World Eaters

In the fictional universes of Warhammer 40,000, the World Eaters are a Legion of the Chaos Space Marines. They are worshippers of Khorne and exist solely to spill blood in his name. They are believed to have been the third Legion (the first two being the Word Bearers and Sons of Horus) that turned to Chaos, and the first Legion to join with Horus in open rebellion against the Emperor.

History
Angron
The infant Primarch Angron, one of the twenty gene-children of the Emperor of Mankind, was discovered by a slaver on a planet whose identity has now been lost to history. Finding the child, surrounded by the bodies of many defeated aliens (presumed by Imperial scholars to have been Eldar), the slaver tended to his wounds, before having Angron implanted with bio-neural circuitry used to increase a warrior's aggression and strength. Angron was then inducted into the ranks of the planet's numerous slave-gladiators.

After only a few years in the largest arena of the planet's capital, Angron came to be known as a proud warrior of fearsome skill, and quickly became a crowd favorite. He killed hundreds of gladiators, in both single and multiple combats, but spared those who had fought well. Angron was continually plotting ways of escaping his captivity, although every attempt met with failure.

Eventually, Angron managed to escape with a lot of gladiators, slaughtering a crowd. They held out for years, before the Emperor abducted him and the gladiators were slaughted without him.

This resentment would fester, and eventually contribute to Angron's joining the Traitor Marines' rebellion against the Emperor that was led by the Warmaster Horus.

The Great Crusade
Knowing firsthand how effective the surgery inflicted on him could be, Angron ordered the Legion's Techmarines to replicate the implants and processes, using himself as a template. After many failures, the Techmarines were able to construct working implants that mimicked Angron's, who then ordered that the entire Legion be modified.

Eventually, the Legion's use of Neo-Cortex implants was discovered, and the Emperor ordered Angron to cease modifying his soldiers. Unsurprisingly, Angron disobeyed, ordering his Techmarines to continue the surgeries in secret.

Betrayal
As more and more of the Legion was given cranial implants, its soldiers grew in ferocity. Blood rites became common within the Legion, along with competitions revolving around the number of skulls taken in battle. The World Eaters came continually under the Emperor's scrutiny, culminating in the atrocity known as the Cleansing of Ariggata.

The planet of Ariggata, a technologically advanced world that had been isolated from the Imperium during the Age of Strife, refused the Emperor's command to join his empire. When the Imperial envoys sent to parley with the planet's leaders were executed in a brutal act of defiance, the Emperor sent Horus to bring Ariggata into the Imperium's fold.

Horus responded immediately, and was accompanied by the Ultramarines and World Eaters Legions. As tactically brilliant as ever, the Warmaster sent in Angron's troops first, leaving the Ultramarines to garrison the region and his own Legion to share in the glory. The World Eaters performed admirably, taking each city one by one until only one remained standing. This last bastion of resistance, the world's capital, was an immensely fortified citadel, and a full week of orbital bombardment was able to create only a single breach in its walls. Always impatient, Angron poured his troops into the weak point, and many Space Marines were cut down as they charged straight into the teeth of the enemy's defensive guns. Undaunted, the World Eaters ascended a ramp of corpses straight into the citadel, and, once inside, unleashed their fury on the hapless defenders. For a day and a night, the World Eaters rampaged through the fortress, and, when Angron finally led his victorious troops from the conquered city, no one within had been left alive. When the Ultramarines entered to secure the citadel, they were horrified by the sheer scale of the carnage. In one day, the mightiest fortress of Ariggata had become an abattoir, and Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, sought his brothers to reprimand them for their actions.

By this time, however, both Horus and Angron were already far away in the midst of other conquests. When Guilliman was finally able to confront his fellow Primarchs, the Horus Heresy erupted, and the galaxy was plunged into civil war. Angron, along with Horus, Lorgar, and Mortarion, was one of the first five Primarchs to be corrupted by the powers of Chaos.

Horus was a master psychologist, and sensing Angron's resentment of the Emperor, was able to convince him and his Legion to turn, capitalising on the Legion’s ranks of raving warriors and bloody rituals to corrupt them into the worship of Khorne. As part of a bloody sacrifice to their new master, the Librarians of the World Eaters were hunted down and killed by their brother Marines, as Khorne despised all practitioners of the sorcerous (psyker) arts. The killing came to a head when World Eater hero Scyrak the Slaughterer slew the Legion's Chief Librarian, thus removing the last obstacle to the Legion's bloody fall. When Horus' betrayal was made public, the World Eaters were the first to side with the Sons of Horus. In the novel, Galaxy In Flames, shortly after the Istavaan III incident, Horus states that he had brought the World Eaters to a point from which they could not turn back.

Imperial historians speculate as to whether any of the worlds destroyed by Angron seemingly at random throughout the World Eaters' bloody advance on Terra may have been his former homeworld, but the truth is known only to the Primarch himself.

The World Eaters took part in the siege of Terra. Newly blessed with daemonic gifts, Angron and his Legion overtook the defenders of Eternity Wall Spaceport, before leading the frontal assault on the Imperial Palace. Their Legion records claim it was they, and not the Sons of Horus, who first breached the walls of the Outer Palace. First amongst them was Khârn, a mighty Champion of the Legion. Like the other Traitor Legions, the World Eaters retreated into the Eye of Terror when the Warmaster Horus was defeated, swearing their revenge against the Imperium. Angron and his warriors were the last to leave the embattled planet and fight their way clear.

Post Heresy

After Istvaan III but prior to the Siege of Terra, Angron was elevated to daemonhood, becoming Khorne's greatest daemonic servant: the Prince of Blood.

Angron led a horde of fifty thousand Berzerkers of Khorne from the Eye of Terror in the mid-Thirty-Eighth Millennium in a two hundred year rampage known as the Dominion of Fire. In the wake of their atrocities other warbands and rebels followed, and dozens of sectors were engulfed in war and civil strife and a Crusade of Imperial forces was required to restore order.

In 499.M41, Angron led the attack that would become the First War of Armageddon (the more well known invasions by the Ork warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka being the second and third), but was ultimately defeated by three Great Companies of Space Wolves commanded by Logan Grimnar and banished to the Warp for a century and a day after a battle with one hundred Grey Knight Terminators led by Brother Captain Aurellian. Only three Terminators survived the battle with Angron and his bodyguard of a dozen Greater Daemons of Khorne.

Organization
The World Eaters venerate the Chaos God Khorne above all. The constant lust for battle and slaughter has made a shambles of the Legion's tactical organization, and the World Eaters fell apart almost entirely during a battle with the Emperor's Children on the daemon world of Skalathrax, when Khârn the Betrayer, furious at the Legion's retreat from the deadly cold of Skalathrax's night, stalked the battlefield indiscriminately taking skulls from both sides. The World Eaters were reduced to roving warbands, led by Chaos Champions of exceptional skill and ferocity, who will fight for no more than the chance to spill blood in the name of their god.

Notable Friendships and Rivalries

Angron had a competitive rivalry with Leman Russ and Sanguinius, caused by their besting him during their early training sessions. These two were the only Primarchs Angron never defeated in single combat. Angron had no particular friendships with any of his brothers and harboured a special loathing for Fulgrim, seeing him as weak and untrustworthy.

Combat Doctrine

Pre-Heresy, the World Eaters' beliefs were that there was no gain in knowing one's enemy, only in destroying them. They took pride in being "butchers", believing that the Emperor knew that they fulfilled a necessary role in the success of the Great Crusade: to be prepared to always go further than the enemy to ensure victory.

Post-Heresy, the World Eaters have only one desire, to let blood flow and collect skulls in the name of Khorne. Members of the Legion are rarely seen carrying anything other than a pistol and a large, brutal chainaxe, although the latter may vary to include any melee weapon. Strategy and tactics are alien concepts to the Legion; when battle is joined they will rampage across the battlefield in an attempt to get to grips with the enemy as quickly as possible.

Khorne Berzerkers
Khorne Berzerkers are the primary force of the World Eaters warbands. They are frothing madmen who thirst for bloodshed and to take the skulls of their opponents. Though the original source for Berzerkers were the World Eaters, there are Chaos Marines from other legions that have become Berzerkers as well after dedicating themselves to Khorne. Most Berzerkers are either part of the World Eaters or the Black Legion.

Berzerkers often carry a chainsword or, more commonly, chain-axes (a more powerful variant of the chainsword) as well as a pistol of some sort. Although they carry ranged weapons, they are often too crazed to use them for anything other than pistol-whipping the enemy. Because of their fanatical behaviour they are incapable of performing covert operations and using any tactic other than charging head-on at the enemy.

Special Weapons and Equipment
*Axe of Khorne: The Axe of Khorne is a symbol of the Chaos God Khorne and is fueled by its patron's own ferocity. These special axes increase the warrior's already formidable rage, making him more dangerous in combat. In original background (from Realm of Chaos), each Axe had a Bloodthirster bound into it, which could manifest itself outside the weapon in battle.

*Berserker Glaive: The Berserker Glaive is a special infused with the unholy essence of a bloodletter. The blade thirsts for the blood of the enemy and causes the owner to descend into a haze of bloodlust and madness. The Glaive grants considerable powers to the wielder, but, as a daemon weapon, can turn against him.

*Chain-axe: The chain-axe is a favored weapon of the Berzerkers. They are cheap, heavy, and utterly devastating compared to other . Unlike other special weapons, these are available to normal Berzerkers in addition to commanders and other characters.

*Collar of Khorne: The Collar of Khorne radiates Khorne's hatred, and is able to disrupt enemy psychic abilities.

*Bloodfeeder: The Bloodfeeder is a mighty axe infused with the power of a raging Bloodthirster. In game terms, it adds 2D6 attacks and, as a Daemon weapon, it often rebels against the warrior holding it.

Battlecry
"Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!"

Appearance
Prior to the Horus Heresy, the World Eaters wore white armour with blue shoulder guards & backpacks. The Legion symbol, a world surrounded by sharp teeth, was displayed on their leg and shoulder armour. Since their corruption by Chaos, the Legion's armour has been blood red, with brass trim and decorations. The Legion symbol has been modified slightly, either superimposed over the Star of Chaos, or placing the world within the teeth of Khorne's skull. The alteration of their armour could be to symbolize the Blood God's use of brass and the blood of fallen enemies.

Notable Members
* Angron, The Red Angel, Prince of Blood, Daemon Primarch of the World Eaters Legion.

* Khârn the Betrayer, former equerry to Angron and traitor captain of the 8th Company, responsible for the sundering of the Legion at Skalathrax.

* Kossolax the Foresworn - led his warband during the First War for Armageddon and against the Blood Angels task force at Agrippina during the Thirteenth Black Crusade. Still served by the ancient Rhino Barbarus which was identified at the Siege of Terra.

* Lord Skchalick - commanded his Elite during the First War for Armageddon.

* Hans Kho'ren - commanded The Skull Takers during the First War for Armageddon.

* Captain Ehrlen - commanded the loyalist World Eater troops against Angron's traitors during the Isstvan betrayal during the events of Galaxy in Flames.

* Argus Brond - captain of the legion prior to the Horus Heresy, his fate is unknown (pictured in the Horus Heresy Collectible Card Game).

* Ehren Gak - captain of the legion prior to the Horus Heresy, his fate is unknown (pictured in the Horus Heresy Collectible Card Game).

* Captain Varren - loyalist captain prior to the Horus Heresy, now presumed dead - last confirmed sighting was in the Isstvan system immediately before the Flight of the Eisenstein.

* Lord Crull - commanded a World Eaters warband during the events in the videogame Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Winter Assault, was slain by Ork warboss Gorgutz.

* Scyrak the Slaughterer - captain of the legion prior to the Horus Heresy, responsible for killing the legion's Chief Librarian when the legion turned traitor (a fan-made character from the Citadel Journal).

Trivia

* Death metal band released several tracks/albums with references to the World Eaters. Most notably is the track "KILL MAIM BURN!".

* British Death metal band Bolt Thrower released a song titled "World Eater" on their album Realm of Chaos.

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See Also

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