Liber Chaotica Complete: Volumes one to five (Warhammer S.)

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But though His soul had been freed from its silver prison, Khorne had not the strength to strike a counter blow against exultant Slaanesh, and so the Pleasure God was left to reap the souls of His mortal creators and set His Throne alongside those of His brothers. It also further solidifies a link that was thought to have been long abandoned, as he starts to see increasingly less vague visions of (what looks very much like) the Horus Heresy. It explores and outlines how the very nature of Chaos has a grip on varied societies across the Old World and other regions, but it also goes further. It also helps to evoke a far more alien and genuinely disturbing element to Chaos that the faction sometimes lacks due to overexposure. Packed with beautiful illustrations and superbly presented in the form of the mad rantings of a scribe driven insane by his task, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. If you have a taste for endlessly reading up on religion/mythology and want to see someone do that in a fantasy setting, I'd probably recommend this text, because it definitely caught my eye when I was a teenager. Liber Chaotica delves headlong into both the lesser known elements of Chaos and the symbolism behind it. The only reason I resisted in giving 5 stars is simply because I remember fondly the art of the Realms books, which at times has been duplicated here. From whenever 'then' was, until wherever 'now' is, the gods have continued their unending dance, twirling each other through the minds and souls of mortals.The Book has five volumes, the first four coinciding with one of the major Dark Gods of Chaos, and the fifth concerning Chaos Undivided. Most were excellently written, but the one which seems prized above almost all of them was the Liber Chaotica. Saying more would sadly end up spoiling the book but, even when Liber Chaotica does cover obvious points, it still goes into great detail over them.

The books are presented in the form of the fictional writings of Richter Kless, a character of the Warhammer world. There were even eras of the game where the Witch Elves, Khaine's worshippers, blatantly wore Khornate icons. From the cold north, barbarian hordes sweep down to consume all in their path; beastmen stalk the forests; mutants live among men, spreading their corruption and foulness. For Khorne is discipline, hardness, suffering and rage, while Slaanesh is indulgence, beauty, ecstasy and lust.The original 'Liber Chaotica' books were the first real attempt by any author to catalogue the four Chaos gods, the source of all magic and evil in the Warhammer world. For in the days when the Slaanesh, Last Born and Most Beautiful, strove for existence, His power waxed stronger than all other gods, be they seperate or together, and it seemed as though His spiteful triumph would destroy the Balance in the Warp. The patchwork combinations of story elements, other documents and ideas scribbled down from half-seen dreams creates atmosphere.

The good parts were all the commented fields alongside the main body of the text -- annotations by the "editors" of Kless' deranged visions and worries about their own futures. However, even without that, you then have bits where it is fitted between lines in books, or on backgrounds which make it genuinely unreadable.Yeah, this was in the era where they weren't afraid to ask the question "Is Khaine just a pointy-eared name for Khorne? The authors take the role of an editor who goes through Kless’ works, which contains studies, illustrations and excerpts from other fictional sources.