Gore Sons

A chalk-white depiction of a clenched fist raising a mighty chain-axe - the symbol of those who follow the Butcherlord.

A Khorne Berserker of the Gore Sons.

## Chaos Warband

### **Noteworthy Domains**

Viskera (Daemon World in the Eye of Terror used as a supply post)

### **Warband Size**

Hundreds of Khorne Berserkers; unknown number of mortal slaves and mutants as ship crews
Numerous brayherds as light troops and ship security when the warband is in the field

### **Colours**

Red with brass trim and some skull ornamentation

## Pre-Heresy

### **Colours**

White and Blue

**The Gore Sons** is a large World Eaters warband which coalesced from the wars for possession of the Daemon Primarch Angron's former chainaxe, *Gorefather*. The warband's leader, Griven 'Skullfiend' Krassek, currently wields this dark relic and has been blessed by Khorne.

## Warband History

The Gore Sons formed from the shattered remnants of numerous World Eaters warbands. They rallied around Griven Krassek, who was on a quest to obtain the former personal weapon of Angron: *Gorefather*. His quest to find the axe took him ten millennia but at last he obtained the mighty weapon. Now he and his warriors spill blood across the stars in pursuit of a higher goal.

## Historic Campaigns

### Griven's Search (???.M31 - 005.M42)

Teased with the prospect of daemonhood by the Lord of Skulls, Griven begins his search for one of Angron's weapons long-thought destroyed. He spends millennia looking; paying particular interest to the Word Bearers as they are rumoured to be guarding the artifact. A trail lasting 10,000 years and untold billions of dead later, Griven finally discovers *Gorefather's* location. But he also finds he is not the only one searching for the weapon and races to claim it.

* **Battle of Skalathrax (???.M31)** - Deep within the Eye of Terror, Kharn the Betrayer turns on and slaughters his fellow World Eaters, shattering the XII Legion forever as a cohesive fighting force. Krassek is one of many survivors and he forms a warband with some of his fellow legionaries. Having seen Kharn wielding Gorechild in the battle, Krassek wonders where its opposite might be.

* **Shield Action on Hespold (913.M41)** - In the 910s, the Gore Sons emerge into real space to reave and slaughter in the Gothic Sector. Skullfiend plans to butcher the populations of 8 worlds to draw out an Imperial champion whose skull is worth claiming. His hopes are that doing so will get him one step closer to finding Gorefather. When the Gore Sons make orbit over Hespold, seven worlds across three systems are soaked to the bedrock in the blood of their former inhabitants. Here, they find a task force of the Pyre Guards waiting for them. The Pyres and Inquisition would fortify the frozen world of Hespold as much a possible but it was not enough. The Gore Sons fleet bludgeons its way through the Imperial defense fleet and make planetfall in a chaotic mix of dreadclaws, teleportation, and assault gunships. The main assault would hit the eight major cavern cities and would take four of them immediately. the rest of the campaign would devolve into fearsome attacks and counter attacks in the wide and high inter-city travel tunnels. An additional three cities would have the barriers broken down and be drowned in blood. Eventually only the capital and largest city remained where the loyalists would make their final stand. The north gate is eventually destroyed and the Gore Sons, millions of cultists and bloodletters flood through the breach. In the middle of the battle, Khorne deemed enough blood spilled to grant the Gore Sons a Bloodthirster. As the monster emerged from a great pool of viscera, Gifted Lord Stavros recognized the threat and rallied the Chapter to face it. The entire Gifted Brotherhood, a constant stream of fire from the Flame Guard, a prayer of banishment from the Chaplains, the destructive abilities of the Manus Ignis, and a final strike by the Godblood wielded by Head Chaplin Alexio would banish the Greater Daemon. Seeing the avatar of the Blood God banished, the Gore Sons begin to withdraw and are scattered by a final counter attack.

* **The 13th Black Crusade (999.M41)** - The Gore Sons are amongst the numerous World Eaters forces that spill out of the Eye to assail the Cadian Gate. They are on Cadia when Abaddon shatters the planet by hitting it with a Black Stone Fortress and the Butcherlord manages to evacuate most of his warriors. Once the Forces of Chaos descend into infighting, the Gore Sons spend most of their time assaulting Word Bearers forces in search of the weapon their lord desires. After this, the warband fleet head towards the Maelstrom.

* **Retrieving the Axe (005.M42)** - Having tracked *Gorefather* to an unnamed Daemon World, the Butcherlord arrived to find the weapon was held by a Black Legion Champion of Slaanesh who planned on sacrificing the weapon in a ritual that would see him become a Daemon Prince. Enraged at the idea of his prize being stolen right from under his nose, Griven Skullfiend, led his entire warband, over one hundred Khorne Berserkers, to the surface to stop the ritual and save his prize. The Black Legion forces surpassed the Gore Sons in numbers, tactics and troop diversity. Undeterred, the Berserkers fought on. Soon, other World Eaters forces began arriving, intent on claiming the great weapon. These disparate warbands formed a temporary alliance against the Black Legion and fought together to stop *Gorefather's* destruction. As the ritual approached its conclusion, Skullfiend managed to fight his way through to the altar with his Chosen and knock the enemy Champion from his feet. As his Chosen engaged in a no-quarters brawl with their counterparts, Skullfiend duelled with this champion of the Pleasure God. They fought for so long that the Black Legion forces were destroyed to the last man, leaving the Khornate forces free to watch as the Butcherlord won. He claimed Angron's former weapon and ensured this Noise Champion was its first victim by his hand. Skullfiend then defeated his rival Chaos Lords, who came at him en masse, offering the skulls of his foes to Khorne in gratitude for his victory. The surviving remnants of the rival Berserker bands pledged their blades and their strength to Skullfiend, swelling his force further. Lord Skullfiend claims the planet as a base, names it Viskera and states that he will return every 80 years to accept the challenge of any son of Angron who wishes to take their father's weapon for himself. Declaring the start of his Skull Crusade, Griven gathers his warriors and departs.

### Griven's Skull Crusade (006.M42 - ???)

As part of the new pact with his dark patron, Griven strikes out across the galaxy in search of worthy champions whose skulls will line his road to immortality. No foe is an unworthy trophy, provided he or she is a strong and capable warrior.

* **Slaughter on Vastrath (006.M42)** - On the garrison world of Vastrath in the Segmentum Pacificus, members of the Adeptus Arbites investigating an infamously brutal Hive Gang manage to kill a number of gangers. This gang is renowned for starting fights which can rapidly escalate into brawls stretching across entire hab districts. Upon examining their corpses and finding they all have a tattoo of a planet in a fanged maw, the Arbites immediately suspect the gang is secretly a Chaos cult. A day later, a missing Guardsman patrol is discovered on the other side of the main hive; examination of the bodies reveals the same tattoo and extensive bruising on members of the 905th Kanak Skulltakers. Suspicion immediately falls on the regiment which is garrisoned in several bases around the planet. Meanwhile, the 905th's psykers slowly start to disappear, only to be found butchered and ritually mutilated. Tensions rise among the ranks as the regiment's priests start to suffer the same fate and a group of unconscious guardsmen are found in the back of a local tavern with that same tattoo. Though they protest their innocence, the Commissar executes all of them and orders all guardsmen to submit for examination. The primitive Kanaks do not like to have their loyalty questioned and some refuse inspection on principle. When a dissenter is summarily shot for disobeying orders, the base descends into an orgy of infighting and the Commissar is hacked to death by furious Kanak axemen. As news of the riot spreads, the Kanak garrisons succumb to similar violence and a wave of bloodlust sweeps the planet. The PDF are drawn in, thinking the occupying regiment has become corrupted but are bogged down by rioting civilians and hive gangers in the streets. As the butchery intensifies, blood begins to rain from copper-tinged clouds, driving the hatred and bloodlust of the planet's population to new, terrible heights. Parents turn upon children, neighbours, family, even lovers turn upon their own to sate this unquenchable hunger for violence. From these clouds the Gore Sons descend by dropships and pods in a surprise attack to put the entire planet to the sword. Chaos Lord Skullfiend is at the fore, charging with his warriors into the heavily defended Regimental Command. Weathering the etheric storm of a Primaris psyker, the Butcherlord takes the heads of the Kanak Colonel and all his command staff. The Gore Sons then proceed to massacre the planetary population of 15 billion souls.

* **Culling the Herds (009.M42)** - Tired of what they see as the supremacy of the Chaos Undivided tribes, the Bloodgors serving the Gore Sons unite and try to exterminate their rivals. As amusing as the Astartes find this, the Butcherlord orders them to intervene once it becomes apparent the Khornate brayherds are now loyal to some sort of daemon and not their XII Legion masters. On every one of Skullfiend's ships, the World Eaters put down the rebellion through slaughter.

* **Siege of Sophia's Rest (012.M42)** - Having exploited the anarchy of the Night of a Thousand Rebellions on numerous planets across Segmentum Pacificus, the Butcherlord hears of a planned Chaos assault on an Imperial fortress/shrine world in Segmentum Solar.

## Homeworld

This warband lives solely on its small fleet as they are always in search of another battlefield.

## Warband Culture

The Gore Sons, like all World Eaters, value strength and the ability to shed copious amounts of blood above all. Strangled vestiges of Nagrakali culture remain; some of the markings carved into the battered plate of the warband's members are Nagrakali in origin

## Warband Beliefs

The warband's members follow Skullfiend as he carves a bloody path across the Imperium with *Gorefather*. They view this weapon as having been blessed by Khorne such that only a worthy champion can claim it. That their Lord currently possesses the weapon is further proof (as if it were needed) that he is that worthy champion. Skullfiend's followers are prepared to cleave the heads of any who disagree.

In relation to Chaos and Khorne specifically, the Gore Sons don't stand on ceremony. They have neither the time nor the inclination for formal rituals to propitiate their bloody master. They leave such trivial things to the pathetic mortals who have no way to gain the Blood God's attention other than cult worship. This attitude extends to summoning daemons. Instead of complicated rituals, if the Gore Sons have need of daemonic aid, they simply gain the attention of such entities through sheer force of arms. In most cases, the sheer amount of blood shed by their assaults is enough to manifest Bloodletters and the like.

These sons of Angron do not worship Khorne in the traditional sense; they no longer possess the capacity for that kind of abstract thinking, their minds having been scraped bare by the implants hammered into their brains long ago. Instinctively, they know that the battlefield is their god's 'church'; his favourite hymns are the bellowing of war cries and the screams of rage or agony; his favourite sacraments the blood of the slain and the collected heads of the conquered.

## Recruitment

The only way this warband recruits members is by absorbing the survivors of conquered World Eaters warbands or by accepting those who willingly offer fealty. They also accept more-recently turned Renegade Space Marines as members provided they can defeat a member of the warband in single combat and can survive being implanted with the Butcher's Nails.

## Warband Gene-Seed

The gene-seed of this warband is derived from the Primarch Angron when he was still mortal.

Because of the almost constant exposure to warp energies, this force's gene-seed is corrupted which renders it unsuitable for harvesting and implantation in new potential Astartes. Because their progenitor is now a daemon prince they have no hope of obtaining fresh genetic material to replace their losses.

The only way for this warband to obtain fresh stocks is to raid loyalist fortress-monasteries or Adeptus Mechanicus gene-vaults, or to extract the gene-seed from fallen loyalist Space Marines after a battle has ended.

## Warband Organization

### Command Ranks

* **Axemaster** - The title of he who wields *Gorefather* and thus commands the warband's allegiance. This title can only be taken by force; either by slaying the incumbent or his killer, then subduing the bloodthirsty spirit of the ancient weapon.

### Junior Ranks

* **Beast Master** - This position is held by the strongest, (usually) smartest creature of all the Brayherds. It is the closest thing a Beastman will get to an officer rank in the warband as no son of Angron would stoop so low as to consort with such weak creatures. He oversees the breeding programme which allows only those with the most desirable traits to reproduce; he also facilitates the decisions of Lord Skullfiend (or his immediate subordinates) and is responsible for coordinating and leading his gors on the battlefield. In a sense he is the head of security when the Astartes are not aboard.

### Line Ranks

* **Berserker** - World Eaters are so lost to the song of the Nails that they barely even acknowledge something as trivial as military rank. A squad of Berserkers can consist of legionaries of a multitude of ranks. Former Sergeants can be found following warriors they led into battle in the Great Crusade; lowly legionaries have climbed the ranks through challenging and slaying their superior officers. The only thing the World Eaters respect now is strength. Having succumbed to the allure of Khorne, almost every member of what was once the Twelfth Legion are now classed as Berserkers.

* **Berserker Champion** - Such a warrior is merely the strongest among a nominal group of Astartes who can be considered his squad. Often, but not always, he is the most veteran of a group. These days, however, someone is deemed a berserker champion through might and deeds in battle, rather than rank and a coherent chain of command.

### Specialist Ranks

* **War Priest** - The World Eaters' answer to a Dark Apostle. War Priests offer what a World Eater might consider a 'spiritual role' on the battlefield. Instead of chanting hymnals from the Book of Lorgar however, War Priests bellow chants and taunts in a mixture of Nagrakali and the daemonic tongue, designed to inflame the fury of both friend and foe alike while attracting the gaze of Khorne's daemons. While this is beneficial for the heretics, the effects on their enemies can be catastrophic. Those who face the Gore Sons can find themselves so enraged they will turn upon one another in uncontrollable bloodlust, feel compelled to stand their ground in the face of a charge or even rush out to meet a World Eaters charge head-on. This can help the Gore Sons break entrenched enemies or storm well-defended positions.

### Specialist Units

* **Devourers** - These warriors, clad in Terminator armour, are either the former members of Angron's elite legionary bodyguard, or are warriors who have slain them and donned their armour. With their Primarch's ascension to daemonhood and subsequent abandonment of his legion, these men either became Chaos Lords of their own, or became the bodyguards for other prominent World Eaters. They are blood-drenched veterans of countless campaigns. Currently, the Gore Sons count five Devourers in their ranks. Because of the contempt they are often held in, these warriors segregate themselves from the rest of the warband when not mustering for battle. Skullfiend has spurned their protection and does not care at all if they follow or oppose him.

* **Gorherds** - Thought not technically 'specialists', herds of beastmen fulfil a vital auxiliary role in the warband. They concentrate on tasks their masters are too blood-drunk to handle such as guarding vital resources or protecting the ships from raiders or daemons. Every vessel in the fleet has tribes of beastmen. If the World Eaters feel their numbers are too high they either encourage the tribes to engage in blood sports or cull the herds themselves.

### Headquarters

While this warband has no settled homeworld, they make use of a Daemon World in the Eye of Terror called Viskera as a base to regroup and rearm for the next campaign. This was the sight of Skullfiend's victory. It was here he gained *Gorefather* from a Black Legion Champion of Slaanesh. It was once inhabited or garrisoned by a Chaos force of unknown origin and size who established a fortress but by the time the Gore Sons arrived, the planet had been abandoned and the fortress was dilapidated. Its obscure location in Eyespace makes the planet ideal as a supply base. It is also unknown to the Imperium and, as far as can be determined, no extant Chaos forces other than perhaps a few other XII Legion warbands are aware of the planet's existence.

Their main headquarters is their fleet; specifically the flagship *Slaughtering Hand*. It is from here that Skullfiend selects his followers' next targets. This ancient ship's hold is where most of the war supplies are stored though small caches are kept on Viskera and other sites of noteworthy victories, in the event the *Slaughtering Hand* should ever fall.

### Companies

This force has no fixed organisational substructure. The closest thing is the standing of certain groups of beings in the warband relative to one another. At the top is Lord Skullfiend, by virtue of sheer strength, followed by his fellow Chaos Space Marines. At the bottom are the human slaves and servitors who crew the World Eaters' ships. Above them (by dint of superior strength) are the herds of beastmen the Astartes make use of. While the Gore Sons do have several herds of Bloodgors, they also maintain herds loyal to Chaos Undivided owing to the fact these beastmen are generally more reliable, and can be left alone without inflicting excessive casualties on one another. This makes the Undivided beastmen more suited to garrison duty or maintaining security of the fleet while the Khorne worshippers are elsewhere.

## Warband Combat Doctrine

The warband barely takes any time to put together a plan of attack. The almost-universal tactic is to close with the enemy as fast as possible and let the Khorne-given rage fuel the massacre that follows. Usually this takes the form of a direct charge with infantry, but against enemies equipped with heavier weapons or fortifications, Rhinos and other transports will be used to ensure Skullfiend's warriors reach their targets as damage-free as possible.

Skullfiend always leads his warriors in person; no World Eater would follow a lord who did not. His Devourer bodyguards will either accompany him on the field, though this can slow the Butcherlord's advance, or they can be held in reserve and teleport to their lord's side on the battlefield at the opportune moment.

## Notable Warband Members

* **Griven Skullfiend (Chaos Lord)** - Known as The Butcherlord, he has been on a quest to find *Gorechild's* opposite number since the days of Skalathrax. When he witnessed Kharn's betrayal of the Legion at a distance, he saw Gorechild rise and fall in the Betrayer's hand, reaping a bloody toll from the sons of Angron and their Third Legion foes. Even through the rhythm of the Butcher's Nails, Skullfiend wondered what had happened to the weapon's twin. He has fought in all thirteen Black Crusades, gaining Khorne's notice during the fourth and becoming a Berserker Champion. The events of the First War for Armageddon would see Skullfiend become the leader of his own force. He gathered survivors of other weakened warbands to him and slew their surviving champions in single combat to ensure their loyalty.

* **Nharax Damaskar (War Priest)** - This veteran of the Long War chants ancient Nagrakali hymns and incantations to the War God as he fights. His exhortations lend enhanced strength to his blows and strengthen the battle-frenzy of friend and foe alike. Though he could have succeeded the leadership of his former warband when its lord was felled by Gorefather, Nharax recognises that the Butcherlord has been marked by Khorne for greatness. He led his warriors in pledging loyalty to Skullfiend; or, more accurately, to the wielder of Gorefather.

* **Nucruk (Beast Master)** - This creature is currently the Beast Master of the Gore Sons. He is the smartest of his kind aboard their fleet, with a keen sense for his masters. Nucruk is able to sense when they have reached a level of bloodlust that cannot be restrained and usually facilitates this by ordering groups of beastmen to designated sections of the flagship. Nucruk is also loyal to his own clan, so the beastmen who meet their ends at World Eater hands tend to be Bloodgors from the Khornate tribes - the kind most likely to challenge Nucruk for his rank but also whom none will miss.

* **Varrak the Maimer** - One of the Devourers who fights for Skullfiend. He is a bitter and angry man (even for a World Eater) for how he and his brothers have been contemptuously treated by Angron and the rest of the XII Legion. The other Gore Sons view Varrak and his fellow Devourers as cowards for wearing Terminator Armour which makes them nigh indestructible. Secretly, Varrak hopes the former XII Legion warbands will continue destroying one another until none are left.

* **Berek the Cleaver** - Originally a Berserker Champion, Berek rose to prominence when the Gore Sons skirmished with the Red Corsairs on a world in the Maelstrom. Berek not only survived his squad to bring down a Blood Slaughterer with his chainaxe, he duelled & beheaded the enemy Chaos Lord. For these achievements, he was blessed with the mark of the Blood God, becoming an Exalted Champion.

## Warband Fleet

* ***Slaughtering Hand* (Battle Barge)** - An ancient vessel originally part of the World Eaters legion fleet during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, it is the Gore Sons' flagship. A behemoth of weathered brass and steel that inexplicably has splatter marks of vitae frozen solid across its hull as if dipped in some colossal ocean of blood, it sports smaller versions of *Ursus Claws* carried by the infamous World Eaters flagship *Conqueror*.
* ***Throne of Skulls* (Infidel Raider)** - A Chaos escort vessel modified with smaller Ursus Claws to latch onto enemy vessels, disgorging an entire ship's worth of Berzerkers into the face of the enemy. It uses this tactic in conjunction with other vessels: they latch onto an enemy capital ship like a swarm of lice, burrowing into the hull and overwhelming the crew with blood-hungry killers.
* ***Bloody Wake* (Infidel Raider)** - An escort vessel absorbed into the Gore Sons fleet with the death of their former lord at Skullfiend's hands. This warship has an irritable and rather aggressive machine-spirit. This has often meant that the vessel will try to fire on friendly targets in its vicinity to sate its own lust for violence, forcing the Dark Mechanicum acolytes crewing her to keep her weapon systems deactivated except when knowingly going into battle.

## Relics & Artifacts

* ***Gorefather*** - This weapon was once wielded by Angron. He discarded it on the planet of Armatura during the Horus Heresy, after damaging it and its twin *Gorechild* to free himself from the ruins of a destroyed building. Not long after, Lorgar transformed him into a Daemon Prince of Khorne.

## Warband Appearance

### Warband Colours

The Gore Sons armour is a variation of the World Eaters' traditional colours. Thanks to their constant need for violence, their armour is stained the colour of clotted and freshly-spilled blood with brass trim and occasional bone ornamentation.

### Warband Badge

The Gore Sons emblem takes the form of a chalk-coloured, stylised armoured gauntlet clutching a large chain-axe, its massive blade pointed towards the foe. A chain is attached to the haft of the axe and trails downward to wrap around the wielder's arm (in imitation of the World Eaters' practice of binding their melee weapons with chains).

## Relations

### Enemies

* **The Imperium**

* Any and all who would claim *Gorefather* for themselves

* **The Serrated Caress** - The Butcherlord once fought a duel with a Raptor Lord called Saveth, whom he had pursued across an Imperial Hive World. As Skullfiend was about to strike the killing blow, Saveth cheated. He used Haywire Grenades to overload the Gore Sons' armour systems, paralysing them. Saveth and his Night Lords took the opportunity to soar to their waiting gunships and flee the system. The Gore Sons have not forgotten this cowardice and now that their lord has *Gorefather* they are determined to slaughter the Serrated Caress. Saveth's newfound immortality will not deter them.

## Quotes

### By the Gore Sons

"*Follow me! I will walk a road paved with the skulls of our enemies until I find Gorefather. Glory to Khorne!*"
—Griven Skullfiend
### About the Gore Sons

"*Did they really think I would fight fairly? What idiots! They're definitely Angron's sons.*"
—Saveth, leader of the Serrated Claw

 Tzeentch Warbands
 Nurgle Warbands
 Slaanesh Warbands
 Chaos Undivided Warbands
 Malice Warbands
 Minor Chaos God-Aligned Warbands

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