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Obliterators are Chaos Space Marines, often former Techmarines, who are believed to have been infected with a "technovirus", a daemonic, Warp-powered infection. The virus fuses their flesh, armour and weapons together, so they can grow guns from their bodies at will. The machine spirits of their weapons may also fuse into a destructive daemonic entity, which drives them towards madness.
Obliterators form mysterious cults among the Heretic Astartes, an affront to both nature and the Machine God. Members of the cult include Kreator Rex, said to be one of the first, and Volk, once a commander of the Iron Warriors.
Obliterators are fusions of man, daemon and machine. The common Imperial explanation is a 'technovirus', a Warp-born infection that lets a warrior absorb any weapon he holds for too long and grow it from his own body. Many victims were once Techmarines. Other scholars insist no such virus could exist, and that plain daemonic possession explains everything.
The usual tale of the first Obliterator begins on the forge world of Sarum in the last days of the Heresy. There Perturabo found a daemon bound into the planet's core, which wanted no part of the gods' service. The tale ties the first transformations to that bargain. Obliterators answer to no warband. They form cults of their own and fight for whoever offers what they want, most often Warpsmiths, with whom they feel a kinship.
The Inquisition has several theories about Obliterators. Some believe they result from a Dark Mechanicum attempt to embody the Omnissiah, while others favour different explanations. Obliterators exist outside the normal warband structure and move from one army to another, trading their power for the chance to seize archeotech and exotic wargear. Their scrapcode works as a machine counterpart of the Dark Tongue and can cripple a machine spirit.
Appearance & wargear
Obliterators are bulky, armoured figures whose arms and bodies sprout heavy weapons. Their armour merges with flesh and cables.
Obliterators tower over other Chaos Space Marines and are at least as wide as they are tall, larger even than Terminator-armoured lords. Flesh stretches over metal, cables and pipes run through muscle, and gun barrels push out of their arms and shoulders. Their blood can run as plasma and their brains work as targeting engines. They often seem to arrive in a flash of light wherever the fighting is thickest.
Weapons & Vehicles
The Imperium's premier long-range anti-tank laser cannon, firing a blinding lance of coherent light that punches cleanly through battle…
A volatile directed-energy rifle that hurls bolts of miniature sun-hot plasma capable of vaporising Terminator plate and tank armour—at…
A short-ranged thermal sub-molecular agitation weapon that flash-melts battle tank armour, bunker doors and heavy walkers into bubbling…
A belt-fed 1.0-calibre automatic support cannon known to Imperial troops as the "Backbreaker," scything down massed infantry and light …
A volatile liquid-promethium projector that floods bunkers, trenches and xenos swarms in clinging, self-oxidising gouts of cleansing ch…
An oversized servo-assisted armoured gauntlet sheathed in a matter-shredding energy field, capable of tearing open tank hulls and crush…
A daemon engine built by the Warpsmiths of the Dark Mechanicum, a hulking bestial machine armed with rotary cannons and ectoplasma weap…
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
Obliterators are flexible heavy weapons platforms that can produce whatever weapon the moment demands.
In battle they are walking heavy-weapons platforms. Each fight they 'grow' whatever the situation calls for, from flamers and meltaguns to lascannons, plasma and autocannons, so they can deal with tanks, infantry and monsters alike. They are slow but very hard to kill. They are rare and expensive in favours, so lords use them where they will matter most.
Obliterators prefer to avoid melee because they are slow, but they can form power-fist-like weapons from their own bodies and are hard to kill, so they can defend themselves.
Munitorum & Ordo Xenos Technical Dossier
Classified under Ordo and Departmento Munitorum threat-index protocols as a primary Obliterators are flexible heavy weapons platforms that can produce whatever weapon the moment demands. asset of Heretic Astartes (Chaos Space Marines), Obliterators relies on a tightly coupled symbiosis between operator conditioning and primary armament. Field maintenance and biological recovery logs indicate that extended deployment without liturgical recalibration or bio-stasis rest degrades targeting and metabolic stability by less than 4% per solar week—far outperforming standard sector baselines—while post-engagement recovery teams prioritize the immediate extraction of their core wargear, neural/gene-seed components, or machine-spirit memory cores before enemy scavengers can exploit them.
Notable battles & users
- Many Black Crusades: Obliterator cults fight beside Chaos warbands.
Related
No profiled character is closely tied to this unit type yet.
