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that are not blood thirsty maniacs like the bloodbound seem to be?
i seem to remember historically that soldiers, generals etc could all fall in to worshiping khorne as khorne is the aspect of battle.
is this still true?

i'd like to run a version of khorne where the followers are not mindless blood blood and more blood maniacs but rather just skilled in the art of war.

any thoughts?

I think I would start by looking at the Slaves to Darkness faction - they can all be given the Khorne Keyword. You can then add 'traditional' Bloodbound models to taste, veering away from the likes of the Blood Warriors and Wrathmongers. An Exalted Deathbringer might be a good place to start and even, funnily enough, a Slaughterpriest.

Yes, they do exist. In fact it seems like non-crazy Khorne leaders aren't uncommon at all. Unfortunately you really need to get into the novels to see this. Something that seems to happen a lot is that the leader, his lieutenants, and the elite core of his army have their heads screwed on the right way while the general rabble are varying degrees of crazy.

GW doesn't write Khornate characters who aren't blood-crazed maniacs anymore, see http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization for a more elaborate description of the concept. You're free to write your own Khornate characters however you'd like.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
that are not blood thirsty maniacs like the bloodbound seem to be?
i seem to remember historically that soldiers, generals etc could all fall in to worshiping khorne as khorne is the aspect of battle.
is this still true?

i'd like to run a version of khorne where the followers are not mindless blood blood and more blood maniacs but rather just skilled in the art of war.

any thoughts?

One of the few things I've liked about Age of Sigmar is Khorgos Khul, precisely because his backstory brings up what you mention. He's a champion of Khorne, who's won countless victories across the Realm of Fire to earn his Gods favor, all while clinging to his own, twisted warrior's code. However, to achieve the victories he needs to ascend to Daemonhood, he's had to increasignly compromise that martial code, supplementing his army of Blood Warriors and Skullreapers with throngs of distasteful berserkers like the cannibalistic Bloodreavers, and monstrous, madness-inducing Wrathmongers - the former of which now make up the majority of his nation-horde.

He's NOT happy about this situation, but he's forced to use them, because he's afraid that without their strength, he'll lose Khorne's favor.

Mangod makes an excellent point - in the fluff they make a point that the Blood Reaver's cannibalism makes them disgusting and lower class even to other warriors of Khorne.

In turn, I would point to implied truth's about the Bloodbound that we can infer from the products made for them, and how they are depicted in the fluff.

First, they've made a *lot* of fortresses. The blood keeps are described as being made from the weapons and armor of whole civilizations, that have been melted down into brass sheets and beaten into the forms of the towers and defensive walls. This implies construction, planning, engineering, a project to collect and sort the weapons, armor, skulls, etc, that become the fortresses. It also means they must have a lot of downtime within which to build these things.

Second, if they're not cannibals, they're eating normal food. This implies farming and animal husbandry is taking place somewhere - perhaps that's where all of the women are? Even if we presume the warlords use slave or indentured labor from conquered realms, this still implies a level of non-frenzied coordination. And, if humans keep existing to swell the ranks of the Bloodbound armies, someone somewhere is raising children.

Third, we know that in the wake of the total Chaos victories in realms like Aqshy, the Bloodbound were left with next to nothing to do, and took to fighting one another. This plays out in arena fights, as depicted in the Gorechosen board game. But, the arena fights appear to be battles between champions - the bulk of human life in the Chaos realms are presumably living non-frenzied lives, albeit in a civilization dedicated to an objectively evil deity.

I kind of wish GW would tap into this... it would be novel for the Stormcast to battle their way into a Khorne fortress city, only to find it populated with women and children, working the granaries and abattoirs that feed the Bloodbound armies. Especially since, in a culture worshipping Khorne, I imagine every one of them, man, woman, and child, would pick up the nearest implement of harm and throw themselves at the Stormcast for the glory of the blood god.

Oggthrok wrote:
Mangod makes an excellent point - in the fluff they make a point that the Blood Reaver's cannibalism makes them disgusting and lower class even to other warriors of Khorne.

Even evil has standards, as TV Tropes puts it. But yeah, if OP wants to make a Khorne army that isn't just "blood thirsty maniacs" then s/he can just skip out on Bloodreavers and Wrathmongers.

Oggthrok wrote:
Second, if they're not cannibals, they're eating normal food. This implies farming and animal husbandry is taking place somewhere - perhaps that's where all of the women are? Even if we presume the warlords use slave or indentured labor from conquered realms, this still implies a level of non-frenzied coordination. And, if humans keep existing to swell the ranks of the Bloodbound armies, someone somewhere is raising children.

I've kind of assumed that the Bloodbound are nomadic in nature. They don't seem like the type to just sit still in one place and wait for the enemy to come to them - I'd expect them to toss anything they need to bring with them (forges, foodstuffs, water, tents, firewood, etc) onto some blood-and-s**t smelling cart, lash the slaves to the front of it, and haul it with them from one battlefield to the next, hunting game and picking up roots, mushrooms and anything else along the way, when they aren't just eating whatever food they take from their conquered enemies. It just makes more sense to me than the servants of the Blood God using plowshares - too much work without the immediate reward that you get from skewering a fire-gazelle or something

Oggthrok wrote:
I kind of wish GW would tap into this... it would be novel for the Stormcast to battle their way into a Khorne fortress city, only to find it populated with women and children, working the granaries and abattoirs that feed the Bloodbound armies. Especially since, in a culture worshipping Khorne, I imagine every one of them, man, woman, and child, would pick up the nearest implement of harm and throw themselves at the Stormcast for the glory of the blood god.

That'd make a very interesting story, actually. Poor Imperatus, Paladin of Sigmar, looking down at the 9 year old girl trying to dig out his left shinbone with a rusted knife she picked up when the SE's breached the Crimson Fortress' gate, completely bewildered at what he's even supposed to do in this situation.

id love to read that story too... the horror of having to fight women and children... good times good times... =P

snyone familiar with wrath of kings pelegrath?
i was thinking of using some as wrathmongers. i wonder how that conversion could work?

While not stated anywhere there is a lot of circumstantial evidence that favored chaos warriors of any sort (pretty much any 3+ wound models) are sustained simply by the chaotic energies they are infused with and may not even need sleep. Certainly this is the case for the leaders at least, otherwise a large number of events wouldn't make much sense (how often have you read 'they fought for X days and nights' for example).

To elaborate on the civilization building, the followers of Khorne have been noted a number of times to make use of slave labor (not all of it human), and the basic recruitment for proper bloodbound seems to come in the form of bloodreavers who have their own nomadic clans. I don't think there's ever any mention of bloodreavers having their own settlements or forts--they are only found in such places when they are controlled by actual bloodbound. Going back to the building part, note that the Skullgrinders make weapons and various implements when outside of combat, and that daemonic energies can spontaneously create armor on a man, or thrust a fortress up from the ground. GW seems to have left room for multiple options when creating ones own Bloodbound force. Its simply unfortunate that so much of this depth is pushed to the sidelines.

I'm currently collecting a force of Khorne worshippers. Half are Khorne Bloodbound and are messed up freaks, lead by an honourable warrior who's been screwed over in a deal with Khorne to do heinous things for him, the other half are warriors of chaos, led by a traitor Stormcast Eternal; his lot are fighting for the people who died after the world blew up (their families and loved ones' souls being eaten by the Death dudes). They've sided with Khorne for the vengeance through bloody combat against Sigmar for letting it all happen.

I'd say that followers of Khorne can go from either end of the spectrum haha. Just all the recent fluff has been on the crazy "blood, blood, blood, skulls, skulls, skulls!!!" side