What are the current theories on "What is the Great Maw"?

So far, the things I have seen suggested are:

1) Giant Wyrdstone Meteor
2) Normal Meteor which opened a pit into the molten core of the planet
3) A mighty extra-terrestrial
4) A God
5) A Demon
6) An active volcano and a lot of Myth

I'd have to agree with option 4 - a god. It has all the properties of a deity: it's worshippers can draw arcane power from it, it speaks to its followers, and it feeds on sacrifice. Not to mention the fact that it has bucket-loads of teeth lining it's innards. 

I like to think that before it came to the old world, it was perhaps the god of another people from some far off galaxy. What caused it to come here, we don't know; maybe it was ousted by them or maybe it devoured them, who knows.

I have to admit, option 3 sounds cool and somewhat believable, though.

How about all of the above?

My moneys on the wyrdstone meteor (possibley ousing some ousted daemon ala be'lakor and mordheim). In the warhammer world, gods are literally reated becasue of peoples beliefs and emotions in them. the chaos gods are just the gestalt presence of the planets (universe's?) specific negative emotions in the realm of chaos (rage - khorne, lust - slaanesh, pessimism/hopelesness - nurgle, hope - Tzeentch). Technicaly, if somethig in the warhamer world believes in something enough it can come into being a a god. It could well be a volcano and a god, based on the ogres primitive misunderstanding of the volcano and subsequent deifying of it. I'd reckon that a wyrdstone meteor caused a surge in the winds of magic surrounding the site and the ogres worship of it casued the Great maw god to congeal into exisence in the realm of chaos

thanks
Corai

I like 1. Wyrdstone Metor!! We just can't let the rats know about it!!!

The way I understood it is this:
The Great Maw was created when a huge wyrdstone meteor impacted with the earth.  Now as wyrdstone is physical chaos energy, and much of that energy would be released on impact, this is going to have some sort of warping effect.  Just before it hit, an ogre (forget his name, the first prophet of the Great Maw) said that the a god would soon be coming to the ogres.  When the impact came and most of their race was wiped out, the ogres primitive brains obviously believed that a god had just fallen.  It also caused them all to fell overwhelming feelings of fear and awe.  These feelings and beliefs mingled with the chaos energies of the impact, causing them to be manifested as a huge enty with in the crater (similer to how daemons enter the physical realm).  The faith the ogres had in this "god", as well as the massive amounts of risidual energy contained within it, worked together to tranform it into a god, similer to what Corai said.  So it is a god, but the Warhammer definition of that waord is different than usual, and could really be classified under several of those options.

Or at least that is how I took it.

i would say 1 or 2 maby you could do a voteing link!

In my opinion the Maw is a personification of the unified terror of the Ogre race, at the mysterious, unstoppable object coming at them from the sky. At the very moment of the comet's impact, the terror of the Ogres would have been at its peak. This is likely to have caused a huge prescence to form in the Realm of Chaos.

Now, say the comet was Warpstone, like the one that hit Mordheim. The blast of Chaos energy released by its impact would have done 2 things: firstly, it would have provided huge magical fuel for the terror-entity in the Realm, and secondly, it would have caused immediate and widespread mutation along the impact zone.

I propose that the mutation, directed by the sheer power of the Ogres' terror would have caused the Maw as a physical entity to have come into existence. This is the thing that Groth saw, essentially just a Spawn on enormous scale. There, the terror inspired by what he saw could have allowed a communion with the nascent terror-entity. Then when he returned to the Ogres and spread the belief of the Maw, the remaining terror of the Ogres at what had happened to them would have melded with the image of this monstrosity at the centre of the wastelands. Thus the terror-entity in the Realm, directed by its image in the minds of its worshippers and the images used in its worship would have manifested within the shape of the Maw.

As a final note, I reckon my theory of the Maw as a spiritual entity possessing the creature mutated from the Wastelands, works as there is very little chance in my opinion of an Ogre ever believing in something purely spiritual. Something like the Maw, which has a corporeal existence, would make belief easy.

from what I have heard, and I agree with, it is a warpstone mutated into a great creature, and the ogres can draw from its magics.

 

I think #1, followed by #4.

Mostly like Corai said.
Meteor became a god.

These ideas certainly sound right. So, if I am to understand this correctly, the great maw could essentially be a chaos god of terror or fear? But i suppose its a different god in its own right tho. As a sorta separate question, do you think that the great maw punched throught the planet or just sits at its core? Just some thoughts.

My theory is that the Maw is what could be best described as a "Warp mutated cavern" a really really big one. We've all seen the GW "sacrificial pits" for Ogres, and notice the Huge tusks? as well as on  the gut plates? I think this shows a very real direct symbol of giant teeth coming through the earth. it is a God in the sense that it is greater then mortals and has an unearthly power and conscious. However, it's not a Deity of astral birth, but the unexpected result of an astral event. and unlike the other gods, its form is bound to the earth. Its range of influence isn't very far either, it seems only those few whom have been in the presence of the great maw have been effected by its influence, and are changed and broken when they return. Another thing to look at are the Butchers. Butchers seem to be more shamanic then drawing power from a greater presence, like Wizards using the Winds, or Tzeentchian sorcerers.

just  my thoughts  on the matter

I say none of those! I think he is one of the Old Ones or just some big fat guy!


 thanks Greasus409



 Actually i agree with Uberaris....dude that was deep.

You are all wrong, it is a large bowl of Jelly... Grape Jelly

Wow Uberaris, that kicks the butt out of my explaination.  I think you are right.