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I understand that the Eldar have gods that they worship. I also understand that all of the gods, except for Khaine, Isha and Cegorach were destroyed in the fall. What I don't understand is what the Eldar gods were. Were they benevolent warp entities? Were they actual gods? Were they real? Were they metaphorical and did their destruction represent the fall of the Eldar? Explain.

They were very real. They were all Warp Deities just the other Chaos Gods.

Isha is a prisoner in Nurgle's garden, Cegorach lives in the Webway somewhere trolling Slannesh, and Slannesh was unable to destroy Khaine, just shatter him into a bunch of pieces. Each Avatar is one of those many pieces of Khaine.

There are many many warp entities, many of which are definite gods. Khorne, Nurgle, Slannesh, and Tzeentch are just the 4 biggest. But they're not necessarily the most powerful. Gork and Mork are also warp gods, and they're probably the most powerful as none of the other entities can touch them.

Originally one of the original producers of 40k (Godwin? I forget) said that all of the warp is aspects of each other. So Khaine was loosely an aspect of Khorne and Slaanesh, and he explicitly stated that one of the reasons Khorne fought Slaanesh over Khaine was thus because Slaanesh fully consuming Khaine was akin to Slaanesh stealing a chunk of khorne's power. Chaos Undivided could also worship the gods of Chaos (all of them, not just the big four) as aspects of a singular entity. They also stated this was the case for Fantasy, too, IIRC.

However, End Times for Fantasy retconned the elven gods so that they're actually the last living beings from a previous reality that ascended to godhood. No idea if that influences what they are in 40k or not (Fantasy and 40k are generally teasted to share the same warp, especially lately, but it's not confirmed)

 Grey Templar wrote:
They were very real. They were all Warp Deities just the other Chaos Gods.

Isha is a prisoner in Nurgle's garden, Cegorach lives in the Webway somewhere trolling Slannesh, and Slannesh was unable to destroy Khaine, just shatter him into a bunch of pieces. Each Avatar is one of those many pieces of Khaine.

There are many many warp entities, many of which are definite gods. Khorne, Nurgle, Slannesh, and Tzeentch are just the 4 biggest. But they're not necessarily the most powerful. Gork and Mork are also warp gods, and they're probably the most powerful as none of the other entities can touch them.

So in a way, sacrificing an exarch to create an avatar of Khaine is kind of like daemonic posession?

Not "kind of like". It IS demonic possession.

Indeed. The sacrificed eldar is possessed to awaken the Avatar shard.

TiamatRoar wrote:
Originally one of the original producers of 40k (Godwin? I forget) said that all of the warp is aspects of each other. So Khaine was loosely an aspect of Khorne and Slaanesh, and he explicitly stated that one of the reasons Khorne fought Slaanesh over Khaine was thus because Slaanesh fully consuming Khaine was akin to Slaanesh stealing a chunk of khorne's power. Chaos Undivided could also worship the gods of Chaos (all of them, not just the big four) as aspects of a singular entity. They also stated this was the case for Fantasy, too, IIRC.

However, End Times for Fantasy retconned the elven gods so that they're actually the last living beings from a previous reality that ascended to godhood. No idea if that influences what they are in 40k or not (Fantasy and 40k are generally teasted to share the same warp, especially lately, but it's not confirmed)

course their being ascended individuals doesn't stop them from also being warp entities.

 Grey Templar wrote:
They were very real. They were all Warp Deities just the other Chaos Gods.

Isha is a prisoner in Nurgle's garden, Cegorach lives in the Webway somewhere trolling Slannesh, and Slannesh was unable to destroy Khaine, just shatter him into a bunch of pieces. Each Avatar is one of those many pieces of Khaine.

There are many many warp entities, many of which are definite gods. Khorne, Nurgle, Slannesh, and Tzeentch are just the 4 biggest. But they're not necessarily the most powerful. Gork and Mork are also warp gods, and they're probably the most powerful as none of the other entities can touch them.

Although this is one popular theory, it hasn't been 100% confirmed. Another theory is that the Eldar Gods are the last few survivors of the Old Ones race, which would make them entirely natural, biological creatures, if hugely psychically powerful and capable of bioengineering beyond any other race in the setting. Isha in Nurgle's garden doesn't disprove this, since there have been numerous instances of mortals entering and surviving in the warp.

 fallinq wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
They were very real. They were all Warp Deities just the other Chaos Gods.

Isha is a prisoner in Nurgle's garden, Cegorach lives in the Webway somewhere trolling Slannesh, and Slannesh was unable to destroy Khaine, just shatter him into a bunch of pieces. Each Avatar is one of those many pieces of Khaine.

There are many many warp entities, many of which are definite gods. Khorne, Nurgle, Slannesh, and Tzeentch are just the 4 biggest. But they're not necessarily the most powerful. Gork and Mork are also warp gods, and they're probably the most powerful as none of the other entities can touch them.

Although this is one popular theory, it hasn't been 100% confirmed. Another theory is that the Eldar Gods are the last few survivors of the Old Ones race, which would make them entirely natural, biological creatures, if hugely psychically powerful and capable of bioengineering beyond any other race in the setting. Isha in Nurgle's garden doesn't disprove this, since there have been numerous instances of mortals entering and surviving in the warp.

The Old Ones were unable to cope with the new Chaos-Warp and died out after Order ceased to be the dominant force in the Warp.

You see, this is where things get blurry. The old ones created the Eldar, yet so did Asuryan, thye can't both be right. Or can they?

My theory is that everything has a mirror in the Warp, and when the Eldar Race was created they worshiped the Old Ones lie gods. Ergo, they became gods as the mirror entities formed of this worship. This explains the blurring of the lines, the War in the Heavens being both about the Old ones and the Necrons AND the Eldar Gods and the C'Tan. So when the Old Ones died off, their memory was still around in the form of the Eldar Gods. I also believe that Cegorarch was born from the deceiver, he was known for helping both sides of the war so it would make sense for him to make his way into the Mythology of the war, this explains the conflicting evidence about who caused the Outsider to eat his brothers.

There you go, my simple theory. It makes sense with what we have to work with, or you know, it could of just been retconned..

BrianDavion wrote:

TiamatRoar wrote:
Originally one of the original producers of 40k (Godwin? I forget) said that all of the warp is aspects of each other. So Khaine was loosely an aspect of Khorne and Slaanesh, and he explicitly stated that one of the reasons Khorne fought Slaanesh over Khaine was thus because Slaanesh fully consuming Khaine was akin to Slaanesh stealing a chunk of khorne's power. Chaos Undivided could also worship the gods of Chaos (all of them, not just the big four) as aspects of a singular entity. They also stated this was the case for Fantasy, too, IIRC.

However, End Times for Fantasy retconned the elven gods so that they're actually the last living beings from a previous reality that ascended to godhood. No idea if that influences what they are in 40k or not (Fantasy and 40k are generally teasted to share the same warp, especially lately, but it's not confirmed)

course their being ascended individuals doesn't stop them from also being warp entities.

It's one thing to be ascended into being a warp entity. It's another thing entirely to be an ascended individual that's also an aspect of Khorne, whom in Fantasy is explicitly NOT an ascended being and is the one responsible for forcing Khaine to ascend in the first place. Thus it's either a retcon or just very very wierd shenanigans (although I do admit that given the nature of the warp, I can't completely rule out the latter).