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Is every single one of the old world eaters legion a khorne berserker now? or are the factions of the legion that aren't on a constant psychopathic berserker frenzy?

Strictly speaking, no, since some of them wear Terminator armour and some of them are Lords. >.>

In a spiritual sense, probably. By the time of the Heresy, pretty much only the handful of surviving Librarians weren't implanted with Nails, and it doesn't seem like any survived the end of the Scouring. Any World Eater that served during the Heresy is probably Nails-lost murderfrenzied and afterwards, I find it unlikely they'd be doing much, if any, implanted recruitment.

I think plausibiity of premise requires that some of the World Eaters are capable of a modicum of rational thought, rather than living on the aforementioned constant psychopathic berserker frenzy. I think it's one of those problems of perception. The only World Eaters we, the audience, get to really see are the berserkers, so we assume that they're all like that, because it's the only observation we've been able to make. Personally, I think there are some who are capable of seeing through the fog of hate to make rational plans and to act in accordance with some brand of cruel and sadistic sense. I think that they fight like all the others, though, which is why most people don't realize that those World Eaters exist.

I think that, while the vast majority of the World Eaters are indeed ravening murderous psychopaths incapable of reason or thought, there remain a few for whom the psychotic bloodshed is not unreasoning violence, but a carefully thought out and very effective battle plan. These are the World Eaters who understood the master strategy of Angron.

 Jimsolo wrote:
I always thought that Angron was secretly the smartest of the Primarchs. It isn't spelled out anywhere, it's just my own private assessment.

See, I always thought the Primarchs were supposed to be, in addition to super-strong, super-smart. Capable of tactical reasoning and planning dozens of moves in advance, which explains part of why they were so successful. (And part of why their wars with each other were so bloody.)

One of the biggest dangers a Primarch could face would be another Primarch, capable of seeing through his brother's strategy. But Angron has the way around that.

If you attack your enemy hard enough, fast enough, and with enough raw, brutal aggression, then he will have to abandon whatever plans he has in motion and respond in kind. When you take it to the kill-or-be-killed level, and his only possible escape is to kill you first, then you have forced him to fight using your strategy. And, if you've been doing this for as long as Angron has, then the advantage is yours, since you are a master with this tactic and he but a novice.

Some people see Angron as nothing more than a raging, foolish brute, but I posit that he has found a genius of simplicity that has worked out pretty well for him so far.

I think my opinion on Angron can easily apply to the best and brightest of his legion, but again, it's just my opinion. And it isn't a popular one, so take that for what it's worth.

The Butcher's Nails don't render you mindless, they are entirely capable of rational thought outside of and, occasionally, inside of battle.

 Jimsolo wrote:
I always thought that Angron was secretly the smartest of the Primarchs. It isn't spelled out anywhere, it's just my own private assessment.

See, I always thought the Primarchs were supposed to be, in addition to super-strong, super-smart. Capable of tactical reasoning and planning dozens of moves in advance, which explains part of why they were so successful. (And part of why their wars with each other were so bloody.)

One of the biggest dangers a Primarch could face would be another Primarch, capable of seeing through his brother's strategy. But Angron has the way around that.

If you attack your enemy hard enough, fast enough, and with enough raw, brutal aggression, then he will have to abandon whatever plans he has in motion and respond in kind. When you take it to the kill-or-be-killed level, and his only possible escape is to kill you first, then you have forced him to fight using your strategy. And, if you've been doing this for as long as Angron has, then the advantage is yours, since you are a master with this tactic and he but a novice.

Some people see Angron as nothing more than a raging, foolish brute, but I posit that he has found a genius of simplicity that has worked out pretty well for him so far.

 Jimsolo wrote:
I think my opinion on Angron can easily apply to the best and brightest of his legion, but again, it's just my opinion. And it isn't a popular one, so take that for what it's worth.

It not so much that it "isn't a popular one [opinion]". It more that it is horribly misguided. For starters the World Eaters were strugling against the Auretian Technocracy in False Gods. JNot only did they not have a Primarch but were not using Astartes. In Angel Exterminatus it is remarked that if Horus would have commited the World Eaters sooner, he would have saved on the butcher's bill. At least for the Sons of Horus. Then in Galaxy in Flames you have Angron himself being repelled multiple times by the loyal Emperor's Children. Again you have a force with no primarch defeating Angron playing his game. Again on Armatura in Betrayer we see the same thing again. An outnumbered force with no Primarch devistating the World Eaters. The only things that carried Angron through these fights to victory was other forces helping him. That is not the makings of "secretly the smartest of the Primarchs". Other Primarchs use the same tactic and achieve better victories. Where as Angron just kind of throws men at his problems hoping he has enough to win.

We have had several stories of world eaters interacting with other legionaries, this leads me to believe that they are not always running around trying to kill something.

The audio book perfection shows us bezerkers parlaying with emperors children

Personally I liked Khorne more when they emphasised the martial skill and honor aspects as much as the rage.

Now it's all 14 year old angry red marines.

MarsNZ wrote:
Personally I liked Khorne more when they emphasised the martial skill and honor aspects as much as the rage.

Now it's all 14 year old angry red marines.

The Chaos Gods are raw emotion given sentience and strength. Khorne is a being of pure refined rage and bloodlust. If you're so angry that you do nothing but kill, how much honor can you be expected to have?

And just because the characters aren't honorable doesn't mean they can't be written with any less depth. With Khorne, it's a constant struggle against the temptations of pleasure and happiness (Slaanesh). Khorne Berzerkers are men who were so filled with bitterness and hatred that they chose inflicting more suffering on the world over unending pleasure.

The Legion of the Damned from BL tells about a Blood Crusade (cholercaust) led by World Eaters. Granted its mostly a bunch of khorne worshippers following a comet, but that forces multiple chapters(including GK) to form a blockade. To me this shows the WE have some semblance of organization.

In other words, yes I think all WE are berzerkers now, but they can still make decisions and not just go Rip and Tear 24/7.

MarsNZ wrote:
Personally I liked Khorne more when they emphasised the martial skill and honor aspects as much as the rage.

Now it's all 14 year old angry red marines.

I do not agree with that.
In the Angron BL book, you have insight on the WE legion, and most of the guys seems like normal persons when the butcher's nails do not "take them". It is the exact expression, meaning that they lose control somehow. Which in turn means that they are normal at some other (albeit sometime restricted) times.

In the book, Kharne seems like a swell guy outside of the battle rage.

MarsNZ wrote:
Personally I liked Khorne more when they emphasised the martial skill and honor aspects as much as the rage.

Now it's all 14 year old angry red marines.

Even historically, this was only a small aspect of some of his Champions, not of the Blood God himself. Khorne encompasses bloodshed and slaughter in all of its forms, which is warfare boiled down to its most primal components. He has a sense of martial pride, of course, which is why the "prancing fopperies" of Slaanesh offend him so greatly (and, historically, one could not have a combined Khorne/Slaanesh army at all, nor could one combine Tzeentch/Nurgle), but he truly does not care from whence the blood comes, only that people are killing and dying in his name.

I'd have said Zhufor was one of the WE that still had tactical sense but then i remembered he isn't exactly from the WE legion