Khorne Daemonkin

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"You sought to cower behind your walls, weakling? Instead, by the will of Khorne, you shall die behind them!"

— Reavax the Cruel, Lord of The Harvest

A Khorne Daemonkin Khorne Berzerker brings blood and slaughter to another world

Khorne Daemonkin are fanatical devotees of Khorne the Blood God, and his brutal creed. Like-minded Chaos Space Marines and their mortal followers form these warbands dedicated to murder and destruction on a galactic scale. Many of these begin as zealous mortal hosts, each worshipping one of the terrible and mighty Greater Daemons of Khorne, known as Bloodthirsters. As the Daemonkin perform ever greater acts of violence and carnage, Khorne's daemonic cohorts are gradually lured forth from the Realm of Chaos to take their place within the warband's ranks. When, eventually, the host is as much Daemon as mortal, one of Khorne's Bloodthirsters will burst forth into the material realm through one of his chosen vessels to lead them in glorious, never-ending slaughter.

History

Roaring, blood-soaked butchers with an endless thirst for murder, the warriors of Khorne's Daemonkin carve a red swathe across the galaxy. These are the Blood God's faithful, zealots who worship Khorne's Bloodthirsters as divine beings and who will pay any price to see them and their Daemon legions unleashed upon realspace. United by their fanatical worship of the Blood God, a warband of Daemonkin is a frenzied mass of renegades, Daemons, Cultists and monstrous Daemon Engines. The Daemonkin offer praise to Khorne through violence and war as they flood onto the battlefield in a chanting, gore-drenched horde. Their hymns are the screams of the dying, their prayer books the edges of their blades, for the only sacrament Khorne demands is bloodshed.

The ultimate desire of the Daemonkin is – through acts of bloodthirsty devotion – to summon forth the Daemons of Khorne and fight in glorious battle alongside them. To this end, Khorne’s faithful seek out arcane lore in order to better understand the beings they worship. Some hunt down ancient tomes that detail the names and nature of the cohorts of Khorne, or seek to undertake horrific vision quests into the Blood God’s own realm. Others capture lesser Warp entities in great brass cages, torturing from them the names of those Bloodthirsters most worthy of their devotion. Their bloody rituals do not go unnoticed by their patron. Though it may take months or years for a sufficient offering to be made, the frenzied devotion of the Daemonkin acts as a summons for the foot soldiers of Khorne; the veil is sundered as blood-red Daemons spill into the material realm, and the remaining Daemonkin continue the massacre in enraptured vindication. Should one of their number prove themselves worthy, a mighty Bloodthirster of Khorne may even possess his mortal flesh, the supplicant giving his life gladly so that the lord of one of his master's legions can be set loose upon the galaxy.

Though they begin their journey as a mortal force, the warriors of most Daemonkin warbands are eventually supplanted by the Warp-born legions of Khorne. A favoured few will attain ascension, becoming immortal Daemon Princes, but many more willingly pay the martyr’s price to prove their zeal. They care nothing for petty empire-building and ancient grudges; their only desire is to give themselves over, body and soul, to Khorne.

Path to Glory

Khorne Berzerkers seek their path to glory in the name of the Blood God

Most who treat with Daemons risk a violent death in the hope of gaining great power. The Daemonkin care not, for both outcomes are worthy to the followers of Khorne. When a Daemonkin warband first forms, it will be predominantly a mortal army. Renegade Space Marines and Khorne Berzerkers charge into battle amid masses of chanting Cultists, growling Daemon Engines stalking at their side. These are true devotees of Khorne, who praise the Blood God and his Daemons with every axe-blow, every blood spray, every bellowed war cry. Any powerful emotion causes a flare of energy in the Warp, so the inferno of rage and devotion generated by the Daemonkin draws the attention of Khorne's Daemons like razorfish to a fresh kill. Before long, monstrous, malformed fiends begin to appear amongst the Daemonkin's ranks. Their armour seethes with blood-wet muscle and plates of spike-studded brass. Their helms are deformed into fang-mawed horrors from which bestial horns curl. Their limbs are jagged blades or lashing, spiked tentacles. These are the Possessed, those whose living flesh and blood serve as crucibles for Khorne's daemons. These changes are agonising, yet the Possessed welcome every surge of pain, knowing that each enables them to better shed blood in their god's name.

Eventually, empowered by the Daemonkin's violence or by their deaths, the murderous warriors of Khorne's legions will cross over, coursing from the Immaterium like blood from a wound to fight alongside the mortal host. Called forth by the sacrifice of the Daemonkin, and sustained by their adulation, they do not require the succour of the Warp to maintain their corporeal forms. Thus are these Daemons able to fight in realspace alongside the Daemonkin -- and later their own, fully summoned cohort -- almost indefinitely. The faithful laud their appearance with howls of devotion; it matters little that many of them have died in the name of this dark miracle, for they know that Khorne welcomes bloodshed no matter its source.

On occasion, one of the Daemonkin's Champions may achieve their ultimate desire, transcending their previous form to become an immortal Daemon Prince who fights in Khorne's daemonic legions. Most will fall in battle long before this, of course, but another destiny awaits a rare few. Should they achieve some titanic act of butchery, one of Khorne's Bloodthirsters, the generals of the daemonic legions, will reward their devotion by possessing their mortal flesh. The vessel is inevitably killed in the process, shed like a snakeskin by the monster emerging from within, but he will give his life gladly so that the Bloodthirster may be set loose upon the galaxy. Draining the last of its host's life force in one mighty draught, the Daemon bursts from its enfolding prison of flesh to the roars of mortal and Daemon alike.

Khorne's Infernal Legions

Structure of Khorne's daemonic legions

Led by a Bloodthirster one of Khorne's daemonic cohorts march to war

To wage bloody war is to offer praise to Khorne. The Blood God cares only for slaughter and butchery, craves only violence and death. Armies assembled for battle are his only true congregation, the battlefield his only shrine. So it is that, in this bloody age, Khorne is the mightiest of the Chaos Gods, and his daemonic legions the greatest. The Daemon cohorts of Khorne march to battle with their brutal blades held ready for slaughter. Hissing Bloodletters advance behind gore-drenched icons, each band of warriors hungry to outdo its rivals in the taking of lives and skulls. Prowling around the Bloodletters' flanks come packs of Flesh Hounds, Juggernaut-mounted Bloodcrushers thundering at their fore. Roaring salvoes of fire are spat forth by clatter-limbed Soul Grinders, rumbling batteries of Skull Cannons, and the vast, terrifying Lords of Skulls. Meanwhile, above the brazen howl of war-horns, Daemon Princes, Heralds and Bloodthirsters of Khorne roar commands at their frenzied cohorts.

Such a throng of blood-hungry fiends may look, to the mortal eye, like Chaos in its rawest form. Appearances can be deceiving, however, for a rigid hierarchy governs Khorne’s legions. This system revolves around the eight ranks of Bloodthirsters, for it is they who rule over the legions. Directly below Khorne are his eight Bloodthirsters of the first host. These are Daemons of untold power who can crush entire armies of mortals single-handedly. Each of these Exalted commands eight Bloodthirsters of the second host, who in turn command eight Bloodthirsters of the host below them, and so on down to the eighth rank.

It is the Bloodthirsters of Unfettered Fury, Bloodthirsters of the Eighth Host, who command the daemonic foot soldiers, each ruling over a legion of eight cohorts led by attendant Heralds or Daemon Princes. These lesser lords each command eight packs of Bloodletters, Flesh Hounds and other Daemons that form the bulk of Khorne's legions. Thus the Blood God’s might is frighteningly vast, his servants virtually numberless. Each cohort has a name to evoke its particular strengths. The Skullharvest and the Gorekin march to war alongside the Bloody Butchers, the Skull Rippers, the Bloodgorgers, and many more. Some cohorts field a preponderance of one kind of warrior, and have earned particularly proud or unusual names that reflect their specialisations. So it is that forces such as the Skull Cannon batteries of the Gorethunder Cohort and the massed Heralds of the Bloodlords are infamous throughout Khorne's realm.

Charnel Cohort

Each Bloodthirster's daemonic legion comprises eight cohorts of Daemons, each led by a Herald or Daemon Prince. Some cohorts, such as the infamous Charnel Cohorts, boast a diverse array of Khorne's Daemonkin, while others will devote themselves to a single manner of dealing death on the battlefield.

Organisation of a Charnel Cohort

• Daemon Prince/Herald
  • 8 packs of Bloodletters
    • 4 packs of Flesh Hounds
    • 4 packs of Bloodscrushers
      • 4 Skull Cannons

The Scriptures of Slaughter

Khorne Daemonkin fighting against Necrons

The Daemonkin dedicate every axe-blow struck and skull taken to their wrathful god. The devotion of these fanatical murderers is such that many warbands even emulate Khorne's daemonic cohorts in their martial structure, hoping that to do so will bring them closer to the hellish entities they see as the Blood God's chosen warriors. Often, Daemonkin warbands will initially appear similar to any other band of renegades or raiders. Such warbands comprise a core of battle-hardened Chaos Space Marines, each drawn to follow a powerful leader haloed with the ruddy aura of Lord Khorne's favour. Fanatical Cultists flock to fight and kill alongside the renegades, and dark bargains are struck to secure the service of blood-crazed Berzerkers.

As warbands grow in influence and purpose, however, many devote themselves further to Khorne by imitating the structure of one of his Daemon cohorts, until they eventually become twisted mirrors of their daemonic equivalents. The dark rites that make this transition possible are dictated by a brutal creed known as the Scriptures of Slaughter. Scrawled down by those raving madmen who have looked upon the Burning Books of Khorne, the scriptures describe the organisation of unholy crusading armies known as Slaughtercults. The formation of these ritual military hierarchies resonates symbolically with Khorne’s sacred number, usually taking the form of eight bands of eight Chaos Space Marines or Khorne Berzerkers, fighting beneath the Lord or Daemon Prince who leads the warband. These squads represent the Bloodletters that typically serve a Herald or Daemon Prince in the Blood God's own cohorts. These bands will be joined by other mortal renegades and twisted engines of destruction to form Blood Hosts, gore-soaked armies of devoted slaughterers who massacre entire planetary populations in Khorne's name.

Without exception, Khorne Daemonkin tolerate no Sorcerers amongst their ranks. They have no need of such loathsome spellcraft; when a warband's bloody actions in the mortal plane attract the attention of the Blood God himself, their fervour alone is sufficient to summon forth a Daemon cohort from the Realm of Chaos. Furthermore, the Daemonkin's dedication to relentless violence and butchery in the name of Khorne allows the Daemons to endure alongside the Slaughtercult without the sustenance of the Warp. Even the mightiest armies quail in the face of such a cursed alliance, for it is a vision of hellish future in which blood, war and death is all.

Structure of a Slaughtercult

Structure of a Slaughtercult

Slaughtercults echo the structure of Khorne's daemonic cohorts -- eight units of the Blood God's fiercest warriors led by one of his fell champions, accompanied by lesser devotees and those truly blessed in Khorne's sight.

• Champion of Khorne - Each Slaughtercult is a led by a mighty champion of the Blood God, fated either to die in battle or be horrifically warped into a Daemon of Khorne.
  • Favoured of Khorne - Possessed are the Favoured of Khorne, savage hosts for his possessing Daemons.
    • Anointed of Khorne - The Anointed are Khorne's footsoldiers, either bands of ferocious Chaos Space Marines or summoned packs of immortal Daemons.
      • Chaos Cultists
      • Chaos Spawn

The Bloodsworn Hordes

Charging to war beneath their bloody banners, countless Daemonkin warbands slaughter their way across the galaxy. Amongst their number are certain warbands whose deeds are infamous, and whose names are bywords for terror.

Notable Khorne Daemonkin Warbands

• The Skullsworn - The Skullsworn are an infamous and vast Khorne Daemonkin warband that has risen seven times to plague the galaxy, carving a bloody swathe across the stars in Khorne's name. Its mortal ranks have been entirely replaced by packs of frenzied Daemons. Now, as the doom of the all draws nigh, they begin their eighth incarnation, seeking to summon not a cohort, but an entire Daemon legion.
• The Wrath - The Wrath are a Khorne Daemonkin warband that bring butchery to an unimaginable scale. Even in such murderous haunts as Commorragh and the Eye of Terror, these Daemonkin are whispered of with awe. Ferocious beyond the bounds of sanity, the Wrath are little more than power-armoured beasts. The source of their monstrous savagery is the Daemonkin's object of worship - the Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage name Arba'Gax. The Wrath's devotion is such, that Arba'Gax's fury has seeped into their souls, setting them alfame with hate.
• The Brazen Beasts - The Brazen Beasts are a Khorne Daemonkin warband that possesses a proclivity for fielding Daemon Engines, which stems from their worship of the Gorethunder Cohort. In imitation of their chosen cohort, the Brazen Beasts have assembled a mighty stable of Forgefiends, Maulerfiends and Defilers. These they transport deep within the bowels of their Space Hulk, the Oblivion Shadow, following the frenzied visions of their mightiest infernal engine, the Lord of Skulls worshiped as the Caged God.
• The Harvest - The Harvest are a Khorne Daemonkin warband that has a predilection for casting themselves as defenders of mighty strongholds in the most bloodthirsty fashion imaginable. Desperately eager for battle, the Harvest have little patience for building fortifications. Instead, they target a world that lies in the path of a vast, onrushing threat such as an Ork WAAAGH! or Tyranid splinter fleet, and using the element of surprise, quickly massacre the defenders of a stronghold. Reconsecrating their stolen strongholds with the blood of the slain, the Harvest man the battlements of their newly captured fortress and wait for the full fury of the impending foe to break upon them like a glorious, terrible storm.
• The Eightscarred - The Eightscarred are a Khorne Daemonkin warband that is utterly uncompromising in their violent faith. They are unhinged fanatics who see themselves as Khorne's only true disciples. Their zealotry is horrific in its intensity, driving them from one war zone to the next amid a never-ending tidal wave of gore. As a member of the Eightscarred, one must prove their worth in eight battle. A Bloodthirster of the third rank named Gha'Kharax sits ever in judgement of his worshippers, and carves a livid scar in a warrior's flesh should he prove himself. One by one, these bloody wounds form the rune of Khorne, marking the warrior as worthy to fight alongside Gha'Kharax's cohort. Should an aspirant ever fail to earn his scar, they will gladly fall on their own roaring Chainsword as an act of penance.
• The Bloodgorged - The Bloodgorged are a Khorne Daemonkin warband that see all those who worship the other Chaos Gods, asides from the Blood God, as having misplaced faith, a slight which cannot go unpunished. They further believe that there is no greater offering to Khorne than the violently obtained blood and skulls of those who worship his brothers. To this end, the Bloodgorged prey upon the followers of the other Chaos gods. Their attack ships haunt the Eye of Terror, the Maelstrom and many other hunting grounds where renegades may be found. Meanwhile, Cultists labour in their name all across the galaxy, stamping out rival sects and preparing the way for Bloodgorged invasions.

Slaughter Without End

Khorne has been worshipped since the galaxy was young. Knowingly or not, every warrior that ever raised a blade has offered the Blood God praise. Still there are few mortals that have proved as fervent or faithful as the Khorne Daemonkin, whose ten thousand year rampage has seen Khorne presented with tribute like never before:

• A Bloody Beginning (ca. M31) - Warmaster Horus, favoured champion of the Chaos Gods, fails in his bid to overthrow the Emperor. Defeated, his Traitor Legions are hounded across the galaxy by the vengeful armies of the Imperium. Upon reaching the dubious safety of the Eye of Terror, what little cohesion the traitor forces retained is lost. Horus' erstwhile hordes fragment into countless warring factions. It is at this time that a number of renegade hosts turn their backs upon the notion of revenge. They choose instead to lose themselves in the bloodthirsty worship of Khorne, becoming the Blood God's first Daemonkin warbands.
• Sworn to Glory (ca. M33) - Taking the Scriptures of Slaughter from the Infernal Maze, Chaos Lord Barkor the Bloody forges the first warband of Skullsworn. For over a century, he leads his followers on a violent rampage across the stars, depopulating more than a dozen worlds before he finds his ascension on the plains of Ossedor II.
• Heroes Become Beasts (ca. M37) - While defending the Fortress of Intolerance against Daemons on the world of Ghahalla, the garrison of Golden Blades Space Marines are overcome by a strange madness. Defacing their war machines with horrific symbols, they use blood rituals to subdue their daemonic assailants and trap them within the tainted vehicles. So are born the first seeds of the Daemonkin who will soon become the Brazen Beasts.
• Carnage of Kalledula (ca. M39)
• Immortality's Price (166.M40) - The Skullsworn fall upon the hive world of Rebas. They are opposed by over one hundred regiments of Astra Militarum, each well dug in and supplied. The war that follows is horrific in its intensity and bloodshed, but after the slaughter of eighty-eight of the defenders' regiments, the eight surviving Skullsworn ascend to become Daemon Princes simultaneously. Soon enough, nothing remains on Rebas but mountains of skulls.
• Sorcerer's Bane (230.M40) - On the Daemon World of Ylligith Maeraxes, the Brazen Beasts lay siege to the Azure Fortress. The Tzeentchian Sorcerers who defend it wield the unbound fury of the Warp to drive the attackers back, but soon the Beasts' Daemon Engines smash a string of breaches in the fortress' walls. Maulerfiends prowl into the stronghold at the head of pack upon pack of Flesh Hounds, and in a matter of days the Sorcerers are hunted down, their skulls crowning their own battlements for the glory of the Blood God.
• Martyr's Glory (301.M40) - A Daemonkin warband known as the Fists of Brass hurl themselves into the teeth of WAAAGH! Badstomp. Explosive carnage breaks out across the seventeen moons of the Madrakae as the two war-hungry hordes collide head on. Massively outnumbered, the Fists of Brass are wiped out within days. However, the oceans of blood they spill draw eight legions of Khorne's Daemons into reality, starting the war afresh.
• Paradise Lost (366.M40) - The Wrath fall upon the verdant Eldar Exodite World of Klithaine. In just three months they reduce the paradise to a blood-drenched hell and then slaughter the Biel-Tan warriors who attempt to intervene, devouring their corpses in a horrific feast.
• The Blood Hunt Unleashed (412.M40)
• The Threefold War (784.M40) - On the planet Skardenfel, the White Scars' 3^rd Company fight a guerilla war with a warhost of Craftworld Ulthwé. Into this conflict plunge the Khorne Daemonkin of the Eightscarred. Among the fireswamps, the Khorne worshippers slaughter with abandon, the warband bringing forth half of their chosen Daemons in a single day.
• The Skull Storm (088.M41)
• Red Saviours (183.M41) - The Bloodgorged board a fleet of Emperor's Children warships. After days of bloody deck-to-deck fighting, the Daemonkin are victorious. They scuttle the ships and depart, unaware that they have inadvertently saved the Imperial Hive World of Pyros.
• Dangerous Prey (316.M41) - After fierce fighting amid the macrotemples of Skeros, the Wych Cult of Tortured Hopes capture a Chaos Lord of the Skullsworn. Bearing him back to Commorragh, the Dark Eldar throw the Daemonkin champion into their gladiatorial arena. Their sport is spoiled, however, when a Bloodthirster bursts from their captive mid-battle. The Daemonic incursion that follows is catastrophic, and results in the utter destruction of an entire sub-realm of the Dark City.
• Exultance (424.M41) - On the Imperial Shrine World of Idyll, the Skullsworn overrun the battle sisters of the Order of the Bloody Rose. In doing so, they summon a mighty Daemon cohort; since the Heresy, this is the fifth cohort they have brought forth of their chosen legion.
• The First War for Armageddon (444.M41) - Several hosts of Khorne Daemonkin, including the Wrath and the Blades of Rage, join the Daemon Primarch Angron's attack upon Armageddon.
• Gods and Monsters (678.M41) - The Brazen Beasts go to war against the Knights of House Hawkshroud on a death world known only as XIII. Vast war engines duel across the haunted ruinscape, rendering all to rubble. Finally, the Brazen Beasts are victorious after the Caged God slays Hawkshroud's Baron Arcus in a titanic duel.
• All is Death (793.M41) - Like the fury of Khorne himself, the Wrath and the Eightscarred fall upon the Tau colony of Shau'Nesh. The aliens fight bravely, deploying incredible technologies to blast great furrows in the Khornate ranks. Still, the Tau are outnumbered and, despite their heroics, overrun. Crazed with battle-lust, the two Daemonkin hosts then fall upon one another, battling frenziedly until both are all but wiped out.
• The Great Beast Stirs (888.M41)
• Into the Maelstrom (938.M41) - Leading a frenzied mass of lesser Daemonkin warbands, the Bloodgorged invade the Maelstrom. In a series of psychotic assaults, they cripple several of Huron Blackheart's outlying strongholds. Furious beyond words, the Tyrant of Badab turns the might of the Red Corsairs upon his aggressors. The war that follows lasts for long, bloody years.
• The Threat Within (946.M41) - The Harvest erupt from blood-portals within the fortress-monastery of the Black Ravens Space Marines Chapter. Days of fierce fighting follow, during which the Harvest kill every last loyalist within the monastery’s walls and use its defence lasers to blast apart the Ravens' orbital shipyards. Bloodied and exalting, the Daemonkin drop the fortress' void shields and prepare for the true battle as a tendril of Hive Fleet Behemoth fills the skies.
• Red Star Rising (964.M41)
• A Clear Message (983.M41) - Warmaster Abaddon sends envoys to demand the Skullsworn swear allegiance to his cause. Some months later, the envoys' corpses are returned to Abaddon by leering Daemons, their heads missing and the rune of Khorne carved into their chests.
• Mired in Blood (985.M41) - The Brazen Beasts face a splinter of Hive Fleet Behemoth on Horos. Though all but exterminated, the Daemonkin are victorious, drowning the planet in Tyranid ichor.
• The Road to Hell (992.M41) - Inquisitor Bastapol Harg tracks a trail of murders back to a Khornate cult on Falchat. In eradicating the threat, Harg earns the ire of the Bloodgorged, to whom the cult paid fealty. The Daemonkin soon fall upon Falchat’s hives and slaughter everyone they find, the Inquisitor included.
• Disaster on Yngroth (994.M41) - Whilst pursuing Harlequins of the Masque of the Silent Shroud, the Wrath battle their way through the Grey Canyons of Yngroth. Just as the Harlequins seem cornered, a warhost from Craftworld Yme-Loc springs from ambush, catching the Wrath in a devastating crossfire. For long moments the Eldar plan looks set to work, until Arbra'Gax, Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage, bursts into reality. Led by this unstoppable demigod of war, the Khornate horde smash their way out of the Eldar ambush, which swiftly devolves into a massacre as the Blood God's forces punish their devious foes.
• One Hundred Skulls (997.M41) - Responding to a daemonic incursion on Hyraq II, a Brotherhood of Grey Knights plunges into battle. Crimson lightning tears the skies as the Grey Knights drive the Daemons back into the Warp, only to face fresh assault by the Bloodgorged. Retreating to a ruined temple, the surviving Grey Knights fight for their lives. In death, every Daemonkin they slay brings forth one of the Daemons the Grey Knights had already banished, until they are overrun by the screaming horde.
• The Swallowed World (998.M41) - Gha'Kharax, Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury, leads the Eightscarred and Skullsworn against the Imperial Fortress World of Almarit. The Daemonkin face elements of the Imperial Fists and Raven Guard, reinforced by several regiments of Tempestus Scions. The war grinds on long and bloody, but one by one the Daemonkin reconsecrate the planet's furnace-temples in bloody ceremonies of ritual sacrifice. As the last shrine falls, Almarit is dragged whole into the Warp, claimed by Khorne as a new Daemon World.
• Visions of Blood (999.M41) - Warmaster Abaddon's 13^th Black Crusade bursts from the Eye of Terror and falls upon the Cadian Gate. At the same moment, all across the galaxy, Khorne's Daemonkin are stricken by bloody visions of carnage on a scale none have seen before. Compelled by their wrathful god, the Daemonkin turn as one and begin to carve a path toward the Cadian Gate. It seems likely that, while there is blood still to spill, neither side will be safe in the war to come.

The Butcher's Nails

A World Eaters legionary implanted with the Butcher's Nails assaults an Ultramarines position during the Horus Heresy

When the Chaos Gods snatched the nascent Primarchs from Terra, they flung them far and wide across the galaxy. The amniotic pod of Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters, came to rest upon the world of Nuceria. Seized by slavers while still virtually a child, the young Primarch was subjected to a horrific form of psycho-surgery. The Nucerians implanted Angron with an augmetic known as the Butcher's Nails, an aggression amplifier that turned the Primarch into a virtual living weapon. For a time, Angron became the king of the Nucerian cyber-gladiatorial arenas, until finally his gene-coded greatness drove him to lead a pit-slave revolt against his masters.

Angron would have died in battle at the head of his rebellion had the Emperor not snatched him away during their final, desperate battle. Consumed by a conflicting sense of resentment and inadequacy, Angron violently rejected his Legion at first. By the time he came to name himself their leader, the Primarch's gene-sons were desperate to win his approval. Angron, for his part, sought to transform the World Eaters into an approximation of his lost army of gladiators. Thus, in an act of the grossest betrayal, the father mutilated his sons, bestowing upon them the Butchers Nails so that their rage and aggression would echo his own. The degeneration of the World Eaters began upon that day, and it was not long before noble Legiones Astartes had become the first Khorne Berzerkers.

This cruel form of psychosurgery has proliferated since those ancient days, with bastardised versions of the gory techniques involved spreading throughout the Eye and beyond. Still, it was the World Eaters and their Daemon Primarch who first loosed this barbaric practice upon the galaxy, and it is one that the Khorne Daemonkin hungrily exploit at every opportunity.