need to win and win quickly, since Kislev's best shot at winning is simply outlasting you. You more than match up in the infantry department at least stat-wise, Kossars and Streltsi won't be able to outfight your bleakswords in a vacuum but By Our Blood makes them a surprisingly hard nut to crack, and trades that seem favorable might end up going the other way. You actually out-range most of their ranged troops as well, except when it comes to Ice Guard. If they're dumb enough to bring an Elemental Bear or other big threats, you have plenty of ap to challenge them. Ice magic can slow your skirmishers down, only for their own skirmishers to make up the difference. They are one of the few factions that can actually stand up to you in the kite game, so you want to lean into the rush element of your army, and make good use of Murderous Prowess.
*'''Lizardmen''': This is one of the matchups in which you shine. All their armored dinosaurs are extremely vulnerable to your wide selection of AP troops, with a special shoutout to Dark Shards and Shades. Lizardmen lack missile infantry beyond their rather frail Skink Skirmishers, though their Chameleon Skinks will prove particularly annoying due to their missile resist and loose formations. Scourgerunner Chariots will run circles around the Lizardmen and, with proper positioning, can easily slip around their screening units to chunk the bigger Artillery Stegadons/Bastilodons that could potentially retaliate against your ranged forces. Try to kite them as much as you can, whittle down their frontline before sending in your Executioners and Blackguard to clean up.
*'''Norsca''': Hmmm, look at that, another quasi-rush faction with big monsters, killy infantry, and a lot of anti-large? Unfortunately for the Norscans, the Elves are the superior race and they'll have a hard time proving otherwise. You're spoiled for choice when it comes to killing their big monsters, so most Norscan players who know what they're doing probably won't bring them. Rakarth is quite expensive, but on Bracchus or even a chariot, he can do a ton against their monstrous infantry and single entities, though he'll have a hard time out-dueling Wulfrik or Throgg. Flaming Sword of Rhuin is another great boon to dismantle Skin Wolves and Trolls. Your infantry is quite evenly-matched, but your advantage comes in with Murderous Prowess and Witch Elves that can rampage key threats when it procs.
*'''Nurgle''': While this may seem initially easy, given your excellence against slower factions, don't get cocky. If you aren't smart with your matchups and blow your load with Murderous Prowess too soon, Nurgle will just outlast you. The only infantry you have that will be able to take out Plague-bearers quickly are Executioners, and you probably don't want to be bringing elite infantry against Nurgle anyway. Fire sorceress is absolutely essential here, since your units' low base weapon strength and Nurgle's lack of armor means that you won't be as damaging as you usually are against other factions. Scourgerunners will still do very well against Great Unclean Ones, Pox toads, or any other large threat, while the Hydra can be fantastic for clearing out infantry with it's flaming damage and breath attack. Also, with their limited range and slow movement, this can be quite a good matchup for a Bloodwrack Medusa or the Siren of Red Ruin. Malus or Morathi are probably your go-to lords here.
*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': This is a matchup that your sadistic legions dream of, i.e. a one-sided slaughter in your favor. Rakarth on a chariot or on Bracchus really shines with his absurd anti-large capabilities, and him or a beastmaster can really do work for you with a bit of micro. Malus is also great at punishing monstrous infantry. Your elite infantry gets a rare spotlight here, since halberd/spear spam lends itself extremely well to trading with the ogres, especially when murderous prowess pops. Even Dreadspears will do some serious pushing above their pay grade, with Black Guard of Naggarond turning things up to 11. Scourgerunners are also a huge boon against low-model count large hitbox ogres. They might try to bring some scrap launchers to put pressure on you, so a bolt thrower or some dark riders can deal with that. Honestly, your Dreadspears and Darkshards will have a field day killing anything they can get their hands on, you can pretty much take a nap until the Ogres get an update.
*'''Skaven''': Those filthy rats! This is definitely a matchup in your favor, but don't get complacent! The skaven are one of the few factions to have as many AP ranged options as you do (in an equally wide roster), but where you rely on elite infantry and SEM's to make up the difference, the Skaven rely on drowning you in numbers and using their summons and magic to force the battle in their favor. You're fast enough and killy enough to buzzsaw your way through whatever the Skaven throw at you, but a savvy Skaven player will know this, and will try to take advantage of your squishiness instead. Rat Ogres and Brood Horrors can be quite a threat if you're not careful, and their summons can tie down your archers during valuable moments. For an unorthodox build, try bringing Morathi on Sulephet, 2 manticores, and some Witch Elves, maybe even Sisters of the Singing Doom, to terror-bomb important units. Your hero core is fast enough to get to their ranged threats, and Morathi's combination of magic is everything the skaven hate.
*'''Slaanesh''': Under Malekith, the Dark Elves have been fighting Slaanesh cults for centuries, and here you finally get a chance to show it. Both factions have ap out the ass, and both will find it difficult to apply that ap effectively, but your ranged and infantry options are far more flexible when it comes to taking on lower-armor threats. Also, your anti-large will be able to easily take down their chariots. Your flying lords and heroes should have no problems, and this is also a great matchup to bring the Raven Heralds RoR, since they can mostly just sit there and rack up points on anything valuable as long as you keep it away from furies. The one thing they really have going for them is speed. Make sure your ranged stuff is well protected and screened by your infantry, and you should have no trouble. Unfortunately, your strategy is somewhat reliant on gaps in their roster, so as Slaanesh gets more DLC and updates, your advantage in this matchup is likely to fray.
*'''Tomb Kings''': Tomb Kings have a large flexible roster, but they don't excel greatly at any one strategy. Instead of your usual missile cavalry, consider relying a bit more on your missile infantry like Darkshards or even Shades to poke holes into their constructs. The Tomb Kings skirmishers are a living (undead?) joke most of the time, but they can be annoying here since you need to be selective about where you're sending those ap volleys. A Reaper Bolt Thrower or 2 can be quite good to zone out any Bone Giants or Great Bow Ushabti, two staples of the TK roster. Remember though, when it comes to artillery, you're definitely outclassed. I'd recommend against bringing a monster, since yours are pretty slow and vulnerable to getting shot up by Sepulchral Stalkers. If you want one though, Kharybdiss is probably the best choice as it's the only monster that can give the mobile anti-large contingents of Necropolis Knights, or even the Necrosphinx a run for it's money. Lore of Fire of course is a must here, which leaves your lord choices a bit limited. Supreme Sorceress on a Manticore or Malus can be good picks, but it really depends on how you want to build.
*'''Tzeentch''': You're fast enough to keep up with Tzeentch, and you'll need that speed to get into melee. First up, this is not the matchup to bring anything but your most basic infantry. Magical attacks will make your Witch Elves very sad, and Black Guard + Executioners don't have shields and will get shot up like it's a Detroit street corner. Your ap missiles would be great here, if your opponent has no brain and brings heavy infantry (which they probably won't do), but Tzeentch's barrier makes things a little difficult. You don't have tons of ammo, and every shot going into their Protoss shields instead of their health bar is value you'll sorely miss. However, your fast units may be able to put the team on their back, and tie down stuff for your Darkshards to shoot. A bunch of Dark Riders with Shields are fast threats, great for charging Horrors, and are as fast as Marauder Horsemen. This is a matchup where a unit of Cold One Knights (maybe the Ebon Claw RoR) might be useful just for the mobile killing power (though they don't really stand a chance against Chaos Knights, so micro them well). Bring Harpies to stuff up things like Burning Chariots, and act as meat shields in the air so you can grind Doom Knights down with magic or ap volleys. Scourgerunners are a fantastic pick against Soul Grinders and Chaos Knights as long as you keep them moving. If you can sustain your fire and keep the pressure on Tzeentch will melt, but their mobility and barrier can make it a challenging proposition.
*'''Vampire Coast''': There's no other way to say it, you'll just have to rush super hard. The Coast monsters will get shot up by your skirmish power, but if you can't get into melee without getting shot half to hell, it won't matter. They'll try to drown you in zombies and summons, so make sure you have a fire sorceress for that wave-clearing potential. Corsairs (melee or handbow variant) can be pretty useful here as well, with their speed and high armor. Death Hags on foot can be a standout hero choice here as well, as she is fast, fantastic at grinding through infantry, and (if she can get into melee) can deal with any Coast hero except maybe a Mournghoul Haunter (which you should be filling up with your ap arrows anyway).
*'''Vampire Counts''': You can definitely make full kite work here, and it probably is the most meta tactic, but it can be risky. The Counts are very fast and deadly with their cavalry and lord options, plus kiting all day isn't the most fun matchup ever. For a slightly less powerful, but much more fun matchup, consider a monster mash to make things work. The Hydra can be extremely survivable here with it's regeneration and fire damage, while the Kharybdiss is great for dueling any Varghulfs or lords on zombie dragons. Hellebron on a cauldron can be great for mulching infantry and dueling the Vampire counts' slower threats. You'll win the infantry grind with 0 effort, and you have plenty of dueling options, but their cavalry and fast movers are the true threat of the night lords. If you can screen your Darkshards well enough, getting them tarpitted with Dreadspears and shooting them might work, but it's tough with their bats and wolves moving as fast as they do. If you're confident in your micro, rampaging them with Witch Elves is also an option, but tricky to pull off. Scourgerunners are also great here. Lore of Shadows caster + Malus Darkblade can be a potent combination as well, nuking any Blood Knights or ethereal units caught out of position with Pit of Shades while Malus is a melee monster who has a chance to take on even Vlad in combat with just a tiny bit of support.
*'''Wood Elves''': What do you get when you cross two glass cannon factions? A lot of broken glass I guess. Unfortunately their shooters and cav are just way better than yours, and they're fast enough to keep away from all but your speediest threats. If the opponent has any braincells, they won't be bringing any tree spirits, seeing as they'll be turned into paper by your ap. No, you'll be dealing with full Vietnam, and the only way to stand a chance is with your fast movers. Witch Elves, Sisters of Slaughter, Corsairs, these should be the core of your infantry, with some Dreadspears to protect them with their shields. Morathi on Sulephet is a great small target if you avoid the fire arcs of their ranged threats, and your light cavalry will have to put in some serious work. Doomfire Warlocks would be quite good if the Wood Elves didn't have so much magic damage, but as it is it'll be up to your dark riders/chariots to win their key engagements.

===Domination===

General Tier Rank: '''B-'''

They can actually be quite strong in domination, but they need a skillful player to take the game. Scourgerunners are highly mobile and can get good trades, good AP and monsters is always valuable, they have plenty of cheap, cost effective infantry, and of course their lord choices are almost all excellent. However, unlike other fast factions (e.g. Vampire Counts) the druchii tend to run out of steam in this game mode without a real way to sustain themselves. Also, Murderous Prowess is awful, as it procs way too quickly to be useful in a longer fight (actually, CA has patched this, Murderous Prowess now has a higher threshold, so it procs at an appropriate time. It still isn't the big force it is in land battles, but at least it doesn't proc in the first 5 seconds of the battle). They're still very squishy, and tend to get run over by other factions heavy cav and monsters if you aren't on top of your game. With some practice though, they can be a very fun pick. One additional note is that lore of Dark Magic is awesome in this game mode, with special mention going to Soul Stealer, a great way to punish blobs on points.

===Campaign Strategies===
Focus on economy in a few good provinces with 4 cities (Hag Graef, Naggarond, Ghrond, Quintex, Har Ganeth, etc) put income, slave pens, and then black roads or special resources on every city/town. Then put all slaves here. Add 3 or 4 masters to reduce slave decline to zero and you have the strongest, easiest, and fastest to grow economy in the game bar none. Can field near unlimited armies of doom stacks. There you go, you win.

Actually, the most prosperous slave province for the Dark Elves is Yvresse owing to the unique Tower of the Warden building which generates 50 gold per 100 slaves. With a maximum slaveholding capacity of 15500 slaves, combined with the multiplicative effect of slaves on base province income and the ability to stack slave income multipliers through heroes that are essentially unlimited, it surpasses any Druchii province in gold-generating potential. Proving, once again, that Naggarond sucks. This wealth is also why it is viable for certain Dark Elf factions to abandon their starting capitals and conquer Ulthuan instead.- while that may be more profitable technically, it’s irrelevant. Any proper slave strategy give’s effectively unlimited money even in just the dark elf lands. Conquer Ulthuan first or not, either way you won’t need for money with even a little strategy.

Unfortunately they heavily nerfed the Slave system in immortal empires, the jury is out still on how good their economy is after the massive nerf, you now have to spend slaves as a global resource on your economic buildings and commandment. Will update as we find out how bad the nerf is but its already clear its going to be dramatically weaker than before. After playing 80 turns I can confirm the economy is still strong as long as you rapidly expand and keep fighting but slaves decline possibly too fast from buildings, and slave pens aren't that useful, all they do is increase capacity and give a tiny 5 slave per turn income, whereas a leveled economy building consumes 40 per turn, so only constant fighting and sacking will be able to keep your slave population up. The public order penalties for slaves are basically gone now. assassins can now generate 10 slaves per turn by staying in your provinces instead of boosting slave income, but that is a waste of them. In general all the buildings or skills which give slaves per turn are completely useless, they are way too weak to keep up with the cost of buildings, you either have to constantly sack other countries or be continuously conquering territory.
Don't Bother with Slave markets or any building that give slaves per turn, the rate of gain can never keep up with the consumption and increasing slave capacity is useless. Having a large stockpile of slaves is actually more or less pointless, you only need 150 slaves to trigger the bonus income at the end of your turn and you don't get any meaningful bonuses for having lots of slaves. you can have a slave consumption of 1000-2000 per turn and all you need to do is get above 150 remaining after the decline before the end of each turn and there is no downside. So slave markets and any special buildings that increase capacity or give a few slaves per turn should just be skipped, this is bad design by CA but it at least frees up your building slots. overall the dark elf income is still extremely strong it just not as strong as before. Unfortunately once your empire gets large enough it will become almost impossible to trigger the bonus income because you can easily end up with -4000-5000 slaves per turn which will be impossible to keep up each turn. Fundamentally as your empire grows amounts of slaves decline per turn increase quickly but your ability to capture slaves remains largely fixed, unless you can simultaneous sack 4-5 provinces a turn (every single turn) it will be impossible to keep up slaves late game, and the slave buildings do nothing to help this. Unfortunately I feel like they failed to playtest the new mechanic adequately as it becomes almost completely useless late game.

===Campaign Specific===
I wrote this section a while back, before the release of Immortal Empires, so much of this information is outdated. For example Malekith appears to be a much more difficult campaign with Valkia's new start that's right on top of him, Morathi isn't very viable in melee anymore, and Malus', Lokhir's, and Rakarth's campaigns all have new starts. I'll update this section eventually (though if someone else feels inclined to update, go for it), but in the meantime, take the advice here with a grain of salt as most of it is applicable to Mortal Empires only.
====Malekith====

*'''Beware Hellebron''': Malekith's campaign is generally pretty easy (and very fun!), but it can really depend on what Hellebron does at the start. Usually you can get pretty powerful early, build up diplomatic relations and just confederate her, but it's not unknown for her to just straight up declare war on you, which can really send your campaign down shit swamp. Furthermore, she can actually out-recruit you, making it next to impossible to confederate her. One strategy is to just rush to Har Ganeth immediately after securing Naggarond, while another is trying to out-recruit her in turn. Just ignoring her CAN be fine, but Har Ganeth is a good early game province, and you don't want to risk a civil war with her.

*'''Don't spend too long in Naggaroth''': Look, I get it, Naggarond's a great place with fine tourist attractions, but conquering Ulthuan as Malekith can and should be done fairly early in the game, because it takes a loooonnnggg time to take over all those provinces settlement-by-settlement. You definitely want to get Ulthuan conquered before the chaos invasion rolls in, as they basically spawn right on top of Naggarond, and constantly fighting them until someone knocks off Archaon on the other side of the map can be a huge pain.

*'''Tyrant is the way to go''': Malekith has OPTIONS and almost all of them are good, but if it's your first campaign, Tyrant can really bring your slave economy to the next level. More money -> more stacks -> Druchii supremacy, baby!

====Morathi====
*'''The start. Oh god, the start''': Yeahhh, there's no getting around it. Morathi's start is a bitch and a half (kind of like Morathi herself!). She's surrounded by enemies who hate her guts, and one mistake here can spell doom for your campaign. Here's the thing though: she actually has all the tools she needs to deal with it (She's an incredibly strong legendary lord, and tier 1 Dark Elf units like bleakswords and darkshards are awesome even into the late game), it can just be tough learning the first few times around. You need to be EXTREMELY aggressive in consolidating your starting province, as the Ss'ildra Tor can just out-recruit you if you leave them alone long enough. Once you do that and deal with Alith Anar though, everything gets easier so have faith!

This is valid for Mortal Empires, your start in Immortal Empires is actually pretty chill. You may even have the chance to ally with Mazdamundi pretty early on if you fight the minor Skavens on the west and gift the frog some cities. Alith Anar also fucked off up north so you can consolidate your starting provinces and build up easily before starting to rape Ulthuan.

*'''You can use her in melee!''' A mistake I see a lot of players make is using Morathi as you'd use a typical caster lord, i.e. keeping them at a distance and shying away from any fight. If you do this though, you aren't getting her full value. Her unique weapon combined with one of her unique skills (Enchanting Beauty) can lower enemy melee attack by 18 and defence by 9 JUST FOR BEING NEAR HER. She can basically use her darksword as a strap-on to peg enemy melee stats. Be careful how you use her, because of course she isnt going to outduel dedicated melee combatant characters, but these passive abilities combined with lore of shadows make her great for absolutely dumpstering enemies that your units are having a tough time dealing with.

====Hellebron====
*'''Unpaid interns''': Hellebron requires a constant influx of slaves to keep active, which means that you are going to have to be ultra aggressive throughout your campaign, more so than other druchii factions who can just sit back and let their slaves do all their work for them.

*'''Malekith''': It's harder (though not impossible!) to confederate Naggarond than vice-versa, and pissing off Malekith can really become a problem, since he usually skyrockets to strength rank 1 after turn 20 or 30. One strategy is just to leave for Ulthuan right away, but this can be very challenging. Rushing Naggarond is also an option, but you can also ally with them, which is what I'd recommend for less experienced players.

*'''Blood Fleets suckkkk''': Remember how the Greenskins WAAGGHH worked before their update? Theoretically it was a way to encourage aggressiveness and movement on the campaign map. How it actually worked was that they'd spawn AI controlled armies that would allahu-akbar themselves upon the nearest settlement. Wellll, Hellebron's voyages basically have the same idea and it's honestly worse because you can't choose where they spawn. Just don't rely on them to do any heavy lifting.
====Lokhir====
*'''Pillaging the East:''' In Immortal Empires, Lokhir now starts on the Cathayan edge of the map, just south of Villitc, seperated by an impassable (to you of all people) river, and the Great Bastion to the West. The entire Eastern half of Cathay is full of rivers and deltas so you can raid deeper into Cathay.
**'''Black Arks are "free:"''' Lokhir doesn't need to sacrifice to Mathlann to start a Black Ark in IE, so combine that with their absolute loyalty, cheap upkeep, and the many rivers of Cathay, you'll be taking a few of these.
*'''The Blender King''': Ah, Lustria. Let's see, the lizards hate you because they don't want a dark elf caravan on their land. Teclis hates you because he doesn't like your stupid face, the Dwarfs still bear a grudge, and Harkon hates you for... stealing all his treasure, I guess? Packing up and leaving for Ulthuan on turn 1 can actually be a pretty viable strategy here. Lustria-bowl honestly sucks for you, but if you're intent on doing it, allying with the rats can secure your western border, and allow you to focus on Teclis at the start, which takes one of the major pressures off your campaign.
*'''The Black Ark King''': Black Arks are awesome and should be your main method of recruiting units to your armies, especially in the early game. BUILD THE GROWTH BUILDING FIRST! You'll get to those higher tiers so much faster, and can laugh over the corpses of your enemies when your tier 5 dread knights are running over red-crested skinks.

*'''What to do with Karond Kar?''': Lokhir's campaign is pretty weird, because his unique item requires taking over the city of Karond Kar which is wayyyy in the middle of assfuck nowhere compared to where you start. You don't really want to manage a split empire in Warhammer 2, so taking Karond Kar by force isn't really advisable. Luckily, he now has a quest line that allows him to confederate Karond Kar remotely. I'd recommend confederating with them, and then just selling all the buildings and abandoning the province. Keeping it generally means dealing with High Elf DEATHstacks every two turns, along with Wood Elves and Taurox if he's still alive which will really make you want to deepthroat a cactus.

====Malus Darkblade====
Malus is a fan-favorite character, and CA honestly did him pretty dirty, which is kind of upsetting. His campaign is very difficult especially at the start, and he slightly boosts cold one knights, a notoriously cost-inefficient unit. He is a monster on the battlefield, but ''it's pretty much always better to play as another dark elf faction and confederate him'', since he gets all his battlefield strengths and none of the weaknesses. If you insist on playing his campaign though, keep these tips in mind:
*'''SNIKCH MUST DIE!''': Snikch must die unless you like having 30 million filthy rats coming over the border to take your land and deflower your sorceresses (oh, who are we kidding? There’s no such thing as a virgin sorceress, they literally worship the goddess of massive orgies). Sometimes you can even make a non-aggression pact with Imrik to focus on Snikch which I definitely recommend. After killing him, you can slow down a little, and pick off your enemies one-by-one, but it's an absolute miserable campaign experience if you allow Snikch to get his shit together.

*'''Black Arks are essential''': You start with a Black Ark and you NEED it to get past Malus' cancerous early game. You probably aren't going to have the money to spend on potions at the start, which means your troops will replenish at the speed of a glacier. A Black Ark can help a lot with this problem, and can provide a good base to recruit from.

*'''Keep your alliance with Malekith going''': Keeping your alliance with Malekith alive allows you to cheese the 'Tz'arkans whispers' mechanic a little bit, since the unique quests might be to declare war on a faction you don't care about halfway across the map. The rewards from these missions can be quite powerful, so complete as many as you can.

====Rakarth====
*'''Ulthuan''': Rakarth's starting place in Albion offers him a variety of options in theory. however, you're kind of forced into attacking Ulthuan which sucks. Once they discover you (which happens very early in the game), they will start sending stack after stack after you, and trying to expand eastward or southward just becomes unviable. Sure, Morathi can sometimes get super aggressive and start conquering Ulthuan early taking some of the pressure off you, but it's a gamble that sometimes doesn't pay off.

*'''Rakarth only for beastpen armies''': Beast pens areeee... interesting? The thing is, the only boosts to monstrous units from the beast pens come from Rakarth's army skills. For your generic lords, it's better to stick to your tried and true druchii units, unless you're in an emergency and need units fast.

[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Iron Warriors

2023-05-27T19:07:19Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:910C:B95D:FD56:AE05:

{{Infobox Traitor Legion
|Name = Iron Warriors
|Heraldry = [[File:Ironwarriorslogo.png|250px]]
|Battle Cry ="Iron Within, Iron Without!"
|Number = IV
|Primarch = [[Perturabo]]
|Original Homeworld = [[Olympia]]
|Current Homeworld = [[Medrengard]]
|Champion = Possibly [[Honsou]] or [[Shon'tu]] (Don't forget --Falk-- '''THE WARSMITH''')
|Specialty = Artillery, Attrition, breaking enemy defense, [[get shit done|getting shit done]]
|Strength = Legion Strength (Divided by Grand Companies: Typically 500 to 4000 per Grand Company)
|Allegiance = [[Chaos Undivided]]
|Colours = Burnt silver, hazard stripes and black pauldrons with gold trim
}}
{{heresy}}

{{Topquote|Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.|Mark Twain, having never seen the [[Daemonculaba]]}}
{{Topquote|The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are stronger in the broken places.|Ernest Hemingway}}
{{Topquote|But I know The Makuta is here now, in these burnt trees, and in the dead soil. All of these things were destroyed by The Makuta, but he never left them. That is how he becomes strong. That is what The Makuta does. He destroys things.|Matoran Kapura, Mata Nui Online}}

The '''Iron Warriors''' originated as the fourth of the Emperor's legions of Space Marines, and are today the siege specialists of the Chaos Space Marines.

To your average Imperial citizen or Chaos cultist, the Iron Warriors are the most inhuman of the Chaos Marines. They aren't [[World Eaters|over the top badass savages]] or [[Death Guard|rotting hulks]], but they're just as terrifying because of their cold pragmatism. Yet this pragmatism hides the true terror of the Iron Warriors: the total abandonment of hope, virtue, and belief in good. They're masters of siege warfare. Instead of [[Black Legion|sheer ferocity]] or [[Word Bearers|divine intervention]], they rely on [[Dakka|firepower.]] Instead of using prisoners for [[Emperor's Children|death necrophilia orgies]], they use them for mine clearance and trench digging. They can build fortifications as elaborate and defensible as the [[Imperial Fists]], if not more, and are the best Legion at storming them. Now that they no longer serve the Emperor, they are inscrutable monsters in grey plate who arrive on your world, kill your protectors, and force you to work against the Imperium you believe in.

Then they discard you once you're no longer useful, and the last thing you'll see is their ugly, jagged fortifications claiming your home. And the only reason they had you live through it was because they wanted to let you know how much they hate you and your ideals in a higher purpose. It's not enough for the Iron Warriors to reject the Imperium and destroy it; they have to drag it through the same mud they had once been made to fight and die in.

They had a vision, once. Before the Heresy, it was a vision of a beautiful and peaceful Imperium, but that dream was shattered by Olympia's destruction. Now they want to build a twisted and oppressive empire of their own. The Iron Warriors still count on their old wargear, and generally are distrustful of the Chaos gods. They have a bitterness, a rage that they suppress with cold logic. The specifics of their goals vary among their number, but they're all hell bent on destroying the Imperium.

They also have a fetish for hazard stripes, which they make liberal use of in their colour scheme. It is as though they wish to say "do not use the side of my bolter as a step" or "touching my pauldron may result in crushed fingers." Then again, [[Chaos|considering who these guys are]], these would actually be good warnings to heed. It may even be a cruel gallows humor: what’s a greater safety hazard than a Space Marine? They also appear to have an absolute [[/d/|''hard-on'']] for the [[Mark II: Crusade Armour]] and the [[Mark III: Iron Armour]], and appears to be one of the few Space Marine Legions (Loyal or Renegade) to use them up to the modern period.

GW can't quite seem to figure out what they're supposed to be, so we've taken the liberty of choosing the more in-depth choice for them.

The Iron Warriors are an oddity in that they are very much Chaos Marines but without the symbols and acceptance of clear heretek you wouldn't really notice. Perhaps proof that going balls-deep into Chaos isn't necessary. If so, then it says more about the people who do it than about Chaos and the Iron Warriors would be proof...which would actually be an interesting statement about human nature. Perhaps the Iron Warriors themselves can be viewed as a statement about human nature in both the best and worst before and after the Horus Heresy.

If you like the idea of siege warfare, heavy artillery, bionics, living cannons, and building your own empire, you'll probably like the Iron Warriors.

==Combat Tactics==
[[File:Iwdread.jpg|250px|right|thumb|What do you mean I've shot the wrong spot!?]]
{{Topquote|No son, you let 'em finish, then you smash it.|Kearney Zzyzwicz, ''The Simpsons''}}

{{Topquote|SIEGE!!!|The usual response of an Iron Warrior to their [[Imperial Fists|hated rivals]]' "FORTIFY!"}}

A [[Chaos]] [[Space Marines|Legion]] specializing in breaking sieges (as in, taking a fortified location, though logically this should mean that they can do this ''and'' break out of a siege) which is shown in their love of artillery and greater focus on ranged combat, which stands in contrast to the other Chaos Space Marine legions who are [[Rip and tear|far more disposed to melee combat]] (that doesn't mean that Iron Warriors won't punch a few skulls out, though!). Their troops are excellent close-range fighters and close-quarters combatants, and they often make use of special weaponry.

Iron Warriors are also fond of using hordes of human conscripts as cannon fodder, no doubt recruited from conquered worlds and slave populations on [[Medrengard]]. The conscripts are described as wearing red uniforms and bits of black armor, and armed with assorted bolt action rifles, lasguns, and autoguns. The Iron Warriors basically zerg-rush thousands of them at enemy strongholds to play fun games such as "find the minefield", "absorb the gunfire" and "reveal the artillery emplacements". They are one of the few Chaos legions that do take prisoners, but only to send them in the first wave instead of their conscripted slaves, who are considered to be slightly more valuable due to their ability to dig decent trenches and mines. It's Also worth mentioning that they LOVE Instant fortifications and makeshift cover, which allows them to FORTIFY THEIR POSITIONS wherever they launch an attack, along with boxing-in whatever poor enemy position they may lay siege upon.

They also have a lot of [[Obliterators]], which are a bunch of muscle blobs armed to the teeth on top of their heads (being Chaos guys, they have shit like that). Literally. They themselves are a walking arsenal, because they can '''MAKE WEAPONS OUT OF THEIR BODIES!'''

Enough to disgust even the Dark Eldar, the Iron Warriors are also the batshit insane sickfucks behind the [[Daemonculaba]], one of the most disturbing things in the galaxy. They're the only [[Chaos Space Marines]] who don't break down in maniacal laughter constantly, as they see this as a sign of weakness. They're not terribly fond of Daemons (like the [[Word Bearers]] or the [[Black Legion]] are), though they will make use of them (unlike the [[Night Lords]], who don't even like Chaos), and they aren't [[Alpharius|closet loyalists]] like the [[Alpha Legion]].

Basically, the horror of the Iron Warriors is simply that nothing gets in the way of their pragmatism. No matter how horrific or monstrous. And the Warp has plenty of pragmatically available horrific monstrosities of atrocities available in easy reach.

==History==

{{Topquote|I DEMAND TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.|An Iron Warrior putting their Legion's impetus for turning traitor into simple words, courtesy of [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|Alfabusa]] }}

[[File:IV Legion.jpg|200px|thumb|left|The IVth prior to Perturabo being found. About the only thing [[Perturabo|Perty]] did was slap on some hazard stripes.]]
The fourth legion saw its origin on Terra back during the Unification Wars. At its inception, it was discovered that the Iron Warriors Geneseed was remarkably stable, and this allowed them to build up their numbers significantly more easily than most other legions at the time. Due to this, they saw heavy fighting in both the Unification Wars and the Solar Reclamation alongside the Dark Angels and White Scars. Due to the ease with which their Geneseed could be implanted and their reliable, steadfast nature, they received the best gear and weapons Mars could provide, and a metric fuckton of recruits when compared to other legions. Their numbers allowed them to be seconded to a huge number of Expeditionary Fleets, where they were of great use in securing Segmentum Solar. However, as the Crusade ground on, things started to turn sour for the fourth. Their ridgid, inflexible tactical outlook started seeing them suffer significant casualties when confronted with unusual Xenos opponents or cunning human holdouts. Their only real way of fighting was to overwhelm a foe with force, and when that didn't work, they simply applied more force.

While this made a number of other Legions look at them askance, the human elements of Imperial High Command absolutely loved them. Many of the Legions, especially those which had been reunited with their Primarchs, were not at all fond of placing their Astartes under mortal commanders, or splitting them up. Mortal officers could ''ask'' for Legion support, but even the most important amongst them were as likely as not to either be told to go fuck themselves, or would just never hear back at all. The Astartes, again, especially those which had found their Primarchs, chose their own campaigns, and generally these would be theatres which would come with some renown or glory. The fourth however, was not at all concerned with being lauded, nor so prideful as to refuse assignments. They would camp out in the trenches with mortal allies for as long as it took to get any particular job done. Even so, these thankless tasks did begin to wear on the fourth, especially due to the fact that eventually, everyone in the Imperial Army figured out that they could call upon the fourth to do whatever needed doing, where most other Legions would not. They became the workhorses of the Astartes, and took a sort of passive-aggressive pride in this. They began to specialize in front line artillery and mechanized assaults, which were often successful due to sheer, overwhelming firepower. However, they were embarrassingly bad at countering the unexpected, and would often suffer massive casualties due to sheer stubbornness if an enemy came to have them in a disadvantageous position. Sadly, as the Crusade continued, things never really got any better for them, mostly because they seemed to be hell-bent on someone else making things better for them rather than doing it themselves. There is even a passage when, whilst shoveling up earthworks in preparation for the Drop Site Massacre, one of the Sons of Horus literally turns to one of the Emperor's Children and asks, "Hey, why aren't the Iron Warriors doing this?" (which was a bit stupid considering that the Iron Warriors weren't even there...) You’d think the situation would get better upon finding Daddy [[Perturabo]]...

Big surprise, it didn't. In fact, it was that at that very moment that things really started to go downhill. When united with his legion for the first time, the Iron Warriors had just finished up an absolutely awful campaign on a Forge world called Calladion. The campaign had been brutal, but it had been made significantly worse than it needed to be due to the almost autistic tendencies of the Iron Warriors to only fight one particular way. They had somehow managed to lose '''29,000''' Astartes, and over '''12,000,000''' mortal troops. [[grimdark|The mortals were one thing]], but to lose that many Astartes in the taking of a single world was unheard of. As such, Perturabo looked upon them and saw that they were not [[Ultramarines|all they could be]] and decided that they needed a bout of [[Blam|decimation]] to motivate them properly. So he had 10% of his entire legion [[grimdark|sentenced to death]].

This actually worked and changed the character of the legion from "work-horse" legion to "meat grinder" legion; Perturabo's trick taught them that casualties do not matter, only victory does. They became a legion of [[neckbeards|mathematicians]], where battle strategies could be determined using formula based on available weaponry and expected attrition rates. Fortunately for them, Perturabo was expertly skilled with [[Roboute Guilliman|numbers and logistics]] and organised his legion extremely efficiently, therefore his legion was able to absorb such losses due to maintaining very high numbers, second only to the [[Ultramarines|XIIIth Legion]]. In fact they could have possibly overtaken any other legion in numbers if they did not continually suffer such high casualty rates.

This casual attitude towards attrition unfortunately created an atmosphere of paranoia amongst the officer cadre, where the only way to guarantee survival was to get promoted into a position of usefulness and never, ever get into a position where something bad could be made to stick to them. Therefore their officers suffered incredible [[Nerdrage]] whenever things did not go according to plan and [[That Guy|scrambled over each other]] attempting to gain the attention of their superiors.

Also, their reputation suffered amongst the allied Imperial Army auxilia, who gave the Iron Warriors the nickname ''Corpse Grinders'', as units that were assigned to them tended to get used as cannon fodder for softening up the enemy. This tendency eventually led to the [[Administratum|Council of Terra]] to only assign the Iron Warriors support from penal brigades of poor quality expendable troops, causing the reputation of the Legion to spiral further downwards. Oddly enough, the Iron Warriors were notable for having some of the most disciplined auxilia '''during''' the Horus Heresy, due to further freedom in organizing their allied forces.

This new-and-improved attitude still didn't endear them to their brother legions, though, and, eventually it was this complete lack of anything remotely resembling respect from anyone at all that would finally lead to [[Perturabo|their Primarch flipping his lid]]. An excellent lesson in learning how to say "no" when told to do other people's jobs for them. Or to delegate garrison duty to the Imperial Army whose existence was mostly to be used as garrison forces, rather than tying your transhuman supersoldiers up on fucking guard duty.

===Heresy===
As the Iron Warriors ground on, feeding soldiers into meat grinders like a old lady at the Las Vegas slot machines, Olympia became unruly. Eventually, the nobility revolted. After a grueling campaign against the Hrud, this news was taken...less than charitably. Perturabo snapped so hard that he had his Legion assault the world, enslaved the entire population, killed his sister (the only person he ever loved as a family back in Olympia), and founded an "Iron Empire" around it to feed his war machine. To their credit, a few Iron Warriors revolted against the order to '''burn their home and enslave their own people''', only to be shot by the rest of their brethren, while Perturabo himself was secretly glad ''some'' of his sons defied his order. Perturabo feared whatever retribution the Emperor would bring for destroying Olympia, while Horus supported his actions as just and necessary. This seeming act of understanding, mixed with fear and shame was all the leverage Horus needed to bring him on side for the Traitors. The Iron Warriors duly went to Isstvan V and took part in the [[Drop Site Massacre]].

After that, the next step was Phall, where a large chunk of the Imperial Fists fleet was becalmed. To the Iron Warriors this was everyone's birthday and Christmas thrown together, but even though they nearly destroyed the entire fleet, Alexis Polux spoiled the party somewhat by ordering an attack on the ''Iron Blood''. Perturabo himself came under attack by Imperial Fists Terminators, which only helped to turn his paranoia up to 12. The Iron Warriors' most rational commander was also backhanded into a Dreadnought by the Primarch when it emerged that Sigismund wasn't leading the fleet. Soon after, the IV joined the Emperor's Children on a campaign where Fulgrim tried to use Perturabo's life force to ascend to daemonhood. Things were looking like business as usual.

Where the Legion had its biggest successes, they were mostly on the Loyalist side. At Paramar, Kyr Vhalen's loyalist Grand Company met an Alpha Legion force invading their favourite Forge World. The Alpha Legion told them to get with the program. Kyr Vhalen told them "do one" and while Paramar was taken, the Iron Warriors inflicted serious losses on the tricksy bastards and some lived to fight another day. The old Warsmith Barabas Dantioch humiliated his successor at the Schadenhold, and Auric Saxton killed off Lord Commander Iddinam of the Emperor's Children. Later on in the Heresy, Consul-Praevian [[Nârik Dreygur]] and the remnants of his Grand Battalion switched back to Team Imperium during the Battle of Mezoa after getting sick of the Alpha Legion using them as cannon fodder, thus ensuring a loyalist victory.

If any Iron Warrior had hoped for a better fate than being treated as a disposable trench grunt, that hope was dashed as the Heresy grounds on. For example, during the push for the Sol System, the IVth legion were ordered to act as the rearguard to cover the Horus's flanks against loyalist legions not otherwise tied down in other fronts or already hunkered down in Terra. As you can guess, having to fight a continuous fighting retreat by yourself leads to a fuck-ton of casualties. One Sons of Horus emissary asked an Iron Warrior commander why he was raiding an enemy trench with his men. He simply said he "Wanted to remind himself that things do not change." This was made worse when said emissary gave an order to Perturabo to take his legion and go fetch Angron and drag him to join the siege that will happen soon. This practically means abandoning their position and a good chunk of the legion alone to hold the line until they die, without the support of their Primarch or the rest of their legion.

As the Heretics drew close to the Sol System, the IV Legion came into its own, crushing fortress after fortress on the world to Terra. Finally the Iron Warriors were having a good time, and it only got better on Terra as they pulled down whole square kilometres of Dorn's works. This lasted right up until Horus told Perturabo to mass everything he had and throw it right at the Mercury Wall in one big concentrated assault. Perty now realized that, for all Horus' flattery and fine words, the Warmaster still expected him to continue with the same kind of wasteful, grinding siege warfare that had caused him and his legion to snap and turn on the Emperor. He immediately threw a bitch fit at the Warmaster about how he was no different from the Emperor, then ordered his legion to down tools and head for the exits. And that was that, at least until . . .

===Iron Cage===
Taking inspiration from their Primarch, they display great facility in setting traps. The most notable of these was the "Iron Cage incident" at the close of the [[Horus Heresy]], where the Iron Warriors built a twenty square kilometer fortress on Sebastus IV with a massive fortified bunker at the center. They leaked information that allowed the [[Imperial Fists]] to track them there and [[Rogal Dorn]] himself promised to bring back Perturabo in "an iron cage". The Fists assaulted the fortress, taking huge casualties in doing so as the Iron Warriors fell back to split their advance and draw them into kill zones. Eventually the Fists expended all their ammunition and resorted to knife-fighting. When the Fists finally broke through to the central bunker, they discovered it empty save for the numerous inward-pointing guns designed to kill anyone who breached it.

The entire purpose of the fortress was just to bait and exhaust the Imperial Fists' forces, turning their own legendary determination into a liability that led to their own deaths and the humiliation of their legion (albeit one that would have required the death of Perturabo to completely wipe them out, if you believe those corpsefuckers' propaganda). [[Just As Planned]]. While the Iron Cage incident was the most notable, the Iron Warriors do plenty of other things like that, but on a smaller scale. Nearly unrivalled dickery including firing fixed position guns into civilian habitation blocks to bait the enemy into counter-attacking, then evacuating through underground trenches and detonating pre-rigged explosives when the opposing forces reach the fixed gun emplacements.

===The War of the Beast===
This little incident that made the Ullanor Crusade look like a skirmish brought out some unusual behavior from the Iron Warriors. First of all, the threat posed by the orks against the galaxy was so great, that the Iron Warriors allied with the Imperial Fists, of all people. If that weren't out of character enough for them, they also found the orks' use of humans as literal cattle [[what|disgusting]]. Maybe the whole Daemonculaba thing was also too disgusting for them since Honsou hadn't been around at the time, maybe even the Iron Warriors have standards when it comes to human experimentation...or maybe the [[C.S. Goto|writer just didn't know jack shit about the Iron Warrior's character]]. It's probably that last one.

Honsou wasn't around at the time and Warsmith Kalkator, the leader of the Grand Company, was a firm anti-Chaos Warsmith - so he would have also been disgusted at the Daemonculaba. It should also be noted Warsmith Kalkator's Grand Company operated away from the other Iron Warriors in the Eye of Terror and kept his own 'mini empire.' Not like he's above doing horrible shit, as he was introduced gunning down his own human forces as they were being overrun by the Orks, which is how the Iron Warriors 'SHOULD' be - stone cold pragmatists.

And it's worth pointing out that the Iron Warriors are still [[Space Marines]], and therefore (super)human. And part of that is generally seeing humanity as a superior species in the galaxy, especially this close to the Heresy, when they still thought and operated closer to their original legion mentality and hadn't fallen totally down the Chaos rabbit hole. Thus, seeing some Xenos, especially Orks of all things, setting themselves above humans chapped their ass mightilly. The Iron Warriors can treat mortal humans like dog shit, but they'll be damned if they'll let some Orks do it. It's the principle of the thing. Heck, Chaos Marines tend to hate aliens as much as Imperials do. Many Chaos Marines don't even see themselves as a threat to humanity but instead view Chaos as humanity's true path to dominance.

Also, he would be the first person to get a Space Marine chapter to turn traitor since the Heresy.

===Post Great Rift===
Perturabo spent millennia studying the defenses of Segmentum Obscurus and establishing a network of techno-Cultist informants so that with the Great Rift, he can have the Iron Warriors beset the Segmentum worlds. While gunning for Dysactis, they ended up going head to head with the Death Guards and lost.....doh!

==The Unbreakable Litany==
The Iron Warriors have the coolest chants in 40k too. They say it to themselves to prepare for the meat grinder.
*'''From Iron, cometh Strength.'''
*'''From Strength, cometh Will.'''
*'''From Will, cometh Faith.'''
*'''From Faith, cometh Honour.'''
*'''From Honour, cometh Iron.'''
*'''This is the Unbreakable Litany.'''
*'''And may it forever be so.'''

==Iron Warriors Today==
[[File:A0e8a4e378bf013aade7393f60d8b20a.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Iron Within... You. 'Cause I shot you with my big ass [[Autocannon]]. (Look at his tiny hands, though. Aww! So widdle an' cute!)]]
They used to be incredibly badass in 3rd edition, with special rules for having more heavy weapon options, including tanks and artillery, and no limits on [[Obliterator]]s. But then 4th edition came around and instead of just toning the insanity down, [[Gav_Thorpe|Gav Thorpe]] (who's basically [[Matt_Ward|Matt Ward's BFF]]) decided that spikey marines should be inferior to loyalists in every way possible.

The Iron Warriors have been one of the more popular legions in fluff over the past few years. While some have put this down to them being 'grittier' or more realistic than the others, the truth is probably more functional than fanciful: The Iron Warriors are for the most part ''not'' gibbering madmen. This might seem a dumb reason but it's actually important. To write a good character they need to make sense to the reader, even when we don't agree with them we need to understand why they want to do what they do. The other legions kinda lack that. Why did you attack that planet? [[Emperor's_Children|'Because it turns me on']] doesn't really make for an interesting character, nor does being [[Word_Bearers|told to by demons]], [[World_Eaters|wanting to kill everything all the time]] just [[Death_Guard|really digging dead stuff]] or [[Black Legion|because Zeke and his drinking buddies told me to]]. So that leaves the Iron Warriors as being just about the only generally sane legion who do things for reasons normal people can understand.

[[Graham McNeill]] wrote a book that was mostly about them. Called 'Storm of Iron', surprisingly, and it featured a boatload of Imperial Fists, Iron Warriors (surprisingly) and a whole load of dickery, including traitorous techpriests, countless rows of geneseed, and a daemon prince. To cap it all off, this is where [[Honsou]] gets his start. Last but not least, countless Imperial Guard and Titans.
(...Tell me again why the Imperials lost? There was a traitor on the inside, and about fifty thousand tons of badass at the gates. Baaaad combination. McNeill then wrote a [[Horus Heresy]] prequel called 'Angel Exterminatus', featuring Fulgrim being an even bigger dick than usual, Iron Hands Professor Farnsworth, and Perturabo actually being sympathetic for once.)

Even Ward seems to think they're cool, as he has Warsmith [[Shon'tu]] one-up both Honsou and Abaddon. How? He Invades Terra! He teams up with Be’lakor (yeah, the same guy from Fantasy battles) and uses Phalanx's warp door (yeah remember that from the Soul Drinkers book) to invade it hoping to take it over and bomb the Emperor's palaces. Even the combined plot armor of the Imperial Fists AND the [[Legion of the Damned]] is still just barely enough to force a stalemate.

John French, on the other hand, doesn't seem to like them much at all. This is a shame since they tend to be his go-to antagonists.

Anyway, here is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7ghs6p8inY their theme], done by [[HMKids]], which includes in the lyrics quotes from Dawn of War Chaos Space Marines for extra-flavour! They are METAL indeed!

An Iron Warrior named Valicar, serving a priestess of the Dark Mechanicus, became the first fleetmaster of the Black Legion. If not for his actions, Abaddon would have been trapped on the ''Eternal Crusader'' after his duel with Sigismund during the First Battle of Cadia.

The German Death Metal band "Debauchery" also wrote a song and video here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dqkmPI2JlM], and it is badass.

[[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|Bruva Albufasa]] distilled the Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists' enmity [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBt1vqff7dE into a few minutes of video], naturally emphasizing the "SIEGE!"-"FORTIFY!" dichotomy

==Iron Warriors Character==
Personality-wise, the Iron Warriors are one of the most… unpleasant Traitor Legions. They are bonded by a mutual brotherhood forged by their hatred of the Imperium, their will to conquer, and their bitter paranoia, yet even then rivalries can surface and lead to some serious backstabbing. Makes you understand just what the appeal of the honest brotherhood of the Black Legion is. They value their hatred and opportunities to express it, and treat most they know as tools to express their hatred and accomplish their goals. To an Iron Warrior, everything boils down to a resource to be used and/or an obstacle to be cleared. War is a mathematical equation that has to be solved for victory. Humans are slaves, expendable soldiers, breeding stock, and ultimately something to be fed (literally) into the Iron Warriors's war apparatus, making their lives a living, nightmarish hell beforehand. Fellow Iron Warriors are expected to carry out their brutal, violent work without question. They carry a powerful sense of brotherhood and an unflinching loyalty to their Legion, forged by a bitter hatred of their enemies and their cruel urge to dominate and enslave. At best, they view fellow Iron Warriors as coworkers or brothers-in-crime, or at worst, as hated rivals. Warsmiths ally and deal with each other to stave off the next battle so they can go to war on more hated targets, but if they smell weakness among their ranks, or a slight directed at one of them, they might decide your soldiers and your fort would be better off under their leadership, no matter the cost to get it. [[Grimdark]].

When the Iron Warriors go to war, everyone is expendable. Eve-ry-one. Back in the days of the Great Crusade they spent Astartes lives like bolter rounds, and human lives like <s>lasbolts</s> autogun bullets, and they haven’t exactly gotten better with time. Their pure, unadulterated contempt for life is such that, in the Siege of Castellax, they refer to their mortal servants simply as “flesh,” and place orders for more like they're fast food (battalions 3-5 were wiped out today. I’ll have four more, to go, and hold the pickles). Speaking of food, when rations started to get low, the Iron Warriors started feeding their people [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green the rendered down remains of the dead]. (It's not like the Imperium doesn't do the same on the regular basis, though.)

The Iron Warriors are basically the very epitome of the concept of "bad boss". If you fuck up on the job, do something your way, or show any degree of insubordination, you're done for, end of story. If you do the job right, they keep pushing until every last ounce of usefulness is squeezed out of you (basically stable [[Star Wars|Sith Lords]]). The Night Lords may send the populations of entire worlds to the skinning pits just for shits and giggles (and record it all for future shits and giggles), and the Emperors Children may be impulsive, sociopathic sado-masochists who live and breathe to inflict pain, but even they would break under the brutal regimen of the Iron Warriors, where there is no room for impulsive behavior. There is only [[Adeptus Administratum|ruthless efficiency]]; [[Death Korps of Krieg|grinding, crushing pragmatism]] and nothing else.

==Notable Members==
*[[Perturabo]]: Primarch of the Iron Warriors, Lord of Iron, the Hammer of Olympia, and Galaxy's Saltiest Man. Had a crippling martyr complex and rage issues to match Angron's. Was incredibly loyal to the Emperor at first, even when he got pigeonholed into siege work instead of engineering and diplomacy like he'd have preferred, but ultimately the relentless grind of the Crusade got to him and he snapped when he found out his home planet had rebelled. Joined Horus on principle, but bailed at the Siege of Terra after deciding that his brother wasn't treating him any better than their dad had and went to go do his own thing. Is now a daemon prince of Chaos Undivided, even though he spent all of the Heresy hating Chaos.
*Kydomor Forrix: A member of the Trident, Pert's advisory council, and one of the few Iron Warriors who had his shit together. In addition to being a competent leader and colleague, he was also surprisingly human for an Iron Warrior. He had a sentimental attachment to Olympia even if it wasn't his native homeworld (even discussing with [[Ahzek Ahriman|Ahriman]] of all people how its mountains inspired philosophical thoughts of his place in the universe), and deeply regretted Perturabo's massacre of the planet for its rebellion, though as a good soldier first and foremost, he still carried out his orders. Became increasingly disillusioned with Perturabo and Horus and burned out on the traitor cause after the Heresy was over, continuing to fight for Chaos only because he didn't have another option. Died on Hydra Cordatus in M41 when a Warhound Titan shot him to bits.
*Barban Falk: First ''a'' warsmith, now ''the'' Warsmith. Served alongside Forrix and Kroeger during the Crusade and Heresy and decided that Chaos was pretty neat. Eventually discarded his name to become The Warsmith and ascended to daemonhood after [[Blood Ravens|stealing a ton of Imperial Fists gene-seed]] from Hydra Cordatus in M41.
*Kroeger: A belligerent trooper promoted to Warsmith and the Trident after his superior, Harkor, was dismissed and disgraced by Perturabo for [[What|a wasteful meat grinder frontal assault]]. Pert brought him to the Big Boy's Table because he thought Kroeger would be an outside thinker since they were kind of [[Battle of Phall|stuck in a rut]], and his [[Angry Marines|smooth-brained full-monke tactics]] would be just the thing to shake off their rust (heh). That being said, despite his brutal nature and tactics looking like they'd be right at home with the [[World Eaters]] except [[Lheorvine Ukris|with more GUN]], Kroeger was actually sharper than he seemed, which made sense given that he's an Astartes with enhanced intelligence. He led the assault on Lion's Gate Spaceport (granted, because [[Derp|Perturabo thought Dorn was expecting a 4D-chess strategy and wouldn't expect DUMB tactics]]) against his opposite number (and fellow smarter-than-he-looks-fighty-guy-in-stoic-Legion character) [[Fafnir Rann]], and had the [[Imperial Guard|ADAMANTIUM BALLS]] to challenge his own Primarch in the Iron Warriors' simulation of the Siege of Terra. His temper ultimately got the better of him as he devolved into a full-on Khornate Berzerker and got killed by a mortal slave powered by the daemon in his armor.
*Berossus: Warsmith who got punched into a Dreadnought (as in he was crippled enough that they had to stick him in one) just because he was the one who told Perturabo that Sigismund wasn't in charge of the fleet they were fighting at Phall. Got killed by Honsou ten millennia later.
*[[Barabas Dantioch]]: [[Meme|I think Warsmith is a pretty cool guy. Eh kills traitors and doesn't afraid of anything]]. A veteran warsmith and hardcore loyalist who got exiled to nowhere after following bad orders that got his grand company mangled by [[Hrud]], even though he'd pointed out why those orders were bad. He built himself a kino fortress, then [[Awesome|drowned it in lava rather than let the traitors have it]]. Went on to help FORTIFY Imperium Secundus and learned how to operate the Pharos while forming an unlikely bromance with [[Alexis Polux]] of the Imperial Fists. Died by overloading the Pharos to wipe out an attacking Night Lords strike force, causing a warp flare that caught the attention of the [[Tyranid|hive fleets]]. Whoops.
*[[Nârik Dreygur]]: Consul-Praevian, also known as the Gravewalker. Fought for the traitors at first during the Heresy, then flipped them the bird after being shit on one too many times by the Alpha Legion and rejoined the loyalists, serving with Cassian Dracos of the Salamanders.
*Kyr Vhalen: Loyalist warsmith who told the Alpha Legion to get fucked at Paramar V and lived to tell about it. Also known as "Shatterblade" for one battle where he spent [[Awesome|nine hours killing xenos with one of their swords lodged in his chest]].
*Volk: Random Iron Warrior who's only important because he became the very first [[Obliterators|Obliterator]] when a daemon possessed him not long before the Siege of Terra.
*[[Honsou]]: Warsmith with chimeric gene-seed and a sick fuck rivalling Fabulous Bill himself. Was responsible for the [[Daemonculaba]], which is really all you need to know about how messed up this guy is. Has a [[Ferrus Manus|necrodermis arm]] and a vendetta against [[Uriel Ventris]] because Uriel keeps fucking up his plans.
* [[Shon'tu]]: Crazy-ass warsmith who thought he was the reincarnation of a legendary warlord from the Dark Age of Technology. Had a hate-boner for Imperial Fists in general and Darnath Lysander in particular, and once stuffed a Space Hulk full of Tyranids and launched it at Terra. Kept escaping Lysander's wrath while yelling "I'll get you next time, Fist! NEXT TIIIIIME!" until he was unceremoniously killed to death by some random IF Terminators when trying to hijack the ''Phalanx'' right before the Great Rift opened.

==Daily Routines==
*'''04:00 - Morning Reveille:''' The Iron Warriors emerge from their artillery batteries and fortifications.
*'''04:20 - Morning Maintenance Rituals:''' The Iron Warriors ensure their instruments of war are in tip-top shape. A slave is turned into a servitor for every warhead that fails to detonate.
*'''05:00 - Morning Prayers:''' The Iron Warriors begin to pray to all four Chaos Gods. Their prayers are shorter than those of the Word Bearers and Black Legion as they view Chaos only as a weapon they can use, thus each prayer to each God lasts only 30 minutes.
*'''07:00 - Morning Firing Rites:''' The Iron Warriors test fire their artillery and siege weaponry at captured civilians and fortifications. Any Iron Warrior who [[FAIL|manages to miss a stationary target]] is also used as a target.
*'''10:00 - Close Combat Practice:''' The Iron Warriors descend in a cage for close-quarters combat practice. Servitors are used, as normal people are too squishy and die too quickly.
*'''12:00 - Tactical Indoctrination:''' The Iron Warriors gather to discuss which fortifications to destroy or which monument of [[Rogal Dorn]] to defile, along with directing their laborers and human auxiliary forces.
*'''13:00 - Afternoon Wargames:''' The Iron Warriors set up [[Miniatures|miniature pieces representing their forces on an open table with complex rules and dice to test each others' grasp of strategy. Known as BattleMace 5,000,000]] [[Perturabo]] sometimes joins in on the 'fun'. An ancient Terran snack known as 'The Doritos' are brought by the truckload and are complemented by an equally ancient Terran beverage known as 'Mountain Dew'. Those who consume 'The Doritos' are not allowed to touch field operation manuals until they ritually cleanse and scrape their fingers. Anyone failing to do so will find their hands in their next meal. Of course, none of this is fun. [[Rules Lawyer]]s, [[Munchkin]]s, [[Powergamer]]s: every single stick-to-the-book archetype you can think of is exercised here, and they won't have it any other way.
*'''14:00 - First Evening Meal:''' A feast is prepared by the legion serfs. Due to long hours without eating, some Iron Warriors may have already begun to eat bits off their slaves.
*'''15:00 - Evening Firing Rites:''' The Iron Warriors practice their artillery marksmanship on moving targets. Aerial targets are also available for those looking to impress their superiors. Any found using airburst or guided ordinance will find themselves and their arsenal fed to the nearest [[Obliterator]].
*'''18:00 - Battle Practice:''' The Iron Warriors descend into the labyrinthine trench lines. [[Powergamer|Heavy weapon ambushes and kill zones are the most popular tactics in the narrow trenches]].
*'''20:00 - Second Evening Meal:''' Another feast is prepared by legion slaves. Those slaves who have parts of their bodies eaten by hungry Iron Warriors are gifted bionic implants to make them useful again.
*'''21:00 - Evening Wargames:''' A game of [[Exterminatus|Galactic Cyclonic War]] is set up, where the only winning move is not to play. Any Iron Warriors foolish enough to play will be assigned to minesweeper duty. The remaining Warriors continue their earlier wargames.
*'''22:00 - Bitching about the Imperial Fists and the sons of Dorn:''' A period is held for the Iron Warriors to bitch and moan about the [[Imperial Fists]] and why they can't wait to tear down Rogal Dorn's statue on Terra. Sometimes [[Perturabo]] joins in the bitching.
*'''23:00 - Evening Maintenance Rituals:''' Many Iron Warriors continue bitching about the [[Imperial Fists]] and the sons of Dorn during this time, infusing their equipment with their contempt.
*'''00:00 - Rest Period:''' The Iron Warriors retire to their artillery and siege vehicles.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Internet warriors.jpg|thumb|doomer sieging intensifies
File:Iron warrior squat.png|thumb|OI BLYAT
File:Iron warrior.png|Warsmith Dantioch
File:Iron warrior shoot.gif
File:Iron shoot.jpg
File:Iron cage.jpg|thumb|Good Times
File:Iron within iron without.jpg|thumb|Cannon go boom
File:Iron warrior pic.jpg
File:Iron warriors iron within iron without by t cezar dcpgpad-fullview.jpg
File:IRON.jpg
File:Rivalry.jpg|It's like this CONSTANTLY
</gallery>
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