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Who are the two most powerful characters from each race in the fluff?

Tyranids
Necrons
Daemons
Eldars
Humans
C'tans
Orks
Taus

Depends on how you define 'powerful'. Brute strength? Poitical clout/Influence ? Resources/backing ? Size of gun?

Agreed, it depends on how you view power. For example, Lord Solar Macharius was physically an ordinary human (at least, next to things like Marines, Ogryns and the like) but he's clearly one of the most powerful figures in the entire history of the Imperium.

There are a few obvious answers, though.

Tyranids - due to their evolutionary nature, there aren't really any "famous" figures in fluff - in fact, their most powerful creature is most likely to be the latest strain of high-level synapse creature from the biomass pool, since they continually improve.
Daemons - some of the older Chaos books, in particular the 2nd edition Codex, name the oldest and most powerful of the Greater Daemons, compared to whom even other Greater Daemons are inferior. I remember Skarbrand for Khorne and N'Kari for Slaanesh - I think M'Kachen was the Tzeentchian one, but Nurgle's I forget.
Humans - the Emperor. Enough said. :p
C'tan - there are only a handful of named C'tan anyway. So there really isn't enough fluff to go by here.

VampireDeLaVega wrote:Who are the two most powerful characters from each race in the fluff?
Tyranids
Necrons
Daemons
Eldars
Humans
C'tans
Orks
Taus

Are we going by combined races as a whole then?
Or individual armies?
And wouldn't Space Marines technically be seperate from humans?
As would Chaos?

For what you've put though, assuming combined overall:
Tyranids - The Hivemind / Hive Fleet(s)
Necrons - iunno.
Daemons - The 4 gods themselves? (Argue who's best, iunno which ) and/or the Greater Daemons of each? (Again, I don't know who...)
Eldars - Khaela Mensha Khaine, the shattered god of the Eldar and the Laughing God.
Humans - iunno, some sort of marine.. Draigo maybe? (just because of the unadulterated complete BS he contains)
C'tans - Void Dragon is the most powerful, probably followed by the Nightbringer.
Orks - no clue.
Taus - Farsight and Aun'va

But if you break it down a bit, for the DE it's probably Vect + Rakarth, CSM Abaddon + somebody, etc.

Tyranids - N/A
Necrons - No clue, not too up to date with their fluff
Daemons - Depends on which Chaos God is more powerful at any given time, An'ggrath, Fateweaver and those other two that I've forgotten are probably around equal
Eldar - Eldrad and Vect
Humans - The God-Emperor of Mankind and Horus, assuming Horus counts as human
C'tan - We don't know
Orks - That Warboss at Ullanor and what's-his-face from the fluff in the biggest Waagh! ever from the rulebook
Tau - Aun'va and Farsight

AlmightyWalrus wrote:Tyranids - N/A
Tau - Aun'va and Farsight

Shadowsun is pretty good now that she can have a 2+ coversave and 3 drones with up to a 2+coversave and move up to 18" a turn.

Strongest currently active/alive characters:

Chaos - Angron & Skarbrand
Tyranids - Swarmlord, none other
Necrons - Imotekh and Oberon
Daemons - Skraband and An'ggrath
Eldar - Maugan Ra and Asuremen
Dark Eldar - Vect and Lelith Hesperax
Humans - Draigo & Calgar (thanks Matt Ward...)
Orks - Ghazghkull and the Overfiend of Octarius
Tau - Farsight & Shadowsun

Harriticus wrote:Strongest currently active/alive characters:

Chaos - Angron & Skarbrand
Tyranids - Swarmlord, none other
Necrons - Imotekh and Oberon
Daemons - Skraband and An'ggrath
Eldar - Maugan Ra and Asuremen
Dark Eldar - Vect and Lelith Hesperax
Humans - Draigo & Calgar (thanks Matt Ward...)
Orks - Ghazghkull and the Overfiend of Octarius
Tau - Farsight & Shadowsun

Agreed, though I'm not very familiar with Oberon.

Tyranids - the one from the alien movie.
Necrons - umm the one from the word bearer's omnibus that cuts chaos termies in two with 1 swipe....
Daemons - khorne's greatest bloodthirster that actually put a dent in his armor...fateweaver?
Eldars - no clue...guess whoever makes their spandex.
Humans - A space marine lord I would assume...
C'tans - Iunno...
Orks - ghazzy all the way! Wazdakka...cause....he kills titans.
Tau - any and all of them that look like gundams =D

Tyranid - Swarmlord and Doom of Malantai... maybe.
Necron - The Silent King and whoever the hell controls the Celestial Orrey and maybe even Orikan the Diviner with the combination of his full might and his ability to go back in time to correct anything that can alter his predictions
Daemon - The individual "exalted" greater daemons of each of the Gods are probably roughly on par
Eldar - Vect and Eldrad (til he gets his soul nom'd)
Human - this one is tough, individually? Two of the Primarchs (or Big E and a Primarch). In influence? Lorgar (he was the one who started worshipping the Emperor and in due time the Imperium followed suit) and Macharius
C'tan - Void Dragon and Nightbringer
Orks - Ghazghkull and the Overfiend of Octarius
Tau - Aun'Va and Farsight

No love for guard? Lord Solar Macharius conquered more star systems than anyone else save the emperor himself.

That puts an awful lot of other characters to shame.

Ailaros wrote:No love for guard? Lord Solar Macharius conquered more star systems than anyone else save the emperor himself.

That puts an awful lot of other characters to shame.

You know, for someone who's only outdone by the Emperor and (Most) Primarchs, Macharius doesn't get a lot of loving. He should have more books, or at least get referenced more in the fluff.

Ailaros wrote:No love for guard? Lord Solar Macharius conquered more star systems than anyone else save the emperor himself.

That puts an awful lot of other characters to shame.

He did it in less time than the Emperor too, like 20 years or something. Longer than Alexander III I know.

Ailaros wrote:No love for guard? Lord Solar Macharius conquered more star systems than anyone else save the emperor himself.
That puts an awful lot of other characters to shame.

Funnily enough, when I thought of the multiple connotations of the word "power" he's the first one that springs to mind. It's why I mentioned him.

I would argue the two strongest tyranids from fluff would be the Swarmlord and Old One Eye.
Necrons I would go with Immotehk and the Silent King
Daemons: Fateweaver and Skarbrand?
Eldar: Khaine and Eldrad
Humans: Big E, and Draigo for regular humans, Macharius and Celestine
C'tan: The Nightbringer and the Deceiver
Orks: Ghazzy and Gorgutz...sorry..couldn't help myself there
Tau: Aun'va and Farsight for sure, maybe Shadowsun

For the humans the best chapter master is Mephiston hes like 1200 years old... Calgar bows to him..

Frecklesonfire wrote:For the humans the best chapter master is Mephiston hes like 1200 years old... Calgar bows to him..

I take it you mean Dante. "Best"? I'd wholeheartedly agree (in a completely unbiased way of course). He has much more battlefield experience and that's stated as being the reason for Calgar deferring to him.
However, in terms of power... the two don't really compare. Dante has a lot of respect, but so does Calgar. Resource-wise, Dante has a Chapter planet, one Space Marine Chapter and the support of around half a dozen other successor Chapters. Calgar has an entire system, along with all the Guard and PDF that that entails, plus his own Chapter and the backing of too many successor Chapters to count - certainly more than half a dozen.

So in terms of most powerful, Calgar easily has the upper hand of all Chapter Masters. As a Blood Angel - this irks me.

Maugan is stronger than Khaine for sure. While the latter get's choked by every marine and his mother Maugan goes around defeating tyranid fleets on his own, how many characters defeat ENTIRE hive fleets (or something like that).

Besides that, Khaine isn't of the Eldar race.

Fateweaver and Skarbrand? They're small time don't be silly.

The most powerful Daemon that's given rules is this fellow.