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Hey, have some questions about possession or more specifically possessed marines, such as who is in control of the possessed body the host or the deamon, also do possessed have a human form such as Argel Tal?

Well, it isn't called "possession" because the person is still in control. When it happens, it is the daemon brutally taking up residence in the host's body, along with modifications to that particular daemon's liking, such as claws, wings, multiple heads or what have you. The case of Argel Tal is the exception, but you can be pretty assured that the possessed is under the daemon's control.

Deamons dont need the agreement of a mortals or gods to possess anything that I am aware of, however IIRC it creates a better bond and thus a more powerful Possessed host.

Off the top of my head though there are several types of Possessed.

Gal Vorbak: This is a literal bonding of both the Deamon and the Hosts soul, rather than one consuming the other, the Deamon tried to find the best host possible and if it doenst find one, it kills the prospective host, or leaves it an empty shell, should the deamon find the perfect host then the process seems to take more time for the bonding, though this could just be it biding its time, the end result is a much more powerful possessed marine than the current 40k ones.

Deamonhost: the forceful, or not, possession of the deamon on a host, by an outside force, so for example a Deamon Prince called Cherubael was bound to a host body but not of its own will, this creates differing levels of power in the Deamonhost, but all are still incredibly powerful.

Possessed space marine: This one is a bit sketchy on details, there seems to be several ways for it to happen, a Deamon is bound to the dead body of a space marine, a space marine willingly allows a Deamon to possess him, but this is not the same method of possession as the Gal Vorbak, as its any deamon with no care about the host, the last one I am aware of is the binding of a deamon to a marine and the marine winning the battle of wills and either expelling the deamon (but retaining some of its power) or overpowering the deamon and being in control of its power.

Psyker possession: this is your bulk standard horror scenario.

Mundane Possession: A normal human or other xenos that is possessed unwillingly.

From a different post i made

Ah, thanks for the help.

As I understand it Argel Tal and the Gal Vorbak are somewhat of an oddity. The Daemon and the host have more of a symbiotic relationship than what has been portrayed in the Codex and are more or less in harmony. One or the other can come to the fore and control the physical body, so in combat the Daemon gains control and they warp into a super powerful monstrosity and at other times the human takes control, keeping the body stable and performing more mundane tasks. Burias from the Word Bearers series is a similar case but I'm under the impression he has less control over his Daemon than the Gal Vorbak do, and that given the chance his Daemon would permanently take control.

The more standard-issue Possessed marines are essentially a shell. A mortal body for a Daemonic host. The host's mind is driven mad, imprisoned or shattered entirely, Very few retain their sanity through possession.

The Word Bearers have possession down to an art, so I dare say that Burias' situation would be pretty standard for them. Black Legion also had a lot of possession during the early days and wound up with a warband called The Tormented, who are essentially all super-Possessed marines that mutate like crazy. No real info on how they "work" though.

Fhanados wrote:
As I understand it Argel Tal and the Gal Vorbak are somewhat of an oddity. The Daemon and the host have more of a symbiotic relationship than what has been portrayed in the Codex and are more or less in harmony. One or the other can come to the fore and control the physical body, so in combat the Daemon gains control and they warp into a super powerful monstrosity and at other times the human takes control, keeping the body stable and performing more mundane tasks. Burias from the Word Bearers series is a similar case but I'm under the impression he has less control over his Daemon than the Gal Vorbak do, and that given the chance his Daemon would permanently take control.

The more standard-issue Possessed marines are essentially a shell. A mortal body for a Daemonic host. The host's mind is driven mad, imprisoned or shattered entirely, Very few retain their sanity through possession.

The Word Bearers have possession down to an art, so I dare say that Burias' situation would be pretty standard for them. Black Legion also had a lot of possession during the early days and wound up with a warband called The Tormented, who are essentially all super-Possessed marines that mutate like crazy. No real info on how they "work" though.

Since I posted on the other thread i have been looking into it as much as I could, looking up old books and the such.

It seems that standard possessed marines dont actually lose there souls every time, I found a couple of examples of the marine being in control of the host (wish I could remember the book now) and other where the Deamon literally takes over completely and another couple where the marine expelled the deamon but kept the "gifts" it seems its really done on a person by person basis, rather than the Deamon winning every time.

 Formosa wrote:

Fhanados wrote:
As I understand it Argel Tal and the Gal Vorbak are somewhat of an oddity. The Daemon and the host have more of a symbiotic relationship than what has been portrayed in the Codex and are more or less in harmony. One or the other can come to the fore and control the physical body, so in combat the Daemon gains control and they warp into a super powerful monstrosity and at other times the human takes control, keeping the body stable and performing more mundane tasks. Burias from the Word Bearers series is a similar case but I'm under the impression he has less control over his Daemon than the Gal Vorbak do, and that given the chance his Daemon would permanently take control.

The more standard-issue Possessed marines are essentially a shell. A mortal body for a Daemonic host. The host's mind is driven mad, imprisoned or shattered entirely, Very few retain their sanity through possession.

The Word Bearers have possession down to an art, so I dare say that Burias' situation would be pretty standard for them. Black Legion also had a lot of possession during the early days and wound up with a warband called The Tormented, who are essentially all super-Possessed marines that mutate like crazy. No real info on how they "work" though.

Since I posted on the other thread i have been looking into it as much as I could, looking up old books and the such.

It seems that standard possessed marines dont actually lose there souls every time, I found a couple of examples of the marine being in control of the host (wish I could remember the book now) and other where the Deamon literally takes over completely and another couple where the marine expelled the deamon but kept the "gifts" it seems its really done on a person by person basis, rather than the Deamon winning every time.

Which makes sense. This is Chaos we are talking about here. While there may be loose classifications of various types, each possession will be unique.

It helps if the mortal is willing or compliant. But a power daemon can just overpower a weak willed human, and likewise a human could expel a daemon if their will was strong enough.

The aftereffects would vary, but you'd always have some daemonic taint left behind of some amount.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Formosa wrote:

Fhanados wrote:
As I understand it Argel Tal and the Gal Vorbak are somewhat of an oddity. The Daemon and the host have more of a symbiotic relationship than what has been portrayed in the Codex and are more or less in harmony. One or the other can come to the fore and control the physical body, so in combat the Daemon gains control and they warp into a super powerful monstrosity and at other times the human takes control, keeping the body stable and performing more mundane tasks. Burias from the Word Bearers series is a similar case but I'm under the impression he has less control over his Daemon than the Gal Vorbak do, and that given the chance his Daemon would permanently take control.

The more standard-issue Possessed marines are essentially a shell. A mortal body for a Daemonic host. The host's mind is driven mad, imprisoned or shattered entirely, Very few retain their sanity through possession.

The Word Bearers have possession down to an art, so I dare say that Burias' situation would be pretty standard for them. Black Legion also had a lot of possession during the early days and wound up with a warband called The Tormented, who are essentially all super-Possessed marines that mutate like crazy. No real info on how they "work" though.

Since I posted on the other thread i have been looking into it as much as I could, looking up old books and the such.

It seems that standard possessed marines dont actually lose there souls every time, I found a couple of examples of the marine being in control of the host (wish I could remember the book now) and other where the Deamon literally takes over completely and another couple where the marine expelled the deamon but kept the "gifts" it seems its really done on a person by person basis, rather than the Deamon winning every time.

Which makes sense. This is Chaos we are talking about here. While there may be loose classifications of various types, each possession will be unique.

It helps if the mortal is willing or compliant. But a power daemon can just overpower a weak willed human, and likewise a human could expel a daemon if their will was strong enough.

The aftereffects would vary, but you'd always have some daemonic taint left behind of some amount.

One of the short stories had a literal battle of wills with the Deamon on a mindscape (thats the way I interpreted it), after winning the Marine took all of the Deamons power and was what we would call a Possessed, he was able to shape his body at will..... turns out he actually lost and the Deamon took great pleasure in making the marine believe he had won

In the ADB Night Lord series, there is a Daemon prince that shows an interesting take on daemon princedom (Only viewpoint I have ever seen written but there may be other interpretations.) In the novel, the mind of the daemon prince and the mind of the marine who was ascended are separate consciences that are in flux. in the novel, the daemon conscience is strongly in control for almost the entirety of its relevant plot and uses the marine's mind as a tool, extracting information from what he knew at a whim and as needed, often referring to it being like reading a book or living parts of his memories to acquire the necessary skills. it also references as to how the marine consciousness is slowly fading and being lost within the daemon prince's own consciousness. What would happen to the knowledge once the marine consciousness is lost is never explored as he doesn't last much further than that eventuality.

IIRC there are different levels of possession, ranging from a daemon tainting your perceptions in order to influence your behaviour and reactions all the way to full on tentacle-mutation-you-get-no-say-in-this-partnership-you're-now-a-walking-daemon.

In the 2nd ed codex there was a Night Lord champion of Khorne who willingly let himself be possessed by a Blood Thirster, and even let his mortal form be sacrificed in battle to allow the daemon to manifest itself properly.