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always assumed you could call on a Chaos God and basically "sell your soul" to them, but can it also happen sort of like with Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars? You think you're doing the right thing, then look in the mirror one day and notice a set of horns that weren't there before.

aclive wrote:
always assumed you could call on a Chaos God and basically "sell your soul" to them, but can it also happen sort of like with Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars? You think you're doing the right thing, then look in the mirror one day and notice a set of horns that weren't there before.

I take it you're kind of new to 40k. Yeah, Chaos is very insidious and works in many different ways. A painter who wants to be perfect at his art and obsesses every day while never hearing about Chaos could fund himself completely corrupt to his core. Read the book Fulgrim to see the extent people can go for Chaos without realising how far they've gone.

Agreed, falling to Chaos can happen in very subtle ways. There was a similar thread recently http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/546565.page. My personal opinion is still that in most cases, corruption is tied to a kind of decision, like worshipping some gakhead fake saviour because your unhappy with your life in the imperium. Sometimes, though, other forces are at play. “Fulgrim“ is a great example, indeed, ]. As usual, it depends on the author, too

It probably depends on the God that an individual would be "falling" to. Tzeentch can trick and deceive anyway he wants to, while those who go to Khorne probably just want (insert name here) to be very very dead. Slaanesh probably gets followers in areas with a lot of adult film showings and/or S&M clubs. Nurgle seems to get followers from diseased people just wanting the pain to stop. As for going Undivided it's probably the system kind of attitude and the person wants to stick it to the man.

It's usually not as simple as just "calling the god" and "selling your soul".

Certainly a number of cults got started that way; but, for the most part, the chaos gods couldn't give two shakes about them.

Giving yourself over to them comes from your actions and desires. For example a marine can't just say "Tzeentch, Give me mind control powers!!!" and suddenly become a sorcerer. That marine needs to bring something to the party, so to speak, otherwise Tzeentch wouldn't even notice... or, if they were just a low level psyker to begin with, would probably just send a lessor daemon to take over the marines body.

That said, I wouldn't say most of them were like Anakin either. Rather, a big part of it is simply that you aren't concerned with the gods at all. Certainly some are tricked into doing dastardly things while believing they are doing the right thing; but the vast majority either are in it for themselves (likely Slaanesh leaning); simply enjoy the murder (Khorne); believe they are invincible (Nurgle) or enjoy scheming for it's own sake (Tzeentch).

They only turn whole heartedly to those gods when they think those gods will grant them more of what they want.

The Inquisition is an interesting example. Inquisitors start off meaning to do well, but over time take on more and more of the enemies methods, until one day they are hunted down themselves as heretics.

I'm probably not explaining it right, but I hope you get the gist of what I'm trying to say.

clively wrote:

The Inquisition is an interesting example. Inquisitors start off meaning to do well, but over time take on more and more of the enemies methods, until one day they are hunted down themselves as heretics.

This is how it played out for Inquisitor Quixos, although whether or not he truly "fell" could be debated.

Started off with a daemon claw in his heart, found increased his power and started using chaos to fight chaos. It corrupts him to the point he's declared a Heretic and Extremis Diabolus.

Another example is Constantinus the Liberator. Him and his squad of Sons of Guilliman were ground down hunting the remnants of a genestealer infestation only to discover the planets aristocracy were infected. Killed them off, citzens revolt as does members of his squad, he puts them down and declares himself ruler of the planet and renounces the Emperor. Eventually he turns to Chaos worship and starts attracting warbands to him.

There is a great short story which kind of time skips around his lore, showing his fall in a way.

Btw: the 'ol in and out is really only one, misunderstood aspect of Slaneesh. He/she is about excess in any way. The Emporer' s Children fell partly through their desire for perfection, as noble as that may seem.

It can be a wide range of things, for example in the chaos codex it says how you could be corrupted by tzeentch (yay) simply by concentrating too much on a load of mysterious papers that appeared on your desk.

A lot of people do it without knowing it, for example many of the militiamen on Vraks had no idea what the symbols that were being carved on their armour meant, just that the Guardsmen and Dark Angels were the bad guys. Many Inquisitors have fallen to Chaos by studying artefacts too avidly, and being slowly corrupted by their presence. Hell, even entire populaces have been purged for knowing about Chaos! It's easy to be corrupted.

There is a reason that they call Chaos a cancer, you might not notice it straight away, but it will eventually take over you.