Hello!
Here comes a glorious bloody Grimdark update!
As usual, the I'm keeping the majority of the Grimdark WIPs off patreon because of the Angry Company. But community members can still access the latest WIPs as mentioned in previous posts. Just to be thorough, community members will receive an email with the access information as well. Please leave any feedback and reactions to the update on this post. Thanks!
You know him, you love him. When fans think of the World Eaters, they think of Khârn and what a great guy he is. Dude never misses in combat. No seriously, even if Khârn doesn't hit his opponent, his axe will bury itself into the closest squad mate. Because that's just how much he cares. 😄 He is also one of the top tier Space Marine combatants, probably ratcheting up the highest kill count among all of the named characters. Except Typhus probably, due to all the off screen kills from Nurgle related diseases. 😅
Prior to taking fashion tips from Skulltaker, Khârn was Captain of the War Hounds 12th Assault Company. When the War Hounds was reunited with their Primarch, it was pretty much the worst case scenario. Some Legions lucked out and got a Primarch that raised them to further heights of glory. Not only did Angron not have two brain cells to rub together, he pretty much tried to kill any Space Marine that attempted to even talk to him. 🤦♂️
Anyways, Khârn ended up being the only Space Marine that could communicate with Angron (because he was the only one that survived the initial beating) and after a lot of persuasion, managed to convince Angron to lead them.
I won't repeat too much of Angron's lore here but basically only bad decisions were made from here on out. As a perfect example of 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions' Khârn tried to relate with Angron by adopting a lot of the Nucerian gladiatorial traditions into the renamed World Eaters. He even gave the final go ahead for inserting the Butcher's Nails into the Legion and killed any Space Marines with common sense (i.e. jamming literal nails into your brain is a really stupid idea), that most precious of commodities within the Grimdark universe.
From that point onwards, the 12th Legion went from being strategic assault specialists to the blood frothing maniacs we all know and love. As I mentioned in my previous posts, Khârn became best buds with Argel Tal during the Shadow Crusade, bonding through their mutual hatred of Smurfs. Notably, this is when Khârn got Gorechild, Angron's discarded axe. Despite explicit orders from Angron to leave it, Khârn had all the Micah Dragon teeth and broken parts salvaged so he could use a Primarch tier weapon. 🤩
With that lore dump out of the way, I've also noticed some strange continuity quirks with Khârn. Like the fact that he somehow became left handed after the Horus Heresy. Did the Butcher's Nails actually make him left handed? I think that's an iceberg question. 🤔 Also Khârn was already in full blown Khorne mode very early into the Horus Heresy series (Galaxy in Flames) without there being a reason behind it. The writers probably realized they hadn't developed Khârn's character yet so they dialed the madness way back for the Shadow Crusade and short stories. 😅
Despite all the shots fired in this post, I actually do think Khârn is a great character. 👍 His arc is suitably tragic and he is legitimately one of the characters that makes 40K's World Eaters awesome. So I'm going to retroactively say all his decisions were good decisions and collecting skulls for the Skull Throne is the way to go. Blood for the Blood God!
But before Khârn got S-tier visuals in 40K, he wasn't exactly rocking great drip in the Horus Heresy. I mean, the only drip he had was the blood dripping from his armor. 😅 So I thought the best way to do pre Heresy Khârn was to show the different stages of his career, starting from his normal War Hound days to the blood maddened berserker he becomes towards the Siege of Terra.
Fun fact, World Eaters don't paint their armor red, that's just the accumulation of blood spatter. So I gave Khârn a hefty dose of it but not enough to cover everything yet. That will take ten thousand years. 😅 Don't worry, Khârn will get options for non blood spattered armor as well.
Next up is the Hive Tyrant, the chunky buggers from Space Marine 2 and the flying version in later updates. The main battlefield commander for Tyranid armies, Hive Tyrants are very cunning and absolutely deadline in combat. What makes them terrifying is the fact that Hive Tyrant's experience is never lost. If an Imperial Commander dies, their tactical expertise is gone forever but the Hive Mind's capacity to regrow its fallen leaders basically makes a Hive Tyrant immortal. No matter how many times a Hive Tyrant is killed, sooner or later it will always come back to overcome and devour its prey.
Anyways, here is my version of the Hive Tyrant. I'm going to give this unit a lot of flexibility in visuals and biomorphs. There will be options for the Heavy Venom Cannon, Stranglethorn Cannon, Bonesword, Lashwhip and some others I'll come up with along the way.
Poses and more awesome Grimdark content coming up next. Fantasy month voting will be up later this week. Please have your suggestions submitted in the next few days. Thanks!