So, the Chaos Gods sprang into existence sometime in mankind's prehistory, from what I can gather. Since then, they have been elevating their favourite sentient beings to Daemon Prince status. I have a couple of ideas on some of the historical personages they would choose:

Tzeentch: Aleister Crowley (founder of the OTO, the Great Beast 666)

Slaanesh: Gilles de Rais (luxury addict and child killer), the Marquis de Sade (everyone knows this guy!)

Nurgle: Shiro Ishii (biological warfare prodigy), Shoko Asahara (death cult leader)

Khorne: Ivan the Terrible (laid siege to Novgorod, a province in his own country, just for the hell of it)

So, who do think the Chaos gods would have chosen to elevate throughout human history?

The only ones I can honestly think of would be; Hitler or Ghenjis Khan (spell is wrong I know), maybe some other Mongols, Salamanessar III or Sargon II. But that's probably it. I of course tend to think that it is VERY difficult to become a Daemon Prince, and most cruel or "evil" people will at best fit to become infused with Chaotic powers as cultists or be somewhat mutated. You have to be the stuff of nightmares and beyond to reach Daemonhood.  

Hitler probably wouldnt. He doesnt qualify for the 3 lesser chaos gods, and for Tzeentch he simply wasnt good enough on the intelligence part.

Genghis Khan might qualify for Khorne, yet for his time was he really that depraved/crude in his acts?

Alexander the Great also had his own people write most of the history, but still there quite a few atrocities commited/ordered by him.

I suggest Wittmann. Hed be the perfect Khorne guy, only he was more intelligent for the average berzerker, and didnt use close combat tactics.

This is actually a problem. Khorne is ONLY close combat killing. But ranged killing is everybodies elses job. Even Nurgle does it well. But to qualify for anyone else, you must either be plagued/depraved(mostly sexually) or an intrigue monster.

Humans rarely fit such a narrow scheme.

 Khorne is the God of war.

Berzerk close combat of but one of his facets.

I'm pretty sure someone would "promote" Vlad the Impaler to Daemon Prince.  He committed many, many atrocities, just for his own gratification.

Also, there's no reason you can't have a DP who serves Chaos Undivided.

Cheers,

- V.

I think Vlad would be Khorne.

And Ghengis Khan would probably be more likely to be Undivided. He wasn't really bloodthirsty for the hell of it.

Now Atilla the Hun, he would be for Khorne.

Well Hitler had his zeal for his cause, as do for example Word Bearers and I don't see anyone getting jumped over for having a greater cause.

I also agree that the "Khornate berserker" stereotype is very limiting.

There are however a few Assyrian rulers who I could see would be candidates for at least being Chaos champions.

I would imagine the Emperor tried to swat anyone who got too powerful, there couldn't have been too much else to do in the dark history of Terra.

Of course, in the age of horses you can't just rush to the other side of the globe to kill someone, and their murderous legions.

If Vlad is on the list, Bathory can't get out. Slaanesh seems the straightforward option.

 Hmmm evil and depraved people in history who would have been elevated...

George W. Bush? Bringing an American economy down for meddling in other nations affairs and didn't even bring home the bacon?

Maybe not I reckon...now if he had Iraqians slaughtered to find these weapons and then annexed their oil in order to "help reorganize security" so that Americans could have cheaper gas? That'd be a bit closer to home.

Aaaahh I'm sure a number of military commanders in Vietnam might have made the list during the war because of taking out whole villages to ensure that the kiddies who were also armed wouldn't shoot sholdiers in the back.

Now Hitler would be sort of like the Warsmith in Storm of Iron who was elevated for gaining his goal in the mission. Now if only his forces had broken the back of the invaders at D-Day or the Battle of the Bulge...

Some great ideas so far. Thanks for reminding me about Bathory Lord Ork - she would work perfectly as a daemon prince of Slaanesh. Thanks to everyone else for reminding me of the Assyrians and others - Assurbanipal and some of the other Assyrian kings would be perfect, given their penchant for flaying and impaling their vanquished enemies and then immortalizing their gory acts in literature and sculpture! Vlad the Impaler is also perfect for Khorne, as is Attila, strange I forgot about them!

Couple more ideas - some of the more sinister of the Roman emperors would probably work. As they appear in the literary sources, Nero and Caligula would be perfect as daemon princes of Slaanesh, and Domitian would work well for Chaos Undivided. The tyrants of Syracuse, especially Philaris (burned people alive in a brazen bull) would also be good for chaos undivided. But surely there are more...

You may want to have a check at the colonialism because there are some candidates invovled there. Cortez and Leopold II would certainly fit as manipulative and evil people in my book.

 Rodrigo Borgia a.k.a. Pope Alexander VI = Daemon Prince of Tzeench

Sun Tzu = Daemon Prince of Khorne
 

Really now? Sun Tzu and Khorne?

Not a chance.

I don't see why Sun Tzu wouldn't have been a Khornate. Seems very reasonable to me, as Khorne is the god of war - not just idiot berserkersr charging with axes against machine guns.  

Cortez might qualify as an accidental Nurgle Prince. Afterall the diseases spreading out from his little conquests and thoser of the other conquistadors killed somewhere between 50-70% of the population of the Americas at the times. Entire cultures collapsed and vanished before the Europeans even got there, killed by the advancing waves of disease.