Tzeentch

"Do not ask which creature screams in the night. Do not question who waits for you in the shadow. It is my cry that wakes you in the night, and my body that crouches in the shadow. I am Tzeentch and you are the puppet that dances to my tune..."

—The Book of Tzeentch

A Chaos Sorcerer of Tzeentch

The Mark of Tzeentch

The Chaos Star of Tzeentch

Tzeentch, also known as the Changer of Ways, is the Chaos God of Change, Evolution, Intrigue and Sorcery, he who weaves the threads that connect every action, plot and subtle intrigue in a galaxy-wide game of manipulation and subterfuge. At the end of each of these threads lies the ensnared soul of a human puppet; those of his servants and agents who believe they serve the Lord of Sorcery in mutually beneficial pacts. The truth is that Tzeentch's every action is planned with its ultimate goal as his own establishment as the pre-eminent Chaos power in the Warp. Of course, the very nature of the Lord of Entropy is such that, were he to attain this triumph, he would still strive for turmoil and change. In many ways, Tzeentch is both the best and least understood of the Dark Gods. Almost everyone knows he is the God of Fate, plots, and schemes, as well as the God that exemplifies the ever-changing nature of the Warp. However, Tzeentch does not plot towards some end (at least none that can be comprehended); he schemes simply to scheme. He is constantly building, even as his devices unravel under their own complexity. At the same time, he is the God of knowledge and comprehension, and his devotees may be those who seek a deeper understanding of an often enigmatic universe.

Tzeentch exerts his influence in the mortal realm through subtle manipulation and devious ploys. The victims of his corruption are Sorcerers drawn by the promise of forbidden knowledge; scholars who seeks knowledge at all costs; politicians lured by the power knowledge provides to outmaneuver their opponents. Tzeentch's true power is sorcery, and as all sorcery flows from the font of the Immaterium, so too is Tzeentch the master of that twisted, chaotic medium of psychic energy. Tzeentch embodies mortals' tendency towards mutability and change, the drive to evolve and manipulate. This spirit is present in the essence of every living creature from the first division of cells in the womb to the ultimate craving for survival. It is in the hearts of those with the strongest desire to prevail that Tzeentch whispers his insidious promise; offering a means of life eternal to those unwilling to accept death and oblivion as inevitable. Tzeentch's sacred number is nine, his colours are typically seen as blue and gold but an ever-changing rainbow of colour is appropriate as well, given that he is the Lord of Change.

The Cult of Tzeentch

Tzeentch is known by many titles across the galaxy, including the Changer of the Ways, the Master of Fortune, the Great Conspirator and the Architect of Fate. He is the Great Sorcerer, the God of Sorcery and Change and master of the mutable stream of destiny and time. Tzeentch is, without question, the most disturbing and least comprehensible of all the Chaos Gods. His skin crawls with constantly changing faces that leer at and mock all who look upon him. When Tzeentch deigns to speak to other beings, these faces repeat his words, often with subtle but important differences of intonation and meaning. Plotters and schemers find themselves drawn to Tzeentch, especially those who crave psychic or sorcerous power to achieve their goals. Politicians and leaders, magisters and Chaos Cultists, all find themselves drawn along the convoluted paths of fate, using Tzeentch to achieve their dreams and aspirations, though ultimately all are led to play their part in Tzeentch's own eternal schemes. No man can fully comprehend the full nature of the intricately-woven, multi-layered plots of Tzeentch and to attempt to do so can only lead to insanity. Yet in reality Tzeentch has no grand plan, no ultimate goal to fulfill. For Tzeentch the mere act of plotting and entwining the brief fates of mortals is purpose enough. There is no end to his scheming for he desires no end to the creation of change. Tzeentch can never achieve any ultimate aim for to do so would be the end of ambition and thus the end of the Lord of Destiny.

While not as numerous or as obvious as the followers of Khorne, Tzeentch nevertheless has a strong and firm hold on the hands and minds of mortals. In fact, many more mortals serve him than are aware of it, his scheming and many names often obscuring the true force behind events. Mortal worshippers of Tzeentch tend to be sorcerers, psykers, scholars and other educated elites who desire greater knowledge and power. Some of these worshippers become very powerful sorcerers, but Tzeentch has a tendency to mutate his followers, and the highest levels of power are said to be difficult for his followers to reach, as they frequently find themselves mutated into the mindless beasts called Chaos Spawn before they can unlock the most potent mysteries offered by the Lord of Change. Those who do attain great power in the service of Tzeentch, however, are extremely powerful foes who are often mighty Chaos Sorcerers as well as great warriors. Additionally, while Khorne frowns upon sorcery, intrigue and subtlety in all its forms, Tzeentch has no such qualms about using and manipulating brutish might when it strikes his fancy. As such, while Khorne has no sorcerer followers, Tzeentch assembles armies of warriors from all walks of life; anyone who inflicts or incurs great change, in himself or his surroundings, is likely to fall under the gaze of the Lord of Change. The Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marine Traitor Legion serves Tzeentch exclusively. At the start of the Horus Heresy, the Thousand Sons' Primarch Magnus the Red tried to warn the Emperor of Horus' treachery by using sorcery to reach across the vast interstellar distances between the Thousand Sons' homeworld of Prospero and Terra, but the Emperor rejected the sorcerous warning as a deception perpetrated by Chaos against his beloved son Horus. He sent Leman Russ, the Space Wolves' Primarch, along with his Legion to bring Magnus back to Terra for trial for violation of the Council of Nikaea's proscription on the use of sorcery, but Russ' orders were maliciously modified by Horus to get the Space Wolves to attack the Thousand Sons outright instead and force them to turn to Chaos. Russ attacked and ultimately, the world of Prospero burned. Some of the Thousand Sons, including Magnus the Red, managed to escape with the help of their new patron, Tzeentch, and sided with Horus against the Emperor to seek vengeance for all that had been lost on Prospero. However, following the casting of the potent sorcery known as the Rubric of Ahriman, the Battle-Brothers of the Thousand Sons who had little or no psychic powers were reduced to dust and those with psychic potential had their disembodied souls sealed within their suits of ancient Power Armour. The Thousand Sons who had psychic powers found these powers greatly enhanced and now lead their phantom Battle-Brothers into war against the Imperium of Man and the Corpse Emperor they believe betrayed them so long ago.

Manifestation

As befitting the Changer of Ways, Tzeentch's appearance is constantly changing. Sometimes, however, he lets himself be seen as a daemonic figure; his face is puckered, and peaks out from his upper torso, such that his head is directly connected to his chest. Two great horns rise from his head, and he stands in a perpetual swirling mist. His skin constantly changes and is covered with always-morphing faces which mock those upon whom they look. When Tzeentch speaks, these faces repeat every word, but often with subtle and important differences in meaning. Other times, he may look completely different, or appear simply as a cloud of energy that constantly changes color and shape. Tzeentch is often visualised as the serpent which writhes and twists to represent constant change.

Rivalry

The main rival of the Lord of Sorcery is Nurgle, the Plague Lord. Where Tzeentch seeks to build and constantly evolve, the Lord of Decay desires only to break down and dissolve, disrupt and destroy. On innumerable occasions Tzeentch's intricate plots have been foiled by Nurgle's malign influence, and the two Chaos Gods' daemonic and mortal servants clash as often with each other as with their mutual enemies in the Imperium. Despite Tzeentch's rivalry with Grandfather Nurgle, he is nonetheless the Chaos God with the most influence over the other Ruinous Powers. At times, the Chaos Gods must unite and act in concert if their individual plans are to reach fruition, and it is always Tzeentch who brokers these rare alliances of Chaos Undivided. However, Tzeentch never acts out of altruism, and it can be guaranteed that every time he moves to unite the powers of Chaos he does so ultimately with his own unfathomable goals in mind.

Tzeentchian Daemons

A Lord of Change, the Greater Daemon of Tzeentch

Daemons of Tzeentch

As with any Chaos God, a host of daemons follow the Lord of Change. Tzeentch's daemons tend to be bird-like in nature, or mutated to the point of unrecognizability.

• Horrors are the most prolific Lesser Daemon of Tzeentch, an ever-shifting mass of flesh, limbs, and flame-spewing orifices. Horrors are capable of unleashing potent psychic powers upon their foes.
• Flamers are slightly more powerful Lesser Daemons, with numerous gaping maws that produce the searing flames which give these daemons their unsubtle name. They frequently fight alongside Horrors; like Horrors, they are able to unleash magical blasts of energy upon their foes.
• Screamers are manta ray-like daemonic beasts that swoop down on foes and cut them apart with their sharp tusks, but prefer to emit an unholy scream that damages and terrifies most mortals.
• Lords of Change are the most powerful Greater Daemons of Tzeentch, typically taking the form of a large, bird-like winged daemon of vast intellect and potent sorcerous power. They are described as large winged bipedal creatures with snake-like necks and avian heads. The creatures' bodies, especially their wings, are usually multi-colored and they shoot powerful blasts of lightning and Chaos fire.
• Discs of Tzeentch are disc-like melds of psychic energy, metal, and Lesser Daemon, and are often used as transports for mortal Champions of Tzeentch. They are capable of lashing out upon nearby foes with short-ranged lightning blasts or magically manifesting powerful tentacles for attacking. They are known as Changebringers if they are ridden by a Flamer.
• The Blue Scribes of Tzeentch are two Horrors, named P'tarix and Xirat'p, who have been tasked by the Great Sorcerer to learn every spell in existence, for in each spell lies a lost fragment of Tzeentch that he wishes to reclaim. The Scribes ride their Disc of Tzeentch through the realms of mortal and daemon, binding the lost fragments of their God in parchment and ink. Tzeentch bestowed the extra intelligence of the Scribes with safeguards against betrayal; P'tarix can transcribe the syllables of magic spells into profane Chaos runes and glyphs, but cannot read his own writings. Xirat'p can read his brother's scrawls, but cannot understand them. Because of this, Xirat'p is able to cast spells by reading from P'tarix's writings, but cannot predict which spell he is going to cast; thus, the Blue Scribes create havoc in combat as they unleash a barrage of random psychic effects on any who threaten them.
• The Changeling is a daemon that personifies the part of Tzeentch's psyche that is the meddler, the deceiver, the trickster. He can take the form of other beings, from the tiniest of insects to the most massive of Greater Daemons. None, save perhaps Tzeentch himself, know the Changeling's true form, for he goes cowled and cloaked when in his own shape - perhaps even the Changeling himself has forgotten it. Not only can the Changeling mirror the form of another, he can adopt mannerisms and personalities in so flawless a fashion that even the Dark Gods can be deceived. In all of Creation there is only one entity that the Changeling cannot duplicate: the Great God Tzeentch himself. The Grand Schemer will not suffer any being to steal his identity, even for a moment.

Tzeentchian Corruption

Chaos Spawn of Tzeentch

Tzeentch is the Changer of Ways, the Chaos God of Sorcery and Intrigue who perhaps most directly embodies the heart of what Chaos itself represents as a universal force. Fewer individuals and Chaos Cults fall to the temptations offered by Tzeentch than to the other Ruinous Powers, as the benefits the Lord of Sorcery offers are less tangible and immediate than the sensory pleasures of Slaanesh, the diseased immortality of Nurgle or the bloodthirsty strength of Khorne. Instead, the worship of Tzeentch appeals most to those who value knowledge, especially secret, forbidden knowledge and the power that it brings. Of course, the individuals most likely to be tempted into the service of Tzeentch are psykers, who already possess the secret and feared ability to tap the limitless power of the Warp to reshape reality. Tzeentch offers psykers the knowledge required to achieve unlimited heights of psychic ability through the practice of the powerful arcane psychic techniques known to the Imperium of Man as "sorcery." For many, the forbidden knowledge Tzeentch offers is just too tempting to pass up and before they know it, they have been ensnared within the Grand Schemer's tangled webs and find themselves as just another unwitting pawn in his Chaotic plots. No less a personage than the Primarch Magnus the Red found it impossible to steer clear of Tzeentch's temptations as his overwhelming desire to protect his Thousand Sons Legion's precious knowledge of the Warp and sorcery ultimately led him into the embrace of the Changer of Ways.

Even non-psykers can find themselves pawns in Tzeentch's endless games of intrigue when they discover that if they make use of the heretical knowledge offered by the Chaos God, just this once, they can perhaps better their station in life or that of their loved ones. Imperial nobles and politicians are often drawn into Tzeentch's web through the edge over their rivals he offers in the form of knowledge and the power it can provide. Yet the lower classes also provide fertile ground for the Lord of Sorcery. In a society that is as difficult and repressive as that of the Imperium, it can be all too easy to give in to the blandishments of a charismatic heretical preacher who promises salvation and prosperity if one will just agree to follow a particular path towards "enlightenment." It is in just this way that many Tzeentchian Cults are begun across the galaxy. Many normally pious and good-hearted subjects of the Emperor, tired of the mindless, back-breaking labour and elite disdain that dominates life on so many Imperial worlds, are easily swayed to join various "mystery cults." These cults slowly draw these folk ever tighter into a web of Tzeentchian corruption until too late they discover they have become the corrupt servants of Chaos. While Tzeentchian corruption is the least common form of Chaotic perversion found across the Imperium, it is also the most feared by the Inquisition, for its adherents are the most powerful of Chaotic servants and the best at concealing both themselves and their complex schemes from the light of the Emperor.

Sources

• Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned
• Codex: Chaos Daemons (4th Edition)
• Liber Chaotica