Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

It’s a very big question.

First, we need some form of consensus of what qualifies as a god in 40k.

By the Christian ideal, none of them are actually gods. They’re certainly powerful beings, but none are absoltely omnipotent. If they were, ‘there would be only one’, on account they’d have destroyed their rivals.

The Big Four are just incredibly powerful entities. But, in theory, no different to the C’tan, on account they still have clear limitations.

Now, The Big Four, alongside Gork and Mork, are the benchmark. They’re existent ‘gods’. And we know they’re warp based reflections of emotions. Far and away the most powerful are Gork and Mork. That’s because every single Greenskin believes in them wholeheartedly. But being a reflection of that most irreverent of races, they rarely look beyond the occasional punch up and clobbering. If it wasn’t for that drawback, they’d have consumed all the other ‘gods’ well before the in-game now.

So who or what are the Eldar Gods? Exactly the same as everything else that’s a major player in The Warp. A manifestation and reflection of a racial psyche.

Perhaps they were once mortal. A genuine living being so inspiring the faith of their followers took shape. Or, they were only ever esoteric ideals, the pursuit of which manifested. And that could entirely depend on which god you’re talking about.

There’s also the concept of racial gods being an aspect of The Big Four. Then there’s the consideration that The Big Four are shared corruptions of trans-species gods. Khorne started out as a god of martial honour. Tzeentch as a god of natural progress. Nurgle as a god of nature. Slaanesh as a god of enjoyment.

If the very broad categories are true (and for arguments sake, I’m saying they are), then such common themes, spread across myriad races, may have afflicted their Warp reflection with a kind of schizophrenia. Lots of subtlety different ideals all tearing the entity in various directions, resulting in utter insanity.

Hence Khorne simply becomes a god of bloodshed, Tzeentch a god of reckless, uncaring, relentless change and mutation, Nurgle a god of thoughtlessly abundant life, Slaanesh a god of utter excess.

Are The Big Four an amalgamation of all the gods of the various species, or were the gods of the various species always aspects of The Big Four?

I don’t think we’ll ever know.