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Is it just me or does anyone else reckon the gods of chaos are based on the 4 horsemen?
Khorne = War
Tzeentch = (a wierd) Death
Nurgle = Pestilence
Slaanesh = (a reverse) Famine

How is Slaanesh famine? He is the god of excess for goodness sake.

lol i know that i ment lightly based on them not 100% but if you think about it, it sort of makes sense in a 40k kinda way

Slaanesh is Famine because she's "She who thirsts". Really corrupted slaanesh followers tend to be really devouring and thirsty and absolutely CRAVING whatever sense they can find, which is akin to a starving being desperate for food.

....well, that's how I see it. Whether or not someone at GW sees it, or whether or not it's simply a logical coincidence stemming from the fact that most four-man-evil-bands tend to be similar to the Apocalypse horsemen for various reasons (the four horsemen pretty much cover all the personalities you'd need in a four-man team of evil) is anyones' guess.

As an aside, the tarot card for Death means "Change".

But yea, the four apocalypse horsemen generally cover the personalities you'd need with an evil band. Assuming you're making four different evil personalities that are distinct from each other, it's hard to make a varied four-man evil team that doesn't parallel the four horsemen in some way.

Kinda like how most four-men teams tend to parallel the four elements, too, which the chaos gods also do. Although in that case, it's pretty deliberate, I'm sure. Obviously Khorne is associated with Fire (flaming skulls, red everywhere, his anger is so fiery that you can literally forge weapons using it!), but Tzeentch is associated with air (bird demons, warp lightning, winds of change, gaseous daemons in the form of flamers), Nurgle with earth (plant motif, biological warfare, doesn't change, rotting into earth), and Slaanesh with water and ice (she who thirsts, majesty, steeds of slaanesh are tamed by giving them "milk of loyalty").

Khorne is really just misunderstood he doesn't want to kill everyone and spill there blood and collect there skulls he just had a bad childhood.

gilamonster wrote:
Khorne is really just misunderstood he doesn't want to kill everyone and spill there blood and collect there skulls he just had a bad childhood.

That's Angron, not Khorne.

Lol it is angron

I don't think that there's anything wrong with what you're trying to do, but I don't believe that was the intent of the creators. If you pick a setting with four powerful villains, I'm sure somoene would be able to compare them to the four horsemen... especially if some of the connections are dubious (e.g. - Slaanesh and Famine).

I understand that they were more made upon a rules system, But its interesting how they resemble the 4 in my eyes lol

It is not only you.
Famine can also be seen as desire or need.
And death is change.

Well, the big version of WH40k is called APOCALYPSE, so GW's surely aware of the concept (of course, who isn't?) But like I said, it's hard to make a set of four distinct villains that doesn't touch on the Apocalypse archtypes in some fashion. Especially as you make the villains more large scale, serious, and grim dark (of which the chaos gods are all three).

Chaos has as much to do with Micheal Moorcock and H.P Lovecraft as it does Christo-Islamic (as Judaism has no concept of the apocalypse) mythology.

Just saying.

That´s true too.
Chaos is a mix of many influences.

bluebmerc wrote:
I understand that they were more made upon a rules system, But its interesting how they resemble the 4 in my eyes lol

Yeah. I mean, consider the old school fantasy archetypes. The Ruinous Powers represent perversions of those archetypes as much as anything else.


Khorne loves to slaughter and hates wizards. He represents the fighter (berserker, barbarian, etc.).

Tzeentch is a sorcerous genius. He represents the magic user (wizard, sorcerer, etc.).

Slaanesh is beautiful, quick, and deadly. (S)he represents the rogue (assassin, thief, charmer, etc.).

Nurgle is hard as nails and possesses as dark vitality. He represents the healer (cleric, paladin, etc.).


Sure, I just made that up. But remember that there are only so many heroic (and villainous) archetypes, and that the people who made the WH universes were modelers and gamers....

And it fits.
Khorne and Tzeentch are obvious. Slaanesh fits too.

And Nurgle is the god of fertility, and his enemy is death/change. He loves his creatures and want to keep them alive.

Nurgle loves life so much, he invited the Eldar Goddess of fertility and life over for a slumber party. She liked Nurgle so much that she never left.... the cage that Nurgle put her in.

Nurgle is the only Chaos god with a signification other.

But yeah, nurgle leaves death in his wake, but from that death comes new life.

TiamatRoar wrote:

gilamonster wrote:
Khorne is really just misunderstood he doesn't want to kill everyone and spill there blood and collect there skulls he just had a bad childhood.

That's Angron, not Khorne.

Khorne was the abusive step-father that gave Angron his bad childhood. XD

Side note: The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse do not traditional merit a form of "Evil." In all reality, they are ambiguous forces which make up a full scope of reality. Life and Death. Conflict and Peace. Wealth and Scarcity. Wisdom and Foolishness. They are both good and bad, and consequently, so are the Chaos Gods themselves. As mortals, we look at these forces as "bad" or "evil" but they are necessary before anything else. And so what you have with the Chaos Gods is the raw, stark reflection of Reality. They are the Afterlife, essentially, which bears an even more interesting question which actually birthed my Chaos Legion - The Red Wing Armada.

If all comes from the Warp and all will return to the Warp, then isn't the Warp the natural state of things? And real space is the true, defiant reflection? And if this is true, does this not also mean that the Emperor, when finally deaded for good, will also return to the Warp? Or how about all of those Loyal Space Marines that die in the light? Don't they also return to the Warp invariably? And where do Seraphs come in? Those things that are void even to the void of the Warp? Where do they come from? How are they created? How can they exist separate from that which is inseparable?

And in my eyes, that is what makes the Imperium evil. In defiance to the ultimate end brought forth by the Warp, Man has created "Daemons" to deal with the True Angels of Creation; That which is spawned from Nurgle, Khorne, Slaanesh and Tzeentch.

It seems like I'm just playing with words and ideologies here (Man who sits in Jelly has @ss in Jam) but in all reality, the Warp seems more natural, even in its unnaturalness, than Real Space is for the Imperium of Man.

Anyways, case in point: The Tarot, the Horseman and even the Four Ruinous Powers are mere aspects of Life in gross exageration, and as such, can never truly be defeated for the only way to eliminate that which sustains the Eternal is to end all Life as it is, and as the Necrons learned the hardway, even Un-Life is no respite from the gaze of Darker Gods. +__+

^Well said

gilamonster wrote:
Khorne is really just misunderstood he doesn't want to kill everyone and spill there blood and collect there skulls he just had a bad childhood.

Trevor, what are you doing here?

Khorne had to put up with two crazy and continuously fighting brothers. One keeps pulling galaxy and warp spanning pranks and the other dosnt bath and fart and throws up all the time and thinks its funny.

And if thats not bad enough he gets another sibling that is the definition of self absorbed.

I think we could cut the poor guy a break.

If you look at the original names. Conquest, War, Famine & Death

Conquest (apparently it can be translated as Victory) - I see this as Tzeentch playing his great game for overall control. Tzeentch could be seen as pestilence because of the fascination with change, normally spreading in the form of rampant mutation.

Death is definitely Nurgle.