Daemon Weapon

Daemon Weapons are a kind of enchanted weapon present in both Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, and Warhammer 40,000. As their name suggests, they are weapons that have been granted magical powers by the process of sealing up a daemon inside of them. Obviously, the daemon tends to be rather pissed off about this, which means these weapons are usually as much of a danger to their wielder as they re to their wielder's enemies.

Since they were introduced in the Realms of Darkness duology, sourcebooks for 40k, Warhammer Fantasy and the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Daemon Weapons have had different powers in different editions and sourcebooks.

The very first draft of Daemon Weapons portrayed them as soul-sucking blades. They could instantly kill anything they wounded and "ate" the Strength of the casualty model; 1/3rd of this went to weapon's inhabitant daemon, 1/3rd to the bearer, and the last third was lost. This was important to track for several reasons: firstly, your Chaos Champion would essentially faint if their Strength was raised to thrice its initial value, and secondly, the Daemon Weapon could only hold 5D10 points of stolen Strength in total (generated when the blade was found). At half this total, the blade could send its bearer into an indiscriminate killing frenzy. When this total was reached, the daemon was glutted and so the weapon lost all of its powers for the rest of the battle. Aside from this trait, they granted a bonus to the bearer's to hit rolls, were a magical weapon, dispelled auras, and could pass on some of the traits of the daemon bound within. For example, if the daemon itself could fly and regenerate, so could the chaos champion bearing it.

Later editions for Daemon Weapons would simplify these rules, at least for WHFB - in the Hordes of Chaos rulebook, for example, the Daemon Weapon was a 100 point magical weapon that granted its bearer the Weapon Skill, Initiative and Attacks of one of the four Greater Daemons.

In WH40K, Daemon Weapons evolved to fill the niche of the lost Chaos Blades - the generic magical weapons of Chaos Champions from Realms of Darkness. Daemon Weapons now came in various different forms and names, each of which had their own unique special powers and attacks. 40K roleplaying games such as Black Crusade particularly exemplify this evolution.

Known Daemon Weapons

The largest array of usable Daemon Weapons in 40K appeared in the 2002 Chaos Space Marine codex, back in those heady days when Chaos Undivided had its own Mark. In that sourcebook were presented the following Daemon Weapons. These would pretty much all be removed in subsequent editions of the codex, though a few would come back as wargear for unique Chaos Marine characters, most notably the Lash of Torment for Lucius the Eternal and the Manreaper for Typhus.

In the 2002 edition, Daemon Weapons come with the trait "Daemonic Mastery"; in any turn in which the bearer of a Daemon Weapon inflicts at least one casualty with that weapon, at the end of the turn, the bearer must pass a Leadership test. If they fail, they suffer a Perils of the Warp attack. If they succeed, or survive the PotW attack, then they continue fighting until they next need to make a Mastery check.

Chaos Undivided Blades

The Dark Blade - A jet-black blade seemingly made of solid shadow, which consumes the souls of its victims with insatiable hunger and fuels its bearer with the strength to feed it. Treat as a Power Weapon that grants +2 Strength when rolling To Wound or for Armor Penetration.

The Dreadaxe - A soul-eating axe with a particular hunger for the essence of other warp-entities. This daemon weapon never requires worse than a 4+ to wound its target, regardless of the bearer's Strength vs. the target's Toughness, and ignores Invulnerable Saves. Unlike other Daemon Weapons, it is not a Power Weapon. This weapon is a shout-out to the original Malal Chaos Champion from early Warhammer comics.

The Ether Lance - A daemonic spear which serves as a conduit to the Warp itself, allowing the bearer to unleash gouts of empyrean energy. Functions as a Power Weapon in melee, can be fired in the Shooting Phrase as a Template Ranged S4 AP3 Assault 1 weapon.

The Kai Gun - A heretek psy-cannon crafted by the doomed Machine Smiths of Kai when their world was swallowed by a Warp Storm in M34; this two-handed daemonic gun transmutes the bearer's hatred and malice into deadly energy projectiles, giving its shots Range 24", S6, AP3, Assault 2.

Khornate Blades

Berserker Glaive - A long-handled sword-axe possessed by a Bloodletter, which imbues the bearer with its psychotic strength and fury. Functions as a 2-handed Power Weapon that grants its bearer a 4+ Invulnerable Save, doubles their base attacks, and ensures they are automatically gripped by Blood Frenzy (cannot shoot, must move normal move + d6" towards the nearest enemy unit in the movement phase) at the start of each turn. The bearer of a Berserker Glaive cannot join other units, be accompanied by followers, ride a Steed or take a transport. The Glaive's wielder must always make a Sweeping Advance when victorious in close combat.

Slaaneshi Blades

Lash of Torment - A wickedly barbed daemonic whip that absorbs the pain and fear of its victims before broadcasting it to all nearby. Functions as a Power Weapon that can make its full attacks from 2" away. A unit in close combat with the bearer of a Lash of Torment suffers a -1 penalty to their Leadership if forced to make a Morale check for losing the combat after suffering a casualty by the Lash of Torment.

Needle of Desire - A rune-etched, double-ended syringe; one end is buried in the bearer's flesh, absorbing their own drug-laced blood and concentrating it into a deadly toxin for delivery from the other end. Attacks with this weapon always wound on a 2+, and a model wounded but not killed must pass a Leadership test or lose a further D3 wounds. Because of the precision required to wield it, even a character with Daemonic Stature cannot ignore Armor Saves when using this weapon.

Nurglite Blades

Manreaper - A scythe that has been soaked in the filth dripping from Nurgle's throne. Functions as a 2-handed Power Weapon that grants its bearer +d6 Attacks if fighting a unit, or +1 Attack if fighting a single model.

Pandemic Staff - A staff that is used to conduct Father Nurgle's plagues from the Warp into the materium. Functions as a normal weapon in melee, can be discharged at an enemy unit within 12"; roll a D6 for each model in the unit, applying a normal S3 hit for each model that rolls a 4+.

Tzeentchian Blades

Bedlam Staff - An ancient Prosperan focusing staff, now steeped with so much concentrated madness that it can rattle the minds of those it touches. Functions as a Power Weapon; models struck and not killed cannot attack until the end of the next Assault Phase, vehicles hit by it suffer an automatic Crew Shaken result on top of anything else.

Warp Blade - A protective sword used to violently dissipate enemy sorcery, shattering spells in such a fashion that lurking daemons are drawn to the disturbance. Functions as a Power Weapon, but enemy pyskers attempting to use a psychic power when within 12" of the bearer must roll a 4+ on a D6 or suffer an immediate Perils of the Warp attack. Models killed by these daemonic attacks do not provoke Daemonic Mastery checks.

Notable Daemon Weapons of the 41st Millenium

The Black Blade - A huge Daemon Sword wielded by Angron during the First War for Armageddon. It was made by the Dark Mechanicum and it was capable of cutting through 5 Grey Knights in Terminator Armour with a single swing. Was broken and shattered by a Grey Knight called Hyperion during the First war.

The Black Blade of Antwyr - a different (probably) blade in that it was never broken. Incredibly powerful and capable of enslaving whole sectors of space. Currently being contained by Castellan Crowe.

Drach'nyen - Abaddon's weapon of choice. It was created out of a Daemon whose sole purpose was to kill the Emperor. It was taken into the webway by a Custodian to keep it away from the Emperor and anyone who meant him harm. Considering Abaddon now has it, we can pretty confidently say that he failed.

Forgebreaker - A giant Thunder Hammer that was forged by Fulgrim and given to Ferrus Manus; when Fulgrim turned traitor he took back the Hammer and, after killing Ferrus, gave it to Perturabo. It was later returned to the Iron Hands... yeah, this Hammer got around a fair bit. Somewhere along the way, everyone's favorite kleptos got their grubby red gauntlets on it.

Silver Blade of the Laer - A sword infused with a daemon of Slaanesh; used by Fulgrim during the Great Crusade after he took it from the ruined homeworld of the Laer, a destroyed race of Slaanesh-worshipping xenos, it was integral to his corruption, being the ultimate cause for his joining the Horus Heresy and killing Ferrus Manus. The daemon inside the Silver Blade then managed to possess Fulgrim, and later gave the now-empty Silver Blade to Lucius after the Dropsite Massacre. According to canon, Lucius still wields the Silver Blade to this day.

Axe of Morkai - A Khorne weapon used by Great Wolf Logan Grimnar and which may or may not be slowly corrupting him. It was taken from a Champion of Khorne and reforged into its current incarnation by the Wolf Priests of Fenrir, who swear that their methods have cleansed it of its taint. But then, these are the same chumps who insist that their "runecraft" is fundamentally different to the psychic "witchcraft" used by everyone else in the galaxy, so take that with a grain of salt.

• Alternate take on the situation: Even if the axe wasn't purged of the daemon, Logan himself never showed any signs (even the slightest) of corruption. Probably the daemon inside the axe acknowledged the Great Wolf as its new master. There are also evidence that the axe indeed wasn't purged as during the newest invasion of Fenris by the Thousand Sons, the Axe of Morkai was literally the only weapon that could actually inflict a wound on Magnus The Red. Something Khorne found very amusing.