Knight Despoiler

A Knight Despoiler slave-linked to two War Dogs.

A Knight Despoiler is the designation given by the Imperium of Man to any Chaos Knight that was originally a Questoris Pattern Knight of any class.

Combining the armoured might and vast firepower of Loyalist Knights with the arrogance, cruelty and anarchic aggression of the Dark Gods' worshippers, every Chaos Knight is a terrible threat to the realm they have betrayed. The Imperium has applied broad classifications to these war engines that encompass their many heretical configurations.

The Knights Despoiler epitomise all that it means to be a Chaos Knight. Their Fallen Noble pilots vehemently repudiate honour and valour in every form. The burning hatred with which they are filled comes from long exposure to their corrupted Thrones Mechanicum, coupled with the slow erosion of reason and purpose over solar decades of bloody war and endless crusade.

Behind each such Knight lies a long history of terror and cruelty, defined by selfish despotism and the pursuit of personal power no matter the cost to anyone else. Unshackled from prior notions of propriety and obeisance, Knights Despoiler often strive to become absolute rulers of their households by crushing anyone who could challenge their reign.

Role

The House Herpetrax Knight Despoiler Obstinate Will piloted by Dom Kohor.

In silhouette, all but the most heavily mutated Knights Despoiler remain similar to the Imperial Knights they once were. However, their weapons vary wildly. Gone are the traditional patterns of armaments that have served the Loyalist houses for millennia.

Instead, every Knight Despoiler is armed however its pilot chooses, or with whatever agglomeration of weaponry could be scavenged to outfit the war engine. Preferences range hugely between different Fallen Noble households, and between individual Dreadblades.

House Mykorphas, for example, worship the Plague God Nurgle and have seen their Knights Despoiler become slowly coated in living rust; many of their more complex weapons have failed over time, so that now the house relies on verdigrised Rapid-Fire Battle Cannons and Avenger Gatling Cannons, and plague-riddled Stormspear Rocket Pods, wherever possible.

House Thryn, by comparison, hail from a world where the only law is that of the blade, and thus every Knight Despoiler in their ranks wields a Reaper Chainsword.

Infernyx Ingloriam, meanwhile, is one of the most feared Dreadblades ever to reave the battlefields of the Ishmar Sector, and its twinned Thermal Cannons have become the stuff of dark legend amongst the Astra Militarum forces fighting there.

Unit Composition

• 1 Knight Despoiler

Wargear

• Reaper Chainsword
• Thunderstrike Gauntlet
• Heavy Stubber
• Ion Shield
• Titanic Feet
• Twin-linked Icarus Autocannon or Stormspear Rocket Pod or Ironstorm Missile Pod
• Avenger Gatling Cannon and built-in Heavy Flamer (As replacement for Thunderstrike Gauntlet or Reaper Chainsword)
• Rapid-Fire Battle Cannon and built-in Heavy Stubber (As replacement for Thunderstrike Gauntlet or Reaper Chainsword)
• Thermal Cannon (as replacement for Thunderstrike Gauntlet or Reaper Chainsword)
• Meltagun (as replacement for Heavy Stubber)

Ordo Malleus Departmento Analyticus Technical Specifications

The technical specifications of the Knight Despoiler have not yet been obtained by the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition.

Sources

• Codex: Chaos Knights (8th Edition), pp. 38, 54