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Which god would having terror sewn in his name most apply to?

Nurgle is the Chaos god that formed primarily from the emotion of Fear.

Specifically the fear of death, which is one of the most primal fears. It could be said that Tzeentch is fed, in part, by fear of the unknown (hence his whole knowledge/divination aspect). Khorne might be said to be powered, in part, by the fear of oppression, and thus strengthens his followers to overthrow such through acts of violence. Slaanesh can be considered to be fed, in part, by the fear of stagnation (much as this can be said of Tzeentch, too)... of becoming so numbed to the world that you become a zombie-like drone, and so drives hir followers to experience greater and greater pleasures and pursue ever-greater deviancies from social proprieties.

Malice, he's specifically called the "Hierarch of Anarchy and Terror"

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Malice_(Chaos_God)#.U5DNdvldVNs

From the Realm of Chaos books in the eighties to the current Chaos Daemons´ Codex, the Chaos Gods have been described as emotions gathered together.

Khorne is 'the embodiment of a never-ending lust to dominate and destroy'. In other points he is defined as 'wrath'.
Nurgle is 'the hidden fear of disease and decay, the gnawing truth of mortality and the power of defiance it generates'
Tzeentch is 'the desire for change'. Hope is another word oftenly used.
Slaanesh is the 'God of Obsession, the Master of Excess in all things, from gluttony to lust to megalomania'.

Up until 2013, other emotions feed other Chaos Gods, creating a vast Pantheon. Asking your question, Malice / Malal was defined as 'the god of Anarchy and Terror'. So that´s the one. Or it was.

In 2013, the fluff changed and now there are only four Chaos Gods, but the 'gods are emotions' thing stayed, so we have different options:
1) Assume that humans in 40k are capable of only 4 emotions. This is stupid.
2) Assume that there is some hidden reason about why four emotions, and only four, made it to gods. I think this is stupid too.
3) Assume that the Chaos Daemons are no longer emotions / spiritual beings. Just another breed of xenos. Nothing spiritual here. In this case, they all feed on all emotions. This is more or less where all the new fluff is going, yet it still contradicts the old material they keep copy-pasting. So I am ignoring this one.
4) Ignore the fluff-butchering and keep the Chaos Pantheon. Accept Malal as the God of Terror. He/she/it is good at it.
5) Ignore the fluff-butchering and keep the Chaos Pantheon. Accept the existence of a Chaos God that is not Malal. Malal is related with self-mutilation, suicide, self-loathing and... well, anarchy and terror. But perhaps 'Lord of Anarchy and Terror' is merely a name. This option is my personal favorite.

In the old Greek mythology, there was a God of Terror. He was Deimos. His twin brother (?) was Fobos, the gnawing fear. They were both related with physical combat. One paralizes you in the middle of the battle, the other makes you run. In some sources Deimos was son of Ares, the God of Wrath, a Khorne equivalent. Other sources say he was the hound of Ares, and many others (starting with Cicero) tell us that he (?) was the child of Erebus (Hell) and Nyx (the Night). Nyx and Erebus were personifications of Chaos itself. That makes him older than Ares.

I think some (really disturbing) stuff related with the worshipping of the God of Terror made it into the Index Astartes, and was used for the Night Lords. I am talking about making buildings and furniture out of living people. It is also possible that the person writing it just took it from the novel Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, who in turn took it from other sources. Coming to think of it, it is more possible than the source is the movie Apocalypse Now, based on Heart of Darkness.

If it was intentional, there are sorcerers inside the Night Lords, specifically those involved in the construction of the Palace of Tsagualsa, who were involved in some form of worshipping of a yet unnamed God of Terror, a rawer form of Chaos, and closer to Chaos Itself, than Khorne and the rest. That would 'explain' turning the entire sector into a slaughterhouse: they were doing the equivalent of building a church...... This is just a pet theory though.

ZSO SAHAAL: these sacrifices were for his master, after all their was no chaos god of fear.

Like da001, I agree that reducing the number of Chaos Gods to four was one of the worst fluff decisions GW has made.

Nothing says chaos like four neatly ordered categories.

Short answer, Nurgle or Malal. Nurgle though, in it's purest form.

Hell, I believe Nurgles banner even confers Fear to the unit.

 Sasori wrote:
Nurgle is the Chaos god that formed primarily from the emotion of Fear.

I was under impression that Nurgle's emotion was despair.

 Kain wrote:

 Sasori wrote:
Nurgle is the Chaos god that formed primarily from the emotion of Fear.

I was under impression that Nurgle's emotion was despair.

Codex: Chaos Daemons, Pg14: "He is the hidden fear of disease and decay, the gnawing truth of mortality and the power of defiance it generates"

He is both fear of decay and defiance against mortality.

 da001 wrote:

 Kain wrote:

 Sasori wrote:
Nurgle is the Chaos god that formed primarily from the emotion of Fear.

I was under impression that Nurgle's emotion was despair.

Codex: Chaos Daemons, Pg14: "He is the hidden fear of disease and decay, the gnawing truth of mortality and the power of defiance it generates"

He is both fear of decay and defiance against mortality.

I had a headcanon that the four gods basic four elements are

Khorne: Rage, Hate, Honour, Discipline

Nurgle: Despair, Familial Love, Acceptance, Joy

Tzeentch: Hope, Ambition, Callousness, Curiosity

Slaanesh: Romantic Love, Lust, Obsession, Pride.

 LoneLictor wrote:
Nothing says chaos like four neatly ordered categories.

Couldn't have said it better...lol

Slaanesh. Slaanesh is the god of sensation. Slaanesh doesn't care if your acid trip is good, or if you gouge your eyes out in terror, both are just as tasty in her eyes. Nurgle by comparison is the god of anti-fear, if you accept his mucusy embrace he frees you from fear of death.

Back in 2nd edition daemons didn't just randomly appear at the roll of the dice, you had to actually do things: Tzeentch daemons were summoned by using psychic powers. Khorne daemons were summoned by killing things. Slaanesh summoning points were accrued every time a leadership test was taken. (I forget exactly what Nurgle was, making saves or somesuch)

 LoneLictor wrote:
Like da001, I agree that reducing the number of Chaos Gods to four was one of the worst fluff decisions GW has made.

Nothing says chaos like four neatly ordered categories.

I'm adding this to my sig.

 Harriticus wrote:
Malice, he's specifically called the "Hierarch of Anarchy and Terror".

That doesn't really mean anything though. Slaanesh is called the Dark Prince, but that doesn't mean he's empowered by darkness or that he's even a proper Prince.
Malice was actually summoned in The Labyrinth , which means he's not a Chaos God, since they cannot leave the Warp.

This guy says hi.





Can’t really say it has anything to do with 40k though.

The Great Four are only the most-powerful of the Chaos Gods. There are all sorts of Daemon Princes that came up through Chaos Undivided that have their own divine portfolios and are, basically, Minor Chaos Gods.

 Psienesis wrote:
The Great Four are only the most-powerful of the Chaos Gods. There are all sorts of Daemon Princes that came up through Chaos Undivided that have their own divine portfolios and are, basically, Minor Chaos Gods.

Except that it has been suggested that there are in fact "greater" Chaos Gods, but they are so uncontrollable to themselves that they are better related as forces of nature than actual "Chaos Gods" you could worship and sacrifice to for favor. Like trying to worship a T-Rex. Sure, it's big and powerful and scary and it might've eaten your enemies, but it's just as likely to eat you too.

 TheRedWingArmada wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
The Great Four are only the most-powerful of the Chaos Gods. There are all sorts of Daemon Princes that came up through Chaos Undivided that have their own divine portfolios and are, basically, Minor Chaos Gods.

Except that it has been suggested that there are in fact "greater" Chaos Gods, but they are so uncontrollable to themselves that they are better related as forces of nature than actual "Chaos Gods" you could worship and sacrifice to for favor. Like trying to worship a T-Rex. Sure, it's big and powerful and scary and it might've eaten your enemies, but it's just as likely to eat you too.

Thats sort of the Tzeentch paradigm view.

In the sense that chaos itself is change and alteration, thus all the Chaos gods are just facets of Tzeentch. Including himself.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 TheRedWingArmada wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
The Great Four are only the most-powerful of the Chaos Gods. There are all sorts of Daemon Princes that came up through Chaos Undivided that have their own divine portfolios and are, basically, Minor Chaos Gods.

Except that it has been suggested that there are in fact "greater" Chaos Gods, but they are so uncontrollable to themselves that they are better related as forces of nature than actual "Chaos Gods" you could worship and sacrifice to for favor. Like trying to worship a T-Rex. Sure, it's big and powerful and scary and it might've eaten your enemies, but it's just as likely to eat you too.

Thats sort of the Tzeentch paradigm view.

In the sense that chaos itself is change and alteration, thus all the Chaos gods are just facets of Tzeentch. Including himself.

Except Nurgle, who's the true anti-Chaos Chaos God.

I've always seen the Chaos Gods as merely the most powerful daemons, and other minor gods are floating around. The more powerful the daemon, the harder it is to summon, so it makes sense, to me at least, that the big 4 cannot be summoned by any mortal means, but the smaller gods may be able to.

Apparently there isn't even an Undivided anymore. Just neatly marked units of separate gods...

Bitterness aside. I also agree that it isn't Nurgle. Terror and despair may sound similar but they are different emotions. Despair is giving up entirely, having no more will to go on. Which is where ol'Papa Nurgle wants you when he shows up and swears to save you, just have a little bit of pus and you'll be right as rain. Thus Nurgle warriors are then immune to fear.
As da001 pointed out, the Night Lords are the Legion obsessed with Terror, although the fluff has mixed from them not worshiping Chaos, to them being under the illusion that they don't.

I don't think GW is officially pushing a God of Terror right now but one interesting bit of recent fluff was from the Night Lords Trilogy. Cyrion, who is corrupted by Slaanesh, feeds on fear. Like the actual sensation of Mortal fear gives him physical nourishment.

If we assume that GW retconned out lesser gods then I would say that Slaanesh fits it best. But there again, it was more of the personal enjoyment of the causer of fear, rather than the victim's actual terror, that fed Slaanesh.

You would think, what with almost every living thing having a fight or flight response built in, two utterly powerful emotions. That fear and hate would be the two oldest gods. We have Khorne for hate and anger, but no longer a god for fear.

Unless three of the Four came from the Old Ones, who were far too arrogant to birth a God of terror, and were destroyed by their own Immaterim manifestations too sudenly to supply much despair.

Head cannon wise, it always seemed the Big Four are the biggest kids on the block. Gork, Mork, and Cegorath are all certainly around. Ynead, Isha, and Empty are also strongly hinted to exist, or to exist in the future.

I could see Nurgle being birthed when the Old Ones tried to corrupt the Necrons, Tzeech when the Old Ones realized things could actually change, and Khorne was manifested to fight the Necrons directly (which didn't turn out so well)....

Most races aren't strong psykers. All other major gods came from a race that came from the Old Ones:
The Eldar pantheon and Slanesh came from the Eldar, whom the Old Ones manipulated
Gork and Mork came from the Orks, which descended from the Koruks, which the Old Ones made
Empy comes from Humans, which either the Old Ones or Eldar manipulated.

I figure all warp-capable races emotions feed into the Warp, but usually these emotions don't pool together into a single entity, but even when they do, its never even nearly on the same level as the 'Gods', even though its the same powers.

The biggest problem we're going to have with this conversation is the problem of retconn'd v. understood v. realistically.

The old story suggest the Chaos Gods are born from times of Human Trial. (Black Plague, Crusades, etc.)

The new story suggest they've always been and never been, and the Warp is a big place with many things living in it that have never and will never be seen (such as Malal and these "Cosmic Forces of Nature" Gods pictured in our codex's and rulebooks).

Realistically, I fall back on my original position that there is far more to the warp than even we realize, and while the Chaos Gods are certainly powerful, they may have their own problems to deal with in the warp, which they DO deal with in a relatively pleasant manner beffitting the "Great Game."

Ex: You'll probably hear a story one day about Nurgle getting into a pissing contest with Tzeentch, to which Tzeentch unleashed a very psychotic Malal onto Nurgle, but since Nurgle is "sentient" and Malal is "chaos," Nurgle had decidedly better advantages over Malal, starting with the idea of "chaotic order," which is something else that Nurgle embodies, or rather the need to organize for x, y, and z reasons.

This, I think, is a much more flattering picture of the warp.

I'll put it this way. The Ruinous Four are like Kings and Emperors in the Warp, right? And then you've got these other things (like Malal, and I'm only using him as a point of reference, not by his actual fluff, depiction, what not) running around the Warp that are more like Giants, Trolls, etc. etc. Other extremely powerful creatures that tower over the Kings and Emperors of the Warp and perhaps do hold significant advantages (like size, strength and power) but are obviously lacking in other things (like cunning, capability, purpose, etc).

Does this make sense?

If anyone is watching Attack on Titan right now, think of it like that. The Warp and the Ruinous Four are the people behind Maria, Rose and Sina Walls and the Titans outside are more primal forces within the warp. They're certainly powerful, but not enough to end the cause of Man, or in this analogy, the Chaos Gods.

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

 TheRedWingArmada wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
The Great Four are only the most-powerful of the Chaos Gods. There are all sorts of Daemon Princes that came up through Chaos Undivided that have their own divine portfolios and are, basically, Minor Chaos Gods.

Except that it has been suggested that there are in fact "greater" Chaos Gods, but they are so uncontrollable to themselves that they are better related as forces of nature than actual "Chaos Gods" you could worship and sacrifice to for favor. Like trying to worship a T-Rex. Sure, it's big and powerful and scary and it might've eaten your enemies, but it's just as likely to eat you too.

Thats sort of the Tzeentch paradigm view.

In the sense that chaos itself is change and alteration, thus all the Chaos gods are just facets of Tzeentch. Including himself.

Except Nurgle, who's the true anti-Chaos Chaos God.

Nurgle is representative of rot and decay, which is most-certainly a form of change. From vibrant and healthy to sickly and diseased and so on.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also to add... the Great Four are the Great Four for a reason, the masters of the Warp. The greater sentiences that were previously mentioned are things like Lovecraft's Azathoth, the Blind Idiot God.

Azathoth is Chaos Incarnate, a churning ball of madness at the center of the universe from which, forgotten legends state, all of creation originates. However, Azathoth's mind, such as it is, is unknowable. No creature, mortal or otherwise, can comprehend its thoughts, or even communicate with it. Constantly does Azathoth birth new realities, and just as quickly consume them. This happens all the time, unceasingly so quickly that the current universe has been born and devoured a million million times over in the time it took me to write this post.

Such entities as Azathoth are beyond the scope of the setting of 40K, for they are not even dimly aware that other creatures, whether Warp-born or mortal, exist, and do not interact with them in any meaningful, or even comprehensible, manner.

I would be so happy if someone could write some stuff about an Azathoth equivalent in 40k... Most of the information on Chaos is really old.

The Deimos reference aforementioned is (I think) a good example too. The ancient Greek gods where all born from Chaos, the yawning nothingness. Which is just another name for Azathoth, if you think about it. Then we have a second sphere made of entities like Erebus (Darkness, Hell) or Gaia (the Earth, but more like the physical plane). Deimos as the God of Terror and some more constitute a third sphere. And so on until you reach heroes and then humanity.

I really miss the time when background books like 'Liber Chaotica' were written.

The ancient greek gods came from the titans, it was the titans who came from chaos

Gods from Titans. Titans from Gea & Uranus. Uranus from Gaia. Gaia from Chaos. All gods are ultimately the offspring of Chaos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree_of_the_Greek_gods

(on topic: the god of Terror is the child of Ares in this Family Tree, but other sources make it born from Nyx + Erebus)

Animus wrote:

 Harriticus wrote:
Malice, he's specifically called the "Hierarch of Anarchy and Terror".

That doesn't really mean anything though. Slaanesh is called the Dark Prince, but that doesn't mean he's empowered by darkness or that he's even a proper Prince.
Malice was actually summoned in The Labyrinth , which means he's not a Chaos God, since they cannot leave the Warp.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure it says that Malice was thrown out of the warp by the big 4.

Probably have to make this one a poll mate..