"Blessed Sigmar save me, my soul is a barren wasteland and all my thoughts are black. I have seen too much! Dear Lord I beg you for all I have learnt is the meaning of despair!"
The front page of the first volume of the infamous Liber Chaotica, in this case an exploration of the Blood God Khorne and his followers.
The Liber Chaotica, like the Liber Malefic, is an ancient book that describes the Daemonic and mortal armies of Chaos in great detail. It was written by the former priest of Sigmar Richter Kless, who was later deemed insane. The book, despite its heretical text, was printed by Joannes Innsbrook and Albertus Mansoul and bound by Christoph Hassel of Wolfenburg sometime later.[1a]
The full tome is comprised of five volumes, the first four coinciding with an exploration of the nature and worshippers of one of the major Chaos Gods, and the fifth concerning Chaos Undivided.[1a]
Fall of the Elder[]
The Elder race as sketched by Richter Kless after dreaming of them.[1c]
"Echoes of the Birth" is a chapter from the Liber Slaanesh volume of the Liber Chaotica in which the author recounts his visions of the tragic fall of the "Elder", a race similar to the High Elves of Ulthuan. Once a great and mighty civilization, the Elder were created by the First Ones and evolved into powerful psychic beings, mastering both magic and the Immaterium.[1c]
However, their unchecked experiments and indulgences in the Warp eventually led them to create Slaanesh, a god born from their excesses and desires. The birth of Slaanesh resulted in a cataclysmic event, consuming billions of Elder souls and tearing a rift in reality itself. The survivors were forever after marked by their fall. The chapter serves as a warning about the dangers of attempting to control Chaos.[1c]
Echoes of the Birth[]
In the distant past, the First Ones brought forth the Elder, a race of immense psychic potential, raised from nothing by figures of shadow and light. These ancient and powerful beings were the first to reach into the starry night. Though older than gods, they were still bound by time.[1c]
The First Ones left their creations, the Elder, to grow alone. And grow they did. In mere moments, the Elder transformed into a mighty and sophisticated culture. They were hailed as greater even than the Children of Ulthuan at the height of their power.[1c]
With innate psychic abilities, the Elder delved into the realm of the Immaterium, experimenting with magic and sorcery. Their works were breathtaking, glories beyond reckoning.[1c]
But after many millennia, the First Ones returned. Their vast vessels were scarred and worn, their light dimmed, and their shadows fading. It was clear they had waged an unending war with gods that were not of the Aethyr, gods of starlight, creatures beyond the comprehension of the Elder.[1c]
The First Ones questioned whether the Elder were ready for the battles ahead and encouraged them to reach deeper into the Immaterium. With their brilliant minds and passionate souls, they created beings of power to face the coming star gods.[1c]
But the First Ones were now few. Their numbers dwindled, and as they fell, so too did their influence over their creations. Without their guidance, the Elder's Warp-beings evolved from mere weapons of war to living gods, the first true gods of the Immaterium. The Elder embraced them, and it was a decision they would come to regret.[1c]
It was only the brothers Eldanesh and Ulthanesh, who after the departure of the First Ones, could control these Warp gods. They led their people, summoning these gods onto the physical plane. Together, the Elder and their summoned gods waged war against the Yngir, the silver-skinned star gods.[1c]
But over time, the boundaries between the gods of the Aethyr and those of the stars blurred, and the Elder could no longer distinguish one from the other.[1c]
As the centuries passed, the gods of the Aethyr turned upon one another, engaging in eternal conflict. The Elder witnessed the creation of Khaine, the god of war, and the betrayal that followed -- the theft of the One Hundred Swords, and the creation of the Widow-Maker.[1c]
Ulthanesh fall at the hands of the god of death, and Khaine in his madness turned upon the Elder, slaying Prince Eldanesh. The forces of Chaos continued to grow, spilling from the Empyrean and infecting the galaxy with torment and fire.[1c]
Rise of Slaanesh[]
Time passed again. The star gods fled from the Daemon plague, taking their silver armies into slumber. The Elder had come far through millennia of war. They had learned from their allies, from their gods, from their enemies and from the dead.[1c]
They drove the tide of Daemons back into the Warp and ensured that their gods remained in Heaven, never again to walk amongst mortals. From the ashes of the past, the Elder built an empire to eclipse all others. They sailed through the night within vast cities, far larger than any mountain range. From these drifting islands that floated upon the darkness, the Elder traded knowledge and goods with the few new faces that survived the war. Learning, enlightenment, and reason flourished. They shone brighter than the stars themselves.[1c]
They adopted, refined, and perfected the First Ones' methods of measuring the Warp and predicting its movements. They linked their worlds and city-ships with magical gateways. They joined millions of stars under one rule. Their mastery of the universe seemed complete.[1c]
Their experiments brought greater understanding of the links between Chaos and thought-links of which no mortal could dream. The Elder learned that their thoughts and actions shaped the Warp itself. And such was their power that they believed nothing was beyond them. Faced with this ultimate temptation, they failed. Though many turned from Chaos in disgust, others embraced it, believing they could master the powers their indulgent magics stirred within the Warp.
And so Slaanesh grow—formed almost entirely from the pleasures of the Elder. In the end, the unchecked indulgences of the Elder gave birth to Slaanesh, the god of pleasure and excess, born of their desires.[1c]
In a single, cataclysmic moment, Slaanesh exploded into the Immaterium. The psychic shockwave tore through the souls of the Elder, consuming billions of them in an instant. The Elder's souls, once brilliant and eternal, were now food for the newly born god.[1c]
A massive rift was torn in reality where the majority of the Elder lived, far larger than any known Chaos Gate. The physical universe collided with the metaphysical, and the Elder were left to bear the consequences of their actions.[1c]
Those few who had fled, sealed away on their great city-ships, would live on, forever marked by the Fall of the Elder. The rest of the Elder were lost to the void, their empire destroyed by their own excesses.[1c]
The Elder, once the greatest race in the galaxy, had fallen from grace, their brilliant civilisation shattered by the power they sought to control. They were now mere shadows of their former glory, and their legacy -- defined by the creation of Slaanesh— -- would haunt them for eternity.[1c]
Their fate is a warning to all who desire to control the forces of Chaos.[1c]
Game History[]
The Liber Chaotica is also a real-life Warhammer background book printed by Games Workshop. It is meant to mimic the book as it is described in an in-universe style, with the text written as if from a personal diary or journal entry of Richter Kless.[1a]
The whole Echoes of the Birth chapter references the Fall of the Aeldari as described in the Warhammer 40,000 lore, and to the War in the Heavens as portrayed in 5th Edition.[1c]
Canon Conflict[]
Throughout the course of the book, the names of Eldanesh and Ulthanesh change into Aldanesh and Althanesh.