The Chime of Eons - Chaos

“We fight the long war, not through vain notions of duty and honour, but through a far purer purpose: hatred. At the height of our glory we were betrayed and cast out by our kin. Guilliman, Dorn, Sanguinius - these are names I curse. Horus, Perturabo, Angron - these are names I revere, names I would follow to the very end. It is this hatred that has sustained me through the long millennia. I tend it with bitterness. I nurture it with the deaths of my former brothers. For I know that when the end is upon us and Horus is returned, then the false emperor shall be cast down from his sepulchral Golden Throne, and we shall take our rightful place at the side of Horus, the true Emperor of Mankind.”

– Ferrous Ironclaw, Warsmith of the Iron Warriors Second Grand Company.








The Chime of Eons arrives at last at Chaos, the beginning and the end of all things.

In our real world, the idea of the Gods of Chaos as an adversary comes from the stories of Elric of Melniboné, penned by fantasy writing legend Michael Moorcock. 1977 saw his influential novel of that title released, along with the idea of Arioch (whose name was in turn taken from the book of Genesis, and named as a fallen angel by Milton in Paradise Lost) a Lord of Chaos and Duke of Hell who had a secret and personal relationship with the protagonist, guiding him both towards power and damnation.

The influence of that series on Games Workshop was clear, with triumphant cry of “Blood and souls for my lord Arioch!” likely the inspiration for “Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the skull throne!”. Likewise, the theme of power at the price of damnation is an old one rooted in Christian and other cultures, but the early execution of chaos was very much Moorcock-like in tone. Indeed, we can see the parallels between daemon weapons that enhance the wielder but turn against him with the sword Stormbringer wielded by Elric.

It was in 1986 that Games Workshop created Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 1987 that they created Warhammer 40000: Rogue Trader, and in 1988 that they released the first edition of the first part of the two-part Realms of Chaos series, entitled Slaves to Darkness. While Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay already briefly described the dark gods, it was not until Slaves to Darkness that these ideas were expanded upon. Warhammer 40,000, in contrast, had no mention of Chaos at all in the initial rulebook and Slaves to Darkness was its first introduction of this element to the futuristic setting. That book also first fully described the events of The Horus Heresy (though it was mentioned in passing in the background of some earlier products), which now is undoubtedly the most important story in the background of the Warhammer 40,000 setting, defining much of its shape and tone.

Since then, the lore of Chaos has been redefined and expanded many times. The story of The Horus Heresy is now told across a series of novels from Games Workshop’s Black Library and are widely acknowledged as some of the best tie-in fiction novels of any genre IP. The Liber Chaotica books have also explored each of the four chaos powers in turn, in great and wonderful detail, and successive Chaos Codex books (with some notable low points in the "less-fluff more-rules" era of late 3rd edition) has expanded the background further, with the latest edition codex book telling us a great deal more about the renegade chapters and the chaos-related events of the last ten thousand years since the Horus Heresy.

Thus, while Chaos wasn’t there at the start of 40k it is undoubtedly a core part of its background now. You can’t know much about 40k without knowing about Chaos!

There isn’t really a typical Chaos wargamer. Some are attracted by the sheer concentrated power of chaos space marine and daemon units, and the benefits of being able to field a high points army for not too great a financial expenditure. Others find the opposite is true, taking joy in hordes of plague zombies and cultists. Others love the conversion aspect of the hobby, altering their miniatures to represent weird mutations and over the top wargear. Some love the brutish appearance of the Iron Warriors or the Worldeaters. Some love the sheer sensual vulgarity of Slaaneshi forces.

Generally though, there’s one thing that Chaos players have in common: they’re happy to play the villain! As the primary antagonist of the setting, Chaos are bad guys without peer. The tyranids might want to consume your biomatter, and the orks might want to punch your teeth out, but only Chaos has its manifold eyes sizing up your very soul!

CHAOS
The Chaos Faction Meta-Fluff Score: 4/5

There is a LOT of fluff to get through here.

Just as the Space Marines are well favoured in background material, the Chaos Space Marines have received almost the same amount of love from GW.

But beyond the Chaos Space Marines there’s also Daemons, the cultists and mutants of The Lost and the Damned, and a whole genre-defining era of 40k history known as The Horus Heresy. We’re not going to be able to describe everything here, so lets start on two topics: the Four Gods and The Horus Heresy.

There are four great Ruinous Powers that reside within the twisted realm of Warpspace. Minor powers exist as well, but it is these four that rule. Each Ruinous Power is formed from a subconscious element of mortal minds, with the psychic form of warpspace being imprinted by the collective thoughts and emotions of all mortals. The strongest concepts - desire, despair, anger and madness – form the basis of the four Ruinous Powers.

Slaanesh is the youngest of the four, the god of pleasure, hedonistic excess and the pursuit of perfection. Slaanesh was born of the Fall of the Eldar and they name her “She Who Thirsts”. Slaanesh is sometimes depicted as a handsome man, sometimes as a beautiful woman, sometimes as a true hermaphrodite showing signs of both genders. He or she is sometimes called the Lord of Pleasure, sometimes the Master of Carnal Joys and sometimes simply The Dark Prince. Slaanesh is a subtle, corrupting influence, whispering that desires can be fulfilled if only a supplicant will surrender to the power of chaos. Those who are driven by desire, are driven to Slaanesh.

Tzeentch is the subtlest of all, known as The Changer of Ways, The Great Conspirator and the Architect of Fate. He is the god of change, of magic and of altered fate. Though it may not seem it, his cleverness makes him the greatest of the four Ruinous Powers, and often his machinations will have their actions working to his purposes. His mortal followers are those who seek secret power for its own sake, who desire forbidden lore, or who simply embrace the purity of chaos as a force for beautiful, unbounded, infinite changeability.

Khorne is the physically mightiest of the four, a god of anger, violence, hate and war. While he is stronger than any other, he is also brutally simple, concerned only with the propagation of conflict. Khorne doesn’t care why or from who the blood flows, so long as it flows! His followers are similarly brutal and straightforward: powerful on the battlefield but prone to rage, and utterly contemptuous of sorcery and cowardly cunning. Khorne appeals to those who follow martial paths and who glory in the joy of war and the freedom of rage.

Nurgle is the oldest of the four, the god of death, disease, despair and decay. He is called the Plague Lord, the Lord of Flies, the Master of Pestilence, the Lord of Decay, the Lord of All or – to his friends and family – just Papa Nurgle. His power waxes and wanes with the rise and fall of disease and death in the mortal realms. Sometimes he is the weakest of the Four, but sometimes he is greater than all of them together. Mortals turn to him when they seek relief from despair or when plagues consume them body and soul.

In the current fluff its often stated that:

Slaanesh is opposed to Khorne because he deems him graceless and inelegant.
Khorne abhors Slaanesh because he is effete and weak.
Nurgle dislikes Tzeentch, because he loves all mortals and hates to see them manipulated.
Tzeentch hates Nurgle because he doesn’t like to see men surrender to their fates and to despair.

Note that this has changed in recent years. Once the main enmities were Khorne-Tzeentch (for hatred of magic, and for hatred of brutal simplicity respectively) and Slaanesh-Nurgle (for disdain of ugliness, and for seeing the ugliness of disdain, respectively). That the pattern of enmities has changed may not be a retcon, but may reflect the way that alliances and rivalries shift with the Ruinous Powers. Likewise, for much of Chaos' history it was Khorne who was mentioned as being the greatest of the four powers, and it is only recently that Tzeentch consistently is observed to be greater.

The four chaos powers war against each other and despises each other, but all are joint in their hatred for the Emperor of Mankind, who is the carrion god of Order and who denied them their ultimate victory ten thousand years ago. The ruinous powers may still win, however, and the destruction of the Imperium and the other civilisations of the galaxy will see them ascendant.

The Horus Heresy was the time when Chaos came closest to winning the galaxy.

Ten thousand years ago, the Emperor of Mankind was still a man who walked the earth. He unified Terra under his rule, then created twenty Primarchs based on his own genetic pattern who would act as his champions. The Primarchs were to be as gods amongst men, dozens of times stronger than the strongest human and also possessed of great strategic genius, incredible charisma and formidable strength of will.

Yet shortly after they were created, the powers of Chaos stepped in and scattered the infant Primarchs across the galaxy.

The Emperor was disheartened but rallied, using the genetic template of the Primarchs to create the Space Marine Legions. He then set out on a Great Crusade, to unify the scattered human diaspora and to seek out the lost Primarchs.

He found them, one by one, and each Primarch’s tale is a story that we can’t recount fully here. The most important tale, however, was that of Horus, the sixteenth Primarch and the geneseed source of the Luna Wolves legion. Horus was the first Primarch the Emperor found, and the two grew close, saving each others lives at least once, and becoming the greatest of friends and comrades. The Emperor and Horus continued the Crusade, and one by one each of the other twenty Primarchs was found, though Horus always remained the favourite, as he had been reunited with the Emperor so much earlier than the others, and had proven his worth and loyalty

After the successes of the Ullanor Crusade (where Horus personally led Imperial armies in breaking the strength of a mighty Ork empire) the Emperor named Horus his Warmaster, entrusting him with command of the armed forces of the Imperium. The Luna Wolves were renamed the Sons of Horus in his honour, and trusting Horus to carry on his work, the Emperor retired to Terra to administrate over his newly expanded Imperium and to pursue vital secret projects, the nature of which he would not mention to his closest allies (but which might well have included a prescient construction of his Golden Throne).
The Ruinous Powers, however, had not been idle. First they corrupted Lorgar, Primarch of the Word Bearers, and through him they began their work on Horus. Over the course of the crusade the seed of heresy was spread through many of the Primarchs, till finally Horus declared open rebellion on the Emperor. The stories of how this occurred are laid out in full, for those that care to seek them out, but suffice to say that Horus turned against one he had once seen as a father, and the Horus Heresy began.

The Heresy was a civil war that schismed the Imperium in two, and which near destroyed it. Horus was eventually defeated at the climax of the Siege of Terra, but the Emperor himself was mortally wounded at the hands of Horus. The Emperor was interred in the arcane machinery of The Golden Throne, which has sustained him in a near-death state for the past ten thousand years.

The Traitor forces were forced to retreat, fleeing all the way to the Eye of Terror, where the Chaos Gods had prepared new homes for them.

The loyal Space Marine Legions, as we know, became the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, under the watchful guidance of Primarch Rouboute Gulliman.

The Chaos Space Marine Legions remained Legions proper, and thanks to the time-warping effects of the Eye of Terror, many of the same traitor marines who fought in the Heresy fight on still, ten thousand years later. Others have joined them: renegade chapters defecting to chaos over the last ten thousand years, as well as new chaos space marines created under the supervision of the Legions, but the bulk of the fighting forces of the Chaos Space Marines are the same traitors who followed Horus ten thousand years ago.

Theirs is The Long War, and it will not end till the Imperium is broken, the Carrion Emperor has been ripped from the life support mechanisms of the Golden Throne, and the Chaos Gods are manifest in mortal reality.

Now, believe it or not, this is the “tldr” version!

Games Workshop have expanded and expanded the lore of the Horus Heresy with a series of novels, and their sister company Forge World has even gone as far as to introduce a whole range of miniatures to represent the Legions at the time of the Heresy! This isn’t the end of the story either, with the ten thousand years between then and the present setting filled with stories of darkness and treachery, from the secession of the Tyrant of Badab, to the Black Crusades of Abaddon the Despoiler. That’s enough for now, though, and hopefully gives you, the reader, a little insight into the baroque history of this faction.

So… what do we want to see from Chaos in the 40k LCG?

Most importantly, it wouldn’t be chaos unless the full range of followers of the Ruinous Powers were not manifest. We want to see Chaos Space Marines, we want to see the Lost and the Damned (cultists and mutants) and we want to see Daemons, who are the manifest servants of the Ruinous Powers.

We want the four Ruinous Powers to be acknowledged in fluff, in rules, in traits and in theme of card effects. We also want some acknowledgement of the different sorts of Chaos worship, be it devotion to a single god, worship of all four, or reverence of the power of Chaos Undivided.

We want a faction that has a mix of expendable minions and of terrifyingly powerful monsters. We want a faction that callously sacrifices souls in order to tread the Path to Glory. We want a faction that is aggressive in playstyle, representing the fact that Chaos is always on the attack, looking to destroy its enemies and to rise to ascendancy.
We also optionally want to see the more insidious effects of chaos: creeping corruption, twisted mutation, creeping insanity, power at a price.

So does FFG succeed here?

Hell, yes!

This is without a doubt the fluffiest feeling faction of the core set. The game mechanic of sacrificing cultists to power daemons is perfect, and the presence of big scary daemon units instils an appropriate feeling of dread in opponents when they arrive on the game table. The Chaos Gods are referenced as traits, and we’ve already seen evidence of fluffy card effects that reference those traits. The distinction between daemon, cultist and chaos marine is nicely drawn.

The Alliances are the weakest link, making only partial sense…

Orks are a relatively sensible ally, as chaos doesn’t have any especial desire to corrupt orks. Chaos is a threat born of the minds of humanity (and to some extent, the Eldar), and orks are just so much background noise to this. Orks are an ally of convenience to chaos, as neither’s agenda is immediately detrimental to the other. As we mentioned in the last article, chaos has corrupted the physical form of orks with mutation and infestation in the past, but there is fluff to suggest that whispered temptations and psychic corruption are tools that either cannot affect orks, or which aren't worth the while of chaos to use on orks.
The Dark Eldar work less well, as the entire society of Comorragh is essentially geared around fear of chaos (or fear of Slaanesh to be more specific). The Dark Eldar agenda is personal survival: the horrors and pain they inflict and the captives they take are for the purpose of filling an “emptiness of the soul”.

Essentially the Dark Eldar feed on the essence of pain to quiet the void within, and they consume the souls of captives to prolong their mortal lives and stave off the day when She Who Thirsts claims their souls. In that sense, the whole of Dark Eldar society is a consequence of the fear of chaos, and their evil actions are dancing to the tune of the Chaos Gods.

Yet at the same time, the Dark Eldar are too arrogant and wise to worship the Chaos Gods, and they would be unlikely to risk fighting directly alongside the servants of Chaos. Any who did wouldn’t be Dark Eldar anymore: they’d just be chaos champions loyal only to the Ruinous Powers.

The elegance of a nice alignment wheel aside, it’d have made more sense for Chaos to have been the faction that can grab allies from anywhere and everywhere. Just about every faction has had some fiction showing their corruptibility to chaos: orks and tyranids least so perhaps, but even then at times we’ve seen chaos-infested versions of these. Only the necrons have (as far as I am aware) no fluff record of chaos infestation or corruption.

Chaos has definitely subverted Space Marines before, and definitely taken over whole Astra Militarum regiments. Eldar have fallen and become Slaaneshi champions, and while the Tau are too far on the Eastern fringe and too psychically inert to much catch the notice of chaos, there are some who have speculatively suggested that the subtle influence of chaos may be responsible for Commander Farsight and his defection from the Tau Empire.
Coming roundly back to the score, we’re looking at a faction that is 5/5 for representing chaos, but which slips to 4/5 when we look at the Alliances mechanic as it stands.


SIGNATURE CARDS

Zarathur, High Sorcerer (Core Set)
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

This Warlord is a brand new character for the LCG and the setting. I have no especial objection to this, as the LCG has every bit as much right to introduce new characters to the mythos as any other game under the aegis of the IP does. Part of me does regret the missed opportunity to showcase one of the many cool and unique characters of 40k chaos lore, however, as this game isn’t going to last forever and every new creation is a card that isn’t Abaddon, Fabius Bile, Magnus the Red, and so on…
Specifically, instead of Zarathur the generic Tzeentch sorcerer, we could have had Ahriman, Magus of Tzeentch, of the Thousand Sons Space Marines!

Zarathur is clearly a "high sorcerer" devoted to Tzeentch. It says that, right there on his card!

His ornate armour is in keeping with the style of Tzeentch-devoted sorcerers: blueish hues are in keeping with the Great Architect, bird feathers and weirdly shaped skulls also Tzeentchian, and a crackling force-sword the archetypal weapon of a warrior-sorcerer.

His ability presumably links to his using his magic to enhance his followers, or perhaps weaving the strands of fate to guide enemies to their destruction (a trick very much associated with Eldar Farseers, but also entirely in keeping with a Sorcerer of Tzeentch). The emergent effect in play is to encourage a suitably aggressive style of play, but also synergises nicely with subtle means of inflicting direct damage and the creation of clever combos.


Zarathur’s Flamers (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5
Tzeentch, like all the Chaos Gods, has a wide variety of daemons in his service. The archetypal lesser daemons of Tzeentch are the Pink Horrors and Blue Horrors, and the greater daemon is the sorcerously endowed Lord of Change. Other daemons exist in his service as well, including the bizarre Discs of Tzeentch, the favoured Heralds, the Burning Chariots and many more.

Flamers, also known as the Pyrodaemons or the Keeepers of the True Flame, are usually described as headless conical torsos with shifting form, many eyes and mouths, and two tentacle-arms ending in toothed maws that spew unnatural warpflame and smoke. The flame produced is not just heat, but the divine essence of transformation. Contact with it might melt rock, or it might change flesh into a shower of multicoloured cloud of light and shimmering ash. Tzeentch is a God of Change, and Change is unpredictable!
Like all Tzeentch daemons flamers are nebulous in form, perhaps even appearing differently to two observers looking upon them at the same time. The art for this card then can’t be criticised for not matching the miniature exactly – rather its excellent that they’ve captured the weirdness of this unit, and the aura of magic that surrounds them.

The game effect and traits here are eminently in keeping with the fluff and fiction of Tzeentch: magic that destroys is a common theme for Tzeentchian sorcery, and daemons gleefully sacrificing themselves fearless of dissolution is very Tzeentchian as well!


Shrine of Warpflame (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5
Aside from lacking the Tzeentch trait, this card is Tzeentch embodied. It’s a typical feature of the magics of Change that when enemies are consumed, something else emerges. The dynamic recursion effects that are created here are excellent, as is the theme of cunning plans and sacrifice for gain when you destroy something with a Flamer’s sacrifice, then find that the Flamer is back again ready for Tzeentch’s service!
“Warpflame” as a concept is mentioned in the fluff, but only in an undefined “energy of chaos” sort of way.


Infernal Gateway (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 5/5
The physical reality of mortals and the mad illogical reality of warpspace are separate, but that barrier can be broken in many ways. The most common means for this is the warp engines that most races use for interstellar travel – by stepping out of physical reality and into the sorcerous realms of chaos warpships can cross vast interstellar distances at effectively faster-than-light speeds. The weird nature of the tides of the warp (that is more akin to a psychic sea than it is to the voids of space) makes this dangerous and unpredictable, and it is only through the guidance of psi-sensitive Navigators and the light of the Astronomican that Imperial warpships are able to steer its currents accurately.
The barrier between warpspace and realspace can be pierced in other ways. Teleportation devices also use short jumps through the warp, and the Eldar Webway runs its capillaries through warpspace as well.
Of greatest significance to the servants of chaos, however, are when portals and gateways open directly between warpspace and reality. Some tears between realities are permanent, the most significant of which being the Eye of Terror, which was formed by the Fall of the ancient eldar, and is now the home of the Chaos Legions and of countless Daemon Worlds.

Temporary portals can be opened as well: most commonly this will happen when an unbounded psychic mind acts as the channel (his mind breaking open into a gate) but can also happen when chaos cults and sorcerers deliberately force open a portal.

These portals are of especial use to the forces of Chaos, as they allow daemons of the warp to invade reality directly and for other chaos armies to use the pathways of the warp to reach their destinations without having to move the realspace distances involved.

As a high sorcerer, we expect the ability to open warpgates to be within Zarathur’s arsenal, so this is an excellent card for him. The art is especially wonderful here, showing not just the madness of warpspace, but also the glimpsed figure of a Lord of Change, who is a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, hinting that Zarathur himself may be a pawn unwittingly doing the bidding of greater powers: par for the course for a servant of Tzeentch!


Mark of Chaos (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5
Marks of Chaos are blessings, given by the Ruinous Powers to those who earn their favour. Each of the Gods has its own mark, which channels some of the power of that god into that individual. For example, a Mark of Nurgle gives unnatural toughness and resistance to pain.
In the vernacular of the Imperium, marks of chaos also refer to the signs of corruption. For example, mutation is dubbed a mark of chaos, and the Witch Hunters of the Inquisition will also examine someone’s physical form for witch marks.
I like the ambiguity of what this card might represent. It could be that the enemy soldier, having been killed in battle, has his body exposed in the morgue revealing the sign of the Chaos Gods, and that the resulting inquisition and purge of the army causes inevitable casualties. It could be more literal, of course, a spell that brands an enemy so that when he dies that sacrifice provides a conduit for the life-ending energies of chaos.
That this is a card that corrupts an opposing unit is a great thematic choice for Chaos in this LCG.


LOYAL CARDS

Its notable and thematic for a faction that has its origins in treachery that they have only five loyal cards, the least of any faction…

Alpha Legion Infiltrator (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

The twentieth of the original twenty Space Marine Legions, the Alpha Legion was known as being secretive and obfuscatory even when loyal. Their history is full of as many questions as answers, and there are all sorts of oddities which make them unusual.

For example, when the Legions were expanding, the Alpha Legion was deemed by the Emperor to be unsuitable for growth, and so their numbers were capped at 1000-2000 marines. They were almost an invisible presence during the time of the Great Crusade, their activities hidden from even their fellow marines and they were experts at subterfuge and misdirection. Even their Primarch was unconventional, in that there were two twin Primarchs, Alpharius and Omegon: a secret that not even most Chaos Marines are aware of.

Their unconventional tactics were often decried as cowardly by more conventional, soldierly Primarchs (with Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists, Rouboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines and Leman Russ of the Space Wolves all vocal critics), and it is perhaps unsurprising that when the conspiracy of the Horus Heresy was revealed their loyalties lay with the rebellion.

Now, the Alpha Legion is a Chaos Space Marine Legion, and its tactics remain largely unchanged, though now employed towards the destruction of the Imperium rather than its protection. Alpha Legion marines will often work alone or in small cells, establishing secret chaos cults on Imperial worlds, sowing sedition in Imperial institutions, and sometimes even posing as Loyalist marines to further their goals. Their main opposition comes not on the field of battle, but with the watchful agents of the Inquisition’s Ordo Hereticus, and in this battle in the shadows they have often prove the victors, on several occasions even sowing dissent and division within the Inquisition itself!

As an LCG card, this works more or less fine. The odd stats I think can nicely reflect the impact of a revealed Alpha Legion plot, with sabotage from within, exposure of secret traitors within enemy forces and so on representing the hefty attack value rather than us pretending that the art-depicted bolt pistol has extreme hitting power. Likewise, I prefer to believe that the low HP represents the Alpha Legionnaire recognising that discretion is wisdom when he comes under fire, and retreating back to the shadows to plan for the next operation.

While not necessary to show on this card, it’d be most excellent if a future Alpha Legion card showed the strong link between subversion and sabotage, and the Alpha Legion.


Black Legion Heldrake (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

A Heldrake is a daemon-engine, one of the many mechanisms that fuse the malign power of a daemon with the mechanical creations of the Warpsmiths' daemon forges. Heldrakes were formerly Imperial fighter craft, but have been warped into draconic form by the power of chaos. The bodies and souls of the former pilots are still trapped inside, though the control of the vehicle is now wholly that of the possessing daemon. The screams and anguish of the trapped pilot help fuel its daemonic strength and are broadcast directly as horrifying shrieks from the drake’s maw.

Its tactical role is as a first-wave assault vehicle, looking to eliminate opposing flyers with both its guns and with its teeth and claws. It is quite a fragile flyer (no more resistant to damage than the light walker vehicles of other races, though harder to hit by virtue of flying), so tends to be in danger once there’s any level of AA firepower on the ground.

The Black Legion is the largest faction of the Chaos Space Marines. They were once the Luna Wolves – the famously pure and heroic Legion born of Horus’ geneseed, and were renamed the Sons of Horus in the Warmaster’s honour after the Ullanor Crusade. When the Horus Heresy was underway they accompanied him as his personal army, and as the leaders and exemplars of the rebellion. However, when Horus was defeated they fled back to the Eye of Terror.

First Captain Abaddon took command of the Legion, and declared that their primarch had failed and should be forgotten. He symbolically renamed them as The Black Legion, and said that they would now be devoted wholly to Chaos, and never more to the memory of Horus, who had proven weak.

In representing a Heldrake, the card is somewhat unfluffy. This currently represents Chaos’ big hitter: and endgame daemon that is expensive to deploy but overwhelming when it arrives. This is at odds with the fluff, and a presentation of a suitable greater daemon (such as a Bloodthirster of Khorne) would have suited its stats and place in emergent play far better.


Tzeentch’s Firestorm (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

The traits and the flavour text tells you about this card: not much else to add!

My only possible criticism here is that the fluff mentions that the psychic fire generated is blue and pink, but this isn’t a strong point to make, as we’re talking about the God of Change here! He can make any colours his whims lead him to!


Vicious Bloodletter (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

Whilst Tzeentch may hold the most true power of the chaos gods because of his intelligence, in terms of brutal strength and sheer physical power it is Khorne and his servants who reign supreme. Indeed, as Khorne is the God of War none can match the efficacy of his daemons in battle.

Khorne’s daemons are all, without exception, raging close combat fighters. The mighty Bloodthirster is the most skilled at arms and most deadly of all four Greater Daemons, the Flesh-hounds of Khorne are hunters without equal and the Juggernaughts of Khorne are brass-and-steel daemonic mounts that are near impossible to stop on the charge.

Bloodletters fulfil the roll of the daemonic footsoldiers of Khorne, comprising the bulk of his army. They are enormously strong by human standards, skilled at close combat, oddly disciplined with their complex military manoeuvres, but also prone to a blood rage in melee that can make them forget tactical considerations. They can fight well with horn, claw and hoof but their main weapon is their deadly Hellblades: two handed warp-forged swords or axes that cleave through any mortal made armour with ease.

In game, its odd to see a footsoldier daemon represented in the singular as a high cost card, and also odd for it to be so resilient. It’s easier to gun down a Bloodletter than a Space Marine, but the card doesn’t reflect that. The stats and abilities seem off as well: while a Bloodletter is undoubtedly a specialised assault troop that can quickly, the fluff doesn’t quite depict them as the sheer engines of destruction that the LCG makes them out to be.

Xavaes Split-Tongue (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

Like the rest of the “warlord’s assistant” unique characters in the Core Set, Xavaes looks to be a brand new creation with no previous 40k fluff presence.

We can tell a little from the art, however. Xavaes is dressed in the lurid pink armour of the Emperor’s Children legion, with his right shoulder pad declaring his allegiance to Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure. His displayed mutations (pallid skin, a mutated tongue) are typically Slaaneshi ones as well. The absence of an Emperor’s Children chapter trait is an oddity, and may be an oversight, or may indicate that he no longer associates himself with them, even if he originated from them. The Chaos Legions have fractured time and again

The Emperor’s Children were the third Space Marine Legion, and were amongst his greatest warriors, with their relentless pursuit of efficiency and perfectionism in war matched by their love of civilisation and culture. They both led at the forefront of the Crusade, and helped shape the Imperium that was formed as a result of it. Despite starting with a mere two hundred marines (thanks to an accident that destroyed most of their stored geneseed) Primarch Fulgrim led the Legion through a period of regrowth without once neglecting his duties on the frontline. It was because of his legendary devotion to the Emperor that his Legion was so named, and at the time they were held up as exemplars of the marine ideal, the perfect and devoted warriors that all should aspire to be.

Their fall to the temptations of Slaanesh came insidiously, with the seeds of corruption being laid with the Legion’s love of flawless beauty, and with spiritual transformation being initiated after Primarch Fulgrim claimed as his prize a relic weapon that belonged to the Laer, an alien species that the Legion had destroyed. Still, the Emperor’s Children did not fall till the very last moment, when after the Horus Heresy had begun the Warmaster personally persuaded Fulgrim, convincing him that the Emperor was flawed and thus unworthy of service, whereas the Ruinous Powers were perfect. Even then, loyalist elements remained, but were hunted down and purged by the traitors.

Since their fall, the Emperor’s Children have become obsessed with the decadent pursuit of pleasure and of new sensation. With morality set aside, they will slaughter civilians by the million to distil new drugs from their remains, and they will torture themselves and others for the sheer joy of being able to experience these things. Their noble forms are mutilated (partly by chaos, partly by themselves) and only the most discordant of noises and sights can stir them a response.

Knowing this fluff, the Xavaes card takes on new meanings. The artwork showing his split tongue also shows a cleft palate and a scar down the centre of his face. Is his split tongue self inflicted, from seeking the experience of running a sharp blade down his own face? The odd soft fleshiness of his armour, and the faces that adorn it: mere decorations or a sign that his armour is alive and part of him? And that cloth that he is wiping his split-blade knife along: it appears to be adorned with Eldar runes. The candles suggest intimacy as well as ritual… just what exactly has Xavaes been doing to his poor Eldar captive?


NON-LOYAL CARDS

Chaos Fanatics (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5
The Chaos Space Marines may be at the forefront of the Long War, and the Daemons may be the faction’s strongest element, but the vast majority of the followers of the Ruinous Powers are ordinary humans.

A man may be driven to the worship of chaos by many things: a desire for power, freedom from despair, a lust for secret knowledge, or simply to rebel against the oppressive Imperium. Indeed, life for Imperial citizens is so often bleak and without any other means of escape that the mere presence of an alternative is something that the Inquisition ruthlessly seeks to suppress. Most Imperial servants are not even allowed to know that the Ruinous Powers and the forces of Chaos even exist!

When humans are within a society that is essentially theocratic and fanatical, and when they discover that there are other gods and powers, it is little wonder that they worship their new gods with the same fanatic fervour that the Imperial Cult encouraged them to worship the Emperor. And when those gods prove to have real power to answer prayers in the here and now, unlike the distant God Emperor of Terra, it is inevitable that fanaticism grows even stronger!

This card is well placed as a key card in the faction: it’s the secret uprisings of chaos cults that provide power for the Ruinous Powers, so it makes sense for cultist fanatics to represent the main command-capping unit in game.


Cultist
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5
The flipside to what we’ve talked about above is, of course, that the Ruinous Powers don’t really care for their worshippers and that actually the victory of chaos would mean the death of all mankind and of reality as we know it. While Chaos will win over weak mortals with promises of riches and power, the real purpose of Cultists is as fodder for the dark powers, whether as front line combat troops or to die so that their souls may feed hungry daemons!


Dire Mutation (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5
Mutation is often a mark of chaos, and because of this the Imperial Ecclesiarchy teaches Imperial citizens to fear and abhor the mutant. Mundane genetic causes for mutation exist as well, of course, but such as the nature of the dark millennium that their deaths are necessary collateral damage.
This card represents a very Tzeentchian style of mutation: a quiescent quantum of chaos potential that sits within a living being till the time is right, then erupts suddenly, inflicting the dire blessings of chaos. It ties nicely to the corruption theme of chaos as a faction.


Fortress of Madness (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5
This discounter card doesn’t have much fluff context as the phrase “Fortress of Madness” doesn’t occur elsewhere in 40k fluff. However, the architecture of the daemon-worlds of the Eye of Terror are often described as being physically impossible and sanity threatening to behold.
As this is Chaos we’re talking about we don’t need to worry too much about the distances involved: its entirely possible that rituals and devotions carried out in the Eye of Terror could affect the distant Traxis Sector in subtle ways.

Khorne Berzerker (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5
The World Eaters are my favourite Chaos Space Marine Legion, and I’m hoping that one day we’ll see cards to represent their key personalities, so we can go into their stories.
As this is the Legion I collected and painted for the wargame (though to smaller numbers than my Biel Tan Eldar) I intend to indulge myself anyway, and tell you a little of their background!

The XII Legion were originally known as the War Hounds, and were from the onset renowned for their savagery and strength, though also for their martial pride and strong ties of brotherhood. They were unusual in their Primarch, as when Angron was found he was not in a position of strength or rulership as most of the Primarchs were, but rather a slave-gladiator with an already well developed hatred of authority and already semi-lobotmised by the insertion of two Butcher’s Nails into his brainstem that had artificially magnified his already considerable tendencies to violence and rage. When the Emperor came to the planet of Nuceria, Angron was at the front of a slave revolt, albeit one doomed to failure thanks to the numerical and technological advantages of his oppressors. The Emperor teleported Angron away from the height of the battle, thinking he was saving his life, but this action was seen by Angron as forcing him to abandon his slave brothers at their greatest moment of need.

Still, at the head of the War Hounds Angron found a new brotherhood, though his Marines were always troubled by the evident realisation that their long awaited Primarch was not a glorious and charismatic Angel like those of other Legions, but rather a broken and bestial creature. As a show of their devotion to their Primarch, the Legion voluntarily subjected themselves to the Butcher’s Nails, and determined that they would adopt his rage and hatred to better emulate him.

Angron’s fall to chaos was easy to understand: in the service of Khorne he could feel the pleasure of murder and war without guilt, conscience or troubled memories. His Legion was renamed from War Hounds to World Eaters, and they were always at the forefront of Horus’ rebellion.

Many years later, during the Horus Heresy, Angron would return to his homeworld, to find that the slaves had been beaten back into place and been told that Angron had abandoned and betrayed them. Filled with rage he ordered the world purged, a command eagerly obeyed by the World-Eaters and their Word-bearer allies. Nuceria is now classified by the Imperium as a Dead World, its ruined and empty cities a permanent tribute to the mercilessness of Khorne.

While the Butcher’s Nails and the acceptance of Khorne were what made the World-Eaters into Berserkers, it was a different event that made them cease to be a true Legion.

At the Battle of Skalathrax, when Kharn the Betrayer – frustrated by the stagnation of the campaign they were fighting – turned on his fellow World Eaters it was clear that Khorne was pleased. From that day the Legion fractured and fragmented into a multitude of warbands, and the Legion has never fought as a single army again since. Truly it is said: Khorne does not care from where the blood flows, so long as it flows!

This card is an excellent representation of a furious Berzerker, with the rare Brutal keyword showing how as war escalates the Berzerker merely grows angrier. The old question of appropriate scale raises its head again, however, and the command icon seems out of place. Otherwise, a fine and fluffy card.


Murder Cogitator (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 5/5

While a specific “murder cogitator” hasn’t been mentioned in chaos fluff before (please correct me if I am wrong about this) this is in fact a very fluffy card.

In the Imperium, machines that think are forbidden, with the Adeptus Mechanicus dubbing it “AI” as we might, but with the abbreviation being for Abominable Intelligence. While the Mechanicus does use sanctioned Machine Spirits a subtle distinction is drawn - machine spirits are not self aware, and have no capacity for learning or self improvement.

This prohibition against AI stems from ancient history – the so called Dark Age of Technology which began some time between the 15th and 18th Millennium and ended some time between the 23rd and 25th Millennium.

We don’t know much about the Dark Age of Technology, and indeed it is an epoch that is often referenced rather than detailed. In real world terms, its likely that GW were inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune novels, and society’s abhorrence of machine intelligence with references in that fiction to a long ago “Butlerian Jihad”, with little detail given save that reliance on AIs nearly doomed humanity.

So it is described with the Dark Age of Technology – while this era represented the technological zenith of humanity and was the source of most of the current era’s tech as well as a time of long since lost sciences. In the secret accounts of the Library Sanctus of Terra and the Journal of Keeper Cripias, humanity created The Men of Iron to serve them, but the Men of Iron turned against them. It was this event (along with a few other catastrophes, such as the emergence of Psykers and of interstellar isolation caused by warp storms) that ended the Dark Age of Technology and began the Age of Strife.

The Age of Strife would eventually end, giving way to the Age of the Imperium, and the main event that would herald this was the Fall of the Eldar and the Birth of Slaanesh, whose sheer magnitude drained energy from the Warp and left it relatively becalmed, freeing humanity to walk the stars once again.

Somewhere along the way during the Age of Strife, humanity managed to destroy the Men of Iron, but they never forgot that AI and the worship of science had almost destroyed human life. One of the founding tenets of the Imperium was that technology was dangerous, and that AI should never be used again. Indeed, the creation of any machine intelligence is a crime that is seen as equal to the worst of heresies.

To police the spread of dangerous knowledge the Imperium created the Adeptus Mechanicus, the tech-priesthood that would control all technological lore and would bury the science in layers of ritual and obfuscation. To this end it has succeeded a little too well: the overall pattern of the last ten thousand years has been one of technological regression rather than advance, and “new” technologies only emerge when the Priesthood of Mars unearth ancient Standard Template Construct blueprints from the Dark Age of Technology.

Now we bring this story back to chaos. The Dark Mechanicus (that portion of the priesthood who joined Horus in rebellion ) and the Warpsmiths of the Traitor Legions are not bound by the laws of the Imperium, and for them no technology is forbidden and no subject is taboo. Not only have they created AIs again, they have also invited daemons to possess these machines to enhance them further. The Daemon Engines that provide armoured support for the Legions are one example of this. Another is the Chaos Androids: blasphemous plasteel skeletons that combine the mind of a trapped daemon with an AI electronic brain (and mentioned only briefly in the 40k-IP based MB game Space Crusade). Another mention is made in the FFG Relic game, with an AI objective to be destroyed that incidentally shares the same art as this card!

The Murder Cogitator is clearly one such project: an AI merged with a daemon. We can absolutely envision that the superior computing power of such a device gives logistical advantages to the servants of the Ruinous Powers, and can also imagine that the daemon within will only serve their ends when they serve its ends: by offering minions for sacrifice on the field of war.

This is one of my favourite cards in the LCG: a new piece of lore that faifthfully builds on the old lore in a faithful way, but expands the universe of Warhammer 40,000 in a new direction.


Possessed (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

Again, here the flavour text pretty much tells you the background here.

The stats don’t reflect very well these units in the wargame, but they do match the written background well: someone who has become even more formidable than an ordinary Chaos Marine by accepting the power of a daemon, but likely at the cost of free will and their immortal soul. As I’ve stated before, it’s the closeness of the card to the fiction that matters here, not to the wargame, so this makes it an excellent fluff match.


Promise of Glory (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 5/5

We’ve mentioned the role of cultists in the first two non-loyal cards earlier.

All I can add here is that I love the delicious double-meaning of this card’s title. A promise of glory is indeed what the Ruinous Powers offer to mortals in order to sway them to their cults. What they actually get is something different – a broken contract, and their very souls sacrificed to feed the summoning of daemons!


Ravenous Flesh Hounds (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

Flesh Hounds are the daemon-beasts that serve Khorne as he hunts his enemies. A Bloodthirster will lead the hunt, and Bloodletters will trail after him, but it is the Flesh Hounds that get their quarries scent, and then bound ahead to harry them.

Khorne loathes psykers especially, and his hounds are blessed with a Collar of Khorne that protects them from sorcery. His Hounds are able to pick up the psychic spoor of sorcerers from across the galaxy, and will hunt them relentlessly!

The game effect of this card is pleasing, as it inherently conjures a mental image of the hounds tearing a hapless cultist limb from limb and devouring his essence. There’s no evidence of the hounds psychic immunity though, nor their aptitude at hunting, and the command icon is out of place.


Rune-Encrusted Armor (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

It is a rare Chaos Marine whose power armour still has the noble form of his Imperial days. A recently defected Renegade marine will likely have debased it by physically destroying any marks of Imperial allegiance, and the Long War veterans of the original Legions have often been in their armour so long that it has fused to their flesh and is as much a part of them as their own bodies. Just as chaos mutates flesh, so too does it transform armour, and most Chaos Space Marines bear the marks of their gods in the warped forms of the equipment.

This attachment suggests armour that is especially touched by chaos – the effect and card are hard to criticise.


Soul Grinder (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

The Forge of Souls, deep in the Realms of the Chaos Gods within warpspace, turns out arms and armaments for daemons, much as the Warpsmiths provide for the Chaos Marine legions.

The Soul Grinders are both one product of the forge, and integral to its functioning. These machine-daemon hybrids harvest souls to feed the flames of the Forge of Souls, and offers up the wreckage of war machines as raw materials for it. Their loyalty is to the Forge first of all, with a psychic/programmed imperative that forces them to defend the Forge against any of the four Chaos Gods that tries to seize control of it, even though individual Soul Grinders often bear the marks and blessings of a single god of chaos.

The triggered ability here suggests the forced consumption of souls, though it would have been fluffier to have them have an ability to turn kills into resources (in a similar way to Cato’s printed effect).

Splintered Path Acolyte (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

As far as my research goes, there’s no recorded mention of a chaos cult called the Splintered Path. The chaos codices and the Liber Chaotica yield nothing, and while I haven’t trawled back through the novels or rpg sourcebooks, it certainly doesn’t ring a bell. The closest reference I could find was in a first edition 40k game supplement called The Book of the Astronomican had the following quote:

“You gaze at the mountain, Children of Terra, you see its snow-capped peak and the clouds upon its slopes. You dream of reaching that pinnacle and drinking the cold waters. But who dreams of the road that ascends the mountain side? The road to the peak is hard and murderous. It has broken countless Children of Terra upon its rocks. Their splintered bones lie scattered upon it, paving the way to the mountain top. At every step you will hear the bones crumbling under foot, and maybe you shall hear the wind-blown voices of the dead - guiding you forward or leading you to your doom. Yes, my children, the way to the mountain is cruel and unforgiving. And of those who struggle their long lives, spending their energy and vigour in the climb, who then can taste the melt-water of the summit and say, 'Yes... yes it was worthwhile?'”

Actually though, even if this is a completely new lore creation, it’s a perfectly fluffy one. The name is nicely ambiguous, suggesting that it may be the path is fragmented, or may be that it is painful to walk upon.

The flavour text quote justifies the triggered ability nicely. The art almost exactly matches one of the new Chaos Cultist minis from the Dark Vengeance box set.


Umbral Preacher (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

The Warp is the strange psi-dimension that parallels reality, and is best known for the being the medium through which interstellar travel is possible. It is also the realm from which the Ruinous Powers were born, and it is the source of psychic power and sorcery. It has many names, including the Sea of Souls, the Empyrean, the Ether, the Immaterium and, more rarely, the Umbra.

An Umbral Preacher, therefore, would seem to be a devotee of chaos who can shape the warp with his words, likely by focusing the minds of his congregation. His effect makes fluffy sense, in this circumstance, as with the warp rolling and in turmoil, its likely there’d be no means for anyone to leave or arrive at a planet. It might have also made sense for him to block the arrival or departure of units via other effects (such as Mobility, support cards and event cards). Of course, the LCG confusingly give an interplanetary Mobile trait to cards that can move around the battlefield quickly, so there’s no particular reason that warpstorms would stop Bikers In Space ™ from moving about.

There’s also a more obscure fluff reference to the word Umbra in 40k, a black sphere shaped alien species that lives in the void of space, though these are described only in the book Xenology, which is written from an in-character viewpoint by an unreliable narrator, so its unlikely there’s a link here.

The word “Umbra”, of course, just comes from the Latin for shadow, and is a word used in astronomy, mythology, physics and roleplaying games. Its not actually one that sees common use in 40k, though it has been used to describe the Warp on rare occasions.


Virulent Plague Squad (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 5/5

This is another stormingly fluffy card, not so much for its 1/1/4 stats (though disproportionally high toughness goes hand in hand with the Mark of Nurgle) but more for how well the card’s passive ability matches the theme of Nurgle’s power. At some times Nurgle is the weakest of the chaos gods, but when plague troubles a warzone (and big piles of dead tend to do that) he rises in power and his servants ascend with him.

The Death Guard, formerly the Dusk Raiders, were the XIV Legion. They were heavy infantry specialising in high endurance work. Throughout the Great Crusade they maintained a high emphasis on keeping both feet in the ground, preferring pure infantry actions rather than mechanised assaults, bikes or jump packs. Their values were of enduring hardship with firm resolution and determination.

With the Heresy, a high proportion of Death Guard would not betray the Emperor, and at the Dropsite Massacres of Istvaan III (when the wars of the Horus Heresy truly began) they were slaughtered by their own battle brothers. Indeed, one Death Guard Captain, named Nathaniel Garro was responsible for bringing word of Horus’ treachery back to the Imperium: a little known tale referred to by Imperial cognoscenti as The Flight of the Eisenstein. Some sources suggest that Garro went on to be recruited by the notable Imperial stalwart Malcador the Sigilite, and in the wake of the Siege of Terra was involved in establishing the Grey Knights chapter: a specialist marine formation based on the Emperor’s own geneseed, and in the forefront of the war against chaos.

For those who betrayed, however, a darker fate awaited. Their legendary determination was twisted by chaos into a contempt for those who could not suffer hardship without complaint, and infection by the powers of Nurgle transformed them into their current form. The Death Guard are now horrifying, their once ascetic appearance of unpainted but well maintained armour replaced by a pus-green discoloration, with the armour cracked and bulging as strains to hold in the corpulent rot of the marine within. Nurgle’s touch has made them even more resistant to pain, and even more stoically accepting of suffering. They spread disease ahead of their advance, knowing that their own blessed forms can suffer no lasting harm from plague, while their enemies will sicken and weaken before battle is even joined. As Plague Marines their ancient boltguns are supplemented by blight grenades and plague knives, and a scratch from their blades will fester and turn septic, afflicting those who do not die from their wounds with Nurgle’s Rot.

Warpstorm (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

In 40l fluff, a Warpstorm normally refers to turmoil within the warp itself. This doesn’t usually have direct physical effects on mundane reality, as warpspace is its own dimension. It does, however, have effects on any technology or process that uses the warp, such as interstellar travel or astropathic communication.

The largest known warpstorm was immediately prior to the Great Crusade, when the warp galaxy-wide was an impossible tempest, acting as an absolute limit to human interstellar expansion at that time. It was the Fall of the Eldar and the subsequent Birth of Slaanesh that calmed this tempest and allowed warp travel again, and as a result the birth of Slaanesg was also the birth of the Imperium.

Smaller warpstorms still pose a threat to Imperial coherency and in particular to warp travel. It is most common for a warpship caught in a storm to be torn apart, but its also possible for a ship to find itself spatially and temporally displaced, perhaps arriving in an a wholly different segmentum, perhaps finding a week’s journey has taken them a thousand years, or perhaps even finding they arrive centuries before their departure. Warpstorms can arise unpredictably, or cyclically.

The Rogue Trader book describes a Logan’s World, one of many lost worlds inside the Eye of Terror. It was mentioned that these worlds were almost always under storm, but that the Eye of Terror would “blink” with some regularity, and during these times the Imperium would move in to enforce law, albeit briefly. While this background is thoroughly retconned (as the Eye of Terror is now daemon-worlds and a giant warpgate, rather than just a storm-isolated region of space) it does give a nice idea of how the tides of the warp can shape human life: a world can be isolated for centuries by the warp’s tempers.

A warpstorm of this sort, which is the most common usage of the word, is a bad fluff fit for the card. Rather, you’d expect it to be an effect that affects interplanetary movement and the arrival of supplies and reinforcements. It would have been a fluffier effect for this sort of Warpstorm for the card to be an Event with “Action: Non-Warlord units cannot move to or from this planet for the rest of the phase unless they have been destroyed.”

Does this make this card a terrible fluff fit?

Well, maybe not. There’s actually a less common use of the word Warpstorm in the fluff, which is probably closer to what the artwork depicts. A warp storm can, for unknown reasons, breach from warpspace into reality, creating a wave of malign influence.

One notable occurrence of this sort was Warpstorm Dionys, which swept across the galaxy some time in the 37th Millennium. Its not specified whether it was through radiation through a warp rift or just through malign psychic influence, but Dionys had considerable effects in realspace as well. Multiple systems saw mass outbreaks of mutations and cultist activity. In fact, many Adeptus Astartes homeworlds were caught in its wake as well, and this led, indirectly to… Well, let’s just tell the story!

In 321.M37 (according to the Codex: Chaos Marines sourcebook) Saint Basillius was a revered figure, and he was called upon to assess and judge the Space Marine chapters who had been caught in the wake of Dionys. No less than thirty full chapters were found to have been subtly tainted by chaos. Basillus proclaimed that the Chapters could either submit to death (and destruction of their geneseed stockpiles) or commit to a Crusade, going into the Eye of Terror itself.

The Abyssal Crusade, as it came to be known gave a last chance for the corrupted chapters to redeem themselves, or at least to sacrifice themselves to some benefit before corruption could take them. Every Chapter named chose to join the crusade, and into the Eye they went!

Almost every Chapter that went in was swallowed up by the Eye, corrupted, and spat back out as a Chapter of Chaos Marines. The Sentinels chapter, for example, landed on a Daemon world called Oliensis, and set to work purging it, before they realised that the world was actually the enormous planet sized form of a morbidly obese man, hunched into a foetal ball. Soon after this realisation they were assaulted by Slaaneshi Noise Marines, and the battle raged on till it woke Oliensis himself, who scooped up the marines and swallowed them whole. When those marines were regurgitated or excreted by the planet, they were now cannibalistic Chaos Marines who named themselves the Corpus Brethren.

Immediately after the Abyssal Crusade chaos marine incursions dramatically increased, and the response of Administratum was to suppress the knowledge of the colossal failed venture, for fear of panicking the masses. It was eight hundred years later when one Chapter, the Vorpal Swords, re-emerged from the Eye of Terror, claiming to have cleansed four hundred worlds to redeem themselves. They had long realised that Saint Basillius had sent the Chapters to their doom full well knowing that he would be feeding the powers of Chaos. They destroyed his shrines, purged his cult, and after examination of his chaos-marked remains, dispatched them into the heart of a star.

That story was provided mostly just for the joy of it! What it does suggest though, is that warpstorms can directly affect physical reality, and one reading of Warpstorm Dionys is that it actually broke free of warpspace in places, radiating its psychic corruption across a swathe of the galaxy.

Now, as a card reflecting the sort of warpstorm that breaks into physical reality, it’s a better fluff fit, though it’s a fairly vanilla effect for something so chaotic and unpredictable.



CONCLUSION

With that lengthy tale closing the article, the Chime of Eons now bids farewell to Chaos, though you can be sure that’s not the last we’ll hear of this setting’s blackest of black hearted villains!
While Chaos isn’t my favourite faction in the wargame, its fast becoming my favourite faction in the LCG, largely because of the incredibly strong feel of theme and respect for the background fiction in the faction’s crunchy execution. The cultist sacrifice mechanic is excellent, the split between daemons, chaos marine and mortal followers of chaos is inclusively broad, and the thematic nature of the servants of the different Chaos Gods is strongly represented. Playing this faction feels really fluffy – our opponents can marshal all the logistical support they want, but for the servants of the Ruinous Powers a ritual or three and a blood sacrifice or six will summon Daemon Engines that no mortal force can stand against!

But now we reluctantly tear our gaze from the beauty of chaos, and onto a different sort of evil, and a different sort of beauty.

When your very survival depends on your ability to cause fear and suffering, and when your ambitions can only be fulfilled by the consumption of slave souls, you must be a certain sort of war leader, and fight a different sort of war.

Forget foolishly scrabbling for territory, and the clumsy footwork of attrition warfare. Instead, immerse yourself in a dance of murder and sadism, set to the music of the screams of you slaves as they realise that death would have been a mercy.
You are all prisoners, now. Prisoners of the Dark Eldar!