Chaotic Stupid

We’ve been playing a lot of Warhammer 40,000 RPGs in the last few years between Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader and even a little bit of Only War and the one thing that has been a constant is our disdain for Chaos as a concept.

If you’re not an aficionado of the setting let me give you the elevator pitch. Chaos is a force of evil powers who rule the Warp, which space ships use to travel faster than light, and each represents some terrible force that threatens to tear apart the world of order. Slaanesh is pleasures, pains and indulgence, think Cenobites from Hellraiser. Khorne is war, bloodshed and martial prowess, Nurgle is pestilence and decay, and Tzeentch is lies, trickery and sorcery.

Subtlety is not really their strong suit, Khorne is covered in blood and skulls, Nurgle is all scythes and distended bellies etc etc. The problem is that with this lack of subtlety it feels less like a force that corrupts people, which it’s depicted as in much of the lore, and more cackling Saturday morning cartoon villains.

Now this works on the tabletop for the most part, where the models need to be unique and bombastic to sell. The problem is that this has bled over into the lore where sometimes their operatives need to work subtly and where characters need to be tempted into a position where they willingly embrace the powers and fall.

This is much harder to write, but it starts with an understanding not just of the cost of CHaos, which is what we see on the tabletop, but also the ‘good’ of chaos, the good intentions they let you perform that ultimately damn you.

In Khorne we see the martial and military, in war and bloodshed. Yet we can also see mastery of the military, we can see glory and honour bound up in this and on a more basic level the skills of the blade, the bow and the horse (or jetbike) which might draw warriors and aristocrats to its banner before driving them into ever greater feats of martial skill until all their enemies lie dead and yet they feel no rest. All they feel is an emptiness, a need for a new foe, and then they are his.

In Nurgle we see pestilence and death but also will and endurance, it’s easy to imagine the plague god as being the bearer and also the salve. Pestilence sent as a test where the faithful supplicate themselves at the feet of Father Nurgle who bestows them with the power to endure, to defeat death, to survive when all their neighbours perish. Those who keep surviving might be drawn to the rot god, feeling a perverse pride in their ability to endure, finding strength in the plagues that wrack their bodies, and being drawn to test themselves further.

This sounds perhaps a bit ridiculous until you remember that one co-worker who only had three hours sleep, who has a cold and still won’t take time off. Who keeps going and makes it a badge of pride that they’re clinging on through a combination of coffee, painkillers and Speyside. That co-worker is probably a devotee of Nurgle, and when you inevitably catch their cold you’ll know it to be true.

Slaanesh is the god of excess and sensation and is generally the poorest defined of the Chaos gods simply because gluttony, lust and excess don’t really translate well into an ‘army’ and also because they never really got past the design of: ‘Paint it pink and give it breasts’. Which is a pity, because Slaanesh done well could be one of the most interesting gods. You see the common mistake is making Slaanesh about lust and greed and base desires which are bombastic but also kinda problematic and definitely not subtle.

The interesting component of Slaanesh is ‘excess’ because this is a word that means many things. Mostly, in terms of narrative, it’s most interesting definition is in the exceptional and characters who wish to attain the same. The drive toward perfection and exceptionalism is one that can easily consume a character, especially a roleplaying character who is continuously improving.

It takes only a nudge to pivot them, to give them a short cut that seem innocuous enough, to let them have what they want and then make them pay the price later.

Lastly is Tzeentch, the keeper of secrets, the changer of ways and perhaps the only Chaos god served well by its vague description. The lure of Tzeentch is the lure of knowledge, forbidden and secret, is the calling of Tzeentch. It is in my experience the chaos god players will most likely follow willingly, forging faustian bargains and compacts for short term gain.

Tzeentch however is also the planner, the Chaos god who has designs and machinations, wheels within wheels, and it's easy to imagine this god of the unseen world appearing to primitive species as a more benevolent god of knowledge and learning. It was Tzeentch who handed humans the gift of fire or whose unseen hand guided the Eldar to forge their great craftworlds before the fall. All as part of its plan, Tzeentch could easily be a god of inspiration who gifts people with exactly the nudge they need at the right moment to advance his plans.

I hope this has given you some ideas about how to use some smarter, or at least more subtle Chaos Gods in your Warhammer 40,000 roleplays. If you have any example of how you’ve used the ruinous powers in clever or interesting ways let us know in the comments.