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The power of the Chaos gods is relative to the waxing and waning of their respective emotional palettes.

From The Lost and the Damned,
The living know that they will die, and many know they will live with disease or other torment, yet they drive this knowledge into a corner of their minds and keep it pinioned there with all manner of dreams and activity. Nurgle is the embodiment of that knowledge and of the unconscious response to it, of the hidden fear of disease and decay, and of the power of life which that fear generates.

Based on my understanding of 40k fluff, it's a pretty terrible place to live if you're not one of the incredibly minutely numbered elite. The most populous worlds are likely hive worlds and forge worlds (I could be wrong on the latter), where the average human lives exclusively to produce for the greater good of the Imperium, at the cost of their short meaningless lives.

It just strikes me that if the largest segment of the human population live out Sisyphean existences to fuel the Imperium at large, would not the god that feeds off of the emotional spectrum of despair not be the most dominant? I'm sure that within that existence they still feel anger, hope, desire, but ultimately, they're still going to die young from overwork and be forgotten.

Does the Imperium lace the water with anti-depressants and have hive-scale therapy sessions?

I wouldn't put it past the imperium to do that yeah.

But Nurgle is the oldest god, and in terms of influence, he probably -is- the most influential god. But he rarely does so by sending an actual army, he only send's army's when he need's to, such as to destroy a cure, or those who have greatly insulted him with their good health, unlike Khorne who send armies purely because they enjoy killing.

Khorne send's armies, Nurgle causes pandemic's, and khorne can't hope to match the countless trillions who die to disease, with the billions he slaughters.

When it comes to battles between the god's, the 4 god's themselves are immune to disease, and khorne is the better fighter, so in the warp, khorne is strongest for the moment. But Nurgle has character's whose fluff specifies they are trying to find a disease to infect the god's themselves. If he succeeds, he will become the most powerful entity in the known universe/warp.

... and if Tzeentch regains his staff, he will resume being the most powerful of the Great Four.

All of the Chaos Powers wax and wane in strength, as the tides of the Warp, and events in Realspace, dictate.

I'm not sure why deaths caused matter. Is it not pure emotion that matters most?

Furthermore, statements of the gods' prowess are only as good as the respective god's power at the time in question, as you both mentioned.

But again, going back to my original point about the state of the inhabitants of the Imperium, I still do not see how Nurgle would not be ascendant over Khorne. I understand that lots of wars are fought in 40k, however, that's still arguably a lesser experience for the average person by number. The average person in the Imperium lives a really bleak, pointless life. The emotions that existence feeds should be under the purview of Nurgle or, in some cases, Tzeentch.

In some respects, Khorne and Slaanesh should be weaker given the autocratic nature of the Imperium. Seeking pleasure is available to those with time and resources, neither of which you likely have if you're a sweatshop labourer. Similarly, the Imperium exercises an incredibly strong grip on personal freedom and, stemming from that, the entitlement to exercise violence. I don't disagree that hives riot, but they are then crushed.

All of this, however, is moot, if over the long term the Imperium is absolutely doomed to failure based on the scale of destruction wrought upon it. In that case, I suppose I could see how Khorne would be ascendant.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, I try to ignore some of the newer GW fluff, particularly regarding Chaos. Things like what I understand you to be referring to about a staff of Tzeentch, are comically one dimensional. They have a great setting, particularly in regards to Chaos and the gods, why throw all of that out the window with "evil mustache twirling-isms?"

It's just another reflection of the game being aimed at 12 year olds.

The "average" Imperial citizen on a forge/hive planet almost definitely has access to basic vices like alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine and gambling. And unless he is living in a slave society (which wouldn't be compatable with urbanised/industrial society) he'll have enough free time to socialise and enjoy life as best he can.

Just because a society doesn't live in an over-abundance of resources like our own, doesn't mean that life is pointless.

 jojo_monkey_boy wrote:
I'm not sure why deaths caused matter. Is it not pure emotion that matters most?

For each person that dies of disease, hunger, or whatever, it brings on despair, and sometimes defiance born from that despair. All feed Papa Nurgle.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Psienesis wrote:
... and if Tzeentch regains his staff, he will resume being the most powerful of the Great Four.

All of the Chaos Powers wax and wane in strength, as the tides of the Warp, and events in Realspace, dictate.

Tzeentch's Staff is a legend, it might have never existed, last I checked the fluff.

... or that's just what Tzeentch wants you to think, so that you can hope that it's true... or that it isn't.

Just as planned...

It's kind of up for interpretation, really.

Just because Khorne is said to have the largest influence, that doesn't mean he is always the dominant god in every area of mortal space. The area around the eye of terror, for instance, is slaanesh's birthplace, and is likely therefore, more under his influence than khorne's.

A place where decay and disease and despair linger, is likely more under Nurgle.

An area where there seems to be an inordinate amount of psyker's, is likely under the influence of Tzeentch.

And the midst of the longest and most brutal wars, is khorne's area of influence.

If you have a daemon army, it's perfectly acceptable to have say, a nurgle army, who in their story, were created as nurgle began to creep ahead of khorne in the great game. And someone elses khorne army could contridict it, but in that way, it's almost fluffy, as both beleive they have the upper hand in their own fluff.