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Hi guys!

So I've been considering getting a small chaos space marine going to compliment my blood angels army.

I've always imagined CSM as brutal and bloody. Outside of the main chaos God worshipping legions, who would you guys say is the most brutal in terms of terrifying and violent. That legion that would hang you by the guts or torture you and stuff. I want to be able to replicate that sort of feel with my army to make it as rates R as possible.

Dark Angels.....

The Night Lords surely. They are a traitor legion merely because they did not buy into the idea of the Imperium, and actually distain the Ruinous Powers (do not really worship them at all).

Their Primarch used the most cruel and brutal methods of execution to break the will of his home planet's populace into compliance out of sheer terror and fear. Their philosophy can be summed by in reference to the Joker when he said "Some people just want to watch the world burn." Their brutality is highly psychological in nature, using hit and run tactics (and I suppose would be the Chaos equal to the White Scars?)

I'd like to hear what others' opinions are of this topic too.

Night Lords. They are edgy incarnate.

World Eaters for straight-up craziness in combat.

Night Lords for all around brutality.

Definitely Night Lords. They're complete terrorists. They'll decimate countless civilians just to spread fear and kill.

Your Blood Angels and the Night Lords are both first founding chapters, so there's tons of background for them to compliment each other pretty well. They both seem pretty close combat oriented so you can look forward to a lot of brawls if you decide to play that way. And the Night Lords are so brutal if you cover them in gore match the Blood Angels in some twisted way... that'd be kind of awesome actually. As if they're mocking the Blood Angels or something stupidly awesome like that.

Sons of Malice, if they are still a thing.

Night Lords.

Dark Angels / Night Lords

Night lords... Maybe world eaters....

Yes, I also agree on Night Lords. They're all about brutality for its own sake, that and being "right" no matter what.

They have a penchant to to flay their victims and wear their skin, among other things.

Also, they do have some background with the Blood Angels. Soul Hunter by ADB features this heavily if you want some back story, though it's more opposing than as allies.

In terms of being terrifying? Emperor's Children (nobody wants to get fisted by a Power Fist)
In terms of violence? World Eaters. They worship the God of violence, their Primarch's name is ENGREH. The World Eaters have always the most insanely (literally) violent of any Legion.
In terms of brutality? Night Lords, hands down, for all of the reasons mentioned above.

Word Bearers.

Nothing represents unadulterated brutality like the stuff the Word Bearers are capable of. The World Eaters are just frothing berserkers. The Night Lords are just psychopaths with a love of violence. But the Word Bearers are pure unadulterated evil. They serve at the whims of the most evil beings in the galaxy.

At best, you can look forward to being dehumanized and enslaved, stripped of your freedom and dignity as you descend into a life of horrid violence and numbing pain. At worst, you don't even want to imagine. They will maim your flesh, desecrate your body, and torture your very soul, until nothing of you remains but a shallow husk ready to be offered up to hungry gods.

If Earth was invaded by a warband of Chaos Space Marines, I'd take World Eaters or Night Lords over the Word Bearers any day of the week.

 Darth Bob wrote:


At best, you can look forward to being dehumanized and enslaved, stripped of your freedom and dignity as you descend into a life of horrid violence and numbing pain. At worst, you don't even want to imagine. They will maim your flesh, desecrate your body, and torture your very soul, until nothing of you remains but a shallow husk ready to be offered up to hungry gods.

This description could be applied to most of the Chaos Legions.

If you asked a world eater why he tortures someone he'd say he knows nothing else.
If you asked a word bearer why, he'd say because the gods will it / hes gratifying said gods.
If you asked a night lord, he'd say he enjoys it.

So night lords for me.

kaszak wrote:
Sons of Malice, if they are still a thing.

They are.
They also still eat people alive. Cheerful lot.

The sons of malice, so hardcore chaos that they even fight the other chaos gods, and traitor marines and loyalists alike. They also have their own renegade chaos god, who doesnt even get along with the other 4, and eats their prisoners alive.

And they have all made a vow of silence. Can it get any better?

The night lords seems petty terrorists in comparison, atheistic scare tactics are nothing compared to the Sons of Malices plans to awaken their own god to lead them on their crusade.

I would have to agree with Word Bearers and/or Night Lords.


All of the other "brutal" legions mentioned so far have given over to worshiping one God over another (EC worship Slaanesh, WE worship Khorne)

Word Bearers, in all the books I've read with them, do not come to a planet to exterminate. They come seeking sacrifices and offerings to the gods. Their taken slaves are worked to death, and those that survive and strapped to whatever sacrificial thing is used to summon a powerful being.

NL, is a bit tougher, because as mentioned, they don't actually worship Chaos Gods, but they are still quite nasty fellows.

I would say the night lords as well

Oooooh yes the Sons of Malice! How I miss them. I mean who else chains up daemons and force said daemons to fight for their cause? And also delights in taking away from said daemons their purpose? Aside from those BDSM loving inquisitors.

 King Pariah wrote:
I mean who else chains up daemons and force said daemons to fight for their cause?

A huge swathe of Chaos followers do this from original traitor legions down to random renegade rogue psykers. It's really not that special and neither are the Sons of the Hipster god.

Crimson slaughter are a pretty scary lot killing for the sake of stopping the voices in their heads telling them to kill more seems pretty tasty, would also be a good colour combo with blood angels.

 Ratius wrote:
If you asked a world eater why he tortures someone he'd say he knows nothing else.
If you asked a word bearer why, he'd say because the gods will it / hes gratifying said gods.
If you asked a night lord, he'd say he enjoys it.

So night lords for me.

And an Emperor's Children guy would tell you that it's just what gets him off, and go on a crazy rant about how chainfisting someone's urethra is the most perfect and beautiful act in the universe etc.

The Night Lords torture people to scare the population, to spread terror and to reach a goal, so expect to be flayed alive while your screams are broadcast across the planet, but it has to be done relatively fast (considering the NL's Hit&Run tactics etc that require some speed and efficiency). The Emp's Children will bring you along on their space ship and keep you alive for as long as they are amused, and your screams aren't used as a tool of war but of pleasure, and will thus be extended for a looooong time.

I'll go for the EC, followed by the Night Lords. The Iron Warriors can be pretty brutal too, just read up on the Daemonculaba.

regarding the night lords their motive varies from war band to war band, some night lords see terror as the goal in and of itself while others see terror as a weapon they use to acquire their goals(survival, destroying the imperiem, eg)
that said pretty much all night lords will skin and crucify you as soon as you stop being useful

Night Lords or Emperor's Children are the ones you really don't want to be captured by.

Neither exist as a unified legion anymore, so there are lots of warbands that are affiliated with them.

I feel the Word Bearers are pure unadulterated evil. As mentioned above, I'd rather be captured by the Night Lords before the Word Bearers or Emperor's Children.

The Night Lords may make your family wear you then make your house wear your family, but aside from a gruesome, dehumanizing (hopefully quick) death, you're pretty much over it.

At some point I can't comprehend what the Emperor's Children would do. But I'm sure it involves a lot of deep breaths and uncomfortable pinches before you're ground up and snorted, most likely while some how still living... It's a lifestyle I just wouldn't wanna be apart of if I'm on any of the receiving ends.

 damattybear wrote:


At some point I can't comprehend what the Emperor's Children would do.

Thing is... and it's the same with EVERY example with the Emperor's Children... EC legion/warbands are NOT Undivided.... they are pretty much purely Slaanesh, and thus shouldn't really even be part of the discussion.


Thinking of people who are undivided, we obviously all agree being captured by the Word Bearers would be no bueno. But I am thinking of who else would fit that bill...


Iron Warriors, IMO wouldn't be that "bad" all things considered... you may be enslaved, but you'd most likely end up doing the same thing loyal guardsmen do: slaving away, dragging artillery shells around to feed the guns and the like. If they are feeling sciencey, the IW may infect you with a techno virus, but that's about all I can think of.

Night Lords, I think we've discussed fairly well, would be bad, and some warbands worse than others.

Alpha Legion... meh, again, I can't really think of any place in fluff where they are particularly bad, especially as there are "rumors" that they are really double agents or whatever.

Black Legion. Ehh, that could be bad. You may be enslaved and sacrificed to the Dark Gods, but I don't think it'd be as crappy as if it were those maroon zealots

World Eaters, EC, Death Guard, 1k Sons are all pretty much monotheists, so don't count for this discussion.


Beyond them, I'm really kind of struggling to come up with another undivided group out there