The average Free City inhabitant’s image of the Blades of Khorne is that of brutish, musclebound warriors, possessed of fearsome bloodlust and a blind disregard for personal safety that sees them hurtling into the enemy with an axe in each hand. Berserkers and warriors, the mad and the brave, treating war as a chance to earn personal glory. But as war is practised differently, so too does Khorne’s bloodlust manifest in myriad ways.
The Gorewrought march to battle in disciplined ranks, baleful daemon-possessed automatons, utterly silent save for the groaning of their metal bodies and inner hellfires that animate them. Holding pikes aloft, they wait for their commander’s orders and enact them without hesitation or mercy. They will hold ground until the last of their attackers has retreated, and they will charge with an implacable force that crushes the dead and wounded in their path into a bloody road. The Gorewrought answer only to their appointed warlords. All others are tribute to the Lord of Skulls.
Though they are sometimes seen fighting freely alongside fellow devotees of the Blood God, more often their presence is found in the armies of others, for far more insidious purposes. When war leaders pray for loyal troops, to secure victory, to protect themselves or their loved ones, or simply as a tool for their own ambitions to power and conquest, Khorne listens. And Khorne sends unto them a bargain written in the blood of soldiers of fortune; he will provide them their desired force, if they simply make use of it. Should this fel deal be accepted, the Gorewrought are summoned into the material world. The chains that bind them to each other wrap invisibly around their patron’s soul, fettering them to their will.
Thus do the Gorewrought find themselves fighting alongside terrified mortal allies for alien causes. They’ve fought alongside rebels, caravan guards, oppressors and bandit armies. But always, they fight where the blood flows.
Of those that have struck this deal, the lucky perish in battle. Then do the Gorewrought disappear from the field as quickly as they appeared to return to their true master’s side, leaving their erstwhile allies behind to face the enemy alone. For the unlucky, a darker fate awaits them.
The Gorewrought are ever vigilant for any lapse in their patron. Should they become tainted by thoughts of peace or treachery, or try to deny the Gorewrought of their rightful dues of blood and skulls, the chains bound to their souls take on physical form. They wrap around their body until even breathing becomes laboured, let alone movement. Then does the real punishment begin.
Dragging their former commander behind them in a grotesque parade, the Gorewrought fall upon that which they hold dear, that which they sought the services of the Gorewrought for in the first place. Loved ones are executed by axe, armies to be lead to glorious conquest decimated, even entire cities put to the torch, all with the same brutal efficiency that the Gorewrought displayed fighting for their patron. They force their charge to watch as they do these things, to ensure that the lesson is driven home; they could never have cheated the Blood God. They have brought this upon themselves.
With the lesson complete, the Gorewrought drag their former patron into the Realm of Khorne, to be taken to the Soul Forges and shaped into another metal link for their chains, given just enough sentience to scream soundlessly at those that come after them not to make the same mistake.
But their warnings fall on deaf ears. Only the Gorewrought can hear them, and the only reply they give is silence.
Many Gorewrought are in the employment of the Desrakian Dominion of the Windless Plains, serving as the personal bodyguards of the ruling dynasty as per their original compact with the founder of the Dominion, Brasslord Desrakian Khrodes. They have also given the dynasty legitimacy in the eyes of other Khornates, as only those truly devoted to Khorne could enjoy the service of such volatile mercenaries for so long.
This employment almost ended with the Second Battle of Kha’ihvan Plains, where a combined force of Wardens of Burden, Blackhammers and Star-Beckoners delivered a crushing blow to the invading Dominion army led by Brasslord Desraki Chawsit. The shock of the Wardens of Burden’s Dracoth and Stardrake assault was so great that, for the first time in centuries, a Brasslord of the Dominion fled the battlefield, prompting the Gorewrought to drag Chawsit into Khorne’s Realm for punishment. Their absence cemented the Stormcast victory and made the Desrakian Dominion easy prey to Tcimmera‘s counter-invasions, liberating much land from the Khornates.
To the despair of the newly-freed people, Desraki Rickad has resecured the Gorewrought’s services. He has been crowned as Brasslord of the Desrakian Dominion thanks to the military might and legitimacy the Gorewrought have given him. Few outside the Dominion know of Rickad’s immediate plans, but if he wants to retain the Gorewrought it will inevitably end in blood.
