Blood Slaughterer

The Blood Slaughterer, also known as the Blood Slaughterer of Khorne, is a large, gore-splattered Daemon Engine made of brass and black iron that is dedicated to the Chaos Blood God, Khorne. The Blood Slaughterer is a Daemon Engine, a possessed war machine created with the single purpose of wrecking carnage on the enemy with unnatural warp-spawned resilience and power. The Blood Slaughterer is one of the most recent incarnations of the ancient Slaughterer Daemon Engine variety that has been encountered by the Imperium since the Horus Heresy. The Blood Slaughterer is a savage and near uncontrollable Daemon Engine, during battle it rends and kills with such indiscriminate fury that the warp-spawned forces that empower the armoured chassis of the beast must lay empty and dormant between battles, or the daemonic monster will slaughter its own allies, as the Blood Slaughterer does not care who it kills, so long as bodies are torn asunder in Khorne's name. The empty chassis is brought back to unholy life by gore-filled rituals on the eve of conflict, only then can the burning runes and cold iron fetters that bind the daemonic warp energies be loosed and the creature unleashed to slay and sow havoc in the Blood God's name.

History
Although knowledge of the Blood Slaughterer has been long suppressed and purged from most historical accounts by the Inquisition, there remain records of these monstrosities that can be found deep within the sealed archives of the Grey Knights on Titan and in the sacred canticles of the Adeptus Astartes. The Blood Slaughterer, recorded justly as the "slaughtering engines of Khorne", ranked among the most terrible enemies the Imperium can face on the battlefield. The first true Slaughterers were encountered during the Horus Heresy by the loyalist Space Marine Legions, and were thought to be a savage outgrowth of the more common Dreadnought walkers used by the Legions. The first Slaughterers were known as Berzerker Dreadnoughts and were optimised for close combat assaults and as line breaking units. These were modified from standard patterns to be larger and swifter than their more common counterparts, and employed near suicidal charges into the heart of enemy lines. Their use by the World Eaters Legion is stated in some apocryphal sources in fact to pre-date the Heresy itself in some form, and such was the savage reputation of this Legion even before its fall that this may likely be true.

In the 41st Millennium
In the millennia that followed the Horus Heresy, war machines identified or reported under the designation Slaughterer, showing a wide variety in size, configuration, and power if not their role, were encountered on many different war zones, most near the Eye of Terror. There have also been sightings of the beasts during the fall of the Sabbat Worlds and as far away as the southern galactic fringe uprisings. It was not however until the First War for Armageddon in 499.M41 that the Slaughterer was seen again in great numbers. In this nightmarish conflict, the most ancient and feared dread enemy of Mankind, the Daemon-Primarch Angron led his forces in an attack on the vital Hive World of Armageddon. For the first time since the Horus Heresy, the slaughterer, now reincarnated in a dark fusion of technology and the touch of the Blood God crashed in unstoppable waves against the beleaguered defenders of the world, bellowing horrific war cries as they slaughtered their way across the planet. They ripped through anything, flesh or steel that opposed them, savage and berserk, drowning the streets of the Armageddon's Hive Cities in a red tide of butchery and death.

Since the dark conflict on Armageddon the Slaughterer Daemon Engine, appearing in several now recognised variants, has been encountered once more in ever increasing numbers, particularly in the hands of the World Eaters and their fractious successors. One of the latest sightings, during the Siege of Vraks, the Blood Slaughterers, a scuttling multi-legged walker variant adorned with a profusion of barbs, cutting instruments, and ripping Chain Weapons, were perhaps the second-most numerous form of Daemon Engines encountered during the entire conflict, only after the much more common Defiler Daemon Engine. During the conflict the Blood Slaughterer was unleashed on the battlefield as extremely effective shock assault units.

Variants
The Blood Slaughterer has several known variants, they are as follows:
 * Slaughterer - The Slaughterer is the original "slaughtering engine of Khorne", dating back to the time of the Horus Heresy. The Slaughterer was encountered in a myriad of shapes and configurations, from berzerker Chaos Dreadnoughts to wheeled beasts armed with a variety of weapons such as Heavy Bolters and a Lash of Khorne. These ancient variants are rarely encountered in the 41st Millennium, as the more common Blood Slaughterer Daemon Engine has taken its place.


 * Blood Slaughterer Impaler - The Blood Slaughterer Impaler is a minor variant of the Blood Slaughterer that replaces on of its Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons with a massive, daemonically possessed barbed harpoon weapon known as an Impaler that the creature can fire at enemy infantry and light vehicles to drag them closer to the beast, so that it can finish it off with its other weapons.


 * Butcher Engine - The Butcher engine is a rarer variant of the Blood Slaughterer. The Butcher Engine is exactly the same appearance wise to the standard Blood Slaughterer, the only difference is the Daemon inhabiting the creature's armoured chassis. The Butcher Engine is bound to a more powerful Chaos Daemon, one that is able to exert some control over other Blood Slaughterers, and is used to lead them into battle, and urge them on to ever greater amounts of carnage.

Armament
The Blood Slaughterer walks on four sets of dual-bladed limbs, each containing in-built Chain Weapons and are fully capable of tearing infantry apart as well as giving the beast great speed and agility, even possessing the ability to climb up near-vertical surfaces. The creature also has a set of primary limbs, where its main weapons are attached. The Blood Slaughterer is normally equipped with two Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons that take the form of giant Power Cleavers. The Blood Slaughterer can also have one of its Power Cleavers replaced with an Impaler, a massive, daemonically possessed barbed harpoon weapon that the creature can fire at enemy infantry and light vehicles to drag them closer to the beast, so that it can finish it off with its other weapons. The Impaler is only capable of dragging units and vehicles that no bigger than the Blood Slaughterer itself. Blood Slaughterers armed with an Impaler are designated as Blood Slaughterer Impalers.

The Blood Slaughterer operated in groups of three, and are guided into battle by a Butcher Engine, a Blood Slaughterer that has drenched in the gore of a thousand victims and within its thrice-warded binding a savage daemon of dreadful power lurks. Only the will of such an entity can master its fellows, directing them into battle and urging them on to ever greater amounts of carnage.

Also See

 * Chaos Vehicles