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Khorne Berzerkers are the most feared close-combat warriors among the Chaos Space Marines. Most come from the World Eaters Legion, whose warriors received the Butcher's Nails, the brain implants that Angron himself carried. The Nails stimulate rage and punish their bearers with pain unless they are killing.
Berzerkers charge into battle howling, with chainaxes and chainswords swinging. They take skulls for Khorne and care little about their own survival, wanting only to shed blood.
The first Berzerkers came out of Angron's own experiments. After he took command of the XII Legion, the Primarch had his Apothecaries copy the cortical implants he had carried as a gladiator and fit them to his warriors. The Nails stripped away fear and turned the rush of combat into the only relief from constant pain. Most implanted legionaries went back into the line companies. The worst cases, too far gone to be anything but restrained between battles, were set apart as the Caedere, the "Butchers".
During the Horus Heresy the Legion's recruitment on its muster world of Bodt was taken over by senior Apothecaries. They rushed raw recruits from the Numen gun-clans through crude, accelerated gene-processes and flash-indoctrination. Each new warrior woke believing he was a veteran of countless wars, carrying other men's memories of killing. Few survived, and those who did were monsters even by World Eaters standards.
When the Legion gave itself to Khorne, the Berzerkers were freed from any doctrine at all. After the World Eaters tore themselves apart at Skalathrax, most Berzerkers scattered into independent warbands. Their crude lobotomy-surgery spread with them into other Chaos forces. Warriors from other Legions who want to devote themselves wholly to Khorne seek out the World Eaters to undergo it. Abaddon has gathered Berzerker-surgeons of his own, and the Black Legion is said to come close to the World Eaters' skill at it.
Appearance & wargear
Khorne Berzerkers wear blood-red and brass power armour, decorated with skulls and spikes. They carry chainaxes and chainswords and often bolt pistols or plasma pistols.
A typical Berzerker squad numbers between five and twenty warriors under a Berzerker Champion. They wear power armour of any pattern, with chainsword, bolt pistol and frag and krak grenades as standard. Many swap a weapon for the chainaxe, Khorne's favoured weapon, and a few carry plasma pistols. Champions may take power axes, swords, mauls, lightning claws or power fists. Ritual knives are carried for one purpose only: taking heads.
Weapons & Vehicles
The screaming, blood-drenched motorised war-axe of the World Eaters and Khorne Berzerkers, trading all defensive finesse for bone-shatt…
The brutal motorised tooth-bladed sword carried by Space Marines, Imperial Guard officers and Chaos renegades, chewing through armour a…
The legendary mica-dragon-toothed chainaxe forged for Primarch Angron and rebuilt for Khârn the Betrayer, tearing through ceramite and …
A volatile directed-energy rifle that hurls bolts of miniature sun-hot plasma capable of vaporising Terminator plate and tank armour—at…
The signature .75-calibre rocket-propelled mass-reactive firearm of the Adeptus Astartes, firing self-propelled explosive bolts that de…
An oversized servo-assisted armoured gauntlet sheathed in a matter-shredding energy field, capable of tearing open tank hulls and crush…
The lesser daemons of Khorne, red-skinned horned warriors who hack down their foes with burning hellblades.
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
Khorne Berzerkers are elite assault infantry. They charge quickly and shred infantry in close combat.
Berzerker tactics are blunt. The main body makes a massive frontal charge while the fastest warriors work around the flanks. Drop pod assaults are common, because their sudden arrival denies the enemy time to shoot. In battle the warriors work themselves into a howling frenzy and run straight through enemy fire to reach melee.
Their weakness is the same rage. A Berzerker denied enemies may turn on his allies or even fall on his own weapon as a sacrifice. Warbands rarely hold together as a disciplined unit, and they suffer against foes who simply keep shooting while falling back. A few Champions keep enough control to set ambushes or infiltrate before unleashing their warriors, and a unit that does this is far more dangerous.
Notable battles & users
- World Eaters: the Berzerkers are the Legion's signature warriors.
- Akraghar: the World Eaters Berzerker Champion said to be the first to bind a Defiler to his will; during the war for Eclipsion Prime, leapt from a burning hive-spire onto the Defiler called Slaughterfiend and forced its daemon to submit.
- Zhufor the Impaler: a former Storm Lords sergeant turned Khornate lord, who led the World Eaters warband the Skulltakers at the Siege of Vraks.
- Skalathrax: the battle against the Emperor's Children that broke the World Eaters into warbands for good.
Related
Characters (2)
Khârn the Betrayer · Champion of Khorne
Angron · Primarch of the World Eaters, the Red Angel
