With the three Imperial forces decided, Medici turned his attention to their opponents: Unaligned Chaos. This force spreads across the Alacaster Plains like a colorful yet filthy stain.
"Unaligned Chaos," Medici murmured, as if speaking a forbidden word. "This isn't some god's army or carefully planne holy war. It's the Warp itself malfunctioning—a wound in reality that spills corruption, violence, and madness into our world."
On the light screen, data representing the Unaligned Chaos faction began to coalesce. It manifested as extremely unstable blocks, constantly shifting between crimson, putrid green, eerie blue, and seductive purple.
"Composition extremely diverse," Medici began to enumerate. Each item reeked of blasphemy and chaos:
Native Warp Daemons: These range from the lowest-tier lesser daemons and horrors to Bloodletters and Predators without clear allegiance to any specific Chaos God. Occasional fragments of Greater Daemons get swept along by chaotic energies, their forms defying classification. They are pure manifestations of chaotic energy, acting solely for destruction and existence itself.
Chaos Warbands: These include descendants of traitor Astartes Legions scattered after the Horus Heresy. Other warbands that later pledged to Chaos also join them. They may each have preferred gods, but under the banner of Undivided, they temporarily unite for plunder, vengeance, or pure destruction. They are the elite backbone and tactical core of Chaos forces.
Traitor Guard Remnants: These are descendants of mortal auxiliary forces that followed the Primarchs in rebellion ten thousand years ago. The Warp has thoroughly corrupted them beyond recognition. Their equipment is mismatched, their tactics outdated but brutal, their numbers vast. They serve as the most basic cannon fodder and spreaders of terror in the Chaos tide.
Cultists of Nameless Gods: These worshippers serve secondary deities—unknown entities in the Warp not powerful enough to claim a place in the Chaos pantheon's eight-pointed star, yet still possessing twisted power. Their abilities are bizarrely unpredictable, their behavior beyond rational understanding.
"Core characteristic: powerful, but extremely chaotic, lacking unified command and long-term goals," Medici identified the key. "They can unleash devastating power in a single offensive wave, but can also instantly collapse due to infighting, daemon rampage, or simple madness."
These characteristics translate directly into gameplay mechanics. To embody this chaotic nature and give Chaos players a unique gaming experience, Medici designed a special system vastly different from the orderly Imperial framework:
1. Identity Progression and Sacrifice System
Initial Identity: When Chaos players enter the battlefield, they can choose their basic identity according to preference: Traitor Guard auxiliary, lightly daemon-corrupted mortal, or the purest low-tier Undivided daemon.
Path of Advancement Through Sacrifice: Unlike Imperial players who buy upgrades with points, Chaos players need a different resource: soul and flesh tributes harvested from the battlefield.
Tribute Sources: Every unit that falls on the battlefield—friend or foe alike—leaves behind a small "soul echo" or physical remains that Chaos players can collect at the point of death. The more powerful the unit, the more tribute it leaves behind.
Sacrifice Ritual: Players must bring collected tributes to "Chaos Altars" that randomly spawn on the map or are temporarily established by high-tier Chaos units. They spend their own points to initiate the sacrifice. During sacrifice, players must choose a direction to beseech, but the outcome has some randomness.
Sacrifice Results: After successful sacrifice, players may receive:
• Identity Promotion: Advancement from auxiliary to Chaos Space Marine, from lesser daemon to Bloodletter, or even an extremely small chance of directly obtaining a Chaos Champion template.
• Battlefield Support: Summon a small squad of reinforcements (daemons or traitors), trigger a localized Warp storm (disrupting enemies), or gain powerful personal buffs for a short time. However, these may come with side effects like madness or inability to distinguish friend from foe.
• Summon Daemon Engines or Greater Daemons: Consume massive amounts of tribute and points to attempt summoning daemon engines like Khornate Juggernauts or Tzeentchian Screamers, or powerful Greater Daemons of Undivided. Note that the summoning process is lengthy, and summoned entities are extremely prone to losing control.
2. "Chaotic Descent" Mechanism
Beyond advancement, Chaos forces face another unique challenge. To embody Chaos's essence of being "powerful yet chaotic," Medici designed a brutal rule:
When the Chaos side successfully summons large Chaos units (daemon engines, Greater Daemons, Dark Mechanicum Titans, etc.) to the battlefield through sacrifice or special events, these units will be in a "Disorderly Frenzy" state for an initial period (30-60 seconds).
Indiscriminate Attack: During this period, the unit attacks without distinguishing between friend and foe. It targets the nearest, most threatening unit—whether Imperial Astra Militarum, Astartes, or other Chaos infantry and vehicles. Chaos players must carefully guide them or exploit the chaos they create. They may even be forced to purge their own forces.
Stabilization and Control: After surviving the initial frenzy period, the unit will gradually stabilize. It can then be influenced to some degree or given simple commands by nearby Chaos players (usually the summoner or high-tier Chaos units). However, its behavior will still be more unpredictable and volatile than Imperial counterparts.
3. Faction Trait: Corruption and Mutation
Environmental Corruption: Areas where Chaos units linger for extended periods or gather in large numbers will gradually develop Chaos corruption effects.
Within corrupted zones, Imperial units will continuously take minor damage, suffer attribute reduction, or encounter random negative events. Meanwhile, Chaos units will gain recovery, enhancement, or trigger special abilities.
Random Mutation: Some Chaos units have a low probability of undergoing random mutation during combat, when taking damage, or upon contact with high concentrations of chaotic energy.
Mutations may bring attribute bonuses and new abilities. Alternatively, they may cause attribute degradation, fatal weaknesses, or direct self-destruction.
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"Unaligned Chaos is a high-risk, high-reward gamble of madness," Medici summarized.
"Players must learn to exploit chaos, as in a true Chaos tide. They must sacrifice and offer tribute, harnessing those uncontrollable forces of terror. Only then can they wage a desperate yet spectacular clash on the steel plains of Alacaster against the orderly Imperial armies."