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The 4 lesser Chaos powers


Spacefrisian

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We all know about the big 4 (Khorne, Slaanesh, Nurgle and Tzeentch) but what do we know about the other 4, seeing as the star has 8 points i assume there are 4 more we dont know much about.

 

I know that at 1 time there was Malal with his vengeance and rage for everything and such.

 

If nothing is known we could even make something up for the fun of it, no point in have 8 directions without anything tied to all if you ask me.

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Malal is more anarchy. He specifically tries to screw up the other gods plans.

 

I think the idea is that ere is a chaos god for each aspect of evil. The big 4 are the main evils and are most worshipped and hence more powerful. I don't know of any other specific ones though

The 8-pointed star as a symbol of 'Chaos' originates from non-40k stuff, the Eternal Champion series written by Michael Moorcock. It's one of the many things the Warhammerverse adopted over time. As such, there probably isn't a deeper meaning to the 4 'extra' points.

But, there are definitely more ruinous powers than the four great ones. There is also that guy Malice, from the Sons of Malice, though I'm not sure whether he is a demigod, or only some demon prince who managed to corrupt a SM chapter.

 

As far as I'm aware, Malice is just Malal's replacement. Iirc the guy who created Malal (can't remember the name) left GW and took the rights to the god with him. Malal disappeared from official canon until the (re)introduction via the entity the Sons of Malice are beholden to aka Malice. So, afaik, Malice = Malal, unless I'm spouting half-heard, half-baked fan theory. ;)

The four other points don't necessaruly denote other deities, but rather those points at which the aspects of the Four Great Powers overlap: both Khorne and Nurgle preside over death, though they reflect it in markedly different ways, just as Slaanesh and Tzeentch preside over inspiration, intellectualism, philosophy, art etc, but, once again, with markedly different emphases and manifestations. Though the Four Great Powers are generally marketed in linear mortal terms as seperate entities, they are also simultaneously facets or aspects of the greater whole that is Chaos, as much part of one another as sea, sky and land; as blood and thought, flesh and feeling.

Like Rev. Tiberius said the star and its points originate from the Elric Saga of Michael Moorcook. The symbol simply means that chaos stands for infinite possibilities, which also means the end of all coherence and therefore existence if Chaos prevails in the struggle with Order. In Moorcook's saga there where much more than eight lords of chaos. But I read in more than one forum that in the Warhammer world, there were originally 4 greater and 4 lesser powers. Haven't heard of any solid sources yet, though (except for the Sons of Malice short story).

The 8 points on the star reflect the 8 winds of magic that blow through the Warhammer world, and are not related to how many chaos gods there are.

 

The Moorcock/Elric stuff has the 8 pointed star representing the different paths one can take, or similar.

 

There are uncountable gods of chaos in the immaterium, with named ones including, but not exclusive to: Mor'ckk, Phraz-etar, An'syl being three, along with Malal/Malice.

In the super wayback machine, the Warhammer Fantasy RPG specifically stated that Chaos included infinite possibilities, so there were the regular chaos gods, and also chaos gods of order (because if you roll the dice enough times, eventually they all end up balancing on one corner).  

 

Rather representative of how GW's vision of Chaos and the warp has changed over time.  It's become much more simplified and straightforwardly evil.

I my way-back memory serves , Malal was never a chaos god per se , but some other kind of god/entity . Then as some one else said there was Mor'ckk, An"syl , etc listed as minor chaos gods (was that in (C:csm 3 or 3.5 ??), and there were lots (dozens perhaps) of other lesser chaos gods . Of course you also used to be able to do chaos undivided in a way that actually meant something too.

Malal was introduced as a Chaos God of Anarchy in Warhammer Fantasy Battle in the 80s.

 

Zuvassin the Great Undoer and Necoho the Doubter was later introduced in the late 80s as a replacement for Malal since no one knew who actually had the rights to Malal (with the two comic book artists who are created him had left GW by then).

 

Later Malal would be reintroduced as Malice in the 3,5 edition Chaos Space Marines Codex.

 

An'sl, Mo'rcck and Phraz-Etar are mentioned once one and that's in the 3'rd edition Chaos Space Marines Codex as the "Chaos Powers" which are honored by Chaos Marines adorning themselves with spikes and horns. (Page 20, wargear, Spiky Bits wargear description). An'sl is a pun on Bryan Ansell (co-founder of GW), Mo'rcck alludes to Michael Moorcock (who created the concept of "Chaos" as GW uses it) and finally Phraz-Etar is a reference to Frank Frazetta (author of the Conan series).

 

TDA

Malal was introduced as a Chaos God of Anarchy in Warhammer Fantasy Battle in the 80s.

 

Zuvassin the Great Undoer and Necoho the Doubter was later introduced in the late 80s as a replacement for Malal since no one knew who actually had the rights to Malal (with the two comic book artists who are created him had left GW by then).

 

Later Malal would be reintroduced as Malice in the 3,5 edition Chaos Space Marines Codex.

 

An'sl, Mo'rcck and Phraz-Etar are mentioned once one and that's in the 3'rd edition Chaos Space Marines Codex as the "Chaos Powers" which are honored by Chaos Marines adorning themselves with spikes and horns. (Page 20, wargear, Spiky Bits wargear description). An'sl is a pun on Bryan Ansell (co-founder of GW), Mo'rcck alludes to Michael Moorcock (who created the concept of "Chaos" as GW uses it) and finally Phraz-Etar is a reference to Frank Frazetta (author of the Conan series).

 

TDA

You know too much...seriously though where did you hear all this?

  • 3 weeks later...

Malal was introduced as a Chaos God of Anarchy in Warhammer Fantasy Battle in the 80s.

 

Zuvassin the Great Undoer and Necoho the Doubter was later introduced in the late 80s as a replacement for Malal since no one knew who actually had the rights to Malal (with the two comic book artists who are created him had left GW by then).

 

Later Malal would be reintroduced as Malice in the 3,5 edition Chaos Space Marines Codex.

 

An'sl, Mo'rcck and Phraz-Etar are mentioned once one and that's in the 3'rd edition Chaos Space Marines Codex as the "Chaos Powers" which are honored by Chaos Marines adorning themselves with spikes and horns. (Page 20, wargear, Spiky Bits wargear description). An'sl is a pun on Bryan Ansell (co-founder of GW), Mo'rcck alludes to Michael Moorcock (who created the concept of "Chaos" as GW uses it) and finally Phraz-Etar is a reference to Frank Frazetta (author of the Conan series).

 

TDA

What do you mean by "author of the Conan series"? If you mean Conan the Cimmerian, that character is the work of Robert E. Howard, unless Frazetta did some artwork I am not aware of.

 

Frank Frazetta is most famous for his dark and gritty artwork, specifically the "Death Dealer", which I believe inspired the look of Warhammer.

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