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why is it that the powers of the warp are really obsessed with corrupting humanity but don't seem to bother much with everyone else? orks seems tailor made to worship khorne. eldar must be tempted from time to time by tzeench. I can see why dark eldar, nids and maybe necrons get a pass, but what about tau? do human souls just taste better than everyone else?

Gork and Mork are stronger than all four Chaos gods put together, and Orks only respect strength. Khorne is too weedy to get much Ork worship, and Orks who worship weaker gods get ostracized if not outright murdered by their fellow orks.

And the Eldar serving Chaos? If you so much as thought about that, they'd probably kick you off the craftworld without a space suit.

As for the Tau, the Tau barely register to the warp and daemons find them to be utterly boring.

Minor xenos are often vulnerable to chaos corruption though, but as the name implies, they're relatively minor.

I think it is because humans are easier to corrupt.

Orks are too simple minded, eldar and dark eldar would never succumb to chaos (slaanesh is the great enemy after all), tau have no warp presence, tyranids haven't got the individuality required to succumb to chaos.

Not sure about the necrons, but most of their troops are basically automatons anyway.

Humans are much easier. It's that simple, really.

Orks already dedicate themselves to Gork and Mork, who exist in the warp already, so Khorne can make little claim there if any.
Eldar can see Chaos coming a mile off and know too well about its risks, and I imagine the Path helps to guard against the temptations of the other Gods too and not just Slaanesh.
Tau are practically impossible to affect by means of the warp - so any corruption would have to involve Eldar-style political meddling. Probably up Tzeentch's alley, but still very tricky with their focus on the Greater Good. The Tau mind works in different ways so temptation of personal gain really wouldn't bother them much.

The Hive Mind is stronger than Chaos, anytime Tyranids show up in force, the powers of the Dark Gods get blotted out by the shadow in the warp. Anytime Chaos has ever corrupted a Tyranid it has always been when they were isolated and cut off from the hive mind.

However during the 13th black crusade, a Tyranid fleet descended on a system contested by the Deathguard and the Imperium. The Death guard despaired when they found that the Tyranids were immune to Nurgle's touch and they were devoured wholesale. Not the entire legion of course, but they lost.

Generally Chaos loses to the Tyranids every time the hive fleets show up in force. The Death Shadows were exterminated, the Iron warriors got spanked at Forgefane, and even in the 13th Black Crusade the Tyranids handed Chaos a resounding defeat in it's only real major engagement with Abaddon's forces.

ah, interesting. I haven't read much about tau, so didn't realize they didn't burn brightly in the warp like humans. kinda leaves us hummies out in the cold, then. curse our corruptible souls!

 varl wrote:
ah, interesting. I haven't read much about tau, so didn't realize they didn't burn brightly in the warp like humans. kinda leaves us hummies out in the cold, then. curse our corruptible souls!

Don't worry, minor xenos like the Saruthi and Rak'Gol are also corruptible.

...because that's how the game was originally written. Imperium of Man vs Chaos.

 Psienesis wrote:
...because that's how the game was originally written. Imperium of Man vs Chaos.

Chaos wasn't really a thing until 2e.

Humans are also extremely plentiful. Orks and Tyranids have already been touched upon, but of all the races that could be effected, humans are the largest target.

Why mess around with the millions of Hrud or the millions of Tau when I could go for the race that damn near outnumbers the stars?

 Iur_tae_mont wrote:
Humans are also extremely plentiful. Orks and Tyranids have already been touched upon, but of all the races that could be effected, humans are the largest target.

Why mess around with the millions of Hrud or the millions of Tau when I could go for the race that damn near outnumbers the stars?

Your numbers are too small by multiple orders of magnitude.

There are trillions of Tau, likely hundreds of trillions if not quadrillions of hrud, and tens if not hundreds of quadrillions of humans, and sextillions of orkoids.

The Tyranids? Probably in numbers so large that you'd need scientific notation to represent them in a timely manner.

 Kain wrote:

 Iur_tae_mont wrote:
Humans are also extremely plentiful. Orks and Tyranids have already been touched upon, but of all the races that could be effected, humans are the largest target.

Why mess around with the millions of Hrud or the millions of Tau when I could go for the race that damn near outnumbers the stars?

Your numbers are too small by multiple orders of magnitude.

There are trillions of Tau, likely hundreds of trillions if not quadrillions of hrud, and tens if not hundreds of quadrillions of humans, and sextillions of orkoids.

The Tyranids? Probably in numbers so large that you'd need scientific notation to represent them in a timely manner.

Nids got the Shadow of the warp and Orks got the whole "Gork and Mork" thing going on though.

 Iur_tae_mont wrote:

 Kain wrote:

 Iur_tae_mont wrote:
Humans are also extremely plentiful. Orks and Tyranids have already been touched upon, but of all the races that could be effected, humans are the largest target.

Why mess around with the millions of Hrud or the millions of Tau when I could go for the race that damn near outnumbers the stars?

Your numbers are too small by multiple orders of magnitude.

There are trillions of Tau, likely hundreds of trillions if not quadrillions of hrud, and tens if not hundreds of quadrillions of humans, and sextillions of orkoids.

The Tyranids? Probably in numbers so large that you'd need scientific notation to represent them in a timely manner.

Nids got the Shadow of the warp and Orks got the whole "Gork and Mork" thing going on though.

That they do, I'm just noting that you're undershooting your numbers by a ridiculous margin.

Damn Kain, the way you picture Chaos in the 40k universe Chaos is just lucky to stay alive. Are you a fanboy of Orks or Tyranid or both? So the forces of Chaos is actually just a minor power of all the popular 40k factions with the least chance to be the overall winner? Or is Squats slightly weaker? ;o)

 Super Ready wrote:
Tau are practically impossible to affect by means of the warp

They don't have any inherent resistance to psychic powers that I've seen.

It's more that none of them are remotely close to becoming psykers. But likewise, none of them are remotely close to becoming Blanks, either-- a psyker hitting them with a ball of psy-fire is going to burn them alive just as they would a non-Blank human.

Its not so much that chaos are obsessed with humanity,

they did take down the eldar first after all, back then they didnt really care about the humies.


Its more that so much of the chaos forces are made up of renegade marines/forces of the imperium who have a vendetta going on.


tau, orks, necrons, nids, eldar, ect all get into combat from time to time with chaos, and have to deal with warp related incursions im sure. But abbadon and all those guys are still all "raahhhh kill terra" so there you go.

There are quite a few minor xenos that are corrupted by chaos. However, you don't see them that often cause the Imperium kinda like... killed most xenos everywhere. That said, a bunch of xenos which show signs of chaos corruption do show up in FFG roleplaying supplements a lot, I think.

As for the major factions, most of them have various excuses.

Tyranids are practically one giant hive mind that blots out the warp in the first place. I'm not sure you could even say an individual Tyranid has a soul in the first place. That's like saying an individual blood cell has a soul.

Tau's warp signature is too puny for Chaos to even really notice them. That said, the one time a Tau's soul was noticeable by Chaos, Khorne really REALLY took notice (Fire Warrior).

Necrons don't have souls.

Orks generally belong to Gork and Mork. Those that fall to Chaos are quickly exterminated by the other orks, although some manage to get away and survive as freebooterz. Some nurgle orks were also used as bombs in another story. Basically orks can fall to Chaos but circumstances make it very difficult and rare.

Chaos IS interested in the Eldar. Or at least, Slaanesh is (possibly the other gods aren't simply because eldar souls already belong to Slaanesh). Slaanesh is constantly stated to continue to crave Eldar souls because they are her children and belong to her. She's constantly gnawing on and drawing away their souls at all times, and Slaanesh daemons have Eldar as a preferred enemy on the tabletop for a reason.

Orks don't kneel to the Warboss, the only reason they follow him is because of the promise of War Without End. As for the Ork Gods, If they were to come down and want Ork to bow down, the orks would attack them. The only reason they have Gods is because of the promise of a War Without End.
If Khorne made the same promise, they would follow him. If Khorne wants them to take the time to worship him, they would just kill him to find a leader that will give them what they want, a battle.
Khorne would have to kill them all instead of getting them to worship him. Which is why, he corrupt Humans instead, they are easier for him to get what he wants.

Don't forget everything the Orks, do is for battle.

I dunno, I always saw Orks as more Slaaneshi than Khornish. Just read the description of the speed freaks. Or take a look at the Freebooterz. Or the fact that Orks love shiny explosions and really loud noises. Slaanesh is the god of excess, and Orks love more dakka. Slaanesh is the god of sensation, and orks love their speed and their bling. Slaanesh is the god of taking pleasure in what you do, and Orks fight because it's FUN

Doesn't seem like most games-workshop writers agree with that notion, though.

 Kain wrote:
Humans are also extremely plentiful. Orks and Tyranids have already been touched upon, but of all the races that could be effected, humans are the largest target.

There are trillions of Tau, likely hundreds of trillions if not quadrillions of hrud, and tens if not hundreds of quadrillions of humans, and sextillions of orkoids.

You are underestimating humanity.

There are hundreds of billions of tau, trillions of Hrud, sextillions of humanity( no, srsly, do the math, you get 2 sextillion from the hives alone) and probably about twice that number of orkoids.
The orks aren't that numerous compared to humans.

By all rights Hrud should be corrupted by Nurgle already. Besides the entropy, they're also traditionalists who are into stagnation. They're also fertile (not that I think Nurgle was ever explicitly stated to be a god of fertility, but he really should be, considering he's the only god who's daemons are capable of reproducing and his love of all life)

Then again, maybe they are corrupted by Nurgle and don't realize it. I don't think games-workshop's writers put that much thought into it, though.

Alternatively it might be because they too have their own god, even if that god's kinda AWOL at the moment...

Orks excess is only there because they believe it will make them stronger. There is always a member in the horde that is looking to usurp the boss. The Boss's job is to get them fighting so they don't have thoughts of taking his job.
But Slaaneshi could show them to the fight and they will follow, if Slaaneshi wants them to beg, grovel, pray, worship in anyway. They will attack Slaaneshi. If the orks believe that killing Slaaneshi will make them bigger and stronger (which it will) Slaaneshi will lose any direction he might have thought he had. Orks even Freebooters will always drop what they are doing and join an Ok horde, if they hear the "Waaagh!"

Slaanesh actually doesn't ask its followers to beg or grovel. That's Nurgle that does that. There's a description of a Slaaneshi corrupted planet in Black Crusade and it's stated that the humans are actually allowed to worship Slaanesh in their own way. For Slaanesh, the way to worship Slaanesh is to pursue perfection and to indulge oneself in things one finds pleasurable.

By the way, trying to make yourself stronger is a Slaaneshi thing too. Slaanesh is the pursuit of perfection, which includes self-improvement.

A non-Ork version of a "waagh" is one of the few things that will get Slaanesh followers to work together, too (Slaanesh being the god of selfishness and all). Warfare is seen as one of the highest forms of art (which is what gives Slaanesh a place in a galaxy where there is only war). So Freebooterz stopping to join a Waagh is still in line with what a Slaanesh follower would do in similar situations.

 Kain wrote:
The Hive Mind is stronger than Chaos, anytime Tyranids show up in force, the powers of the Dark Gods get blotted out by the shadow in the warp. Anytime Chaos has ever corrupted a Tyranid it has always been when they were isolated and cut off from the hive mind.

Right, which is why Tigurius can make mental contact with and glean information from the Hive Mind. Because it is stronger than Chaos. Sure.

We get it, you like Tyranids, you don't need to talk about it every thread you enter.

 Void__Dragon wrote:

 Kain wrote:
The Hive Mind is stronger than Chaos, anytime Tyranids show up in force, the powers of the Dark Gods get blotted out by the shadow in the warp. Anytime Chaos has ever corrupted a Tyranid it has always been when they were isolated and cut off from the hive mind.

Right, which is why Tigurius can make mental contact with and glean information from the Hive Mind. Because it is stronger than Chaos. Sure.

By that argument, anyone using divination against, say, followers of tzeench wound have to be stronger then tzeench.

There are probably plenty of xenos that chaos tries to corrupt, its just that Warhammer 40k is written with a human centric view in mind. Tyranids and Daemons are both huge powers in 40k, but there aren't any books from their perspective because, well, humans wouldn't enjoy reading them.

Armadeus wrote:
[qBy that argument, anyone using divination against, say, followers of tzeench wound have to be stronger then tzeench.

Oh I didn't know that every follower of Tzeentch has the full backing of Tzeentch himself.

My mistake.

 Void__Dragon wrote:

Armadeus wrote:
[qBy that argument, anyone using divination against, say, followers of tzeench wound have to be stronger then tzeench.

Oh I didn't know that every follower of Tzeentch has the full backing of Tzeentch himself.

My mistake.

Not every hive tyrant has the full power of the hive mind. You can get information from something without actually be more powerful then it.

Let's not turn this into a "My toy soldiers are stronger than yours" type discussion. We already have enough of those.

Besides, we all know that the Traitor Legionnaires are the bestest.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the main reason we mostly hear about/see Chaos as it relates to Humanity is that the chosen prophets of the Chaos Gods in this day and age are all human/transhuman/ex-transhuman, not to mention that they're one of the more numerous species and they comprise almost all of the viewpoint characters in the 40k universe in the first place.

Also Orks already have a fanatical killing-worshipping religion (Khorne isn't about to go out and waste effort trying to convince people already fanatically devoted to going out and making war on the galaxy to go out and make war on the galaxy), the Necrons and the Eldar/Dark Eldar are both much more well-informed about Chaos and its tricks than Humanity is and have their own methods of resistance, the Tau have no Warp presence and are thus difficult to influence, the 'Nids aren't sufficiently sentient to 'corrupt', and there aren't really any other galaxy-spanning alien powers out there.