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"The Aethyr; the Immaterial; the Warp; the Source; the Void; the Thesis; the Antithesis; the After-Realms; the Nether-Realms; the Chaos Realm; the Underworld; the Infernium; Paradise; Limbo; Hades; Sheol -- its names are as numerous as the cultures that spawned them, yet the place is the same. We of the Gold College have identified this metaphysical Other as the Prime Reagent, the great catalyst that enables all possibilities."

—Extracted from A Modest Treatise into the Nature of Magic, penned by the late Gotthilf Puchta, Magister Patriarch of the Gold College.[3b]
Realm of Chaos-0

A map of the Realm of Chaos; note the positions and distances between the places on this map are only allegorical; distance and time have no meaning in the Aethyr.

The Realm of Chaos, also known as the Aethyr, the Warp and the Empyrean, is a dimension of pure magic, separate to the physical universe of the mortal world. It should not be confused with the Chaos Wastes, which are actually a part of the physical world in its extreme northern and southern reaches.

The Realm of Chaos is the home dimension of Chaos and is comprised entirely of magical energy, for it is indeed the very source of all the Winds of Magic. It is also home to those entities composed entirely of magical energies, such as gods and Daemons.

The Realm of Chaos is a place of dreams and nightmares made real. Hopes and fears manifest here, and reality is reborn as fevered hallucination where effect need not follow cause; within its bounds anything is possible. Here, there are no physical laws akin to those that dominate the mortal world. Gravity, space and reason -- all are in flux and utterly mutable to the will of the Chaos Gods. The magical energy that is its substance, however, is given shape and form only by the desires, thoughts, feelings and passions of mortals.

Few mortals are capable of perceiving the Realm of Chaos in its true splendour, for the living mind recoils from its otherworldly landscapes. Thus, no two visions of the Realm of Chaos are exactly alike, and are often contradictory. If there is anything that can be called the truth, it is this; the Realm of Chaos is but a mirror reflection of the misery, pain and horrors of the material world, created in its current form by the destruction unleashed and the suffering endured by the mortal races of the Warhammer World.[2a]

A Realm of Madness

"As I walked through that vast and maddened landscape, I sought to record my journey. Oh, the hubris of man who tries to map the whimsy of the gods! Each time I turn my eyes to this page, that which greets me is different to the previous viewing. Verily, it remains unchanging whilst my eyes are upon it, but when I close this book, the continents shift and flow, and the landmarks dance upon the page, never coming to rest twice in the same place."

—The Liber Malific, on the Realm of Chaos
Warhammer Realm of Chaos Eternal Battle

The Eternal Battle that lasts forever...

The Dark Gods of Chaos each have their own particular spheres of influence, their own Daemonic servants, and their own territories. Yet the Realm of Chaos is not merely the home of the Dark Gods. It is also their battlefield, the arena for a Great Game of supremacy. The brother gods are constantly at war with one another, vying for power amid the planes.

Despite their myriad differences, the Chaos Gods share a common goal: total domination of all that exists. But such absolute power cannot be shared, even amongst gods. So it is that this nightmarish dimension is burdened by constant wars of attrition. Vast daemonic armies swarm across crystal plains, venomous forests, bone-choked swampland and rivers of churning gore, battling to the death to claim and counterclaim territory and the magical lifeblood that goes with it.

In the Realm of Chaos, where magic is the very stuff of being, the breadth of a domain is not merely a symbol of power, it is indeed an expression of power itself. As the minions of one god seize advantage, captured territory is moulded to the whims of its new master. If Khorne overruns a portion of Nurgle's festering garden, the diseased foliage swiftly decays down to nothing, leaving only ruddy wasteland. Similarly, should Tzeentch manage to wrest that same territory from Khorne, crystalline structures burst forth from the parched firmament.[2a]

Realm of Chaos

The Realm of Chaos

Alliances in this eternal war are complex, but far from unknown — in fact, the Dark Gods often seek advantage through common cause. Though Khorne is the greatest of the brothers, he is not all-powerful. Tzeentch is his closest rival, but if the circumstances are right then Nurgle -- and sometimes Slaanesh -- can rise to be his equal or eclipse him entirely.

As if this were not complicated enough, there are deep-seated rivalries amongst the gods that can further influence matters. Khorne most despises Slaanesh, whose dark designs are an affront to the Blood God's sense of honour and martial pride. Similarly, Tzeentch and Nurgle -- respectively the manifestations of mortals' hope and despair -- need little spurring to come to blows.[2a]

Each god strives for dominance over the others, and though one may gain ascendancy for a while, no god has yet succeeded in vanquishing another. As one god gains mastery the others combine against him, and as the allies grow in power they divide, forming new pacts of necessity until another conqueror emerges to be vanquished in his turn.[2a]

Notable Routes Into the Realm of Chaos

  • Polar Gates - The twin Polar Gates or Warp Gates are large portals into the Realm of Chaos that lie at the north and south poles of the Known World, beyond the Northern Wastes and the Southern Chaos Wastes. They were created by the Old Ones in the ancient past to allow instantaneous travel between the Warhammer World and far-off locations among the stars. When they collapsed and shattered, it allowed the Realm of Chaos - raw chaotic magical energy - to pour into the realm world, in an event known as the Great Catastrophe.
    • Paths of the Old Ones - The Paths of the Old Ones are magical pathways created using similar technology to that used to build the Polar Gates that allowed instantaneous travel across the world. Some of these portals have become contaminated during or after the Great Catastrophe and now lead instead into the Realm of Chaos.
  • Great Vortex - The Great Vortex is a magical maelstrom located at the centre of Ulthuan on the Isle of the Dead, it was created by Elven Archmages led by Caledor Dragontamer with the remote help of the Slann. It drains magical energy away from the world, back into the Realm of Chaos. It is the only reason that the Polar Gates have not unleashed enough energy to engulf the world.
  • Mirror of Nightmares - an enchanted object which acts as a portal to the Realm of Chaos. Marius Hollseher passed through the mirror of nightmares, explored the Realm of Chaos and managed to escape, penning the Liber Malefic to describe his experience.
  • Xahutec Rift - There was a semi-permanent rift into the Realm of Chaos at Xahutec in Lustria, which often was closed only to reopen once more.
  • Temporary portals can be created by magic users, intentionally or unintentionally, allowing Daemons and raw Chaos energy to escape the Aethyr.

Domains of the Chaos Gods

Other Regions

  • Bad Moon
  • Mirai - The Elven Underworld known as the "Black Pit."
  • Court of Covenant - The Court of Covenant is a neutral territory carved out of the Realm of Chaos where the four major Chaos Gods can meet for negotiations.
  • Great Sea

Mortal Beliefs on the Realm of Chaos

For all their magnificent insights and claims into the ways of Men and gods, the philosophers and artists of Tilea and Estalia have barely scraped the surface of Creation's greatest secrets. Despite the extraordinary discoveries of Araby's great mathematicians about the forces that rule the mortal world and their accuracy in calculating and predicting the effects of such forces, these thinkers are like children counting coloured beads when their discoveries are compared to the infinite complexity of reality. Even with their divinely-inspired revelations and strong relationships with the divine, the Empire's priests and theologians are but superstitious innocents when the certainties of their beliefs and items of faith are compared to the endlessly changing, randomly contradictory, and terrible uncertainty of the "divine" realm of the Aethyr.[3a]

Yet despite these truths, all these artists, philosophers, observers, and clerics share at least one certainty that binds their thoughts and works. They all believe there is more to reality than anyone has ever theorized, and this "more" is wider, deeper, and more profound than any mortal has ever fully grasped. In fact, all the diverse peoples of the Old World, whether they are educated lords or illiterate peasants, know implicitly that the world they are taught about, see around them, and feel beneath their feet is not everything. It's far from it in fact.[3a]

It is generally accepted by the religious cults of the Known World and the Imperial Colleges of Magic that there is an immaterial realm beyond the one they exist in. All living creatures in the physical realm have some kind of spirit that either lives in this immaterial realm or goes there after their physical body dies. But the vast majority of all peoples in the Old World have, at best, a very cloudy and narrow understanding of this notion.[3a]

Ulthuan's great archmages of the White Tower of Hoeth might use the analogy that just as the bodies and minds of mortals inhabit the mortal world, their souls, or immaterial shadows, inhabit the Aethyr. But even this is too simple an explanation because these spirits are far more complex than a mere shadow of mortal life. They are such and yet much more.[3a]

Many priests and clerics of the Empire believe this spirit realm is the limbo realm of Morr, the god of death and endings, and mortal souls are drawn to it after the body dies. Some clerics of the Cult of Sigmar and many devotees of Ulric, the god of war, winter and wolves, believe their specific deity has a divine realm all his own, where only the most dedicated and faithful mortal worshippers are drawn after death, bypassing Morr's afterlife altogether. In addition to this, there is a very general belief among most Old Worlders that those who worship the Ruinous Powers or those people who live without showing the gods the respect and worship they require and deserve, will be sucked into the endless hells of the Realm of Chaos as punishment.[3a]

In a sense, all these beliefs are true, but they are also limited in their vision, wrapped within centuries of myth, binding tradition, faith, and superstition. Few priests or clerics (or anyone else for that matter) identify the Divine Realms or Morr's Realm as being the same place, state, or thing as the Aethyr that the Empire's Magisters sometimes refer to as the source of their magical power. Sigmar's priesthood preaches that witches, warlocks, and untrained spellcasters outside the auspices of the Imperial Colleges of Magic use the unholy breath of Daemons to power their spellcasting, and so some have correctly identified the source of magic with the Realm of Chaos of the Dark Gods.[3a]

Sources

  • 1: Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos (7th Edition)
    • 1a: pp. 6-13
  • 2: Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos (8th Edition)
  • 3: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Realms of Sorcery (RPG)
    • 3a: pp. 15-16
    • 3b: pg. 18
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