Khorgoraths

> "*A beast from the blackest hells it was, all gnashing jaws and lashing claws. It fell upon our party and I swear thee true, I’ll never forget those screams...*"
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> —Debrin Bruss, Father-smith of the Irongelt Tribe

**Khorgoraths** are former animal denizens of the Mortal Realms that have been corrupted by the Chaos God Khorne within his domain in the Realm of Chaos into some of his most destructive mutant monsters. The corruption is so thorough that very little remains of the animal they once were and their minds have been utterly consumed by rage and destruction. They live only to feast on living flesh, using their bone-like claws to grapple with their next meal, gorging on the skull and blood of their enemies. Their body bulges with the collected skulls of the devoured and their skin is tinted red with the blood of their foes.

Roaring with bestial fury, Khorgoraths pound towards their prey with fanged maws gaping wide. Driven by an insatiable hunger for skulls, these hideous super-predators are utterly without fear. They are living battering rams whose only thought is to kill and devour every foe in their path.

## Role

The Khorgorath hurls itself into battle with untamed savagery. Every swing of its grotesquely swollen limbs throws broken foes through the air. Every snap of its claws sees another head torn bloody from a ragged, spurting neck. Blades glance off its iron-hard flesh to no avail, while even those attackers who draw blood rarely live long enough to enjoy their triumph. Within moments, little but torn meat remains of the foe, the din of battle replaced by the awful crunch and slurp as the Khornate beast gluts itself upon a feast of severed heads.

Khorgoraths begin as creatures of the Mortal Realms, predators that are drawn into Khorne's domain in the Realm of Chaos by the unholy reek of endless bloodshed. Captured by leering, daemonic Bloodletters, these animals are dragged to the Brass Citadel. There, the Blood God works terrible changes upon them, twisting their minds and bodies into shapes more pleasing to his eye. At the same time the Blood God invests his newly forged Khorgoraths with a terrible hunger for the skulls of his foes.

This desire eclipses all else, and is so fierce that it causes the beasts physical pain. The only way for a Khorgorath to hold its agony at bay is to gorge endlessly upon the macabre trophies its god desires. To this end, the Khorgorath will throw itself into every fight without thought or restraint, turning the monstrous gifts of Khorne against its victims to deadly effect.

Bone talons tear through flesh and bone. Osseous, fanged tentacles lash back and forth, impaling prey like harpoons and dragging them into the Khorgorath's hungry embrace. Finally, when skulls are physically pushing out through the beast's straining flesh, the Khorgorath's appetite is momentarily sated.

At such times the beast is compelled to wend its way back to Khorne's domain in the Realm of Chaos, there to vomit forth its harvested bounty of bone. So does the beast's hunger rise like fire once more, driving it forth again to do Khorne's bloody work.

## Wargear

A Khorgorath unit can have any number of members. They lash their enemies with nightmarish Bone Tentacles and fight with vicious Claws and Fangs.[1c]

## Notable Khorgoraths

* **Skaarac**

* **Skuldrak** - A Khorgorath of the Goretide warband of Aqshy who was routinely tortured by the Bloodstoker Velkh the Flayer.

## Sources

* *Chaos Battletome: Khorne Bloodbound* (1st Edition), pp. 45, 87, 114