Khorne - The Captain Of Industry
As part of the challenges set by the Patreon and Discord Fluffers, I was challenged by Long Time Fluffer “Big Swingin’ D” (my name for him as he has a difficult name that I now refuse to pronounce on principle.) to discuss the fact that Khorne is not just a Blood God.
Now, we all know that the Ruinous Powers have multiple aspects, during the latter editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, the Chaos Tribes (namely the Kurgan* and the Dolgar, but also the Hung, Tong** and the Khazad) all worshipped differing parts of the Chaos Gods, Nurgle being the Great Crow in his aspect of death, Urfather in his aspect of rebirth and of course layers of plague and disease. Much as in the real world, these aspects are ways of changing a diety’s worship to fit in with local customs****, creating a larger base of worship and with the metaphysics of the Old World, this was pretty much a Bad Thing. However, this exploration of aspects gave us a greater idea of understanding of the Ruinous Powers worked in a “grounded” setting, taking differing and different paths into damnation. Slaanesh takes on the aspects of Obsession and Perfection in all things alongside their more well-known pleasure paths and the exaltation of excess. Tzeentch holds the title for most aspects, unsurprisingly, naming his aspects The Wind-Lord, The Eagle, the Raven Lord and Tchar, as well as the more well recorded Changer of Ways, Great Conspirator, Father of Mages and Architect of Fate. Tzeentch is well known for his aspects being ones of magic, mutation, ambition, trickery and lies and knowledge, but he is also a god of evolution alongside that of mutation, of learning as well as magic. It’s hard to see how a common university with a masters course in biology isn’t accidentally a shrine to Tzeentch.
Khorne however, is usually seen as being a simple god, a creation of single-mindedness, a entity of bloody fists and axes. A god of war, hatred, wrath, rage, murder blood, strength, courage and martial prowess. Khaine, the bloody handed god of the Eldar was possibly in himself an aspect of Khorne, brought to life in the devastating Avatars, but as we follow along the lines we see that the art of weapon mastery is a part of the aspects, both the use and the creation of. It makes sense then, that the act of manufacturing a tank, or a jet, or a battleship, being as they are weapons of war, are acts of worship to Khorne, as much as learning is to Tzeentch. We can surmise then that, due to the simple socialogical fact that in our own history, war has kickstarted technology and industry advancements, that the more industrial a civilisation becomes, the more Khorne is fed. The more technology exists, the more devastating the technology becomes when weaponized. There is a ttrain of thought here that hits the wall when we remember that Khorne prefers hand to hand combat over drone strikes, but in the end, he truly does not care from where the blood flows. There is something rather tantalising about Khorne pushing forth the Industrial Revolution of the Victorian era from one end and Tzeentch from the other and watching as a world begins to accelerate at a breakneck speed.
Of course this is mostly conjuncture taken from someone with enough lore in their head from 30 years of Warhammer to drown a donkey in, but it’s fun to take these sideways paths into the lore, to attempt to see these tentpoles of the fiction in different ways and to move that into the hobby. After all, whats down on the page is only the start, the rest should always come from you, taken whats given and running with it in a way that makes sense and gives enjoyment to you. It’s your hobby, do with it as you will, as whilst everything in the Warhammer games is canon, none of it is true. Enjoy the playground but never feel you have to stay within the lines.
Until next time, I remain….
*There can be only one?
and the McSweenys***
***thats a deep cut. Let me know if you know it.
****See christmas. and Easter. And Halloween.