Ten thousand years ago, the Space Marine legions carved a path across the galaxy to reclaim the lost realms of mankind, led by the Emperor’s gene-crafted sons. None of these Primarchs were as prideful as Fulgrim – known then as the Phoenecian – and when subtle corruption coaxed half of humanity’s finest into the clutches of Chaos, his warriors gleefully embraced their hedonistic ways in the service of the dark god Slaanesh.
These are the Emperor’s Children, transhuman warriors who pursue pure excess in all its forms. Some seek mastery over the battlefield while others concoct new ways to inflict the most extreme sensations on themselves and their prey – with a malice unmatched by all but the most dedicated servants of the Dark Powers. Here’s everything you need to know if you’re thinking of starting an army of these superhuman sybarites.
Emperor’s Children Explained
Much of the history of the Emperor’s Children is similar to their fellow Chaos Space Marines, and you can learn all about them in our other guide. When the heretic Space Marines turned against their masters and began the Horus Heresy, the Emperor’s Children were some of the first to embrace the gifts of Chaos, as every ounce of war-born strength and uncanny speed brought them closer to their ideals of the perfect warrior.
The heightened senses that allowed Fulgrim’s sons to revel in their excess quickly dulled from over-exposure. The need to experience ever greater emotional and physical thrills grew at an extraordinary pace, and it wasn’t long before the pursuit of these highs consumed the once-glorious legion.
Mutations ran rife as Space Marines underwent hideous augmentations to further stimulate their senses, embedding maddening sonic generators where mouths used to be and wicked, distorted weapons in place of arms, hands, and other limbs. For the Emperor’s Children, these were a small price to pay for the experiences they craved.
The Primarch Fulgrim ascended to daemonhood in a new, serpentine form. He now stalks battlefields with predatory intent seeking out and challenging the mightiest heroes – often several at a time, with weapons grasped in each of his four arms. Since the closing days of the Heresy, however, he has been seldom seen on the galactic stage, preferring to remain in the Warp in search of perfection and excess.
But all that has changed. The Emperor’s Children have once again crashed into realspace, an unstoppable tidal wave of perfect violence determined to score a decisive blow on the weakened Imperium. Their warbands are supremely confident of their own abilities, but aren’t above summoning some help from beyond when the going gets tough.
The Emperor’s Children often summon the Daemons of Slaanesh to battle, cavorting in the carnage and terrifying all who behold them with their uncanny appearance. Daemonettes and Keepers of Secrets surge ahead of the main lines to eviscerate their prey with crab-like claws, supported by fast-moving Seekers and horrifying Fiends.
On the battlefield, the Emperor’s Children aim to close with their foe and demonstrate their mastery of close combat, with a significant amount of assault infantry supported by quality ranged firepower. Their basic infantry are better than your average Space Marine in a melee fight, while the Flawless Blades can be dispatched towards enemy elites and Terminators provide the anvil on which to hammer your opponent.
Few factions can boast a fully fired-up Primarch, and Fulgrim doesn’t disappoint. His immense close combat power and fearsome presence makes him the perfect centrepiece for your hobby collection – as beautiful as he is deadly – with his special abilities giving you the flexibility to adapt your battle plans on the fly.
The mixture of elite Heretic Astartes and lightning-fast if fragile daemons makes the Emperor’s Children a rewarding faction to master, with tons of hitting power hidden behind their garish exterior. And, ultimately, it’s worth it just for the chance to deploy a Primarch onto your side of the battlefield – an experience few players can muster!
Combat Patrol
Combat Patrol is a game mode perfect for beginners and veterans alike, in which smaller forces clash in fast-paced, balanced games. The Emperor’s Children bring hard-hitting infantry with a focus on swiftly charging into close combat, where their finely honed dueling skills come to the fore.
The Callous Blades are led by Lord Kaphrael, a powerful Lord Exultant who can carve up almost any opponent in close combat. He is accompanied by a large squad of 10 Infractors – power-armoured front-line troops armed with dueling sabres – and specialises in hunting down enemy leaders before hacking them to bits in a duel.
This sublime core of infantry is flanked by two units of three Flawless Blades, the cream of the crop when it comes to masterful melee massacres. Their immense skill with their Blissblades makes them perfect counters to your opponent’s elite units, and should they need a little extra oomph to overcome their foes, they can always beseech their daemonic patrons in the peanut gallery for a spot of Warp-fueled strength.
All you need to deploy the Callous Blades is a few dice, a ruler, and the downloadable rules below – the Core Rules show you how to play the game, the Combat Patrol Datasheets provide a balanced army that’s ready to play, and the Combat Patrol Missions give you some thrilling objectives to fight over!
Painting
The Emperor’s Children are usually daubed in pink and purple, but as masters of hedonistic expression you can splash them with any colour you can think of – the brighter and more eye-catching the better! They routinely sport clashing colours, headache-inducing patterns, and bizarre animal prints, making their power armour an excellent tapestry for your wildest artistic visions.
Every trooper is adorned in a wide variety of textures and materials, from smooth armour and stretched leather to rippling skin and flowing crests. Few miniature ranges offer as full a spectrum of the painting experience as the Emperor’s Children, and they’re some of the most rewarding hobby projects around – even if you’re a novice.
To help ease your miniatures onto the battlefield with a simple, achievable colour scheme that works across every unit, the Warhammer 40,000 Painting Team have put together a list of paints to complete the classic 41st Millennium look, as seen on the boxes.
This is by no means an exhaustive primer, and you can use your entire paint collection to add weird and wonderful flourishes – very on-brand for the sons of Fulgrim. Paint first and think later; it’s what the Emperor’s Children would do!
Next Steps
Once you have a few Combat Patrol games under your belt and you’re ready to grow from an outpost-raiding warband to a world-conquering host of hedonites, you might be wondering where to go next.
Your first stop is Codex: Emperor’s Children – the essential companion to the faction, containing plenty of background lore and a showcase of gorgeously painted miniatures, as well as rules for 22 different units and plenty of different ways to play them. Together with a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book, you’ll have all the rules you need to start playing full-size games of Warhammer 40,000.
The Combat Patrol provides a versatile core, and the next step is to support your charge with some long-range firepower. Noise Marines are perhaps the most infamous of the Emperor’s Children’s unit, armed with powerful sonic weapons that shatter bone and rupture organs from across the battlefield, and their lethal harmonies are even more deadly when directed by a Lord Kakophonist.
While Infractors charge ahead, squads of Tormentors level their boltguns and blast oncoming enemies in an ego-driven race to reap the greatest tally of lives. You can build either unit from the same box, with plenty of extra weapons and accessories to go around.
Yet, is it really an Emperor’s Children warband if it’s not being puppeteered by the Daemon Primarch himself? Fulgrim is a truly immaculate miniature that ties the rest of his faction together, with almighty close combat skills to tackle even the greatest of monsters* and immense durability unmatched outside of his fellow Primarchs.
The inherent perfectionism rooted deep within every member of the legion makes for some truly excellent commanders once the unworthy have been weeded out, and Lucius is the undisputed master of them all. There are few duelists who can stand up to his relentless onslaught, and a horde of daemons waits to march alongside your heretic Space Marines – including the legendary Keeper of Secrets, Shalaxi Helbane.
Fiction
The wild and complex characters that spring from such a self-absorbed and ambitious faction are perfect viewpoints for Black Library novels, and there are no shortage of stories slick with excess and obsession.
Renegades: Lord of Excess by Rich McCormick is the perfect introduction to the modern-day goings-on of the Emperor’s Children, following the warlord Xantine as he battles to secure glory for the Dark Prince and hold his fractured warband together while threats and challenges bubble up from within. Even more recently, Fulgrim: The Perfect Son is Jude Reid’s exploration of the Primarch’s recent return, as he challenges his warriors to besiege an Imperial bastion world and prove their worth amidst the clamour of competing egos.
Although now banished from his former legion, Fabius Bile has been plying his bloody trade for more than 10 millennia – and the stories by Josh Reynolds capture him perfectly. You can learn more about Fabius Bile: The Omnibus – and other Chaos-themed novels – in our guide to the Chaos Space Marines.
Start Your Collection
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* Is he himself the greatest of monsters? Some would certainly say so.
