| abstract
| - The World Eaters are a massive group of warriors. They are feared by whole star systems. When the world changed, as did they. They sided with evil, working for Sith. They now strive for the destruction of the self proclaimed Sith'ari Feral.
- The World Eaters are one of the Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines who now inhabit the Warp rift known as the Eye of Terror in the Imperium of Man's Segmentum Obscurus. The World Eaters, originally known as the War Hounds, were also once the XIIth Legion of the twenty First Founding Space Marine Legions, and one of the first to betray the Emperor of Mankind for the service of Chaos and the Warmaster Horus. This Legion was a collection of nearly inhuman monsters long before Horus became corrupted and monsters they would remain, only with what little remained of their restraint and their humanity stripped away after their fall to Chaos. The World Eaters are now the dedicated servants of the Blood God Khorne, the Chaos God of War and Murder, and live for nothing more than to spill blood in his name. The World Eaters' Primarch, Angron, was one of the first of the Space Marine Primarchs to join with Horus when he turned against the Emperor and began the Horus Heresy. The Legion is no longer united, having long ago surrendered to the pure bloodlust inspired by their patron Khorne and instead they now operate as separate warbands of Chaos Space Marines who seek to spread death and terror in the name of the Blood God across the galaxy. The World Eaters were known from their very inception as the most brutal and direct of assault troops. Their fearsome doctrine was very much the result of the early life of their Primarch. Angron was raised on the world of Nuceria as a slave-warrior, driven by a cybernetic cranial implant called the Butcher's Nails into savage bouts of uncontrollable violence for the entertainment of the masses. But Angron did not remain a slave for long, for he was possessed of the indomitable will of a Primarch, and he rallied his fellow gladiators to break the chains of their bondage, slay their oppressors and escape to freedom. Having led his army of escaped slave-warriors into the mountains, Angron found himself hunted relentlessly, until only a thousand or so of his companions survived, cornered by five entire armies of Nucerian overseers. Determined to sell their lives dearly, Angron and his warriors dug their own graves, a signal to the enemy that no quarter would be asked and the fight would be to the death. But Angron was not to fall the following morning, for it transpired that the Emperor had been observing his deeds from orbit. The Emperor came before His long lost gene-son and told him, as He had the other Primarchs, of the purpose for which he was created. Yet Angron rejected the Emperor's words, determined instead to fight and to die at the side of his fellow slave-warriors. As the sun rose and the encircling armies closed on Angron's band of warriors, the Emperor saw that not even a mighty Primarch could prevail against such odds. As battle was joined, the Primarch was teleported to the Emperor's vessel, and though he was saved from certain death as all his comrades died in his absence, he never forgave his gene-father for what he would forever view as a gross betrayal of a warrior's vows to his battle-kin. Taking his position as Primarch of the XIIth Legion, which he renamed the World Eaters, Angron instigated a program of replicating the cranial implants he himself had been fitted with as a slave-warrior, knowing that the devices granted such advantages in speed, aggression and strength that no enemy in the galaxy could stand before his Legion once all had received them. Yet, it was soon found that the implants were based on lost technology of which the Mechanicum was ignorant, and while they used Angron's own implant as a template, they were never able to fully recreate it. Nevertheless, the Mechanicum did succeed in creating devices that greatly boosted the abilities of the bearer, making him stronger and even more aggressive than he already was. The World Eaters became the most effective shock troops in the Imperium's armies, proving time and again that none could stand before them. Yet, the glories came at a price, for the aggression unlocked by the implants proved all but impossible to temper once given full reign, and at the world of Ghenna, an entire planetary population was butchered in a single solar night by World Eaters unable or unwilling to deny the bloodlust unleashed by the implants. Angron was censured, and ordered by the Emperor to cease the practise of implanting his warriors in such a way, yet he continued regardless. When the Horus Heresy erupted, Angron's Legion was at the very forefront of the bloodshed. Most notably, the World Eaters led the assault upon the walls of the Imperial Palace, taking the breach with no regards to their own losses. By this point, the World Eaters had given full vent to their most destructive urges. While Angron had once been a great man possessed of a fearsome sense of martial pride and honour, now he was a frothing, blood-soaked berserker, as were his warriors. Any reason that had survived the implant process was driven from their minds, replaced with the will of Khorne, the Blood God. It is said that when the Emperor defeated Horus and the hordes of Chaos assaulting Terra were finally routed, the World Eaters were the last of their number to quit the field of battle. None can say how close the World Eaters came to destroying the palace, or whether they would have come face to face with the Emperor Himself had not Horus lowered the shields of his Battle Barge, precipitating the final confrontation in orbit. In the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, the World Eaters descended to new depths of bloodlust and destruction, reaving across the already shattered Imperium before plunging into the twisted depths of the Eye of Terror. None can say exactly what happened within the Eye, but it is apparent that the Legion all but consumed itself in a bitter internecine conflict that saw it fractured into countless smaller warbands. Perhaps the Blood God was pleased with the slaughter, for Angron was raised up to a Daemon Prince, even as his Legion ceased to exist as a coherent whole. Though the Daemon Primarch would periodically gather the disparate warbands into something resembling the glory of the old Legion, the World Eaters were condemned to roam the battlefields of the galaxy in search of war, individual squads and warbands joining other Chaotic forces and fighting for nothing more than the opportunity to spill blood and take skulls.
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