Editing Chaos Dwarfs (section)

==History==

At the height of their empire, before the coming of Chaos, the Dwarfs spread far and wide across the Old World. Ever-diligent workers and miners, they followed the [[Worlds Edge Mountains]] north and dug their holds deep into the rock of the earth. Along the way, they reached a place they called Zorn-Uzkul, the Great Skull Land, after all the ancient bones (and especially skulls) scattered throughout. While it was very rich in minerals, most decided that this place was best left alone. But a few were so stubborn - even compared to their fellow Dwarfs - that they decided to live there to prove that they could.

===An ancient schism===

These northernmost holds kept close contact with their kin in the World's Edge Mountains as the Dwarf Empire grew, and the Dwarfs enjoyed an age of prosperity not seen before or since. With the coming of Chaos, the dominion of the Dwarfs over the Old World was about to dwindle. As devastating earthquakes brought about by the careless machinations of the [[Lizardmen|Slann]] magepriests shattered the world, the Dwarfs closed themselves up in their mountain holds to weather out the storm, as has always been their way. There were those amongst the Dwarfs, lead by their fiercest warrior god Grimnir, who argued that Chaos needed to be fought, not endured. And when Chaos was eventually driven back by the actions of the Dwarfs and their [[High_Elves_(Warhammer_Fantasy)|High Elf]] allies, the Dwarfs looked at their wounded domain and thought their northern cousins lost. Surely nothing could have survived the raw Chaos energies unleashed upon the northern wastes. Tragically, they were wrong. The Dwarfs of Zorn-Uzkul suffered greatly, and in their anguish they cried out to their western kin for support and their ancestor gods for salvation, but they did not perish.

Though the Dwarfs that chose to live in the blasted wastes were hardy, even they were not immune to the corrupting influence of Chaos, and they slowly changed over time. For many long years they only barely survived as they abandoned or were abandoned by their own ancestor gods, but eventually they found favor with [[Hashut]], the bull-like Father of Darkness, learning the secrets of daemon-smithing in exchange for blood sacrifices. Soon their bodies showed signs of the growing corruption within their souls: their flesh turned grey, their eyes red and many sported horns from their temples while their teeth turned into vicious tusks. Dwarfs have a natural suspicion for unchecked magic and tame the raw energy by binding it to their mighty runes. The Dawi-Zharr were released from these traditionalist shackles and embraced the secrets about working terrible magic taught to them by their new patron god. Their Daemonsmiths soon learned to combine this arcane knowledge with their own mastery of binding magic and began working marvels of engineering into blasphemous amalgams of machine and daemon.

The Dawi-Zharr may have survived the coming of Chaos, but their numbers were greatly diminished. From the Zorn-Uzkul they marched eastwards across the Zharrduk, the Plain of Zharr, to the [[Mountains of Mourn]] and the Sea of Dread in the south. These are the [[Dark Lands]], the lands of fire, smoke and ash, and the Dawi-Zharr claim them as their domain. They were never a numerous people though, and the Blasted Wastes are home to many [[Orcs & Goblins|Greenskin]] and [[Ogre Kingdoms|Ogre]] tribes. At the heart of the Dawi-Zharr empire they built their great city, ''Mingol-Zharr-Naggrund'', the obsidian City of Fire and Desolation, in the Plain of Zharr. The Blasted Wastes are dotted with fortress-citadels, garrisons and watchtowers, from where the Dawi-Zharr venture forth to subjugate all living beings to work for them as an endless stream of slaves.

[[File:400px-ChaosDwarf.jpg|300px|thumb|left|100% Chaos, 100% Dwarf, 100% Hat, 300% trouble.]]

===A twisted parody of Hearth & Oath===

While few would describe Dwarfs as a particularly friendly people, their unshakeable code of honour, respect for their ancestors, undeniable craftmanship and ingenuity are admirable values and make them loyal to a fault. The present-day Dawi-Zharr are only a twisted mockery of these noble ideals: they are tyrannical and merciless, cold at heart and driven by a need to subjugate all the lesser races before them while retaining their mastery of craftsmanship and industry backed by their natural stubbornness. Where the human followers of Chaos are always driven by thoughtless slaughter and are inevitably doomed to fail in their rampant destruction, their forces spent, exhausted by infighting and stretched thin against too many foes at once, the Dawi-Zharr employ their ruthless determination and natural propensity for flawlessness for a slow but grinding dominion across the Dark Lands and beyond. Every Dwarf with a mind set on a goal is relentless in its pursuit, but a Dawi-Zharr will stop at nothing and will relinquish no cruelty to see it fulfilled.

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

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

The Chaos Dwarfs, while evil and all, mostly focus their efforts on the Dark Land. For millennia their expansion has been steady and methodical, securing their boarders and marching out to claim new lands when they had the resources to do so. They make their way economically by selling weapons and armour to the Norse and Warriors of Chaos in exchange for more slaves to top up their supply. From time to time, a Chaos Dwarf host will be assembled to leave the Dark Lands in search for a valuable treasure, specific sacrifices for their ever-hungry deity, or simply more slaves if the regular hunting grounds are exhausted. Alas, the Daemonsmiths like to test their newest creations against the defences of the lesser races to optimise their catastrophic potential.

They also got a Mesopotamian thing going for them.

===At World's End===

The cataclysmic events of the [[The_End_Times#Chaos_Dwarves|End Times]] obviously didn't exclude the Dawi-Zharr. Eventually [[Grimgor Ironhide]] led a mighty [[Waaagh|Waaagh!]] against the Chaos Dwarfs, toppling their cities and crushing their empire to dust, finishing what started when the Black Orcs revolted against their masters (according to the novels, Grimgor himself was a former Black Orc slave of the Chaos Dwarfs making him Black-Orc-Spartacus).

===[[The 9th Age]]===

===[[Age of Sigmar]]===

[[Image:Choas_Dorf_is_back.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Well how about that, thanks to [[Warcry]], some of the little bastards (right) are back in the Mortal Realms]]
Like most of the factions, Chaos Dwarfs are reborn in the Mortal Realms (although Forgeworld has recently squated the official models) under the trademark friendly name “Chaos Duardin”. The largest known contingent of these chorfs live in the realm of [[Aqshy]] in the Ashcloud Mountains, are back at worshipping a somehow-still-around-Hashut and use Realmstone in their armour. They also seem to be the chief clients for the Hobgrots that tend to also hang around the [[Kruleboyz]], the Hobgrots being the new copyright-friendly name for the [[Hobgoblins]]. That's about all we know.

Apart from these descendants of the Legion of Azgorh, apparently there are more duardin worshipping Chaos in the Mortal Realms, e.g. as a part of the Iron Golems and Spire Tyrants warbands. As revealed in ''Wrath of the Everchosen'', quite a number of these chaos duardin work for [[Archaon]] within the industrial district of the [[Varanspire]]. There is also a massive daemonic oil platform in the seas of [[Shyish]] called [[Zharr Vyxa]] causing grief for [[Nagash]] and the local tribe of [[Sons of Behemat|Kraken-eater Mega-Gargants]] who besieged the fortress in the past, only to be pushed back by the dawi-zharr and their black armored Chaos Gargants. In Ulgu, a [[Fyreslayers]] lodge is in constant conflict with the Black Fortress of the Legion of Azghor, to [[Malekith|Malerion's]] joy, as he gets to watch two dwarven factions beat each other sensless.

A [[Warcry]] warband called the Horns of Hashut were unveiled for the game's second edition. These guys are actually human worshippers of [[Hashut]], however, its been confirmed that they live alongside Chaos Duardin and act as their vanguard forces, burning down lands and leaving behind ashen wastelands for their masters to build their daemon forges in.

Keep an eye open for a broader return if the Chaos Dwarf DLC for Warhammer Total War does numbers and GW tries to jump on that band wagon.