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Chaplains and Chaos


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i just wanted to ask the community here if a chaplain of the modern 40k era could turn to chaos...

i'm creating an army and i think a chaos chaplain would be pretty cool. i know word bearers have them.. but they pretty much instigated the heresy so i'm thinking they are a little different and their gene-seed was at fault.

perhaps new training has been put in place and such so the same thing doesnt happen again? i don't know..

 

hence why i'm throwing it out there to you guys.

 

is it cheesy/possible for a chaplain to turn to chaos?

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I think it's possible (although the probability is quiet low). As far as I remember chaplains have to train hard to become chaplains, and they need to be approved by the ecclesiarchy, so I think by the time they actually become chaplains they're a bit 'brainwashed' (had their minds cleansed) :D

But there's nothing impossible and I think some power-hungry chaplain, who hides his true motivation may turn to chaos in his aim to obtain super power.

As for WB, I doubt they had flawed gene-seed, it is more likely that heresy-era chaplains hadn't been 'brainwashed' as the current chaplains are.

The way they write the current time line... heck anything is possible. What haven't we seen? :HQ:

 

The Word Bearers Apostle's/Chaplains may have been 'tainted' in some way, but what predisposition did they have that made them... accessible to Chaos?

 

My answer would be: the undying will, and unending desire to 'worship'. We know the Emperor forbade it, and we know how the Word Bearers reacted.

 

So how does modern day Imperium prevent this? Screening Geneseed? More thorough training? Longer apprenticeship? What if someone tainted is a 'part' of this process? Stuff like this happens in every day (real life) events, and I don't see how it could NOT be possible in 40K. The resources of the Imperium are still massive and rely on a system of controls that do inevitably break down. Even the 'police' of the system, Inquisition, have their own problems of corruption. To deny it could happen elsewhere just isn't realistic.

 

Just my two cents.

The Word Bearer chaplains were in a different era and the ways of the imperium were much different. Their flaw was the NEED to worship something, this is the same flaw of Lorgor. When the Emperor scolded the WB legion about its slow advance during the great crusade, he also scolded Lorgor for worshiping him as a god. This led the WB to their ultimate fate, their need to have that icon or figure head was greater than anything else. Just as Prot said, he hit the nail on the perverbial head.

 

I suppose you could say that a chaplain could convert, albeit only in extremly rare occassions. If you think about earth history, how many Catholic priests have you heard converting to satanism? Im sure its probably happened but these occasions are going to be counted on one hand over the course of a thousand years. I know comparing real life to a sci-fi game is silly, but the concept is the same so i thought it appropriate.

 

In the end this is going to be about what fluff you wanted and what you think does or does not fit into your army list. An ex-chaplain who leads a very daemonic army. Lesser daemons, greater daemon, possessed, oblits, spawn. All of these could fit into an army theme like that.

 

I have a daemonic WB list i run from time to time at 1500pts. Chaos lord with a daemon weapon. x12 possessed. x2 units of CSMs in rhinos. x2 units of 12 lesser daemons. Defiler. Greater Daemon. Its a fun list though not the greatest or more efficient :lol:

I thinks its very unlikely, much less likely then a Librarian or Captain turning. However in the world of 40k, almost anything can happen right?

 

I was thinking of ways for a Chaplain to turn. Maybe a particular Chaos commander goads and prods the Chaplain for many years, striking and melting away, killing those closest to the Chaplain all the while creating a well of frustration and anger. Or even better, that Chaos commander (probably Tzeentchian) slowly corrupts those around him, leaving him to fight his ex-brothers over and over again. You could take it that the Chaplain's rage gets the best of him and he becomes a killing machine, revoking even the Emperor in his fit of rage and falling for Khorne. Or go the other way, the constant stress of battling his ex-brothers tests his faith to the limits and in some big culmination (maybe the Chaos commander raids and destroy the fortress monastary, or ruins an entire crop of new recruits) the Chaplain loses his faith and embraces the hopelessness that not even the Emperor can save humanity and sinks towards the arms of Nurgle.

I like the Nurgle part better because it seems fitting to have someone who is taunted by a follower of Tzeentch side with his arch-foe. Is it ironic, or all part of Tzeentch's plan?

thanks for the replies guys!

 

i'm glad that there is so much quality feedback on this topic ^_^

i think i will have to write up a very twisted and complicated fluff storyline for my fallen chaplain, because i think subtle subterfuge and manipulation (much like the type that Horus was subject to) could be a good standing point for seduction to the dark side of the force.. i mean chaos.

 

:)

 

thanks again

 

-doosh

I'd put it at "definitely not impossible, but depends on the Chapter". After all, a Chapter like the Imperial Fists, who utterly worship the Emperor, or any other "standard" Chapter, probably very, very hard.

But a Chapter who sees gifts of slain enemies as what the Emperor demands? Not that hard for a fall into Khorne worship. Alls that needs to happen is a gradual fall into corruption, with the existing creed changed slightly over time, and that fatalistic Chapter can become increasingly fatalistic until they hear that voice calling to them from the darkest part of their mind, and they give in to Nurgle.

There are many stories where marines have to turn against the Imperium for the emperor in thier belief and they might kill thier own brothers and innocent people. Just because somewhere it got screwed up in thier head that if they do this they can get the leader and maybe destroy the warband etc. But you can do for chaplain that on the way he got so corrupted by killing so many and it's not for the emperor but still is and the wheel of corruption start to spin faster and faster untill he converts.
What about the chaplains from the Astral Claws? Didn't that whole chapter go over to Chaos in the end?

 

We don't know, because most of the chapter was wiped out in the Badab war. It's assumed whoever didn't die converted, or simply went rogue pirate.

There's also the old "Daemon Prince posing as Sanguinius" schtick for a BA successor chapter. The Chaplains wouldn't realize anything was amiss until daemons showed up, and who's to say that there aren't Daemons who look like something the Emperor would send?
There's also the old "Daemon Prince posing as Sanguinius" schtick for a BA successor chapter. The Chaplains wouldn't realize anything was amiss until daemons showed up, and who's to say that there aren't Daemons who look like something the Emperor would send?

 

When did that happen, because GW gave Any religious nut folk the fluff background to instantly detect a demon, and made the demons to look ugly, large, and mutation ridden.

There's also the old "Daemon Prince posing as Sanguinius" schtick for a BA successor chapter. The Chaplains wouldn't realize anything was amiss until daemons showed up, and who's to say that there aren't Daemons who look like something the Emperor would send?

 

When did that happen, because GW gave Any religious nut folk the fluff background to instantly detect a demon, and made the demons to look ugly, large, and mutation ridden.

Old Slaanesh "Siren" power.

 

And the "Deus" books.

 

TDA

In the Universe of 40k anything can happen :D

 

I used to think and wonder what made a Marine turn against Imperial ways, and reading all the Space Marine novels that the BL has given us shows that there is always marines that dislike each other. Any of the marines that have problems with each other could end up trying to kill the other by just saying the wrong word!

 

A Chaplain for instance would normaly be a vet, what if he had a grudge with another marine who over time rises to the rank of Captain, and that same Captain insults him, or the Chapy decides to shoot him for loosing a campain or something (useing his rank as an excuse to get rid of him).

 

Or like in the last Codex where a chapter was sent to rid an uprising and ended up killing everyone, and then started moving onto other planets and started culling them too.

Maybe they where led by there chaplains, that in there eye's they had to punish the weak, but infact had turned into the verything they stood against (if you get what I mean)

 

ps Look at the Soul Drinkers Chaplain :blush:

In the Universe of 40k anything can happen ;)

 

I look at that with a grain of salt, because GW retcons anything remarkable, kills it off, or nerfs it terribly, then there's a story made about it and it ends up confusing everyone over the subject and starts a massive dispute among players.

Interesting thread! Am toying with the idea of my chaos lord being a corrupted chaplain-basically ill just get a chaos lord and give him a powerweapon(crozius arcanum/dark crozius/power mace) and mark of tzeentch (rosarius). The increased statistics are easily explained as gifts from the dark gods/battle experience.

 

I reckon its feasible but not common for a chaplain to turn to chaos.

I'm toying with the idea of a Chaplain being my alternate HQ for my Fallen Dark Angels, but that of course would be a pre-Heresy Chaplain who was "stuck" on the wrong side, as it were. I stick with the "unlikely but possible" group for a modern Chaplain turning, but amongst the legions there are doubtless plenty of Ex-Chaplains around.

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