Chaos - Slaanesh, the Dark Prince of Chaos: Slaanesh is the Dark Prince of Chaos, the god of pleasure and pain. Slaanesh is the beguiling water, the Great Serpent who lives for pleasure and the experience of the sensations of life and death.All those who live in the pursuit of pleasure risk falling under this god's deceptive charms. Slaanesh is the youngest of the Chaos Gods, and referred to by the other Ruinous Powers as the Prince of Chaos.Seductive in the way that only an immortal being can be, Slaanesh is the Chaos God of pleasure, passion, luxury, art, and indulgence. Slaanesh is the manifestation of all hidden vices, cruel passions, and secret temptations that mortals hide fearfully in their hearts.While not interested in the dirty warfare of Khorne, (Khorne and Slaanesh are mortal enemies, as Slaanesh acts inwardly upon the mortal psyche by seeking selfish pleasure, while Khorne acts outward to kill others) Slaanesh does enjoy combat of the artistic sort, rewarding those whose fighting is transformed from a means to an end and thus into an art form all its own.Slaanesh's followers seek pleasure in every experience, and quickly become inured to more mundane things, including sounds and colours; thus they frequently wear garish, brightly colored armour, or clothing which is extravagantly decorated. Worshippers of Slaanesh are known for their complete lack of fear, as they see losing a battle as a new experience to be enjoyed.Slaanesh is the youngest and weakest of the major Chaos Gods. However, Slaanesh is constantly growing in power due to the corrupt and dark nature that all sentient beings, but particularly the Aeldari and Humanity, try to keep hidden within their hearts, for even the mere act of thinking about such dark acts of pleasure and vice are enough to give spiritual strength to Slaanesh.It won't be long before Slaanesh sits as an equal of power amongst the other three Ruinous Powers, and may even rise above Khorne, given time and the incessant quest across the galaxy for pleasure.It is said that Slaanesh was brought into being by the decadence of the galaxy-spanning ancient Aeldari civilisation. Slowly, over many centuries, the projected lusts and desires of the highly-psychic Aeldari coalesced in the Warp to create the new power.As the entity grew, the Aeldari themselves were increasingly affected by its influence, driven to new heights of depravity in pursuit of their jaded lusts. The spiral became tighter as the increasingly frenzied activities of the Aeldari spurred Slaanesh towards full wakefulness, even as its dreams stirred their darkest desires.The Aeldari race became trapped by its own dark nature, one that asserted itself more and more as Slaanesh's influence grew. The more it drove them into moral, social and artistic decadence the more the Aeldari fought against it, but it was a hopeless struggle.Slaanesh was like an expanding balloon, straining outwards as pressure built inside, and it was only a matter of time before it burst. In the moment of Slaanesh's birth the golden empire of the Aeldari was irrevocably shattered. The terrible psychic scream of the newborn god shattered heaven and earth, its shock-wave spreading outward through the Warp to deal a numbing blow to the soul of every living thing.It was too much for the psychically attuned Aeldari to endure. Their souls were drawn into the growing Power of Slaanesh and their bodies evaporated as Chaos boiled into their minds. The Warp energy unleashed by Slaanesh's birth tore out the heart of the old Aeldari Empire and transformed into it the vast region of Warp overlap with realspace now called the Eye of Terror by Mankind.Wherever Aeldari populations were densest, the Warp literally spilled through their minds and into realspace, creating new areas of Warp overlap all over the galaxy. The once-proud Aeldari were left a broken, hunted people scattered through space, bitter with the knowledge that if not for their foolishness, arrogance and hedonism, Slaanesh -- the Depraved One, the Great Serpent, She Who Thirsts -- would never have been born.Slaanesh represents the locus of the fallen Aeldari race's deepest desires; the yearning for luxury and hedonistic over-indulgence, the exercise of cruel and unnatural passions, the pursuit of forbidden vices and unspeakable carnality.The Pleasure Lord always holds open the thrilling promise of the forbidden and the exotic beyond the boundaries of moral and societal laws. The siren call of its illicit pleasures draws everything from jaded Planetary Governors to mass pleasure cults onto Slaanesh's paths.Of all the Chaos Powers the Prince of Pleasure can offer the greatest temptations to the common man, those without any desire to be conquering warriors or clever sorcerers. The first weavings of Slaanesh's subtle influence can be as humble as a desire for rest or as simple as an end to hunger and he is said to capture many souls both willing and unwilling in his nets.The followers of the Prince of Chaos pursue ever-greater heights of experience, seeking pleasure in increasingly extreme and outrageous fashion. Slaanesh's influence often reaches into the upper echelons of hierarchies where the greatest luxury and privilege resides, corrupting nobility and wealthy families.It can be seen at its most insidious among those that strive for rectitude, as if the Prince of Chaos takes particular joy in corrupting those that dare to proclaim themselves as upright souls. Even the most pious pontiff must rest sometime, and when he does the unconscious desires in his dreams betray him to the Master of Carnal Joys.The more civilised a society becomes, the more frequently seeds of corruption planted by Slaanesh sprout within it. As leisure becomes widespread the unconscious wants of the many are led down dark paths by the subtle influence of Slaanesh.Countless worlds have fallen into complete anarchy when Slaanesh pleasure cults became so widespread that all order was lost in an insane frenzy of self-gratification. On many, the Fall of the Aeldari is reenacted in microcosm as society collapses and the howling winds of Chaos ravage the world through the minds of its psykers.The handful of gibbering survivors that are sometimes left behind are so changed by the experience that they can no longer be called in any sense mortal or sane. Certain Inquisitors of the Imperium have cultivated a particular loathing of the followers of Slaanesh for the corruption they spread so readily through the Emperor's mortal realm. Their efforts to suppress the pursuit of pleasure inevitably bring an ever-widening wide circle of recidivists, smugglers, criminals, and black marketeers into contact with Slaanesh's mortal adherents.Depictions of Slaanesh show it as an androgynous or hermaphroditic being of unearthly, unnatural and disturbing beauty. Two pairs of slender horns rise from the god's flowing golden hair. Slaanesh is often depicted wearing luxuriantly lined, form-fitting armour and bearing a jade sceptre that is said to be his greatest treasure.His worshippers engage in great orgies involving every vice and perversity to praise the Lord of Pleasure, where the death of many through exhaustion and over-stimulation is taken to be a sign of the Prince's favour.His devotees say that any extremity of sensation or emotion can open communion with Slaanesh, for the echoes of his birth scream reside in every mortal soul. They pursue a rapturous, tortured, orgasmic drug-fuelled state of hyper-sensuality, their souls burning bright and hot like shooting stars as they plunge ever deeper into the psychic maelstrom that is Slaanesh.