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Warhammer Soul Grinder

A massive Soul Grinder harvesting souls.

Soul Grinders, also known as "Doomstriders," "Harvesters of Souls" and "Clinkerspawn," are massive, sentient Half-Daemon constructs known as Daemon Engines that are created for the sole purpose of killing and collecting enough souls so that the Daemon portion of the construct can ultimately remove itself from its metal prison and restore its original identity and fully daemonic physical form.

Role[]

When a Daemon's physical body is slain in the mortal world or in the Realm of Chaos, it can surrender its True Name to the daemonic artisans of the Forge of Souls. The dark bargain thus sealed, the Daemon's crippled essence is bound to a mighty Warpmetal hulk. Thus is the Daemon reborn as a Soul Grinder. No two Soul Grinders are exactly the same, but all are bizarre to look upon. The transformation has a tendency to mimic the Daemon's inner desires and then distort them just enough so that even it finds the results loathsome.[1a]

Yet, the change into a Soul Grinder also grants might far beyond that which a Daemon normally enjoys. A Soul Grinder's clanking tread shakes the ground with every step, and it is devilishly fast for a creature its size, able to scuttle swiftly as a horse's gallop, or even faster should the scent of battle touch its nostrils. Piston-driven legs thud home with sickening force, crushing to bloody paste those beneath. Formidable though a Soul Grinder's brute strength is, it does not need to rely on it alone to slaughter its foes, for the transformation grants weapons to match the construct's newfound stature.[1a]

Legend tells that if the Soul Grinder can gather sufficient mortal souls, the Forge of Souls frees the Daemon from its mechanical prison and returns it to its former existence. Alas, as with all bargains struck within the Realm of Chaos, this is a debt not easily settled. Many a Soul Grinder has come within a single kill of clearing its debt with the Forge of Souls, only to have ill-fortune see it destroyed, rather than the intended victim. Worse still, if vanquished, the Soul Grinder must sell itself to the Forge of Souls once again, or return to the oblivion it so dreads.[1a]

Should a Daemon remain a Soul Grinder too long, its original identity begins to fade, subsumed into the machine that it serves. After a few millennia of the binding the Daemon's original psyche is gone entirely. Thus can even a Daemon come to be eternally damned, even as it seeks the same fate for mortals.[1a]

Videos[]

Sources[]

  • 1: Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos (8th Edition)
    • 1a: pg. 57

Gallery[]

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