Daemon World
"This party never stops. Time is dead and meaning has no meaning. Existence is upside-down and I reign supreme. WELCOME, ONE AND ALL, TO WEIRDMAGEDDON!"
- – Bill Cipher, Gravity Falls
A Daemon World is what happens when the Imperium of Man doesn't stop a Chaos incursion in time.
Under normal circumstances, the forces of Chaos are limited by the inherent instability of daemons: they don't last long outside of the Warp because they are made of emotion and psychic power, and so they slowly start to destabilize and dissipate as soon as they enter realspace, unless they're fed a constant stream of sacrifices (the method of which, is dependent on the daemon's alignment). Some can stick around longer if they possess an individual, but that takes time and leaves them relatively vulnerable, as in addition to having their abilities reduced in power, having the host destroyed or captured can severely turn the tables on them.
The ultimate solution to this problem, and the ultimate goal of most Chaos cults, is to bring the Warp with them, partially merging it with realspace, which allows daemons to cross over freely.
This has the unfortunate side effect of breaking reality: the chaotic, anarchic influence of the Warp causes the laws of physics to become more like guidelines, and daemons are seldom inclined to follow the rules. Under typical circumstances, most soul-bearing beings trapped on a Daemon World will die from being exposed to corrupting warp energies, have their souls rent from their bodies from being exposed to immaterial forces, or simply being massacred by its new inhabitants, and their souls consumed by the various entities in this new-found hell. If the daemons are feeling particularly cruel, the inhabitants will instead survive, but be slowly driven insane by the warp's influence overtaking them (whether it is a good pain is dependent on the individual). After a while, the surviving populace will be at the mercy of the planet's new inhabitants, either being slaves, sacrifices, and/or playthings for entertainment. That said, even dying on a daemon world is a shitty gig; the moment your soul is released from your mortal coil, you can count on being eternally tormented by billions of neverborn inhabiting unreal-space.
For beings without souls (hence no warp signature), they're immune to the influences of the warp, but they're still vulnerable to having various sharp objects rammed down their faces, as the denizens of the warp overtake their planet.
Because losing a world to the Warp means death or far worse for all of its inhabitants and strengthens their enemy at the same time, the Inquisition has concluded that, should all preventative efforts fail, it is more merciful to commit Exterminatus upon a planet about to become a Daemon World than to allow the heretics to complete the necessary rituals. That said, most Inquisitors would only resort to this if the situation is indeed unsalvageable, as destroying your own territory will hurt you more than it will your enemy. Once the world is successfully transformed, though, it's a safe bet Exterminatus wouldn't work on it in best case scenarios. At worst it could make daemonic inhabitants of the world even stronger. One of the reasons the Imperium will go to such extreme measures is that these pieces of shit (possibly literally speaking in Nurgle's case) are never going to be conquered or purged. Chaos' control over the very laws of physics on a Daemon World make conquering them about as easy as winning a ground war on the surface of the sun and even if you won: whoops everyone involved even on the command level knows about chaos time to blam them all anyway.
That said, after ten thousand years and the Imperium’s fuck-the-rules approach to Chaos, it’s likely they have anti-psychic exterminatus methods. Building such a thing wouldn’t be all that difficult for the Imperium anyway. Say a planet-wide Gellar Field to force the local area to obey physics and then use normal exterminatus. One of the Plague Wars novels covers this in fact, with Guilliman deploying cyclonic torpedoes laced with blackstone on one occasion and on another with certain planet-cracking ordnance infused with the essence of blanks, Ordo Sinister Psi-Titan style. The result of which is that the weapons caused their targets to be proper Alderaan-ed in the materium and fucking unmade in the warp.
Another example is the Necrons, though that will probably come as a surprise to nobody, as it's more or less common knowledge by now that the Necrons have the most advanced technology bar none, so it follows that they also have the most powerful weaponry. But with the opening of the Great Rift, and the gradual increase in the re-awakening of the Tomb Worlds, we've seen a few instances where the daemons of the warp actually come into contact with Necrons, and it's exactly as hilariously one-sided as one might expect it to be. In The Avenging Son for instance, at the onset of the Indomitus Crusade, a joint naval-astartes battlegroup is being engaged by some exceedingly dangerous daemon-ship, the book's primary antagonist, replete with a sizeable augmentation of World Eaters and even a few Word Bearers. The daemon-ship was attempting to bring vast swathes of the system into the warp and was using blackstone to amplify their warpfuckery. Unfortunately for them however, the list of factions that know how to properly utilize blackstone is a rather limited one, and chaos isn't among them. So when an Inquisitorial team conducted a boarding action on the ship, and attached some Necron-tech component to the blackstone, it not only deactivated the warpfuckery the servants of chaos had been relying on, it then started to counteract it, and this was considered such a severe threat that DAEMONS OF KHORNE began to flee in abject terror, as it became clear that the green lightning it emitted caused an instant True Death to any neverborn it came into contact with. And here's the scary thing: this was when the device was acting at a FRACTION of its power. Necron-tech doesn't fuck around. And the glowy skeletons use this kind of kit as a matter of course.
Relatedly, while not up to the same level as the Necrons, apparently Dark Age archeotech is perfectly capable of doing this kind of thing too, though again, as with the Necrons, neither should probably come as a surprise given the sheer level of holy shit both are capable of. In the case of the archeotech, The Dark Angels alone of the rest of the Imperium (with the exception of the Custodes) are shown to have vast stores that range from exterminatus-grade down to small arms weaponry that not only permanently kill daemons and enemies possessed of a soul, but literally (not figuratively) erase their very essence in both realms. It was this that allowed The Lion to successfully exterminatus/mercy-kill a daemon world (one engulfed in an active warp storm no less) which had a suffering, loyal garrison which could not be evacuated, during the course of the Davin Campaign; this would ultimately result in Davin's destruction and the dissipation of the entire Ruin Storm, allowing Sanguinius to make haste to Terra. The destruction unleashed by the Lion (and others like it) is so complete that it even sears them from fucking memory, which perhaps also highlights why the Dark Angels deploy this tech so sparingly; during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, its use had to first be authorized by The Lion himself before it could be brought to bear. In the absence of the Lion, authority currently can only be granted by the Dreadwing, and even then at a very limited capacity; the most potent weapons and equipment being kept under lock and key until Big-E's sleepiest son wakes up again.
Daemon Worlds[edit]
- Most planets in and on the rim of the Eye of Terror,
with the exception of CadiaWHOOPS. (Still not a daemon world thanks to the Necrons. Also kinda illustrates the points above regarding fuck-off levels of power by certain tech; it's a mini-asteroid field instead) - Sicarus, ruled by Lorgar and homeworld of the Word Bearers. Not to be confused with Cato Sicarius, Ordo Sicarius, Skitarii Sicarians, or Sicaran Battle Tank which are (probably) not ruled by Lorgar.
- Medrengard, ruled by Perturabo and homeworld of the Iron Warriors.
- The Plague Planet, ruled by Mortarion homeworld of the Death Guard.
- Sortiarius, the Planet of the Sorcerers, ruled by Magnus the Red and homeworld of the Thousand Sons.
- Callax, the Pleasure (pseudo-)Planet, reportedly ruled by Fulgrim and would-be homeworld of the Emperor's Children, if they could find it.
- Scourge Stars probably as well.
- Numerous planets around the Great Rift and in the Dark Imperium. The only real exceptions being dormant Tomb Worlds or Catachan, and in the case of the latter, the daemons tried to have their way with the planet, but the jungle basically collectively said "wrong neighborhood, bitch". Catachan has consequently been one of the the few planets in the vicinity that needed no rescuing when Guilliman arrived.
- Woe, a Daemon World dedicated to the Minor Chaos God Balphomael, whose Daemonically-Tainted Wildlife is all connected by a Hive Mind, all under the control of Balphomael.
- Korvosi, once Kolossi, home to the Knights of House Raven, it fell to Be'lakor becoming home to the Traitor Knights of House Korvax. Since the fall of their homeworld, House Raven has pledged to fight on as a crusading House that swore revenge against House Korvax.
- Prospero, original homeworld of the Thousand Sons and probably many planets in the Stygius Sector they occupied.
