Index Astartes: World Eaters-Warriors of Blood and Insanity
"I am Angron lord of the red sands known as the Red Angel, I command the XII legion of the Imperium the World Eaters and if my legion are the eater of worlds then I am the butcher. I am the breaker of all chains the slaughterer of all oppressors I will end the slavery that my father dares allow within his realm and I will use their skin as a banner. I have no loyalty to my father I will join you brother in Horus's rebellion, and I will avenge my brothers who fell at Desh'elika. BLOOD SLAUGHTER KILL NO! Yes, Lorgar I will join you, but I want one thing that Father will know the pain of the death of all he holds dear." Angron to Lorgar at the beginning of the Horusian Heresy the recording is fragmented and includes the spiel that Angron declared before he invaded a world.
Origins
"I die free." The war cry of Angron's revolt.
"They killed all those that I have ever loved or cared about my brothers have been hacked down and my father was flayed I am no longer going to grovel to a slaver that kills all I care for." Angron before slaughtering his overseer and starting his revolt.
The world that the pod of the twelfth Primarch landed on was a civilized world named Nuceria the world was divided between city sates ruled over by rich oligarchic families that secured vast amounts of wealth through the massive use of slavery. Nuceria was a technologically advanced world with several relics from the Dark Age of Technology being available to the ruling families most notably the Butchers Nails.
Angron would land from civilisation in the midst of the planetary wilds and some believe that if the Eldar had not interfered he may well have wandered the wild much like Lion El'jonson. Yet the fickle will of fate was not so kind the Eldar of a nearby Craftworld had looked into the future and seen the slaughter that Angron would wreck upon their people and the decided that they could not afford to let him live. The Craftworld dispatched a small force of Aspect Warriors to kill the young Primarch, the force tracked him for three days before they finally came upon him in the midst of a razed town. Despite his youth the Primarch was able to defeat his attackers yet he was grievously wounded in the attempt collapsing in the blood-soaked town square where the slaves from the nearby city of Desh'ea where the ruling class took him in as a gladiator.
As Angron fought for the autocrats that had enslaved him he swiftly became one of their greatest warriors as was to be expected from a son of the Emperor yet his independent attitudes and open hatred of the slavers led to the decision to implant him with the butchers nails. The butcher's nails were ancient technological relics from the Dark Age of Technology that increased the aggression and hatred of those that were implanted with the devices. When Angron was implanted with the Nails for the first time he went berserk and rampaged through the slave pens that he was being held in killing both his adoptive father and some of his closet friends, when he awoke from his rampage he came to a final decision the slaver had to die and die they would.
For three years Angron plotted despite the Nails slowly killing both him and his mental ability but at long last he had achieved what was needed to launch the revolt. He held the largest gladiator games in the history of Nuceria the majority of the ruling class had gathered to watch the orgy of death for their amusement. As the Gladiators marched out and prepared to fight their guards turned to leave the arena and escape the coming violence. The Angron tore the leader of the guards in half and started his revolt. Every slave in the city joined the revolt thousands of them were slaughtered but thousands escaped under the leadership of Angron.
The revolt ravaged the countryside with entire towns razed to the ground by the gladiators earning them a name that struck fear into the hearts of their enemies the Eaters of Cities. As the damage of the revolt began to increase the bickering city states agreed to cease their conflict and crush the revolt. The armies that they gathered outnumbered Angron's forces ten to one and he knew that he could not hold them off or defeat them. So, he withdrew to Desh'elika ridge and prepared to die free in battle. Little did he know that the fleets of the Emperor and the War Hounds legion had arrived in the system to collect their gene-father. When the Emperor's fleet arrived over Nuceria there was only Angron and a few other slaves left selling their lives dearly and then Angron vanished teleported away from his death to the flag ship of the War Hounds legion.
The Great Crusade
"KILL! KILL! KILL!" Angron at the battle of Dakara.
"My father is currently indisposed please come back later*thud of a corpse hitting the wall*" Khârn uncountable times
Angron would have one of the longest periods with the Emperor due to his rage and the Butcher Nails slowly killing him the newly renamed World Eaters would begin to implant themselves with the Butchers Nails in an attempt to be closer to their Primarch. When the Emperor finally let Angron was let out to ravage the galaxy in the name of the Imperium, and ravage he did the worlds that fell to the World Eaters legion were reduced to little more than ash and blood coated ruins. As Angron coated him and his legion in blood he slowly developed and unlikely friendship with the Primarch of the Word Bearers legion Lorgar a friendship that would ultimately damn him. The legion had few battles that were recorded by the remembrancers and spread throughout the Imperium with the blood shed that the legion inflicted being hard to market to the people of the galaxy one of the few that were broadcast was the slaughter of Angband.
Angband was a world populated by a race of Xenos that wielded incredible Pyskic powers having the ability to carve entire cities from stone in a few minutes single handily. So, when they refused the offer of becoming a protectorate of the Imperium the World Eaters legion was sent to eliminate them with extreme prejudice and to leave nothing left of the species not even its name. The slaughter began with the World Eaters targeting the most densely populated cities of the planet with a series of fusion missiles followed by drop pods as the response came in. The battle was a brutal bloody mess with the Astartes of the World Eaters charging through the Pyskic attacks and collapsed buildings into the Xenos tearing them apart. After a few hours, the Xenos managed to establish several defensive lines that could hold against the World Eaters and they began to counter-attack in a form the Astartes helmets suddenly crushed in on their heads killing several and then their skulls turned to little more then blades shredding the Astartes brain. The World Eaters slowly realised that they were in trouble but instead of deploying their few librarians they began to ramp up their attacks with the corpses of both them and the Xenos covering the ground where the defensive lines had been formed by the Xenos. As the slaughter increased Angron decided to deal with the problem in his own brutal way he ordered the Cyclonic torpedoes out and went on his way.
The relationship between Lorgar and Angron was one of the odder ones of the Primarchs yet the support that Lorgar offered to the emotionally crippled Angron truly helped the broken Primarch survive to the Heresy. Following Angron's removal from Nuceria he collapsed into a mix of depression and rage as he realised that everyone that he had ever cared for was dead and that his father had deemed it acceptable because he was more important. Lorgar when he met his brother saw his broken soul and attempted to fix it the two got on well and the two legions slowly intermingled when Monarchia was razed Angron flew into one of his greatest rages and nearly ordered rebellion against the Emperor then and there.
The Fall of The World Eaters
"KILL, MAIM, BURN!" Angron as he began to fall to chaos.
"So that was quick." Lorgar after securing Angron's loyalty for the Horusian Heresy
The fall of the World Eaters was one of the similar with the legion's close ties to the Word Bearers damning them following Lorgar's fall to Chaos after his pilgrimage. As the newly converted legion spread throughout the Imperium Lorgar moved to secure his brother's loyalty to the upcoming revolt Angron responded positively and agreed to join the revolt in return for their father to see everything he cared for destroyed. When Angron swore his allegiance to the upcoming rebellion he damned his legion as well as the influence of Khorne slowly spread throughout the legion and the warriors of the World Eaters became little more than blood-mad butchers that needed merely to be pointed in the direction of the enemy.
The Horusian Heresy
"BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!" Angron at Isstvan
"**** you, you're a ****ing ******
We're gonna punch you right in the balls
**** you with a ****ing anchor
You're all ****s, so **** you all
"**** you, you're a ****ing ******
We're gonna punch you right in the balls
**** you with a ****ing anchor
You're all ****s, so **** you all" War song of the Words Eaters censored by Imperial Historians.
During the Horusian Heresy the World Eaters would truly only fight in the battles of Isstvan and the Terran Campaign as they began their collapse into the Blood-Soaked madmen that defines their legion to the people of the Imperium. Yet there were a few thousand sons of Angron that fought with the Emperor some because they truly were loyal to the Imperium while others had been assigned to fight on Isstvan and had survived the bombardment of the planet under the leadership of one Endryd Haar they reclaimed the name of the War Hounds and fought their traitorous brothers alongside the Luna Wolves and Carcharodon Astra.
The Scouring
"HAHA MASS-MURDERERS FUN ISN'T IT!" One of the more lucid members of the World Eaters.
"I swear the sons of that plucked chicken that called himself an Angel are more annoying then Magnus the Red." Khârn ranting following the battle of La Rothiere.
During the Scouring the World Eaters did little save their great rout from Terra led by Khârn as the legion crumbled without the leadership of their Primarch. The legion fled from Terra towards the Eye of Terror the time that they spent in the warp allowed the already strong influence of Khorne to secure their complete loyalty to the Blood God. The few times that they escaped from the warp they ravaged the worlds that were unluck enough to be within range of their ships. The only true battle that they fought in was the battle of La Rothiere against the Blood Angels where the idea of the XII legion entered its final death spiral.
The system of La Rothiere was a minor one on the way to the Eye if Terror home to a Hive-world and a few naval repair stations that were with time able to fix the crippled ramshackle fleet that the World Eaters had used to flee Terra. The Blood Angels would come across the World Eaters in the height of their repairs with about half of the fleet having been reinforced enough to make it to the Eye of Terror and only then if Khârn's orders were followed to the letter which was unlikely and the warp was kind to them. The Blood Angels opened fire and the Battle of La Rothiere began with bloody dance of naval combat beginning. The World Eaters fleet was made up of merchant ships and military transport with a few warships alongside them against the full fleet of a legion they stood no chance. As the World Eaters fleet was shattered Khârn ordered that all ships that could to immediately translate out of the system. As they fled their ships already weakened began to collapse and it is only thanks to the blessing of Khorne that they survived and crashed on the world of Chulak.
The Forty-First Millennium
"I am the heir of Angron and bearer of Gorechild you shall send out your greatest warrior and your world may live." Crull Warlord of the Skulltakers at Slaughter
'There are some within my legion that say that we have deviated to strongly from Angron's gene-seed and that we are no longer those who stayed loyal of the XII legion yet that is wrong we are the War Hounds loyal Sons of the Emperor not traitorous sons of Angron." Constantine Houndmaster of the War Hounds.
As the Dark Millennium begins the World Eaters have begun to rally and release their fury against the Imperium that cares for the weak. Yet as the Necrons rise, the Tau strike out, the Eldar move in their mystical plans, the Harlequins dance their way through their enemies, the Drukhari raid from the Dark City, the Orks gather around the banner of Ghazghkull mag uruk thraka and the Tyranids grow in number many in the legion fear that the time of ending has come that the time of endless blood has begun. Despite this fear the remnants of the Twelfth legion gathers under the banner of the Bloody Maw and prepare to march out against the Imperium that they fought to build in the name of Khorne and whatever claimant they have pledge their blades to.
Organization
"So, the Scions of the Throne have the blood splattered more on their greaves then their chest. How completely bloody useless." Ragnar Blackmane on the warbands of the World Eaters
"The minor differences between the warbands in the way that they kill is very important most of them will use Chain-axes but some of them will use thunder hammers." Goge Vandire on the World Eaters warbands early M36.
The World Eaters legion was slowly falling apart during the Horusian Heresy with the Berserkers that would later define the legion emerging during the late Great Crusade and spreading throughout the legion. By the end of the Heresy the legion was only held apart by Angron and his equerry Khârn and when Angron was banished on the Terran Campaign the legion fell apart with the only common factor being that if they disobeyed a direct order from Khârn they would be torn apart by the equerry of the Primarch and chosen of Khorne. Following their defeat at La Rothiere the legion was on the verge of collapse and when their ships crashed on the edge of the Eye of Terror, they collapsed into hundreds of warbands that ravaged the surface of the planet when Angron returned to the Materium he only took the strongest warriors left on the planet while the others where left to fight and die over the few warships that he had left in orbit. Today the few surviving remnants of the World Eaters legion is divided into a few scattered warbands that fight for each of the Chaos claimants to Horus's throne and the glory of Khorne.
Primarch
"My brother was little more than a rabid beast he was a slave and will die a slave a slave to his hate, his rage and his love yet there was chance if father had aided him at Desh'elika he may have stood with the Imperium." The opening line of the Chapter on Angron in the Historical work The Primarchs: Heirs of the Emperor by Magnus the Red.
"I was and am the closet to Angron he was broken when he was found, and I reforged him for the glory of chaos and Khorne." Lorgar on Angron M41.
Angron has a form similar to that of a Bloodthirster with wings formed of bone and flayed flesh representing his moniker of the Red Angel. His head is a gaping maw with eyes lurking in the darkest recess of his gullet allowing him to see the death of his prey as he spreads their souls and flesh in his maw. The rest of his body is similar effectively a Bloodthirster save for molten bronze and bones randomly tearing free of his body and striking down all who draw near to the Red Angel of Khorne adding skulls to his patron's throne.
Homeworld
"From what I managed to gather from my father Nuceria was a civilized world that had slaves I think it's a bit hard to make out from all the growling*blood splatter writing ends*" The recordings of a unknown member of the World Eaters legion on Nuceria he is assumed to have been killed by Angron during the writing.
"Well this is a nice world its always on fire and makes Nocturne look nicer Nocturnes still one of the worst worlds in the Imperium." Bjorn the Fell-Handed on Bodt.
Nuceria was while suited to be an Astartes homeworld was far from acceptable to Angron with both the bad memories that it held and the hatred he held for the population of the planet instead the legion was granted the use of the worlds that they conquered as recruiting grounds. Their closet thing to a fortress-monastery was on the world of Bodt which was their muster world with all of their aspirants post the discovery of Angron being trained on the volcanic world. Following the destruction of Bodt in the Heresy the already crumbling legion abandoned any semblance of having a homeworld and fully transitioned to a fleet-based form of warfare. After the defeat at Terra and their routing to edge of the Eye of Terror the legion has made agreements with both Abaddon's empire and the Holy Chaos State of the Ghoul Stars allowing certain worlds to be used as recruiting grounds.
Gene-Seed
"They have devolved into blood mad maniacs that only focus on the next kill or murder." Azheck Ahriman on the World Eaters Gene-seed
"I smell blood." Last words of an unknown World Eater before being killed by an Imperial sniper
The gene-seed of the World Eaters is heavily mutated as is to be expected from a chaos legion, yet they manage maintain their numbers though the recruits that they secure from their scattered worlds. The mutations within the legion are heavily related to anger and combat with the average member of the legion trapped in hallucinations of blood and slaughter they have turned to little more then bloodthirsty madmen always on the search for their next battle.