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—Mordian Slagfist, Chaos Dwarf Warrior
Long before Sigmar was born, even before the Great War of Vengeance, Dwarf colonies existed as far east as the Mountains of Mourn. During the first incursion of Chaos in the world, these colonies were cut off from the Karaz Ankor, who assumed they were dead. But they had survived only by the intervention of Hashut, Lord of Darkness, a minor Chaos God of greed and tyranny. Abandoning the old ways, they reemerged as the Chaos Dwarfs, or the Dawi-Zharr ("Dwarfs of Fire") in their tongue. Hashut not only saved them in their darkest hour, but granted them the ability to cast spells. However, because Dwarfs are not meant to wield magic, they slowly succumb to a curse that turns them to stone. Now they rule their cruel empire from their capital city of Zharr-Naggrund, a massive Ziggurat in the middle of the Dark Lands.
The Chaos Dwarfs were first introduced in White Dwarf Presents: Chaos Dwarfs, a supplement for the 4th Edition of the game. They eventually got a full-on army roster in 4th Edition, which was updated for 5th... before disappearing from the game except for a few token mentions in the lore. However, another supplement for 8th Edition called Tamurkhan: The Throne of Chaos featured a new Chaos Dwarf army called the Legions of Azgorh. They went through a bit of a redesign, as the two pictures to the right can attest to.
The Chaos Dwarfs have a vaguely Babylonian culture, trading the Nordic-style braided beards of their ancestors for tightly curled, "cord-like" facial hair instead. They make great use of chariots drawn by monstrous bulls. They also use blunderbusses and massive cannons. The Chaos Dwarfs are backed up by Orc and Goblin slaves, and their willing servants, the nefarious Hobgoblins. Their backlines are supported by insanely powerful warmachines and a wide variety of artillery. Finally, where all else fails, the Chaos Dwarfs can bring massive monsters to field including the hybrid Lammasu, the bull-like Great Taurus, the enslaved Chaos Siege Giants, and the artificial K'daai Fireborn and K'daai Destroyers.
- Artificial Limbs: As the use of magic slowly turn 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 grafted to the Sorcerer’s body as a replacement.
- Battle Thrall: A core part of any Chaos Dwarf army. The Chaos Dwarfs themselves are very few in number, so they mostly operate the artillery and cast spells, letting Greenskin, Giant, and Ogre slaves to do the dirty work.
- Beard of Evil: Chaos Dwarfs tend to have strange, creepy beard designs, shaping them into tentacle-like curls adorned with skulls or capping their mustaches 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.
- Brutish Bulls: They have a prominent bull motif, fitting their evil natures. Their god, Hashut, takes the form of an enormous winged bull with blood-red skin, and when the ancient Chaos Dwarves turned to his worship many mutated into bull-bodied centaurs. Further, their favored steeds are all some variety of monstrous, borderline demonic winged bulls.
- Dying Race: The Dawi-Zharr have the same Gender Rarity Value problem as their western cousins, but they have a much smaller total population, live in harsher conditions, and the magic users among them have a habit of petrifying. It's also implied that Chaos Dwarf women will sometimes give birth to Bull Centaurs and usually end up dying in the process.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The earliest appearance of the concept of Chaos Dwarfs was in 2nd edition, where it was simply mentioned that some northern dwarfholds had been corrupted by Chaos and turned to the worship of the Dark Gods; on the battlefield, a Chaos army could field up to 50 Chaos Dwarfs as characters, soldiers, or manning mortar and rocket launcher teams. In 3rd edition, this lore got fleshed out; they are stated to be a new phenomena, only 200 years old, being the result of dwarf communities from the northern World Edge Mountains being corrupted during the Incursions of Chaos in IC 2300. They look like regular dwarfs, save for their skin tending to be either extremely pale or greenish in colored, as well as their ability to have Chaotic Attributes (aka, mutations). Their numbers are said to be growing and they are characterized as a vibrant race, who have been conquering many of the uncorrupted northern dwarfholds. They have no special connection with magic in this iteration — all dwarfs can be wizards, but they're worse at it than humans. They fight as optional allies in a Chaos Army, though they can't be fielded alongside Chaos Orcs or Chaos Goblins, and can be fielded as warriors, berserkers, mortars, and rocket launcher teams. It took 4th edition to introduce their now-definitive lore as bull-worshipping Evil Sorcerers and creators of daemonic magitek that are separate from the standard Chaos pantheon and its hordes.
- Third edition also introduced the boar-centaurs, but unlike their subsequent bull-centaur counterparts, these get no special lore nor any special place in the Chaos Dwarf hierarchy; they simply act as muscle to push the 0-3 Chaos Dwarf War Machines that a Chaos army can field.
- 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 specifically.
- 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 Dwarves have come to a diplomatic relationship with any Greenskins.
- Equivalent Exchange: Since Dwarfs aren't supposed to use magic, Chaos Dwarf sorcerers gradually turn to stone.
- Evil Counterpart Race: To the regular Dwarfs. They have the same basic gimmick of being heavily armoured, few in number and using advanced technology, but are the exact opposite of them in terms of culture. The fact that the Dawi Zharr have embraced evil is an unending shame in the eyes of the Dwarfs, who to this day completely refuse to hear them mentioned in their presence.
- Evil Sorcerer: Almost everyone in a significant position of power in Chaos Dwarf territory is one, combining a talent for dark sorceries with a wicked intellect and a penchant for cruelty. It doesn't work out well for them anyway you slice it, though, because even if they survive the wrath of their people's foes or the politicking of their rivals, they will eventually become Taken for Granite and left outside as a lawn decoration — the price of using arcane magic in ways they were never supposed to.
- 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.
- Eviler than Thou: To the Greenskins, as the Chaos Dwarfs enslaved many orcs and goblins and use them in battle as cannon fodder.
- 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 both eventually create a bigger, stronger, and smarter orc via a breeding program that involves magic (The Uruk-hai and the Black Orcs, respectively). Saruman and Astragoth are both killed when their closest servant betrays them. Saruman receives a Karmic Death at the hands of a servant he abused and mistreated; the Chaos Dwarfs are eventually brought down by the hands of their slaves that they had abused and mistreated.
- They are also expies of Pan tang from The Elric Saga in being a Chaos-worshiping, vaguely Persian/Indian nation of sorcerers from race that is not known for using magic.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
- Their massive hats, sausage-curl beards, and their status as a malicious empire that enslaves the people it invades hearken to the accounts of Assyria and Babylonia. Less obviously, they bear a slight resemblance to Imperial Germany: black and red color scheme, heavily mechanized military, and hats with spikes on top. Some Chaos Dwarf artillery models included a commander with a monocle.
- The Hogoblins have elements of the Mongolians (living in the steppes, being Born in the Saddle, following "Khans", etc).
- Foil: To quite a few factions:
- To the Dwarfs, of course. Where the Dawi are incapable of using magic, the Dawi-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.
Within that comparison is an even more detailed comparison, being the institutions of the Slayers among the uncorrupted Dwarfs and the Infernal Guard among the Chaos Dwarfs. Both are comprised of individuals who've been dishonored or shamed in some waynote and take an oath to redeem themselves through a glory in an impossible battle. However, while the Slayers forswear all armor, hoping to die swiftly and honorably while giving a fight their best effort, the Infernal Guard are clad exclusively in heavy armor, which they are forbidden to removenote . Slayers may only find redemption in death, while Infernal Guard may, if they manage to do something sufficiently glorious in battle, remove their armor with the burn scars from the armor's application a sign that they have earned that redemption and are worthy of life. - They're also a foil to the Dark Elves: They are both an evil offshoot of an ancient race, but the way in which the Chaos Dwarfs are an Evil Counterpart of their "heroic" race contrasts with the way the Dark Elves are. The Dark Elves are, essentially, the worst elements of Elven kind exaggerated. The Chaos Dwarfs, on the other hand, are everything the Dwarfs are not. The Druchii see the ancestral homeland of all Elves as their birthright, while the Dawi-Zharr think they are forsaken by the Dwarfs and the feeling is mutual. The Dark Elves differ from the High Elves by using magic to a lesser degree and being more carnal and violent while the Chaos Dwarfs are more "hands off" than the Dawi, with access to powerful magic and Magitek artillery that the Dwarfs don't have. Lastly, the Dark Elves are an example of Evil Is Deathly Cold as they live in a frozen tundra while the Chaos Dwarfs live in a volatile volcanic region that embodies Evil Is Burning Hot.
- The average Warrior of Chaos is an insane, raging, barbaric Blood Knight. The average Chaos Dwarf is a cold, ruthless, calculating Chess Master.
- Both the Chaos Dwarfs and the Skaven are a treacherous race who field expendable slaves backed by horrific hybrids of monster and machine. Both factions are also monotheistic worshippers of a Chaos God that isn't one of the Ruinous powers, and both factions despise the Dwarf race. The biggest difference between them is that the Chaos Dwarfs are only duplicitous to further their own goals while the Skaven pride themselves on their ability to betray and are constantly backstabbing one another. Chaos Dwarfs depend more on use monsters to power technology where the Skaven graft technology onto monsters to make them more powerful. Skaven inventors consider safety regulations a funny joke more than anything and have no issue making faulty or defective warmachines as long as they personally aren't in the area when they inevitably malfunction, Chaos Dwarfs retain their uncorrupted kin's rigorous and perfectionist nature towards their craft, priding themselves on making efficient and reliable mechanical horrors (indeed, creating a machine that gets a fellow Chaos Dwarf killed is one of the quickest way to get sent to the Infernal Guard).
- The Chaos Dwarfs and Lizardmen are both multi-racial factions led by priest-mages who sacrifice sapient beings, but there are some major differences. The Lizardmen are carrying out the will of the Old Ones, while the Chaos Dwarfs are devotees of a Chaos God. The soldiers of the Lizardmen fight out of loyalty and duty, while the soldiers of the Chaos Dwarfs are slaves. And, while the Lizardmen generally aren't hostile to members of non-evil factions (unless they attack first), the Chaos Dwarfs are notorious for their warmongering ways.
- To the Dwarfs, of course. Where the Dawi are incapable of using magic, the Dawi-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.
- Gone Horribly Right: They wanted to make a Slave Race that had the brute strength of an Orc but not as dim. They got what they wanted in the Black Orcs and they promptly turned on the Dwarfs.
- Human Resources: Elven Resources, actually. Elves are flayed and bled for alchemical ingredients.
- Human Sacrifice: And Dwarf sacrifice, Elven Sacrifice, Orcish Sacrifice... anyone who's on hand, really. Chaos Dwarfs frequently throw slaves into the forge fires, which results in their souls affecting some of their blacksmithing. May or may not also count as an example of Blood Magic.
- Industrialized Evil: To an even greater degree than the Skaven, as the Chaos Dwarfs towers are also gigantic factories, producing endless amounts of weapon and wargear, ever forging, ever consuming materials and slaves. Half of the reason the Plains of Zharr are so hellish is due to the Chaos Dwarfs' polluting of the area for thousands of years.
- 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. The Kolossus, a massive Dwarf-shaped killing machine operated by several Dwarfs riding inside, is more akin to a fantasy Humongous Mecha.
- 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.
- The Magocracy: They are ruled by their evil sorcerers, which are also the prophets of their god.
- Mighty Glacier: The Throne of Chaos presents them in this manner compared to the Empire in terms of artillery and firearms. Chaos Dwarf cannons are extraordinarily powerful, more so than anything the Empire can access, and are entirely capable of smashing city walls and devastating entire formations with a few shots, but their war engines are meant for prolonged siege warfare and slow to reload and bring to bear. Imperial cannon can strafe its Chaos Dwarf equivalent multiple times between the latter's volleys, and Imperial mounted pistoleers are described as firing off their salvos faster than anything the Chaos Dwarfs had ever seen.
- 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 Dawi-Zharr was so horrific that it utterly shattered their faith in the old ways. It is never elaborated on what happened to them, except that it involved children getting sick and dying.
- Our Centaurs Are Different: Bull centaurs are creatures blessed by Hashut, born half dwarf and half bull. These monstrous, cannibalistic dwarfs are raised to be utterly devoted to the Father in Darkness, acting as guardians of Hashut's temples and as bodyguards for His Sorcerer-Priests.
- 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 dwarven stubbornness, fondness for massive beards, and exceptional craftsmanship. It's hard to tell how much Dwarf is still left in them. Ironically, despite their Mesopotamian aesthetic, all of this makes them more like the Dwarves from Norse Mythology: Greedy and capricious magical creatures that are closely connected to Goblins.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: Chaos Siege Giants are among the greatest weapons of the Chaos Dwarfs. Mutilated, half-insane behemoths encased in nearly impenetrable armor plating, they're difficult and terrifying foes to face on the battlefield.
- Religion is Magic: Hashut's priests are Sorcerer-Prophets.
- 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 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.
- Sinister Schnoz: As opposed to the bulbous noses of the Dawi, the Dawi-Zharr have long, hooked snouts that making them look a bit like goblins. This was toned down with their 8th Edition redesign, but they still have much pointier, more beak-like noses than their westward cousins.
- Slave Race: All greenskins they can catch, but the Black Orcs deserve a special mention for specifically being bred to control the other slaves. They rebelled themselves pretty quickly. Hobgoblins are an interesting example in that they are treated slightly better and given positions of authority over goblins and orcs, but are still expected to be utterly subservient to the Chaos Dwarfs in return.
- Taken for Granite: The consequence of using magic conventionally despite the biological flaws that make it impossible for regular Dwarfs is this. Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers slowly turn to stone over time, and once they do, they are placed outside along the road to their city.
- Terminal Transformation: Unlike their mainstream counterparts, Chaos Dwarfs have the power to wield magic... but unfortunately, use of their power comes with a hefty price tag: it gradually transmutes their flesh into stone, progressively transforming them into statues. This process cannot be reversed, and all indications are that those Sorcerer-Prophets who have succumbed to the petrification no longer retain consciousness - to the point that the statues that line the road to Zharr-Nagrund are specifically referred to as "remains."
- The Theocracy: Overlaps with The Magocracy. The Chaos Dwarf Empire is ruled by its sorcerers, who are also priests and prophets of Hashut.
- Tribe of Priests: The Bull Centaurs act as temple guards their entire lives. It is said that the Sorcerer-Prophets trust them completely, such is their devotion to Hashut.
- Turned Against Their Masters: The Black Orcs did this to the Chaos Dwarfs after their creation, before spreading into the world at large.
- Was Once a Man: Their worship of a Chaos deity has some drawbacks, and mutation has not spared the Chaos Dwarfs. Hashut transforms some of his followers into Bull-like creatures before they're born. The Lammasu are so far gone that no one is entirely sure they ever were Dwarfs, not even the Chaos Dwarfs themselves.
- We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: Played with. The Chaos Dwarfs are among the most advanced of the major civilizations, up there with the Empire and Skaven. Just like the Skaven, they love their slavery.
- Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: The Chaos Dwarfs trade their weapons and armor for slaves with the followers of Chaos, which explains how such primitive people have such masterfully crafted armaments.
Among the Greenskins, the Hobgoblins are a people apart. They rarely mix or intermingle with Orcs or other Goblins, and the other races deeply distrust them — and with good reasons; when the Greenskins first rebelled against their Chaos Dwarf slavers long ago, the treacherous Hobgoblins sold the rebellion out.
Now, the Hobgoblins chiefly live in their own nomadic society upon the eastern steppes, roaming as they will and engaging in cutthroat games of politics for rulership of their hordes between riding out against the armies of Far Cathay. However, they maintain a tenuous alliance with the Chaos Dwarfs, whom they often serve as auxiliary soldiers and slavedrivers. There is little love in this alliance; the Hobgoblins are no more loyal to their masters than they were to their fellow greenskins, while the Chaos Dwarfs hold them in deep contempt and view them as expendable cannon fodder at best. However, both groups are quite aware that they're otherwise alone among many, many enemies, and so their alliance continues.
- 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 wolfriders who live much of their lives, and do most of their fighting, from the backs of their savage mounts.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Species-wide example, as Hobgoblins are hilariously duplicitous even by the standards of Greenskins. They're so used to this that they have bony humps to prevent the worst blows from killing them.
- Dirty Coward: Hobgoblins never take a straight or fair fight if they can possibly help it, only facing foes if they massively outnumber them or if they have the Chaos Dwarfs' armies to hide behind. This is why the Orcs and Goblins hate them so much — they use subterfuge, which is taboo to other Greenskin races, and it's impossible to get a decent fight out of them.
- Dual Wielding: Hobgoblin Sneaky Gits wield a poisoned curved blade in each hand.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: To the Mongols, being a race of fierce steppe nomads who are Born in the Saddle (albeit they ride wolves instead of horses), wear peaked fur hats, and occasionally come raiding and pillages the Old World in great hordes but are more commonly found harrying and clashing with distant Cathay.
- Henchmen Race: The Hobgoblins who stick with the Chaos Dwarfs get to be their slavers and auxiliaries to fill out the Dawi Zharr's thinner ranks.
- Hordes from the East: They're a pseudo-Mongolian nomadic people who roam the easter steppes in great hordes of wolf-riding warriors, alternating between clashing with the Cathayans and sallying west to raid the Old World nations.
- Horse of a Different Color: Like Tolkien's Goblins, Hobgoblins ride wolves into battle.
- Klingon Promotion: In Hobgoblin society, the only real way to get ahead is to do it over your former superiors' corpses. Their khans need to constantly watch their backs lest they find a dagger there, and only one Hobgobla Khan is know to have ever died of old age.
- Our Goblins Are Different: Hobgoblins are taller, rangier goblins native to the steppes of the distant east. Because of their natural cowardice and inherent malice, they are shunned even by other Greenskins.
- Poisoned Weapons: Hobgoblins prefer to fight with poisoned blades, trusting in their poisons to sap the strength of their enemies or to quietly ensure a kill with a blow struck from the shadows.
- Slave Race: Hobgoblins are an interesting example in that they are treated slightly better and given positions of authority over goblins and orcs, but are still expected to be utterly subservient to the Chaos Dwarfs in return.
Hashut, the Father of Darkness, is a minor Chaos God of Fire, Greed and Tyranny and the Chaos Dwarfs' patron deity. A grim and malignant being, he is often represented as a great blazing bull wreathed in smoke and shadow. Hashut is closely associated with tyranny, greed, fire and hatred, and is a being whose gift of power comes at a terrible price.
As with much of their origins, just how the Dwarfs of the East came to seal their pact with Hashut remains shrouded in the dark times of the great sundering of the world by Chaos, and in truth the Chaos Dwarfs themselves may have only a dim and warped understanding of how they became bound to their nightmarish god. The twisted runic cartouches that adorn their fire-temples do however speak of the abandonment of the Dwarfs of Zorn Uzkul by their Ancestor Gods during the Great Cataclysm, their finding of salvation and succour with their new god, and the thirst of Hashut for sacrifice and subjugation in return for his patronage.
Over the centuries, in return for flesh and blood, homage and devotion, Hashut has gifted the Chaos Dwarfs with many things: malign secrets and powerful sorcery that fused with their mastery of industry and forgecraft to create many Daemon-fused machineries, monstrous engines of war, dominion over the fires of the earth, and arcane and malevolent lore that has brutalized their sanity and souls. The pact between the Chaos Dwarfs and their dark god has only deepened over time and grown to the point where the tendrils of Hashut's malevolence and the Chaos Dwarfs' own bitter souls have become one.
- Animal Motif: Brutish Bulls. 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.
- Expy: Very similar to Moloch, the bull-headed Canaanite god associated with the fires of industry and Human Sacrifice.
- God of Evil: As the god of Fire and Tyranny, this is a given, but unlike the four big Chaos Gods, he seems to be treating with the Chaos Dwarfs pretty straightforwardly.
- 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.
- 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.
- Super-Empowering: No Dwarf was capable of using magic until Hashut showed up.
Notable Chaos Dwarfs
Astragoth Ironhand, High Priest of Hashut
Astragoth Ironhand, High Priest of Hashut, is the oldest living Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer-Prophet. When he was at the height of his powers he was the most potent sorcerer to walk the Plain of Zharrduk in a thousand years. Now his powers have begun to wane and his body is slowly succumbing to petrification. To combat this, he constructed a mechanical device by which he is transported from place to place.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: An evil person who has replaced most of his body with mechanical parts. The "magic and machine don't mix" variant is averted, though, as his mechanical parts have no effect on his magic.
- 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.
- Named After the Injury: He's called Astragoth Ironhand in reference to having replaced all of his limbs with cybernetics due to having lost them to the curse of petrification that affects Chaos Dwarf sorcerers.
- Power Armour: In order to move his partially petrified limbs, Astragoth wears a steam-driven device that not only boosts the High Priest’s strength but also offers him protection from enemy attacks.
Drazhoath, the Ashen Lord
Drazhoath, known as the Ashen, is the Lord of the Black Fortress and commander of the fell Legion of Azgorh. 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 has 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.
- Ambition Is Evil: Extremely ambitious and power-hungry, which is a big part of the reason Astragoth exiled him.
- Beast of Battle: Rides a Great Taurus named Cinderbreath.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Tamurkhan defeats him before recruiting the Legions of Azgorh into his attack on the Empire.
- Klingon Promotion: The main reason for Drazhoath's rise to Lordship from being a mere blacksmith.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: The Black Fortress is at the southern most border of Chaos Dwarf lands with little room for an ambitious warlord like Drazhoath to expand his influence, and would be the first place attacked by anyone seeking to invade the Chaos Dwarf empire.
- The Rival: With Astragoth, who became an obstacle to his ambition when he exiled him a century ago. Because of his long absence from the capital, Drazhoath holds no influence within the council of elders that leads Zharr-Naggrund.
Zhatan the Black, Commander of the Tower of Zharr
Zhatan the Black is the Chaos Dwarf Commander of the Tower of Zharr and a servant of Ghorth the Cruel.
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 Plains 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.
- Badass Normal: The only named Chaos Dwarf Lord that is confirmed to have no magical powers, and yet he probably has the most impressive killcount.
- Evil Laugh: As mentioned above, Zhatan enjoys laughing at the suffering of his slaves.
- The Dragon: To Ghorth the Cruel. As evil as he is, he is ultimately subservient to the Sorcerer-Prophet's will.
- Token Evil Teammate: Even in comparison to the other Chaos Dwarfs, Zhatan is incredibly sadistic and hateful.
Ghorth the Cruel, Sorcerer-Prophet
Ghorth the Cruel is a Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer-Prophet, the second most potent of the coven and hence one of the strongest voices in the conclave of Sorcerers that gather in the Temple of Hashut. The commander of his armies is legendary Chaos Dwarf Lord Zhatan the Black. As a result of Zhatan's success in battle, Ghorth's workshops and forges can barely keep up with his demand for weapons and munitions.- Minor Major Character: Ghorth is said to be the most powerful of the Sorcerer-Prophets and a serious threat to Astragoth's rule. Despite this, he's barely mentioned and never got any artwork or even a model.
- The Starscream: He eventually betrays Astragoth by sabotaging his mechanical arms, leaving him for dead.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: His basic information and biography was given in the 4th Edition Chaos Dwarf army book. The next time we hear about him, he's dead.
Gorduz Backstabber, Hobgoblin Khan
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. He has also been lucky, as the hardened scar tissue that criss-crosses his massive bony shoulder hump testifies.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Hobgoblins are infamous for being this, and Gorduz is no exception.
- Horse of a Different Color: Like you'd expect from a Goblin of any stripe, he rides a Giant Wolf the same way a human would ride a horse.
- Slave Liberation: Leads an unsuccessful one after his betrayal and ends up dead by Zhatan the Black's hand.
Deceased Characters
Bazherak the Cruel, Commander of the Tower of Gorgoth
Legend has it that Bazherak the Cruel was an infamous castellan-commander of the Tower of Gorgoth during the wars against the Great Empire of Nehekhara at its height, long before Nagash doomed its people.- Noodle Incident: This is the only mention of the Chaos Dwarfs going to war with Nehekhara, leaving the cause and outcome a mystery.
- Posthumous Character: The above is essentially all that was written about him, so he's long dead by the time we know who he is.
