When facing any internal or external threat, it is the responsibility of the PDF to engage the enemy until Imperial reinforcements such as the Astra Militarum or Space Marines can be mustered by the nearby Sector Command. Thus, although rarely respected within the broader Imperial military due to their relative lack of experience, the PDF are widely considered crucial to the Departmento Munitorum as the first line of defence for Imperial worlds against any form of invasion or rebellion.
Whenever required, the best soldiers in a PDF are transferred into the regiments of the Imperial Guard, receiving further training as they are shipped to their destined locations elsewhere in the galaxy. However, the loyalty of many PDF units is not always true.
Many PDF regiments on certain worlds will betray their Planetary Governor if the opportunity -- and the right incentive -- arises. Larger planetary populations may permanently support professional PDF corps, including elite special forces troops. These elites may be House troops belonging to a particular noble dynasty, under the command of the Planetary Governor of the world, or even Kill Squad Storm Troopers.
During the era of the Great Crusade , it fell to the Imperialis Militia to secure and to hold those worlds brought to Imperial Compliance by the Crusade's Expeditionary Fleets.
Part of the vast, sprawling body of the Imperium's military and its support structure, known collectively as the Excertus Imperialis , these regiments formed what was in effect the lowest and most common run of the wider Imperial Army , or the Imperialis Auxilia as it was more precisely known. Once a world was declared Compliant and under the full control of an appointed and independent Imperial Commander , part of that Commander's principal duty was the raising of an Imperialis Militia to protect their domain and sustain their control.
It was the duty of this militia to act in no small part as the enforcers of the Imperial Truth if needed, and its protectors should the Iterators and cadres of administrators of all stripes who were left behind to oversee the long transition to full concordance become threatened or meet resistance.
When the Crusade hosts departed, such worlds stood alone once more. Points Values. Tactical Objectives Heraldry of the Fallen. Destruction Incarnate The Dread Lance of Decima With thanks to the Mournival and the Infinity Circuit for their additional playtesting services.
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British Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Pictures used for illustrative purposes only. Certain Citadel products may be dangerous if used incorrectly and Games Workshop does not recommend them for use by children under the age of 16 without adult supervision.
Whatever your. Sorcerer in Terminator Armour. Exalted Champion Lord Discordant on Helstalker. Master of Executions Dark Apostle. TheLost and the Damned. Legion Traits Prayers to the Dark Gods. Dark Hereticus Discipline Malefic Discipline Artefacts of Chaos. Warlord Traits. Points Values. Tactical Objectives With thanks to the Mournival and the Infinity Circuit for their additional playtesting services. Codex: Chaos Space Marines. Copyright Games Workshop Limited Double-headed Eagle logo, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either or TM,.
Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,. This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
British Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Pictures used for illustrative purposes only. Certain Citadel products may be dangerous if used incorrectly and Games Workshop does not recommend them for use by children under the age of 16 without adult supervision. Whatever your. ISBN: Servants of the Emperor, turn back now, for within these pages you will find acts of treason on an unimaginable scale.
But there are those few men and women who dedicate their lives to becoming true warriors of the Chaos Gods.
For these devotees, the allure of Chaos is even stronger. The Champions of Chaos have a deep, fervent belief in the Ruinous Powers and their commitment is total: they swear themselves body and soul, in this life and beyond, to Chaos. Those who dedicate themselves to the service of Chaos are doomed to an all-or-nothing existence as Chaos Champions in the service of one of the Dark Gods, or even of Chaos Undivided.
The reward for those who please their god is ultimate power; for those who fail, it is only eternal oblivion. To achieve greatness in the eyes of their god, Chaos Champions will perform any act, no matter how immoral, insane or vile. A Champion of Chaos does not simply praise and venerate the Chaos Gods, he swears his life and soul to their service, bargaining away his own essence in exchange for power and the rewards of their patronage.
Granted the forbidden knowledge and strength of Chaos, a Champion can lead armies, conquer whole worlds and achieve greatness and ultimately, immortality. At the same time, the gods who choose to favour this Champion can bring their influence to bear upon him, so that even as he furthers his own ambitions, he also furthers the dominance and plots of his patrons.
Chaos Champions are the leaders of the forces of Chaos and the majority of them are Chaos Space Marines, though some have far more mundane origins. It is a great irony that the same abilities that make Space Marines the greatest defenders of the Imperium are also extraordinary assets for those who would become the most potent warriors of the Chaos Gods. The genetic alterations that create a Space Marine also make Astartes more resistant to the mutational affects of exposure to the energies of the Warp, which allows a Chaos Space Marine to better survive the attentions of his often-capricious new patrons.
Just as their bodies benefit from the changes wrought upon them by the ancient technologies pioneered by the Emperor, so too are the minds of Space Marines honed to an incredible focus and possessed of a potent force of will. These are qualities that stand a man in great stead if he wishes to become a Chaos Champion.
Those who lack a certain clarity of thought, the mental steel required to be successful, will soon be engulfed and lost in the constant anarchy of service to Chaos or will be swiftly overthrown and slain by more ambitious and ruthless subordinates and comrades.
Chaos cares little for loyalty -- power is given to those strong enough to claim its rewards. Save for a few Champions dedicated to the most pure service of Khorne , Chaos Champions do not live and fight alone.
Other followers of Chaos are drawn to them, either through the will of the gods or through the draw of a Champion's own glory and reputation. These groups form the warbands of Chaos and they can vary in size from a handful of individuals to massive hosts that rival an Astra Militarum regiment in size and power.
The most successful Chaos Champions command vast armies of devoted warriors. For Chaos Space Marines these warbands are mostly composed of comrades they fought alongside in their Traitor Legions or their Renegade Chapter. Yet it is not uncommon for Renegades with very different histories to find a common cause in their service to the Ruinous Powers, as Chaos recognises neither hierarchy nor structure, only results. These warbands compete with each other as much as they fight against xenos and the forces of the Imperium.
Resources are precious and hard-won in the Eye of Terror and the Maelstrom and control of cities, continents and worlds is vital to the maintenance of power. Most valued over all other things is the favour of the Chaos Gods. Champions and their warbands must constantly prove their continued dedication to their patrons. The Chaos Gods are embodiments of the question "What have you done for me lately?
Champions earn rewards from their gods by destroying their patron's enemies and succeeding on obscure missions and quests. On the Daemon Worlds in the Eye of Terror, hundreds of warbands struggle in battle to best each other for possession of daemonic artefacts, ancient knowledge, weapons and war machines left over from the days of the Horus Heresy and from before the Fall of the Aeldari.
They are pitched into eternal conflict as sacrifices to their gods and to earn the power to summon Daemons to their cause. When not battling one another, the warbands of Chaos Space Marines are a roving threat, for they are wandering bands of nomadic warriors intent only on slaughter and loot.
From bases hidden in asteroid fields, upon the surfaces of deserted moons, and aboard painstakingly maintained starships that date back to the Great Crusade , they watch and wait for their prey to appear, gathering strength wherever a new blow can be struck against the despised Imperium of Man and its hated Corpse Emperor. In the end, every Chaos Champion faces one of three fates. A life of constant warfare is a dangerous one and most will die upon the field of battle, forgotten by their god as just another failure but immortalised in legend by their remaining followers and comrades.
These Champions are nothing more than blood-soaked sacrifices to Chaos, their goals and ambitions forever unfulfilled. A Chaos Champion who survives the constant battles will slowly gain more and more favour from his chosen god. These rewards come in different forms. Some Champions may be "sent" more followers. Those with a taste for such things might learn potent spells of psychic sorcery, while all Champions will eventually exhibit strange, inhuman powers.
Most of the "gifts" offered by the Chaos Gods take the form of physical and genetic changes -- mutations. Some mutations are beneficial, some harmless -- others downright debilitating. Though such changes can make a Chaos Champion a fearsome warrior, he risks receiving so many such "gifts" and becoming so mutated that he loses all control of himself and degenerates into the hideous creature known as a Chaos Spawn. Even the superhuman, genetically-engineered body of an Astartes can only withstand so much genetic corruption and contain only so much unnatural power.
When this limit is finally breached, the Space Marine or other Champion will be lost forever, transformed into a gibbering and mindless Chaos Spawn. Driven insane, Chaos Spawn are nothing more than mindless, howling monsters of tortured, mutated flesh.
Most die quickly and painfully, their bodies ripped apart by cascading and uncontrollable mutations as the power of Chaos is made wholly manifest within them. Of those who do not die instantly upon surpassing the limit of the Chaos power that their bodies can withstand, some are abandoned by their warbands to wander the Daemon Worlds until they are slain, while others are kept as pets and war beasts by those who were once their followers.
But the third fate of a Chaos Champion is the reward to which all devotees of Chaos dedicate themselves: ascension to Daemonhood. The Champion's ultimate reward is ascension to become a Daemon Prince of his patron god.
His flesh is transformed into the immaterial substance of the Warp and his mortal life is entirely cast aside. A follower of Chaos who ascends to become a Daemon Prince is an immortal and all-powerful warrior who will serve his god for all eternity and never know death or fear again. Some Daemon Princes leave their mortal followers behind and join the nightmare hosts of the Daemons of Chaos to plague worlds across the gulfs of space and time as embodiments of the power of their gods.
Others choose to remain the leaders of their warband, now granted an eternity to bask in the adoration of their minions and, perhaps, earn even greater, unimaginable power from the Dark Gods they serve so well. Much like the daemonic entities made from the essences of the Ruinous Powers , those wholly claimed by Chaos have a kind of esoteric protection that can protect them from physical blows.
A Chaos Space Marine who has sworn his soul to one of the Dark Gods may find an incoming bolt transmuted into scarlet liquid at the last moment, or see a volley of incoming bullets hit home as a shower of writhing grubs. A Lascannon beam -- potent enough to punch through the hull of a tank -- might simply pass through a Warp-claimed Champion as if he was no more substantial than a phantasm. Similarly a plasma bolt might be caught in an outstretched gauntlet, twisted into a ball of fire, and then consumed by the target without harm.
Truly it is said that the favoured of the Ruinous Powers are part Daemon , for they are supernatural terrors to a man. However, it is just as likely that the empyric forces which protect them from the vagaries of fate will do precisely nothing at a critical moment, especially if the recipient has come to take them for granted. In such contradictions do the Chaos Gods find humour and justice alike. Each of the 9 Heretic Astartes Traitor Legions fights using a different style of warfare that is defined by their Legion's culture and their primarch 's nature; also, 4 of the 9 -- the Emperor's Children , the World Eaters , the Thousand Sons and the Death Guard -- are dedicated specifically to the service of one of the four major Chaos Gods , Slaanesh , Khorne , Tzeentch and Nurgle , respectively.
The other five Traitor Legions essentially serve the interests of all of the Ruinous Powers collectively in the form of Chaos Undivided. Post-Heresy Emperor's Children corrupted iconography. The rot spread quickly through the Legion, and the Emperor's Children embraced Chaos, particularly the Prince of Pleasure, in all its depravity.
Little trace can now be seen of the original armour and equipment of the Emperor's Children, covered as it is by skins of iridescent fur or scales, jewels, or the fantastical renderings of screaming faces or rutting beasts.
The Emperor's Children fight for sensation and sensory overload, bringing a clashing cacophony of sound, colour, and energy to the battlefield. Post-Heresy Iron Warriors ' corrupted iconography. The Iron Warriors once formed the Emperor's legion of siege troops. They fought on a hundred worlds in the Great Crusade, laying siege to alien citadels and the palaces of Renegades with equal gusto. The Iron Warrior's Primarch, Perturabo , excelled in the arts of siege and trench warfare above all else, and his treatise on fortifications and their reduction formed the basis of several sections of the Tactica Imperialis.
The Iron Warriors betrayed the Emperor on Istvaan V, their mazes of bunkers and razor wire becoming a death trap for their Loyalist brethren instead of the sanctuary they promised to be. The Iron Warriors wear relatively unadorned armour that is commonly pieced together from the older marks for its heavier frontal protection. They favour heavy weaponry like Lascannons or Missile Launchers for long-range engagements, although well-equipped Iron Warriors Assault Squads are also rightly feared.
Post-Heresy Night Lords ' corrupted iconography. Curze believed in the use of terror as a weapon and his foes quickly learned to fear the night. The Night Lords were one of the first Legions to join Horus' rebellion, turning on what they saw as a weak-willed Emperor incapable of the strength required to lead and govern the galaxy effectively.
Even after the Warmaster's defeat, the Night Lords have continued to wage an unremitting campaign of terror against the Imperium.
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