Tzeentch isn’t random.

[Edit: I’m quite aware that Tzeentch is seen as random or that he has no reason for doing things in lore, what I’m trying to get across is that there are many people who genuinely believe that Tzeentch actually is random or does things for no reason like punishing or torturing his loyal followers]

I’ve been a huge fan of Tzeentch for years, I’m a major fan, have a full AOS Tzeentch army, and have started a thousand sons army recently, I love his aesthetic and lore. But as long as I’ve been in the community there’s been a misconception about Tzeentch that I have really hated and I think damages how people see him.

Tzeentch isn’t random, he doesn’t find it funny to make random things happen or torture his high ranking followers by turning them to chaos spawn for no reason, that is ridiculous and for many it ruins the legitimacy of his power and armies. Understand one thing about Tzeentch, he at no point is or was about randomness. He is about convoluted plots, among other things, but his perceived randomness, is just his convoluted plots.

I do believe, and I hate to point fingers, but this is a misconception toted by YouTubers, namely Majorkill, who I appreciate is making jokes and is entertaining, but I know others say this too, that he’ll just “turn you into a chaos spawn for a laugh”.

No, look at a newer video, “why I hate Tzeentch” and hear the harm of this misconception first hand, he says there’s “no reason anybody would follow Tzeentch” because why would you if it risked randomly being punished for no reason.

The fact is, getting turned into a chaos spawn by Tzeentch would only happen to you for a reason, the main ones being, you are part of a bigger plot, your destruction is necessary to create a power vacuum or you have a plan to betray Tzeentch or perhaps in the future you will without you even knowing yet, to which Tzeentch sees beforehand so stops you at the peak of your “usefulness” which is why it seems as though it’s ‘randomly turning his followers into spawn’.

If you are a lowly cultist and are turned into spawn for seemingly no reason it’s likely because you have more use as a beast of chaos than a lowly mortal, otherwise it’s also obviously possible to turn to spawn just by being corrupted enough, perhaps without you even noticing, which obviously isn’t directly related to Tzeentch.

Besides this, there are obviously things like the flamers and mutalith vortex beast, who have been said before do completely random things, that even sometimes harm themselves, like turning people into somebody strong enough to kill a mutalith, or healing them with warp fire.

This isn’t Tzeentch, this is just warp corruption that acts in strange ways, saying Tzeentch is random because flamers use warp flame is like saying space marines love blowing people up because bolt rounds have an explosive in them, it’s just not the case, and is only a byproduct (not to mention modern versions of these units in tabletop don’t even represent randomness anymore and just harm people).

To finish, Tzeentch in my humble opinion, is one of the most fun, interesting and cool parts of all of warhammer across all of its settings, the Change God of plots and magic, not a god of random chaos who destroys his own legions because he finds it funny. The reasons people fall to Tzeentch are incredibly valid, and are closer to real life cults than the majority of other chaos gods, second only to slannesh obviously.