Chaos: Balance of Power shifts to the Death Guard

The Struggle for Kendrenec: The Ascendancy of Nurgle in the Aleph Sector

By the end of 12.024M42, the Chaos war effort in the Aleph Sector had entered a state of disarray. The once-cohesive campaigns orchestrated by the Emerald Serpent had faltered, their influence waning as their leader’s grasp on power slipped. Meanwhile, the withdrawal of Warsmith Stahl and his Iron Warriors from the region left a strategic vacuum that the remaining warbands sought to exploit for their own gain. This fragmentation reached its zenith on Kendrenec, the de facto capital of Chaos forces in the sector, as two rival powers vied for dominance: the Death Guard, champions of Nurgle, and the World Eaters, devoted to Khorne.

The Battle for Kendrenec

The conflict erupted in the ruins of Kendrenec’s once-mighty fortresses, where the World Eaters, led by Lord Invocatus, sought to assert their mastery through sheer martial supremacy. The Death Guard, under the command of Typhus, countered with unyielding resilience and devastating firepower. The stakes were clear—whoever emerged victorious would claim the title of Master of Chaos in the sector and dictate the future of the war against the Imperium.

The battle was heralded by the dramatic intervention of Angron, the Daemon Primarch of the World Eaters, whose wrath knew no bounds. The daemon lord launched the assault with terrifying fury, obliterating a Death Guard War Dog in a single devastating blow. His rampage, however, was short-lived. The relentless firepower of the Death Guard’s daemon engines and corrupted artillery overwhelmed even Angron’s considerable might, banishing him back to the warp. Despite their Primarch’s fall, the World Eaters fought on, undeterred and frenzied by Khorne’s unquenchable thirst for blood.

The Turning Tide

The battle raged with savage intensity. The World Eaters unleashed their most devastating war engines, including a mighty Lord of Skulls, whose infernal power laid waste to the Death Guard lines. However, the slow, methodical firepower of Nurgle’s followers proved decisive. Plagueburst Crawlers, Blightlords, and daemon engines blanketed the battlefield with pestilence and destruction, grinding down the berserkers’ reckless assaults. Even as Lord Invocatus led a final, frenzied charge that drove Typhus from the field, the World Eaters found themselves unable to break the Death Guard’s implacable defense.

The climactic moment came when the Lord of Skulls, a towering avatar of Khorne’s fury, was destroyed in a hail of corrosive plague missiles and blighted energy. Its fall marked the turning point of the battle, as the remaining Khornate forces faltered under the relentless attrition of Nurgle’s chosen.

The Aftermath

With their forces shattered and Angron absent, the World Eaters were forced to retreat, leaving the Death Guard in undisputed control of Kendrenec. Though Typhus had been driven from the field, the victory cemented Nurgle’s supremacy over the Chaos forces in the Aleph Sector. From this point forward, the war against the Imperium would be waged according to the Grandfather’s inscrutable designs.

The battle for Kendrenec marked a turning point in the sector’s chaotic struggle. The disorganized warbands of Chaos began to align, however tenuously, under the banner of Nurgle. The House of Eschar, the Blighted Host, and other Nurgle-aligned factions now took their place as the dominant forces in the sector, preparing for a protracted and insidious war against the Imperium. For the Imperium, the defeat of Khorne’s champions only heralded a new, more methodical and attritional threat, as the Death Guard and their allies began consolidating their power with the grim patience of their patron.