Chaos

Since the beginning of the universe, the physical plane of existence has coexisted with another realm, a realm of constantly shifting energy and potentialities. All intelligent races (with a few important exceptions) are psychically linked to a greater or lesser degree with this realm, and can alter it in ways impossible to predict. Mankind has given this realm many names - Warpspace, the Immaterium - but the thing most intrinsically linked to this realm is mankind’s greatest threat and the twisted mirror of the Imperium, showing what it came all to close to becoming. These are the forces of Chaos.

As sentients started evolving in the galaxy, the geometric increase in psychic emotional bleed-over into the warp began shaping it into patterns never before seen. Powerful emotions began coalescing, emotions like rage and hate, fear and loathing, and, ever so slowly, these coalescences began to reach sentience. At the beginning of the 41st millennium there are four major Chaos powers in the warp, each personifying a different aspect of chaos.

Khorne, The Blood God, the angry and murderous god of Chaos, is a god of direct action and simple solutions to any problem. Khorne respects strength and bravery above all else and is also the aspect of mindless and absolute violence, destroying everything and everyone within its reach, slaying both friend and foe alike. The symbols of Khorne include a skull, the symbol of death, and the throne of skulls, a throne upon which Khorne sits and is made of the skulls of Khorne's champions who have fallen in combat.

Tzeentch, Changer of the Ways, is the god of fortune and chance and the cosmic architect of fate and destiny. Tzeentch is the ultimate Machiavellian manipulator and is willing to wait millennia for his plans to come to fruition. Tzeentch embodies the aspect of constant change and, as such, is the greatest magician of the great Chaos powers (since Warp-magic is one of the most potent agents for change.) In many ways, Tzeentch is the antithesis of Khorne, subtle where the blood god is direct, patient where Khorne constantly lusts for action and steeped in magic where Khorne shuns its use.

Nurgle, Lord of Decay, Master of the Plague and Pestilence and the harbinger of death. Nurgle personifies the inevitability of death and the fear that accompanies such knowledge. Nurgle embodies the aspect of physical corruption and mutability as well as the fear of such events. However, he also represents the will to live and the joy which beings use to try to fend off their fear.

Slaanesh, Lord of Pleasure, the god(ess) of hedonism taken to its ultimate extreme. No experience is too depraved, no situation is to enticing for Slaanesh and (s)he embodies the unrestricted lusts and desires inherent in all souls. Slaanesh is, for the most part, neutral to the other great powers, but many times clashes with Khorne. Where the blood god would destroy, Slannesh sees myriad new experiences possible and where he would kill, Slaanesh sees much more possibility for his/her hedonistic tendencies.

The followers of Chaos are just as chaotic as their masters, comprising Chaos cults in open rebellion, corrupted Imperial Guard or planetary defense forces, and beastmen and other mutants. The most powerful of Chaos's mortal followers are the Traitor Space Marine Legions - those legions who declared their allegiance to Chaos during the Horus Heresy, ten millennia ago. Although they were eventually defeated, they retreated to the Eye of Terror where time is malleable and have launched periodic attacks against the Imperium since.

It is to be noted that the Chaos gods and their minions are not the only inhabitants of the Immaterium. The Eldar, a once-mighty race, had a whole pantheon of Warp gods and there is certain evidence to suggest that the Eldar Farseers understood the nature of the Warp well enough to actively control the psychic creation of their Gods, for use as a kind of ultimate psychic weapon. As they fell into hedonism, however, their lust and depravity coalesced into the being known as Slaanesh. Slaanesh's emergence into full sentience was a massive event on both planes of existence and caused the largest-ever stable eruption of Warpspace into realspace. This happened at the heart of the Eldar empire, destroying the civilization in one cataclysmic blow and killing the vast majority of the Eldar. This event also caused massive warp storms that lasted millennia, effectively making interstellar travel impossible and isolating all the newly arisen worlds of man.

In her birthing convulsions, Slaanesh killed and devoured all but two of the Eldar Gods - the 'laughing god' who tricked his way into the webway and hid there, and Kaela Mensha Khaine, the 'Bloody-handed' God of war. Khaine, being as much a part of Khorne as of Slaanesh, caused a titanic conflict between the two Chaos Gods. In the confusion, Khaine split himself into a thousand shards and implanted these portions of his essence into surviving Eldar heros. These became Avatars of the Bloody-Handed God, equivalent to one of the Chaos God's greater Daemons, but residing always in the material realm.

The God-Emperor of mankind also seems now to mainly inhabit the Immaterium and many knowledgeable sources have noted that his presence bears many striking similarities to how the Chaos Gods must have looked just before they achieved sentience. Many in the upper levels of the Imperium predict that, once the Emperor frees himself completely from the material realm, he will become the true god of mankind, more powerful than all the Chaos Gods combined. The methods for achieving this and any other repercussions are hotly debated however and have caused many schisms and open rebellions - sometimes providing fuel for the taint of Chaos.

Record 197 - group - Last update 07 Nov 2007, 05:56:12

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