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Just had a thought of a new Chaos god forming. Basically it plays or like this. The citizens of the imperium begin to despair as hostile forces further encroach on the emperium. Faith in the emperor wanes and efforts to force belief only lead to further despair. It becomes increasingly clear to more and more citizens that they will die in a horrible, meaningless way often after suffering great pain, trials and horrors in the days, weeks and months preceding their demise. AM basic troopers feel their despair grow even after victories knowing that their death approaches at the hand of the enemy is their leaders and each battle gives them vivid depictions if what ultimately awaits them.

As the new god gestates, cultists preach of the oblivion it offers. Give yourself to this god and you will know nothing after death, you will not know when you die, you will not know the pain, suffering, fear, sorrows and horrors you face while you yet live. Cultists executed by the Inquisition smile while they burn and exalt their god as they die. Executions cannot be public for when they are many more turn to this god after witnessing the serenity of the condemned.

The death of the emperor leads to a wave of despair and the god is born destroying much of the imperium, but also a massive portion of the tyranid fleets. The large factions (tyranids, orks, humans, chaos) are decimated by this event and there is now no dominant force in the galaxy. The stage is set for a race to be the next galaxy spanning empire. War is still the unending constant.

I bring you the Chaos God of Despair!

As said before me, despair falls under the reign of Nurgle.

Hmm, never really got that vibe from him. I'm picturing more empty shells rather than rot and decay and pestilance. The outer form may remain beautiful, but no one is really home. Pleasure, pain, joy, sorrow all are gone. It is more about what happens to the mind, than the body. Disease, death and decay may take you, you just don't notice or care and you can go from perfect health, beauty and vitality to death wihout Nurgle's rot. Perhaps a mental rot so to speak is a part of Nurgle, I just haven't heard about. This seems different though.

Could you have someone that fully given over to nurgle that does not suffer from decay, rot and disease?

Gwaihirsbrother wrote:
Hmm, never really got that vibe from him. I'm picturing more empty shells rather than rot and decay and pestilance. The outer form may remain beautiful, but no one is really home. Pleasure, pain, joy, sorrow all are gone. It is more about what happens to the mind, than the body. Disease, death and decay may take you, you just don't notice or care and you can go from perfect health, beauty and vitality to death wihout Nurgle's rot. Perhaps a mental rot so to speak is a part of Nurgle, I just haven't heard about. This seems different though.

Could you have someone that fully given over to nurgle that does not suffer from decay, rot and disease?

Nurgle is the god of Despair because it's how he gains followers. He feeds off the fear of misery of those suffering from disease, and offers himself as the only option to turn to from the suffering to those who give up completely.

Well people if you derive pleasure from conflict isn't that Slaaneshi and therefore there is no reason for Khorne? Seems to me like there is room for some overlap between the various Chaos gods.

And Nurgle's recruiting pitch doesn't seem very appealing to me. "Hey, I made you sick and you think life sucks beause of that so why don't you be my follower and you can be sick forever."

The new Chaos god comes along and says "Poor thing, creepy Nurgle did that to you, that sucks, why don't you follow me so that he doesn't get the benefit of ruining your life and I'll make it so you don't suffer." Meanwhile someone is broken hearted cause the love of their life is sleeping around and nurgle says, "Follow me, I'll make you physically sick as well as heartsick". Again what's the draw? Joe guardsman is headed for Cadia to fight in the 14th crusade and nurgle says "how would you like some plague to distract you from your upcoming demise". Again not seeing the draw.

The new Chaos doesn't impose new afflictions on these people, in a way delivers them from the forces that most disturb them and gives them the benefit of not caring about any new problems that come their way.

Well people if you derive pleasure from conflict isn't that Slaaneshi and therefore there is no reason for Khorne? Seems to me like there is room for some overlap between the various Chaos gods.

That is, explicitly, what Slaanesh's forces think of battle. "The most sublime pleasure can be found in manual drill of arms" or some such being a quote from RoC. Slaanesh and Khorne are also diametrically-opposed deities in the House of Chaos and, in previous editions, could not ally.

And Nurgle's recruiting pitch doesn't seem very appealing to me. "Hey, I made you sick and you think life sucks beause of that so why don't you be my follower and you can be sick forever."

The new Chaos god comes along and says "Poor thing, creepy Nurgle did that to you, that sucks, why don't you follow me so that he doesn't get the benefit of ruining your life and I'll make it so you don't suffer." Meanwhile someone is broken hearted cause the love of their life is sleeping around and nurgle says, "Follow me, I'll make you physically sick as well as heartsick". Again what's the draw? Joe guardsman is headed for Cadia to fight in the 14th crusade and nurgle says "how would you like some plague to distract you from your upcoming demise". Again not seeing the draw.

You get sick before Nurgle makes an appearance. When he does, he promises that you won't die, and you will, in fact, endure. And since he is a fat, jovial sort of fellow, a lot of people fall for his friendly demeanor.

Joe Guardsman, for example, won't get the call until, six months into the eight-month Warp trip, 80% of the crew are dead from some virulent plague, the survivors having sealed themselves off in the bridge, but now have consumed all of their rations, and were unable to get the air filters working again, and the atmo coming out of the ventilation systems tastes a little "off", and the helmsman just started respirating bloody pus...

This is the point where Joe Guardsman prays for someone, anyone, to save him.

The reason Nurgle and Tzeentch hate each other is that Nurgle embodies the acceptance of all that happens in life; whereas Tzeentch is the god of changing things in the hope you can be in control. Everything dies and decays, why worry about it?

The cult you have described certainly seems to match this idea.

I tried writing 4 other chaos gods (one for each point of the Chaos star, Malal being the center of the Chaos star.) for fun and I realized how encompassing the jurisdiction of the Choas gods are. Best I could come up with was thievery, exploration (leads to imperialism), animals (generic but hey it works.) I just copped out with the excuse "The chaos gods are starting to decay and splitting off into separate entities partially" that also gives them more motivation for 13th Black Crusade.

The Chaos Gods embody conceptual things, not physical things, which is why you don't see Chaos Gods of the oceans, nature, animals, etc. This is not a dark version of various pagan religions.

If you want other Chaos Gods, you have Malal (Rebellion), Zuvassin (the Undoer) and Necoho (Atheism, the Unbeliever... yes, he's a god of Atheism).

... and that makes 7 Gods of Chaos, with the final, eighth arrow representing the House of Chaos Undivided.

Where did Zuvassian and Necoho come from?

A Warhammer Fantasy publication from, like, 1992 called Something Rotten in Kislev.

the chaos God of Despair is actually... Sephiroth from FF VII. FACT. Its clear..

You are mistaking "Emo Teen Angst as told by Japanese Game Writers" for "Despair"... minor, but important, distinction.

Tsilber wrote:
the chaos God of Despair is actually... Sephiroth from FF VII. FACT. Its clear..

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Wait...this is serious?

Sorry, there's no Chaos god of Horribly Written Villains. For all the problems in 40k writing at times, at least it isn't as bad as Final Fantasy writing.

Hey FF7 was... Bearable....

Some of the characters had okay writing.

Sephiroth is terribly written though.

I can't think of a worse written villain.

The four chaos gods actually have a lot of concepts under them, which is why it can be hard to come up with any new ones. Slaanesh is not just pleasure, but also the drive for perfection, for example (since pride is one of the ultimate pleasures, and also working towards perfection lets you experience higher forms of pleasure as well).

Khorne is anger but also honor... probably because "Justice" is typically served via punishment (wrath).

In Tzeentch's case, not only is he change, but also dreams (because you dream of stuff that isn't there yet. IE, desire change) and hope (same thing. You don't hope for something if you already have it. To hope for something is to desire change)

In Nurgle's case, not only is he stagnation, but also acceptance and despair (because once you despair enough, you've basically given up which is the same as acceptance in many ways).

Of course, Despair isn't always the same as Acceptance. That's why, for example, you have cases like the Black Crusade RPG where some nurgle followers are crazy daeth cults of despair that just want everyone to die while others are more into the acceptance thing and are just like "WTF, guys?" when it comes to those killers. Even a god does not always agree with himself, which is why sometimes Nurgle daemons will fight Nurgle daemons. In the end, chaos is... well, CHAOS.

 Bronzefists42 wrote:
Hey FF7 was... Bearable....

Some of the characters had okay writing.

Sephiroth is terribly written though.

I can't think of a worse written villain.

Raise your standards. :p Do not excuse "bearable" in a game that is supposedly built on a strong story.

The writing for the fall of Horus is equally bad. The guy starts a galatic civil war because he had a bad dream in which somebody he knows is a liar said he should, despite one of his brothers risking his neck to break into the dream and tell him its all a load of crap. Most unmotivated fall to evil ever.

Yeah before Fall of Horus it was written as a gradual thing not "one weird dream and I will murderize the galaxy."

JubbJubbz wrote:
The writing for the fall of Horus is equally bad. The guy starts a galatic civil war because he had a bad dream in which somebody he knows is a liar said he should, despite one of his brothers risking his neck to break into the dream and tell him its all a load of crap. Most unmotivated fall to evil ever.

To be fair, that "dream" involved Chaos, probably even the direct attention of the Chaos Gods, screwing with his mind. The only shame is just how poorly executed it was. I'll never forgive McNeil for botching one of the key moments of the Horus Heresy.