Gods and Religion
In The Beginning, there was nothing...
"Then came The Old Ones emerging from the void in silver starships." The Old Ones created the world using the tried and trusted 'Terra Forming Template' they had already used successfully to create several identical worlds in the Milky Way Galaxy. The Old Ones seeded their new world with the usual mix of flora and fauna and populated it with all of the sentient species they needed to help them complete their task. The plan progressed on schedule and the 'Construction Races' performed efficiently and the Old Ones saw that it was good.The Children of the Gods
“There are many paths to order and knowledge; may the Old Ones guide us.” Not surprisingly the 'Construction Races' created by the Old Ones to assist them in their work worshipped them as Gods. They were, after all, their creators. Each of these races considered themselves to be the true 'Children of the Gods' and each believed themselves to be their most valued servants and followers. The Old Ones encouraged this belief recognising that rivalry between their servants ensured both loyalty and efficiency. They even used 'Warp Energy Projection' to present themselves differently to each race, so that each believed themselves to be born in the image of their Gods, and consequently, that they must be the chosen ones. The strategy worked well and good order and maximum efficiency were maintained. Although in truth, each of the servant races had its own role and purpose in the construction of the world and was purposefully designed for the role they had to perform. In fact, none were actually favoured by the Old Ones above the others.The Great Plan
“Correct interpretation is essential if the Great Plan is to be executed to the Old Ones' intended design.” The Old Ones were clearly engaged in some sort of experiment, for having created and seeded each of their worlds often using an identical terra-forming template, they left each populated by a different selection of species created from their own genetic design catalogue. However, the purpose of this experiment has been lost and forgotten for the Old Ones never survived long enough to complete it.The War In Heaven
"The Gods abandoned their children and never returned." The War in Heaven was an ancient and devastating conflict fought between another humanoid race of star-travellers called the Necrontyr Xenos later known simply as The Necrons and The Old Ones. The Necrons ultimately proved victorious and the Old Ones were forced to choose between extinction or flight from the Milky Way Galaxy. They choose to flee and abandoned the galaxy leaving the worlds they have created abandoned and godless. To the Children of the Gods on the planet, none of this was explained. For them, the Gods just seemed to become more and more distracted by events in the heavens and after witnessing some strange events where the heavens were rent by violent storms and explosions of light the Gods simply abandoned them. For some time the abandoned races continued their work loyally following the last instructions the Gods had given them. But eventually, they ran out of assignments and no amount of prayer or worship resulted in fresh guidance. So the 'Children of the Gods' began to seek meaning and purpose elsewhere.The Search for Meaning and Guidance.
'Mortals need to believe in things that aren't true, for otherwise how can they become real.' Ten thousand years have passed since the first appearance of The Old Ones in the skies above the world and in the three thousand years that followed their disappearance their children forgot them. The loss of the Milky Way Galaxy left the mortals of the world bereft of meaning and guidance and each race began to seek its own meaning for existence in their own way. The prevailing question in all their minds became 'Why are we here?'The search for an answer took many different forms. But even those races with the longest life expectancy eventually found that there was no mortal living who could remember the time of The Old Ones and for many of the shorter-lived races, the Old Ones were almost forgotten completely. In the jungles of the southern continent, the reptilian races of the Slann continued to search for answers amongst the overgrown ruins of the temples their ancestors had helped to build. Painstakingly pawing over the mysterious scripts left by the Gods in search of 'The Great Plan', which they remain convinced will answer all their questions if only they can find it. Whilst in the forests the elves, known as the Asrai, tried to recall the mysteries of the ancient circles and ley-lines that criss-cross the landscape and are the source of so much latent power. The Gods have been kept alive in mortal memories as stories, myths and drawings but the passage of generations has dimmed these memories and eventually none but the most devout of individuals still made claims of seeing the gods or hearing their voices and those that did were simply deluded or charlatans. Nevertheless, the world continued to evolve even without the guidance of the Gods.
Mankind a short-lived but curious and ambitious species with a high birth rate soon began to dominate large areas of the planet's surface cutting down forests and working the land to grow crops and enslave animals. To protect their farms they hunted the larger aerial predators on the planet to extinction allowing them to clear more land and live safely beyond the protection of the forest canopy. Unable to compete with this ruthless expansion the elves were driven off their land, fragmenting into several isolated kindred's and becoming trapped in small impenetrable forest enclaves. Whilst the dwarves and other races were forced away from the richest and most productive areas of the planet and into the mountains and deserts that mankind found less appealing and harder to colonise.
The Coming Of Chaos
"The sky was rent asunder and the air was thick with dust. The mortals screamed in terror and chaos reigned supreme." And then came The Great Cataclysm, chaos descended on the world, a new moon appeared in the sky and the Gods spoke again. The chronicles record that the initial shock waves caused by the collapse of the The Warp Gates destroyed both poles of the planet wiping out all life and scouring the planet's surface for hundreds of miles in all directions. Where the warp gates had once been there were now two permanent inter-dimensional portals between the material world of the planet and the void of immaterial warp space. The initial pressure of the explosion in the void had thrust huge quantities of Warp Energy through the portal from the immaterial into the material universe. Unable to sustain its ethereal form in the material universe this warp energy spread across the surface of the planet like a tsunami desperately seeking any psychic stimulation it could find that would provide it with a physical template upon which to base its existence. At the Departure Gate which had exploded away from the planet's surface a huge mass of warp energy had been thrust out into the upper atmosphere of the planet and with no psychic input to latch onto this energy rapidly coalesced into a large inert moon of solid warp energy which was later named Morrslieb by the mortals on the planet below. However, at the opposite pole of the planet the Arrivals Gate exploded towards the planet's surface and as the warp energy from the explosion spread it sought out any stimulation it could find amongst the sentient beings below. Many mortal creatures were instantly twisted into strange and horrible monstrosities and others were driven mad by the total chaos they witnessed around them. The warp energy which could not find any psychic stimulation eventually began to coalesce into whatever inert physical form it could achieve and soon the entire planet was coated in a fine layer of warpdust and warpstone. Whilst some of the warp energy which had pooled on the surface became compressed and moulded by natural events into crystalline forms similar to diamonds and other precious stones which would later become known as energy crystals or power gems.The Return of the Gods
"As chaos engulfed them the mortals asked 'Why?' and the Gods answered them." The initial impact of The Great Cataclysm was pure chaos. But as those first shock-waves subsided and the initial horrors subsided the mortals seeking answers and divine guidance from their gods suddenly began to discover that their questions were being answered.Gods whose images and purpose had been kept alive for centuries by myths stories and drawings were suddenly appearing before their worshippers and passing on their knowledge. Whilst not obvious to the worshippers themselves these manifestations were the direct result of the warp energy contamination of the planet being stimulated by the expectations of the worshippers themselves. This is a metaphysical law I call The Santa Claus Principle and is based on the practical application of Terry Pratchett's concept that whatever people believe will become. It is the foundation of all things magical and divine in my world.
The Legacy of Faith and the Birth of Religion
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.” Whilst the initial chaos of the cataclysm has subsided the portals to the void still remain open and more warp energy is constantly flowing through them into the atmosphere of the planet to add to the initial contamination. Since the initial cataclysm, the warp stone dust which coats the planet has found its way into the food chain has been absorbed by the oceans and rivers and thus consumed by all of its flora and fauna. Whilst inert in its material form the warp energy still retains its ability to be stimulated by psychic energy and so is able to manifest itself in whatever material form it is stimulated to take. It was not long before mortal priests, shaman, druids, seers and prophets who for centuries had prayed and pleaded with their Gods for guidance suddenly found themselves face to face with manifestations of their own deities willing to answer their prayers. Whilst the first of such encounters were probably a disaster for all concerned, religions soon learned to adapt to cope with the fact that their Gods were real and to control their interactions. Soon religious organisations were formed that were dedicated to the worship of specific Gods with rigid rules and structures defined to ensure that only the expected god was summoned and that the members of the religious order did nothing to attract a different one or anger theirs. Thus over time, a level of control was achieved and divine interactions became more predictable and manageable.Are the Gods Real?
"Of course, the Gods are real. I have seen one and it looked exactly how I imagined." That the Gods are nothing but manifestations created by the stimulation of warp energy cannot be denied. In effect, the mortal creates a God that satisfies its expectations whether benign or evil, beautiful or horrific. But that does not make them any less real, for anything warp energy creates is as real as one imagines it to be. If you imagine it can be touched, then you can touch it. If you can imagine it can talk, it will talk. And if you imagine it can kill you, you will die. However, beyond the simple fact that the Gods are real, things become more complicated. Because whilst they are undoubtedly real, the reason they exist at all can vary.- Acts of Faith: The most common reason for a God to exist is through an Act of Faith. A believer confident in their faith and in their righteousness calls upon their God for help or guidance and by stimulating the warp energy both within themselves and the world around them calls that God into being. In many respects, the process itself is identical to the casting of a spell by a magic-user except that the believer has no direct control over the manifestation and merely wills it into existence.
- Spontaneous Manifestations: Spontaneous manifestations as the name suggests happen without the believer willing it to happen. They tend to occur in moments of extreme stress or emotional trauma and can be attributed to a sub-conscious stimulation of warp energy by one or more mortals. For obvious reasons, spontaneous manifestations are less predictable than those produced through an Act of Faith and often don't completely meet the believer's expectations. For example, a God may appear only in partial or symbolic form as a Wolf, Raven or Black Cat and their help or guidance may not be that useful. But nevertheless, they are no less real for that.
- Stimulated Manifestations: Stimulated manifestations can occur either spontaneously or as an Act of Faith. The only thing that sets them apart is that unlike the previous examples the warp energy to create them has been deliberately supplied by a Warp Entity. Warp Entities are arguably the real Gods. They have no ability to sustain themselves in the material universe but are able to sense the strength of psychic energy emanating from it as a sort of beacon that attracts their attention. I refer to this as The Beacon Principle and it is a metaphysical law that allows Warp Entities to home in on strong psychic signals that contain the emotional content which that particular entity craves. It can then choose to invest a targeted burst of its own energy to try and stimulate a more powerful reaction. The impact this has in the material universe is completely unpredictable but because the energy is already emotionally charged by the Warp Entity from which it originated it will usually produce a much more powerful manifestation that exceeds the expectations of the mortal or mortals in the area where it was targeted and can give rise to massive divine interventions such as those often witnessed on the battlefields of the Old World. The goal of the Warp Entity is simply to stimulate a massive increase in the emotional output it has already detected from that area and as such is little more than a calculated investment of energy intended to return an emotional return that exceeds the power invested.
Are All Gods Warp Entities?
"Which came first the chicken or the egg." In truth that is actually up for debate. It's obvious that not all warp energy manifestations are Gods. If a wizard casts a fireball it's a manifestation, and it's real, it can kill you, but it isn't a God. So, logically a mortal must be able to manifest something that looks like a God, talks like a God, behaves like a God, is as real as a God, but has no association with a Warp Entity. Most divine manifestations are based upon long distant memories of the way The Old Ones used to present themselves to the Children of the Gods. So, many of the Gods of the Old Faith are literally projections of those old beliefs. By comparison, most of the newer Gods like the Gods of Chaos are almost certainly based upon imagery and behaviour promoted by their own worshippers. Just as we expect the Devil to be an evil demon with horns and Santa to be a chubby bloke in a red coat. So these new religions tend to invent their own Gods and promote both their image and purpose. Warp entities feed on specific emotional energy but that doesn't necessarily mean they are linked directly to specific Gods. Indeed, even without the assistance of a God, a Warp Entity will receive a steady stream of latent emotional energy that seeps through the ruptured portals into the Void. So, in that respect, the Gods have no essential connection to a specific Warp Entity and a Warp Entity has no direct control over a God. All a Warp Entity can do is invest some of its precious energy in the material universe and hope that it stimulates an appropriate response. Nevertheless, many Gods feed specific Warp Entities and some Warp Entities invest power in specific Gods.Like the question of the 'Chicken and the Egg' it is hard to decide which came first.
How to tell if your God is a Warp Entity?
"So! Hang on a minute. If the Gods are real where do they go when they're not bothering us?" The only clue that indicated whether a Warp Entity is feeding itself from the emotional energy created by a certain God is the fact that the worship of that God has become heavily focused on strictures that promote a specific emotional response. Because even if that God was not initially linked to a Warp Entity then one can assume that a Warp Entity would very quickly recognise the worshippers of that God as a reliable source of the emotional energy it is interested in and begin to invest its power in promoting that source. Which by implication must also mean that it must be possible for a God to create a Warp Entity. Because if mortals began believing in new God based on an emotional need that had not yet created a Warp Entity then eventually a new one would coalesce to exploit the new power source. If that were not complicated enough it must also mean that mortals have the ability to invent Gods. Because all that is actually required to create a God is to encourage a strong belief and then believe there is a God capable of satisfying it. So when the people of the Reikland were persuaded that Sigmar was now a God, Sigmar became a God. And somewhere in the void, there is probably a Warp Entity that has coalesced around the feelings of unity and patriotism that Sigmar encourages in his worshippers.Authors Notes
My apologies for the length of this article and the wall of text. I shall try to refine the content overtime to make it more legible. However, at this point, my main aim was to get the metaphysical explanation of how the Gods and Religion work in WFRP Fragile Alliances down in writing. Please note this is NOT canon and whilst I am happy for anyone to copy these ideas and use them in their game nothing in this article should ever be quoted as canon in a WFRP debate or used as such in a game. Doing so without the protection of a disclaimer is likely to get you burned as a heretic. You have been warned. Having said that the content of this article is based upon decades of reading, discussion and theorising about the nature of the Gods and religion in WFRP and the ideas it contains are drawn from multiple sources describing the Warhammer Universe including 'Rogue Trader'; Realm of Chaos; WFRP; WH40k and WFB sourcebooks. My own contribution has been to provide what I hope is a rational explanation that creates some continuity between the information provided in these various sources and to choose between the various alternative versions of an event, that which, I consider to make the most sense for my world and the most logical progression between concepts. For Example:- In choosing an explanation for the collapse of the Warp Gates over the poles of the planet. I opted for The Birth of Slaanesh explanation rather than the alternative based on the War in Heaven because the former fits in better with the concept of the Gods drawing power from mortal emotions. Which, in turn, links back to the WH40k concept of Psykers and the WFB concept of magic being psychic manipulation of warp energy.
- I chose to stick with the original WFRP timeline from First Edition which states that The Old Ones appeared over the planet 10,000 years before today and that The Great Cataclysm occurred 3,000 years later. This creates a 3,000-year window within which the Old Ones began work on their Great Plan and were interrupted and driven out of the galaxy by the Necrons in the War of Heaven. I was able to match the date of The Great Cataclysm with that of the creation of The Eye of Terror in the 40k timeline. Thus making -4500 on the Imperial (Human) Calendar in WFRP approximately equal to the 31st Millenium on the Imperial Calendar in 40k. That by implication suggests that The Old Ones appeared over the planet sometime around the 27th or 28th Millenium and the War in Heaven must have occurred somewhere between M27 and M31. However, I was unable to confirm this from the WH40k sources I could find as most of this period falls into the period known as 'Pre-History'. Which may actually be a blessing in disguise. However, the event known as 'The Fall of the Eldar' culminated in M30, which fits in nicely with The Birth of Slaanesh, so it's close enough to work.
- The idea that mortals manifest there own Gods is probably the most original idea I've added to this explanation and it's blatantly inspired by Terry Pratchett's concept of belief as used in the book and film 'Hogfather' which in turn resulted in my calling it The Santa Claus Principle. Although many official sourcebooks hint at this being how both magic and manifestations work as far as I know it has never been explicitly stated as canon anywhere. However, I believe it makes perfect logical sense that if a wizard can manifest a fireball through the power of will, then a priest ought to be able to manifest a God. More importantly, it provides me with a very flexible metaphysical explanation for where Gods come from, where they go, why they exist at all and what their purpose is. It also means that there are no restrictions on what a god is, what it looks like, what it is called or what it does. To paraphrase Pratchett 'if a mortal believes it, it will become', which in practical terms means that even if Games Workshop suddenly decided to invent a whole new pantheon of Gods my world can still deal with it.
- The distant relationship between Warp Entities and Gods is a major detraction from canon. In canon I think it's fair to say that Warp Entities are Gods and Gods are Warp Entities but in my opinion, this causes more problems and inconsistencies than it solves and I chose not to carry this concept over to my world. By breaking that relationship one gains much more flexibility to create Gods simply based on a belief rather than emotional stimulus. Which actually means that the concept of Sigmar as a God makes a lot more sense, as do all the lesser Gods and spirits that don't quite fit into the current pantheon. It also means that Warp Entities become more than just an excuse for a deity and can actually be given their own modus Operandi, which fits much better with the story of The Birth of Slaanesh.
- Finally whilst researching the WH40k timeline to try and tie up the loose ends on the dates and reading the WH40k history of the War in Heaven I think I may have stumbled across the germ of an idea for a metaphysical explanation of the existence of the undead and more specifically the Khemri. I've been trying to rationalise their existence for decades as they don't really fit in with the concept of Warp Energy manifestation very well. I plan to give this more thought but the germ of my idea is that sometime during or soon after the War of Heaven but before The Collapse of the Warp Gates the Necrons visited the world of WFRP Fragile Alliances and that some of them were left behind when the warp gates were destroyed. Unable to rejoin the collective or sustain their artificial Necrodermis on such a primitive planet the C'tan spirits within the Necrons have since evolved and adapted into the Khemri and learned to exploit biological hosts as physical bodies. This is quite an exciting development as it solves a long-standing issue I have had with the concept of sentient undead. So, watch this space.
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