Khorne is the Chaos God of wrath who draws his power both from the bloodstained battlefields of the Mortal Realms and from the anger innate in all mortals.
The Blood God is an uncompromising overlord, whose creed is bleak and brutally simplistic: blood and skulls must be offered in tribute so that carnage spreads across the realms. If he ever gets his way, eventually every corner of the Mortal Realms will be consumed by the flames of an endless and bloody war. Until then, every life taken, whether in desperate revenge or in order to support a noble cause, empowers the God of Carnage.
The only thing that displeases Khorne more than cowards are those who kill not with their own hands and weapons, but with trickery or sorcery. While he holds spellcasters beneath contempt, the indolent worshippers of Slaanesh also draw his ire, as his single-minded pursuit of violence above all else is incompatible with their desire for luxury and sensation.
Those ritualists who act as a conduit for the Blood God do so not through rousing oration, but by expressions of raw violence and rage. In turn, Khorne will bestow his blessings in the form of blood-tinged miracles that enable further massacres and quell the powers of foolish sorcerers.
Khorne’s only demand from his followers is that they offer up an endless tithe of blood and skulls. This impossible toll inevitably ends in his disciples running out of foes and turning on each other in desperate fury – after all Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows.
Overview
The murderous war-hosts known as the Blades of Khorne comprise immortal legions of daemons and savage mortal warriors. They are feared across the realms for the wanton destruction they bring. Khorne’s faithful are not limited to mighty armies, however, and he courts the worship of barbarian hordes and murder cults alike. Anyone who is willing to claim skulls for Khorne is rewarded with strength beyond mortal ken, just so long as the killing continues.
The Bloodbound are his most infamous mortal followers, a warhorde that exists only to serve the God of Blood. This existence is nasty, brutish, and short, and they raise no cities in their wake, as any settlements that they conquer are reduced to gore-splattered ruins, or reworked into staging posts for their endless armies. They believe the battlefield is the only temple that needs to be raised to Khorne, and they practise their worship with a frenzied vigour, even giving their own lives to guarantee that their patron receives his blood offerings.
Khorne’s daemons are physical manifestations of rage and hate that stream through wounds in reality like rivers of boiling blood, taking corporeal form as creatures of red flesh, cruel horns, and weapons that blister with infernal heat. Chief amongst them are the Bloodthirsters, musclebound abominations that descend into battle on vast leathery wings to challenge and humiliate the most powerful opponents they can find. In their wake scramble the hordes of Bloodletters and Flesh Hounds, daemons who exist only to tear their foes limb from limb as savage embodiments of their master.
The greatest concentration of Khorne’s followers lay claim to the Great Parch in Aqshy, where numerous Bloodbound hordes do battle under the command of Mighty Lords of Khorne. Of these, the Goretide is the most notorious, an unstoppable storm of violence raised by the terrible warlord Korghos Khul, which has wreaked havoc on Aqshy since the dawn of the Age of Sigmar.
By engaging in an endless battle against Sigmar’s forces they have left the ground slick with spilt blood and raised towering monuments of skulls – a glimpse at the hellscape that the Blades of Khorne threaten should their rampage across the Mortal Realms continue unchecked.
Battle Traits
The Blades of Khorne use acts of violence to fulfil The Blood Tithe, granting them boons in battle. Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows, and every unit destroyed during battle generates 1 Blood Tithe point, which can be spent on five unique abilities.
With the Spelleater Curse, Khorne’s followers nullify pathetic sorceries, while the urge to kill bubbles over into a Murderlust that lets them leap into combat even in their opponent's turn, and when in combat, Heads Must Roll to satisfy the God of Murder’s demands. Slaughter Triumphant is the coup-de-grace, as Khorne’s rage carves a rent in the fabric of reality to allow a Bloodthirster to replace its fallen kin, or his wrath goads his disciples to greater atrocities.
Battle Formations
The armies of Khorne range from hordes howling of barbarians to regimented masters of warfare. The Khornate Legion is unique in that Khorne’s mortal acolytes follow daemonic hosts into battles. These otherworldly Butchers of Nations display their mastery of combat to inspire their mortal followers to similar acts of bloodshed.
Other daemonic hosts prefer to battle without mortals, gaining resilience to damage by shedding blood to warp reality itself. Mortal armies are more concerned with taking territory and displaying dominance than their supernatural allies, while an earth-shaking stampede of juggernauts simply crushes anything before it under their unstoppable charge.
Khorne Hates Sorcery
Khorne’s ritualists do not cast spells, instead they beseech their god to grant them the power to smite their opponents. To punish other spellcasters for resorting to arcane powers where raw might will suffice, they Summon Hexgorger Skulls.
These predatory manifestations react to nearby spellcasting by disgorging a stream of molten blood, but their ultimate purpose is as Hexgorgers that violently nullify casting attempts by enemy Wizards.
Unit Focus
Khorne’s many daemons are commanded by towering embodiments of battle-frenzy known as Bloodthirsters, bat-winged daemonic warlords that leave boiling blood in the craters left by their hooves. Each belongs to one of eight hosts, congregations of daemons with their own preferred methods of slaughter.
From the Sixth Host emerges the Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage, a beast that wields a colossal Great Axe of Khorne, a weapon capable of splitting even a Mega-Gargant in two, but which it prefers to wield against vast hordes of infantry. Their Shattering Charge spells doom for all that attempt to hold fast against it, the cataclysmic descent dealing three additional mortal damage to infantry.
Whenever they score critical hits with their weapons, the Outrageous Carnage sunders the world around them, as bursts of flame erupt from the ground to scour anyone unlucky enough to be nearby.
Bloodletters are the rank and file of the Blood Legions, the most numerous daemons of Khorne. Despite their numbers each is still a prodigious combatant armed with a hellblade that burns hotter as they engage in combat, a single-minded obsession they pursue with ferocious aplomb.
As they shed blood in their God’s name, reality begins to break down, The Thinning Veil allowing reinforcements to claw their way from their master’s kingdom and straight into the thick of combat.
The three-headed hound Karanak spends most of his days prowling around the Skull Throne of Khorne, and is only unleashed when an enemy champion has earned his master’s personal displeasure. The Prey of the Blood God are marked the moment one of Karanak’s three heads notices them, and he will Stalk the Prey in an inexorable pursuit every time his quarry moves.
As First of the Pack Karanak also leads throngs of baying Flesh Hounds into battle, increasing their charge rolls, his fierce territorial nature rubbing off on them so that they ignore restrictions of the Beast passive ability.
Blood Warriors are some of Khorne’s most loyal followers, relentless killers who form the iron heart of the Bloodbound warhorde, they wade into combat with their Goreaxe and Goreglaives, hungry to shed blood for their patron.
They are well aware that, ultimately, Khorne would happily take their blood and their skulls as tribute, but nevertheless fight with No Respite, lashing out with renewed rage in their dying moments to hopefully double their grisly tribute.
The Word From the Studio
Sam: “Khorne’s favoured sons are as furious and terrifying as ever in the new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. Bloodthirsters have become combat monsters befitting their status, with damage characteristics of 4 or 5 on their main weapons. While Bloodletters have become a tide of blades that can wear down enemies through attrition.
“Slaughterpriests are a great inclusion in any army, able to conduct their Blood Sacrifice to generate Blood Tithe points whilst simultaneously chanting those all-important prayers. New Battle Formations like the Khornate Legion are excellent incentives for running mixed armies of both daemons and Bloodbound together, both Khorne worshippers able to fight side-by-side to slaughter their foes without reprieve.”
Spearhead Spotlight
The Bloodbound Gore Pilgrims are roving bands of mortals who have earned the War God’s mark. They are led by a Slaughterpriest, a raving warrior-priest whose every action exults Khorne. In his wake charge throngs of Blood Warriors, Bloodreavers, and a complement of Mighty Sullcrushers – together this savage band roams far and wide seeking carnage.
When units are destroyed, the power of the Blood Tithe bubbles up within them, becoming an all-consuming Murderlust that drives them into combat, where their rage ensures that Heads Must Roll.
Mighty Skullcrushers live up to their name, their Brass Stampede shattering shields and bone alike as they charge into combat. Clad in hellforged iron, these cursed knights are some of the toughest forces in the Mortal Realms, able to stick around in combat and claim heads with their bloodglaives while shrugging off even the mightiest of blows.
That’s the last of our Faction Focus articles. You can read all of them below, to find out how your army plays in the new edition. Faction Packs will be available to download for free before Skaventide is released, and the Digital Battletomes for Stormcast Eternals, Beasts of Chaos, and Bonesplitterz very soon after.
