Decimator (Daemon Engine)

This article is about the Daemon Engine; for the Chaos tank, see Decimator (Tank).

Chaos Portal

A Decimator^[1]

The Decimator is an unholy Daemon Engine, the essence of a creature of the Warp bound within the armoured bulk of a bipedal war machine. Armoured with slabs of tainted ceramite and adamantium, a low-set ‘head’ gives the Decimator a characteristic hunched posture which exudes brooding and vicious menace.^[1]

Overview

Decimators are hellish creations - horrific amalgams of human and Xenos technology fused and brought to unholy life by the darkest warp sorcery.^[1]

They were first encountered by the Imperium during the Horus Heresy when the Dark Mechanicum used Decimators as warp-infused engines of destruction. They also provided the Daemon Engines to the Traitor Legions , where they served the same role as Dreadnoughts. This led these Decimators to serve as shock troops and line breakers, but their armaments were also tailored to fit the warfare style of their Traitor Legion. While some Imperial scholars believed the Decimators' creation was an attempt to counter the strength of the Leviathan Dreadnought, the Daemon Engines were rarely a match for one in single combat. However the Daemon Engines proved to be far less intensive to create and as the Horus Heresy neared its end, the Decimators became a regular presence in the Traitors' forces.^[3]

This history was forgotten by the Imperium, though. Currently Decimators have been recorded in the forces of the Great Enemy as long ago as the mass genocides known in Imperial Lore as the "Grief of Herodin" in late M35. They have fortunately been rarely encountered, save within the damned cults and daemon fleets that plague the benighted reaches of the Nightmare Rifts far to the Galactic South of the Segmentum Tempestus. Here in the dark void beyond the borders of the Imperium, some unknown source, it is believed, barters these dread killing machines for a high price in blood, plunder and souls. This has led some within the Ordo Malleus to label them the work of the infamous Dark Magos of the Silent Forge known as the Sepktraal Cult. Legend has it that the Sepktraal were driven to the rifts beyond the Silent Abyss during the Great Scouring, while others insist that the cult never existed at all, except in the myths of the forgotten age.^[1]

Inquisitorial savants do not know for sure what malefic party is responsible for this sinful innovation as the Decimator is capable of fielding a wide range of terrible armaments: rapid-firing Butcher Cannons, multi-barrelled Stormlasers, Soulburner Petard^[1], Heavy Conversion Beamer^[2] and great raking Siege Claws to name but a few. Towering over even the mighty Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts of the Adeptus Astartes, the Decimator is believed to be an attempt to bolster the ranks of such ancient devices that still serve the Traitor Legions. If this is the truth, then it is feared that many warriors of the Imperium will fall before these deadly war machines.^[1]

Images of Known Decimator Weapons

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  Decimator Siege Claw

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  Decimator Soulburner Petard

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  Decimator Storm Laser

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  Decimator Heavy Conversion Beamer

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  Decimator Butcher Cannon

See also

• Chaos Space Marine Vehicles (List)
• Daemon Engine

Sources

• 1: Forgeworld Decimator (last accessed 4 April 2016)
• 2: Forgeworld Decimator Heavy Conversion Beamer (last accessed 9 April 2016)
• 3: Warhammer Community: Exemplary Battles of the Horus Heresy – Daemon Engines Arrive to Reap a Bloody Toll (Posted on 15/08/2023) - The Depths of Tredecimmia PDF, pg. 14 (Last accessed on 15/08/2023)