Slaves to Darkness
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Slaves to Darkness |
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- – The Joker, The Dark Knight
It took a while but now the Age of Sigmar has its own brand of marauding Chaos worshippers. The Slaves to Darkness is a collective term used by the forces of Order to describe the myriad rabid warbands and violent tribes that fell under the influence of the Ruinous Powers following or during the Age of Chaos. Their model range is mostly that of the Warriors of Chaos, with a few new units and the Warcry war bands sprinkled in.
Origins[edit]
Generally speaking, the STD (OOPS!) fall into two groups in regards to how they were formed.
The first group is much in line with Fantasy‘s Norsca; primitive societies who willingly or unknowingly worship the Dark Gods. During the Age of Myth, there were many tribal cultures lay scattered about the Mortal Realms. They weren’t under the authoritarian thumb of Sigmar and thus allowed to spread out and create their own religions and beliefs. Usually these cultures had simple traditions and gods that inadvertently fell in line with Chaos (I.e. a warrior culture revering a god of war for his honor and martial prowess fuels Khorne). When the Age of Chaos rolled around, these tribes were either press ganged into servitude by the hordes of daemons, willingly followed them as loyal servants, or were slowly corrupted and fell to Chaos.
The second group is a bit more tragic. When Sigmar closed off the gates to Azyr, he left entire continents and civilizations to fend for themselves against the swathes of Chaos. Some human worshippers of other gods were also left in a vulnerable position as their gods left them to fend for themselves. These people turned to Chaos either to spite their former gods or save their own skins. Still more turned to Chaos because they genuinely thought the Chaos Gods offered a better deal (such as several nations of Shyish preferring them to Nagash - which is almost understandable given Nagash's character). Of course, some of these people would still remain opposed to Chaos and fight on, their descendants becoming known as the Reclaimed and having a tense rivalry with the Cities of Sigmar, seeing them as privileged goody two-shoes.
History[edit]
Age of Myth[edit]
Prior to the coming of Chaos the Mortal Realms were (especially compared to what came after) considered a paradise for a time. Sigmar and his Pantheon of other gods such as Nagash, Allarielle and Teclis all strove to uplift the mortal races and bring civilization to the lands. The dangerous beasts that competed with the free peoples for the lands like the dreaded Beastmen were pushed back and Gorkamorka and his hordes took great glee in getting rid of the many dangerous creatures that threatened these new civilations. In additon to confining the many godbeasts beneath the lands. However, these good times were not to last. The Chaos gods after many years had learned of the Mortal Realms and the gods of the world-that-was' survival. Returning their attention back to the Mortal Realms they began their slow but methodical encroaching into these new realities.
How they did so varied considerably, but all served the singular goal of seeping their influence into the mortal peoples. While civilization flourished during this time, many tribal cultures endured on the fringes of society, and were very susceptible to the whispers of the dark gods. Even in the nascent civiliations the arrogant, curious and corrupt inevitably began to grow more open to the dark gods will as well as hidden cults and seekers of forbidden lore multiplied. It was not simply the mortal races however, the gods themselves had grown arrogant and distant with one another, and this led to them missing the telltale sings of infiltration happening before them. Some of which was due to the gods own hand (such as tricking Gorkamorka into turning his back on Sigmar and returing to his old ways).
Eventually these varied cults and tribal groups began evoking great rituals to weaken the barrier between the realms to allow their gods in. In fact many were not even fully aware of the gods intentions, with many simply believing that they were benevolent forces offering riches or power in return for worship. The first true invasion began in Aqshy were the corrupted tribal groups summoned forth a great army of Khorne deamons into the realm, generally marking the beginning of the end of the Age of the Pantheon.
In all the other realms around this time the armies of demons poured through to attack the nascent civilizations. Nurgle’s hordes sought to claim Ghyran for themselves. Khorne’s forces ran as an unstoppable juggernaut through Aqshy. Tzeentch, through his cunning manipulations of the people of Chamon who sought to kill of a godbeast inadvertently tore open a gateway to Tzeentch’s domain. And in the lands of Hysh and Ulgu the hosts of Slaanesh pounced on the growing Aelven populations there (while also looking to find their missing diety). The gods tried to fight back, however thanks to the chaos gods manipulations they were divided and distrustful only seeking to safe guard their own realms than offer aid (though they did have invasions of their own to deal with but still), only Sigmar and Nagash could raise sufficient forces to fight the demon hordes. But this was compounded as the various mortal tribes and cults lent their forces to bolster the demon forces. Their infiltrators also working to destabilize nations for takeover. This was further worsened by the return of Archaon to lead the chaos forces. Since the destruction of the world-that-was Archaon had been preoccupied leading the chaos forces against other dimensions, but had now come to spearhead the conquest of the Mortal Realms.
As more and more realms began to become overwhelmed and isolated from eachother a disicive blow came with Archaon siezing control of the Allpoints (renamed Eightpoints) that allowed him unrestricted access to the other realms. Sigmar knew time was running out and sought to defeat the Chaos hordes in the battle of the burning skies in Aqshy. Unfortunately a betrayal by Nagash tipped the batte in Archaon's favour. Eventually Sigmar would be forced to abandon the war effort and sealed off his realm Azyr from the Chaos hordes. The other realms and remaining gods would be on their own from that point onward.
Age of Chaos[edit]
The Age of Chaos saw the chaos legions triumphant over the realms. The desperate groups of tribal warriors, cabalists and cultists alike referred to broadly as the Slaves to Darkness continued their ransacking of the realms themselves. In Shyish the Ravager hordes razed the various underworlds of Nagash before even Nagash himself was personally struck down by Archaon, leading to the dominion of Chaos over the lords of the dead. In Aqusy and Ghur the tribal peoples and Greenskin hordes clashed head on with the mortal champions of chaos in a bloodbath that would last the rest of the age, with Aqusy in particular getting devastated in the conflict. Allarielle did the best she could to safeguard her realm, but the forces of Nurgle and the horned Rat proved overwhelming with the aid of the other gods, forcing her and the Sylvaneth into hiding as they began a centuries long war of attrition against the great corruptors. Tzeench set his sights on claiming Chamon, with the ruling Duardin civiliations having either fled to Azyr or into the clouds to escape the chaos hordes (which would later become the Kharadron Overlords), while the forces of Slaanesh sought to butcher an already weakened Hysh (which had been devested by a bitter civil war of the Lumineth Realm-Lords). Its twin Ulga was none the better as the chaos hordes used the shades and darkness to pounce on the peoples of the realm while Malerion and Morathi were forced to go into hiding during the age. Archaon for his part continued his campaigns against the empires of the Mortal Realms, while also setting his end goal of invading Azyr.
The Mortal peoples that were left behind had only three choices; submit, flee or hide. Those that submitted openly began worshipping one or all of the pantheon of chaos (or simply a minor chaos diety or even chaos as a concept). However, the worship of the chaos gods themselves never had to be direct, as it is the actions and emotions of mortals that strengthen the gods more than anything. The various peoples of the Slaves to Darkness often had remarkably different means of venerating the gods, in fact many did not even necessarily know of the gods they truly worshipped or their ultimate intentions. The mortal populations of the Slaves to Darkness were not all universally evil, and many had simply had their local culture and belief system twisted in a way that would benefit the chaos gods, such as a warrior culture invoking battle more than previously thus empowering Khorne, or the philosopher-sorcerers of Hysh who in their quest for power and knowledge were inadvertently empowering Tzeench and Slaanesh, or tribal groups embracing the the gifts of Nurgle as coming from their gods of nature. Regardless of their intentions or knowledge they still inevitably empowered the chaos gods with their actions and direct or indirect worship. It was these disparate and divided cultures of chaos that now dominated the mortal realms almost completely.
As for those who did not submit, these peoples were forced to hide in fortified keeps (such as the Fyreslayers) or hidden sanctuaries such as the floating cites of Battar in Aqusy or the Amethyst Princedoms in Shyish. Or become nomadic peoples, always staying just ahead of the hordes of the Slaves to Darkness. While the Slaves to Darkness had undoubtedly become the dominating force in the realms, not all was well with them however. With chaos itself inevitably looking to tear at itself the various chaos hordes began to turn on one another in the face of no true external threats. All the various champions and generals of chaos sought to gain power and prestige for themselves by gaining favor from the forces of Chaos, known collectively as the path to glory. This form of rivalry led the various champions to turn on their fellow chaos followers, which inevitably led to the chaos conquest of the realms to stall as the hordes tore at each other. While most didn't consider this a cause for concern (they had won already) this would later prove to be a grave mistake as 500 years after Azyr closed, the gates reopened and the Age of Chaos would come to an end.
Age of Sigmar[edit]
The beginning of the this age began with the return of the forces of Sigmar, spearheaded by the newly created Stormcast Eternals. The great warriors forged by Sigmar and Grungi first made landfall in Aqusy and began claiming the strategically important Realmgates to allow the bulk of Azyr's armies to return while also createing vital spearheads. These events collectively became known as The Realmgate Wars. At the news of this, the various Hordes of the Slaves to Darkness began marshalling to meet these new foes. From Ghyran to Chamon, everywhere these new storm forged warriors appeared the vicious tides of the mortal followers of Chaos rose to meet them. However, the surprise invasion coupled with the tribes inability to stop their selfish infighting led to the forces of Order winning several major victories.
Eventually Archaon himself was forced to personally intervene in several of these major battles, and while he and his personal army known as the Varnaguard were nigh unstoppable, unfortunately Archaon could not be everywhere at once, often leading his disoranized vassals to be beaten back by these new challengers. Unfortunately for them Archaons attention eventually turned back to his overall goal of breaching Azyr (along with already managing several existing warfronts), which led him to essentially ignore these new beacheads of Order in the Mortal Realms while he returned to his main goals. In his absence, great fortifications were erected, often encompassing realmgates that were used as staging grounds for Sigmars conquests. With these new armies returning to the realms, the other members of the former pantheon began to return from hiding to push back against the Chaos hordes, from the Daughters of Khaine striking out from Ulga in numbers for the first time in centuries, to the Sylvaneth in Ghyran finally having fresh allies against the chaos corruptors. Even the Fyreslayers found cause to make treaties with the newcomers. With even former empires of the Realms seeing the chaos disruption as a chance to retake their former lands (an example being the Battari empire in Aqusy), Nagash however still refused to ally with the forces of Sigmar and forbade his followers from doing so (though some still did), and insisted on retaking his realm himself. This news was not necessarily taken badly by all the followers of Chaos. Many champions of chaos were walking their variant of the Path to Glory, and these new challengers only presented new opportunities to test their mettle and gain the attention of the Dark Gods (especially after centuries of only chasing after fearful mortals). These champions rushed to battle the newcomers with glee.
As for Archaon, he made his plan to corrupt several of the ancient godbeasts in order to smash open the gates of Azyr with these mighty beasts. A risky move, as they were powerful enough to harm even him. However, Sigmars return had only accelerated Archaons timetable, and his chance to use this gambit was closing fast. His first attempt was to corrupt the sleeping world titan Behemat in Ghyran with the help of the forces of Nurgle and the Skaven clan Pestilans. Unfortunately, this plan was thwarted by the Stormcast Eternals with the help of the Celestant Prime himself. Archaon subsequently followed up this attempt by trying to use the solar drake Ignax to bash open the gates of Azyr. Things were going well (Archaon even managing to mentally enslave the beast). However, the forces of Order had already beaten him to the punch on the godbeast, with Duardin priests implanting mystic runes onto the beast that freed her from Archaons control. The great drake subsequently abandoned Archaons venture and disappeared under the earth of Aqusy.
Archaon following this more or less abandoned any further advances on the new Azyr settlers, instead focusing his attention of putting down challengers to his rule and continuing his quest to open the gates of Azyr (its also implied he never really considered the newcomers a real threat).
Following this, the biggest major Chaos incursion against the forces of Order came with the attempted destruction of the Seeds of Hope in Ghyran. These were the founding of several major cities in the realm and many major Slaves to Darkness warbands attempted to destroy these new interlopers. After many great battles and great loss of life the chaos hordes were pushed back and the Seeds of Hope saved. While Sigmar had managed to establish many settlements throughout the realms the vast majority still remained in chaos hands. Sigmar continued to send out new crusades to raise new settlements and push back the chaos hordes little by little. This was helped along greatly with the mortal followers of Chaos warring amongst themselves just as much against the forces of the former pantheon. This situation with new cities being founded and some being destroyed by the chaos hordes continued for roughly a century, by which time approximately 1/10 of the pantheons former territory had been retaken. However, this was to be disrupted by the coming of Nagash's storm.
Soul Wars[edit]
The completion of Nagash's grand ritual led to the Necroquake reverberating across the realms, though the thankful intervention of some Skaven led to the ritual not working quite as intended. It did end up raising the dead en masse across the realms begining the titled Soul Wars by Nagash. This ended up turning out quite badly for the Slaves to Darkness tribes as it led to all the dead peoples they butchered during the Age of Chaos to return with a vengeance against them. The chaos hordes spent the itital attacks of the Soul Wars getting battered by the raised dead and newly created Nighthaunt Processions. Their forces in Shyish were greatly reduced in Shish thanks to Nagash's counter assualt, though they did claim some victories, with the Chaos warlord Thur almost managing to destroy the Mortarch Olyander with a summoned Bloodthirter, though she was ultimately saved by the arrival of Arkhan and Nagash.
With the dead rising to compound Sigmars forces, Archaon decided that he needed all the allies he could get and tasked the Gaunt Summoners with locating the missing god Slaanesh. And that they did. Archaon and his army managed to fight through to Slaanesh's prison, with Archaon finding Slaanesh imprisoned. Though he didn't appreciate the gods mocking tone he set about freeing them, even managing to destroy one of the chains holding them at bay. However, he was forced to return to the Eightpoints before completing as his home base had come under attack by the Ossairch Legions of the newly freed Mortarch Katakros and Lady Olyander (the latter even slaying the chaos lord Namon Saskarid who Archaon had left in charge), with only a few Chaos Lords such as Marakarr Blood-Sky still holding back the death legions. Knowing he would have to locate Slaanesh again as the Aelves would inevitably move the prison, he reluctantly headed back home. Though the death army had made some ground in the Eightpoints, as soon as Archaon and his main army returned the death forces were quickly routed. Even bolstered by the arrival of Be'lakor and further reinforcements. Ultimately the Death army was annilated Lady Olyander was struck down by Be'lakor and Kataros personally slain by Archaon in a duel.
The Death forces retained control of the All-gate to Shyish, but Archaon ultimately didn't care all that much. He didn't consider the Death forces a threat to him in the grand scheme of things and simply let the local chaos lords keep them contained until he decided to deal with them himself. He instead turned his attention to his latest scheme to enter Azyr.
Broken Realms[edit]
During the events of broken realms Archaon had tasked the Gaunt Summoners, among them Eater of Tomes, to begin harvesting a rare substance known as Varanite from the Eightpoints. This substance was the realmstone of the Eightpoints itself and was itself highly dangerous, its very presence warping and twisting everything around it (kinda like radioactive material in real world), so much so even demons feared it. Archaon, however, believed the substance could be used to breach the gates of Azyr by weakening the seals on the gate. Using wormlike chaos beasts, he began harvesting the substance. However, an infiltration by Morathi and Sigmars forces led to the destruction of the main mining operation (along with the theft of some of the Varanite by Morathi). Though the chaos forces did get to test some of their new anti-stormcast weapons during the raid.
Following up on this event, Be'lakor began making moves to gain further favour with the gods. He released Stormcast prisoners during the Siege of Anvalgard to stoke up civil wars in the forces of Order. Following this, he witnessed an interesting chain of events. The Seraphons destruction of a Silver Tower (it was a big huge space battle) in a battle he saw that its destruction would lead to a chain reaction of magical backlash that would cause Realmgates to explode and release chaos energy into the realms. Desiring to recreate this event he made an alliance with Lady Olyander (long story, true story) and besieged Vindicarum in Chamon. During the battle the realmgate was destroyed which caused a further set of chain reactions causing other nearby realmgates to collapse darkening the skies with chaos energy and cutting off the Stormcast from Azyr. This led to the decimation of both the city and the Stormhosts of the Celestial Vindicators and Hallowed Knights. Ultimately the siege was ended by the timely arrival of the Khardron Overlords and possibly Grungi. However the damage was already done with Be'lakors storm begining to spread throughout the realms.
Following this Be'lakors star was once again on the rise with the gods and the devastation in Chamon was easily one of the biggest Chaos wins against Sigmar since the Realmgate wars. However things didn't go entirely perfect. Soon after Allarielle enancted her Rite of Life (essentially her version of the Necroquake) which led to the release of the Destruction God Kragnos and the realm of Ghur releasing vast waves of Beast magic throughout the cosmos. The forces of Destruction subsequently energized like never before.
Era of the Beast[edit]
--under construction--
Types of Chaos Warbands[edit]
There are four broad classifications for types of hordes, and two special cases.
- Ravagers: These most common type of hordes are led by rival champions of the Dark Gods, always in competition with each other to earn more favor from their masters. Usually these groups are comprised of many smaller tribes and other cultures, which in turn makes them prone to fracturing and creating more warbands. This type incorporates the various individual war bands introduced in the Warcry skirmish game.
- Cabalists: Always centered around a powerful Chaos Sorcerer or maybe a coven of them. Their warriors are little more than thralls for the magic users to draw magic from and sacrifice for their dark rituals. The number of Cabalist warbands has recently spiked when Nagash’s Necroquake completely flipped the way magic functioned in the Mortal Realms.
- Despoilers: The rarest kind of warband and often regarded as the most dangerous. Each one is led by a Daemon Prince who has returned from the Realm of Chaos to his original tribe and claimed leadership. Their arrival brings many warped monsters and twisted magics to the Realms as well. On even rarer occasions, these warbands will be led by multiple Daemon Princes, but understandably, they are very likely to separate given their megalomaniacal natures.
- Idolators: Introduced in Broken Realms: Morathi; Idolators are comprised of the more zealous and devout among the worshippers of Chaos. Led by fiery orators riding Chaos Chariots or Gorebeast Chariots, they specialize in laying waste to non-Chaos priests and monuments, and spreading the taint of the Dark Gods wherever they tread.
- Host of the Everchosen: Archaon’s personal army of lackeys and worshippers who follow the Everchosen like a god among men. His mere presence amidst the Slaves to Darkness has a magnetic effect that draws all other tribes and cults towards him. Additionally, there is a subset of this group called the Knights of the Empty Throne, who are tasked with defending the Eightpoints whilst daddy is away trying to cave in Nagash’s skull...again.
- Legion of the First Prince: To go along with his fancy new model, Be'lakor now has his own subfaction. It’s near identical to the Daemons of Chaos from Fantasy, just one big daemon soup party with Be'lakor at the top.
The Darkoath[edit]
The Darkoath are a subfaction of the Slaves to Darkness representing a particular culture of... "Chaos dabblers", for lack of a better word. Descendants of the human civilizations that were toppled during the Age of Chaos, but survived in the other Mortal Realms rather than flee to Azyr, the Darkoaths walk a delicate tightrope between embracing Chaos and holding it at bay. They are most famous for their habit of swearing oaths to the Dark Gods where they will achieve some great feat in return for specific boons, and engraving these oaths in stone tablets to record, essentially bartering with Chaos - we do X, you give us Y, essentially. Because of this, they are devotees (more or less) of Chaos Undivided, having figured out that the Gods are most generous with their gifts and boons when they are trying to tempt a mortal into swearing their souls entirely to them, and thus they try to avoid giving up too much of themselves to any specific deity.
Initially just part of the lore, in 2024 they became a subfaction to the Slaves of Darkness, complete with their own 28-page battletome supplement - the last of Third Edition AOS. None-too-coincidentally, this also came around the time GW decided to de-emphasize the use of the old Chaos-adherent Warcry clans - all except, surprise surprise, the Darkoath Savagers, who were a bunch of loincloth barbarians with no overt influence from any realm or deity.
One particular focus of Darkoath lore is that their major reason for uniting with Chaos hordes isn't so much out of loyalty to Chaos, but hostility towards the Cities of Sigmar, who since the Age of the Beast have begun launching colonizing crusades and often end up marching into Darkoath lands and then setting up shop, which the Darkoaths take offense to. Of course, the ones that were forsaken when Chaos first took root hold a special sort of resentment for the self-righteous god-king.
The basis of the Darkoath is basically an AOS update of the Norscans and Marauders of Warhammer Fantasy; a human race who often honor and ally with Chaos, without being 100% bound in servitude to Chaos. This may be the inspiration behind the Darkoath's signature unique unit; the Wilderfiends. These are former Darkoaths whose ambitions outstripped their abilities, transformed into mutant monsters with bestial minds that now haunt the fringes of the Darkoath tribes, monsters that act as both warnings and sentinels for their still-human kin, who must keep them satiated with sacrifices and trophies to prevent them from rampaging outside of battle. This is very similar to the Weres, who were fallen Norscans transformed into bestial monsters that were kept on the outskirts of the tribes, at once honored and pitied - widely assumed by fans to be a Norscan interpretation of Chaos Spawn, but with an inferred stability somewhat at odds with other lore relating to those abhorrent wretches.
Chaos Cults[edit]
Unlike your typical run of the mill chaos worshiper most of these are not Conan-knockoffs. These are the vaious groups and subcultures that worship chaos and the chaos gods in unique or specific ways. Over the centuries of the Age of Chaos many minor sub-cutlures developed that worship their own brand of chaos or minor chaos dieties. Each of the realms has their own local variety of chaos cultist subculture with its own customes. Such as the Corvus Cabal in Ulga who worship an apparant minor chaos diety the Great Gatherer. Or the Splintered Fang in Ghyran and the Iron Golems of Chamon.
These groups differ from Darkoath or those sworn on the Path to Glory in that in the former they are true followers of chaos given over body and soul rather than the Darkoaths more limited oaths. While in the latter they don't necessary swear allegiance to the main 5 chaos gods and instead follow their own minor chaos dieties or worhsip chaos undivded as a specific concept (such as the Scions of the Flame who worship chaos as a violent manifistation of Aqshy's eternal flame that scorches everything). Though they all ultimately swear allegiance to Archaon and often hire out their services to various Chaos Lords so are often seen in the armies of the Slaves to Darkness.
Those on the Path to Glory[edit]
The most direct followers of the chaos gods are the mortals Human and otherwise who are on the Path to Glory. Where one seeks to gain enough favour from the gods of chaos to ascend to quasi-godhood themselves. This is accomplished usually by swearing allegiance to one of the chaos gods, or more rarely to chaos undivided. They swear their soul and eternal service to chaos and begin a long road of combat and quests to gain the attention and favour of the gods. As a someone on the path to glory wins battles and gives offerings and worship to their respective patron if the gods see fit they will be granted boons. This can be greater strength, magical abilities, longer life or even ion skin. If they keep this up without dying they receive more and more boons becoming more infected with the taint of chaos. However those who displease the gods or can't handle the changes done to them by the gifts devolve into chaos spawn and become just another monster to be put down. Others who can take grow in power until they are no longer simply mortal.
While progression on the Path to Glory is highly varied it generally goes like this. A mortal follower, say a Maurader, gains the attention of one of the gods through their conquests and acts of worship and continues to recieve boons until they eventually take up the mantle of Chaos Warrior. Donning a set of mystical armour suffused from chaos from various sources. If they survive their continued trials and don't die (it goes without saying you need to offer increasingly impressive results to stay on the path to glory) they may attain a rank of Chao Knight or join the ranks of Chao Chosen. Knights often serving as the vanguard of Chaos Lords and Demon Princes in battle and Chosen being their lords bodyguards/elite warriors and main inner circle. After this the individual generally has two branching paths. If they continue to excel in battle and impress the gods to grant enough divine favour they will likely attempt to rise to the rank of Chaos Lord themselves. Either founding their own new army or challenge an existing one for dominance. Those that succeed gain the rank of Chaos Lord and usually even more power from their patron. However some also receive the "honour" of being called to serve in Archaon the Everchosens Varangaurd. Forced to abandon any further progress on the Path to Glory and join the Everchosens own private army, loyal to him even above the Chaos Gods.
Those who manage the survive the challenges and final tribulations eventually receive their ultimate prize with elevation to demonhood and transformed into a mighty Demon Prince. A demigod in all but name............or devolve into a spawn (or worse) if they fail in their final task.
This is the ultimate motivation of the followers of chaos. While its hard, brutal and you'll probably die along the way. The opportunity to ascend to demonhood is what motivates most into service of the Chaos Gods as for all their faults they will reward those who excel and reward your effort (most of the time anyway). Generally the type of Demon Prince you become depends on you patron. With it implied those who become Demon Prices of Chaos Undivided being empowered by other chaos deities such as Be'lakor.
| Playable Factions in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar | ||
|---|---|---|
| Order | ||
| Chaos | ||
| Death | ||
| Destruction | ||
