"They wish to make the world a place of smoky darkness where hope and cheer are crimes punishable by immediate slavery and slow torture. Theirs is an endless greed that neither time nor wealth can ever abate. They committed blasphemy by turning away from the Ancestor Gods and practicing magic. Magic, I tell you! They are our greatest shame and they will be dealt with, in time."
- —Cranneg Enlagsson, Dwarf Lorekeeper[3a]
The Bull of Hashut is a holy icon and unifying symbol of all the "Sons of Hashut," as the Chaos Dwarfs sometimes refer to themselves.
The Chaos Dwarfs, known in their own tongue as Uzkul-Dhrath-Zharr[2b], Dhrath[9], or in Khazalid as the Dawi-Zharr ("Fire-Dwarfs") and among themselves sometimes as the "Sons of Hashut," are an industrious, dark-souled and merciless warrior race of Dwarf Daemonsmiths, slavers and brutal killers that dominate the dark and cheerless landscape of the Dark Lands to the east of the Old World.[2a]
At the heart of the Dark Lands lies a region filled with innumerable blackened factories, of hellish forges and massive armouries, a dark, heartless and nightmarish industrial empire the likes of which surpasses all others in the Known World. Long separated from their fading kin of the west, the Chaos Dwarfs have given themselves over to their dark master, the minor Chaos God Hashut, god of fire, greed and tyranny, and the energies of Chaos have worked subtle mutations upon their bodies.[2a]
The Chaos Dwarfs are the worst traits -- the greed, violent hatreds and evil obsessions -- of the Dwarf race given physical form, as exposure to the power of Chaos slowly mutates even the notoriously resilient Dwarfen physiology, inflicting twisted terrors on their minds and souls so that they have become a spite-filled and calculatingly cruel reflection of what they once were.[2a]
Unlike other Dwarfs, the Chaos Dwarfs are deeply learned in the sorcerous arts, and have become obsessed with the control of hellish forces and the fires of the deep earth, combining the dark lore they have gleaned with an artisanship and skill for metalwork and industry undimmed from their ancient past.[2a]
The Dawi-Zharr build the greatest and most infernal warmachines the mortal world will ever know, hulking cannons the size of houses or shrieking rockets that could obliterate entire villages into ruins. From their massive, mile-spanning hell-factories deep within the Dark Lands, shielded by deadly mountain ranges and set amid desolations of industrial waste and the haunts of monstrous beasts, the empire of the Chaos Dwarfs has faded into legend to many in the Old World, but those forced to confront their implacable, black-iron clad armies and savage war engines know the truth.[2a]
The Chaos Dwarfs speak a distinct dialect of the Dwarf language of Khazalid known as Zharralid. While their languages diverged millennia ago, a Dwarf and a Chaos Dwarf would still be roughly able to understand each other. To the Sons of Hashut, Khazalid would seem like an archaic, backwards version of their more modern tongue. Those Hobgoblins who work under the Chaos Dwarfs as their agents have learnt to speak Zharralid in their efforts to please their dour masters, eagerly lording it over their enslaved Greenskin cousins.[9]
The day may yet come when the armies of dread Zharr-Naggrund march forth once more, bringing their infernal warmachines to sow misery and mayhem to all four corners of the mortal world.[2a]
History
Origins
"I'll say this, and it will be the last I speak on this subject. The so-called Chaos Dwarfs are traitors. They betrayed our people and way of life. They are the walking dead just waiting for my axe to remind 'em."
Many thousands of years ago the Dwarf race moved northwards from its ancestral mountain home somewhere in the Southlands. They moved along the high range known as the Worlds Edge Mountains, following the trail of mineral ores and precious gems. The Dwarfs spread amongst the mountains, driven onwards by their lust for the secrets of rock and metal.[1a]
Over a period of many hundreds of years they dug shafts and excavated cavernous underground cities, sank mines deep into the mountain roots, and constructed tunnels which carried them ever further north. Eventually, sometime in the dim and distant past, the Dwarfs reached the upland region at the far north of the Worlds Edge Mountains which they called Zorn Uzkul or the "Great Skull Land."[1a]
Here they found a vast and inhospitable plateau where the air was thin and cold and the rocks barren. Disheartened by the quality of the land, many turned back south to swell the growing numbers of Dwarfs in the Worlds Edge Mountains, while others turned northwest into the cold lands of Norsca, but some of the most adventurous turned east and then south along the bleak Mountains of Mourn, heading deeper into what were later called the Dark Lands.[1a]
At first, these widespread Dwarf kindred maintained contact with each other, but the Dwarfs of the east strayed far and when the Great Catastrophe came that first brought Chaos into the Known World with the collapse of the Old Ones' Polar Gates, the northern regions of the Dark Lands were cut off forever from the lands to the west. The Dwarfs of the west believed their eastern kin dead, destroyed by the tides of Chaos Daemons and uncontrolled magical energies that flooded across the world from the north, but they were mistaken. The coming of Chaos did not kill the hardy Dwarfs of the east, instead it worked a dreadful change upon them.[1a]
Father of Darkness
"The Chaos Dwarfs are a great shame to our people. The signs were there for all to see, and yet we ignored them. We're all Grungni's, yes? Our blindness has led to the creation of an abomination in the east, one it would do well for us to end."
- —Hagrag, Dwarf Runesmith[5a]
The empire of the Chaos Dwarfs now expands across the Dark Lands, but is centred on Zharr-Naggrund, the Tower of Fire and Desolation.
To survive the eruption of the Realm of Chaos into the mortal world during the Great Catastrophe and the myriad threats and tribulations it brought, the Dwarfs of the east -- soon to be known to the outside world as the "Chaos Dwarfs," and the Dawi-Zharr or "Fire Dwarfs" among themselves -- turned to the service of the evil, bull-like minor Chaos God Hashut, the god of fire, greed and tyranny, whom they call the "Father of Darkness." Believing that they had been abandoned by the traditional Ancestor Gods of the Dawi, the Dwarfs of the east had sought a new divine patron, one all too eager to claim their worship and their souls.[3b]
In return for their devotion and sacrifices, Hashut laid his "blessings" upon the Dwarfs of the east and for the first time, true magic-users arose among the usually magically-adverse Dwarf race. These Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers, also called Daemonsmiths, now rule the rest of their people with absolute authority, for they are not only powerful Chaos Sorcerers, they are also the priesthood of Hashut. They are strange and tortured beings, greatly skilled at the blending of magic into their ingenious engineering and mechanical artifice, but cursed. Dwarfs were never meant to wield the Winds of Magic outside the strict confines and limitations imposed by Rune Magic, and the cost they must pay for such power is known as the "Curse of Stone."[3b]
Each Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer will, inevitably, one day slowly transform into an immobile, stone statue. The change starts with their feet, which turn grey and useless, before progressing throughout the rest of their body. Many of them, such as the Sorcerer-Prophet Astragoth Ironhand, the greatest and oldest of the Daemonsmiths, use their sorcerous engineering to construct new steam-driven bodies for a time, but they too eventually succumb to the curse. Their immobile forms now line the road leading to the capital of their mighty empire, Zharr-Naggrund, the Tower of Fire and Desolation.[3b]
The tower is a terrible obsidian ziggurat that constantly throbs with the pounding of hammers and the screams of victims sacrificed in molten cauldrons to Hashut's greater glory. It is maintained by the labour of generations of slaves of every mortal race, surrounded by mountainous piles of displaced rock from the mines that gouge the landscape surrounding the tower and slag from the countless forges of the Chaos Dwarfs.[3b]
At the apex of the tower sits a vast temple dedicated to Hashut, which is watched over by the fierce mutants known as Bull Centaurs. Bull Centaurs long ago mutated from Chaos Dwarfs, doubtless after Hashut placed his malign influence upon the race. They have the lower bodies of bulls and the upper bodies of heavily muscled but fanged Chaos Dwarfs. They are fearless and terrible, revelling only in the spilling of blood and glorifying the Father of Darkness.[3b]
From the time the Dawi-Zharr forged their covenant with Hashut, the Chaos Dwarf empire in the Dark Lands continued to grow ever stronger as the centuries passed.[3b]
The Daemonsmiths of the Dawi-Zharr who became the elite of the new Chaos Dwarf society were always few in number, with perhaps no more than several hundred amongst the whole Chaos Dwarf population capable of wielding their savagely powerful combination of science and Chaos Sorcery. They possessed no absolute hierarchy or single leader, although form and tradition came to dictate many layers and ranks of fealty and loyalty amid the great conclave of evil that is Hashut's Daemonsmith priesthood. Each Daemonsmith is a political power in their own right, controlling sections of the great city of Zharr-Naggrund itself or one of the outer citadels of the Chaos Dwarf empire in the Dark Lands, and each has their own workshops, forges, strongholds, slaves and soldiers who owe fealty directly to them.[2h]
The strongest voice among their kind, however, belongs to the oldest and most powerful of the Daemonsmiths, the high priests of Hashut known as "sorcerer-prophets," as well as to those special individuals on whom Hashut's blessings are bestowed. Age and knowledge are respected by the Chaos Dwarfs just as much as by the Dwarfs of the west, but tied up with this is a merciless intolerance of weakness common among those who serve Chaos, and favour and respect with them is only maintained through strength, wealth and sorcerous might which makes the politics of the priesthood of the Father of Darkness deadly at all turns.[2h]
Black Orc Rebellion
For centuries, the Chaos Dwarfs ruled supreme over the Far Eastern region known as the Dark Lands, their furnaces and workshops ceaselessly churning out infernal warmachines by the dozens, each one destined to bring only woe and misery upon the wider world. Their empire's economy fuelled by the labour of endless legions of slaves due to their relatively small population, the Chaos Dwarfs were masters of their own dark, twisted world until the day came when those slaves rose up in rebellion and nearly spelt the doom of all their kind.[4a]
During that forgotten age, the Chaos Dwarfs had grown weary of the constant animosity and infighting of their primarily Greenskin slave corps, and so sought a solution that would make them much more obedient towards their tyrannical masters. With the aid of Dark Magic and the selection of the largest and strongest of their Greenskin slaves, they magically bred the first Black Orcs into existence.[4a]
If this story is true, then the Dawi-Zharr's experiment turned into a complete catastrophe, for their ill-fated attempt to create a more disciplined, intelligent and highly coordinated Greenskin slave-force only made the Black Orcs the perfect leaders to motivate and organise their brethren so that they might effectively rise up and topple the Chaos Dwarfs' sadistic rule.
The magical abilities of the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers could never erase the strong sense of independence that all Orcs possess, and when the Greenskins rose up in rebellion, the great uprising that followed almost led to the complete destruction of the Chaos Dwarfs' entire empire, for the Greenskin rebels made it as far as the doors to the Temple of Hashut in Zharr-Naggrund, the very dark heart of the Chaos Dwarf empire. However, in the Greenskins' very hour of triumph, the sudden and timely betrayal of their ever-treacherous Hobgoblin allies spared the Chaos Dwarfs from complete and total annihilation.[4a]
The Chaos Dwarfs proceeded to rapidly reestablish tyrannical control over their enslaved workforce with even more merciless punishments, but the Black Orcs went on to become the most potent leaders of Greenskin society who would become thorns in the sides of their former masters and all the other civilised peoples of the Known World.[4a]
Total War: Warhammer III
In the PC game Total War: Warhammer III, the various lords of the Chaos Dwarfs' ruling Conclave are in search of one thing: the Blood of Hashut, an alchemical substance that ignites metal on contact, bursting it into molten flame. To acquire it by drilling deep into the earth where the veil between realities grows thin, the Chaos Dwarfs must build the Great Drill of Hashut.[7a]
To build this arcane machine, the Chaos Dwarfs must collect and corrupt four Dwarfen artefacts. They intend to bind these to Daemons, forging them into components required for the construction of this hellish drill. Once complete, they intend to dig into the fabric of reality and breach Hashut's domain in the Realm of Chaos to obtain the blood of their god.[7a]
But...the Chaos Dwarfs' hated western kin hold grudges. They are not happy about their precious heirlooms being tainted with the forces of Chaos. And they will seek vengeance.[7a][8]
Anatomy and Physiology
"The Dwarfs would have you believe that they are immune to the taint of Chaos, but it is not so. It is true that their hardy constitutions resist the effects of the warping longer than Humans and Mutants are fairly rare among them. However, those that fall go far indeed. Their Mutants often have skin that seems to be made of metal or stone. A number of them have the shape of centaurs, like the Centigors that run with the Beastmen hordes, only they have bodies that resemble stunted bulls. When I’ve tried to discuss this with Dwarfs, reassuring them that I only wish to help them stamp out the taint of Chaos among their people, their reactions have been somewhat... extreme. Several times, I was told my head would be parted from my shoulders if I ever brought up the subject again, which leads me to believe that there must be more to the story. It is a shame really, their taciturn nature prevents them from employing my expertise to their advantage."
- —Albrecht Kinear, Professor Emeritus at the University of Nuln.[3a]
A Chaos Dwarf in full battle-panoply.
Physically, Chaos Dwarfs resemble other Dwarfs, for all Dwarfs are resistant to the influence of magic and so exposure to the energies of Chaos has not warped them or mutated their flesh to the gross degree it has some other creatures. Apart from their long tusks, they display few of the other mutations that exposure to the energies of Chaos normally brings. Some develop bull-like features, even cloven hooves and occasionally horns, which are favoured "gifts" granted by Hashut. These mutations are rarely seen amongst Chaos Dwarf Warriors; it is Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers who are most likely to show the mutating effects of the Chaos Sorcery they wield.[3b]
Unlike other Dwarfs, the Chaos Dwarfs are extremely learned in magic. The Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers, also known as Daemonsmiths, are the true rulers of the Chaos Dwarfs capital at the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund. They are the masters of their race, directing the labours of the slaves and the conquests of the armies.[3b]
The Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers are also the high priests of the Chaos Dwarfs' god Hashut, the Father of Darkness, whose burning temple sits atop the mountainous city. The iron statue of Hashut is wrought in the form of a gigantic bull which glows red hot with the heat of the burning furnace within its metal belly. The Chaos Dwarfs sacrifice captives to their god by throwing them into cauldrons of molten iron or tossing them into roaring furnaces.[3b]
The Chaos Dwarfs are the dark cousins and a shadowy reflection of the honourable Dawi. It is common for Chaos Dwarfs to develop tusks as one of the few Chaos mutations that do develop among them.
If the influence of Chaos has worked terrifying changes upon the bodies of the Chaos Dwarfs this is as nothing compared to the transmutation of their hardy Dwarf minds. The traditional Dwarf values of stubborn determination, craftsmanship and industry have been twisted into a perverted mockery of those values in the hearts of the Chaos Dwarfs. They became pitiless, macabre and cold-hearted creatures, devoid of mercy and consumed by a need to enslave and dominate everyone and everything they come into contact with, and from this need grew their empire. [2b]
Even Chaos Dwarf women are not exempt from the cold-eyed prejudice of their fellows. All members of the race must provide some form of continued value to the empire. When Chaos Dwarf women are past the age at which they can bear children, they are indoctrinated into the female warrior society known as the Harridans, who act as fanatical bodyguards for the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers.[6a]
Year upon year, decade upon decade and then century upon century, with malevolent intent and monstrous patience the dominion of the Chaos Dwarfs has slowly grown. Down the centuries, their culture became as corrupted as their minds at every level, from their language and rune-craft, to the structure of their clans and their worship -- all tainted by Chaos and poisoned by malice.[2b]
Yet they are still uniquely Dwarfen in many respects; loyalty, grudge and kinship stand as solid as iron, but mercy and weakness are intolerable flaws to be contemptuously destroyed. This comes not from some kind of howling anarchy such as that which defines Chaos' servants among Men, the unthinking savagery of the Beastmen or even the desperate, labyrinthine intrigues and vicious aggression of the Skaven. Instead, the Dawi-Zharr are consumed with a grim, cold cruelty and an implacable and calculated brutality.[2b]
Government
"Where was Grimnir when our warriors were dying? Where was Valaya when our children sickened? When we called out for aid in the deep places where we delved, it was not Grungni who answered our call, but mighty Hashut who delivered us in our time of need. Who are the real traitors here? Our kin who abandoned us to madness and death or we who only sought to survive against the forces of Chaos? One day there will be a reckoning and it will be the Sons of the Father of Darkness who will have the victory, not the weak willed spawn of the pathetic Ancestor Gods."
- —Mordian Slagfist, Chaos Dwarf Warrior[3c]
The conclave of Chaos Dwarf sorcerer-prophets overseeing their dark empire.
The Chaos Dwarf empire has no equivalent to a high king like that of the Dwarfs of the west, nor any form of a central figurehead. Instead, the diplomatic delegations sent out from Zharr-Naggrund and the day-to-day administration of the Dawi-Zharr's dark empire is usually run by a cadre of the high priests of Hashut drawn from among the lesser Daemonsmiths known as the "Conclave." The oligarchic Conclave of these so-called "sorcerer-prophets" rule over the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund as the lords and masters of the Chaos Dwarfs and the leaders of the priesthood of Hashut. Their lore is deep and ancient, the study of machines and magic combined to produce arcane engines of power and destruction.[1a]
It was Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers who constructed the city of Zharr-Naggrund in past ages, who carved its shape from obsidian and raised its dark towers and fashioned its massive gateways. They are few in number, probably no more than a few hundred amongst the whole Chaos Dwarf race, who are themselves not a fertile people.[1a]
In the Temple of Hashut at the pinnacle of Zharr-Naggrund the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers meet in a great conclave of evil to make their plans of domination. There is no leader nor formal hierarchy amongst them, but the strongest voice belongs to the oldest and most powerful sorcerer-prophet, for Chaos Dwarfs respect age and knowledge just as much as other Dwarfs. Each Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer controls part of the city, with its workshops and forges, slaves and warriors, as part of his personal dominion.[1a]
Empire of Ash and Smoke
"The truth about the Chaos Dwarfs is buried beneath lies and evasions, for they are the great shame of the Dwarfs. Ask any Dwarf, and they'll fiercely deny their existence. But protestations aside, rumours of the great foundries in the Dark Lands, of horrid Bull Centaurs, of great cauldrons filled with molten metal hungrily devouring sacrifices to some blasphemous Dark God ring all too true to be the result of idle speculation."
- —Otto Bloch, Professor Emeritus of the University of Nuln[5a]
The Black Fortress, one of the subsidiary fortresses raised by the Chaos Dwarfs that is located in the south-eastern Dark Lands, serves as the headquarters of the infamous Legion of Azgorh.
The domains of the Chaos Dwarfs have come to encompass the fire-scorched volcanic Plain of Zharrduk, also called the Plain of Zharr, in the Dark Lands at the heart of which Zharr-Naggrund sits, and like a black iceberg, its real extent lies not above with its armoured ziggurats and fire-lanced temples, but below the surface in countless miles of magma-lit delvings, cavernous chambers and vaulted mines which resound to the cries of tortured slaves and the ringing of hammers in an untold number of diabolic forges.[2c]
For many miles around it, the Plain of Zharrduk has succumbed to the hand of the Chaos Dwarfs and their armies of slave labour. It is littered with the scars of vast open mines, fiery rivers of magma, ash dunes and stagnant pools of foaming yellow and blood red -- noxious with toxic spoil and fortified workings and watch posts which line the great, machine-crushed roads upon which countless slaves haul ore and plunder to feed the ever-hungry capital city of the Chaos Dwarfs.[2c]
Beyond their heartland in the Plain of Zharrduk, the Chaos Dwarfs have raised great fortress-citadels and towers to establish their dominion throughout the far flung and perilous Dark Lands, although no force, even one as brutal as the Chaos Dwarfs, can lay claim to true sovereignty over this vast realm of accursed, monster-infested shifting ash-deserts.[2c]
At the edges of the Dark Lands, the outposts and black iron watch-towers of the Chaos Dwarfs extend as far the great Desolation of Azgorh and the coastline of the Sea of Dread to the south and High Pass to the north, while Uzkulak -- the Place of the Skull, the seat of the ancient and original Dwarf Hold of the Dwarfs of the east before the Great Catastrophe -- is still populated but is a strange, secretive place, and the bustling workings of its slave-port and anchorage hide an ancient inner-city that is little more than a heavily-garrisoned tomb. The forbidden, lower levels of Uzkulak are shunned, even by its masters; to be consigned to its depths is one of the most fearful fates imaginable to the Chaos Dwarfs.[2c]
Society
"You may curse us, shun us, deny our existence, but that is no matter. You have done so for centuries. Had you not abandoned us, our vast family would never have been sundered. Thanks to your cowardice, we are strong and mighty, seeing the truths that have long been hidden from Dwarf eyes."
- —Gakroth, Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer[5a]
Chaos Dwarf runes[2]
Wargear
The Chaos Dwarf civilisation has grown apart from the cultural influences and developments of the Dwarfs of the Old World and has acquired a distinctive character and aesthetic of its own. For instance, Chaos Dwarfs wear lamellar armour made from metal scales bound together with flexible wire that makes a strong but pliable defence. This armour is usually painted red.
They wear extremely tall helmets which are as much a symbol of status as they needed for protection. Depending upon their expertise, a Chaos Dwarf's helmet can be a distinctive shape or may be decorated in a specific way. The most important Chaos Dwarfs wear especially large and elaborate helmets. All Dwarfs have thick beards and Chaos Dwarfs curl their beards in exotic styles. This makes them look even more ferocious and draws attention to their long, snaggly tusks.[3b]
Fires of Industry
"Dwarfs of the Dark Lands are good allies. They forge swords, armour, and weapons. They ask only for slaves. We have many slaves."
- —Dreezen Killheart, Kurgan Champion of Khorne.[5a]
The industry and technologies of the Chaos Dwarfs created by their Daemonsmiths is near-unmatched, even by the Dawi of the west.
Chaos Dwarfs are master craftsmen, and their armouries produce an endless stream of armour and weapons, dark devices and works of Daemon-fueled occult engineering. Much of this wargear, the lesser products of their craft --blades and steel whose quality still outmatches any mere Human craftsmanship -- is traded northwards to the warring Chaos-worshipping tribes of the barbaric Northmen and eastward to the Ogre Kingdoms in return for slaves, for which the Chaos Dwarfs have an unending demand, rare metals and gems, and to slake whatever strange desires the sorcerer-prophets' experiments might require.[2d]
By this trade, blood is spilled across the Known World by their weapons, and in doing so the Chaos Dwarfs both enrich themselves and sow destruction in Hashut's name, and moreover, they spread their insidious influence even further, gather intelligence in regards to their enemies and so bring their dreams of ultimate dominion closer, one drop of shed blood at a time.[2d]
The greater works of their hell-forges and the spawn of the dark intellect of the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers, however, they guard jealously for themselves and it is on the bedrock of these malevolent war engines, savage weapons and brutal sorcery that the Chaos Dwarfs' true power is founded.[2d]
Chaos Dwarf Warriors are themselves equipped to the highest standard and every Daemonsmith outfits their soldiers to their own design and in their own distinctive livery. The majority of their troops are armed with masterfully crafted axes, vicious stabbing blades and barbed war-picks, and protected by heavy scale corselets of rune-hardened iron or bronze, tall helmets and heavy-metal shields. The most potent wear so-called Blackshard Armour, forged with hellfire and blood, stronger than mere steel and phenomenally resistant to the effects of fire and heat.[2d]
A significant number of Chaos Dwarf troops are armed with firearms, from intricate wheel-lock pistols to bladed fireglaive repeating guns. But the Hailshot Blunderbuss -- a powerful, short-ranged weapon whose murderous fire is amplified when used in coordinated ranks -- is the most common and iconic. This last weapon was developed to combat the near-limitless Orc and Goblin hordes that abound in the Dark Lands around the Chaos Dwarfs' domain and has become the terror of the Greenskins in battle, able to mow down an Orc charge and slaughter scores of howling Goblins in a single, thunderous firestorm of lead projectiles.[2d]
Chaos Dwarf Slavery
"We do what we must to survive. We’ve made many concessions and thrown our lots in with the Greenskins, but as their masters, not as slaves. Of course, our values would never have been compromised had it not been for the betrayal of the past."
- —Zhorgrath, Chaos Dwarf Engineer[5a]
Brutal slavery fuels all the industries of Zharr-Naggrund.
Even though their numbers have shown a slow but steady increase down the long centuries in which they have carved their empire from the Dark Lands, the Chaos Dwarfs are still few in number like all their race, and are far outnumbered in their own realm by those over who they claim dominion by virtue of might and cruelty -- their slaves.[2d]
The Chaos Dwarfs consider all life other than that of their own kind to have value only as raw resources or as fitting sacrifices to Hashut, and to them the muscle and sinew, and even the souls of those that bow and scrape at a gesture of their iron-shod hands and cringe before the stroke of their steel-barbed whips are no more than a commodity to be amassed, exploited and spent. Without slaves Zharr-Naggrund would not have been built and its vast industries could not be maintained, and even now, the need for fresh-blood and labour only increases with each passing year and the desolate empire always hungers for more.[2d]
If the Chaos Dwarfs' grand and sepulchral plans bow to any pressure for speed in their execution, it is this increasing need for fresh slaves that is the cause. Should the levels of "livestock" falter through disaster or over-use, and are required at the commissioning of any grand new design, the Chaos Dwarf warhost is gathered and a suitable target selected for despoil, while simultaneously iron-masked Chaos Dwarf emissaries go out to the tribes of dark-hearted Men, Ogres and even Orcs to barter razored steel for lives.[2d]
This in turn can trigger fresh assaults and ravages far beyond the Dark Lands to feed the Chaos Dwarfs' tally, and captives taken in distant lands can eventually find their end drudging in the slave pits of the Plain of Zharrduk or slaughtered upon its burning altars to the Father of Darkness.[2d]
Unfortunate wretches of many mortal races toil amid the poisoned air and burning ash of the Plain of Zharrduk, and like the craftsmen they are, the Chaos Dwarfs prefer, when possible, to select the "right tool" for the right job -- from mutilated Elves flayed and bled to provide alchemical unguents to fettered and broken Chaos beasts from the Northern Wastes harnessed for their immense strength and tolerance for injury.[2d]
But by far the most common slaves in the Chaos Dwarf empire are Greenskins -- Orcs and Goblins -- and this is not simply because they are native to the Dark Lands and its bordering mountains, but also because they are hardy creatures who will often last the longest in the noxious fumes and murderous conditions under which they are made to labour. Of these, the Hobgoblins have a unique and favoured place -- as much as a slave might be favoured by such cruel and callous masters.[2d]
Perhaps the most distrusted, vicious and above all treacherous of Goblinkind, the Chaos Dwarfs seldom reduce the Hobgoblins to base toil but rather employ them as slave-overseers, lackeys and even as troops, providing utterly disposable reinforcements for their own forces, enabling a larger enemy army to be weakened without cost in Chaos Dwarf lives before they themselves move in for the kill.[2e]
Hated by the other Greenskins who would happily murder them if they could, the Hobgoblins of the Dark Lands have come to rely on the Chaos Dwarfs for patronage and protection. While they are so treacherously eager to betray each other for advancement; they are quite incapable of fomenting any cohesive rebellion against their brutal masters as they cannot even trust each other, making them in some ways the perfect slaves.[2e]
Humans too have their place among the slaves of the Chaos Dwarfs, as they are adaptable and quick-witted if less durable than Greenskins and considerably more unpredictable. Ogres can also be found among the slave pens, as they are valued for their raw power but always present a danger as their primitive, violent spirits can never be fully broken.[2e]
Skaven are never taken alive unless to be worked almost immediately to death or used as paltry mass sacrifices, as they are simply too devious to be useful slaves. The Chaos Dwarfs have learned from bitter experience that any group of the ratmen that is taken might well conceal untold spies, saboteurs and even deliberately infected plague-carriers placed in their midst.[2e]
But of all the races to fall into the hands of the masters of Zharr-Naggrund, the darkest fate awaits their kin, the Dwarfs of the west. The fruits of the bitter malice of long, brooding millennia are reserved for the Dwarfs, and of all sacrifices to Hashut, none are more favoured than those loyal to the treacherous Ancestor Gods that have abandoned the Dawi-Zharr.[2e]
Forces of the Chaos Dwarfs
"Picture everything that is admirable in the Dwarfs; their great skill in war, their iron resolve, their dedicated craftsmanship, and their unwavering determination to survive and achieve their goals. Now take all of those traits and shudder as you see them employed at the service of Chaos. That is the horror of the Chaos Dwarf host. They are Dwarfs, but twisted into a foul parody of the noble warriors who have gallantly stood for so long at the side of the Empire. They have embraced the dark powers, willingly delving into the secrets of foul magic and losing much of what they once were in the process. As to what they've gained, who can say? Knowledge, perhaps, but many things are best left unknown."
The infernal legions of the Dawi-Zharr march to war.
Each Chaos Dwarf, in addition to being a craftsman or artificer, is also a highly trained and disciplined warrior, often with scores of years of battle experience to draw upon. This martial skill is matched only by their cruel desire to utterly crush anything that would dare oppose them and grind it under their heels. There are relatively few Chaos Dwarfs, and each and every one of them belongs to one of the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers, body and soul. [2f]
The Chaos Dwarf Daemonsmiths of the East unleash their hellish arsenal.
Chaos Dwarfs are an unnerving sight in battle. They are brutish, grotesque figures plated in black or burnished armour of heavy plate and jagged scales, crowned with tall helms mounted with flame tongue-spiked coronas or sharpened horns. Their livery is bright and bloody, and their distorted faces, if they are seen at all, are bestial and filled with malice.[2f]
Their presence is intended to inspire fear in their foes, and they have lost none of the toughness or skill-at-arms of their western Dwarf kin. To them there are few greater pleasures than the bloody sundering of a foe be it by crushing axe-blow or the flesh-shredding volley of blunderbuss fire. Alongside these warriors, Chaos Dwarf armies make extensive use of their slave forces, most notably their Orc, Goblin and Black Orc slaves, which are often commanded by Hobgoblin overseers.[2f]
The Chaos Dwarfs on the march.
Yet, the true might of the Chaos Dwarfs does not come from their rune-etched weapons or blackpowder rifles, but from the massive warmachines that accompany each and every one of their armies. In the creation of arms and diabolical engines of destruction, the Chaos Dwarfs of Zharr-Naggrund have no equal in the Known World save perhaps for the Skaven of Clan Skyre.[2m]
Aside, however, from the superficial similarity of their desire to create ever more powerful devices, the approach and means to an end for the Chaos Dwarf and the Skaven could not be further apart. Where the Chaos Dwarfs favour craftsmanship and reliability over mere speed of creation, the Skaven care not for such considerations in favour of raw power and getting the device in operation as quickly as possible, however unpredictable the result or potentially fatal it is to the crew.[2m]
To this end, the Skaven favour the use of the treacherous and potent material of warpstone in their works, which while not unknown to the Chaos Dwarfs, they avoid in favour of the arcane binding of Daemons through the sorcerous lore of Hashut into their most powerful devices and technologies instead. The end result can sometimes be no-less dangerous to the Daemonsmith or crewman called upon to direct such a weapon, but to the minds of Chaos Dwarfs, such calamity that may result will be caused by the result of weakness or ill-discipline by the operator, or the will of Hashut, rather than any chance volatility or shoddy workmanship.[2m]
Chaos Dwarf Melee Infantry
- Goblin Labourers - Goblin Labourers are the most common of the slave forces in service to the Chaos Dwarfs' military as well as the most obedient, due to their conniving nature.
- Orc Labourers - Orc Labourers are a common force of slave warriors found within the ranks of the Chaos Dwarfs' armies, but they are an unpredictable lot and are often sent to their deaths in droves.
- Hobgoblin Cutthroats / Hobgoblin Sneaky Gits - Hobgoblin Cutthroats, or "Sneaky Gits" as they are sometimes called, are the stealthy assassins and ambushers of the Chaos Dwarf military. Arguably the vilest and most treacherous of all the Goblin and Orc kin, Hobgoblins are taller and leaner than ordinary Goblins, yet nowhere near as burly and brutal as Orcs. In fact, their whole appearance is emaciated and vicious -- with narrow eyes and sneering mouths full of pointed teeth that smile moon-wide in an idiotic grin at the merest suggestion of sadistic violence in the offing.
- Black Orcs - Black Orcs are one of the strongest if not most unreliable of Chaos Dwarf slaves, for they have a fierce independence and intelligence which nearly led to the empire's demise when they rebelled.
- Chaos Dwarf Warriors - Chaos Dwarf Warriors are the black-iron clad footsoldiers and primary melee and ranged infantry of the Chaos Dwarfs' industrial empire in the Dark Lands. Each of these Chaos Dwarfs, in addition to being a craftsman or artificer, is also a highly trained and disciplined warrior, often with scores of years of battle to draw upon. This martial skill is matched only by their cruel desire to utterly crush anything that would dare oppose them and grind it under their heels. There are relatively few Chaos Dwarfs, and each and every one of them belongs to one of the sorcerer-prophets in body and soul.
- Infernal Guard - The Infernal Guard is amongst the most legendary warrior-cults within the Chaos Dwarf empire, having the sworn task of defending the citadel of the Black Fortress to the death from any that would assail it, and to carry out the will of the Lord of the Black Fortress without question. The Infernal Guard's ranks are made up from Chaos Dwarfs to whom some stain of dishonour or failure has been attached, an occurrence which in their unforgiving society can result from merely being the close kin to a failed battle commander, knowing defeat under the eyes of a sorcerer-prophet, presiding over slaves who have revolted or a furnace that has exploded through overuse.
- Infernal Ironsworn - The Infernal Ironsworn are amongst the greatest warriors of the elite Chaos Dwarf Infernal Guard, efficient and deadly warriors tasked with the duty of safeguarding their commanders on the field of battle. Such is their prestige and prowess in battle that they are often called to serve as bodyguards for the sorcerer-prophets which lead the higher echelons of the Legion of Azgorh.
- Harridans - The Harridans are an elite unit of Chaos Dwarf females past childbearing age who serve as bodyguards for Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers.[6a]
Chaos Dwarf Ranged Infantry
- Hobgoblin Archers - These Hobgoblin soldiers in service to the Chaos Dwarfs are armed with bows and serve as the Chaos Dwarfs' primary ranged infantry force.
- Chaos Dwarf Blunderbuss - Chaos Dwarf Warriors armed with the deadly Chaos Dwarf Blunderbuss, a powerful firearm which spits out hails of lead with only a single shot, serve as their forces' elite ranged infantry.
- Infernal Guard Fireglaive - Infernal Guard of the Black Fortress can also serve as elite ranged infantry. They replace their melee weapons with the Chaos Dwarf-manufactured Fireglaive. A Fireglaive is a weapon both cunning and brutal, for it is a compact, heavily reinforced, repeating handgun. Unusually the weapon also incorporates a single-edged chopping blade allowing it to be wielded in close combat by a skilled fighter, much like a halberd, allowing the Infernal Guard to cut a literal swathe through the foe. Fireglaives are complex to make, their mechanisms far beyond the inferior mechanical arts of Men to imitate and are difficult weapons to master. As a result, their use is largely limited to the elite Infernal Guard and the Daemonsmiths that fashion them.
Chaos Dwarf Cavalry
- Hobgoblin Wolf Raiders - Hobgoblin Wolf Raiders are the fast, swift-moving Hobgoblin cavalry force mounted on Giant Wolves which act as scouts and light melee and ranged cavalry in the service of the Chaos Dwarfs. These Wolf Raiders are commonly drawn from the more nomadic Hobgoblin tribes from the east of the Mountains of Mourn and isolated bands which roam the fringes of the southern Dark Lands. They are lured into service with the Chaos Dwarfs as mercenaries, but their new lords treat them as no better than slaves regardless. These raiders, all bandits and robbers by disposition, are if anything, even less reliable than their footslogging kin in the service of the Dawi-Zharr -- their mounts allowing them to flee with much greater speed when the need arises. This tendency is however outweighed somewhat by their usefulness as skirmishers and foragers, particularly to Chaos Dwarf slave-raiding expeditions which must travel far and wide, often into unfamiliar and hostile lands, where their mobility can often provide a stark advantage. Wolf Raider units, usually formed by at least 5 Hobgoblin warriors led by a "wolf boss," are normally armed with light armour and hand weapons and ride on Giant Wolves. They can also take up shields and/or spears, or bows if they are serving as light ranged cavalry.
- Bull Centaur Renders - Bull Centaurs or Bull Centaur Renders as they are sometimes called, are, as their name suggests, twisted, mutant amalgams of Chaos Dwarf and ferocious bull, the unnatural fusion creating hulking, monstrous beasts far larger than either and filled with cannibalistic appetites. Bull Centaur Render regiments are formed of three to twelve Bull Centaurs. They are normally armed with heavy scale armour and a hand weapon like a battleaxe, but they can equip themselves with a shield or another hand weapon, wield dual battleaxes, or change both items for a single, two-handed greatweapon like a greataxe.
Chaos Dwarf Monsters
- K'daai Fireborn - The K'daai, known in the dark tongue of the Chaos Dwarfs as the K'daai Zharr, which means "Scion of Fire" or the "Fireborn," are mighty, Daemonic fire-elementals which are created by and serve the Daemonsmiths of the Chaos Dwarf empire. Rather than summon uncontrollable Daemons as a Human Chaos Sorcerer might or parley bargains with the Greater Daemons of Chaos, priests of Hashut have long sought to enslave the Daemon they summon by binding it into weapons and armour, war machines and constructs, thus harnessing and controlling them to the sorcerer's will and giving them form. With the K'daai they have sought to do something more, to create a race of beings, half-Daemon essence and half-raging fire, drawn from the magma of the deep earth and birthed in the boiling blood of Hashut's burning sacrifices, given form and contained within an armoured framework of articulated iron and rune-stamped bronze. The high priests of Hashut have succeeded almost too well in the K'daai, for they are almost mindless, elemental forces of destruction, and need to be laid to rest as cold and silent metal until they are required in battle, where they burn bright and terrible, but briefly. Only the greatest of the sorcerer-prophets of Hashut is able to forge these monsters of metal and flame, and the process is both costly and arduous in the extreme.
- Lammasu - The Lammasu has the body of a gigantic bull, a powerful mace-tipped tail and a massive, ugly head. The Chaos Dwarfs believe that the Lammasu is a rare mutation of the Great Taurus, and less a beast than a physical manifestation of the Dark Lands' rage. A Lammasu is a creature with magical properties,[1b] one that is not only acclimated to magic, but that also lives and breathes the very stuff of sorcery. It breathes not ordinary air but the power of magic itself, drawing into itself the power of the Winds of Magic. Indeed, the Lammasu possesses a minor, but potent, spellcasting ability, the backwash of which manifests as whirling clouds of black sorcery which wreathe and curl about the beast every time it breathes. This magical exhalation enwraps the Lammasu with protective power protecting it from hostile spells. Furthermore, enemies fighting Lammasu in melee often find the smoky threads of sorcery befouling their magic weapons, dampening their power and preventing them from striking the beast to full effect. The Lammasu is the favourite mount of Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers, who have used them as steeds for thousands of years, but who's to say whether it is the mount or the rider that truly commands the partnership?
- Great Taurus - The Great Taurus are mighty winged nightmares which soar across the bleak skies of the Dark Lands, a dread realm which is a haven and birthing ground for all manner of mutated monsters and unnatural creatures, but none are more sought after by the Chaos Dwarfs than these mighty beasts which roost high up on the Volcanic Heights. These creatures are stabled in great pens beneath the Temple of Hashut, the bull god of the Chaos Dwarfs, in the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund. A Great Taurus burns with a terrific intensity, so that its whole body is wreathed in fire and smoke.[1a] Indeed, so angrily and so hot does the Great Taurus' skin burn, that swords and axes become molten and blunt in the very process of striking it. When it moves across the ground sparks fly from its hooves and lightning plays about its feet. It breathes fire in great snorting bursts and black smoke curls from its gaping maw. Powerful Chaos Dwarfs often ride Great Tauruses into battle. None but the highest servants of Hashut and the most powerful of Bright Wizards can hope to master these hellish monsters, and the infernal stables of the crimson and bronze Tauruses beneath the great temple of Zharr-Naggrund are heated by sacrificial fires kept burning night and day to appease the sacred beasts kept there. Indeed, it is only by means of the most complex and dangerous spells that a Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer can even mount such a dangerous creature without themselves succumbing to their incinerating heat and voracious appetites.
- K'daai Destroyer - K'daai Destroyers are the far larger brethren of the K'daai Fireborns, massive constructs created in the form of mighty warriors or iron beasts, such as gargantuan monstrous bulls and other nightmarish creatures, awakened by mass blood sacrifice to Hashut and let loose upon the enemy. Only the greatest of the Chaos Dwarf sorcerer-prophets are able to forge these monsters of metal and flame, and the process is both costly and arduous in the extreme. This limits their number, making them almost the stuff of legend. But with the dark imaginings and limits of the Chaos Dwarfs' deadly craftsmanship the only end to the terrible forms a K'daai can be fashioned and shaped into, there have been those of Hashut's priesthood who have met their cursed doom early, as the power to make their glorious vision real has slipped from their grasp. K'daai Destroyers are singular constructs, fashioned to the desires and diabolical whims of the Daemonsmiths and sorcerer-prophets that forge them in Hashut's deadly fires. Accordingly, although all are large and bestial, some may be created in the image of a great bull, another a Rhinox or even a Dragon or some twisted creature conjured from the dark imagination of its creator. All, however, are beasts of blackened and jagged metal suffused with glowing runes of binding and alive with hellish flame.
- Chaos Siege Giant - A Chaos Siege Giant is amongst the most powerful living weapons within the Chaos Dwarf arsenal, hulking behemoths that combine the strength of the race of Giants with the nigh-impenetrable plate armour forged by the Chaos Dwarfs. Giants are some of the mightiest creatures to stride across the Known World. They are simple-minded brutes whose huge strength and callousness alone is enough to wreak havoc simply by their passing. Their appetite for meat and drink is legendary, as is the destruction their rampages can cause. A single Giant is more than enough to devastate a village without much effort, and if bribed or goaded into battle, a Giant can smash through ranks of troops and crush heavily armoured cavalry with contemptuous ease. The Chaos Dwarfs have not been slow to take note of the power and military potential of Giants, as they have often encountered them as foes within the ranks of the Orc and Goblin hordes that infest the Dark Lands, and the southern Mountains of Mourn that border their empire have long been inhabited by a unusually high number of the creatures. It is said this is because it once was the home of a great kingdom of Giant-kind in elder days, now shattered into ruin and desolation. As a result Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers have long had the idea of bringing Giants that they were able to capture or enslave through trickery or trade with the Ogres under their will, and in doing so have been unable to resist "improving" upon them in order to make them living weapons. The most common result of these modifications is the Chaos Siege Giant, a mutilated, half-insane creature whose body has been armoured against attack by layer upon layer of heavy iron and bronze plates. These are firmly secured to the unwilling Giant by heat-fusing, riveting and nailing them deep into the Giant's flesh, and in some cases in bolting them directly into its massive skeleton. The end result is a towering, iron-clad monster, even more clumsy and unwieldy than before, but now all but impervious to arrows and firearms shot thanks to its armoured shroud.
Chaos Dwarf Artillery and War Machines
- Hellcannon - A Hellcannon is a massive Daemon Engine, a smoking construct of metal combined with the captured sentience of a Chaos Daemon that serves as a potent magical artillery piece in the armies of the Chaos Dwarfs and the Warriors of Chaos. In battle, these arcane engines heave crackling blasts of raw soul energy that soar through the air into their targets, liquefying anything they touch and sending the survivors insane with fear. Hellcannons are usually guided by a team of corrupt and sadistic Chaos Dwarfs. These malign warsmiths escort and restrain the Hellcannons in battle, for the Daemons bound within the construct hunger for a banquet of flesh.
- Dreadquake Mortar - A Dreadquake Mortar is amongst the largest and most effective of all the mighty siege weapons deployed by the Chaos Dwarfs. They rank alongside other such mighty bombards and cannon able to rend the earth and smash through layered stone fortifications as if they were kindling. The Dreadquake Mortar's deadly projectiles are fired by steam pressure that is generated by a boiler and contained within a pressure vessel -- conventional blackpowder being far too dangerous given the volatility of the Dreadquake's unique and powerful shells. The Dreadquake Mortar is a slow-firing juggernaut that must be loaded with these unique shells to prevent self-destruction.
- Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher - The Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher is one of the most diabolic and destructive weapons ever created, for bound up within its munitions are howling, malevolent fire-spirits harvested from the cinders of Hashut's sacrificial altars, and it is the hellish shrieking of these spirits when loosed that gives the weapon its name. The Chaos Dwarfs of Zharr-Naggrund utilise a number of these different types of blackpowder rocket weapons, ranging from shoulder-fired, chain-dragging harpoons used to bind and bring down Lava Trolls in the magma caverns deep beneath the mountains of the Dark Lands to massive warheads launched on pillars of fire to break enemy fortifications. The packed multiple warheads of the Deathshrieker detonate in the air above the battlefield in a storm of fire -- fire which has its own terrible hunger for life upon which to visit its touch. Screaming, fanged tendrils of flame plunge downwards from the blast and expend their strength actively seeking out victims. The tormented spirits are far from discerning though as to whose flesh they burn, and the Chaos Dwarfs must be cautious lest their own troops suffer from the wrathful weapon.
- Iron Daemon War Engine - The Iron Daemon, also more formally called the Iron Daemon War Engine, is one of the latest steam-powered Daemon Engine constructs, a blend of Daemon and technology, in the service of the Chaos Dwarfs, a mighty, smoke-belching powerhouse that fires blasts of shrapnel against enemy forces or crushes fortifications while towing up to two steam carriages armed with either a Magma Cannon, a Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher, or a Dreadquake Mortar. The Iron Daemon is a weaponised version of the common trains used by the western Dwarfs in their underground tunnels. The driving power behind these engines comes from coal, which the Chaos Dwarfs mine in great quantities beneath the Plain of Zharr and then infuse in arcane rites so that it burns hotter and far more constantly than naturally possible. Their furnaces will, however, willingly devour wood or other base materials if they happen to be the only available source of fuel with a temporarily acceptable loss in performance. Among the slaves of Zharr-Naggrund though, rumours abound of steam engines that run on blood, ground bones and screaming spirits, and such ingenuity is certainly not beyond the devious and inventive servants of Hashut, the Father of Darkness. The steam boilers that provide these machines with motive power to haul heavy armaments and munitions to the battlefield are cunningly designed so that they can also be used to work pressure-fed weapons such as cannonades and wall-breakers. This means that every Iron Daemon is also a powerful war machine in its own right -- a fully mobile artillery piece or murderous killing engine able to smash through fortifications and hack down ranks of living soldiers with equal ease.
- Skullcracker - A Skullcracker is an Iron Daemon steam locomotive that has been modified to crush fortifications and walls. The Skullcracker is a hissing and grinding arcane-mechanical conglomeration of iron hammers, hacking blades and brutal picks designed to literally pulverise and shred anything unfortunate enough to be caught in front of the machine.
- Magma Cannon - The Magma Cannon is a fiendish weapon first conceived of by the Chaos Dwarf Daemonsmiths for use against the ravening Trolls and other unwholesome and hungry monsters that spawn and multiply in the Dark Lands, the Magma Cannon being something of a cross between a field artillery piece and a furnace. It is designed to spew molten metal and fire upon its victim, horrifically burning them to death. The Magma Cannon has seen long use and been the subject of considerable modification and experimentation by Daemonsmiths. No two are quite the same, but rather the product of an individual Daemonsmith's malign creativity. Some use pressurised steam-boilers to jet gouts of burning sulphur, caustic tar or pyretic acids, while others incorporate sorcerously-bound volcanic glass shells in which molten lava drawn from the deep earth slumbers until its shell is shattered.
Chaos Dwarf Heroes
- Hobgoblin Khan - Hobgoblin khans, also called Hobgoblin chieftains, are the tribal lords and rulers of the Hobgoblin tribes of the Eastern Steppes. Occasionally the spiteful infighting and backstabbing within the ranks of the Hobgoblins will throw up these particularly successful and feared warriors and killers, who will rise to prominence and style themselves "khan," taking after the wilder nomadic Hobgoblin wolf-clans of the Eastern Steppes.
- Bull Centaur Taur'ruk - Bull Centaur Taur'ruks, also known as Bull Centaur Lords, are the largest and most powerful of the Bull Centaurs, hulking and savage creatures that are just as keen-witted and intelligent as their bipedal Chaos Dwarf brethren. Hulking and savage creatures that are just as keen-witted and intelligent as their bipedal brethren among the Chaos Dwarfs, Bull Centaurs serve the Legion of Azgorh as shock troops and temple guardians. To the Taur'ruk is entrusted the protection of the sacred fanes of Hashut, the patron god of the Dawi-Zharr, as they more than any other have been twisted into the closest semblance of the Father of Darkness' image.
- Daemonsmiths - Daemonsmiths, also known as Hell-Workers or simply Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers, are both the priests and the primary artificers and engineers of their society, ruling over the desolate empire of Zharr-Naggrund with iron-fisted malice. To survive the first eruption of the Realm of Chaos into the mortal world during the ancient Great Catastrophe, the Chaos Dwarfs turned to the service of the evil bull deity, Hashut. Hashut laid his "blessings" upon them and for the first time, true magic-users arose among the Dwarf race. The Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers now rule the rest of their people with absolute authority, for they are not only powerful sorcerers, they also serve as the ruling priesthood of Hashut. Daemonsmiths are strange and tortured beings, greatly skilled at the blending of magic into their ingenious engineering, science and craft, but cursed. Dwarfs were never meant to wield the Winds of Magic outside the strict confines and limitations imposed by Rune Magic, and the cost they must pay for such power is known as the "Curse of Stone." Each Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer will, inevitably, one day slowly transform into an immobile, stone statue. The change starts with their feet, which turn grey and useless, before progressing throughout the rest of their body. Many of them, such as Astragoth Ironhand, the greatest and oldest of the Daemonsmiths, use their sorcerous engineering to construct new steam-driven bodies for a time, but they too eventually succumb to the curse. Their immobile forms now line the road leading to the capital of their mighty empire, Zharr-Naggrund. The Daemonsmiths of the Dawi-Zharr are few in number, with perhaps no more than several hundred amongst the whole Chaos Dwarf race capable of wielding their savagely powerful combination of science and Chaos Sorcery. They possess no absolute hierarchy or single leader, although form and tradition dictates many layers and ranks of fealty and loyalty amid the great conclave of evil that is Hashut's Daemonsmith priesthood. Each is a political power in their own right, controlling sections of the great city of Zharr-Naggrund itself or one of the outer citadels, and each has their own workshops, forges, strongholds, slaves and soldiers who owe fealty directly to them.
- Infernal Castellan - The Infernal Castellan are the captains of the Infernal Guard of the Legion of Azgorh. They are known to be cruel and to drill their troops ceaselessly. They wear Blackshard Armour and can carry a single-handed melee weapon or two-handed greatweapon, a shield, a pistol and/or a fireglaive. Sometimes, they can even carry their legion's battle standard. Some Infernal Castellans have forged a relationship with a Lammasu that serves as their mount when they lead their troops into the fray.
Chaos Dwarf Lords
- Overseer - An Overseer is a veteran warrior of the Chaos Dwarfs who has been tasked with taking command of the Dawi-Zharr's Greenskin slaves who serve as low-skill cannon-fodder infantry in the armies of Zharr-Naggrund. In time they can grow beyond this role to become great strategists and military commanders in service to their own Daemonsmith masters. Unfortunate wretches toil amid the poisoned air and burning ash of the Plain of Zharrduk, and like the craftsmen they are, the Chaos Dwarfs prefer, whenever possible, to select the "right tool" for the right job. By far the most common workers in the Chaos Dwarf realm are Greenskins, and this is not simply because they are native to the Dark Lands and its bordering mountains, but also because they are hardy creatures who will often last the longest in the noxious fumes and murderous conditions under which they are made to labour. Of course, there's no way that sneaky, tricksy Greenskins can simply be left to their own devices, and certainly not when they are employed on the battlefield by their Chaos Dwarf masters. Therefore, a skilled Chaos Dwarf warrior known as an Overseer is required to ensure they fall into line and stay there, until the time comes to charge, of course!
- Convoy Overseer - A Convoy Overseer is a particularly trusted Overseer who has been granted the honour of leading one of the Chaos Dwarfs' armament convoys through the Dark Lands to deliver the products of Zharr-Naggrund's forges and workshops to the paying customers of the Dawi-Zharr. As such travel is inherently dangerous, the Chaos Dwarfs need a skilled warrior and strategist to command both the convoy and its accompanying protective military force, especially since so many of them will be Greenskin slaves.
- Chaos Dwarf Lord - The Chaos Dwarf Lords are the mightiest and most powerful of the Chaos Dwarf warriors and military commanders of Zharr-Naggrund, each of who serves one of the ruling sorcerer-prophets.
- Sorcerer-Prophet - Sorcerer-prophets are the greatest of their people's Daemonsmiths, who act not only as master sorcerers and artificers but also as the high priests of Hashut. It is they who led their people from the brink of destruction during the Great Catastrophe and first built the great and blasphemous city of Zharr-Naggrund in ages past, and it is they that still command it and its population to this very day. Their works of sorcery and engineering are legendary, from the great obsidian and basalt towers and ziggurats drawn forth from the earth, and the dark iron towers raised up throughout the Dark Lands, to the steam-hissing engines that crush rock in slave mines and the baroque armour which adorns the Chaos Warriors of the north. Each sorcerer-prophet is their dark knowledge made manifest. The price the sorcerer-prophets pay for their position and power within Chaos Dwarf society is a dark one indeed, for should they show weakness they will fall and Hashut's demand for blood upon the altar-fires is unquenchable. Worse is the great curse that lays heavy upon them, as the Chaos Magic they work seeps into their bodies, evoking changes in them that are both unique and horrific. Even the most cautious and adept of them are not immune, although for the desperate or foolhardy, the curse comes on all the swifter, as inexorably their bodies are petrified into immobile stone, starting with their feet. At first a sorcerer-prophet's legs turn grey and solid so that they are unable to move, and their followers are obliged to carry their lord around or else the sorcerer-prophet has them construct a mechanical engine to move them about. Then the sorcerer-prophet's lower body and torso turn to stone, making them extraordinarily tough. Once their arms become stone they are entirely dependent upon their followers to perform their magic, as all they can do is speak and watch their followers' progress. After a longer while the sorcerer-prophet's entire body turns to stone and they are transformed into a statue. The statues of Chaos Dwarf sorcerers are lined up along the roadways around the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund, forming rank upon rank of grey sentinels standing watch over the approach to the city. Such is the price that must be paid by the most powerful of the Chaos Dwarfs to gain the ultimate blessings of Hashut.
Notable Chaos Dwarf Holds
- Tower of Zharr-Naggrund - Zharr-Naggrund, formally the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund, is the capital city of the Chaos Dwarfs and lies in the heart of their empire, in the centre of the Plain of Zharrduk in the Dark Lands. The Dawi-Zharr built the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund in the shape of a mountain, rising tier upon tier to its summit. At its top, they constructed a massive temple to their evil minor Chaos God Hashut, the Father of Darkness. It is from there that the ruling Conclave of Chaos Dwarf sorcerer-prophets administer their empire. Zharr-Naggrund lies at the centre of the Chaos Dwarf empire and is the object of all their labours and enterprises. Though there are numerous mines, workshops, foundries and fortresses throughout the Plain of Zharrduk and beyond, there is just one mighty city in all the empire of the Dawi-Zharr. The Tower of Zharr-Naggrund is built of obsidian, black volcanic glass whose surface reflects the flames of the myriad furnaces that burn both day and night. The entire city is built on a series of tall steps, like a ziggurat, each step hundreds of feet high and surmounted by battlements that jut upwards like a row of ugly fangs. A thousand massive furnaces burn within the vastness of Zharr-Naggrund, smelting the metals that are the lifeblood of the city. The city is a huge living workshop full of smoke and noise, illuminated by its inner fires and driven by machines of vast size and power. Gigantic steam-driven hammers stamp out sheets of iron and bronze with rythmic booms like the heartbeats of a cyclopean god. Massive cauldrons of bubbling metal pour out their molten contents into twisted moulds of intrincate construction. The roaring of furnaces, groaning of huge wheels and grinding of arcane machineries fills the oily air. The noise and the labours never cease. The Dark Lands are shrouded in thick volcanic clouds and smoke from the workshops of the Plain of Zharrduk, so the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund exists in a timeless twilight, illuminated by the carmine fires of its own forges.
- Uzkulak - Uzkulak, also known as the "Place of the Skull," is a city of the Dawi-Zharr located in the northernmost region of the Dark Lands that served as the original seat of the Dwarfs of the East before the Great Catastrophe transformed their society into that of the Chaos Dwarfs. Around 1000 IC, in order to fuel the ever-increasing demand for slaves in the Chaos Dwarf empire, a great sea canal was constructed underground linking the Falls of Doom to the north of Zharr-Naggrund with the Sea of Chaos to the west of Uzkulak, giving the Chaos Dwarf fleet an exit to the north.
- Tower of Gorgoth - The Tower of Gorgoth is one of the major strongholds of the Chaos Dwarf empire. Amidst the ruin of the south-central Dark Lands, the Tower of Gorgoth pierces the horizon like an obsidian dagger. Many years ago, the Chaos Dwarfs discovered rich metal deposits beneath the plateau and established Gorgoth as a mining colony. Today, Gorgoth is a slave labour camp, where those unfortunate enough to have survived Chaos Dwarf raids spend the rest of their days toiling away in its hellish furnaces and amidst its deep mines and caverns. Along with the Black Fortress, it vies for prominence and power as the second-most important fortress-citadel of the Chaos Dwarfs beyond their heartland on the Plain of Zharrduk and their capital city of Zharr-Naggrund. The master of the Legion of Azgorh, the Sorcerer-Prophet Drazhoath the Ashen, commands several hellish furnaces there for the production of Daemon Engines and war materiel. A straight road connects Gorgoth with Zharr-Naggrund, passing below the so-called Gates of Zharr in the centre of the Dark Lands.
- Daemon's Stump - The Daemon's Stump is a stronghold and citadel of the Chaos Dwarfs located to the southeast of the Plain of Zharrduk and the Dawi-Zharr's dark capital city of Zharr-Naggrund in the Dark Lands. The stronghold is built atop a great pillar of rock which is the actual Daemon's Stump. It stands on the right bank of the River Ruin, on the eastern fringes of the Howling Wastes. It is best known for the slaving operations that its garrison launches against the caravans of other nations that are travelling through the nearby trading settlement known as The Sentinels that lies across the Howling Wastes to the south.
- Black Fortress - The Black Fortress is a great stronghold of the Chaos Dwarfs located in the south-eastern Dark Lands. Guardian of the south-eastern reaches of the Dawi-Zharr's realm, the Black Fortress is a vast, jagged citadel stained black by the volcanic fires of the rocky plateau on which it sits. It is a nightmarish place of soot, blackened iron and jagged rock, and burning magma runs through it like lifeblood. Along with the Tower of Gorgoth, it vies for prominence and power as the second-most important fortress-citadel of the Chaos Dwarfs beyond their heartland on the Plain of Zharrduk and their capital city of Zharr-Naggrund. But while the Tower of Gorgoth exists to stand watch over a slew of deep mines and caverns, the purpose of the Black Fortress is to serve as a purely military outpost, and it is the headquarters for the powerful Chaos Dwarf army known as the Legion of Azgorh. Even among their own kind, the Chaos Dwarf warriors of the Black Fortress are renowned for their brutality and warlike nature, and far removed as it is from Zharr-Naggrund and the favour of the great temple of Hashut it is often a place of internal exile for those who have suffered in the savage politics of the Chaos Dawrf empire and angered the other sorcerer-prophets of the ruling Conclave. The hellish caverns deep beneath the Black Fortress are also home to the Infernal Guard -- a cult of disgraced warriors enslaved to the master of the Black Fortress who must redeem themselves in the eyes of Hashut and the other Dawi-Zharr or die in the attempt. For many centuries the lord of the Black Fortress and commander of the Legion of Azgorh has been the Sorcerer-Prophet Drazhoath the Ashen, a bitter rival of Lord Astragoth Ironhand, feared and respected in equal measure by the Chaos Dwarfs bound to his service as a ruthless general and powerful wielder of Hashut's sacred fire.
Notable Chaos Dwarfs
- Astragoth Ironhand - The oldest and most powerful sorcerer-prophet of Zharr-Naggrund and the High Priest of Hashut.
- Ghorth the Cruel - Ghorth the Cruel is currently considered one of the most powerful sorcerer-prophets of Zharr-Naggrund. He is most likely second in power only to Astragoth Ironhand himself.
- Zhatan the Black - Zhatan the Black is a highly-skilled warrior and the Chaos Dwarf Lord who commands the garrison of the Tower of Zharr. He is the most powerful vassal and greatest servant of the Sorcerer-Prophet Ghorth the Cruel.
- Drazhoath the Ashen - Drazhoath the Ashen is the sorcerer-prophet who was placed in command of the Chaos Dwarf stronghold in the Dark Lands known as the Black Fortress. Far from being intended as a position of honour, Asatrogath Ironhand essentially used the appointment as a form of exile to remove his rival from the centre of the Conclave's power in Zharr-Naggrund. Drazhoath is the commander of the Legion of Azgorh and the Infernal Guard.
- Bazherak the Cruel - Bazherak the Cruel was the castellan-commander of the Tower of Gorgoth during the Chaos Dwwarfs' wars against the Men of ancient Nehekhara.
- Rykarth the Unbreakable - Rykarth the Unbreakable is one of the Chaos Dwarf Lords of Zharr-Naggrund. He is known for his toughness and courage, which set him apart even from other Chaos Dwarfs. He took part in the Nemesis War for the Nemesis Crown.
Videos
Sources
- 1: Warhammer Armies: Chaos Dwarf (5th Edition)
- 2: Tamurkhan: Throne of Chaos (8th Edition)
- 3: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Old World Bestiary (RPG)
- 4: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Old World Bestiary (RPG)
- 4a: pg. 39
- 5: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Tome of Corruption (RPG)
- 5a: pg. 157
- 6: Wulfrik (Novel) by C.L. Werner
- 6a: Ch. 8
- 7: Total War: Warhammer III (PC Game)
- 7a: Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs DLC
- 8: Total War Blog - Welcome to the Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs: Introducing Astragoth Ironhand
- 9: The Secrets of Zharralid Revealed! Andy Hall Exclusive Interview on the New Chaos Dwarf Language!