Editing Chaos (section)

===The Long War===

Chaos as a faction is notable for their meta role in both WHFB and WH40k - keeping the Grimdark at maximum dark grimness. They are one of the most evil factions in either setting, of course, but it goes deeper than that. A big part of the suck in both universes is that the most implacable enemy is not just insanely evil, but that no faction has a working game plan to shut Chaos down. No matter how often the ''good guys'' (or [[Vampire Counts|bad]] [[Ogre Kingdoms|guys]] [[Tyranids|who]] [[Necron|are]] [[Dark Elves|not]] Chaos) win, that's just a temporary victory. But the victories of ''Chaos'' are sometimes permanent and universe-changing, such as when they [[Great Rift|tore the galaxy a new asshole]] or [[The End Times|destroyed the goddamn WHFB world]].

An in-universe pep talk the forces of Chaos sometimes give each other is that they're fighting the "Long War" and that they will defeat the Imperium in the end, no matter how long it takes. From what we know so far this is a perfectly accurate assessment. There are some [[Ynnead|fringe cases]] where somebody comes up with a plan to save the setting from Chaos forever, but there's no hard evidence that these plans will work and some definite [[Teclis|cases]] of this ending in [[Lady of the Lake|complete]] failure. There ''is'' one reliable path to smashing Chaos, with a very notable downside - killing every sentient creature with a soul in the galaxy would leave Chaos too weak to do anything, until a new species arises that fits the bill at least. Only the Tyranids or Necrons can "save" us from Chaos through the straightforward process of omnicide, and even then the benefits can be considered debatable at best. And yes, your soul not being devoured by daemons because you were killed before they could get you is a benefit. Or, we could join Chaos but focus on the positive aspects such as honor and hope and magic and so on.