A Chaos Spawn
A Chaos Spawn is a mindless mutant creature who once belonged to one of the intelligent races of the galaxy and who has become so mutated through his or her servitude to Chaos that he or she has devolved into a twisted and insane abomination. Those seeking immortality and power through the ultimate attainment of daemonhood in service to the Ruinous Powers face the constant possibility of being reduced to Chaos Spawn, either by accumulating too many mutations or being cast aside by their Chaos patrons as unworthy of further advancement because of their consistent failure to serve the will of the Chaos Gods. More simply, they may lack the inherent qualities required for successful leadership of other Chaos servants and thus be of no further use to their patrons. Chaos warband members who are transformed into Chaos Spawn will either be abandoned by their former comrades or kept as pets or as cannon fodder, to be herded into battle along with the rest of the Lost and the Damned.
Although physically powerful and extremely resilient, Chaos Spawn are insane, mewling creatures with no mental powers or self-awareness. Their former intelligence has been sacrificed to their failed ambition. Many a Chaos Champion of great promise has ended up as a seething mound of bone and blubber, monstrous and screaming with lunatic rage. The Ruinous Powers are generous but erratic with their favours. When blessing one of their followers, a Dark God might make them stronger, tougher, faster, astonishingly beautiful, hyper-intelligent or otherwise improve their lot in the world. Just as likely, the Chaos God may feel their loyal subject would benefit from their toes falling off, having an eye sprout in their navel or being transformed into a dribbling and imbecilic mountain of flesh. Most Gifts of Chaos take the form of some physical mutation. The more of these gifts a Champion receives, the more potentially disastrous their cumulative effects can be -- even the body and genome of a Chaos Space Marine can only withstand so many mutations before he passes the point of no return.
Any Champion of Chaos, regardless of prestige, can find himself on the road to becoming a Chaos Spawn, for the gods are fickle. A Champion who does not earn himself the ultimate reward of daemonhood will surely become a Spawn unless he dies by some other means first. Such is the fate of the Chaos champion -- those that survive are destined either for everlasting, diabolical glory or an ignominious end as a slavering heap of limbs and protrusions.
The outward appearance of a Chaos Spawn is utterly unpredictable and frequently changes over the course of a battle. No two are alike, and their make-up owes as much to the capricious energies of Chaos as it does to functionality. A Spawn may have several sets of limbs, crab claws or tentacles, armour that bulges beneath the skin, tattered and useless wings, clumps of eye-stalks that wave like grass in a wind, a sinewy prehensile neck or a gaping maw of needle-thin teeth. Some Spawn have insectoid bodies or heads, others resemble featureless quivering mounds of inverted muscle covered with spines that drip acidic pus. All, however, are hideous to behold and deadly to face in battle.
Transformation into a Chaos Spawn
Chaos Spawn of Tzeentch
The Ruinous Powers are generous masters with their mortal servants, and a Chaos Champion whose acts of worship pleases his patron(s) will soon bear the mark of their favors in his very flesh. Once a mortal has been singled out for special attention by one or more of the Chaos Gods, he will be granted one of the Marks of Chaos: the Mark of his patron God for those Champions who devote themselves to one God in particular, or the Mark of Chaos Undivided for those who worship Chaos in its multitude of aspects. Once marked, the Chaos Champion is indefinitely and irrevocably doomed. A rare few will manage to sacrifice their mortality and soul to Chaos and ascend to the rank of Daemon Prince, and although this will grant them power beyond their wildest dreams, they will still be mere pawns in an even greater game. Many Champions will simply die, either in combat, or though the betrayal by one of their underlings keen on replacing them. The third and least appealing fate is that of being transformed into a Chaos Spawn.
The Ruinous Powers are generous but uncaring with their gifts. Many such gifts will take the form of grotesque mutations in which the body of the Champion will begin taking on a form more pleasing to his God(s). While these mutations are often useful, the mortal body can only cope with a certain number of such changes at the genetic and physiological level. Once a certain threshold has been passed, the mortal mind will devolve into insanity. Without the mind keeping the rate of mutation somewhat in check through the application of willpower to hold off the debilitating effects of Warp exposure, the body will continue to mutate faster and faster until all that remains is a gibbering mass of swiftly mutating flesh, howling and hissing through many mouths and crawling forward on multiple twisted appendages with only the basest instincts of killing and feeding remaining in the shattered remnants of its mind.
Transformation into a Chaos Spawn occurs primarily to those long-serving Chaos Champions who are not deemed exceptional enough by their God(s) to warrant ascension to daemonhood, although this horrible fate is also enforced on those Champions who fail spectacularly in the service of their patron(s) without having the dignity to die while doing so. Some Chaos Sorcerers also possess the abilty to channel the raw energy of the Warp directly into their foe's bodies, transforming them into Chaos Spawn on the spot. Chaos Spawn often either kill or are killed on sight by anything they encounter, but the Lost and the Damned and the most starved for cannon fodder of Chaos warbands gather Chaos Spawn in herds and let them loose upon their opponents, using them as terrifying shock troops and living shields against the enemy.
Giant Chaos Spawn
Chaos Spawn are drooling, insane creatures with no will. They come in all shapes and sizes, from dog-sized to man-sized creatures to huge monstrosities. All are foul, mutations left to run riot for the amusement of the Dark Gods, the ultimate expression of the fickle nature of Chaos. Giant Chaos Spawn are those creatures that have endured for standard centuries in this loathsome state, their mutations bloating and growing until the creature reaches monstrous proportions. Unfortunately for the cursed individual who survives long enough as a spawn to reach this size, a Giant Chaos Spawn is all but impossible to kill, condemning it to an eternity of torment as a squealing mound of mutated limbs and churning fangs.
Notable Chaos Spawn
- Foulspawn - Foulspawn is a notable exception amongst Chaos Spawn as he is the only Spawn to ever be granted daemonhood by its patron Chaos God. Once an unremarkable servant of Nurgle, the mortal now known only as Foulspawn finally devolved into a Chaos Spawn that resembles a huge, corrupted frog. He was gifted with many appendages and a long sticky tongue which he would use to catch his opponents like flies and swallow them whole. By some quirk of fate, the consumption of his enemies allowed Foulspawn to maintain something approximating sanity, which urged him on to selectively devour his patron's enemies. This amused Grandfather Nurgle greatly, so he elevated the Spawn to the rank of a Daemon Prince to keep such an entertaining tool intact for the rest of eternity.
Unit Composition
- 1-5 Chaos Spawn
Wargear
Chaos Spawn are no longer capable of using weapons or technology. They attack the foe with their supernatural resilience and hideous mutations.
Sources
- Codex Heretic Astartes - Chaos Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 73, 140
- Codex: Chaos Space Marines (6th Edition), pg. 41
- Codex: Chaos Space Marines (4th Edition), pg. 33
- Codex: Chaos (2nd Edition), pp. 86-120
- Imperial Armour - Apocalypse II, pg. 75
- Realms of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness (1st Edition), pg. 64
- Realms of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned (1st Edition), pp. 214, 234, 286
- Games Workshop - Games Webstore: Chaos Spawn
Gallery
