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We all know that Khorne is a bit too angry to be happy, and Tzeench is too busy. So, who's happier? Nurgle or Slaanesh?

Slaanesh itself and its followers is likely to be constantly looking for new experiences and satisfaction and so seldom happy I don't think

Papa Nurgle is likely to be often happy and contented - watching his "children" bustle about in the Warp and mortal realm, he can go down to the garden shed and play with his pet Eldar Goddess and his diseases - lots of stuff really as he sits in (well rots into) his throne/armchair.

So:

Khorne: Anger issues. Little setbacks or minor irritations make him so angry he puts his fist through the door. Then he's pissed off that he's broken the door to his kitchen again. So. Fething. Irritating.

Slaanesh: Bi-polar. Definitely has fethloads of fun when the going's good, but when it's not there's a slight tinge of the desperation addicts have when looking for the next hit. Heart and soul of the party, but probably not very enjoyable to be them.

Tzeentch: Neurotic conspiracy nut. You know that one guy who will try and tell you at every opportunity that 911 was staged by the US government? This is that guy. Except somehow he's implicated in it as well, but he has a cunning plan to beat them. Of course he won't tell you, you might be part of it as well.

Nurgle: Hobbyist. Utterly content sitting in his study of a Saturday evening, painting his little toy soldiers spawning new daemons and concocting diseases. Fantastically pleased when his latest batch of plaguebearers drags down a Wraithknight in their first battle. Tough list he was facing too. Scatbikes and Wraithknights as far as the eye could see. Generally fun guy to be around, if you don't mind the lack of deodorant

Yeah, no question Nurgle is the happiest

I see Slaanesh as a hollow, hedonistic happiness, whereas Nurgle is more of a 'happy in your misery' kind of deal.

Nurgle is content with what he has, so that probably allows him to be the happiest.
Slaanesh is like Tzeentch. Just like Tzeentch can't kick back and enjoy how his plots work out because he too busy making them even more elaborate and convuluted, Slaanesh is constantly striving for more happiness, and that striving leaves him too busy to actually be happy and enjoy things. There is always the gnawing feeling that there is more to be had, which prevents him from being truly happy like Nurgle.

 Mr Morden wrote:
Slaanesh itself and its followers is likely to be constantly looking for new experiences and satisfaction and so seldom happy I don't think

Papa Nurgle is likely to be often happy and contented - watching his "children" bustle about in the Warp and mortal realm, he can go down to the garden shed and play with his pet Eldar Goddess and his diseases - lots of stuff really as he sits in (well rots into) his throne/armchair.

Im not so sure, content and happiness are two very different concepts, I will conceed that nurgle and his followers are certainly more content, while slannesh's followers in contrast are never content or sated in their search for a new zenith of pleasure. But in reguards to happiness slanneshi followers experience happiness and pleasure beyond the planes or mortal conceivability, I imagine nurgles followers in a more complacent, carefree and jovial happyness, sort of like what like buddha is often depicted as.

Slaanesh's followers are junkies: they're so burned out on the stimulations they've had that they actually feel almost nothing. That's why they are chasing such extremes: they're just constantly trying to find a new way to feel ANYTHING.

I think Nurgle's followers are the happiest. He even alters their perceptions to enjoy their diseases.

The four Chaos Powers roughly parallel the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. That's probably not just a coincidence. And, in that context, Chaos ain't so much fun, and Slaneesh ain't just for hedonists.

Red Horse (War)=Khorne. Duh.
Pale Horse (Death)=Tzeench I interpret this to mean Change. Death is the ultimate change. OK, this is my weakest analogy.
Black Horse (Famine)=Slaneesh Think of this as extreme desire (i.e. starvation), instead of an Eyes Wide Shut orgy masquerade. Takes the fun out of Slaneesh. Makes it much more sinister and controlling and addictive.
White Horse (Pestilence)=Nurgle. Why is Nurgle happy? The inevitable spread of Pestilence also represents inevitable victory. Victory for the disease, not the afflicted. They are vessels. I suppose they can rejoice in helping spread the pestilence?

If we remember Slaneesh was created by Eldar emotions, instead of human emotions, it's clear Slaneesh is not the more fun Chaos Power. The Eldar are similar to Star Trek Vulcan's (coincidence?). They have an extreme duality of personality. Either rigidly controlled, or excessive reckless abandon. Craftworld vs Commorragh. Humans don't dabble in Slaneesh, they are consumed by it.

Don't forget that Nurgle has plenty of Dour Folk in his group, the Plaguebearers are very serious about their work and so are plenty of his mortals as well.

Have you ever popped a really big pimple? I think it is pretty clear Nurgle is very happy.

I honestly don't know much about Nurgle cause I enjoy Slaanesh quite a bit. But this is my case for Slaanesh...

I don't think Nurgle followers are 'happy' I think most if not all of them have a sorrowful-hollow sense making them quasi insane(Laughing hysterically etc.) which makes them seem happy. I think Nurgle is kind of a 0 in this subject cause his followers for the most part seem to want to ignore any kind of stimuli that would make them 'feel' anything. Desensitizing yourself like that just isn't going to make you happy cause you sacrificed happiness to attain this state. And with that kind of approach on things I don't see where the emotional point of happiness begins.

Simple wise... If Slaanesh's good emotion is love and Nurgle is Death I'll assume hes his good emotion is Life(Isha) then I say I know a few stories of people giving up life for love. In the case where you see your love die, misery, despair, suffering come after which are all things Nurgle feed on with the promises of ending the pain which can be good........ but is it as good as having love. No.. it's just a balance. I don't think its happiness.

I respectfully agree with the negatives on Slaanesh JimSolo points out. But... the recurring theme is that you have to find pleasure in denial or suffering and the feeling you get finding that next excessive pleasurable experience you can indulge in for X time frame could be forever could be 10 seconds but at least its not just 0. You just don't get anywhere with emotion and Nurgle hes just a state of being. At least you get to gamble with Slaanesh and if you can find some positives in the downs then your working it in your advantage I.E. Lucius and his masochistic behavior and literally defying death through the pleasure and enjoyment of the duel. Sure Slaanesh champions burn out slowly with each higher high but in my mind Nurgle is pretty much go directly to Burn Out, bi-pass suffering, avoid the all positives and collect 200 plagues.

Nurgle is a monk...
Slaanesh is a world traveling person with various extremes in experience...

All emotions fuel the gods in one way or another.
Happiness fuels Nurgle, not Slaanesh. It is why so many of the Nurgle daemons are smiling, and so few of the Slaanesh ones are smiling. You can be experiencing great pleasure, but not be happy. Nurgle draws from the happiness that people feel when they are saved from the plagues Nurgle gifted them. (source: Liber Chaotica: Nurgle)

From 1D4 chan.

Nurgle is also the god of other stoic emotions, such as: inevitability, empathy, kinship, happiness, struggle, love, tradition, mercy, and memory. Unlike Tzeentch who tells his followers to deny death to continue to achieve greater things; Nurgle tells his followers to accept the inevitability of their demise, and by doing so, achieve solace and happiness. His followers are all-too happy to spread the joyous teachings of Papa Nurgle

Also from Liber Chaotica, it states that Tzeentch draws power from all emotions surrounding change, how is that for broad?

Again, just compare the demons, any of them. The art, models and lore. Remember that Nurgle Daemons are created from Nurgle, as part of him. Which of the demons look happier? I mean, just look at those nurglings!

Nurgle is Buddha. A big bloated rotting Buddha. And upon every depiction of Buddha(s), you see a content smile upon his/their face(s). With Buddha Nurgle, one can escape suffering and can obtain Nurgvana.

Happiness with Slaanesh can only lead to suffering, skipping right over fear and anger placing you right next door to the Dark Side. At that point you can only obtain "happiness" by getting others to suffer more than you yourself are which pushes you further and further away from ever obtaining Nurgvana.

 gwarsh41 wrote:
All emotions fuel the gods in one way or another.
Happiness fuels Nurgle, not Slaanesh. It is why so many of the Nurgle daemons are smiling, and so few of the Slaanesh ones are smiling. You can be experiencing great pleasure, but not be happy. Nurgle draws from the happiness that people feel when they are saved from the plagues Nurgle gifted them. (source: Liber Chaotica: Nurgle)

From 1D4 chan.

Nurgle is also the god of other stoic emotions, such as: inevitability, empathy, kinship, happiness, struggle, love, tradition, mercy, and memory. Unlike Tzeentch who tells his followers to deny death to continue to achieve greater things; Nurgle tells his followers to accept the inevitability of their demise, and by doing so, achieve solace and happiness. His followers are all-too happy to spread the joyous teachings of Papa Nurgle

Also from Liber Chaotica, it states that Tzeentch draws power from all emotions surrounding change, how is that for broad?

Again, just compare the demons, any of them. The art, models and lore. Remember that Nurgle Daemons are created from Nurgle, as part of him. Which of the demons look happier? I mean, just look at those nurglings!

Also from 1d4chan

Cegorach pulled a practical joke on Nurgle once, convincing him to place a special powder and liquid into his cauldron of diseases. Nurgle obliged and mixed the two together, but the powder turned out to be ground up uber-penicillin which cured everyone in the galaxy and the warp of all disease, and the liquid turned out to be uber-detergent which cleaned everything in the galaxy and the warp until it was sparkly clean. Nurgle however simply smiled and shrugged and happily said that this meant he could dirty the place up all over again and shared a good laugh with Cegorach. Which is pretty much why Papa Nurgle is a cool dude.

Happiness for Slaanesh is either causing suffering and despair in others, or experiencing excess. Slaanesh and hir minions can attain happiness but they can never be content.

 Jimsolo wrote:
Slaanesh's followers are junkies: they're so burned out on the stimulations they've had that they actually feel almost nothing. That's why they are chasing such extremes: they're just constantly trying to find a new way to feel ANYTHING.

I think Nurgle's followers are the happiest. He even alters their perceptions to enjoy their diseases.

Well, one individual who was particularly unhappy was, Mortarion. He sounds like he was very depressed and had a lot baggage he carried with him into the Crusade. So, I wouldn't say you are necessarily more happy with one god or than the other. All of them are products of negative emotion. So, Yeah.

Nurgle himself is definitely happier than Slaanesh, but not all his followers are happy.

The Purge, for instance, hates everything so much they're trying to wipe out all life in the universe (or at least all intelligent life, I'm not sure if this has been clarified). Also Mortarian, as mentioned above, is a moody git.


The thing about Slaanesh is that Slaanesh is extremely jealous and vain. So Slaanesh actually gets pissed pretty easily. Probably the second angriest god after Khorne.

And Slaanesh's followers, if they live long enough, tend to get jaded and build up an immunity to all the drugs, so the ones that are happy either grow out of it or don't live very long. Slaanesh's "happiness" is really just more shallow pleasure than anything anyway, which comes and goes.

Nurgle's happiness is more internal. It's being at peace, even when everything in the universe is turning to gak. In fact, it's learning to see the humor and fun in how everything is turning to gak.