Warhammer 40,000/Characters/Forces of Chaos

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Clockwise, from top left: the symbols of Tzeentch, Khorne, Slaanesh and Nurgle. The eight-pointed star is the symbol of Chaos Undivided.

This is our galaxy. Ours to corrupt, our to enslave. The gods will not be denied their prize.

In Warhammer 40,000, the Immaterium, or Warp, is a parallel dimension where the thoughts, desires, and emotions of sentient creatures are made manifest in the form of psychic entities labeled Daemons. There was a time in the distant past when the Warp was a calm and even benign place, but eons of constant warfare have corrupted it into a twisted mirror that accentuates the negative - the gods of Bravery, Hope, Acceptance, and Love are also the gods of Rage, Mutation, Decay, and Lust. The Warp is a realm of primordial Chaos, where the laws of nature and causality do not apply, where dark thoughts congeal and evolve into diabolical gods. It is a nightmare realm that occasionally spills forth into the Materium, leaving behind madness and desolation.

Humanity has an intimate relationship with Chaos - after all, their minds feed it. Chaos is the source of the mutation that wracks the Imperium, from inhuman monstrosities to the psychically-gifted Navigators. Chaos is the key to interstellar travel, as ships traveling through it move much faster than they would in a rational universe - assuming they are not lost to the storms and eddies of the Empyrean or devoured by daemons. And among humans, there are always those who turn to Chaos for various reasons: bored nobles looking for a new thrill by dabbling in the occult, radical daemonhunters hoping to turn the weapons of the enemy against him, ambitious individuals making dark pacts in exchange for power, cults and cabals plotting to turn their homeworlds over to the dark gods, or bitter souls and traitors seeking revenge. Regardless of their motivations, very few of them end up as anything more than Unwitting Pawns to the dark gods' plans, and horrific death is an all too common fate. Even those who manage to draw the attention of one or more of the Chaos gods may be turned into monstrous abominations called Chaos Spawn, twisted and mutated by their "blessings" and driven insane. Those that don't suffer these fates, however...they can go up far, becoming immortal and inhumanly powerful Daemon Princes.

Collectively, these followers are known as the Lost and the Damned: faithless traitors who have abandoned their humanity and forfeited their souls. Entire regiments of the Imperial Guard and whole Naval fleets have gone renegade, while disaffected mutants and abhumans sometimes turn to Chaos as well. But by far the worst Chaos threats are the Daemons themselves, and the heirs to a betrayal ten thousand years old that almost destroyed the human race...

TROPES FOR THE TROPE GOD! EXAMPLES FOR THE EXAMPLE THRONE!

General Chaos Tropes

  • Alien Geometries—Try not to look too hard at anything related to Chaos. Bad idea. Their writing is generally described as "Sanity-Blasting Sigils."
  • Arch Enemy—The Imperium actually calls Chaos the "Arch Enemy" or the "Great Enemy".
  • Artifact of Death—Most Daemon weapons lead to their owner's doom eventually.
  • As Long as There Is Evil—The only way to truly defeat Chaos would be to destroy all the intelligent life that feeds it. The Necrons and Tyranids would like to make that happen.
  • Bad Powers, Bad People
  • Berserk Button—Don't invoke the Emperor's name in the presence of a daemon or Chaos Space Marine. It won't end well.
  • Better to Die Than Be Killed: This pops up for people who fall victim to Chaos. Annihilating your soul is just one of the options available, and not even the worst at that.
  • Big Bad/Bigger Bad—If something is causing the Imperium problems, it's usually Chaos. If it's not, they're just around the corner.
  • Bizarrchitecture—Common on daemon worlds, where the laws of physics are literally just another building material.
  • Black Magic: As much as the Imperium would like to deny it, without Chaos it couldn't function. The Warp is the only means of faster-than-light travel available to humanity, and the Navigators that have the ability to guide vessels through the Warp can do this because of specific mutations created by Chaos.
  • Bright Is Not Good: Followers of Slaanesh (Chaos god of hedonism and excess) are Sense Freaks who wear hideously garish clothing and choking perfumes at all times, being so blasé it's the only way they can feel anything. One Chaos Space Marine Legion devoted to Slaanesh wears pink and black armor for the same reason.
  • Brown Note—Common side effects of looking at Chaos symbols are mild nausea, slight bleeding, and insanity.
  • Card-Carrying Villain—Anyone who's in deep with Chaos tends to wear this on their sleeve...or any other part of their body.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder - Chaos in general, but Tzeentch in particular.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Red and brass/bronze for Khorne; blue, and to a lesser extent yellow and every other colors for Tzeentch; sickly green for Nurgle; and purple and pink for Slaanesh. In addition, Malal was supposed to be black and white.
  • The Corruption—Both mental and physical.
  • The Dark Side—Which manages to be darker than what passes as the "Light" side in this setting, no mean feat.
  • Deal with the Devil—Pacts with Chaos in general, and to specific Chaos Gods in particular.
  • Death by Sex—Slaanesh is very tempting...
  • Dream Land - The Warp is an exceedingly negative version.
  • Drunk on the Dark Side—Don't stand too close to anyone powered by Chaos.
  • Eldritch Location / Fisher King:
    • Pretty much anywhere in the Eye of Terror or any place sufficiently tainted by Chaos.
    • The domains of the Chaos Gods are like this, especially the ever-changing Maze of Tzeentch.
  • Evil Is Deathly Cold—The presence of Warp energy usually involves the temperature dropping several degrees.
  • Evil Laugh—Chaos specializes in this; most Traitor Marines having been turned batshit insane over ten thousand years of war and slaughter, and the mind-warping effects of the Immaterium. Dawn of War has Chaos Marines randomly break down and cackle occasionally. Subverted by the Iron Warriors legion who seldom laughs, considering such displays beneath them.
  • For the Evulz—Many followers of Chaos have actual hopes and ambitions, but whether they'll keep them rather than being addicted to the horrors they inflict or driven insane from the gifts of Chaos is a different story...
  • Genuine Human Hide—A popular source of clothing for Chaos followers, particularly Slaaneshi followers. Also what many of the Tomes of Eldritch Lore are made from. And last but not least, we at All The Tropes are contractually obligated to remind you that Chief Apothecary Fabius Bile of the Emperor's Children wears a lab coat made of human skin.[1]
  • Haunted Technology—Chaos has a bad habit of corrupting, if not outright possessing, various bits of technology.
  • Hearing Voices—It's a good idea to ignore them.
  • The Hedonist—Slaanesh and his/her followers are ultimately about seeking pleasureful sensations. This typically starts out with sex, torture, and/or murder, but inevitably degenerates into seeking out any sensation and learning to find it pleasurable and unique, up to and including fighting wars to see what losing is like and extreme self-mutilation as pleasure becomes confused with pain.
  • Insane Equals Violent—Generally the case with Chaos-inspired madness, though in most cases those afflicted were already violent.
  • The Legions of Hell - Fed by your every thought and emotion.
  • The Mad Hatter—Occasionally seen as a symptom of corruption by Chaos, particularly by Tzeentch.
  • Made of Evil
  • Madness Mantra:
    • BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!!
    • MAIM! KILL! BURN! MAIM! KILL! BURN! MAIM! etc. etc.
    • In the spinoff game Battlefleet Gothic, an entire starship gets a Madness Mantra: the Chaos cruiser Killfrenzy is so named because, whenever it draws near, all that can be heard on every comms frequency is its captain endlessly screaming +++KILLFRENZY KILLFRENZY KILLFRENZY KILLFRENZY KILLFRENZY+++
    • In the novel Titanicus, Chaos Titans are depicted as constantly screaming their names in corrupted code language.
  • Negative Space Wedgie—They don't get more negative than the Eye of Terror, a tear in spacetime formed by the birth of Slaanesh which physically links the Milky Way to the Warp and has irredeemably corrupted every planet it touches, including the original Eldar homeworlds.
    • There are also several minor Warp Rifts of a similar nature, like the Maelstrom or Screaming Vortex.
  • Reality Is Out to Lunch—In the Eye of Terror.
  • Red Right Hand—Marks of Chaos.
  • Religion of Evil - Chaos Undivided, formed by Lorgar, Primarch of the Word Bearers, who was chastised by the Emperor for spending so much time building cathedrals rather than campaigning. In response, Lorgar began worshiping the Chaos Gods as a pantheon, and today his legion is known for being darkly devout. Chaos Undivided holds that worshiping all the Chaos Gods allows one to draw the strengths of all without any of the weaknesses (Khorne's all out hatred, Slaaneesh's need for sensation, Nurgle's corrupting influence, and Tzeentch's mutations). The fact that Chaos Undivided's greatest champion is Abbadon makes this claim...questionable.
  • Sense Loss Sadness—The only way to effectively torture Slaaneshi cultists is to stick them in a sensory deprivation tank. One crafty Inquisitor figured this one out.
  • Time Dilation: Time moves differently in the warp, both move faster and slower than the rest of space. Justified because the Warp sneers at such things "causality" and "logic".
  • Warrior Heaven - The Warp... okay, so a Warrior Hell.
    • Heaven for the Orks.

Great Boss Tuska: Told yer I knew where da best fightin' woz.

Chaos Gods

With the thirty-seven keys of Tzeentch, we open the way for our brothers. With the thousand whispers of Slaanesh, we call to them. With the twelve plagues of Nurgle, we fell their enemies. And with the mighty axe of Khorne, we cut open the world for them.

Beings of incalculable power. The Four Great Gods of Chaos are the personifications of the various thoughts and emotions of all living creatures given sentience by the psychic energies of their home realm, the Warp. Though by almost every measure of the word, gods, they are by their nature monomaniacal and completely single-minded (formed completely of a single emotion or concept) as well as being completely dependent on the emotions of mortal and immortal creatures for their power and continued existence. The interplay of the various concepts they embody leads to all of the 4 Gods coming into a great rivalry with one another. This conflict is mirrored in the material plane by the combat that takes place between the mortal and immortal servitors of the Dark Gods, this is the reason for the constant civil war the Chaos Legions find themselves ensnared in. For as victory in these battles lends greater influence to their patron God, the champion will find himself rise in favor in his Patron's eyes. For despite the myriad differences, the Gods all desire total domination. And absolute power cannot be easily shared - especially not among Gods. Thus, this eternal struggle for dominance is known as the Great Game.

Despite their labeling as beings of fathomless evil, the Chaos Gods represent the highest and most base aspects of sentient thought. The Great Powers personifying Rage, Scheming, Despair, and Lust, but also Bravery and Honour, Hope, Perseverance, and Love.

Tropes applying to the Chaos Gods as a whole

  • Animal Motifs: Big Badass Wolf for Khorne, Ravens and Crows for Tzeentch, and Flies Equals Evil for Nurgle (even his symbol is a stylized fly).
    • These are just the most easily recognized motifs; background material, especially the older ones, note that many Chaos cults can be disguised as animal totemists because there are many possible animals that can be revered as befitting one or more of the Chaos Gods. For example, snakes can be seen as symbols of both Slaanesh and of Tzeentch, bulls as symbols of Slaanesh or Khorne, toads and slugs of Nurgle, etc.
  • Bigger Bad—While it's debatable whether or not the Chaos Gods are the Big Bad, they are a textbook Bigger Bad.
  • Blue and Orange Morality: All of them, being the embodiment of abstract concepts, are prone to this.
  • Cosmic Plaything—They view everything that has ever existed as this.
  • Enemy Civil War—Though they have some interest in the Materium, the Great Game, the struggle for dominance in the Immaterium, is the main priority of the Chaos Gods. It's also unwinnable, because when one becomes stronger, the others gang up on him. And if one were to succeed, Chaos would ultimately stop being, well, Chaos.
  • Exiled From Continuity - Malal, the Renegade God (Yes, there is one that is considered worse than the other four) was dropped from continuity because no one could figure out who held the rights for him. Recent codexes have made mention of renegade Chaos followers who spend more time attacking other Chaos followers, which is Malal's modus operandi.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Khorne corresponds to Choleric and Slaanesh to Sanguine pushed to their logical extremes, while Tzeentch and Nurgle respectively twist Melancholic and Phlegmatic.
  • God Is Evil—And there's four of them.
  • Our Gods Are Greater—Are they ever.
  • Gods Need Prayer Badly—Chaos feeds off the emotions of sentient races, but otherwise doesn't need it directed at them specifically.
  • The Heartless - Even positive emotions such as Hope or Acceptance feed the Chaos gods.
  • Mad God -- All four fit the gold standard, but Tzeentch is especially... inexplicably illogical.
  • The Omnipotent: Within their own planes of existence. Their influence in the materium, while still extremely palpable, is very limited by comparison.
  • Pure Is Not Good
  • Red Baron—The Dark Gods, the Ruinous Powers. And that's what their own followers call them.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork—Once in a while, the Chaos Gods will stop their infighting and work together. Fortunately, it never lasts long.
  • Top God—What the Chaos Gods are constantly competing for. It's generally accepted that the top contenders are Khorne (given the state of the galaxy) and Tzeentch (given that he has the least defeats).
    • What's better than the least defeats? No defeats at all. Which goes squarely in Khorne's favor, as long as people fight and die and blood continues to flow, he will win from any engagement.
  • Ultimate Evil—The legions of Chaos contest this position with various other factions, which is not a good sign. But as individuals, the Chaos Gods are likely the most triumphant example of this trope in 40k

The major Chaos Gods are as follows:

Khorne

Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!

The Blood God, the Brass Lord of Battle, Arkhar, Kharnath. Khorne is the most renowned and widespread of the Chaos Gods, and is an embodiment of hate, rage, wrath, violence and the urge to kill... but he is also comprised of martial pride, courage, the will to protect others, and honor. Khorne's commandments are simple; death and violence are what he exists for, and those who worship him strive only to kill in his name. The most common saying about Khorne is that he cares not from where the blood flows, only that it flows.

Khorne is described as resembling an impossibly huge and muscular warrior clad in bronze armor and wielding a monstrous waraxe, though he is sometimes portrayed as having the head of a monstrous horn-sprouting wolf. His sacred number is 8, and his associated Chaos Marine Legion is the World Eaters.

Notable tropes include

  • An Axe to Grind: As functionally the first real weapon of war created, the axe is symbolically very important to Khorne and his worshipers. He's often described as wielding a massive battleaxe, as well.
  • Asskicking Equals Authority: This is a deeply held Khornate tenant. In a Khornate warband, you achieve prestige by proving you're the deadliest warrior, and by no other method.
  • Arch Enemy:
    • Khorne is fundamentally opposed to Slaanesh. Where Slaanesh is self-centered and its followers kill and torture to satisfy their own desires, Khornate dogma teaches spreading death and spilling blood freely for its own sake and that one should take no pleasure in anything. Khorne is also not big on torture, which is meaningless postponing of the kill.
    • Khorne also hates Tzeentch because he considers sorcery and manipulation to be cowards' weapons.
  • Atop a Mountain of Corpses: SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!
  • Axe Crazy: Khorne is the living embodiment of hate and rage—words don't exist to describe just how furious he is at any given moment of the day.
  • The Berserker: Not only Khorne, but his daemons and followers.
  • Badass: Khorne and his followers are all supremely badass. Not only are his Champions often the mightiest warriors of Chaos and the deadliest fighters of the setting, Khorne himself is in fact the most powerful of all the Chaos Gods and is thus the most powerful being in all of Warhammer 40,000.
    • Badass in Charge: By default, he's sorta the de-factor Top God of Chaos.
    • Big Badass Wolf: In older editions, the wolf was the animal most frequently associated with Khorne, who was sometimes portrayed as having a wolf's head.
    • Four-Star Badass: Khorne himself, being a God of War, is probably the originator for every tactic and stratagem of war ever created. Khornate Chaos Lords are also often this in ADDITION to being unstoppable berzerkers.
  • Battle Cry/Catch Phrase/Madness Mantra: Khorne has what may be the most famous example of all three in the setting: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!
  • Blue and Orange Morality: Can a being of such power truly be judged by mortal ethics? Khorne is the embodiment of rage, to judge him harshly for killing and destroying is like judging a forest fire evil for burning.
    • In particular, it would be a fatal mistake to think that he has something against slaugthering civilians en masse because of some ethic: It's simply that he prizes more fights against a Worthy Opponent.
  • BFS: He has a sword too. He once took it in a mighty rage and smote an endless, screaming crevasse in the warp that has never healed. Given that the Warp is an immaterial place of emotion that constantly shifts and turns and that this scar is one of the few things that has remained constant should go a slight way towards preparing you for how powerful Khorne is.
  • Big Red Devil: Khorne's daemons fit this archetype, and Khorne himself is sometimes implied to also fit the archetype.
  • Blood Knight: Khorne may care not from whence the Blood flows, but he does put appreciation on it flowing from hard won sources. So, both he and Khornate worshipers always love a good fight.
  • Blood Splattered Warrior: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
  • Determinator: Khorne isn't kidding when he says he'll give you a will to dominate all others.
  • Expy: To an extent, of Odin. Both are War Gods, and their finest warriors are called Berserkers, and both are associated with the exhilaration and fury of battle. Furthermore, Khorne's Bloodletters are sometimes described as the 'blessed' souls of his foremost warriors in life, similar to the Einherjar of Valhalla. Lastly, the rune of Khorne does bear a passing resemblance to the Valknut, the slain warrior's knot, a Germanic symbol theorized to have connections with Odin.
  • Evil Is Hammy: Ye gods...
  • Flanderization: While he was the god of martial pride, with early editions of 40K and Warhammer Fantasy emphasizing that his followers would spare the weak or even non-combatants, he has slowly evolved into a god of mindless slaughter, who "cares not from where the blood flows, only that it flows."
    • Technically, the martial pride and honour is still relevant. It's only there in a merciless way. His followers still hold a twisted code of ethics that emphasizes fighting fairly and fighting worthy opponents first. After that's done however, they'll make sure to do away with the defenseless.
      • Another part of the flanderization is the fixation on berserk fury and melee combat as the only way to honor Khorne. During the "Slaves to Darkness" era, Khorne was described as being honored by any form and methodology of killing, so Khorne cultists were as likely to be Cold Snipers, icily professional assassins or heavy artillery experts as they were axe-swinging berserkers.
        • Well, actually, Khornate warbands still make fair use of artillery (and the World Eaters are the only legion to maintain a Titan legion) so...
  • Flaming Sword: The weapons of the Bloodletters, his lesser daemons, carry this effect. Combined with their ability to suck the blood from anything they cut, and it's easy to see why they're called "Hellblades".
  • For the Lulz: Any expression of anger, no matter how small or for whatever reason will serve Khorne. And instance of killing will serve him, whether it is done by his followers or by those who think they oppose him. It is for this reason, that Khorne is said to be the one god who is always going to win, because the only way to defeat him would be everyone never feeling the emotions of rage ever again. Which is functionally impossible.
  • Hates Everyone Equally: As the embodiment of hate.
  • Hellfire: His daemons often have weapons that burn with warpfire.
  • Named Weapons: His sword has been called 'Warmaker' and 'The End of All Things at various points.
  • Names to Run Away From Very Fast: Everything that has ever been associated with him ever has this. And very deservedly so.
  • Odd Job Gods: Khorne's portfolio covers Death, Violence, Murder, Hatred, Rage, Destruction, Warfare and Bloodshed... but also Courage, Honor, Martial Pride, Protection and, one could argue, Compassion (do not kill those who are weak or unable to fight).
  • Ominous Floating Castle: The Fortress of Khorne, where the Blood God resides upon the Skull Throne.
  • The Power of Hate
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: His followers embody the archetype among Chaos. Khorne himself is pretty much the God of Proud Warrior Race Guys.
  • Red Baron: The Blood God, the Lord of Skulls, the Brass Lord of Battle.
  • Rated "M" for Manly: He's a god of war, rage, strength, martial honour, battle and single combat, and is depicted as an impossibly muscular warrior with a horned, wolf's head sitting atop a massive throne of skulls floating in an endless sea of blood and his plane of existence is basically a site of never ending conflict. And his worshipers are giant, axe brandishing, war loving Blood Knights who also tend to be the best melee combatants in the setting. Some would argue Khorne and his followers are tied only with the Space Wolves for the manliest faction in 40K.
  • The Stoic: Khorne exists only to fight and slay, and is indifferent to anything else, which is part of the reason why he hates Slaanesh so much.
  • Unstoppable Rage
  • War God: One of the best examples in all of fiction, really.
  • Would Not Shoot a Civilian: Originally, his followers would not harm innocent civilians out of honor, but as time went on, it started to be more about ignoring civilians because they present no challenge, and Khorne desires worthy kills. After the Worthy Opponents are out of the way, all bets are off.

Tzeentch

Do not ask which creature screams in the night. Do not question who waits for you in the shadow. It is my cry that wakes you in the night, and my body that crouches in the shadow. I am Tzeentch and you are the puppet that dances to my tune...

The Changer of Ways, the Great Conspirator, the Architect of Fate, Tchar. The manipulative one, the Dark God who sees all things that may be and redirects the future to serve his own inscrutable whims and goals. Tzeentch is the lord of Change, and sometimes considered the most powerful of the Chaos Gods, for Change and Chaos are synonymous. Born as the collective embodiment of the galaxy's hope and envy, Tzeentch is the patron of all who would seek change, in any form—but they may get more then they desired. Tzeentch exhorts his followers to bring change, in any form, to anyone and everyone, and psykers/sorcerers owe him particular allegiance.

Tzeentch is rarely described, but they tend to vary, which is fitting for the Lord of Change. One ancient portrayal is as a ghastly, dwarfish thing, with horns arcing up from either shoulder over a head sunken into his neck and many whispering mouths crawling over his body. Another is a serpentine figure with bird like features. His sacred number is 9, and his associated Chaos Marine Legion is the Thousand Sons.

Notable tropes include

  • Arch Enemy: Of Nurgle. Nurgle is the god of cycles, despair, rot and stagnation. Tzeentch is the lord of change, hope, mutation and optimism. The two are fundamentally opposed because they want the opposite thing (endless stagnation into despair and rot vs. constant evolution).
  • The Archmage: Tzeentch is the most powerful manipulator of sorcery and psionics in the Warhammer 40000 canon.
  • Batman Gambit: Tzeentch basically does this as a thought exercise, every moment of every day for all eternity.
  • Body Horror: Of all the Chaos Gods, Tzeentch is the freest in doling this out, simply because constant, perpetual change is his reason for existing and his followers should embrace this in mind, soul and body.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He really has a problem with this. The other Gods are wary of him because of it. Ironically, he's also the one who usually forms alliances between the Chaos Gods.
    • This is probably the biggest reason they are wary of him.
  • Consummate Liar: He is called the Liar God.
  • Eyes Do Not Belong There: If Tzeentch feels you need more eyes, you damn well are getting more eyes.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: Taken to its extreme. Tzeentch will die if any of his myriad plans succeed, thus every one of his plans will fail because he sabotages them, and he has several plans that run completely contrary to his other plans by design (though, of course, not as the end). This is the real measure of his chessmastery skills, the fact that he has millions of these running, most extremely complex and many spanning centuries, and not one of them succeed even by accident because he is that damn good.
  • For the Lulz: Tzeentch cannot be foiled, simply because he doesn't actually have a plan to foil. If Tzeentch ever actually "won", then he would probably cease to exist, because that would mean that nothing would ever be able to change any more.
  • Great Gazoo: A villainous exemple.
  • Hopeless War: One could theorize that thanks to his inherent self-defeating disorder and the fact that he is the most Magnificent of all Magnificent Bastards, because of him the cause of Chaos is doomed to fail because he can never allow it to succeed. Instead it is in his interest and integral to his nature to maintain a Forever War. Still, that is small comfort for the Imperium, especially since they aren't the only ones fighting Chaos and some other horrid race could easily replace him.
  • Jackass Genie: Beware his sick sense oh humor.
  • The Library of Babel: The Hidden Library of Tzeentch. It holds every magical spell, every prophecy, every piece of knowledge one could hope to find. The only problem is the books are alive, and they're pure evil.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Tzeentch is the literal god of Magnificent Bastards. Whatever you do, he will benefit, Just As Planned.
  • Mobile Maze: The Maze of Tzeentch, which shifts and contorts to trap any who enter it.
  • Odd Job Gods: Tzeentch's portfolio covers Hope, Envy, Treachery, Transformation, Change, and Magic/Psionics.
  • The Omniscient: It comes with being the god of knowledge.
  • Red Baron: The Architect of Fate, the Changer of Ways, the Great Mutator, the Lord of Change.
  • Status Quo Is God: Ironically for a god of Change, he is the greatest enforcer of this trope in-universe.
  • Ubermensch: Tzeentch is the patron god of these: He constantly seeks to change, evolve, and discard old laws and restrictions in favour of making your own way based purely on your own will and vision. Nurgle, who wants to decay in the existing world, serves as the Last Man.
  • Xanatos Gambit: When the plot itself is the payoff, any of Tzeentch's schemes become this by default. The question is only which one of his pawns reaps their payoff.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: Tzeentch is basically pulling this constantly against the whole galaxy.
    • Tzeentch is pulling this constantly against himself.

Nurgle

There, feel the glory of necrosis, and rejoice! Nurgle loves you all!

The Fly Lord, Neigel. Portrayed as a being horrifically bloated and deformed by the ravages of disease and decay, pustular guts falling through his torn skin, pus and blood and bile and other filth oozing from every pore, Nurgle is the eldest of the Chaos Gods, and may be the most disgusting and terrifying of them. Ironically, he's also one of the nicest, maintaining a caring and loving manner. Nurgle claims to love all creatures—that just happens to include viruses, bacteria, fungi and other disease-causing organisms. Nurgle's followers spread disease and decay across the galaxy, forced to sing the songs of gratitude to the "Grandfather Nurgle". He is is born from the galaxy's fear, despair, fortitude and the will to live no matter what.

Nurgle's sacred number is 7, and his associated Chaos Marine Legion is the Death Guard.

Notable tropes include

  • Abhorrent Admirer: Nurgle saved the Eldar goddess of life, Isha, from being eaten by Slaanesh because he is in love with her and he wants to marry her. Not only is Nurgle physically repellent in all the worst possible ways, his idea of expressing love is to keep her chained up in his kitchen/lab and force-feed her the latest plagues and diseases he has brewed to test their effectiveness; she heals herself, eventually, but she still suffers them. He does, however, apparently make no efforts to notice that she whispers cures to the diseases he has created to mortal kind.
  • Arch Enemy: Of Tzeentch. Is also none too fond of Slaanesh, since Slaanesh is the god of self-indulgence and pain whereas Nurgle is the god of endurance and (in his own twisted way) community.
  • Blue and Orange Morality: Maybe. He claims his horrific plagues to be gifts, and that the despair they cause you are your way of saying thanks to him.
  • Body Horror: Nurgle's physical form, and what frequently happens to his followers and their victims due to his "gifts".
  • Cool Old Guy: How his followers seem to view him , as Nurgle is the oldest of the Chaos Gods.
  • Dead Weight: Though not necessarily technically "dead", many of Nurgle's more "blessed" followers and the most favored of his daemons otherwise fit into this trope. Taking the form of bloated abominations, their skin bursts with open wounds and sores they do not tend to, the stench of rot surrounds them, pus and maggots squirming within their oversized flesh, and they can take one hell of a pounding without being discouraged.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Twisted in a way only Nurgle can. No matter how hard you resist him, he will "love" you all the more, so that when you finally give in, you really have his attention.
  • Despair Event Horizon: The god of this. When you have passed it, you are Nurgle's.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Nurgle maintains a caring, cheerful manner. While infecting his followers with disfiguring ailments and horrific diseases and plagues.
  • Feel No Pain: His followers still feel pain, but they no longer care.
  • Garden of Evil: The Garden of Nurgle is this. Mostly cause it's where he gets the ingredients for his plagues.
  • Graceful Loser: Nurgle's followers view death as a natural part of the cycle that will nurture rot and decay, and thus view their own defeats as inevitable.
  • Lack of Empathy: Maybe subverted, as Nurgle is the only Chaos God that seems to care more about his followers than himself. Although you really don't want his help.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: Nurgle and his followers are all about this, even if they're all very cheerful about it. Their only purpose is to spread disease and misery further, and having abandoned all hope and ambition they have nothing explicitly to live for other than to die and feed the cycle of rot. On the flip side, they also have the endurance and willpower to not just lay down and die, which makes them all the more dangerous. Put another way, Nurgle is Tzeentch's Last Man.
  • Odd Job Gods: Nurgle's portfolio covers Disease, Decay, Poison, Fear, Despair, Entropy, Endurance, Willpower, and Healing.
  • The Patriarch: Nurgle views himself as a loving, generous, playful parental figure to his followers, and his followers adore him for it, lovingly referring to him as "Grandfather", "Grandpa", "Papa", "Father" or "Uncle" Nurgle.
  • Plaguemaster: Obviously.
  • The Pig Pen
  • Red Baron: The Plague Lord, the Fly Lord, the Plague Father, the Lord of Decay.
  • Stepford Smiler: And HOW!
  • The Virus - The "gifts" of Nurgle.
  • Zombie Apocalypse - More than a few worlds have suffered one due to one of Nurgle's diseases.

Slaanesh

Long shall be your suffering. Joyous be your pain.

The Dark Prince, the Serpent, Lashor, She Who Thirsts. The youngest of the Dark Gods of Chaos, Slaanesh was born from the collective decadence and depravity of the Eldar Empire; its birth-scream tore the Eye of Terror open and it consumed the bulk of the Eldar race shortly afterwards. While the physically weakest of the Dark Gods, Slaanesh is perhaps one of the most popular to worship, as it preaches the indulgence of every whim and the seeking of every pleasure, and so it has a very wide power base. At its birth it was arguably the strongest, as it not only destroyed an entire star-spanning galactic empire, it proceeded to hunt down and massacre the pantheon of gods of that empire as well, a feat unequaled by any god in the setting, Chaos or otherwise. It is the embodiment of Squick, love, lust, pleasure, pain, excess, hubris, pride and desire.

Slaanesh's sacred number is 6 and its associated Chaos Marine Legion are the Emperor's Children.

Notable tropes include

  • The Ace: One could make the case. Slaanesh is the God of Pleasure, so anything that one derives pleasure from falls under its domain, and it encourages you to find pleasure in absolutely anything, and in turn Slaanesh itself enjoys cultivating new skills and experiences. This includes losing.
    • It's actually noted that many Slaaneshi cultists turned to Slaanesh's worship to cultivate their skills to new heights. The desire to be the greatest duelist, painter, singer, sculptor, etc is just as welcome to Slaanesh as sheer hedonism.
  • A Fate Worse Than Death: Unless an Eldar uses a special precaution - such as a soulstone or one of the various strategies of the Dark Eldar - his or her soul is forfeit to Slaanesh upon death, due to the fact that the decadence that gave birth to the god occurred in the center of the original Eldar civilization.
  • All Men Are Perverts/All Women Are Lustful: Slaanesh is one or the other, or both of these at the same time.
  • Arch Enemy: Of Khorne, whose mindless barbarism contains no thought of the self. Also a lesser enemy of Nurgle, who is similarly 'selfless' and focused on spreading his blessings to others instead of sating oneself.
    • More generally, Slaanesh is viewed as the Arch Enemy by the entire Eldar race, even the Dark Eldar in a somewhat perverse way. Their entire lives are devoted pretty much to staving off death because they know that upon that death, they belong to Her.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: Subverted. Slaanesh is perhaps the cruelest, most callous and most self-centered of all the Dark Gods.
  • Charm Person: Those who gaze upon Slaanesh can do nothing but fall down and worship its inhuman beauty. This extends to its daemons, though a powerful mind can resist their presence. With Slaanesh itself, however, it doesn't matter how powerful your mind is—unless you are a god or something equally powerful, you will falter and fall before it.
  • The Dreaded: Apparently, even saying his/her/its name constitutes as the equivalent of profanity among the Eldar. They typically refer to Slannesh as "The Great Enemy" or "She Who Thirsts".
  • Depraved Bisexual: There a fewer more depraved.
  • Drugs Are Bad: Inverted Trope, as Slannesh considers anything which heightens sensory experiences to be good. Many of its followers will experiment with a wide variety of substances to better experience all the pleasures they can offer. Such followers are also one of the Chaos factions most likely to use combat drugs when going into battle.
  • Evil Feels Good: Or, rather, "if it feels good, then it's not evil". Slaanesh encourages his followers to ignore all morality, sanity and any other impediments to feeling pleasure.
    • Alternatively, if you gain pleasure by recognising something as evil and perverse and doing it anyway, or even doing it because it is evil and thats how you get your jollies, come join in the fun.
  • The Fighting Narcissist: Something of a hat, Slaaneshi warriors tend towards inhumanly fast reflexes with all the arrogance it entails, especially as they're opposed to the brutal berserkers of Khorne.
  • Gender Bender: Slaanesh can freely switch between male, female, hermaphrodite, and any other blending of gender features one can imagine. Some of its followers acquire this as a "gift" as well.
  • The Hedonist: Slaanesh is the embodiment of all desires and exists only to sate those desires.
  • Hermaphrodite: Humans consider Slaanesh male, while the Eldar consider Slaanesh female. Slaanesh's traditional depiction is as an impossibly beautiful creature that is a man on its left side and a woman on its right side. More conventional portrayals of this are certainly within its grasp. Most of its worshipers end up like this as well.
  • Horny Devils: Slaanesh and all its daemons are basically this.
  • It's All About Me: It really is.
  • It Pleased Me: That they might receive pleasure from the act is the only reason followers of Slaanesh need to do anything.
  • Kill The Gods: After bloating itself on the souls of trillions of the Eldar who spawned it, Slaanesh made a bee-line for the Eldar Pantheon and effortlesly (and elegantly) slaughtered every last one of them, save Isha the Goddess of Life (who was saved / kidnapped by Nurgle) and the Laughing God (who ran like Hell). Khaine, the Eldar God of War and Murder, was slain as well, but survived (so to speak) in the form of Literally Shattered Lives, with countless pieces of himself reborn as Avatars throughout the cosmos.
  • Love Goddess: In a Rape Is Love kind of way.
  • Love Makes You Evil: It does when it is the love offered by the Prince of Excess...
  • Odd Job Gods: Slaanesh's portfolio covers Excess, Depravity, Pain, Perversion, Pleasure, Love, Lust, Desire, Mastery and Beauty.
  • Pleasure Palace: The Palace of Slaanesh. Where every possible depraved act thinkable (and some that are unthinkable) are performed.
  • Power Perversion Potential - Slaanesh is arguably an inversion. The powers he grants to his followers are intended to be used for perverse purposes, but in a pinch can be repurposed to serve more pragmatic needs. Perfumes that cause bliss to inhale can incapacitate and fog the minds of foes, extra long tongues for tasting and stimulating can be used to ensnare, etc.
  • Pronoun Trouble: Often used as a joke by the fandom.
  • Red Baron: The Dark Prince, the Serpent, She Who Thirsts.
  • Safe, Sane, and Consensual: Completely averted and rejected. The followers of Slaanesh consider safety, sanity, and consent to be blasphemous concepts for getting between them and what they want.
  • Sense Freak: Taken Up to Eleven. Long time, hyper-desensitized followers will literally immolate themselves, just to feel something new.
  • Sex Is Evil: An incarnation of this is the simplest way of viewing Slaanesh.
  • So Beautiful It's a Curse: Slaanesh is described as so beautiful that merely glancing at it can make you fall in love with it, to the extent you will sell your soul to Slaanesh right then and there without hesitation. Slaanesh, of course, does not view this as a curse.
  • The Perfectionist
  • Wicked Cultured: Slaanesh is not just about physical sensations such as sex and torture, but also enjoying such things as art and music. Generally, though, Slaanesh and his/her followers gradually move more towards the "wicked" part than the "cultured" part as time goes on.


Daemons Of Chaos

Chaos can not be denied.

The Daemons of Chaos are mankind's every vice and failing given form and freedom to murder. Their numbers limitless and their malice infinite, their very presence deforms the universe. Their forms are beyond prediction: machines that do not obey physical laws, childhood nightmares and reflections of primal emotions all have a place in a daemon army. Greater than their physical presence is their influence over the minds of mortals. Power, immortality and all manner of immorality is offered - for a price. Most daemons are aligned with one of the four great gods of Chaos.

Chaos Daemons play unlike any other army. Their forces appear out of thin air, deploying via Deep Strike, and are all fearless and supernaturally warded against enemy attacks. Save for the daemons of Tzeentch, they don't have much in the way of ranged attacks, but their unrivaled ferocity in close combat, combined with the speed with which they engage the enemy, makes them a potent threat. The only good news for their enemies is that daemons have little in the way of corporeal armor, and are relatively few in number, especially since half the army starts the game in reserve. They also have the unique feature of being almost completely reusable in Warhammer Fantasy, which got its own Chaos Daemons codex at around the same time 40k did.

Notable Daemonic tropes include

  • Alien Geometries: The shapes and forms of daemons typically take these.
  • And Call Him George: Poor, poor, Beasts of Nurgle. With the personality and demeanor of an excited puppy, they just want to play with all the "friends" they meet on the battlefield. However, they are about six feet long, strong enough to crush a man under their bulk, and they secrete all manner of toxins and virulent diseases, so you can guess how well that goes.
  • Artifact of Doom: Most notably in the form of Daemon Weapons, which tend to take possession of weak-willed wielders.
  • Asteroids Monster: Pink Horrors of Tzeentch split into two Blue Horrors upon death, a rule that drove players crazy in previous editions. "Where once was one, now there is two, where once was pink, now there is blue."
  • Axe Crazy / The Berserker: Khornate daemons, naturally.
  • Big Red Devil: Bloodthirsters, the Greater Daemons of Khorne, are massive, demonic looking winged beasts.
  • Demonic Invaders
  • The Dreaded: Angrath, Khorne's most favoured Bloodthirster. So much so, that even the mightiest of the Grey Knights can only timidly whisper his name.
  • Eldritch Abomination - With a 5+ Invulnerable save.
  • Energy Beings—Daemons are these in the Warp, where they attempt to break into spaceships traveling through it and devour the souls of everyone inside.
  • Evil Makes You Monstrous—Daemon Princes.
  • Fat Bastard—Great Unclean Ones, the Greater Daemons of Nurgle, are bloated, putrid beings.
  • Feathered Fiend—Lords of Change, the Greater Daemons of Tzeentch, are often depicted with beaks and large, vibrant wings.
  • Fighting a Shadow—You can defeat a Daemon, but only by imprisoning it in something or sending it back to the Warp.
  • Hell Hound—The Flesh Hounds of Khorne, sent to chase down foes too cowardly to face Khorne in battle, particularly psykers.
  • Hellish Horse—Daemonic mounts. Generally... somewhat less than pleasant.
  • I Know Your True Name—Daemons and the Grimoire of True Names.
  • Insubstantial Ingredients - Swords of hate, or delusion, or the like.
  • The Juggernaut - Of particular note are the Khornate daemons called Juggernauts, which resemble flaming, metallic rhinos. Used as mounts, they aren't particularly fast, but hit with the impact of a flaming freight train.
  • Leave No Witnesses - Aetaos'Rau'Keres, an ancient daemon of Tzeentch with a terrible case of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. He's murdered everybody, mortal and demon alike, who knows anything about his true nature. The only reason he's still "loyal" is because Tzeentch is the only person left in the universe who could sell out his secret.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous - Keepers of Secrets, the Greater Daemons of Slaanesh, possess two regular arms and two pincher arms.
  • Nipple-and-Dimed - The 4th Edition models for Slaaneshi Daemonettes aroused... controversy by eschewing the previous versions' Chainmail Bikinis. Some models even featured three sets of breasts (this is Chaos, after all), including Steeds of Slaanesh, which are nonhumanoid serpent-like creatures. As of 5th Edition, however, the Daemonettes have been retooled as more androgynous, and either have corsets or don't need them.
  • Papa Wolf—Some greater daemons of Nurgle will flip out if you try to harm the little nurglings.
  • Rain of Blood—Khorne, through the actions of his champions. Also sometimes literally, if the Daemons section of the 5e rulebook is to be believed. There were apparently exploding, shrieking skulls in there, too.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni—Pink Horrors are energetic and happy, Blue Horrors are grumpy.
  • World of Chaos - Daemon Worlds, natch.

Chaos Space Marines

Let the Galaxy Burn!

At the height of the Emperor's Great Crusade, when humanity was entering a second golden age, a shocking betrayal nearly destroyed the human race. Horus, Warmaster of the Imperial forces, Primarch of the Luna Wolves, and the Emperor's most beloved son, led fully half of the Space Marine legions and a third of the Imperium's conventional armies into the embrace of Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor. During the Siege of Terra, Horus was finally cast down by the Emperor, but at a terrible price, and the battle left the Emperor confined to the life-support systems of the Golden Throne. The rebel Space Marines fled into the Eye of Terror, a gateway into the Warp itself, where they licked their wounds and planned terrible revenge on their foes. Ten thousand years later, these original traitor legions remain, granted unnaturally long life by their patrons as a reward for their faith, or perhaps as a punishment for their failure.

The Chaos Space Marines are very dangerous enemies, who were already superhuman warriors before they sold their souls to the Dark Gods for more power. Veterans of thousands of years of battle, they know every trick in the book, and may have helped write it in the first place. They still use the formidable wargear of the Adeptus Astartes, but it has been enhanced and twisted by the powers of the Warp into more lethal and hideous forms, and they can call upon the power of the Warp directly in battle by summoning units of daemons to the field. Chaos Space Marine heroes are both Chaos' greatest champions and its favorite playthings, who have been marked by their gods with powerful daemonic gifts that will either take them on a path to daemon princedom, or tear their bodies and minds apart as they degenerate into Chaos spawn. They once helped build the Imperium, but now they want nothing more than to see the galaxy that cast them down burn.

The tabletop Chaos Space Marines army plays very similarly to conventional Space Marines, for obvious reasons. But while the Space Marines are an army of generalists, Chaos Marines have access to units dedicated to the powers of the Warp, giving them fantastic assault troops in the form of Khorne Berserkers or deadly ranged units such as Slaaneshi Noise Marines. Chaos leaders are some of the most frightening opponents in the game, thanks to the daemonic gifts available to them, and units of daemons can be summoned for surprise assaults. The main drawback is that these upgrades come at a price, so a Chaos Space Marine army will likely field fewer models than even loyalist Space Marines.

Like the Space Marines, they can be split in terms of style among their founder legions:

Chapter Armor color Primarch Anarchically: Specialties Allegiance Figure(s) of Infamy
Iron Warriors Steel-gray Perturabo Fortified Overwhelming Siege Tactics Undivided Honsou
World Eaters Red and Brass Angron Angry Close Combat Khorne Kharn the Betrayer
Death Guard Putrid Green Mortarion Diseased Relentless Advancement, Straight Assault Tactics Nurgle Typhus
Thousand Sons Blue and Gold Magnus the Red Manipulating* Psychic Powers Tzeentch Ahzek Ahriman
Emperor's Children Purple-Pink Fulgrim Hedonistic Sonic Weaponry Slaanesh Lucius the Eternal, Fabius Bile
Alpha Legion Blue Alpharius/Omegon Sneaky Multiple strikes from all sides, covert ops, use of cultist activity Loyal? Unknown
Night Lords Dark Blue Konrad Curze the Night Haunter Terrorising Stealth/terror tactics None Zso Sahaal, Talos
Word Bearers Blood Red Lorgar Aurelian Religious Massive use of Daemons, led by Dark Apostles, and spreading Chaos Undivided Kor Phaeron, Erebus
Black Legion Black and Gold Horus Lupercal Proud Flexible organisation and eliminating command structure Undivided Ezekyle Abaddon
Red Corsairs Red and Black Unknown Piratical Piracy and Raids Undivided Huron Blackheart
The Fallen Black Lion El'Jonson Hunted Infiltration, distracting the Dark Angels Varies Cypher
  • - The Thousand Sons are the exception to the "anarchically" designation, as they are usually very methodical in their schemes and actions.

Notable Chaos Space Marine tropes include

  • An Axe to Grind - Many a follower of Khorne favors Chainaxes. Angron wielded two Chainaxes called "Gorefather" and "Gorechild", and later gave Gorechild to Kharn.
  • Animated Armor - Almost all Thousand Sons marines have had their bodies rendered to dust by a spell, the only thing holding their soul to the mortal realm is their armor, which moves according to their will.
  • Anti-Villain—Magnus the Red is revealed to be one in an exceptionally tragic way.
    • Possibly also Alpharius/Omegon. Or not. It's confusing.
    • Lorgar far more so than any other in the setting.
  • Arm Cannon - Obliterators are Chaos Marines with a daemonic virus that fuses their bodies and armor, but also lets them "grow" whatever weapons they want.
  • Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence: Chaos Space Marines who win favor with their patron God have the chance to ascend to become a Daemon Prince. All surviving Traitor Primarchs (with the possible exception of Alpharius/Omegon, whichever one Guilliman didn't kill.) have ascended as Daemon Princes. Fortunately for the Imperium, they seem content to just hang out on their homeworlds.
  • Attack! Attack! Attack! - The only strategy the Khorne Berserkers know, since they are...
  • Axe Crazy - ... as they voluntarily undergo lobotomies to better focus on bloodshed. Though technically they're Chainaxecrazy. Special mention must be made of Kharn the Betrayer, berserker of the World Eaters legion who, when a battle against the rival Emperor's Children legion was halted when the combatants took shelter from a blizzard, personally burned down an entire city and butchered everyone he could find. He's also the new commissar and a pretty swell guy.
  • Big Bad - Abaddon the Despoiler, the heir of Horus as Lord of the Black Legion and Warmaster of Chaos, is the main contender for the post of Big Bad of 40K.
  • Badass: They are the only army in the setting capable of matching the Space Marines blow for blow on equal terms.
    • Badass Army: Chaos Space Marines are far more powerful combatants individually than their loyalist brothers due to their 'blessings' and experience. This is represented in the tabletop by them having one extra attack over their loyalist counterparts for all their units[2] thus making them much better in a close-range assault. However, they don't have the same discipline and cohesion their loyalist counterparts do, lacking the Combat Tactics and And They Shall No Fear rules the loyalists have.
    • Badass Longcoat We are contractually obligated to remind you that the Emperor's Children Chief Apothecary Fabius Bile has in his possession a lab coat made of human skin.
    • Badass Bandolier: Chaos Havoc models have these, in contrast to their loyalist counterparts. Justified, as they don't really have the same sophistication of technology.
    • Badass Cape: And more generally, cloaks made of human skin are all the rage among Chaos Marines.
    • Badass Biker: They have bikes too. And they put skulls on 'em, and spikes, and occasionally bind the souls of daemons to 'em.
    • Badass Boast: They've made a few. Of note from Lord Zhufor the Impaler;

"The gates that stand between the mortal world and immortal realms of Chaos lie open before us. That we will die having glimpsed eternity is better than never having stirred from the cold furrow of mortal life. We embrace death without regret, as we embrace life without fear."

    • Badass Bookworm: Sorcerers.
    • Badass Nickname: The Traitor Legions, The Champions of Chaos for them as a group. Badass nicknames are all too common among various individual Chaos Space Marines.
    • Badass Creed: Various Chaos Legions have one tailored to the God(s) they worship.
    • Badass Grandpa: Many of them are veterans of the Horus Heresy itself, due to their Warp-enhanced lifespan.
    • Badass in Charge: Your run of the mill Chaos Lord needs to be this in order to hold on to his position for more than a minute. Chaos Marines do not abide weak leaders.
    • Like a Badass Out of Hell
      • Surprise attacks from the Eye of Terror, especially the Black Crusades.
      • During the Siege of Terra, Kharn racked up a bigger body count than anyone else before he was finally killed. Legend holds that Khorne was so impressed he sent Kharn back to life to kill again. Even if it's own brother legionnaires.
      • The Red Corsairs when attacking from the Maelstrom.
    • Badass Preacher: Dark Apostles, who are far more brutal than their Loyalist counterparts, the Chaplains, if you can believe that.
    • Badass Long Robe: Sorcerers and Dark Apostles, on occasion.
    • Cultured Badass: How the Emperor's Children view themselves. At this point, though their activities place more emphasis on the Bad than the "Cultured".
    • Four-Star Badass: More ambitious Chaos Lords, meaning those who lead Black Crusades. Yeah, Abaddon isn't the only one. There have been many others which are beside the big 13. They tend to be much more successful. If smaller in scale.
  • Blood Knight: All followers of Khorne are this and the best example in the setting. While Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows, he does appreciate worthy sacrifices and mighty warriors serving him. As such, Khornate worshipers tend to prove themselves as great warriors for the esteem of their God and tend to kill something that may present a remote challenge first before moving on to killing the defenseless.
  • Black Knight - Not all members of the Black Legion are former Sons of Horus - some have joined from other renegade Space Marines and renounce their old loyalties.
  • Body Horror - Many due to mutations, but especially Obliterators. These men have a virus that forces them to meld with all technology they use. This ends with them essentially having their flesh interwoven with their armor and large lumps containing weapons, many of which poke out.
  • Boisterous Bruiser - Most followers of Nurgle are like this, although in the twisted kind of way only the forces of Chaos can make them.
  • Broken Ace: The Traitor Primarchs had issues.
  • Butt Monkey: A long-time Running Gag involves a character called M'Kar the Reborn. Despite being a Daemon Prince (and therefore approximately 25 feet tall and made partially of magic), he has a long history of getting beaten up by absolutely everybody. This was somewhat undone by the recent Grey Knights codex, in which he is taken slightly more seriously.
  • Cain and Abel - The Primarchs versus the Traitor Primarchs, loyalist Marines vs Chaos Marines.
  • Catch Phrase - Khorne's followers are well known for their Battle Cry "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!". Kharn himself has a thing for the phrase "KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN!"
    • They also double as Madness Mantras
    • Another notable warcry is "Let the Galaxy Burn!"
  • The Chessmaster - Tzeentch's followers have some degree of foresight on their side, while the Alpha Legion is known for elaborate covert campaigns, misdirection, and propaganda.
  • Clothes Make the Maniac - Wargear touched by Chaos has a (further) negative effect on the user's mind.
  • The Corrupter: Before the Horus Heresy Kor Phaeron was this for Lorgar, and Erebus was this for Horus. Cypher may have been this for Luther.
  • The Corruption - "The filth of their visage is as nothing to the filth in their hearts."
  • Cult - The Alpha Legion makes extensive use of cultists as part of their guerrilla war against the Imperium. Many other Chaos Space Marines also do this, but the Alpha Legion is special for actually training their cultists, rather than employing them as cannon fodder.
  • Dark Is Evil: The Black Legion.
  • The Dark Side Will Make You Forget - After ten thousand years, some members of the Traitor Legions have forgotten why they rebelled in the first place, which doesn't dampen their hate in the slightest.
  • Demonic Possession - Some traitor marines volunteer to act as daemonhosts, gaining supernatural powers at a terrible price.
  • Enemy Civil War - Fortunately for the rest of the galaxy, the Traitor Legions have their own rivalries and grudges going nearly as far back to the Horus Heresy.
  • Enfant Terrible - When Angron landed on his unnamed planet, he was attacked by what Imperial authorities believe were Eldar intent on stopping the rise of the future Daemon Prince. When humans finally found him, he was surrounded by their bodies.
  • Enigmatic Minion - The Alpha Legion. Are they irredeemably corrupted? Or secretly The Mole for the Imperium? Where do they keep their forces between the Black Crusades? Why don't they operate from the Eye of Terror? Is their Primarch still alive, or not? It's possible they're not even a coherent Legion any more, just a collection of war-bands each operating under their own inscrutable motives.
  • Evil Counterpart - To loyalist Astartes generally, but some of the Traitor Legions mirror the specialties and philosophies of a loyal one:
    • The Iron Warriors are experts in siege warfare like the Imperial Fists.
    • The Night Lords like using surgical surprise attacks to instill terror, somewhat similar to the stealthy raids of the Raven Guard.
    • The Black Legion has the same sort of generally elite leadership status as the Ultramarines.
    • The World Eaters favor ferocious close assault as the Space Wolves do, though to a much greater extent.
      • Though, the Blood Angels are the closest thing you can get to a loyalist World Eater.
    • The Emperor's Children are strikingly beautiful and have unusually refined aesthetic sensibilities, like the Blood Angels.
  • Evil Is Hammy - Khornates especially.
  • Evil Overlord—Chaos Lords. None more so than Abaddon.
  • The Evil Prince—Horus, the first and most favored son of the Emperor and the aptly named Daemon Princes, who vie for the favor of the Dark Gods and control of the various Daemon Worlds.
  • Evil Sorcerer - Chaos Sorcerers, naturally enough. The most famous of their number is Ahzek Ahriman of the Thousand Sons, a formidable psyker who was exiled for accidentally turning most of the legion into walking suits of Power Armor.
  • Face Heel Turn—The biggest example would be Horus. The brightest hope of all humanity since the Emperor, beloved by all of mankind, a peerless warrior and sublime statesman. The very best that humanity could ever be...is almost killed and shown Scrooge-like visions of a future where he is forgotten and his Father is worshipped as a God across a million worlds. Cue instant patricidal hatred, and the beginnings of a rebellion that would eventually damn the Galaxy into a slow decay of labyrinthine bureaucracy, never ending bloodshed, and, perhaps most tragically, no future for mankind. In other words...exactly what he saw.)
    • He hasn't quite been forgotten, even by the Imperial Guard; a character in the Ciaphas Cain (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!) book Caves of Ice describes a recently-shot Ork as being "deader than Horus". Also, officers with the rank of "Warmaster" (Horus's old title) often change it to something else to avoid the unpleasant associations with the title.
    • His name also appears to be a curse in some circles; in Damnatus Wodan comments angrily "Where the Horus are we now?", and one of the Cain books uses the phrase "and Horus take the hindmost" in the same way one might use hell or the devil.
    • Abaddon made sure that, at least in the Black Legion, Horus is forgotten, by personally destroying the corpse of Horus with his own hands and ordering all members of the legion to repaint their armor black to permanently bury the (grey-colored) Luna Wolves, the original name of the Black Legion.
  • Fake Defector / Reverse Mole -- The Alpha Legion, in the most twisted way possible. Maybe.
  • Fallen Hero: Most Chaos Space Marines either defected during the Horus Heresy or joined up afterwards.
  • Fatal Flaw: The Traitor Primarchs
    • Lorgar's blind devotion to a higher power.
    • Night Haunter's need to enforce justice whatever means necessary.
    • Perturabo and Alpharius' envy toward Rogal Dorn and Roboute Guiliman respectively.
    • Angron's obsession with avenging his comrades.
    • Mortarion's lack of self-confidence which leads him to seek guidance from the wrong people.
    • Fulgrim's mistrust of the other primarchs.
    • Magnus' reckless use of Chaos magic.
    • Horus' pride.
  • Friend or Foe - The World Eaters don't much care which side you are on, once they start fighting.
  • General Failure - Despite being the heir to Horus and a force of darkness capable of banding the Traitor Legions together into multiple Black Crusades, Abaddon the Despoiler has yet to topple the Imperium. However, somewhere along the way he wised up and started playing the Long Game, directing his later Crusades towards the secret objective of seizing various artefacts of doom. This appears to have paid off; as of the 13th Black Crusade his forces have smashed through the Cadian Gate and are on a rampage around Segmentum Obscurus.
  • Gladiator Revolt - Angron's backstory has him leading one, and he was found by the Emperor the day they were going to make their Last Stand. Instead of joining his father, Angron decided to fight and die with his comrades. The Emperor departed... then teleported Angron away right as they were about to be slaughtered. Angron had issues with that.
  • Haunted Technology - Chaos is capable of possessing or warping weapons, armor, even vehicles. The Defiler is essentially a walking tank with a demon spirit sealed inside.
  • Head Desk—Done in one battle report; a Chaos Space Marine leader wallbanged his metal forehead against the inner wall of a bunker, in response to his units' abysmal accuracy.
  • A Hero to His Hometown: Kharn is admired by Khorne Berserkers of the World Eaters and Khornate worshipers in general...but no one else.
    • Well, he's feared and loathed by all others. He probably thinks that's better than being admired.
  • Heroic BSOD—Horus's BSOD was so epic, it ended up destroying the galaxy-wide empire he'd fought so hard to build in the first place.
  • I Am Spartacus - The Alpha Legion's members shape their appearance to that of their Primarch and adopt his identity. This combined with the fact that Alpharius had an identical twin brother casts doubts on the Imperium's claims of killing him.
  • I Ate What?—Most Chaos Marines are fused into their power armor, which recycles the Space Marine's waste into a bland, tasteless nutrient paste.
  • Instrument of Murder—Noise Marines.
  • Irony: They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them. Tell that to the Death Guard.
  • Killed Off for Real—Chaos Space Marines can sometimes avert this if they impress their patron God or daemon, but Horus is dead in every way possible. When the Emperor finally stopped holding back (and perhaps by exploiting a small crack in Horus' armour as a result of Sanguinius' Heroic Sacrifice depending on which rendition you read), he didn't just kill Horus; he destroyed his mind and soul, preventing the Chaos Gods from ever resurrecting him. The Emperor's Children reclaimed his body and Fabius Bile tried to clone him, but Abaddon destroyed the clone and Horus's body.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Khornates again.

Kharn: Attack is the only order worth remembering.

  • Mad Scientist - Fabius Bile of the Emperor's Children has earned appellations such as the "Clone-Master" for his work providing the Traitor Legions with new recruits. When he's not making loyalist Space Marines' entry criteria look tame, he enjoys creating his breed of "new men" through gene-therapy, most of which turn out into homicidal maniacs he gleefully looses onto the Imperium. Bile also likes to tinker on himself to the extent that in early Chaos Codices his stats were determined by dice rolls. And as we must remind you in every article, his lab coat is made of human skin.
  • The Magnificent - Abaddon the Despoiler, Kharn the Betrayer.
  • Meaningful Rename - Several legions were renamed by their Primarchs; the Sons of Horus was renamed again, to the Black Legion, by Abaddon.
    • The Astral Claws became the Red Corsairs, to separate themselves from their former chapter. Lufgt Huron followed suit and became Huron Blackheart.
  • Mecha-Mooks - The Thousand Sons legion was suffering from high levels of mutation, leading one sorcerer to cast a spell to remove the problem. It succeeded too well, for now the rank-and-file are little more than animate suits of power armor containing a bit of dust and the trapped souls of their wearers.
  • Musical Assassin - Some servants of Slaanesh become Noise Marines, who have overindulged their senses so much that only extreme cacophony has any effect on them. In battle they wield deadly sonic weapons that in earlier editions resembled electric guitars.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero—Magnus the Red uses sorcery to try to warn the Emperor of Horus' rebellion. The Emperor, angry at Magnus both for using sorcery and for making such an accusation at his favorite Primarch, orders Leman Russ to go arrest him. Cue an entire Space Marine legion turning to Chaos.
  • Offscreen Villain Dark Matter - Ten thousand years later, the Traitor Legions have yet to run out of boltgun rounds. Justified with Chaos forge worlds, supply raids, and the fact that the Warp sneers at concepts such as "causality" and "logic."
  • Omnicidal Maniac:
    • When the fighting starts, Kharn stops caring whose side you're on.
    • The minor Warband known as The Purge. Unlike the average follower of Nurgle, who is either depressed or jolly, they hate life in all forms and seek to annihilate it.
  • One-Man Army - Say what you will Abbadon the Despoiler's strategic abilities, but in hand to hand combat, he is the most dangerous thing in the entire game. Whole squads will be thrown at him and all they do is merely slow him down.
    • Kharn the Betrayer arguably matches him in those terms. And in the backstory, he single-handedly shattered two entire Chaos Legions.
  • One-Winged Angel - Chaos Lords have two possible fates: the strong-willed and successful leaders collect enough daemonic gifts from their patrons to eventually ascend as Daemon Princes themselves. The others' physical forms collapse from the mutations being bestowed upon them and revert to mindless, mewling Chaos Spawn.
    • Reflected on the tabletop, Chaos Space Marines tend to get some really good bonuses from Chaos Marks. Berzerkers, for example, tend to be among the best assault units in the game, if not the best. Chaos Spawn however, are often seen as joke units.
  • Orcus on His Throne - Of the surviving Traitor Primarchs, only Angron of the World Eaters has actually left his Daemon World to wage war on the Imperium.
  • The Paragon Always Rebels—Horus.
    • Fulgrim too, to a lesser degree.
  • Parental Issues - A possible explanation for some of the Primarch's falls from grace. All were scattered by the Chaos gods across the galaxy as infants, leaving some of them to effectively raise themselves. Horus was the first Primarch recovered and always his favorite, and some of the later Primarchs barely spent any time with their father at all, especially the last one to be found, Alpharius of the Alpha Legion.
  • The Pig Pen - Painting guides for Nurgle's Plague Marines involve tips on how to make shiny pustules and exposed organs, or achieve a proper filth-encrusted look through layers of washes and inks.
  • Plaguemaster—The Death Guard Legion in a nutshell.
  • Powered Armor - Festooned with spikes, trophies, and sometimes daemonically-possessed to boot.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: They have all the warrior pride of their loyalist counterparts, and Worshipers of Khorne in general take it to massive extremes that even both Traitor and Loyalists are in awe of.
  • Rage Against the Mentor - Horus versus the Emperor, underhanded Alpharius against honourable Roboute Gulliman of the Ultramarines, siege expert Perturabo of the Iron Warriors versus fortifications expert Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists. Abaddon the Despoiler also has a hatred of his mentor Horus, and has sought to one-up the original archtraitor ever since the Heresy.
  • Rage Helm - Which is made scarier by giving it horns or tusks.
  • Refusal of the Call: Angron, initially.
  • The Remnant - The Black Legion in particular prides itself as the heirs to Horus' rebellion.
  • Retcon - The Chaos god Malal, representing Chaos' tendency to defeat itself, was quietly put on a shelf since Games Workshop was unsure who owned the copyright for him. The previous edition of the Chaos Codex, however, hints that he has not been entirely forgotten. Sadly, the current edition does not.
    • Also with the Fallen. Members of the Dark Angels who rebelled against Lion El'Jonnson after the Horus Heresy, they were originally said to have fallen to Chaos, yet recent stories have shown that not all of them follow Chaos.
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy—Horus rebelled against the Emperor because he had a vision of a dystopic future where the Emperor is venerated as a god. His rebellion resulted exactly in that.
  • Sense Loss Sadness—While the Slaaneshis may be the most famous, this is ultimately why Chaos Space Marines hate to become Chaos Dreadnoughts. Deprived of the sensations of battle, Chaos Dreadnoughts succumb to built up psychosis (more than the average follower of Chaos will display) and attack both friend and foe in a blind rage. To keep them from destroying their Warband, most Chaos Dreadnoughts are restrained in chains (which have been blessed by the Chaos Gods to prevent them from being broken). For a Chaos Dreadnought to retain a sense of sanity is a major act of willpower on their part.
  • Sex Is Violence—To the Emperor's Children. While they would take offense at the idea that they are as bloodthirsty as Khorne's followers, they do take an almost sexual joy in engaging in combat. To them, war is like a beautiful symphony, a heart-rending ballad, and a stirring validation of themselves, and see it as one of the highest pleasures that they can experience.
  • Shapeshifter Weapon—Chaos Obliterators combine this with Arm Cannon in an interesting way.
  • Space Pirates - Some of the Traitor Legions turn to piracy as a way to acquire vital supplies and/or cause mayhem.
  • Spider Tank - Defilers are spider-like walking tanks crewed by a bound daemon, a Soul Grinder is an unbound daemon fused with Defiler bits, while the Brass Scorpions of Khorne are mecha with a "sting" that can vaporize entire squads of infantry with a hail of bullets.
  • Start of Darkness - The copious backstory provides explanations for why the Traitor Primarchs and other Chaos Space Marines went rebel, often stemming from a sympathetic Freudian Excuse or other Parental Issues:
    • Horus was the first to be discovered by the Emperor, and enjoyed many years of being his only child. He remained the favored son afterward, but upon appointment to Warmaster he began to crack under the immense pressure, and was stung by the Emperor taking credit for Horus' hard-fought victories. Pride did the rest, along with some subtle pushing from his advisors and getting saved from a mortal wound using Chaos techniques.
    • Angron was discovered in the midst of making a Last Stand after leading a Gladiator Revolt. Instead of coming to the rescue, the Emperor teleported Angron off the battlefield, leaving the Primarch to watch helplessly from orbit as his men were butchered. Angron never forgave him.
    • Magnus the Red used his foresight to warn the Emperor of Horus' treachery, but used forbidden magicks to send the message, inadvertantly damaging the Emperor's work on a Webway Gate. The Emperor refused to believe him and sicced the Space Wolves on the silver spires of Magnus' homeworld. Having been cast out despite the best intentions, Magnus sided with Horus.
    • Mortarion joined Horus after being promised a new order in which the strong would rule the weak.
    • Fulgrim was a perfectionist and aesthete who became corrupted by a daemon sword, allowing Horus to convince him that the Emperor was preventing humanity from reaching its full potential.
    • Lorgar was one of the first to view the Emperor as a divine being, but was chastized after spending more time building cathedrals than conquering new worlds. The Chaos Gods provided a new focus for worship.
    • Perturabo gained such a reputation for siegecraft that he fell victim to Typecasting and had his legion regulated almost entirely to garrison duty, in some cases with a single squad of Iron Warriors expected to keep order over millions. To add insult to injury his homeworld revolted, leading the Primarch and his legion to vent their frustrations in an act of genocide that sealed their fate as murderous rebels.
    • Konrad Curze was plagued by visions of a dark future and his death at the Emperor's orders. During the Great Crusade his Night Lords were used to terrify worlds into compliance, even as the Emperor rebuked them for their brutal tactics.
    • Alpharius/Omegon was the last Primarch to be rediscovered and barely spent any time with the Emperor at all, there's considerable debate over if he even turned to Chaos at all, or what his motives in doing so might be.
    • Ezekyle Abaddon saw Horus as a God and chose to follow him where ever he went. After succeeding Horus as Warmaster of Chaos, Abaddon now hates his former mentor.
    • Kharn was an adviser to Angron and a calming influence on his Primarch. Ten thousand years of service to the Blood God made him the Omnicidal Maniac he is today.
    • Azhek Ahriman cast the Rubric of Ahriman to prevent the spread of mutations within the Thousand Sons that had killed his brother. One botched spell later, he's exiled for destroying his fellow Sons' bodies and sealing their souls in their Powered Armour.
    • Lufgt Huron was nearly killed when his rebellion failed and had to pledge the Astral Claws (Later to become the Red Corsairs) to Chaos to survive. Now, Huron Blackheart takes pride in raiding the worlds he once defended.
    • The exact detail of Luther's fall is unknown, but it seems that it was due to feeling betrayed by Lion El'Johnson as he was left on Caliban while the Lion got all the glory of the Great Crusade, and also due to corruption from some tomes of eldritch lore he read.
      • If the details of Luther's fall is unknown, the mystery surrounding Cypher's fall and motives goes Up to Eleven.
  • Tank Goodness - Every tank available to the Space Marines is similarly available to their traitorous brethren. In many cases, their already formidable potency has been enhanced by daemonic possession.
    • The Iron Warriors in particular have a vehicular fetish.
  • Time Abyss - Many of the Chaos Space Marines encountered today were present at the Siege of the Emperor's Palace ten thousand years ago.
  • Tin Tyrant - It is hard to find a Chaos Lord who does not fit this trope, considering that Chaos Space Marines eventually grow fused into their armor, and that armor twists and grows more wicked as they rise in esteem of the Ruinous Powers. The ones with particularly long and "blessed" careers fit right up there.
  • The Unfettered - For all their superhuman power, Space Marines live in strict self-denial. When one goes renegade and gives in to his selfish, baser urges, the results can be terrifying.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Poor Fulgrim.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy—Fulgrim, Primarch of the Emperor's Children, according to the lore.
  • Wicked Cultured—Pre-heresy, the Emperor's Children were taught that things like art, literature, poetry, and music represented the height of humanity's excellence, and to safeguard them was to safeguard what was best in humanity. Post-heresy, their ideas of what constitutes beauty, truth, and brilliance have become so warped that no one else would recognize what they appreciate as "culture".
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity - "Sanity is for the weak!"
  • You Have Failed Me... - An actual rule for Abaddon in Battlefleet Gothic. If a friendly ship fails a command test, his flagship will fire upon it.

See also Night Lords, Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, Black Legion

The Lost And The Damned

Fear not Chaos, for it is our salvation! Praise the sun that brings the dawn of our final doom, for is not destruction simply creation reversed in slow motion?

The Imperium... is not a happy place. It has been at war for the last ten thousand years, it has grown accustomed to think in apocalyptic terms: what is the value of life when faced with threat to their immortal souls? "We are at war for our very survival," goes another Imperial slogan, "No sacrifice is too great, no treachery too small." There are threats everywhere: cults fester in the hives, claiming dozens of planetary rulers in their membership, mutants and rogue psykers run for their lives from fanatical witchhunters, and humans in general hope for a better future.

As such, Chaos has no shortage of wretches for use as cannon fodder. The ranks of chaos are vast: traitor regiments of Imperial Guard, renegade Admirals of the the Imperial Navy, Jaded Nobility forming cults for thrills, abhuman and mutant underclasses living in the ghettos of Imperial cities, slave soldiers raised in hell worlds, hordes of reanimated zombies, fallen clerics of the Ecclesiarchy, entire Xeno races fallen to Chaos, vast mobs of peasants desperate for food, freedom fighters and revolutionaries who do not truly understand the price of their new, dark allies... they are all now the Lost and the Damned.

The Lost and the Damned is a curious army: despite being the most commonly encountered form of Chaos fought in the game's lore, players cannot actually field it in tournaments, nor do they have a fully-developed model range. It received an army list during the previous Eye of Terror campaign, but unfortunately this has not been updated for the most recent edition and it is classified as an unofficial army. The Lost and the Damned play similar to the Imperial Guard, and indeed feature traitorous guardsmen as troop choices, but lack the loyalists' volume of heavy weapons, armor, or even morale. To make up for this, mobs of low-cost mutants and other rabble can be used to soak up enemy fire or swamp troop formations, while other Chaos abominations can serve as assault troops. Overall, this makes them a gimped version of the Imperial Guard, but a characterful army nonetheless and a force of extreme (evil) underdogs.

Notable Lost and the Damned tropes include

  • Army of Thieves and Whores
  • Body Horror - Horrible mutants are a common sight in the Lost and the Damned.
  • Corrupt Church - One of their HQ choices is a heretic leader.
  • Cult - Many Lost and the Damned are essentially Chaos cultists. In truth, the entire army list is an expansion of the Cultist choice available to Chaos Space Marines.
  • Demoted to Extra - Lost and the Damned didn't get an army codex for Fifth edition - unless you buy the Imperial Armour books
  • Everything's Deader with Zombies - One of the troops choices is a 'plague zombie horde' fielded in units of up to 50 making it possible to field up to 300 in a normal army. Given the right support they prove suprisingly effective.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy - Something many of these people should have remembered.
  • Feel No Pain - Khorne's followers are too furious to notice, Nurgle's followers are too rotten and corrupt to notice, while Slaanesh's followers notice and enjoy it thoroughly.
  • Genre Blind - Considering the (well publicized) fact that Chaos uses human sacrifice for anything more complicated than boiling water, it's a wonder anybody is dumb enough to join them. Which in turn gives you some idea of just how awful life in the Imperium can get.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope - Many of the Lost and the Damned were not once evil and had no idea what they were getting into until it was far too late.
  • Large and In Charge - Another HQ leader choice is a Chaos Space Marine overseeing the rabble.
  • Mad Scientist - The members of the Dark Mechanicus. Free of all the restrictions of the Adeptus Mechanicus, they innovate much more than their loyalist counterparts. However some of those restrictions include "Do not put Daemons in your tech" and "Do not make evil killer robots".
  • Palette Swap - It is entirely possible (and often necessary in lieu of their own codex) to field a Lost and the Damned army of traitor guardsmen, using Imperial Guard rules, units, and equipment, different only in their allegiance to the Ruinous Powers. This is pretty reasonable in the setting, and offers a player some interesting options for converting and painting "profane" versions of normal Imperial Guard.
  • Zombie Apocalypse - Nurglite Plague Zombies are a troops choice.
  1. ↑ Okay, we're not really required to remind you. We just enjoy spreading the horror
  2. ↑ (with the exception of Raptors)
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