Chaos - Khorne, the Blood God: Khorne is the Blood God, the god of war, murder and violent death. He draws his power from the blood and skulls collected for him by his followers. The sheer amount of bloodshed and death in the galaxy currently has made Khorne the most powerful Chaos God.He sits upon a brass throne, which rests on a massive mountain of skulls, each taken in his name by a devotee. In every direction, as far as he can see, the ground is covered with shattered bones and rotted corpses.As the god of battle, Khorne bestows his favour on those who demonstrate martial prowess. Great warriors are often subjects of Khorne's interest. The followers of Khorne are almost all uncontrollable fighters who excel at the art of killing.His warhosts count many savage Heretic Astartes and mutant warriors among their numbers. Khorne's followers share their god's straightforward philosophy on warfare, preferring to charge directly at their foes in order to defeat them in close, usually melee combat.As such, Khorne's followers are generally berserkers that pay little heed to tactics or defence in their frenzy for blood. Khorne frowns upon the use of sorcery, psychic powers and trickery, and those who use sorcery or are psykers should look elsewhere to find a patron for their studies.Khorne is the most powerful of the Chaos Gods; given that he is empowered by war and fighting, the ceaseless conflict in the Warhammer 40,000 universe ensures he gains power constantly. Khorne is a god of war who acts outwardly by seeking the death of others, preferring close combat over ranged weaponry; as such, he is completely opposed to the hedonistic Slaanesh, an inwardly acting god who seeks pleasure in every act and experience.He has a strong distrust of sorcerers and psykers, whom he sees as cowards; this means he is also highly suspicious of Tzeentch, although they are not archenemies.Khorne is the Blood God, the angry and murderous lord of battle. He is said to be the warrior god whose bellows of insatiable rage echo through time and space back to the first act of violence ever committed. Devotees of the Ruinous Powers have debated forcefully about the primogenesis of the Blood God for millennia.Some hold that it was the will of Khorne that first impelled a primitive to seize a rock and brain one of his fellows in a fit of murderous rage, thereby triggering the spiral of violence that fed the Chaos Power into the formidable force it has become.Others declare that it was the first mortal impulses of fury and rage that breathed life into Khorne, and that he represents the primitive lust for violence lurking in every mortal heart. However, the true disciples of Khorne care nothing for such debates as they are fully engaged with slaying all that come to hand.Khorne's followers are the most ferocious warriors in the universe, and the Blood God abhors magic, sorcery and other unworthy tricks. The blood of magi is said to make a particularly welcome sacrifice to Khorne's unquenchable thirst. Some justify their slaughter through honour, bravery or pride but the most fanatical know that it is only the bloodshed for its own sake that matters.Khorne's disciples believe that his great throne of brass sits upon a mountain of skulls in the midst of a sea of blood, evidence the sacrifice of his countless followers slain in battle and the multitudes killed in his name. They hold that Khorne is the Chaos Power that embodies mindless and absolute violence, the wild blood lust that, once unleashed, yearns to destroy everyone within reach whether they be friend or foe.Such true believers are few in number and they grow fewer all the time as his devoted followers gleefully send one another into his embrace, knowing that Khorne cares not from where the blood flows.Depictions of Khorne often show him as a titanic, armoured figure covered from head to foot in armoured plates of strange and alien design. The figure's armour is usually elaborately carved and worked with a repeating skull motif while his head is covered by a great winged helm showing a bestial, snarling face beneath.In most images, Khorne bears a rune-covered sword or axe, though in more primitive cultures he is often shown only with fists or claw-like hands.In spite of his apparently self-destructive aspects Khorne is overtly the most potent and active of all the Ruinous Powers. Endless wars and bloodshed in the mortal realm fuel it with the skulls of the slain, constantly drawn into its raging depths.Khorne needs no honeyed promises or convoluted plots to draw mortals into his realm; the anger and fury lurking just below their civilised demeanour is often more than enough. The path to Khorne's domain can be just as slippery as any represented by the other, more subtle Ruinous Powers.The instinct to violence is a necessary one in a hostile universe, and is even lauded in protectors or liberators. Many societies must literally fight to survive and they celebrate their members for their ability to defend themselves and others.So it is that soldiers, commanders, and even law enforcers begin their slow slide into Khorne's embrace with the noblest of intentions. A desire to protect their loved ones warps gradually into a determination to fight back against those that threaten them.Martial pride and a sense of brotherhood are fostered to protect against hostile outsiders, and the authorities direct the urge to inflict harm against those designated as undesirable. Under the banners of protection wars are begun that consume whole populations, under the guise of efficiency bombs are dropped and death camps are built, under the proclamation of necessity billions of lives are destroyed.Outside the constraints of the Imperium, those that go into battle commonly beseech Khorne in one of his warrior-god aspects to grant them some measure of his boundless fury. Victories are dedicated to one of his many names and defeats are repaid with blood sacrifices to win back his favour.Leaders of opposing armies strive to show that the favour of the Blood God is with them, and his greatest Chaos Champions are capable of winning the support of entire planets with the very rumour of their presence. Many of Khorne's mortal followers strive for conquest on a vast scale by training armies and gathering fleets to hurl against the universe.Their success or failure is a matter of no import to him, as Khorne waxes strongest wherever mortal ambitions clash, regardless of the outcome.