These are the Ruinous Powers, and each one is a reflection of the mortal passions that formed them.ДЇirst amongst them is Khorne, the Lord of Battle, possessed of towering and immortal fury. The Chaos Gods were born - vast psychic presences composed of the fantasies and horrors of mortals. Since the dawn of time, these tides and waves of psychic energy have flowed unceasingly through the mirror realm of the Warp, and such is their power that they forged creatures made of the very stuff of dreams and nightmares.ДЄ map of the Realm of Chaos note the positions and distances between the places on this map are only allegorical distance and time have no meanings in the Immaterium.Д®ventually, these instinctual, formless entities gained a rudimentary consciousness of their own. They form streams and eddies of anguish and desire, pools of hatred and torrents of pride. In the Warp, the psychic reflection of similar thoughts and emotions gather together like rivulets of water running down a cliff face. The least of the minor Chaos Gods may be so limited in their power that expending that power to create a Daemon means their entire power is expended in effect, the god becomes a Daemon.

These Daemons may be reabsorbed into the god at their whim. The Chaos Gods are able to devote a fraction of their psychic power in the Warp to create Daemons, psychic entities whose appearance and character reflect their patron god's own nature. The Chaos Gods and the forces of Chaos that serve them are the greatest enemies of the Imperium of Man, the Aeldari and most other sentient forms of life in the Milky Way Galaxy, even if they are not fully aware yet of the threat Chaos poses, like the T'au Empire. However, if they were to win such a dark victory, it would likely destroy all of reality when the dimensional separation between realspace and the Immaterium broke down in its wake. As a result, the Chaos Gods strive to convert all mortals to their worship and service so that they may ultimately dominate the universe. The Chaos Gods are dependent upon the emotions of mortal creatures, especially the hordes of Humanity, for their power and continued existence.

Although they are god-like beings, the Dark Gods are by their nature monomaniacal and completely single-minded since they are formed entirely of a single emotion or concept. The most powerful and most malevolent of these have become the Gods of Chaos. When an emotion or belief in realspace grows strong or widespread enough across the galaxy, it becomes embodied as one of the sentient denizens of the Warp. These Warp entities are created and sustained by the emotions and collective desires of every sentient being of the material universe. The Chaos Gods are in truth not really divine beings, though their great power often means there is little difference for those mortals who revere them. The Chaos Gods, also called the Dark Gods or the Ruinous Powers, are powerful, self-aware entities comprised solely of psychic energy who inhabit and control the psychic dimension that underlies all physical reality known as the Immaterium or the ' Warp.'

Warhammer books about chaos