Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-24944355-20141215055516/@comment-24944355-20170421075619

Actually quantifying the Emperor's power is tricky as he gets much of his power differently than the Chaos Gods. The basis of the Emperor's power comes from the accumulated soul force of the vast bulk of the human race, untold trillions upon trillions of human souls. The Chaos Gods on the other hand get the bul of their power from a narrow bandwidth of emotion + whatever souls they can steal\seduce into their grasp.

The Chaos Gods are like parasites devouring & destroying their host while the Emperor is more like a symbiote offering protection & security in return for the souls of humanity. also it's likely that the Emperor's disciplined nature means he is able to wield his power more effectively as the Chaos Gods very natures drive them in ways that are often counter productive. On the other hand if the Human race was wiped out the Emperor would lose most of his power but while the Chaos Gods would also be weakened it would be by much less (they would not be destroyed, the Cabal had that wrong - or more likely were lying as the destruction of humanity was key to their own racial plans).

In the end measuring the Emperor's power against the Chaos Gods is next to impossible as there are too many differences as well as too many unknowns for there to be any reliable comparisons.