Traitor
Guardsmen
Once soldiers of the Astra Militarum, these soldiers have rebelled against the Imperium to heed the promises offered by the Chaos Gods. The Traitor Guardsmen (or Traitor Guard) are not to be confused with mindless cultists or ragged renegades – they are trained veterans who bring their training and skills to bear for the glory of dark powers.
Traitor Guard form the reliable core force of the Lost and the Damned, but do so along a precipitous and razor edge of sanity. To align closely with the forces of the warp means to risk being turned into vile mutants, or used as fodder by the monstrous Heretic Astartes.
If you are defined by the company you keep, what does a mortal soul give up (or gain) by throwing their lot in with beastmen, daemons, and blasphemous allies?
Faction Tropes
You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it.
- It is a dreadful thing for brave, well-trained, and determined conscripts of the Astra Militarum to betray their Imperial duty. It is another thing to fall prey to the insidious touch of Chaos. Just like you or me, they would be the heroes in their stories, but fate would have them trade their standard-issue uniforms for spiky pauldrons. Some Traitor Guard capitulate to Chaos to survive, some invite it willingly, and others follow down the path to hell while being wholly ignorant to where it was going. Whatever the road, you’re stuck here now, so might as well own it, right?
Apocalypse HOW?
- Long military tours result in physical and psychological trauma, meaning it is not unreasonable for members of the Traitor Guard have become deeply bitter or resentful of the gruelling combat of the 41st millennium. Rather than succumb to infighting like cultists, Traitor Guard project this spite onto the Imperium with overwhelming firepower and weapons stolen from their years in the Astra Militarum. Sometimes the monsters in the dark carry lascannons or drive a tank.
Acceptable occupational hazards
- Encountering the malevolent effects of the Warp changes you. Like, literally. Noses fall off to reveal hollow cavities, and a Traitor Guardsman might find his hand fused to his chainsword after a bumpy ride through the Immaterium. That’s fine, though, because everyone is welcome here. We’re all fighting for the same dark, glorious cause. Choose your Chaos God accordingly, and cross your fingers that you don’t turn into something too unnatural.
