Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)
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This page is for those Space Marine psykers who have turned to Chaos. If you are looking for the page about the Dungeons & Dragons class, please see Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons).
- – Lord Acton
- – Sheev Palpatine, while shooting lightning from his fingertips after that same power turned his face into a wrinkly ball sack
Start with a Space Marine Librarian, add some heresy, and you get a Chaos Sorcerer. They are the heavy-duty psykers of the Chaos Space Marines. They feel the Warp overtaking them, and to them, it is a good pain.
Overview[edit]
For the most part, Sorcerers see themselves as great discoverers of arcane knowledge, studying the Warp from a perspectives that the foolish worshipers of the Corpse God deny themselves. They often lead warbands of other Chaos followers, as sorcerers can be just as charismatic and powerful as a Chaos Lord.
While they certainly can be scholars or warlords (or both), the dirty secret of the Sorcerers is that they are just as much pawns of the Chaos Gods as everyone else. Magnus the Red (and all of the Thousand Sons) learned this the hard way during the Horus Heresy, when the Rubric of Ahriman turned all non-psyker Thousand Sons into Rubric Marines.
It should be noted that a Chaos Sorceror can wear Terminator Armour if they feel like it, just ask Nemeroth about it. But most often than not, they usually stick with their own stylized pattern of Sorcerer's Power Armour. What is standardised however, is that all of them carry a Force Stave as their primary means of unga bunga-ing their magicks, and carry a Bolt Pistol in case they lost their magic murder wands. Some....eccentric Sorcerors are also know to wield Lightning Claws or Power Fists if things got too hectic. Some may even opt for the elusive Warp Blade to counter enemy psychic attacks. So the actual armoury of a Sorceror can be diverse in theory. On tabletop, however, they just got their staves and bolt pistols unfortunately.
Tzeentch is often considered the patron Chaos God of Sorcerers, as arcane knowledge (and manipulating pawns) is part of his purview. Nurgle and Slaanesh also have Sorcerers within their ranks, though not to the same extent as Tzeentch. Khorne, on the other hand, usually hates them (in fact, they cannot take the Mark of Khorne in-game), but he may make an exception for particularly bloodthirsty psykers, like Azariah Kyras, and he probably has the biggest rage boner ever for blanks. (Unless you count he who shall not be named...)
It is worth noting that while most sorcerers are psykers, and a psyker's natural affinity with the Warp does give them a better advantage, not all sorcerers are psykers and certainly not all psykers are sorcerers. Sorcery leans more towards ritual and using mediums to manipulate the forces of the warp (like cursed artifacts, demonic symbology, and pacts), rather than sheer mental power; if Khorne actually opposed all psykers *and* all sorcerers, it would be basically impossible for Khornate cults to summon their patron's daemons. Khorne can make his followers and daemons immune to psychic Warpcraft, but probably not Sorcery given that would negate an entire fourth of Chaos and he'd have instantly won the Great Game...or he already did win due to this but the Warp's fuck-reality shenanigans messed with exactly when he won.
If you watched Darth Vader's walk-in-the-park ending scene in Rogue One then you have a decent example of what it is to stand up against an average fluffwise Sorcerer (its close, but a real 40K sorcerer would involve more warpfire, doombolts and telekinetic dismemberment), indeed, even in the Dawn of War series most Guardsmen squads would get mowed down by a Sorcerer without him suffering any serious scratch.
Uncommon Types of Sorcerer[edit]
- Exalted Sorcerers: A promotion of sorts exclusive to the Thousand Sons. They're the head-honchos among Sorcerer cabals and tend to have their own Silver Tower.
- Malignant Plaguecaster: A type of nurglite sorcerer from the Death Guard, despite Morty's bitching about it. They're one with the "pleasantries" of Nurgle's Garden and make that fact known by sharing them with anyone in the vicinity.
- Master of Possession: A sorcerer specialized in both the summoning and binding of Daemons. They're the ones who make a filthy heretic into a Possessed or work alongside Warpsmiths to create daemon engines of all kinds.
- Infernal Master: A Thousand Sons Sorcerer of makes use of demonic pacts and daemon famillars similarly to how the Thousand Sons made use of warp familiars during the great crusade. In addition to dressing with style, he is a psyker who makes many use of deals. Overall he is a nice addition to the lore and the tabletop.
Dawn of War II[edit]
A Tzeentch-worshiping Chaos sorcerer is one of the three commanders usable to Chaos in Dawn of War II. He functions as a support hero that's meant to pummel enemies from a distance; as such, he's the least powerful of the Chaos commanders in melee, but his abilities can do a lot of damage.
Also, the sorcerers have Scott McNeil's Sindri voice, and listening to it is reason enough to use them.
Noteworthy Sorcerers[edit]
- Magnus the Red, daemon Primarch of the Thousand Sons. Most famous and powerful Chaos Sorcerer, ever.
- Ahriman: Probably the second most famous and powerful Chaos Sorcerer of all time. Responsible, among other things, for the epic fail/epic win that was the Rubric of Ahriman, which turned his legion into the state that it is now, getting his ass kicked from his legion in the process. Is now searching for (and failing to find) the Black Library. To his credit, he has gotten closer with each failure, and is now frighteningly close. Some say that he's reconciled with his legion and its members have joined his search. Update: He has found it.
- SSSSIIIIINNNNNDDDDRRRIIII: Sorcerer of The Alpha Legion. He
becamewas possessed by??????? a Daemon Prince, but got his ass pwned by Gabe,so he couldn't properly ascend and died,ascended into daemonhood but was banished by Gabewas eaten by the real daemon princeat the height of the Tartarus campaign. What happened to him exactly is pretty fuzzy, but it's generally accepted that he won't be coming back. He is a notable sexy-voiced bastard. Currently residing in Abaddon's bionic arm.
- Neroth: A sorcerer of the Black Legion and the nagging wife of Eliphas. Unlike the pansy bitches above who prefer to plot and sit on their asses, Neroth's entire thought process, life motivation, and military strategy amounts to "APPLY WARPFIRE", which tends to divide the opinions of elegan/tg/entlemen on him. Rumors of his being a Khornate Sorcerer are unsubstantiated. Rumors say that he hosts a barbecue every Sunday in the Vengeful Spirit. Also a sexy-voiced bastard.
- Nemeroth: A sorcerer with his own warband, the Chosen of Nemeroth. A manipulative guy who corrupted a radical Inquisitor into the creation of a warp-fueled power source only to almost ascend to daemonhood and invade a forgeworld in the process. Like Sindri, he also was killed while ascending, but by one of the very few awesome smurfs. Oddly, he isn't armed with any Force weapons, but rather with a pair of flesh-engraved lightning claws and terminator armor (unless he has Force lightning claws - you should ask him). His face is fucked up, even compared to Eliphas. Also, even for a Space Marine, he's huge.
- Imurah - Another Thousand Sons sorcerer leading his own warband. Had a plan to use the power source Nemeroth was indirectly responsible for to corrupt a Necron Warp Pylon into a massive Warp Rift-generating device - and in true Tzeentch fashion did this all to get back at Papa Smurf. Got ironically turned to dust by Titus.
Forces of the Thousand Sons | ||||||||
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Leaders | Chaos Champion • Lord of Tzeentch • Chaos Sorcerer • Daemon Prince • Exalted Sorcerers • Infernal Master | |||||||
Troops | Chaos Spawn • Rubric Marines • Rubric Terminators | |||||||
Great Crusade-era | Hidden Ones • Khenetai Occult • Numerologist • Scarab Occult | |||||||
Legio Cybernetica |
Castellax-Achea Class Battle-Automata | |||||||
Walkers | Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnought • Helbrute | |||||||
Transports | Chaos Land Raider • Rhino | |||||||
AFVs | Chaos Dreadnought • Predator • Vindicator | |||||||
Spacecraft | Dreadclaw Assault Pod • Kharybdis | |||||||
Daemon Engines |
Silver Tower of Tzeentch • Forgefiend • The Auruntaur • Heldrake • Maulerfiend • Defiler • Aether Ray • Fire Lord • Doom Wing • Mirrorfiend | |||||||
Daemons | Flamers of Tzeentch • Horror • Screamers of Tzeentch • Mutalith Vortex Beast | |||||||
Auxiliaries | Cultists • Prospero Spireguard • Thrall Wizards • Tzaangors • Tzaangor Enlightened • Tzaangor Shaman • Tzaangor Skyfire | |||||||
Allies | Chaos Daemons • Chaos Space Marines |
Forces of the Death Guard | |
---|---|
Leaders | Lord of Nurgle • Daemon Prince • Sorcerer • Chaos Champion • Malignant Plaguecaster • Plague Surgeon • Tallymen • Lord of Virulence |
Troops | Biologus Putrifier • Blightlord Terminator • Chaos Spawn • Deathshroud • Foul Blightspawn • Noxious Blightbringer • Plague Marines • Possessed |
Great Crusade-era | Grave Warden • Mortus Poisoner |
Structures | Miasmic Malignifier |
Walkers | Helbrute |
Transports | Chaos Land Raider • Rhino |
AFVs | Predator |
Superheavy Vehicles | Plaguereaper |
Flyers | Storm Eagle • Stormbird • Thunderhawk |
Spacecraft | Dreadclaw Assault Pod • Kharybdis |
Daemon Engines | Blight Drone • Contagion • Defiler • Foetid Bloat-Drone • Myphitic Blight-Hauler • Nurgle Plague Tower • Plague Hulk • Plagueburst Crawler |
Daemons | Beast of Nurgle • Nurgling • Plaguebearer |
Auxiliaries | Cultists • Cursemite • Eyestinger Swarm • Gellerpox Infected • Groaner • Pestigors • Plague Zombie • Poxwalkers • Pox Hound • Sludge-Grub |
Allies | Chaos Daemons • Chaos Space Marines |
Forces of the Emperor's Children | |
---|---|
Leaders | Lord of Slaanesh • Daemon Prince • Sorcerer • Chaos Champion |
Troops | Noise Marine • Chaos Spawn • Possessed |
Great Crusade-era | Kakophoni • Palatine Blade • Phoenix Guard • Sun Killer |
Walkers | Chaos Dreadnought • Helbrute • Sonic Dreadnought |
Transports | Chaos Land Raider • Chaos Rhino |
AFVs | Chaos Predator • Chaos Vindicator |
Flyers | Storm Eagle • Stormbird • Thunderhawk |
Spacecraft | Dreadclaw Assault Pod • Kharybdis |
Titans | Hell-Scourge • Hell-Knight • Hell-Strider • Slaanesh Subjugator • Questor Scout Titan |
Daemon Engines | Defiler • Heldrake • Forgefiend • Maulerfiend |
Daemons | Daemonette • Fiends of Slaanesh • Steeds of Slaanesh • Seekers of Slaanesh • Hellflayer Chariots |
Auxiliaries | Cultists • Slaangors |
Allies | Chaos Daemons • Chaos Space Marines |
Forces of the Alpha Legion | |
---|---|
Leaders | Chaos Champion • Chaos Lord • Librarian • Daemon Prince • Sorcerer |
Troops | Chaos Chosen • Chaos Raptors • Chaos Space Marine Squad • Cultist • Havocs • Operative • Saboteur • Warpsmith |
Great Crusade-era | Effrit Headhunter • Lernaean • Seeker Squad |
Walkers | Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought |
Transports | Land Raider (Land Raider Proteus • Land Raider Phobos) • Chaos Rhino • Road-Wheeler |
AFVs | Bike Squad • Land Speeder • Predator Tank |
Superheavy Vehicles | Spartan Assault Tank |
Flyers | Chiropteran Scout • Storm Eagle • Thunderhawk |
Spacecraft | Dreadclaw Assault Pod |
Allies | Chaos Space Marines • Lost and the Damned • Space Marines • Imperial Guard |
Forces of the Fallen | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Command | Cypher • Fallen Champion • Sorcerer | |||||||
Troops | Fallen | |||||||
Transports | Rhino | |||||||
Flyers | Stormtalon • Thunderhawk | |||||||
Spacecraft | Drop Pod | |||||||
Allies | Chaos Space Marines • Space Marines (Dark Angels Exempted) |