3rd Edition Chaos Codices (EC Lore)

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The Adeptus Mechanicus were’ split in 'two by the schism; over half of the Titan Legions turning their city-razing Weapons upon their fellows. At Tallarn, the Iron Warriors bombed the-verdant paradise world, stripping its surface to the arid, poisonous Wwastéland, it is today. At Logres, the Emperor's’ Children enslaved a million krill farmers: every single one died within a week as the Traitor Legionnaires sealed their pact with Slaanesh.

Horus and his hordes pushed on from sector to sector, inexorably fighting their way towards the Segmentum Solar. Recovering from their initial surprise, loyalist forces began to oppose the traitors. Spearheaded by loyal Space Marines and Titan Legions, the Emperor's forces contested world after world. Just as the loyalists began to make serious headway however, Horus demonstrated his strategic brilliance once more.

Horus had intended all along to strike a single, decisive deathblow. against the Imperium, and he meant to do so at Terra. When the attack came, the loyalists found themselves woefully unprepared: Horus’ cunning became even more apparent as the majority of the Emperor's Legions found themselves too far from Terra to intervene in time.

The Siege of the Emperor's Palace was the very darkest hour of Human history. The skies were turned black with Chaos drop pods and Dreadclaw Assault craft, and only three loyal Legions stood at the Emperor's side to oppose them.

The Emperor had always been guided by his innate prescience, but the future beyond this day was hidden from him. Then, at the very moment of the Warmaster's victory, Horus lowered the shields protecting his ship. Whether Horus was driven to do so by some last vestige of regret, or whether he simply wished to send his psychic sight to witness his father’s death will never be known, but in the instant the shields were lowered, the Emperor became aware of the traitor’s presence, and saw what must be done. Gathering his immediate companions, the Emperor, the Primarchs Sanguinius and Rogal Dorn, and a select group of warriors teleported directly to the Warmaster’s battle barge. The dropping of the shields allowed one last opportunity at salvation. The final, desperate gambit was made as time ran out for the Human race.

Upon Horus's ship the Emperor and his warriors found themselves separated, each forced to confront a sea of Warp-spawned horrors alone. At length, the Emperor fought his way to the bridge, only to find Horus standing over the broken body of his brother Sanguinius, Primarch of the Blood Angels Legion. Turning, Horus faced his creator, and in an instant the two were engaged in a battle likened to that between gods.

The Emperor triumphed. He siew his most beloved son, destroying utterly his presence in the Warp and casting his blasted form to the deck, But the Emperor had paid the highest price for his victory, and death overcame him as he finally allowed his body to suffer the terrible wounds Horus had inflicted.

The battle for Terra, the Imperium, and the fate of Mankind was won, but at a terrible cost. The Emperor’s wounds were so horrific that only his ascension to the arcane life-support systems of the specially constructed Golden Throne could hold his death at bay. Terra was a ruin; her cities levelled. So deep were her wounds that the tectonic plates groaned under the punishment inflicted by the traitors’ orbital bombardment. The routed hordes of Chaos had left such utter devastation in their wake that nothing short of the complete rebuilding of Terra, and of the Imperium itself, would even begin to heal the wounds inflicted during the Horus Heresy.

The _ Heresy may have failed in its objective of replacing the Emperor's rule with that of Horus, but it had brought the realm of man to within an inch of total annihilation. The Imperium was in tatters, and as the Traitor Legions retreated to the Eye of Terror, they knew that they would return, that they would rise again. Amongst them was Abaddon, Captain of the First Company of the Sons of Horus; he took with him the body of the Warmaster and an unquenchable appetite for vengeance. The Long War had begun, and the Traitors vowed they would wage it for all eternity to see their hatred satisfied.

 

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At the heart of the Eye of Terror lie the erone worlds; the original homelands of the Eldar people. These worlds are the domain of daemons and lunatics, but are also the only source of the material used by the Eldar to create their spirit stones: repositories for the Eldar soul to shield it from the eternal thirst of Slaanesh. Some Eldar still travel to the crone worlds in search of this raw material, which is said to have been formed of the raw stuff of chaos at the moment of the Fall. Few of these individuals ever return.

In time, the Eldar people sank to the lowest depths of depravity and in an instant the sleeping power awake. The Chaos god Slaanesh was born and its birth cries decimated the race, drawing the spirits of billions of Eldar into the Warp to be of consumed by the newborn god. The entire Eldar race was devastated, but the worst destruction occurred at the heart their erupted forth galaxy-spanning empire, where the Warp into real-space. An area almost twenty thousand light years across was engulfed in the very stuff of Chaos. This area is today known as the Eye of Terror.

Wind of Chaos

This is a psychic power that may be used in the model's Shooting phase instead of firing another weapon. It takes different forms depending on the Sorcerer casting it. Worshippers of Nurgle project a stream of bilious, acidic slime that burns and infects the target. Sorcerers of Slaanesh create a golden cloud that sets every nerve end alight with rapturous agony. A Psychic test must be passed in order to use the power. Place the flamer template so that its narrow end is touching the model using this power. Any models fully or partially under the template suffer one wound on a D6 roll of 4+, with no armour or cover saves allowed (Invulnerable saves may be taken as normal). Madels without a Toughness characteristic are unaffected.

Dirge caster

The Dirge Caster is a broadcaster, which outputs a non-stop litany of Chaos Incomprehensible and disturbing to all others, the sound enthrals and absorbs the followers of Chaos, driving out any uncertainty or doubt. Apart from Daemons, all Chaos units with a model within 6" of a vehicle with a Dirge Caster become Fearless (see Special Rules on page 12). A Dirge Caster cannot be mounted on a vehicle with a Warp Amp (see Book of Slaanesh).

Daemonic Gifts.

A Keeper of Secrets has the Warp Scream ability (see Book of Slaanesh). A if Great Unclean One has the Nurgling Infestation and Nurgle’s Rot abilities (see Book of Nurgle). The Bloodthirster and the Lord of Change have wings. This allows them to move as they had the Daemonic Flight ability. Because of their strength and power, a winged Greater Daemon does not have to take a test if it lands in difficult terrain.

Greater Daemons

Sorcerers.
All Greater Daemons, except the Bloodthirster, have psychic powers. Each may select any one psychic power from the Chaos Armoury at no cost. They may have additional Minor Psychic Abilities at the normal points cost.
* A Lord of Change may select a power available to sorcerers with the Mark of Tzeentch, and does not have to pass a Psychic test to use a psychic power.
* A Great Unclean One may select a power available to sorcerers with the Mark of Nurgle.
* Keeper of Secrets may select a power available to sorcerers with the Mark of Slaanesh.

Living Icons:
Greater Daemons are all aligned with one of the Chaos Gods; Bloodthirsters serve Khorne, Great Unclean Ones serve Nurgle, Keepers of Secrets serve Slaanesh and Lords of Change serve Tzeentch. Such is the power of Greater Daemons that each counts as an Icon of the deity they serve so lesser Daemons can be summoned adjacent to them.

KEEPER OF SECRETS
To look upon a Keeper of Secrets is to surrender every last shred of self-will. It knows the most secret desires of every mortal being, and will use this horrific knowledge to gain power over its foes, seducing them with promises none can resist. But the Keeper of Secrets is not just a master of the psyche; on the field of battle it is a lithe and dextrous killer, gifting all with the most delicate of killing strokes and the most deadly of caresses.

 

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THE BOOKS OF CHAOS

There are many paths to damnation and the four great Chaos Powers, Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh and Tzeentch all have their own worshippers among the Chaos Space Marine Legions. In addition there are Chaos Space Marines who worship all four as a Pantheon known as Chaos Undivided.

The Books of Chaos detail the Marks and Gifts of each of the Chaos powers.
Each Book follows a similar format.
*The ethos of the Chaos God and his worshippers.
*The Mark of the Chaos God and its effects.
*The gifts that can be bestowed on models bearing the Mark of the Chaos God, in addition to those in the basic Chaos Armoury. Remember that Gifts of the Gods count towards a character's wargear limit.
* Psychic powers peculiar to the Chaos God.
*Weaponry variations for the followers of the Chaos God.


Applying Chaos Marks
Each of the Chaos Powers favours a particular style of fighting and this influences which unit types can bear their Mark. The table below summarises which Marks can be granted to which models.

Vehicles can be dedicated to one of the four Chaos powers but this is not really the same thing as bearing a Mark. Instead the vehicle has an upgrade peculiar to the God it is dedicated to. Transport vehicles which do not occupy force organisation chart selections (such as the Rhino) may only be dedicated to a God if the unit they were purchased for bears the Mark of the same god.


Ancient Enemies
For millennia, the Chaos gods have vied and competed amongst each other for power over the mortal realms, and great rivalries and hatreds have formed between followers of gods with opposite aims. For this reason, an army led by a character with the gods Mark of Khorne cannot contain any units or characters with the Mark a of Slaanesh, Daemons of Slaanesh, or vehicles dedicated to Slaanesh; likewise an army led by a Slaaneshi character cannot have any Khornate units. Similarly, an army led by a character with the Mark of Tzeentch cannot contain units, daemons of vehicles marked by Nurgle, nor can a Nurgle-led army contain any Tzeentch units. An army led by a character with the Mark of Chaos Undivided, or no mark at all, has less cause to fear the wrath of an angry patron, so may field any units of any alignment in the army. An independent character with any mark except the Mark of Chaos Undivided may not join a unit with a different mark.

Favoured Units
Each Chaos God has a sacred number. These are 9 for Tzeentch, 8 for Khorne 7 for Nurgle and 6 for Slaanesh. Retinues, squads and packs that bear the Mark of one of these deities and contain at the start of the battle the same number of models as that deitiy’s sacred number (or an exact multiple of it) are said to be Favoured by the Gods. Note that Independent Characters leading retinues are counted for this purpose but Followers are not.


The Force Organisation Chart
If a unit which normally occupies a Troop, Fast Attack or Heavy Support choice on the force organisation chart is given a Mark of Chaos other than Chaos Undivided then it will become an Elite choice instead. If the Mark they bear is the same as the army'scommander they will continue to occupy the same force organisation choice they did before. The commander will be the Chaos Lord if there is one, otherwise the Chaos Lieutenant who costs the most points. If neither of these are present then an Aspiring Champion acting as host for a Greater Daemon commands, or rather passes on the Greater Daemon's wishes.

 

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The antithesis of Khorne is Slaancsh. The Blood God rails against his rival's decadence and love of luxury. Where a follower of Khorne conquers through the application of crude, brutal force, a champion of Slaanesh delights in each delicate stroke of the blade, only releasing his victims from his attentions when they are wasted and used, Khorne also finds an opposite in Tzeentch, the Lord of Sorcery, whose elaborate scheming and use of magic he scorns as cowardly.

Mark of Slaanesh:
Warp Scream (enemy in close combat at -1 Initiative); Fearless

 

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CODEX EYE OF TERROR (2003)

THE BLACK CRUSADES OF ABADDON THE DESPOILER

Abaddon the Despoiler, the Arch Heretic whose name is a curse a on a thousand worlds, once led the First Company of the Luna Wolves, and was as devoted and brave warrior as any. The Emperor later honoured Horus’s Legion by decreeing that its name be changed to the was Sons of Horus, but when the Heresy erupted, it clear that Abaddon's loyalties lay with the Warmaster. Abaddon fought at the forefront of the war, zealously tearing asunder that which he had once helped conquer in the name of the Emperor. Abaddon was Horus’s most favoured warrior and it was rumoured that he was in fact the Warmaster’s clone son. When the final battle of the Heresy came, Abaddon was fighting on another part of the Warmaster's battle barge, though he felt the psychic shockwave of Horus's death resonate through the Warp and his scream of anguish plunged him deeper into madness than any mortal should ever fall. He fought his way to the bridge and found the corpse of his beloved Warmaster, taking the lightning claw from Horus's wrist for his own.

Though every instinct screamed at Abaddon to wreak his vengeance, he knew that the forces left to him were not enough to win the day. Horus's last gamble had failed and the war was over. Taking command of the battle barge, Abaddon led the retreat to the Eye of Terror, assuming command of the Sons of Horus and renaming them the Black Legion. Abaddon vanished into the Eye of Terror and entered the realms of dark legend. Decades passed before Abaddon was to return, surging from the Eye at the head of a massive army and smashing aside the defenders to pour forth into Imperial space. For a time, it looked as though Abaddon would succeed in breaking through the defences around the Eye of Terror and only the combined might of several Space Marine chapters and titan legions finally halted this first of Abaddon's Black Crusades.

Since that day, there have been eleven separate Black Crusades, ranging from small raids to sector-spanning conflicts that have cost the lives of millions of Imperial soldiers. On the world of El’Phanor, the Despoiler exterminated the kin of the Kromarch and on Mackan, Abaddon earned the eternal hatred of the Blood Angels when he slew their warriors and violated their flesh. Beneath the Tower of Silence on Uralan, Abaddon was led to the skinned daemon sword Drach’nyen by a golden- stranger and with this cursed item, carved himself a realm of diabolical evil within the Eye of Terror before plunging the Gothic sector into war. Once more the Imperium was victorious, but the cost of victory was high and two of the Blackstone Fortress, powerful weapons created in ancient times by long-forgotten hands, were lost to the Despoiler. Numerous other incursions, too scattered and random to be called Black Crusades have plagued the Cadian Sector and there can be no respite while this most evil of heretics still lives.

Now, dire portents wax nigh and even the most blinkered cannot fail to see a pattern emerging in the attacks in the sectors surrounding the Eye of Terror. The Emperor's Tarot regularly displays powerful cards representing war and death on an apocalyptic scale, and Astropaths report horrifying visions of torrents of blood raining from the sky to drown the Imperium of Man. Even the Eldar, aloof and cruel aliens, have given warning of the rise of a Great Uniter, as deep within the anarchy of the Eye of Terror, ancient feuds have been set aside in the face of Abaddon's leadership. Bitter hatreds, such as that between the World Eaters and the Emperor's Children following the Battle of Skalathrax, have been quelled and even the Alpha Legion and the Word Bearers share an uneasy peace. Binding oaths and debts have been called to account and a force, the likes of which has not been seen since the Horus Heresy, has been assembled, ready to strike the Imperium like a thunderbolt.

 

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Here, the traitor forces established a forward base of operations from which to launch attacks throughout the system. St, Josmane’s Hope fell soon after, the inmates of this military prison rising up against their gaolers as the first waves of the Violators renegade Space Marines attacked. Brutal, close-quarters fighting erupted all across the continent-sized prison and many of the guards kept a bullet for themselves rather than be taken by the frenzied inmates. Welcoming the traitor forces as liberators, the inmates were to be horrifyingly disabused of this notion as those allowed to live were instead taken as slaves for the Chaos fleet or conscripted into its armies, Enemy ships spread throughout the Cadian system, several being picked off by shadowy Eldar vessels that vanished as mysteriously as they arrived, but the bulk of the Chaos fleet advanced directly on Cadia.

 

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