Chaos Gods

The Chaos Gods, also called the Dark Gods or the Ruinous Powers, are powerful, self-aware entities comprised solely of psychic energy who inhabit and control the psychic dimension that underlies all physical reality known as the Immaterium or the "Warp." The Chaos Gods are in truth not really divine beings, though their great power often means there is little difference for those mortals who revere them. These Warp entities are created and sustained by the emotions and collective desires of every sentient being of the material universe. When an emotion or belief in realspace grows strong or widespread enough across the galaxy, it becomes embodied as one of the sentient denizens of the Warp. The most powerful and most malevolent of these have become the Gods of Chaos. Although they are god-like beings, the Dark Gods are by their nature monomaniacal and completely single-minded since they are formed entirely of a single emotion or concept.
The Chaos Gods are dependent upon the emotions of mortal creatures, especially the hordes of Humanity, for their power and continued existence. As a result, the Chaos Gods strive to convert all mortals to their worship and service so that they may ultimately dominate the universe. However, if they were to win such a dark victory, it would likely destroy all of reality when the dimensional separation between realspace and the Immaterium broke down in its wake. The Chaos Gods and the forces of Chaos that serve them are the greatest enemies of the Imperium of Man, the Aeldari and most other sentient forms of life in the Milky Way Galaxy, even if they are not fully aware yet of the threat Chaos poses, like the T'au Empire.
The Chaos Gods are able to devote a fraction of their psychic power in the Warp to create Daemons, psychic entities whose appearance and character reflect their patron god's own nature. These Daemons may be reabsorbed into the god at their whim. The least of the minor Chaos Gods may be so limited in their power that expending that power to create a Daemon means their entire power is expended; in effect, the god becomes a Daemon. In the Warp, the psychic reflection of similar thoughts and emotions gather together like rivulets of water running down a cliff face. They form streams and eddies of anguish and desire, pools of hatred and torrents of pride. Since the dawn of time, these tides and waves of psychic energy have flowed unceasingly through the mirror realm of the Warp, and such is their power that they forged creatures made of the very stuff of dreams and nightmares. Eventually, these instinctual, formless entities gained a rudimentary consciousness of their own. The Chaos Gods were born -- vast psychic presences composed of the fantasies and horrors of mortals. These are the Ruinous Powers, and each one is a reflection of the mortal passions that formed them.
First amongst them is Khorne, the Lord of Battle, possessed of towering and immortal fury. Tzeentch, the bizarre and ever-changing Architect of Fate, weaves powerful sorceries to bind the future to his will, whilst great Nurgle, the Lord of Decay, labours endlessly to spread infection and pestilence. The last of their number is Slaanesh, the Dark Prince of Chaos, indulgent of every pleasure and excess, no matter how immoral or perverse. As the intelligent species of the Milky Way Galaxy prospered and grew, so too did their hopes and ambitions, their anger and wars, their love and hatred. This burgeoning flood of raw emotion fed the Chaos Gods and nurtured their power. Before long, the gods reached back to their makers with a curious and hungry sentience, planting seeds of corruption in the souls of those whose dreams they passed through. So were the first mortals bound to the will of the Ruinous Powers, and seeing the fruits of their labours, the gods began their eternal work to influence the physical realm and its myriad sentient races.
Lured by promises of extraordinary power and immortality, some mortals serve the Chaos Gods willingly, fomenting misery, war and death amongst their people in order to sustain and elevate their dark masters. Yet the Chaos Gods are fickle, prone to reneging or altering a deal on a whim, and few of these worshippers are ever granted the rewards they seek. A Chaos God can only grow in power through the actions and thoughts of mortals. Those who worship a Chaos God, and behave in a way that feeds it, are rewarded with strange "gifts," extraordinary powers and potentially, immortality as a Daemon Prince. As the Chaos Gods battle in the Warp, so their mortal followers wage war in the material universe. The victors of the battles earn more power for their unworldy master, though the twisted plans of the Chaos Gods are such that often victory is not necessary; merely the acts of sacrifice and battle themselves. When devotees of Chaos die, their souls do not fade in the Warp and disappear like the spirits of others to some unknown and unknowable fate. Instead, their immortal energy is swallowed into the greatness of their gods, their souls sustained forever, bound to the eternal power of Chaos.
As a Chaos God gathers such energy, it expands in power, and its influence and territory within the Warp's Realm of Chaos grows. As extensions of the gods, the appearances of these domains are formed upon the same emotions that created their masters: Khorne's realm is founded on anger and bloodletting; Tzeentch's lands are scintillating constructs of pure magic; Nurgle's territory is a haven of death and regeneration, and Slaanesh's dominion is a paradise of damning temptations. Though realm and god are as one, the Chaos Gods each have a form that embodies their personalities and dwells at the very heart of their territories. Wreathed in unearthly power, the Chaos Gods watch over their realms, seeking any disturbances in the pattern of the Warp that signal intrusion or opportunity

Type

Religious, Divine Host