This section includes rules from both the Warhammer Battle Magic & Warhammer Arcane Magic supplements.

Beyond the Northern Wastes lies the Realm of Chaos, a strange and unfathomable alternate reality from which raw magical energy spews into the world. Magic is the raw material of Chaos just as physical matter is the raw material of the realms of men. Creatures dwell in the Realm of Chaos, nightmarish monsters of pure magic that serve the Gods of Chaos; monsters men know as Daemons.

To Daemons the Old World is a dry, suffocating place that lacks the life-giving energy of magic, and they seldom enter it except when the power of Chaos waxes strong. At such times magic energy saturates the land and the daemonic legions flood south into the world, bringing twisted madness in their wake.

Many Daemons have the power to twist magic energy into spells, indeed the huge Greater Daemons are as adept in sorcery as the mightiest of mortal magicians. Other Daemons cannot cast spells alone but are capable of joining their powers together so that between them they can weave potent battle magic spells.

Greater Daemons

Greater Daemons draw spell cards at the start of the game just like Chaos Sorcerers, and their equivalent magic levels are shown below. Note that Daemons may not be given magic items, but receive spell cards and magic cards as normal. Greater Daemons and units of Daemons count as wizards for the purposes of calculating the Winds of Magic.

Except for the Bloodthirster of Khorne, Greater Daemons may cast spells as if they were level 4 wizards.

Daemon Units

Other Daemons are permitted spell cards for units rather than individual models. These spell cards are drawn in the same manner as Chaos Sorcerers but they are only drawn once all Chaos Sorcerers and Greater Daemons have taken theirs.

Daemons must take at least one Chaos spell from their patron god (if there are any left) and may draw the rest of their spells from the Dark Magic deck and/or one colour college which is defined below. It is possible that in big games some units of Daemons will not get any spells at all because they've all been taken.

The magic level of a unit of Daemons depends on the number of models in it, as shown on the table below. As the Daemons suffer casualties and the size of the unit is reduced its magic level will also drop, so it may become necessary to discard some of the unit's spell cards. The discarded spells are drawn at random.

When a unit of Daemons casts a spell it's worth noting that a spell cast by a unit doesn't work on the whole unit unless it normally would. So, for example, if a unit of Plaguebearers cast Earth Blood only one Plaguebearer would be affected.