Warhammer 40,000/Characters/Forces of Chaos: Difference between revisions

In ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'', 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 [[Negative Space Wedgie|spills forth]] into the Materium, leaving behind madness and desolation.

* [[Warrior Heaven]] - The Warp... okay, so a Warrior Hell.

** Heaven for the [[Blood Knight|Orks]].

== '''Chaos Gods''' ==

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''.

[[File:Khorne_mark_6672.png|frame]]

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.

[[File:100px-Tzeentch_mark_9487.png|frame]]

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.

[[File:Nurgle_mark_3375.png|frame]]

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.

[[File:125px-Slaanesh_mark_3677.png|frame]]

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 [[Negative Space Wedgie|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.

[[File:Daemons_6843.png|frame]]

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.

[[File:ChaosMarine_1343.jpg|frame]]

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 [[Rule of Symbolism|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.

** [[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;

** [[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.

* [[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.

* [[Mad Scientist]] - [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Fabius_Bile 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 "[[Evilutionary Biologist|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, ''[[Genuine Human Hide|his lab coat is made of human skin]]''.

* [[The Magnificent]] - Abaddon the Despoiler, Kharn the Betrayer.

[[File:Traitor_Guardsmen_1116.jpg|frame]]

The Imperium... [[World Half Empty|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.