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So, from reading the Horus Heresy series, I know that Horus was wounded and taken to local healers who were secretly Chaos cultists. From there, his soul was taken to the Warp and the Chaos Gods showed him visions of a future where the Emperor is worshiped as a god and he is forgotten. What I really don't get is why he didn't even consider that the Chaos gods might simply be lying to him. Why believe four evil gods, one of whom is KNOWN to specialize in elaborate plotting and lies, over his own creator and father?

Well to be honest he was not as clued up on the chaos gods as we are. Plus he was delarious and was not thinking straight, being poisened does that you know

Also it was a set up by the world bearers to make horus turn to choas. They knew about the chaos gods long before any body did. Logar turned to the chaos gods because the emporer frowned on him for treating him like a god.

tigonesskay wrote:Also it was a set up by the world bearers to make horus turn to choas. They knew about the chaos gods long before any body did. Logar turned to the chaos gods because the emporer frowned on him for treating him like a god.

Thats the problem really the emporer nagged the primarchs like an anoyying parent (Example Magnus the Red and Logar)

The Four knew exactly how to dupe and manipulate Horus. Horus was already mad and/or confused with his father, who had quit the Great Crusade for some purpose that he deemed that his very own sons could not know.

This knowledge, and the fact that Horus' job as Warmaster was too trying (Other Primarchs felt that they were better for the job, some outright disagreed with him, etc.) gave Horus his dislike of the Emperor. He also felt that he was trying to fill shoes that no one could.

This internal confusion is ripe for Chaos Contamination. The gods knew that Horus' style of command (Lead from the front, ask help from no one, etc.) was something that he held closer to his heart than the Emperor. His personality was almost perfect (Strong-willed enough to not succumb to mutations or the will of a particular Chaos, but naive enough to follow their commands)

Deathbot wrote:What I really don't get is why he didn't even consider that the Chaos gods might simply be lying to him.

That's a very good observation and one that I've struggled with, too. If Horus was so magnificently intelligent, etc, why did he give his visions so little thought. All that I can come up with is, to partially agree with Cryonicleech, that Horus was never all that loyal to begin with and was really more committed to his own ambitions than the Emperor's plans. But that begs the further question, why'd the Emperor (a) make him that way, (b) not know he was that way, and/or (c) put him in charge of the Great Crusade, i.e., where does the real fault lie? Now, I tend to think that the Emperor is as close to perfect as it gets in the world of 40k (that silly "Last Church" story notwithstanding), so I personally believe that Horus's failures are his own rather than his father's. The Emperor, on the one hand, refused to be worshiped as a god while Horus, on the other hand, was jealous of his father in the visions of Emperor worship provided to him by Chaos. I guess you could blame the Emperor for creating supermen and not foreseeing that some of them would be power-crazy, especially given that he was not able to raise them himself, but that argument is undercut by the fact that other primarchs did not fall and that some of the others who did were not totally motivated by pride (Angron or Mortarion, for example). But to get back to your original question, Horus was not nearly so perfect as everyone told him he was or as he himself might have thought. He was actually quite callous and careless, as his lack of questioning the vision that you note proves.

Deathbot wrote:What I really don't get is why he didn't even consider that the Chaos gods might simply be lying to him. Why believe four evil gods, one of whom is KNOWN to specialize in elaborate plotting and lies, over his own creator and father?

Because , some people would rather believe in evil people that atleast admit they are evil.

Then obey someone that openly purges / exterminatus innocent xenos for w/e propaganda they can come up with.
Oh wait , there is someone in human history like that already -_-

Lunahound--wtf is up with your avatar? I didn't recognize you at all without some anime cutie up there!

Anyway, Luna, Idon't totally get your point. Did Horus even care whether the Chaos gods were evil? All he wanted was their help to establish himself as the god emperor through the usurpation of his father. As for innocent xenos, there is no such thing. In the world of 40k, "alien" means anti-human (i.e., not going to tolerate human dominance of the galaxy). Besides, innocence proves nothing.

Dont forget the fact that he has a) been struggling with the administrative hassles imposed by Terra's beauracracy, b) just been mortally wounded (to a near immortal thats gotta shake you up a bit) and c) been sold a very convincing story that the Emperor has 'done enough' and is now moving his goal towards godhood - increasing the sense of abandonment. Add to the fact that the Emperor had hidden a lot of the truth about the Warp, and Horus' faith in his father was shaken to the core.

When you are dedicated and loyal and utterly faithful to an ideal, suddenly being faced with the truth/convincing story can result in the desire to strike back - Horus didnt go straight to 'worshipping chaos', he really just got angry at the Emperor and allied with them (probably considering they were equally aligned).

You give him too much credit, darkkt, but I think we've covered this ground with one another before. No surprise that the Space Pup and Thousand Son disagree, eh?