Battleforged

Battleforged armorial with corrupted iconography.

Battleforged Khorne Berserker

The **Battleforged** are an infamous Khorne-dedicated warhost that numbers in the thousands with a mix of World Eaters & Iron Warriors to create a brutal meat grinder of a warhost, that has crazed Berzerkers as well as powerful warpsmiths and their daemon engines. Though not all of their members have the Butcher's Nails cortical implants, every member after completing their time as a Scout Marine receives an implant that allows combat stimulants to be administered directly to the brain whenever they want, or when certain triggers happen like the Butcher's Nails implant activating or being near a psyker.

## History

### World Eater faction

Created from a World Eaters Legion Company who's leader renamed himself to Kvonogar following his betrayal at Istvaan III. He broke off from Angron while still retaining loyalty to his primarch, Kvonogar would march with him almost every time he has fought the Imperium since becoming a Daemon Prince including the First war of Armageddon where the Battleforged suffered their biggest loss of life since the heresy or since.

After entering the Eye of Terror they stayed with their legion until the Slave Wars. During this time Kvonogar saw the brotherhood of his legion sundered beyond saving. He spent much of the end of these wars recruiting other like minded World Eaters to his group and sacrificing as many if not more of those who did not agree or were of other legions to Khorne. Eventually the traitor Navigators of his warband were able to find their way to a blood red daemon world, and an Iron Warriors fleet several times their size arriving at the exact same time.

### Iron Warrior faction

Warsmith Esfalon and his Grand Battalion were stationed very far from the Istvaan system and thus could not take part in the main battles of the Horus Heresy, much to their dismay. They were able to participate in several smaller actions to tie down loyalist forces in the area but eventually were forced to retreat into the Eye of Terror. On the way to the Eye they became angered at their inability to bring war and death to Terra so instead they sacked several planets to the last before leveling their cities and leaving, this developed a Khorne worshiping cult that overtook the more pragmatic and undivided tendencies. It also filled their armouries with plundered munitions and vehicles as well as a large pool of converted Khorne cultists to build a recruitment base from. Esfalon himself did not care much for speeches and leading charges but was a master warpsmith as well as tactician to the point that he had even been considered a future member of the Trident. He was as paranoid and secretive as his primarch, rarely trusting anyone outside his closest comrades.

All of his Librarians became worried at the turn to Khorne over remaining with Undivided, unknown to them Khorne had been visiting Esfalon in his dreams and guiding him to greater acts of bloodshed further into the eye as he spurned his Navigators to succeed or die in finding what looked like "a bloody jewel". The Librarians attempted to usurp his command and instill a Chaos Undivided faction instead of the Khornate cult taking over, though powerful the Librarians had few of the battleline members to defend them and Khorne himself was on the side of his cult, nullifying the warp around them enough to almost totally dampen their offensive powers. The coup was easily crushed with many of the Librarians being captured while trying in vain to cast their powers out, Esfalon had all of the Librarian prisoners chained and kept in warded cells while any others were sacrificed that night in a ceremony securing their place under the thrall of Khorne.

### Contact over Zaugantu

When contact was made between Esfalon's and Kvonogar's fleets their was a long silent tension as both sides weighed their choices: Kvonogar had far less ships and manpower to win a void war but was to large of a flotilla to be ignored, while Esfalon knew that if there was a battle his flagship would be boarded and most likely fall to the melee fury of the Khornates. Instead both leaders & a small honor guard each called a parlay and met in a Stormbird on the surface of the crimson planet, a world that had been an Eldar fortress world at one point, it was covered in unnatural deserts of blood red dust & ruins from the former occupants.

Along with Esfalon's honor guard came all of the sorcerers of his forces, stripped naked, shackled and warded from being able to use their powers, and then placed within a sealed unit for transport to the surface. They were handed over as sacrificial tributes by Esfalon as a way to show their respect to the new World Eater allies. This act sealed their alliance as the Iron Warriors were shown the blood rituals and did it themselves in a ceremony with every single member of the new warhost present but segregated.

Kvonogar was ever the taciturn general & saw the advantages of actual tactics as well as having some kind of close tie with one of the Dark Mechanicum factions, and so was glad to combine his fledgling warband with that of the larger and fully equipped Iron Warriors Grand Battalion that had also broken off from its parent legion, though they broke off as they felt there wasn't enough death being caused and saw the World Eaters as the perfect allies to shed blood with. Kvonogar took the title of Supreme Warlord as the warhost's overall master while Esfalon took a more behind the scenes second in command role as Supreme Warsmith, befitting his personality and preference to crack enemy fortresses & build daemon engines that can spread across the galaxy spilling blood for Khorne.

Another more secret reason for Kvonogar's alliance with a group of skilled warpsmiths was to figure out a way to better understand the Butcher's Nails implant in all of his World Eaters, in order to create them in the future and to control their own brains better, & Esfalon was known as a master techmarine and warpsmith. By M41 their Bloodsmiths have mostly mastered the art of the the implants and have used that skill to amass resources and slaves in return for their expertise in creating more berzerkers.

### Birth of the Meat Grinder

After they joined together they practiced their abilities on some of the other warbands in the nearby systems. They also ventured out of the Eye to raid as many Imperial worlds as they could to harvest sizable populations for use as slaves and cultists on their own fortress daemon world. They also sent several companies out to other chaos hotspots to fight the Imperium including the Eastern Fringe. Together they use their differing strengths & skills to pincer enemies with brutal offensives coupled with unrelenting defense lines and artillery barrages. The rank and file astartes have a tenuous grasp of brotherhood that keeps them from killing each other to much more than is acceptable for a normal chaos warband.

### Era Indomitus

While all of the warhost is currently involved in the 13th Black Crusade in some way a couple battalions are part of the armada under the control of Archspinner Akemos of the Cabal of Destiny that amassed to assault the planet of Troii along with the rest of the forces under his control, Including the Pain Harvesters and the Plague Ravens. The Battleforged numbered around 2000 astartes & 500,000 cultists within this invasion force. Following the siege that ended with a costly Imperial victory, the remaining Battleforged returned home, where their commanding officer was sacrificed for failure and the other survivors added to another invasion force that set off to assault Imperial planets elsewhere. The warband would lay a short siege of the Nifhel system in early M42 against the Grey Wolves and would ironically be one of the first to discover the Chaotic taint unknown to the loyalists that was hidden deep within their unique combat drug compound called Asmannde. They are also currently one of the larger contributors of heretic astartes in the Third Jamaerah Crusade as well as another large force assisting the Cabal of Destiny to fulfill their oath to the manipulative Akemos.

## Homeworld

Their homeworld is a daemon world deep in the Eye of Terror named Zaugantu that has 8 massive hellforges, each commanded by a Warpsmith, that pumps out daemon engines and weapons for eternity and 8 gladiator arenas, each commanded by a Bloodsmith, big enough for whole companies to fight each other dotting its surface as well as a massive fortress on the northern polar area simply called the Citadel. The Citadel is made from the bones of massive daemons held together with the fused fleshmetal of still living loyalist bodies and studded with thousands of weapon emplacements to protect it from the constant attacks from other warbands and their daemonic allies, these attacks serve as constant sacrifice to Khorne as well as training for the warhost to keep them battle ready. On the southern polar area is a massive prison complex used to house untold prisoners of all species awaiting sacrifice or placement in the hellforges or some other dark fate. Large tribes of feral humans roam the surface of the planet, attacking anything they find save for Bloodsmiths who they see as a living totem of worship to Khorne, and from their visits to these feral tribes is where the warband's blooded recruits come from. Prior to the formation of the Eye of Terror, this world was the home world of the Aeldari that would go on to form Craftworld Athirlyn and their allied Athirri Exodites.

(To Be Added)

## Notable Campaigns

* **Eastern Fringe Blooding (550-648.M32):** Known as the Idolater Crusades to the Imperium, this brutal assault was fought by several different chaos warbands including the Battleforged who commanded the chaos forces against the Angels of the Blade, Iron Myrmidons, Palatine Vindicators, Praetorians of Blood, Void Paladins, and the Hussars Sanguine who was mentoring the newly founded chapters and commanded the loyalist forces. While the forces of chaos caused massive casualties against the loyalist forces, the Void Paladins in particular took the heaviest casualties of the loyalist chapters, they were eventually routed from the system.
* **The Bazaar Connection (990.M41)**: This mission saw a task force of Carmine Reavers come into conflict with a Battleforged fleet docked at Bazaar. During this time a Carmine Reavers warrior defeated a **Battleforged** champion and set off a rivalry between the warbands that boiled into a short haval battle over Bazaar that was only stopped by the intervention of Bazaar's security forces.
* **Sacking of Horu (030.M42)**: After the Cabal of Destiny fled the Nuevoga system and left hundreds of the Dogs of Arrogance to fend for themselves against Confederate forces, the Lord of Dogs lead a majority of his warband's Crews to the homeworld of the Cabal and ransacked the planet trying to find Akemos. When Akemos returns from warp space he is followed by a massive fleet of chaos allies from the Battleforged and many other smaller warbands and together forced the Dogs out of the system.

(To Be Added)

## Warband Organisation

As a hybrid warhost they have most of the special ranks & units found in either parent legion as well as the additions from their allegiance to Khorne. Of note is Kvonogar making the distinct ranks of Warlord & Warsmith to better mix the forces he had under him: Warlords were in charge overall but the Warsmiths are the main tacticians and act as captains. This was done at Esfalon's request & Kvonogar agreeing, an action that would be repeated in many tactical meetings as the years wore on and Kvonogar became a Daemon Prince.

Their main combat grouping is a Battalion, the name used for a strength of about 800 marines. Each Battalion has its own Warlord as the commander followed by his 8 Warsmiths. From their it is the normal company and squads seen in a *Codex* chapter but changed to fit their more daemonic aspects, each company has about 8 warpsmith and Bloodsmith. Under the marines is a massive army of cultists often numbering well over 80,000 that follow each Battalion as cannon fodder or sacrifices in blood rituals.

### Special Ranks & Titles

#### Officer Ranks

* **Supreme Warlord:** Term used for the warband's leader.
* **Supreme Warsmith:** Term used for the warband's second in command, taking the majority of the warband's overall logistical and tactical burden so that the supreme Warlord can focus on a primary warzone.
* **Warlord**: Name given to the commander of a Battalion, always a Nail implanted astartes. Due to the implants heavily changing the brain of its user, regardless of gene-seed, they are unable to have the more broad view of warfare that a Warsmith does but instead are the hyper violent totems that their forces follow into battle. It is standard practice for them to leave the tactics to the warsmiths so they can lead from the front and as such heed their Warsmiths advice if lucid through their implant.
* **Warsmith**: Used as the term for high ranking officers under the warlord of a battalion similar to the captain of a loyalist chapter. Each of the elite formations that come from the Iron Warriors also has a warsmith in charge of it to better coordinate between the different groups as well as a few others to advise the Supreme Warsmith similar to the Trident under Perturabo. Often the fleet & siege master for the battalion while the Warlord is the ground & overall commander. The highest ranking Warsmith takes the title of Supreme Warsmith.

#### Specialist Ranks

* **Bloodsmith**: A mix of a Chaplain and an Apothecary that are in charge of the blood rituals as well as guarding and dealing with captured sorcerers and other prisoners. They lead the creation of the various possessed as well as command them in combat much like a warpsmith with daemon engines, and are also some of the foremost of berserker surgeons. Their main weapon is an accursed crozius in the shape of either a spiked skull with eight spikes or the Mark of Khorne.
* **Skull Reaper**: Name used for the 8 elite champions that hunt down enemy psykers and all who defend them, each has 8 veteran members of their honor guard from any of the formations or squads. Unlike their more berserk brothers these Nail implanted warriors are still mostly in control of themselves, embodying the martial pride aspect of Khorne instead of the wanton slaughter normally seen by those implanted, though they are no less deadly a foe in combat.

* **Tyrant Siege Squad**: Iron Warriors heresy era formation of Terminator clad veterans using carapace mounted missile launchers to act as vanguard siege breakers. They are used by the Battleforged in the same way.

* **Iron Masters:** Created from the Iron Warriors heresy era formation of veterans called the Stor-Bezashk, as well as the senior most Warpsmiths of the warband, together they are the elite siege masters of the Battleforged.
	+ **Warpsmiths**

* **Berzerker**: The most well known special unit for any warband that includes World Eaters in its ranks.
* **Bloodborn**: Term used for both Mutilators and Obliterators as well as Helbrutes, all are so wild and bloodthirsty that they must be chained and sedated to keep from killing their masters between battles. Often they are made willingly from those who see the chance to become a supreme killing machine a worthy use of their soul. Lead by a Bloodsmith into battle as they are some of the few that can easily control them.
* **Khornate Daemonkin**: Ranging from Possessed marines to the Neverborn themselves to all the other horrors outside of what a warpsmith can create. They are often lead into battle by a Bloodsmith or some other elite unit.
* **Ancient** - Standard Bearer equivalent.

#### Line Ranks

* **Aspiring Champion**
* **Battle-Brother**
	+ **Ravager Squad**: Unlike the aerial Raptors and Warp Talons, these are ground-based assault units made up of recruits that decided to receive the Butcher's Nails and are still getting used to it, and as such, this rank also has the highest casualty rate in the Battleforged. Most will die or become a berzerker or possibly a possessed or some other monstrous entity.
* **Scout Marine**
	+ **Vice Squad**: Scout Marines who excel at keep enemy forces pinned down until the rest of a battalion can attack. All scout marines must complete their training as part of these squads before joining the rest of the warhost.
* **Neophyte**

## Warband Combat Doctrine

From their mixed lineage they have a large assortment of tactical ability from massed frontal charges of armour and berzerkers to a maze of bunkers and trenches. They will often blast a warzone from orbit as much as possible while landing troops and supplies to create a stronghold from which to ravage the planet from, or just land among the enemy and take their strongholds instead.

They have the same normal units like Raptors, Havocs, and Tactical marines though most recruits become either Ravagers or Tactical marines since all Raptors & most Havocs are veterans. They have massive depots of vehicles and terminator suits to supply their huge host of elites. They deploy large bike squadrons to scout and flank as well. Their scout marines are used to harass and pin down enemy forces more than actual scouting. After a recruit has completed the equivalent of being a scout marine they get the combat stimulants wired in & receive the choice of having the Butchers Nails implant and joining the Ravager or other close assault squads to die or rise to the rank of a Warlord someday, or do not receive the extra implant & join the Havoc and Tactical squads or anything else needed to at most rise to that of a Warsmith. One of the more difficult parts of leading this warhost is keeping those that have the implant from turning on their brethren, this is done by constant fighting and blood rituals in all 8 arenas on Zaugantu to keep them placated between deployments.

## Notable Warband Members

* **Supreme Warlord Kvonogar**: The warhost's leader and daemon ruler of Zaugantu. He is not as crazed as most of his old legion which has helped preserve his skills as an astute general and tactician. Eventually he was able to become a daemon prince from his constant warring and focus on improving the Berzerker surgery. His honor guard is a group of eight terminator clad berzerkers with dual chainaxes, each a massive chainaxe to a normal astartes, or a heavy weapon & a single chainaxe. He himself is clad in fleshmetal terminator armor, with a wrist mounted CombiBolter as his ranged weapon. Daemonhood granted him immense bulk that can shrug off Battle cannon shots, rending claws that can disembowel a Terminator clad warror, & a daemonic visage that inspires fear in his enemies as he eats their heroes right on the battlefield. His main weapon is a giant daemonic axe created by Varzlo, it is used both one and two handed and is sized perfectly for both.

* **Supreme Warsmith Esfalon**: Iron Warriors leader that accepted a secondary role as it was easier to focus on his work while Kvonogar played warlord. Has a veteran company of astartes loyal to him over Kvonogar in case he ever needed to flee or take over. His biggest contribution is improving the Butcher's Nails used by the warhost to lessen its brain killing side effects as well as improved overall performance.
* **Warlord Karrez**: Warden of the prison on the daemon worlds southern pole. Uses Terminator armour with a Chainfist and a Lightning claw, disdaining ranged weaponry for total melee dominance.

* **Warsmith Varazlo Hellblade**: Former protege of Edrax that betrayed him for recognition in the new warband, eventually surnamed as Hellblade for his skill at creating powerful daemon weapons for the elite of the Battleforged including the main weapon of Kvonogar. This earned him the former title held by Edrax, that of being the right hand man of Esfalon and thus a member of the main war council. He also is the artificer of Kvonogr himself, creating his current daemonic axe as well as any daemon engines he fancies. He personally uses the former power axe of Edrax as a trophy, though now a daemon has been forced into it making it much stronger than it ever was before.
* **Skull Reaper Muunaac**- Best swordsman in the warband, wields a large daemonic sword that boils the blood around injuries it causes and reinvigorates the user with the blood the soaks into the hungry sword, he also has a bolter for back up. He is considered by many chaos warbands and the Inquisition itself as one of the most skilled chaos champions in the ways of swordsmanship. Often challengers, both loyalist and heretic alike, will attack him while he is visiting planets for trade or supplies or even while at war. He loves this and welcomes each and every challenger with a greeting and introductions so that he knows who he is about to kill for Khorne.

* **Leman**: Nickname given to a Chaos corrupted Wulfen berzerker that is like a pet to Kvonogar. It is unknown how he came to be under Kvonogar's thrall but he has been at his side for millennia and happily slaughters loyalists as much as daemons. Rumor among the Battleforged say that he is a former member of Leman Russ's retinue but he is actually one of the few Wolf Brothers left alive after the successor chapter overly mutated and was exterminated. After his success Kvonogar has gathered as many other wulfen he could find & gave them the full berzerker surgery as well as had them mutated to varying degrees, to act as his personal pack of hounds. The warp has increased his already beastly visage to horrific proportions: his body is partially covered in the fleshmetal of his ancient power armor with thick tuffs of scales & hair poking out all over, his skeleton restructured to allow for quadruped movement but can still fully stand up and fight, he has a pair of spiked horns growing from his forehead flanking a mark of Khorne he clawed in himself, long needle like serrated teeth interweave almost impossibly outside his mouth when his jaw is closed, his hands & feet claws are as long as lightning claws and just as sharp and durable including being able to block and grab power weapons, he has a hairy tentacle like tail that ends in a spiked ball, his hands and his tail have leech mouths that act like chainswords to bore into armor & secrete acidic blood that also drips from his mouth when in a rage. Besides these he also has cybernetic upgrades added by the warpsmiths like a multi vision spectrum eye, several tail like mechanitendrils like those used by warpsmiths but they all end with sharp pincers or manipulators and are covered in patches of organic scales with more hair between the scales, and the infamous butchers nails & autochem implants used by the Berzerkers that he emulates. On top of his reactor backpack he has a large totem of various skulls tightly bound with brass wires in the shape of the mark of Khorne and has about a half dozen shrunken heads on his waist that all belonged to powerful adversaries, each etched with a mark of Khorne on the forehead.
* **Berzerker Chamipion Kolleren, Deceased**: Chamipon that fought against Taliom on Bazaar and died, being denied his final wish of beheadment for Khorne but was instead fed upon by Taliom. After several large mouthfuls of blood a large slab of flesh was torn from his corpse for Taliom to eat later, as well as claiming Kolleren's runic greataexe.

(To Be Added)

## Chapter Appearance

### Warband Colours

The Battleforged primarily wears black, including the helmet, backpack, chest guard and armorial. The secondary colour is red, the spilt blood, including the groin guard, cuisses (thigh armour), poleyns (knee guards), greaves (shin armour) and sabatons (foot armour). The shoulder pauldron trim and various parts of the armour trim is brass in colour. The brass trim along the pauldrons and elsewhere, like the Octed (Star of Chaos) commonly worn on their chest guard, is utilised to denote senior rank by being more ornate.

### Warband Badge

The Battleforged corrupted iconography consists of a fanged cybernetic skull that has the Mark of Khorne prominently etched into its forehead, with an attached spinal column and ribs, its arms held in a divine pose and two red coloured crossed arrows icon that form a variant of the Chaos Octed.

## Warband Fleet

With the combined flotillas the Battleforged have a large fleet of ancient pattern voidcraft and untold fighters, Thunderhawks, heavier drop ships, drop pods, stockpiles of ground vehicles of almost every type fielded during the Horus Heresy, & anything else several chapters worth of marines would need to assault an entire star system at once. Their naval strength as of M42 stands at around 20 Capital Ships from Battle Barges to Battleships, 41 Cruisers including Battle and Grand Cruiser classes, & over 80 Escort squadrons.

(To Be Added)

### Allies

#### Abaddon/ Chaos Undivided

As part of their never ending quest to shed blood for Khorne they have joined each black Crusade that has been undertaken to some degree depending on the constant wars that take place within the Eye of Terror. Currently the entire warhost is involved in some way .

#### Cabal of Destiny

Though they hate sorcerers like all Khorne worshipers they see the Cabal as a path to greater bloodshed and a connection to Abbadon himself. Following the Siege of Troii Akemos gifted the Battleforged a large amount of equipment & slaves in order to keep their alliance, as his main plan against the Pueblo Confederation required the troops and firepower of the warhost.

#### Plague Ravens

As both the Ravens and the Battleforged do not trust Akemos or his patron god to begin with, the leaders of the separate detachments sent to invade Troii have made a secret pact in case Akemos does any kind of trickery.

### Enemies

#### Carmine Reavers

This chaos warband of former loyalists is seen as a newer rival to the Battleforged following a fight in an arena on Bazaar. Their champion Kolleren was killed by the Carmine Reaver's own, who then claimed the fallen warrior's relic greataxe. He also drank his blood and tore flesh away for later consumption, these acts angered the Battleforged present to the point that they broke one of Bazaar's few rules and attacked another fleet while in system. The Carmine Reavers were saved by Bazaar security forces and the Battleforged commnder swore an oath of vengence on the Carmine Reavers as well as Araton and Taliom personally.

#### Scholari Brotherhood

This secretive crusading chapter of renegades is known to be liberal with its use of warpcraft, the very reason they were delcared renegades by the Imperium. They have clashed with for millennia and both harbor a bitter hatred for the other.

#### Void Paladins

The first crusade undertaken by the Paladins put them against the Battleforged and cost them over 85% of their battle brothers before chaos forces were pushed out. Ever since the Battleforged have held a grudge against the unyielding loyalists turned renegades.

### By the Battleforged

"*Consider these tributes to be the beginning of an alliance that shall drown the galaxy in its own blood.* "
—Warsmith Esfalon to Warlord Kvonogar in regards to the former Librarians of his Grand Battalion
### About the Battleforged

"*I love hunting these plebeians.*"
—Venator Saiot Falcye of the Void Paladins

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

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