Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

What are all the gods of 40k and are they really gods or just higher life forms. I know that the eldar had/have gods and based on the lore one is in Nurgle's garden but what's real and what is myth? Slanesh is real and same with the other chaos deities but what about Malice? Heck, what about the emperor is he a god building back the warp from Terra?

The God-Emperor of Mankind
Omnissiah (Machine God)
Gork and Mork
Major Chaos gods: Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch, Slaanesh.
Minor Chaos gods: Malice, Ans'l, Mo'rcck, Phraz-Etar and many many more nameless ones.
The C'tan: Aza'gorod (the Nightbringer), Iash'uddra (the Endless Swarm), Llandu'gor (the Flayer), Mephet'ran (the Deceiver), Nyadra'zatha (the Burning One), Tsara'noga (the Outsider), Mag'ladroth (the Void Dragon), Kalugura, Og'driada (the Arisen), Yggra'nya (the Moulder of Worlds).
Eldar Gods: Asuryan, Gea, Hoec, Cegorach, Isha, Kaela Mensha Khaine, Kurnous, Lileath, Morai-Heg, Vaul, Ynnead.

That is all the gods I know about. There probably are many more we never hear about, as every alien race has probaly its own gods.
Whether they are truly gods or just extremely powerful life forms and whether there is a difference between that is up for debate. It depends mainly on how you define the word 'god'.

Wow thanks. I guess my confusion stems from the lack of information regarding the devine 40k beings. Did the emperor ascend to godhood? What happened to the Eldar gods? Do certain gods have more power than other gods? So much information is vague at best and contradicting at worst.

What is or is not a "god" is not defined in the setting, so there's no correct answer as to what is or isn't a god.

I'd qualify the GEOM as a god, simply by how many minor daemons of chaos such as Malice also quality as deities, despite being underpowered compared to the Emperor.

 Wyzilla wrote:
I'd qualify the GEOM as a god, simply by how many minor daemons of chaos such as Malice also quality as deities, despite being underpowered compared to the Emperor.

Malice is not merely a powerful Daemon of Chaos, he is considered a Chaos god for the reason that Daemons are just broken-off pieces of the Gods. By this line of reasoning, you could consider the Big Four incredibly powerful amalgamations of their respective Daemons.
I personally would argue that Stromfels probably exists in 40k, since he is a power in WHFB.

 YFNPsycho wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
I'd qualify the GEOM as a god, simply by how many minor daemons of chaos such as Malice also quality as deities, despite being underpowered compared to the Emperor.

Malice is not merely a powerful Daemon of Chaos, he is considered a Chaos god for the reason that Daemons are just broken-off pieces of the Gods. By this line of reasoning, you could consider the Big Four incredibly powerful amalgamations of their respective Daemons.
I personally would argue that Stromfels probably exists in 40k, since he is a power in WHFB.

To my knowledge, Malice lacks any feats to actually put him at any powerful edge remotely close to the Chaos Gods. He's simply one of the infinite entities in the immaterium below the Chaos Gods in power. IIRC, didn't he only eve show up in one short story and no-where else?

 Wyzilla wrote:
To my knowledge, Malice lacks any feats to actually put him at any powerful edge remotely close to the Chaos Gods. He's simply one of the infinite entities in the immaterium below the Chaos Gods in power. IIRC, didn't he only eve show up in one short story and no-where else?

Yes, in Labyrinth where he was actually summoned into the physical universe, which is something then Chaos Gods proper cannot do.

Animus wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
To my knowledge, Malice lacks any feats to actually put him at any powerful edge remotely close to the Chaos Gods. He's simply one of the infinite entities in the immaterium below the Chaos Gods in power. IIRC, didn't he only eve show up in one short story and no-where else?

Yes, in Labyrinth where he was actually summoned into the physical universe, which is something then Chaos Gods proper cannot do.

It doesn't matter if you're summoned to the Physical Universe, as long as you're not part of the Big Four, i.e., a Daemon of a specific Chaos God, you're considered a God of the Warp. Seriously, look it up on Lexicanum.

 YFNPsycho wrote:

Animus wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
To my knowledge, Malice lacks any feats to actually put him at any powerful edge remotely close to the Chaos Gods. He's simply one of the infinite entities in the immaterium below the Chaos Gods in power. IIRC, didn't he only eve show up in one short story and no-where else?

Yes, in Labyrinth where he was actually summoned into the physical universe, which is something then Chaos Gods proper cannot do.

It doesn't matter if you're summoned to the Physical Universe, as long as you're not part of the Big Four, i.e., a Daemon of a specific Chaos God, you're considered a God of the Warp. Seriously, look it up on Lexicanum.

Such godlike power.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
The God-Emperor of Mankind
Omnissiah (Machine God)
Gork and Mork
Major Chaos gods: Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch, Slaanesh.
Minor Chaos gods: Malice, Ans'l, Mo'rcck, Phraz-Etar and many many more nameless ones.
The C'tan: Aza'gorod (the Nightbringer), Iash'uddra (the Endless Swarm), Llandu'gor (the Flayer), Mephet'ran (the Deceiver), Nyadra'zatha (the Burning One), Tsara'noga (the Outsider), Mag'ladroth (the Void Dragon), Kalugura, Og'driada (the Arisen), Yggra'nya (the Moulder of Worlds).
Eldar Gods: Asuryan, Gea, Hoec, Cegorach, Isha, Kaela Mensha Khaine, Kurnous, Lileath, Morai-Heg, Vaul, Ynnead.

That is all the gods I know about. There probably are many more we never hear about, as every alien race has probaly its own gods.
Whether they are truly gods or just extremely powerful life forms and whether there is a difference between that is up for debate. It depends mainly on how you define the word 'god'.

Of the Eldar Gods IIRC, the only ones still around are Isha (chilling with Papa Nurgle), Khaine (shattered into millions of pieces), and Cegorach who is still picking on the Chaos Gods.

There's also the fact that The God-Emperor and the Omnissiah May or may not be the same thing, depending on who you ask.

 Lord-Captain Cepinari wrote:
There's also the fact that The God-Emperor and the Omnissiah May or may not be the same thing, depending on who you ask.

It's a lot more likely that the Omnissiah is actually a Shard of the Void Dragon, if the book Mechanicum is anything to go by.

Though... the Emperor put that dragon under that rock. So the Emperor, in a sense, might be the Omnissiah, being himself a scientist and technologian, having seeded Mars with an intellect capable of forwarding the development of human technology by leaps and bounds.

This may be a very strange case of Man creating God in his own image.

The "official" stance is that The Emperor is the physical manifestation of the Machine God. This is due to the conflict between the Machine Cult worshiping Machine God and the Imperium's stance that the Emperor is the only God. However, they make this small compromise (which satisfies neither party) in order to function.

Yes, indeed. But we're also now forced to sort of patch together 25 years of fluff and contradicting stories (since the Void-Dragon-lives-on-Mars is of far more recent invention than the Emperor-as-Omnissiah) in order to come to some sort of logical continuance.

A fool's errand, to be sure, but it doesn't stop us from trying.

Better than any Greek story about gods that's for sure

 Inkubas wrote:
Better than any Greek story about gods that's for sure

Any Greek story about gods invariably ends with steaming hot man love, weird fetish sex, eating kids or unspeakable suffering and torture. The ancient Greeks must have been a funny bunch of people.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 Inkubas wrote:
Better than any Greek story about gods that's for sure

Any Greek story about gods invariably ends with steaming hot man love, weird fetish sex, eating kids or unspeakable suffering and torture. The ancient Greeks must have been an incredibly awesome bunch of people.

Fixed that for you.

 Kain wrote:

 YFNPsycho wrote:

Animus wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
To my knowledge, Malice lacks any feats to actually put him at any powerful edge remotely close to the Chaos Gods. He's simply one of the infinite entities in the immaterium below the Chaos Gods in power. IIRC, didn't he only eve show up in one short story and no-where else?

Yes, in Labyrinth where he was actually summoned into the physical universe, which is something then Chaos Gods proper cannot do.

u
It doesn't matter if you're summoned to the Physical Universe, as long as you're not part of the Big Four, i.e., a Daemon of a specific Chaos God, you're considered a God of the Warp. Seriously, look it up on Lexicanum.

Such godlike power.

Here, this is directly from the Lexicanum.

Lexicanum wrote: Malice represents the Warp's Chaotic tendencies, and is notable for his hatred of the major Gods of Chaos: Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle, and Slaanesh. Followers of Malice are prone to acts of anarchy, waging war upon not only the servants of the Imperium but also those of the other Gods of Chaos.

Unlike the primary Chaos Gods, Malice can be summoned directly to the Materium provided enough mortal sacrifices are given and he is given a body to Daemonically possess.

And the furies really are not a good example. They are daemons of whatever god is currently in ascendancy. So, say, during the Time of Changes, in WHFB, they would be Daemons of Tzeentch. Why do you think GW forces you to upgrade Daemon Princes to specific Gods?

I wonder if there is anyway to defeat the gods of chaos. In the books, they keep mentioning that the Emperor is anti chaos.

 YFNPsycho wrote:

 Kain wrote:

 YFNPsycho wrote:

Animus wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
To my knowledge, Malice lacks any feats to actually put him at any powerful edge remotely close to the Chaos Gods. He's simply one of the infinite entities in the immaterium below the Chaos Gods in power. IIRC, didn't he only eve show up in one short story and no-where else?

Yes, in Labyrinth where he was actually summoned into the physical universe, which is something then Chaos Gods proper cannot do.

u
It doesn't matter if you're summoned to the Physical Universe, as long as you're not part of the Big Four, i.e., a Daemon of a specific Chaos God, you're considered a God of the Warp. Seriously, look it up on Lexicanum.

Such godlike power.

Here, this is directly from the Lexicanum.

Lexicanum wrote: Malice represents the Warp's Chaotic tendencies, and is notable for his hatred of the major Gods of Chaos: Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle, and Slaanesh. Followers of Malice are prone to acts of anarchy, waging war upon not only the servants of the Imperium but also those of the other Gods of Chaos.



Unlike the primary Chaos Gods, Malice can be summoned directly to the Materium provided enough mortal sacrifices are given and he is given a body to Daemonically possess.

And the furies really are not a good example. They are daemons of whatever god is currently in ascendancy. So, say, during the Time of Changes, in WHFB, they would be Daemons of Tzeentch. Why do you think GW forces you to upgrade Daemon Princes to specific Gods?

I own the short story. The Lexicanum is likely quoting hyperbole, as there is actually nothing indicating Malice is a god at all, just one of the numerous minor entities within the warp. There's nothing else on Malice, and characteristics of the retconned Malal should not be applied to Malice.

And while a good wiki, the Lexicanum is still a wiki, and not a source.

 Inkubas wrote:
I wonder if there is anyway to defeat the gods of chaos. In the books, they keep mentioning that the Emperor is anti chaos.

He's not exactly "anti-Chaos". The Chaos Gods refer to him as "the Anathema" because he stands as a beacon of order and unity for humanity and is therefore their antithesis on an ideological level. The status of divinity in the Warhammer 40k universe is really up to how you define the requirements something need to be divine. The Chaos Gods and the Emperor have performed some feats that are pretty wholly beyond the scope of mortality (creating life, immeasurable expressions of power, seemingly impossible levels of knowledge). If that's enough to call them gods, then they are definitely gods. On the other hands, such things as the Emperor's "miracles" or "saints" can be chalked up to expressions of his incredible psychic power and therefore not really miracles at all. Unless of, of course, psychic power is considered to be a divine power.

It's really up to the reader's interpretation. Just don't let the Inquisition hear you questioning the Emperor's divinity.

He is anti-Chaos in the way that the Eternal Champion of the Michael Moorcock series is anti-Chaos (which the Emperor is a pastiche of).

 Wyzilla wrote:
I own the short story. The Lexicanum is likely quoting hyperbole, as there is actually nothing indicating Malice is a god at all, just one of the numerous minor entities within the warp. There's nothing else on Malice, and characteristics of the retconned Malal should not be applied to Malice.

And while a good wiki, the Lexicanum is still a wiki, and not a source.

Malice is not an entity of any Chaos god, and therefore can not be a deamon. Chaos gods are beings born in the Warp by the emotions and believes of mortals. The more powerful the emotion, the more powerful the god. Malice is a god of chaos, one of the myriad chaos gods in existence. But none of these minor gods are anywhere near the level of power of the major gods. Furies are a bad comparison, since they are a different thing altogether. Gork and Mork are also Chaos gods btw.
A god does not have to be a being of immense power, a god can be a lot of things depending on how you define the word 'god'.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Gork and Mork are also Chaos gods btw.

.... GORK AND MORK ISNT SPIKEY BOYZ BOSSES!YOU IZ A STOOPID HUMIE WHO 'FINKS DEAD BOYZ ARE BOSSEZ!

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
I own the short story. The Lexicanum is likely quoting hyperbole, as there is actually nothing indicating Malice is a god at all, just one of the numerous minor entities within the warp. There's nothing else on Malice, and characteristics of the retconned Malal should not be applied to Malice.

And while a good wiki, the Lexicanum is still a wiki, and not a source.

Malice is not an entity of any Chaos god, and therefore can not be a deamon. Chaos gods are beings born in the Warp by the emotions and believes of mortals. The more powerful the emotion, the more powerful the god. Malice is a god of chaos, one of the myriad chaos gods in existence. But none of these minor gods are anywhere near the level of power of the major gods. Furies are a bad comparison, since they are a different thing altogether. Gork and Mork are also Chaos gods btw.
A god does not have to be a being of immense power, a god can be a lot of things depending on how you define the word 'god'.

So powerful.

No, there are numerous unaligned entities within the warp, infinite actually, all chaotic in origin that are spawned by the Immaterium. Malice is one of these, nothing actually points to him being a Chaos God, merely one of the innumerable minor entities within the Immaterium, which are not gods.

 Inkubas wrote:
What are all the gods of 40k and are they really gods or just higher life forms.

If a caveman flipped a light switch and lights turned on, he would call it magic.

The Emperor himself strived for scientific understanding, but everybody else had other ideas.

Here's where it gets interesting.

Theory 1.

The Emperor made a deal with chaos to produce the 20 Primarchs. He then proceeded to create a secular unified empire because religion divided the species. He appears to believe that the chaos gods are 'higher beings' that cannot be defeated or conquered through conventional manners.

Theory 2.

The Emperor knows that 'gods' exist and makes a deal to create his 'sons'. He backs out of the deal and attempts to starve Chaos by limiting worship and when that backfires he transcends to stave of chaos from winning and becomes a divine being as well through the worship of trillions.

Thoughts?

 Da krimson barun wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Gork and Mork are also Chaos gods btw.

.... GORK AND MORK ISNT SPIKEY BOYZ BOSSES!YOU IZ A STOOPID HUMIE WHO 'FINKS DEAD BOYZ ARE BOSSEZ!

Like all gods, Gork and Mork live in the Warp. The Warp is a dimension of energy known as Chaos. So even though 'Chaos' in common parlance refers to the followers of the four Dark Gods, all gods, even the Emperor Himself, are technically Chaos gods. Or are you implying Gork and Mork aren't gods? I don't think your fellow Orks would like that...