LORD INVOCATUS, Khorne's Huntsman | Warhammer 40k Lore
Joshy and Jonny charge headfirst into the brutal world of Warhammer 40000 to unpack Lord Invocatus — the fiery, skull-obsessed leader of the Fire Riders warband. He’s new, he’s loud, and honestly, he’s awesome. We break down his lore (what little there is), his blend of tactical smarts and Khorne-fuelled aggression, and why he stands out in the blood-soaked madness of the World Eaters. From flaming sky-bridges to skull-stacking violence, we spotlight Invocatus as one of 40k’s freshest Chaos Lords.
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TTP Field Manual is brought to you by Joshy and Jonny, best friends and gaming enthusiasts from their local group, Trust the Process Hobbies. Die-hard fans of the Warhammer universe, we use this podcast as a platform to share our passionate (and somewhat humorous) ramblings about all things Grimdark.
By day, Joshy is a therapist; by night, he's an RPG aficionado who grew up on (not-so) Final Fantasies and crafting his own Dungeons & Dragons worlds. Jonny, a hospitality manager, spends his downtime conquering more video games than Joshy can keep track of.
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Notes:
- The World Eaters are a shattered mess of warbands after Angron’s abandonment — pure chaos in every direction
- Lord Invocatus is a mysterious figure with an unknown past
- Invocatus leads the Fire Riders, famous for their flaming sky-bridges and brutal hit-and-run tactics.
- Lord Invocatus is not just a berserker — his ability to sense traps and control his warband gives him a tactical edge.
- We unpack the absurdity of Khorne’s endless bloodlust and how Invocatus channels that fury into leadership.
- Plus, we chat about his tabletop rules — what he brings to the meta, how he plays, and whether he’s worth the points.
Transcript
Hey listeners, it's Joshy. Hey.
The episode you're about to listen to, where we talk about Lord Invocatus, it's an exciting episode, but it was an episode that was actually recorded last year during our end of year Advent calendar of sorts, alongside such episodes as Ephrael Stern Cipher, Canis Rex, yada blah. Lord Invocatus did not quite make it out due to the fact that when we recorded it, I was actually away on holidays.
And then when I went around to edit the podcast, the episode didn't quite sound as good as I wanted it to be. But that brings us to what's going on right now. Well, what's going on right now is Johnny, who who's usually with me, is starting a new job.
He has had to go away for a couple of weeks, so our recording schedule is up in the air. That is why you are going to receive this episode. I hope you enjoy it.
But before we let the episode play, I just want to remind you that we do have an Instagram account. You can find us at TTP Fieldmanual as well. We are doing book club. You might have listened recently to our Horus Heresy opening quadrilogy discussion.
If not, that's okay, you can get in for the next episode we do, which is going to be Fulgrim Book 5 of the Horus Heresy saga. Besides that, I am hoping that our recording schedule will be back to normal soon.
If not, you might get an episode that's just brought to you by me personally. Or maybe we bring another of our friends on for an episode. Who knows? With all that said though, enjoy Lord Invocatus. Thank you very much.
Speaker B:Johnny. We're back. It's another TTP Final day Advent esque character vignette of sorts to round out the year. How you going?
Speaker C:Oh, I'm doing alright. Who you got for us today?
Speaker B:Can you tell that I'm a bit filled with passion? I'm getting a little bit angry, Johnny. I've spoken so much about renegade marines and Imperial characters.
There's a xenos here and there, but I think it's time I let it slip, Johnny. I think it's time I fall to chaos.
Speaker C:Oh, it's gonna be good to see you be chaos pilled instead of me.
Speaker B:I have not a quote because this person doesn't really have one that I could find. I have some titles instead.
Speaker C:I was gonna say just scream as loud as you can. Right.
Speaker B:Who do you think is the Horseman of the Apocalypse, Johnny? The Winged Axe, Khorne's Thunderbolt, Lord of the Avocados.
Speaker C:Yeah, I was about to say the same thing.
Speaker B:Lord Invocardus. Lord Invocatus. Lord Invocatus. Does he have a first name as Lord? Canonically his first name. This guy has about as much lore as Canis Rex did. I think.
Speaker C:Nice.
Speaker B:No, I think it's about double.
Speaker C:Oh, wow. Okay.
Speaker B:So Chaos Lords, Johnny. Bit different to our renegades, our Fabius, our Cipher. They're a little bit different. This guy is not necessarily. He's.
Yeah, he's, you know, Chaos Lords, Johnny. They're not necessarily a hierarchical progression. They are more favored of the Chaos Gods themselves.
You know, they are gifted with extreme mutations or abilities besides their natural warrior prowess and maybe charisma. Now we are talking about the World Eaters, right? Let's give a little bit of context what the World Eaters did for a bit.
Speaker C:All right, let's do it.
Speaker B:After the. After the Horus Heresy, there were various captains of the World Eaters and they barely kept the surviving members together.
Angron himself, angry Ron, seemingly abandoned many of his sons as they fled Terra for the Eye of Terra, which seems really similar to Terra in its naming.
But anyway, furthering their descent, you know, Angron furthered their descent into madness due to the Butcher's Nails being left without a good leader.
You know, Angron, whether it was feeling guilty, whether he was feeling ashamed, or just being a bad dad, just left so many of his sons to fall into their psychotic anger. They became feral animals without, you know, anyone's leadership. Khan was put into a very long nap during the Horus Heresy, Siege of Terror.
So Khan wasn't even really around to help out. And about a millennia passes with the Legion wars raging within the Warp. The Traitor Legions couldn't, you know, put aside their petty squabbles.
No, they had to fight each other in the war. A war of territory. A war of reverence of the various Chaos Gods. You know how it goes.
And the Traitor Legions splintered into war bands, much like the loyalist Astartes became Chapters. These warbands fought one another, you know?
Speaker C:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker B:The World Eaters would verse the Emperor's children, Khorne against Slaanesh at the pivotal battle of Skalathrax, you know, and this battle would effectively shatter the Legion. Can you figure out why?
Speaker C:Because they're a bunch of rage fueled gym bros.
Speaker B:Yes. But Khan woke up.
Speaker C:Hey, isn't he that betrayer guy?
Speaker B:Well, this would be the battle that Khan would earn such a title. He woke up from his, you know, coma. He rallied the World Eaters and almost broke the Emperor's children.
But then, on the cusp of victory, he betrayed his boys. Now, this would seal the fate of the World Eaters.
Being any form of cohesive force, these various warbands would go on to carve out their own identity, their own violent reputations. You have the old ways, disciplined gladiator cadre 331 that aren't particularly mad butchery.
You have the actual Khan's very own butcher horde, which are just sheer maniacs. They don't have much of a cohesion. They just go and kill. You also have the brazen beasts.
You know, these are World Eaters who shepherd demon engine, possessed things into, like, canals and treat them like horses and such.
Speaker C:I love that.
Speaker B:Yeah. So you have lots of different flavors of World Eaters coming out of the warp now that the World Eaters have their own codex.
Now, in recent events, the World Eater warbands have been observed with some unity millennia past. The Battle of Skalathrax. This is thanks to the Blood Crusade. Do you know about the Blood Crusade?
Speaker C:It sounds like something someone made up just to get the World Eaters on board, basically.
Speaker B:So when the Great Rift occurred, Khorne sent out eight warp storms known as Blood Waves. Each Blood Wave filled to the teeth with warbands, demonic forces, cultists. And these warp storms are like ephemeral ships.
You know, they travel through the stars, arriving at their destinations with little to no warning before the storms just deploy their violent cargo onto the planet, and without much rhyme or reason, will then scoop up these various forces and just go to the next one.
Speaker C:Nice. I think this is great.
Speaker B:Not for the Imperium. Now, this does bring us to one of the warbands to come out of this more recent Khorne surge of power. This warband is called the Fire Riders. Johnny.
The Fire Riders is our titular character, Lord Invocatus own warband. Lord Invocatus rides into battle atop the demon steed juggernaut named Khal Garroth.
Khal Goroth is a juggernaut, a heavily armored bull composed of both living metal and burning blood, which symbolizes the heat of battle. Now, what do you think of Invocatus? What can you assume might be this guy's shtick?
Speaker C:I imagine he does a cavalry charge headfirst into his enemies.
Speaker B:You're not too far off. Invocardis is not a demon prince, but a simple Astartes of mysterious, unknown origins.
No one is sure if he were a Warhound from before Angron's arrival to the Legion. Or if he's perhaps a recent renegade turncoat, no one knows.
He, Lord Invocatus, completed an elusive compilation of deeds known as the Road of Eight Bloody Steps. And his reward for completing the Road of Eight Bloody Steps was his mount, Khal Garoth.
For the life of me, I can't find out what the Road of Eight Bloody Steps is. It might not have any lore. It might just be.
Speaker C:Yeah, that sounds fitting for Khorne. They don't write a lot of things down.
Speaker B:Nah. Invocardis as well, wears the twisted horned helm known as the Bloodstorm Helm. It was once the skull of a Khorne demon.
The skull is now the receptacle of the demon's own soul. This demon used to be the original rider of the Mountguru.
Speaker C:This man is corn pilled.
Speaker B:Yep. When Invocardus wears this helm, he is linked mind and soul to Khal Goroth.
He feels what the mount feels and becomes essentially high off of its bloodlust.
And the Blood Storm helm also allows Invocatus to perceive the hearts and minds of foes and, in a more abstract sense, the makings of elaborate traps.
So when Invocatus arrives nearby a battlefield, he can predator, you know, alien versus predator, sort of see the outlines of individuals who might be lying in wait, ready to spring a trap. He can see the machinations of traps before they are sprung. And this is an incredibly powerful tool for this guy.
Speaker C:Yeah, it is.
Speaker B:Because his willpower is of frightening levels. He can almost single handedly force his entire warband into cohesion, even though his tactics are the classic charge and kill variety.
The reason why this is particularly great, we'll touch upon in a second with Invocatus. He does wield a couple of very funnily named armaments. His chain axe is known as the Coward's Bane. His bolt pistol is the Trickster's Doom.
His axe is considered perfectly balanced and aerodynamic. It has an elongated shaft because he's atop his steed, and so he needs to be able to swing something a bit longer.
Invocatus is known also for his ability to swap the weapons in his hands mid duel.
He will just throw his axe up, you know, change his hand with his pistol, shoot somebody, catch his axe, sever some guy's head before throwing it back to his other hand like a juggling lunatic.
Speaker C:This guy sounds mad, and I'm all for it.
Speaker B:Yeah. Shall we get into a bit more of what sets the Fire Riders apart.
Speaker C:Sure. Let's find out about the Valkyries.
Speaker B:Yes, they are Valkyries, aren't they?
Now, what sets the Fire Riders apart is not just the leadership of Invocatus, but actually the blessing of Khal Goruth, the juggernaut who has received Khorne's gift, which is, in this instance, the ability to cast four fiery bridges of smoke, fire, and even burning blood across the sky from the Red Rider's Void Ships. The Red Rider is the Fire Riders flagship and fleet. From the Void Ship down to the battlefield is this bridge of fire, smoke and blood cast.
The bridge is always shepherded by Invocatus charging across it, followed by warriors and tanks alike, just like a fiery rainbow from the heavens.
Speaker C:Man, that would be terrifying to see coming down from the sky.
Speaker B:Yeah, they're not subtle about it either. They're doing the classic Khornate berserker, yelling and war crying and roaring at ya, but it's also a bridge of fire.
Now, the Red Riders, or the Fire Riders. Sorry. From their ship, the Red Rider strike with unnatural precision.
The unnatural discipline and coordination forced by Invocatus ensures that their forces do not become stagnant in attrition, which is a huge World Eater problem. They start fighting. They get lost in the rage of battle, and they just keep fighting, even if there's, like, not much, you know, to actually fight.
Invocatus will just force his, like, his boys together and be like, we're done here. We're going somewhere else.
Speaker C:Let's go find the next scrap.
Speaker B:And some World Eater Lords consider him a little cowardly because he's not finishing the job.
But what he's doing is, instead of hit and running, he is, in actuality crippling a target before continuing on to the next target identified by Invocatus. More predatorial instincts. He believes his force needs to be efficiently savage. Not just savage.
Speaker C:It's always nice to see a World Eater with a brain.
Speaker B:He has a brain, but he doesn't have much of a heart. Because he doesn't really care if his force dies. Because once again, Johnny, say it with me, Khorne does not care from where the blood flows. Yep.
Now there are only two decently documented conflicts for Lord Invocardus. Dude came out, like, a year ago.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, he's had one. Codex. Give him. Give him a break.
Speaker B:He came out, like, a year ago. Yeah, I don't think he's even appeared in a book now. Which you like. Oh, actually, no one happens because of the other you can't choose this time.
Sorry.
Speaker C:All right, so we'll stick to chronological order.
Speaker B:The Ebon Vale is a Death Watch Watch fortress.
Speaker C:Oh, no. That's not where you want to be.
Speaker B:Now, Invocatus, being the mad lad he is with his Red Rider, uncovered all the hidden defenses of the Ebon Vale. Because he can perceive it. He can perceive all the hidden defenses and machinations before him.
And what this allowed him and his forces to do was to quickly destroy all of their defenses and board the Ebon Vale.
But by the time the fortress's air defense platforms could fully fight off the World Eaters, the fortress's reliquary had been completely emptied of all of their armaments and relics.
And hundreds of Death Watch Marines, which are many individuals, elite at fighting Xenos, brought from many, many chapters of the Astartes, all of them slaughtered.
Speaker C:These guys are like veterans. They know how to scrap.
Speaker B:Yep, yep. And the Death Watch Fortress of the Ebon Vale was really, if not much more of a thing.
After this engagement now, Johnny, we're going to have a quick segue, all right? What do you know about the alien race known as the Hrud or the H Rud or the Hrd? I'm not really sure.
Speaker C:Their name's been dropped a few times, but other than that, I wouldn't say I know much.
Speaker B:So the Hrud are time manipulating Xenos, likely intended once upon a time to be a 40k Skaven equivalent. They maintain an unkempt appearance, they have a crouched rat like posture with a long tail, and they love to wear rags.
They have a bit of a scavenger vibe. They live in underground warrens and they wield this sort of warp infused plasma technology.
Speaker C:They're literally Skaven.
Speaker B:They're literally Skaven.
Now there are conflicting sources that also offer up the idea that the Hrud are long limbed swamp thing esque creatures hiding under a cloak of decomposing filth. But this could just be like they're cousins, you know.
Speaker C:These are mice.
Speaker B:Yep. So the Hrd are very lethal. They wield weapons whose projectiles will go out of existence.
They will distort space time as they then hit their target and will rapidly age their target into dust.
Some of their other weaponry might instead shunt targets out of time synchronicity so that they end up actually fusing with objects and rapidly dying because they're now part of the Wall.
Speaker C:Man, that's rough.
Speaker B:The Hrud also have blades of light energy which disintegrate objects and even regress biological material.
The hrud were a big problem for Iron warriors in the great Crusade days, because what happened was the hrud would actually be fighting the Iron warriors with these blades and these weaponry. And what was happening was that the Iron warriors were physically regressing so much that they became young again.
Their bodies began to reject the marine implants as they were becoming like teenagers or even children again.
Speaker C:Oh, that sounds painful.
Speaker B:Yep. Classic Iron Warrior problems. Really. Shit war.
Speaker C:So that's the crew.
Speaker B:What do you think? Pretty bad, right? Yeah, there's a bit more on them. Maybe an episode in the future of all the minor Xenos races.
There are some fun ones, but that's a quick TL doctor about the hrud now, Johnny Death Watch, notorious police of aliens, right? Yep. Now the Ebon Vale region severely weakened.
There was a hrud migration fleet passing through, and they turned many Imperial worlds to, I quote, mulch. Oh, like soil. Yep. Invocatus and his forces thought, what a fun time this is going to be, and managed to tear apart the entire hrud fleet.
But due to the disintegrating properties of hood weaponry, Invocatus was the sole survivor amongst the dust.
Speaker C:Whoa. His whole force.
Speaker B:Yeah. He also, at this point, I believe, was partnered up with the Brazen Beasts warband, which are the guys that like to run around with.
I believe they're called Slaughter Fiends, essentially, you know, the old Chaos defiler.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker B:Imagine that with like, oops or melee weaponry and then a Khornate berserker, like, chained around its neck, like, with a chain around the defiler's neck, riding it like a beast of burden. And that's a Slaughter Fiend that's used to have a forge world model, I believe. And that's the Brazen Beast whole shtick.
Speaker C:Man. How could anyone not love chaos? It's so unhinged.
Speaker B:Did you see it?
Speaker C:I sure am looking at it.
Speaker B:So that's Khorne.
And one of the reasons why people were a little sad that the World Eaters release was a bit lackluster because you have things like Slaughter Fiends were once a thing and not a thing.
Speaker C:Right now, but maybe.
Speaker B:But, Johnny, that's Lord Invocatus, much like your guy Canis Rex. Not a whole lot of lore because he's new on the block.
Speaker C:Yeah. Nice. He sounds like a really cool guy and it'll be interesting to see where he goes from here.
Speaker B:Yeah. What do you think of his role within the World Eaters tapestry of characters?
Speaker C:Well, a lot of The World Eater's characters feel very one note, and I really like that he has a little bit more depth. Like he's not just running into the slaughter. There is a plan, there is some strategy.
And the image of him just like running down this flaming blood bridge from the heavens just really resonates, doesn't it?
Speaker B:Yeah. I think he is my favorite World Eater character because of the fiery bridge.
Speaker C:Yeah, right.
Speaker B:He is definitely on the highway to demonhood, as some people would believe, because he's just so efficient that he has, as I may have mentioned earlier, a title of Khorne's Huntsman.
Speaker C:That's pretty cool.
Speaker B:Okay, I guess I didn't mention it earlier, but there we go. That is him. But we also had to talk a little bit about his tabletop representation.
Speaker A:Of course.
Speaker C:Yeah, of course.
Speaker B: d on Juggernaut from the late:Just doesn't look as unique as Invocatus in the tabletop. The Generic Lord on Juggernaut is a pretty decent for Marine character on such a base at 100 points.
The generic Chaos Lord on Juggernaut allows for full rerolls of Advance Move, Charge Move, and Blood Surge Moves and deals even some mortal wounds which you can't save on a charge.
Speaker C:He just charges so hard it hurts.
Speaker B:Yeah, well, he also leads units, so you got your Khorne Berserkers, your eight bound possessed guys. Just run, run, run now.
In Verkardis alternate build is slightly more expensive at 140 points, which can be actually quite a difference in Marines list, because no matter the flavor of Marine you have, they're pretty expensive and you don't have a lot of wiggle room for points. That 40 points will likely be the difference between taking Berserkers or basic cultists.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker B:But what he does have is a 12 inch movement and eight wounds from a four up invulnerable save. So a half chance to shrug damage. Yep, he has Scouts 6 and he grants two other units Scout 6 at the start of the game.
Any unit he leads gets to shoot and charge after falling back, which is huge when your whole army loves charging in.
Charge is a bonus to the actual fight phase, and keen players will likely throw some infantry they don't really mind losing into a melee army to tie them up. And if you can't get out, your aggression is significantly damaged. Invocatus could care less though.
Speaker C:Oh yeah. And the Scout 6 and giving other people Scout. That's. That's such a cool little flavor bomb. Just really shows him just soaring in from the heavens.
Right.
Speaker B:And pulling everyone together for that cutthroat.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Go for the head charge. He does have a lot of melee threat for his cost. He's very strong. He will, you know, however, have a standout silhouette.
So you could get line of sight on him for shooting relatively easy. And he is mounted, so he does have to go around buildings. So depending on the table you're playing on, might not be the best idea to have him.
But he seems pretty good. I have a very funny mention of his 9th edition stat sheet though. His axe. Coward's bane. It in 9th edition. Not. Not the current 10th edition.
But in 9th edition it ignored invulnerable saves.
Speaker C:Nice.
Speaker B:And had a 3ap profile.
Speaker C:Which now it has a 2ap profile.
Speaker B:And does not ignore invulnerable saves.
Speaker C:Ignoring invulnerables would be a lot.
Speaker B:It might be something World Eaters could benefit from though they seem to have only one or two shticks until they get more of a range like Slaughter Fiends.
Speaker C:But they do have an upcoming range. Semi confirmed. Like they have said, there will be a second wave. So good bet next year maybe.
Speaker B:Yeah. Yeah. I would hope before Emperor's Children gets a range that World Eaters and Votann get the rest of their. But Johnny, that's Lord of the Avocados.
Speaker C:Nice dude.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker C:He's a fun dude.
Speaker B:He is fun. A lot of these characters seem really fun.
Speaker C:And I think that's the big thing like that. Especially doing this little project.
You learn that even these characters that don't have a lot of mention in the lore have some really interesting things going on. And like there's just so much lore out there from the past 40 years or whatever it is that this game has been around.
Speaker B:Yep. Even if a company was to introduce a better game in comparison or nicer models in comparison, you cannot get over the juggernaut of games. Workshops.
Ip.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:The lore they've managed to build up over quite literally hundreds of books. Rule books, novels, tie in media is insane. There's no other game that's going to overcome that.
And when you play this game, you read these books, you get just so excited and engrossed and why would you go anywhere else?
Speaker C:Yeah. And as we've said many times, like, rules are temporary, models are forever. And there's so many cool models and.
Speaker B:Cool characters, as our friend with a metal rhino would testify to.
Speaker C:Right, yes.
Speaker B:Sorry, you were saying?
Speaker C:There's just so many cool and interesting characters and stories that sometimes it's fun to just pick up a model and build and paint it just because it's cool. Not necessarily because it's good.
Speaker B:Yeah, like Canis Rex.
Speaker C:No, he's just good.
Speaker B:All right, Johnny, I'll talk to you very soon, perhaps tomorrow for another of these little vignettes, eh?
Speaker C:Yeah, let's do it. Have a lovely day, everyone.
Speaker B:Let's do it. Bye.
Speaker C:See ya.
Speaker B:If you start to feel a bit angry, you might want to talk to somebody. It could be corn. Chow, chow, chow.
