>>29432510
>Do you want the 'real' answer, on the answer as perceived by an educated inhabitant of the Warhammer world.
>In real terms, as described in Hordes of Chaos, all gods are but aspects of the four Great Powers. Think of four overlapping circles within a larger circle. The large circle is Chaos, or what we refer to in the rules as Chaos Undivided. Within that are the four Great Powers. Where they overlap, there are concurrent and conflicting entities which bear portions of the vague consciousness of the Great Powers. Any lesser god will be a dot or smaller circle overlapping the diagram across the relevant Greater Powers. The example of the Horned Rat is a good one, as it is obviously dominated by Nurgle, but does have elements of Tzeentch in there as well.
>If you are talking about perceptions of the inhabitants, then they are unaware of the above (or driven mad by it if they find out!). They are aware that there is a large pantheon of gods, includig the four Great Powers. To them, each is distinct, although some may have different names for the same gods, for example, the marauder peoples have many different names for the Great Powers, and some may even have several names for the same Great Power.
-Gav Thorpe
>>The entities that shifted part of their consciousness into the world were of many kinds and dispositions. Some were benign, others less so, and most were insane or mindless. But all were creatures of the void; all had their roots in the Chaos stuff that composed their own realms. As only part of their being could enter into the world, some manifested themselves as true Chaotics, creatures of whim and change, whilst others entered as single-minded personalities encapsulating harmony and stasis - Lawful entities (Law being but one possibility amongst the multiudinous possibilities of Chaos).
-Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st edition: