Champion of Chaos

A Chaos Champion is an individual who has dedicated himself to further the cause of his particular Chaos God, or Chaos as a whole. He is either a warrior or sorcerer.

Motivations

Chaos offers power to the ambitious. To some, it offers hope in an unfair world, where justice, wealth and happiness are the prerogatives of a privileged few, and where the only escape from starvation or persecution lies in the egalitarian favours of Chaos - for Chaos judges its servants on merit alone and rewards them accordingly.¹

The Road to Power

The road to power begins by offering body and spirit to Chaos: either to an individual Chaos Power or to Chaos as a whole. Not all who choose to dedicated themselves are accepted. Often it takes a spectacular deed of courage to attract the attention of the Chaos Powers. If the candidate is accepted he receives a Mark of Chaos from his Chaos Patron. This is the Patron's own mark, and each mark confers some ability or characteristic.¹

Once a Champion receives the mark he begins to attract followers from the lesser servants of Chaos. The Chaos Powers use their Champions to further their aims in the material universe. The Champion's life becomes an endless series of battles, raids and quests. As the Champion serves Chaos he becomes increasingly changed through mutations granted by the Patron. The road to power ends eventually either in the Champion being reduced to a mindless and formless Chaos Spawn or raised to Daemonhood as an immortal and powerful Daemon Prince.¹

All Chaos Champions are mortal and can be killed, although this is always a dangerous undertaking as they are powerful foes. A Chaos Champion's followers are known as a Chaos Warband. Warbands are deadly rivals to each other, fighting each other to gain the attention of their Patrons. Even followers of the same god are deadly rivals. Sometimes shaky alliances are formed by extremely powerful champions. The truly successful are rewarded with immortality and are elevated to the rank of Daemon Prince.¹

Types of Chaos Champion

Common Champions

• Aspiring Champion - Most common champion, leads squads of Chaos Space Marines, Chosen, Raptors and Havocs.^2-94/6/9/100
• Terminator Champion - Aspiring Champions who have somehow acquired a suit of Tactical Dreadnought Armour, often through killing the previous owner themselves. Leaders of Chaos Terminators^2-p94
• Possessed Champion - Leaders of the Possessed, often possessed by a powerful daemon and horribly mutated beyond even their brethren^2-p95
• Plague Champion - Plague Marine squad leaders, often the most horribly infested as well as toughest to defeat^2-p97
• Noise Champion - The most dedicated to Slaanesh and leaders of Noise Marine squads. Commonly brandish rare sonic weaponry unavailable to most^2-p97
• Skull Champion - Leaders of Berzerker squads and seen as the most bloodthirsty as well as the best trained of the unit^2-p98
• Aspiring Sorcerer - Sorcerers in training before becoming true Chaos Sorcerers, leaders of Thousand Sons units^2-p98
• Biker Champion - Leaders of Bike squadrons, often highly bloodthirsty and obsessed with speed^2-p99

God Champions

Chaos Lords are often aligned to one of the four gods and become Champions of their chosen deity. Often this grants them a measure of the power of their god including mutations and greater resilience, or enhanced strength or psychic abilities.

• Champion of Nurgle - Disease and death are the most potent forces in the galaxy and the Champion of Nurgle embodies all of these. They are swollen and bloated, often little more than moving puss sacks and disease transmitters. Their bodies have been dulled to pain and as such can endure much damage before they die.^2-p30
• Champion of Khorne - The most bloodthirsty and savage fighters, Champions of Khorne lust after the spilling of blood an the roar of battle to satisfy the desires of Khorne. They are experts in many weapon forms which others could not master but do not fight in a graceful manor, preferring to bludgeon their way through their enemies. Only the greatest battles can sate their blood thirst.^2-p30
• Champion of Slaanesh - Desire is a strong emotion and Slaanesh is the embodiment of this, with his Champions revelling in their pleasures. They take joy from the ending of life on the battlefield, a perverse pleasure for which the desire is constantly increased. The senses of the Champion are increased beyond recognition and their minds are so fast to react that they fight in a blur which many enemies cannot even see, let alone defend against.^2-p30
• Champion of Tzeentch - Highly powerful psykers make up the ranks of the followers of Tzeentch, and his most deadly followers are the greatest of these. The enhanced powers Tzeentch grants his Champions allows them to project warp powers which no loyal follower of the Emperor would dream about. They often wear charms and pendants to protect themselves from the powers of the warp, although the dangers are lessened they are still there. Often the Champion is merely a piece in a larger scheme and useful pieces are the best protected.^2-p30

Sources

• ¹:Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned
• ²:Codex: Chaos Space Marines (4th Edition)