Just some information on medieval medicine that actually ties into the chaos gods in 40k but probably more likely warhammer fantasy.
In medieval times it was believed that the mental and physical health was determined by a balance or lack there of by four liquids (or humors). If they were inbalanced you were said to be diseased, and so priests and doctors would try to bring the humors back into balance. This is actually the origin of the medicinal practice called bleeding (sometimes by use of leeches.)
Anyway, the four humors are blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm. Each governs a part of physical health or the mental psyche. But each humor follows a theme of what they do. Now to my point. Each one ties to one of the chaos gods (minus Malal).
Blood- Promotes a feeling of joy, mirth, optimism, enthusiasm, affection and wellbeing ---- Correlates to Slaanesh not Khorne (how 'bout that)
Phlegm- Excess of this induces lethargy, passivity, sentimentallity, and is most likely to cause disease due to imbalance ---- This relates to Nurgle
Black Bile- Is responsible for prudence, realism, pragmatism, pessimism, and its imbalance causes depression. ---- This is Tzeentch
Yellow Bile- Excess or lack of this is responsible for anger, boldness, courage, ambition, and emotional excitement ---- And this is Khorne.
It is fun to thing that when GW was thinking up the chaos gods, this could have been the inspiration for them. I know that it was likely something else, but still.
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