Anyway:
Beyond the boundaries of space and time, the Chaos Gods observe the galaxy with ancient and malevolent eyes. To these terrible entities, realspace is simply a battlefield, and its inhabitants mere pawns, in the grandest game of all ― the struggle for ultimate dominion between the Ruinous Powers themselves. Many mortals have been corrupted to fight this war in their name, including the superhuman warriors of the Heretic Astartes, but their truest servants remain the Daemons created in their own image: creatures of staggering power, horrifying aspect and exceptional cruelty.
Basic stuff.
Beyond the boundaries of physical space, unrestricted by time or causality, there is a dimension utterly incomprehensible to mortal minds. It lies on the other side of dreams and nightmares, infinite in scope but without form or structure. This maddening realm is composed of fear and hope, ambition and despair, and within it dwell the most maleficent of all entities: the Chaos Gods and their Daemon legions.
More basic stuff.
Thewarp, or the immaterium, is an abstraction made manifest by the roiling emotions of mortals. Unbound by the laws of time and space, it is a random, unstructured panorama of pure energy and unfocused consciousness, eternally shifting though endless in its potential. It is a place where ancient beings of boundless power and cruelty hold domain, and wage a constant war over the raw stuff of creation that birthed them. In this unknowable realm, titanic hosts clash, locked together in a conflict that is as old as the universe and can never be won. It is Chaos in its truest sense, unfettered by the limits of physics and undirected by intelligent purpose.
Again.
In the warp, similar thoughts and emotions gather together like rivulets of water running down a cliff face. They form streams and eddies of anguish and desire, pools of hatred and torrents of pride. Since the dawn of time, these tides and waves have flowed unceasingly through the mirror-realm of the warp, and such is their power that they formed creatures made of the very stuff of unreality.
Eventually, these instinctual, formless beings gained a rudimentary consciousness. TheChaos Gods were born ― vast psychic presences made of the fantasies and horrors of mortals. These are the Ruinous Powers, and each is a reflection of the passions that formed them. First amongst them is Khorne, the Lord of Battle, possessed of towering and immortal fury. Tzeentch, the bizarre and ever-changing Architect of Fate, weaves powerful sorceries to bind the future to his will, whilst great Nurgle, the God of Disease, labours endlessly to spread infection and pestilence. The last of their number is Slaanesh, the Dark Prince, indulgent of every pleasure and excess, no matter how immoral or perverse.
Basic descriptions of the Chaos Gods.
As a Chaos God gathers such energy, it expands in power, and its influence and territory within the warp grows. As extensions of the gods, the appearances of these domains are formed upon the same emotions that created their masters: Khorne's realm is founded on anger and bloodletting; Tzeentch's lands are scintillating constructs of pure magic; Nurgle's territory is a haven of death and Regenerationn, and Slaanesh's dominion is a paradise of damning temptations. Though realm and god are as one, the Chaos Gods each have a form that embodies their personalities and dwells at the very heart of their territories. Wreathed in unearthly power, the Chaos Gods watch over their realms, seeking any disturbances in the pattern of the warp that signal intrusion or opportunity
The Realms of the Gods are extensions of the Gods.
The Chaos Gods are not alone in warp space. They have created servants from their own essences ― the creatures mortals call Daemons. Daemons are beings of a somewhat different nature to their masters, and are the most numerous of the warp's inhabitants. A Daemon is 'born' when a Chaos God expends a portion of its power to create a separate being. This power binds a collection of senses, thoughts and purposes together, creating a personality and consciousness that can move within the warp. TheChaos God can reclaim the independence it has given to its minions at any time; this ensures their continuing loyalty, and means although some wayward Daemons may not act entirely in accordance with their master's commands, even the greatest of them would not dare outright defiance. As beings of pure entropic energy and emotion, it is only through the loss of this animating essence that a Daemon can be truly destroyed, its mind dissolving into the whorls and currents of the warp.
Though it may appear to be made of normal matter when it materialises in realspace, a Daemon's form is no more physical than it is in the Realm of Chaos. Outside of the immaterium, Daemons have particular invulnerabilities and weaknesses, as well as many destructive and terrifying powers derived from their warp-born nature. Slaying a Daemon's physical projection only severs its presence in reality, banishing it back into the warp. While its true essence remains unharmed, the blow to the Daemon's pride is considerable, and those that are forcibly returned to their own realm must endure the mockery and torment of their fellows until they can return to corporeal form and avenge themselves ― assuming they are not simply re-absorbed by their creator as the price of their failure.
Basic description of Daemons.
When the gods do battle, the immaterium shakes and warp storms rage across the galaxy. Within the Realm of Chaos, hordes of Daemons are sent forth to do their creators' biddings, and the lands of the gods strain and heave at each other in physical assault. Possessed of personality and intelligence, the Daemons of a Chaos God aspire to draw favour from their master, and often launch their own attacks into the domains of rival Daemons. The armies of the gods pour from one territory to another in a ceaseless frenzy of invasion and defence. As intrigue, feints and lures lead forces into traps, elsewhere pacts are forged, and opposing sides join forces mid-battle as a common cause creates a temporary amnesty between rivals. It is never long, however, before the merest possibility of advantage arises, and the brief cessation of open warfare between two parties is readily abandoned so the Daemons might once more fall upon one another. Vast swathes of the immaterium are in a constant state of flux, every moment a new territory won or lost. When an invading army emerges victorious, they immediately set to work on turning the ravaged battlefield into part of their god's realm, moulding the raw entropy of that section of the immaterium into whatever form best pleases their master.
Warp Storms are collateral damage of the gods battling in the Warp.
THE FORMLESS WASTES
The Realm of Chaos is without limits or true geography. The areas of influence controlled by the Chaos Gods form their domains, and the rest of this roiling landscape is often referred to as the Formless Wastes.
Much of the Formless Wastes is random, constantly churning and reforming: rivers of tar flow through petrified woodlands under crimson skies; great stairways lead into the heavens and join themselves from below in an ever-lasting loop; castles made of bones and fortresses of ichor stand amidst copses of limbs, and the departed spirits of titanic god-machines slump in graveyard heaps. Every dream and nightmare, every lunatic vision and deranged fancy, finds its home in this damned place, as do the creatures known as the Furies ― Daemons created by indecision and random chance. They are heralded by disembodied voices, lacking anything but the most rudimentary awareness and instinct. Greater Daemons and Daemon Princes grown powerful enough to instil a small measure of control over their surroundings also create their abodes in the Formless Wastes ― each of these small islands of structure is a petty domain in comparison to the vast realms of the Chaos Gods, but each embodies the whimsy of its creator, a small shrine or temple to a niche of belief.
More descriptions of the Warp.
With the opening of the Great Rift at the end of the 41st Millennium, the daemonic incursions that had plagued the galaxy since time immemorial escalated in both scale and frequency. A new era of terror and bloodshed was ushered in by that galaxy-spanning tear in the fabric of reality, and the armies of the Chaos Gods, mortal and daemonic alike, began to conquer and consume the worlds of Humanity and alien races with unprecedented impunity.
Had the Chaos Gods worked in unison in the wake of that terrible event, it is doubtless that realspace would have been utterly consumed by the sprawling madness of the warp. Yet true to their nature, the dark brothers saw the anarchy as an opportunity to fulfil their own agendas: to kill, to change, to pollute, to bathe in excess.
Great Rift.
