Can you role-play a chaos run as anything other than a maniac?

[TwoTonTuna]

I remember having fun playing as a lich in wrath of the righteous. This was because I had the option to be more of a pragmatic kind of villain, the guy who will purse evil for personal power without being a total jerk to everyone around me.

Is this kind of role-playing an option with a chaos run, or will all chaos runs force me to be a cackling, moustache-twirling villain who kicks puppies for no good reason other than to please the extradimensional entities i have sold my soul to?

[Gorwe]

Impression: no, the structure of the game don't allow it.

Interesting question though.

[Schlumpsha]

One of the Heretic's goals is to be worshipped as a living god by either converting, torturing, or the spreading of blessings/plagues to your people. And perhaps become a daemon prince at the end as the ultimate reward for a job well done. No watered down "smart" evil in moderation, or brooding dark antihero nonsense to be found in Chaos. As a bonus your ship gets renovated into a bleeding fleshy horror with human cages.

That said, being a heretical Rogue Trader is arguable a few notches less evil than stumbling across and wearing a halo device. So there's that.

[Nether]

On the other hand, there ARE options for pragmatic, power-hungry evil. It's just that they're more 'baseline Rogue Trader expectations' than 'Chaos'.

[Gorwe]

Originally posted by Nether:

On the other hand, there ARE options for pragmatic, power-hungry evil. It's just that they're more 'baseline Rogue Trader expectations' than 'Chaos'.

Yes, this. There is a lot of opportunity to be power hungry and overbearing without going down the Heresy path.

[Taifun_Vash]

No, as chaos you would look more like a maniac, but I wouldn't even call chaos the evil run, dogmatic is the evil run.

[spammdc]

IMHO,
In the game
Dogmatic is often evil in the name of government or religion
Heretical is evil in the name of chaos gods
Iconoclast at times is stupid in the name of good.

If you use the old D&D alignment system IMHO the game is NE, LE to CE in nature with Iconoclast being NG.
So if you do good you are heretical in nature to the Imperium but if you do evil in the name of the God Emperor or the government you are Puritanical.
Someone said in the past this is satire.

Good Luck

[☭KiLLiNJoke-AWEEE!!!]

Spoilers ahead - quote from other post
I have managed to get demon prince ascension without torturin any innocent soul ( whackin imperial fanatics here and there but no harmless civilians), saved population of Rykad, killed Slaaneshite cult on Janus, convinced Calligos to spare Aeldari and managed to get peaceful ending with them. The two moments im gonna change when Lex Imperialis comes out is sendin clean food from Janus instead of corrupted one (after Chorda i dont need another version of crazed lunatics disrupting my main trade hub ) and maybe not sacrificing crew members deceived by genestealers ( in my defense i was totally pissed because i went over my head tryin to improve their life). Yes thru whole story we are guided by Tzeench but it doesnt mean we are his servants - it never mentioned anywhere, we ask for help to Ruinous Powers and can present our ship and entire planets to Nurgle and Slaanesh and corrupt Calligos for Khorne. I never did tho - i killed Vinchenza,helped Calligos, killed Demon of Change and Word Bearer was just smart enough not to get in my way. So yeah, dont know about your campaign, but mine is Undivided with heavy align to Dark Mechanicum - Pasqal best bud,
End quote

You can be independently thinkin anti-imperial insurgent who basically uses his chaos allegiance as means to an end and its still more humane than dogmatic run

[Pierogolepca]

Fortunately there's only a couple of puppy-kicking moustache-twirling lines in the game.
And since the devs added more ways of getting conviction points, you're not even "forced" to pick these lines to reach high ranks anymore.

[Balekai]

"Chaos Run" by definition will always be insane and maniacal. It's the nature of Chaos corruption. Maybe not at first. but soon and very fast progression.

As spammdc suggests DnD alignment wise:

Dogmatic = Lawful Evil, Lawful Neutral and Lawful Stupid, and some Lawful Good when allowed (rarely).

Iconoclast = Chaotic Neutral, Chaotic Good, mostly Neutral Good or borderline Lawful Good (All get Iconoclasts into trouble).

Heretical = Any alignment and immediately dooooooooown the rabit hole to Chaotic Evil and eventually Chaotic Evil Stupid (unless a follower of Tzeentch or possibly Slaanesh but still nuts and extreme).

[✧Starshadow Melody✧]

Originally posted by Balekai:

Iconoclast = Chaotic Neutral, Chaotic Good, mostly Neutral Good or borderline Lawful Good (All get Iconoclasts into trouble).

Well, you know what they say, no good deed doesn't involve running headfirst into trouble and counting on being hot ♥♥♥♥.

[Schlumpsha]

Iconoclast is better described as Cuckolded Self-Harm. No side likes those silly fellas.

[Gorwe]

Originally posted by spammdc:

IMHO,
In the game
Dogmatic is often evil in the name of government or religion
Heretical is evil in the name of chaos gods
Iconoclast at times is stupid in the name of good.

If you use the old D&D alignment system IMHO the game is NE, LE to CE in nature with Iconoclast being NG.
So if you do good you are heretical in nature to the Imperium but if you do evil in the name of the God Emperor or the government you are Puritanical.
Someone said in the past this is satire.

Good Luck

Even better, Emperor would not like you being all puritanical like that. Iirc, he was a staunch atheist and pragmatist(not certain about this one, but it makes sense). Complete opposite of giga dogmatic Imperium.

With that said, isn't Icon more of a Robin Hood, CG? Most likely it is somewhere between NG and CG.

Dogma is LE and Heresy is CE, where is NE here? There is no "selfish criminal" path(even though there is a literal Crime LORD as an Origin haha).

[TaKo]

you're asking if you can be a non-chaotic agent of chaos in a setting where chaos specifically is usually comedically evil?

you can be a heretic and evil without being a cartoon villain all the time sure, might slow your progression of your heretic rank stat if you actively avoid the more cartoonishly evil choices and stick to more neutral evil ones, but you are still serving the comedically evil ruinous powers that is chaos

[Vathek1]

Originally posted by Gorwe:

Even better, Emperor would not like you being all puritanical like that. Iirc, he was a staunch atheist and pragmatist(not certain about this one, but it makes sense). Complete opposite of giga dogmatic Imperium.

With that said, isn't Icon more of a Robin Hood, CG? Most likely it is somewhere between NG and CG.

Dogma is LE and Heresy is CE, where is NE here? There is no "selfish criminal" path(even though there is a literal Crime LORD as an Origin haha).

The Emperor's skeletal remains on the Golden Throne are said to be locked in a permanent silent scream. Most think it's agony from what he is enduring on the gilded armchair (as it did burn Malcador to a crisp with psychic fire). It's more likely that the Emperor has been screaming silently for 10,000 years over the nightmare that the High Lords of Terra have made of his Imperium.

You are correct that the current Imperium is ironically the sort of society which the Emperor, when he walked amongst men, would have staunchly opposed. Heck, if during the Great Crusade, the expeditionary fleets encountered a human civilisation that was a microcosm of the contemporary Imperium, they would have probably wiped them all out as irreconcilable fanatics incompatible with the Imperial Truth, since to Big E, any form of religious worship was both a millstone around mankind's collective necks and a gateway drug to Chaos.

The state of the current Imperium proves that he was right on both counts about the dangers of religious excess, although the Emperor's absolutist anti-religion stance was arguably as extreme as the contemporary Imperium's dogmas. That's one of the things I like about how the lore for the Horus Heresy was fleshed out in recent years--you get a real sense of how the current Imperium was all but inevitable, despite the Emperor's best intentions.

[jonoliveira12]

The whole point of embrassing Chaos is taht you turn into a complete, out of control maniac, in exchange for the illusion of power.

They characterized Heretic very well. It is all the mustache twirling stereotypes.