Warhammer 40k‘s Chaos Knights and Imperial Knights will be the next armies to get a 9th edition codex rulebook, Games Workshop has revealed – along with two brand new Chaos Knights models incoming, titled the Knight Abominant and War Dog Karnivore. There’s to be a Chaos Knights Army Set featuring both the new traitor Knights, too – but, as usual, GW hasn’t given release window for either the new codexes, Army Set, or models.
Announced in a Warhammer Preview livestream held by GW on Wednesday (or Thursday, if you’re in the UK) to mark 2022’s Adepticon convention, the 9th edition Imperial Knights and Chaos Knights codex releases will reportedly directly follow the Tyranids – and, since that book’s expected mid-April, it’s fair to estimate these codexes and new Chaos Knight models could be on the way in May.
During the stream, Warhammer Community presenters Adam Troke and Wade Pryce explained the War Dog Karnivore would be the long-awaited melee-focused variant of the already popular War Dog Chaos Knights – whereas the much larger Knight Abominant was a different beast: a Knight that’s also a psyker – something not yet seen in Warhammer 40k.
While we now know the new Imperial Knights codex will arrive alongside its chaos opposite number, there’s no hint as to other special updates or models for the loyalists this time.
GW had teased an Imperial Knights-related Warhammer 40k codex reveal earlier in the week, with a 30-second video clip titled ‘Will You Attend the Ritual of Becoming’ – but then it bucked all our expectations on-stream with an updated video, revealing the true, chaotic nature of the news – watch them both below.
The earlier video, uploaded on Monday, showed an invitation – issued by the Imperial Knight House Du Frain – for the Ritual of Becoming, a ceremony in which a young Imperial Knight pilot is psychically imprinted upon the Throne Mechanicum (the device that allows them to control the machine using their mind). Thursday’s video showed that ceremony taking place – only to see the honoured Imperial pilot meet a gory end tied to the hull of a Chaos Knight.
By comparison with major Imperial Knight Households like Griffith or Raven, given pride of place in the previous Imperial Knights codex, House Du Frain is quite obscure in Warhammer 40k lore. According to the Warhammer 40k Lexicanum website, it appears only briefly in chapter one of Robbie MacNiven’s 2018 Black Library novel ‘Blood of Iax’.
Perhaps that’s why its ill-fated pilot was chosen to star in ‘The Knights Ride to War’ as a bloodied body pinioned across a Chaos Knight’s armour plating – who can say?
Hungry for more information about the noble Knightly Houses and their mechanical mounts? Read our full Warhammer 40k Imperial Knights guide. Or go the whole hog and tour the entire Warhammer 40k Imperium.