The way we see Chaos is wrong..... here's why :P

[MythicKhan]

Theory

The forces of ‘Chaos’ in 40k are not what they seem.

The imperial viewpoint is a given throughout the background of 40k. Whilst it has improved in recent years, several codices were often written from the viewpoint of the Imperium. In some ways this makes sense, as the human nature of the Imperium makes it an easy reference point for (largely) human gamers. However, this theory argues that the Imperial bias is even more implicit in the way in which the universe is presented to us. I must add that this theory is purely for fun and amusement, and that Tzeentch played no part at all in its creation. :P

This theory rests on two assumptions about the nature of the Imperium that I believe go without saying even if we discount the rest of the theory:

1. The Imperium of Mankind is a brutal and ruthless theocratic dictatorship willing to use any and all methods in order to survive. It’s like North Korea, the Third Reich, the Crusades and all the worst bits of human history merged into one great galaxy spanning Empire.
2. That the in place elite (we could justly call them the ‘Inner-Party’ of the 40k setting, or settle for the ‘High Lords’ as a more in-universe appellation) of the Imperium is aware of how much their nation has departed from the vision of the Emperor (even if we can truly know what the Emperor stood for any more) and have willingly suppressed the past and constructed a fiction to support their rule.

It is that fiction that I seek to explore and unpick, with a secondary look at the implications for the forces of Chaos… although I am also sure that this has implications for some other factions in the 40k universe as well.

For a start, the Imperium of Man currently maintains itself by continuous sacrifice by force of arms. This steady toll is paid by the use of genetically engineered super soldiers but also by the drafting of billions of men and women into a conscript force of titanic proportions. These soldiers are motivated by stirring propaganda, patriotic ultranationalism and a religious mythos all the more galling for its patent falsehoods.

The average guardsman is taught that his equipment is the finest in the galaxy, that his cause is righteous, that his faith will keep him alive and that his opponents are inferior in every way. The truth, as we all know, is that Imperial technology is at best only adequate, at worst pathetic and universally misused and barely understood (or at least, the Adeptus Mechanicus teaches about technology in such a way that it REMAINS misunderstood). Faith, despite other positive virtues it may instil in a man, does not guarantee survival on a battlefield, and man’s opponents (be they alien or fellow man) is often on par or superior; or at least, is as often those as it is inferior. Methods are used that lead to massive casualties but nonetheless sustain the rotting edifice at the smallest possible cost. Elite forces are an almost paramilitary law unto-themselves, employing any methods they deem worthwhile and freely expending lesser lives in pursuit of larger goals. In some (many?) cases, the Imperium even rewards victorious troops with death. The loyalty of soldiers is at all times questioned and weighed by political officers and other support appointees that have the power to execute without trial or due process.

Thus, we can see that the most basic premises of Imperial education are flawed. Let us now go further. The average Imperial citizen is taught, if at all, that they live in the greatest Empire the galaxy has seen. They are encouraged to believe in the Emperor as a God, and that his divinity protects them from all dangers. They are driven to look down on the alien, the mutant and those who deviate from accepted thought patterns; and are obliged to think of these as less than human and therefore inferior. They are allowed to embrace Imperial approved cultural difference, but despise anything outside these bounds. They are also taught to accept their lot in life as the product of divinely ordained order.

Objectively considered, the reality for Imperial subjects is that they live in the worst of police states. Their knowledge of the outside world is filtered, their every action monitored and even hereditary genetic conditions taken as a crime against the state. They have no legal protection against state power, and have little say in the governance of their lives. The Inquisition may at any moment deem a person a criminal, torture them and have them executed or else horrifically altered by surgical means into base drones. Indeed, the society in which they live profits by and uses slave labour extensively. No collective bargaining is allowed, no workers’ rights guaranteed nor basic services provided. Government pronouncements are treated as holy writ, deviancy punished by any means necessary and an overarching pall of oppression hangs over every waking moment. Amongst the High Lords and elites there exists an inner circle that enjoy comfort and luxury bought by the blood and suffering of the masses, all sustained by a constant barrage of myth and falsehood.

The High Lords justify this fiction by pointing to the ‘Great Enemy’, the Dark Powers of Chaos whose depravity and darkness makes all the tyranny of the Imperium pale in comparison. These methods are the most effective at fighting of the powers of ‘Chaos’ and therefore, however unpalatable they are, should be continued for the ‘greater good’.

Yet, if the system itself is a lie, how can we take the Imperial description of the nature of Chaos at face value? The standard myth for the average citizen is that the Emperor, in his Divine form, conquered the galaxy for mankind but was betrayed by his closest companions. This led to a massive war, which in some ways continues to this day, between those jealous of the Emperor and the bounty of the Imperium and those charged with defending it by Holy command. Those jealous of the Emperor have fallen into darkness, worshipping false gods in contravention of the Emperor and keep all sort of dastardly company.

That narrative sounds rather too convenient. The forces of Chaos, as described by the Imperium, conduct horrible acts, worship dark powers and enjoy little to no prosperity whatsoever. We already know that parts of this narrative are hypocritical, given that the Imperium also conducts horrible acts and enjoys little prosperity as well. Does it not seem ‘coincidental’ that the forces arraigned against the Imperium should also be charged with the crime-of-crimes of worshipping something other than the Emperor?

Let us now consider what Chaos is accused of being, and then return to the way in which the High Lords may have twisted reality to fulfil a clear propaganda objective.

• Chaos worships four dark powers, gods capable of seducing man down selfish and twisted paths.
• Chaos employs dark sorcery and foul magic.
• Chaos uses technology that is forbidden and blasphemous.
• Chaos followers are mutants and scum, rabid in their devotion and sporting the marks of foul powers.
• Chaos consort with daemons and other unnatural creatures to further their own selfish ends.
• Chaos conducts horrible acts in warfare that defy logic and lead to the deaths of innocents.

Firstly: Chaos is accused of worshipping capricious gods and deities. This is perhaps the easiest to dismiss as pure propaganda. If the Imperium is built upon the theocratic dominance of a single monotheistic religion, and couches crime in religious terms, then surely all other beliefs will be considered dark and horrible. Other religions and faiths will be cast as dark powers or demonic… the spiritual counterpart to the righteous figure of the Divine Emperor. Thus, Chaos forces may be of many faiths or of none, yet Imperial records will show them as disciples of this or that false god to justify their own religious narrative of the universe. It is interesting that the Imperium classifies these dark powers under four names: Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh. They are assigned easy characteristics and certain traits are ascribed to each. That sounds rather neat for a faction known as Chaos, and could perhaps indicate the determination of Imperial propagandists to be more detailed in their elaborations on the fault of the enemy. They also prove useful for classifying Chaos forces in a military sense, given that Khornate armies would naturally be aggressive close combat specialists. Could it not be possible that Chaos forces that tend towards certain traits are assigned a deity by their Imperial opponents…. Rather than the other way round as the Imperial narrative suggests?

Secondly: Chaos forces use foul sorcery, as well as forbidden technology. I will take these mutually complimentary criticisms as one if I may, for it plays neatly into the system the High Lords have established for the Imperium. It is quite clear that outside of the Navigator houses and certain organisations that use psykers for weapons, the Imperium of Man is built upon an ideology that sees psychic ability as a dangerous mutation, leading to much death and destruction as well as the possibility of corruption by so-called ‘dark powers’.

The High Lords of Terra, we can safely assume, are not psychic and therefore do not suffer under this stigma. If the High Lords fear psychic power, which clearly they do (for reasons we shall go into), it is easy to claim that Chaos uses such power is a classic charge against a hated foe. Indeed, their own prohibition against psykers fulfil their description of its nature. An untrained psyker will undoubtedly cause devastation and horrific injury as their un-looked for powers scare the wits out of them. Such individuals would need proper schooling and training to use their gifts… yet in the Imperium they are either allowed to go mad, thus fulfilling a useful propaganda purpose; used as living weapons or for another, darker, purpose. It is this purpose that underpins their pathological fear of trained psykers possessing all their faculties, for the Astronomicon must be maintained. In the fiction of the Imperium this beacon is the Emperor’s divine light, but in reality it is the psychic ability of millions leeched and then projected into the alternate dimension commonly known as the ‘Warp’. This alternate reality is indeed unsettling, although not demonic as the Imperium would have us believe, and the Astronomicon provides a necessary beacon. Nonetheless, the way the High Lords have chosen to maintain it is a crime for which they would most assuredly answer if their psychic subjects ever had the power or awareness to deal with it.

Similarly, the High Lords have a vested interest in keeping technology limited for those amongst the oppressed masses. Just as a trained psyker could threaten their lives of pleasure and excess, so too could the free use of technology. Thus, technology is hidden behind layers of superstition and religious ritual… held sacrosanct by a closeted elite that titles itself a cult. For the common man, technology works due to prayer and faith, and for this reason the toiling masses have no capacity to innovate or employ the tools necessary to bring down the tyrants that oppress them. Thus, the technologies used by the forces of Chaos are by their nature blasphemous, for they do things that no true approved ‘holy’ technology can.

Thirdly, Chaos forces consort with aliens and mutants, deviating from the divinely ordained human norm. Throughout history, dictatorships have required an internal and external enemy to justify their existence. In the case of the Imperium it is mutants and aliens. The latter are exterminated on sight, the former tolerated under servile conditions or else exterminated like vermin. Is it any wonder, then, that the forces of Chaos count amongst their number the brethren of these poor souls? Is it any wonder that the armies of Chaos would freely welcome the service of those determined to liberate their oppressed fellow mutants from a society that sees them as less than human? Is it not also possible that said non-Imperial mutant cultures are also free to demonstrate and use their mutations, or that they have developed markings and designs that deviate from accepted Imperial patterns? Similarly, is it at all beyond the bounds of possibility that a force willing to embrace multifarious religions, technologies, and peoples would not also have developed an appreciation for alien cultures and/or techniques for genetic manipulation? The Imperium’s own oppressive measures have created an enemy for it to denigrate with lies and twisted words.

Similarly, Chaos is accused of consorting with daemons and unnatural creatures. Perhaps once again this is a case of the Imperium applying religious language to beings that can easily be explained by logic. If life can appear in multifarious forms, then it can also exist in other ways, either through alternate dimensions or higher levels of technology. Particularly when employed in war it would be unsurprising for these hypothetical beings to take on militarised aspects. Therefore, these can easily be dismissed by Imperial propagandists as deamons or foul beings from dark places, rather than acknowledging their true nature.

Finally, Chaos is accused of conducting horrible acts. This is again, easily discussed. For example, allegations of war crimes have often been used throughout human history to motivate; particularly, but not exclusively, by regimes with less than stellar records in that regard themselves. It is also true that warfare results in brutal occasions of violence, particularly warfare that is charged by zealotry and fanaticism (even if that is confined to just one side of the conflict). Is it any wonder then that Chaos is accused of such events? There may indeed be a kernel of truth to many of them…. Yet these bad acts do not wash away the huge litany of crimes committed daily by the tyranny they hope to topple.

Thus we reach the final denouement of this argument. The description, a true description without Imperial distortion, of the nature of Chaos in the 41st Millennium. I will then hope to address the narrative of the Horus Heresy within this new paradigm.

Chaos, therefore, is in fact a loose alliance of many disparate opponents of the Imperium of Man. They contain armies both committed to the liberation of the fellow brethren as well as those determined to topple the tyranny that has enslaved, tortured and killed so many for the benefit of a statistically insignificant wealthy elite. This loose alliance employs highly advanced technology, both their own and that produced by alien allies, to win a war against a galaxy spanning reich that uses any and all means to secure its survival. This conflict is asymmetrical, and has proved long and bloody. Even the extended lives granted by non-Imperial technology have nearly been exhausted as the dispossessed and righteous attempt wage their never-ending war. Even as they fight this ceaseless war of liberation, the forces of Chaos are aware that the self-same citizens they hope to liberate are convinced that their would-be saviours are the very hounds of hell out to corrupt, butcher and destroy. Nonetheless, this alliance continues in its thankless task, hoping against hope that it may one day have victory and bring true peace to the galaxy.

How then do we confront the founding myth of the Imperium, the Horus Heresy and the rise of the Emperor, if we accept this description of Chaos? It requires us to critique the way in which that narrative has been framed, both for public consumption and for the private edification of the High Lords. The public narrative has been touched upon previously, and is clearly a religious fiction, so we shall now deal with that narrative known by a select few amongst the High Lords of Terra, or at least, told in a sanitized form to their children.

If the figure of the Emperor existed at all, we know that he led an alliance of humanity to conquer the stars. The Imperium describes this campaign in terms that are basically genocidal, although whether this is a post-Heresy fiction that fits with their ideology rather than truth we may never know. At some point, the Emperor or more likely his council became alarmed at the independent thought shown by certain legions. If we can take any record of the Emperor’s designs as true, we know that he embraced technological progress, and despised superstition. Nonetheless, he set clear bounds on that knowledge, or his council was wary of anything that threatened his power.

The Emperor had established a precedent in his campaign on Earth, willingly destroying centuries of religious expression in his rise to power. At some point during his campaigns one of his legions developed religious thought, and were given a sharp warning by another. Whether this was ordered by the Emperor or not we do not know. Nonetheless, the reprimand convinced certain highly placed figures that the Emperor’s councillors were too powerful and had over-stepped the mark; perhaps even deceived the Emperor himself.

This logic became more convincing when the Emperor abandoned the crusade to return to Terra. The Warmaster himself became convinced that his liege was being deceived, and had potentially even kidnapped. Horus began sounding out his fellow primarchs, and soon discovered evidence of collusion amongst the arrogant and the proud. These men saw no problems with the Imperium they were building, had no qualms about how they might exceed the orders given from on high, and enjoyed the wealth and prestige afforded to them as leaders of the High Lords new empire. Their devotion to the Emperor had been replaced by ambition. Horus concluded that the Emperor needed to be warned, and indeed such a message was sent by Magnus the Red. This psychic warning appears to have gotten through, but was garbled or deliberately mis-interpreted or intercepted by the High Lords; who by now had closeted the Emperor. It was the High Lords who despatched the Space Wolves to Prospero, and it was once this became known that Horus decided to act to save the Imperium from the cancer rotting within. The result was civil war…. Brother killed brother as the independent legions fought those committed to defending the High Lords of Terra. The subsequent campaign saw Horus and his allies drive towards Terra, intend in liberating their Emperor and demonstrating how he had been deceived.

In the end, Horus reached orbit above the Earth, and lowered his shields; inviting the Emperor to come aboard in a clear invitation to parley. The Emperor, against the advice of the High Lords, went along; although Sanguinus was sent to keep an eye on developments. Luckily for Horus, Sanguinus was separated from the Emperor. Sanguinus attacked the pair when he arrived to find them discussing events, determined to prevent the reconciliation that would see the power of the High Lords and their legions broken. Horus was forced to slay the primarch in self-defence, but was wounded in turn. This made him too weak to prevent the horror that followed, as Rogal Dorn arrived to slay both Horus and the Emperor.

With both leaders slain, the independent legions were forced to retreat, with a surprisingly organised Imperium able to hound their foes away. This is the most damning evidence against the High Lords, for unless they had constructed a self-sustaining power structure independent of the figure of the Emperor they could not have so successfully capitalised on the death of Horus. Indeed, within scant years of this event we can see the High Lords already begin constructing the myth that has sustained their tyranny ever since. After all, Horus betrayed the Emperor, not they who had been his servants. It was Horus who had made dark pacts and embraced foul magic, and it was Horus who had triggered the war in collusion with the deviants of the other legions who dared embrace new methods.

The names of the independent Primarchs were dragged through the mud, their legacies and achievements wiped out or forgotten in the greatest re-writing of history since records began. The surviving Imperial primarchs set to work securing their ill-gotten Empire. Indeed, their own arrogance almost caused a second civil war, when Guilliman proposed a solution to their manpower shortage that Dorn considered an attack on his own powerbase. Such is the nature of the Imperium…

Eventually, the High Lords went a stage further. Not content with having destroyed the legacy of Horus and his comrades, they also hypocritically adopted a religious narrative to underpin the tyranny. The Emperor was made a God, a symbol to rally the populace behind their new masters, and the circle was complete. A war that began with religious belief being suppressed by the High Lords, ended with the High Lords suppressing independent thought by employing religious belief. Their own cynicism proves the lie that has sustained their rule.

What then can we say of the Emperor? We know he possessed great martial ability, and was willing to employ mutants and psykers in his forces. We know too that he had a pathological dislike of religious belief. We also know that he was an idealist, an idealist who believed to the last that he could talk out a galaxy spanning civil war that had destroyed his previous attempts to conquer the galaxy. We also know that he was unwilling or unable to see the capriciousness of those who surrounded him. Not only did he believe that Horus could be talked down even at the end, he also believed in the counsel of the High Lords who surrounded him. Who then can separate the actions done in his name from the actions perpetrated by his councillors? Indeed, the Emperor was betrayed during this period, but not by Horus; and the divine image worshipped in the Imperium is as much a false Emperor as anything. All else is now a mystery, given the layers of falsehood erected by Imperial scholars over the centuries.

I hope that this article has stripped away those lies and demonstrated the truth of the situation in the 41st millennium. Indeed, I hope you now may look upon Horus, his allies and descendants in a new light. Independent minded, resourceful and determined, these stalwarts fight day after day to overthrow a false tyranny established in their beloved Emperor’s name. A coalition, sometimes united, sometimes disunited, this rag-tag band of rebels yearns to liberate the oppressed masses, and bring the rotting edifice that is the Imperium crashing to the ground; thus erasing its foul stain from human history.

[Addendum: A few final notes on subjects not fully covered. Warp storms are but scientific phenomena, representing the bleeding in of an alternate dimension into our own. The effects of exposure can be hallucinogenic or bizarre unless one is properly trained as the forces of ‘Chaos’ are. They also have an advantage in that they do not approach such realities couched in superstitious and religious terms, a state of mind more likely to lead to truly damaging psycho-traumatic experiences upon exposure to an alternate dimension.

The Fall of the Eldar also deserves discussion, given that this is so often cited as evidence for the existence of Dark Powers. Let it be pointed out that a) the Eldar speak of all things in terms of myth and legend. Eldanesh, Khaine, Isha and Faolchu are as real to the Eldar as you and I are to one another. Therefore is it surprising that they have their own comforting myth to explain away the collapse of the Empire by natural disaster? For that truly, is what it was. The ascetics who fled this disaster upon their ships attributed this to the punishment of dark powers for the sins, and have developed their own response to that as much as any monastic order or puritanical society in our history. It is no more and no less than that; not evidence of dark or malevolent powers hovering beyond the veil to devour their souls. B) The confluence of terms, Slaanesh for the god of excess and indulgence, for example. Is yet further evidence of the High Lords mythmaking? Why create your own mythic cycle to explain the Horus Heresy, when you can borrow parts of a previously existing civilisation? Thus, the dark powers of Eldar myth became the dark powers of human myth, whilst the Imperium placed these as antagonists against the Emperor, the Eldar have them as the opponents of the Eldar Gods who abandoned them. Two mythic cycles from two civilizations, both fictional, both responding to real and explainable events in terms that explain them to salve the conscience or lead to a definite end).]

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What do you think?

[Djbz]

An interesting read.
It fits the "grim darkness" well, where basically every faction has it's fair share of darkness, and manipulates the facts/history for there own reasons.

I especially like this part:

With both leaders slain, the independent legions were forced to retreat, with a surprisingly organised Imperium able to hound their foes away. This is the most damning evidence against the High Lords, for unless they had constructed a self-sustaining power structure independent of the figure of the Emperor they could not have so successfully capitalized on the death of Horus.

I had never really given that much thought to it but the imperium did recover awfully quickly after the seige of the Emperor's Palace, despite the fact that they had lost The Emperor and (at least) 3 Primarchs during/slightly after the "heresy" (Considering that it was a galaxy-wide war)

Of course it is just as likely that Horus (and those that followed him) did betray the Emperor for their own personal reasons and that the "High Lords" took the opportunity to "remove" the Emperor to increase their own power when he was found barely alive after his encounter with Horus.
(Therefore everyone effectively being "the bad guy")

[Denzark]

If you are looking at the fluff/canon and saying it is secondary source - but mostly biased - therefore your conclusion is the biggest opponent to the percieved source of bias is viewed with the biggest flaw in viewing, you are missing something.

In no particular order:

The fluff has renegades who turn from the emperor but don't turn to chaos.

Not all opposition to the Emperor is killed - Lamenters and several chapters who turned against the Imp in Badab wars were granted forgiveness.

The speed of recovery after the Heresy was about 10 years for the scouring - longer than the heresy itself. And the fluff has many units who sided with Horus but didn't realise he was Chaos, turning back with redoubled fury when they realised his true nature.

Fluff from the Eldar perspective also confirms and corroborates the 'nasty' nature of Chaos - so is an independent perspective as the Imperium hates the Eldar for being degenerate xenos.

No matter which way you cut it, whether by RL perspective or actual fluff perspective (some fluff is told from a chaos perspective) Chaos is Evil and unrepentant.

So, everything you have been told is nearly a lie, but with a large kernel of truth.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Even Chaos PoV fluff is showing that it's a horrific, cruel, primordial force, but one they seek to bend to their will for their own gain. Abaddon isn't a follower of Chaos so much as a powerful entity who has successfully done that with each of the four Gods.

Also other races such as the Eldar, Interex, etc, etc understand Chaos far more than Mankind does, and believe it to be pretty much what Chaos is represented as. The Eldar have some pretty intimate experience with Chaos, so they would know best.

But it was still an interesting viewpoint nonetheless.

[Haighus]

I feel like this ignores anything from Black Library too. The Codices and FW publications are indeed largely written from the point of view of the Imperium, and within this narrative, your theory could hold true. But when taking into account the novels and stories from BL, they are actually from the point of view of the actual characters during these events, with their motivations and thoughts, and it just does not tally with your hypothesis.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Plus the Codices typically aren't written from the Imperial PoV anymore, hence why the Dark Angels Codex explains their secrets that never happened shut up, and the Tau Codex explains their history that the Imperium wasn't even around to witness.

[Haighus]

Oh, I feel it should be mentioned that humanity had already tried to make a galaxy-spanning, inclusive, tolerant, technologically free society before. Then the Age of Strife happened. The fact that the Emperor even had to go and attempt to reunite humanity shows there was some kind of disaster. The Emperor was attempting to create a society resistant to a further such event happening.

[Morgrim]

You've got a glaring error with your interpretation of the High Lords of Terra:

The High Lords of Terra, we can safely assume, are not psychic and therefore do not suffer under this stigma.

The High Lords of Terra include both the Master of the Astronomican who leads the Adeptus Astronomica, and the Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica in control of . Both are psykers. The Inquisitorial Representative may or may not be a psyker. (The Paternoval Envoy of the Navigators is technically a mutant, but they're treated with similar suspicion.) So at 2-3 of the 12 High Lords of Terra are psykers, and the others have to work closely with them. They're not going to blindly believe the propaganda.

Also there are plenty of sources told from the perspective of the eldar, and those go even deeper into the depravities of Chaos.

[Haighus]

The first Grand Master of Assassins (during the Horus Heresy) was also a psyker, and the most powerful human psyker short of the Emperor too. He helped to set up the High Lords of Terra system.

[Lord Manton]

This is typical propaganda from one of Abaddon's internet trolls.

I love it!