A question of gods

[Tycho6]

Just out of interest - how did the DG, TS, WB, AL & IW come to worship thier gods?

[Solid Zaku]

Death Guard: After the Horus Heresy, the Death Guard were basically still just renegades, with maybe a few select Lodge members having turned fully. This changed after Typhus' betrayal aboard the Terminus Est, whereby he more or less pressganged the Legion into Nurglic worship.

 

Thousand Sons: After the events of A Thousand Sons, they turned to Tzeentch as he was basically already in control of them from day one. Plus, he was the only entity in the galaxy that would support them.

 

Word Bearers: We're about to find out in The First Heretic about the specifics, but what IS known is that after the Emperor chastised Lorgar for his slow-going zealousness in the Great Crusade, Kor Phaeron and Erebus confided in him about the Dark Gods. This gave Lorgar a whole new avenue to explore his god-worshiping tendencies. As it turns out, the Word Bearers were the first Legion to fall prey to Chaos.

 

Alpha Legion: If you've read Legion, you'd know that in actuality they haven't turned to Chaos for the sake of doing so. Truthfully, they do so because they were deceived by a cabal of Eldar into believing that to do otherwise (side with the Emperor) was to doom humanity wholesale. Of course over the 10,000 years of war some elements of the Legion have turned, but during the Heresy, they were actually doing what they felt was best for humankind.

 

Iron Warriors: Little is known about the specifics. What we know is that during the formative years of the Heresy, Perturabo was growing more and more unhinged, massacring entire populations for minor infractions. When his own planet of Olympia started being rebellious, he had his Legion slaughter the entire planet. Before the Emperor could get onto him for this, the Heresy began in gusto. At least that's as much as is known.

 

I will say that you're a little off-track. Four Legions worship the gods specifically, apart from the pantheonic Word Bearers. The Thousand Sons, Death Guard, World Eaters, and Emperor's Children are the more 'religious' types.

[Clewz]

I thought the death guard finally all succumbed en route to terra when they became subject to one of nurgles plagues and Mortarion made the pact to stop it.

[S. Bloodhowl]

Say the word and I can reveal how The First Heretic shows Lorgar's fall from grace for you. Otherwise I think Solid Zaku has it right, though I wouldn't say the Eldar deceived the Alpha Legion into joining Horus, they just didn't expect that the war would end in what can best be described as a draw, I mean think about it:

 

Horus Wins- the Chaos Gods have destroyed there enemies and can now betray/discard Horus and have their minions slaughter the galaxy, Humanity dies a quick death in terms of millennia if you get what I'm saying (except from where Slaanesh is involved),

 

The Emperor Wins- the Chaos Gods have lost their pawns in battle but have un-killable armies of daemons left to massacre Humanity, essentially this is like what has happened, Humanity as a whole has realised the threat of chaos and fights it, but they cannot fight both it and the aliens that besiege them from within and without. They spend millennia dieing in a Galactic war they cannot win and also destroy themselves for anything considered to be heretical and against the emperor, they become so swept up in worshipping the emperor that they do not realise that they are destroying themselves.