Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-7232811-20130620224607/@comment-7123746-20130625042455

Good topic Sindri, a very well thought out post!

First, I'm going to steer clear of the Tau "Greater Good" actually being "Good" question, as I admit to not having as much Tau fluff knowledge as I probably should... Best leave that to Shas'O'Kais and the rest of those more educated on the subject than myself!

I find your point about Chaos not always being inherently evil to be spot on- It seems to me that maybe around the start of The Horus Heresy line of books, GW began to depict the Chaos Marines and Renegade forces of Chaos as slightly more sympathetic figures... Admittedly, they're all still baby-killing, heartless bastards, but as has been pointed out previously, does that make them any worse than The Imperium on the Imperium's best day? (Or any other 40k Race for that matter?)

Sindri mentioned Lorgar and The Twins, but also don't forget Magnus, The Fallen Angel Luther, Konrad Curze and probably the most tragic figure of all: Horus himself... And that's just the HH timeline alone! The Night Lords books and Soul Drinkers series both show that Chaos Legions/Renegade Chapters can be, if not entirely justified, maybe at least more identifiable.

I love the new(ish) direction the Black Library/GW staff have taken with Chaos, it makes them so much more interesting as a group of fallible former heroes, slowly losing their grip on their humanity and/or lofty ideals. I remember years ago, when GW wrote the Primarch's stories only as dusty old legends or divine mythologies, the Traitor Legions' motivations were a bit hard to understand and even harder to relate to.

Don't misunderstand me here- There's always room for good ol' bloodthirsty, unthinking, killing machines with two fistfuls of ChainAxe, but introspective, fallen, warrior-angels of humanity driven by both regret and revenge are much more flavorful and interesting to me.