Dealing with the creatures that inhabit the Immaterium is, to put it lightly, a risky endeavour. The more you bathe in their power, the more likely you are to fall victim to Chaos corruption, and unless you’re especially guarded (or lucky) it’s only a matter of time before something forces its way into your soul for a joyride.
Sure, if you’re as tough as a Space Marine it can take a while, but then your transformation is all the more spectacular. Love feeling your chainsword tearing through mortal flesh a little too much? You might just end up as a Mutilator.
The hulking monstrosities known as Mutilators are born when a mind obsessed with slaughter and butchery falls victim to one of the many technoviruses that gestate within the Warp. At first their symptoms are subtle, manifesting as a compulsion to constantly clean and sharpen weapons or a refusal to be parted with their favourite blade, but soon flesh and armour begin to knit into one impossible whole as the host’s mind decays and their body swells.
Transformation into a fleshmetal abomination is not without its perks, as Mutilators find themselves eager to absorb daemon weapons and add their power to their own. Such finely honed killing tools can then be manifested out of the warrior’s own body, ensuring they’ll always have the perfect weapon on hand to kill what’s in front of them.*
Much like their Obliterator counterparts, Mutilators are a common sight in the ranks of the Iron Warriors, who are rumoured to go so far as to intentionally infect their own recruits – though this is not to say they aren’t found in almost every warband to some extent.
Warsmiths like Kravek Morne have long since mastered the use of such formidable shock troops in brutal front line assaults and will toss them callously into meat grinder melees without a second thought. They’ll usually come out the other side blood-soaked and uninjured anyway, so why fret?
This new set of three Mutilators will be coming to a shelf near you within a few months or so – alongside Kravek Morne, and this mysterious ‘Eye of Terror’ book that we know so little about. Will there be more to see from the forces of Chaos before the Iron Warriors launch their campaign against the Imperium? Our prognosticators say “yeah probably”.
* When all you have is an arm that transforms into three different kinds of hammer, everything looks like one of three equally hammerable kinds of nail. Wisdom.
