Which faction is the greatess threat to the Imperium ?

[Melissia]

Looking at the various galaxy maps in the rulebook, Tyranids most assuredly haven't eaten a quarter of the galaxy.



Compare that, to, say, the Orks.



And those are only MAJOR Ork planets, and not even all of the major ones.

[Gooball]

Orks.
You can't beat them, even if the nyds or necrons destroy everything the spores they release would mean that within a few years a couple of empty planets are now infested with orks.
Another thing to note is that the higher the ork per planet count is the larger and stronger they are, and there are places in the galaxy that may hold orks larger and more powerful that even ghazgkul

[Lord_Crull]

Abbadon's tried to invade and destroy Cadia 13 times, and failed each time. I'd say Cadia is still going pretty strong, considering a track record like that.

Actually no.

Abbadon ovveran most of Cadia and wrecked many of the nearby planets in the Sector. This is true in both Cadian Blood and in the latest Chaos Codex. Not to mention Chaos won the actual results for the Eye of Terror campaign.

Also, not all Black Crusades were directed at Cadia. That is a misconception. For example the 12th Black Crusade was directed at the Gothic Sector, almost half a segmentum away from Cadia. And that was a strategic sucess for Abbadon. In fact the old chaos Codex flat out stated that some of the 'Black Crusades' were merely raids carried out by small elite companies of the Black Legion for a single goal. Anyone who thinks Abbadon is going to sweep aside Cadia and march al the way through the Segmentum Obscuras and Solar is a fool. The Imperium is far too heavily defended.

Instead, Abbadon is biding his time, keeping the Imperium on their toes. Look at it from his point of view. He has all the time in the world. The Imperium crumbles before him. Eventually it will give way.

[Melissia]

Screw Abbadon, he's not the biggest threat of Chaos. The true threat of chaos is a subtle corruption from within, not slaughter from without.

[Lord_Crull]

Screw Abbadon, he's not the biggest threat of Chaos. The true threat of chaos is a subtle corruption from within, not slaughter from without.

I don't believe I was contesting that. I was simply adressing a misconception.

[Melissia]

Maybe. But I was being rather serious. Chaos cannot provide quite the physical threat that the others provide, it's just the nature of chaos-- more disorganized than Orks, and with far more infighting. However, there is no victory like, and no conquest quite as complete as, turning your opponent to your side so that they fight against your enemies with the zeal of the newly converted. While they find it hard to effect Tau, Orks, and Tyranids due to their biology (though Farsight might be influenced by Khorne-- I don't know the full story on him), humans are particularly vulnerable to the influence of Chaos.

[Connjurus]

Orks have fallen to Nurgle, as have Tyranid. The Eldar have fallen to Slaanesh - but humans are definitely the most easily susceptible. But, like I said, the Galaxy should be grateful the full attention of the Gods have never been laid upon it - not that it ever has, nor will it, but IF it were, the Galaxy would be screwed, plain and simple.

The Gods just don't care enough. The only thing big enough to threaten a Chaos God is another Chaos God. :P


Also, O'Shovah most assuredly hasn't fallen to Khorne. You'd be able to tell. Khorne's not very subtle. I doubt it's Necron, as the Ethereals are the Deceivers little puppets. It could be one of the other C'tan, though doubtful...so either it's something along the line of the Alpha Legion to the Imperium - read O'Shovah's "Starfarer's" quote to see what I mean - he could just have gone renegade, or whatever. There are only a few facts we can see that are indisputable.
1) He has a big, clearly un-Tau sword.
2) He broke away from the Tau Empire AS SOON as his last Ethereal died.
3) He really hates Orks.
4) He established the "Farsight Enclaves" in such a way as to form a sort of "buffer zone" between the Imperium of Man and the Tau Empire - why? We don't know. Personally, I like to think he realized that the Ethereals are bad ju-ju, but he couldn't bring himself to make war on his own people, so instead set up the Enclave as a way of dissuading both the Imperium of Man and the Tau Empire of encroaching upon each other's territory. I also think he actually has lived the full 350 years, as his picture makes him look freaing old, and it's just so much cooler, but whatever. I digress.

CHAOS IS THE BIGGEST THREAT TO THE IMPERIUM.

It is the only threat from both within and without. 'nuff said. The Tyranid can't make your heads explode just by looking at them without them doing anything, and if you try and fight alongside them, well, you'd die. Genestealer cults are too far-removed to truly qualify as a large threat from within, whereas Chaos Cults are on almost every single world, and Chaos can subvert you through a nearly infinite number of means, at once or over the course of decades.

At the same time, your world might have been one of the worlds attacked by, oh, I dunno, Angron and his 50,000+ Khorne Berzerkers in the Dominion of Fire that lasted for over two centuries. Why did he do that? Because he could.

Tyranids have a rhyme and a reason - to attack and devour worlds right in biomass. Eldar seek to preserve their dwindling race. Dark Eldar want slaves. Tau want to expand. Even Orks attack worlds they think'll put up a zoggin' good fight. Chaos? Chaos is utterly unpredictable, hence the name.

So, for the third time, Chaos is, was, and forever shall be the biggest threat to the Imperium of Man, as well as every other race in the galaxy.

[Nabterayl]

Chaos? Chaos is utterly unpredictable, hence the name.

Chaos is totally predictable - as dangerous as it is, I don't think it's very well named in that respect. If it were utterly unpredictable, we wouldn't be able to make statements like "Khorne's not very subtle." The Ruinous Powers have consistent motivations, personalities, traits, and behaviors. What Chaos isn't is eradicable. Even orks can be eradicated in theory, if not in practice. Chaos is ineradicable in practice and in theory both. I'm not sure that makes it the biggest danger to the Imperium, but I certainly agree it's the most complete threat.

[Melissia]

Orks have fallen to Nurgle

Orks are naturally resistant to Chaos. This has always been part of their fluff. The gestalt psychic field of the WAAAGH! lends them such resistance, and more importantly, when an Ork is corrupted he becomes "un-orky" in the mind of his compatriots, and therefor is killed.

It is by all technicalities possible for Chaos to corrupt an Ork, but they are by far the most resistant species aside from the Necrons and C'tan themselves. Keep in mind, Chaos has bee asserting its influence over Orks since the time of the war between the Old Ones and the C'tan back when the daemons of Chaos were first created (by the Old Ones, oddly enough, when they tried to use the Warp as a weapon against the C'tan)-- yet the Orks as a species have remained pretty much free of taint. All this time, they have been fighting Chaos' servants (and every other enemy they could reach), both daemonic and mortal. As a species, Orks are definitely the most survivable, adaptable, and war-ready of any of 40k's species.

And don't think Chaos didn't try to corrupt the species. Do you really think Khorne, for example, wouldn't want the Orks under his thumb as his mortal footsoldiers? The most populous race in the galaxy, a race that lives and dies for no reason but to fight? And Nurgle has very likely taken offense to the Orkish durability, not liking their seeming unwilingness to just friggin' die, and their general lack of despair (they're stated explicitly to be the only race native to the Milky Way Galaxy that the Nightbringer couldn't give the fear of death to). Slaanesh is more recent, and likely has little to do with Orks, but given their powerful psychic presence-- the presence of a sizeable WAAAGH! has given Ork psykers enough energy to turn entire armies into squigs!-- Tzeentch certainly would have been interested in the Orks.

And yet, the race is not conquered. It not only remains unconquered, the Ork race thrives in a galaxy that is destroying all other races. The Eldar are a failing race, Human empires constantly rise and then crumble, the Tau are hopelessly outnumbered by all due to their race's youth, the Necrontyr are now seemingly splintered and often mentally unstable due to their long slumber, and their C'tan overlords fiercely hate eachother. Even the Tyranids are handed crushing defeat after crushing defeat-- sure, they devour a few worlds, some of them even important ones. But they aren't breaking the Imperium's back the way it might be claimed, because the Tyranids have a very important weakness-- they cannot produce resources, they can only take. Keep in mind that the "biomass" of a planet is situated pretty much only on its outer crust. On Earth, the crust makes up less than one percent of the planet's mass-- the rest of its mass, the Tyranids do not and cannot use, and not even all of the crust of a planet is biomass anyway.

Amidst all of this constant warfare that is destroying all the other races... Orks thrive. The reason that the most common enemy that the Imperium fights is Orks is precisely bceause they are the most successful race in the galaxy.

[Nabterayl]

Well, no surprise that, really. Orks were around in their trillions before mankind invented agriculture, and their collective psychic emanations didn't give birth to any of the Ruinous Powers. Khorne, Tzeentch, and Nurgle are the creations of human souls; it only makes sense that humanity would be uniquely susceptible to their temptations.