The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"Move!"

In the pitch-black wreckage of steel, a group of filthy humanoids scurried through a muddy expanse—a vile swamp composed of blood, highly decayed corpses, and excrement, but it once bore a name that chilled countless hearts: Nightfall.

This warship was once a symbol of the Empire's most glorious era, the lost flagship of a Legion. Even after enduring countless wars and devastation, it remained one of the most formidable and majestic human warships ever created.

It was once regarded by the Imperium as a symbol of brotherhood among the demigod sons, a 'gift' designed by one Primarch for another. However, this gift also reflected the hidden dark side of the Imperium during its most glorious and enlightened age—Perturabo, in designing the Nightfall, incorporated numerous mazes and traps into its bowels. Konrad Curze then used these mazes and traps to torture and kill those he captured.

Even before the Horus Heresy, the ship's interior was a gruesome sight, with mutilated corpses hanging everywhere.

After the Eighth Legion's rebellion, the mad Primarch transformed his flagship into a charnel house filled with the stench of death. After his disappearance on his brother's flagship, the warship became an arena for the internal political struggles of the Night Lords Legion. The Night Haunter Council engaged in fratricidal infighting, ultimately leading to the rise of the Painted Count.

When it participated in the attack on Terra, it fired bullets into the heart of the Imperium it had once protected. With the end of the rebellion, the battle-scarred Nightfall became a haven for Daemon Princes. Along with various daemons came countless Chaos spawn, who claimed the Midnight Labyrinth as their home, dividing it into territories, breeding, and slaughtering each other. The largest of these groups was the Beastmen tribes, who worshiped the Ruinous Powers.

Beastmen, also known as Chaos Beasts by the Imperium, are malformed humans born under the influence of the Warp. In the early days of the Imperium, there was some tolerance for these 'abnormalities'. They were often conscripted into the Imperial Army, contributing to the rapidly expanding human empire. Beastmen in the Imperial Expeditionary Forces were considered useful warriors, being muscular, simple-minded, and fiercely loyal to their officers. However, regular soldiers disliked them because they were noisy, filthy, and often had quirks such as cannibalism or worshiping lunar eclipses. At that time, they were still regarded as 'sub-humans'.

But the situation changed after the Horus Heresy. Chaos, as an undeniable problem, was brought to light. Although the Imperial Cult also emerged, some Beastmen, devoted to the Ecclesiarchy, showed a simple and fanatical loyalty to the Emperor, viewing him as a god of vengeance who demanded the blood of enemies as tribute. However, with the intervention of the Inquisition, Beastmen began to suffer severe persecution in the Imperium and were designated by the Adeptus Arbites as prohibited from registering as citizens and from being levied for tithes. Almost all Beastmen within the Astra Militarum were purged.

Ultimately, the vast majority of Beastmen were labeled as 'mutants' and became targets for hive world bounty hunters, forcing them to turn to the dark side and worship the Ruinous Powers.

In the era of the 41st millennium, Beastmen could be found in almost all Chaos warbands.

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These fallen creatures, while retaining human intelligence to the greatest extent, are granted unparalleled supernatural brute force by the blessings of the gods. Their iron hooves and heavy horns can tear through the toughest armor, crushing the flesh and bone within, undoubtedly serving as real-world embodiments of Chaos.

Among all Beastmen across the galaxy, the various Horned Ones are revered. They maximize the use of Chaos blessings and have the closest connection to the gods. Whether it's the Tzaangors who worship Tzeentch and have avian facial features, the Khorngors who are bloodthirsty and martial with bulging muscles, the Slaangors who are fragrant and wickedly depraved, or the Pestigors who are foul-smelling and surrounded by flies, they all follow the mark of Chaos and are willing to pledge allegiance to the death.

The Painted Count's forces naturally include a large number of Chaos Beast herds. They usually fight in the Midnight Labyrinth, and when the war horn sounds, they gather in large numbers under the banner of the Daemon Prince. These vile creatures, filled with a desire for destruction, vow to destroy all civilization, establishing altars and monuments for the Chaos Gods through fanatical destruction.

However, within the Chaos warband system, they are the lowest of the low. Daemon Princes see them only as cheap cannon fodder and slaves, even periodically allowing their bloodthirsty Night Lords to hunt in the labyrinth, unleashing their cruel lust for killing.

This activity is also known as 'Skinning Night' by the Beastmen. They regard it as a manifestation of the fickle nature of the Ruinous Powers, so they do not resist but huddle in their nests, using all means to block doors and various pipes, hoping that the skinners will leave after their bloodlust is satisfied, so that their lives can create more value for the gods.

When the Painted Count was drawn to the surface of an unnamed planet, some Beastmen tribes followed him. However, due to the limited capacity of the transport ships, a considerable number remained on the ship. When Nightfall was taken over, these Beastmen had no idea what was happening, only feeling violent shaking, which was an omen to the superstitious Beastmen. They hid more carefully in their nests.

When everything returned to normal, they simply thought that things had returned to the way they were, except that the tribes that had left never returned. But this was not surprising, as many tribes disappeared in every war, but the Beastmen reproduced extremely quickly, and more tribes would soon emerge.

But what happened next was beyond the Beastmen's expectations. Within the huge and bloated labyrinth, things clad in red robes began to appear in large numbers within the Beastmen's sphere of influence.

They wielded various advanced weapons and bore the symbol of mechanical gears. They immediately shot and killed any Beastmen they encountered. They also carried many slaves with their arms modified into weapons. The Beastmen had seen this kind of thing before, so their simple brains came to a somewhat bizarre conclusion based on the color of their robes—a new force worshiping Khorne had invaded their territory.

What followed was a war that swept through the entire Midnight Labyrinth. Although their weapons were inferior, the Beastmen, who had lived in the labyrinth for generations, knew it like the back of their hands. They used the complex terrain to constantly ambush, outflank, and harass the invaders, causing considerable trouble for the red-robed figures and slowing their advance.