This cruiser design was first seen during the Martyrs' Crusade at the siege of Vonnin. The heretic tech-priests of that corrupted forge world apparently constructed the first Massacres from two damaged Murder-class ships, renaming them "Massacre of the Devout" and "Vile Effigy". The vessels were armed exclusively with an array of powerful lances intended to give them the advantage in battle against the ships of the Adeptus Astartes, many of which were serving in the Crusade's battle fleets. Vonnin fell to the might of the Imperium despite the new ships, but they were credited with the destruction of no less than a half dozen strike cruisers. The "Massacre of the Devout" was annihilated late in the war by the combined fire of two battle barges, but the "Vile Effigy" escaped retribution and is still at large today. Even worse, the "Effigy" carried the technical data for the construction of the Massacre class to shipyards in the Maelstrom and at least a dozen new ships of this type have been sighted since the end of the Martyrs' Crusade in late M33. Examination of a single Massacre-class cruiser captured by the Solar Hawk chapter showed that the design borrows much from the familiar Gothic-class design. Arcane and unwholesome technologies gave the vessel a slightly better turn of speed and greatly extended the effective range of the lance batteries, but this extra capability came at the cost of raw striking power and the pious protection of the Gothic's armored prow. Couple this with the lack of torpedo armament and it is clear that the Gothic is an all around superior ship. Even the minions of Chaos seem to realize this, for the Massacre remains a fairly uncommon design, relegated to operating in support of other ships instead of as an independent raider like the Murder, Slaughter, and Devastation classes.

Infamous Ships
Gift of the Warp 
Vile Effigy 
Sacred Destroyer 
Massacre of the Devout