"Those who ignore the blessings of the gods of the Warp are doomed to suffer at their hands."
- — Musim, Advisor to Am-Ord the Merciless
A Chaos Sorcerer of the Black Legion
A sorcerer or Chaos Sorcerer is the most powerful type of psyker found among the Chaos Space Marines and the other mortal forces of Chaos.
Sorcerers serve the same role as Librarians do for Loyalist Space Marine Chapters and Sanctioned Psykers do for the Astra Militarum, though many powerful sorcerers can also be considered psychically-gifted Champions of Chaos and Sorcerer Lords.
Instead of the subtle psychic manipulation and divination used by the Farseers of the Aeldari or the strength-boosting powers of the Space Marine Librarians, the sorcerers of Chaos wield death, destruction, and mutation, the mightiest powers of the Warp.
Sorcerers of Chaos shape destiny itself with arcane rituals and unspeakable pacts forged with the malefic entities -- the Daemons -- of the Empyrean. In truth, "sorcery" itself differs from other forms of psychic ability because it requires interacting and cutting deals for knowledge and/or power with the entities of the Warp in the pursuit of one's own selfish gain.
Through the knowledge gained by such pacts, sorcerers channel the soul-blasting energies of the Warp into potent hexes and blasts of wyrdflame, and they mould the fabric of the material universe with little more than a hate-filled curse.
Because of their constant exposure to the power of Chaos, sorcerers are inevitably haunted by the prospect of eventually succumbing to crippling mutation or insanity. Though they believe they are above mortal concerns, the truth is that they, too, are only pawns, raised up and then expended by the Dark Gods for their own amusement.
The line between wielding psychic power and true "sorcery" is a fine one indeed. The Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes may seek to deny it, but every time a Space Marine Librarian calls upon his mental might he risks tainting his soul.
In the heat of battle, even the most capable psyker may overreach his abilities, and instead of recoiling in horror from the resultant carnage, he may feel a forbidden thrill. Such emotions are the first step on a path to limitless evil.
From that moment on, the psyker may endure honeyed whispers in his dreams and visions of immortality. Those who succumb to such temptations and make deals for power with the Daemonic denizens of the Immaterium become true sorcerers, able to channel the malefic power of the Warp to its fullest extent, unconstrained by morality or consequences.
Sorcerers are forever driven to expand their influence and knowledge. They see themselves as having ascended; no longer hindered by blind loyalty to the Corpse-God of the Imperium, they become even more callous and inhuman than those who follow them.
Some are cold-hearted strategists who vent their hatred upon as much of the universe as possible; Ygethmor the Deceiver once orchestrated a doomsday cult that resulted in the depopulation of every inhabited world in the Corriallis System.
Others act as advisors for Chaos Lords, subtly redirecting them to their own ends under the illusion of servitude. A rare few roam the hidden paths of the universe, unlocking the secrets of the ancients to better plunge the galaxy into the embrace of Chaos.
Regardless of their goals, all sorcerers revel in the anarchy of the Long War. It takes only a flicker of resistance to spur them into unleashing the destructive energies of the Immaterium. Their bitterness manifests upon the battlefield as a palpable force; red-hot skulls hammer down from the skies, disease chokes the souls of those nearby, and men are turned into monsters in their wake.
The martial prowess common to all Chaos Space Marines is magnified greatly when combined with the weapons of the sorcerer, baleful artefacts saturated with the energies of Chaos that can rip the soul from the body of their victim.
A Heretic Astartes Chaos Sorcerer prepares to unleash his psychic might.
The Thousand Sons Legion gave rise to the first Space Marine sorcerers during the early days of the Great Crusade. Even before the Horus Heresy, the XVth Legion of Magnus the Red had a thirst for knowledge of the Warp that proved impossible to slake, and ultimately proved their undoing.
In his arrogance and ignorance, Magnus ignored the warnings of his father the Emperor and could not stop himself from dealing with the denizens of the Warp in the search for ever more knowledge about how to enhance and extend his psychic abilities and those of his Astartes.
Without even realising it, he struck a pact with the Chaos God Tzeentch that ultimately resulted in the damnation of himself and his Legion. Most of the Thousand Sons' number were ultimately reduced to unliving automatons by the Rubric of Ahriman, though the most psychically powerful among them were able to resist the unforeseen consequences of that grand ritual.
Many of these ancient sorcerers have now forged pacts with Abaddon the Despoiler, joining the Warmaster of Chaos in his quest to overthrow the Imperium of Man and adding the strength of their Rubricae bodyguards to that of the Black Legion.
History
A Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer
During the early years of the Great Crusade many Astartes of the Space Marine Legions began to display powerful psychic abilities. One such Legion where psychic powers were particularly prevalent was the Thousand Sons.
The Astartes of the XV Legion welcomed this development, for they sought to further emulate the Emperor of Mankind. This development was reluctantly tolerated by the Emperor, who was greatly wary of psychic abilities wielded by anyone other than Himself or Malcador the Sigillite, though the Thousand Sons' abilities proved to be a powerful weapon for the Imperium during the Great Crusade.
At the urging of Magnus the Red and some of his fellow Primarchs, this led to the creation of the Librarius corps within each Legion, whose psychically gifted Battle-Brothers would seek the betterment of their Legion and the expansion of the burgeoning Imperium of Man.
Throughout many of their campaigns the Thousand Sons made extensive use of sorcerers, and their Warp-derived powers would leave whole populations in thrall to their will rather than carrying out a planetary conquest through a costly full frontal assault like the other Space Marine Legions.
This tactic earned the ire of Leman Russ of the Space Wolves Legion who saw anything less than a frontal assault as dishonourable and cowardly. Over the following solar decades some of the Primarchs voiced their concern that these so-called "psyker" Astartes were allowed to exist and be a part of the Emperor's Great Crusade.
Rumours and condemnations began to spread about the Thousand Sons Legion amongst the other Expeditionary Fleets. The most vocal of these detractors were the Primarchs of the Death Guard, Imperial Fists and Raven Guard Legions.
These tensions finally came to the fore when the Emperor called for the Council of Nikaea, a great Imperial conclave held on the world of Nikaea in the midst of the Great Crusade that was intended to determine whether or not the use of psychic sorcery represented a boon or a grave danger to Mankind and the newborn Imperium of Man.
Ultimately, the existence of psykers in the Imperium was allowed but tightly restricted under centralised Imperial control, while the potent and unrestricted use of psychic abilities that required dealing with the beings of the Warp and was defined as sorcery was officially banned.
The Emperor was most displeased by the Thousand Sons' dabbling in manipulating the corrupting powers of the Warp and later forbade the use of sorcery by either Magnus the Red or the members of his Legion.
But the psychically powerful Magnus and his Thousand Sons would continue to study such powers in secret on their homeworld of Prospero, ultimately leading to their damnation by Chaos, and the scouring of their world by the Space Wolves, unleashing a deadly rivalry that has lasted unto the present day.
During the Horus Heresy, the Librarians of those Traitor Legions that spat on their oaths of fealty to the Emperor and dedicated themselves to Chaos received new psychic powers.
The only exception were the Librarians of the World Eaters, who were hunted down and slain by their brethren as a bloody sacrifice to Khorne, for the Chaos God of war and murder hates all practitioners of sorcery, which he sees as dishonourable trickery when compared to the joys of simple, blood-drenched slaughter.
It is not only the servants of the Ruinous Powers who have been tempted to draw upon sorcery. For those who already tread a fine line between righteous power and damnation like Space Marine Librarians, the temptation to wield the energy of Chaos for selfish means can be overwhelming.
It is for this reason that the Emperor once sought to ban the use of all psychic powers, fearing that no Human being save Himself could be trusted to wield such powers without falling to corruption by the Warp. Although all Librarians are tested for the mental fortitude to withstand Daemonic possession and the lures of the Dark Gods, and are constantly monitored by their Chapter, there are those who still succumb.
The line between the basic use of psychic power and what constitutes "sorcery" is blurred, and every time a Librarian or any psyker uses his powers he is risking corruption. He may overreach his abilities, unwittingly drawing on more power than he can control, and by these means attract the attention of the Chaos Gods.
From that moment, he must endure cold whispers in his dreams, visions of immortality and promises of untold power. There are those who cannot withstand this incessant temptation, and fall to Chaos.
These tragic characters are amongst the most iconic archetypes of Chaos for they have embraced the Ruinous Powers in open defiance of the dictates of the Imperium. sorcerers of Chaos are vilified and feared, and one of the most hated foes of the Imperial Inquisition, who consider them the most severe of blights upon the galaxy.
Unrestrained by concerns about corruption or morality, a Chaos Sorcerer's powers can be used to destroy through the most flamboyant and pyrotechnic means imaginable. Chaos Sorcerers can hurl bolts of raw Warp energy at the enemy, curse them with Nurgle-spawned plagues and diseases, animate their dead bodies as flesh-eating zombies or physically shape-shift them into a formless blob of flesh.
Most Chaos Sorcerers bear the Mark of Tzeentch, who is the Changer of the Ways and the Chaos God of Sorcery, but sometimes sorcerers bearing the Marks of Nurgle the Plague Lord or Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure, also appear.
Khorne despises the use of sorcery rather than brute physical power and will specifically obliterate any psyker who would beseech him for power, thus no sorcerers appear in his service. The Traitor Legion with the most powerful sorcerers is still the Thousand Sons, who are wholly dedicated to the service of the Changer of Ways.
The primary difference between a true sorcerer and a standard psyker is that the former draws much of their power from dark rituals, Daemonic pacts and unholy incantations which all draw to some extent on the power of Chaos. Even a person without any psychic gifts can become a powerful sorcerer through the use of Warp lore, but this process is fraught with terrible dangers to both body and soul.
Such Heretics constantly seek out additional sources of esoteric and forbidden information. They have studied a broad array of arcane knowledge, including xenos practices, legends, and secrets long thought lost. No targets or types of data may be off-limits.
While sorcerers are likely to favour arcane knowledge tied to the dark arts, they realise that the Ruinous Powers may have uses for seemingly mundane bits of data. Virtually any information is useful as it could be enough to persuade their sponsors within the Warp to empower them yet further. The notion of forbidden knowledge is anathema to these Heretics, as they know that their personal destinies transcend any mortal strictures.
An actual psyker can drastically increase his powers by using the dark arts, but at the same time the sorcerous practitioner becomes more vulnerable to the perils of the Warp. Sorcery has been strictly forbidden on many worlds since even before the foundation of the Imperium of Man and the edicts against it made by the Council of Nikaea, but its power still lures thousands of Chaos Cultists to their damnation every Terran year.
Even amongst the servants of the Emperor of Mankind, such as Inquisitors of the Radical philosophical persuasion, there are some who believe that sorcery can be used for the betterment of Mankind, as Magnus the Red once did.
Most sorcerers of Chaos are members of a larger warband of Heretics or Chaos Space Marines. This can lead to conflict within the warband, as the sorcerer is rarely willing to accept the commands of the Chaos Champion who serves as its leader, unless that leader has the force of will and strength of arms to maintain an iron command.
Many warbands have splintered when a sorcerer of Chaos attempted to take command, leading a portion of the members towards a goal distinct from that of their Chaos Lord. This may even result in the warlord's death, reminding his fellows of the risk of maintaining such a powerful individual as an advisor.
Thousand Sons Sorcerers
A Terminator-armoured sorcerer of the Thousand Sons and his elite bodyguard advance upon the enemy with the inexorability of time itself.
A sorcerer strides to the battlefield wreathed in scintillating flames and clouds of crackling aetheric lightning. With a cruel gesture he bends the fabric of time and space to his will, crushing the bones of his enemies in enfolded pockets of reality or flensing the sanity from their minds with a blasphemous whisper.
Each sorcerer is nightmare given mortal form, capable of harnessing fear and anger to drive an opposing army to tear itself apart.
Sorcerers serve as leaders in the multitudinous thrallbands of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion. It is they who command the marching ranks of the Rubricae on the front lines and funnel screaming hordes of Chaos Cultists and Tzaangors towards the enemy.
As the insanity surrounding the sorcerer floods the battlefield, they intone rituals of summoning to draw Tzeentch's Daemonic children through the veil between realspace and the Immaterium. A sorcerer often has free rein to prosecute psychic warfare as they see fit, but their actions are ultimately in service to their sect, and to a more powerful Exalted Sorcerer or Daemon Prince.
Despite their enthrallment, sorcerers are creatures of rampant ambition. As they serve their masters they also seek ways to undermine them, drawing power from secret cabals and forging treacherous pacts with empyric entities. As a sorcerer grows in power, he risks succumbing to the weight of his own Warp energy -- many fall to uncontrolled mutation and become polymorphic Chaos Spawn.
Yet their ambition drives them to take ever greater risks in the pursuit of power, for they hope one day to attain the rank of Exalted Sorcerer, and from there to become a blessed Daemon Prince of Tzeentch.
On occasion a powerful Warp-mage from another Chaos Traitor Legion will be guided by Tzeentch to seek out the Planet of the Sorcerers and pledge his existence to Magnus the Red. However, most of the Thousand Sons sorcerers arise from the ranks of the so-called "Aspiring Sorcerers."
These under-mages are often created from the psykers of Tzeentchian Chaos Cults, who through profane demagoguery draw the attention of an invading Thousand Sons sect. They are taken to Tizca on the Planet of the Sorcerers, where they are subjected to ritual transformations to enhance their body and mind.
Most are driven mad or are torn apart by the sudden influx of empyric energy; others die slow and agonising deaths as Warp-drenched augmentative gene-seed organs mutate the host body. But those few who survive are born anew as witch-warriors of the Thousand Sons.
Exalted Sorcerers
An Exalted Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion.
Particularly powerful or experienced Chaos Sorcerers among the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion and its various successor warbands are often referred to as "Exalted Sorcerers." These sorcerers are incredibly dangerous and will possess the most potent psychic sorcery known to the mortal servants of Chaos.
Amongst the manifold Warp-wielders of the Thousand Sons there are those whose skill, cunning and naked ambition burn bright as a raging star. For these sorcerers, the power that can be achieved within the Legion is bound only by the limits of their own sanity, and they delve ever further into the most forbidden psychic disciplines to perfect their ruinous spellcraft.
Those whose souls are not torn to shreds by the empyric forces they encounter may rise to the rank of Exalted. The members of this echelon are the most favoured of Tzeentch's mortal servants, powerful warlords who command the Legion's armies and who steer the course of the galaxy towards one of the horrific fates they have foreseen.
Exalted Sorcerers are twisted arcanists, wicked of intent and strange of form. Each has an encyclopaedic knowledge of complex spells, and is able to shape reality to their desire. Amongst their number are warrior-mystics who have stalked the galaxy for ten millennia, those exiles of Prospero whose lips uttered the spell that doomed so many of the Thousand Sons to an eternity of dust.
To these masters of the esoteric, matters of war are a crass distraction, but these visionaries bring a terrible focus to bear when battle rages. Coruscating beams shoot from Silver Towers of Tzeentch in the sky, acidic ectoplasm pours from outstretched fingers, and the bones of their victims turn to molten lava at a whispered phrase. Those not slain by these magical barrages are hurled into the bloody mire, as hideously changed as the most ill-fated Chaos Spawn.
Without fail, Exalted Sorcerers are exceptional warriors. Their genetically augmented bodies were built for the savagery of combat and through the gifts of their patron god have been enhanced by mutation -- some have grown additional limbs or have eyes that exude flames when they look hatefully upon their foes.
By drawing upon their reserves of psychic energy, an Exalted Sorcerer can further bolster his martial prowess in terrifying ways. Complex spells are woven amidst the swirl of combat that allow them to perceive the movements of their enemies, seeing feints and ambushes in their mind's eye then striking back with deadly precision. With a sonorous curse they fire malefic bolts to blast their foes limb from limb or entangle them with cruel hexes.
Profane chants ring loudly above the sound of Inferno Bolter fire as a cabal of Exalted Sorcerers weave their dread magic.
An Exalted Sorcerer's rank in the Thousand Sons Legion's hierarchy is not fixed -- as servants of Tzeentch they are acutely aware that the favour given them may change at any moment. As such they must strive tirelessly to maintain their position, subjugating those who covet their power through manipulation, deceit and open displays of force.
In this way Exalted Sorcerers gather beneath them many thralls -- lesser sorcerers who serve the wiles of their master. Many of these sorcerers are unaware that they are pawns in an Exalted Sorcerer's grandiose schemes, for their enslavement is veiled by subtle lies and constantly shifting promises.
To an Exalted Sorcerer, the warriors they command are a resource to be deployed, akin to the sacrificial components used in one of their rituals. An Exalted Sorcerer seeks only his own selfish ends, and will send ranks of Rubricae and dozens of subordinate sorcerers to die if this will further a much greater goal.
However, they are not wasteful with the armies at their disposal, and carefully measure the ripple effect each thrallband's actions will have in the vast sea of causality. Each and every battle is but a small component of a war, and war itself is only a means through which they see change spread across the galaxy.
An Exalted Sorcerer will pursue any strategy that his portents deem effective, and can change tactics with fluid ease as the shifting tides of battle give spark to his dark imagination. For most Exalted Sorcerers, the ultimate goal is to prove themselves worthy of Tzeentch's greatest blessing, to be freed of their mortal forms and transformed into a being of even greater power -- a Daemon Prince.
Sorcerer Powers
When Astartes embrace Chaos, they sell their souls to vile Daemon deities. In trade for their eternal damnation they receive mighty gifts from the Dark Gods, with few gaining more than the psykers of the Librarius. These gifted champions become sorcerers, warrior mystics whose powers tear at the very fabric of reality itself.
Many are the dark and terrible powers of the sorcerers. Some pry apart the weft and weave of fate, tearing through the threads of the future and weaving them into bleak new webs of damnation and despair. Others summon horrific entities from the Warp, the Neverborn spilling through the veil at their call to tear horrified victims limb from limb.
Sorcerers wield the energies of the Empyrean as crackling blades and crushing blasts of force. They pervert the fundamental forces of reality into grotesque weapons, and unleash the blasphemous energies of Chaos corruption upon their foes.
The very thoughts and desires of these occult warriors become weaponised -- their enemies beset by storms of crackling hate or beguiled by glittering clouds of envy and desire. Few are the defences that can repel such tainted psychic assaults, and so sorcerers are hated and feared by all those they face.
The path to such formidable power is not an easy one, however, and the dangers the sorcerers must face are uncountable. Even the resilient psyches of Astartes are not altogether immune to the touch of madness. The deviant lore that sorcerers covet is laden with insidious dangers. Inevitably, all but the strongest-willed find their sanity blasted by the crawling horror of the secrets they uncover.
Even those who retain their grip upon reality risk much by harnessing the powers of the Empyrean. Though ostensibly allies to the Traitor Legions, the Daemons of the Warp are rapacious and merciless predators. They will gladly possess or beguile the unwary in order to sate their gnawing hunger for souls, and like those of all psykers the animas of sorcerers burn beacon-bright to these monstrous entities.
Mutation and degeneration are constant dangers also, for sorcerers channel floods of corrupting energies through their minds and bodies. Many are the prideful or incautious sorcerers who have ended up as writhing, screaming Chaos Spawn when their spells ran amok. Despite such dangers, there are always more fallen Librarians willing to follow the twisting path of the sorcerer, for the powers they command afford a swift path to dark glory.
Common Powers
Chaos Space Marine psykers open their minds fully to the horrors of the Warp, drawing immense power from this nightmare dimension to rip apart their enemies and infuse their allies with strength. Only those already inured to the maddening taint of Chaos can wield such raw power without losing all remnants of sanity.
- Blade of Baleful Might - The sorcerer's Force Weapon exhibits terrifying qualities of destruction and menace. The ritualistic activity required to use this power allows the sorcerer to channel his very soul into the weapon that, in response, crackles in Chaotic harmony and changes in form and quality into an engine of slaughter. After completing the ritual forging of his weapon, he may enter the fray alongside Chaos Champion and Chosen alike, reaping souls with matching fury.
- Butcher's Offering - As the sorcerer cuts through his enemies with unnatural vigour, he takes a moment to make an offering to the Dark Gods in all their glory. With the dead at his feet and his weapon held high, he utters a prayer and sends a soul to its damnation. Should the Dark Gods take notice of his ignoble sacrifice, he can expect a reward for the fruits of his unholy labour. The Dark Gods are fickle, however, and at times have a strange way of responding to their worshipper's offerings.
- Echoes of Malice - The Warp is a repository of unfettered emotion, dense with energy ever engaged in a turbulent dance. Among these emotions, the strongest are those that the masses of humanity fear the most: anger, hatred, rage, hopelessness. For the worshippers of Chaos, these emotions must be embraced before they move one further on the path to greatness. A sorcerer may utilise the resonance of these emotions in his work, causing them to bleed from the Warp into the minds of those around him. Thus, his allies rage in battle whilst his enemies struggle in hopelessness.
- Infernal Gaze - Unholy power streams from the Chaos psyker's eyes, charring and melting everything caught in its path.
- Death Hex - The sorcerer places a dire hex upon his enemies. Wards and energised defensive shields flicker and fail, leaving the foe exposed.
- Gift of Chaos - As the power of the Warp surges through the Chaos psyker's victim, bones snap and flesh rips as a new form takes shape.
- Harrier Imps - Harrier Imps are a swarm of minor Daemons that press up against the barrier between reality and the Warp that laugh at and harry the poor soul vexed by their presence. Though otherwise harmless, they prove to be quite distracting tricksters that revel in the frustration they cause.
- Hex of Decrepitude - In the Warp, time flows according to its own unknowable pattern. Space-faring vessels travel the galaxy precisely because of this property, arriving at their destination in a matter of solar weeks rather than over the course of generations. A powerful sorcerer may call upon such temporal effects to age his enemies prematurely by manipulating the eddies of the Warp.
- Prescience - By focusing his Warp-sight the Chaos psyker can guide the aim of his allies to where the foe is most vulnerable, bringing a swift and merciless death to his foes.
- Phantom Parry - As an enemy psyker draws on the Warp to fuel a psychic power, the sorcerer may respond by disturbing the veil with a Phantom Parry, causing his foe's control to falter and allow the Warp loose to corrupt the fragile Materium. Psychic phenomena abound from the parry and thus the unbalanced target must centre himself and refocus his concentration.
- Diabolic Strength - The unholy energies of Chaos course through the recipient, swelling his frame with the strength to tear a tank in two.
- Umbral Halo - The Chaos psyker summons a black halo around his head, wrought from his own corrupt soul. All light flows towards this shadow-well in a ghostly processional, only to be consumed in the halo's umbral wrath. As the light dies, it leaves behind the phantoms of its passing in the form of haunting whispers, faint apparitions, and an unnatural coldness that grips those within it in a pall of fear.
- Warp Time - The power of the Immaterium bursts from the Chaos psyker, warping time and heightening the speed of his allies.
- Warp Vortex - A vortex of energy emerges to collect all matter within its core; men fall towards it as air rushes past and a small sphere of debris forms at its devastating centre.
Nurglish Psychic Discipline
Powers of disease and pestilence are the purview of Nurgle, the Lord of Decay, and are granted to those sorcerers who declare their allegiance to him.
- Acidium Vitae - The psyker's very blood and breath course with poison and disease, punishing his enemies for daring to attack him. His skin takes on a sickly colour, his veins turn green, and his breath reeks of decay. These cosmetic effects pale beside the suffering inflicted by his caustic blood as it splatters out from his wounds.
- Brain Fever - A rapidly progressing fever takes the target of this power, rendering him unable to think and slow to respond. Affected warriors find it difficult to stand defiant in the face of battle and struggle to take in war's chaotic events. Psykers suffering the Brain Fever battle to draw on even the most basic unholy powers of the Dark Gods. This tool indirectly but sufficiently turns the tide of battle when cunningly applied to strategic targets.
- Corpse Burst - Of the more resourceful of Nurgle's followers are those sorcerers who have mastered the art of the Corpse Burst. As the armies of Chaos lay waste to their enemies, littering the war-plains with the bodies of the dead, disgusting eruptions of blood and bone, rot and disease cut through the soft skin of the Corpse-Emperor's children.
- Dirge of Decay - As the devotee of Nurgle intones the Dirge of Decay, wounded combatants howl in a chorus as rot and infection take them. As the psyker utters the first verses, fresh wounds begin to leak pus, only to become discoloured and rank in the rising crescendo. At the apex, an infection takes hold that rapidly devours muscle, bone, and organ until nothing is left but a desiccated husk.
- Tendrils of Corrosion - Though decomposition and disease of the body are more recognisably the work of the Lord of Decay, corrosion and entropy in their broadest form are also his purview. Through this power, rust-coloured Tendrils of Corrosion caress materials of a more apparently timeless sort than flesh such as plasteel, adamantium, and ceramite. Corroded but not worthless, items suffering from Tendrils of Corrosion malfunction; data-slate screens crackle with interference, Power Weapons become no better than primitive blades, and Lasguns jam with uncommon frequency.
- Vile Contagion - Nurgle's Rot spreads across the battlefield adding disease to bloodshed as far as the eye can see. However, the survival of any disease requires new hosts for incubation and as paths of transmission. Fortunately for the Master of Pestilence, Nurgle's Rot spreads vigourously when fresh flesh is available and susceptible to its ravages. The Devotee of Nurgle, lured in and empowered by the cries of suffering his corruption inflicts, extends his consciousness through the miasma, spreading the disease along with it. Legends tell of sorcerers using this spell to gain a pyrrhic victory when defeat seems imminent.
- Ward of Worms - Putrid, olive green worms continually squirm from the mouth, nose, and ears of the sorcerer and writhe about his body covering his armour in necrotic slime. When an enemy strikes him, the worms leap from sorcerer to his attacker, eating voraciously at the poor fool's exposed flesh. When particularly inspired by his own foulness, the sorcerer may deliver the onslaught of worms to devour an enemy. Should he succeed in destroying the wretched soul, the worms animate the corpse at his command.
Slaaneshi Psychic Discipline
Slaanesh, the Dark Prince, grants to his followers the powers to enhance and control the fickle desires of mortals and to manipulate the sensations of pleasure and pain.
- Cedron's Twin - The power of the Warp to shape the desires of the psychically attuned have few limits. Thus, the vanity of Man, and his desire to transcend his reality in favour of his ideal has already been created in the form of Cedron's Twin. This power allows the psyker to make a double of himself to fool his enemies and erstwhile allies alike. However, the double betrays the psyker, for it reflects the psyker's ideal self and not his true form.
- Celeritous Sense - The sorcerer hones his senses, directing the flows of light and sound such that he can take in every nuanced detail. He can understand several conversations at once, pick out an elusive enemy from a crowd, or anticipate the movements of his enemies so as to better respond and retaliate. So fine are his senses that no glint of light or murmur of sound escapes him. To his enemies, he is an angel of death able to move and respond with unnatural speed.
- Pangs of Misery - The Heretic reaches deeply through the target's mind and burrows into his pain centres. There he leaves a seed of energy that he nurtures until it matures into a sophisticated torture device. The victim suffers seemingly random and sudden but excruciating waves of pain. So terrible are these pangs that the victim risks falling unconscious if he cannot steel himself against them.
- Serpent's Ward - This beguiling ward gifts the psyker with an alluring gaze, causing enemies to forget themselves and the dangers about them. Not only his eyes but also his skin undergoes a serpentine change, becoming loose, scaly, and able to shed at his command.
- The Six Blades of Prosepheron - To suffer defeat at the hands of the Six Blades of Prosepheron at least makes for a quick, if painful, death. The psyker sheathes the air in a cloak of silver and red as his blades cut bodies with incalculable speed. Only those with the luxury of training in both martial skills and the gifts of the Warp may master this uncanny feat.
- Unnatural Obsession - The subject of this power loses all sense of reality and becomes obsessively and irrationally devoted to the psyker. Any who would raise a hand against the psyker can expect to feel the victim's retributive wrath, even if previously they had considered one another allies. When the psyker is not endangered, the subject lowers his head in deference, awestruck and unable to speak.
Tzeentchian Psychic Discipline
Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways, grants his supplicants powers of deceit, fate, forbidden knowledge, and, not least among them, transmutation.
- Æther Worm - The Master of Plots dines off of the webs of mistrust and errors in faith engendered by those who conspire and politic throughout the galaxy. In such environs, one can never be sure who or what fights on his side and who or what deceives him. Though not the perfect defence, the Æther Worm created many centuries ago on the planet of Q'sal has played its role in the machinations of many a magister immaterial. As with many ideas having originated on that world, magisters from all three cities lay claim to the Æther Worm's invention. This psychically implanted parasite burrows deep into the mind of its host and infects it in the most peculiar way. At first it appears as a boon, strengthening the host's mind against the telepathic invasions of enemy psykers whilst bolstering his psychic powers. However, the Æther Worm serves the sorcerer master who implanted it, giving him privileged access to the host's mind -- and all the secrets it may contain.
- Befuddling Curse - A multihued bolt of light leaps from the sorcerer and strikes the target with no apparent effect. Shortly after receiving the strike, the victim begins to act strangely, muttering to himself, screaming at imaginary enemies, or even taking a Chainsword to his own leg against the nonexistent infestations rooted there.
- Blessing of Magnus - The Thousand Sons have survived many a difficult trial in the past ten thousand years they have plied the galaxy. The Blessing of Magnus testifies to this as it bolsters their will in the face of great perils and allows any the sorcerer imbues with it to prove highly resistant to enemy psychic manipulation.
- Fate Loom - Sorcerers use this power as a last ditch effort by forcing fate's hand to accomplish goals that would otherwise be impossible. When the spell has done its work, however, fate has its due and revisits the sorcerer with equal and opposite force, taking back all the advantages it granted with a vengeance to restore the sorcerer to his proper place in Tzeentch's Grand Scheme.
- Incendiary of Tzeentch - These sorcerous shells race towards their enemies in blue-white fire, exploding on impact, and not only damage the flesh but the spirit itself in unholy flame.
- Labyrinthine Conundrum - This power infects the target's mind, weighing down his thoughts and possibly disabling his thinking altogether as he attempts to solve an illusionary and insolvable enigma. Either he succeeds in the only way he can, by realising the problem cannot be solved, or he succumbs to the impossibility and falls into a coma.
- Mask of Deceit - The Great Conspirator constructed every worthwhile tool in the machinations of politics, some mundane, and others feats of legendary power. Among the latter is the Mask of Deceit, otherwise known as the Nine Faced Lie. The occasion arises, not uncommonly, when a sorcerer would prefer to appear as someone else -- perhaps appearing as a powerful warlord to issue commands to his enemies or as a weakling of no significance to better blend in with the masses of Corpse God-worshipping slaves. In any case, a cunning devotee of Tzeentch makes this power a standard within his repertoire.
- Storm of Change - The Chaos psyker summons an army of aerial fire to descend on his enemies. Engulfed in these unnatural, chromatic, and reality-altering flames, damned souls cry in misery as those yet living desperately grasp for a way out and to maintain the integrity of their form. These flames sear both the mind and the body, forcing transmutations of both, perhaps even birthing new Chaos Spawn, and leaving the galaxy forever altered.
- Warp-flame Ward - The psyker calls on the Changer of Ways to wrap his form in arcane energies. Tendrils of these multihued flames orbit the sorcerer in erratic paths, eager to engulf those who stand between him and glory.
Marks of Chaos
- Weaver of Fates - The Chaos psyker gifted with the Mark of Tzeentch traces the skeins of the future to see the fates of battle. Forewarned of imminent danger, he and his allied warriors dodge bullets and sword blows with seemingly supernatural reflexes.
- Miasma of Pestilence - A Chaos psyker gifted with the Mark of Nurgle can chant in a phlegm-choked drone, summoning a dark cloud of filth and flies that shrouds his allies from view.
- Delightful Agonies - Those among his allies whose minds are touched by the caress of the Chaos psyker favoured with the Mark of Slaanesh are wracked by waves of exquisite pain, over which physical trauma has no hold, allowing them to continue forwards in the face of relentless assault.
Sinistrum Discipline
Icon of the Sinistrum Discipline
Sorcerers spend their lives hunting for dark and forbidden tomes of lore. With each eldritch volume they uncover, new vistas of unspeakable wisdom yawn wide within their shuddering minds. Sanity is thrust aside in favour of Chaotic lore, and the tainted black magic of the Empyrean.
With such dread powers at their disposal, sorcerers can rip away their enemies' psychic energies, bolster their own twisted might, or smash their victims to bloody pulp with hideous curses from the primal dark of the void.
- Fury of the Gods (Primaris Power) - The sorcerer conjures a shimmering sphere of dark Warp energy, pouring his hate and spite into the crackling orb before hurling it through his foes with sledgehammer force.
- Warp Fate - Ripping aside the veil of time and space, the sorcerer grasps the strands of fate and wrenches them into new configurations. Every pluck and twist changes fate in the sorcerer's favour. The sorcerer and his allies now find every situation going in their favour.
- Empyragheist - Using his own soul as a lure, the sorcerer draws a formless Warp predator near before shackling its essence and hurling it forth to rip and tear its way through his foes.
- Armour of Hatred - The sorcerer turns his mind inwards, to the boundless hatred and vitriol that fester in his soul. Drawing upon that dark wellspring, he fashions a jagged psychic shield against his foes' own pyschic powers.
- Diabolic Strength - The unholy energies of Chaos flow through the sorcerer, swelling his frame with the strength to tear a tank in two.
- Warp Lure - The sorcerer focuses his energies upon the soul of a fellow psychic foe, ripping away his enemy's mental defences and illuminating their presence in the Warp to draw down a lethal Daemonic feeding frenzy.
- Death Hex - Chanting unholy curses, the sorcerer places a dire hex upon his enemies. Defensive wards and energised defensive shields flicker and fail, leaving the foe exposed to the grasping claws of death.
Heretech Discipline
Icon of the Heretech Discipline
Heretechs drive their minds like heated blades into the workings of enemy war machines, twisting them to their bidding. There is nothing delicate or subtle about this process. The heretech uses brute psychic force to bend Machine Spirits to his will, sending bursts of artificial agony racing through circuits and burning out saviour mechanisms with the cruelty of a torturer. Gun mounts spit sparks as they swivel menacingly to sight upon unsuspecting targets and power plants overload.
Against such a psyker the enemy's armoured might becomes a fatal weakness, and their reliance on their own technologies spells their doom.
- Corrupt Machine (Primaris Power) - Like a virus entering the blood stream of a living creature, the sorcerer invades the Machine Spirit of an enemy war engine, reversing energy flows and hijacking vital systems.
- Boon of the Iron Beast - The sorcerer sketches dark sigils in the air, drawing forth gibbering cacodaemons from the Warp. These swarming entities flow into the sorcerer's chosen vehicle, lending it frantic energy and unnatural vitality for a short time.
- Scrapcode Curse - The sorcerer opens his mouth wide and vomits a screaming, whining barrage of scrapcode. The barrage of corrupting viral machine code explodes systems and drives the Machine Spirit of the target vehicle to insanity.
- Dark Invigoration - Disgusted by the weakness of a nearby damaged vehicle, the sorcerer pours a tide of fresh Warp energy into the stricken machine, causing it to shudder and spark as it is forcibly repaired.
- Fleshmetal Hide - Flowing from the sorcerer's hands comes a revolting tide of biomechanical ooze born of the Warp. The foul substance slithers across its target, hardening into a second skin that protects them from harm.
- Electromortis - The sorcerer hurls out crackling tendrils of Warp energy, winding them around the beating furnace heart of the enemy war machine and crushing it slowly to death.
- Flayerstorm - A rust-laden tempest howls from the depths of the Warp at the sorcerer's command. It screams across the hull of an enemy vehicle, shaking the machine like a dog shakes a bone as it rips away great splinters of its hull and hurls them as spears into the foe.
Ectomancy Discipline
Icon of the Ectomancy Discipline
Ectomancers draw upon the raw energies of the Warp, transforming empyric power into bursts of crackling black lightning. They are surrounded by crawling, leaping energies, and can unleash these powers with a thought to scorch their luckless victims to blackened husks.
Skilled ectomancers can control these Warp-spawned lightnings further. With but a gesture they throw up dancing fields of empyrostatic interference to burn enemy projectiles out of their air, or even rip ragged holes in the fabric of reality.
- Warp Shock (Primaris Power) - At the sorcerer's arrogant gesture, the raw power of the Warp boils forth and races along his limbs, before leaping out with explosive force to obliterate his enemies.
- Empyric Shield - An awful, keening whine cuts through the air as the sorcerer charges the air around him with Warp power to form a protective shield of psychic force that repels all kinetic and directed energy attacks on a subatomic level.
- Daemonshriek - Throwing back his head, the sorcerer lets loose a Warp-fueled hypersonic banshee howl that causes generators to overload and weapon systems to short out in eruptions of blood-red sparks.
- Coruscating Blaze - The sorcerer draws Warp energies to him until he burns with dark power. Roaring with the effort, he hurls the energies forth in a searing tide that blasts its victims to ash and leaps from soul to soul with malicious glee.
- Infernal Claws - The sorcerer calls forth crackling claws that sheathe his arms in dark lightning. When he strikes, his foes are blasted back as foul energy spears from their bodies, striking their hapless comrades.
- Ghost Storm - The sorcerer summons a whirling mass of ectophantasmic entities from the Warp. In a jabbering, shrieking mass the half-seen gargoyles pluck the sorcerer's allies from the battlefield and bear them swiftly -- and roughly -- to their destination.
- Soulswitch - Disregarding the laws of realspace, the sorcerer gathers up the soul energies of himself and his comrades before switching them in the Warp with those of nearby warriors. Amidst crackling arcs of empyric energy, those units' corporeal forms follow suit, switching places as they are reunited with their ghosts in the Warp.
Geomortis Discipline
Icon of the Geomortis Discipline
Sorcerers versed in the dark secrets of Geomortis are feared as the murderers of worlds. The ground writhes beneath their feet as they advance, tectonic shudders betraying the fear of the very bedrock upon which they tread. With contemptuous gestures these dark sorcerers rip open great chasms like gaping Daemon maws under the feet of their foes, or pervert the energies of the land into frantic paroxysms and explosive blasts of force.
Geysers of razor-edged rock erupt from beneath their enemies' feet. Roaring landslides engulf them in thunderous waves of rock and spoil. Should they choose to do so, geomorticians can even wrench the very landscape into shapes more pleasing to them, reforging the battlefield like baleful gods of creation.
- Rockmaw (Primaris Power) - Booming out a ground-shaking curse, the sorcerer transmutes bedrock, soil and boulders into a ragged, stone-fanged maw that yawns wide to swallow the enemy from below.
- Ley Leach - Like a foul parasite, the sorcerer siphons away the vital energies of the world upon which he fights, channelling the stolen geo-animus into invigorating waves that heal his traitorous allies.
- Rupture - The sorcerer focuses his Warp-spawned powers upon a single point on the battlefield, forcing an unnatural build-up of geothermal energies. The land buckles and bulges until, unable to hold on any longer, it bursts like a vast boil and obliterates the enemy in a spewing tide of tainted lava and screaming steam.
- Torturer of Worlds - Sinking his psychic barbs deep into the bedrock of the world, the sorcerer torments the ground upon which his foe stands until it buckles and churns with wordless agony.
- Earthly Anathema - Vomiting the words of a twisted world curse, the sorcerer taints his very being with such monstrous energies that the world around him recoils, clearing the Heretic psyker's path rather than endure his loathsome touch.
- Profane Ruination - Uttering the Seven Forbidden Truths of the Last Ruination, the sorcerer causes his enemies' walls to crumble and collapse, even their mightiest fortifications crashing down upon them.
- Worldwrithe - Screaming with maniacal laughter, the sorcerer rips madly at the bedrock beneath his enemies' feet with vast psychic claws. Boulders are torn from the ground, fortifications and forests flung skyward and sent crashing down upon the broken bodies of the foe as the damned psyker reshapes the world around him.
Unit Composition
- 1 Chaos Sorcerer
Wargear
Sorcerer
- Power Armour (Any Firstborn pattern)
- Force Weapon (Any type)
- Plasma Pistol (Optional replacement for Bolt Pistol)
- Warpflame Pistol (Optional replacement for Bolt Pistol)
- Combi-weapons (Any type, optional replacement for Bolt Pistol)
- Chainaxe (Optional replacement for Bolt Pistol)
- Chainsword (Optional replacement for Bolt Pistol)
- Lightning Claw (Optional replacement for Bolt Pistol)
- Power Fist (Optional replacement for Bolt Pistol)
- Power Maul (Optional replacement for Bolt Pistol)
- Power Weapon (Any type, optional replacement for Bolt Pistol)
- Jump Pack (for assault mission)
Sorcerer in Terminator Armour
A Chaos Sorcerer can also wear Chaos Terminator Armour. In this configuration, his wargear will change as follows:
- Chaos Terminator Armour (Any pattern)
- Force Weapon (Any type)
- Combi-weapons (Any type, optional replacement for Inferno Combi-bolter)
- Chainfist (Optional replacement for Inferno Combi-bolter)
- Lightning Claw (Optional replacement for Inferno Combi-bolter)
- Power Weapon (Any type, optional replacement for Inferno Combi-bolter)
- Power Fist (Optional replacement for Inferno Combi-bolter)
- Power Maul (Optional replacement for Inferno Combi-bolter)
Exalted Sorcerer
- Power Armour (Any type)
- Plasma Pistol (Optional replacement for Inferno Bolt Pistol)
- Warpflame Pistol (Optional replacement for Inferno Bolt Pistol)
- Disc of Tzeentch (As dedicated transport)
Notable Sorcerers
- Magnus the Red - Magnus the Red is the Daemon Primarch of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion and is currently an extremely powerful Daemon Prince of the Chaos God Tzeentch. He was also known during the early years of the Imperium as the Crimson King and the Red Cyclops. A giant in both physical and mental terms whilst still an inhabitant of the Materium, the copper-skinned Magnus possessed tremendous innate psychic ability, and constantly sought to understand the nature of the Warp, becoming a sorcerer of formidable power. Magnus thought he would be able to control the Great Ocean of psychic energy that was the Warp; however, his prodigious and careless application of his psychic gifts eventually caused him to fall out of favour with his father, the Emperor of Mankind, as well as with the majority of his brother primarchs. His psychic immaturity, recklessness, and arrogance also caused his own undoing, as it eventually brought about his own damnation and servitude to the Dark God of Change, Tzeentch. In the end, Magnus led his XV Legion to the banner of Horus and fought on the Arch-Heretic's side during the Great Betrayal of the Horus Heresy. He survived those events and ascended to the position of a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch as a reward for his service to the Lord of Change.
- Ahriman - Ahriman is the former Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons, Captain of its 1st Fellowship and the Magister Templi of its Corvidae Cult. He was banished from the XVth Legion by Magnus after casting the Rubric of Ahriman using knowledge derived from the Book of Magnus, which halted the corrupting mutations which plagued the Thousand Sons after their fall to Chaos, but resulted in the creation of the mindless Rubric Marines. During his banishment, Ahriman has continuously sought out knowledge across the galaxy to bring him closer to an understanding of Tzeentch and Chaos itself. His actions have recently healed the breach between him and Magnus the Red that was opened by his casting of the Rubric of Ahriman.
- Sindri Myr - Sindri Myr was a Chaos Sorcerer of the Alpha Legion, and the main antagonist of the original Dawn of War campaign who came to the world of Tartarus under the cover of an Ork invasion with the Alpha Legion warband commanded by the Chaos Lord Bale to search for a powerful Chaotic artefact known as the Maledictum. During his time on Tartarus, Sindri used his potent psychic powers to subvert the Blood Ravens Librarian Isador Akios to the service of Chaos, in return for the promise of enhancing his psychic abilities so that he could become a more powerful Librarian. Sindri himself killed, or had the Chaos Space Marines under his command kill, numerous Imperial citizens, Imperial Guardsmen, Space Marines, Orks, his own Traitor Marines, and even his own commander Lord Bale, to accumulate blood sacrifices for Khorne, the Blood God. After gaining the Maledictum he chose himself as the new host for the Chaotic relic's powers, transforming into a Daemon Prince who was subsequently vanquished by Captain Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens Space Marines, thus providing the last sacrifice required to release the Bloodthirster Greater Daemon from the Maledictum.
- Karlsen - After his Legion's fall to Chaos following the Scouring of Prospero, Karlsen became a formidable sorcerer and Chaos Champion of Tzeentch. A veteran of the Long War, Karlsen has fought with the Thousand Sons throughout many of its significant moments in history, including the defence of his homeworld when it was razed by the Space Wolves Legion, the Battle of Terra and countless other campaigns over the last ten millennia. His lifespan has been unnaturally extended by the dark blessings of his patron god. Over the long millennia, Karlsen has gone insane on multiple occasions due to the burden of his cursed, unending existence, though he has been able to perform the blasphemous ritual known as the Dark Communion in order to safely store his memories. As a follower of Tzeentch, he has been "blessed" with several noticeable mutations, which include one of his hands fusing with his archaic Bolter, which he is able to operate with his mind. Another mutation are the unnaturally lengthened, tentacle-like fingers on his opposite hand.
- Jharek Kelmaur - Jharek Kelmaur was a Chaos Sorcerer of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion who served the Chaos Lord known only as "The Warsmith" during the siege of the Imperial Fortress World of Hydra Cordatus. Kelmaur aided the Warsmith in obtaining the hidden stores of Imperial Fists gene-seed kept there. The Imperial Fists had always been the most hated foes of the Iron Warriors since the days of the Horus Heresy but the Iron Warriors needed fresh Astartes gene-seed to grow their numbers since the power of Chaos tended to mutate their own gene-seed to the point that it was unsuitable to create new Chaos Space Marines. The Iron Warriors sorcerer served as an advisor on all matters psychic and would often receive and interpret visions by communing with the Ruinous Powers. During the siege of the large Imperial citadel and manufactorum complex on Hydra Cordatus known as the Tor Christo, Kelmaur neglected to inform the Warsmith of a faint psychic beacon that had managed to be sent from the surface of the planet. Keeping this information to himself, the sorcerer thought it best if he handled the manner personally. Kelmaur attempted to send the Iron Warriors flagship Stonebreaker to the system's warp translation point in order to intercept any Imperial reinforcements. This action would prove dire to the scheming Kelmaur, who in his arrogance, allowed an Imperial Fists company to slip past the Stonebreaker and infiltrate to the planet's surface and reinforce the besieged garrison. For his duplicity and arrogance, the Warsmith transformed Kelmaur into a Chaos Spawn after he had served his purpose.
- Madox - Madox was a notable Chaos Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons who led several plots to destroy his Legion's ancient foes, the Space Wolves Chapter. He reserved a special hatred for the Wolf Lord Ragnar Blackmane, who foiled several of his plots when they confronted one another across several decades of the late 41st Millennium. It is presumed that he was finally killed on the world of Charys, where Madox hoped to enact a Chaotic ritual to fully corrupt the gene-seed of the Space Wolves and set them on the path of damnation. The ritual used to enact the Chaos Sorcerer's blasphemous ritual was interrupted by the timely intervention of Ragnar Blackmane and his fellow Space Wolves. During their final confrontation, Blackmane managed to wrest the Spear of Russ from Madox and used that sacred artefact of his Chapter to impale Madox through the faceplate of his armour, apparently killing him. Many decades later, while suppressing a Chaos rebellion on an unnamed world, Ragnar Blackmane heard rumours that the sorcerer Madox was still alive and leading the Forces of Chaos. Though unsure if the rumours were true, it could be likely that Madox had indeed been resurrected through malefic means, as he has done so in the past by using the body of a Chaos Cultists. If this is indeed true, then Madox eventually could return once more to the material realm by the will of the Dark Gods.
- Mordeghai - High Magister Mordeghai, a gifted Chaos Sorcerer, was a Tribune Senioris to Magnus the Red at the Siege of the Imperial Palace during the Battle of Terra. Sometime during the 41st Millennium, Mordeghai had foreseen that if his Death Guard arch-rival Festardius gained control of the world of Mekenna VII, the Plague Lord would use his new influence to turn Mortarion's forces against Mordeghai's cabal. The best way to prevent this from happening was to wrest control of the world from Festardius once the Warmaster Davroth had departed. Mordeghai believed he had more than enough Thousand Sons Rubric Marines to accomplish this.
- Necrosius - Necrosius was once an Apothecary of the Death Guard Legion during the Great Crusade whose original name has long been purged from all Imperial records. During the early days of the Horus Heresy, soon after the Death Guard turned against the Emperor of Mankind, when the Traitor Legion's fleet was becalmed in the Warp on the way to Terra and assaulted by the infectious corruption of Nurgle, the man who would become Necrosius the Undying and his fellow Apothecaries among the Astartes of the Death Guard turned their every art and skill against the strange plagues sweeping their ranks. But it was all to no avail. When Necrosius heard the voice of his new lord chortling and whispering to him in the murmerous wings of carrion flies and the sibilant gurgling of rotted, decaying organs, he fully accepted the nightmare truth of what he and his fellows had become, and embraced the service of his vile God. Necrosius became a true convert to Nurgle's cause, casting aside his past learning and cherished role as a healer of his Battle-Brothers. He now chose to give himself, blighted soul and rotted body, to the lore of death and the pursuit of Daemonic sorcery, and soon excelled as a master of the dark arts of necromancy. Now this bitter and twisted Chaos Sorcerer is Nurgle's sworn servant and the master of the warband of Chaos Space Marines known as the Apostles of Contagion. His dark arts of necromancy can awaken the dead to a nightmarish half-life, unleashing the Zombie Plague of the Plague Lord upon friend and foe alike.
- Nemeroth - Nemeroth was the Chaos Lord of the Chaos Space Marine warband known as the Chosen of Nemeroth. He was a powerful Chaos Sorcerer who led the Chaotic assault upon the Forge World of Graia in the late 41st Millennium. Nemeroth was killed by Captain Titus, the commander of the Ultramarines 2nd Company just before he was able to ascend to become a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided.
- Nihilan - Nihilan was a former Salamanders Librarian who turned Renegade and joined the warband of the Black Dragons Renegade Chaplain Ushorak. The Salamanders responded rapidly, sending a strike force composed of the 3rd Company and led by Captain Ko'tan Kadai which made their way to the Cemetery World of Moribar. While Ushorak delved into the secret crypts beneath the sepulchre world, the Salamanders and the Renegade followers of Ushorak fought savagely through the crematoria of that ash-blanketed world. At the height of the fighting, Ushorak was plunged into the central furnaces at the heart of the planet, and Nihilan tried to save the Chaplain but failed and was horribly burned in the process, barely surviving at all. From the tattered remnants of Ushorak's followers the newly christened Chaos Sorcerer Nihilan forged the Dragon Warriors Chaos Space Marines warband, determined to exact vengeance on the Salamanders and the people of Nocturne.
- Atum Sum - A Chaos Sorcerer of prodigious ability, Atum Sum is known to the Inquisition as an acolyte of Ahriman, Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion. He is steeped in the power of the Warp, and a known master of the Daemonic. It is said that the Daemonic servants of Tzeentch attend him as lesser men command the loyalty of stooping servants, though the veracity of this claim seems unlikely to those versed in the ways of the God of Change. Furthermore, he appears to have an uncanny mastery of the ebb and flow of possibility, manipulating the shifting tides of the Warp to appear at any time and place he desires. It is doubtless true that Atum Sum is a dire threat to the Imperium, for his appearance is often seen to precipitate Daemonic incursions of the most destructive kind. Needless to say, Atum Sum’s appearance in the Jericho Reach is a cause for dread, and several groups within the Inquisition have already set in motion plans to discern his purpose and if possible, oppose it. To date, Atum Sum has been encountered in the warzones surrounding the Hadex Anomaly, leading some to suspect that he is involved in some grand scheme to utilise the weird Warp energies streaming from it. Some have even claimed that Atum Sum has conversed with the Anomaly, or with some vast, unknowable intelligence deep inside and beyond it. Whatever the truth, several Inquisitor Lords of the Ordo Chronos were known to be mustering a coalition to stymie his plans when they disappeared, suggesting that his powers are an order of magnitude greater than any had dared to believe.
- Blight-Master Ussax - Ussax is a Veteran of the Death Guard Traitor Legion, and known as a member of the inner circle of Chaos Sorcerers that serve the Daemon Primarch Mortarion. He is well known to the Ordo Malleus and to the Grey Knights, and has been responsible for countless millions of deaths throughout the millennia. Ussax is held to be one of the most darkly gifted concoctors of blights, afflictions and plagues serving the Death Guard, and his recent appearance in the warzones of the Jericho Reach, attended by a cadre of Plague Marines, is a cause for much concern amongst those with knowledge of his capabilities. According to recent findings presented to the Chamber of Vigilance of Watch Fortress Erioch, Blight-Master Ussax has been present in the Reach for around three standard years, travelling from one warzone to the next. At each battlefield, he gathers up a grim and unspeakable harvest from the dead and the dying, before returning to some as yet undiscovered fastness to concoct his latest ague. This he then unleashes upon the next battlefield he attends, once more harvesting the bodies of the victims. It is feared that the Blight-Master is refining his plagues, using the raging conflicts of the Jericho Reach as some vile breeding ground for new agonies to unleash upon an unsuspecting galaxy in Father Nurgle's name.
- Amadeus Volkstein - Volkstein was once a Loyalist Librarian Epistolary known as Vanneus before being corrupted by the promise of knowledge and power offered by Tzeentch. He and now leads the Renegade Chaos Space Marine warband known as the Oracles of Change.
- Ygethmor - Ygethmor is a formidable Sorcerer Lord of the Black Legion and serves as Abaddon's close advisor and current Lord Deceiver, a powerful Chaos Sorcerer whose visions of the Warp lead the Black Crusade from star system to star system.
- Zaraphiston - Zaraphiston once served as Abaddon's foremost Sorcerer Lord and close advisor during Abaddon's 12th Black Crusade, better known as the Gothic War. Zaraphiston served as Abaddon's former Lord Deceiver, helping to guide the Warmaster of Chaos during the Black Crusade through his prescient visions from the Warp.
- Ruven - Ruven was a former member of 1st Claw and a Night Lords' sorcerer but at some unspecified point in the past, he had willingly left the Night Lords and joined the Black Legion. He became a willing servant of Abaddon the Despoiler. However, Ruven was eventually cast out by his patron after failing Abaddon. He would be captured by the Red Corsairs, only to escape when the Exalted's warband came into conflict with Huron Blackheart himself.
Videos
See Also
Sources
- Apocalypse, pg. 171
- Black Crusade: Core Rule Book (RPG), pp. 60-61
- Black Crusade: The Tome of Decay (RPG), pp. 36-37, 77, 100-101, 110-111
- Black Crusade: The Tome of Fate (RPG), pp. 22, 30-31, 34-35, 38, 40, 42-66
- Black Crusade: Traitor's Hate (7th Edition), pp. 130-135
- Codex Heretic Astartes - Chaos Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 59, 125, 161
- Codex Heretic Astartes - Death Guard (8th Edition), pp. 12-13, 17, 20-22, 31, 52-53, 73
- Codex Heretic Astartes - Thousand Sons (8th Edition), pp. 36, 38, 69, 70, 71
- Codex: Chaos Space Marines (6th Edition), pp. 32, 94
- Codex: Chaos Space Marines (4th Edition), pg. 31
- Codex: Chaos (2nd Edition), pp. 17, 46
- Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods (RPG), pp. 116-119
- Deathwatch: First Founding (RPG), pp. 85, 88
- Imperial Armour Volume Seven - The Siege of Vraks - Part Three, pp. 14-15, 143
- Index Astartes I, "Psykana Librarius - Space Marine Librarians"
- Index Astartes III, "Masters of Forbidden Knowledge - The Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion", pp. 62-69
- Index Astartes IV
- Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness (1988), pg. 243
- The Fall of Medusa V (Booklet), pp.12, 16-17
- Warhammer 40,000: Wargear (2nd Edition), "Dark Communion" by Bill King, pp. 78-80
- Warzone Fenris: Wrath of Magnus (7th Edition), pp. 143, 158-161
- White Dwarf 326 (US), "Psykana Librarius", pg. 76
- White Dwarf 287 (UK), "Death by a Thousand Cuts," pg. 36
- White Dwarf 286 (UK), "The End Is Night," pg. 71
- White Dwarf 267 (US), "Index Astartes First Founding: Masters of Forbidden Knowledge, The Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion"
- White Dwarf 263 (US), "Runes of Forging - Aaron Dill's Crazy Conversion Competition Finale: Magnus the Red, Demon Lord of Tzeentch", pp. 28-29
- White Dwarf 258 (UK), "Psykana Librarius: Space Marine Librarians"
- White Dwarf 238 (US), "The Slayer of Worlds: History of the Origins and Activities of the Planet Killer" by Gavin Thorpe, pp. 103-109
- White Dwarf 230 (US), "Bitter and Twisted: Ahriman" and "Chapter Approved: Thousand Sons Terminators", pp. 39-43, 71-79
- White Dwarf 227 (US), "Chapter Approved - Ahriman: Chaos Sorcerer, pp. 73-80
- White Dwarf 202 (US), "The Sorcerer: Tzeentch, Ahriman", pp. 9-14
- White Dwarf 199 (US), "Chaos: The Long War"
- White Dwarf 150 (US), "'Eavy Metal: Epic Daemons - Magnus the Red: Primarch of Tzeentch", pp. 68-69
- Horus Heresy Novel Series:
- False Gods (Novel) by Graham McNeill
- A Thousand Sons (Novel) by Graham McNeill
- The First Heretic (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
- Prospero Burns (Novel) by Dan Abnett
- Aurelian (Novella) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
- The Outcast Dead (Novel) by Graham McNeill
- Age of Darkness (Anthology), "Rebirth" by Chris Wraight
- Atlas Infernal (Novel) by Rob Sanders
- Battle of the Fang (Novel) by Chris Wraight
- Blood Ravens: Dawn of War Omnibus (Novel compilation) by C.S. Goto
- Tome of Fire Trilogy:
- Salamander (Novel) by Nick Kyme
- Firedrake (Novel) by Nick Kyme
- Nocturne (Novel) by Nick Kyme
- The Space Wolf Omnibus (Novel) by William King
- Space Wolf: The Second Omnibus (Novel) by William King and Lee Lightner
- Storm of Iron (Novel) by Graham McNeill
- Ahriman: Exile (Novel) by John French
Gallery
