History Fanfic / CiaphasCainWarmasterOfChaos

* LighterAndSofter: Chaos in general is portrayed as this in this fic, at least on Slawkenberg. The positive aspects of the Chaos Gods are reflected in their followers on Slawkenberg: Slaaneshi characters such as Emeli and Krystabael are capable of genuine (if obsessive) love and affection towards Cain, while General Mahlone represents the martial honor aspect of Khorne rather than the typical "savage bloodlust" side typically seen by him. Even Chief Clerk Jafar, the primary Tzeentchian character, isn't interested in backstabbing Cain (although part of this is because he thinks that Cain is far too much of a genius for him to ever successfully backstab). He also utilizes his ambition and scheming capabilities to expand his sorcerous knowledge through more subtle and less harmful ways than the typical human sacrifices and daemon summoning (as both are banned by Cain's edict), and actually appreciates the long-term and practical benefits of turning away from Chaos' less abhorrent aspects. The only exception to this trope where Chaos is concerned is Nurgle, whose followers are depicted as every bit as abhorrent and disgusting as they are in canon, and who both Cain and Slawkenberg's Chaos followers are fully united and opposed against.

''[[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/ciaphas-cain-warmaster-of-chaos-wh40k-parody-comedy-crack.1082970/ Ciaphas Cain, Warmaster of Chaos]]'', is a Ciaphas Cain fanfic by Zahariel.

* BadassArmy: The Unified Slawkenberg Army (USA) combines Khornate ferocity, first rate disciple and morale, excellent equipment and logistics, exceptional physical fitness and the best medical care to produce troops that have won every engagement they've entered and that can keep up with a World Eater chaos space marine.
** The secret to keeping Khornate bloodlust in check is apparently ''utterly insane'' competitive training. Under the aforementioned Former World Eater. Their normal infantry are effectively getting Astartes training.
* ButterflyOfDoom: Without Cain's canonical heroic acts, the situation in the sector is very poor for the Imperium, which means they're far too busy to deal with a "minor" rebellion. Problems he would have nipped in the bud turn into full-blown wars, uprisings, and exterminatuses. It didn't help that the Inquisition's initial attempts to suppress the Slawkenberg rebellion were so heavy handed that they disrupted Guard operations for the entire quadrant.
** The initial difference between canon and this universe is that Cain got himself assigned to be the commissar for the Slawkenberg PDF after the old one died instead of getting attached to an artillery regiment of the Imperial Guard, which led to him being in place to rise to the top of the rebellion. Also notable is that Jurgen is a psyker who got trafficked to Slawkenberg instead of a blank who joined the Guard; the two differences may be connected.
* CallToAgriculture: After numerous failed attempts to assassinate Cain, Inquisition agent Orion becomes certain that Cain still has the Emperor's blessings and retires to take up gardening.

* GoodShepherd: Father Anthony is one of the priests of the God Emperor still practicing on Slawkenberg even after the Liberation. While most of the members of the Ecclesiarchy on the planet [[CorruptChurch were in it for the money and power]], Anthony actually wanted to help people, which pays off when his own followers kept him safe him during the tumult of the Liberation. Whenever we see him, he's providing help and advice to whoever he's talking to, which genuinely makes things better for them.
** How good is he? He gets a rather accurate insight into Cain's true thoughts, and understands Cain's self-loathing. The only other person to see through Cain like this was Amberley in canon.

* TheLeader: Charismatic, but mistaken for The Mastermind. He has the loyalty and love of seemingly the entire population of Slawkenberg, he can unite all the various factions of Slawkenberg and convince them that what he wants is best, and he regularly charms everyone he meets and convinces them that he's heroic (or intelligent, depending on the person). Imperials who end up on Slawkenberg note that without Cain, the entire rebellion would likely fall apart.
** In general, Cain tends to subscribe to the strategy of knowing how to do things by knowing WHO can do things. He, of course, describes this as laziness.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: [[spoiler: Cain's adopted daughter]] already looks likes she's in her late teens despite having not turned ten yet.

* EvilChancellor: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in an almost comical manner by Jafar, who despite having such red flags as: sharing a name with one of the most famous examples of the trope and worshiping Tzeentch, he keeps [[MistakenForBadass overestimating just how shrewd Cain is]] to the point that he routinely talks himself out of any attempts at trying to betray Cain, since surely such a brilliant mind would see right through any plot Jafar came up with....

* FascistButInefficient: The Imperium of Man, it is quite telling that many of Cain's unintentional successes come from telling the people of Slawkenberg to abandon things the Imperium trained him to believe were utterly required for human society to function. As an example, Tesilon-Kappa, the leader of the Liberation's tech-priests, notes that they've been wanting to replace most servitors with trained workers and automation and increase safety in the factories, but their plans were always rejected by their superiors. Once the revolution occurred (and killed their superiors) and Cain told them to implement these things, the factories turned out much more efficient.

* GoodRunningEvil: Cain thinks/hopes he's in this situation, being a secretly loyal Imperial leading a bunch of Chaos worshippers. The truth is more complicated than that, not the least because the Imperium is at its most incompetent here and Chaos is a bit LighterAndSofter than normal.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: [[AvertedTrope Surprisingly, averted]] for the fic's version of Jenit Sulla who ([[EasilyForgiven after one aborted coup attempt]]) concludes that Cain despite being the leader of a group who openly worships three of the four Chaos gods, is still a loyal servant of the Emperor of Mankind, thus giving her a far more accurate read on his motivations than her canon counterpart.

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: What Emeli wishes to give to Cain as she believes he deserves the best for granting her the gift of immortality prior to her ascension to daemonhood.
* AssholeVictim: Cain has summoned a demon to eat an enemy's soul and has turned over a prisoner to a Dark Eldar for "interrogation". These would normally be a MoralEventHorizon. But the first was a Dark Eldar Archon planning to return from the dead to destroy Slawkenberg, and the second was a PracticallyJoker SpacePirate, it's this instead.

* DyingDeclarationOfLove: What most of the people who live on Slawkenberg think happened in regards to Cain and his love interest, lady Emeli, during the initial rebellion. In reality, Emeli is still quite alive though has ascended to full-fledged daemonhood thanks to a gift given to her by Cain himself.

* CurbStompBattle: Jeremiah Smile and his forces flop hard when they try to invade Adumbria. They're no match for the new carrier doctrine the Protectorate employs against them, being overspecialized for fighting the Imperium. The Protectorate takes minimal casualties, prevents Jeremiah's fleet from getting anywhere near the planet or its infrastructure, and destroys, captures, or sends running all of his ships. When his flagship The Murderous Jest gets boarded by World Eater Chaos Space Marine Hektor and a bunch of USA troopers, they breeze through to the bridge without taking any casualties, effortlessly mowing down or corralling all of the forces Jeremiah sends against them, and easily knock him out to bring back as a prisoner.

* AssholeVictim: Cain has summoned a demon to eat an enemy's soul and turned over a prisoner to a Dark Eldar for "interrogation". These would normally be a MoralEventHorizon, but as these were a Dark Eldar Archon planning to return from the dead to destroy Slawkenberg and a PracticallyJoker SpacePirate, it's this instead.

** Raising a daughter so [[{{VoluntaryShapeshifter}} far from the human genetic norm]] has also made him much less bigoted towards mutants, leading him to decide [[HornedHumanoid Areelu's daughter]] must still be acceptable to the Emperor given that [[OurOgresAreHungrier Ogryns]] and [[RatMen Ratlings]] are both allowed to serve in the Imperial Guard.

* ButterflyOfDoom: Without Cain's canonical heroic acts, the situation in the sector is very poor for the Imperium, which means they're far too busy to deal with a "minor" rebellion. Problems he would have nipped in the bud turn into full-blown wars, uprisings, and exterminatuses.

* AssassinOutclassin: Cain fends off an assassination attempt by [[spoiler:Inquisitor Amberly Vail]] with (seemingly) casual ease. He also avoids assassination attempts by [[spoiler:Inquisitor Tannenburg's Agent Orion]] with pure luck (or through something altering fate on his behalf; the assassin's minor psychic foresight was foiled during all of these attempts). Cain's enemies consistently conclude that getting rid of him will cause his Protectorate to collapse, but this is much easier said than done.

* DontCreateAMartyr: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] and [[SubvertedTrope subverted]]. When [[spoiler: Inquisitor Amberley Vail]] winds up on Slawkenburg, they get very close to Cain shortly after arrival, but don't assassinate him due to worrying about this trope. After the Drukhari raid is over, they do more research on the situation, and conclude that this trope probably doesn't apply due to how essential Cain is to the cohesion of Slawkenberg's government, so assassinating him would be a good idea to take down Slawkenberg (and its ideology).

** How good is he? He's one one of two people to understand Cain's Self-loathing and that other person was Amberly in canon.

* TheLeader: Charismatic, but mistaken for The Mastermind. He has the loyalty and love of seemingly the entire population of Slawkenberg, he can unite all the various factions of Slawkenberg and convince them that what he wants is best, and his actions always appear heroic (or intelligent, depending on the person). Imperials who end up on Slawkenberg note that without Cain, the entire rebellion would likely fall apart.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: There are lots of [[InMysteriousWays odd strokes of luck]] that make it appear that someone or something is manipulating things to "help" Cain. It may be Tzeentch, Cegorach or the Emperor . . . or a combination of them. At least some of it might just be luck, but his future being hidden even from warp entities and foresight failing to predict outcomes in his life points to something magical being involved.

* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: Cain does this to [[spoiler:a captive Inquisitor Amberly]], after the Harlequin Leirahaz gives him the Panacea STC from Commoragh, which gives Cain an excuse to deal with [[spoiler:her]] safely and without killing [[spoiler:her]] by having a final dinner with [[spoiler:her]] and sending [[spoiler:her]] off with it. [[spoiler:Amberley Vail]] certainly wasn't expecting such nice treatment after the attempt on Cain's life.

* ThePowerOfLove: Emeli claims this is how she was able to [[spoiler:enter Commorragh and kill the Haemonculus trying to bring the Archon who attacked Slawkenberg back from the dead, thereby permanently killing all of the Drukhari who died while trying to raid Slawkenberg.]] More broadly, her love for Cain attracted Slaanesh's attention (along with the soulstones) and allows her to manifest near him and help him more easily.

* DontCreateAMartyr: DiscussedTrope and SubvertedTrope. When [[spoiler: Inquisitor Amberley Vail]] winds up on Slawkenburg, they get very close to Cain shortly after arrival, but don't assassinate him due to worrying about this trope. After the Drukhari raid is over, they do more research on the situation, and conclude that this trope probably doesn't apply due to how essential Cain is to the cohesion of Slawkenberg's government, so assassinating him would be a good idea to take down Slawkenberg (and its ideology).

!This Fanfiction contains examples of:

* {{Chuunibyou}}: A meta example. The Kabal of Murderous Death is designed around the concept of "what a thirteen year old thinks is dark and edgy", according to WordOfGod.

* EvilVersusEvil: One of Cain's most successful manipulations of the Chaos followers of Slawkenberg (who serve Tzeentch, Khorne, and Slaanesh) is to unite them against Nurgle, who he has designated as Slawkenberg's primary enemy (even more so than the Imperium, as worship of the God-Emperor is at least tolerated as long as they don't become incompetent and corrupt like the Giorbas). It helps that Cain himself is genuinely disgusted by Nurgle and his corruption, and his disdain and enmity towards the Plague God is one of the few motivations he's openly honest about in his interactions with the rest of the Liberation Council. This particular tactic is so successful that when Cain freely gives a copy of the Panacea to [[spoiler: Amberley Veil]], his Chaos-aligned subordinates barely bat an eye.

* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: Cain does this to [[spoiler:a captive Inquisitor Amberly.]]

* ThePowerOfLove: Emeli claims this is how she was able to [[spoiler:enter Commorragh and kill the Haemonculus trying to bring the Archon who attacked Slawkenberg back from the dead, thereby permanently killing all of the Drukhari who died while trying to raid Slawkenberg.]]

* UnequalPairing: Cain is a seemingly normal human. Emeli is a Daemon Princess.

** Raising a daughter so [[{{Understatement}} far from the human genetic norm]] has also made him much less bigoted towards mutants, leading him to decide [[HornedHumanoid Areelu's daughter]] must still be acceptable to the Emperor given that [[OurOgresAreHungrier Ogryns]] and [[RatMen Ratlings]] and both allowed to serve in the Imperial Guard.
* {{Chuunibyou}}: A meta example. The Kabal of Murderous Death is designed around the concept of "what a thirteen year old thinks is dark and edgy".
* CrossesTheLineTwice: The Archon of the Kabal of Murderous Death's throne room is carpeted with [[KickTheDog sewn together infant canids]]. So dark and edgy it loops back around to being kind of pathetic.
* DefusingTheTykeBomb: 100% Cain's sole reason for adopting and raising Zerayah. [[UnreliableNarrator It is most definitely only for that purpose and not because he genuinely cares about her]].

* DoWithHimAsYouWill: The ultimate fate of [[PracticallyJoker Jeremiah Smile]] is to be handed over to the stationmaster of a space station he recently visited. The stationmaster in question reflects on how Jeremiah [[NothingIsScarier had done something unspecified to his daughter]] and [[spoiler: promptly [[BoomHeadshot shoots Jeremiah in the head then and there]]]]

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: There are lots of [[InMysteriousWays odd strokes of luck]] that make it appear that someone or something is manipulating things to "help" Cain. It may be Tzeentch, Cegorach or the Emperor . . . or a combination of them. It might just be weird luck . . . .

* VillainousRescue: For a certain definition of villain. The Valhallan 296th on Adumbria is saved from the Nurgleite monsters by Cain and the (admittedly Khornate) Slawkenberg Army.

* Chuunibyou: A meta example. The Kabal of Murderous Death is designed around the concept of "what a thirteen year old thinks is dark and edgy".

* PracticallyJoker: One of the members of the Bloodied Crown cartel, who is assigned to forcefully incorporate Adumbria into their sphere of influence after discovering that it's not actually dead, is Jeremiah Smile, who has a drug-addled, immensely strong sidekick [[Characters/BatmanBane named Big Joe]], pilots a ship called the Murderous Jest, wears a purple suit of armor, cackles maniacally on the regular, and is noted to enjoy torturing and killing anyone who displeases him in any way, or whom he thinks would be fun to victimize.

* PracticallyJoker: One of the members of the Bloodied Crown cartel, who is assigned to forcefully incorporate Adumbria into their sphere of influence after discovering that it's not actually dead, is Jeremiah Smile, who has a drug-addled, immensely strong sidekick Bane, pilots a ship called the Murderous Jest, wears a purple suit of armor, cackles maniacally on the regular, and is noted to enjoy torturing and killing anyone who displeases him in any way, or whom he thinks would be fun to victimize.