Birthing a New Chaos God (It's a Boy!)

[Anderlith]

In a Dark Heresy 2nd Ed game I plan on the party to eventually kill the Emperor of Mankind. They will think that by doing so it'll free him to cleanse the Warp & to free him from his tortured existence letting him reincarnate.

Instead they will destroy the Astronomicon, rupture the Emperor's Webway, open up a Warp rift engulfing Holy Terra, & birth the new, Chaos God of Despair, Tyrant of Suffering & Grief.

My questions are about how he should look & how to back up his existence with proper lore. & I really need a name.

What should I make sure to include lorewise? How are the other gods likely to react? Etc.

Physically I picture a humanoid form with a featherlike cape of human souls trailing behind him into infinity, blackened skin & gold sigils scarred into him, a twisted iron crown, & with a demonic arm where Horus ripped his old one off.

[Storm_Of_Snow]

Might be worth looking up information on the Starchild - that's what the Emperor is allegedly going to turn into when he finally falls off the Golden Throne.

As for actually doing it, given they'd have to carve their way through the Adeptus Custodes to get to the throne room, and to even get to them (and the Inner Palace), they'd have to get through the outer palace defences and troops (which could also include Imperial Fists, Adepta Sororitas, at least part of a Titan Legion and any assassins assigned to the High Lord of the Officio Assassinorum), I'd say the odds are somewhat against them - on a scale of it's more likely the moon will spontaneously turn into vanilla-flavoured custard than they'll be able to do it.

The only people that I can think of who've had an audience with the Emperor are Inquisitor Jaq Draco and his team (and that's really, really old fluff) and the six Brides of the Emperor during the Age of Apostasy.

[Anderlith]

I'm making it so that no one ever enters his Throne room for the most part. Most security will be out side of it. They travel through the old webways chasing bad guys coming out inside the throne room itself, bypassing most security. By the time they actually enter the throne room any security actually inside the throne room has been eliminated by the bad guys & the rest will be locked outside of it.

They will square off against the bad guys, then kill the Emperor

[Anonymouswizard]

the moon will spontaneously turn into vanilla-flavoured custard than they'll be able to do it.

Label this consequence number 8 of birthing a new Chaos God.

To be serious, and pull useful fluff from fantasy, do you mean 'big daemon' or 'ruinous power'? Because there daemons, stronger than a daemon prince but weeker than Slaanesh or Nurgle, capable of acting like gods to smaller groups (or even very large ones [the Horned Rat]).

The circumstances will likely lead to a slow birth. Some planets receive news of their god's death and become confused, as this is before the event. Then the Emperor is killed, and the astranomicom burns out. Slowly more planets learn of the Emperor's death and descend into grief. The news of Holy Terra being lost causes the grief to boil over into trillions in despair, possibly years later, and the Chaos God is born.

But rumours circulate of a man, as strong as ten Space Marines, and with the psychic power to stop an Emperor Titan in it's tracks, appearing on worlds in peril, saving them, telling them to beware of Chaos, but to believe in the strength of humanity and the Imperium that will be reborn.

This could be the Emperor reborn, the Emperor as a Chaos God of Devotion or the like, a Daemon pretending to be the Emperor, or the crazy last hope of a dying species.

[The Glyphstone]

As far as the other gods, he's going to get sumo-tackled by Nurgle right off the bat, because his portfolio is directly impugning on Papa Nurgle's own domain of despair. They're a small portion, admittedly, but no Chaos God is going to just let a chunk of its essence go without a fight.

Tzeentch might oppose him, because the emotions of despair and grief are detrimental to Tzeetch's portfolio of Hope and the dashing thereof. On the other hand, he might support the newbie instead because it'd cheese off Nurgle, and it'd also be to Tzeentch's benefit to have two enemies squabbling over territory and dividing their strength.

Khorne is like Honey Badger. He don't give a ****. If people lash out in their grief, turn to violence to mitigate their own despair, blood will flow.

Slaanesh is hard to predict. Grief can be a catalyst for great excess, as the sufferer seeks something to drown out their own pain. Or it can be a catalyst for depressive inactivity and bland boredom. The Prince of Excess will probably sit this one out, much like Khorne.


If you're interested in suggestions:

Have the death of the Emperor birth not one Warp Power, but two. The Dark Emperor, a tyrant of oppression, stasis, and grief, reflecting the brutality and harsh authoritarian nature of the Imperium as it actually is. And the Bright Emperor, a benevolent figure of faith, fortitude, and stoicism, reflecting the popular image amongst the Imperium's citizens and how they believe him to be. Dark Emperor is far stronger to start, but as he comes under immediate attack by Nurgle in the Warp, his attention is diverted. Bright Emperor is vastly weaker than its twin, but could grow in time to defeat the Dark Emperor and become the protector-god of humanity....if he has champions to act as his agents in the physical realm, and spread his new cult and faith. This way, the Acolytes have a slim chance to undo the apocalypse they have inadvertently ushered in.

[Anderlith]

The Tyrant is not the Emperor. The Emperor's soul will actually be sucked into an elven soulstone, to later be a macguffin to save everything. Basically he'll be placed into a wraithbone body forged/stolen by the Adeptus Mechanicus, fulfilling the Omnisiah prophecy. This figure will then be an immortal champion of humanity. As well as his psychic presence helping those throughout the galaxy. Some other stuff will be happening as well. I'm trying to work Ynead into it as well.


I didn't know Papa Nurgle was the Chaos God of despair/grief/sorrow. I thought his portfolio was more decay/entropy. I can understand the overlap though. Nurgle could definitely feel threatened.

[Anonymouswizard]

The Tyrant is not the Emperor. The Emperor's soul will actually be sucked into an elven soulstone, to later be a macguffin to save everything. Basically he'll be placed into a wraithbone body forged/stolen by the Adeptus Mechanicus, fulfilling the Omnisiah prophecy. This figure will then be an immortal champion of humanity. As well as his psychic presence helping those throughout the galaxy. Some other stuff will be happening as well. I'm trying to work Ynead into it as well.

Interesting. Just remember that the Emperor was not nice. He'll be looking more to unite and save humanity than for any individual person to survive.


I didn't know Papa Nurgle was the Chaos God of despair/grief/sorrow. I thought his portfolio was more decay/entropy. I can understand the overlap though. Nurgle could definitely feel threatened.

Papa Nurgle is the god of love/acceptance/despair/disease/decay. He's probably the second most powerful due to having a large portfolio. The Chaos Gods, at least originally, were more complicated than 'rage/decay/pleasure/planning'. Nurgle is the god of love, Tzeench is the god of hope, Khorne is the god of honour, and Slaanesh is something (was Malal ever part of 40k? He's the Chaos God of Atheism, who gets power from people not believing in him). Nurgle's aspect as the god of disease comes from loving everyone, I mean, there's so many more of those microbes that he loves than of those humans that he loves. I can't remember if/how long Despair has been part of Nurgle's domain, but it's at least close enough that he'd risk losing power.

[The Glyphstone]

Slaanesh's "positive' aspect was Love. Nurgle's positive aspect was Life - he loves all living things and wants them to thrive, including the microscopic forms that outnumber all the rest. Malal was the god of Anarchy and Terror, not 'atheism'; he was the embodiment of the self-destructive and self-defeating nature of Chaos. He was known as Malice in the 40k setting, but otherwise identical.

As far as Nurgle being a god of despair, it's mostly a side-effect of his primary portfolio of death and entropy. Consider how someone would react to a terrible tragedy, like having a Space Marine drop pod accidentally crush their house and kill their entire family.

If they are filled with fury and hate, and hunger for violent revenge in their heart, they've angled towards Khorne.
If they throw themselves into drink or drugs or sex in search of something that'll drown out the pain, Slaanesh is empowered.
If they can't accept the new reality, and go looking for something - anything - that'll let them change what happened, Tzeentch grows stronger.
But if they're simply stricken with a feeling of hopelessness, of futility, of realizing just how meaningless everything they are and cared for truly is in the universe and how pointless it is to do anything other than accept the inevitable, Nurgle smiles. Much as Tzeentch is the god of abused hope, Nurgle feeds on the opposite, hopelessness.

[Storm_Of_Snow]

I'm making it so that no one ever enters his Throne room for the most part. Most security will be out side of it. They travel through the old webways chasing bad guys coming out inside the throne room itself, bypassing most security. By the time they actually enter the throne room any security actually inside the throne room has been eliminated by the bad guys & the rest will be locked outside of it.

They will square off against the bad guys, then kill the Emperor
They're playing in the webway (personally, I hate the plot line that the Golden Throne is an Imperial webway gate), and the Harlequins aren't getting involved? Especially given what's going to happen.


Label this consequence number 8 of birthing a new Chaos God.

Number 9, number 8 is a spontaneous rain of white chocolate mice. :smallbiggrin:


Slaanesh's "positive' aspect was Love...

If they throw themselves into drink or drugs or sex in search of something that'll drown out the pain, Slaanesh is empowered.

As Lucius proves, Slaanesh is excess and the pleasure gained from it, not just sex, drugs and rock and roll.

[Anonymouswizard]

Number 9, number 8 is a spontaneous rain of white chocolate mice. :smallbiggrin:

No, you're getting them confused and labeling them in the order they happen. An easy mistake to make, it only works that way for Law Gods.

[Anderlith]

The Eldar will be involved. Malal will turn out to be the Eldar Trickster god, Harlequin, he took the form of Malal & half turned to Chaos to avoid destruction. As Malal he works against the other Chaos gods.

[Eisenheim]

Soo, what are the players doing? as far as you've described, it seems like they get to accidentally flip a switch so that a giant plot they can't control starts running. Are they onboard with this kind of game OOC?

[The Glyphstone]

As Lucius proves, Slaanesh is excess and the pleasure gained from it, not just sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Well yeah - technically an obsessive artist or greedy miser or compulsive masochist are also expressions of Slaanesh. The problem is that the nature of the Dark Prince means that nothing is ever good enough, no follower is ever satisfied with the peak they have found, so they'll always find some way to make it even more extreme, so sex/drugs/rock-and-roll get involved eventually.

But you're actually right, reminding me of Lucius; Slaanesh is/was also the god of Love, but his Positive mirror-aspect was Pride, the well-deserved pride in a job well done or a creation worth admiring.

[neonchameleon]

Psst! The Emperor is already dead and the whole thing is a sham! But if the Dead Man were to become a Chaos God, he'd become the Chaos God of Order - as the original plan, I believe, was to make the secret told to Horus.

[Anderlith]

The players start off normal enough, killing heretics & praising the Emperor, then stuff happens & they get involved with murdering him. Then they are responsible for trying to clean up their mess. Hopefully fixing everything they caused when they killed the Emperor.

[Donnadogsoth]

In a Dark Heresy 2nd Ed game I plan on the party to eventually kill the Emperor of Mankind. They will think that by doing so it'll free him to cleanse the Warp & to free him from his tortured existence letting him reincarnate.

Instead they will destroy the Astronomicon, rupture the Emperor's Webway, open up a Warp rift engulfing Holy Terra, & birth the new, Chaos God of Despair, Tyrant of Suffering & Grief.

My questions are about how he should look & how to back up his existence with proper lore. & I really need a name.

What should I make sure to include lorewise? How are the other gods likely to react? Etc.

Physically I picture a humanoid form with a featherlike cape of human souls trailing behind him into infinity, blackened skin & gold sigils scarred into him, a twisted iron crown, & with a demonic arm where Horus ripped his old one off.

I suggest Rethgual. Being the God of Despair, he should be the most light-hearted of all the Chaos Gods, as the pinnacle of despair provokes not tears, but insane laughter from its victims.

[Ashtagon]

A long time ago, back when the WH universe included the concept of gods of Law, I came up with the idea that the chaos gods were originally formed from "wants" (honour, love, life, and hope), while the law gods were originally formed of fears (fear of pain, fear of dark, and fear of change). Just as the decent-sounding "wants" got corrupted into murder, pride/lust, disease/despair, and change/mutation, the "fears" got twisted into revenge/stoicism, blinding light, and crystal stasis.

The WH40K Emperor of Man always struck me as being more formed from a fear than a want. Perhaps in this paradigm, he'd work better as a god of law?

The Emperor of Mankind, as the "law" embodiment of a fear of species destruction, might acquire genocide of non-humans as his portfolio. Which is especially ironic considering the existence of the imperial inquisition.