Daemon Engine

"Daemonic fury, bound into the shells of metal beasts and set loose upon the galaxy. Tell me, mortal: have you ever seen such a glorious sight?"

- Unnamed Chaos Lord

A Daemon Engine is a nightmarish artificial construct used by the Forces of Chaos that is a fusion of a realspace vehicle or combat walker with a possessing daemonic spirit of the Warp. Daemon Engines are gigantic war machines that prowl on mighty piston-driven limbs. Jutting from their armoured torsos are gargoyle-muzzled cannons and heavy weapon-arms that end in murderous tools of war. To compare a Daemon Engine to an ordinary vehicle is folly, for each of these beasts possesses its own maelvolent sentience rather than a crew. Bound within the battle-scarred metal of each Daemon Engine is the essence of a raging Warp entity, imprisoned in a physically indomitable body in order to better serve the Chaos Space Marines in their Long War against the servants of the False Emperor.

The Imperium has little concept of how these affronts to sanity came into being. Fragments of ancient texts and post-action pict-captures have allowed Imperial strategos to gather that they are creatures of daemonic nature, but little else. Even amongst the ranks of the Chaos Space Marines, there are few who understand how these immortal beasts are created. With the correct rituals, a devout Chaos Sorcerer or Word Bearers Dark Apostle can coax a daemon to possess the body of a mortal man, but only the brotherhood of the Warpsmiths can bind an unwilling daemon into a machine.

Unlike the rituals of possession, the process of creating a Daemon Engine is not one of mutual assent. Using corrupt rituals and forbidden alchemy, Adepts of the Dark Arts can force immaterial spirits into a physical shell of the Materium. It is the Warpsmiths that bring hell-forged Daemon Engines into being, from Forgefiend gunbeasts to new Chaos Titans. Beyond the soul forges of the Immaterium, Warp entities are bound in nooses of rope woven from the hair of murderers or with chains fashioned of scrimshawed bone. These captive daemons are dragged biting and screaming into the flame-hearted citadels of the Dark Mechanicum. In the molten heat of the dark forges, the Warpsmiths trap the screaming daemons within the rune-bound hulls of the giant metallic beasts they have captured or created. The screaming and newly-created machine-fiends must then be bludgeoned into submission until the time of battle is at hand. Caging a hate-filled daemon in a physical form that can smash through a fortress wall is a hazardous business. Dozens of machine-thralls (and many more Dark Adepts) are lost with the creation of each Daemon Engine, for they do not fear death or pain, but delight in bringing it to their enemies in as vicious a fashion as possible.

Known Daemon Engines
The following is a list of all known Daemon Engines, with the exception of Chaos vehicles that are daemonically possessed, such as the Rhino, Land Raider, Hell Blade, and Chaos Titans:

Daemon Engines of Chaos Undivided

 * Decimator
 * Defiler
 * Forgefiend
 * Heldrake
 * Maulerfiend
 * Soul Grinder
 * Wirewolf

Daemon Engines of Khorne

 * Blood Reaper
 * Blood Slaughterer
 * Blood Throne of Khorne
 * Brass Scorpion
 * Cauldron of Blood
 * Death Dealer
 * Doom Blaster
 * Lord of Battles
 * Lord of Skulls
 * Skull Cannon of Khorne
 * Tower of Skulls

Daemon Engines of Nurgle

 * Blight Drone
 * Contagion
 * Plague Hulk
 * Plague Tower

Daemon Engines of Tzeentch

 * Doom Wing
 * Fire Lord
 * Silver Tower of Tzeentch

Daemon Engines of Slaanesh

 * Slaanesh Subjugator