Banelord-class Titan - History: Titans are the supreme fighting machines of the Imperium -- towering metal giants armoured in adamantium and armed with the mightiest weapons the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus can devise. At the heart of every Titan a blazing Plasma Reactor harnesses the power of a sun to supply the machine's massive energy requirements. Each of these vast war machines requires a substantial crew to control and direct it. Few troops can survive the assault of a Titan's devastating weapons.In the dark days of the Horus Heresy, great numbers of the ancient Mechanicum were lured into the service of Chaos with promises of forgotten and forbidden knowledge. The Tech-priests of Mars were pitched into bloody civil war, known as the Schism of Mars, unleashing forbidden weapons to scour the surface of the Red Planet. The Titan Legions of the Legio Titanica split into Loyalist and Traitor factions, with over half of the Titan Legions joining the Traitor cause of the Warmaster Horus.Throughout the Heresy innumerable battles were fought between Titans on a multitude of worlds, and whole cities shook beneath the heavy tread of these awesome god-engines. With the failure of Horus' rebellion, the Traitor Titan Legions were driven into the great Warp rift known as the Eye of Terror, where they still dwell after ten Terran millennia, waiting to board space hulks and devastate the worlds of the Imperium again.During the long sojourn among the Daemon Worlds the Renegade Titans have warped and mutated, for the mutable power of Chaos is not limited to creatures of living flesh. These gigantic engines of terror are universally feared as they wander the Daemon Worlds from battle to battle, eternally wreaking the carnage they were built for. No one quite knows whether they still contain their original crews, their lives unnaturally prolonged by the warping powers of Chaos, or something far worse.Chaos Titans are feared and respected by the followers of Chaos as monstrous, brooding effigies of ancient gods of war. The Imperium fears the Chaos Titans as the avenging revenants of a horrific past.Most Chaos Titans are corrupted Warlord-class Battle Titans as these were the most common type employed by the Adeptus Titanicus at the time of the Heresy. Nearly all of them have been altered by exposure to the Warp in some way. Some have had their heads reshaped into daemonic visages, or mounted with close combat weapons or extra guns, and another common change is the addition of long sinuous tails mounting weapons or gigantic blades.The Banelord is aligned to the Chaos God known as Khorne, and has taken on the appearance and hues associated with the Blood God. Flags, kill banners and pennants fly from the weapons and arms of the Battle Titan, with the Mark of Khorne prominently displayed. It is not always known if an encountered Banelord is an ancient, corrupted Warlord Battle Titan dating back to the Horus Heresy era or whether it was created from scratch millennia later using the Warlord pattern in one of the Hell-Forges of a Dark Mechanicum Warpsmith.Like all servants of the Blood God, the furious-minded Banelord desires nothing more than to enter into close combat to get to grips with the enemy. Those followers of Khorne who fight alongside these ferocious god-engines are strengthened by the release of psychic energy brought about by the bloodshed and death unleashed by the Banelord. Their potency increases if the battle continues to go well for the armies of Chaos. To add to its already formidable defences, the Banelord is under the protection of Khorne, and this makes it particularly resistant to psychic attacks.