Varghulf

"You hear the tales, but you never quite believe they're true till you see one of the things...You just assume its all peasant exaggeration, someone who saw a big bat or even an owl. This one, though, with its wings spread it was bigger than one of the supply wagon, great fangs like a pair of poniards. It swept out of the sky and carried off Sergeant Volg, horse and all...We saw them again the week after, Volg's corpse dry and white, the horse a walking carcass too, but both are still marching, still fighting, fighting for the other side..."

- Leohard, Mercenary



Varghulfs are those powerful yet devolved Vampire Lords that have since succumb themselves willingly to their most primal surges, turning their once human bodies into a creature larger and far more powerful in body, but weak in mind. Within most Vampires, there is a constant animalistic urge that can occassionally drive a Vampire to bouts of uncommon savagry and bloodlust. Such urges are what forces a Vampire to suck the blood of the living. Most Vampires who still want to cling to their sanity are often known to seek control of this side of their existence, and  in keep to their trappings of aristocracy and nobility.

However, there are some within their numbers that find little love for such noble life. Unlike those noble Vampires that have turned to Vargheist unwillingly, these few individuals have allowed the animalistic urge to overcome them, and in the process, destroy what was left of their former personality. These feral predators abandon their dark castles in order to run unfettered through the forest, hunting at the head of packs of Dire Wolves or flying Vargheist. Those who revel in such behaviour become physically changed beyond recognition by the Vampiric curse. Hence are born the creatures known to the peasant folk as Varghulfs.

Over the centuries, these devolved Vampires become blood-mad killers that exist only to feed. Like enraged, starved beasts, they run rampant, devouring whole villages in an effort to satiate their never-ending thirst. As well as devouring the living, a Varghulf will ransack graves and feast upon the bodies of the dead. A Varghulf has a monstrous body, swollen by this constant diet of red meat. Unbound by human form, a Varghulf is a contorted mass of packed muscle, giving it the strength to crush a chariot or bowl over entire ranks of those warriors foolish enough to try and pen it in.

Powerful legs and broad wingflaps allow Varghulfs to chase down their kills in swift, gliding leaps, and they can lash out at enemies around them with shocking speed. They use their immense claws to strip flesh from bone, the better to suck at the juicy marrow of their prey. A Varghulf's main weapon, however, is a wide mouth filled with dagger-like fangs capable of puncturing armour and crushing skulls. Other Vampires consider them no better than Ghouls, though the terrible changes wrought by their surrender to the rage within make them far deadlier in combat.

In battle, the Varghulf becomes a whirlwind of rage. Though voracious and unpredictable killers, Varghulfs are far from mindless. They do not possess the aptitude or inclination for sorcery of their Vampiric cousins, but their presence still acts as a conduit for Dark Magic, and they are able to reknit themselves with the raw stuff of necromancy should they suffer injury.

Source

 * Warhammer Armies: Vampire Counts (8th Edition) -- pg. 44