Beasts of Chaos

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Beasts of Chaos
Brayherd 01.png
Herd of Gor-kin
Grand alliance Chaos
Associated factions Brayherds
Monsters of Chaos
Thunderscorn
Warherds
Main grouping Greatfray
Major characters Ghosteater
Races Bullgor
Centigor
Curs'd Ettin
Cygor
Dragon Ogor
Gargant
Ghorgon
Gor
Skin Wolf
Tzaangor
Ungor
Mounts Chaos War Mammoth
Disc of Tzeentch
Vehicles Tuskgor Chariot
Creatures Chaos Warhound
Chaos Spawn
Chimera
Cockatrice
Harpy
Jabberslythe
Mutalith Vortex Beast
Preyton
Razorgor
Slaughterbrute
Tuskgor
Warpfire Dragon
Spell lores Lore of the Twisted Wilds
Lore of Dark Storms
Endless spells Doomblast Dirgehorn
Ravening Direflock
Wildfire Taurus
Warbands Grashrak's Despoilers

The Beasts of Chaos are unique amongst the followers of the Dark Gods for they are not enslaved to their will, nor is their strength gifted to them by those gods. Instead, the Beasts of Chaos are nothing less than the physical manifestation of Chaos. Fighting against them is fighting against anarchy and ferocity, it is attempting to stop the coming of a primal epoch in which every concepts upon which civilisations are built are mere legends in some forgotten tomes.[1a] Indeed the Beasts of Chaos ultimately seek to merge the Mortal Realms and the Realm of Chaos, thus creating an existence of primal wilderness where gods, worlds and beasts are all part of a single anarchic whole in which order is null.[1b]

Nature

Beasts of Chaos are the malformed progeny of the Chaos Gods in the Mortal Realms. While varied in appearance all are ferocious in nature, some have the strength of a beast with the base cunning of a human while others are mindless conglomerates of maws, horns and other appendages. The most numerous are beastmen and bullgors, known as gor-kin with powerful animalistic legs, a muscular humanoid torso and a bestial head to even stranger cephalopodic limbs or the heads of spined mantises, and there are even accounts of fish-headed gors and shark-like bullgors that live deep beneath the seas. [1b] In each realmsphere, the wildest life mirrors the elements of its magic drenched landscapes. The transmutative properties of each realmsphere impacts the Beasts of Chaos more than most since they are a gruesome fusion of warping energy and the primal stuff of the realm they inhabit.[1c] As such, the Beasts of Chaos are a dark reflection of the denizens of the Mortal Realms, a horrific mockery of their very existence.[1c]

All Beasts of Chaos are savage and are driven by twisted instinct and a primal desire to slaughter and despoil but gor and bullgor breeds and the Thunderscorn beastherds also possess intelligence and reasoning ability but most are limited to the extent of enacting ruin upon the realms. Though their primal motives often align, the Beasts of Chaos are different from the servants of the Chaos gods as unlike those god-following daemons and mortals the Beasts of Chaos are not beholden to deities, and only entreat with them on rare occasions. Instead, they seek to blend the Mortal Realms and the Realm of Chaos into a single anarchic whole, eroding all divisions until all of existence is reduced to a lawless primordial wilderness.[1b]

The Beasts of Chaos gather in enormous tribal groups known as Greatfrays consisting of hundreds of savage groups called beastherds. The greatest Greatfrays are as old as the realms themselves, and are spread out over vast regions that would even dwarf mighty empires. [1b]

Origins

The exact origin of the Beasts of Chaos remains a mystery but several theories have been made.[1c]

Legend of the Alpha Progenitor

One school of thought recorded in the tusk-glyphs of the Prowling Valleys of Ghur states that every Chaos-twisted creature is a descendant of a single beast that was spawned into existence during the first warping stream seeped into the wilderness of the realm and the monstrous offsrping of this creature created the first Greatfray. While the fate of this first beast is not recorded as most of the arrayed tusks have been shattered some Ghurish tribespeople say the creature still roams their realm similar to a colossal godbeasts or the ever-hungering Ravenak. Many beastherds worship this mythical figure, calling it the Gorfather, Sire of Ruin and countless other names.[1c]

Fable of the Warping Wilds

According to this theory Beasts of Chaos were once natural creatures that were transfigured after the corruptions of Chaos began to bleed into existence. Before Sigmar was awakened indigenous tribes were guided by primitive superstitions and some gazed upon the growing nodes of anarchic energy that had crept into their territories. They were stricken by prophetic nightmares and gifted with magical powers or cursed by deformity resulting in being forcefully or willingly exiled from their communities while others remained kin and allowed their deviations to spread. These peoples eventually grew ever more wild and devolved towards the basest and most animalistic instincts resulting in the Beasts of Chaos born. Certain Azyrite seers claim that the powers of Chaos continue to warp the denizens of the Mortal Realms and record accounts from the Age of Chaos in which whole civilisations fled into the wilds to escape the armies of Chaos only to return in the form of bestial herds to despoil their former homelands.[1c]

Corporeus Chaotica Postulate

A theory originating from certain Hyshian texts collected in Sigmaron created by scholars who saw the Beasts of Chaos a fundamental reversal of the order of all things. They believed the monstrous entities were the heralds of a great and inescapable unravelling, as creatures born naturally of the Mortal Realms produce only offspring of their own species as humans beget humans and duardin sire duardin but in the Beasts of Chaos such innate separation of race is eradicated with each being a mix of body parts, its flesh and bone melded into mockeries of natural forms. Adherents to this theory believe the Beasts of Chaos are not the progeny of Chaos, but its progenitor, created by those civilisations that do not segregate themselves as nature intended. Only a few copies of these texts survived the Age of Chaos and the isolationist kingdoms known as the Refracted States that produced those texts were among the first to fall during the Age of Chaos as they had no allies to call upon. Those texts that did survive were collected into a single volume known as the Corporeus Chaotica. Passages from it continue to be spread by street preachers and doomsayers, and its tenets of segregation can be found scrawled on the walls of Sigmarite cities in which peoples of different lands gather.[1c]

Greatfrays

Greatfrays are the major tribal groupings of the Beasts of Chaos. Each Greatfray may contain thousands to millions of bestial warriors divided into roving bands called Beastherds. The exact number of Greatfrays remain in a constant flux with smaller Greatfrays being absorbed by larger ones and new Greatfrays being created. A Greatfray rarely goes into battle as one, instead beastherds are scattered across the realms with their own territories but maintains a level of connection with corrupted realmgate hidden within the wilderness. Yet regardless of their separation all are bound by a mighty alphabeast. The energies of Herdstones that mark their territories shape them, changing their fur colour or the direction their horns curl making the varied creatures of a Greatfray similar in appearance or even have divergent effect making every beast to be uniquely twisted.[1d]

Notable Greatfrays include:

History

The Beasts of Chaos's presence in the Mortal Realms predate both the coming of Sigmar and of the Dark Gods. While it remains unknown as to how they made their way to the Eight Realms, by the end of the Age of Myth, the Beasts of Chaos were already an ancient evil spoken in legends.[1c] Even the oldest tomes and oral traditions fail at recounting a time devoid of the Beastherds.[1c] As a result, many have speculated that it is they who first drew the attention of the Dark Gods towards the Mortal Realms.[1c] Indeed, it is speculated that their animalistic revelries and savage rites allowed the faint spark of raw Chaos energy ever present in the realms to slowly rekindle. The theories propose that these small punctures in the veil between dimensions became gaping wounds that allowed the warping presence of the Realm of Chaos to be unleashed, alerting the Chaos Gods of the existence of the Mortal Realms as it did so.[1c]

Before the Coming of Sigmar

In time immemorial, the Greatfrays preyed upon the primitive bands that populated the realms. To be a mortal in such time was to live amongst the embodiment of your most primal fears – nightmares of flesh and blood that came to maim and kill.[1c]

Age of Myth

The coming of Sigmar and of the Pantheon of Order brought the end to the primal era dominated by the Greatfrays. As civilisation spread, the savage dominion of the Beasts of Chaos dwindled until the evermore organised armies of Order curtailed their ancestral foe to the remaining savage hinterlands of each realms.[1c]

Age of Chaos

After many centuries passed over the savage domains of the Beasts of Chaos, a new opportunity arose when the full might of the Dark Gods was unleashed upon the Mortal Realms. The Greatfrays fought alongside the mortal and daemonic servants of the Chaos Gods to topple the civilisations that had previously hunted them.[1c]

Sources


Beasts of Chaos
Associated Factions Brayherds - Monsters of Chaos - Thunderscorn - Warherds
Characters Sloughtooth
Greatfrays Allherd - Blindeye - Darkwalkers - Forebeasts - Gavespawn - Gnarlspine - Gruffpack - Helstok - Nighthowl - Scorchpelt - Slatehorns - Rotfrays (Manglegut) - Slakefrays (Gravenkin) - Skullfrays (Bloodscorch - Eighthorn) - Twistfrays (Ulk'gnar)
Background Gorfather - Morghur
Armoury - Artwork - Miniatures- Spells
Grand Alliances and factions
OrderChaosDestructionDeath
Beasts of Chaos (BrayherdsMonsters of ChaosThunderscornWarherds) • Legion of Chaos AscendantBlades of Khorne (Daemons of KhorneKhorne Bloodbound) • Disciples of Tzeentch (Daemons of TzeentchTzeentch Arcanites) • Hedonites of Slaanesh (Daemons of SlaaneshSlaanesh Sybarites) • Maggotkin of Nurgle (Daemons of NurgleNurgle RotbringersTamurkhan's Horde) • Skaventide (EshinMasterclanMoulderPestilensSkryreVerminus) • Slaves to Darkness (Daemons of ChaosEverchosen) • Legion of Azgorh