World Eaters
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{{Chaos Chapters Infobox |title=World Eaters |image=Worldeaters badge.gif |primarch=Angron |battlecry=Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! |colourscheme=Red and Brass }}
The World Eaters are a legion of the Chaos Space Marines in the tabletop wargame Warhammer 40,000. They are worshippers of the god Khorne, and live for nothing more than to spill blood in his name. They are believed to have been the second Legion (the first being the Luna Wolves) who turned to Chaos.
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History
Angron
The infant Primarch Angron, one of the twenty gene-children of the Emperor of Mankind, was discovered on an unnamed planet by a slaver. Finding the child, surrounded by the bodies of many defeated aliens, the slaver tended to his wounds, before having Angron implanted with the bio-neural circuitry used to increase a warrior's aggression and strength and made a gladiator.
After only a few months in the largest arena of the planet's capital, Angron came to be known as a proud warrior of fearsome skill, and quickly became a crowd favourite. He killed hundreds of gladiators, in both single and multiple combats, but spared those who had fought well. Angron was continually plotting ways of escaping the gladiatorial life, although many of the attempts met with failure.
Realising that he couldn't do it alone, Angron began to train several of the gladiators he had spared. His dedication and unbending warrior's code saw that many accepted him as leader. At the height of the largest gladiatorial event on the planet, Angron and his followers turned on the crowd, slaughtering everyone and fighting their way free of the arena. The gladiators managed to escape into the mountains, after claiming as many weapons and supplies as they could.
For several years, the gladiator army was able to hold out, defeating every force that came against them in a display of psychotic, implant-augmented fury. However, attrition was taking its toll, and soon, only a thousand of the original gladiators remained. They prepared themselves for the final battle, as five vastly superior armies surrounded the slaves' camp.
The Emperor
At this time, the Emperor arrived, drawn by the psychic beacon that marked the presence of one of his sons. He had been watching the progress of Angron's army for some time, and was proud of his son's achievements and leadership.
Teleporting to the surface, he offered Angron leadership of the Twelfth Space Marine Legion, the World Eaters. Surprisingly, Angron refused, believing his place was with the army he had created himself, and telling the Emperor that he would die before deserting them. Unwilling to allow a Primarch to be destroyed, the Emperor's ship entered low orbit and teleported Angron aboard just as the battle began. Without their leader, the morale of the slaves was ruined completely, the army destroyed utterly before the end of the morning.
Angron eventually took command of the World Eaters, but never forgave the Emperor for his abduction, and what he saw as a betrayal of martial honour.
The Great Crusade
Knowing firsthand how effective the surgery inflicted on him could be, Angron ordered the Legion's Techmarines to replicate the implants and processes, using himself as a template. After many failures, the Techmarines were able to construct working implants that mimicked Angron's, who then ordered that the entire Legion be modified.
Initially, the enhanced Companies of the World Eaters were highly successful, gaining a reputation as effective terror troops. No mercy was offered by the Legion, and entire systems would surrender unconditionally in attempts to avoid facing the ferocious warriors. Eventually, the Legion's use of implants was discovered, and the Emperor ordered the Angron to stop modifying his soldiers. Unsurprisingly, Angron disobeyed, ordering his Techmarines to continue the surgeries in secret.
Betrayal
As more and more of the Legion was given cranial implants, its soldiers grew in ferocity. Blood rites became common within the Legion, along with competitions revolving around the number of skulls taken in battle. The World Eaters came continually under the Emperor's scrutiny, culminating in the atrocity known as the Cleansing of Ariggata.
The planet of Ariggata, a technologically advanced world that had been isolated from the Imperium during the Age of Strife, refused the Emperor's command to join his empire. When the Imperial envoys sent to parley with the planet's leaders were executed in a brutal act of defiance, the Emperor sent Horus to bring Ariggata into the Imperium's fold.
Horus responded immediately, and was accompanied by the Ultramarines and World Eaters Legions. As tactically brilliant as ever, the Warmaster sent in Angron's troops first, leaving the Ultramarines to garrison the region and his own Legion to share in the glory. The World Eaters performed admirably, taking each city one by one until only one remained standing. This last bastion of resistance, the world's capital, was an immensely fortified fortress, and a full week of orbital bombardment was able to create only a single breach in its walls. Always impatient, Angron poured his troops into the weak point, and many Space Marines were cut down as they charged straight into the teeth of the enemy's defensive guns. Undaunted, the World Eaters ascended a ramp of corpses straight into the citadel, and, once inside, unleashed their fury on the hapless defenders. For a day and a night, the World Eaters rampaged through the fortress, and, when Angron finally led his victorious troops from the conquered city, no one within had been left alive. When the Ultramarines entered to secure the citadel, they were horrified by the sheer scale of the carnage. In one day, the mightiest fortress of Ariggata had become an abattoir, and Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, sought his brothers to reprimand them for their actions.
By this time, however, both Horus and the World Eaters were already far away in the midst of other conquests. When Guilliman was finally able to confront his fellow Primarchs, the Horus Heresy erupted, and the galaxy was plunged into civil war. The Emperor ordered Angron, as well as Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children and Mortarion of the Death Guard, to reason with Horus, who had been corrupted by the powers of Chaos.
Horus was a master psychologist, and sensing Angron's resentment of the Emperor, was able to convince him and his Legion to turn, capitalising on the legion’s ranks of raving warriors and bloody rituals to corrupt them into the worship of Khorne. The fate of the World Eaters was sealed when Scyrak the Slaughterer, a World Eater hero, slew the Chief Librarian of the World Eaters – the last ward against the influences of Chaos. When Horus' betrayal was made public, the World Eaters were the first to side with the Sons of Horus - the reason for Angron switching sides so easily may have been the impending punishment awaiting him from the Emperor for the continued use of cybernetics in his warriors.
Angron approached the imperial palace and shouted to the soldiers of the Imperium that all was lost and that they should surrender. Seeing that they would not give in so quickly Angron returned to his lines and informed the men that they would not give up so they would not leave any alive. Newly blessed with daemonic gifts, Angron and his World Eaters overtook the defenders of Eternity Wall Spaceport, before leading the frontal assault on the Emperor’s Palace. Among those first men in was Khârn, the greatest Champion the Legion has ever seen.
Like the other Traitor Legions, the World Eaters retreated into the Eye of Terror when Horus was defeated, swearing their revenge against the Imperium.
After the Horus Heresy, Angron became a demon prince of Khorne leading his forces into battle with his new form. He commanded the attack that would become the First War of Armageddon (The more well know invasions by the ork warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka being the second and third), but was ultimately beaten by a force of Space Wolves and further banished to The Warp for one thousand years after a battle with two hundred Grey Knights (of which only three survived).
Organisation
The World Eaters venerate the Chaos God Khorne above all. The constant lust for battle and slaughter has made a shambles of the Legion's tactical organisation, and the World Eaters fell apart entirely on the daemon world of Skalathrax, when Khârn the Betrayer, furious at the Legion's retreat from the deadly cold of Skalathrax's night, stalked the battlefield indiscriminately taking skulls from both sides. The World Eaters were reduced to roving bands of fanatical warriors, led by Champions of particular skill and ferocity. The World Eaters will fight for no more than the chance to spill blood, but often neglect to limit their bloodletting to the opposing side of the conflict.
Combat Doctrine
The World Eaters have only one desire, to let blood and collect skulls in the name of Khorne. Members of the Legion are rarely seen carrying anything other than a bolt pistol and a large, brutal chainaxe, although the latter may vary to include any powerful close combat weapon.
Strategy and tactics are forgotten concepts to the Legion; when battle is joined they will rampage across the battlefield in an attempt to get to grips with the enemy as quickly as possible.
Battlecry
"Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!"
Appearance
Prior to the Horus Heresy, the World Eaters wore white and blue armour, with the Legion symbol, a world surrounded by sharp teeth, displayed on their leg armour. Since their corruption by Chaos, the Legion's armour has been blood red, with bronze trim and decorations. The Legion symbol has been modified slightly, either superimposed over the Star of Chaos, or placing the world within the teeth of Khorne's skull.
Background and Character
The backstory of Angron bears some resemblance to historical accounts of the gladiator Spartacus.
Notable Members
- Khârn the Betrayer - chosen of Khorne, he who broke the legion on Skalathrax