Still very early in development, but I finished these four studies today and couldn’t resist sharing a small preview.
I used many references and improvised a bit on some of the details. The process itself was very entertaining for me.
My homebrew is a Chaos warband currently called the Ouroboros, led by Kohl, the False Colossus, an unusual Chaos Astartes devoted to both Khorne and Nurgle.
Kohl worships Khorne through battle and slaughter, but not simply by surrendering himself to every violent impulse. To him, battle is a form of discipline: violence is something to restrain, sharpen, and then unleash in a fight worthy of the Blood God. When he loses, he accepts the defeat for what it is rather than hiding it behind some “everything was part of the plan” excuse. His worship of Nurgle takes a very different form. It is rooted in endurance, acceptance of suffering, and an almost religious compassion toward those who have been abandoned. He believes life should endure no matter what it has to become in order to survive, which often means that his idea of “mercy” is very much a Nurglite one.
The contradiction between these two beliefs is intentional. Kohl is not meant to have somehow found a clean or rational version of Chaos. He is deeply corrupted by it; he simply interprets that corruption through his own philosophy. His idea of compassion can spread plague, his idea of discipline can end in slaughter, and he does not necessarily see the contradiction the way an outside observer would.
Despite his devotion to Chaos, Kohl takes enormous pride in remaining an Astartes and rejects Daemonhood. He looks down on daemons and treats many of them as expendable, but that is his own prejudice rather than an objective statement about what daemons are. In his mind, mortals and Astartes possess a more “complete” soul and identity than daemons do, even if he may be completely wrong about that.
I am also still experimenting with his origin. One idea I have been considering is that Kohl was created when two dead Chaos Marines were fused together by the Warp, with neither original consciousness surviving. What emerged would be a completely new person, retaining only scattered instincts and muscle memory. This part is very much WIP and may change as I develop him further, as many have pointed out that this setting creates more problem than it solves.
The warband itself is currently divided mainly between a Khornate force led by a former World Eater and a Nurglite force led by a veteran Death Guard Terminator, alongside a much more religiously mixed mortal population. These groups do cooperate, but the warband is far from harmonious. Rivalries, conflicting priorities and internal violence are common, and in some ways the Ouroboros is constantly eating itself.
At the same time, I do not intend for that division to remain the defining feature of the warband forever. One of the main directions I want to explore is the gradual spread of genuine Khorne/Nurgle dual worship among the Astartes themselves, until the warband develops a more unified culture and fighting style rather than simply behaving like two Chaos forces working together.
The Ouroboros also does not yet have a completely unified colour scheme. Most of the warband still falls visually into two broad groups: Khornate warriors tend toward reds, while Nurglite warriors tend toward greens, with many Astartes retaining elements of their former Legion or warband colours. Developing a more distinctive visual identity for the dual-worshippers is something I am currently working on.
Kohl is not an exceptional duelist by legendary Astartes standards, but he is extremely difficult to kill. There are even stories of him actually dying and later appearing elsewhere. My current idea is that when he dies, both Khorne and Nurgle attempt to claim his soul, but neither is willing to let the other have it. Kohl is not especially important to either god; he has simply become the subject of a small and petty contest between two vastly greater beings. Why his soul survives that struggle intact is something I have intentionally left unresolved for now.
Everytime he got reincarnated, he often appears in underhives and the depths of voidships, where desperate people gradually gather around him and form new cults. Mortals were among the earliest followers of the Ouroboros and still make up a significant part of its population.
Their battle cry summarizes the warband pretty well:
“Skulls for the Skull Throne. Corpses for the Grandfather.”
The original inspiration for the Khorne/Nurgle combination came from an obscure cult I read about in a story involving Calgar fighting a Daemon Prince. The cult worshipped both Khorne and Nurgle, which stuck with me because I had rarely seen that combination explored. From there, the idea became more personal: Kohl and his warband are partly my own projection of what path I think I might end up following if I were dropped into the 40K universe and inevitably fell to Chaos.
Still very much WIP, so I’d love to hear what you guys think about the Khorne/Nurgle combination, especially what a genuinely dual-worshipping Astartes force might look and fight like.
P.S. I also have an Age of Sigmar version of Kohl and his warband, which is where some of his religious philosophy is explored more directly. I’m currently working on that version’s lore as well.
Edit: Thanks for all the feedback. I’ve revised a few parts of the post to clarify some things that I didn’t communicate very well in the original version — especially Kohl’s relationship with Chaos corruption, his view of daemons, what I meant by his response to defeat, and the internal divisions within the warband. I also made it clearer that the “two dead Marines fused together” origin is still only a WIP idea rather than something I’ve fully committed to.
So if I am getting this right, Judiciars are just Chaplains in training, right? Which means there is a high likely that the devs might combine them together into one class that play style varies depends on the choice of weapon. For example, the new class might function more of a dualist when wielding the double-hand sword, and more of a battle priest when wielding the crozius.
Personally I prefer the Judiciar as new class than Chaplain, since it would bring more interesting ability into the gameplay. While Chaplain, I hope, could be cast between the Assault and the Judiciar class, to distinct different playstyles (since we have chaplain with jump pack, and our Vespasius sounds like a chaplain enough).
I have been brainstorming a homebrew infernal faction for Trench Crusade, tentatively called The Ocellated Host.
The core idea is an Astaroth-aligned host emerging from an Indian Hellgate. Unlike the Black Grail, which corrupts through rot, plague, flies, and bodily decay, the Ocellated Host corrupts through sight, false revelation, sacred mimicry, living banners, profane idols, and battlefield misperception.
They are not meant to be “Buddhist demons” or “Hindu demons.” The idea is that these are Hell-born entities that have learned to imitate sacred South Asian and Southeast Asian visual languages, but incorrectly and blasphemously. Local human kingdoms, temples, warrior-monks, and religious communities would be among their primary enemies, not their source. Their main human opposition would be something like the White Elephant Realms, a coalition of South Asian human polities still resisting under terrible pressure.
The Ocellated Host’s visual language would involve:
Their horror is not simply “many eyes.” It is the idea that the act of seeing has been weaponized. Their victims do not just see monsters. They begin to misread the battlefield, their orders, their own bodies, and even what they believe to be sacred.
I took insprations from Warhammer's Tzeentch aesthetics, along with South and Southeastern Asia cultures.
I would be interested in feedback on whether this feels compatible with the tone of Trench Crusade. Does the “false revelation / visual contamination” angle feel distinct enough from the Black Grail, the Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent, and other infernal factions? Which part should be pushed further: the profane idol units, the anti-elephant warfront, or the living banner / battlefield perception warfare?
Cultural sensitivity note: this is a blasphemous infernal faction concept inspired by South Asian and Southeast Asian visual motifs, but I do not intend to mock or demonize any real-world religion or culture. My knowledge is limited, so if any design element feels offensive, especially things like corrupted Sanskrit-inspired symbols or sacred imagery, please let me know. I would appreciate the correction and will revise the concept accordingly.
