Forbidden Planet
One of my favourite sci-fi movies is the 1957 classic 'Forbidden Planet'. The story revolves around a machine created by the Krell. These advanced aliens who could make anything they wanted from raw energy supplied by thousands of fusion reactors deep under the surface of Altair IV. This energy could be changed into anything, even physical matter, and it was controlled with their thoughts. However all did not go well for the Krell.
Suffice to say it ends in tragedy. The Krell are long dead. Now 200,000 years later humans are playing about with it. More tragedy follows when a 'Demon of the Id' starts hunting the crew of the United Planets Cruiser C-57D, conjured up by Dr. Morbius' unconscious mind. As he sleeps he has no control over his mind , or the link to the machine, and the Krell machine uses his 'Id' to make a demon, born of his fears for his daughter. The Demon is a guardian; doing what he desires to do, but his concious mind suppresses.
It becomes clear how the Krell died - they we betrayed by their deeply suppressed subconscious mind.
I always loved the concept, and thought it would be a great concept/ model for the warp in Warhammer 40,000. The warp could take the place of the machine and the fusion generators - a source of pure creation energy, and it would be limitless. This energy can be accessed by Psykers, and moulded with the conscious mind to create powers, and in the case of Eldar 'wraithbone'. Apparently all humans have latent Psykers to varying degrees (apart from Pariah) and while they cannot access the warp in the waking hours what about when they sleep?
Untold trillions of humans, and other sentient beings, may unconsciously access the warp. The warp would take the most powerful innermost drives of fear and desire, striped of all reason, and manifest the 'Demons of the Id'. The Daemons would be vague imprints in the warp, unable to gain access to the Materium. This would not be a problem if few people are accessing the warp, but what if trillions of people have the same fears and drives, would they combine to create something that can exist? An entity that could be summoned
Such a being would be extreme in nature, and with an inconstant form that is ever changing (chaos) but in the moment of summ0ning the expectation of the conscious Psyker may go a long way into forming the body the entity will inhabit. This could explain the consistency of daemonic form across the various powers. That they are made in the image seen in the mind's eye of the summoner. These images would come from forbidden books describing them, and depicting them. The artists image would have power, the power to invoke a mental image that then comes into reality.
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Hearing feedback is very important to me in developing my ideas. Much of my designs are inspired, and crafted, by chatting to fans on forums before snowballing into a full concept you'll find here. I would like to thank all those who have contributed critiques and participated in discussions over the years, and I would especially like to thank all those who commented on this specific topic. If you would like join in, you are most welcome!
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And you have just described the basic premise of the warp in Kage-verse and, to a lesser extent, the Anargo Sector Project. The joys of "subconsensual reality," as distinct from consensual reality. Chaos as literally the nightmares of sapient beings. The "emotional feeding" of the gods, something that has always been a bit dubious in my mind anyway, then becomes a product of the fear of the loss of control and outside influence... Yadda yadda. 😀
—Kage