Chaos. Order vs Chaos is a rather fundamental concept, both in reality and in fiction, but
rarely is it so blatantly utilized than in the Warhammer 40k universe, where a significant
faction of hostile forces are literally called the forces of chaos. Chaos is sometimes conflated
with the word evil, but at least in 40k's case, it's a bit more primordial than that.
Chaos in 40k covers both the limitless ocean of energy within the alternate warp dimension,
as well as the entities created or corrupted by this energy. This video won't go into too
many specifics about the main gods of chaos, but I want to provide a general overview of
such an important part of 40k.
Chaos, in a nutshell, is change in its most fundamental form. It's inherently unpredictable,
and does not obey any of our laws of time, space, or physics. The massive ocean of energy
called chaos fills the dimension known as the immaterium, a turblent realm that exists
parallel to the real dimension. The warp was not always so turbulent and violent however,
and in ancient times it was more peaceful. It was still certainly dangeorus, but not
nearly as corruptive or violent as it is in the 41st millennium. The ancient race known
as the old ones managed to build tunnels through the warp, bypassing the inherent dangers of
chaos while skipping across the stars. The old ones seemed to have a far greater understanding
of the warp than any modern species, as they also made new species with inherent connections
to the warp, such as the krork and the eldar. As time went on, and more and more sapient
creatures came into existence, their emotions, thoughts, and beliefs manifested in the warp.
These concepts, many of them dark, such as feelings of anger, fear, despair, pride, and
so on, become part of the ever churning swirling mass of chaos within the warp. Over time,
the warp continued to become a more violent and well, chaotic, dimension. Eventually,
certain emotions or thoughts began to coalesce and join together, concentrating into specific
entities. These entities gained sentience, becoming the gods of chaos. The emotions of
anger, rage, hate, violence, and bloodshed became Khorne, the blood god. Physical corruption,
fear of mortality, self-delusion, and despair became Nurgle, lord of decay. Feelings of
ambition, intrigue, pursuit of knowledge, evolution, and change became Tzeentch, changer
of ways. Later on, the fall of the eldar and their plunge into lust, greed, excess, and
pleasure gave birth to Slaanesh, prince of pleasure. There are other minor gods of chaos
that represent other emotions or thoughts, but these four make up the majority of sapient
feelings in the 40k universe.
The chaos gods have an interest in the material realm, but take far more interest in battling
one another for supremacy. This is an eternal conflict, because if any one chaos god won
over the others, the warp would return to its original state of calmness, causing chaos
to cease to exist. This eternal war is played out through countless plots and schemes, and
involves untold amounts of subordinates, born from both chaos and from the material world.
The most numerous of these are the daemons, entities created by a chaos god using the
energy of chaos as an extension of their will. Daemons come in an unfamothable variety of
forms and sizes, most often correlating to a specific chaos god. The lowest form of daemon
is little more than a feral beast, often serving other daemons or even certain corrupted mortals.
Lesser daemons are the foot soldiers of chaos, numerous beyond measure, and make up the bulk
of each chaos god's army. Although they possess their own intelligence, they generally exist
only to serve their master. The strength of a daemon can vary wildly based on many factors,
but any given lesser daemon is likely stronger, faster, and more durable than any normal human.
The lesser daemons of khorne are far more deadly in direct combat, while the daemons
of tzeentch are more capable of driving the weak-minded to insanity.
Above the lesser daemons are the greater daemons, far more powerful than their lesser brethren,
and they often act as leaders of warbands. Greater daemons are avatars of horror and
destruction, capable of slaughtering hordes of opponents and destroying armored vehicles
at will. It's said that a greater daemon of khorne could only be bested one on one by
a primarch, and the greater daemons of nurgle are capable of coating entire worlds in unimaginable
diseases.
Daemons are created from chaos, and therefore can only exist where chaos can exist. This
means that daemons cannot simply invade realspace as other sapient creatures might. Since the
material realm and the warp overlap one another, there are times where the veil between the
two will weaken in certain places, allowing chaos to enter realspace. These are called
warp rifts, and sometimes these occur naturally, other times they are manufactured by either
the chaos gods or by corrupted mortals. These rifts can take many different forms, and last
anywhere from mere moments to centuries. While inside of a warp rift, a chaos daemon can
interact with the material realm, although they could be weakened or killed if seperated
from it. A daemon in real space cannot normally be killed in the same sense as a living creature,
but can only be banished back to the warp to regain their strength. To truly kill a
daemon requires a specific ritual, relic, or massive amounts of psychic energy. The
utterance of a daemon's true name can also weaken it, making it easier to be destroyed
or banished.
Warp storms are similar occurrences to warp rifts, where part of the warp bursts forth
into realspace. Warp storms are extremely volatile and destructive, lasting for similar
periods as warp rifts. Ships caught in a warp storm might end up blown thousands of light-years
off course, or might emerge finding that centuries of time have passed, or might be trapped in
the warp completely. Large warp storms can easily isolate a section of the galaxy from
the rest of it.
Daemons aren't the only forces that make up the armies of chaos however, as chaos is a
corruptive energy, and many sapient individuals in realspace have fallen into its grasp. The
gods of chaos are always looking for those that are likely to succumb to feelings of
hatred, desire, ambition, fear, excess, and so on. Humans of course are at the forefront
of those that fall to chaos, including normal humans, psykers, space marines, and even primarchs.
Daemonic possession is possible, either through a host willingly offering themselves, or a
daemon forcefully taking over a susceptible mind, usually a psyker. A powerful uncontrolled
psyker that succumbs to chaos becomes known as a rogue psyker, acting as essentially a
living bomb for the forces of chaos. Numerous chaos cults operate across the galaxy, with
cultists secretly working to bring down the imperium from within. These cultists will
attempt to convert entire populations to their side, eventually opening warp rifts to allow
for full daemonic incursions. Many soldiers of the imperial guard will succumb to chaos,
becoming part of the traitor guard and taking their weapons, equipment, and vehicles with
them. Traitor guardsmen will often fight alongside daemons and mutants. Members of the adeptus
mechanicus also turncoat, becoming part of the dark mechanicum. Being part of the dark
mechanicum allows them to fully dabble in previously forbidden technology, and they
produce many infernal machines for the forces of chaos. Notable among these are the traitor
titan legions, massive titans that have been corrupted and mutated by chaos to make them
even more formidable.
Most notable among the fallen human forces are the chaos space marines, or the traitor
legions, fearsome space marines that have been mutated and enhanced by chaos. These
first came about during the events of the horus heresy, when the primarch Horus succumbed
to chaos and swayed many of his brothers and their legions to his side. The traitor legions
possess a deep-seated hatred for the emperor, the imperium, and their counterpart loyalist
space marines. New chaos space marines are continually created in a process similar to
the one that loyalist space marines use, although it is far more brutal. Chaos space marine's
biology and power armour are both mutated and enhanced by chaos, fusing together in
a horrific amalgamation. Chaos space marines possess none of the restraint that is beat
into typical space marines, making them especially fearsome foes. Those chaos space marines that
prove themselves to be exceptional followers of a chaos god might be granted favor, becoming
a chaos champion, a leader of squads of chaos space marines and daemons. This position is
accommpanied by further mutations. Those chaos champions that continue to prove themselves
to their chaos god might be given the rare honor of throwing away their humanity completely
and becoming a daemon. These are known as daemon princes, aspects of chaos that possess
more power than a mortal could ever dream of. They are generally placed in charge of
entire legions of mortal chaos followers, or potentially even a legion of daemons, although
greater daemons usually regard them as inferior due to their mortal origin. The daemon primarchs
are the greatest of these daemon princes, the brothers of horus that joined him in his
heresy, feared and respected by all followers of chaos. If a chaos champion fails to impress
their chaos god, they may instead become a chaos spawn, a horribly mutated mass of flesh,
driven insane by chaos.
Although humans typically are the focus of chaos corruption, they aren't the only species
that can be tainted. There are a number of entire species that have completely fallen
to chaos, wiping away their previous history, such as the Saruthi. Most of the other notably
species in 40k are largely protected from chaos corruption for one reason or another.
The eldar are extremely cautious of any chaos intrusion, the dark eldar sacrifice others
souls to prevent slaanesh from feeding on theirs, the t'au barely have a presence in
the warp, the tyranids hive mind protects them, and orks have both the waaagh and their
loyalty to gork and mork. There are of course individual exceptions for most of these cases,
as chaos is relentless and ever present.
The forces of chaos are yet one more constant threat in the universe of 40k, determined,
powerful, and without mercy. Chaos is more than simply a physical threat though, as one
must be guarded mentally and spirirtually as well in order to protect themselves from
corruption. Further videos will take a look at each of the main chaos gods as well as
a closer look at chaos space marines, but this should provide a good starting point
for the armies of the immaterium. The imperium of man has put up a steadfast defense against
their traitorous brothers and their dark lords, but perhaps in the end, chaos will indeed
reign.