Actually the truth is far simpler then either: The Old Ones weaponization of the warp is what threw it so out of wack, humanity has been feeding into it, but they aren't directly responsible.

Uhm what? How would anyone compare Chaos Legions to Rebel Alliance?

The Rebel Alliance would have to become evil, and make some drastic changes.

So get some spikey bits for your vehicles, guns, armor and dog.
Sacrifice people to the gods, and sometimes you need to sacrifice planets of people at a time.
Get some slaves, and do all sorts of things to them. Hunt em, burn em, eat em...
Summon some daemons once in a while.

Chaos is Evil! It was created as evil, it is designed to be evil, and they look evil. This is how they need to play and stay. None of this nancy boy panzie crap where 'oh poor you, your just misunderstood' syndrome.

Face value fallacy based on the assumption the IoM is "good."

I mean look at how diabolical the common servitor is. Some dude that made a little mistake like theft or something, maybe he said something rude about the Emperor, or hell maybe he fucked up his paperwork and got railroaded by some overbearing overseer. In any case, they get lobotomized and turned into robo slaves. That is some evil shit.

Chaos itself (the entity) is so removed from the laws of mortality (I mean to a daeom death isn't even a real thing) that it can't be measured by our metric of morality. Chaos Marines and Heretics, it depends on how lost their minds are, how deep their sins have sunk, and a whole measure of other things to weigh how evil or morally grey they are. I mean we're talking about a universe where the "good guys" aren't opposed to butchering entire planets on command.

In short, the grey area of this IP is staggering, and Chaos cannot be so simplified. They are rebels, and the Imperium is a totalitarian empire, they are also a faith based upon cruel truths. Don't look at it at face value. Especially if you've neglected their novels.

I'll just copy and paste this from a poster in the Bolter and Chainsword, it's a pretty good analysis of Chaos evolution over the years(The B&C is very versed in the setting.) and the character development leading up to the recent Talon of Horus.

Actually, I think one of the biggest problems with the portrayal of Abaddon through the years has been using Darth Vader as a model. Darth Vader was one of the most powerful figures in a galaxy-spanning evil empire with unlimited resources and man power. One of the things Star Wars did with Vader to establish his character was have him murder his underlings for basically any failure, no matter how small, even if it couldn't have been there fault. He also terrorized and slaughtered entire planets of civillians to terrorize other systems into obedience and tighten imperial control. And all of that made sense for a co-ruler of an evil organization with limitless resources seeking to maintain the control that it already has and looking to isolate and weed out a much smaller resistance with painfully limited resources and manpower.

But in 40k, none of that describes the Chaos Legions. That describes the Empire. So when Abaddon acts like Darth Vader, he just comes off as an idiot. When Abaddon in BFG fires on his own ships, or when Abaddon's master of fleet in Pandorax decides his only hope is to desert the Black Legion because Abaddon will kill him for not magically defeating an insanely superior fleet in a straight up naval battle, when those things happen Abbadon comes off as a blithering idiot, because, unlike the Empire in Star Wars, the Chaos Legions in 40k don't have limitless resources in terms of manpower or machinery, and instead of picking on insanely outgunned rebels, they're going up against an Empire far larger and far more powerful than themselves. Abaddon doesn't have manpower or machinery to spare. There aren't any more heresy era traitor marines rolling off the assembly line. Chaos can't just pump out entire chapters of new marines whenever they want, when they want to recruit it has to be an elaborate, centuries long plot just to corrupt or steal the geneseed for a few handfulls of new chaos marines. And while Chaos has Daemon Forges cranking out ships and war engines, their output is nothing compared to the Imperium, which can and does have the resources of a galaxy-spanning empire dumped into its practically infinite warmachine.

The master of fleet from pandorax should have been expecting a massive reward from Abaddon for holding off a superior Imperial fleet as long as they did, and then getting most of their capitol ships out intact, if damaged, when surprise reinforcements dwarfing both already engaged fleets showed up to support the imperials, but instead, no, the moment he has to back down or risk throwing away dozens of ships and countless lives in a hopeless battle, suddenly its "well, that's it for me in the Black Legion, better beg Huron for aid - oh wait no he shot me guess I'm dead now", and yeah, Abaddon just comes off as a stupid, pathetic, shredder-level cartoon villain in that moment.

Likewise with the casual slaughter and torture of entire planets. In 40k, the Chaos Legions aren't the Empire, they're the Rebel Alliance, and like the Rebel Alliance, the strongest tool they have is the propaganda generated by the Imperium's casual and grand scale villainy, driving well meaning insurgents to the banner of anyone who would oppose that evil empire. Yet why would any such rebels turn to Chaos in 40k when everywhere the Chaos Legions and Abaddon in particular goes, they set about demonstrating just how much worse off the galaxy would be if he was in charge instead?


Chaos in 40k isn't an Empire asserting dominance. Maybe within the Eye Abaddon can play that game, but the moment he sets foot outside of the Eye, he's leading an insurgency struggling to pick apart a superior foe through guerrilla tactics. Abaddon, at least before the 13th Crusade, should be playing the hit and run game - rolling in, causing as much damage as possible, and leaving with as much of his strength intact before the High Lords of the Imperium, panicking at the return of the 'great enemy', and re-route the forces to stop him. Then they should hear Abby laughing from the eye when those forces reach the blackened, daemon-infested ruins of the battlefield to find he's already gone, then find that they've lost even more from the Tyranids or Tau or Necrons or whoever those forces were fighting to begin with before the Lords of Terra pulled them away.

Every time Abaddon rolls into this or that book playing the Darth Vader style 'evil overlord', murdering his best men for 'failing him' by not magically defeating a foe with infinite strength and resources in a straight forward brawl, acting like the chaos marine forces under his command are totally disposable, it just creates this massive dissonance with the position the forces of chaos actually occupy in the 40k lore.

I may be wrong in this but it is at least how I see things. I see the title of this thread and can't think of any traitor legions that fall under that. But instead I think of the Legions who don't devote themselves to the Chaos Gods and reject their "gifts". So under that thinking I'd say The Fallen (Dark Angels traitors; Cipher in particular who aided the Imperium and Dark Angels in very roundabout ways), Blood Gorgons, Night Lords, Iron Warriors and the Alpha Legion I suppose. As for good well good is a hard term to pass in the Grimdark WH40k. The above just don't feel their place is to go along with the Imperium of Man or the Emperor for many varied reasons.
Blood Gorgons weren't feeling appreciated enough and decided not to be Loyalists instead are a Renegade chapter that fuels other rebellions. The Iron Warriors felt similar to the BGs and their tactics being to throw armies of cannon fodder at enemies were disapproved of by the other legions...Wait, that's what Imperial Guard do? Hm...Anyway, the Night Lords methods were regarded negatively and go about dispensing massacres at problems such as killing all positions of authority or just outright slaughtering part of the populace or the entire planet...Wait, Officio Assassinorum (and Death Cult assassins) as well as Inquisition Purging/Exterminatus does those...? I'm confusing myself now.
Even saying all that, I'm eventually going to get around to reading the novels but I haven't yet. So all I know is from wikia and stuff which seem to cover a lot.

Your over exaggerating the severity. Vast majority of servitors are vat grown or cloned from the vat grown. Then there is the select few criminals that have done bad enough things that they are sentenced to this to make up for what they did as death doesn't repair anything they did. They didn't commit a little theft, they are truly bad men of society. Then there is the even fewer that are the innocent victims of someone else's scheme which is unfortunate, but they are akin to Chaos corruption.

Then there is so many that seem to want Chaos to be some benevolent or neutral entities but skip over the fact that they are born and formed from negative/evil emotions, and the wisdom they push down is to do bad things, like torture, mass murder, sacrifice, slowly turn people into the things they hate, and then the mutations which are usually against their will. Lots like to keep saying the Imperium does this too but then they never back it up with acts on par. So no, they aren't born of the dark emotions and then just decide they want to be benevolent as well.

Chaos is badass,s, they know it and people should be afraid of them.

They need to stop trying to turn them into something they are not.
Show me some benevolent actions a Legion has done or even better a Legion that does more good than harm?
That's what the OP is asking for. But over all none of the legions are on the good side.

Alpha legions is my second favored Legion, and a big theme for them is they are still loyal to the Imperium and are infiltrating Chaos. They are some badass mofo's. But, as much as I like them as the infiltrators of Chaos with balls the size of planets for doing it, who's playing who? I suspect they can't actually be successful in their goal and it is the Ruinous Powers that won that match. But I dream that they do, and thats the 'good' part of them.

There are no good or semi good Legions that the OP asked for, and you know there shouldn't be. They were designed to be bad, so well that it is impossible to tweak them even today to make them misunderstood neutral guys. They would be better off just designing a third human SM faction if thats what they want, like SM Chapters that have gone mercenary.

The article is well written but I think the author just makes a poor comparison. The Rebel Alliance doesn't function like Chaos, nor are their perspectives even remotely close.

Chaos is far stronger than this article gives them credit for. For one, they have an endless supply of daemon troops, as well as access to very powerful ones that take small armies to fight. The Chaos faction is not an empire because that would defeat the ideals of chaos. But thru corruption, daemons and any creation factory / forges they have they more than compensate for it.

Then there is Chaos corruption, which usually changes the person drastically after falling. Rebels fight because they were wronged and they are willing to stand up for that. Chaos is all about yourself, how to survive dog eat dog. Rebels are dedicated to a cause and usually they perform it in decent ways, and attrocities are usually not an option to them.

All in all, they are terrible comparisons.

Servitors are a sidenote in lore, and author choice goes into it. But that can be explained as the Imperium being a vast empire, and what constitutes being turned into a robo slave would vary planet to planet. But on some corrupt planet, I am certain that people have been turned into servitors for pissing off the wrong person. In fact, I don't think it would be that rare.

But no, the neverborn are spawned from the unfathomable multitude of emotions in the infinite stew of the warp. Overly simplified, only Khorne's daemons are born of what most would think of as evil, Wrath, Rage, and Bloodlust. The others occupy a huge spectrum of emotional drives, Tzeentch Ambition(and a bunch of stuff) Slaanesh Desire (and excess of a bunch of stuff) and Nurgle is both Death and Rebirth. The God of Plagues especially, though his gifts are difficult to behold, it goes far beyond desperation, for death brings new life, the diseases that grow in corpses, the maggots that feed on their flesh, and the wildlife that grows from its decay. His daemons are benevolent and jolly, a father figure to their hideous denizens. It is fans that decided Tzeentch always betrays his followers, but that is conjecture. He might. Any of them might, but they do other stuff. Tzeentch is a god of many things, and none of them are inherently evil. Magic, Power, Knowledge, Ambition, all standard stuff and standard wants. There is nothing stating that the Neverborn are spawned purely on evil whims, but naturally in a grimdark setting(hell prolly real life too) these are usually the most powerful.

And the Gods rarely, and I've never actually read it happen, actually ask any of their followers to do, well, anything. People/Astartes choose to kill planets, butcher their populace, and torture their prisoners. It can be inferred the gods approve because they reap rewards for it, thou often you are just reduced to a crazed spawn, so maybe they really don't approve of some of these acts afterall. What is known is these acts cause a huge spike in the warp due to the release of souls and outpour of emotions, so it strengthens the Warp around them, thus what can be taken as approval may well just be causational influx, proof of little. They are gods afterall, mortals aren't supposed to understand them or what they really want. Except Khorne, he's pretty straightforward about it. Yet still with him, the mindless slaughter is a flattening of his character, and isn't the only interpretation put out there. Martial Pride and Honor were at least at one point attributed to his character, and a shadow of it exists in even the basest interpretations.

But all in all, 40k is IoM centric. Everyone else pales in the amount of written lore, and only recently have they tried to expand their character beyond "Grr we're evil bad guys and we want to kill everything" because complexity is superior to simplicity in factional development. If you see them as purely villains, then you should at least recognize that giving them depth and character adds to the story. But no, Imperium of Man is at best a lesser evil, the amount of repression, violence, and corruption is staggering.

As for your final statement. I know no such thing. Why should I have to root for the totalitarian state that wanted to force compliance on the galaxy based on lies and hypocrisy? Why should my favored faction have no merit to its cause? You want me to accept a story as black and white even when it's all dark grey. I'll have none of that thank you.

The "Traitor Legions" were wronged and are willing to stand up for that. The entire beginning of the Horus Heresy started with the Emperor's fallacies and his mistakes coming to light. The only difference between the Rebels and Chaos is that the Traitor Legions are willing to stomp right through the morality of whether or not this is okay. So long as it hurts the Imperium, it's A-Okay in their book.
Daemons are all well and good, but there is pomp and circumstance, rituals, etc. necessary to use Daemons outside of the Warp Storms. You have to sunder the veil. It's the reason that the Daemons codex in TT has the Warp Storm trait. It's why they're so rarely mentioned in lore. Meanwhile the Imperium churns out more people than they can throw into the War Machine and, well.

Daemons also take time and energy to summon, often entire worlds for a small horde or using a psyker as a conduit, outside the Eye of Terror they are incapable of easily manifesting in numbers that make an actual difference.

Chaos changes mothers who happen to love their children I doubt a desire for freedom is in any way exempt, and in fact a lot of Chaos feels that it was wronged and that's why it turned from the great crusade in the first place. This isn't even particularly new, rebellions and Chaos Space Marines have been fighting shoulder since forever like the Khai-Zhan Uprising.

As for rebels not committing atrocities....we'll get really, REALLY historical going down that route and it'd be a mess, suffice it to say agree to disagree is probably for the best.