Word Bearers - Specialty Ranks and Units: Gal Vorbak (Colchisian for the "Blessed Sons") - The Gal Vorbak are the surviving Space Marines of the Serrated Suns Chapter of the Word Bearers Legion who ventured into the Eye of Terror Warp rift and brought back the Primordial Truth of the existence of Chaos to their Primarch Lorgar. The Gal Vorbak were originally the 1,000 Space Marines of the Serrated Sun Chapter of the Word Bearers lead by their Chapter Master Argel Tal. Their Power Armour was painted red as opposed to the standard pre-Heresy Word Bearer colour scheme of grey, which differentiated them from the rest of the Legion. During the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V when the Traitor Legions betrayed their Loyalist brethren, the Gal Vorbak underwent another change. When Lorgar attacked Corax, the Primarch of the Loyalist Raven Guard Legion, all of the members of the Gal Vorbak, possessed by daemons since their journey into the Eye of Terror, revealed their true, dual nature; their flesh and Ceramite fused as their bodies warped into new, bestial forms. This marked the Gal Vorbak as the first of the Possessed Chaos Space Marines who would become increasingly common amongst many of the other Traitor Legions. The Gal Vorbak resumed the normal forms of Space Marines again at the end of the conflict, though the battle had proven costly and only six of their number had survived taking on a Primarch in battle to continue to fight in the service of Chaos throughout the rest of the Horus Heresy. The remaining members of the Gal Vorbak became the most feared unit in the Word Bearers Traitor Legion after the end of the Heresy.Vakrah Jal - Thousands of the Gal Vorbak were left to die, alone and unsupported, on the surface of the devastated world of Calth when First Chaplain Erebus fled the infamous conflict later known as the Battle of Calth that the Word Bearers had fought against their hated rivals the Ultramarines on that benighted planet. Argel Tal, the Crimson Lord, was the sole surviving original member of the Gal Vorbak, having been seconded to the World Eaters Legion for temporary duty before the Word Bearers' assault on Calth. Argel Tal forsook his oaths to the annihilated Serrated Suns Chapter and gained permission from his Primarch Lorgar to form a newly constituted formation, known as the Vakrah Jal, the Chapter of Consecrated Iron, who rose from the ashes of Word Bearers companies devastated on the killing fields of Istvaan V.The Ashen Circle - The Ashen Circle was a unique formation created for a unique purpose; the destruction of a world's original culture, learning and faith. Serving alongside the Word Bearers' Legion Destroyer Squads, the Legionaries of the Ashen Circle were members of the Legion's original Iconoclast faction, charged beyond the battlefield with hunting down works of false doctrine and those who purveyed it, consigning both to destruction and eradicating flame. On the battlefield, they were tasked with seeking out those things which gave the foe the heart and courage to fight: charismatic leaders, priests, battle flags and champions. Once singled out, they were dragged down with the hook-blades of the Ashen Circle Astartes' axe-rakes and destroyed with brutal fervour, often far in advance of their own lines in order to do so, with no thought as to their own survival.Anakatis Kul Blade-Slaves - Even amongst the Space Marine Legions there were those individuals who hungered for power beyond their appointed measure. Following the Word Bearers Legion's sting of their chastisement and humiliation at the hands of the Ultramarines Legion, many within the Word Bearers' ranks felt powerless and cast adrift. Within some individuals, this ignited a hunger that could not be denied. Zardu Layak, the Crimson Apostle of the Chapter of the Unspeaking, preyed, with baleful gifts in mind to bestow on those whose ambition and hubris outweighed their caution. This followers became the Anakatis Kul Blade-Slaves -- loyal servants of the Crimson Apostle -- whose bodies became unnaturally warped and contorted and possessed of great strength. Wielding the Anakatis blades, gifts bestowed upon them by Layak and weapons of unholy xenos influence and malevolent power, they cut a swathe through their master's foes in a barely controlled hunger for slaughter.The Annunake - "Annunake" is a Colshisian term which means alternatively "Princely Sons" or "Judges of Hell", and was used within the Word Bearers Legion to denote those Legionaries granted the honour of continuing their service within the armoured shell of a Dreadnought.Mhara Gal - First encountered during the Battle of Ithraca amidst the catastrophe on Calth, the twisted form of the Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought is terrifying in both its aspect and its unearthly power. The first Mhara Gal is believed to have been created from the barely living remains of a Gal Vorbak Dark Brethren and a battle-shattered Contemptor Dreadnought chassis, both recovered from the blood-soaked ground of Istvaan V. Fused together by unholy practices, they were then corrupted by a warp-borne power, giving birth to a new monstrosity -- a living engine of war and hatred. The Word Bearers Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought is a fearsome opponent in battle. Wielding a warpfire plasma cannon and tainted power claw, it is formidable both at range and in close combat, its blows slicing through armour and energy fields alike. Its warp-twisted reactor and the daemonic powers gifted to it by dark forces make it all the more deadly, even breaking the bonds of reality around the Mhara Gal to allow it to walk through obstacles as if they were not there at all.Diabolist - A Diabolist was a unique officer-type class utilised exclusively by the traitorous Word Bearers Legion during the Horus Heresy. The term, "Diabolist", was first coined by the Ultramarines Legion during the Battle of Calth. This designation was later adopted en masse by their brethren to identify those Word Bearers commanders whose training appeared to somehow harness the Aetheric medium as a weapon of war. These Consul-type officers represented one of the Word Bearers who had already become engulfed in the unholy lore of Chaos and had paid the forfeit with their soul. They were able to direct the corporeal manifestations of the Warp -- manifesting what some observers have called "warp magic". One of many dictates issued by the Primarch Roboute Guilliman in the campaigns following Calth was the priority targeting of enemy officers classified as Diabolists.