Can Chaotic Corruption Ever Be Undone? - 40K Theories 

Note: This video is *not* about whether traitors can be redeemed, but rather if the physical and spiritual corruption caused by Chaos can itself be undone. For a video detailing the potential redemption of traitors, click here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lzKWRl1Acfs.html

_Vork briefly becomes his uncorrupted self during teleportation_ *Chief Miles O'Brien:* Sorry about the transporter malfunction.

If Chaotic corruption can't be cured, there's always a bolt shell to the face

I would also argue that Yvraine proved you could cure the physical blight of chaos when she reversed the Rubric of Ahrimann. As the revived marines didn't begin falling to mutation and spawndom, it can be assumed that their physical bodies were at least temporarily stable. This physical state may have been temporary from the beginning, as it appears Yvraine was merely using it as a short-term bargaining chip and had them killed to prevent Ahriman from discovering her ruse.

I've always loved 40k Lore, never quite got into gaming but your channel amongst the several other awesome 40k Channels are my absolute favourites. Thank you for these wonderful videos.

There was one case of someone whose Chaos corruption had been undone and it was Tornus the Redeemed. He was once known as *Torglugg the Despised* , a Chaos Champion of Nurgle but a small part of his noble spirit remained deep within the corruption and Celestant-Prime smashed him with Ghal Maraz to set it free, allowing him to be reforged into a new member of the Stormcast Eternals.

I remember there were 2 extra instances where this was achieved somewhat: 1) I remember a story where there was Plague Marine and a Sister of Battle. SoB was friend with the astartes before his downfall, so she went to the Eye of Terror or something to redeem him. He eventually redeems himsel by suicide bombing himself with the Daemon Prince he was serving to. 2) I also remember a story where a group chaos space marines (Nurgle Plague Marines always for some reason) where they got… freed from chaos corruption for a brief moment. Then, when they looked each other, they felt extreme disgust and shame with themselves. Can’t remember fully but it should be something like this

Welcome back Inquisitor!

4:48 There was a Loyalist clone of Fulgrim being pure uncorrupted DNA and he is currently at Trazyn the Infinite's collection. It would have been interesting to see Loyalist Fulgrim Clone atone for his sins by fighting for the Imperium and lead his Chapter of Loyalist Emperor's Children, like the Sons of the Phoenix that looked and acted like the Pre-Heresy Third Legion.

By the Gods! Welcome!

This is by far the best subject you have ever thought of

I think it’s worth looking into the book tech priest dominus. The main tech priest Omnid Torquora undoes chaotic corruption from one of his captured servants by holding him next to a gellar bomb and letting the gellar waves wash over him

Just have a sensei punch the corruption right out of them, redeeming even the most corrupt chaos warband leaders into loyal allies with the power of friendship.

I seem to recall a handful of Rubric Marines being fully restored before being cast into the webway... It seems like nearly everything is able to be healed. Even the black rage as shown by Mephiston

I remember in one of the Cain books, Cain brings Jurgan with him to confront a group of slanneshi cultists that and up raising a demon, formally the sorceress Emily. When near Jurgan, she seems to not feel any inclination towards redemption, just extreme discomfort, anger, and confusion that she is not so invincible as she thought.

WH40K: Can Chaotic corruption be cured? No! Hammer to the face! AoS: Can Chaotic corruption be cured? Yes! Hammer to the face!

Thank you for the video!, Hope you are doing well

A more profound question: If machines can be tainted by chaos corruption, are there any limits to the types of machines that can be affected? Can a toaster be tainted by chaotic corruption? If so, can it follow Korne, the Blood God? At that point, could you have Toast for the Blood God?!

Just finished The Lord's of Silence the other day. Excellent read.

It's been too long!!.. thank you for all of your brilliant contributions!!

I feel like putting someone who was heavily mutated by chaotic corruption near a blank for an extended period would just kill them. As all the Warp shenaniganery that was keeping their mutated body alive in spite of medical impossibilities would likewise be turned off.

Just read, "Author Interview - Ben Counter" from the thebolthole: Arguleon Veq from Daemon World is one of the most loved villains, some would say hero, in the setting. How did his tale start? Ben Counter: Veq is there to demonstrate that Chaos is a lie. Chaos is a wonderful adversarial force because it can be anything, and it only really has one rule - if you give in to it, you will be corrupted, and become something awful. Bowing to Chaos is never, ever worth it, no matter what you might get out of it. Veq is one of the few people who went too far, realised it, and managed to drag themselves out of it. That was the core of the character, someone who could illustrate something fundamental about what Chaos is and how it works. He was almost a deamon prince and what Veq did with the Maelstrom wasn't a small thing. By the end of the story he seems to have undone quiet a lot of what chaos has done to him.

@40K Theories - thank you for continuing to post your lore videos. Your commentary helps me relax and enjoy the lore in a way other channels can't!

So there are 2 novels tie in's to the skitarii and cult mechanicus codexs from 7th edition of 40k. They were called "Adeptus Mechanicus: Skitarius" and "Adeptus Mechanicus: Tech-Priest" Both were written by Rob Sanders. While I don't personally think they were particularly good novels, they did have a very interesting example of chaos corruption being undone. To summarize it quickly, there is a skitarii officer/alpha called "Alpha Primus Haldron-44 Stroika" and he is part of an admech expedition lead by "Magos-Explorator Omnid Torquora" They both work to capture a lost forge world taken by the dark mechanicus, and stroika eventually gets captured by the chaos forces, which leads into the 2nd book, were the magos torquora is continuing the campaign, 6 months or so later. Magos torquora is eventually ambushed in his quarters aboard his flagship, by stroika who turns out was given a bunch of chaos infused cybernetics, and thus heavily corrupted, and brainwashed to kill torquora, but he hesitates at the last moment, and torquora begins chanting various prayers to the omnissiah and such, which along with a kind of "Null generator" device he is using, starts to "wash away" the corruption from stroika. Its described as stroika vomiting up a black tar like substance, while the chaotic implants are burned away, until he is basically just a head/torso, left clean of corruption, though stroika is very traumatized and in agony from the experience. Torquora takes stroika and implants him into a kataphron destroyer body, albit with some of his previous self/will preserved, as torquora is somewhat fond of stroika, due to his previous good service, in the first book. I quite liked this whole arc, as it shows that the mechanicus, also has a religious flavor to them, which I think tends to get forgotten about a lot in most 40k books/lore etc.

Good to have you back 🖤

Now I think, what if Big E and Isha cooperated for a simple goal, weakening nurgle, Big E by freeing Mortarion, and Isha by earning her own freedom, if they worked together, they might gain the ability to do it, Isha then would probably go to webway to (relative) safety from Slanesh, while Mortarion, and possibly some of his sons, come back to Imperium, this perhaps would lead to stronger Eldar-IoM relations, as basically both factions gods would probably agree on that matter since they have mutual goal of defeating Chaos, but of course, this is only a theory

Can the Emperor serve as a "focus" for the power of the Warp flowing from the sacrificed psykers into purifying phenomena and processes? The effects of the Astronomican on certain planets and individuals are known, but can He still exercise control over such a torrent of power?

Always nice to see more videos, keep up the good work ❤

Well, when possession is exorcised the hosts mutations disappear. I have no idea how it would work on just random chaos corruption.

"If it is redemption you seek, I shall give it to you..." **bolter shot to face** ~ Brother Captain Gabriel Angelos I think it is a moor point, whether Imperium or any faction no one would ever trust a "cleansed" servant of Chaos. There would always be doubt, blame, mistrust, and the very real possibility of re-corruption.

I know there is a caiphas cain book where mental corruption and influence was temporarily removed when Jergan (his aid, and also a blank) got close enough. However the control reasserted itself after Jergan stepped away. The kid blew his own brains out when he realized he couldn't maintain control of himself. 'Commisar Donal sends his regards.'

Could the Hrud's time distortion not somehow be used, assuming it could be harnessed? I remember a story that a Servitor reverted back to his non-lobotomized self, when he was hit with the Hrud's time shenanigans.

Interesting! Well done!

Answer: Only GW's power of random bullsh*t alone can do this.

I don't think so. When there's so much taint that it binds flesh with the power armor no. You can see that with the sisters of battle Miriael Sabathiel as an example to even Typhus. I mean the man was dead in the first place but still Addendum: I believe it also depends on the state of mind and space-time. Such as when the Thousand Sons were reverted to back to flesh on multiple occasions.

FINALLY!!! I think I asked you about this pre pandemic lol. Awesome vid!

4:16 That should be a "Shoot first, ask questions never!" policy.

Allegedly, physical objects tainted by Chaos can be consecrated, purified, or what-have-you, but that's a significantly different ballgame than a living being. Daemon Weapons being remade into, for example, the Gauntlets of Ultramar come to mind.

There is this short story called, Daemonblood by Ben Counter (There is a fantastic narration here on youtube, can't recall the channel though) and the plague marine's physical corruption in the story wasn't "undone" per se but found redemption and upon death, his spirit was cleansed.

I wonder if Ephrael Stern could manage it. She has the raw power (being a gestalt consciousness of hundreds of deeply faithful Sororitas), if not the knowledge and expertise.

not without some serious deux ex machina and plot armor !

What happened to that spear or Russ'? Seems like a pretty powerful artefact to have been misplaced.

Great video.

This is awesome

For the algorithm.

Are the mutations and alterations made to organisms and objects "responsive" to emotion and belief? The Orks have the ability to believe in constructs, and they function due to that belief altering reality. Can something similar happen for when Choas cultists interprets changes as "blessings"?

Well done chap

So basically, Chaos twists whatever it corrupts about as much as the Emperor twisted the proverbial knife in Mortarion.

Great video, but now Inquisitor it is time to ask ourselves the real questions! What would happen if plot armor did not exist and how many heroes of the Imerium and champions of chaos would fall? If a civil war happened during the Ultima founding, one part of the Imperium would belong to the first born and the other one to the primaris? Should the Lion return would there be conflict between him and Guilliman as in Angels of Caliban? What will happen if the end of times for the 40k universe comes?! (just being dramatic) What would happen if the Dornian Heresy happened and what would happen to the modern Imperium and how it would change? What would happen if the Night Lords that gathered to attack a craftworld(Forgot the name) succeed and how would this impact the Eldar, losing one of their important craftworlds? Finally, have a great day :)

“Aaahh nooo. I can’t turn back to normal. Oh no, no, no. Father going to make so Chicken pun at my expense that I go full on Horus heresy mark 2.” -Magnus the Red on his Chaos mutation.

That Vorx example reminds me of all the transporter shenanigans that plagued the crews of the Enterprise in its various incarnations. Step 1: Bring the USS Enterprise-D from Terra’s Golden Age into the 42nd Millennium. Step 2: Have them dedicate all resources into their transporter systems. Step 3: Bring the Enterprise to the nearest Traitor Legion fleet. Step 4: ??? Step 5: Imperium profits.

I'm not these count, but after Ephrael Stern's last resurection, she was wondering around in a fugue state and curing plagues of Nurge from those nearby. You also have Yvrainne restoring the flesh bodies of Rubric Marines.

Man what a nightmare would that be. To have the veil removed from your eyes and see the horror you had committed. The crushing regret would probably break even a primarch (those who did not throw themselves at chaos on their own volition at least)

My take on it is that like anything, you can have the ruinous Powers removed from a being. The catch is if you know about 3/4 through the video, is if the body can survive after the energy sustaining their mutated form is gone. The other problem is whether or not their mind can take the horror of what they've done and what they have dealt with. This was wonderfully done in the last Siege of Terra book. I forget the exact reason, but at one Point chaos Energy starts pulling back from the battlefield and all of the death guard start to look around themselves in horror. They are disgusted at how they look, what they've done, and the little nurglings that are following them around are no longer considered cute or something to listen to but things to be destroyed. Then, before their minds can fully snap, the energy and influences restored to them. And everything they felt feels like a faded memory. So I would assume that if your body was largely uncorrupted you could physically survive if you were separated from the taint, but the mind is another matter entirely and most people would probably go irrevocably insane.

Tis a good week to be a 40k fan.

I despise chaos, but there’s something about their unwavering loyalty to Grandfather Nurgle that is admirable

The telportation story is interesting, considering the duality of the gods that has been kept a secret by the imperium of men, considered evil by men, arent't just that. Chaos is like Nature, it is good and evil, beautiful and disgusting, noone would consider nature to be evil, except maybe by human morals that can't really be applied, but nature could be cosidered chaotic, like our chaos theory. So considering that the chaos gods are not just evil but good and evil, so the warp is kind of the same, but the ambitions and the preset notion that chaos is bad set by men, makes most humans to be corrupted by the "bad" sides of chaos, so back to the teleportation story, it means while beeing in warp, transfered for teleportation, the plague marine is himself, until he manifests and gets corrupted by his own ambitions that take effect again

Would that time an Aeldari turned some the Rubric Marines back into flesh and bone count?

Could necron chronomacny work?

Isha may have the ability to free individuals from chaos taint.The Emperor and Ynnead definitely. Yvvrain, through the power of Ynnead overcame the power of Tzench on some Rubric Marines and restored them back into flesh and blood, it was meant to delay Ahriman and the Thousand Sons under his command while the aeldari worked to collapse the section of the webway.

The Emperor couldn't even remove some metal from Angron's brain. I'm not sure when he picked up the reverse apotheosis trick.

I think there's something that needs to be said about the Rubric of Ahriman. As purging chaotic corruption through immense psychic power may have been exactly what they were attempting to do to the Thousand Sons, but it failed, turning them into dust instead. Yvraine manages to convert a Rubric back to flesh and bone, however, with her power as the Herald of Ynnead. Ynnead, then, is another figure worth looking at on this topic. Ynnead is being created specifically to save the Eldar from Slaanesh, which can potentially be applied to other Chaos gods, such as Tzeentch.

Take this with a pinch of salt, but I think that was The Emperor talking thru Guilliman to Mortarion.

With enough faith in the Emporor, and Ordnanace, anything is possible. Nothing undoes corruption like good ole fashioned Eathshaker rounds! *Happi Gasmask noises*

Horus was undone ;)

The problem with chaos corruption is that is as much as a memetic corruption as it is a physical one. Chaos is a realm of energy. We have to look at it as we would look at quantum mechanics and there, perception, observation and information are the things that matter most. You spawn tentacles because you perceive yourself as corrupted and because of culture you expect that kind of thing to happen. That perception can be forced onto you by anything with sufficient willpower and psychic ability. It can also be caused by a sufficient volume of people being convinced (and therefore percieve) you are corrupt. Chances are, if sufficient people believe angel wings are sign of corruption, you will eventually spawn them instead of tentacles. A powerful psyker I think could purge corruption from a patient by forcing his perception over the patients, but it will only stick if the self-image of the patient changes with it, or else, the patient will return to his corrupted form, sooner or later (probably sooner). And powerful ideas, like the Chaos Gods are not in the habit of letting go of their flock and will fight any effort of cleansing corruption as a threat to themselves.

Looks like the chaos can be expunged but always returned, perhaps the taint can be maintained away for extended but not permanent periods of time.

What do you suppose a sample taken from a Chaos-tainted space craft would look like under a microscope? What would it's DNA look like?

It seems to me from that teleportation story that corruption might be something that is "added" to someone. Imagine character from video game. You start with base character and then he gains traits that change him but they are building on basic template which is still below. Maybe during that teleportation do to strange nature of warp first his "template" arrived and then his traits got "loaded".

I think all scykers should be trained to revert chaos corrupted soldiers back to normalcy

Apparently it is possible in Age of Sigmar; there’s entire groups of Stormcast Eternals known as “the redeemed” who are former champions of Chaos.

In the story shadowbreaker, the deathwatch squad leader Karras is possessed and is described as being pretty malformed. His Exoricist chapter squad mate removes the demon and his original form is restored.

ty

I think you were looking for the word biomancy when you were describing one way it could be reversed, Big E loved a bit of biomancy which as far as I'm aware involved using the warp or psychic power to alter the biological. The best example of which is the Primarch project but it was defo mentioned in the early HH books that biomancy was widespread at one point in Terran history then barely brought up again aside from the character they released from the Black Cells to make the Primarch bomb. To be fair it's the one psychic power that's barely mentioned in lore, but when it is I'm always blown away that its not used more by more powerful psykers like Librarians or Magnus to stop the mutations pre-ruberic. It is in my opinion only half the problem, even if you heal the body, the mind is still corrupted, which is probs what was inferred in the teleportation example, teleporters in scifi are usually just replicators with the original body being instantly destroyed to avoid shenanigans, perhaps when the teleportation was complete the mariner's soul entered the new body, instantly corrupting it thus the reversion to the aspect of chaos? The implication of the god blight novel I got when BigE/Rowboat was addressing the Garden of Nurgle was that even Moody arsed Mortarian could be redeemed if he purified his soul... So if he ridded himself of the corruption? Although I'll be honest, I really don't like the route they took in that novel....

So, there may actually be a way for extremely corrupted chaos worshippers to uncorrupted. This theory which is a stretch which is based upon the cloning of perfect Fulgrim. So, when someone becomes a demon their respective demon prince pulls out their soul, and replaces it with a bunch of warp stuff turning them into demons. As the theory goes when Fulgrims perfect clone was made his cloned body had a greater claim to Fulgrims soul than Slannesh did causing Fulgrims soul to enter his clone body. In theory this should be possible for any demon prince as well which any mortal can become. Though it is worth mentioning that the demon prince in question doesn't die from this, so they are still technically clones of the original they just happen to have the soul of the person they were originally making the matter less clear.

Using warp energy to cure poison sound kinds like using snake venom to develop an antidote

I think out of all the Chaos Primarchs, Mortarion is the most worthy of redemption! But, for him to be granted redemption, I bet he would have to be put through a process that would damn near break his body, mind, and soul, overseen by the Ordo Malleus who would just rather have him annihilated!

I wouldn't want to see all of the traitor primarchs redeemed but I think a few fan favorites coming back into the fold would be much appreciated

the Intro song is Chaos Gate - Iter in Infernos Don't spend 3 days trying to find it like i did

Yes. Next question.

Eldary have a few times purified entire areas from the the taint of chaos through some sort of ritual.

It would probably take an ungodly amount of soap and water to undo Mortarion's corruption.

Age of Sigmare: good wack from Ghal Maraz.

One of Soul Drinkers novels (The Bleeding Chalice) involves them locating some sort of biological treatment which "vaccinates" their gene-seed, allowing them to create new untainted Soul Drinkers. This treatment also serves to prevent any further mutations within the surviving original Soul Drinkers.

I would like to see a middle ground for this in the narrative. Like Mortarion or other ascended primarchs can be made whole and mortal again in the presence of Pylons and enough Pariahs. All primarchs have the warp inside of them due to the emperors method of creation for them but if you could bind the "true" warp soul of a primarch in some way my idea would be that Pylons or Pariahs drive the chaos gods warp essence out or away and allows for a limited and possibly temporary return of a fallen primarch without breaking the paradigms

Yes.. with a bolter

That is a good Theorie

Look forward to when the Emperor is up and about, taking the fight to chaos. Redeeming some of his sons.

I guess it can be categorized into three forms; physical, spiritual and demonhood. The first is probably in some ways the simplest, physical changes can be undone or simply changed again, DNA repaired. Anyone with the right tech or powers should be able to do it. Perhaps with the presence of a nul to deal with any chaos energies sloshing about. Spiritual is much harder, a null might be able to stop further chaos pressure, and perhaps then they can heal on their own, but cleansing a soul would likely take enormous energies. Now sawing someone who have transformed into a demon prince? I think should be possible, but would require emperor levels of power, this would require not just mere cleansing but reconstructing their very being back to mortal form.

I think that its not the warp itself that would be the cure but the teleporting either the act of or the energy invovled. I cant help but have star trek thought cuz they used teleporters for many things from cleaning out viruses to even de-aging and resurrection/cloning.

Are the good stuff

How did I get here this early

I'm imagining a scenario where a corrupted individual teleports in to an area with a blank or is surrounded by negatively polarized noctilith. Catching the subject before the Chaos corruption does, and preventing it from "re-attaching" to them. Though since teleportation goes through the warp, it may have to be some type of purely tech based method now that I think deeper on the idea. Thoughts?

It should also be noted that machine spirits themselves can also be corrupted, as shown by that one super giant walker

Cleanse the corruption of chaos with the Emperor’s soap. I do believe the galaxy would be more chaotic with the ability for entities to be cleansed. Keep things in fluctuating. Also something something Pauli Exclusion principle being null considering time travel means subatomic particles can occupy the same space implying that’s how the possession takes hold and unsynching with warp entity is harder to separate than salt and sugar unless ya know what ya doing cause it’s actively parasitic…. Something something ol school tumblr fun. ^^

Anything is possible with the light of the Emperor in your heart

I really hope so, this giant blade that replaced my forearm makes it really hard to play games and get in places without the cops being called

God I love chaos, it's so fucking cool

yes my favorite

I think from Out-Universe prospective it isn't out of possibility for GW to make them be able to. As They did had some example in AOS that former Chaos Cultist get redeemed and soul turn into Storm Cast Eternal.