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Is everything from the warp evil from the perspective of the imperium? Could for instance the emperor send the souls of long dead heroes into real space?

The chaos gods as I understand them are created and fueled by the negative emotions of sentient beings. Hate, lust, despair etc. Is it not possible then that there are manifestations of hope, justice, courage, etc.?

Is this sort of thing covered by the fluff or am I just a heretic that needs burning?

Well good is a point of view. The Chaos gods and the Imperium are similar in almost every way, including their quest for greater power.

Budobudo wrote:The chaos gods as I understand them are created and fueled by the negative emotions of sentient beings. Hate, lust, despair etc. Is it not possible then that there are manifestations of hope, justice, courage, etc.?

Of course. Tzeentch is a manifestation of hope since inherent in change is the possibility for a better future. Khorne values courage. And justice depends on your perspective. Is it more just for the Imperium to dominate the galaxy rather than Chaos? I'm sure the answer would depend on whether you're a High Lord of Terra or a Chaos god.

@Abadabadoobaddon

Perfect answer....in fact, your answer is so good, you may just have given WH40K a meaning it was never intended to have

I've heard that there has been good that comes from the warp and that The Emperor of Mankind is one of the last sources of untainted warp in the universe (at least as far as we know it).

Tzeentch is hope devoid of all emotion that may impied the goal. I suppose in terms of perspective you can't say that they are pure evil but on http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/ there is a page where one theory is that the gods for the "good emotions" were simply swallowed up by the other chaos gods before they had a chance to develop.(Wish I could find it. Will edit if I do)

Plus Khorne was the first and he tried to slaughter the usurpers. I guess Nurgle gained strength from the black plague on Terra and the rest of the suffering and I imagine Tzeetch would have been pretty safe given that the universe is constantly changing.

Slaanesh was empowered by the decadence of the Eldar first then following her birth the souls of all the Eldar and their gods gave her the strength to see off the rest of em.

The question remains though, If something brought enough hope/joy into the universe would another god be born,like Slaanesh was. IE, Emperor reincarnates/returns and shows him self to every imperial citizen in the Imperium at once (Super Astropathy?) Would the hope of billions be enough to create one strong enough to survive?

Budobudo wrote:Is everything from the warp evil from the perspective of the imperium? Could for instance the emperor send the souls of long dead heroes into real space?

The chaos gods as I understand them are created and fueled by the negative emotions of sentient beings. Hate, lust, despair etc. Is it not possible then that there are manifestations of hope, justice, courage, etc.?

Is this sort of thing covered by the fluff or am I just a heretic that needs burning?

The warp itself is neither good nor evil from anyone's perspective The existence of warp entities is a direct result of sapient creatures who posess souls. Whether or not the warp existed but was empty or it simply did not exist is an interesting question. It has been said throughout that the ability to manipulate warpspace is the future of humanity, but it must be disciplined or warp entities will use psykers as conduits into realspace. Since said entities are manifestations of emotions, it is ultimately about gaining control over emotions and desires.

My interpretation is that even " good " emotions can be dangerous to a untrained psyker, or at least the Imperium would think so.

There is one faction of Inquisitors out there that believes in using the warp for the benefit of humanity. I cannot recall the name.

But their main philosophy is that if the Imperium wasn't so prejudiced against the Warp, it would be very easy to make some discoveries and learn how to use the warp safely. Chaos artifacts, warp energy, and all that jazz could be used safely and for the benefit of humanity. One just needs to walk into it with both eyes open. (or maybe they're wrong, and all are doomed to be corrupted by the warp)

Of course, these inquisitors find themselves at odds with more puritan factions of the inquisition all the time.

I never saw the warp as evil. I saw it as a place of birth for many different creatures. It was a tool of the Old Ones until their creation of Khaine, who defeated and was corrupted by the power of the Nightbringer and was the first Chaos God, and then the Necrons wiped out the Old Ones, but after they had created the Eldar. Now no one really controls the warp, it is simply there, spawning creatures such as the Warp Beasts of the DE. I think, perhaps later in time, the Old Ones may return an open the way into the Warp, releasing the power of it upon the galaxy, which will cause a series of events leading to the Imperium's decent into Anarchy... somehow. I also believe that this will cause the arrival of The Outsider, who will lead his army of Necrons into the complete destruction of the Eldar and Dark Eldar. The Old Ones will disappear once more, perhaps escaping the galaxy all together in the event that opened the Warp. The Orks will band together and smash Imperial world after Imperial world, but the Tyranids will infest the planets they leave destroyed, feeding on the death and chaos, slowly gaining speed on the Orks advance, before over taking them. The fanatics of the Inquisition will Exterminatus on each planet as it is over taken by Tyranids, until finally destroying Terra. Chaos will swallow itself whole, leaving only Nurgle drifting through space. He will break through to Earth, and thus the last of humanity shall rot and die. Nurgle shall eventually be consumed by the C'tan and the Necrons will free the Void Dragon from Mars, causing a war amongst the stars. Necrontyr versus Necrontyr. Eventually, The Outsider will cause the stars themselves to erupted, wiping out the Universe.

And that's my Appocalypse theory.

Cheery. I agree with the idea the warp is just there, getting on with stuff as always. besides, if a god of love and fluffy kittens was created in the warp (girl power!) would anyone collect it? Hmm, any takers? No? the nasty idea appeals more to guys and so is used in the fluff more. there could be other Gods though, at one point one called Malal existed, but GW then stopped mentioning it. So yes there could be good chaos things but will never be mentioned to avoid pink armies with hearts painted on them

I would definitely think that in the War Torn Far Future of the 41st Millennium the amount of positive emotions is much lower than the amount of negative emotions. Any daemon made from happiness or hope would probably be swallowed up immediately by all the lust, hate, wrath, ect daemons floating around. That, and if the daemon is made from a positive emmotion, it might not want to eat other daemons or the souls of sentient creatures. Without a steady diet of soul-stuff, the daemon would always be weak and couldn't fight off the "bad" daemons. Basically, if you want to make it in the warp, you have to be an a**hole, otherwise, some other a**hole will eat you.

Arguably their are lots of positive emotions out there, what with the 'Greater good' and all, its just having a 'nice' chaos god would somewhat lower the tone of 40k, we only need one happy go lucky army in the system (Tau/Orks arguably) not more!