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[[Image:DarkApostle.jpg|thumb|left|A Word Bearers Dark Apostle]]
The '''Dark Apostles''' are the corrupted [[Chaplains]] of the [[Word Bearers]] [[Chaos Space Marines]] [[Legion]], who gleefully redirected the Legion's fanatical zeal from preaching of the [[Imperial]] faith to howling the praises of [[Chaos]].

In battle they are skilled demagogues, able to exhort followers to greater acts of bravery and depravity - enemy commanders have often found out to their cost that the only way to truly blunt an attack by such fanatics is to either remove the Apostle, or destroy each and every [[Word Bearers|Word Bearer]] facing them. Their strategies sometimes border on prescience.

Dark Apostles still carry their ritual [[Crozius Arcanum]] as they did before their fall, although the resulting [[Accursed Crozius]] have long since been corrupted and debased into deadly icons dedicated to the [[Chaos Gods]] themselves. Not only does this make them lethal assault weapons, it also marks the bearer as receiving the dark favour of the Gods, granting them protection from their enemies and allowing them a much deeper connection with the denizens of the [[warp]].

They are said to have a Senior War-Captain and an Apprentice in each of the Hosts led by a Dark Apostle. The Senior War-Captain is called a '''Coryphaus''' who leads the Word Bearer host and his words are only second to the Dark Apostle, the Apprentice of the Dark Apostle is named as a '''First Acolyte''' and will inherit a portion of the Host when the Dark Apostle and the [[Dark Council]] sees it fit.

Usually the untimely death of a Dark Apostle is marked with a great loss and weeks of ceremonies are held in his commemoration, in that time the Captains of the dead Apostle's Host are summarily executed for allowing such this to happen and the host absorbed into the ranks of a more able Dark Apostle.

==Notable Dark Apostles==
* [[Draas|Draas the Red Pilgrim]]
* [[Eliphas|Eliphas the Inheritor]]
* [[Erebus]]
* [[Jarulek]]
* [[Marduk]]
* [[Warmonger]] - (former Dark Apostle - now entombed as a [[Chaos Dreadnought|Dreadnought]])<sup>1</sup>


==Sources==
*[[Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex)]]
*<sup>1</sup>[[Dark Apostle (Novel)]]

==See also==
*[[Chaplain]]
*[[Crozius Arcanum]]
*[[Word Bearers]]


[[Category:Word Bearers]]
[[de:Dunkler Apostel]]