Part of our Helsmiths of Hashut hub: every Helsmiths of Hashut guide, lore page and painting tutorial in one place.
Chaos Dwarfs are corrupted Duardin who worship Hashut, the Father of Darkness. In Age of Sigmar 4th Edition they are a full Games Workshop army, the Helsmiths of Hashut, with plastic models and their own battletome. They bind daemons into war machines, drive enslaved labourers to feed their forges, and rule from towering ziggurats. Before the Helsmiths arrived, the only way to field them in Age of Sigmar was Forge World’s resin Legion of Azgorh range, which has since been discontinued.
Few factions in the Mortal Realms inspire as much dread and fascination as the Chaos Dwarfs. While most Duardin are celebrated as stalwart defenders and master craftsmen, the Chaos Dwarfs are a dark mirror — a people who turned to Hashut rather than the old Duardin gods. Their story is one of ambition, cruelty and industrial might bent to the darkest purposes, and it adds a welcome layer of complexity to the Duardin side of the setting.
Who Are the Chaos Dwarfs?
In Age of Sigmar the Chaos Dwarfs call themselves the Zharrdron, the folk of fire. Outsiders call them oathbreakers or Chaos Duardin, though the Helsmiths insist they didn’t fall to Chaos but broke it to their will. Unlike the Fyreslayers, who worship Grimnir, or the Kharadron Overlords, who turned to science and commerce, the Helsmiths built their civilisation on binding daemons. They are master smiths like all Duardin, but their craft makes weapons and engines fuelled by daemonic essence and suffering.
Their society is a ruthless oligarchy built around great ziggurats, each with its own ruler. There are three main routes to power. Daemonsmiths are sorcerer-engineers who bind daemons; it is the quickest and most dangerous path, and it leaves them mutated with tusks and stony skin. Ashen Elders are the priestly caste, who rise through the temples of Hashut. War Despots are warlords who build an army strong enough to seize power. Below them toil the armoured Infernal Cohorts, the hobgrot underlings and countless enslaved labourers.
What makes the Helsmiths dangerous is that fusion of Duardin engineering and daemonic power. Their war machines are part technology, part bound daemon, and the army grows more dangerous as it harnesses that power over the course of a battle. Rival ziggurats scheme against each other constantly, but their goal is control rather than the end of the world: more territory, more resources and a bigger empire. They don’t bow to any of the four great Chaos Gods.
What Is Hashut the Father of Darkness?
Hashut is the patron deity of the Chaos Dwarfs and one of the most enigmatic figures associated with Chaos. He is not one of the four great Chaos Gods — Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh — and his exact nature has always been left deliberately murky. In the old Warhammer world, theories ranged from a powerful daemon to an aspect of a greater god. The Age of Sigmar version of the story presents him as a Duardin god who resented his place among his kin, was cast out, and later taught desperate Duardin how to bind daemons into machines in exchange for their worship.
Hashut is associated with fire, darkness, greed, and tyranny. His symbols include the bull — Chaos Dwarf lords ride fiery bull-daemons, the Great Taurus of the old world and the Infernal Taurus of the Helsmiths — and the ziggurat, which reflects the hierarchical nature of their society. Worship of Hashut involves sacrifice, the binding of daemons, and enslaved labourers worked to exhaustion in the mines and forges.
Hashut’s relationship with the four great Chaos Gods is left vague. What matters for the setting is that his followers stand apart from them: the Helsmiths fight under the Chaos Grand Alliance, but they serve Hashut and their own ambitions, not Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle or Slaanesh.
What Is Zharr-Naggrund, and Where Do the Helsmiths Live?
Zharr-Naggrund is the great fortress-city of the Chaos Dwarfs — a massive ziggurat-fortress that serves as the seat of their civilisation and the centre of Hashut’s worship. In the World-that-Was (the setting of Warhammer Fantasy), Zharr-Naggrund was located in the Dark Lands east of the Old World, a blighted region of ash wastes and volcanic activity that perfectly suited the Chaos Dwarfs’ industrial civilisation.
The fortress was an enormous stepped ziggurat of black stone and iron rising from the ash plains. Its forges burned day and night, its mines reached deep into the earth where slaves toiled in terrible conditions, and its upper levels housed the temples of Hashut and the Sorcerer-Prophets who ruled the Chaos Dwarfs of that world. Those Sorcerer-Prophets paid for their dark magic with a curse that slowly turned their bodies to stone.
Age of Sigmar doesn’t simply transplant Zharr-Naggrund into the Mortal Realms. Instead, the Helsmiths battletome describes several rival ziggurat-powers spread across different realms. The best known is the Forge Anathema in Aqshy, the Realm of Fire, ruled by Urak Taar, the First Daemonsmith, who claims to have studied under Hashut himself. Other major powers sit in Ghur, Shyish and Chamon. Aqshy’s volcanic lands suit them well, and they put the Helsmiths in direct competition with the Fyreslayers, their distant kin who worship Grimnir rather than Hashut.
How Do Chaos Dwarfs Play in Age of Sigmar?
Today you play Chaos Dwarfs as the Helsmiths of Hashut, released for Age of Sigmar 4th Edition in autumn 2025 with a battletome and a range of plastic kits. They are a slow, tough, hard-hitting army: elite, heavily armoured infantry backed by daemon-powered war machines and heavy firepower. Their signature mechanic is daemonic power, which you share out between units each turn to make them stronger, so the army asks you to make a meaningful decision every round.
The core of the range includes:
- Heroes — the War Despot, the Daemonsmith (a Wizard), the Ashen Elder (a Priest), the Daemonsmith on Infernal Taurus and the named Urak Taar, the First Daemonsmith.
- Infantry — the Infernal Cohort (the armoured battleline, with spears or blades), Infernal Razers with daemonic firearms, and cheap Hobgrot Vandalz screens.
- Cavalry — Bull Centaurs and the elite Anointed Sentinels.
- War machines — the Dominator Engine, the Tormentor Bombard and the Deathshrieker Rocket Battery.
The easiest way in is the Helforge Host Spearhead box, which gives you a War Despot, ten Infernal Cohort, a Dominator Engine and a Tormentor Bombard. For exact warscrolls and abilities, use the current battletome, and check the latest Battle Profiles in the Age of Sigmar app for points. Our Helsmiths of Hashut army guide covers the units and playstyle in more depth.
The older Forge World Legion of Azgorh range — Infernal Guard with fireglaives, K’daai Fireborn, Bull Centaur Renders, Magma Cannons, Deathshrieker Rocket Launchers and Sorcerer-Prophets on bull-daemons — was the only Chaos Dwarf option in the early years of Age of Sigmar. It has been discontinued, and those models are now best suited to narrative games or as conversion material.
What Is the History of Chaos Dwarfs in Warhammer?
The Chaos Dwarfs have one of the longest histories of any Warhammer faction, dating back to the earliest days of the setting. They first appeared in Warhammer Fantasy Battle as a distinct faction with their own army book, models, and lore. Their original aesthetic was heavily influenced by Mesopotamian and Babylonian imagery — ziggurats, bull iconography, curled beards, and tall hats — combined with the industrial darkness that characterised their society.
In the original Warhammer Fantasy lore, the Chaos Dwarfs (Dawi-Zharr in their own language) were Dwarfs who ventured too far east and were cut off from their western kin during the great Chaos incursion that nearly destroyed the world. Isolated and desperate, they turned to Hashut for salvation, gaining dark powers at the cost of their souls and their connection to the ancestor gods. Over millennia, they built their own civilisation in the Dark Lands — a cruel empire built on forced labour, daemon-binding, and industrial exploitation.
When Warhammer Fantasy gave way to Age of Sigmar after the End Times, the Chaos Dwarfs had no major presence in the new game’s early releases. Forge World’s Legion of Azgorh range, which grew out of the Tamurkhan: Throne of Chaos book, provided rules and models for those who wanted to field them, but the faction’s future stayed uncertain for years.
Interest grew again with the faction’s arrival in Total War: Warhammer III in 2023, which brought the Chaos Dwarfs to a large new audience. Games Workshop finally answered the demand in 2025 with the Helsmiths of Hashut: a full plastic range, a battletome and a Spearhead box, making Chaos Dwarfs a mainstream Age of Sigmar army for the first time.
Are Chaos Dwarfs Related to Other Duardin Factions?
Yes — the Helsmiths are Duardin, distant kin to the Fyreslayers (who worship Grimnir and hunt ur-gold), the Kharadron Overlords (who turned to science and commerce), and the Duardin of the Cities of Sigmar (who keep more traditional Duardin culture). However, their devotion to Hashut and their daemon-binding have created an irreconcilable divide between them and their kin.
Relations between the Helsmiths and other Duardin are hostile, and for the uncorrupted Duardin the Chaos Dwarfs are a source of shame and anger: kin who betrayed everything their people stand for by enslaving others and binding daemons. That makes battles between them especially bitter, and the Fyreslayers, who share the Helsmiths’ love of fire and forge but not their god, make a natural narrative rival.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you still play Chaos Dwarfs in Age of Sigmar?
Yes. Chaos Dwarfs are now a full Age of Sigmar faction, the Helsmiths of Hashut, with a battletome and plastic models. The old Forge World Legion of Azgorh range has been discontinued, so its models are mainly used in narrative games, as conversions, or as stand-ins by agreement with your opponent.
Will Chaos Dwarfs get new models for Age of Sigmar?
Yes. Games Workshop has released the Helsmiths of Hashut, a full plastic Chaos Dwarf army for Age of Sigmar with its own battletome and Spearhead box. The older Forge World Legion of Azgorh models can still be used in narrative games.
Are Chaos Dwarfs part of the Slaves to Darkness faction?
No. The Helsmiths of Hashut are their own faction with their own battletome, warscrolls and faction rules. Both armies belong to the Chaos Grand Alliance, but the Helsmiths worship Hashut rather than the four main Chaos Gods. For matched play, build them as a Helsmiths of Hashut army and check the current army-building rules before adding units from other factions.
What is the difference between Chaos Dwarfs and regular Dwarfs?
The core difference is worship and values. Regular Duardin (Fyreslayers, Kharadron Overlords, Cities of Sigmar Dwarfs) maintain some connection to the traditional Duardin gods or have developed alternative belief systems. Chaos Dwarfs worship Hashut and have embraced Chaos, practising forced labour, daemon-binding, and dark sorcery. Physically, the most powerful of them are marked by their dark craft — the Helsmiths’ Daemonsmiths grow tusks and stony skin, echoing the petrification curse of the old world’s Sorcerer-Prophets.
How expensive is a Chaos Dwarf army?
No more than any other Age of Sigmar army now. The Helsmiths of Hashut are a standard plastic Games Workshop range, so you no longer need expensive Forge World resin. The Helforge Host Spearhead box is the most cost-effective starting point, and several kits build more than one unit. Because the army is elite, a full 2,000-point force needs fewer models than a horde army. Check current prices with your local store, as they vary by region.
Who are the Helsmiths of Hashut?
The Helsmiths of Hashut are the current Chaos Dwarf army in Age of Sigmar: a full Games Workshop faction with plastic models and its own battletome. They are Duardin devoted to Hashut, the Father of Darkness, who bind daemons into war engines and drive enslaved labourers to fuel their forges. They replaced the old Forge World Legion of Azgorh as the way to field Chaos Dwarfs.
What was the Legion of Azgorh?
The Legion of Azgorh was Forge World’s resin Chaos Dwarf range, which grew out of the Tamurkhan: Throne of Chaos book for Warhammer Fantasy and was given Age of Sigmar rules. It included Infernal Guard, Bull Centaur Renders, K’daai Fireborn, Magma Cannons and Deathshrieker Rocket Launchers. The range has since been discontinued, and Chaos Dwarfs are now played as the Helsmiths of Hashut.
Are Chaos Dwarfs in Total War: Warhammer III?
Yes. Chaos Dwarfs joined Total War: Warhammer III in 2023 with the Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs DLC, led by legendary lords Astragoth Ironhand, Drazhoath the Ashen and Zhatan the Black. The game is set in the World-that-Was rather than the Mortal Realms, but it brought the faction to a large new audience and fuelled demand for a new tabletop range.