World Eaters

The World Eaters are one of the Space Marine Legions, created by the Emperor at the dawn of the Imperium. They were among the first Legions to turn to Chaos in the Horus Heresy and have since resided in the Eye of Terror.

History

The Speculum Historiale describe the first years of the World Eater primarch Angron as less than blissfull. He was stranded on a technologically advanced planet with a poor and downtrodden population ruled over by an elite class of nobles. The most popular form of entertainment for the masses was gladiatorial duels between cyber-enhanced warriors, and destiny had it that one of the gladiator slavers would find the young Primarch. Angron was mortally wounded when he was discovered, almost killed by Xeno warriors thought to be Eldar trying to stop the Primarch before he could turn to Chaos.

Angron survived, and would over the next years become the greatest gladiator the planet had ever seen. A discontent one, having plotted his escape for years he finally led his fellow warriors in an armed revolt. A revolt doomed to fail, however, as the newly arrived Emperor warned him, for the forces under the nobles vastly outnumbered the gladiator band. Angron with his martial pride refused to listen to or recieve aid from his father; prefering an honorable death to outside help.

The Emperor did not accept this, and teleported Angron to his Battle Barge the night before the last battle. The gladiatorial army was slaughtered to the man and Angron's honor was blemished. It is said he never forgave his father for the incident.

The World Eater legion was already active by the time Angron joined them. They would soon be influenced by his thirst for battle, amplified by the use of psycho surgery similiar to the one Angron had recieved during his gladiator training. These implants turned the already fierce space marines into frenzied berserkers so feared that whole systems would eventually surrender rather than face them in battle. The technology was unstable, however and was forbidden by the Emperor after the Ghenna Scouring, in which the World Eaters wiped out an entire planet during one night.

As the hour of the Horus Heresy grew near, Horus had little problem with corrupting the bitter and unhappy Angron. The World Eaters were probably the first Legion to join the Lunar Wolves in their revolt and would be instrumental both during Isstvan V and the Siege of Terra itself. World Eaters lead the assault on the walls of the Imperial palace and it is said that one of their champions, Khârn, was the first to enter the breach.

Yet they lost the battle, and the remains fled to the Eye of Terror along with the other Traitor Legions. Angron was elevated to daemonhood and the World Eaters would continue to function as a legion up to the Skalathrax incident. Originally a fight against the Emperor's Children the battle escalated when Khârn attacked his fellow comrades. Refusing to fall back before the deadly cold of the Skalathrax night Khârn burned their shelters and forced a desperate fight between brother marines for the few remaining safehouses. This divided the Legion into individal warbands, a formation they have kept ever since.

Angron was last seen during the First War for Armageddon, where he lead the invasion of a Khornate host upon an Imperial forge world. He was eventually banished to the Warp for a 100 years, at the cost of the lives of a large number of Grey Knights lead by Brother-Captain Aurellian.

Combat Doctrine

Even before their fall to Chaos the World Eaters were known as a bloodthirsty legion, and becoming the chosen Legion of Khorne did little to change this. In battle they disregard mortal peril to sate their bloodlust in close combat, often displaying a berserker rage that makes them invulnerable to wounds that would kill even a Space Marine.

The preferred method of assault for the World Eaters is a Drop Pod assault, followed by a charge into enemy lines. They have also been known to drop right into enemy formations.

It is worth noting that the most common close combat weapon in the World Eaters is the Khorne Chainaxe, a weapon seldom seen outside the Legion. In the hand of a berserking marine it is a fearsome weapon, capable of hacking through even Power Armour.

Organisation

The World Eaters originally followed a regular Legion formation, but after the Battle of Skalathrax they have taken to working in small warbands that often enlist with other, larger Chaos armies. These warbands have no common organisation, rather doing whatever suits their current leaders.

The original World Eater colour scheme was bright white with blue markings, which changed into a blood red with brass markings after the Heresy. It is rumoured that the World Eaters didn't change their colours but simply spilled so much blood that their armor took the dark red color. This doesn't really explain the brass nor their unique Khornate helmets, and is likely a legend based on their reputation.

Their battle cry is "Blood for the Blood God", often followed by "Skulls for the Skull Throne!"

Notable individuals

• Angron, Primarch and Deamon Prince.
• Kharn the Betrayer
• Brother-Captain Varren, part of the Eisenstein crew that warned the Emperor after the massacre at Isstvan III.

Notable Battles

The Cleansing of Arrigata (Pre-Heresy)

Horus assembled three legions to take Arrigata back from the separatists who controlled it; the The Sons of Horus, World Eaters, and Ultramarines. Most of the planet was quickly conquered, except for the massive fortress within which most of the leaders of the planet cowered. Eager to be on his way, Horus commanded Angron to take back the fortress and kill only the leaders.

Eagerly, Angron led the assault. The casualties were horrendous, a dozen World Eaters falling for a meter of land. Eventually, a ramp of corpses led up to the wall, and the marines plunged in. Filled with rage over their fallen brothers, they were merciless.

By the time the Ultramarines arrived, the battle was all but over. The inside of the fortress was filled with the dismembered and mangled corpses of the leaders of the planet. It was a slaughter.

Isstvan IV

Angron led the World Eaters in the first surface attack to destroy the remaining loyalist marines. The World Eaters bloodily massacred most of them, plunging into the enemy ranks like a white hot dagger. It is rumored that when the Iron Hands arrived to destroy the traitors, Angron turned his forces around and engaged them in what was some of the most bloody fighting of the Heresy. A few even whisper that Angron himself killed Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands, with several mighty blows from his Chainaxe, God Tearer.

The Siege of the Emperor's Palace

The walls of the Imperial Palace seemed to touch the very sky above, so tall were they. And before them milled the combined forces of the traitors, and army so vast and terrible that its like has never been seen before. Nor will its like be seen again until the end of times, and the final battle. Beast, mutants, all the Greater and lesser Daemons of hell, and the Traitor Legions in their fell might surrounded the last bastion of the loyalists.

The walls of the Palace were high indeed, and strong, but breaches were made, for the Titans of the Totenkopf Legion had landed there. And into those breaches, at the forefront of each assault went the World Eaters. They charged reckless through the maelstrom, falling into great heaps, consumed by madness and their lust for slaughter.

It was here, in the vicious and close fighting in the breaches that a marine named Kharn became a bloody legend, butchering and carving his way toward the Emperor. And they moved into the corridors running through the mile thick walls, and the tunnels and chambers swam with blood. And even as the Emperor fought Horus above the ruins of Terra, Kharn fell at last before the Eternity Gate, atop a great pile of corpses.

As the World Eaters withdrew with the other Legions after Horus's fall, some dark impulse or whispering of the Gods bade them take the bloodied carcass of Kharn with them, alone out of the millions of corpses left about the Palace.

The Battle of Skalathrax On the daemon world Skalathrax, shortly after the heresy, the World-Eaters and the Emperor's Children fought. Amidst the World Eaters was the champion Kharn. After a full day of vicious fighting, the terrible Skalathrax night began. Horrified, Emperors Children and World Eaters alike ran to their shelters, for the freezing night would kill even a space-marine in a matter of moments.

Kharn raged over being delayed from battle for even a night. Filled with rage when he saw that his brother-marines were creeping back to the shelters, he took a flamer and burned them down, slaying with his chain-axe, Gorechild, any who tried to stop him. The night was filled with the screams of the dying, freezing, and screaming as Kharn strode the streets of the dead city of black stone, killing Emperor's Children and World Eaters alike, burning any shelters he found. The night was lit by flames as the Emperor's Children and World Eaters fought each other and themselves for the few remaining shelters. By morning, most of the World Eaters were dead, the survivors split into small war bands, the shattered remnants of once great-companies.

The First Battle of Armageddon The arrival of a massive and ancient space hulk at the outer edge of the Armageddon system heralded the first of the terrible wars to plague this planet. In this costly conflict, the Daemon Primarch Angron led his World Eaters in a massive invasion of the hive planet. Imperial resistance on the continent of Armageddon Prime was swiftly crushed, and the defenders withdrew beyond the vast equatorial jungles dividing Armageddon Prime from Secundus. Here, under the guidance of Logan Grimnar of the Space Wolves, the Imperial forces established a new line of defenses and awaited the renewed onslaught. Complacent, and believing the campaign to be all but won, Angron wasted weeks erecting great temples and monoliths to his patron Khorne. This proved to be a mistake.

When Angron renewed his offensive, pushing through the sweltering jungles to reach Armageddon Secundus his host was met by a solid wall of defense. Nonetheless the World Eaters crashed recklessly into the Imperial line, and they were aided by the daemons of Hell. The Imperial defenses were almost overwhelmed by the sheer fury of the World Eaters assault. Angron himself led his bodyguard of Daemon Princes and Bloodthirsters against the center of the line, held by the Space Wolves, hoping to come before the Great Wolf and slay him.

It was at this point that Grimnar played his trump card, and an entire company of Grey Knights teleported into the midst of Angron's daemonic honour guard. The titanic struggle that ensued saw earth rending energies unleashed, as the burning white light of the Emperor's finest came against the darkness of Khorne's dread servants. Angron's retinue was destroyed by the Grey Knights at a terrible cost, and the survivors now faced the corrupted Primarch.

It was this combat that would decide the fate of the world. The Grey Knights, through a supreme sacrifice, summoned the energy for a massive psychic blast that completely annihilated Angron's corporeal form and banished his spirit to hell, from whence it could not return for a hundred years. A great part of the Grey Knight company, including the Chapter Master, were destroyed in this action, for Angron was a foe of murderous strength.

With the destruction of the Primarch, the World Eaters fell into disarray and were routed. The warp summoned Daemons of Khorne vanished as swiftly as they had appeared, losing their fragile grip of the material plane. The survivors of the World Eaters gradually fell back into the Eye of Terror. It is said that the now recovered Angron hungers for revenge.

Fleet

During the Horus Heresy the World Eaters are known to have possessed the following vessels:¹

• Capital Ship - Gladiator
• Capital Ship - Gatt Charge
• Battleship - Merciless
• Battle Barge - The Conqueror (the World Eaters flagship and Angron's personal Battle Barge)
• Strike Craft - Blood Shrike
• Strike Craft - Silent Fury

Sources

• ¹Horus Heresy: Visions of Death by Alan Merrett