This is my fluff for my Chaos Space Marine warband, the Execution Legion. Enjoy!
Execution
"Those that turn from the False Emperor's light will be welcomed to my realm of darkness."
The Executioner
Within the darkest depths of the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath, there lies a lost and forsaken world. Made from black stone, its rugged terrain has long been torn by the fury of the Warp. Built on this bleak world's northernmost point, spanning for miles on end, lies the City of Lost Souls. Situated on a shadowed island amongst the dark sea, the veil of black mist cascades over this dark city, for it has long felt the touch of Chaos.
The city itself is a fortress, carved from stone and metal, and having withstood war for millennia on end. The sunless world of Skarnalax, host of the City of Lost Souls, is the capital of a dark and mighty Chaos Lord. His origins unknown to all but himself, this Lord of shadow has been known only by one name, and one name only, The Executioner.
His origins are shrouded in mystery and lost to time as none, save himself and perhaps the Emperor, know of where he hailed from. Many fearful Cultists and persistent members of the Ordo Hereticus have presented many theories on who the Executioner is. Some say that he is one of the Traitor Legions’ Captains, others persist that he is the unholy son of daemon and man, whereas there are many that claim that he is the incarnation of Darkness itself. Whoever he is though, he has carved his name by blood, steel, and fire.
The daemon world of Skarnalax is enshrouded in darkness, and it was here, upon its blasted and deathly ground that his legend began, 390 years after the Horus Heresy. From the skies of Skarnalax, a great flaming ship descended. Badly damaged and beyond repair, the ship crashed upon Skarnalax, and the Executioner lead his war-band of 10,000 fellow Chaos Space Marines from the wreckage, and through the endless fields of shadows. By bolter and chainsword, they fought their way through onslaughts of daemons and other foul creatures, fell-beings long discarded by humanity.
Battling their way across the wastelands of this hell, they then reached their goal; a site so blasphemous, its true name has been purged from all records, even the Inquisition not knowing the true name of this unholy land. Known only as the Valley of Dark Lords, this area of Skarnalax is host to hundreds of tombs and mausoleums, all erected in the names of many Champions of the Dark Gods, their actions earning them great prestige from their gods during their lifetimes.
With the Grimoire of Damnation in hand, the Executioner broke the dark sorcery that sealed the long-forgotten tombs. Great doors that were locked by magicks that only Tzeentch could know, their chains were broken, the occupants of the graves stirred, awoken after millennia of slumber. Throughout the Valley of Dark Lords, the tombs were opened once more, and the Dark Lords strode the world once more.
The ghoulish beings that were the Dark Lords came to the Executioner and his company, demanding to know how he had found this place. The Executioner simply revealed the Grimoire to the arisen Champions of Chaos.
Recognizing the tome, the Dark Lords welcomed the Executioner to Skarnalax. In private confidence, they taught the Executioner all they knew of the Warp, training him in the ways of the old Chaos Lords. They brought him into the innermost sanctums of their mausoleums, and within, the Executioner found 4 of the remaining 5 Relics of Skarnalax.
Each artifact was made within the heart of the Realms of Chaos, each god pouring terrible and mighty power into the relics. All had been made for the original Dark Lords, and their masters had died with them in hand, only for them to be taken up by new owners. A vicious cycle began, as each master of a Skarnalax Relic reached great ranks in the eyes of the Dark Gods, and they met their downfall, only for their weapon to be taken up by a new master, and these new Champions were trained by their predecessors, until they had trained the predicted Lord of Ending.
Amongst the Six Relics of Skarnalax, there is the Gorefeaster, a Chainaxe whose teeth are the fangs of 888 Fleshounds of the Blood God. The Rot Skull, a virulent artifact blessed by the Plague Father, this fleshless head has been known to bring even the most resilient to their knees from its plagues and diseases. The Grimoire of Damnation is one amongst them as well, its pages hand-written by the Lord of Fate himself. The fourth is the Chain of Intemperance, each link cursed with the Prince of Excess’ touch. Standing at the height of Terminator armor, the Armatus Nox is black and crimson armor hell-forged from obsidian, its wearer all but immortal.
The sixth relic was what the Executioner himself was after though. Through the passages of the Grimoire, he found the final artifact’s resting place, in the hands of the Dark Lord Kazor Goroth, the legendary Warlord of Chaos Undivided. During the days of the Age of Strife, he had lead great legions of men and daemons across the galaxy, burning worlds in the fires of the Warp for the Dark Gods for tenfold thousand years. It was only by the Cabals’ intervention did this Dark Lord finally fall, his body preserved upon the Throne of 10 Thousand Souls.
Across the Seas of Darkness, the Executioner led his band of Traitors into the heart of the City of Lost Souls. At the centre of this city lay the mighty citadel of the Dark Lord, the central keep the host to the Dark Lord’s corpse. The gateway was open, and the Executioner crossed its threshold.
Suspended over a chasm of a fiery pit, a thin bridge lead to the core of the keep. Built upon baroque and forgotten machinery, gears and pistons constantly clicked and whirred, as hellish fires billowed from the large vents. Seated atop this, stood the Throne of 10 Thousand Souls, and seated was the rotten and gutted remnants of Kazor Goroth, the Wrath of Chaos.
Stirred from death, the Dark Lord arose to his feet, the sixth relic still in his hand. Crafted from obsidian harvested from the realm of Khorne, it was then forged upon the sacred Eighth Anvil of Khorne’s forge. Once completed, Nurgle himself took the weapon, and dipped it in his foul cauldron, tainting it with his decaying touch. Tzeentch then took the artifact, binding to it magic from the forbidden line of Necromancy. Slaanesh then cursed the weapon, embedding a sliver of pure silver from his throne, forever granting the nearly completed weapon his touch. The final step was the cruelest, and by far the most important. With their combined might, the Four bound ichor drawn from their veins, and this created the first and only daemon of Chaos Undivided.
Together, they bound the daemon to the weapon, eternally binding the Daemon of Darkness to the blade. Wielded by hundredfold by some of the greatest Champions of Chaos, this black long sword has spilled blood for millennia, and the daemon within it thirsts for vengeance. This dark weapon, the feared Baleshadow, had been clasped firmly in the hands of Kazor Goroth, and now the Executioner sought the blade for himself.
The Executioner then challenged Kazor Goroth, the victor would be the sole master of the Baleshadow. Accepting, their duel ravaged both warriors. The Executioner was an Astartes, but Goroth had been blessed by the Dark Gods, and his body had been mutated and warped, his body kept alive through sheer malice.
For three days they fought. Without rest or time to recover, they fought on, the final blow struck by the Executioner’s hand. With deadly precision, the Chaos Space Marine finally knocked the Baleshadow from Goroth’s hand, and the blade forevermore belonged to him.
With his true death inevitable, Kazor Goroth then kneeled, and he said that the Executioner had to seal his pact to the Baleshadow in the blood of its last owner. With a swift blow, Kazor Goroth, the Red Right Hand of Chaos, forever fell, his body aging to dust.
With the Baleshadow finally his, the Executioner exercised his newly acquired power over Necromancy. Through incredible willpower, he summoned forth over 200,000 Legionnaires of the Traitor Legions from death as well as an entire Titan Legion. Resurrected, the Traitors then began to fight amongst themselves, and this disgusted the Chaos Lord.
With his dark sorcery, he brought himself the wreckage of a long-dead Space Hulk back to full-functionality. The titanic ship began to corrupt and withering daemon flesh and viscera growing to become one with the ship’s iron hull. The hulk then took flight once more, and the Executioner titled it the Carrion Blood.
With a ship at his command, the Executioner lead only a handful of the original 10,000 of his warriors, the remaining 9,700 remaining on Skarnalax to garrison the City of Lost Souls. Before departing, the Executioner sent a telepathic message to the resurrected Traitors; the Executioner would return to Skarnalax with the skull of a Space Marine that commanded 1000 Astartes. When he returned with the skull, all would be offered a choice, swear loyalty to the Executioner upon the skull, or die by his hands.
Their first official Imperial appearance dates to nearly 400 years after the Horus Heresy, on the world of Icarus. The Thunder Fist Chapter had made this world their Fortress-Monastery, and had long been hailed as the vanguards of the galactic north. Yet the Executioner brought down his terrible might, and his blood-spattered legacy began.
Without warning, the Thunder Fists were attacked, their full Chapter called to action. The ferocity and savagery of the Execution Legion was swift, and Icarus was rent and torn by the Executioner. While outnumbered, the Execution Legion was vastly superior in terms of discipline and tactics, as they outflanked the Thunder Fists at every turn, and in the end, the Execution Legion gained numerical superiority.
At the gates of their Fortress-Monastery, the Executioner came forth himself, the Baleshadow in hand. The Chaos Lord bellowed a challenge for any worthy foe, anyone who would dare the wrath of the Executioner. From the Thunder Fists came their Chapter Master, Vicarus came forth, accepting the challenge. With the two mighty warriors face to face, their battle of epic proportions erupted.
Their blows mighty enough to topple mountains, Chapter Master met Chaos Lord in a battle of titanic struggle. Yet, Vicarus was proven to be no match for the Executioner, as he decapitated the Chapter Master for all to bear witness to. With Vicarus' death, the Execution Legion seized the opportunity, and they razed the Thunder Fists from existence. Not one Loyalist survived, and with the skull of a Chapter Master, the Executioner then disappeared into the Warp Storm.
True to his word, the Executioner offered the Chaos Space Marines the decision he promised. From the endless wastelands of Skarnalax, thousands upon thousands of Chaos Space Marines came forth, pledging allegiance to the Executioner for eternity. Those that did not were hunted down and slain.
With a Legion at his command, the Executioner then ordered them all to scorch their armor black, and to paint dark shades of red as well. With their new color scheme, they were united, all of them apart of the new Execution Legion. Their black and red would be the sign of their coming wrath, and by their hands, a million worlds would burn.
He was not seen for decades, until three Chapters at full strength were dispatched to the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath, their mission was to find the Executioner. Storming the City of Lost Souls en masse, they were then struck from below, as the ground beneath their feet gave way, and approximately 2980 Astartes fell into the chasm below, and were never seen again. Only 20 survived, and they reached the gates of the Executioner's citadel.
When they arrived, the Chaos Lord himself approached, offering a challenge to anyone worthy to face him. Three Chapter Masters accepted, and three Chapter Masters were slain by the Executioner's hand. Taking their skulls for himself, the Execution Legion then slew the rest of the Loyalists.
The Executioner remained undisturbed, until the Ork Waaaugh! Warmonga arrived. Led by one of the mightiest Ork Warlords, they fought their way to the Executioner, and the Executioner offered a challenge to Warlord Warmonga. Like the Chapter Masters before, he accepted, and he too was killed by the Executioner. His vast hordes of greenskins were then obliterated, completely wiped from all existence.
For centuries, many races had led campaigns to the City of Lost Souls, all of them ending in victory for the Execution Legion. A splinter of Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan invaded Skarnalax and was completely destroyed, Imperial Guard regiments were dispatched and were killed to a man, and vile Dark Eldar fleets were obliterated. After the Eldar Craftworld of Idaeus entered the Warp Storm and was never seen again, no one, not even Orks, dared to challenge the Executioner.
For a century, the Execution Legion lay dormant, awaiting the day they set forth to burn the galaxy. During the interim, the Executioner went on his pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror, seeking to recruit Chaos Marines into his fold. To do so, he then challenged Champions of the Chaos Gods, and they were quick to fall to his might. With the deaths of Champions, their war bands were assimilated into the Execution Legion.
Whilst his manpower was unlimited, he lacked the ships and munitions to support his legion. Striking a blood-pact with the Revenacht Clan of Hereteks, these Dark Tech-Priests agreed to supply the Execution Legion with all of the weapons, vehicles, ships, and munitions that they would need to operate. To strengthen this deal, the Executioner presented the Revenacht Clan the Chaos Imperator Titan Hammer of Hell, and the Forgeship, Bane of Mars. Using the mobile factory as a forwards headquarters, the Revenacht Clan became able to provide their allies with arms and armor at a much quicker rate.
Tripling his army's size and securing a steady supply of weapons, the Execution Crusade begun, and the Execution Legion began their long and crooked path of death and destruction. At the fore of his crusade, the Executioner wore a bandolier of skulls, the skulls of those he's fought long ago. Their bone visage striking fear into the hearts of his enemies, even the Space Marines feel fear in his presence.
Leaving blood and gore in his wake, the Executioner fought countless foes, and the Chapter Masters that fell to his blade then had their skulls added to his collection. With their deaths, he used his Necromancer powers to bind their souls to their skulls. He then manipulated their souls, until he had created a supernatural field of energy that shielded him from all attacks.
With 10 skulls added, the Executioner and his Legion returned from whence they came, their kills tallying up to the billions. With heavy casualties, the Executioner then perched himself upon his iron throne, waiting for what was to come. The Execution Crusade was what sowed the seeds of power, and only a year after it ended, he reaped the rewards.
Many Chaos war bands came forth, pledging allegiance to the Executioner, Cultists rioted in the name of the Execution Legion, the Warmaster of Chaos, Abbadon the Despoiler, offered the Executioner a place amongst the Black Crusades, and the 4 Gods even offered rewards for the anarchy and strife he had sown.
During this time, the Executioner took it upon himself to vigorously redesign his Legion's high command. Surprisingly, he used the Chapter Astartes as a template, and he assigned the four that would soon become marked as his foremost elite and chosen, the closest advisors to the Chaos Lord. To mark their status, he rewarded them with one of the Skarnalax Relics.
Amongst them was the newly appointed Master of the Chaos Armory and keeper of the Rot Skull, the Warpsmith Caros Fein, Chieftain of the Revenacht Clan. His every fiber thick with filth and decay, the Nurglite Tech-Priest was proven to be the foremost in his field, a point proven undeniable by his greatest curse in his arsenal, the Machine Virus. His ability to rot anything mechanical with so much as a twist of his gnarled hands was proven to be instrumental in many battles. First distinguishing himself on the battlefield, Fein had been able to pilot the sole Imperator Titan of the Execution Legion, The Hammer of Hell. This and his Machine Virus ability have proven to be key in the Executioner selecting him.
To fill the role of Lord Sorcerer, the Executioner chose his greatest psyker, the Crimson Nightmare Kron of the Thousand Sons. A former student of the infamous Ahriman, Kron had been taught in the ways of Tzeentch, the God of Fate and Magic. However, what set Kron apart was the potency of his mind, as seldom few are as skilled as him. When the Executioner offered the challenge to his Sorcerers to determine ownership of the Grimoire of Damnation, Kron was the only Sorcerer to survive reading its pages, and so the tome became his.
Serving his Lord as the High Dark Apostle, the infamous Kor Cerberus has long been a servant of the Blood God through his time on the damned world of New Badab. While he is perhaps one of Khorne's greatest mortal Champions, Cerberus still maintains a level of sanity, and so he is still capable of reciting the Eight-Fold Rites set by Khorne. However, if words fail, then he will gladly settle the matter with his Chainaxe, and his terrible wrath, His oratory skills are miraculously retained, and so he can convert entire Imperial regiments, but when all else fails, he will let loose his bloodthirsty wrath with the Gorefeaster.
To lead the Apothecaries, the Executioner chose a partial clone of the dreaded Fabius Bile, the servant of the Dark Prince Astaroth of the Emperor’s Children. During his long service as the Executioner's Apothecary, Astaroth was severely injured from a Thunderfire shell, and a deal with Bile made sure that Astaroth survived. To restore the lost body tissue, Bile cloned his own DNA, and so Astaroth became a half-clone of sorts, his survival costing nearly all sense of feeling. While he seeks no pleasure or excess, Astaroth longs to feel once more, and the Dark Prince is the only one who can give it to him through the Chain of Intemperance.
Once the Executioner had finished selecting his high command, he then strove on to select the 30 foremost Lords that had served the Executioner for centuries. The 30 then became the Hell Lords, the leaders of the Covens of the Legion.
Once he had finished reorganizing his Legion, the Executioner then responded to the Warmaster's call for the 10th Black Crusade. While Abbadon's offer was indeed tempting, the Executioner would not kneel to any other, not even the Warmaster of Chaos. However, the Execution Legion was still bloodthirsty from their Crusade, and the threat of the Legion tearing itself to shreds from within hung in the air.
For the purpose of conquest, the Executioner accepted under the condition that when the Black Crusade ended, that the Execution Legion would return to being an independent Force of Chaos. Agreeing to this, the call of the Tenth Black Crusade was out, and soon, countless Chaos Marines strode forth from the Eye of Terror, burning the galaxy in every step they took.
For years the Crusade wore on, and soon the Imperial forces on Cadia counterattacked, and the Black Crusade ended. Having gained much in the Crusade, the Executioner then ordered the return to Skarnalax. While the Execution Legion had sustained casualties, they were quick to recover. With a large number of Cultists, the Executioner began the Night of Blood.
To the Executioner, Cultists were nothing compared to his Execution Legion. While they had proved useful in the Crusade, their worth had diminished, and it was time for the Execution Legion to "trim the fat." In a single night, the Execution Legion brutally murdered the Cultists that had chosen to follow the Executioner. Millions were killed, their blood running in rivers along the dark ground, and their mangled corpses piled high. Burning them on the Death Pyres, the Executioner felt neither pity, nor no remorse over killing the Cultists. They were simply a rotted limb that had outlived its use, and it had been time to remove it.
With the deaths of the Cultists, their souls were harvested, and the Executioner offered these souls to the Chaos Gods at the price of the 4 to keep all Legionnaires of the Execution Legion upon the Materium, even after death. Sealed in blood, the Execution Legionnaires thus became unable to truly die. Every death was undone in the Pit of Shadow, as they arose once more in flesh, mind, and spirit.
With the souls of his sons secured, the Executioner then invited the Hell Lords to the throneroom. Once assembled, he offered them the opportunity to join the ranks of Daemon Princes, to become truly immortal beings of infinite might. To achieve such a boon though, the Executioner declared that only those that completely crushed a Space Marine Chapter and brought the skull of their Chapter Master to his feet.
At this time, reports of many ships and small fleets in the area increased, as each Hell Lord took with him a band of warriors, eager on claiming a Chapter Master’s skull. For 10 long years, the Hell Lords fought, each one bringing the Angels of Death low. Several Chapters were completely obliterated, and only 13 Hell Lords returned. Bloodied and carved in hundreds of scars, they brought the Executioner their skulls.
The Executioner then arose to his feet, and bade them worthy of the ascension. He then brought them into the darkest dungeons of the fortress, buried deep in the rotted flesh of Skarnalax. Within these dark rooms, he then revealed a sacrificial altar, emblazoned with the Star of Chaos.
To ascend, they had to be sacrificed to the Dark Gods. Only through that would they be worthy to become Daemon Princes. The 13 Hell Lords were then killed, their blood running along the onyx floors of the dungeons. With them dead, Astaroth dispensed a vile concoction he had worked on for a decade. This was no ordinary narcotic, for it was crafted from the bile and blood of a thousand daemons. Forever apart of the Hell Lords, the first step was completed.
Caros Fein then revealed his greatest work, as hundreds of gears and servos whirred and clicked. Electricity crackled as daemonic machinery came to life, their mechanisms rending reality asunder. The fragile boundaries between realities warped and seethed, and the Chaos Engine opened up a rift into the inner Realms of Chaos.
Opening his unholy tome written by Lorgar himself, Cerberus read aloud the blasphemous litanies within. Every syllable he spoke was a song to the Chaos Gods, his words a hymn to the Four Ruinous Powers. He consorted with the gods, demanding that they resurrect their sacrificed champions, and to grant them the gifts of the Daemon Prince.
And the Four Dark Gods answered.
Summoning the full might of his power, Kron then sensed the presence of the souls of the 13 Hell Lords within purgatory. Probing the depths of the Warp, he summoned forth the foul energies the Dark Gods offered. With this
raw power, he bound it to the souls of the Hell Lords, forevermore reforging them into Daemon Princes of Chaos.
With a great howl that resonated throughout the City of Lost Souls, flesh was seared from bone, only to regenerate tenfold stronger than before. Daemonic growth occurred, as each Hell Lord had malicious and dark life breathed into them, and from that moment on, no man, no xeno, and no daemon could ever undo what had been done that night. The Hell Lords had cast aside their mortal bodies, they would be the Daemon Princes that would serve the Execution Legion forevermore.
Once the ritual was completed, the Executioner granted his mightiest Hell Lord, Skorath the Executioner’s Herald, the enigmatic Armatus Nox. The remaining 12 were regarded with high esteem, and thus he gave them hell-forged daemon weapons straight from the Forge of Souls.
With the Hell Lords empowered and his Legion haven resurrected all of its fallen warriors, the Executioner made a general broadcast to the whole of Skarnalax; it was the time of the End of Days, when the God of Darkness would finally enslave the galaxy to his will. The Execution Legion would be there, serve as his immortal Legion, his unbreakable soldiers.
It was time to end all of the Emperor’s works.
To spread out the amount of terror and slaughter unleashed by his Legion over a larger area, the Executioner then proclaimed that save the Thirteenth Coven, the remaining 12 would be under the complete control of their respective Hell Lords, and each Hell Lord would be allowed to operate as he pleased, but he is to do so in the name of the Executioner, and that once every 100 years, the Legion would return to Skarnalax to rearm and resupply.
While the Execution Legion's 13 Covens are thinly scattered across the stars, they are all a force to be reckoned with. Each Coven has their own agenda, each Hell Lord choosing his own blood-spattered path. While the Hell Lords operate as they please, their loyalty to the Executioner is unbreakable. Should the Executioner call for any of the Covens, they will answer.
With the number of Astartes marching under the Executioner's banner growing higher, the Covens are more spread out than ever before, thousands upon thousands of light-years between Covens. While they are scattered, it is believed that should Abbadon and the Black Legion finally cleave Cadia, and that if Huron leads his renegades from the Maelstrom, then the Executioner will call out to his Hell Lords, and the whole of the Execution Legion will be united as a single force once more.
FTW 