The Chaos Legions

[Emperors Immortals]

Well the wiki shows that their current symbol is a burning rune of Khorne. And it even shows the details from the GW article that was mentioned. I believe it was the old "Make your own warband" article but it hasn't been up in years. I think it got lost when GW reformatted their site. So I don't know what happened. Because everyone has been quick to follow the change when one of the Imperial Armour Volume(Number 9 of the Badab War I believe) changed Periclitor from a Night Lord to a Word Bearer. Although he is still listed under Notable Night Lords on the wiki.

 

The wiki also says that the Sanctified were mentioned in IA volume 9 as well. Maybe Forgeworld retconned themselves?

 

I don't know. Like I said, I'm pretty confused about the whole thing and it makes me happy that I just stuck with the Night Lords instead of picking a warband because I don't have to worry about the fluff changing too much.

 

 

Sorry, but i can find absolutly no reference to IA9 in the article, or teh warband being mentioned in IA9.Ill look again.

Not a massive deal, but The Sanctified are now a WE splinter.

Night Lords are an amazing army, i love them and want to do a pre-heresy one.

[Kol Saresk]

Here's the page. it's right there under sources. Like I said, it's not that big of a deal to me.

[Emperors Immortals]

O...M...G!!!!

 

First, sorry if any offence was taken, im typing while minding my two precious toddlers so time is short and brevity of post a must.

 

Second - ill only use the 40k Wiki from now on, its much better then Lex.

 

1. Vraks started in 813.M41, and the Sanctified are at this point a WE splinter war-band noted for its skill in daemonancy and desire to summon Khornes daemonic hordes. This is the current state of the warband.

 

2. Previous to this, the sanctified were a WB warband, but following the "assasination of Arch-Sorcerer Ezrath Cull by his own apprentices after his failure to attain Daemonhood a brutal power struggle followed for control of his decimated warband." in the Battle for Grand Al'gul 666.m41.

 

"At some point The Sanctified dedicated itself to the bloody worship of Khorne. Since that time, they have used their dark abilities as daemonmancers to summon Khorne's daemonic children into the material universe". - this must have occured in the 147 years between the two campaigns.

 

The how to paint articles picture is from the 2007 CSM dex (4th ed.) on pg 21, with the new Vraks campaign published 2009.

 

They are therfore the same warband at different parts of its long history starting at teh Battle of Terra.

 

Im glad this is solved, and will continue to read my IA9 book, as I should have known all this already, dammit. :rolleyes:

[ThisisJimmy]

The Sanctified aren't a splinter force of the WE, as that would imply they were once WE (as the definition of splinter shows). They are now, through a series of unconfirmed circumstances, Khorne worshippers, and now find themselves subjugated by the Skulltakers, an actual WE splinter (as was shown in the IA). Thus it is, I guess, you could consider themselves a faction of the WE, through their Skulltakers connection. They still have WB gene seeds within them and so should be considered a splinter from them. And as for their bolter usage, they are not, and never were, Beserkers, and Khorne worshippers using ranged weapons is not without precedent (see Blood Pact).

[TheDarkApostle]

Also worth noting is that Zulfur (the leader of the Skulltakers) is actually a renegade former sergeant of the Storm Lords (White Scars descendants) so technically Zulfur himself isn't even a proper World Eater.

 

The more you know. ;)

 

TDA

[ThisisJimmy]

A very fair point TDA. It turns out that the Skulltakers aren't even WE's themselves. They are the former loyalist chapter Berserkers of Kharadon, who actually went renegade fairly recently. It sort of raises questions about why they are listed as WE sub-factions, when it seems the only connection they have is they paint their armour red and worship Khorne.

[Kol Saresk]

*cough Forgeworld retcon *cough

 

Anyway, if I had to guess, I woul say that the Berserkers of Kharadon were absorbed into a WE warband known as the Skulltakers. Who then became Zhufor's warband.

[ThisisJimmy]

Well interestingly enough, it pretty much straight out says that it was the Berserkers of Kharadon who became the Skulltakers, as in they are the originals. They were in the most recent Chaos Codex, which was released in 2007, so it could have been a retcon, but it does seem an odd thing to change so quickly.

 

Don't you just love the confounding nature of the 40k universe?

[Kol Saresk]

I do and I don't. Like The Night Haunter, I like the mystery that is left behind by not two, but several conflicting reports of who he was. It gives them a mystery no other Legion quite has. Not even the Alpha Legion has that kind of mystery. Their biggest mysteries are 1.) Is Alpharius still alive? and 2.) Is the Alpha Legion still Legion?

 

The Night Lords get 1.) Was the Night Haunter a son abandoned by his father who turned Traitor out of Revenge? Or was he corrupted by Chaos long before the Heresy? 2.) Which one of the Night Lords is telling the truth when they remember him? Zso Sahaal, Krieg Acerbus, Talos, Vandred or Cyrion? 3.) What would it mean if they are all telling the truth? Or none of them are? 4.) Would the truth have any impact on the Legion at large, despite its fracturing?

 

But then you get crap like this and Periclitor and it is just frikkin' confusing.

[ThisisJimmy]

I think a fair bit is planned, because it encourages the mystery and captures the feel of the 41st millenium, information is not freely given and the stories we hear are just an interpretation of an event. I think it oftens encourages the development of home made fluff, as there is a lot of ambiguity in the universe.

 

And then you get contradictions where there shouldn't be, such as here, or you get things like Kaldor Draigo carving his predecessors name on Mortarion's heart, which is just plain silly.

[The Colossus]

The sanctified are in ia9, in an historical account of a battle with the Fire Angels. They are noted as a "world eaters sub-faction" on page 26 of volume 6. I think it's up to us how we interpret it, none of our views are particularly wrong, there's just not quite enough info... Hmmm.

 

The Skulltakers (Berserkers of Kharadon) disappeared for 5000 years, that's plenty of time to find and join the World Eaters.

[ThisisJimmy]

But what would they join? The WE are a shattered Legion and only operate as a series of warbands , you can't exactly join a Legion that doesn't have a leadership. And the Sanctfied are also noted as having ties to the WB, which is slightly contradictory when reviewed with other texts

[TheDarkApostle]

Now there was that old "create you own warband" on the GW site ages ago which had the Sanctified being a warband created by a Word Bearer commander who refused to retreat to the Maelstrom/Eye of Terror after the Horus Heresy and instead went out and did his own thing assimilating anyone devote enough to fit his criteria to the Warband.

 

Then that guy was killed in M.34 or something and the warband contained with his goal of spreading the Word of Chaos throughout the entire universe.

 

So there we already at the beginning have the warband not being Word Bearers exclusively but rather made up of anyone up for the task.

 

Then the death of the original leader and another 7 millennia and the original vision may very well have changed alot.

 

Then we have the Siege of Vraks pledge of allegiance to Zulfur which would technically make them a sub-faction of the Skulltakers. Which I suppose is where the reports of being a World Eaters sub-faction is all about.

 

But then again by that analogy the Skulltakers themselves though Zulfur have a pledge of allegiance to Abbadon so technically-technically they would be a sub-faction of the Black Legion.

 

So now we have the Sanctified being a sub-faction of not only the Word Bearers, and not only the World Eaters, but both and the Black Legion as well.

 

And this is where we all get confused. :P

 

TDA

[Kol Saresk]

And yet, somehow, you're explanation is much easier to follow.

 

I'm still trying to figure out how Periclitor went from Night Lord to Word Bearer. It's just wrong.

[TheDarkApostle]

Ah, well, that's just a retcon.

 

I'm pretty sure.

 

TDA

[TheDarkApostle]

In the end I guess we have to take a step backwards and remember two important things.

 

* GWs constant remember of how everything is written from different perspectives and everything is half-truths.

 

* Pretty much everything in the universe is written from an Imperial viewpoint.

 

So in the end, would your everyday Imperial Command sit back and ask himself if those guys in World Eater colors are really World Eaters or renegades pretending they are World Eaters? Most likely not, he would just designate them World Eaters and be done with it no matter if it's correct or not.

 

The same with the buddies of those guys who are obviously World Eaters, doesn't really matter if they happen to have a slightly different paint job on their armors. They are still shouting blessings to Khorne and summoning His daemons. Obviously they have to be World Eaters as well.

 

And hence we (the players) end up with weird reports of the Sanctified being a World Eater sub-factor, and the Skulltakers being World Eaters. :rolleyes:

 

That's my take on it at least.

 

TDA

[ThisisJimmy]

And probably a correct take when all is said and done. Whilst it may cause frustration and debate, the ambiguity within the 40k universe can work to its own advantage. It encourages the players to develop their own story, which can only be a good thing

[Kol Saresk]

Sh! People making stories doesn't work for GW's business according to some people! Keep that stuff on the down-low![/sarcasm]