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Ossiarch Bonereapers

2020-03-28T06:24:09Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:5806:4C0E:6197:1075: /* Society */

{{NeedsImages}}
{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Ossiarch Bonereapers|Logo=Immortis-WC2.jpg|Alliance=Death|Motto=The Skeleton War is upon us! We ride against the [[Stormcast Eternals|fuckboys]]!}}

{{topquote|Two can play at that game!|Likely Nagash after learning how Sigmar makes Stormcast}}
{{topquote|Debt, an ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver.|Ambrose Bierce}}
{{topquote|When ze patient woke up his skeleton was missing, and ze doctor was never heard from again! AHAHAHA, anyway, zat's how I lost my medical license.|Nagash, explaining how he got into necromancy in the first place}}

The latest addition to [[Nagash]]’s ever growing hordes (designed and sculpted by [[Maxime Corbeil]], a former dentist), the '''Ossiarch Bonereapers''' are the result of an eons old plan by Big Bone Daddy.

Likely inspired by the [[Stormcast Eternals]], the Bonereapers are not mere skeletons given life by necromancy, but massive constructs of bone and countless warrior souls, making them all look impressively robust for undead. Since the Legions of Nagash are the mainstay, the Nighthaunt are the shock troops and the Flesh-Eater Courts are completely insane, these buff bone boys are the elite vanguard of the Grand Alliance (think of the Bonereapers as the Marines to the Nighthaunt's Navy Seals). Given their themes of bones, undead constructs and two units being a priest and skull-throwing catapults they're the closest things we've got to [[Tomb Kings]] in AoS.

They also carry out the Bone Tithe; in addition to going out and killing shit to get their bones, the Ossiarchs give settlements they encounter a contract: Give up a set amount of bones whenever we stroll by, or face annihilation now. Understandably, most choose the former. Being unable to pay enough or even being rude to them also provokes a slaughter.

Visually-speaking, they're what happens when Games Workshop decides to mix [[Tyranids]], [[Tomb Kings]], and [[Necrons]] into one army.

==History==
When Nagash was helping Sigmar build his cities he secretly built massive underground crypts beneath them all that contained early versions of the Bonereapers, and nobody noticed until however fucking long its been since the start of the Age of Myth that there were crypts beneath them, despite knowing about and needed to defend against [[Skaven|enemies who specialize in creating massive complexes beneath your cities that they then invade from.]] Anyway, after the Necroquake, Nagash decided the time was right to wake up everyone beneath these cities, who (according to the most recent Stormcast) apparently marched back home, making them relatively pointless. In that respect, these tombs seem to mirror the Stormvaults Sigmar strewn about the Realms to contain various dangerous contraband like [[Katakros|a certain Mortarch]].

If all this smells like a retcon, that's because it is. To be fair, it would explain why Nagash was extra salty about being unable to get aelf souls, and what was meant by them being forged into more complex weapons of war (whether that was GW's original intention is anyone's guess).

Afterwards Nagash got back to his pet-project of making super-skellies, and once more decided to go through the process of distilling souls down to their most choice elements, and then putting the bits that remained in bone constructs. By doing so, he artificially created individuals who were warriors, leaders, bodyguards, artisans, architects, philosophers and sculptors all in one, [[Adeptus Custodes|which sounds a little familiar.]]

==Society==
[[File:Bonereaper city.jpg|right|400px|thumb|Welcome to Necrotopia. Please remember to remove all skin and flesh before you reach customs.]]

All Ossiarch Bonereapers are built for a specific purpose and assigned a role based on the souls from which they’re formed. This is codified through a caste system, with Nagash at the top, the highest ranking Ossiarchs underneath him and various ranks beneath that.

While many Ossiarch Bonereapers are warriors, there are castes of crafters, like the Ossifact, or preachers, like those in the Priad caste. There is movement between castes, but only downwards, as a punishment for failure. A Liege Kavalos who fails in their mission, for example, may be remade as a Kavalos Deathrider. If the offense was major, they might get remade as a steed. The lowest caste are the exiles collectively referred to as Parrha, consisting of the worst offenders who get broken and remade into warped skeletal aberrations incapable of fighting and the Bonereapers value them less than the Imperial Guard values the life of its rank and file soldiers (for the uninitiated, that's really saying something).

The Ossiarch Bonereapers can be found all across the Mortal Realms, aiming to conquer everything from Azyr to the Eightpoints. At present, the main factions of the Ossiarch Bonereapers are concentrated in Shyish, inhabiting the nations that surround the Shyish Nadir. This allows them easy access to a vast source of magical power and establishes them as a permanent garrison around this most valuable of territories.

The Ossiarch Bonereapers build according to principles laid down in the Principia Necrotopia, a set of guidelines that ensure optimal construction:

In the first stages of colonizing a new region, the Ossiarchs will establish tithing sites. Presumably, this involves mapping out surrounding settlements and segments of the region into their own tributaries, with each section's inhabitants made to sign a contract to begin paying the Tithe. They contruct shrines known as Bone-Tithe Nexus, which act as locations for vassals to dump their bones and are enchanted to give out powerful curses to ward off any scavengers seeking to steal from it.

Next, they will fortify key territories with small fortifications, following up with a number of Mortisan workshops to fuel the next stage of their expansion. These small holdings will eventually develop into vast and imposing fortresses, growing ever upward as the Bonereapers’ numbers grow. These are not just barracks, but places of culture for the Ossiarchs.

Ossiarch scholars will endlessly study scrolls in charnel libraries, recording the details of cultures in the Mortal Realms they have subjugated and those they seek to subjugate. These vast citadel-states eventually resemble Nagashizzar itself.

To elaborate on the Bone Tithe, it is instrumental to their society and Nagash's way of setting himself up as mob boss of the realms. A representative approaches the settlement and states the terms, researching the language to communicate with them or using other means, including killing a local and using their spirit as a translator. Where the bones come from and the required condition and amount depends on the situation and Bonereaper legion in question. Human bone is the most widely used; dwarf bones aren't common enough, elf bones don't replenish fast enough with elves slow birthrates and greenskin bones are porous and prone to spontaneous fungal growth unless treated properly. While animal bones may be needed, such as to repair Kavalos steeds or make Gothizzar Harvesters, that's not always the case and it depends on what animal they're from. While Rhinoxen or bleaklake crocodile bones are used in Kavalos steeds, in one case a Bonereaper Legion slaughtered a human town because the inhabitants cheated them by mixing pig bones in with human bones.

Sometimes things are even worse. A particularly war-horny leader, most often from the Stalliarch Lords (more on them below), will give impossible demands. Examples include detailed records on the city's family lineage going back to its founders and the condition of every bone still inside the living, or one tonne of bones ''every day''. They might instead, or also, [[That Guy|arrive early to extract the Tithe just to get a good slaughter out of it]]. Ultimately, they have a term related to the Bone Tithe called the Terminus Concept; the point where a society can't provide enough bones so they get slaughtered and their bones are taken, meaning the Bone Tithe is unsustainable for the payers in the long term and the Bonereapers know it. This all proves that, while Nagash is a pragmatic sort of fellow, he'll always find a way to be a [[Eldrad|huge skeletal dick about it.]]

==Forces==
[[File:Bonereaper army.jpg|right|500px|thumb|'''Angry Dooting Intensifies''']]

*'''Mortek Guard:''' Rank and file infantry of the Bonereapers. Well armored and shielded, they have the choice of swords or spears and optional greatswords as weapons. Their primary role is to create massive shield walls to protect their leaders.
*'''Morghast Harbingers and Archai:''' You know em, you love em. Nagash's original sculpted bone construct based on not-angels from the World-That-Was now served as prototypes to the current regime of spoopy skeltals. Flying blenders armed with either halberds (take these) or twin swords (dont take these). Harbingers are your chargey bois, while the Archai are bodyguard bois.
*'''Necropolis Stalkers:''' Four-armed skeletal constructs the size of Kurnoth Hunters with four faces, each one has the soul of four warriors, and switches between which one is dominant, altering their fighting style accordingly. Their name's ripped from the Necropolis Knights and the Tomb Stalkers.
*'''Immortis Guard:''' Four-armed <s>Grave Guard</s> <s>Tomb Guard</s> elite skellingtons armed with a halberd in one set of hands and a shield in the other. Like the Morghasts, Immortis are the bodyguard bois to the Stalkers' chargey bois.
*'''Kavalos Deathriders:''' Essentially bony Varanguard who serve Bone Daddy instead of the [[Archaon|Everchosen]]. Each one has the soul of dozens of warriors to draw on their knowledge and is proportionately arrogant. For added creep factor, these guys normally walk at a slow and ominous trot, only sprinting when going into a headlong charge.
*'''Mortek Crawler:''' Screaming Skull Catapult 2.0 with an obligatory patent-friendly rename. In addition to flaming skulls, it can also hurl a cauldron of Death Magic that works based on bravery or a cursed stone that gets more powerful the more damage the Crawler takes. It's also powered by a bone-made hamster wheel and multiple legs.
*'''Gothizzar Harvester:''' A big monster construct with weapon hands and a four-armed skeleton for a codpiece that harvests bones and uses them to make new constructs on the fly.
*'''Mortisan Soulreaper:''' Your offensive caster for the Bonereapers with a scythe that doesn't like hordes.
*'''Mortisan Boneshaper:''' The healers/builders of the Bonereapers. Formed from the souls of artists, they’re in charge of building the extravagant bone cities and other architecture of the legions. They all possess a friendly rivalry with each other that pushes them to one up another’s artwork.
*'''Mortisan Soulmason:''' Miniature Arkhans with four arms who are in charge of hunting and fusing souls for their various constructs. They ride into battle on bony [[Fyodor Karamazov|thrones with chicken legs]].
*'''Liege-Kavalos''': Field generals with skeleton mounts placed in charge of leading the Bonereaper armies. They are forged as a cruel mockery of Sigmar’s Lord-Celestant on Dracoth.

==Famous Legions==
*'''Mortis Praetorians''': The 10,000 strong personal army of Katakros, created out of the souls of those he personally knew in life. [[Ultramarines|The poster boys who are a jack-of-all-trades, big on tactics and led by an ancient leader who was the basis for future generations]]. They also have the only two Bonereapers with a single original soul; Katakros himself and Zandtos.
* '''Petrifex Elite''': Made up of nomadic armies crafted from prehistoric fossilized bones, they are known for being slow-moving and a near impenetrable wall of bone. While fossilized bone tends to be fragile, the Petrifex Elite enchant them to be tough and also include already supernaturally tough bones among them (ie; the bones of godbeasts). [[Necrons|They only exist to slay and find ancient bones to build more of themselves and make themselves even deadlier]]. They have forgotten why Nagash wants them to do this, and their leaders eschew personal identity (or so their most senior member says...).
* '''Null Myriad''': These Bonereapers were built exclusively using the bones of the countless dead who helped construct Nagash’s Black Pyramid. They are a solemn yet prideful lot with high resilience to magic and were thus given to Arkhan to be his personal legion; so loyal to him that they defer to Arkhan even over Katakros himself. Their resistance to magic extends to the power of Chaos, so they're used to inhabit the most inhospitable parts of the realms. Recently Arkhan made an alliance with Katakros, and the Null Myriad's job is to secure locations in the realms so Katakros can control the sources of their magic.
*'''Ivory Host''': Outwardly, they appear as honorable warriors, but hidden away in their bodies is a monstrous frenzy that turns them into clawing slavering beasts. Fitting considering they are constructed from beast and monster bones. Tasked by Nagash to conquer Ghur, they overcompensate for their bestial anger by being as clean and making everything of theirs as much of a work of art as possible. Also known for [[Tomb Kings|being the only Ossiarchs who build ships, use the color gold regularly in their attire and are led by a monarch]].
*'''Stalliarch Lords''': A cavalry centric force who are [[Creed|skillful tacticians]] and like to make impossible demands so they have an excuse to raze cities and slaughter people (on the rare occasion that someone meets their outrageous demands they keep their word... but remember the Terminus Concept). They even force the Bone Tithe on other death factions, as was the case when they subjected a keep of Blood Knights to it and offered them a way out if their leader defeated a Liege-Kavalos in a duel to the death (he didn't), so in addition to being [[Kharn|psychopaths with zero regard for life, they're also team-killing douchebags]]. Basically [[That Guy]] as an undead legion.
*'''Crematorians''': These Bonereapers are burning with an internal fire to the point where some of them literally explode when killed. Some of them are only just starting to realise that they don't really have a purpose other than to fight and explode, and aren't too happy about that. In fact, their leaders [[Noblebright|have made pacts of friendship to repair each other if any of them are destroyed and the chief Liege-Kavalos scours the libraries of everyone they encounter in the hopes of finding a way to undo their fiery curse]].

==Significant Skeletons==

* '''[[Katakros|Orpheon Katakros]], [[Mortarch]] of the Necropolis''': In life he was the greatest strategic genius in all the Mortal Realms, and undeath has done nothing to dull his mastery of military tactics. He's been given a new body of enscrolled bone by Nagash himself which looks like a [[Jojo's Bizarre Adventure|JoJo stand]] rather than a skeleton. He goes into battle surrounded by various attendants; the Liege-Immortis, the Aviarch Spymaster, the Gnosis Scrollbearer, and the Prime Necrophoros.
*'''Arch-Kavalos Zandtos''': Both in life and in death, Patru Zandtos has been Katakros’ most trusted lieutenant. In life he was a refined, death-obsessed assassin who treated killing as a sacred art and hated the butchery of battle. In undeath, through the manipulations of Nagash and Katakros, he’s now a death-purist who wishes to “cleanse” Shyish of anything still living.
*'''Vokmortian, Master of the Bone-tithe''': The grim tallyman in charge of recording/judging the Tithe. He carries the severed heads of those foolish enough to refuse to pay the Tithe and has a coffin on his back, making him look like a giant beetle. Though officially he’s under Katakros in the OBR hierarchy, he’ll only receive/carry out orders from Big Bone Daddy himself.
*'''[[Arkhan the Black]]''': Yeah, he's part of the army despite technically being just an "average" liche as opposed to a bone golem thing. Likely because apart from Nagash, he's the most privy to understanding how they are made without being one.

==Spooky Melodies for your Bony Boys==

*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6-ZGAGcJrk Spooky Scary Skeletons! a remix for a revamp]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKHAX1K4sKQ The Dead March returns for AoS!]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Bonereaper vs Kharadron.jpg|Sky Pirates vs Bone Golems.
File:Cavalry-bonereapers.jpg|As if Blood Knights weren't bad enough, Bone Daddy brings out Kavalos Deathriders too.
</gallery>

==See Also==

*[[Nagash]], their jerk of a god whom they give their undisputed loyalty to (yes, really!)

{{Template:Playable Factions in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar}}

[[Category:Age of Sigmar]]

The Masque

2020-03-28T05:34:45Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:5806:4C0E:6197:1075:

{{Heresy}}
[[File:The Masque 4.jpg|thumb|right|400px]]
Formerly [[Slaanesh|Slaanesh's]] favorite [[Daemonette]], now on his permanent shit list.
Created when Slaanesh had a fixation on dancing, she is literally the most perfect dancer ever (except for that one time in 40k when an [[Eldar]] [[Solitaire]] (possibly just a troll by [[Cegorach]]) beat her in a dance-off). Supposedly a hermaphrodite <s>as others daemonnetes</s> but this is likely imperial propaganda as she won't return any of their calls.
==The Legend==
After [[Tzeentch]] baited Slaanesh into a war against [[Khorne]] and [[Nurgle]] that resulted in his biggest ass-whooping to date, he sat back on his throne fuming. Not about the loss, but about being humiliated in front of the entirety of [[Chaos]] because that's just how Slaanesh operates. Masque, seeing her master was sad, started dancing to cheer him up, intending to get him so horny he'd forget about the whole thing (having forgotten the key part of Interpretive Dance is ''"Interpretive"'').

Slaanesh thought she was dancing to insult him, and snapped his fingers to place a curse on her. She's perma-banned from any pleasure that isn't dancing, including sight, sound, sex, drugs, pride, and so forth. She can only tell the stories that make Slaanesh look badass, and only through dancing. No longer the best Daemonette ever, she's just a moving flag for Slaanesh. Note that no other HNIC Daemonette was ever identified, meaning it is possibly still Masque despite her..."disability".

So why is she so damn special anymore? She doesn't just play the part of Slaanesh, she draws anyone around her into doing the same. If she dances a story of [[Dechala]] carving through [[Bretonnia|Bretonnian Knights]], [[Grey Knights]] may find themselves prancing forward as if riding invisible horses before their entrails spill out of their [[Power Armor]]. If she dances the story of Slaanesh in 40k consuming the Eldar, the souls of [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Asur]] find themselves pulled into the gullet of her master.

==On The Tabletop==

===[[Warhammer Fantasy]]===
Being unable to join Units, Masque is not that great a choice. If carried into an enemy Unit she can deal some decent punishment and play some games, but she's not tournament tier.

===[[Warhammer 40000]]===
Counts as a Herald, but without any of the Herald benefits. Her sole purpose is debuffing a [[Deathstar Unit]], otherwise she's even worse than in Fantasy.

===[[Age of Sigmar]]===
A bit more survivable than in the other Warhammers, she now has a rolloff against opponents trying to hurt her where she can shut down their attack if he gets a higher result. She can also reroll her Hit rolls if she has the same Movement as her opponents. Her main ability is making enemy models within 12 inches move at half speed, so getting her near your opponent's models will makes them move like they're in tar for at least one turn.

===[[The 9th Age]]===
Masque doesn't exist in T9A rules as of yet. There are no named characters in the game at the moment, but the most important abilities have either been incorporated directly into the army or through magic items that allow you to emulate the character. Masque however has no equivalent, meaning her model is just a standard Herald with a backstory.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:The Masque 1.jpg|The Masque's old model.
Image:Masque New.jpg|The Masque's new model.
Image:The Masque 2.png|The Masque in the trading card game.
Image:The Masque 3.jpg
</gallery>

{{Daemons-Characters}}
[[Category: Hedonites of Slaanesh]]

Skulltaker

2020-03-28T05:29:56Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:5806:4C0E:6197:1075:

[[File:Skulltaker8th.PNG|300px|thumbnail|right|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7KK7bXJV2c TOASTY!!!]]]
Of all of Khorne's Bloodletters in both 40K and Fantasy, none is as angry as U'Zhul, known more widely as '''Skulltaker'''.

The moment Khorne created him was also the day he scored his first kill by slaying the first creature he met via chopping off its head. That creature was another Bloodletter.

After scoring his 888th skull for the Skull Throne, Khorne promoted U'Zhul to the rank of Sacred Executioner, and thus he earned his moniker of Skulltaker.

Skulltaker is extremely competent and dead serious when it comes to fighting (and that's saying something about him, as Bloodletters treat war and slaughter as serious business). When the fighting is extreme, and the slaughter is immense, he will walk the battlefield looking for exceptionally powerful warriors and challenge them to manly combat one on one. When not waging war he wanders the Mortal Realms (or realspace), showing up at a place and demanding that someone face him one-on-one unless they want a bloodbath. When someone accepts his challenge, he briefly salutes them before attacking.

Unfortunately for his enemies, Skulltaker is a master duellist beyond and above the capabilities any other Bloodletter could possibly achieve. The daemon simply cuts off his adversary's limbs (but never slays them), grabs their heads and utters the eight Words of Sacrifice that wreaths his victim's heads in magical flames that burn away their flesh; this leaves only a bare skull that he throws into a sack he carries, along with the other skulls he collected while fighting. He'll often lift said skulls up in the air for everyone to see them before putting them on his cape. Despite duelling many heroes, there are only three confirmed stories where Skulltaker lost the duel; one of those times was against Sigmar himself, which left Skulltaker with a permanent scar and a grudge against Sigmar's followers and descendants.

After a battle, he returns to Khorne's Brass Citadel to give the skulls he collected as offering to the Blood God. Most of them Khorne collects, but the skulls of the most exceptional of opponents he makes Skulltaker keep as personal trophies that he sews into his cloak.

[[File:Skulltaker.jpg|200px|thumb|right]]
The Bloodletter's achievements are as follows:
* Slaying a quarter of the Grey Knight Brother Captains during the First War for Armageddon. Even though this only adds up to two, this is still enough to seal his status as total badass since he's a daemon that killed two experts at daemon-slaying.
* Slaying the Ork Warboss Grimsnag Urk and his Mega Armoured Nobz on Agripina-6.
* Slaying 17 Eldar Exarchs on Haranshemash (seems they gravely underestimated him).
* Dueled [[Castellan Crowe]] for SEVERAL HOURS (keep in mind that the Grey Knight <strike>cheated</strike> ''evened the handicap'' by throwing super-special holy water at Skulltaker before the duel).

<s>Weirdly, before Skulltaker was released as a Daemon special character, the name U'zhul was given to the Daemon inside the Slayer of Kings, the [[Daemon Weapon]] wielded by [[Archaon]]. Whether this is a sign of something or just GW not fact-checking their lore again, who knows?</s> The daemon in Archaon's sword is called ''U'zuhl'' and is a Bloodthirster.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
Image:DaemonsSkulltakerMain 445x319.jpg
</gallery>

{{Daemons-Characters}}
[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category: Age of Sigmar]]
[[Category: Blades of Khorne]]

Skulltaker

2020-03-28T05:29:47Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:5806:4C0E:6197:1075:

[[File:Skulltaker8th.PNG|300px|thumbnail|right|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7KK7bXJV2c TOASTY!!!]]]
Of all of Khorne's Bloodletters in both 40K and Fantasy, none is as angry as U'Zhul, known more widely as '''Skulltaker'''.

The moment Khorne created him was also the day he scored his first kill by slaying the first creature he met via chopping off its head. That creature was another Bloodletter.

After scoring his 888th skull for the Skull Throne, Khorne promoted U'Zhul to the rank of Sacred Executioner, and thus he earned his moniker of Skulltaker.

Skulltaker is extremely competent and dead serious when it comes to fighting (and that's saying something about him, as Bloodletters treat war and slaughter as serious business). When the fighting is extreme, and the slaughter is immense, he will walk the battlefield looking for exceptionally powerful warriors and challenge them to manly combat one on one. When not waging war he wanders the Mortal Realms (or realspace), showing up at a place and demanding that someone face him one-on-one unless they want a bloodbath. When someone accepts his challenge, he briefly salutes them before attacking.

Unfortunately for his enemies, Skulltaker is a master duellist beyond and above the capabilities any other Bloodletter could possibly achieve. The daemon simply cuts off his adversary's limbs (but never slays them), grabs their heads and utters the eight Words of Sacrifice that wreaths his victim's heads in magical flames that burn away their flesh; this leaves only a bare skull that he throws into a sack he carries, along with the other skulls he collected while fighting. He'll often lift said skulls up in the air for everyone to see them before putting them on his cape. Despite duelling many heroes, there are only three confirmed stories where Skulltaker lost the duel; one of those times was against Sigmar himself, which left Skulltaker with a permanent scar and a grudge against Sigmar's followers and descendants.

After a battle, he returns to Khorne's Brass Citadel to give the skulls he collected as offering to the Blood God. Most of them Khorne collects, but the skulls of the most exceptional of opponents he makes Skulltaker keep as personal trophies that he sews into his cloak.

[[File:Skulltaker.jpg|200px|thumb|right]]
The Bloodletter's achievements are as follows:
* Slaying a quarter of the Grey Knight Brother Captains during the First War for Armageddon. Even though this only adds up to two, this is still enough to seal his status as total badass since he's a daemon that killed two experts at demon-slaying.
* Slaying the Ork Warboss Grimsnag Urk and his Mega Armoured Nobz on Agripina-6.
* Slaying 17 Eldar Exarchs on Haranshemash (seems they gravely underestimated him).
* Dueled [[Castellan Crowe]] for SEVERAL HOURS (keep in mind that the Grey Knight <strike>cheated</strike> ''evened the handicap'' by throwing super-special holy water at Skulltaker before the duel).

<s>Weirdly, before Skulltaker was released as a Daemon special character, the name U'zhul was given to the Daemon inside the Slayer of Kings, the [[Daemon Weapon]] wielded by [[Archaon]]. Whether this is a sign of something or just GW not fact-checking their lore again, who knows?</s> The daemon in Archaon's sword is called ''U'zuhl'' and is a Bloodthirster.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
Image:DaemonsSkulltakerMain 445x319.jpg
</gallery>

{{Daemons-Characters}}
[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category: Age of Sigmar]]
[[Category: Blades of Khorne]]

Skulltaker

2020-03-28T05:28:56Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:5806:4C0E:6197:1075:

[[File:Skulltaker8th.PNG|300px|thumbnail|right|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7KK7bXJV2c TOASTY!!!]]]
Of all of Khorne's Bloodletters in both 40K and Fantasy, none is as angry as U'Zhul, known more widely as '''Skulltaker'''.

The moment Khorne created him was also the day he scored his first kill by slaying the first creature he met via chopping off its head. That creature was another Bloodletter.

After scoring his 888th skull for the Skull Throne, Khorne promoted U'Zhul to the rank of Sacred Executioner, and thus he earned his moniker of Skulltaker.

Skulltaker is extremely competent and dead serious when it comes to fighting (and that's saying something about him, as Bloodletters treat war and slaughter as serious business). When the fighting is extreme, and the slaughter is immense, he will walk the battlefield looking for exceptionally powerful warriors and challenge them to manly combat one on one. When not waging war he wanders the Mortal Realms (or realspace), showing up at a place and demanding that someone face him one-on-one unless they want a bloodbath. When someone accepts his challenge, he briefly salutes them before attacking.

Unfortunately for his enemies, Skulltaker is a master duellist beyond and above the capabilities any other Bloodletter could possibly achieve. The daemon simply cuts off his adversary's limbs (but never slays them), grabs their heads and utters the eight Words of Sacrifice that wreaths his victim's heads in magical flames that burn away their flesh; this leaves only a bare skull that he throws into a sack he carries, along with the other skulls he collected while fighting. He'll often lift said skulls up in the air for everyone to see them before putting them on his cape. Despite duelling many heroes, there are only three confirmed stories where Skulltaker lost the duel; one of those times was against Sigmar himself, which left Skulltaker with a permanent scar and a grudge against Sigmar's followers and descendants.

After a battle, he returns to Khorne's Brass Citadel to give the skulls he collected as offering to the Blood God. Most of them Khorne collects, but the skulls of the most exceptional of opponents he makes Skulltaker keep as personal trophies that he sews into his cloak.

[[File:Skulltaker.jpg|200px|thumb|right]]
The Bloodletter's achievements are as follows:
* Slaying a quarter of the Grey Knight Brother Captains during the First War for Armageddon. Even though this only adds up to two, this is still enough to seal his status as total badass.
* Slaying the Ork Warboss Grimsnag Urk and his Mega Armoured Nobz on Agripina-6.
* Slaying 17 Eldar Exarchs on Haranshemash (seems they gravely underestimated him).
* Dueled [[Castellan Crowe]] for SEVERAL HOURS (keep in mind that the Grey Knight <strike>cheated</strike> ''evened the handicap'' by throwing super-special holy water at Skulltaker before the duel).

<s>Weirdly, before Skulltaker was released as a Daemon special character, the name U'zhul was given to the Daemon inside the Slayer of Kings, the [[Daemon Weapon]] wielded by [[Archaon]]. Whether this is a sign of something or just GW not fact-checking their lore again, who knows?</s> The daemon in Archaon's sword is called ''U'zuhl'' and is a Bloodthirster.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
Image:DaemonsSkulltakerMain 445x319.jpg
</gallery>

{{Daemons-Characters}}
[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category: Age of Sigmar]]
[[Category: Blades of Khorne]]

Fabius Bile

2020-03-28T03:33:58Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:5806:4C0E:6197:1075: /* Present Day */

{{heresy}}
[[image:FabulousBile.jpg|thumb|right| Told you.]]
{{topquote|Unlike you, whelp, I once walked the same ground as your Idol. I breathed the same air as him. And I tell you this, without lie or artifice. He never wanted to become what you have made him! He did not wish to be your god-thing. He abhorred such ideals! The slavery of your crippled, blind Imperium would sicken him, if he had eyes to see it.|Fabius Bile, telling it like it is to Rafen of the Blood Angels, Black Tide}}
{{topquote|I was building another science, my science, wild science, robots and lasers and disembodied brains. A science that buzzed and glowed; it wanted to do things. It could get up and walk, fly, fight, sprout garish glowing creations in the remotest parts of the world, domes and towers and architectural fever dreams. And it was angry. It was mad science.|Dr. Impossible - Soon I Will Be Invincible}}

'''Fabius Bile''' (Fabulous Bill, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele| Mengele] in SPESS, or simply "Bob") is the mad scientist to end all mad scientists (since to the [[Haemonculi]] science comes second to pain). He's got a lab coat made of human skin, a pimpin' staff, and thousands of certificates proclaiming him the Sickest Fuck in the universe. And by Sickest we mean both most Depraved and most Radical.

<s>He is also absolutely fabulous</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|Heresy}}.

He has the ability to hook up with a squad and pump them full of his pimp cane juice, making them get on board the Rape Train and head right for the front cabin. His pimp cane also causes Instant Death, though it counts as a regular weapon so anything with decent armor's likely to survive against him (very bad given that counting the CSM codex, six of the armies out right now are [[MEQ]], with the [[Necrons]] also being close behind). Put him in with a squad of Berserkers or Possessed who scored themselves power weapons and stuff them in a Land Raider. It's time to rev the Fun Bus the fuck up and have yourselves a party (Vengaboys soundtrack optional).

(That said, he's still a pretty sick fuck.)

He shows up in the expansion for inquisitor martyr (SPOILERS), where he sounds like he had throatcancer (Which considering, in all likelyhood, he probably does). Oh and he’s getting a new model for Psychic Awakening

==The Great Crusade==
Before joining the ill-fated Terran part of the Emperor's Children, Fabius grew up in a wealthy family on Terra, apparently happily. One of his families retainers was a man who created intricate toys of chimerical monstrosities which delighted a young Fabius. He also taught baby Fabi how to alter white mice into performing tricks and theatrical routines, which always went wrong when they reverted to the bestial instincts and tore each other apart. Little Fabius got frustrated with this but the whole thing served as a preface to his later work. Never let it be said that creepy fuckery didn't start young.

After being inducted into the legion, Fabius swiftly rose through the ranks and became the [[Apothecary|Chief Apothecary]]. Before [[Fulgrim]] was rediscovered, the legion was afflicted by a degenerative geneseed flaw known as the Blight - a progressive form of cancer that caused random tumors in both bones and organs. Fabius was tasked with finding a cure, lest the flaw wipe out the Emperor's Children to a man. He gradually became more morose as his work only led to failure (as well as prompting his future experimental streak). All the Terran marines of the Legion were susceptible to the disease and Fabius was forced to euthanize a lot of his friends and comrades, leading to him seeking solitude away from his battle-brothers. Matters were not helped by the last shipment of uncorrupted geneseed randomly vanishing from the Luna gene-forges and the archived samples degenerating onsite - an incident Crusade command wrote off as a mystery for the ages but was either Trazyn or general warp dickery. We also now know that the Primaris Marines were created from uncorrupted Gene Seed of all the Legions, so it's possible Cawl got his sticky dendrites into the stores. Fabius, against all odds, rose to the challenge, albeit reluctantly.

It turns out that a cure was ''never'' actually found, and that reuniting with their primarch on Chemos only served to provide fresh material for "untainted" Space Marines. All those who suffered the flaw were put to death in an attempt to prevent any infection from reaching the healthy brethren... Except for Fabius himself who was in a position to falsify his medical records. His prognosis was that he only had about a year to live, but had developed a process of temporarily rejuvenating himself using elixirs distilled from enzymes and proteins drawn from [[Grimdark|dead Astartes]], and quite possibly including those who never even suffered the flaw either.

The Legion as a whole had a obsession with perfection as a general concept but Fabius' first forays into bodily experimentation came when the Legion assaulted Laeran, a world of reptilian creatures who were gene-engineered to perfectly carry out a specific task. Bewitched by the idea, Fabius eventually began to perform clandestine experiments on trying to improve the [[gene-seed]] even before the [[Horus Heresy]] started. It didn't take long for [[Fulgrim]] to find out, but he gave Fabius his blessing as long as it didn't bring Imperial censure upon the Legion. Of course, once the Heresy was underway, prudence and discretion were thrown to the wind and Fabius' enhancements became in high demand amongst the Emperor's Children.

During the opening movements of the Isstvaan Massacre (taking place before the actual murder-party itself) Fabius ended up saving the life of Nathaniel Garro, who would eventually go on to alert the [[Imperium]] to the Heresy. In retrospect that would probably make Fabius a dead man walking otherwise.

==The Heresy==
After turning full traitor, Fabulous Vile became the go-to guy for any kind of enhancement, to the extent that there were not many Emperor's Children in the legion who had not been under his knives in some form or other. He was part of the inner cabal of legion figureheads who attempted to exorcise Fulgrim and even found the time to fiddle around with mixing geneseed together (something unheard of at the time), eventually leading to a certain fellow called [[Honsou]]. He toyed around with both the original anathame and the incomplete (and corrupted) Primarch genome data [[Omegon]] [[Blood Ravens|'acquired']] from the [[Raven Guard]]. It was during this time that he first started on his hobby of turning men, and women, and traitor Marines and [[troll|loyalist Marines]] and basically anything that had the misfortune of coming into contact with him into horrifying inhuman monsters, something he refined considerably over the following millennia.

When Fulgrim was being mopey over the death of his once-BFF [[Ferrus Manus]], it was Fabius that tried to clone the dead Primarch back to life so Fulgrim and him could be BFF again... Except even the clones of Ferrus refused to turn to Chaos and had to be killed by Fulgrim, to the latter's unending [[butthurt]] and [[rage]]. (He believed Fabius was producing flawed clones on purpose just to spite him, [[derp|yet kept on ordering him to create more!]]). It was from this episode that he received his surname from a daemon ascended Fulgrim, who accused him of being "full of bile". Somehow, Chaos Gods know why, the name stuck.

At some point in the Heresy, Fabius did [[Female Space Marines|something]] unprecedented outside of the most twisted fan-fiction. He created a [[Warhammer High|"daughter"]], from his own gene code, which he named Melusine. At the time, she was the pinnacle of his work on creating life but something in her making went horribly wrong and Fulgrim ordered her to be cast into the warp out of fear of what she might become. Let that sink in for a bit. Melusine then went on to wander the realm of Slaanesh, where she became demonic in the process. She would occasionally give vague warnings to Fabius in the future, holding some loyalty to her "father".

==Post-Heresy==
While the Emperor's Children became wholehearted devotees of [[Slaanesh]], Fabius didn't turn into a hedonistic sense addict but rather rejected the [[Chaos Gods]] despite being aligned to the traitor cause, which he insisted on constantly arguing that there were no 'gods' even to the Chaos devoted. To Fabius, Chaos was but a tool; the means to an end. Still, at first he stuck with his Legion. Because the Emperor's Children weren't much involved in the actual siege of Emperor's Palace itself [[Grimdark|(they were too busy butchering civilians)]], they were in a strong position during the "Legion Wars" that raged in the Eye of Terror after the Heresy and could supply Fabius with what he needed.

Despite their relative strength, the legion itself was divided between following Fulgrim, [[Eidolon]], and [[Lucius]] and soon earned the ire of all other Traitor Legions due to their nasty habit of raiding them for slaves. Nevertheless, the Emperor's Children had some successes, leading them to defeat the [[Sons of Horus]] and Fabius retrieving the Warmaster's body. Horus' body provided him with a wealth of information on top of what he'd gotten from Omegon and the body of Ferrus Manus, and he succeeded in creating a viable albeit diminished 'clone' of the Warmaster (Horus' soul being annihilated by Big.E prevented a complete resurrection). Emboldened, Fabius then attempted to create clones of all of the Primarchs and live up to his self-proclaimed title of 'Primogenitor'. He was well on his way to succeed, too, <s>if it weren’t for those rotten kids</s> but then [[Abaddon]] arrived to fuck his shit up. Horus' clone was killed by Abaddon and Fabius' labs utterly ruined even though he managed to escape.

After the Legion stronghold of Harmony [[Battle of Harmony|was destroyed]] by the nascent [[Black Legion]] and Fulgrim went AWOL (either doing drugs with his patron God/dess and/or having fun on his personal planet), Fabius was one of the few authority figures left capable of keeping things together. Many looked to the mad scientist to take command of what was left of the Emperor's Children Legion. Fabius, at that point completely estranged from them, refused. Command would only be a burden keeping him from his research. Eventually, the rest of the Emperor's Children drove Fabius out of the Legion, but by that point his skill in cloning meant that he had plenty of opportunities to gain new subjects for experimentation while providing clones for the remaining [[Chaos Space Marines]] to make recruits from. Fabius Bile became a free agent, obeying none but himself and his hunger for knowledge; staying alive and free by offering his services as an Apothecary.

An amusing 'anecdote' about Bile, that just shows how fabulous he is, is that (like his old pal Lucius), he got himself captured by the [[Dark Eldar]] at one point after the Heresy. Instead of pissing himself in fear at the thought of whatever awaited them like every other prisoner, he just frowned with annoyance at the setback and kept on experimenting. On his fellow prisoners. With whatever he had on hand. This unusual behaviour made [[Haemonculus|another bunch of sick fucks]] raise an eyebrow in curiosity and they invited the 'mere mon-keigh' for a pleasant chat between academics. Although Bile was but a novice at cutting and reshaping things painfully compared to the haemonculi, his knowledge of the Warp allowed him to conclude a mutually beneficent pact with them. He concocted an elixir that allowed the haemonculi to [[grimdark|craft and keep alive a mobile tower made of the flesh and bones of their still-living victims]], giving them a base of operations that existed in constant agony and fed their shrivelled souls. In exchange, they let Fabius go unharmed after giving him a few pointers for his own research (plus, in true Dark Eldar fashion, they realized they would cause much more suffering by letting Fabius go about his business). Yup. Bile managed to be enough of a sick fuck that even a bunch of the most twisted Dark Eldar nodded in appreciation.

==Present Day==
Bile has kept himself busy since leaving the Emperor's Children behind. Most of his time is spent on the world of Urum, where he set up a loose organisation called [[The Consortium (Warhammer 40,000)|the Consortium]], a research facility / playground / artist's commune for other Chaos Apothecaries to practice their art in relative peace (and also partly addressing why there aren't many Apothecaries in the Traitor Legions any more). Despite having only very little time to live during the Heresy, he's survived through the millennia by cloning and jumping bodies on a regular basis, although the flaw in his geneseed will keep on being replicated and get progressively worse. He estimates that he'll only live for another few centuries, which he'll spend finding a cure and finishing his great work.

A major part of his "great work" is to create and perfect a new human race - the imaginatively named "New Men" - who would be superior to the Astartes and reclaim the galaxy from both chaos and xenos. The closest attempt he's made thus far are known as Glandhounds - men AND women who are far stronger and more intelligent than regular humans, violently xenophobic towards anything that's not Fabius or another Glandhound, have very strong pack instincts and use them to bring down much larger prey. Like Traitor Astartes Fabius doesn't like. Unlike other examples of master-race creators in fiction, he seems entirely unconcerned about being the ruler of the new race or even being around himself when it comes about. It doesn't sound like a bad idea in itself but it goes without saying that old humanity - or anyone else for that matter - is not permitted to coexist with his new race. It's partly why he allows Nurgulite apothecaries to join his Consortium, as their work on viruses and plagues would allow him to clear out old humanity before letting his New Men move in, all inoculated naturally.

It's hinted that he may have had something to do with the [[Obliterators|Obliterator virus]] (aka the turn-your-body-into-a-living-cannon virus) and there are rumors that he had a hand in screwing up the [[21st Founding]] as well, although this hasn't been mentioned in canon past oblique references.

Bile isn't a fan of Chaos, mainly for its role in destroying what little cohesion the Emperor's Children had post-Heresy. He also sees its corrupting influence as running counter to his great work. He's also critical of the [[Emperor]] (beyond the usual traitor reasons) for stifling the growth of humanity as a psychic race. Fabius is [[Communism|oddly egalitarian]] for a mad scientist, complaining that the Emperor was foolish to only let geneseed work on men. Amusingly, he draws comparisons between himself and the Emperor as both are creaters of new races who often insist on worshiping them as gods. Another thing about him is that due to his attitude towards the Chaos Gods and his focus on science, he is the only known Chaos Space Marine that has kept faithful to the tenets of the [[Imperial Truth]], even though he is no longer faithful to the Imperium or the Emperor. He believes that what men call "Chaos Gods" are truly just mindless cosmic forces that are ascribed personalities by those driven insane by the Warp, and that Daemons are entities that, although seeming to be intelligent, ultimately lack self-awareness. He will even argue to daemons themselves that the gods are not real.

The sheer irony that Fabious Bile of all people is trying to save humanity from Chaos and aliens and to push humanity forward into a new state of power which would ensure mankind's survival and dominance is just...holy shit. So, doesn't that make him secretly a good guy? Just in "the ends justify the means" taken up way past eleven. More like past nine thousand with some of the nauseating stuff he's done.

He has an odd place in the very loose and volatile hierarchy of the Traitor Legions, being both incredibly unpopular (he is wanted dead by the Dark Council of the [[Word Bearers]] and Fulgrim himself, isn't exactly on good terms with Abaddon after his Horus-cloning shenanigans and portions of almost every other Traitor Legion would appreciate [[rip and tear|voicing their viewpoint on his work ethics tactfully]]) and highly in demand for his skills (his knowledge of geneseed has saved more than one Traitor Legion from going completely extinct on multiple occasions). In other words, he's the smug, insufferable old coot everyone hates, but the guy is just too damn useful and knowledgeable to be retired.

As with a lot of big characters from earlier editions, his portrayal in the fluff is pretty inconsistent, varying between cackling mad scientist, sadistic torturer for the giggles, stern extremist, goal-obsessed manipulator, and weirdly paternal visionary. One audio adaptation gives him a thetting lisp, which is bafflingly amusing when imagining a space marine, let alone one using sexual torture devices on a Primarch. Then again, he is jumping bodies a lot..

Since the introduction of the [[Primaris Marines]] he has become obsessed with getting his hands on them, so he can experiment and created his own "improved" versions of them as well as cloning Guillliman.

In recent fluff it is notable that he successfully cloned and raised Fulgrim, acquired a cache of pure [[Gene-seed]] and had a nice, constructive exchange with [[Trazyn the Infinite]]. It seemed good ole Trollzyn wanted a genuine Primarch for his collection, and that Fabius could still be a perfectly reasonable man willing to barter despite the whole 'mad scientist' thing. It probably helped that Necrons can't be [[fleshcrafting|experimented upon]] any longer, though...

==Attack of the Clones==
Bile has a hard-on for cloning technology, and has a track record for making copies of himself and others. The latest fluff reveals that he is patterning and copying his mind over to fresh bodies and has done so hundreds of times over the years. The direct implication of this is that the original Bile probably died a long time ago and that there could even be more than one Bile going around the Galaxy. It also explains why he keeps cloning himself into his own Blight ravaged body - he would be more than capable of making a far better body but then he wouldn't be certain that the new body wouldn't effect his mind and go off and do something different, contrary to his great work.

His first attempt was actually to clone [[Ferrus Manus]] since [[Fulgrim]] was feeling a bit guilty and wanted a do-over on turning his brother to chaos, though Fulgrim would keep murdering the clones because they wouldn't take the hint and change sides. Predictably, Fulgrim blamed Fabius for this, claiming a "perfect" clone would have been willing to join the Traitors.

He later stole [[Horus]]' corpse and cloned it repeatedly, an act that pushed [[Abaddon]] out of his emo loser phase into becoming the scourge of the Imperium. Really though, Abaddon was just annoyed that Fabius has like four arms. He got round to attempting to clone every other primarch as well, but all but two turned out to be a failure. Both successful one's were, to no ones great surprise, of Fulgrim and was genuinely an absolutely perfect and uncorrupted replica of the original. Lucius killed one whilst it was still an infant and Fabius himself found one he'd made centuries before on Harmony. He originally considered using that one and a batch of pre heresy uncorrupted geneseed to make a new legion to protect his New Men whilst they colonised the galaxy but when he discovered that clone Fulgrim wanted to use them as lesser, expendable soldiers for galactic conquest he offered up the clone to Trazyn the Infinite's collection in disgust. Daddy issues aren't just an Abbadon only trait, it seems...

He's currently attempting to create a Clone of the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|EMPRAH]]. Using [[Sanguinius]]' blood. Let it never be said that Chaos is nothing if not ambitious. The [[Blood Angels]] managed to kill him and get the blood back, but he had already begun developing the clone at that point. And as it turns out, they didn't kill him due to the numerous clones of himself he has secreted throughout the galaxy. Mind you, it's not just a way for him to fuck with his enemies; he still hasn't figured out how to cure the Blight and needs to shunt his mind from one clone body to another to keep it from killing him. Also, keep in mind that if he does succeed in cloning the Emperor a new body (because we all know Big.E. would hijack that for himself), it probably would end absolutely horribly for Chaos. Especially considering how things went with the Ferrus Manus clones. (Although this might be entirely intentional on Bile's part, given his hatred of Chaos.)

One of his clones appears in '''Inquisitor - Prophecy''', the Expansion DLC of [[Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr]]. It is revealed that he played a part in the creation of the "Alpha Pariah" (an artificially created Pariah with the ability to permanently destroy Daemons). He appears in an early mission with the intent of taking back the Alpha Pariah for his nefarious purposes. He is briefly fought before fleeing. He serves as the final boss of the DLC, where he briefly transform's into a Cha....Unnameable beast before he is at last slain. Notably his hated reputation amongst the Traitor Astartes is shown, as the Plague Marines he hired to defend him intend to kill him the first chance they get.

==Crunch==
On one hand, Bile has good stats and wargear: Feel No Pain through his Chirurgeon, Strength 5, a weapon that causes instant death (Rod of Torment), five attacks, and a particularly nasty poisoned weapon in the Xyclos Needler. On the other hand, his Rod of Torment does not ignore armor saves (unlike, say, the MURDER SWORD), his Xyclos Needler has really bad AP and sub-par range, and perhaps most damning of all, no Invulnerable save, unlike literally every other Chaos Character in the codex. So... Sucks, Right? Not quite. The reason Fabius Bile is taken, ironically, isn't for Bile himself; it's for his Enhanced Warriors trait, which gives a unit of Chaos Space Marines +1 Strength and Fearless. An enhanced Khornate CSM unit (Mark + Icon) rolls out 4 S6 attacks per Marine on the charge while being scoring and Fearless. While he isn't stellar in a normal CSM army (he's not a fighter nor does he enhance more than one unit of CSM), he really shines as an allied HQ — if you want a reasonably cheap CC threat for your pansy blueberries, take him and a 10-strong unit of Khornate CSM with meltaguns that can threaten massed infantry with the number of attacks, massed tanks with meltaguns/carnage combo and monstrous creatures with that Instant Death stick. Know that a Disordered Charge (aka multi-charge) denies you your Rage, so plan accordingly.
Note that he can enhance one CSM unit in your entire ARMY, so take him in an Auxiliary Detachment for your Traitor Legion, and buff one of their Legion CSM units. 20 Infiltratring S5 Fearless Alpha Legion CSM anyone?

===8th Edition===
The news of improved Astartes was just the news he needed to pop back up. He has a 3-shot needle pistol that always wounds things that aren't vehicles on a 2+, as well as his Rod of Torment which is now S:User AP-1 D3 damage (except when attacking vehicles, which it only does 1 damage to.) Though he still lacks any kind of invuln, he now automatically regenerates d3 wounds at the start of each turn, giving him a bit of staying power. And as always, he can enhance a single infantry unit; roll a dice for each model in the unit, 6s are mortal wounds. The survivors either gain +1 to Strength, Toughness, or Attacks. Keen-eyed Chaos Lords will note that this can no longer be exclusively done to Chaos Marines. Yes, you can enhance a 20-man Berzerker or Possessed squad. Have fun!

==New Miniature==
Just revealed at the GAMA expo; Fabius is getting a new, more Fabulous figure in the coming weeks. Models representing his assistant included.

{{Chaos-Marines}}
[[Category: Emperor's Children]]

Fabius Bile

2020-03-28T03:31:54Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:5806:4C0E:6197:1075: /* Post-Heresy */

{{heresy}}
[[image:FabulousBile.jpg|thumb|right| Told you.]]
{{topquote|Unlike you, whelp, I once walked the same ground as your Idol. I breathed the same air as him. And I tell you this, without lie or artifice. He never wanted to become what you have made him! He did not wish to be your god-thing. He abhorred such ideals! The slavery of your crippled, blind Imperium would sicken him, if he had eyes to see it.|Fabius Bile, telling it like it is to Rafen of the Blood Angels, Black Tide}}
{{topquote|I was building another science, my science, wild science, robots and lasers and disembodied brains. A science that buzzed and glowed; it wanted to do things. It could get up and walk, fly, fight, sprout garish glowing creations in the remotest parts of the world, domes and towers and architectural fever dreams. And it was angry. It was mad science.|Dr. Impossible - Soon I Will Be Invincible}}

'''Fabius Bile''' (Fabulous Bill, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele| Mengele] in SPESS, or simply "Bob") is the mad scientist to end all mad scientists (since to the [[Haemonculi]] science comes second to pain). He's got a lab coat made of human skin, a pimpin' staff, and thousands of certificates proclaiming him the Sickest Fuck in the universe. And by Sickest we mean both most Depraved and most Radical.

<s>He is also absolutely fabulous</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|Heresy}}.

He has the ability to hook up with a squad and pump them full of his pimp cane juice, making them get on board the Rape Train and head right for the front cabin. His pimp cane also causes Instant Death, though it counts as a regular weapon so anything with decent armor's likely to survive against him (very bad given that counting the CSM codex, six of the armies out right now are [[MEQ]], with the [[Necrons]] also being close behind). Put him in with a squad of Berserkers or Possessed who scored themselves power weapons and stuff them in a Land Raider. It's time to rev the Fun Bus the fuck up and have yourselves a party (Vengaboys soundtrack optional).

(That said, he's still a pretty sick fuck.)

He shows up in the expansion for inquisitor martyr (SPOILERS), where he sounds like he had throatcancer (Which considering, in all likelyhood, he probably does). Oh and he’s getting a new model for Psychic Awakening

==The Great Crusade==
Before joining the ill-fated Terran part of the Emperor's Children, Fabius grew up in a wealthy family on Terra, apparently happily. One of his families retainers was a man who created intricate toys of chimerical monstrosities which delighted a young Fabius. He also taught baby Fabi how to alter white mice into performing tricks and theatrical routines, which always went wrong when they reverted to the bestial instincts and tore each other apart. Little Fabius got frustrated with this but the whole thing served as a preface to his later work. Never let it be said that creepy fuckery didn't start young.

After being inducted into the legion, Fabius swiftly rose through the ranks and became the [[Apothecary|Chief Apothecary]]. Before [[Fulgrim]] was rediscovered, the legion was afflicted by a degenerative geneseed flaw known as the Blight - a progressive form of cancer that caused random tumors in both bones and organs. Fabius was tasked with finding a cure, lest the flaw wipe out the Emperor's Children to a man. He gradually became more morose as his work only led to failure (as well as prompting his future experimental streak). All the Terran marines of the Legion were susceptible to the disease and Fabius was forced to euthanize a lot of his friends and comrades, leading to him seeking solitude away from his battle-brothers. Matters were not helped by the last shipment of uncorrupted geneseed randomly vanishing from the Luna gene-forges and the archived samples degenerating onsite - an incident Crusade command wrote off as a mystery for the ages but was either Trazyn or general warp dickery. We also now know that the Primaris Marines were created from uncorrupted Gene Seed of all the Legions, so it's possible Cawl got his sticky dendrites into the stores. Fabius, against all odds, rose to the challenge, albeit reluctantly.

It turns out that a cure was ''never'' actually found, and that reuniting with their primarch on Chemos only served to provide fresh material for "untainted" Space Marines. All those who suffered the flaw were put to death in an attempt to prevent any infection from reaching the healthy brethren... Except for Fabius himself who was in a position to falsify his medical records. His prognosis was that he only had about a year to live, but had developed a process of temporarily rejuvenating himself using elixirs distilled from enzymes and proteins drawn from [[Grimdark|dead Astartes]], and quite possibly including those who never even suffered the flaw either.

The Legion as a whole had a obsession with perfection as a general concept but Fabius' first forays into bodily experimentation came when the Legion assaulted Laeran, a world of reptilian creatures who were gene-engineered to perfectly carry out a specific task. Bewitched by the idea, Fabius eventually began to perform clandestine experiments on trying to improve the [[gene-seed]] even before the [[Horus Heresy]] started. It didn't take long for [[Fulgrim]] to find out, but he gave Fabius his blessing as long as it didn't bring Imperial censure upon the Legion. Of course, once the Heresy was underway, prudence and discretion were thrown to the wind and Fabius' enhancements became in high demand amongst the Emperor's Children.

During the opening movements of the Isstvaan Massacre (taking place before the actual murder-party itself) Fabius ended up saving the life of Nathaniel Garro, who would eventually go on to alert the [[Imperium]] to the Heresy. In retrospect that would probably make Fabius a dead man walking otherwise.

==The Heresy==
After turning full traitor, Fabulous Vile became the go-to guy for any kind of enhancement, to the extent that there were not many Emperor's Children in the legion who had not been under his knives in some form or other. He was part of the inner cabal of legion figureheads who attempted to exorcise Fulgrim and even found the time to fiddle around with mixing geneseed together (something unheard of at the time), eventually leading to a certain fellow called [[Honsou]]. He toyed around with both the original anathame and the incomplete (and corrupted) Primarch genome data [[Omegon]] [[Blood Ravens|'acquired']] from the [[Raven Guard]]. It was during this time that he first started on his hobby of turning men, and women, and traitor Marines and [[troll|loyalist Marines]] and basically anything that had the misfortune of coming into contact with him into horrifying inhuman monsters, something he refined considerably over the following millennia.

When Fulgrim was being mopey over the death of his once-BFF [[Ferrus Manus]], it was Fabius that tried to clone the dead Primarch back to life so Fulgrim and him could be BFF again... Except even the clones of Ferrus refused to turn to Chaos and had to be killed by Fulgrim, to the latter's unending [[butthurt]] and [[rage]]. (He believed Fabius was producing flawed clones on purpose just to spite him, [[derp|yet kept on ordering him to create more!]]). It was from this episode that he received his surname from a daemon ascended Fulgrim, who accused him of being "full of bile". Somehow, Chaos Gods know why, the name stuck.

At some point in the Heresy, Fabius did [[Female Space Marines|something]] unprecedented outside of the most twisted fan-fiction. He created a [[Warhammer High|"daughter"]], from his own gene code, which he named Melusine. At the time, she was the pinnacle of his work on creating life but something in her making went horribly wrong and Fulgrim ordered her to be cast into the warp out of fear of what she might become. Let that sink in for a bit. Melusine then went on to wander the realm of Slaanesh, where she became demonic in the process. She would occasionally give vague warnings to Fabius in the future, holding some loyalty to her "father".

==Post-Heresy==
While the Emperor's Children became wholehearted devotees of [[Slaanesh]], Fabius didn't turn into a hedonistic sense addict but rather rejected the [[Chaos Gods]] despite being aligned to the traitor cause, which he insisted on constantly arguing that there were no 'gods' even to the Chaos devoted. To Fabius, Chaos was but a tool; the means to an end. Still, at first he stuck with his Legion. Because the Emperor's Children weren't much involved in the actual siege of Emperor's Palace itself [[Grimdark|(they were too busy butchering civilians)]], they were in a strong position during the "Legion Wars" that raged in the Eye of Terror after the Heresy and could supply Fabius with what he needed.

Despite their relative strength, the legion itself was divided between following Fulgrim, [[Eidolon]], and [[Lucius]] and soon earned the ire of all other Traitor Legions due to their nasty habit of raiding them for slaves. Nevertheless, the Emperor's Children had some successes, leading them to defeat the [[Sons of Horus]] and Fabius retrieving the Warmaster's body. Horus' body provided him with a wealth of information on top of what he'd gotten from Omegon and the body of Ferrus Manus, and he succeeded in creating a viable albeit diminished 'clone' of the Warmaster (Horus' soul being annihilated by Big.E prevented a complete resurrection). Emboldened, Fabius then attempted to create clones of all of the Primarchs and live up to his self-proclaimed title of 'Primogenitor'. He was well on his way to succeed, too, <s>if it weren’t for those rotten kids</s> but then [[Abaddon]] arrived to fuck his shit up. Horus' clone was killed by Abaddon and Fabius' labs utterly ruined even though he managed to escape.

After the Legion stronghold of Harmony [[Battle of Harmony|was destroyed]] by the nascent [[Black Legion]] and Fulgrim went AWOL (either doing drugs with his patron God/dess and/or having fun on his personal planet), Fabius was one of the few authority figures left capable of keeping things together. Many looked to the mad scientist to take command of what was left of the Emperor's Children Legion. Fabius, at that point completely estranged from them, refused. Command would only be a burden keeping him from his research. Eventually, the rest of the Emperor's Children drove Fabius out of the Legion, but by that point his skill in cloning meant that he had plenty of opportunities to gain new subjects for experimentation while providing clones for the remaining [[Chaos Space Marines]] to make recruits from. Fabius Bile became a free agent, obeying none but himself and his hunger for knowledge; staying alive and free by offering his services as an Apothecary.

An amusing 'anecdote' about Bile, that just shows how fabulous he is, is that (like his old pal Lucius), he got himself captured by the [[Dark Eldar]] at one point after the Heresy. Instead of pissing himself in fear at the thought of whatever awaited them like every other prisoner, he just frowned with annoyance at the setback and kept on experimenting. On his fellow prisoners. With whatever he had on hand. This unusual behaviour made [[Haemonculus|another bunch of sick fucks]] raise an eyebrow in curiosity and they invited the 'mere mon-keigh' for a pleasant chat between academics. Although Bile was but a novice at cutting and reshaping things painfully compared to the haemonculi, his knowledge of the Warp allowed him to conclude a mutually beneficent pact with them. He concocted an elixir that allowed the haemonculi to [[grimdark|craft and keep alive a mobile tower made of the flesh and bones of their still-living victims]], giving them a base of operations that existed in constant agony and fed their shrivelled souls. In exchange, they let Fabius go unharmed after giving him a few pointers for his own research (plus, in true Dark Eldar fashion, they realized they would cause much more suffering by letting Fabius go about his business). Yup. Bile managed to be enough of a sick fuck that even a bunch of the most twisted Dark Eldar nodded in appreciation.

==Present Day==
Bile has kept himself busy since leaving the Emperor's Children behind. Most of his time is spent on the world of Urum, where he set up a loose organisation called [[The Consortium (Warhammer 40,000)|the Consortium]], a research facility / playground / artist's commune for other Chaos Apothecaries to practice their art in relative peace (and also partly addressing why there aren't many Apothecaries in the Traitor Legions any more). Despite having only very little time to live during the Heresy, he's survived through the millennia by cloning and jumping bodies on a regular basis, although the flaw in his geneseed will keep on being replicated and get progressively worse. He estimates that he'll only live for another few centuries, which he'll spend finding a cure and finishing his great work.

A major part of his "great work" is to create and perfect a new human race - the imaginatively named "New Men" - who would be superior to the Astartes and reclaim the galaxy from both chaos and xenos. The closest attempt he's made thus far are known as Glandhounds - men AND women who are far stronger and more intelligent than regular humans, violently xenophobic towards anything that's not Fabius or another Glandhound, have very strong pack instincts and use them to bring down much larger prey. Like Traitor Astartes Fabius doesn't like. Unlike other examples of master-race creators in fiction, he seems entirely unconcerned about being the ruler of the new race or even being around himself when it comes about. It doesn't sound like a bad idea in itself but it goes without saying that old humanity would not be permitted to coexist with his new race. It's partly why he allows Nurgulite apothecaries to join his Consortium, as their work on viruses and plagues would allow him to clear out old humanity before letting his New Men move in, all inoculated naturally.

It's hinted that he may have had something to do with the [[Obliterators|Obliterator virus]] (aka the turn-your-body-into-a-living-cannon virus) and there are rumors that he had a hand in screwing up the [[21st Founding]] as well, although this hasn't been mentioned in canon past oblique references.

Bile isn't a fan of Chaos, mainly for its role in destroying what little cohesion the Emperor's Children had post-Heresy. He also sees its corrupting influence as running counter to his great work. He's also critical of the [[Emperor]] (beyond the usual traitor reasons) for stifling the growth of humanity as a psychic race. Fabius is [[Communism|oddly egalitarian]] for a mad scientist, complaining that the Emperor was foolish to only let geneseed work on men. Amusingly, he draws comparisons between himself and the Emperor as both are creaters of new races who often insist on worshiping them as gods. Another thing about him is that due to his attitude towards the Chaos Gods and his focus on science, he is the only known Chaos Space Marine that has kept faithful to the tenets of the [[Imperial Truth]], even though he is no longer faithful to the Imperium or the Emperor. He believes that what men call "Chaos Gods" are truly just mindless cosmic forces that are ascribed personalities by those driven insane by the Warp, and that Daemons are entities that, although seeming to be intelligent, ultimately lack self-awareness. He will even argue to daemons themselves that the gods are not real.

The sheer irony that Fabious Bile of all people is trying to save humanity from Chaos and aliens and to push humanity forward into a new state of power which would ensure mankind's survival and dominance is just...holy shit. So, doesn't that make him secretly a good guy? Just in "the ends justify the means" taken up way past eleven. More like past nine thousand with some of the nauseating stuff he's done.

He has an odd place in the very loose and volatile hierarchy of the Traitor Legions, being both incredibly unpopular (he is wanted dead by the Dark Council of the [[Word Bearers]] and Fulgrim himself, isn't exactly on good terms with Abaddon after his Horus-cloning shenanigans and portions of almost every other Traitor Legion would appreciate [[rip and tear|voicing their viewpoint on his work ethics tactfully]]) and highly in demand for his skills (his knowledge of geneseed has saved more than one Traitor Legion from going completely extinct on multiple occasions). In other words, he's the smug, insufferable old coot everyone hates, but the guy is just too damn useful and knowledgeable to be retired.

As with a lot of big characters from earlier editions, his portrayal in the fluff is pretty inconsistent, varying between cackling mad scientist, sadistic torturer for the giggles, stern extremist, goal-obsessed manipulator, and weirdly paternal visionary. One audio adaptation gives him a thetting lisp, which is bafflingly amusing when imagining a space marine, let alone one using sexual torture devices on a Primarch. Then again, he is jumping bodies a lot..

Since the introduction of the [[Primaris Marines]] he has become obsessed with getting his hands on them, so he can experiment and created his own "improved" versions of them as well as cloning Guillliman.

In recent fluff it is notable that he successfully cloned and raised Fulgrim, acquired a cache of pure [[Gene-seed]] and had a nice, constructive exchange with [[Trazyn the Infinite]]. It seemed good ole Trollzyn wanted a genuine Primarch for his collection, and that Fabius could still be a perfectly reasonable man willing to barter despite the whole 'mad scientist' thing. It probably helped that Necrons can't be [[fleshcrafting|experimented upon]] any longer, though...

==Attack of the Clones==
Bile has a hard-on for cloning technology, and has a track record for making copies of himself and others. The latest fluff reveals that he is patterning and copying his mind over to fresh bodies and has done so hundreds of times over the years. The direct implication of this is that the original Bile probably died a long time ago and that there could even be more than one Bile going around the Galaxy. It also explains why he keeps cloning himself into his own Blight ravaged body - he would be more than capable of making a far better body but then he wouldn't be certain that the new body wouldn't effect his mind and go off and do something different, contrary to his great work.

His first attempt was actually to clone [[Ferrus Manus]] since [[Fulgrim]] was feeling a bit guilty and wanted a do-over on turning his brother to chaos, though Fulgrim would keep murdering the clones because they wouldn't take the hint and change sides. Predictably, Fulgrim blamed Fabius for this, claiming a "perfect" clone would have been willing to join the Traitors.

He later stole [[Horus]]' corpse and cloned it repeatedly, an act that pushed [[Abaddon]] out of his emo loser phase into becoming the scourge of the Imperium. Really though, Abaddon was just annoyed that Fabius has like four arms. He got round to attempting to clone every other primarch as well, but all but two turned out to be a failure. Both successful one's were, to no ones great surprise, of Fulgrim and was genuinely an absolutely perfect and uncorrupted replica of the original. Lucius killed one whilst it was still an infant and Fabius himself found one he'd made centuries before on Harmony. He originally considered using that one and a batch of pre heresy uncorrupted geneseed to make a new legion to protect his New Men whilst they colonised the galaxy but when he discovered that clone Fulgrim wanted to use them as lesser, expendable soldiers for galactic conquest he offered up the clone to Trazyn the Infinite's collection in disgust. Daddy issues aren't just an Abbadon only trait, it seems...

He's currently attempting to create a Clone of the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|EMPRAH]]. Using [[Sanguinius]]' blood. Let it never be said that Chaos is nothing if not ambitious. The [[Blood Angels]] managed to kill him and get the blood back, but he had already begun developing the clone at that point. And as it turns out, they didn't kill him due to the numerous clones of himself he has secreted throughout the galaxy. Mind you, it's not just a way for him to fuck with his enemies; he still hasn't figured out how to cure the Blight and needs to shunt his mind from one clone body to another to keep it from killing him. Also, keep in mind that if he does succeed in cloning the Emperor a new body (because we all know Big.E. would hijack that for himself), it probably would end absolutely horribly for Chaos. Especially considering how things went with the Ferrus Manus clones. (Although this might be entirely intentional on Bile's part, given his hatred of Chaos.)

One of his clones appears in '''Inquisitor - Prophecy''', the Expansion DLC of [[Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr]]. It is revealed that he played a part in the creation of the "Alpha Pariah" (an artificially created Pariah with the ability to permanently destroy Daemons). He appears in an early mission with the intent of taking back the Alpha Pariah for his nefarious purposes. He is briefly fought before fleeing. He serves as the final boss of the DLC, where he briefly transform's into a Cha....Unnameable beast before he is at last slain. Notably his hated reputation amongst the Traitor Astartes is shown, as the Plague Marines he hired to defend him intend to kill him the first chance they get.

==Crunch==
On one hand, Bile has good stats and wargear: Feel No Pain through his Chirurgeon, Strength 5, a weapon that causes instant death (Rod of Torment), five attacks, and a particularly nasty poisoned weapon in the Xyclos Needler. On the other hand, his Rod of Torment does not ignore armor saves (unlike, say, the MURDER SWORD), his Xyclos Needler has really bad AP and sub-par range, and perhaps most damning of all, no Invulnerable save, unlike literally every other Chaos Character in the codex. So... Sucks, Right? Not quite. The reason Fabius Bile is taken, ironically, isn't for Bile himself; it's for his Enhanced Warriors trait, which gives a unit of Chaos Space Marines +1 Strength and Fearless. An enhanced Khornate CSM unit (Mark + Icon) rolls out 4 S6 attacks per Marine on the charge while being scoring and Fearless. While he isn't stellar in a normal CSM army (he's not a fighter nor does he enhance more than one unit of CSM), he really shines as an allied HQ — if you want a reasonably cheap CC threat for your pansy blueberries, take him and a 10-strong unit of Khornate CSM with meltaguns that can threaten massed infantry with the number of attacks, massed tanks with meltaguns/carnage combo and monstrous creatures with that Instant Death stick. Know that a Disordered Charge (aka multi-charge) denies you your Rage, so plan accordingly.
Note that he can enhance one CSM unit in your entire ARMY, so take him in an Auxiliary Detachment for your Traitor Legion, and buff one of their Legion CSM units. 20 Infiltratring S5 Fearless Alpha Legion CSM anyone?

===8th Edition===
The news of improved Astartes was just the news he needed to pop back up. He has a 3-shot needle pistol that always wounds things that aren't vehicles on a 2+, as well as his Rod of Torment which is now S:User AP-1 D3 damage (except when attacking vehicles, which it only does 1 damage to.) Though he still lacks any kind of invuln, he now automatically regenerates d3 wounds at the start of each turn, giving him a bit of staying power. And as always, he can enhance a single infantry unit; roll a dice for each model in the unit, 6s are mortal wounds. The survivors either gain +1 to Strength, Toughness, or Attacks. Keen-eyed Chaos Lords will note that this can no longer be exclusively done to Chaos Marines. Yes, you can enhance a 20-man Berzerker or Possessed squad. Have fun!

==New Miniature==
Just revealed at the GAMA expo; Fabius is getting a new, more Fabulous figure in the coming weeks. Models representing his assistant included.

{{Chaos-Marines}}
[[Category: Emperor's Children]]

Succubi

2020-03-28T03:24:54Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:5806:4C0E:6197:1075:

[[File:Darkeldarsuccubus_by_sickjoe-d71m889.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Succubus, so hot you probably didn't realize she is wearing a face and hand for a bra. <s> She isn't hot though...</s> {{BLAM|'''*BLAM*''' Heresy!}}]]

''This article is about the Dark Eldar unit. For the creatures they're named after, see [[Succubus]].''

The '''Succubus''' or '''Succubi''' (sometimes called '''Archites''', and not to be confused with ''actual'' [[Succubus|succubi]]) are the ruling elite of [[Wyches|Wych]] Cults. [[Lelith Hesperax]] is the most famous example of the Succubi. They are not to be confused with the [[Incubi]]. A Succubus is what happens when a Wych is killy enough and hawt enough to climb the brutal meritocracy of Commorragh's gladiatorial arenas. They are the most experienced, graceful, and attractive of the Wyches and are thus more likely to be treated like royalty rather than glorified strippers.
==Overview==
Traditionally each Wych Cult is ruled by three of these Succubi. In practice, only one of them has true power over the cult, while the two others are constantly trying to outdo each other in magnificent gladiator spectacles. Unlike the Archons of Dark Eldar Kabals, who settle their feuds with political manipulation and the occasional [[Asdrubael Vect|black hole in a box]], Succubi prefer straight decapitation or the twist of a poisoned blade.

Succubi are vain to the point of obsession, and with good reason. Who the hell wants to see a heavily scarred chick when most want to see ones that can make their dicks go through the roof or turn their pussies into Niagara Falls? Therefore, Succubus are the biggest bitches in a cult full of bitches. Wyches who are unfortunate enough to bear too many scars are forced to face unbeatable odds in an arena match. Sucks to be them eh?

Succubus often go in Dark Eldar raiding parties in order to hunt the most dangerous things out there. The most prized of which are the [[Autarch]] from the [[Eldar|Elfdar]] which really begs the question, why the hell are the Eldar still considered battle brothers with the Dark Eldar if the latter continues to hunt their powerful leaders for sport? Desperation perhaps? Or GeeDubs once again [[Fail|failing]] in their own [[fluff]] material.

Succubi are typically armed with wych weapons, haywire grenades and a blast pistol but can be further armed with a Venom Blade, Agoniser or an Electrocorrosive Whip, though to be honest they are quite deadly with almost all types of weaponry.

{{Template:Dark Eldar-Forces}}

Religion

2020-03-28T03:17:00Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:5806:4C0E:6197:1075: /* Examples of /tg/ connected fictional religions */

{{topquote|Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.|Martin Luther King, Jr}}

:'''Dracula''': ''I was called here by, huuuuumans, who wish to pay me tribute!''
:'''Richter Belmont''': ''Tribute?! You steal men's souls! And make them your slaves!''
:'''Dracula''': ''Perhaps the same could be said of all religions.''
::--An excerpt from the infamous exchange that also gave us "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets" in [[Castlevania#Castlevania:_Symphony_Of_The_Night_.28Castlevania_9.29|Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.]]

Because it's important to several settings and RPG systems, particularly ones that are high-profile or relevant to /tg/, we have a religion article. Let's try and keep it focused on the directly-related-to-/tg/ stuff and not descend into the pure [[skub]] that can arise in discussions of real-life religions, okay?

==Definition of Religion==
Almost since the inception of the term, scholars have failed to agree on a definition of religion. While there are some belief systems that always count as religions, some have applied the term to various things such as political ideologies, or groups when they reach a certain point. There are however two general definition systems: the sociological/functional and the phenomenological/philosophical.

The two most widely accepted are:
* "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them."
* "a comprehensive worldview or 'metaphysical moral vision' that is accepted as binding because it is held to be in itself basically true and just even if all dimensions of it cannot be either fully confirmed or refuted".

As stated before, one common element that every religion which fits the criteria has is humanity's relation to supernatural forces, as all of them have at least one [[God|god]] and/or an afterlife even where there are exceptions; Buddhism doesn't have any gods but has afterlives, and Taoism doesn't have an afterlife but does have a pantheistic concept of a god as a supernatural force.

Like other terms for heavily [[SJW|debated]] [[communism|subjects]], religion and religious have also been used as insults or Snarl Words in social and political discussions (especially from the 20th century and onwards) to ridicule groups openly promoting something the user disagrees with. This snarl creates a caricature of the group to smear them by association with the worst excesses/negative stereotypes of real-world religious people (like being too preachy, judgmental, irrational, hypocritical, or pressuring everyone to convert).

==Religion vs. Mythology==
While [[Mythology|mythologies]] aren't religions in and of themselves, every religion has a mythology. While mythologies are merely the accounts of supernatural events, religions also have several criteria such as how life should be lived, what happens to a person after death and humanity's relation to the supernatural. [[Skub|Whatever the source]], the mythology almost always predates the religion. As a result, especially since the Fantasy genre deals in supernatural beings and forces, most if not all fantasy settings have religions. Science fiction does to a lesser degree, mostly because during the Golden Age of sci-fi empiricists and secular humanists were attracted to the genre and their views often seeped into their stories. Despite this, given that most real-life societies have had religions playing a role in or since their founding, religions are still found in sci-fi.

Religions involves belief systems and practices, where an adherent can call upon the power/being the religion is focused on to give them aid in [[cleric|various]] [[Paladin|ways]], depending at the very least on the religion and the task in question. Given that religions are about people's place in the world, how it was made, ideas on how life should be lived and what happens after death, they have major implications for societies. Given that people can become [[Exarch|dangerously single-minded]] about a cause, people can be become extremists about their religion, regardless of the fact that [[Heironeous|some]] are more benevolent than [[Asmodeus|others]] and in numerous cases even [[Heresy|if it involves going against the religion's teachings]]; in conjunction with the above this means religious conflicts can become widespread, long-lasting, cause carnage and also involve other elements such as politics.

==Role in Society==
A person's belief (for or against) any or all religions is a major factor in their worldview, and as such often serves as the undercurrent for all others. This is because this belief shapes people's views on the big things such as the purpose of life, how life should be lived in relation to oneself and others and what happens to people after they die. On the upside, this often leads to teachings with the goal of unity, peace, charity and co-operation as per the teachings of most religions, some of which are adapted by or also found among non-religious systems. On the downside, this can lead to clashes over how the people involved do the will of whichever beings or forces they follow, which religion should be followed or whether or not people should follow a god or religion at all. This can involve arguments and factionalizing, or in some cases worse things like pogroms and wars. Since they are an overarching and fairly common element in cultures, they often appear or are referenced in fiction.

The most common religious belief systems are the Abrahamic family of religions (primarily Judaism, Christianity and Islam) which are Monotheistic (belief in a singular God) and share many common elements and root, with - at the time this was written - Christianity being the most followed religion globally.

Within the last few centuries, particularly due to events such as the French Revolution, there has also been a significant amount of anti-religious sentiment, with those who hold this view considering religion at best redundant and at worst destructive (beyond historical grievances with specific groups within religions, reasons for this view and whether or not those arguments have any merit, shall not be discussed here). Interestingly, numerous tyrannical regimes have tried to restrict or stamp out religions, as most religions teach at least some benevolence, and tyrants don't like being answerable to anyone. Some nations have just tried to block specific religions. Several nations have tried to get rid of religion altogether, albeit with horrifying [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Militant_Atheists results] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge_rule_of_Cambodia#Religious_communities each] time; even at best they sidegrade from one set of problems to another.

==How this impacts /tg/==
A few major ways. There are three major "modes" of /tg/ settings and related fictions:
*# The purely functional. Compared to the two types of writers found below, these writers are usually just attempting to model their work after real-world [[Mythology]] and are frequently attempting to keep their views of Religion separate from their work. Frequently comes in one of two subspecies:
*#* The [[Standard Fantasy Setting]] default: The world is ruled by an ordinary polytheistic pantheon, usually close to some admixture of Norse and Greek mythologies. Some of them also have a Top God - one more powerful than all the others and maybe the in-universe creator of everything - who is mostly hands-off in cosmic affairs. The gods of these religions tend to focus on specific areas (gods of [[Paladin|Justice]] and [[Druid|Nature]] are common, for subtly obvious reasons) and frequently want their followers to propagate or promote these things.
*#* The kind of setting they wanted to make dictated the nature of the divine. For example, in [[Exalted]] just about all the figures anybody would call a "God" (besides the Exalted) are Useless, because the Exalted (which includes the Player Characters) are supposed to be the Most Important People in the world, to go with the main theme of the setting for the PCs: "You can do '''almost anything''', except ''avoid the consequences of being the one who did that anything''".
*# There are several writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy that are of the opinion "Religion Is Bad". This is more common in Sci-Fi than fantasy because the focus on science appeals to the naturalist, empiricist and/or humanist worldview of such writers, with the supernatural being seen as an obstacle to that. Another major component is personal issues of the author such as grievance or prejudice, but that's case-by-case and a major can of worms. As a result, those writers model their fictional religions on the - occasionally exaggerated - worst excesses of real world religious people and lift imagery from those religions or groups among them. Popular targets are Christianity, Islam, any faith that practiced Human Sacrifice, and Scientology (to be honest, its usually just the first one that's targeted these days). This comes in flavors of either "The Gods Don't Exist", "The Gods are Incompetent" (more on that below) or "The Gods are Evil".
*# There are also quite a few sincerely religious Science Fiction and Fantasy writers (usually Christian, but not always). These authors usually put more thought into their fictional religion plus its central figure (although they have a tendency to go all "Crystal Dragon Jesus"), and try and have it be at least a somewhat good influence, although religious institutions and leaders are usually hit-and-miss affairs.

If a work has multiple writers, (as frequently happens with RPG and Wargame settings, and quite a few popular SciFi/Fantasy ones as well) there's a tendency for the writers to try and pull the setting into one of the other two "modes" depending on their personal views. This leads to the theme changing from one side to the other as the story progresses. A recent example is [[World of Warcraft|the spate of retcons to the cosmology of the Warcraft universe]] and the morality of its fundamental forces/dominant higher powers, the Light and the Void. If the story doesn't get focused on a pro-religion or anti-religion message, it will swing back and forth between both sides.

A somewhat special case is the "Religion of Evil"; in many settings, there is a religion that is explicitly capital E Evil and seeks one of the usual "Card Carrying Villain" goals of Control, Conquest, Corruption, or Destruction. Frequently has some admixture of the worst aspects of Roman Paganism, Norse practices, the Aztec, Scientology, H.P. Lovecraft and/or the various Abrahamic religions. If this cult directly worships an individual Evil God, expect whatever makes sense for that deity--e.g., the cult of the God of Murder demands human sacrifice on a regular basis, with a certain portion of that explicitly being not-careful-enough cultists. Regardless, Religions of Evil can show up in all three above modes, and usually has a special purpose in all three:
*# Functionalists (and, for that matter, all three) need bad guys. In particular, a group who by definition is Evil is always good for some no-need-to-worry-about-the-ethics-or-morality killing fodder.
*# Religion is Bad types tend to use them to say either "while they're all Bad, some are worse then others", or say "Religion can be used to justify anything". Occasionally a prejudiced writer also uses it as a strawman to either tar all religions with the same brush or they have an axe to grind against a specific real-life religion and/or its followers.
*# The sincerely religious tend to use them as analogies with fanaticism and/or Real World cults.
** As a side note, a lot of fantasy has moved slightly away from pure Religions of Evil, for much the same reason as [[Always Chaotic Evil]] races (audiences and authors nowdays demand more motive for their villains). While there are still plenty of them, they usually add some nuance that makes them at least morally neutral under their own lights--frequently, taking vengeance for a real or perceived wrong or injustice (which has '''plenty''' of real-life precedent).

Doing the "The Gods are Incompetent" thing (the similar but different "The Gods are Insane", "The Gods Are Assholes" and "The Gods Don't Actually Do Anything" routes also falls under this umbrella) can go into any of the three modes; in a sincere monotheist's (such as Christian) work, it can be a "Take That" to polytheistic religions; in a "Religion is Bad" atheist's, it can be one to religion in general; in a Buddhist-influenced work, it can be a part of the whole "even the Gods are tied up in the Wheel of Karma" concept; and, even if the author is not pushing any religious message in any way, there's a neutral, plot-structural reason to go "Incompetent Gods": it can make the adventurers the Most Competent People Available.

Further, note the "Religion is Bad" and "Religion is Good" brigades will be involved in arguments over the relative morality or "goodness" of various factions in the story and the accuracy of any messages a writer presents.


===Urban Fantasy===
[[Urban Fantasy]] writers are a special case, since almost all Urban Fantasy is set in something that might be called "the real world with a twist", with all the usual political trouble that implies. Usually, they take one of a few routes:
* The most common route is "there are many possible explanations" and vague things up as much as possible (Faith being the power that repels [[Vampire]]s rather than than a cross having any actual connection to a deity is a popular one).
* Another route (which is rarer outside of Cosmic Horror) is straight up [[Edgy|atheistic/"Religion is Bad"]] [[Imperial Truth|propaganda]], and in practice the writer often has an axe to grind against a specific religion (almost always the popular targets listed above).
* Some Urban Fantasy works with a clear correct religion exist thanks to the above mentioned sincerely religious authors, which are typically [[Chick Tracts|barely veiled proselytizing]] or [[Twilight|just straight up terrible]], though [[Monster Hunter International|there are some good ones]].
* Speaking of Cosmic Horror, that can also fall under the Urban Fantasy umbrella, and it blends the "Gods Don't Exist" or "Gods are Evil" route into "The Gods are actually Incomprehensible and Destructive Aliens". This also has the side effect of making it a popular choice for atheistic tracts (even Lovecraft himself was an anti-religious materialist).

==Examples of /tg/ connected fictional religions==
* The [[Imperial Truth]] was originally the Emperor's plan on beliefs, which he and his servants propagated throughout the galaxy during the Great Crusade. Attempting to wean mankind away from Chaos and being a firm member of the "Religion is Bad" brigade, the Emperor proclaimed there are no gods, and religion had to be abolished willingly or by force while science or reason are to be used for explaining the universe and morality. Everything transpired according to his design, except theistic religiosity in the 40k universe is the best weapon against Chaos so Emp's interstellar state atheism policy gave them a major opening. Things went from bad to worse when people started looking up to the Emperor as a god himself and [[Exterminatus|he responded accordingly]]. After the Horus Heresy, the Imperial Truth has largely been abandoned and been replaced by:
** The [[Imperial Cult]] is the present-day religion of the Imperium of Man, and is a mix of several Abrahamic Religions along with copious amounts of warmongering, fanaticism and xenophobia. Derived from the Lectitio Divinatus penned by [[Lorgar]] pre-HH, the Cult decrees that because the Emperor is capable of all these miracles and power: he ''must'' be a god, and why you should worship and pledge loyalty to him. Its a complete 180 from the Emperor's original teachings, and has simultaneously been responsible for damning and saving the Imperium past the clusterfuck of the Horus Heresy. It's unknown whether the Emperor still abhors godhood and religion and would abolish it the moment he could, or if he's resigned himself to becoming the very thing he fought against for mankind to persevere in these trying times. Whatever the case, he didn't want to be a god, but now he has no choice but to become one.
** The [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Cult Mechanicus]] is the religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus, placing a heavy emphasis on machines, viewing them as gifts from the [[Machine God]]. It also has a high emphasis on the collection of knowledge, and one of the Admech's roles in the galaxy is to explore remote and uncharted regions of space to find and search for knowledge that has been lost throughout the millennia. The last of these, is guidelines on machines and knowledge. Officially, heretic(tek) and xeno works are to be abhorred and disposed of, viewing them as perversions of the holy Machine Gods' works. Unofficially however, more liberally-minded and higher-ranked Magos would happily hoard heretek/xeno works, seeing their potential over the more restricted and constrained works of the Mechanicus.

* Chaos is a violent and complicated henotheistic (believing in multiple gods but only worshipping one) or polytheistic religion with dozens, if not hundreds of interpretations. Even then, there's more sub-cults that worship their particular god in a specific way, either minutely or vastly different from everyone else among followers of the Big 4. And this doesn't even get into the realm of Chaos Undivided (which worships the concept of Chaos itself, instead of the individual gods) and [[Malal]]. Chaos has very little established guidelines regarding worship, apart from their patron god's/gods' general likes/dislikes, so any religious practices or rituals are either based on commands from the god/s or up to the imagination of the cult.

* All Greenskins worship Gork and Mork (jury's out on whether the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] do), but are too disorganized to have anything like a formal religion, though they do make effigies of Gork and Mork and call on them. Religion doesn't play a significant role in Ork society compared to the other races.

* The T'au creed "The Greater Good" is a philosophy that allows religiosity as long as it doesn't clash with the Greater Good, but if there's a clash The Greater Good is always given priority over a religion. While the Greater Good allows various faiths, it itself isn't a religion. It's not given worship or sacrifice, rather its a practice that every sept world Tau participates in, similar to Confucianism, but with more 1984 vibes.

* The Eldar Pantheon's religious practices aren't fleshed out save for those of Cegorach, Isha, and Khaine, via the Harlequins and Aspect Warriors. Apart form these three, with most of their gods out of commission, Eldar religious worship is of a deistic bent and this is almost universal among Craftworlders and Exodites while Corsairs are all over the place. The new faith around Ynnead, the Ynnari, have yet to establish teachings or rituals and there are unsubstantiated rumors of Chaos Eldar. Unique among the Eldar, the Dark Eldar are irreligious for the most part, often being anti-religious to boot, except for the [[Incubi]] who hold [[Khaine]] in high regard.

* While the Necrontyr had religions before certain [[C'tan|star entities]] [[Necrons|roboticizied them]], those aren't fleshed out or detailed. Its also heavily implied the C'tan co-opted the Necrontyr religion beforehand. With the change to Necrons taking the higher though processes of most of them, any Necrons who can comprehend faith and religiosity either worship the C'tan or have become irreligious.

* The Tyranids themselves are irreligious, being spehss bugs and all, but understand at least a few of the advantages of religion. [[Genestealer]]s infect people and together they establish cults on targeted worlds, such as one worshipping "Children of the Stars", a perversion of the Imperial Cult or something else like "Celebrants of Nihilism" (yes, that's a canon Genestealer cult name). Psychic influence is often involved and, notably, the Genestealers do not consider themselves gods. Once the Tyranids arrive en-masse, the cult-gets assimilated along with all non-Tyranids willingly or not. An interesting tidbit is that the Hive Mind often overrides the Genestealers and makes them slaughter the cultists.

* Among Dungeons and Dragons settings, [[Planescape]], [[Eberron]], and [[Pathfinder]] are notable for having some coherent things that could be called "Religions", rather then the usual generic Pantheism.
** Most of Planescape's Factions effectively count as religions, to the point they can produce [[Cleric]]s ([[Planescape: Torment#Fall-From-Grace|Atheist ones at that]]). Yes, even the Athar. (Perhaps ''especially'' the Athar.)
** Half of Eberron's religions aren't worship of deities. The [[Blood of Vol]] seeks to unlock the divinity within one's self and rejects the gods (if they even exist) and the [[Path of Inspiration]] seeks to improve their next reincarnation. The Undying Court worships not gods but their undead ancestors that make up their government. The [[Path of Light]], [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Becoming_God|Becoming God]] and [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Reforged|Reforged]] all seek to ''create'' a deity. Even some interpretations of the [[Sovereign Host]], like the one most common among dragons, don't worship them as deities. Due to the way divine casting works in Eberron, all of these can produce divine casters.
** There's a handful of religions on [[Golarion]] that aren't merely worship of pantheons. The most prominent (read: Actually has mechanical support) is the [[Prophecies of Kalistrade]], which is basically fantasy [[Star Trek|Ferengi]].

* [[D20 Modern]]'s [[Urban Arcana]], unusually for urban fantasy, has D&D deities bleed into reality alongside the monsters. You are still able to play a <s>cleric</s> "acolyte" of any real world deity despite this.

* [[Star Wars]] is inconsistent on if the [[The Force]] is a religion. The Jedi and the Sith ''could'' both be considered religions as they are considered monastic, but mix in several other traits such as being meritocratic (Jedi) and kraterocratic (Sith) and Lucas himself has axed at least one prototyped book for portraying them too much as a religion. It's also notable that the Sith were former Jedi who left the Jedi path for several reasons including [[Heresy|disagreements over the teachings of that creed]]. Aside from that, religion is nearly always a non-human tradition, something noted in a culture's historical background and never seen implying its extinction, or a scam. The religiously linked "damn" and "hell" are the two real world swear words that exist in-universe, purely because Han Solo used them in the films, and some concept of an "angel" exists because a young Anakin told Padme about them in the prequel trilogy films.
** There are rare exceptions where a religion is fleshed out and explored, and the writing goes various directions for better or worse. A notable example is the aggressive polytheistic religion of the antagonistic Yuuzhan Vong from the EU (which the story gradually revealed was long ago perverted from benevolent roots, and this perverted form takes a few cues from Islam and Aztec mythology).

* Very large books could be written about religion and [[World of Darkness]]/Chronicles of Darkness. We'll just cover a few highlights:
** From [[Vampire: The Requiem]], there's the the Lancea et Sanctum, which might be best described as "Christianity for Vampires", and the Circle of the Crone, which is "Pagan Vampires". Both have Vampire miracles on tap (pun intended).
** [[Hunter: The Vigil]] has various religious organizations among the Compacts and Conspiracies.
** [[Mage: The Ascension]] has various religious Traditions, portrayed in that highly-stereotypical and highly-depending-on-the-author way typical of old WoD.

==See also==
* [[Mythology]]

[[Category:Not related]]
[[Category:History]]

Religion

2020-03-28T03:16:20Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:5806:4C0E:6197:1075: /* How this impacts /tg/ */

{{topquote|Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.|Martin Luther King, Jr}}

:'''Dracula''': ''I was called here by, huuuuumans, who wish to pay me tribute!''
:'''Richter Belmont''': ''Tribute?! You steal men's souls! And make them your slaves!''
:'''Dracula''': ''Perhaps the same could be said of all religions.''
::--An excerpt from the infamous exchange that also gave us "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets" in [[Castlevania#Castlevania:_Symphony_Of_The_Night_.28Castlevania_9.29|Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.]]

Because it's important to several settings and RPG systems, particularly ones that are high-profile or relevant to /tg/, we have a religion article. Let's try and keep it focused on the directly-related-to-/tg/ stuff and not descend into the pure [[skub]] that can arise in discussions of real-life religions, okay?

==Definition of Religion==
Almost since the inception of the term, scholars have failed to agree on a definition of religion. While there are some belief systems that always count as religions, some have applied the term to various things such as political ideologies, or groups when they reach a certain point. There are however two general definition systems: the sociological/functional and the phenomenological/philosophical.

The two most widely accepted are:
* "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them."
* "a comprehensive worldview or 'metaphysical moral vision' that is accepted as binding because it is held to be in itself basically true and just even if all dimensions of it cannot be either fully confirmed or refuted".

As stated before, one common element that every religion which fits the criteria has is humanity's relation to supernatural forces, as all of them have at least one [[God|god]] and/or an afterlife even where there are exceptions; Buddhism doesn't have any gods but has afterlives, and Taoism doesn't have an afterlife but does have a pantheistic concept of a god as a supernatural force.

Like other terms for heavily [[SJW|debated]] [[communism|subjects]], religion and religious have also been used as insults or Snarl Words in social and political discussions (especially from the 20th century and onwards) to ridicule groups openly promoting something the user disagrees with. This snarl creates a caricature of the group to smear them by association with the worst excesses/negative stereotypes of real-world religious people (like being too preachy, judgmental, irrational, hypocritical, or pressuring everyone to convert).

==Religion vs. Mythology==
While [[Mythology|mythologies]] aren't religions in and of themselves, every religion has a mythology. While mythologies are merely the accounts of supernatural events, religions also have several criteria such as how life should be lived, what happens to a person after death and humanity's relation to the supernatural. [[Skub|Whatever the source]], the mythology almost always predates the religion. As a result, especially since the Fantasy genre deals in supernatural beings and forces, most if not all fantasy settings have religions. Science fiction does to a lesser degree, mostly because during the Golden Age of sci-fi empiricists and secular humanists were attracted to the genre and their views often seeped into their stories. Despite this, given that most real-life societies have had religions playing a role in or since their founding, religions are still found in sci-fi.

Religions involves belief systems and practices, where an adherent can call upon the power/being the religion is focused on to give them aid in [[cleric|various]] [[Paladin|ways]], depending at the very least on the religion and the task in question. Given that religions are about people's place in the world, how it was made, ideas on how life should be lived and what happens after death, they have major implications for societies. Given that people can become [[Exarch|dangerously single-minded]] about a cause, people can be become extremists about their religion, regardless of the fact that [[Heironeous|some]] are more benevolent than [[Asmodeus|others]] and in numerous cases even [[Heresy|if it involves going against the religion's teachings]]; in conjunction with the above this means religious conflicts can become widespread, long-lasting, cause carnage and also involve other elements such as politics.

==Role in Society==
A person's belief (for or against) any or all religions is a major factor in their worldview, and as such often serves as the undercurrent for all others. This is because this belief shapes people's views on the big things such as the purpose of life, how life should be lived in relation to oneself and others and what happens to people after they die. On the upside, this often leads to teachings with the goal of unity, peace, charity and co-operation as per the teachings of most religions, some of which are adapted by or also found among non-religious systems. On the downside, this can lead to clashes over how the people involved do the will of whichever beings or forces they follow, which religion should be followed or whether or not people should follow a god or religion at all. This can involve arguments and factionalizing, or in some cases worse things like pogroms and wars. Since they are an overarching and fairly common element in cultures, they often appear or are referenced in fiction.

The most common religious belief systems are the Abrahamic family of religions (primarily Judaism, Christianity and Islam) which are Monotheistic (belief in a singular God) and share many common elements and root, with - at the time this was written - Christianity being the most followed religion globally.

Within the last few centuries, particularly due to events such as the French Revolution, there has also been a significant amount of anti-religious sentiment, with those who hold this view considering religion at best redundant and at worst destructive (beyond historical grievances with specific groups within religions, reasons for this view and whether or not those arguments have any merit, shall not be discussed here). Interestingly, numerous tyrannical regimes have tried to restrict or stamp out religions, as most religions teach at least some benevolence, and tyrants don't like being answerable to anyone. Some nations have just tried to block specific religions. Several nations have tried to get rid of religion altogether, albeit with horrifying [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Militant_Atheists results] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge_rule_of_Cambodia#Religious_communities each] time; even at best they sidegrade from one set of problems to another.

==How this impacts /tg/==
A few major ways. There are three major "modes" of /tg/ settings and related fictions:
*# The purely functional. Compared to the two types of writers found below, these writers are usually just attempting to model their work after real-world [[Mythology]] and are frequently attempting to keep their views of Religion separate from their work. Frequently comes in one of two subspecies:
*#* The [[Standard Fantasy Setting]] default: The world is ruled by an ordinary polytheistic pantheon, usually close to some admixture of Norse and Greek mythologies. Some of them also have a Top God - one more powerful than all the others and maybe the in-universe creator of everything - who is mostly hands-off in cosmic affairs. The gods of these religions tend to focus on specific areas (gods of [[Paladin|Justice]] and [[Druid|Nature]] are common, for subtly obvious reasons) and frequently want their followers to propagate or promote these things.
*#* The kind of setting they wanted to make dictated the nature of the divine. For example, in [[Exalted]] just about all the figures anybody would call a "God" (besides the Exalted) are Useless, because the Exalted (which includes the Player Characters) are supposed to be the Most Important People in the world, to go with the main theme of the setting for the PCs: "You can do '''almost anything''', except ''avoid the consequences of being the one who did that anything''".
*# There are several writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy that are of the opinion "Religion Is Bad". This is more common in Sci-Fi than fantasy because the focus on science appeals to the naturalist, empiricist and/or humanist worldview of such writers, with the supernatural being seen as an obstacle to that. Another major component is personal issues of the author such as grievance or prejudice, but that's case-by-case and a major can of worms. As a result, those writers model their fictional religions on the - occasionally exaggerated - worst excesses of real world religious people and lift imagery from those religions or groups among them. Popular targets are Christianity, Islam, any faith that practiced Human Sacrifice, and Scientology (to be honest, its usually just the first one that's targeted these days). This comes in flavors of either "The Gods Don't Exist", "The Gods are Incompetent" (more on that below) or "The Gods are Evil".
*# There are also quite a few sincerely religious Science Fiction and Fantasy writers (usually Christian, but not always). These authors usually put more thought into their fictional religion plus its central figure (although they have a tendency to go all "Crystal Dragon Jesus"), and try and have it be at least a somewhat good influence, although religious institutions and leaders are usually hit-and-miss affairs.

If a work has multiple writers, (as frequently happens with RPG and Wargame settings, and quite a few popular SciFi/Fantasy ones as well) there's a tendency for the writers to try and pull the setting into one of the other two "modes" depending on their personal views. This leads to the theme changing from one side to the other as the story progresses. A recent example is [[World of Warcraft|the spate of retcons to the cosmology of the Warcraft universe]] and the morality of its fundamental forces/dominant higher powers, the Light and the Void. If the story doesn't get focused on a pro-religion or anti-religion message, it will swing back and forth between both sides.

A somewhat special case is the "Religion of Evil"; in many settings, there is a religion that is explicitly capital E Evil and seeks one of the usual "Card Carrying Villain" goals of Control, Conquest, Corruption, or Destruction. Frequently has some admixture of the worst aspects of Roman Paganism, Norse practices, the Aztec, Scientology, H.P. Lovecraft and/or the various Abrahamic religions. If this cult directly worships an individual Evil God, expect whatever makes sense for that deity--e.g., the cult of the God of Murder demands human sacrifice on a regular basis, with a certain portion of that explicitly being not-careful-enough cultists. Regardless, Religions of Evil can show up in all three above modes, and usually has a special purpose in all three:
*# Functionalists (and, for that matter, all three) need bad guys. In particular, a group who by definition is Evil is always good for some no-need-to-worry-about-the-ethics-or-morality killing fodder.
*# Religion is Bad types tend to use them to say either "while they're all Bad, some are worse then others", or say "Religion can be used to justify anything". Occasionally a prejudiced writer also uses it as a strawman to either tar all religions with the same brush or they have an axe to grind against a specific real-life religion and/or its followers.
*# The sincerely religious tend to use them as analogies with fanaticism and/or Real World cults.
** As a side note, a lot of fantasy has moved slightly away from pure Religions of Evil, for much the same reason as [[Always Chaotic Evil]] races (audiences and authors nowdays demand more motive for their villains). While there are still plenty of them, they usually add some nuance that makes them at least morally neutral under their own lights--frequently, taking vengeance for a real or perceived wrong or injustice (which has '''plenty''' of real-life precedent).

Doing the "The Gods are Incompetent" thing (the similar but different "The Gods are Insane", "The Gods Are Assholes" and "The Gods Don't Actually Do Anything" routes also falls under this umbrella) can go into any of the three modes; in a sincere monotheist's (such as Christian) work, it can be a "Take That" to polytheistic religions; in a "Religion is Bad" atheist's, it can be one to religion in general; in a Buddhist-influenced work, it can be a part of the whole "even the Gods are tied up in the Wheel of Karma" concept; and, even if the author is not pushing any religious message in any way, there's a neutral, plot-structural reason to go "Incompetent Gods": it can make the adventurers the Most Competent People Available.

Further, note the "Religion is Bad" and "Religion is Good" brigades will be involved in arguments over the relative morality or "goodness" of various factions in the story and the accuracy of any messages a writer presents.


===Urban Fantasy===
[[Urban Fantasy]] writers are a special case, since almost all Urban Fantasy is set in something that might be called "the real world with a twist", with all the usual political trouble that implies. Usually, they take one of a few routes:
* The most common route is "there are many possible explanations" and vague things up as much as possible (Faith being the power that repels [[Vampire]]s rather than than a cross having any actual connection to a deity is a popular one).
* Another route (which is rarer outside of Cosmic Horror) is straight up [[Edgy|atheistic/"Religion is Bad"]] [[Imperial Truth|propaganda]], and in practice the writer often has an axe to grind against a specific religion (almost always the popular targets listed above).
* Some Urban Fantasy works with a clear correct religion exist thanks to the above mentioned sincerely religious authors, which are typically [[Chick Tracts|barely veiled proselytizing]] or [[Twilight|just straight up terrible]], though [[Monster Hunter International|there are some good ones]].
* Speaking of Cosmic Horror, that can also fall under the Urban Fantasy umbrella, and it blends the "Gods Don't Exist" or "Gods are Evil" route into "The Gods are actually Incomprehensible and Destructive Aliens". This also has the side effect of making it a popular choice for atheistic tracts (even Lovecraft himself was an anti-religious materialist).

==Examples of /tg/ connected fictional religions==
* The [[Imperial Truth]] was originally the Emperor's plan on beliefs, which he and his servants propagated throughout the galaxy during the Great Crusade. Attempting to wean mankind away from Chaos and being a firm member of the "Religion is Bad" brigade, the Emperor proclaimed there are no gods, and religion had to be abolished willingly or by force while science or reason are to be used for explaining the universe and morality. Everything transpired according to his design, except religiosity in the 40k universe is the best weapon against Chaos so Emp's interstellar state atheism policy gave them a major opening. Things went from bad to worse when people started looking up to the Emperor as a god himself and [[Exterminatus|he responded accordingly]]. After the Horus Heresy, the Imperial Truth has largely been abandoned and been replaced by:
** The [[Imperial Cult]] is the present-day religion of the Imperium of Man, and is a mix of several Abrahamic Religions along with copious amounts of warmongering, fanaticism and xenophobia. Derived from the Lectitio Divinatus penned by [[Lorgar]] pre-HH, the Cult decrees that because the Emperor is capable of all these miracles and power: he ''must'' be a god, and why you should worship and pledge loyalty to him. Its a complete 180 from the Emperor's original teachings, and has simultaneously been responsible for damning and saving the Imperium past the clusterfuck of the Horus Heresy. It's unknown whether the Emperor still abhors godhood and religion and would abolish it the moment he could, or if he's resigned himself to becoming the very thing he fought against for mankind to persevere in these trying times. Whatever the case, he didn't want to be a god, but now he has no choice but to become one.
** The [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Cult Mechanicus]] is the religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus, placing a heavy emphasis on machines, viewing them as gifts from the [[Machine God]]. It also has a high emphasis on the collection of knowledge, and one of the Admech's roles in the galaxy is to explore remote and uncharted regions of space to find and search for knowledge that has been lost throughout the millennia. The last of these, is guidelines on machines and knowledge. Officially, heretic(tek) and xeno works are to be abhorred and disposed of, viewing them as perversions of the holy Machine Gods' works. Unofficially however, more liberally-minded and higher-ranked Magos would happily hoard heretek/xeno works, seeing their potential over the more restricted and constrained works of the Mechanicus.

* Chaos is a violent and complicated henotheistic (believing in multiple gods but only worshipping one) or polytheistic religion with dozens, if not hundreds of interpretations. Even then, there's more sub-cults that worship their particular god in a specific way, either minutely or vastly different from everyone else among followers of the Big 4. And this doesn't even get into the realm of Chaos Undivided (which worships the concept of Chaos itself, instead of the individual gods) and [[Malal]]. Chaos has very little established guidelines regarding worship, apart from their patron god's/gods' general likes/dislikes, so any religious practices or rituals are either based on commands from the god/s or up to the imagination of the cult.

* All Greenskins worship Gork and Mork (jury's out on whether the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] do), but are too disorganized to have anything like a formal religion, though they do make effigies of Gork and Mork and call on them. Religion doesn't play a significant role in Ork society compared to the other races.

* The T'au creed "The Greater Good" is a philosophy that allows religiosity as long as it doesn't clash with the Greater Good, but if there's a clash The Greater Good is always given priority over a religion. While the Greater Good allows various faiths, it itself isn't a religion. It's not given worship or sacrifice, rather its a practice that every sept world Tau participates in, similar to Confucianism, but with more 1984 vibes.

* The Eldar Pantheon's religious practices aren't fleshed out save for those of Cegorach, Isha, and Khaine, via the Harlequins and Aspect Warriors. Apart form these three, with most of their gods out of commission, Eldar religious worship is of a deistic bent and this is almost universal among Craftworlders and Exodites while Corsairs are all over the place. The new faith around Ynnead, the Ynnari, have yet to establish teachings or rituals and there are unsubstantiated rumors of Chaos Eldar. Unique among the Eldar, the Dark Eldar are irreligious for the most part, often being anti-religious to boot, except for the [[Incubi]] who hold [[Khaine]] in high regard.

* While the Necrontyr had religions before certain [[C'tan|star entities]] [[Necrons|roboticizied them]], those aren't fleshed out or detailed. Its also heavily implied the C'tan co-opted the Necrontyr religion beforehand. With the change to Necrons taking the higher though processes of most of them, any Necrons who can comprehend faith and religiosity either worship the C'tan or have become irreligious.

* The Tyranids themselves are irreligious, being spehss bugs and all, but understand at least a few of the advantages of religion. [[Genestealer]]s infect people and together they establish cults on targeted worlds, such as one worshipping "Children of the Stars", a perversion of the Imperial Cult or something else like "Celebrants of Nihilism" (yes, that's a canon Genestealer cult name). Psychic influence is often involved and, notably, the Genestealers do not consider themselves gods. Once the Tyranids arrive en-masse, the cult-gets assimilated along with all non-Tyranids willingly or not. An interesting tidbit is that the Hive Mind often overrides the Genestealers and makes them slaughter the cultists.

* Among Dungeons and Dragons settings, [[Planescape]], [[Eberron]], and [[Pathfinder]] are notable for having some coherent things that could be called "Religions", rather then the usual generic Pantheism.
** Most of Planescape's Factions effectively count as religions, to the point they can produce [[Cleric]]s ([[Planescape: Torment#Fall-From-Grace|Atheist ones at that]]). Yes, even the Athar. (Perhaps ''especially'' the Athar.)
** Half of Eberron's religions aren't worship of deities. The [[Blood of Vol]] seeks to unlock the divinity within one's self and rejects the gods (if they even exist) and the [[Path of Inspiration]] seeks to improve their next reincarnation. The Undying Court worships not gods but their undead ancestors that make up their government. The [[Path of Light]], [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Becoming_God|Becoming God]] and [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Reforged|Reforged]] all seek to ''create'' a deity. Even some interpretations of the [[Sovereign Host]], like the one most common among dragons, don't worship them as deities. Due to the way divine casting works in Eberron, all of these can produce divine casters.
** There's a handful of religions on [[Golarion]] that aren't merely worship of pantheons. The most prominent (read: Actually has mechanical support) is the [[Prophecies of Kalistrade]], which is basically fantasy [[Star Trek|Ferengi]].

* [[D20 Modern]]'s [[Urban Arcana]], unusually for urban fantasy, has D&D deities bleed into reality alongside the monsters. You are still able to play a <s>cleric</s> "acolyte" of any real world deity despite this.

* [[Star Wars]] is inconsistent on if the [[The Force]] is a religion. The Jedi and the Sith ''could'' both be considered religions as they are considered monastic, but mix in several other traits such as being meritocratic (Jedi) and kraterocratic (Sith) and Lucas himself has axed at least one prototyped book for portraying them too much as a religion. It's also notable that the Sith were former Jedi who left the Jedi path for several reasons including [[Heresy|disagreements over the teachings of that creed]]. Aside from that, religion is nearly always a non-human tradition, something noted in a culture's historical background and never seen implying its extinction, or a scam. The religiously linked "damn" and "hell" are the two real world swear words that exist in-universe, purely because Han Solo used them in the films, and some concept of an "angel" exists because a young Anakin told Padme about them in the prequel trilogy films.
** There are rare exceptions where a religion is fleshed out and explored, and the writing goes various directions for better or worse. A notable example is the aggressive polytheistic religion of the antagonistic Yuuzhan Vong from the EU (which the story gradually revealed was long ago perverted from benevolent roots, and this perverted form takes a few cues from Islam and Aztec mythology).

* Very large books could be written about religion and [[World of Darkness]]/Chronicles of Darkness. We'll just cover a few highlights:
** From [[Vampire: The Requiem]], there's the the Lancea et Sanctum, which might be best described as "Christianity for Vampires", and the Circle of the Crone, which is "Pagan Vampires". Both have Vampire miracles on tap (pun intended).
** [[Hunter: The Vigil]] has various religious organizations among the Compacts and Conspiracies.
** [[Mage: The Ascension]] has various religious Traditions, portrayed in that highly-stereotypical and highly-depending-on-the-author way typical of old WoD.

==See also==
* [[Mythology]]

[[Category:Not related]]
[[Category:History]]

Religion

2020-03-28T03:14:53Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:5806:4C0E:6197:1075: /* How this impacts /tg/ */

{{topquote|Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.|Martin Luther King, Jr}}

:'''Dracula''': ''I was called here by, huuuuumans, who wish to pay me tribute!''
:'''Richter Belmont''': ''Tribute?! You steal men's souls! And make them your slaves!''
:'''Dracula''': ''Perhaps the same could be said of all religions.''
::--An excerpt from the infamous exchange that also gave us "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets" in [[Castlevania#Castlevania:_Symphony_Of_The_Night_.28Castlevania_9.29|Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.]]

Because it's important to several settings and RPG systems, particularly ones that are high-profile or relevant to /tg/, we have a religion article. Let's try and keep it focused on the directly-related-to-/tg/ stuff and not descend into the pure [[skub]] that can arise in discussions of real-life religions, okay?

==Definition of Religion==
Almost since the inception of the term, scholars have failed to agree on a definition of religion. While there are some belief systems that always count as religions, some have applied the term to various things such as political ideologies, or groups when they reach a certain point. There are however two general definition systems: the sociological/functional and the phenomenological/philosophical.

The two most widely accepted are:
* "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them."
* "a comprehensive worldview or 'metaphysical moral vision' that is accepted as binding because it is held to be in itself basically true and just even if all dimensions of it cannot be either fully confirmed or refuted".

As stated before, one common element that every religion which fits the criteria has is humanity's relation to supernatural forces, as all of them have at least one [[God|god]] and/or an afterlife even where there are exceptions; Buddhism doesn't have any gods but has afterlives, and Taoism doesn't have an afterlife but does have a pantheistic concept of a god as a supernatural force.

Like other terms for heavily [[SJW|debated]] [[communism|subjects]], religion and religious have also been used as insults or Snarl Words in social and political discussions (especially from the 20th century and onwards) to ridicule groups openly promoting something the user disagrees with. This snarl creates a caricature of the group to smear them by association with the worst excesses/negative stereotypes of real-world religious people (like being too preachy, judgmental, irrational, hypocritical, or pressuring everyone to convert).

==Religion vs. Mythology==
While [[Mythology|mythologies]] aren't religions in and of themselves, every religion has a mythology. While mythologies are merely the accounts of supernatural events, religions also have several criteria such as how life should be lived, what happens to a person after death and humanity's relation to the supernatural. [[Skub|Whatever the source]], the mythology almost always predates the religion. As a result, especially since the Fantasy genre deals in supernatural beings and forces, most if not all fantasy settings have religions. Science fiction does to a lesser degree, mostly because during the Golden Age of sci-fi empiricists and secular humanists were attracted to the genre and their views often seeped into their stories. Despite this, given that most real-life societies have had religions playing a role in or since their founding, religions are still found in sci-fi.

Religions involves belief systems and practices, where an adherent can call upon the power/being the religion is focused on to give them aid in [[cleric|various]] [[Paladin|ways]], depending at the very least on the religion and the task in question. Given that religions are about people's place in the world, how it was made, ideas on how life should be lived and what happens after death, they have major implications for societies. Given that people can become [[Exarch|dangerously single-minded]] about a cause, people can be become extremists about their religion, regardless of the fact that [[Heironeous|some]] are more benevolent than [[Asmodeus|others]] and in numerous cases even [[Heresy|if it involves going against the religion's teachings]]; in conjunction with the above this means religious conflicts can become widespread, long-lasting, cause carnage and also involve other elements such as politics.

==Role in Society==
A person's belief (for or against) any or all religions is a major factor in their worldview, and as such often serves as the undercurrent for all others. This is because this belief shapes people's views on the big things such as the purpose of life, how life should be lived in relation to oneself and others and what happens to people after they die. On the upside, this often leads to teachings with the goal of unity, peace, charity and co-operation as per the teachings of most religions, some of which are adapted by or also found among non-religious systems. On the downside, this can lead to clashes over how the people involved do the will of whichever beings or forces they follow, which religion should be followed or whether or not people should follow a god or religion at all. This can involve arguments and factionalizing, or in some cases worse things like pogroms and wars. Since they are an overarching and fairly common element in cultures, they often appear or are referenced in fiction.

The most common religious belief systems are the Abrahamic family of religions (primarily Judaism, Christianity and Islam) which are Monotheistic (belief in a singular God) and share many common elements and root, with - at the time this was written - Christianity being the most followed religion globally.

Within the last few centuries, particularly due to events such as the French Revolution, there has also been a significant amount of anti-religious sentiment, with those who hold this view considering religion at best redundant and at worst destructive (beyond historical grievances with specific groups within religions, reasons for this view and whether or not those arguments have any merit, shall not be discussed here). Interestingly, numerous tyrannical regimes have tried to restrict or stamp out religions, as most religions teach at least some benevolence, and tyrants don't like being answerable to anyone. Some nations have just tried to block specific religions. Several nations have tried to get rid of religion altogether, albeit with horrifying [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Militant_Atheists results] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge_rule_of_Cambodia#Religious_communities each] time; even at best they sidegrade from one set of problems to another.

==How this impacts /tg/==
A few major ways. There are three major "modes" of /tg/ settings and related fictions:
*# The purely functional. Compared to the two types of writers found below, these writers are usually just attempting to model their work after real-world [[Mythology]] and are frequently attempting to keep their views of Religion separate from their work. Frequently comes in one of two subspecies:
*#* The [[Standard Fantasy Setting]] default: The world is ruled by an ordinary polytheistic pantheon, usually close to some admixture of Norse and Greek mythologies. Some of them also have a Top God - one more powerful than all the others and maybe the in-universe creator of everything - who is mostly hands-off in cosmic affairs. The gods of these religions tend to focus on specific areas (gods of [[Paladin|Justice]] and [[Druid|Nature]] are common, for subtly obvious reasons) and frequently want their followers to propagate or promote these things.
*#* The kind of setting they wanted to make dictated the nature of the divine. For example, in [[Exalted]] just about all the figures anybody would call a "God" (besides the Exalted) are Useless, because the Exalted (which includes the Player Characters) are supposed to be the Most Important People in the world, to go with the main theme of the setting for the PCs: "You can do '''almost anything''', except ''avoid the consequences of being the one who did that anything''".
*# There are several writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy that are of the opinion "Religion Is Bad". This is more common in Sci-Fi than fantasy because the focus on science appeals to the naturalist, empiricist and/or humanist worldview of such writers, with the supernatural being seen as an obstacle to that. Another major component is personal issues of the author such as grievance or prejudice, but that's case-by-case and a major can of worms. As a result, those writers model their fictional religions on the - occasionally exaggerated - worst excesses of real world religious people and lift imagery from those religions or groups among them. Popular targets are Christianity, Islam, any faith that practiced Human Sacrifice, and Scientology (to be honest, its usually just the first one that's targeted these days). This comes in flavors of either "The Gods Don't Exist", "The Gods are Incompetent" (more on that below) or "The Gods are Evil".
*# There are also quite a few sincerely religious Science Fiction and Fantasy writers (usually Christian, but not always). These authors usually put more thought into their fictional religion plus its central figure (although they have a tendency to go all "Crystal Dragon Jesus"), and try and have it be at least a somewhat good influence, although religious institutions and leaders are usually hit-and-miss affairs.

* If a work has multiple writers, (as frequently happens with RPG and Wargame settings, and quite a few popular SciFi/Fantasy ones as well) there's a tendency for the writers to try and pull the setting into one of the other two "modes" depending on their personal views. This leads to the theme changing from one side to the other as the story progresses. A recent example is [[World of Warcraft|the spate of retcons to the cosmology of the Warcraft universe]] and the morality of its fundamental forces/dominant higher powers, the Light and the Void. If the story doesn't get focused on a pro-religion or anti-religion message, it will swing back and forth between both sides.

* A somewhat special case is the "Religion of Evil"; in many settings, there is a religion that is explicitly capital E Evil and seeks one of the usual "Card Carrying Villain" goals of Control, Conquest, Corruption, or Destruction. Frequently has some admixture of the worst aspects of Roman Paganism, Norse practices, the Aztec, Scientology, H.P. Lovecraft and/or the various Abrahamic religions. If this cult directly worships an individual Evil God, expect whatever makes sense for that deity--e.g., the cult of the God of Murder demands human sacrifice on a regular basis, with a certain portion of that explicitly being not-careful-enough cultists. Regardless, Religions of Evil can show up in all three above modes, and usually has a special purpose in all three:
*# Functionalists (and, for that matter, all three) need bad guys. In particular, a group who by definition is Evil is always good for some no-need-to-worry-about-the-ethics-or-morality killing fodder.
*# Religion is Bad types tend to use them to say either "while they're all Bad, some are worse then others", or say "Religion can be used to justify anything". Occasionally a prejudiced writer also uses it as a strawman to either tar all religions with the same brush or they have an axe to grind against a specific real-life religion and/or its followers.
*# The sincerely religious tend to use them as analogies with fanaticism and/or Real World cults.
** As a side note, a lot of fantasy has moved slightly away from pure Religions of Evil, for much the same reason as [[Always Chaotic Evil]] races (audiences and authors nowdays demand more motive for their villains). While there are still plenty of them, they usually add some nuance that makes them at least morally neutral under their own lights--frequently, taking vengeance for a real or perceived wrong or injustice (which has '''plenty''' of real-life precedent).

* Doing the "The Gods are Incompetent" thing (the similar but different "The Gods are Insane", "The Gods Are Assholes" and "The Gods Don't Actually Do Anything" routes also falls under this umbrella) can go into any of the three modes; in a sincere monotheist's (such as Christian) work, it can be a "Take That" to polytheistic religions; in a "Religion is Bad" atheist's, it can be one to religion in general; in a Buddhist-influenced work, it can be a part of the whole "even the Gods are tied up in the Wheel of Karma" concept; and, even if the author is not pushing any religious message in any way, there's a neutral, plot-structural reason to go "Incompetent Gods": it can make the adventurers the Most Competent People Available.

* Further, note the "Religion is Bad" and "Religion is Good" brigades will be involved in arguments over the relative morality or "goodness" of various factions in the story and the accuracy of any messages a writer presents.


===Urban Fantasy===
[[Urban Fantasy]] writers are a special case, since almost all Urban Fantasy is set in something that might be called "the real world with a twist", with all the usual political trouble that implies. Usually, they take one of a few routes:
* The most common route is "there are many possible explanations" and vague things up as much as possible (Faith being the power that repels [[Vampire]]s rather than than a cross having any actual connection to a deity is a popular one).
* Another route (which is rarer outside of Cosmic Horror) is straight up [[Edgy|atheistic/"Religion is Bad"]] [[Imperial Truth|propaganda]], and in practice the writer often has an axe to grind against a specific religion (almost always the popular targets listed above).
* Some Urban Fantasy works with a clear correct religion exist thanks to the above mentioned sincerely religious authors, which are typically [[Chick Tracts|barely veiled proselytizing]] or [[Twilight|just straight up terrible]], though [[Monster Hunter International|there are some good ones]].
* Speaking of Cosmic Horror, that can also fall under the Urban Fantasy umbrella, and it blends the "Gods Don't Exist" or "Gods are Evil" route into "The Gods are actually Incomprehensible and Destructive Aliens". This also has the side effect of making it a popular choice for atheistic tracts (even Lovecraft himself was an anti-religious materialist).

==Examples of /tg/ connected fictional religions==
* The [[Imperial Truth]] was originally the Emperor's plan on beliefs, which he and his servants propagated throughout the galaxy during the Great Crusade. Attempting to wean mankind away from Chaos and being a firm member of the "Religion is Bad" brigade, the Emperor proclaimed there are no gods, and religion had to be abolished willingly or by force while science or reason are to be used for explaining the universe and morality. Everything transpired according to his design, except religiosity in the 40k universe is the best weapon against Chaos so Emp's interstellar state atheism policy gave them a major opening. Things went from bad to worse when people started looking up to the Emperor as a god himself and [[Exterminatus|he responded accordingly]]. After the Horus Heresy, the Imperial Truth has largely been abandoned and been replaced by:
** The [[Imperial Cult]] is the present-day religion of the Imperium of Man, and is a mix of several Abrahamic Religions along with copious amounts of warmongering, fanaticism and xenophobia. Derived from the Lectitio Divinatus penned by [[Lorgar]] pre-HH, the Cult decrees that because the Emperor is capable of all these miracles and power: he ''must'' be a god, and why you should worship and pledge loyalty to him. Its a complete 180 from the Emperor's original teachings, and has simultaneously been responsible for damning and saving the Imperium past the clusterfuck of the Horus Heresy. It's unknown whether the Emperor still abhors godhood and religion and would abolish it the moment he could, or if he's resigned himself to becoming the very thing he fought against for mankind to persevere in these trying times. Whatever the case, he didn't want to be a god, but now he has no choice but to become one.
** The [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Cult Mechanicus]] is the religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus, placing a heavy emphasis on machines, viewing them as gifts from the [[Machine God]]. It also has a high emphasis on the collection of knowledge, and one of the Admech's roles in the galaxy is to explore remote and uncharted regions of space to find and search for knowledge that has been lost throughout the millennia. The last of these, is guidelines on machines and knowledge. Officially, heretic(tek) and xeno works are to be abhorred and disposed of, viewing them as perversions of the holy Machine Gods' works. Unofficially however, more liberally-minded and higher-ranked Magos would happily hoard heretek/xeno works, seeing their potential over the more restricted and constrained works of the Mechanicus.

* Chaos is a violent and complicated henotheistic (believing in multiple gods but only worshipping one) or polytheistic religion with dozens, if not hundreds of interpretations. Even then, there's more sub-cults that worship their particular god in a specific way, either minutely or vastly different from everyone else among followers of the Big 4. And this doesn't even get into the realm of Chaos Undivided (which worships the concept of Chaos itself, instead of the individual gods) and [[Malal]]. Chaos has very little established guidelines regarding worship, apart from their patron god's/gods' general likes/dislikes, so any religious practices or rituals are either based on commands from the god/s or up to the imagination of the cult.

* All Greenskins worship Gork and Mork (jury's out on whether the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] do), but are too disorganized to have anything like a formal religion, though they do make effigies of Gork and Mork and call on them. Religion doesn't play a significant role in Ork society compared to the other races.

* The T'au creed "The Greater Good" is a philosophy that allows religiosity as long as it doesn't clash with the Greater Good, but if there's a clash The Greater Good is always given priority over a religion. While the Greater Good allows various faiths, it itself isn't a religion. It's not given worship or sacrifice, rather its a practice that every sept world Tau participates in, similar to Confucianism, but with more 1984 vibes.

* The Eldar Pantheon's religious practices aren't fleshed out save for those of Cegorach, Isha, and Khaine, via the Harlequins and Aspect Warriors. Apart form these three, with most of their gods out of commission, Eldar religious worship is of a deistic bent and this is almost universal among Craftworlders and Exodites while Corsairs are all over the place. The new faith around Ynnead, the Ynnari, have yet to establish teachings or rituals and there are unsubstantiated rumors of Chaos Eldar. Unique among the Eldar, the Dark Eldar are irreligious for the most part, often being anti-religious to boot, except for the [[Incubi]] who hold [[Khaine]] in high regard.

* While the Necrontyr had religions before certain [[C'tan|star entities]] [[Necrons|roboticizied them]], those aren't fleshed out or detailed. Its also heavily implied the C'tan co-opted the Necrontyr religion beforehand. With the change to Necrons taking the higher though processes of most of them, any Necrons who can comprehend faith and religiosity either worship the C'tan or have become irreligious.

* The Tyranids themselves are irreligious, being spehss bugs and all, but understand at least a few of the advantages of religion. [[Genestealer]]s infect people and together they establish cults on targeted worlds, such as one worshipping "Children of the Stars", a perversion of the Imperial Cult or something else like "Celebrants of Nihilism" (yes, that's a canon Genestealer cult name). Psychic influence is often involved and, notably, the Genestealers do not consider themselves gods. Once the Tyranids arrive en-masse, the cult-gets assimilated along with all non-Tyranids willingly or not. An interesting tidbit is that the Hive Mind often overrides the Genestealers and makes them slaughter the cultists.

* Among Dungeons and Dragons settings, [[Planescape]], [[Eberron]], and [[Pathfinder]] are notable for having some coherent things that could be called "Religions", rather then the usual generic Pantheism.
** Most of Planescape's Factions effectively count as religions, to the point they can produce [[Cleric]]s ([[Planescape: Torment#Fall-From-Grace|Atheist ones at that]]). Yes, even the Athar. (Perhaps ''especially'' the Athar.)
** Half of Eberron's religions aren't worship of deities. The [[Blood of Vol]] seeks to unlock the divinity within one's self and rejects the gods (if they even exist) and the [[Path of Inspiration]] seeks to improve their next reincarnation. The Undying Court worships not gods but their undead ancestors that make up their government. The [[Path of Light]], [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Becoming_God|Becoming God]] and [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Reforged|Reforged]] all seek to ''create'' a deity. Even some interpretations of the [[Sovereign Host]], like the one most common among dragons, don't worship them as deities. Due to the way divine casting works in Eberron, all of these can produce divine casters.
** There's a handful of religions on [[Golarion]] that aren't merely worship of pantheons. The most prominent (read: Actually has mechanical support) is the [[Prophecies of Kalistrade]], which is basically fantasy [[Star Trek|Ferengi]].

* [[D20 Modern]]'s [[Urban Arcana]], unusually for urban fantasy, has D&D deities bleed into reality alongside the monsters. You are still able to play a <s>cleric</s> "acolyte" of any real world deity despite this.

* [[Star Wars]] is inconsistent on if the [[The Force]] is a religion. The Jedi and the Sith ''could'' both be considered religions as they are considered monastic, but mix in several other traits such as being meritocratic (Jedi) and kraterocratic (Sith) and Lucas himself has axed at least one prototyped book for portraying them too much as a religion. It's also notable that the Sith were former Jedi who left the Jedi path for several reasons including [[Heresy|disagreements over the teachings of that creed]]. Aside from that, religion is nearly always a non-human tradition, something noted in a culture's historical background and never seen implying its extinction, or a scam. The religiously linked "damn" and "hell" are the two real world swear words that exist in-universe, purely because Han Solo used them in the films, and some concept of an "angel" exists because a young Anakin told Padme about them in the prequel trilogy films.
** There are rare exceptions where a religion is fleshed out and explored, and the writing goes various directions for better or worse. A notable example is the aggressive polytheistic religion of the antagonistic Yuuzhan Vong from the EU (which the story gradually revealed was long ago perverted from benevolent roots, and this perverted form takes a few cues from Islam and Aztec mythology).

* Very large books could be written about religion and [[World of Darkness]]/Chronicles of Darkness. We'll just cover a few highlights:
** From [[Vampire: The Requiem]], there's the the Lancea et Sanctum, which might be best described as "Christianity for Vampires", and the Circle of the Crone, which is "Pagan Vampires". Both have Vampire miracles on tap (pun intended).
** [[Hunter: The Vigil]] has various religious organizations among the Compacts and Conspiracies.
** [[Mage: The Ascension]] has various religious Traditions, portrayed in that highly-stereotypical and highly-depending-on-the-author way typical of old WoD.

==See also==
* [[Mythology]]

[[Category:Not related]]
[[Category:History]]