[Brobaddon]

Everybody knows Bloodpact, everbody loves them. Even Chaos Astartes respect them. However, how much favour with Khorne can a mortal army receive? I mean, for one they prefer ranged combat over melee, and prefer tactics over mindless charge, even employ stealth and worse of all, gore mages! Is this just a case of outdated fluff or is Khorne just looking through their fingers because they spill a lot of blood? I can't imagine any army would receive khorne's support if they employ psykers. What do you think?

 

[hailene]

I think the image of a mindless horde that's throwing itself at the enemy is an oversimplification of Khornate followers.

Sometimes more blood can be spilled by sound tactics and solid logistics than a simple charge.

 

[Brobaddon]

True. However, this is clearly stated to be a rare exception among khorne followers http://web.archive.org/web/20080928005105/http://www.blacklibrary.com/articles/blood-pact.asp

I mean, Chaos Lords do utilize tactics, but usually those tactics are just a mean to get more quickly to the slaughter, but Blood Pact behave as a proper military does. Traps, officer elimination, proper logicstics, coordination etc. Something rarely seen in khornate cohorts.


And I guess Khorne overlooked the psykers simply because it meant more bloodshed.

 

[Reaper45]

Khorne favors strength over all else.

Worshiping Khorne can turn you into a mindless berserker if you're weak enough to get overwhelmed by what he is.

But if you're strong enough to withstand the effects of what he is then you become something far more powerful.

As for the psykers, Khorne is ok with things like rituals to summon daemons or make people stronger. Or enhancing weapons with warp power.

It's the casting of magic missile or turning people into ants that he hates.

 

[Brobaddon]

It's ironic isn't it? Emperor's well, in this case, Chaos' greatest human champions for the most part are mindless berserkers while blood pact cultists/guardsmen are disciplined soldiers. I think Khorne got it wrong to whom should he hand out his favour, right?.

I guess if Blood Pact were still active nowadays I think they'd get really famous even with wider Chaos faction, perhaps even Abbadon.

We dont know whether Blood pact was completely eradicated or not? Fluff mentions no such thing, and I haven't read the books. Seems kinda wasteful, they seem really cool and unique. Pity they have no tabletop models, and conversion seems pain in the ass.

 

[ckcrawford]

I've always thought that GW had not really hit the nail on what Khorne is really about. The closest I've ever seen to a good analysis of a follower of Khorne is when Corax describes his brothers rage during Istvaan. He described it as "freedom" of the mind and the control the Imperium so desperately tried to control through the Emperor's will.

When I was doing a Khorne war band I was trying to understand what the true meaning of spilling blood was. Death? All the Chaos Pantheon's symbolize death in their own form. Even with this specific war band, it isn't farfetched with old lore actually. There was a time where Khorne legions had machine guns and had canons in the same way that orks did. I think ADB tried to replicate that with the World Eater in his first Black Crusade book. As you recall he had a heavy bolter.

I feel that there is a greater concept of khorne that hasn't really been looked into. I feel like for example with drugs, drugs can make someone lose control and in very rare instances create an artist. In the same way, I think the very easy way to look at Khorne for most followers is to look at it in a dionysian scope. In much like Mars with Achilles where he loses all control. For me its the basic way to deal with the influence of Khorne. On the other hand I do believe there's more of an "apollonian" element to him where only a very few of Khornes worshipers can really understand. The Bloodpact could be very much a war band that stems from something like that.

 

[Brobaddon]

Yes, there are a few contradictions about Khorne. For example, Khorne is supposed to embody martial prowess, warriorhood as well as comradeship that comes with such ideals, such as seen with pre-nails/pre-khornate World Eaters. They were savage and fierce, but they were not mindless and did form battle bonds. The only killing of brothers that happened was in the pit fights, but that was more like a honourable challenge.

Yet Khorne also supposedly doesn't care from where the blood flows, and baits no eyelash when comrades kill each other in order to venerate him, which kinda defeats the warrior's code. I think Blood Pact are embodying him better than most daemonkin warbands, yet being mortals are left out of larger blessings and favours.

 

[Reaper45]

Yes, there are a few contradictions about Khorne. For example, Khorne is supposed to embody martial prowess, warriorhood as well as comradeship that comes with such ideals, such as seen with pre-nails/pre-khornate World Eaters. They were savage and fierce, but they were not mindless and did form battle bonds. The only killing of brothers that happened was in the pit fights, but that was more like a honourable challenge.

Yet Khorne also supposedly doesn't care from where the blood flows, and baits no eyelash when comrades kill each other in order to venerate him, which kinda defeats the warrior's code. I think Blood Pact are embodying him better than most daemonkin warbands, yet being mortals are left out of larger blessings and favours.

I think when they say he doesn't care from whence the blood flows it's not an excuse to just kill your allies.

Sure it's blood that can be spilled but if they work together they can potentially spill even more blood than just one alone.

 

[Squire]

I'm interesting in doing a Khorne daemon/CSM army with World Eaters as the CSM part, and (as opposed to berzerkers) I want a unit of CSM with bolters, BP and CCW and the mark of Khorne, using the FW WE conversion kit for the heads, torsos and shoulder pads. I love ADB's World Eater fluff and in his depiction not everyone is a berzerker. Talon of Horus is a good example- Leorkhan's (?) unit are a devastator squad carrying heavy bolters, for example