Characterization of a Chaos Lord

[Verity]

So I'm seeking inspiration and whatnot, and I was just curious - when you build your warbands and create your Chaos Lords/Sorcerers/Princes, how do you go about building their character and stuff? Hard to explain what I'm getting at here, but it's things like what sort of path do you prefer for them to go down? Do you like those who seem to have reluctantly fallen to Chaos, those who embraced it wholeheartedly in a hunt for power, those who use it as a means to an end, a weapon and a tool to be used in the pursuit of the Long War, those who truly lose their souls in dedication to their god and possibly ascend? Recently fallen renegades, or veterans fighting down the millennia? There's so many little details here I could go into, but I think that should be enough to give the gist of what I mean.

 

How about the level of depth? I've seen instances of people going so far as to have recorded their battles and actions in terrifyingly minute detail, where others do a general outline of their history, where others still just sort of let you know what they're like (not saying any of this is wrong, mind). What sort of approach do you take?

 

And a bit away from your own Lords - how do you prefer to see them presented in the fiction, and who's your favourite one around? Vandred/The Exalted has always struck me as a very cool character, sticking out a little bit amongst a myriad of other characters I love. Something about his whole style and fall/conclusion seems quite appealing.

 

As a last point, examples of your Chaos Lords would be kind of nice, although I appreciate that that (and possibly this whole topic, but I wasn't really sure) could belong in another forum. 

[Olis]

My long standing Chaos Lord/Sorceror - Set'Leth - (who's been menacing battlefield's since 3rd ed) is one of those consumed-by-fury types (he's a Thousand Son) that used/uses whatever he can to hurt the Imperium (Space Wolves are a bonus). Now, in the thousands and thousands of years since Prospero was burned, he has become somewhat... less volatile but is still bent on wrath, whenever his plans come to fruition. His latest escapades involve trinket gathering (which is sort of unoriginal) and turning a subsector into a seething cauldron rebellion. He has no interest in ascending to daemonhood, I think simply through single-mindedness and a desire to remain somewhat human.

 

He's got a looong history - protégé's, rivals and enemies appear, mutation and relics also feature. He's been the subject of at least two short stories I've clattered out over the years and is the main antagonist of a campaign setting I created far too long ago to remain relevant without updating and rewriting the whole thing. He also has tertiary involvement with my DIY chapter - I don't think I've ever actually had the two meet but associates of my Lord have faced the chapter before, or earned their retribution somehow. 

 

My favourite Lord has to be Huron. He seems like a nice guy sometimes, until you realise that it's all just a crocodile smile and he's in fact someone you really REALLY don't want to owe a favour. Other times, he's just a scheming, conniving warlord that has ambition. There are few other Chaos Lord's with the sort of power and charisma Huron has. Oh, and lest we forget, his fall was interesting, to say the least. ;) 

 

Although I cannot give you an example of my lord, he has traditionally wielded a pair of lightning claws (the original was armed with two of Abaddon's claws - one was reversed). I think, for this edition, he's due for an updated model and, perhaps, updated gear.

[Sception]

Depends on the character. Sometimes it just jumps out at me, sometimes I have to mull it over and refine it a lot.

 

For instance - my warpsmith practically wrote himself. He's modeled after Mojo Jojo, the powerpuff girls villain, which of course was done for an amusing model and a fun reference. But what is he in character? Well, he's a techologically brilliant simian mad scientist. Those happen to already exist in 40k, so bam. From there it was simple to come up with Jojo, the mad Jokaero scientist who performed forbidden experiments on his own brain to expand his intelligence, succeeding spectacularly, but also resulting in a peculiar, repetitive speech pattern and a tendency to fly into fits of violent, physical rage.

 

When his heretical research and experimentation was discovered, Jojo was forced to flee, eventually making his way to the Eye of Terror, and, in time, the service of Abaddon the Despoiler, who was intrigued by the alien creature and the possibilities presented by its experimentations. Though attempts to replicate the Jokaero's intelligence-augmentation on humans or marines have failed, the mechanical monstrosities produced by his genius have proven to be a powerful asset to the Black Legion warmachine. Re-christening himself 'Mojo Jojo', the warpsmiths heavily augmented cybernetic body is a deadly warmachine in its own right, and Mojo relishes the opportunity to join his war engines on the battlefield.

 

 

 

On the other hand, my Dark Vengeance chaos lord has been much more difficult to come up with, despite his place of honor as the commander of my own Black Legion warband (when it isn't graced with the presence of the despoiler himself, of course). It took forever to come up with a name. Recently I settled on 'Wiegraf Folles', naming him after a character from one of my favorite video games. I'm still not sure how much of that character's personality or backstory I intend to incorporate into the Chaos Lord's 40k narrative however. Perhaps some sort of secret order analogous to the Shrine Knights from the War of the Lion within the Black Legion (or spread throughout numorous legions? Or mostly within the Word Bearers, but with Wiegraf as an attempt to gain a foothold within the Black Legion?), with each member host to one of an order of ancient daemon princes, looking use the bloodshed unleashed by Abaddon's latest crusade as a sacrifice necessary to create a new incarnation of the fallen lord of their daemonic order? Possibly intending to use Abaddon himself as the host body?

 

I don't know, the pieces don't really fit together yet, but I'm working on it.

[Deadman Wade]

I've been writing my Chaos Lords and warbands story for quite some time, with battles starting from Horus Heresy. Thanks to Forge World I can now actually fight those battles now (we have 5 Horus Heresy players in my local club). To me, Warhammer is all about it's setting, rules are not important at all, so warband leader backgroung is a must-have. When I started Night Lords in 2009, I imagined my lord "Shredder" something what ADB's Talos is like, so I had to change him from old-school legionaire to twisted maniac.

Not sure if you can call Khârn a Chaos Lord, but he's my favourite character from 40k, especially those audio book (Khârn's voice there is awesomeness incarnate). He's absolutely insane, but appear calm and focused, he has no lust for power, and he's one of the best fighters in the galaxy. He survived all those millenia without running away from combat, without Black Crusades and magic tricks - just his melee skill, plasma pistol and Gorechild.

[Vesper]

My Chaos Lord, Saren Serevor, is a former Son of Horus Reaver. Following the Heresy and the birth of the Black Legion, he managed to unite a small pirate-like warband of the Black Legion to spread havoc in his quest for glory and revenge in the name of Abaddon and the Legion. Finally, Serevor managed to catch the Warmaster's attention during the Ghost War, gaining his favour. That led to a huge growth of the warband's power. Now a fearsome Black Company, they spearhead the Black Crusades with the rest of the Legion, and were involved in other victorius campaigns such as the Arx Rift campaign that some people around here know about.

[hornywingythingy]

Back in 3.5 my alpha legion were led by sebastian, a tactical genius, who often cut corners with his own personal gear to ensure his legionaries had the proper equipment.

 

Now my forces are generally led by undivided or nurgle sorcerers, with less thought put into their background. I had 4 models for sebastian showing the different load outs he would select, I don't put the same care into my sorcerers.

[Dark Disciple]

Since staring Chaos in 3rd Edition I've written Lords ranging from loyal commanders, stimulant addicts and possessed warlords to Dark Apostles.

My longest standing Chaos Lord was a former Son of Horus who had fallen completely to the service of chaos, seeking ascension even over following the Warmaster. Something that got him killed on Medusa V when his Death Guard allies turned on him (2k of DG against 1k BL).

My latest chaos lord was inspired by of all things Unreal Tournament 3 and an interview Tom Hardy gave about Bane just before Dark Knight Rises came out.

Heres my rough notes on him:

 

Name: Tavion Darkblood

 

Origin: Born in an Imperial Prison, Tavion was forced to watch his mother’s torture and murder by vengeful inmates after surprising and killing a gang member who had broken into the cell he and his mother shared. Taught to fight by an Imperial Army Veteran. Sons of Horus attacked the Penal Facility to take slaves and capture youths for induction into the Legion to meet the requirements for additional manpower. Tavion managed to kill the Legionnaire tasked with his capture using a stolen grenade. Fought as a Legionnaire in the 63rd Company during the latter years of Horus’ rebellion. Attracted a following amongst the 63rd who became known as the Dark-Speakers. Cursed to wander the warp for a millennia after a failed coup against the former 63rd Captain, Rylon Valtak. The Dark-Speakers captured the Warship Umbra-Odvetta and journeyed deep into the center of the Eye of
Terror.  Returned from exile intent on killing Valtak to find the remains of the 63rd under the leadership of Tarrick Kholvax, a former member of the black-armored Justaerin and leader of the 63rd Company Terminator elite. The Dark-Speakers served as part of Kholvax Warband until the Chaos Lord’s disappearance, rallying around Darkblood
in the power vacuum to become the Rogo Dyss, a warband in their own right. Secured the backing of the Warmaster, renewing their connection to the Black legion as well as fostering relations with Red Corsairs in the Maelstrom. 

 

Character: He is a terrorist in mentality as well as action. His fighting style is brutal and incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style.

It's not about fighting. It's about carnage. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed and nasty. Anything from small-joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks and collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests, ripping out spinal columns.

Seeing himself as a liberator rather than a conqueror, he sees little issues with sacrificing entire populations if it serves his ends.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

Zarathustra Suicune was chief apothecary in the Thousand sons, and one of the first recruits of that legin from Prospero, and commands the Battle barge Hope of Prospero and seeks a way to rebuild Prospero. He refuses to fight Salamanders as he owed a life debt to a Salamander captain who fell upon on Isstvan, and beleives his legions fall from grace is the fault of his primarch who he plots vengeance upon.

[Antarius]

I pretty much like all stripes of Chaos Lords, except perhaps for the "stupid evil" type.

 

As it is, I have three Legion fractions (Word Bearers, Night Lords and Iron Warriors) who are working together as a more or less coherent warband. To some degree they're working for the Warmaster, so I might add some Black Legion guys somewhere down the road. Oh and I've got some daemonic allies as well.

These three (four) legions pretty much cover what I like about Chaos (at least as much as I can realistically manage to portray on the tabletop without having to chuck out my furniture to make room for more models). There's the religious dimension, the fanaticism, bitterness, cynicism, madness, genius, rebelliousness, violence, horror and even idealism.

 

What I've done with regards to building up the characters, apart from playing a campaign with them and writing a few short stories about them, is to line up all my HQ choices and form them into a sort of "cast of characters" for the story that is my Chaos army. Yeah, I'm a massive geek and this is pretty much my creative outlet in life, so spectacular amounts of time and energy goes into this.

 

Anyway, here's a sketch of what I've come up with:

 

+++Word Bearers+++

Grand Heresiarch Lykaeos (plays as Typhus): A prophet, sorcerer and warlord with a glorious vision for humanity. Personality: scheming, calm, self-confident, patient, empathetic and ultimately ruthless. One of the few guys in 40k with an actual positive vision.

Carries a tome of sorcery that contains powerful necromantic spells and rituals.

 

Antarius Hatebreeder (Dark Apostle/Chaos Lord): Lykaeos second in command. A masterful demagogue with a passion for bloodshed and fire.

Personality: Loyal, impassioned, violent, impulsive, pyromaniac tendencies.

Carries the burning brand.

 

Amnoth Cephalion (Sorcerer): Lykaeos equerry. A sorcerer of great power and ambition.

Personality: ambitious, curious, diplomatic.

 

 

+++Iron Warriors+++

Warsmith Ignatius Bellum (Chaos Lord) a strategic genius with a penchant for grinding his enemies down.

Personality: embittered, honorable, methodical, inventive, analytical, quick to anger.

Interested in daemonic technology but nowhere near as "religiously chaotic" as his WB allies.

Carries a mace and shield.

 

Einion (Warpsmith): Ignatius' second in command

 

Marculus (sorcerer/warpsmith): Ignatius' "mad scientist"

 

+++Night Lords+++

 

Captain Tzarekh "The Impaler" (Chaos Lord): a mercenary, warlord and "hands-on" killer.

Personality: sarcastic, semi-atheist, sadistic. His approach to the long war is to cause as much damage to the imperium as post-humanly possible, which is why he puts up with the WB and IW. His warband is more tainted than he'd like to admit.

 

Irich Drakhul (sorcerer): ...

 

 

+++Black Legion+++

 

Iscariot Deathbringer, the fallen angel (plays as Huron): an emissary from the Warmaster.

Personality: mysterious, reserved, fond of terror tactics and dramatic shows of power.

"Friends" with Tzarekh. Serves as a kind of consultant to Lykaeos. Is said to have the ear of the Warmaster.

 

 

I guess it's more or less like I'd build a setting for a role-playing game or a novel, really. I flesh the characters out as I get ideas or they become necessary for the story in our campaign. As it is, they've made it through a short campaign and now they're set to embark on another, where they'll fight Tau, Guardsmen, Blood Angels, Orks and (wait for it) ...Squats.

 

One thing I like about these guys (and Chaos in general) is that they aren't just bad guys (although they certainly are that). To a large extent it's actually their "good" qualities that serve as the driving force for their villainy.

[oreaper84]

Dread lord Severus Hellscreamer has was a former brother of the Alpha Legion proper. The legion is renown for thier silent infiltration and discordiant assaults. Severus excelled at discord, but failed utterly at silence. He was outcast from the legion and sent to a remote death world. On this planet there is a series of caves and underground tunnels where the slightest pinprick of sound is echoed and amplified until it becomes a boom of sound, The legion used these caves to teach the aspirants the value of silence and stealth. That lesson was not learned as intended. In his screams of rage Severus was wracked with the vibrations of his own voice, being bombarded by near deafining soundwaves. This was when the dark prince ensnared Severus's soul. Using the pains of his experience Lord Severus has found the value of silence, but only until it is broken by the cacaphony of screams and destruction. His newly founded warband is like-minded to the hellscreamer. silence can only be broken by the discord of chaos!

 

Honestly my fav warlord has got to be Kor Phearon, by virtue of his demeanor ( a total d%$@) and hes just a cranky old fart with a vengeful i told you so

[A D-B]

Please note that anyone who puts their Chaos Lord's name in this thread is inviting a passing author to murder the character in, say, a series about the Black Legion.

[Excessus]

My cell #379 is ruled by a council. They usually go about their separate business for "the masterplan", but convene about many things. The creeping corruption of the different parts of the cell is a grave concern...

 

So far I got Alphuron "The Randomizer", the two brothers Tal Maar "the seer" & Naph Maar "the incinerator" (recruited in the midst of a devious battle-by-proxy with the Word Bearers over a cultist planet, both were skillful riders in their youth, and have since taken up both bike and jetbike as their steeds), Experiment #621 (my daemon prince)...and I still have a few lords and sorcerers I haven't named yet...

 

...though some do, it's usually my lowly marines or operatives that gets stories, not the lords, hehehe...

[Captain Semper]

Yeah, but what are the chances of a BL author to accidentally pass by? Wait...

C'mon ADB, write a 5,000 word description for a Chaos Lord just for fun - like the other time you described what's like to be a Chaos Marine in 40k (still the 2nd most "liked" post ever in B&C I beleive). I think the OP and everyone else here will deeply appreciate it.

[Brother Tyler]

Chaos Lord Ague'Thi-Vee, Talon-Slayer of the VIIIth Legion.

[Sception]

Please note that anyone who puts their Chaos Lord's name in this thread is inviting a passing author to murder the character in, say, a series about the Black Legion.

My characters are protected by the powerful defense 'named after copyrighted fictional characters' to shield them from just such a fate!

Of course, instead of using the copyrighted final fantasy character 'Wiegraf', one could just use the original character name of 'Wiglaf' from the Beowulf legend, which Wiegraf is merely a mispelling/mistranslation of.

Your on your own for coming up with a way to use Mojo, though.

[Kol Saresk]

 

 

Please note that anyone who puts their Chaos Lord's name in this thread is inviting a passing author to murder the character in, say, a series about the Black Legion.

My characters are protected by the powerful defense 'named after copyrighted fictional characters' to shield them from just such a fate!

 

Of course, instead of using the copyrighted final fantasy character 'Wiegraf', one could just use the original character name of 'Wiglaf' from the Beowulf legend, which Wiegraf is merely a mispelling/mistranslation of.

 

 

Or personal interpretation.

 

Although honestly, any kind of cameo(even if it is a death scene) wouldn't be that terrifying of a prospect. The only thing I'd ask is that I get to take some people with me to the grave.

[Trevak Dal]

I got 3.

 

My Sorcerer Giselburtus is a mishmash of backgrounds. He was an Astral Claw, fighting with Huron during the Badab War. He was betrayed during the evacuation, a rival of his (his Cohort's Commander) mortally wounding him and leaving him behind. The Sorcerer died...but he came back as a Corpse Taker was preparing to remove his progenoids-but was still in shock. The Corpse Taker loaded him onto a ship and it made it through the horrific gauntlet as a series of old memories-long hidden from him came back to Giselburtus-though he knew not if they were real or imagined.

 

He had been born over 10,000 years ago on Caliban. He'd been a Recruit for one of the Orders and had not yet passed his first trials (and received implantation) when the Lutheran Uprising began, and was cast away in the warp storm that tore the planet apart. His next solid memory was his adoptive parents taking him in from the cold in a village, and the Astral Claws chaplin and Librarian who came to visit their hive and how he'd been taken as a supplicant.

 

The drills had come easily to him, because he'd done them all before-his psychic powers had been moderate, and he'd been inducted into the Librarius and had been dispersed into his Cohort under it's commander. It was at that time a small creature appeared-only to Gisleburtus' eyes, hooded and bearing a massive sheathed sword.

 

"Your First Death Giselburtus, now you shall learn the rules of The Game."

 

He learned that he was not alone, and he kept quite about The Game-continuing to serve the Tyrant. His vengance was denied to him as the shuttle the commander who betrayed him was on was destroyed. In the centuries since then, he has found-and fought other Risen, besting each in turn. With each kill, Gisleburtus gains their knowledge and strength, adding to his own Psychic might.

 

 

D'Ar Kosh had at one time been a Word Bearer TechPriest who had a terrible accident involving a possession rite and the Obliterator virus. The two personalities of the former techpriest and the bloodletter merged into one entity that called itself Carnage. It can utilize it's mutilator-like abilities to turn it's arms into numerous lethal weapons, or even to summon a Daemon Axe. He joined the Red Corsairs warband, compelled to go where the blood goes.

 

Simeas Polk is a swordsman, and a gunslinger preferring his modified Caldera pattern bolt revolver to more modern weaponry and is a devotee of Slaanesh. He'd been in the Astral Claws, only a scout during the Badab Wars.

 

He is best described as a "puckish rogue", and is reckless. Having seen Khorne Beserkers attempt to mount and claim Slaughterfiend mounts, his Mistress encouraged him to best them by attempting to mount a Heldrake. 'Borrowing' a bike from a Hound, Simeas rode out the back of a thunderhawk mid flight and landed on an enemy Heldrake, attempting to jockey the daemon engine to his will.

 

He was unsuccessful...but ended up ramming the Heldrake into an enemy Landraider, effectively neutralizing both. He's pretty much Deadpool from Marvel Comics and Straight Cougar from the sCRYed anime.

 

2 of my Havoks are named. Calvin Artemis, and Liam "Gabillionaire" Gabil. Gabillionaire and Artemis were the last two Havoks and indeed the last 2 models I had on the table. Khârn had died gloriously (almost killed the Wraithlord-stood 2 rounds of combat against him before failing a 5++) and everything else had gone deliciously awry.

 

So I go for the 'Brothers till the end' thing, and say "Eat it Space Elfs-I'm attacking!" mind you they had the extra ccw upgrade as well as the Mark of Khorne. Artemis fires his bolt pistol, and Gabillionaire throws a grenade-which I said to my friend james as I was rolling the scatter dice, "I bet it scatters right on them"

 

Rolled the dice-subtracted the BS-Dead Center on both of them. We laughed our asses off, so I go to roll the wound-2 wounds. More laughing, roll 2 armor saves-2 dead marines. We're both on the floor crying at this point-his girlfriend is coming in asking what the hell is going on at 3:30 in the morning that's so damn funny, and I say in a Patrick Stewart voice "DAMN YOU GABILLIONAIRE! I BLAME YOU!" To which spawns more laughter.

 

'gabillionaire' and artemis Some Numbers I can't remember were randomly matched players in Halo 3 we played with one day in Big Team battle. They were very very..."Challenged" at succeeding at much at all and were in private chat with eachother (we think-they were on eachother's friendslist), anyway I ended up riding shotgun in a warthog being driven by the Artemis guy and Gabillionare on the gun, and we met an unfortunate end via Scorpion tank, and I shouted in an impersonation of Patrick Stewart "DAMN YOU GABILLIONAIRE, I BLAME YOU!" to which my friends in lobby found hysterical.

 

We played like 10 games with the guy-and a couple of months back I got randomly matched up against him in Black ops 2-it made my day.

[Hrvat]

Yeah, but what are the chances of a BL author to accidentally pass by? Wait...

C'mon ADB, write a 5,000 word description for a Chaos Lord just for fun - like the other time you described what's like to be a Chaos Marine in 40k (still the 4th most "liked" post ever in B&C I beleive). I think the OP and everyone else here will deeply appreciate it.

Thank you for linking that post

As far as OP goes I currently have three chaos lords, with neither being in use for years since I just fail to find time to play 40k.

The oldest going back to when 2nd turned to 3rd edition is Battlesmith Trajan of the 6th platoon of the 9th Grand Company (and the only one who saw use ) a leader of squads deployed to overrun enemy fortifications with a slight tendecy to be drawn into Slaanesh's embrace.

When Medusa V chaos lord was released Zimirlin Dhar joined the party, a former apothecary of the Sons of Horus that eventualy rose to command a warband of his own serving Abaddon as one of his "gene-harvesters". He is trying to capture Fabius Bile to pry secrets from his brain.

Last year I started a World Eater warband and invented Egwin Cormorran, a future welsh mine ganger recruited into the XII legion, managed to survive without getting the nails and departs the legion following the Skalathrax debacle with a small following of the former 12th assault company he was part, they go to the fringes of the Imperium and organise a crime sindicate that over time migrates across the galaxy, waging rebellions, assassinations, terror campaigns and cauisng general ruckus wherever they show up.

[Scribe]

That post has been saved, for eternity or the death of my hard drive...

[Iron-Daemon Forge]

My Iron Warriors 5th Grand Company have been led by Warsmith Abhorred Riddick. Background wise, he led the 5th Grand Company since the Great Crusade & is loyal to the Lord of Iron - Perturabo.
He currently a Daemon Prince after slaughter a Blood Angels force. This was base on a game vs one of my friends & it was the week before Games Day when they where selling the Metal Daemon Prince, just when codex 3.5 was due for release.
He took part in Games Workshop 13th Black Crusade.

Then second in command is Narach Delau. He use to be a Champion back in 3rd ed when Chosen could be taken as Bodyguard. Then Games Workshop was running the Medusa V campign (sp), I though I would update both the background & model due to how well he'd done.
My old wargaming club ran some games for Medusa V, which I updated a bit to use for my Iron Warriors background for the Throne of Skulls events in Nottingham

The optical zoom whirled on the auto-scope as Lord Narach looked into the gaping wound his siege engines had opened up in the Adeptus Mechanicus Forges’ flank. The same engines lay silent for some 40 metres to either side of him all but exhausted of ammunition. The trench made defences they nestled in and the reinforced command bunkers were impressive even to his well trained eye, but of course they would have been, having been constructed under his orders and supervision. Up the slope almost a mile distant the Forge Fortress billowed smoke from its breached side.

From the rock-crete composition and architecture the Fortress, Narach had been tasked with grinding the defenders to dust in the name of Warsmith Abhorred Riddick.

Half broken orders and weapons fire crackled through the comm’s when it managed anything more than white noise and static. The smoke screen of swirling white mist twisted and danced with the black smoke generated by the burning vehicles inside the breach. It obscured any attempt to discern anything of the assault; Narach cursed the human guard, Imperial Guards who fallen under the darkness of Chaos & now serve as fodder to the Iron Warriors. Had assured Narach, the winds would have picked up by now to clear the sight of the fighting.


The fighting had been going on for almost 8 minutes now, too long without a clear signal. He hated not knowing. Narach scanned the smoke obscured breach again; the smoke was clearing now, if too slowly for his liking. A burning Rhino sprawled out of the smoke, its front hull section almost blown in two, a massive exit wound but relatively little entry damage, classic Lascannon round from the Black Templars. Coming apart in chunks of twisted metal as is smashed down the rocky slope.
Through the mist of battle, Narach could see armoured shapes of his brother Iron Warriors moved like spectres in the swirling clouds of smoke as they pushed forward toward the Forge Keep.

The scene reminded Narach of a moment during the siege of Terra. He’d pushed into the promenade of the first line of the defending walls, his battle brothers around him as they drove back the Imperial Fists from their defences guarding the gates inside the Imperial Palace. He emptied his combi-bolter into a wounded Imperial as he tried to limp through the gates. The armour around his leg cracked and he fell to the floor. Narach had charge, in a second plunging his serrated combat knife repeatedly into his neck. The sprays of warm blood had been glorious, the pathetic shriek of the Imperial Fist more so.
Narach snapped back to the present, he pushed the memory of the Siege of the Emperor’s Palace back. Too few of his glorious brethren were emerging from the assault. He’d issued the order,

“Bring forth Ferrum Draco the Vindacator siege tank & the Obliterators Cult”.

‘Acknowledged my Lord’. Narach gazed up at the defiant form of the Forge, his lips twisting into a snarl."

‘Inform Warsmith Abhorred Riddick I take the fight to the target personally’.

Ever unit in my current Iron Warriors force also has there own theme & conversion so you know who they are.

• Squad Iupatus Proeliator led by Champion Bronn Tal are my Veterans, those who been there from the start with my Warsmith.
• Squad Apocalypse led by Champion Kroege Santarr are those who just servie for a few year before the Heresy started. Now there going down the path of Khorne.
• Squad Desolatum Tempestas led by Goran Brakar are my Breacher, those that hold any break though in a seige or trench warfare & still use the Castellan class Rhino

But there are many more units in my Iron Warriors force right now. Overall my army if theme around those who are Veterans of the Long war.

I like haveing that narrative behind my Iron Warriors force as they are my main army. It also led to some cool conversion & to theme those units, so people know who going to slaughter there army

IP

[Dammeron]

I enjoy characters that go against the grain and defeat stereotype. To that end, every one of the many, many individuals within my Severed Angels warband are quite highly characterised, with elaborate back histories and associations.

 

What I've attempted to do is make them distinct from what people would necessarily expect from Slaanesh worshippers: though as rapine and hungry for experience, they are not inarticulate or insane: in point of fact, they are extremely verbal and evangelical in their pursuits, having made a kind of philosophy and religion from the notion of "transcendence through transgression:" they call Slaanesh "The Living Art," and believe Him to be the purest manifestation of all that is high and ascended in the conscious species of the 40K universe. They believe that by perverting and transgressing beyond imposed values, restrictions, states, conditions, they evolve on both a physical and spirutual level, ascending to a state of constant flux in which there are no parameters of experience, personality or even physical condition. The Inquisition particularly despises them, because they are insidiously evangelical, subtly spreading their creed throughout Imperial populations, drawing more and more into their bizarre church.

 

They are also unusual in that they are not bitter or hateful in the least: part of the ritual surgery that is part of the initiation into their various cults and sub-cults involves removal of the capacity for rage, hatred, bitterness: there is simply no place for such base or stunting emotions in the universe they envisage. Instead, they are joyous and evangelical; the torment they cause not comitted out of cruelty or malevolence, but out of a genuine and passiomate desire to enlighten: insofar as they are concerned, words and scalpels are equally useful in this regard, and their surgery-cathedrals are constantly stocked full of "fortunates;" those they have managed to liberate and are in the process of "enlightening."

 

Their upper echelons are derived from the Emperor's Children, but due to their lack of numbers and evangelical nature, they have incorporated renegades and off shoots from all the original legions and any number of later foundings, all of whom bring their own individual characters and beliefs to the table. As such, they are generally despised by the other traitor legions and their off shoots, many of whom have lost members and resources to the cult.

 

Le'Sai Desandros, who is currently one of the chief members of the cult, is a kind of evangelical, sado-masochistic sorcerer: like many of the Severed Angels, he is so distorted and corruptt with mutations, surgical alterations to his anatomy et al, that he is hardly recognisable as a Space Marine any more: he is a walking icon of the Severed Angel's faith: his form a testament to anatomy as art; his every utterance carrying the cadence of music or poetry. Despite his appearance, he is bizarrely considered and cordial in character; soft spoken and quick to laughter; highly persuasive and willing to debate his philosophies, not to mention make them evident via the sensations he is able to elicit through his sorcerous prowess.

[Dragonlover]

Serjius the Ranting, a demagogue who, if the World Eaters had them, would have been a Chaplain. As it goes, he's a bloodthirsty madman with giant daemonic talons.

 

I've not come up with a personality for my Alpha Legion Lord yet, mostly because I've just been using Huron for the guaranteed infiltrate. Maybe something will come to me when I sort his model out.

 

Dragonlover

[Warsmith Aznable]

Warsmith Bolverk, Iron Warriors 42nd Grand Co. "Iron Hounds"

 

At times he is a thoughtful patron to his troops, a brilliant commander of combined arms warfare, an expert at void warfare, a scholar, a poet, an artist, an inventor. He abhors the daemonic, pursues philosophy, regards truth, coueage, and honour greatly, and is loyal to his comrades, subordinates, and the spirit of the Legion.

 

At other times he is an gibbering madman, frothing at the mouth, axe crazy, murderer with a violent, explosive temper that knows no restraint, sees no bonds of loyalty, only violent indulgence of his random passions. While he abhors the daemonic and promotes his own radical ideas on religion, there are times he is clearly in the grip of one or another of the Chaos Gods, barely maintaining his individuality.

 

His warband has a bit of battered spouse syndrome with him. They absolutely worship him as a guru and love him as a father figure, but live in fear of his unpredictable moods. The senior commanders in the grand company follow him blindly when on the battlefield, but have learned how to handle him at other times. When Bolverk descends into madness or melancholy the inner circle manages the grand company until he comes around.

 

He basically represents what happens when the delusions that corrupt one to full on Chaos worship meet a marine with incredible will and imagination who refuses to let go of those delusions.

[Brother Heinrich]

So I'm seeking inspiration and whatnot, and I was just curious - when you build your warbands and create your Chaos Lords/Sorcerers/Princes, how do you go about building their character and stuff? Hard to explain what I'm getting at here, but it's things like what sort of path do you prefer for them to go down? Do you like those who seem to have reluctantly fallen to Chaos, those who embraced it wholeheartedly in a hunt for power, those who use it as a means to an end, a weapon and a tool to be used in the pursuit of the Long War, those who truly lose their souls in dedication to their god and possibly ascend? Recently fallen renegades, or veterans fighting down the millennia? There's so many little details here I could go into, but I think that should be enough to give the gist of what I mean.

For the most part I've never actually given a damn about background, my little plastic men die far too often for me to care about naming them. Plus it's one of the reasons I stopped doing random pickup games, I always seem to run into 'that guy' who decides to tell me in minute detail what every one of his Marines is named and what their personal story is an why he has daddy issue.

 

That being said I've finally decided to create an army with a narrative and history woven deeply into it as a sort of personal crowning achievement in the hobby. I enjoy writing and I suppose I'm fairly decent at it, ditto goes for the hobby so I decided to finally combine the two to make the 15th Company Night Lords Warband. A lot of elements are pulled from AD-B's fantastic Night Lords trilogy. I envision my band of heretics as disdainful towards god worship, but slowly corroding throughout the ages through contact with the warp and the vile beings that command it. The warband itself is filled fractious personalities and varying degrees of degeneracy, that are only held together by the iron will of my chaos lord.

 

How about the level of depth? I've seen instances of people going so far as to have recorded their battles and actions in terrifyingly minute detail, where others do a general outline of their history, where others still just sort of let you know what they're like (not saying any of this is wrong, mind). What sort of approach do you take?

For the 15th company I decided to go head first into the deep end, every single model in the army has gotten a snippet of backstory that shows you a portrait of who they are and what drives them, what their flaws are, and what drives them. I wanted to convey my own experiences in the Marine Corps and show that a cohesive unit is made up of many different personalities all held together by one unifying force or goal.

 

And a bit away from your own Lords - how do you prefer to see them presented in the fiction, and who's your favourite one around? Vandred/The Exalted has always struck me as a very cool character, sticking out a little bit amongst a myriad of other characters I love. Something about his whole style and fall/conclusion seems quite appealing.

From the same storyline, though not technically a 'Lord' anymore, I loved Malcharion. If any Night Lord could be said to have some nobility in his character, it was him. A true warrior poet.

 

As a last point, examples of your Chaos Lords would be kind of nice, although I appreciate that that (and possibly this whole topic, but I wasn't really sure) could belong in another forum. 

Here's the fluff I wrote for Hashec Tor, Captain of the 15th Company.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/278092-night-lords-15th-company-biker-basecoat-pg27/?p=3494217

[derpasaurus]

I have 3 lords I use depending on the mood that strikes me.

I have a raptor lord who's pretty much basic. jump pack, pair of claws, etc. Just some upstart named Harald who thinks he can issue orders better than someone else.
I have the Night Lords champion collector's model that I use as a general purpose guy, He likes to go by Lord Ghast, his Legionary name lost to the annals of the Night Lord's horribly unkempt archives. He rolls with a power fist and the burning brand, ran off some time ago to track that down, actually, which left the door open to 

Huron Blackheart.
He saw an opportunity to expand his pirate army by stepping into the vacuum left by Ghast and whipped the crew into a decent fighting shape with a daemon engine or two, then Ghast came back after years gone with a shiny new toy and rage to spare. There's some friction between the two leaders, obviously, as they vie for the loyalties of a notoriously dysfunctional, mistrusting and violent band of "Brothers."

My army is basically renegade marines, (thinking of mixing up some of the new loyalst tac kits to better represent this) most don't trust chaos as far as they can throw it and prefer to remain masters of their own destinies. Having said that, one of my troop champions has flirted with Dark Apotheosis on a couple of occasions, but always seems to reject it at the last possible moment.