# The Chaos Gods - The Four Horsemen



## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

Has anyone noticed that when compared both the Chaos Gods and the Four Horsemen have lots of similarities.

Khorne and War are the embodiments of bloodshed, war and battle. Both herald epic wars that will spread across all creation and consume all.

Slaanesh and Famine are the embodiments of, in a sense, hunger. They both drive people to fulfill their hungers and desires at any cost.

Nurgle and Pestilence are quite obvious. They both spread disease and decay across the lands and rot away life.

Death can fit into Nurgle but not totally as Nurgle's followers cheat death through disease. And Tzeentch does not fit into any of them.

Anyone agree or disagree with me?, or have their own interpretation?


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## K3k3000 (Dec 28, 2009)

> Khorne and War are the embodiments of bloodshed, war and battle. Both herald epic wars that will spread across all creation and consume all.


Logical



> Slaanesh and Famine are the embodiments of, in a sense, hunger. They both drive people to fulfill their hungers and desires at any cost.


Illogical. Slaanesh is not the god of hunger, but the god of excess. Famine is the embodiement of lack. Even if you were to argue that they both drive people to fulfill urges, Slaanesh' are superficial while Famine's are necessary and biological. They're opposites, if anything.



> Nurgle and Pestilence are quite obvious. They both spread disease and decay across the lands and rot away life.


Logical.



> Death can fit into Nurgle but not totally as Nurgle's followers cheat death through disease. And Tzeentch does not fit into any of them


No chaos god fills the role of Death, nor do any of them fill the role of Conquest. Ultimately, comparing the four primary chaos gods to the four horsemen of he apocalypse makes for a rather incomplete metaphor.


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## TheSpore (Oct 15, 2009)

K3k3000 said:


> Logical
> 
> No chaos god fills the role of Death, nor do any of them fill the role of Conquest. Ultimately, comparing the four primary chaos gods to the four horsemen of he apocalypse makes for a rather incomplete metaphor.


This is where i dissagree. 

Nurgle is often times called the God of Death, pestilence, disease
Famine can also be in with Nurgle also.

Tzeench on the other would more than likely be the Anti-Christ.
corrupted politics and constant change


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

K3k3000 said:


> Illogical. Slaanesh is not the god of hunger, but the god of excess. Famine is the embodiement of lack. Even if you were to argue that they both drive people to fulfill urges, Slaanesh' are superficial while Famine's are necessary and biological. They're opposites, if anything.


What I mean is that both Slaanesh and Famine create the desire for excess. Its the mortals choice whether or not to go along with it. Slaanesh fills his/her followers with the lust for more excess, as Famine fills them with famine, which they will then do everything to fight against.


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## TheSpore (Oct 15, 2009)

honestly we can find similarities anywhere with this topic but i do see your point now.

I always found the whole origion story of the emperor sort of like the 2nd coming of christ in revalations or even the coming of the anti christ


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## Twisted (Mar 11, 2010)

At a push Tzeentch could be considered death if you really wanted it to. Death in the tarot can be considered the card of change and renewal.


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## deathbringer (Feb 19, 2009)

Not for me
Nurgle to pestilence
Khorne to war

The rest of them is you trying to squeeze your analogy into a place it doesnt fit.
Tzeentch is Change
Slaanesh is excess
Neither fit the bill unfortunately


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## K3k3000 (Dec 28, 2009)

TheSpore said:


> This is where i dissagree.
> 
> Nurgle is often times called the God of Death, pestilence, disease
> Famine can also be in with Nurgle also.
> ...


Death through pestilence and disease, yes. War causes death, but Khorne isn't cited as the embodiment of death. Same with famine.



Lord of the Night said:


> What I mean is that both Slaanesh and Famine create the desire for excess. Its the mortals choice whether or not to go along with it. Slaanesh fills his/her followers with the lust for more excess, as Famine fills them with famine, which they will then do everything to fight against.


I really don't see famine as the same as excess. Most people will fight famine in whatever way possible, but that's not excess, that's survival. Those affected by famine would say, "I'm hungry, I need to eat until I'm full" whereas those under Slaanesh would say "I'm full, I'm going to eat until I vomit."



deathbringer said:


> Not for me
> Nurgle to pestilence
> Khorne to war
> 
> ...


Me and this dude are hanging hard.


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## nivik (Mar 16, 2010)

you guys are taking this 2 seriously, i think that they are symbolic of them, 2 of them are like identical, and the other 2, well who cares, the writers arnt going to make them all the same cause then the connection would be 2 obvious, so there going to change them, but the fact that theres 4, and there goals kind the same...i dont know but it looks like a connection 2 me


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## K3k3000 (Dec 28, 2009)

nivik said:


> you guys are taking this 2 seriously, i think that they are symbolic of them, 2 of them are like identical, and the other 2, well who cares, the writers arnt going to make them all the same cause then the connection would be 2 obvious, so there going to change them, but the fact that theres 4, and there goals kind the same...i dont know but it looks like a connection 2 me


You can't be symbolic of two of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. That's why there's four. It's an all or nothing sort of thing.


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## Raptor_00 (Mar 17, 2008)

Malal fall more into the Death line well enough...but that makes 5 Chaos gods and then that throws the whole thing out the window. That is of course you believe in the 5th god...those that don't will feel the wrath of the Sons of Malice however. I so wish they'd bring Malal back. But I kninda like no one knowing much about him...great for building fluff around an army.


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## deathbringer (Feb 19, 2009)

Always seen it as a pandoras box thing personally with the chaos gods as all the evils nurgle disease, khorne violence, slaanesh greed and at a push tzeentch as old age (change old age maybe its just me)

For me the emperor is hope.. he is the banner of good upon which the Imperium places its trust

That my interpretation... shoot it down!:grin:


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

Raptor_00 said:


> Malal fall more into the Death line well enough...but that makes 5 Chaos gods and then that throws the whole thing out the window. That is of course you believe in the 5th god...those that don't will feel the wrath of the Sons of Malice however. I so wish they'd bring Malal back. But I kninda like no one knowing much about him...great for building fluff around an army.


Agreed. Malice and Malal were excellent creations. Chaos turned on Chaos, they should definitely bring them back. The fluff they could create would be amazing.


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## TheSpore (Oct 15, 2009)

honestly if we sit and contemplate this we will eventually find a similarity in almost was possable which is why GW made the chaos gods kinda vague to leave room for us players to create our own conclusion


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## Veritas (Apr 26, 2009)

Despite Tzeentch being described as a god of change i can actually see him filling the role of Conquest pretty easily. I mean just because he is subtle about it doesn't lessen the fact that he is constantly working towards controlling everyone and everything. A subtle conqueror is still a conqueror.

Of course that leaves Slaanesh as death..which we all know isn't correct in the least.

Unless of course we imagine that at some point slaanesh decided "screw you guys imma go flirt with that cute daemonette" forcing one of the other gods to do a double shift on the whole 4 horsemen job. Nurgle naturally decided to take on the extra shift and decided the 4th horsemen should be called "Death", likely to spite slaanesh.


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

You must realize of course, that death is more accurately represented by the c`tan nightbringer? Sorry to screw up your theory but you were all thinking in a pretty tight square here. It had to be said. Nurgle fits Death, Famine and Pestilence when you look at it sideways.
I doubt any simile was ever intended. The Chaos gods are an original creation to 40k if you ask me. Oh, and WFB too of course...


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## Barnster (Feb 11, 2010)

Warhammer lore is abundent with biblical references. 

Tzeentch is best represented as the antichrist who was the first horseman (the one who rode a white horse and carried a bow) 
The second rider on a red horse rode and great conflict and war, Khorne.
Slaanesh is represented by the decadence that is around and abundent prior to the coming of the horsemen and could be represented by the black rider who rode forth with a pair of scales,to judge "the sinful nature of man" (to recruit he corrupt) 
The fourth pale rider kills by both pestillence and famine and there not seperated, Nurgle 

There is of course a similar connection between the emperor and Horus in the same was as there is a connection between god and satan. in that satan was a very high ranking angel who fell from grace and took between a third and a half of all the other angels with him. Just like Horus. Satan is also refered to as Lucifer which isn't a mile away from Lupercal 

supposidly at the end of days all the dead space marines will fight at the side of the emperor in the ultimate show down against chaos and chaos will be destroyed. Sounds alot like the armegeddon battle in revelations

Biblical ideas are however ingrained into western society and we tend to accept stories like these easily (all major western religions have an armeggeddon at the end when good fights evil in a climatic battle (Judeism, Christianity and Islam)


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## Tel Asra Nejoar (Mar 16, 2010)

hmmm, theology 40K? personally, i dont see this as a fit, at all! ok, Korne fits, but the others dont. people forget nurgle is the god of corruption and rebirth(not just disease, but corruption of everything, my tv cant get sick, but it can fall to pieces thanks to nurgle). i do feel the comunity forgets the rebirth bit, but is equally important.Slaanesh just doesnt fit at all, try to wiggle decadence as a horseman as much as you want, but a square wont pass through a circle of the same area. Tzeench as the anti-christ? really? well, i doubt anyone saw that coming lol. Again, doesnt seem to fit any of the archetypes hes been thrown into (lol at satan falling in the war of heaven, that was lucifer, satan was a babylonian demon sucked into christian mythos if i remember). hes a sorceror of unequaled power and skill, a god of magic, mutation and change, so perhaps he represents science as the evil it is in the bible(lol). honestly i just facepalmed myself for this, but its a bit random. also there are many chaos gods, we only know about 5-6 at the moment, but the warp is full of em.most arte too weak to have any bearing on the 40K universe though


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## Raptor_00 (Mar 17, 2008)

Barnster said:


> Warhammer lore is abundent with biblical references.
> 
> Tzeentch is best represented as the antichrist who was the first horseman (the one who rode a white horse and carried a bow)
> The second rider on a red horse rode and great conflict and war, Khorne.
> ...


It's part of why GW stayed close to biblical stories, they are so ingrained in western minds that it's easier to pick up and accept a story line similar to ones you heard in Sunday school growing up. If you are a religious person or not, most know the stories or have heard of them, and creating fiction around those stories is easier then totally coming up with something off the wall that no one will readily accept.
If they didn't use biblical accounts, GW used European history to fill in the rest. And most of that history itself is steeped in biblical tradition. So everything flowed together nicely for them. And then there are the additions, Tyranids from the sci-fi Alien franchise fame, etc.


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

Raptor_00 said:


> It's part of why GW stayed close to biblical stories, they are so ingrained in western minds that it's easier to pick up and accept a story line similar to ones you heard in Sunday school growing up. If you are a religious person or not, most know the stories or have heard of them, and creating fiction around those stories is easier then totally coming up with something off the wall that no one will readily accept.
> If they didn't use biblical accounts, GW used European history to fill in the rest. And most of that history itself is steeped in biblical tradition. So everything flowed together nicely for them. And then there are the additions, Tyranids from the sci-fi Alien franchise fame, etc.


Revelations mentions a swarm of locusts with lion`s fangs. This reminds me a bit of the tyranids. However the locusts are connected to Abaddon, Lord of the Bottomless Pit, which makes little sense. Corrupted nids? Infested Abaddon? Then again, these locusts could just as easily refer to nurgle demonic flies or something, which have appeared often enough in the fluff already. Still, we can dream...:no:


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