Beastmen

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

– George Orwell, Animal Farm

"Elia Martell...I killed her screaming whelp. Then I raped her. Then I smashed her fucking head in, like THIS."

– Gregor Clegane, A Storm of Swords

"The only thing in my head
Is five grams of cocaine, fly away alone
To the edge of oblivion
I have thoughts in my head
When will all this end
Whenever I'm not alone
Because a white eel will fly in"

– Beastmen's official theme song

A face that even mothers can't force themselves to love.

Where the Warriors are Chaos tanks and Daemons are Chaos cheese, the Beastmen are the true Chaos horde. The Beastmen call themselves the children of Chaos, descended from outcast mutants hurled into the cursed woods of the Drakwald. They are considered a mere nuisance by the Empire and the Bretonnians, but the Wood Elves know how dangerous they truly are. The favorite activities of most Beastmen include toppling waystones, erecting herdstones, kidnapping/raping/eating humans, and, of course, plain old smashing shit! They hate absolutely anything built or anything that is pure and make it a priority to destroy and defile that which the civilized races cherish.

In short, they're a bunch of drunken anarchist fucktards that hang out in the woods, surfacing only to pillage and defile - which is actually kinda awesome if you're into that sort of thing!

Print History

The Beastmen weren't always "the Beastmen" as we know them today. For the longest time, they were actually part of a unified Chaos army, but due to the fact that people seemed to like to roll with either all beast, mortal or daemon army lists, Games Workshop in their infinite wisdom decided to gradually split off the armies. Despite getting split off into an army of their own, they still always play second fiddle to every other villainous faction in the setting. Skaven used to be under them.

Runequest

Behold, the first Broo Beastmen models.

In the early to mid 1980's, Games Workshop still produced miniatures for other games, including some they didn't even sell (similar to Reaper Miniatures today), and among them was the line of Broo for the Runequest game of the Glorantha setting.

Broo were the proto-Beastmen. Most of the visual style of modern Beastmen, particularly Ungors, is present in the Broo minis. Broo are specifically very similar to Beastmen, although most notably is their lecherous nature and their hyper-fertility to the point they can literally impregnate anything they jizz into, including other males (usually not of their own race), trees, rocks, even just dirt.

Games Workshop lost the rights to most of the third party IPs in the early 80's, since the contracts had run out and the IP owners had discovered there was alternatives (early GW had managed to sell itself on the idea it was the primary distributor of tabletop in The Old World Europe despite it originally being three young men in an apartment and later on about twenty of them in a small office). This left them with a fair amount of unsold inventory that they couldn't actually sell anymore, so they repurposed it all (with dubious legality) as other things and gave Brian Ansell the thumbs up to make his own game that they'd all have rules in...hence, Warhammer was born. Since Broo were generic enough, Games Workshop repurposed the existing miniatures as a set of models for the game, with very little actually changed aside from all the grey morality removed.

Hordes of Chaos

Way back when, they were just part of the single Chaos army where they fulfilled the role of chaff; they were squishier and quicker than other Mortal units and they were good at setting up charges, which Daemons couldn't really do. There were also a couple of special and rare units that were "beastly," but nothing much.

Beasts of Chaos

In 6th edition the Chaos army was split, making Beastmen their own army... sort of. They were pretty bad in this edition, essentially being the bitch of Chaos. Indeed, they had almost no redeeming qualities of their own, but to get into why we'll need to split apart the book and look at it in detail.

For starters, there's nothing the Beasts can do that Mortals or Daemons can't do better. At first this might seem odd since their Special and Rare choices could both be very powerful, however the Chaos books were rather unique in that Beasts, Daemons and Mortals could all be used alongside each other, and so each could take everyone else's Special and Rare choices. The main difference was in what counted as your Core, and a Chaos Core was divided into a Mortal, Beast and Daemon Core. Whichever of the three types happened to be your General was the type that counted as your Core, while the other two counted as Special choices.

Suffice to say, outside of a few options/builds the Beast Generals were lacking compared to Mortal Generals and Greater Daemons, and so were their Core. Sure if you found a way to get Morghur in the middle of the enemy he could stop at least half an army on his own while Khazrak was hands down one of, (if not the best) monster killers in the game. He was able to get up to S10 and each successful wounding attack, before saves, generated a new attack (yes, even the new attacks did this) and the Beast's ambush rule was pretty cool, but those are the exceptions.

The Beast Core consisted of units that mixed low Toughness and low Leadership; they had lightly armoured Ungors with spears and tough, brawny brawlers in the form of Gors, alongside skirmishers that could scout. The only alternatives (if you wanted a full unit) was to supplement with Warhounds, who can't take a hit and didn't count towards your mandatory Core slots, or take a bunch of tough, strong Bestigors, who were overpriced and much slower than everybody else. If you wanted a Beasts General and mostly wanted to make use of your Special and Rare choices, then you'd probably get a few Tuskgor Chariots to fill your mandatory Core slots. They were significantly cheaper than their Mortal counterparts, did not do that much less damage and were also the only option that could consistently make their points back.

This is because when they were split from the Hordes of Chaos, the Core was nothing more than an unruly band of meat shields. In fact, because they could move faster, it was preferable to field a few beast packs to soak up arrow fire and act as distractions while fast-moving daemons got the flanks and warriors hammered the front ranks.

This does not make a competent, full army. Now if you were paying attention you might be wondering how they'd perform if had a Mortal or Daemon General and so could avoid a shitty Core, and that's where things get good. A Chaos army often had to skip out on important upgrades to certain units (specifically Warriors) because they wouldn't have enough to get a good General, a good frontline, and a good few heavy hitters that you'd normally need to collapse the enemy's formation. They were pricy, and so Beasts gave you the option of having a cheap Core and suddenly you had far more points to spend on units of Warriors and Knights.

Now to get into the cool Special and Rare choices, the Beasts gave Chaos the Chaos Trolls and Ogres, Dragon Ogres and Shaggoths, etc. Combined with the Warriors (and saving points using Chariots or Ungor screens for Core) it made for a fairly strong United force, one that could hit like a truck and take solid hits in return.

Almost makes you wonder why they were ever split in the first place, since the only time the Chaos armies of 6th Ed were scary was when they had a united front (just like in the lore).

Beastmen

Warrior goats with Ogre-style gutplates

Sometimes referred to as "the WEAK chaos army," or the "Powerful Chaos Skaven" it more or less resembles a normal horde style army in Warhammer Fantasy Battle with cheap, expendable troops, average leaderships and little immunity to psychology. The things they otherwise don't have are anything resembling armor or any kind relevant shooting, but they try to make up for it with Primal Fury which gives them hatred on a passed leadership test each round of combat on many of their units. The Herdstone magic item allows Beastmen wizards to score extra power dice for their spells, allowing Beastmen to pull off a little extra spell support to augment the cheap core units. They also excel in cheap chaff and redirectors in the form of Ungor Raiders, Razorgors, and Harpies, and fielding fairly costed chariots in core.

Unfortunately they also got fucked in pretty much every other area. Marks were taken away for no good reason, prices went up on models that already cost too much, models were introduced that made your own army worse, the Beastmen were given a piss-poor magic lore (compared to every other lore) in exchange for the other lores that could be occasionally useful, they swapped out mostly decent magic items for mostly shitty ones, or ones that made no sense (like a magic banner that could only be given to a unit who had heavy armour, and it took away their heavy armour without refunding the cost), the list goes on. All in all it made them one of if not the worst army in the game. It was still possible to win, but it would always be an uphill battle as their biggest advantages, like their heaviest hitters and ability to be combined with the other Chaos armies as one big force, were completely removed (with the one exception being Minotaurs who are overcosted compared to other models anyway).

Real world Inspiration

The standard way of creating a fantasy race or culture is to take one real world culture and base everything off of that. The Empire is early Renaissance Germany, Bretonnia is Medieval French fused with English Arthurian myth giving them a strong British feel as well. Dwarfs and Elves have their own sort of base line culture based on Tolkien and with a large part of Warhammer fantasy in it nowadays as well.

The Beastmen, however, are based on the popular conception of the barbarians who tore Rome down. First they have no interests other than smashing civilization apart for the sake of smashing it apart. They have in their background that they pay homage to large 'herd stones' which are similar to the Celtic shrines (think Stonehenge, although it is not actually a Celtic shrine). Lastly, they are Beastmen and satyrs are associated with paganism. Ever wonder why the Devil has cloven legs? Early Christians used the old Greek god Pan (the original satyr), as the devil because he was, among other things, a god of sex (and shepherds) and Christians are against recreational sex outside marriage due to the Bible's stipulation that God intends it for married couples, meaning Pan was a good framework for the devil and all that has really changed since then was turning him red and giving him a trident. Plus, Pan is also a god of the wild; very fitting reference for Beastmen.

Tactically the Beastmen also fit the Barbarian origin: many light troops that rely on ambush and surprise (more than one Roman legion was lost by this kind of ambush), chariots which the Britons used against the Romans and lastly they are like the Barbarians in that they are focused on skirmishing and raiding. Once upon a time all Beastmen were skirmishers, which while effective against isolated villages is less effective against armies, which is why it was changed.

So the Beastmen have some pretty interesting roots once you 'pop the hood' on their design.

Occupy Drakwald

The thing that pisses the Beastmen off is that something like 1% of life in Middenheim controls 99% of the land! There are so many freaky beasts living in the chaos woods, combined with big Empire pushing around the people of the woods and ruining the environment for their own economic interests. And so the Beastmen have taken to their eternal campout against the Empire and it's regional castellan pretty boy, Elector Count Boris Todbringer.

Another thing that really pisses them off is that it's stated in the Orcs and Goblins codex that Forest Goblins on their spiders tend to murder herds wandering in the woods. Technically this is because the Forest Goblins are the original occupants of Drakwald that have been trying to keep the Empire, Beastmen (born of Empire), and other greenskins out since the dawn of...well, the Old Ones creating all the races, but fuck those fucking fucks! They have fancier hats and more land, so they gotta go too!

And that's not where the similarities end. The Beastmen are a bunch of lazy, shiftless, filthy degenerates that eat babies - no literally! The Beastmen want nothing better than to just drink looted booze, eat/fuck other races and tear down everything that everyone has ever built - ever! (cough cough Chakats.)

Origins

"One might suspect that the lower forms of the servants of darkness would be less blessed by the powers they serve than their more noble counterparts, but this is not the case. The Marks of the Dark Gods are as evident amongst these foul creatures as in any horde of debased Men. Perhaps even more so, for these Beastmen, as they are known, seem to be embraced by their gods just as parents might their children. Spawned by the very darkness that enwraps them, they are closer to the heart of Chaos than any other creatures and are to be greatly feared because of it."

– From the Liber Chaotica, penned by Richter Kless, Priest of Sigmar, declared insane.

The Beastmen's origins seem to be something of a composite piece (and changes from edition to edition). On one account, they are descended from the myriad creatures that inhabited the Northern Wastes and migrated downward, accepting more stable forms from their reduced exposure from the polar fluxes of chaos and interbreeding with more magic resistant creatures. Another myth pins the Beastmen's origins as the mutated descendants of humans cast into the wild for being born a hideous half-man, half-beast creature (Now why the humans decide to throw all their mutant babies into the surrounding forest known to be populated with sadistic and vengeful goatmen born as mutants to humans and cast-off themselves is a bit of a mystery). The 6th ed Beasts of Chaos book says that when the polar gates collapsed, the Beastmen were made from animals mutating to be more human-like and humans mutating to be more bestial while the 7th ed Beastmen book says that when Chaos was first released to the world the "primitives" at the time went mad, fucked some animals, generations later their descendants are the Beastmen. Wood Elves seem to have less of a problem with mutants, either because they resist chaos more/better or they kill such offspring immediately and never talk about it again, but that's just like, you know, a cultural difference.

Age of Sigmar is more vague about the Beastmen's origins, stating that they were present in the Mortal Realms before Sigmar arrived (which is a enigma in itself, since all other forms of Chaos only arrived in the Age of Chaos). Three in-universe theories are presented; the standard "animals and men mutated by Chaos energy", one claiming that they're all descended from a primogenitor beast called the Gor-Father, and another saying that they're the product of miscegenation between races. Since several Beastmen tribes appear to worship the Gor-Father, while there are other accounts of humans being mutated into Beastmen, its possible that all these theories have elements of truth to them.

Regardless, today's Beastman is more likely either the product of gangrape, spawned by a brief and unholy union from victorious Beastman raiders that managed to bring home some captive females from other races, usually humans, and it never ends well for the woman (tying into the inspiration for Beastmen, the Broo, though this was downplayed; you know something's nasty when Games "In the GRIM DARKness of the far future..." Workshop says it's too much - before you bring up the Fimir, it was never part of them, only inferred by a typo and omission of lore), or they were spawned when a Beastman really loves a Beastwoman. We're not too sure how Beastmen "love" one another, but the fluff seems to imply that the Beastmen have to get really fucking hammered before hand with giant orgiastic feasts at their encampments around Beastmen Herdstones. However, as of Total War: Warhammer: Call of the Beastman, it is possible to recruit a female Beastman, or Doe, to your warband.

Types

Beastmen come in many varieties, usually denoted by a suffix and a prefix, making a chaotic race that hates organization and civilization into an easily organized and tidy group. In Oldhammer, mutants were included as Beastmen in advertising. After the Tony Ackland legal troubles when most mutants and the more creative types of Spawn were squatted, Beastmen remained pure beast men.

Devoted

Beastmen particularly devoted to specific Chaos Gods, usually because of mutations at their birth, being enslaved by devotees of a particular god, or blessing, are given the name of their god in their designation. Its worth noting that the armor of the godly Beastmen are more ornate, implying they are far less antagonistic to the idea of making things intentionally. Note that devoted is our word for organizing them. They were also out of the picture until VERY recently because Phil Kelly removed them from the 7th edition Beastmen book and retconned the fluff to destroy any and all traces of Beastmen that were devoted/enslaved/blessed by a single god, to the point where they couldn't even be given marks on both the tabletop and lore.

• Tzaangor are Beastmen of Tzeentch. Have white, yellow, and most commonly blue features usually as well as mutations giving them spindly limbs, extra arms, and an emphasis on bird and moon appearances. Tzeentch-aligned Doombulls are called "Tzaanbulls".

• Slaangor are Slaanesh's Beastmen. The least described and depicted of all the Beastmen groups. Their mutations obviously trend more towards the lewd, with extra pectorals and nipples, and are known for being mostly albino with pastel skin. Their eyes are like those of Daemonettes, being large and either green or black. Their species are animals that are lithe or symbolically sensual, but with a large amount of them being non-Minotaur bovines (a Bovigor can be a Slaangor, not all Slaangor are Bovigor). Slaanesh-aligned Doombulls are called "Slaanbulls".

• Khorngor are Khorne's. Their fur is shiny and almost metallic, their eyes are white with red pupils, they always have canine heads and the most favored have their horns naturally grow in the shape of Khorne's skull symbol. They wear far more armor than most other Beastmen species. Khorne-aligned Doombulls are called "Bloodbulls".

• Pestigor are Nurgle's, breaking the prefix naming scheme of the others. Aside from being heavily diseased, something they don't really have exclusive among Beastmen, they have only one horn, their hide is particularly tough, and they wear far more armor than any other variety. Disappointingly, they were not named Nurggors. Nurgle-aligned Doombulls are called "Plaguebulls".

Herd Society

Beastmen society is organized around herds and ruled by a system of might makes right. In other words, what the biggest, strongest Beastman says, goes. One would be forgiven in thinking that this automatically means that minotaurs would end up running the show since they are by far the biggest and strongest, but they're not the brightest thing on two hooves. Minotaurs specialize in wholesale slaughter, but aren't too keen on things like where to find food, who should keep watch or how to fix their shitty chariots. Lo, the Beastlord has his task cut out for him.

In any case, the main Beastmen types are, in pecking order:

• Beastlords: The Beastmen in charge, the Alpha Male, they run the show for the other Beastmen with a combination of dastardly cunning and brute strength. They often delegate more benign tasks to their immediate inferiors, the Wargors.
• Wargors: The "trusted" (as far as Beastman loyalty goes) lieutenants of Beastlord, Wargors are pretty kickass leaders and fighters themselves. Often seen carrying battle standards or leading Bestigor herds, or both.
• Bestigors: Quite literally the best Gors. Strong, tough, heavily armed and armoured, the Wargors and Beastlords often arise from their ranks. They used to be the Chaos Undivided of the Beastmen, complete with the Mark (with the option of becoming Khorngors, Tzaangors, Slaangors or Pestigors) but then some asshole took away their marks and unique types.
• Bray-Shamans and Great Bray-Shamans: Tribal elders and spiritual leaders of the Beastmen, they interpret the will of Chaos and determine the best course of action for the herd. They are also the herd's wizards, channeling the lores of Death, Shadows, Beasts and their unique Lore of the Wild, a corrupt offshoot of the Lore of Beasts. One of the very few rules Beastmen have is that you are never allowed to harm a Bray-Shaman for any reason, ever; the ability to wield magic is seen as a sign of favour from the Ruinous Powers, and since it's really hard for the Beastmen to get any kind of favour from them, those who clearly have it cannot be cast aside lightly.
• Gors: The rank and file of the beast herd. Your average Gor is bigger, tougher and far nastier than your average human, and also far more stupid which explains why they haven't overrun everything. He's also an unguloid with furry legs and a face that's a blend of bestial and human features. ALL Gors also feature prominent horns and/or antlers on their heads.
• Ungors: The untouchables even in beast herds and sword-fodder for just about everyone who isn't a Beastman. They are pretty close in size to humans, yet still feature particularly bestial features such as furry unguloid legs with hooves, a semi-bestial face and two small horn buds. Sometimes band together in scouting parties of Ungor Raiders when not used as slave labour to fix all the shitty Beastmen gear. In short, the Beastmen's equivalent to Skavenslaves and Chaos Marauders.
• Brays: Beastmen with no horns, the lowest of the low in Beastman society (so low that they got no models). In a society where life is nasty, brutish, and short, their lives are by far the nastiest, most brutal and most especially shortest.

Beastmen are wild and crude creatures embodying all the negative aspects of animals combined with human-level intelligence. They are truly repugnant to behold, let alone to smell, for they are a twisted reflection of the base and barbaric aspects of nature. Beastmen are Chaotic Evil to their core (as one would expect from the OG children of Chaos), with literally the only thing resembling redeeming qualities that they have being their reverence of Bray-Shamans and (depending on how one looks at it), their loyalty to the Chaos Gods. The carnage and despair they spread across the land is a malevolent and deliberate attempt to wreck anything beautiful or stable for the lulz. Bitterness and spite simmers in the heart of every Beastman; it takes little more than a few well-chosen words to spur a Gor into a frenzy of unrestrained rage. The sounds of distant battle will cause a Beastman to prick up his tufted ears in an instant; a fight or duel upon a woodland path will invariably bring dozens of Beastmen from all about in a very short space of time. Even when gathered in their torrid encampments the Beastmen spend their time fighting, fucking or feasting. The only time they don't is when a particularly strong Beastman knocks a sense of purpose into them (sometimes literally) or a Bray-Shaman calls on the Chaos Gods.

Beastmen have forms perfectly suited to their horrid nature. They have long, ridged horns with which to gore their foes, and the legs of cattle and goats with which to trample the bodies of their victims. Their matted hair is encrusted with blood and dung, a haven for fat ticks and colonies of fleas that keep the Cloven One in a constant state of agitation, for hygiene is one of those stable and beautiful concepts that Beastmen feel compelled to ruin. They're not even house trained and mark their territory whenever they feel like it even if it's on an enemy's corpse. Their drool-filled mouths are filled with sharp, wolf-like fangs for tearing the flesh of their prey, and their muscular, sweat-slicked bodies are ideally suited to the murderous desires that gleam in their blood-red eyes.

Above all, though, it is the trappings of progress and civilization that fan the embers of hatred burning within each Beastman's breast. A mere glimpse of bright colours, especially the colour red, will often be enough to get a Beastman's pulse racing with bloodlust. The sight of a proud flag or coat of arms, a pristine uniform or a magnificent statue elicits a powerful reaction in the Beastmen, for the things of order are anathema to the Children of Chaos. All caution is put aside in a desperate attempt to tear down and befoul the offending article, to stomp it into the mud, smear it with dung or rip it to pieces and chew on the remains. Woe betide those who take pride in such symbols of authority and order, for their end will invariably be messy, painful and humiliating. Though Beastmen find it far easier to destroy than to create they can be terribly inventive in the punishments they inflict upon their captives, and they have a sick and ribald sense of humor that leads to truly stomach-churning atrocities enacted upon those they can catch.

No Beastman is truly content unless visiting some manner of violence upon a hapless victim. The only tools they use are the tools of war, and even then they aren't too fussy. In the last edition of Fantasy they armed themselves with crude blades and axes that they call 'man-cleavers,' mostly cobbled together from the spoils of war, because Phil Kelly thought it would be a great idea to change the Beastmen so that they're unable to make their own equipment. He also altered them so that the warherds lack the resplendent weapons and baroque armour of the human servants of the Chaos Gods, saying that since the Beastmen already belong to the Ruinous Powers the gods have no need to bargain such trinkets in exchange for their souls, completely ignoring the fact that the gods are supposed to be petty, meaning even if their souls already belonged to Chaos, they'd still get marks to show which god they belonged to. This might have been a part of his plan to make the army the worst army in all of Fantasy, as the marks and armour also help the armies of Chaos win the fights they get into, so it should be no surprise that after Phil changed their lore, they don't do shit aside from being a punching bag for all the other races. He decided to leave in how they're great at raiding (though the actual rules for raiding were an entirely different story), pillaging and corpse-robbing even when they are not marching to war. Because of this they are never short of battered weapons and ragged suits of armor, albeit ones encrusted with clotted gore and riddled with rust. Such lack of quality is only a minor setback to the Beastmen, who compensate with sheer brute strength and determination.

The robust constitution of the Cloven Ones allows them to live upon the most meagre or unpleasant of diets. They prefer great chunks of meat above all but, unlike their larger Minotaur brethren, they do not care if it is fresh or if it is infested and maggot-ridden. Beastmen are cannibals who gorge themselves upon the corpses of their own kind without hesitation, entrails, hair, horns, hooves and all, and believe that to do so is to inherit the strength of the victim. This diet of dead meat is supplemented with grubs, hairy-legged spiders, poisonous centipedes, plump blowflies, and other vermin, as well as the occasional lost child or lone woodsman. It could be said that Beastmen are hunter-gatherers, though they mainly gather the body parts strewn around the place after a particularly vicious hunt. Human flesh is a delicacy to Beastmen, and rivals have been known to fight to the death over a single human arm or leg.

Of all the creatures of Chaos, Beastmen have an especially close relationship with Morrslieb, the Chaos Moon. Whenever Morrslieb is fullest in the sky the Beastmen will hold night-long, sprawling orgies where they indulge every base lust and bloodthirsty deed they can think of. Much blood is shed, much captured wine and beer is drunk, and many new beast-spawn are conceived, ensuring the cycle of twisted and unholy life is perpetuated. Though it is rumored that the witches and heretics of the Old World join the Beastmen in these frightening and confusing bacchanals, none have ever been able to say for certain, for to stumble upon a camp of blood-drunk Beastmen celebrating under the unclean light of Morrslieb is to plunge into hell itself.

Beastwomen

This article or section is about Monstergirls (or a monster that is frequently depicted as a Monstergirl), something that /tg/ widely considers to be the purest form of awesome. Expect PROMOTIONS! and /d/elight in equal measure, often with drawfaggotry or writefaggotry to match.

"She doubted that she or it would have survived if she had not encountered the beastwomen in the forest; if they had not taken her in and guarded her and fed her. She remembered them as being oddly shy and gentle compared to the gors and ungors. "

– from the perspective of Justine, Chaos Champion. From Trollslayer.

Thanks to Blood Bowl, specifically Spike! Magazine, we now have a "canon" piece of artwork of a female Beastman (which is ironically less beastly than a lot of the fan-art).

Naturally, some Chaos fans on /tg/ have speculated quite intensely about the possibility of Beastwomen/"gor-doe" waifus, particularly given old lore of human Chaos worshippers partaking in the bacchanalian feasting and rutting of Beastmen tribes. While it has been confirmed that Beastmen are not all male, very little canon information has ever been revealed about the female half of the Beasts of Chaos. As you can read in the above quote, William King, the author of the Gotrek & Felix novels, describes them as "calmer" than their male counterparts. Yet despite being apparently more restrained and rational than their menfolk, much like their human counterparts in the Northern tribes, gor-does are can still be capable warriors, as it is mentioned in the aforementioned novels the duo encountered beastwomen warriors during their battles.

Total War: Warhammer stuck its own oar in, claiming that gor-does are relatively rare among the Beastmen and as such the males will fight for the right to mate with one whenever it's breeding season. Meaning only the strongest members of a herd will get to mate with a pure female beastmen, while the less lucky males look to other means for producing more of their kind. Whether this is actually canon or not is unclear, so it's left to fans to decide for themselves how they prefer it... which of course leads to the usual arguments.

Other older lore has implied both that harpies act as females for beastmen, and that, much like the Fimir, beastmen have been known to abduct human (or elf) women as corrupted breeding slaves they call "Beastmothers". For fairly obvious reasons, this piece of lore has since disappeared from official pubblications, only leaving the occasional unsettling implication.

Given the beastmen's origins as rip-offs of the Broo, some fans also assume that many Beastmen reproduce by impregnating female livestock.

• 

  One drawfag's interpretation of what happens when a Chaos Champion kills a Beastlord.

• 

  Fan-art of a hypothetical female Beastlord.

• 

  No wonder they pump out so many vast hordes.

• 

  You gotta admit, they have a sort of soft, fluffy sexiness to them.

Beastman Champion Retinues

Back in the days of Realms of Chaos, Beastman Chaos Champions were able to take the Path to Glory once introduced in "The Lost and the Damned", and even had their own unique follower retinue table they rolled on, to emphasize the split between the beastmen tribes and the armies of Chaos-damned humans:

01-020: 2d6 Beastmen (If the Beastman Champion has the Mark of Chaos, these are also Marked by the same Patron; Khorngors, Pestigors, Slaangors or Tzaangors - otherwise, they're just normal beastmen)

21-40: 2d6 Beastmen

41-60: Beastman Hero

61-70: Beastman Shaman

71-80: D6 Centaurs

81-85: D3 Dragon Ogres

86-98: D6 Minotaurs

99-100: Other (Roll on the Human Chaos Champion retinue table)

The Bulls

Nobody really knows why, but the Beastmen seem to be accompanied by a race of ferocious Minotaurs, not that they're complaining. When the Minotaurs aren't rampaging through the hardest parts of an enemy army, eating knights, drinking blood and shitting victory, they're often seen guarding caches of magic treasures deep in the Drakwald. They aren't a very bright group but their uncanny resilience, rape-tastic strength and general piss-your-pants scariness gets shit done for the Beastmen. There are also mutant varieties of the bulls that have long ago traded their sanity for fuck-off hugeness and other random shit.

• Doombulls and Gorebulls: The closest thing the Minotaurs have to leaders, with the Doombulls being the larger, stronger and generally more daunting of the two, and Gorebulls functioning like Wargors or Skaven Chieftans.
• Minotaurs: Giant, bull-headed monsters that fuck near can't be stopped once they get to smashing shit.
• Cygors: 50 ft. tall, one-eyed Minotaur mutant that can only see magic things. Likes to collect gigantic pieces of magic rock (more commonly known as temple columns) and eating the souls of mages... unless those tricksy wee things are causing him trouble, whereupon he'll just throw one of his gigantic rocks at it!
• Ghorgon: Minotaurs that get a flair for cannibalism turn into giant-sized, four-armed killing machines with two of their four arms ending in scythe hands. They also have a penchant swallowing things whole and magically reknitting any wounds they may have had.

Other Critters

A centigor, centaur in grimdark.

Being that the Beastmen are all a bunch of horrible monsters, they have a pretty high tolerance for other horrible monsters. Along with the minotaurs, the Beastmen's ranks are supplemented by other creatures used for various tasks from beasts of burden to cavalry to shock troops to cannon fodder.

• Warhounds: Just like the ones starved and tamed by the warriors of chaos, but instead starved and tamed by Beastmen. Used for a fast and cheap screen.
• Tuskgors: What essentially look like warthogs, they're most often used to pull the herd's shitty chariots.
• Razorgors: Bigger, nastier, mutant tuskgors. They are either loosed in packs or used to pull chariots. Why the Beastmen use pigs as pack animals and eat horses instead of the other way around is a bit bizarre, but might have to do with how flighty horses can get around large, carnivorous animals and that pigs occasionally indulge in carnivorism and predation.
• Centigors: The torso of a Gor fused onto the body of a horse with three hooves per foot, by the looks of it. Totally ungainly and butt-hurt over it, they take to stealing beer, wine and spirits brewed and distilled by other races and getting shit-faced daily to forget that fact. They act as cavalry to the Beastmen, and are the setting's Centaurs.
• Harpies: Identical to Dark Elf harpies, may or may not be the Beastwomen with which the Beastmen procreate. Used primarily as flying shock troops.
• Chaos Spawn: Can be either heavily mutated Beastmen or just normal spawn, that which must not be named are goaded into battle... somehow. But this is chaos, so really anything can become a chFGHFGTYHAAAD*BLAM*
• Jabberslythe: Arguably the ugliest thing in all of WHFB. Said that not even the clearest pools will reflect its image, or maybe they just don't stay clear for very long. Either way, this is yet another giant powerhouse of a monster using its ugliness as a shock weapon to get the Beastmen's enemies to kill themselves.
• Giant: The warhammer giant is at the beast's disposal to jump up and down, yell at people and stuff them into its pants.

• A type of amphibious beastmen known as "Lakemen" infest areas of Bretonnia. They appear as humanoid frog-fish with crab claws for hands, and all have at least one type of mutation furthering them from this basic form. Don't really get along with "normal" beastmen that well, either.
• There is a tribe of beastmen in Ind that have tiger heads. Local humans worship them as holy spirits and as such said locals prostrate themselves, even as they get killed by the 'holy spirits'. They're called the Bengal, because if you didn't guess it the first time, Ind is Warhammer India.
• The tribal societies of men, greenskin, and lizardmen in the Southlands have to deal with raids from the Apemen, a race of Beastmen that resemble humanoid gorillas.
• The Ymir are a solitary race of Norscan Beastmen who are similar to Ogre Yetis.
• Down in the Warhammer Antarctica, also known as "Southern Chaos Wastes", a pretty obscure Beastmen subrace called Beastfiends lives. They're actually non-human at all, instead being an unholy mix of Beast and Daemon. They're totally irrelevant and only appear in one Archaon novel.
• In Naggaroth, a strange breed of scaled Beastman can sometimes be seen in the caves and crevasses. About the height of an Elf and covered head to foot in craggy scales, these creatures are primitive, and war amongst themselves with their stone axes and clubs. On occasion, when times are hard or when the call of Chaos from the north grows strong, they descend from the peaks to raid Dark Elf settlements and join with the armies of Chaos, and their numbers are such that it takes great military might to repel them.
• Polar Warbears In "The Northlands", possibly the edge of Kislev and Norsca, lies Ice Mountain. Within, The Frozen Horror dwelled, served by an army of horned Yetis and a type of Polar Bear Beastman known as a Polar Warbear. They tended to wear light armor and wielded one handed weapons, mainly because they were humanoid Polar Bears and as such, didn't NEED heavy armor or heavy weapons, since Polar Bears can rip people apart with their bare paws.

Notable Beastmen

• Khazrak The One-Eye: One of the most legendary Beastmen in recent history, known for his use of actual tactics and military strategy. Has one eye (surprisingly) and a heated rivalry with Boris Todbringer.
• Taurox The Brass Bull: Violent bull-freak made of Brass after eating one of Khorne's daemons. He is a bad ass that likes to cut shit up and kill everything he sees. All in all total bad ass.
• Morghur the Shadowgave, aka Morghur the Master of Skulls:The closest thing to a central leader the Beastmen have. This guy not only corrupts and mutates anything in his path, every time he's killed, he simply resurrects and starts all over again. He's considered the greatest enemy of the Wood Elves and the chosen prophet and champion of the Chaos Gods to his people, despite not having only the vaguest semblence of a rational mind. It's entirely possible he's not really a Beastman and closer to a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided, or simply a mass of roiling Chaos energy in the vague shape of a Beastman In Age of Sigmar gets his own faction called the Gavespawn that pretty much worships him as a minor Chaos God.
• Malagor The Dark Omen: The Bray Shaman of all Bray Shaman, this Beastmen is not only a powerful sorcerer and a cunning manipulator he also has a pair of black raven wings that enable him to fly. He greatly resembles an old representation of old Nick called Baphomet.
• Gorthor the Beastlord: The greatest Beastlord to ever live, he united all the Beastmen of the Middle Mountains, pioneered the use of chariots, brought down two provinces of the Empire and in addition to his fighting skills was a tactical and strategic thinker.
• Ghorros Warhoof: The “Sire of a Thousand Young” is an ancient Centigor that is constantly fighting, drinking, or fucking. He proudly boasts to have fathered the entire Centigor race and have connections to every other beastman in the Old World. Like an alcoholic father who left home for a pack of cigarettes, he roams the land in a constant state of bragging, bashing, boozing, and banging, which makes him a somewhat beloved figure in many beast herds.
• Ungrol Four-Horn: Also known as Blackheart, Hornsthief, and the Spurned One, Ungrol is a two headed Ungor that was fed up with the constant abuse he suffered from the bigger and meaner gors. So he slit the throats of his tribe’s Wargor and Shaman and severed their horns to tie onto his own. He fled from his understandably pissed off tribe and took refuge in a dark series of caves that would become known as the Labyrinth of the Spurned. The legend of Four-Horn spread amongst the herds, and soon Ungrol was the leader of a vast army of Ungors and other outcasts of beastman society.
• Molokh Slugtongue: The closest thing you can have to a Pestigor special character in a book where pestigors officially don't exist. Disease-riddled skull-faced Bray-Shaman wielding pestilence and famine against his enemies, clearly suffused with the blessings of Papa Nurgle.
• Moonclaw: Technically a Chaos Xenos/Daemon Prince of Morrslieb, Moonclaw looks enough and acts enough like a Beastman to qualify as one, and his ability to spread insanity from himself in waves is seen as holy by the Beastmen.

In 40k

See Beastmen (40k)

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar

In Age of Sigmar, they're back, as the Beasts Of Chaos. Functionally identical, but with a larger scale and some tweaked lore, such as their reverence to Chaos as a primordial force rather than the Gods themselves (which better fits the idea of them as representing the darker side of nature and the wilderness).

Non-Warhammer Beastmen

Although the Warhammer Fantasy version of Beastmen is probably the most iconic use of the term on /tg/, it has surfaced in some other /tg/ settings as well, owing to the rather generic name. Even with Age of Sigmar's copyright-friendly rename-a-palooza, their name (Brayherds/Warherds) turns out rather generic in comparison to other names (e.g. Aelves, Orruks, Ogors)

In Glorantha, the Broo are a race of Chaos-aligned/spawned monstrous humanoids who appear as haphazard amalgamations of human and animal traits, all further wracked by diseases and/or mutations. This race actually created the Warhammer Beastmen (long story short; Games Workshop had a deal to produce miniatures for RuneQuest Broo models, it fell through, and they decided to recoup their losses by reworking the models into a new Chaos species for their own game).

In Dungeons & Dragons, the obscure Greyhawk setting has (or had, at least, during the days of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) a race called the Beastmen. These were basically really hairy humanoids with vaguely feline faces who lived in forests and were Stone Age hunters with a Neutral Good alignment. The race has been pretty much forgotten about.

Beastmen is also used in many settings as a collective term (analogous to demihumans and humanoids) to the various, well, furry races: things like lupins, minotaurs, gnolls, catfolk, ratfolk, etc. Sometimes any "animal-based" race, like lizardfolk, dragonborn, araneas, chitines, aarakocras, etc, will also be lumped in. To avoid confusion, /tg/ tends to prefer the blanket term Beastfolk.

In Kings of War you get the Herd, which is Warhammer Beastmen with a few extra steps, such as adding werewolves and giant eagles, but losing the chariots and some of the GW-exclusive monsters. From a fluff perspective they are completely different though, being a neutral army created by a benevolent god called Kyron and related to the orcs (who were created by Kyron's malevolent half), and are thus their chaotic good counterpart. As such they are maybe closer to the idea behind the beastmen army as a force of nature rather than a servant of the dark gods. Also dem werewolves (lycans) are one of the top three units in KoW.

See Also

• 8th edition Tactics
• Chaos tactics for the glorious 6th edition

Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle
Human Kingdoms:	The Empire of Man - Bretonnia
Elves:	High Elves - Dark Elves - Wood Elves
Dwarven:	Dwarfs - Chaos Dwarfs
Undead:	Tomb Kings - Vampire Counts
Heirs of the Old Ones:	Lizardmen
Greenskins	Orcs - Goblins
Ogrekind	Ogre Kingdoms
Servants of Chaos	Warriors of Chaos - Daemons of Chaos - Beastmen
Skavenkind	Skaven