Characters / Total War: Warhammer - The Chaos Dwarfs

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"Fire and iron!"

"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."

The Chaos Dwarfs, known in Zharralid as the Uzkul-Dhrath-Zharr (or simply Dhrath-Zharr or Dhrath), and in Khazalid as Dawi-Zharr (literally "Fire-Dwarfs"), are an industrious, dark-souled and merciless race of slavers and brutal killers that dominate the dark and cheerless landscape of the Dark Lands to the east of the Old World. Long separated from their fading kin of the west, the Chaos Dwarfs have given themselves over to their dark master Hashut, the daemon-god of fire, greed and tyranny.

The Chaos Dwarfs are the darkness and evil of the Dwarf race given form, as Chaos slowly mutates 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 Dwarfs 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 infernal warmachines the mortal world will ever know, hulking cannons the size of houses or shrieking rockets that could obliterate entire villages into ruins. 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.

Introduced in Total War: Warhammer III's Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs expansion, the Chaos Dwarfs are playable in campaign mode, custom games and multiplayer.

NOTE ON SPELLING: In Warhammer, it's spelt Dwarfs and Dwarfen, not Dwarves and Dwarven.

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General Tropes

Disciples of Hashut

The Legion of Azgorh

The Warhost of Zharr

• Achilles' Heel:
  • On the campaign, their minor settlements are important but undergarrisoned, leaving them extremely vulnerable unless defensive armies are nearby. As mentioned under Unstable Equilibrium, losing enough of them will cause their entire economy to crash and break their metaphorical legs even if they retain all their major settlements, something no other faction is nearly as susceptible to.
  • In battle, large units. Wile they have some anti-large units, those are very few and very expensive, making it difficult for Chaos Dwarfs to fend off monsters and cavalry without spending tons of resources or hoping that your labourers and hobgoblins were able to keep the big foes bogged down long enough for guns to soften them up.
• Animal Motif: Bulls are the sacred animal of Hashut, and the Father of Darkness is often depicted as a great fiery bull wreathed in smoke. In addition to this, the guardians of his temples are bull-bodied centaurs and sacrifices to Hashut are often immolated within great brass bovine statues.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Their non-Chaos brethren are the focus of quite a lot of Chaos Dwarf hatred, holding a special place in their dark hearts from the Chaos Dwarfs' abandonment that led to them joining Hashut. The feeling is absolutely mutual, and even mentioning the Dawi-Zharr is a race-wide Berserk Button for all Dwarfs. The Realm of Chaos campaign has the Dhrath-Zharr steal Ancestor relics of the Karaz-Ankor Dwarfs to empower their drill.
  • On a more personal level, the Black Orcs, in particular Grimgor Ironhide, are despised for leading the slave revolt that nearly crippled the Chaos Dwarfs once upon a time. With all three Chaos Dwarf factions starting in close proximity to Grimgor in Immortal Empires, they'll have the opportunity to try and settle that grudge early on.
• Artificial Limbs: As the use of magic slowly turns Chaos Dwarfs to stone over time, starting with their extremities, many of Sorcerer-Prophets wear powered exoskeletons to help move their partially petrified limbs. Once the transformation reaches a certain point, the limbs are often removed and Magitek artificial limbs are grafted to the Sorcerer’s body as a replacement.
• Bad Boss: The Chaos Dwarfs care not one bit for the well-being of their slaves, seeing them as nothing but tools to be discarded once they outlived their usefulness. Slaves are worked to death, punished harshly for petty reasons (or just for the fun of it) or happily sacrificed to their forges and when conscripted to battle they are sent to the front lines with no armour, making them easy prey to range fire. In-game, orc and goblin slaves, whilst higher in unit size, have worse stats compared to their free kin, likely as a result of their extremely harsh treatment from their masters.
• Beard of Evil: Chaos Dwarfs tend to have strange, creepy beard designs, shaping them into tentacle-like curls adorned with skulls or capping their moustaches with metallic tusks.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: The Chaos Dwarfs are what the Dwarfs fear they could become if they abandoned what they hold most dear. Namely tradition, honor, isolation from other races, and suspicion of magic. Inverted from their perspective; the Chaos Dwarfs view themselves as having evolved past their hypocritical kin.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Hobgoblins are natural hunchbacks: They have evolved a large cluster of bone and muscle on their backs that (partially) shields them from stab wounds there. No other goblin subspecies share this particular development, which speaks volumes as to which ways hobgoblins have diverged from their kin.
• Black Speech: Unlike their uncorrupted kin, the Chaos Dwarfs speak solely in a dark dialect of Khazalid, coined Zharralid. Hobgoblin units also speak Zharralid, further differentiating them from their enslaved cousins. There is, however, some crossover between the two languages.
  Chaos Dwarf lord you are at war with: Ek wazzock?
• Born in the Saddle: Hobgoblins are a variant with wolves instead of horses. Although they have infantry as well, they're chiefly a culture of nomadic wolf riders who live much of their lives, and do most of their fighting, from the backs of their savage mounts.
• Brutish Bulls: Their chief Animal Motif. Hashut is a horned, bull-like daemon god whose image is plastered everywhere in their domain, and their armies include Bull Centaurs, bat-winged Great Taurus, and Lammasu.
• The Bus Came Back: A complicated example. The Chaos Dwarfs were playable up till the 4th edition of the tabletop, in which they became permanently shelved by Games Workshop, barring mentions and appearances in the lore. The Forgeworld supplement, Tamurkhan: The Throne of Chaos, however, made a specific sub-faction of Chaos Dwarfs a playable army list, the Legion of Azgorh, who were quite different compared to the original. Total War is the first time the original Chaos Dwarfs are playable again, and has brought in all the elements introduced by Throne of Chaos, including the Legion.
• Cannon Fodder: Due to their small numbers, the Chaos Dwarf military often rely on conscripted slaves to soften the initial attack for their more elite Chaos Dwarf infantry. This is reflected by their Greenskin slaves having the expendable trait, meaning that regular Chaos Dwarf units will not suffer morale penalties over their meatshields routing. In fact, this extends to any non-slave units (like Hobgoblins or allied auxiliaries) the Chaos Dwarfs can acquire, as Chaos Dwarf units have the "Contempt" trait, effectively the inverse of Expendable: It allows them to ignore the morale penalty from seeing any other unit rout unless the routing unit also has Contempt (i.e. is another Chaos Dwarf).
• Casting a Shadow: The Lammasu is a creature naturally attuned to the Lore of Shadows. This is reflected by having The Enfeebling Foe and The Withering as bound spells. It is notable for being the only unit in the Chaos Dwarf army with access to any spells from this lore.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Hobgoblins are well known for having loyalties as reliable as a chocolate teapot. It has gotten to the point where hobgoblins had to evolve thick bone-plates in their backs just to make backstabbing more difficult! While the game won't actually have your troops turn on you this is referenced by Hobgoblin Legendary Hero Gorduz Backstabber occasionally living up to his name and stealing resources.
• A Commander Is You: Numbers-wise, Spammer for the Labourers and Hobgoblins and Elitist for the Chaos Dwarfs and Bull Centaurs; mechanics-wise, Industrial and Gimmick. Like some other races, they have unit caps on the actual Chaos Dwarf units, and to that end, the backbone of their military will mostly consist of large numbers of Greenskin fodder. Their campaign, in turn, hinges on the management of different types of resources that allow them to do things like upgrade their buildings and increase the unit cap on their more advanced, powerful units. Also, unlike every other race, they do not upgrade their settlements with Population Surplus, instead using Raw Materials. This allows them to rush to higher building tiers if they have the resources stockpiled.
• Conlang: The Dawi-Zharr's language is called Zharralid (or Fire Tongue), a dialect derived from the Dwarfen Khazalid combined with the Dark Tongue of Chaos. In-game, the voice lines of Chaos Dwarf, Hobgoblin and Lammasu units are spoken exclusively in Zharralid, with only Goblin and Orc Laborers uttering lines in English.
• Cool Train: The Iron Daemon and The Skullcracker, a pair of hellish trains on wheels that can be equipped with separate siege weapon units in order to make them even more deadly, durable and mobile.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Nearly the entire Chaos Dwarf roster and spell list is specialized for mulching infantry, which they do with terrifying efficiency. However, they in turn have relatively few counters against larger targets. For example, of all their formidable artillery, only one (the Deathshrieker rocket launcher) specializes in taking out monster-size targets and then only with its alt-firing mode selected.
• Cyborg: Chaos Dwarf sorcerers remove any of their limbs that turn to stone due to the use of magic, replacing them with mechanical prosthetics.
• Deal with the Devil: Believing that the Ancestor Gods had forsaken them, the dwarfs of the east struck a pact with Hashut to survive the horrors of the Great Catastrophe. In return for obedience and bloody ritual sacrifices, Hashut gifted the corrupted dwarfs with an unnatural capacity for magic.
• Dehumanization: This is why their slaves are referred in-game as "labour," because to Chaos Dwarfs, they are nothing more than a resource to be used and even calling them "slaves" is an unnecessary degree of humanization.
• Dying Race: Downplayed, despite what you might think. Due to a large variety of factors (such as the already small fertility amidst the general Dwarf race, and the fact Chaos Dwarfs are cursed with a larger than average amount of Death by Childbirth) the total Chaos Dwarf population is small; however, it's been noted that the amount of Chaos Dwarfs has been increasing steadily over the centuries, the reverse of the situation with their estranged Dawi cousins, though they still can't afford to be reckless with their own lives. The overall population scarcity is reflected by Chaos Dwarf units having Arbitrary Headcount Limits - the majority of any Chaos Dwarf army will be composed of Hobgoblin vassals and Greenskin slaves. Also their settlements don't upgrade by population surplus but by raw materials.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Very early. The first appearance of the Chaos Dwarfs in the series was a small role as the artillery crew for the Hellcannon, a unit from the Warriors of Chaos roster in the original Total War: Warhammer. It would not be until Total War: Warhammer 3, many years later, that they finally became a faction in their own right.
• Elite Army: Similarly to the Tomb Kings, the Chaos Dwarfs have unit caps on their more advanced units — in this case, the Chaos Dwarfs themselves. Filling an entire army with units early on will mean most of it being Greenskins, which can be sent to tie up the enemy while the limited Chaos Dwarf units deliver the killing blow.
• Elite Mooks: Most of the actual Chaos Dwarf units in the army are this per the unit cap system, but even among them there are the Infernal Ironsworn. Heavily armored, with Expert Charge Defense and Hell-Forged Weapons that give them Magical Attacks and Fire Attacks, they are the Chaos Dwarfs equivalent of Dwarf Ironbreakers.
• Elves Versus Dwarves: Double Subverted. The Dawi-Zharr were separated from the Dwarfs before the War of the Beard which tore the Dwarf-Elf alliance apart, so they do not especially have antipathy for Elves, adopting more of a Hates Everyone Equally approach with the other races of the world. However, Dark Elf corsairs frequently butt heads with them in the Dragon Isles to the south, so they actually come into conflict very often. Also, as Elven slaves can be bled and flayed to produce alchemical reagents, the Chaos Dwarfs have a practical reason to antagonize them.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Downplayed, in that it's not so much "equal opportunity" as much as "opportunity to do anything except die". The Dwarfs of the World's Edge Mountains kill Greenskins on sight, but the Chaos Dwarfs employ them as slaves. The tenuous neutrality between the Chaos Dwarfs and the Hobgoblin Khans is the closest any Dwarfs have come to a diplomatic relationship with any Greenskins.
• Evil Counterpart Race: Like the Dark Elves to the High Elves and the Norscans to Old World humans, the Chaos Dwarfs are a warped parody of the noble Dwarf race, embodying their race at their absolute worst — Their famous craftsmanship has been turned to forging daemonic weapons of war, their runes have been discarded in favour of Black Magic, and the typical Dwarfish need for culpability and vengeance has caused the Chaos Dwarfs to blame their western kin for the circumstances of their fall. Naturally, their mere existence is an unending shame in the eyes of the Karaz Ankor, who refuse to even hear them mentioned in their presence.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: The Chaos Dwarfs are heavily associated with fire, particularly in the context of Industrialized Evil, and their god Hashut is a god of fire. Even their name for themselves, the Dawi Zharr, means "Dwarfs of Fire" in Khazalid.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family:
  • Played straight in general. The Chaos Dwarfs' role as a manufacturer of daemonic weapons means they enjoy relatively good relations with other Chaos factions. Indeed, their first appearance in-game was in a Warriors of Chaos unit, manning their artillery. The Dhrath-Zharr are also fairly tightly knit in their own society, and even have a dedicated mechanic for non-violent confederation with the other factions.
  • Aggressively averted with the Greenskins. Chaos Dwarfs regularly attack and enslave them and despise the Black Orcs for breaking free of their control.
• Eviler than Thou: To the Greenskins, as the Chaos Dwarfs enslaved many orcs and goblins and use them in battle as cannon fodder.
• Evil Sorcerer: The main thing that separates them from their regular Dwarf cousins is that they channel the Winds of Magic more conventionally, thanks in part to their worship of Hashut. They can typically channel one of four Magical Lores — Fire, Death, Metal and their unique Lore of Hashut. Not only is this common practise, but the majority of positions of power are held directly by Sorcerers and Sorcerer-Prophets. However, it doesn't come without a cost — because Dwarfs were never designed to use the Winds of Magic in this way, any Chaos Dwarf who walks the path of the Sorcerer is doomed to slowly turn to stone over the course of their lifetime. The process can be delayed or denied but never prevented for good.
• Evil Stole My Faith: The Chaos Dwarfs became what they are when they became wrathful at the Ancestor Gods for not saving them after they were isolated from the rest of Dwarf kind. Subverted a bit in that, instead of giving up on faith entirely, they simply found a new Religion of Evil.
• Evil Virtues:
  • Despite becoming corrupted and twisted, the Chaos Dwarfs maintain many Dawi traits that makes them all the more dangerous, such as their stubborn determination to survive at any cost. Chief amongst these, however, is their sense of community and filial piety: While Chaos Dwarfs can and will engage in vicious power struggles to gain Hashut's favour, unlike other Disorder factions these struggles are usually non-lethal (as long as the loser is deemed sufficiently useful) and will, at most, lead to the loser being Reassigned to Antarctica. Similarly to the Empire and Bretonnia the Chaos Dwarfs have a unique confederation mechanic, tied to your faction's status in Zharr-Naggrund, allowing you to guaranteed Confederate the other Chaos Dwarfs factions peacefully.
  • Unlike their non-corrupted kin where the only outcome for dishonor is becoming a Slayer (which will eventually result in their death no matter what prey they escalate to), the Chaos Dwarfs can earn redemption after a severe screw up or dishonor if they take to their redemption with enough gusto and/or do a particularly noteworthy deed. Dawi-Zharr that can have their Infernal Legion faceplates removed are even celebrated as heroes among their kin for surviving the Legion and proving themselves worthy.
• Expy: Of Isengard. A people closely allied with but not an actual part of the Big Bad's army ruled from an evil, land-defiling tower ruled by an evil sorcerer that is the most technologically advanced faction in the setting, supported by orc slaves. They also created a bigger, stronger, and smarter orc via a breeding program involving magic (The Uruk-hai and the Black Orcs, respectively). They are also reminiscent of Pan Tang from The Elric Saga, as a Chaos-worshiping, vaguely Persian/Indian nation of sorcerers from a race that is not known for using magic.
• Facial Horror: Infernal Guards are forced to hide their faces along with their shame, and as such their Infernal Guard helmets are literally welded to their faces to prevent them from taking them off while they are still in service. If they complete their tour of duty and receive an honourable discharge, the helmet is cut from their face and allows the dwarf to be seen again. This is shown with the Infernal Castellans who have plenty of scars and burnmarks on their faces after their masks were pulled off.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • To Ancient Mesopotamia and Babylon — Chaos Dwarfs have armour coloured and stylized like that of the Fertile Crescent civilisations, and a similar style of black hair and curled beards. The religion of Hashut is akin to a corrupt take on Zoroastrianism. They also command Lammasu in battle. Their culture as brutal slavers who build sacrificial pyramids, and an empire centred around one massive fortress city, strengthen the connection.
  • Between their penchant for technologically-advanced superweapons, industrialized slave economy, their racist supremacism driving them to conquer and subjugate other peoples, and throwing undesirables in furnaces, you can easily make the case that Chaos Dwarfs are effectively the Warhammer equivalent of Nazis.
  • Hobgoblins are an analogue to the Mongolians, given their predisposition towards riding, steppe-raiding against their Imperial China-inspired neighbor, Mongol-like helmets and armor, and the fact their leaders are called "Khans".
• Forced into Evil: The original Chaos Dwarfs only turned to the worship of Hashut out of despair in the belief that the Ancestor Gods had abandoned them, along with the desperate need to survive. Which is pointed out in the beginning of their announcement trailer.
  "Forsaken. Abandoned to the dark. What choice but to follow the flame?"
• Foil:
  • To the Dwarfs, of course. Where the Dawi (referred to disparagingly as Dwari in Zharralid, as opposed to Dhrath for the Chaos Dwarfs themselves) are incapable of using magic except for runes, the Dhrath-Zharr are ruled by magic users and even have their own lore of magic. Where the Dwarfs abhor slavery, the Chaos Dwarf empire was built on it. Where the Dwarfs kill Greenskins on sight, the Chaos Dwarfs field them in their armies. Where the Dwarfs are extremely defensive and rarely act as aggressors, the Chaos Dwarfs are constantly harassing their neighbors in order to enslave them. Where the Dwarfs are hardcore traditionalists that value the old ways above all else, the Chaos Dwarfs have abandoned the old ways and believe they are better for it.
  • This also goes a bit extra for The Infernal Guard who are one for the Slayers, both being a group of warriors tasked with regaining lost honor through suicidal missions:
    • Where Slayers wear no armor outside of pants and shoes, the Infernal Guard are decked out in hefty armor better than that of most of their kin.
    • Slayers are expected to only ever use melee weapons, mostly axes, wile the Infernal Guard can use a wider variety of arms, including guns.
    • Slayers tend to go on their own or travel in smaller groups in order to find foes to give them a worthy death. Joining an army in battle is not obligatory, but it gives a good opportunity to find something tough enough to kill them. The Infernal Guard, however, are part of a strict military structure and always move in large squads.
    • Being a Slayer is a personal decision that the dwarf took themselves to absolve them of of disgrace they have brought upon themselves through their own actions (although, by human standards it can come off as a serious case of Serious Business... ). Being turned into a member of the Infernal Guard, however, is entirely a command by your superiors that you are forced into doing unless you want to die horribly. And the reasons that one can be forced into joining the guard can be incredibly petty, even by regular dwarfen standards!
    • Slayers can only ever earn redemption in death (or by letting someone else take the Slayer Oath in their stead, but many dwarfs who have done this consider the act so dishonorable that they end up taking the Slayer Oath again). Infernal Guard, despite being part of a culture with a Religion of Evil, can earn back their place in society and bear their scars as badges of honor that prove their worth.
  • To the Skaven, as another evil race worshiping a minor Chaos Deity. Whereas the Skaven are backstabbing to the extreme, reckless, cowardly and treacherous, Chaos Dwarfs are cold, pragmatic, and have a strict social hierarchy and society. The difference can be best exemplified by their war machines: Skaven engineers think of safety regulations as jokes and see no problem making extremely powerful but unreliable machinery as long as they personally aren't in the vicinity when the devices ineviatably malfunction, and any other Skaven that die are considered a benefit (either a superior is killed, giving an opportunity to climb in ranks, or an underling or rival dies, removing a potential threat to their power). Chaos Dwarfs retain their uncorrupted kin's perfectionism in their craft, pride themselves on making reliable instruments of murder and abhor taking the life of another Chaos Dwarf (hell, getting a fellow Chaos Dwarf killed by one's creation is one of the quickest ways to the Infernal Guard.)
• Forgiveness: One of the few places where the Chaos Dwarfs are actually better than their uncorrupted kin. While being dishonored leads to assignment to the Infernal Guard in the Legion of Azgorth, honorably completing service in the Legion will see the legionary forgiven of all prior crimes. Contrast normal Dwarfs, who don't even have a word for forgiveness. Not that it stops Astragoth from demonstrating the price of failure with a sorcerer who screws up one too many times though. This is more Pragmatic Villainy than anything else - Chaos Dwarf numbers are low even compared to regular Dwarfs, so they need to avoid cutting down on them too much.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: In comparison to their uncorrupted kin, the Chaos Dwarf population is significantly smaller in size. This is a major reason why they can't field as many Chaos Dwarfs in battle and why they rarely (if ever) expand beyond the borders of the Dark Lands. To reflect this in gameplay, Chaos Dwarf units have unit caps.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • In lore, they won't take Skaven as slaves due to their crafty and backstabbing nature, seeing it as not worthwhile to employ labor that will take the first chance they can to rebel and take their masters out. In gameplay though, you can still get laborers from defeating Skaven factions. Mostly as an Anti-Frustration Feature, because if they adhered to the lore in this regard it would make fighting Skaven borderline pointless for anything except stealing settlements from them.
  • Hobgoblins are known in lore to betray their employers at the drop of a hat, sometimes for a better offer, sometimes for unclear reasons that only make sense to them. The hobgoblin units in-game are entirely loyal.
• God of Evil: The Chaos Dwarfs worship Hashut, a bull-headed minor Chaos God whose domains are fire, greed and tyranny. It was Hashut who gave them the ability to become Evil Sorcerers and other dark arts as part of a Deal with the Devil. His iconography can be seen everywhere in their roster, as well as all over the UI and architecture of their cities.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: The Chaos Dwarfs created the Black Orcs in search of a bigger, stronger and smarter kind of Greenskin that could serve them as overseers and elite slaves that could be trusted with tasks too advanced for normal Orcs. This backfired on them rather spectacularly; the Black Orcs decided to organize a Slave Liberation that almost destroyed the Chaos Dwarfs themselves.
• Had to Be Sharp: Like their cousins, the Chaos Dwarfs have a pretty small population; unlike them, however, they live in what amounts to a heavily polluted Mordor, and as such every Chaos Dwarf is given military training, from prospector to blacksmith, and can be mustered into a levy when a situation arises.
• Hellgate: An odd example that fits their Industrialized Evil aesthetic. Having found a weak point between the world and Hashut's Chaos Realm the Chaos Dwarfs want in to gather huge quantities of the Blood of Hashut. Other Chaos groups would probably try to open it with some great ritual with lots of chanting and the like. The Dawi Zharr prefer to build a massive Magitek drill powered by daemon corrupted Dawi relics and force their way between realities.
• Honor Before Reason: Downplayed compared to their more heroic kin — dishonor among the Chaos Dwarfs is almost certain to see one made a member of the Legion of Azgorh as a form of atonement. Unlike the western Slayer Cult, though, exemplary service in the Legion can eventually see one's dishonor forgiven.
• Horns of Villainy: Aside from adorning their helmets/hats with horns, Chaos Dwarfs grow horns from their heads as a sign of their Chaos corruption.
• Horse of a Different Color:
  • The most successful Sorcerer-Prophets may choose to ride into battle atop a Bale Taurus — an enormous red bull with dragon-like wings — or a Lammasu — a Chimera-like creature with a winged bull's body, a scorpion-like tail and a vaguely humanoid face with a massive beard.
  • Hobgoblins, like their smaller kin, ride Giant Wolves into battle.
• Human Sacrifice: And Dwarf sacrifice, Elven Sacrifice, Orcish Sacrifice... anyone who's on hand, really. Chaos Dwarfs frequently throw slaves into the forge fires for their god Hashut, which results in their souls affecting some of their blacksmithing. May or may not also count as an example of Blood Magic.
• Humans Through Alien Eyes: Chaos Dwarfs view all other life entirely through the lens of its usefulness as labor and sacrifice, the flesh and sinew component of their factories.
  • Orcs are easy to procure, tough enough to withstand backbreaking labor, and although aggressive fairly stupid and easy to intimidate. They therefore make excellent labourers.
  • Although weak, goblins are very easy to dominate and very easy to replace, and are thus the second most favored type of labourer.
  • Although fairly easy to buy and collect, humans perish quickly in the uncompromising conditions and environment of the Dawi-Zharr empire and are considered poor labourers.
  • Daemons might consider the proposition of slavery to a mortal race far below them, but they would be wrong. Chaos Dwarfs have mastered the technique of harnessing the souls of demons to their machines to infuse them with infernal might, proving that even these otherworldly beings can be made to toil for the greater glory of Hashut!
  • Dawii unfortunate enough to fall into the hands of their chaotic brethren will only ever be used as particularly celebrated sacrifices.
  • Most trolls are too stupid to take commands more complicated than 'it dat stuntie over dare', and therefore are no use on a factory floor.
  • The strength and toughness of ogres make them tempting targets, however their size and aggression (and their need for substantial food consumption) mean that only a few can be used at any one time.
  • Elves are too rare, frail and juicy to use as anything other than sacrifices.
  • You would think Skaven would make for perfect laborers; however the sheer treacherousness of the rat race makes them impossible to use without revolts breaking out straight away, and they physically are roughly as weak as goblins, meaning that there's no upside that would compensate their treachery. They are either killed on sight or thrown straight into the furnaces.
  • Chaos Dwarfs have no interest in the undead of any stripe, holding their daemoncrafting to be a superior form of automation over shuffling corpses. They will make use of them if needs be, appreciating their lack of need to rest and ability to work endlessly, but they aren't particularly sought.
  • Lizardmen are essentially unknown in the Darklands, as far removed from the place as it's possible to be. However it can be assumed that even if Skinks or Sauruses fell into the Chaos Dwarfs' hands, they would choose death over service to anyone other than the Old Ones without hesitation.
• Killer Robot: The K'daai Fireborn and K'daai Destroyers are, in essence, Magitek robots: they are metal automatons powered by the bound soul of a daemon, built solely for destruction.
• Klingon Promotion: Subverted. While Chaos Dwarfs will happily sabotage each other in brutal power games, the Dawi Zharr do not murder their superiors, just engineer scandals that demote them - as the Evil Virtues entry points out, they kept their genuine sense of filial piety and hatred of kinslaying.
• Industrialized Evil: Their entire aesthetic, even moreso than the Skaven. Zharr-Naggrund is not so much a city as it is a gargantuan factory complex, where the Chaos Dwarfs forge magical weapons, armor and siege devices with the aid of a massive slave underclass (who are frequently sacrificed in the process). The Warriors of Chaos are known to barter slaves in exchange for access to superior Dhrath-Zharr craftsmanship. Portions of Zharr-Naggrund's assembly lines can be seen throughout the Chaos Dwarfs' announcement trailer.
• Insistent Terminology: Slaves? No, the Dawi Zharr use Labourers. Calling them slaves would mean acknowledging them as people, rather than a resource. The resource isn't even called Labourers, just Labour.
• Language Barrier: Chaos Dwarfs do not drop Zharralid when they are talking to anyone else, signalling their contemptuous indifference to whether inferior races understand them or not. The game thankfully provides text translation.
• Language Equals Thought: Just like how Khazalid is missing certain words such as one for "forgiveness", the same can be said for Zharralid, which is also missing certain words such as one for "beg". Particularly noticeable when Zhatan uses the English (likely replaced by Reikspiel or some other Umgi tongue in-universe) word for it when being contacted by Dawi.
• Legion of Lost Souls: What the Legion of Azgorh essentially is; it's a cross between a warrior cult and one of the Chaos Dwarf Empire's only professional units of soldiery. A Chaos Dwarf dishonored in some way through screwups in society (ranging from truly disastrous like causing a daemon-forge to explode and kill your apprentices to laughably petty like being distantly related to a commander who presided over a defeat) is given the choice of joining the Infernal Guard or execution. For those who accept, their names are stripped from every known record, iron masks are welded onto their faces, and they're then given the almost suicidal task of patrolling and guarding the frontier of the Dark Lands. There is a slight mercy in that performing enough great deeds will generally get a Chaos Dwarf back in the records and either buried with honours if they died in the line of duty or allowed back into society, with the mask removed and the scars of it visible to all as proof of their atonement.
• Magitek: A particularly dark example, as the Chaos Dwarfs forcibly bind Daemons into warmachines to create living, magical technology. On top of this, they frequently make sacrifices to the forges, and their victims' souls often get infused into said technology as a result. The most iconic example of both of these at once is the Hellcannon, a cannon which has a will of its own because the Chaos dwarfs bound a Daemon of Chaos in it, and its ammunition is the souls of the damned. And if the cannon can't find enough souls to fire, they forcefully shove in some poor sod into it for ammo.
• The Magocracy: They are ruled by their evil sorcerers, which are also the prophets of their god.
• Mechanical Monster: The K'Daii Destroyer is a giant mechanical minotaur empowered by daemonic spirits and oozing molten metal from its body.
• Mesopotamian Monstrosity: The Chaos Dwarfs have a Babylonian aesthetic, live in the approximate equivalent of the Middle East, and field evil winged bulls in battle. Dwarf-headed versions are called lammasu and are powerful casters and manipulators, to the point where it's uncertain whether a Sorcerer or the Lammasu is in charge.
• Mordor: The Dark Lands are an inhospitable, arid wasteland choked with industrial pollution, populated by tribes of Greenskins, Ogres and Skaven, as well as all manner of monsters. At its approximate centre lies the smoking capital city of Zharr-Naggrund itself, where the Chaos Dwarfs forge their weapons of war with the aid of thousands of miserable slaves.
• The Napoleon: Like regular Dwarfs, the Dhrath-Zharr hate being called short. Unlike regular Dwarfs, Chaos Cwarfs have warped it into a full-on height complex, where they'll posture about being taller than their minions and political rivals. It's implied that this is why they wear their distinctive tall hats.
  Drazhoath the Ashen: You address the lord of the Black Fortress. When I say you are shorter than me, it is true.
  Zhatan the Black: We are tall. You are short. Ignore your eyes.
• Noodle Incident: Played for Drama. Dwarfs are infamously stubborn and fanatically devoted to tradition, and have a long history of enduring great tragedies and keeping to their traditions regardless. Whatever happened to the Dwarfs that became the Dhrath-Zharr was so horrific that it utterly shattered their faith in the old ways, and drove them into the arms of Hashut. It is never elaborated on what exactly happened to them, except that it involved being cut off from the rest of dwarfkind during the Great Catastrophe and left to fend for themselves.
• Odd Job Gods: All Chaos Gods that are not one of the Ruinous Powers have very specific domains. Hashut is the god of Greed, Tyranny, and Oppression.
• Our Centaurs Are Different: Bull Centaurs are a Chaos Dwarf subrace with the upper bodies of Chaos Dwarfs and the lower bodies of bulls, and long horns to match. They are just as cruel and arrogant as most Chaos Dwarfs but compared to the Centigors who accompany the Beastmen, they are much more intelligent. They are considered blessed by Hashut, and as such enjoy much favour from all elements of Chaos Dwarf society. The greatest amongst the bull centaurs are known as Taur'ruks, which serve as Hero Units in the Chaos Dwarfs' armies.
• Our Demons Are Different: K'daai are daemonic fire spirits that the most powerful of sorcerer-smiths bind into constructs of iron and bronze, creating powerful but berserk minions that destroy all in their path. K'daai Fireborn are monstrous infantry shock-troops that travel on serpentine jets of flame, while the K'daai Destroyer is a giant monster that resembles a robotic minotaur with an ape-like posture.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: So heavily Averted that it's nearly Inverted; as detailed above, they're practically anti-Dwarfs. Their culture is centered around magic and magical technology. They don't give a damn about traditions and are constantly innovating. Although they do have something like honor, they're perfectly willing to torture and backstab anyone in their way. They also do not live in the mountains anymore, instead building great, looming towers and city-sized ziggurats located on large plains. On the other hand, they do still have the classic Dwarfen stubbornness, fondness for massive beards, and exceptional craftsmanship. It's hard to tell how much Dwarf is still left in them.
• Our Goblins Are Different: Chaos Dwarfs are served by Hobgoblins, a subrace of Goblins who are taller on average and even more sneaky and treacherous than most. They act as a Henchmen Race for the Dawi Zharr, assisting in their conquest and serving as overseers for their countless slaves in exchange for favourable treatment and comparable freedom and trust. Other Greenskins hate and despise them, especially other Goblins, and will stab or shoot them on sight.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Perhaps a major reason why they even have the concept of forgiveness in the first place. Whilst the Chaos Dwarfs may scheme and backstab each other, they generally avoid killing each other because, due to their small population, such acts will only hasten their extinction.
• The Quisling: The Hobgoblins hate and fear the Chaos Dwarfs, but serve them in their quest to enslave everyone else (including their fellow Greenskins) because it gets them better treatment than the labourers. Them switching sides at a critical juncture allowed the Chaos Dwarfs to defeat the black orc rebellion, which is precisely why other Greenskins regard them with such contempt. In-game, Hobgoblin units speak Khazalid instead of the usual Greenskin language, further emphasising them turning their backs on their fellows.
• Removed Achilles' Heel: Through their Realm of Chaos campaign, Chaos Dwarfs Sorcerers discover they can use the mystical Blood of Hashut to avoid the petrification that usually comes from practicing magic, by directing the petrification to someone else than them, such as prisoners or their victims.
• Scary Teeth: A mutation common to all Chaos Dwarfs is a set of vaguely porcine tusks.
• Science Wizard: An entire ruling caste of them, even! While true masters of both crafts are rare, every Sorcerer-Prophet worth their salt is at least a dabbling engineer, and every Daemonsmith worth talking about is a sorcerer to some degree.
• Shedu and Lammasu: Lammasu are creatures native to the Dark Lands that occur as mutations of the more common Great Taurus, and are strongly associated with the Chaos Dwarfs as part of the latter's Babylonian aesthetic and prominent bull motifs. Lammasu share their base species' taurine bodies and batlike wings, but have the heads of distorted, monstrous dwarfs. In contrast to the Mesopotamian lamassu, who were benevolent protective spirits, the Warhammer Lammasu are manipulative creatures that use their charisma and magical abilities to befuddle their enemies and compel other monsters, such as wyverns and griffons, to do their fighting for them. Lammasu are most often encountered as mounts for Chaos Dwarf sorcerers, but many question whether it is the rider or mount that is the master in their relationship.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: The Chaos Dwarf Blunderbusses are quite the powerhouses, able to fire off tons of projectiles in a brief moment and deal hefty damage despite the short range. And in case something does get close to them, they won't be as helpless as the other two shotgun units from the Vampire Coast or Cathay due to their hefty armor and ok melee stats. Sure, friendly fire might be a problem, but we doubt you are going to mind if your labourers gets shredded along the enemy.
• Shrouded in Myth: Hashut's nature is much less clear than the other Chaos Gods. It's actually speculated in-universe that he's simply an Arch-Daemon instead of a full-on god. Considering the nature of divinity in the Warhammer universe, the distinction isn't very important; he's a god now instead of whatever he used to be.
• Slave Mooks: The vast majority of the Chaos Dwarfs' armies are made of enslaved Greenskins, most of which are commanded by Hobgoblins who, in turn, are subservient to the Dhrath-Zharr themselves. In-game, the majority of the lower-tier Chaos Dwarf units are composed of Orc or Goblin slave warriors, with the actual Chaos Dwarfs being Elite Mooks with population caps.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Slaves make the bulk of the Chaos Dwarf economy, as they are used not just for labor, but also used as sacrifices for the rituals of the Sorcerer caste along with being sacrificed to empower their weapons and war machines.
• Sorcerous Overlord: With a side order of Emperor Scientist. The Sorcerer-Prophets, Daemonsmith Engineers and other magic users all form part of the Conclave, a ruling council of magic users that is also the Chaos Dwarfs' central government, and are cruel, scheming tyrants and taskmasters who will gladly sacrifice scores of slaves and outsiders for the chance to further their own goals or undermine a rival. This doesn't mean there are no positions of authority available to non-magic users, but every seat of power with notable pull and influence is occupied by a Sorcerer.
• Taken for Granite: Even in their corrupted form, the bodies of Dwarfs were not meant to channel magic as other races do. Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers pay a harsh price for their gifts, as they slowly petrify to stone from the feet upwards. The main road into Zharr-Naggrund is lined with the inert statues of failed sorcerers who were unable to resist this curse.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Chaos Dwarfs and Hobgoblins have thinly-veiled contempt for each other most of the time, but historical events have led the two to work together on a regular basis. Still, the Dawi Zharr remain aware that the Hobgoblins would gladly betray them in a heartbeat if there was more profit in it than staying loyal, and the Hobgoblins know that the only reason their Dwarfen paymasters aren't enslaving them right now is that they're more useful free.
• Turned Against Their Masters: The Black Orcs, including Grimgor Ironhide, did this to the Chaos Dwarfs after their creation, before spreading into the world at large. This rebellion almost led to the complete annihilation of the Dawi-Zharr, who wisened up after it ended and now refuse to enslave Black Orcs due to them being too dangerous (reflected in-game by a lack of any kind of Black Orc Laborer unit). They now adopt a kill-on-sight approach to them instead.
• Unstable Equilibrium: Chaos Dwarfs do not rely on Growth to build up settlements nor do they care about climate, instead depending entirely on their multi-layered economy. Further, Towers can only produce gold without landmarks, meaning they need their poorly-guarded minor settlements more than any other faction. A single army that appears behind them in the early turns is enough to cripple them for the rest of the game by destroying these settlements, but if they can hang on long enough to field multiple armies and build up a stockpile they'll accumulate an ever-larger pile of bonuses that make them nearly impossible to stop.
• Villainous Friendship: Friendship might be a strong word, but the Chaos Dwarfs enjoy a strong business relationship with the Warriors of Chaos, freely trading artillery, weapons and armour to them in exchange for slaves and vast quantities of money. Given they retain the smithing skills of their brethren to the west with the added bonus of binding Daemons into weapons and armour to enhance their strength and add other properties, it's naturally quite an advantage for any would-be Champion of Chaos to gain access to their services. One can consider it a dark mirror to the friendship between regular Dwarfs and the Empire. This is reflected in the Hellcannon artillery unit being used by both Warriors of Chaos and the Chaos Dwarfs themselves.
• Was Once a Man: The worship of a Chaos deity has some drawbacks, and mutation has not spared the Chaos Dwarfs. Hashut transforms some of his followers into Bull Centaurs before they're born.
• We Have Reserves: Their army structure does this twofold: Orc and goblin Slave Mooks have the Expendable trait, so no non-expendable unit will be demoralized seeing them flee or die. Chaos Dwarf units, meanwhile, have the inverse Contempt trait, so they won't care when hobgoblins and foreign auxiliaries are subsequently sent to die, and will only get nervous when fellow Contempt units are routing.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Inverted. The Chaos Dwarfs are the ones giving the barbaric Warriors of Chaos their high-quality armours and weapons in exchange for slaves or resources.
• Worthy Opponent: They hate the Skaven almost as much as their cousins, but the Chaos Dwarfs also begrudgingly consider them this; respecting their backstabbing and cunning to the point they’re the only race they never take as slaves (killing them on sight). Their Daemonsmiths and engineers also admire the skill of Clan Skryre in warpstone-technology, considering their work almost as impressive as their own, if much less reliable.
• You Have Failed Me: Despite their greater propensity towards Forgiveness than the uncorrupted Dawi, as the Stone Mantle shows they aren't averse to flaying the skin off any apprentice sorcerer who screws up one too many times.

Legendary Lords

Astragoth Ironhand

Astragoth Ironhand, High Priest of Hashut

"Let the Blood of Hashut flow."

When Astragoth Ironhand was at the height of his powers, he was the most potent sorcerer-prophet to walk the Plain of Zharrduk in a thousand years. Now his powers have begun to wane. His body is slowly succumbing to petrification; his legs have long ceased to work and even his hands have now turned to stone. To an extent these have been replaced by the machinery grafted to his body. This engine was constructed by his slaves to plans created by Astragoth himself, and combines the undoubted skills of the Chaos Dwarf race with twisted dark science.

In-game, Astragoth leads the sub-faction "Disciples of Hashut". In Immortal Empires he begins on the skull-littered plateau of Zorn Uzkul, to the north of Zharr-Naggrund.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: Compared to the iron grey hair and beard his 'Eavy Metal model has, his hair and beard are a more silvery-white here to emphasise his age.
• Bad Boss: The Stone Mantle artifact is noted in the description to be made from the flayed skin of some of his former apprentice sorcerers, and is given out to others both to protect them and remind them of the price of failure.
• Dark Lord on Life Support: Astragoth has lost the use of his limbs to the petrification that plagues dwarf sorcerers, and he now moves with the aid of a mechanical exoskeleton.
• Evil Counterpart: To Thorek Ironbrow in-game and lore-wise also to Kragg The Grim, both he and the latter being the oldest living individuals in their fields.
• Evil Sorcerer: The oldest living sorcerer-prophet, wielding a composite of the Lore of Hashut and Lore of Fire.
• Faux Affably Evil: In several diplomacy dialogues, Astragoth attempts to project a kindly old grandfather image but he can't really hold back the cruelty and seething anger for long.
• Handicapped Badass: Astragoth is technically quadriplegic, as all four of his limbs have succumbed to the Curse of Hashut. Yet he can still move around using a mechanical suit, and he's the oldest and most powerful Sorcerer-Prophet.
• High Priest: Of Hashut, patron deity of the Chaos Dwarfs.
• Meaningful Name: He's called Astragoth Ironhand in reference to having replaced some of his limbs with cybernetics, as a workaround for the curse of petrification that affects Chaos Dwarf sorcerers.
• Science Wizard: Astragoth is different from most of the Dhrath-Zharr's ruling caste in that rather than specializing in either sorcery or science, he's equally great in both, being a powerful spellcaster as well as a very competent engineer. That exoskeleton he's using is powered by magic and was made using his own schematics, for example.

Drazhoath the Ashen

Drazhoath the Ashen, Lord of the Black Fortress

"Exile will never hold me back, Zharr-Naggrund shall witness my rise!"

For more than a thousand years, the dark, burning spire of the Black Fortress has stood sentinel over the crossing place of the River Ruin at the southern edge of the Mountains of Mourn and guarded the border of the Chaos Dwarf empire of ash and suffering. It is a nightmarish place of soot, blackened iron and jagged rock, and burning magma runs through it like lifeblood. For centuries the master of this dark demesne and the warriors and slaves that inhabit it has been Drazhoath the Ashen, a twisted, power-hungry creature and potent sorcerer. Drazhoath was first sent to the Black Fortress in effective exile after losing favour in the brutal politics of Zharr-Naggrund as a minor hell smith but has since risen to become its lord through his innate cunning and bitter, ruthless ambition.

In battle Drazhoath is both a mighty sorcerer and an able warrior who leads his war hosts from the fore, mounted upon the great taurus Cinderbreath, bringing fire and ruin down upon the enemy. Drazhoath's power has grown over the decades, and there are few sorcerers now in the service of Hashut who can match him in arcane might or knowledge in the creation of war machines and Daemon-binding. He also has undisputed mastery of the Legion of Azgorh - a potent army of Chaos Dwarfs and Hobgoblin slave-soldiers based at the Black Fortress, whose duty it is to raid across the river and patrol the savage wastes of the southern Dark Lands. But for all his power and the forces at his command, Drazhoath is all too keenly aware that he has reached an impasse and his black-hearted ambition can take him no further, for the Black Fortress is many leagues away from the centre of the Chaos Dwarf empire at Zharr-Naggrund and is ill-regarded.

In-game, Drazhoath leads the sub-faction "Legion of Azgorh". In Immortal Empires he begins at the Black Fortress in the Howling Wastes, mulling on his centuries-long exile.

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• Ambition Is Evil: Very ambitious and power-hungry, which is a big part of the reason Astragoth exiled him.
• Art Evolution: A minor example, but compared to his official model and artwork, Drazhoath's helmet/hat is noticeably taller in length.
• Beast of Battle: His personal mount is the Bale Taurus called Cinderbreath.
• Bowdlerise: His original tabletop model had two horribly burned and flayed victims of unknown origin◊ hanging inside of Cinderbreath's cages. In the game, however, it is just a pair of less unfortunate goblin laborers who still have their skin.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Astragoth would have sacrificed Drazoath to Hashut instead of sending him to the Legion of Azgorh if he wasn't such a talented sorcerer and smith.
• Evil Sorcerer: Much like the rest of the Conclave. Drazhoath is much younger than Astragoth is, however, and still has his own limbs.
• Magic Knight: He is more combat capable than most mages in the game. However, once he gets on Cinderbreath, he can honestly duel against dragons and come out on top!
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Fell out of favor with the rest of the Conclave when he was young and got booted to the Black Fortress, to oversee the Legion of Azgorh at the empire's borders. Even after rising to take total command of the Fortress, Drazhoath is aware that his political influence is limited, and he now seeks the Blood of Hashut as a means boost himself to preeminence.
• The Rival: He is Astragoth's, which is one reason why he's stationed in the Black Fortress, far to the south of Zharr-Naggrund and his rival.

Zhatan the Black

Zhatan the Black, Commander of the Tower of Zharr

"The weak shall toil for us, the rest shall die!"

Acts of the most cruel and heartless nature are everyday occurrences in the Plain of Zharrduk. Thousands of slaves endure unimaginable agonies in the pits of Zharr, mining out the poisonous wealth amidst choking fumes and impenetrable darkness. In the workshops of Zharr-Naggrund untold slaves are worked to death in their chains so that their masters can enjoy a lifetime of ease. The Hobgoblin overseers in the Vale of Woe beat their pitiful charges so that their flesh hangs from their backs like bloodied rags. Even amongst such wanton cruelty there is one whose deeds of brutality are remarkable: Zhatan the Black, commander of the Tower of Zharr.

Zhatan serves the Sorcerer-Prophet Ghorth the Cruel, most potent of all living Chaos Dwarf sorcerers. It is said that when Ghorth presides over the sacrifices of Hashut the only sound louder than the screams of his victims is the gloating laughter of Zhatan, his general.

Zhatan is kept busy by his master's insatiable demand for fresh slaves. The Chaos Dwarf has led many successful slaving expeditions to the west, crushing every Orc army that has dared to stand up to him. All the Goblin tribes between the Plain of Zharrduk and Mount Grimfang have bowed before his armies, sending thousands of their kind in tribute to the Lords of Zharr-Naggrund. The workshops and mines of Ghorth can scarcely keep pace with Zhatan's demand for weaponry. Every expedition he undertakes brings further slaves whose labours fuel fresh conquests.

In-game, Zhatan leads the sub-faction "Warhost of Zharr". In Immortal Empires he begins in the Stonesky Foothills, deep in the eastern Chaos Wastes.

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• Badass Normal: The highest-ranking Chaos Dwarf with no magical powers whatsoever, Zhatan is just an extremely skilled warrior, slaver and leader.
• Bright Is Not Good: He wears armor painted with bright red and yellow marks, with a gambeson dyed lapis lazuli blue; a Mythology Gag to his original color scheme but also a nod to the Chaos Dwarfs Babylonian origin. He is still a Chaos Dwarf, however, and ones that takes great amusement in the suffering of his victims.
• The Brute: The most violent, headfirst and melee focused of the Chaos Dwarf lords.
• Dragon-in-Chief: He is Ghorth the Cruel's second-in-command in the lore, but unlike him Zhatan is an actual faction leader and special character on the tabletop and in this videogame, while Ghorth is, and always was, a Supporting Leader preferring to stay in Zharr-Naggrund.
• Evil Laugh: He loves to laugh at the suffering of the slave caste. In particular, he laughs at his uncorrupted kin as they are being hauled away as new slaves in the announcement trailer.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Chaos Dwarf society doesn't just prize traits like cruelty, sadism, and domination, it centers their entire culture around them. So try to imagine the kind of personality that would earn a sobriquet that essentially translates to "the Jerkass."
• Sadist: He has alot of fun with the suffering of the slaves under him.
• The Team Normal: Among the playable Legendary Lords for the Chaos Dwarfs, he is the only one who doesn't use magic, compensating with special abilities and a selection of mounts.

Legendary Heroes

Gorduz Backstabber

Gorduz Backstabber

"Lucky git, lucky git, lucky git, lucky git..."

All fame is fleeting and all glory ultimately fades away. The renown of the Hobgoblin Chieftains tends to fade away more quickly than most, usually with the help of a dagger, poison or "nasty accident". Gorduz Backstabber has outlived most of the other tribal leaders, thanks to a naturally distrustful disposition and lashings of low cunning. As the hardened scar tissue that criss-crosses his massive bony shoulder hump testifies, his luck carries him far throughout the battlefield.

Gorduz Backstabber is a Legendary Hero, available to all Chaos Dwarf factions.

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• Born Lucky: Gorduz is very clever but still he's been in enough bad scrapes that he should have been dead many times over and yet still he stands. He even has a skill to represent this, providing bonuses to success on Hero Actions.
• Covered with Scars: His back is covered with scars from the various assassination attempts from would be usurpers
• Horse of a Different Color: Like you'd expect from a Hobgoblin of any stripe, he rides a Giant Wolf the same way a human would ride a horse.
• King Mook: He serves this role as he provides tons of buffs for hobgoblin units, making them viable even in the late game.
• Slasher Smile: All hobgoblins have wide mouths and Gorduz has his fixed in a sadistic grin most of the time.

Others

Ghorth the Cruel

Ghorth the Cruel, Sorcerer-Prophet of Zharr-Naggrund

The second mightiest of the Sorcerer-Prophets after Astragoth and the most powerful of Chaos Dwarfs politically, Ghorth the Cruel is the patron and master of Zhatan the Black. In-game he is the leader of the Servants of the Conclave faction, holding the black city itself as a neutral faction not directly supporting any of the Legendary Lords.

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• Evil Sorcerer: Like the rest of the Conclave.
• Mauve Shirt: He is a generic sorcerer-prophet in-game, albeit one who is immortal thanks to being a faction leader. This is much in line with his role in the tabletop, where he existed as Zhatan's master and little else while the latter was an actual Special Character.
• Supporting Leader: He is Zhatan's, much like King Kazador Dragonslayer is to Thorek Ironbrow. In-game he has no direct control over Zhatan's faction and can be Confederated by the latter.