This article, Sons of Malady, was written by EpicureanIX. Please do not edit this article without their explicit permission.
"I know they eye me. As soon as I turn my back to them my own men dream of forcing a blade through my spine. Every time I walk unto a new battlefield, I am surrounded by default. But there’s a reason I’ve survived this long, and a reason they whisper I’ve been in this Long War since the very beginning."
—Sergeant Lobanya, Exalted Champion of the Sons of Malady
The Sons of Malady are an Obliterator Cult dedicated to the Chaos God Nurgle. Originally hailing from the Iron Warriors, they are the co-masters of the planet Krypteia IV in the Maelstrom, ruling with an iron fist along with their allies the Shadow Reavers. Their greatest achievement is the development of a ritual to bind a host afflicted with the Obliterator virus to a vehicle, similar to the binding used to create Daemon Engines. Paranoid as all Iron Warriors are, the Sons of Malady left their home of Medrengard, knowing that their brethren will covet their power. They have roamed the unruly Maelstrom since, away from the eyes of their Legion. A common interest in the vast forges of Krypteia IV created the pact between them and the Shadow Reavers and the natural combination of their two ways of war during that siege created a strange alliance between the two.
The inception of the cult is lost to time, and not many remember it. What is certain is that the first to call himself a Son of Malady was Ba'ash Chellik, the cult's lord and master. Rumoured to have been a techmarine in the Great Crusade, he serviced the Iron Warriors' many killing machines through the countless centuries, lending his knowledge to whatever warband he could. Somewhere during this service he had been struck with the Obliterator technovirus and began his transformation to hulking monstrosity, dedicating his life to the service of the Plaguefather. As his power grew, he found those that would follow him: kindred afflicted similarly and warp smiths that hoped to one day be bestowed the same gifts. Soon, Ba'ash Chellik found himself the leader of his own warband, naming his men the Sons of Malady.
As the cult's number slowly grew they began experimenting with the technovirus. After many unsuccessful attempts they managed to develop a ritual whereby they would forever bind an infected host, usually in the late stages of affliction, to a vehicle, thus granting similar powers to the machine. Like the Obliterator, a vehicle so treated began absorbing any mounted weaponry into itself and could manifest it at will. Due to the size of its armament however, this was a process that took days of dark ritual to complete and could not be done in the heat of battle. Such an unholy communion of flesh and machine allowed the Sons of Malady to keep a smaller convoy of vehicles that could be easily modified to serve any given purpose.
The spiteful and competitive nature of the Iron Warriors always fueled paranoia, so the Sons of Malady began seeing enemies everywhere on Medrengard. They became convinced that their fellow Iron Warriors, desiring the Maladists' knowledge, would soon attack and destroy them. So the Sons of Malady ran, away from the reach of their Legion. They wandered the Eye of Terror for a time, lending their services to whatever warlord would pay and soon moved to the Maelstrom, even further away from Medrengard. In their travels they became aware of the Krypteian system: a collection of six resource-rich planets, the largest of which, Krypteia IV, housed a vast number of hidden forges. A desolate red desert planet roamed by marauding gangs and speed cults, its southern pole was swallowed up by a continent-spanning Hive, capitol to the planet and the renegade faction known as the Qaraskar Sovereignty’s seat of power. Within its lowest, darkest depths, the Hive contained entrances to the hidden forges, a planet-spanning labyrinth that churned out toxic fumes through the titanic chimneys that dotted Krypteia IV’s landscape. Numerous pirate crews frequented the Qaraskar Hive and traded bounty and slaves for the forges' commodities, the Sovereignty acquiring a share of the transactions. The Sons of Malady began to desire the forges' fruit and began preparations to besiege the planet and topple its government, the Qaraskar Sovereignty. Soon however, they became aware that theirs were not the only eyes pointed towards the conquest of Krypteia IV.
The First Siege[]
"We have assessed the planetary defenses and we say without doubt that neither of our forces can take the world. For we have men, but have no ordnance, and you have ordnance but have no men. And yet both problems can be solved with but a single solution."
—Master of Shadows Argenteus of the Shadow Reavers
The Sons of Malady fight their way out of Medrengard's dark halls.
When the Sons of Malady met the Shadow Reavers, they could not be more dissimilar. The renegade warband, dedicated to the worship of the Prince of Excess, favoured the use of infiltration, hit and run tactics and shadow warfare. It was the exact opposite of the Maladists' own approach to fighting: hitting the enemy with devastating power again and again until attrition dwindled them to nothing. Yet the Reavers, unlike the Maladists, had many, many more Astartes making up their ranks and the two warbands shared a few aspects: neither trusted the other, neither held the other in high regard, and neither wished to share the spoils of Krypteia IV. Most importantly however, both were alike in the vital fact that they could not take the planet on their own.
In 999.M37, when the Bearer of Malady Desolator Cruiser appeared above Krypteia IV’s sky accompanied by the Reavers' Battle Barge Caliginis Rex, the Defense Lasers opened fire immediately. The Space Marine vessels responded in kind with devastating efficiency, targeting established key defenses in orbital strikes. Through the exchange of fire the Battle Barge and Cruiser spewed out their full detachments of Drop Pods, landing within the gigantic palace of the Sovereignty, crashing into its towering spires. Claxons fired from within its walls and immediately regiments of renegades, pirates and cultists as well as a few Skitarii sent by the Techarchs, masters of the forges below, deployed and swarmed the palace to fend off the attackers. What they did not know was that their ever-secluded ruling elite had already been assassinated over the course of several planetary rotations by infiltrating Shadow Reavers, and that the jettisoned Drop Pods were empty. As the main bulk of Krypteia’s defenses gathered to defend the empty capital spire of their world, a devastating barrage of ordnance smashed into its foundations, bringing the massive edifice to collapse. A vanguard of Maladist heavy firepower had been smuggled into Krypteia and given accurate assessment of the structure and its weak points. As the spire broke and shattered, collapsing with tremendous force into the bowels of the Hive, Krypteia IV lost the core corpus of its army, gathered there to defend their rulers.
The reservists, the stragglers that managed to escape and the regiments that could not reach the Sovereignty stronghold in time found themselves rained upon by heavy ordnance as the incessant artillery of the Maladists found them out. Facing a force so versed in the art of the siege, the Krypteians stood no chance at countering the deadly and prolonged barrages, and ceremoniously the Sons of Malady continued throughout the city streets, toppling with murderous glee all those who would oppose them. Wherever pockets of resistance would become entrenched and prove tough to eliminate, the Shadow Reavers would strike them down in ambushes and hit-and-run attacks. Spontaneously a cooperative understanding between the Reavers and Maladists developed and the two forces, as different in their methods as they were, began acting in concert. The Maladists would appear with all the brutal firepower at their disposal and pound the enemy with such force that they could not hope to see the Reaver’s blade behind them. What didn’t crumble before the hail of iron was culled by unseen attackers.
With grand haste the Space Marines made their way through the Hive’s levels, the resistance becoming more and more sparse. Word of the massacres in the upper echelons had already reached the rest of the Hive and permeated the vast forge caverns below, so many militia regiments dispersed in fear-induced mutiny before the Reavers and Maladists even came. Recognizing the insignia of the invading Chaos Space Marines, cults dedicated to Slaanesh and Nurgle began to emerge and mobilize against the Krypteian defenders, wishing to claim the planet for the Dark Prince or the Plaguefather. Among the remaining Hive nobility, plots and intrigues were put into rapid action as those highborn that were part of the pleasure cults sought to seize power for themselves. Disorder came to rule Krypteia IV and the Chaos Space Marines’ stride towards the interior was made all the easier as the Hive burned in conflict around them.
Six weeks into the siege, the Sons of Malady and Shadow Reavers reached the Bottomless Gate, the massive gateway that divided the lowest level of the Hive from the Techarchs’ forges within the planet. What remained of Krypteia’s defenders had garrisoned the gate and entrenched themselves there, but when the Chaos Space Marines arrived, the defenses were already weakened by the constant assault of the cults’ mobs. Surrounded by Cultists, the Sons of Malady and Shadow Reavers advanced on the fortified gate. As the siege engines of the Maladists peltered the gate with fire, the Reavers’ elites made their way unnoticed through the defenders’ ranks and assaulted their rear. Beset by a myriad cultists and the unstoppable advance of the Chaos Space Marines from both sides, the Krypteian militia had nowhere to run as they were gunned down to the man. With them fell Krypteia IV.
The coalition of Space Marines began reorganizing the planet to fit their own desires. Even though they came into the siege as reluctant and distrustful allies, the fighting birthed a healthy respect between the two warbands and for all their disparities they found that their opposing styles of war meshed perfectly and naturally into a far deadlier battle method. After days of negotiation, they decided on how to share Krypteia’s spoils. The Reavers opted to name the Hive-continent Quiesca and soon enough forced the planet’s populace to rebuild the Sovereignty’s spire into a bastion of Astartes power. Two towering fortresses, Maladia and the Silent Court came to dominate Quiesca’s skies, from whence the Reavers and Maladists ruled with an iron fist. Appointing planetary advisors and servants to handle the day-to-day management of the world, they took control of all piratical trade, demanding taxes from the renegade captains as the Sovereignty once did.
For their part the Sons of Malady gained free access to Krypteia’s forges, and strangely felt less anxious around the Reavers than around the rest of their Legion. The Reavers seemed to have developed some dogged belief in honour amongst thieves as part of their ideology of perfection and so far showed no signs of planning to betray the Maladists. The untrusting nature of the Iron Warriors is not easily set aside, however, and the Maladists themselves spent a fair amount of time in preparing for an eventual falling out between the two, honing their skills, stockpiling resources and creating plans and contingencies should the need to kill the Reavers ever arise.
The Second Siege[]
Lord Ba'ash Chellik the Deathless
Beginning with 912.M41, an increasing number of the corsairs of Krypteia saw themselves ambushed out of their hiding spots and fought for their spoils. Rival pirates became increasingly bolder in their internecine attacks. Soon enough Chaos Space Marines began assaulting Krypteian fleets. The Krypteian economy, burgeoning for two millennia with lucre, saw the signs of straining under the increased competition. Unrest among the pirate fleets became untenable. The Porphyr Elixis, as the loose coalition of pirates was known, increasingly clamoured for Shadow Reaver and Maladist aid in securing their bounties.
And so the Heretic Astartes began a wave of attacks on the Maelstrom. As the fleets of the Red Corsairs, who had begun building their own empire, slowly encroached, the conflicts exacerbated as the Maelstrom's former denizens ran from this expanding power. The Sons of Malady and Shadow Reavers defended their world from these interlopers as best they could, yet time was running out. Outmaneuvering the Krypteian defenders, a strike force of the Putrescent Dawn and the Remainders cultist warbands, along with the plague marines of the Deathsplitters, landed on Krypteia IV in 953.M41.
When their Strike Cruiser finally arrived, the Sons of Malady found a planet in turmoil and their first act was ordering defense units to retreat and abandon defense posts. They then proceeded to bombard from orbit sites of Putrescent Dawn victories and activity, leveling huge swaths of the Hive Continent of Quiesca and killing millions of its inhabitants. As they made planetfall, the Maladists regrouped at their fortress and began retaking lost land, driving their heavy guns through the streets of Krypteia while establishing orbital kill boxes. However, after failing to push the already infiltrated invading army back, and actually forcing the Putrescent Dawn to enter the hive even deeper to escape bombardment, the Maladists received a vox transmition bearing the signatures of the Reavers. Under their impetus the followers of Nurgle began bombarding even larger swaths of the Hive, now sustaining the bombardments until nothing of the multi-leveled spires remained. They repurposed the Hive City’s defense lasers and artillery to add to the fire. Effectively they returned parts of Quiesca back to the Krypteian desert, blowing sand soon covering the remnant rubble. They then began cutting off the contested parts of the Hive, surrounding it by bombardment-induced ruins and creating an open buffer zone that the Putrescent Dawn would have to pass to go deeper into Quiesca. Any attempt to cross this zone was met with heavy fire and the invaders were trapped into an ever-decreasing separated area of hab-blocks, the Bearer of Malady turning its guns to diminishing this invaded zone. When the Putrescent Dawn could be bottle-necked no longer, they were forced to flee the Maladists’ guns into the open ruins behind them. It was then that the Shadow Reavers joined the fray, at their helm a massive armada of scavenged and ad hoc vehicles. Through the course of the fighting, the returning Reavers had been assaulting and taking control of the many autonomous and disheveled speed cults that roamed the Krypteian wastes, unifying them in a mobilized army of weaponized cars and makeshift tanks. Trapped between the bombardment and the encroaching army of speed freaks, the Putrescent Dawn contingents were ran down and smashed beneath spiked wheels and re-purposed roller-compactors, and soon the Deathsplitters leading them followed.
Then the Red Corsairs came. Consulting the venerable Ba'ash Chellik, Argenteus Crassus, Master of Shadows of the Reavers, announced his plan to swear fealty to the former Astral Claws and their master Huron. The Maladists, paranoid as ever, were opposed to such a plan. Yet after much deliberation they realized they had but two options - either flee Krypteia IV, leave the planet to the Reavers and their new masters and return to offering their services for payment, or likewise lend their might to that of the Corsairs, keeping their seat of power. Although many of the old contingencies and plans to crush the Reavers were reexamined, in the end Ba'ash Chellik agreed with Crassus's assessment and gave his blessing.
The moods of the distrustful Sons of Malady were bettered however by the wealth and vast amount of spoils received through cooperation with the much larger armadas of Huron, and the Iron Warriors found themselves rich beyond measure. While doubts always lingered in their minds, for now the service to the Tyrant was agreeable. A new age of prosperity dawned upon Krypteia beneath the red wing of the Corsairs, and the Sons of Malady relished their power.
Time of Ending[]
"From Iron, cometh Strength. From Strength, cometh Will. From Will, cometh Faith. From Faith, cometh Honour. From Honour, cometh Iron. This is the Unbreakable Litany, and may it forever be so"
—The Unbreakable Litany of the Iron Warriors
In 999.M47, at the twilight of the 41st millenium, the Maladists were finally summoned back to Medrengard by their lord Perturabo. Fearing reprisal upon refusing, they mobilized their armies and headed once again to the Eye of Terror. Taking complete control of their forces, the Primarch stationed the Sons of Malady on the Daemon World of Temporia as aid to the Dark Mechanicum. As Temporia was dragged from the Eye of Terror by gravitic tugs, its armies assailed the Cadian Gate. The Maladist's virus-bound vehicles lead the fray against several key fortresses, its Obliterators striking at vulnerable targets, manifesting from the Warp and disappearing before they could be met with counter-fire.
As Cadia broke, the armies of the Iron Warriors fell upon its adjacent fortresses, toppling several ancient edifices with great relish. And as the Black Crusade reached its zenith the galaxy split in two, Abaddon’s Crimson Path manifesting as a giant scar spanning from one end to the other. The Imperium of Man was torn asunder and the Astronomican fell dark. As the Immaterium burst with fell energies, the planets of Man were left alone and defenseless in the blackness. However, with their grand victory, the forces of Chaos began to dissipate, guided by dogged self-interest. The momentum vanished and many warbands left the fighting, chasing their own agendas. So too did the Sons of Malady leave the employ of their Primarch and skulked back to the Maelstrom. From the Maelstrom and from Krypteia IV now flowed pathways to almost all of the distant stars of the galaxy, and the Sons of Malady, accompanying the Shadow Reavers' forays assaulted with renewed vigour. The isolated planets of the Imperium were easy targets for raiding, and once again the Heretic Astartes’ coffers swelled as slaves and plunder were brought back with great fanfare to their hidden fortresses inside the Maelstrom.
The sycophants, hereteks and plague cultists that had massed around the Maladists now followed the Obliterator cult in massive armadas. Likewise, the Reavers found themselves followed by their own Slaanesh-worshiping sybarites. The pirate kingdom now housed two semi-independent forces, and they worked tirelessly and with newfound energy to swell the markets and docks of the planet with stolen plunder and chattel. And when the two forces gathered in tandem, they were enough to overwhelm star systems. As the new millennium dawned, the Sons of Malady and Shadow Reavers, bolstered by their vast piratical navies, renewed their reigns of terror. And with the Warp scar dividing the galaxy, they now preyed freely upon every corner of the galaxy.
Notable Engagements[]
The Persuader, one of the Sons of Malady's daemonic and virus-infested machines of war.
Skaldris Incursion: After several Reaver-owned corsair bands report strange effects near a minor warpway that ends with the planet Skaldris, the Shadow Reavers and Sons of Malady make planetfall to investigate. There they are assaulted by a reawakened Necron threat and only narrowly manage to repel the first wave, in part due to the Maladists' neutralizing of much of the Necrons' heavy firepower. Yet the warbands are further assailed by the Dark Angels and Blood Angels, swarming the sector to fight back the Necrons. After several battles, the coalition are pushed into underground caverns, fortifying them as temporary bases. In the end, the Heretic Astartes manage to push out as the Imperium fights against the reawakened xenos threat. The Necrons seize the opportunity to reactivate their dormant planetary defenses and drive out the Imperium from their system, allowing the Chaos Space Marines to escape.
First Necron Invasion of Goblin Hive: In 567.997.M41 Skaldris's Hest'Jaw Dynasty begins expanding into the Gobelinus system. Simultaneously the Ork Waaagh! Frikka-Frakka begins an invasion of its planets. Xenos presence is answered by overwhelming Imperial response, sending contingents of the Ultramarines, Dark Angels and Space Wolves. Following the Reavers' mission to destabilize the Imperial efforts, the Bearers of Malady send several of their number to aid the endeavour. Under guidance by Reaver saboteurs, the Maladists begin assaulting the Space Wolves assault against the Orks, opening fire with their Rapier Quad Heavy Bolters and decimating the charging Thunderwolf Cavalry. The Orks counter-attack, leading a devastating offensive against the Space Wolves' command. The Necrons manage to erect their massive defensive structures and the Sons of Malady, following in the Reavers' wake, silently leave the planet and the exacerbating conflict.
Under layers of fleshmetal and warp-mutated daemon growth, the Obliterators of the Sons of Malady, collectively known as the Plaguefather's Chosen, are trapped in armour thoroughly rusted and corroded.
The Sons of Malady are scions of Perturabo and, although estranged, bear the practices and mores of the Iron Warriors. They are slow to trust, paranoid and spiteful above all. Although no Chaos Space Marine eschews cruelty towards their inferiors, the Sons of Malady consider their malice a source of pride. This malice is also directed towards their battle brothers as many of their number die from internecine conflict, from bolt rounds shot in their back as much as the ammunition of their enemies. This social Darwinism keeps their numbers low, but those that survive the brutality are warriors beyond compare. The propensity for self-destruction has also become a religious ritual, as the Maladists see such cruelty an offering to Nurgle himself. For it is the way of the Plaguefather that all things die, rot and wilt away. Only so can new life be born, and culling their own ranks is seen as a necessary thing to keep the cult alive.
Their cruelty however is stronger a thousandfold towards their enemies, and the Maladists find nothing sweeter than destruction, reveling in every fortress razed, every foe slain. It is the will of Nurgle that things crumble so that life can begin anew, and when the Sons of Malady point their terrible gunfire towards those fortifications that stand in their way, they will not stop the barrage until every plate of plascrete is turned to molten slag, leaving no stone upon stone, for their hate is absolute. They then take great relish in rebuilding the destroyed places of their enemies into dread fortresses, symbols of the might of Chaos and Grandfather of All Plagues.
Favored Tactics[]
The tactics of the Maladists are brilliant in their simplicity: show up with the biggest guns and grind the enemy to dust. Cold, calculating and patient, the Sons of Malady are perfectly happy with fighting to the bitter end in prolonged conflicts of attrition, for their resolve is unlike any other. They are a force completely dedicated to heavy ordnance: from the Obliterators that make up the centrepiece of their armies to the heavy guns of their technovirus-infested vehicles and the endless barrages of their renegade artillery. Yet the Maladists realize their approach lacks flexibility and mobility, and for this reason they employ the help of their allies the Shadow Reavers, who cover these flaws seamlessly. Although diametrically opposed, their methods of war compliment each other well and together form an unstoppable force of destruction.
Recruitment[]
When an acolyte of Nurgle, worshipping the ancient and venerable Sons of Malady as living demigods first joins the cult's forces, they are pressed into the Plaguebatteries, the Maladists' artillery regiments of renegades and heretics. If they show promise and successfully escape the Maladists' murderous ire, managing to climb up the ladders of their regiment, they will be considered for promotion. After brutal training from which most do not make it out alive, the process of conversion into an Astartes can begin. Implanted with whatever geneseed the cult can obtain, those that survive will become Warpsmiths, augmenting themselves with vile tech and learning the ways of the machine. Those among the Warpsmiths that become infected and begin showing propensity for weaponry above that of their peers will slowly turn into Obliterators, the highest echelon of the cult.
After this final stage is completed, there is only one way to advance: to be sacrificed in the name of the Dark Gods and ritually bound to an engine of war. Encased into the vehicle for all eternity, the trapped soul begins manifesting weaponry from its innards like the Obliterator does. Soon the bound engine, unmanned and moving under its own dark impetus, will begin absorbing new guns and ordnance from felled enemies and add them to its own hull. Locked in chains and dark sigils when inactive, before the battle it will be goaded into producing whatever weapon load-out is required by the Warspmiths in several days of dark ritual. Once the process is finished and the bound engine of war is ready for battle, it will simply be unleashed upon the enemy, for there is no stopping or reasoning with it.
Organization[]
The livery of the Iron Death, the cult's Warpsmiths.
As highest leader of the Maladists stands the Lord Ba’ash Chellik the Deathless, a hulking, faceless monstrosity that has fought the Long War for millennia. Under his ancient command are his adjutants, the Plaguefather’s Chosen, the six other Obliterators of the warband. Many of them are as ancient as the Deathless himself, and are venerated as gods by their subordinates, for they are truly iron within and iron without. Those Heretic Astartes who serve the Obliterator Cult dream of one day being chosen by the Plaguefather and blessed with the technovirus, their flesh twisting into new and terrible forms. Knowing no compassion and no reservation, they advance relentlessly, armed with their considerable and terrible arsenal, and led by nothing but their grim resolve to destroy.
Below the Deathless and the Chosen are the heretic techmarines and warp smiths that also make up the warband, known as the Iron Death. They answer directly to their fleshmetal masters. The Iron Death number exactly seven warriors, venerating Nurgle thus by reproducing his holy number. One of their number serves as Sergeant, and is second in command of the cult.
The vehicles in the Maladists’ arsenal, also numbering seven and fused to their diseased inner hosts, go unmanned for they operate under their own fell intelligence. Violent and stubborn, these daemonic engines are seldom controlled and seldom follow the orders of superiors. A more accurate assessment would be that they are 'let loose upon the enemy'. Indeed, the Maladists’ and Reavers’ combat doctrines are built around the certainty of the Sons’ war-machines’ unstoppable rampages.
The Plaguebatteries[]
Artilleryman of the Plaguebatteries.
The lives of Chaos Space Marines are valuable commodities, and so they seldom form the main battle lines in the armies of the Arch-Enemy. No, it is the cultist, the renegade, the fallen guardsman that is given this dubious honour. Masters of many, the Chaos Space Marines will always send such rabble to die in their stead, and the Sons of Malady, rare as they are, are no different. And as scions of Perturabo, the Maladists have a special love for artillery and ordnance. As the Shadow Reavers have the cultists and acolytes of their Mutant Auxilia to aid them, so do the Sons of Malady muster their own renegade forces: the Plaguebatteries. Artillery regiments, machines of destruction crewed by acolytes, mutants and heretics alike, they are the bulk of Maladist armies. The hopefuls that wish to one day join the ranks of the Maladists will have to move up through the rigid and unyielding command structure of the Plaguebatteries first, where failure is not tolerated nor is weakness unpunished. Only those most proficient in the siege will even be considered to join the venerable brotherhood. Although their number is always in flux, the Sons of Malady aim to have 700 Plaguebattery soldiers under their command. They check the count periodically by holding snap inspections. If they are found undermanned, they send press gangs throughout Krypteia IV to kidnap the unwitting and enslave them into service. If they are found to have more than exactly 700 men, lots are drawn at random, and the unlucky renegades chosen thus are beaten to death by their squad mates until the desired number is reached.
Following the dark will of their Maladist masters, the Plaguebatteries advance incessantly, dragging their gun carriages into striking distance and letting loose volley after volley of ordnance until nothing but dust and ruins stand. And as the Maladists are the primary collaborators and ordnance suppliers of the Shadow Reavers, so too the Plaguebatteries follow the Porphyr Elixis in tow, on loan from their Obliterator masters, as support to their landing parties and howling columns of vehicles. Indeed, without the void superiority that would allow the Elixis to enact prolonged orbital bombardments, the simplest fortification would become an impenetrable obstacle for the style of speed war they wage. Here enter the Plaguebatteries, the purveyors of firepower that can reduce that fortification to slag, allowing for the Slaaneshi cultists to reave and raid unabated.
Organized in 7 regiments of one hundred active crewmen, the Plaguebatteries are further divided into 10 squads, each numbering 10 artillerymen. Each squad usually bears up to 2 or 3 gun carriages ranging from long-range ordnance to heavy bolters or mortars, but may also organize as fire teams bearing simple autoguns or autopistols. In other cases still, the Plaguebatteries will load their artillery guns on the backs of Waste Raider vehicles to grant mobility to their murderous fury.
Lords of Malady[]
"My end? Little whelpling, I’ve met many ends, and here I am still. But for you, I think a single one will suffice."
—Ba’ash Chellik the Deathless
Ba’ash Chellik the Deathless[]
For countless aeons The Deathless has led the Sons of Malady. Stricken with the obliterator virus a long time ago, he is a brutish mass of writhing flesh and ancient metal. Atop this monstrous form is a rack of severed heads gathered from his favourite kills and beneath his horned helm, where once there was flesh and a human face, now is left only a grinning skull, eyes ablaze with virulent daemonic glow. So unbearably disgusting and noxious the presence of the Deathless is that plants wane beneath his footsteps, and those of weak stomach vomit uncontrollably, or tremble at the very sight of Ba’ash Chellik’s bare skull surrounded by noxious pus and rot.
Many times has the Deathless been utterly destroyed, only to come back through sheer resilience. This unwillingness to die is what had first formed the Obliterator Cult around him, and those baseline humans that follow the Maladists, the cultists and hereteks beneath them consider him an immortal, a god of virulent, undying flesh. Unbeknownst to anyone, it was his selfish scheme that saw the Maladists join forces with the Shadow Reavers at the Siege of Krypteia, as he had heard rumours the hereteks of the planet were capable of constructing a Titan, desiring such a machine so as to bind his own flesh to it. The rumours proved false, yet in the planet he found a good base to consolidate and continue his search. Several times during his long life the Deathless had found himself on the opposite end of a Warhound Titan, yet decided to make no move against it, for a mere Warhound was beneath his station. So the Deathless bides his time and builds his arsenal from Krypteia IV, preparing to one day overcome an Imperator Titan and merge himself with it, becoming a magnificent and frightening god of unstoppable power.
From his fleshmetal arms hangs the daemon sword Malignus, as well as the ancient Power Fist Scourge of Pestilence, a weapon fitted also with a combi-bolter.
Sergeant Lobanya[]
As mistrustful as they come, Drax Lobanya has lead the Iron Death with an iron fist for centuries. Some say he fought in the Great Crusade, but he prefers not to comment on these rumours. Although a competent commander, he is known to execute his own men on the very suspicion of mutiny. Naturally, this bitter cruelty has led to many mutinies against him, but so far Lobanya has put down each and every one of them. Yet each attempt on his life had left him scarred, and through a thousand repeated wounds the flesh that made up his head was destroyed. While such damage will kill anyone, Lobanya simply survives out of spite.
Paranoid to the very core, Sergeant Lobanya has seen enough shifts of power to be weary of all those under his command, for leaders have always been easily replaceable among the Iron Warriors. Yet his irrational fear has kept Lobanya poised and ready in every waking moment, a fact that has saved his life numerous times. Constantly on edge, he has had the foresight, or just sheer tenacity and luck, to survive anything thrown at him, whether it be enemy or friendly fire, something that has veritably become a part of everyday life for him. Although he dreams of one day supplanting Ba'ash Chellik and taking his place as leader of the cult, so far Grandfather Nurgle has not seen fit to bless Lobanya with the technovirus that would have to be a precursor to his rise to power. So Lobanya bides his time, knowing that one day Nurgle will take notice and allow him to become master of the Sons of Malady.
Carrying a bolter and power fist and armed with a pair of mechadendrites, he directs the fury of his fellow Iron Death to where it is most needed. While Lobanya prefers to see his enemies dead before they can engage in close combat, he also bears an ancient, blood-stained chainsword just in case. The men under him claim the chainsword had bore him through the Iron Cage, but of course this is only speculation.
