Traitor Guard

[Seahawk]

There are a variety of traitors, mutants, and heretics in the galaxy that are not as terrifying as the Chaos Space Marine Legions, nor as much a herald of evil as the Daemons of Chaos, yet they are just as insidious all the same. These are the men and women of the Imperium that turn and have turned their back on their benefactors in search of personal glory.

Here in this thread, we will work together to compile every reference to the various documented Traitor Guard from every credible source available (ie, not Lexicanum, Wikipedia, etc). It's my hope that people will be inspired by the information within to start their own brand of traitors and showcase them later on. This top post will be where I will compile everything into relevant categories. In addition, this will be the thread to feature personal interpretations of the army, including pictures of your own painted units and theoreticals using the Painter.

Anything about a unit of Traitor Guard is of interest. Uniforms, tactics, equipment, bonding, and so on. Each sourced entry should contain the following:

1. An exact quotation from an official GW source. Put quotes around it so we know what's "canon."

2. Cite your source. This is important. Historical research requires verifiable sources. Any official Warhammer 40,000 material is fair game, even licensed stuff. Some discrepancies will inevitably appear, but that's part of the fun! Be sure to provide a copyright date if the edition could be in doubt and a page number, if applicable. Also, specify which country your White Dwarf is from, if it post-dates the UK/US White Dwarf split (WD 192?).

Each personal entry should be limited to one good picture of your version of either established or scratch built Traitors, with a short explanation on painting and conversions, or sourcing of parts.


Known Traitor Guard Regiments

5th Columnus (Codex: Eye of Terror, 2003)
Presence confirmed on Belis Corona

666th Regiment of Foot (Codex: Eye of Terror, 2003)
Presence confirmed on Cadia.

Blood Pact (US WD 293, 2004; and Blood Pact, 2010)
++++RECORDS INCOMPLETE++++

Discilian Apostates (Codex: Eye of Terror, 2003)
++++RECORDS INCOMPLETE++++

Geno Five-Two Chiliad (Legion, 2008)
Disappeared mysteriously on Hydra Tertius 42, likely in Alpha Legion service during the heresy. Featured weak female psykers as commanders, gaining them a tactical benefit due to the ability to perceive the tactical situation at a higher level.

Geno Seven-Sixty Spartocid (The Primarchs, 2012)
Converted and used by the Alpha Legion in the heresy, they were humorless and muscular brutes and wore helmets that had two small slits for eyes.

Haradni 13th (The 13th Black Crusade, 2004)
++++RECORDS INCOMPLETE++++

Jenen Ironclads (Codex: Eye of Terror, 2003)
Presence in the Kromat system.

Ocanan XV Infantry (Codex: Imperial Guard, 2009)
++++RECORDS INCOMPLETE++++

Selucid Thorakite Regiments (Angel Exterminatus, 2012)
Natural-born Olympian soldiers who had joined with the Iron Warriors in the genocide of their homeworld, the Thorakitai were grim-faced men and women in faded khaki, scaled breastplates and helms fashioned in the image of a Mark IV suit.

Sentrek Freemen (Codex: Eye of Terror, 2003)
Suspected presence in the Barisa system.

Shadik Republic (Straight Silver, 2006)
++++RECORDS INCOMPLETE++++

Sons of Sek (Traitor General, 2005)
++++RECORDS INCOMPLETE++++

(the) Stigmartus (Deathwatch: The Achilus Assault, 2012)
Degenerate armies, composed of renegades, cultists, rogue psykers, mutants, and madmen, the Stigmartus represent the greatest single military threat to the success of the Salient. Despite their disparate makeup, the forces of the Stigmartus display a level of military organisation and tactical acumen rarely seen among the servants of Chaos."

The Traitor 9th (Codex: Eye of Terror, 2003)
Presence in the Kantrael system.

Ubridius Light Infantry (Codex: Eye of Terror, 2003)
Presence in the Cadian sector.

Volscani Cataphracts (Codex: Eye of Terror, 2003)
Active on Cadia.

Vraksian Renegade Militia (Imperial Armor V-VI, 2007)
++++RECORDS INCOMPLETE++++

Zoican Defence Force (Necropolis, 2003)
The hive's entire population had been pressed into service.

Infamous Cults

Ateanism (Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods, 2008)
Ateanism is a school of thought and a scholastic and artistic theory. It holds beauty and the pure achievement of the mind above all other goals and believes that at the heart of the drive to perfection and purity in any fields lies a single magnificent truth. To this end, Ateanists strive to use a set of formulae and processes that grant them a glimpse of the majesty of the truth that lies beneath all of man's greatest works. Sadly for those deluded fools, the revealed truth they seek is a lie wed to the powers of depravity and hubris that echo in the warp. In applying their flawed and blasphemous patterns, Ateanists constantly court a blind dance with corruption, destruction, and damnation.


The Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness (Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods, 2008)
The Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness is a dangerous and highly organised malefic cult whose origins and activities go back according to some sources to the founding of the Calixis Sector and quite possibly beyond. This cult has been repeatedly smashed time and again over the centuries only to appear again some years or decades later. Membership, size, form, and power may vary, but it is always recognizable in its core beliefs and the object of its worship-the Daemon Balphomael, the Horned Darkness. The brotherhood, known to some as the "Pact of Balphomael" or the "Black Society", is recognized by the Ordo Malleus as a near archetypal daemon worshiping cult, although often better resourced and more dangerous than most.

The Logicians (Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods, 2008)
The Logicians are an alliance of heretical factions and tech-cults who have long been a thorn in the side of Calixis and the nearby Ixaniad Sectors, but whose origins go back considerably further into the Imperium, and indeed humanity's past. Founded not around a single charismatic figure or dark religion, they find their inspiration in a forbidden heretical text called "In Defense of the Future : A Logical Discourse", a work declared blasphemous by both the Ministorum and the Cult Mechanicus and banned for several millennia.


The Menagerie (Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods, 2008)
The name of the Menagerie is one whispered fearfully by warp-dabblers and those that traffic in forbidden lore, its name is a thing of terror, a dark legend and an enemy to be more feared than even the Holy Inquisition. It is a cult of secret and matchless power that deals in physical corruption and madness, whose touch blights the flesh with the twisting mutation of the warp and whose sorceries can sunder reality and remake it.

The Murder Room (Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods, 2008)
The stories speak of a terrifying and secret place, a room drenched in the blood of countless victims, a place where a thousand screams linger and the air is heavy with the scent of acrid copper and as sharp as a razor's kiss. It is said that every room there had ever been where blood has drenched the walls, every home whose safety was shattered by terror in the night, or defiled by murder from within-all are caught forever, remembered in this one red room, the Murder Room. It is a place built from betrayal and malice, fed by blood and death, furnished by unreasoning slaughter, and echoing with the unheeded pleas of the lost. More terrible yet, this Murder Room lives, it thirsts, and it waits.

The Night Cult (Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods, 2008)

Knowledge surrounding a group known as the Night Cult is one such secret. To most, it is no more than an old dark tale, a ghost story told on a dozen worlds to deter those who would disturb the dead. But behind the stories lies a dark and hidden truth at the center of a shrouding mass of ancient myth, fragmented records, half-truths, misapprehensions, and outright lies. The story goes back, according to some apocryphal sources, to the founding of the Calixis Sector, at a time when the Angevin Crusade was faltering and a man became a saint. It concerns a heretical faction of the Imperial Creed long forbidden, the darkest of proscribed technologies, an apocalyptic prophesy of the End of Day, and the power the make the dead walk.


The Pale Throng (Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods, 2008)
The Pale Throng is an unsubtle, crazed and degenerate congregation of shambling horrors and decayed and sickening witch-breeds guided by sinister mutant overlords.


The Pilgrims of Hayte (Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods, 2008)
An apocalyptic murder cult as insidious as it is cruel, the Pilgrims of Hayte have plagued the Calixis Sector for nearly three centuries. During that time, they have risen to levels of infamy unrivaled by any other. Such is their well-founded reputation for horror and atrocity with the sector's powers that be that mere rumor of the cult's presence in a particular area is enough to generate near-panic among the nobility and prompt immediate, and brutal crackdowns by local authorities.


The Temple Tendency (Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods, 2008)
Millennia of subterfuge have made the Temple Tendency a deadly and thirsting shadow of the holy organisation it once was. Its poisonous presence slipped into the foundling Calixis Sector during the days of its birth, where the Tendency has festered and grown slowly down the centuries. The Calixian Temple Tendency is stronger now than it has ever been and a threat to which even the Inquisition is blind, lurking unseen like a serpent poised to sink its fangs into the sector's heart.



The Vile Savants (Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods, 2008)
The Savants themselves are hideous to behold, reeking and defiled bio-containment suits filled with bubbling rot that stumble on, boneless and implacable, silent as death itself. These foul entities are possessed of the skills and knowledge of their long dead occupants coupled with a malign warp-intelligence and the occult might of the daemon of rot and pestilence. They are consumed by hatred for all that live and breathe and have the most horrific means of enacting their war of annihilation. The contagion that animates them is their dark harbinger, spilling our through the warp and infecting a single individual whose despair and morbidity attracts it from worlds away. From there, it spreads as plague, the infection running rampant and preparing the way for the Vile Savants to emerge, wreaking their vengeance and showering mankind with the gifts bestowed on them by the Lord of Decay.

Edited March 6, 2013 by Seahawk

[Nehekhare]

Angel Exterminatus p.23 mentions the Selucid Thorakite regiments: "Natural-born Olympian soldiers who had joined with the Iron Warriors in the

genocide of their homeworld, the Thorakitai were grim-faced men and women in faded khaki, scaled breastplates and helms fashioned in the image of a Mark IV suit."

[Excessus]

Well, mostly heresy but:

 

The Geno Seven-Sixty Spartocid was converted and used by the Alpha Legion in the heresy, they were humourless and muscular brutes and wore helmets that had two small slits for eyes. (The Serpent Beneath)

 

And since the Geno Five-Two Chiliad disappeared mysteriously on Hydra Tertius 42(Legion), they were most likely in Alpha Legion service during the heresy as well. They had female weak psykers as commanders, gaining them a tactical benefit due to the ability to percieve the tactical situation at a higher level.

 

 

Being of the "Old Hundred" I think they both would have enough pride to still kling to their old customs and practices...perhaps...

Edited January 13, 2013 by Excessus

[Vesper]

The Stigmartus

"Of all the forces standing in opposition to the Acheros Salient, none are more belligerent or numerous than the degenerate armies of the Stigmartus. Composed of renegades, cultists, rogue psykers, mutants, and madmen, the Stigmartus represent the greatest single military threat to the success of the Salient. Despite their disparate makeup, the forces of the Stigmartus display a level of military organisation and tactical acumen rarely seen among the servants of Chaos."

Deathwatch - The Achilius Assault, page 69.

 

The Pale Throng (a mutant cult)

"No subtle cult or hidden conspiracy, The Pale Throng is a crazed and degenerate congregation of shambling horrors and decayed and sickening witch-breeds guided by sinister mutant overlords."

Dark Heresy : Disciples of the Dark Gods, page 52.

 

Don't know if that kind of Chaos cult fills the requirements to be here. Tell me, there's a huge load in the Dark Heresy book.

Edited January 14, 2013 by Vesper

[*Furyou Miko]

Zoican Defence Force (Necropolis)

"The hive's entire population had been pressed into service."

[Seahawk]

We're not really looking for cults; those can be covered in the C:CSM section ;). Here, the focus is on Imperial Guard regiments who have turned traitor/renegade, and/or standing military formations such as the Stigmartus or Zoican Defence Force.

 

However, I think I'll add a second header for truly infamous chaos cults. Thanks for the idea!

[Vesper]

You're welcome.

So, aside from the Pale Throng :

 

The Temple Tendency (remains of one of the biggest imperial cults, fell from grace following the Age of Apostasy) :

"Millennia of subterfuge have made the Temple Tendency a deadly and thirsting shadow of the holy organisation it once was. Its poisonous presence slipped into the foundling Calixis Sector during the days of its birth, where the Tentendy has festered and grown slowly down the centuries. The Calixian Temple Tendency is stronger now than it has ever been and a threat to which even the Inquisition is blind, lurking unseen like a serpent poised to sink its fangs into the sector's heart."

Dark Heresy : Disciples of the Dark Gods, page 31.

 

The Logicians :

"The Logicians are an alliance of heretical factions and tech-cults who have long been a thorn in the side of Calixis and the nearby Ixaniad Sectors, but whose origins go back considerably further into the Imperium, and indeed humanity's past. Founded not around a single charismatic figure or dark religion, they find their inspiration in a forbidden heretical text called "In Defence of the Future : A Logical Discourse", a work declared blasphemous by both the Ministorum and the Cult Mechanicus and banned for several millennia."

Dark Heresy : Disciples of the Dark Gods, page 40.

 

The Night Cult :

"Knowledge surrounding a group known as the Night Cult is one such secret. To most, it is no more than an old dark tale, a ghost story told on a dozen worlds to deter those who would disturb the dead. But behind the stories lies a dark and hidden truth at the centre of a shrouding mass of ancient myth, fragmented records, half-truths, misapprehensions, and outright lies. The story goes back, according to some apocryphal sources, to the founding of the Calixis Sector, at a time when the Angevin Crusade was faltering and a man became a saint. It concerns a heretical faction of the Imperial Creed long forbidden, the darkest of proscribed technologies, an apocalyptic prophesy of the End of Day, and the power the make the dead walk."

Dark Heresy : Disciples of the Dark Gods, page 61.

 

The Pilgrims of Hayte (they are my favorite in the book, awesomely written) :

"An apocalyptic murder cult as insidious as it is cruel, the Pilgrims of Hayte have plagued the Calixis Sector for nearly three centuries. During that time, they have risen to levels of infamy unrivalled by any other. Such is their well-founded reputation for horror and atrocity with the sector's powers that be that mere rumour of the cult's presence in a particular aera is enough to generate near-panic among the nobility and prompt immediate, and brutal crackdowns by local authorities."

Dark Heresy : Disciples of the Dark Gods, page 123.

 

Ateanism :

"Ateanism is a school of thought and a scholastic and artistic theory. It holds beauty and the pure achievement of the mind above all other goals and believes that at the heart of the drive to perfection and purity in any fields lies a single magnificent truth. To this end, Ateanists strive to use a set of formulae and processes that grant them a glimpse of the majesty of the truth that lies beneath all of man's greatest works. Sadly for those deluded fools, the revealed truth they seek is a lie wed to the powers of depravity and hubris that echo in the warp. In applying their flawed and blasphemous patterns, Ateanists constantly court a blind dance with corruption, destruction, and damnation."

Dark Heresy : Disciples of the Dark Gods, page 132.

 

The Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness :

"The Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness is a dangerous and highly organised malefic cult whose origins and activities go back according to some sources to the founding of the Calixis Sector and quite possibly beyond. This cult has been repeatedly smashed time and again over the centuries only to appear again some years or decades later. Membership, size, form, and power may vary, but it is always regonisable in its core beliefs and the object of its worship-the Daemon Balphomael, the Horned Darkness. The brotherhood, known to some as the "Pact of Balphomael" or the "Black Society", is recognised by the Ordo Malleus as a near archetypical daemon worshipping cult, although ofter better resourced and more dangerous than most."

Dark Heresy : Disciples of the Dark Gods, page 137.

 

The Vile Savants :

"The Savants themselves are hidehous to behold, reeking and defiled bio-containment suits filled with bubbling rot that stumble on, boneless and implacable, silent as death itself. These foul entities are possessed of the skills and knowledge of their long dead occupants coupled with a malign warp-intelligence and the occult might of the daemon of rot and pestilence. They are consumed by hatred for all that live and breathe and have the most horrific means of enacting their war of annihilation. The contagion that animates them is their dark harbinger, spilling our through the warp and infecting a single individual whose despair and morbidity attracts it from worlds away. From there, it spreads as plague, the infection running rampant and preparing the way for the Vile Savants to emerge, wreaking their vengeance and showering mankind with the gifts bestowed on them by the Lord of Decay."

Dark Heresy : Disciples of the Dark Gods, page 145.

 

The Menagerie (Tzeentch-related cult):

"The name of the Menagerie is one whispered fearfully by warp-dabblers and those that traffic in forbidden lore, its name is a thing of terror, a dark legend and an enemy to be more feared than even the Holy Inquisition. It is a cult of secret and matchless power that deals in physical corruption and madness, whose touch blights the flesh with the twisting mutation of the warp and whose sorceries can sunder reality and remake it."

Dark Heresy : Disciples of the Dark Gods, page 152.

 

The Murder Room (some kind of weird khornate phenomenon of unknown origin. Feels inspired by Edgar Poe to me. We could think of its victims (who appear to be indoctrinated/possessed/turned into psychopathic murderers) as a cult).

"The stories speak of a terrifying and secret place, a room drenched in the blood of countless victims, a place where a thousand screams linger and the air is heavy with the scent of acrid copper and as sharp as a razor's kiss. It is said that every room there had ever been where blood has drenched the walls, every home whose safety was shattered by terror in the night, or defiled by murder from within-all are caught forever, remembered in this one red room, the Murder Room. It is a place built from betrayal and malice, fed by blood and death, furnished by unreasoning slaughter, and echoing with the unheeded pleas of the lost. More terrible yet, this Murder Room lives, it thirsts, and it waits."

Dark Heresy : Disciples of the Dark Gods, page 159.

 

That's all for the Chaos-related cults in the book. There are some Xenos cults too, but I don't think they have their place here. Could be wrong though. Hope I avoided making typos all over the place, but not sure of that too.

Edited January 14, 2013 by Vesper

[Olis]

Well, if you're looking for infamous cults, the Guant's Ghosts books are a good place to start:

 

Infardi (Guant's Ghosts, Honour Guard 2001)

A cult on the Shrine world of Hagia, led by Pater Sin. The name is derived from the Hagian word for "pilgrim" but certain locals refused to call them as such, instead insultingly called them "ershul" after a livestock animal, the Chelon, of which some eat their own faeces.

 

Blood Pact (Gaunt's Ghosts, The Guns of Tanith 2002)

The main opposition in the Sabbat Crusade after the major battle at Balhaut. The cult mimics Imperial Guard practices, organisation and uses similar equipment, putting them on a par with Imperial forces that most cults usually do not exhibit. A characteristic piece of equipment is the gargoyle type mask that covers the lower half of Blood Pact troopers faces, giving them a fearful appearance on the field of battle when coupled with their usual rough garb. Often fielded alongside them are alien mercenaries known as the Loxatl. Entry into the Blood Pact is marked by a ritual scarification of the palm of individual troopers hands.

 

Sons of Sek (Gaunt's Ghosts, Traitor General 2004)

An imitation of the Blood Pact, this cult is the creation of the warlord Anakwanar Sek, on the world of Gereon before it's liberation, in direct competition to his superior, Urlock Gaur.

[Vesper]

The Blood Pact and the Sons of Sek are closer to the Imperial Guards (like the Stigmartus) in their behavior, structure and methods. They aren't betrayers to the Imperium, just raised armies to fight for Chaos. But as Seahawk noted, the distinction isn't related to the origins of such entities, it's more about their modus operanti. "Traitor guard" is a common way to say "Chaos Guard" or something equivalent. Edited January 14, 2013 by Vesper

[Olis]

Fair enough. I don't mind which category they go in (although I do now notice they are actually included, making my post somewhat redundant). :)

[Vesper]

Made my best to make believe your post had a point, because I don't want you to look like a guy who just comes up and throws names without taking the time to read those provided by other members (which is kinda rude when you think about it).

But trust me, it will be our little secret.

Edited January 14, 2013 by Vesper

[Olis]

I could've sworn they weren't there before, to be honest.

[Iron_Within]

There is also the Traitor Guard who are vat grown troops in the Siege of Castellax. Don't have the book to hand unfortunately