Tzeentch

Overview

Tzeentch is the Chaos God of change, hope, ambition, sorcery and fate. He is known as the Changer of the Ways, the Architect of Fate and the Great Conspirator. He weaves plans within plans across millennia, and his servants include the Lords of Change, such as the two-headed Kairos Fateweaver, and the sorcerers of the Thousand Sons. He lives in the Crystal Labyrinth, an impossible maze of shifting paths at the heart of his Impossible Fortress.

Tzeentch is the Changer of the Ways, god of change, sorcery, hope, ambition and fate. Any desire to change things feeds him, from a scholar's research to a rebel's dream. His skin is a moving mass of faces that repeat his words with different meanings. He sees the possible futures because he knows every plan and every scheme. His sacred number is nine: nine levels of trust among Lords of Change, nine fractal fortresses, 999 legions in nine hosts. His realm is the Crystal Labyrinth, which drives intruders mad, and at its heart is the Impossible Fortress, with the Library of Lies inside.

His daemon legions reflect his nature. Pink Horrors cackle and cast warpfire, and when one is destroyed it splits into two sullen Blue Horrors, which in turn can break into tiny Brimstone Horrors. Flamers of Tzeentch bound along on fleshy bases and spit iridescent fire that can mutate as well as burn. Screamers swim through the air like Warp sharks and slash at whatever passes below. In the mortal world, the bird-headed Tzaangors, beastmen marked by the Changer, fight alongside the Thousand Sons' Rubricae.

Origins

Tzeentch draws power from mortal hopes, dreams, ambition and the desire for change, as well as from the scheming and sorcery that come with them. Because his essence is hope, he is the natural enemy of Nurgle, whose power comes from despair and the acceptance of decay. Khorne also hates him for his reliance on sorcery and trickery.

Key events

1. Manipulated Magnus the Red and the Thousand Sons for centuries. He offered Magnus the power to save his Legion from the flesh-change, then helped bring about the disastrous warning that led to the Burning of Prospero.
2. Took the Thousand Sons as his Legion after Prospero, and later raised Magnus as his Daemon Primarch.
3. Saw Ahriman's Rubric of Ahriman turn most of the remaining Thousand Sons into dust within their armour. Many accounts present this as a twist Tzeentch allowed, or intended.
4. Uses Kairos Fateweaver, the greatest of his Lords of Change, as an oracle whose two heads see past and future.
5. Led his daemon hosts against the Death Guard during the Plague Wars in Ultramar, joining the endless struggle against his rival Nurgle.

Battles & campaigns

• The Burning of Prospero: He took the Thousand Sons and Magnus as his own.
• The Rubric of Ahriman: Ahriman's spell turned the Legion to dust in armour, perhaps as Tzeentch intended.
• The Great Game: His eternal rivalry with Nurgle.

Personality

Tzeentch is the schemer of the pantheon. His plans are so convoluted that even his own followers cannot tell whether a setback is really part of a larger design. He appears to enjoy the act of plotting as much as its result, and he is notorious for betraying his servants when it suits him.

His servants include Magnus the Red, the Thousand Sons, Ahriman, Kairos Fateweaver, the Blue Scribes and Ghargatuloth, the Prince of a Thousand Faces. Tzeentch's schemes are so tangled that even his own followers cannot say whether a failure was really a failure, or a step in a plan only he can see.

Weapons & Vehicles

Nemesis Force WeaponsPsychic Weapon

Psychically attuned silvered blades, halberds and daemon hammers forged exclusively for the Grey Knights of Titan, channelling the wiel…

Staff of Light & Eldritch LanceRanged Weapon

The arcane techno-sorcerous sceptres of Necron Crypteks and Overlords, unleashing searing bolts of captured stellar radiation while ser…

HeldrakeDaemon Engine

A winged, dragon-like Daemon Engine of the Chaos Space Marines that dives from the skies to shred enemy aircraft with its claws and bat…

Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.

Connections

Characters (5)

• 
  Ahzek Ahriman patron · Thousand Sons

  Ahriman's Rubric reduced most of the Thousand Sons to dust. Many accounts suggest Tzeentch let it happen, or intended it.

• 
  Grandfather Nurgle rival · Chaos Daemons

  Nurgle's despair is the opposite of Tzeentch's hope, and the two are the bitterest rivals in the Great Game. Tzeentch's hosts struck at Nurgle's armies during the Plague Wars.

• 
  Kairos Fateweaver creator · Chaos Daemons

  Kairos Fateweaver is Tzeentch's greatest Lord of Change and oracle.

• 
  Khorne rival · Chaos Daemons

  Khorne despises sorcery and trickery, which makes Tzeentch his natural enemy.

• 
  Magnus the Red patron · Thousand Sons

  Tzeentch spent centuries manipulating Magnus, then took the Thousand Sons after Prospero and later made Magnus his Daemon Primarch.

Factions

• Chaos Daemons primary faction
• Thousand Sons patron The Thousand Sons serve Tzeentch, willingly or not.

Also in this faction

Be'lakorKu'gath PlaguefatherSkarbrandSlaanesh

Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.

Legacy

Tzeentch is hope turned predatory, and every plan in the galaxy may be part of his.

Appearances & sources

• Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned (1990)
• Codex: Chaos Daemons (8th Edition)
• Codex: Thousand Sons; A Thousand Sons (Graham McNeill)