TinyLegions wrote:
IMHO the bigger problem is with
GW being so enamored with the concepts of chaos,(I think that they get it from Michael Moorcock) that they are the overpowering boogeyman in both
40K and WFB/
AOS. They are so powerful that they can corrupt and augment Space Marines, AND allow for their own daemon hordes to appear in the plane of existence with everyone else. Take that in contrast to the Eldar(and for that matter old High Elf) Gods where outside of an avatar of the Gods of Eldar, they do absolutely nothing for them and even can't save them in the afterlife from Slaanesh. Doing what they do to the fluff really pigeon holes people assuming that they want to run a faction like they read it in the fluff.
Ahhh... now Moorcock references I know more about (I suspect I may be a bit of an older gamer nerd type). I agree that he was obsessed with Law and Chaos but he didn't come down on the side of one being better or worse than the other. He went out of his way to ensure that we understood that both were necessary. The entire idea of the "Eternal Champion" was sort of a referee to ensure the balance.
In advance, I should say, I agree with most of what's been said here today about the whole "shades of grey" thing and that we can play these games however we choose. But, unlike Moorcock,
GW seems to lean toward the side of the Imperium as "the good guys". Or, at least, "the necessary guys". Chaos, in my limited readings at least, is rarely depicted as anything but something to be wiped out. I guess I can respect the idea that law and chaos are both opposing but necessary sides to the natural order a lot more than I can that Chaos (in
40k) are just demonic (or daemonic) forces.
Oddly enough, Mortarion gave a speech to Guilliman once that was the most compelling argument I've heard in a
GW book that Chaos wasn't "evil" per se. The ghist of it was that Nurgle offered new life and rebirth etc. It wasn't enough to change my mind but it did make me think about the natural order of things.
I guess that's what it comes down to for me. The emperor and his astartes are fighting for something that, to me, is their idea of good but so unnaturally so. Chaos, while corrupting and vile eventually, at least on the surface seems like a more natural order (before they get all murderous and rapey, anyway).
Anyway, as suggested, these are my toy soldiers and I'll play them how I like ... essentially.
thanks for the awesome responses. This went waaayy deeper than I thought it would but, honestly, it made me think more about the world of
40K and even a bit about our own.
Much appreciated.
Automatically Appended Next Post: If the Legion of the Damned and the Sanguinor are considered daemonic because they're comprised of warp stuff, does that make the Emperor himself a daemon of sorts? He was made by psykers, no?
Maybe and oversimplication... what do I know of psykers and the warp...