In any case the new Codex: Harlequins should have some answers for us, I need to get it xD
I'm with the last commenter - the other guy said ALL dead Eldar are reborn as Harlequins, which doesn't fit at all with the "dying race" story of the Eldar.
About the origin of the Solitaires, which are a special breed of Harlequins and not "daemons", why would a "cegorachi spawn" be doomed from birth to end up in the belly of another god? I think it has more to do with tainting their souls from playing the She-who-thirsts role in Masquerades.
What's your source? As far as I know, only Harlequins' souls are claimed by Cegorach from Slaanesh
What I meant to say is that no-one has ever said there were eight Chaos Gods, either you only take the 4 big ones, or you think there can be an infinite amount of minor ones around them. From the points I listed above, you can glean at least 10 different deities =)
It's the first time I hear there are eight Chaos Gods...either you're mistaking the 8-pointed star symbol with the Four Great Ruinous Powers, or you don't know that initially (Realms of Chaos stuff) you could even make up your own Chaos God and choose the power it gave to its Daemons xD
This is all I know so far on this subject:
The Imperium of Man, even though the planet ended up so devastated it was of no use for anyone xD
1) Lorgar was a psyker, although he didn't master his powers til Istvaan V Dropsite Massacre. He invented Imperial Tarot, btw.
2) Kor Phaeron used to be a high-tier priest of that Old Faith of Colchis, and secretly worshipped Chaos. When the Emperor rebuked Lorgar, he and Erebus convinced their Primarch to "look for true gods" and so the Serrated Sun Chapter went into the Eye of Terror, coming back turned into Possessed Marines. Soon after, Lorgar went there too and was chosen as the prophet of the Chaos Gods. So yes, Aaron Dembski-Bowden's The First Heretic talks about Lorgar's corruption. Nuff said xD
3) Lorgar wouldn't have commanded enough respect from his fellow Primarchs to lead the rebellion on his own, so he had to choose a suitable visible head - Horus.
Well, I'm sorry to turn down your hopes, but Roboute Guilliman can't get healed because inside of a stasis field, time can't move forward nor backwards around him and so he can't die...but he can't get healed either.
The 40k universe is meant to be this dark. It's what we call a "grimdark atmosphere". Mankind has been decaying for ten thousand years, and yet humans keep fighting on heroically against the forces of darkness and the alien threat. It's a kind of epic tragedy, I think.
If you still want to cling to hope instead of accepting the destiny of the Imperium is just to be remembered with hate in its enemies legends, you can go with the Tau - modern, stylish, clean, and so far confident about their future domination of the whole Galaxy. However, they haven't really faced Chaos nor the horrible power of the Warp so...who knows what might happen? xD
I've heard there are other Hive Fleets coming behind, still crossing the inter-galactic void to help their kin in devouring the Galaxy :P
Exodites do need and use spirit stones, since Slaanesh craves for the souls of all Eldar (Dark Eldar simply try not to die, either by vampirising life energy from others' pain, or by being rebuilt by Haemonculi). The difference is that they don't have Infinity Circuits, but Worldspirits, which are hidden structures of Wraithbone where they put their dead's spirit stones =)
In the time of the Old Ones, it was calm because they were the first sentient and psychic species of the galaxy. Then they decided playing alone with the universe was boring and promoted the apparition of more intelligent species, giving just some nudge there and there and letting evolution do the rest. This led to the apparition of hundreds of species, among which were the Necrontyr and who knows what else. We don't know if those species were able to influence warp, but the ones created during the War in Heaven were, since the C'tan were defenceless against the warp power. Like you said, the fact that we only know of the Eldar and the Krork doesn't mean there were no more (Lexicanum mentions the K'nib and the Rashan). If they had to fight against the zillions of Necrons and the power of the C'tan, they couldn't be just a few, and they couldn't be powerless. Imo, their losses during that extremely long war could have been powerful enough to accumulate enough bloodlust, honour, fear, mercy, ambition and hope to give birth to Khorne, Nurgle and Tzeentch.
We are talking about M1-2, when there were no human psykers besides the Emperor. I still find it hard to think that 2 billion-ish humans gave birth to three Chaos Gods when there was a whole Galaxy full of sentient, emotional and psychic races out there...
You know, originally the Chaos Gods were said to have been born at the end of the War in Heaven, due to the emotional upheaval caused by so many deaths. Similarly, the shaky gestation of Slaanesh and the Fall of the Eldar was supposed to have happened millions of years ago, after the Eldar had raised to dominance once the Old Ones died out and the Necrons went to bed. In that version, the Warp storms of the Age of Strife were caused by the uncontrolled human psykers' sudden appearance and activity across the galaxy, and the Emperor somehow knew when they were supposed to end. Imo, this makes more sense than saying the Chaos Gods were born from the feelings of a small non-psychic (back then) race in their Middle Age xD
Gods in 40k appear in the Warp due to common beliefs. If a lot of people think a Daemon is a god and worship it, it will become more and more powerful. Same way, a lot of people think the Emperor is a god, but not as many as Chaos worshippers. Therefore there is a Warp power associated with the concept of the God-Emperor (from which the actual Emperor might draw energy).
Apparently, when someone is really devoted to a warp power, whatever its origins, he/she gets psychically bonded to it, and in a really stressful situation (a fight, a triumph, a very grievous wound) receives a surge of warp energy. With Chaos, since it's a very strong faith, you get such a big dose you can mutate or even become a Daemon. With Gork and Mork, you get berserk xD With the God-Emperor, this gives you more strength for a while, makes you able to banish Daemons through willpower or gets you back to life. In most cases, however, Warp energy hurts as much as it heals, and after the fight you usually drop in a coma (look at Keeler, for example) or worse ("the Emprah allowed him to win this fight before calling him to his side, all hail the Emprah!")
Please read the link: Captain Arcadese, not Heka'tan xD
Found it! "The Gates of Terra" by Nick Kyme. Arcadese is now a Captain and is in charge of a host of Ultramarines who are manning an orbital defence line called "Ardent Reef":
http://apocalypse40k.blogspot.com.es/2013/03/new-black-library-horus-heresy-releases.html
I never said the whole Legion was on Terra xD Arcadese is the only Ultramarine present, apart from (maybe) Tetrarch Tauro Nicodemus (also seen in Age of Darkness). Arcadese was a Sergeant who fell in a coma during Ullanor Battle and awakened after the Istvaan V Massacre. He and a Salamander survivor were sent as speakers in a diplomatic mission to convince the world of Bastion to stay with the Emperor instead of joining Horus. After a series of events I won't spoil you, he seems to have returned to Terra to report the results of that mission.
Uh, I don't know if it is published yet, but I've seen a picture of a novel/novella/audiodrama about Sergeant Arcadese of the Ultramarines (seen in Age of Darkness - Forgotten Sons), who if I recall correctly was in charge of defending one of the Imperial Palace gates against the Traitors.
You should read (or re-read) Galaxy in Flames and how Euphrati Keeler becomes a Saint. The Emperor had an extreme amount of power - he was all-knowing, ageless, absolutely inspiring and able to change reality in almost any way with just a clack of his fingers. That made him unable to understand common people's fears about the unknown, the death and the impossibility of things - therefore, their need of a faith in a superior being who could overcome all of them, and it also made him the perfect object of worship as a living god who walks amongst mortal humans and protects them from an hostile galaxy.
When the Emperor sacrificed his body to stop Horus from conquering the Imperium and was interred in the Golden Throne so that he could keep shielding Terra and his servants with his mind's power alone, more and more people became convinced that, if he hadn't been a god before, now he truly had ascended to divinity, and the groups formed around Lorgar's Lectio Divinitatus (ironic, huh?) gained influence over society and then outright power. The recognition of the Ecclesiarch as a High Lord of Terra was just the acceptation of the de facto situation, and it also served to give a common bond for the distraught and disparate worlds of the Imperium after the Horus Heresy.
After that, ten thousand years passed, everyone save the Adeptus Astartes forgot the Emperor's wishes (most likely they were hid by the Ecclesiarchy) and now if you dare to say He-on-Terra is not divine, you burn slowly and painfully xD