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Just curious if this has ever been discussed before. Correct me at any point if I am wrong.

I'm assuming the warp is an alternate universe. The story we know in 40k is only about the Milky Way, a very small part of the real space universe. I assume that the Warp universe is at least as big as our universe. I get that it is chaotic and we cant comprehend the dimension of the Warp. What people depict is just our mind trying to make sense of what we see. So even if it isn't a dimension that you can really transverse, it can be accessed anywhere in our real space universe which in turn is a different point in the Warp (why we need the beacon of the Astronomicon in order to give us a fixed location).

This makes me wonder the following questions:

Are the Chaos Gods "localized" to the Milky Way's portion of the Warp?

Do other galaxies have life? If so, do the other galaxies have their own Warp Gods?

If the Warp Gods are fundamental in every galaxy, are they that powerful that they can influence and direct followers in every galaxy that has life? Or is it that there are multiple Chaos Gods for each of their aspects?

This is all coming from another thread where I was thinking that if the Necrons or Tyranids won the Milky Way, what would happen to the Chaos Gods? Would they have other galaxies feeding them?

I believe I've read somewhere that the gods are more focused on the milky way because of the abundance of warp-sensitive races in it.

I'd imagine the warp extends throughout the material universe but would be more focused on the galaxies which contain warp-sensitive beings, if there are any more at all.

-Edited for clarity and ease of reply:

 Cold wrote:

This makes me wonder the following questions:

1) Are the Chaos Gods "localized" to the Milky Way's portion of the Warp?

2) Do other galaxies have life? If so, do the other galaxies have their own Warp Gods?

3) If the Warp Gods are fundamental in every galaxy, are they that powerful that they can influence and direct followers in every galaxy that has life? Or is it that there are multiple Chaos Gods for each of their aspects?

4) This is all coming from another thread where I was thinking that if the Necrons or Tyranids won the Milky Way, what would happen to the Chaos Gods? Would they have other galaxies feeding them?

1) This is an interesting question, and I've never thought about this before. As far as I understand, daemons (the sentient beings within the warp) aren't usually confined to a single part of warp space. However, the gods each have their own "domains" within the warp, much like an empire in real space. I personally get the impression that these "empires" are just an expression of being near a being of such power, rather than actual locations. Thus, these gods can move around in the warp, rather than being confined to their [throne(s)]. This would mean that, in effect, they may have a (or many) localisation point(s) in realspace, but they are not always the same place(s).

Furthermore, unlike how a location one side of a piece of paper directly corresponds with a location on the other side, the warp does not always have such a clear-cut translation. This may mean that it is impossible for a direct localisation point, but just instances where the gods seem to be able to pour more energy into one place than another.

And at this point this is becoming a ramble, so I'll move on...

2) It is canonically stated that the nids are from another galaxy. Thusly we may presume that other races exist outside the milky way. And as proven by the Eldar, creation of a new god through belief and action is quite possible. So yes, they may have their own gods (Read: Souped-Up Daemons). It's also failry possible that there are religions devoted to ideologies similar to those embodied by the gods we are familiar with, and thus be feeding them.

3) Some are that powerful, most won't be. I would guess that entities such as Khorne, Tzeentch and Nurgle arose through feeding off all life forms in the universe, which would explain their seemingly limitless power, and ability to affect realspace. They may be able to affect any/all places. It is also rather plausible that, like the Eldar gods, other such entities have risen to power in those "areas" to the extent of affecting realspace (but only there).

As for multiple entities for each aspect:
Khorne = War
Gork/Mork = War
Khaine = War
Teh Spess Emprah = partly war.

I think that answers that.

4) Almost certainly for the big four. The other gods are still in question.

My thoughts:

1) I think the Chaos gods that we know of are.
2) Yes (or at least they did). The Tyranids come from another galaxy, and the reason they're in ours is that they've eaten all the life in their own galaxy.
3) This kind of goes back to the first question. I think there may be other similar gods spawned by other races in other galaxies. For instance I don't think there's one War God for the whole universe - there's not even one war god in our galaxy (unless you subscribe to the theory that Khaine is another face of Khorne).
4) I think "our" Chaos gods would die out without the sentient races of the Milky Way.

To complicate matters, I think some races have more effect on the warp than others. For instance, I believe it's been stated that Khorne was born sometime in the middle ages due to the wars in medieval Europe or the actions of Genghis Khan (I can't quite remember, might be old fluff). Presumably the Eldar, and especially the Orks, had been waging war across the galaxy for millenia, yet our actions on one planet were enough to give birth to a Chaos god. Conversely it took the complete downfall of the galaxy-spanning Eldar civilisation to give birth to Slaanesh.

Even if there is life in other galaxies, it may be ours is the only one with enough warp-sensitive races to spawn gods - maybe the other galaxies are populated with Tau-like races who don't have a reflection in the warp.

This is a great topic!

I've interpreted it that though the Warp does exist across the material universe, the void between Galaxies would in some sense be mirrored in the warp, in other words a great void, which few if any warp entities would bother crossing. Though the warp being the warp, there is no real precedent of how the warp functions.

The old ones are the gods that created most of the life in the milky way,and a common trait the old ones gave to their races was the ability to perceive and transverse the warp. Its likely that our galaxy has more involvement with the warp than any other.

So its logical to assume that the chaos gods are partial to our galaxy, but not exclusive
other galaxies may have different versions of the same gods, but they eventually all boil down to the great four.
Most warp gods and deities eventually fall into similarities with the four. So it could also be fair to assume that all warp born gods are separates pieces or aspects of the greater four.

And it would also be fair to assume that the four are all aspects of one great chaos god
the warp is screwy
I hope that helps c:

Talked about this with a friend last night, his take on it was that he pictured the real space universe like a sphere and the warp was it's core. All points of reality touch it, but the warp isn't as large in terms of "size" as real space. Basically he thinks that the big 4 are every galaxy's chaos gods and their presence is powerful enough that they can influence every galaxy at once, we just cant see or know it. He also says the Milky Way was "lucky" in that it was the birth place of Slaanesh which created the Eye of Terror and that's why the Gods pay so much attention to our galaxy. It is the biggest overlap of real space and the warp in the known universe and where they feel they can push it's boundaries till the warp and real space are one.

Sounds reasonable to me. I questioned on whether he really thought that the Gods were that omnipotent and he said simply yeah. If the warp can touch all points of reality then wouldn't they be able to keep track of it better on their side (the warp "core" of the real space "sphere" has a much smaller surface area)?

Another thought, IIRC no one has actually ever "met" the Gods. Only heard their voices. No real space creature (aside from maybe Daemon Princes) have "seen" them. There's no warp portal powerful enough to bring them to real space or sustain them (otherwise game over man!). Maybe once the overlap in the Eye of Terror is galaxy wide, they will be able to manifest or even universe wide?

Has any character (aside from Daemons) actually been to one of the God's individual realms? I remember a group of Orks that Khorne like so much he basically brought them to his front yard to watch them fight eternally. Other than that no one has actually seen them though, right?

 Cold wrote:

Has any character (aside from Daemons) actually been to one of the God's individual realms? I remember a group of Orks that Khorne like so much he basically brought them to his front yard to watch them fight eternally. Other than that no one has actually seen them though, right?

Those Orks got close. But it was a daemon world. So not quite.

Kaldor Draigo purportedly has, but that was a Mattard Fanwank, and really should have been impossible.

An unnamed astartes managed to make it to the center of Slaanesh's private pleasure palace, coming face to face with Slaanesh himself. Some people think it was Draigo but personally I doubt it. Guess we might know when the next Grey Knights codex comes out.

A little girl and her dog managed to get through Tzeentch's impossible maze. One of the few times the god of fate basically genuinely said "What the feth?"

In the Black Crusades FFG RPG, there's this baroness type of character who summoned a greater keeper of secrets, overcame it through sheer force of will, and absorbed it, in order to maintain her youth. When she grew old again, she did it again. Twice. The fourth time she did it, Slaanesh himself appeared personally, so impressed with the sheer audacity of such a feat that he made her a daemon prince.

I think Magnus pre-heresy talked and made deals with a snake/being that may or may not have been Tzeentch himself? I don't know much about that one.

If any character has met a Chaos god then they met what the Chaos god wanted them to see probably not the actual form since their actual form is something beings cannot comprehend, I am curious if GW will ever make a model of what the Chaos gods actually look like?

 Chris_P wrote:
If any character has met a Chaos god then they met what the Chaos god wanted them to see probably not the actual form since their actual form is something beings cannot comprehend, I am curious if GW will ever make a model of what the Chaos gods actually look like?

A model of formless emotion incarnate?

I'd like to see that

The changeling got Khorne to sit on a nurgling whoopee cushion and cut Slaanesh's hair, so at least to demons they aren't formless. Demon perspective probably differs from mortals, though, of course

I thought the inquisitor was the black library escapade as opposed to the actual realm of the chaos gods.

I don't know much on Draigo, he is eh... special snowflake of the 40K universe so who knows.

TiamatRoar wrote:
An unnamed astartes managed to make it to the center of Slaanesh's private pleasure palace, coming face to face with Slaanesh himself. Some people think it was Draigo but personally I doubt it. Guess we might know when the next Grey Knights codex comes out.

A little girl and her dog managed to get through Tzeentch's impossible maze. One of the few times the god of fate basically genuinely said "What the feth?"

In the Black Crusades FFG RPG, there's this baroness type of character who summoned a greater keeper of secrets, overcame it through sheer force of will, and absorbed it, in order to maintain her youth. When she grew old again, she did it again. Twice. The fourth time she did it, Slaanesh himself appeared personally, so impressed with the sheer audacity of such a feat that he made her a daemon prince.

I think Magnus pre-heresy talked and made deals with a snake/being that may or may not have been Tzeentch himself? I don't know much about that one.

Do you know where the the Astartes and the little girl stories are written? Would love to read them!

If any character has met a Chaos god then they met what the Chaos god wanted them to see probably not the actual form since their actual form is something beings cannot comprehend, I am curious if GW will ever make a model of what the Chaos gods actually look like?

I agree, though they could never be used in a game, any kind of rules would never do them justice I feel. IIRC we also kinda know what they like mortals to see them as:

Khorne - Basically an enormous brass space marine with a huge helmet and no back pack. Huge axe. Facial features if visible are bestial (I think). Sits on a huge bronze throne on top of a pile of skulls in the middle of a lake of blood.

Nurgle - Looks like a Great Unclean One. Each Great Unclean One will even answer to the name Nurgle because they are more like extensions of his conscious than other daemons are to their primary god.

Tzeentch - Depicted as always changing, but mostly sticks with some form of avian snake humanoid creature. Think he probably looks like a Lord of Change, but with a different variation every time.

Slaanesh - An androgynous humanoid demon who looks alluring/pleasing and terrifying at the same time. Again this one always changes his looks, sometimes male sometimes female sometimes both but always attractive and horrifying. For some reason I picture him with crab claws, not sure why but his/her demons always have pincers.

Models of these would be sweet but, again, other than for decoration I feel they could never do the Gods justice. Just too powerful IMO.

Random - What about Malal? I remember reading that GW was again hinting at him a little while back (Sons of Malice warband) but with the latest C:CSM there was no mention or hint.

 Cold wrote:

Do you know where the the Astartes and the little girl stories are written? Would love to read them!

Both are from 6th Ed Daemons Codex, though there's what's close to a word for word description of the Astartes one at the wikia.

If any character has met a Chaos god then they met what the Chaos god wanted them to see probably not the actual form since their actual form is something beings cannot comprehend, I am curious if GW will ever make a model of what the Chaos gods actually look like?

You can find official art of them in old GW sources, but these days they're only described in words, probably to increase the mystery and surrealness of them. Furthermore, those arts of them are from WH Fantasy so technically, the WH40k ones might look different (...but probably not, since the descriptions of their manifestations are pretty similar to the old arts).

I believe the arts are at the WH Fantasy lexicanum.

I agree, though they could never be used in a game, any kind of rules would never do them justice I feel. IIRC we also kinda know what they like mortals to see them as:

Khorne - Basically an enormous brass space marine with a huge helmet and no back pack. Huge axe. Facial features if visible are bestial (I think). Sits on a huge bronze throne on top of a pile of skulls in the middle of a lake of blood.

Nurgle - Looks like a Great Unclean One. Each Great Unclean One will even answer to the name Nurgle because they are more like extensions of his conscious than other daemons are to their primary god.

Tzeentch - Depicted as always changing, but mostly sticks with some form of avian snake humanoid creature. Think he probably looks like a Lord of Change, but with a different variation every time.

Slaanesh - An androgynous humanoid demon who looks alluring/pleasing and terrifying at the same time. Again this one always changes his looks, sometimes male sometimes female sometimes both but always attractive and horrifying. For some reason I picture him with crab claws, not sure why but his/her demons always have pincers.

Models of these would be sweet but, again, other than for decoration I feel they could never do the Gods justice. Just too powerful IMO.

The "forms" of the chaos gods are described as "manifestations" in most official materials I believe. So Nurgle's "manifestation" is a ridiculously giant great unclean one. So... yea, the actual gods themselves are probably formless, but they have their own ways of manifesting. Far as I recall, Slaanesh can either manifest as your inner desire, or as a half-man half-woman, or whatever else. In the Astartes story, Slaanesh's manifestation is... not what you'd typically expect of Slaanesh, but that makes sense when you consider the viewer.

I think the pincers are meant to represent precision and pain or something? There's some symbolism there but I keep forgetting what it is.

Old official artworks of Tzeentch show him to be some sort of strange... yoga-meditation sorcerer thing, with two snakes emerging from its back and lots of random faces all over it (and one huge face in the center). There's one of him just sitting and another of him in a meditation position.

Random - What about Malal? I remember reading that GW was again hinting at him a little while back (Sons of Malice warband) but with the latest C:CSM there was no mention or hint.

The Sons of Malice are the only existing bit of Malice-related fluff in WH40k, far as I know. Most of what we know of Malal comes from WH fantasy, I think. (his name is Malice now to avoid copy right issues. Malice technically might not even be the same entity but who are we kidding? It probably is the same entity).

1) Are the Chaos Gods "localized" to the Milky Way's portion of the Warp?

Nobody knows feth about the Chaos Gods other than they exist. It's not even clear the warp extends beyond the outermost bounds of the Milky Way, though most presume so. As the warp is another dimention that exists "beneath" and simultaneously to ours, the presumption is that the warp is everywhere. However, as the warp and its denizens at least partly exist due to the emotions/souls of sentient beings (many of which in this galaxy are at least partially warp sensitive), it is unclear whether it even CAN exist without that. Then the questions becomes, are there other warp sensitive beings in other galaxies. We know life exists in other galaxies, but is it warp sensitive.

2) Do other galaxies have life? If so, do the other galaxies have their own Warp Gods?

Almost guaranteed. See response to 1.

3) If the Warp Gods are fundamental in every galaxy, are they that powerful that they can influence and direct followers in every galaxy that has life? Or is it that there are multiple Chaos Gods for each of their aspects?

Time has little meaning in the warp, thus, Chaos Gods "may" be omnipresent - capable of being and affecting every place the warp touches, simultaneously.

4) This is all coming from another thread where I was thinking that if the Necrons or Tyranids won the Milky Way, what would happen to the Chaos Gods? Would they have other galaxies feeding them?

If the warp is limited to the Milky Way only, then no. If all warp sensitive, sentient life died out, the Chaos Gods would likely cease to exist.

The thing with the warp is that it is not linear, 2d or 3d. It defies concepts of space and time.

Their are definitly areas of the warp that are different from others but from any part of the warp you can enter any part of real space if you know where you are going.

Khorne Daemons can launch from Khornes realm anywhere into the eye of terror or to any planet that has warpstorms or khorne cultists on it.


If cultists got in a space craft and traveled far far far to another galaxy and started worshiping khorne there khorne daemons could breach the divide between the warp and that distant galaxy in a second.

 Exergy wrote:
The thing with the warp is that it is not linear, 2d or 3d. It defies concepts of space and time.

Their are definitly areas of the warp that are different from others but from any part of the warp you can enter any part of real space if you know where you are going.

Khorne Daemons can launch from Khornes realm anywhere into the eye of terror or to any planet that has warpstorms or khorne cultists on it.


If cultists got in a space craft and traveled far far far to another galaxy and started worshiping khorne there khorne daemons could breach the divide between the warp and that distant galaxy in a second.

Sounds right to me