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Welcome to "Codex Chaos", a one-stop resource for background information regarding the Chaos Space Marine armies of Warhammer 40K. All documents listed herein are copyrighted Games Workshop. With the exception of spelling and grammar editing they remain in their original form, no words were changed or moved from their original print in Codex Chaos ©1996. I created this site as the old codex is out of print and the new Codex Chaos ©1999 lacks this information, which I feel is necessary for truly understanding the army as it is used in the game. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Death Dealer
Were You Expecting God? |
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The Imperial planet of Armageddon has suffered two major invasions in its long history. Many have heard of the second invasion led by the Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Thraka, and the heroic resistance of the badly outnumbered defenders before the forces of the Imperium were able to come to their aid and turn the tide against the Orks. Almost none, however, know of the First Battle for Armageddon, which took place almost 500 years before Ghazghkull was born. The reason for this is simple, the first invasion was made by the forces of Chaos, and the agents of the Adeptus Administratum and the Inquisition will do almost anything - including cleansing and then re-populating an entire planet - in order to keep knowledge of the existence of such attacks a secret. They justify these dreadful acts - when justification is required, which is rarely - by saying that if the activities of the Chaos God ever become public knowledge, panic and insurrection on a galactic-wide scale would surely follow. Whatever the Administratum might have one believe, however, it is fact that the Demon Legions of the Chaos Gods occasionally venture out of the Eye of Terror and invade the Imperium. These invasions, while not being considered as much of a threat as a Black Crusade, are considered more dangerous than the small raids normally carried out by the forces of Chaos. The assembly of such an invasion force is usually triggered by the appearance of a space hulk drifting past one of the demon worlds in the Eye of Terror. These ancient space ships can be used to transport vast armies through the warp, allowing a Demon Legion to move from one planet in the Eye of Terror to another, or even to a planet in the Imperium. Driven and tossed by the currents of the warp, no-one can truly tell where and when a space hulk will re-appear, although a Chaos Sorcerer can predict fairly accurately where a space hulk might be going. So it is that the Imperium will be assailed by a Chaos force drawn from the very heart of the Eye of Terror. In many cases the creatures that make up such an army will quickly die or be drawn back to the warp, as they cannot survive for long in the material universe without the sustaining energy of the warp. However, should the planet where the Demonic Legions arrive be close to the center of a warp storm, or if there are enough living creatures willing to expend their precious psychic energy in constant worship of the Chaos Gods, then the forces of Chaos can survive and even prosper for an indefinite period. Under such circumstances the only way the forces of Chaos can be defeated is in battle, or by the virus bombing of an entire planet. Such was the case with the first invasion of Armageddon. Armageddon is one of the most important industrial hive world planets in the Imperium. The teeming millions of souls that make up Armageddon's population live on a single huge continent, which is split into two halves by a vast jungle. The land to the north of the jungle is known as Armageddon Prime, and the lands to the south as Armageddon Sedundus, but amongst the more widely scattered hives of Armageddon Prime they proved more difficult to eradicate. However, such insurrections are common on the densely-populated hive worlds of the Imperium, and as the planetary forces seemed capable of dealing with the revolt, no additional units were sent from the Imperium. In any case, the warp storm effecting the nearby system of Mid-Calvius CVIII made warp travel to and from Armageddon rather dangerous... The Imperial planetary forces, busy containing the rebellion, were caught almost completely by surprise when a vast space hulk appeared in the Armageddon system. On board was on equally vast demon world army led by the Demon Primarch Angron. Khorne Berzerkers from the World Eaters Legion and hordes of gibbering demonic creatures poured from the space hulk and swept across Armageddon Prime. The insidious effects of Chaos were quickly felt as nearly half the planetary army went over to the invaders, who were also joined by the rebellious forces of the planet, now revealed as Chaos cultists. The few remaining loyal defenders were quickly driven from Armageddon Prime. Falling back through the jungles that separated the two halves of the massive continent, the survivors joined up with loyal units that had been left in Armageddon Secundus, and prepared to make a last ditch defense along the rivers of the Styx and Chaeron. If Angron could have struck immediately against the badly organized and demoralized defenders it is almost certain that he would have defeated them and Armageddon would have been his for the taking. But Angron was forced to delay his attack. The Mid-Calvius warp storm was abating, and unless he did something to draw chaotic energy to the planet, his army would soon start to disappear. To the Imperial defenders it appeared that they gained valuable time while Angron wasted weeks building monuments to the Chaos Gods instead of pursuing the shattered Imperial armies into Armageddon Secundus. In fact Angron had no choice but to do what he did. The enforced delay cost Angron dear. Unknown to the forces of Chaos, the Space Wolves Chapter of Space Marines, whose home world of Fenris was close to Armageddon, had moved quickly to help the defenders. When Angron's army emerged from the jungles that separated Armageddon Prime from Armageddon Secundus they found the defenders ready and waiting, and reinforced by the Space Wolves. Titanic battles erupted all along the front line as the Demon Legions crashed into the Imperial defense line. On the banks of the river Chaeron the Imperial defenders held, and Chaos was hurled back in disorder. But further to the west Angron led the attack personally, smashing through the Imperial lines and leading his forces towards Infernus and Helsreach hives. It was at this moment that Logan Grimnar, who at that time had been Lord of the Space Wolves for less than a year, played his trump card. In reserve he had held a full company of Grey Knights, whose assistance he had sought as soon as he was aware of the dangers that faced Armageddon. Only the Grey Knights had the ability to truly defeat an entity such as Angron. They arrived just as the Chaos hordes were surging towards Infernus and Helsreach hives. Teleporting directly into the presence of Angron at the center of his Demon Legion the Grey Knights confronted the Demon Prince and the score of Greater Demons that were his bodyguard. It was a battle the like of which had not been seen since the days of the Horus Heresy, and of the 100 Grey Knights that took part, less than a dozen survived the encounter. But in the end they triumphed, hurling Angron's spirit back into the warp from where it was not allowed to return for a hundred years and a day. Simultaneously the Space Wolves launched a massive counter-attack. The forces of Chaos were routed and destroyed. With the Demon Legions defeated, the Administratum moved quickly and efficiently to brutally suppress the truth of what had happened. Although the virus bombing of the planet to ensure its complete and utter cleansing of any hint of Chaos was considered, the importance of Armageddon's industries made such a solution highly undesirable. Instead all but the highest ranking officials of the surviving population were sterilized so that they could bear no more children, and then marched to huge forced labor camps built far from the planet's hives, where they could be kept isolated so that not one word of the attack on the planet would ever leak out. Meanwhile billions of new workers for the planet's now empty hive-complexes were shipped in from all over the Imperium. Within a decade or two the workers in the slave camps were dead, a poor reward for those who had so bravely battled against the forces of Chaos. Logan Grimnar, commander of the Space Wolves now as then, has never forgiven the Adeptus Administratum for what he sees as a gross betrayal of tens of millions of innocent people, and there are many who secretly agree with him. Meanwhile, deep within the Eye of Terror, Angron plots how he will return to Armageddon one day, and wreak his revenge on the planet that defied him all those centuries ago... | |||||||||||||||||||
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