Chaos Dwarf

"They wish to make the world a place of smoky darkness where hope and cheer are crimes punishable by immediate slavery and slow torture. Theirs is an endless greed that neither time nor wealth can ever abate. They committed blasphemy by turning away from the Ancestor Gods and practicing magic. Magic, I tell you! They are our greatest shame and they will be dealt with, in time."

- Cranneg Enlagsson, Dwarf Lorekeeper



The Chaos Dwarfs, known as the Uzkul-Dhrazh-Zharr, or the Dawi-Zharr, are an industrious, dark-souled and merciless warrior race of Daemonsmiths, slavers and brutal killers that dominate the dark and cheerless landscape of the Dark Lands. Long separated from their fading kin of the west, the Chaos Dwarfs have given themselves over to their dark master, and Chaos has worked subtle changes on their bodies.

They are the darkness and evil of the Dwarf race given form, slowly mutating even the notoriously resilient Dwarfen physiology, inflicting twisted terrors on their minds and souls so that they have become a spite-filled and calculatingly cruel reflection of what they once were. Unlike other Dwarfs the Chaos Dwarf are deeply learned in the sorcerous arts, and have become obsessed with the control of hellish forces and the fires of the deep earth, combining the dark lore they have gleaned with an artisanship and skill for metalwork and industry undimmed from their ancient past.

They build the greatest and most inferal warmachines this world will ever know, hulking cannons the size of houses or shrieking rockets that could obliterate entire villages into ruins. From their hell-factories deep within the Dark Lands, shielded by deadly mountain ranges and set amid desolations of industrial waste and the haunts of monstrous beasts, the empire of the Chaos Dwarfs has faded into legend to many in the Old World, but those forced to confront their implacable black-iron clad armies and savage war engines know the truth. The day may yet come when the armies of dread Zharr-Naggrund march forth once more, bringing their infernal warmachines to sow misery and mayhem to all four corners of the world.

History
Many thousands of years ago the Dwarf race moved northwards from its ancestral home somewhere in the Southlands. They moved along the high ridge of mountains known as the Worlds Edge Mountains, following the trail of mineral ores and precious gems. The Dwarfs spread amongst the mountains, driven onwards by their lust for the secrets of rock and metal. Over a period of many hundreds of years they dug shafts and excavated cavernous underground cities, they sank mines deep into the mountain roots, and constructed tunnels which carried them further north. Eventually, some time in the dim and distant past, the Dwarfs reached the upland region at the far north of the Worlds Edge Mountains which they called Zorn Uzkul or the Great Skull Land.

Here they found a vast and inhospitable plateau where the air was thin and cold and the rocks barren. Many turned back south to swell the growing numbers of Dwarfs in the Worlds Edge Mountains, others turned west into the cold lands of Norsca, but some of the most adventurous turned east and then south along the bleak Mountains of Mourn. At first these widespread Dwarf kindreds maintained contact with each other, but the eastern Dwarfs strayed far and when the Time of Chaos came the northern regions were cut off forever. The Dwarfs of the west believed their eastern kin dead, destroyed by the tides of Chaos that came from the north, but they were mistaken. Chaos did not kill the hardy Dwarfs, instead it worked a dreadful change upon them.

Father of Darkness
To survive the Realm of Chaos, the Chaos Dwarfs turned to the evil bull God, Hashut, whom they call the Father of Darkness. Hashut laid his “blessings” upon them and for the first time, magic users arose among the Dwarf race. The Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers now rule the rest of their people with absolute authority, for they are not only powerful mages, they are also the priesthood of Hashut. They are strange and tortured beings, greatly skilled at the blending of magic into their ingenious engineering, but cursed. Dwarfs were never meant to wield the magic of Chaos and the price they pay is the Curse of Stone.

Each Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer will, inevitably, one day slowly transform into an immobile stone statue. The change starts which their feet, which turn grey and useless, before progressing throughout the rest of their body. Many of them use their sorcerous engineering to construct new steam driven bodies for a time, but they too eventually succumb to the curse. Their immobile forms now line the road leading to the centre of their mighty empire, the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund, City of Fire and Desolation.

The tower is a terrible obsidian ziggurat that constantly throbs with the pounding of hammers and the screams of victims sacrificed in molten cauldrons to Hashut’s greater glory. It is the labour of generations of slaves, surrounded by mountainous piles of displaced rock from the mines that gouge the landscape surround the tower and slag from the countless forges of the Chaos Dwarfs. At the apex of the tower sits a vast temple dedicated to Hashut, which is watched over by the fierce Bull Centaurs. Bull Centaurs long ago mutated from Chaos Dwarfs, doubtless after Hashut had an influence on the race. They have the lower bodies of bulls and the upper bodies of heavily muscled but fanged Chaos Dwarfs. They are fearless and terrible, revelling only in the spilling of blood and glorifying the Father of Darkness. From then on, the Chaos Dwarf Empire continues to grow stronger and stronger for centuries.

Black Orc Rebellion
For centuries, the Chaos Dwarfs ruled supreme over the Dark Lands, their furnaces and workshops ceaselessly curning out infernal warmachines by the dozens, each one destined to bring only woe and misery upon the wider world. Fueled by slaves, the Chaos Dwarfs were masters of their own dark, twisted world until the day came when the slaves rose up in rebellion and nearly spelt the doom of all their kind. During that forgotten age, the Chaos Dwarfs grew wary of the constant animosity and infighting of their Greenskin slaves, and so sought a solution that will make them much more obedient towards their tyrannical masters. With the aid of dark magic and the selection of the largest and strongest of their Greenskin slaves, they magically bred the first Black Orc into existence.

If this story were true, then their experiment turned into a complete catastrophe, for their ill-fated attempt to create a more disciplined and highly coordinated Greenskin slave-force only made them the perfect leaders for their brethrens to rise up and topple their sadistic rule. The magical abilities of the Dwarf Sorcerors could never erase the strong sense of independence that all Orcs possess, and when the Greenskins rose up in rebellion, the great uprising that followed almost lead to the complete destruction of their entire empire, making it as far as the doors to the Temple of Hashut, the very dark heart of the Chaos Dwarf Empire. However, in their hour of triumph, only the timely betrayal of their Hobgoblin allies spared the Dwarfs from their complete and total annihilation.

Biology
"The Dwarfs would have you believe that they are immune to the taint of Chaos, but it is not so. It is true that their hardy constitutions resist the effects of the warping longer than Humans and Mutants are fairly rare among them. However, those that fall go far indeed. Their Mutants often have skin that seems to be made of metal or stone. A number of them have the shape of centaurs, like the Centigors that run with the Beastmen hordes, only they have bodies that resemble stunted bulls. When I’ve tried to discuss this with Dwarfs, reassuring them that I only wish to help them stamp out the taint of Chaos among their people, their reactions have been somewhat... extreme. Several times, I was told my head would be parted from my shoulders if I ever brought up the subject again, which leads me to believe that there must be more to the story. It is a shame really, their taciturn nature prevents them from employing my expertise to their advantage."

- Albrecht Kinear, Professor Emeritus at the University of Nuln



Physically, Chaos Dwarfs resemble other Dwarfs, for all Dwarfs are resistant to the influence of magic and so Chaos has not warped them to the gross degree it has some other creatures. Apart from their long tusks they display few of the mutations that Chaos brings. Some develop hull-like features, even cloven hooves and occasionally horns. These mutations are rarely seen amongst Chaos Dwarf Warriors; it is Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers who are most likely to show the effects of magic.

Unlike other Dwarfs, the Chaos Dwarfs are extremely learned in magic. The Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers run the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund. They are the masters of their race, directing the labours of the slaves and the conquests of the armies. The Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers are also the high priests of the Chaos Dwarfs' god Hashut, the Father of Darkness, whose burning temple sits atop the mountainous city. The iron statue of Hashut is wrought in the form of a gigantic bull which glows red hot with the heat of the burning furnace within its metal belly. The Chaos Dwarfs sacrifice captives to their god by throwing them into cauldrons of molten iron or tossing them into roaring furnaces.

If the influence of Chaos has worked terrifying changes upon the bodies of the Chaos Dwarfs this is as nothing compared to the transmutation of their hardy Dwarf minds. The traditional Dwarf values of stubborn determination, craftsmanship and industry have been twisted into a perverted mockery in the hearts of the Chaos Dwarfs. They became pitiless, macabre and cold-hearted creatures, devoid of mercy and consumed by a need to enslave and dominate everyone and everything they come into contact with, and from this need grew their empire. Year upon year, decade upon decade and then century upon century, with malevolent intent and monstrous patience the dominion of the Chaos Dwarfs has slowly grown. Down the centuries, their culture became as corrupted as their minds at every level, from their language and rune-craft, to the structure of their clans-and their worship -- all tainted by Chaos and poisoned by malice, but they are still uniquely Dwarfen in many respectS; loyalty, grudge and kinship stand as solid as iron, but mercy and weakness are intolerable flaws to be contemptuously destroyed. Not because of howling anarchy such as the Chaos' Human follwers, the unthinking savagry of the Beastmen or even the desperate, labyrinthine intrigues and vicious aggression of the Skaven. Instead, they are consumed with a grim, cold cruelty, greed and caculated brutality.

Government
"Where was Grimnir when our warriors were dying? Where was Valaya when our children sickened? When we called out for aid in the deep places where we delved, it was not Grungni who answered our call, but mighty Hashut who delivered us in our time of need. Who are the real traitors here? Our kin who abandoned us to madness and death or we who only sought to survive against the forces of Chaos? One day there will be a reckoning and it will be the Sons of the Father of Darkness who will have the victory, not the weak willed spawn of the pathetic Ancestor Gods."

- Mordian Slagfist, Chaos Dwarf Warrior



The Chaos Dwarf have no equivalent to a High King, nor any form of a central figure head. Instead, the delegations and running of their dark empire is usually run by a cadre of the High Priest of Hashuts. These Sorcerers rule over the Tower of Zharr-Naggrund as the lords and masters of the Chaos Dwarfs and high priests of Hashut. Their lore is deep and ancient, the study of machines and magic combined to produce arcane engines of power and destruction.

It was Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers who constructed the city in past ages, who carved its shape from obsidian and raised its dark towers and fashioned its massive gateways. They are few in number, probably no more than a few hundred amongst the whole Chaos Dwarf race. In the Temple of Hashut the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers meet in a great conclave of evil to make their plans of domination. There is no leader nor formal heirarchy amongst them, but the strongest voice belongs to the oldest and most powerful, for Chaos Dwarfs respect age and knowledge just as much as other Dwarfs. Each Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer controls part of the city, with its workshops and forges, slaves and warriors, as part of his personal dominion.

Empire of Ash
The domains of the Chaos Dwarfs has come to encompass the fire-scorched volcanic plain of Zharrduk at the heart of which Zharr-Naggrund sits, and like a black iceberg, its real extent lies not above with its armored ziggurats and fire-lanced temple's, but below the surface in countless miles of magma-lit delvings, cavernous chambers and vaulted mines which resound to the cries of tortured slaves and the ringing of hammers in an untold number of diabolic forges. For many miles around it, the Plain of Zharr has succumbed to-the hand of the Chaos Dwarfs. It is littered with the scars of vast open mines, fiery rivers of magma, ash dunes and stagnant pools of foaming yellow and blood red - noxious with toxic spoil and fortified workings and watch posts which line the great machine-crushed roads upon which countless slaves haul ore and plunder to feed the ever hungry city of the Chaos Dwarfs.

Beyond their heartland in the plain of Zharr, they have raised great fortress-citadels and towers to establish their dominion throughout the far flung and perilous Dark Lands, although no force, even one as brutal as the Chaos Dwarfs can lay claim to true sovereignty over this vast realm of accursed, monster-infested shifting ash-deserts. At the edges of the Dark Lands, the outposts and black iron watch-towers of the Chaos Dwarfs extend as far the great Desolation of Azgorh and the coastline of the Sea of Dread to the south and High Pass to the north, while Mkulak - the Place of the Skull, seat of the ancient Dwarf hold before the'Time of Chaos, is stillpopulated but is a strange, secretive place, and the bustling workings of its slave-port and anchorage hide an ancient inner-city that is little more than a heavily garrisoned tomb. Thy forbidden, lower levels of Uzkulak are shunned; even by its masters and to be consigned to its depths.

Society
"Fools all. They know nothing of our great work, of what we have accomplished. Our kin will never progress while they continue to look to a meaningless past for guidance. The old Dwarf empires all fell, doesn’t that seem like a significant sign of their weakness? Their adherence to ‘tradition’ will be their downfall. I have accomplished feats with cannons, steam, and magic that they can only dream of. My people are prepared for the coming times, aligned with those who will be the final victors. We will have slaves in abundance for our aid to the forces of Chaos and that is well for it is blood that greases the cogs of Hashut’s sacred machines."

- Vikram Flametongue, Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer



The Chaos Dwarf civilization has grown up apart from the influences and developments of the Old World and has acquired a distinctive character of its own. Chaos Dwarfs wear armour made from metal scales bound together with flexible wire that makes a strong but pliable defence. This armour is usually painted red. They wear extremely tall helmets which are as much a symbol of status as they are for protection. Depending upon his expertise a Chaos Dwarf's helmet can be a distinctive shape or may he decorated in a specific way. The most important Chaos Dwarfs wear especially large and elaborate helmets. All Dwarfs have thick beards and Chaos Dwarfs curl their beards in exotic styles. This makes them look even more ferocious and draws attention to their long snaggly tusks.

Fires of Industry


Chaos Dwarfs are master craftsmen, and their armouries produce an endless stream of armour and weapons, dark devices and works of daemon-fueled occult engineering. Much of this wargear, the lesser products of their craft - blades and steel whose quality still outmatches any mere human craftsmanship is traded northwards to the warring Chaos-touched tribes and eastward to the Ogre Kingdoms in return for slaves, for which the Chaos Dwarfs have an unending demand, rare metals and gems, and to slake whatever strange desires the Sorcerer-prophet's experiments might require. By this trade, blood is spilled across the world by their weapons, and in doing so the Chaos Dwarfs both enrich themselves and sow destruction in Hashut's name, and moreover they spread their insidious influence even further, gather intelligence in regards to their enemies and so bring their dreams of dominion closer, one drop of shed blood at a time.

The greater works of their hell-forges and the spawn of the dark intellect of their sorcerers, however, they guard jealously for themselves and it is on the bedrock of these malevolent engines, savage weapons and brutal sorcery that the Chaos Dwarfs' true power is foudned. Chaos Dwarf warriors are themselves equipped to the highest standard and every Sorcerer Lord arts and outfits their soldiers to their own design: and in their own distinctive livery. The majority of their troops are armed with masterfully crafted axes, vicious stabbing blades and barbed war-picks, and protected by heavy scale corselets of rune-hardened iron or bronze, tall helmets and heavy-metal shields.

The most potent wear so-called blackshard amour, forged with hellfire and blood, stronger than mere steel and phenomenally resistant to the effects of fire and heat. A significant number of troops are armed with firearms, from intricate Wheeh-lock pistols to the bratty, bladed fireglaive repeating guns. But the hailshot blunderbuss - a powerful, short-ranged weapon whose murderous fire is amplified when used in ranked fuselage - is the most common and iconic. This last weapon was developed to combat the near-limitless Orc and Goblin hordes that abound in the lands around the Chaos Dwarfs domain and has become the terror of the greenskins in battle, able to mow down the Orc charge and slaughter scores of howling Goblins in a single, thunderous firestorm of lead.

Whips of Slavery


Even though their numbers have shown a slow but steady increase down the long centuries in which they have carved their empire from the Dark Lands, the Chaos Dwarfs are still few, and are far outnumbered in their realm by those over who they claim dominion by virtue of might and cruelty — their slaves. The Chaos Dwarfs consider all life other than that of their own kind to have:value only as raw resource and fitting sacrifice, and to them the Muscle and sinew, and even the souls of those that bow and scrape at a gesture of their iron-shod hands and cringe before the stroke of their steel-barbed whips are no more than a commodity to be amassed, exploited and spent. Without slaves Zharr-Naggrund would not have been built and its vast industries could not be maintained, and even now, the neectfor fresh-blood and labour only increases with each passing year and the desolate empire always hungers for more.

If the Chaos Dwarfs' grand and sepulchral plans bow to any pressure for speed in their execution, it is this increasing need for fresh slaves that is the cause. Should the levels of `livestock' falter through disaster or over-use, and are required at the commissioning of any grand new design, the Chaos Dwarf warhost is gathered and a suitable target selected for despoil, while simultaneously' iron-masked emissaries go out to the tribes of dark-hearted men, - Ogres and even Orcs to barter razored steel for lives. This in turn can trigger fresh assaults and ravages far beyond the Dark Lands to feed the Chaos Dwarfs' tally, and captives taken in distant lands can eventually find their end drudging in the slave pits of Zharrduk or slaughtered upon its burning altars.

Unfortunate wretches of many races toil amid the poisoned air and burning ash of Zharrduk, and like the craftsmen they are, the Chaos Dwarfs prefer, when possible, to select the 'right tool' for the right job — from mutilated Elves flayed and bled to provide alchemical unguents to fettered and broken Chaos beasts from the Northern Wastes harnessed for their immense strength and tolerance for injury. But by far the most common slaves in the Chaos Dwarf realm are Orcs and Goblins, and this is not simply because they are native to the Dark Lands and its bordering mountains, but also because they are hardy creatures who will often last the longest in the noxious fumes and murderous conditions under which they are made to labour. Of these, the Hobgoblins have a unique and favoured place — as much as a slave might be favoured by such cruel and callous masters.

Perhaps the most distrusted, vicious and above all treacherous of Goblin kind, the Chaos Dwarfs seldom reduce the Hobgoblins to base toil but rather employ them as slave-overseers, lackeys and even as troops, providing utterly disposable reinforcements for their own forces, enabling a larger enemy army to be weakened without cost in Chaos Dwarf lives before they themselves move in for the kill. Hated by the other greenskins who would happily murder them if they could, the Hobgoblins of the Dark Lands have come to rely on the Chaos Dwarfs for patronage and protection. While they are so treacherously eager to betray each other for advancement; they are quite incapable of fomenting any cohesive rebellion against their brutal masters as they cannot even trust each other, making them in some ways the perfect slaves.

Humans too have their place among the slaves of the Chaos Dwarfs, as they are adaptable and quick-witted if though less durable than greenskins and considerably more unpredictable. As do Ogres, who are valued for their raw power but-always present a danger as their primitive, violent spirits can never be fully broken: Skaven are never taken alive unless to be worked almost immediately to death or used as paltry mass sacrifices, as they are simply too devious and the Chaos Dwarfs have learned from bitter experience that any group taken might well conceal untold spies, saboteurs and even deliberately infected plague-carriers placed in their midst. But of all the races to fall into the hands of the masters of Zharr-Naggrund, the darkest fate awaits their kin, the Dwarfs of the West. The fruits of the bitter 'malice of long, brooding millennia are reserved for the Dwarfs, and of all sacrifices to Hashut, none are more favoured than those loyal to the treacherous Ancestor Gods that have abandoned them.

Military
"Picture everything that is admirable in the Dwarfs; their great skill in war, their iron resolve, their dedicated craftsmanship, and their unwavering determination to survive and achieve their goals. Now take all of those traits and shudder as you see them employed at the service of Chaos. That is the horror of the Chaos Dwarf host. They are Dwarfs, but twisted into a foul parody of the noble warriors who have gallantly stood for so long at the side of the Empire. They have embraced the dark powers, willingly delving into the secrets of foul magic and losing much of what they once were in the process. As to what they’ve gained, who can say? Knowledge, perhaps, but many things are best left unknown."

- Eckhard, Nuln Scholar, Burned as a heret



Each Chaos Dwarf, in addition to being a craftsman or artificer, is also a highly trained and disciplined warrior, often with scores of years of battle experience to draw upon. This martial skill is matched only by their cruel desire to utterly crush anything that would dare oppose them and grind it under their heels. There are relatively few Chaos Dwarfs, and each and every one of them belongs to one of the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers body and soul. Chaos Dwarfs are an unnerving sight in battle.

They are brutish, grotesque figures plated in black or burnished armour of heavy plate and jagged scales, crowned with tall helms mounted with flame tongue spiked coronas or sharpened horns. Their livery is bright and bloody, and their distorted faces, if they are wen at all, are bestial and filled with malice. Their presence is intended to inspire fear in their foes, and they have lost none of the toughness or skill-at-arms of their western Dwarf kin. To them there are few greater pleasures than the bloody sundering of a foe be it by crushing axe-blow or the flesh-shredding volley of blunderbuss fire.

Yet, the true might of the Chaos Dwarfs does not come from their rune-etched weapons or blackpowder rifles, but from the massive warmachines that accompany each and every one of their army. In the creation of arms and diabolical engines of destruction, the Chaos Dwarfs of Zharr-Naggrund have no equal in the world save perhaps for the Skaven of Clan Skyre. Aside however from the superficial similarity of their desire to create ever more powerful devices, the approach and means to an end for the Chaos Dwarf and the Skaven could not be further apart. Where the Chaos Dwarfs favour craftsmanship and reliability over mere speed of creation, the Skaven care not for such considerations in favour of raw power and getting the device in operation as quickly as possible, however unpredictable the result or potentially fatal it is to the crew.

To this end the Skaven favour the use of the treacherous and potent Warpstone in their works, which while not unknown to the Chaos Dwarfs, they favour the arcane binding of Daemons through the sorcerous lore of Hashut in their most powerful devices instead. The end result can sometimes be no-less dangerous to the Hell-smith or crewman called upon to direct such a weapon, but to the minds of Chaos Dwarfs, such calamity that may result will be caused by the result of weakness or ill-discipline by the operator, or the will of Hashut, rather than chance volatility or shoddy workmanship.

This is not to say that one side has not kept a weary eye on the inventions of the other, or indeed sought to steal their secrets from the wreckage strewn on the battlefield, but such is the idiosyncrasies and inherent dangers in the two entirely alien approaches, that seldom has more than disaster and madness resulted from the attempts on either side. More cataclysmic still is when the war machines and infernal devices of the Chaos Dwarfs and the Shaven meet each other in open battle, as happened during the infamous `Nightmare ofDrakeurnoori in the year 2037 by Imperial reckoning. Such were the terrible arcanefor' ces unleashed between the actinic flashes of the Shaven Lightning Cannon, the howling destruction of the Chaos Dwarfs' hell-furnaced colossus, and the reckless devastating spell-craft unleashed by sorcerers and warlocks of either side, that a tear in the fabric ofreality opened up over the battlefield and a howling storm of magic laid waste to both armies. Daemon-abominations were loosed and nightmare phenomena ravaged the lands a hundred leagues in all directions for almost a year before the arcane tempest at last died away. Both sides claimed victory.

Chaos Dwarf Infantry

 * Chaos Dwarf Warrior -
 * Infernal Guard -
 * Hobgoblin Cutthroats -
 * Infernal Ironsworn -
 * Infernal Fireglaives -

Chaos Dwarf Cavalry

 * Hobgoblin Wolf Raiders -
 * Bull Centaur Renderer -

Chaos Dwarf Monster

 * K'Daai Fireborn -
 * Lammasu -
 * K'Daai Destroyer -
 * Chaos Siege Giant -

Chaos Dwarf Warmachines

 * Hellcannon -
 * Dreadquake Mortar -
 * Deathshrieker Rocker Launcher -
 * Iron Daemon War Engine -
 * Magma Cannon -

Chaos Dwarf Lord

 * Sorceror-Prophet -

Chaos Dwarf Heroes

 * Hobgoblin Khan -
 * Bull Centaur Taur'ruk -
 * Daemonsmith Sorcerer -
 * Infernal Castellan -

Notable Chaos Dwarfs

 * Astragoth Ironhand - Oldest Sorcerer-Prophet of Zharr-Naggrund.


 * Ghorth the Cruel - Current most potent Sorcerer-Prophet. Probably second in power only to Lord Astragoth.


 * Zhatan the Black - Commander of the Tower of Zharr, vassal to Sorcerer Ghorth.


 * Drazhoath the Ashen - Sorcerer-Prophet in charge of the Black Fortress. Leader of the Legion of Azgorh and the Infernal Guard.


 * Bazherak the Cruel - Castellan-commander of the Tower of Gorgoth during the wars against ancient Nehekhara.