Report to Kurtha.

To his Excellency Vonarld,
Commander of the Tenth Squadron of the Word Bearers and Governor of Kurtha.

Hail the Four, and all praise and endless honour to the Aurelian! Intelligence summary regarding the Sanguinary Utnapishtim, and their danger as an enemy and potential usefulness as an ally. Flayer of the Enemies of the Aurelian

The Sanguinary Utnapishtim is a human-dominated Empire devoted to the worship of Khorne, rejecting the other three Lords of Chaos. (See Appendix Three for a discussion of their origins.) Like all who reject Chaos Undivided, their strength in one area is more than compensated for by their weakness in others. This is reflected in their military performance, which displays great boldness, aggression and courage while displaying little tactical or strategic flexibility due to the rejection of Tzeentch and little strategic patience due to the rejection of Nurgle. The rejection of Slaanesh weakens their diplomacy, as they have difficulty understanding what gives pleasure to potential allies.

They have nominally rejected psycher power as Tzeentchian, although like the thrice-accursed Space Wolves they dishonestly give their psychers another name. For the Sanguinary Utnapishtim, this is “goremages.” As psychers with a few exceptions the goremages are not very sophisticated, most of their abilities focused on immediate battlefield use. The Sanguinary have peculiar beliefs regarding the corpse-Emperor, who they revere as a great devotee of Khorne. This reverence for the Emperor does not mean sympathy with the Imperium, which they despise.

Despite their commitment to Khorne, the Sanguinary are far from mindless berserkers. Their armaments industries and logistics are impressive by any standards, and they have a high degree of bureaucratic organisation to maximise the effectiveness of slaughter. Their fundamentally legalistic attitude to sacrifice to the Blood God lacks the beauty, deep symbolism, and ritual power of the Word Bearers, but it is effective in its own way.

The Sanguinary have lowered themselves to ally with the cursed Xenos, notably the loxatl, although they have also employed Ork mercenaries. They have little concern for the primacy of humanity in the galaxy. They also do not accept the leadership of Space Marines. There is a small group of Space Marines, the Qarnu Anšar, associated with the Sanguinary, presumably an offshoot of the World Eaters. Although they sometimes lead armies, they do not occupy the natural and unquestioned position of leadership that Word Bearers and others among the Legions occupy in the Warp. This should be borne in mind when dealing with the leaders of the Sherden Pact (their army) who do not fully share the natural awe of Space Marines held by most baseline humans (see recovered images from Appendix 2). The Qarnu Anšar have also lost the ability to reproduce themselves, so we need not fear the Sanguinary building a mighty force of Space Marines.

As allies, the natural aggression of the Sanguinary Utnapishtim would be best used in front wave attacks, sparing Word Bearer resources that could be better employed elsewhere. However, the leaders of the Sherden Pact are not stupid, and would revolt if their troops were too obviously used as cannon fodder. As enemies, their sheer numbers render them a formidable foe, but their aggression and lack of tactical flexibility of the Pact makes them vulnerable to tactics such as subterfuge, ambushes, and feigned retreats. They also have little experience dealing with enemy psychers, particularly those operating on the level of Lorgar’s glorious sons.

Larnak of the Tenth Squadron
Flayer of the Enemies of the Aurelian