What would 40k be like if instead of the warp being dominated by the Big 4...

Which books suggest this? Sounds interesting

Ruinstorm

each soul fuels one of the limitless minor gods, which in turn each align themselves and fuel one of the great 4. The great 4 in turn make up the warp itself

If true, that's one of the few canon changes I've liked in recent times

>The great 4 in turn make up the warp itself

Hey, that's exactly what ADB said years ago.

>Ruinstorm

Chapter?

I'm cool with that, except for the "eventually align themselves with the big 4" part. The major chaos powers really seem too specific and niche most of the time to be the major underpinnings of the cosmic psycho-soulsphere. I know they are but it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. They seem like very, very specific manifestations of the emotions they represent, which would be fine if that wasn't basically the only way they ever manifested. Anger, desire, despair and hope I can sort of buy as the four great emotions of the age, but Berserker, Cenobite, AIDS, and Troll Wizard less so

just think of the big 4 legions as the dominant denomination of that god worshipers.
Khorne worshipers who follow his honour aspect or slaanesh worshipers that are obese gluttons exist. but are relatively small cults.

Gork and Mork are already the dominant power in the Warp, they're just more interested in punching each other than in enslaving the galaxy.

It already has thousands of minor Gods aka Desmond and other scions and lords of chaos

Yes, but they're all sorted into 4 categories, or else completely irrelevant. I think that many warring chaos godlings would make for more interesting lore, and for a more interesting game.

S'far as I see it, oh yeah it would be much less dangerous, but would only come down from ludicrously dangerous to mostly dangerous. If the 4 power don't dominate the Warp, what you get is a spirit world, long the lines of what any animistic religion has. Gods yeah, but lots of minor spirits too. So, those different spirits would pop up wherever a load of people are. However, I'd still say it's dangerous because the gods formed from congealed negative emotions, and the reason they dominate is because those emotions were dominant in the galaxy. Now the gods encouraged those emotions in a feedback loop, so maybe it would be less terrible a place to live, but that's really getting into an entire new setting, and you can decide where "40k but not SO terrible" goes for yourself. As far as the Warp being a threat and the Heresy, on both accounts I'd say less. I'd still say there'd be a split though. Lorgar would still seek out the true faith, the one Colchis, and he'd find that there are countless human gods and spirits worthy of reverence. However, if there were decent gods, which I think there would be if the big 4 didn't dominate, then his brothers would still become devoted to gods they approve of and discard the rest, but you might get factions of the World Eaters that worship Kharne or even Mars and things like that. So they'd still leave the Imperium, but just by walking away from it en masse, followed by the ones who followed arseholes raiding the Imperium. Heck, you might get more factions of the other legions leaving piecemeal too, and others from the traitors staying. Overall I'd say a more fractious Warp invites a more fractious 40k. And honestly an animistic Warp probably honestly would result in pic related, and I approve of this entirely it's called a headcannon cause it destroys your mind

You saying you DON'T want him as your husbando?

Considering the first time they stopped punching each other and started talking to a Warboss we ended up with the WAAAGH!! of the Beast, that's probably a good thing they're doing the same thing with Thraka, but seem more content to let him do his own thing at the moment.

Who fucking cares?! You're grown men stop playing with toys. This shit is so stupid. Ban me I don't give a fuck.

Animist 40k would probably be pretty rad, but it also would probably be drastically different from standard 40k.

And there would still be the question of Isha being stolen by whom? And whether the death-orgy of the Eldar still spawns Slaanesh or not.

Presumably the big 4 still exist, they just aren't the warp-dominating powers that they are in canon. I don't know if Nurgle would be strong enough to jack one of the elven gods, but he might be, and I'm sure the indulgent death-spiral of the Eldar would have spawned thousands of nasties including Slaanesh

It'd make Chaos actually chaotic instead of being rigidly defined into four major categories and some misc leftovers.

user with the Ancient Magnus Bride pick. I think a situation like BrightHammer40k would result. I mean this one still has the gods, but I think that the heresy would go down how it describes it, and overall the factions would be less terrible. Except the necrons and whatever else has nothing to do with the Warp. Maybe not but I'm leaning towards a better world overall
>1d4chan.org/wiki/Setting:Brighthammer_40,000
What I am wrestling with though is I don't know what the creation of gods and spirits would look like. In 40k, there are gods and entities that still exist beyond the 4 powers, probably countless numbers of them too, but the reason I think they come into existence is because there is a distinct emotion that just does not resonate with any of the ruinous powers, so they can't consume or assimilate it or whatever. They are independent because they are distinct. So I don't know what about the warp has to change to make an animist 40k. Either
>Gods appear when a lot of people feel or believe something, spirits when less do
>Gods appear when people choose to create a god, and are powerful because of devotion, where spirits are the things that just pop up from random everyday emotion
>Spirits and gods just don't mold together into bigger entities because there is a far lower threshold for what allows them to congeal. Like, two gods of war, but one is a god of planned war and one of bloodlust. Or one is a spirit of freedom and one is a spirit of liberty, and even that is too distinct
Or something else besides. I really wanna know what would have to change in the warp that causes so many fractions to form, rather than big chaos gods. I'm leaning towards maybe a combo of them all, but I don't know what would make the whole thing consistent
Oh I'd never say that, just implying that Warhammer 40k where anyone ends up happy is an even bigger departure than one without any of the gods. It would be too fulfilling

Okay, quick run-down of the changes
>War in Heaven creates tumult in the Immateirum and creates the Warp as it is known in the 40th Millennium
>Eldar, inheritors of the Old Ones, end up killing themselves in a death-orgy and release enough slut daemons that the other Warp Spirits band together along similarities long enough for the daemonettes to disperse
And thus when people call upon Slaanesh, Khorne, Nurgle, or Tzeentch, they are actually calling upon that eternal moment in time and space when the Spirits of the Warp became singular entities, united in purpose and thought.
Malal is every spirit that denied this union or was unable to join it. It is the Chaos that the Chaos Gods swim in.
>Fast-forward to the EmpImp
>Realizes that each and every soul that burns feeds the Warp Spirits and keeps the Warp in turmoil
>The Great Crusade's purpose was to turn all humanity rational and starve the Warp somewhat, in the meantime, everybody gets religious and prays to the Emp
>Warp Spirits foresee this and invoke the Aspects of Chaos Divided
>Heresy engages

Where do you think you are
I don't even mean Veeky Forums I mean Veeky Forums in fucking general
Video games, anime, etc

Ohhhhh that's good. That's very very good that's sexy that's brilliant that's GREAT! Bravo or brava, whichever you like!

That's kind of neat. So Slaanesh/Khorne/etc all exist as sort of eternal ideal-gods, but their (likely warring and conflicting) component spirits exist also? Like more independant Daemons?

That sounds basically like the standard cosmology

Except in reverse. Instead of Daemons being cast-offs/slivers of a Chaos God, Chaos Gods are the accumulation of lots of individual Daemons?

Yeah. Sounds pretty much like how everything already is in the current revision.
Not sure whether that's a bad thing or not. Prevents too many knock-ons and re-considerations of other Lore, but without something to separate it, why does it even exist?

Let's look at how other things change because of this:
>Slaanesh's birth-cry was not a soul-shattering scream, it was deluge of moans. A tsunami of spirits breaching the walls of reality and drowning the Eldar race in ecstasy. Not even the Elf Gods were spared.
Though some of the more hopeful/deluded Eldar think/wish that their Gods are simply trapped/dead instead of corrupted or broken into mere Warp Spirits.
>Daemon Primarchs. What are they? The same thing that arises from a Daemon Prince. The inundation of a mortal with countless Daemon Spirits until the flesh is abandoned for the Warp.
Daemon Princes are still subject to being forced into being a part of the 5 Chaos Gods but separate. Except Primarchs, they maintain a more definite distinction from the 4 Divisions of Chaos because they're Big E's kids.
>The Black Crusades are the result of Abaddon gathering Daemons and CSM under his command and striking out time after time.
And changes the focus from 'Chaos Undivided's Champion failing for all eternity" to "Crazy motherfucker trying to do the impossible."
>Pacts. Lots more pacts. Instead of Slaanesh orgies you have [Daemon name here] orgies. Instead of fighting and killing for Khorne you gather blood and bones for [Daemon]. Everything's more personal since it's less "baleful eye of a God-Mind that will crush you with its mere presence" to "twisting and marring of the soul that is an eternal reminder of the deal you have entered."
Doesn't mean that people don't pray to the big 4 anymore. Just means that shit has a lot more importance since you're, in effect, calling upon a metric fuck-tonne of Daemons all at once. Lot harder to do as well.

What else?