Order and its relation to Starchild

Order is the term used to refer to the universal and sometimes benevolent metaphysical force that lies in direct opposition to Chaos. Order is a force that seeks to impose structure, stability, harmony and hierarchy upon the universe. The order is served by certain entities that exist within the Warp, such as the Emperor of Mankind or the former Eldar Gods who were mostly lost during the Fall of the Eldar, but at the present time the Order is a strong force in the Milky Way Galaxy, as Chaos being stalemated, both within the Immaterium and in real space because Eldar's joined Imperium, and their strong psyker souls and faithful human souls are being assimilated by emperor after their death and recently Isha's freedom from the hands of Nurgle, the threats of chaos became much more marginalized. The term also encompasses those mortals who have thrown in their lot with the Order, such as the devoted servants of the Imperium of Man both humans and the Eldars of the Craftworlds and the Exodites. The Tau Empire and even the soulless Necrons and their former C'tan masters can be considered servants of order, though the Order they would impose on the galaxy is very different from that of the other factions.

Order is a great force of stability and power, and is neither physically nor spiritually corrupting like Chaos, though it is not in itself necessarily "good." While its adherents and servants act in ways that could sometimes be considered benevolent, some devotees of Order like the Necrons are more dedicated to the service of the structure, stagnation and imposing their will upon the galaxy than the selflessness that Mankind and most other intelligent species define as righteousness. However, more often than not, the service of Order rewards sacrificing one's own desires and wants in the service of a larger group in such a way that the implementation of stability and structure leads to forms of self-sacrifice, heroism and compassion for others that most cultures characterized as benevolence. Unlike Chaos, which is the very embodiment of the Immaterium, Order is best represented and embodied by the physical universe of real space, which is defined by concrete, natural laws and a stable reality that does not constantly shift to match collective psychic whims like that of the Warp.

The most powerful current entity of the Order is the Emperor of Mankind, whose potent mind resides within the Warp, always acting to circumvent the growing power of the Chaos Gods and their attempts to have the power of Chaos bleed into and destroy the stability of Realspace. The collective pantheon of Eldar Gods was also once a powerful representative of the Order, but of its number only Isha, Khaine and Cegorach remain. However, now emperor himself evolving as a nascent Order God of both Eldar and man. This new god or Starchild perhaps a force for Order equal in power to four dark gods. Even now he is gestating within the Well of Eternity which a mystical location within the Warp itself, where it is situated at the very center of reality. Thus, it existed in a place where time and space originated as well as ended. He is known as Ynnead, to Eldars and Starchild to humans.

The C'tan are also powerful forces of Order, though they serve what other species might consider the "evil" incarnation of Order, determined as they are to impose a regime upon the galaxy in which all sentient organisms feed their never-ending hunger for living energies.

There is no generally accepted iconic symbol for the Order, but the Eldar has often used a rune in the Eldar Lexicon that stands for "Harmony" as a representative symbol of the Order. As this symbol was also once used by ancient groups of humans to represent the order of the universe brought about by balance, it could be considered a universal symbol of the Order just as the Chaos Star is the universal symbol of Chaos.

Ultimately, the Order and its servants seek to strengthen the rules and architecture that bind the physical universe together, so that all of Creation is defined by a rigid structure of natural laws and a hierarchy in which everything in existence knows its rightful place, whether it is living or inorganic. In general, the Order is a spiritual force that can represent the more benevolent, selfless impulses that exist within the psyches of every sentient being in the galaxy, though it can also lead to stagnation, repression and corruption. Because Mankind is by far the most populous intelligent species in the galaxy of the 41st Millennium, the greatest embodiment of Order is the Emperor of Mankind, who serves as the God of humanity. The Emperor is known as the "Anathema" to the Chaos Gods and their servants because he alone represents the greatest current obstacle to the overwhelming victory of Chaos over Order in this corner of the universe.

With all the obvious dangers associated with Chaos, such as mutation, daemonic possession, and spiritual damnation, some might wonder why anyone would willingly choose to turn their backs on Order to serve the Ruinous Powers. The answer is actually simple. Chaos judges its servants solely on their abilities and their records of success and failure in promoting the agenda of the individual Chaos Gods and of Chaos Undivided as a whole. Chaos also offers those who serve it the opportunity to perhaps one day wield power and respect far beyond the dreams of most mortals' avarice. For so many people, particularly in the Imperium of Man, whose untrammeled Order has some time bred stagnation and corruption, too often family connections and inherited wealth are rewarded rather than ability. It is impossible on many Imperial worlds for a talented individual to ever better their lot. As such, Chaos actually offers a substantial degree of freedom and the only real meritocracy that many citizens of the Imperium have ever known. But Chaos is not a benevolent force, and for the vast majority of those who fall into Chaos' temptations, they will never know either power or position and will be little more than faceless puppets in the endless schemes of the Dark Gods. While Chaos may reward success with power, even the mightiest Chaotic servant becomes a slave of Chaos, never its master. Most Chaotics will fail, eventually ending up as possessed daemonhosts, mindless Chaos Spawn, or simply as just another corpse in the heap, a pawn whose usefulness to the Ruinous Powers has ended. Those who serve Order may never know the sheer power and freedom that a devotee of Chaos can wield, but neither will he fall to damnation. His body and soul will always remain his own, and in service to something larger than himself, he may actually earn the mantle of the hero.

Forces of Order

The Forces of Order are generally those factions in the galaxy that stand against Chaos directly or whose pursuit of stability, harmony or just sheer domination enhances the power of the Order within the universe. The Forces of Order include:

The Imperium of Man - All of the Imperium of Man's major factions, including the Space Marines, the Imperial Guard, the Inquisition, the Imperial Navy, the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Adepta Sororitas are powerful servants of Order. The uncorrupted Eldar of the Craftworlds and their Exodite counterparts who have chosen to live a more rural existence are all servants of the Order who joined the Imperium to combat chaos.

Tau - The Tau Empire and its many Xenos allies, in pursuit of its ideology of the Greater Good, is a growing force for pure Order in the galaxy. The Tau Empire might become a potent ally of the Imperium against Chaos if the two species could forge some form of cooperation rather than constantly seeking to defeat the expansionary plans of the other.

Necrons and C'tan - The Necrons and their C'tan masters are also powerful servants of Order, as they wish to impose their control over the entire galaxy and forever cut off the Immaterium from real space, thus dramatically reducing if not outright destroying the power of Chaos. However, the Necrons would do this only so that they could more readily carry out their "Red Harvests" of all living creatures in the galaxy, which makes the other servants of the Order more likely to stand against the Necrons and their Star Gods than aid them in their fight against Chaos.

Forces of Disorder

The Forces of Disorder, in the eyes of a servant of the Order, are generally those factions in the galaxy that directly serve Chaos or whose pursuit of disruption, destruction and sheer instability enhances the overall power of Chaos in the universe. The Forces of Disorder include:

The forces of Chaos - The Forces of Chaos is a term applied by Imperial scholars and Eldars to all the myriad servants of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos who seek to destroy the Imperium of Man and the other servants of Order and replace them with the utterly anarchic predominance of Chaos, a state of affairs that would likely result in the eventual extinction of the human and Eldar race and indeed of all sentient life in the Milky Way Galaxy. For clarity's sake, most scholars divide up the Forces of Chaos into three major components, including the inhuman daemons that are native to the Warp and only rarely impinge upon the physical universe, the Lost and the Damned which includes among their numbers Chaos Cultists, Traitor Guardsmen, mutants and the other mortal devotees of Chaos and finally, Chaos' most potent servants, the Traitor Legions of the Chaos Space Marines and their counterparts among the Traitor Titan Legions of the Dark Mechanicus.

Orks - The Greenskins of the Ork race are powerful servants of Disorder, for while they do not serve Chaos directly, their love of battle and destruction for its own sake directly serves the goals of Chaos to spread anarchy across the universe.

Dark Eldar - Those Eldar who walks the Path of Damnation as raiders, pirates, torturers and dark hedonists directly serve the interests of the Chaos God Slaanesh, and so indirectly enhance the power of Chaos across the galaxy.

Tyranids - The Great Devourer seeks to consume all other life forms in the Milky Way Galaxy so that it might simply reproduce itself and create ever more perfect bioforms. By attacking all structure and existing hierarchies in the galaxy, the Tyranids are a potent force for the spread of Disorder, even as they would not hesitate to devour all the servants of Chaos as well as those of the Order. Though the Tyranids are more a force of nature than servants of any ideology or philosophical farce, their actions only further weaken the Forces of Order across the galaxy and so they are rightly counted among those who perpetuate Disorder.

Star Child

The Emperor is the incarnation of the extinct Shamans who, with their prophetic powers, and connection to the warp in its natural and uncorrupted form, had guided ancient mankind. After Gullieman rebelled and destroyed the Emperor's mortal frame, during that struggle the Emperor ripped Slaanesh's gut, and pulled out the Daemon-God's stomach and then he devoured it. Such act shattered his soul, as His body and soul could no longer remain as one; a part of his soul melted into the warp, this tiny core of the Emperor's humanity remaining whole, which was like a small child in a tiny reed boat adrift in the storm of the warp. With most part of emperor's soul which remained in his body sitting upon golden throne being strengthened by spirits of Eldar race and faithful humans after their deaths. Thus he is slowly assimilating more and more souls, becoming stronger and stronger.

In the same way the Shamans died together to reincarnate as the Emperor, the Emperor's death too could herald a new savior. That time would lie far in the future, when mankind's and Eldar's desire for a new savior would strengthen the core of the Emperor's soul and rekindle it to new life.

The part of the soul of the Emperor adrift in the warp is the Star Child. The humans that were left in charge of the Imperium had no real understanding of what had happened to the Emperor, only after Eldars informed them and their claim supported by Magnus and Lorgar they understood. Though the Emperor's body continued to live within the Golden Throne and his mind continued to be a beacon for humanity and Eldars, his soul is a god waiting to be born. If the remains of the Emperor were ever to die, the tiny spark of soul left in his body would re-unite with the greater whole, and according to prophecy, Reborn god will destroy the four Chaos Gods and convert immateriun to its original form as it was before the birth of chaos gods. The Star Child is also suggested as being the compassion which the Emperor cast from himself in order to destroy his beloved Primarch-son.

Although Tzeentch could see all of the past and present, he was unable to grasp all of the uncountable threads of the future, that's why he failed to understand the implication of failing to corrupt Horus and that the Eldars could forsake their pride and join the Imperium in turn making it strong. He cannot understand the nature of Starchild which considered to pose a great threat for the dominance of chaos. The need to overcome this one weakness took Tzeentch to the mystic Well of Eternity, It's here the god is growing slowly, However, even Tzeentch was afraid to enter the roiling currents of the well; so instead he sent his Lords of Change, but none of them ever returned. Finally, Tzeentch grabbed his vizir Kairos and cast him into the well. Even he was destroyed, such is the Star Child's power that any of Those who have managed to touch it ceased to exist on the spot, as their souls are becoming absorbed into him. Now Tzeentch uses insanely complicated and extraordinarily long-term schemes to prepare himself and chaos for Rhana Dandra, the legendary final battle of the Eldar and the human race against Chaos as prophesied in Eldar mythology.

Rhana Dandra

An account of the battle is given in the sacred Eldar text called the Asuryata which predicts the destruction of the Eldar and their remaining Gods in the battle. It is said that in this battle, every last Eldar in the universe will die, including the Phoenix Lords of the Aspect Shrines. However, after this battle, it is prophesied that within the Infinity Circuits of the Eldar Craftworlds, the souls of all the surviving Eldar will merge to form a new God in the Warp - Ynnead, the Eldar God of the Dead, who will be powerful enough to defeat Slaanesh once and for all and bring to an end the reign of She Who Thirsts over the souls of the Eldar. After the Rhana Dandra, the Materium and the Immaterium will once more fuse into a single reality and a new Eldar race will be born to seek out a better destiny. The Phoenix Lord Fuegan of the Fire Dragons is described in the Asuryata as the Eldar who will call the other Phoenix Lords together for the final battle and he will be the last to die in the fighting, and the Phoenix Lord Baharroth of the Swooping Hawks will also fall.

However, after heresy it became clear to farseers that Ynnead and the star child could be the same thing, particularly with the revelations in Gulliman Heresy that the Golden Throne is a doorway into the webway itself. It became clear that humanity will also take part in the Rhana Dandra, with the emperor, becoming more powerful each day because of ever increasing Eldar and human souls, thus he becomes closer and closer to apotheosis. It is theorized that not all the Eldar or humans needed to die for the creation of Ynnead. With a sufficient amount of souls will be enough for it, both rejuvenated eldar population and the vast number of humans now spare more man to make their dreams a reality, thus the day of Rhana Dandra comes closer and closer. Few radical farseers believed that after creation of new god, not two, but one race will emerge, created from Eldar and man. Thus creating a new, synthesized DNA, this synthesis will be the pinnacle of evolution. Eldar who embodies Purity of essence (psionic energy that governs the imagination, can be used to create form out of nothingness) and humanity who embodies Purity of form (physical energy that governs vitality, life force, and willpower) will create a new race, reborn into the physical universe to begin again, freed from the sins of their past and with the chance to build a better future.

Illuminati

There are many both among Eldar and humans who dedicated their lives for the birth of Ynnead, they have formed The Illuminati, which an Imperium-spanning secret society whose hidden objectives are declared to be in support of both races and the Emperor, and against the forces of Chaos. Their members include Iyanna Arienal, Eldrad Ulthran, Eldar mystic Kysaduras, Inquisitor Bronislaw Czevak, Inquisitor Jaq Draco. All of their human members not only survived possession by a Warp entity, but also managed to do the seemingly impossible, i.e. cast out the daemon from their own bodies. The experience of sharing a mind with a daemon has completely changed their outlook on the universe, and given them a unique understanding of Chaos and Warp entities in general. In the process of freeing themselves from demonic possession, they have also mastered the Chaos within themselves, which is the root of all human corruption by the Ruinous Powers. Apparently, they are thus unique in being able to exist in the Warp as comfortably as in realspace, without any special protections or wards, and with no ill effects whatsoever since they are now immune to the effects of Chaos. There are Illuminati among the most secretive elements of the Imperium, including the Ordo Malleus of the Inquisition. In fact, they seem to be actively trying to recruit Inquisitors who may be sympathetic to their plans, and/or are judged to be suitable candidates for "Illumination". Illumination is achieved by candidates who are willingly (or perhaps, unwillingly) subjected to daemonic possession, and subsequently casting the daemon out.

The purpose of the Illuminati is to discover, groom, hide, and protect, the so-called Sensei. These individuals are the biological sons of the Emperor of Mankind who were conceived before the establishment of the Imperium, and are said to be immortal as well as sterile. They possibly number in the thousands, and they are normally unaware of their heritage; also, they are psychic blanks who possess no presence in the Warp and cannot be affected by psychic powers, as such, they are invisible even to the Emperor himself in his current state. The Sons of the Emperor that the Illuminati inform of their true nature become the Sensei "Knights of the Long Watch". The plan of the Illuminati is to collect as many of the Sensei as they can, and then sacrifice them at the proper time, thus accelerating Starchild's growth. The sacrifice of the Sensei is supposed to give birth to the Star Child: an entity that would be the Emperor Reborn, as it fuses the essence of the Sensei (carriers of the Emperor's DNA), with the remnants of the Emperor's soul - which was cast into the Warp during the climactic events of the Heresy. It is postulated that the Emperor's soul in the Warp acts as a "shining path", visible to certain individuals of psychic ability. Accordingly, it is a benign element in the otherwise hostile Warp environment, as it consists of the essence of the Emperor's humanity, compassion, and nobility. The force of the Emperor's rebirth (as the Numen, the shining-path-incarnate), would then destroy the Chaos Gods, and restore the Warp to its original, psychically-unpolluted and Chaos-free state.

The human members of the Illuminati are among the very few beings in the universe allowed to enter - albeit under escort and possibly blindfolded - the fabled Black Library, the Eldar race's ancient repository for their knowledge of Chaos, which resides deep inside the Webway. Through this access the Illuminati gained an even greater understanding.

At Iyanna's direction, they have also sought the Tears of Morai-Heg, gemstone fragments that possess ancient magic that Spiritseers say would see the rebirth accomplished. Their search for the tears has brought them into contact with Tau, Orks, and other primitive races. Reclaiming these tears has proven a bloody affair, and taking possession of the first required a dozen worlds left in ruin. But they are determine to complete their objective.