vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Khazant - History: Khazant was a Death World ravaged by perpetual war long before the coming of the Achilus Crusade. What scant historical records survived the onset of the ancient Jericho Sector's Age of Shadow indicate the hereditary nobility of Khazant began an irreversible slide into decadence shortly after the disappearance of Lord Sector Designate Masimat Helicos in a devastating Warp Storm in 416.M36.Without a central Imperial authority to enforce order, Khazant's noble houses were free to give in to their ambitions. Political assassinations led to blood feuds. Blood feuds led to civil war. In less than a standard century Khazant was a planet-wide warzone.Khazant's Ecclesiarchy, the last weakening pillar of Imperial authority, shattered under the weight of noble hubris, splitting into innumerable factions each loyal to a different bloodline. The Imperial Creed was perverted to serve the needs of the nobility, each warlord claiming themselves inheritors of the God-Emperor's divine authority.In a few short generations the warlords were considered divine beings, supplanting the Master of Mankind as a focus for worship. By the advent of the Achilus Crusade, the God-Emperor was all but forgotten upon Khazant.Millennia of war left Khazant a withered husk of a world: her mines abandoned, her fields barren, her people weak and broken. In the end, the victors were those few warlords who managed to secret away a modicum of Khazant's dwindling resources. The rest starved in their fortress keeps.Faced with the realisation that Khazant could no longer support their ambitions, the remaining warlords banded together under an uneasy truce and turned their collective gaze outward. A fleet of voidships, their hulls long ago gutted to provide materials and technology for the planet's civil war, were hastily repaired.Taking advantage of Khazant's position along the Araqiel Main Warp route, the warlords remade themselves into corsairs, raiding neighbouring systems and bringing new resources to their world.By the time of the Achilus Crusade, Khazant was a world to be reckoned with. Made wealthy by centuries of plunder, her population reinvigorated by slaves captured from across the Reach, her orbital shipyards constructing powerful vessels of war, Khazant was a prize Lord Militant Tiber Achilus could not ignore.The Lord Militant claimed the world in 782.M41 after a hard-won campaign. However, as Achilus moved to consolidate Imperial power in the region, the displaced warlords fled into the Charon Stars to lick their wounds.Within five standard years, elements of the Khazantine warlord fleet returned, deploying the first regiments of the Stigmartus across the crusade front.Taking advantage of the Lord Militant Achilus' untimely death, this highly organised Chaos Cult army broke the Imperium's hold upon several worlds. And so the Cellebos Warzone was born.
Khazant - The Battle for Khazant: Khazant is considered the most important planet in the Cellebos Warzone and is currently the most desired prize in all the Acheros Salient.It can, perhaps, even be considered the most significant strategic location in the Jericho Reach as a whole, if loss of life is any measure, for more Imperial forces have died fighting on this planet than anywhere else within the Reach.The surface of Khazant is a pocked and pitted landscape, lined with trenches and covered with Imperial crenellations and Stigmartus battlements.The heaviest fighting occurs at the various landing points and staging areas -- these are the strategic areas in Khazant that change hands most frequently. Often a battle will be joined as soon as a group of reinforcements arrives, with troops heading directly out of their landers to defend an already besieged spaceport from being overrun by the enemy.There is a pitched and near-constant naval engagement in orbit above Khazant. The inner periphery of the planet's orbit is covered with the detritus of a thousand space battles, with the still-burning remnants of cracked and broken Imperial frigates floating through the thousandfold wreckages of old Stigmartus vessels.In this way, the fighting above Khazant is a grim reflection of that below it, with warship formations engaging in brutal and costly battles before receding to their side's zone of control.Blockade running is common and necessary, as both sides must desperately penetrate the other's area of influence to get troops to where they are needed most, the influx of which is, as often as not, the difference between life and death for the beleaguered combatants on the ground.When a section of the sky above is controlled by the enemy, a regiment on the surface can expect orbital bombardment and a fight against fresh troops. When it is controlled by their allies, they can expect the new reinforcements they so desperately need.Every major faction of the Imperium is present on Khazant: numerous Imperial Guardsmen sporting an array of regimental colours and dying by the scores, the striking Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes making spearheads deep into enemy lines, ramparts and turret defences hastily constructed by the magi of the Adeptus Mechanicus and their Skitarii bodyguards, and brave Sisters of Battle fighting with ferocity and zeal.Likewise the allied forces of Chaos all have a presence on the world: countless Stigmartus rank-and-file Chaos Cultists charging headlong into lasrifle lines, Chaos Space Marines tearing through Astra Militarum regiments until blunted by their Loyalist opposites, disgusting, slavering mutants doing battle with shining Adepta Sororitas.Whole waves of combat, seemingly stretching from horizon line to horizon line, the rocketing explosions of artillery and orbital bombardment punctuating the fighting multitudes, with tactics and formations shifting like ocean tides until each unit meets its counterpart, and the occasional flare in the darkened skies -- a not-so-gentle reminder that another vessel has met its fate in the void.
Khenetai Occult Blade Cabal - Khenetai Occult Blade Cabal: The Khenetai Occult were a mystical sect within the Thousand Sons Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras of the late 30th and early 31st Millennium.Whereas other Thousand Sons sought to master a specific psychic discipline among their cults, the Khenetai were true warrior-monks who sought to master the art of fighting with a blade.As members of the Order of the Jackal, the Khenetai Occult were the designated defenders of the five Prosperine Cults as well as the guardians of their reliquaries and sacred sanctums.Bound together by oath and ritually-forged psychic bonds, each of the elite were all initiates of the Cults' inner secrets and adepts in their psychic techniques, philosophies and arts.The foremost warriors of the Khenetai formed cabals of "Blades," led by deadly "Blademasters." They were sublimely skilled warriors who had honed their psychic powers to be at one with their sword mastery.Their dual Force Swords were shaped from single sheets of psycho-crystal-infused ceramite and gilt, with sigils said to correspond to the wielder's secret names and the great deeds they had performed.In battle they wore armour forged and shaped by the Legion's blind artificers using fire and the force of their minds alone, and fought with a unified precision that made them seem a single warrior manifested many times, rather than a group of individual fighters.
Khenetai Occult Blade Cabal - Unit Composition: 4-9 Khenetai Occult Blade Cabal (per squad)1 Khenetai Blademaster (Sergeant)
Khenetai Occult Blade Cabal - Wargear: Power ArmourBolt Pistol2 Force SwordsFrag GrenadesKrak Grenades
Khenetai Occult Blade Cabal - Optional Wargear (Khenetai Blades): 1 out of every 5 Khenetai Occult may replace his Bolt Pistol with one of the following:Plasma PistolHand Flamer
Khenetai Occult Blade Cabal - Optional Wargear (Khenetai Blademaster): Melta BombsArtificer Armour
Kher-Ys - Kher-Ys: Kher-Ys was an Asuryani craftworld rich in souls that drifted dangerously close to the Eye of Terror. The covetous Dark Prince of Chaos, Slaanesh, and its minions gathered in a great host to seize their share of the prize.Leading this daemonic host was the Keeper of Secrets Ail'Slath'Sleresh, known as Heartslayer. During the daemonic invasion of the craftworld that followed, Heartseeker managed to possess an Avatar of Khaine. The Keeper of Secrets, in the borrowed form of the Avatar, led the Slaaneshi Daemon host in an orgy of destruction. They gorged themselves upon the souls of the Craftworld Aeldari of Kher-Ys for many solar days and nights as thousands fell to their insatiable thirsts. Slaanesh finally claimed its prized jewel.The now empty and desolate craftworld of Kher-Ys continues to drift along the eddies of the Eye of Terror, its corridors still ringing with the death cries of its people and the laughter of their daemonic slayers.
Kher-Ys - History: Travelling too close to the Eye of Terror, Kher-Ys attracted the attention of the Chaos God Slaanesh, "She Who Thirsts," who coveted it and its rich bounty of Aeldari souls for itself. But the Webway portal of Kher-Ys was protected by powerful runic wards that could be unlocked only by a psychic key held by an Autarch of Kher-Ys, and the Silver River within the Webway that led to the gate into Kher-Ys was regularly patrolled by Asuryani warriors.Unable to enter the craftworld, the Daemons of Slaanesh instead gathered around it, and attempted to seduce those within with their enchanting voices. Most ignored the siren call, but some could not resist the lure, and wandered from the sanctuary of their craftworld into the Webway. One such Asuryani was the Autarch's maiden daughter, who was bewitched by the Keeper of Secrets named Ail'Slath'Sleresh, better known as "Heartslayer."The Greater Daemon first disguised itself as an Asuryani male and travelled down the Silver River to meet the girl. In her passionate love for him, the Daemon was able to persuade the Autarch's daughter to return with it to her home, where it stole her father's key and opened the wards upon the Webway.The Daemons of Slaanesh poured through into the doomed craftworld. Daemonettes fell upon the Aspect Shrines, the foul huntresses running rampant through the arcing forest domes, and The Masque weaved her deadly dance with the Howling Banshees, ever eluding their blades.In the chaos, Heartslayer was able to enter the Avatar of Khaine's chamber, where it was just starting to wake from the death and destruction being wrought upon Kher-Ys. The Greater Daemon succeeded in taking advatantage of the Avatar's sluggish state and possessed its smoldering body. Led by the newly-possessed Avatar, the Daemons gorged themselves on the souls of the Aeldari of Kher-Ys, and Slaanesh claimed its delectable prize.
Kher-Ys - Trivia: Kher-Ys is clearly named after the city of Kêr-Is from Breton myth. The story of the Autarch of Kher-Ys' daughter leading the craftworld to destruction by being tricked by her supposed lover into lowering the craftworld's shields is a retelling of Kêr-Is' myth in which the king of Kêr-Is' daughter steals his keys to open the city's flood gates so that she might meet her lover, dooming the residents of Kêr-Is to drown as the city was consumed by the sea.
Kheron Ophion - Kheron Ophion: Kheron Ophion, commonly known as "The Coward" within the  VIIIth Legion, was a line captain of the 39th Company of the Night Lords Legion and a member of the Kyroptera during the Horus Heresy.Standing almost as an exceptional figure within a Legion of cutthroats and thieves, Kheron Ophion displayed a level of honour previously unknown within the VIIIth Legion, a fact many among the Night Lords saw as an aberration.
Kheron Ophion - History: Born and raised in the gutters of Nostramo, the homeworld of the Night Lords, Kheron Ophion was a line captain of the 39th Company who faithfully served in the Great Crusade for at least seven Terran decades before the Horus Heresy engulfed the galaxy in chaos.During this time, Ophion forged a reputation of solid service, but such stubborn bravery was mostly considered an aberration within a Legion dedicated to practicality and the subtle, if gruesome, prosecution of war. Many of his peers saw him as a flawed being and mocked him deliberately by naming him "the Coward".Ophion's time of glory would come at the end of the Thramas Crusade, as the Dark Angels vented their rage against the unprepared fleet of the Night Lords, catching them in a devastating ambush. Two warships bravely held off the enemy fleet in order to allow many of their brothers to escape the slaughter.The first of them was the Nightfall, the Legion's mighty Gloriana-class Battleship, the flagship of the entire VIIIth Legion, and the second was the Shroud of Eventide, a simple cruiser under the command of Kheron Ophion. Together, these two vessels turned certain annihilation into mere decimation.This act of bravery saw Ophion promoted to the ranks of the restored Kryoptera, the shadowy council that now ruled the Night Lords in their primarch's absence.At the head of 9,000 warriors, Ophion headed for the Nostramo Sector, where he intended to rally what scattered formations of the VIII Legion remained after their defeat with the ultimate goal of rejoining the greater war and Horus' final push on Terra.Yet these plans were upset by the arrival of an unexpected foe in the form of the Ashen Claws.It is generally presumed that Kheron Ophion was either lost or slain in the fierce battles for the Nostramo Sector, which quickly fell back into chaos and strife.
Kheron Ophion - Wargear: Power ArmourThe Bloody Aegis - The Bloody Aegis was a Combat Shield forged from the broken hull fragments of Ophion's first command, the Killing Whisper. The Killing Whisper was destroyed over Pragus when Ophion ordered his ship to hold off an entire Fra'al conclave in order to cover the 67th Expeditionary Fleet's retreat. Awarded by the 67th Expeditionary Fleet's Consul, the Bloody Aegis serves as a personal reminder, a cruel jest and a mark of shame of the cost of such bravery. A brutish piece of craftsmanship, the vicious barbs of serrated ceramite are highly durable and present a dire obstacle to the foe.Refractor FieldPower AxeVolkite SerpentaMelta BombsFrag GrenadesKrak Grenades
Khopesh-class Light Cruiser - Khopesh-class Light Cruiser: A  Khopesh-class Light Cruiser is a type of cruiser found in Necron fleets.
Khorchin - Khorchin: Khorchin was the name of the language spoken by the people of the White Scars' homeworld of Chogoris, and thus also of those Space Marines themselves.
Khorchin - Notable Words: Hain - OrkMinghan - Brotherhood
Khorchin - Trivia: The Khorchin dialect is a variety of Mongolian spoken in the east regions of Inner Mongolia, namely in the Hinggan League, in the north, north-east and east of Hinggan and in all but the south of the Tongliao region.
Khornate Berzerkers - Khornate Berzerkers: Khornate Berzerkers, also called Khorne Berzerkers, and alternatively spelled Khorne Berserkers, are Chaos Space Marines dedicated to glorifying the Chaos God Khorne through brutal melee combat. Driven solely by their raging desire to spill blood and take lives, a Berzerker's sole purpose in life is to destroy their enemies in the name of the Blood God and take life in the most brutal and barbaric fashion imaginable.Berzerkers refuse to use most forms of ranged weaponry and usually make almost exclusive use of close combat melee weapons, in particular the chainaxe, as the axe is the favoured weapon of Khorne.However, Khornate Berzerkers will use any weapon they can get their hands on, even their own bodies, as long as they can continue to engage in bloodshed.
Khornate Berzerkers - Unit Composition: 4-19 Khornate Berzerkers1 Berzerker Champion
Khornate Berzerkers - Wargear: Power Armour (Any pattern)ChainswordBolt PistolFrag GrenadesKrak GrenadesChainaxe (Optional replacement for Bolt Pistol or Chainsword)Plasma Pistol (Optional replacement for 2 Berzerkers' Bolt Pistols or for Berzerker Champion's Bolt Pistol or Chainsword)Lightning Claw (Optional replacement for Berzerker Champion's Bolt Pistol or Chainsword)Power Axe (Optional replacement for Berzerker Champion's Bolt Pistol or Chainsword)Power Fist (Optional replacement for Berzerker Champion's Bolt Pistol or Chainsword)Power Maul (Optional replacement for Berzerker Champion's Bolt Pistol or Chainsword)Power Sword (Optional replacement for Berzerker Champion's Bolt Pistol or Chainsword)
Khorne - Manifestation: The Blood God is commonly depicted as a broad and muscular humanoid who stands hundreds of feet tall. Khorne has the face of a savage, snarling dog, though the god's twisted features are all but hidden by a baroque helm decorated with the skulls of conqueror kings. Khorne is often referred to as a "he," with the masculine gender, though in fact, like all the entities composed of psychic energy called the Chaos Gods, it in fact has no gender.Khorne's exaggerated physique is further distorted by heavy, overlapping plates of armour fashioned from brass and blackened iron. Its every word is a growl of endless fury, and its roars of bloodlust echo across its realm. Khorne broods from a throne of carved brass, atop a mountain of skulls. The macabre trophies are the fleshless heads of the Blood God's champions, stacked alongside those of their defeated opponents.A hundred thousand species are represented, from Human heads beyond counting to Tyranid skulls the size of hive city hab-blocks. The ever-growing pile of bloodstained bone reflects the material victories of the Blood God's followers, feeding Khorne's glory but never quenching its thirst for blood and death.At Khorne's side rests a great two-handed sword, a legendary blade capable of laying waste to the substance of worlds with a single blow. This fell weapon is known by various names to the different intelligent species of the galaxy, including Woebringer, Warmaker, and the End of All Things. It is said that when Khorne takes up its sword, a single sweep can cut through reality itself, allowing Khorne's Daemonic Blood Legions to spill forth into the Materium.Khorne's disciples believe that its great throne of brass sits upon a mountain of skulls in the midst of a sea of blood, evidence of the sacrifice of its countless followers slain in battle and the multitudes killed in its name. The skulls and blood are described as belonging to all of the victims who are slain by its worshippers, the members of the Cult of Khorne.Alternatively, the skulls are of all those slain by Khorne's Champions, and of all its slain Champions. The mountain slowly grows ever higher. By some accounts a great forge sits at the base of the throne, in which the weapons and armour used by Khorne's mortal and Daemonic servants are forged. They hold that Khorne is the Chaos God that embodies mindless and absolute violence, the wild blood lust that, once unleashed, yearns to destroy everyone within reach whether they be friend or foe.Such true believers are few in number and they grow fewer all the time as the god's devoted followers gleefully send one another into its embrace, knowing that Khorne cares not from where the blood flows. Depictions of Khorne often show it as a titanic, armoured figure covered from head to foot in armoured plates of strange and alien design.The figure's armour is usually elaborately carved and worked with a repeating skull motif while its head is covered by a great winged helm showing a bestial, snarling face beneath. In most images, Khorne bears a rune-covered sword or axe, though in more primitive cultures the god is often shown only with fists or claw-like hands.
Khorne - Sacred Number Eight: Why Khorne is connected to the number eight is unknown, but it has been so since the Warp first echoed to the god's fury. Its affinity for the figure, and any of its multiples, is strongly reflected in the organisation of its Daemons' Blood Legions -- from the number of Bloodthirster ranks to the number of cohorts in a full strength legion.It is a number that also appears throughout the Blood God's domain in the Immaterium, as eight enormous towers ring the Brass Citadel, and a Khornate Daemon slain in realspace must complete eight tasks before Khorne will once again give them shape.In the most sprawling of battles within the Warp, it is always Khorne's eighth wave that is the most powerful. Even the god's mortal worshippers recognise and revere the sacred number, using it in their blood-soaked summoning rituals and carving it upon their flesh in gruesome ceremonies. The seers of many species have foretold that only after eight ages of war have passed will Khorne's blood-thirst finally be slaked by a last, apocalyptic battle.
Khorne - Khornate Corruption: The worship of Khorne appeals primarily to warriors, soldiers, other individuals in military occupations and anyone who feels weak and powerless and wishes they had the physical power to exert their will or take what they wanted. For these individuals, Khorne provides enhanced strength, vitality and prowess in combat, particularly physical and melee combat.However, the more an individual gives of their soul to Khorne and becomes further corrupted by its brand of Chaos, the more they are consumed by increasingly uncontrollable feelings of bloodlust, anger, and wrath that can only be sated for a few moments by taking a life.Whilst Khornates revel in the sense of power granted them by this bloodlust and the mutational "gifts" that Khorne may provide to enhance their combat prowess, this bloodlust is increasingly uncontrollable and requires them to engage in the most heinous forms of violence to maintain even a semblance of control.Even the momentary relief from the bloodlust that killing provides eventually fades, and long-term Khornates ultimately transform into screaming monsters of adrenaline and aggression, who will do anything to slaughter and kill other living beings until their reason has long since been subverted by a mindless thirst for murder, violence and savagery.Most Khornates eventually become berserkers of one kind or another, and favour melee weapons, particularly axes, over ranged weaponry, since blades provide a far more visceral experience in combat than firearms or directed energy weapons. Khornates disdain any use of psychic powers or psychic sorcery as dishonourable and the epitome of physical weakness, preferring to do their killing up close and personal.The problem with Khornate battle tactics is that they essentially have none; they rely on their sheer ferocity and melee combat prowess to keep them alive long enough to reach their foes and tear them apart -- and they usually do.Ultimately, a Khornate's only overriding concern is to spill more blood and take more lives for the Blood God. They will quite happily sacrifice their own lives to feed their savage god's eternal appetite for slaughter, as Khorne cares little about whose lives it ultimately claims -- so long as the blood continues to flow.
Khorne - Rivalry: In the Great Game of the Chaos Gods, Khorne hates and despises Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure, above all other beings in the galaxy. The self-indulgent sensuality of the Prince of Chaos is an affront to the warrior instincts of Khorne. The Lord of Battle dreams of one day wrapping its scarlet fingers around Slaanesh's soft, delicate neck and crushing it until the younger god's depraved screams of pleasure become shrieks of agony and then finally go silent with a satisfying snapping of godly bone.The sense of duty, honour, and self-sacrifice that fuels part of Khorne's existence is an anathema to the followers of Slaanesh, and the very antithesis of their own philosophy of self-indulgent pleasure-seeking. The Daemonic servants of Khorne and Slaanesh often attack each other on sight, and their mortal followers are often no less eager to join battle.However, Khorne also has little respect for Tzeentch, the Arch-conspirator. Khorne is enraged by the constant machinations of its brother god. The Architect of Fate's patronage of sorcerers and ambitious, scheming manipulators who strike from the shadows instead of in open battle intensifies the antipathy between Khorne and Tzeentch's respective followers and they are frequently in conflict. However, both Chaos Gods make common cause when the prospect for bloodletting is great and Tzeentch's unguessable schemes can be advanced through their mutual efforts. At such times the Star of Chaos waxes strong in the mortal realm as the two most potent of the Ruinous Powers temporarily join forces and send their Daemonic legions to war.Such mercurial pacts seldom endure for long before Khorne's berserk disciples, or Tzeentch's manipulators, inevitably turn on their erstwhile allies.
Khorne - Blood God's Domain: Though the Daemon-filled battlefields of the Blood God's Domain, Khorne's home in the Realm of Chaos, are many, and each is vast beyond reckoning, there is more to this blasted land than just blood-soaked plains populated with warring Daemons. Violence and despair are constant travelling companions for any unfortunate soul cursed to briefly wander there.Each foreboding hellscape leads to another, more grim than the last. At the heart of it all, Khorne watches from its Skull Throne, surveying its lands and pitting its forces against any convenient foe, be they fellow Daemons or foolhardy invaders who seek to wage a doomed war on the Lord of Battle.The Blood God's Domain is a realm unlike any other. Storms rage perpetually across crimson skies, sending gale-force blasts seemingly composed of pure rage whipping across the plains and mountains. These angry winds tear into the land itself and rip up great chunks of stone and blood-drenched earth, tossing them violently back down hundreds of leagues away in explosions of raw destruction.The land, for its part, fights back against the brutal assault of the heavens. Earthquakes send gouts of molten brass skyward, burning up the storm clouds, temporarily ending their rage until the winds re-gather to begin their assaults anew. New mountains erupt from flat land in an instant, some thrusting into the sky like gigantic living swords, others acting as shields against the advance of the storms.Rivers of boiling blood criss-cross the hellish landscape, dividing the realm into territories over which rival Bloodthirsters wage war. The blood-flows are not content to allow the conquered lands to rest idle. From deep below the ground, new rivers strike through the surface, splitting the lands as easily as an axe opens the bloated gut of a lazy bureaucrat.Each crimson flow sucks down all that once occupied the space, including any Daemonic legions that might have been marching there. As with its war against the sky, the land retaliates, pushing the banks of the rivers to close in upon themselves. The brass-spewing volcanoes send liquid metal into the rivers, evaporating the blood within and sealing the wounds with burning fury.Each piece of the realm of battle constantly fights to obliterate the others. Each acts like a living servant of Khorne, wanting to prove to the master of the land that it is the most worthy of the god's rewards.A visitor to this nightmare realm would surely be driven mad, knowing that every rock, every breeze, and every drop of what should be water is an enemy, looking to kill him with just as much purpose, desire, and violence as the multitudinous Daemons of the Blood God inhabiting the land. To witness the carnage of the realm of Khorne is to know that conflict is a living, breathing thing and not just a curse that troubles the worlds of men, machines, and aliens. It is to know an eternal truth and, thus, to know despair.
Khorne - Khorne's Rage: At the outermost edge of the Blood God's Domain there lies a ring of volcanoes that scholars of the profane have come to call "Khorne's Rage." Reaching hundreds of kilometres into the air, they belch their thick black smoke and molten brass skyward, creating an impenetrable border that can neither be seen through nor navigated.Darkness and ash hang there, lit ominously from beneath by gouts of flame that incinerate the loose debris along the sides of the volcanoes. Within the ash clouds, blood storms roil. Red lightning dances across the clouds as thunder cracks and rolls, like the snap of a Bloodthirster's whip followed by the sound of the hooves of a thousand charging Juggernauts.These peaks stand as a bastion against invaders, their toxic ash and scorching brass flows enough to deter all but the most determined of forces. Those who are arrogant, or foolish, enough to make the attempt to cross the torturous border are met with more than barriers of heat and jagged rock. The very rock and brass of Khorne's Rage itself rises up to crush the attackers. Pieces of the rock break away from the side of the mountains, molten brass flowing into them in a hellish semblance of life blood. Daemons of stone and liquid metal take form, born of rage and defiance.With mindless fury and unadulterated violence, they bludgeon and scorch their foes. Once their grim task is complete, they fall back into lifeless piles, waiting for the call to reform and defend the borders of their master's realm.
Khorne - Daemon Forges: At the base of the volcanoes are the forges of the lesser furnace Daemons. In these sweltering workshops, weapons of war are crafted. All manner of axes, swords, hammers, and armour are created to supply the Blood God's eternal wars. Here, too, the components of Khorne's Daemon Engines are made.Assembly of these huge constructs of war is conducted elsewhere, but the cogs, blades, housings, and armaments all have their beginning here, at the foot of Khorne's Rage. It is a dangerous place to reside, even by the standards of the rest of the realm. At any moment a volcano could erupt, flooding the forge with molten brass. It is of no concern to Khorne if a few Daemons are incinerated in such mishaps; others rise from the Blood Pits to take their place, and the forges continue.Despite the risks, the furnace Daemons are able to take advantage of the dangers of Khorne's Rage. Across the plains of battle, it is almost exclusively Khorne's own minions that do battle and perish. At the fringes of the realm, however, other warriors die agonising, terrible, bloody deaths.Using tools of fiendish design and rites that even the most depraved Chaos Sorcerers would dare not undertake, the masters of the hell-forges enslave the souls of those mortals who would dare invade the Blood God's realm and fuse them with the anvils of Khorne. The tormented screams of those thus eternally imprisoned blend with the ringing and clanging of each falling hammer that strikes the forge. When white-hot metal is placed on the anvil and pounded into form, the bound soul feels the scorching heat.Thus, as each new weapon or piece of armour is crafted in the Daemon Forges, it is born to the sounds of Khorne's enemies suffering the god's everlasting wrath.
Khorne - Blood Pits: Warp energy, the raw stuff of Chaos, constantly swirls across the realms of all of the greater Chaos Gods. Its currents and eddies shift and meander seemingly at random, causing mutation within the very land itself and everyone and everything they touch. In most cases, this power does not linger in any one place for long.There are, however, locations throughout the Blood God's treacherous domain where the power of the Warp collects and stirs. When this happens, great craters are often gouged into the blasted plains. None can say if it takes moments or millennia for these pits to form, for time is meaningless within the Realm of Chaos.Eventually, the Warp Storms break apart, sometimes seeping into the very pits they created. When this happens, Khorne commands his minions to intensify their efforts to harvest blood from the mortal world, using the most violent, destructive, and devastating methods they can possibly bring to bear. The souls that perish in such a campaign give their blood to a special, dark cause. Their crimson essence is collected in the pit, where it is mixed with molten brass and a measure of Khorne's own murderous bile. The resultant lake is a new Blood Pit.It is from the Blood Pits that new Daemons of Khorne arise. Bloodletters, furnace Daemons, and many lesser fiends steadily emerge from the Warp-and-bile-infused blood, ready to do their master's bidding. The soldiers that vomit forth from that pit will be charged from the day of their creation until the day they fail their master in combat with claiming more blood to refill their pit. Eventually a pit goes dry, but without fail, soon after it does a new storm begins to brew, restarting the cycle of bloodshed.
Khorne - Rivers of Blood: Dividing one region of Khorne's realm from another like jagged crimson scars on the scorched land are the rivers of blood. These kilometres-wide flows are filled with the blood of those who have fallen in service to Khorne, be they victims or followers. Nearly all blood that is shed on the god's behalf on the mortal plane finds its way to these sanguine canals. The blood itself is hot to the point of boiling.Steam made of vaporised blood hangs in the air all along the length of the rivers, creating a palpable red cast to the regions through which they run. Gigantic bubbles rise to the surface, carrying with them occasional remains of something that was unfortunate enough to have fallen into the river.As the bubbles burst, globules of steaming, hot blood launch hundreds of feet into the air, coming back to the ground and landing on the shores in splatter patterns that often resemble the spray of an opened artery.
Khorne - Lake of Slaughter: Thousands of blood rivers cut through the land and end up emptying over a bleak precipice kilometres high, plunging downward in waterfalls of gore. The lake that forms at the base of the wall is larger than any ocean in the mortal realm and populated with creatures that cannot be.Leviathans of brass and bone swim through the lake, devouring all as they pass. Soaring above the lake, Bloodthirsters fight with dragons of pure, solid blood. Those that stray too close to the surface of the lake risk being snatched out of the air by the very lake itself, so hungry is it for carnage.Rising waves on the surface take the shape of warriors and do battle, crashing violently into each other and falling back to the surface in a rain of scattered blood.
Khorne - Brass Citadel: On the far shore of the Lake of Slaughter, the ground is littered with skulls, so many, in fact, that whatever foundation may lie beneath them cannot be touched. For kilometres these skulls stretch away from the shore, and in the distance there rises a great black wall. This is the outer wall of Khorne's Brass Citadel.Upon the wall stand guardian Daemons, with eyes as sharp as their fangs and swords. They watch for any intruder, ready to defend their master to the last. Within the walls there are thousands of Flesh Hounds patrolling the skull-yard, sniffing out the blood scent of any who would dare attempt incursion.In the skies, flying between the outer walls and the inner keep, elite Bloodthirsters listen for sounds of invasion on the wind. It is rare that any force musters the strength to assault the Brass Fortress, its guardians deterring all but the most foolish or daring of Khorne's rivals from even trying.When the attempt is made, the might of the Blood God's personal host is brought to bear with a fury and rage that threatens to rip a hole between realms. While Khorne's brother Chaos Gods could gain much power should they defeat the Blood God in its fortress, the risk of counter-invasion is too great for such wars to be waged without dire cause. It is said that if Khorne itself should rouse from its throne and personally go to war against the other Dark Gods, its favoured blade would end them all in one mighty sweep, but that such an act would have calamitous results that not even Tzeentch could predict.It is said that Khorne was once consumed by such rage that it took up its sword and smote the ground, splitting it asunder for eternity. This fell sword is known by many names including Warmaker and The End of All Things, and is capable of laying waste to entire worlds with a single blow. Because of this, an uneasy state of balance exists between the Ruinous Powers.When Khorne does obliterate the invading armies of its brother gods, they do not exact retribution directly. When the threat is ended, neither does Khorne press the advantage, but rather turns back toward its inner sanctum and reclaims its place atop the Throne of Skulls. Thus is balance maintained in the eternal Great Game.
Khorne - Throne of Skulls: In the very centre of the Brass Citadel, beyond the Bastion Stair and the eight Iron Pillars, Khorne watches over all its minions from the god's seat on the Throne of Skulls. From there it commands its Blood Legions and mortal servants to bring war to the distant corners of the galaxy. Every victory it witnesses leaves it thirsting for more blood. With every defeat, Khorne takes the blood of a failed champion and adds it to the rivers of its realm.Blood will be Khorne's; if the god must harvest it from its own minions, so be it. Surrounding the Throne of Skulls on all sides is a mound of skulls that holds Khorne aloft on its perch. Khornate Chaos Champions and fallen enemies alike contribute to the mass of bone. Could these skulls speak, some would tell tales from before the Long War against the Corpse Emperor of the Imperium, when the Primarch Angron had yet to swear his oath to the Blood God.Others would speak of grave mistakes that caused their entire species to fall to the axes of legions of berserkers. The skulls closest to the god, those of its favoured Champions who have perished in service to their lord after hundreds of violent campaigns, would call out across eternity, once more bellowing their war cry: "Blood for the Blood God!"
Khorne - Daemon-Killa: Tuska the Daemon-Killa is the name of the Ork Warlord who is the leader of an Ork WAAAGH! that currently battles eternally before the Brass Citadel, the heart of Khorne's domain in the Realm of Chaos in the Warp. The original Ork invaders of the Immaterium attracted the gaze of the Blood God when they plunged headlong into the Warp/realspace interface known as the Eye of Terror with the aid of many Weirdboyz in search of fresh carnage.Their dangerously unhinged Warlord Tuska, the self-styled "Daemon-Killa," had already made his mark upon the Eye by bringing battle to several Daemon Worlds devoted to Khorne's rivals. The Ork Warlord proved unstoppable until his WAAAGH! crash-landed on a flesh planet belonging to a mighty Daemon Prince named the Blood Prince who stood high in the standing of Khorne.The Greenskin Warlord's vast horde was eventually slain to an Ork by the wrathful Daemon Prince and his minions, but the god's joy in the murderous spectacle was such that Khorne himself ensured the Greenskin crusade rose once more on the very next dawn.History repeated itself over and over again as the Orks fought tooth and nail, never once showing signs of surrender or despair. The Blood God was so impressed by their limitless battlelust that he took the Orks into his own domain. In the shadow of the Brass Citadel, Khorne's elite Bloodletter generals battle against the Daemon-Killa's undying Greenskin horde on a daily basis.Each cycle, great clouds of fungal spores are released by the dying Greenskins to take root and flourish in the bloodstained foothills of the Osseous Peaks. Yet more Orks are born, grow to maturity and charge into battle once more. Such endless cycles of bloodshed are most pleasing to the Blood God. After all, the one true constant in the galaxy is that of endless war -- Khorne himself has made sure of it.
Khorne - Burning Books of Khorne: The eight Burning Books of Khorne, bound in brass and etched in fresh blood, are said to decree the eight unholy aspects of the Blood God and name its foremost Daemons. These grimoires are much searched for by sorcerers and even the Inquisition, for knowledge of a Daemon's true name is believed to render it servile to mortal command.Such an acquisition is not easily made, for each of the Burning Books are scattered across existence.
Khorne - Khornate Daemons: Of all the Daemons of Chaos, the Daemons of Khorne are fearsome entities of the kind most commonly associated with terrifying Human legends and myths. Their horns, fangs, blood-red hides, and blazing eyes leave little doubt as to their murderous intent, and their ferocity is truly matchless.Only a fool treats with the Daemons of Khorne without a ready source of blood sacrifices to trade for their own life. If a petitioner can evade death long enough a bargain is easy enough to strike, for the ravening entities desire only to be unleashed on a victim, any victim, and joyfully charge into battle at the first opportunity.Of course such Daemonic cohorts make for dangerous allies, apt to turn upon any that come within their reach, but for many that serves their purposes admirably.
Khorne - Lesser Daemons: Bloodletters - These Lesser Daemons are the primary rank and file of the Blood God's legions. They are ugly, horned humanoids with cloven hooves who tote blood-drinking battleaxes or swords known as Hellblades, which are forged at the foot of the Throne of Skulls; and who wear armour of Daemonic brass. They enter horrific frenzies of bloody slaughter in battle.Bloodcrusher - A Bloodcrusher is one of the members of the shock cavalry of Khorne's Daemonic Blood Legions, a deadly combination of Bloodletter rider and Juggernaut steed. The Daemonic Steeds of Khorne are neither beasts nor machines, but Daemonic fusions of both. They are massive creatures whose flesh is brass, whose sinews are iron and whose blood is fire. Their breath is fear and their every step is thunder. As Juggernauts prepare to charge, they roar with the fury of a thousand dead souls. Said to be the most brutal of all the Blood God's many Daemons, they are reflections of their creator's aggression, unstoppable force and mindless violence made manifest.Herald of Khorne - All of Khorne's servants are dangerous as only Daemons can be. However, infinitely more menacing than the creatures that make up the faceless ranks of the Skull Lord's Blood Legions, are those he chooses to lead them. These Heralds of Khorne are emissaries of slaughter and death. They are terrible to behold in battle, and truly there are few mortals that can best their martial prowess. Only Khorne's dread Bloodthirsters are more deadly. However, Heralds are more than just a deadly opponent. They are icons of Khorne made animate, and on the field of battle their presence spurs their fellow Daemons to ever-greater acts of bloodshed.Flesh Hounds - Flesh Hounds are monstrous and ferocious, vaguely canine creatures, notorious for their supernatural ability to track down their chosen prey. They bear enchanted collars known as Collars of Khorne that make them highly resistant to sorcerous or psychic influences.Juggernauts - These massive Daemonic Steeds are made of living metal and possess blood of liquid fire. This miniature Daemon Engine is a blend of Daemon and hell-forged machine, vaguely resembling a hulking, armoured bull. According to legend, each beast begins its existence in the furnaces at the base of Khorne's Rage. They are generally gifted as mounts to favored Champions of Khorne.
Khorne - Greater Daemons: Bloodthirsters - Bloodthirsters are the Greater Daemons of Khorne. Of all the Daemons, they bear the greatest resemblance to stereotypical mythological or religious demons, having a Human body, cloven hooves instead of feet, leathery bat-like wings and horned dog-like or humanoid heads. They wield a whip and a massive two-headed battle axe simultaneously in battle. As the greatest manifestation of the god of war, the dreaded Bloodthirster is one of the most powerful warriors that can be found on the battlefield.Daemon Prince of Khorne - Also known as the "Favoured of the Blood God," "Blood Princes," and "Bone Lords," not all of the Blood God's Daemon servants began their existence as beings of everlasting Chaos. There are those who once strode across the material universe as living creatures of weak, frail, and limited flesh but who sought to be more. These courageous souls seek to offer themselves in service to Khorne in exchange for unparalleled strength and limitless martial power. Embarking on the path of glory, such a mortal knows full well that each footfall upon it could be the last he takes. Service to the capricious Blood God is fraught with constant hazards. Twists and turns of fate cause many champions to displease their master and end their relatively sane days as they are suddenly transformed into a mindless Chaos Spawn. There are, however, rare instances where the Chaos Champion, over time and through victory in thousands of battles, catches the more favourable eye of his or her master. For these few, the life of a mortal is gladly exchanged for elevation into the ranks of daemonhood as a powerful Daemon Prince. Those the Chaos Gods favour in this way are always rewarded because they were unwavering in their devotion and, just as importantly, unfailingly achieved all that their lord demanded of them. Of all the Chaos Gods, discerning what Khorne requires of his Champions is the easiest and least complicated: kill. Ensure that the flow of blood is constant. Make war upon all things. These straightforward tenets speak to the basic nature of all creatures, giving their inner need for conflict a path for expression. Khorne cares not if his champions began as hive city scum or as Space Marines. As long as they give him an unending flow of blood, they can earn the rewards he has to bestow, and elevation to daemonhood is the greatest reward of all.