The God-Emperor of Mankind
 This article is awesome. Do not fuck it up. |
- – The Emperor, speaking through Roboute Guilliman right before bitch-slapping Nurgle
- – Abram Tarasov, John Wick
- – The God-Emperor, displaying His flawless logic skills.
- – Malcador to Jaghatai Khan on why Big-E tends to be so inscrutable. Not an unreasonable point, frankly, but really sucks when it's about your dad.
His Imperial Majesty the Immortal God Man-Emperor, Master of Mankind is the figurehead of the Imperium of Man in the Warhammer 40k universe and has been enthroned on (or rather in) a life-sustaining device known as the Golden Throne for the last ten millennia. He is nigh-on unable to communicate or influence things directly, so day-to-day ruling is done without (and too often in spite of) Him. He is the only sustaining hope for Humanity as faith in Him is the only way humans can counter the insidious whispers of Ruin, and the treacherous ways of the Xenos. Furthermore, He powers humanity's only means for safe Faster than Light Travel through the Astronomican.
The Administratum continues to govern the Imperium in His name, but it is generally accepted that the absence of the Emperor's proper guidance is what has turned the Imperium into the hellish mess that it is. In the Imperium, questioning whatever your superior yells at you, is treason and heresy, typically punished by euthanasia (at least in the material realm). He created the 20 Primarchs, who viewed Him as their father. However, this has been complicated thanks to a lot of retcons, with some of the more notorious instances saying He saw them more as tools, sometimes referring to them by number, rather than by name (albeit usually while speaking to his aloof bodyguards or with senior-level members of a faction of cog-worshipping tech nerds who value the excision of emotion and venerate him as an aspect of their god). Yet when speaking to His right-hand man, or the chief of His bodyguards, or a handful of other confidants, He does refer to them as His sons and by name. Furthermore, more recent fluff even saw Him declare this to the Chaos Gods themselves during the Siege of Terra. The release of the first volume of the final book in the Siege Of Terra series, The End And The Death Volume 1, pretty solidly puts the kibosh on any notion that Big-E did not love the Primarchs or view them as His sons, and without wishing to spoil, it actually gives a decent and straightforward, if somewhat banal explanation as to why he could sometimes be distant.
It goes without saying that would The Emperor be up and about in the 41st millennium, He would be very disappointed. Most fa/tg/uys expect Him to speak in a generic deep, stentorian voice. Though many also would expect him to speak more like another immortal who wishes to guide humanity to the path of Ascension, who may as well be one of His past guises. Clearly the cult of the extragalactic alien self replicating space rock thing didn't work out in the end so He had to try another approach. It would explain why he's so fond of impractically large tanks, walkers, mecha, incredibly unaerodynamic VTOLs and bling though. Possibly into fishing.
The Entire History of the Emprah[edit]
Early life[edit]
The Emperor is a powerful psyker and Perpetual; an immortal with countless lifetimes' worth of knowledge and power with the ambition to use it. According to the fluff, the being that would eventually become known as The Emperor was born in 8000 BC in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) on the banks of the Sakarya river to a tribe, possibly in Göbekli Tepe. His appearance was unassuming. From His own account, His path towards greatness was spurred on when His uncle murdered his father so kid-Emps did the responsible thing and gave His uncle a myocardial infarction, or as it's known on the street, a "fucking massive heart attack". Kid-Emps then realised that humans needed laws, and good laws needed to be given by good leaders (which He defined to refer to himself specifically or those He trusted): setting Him on the (xeno/geno)cidal path of self-righteousness and conquest that would continue for the next 38,000 years. Considering that the Imperium's two-headed symbol was used by Hittites, Games Workshop, for all its flaws and pricing policies, can be given credit for doing its history homework. After that, He headed to the first cities of mankind in Sumeria to guide the start of human civilization.
According to Saturnine, one of the Emperor's earliest names was Neoth, in the time shortly after leaving His home and tribe. In the "time of the First Cities" Neoth had become a warlord and king. There He met Erda, a perpetual like Himself, who became one of His closest companions throughout history, by His side up until she caused the Scattering of the Primarchs (so is this a retcon from the story portrayed in "The First Heretic"). Neoth and Erda, father and mother of Primarchs... which begs the question why not all Primarchs were born as perpetuals, considering that both "mother" and "father" were (perhaps it's got to do with dominant and recessive alleles? Like when two brown-eyed parents produce a blue-eyed baby?).
According to 1st & 2nd edition fluff, His birth was the result of hundreds of human shamans committing ritual suicide to be reborn as a single individual capable of protecting humanity from the Chaos Gods. However, the validity of this fluff is frequently questioned, given it hasn't been "official" since second edition. However, this theory seems unlikely, especially given that other Perpetuals are known to exist, some of which may be even older than the Emperor, and they don't have godlike powers. On the other hand, they also wouldn't have had the memories and soul-stuff of all those shamans telling them what to do. (This theory would go a long way to explaining the seemingly contradictory behaviors of the Emperor - all those shamans have disagreements and Big-E has to listen to it all. It's similar to the concept of Abominations in Dune: pre-born children with prescient powers due to being born to a melange ingesting mother - they can access all their genetic ancestors' memories but risk being driven insane without the learned discipline of an adult unless they're like Emperor Leto Atreides or his sister.) That, and how Erda commented that while each Perpetual was immortal and had special abilities, everyone considered the Emperor's powers to be on a completely different scale. So it's perhaps not out of the possibility that a bunch of human shamans did commit ritual suicide and the massively powerful soul manifested in the body of a baby Perpetual. The Chaos Gods apparently view the Emperor as an equal/rival due to beating them at warp poker to steal the power He needed to create the Primarchs (so He would not need to use His own)(see below) and name Him Anathema. Yet other fluff titbits (including a C'Tan who dismissively described Him as a "weapon" rather than a God) imply that He is some sort of flesh-construct from the Dark Age of Technology run amok and aping human affectation (similar to the Eldar's Gods originating as warp constructed weapons made by the Eldar under the guidance of the Old Ones during the War in Heaven). An odd theory to be frank, given the fact that Emps predates the DAoT.
Lore also mentions that He guided humanity throughout history under a number of guises, and many of the probable identities of the Emperor in World History may include but are not limited to Hammurabi (the first man to invent the concept of Written Law), Alexander the Great (the most fabulous conqueror in all of History, with the philosopher Aristotle as his teacher), Julius Caesar (guess why the Imperium spoke Latin), Jesus (as demonstration of his supernatural God-like status and abilities and His sacrifice of Himself for the progress of Humanity, which is a symbolic idea, as pre-retcon the lore leaned towards the Emperor being one of Jesus' disciples), Napoleon Bonaparte (to dismantle the old stagnating monarchies of Europe and replace them with Revolutionary ideals). And, it has to be assumed, Conan the Barbarian (Yup, he used to be an asshole. A handsome, musclebound asshole. At least before he got wiser) and HE-MAN.
Sometime around the 11th or 12th century, He battled a shard of the Void Dragon in modern-day Libya. He eventually defeated it and locked it on Mars, allowing the Adeptus Mechanicus to control machines... eventually. Of course, it's not entirely clear whether this is true or not -- it's entirely possible that ALL of the Emperor's history is a lazily-crafted lie He throws around because no one can debunk it. Although given how Awesome it sounds, we're going to say it is. Either that, or it's just another example of how Geedubs can't be bothered to keep their stories consistent even about the most important parts of the setting. Just remember to take stuff with a grain of salt, since, you know.
Whatever His actual origins might have been, for the most part He more or less stayed out of the way of humanity's progress during the next 30,000 years of history, including the Dark Age of Technology, though new fluff indicates He might have been subtly guiding humanity all that time (including under the aforementioned guises). He also traversed outer space in old-style NASA rockets with the other Perpetuals, eventually coming to find the planet Molech, where He passed through a gateway that led directly to the fortresses of the four Chaos Gods. Here, He stole power from the Chaos Gods (according to them, their minions, and an enthroned Malcador during the Siege of Terra). This would earn Him the ire of the duped/defeated Ruinous Powers, who consider Him as some sort of usurper (and/or that He reneged on some kind of undisclosed deal we haven't been made aware of yet). He would continue guiding Humanity from behind the scenes until the DAoT ended in catastrophe. It was time for a more direct approach, and now, Emps no longer had time to wait.
Unification Wars[edit]
He returned to Terra at the closing years of the Age of Strife. With Terra cut off from the rest of the Human empire and Terra itself ruled by warring "techno-barbarians" in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, E-money decided to reveal Himself, using His mastery of genetic engineering to create the Custodians and cheaper, easier to make Thunder Warriors (the predecessors of the (the predecessors to) Space Marines). Using the classic "join-me-or-die" strategy, He managed to conquer the entirety of Terra during the event called Unification Wars. He also created a sort of proto-primarch called the Angel with the warriors to seal the Daemon Prince Pharaa'gueotla, who had been pulling strings wrecking Terra since prehistoric times. The Angel was also sealed off for being too much of an extremist even for Emps. As His efforts to destroy bad shit and rebuild good shit on Terra was underway, He made contact with Luna and the Mechanicum of Mars. When dealing with Mars, He called Himself the Omnissiah and convinced them to build Him weapons and space-ships. Around this time, He also created a useful lie, the Imperial Truth, which states that religion, faith, and superstition are false and must be banned, because they have all caused great strife for the human race during all of Emps' lifetime. Simply put, the whole "Peace, Love, and Religion" mumbo-jumbo never worked before and now must be eradicated, ignoring or forgetting what happened to real-life societies that tried to throw faith and religion under the bus without molding the society towards abandoning religion willingly (or even trying to do so at all). He constructed this philosophy because He believed that faith in such things was feeding Chaos. It turns out He had it mostly wrong; while a lack of belief in The Four was doing some harm to them and forced-atheism may provide some protection against corruption, religious belief dedicated to something other than the Chaos Gods did a much better job at starving and hurting them. Additionally, emotions fueled The Four just fine, whether the emotions belonged to a believer or not. Since Neoth is now a bona fide Warp entity in His own right, He has very likely realized His mistake.
Exception where's He's not a perfect badass? The Last Church. It is permissible to substitute the voice of whatever angry militant atheist appeals to you most/least for the duration of this one (short) story. Also, according to that same story, this asshole wiped out Scandinavia, right when Scandinavia was getting fun again well well well, considering what they did to the other setting no one here is gonna miss them any time soon.
Great Crusade[edit]
Now that He was in control the Emperor had a relatively short to-do list: He wanted to lead and shape Mankind into a psychic race and surpass the Eldar by learning from their mistakes; unite Humanity under one aegis and allow for instant communication and travel across all human inhabited worlds; and most importantly, prevent another calamity like the Age of Strife or the Fall of the Eldar.
In order to achieve this He had to shelter and protect humanity from the fell hand of Chaos, reclaim every single human inhabited world, spacecraft or station, and eliminate anyone who threatened His vision of humanity in any way.
But before He set out to conquer the stars with the newly-formed Imperial Army (which contained both ground forces and space-borne fleets), He decided to create the twenty Primarchs using Himself as the genetic template (along with Erda's genes), while splitting the additional power He supposedly acquired from the Chaos Gods (Or so the treacherous space cancers claim, though since the Chaos Gods view all the energy of the Warp as their property, they're probably just pissed that Big-E yoinked about 20 daemon princes' worth of soulstuff without the proper rituals) into 20 portions, infusing each piece with a fragment of His own personality to allow them, in turn, to congeal and gestate (just like how daemons are born!) into the indomitable souls of His future Primarchs. Then He bound each such vessel/soul to their godlike bodies/shells as they formed in their gestation capsules. Let that sink in: each primarch is basically a unique quasi-daemonic (angelic?) soul bound to a super awesomely tough material body.
Each of these Primarchs were to have their place: Lorgar was to be the Emperor's Herald and shelter mankind from superstition through enlightenment so that if ever they heard whispers in the dark, they knew it was not natural and to be feared by it, thus denying its embrace. Magnus was to assist the Emperor in sitting on the Golden Throne of Earth, thus powering the human Webway shield (somehow) and becoming a key figure in Humanity's ascension. Horus was to protect Mankind from external physical threats throughout the Galaxy as Humanity's general. Konrad was to be the enforcer of the Emperor's Laws, Mortarion His watchguard of wayward deviancy etc.
It was a good plan for building an intergalactic empire. But the Imperium was only one half of the Plan; the other was the Webway, allowing nigh-instantaneous travel and communication while limiting Mankind's reliance on the warp to almost nothing in the form of Warp travel, thus protecting them against the influence of Chaos. This would also allow Mankind to evolve in relative safety and security under the direct guidance and control of the Emperor. When Mankind was ready, we'd be protected from the warp naturally. That was the final crowning achievement that would bring all the Emperor's plans to fruition and pull all the wayward goals into one singular perfect Great Work. All the sacrifice, all the death, all the heartache, the glory, the battles, the trials and tribulations, 48,000 years of history culminating into that one Plan. And it all would've been worth it because Mankind would've been saved for all time. Worth any price, where the ends justified the means, or so He claimed.
Unfortunately things went off to a rocky start before He even began: since the Primarch's power was apparently stolen, The Big Four would inevitably and continually be pissed at Him for using their power for His own ends and against them. Erda, unwilling to let a perfectly good plan play out, yeeted the Primarch incubator pods into the warp. The Chaos Gods would take this opportunity to scatter them across the galaxy, trying to corrupt them on the way. Luckily for the Emperor, some genetic samples were left over from each primarch, so from that He created 20 Legions to serve as the elites of His army: the SPEHSS MEHREENS.
So, with His armies and space-ships complete (minus the Primarchs, which He hoped to find), He embarked upon the Great Crusade, to restore mankind to its rightful place as rulers of the galaxy.
As He found each Primarch, He assigned them command of their respective Legions to act as His generals, warlords and pantheon of heroes that humanity were meant to emulate, in the quest to unify humanity in the Great Crusade (although, at some point, one of them may have been executed and the other disappeared, leaving only 18 Primarchs and Legions after 100 years of the Great Crusade).
A military campaign of a grand scale, this is also when the SPESS MEHREENS were most awesome and at their peak. Just when things seemed to be going well, Magnus the Red inadvertently destroyed the Webway Project. The Horus Heresy took place as well, where 8.5 of the Primarchs and their respective legions rebelled against the Emprah. It's unknown how The Emperor reacted to these events, but chances are he became very perturbed, angry, hoarse, cursed, mortified, grim, afflicted, lorded over and... less than magnanimous. This would've been resolved instantly if the webway's destruction didn't force Emps to be enthroned and many of His Custodians to sacrifice their lives keeping the demons out of Terra. In the end, the Emperor fought and slew Horus (who was Daddy's favourite) but at a great cost. The Emperor was mortally wounded to the point that He had to be put permanently on a life support system known as the Golden Throne. On that day, an untold amount of manly tears were shed.
"Modern" Day[edit]
Ten thousand years later, without the Emperor's leadership, the Imperium eventually degraded into the theocratic, grimdark empire we all know and love today in the 41st millennium. In the 500th year of the 41st Millennium (the exact middle of the millennium), which is a few centuries before the Time of Ending began, visions and signs reach out to all walks of life and social status to the Imperium of the Emperor crying, whether to lowly denizens of an underhive having dreams about it, to respected sanctioned psykers reading it from the Imperial Tarot, to shamans on feral planets instinctively knowing that the extra rain pouring down lately are tears of sadness from their "sky god".
In the last year of M41, tech-priests discovered that the Golden Throne is failing and if nothing was done... presumably the Emperor would be deader? In any case nobody wants to find out! As the Golden Throne is breaking apart the Mechanicus and certain elements at the top of the Imperium try to contact the Dark Eldar for knowledge on how to repair the thing. The Carrion Throne reveals that a Haemonculus did make it to Terra; he is hunted down by the Inquisitor and the Custodes. The cheeky psycho doctor had absolutely no intention of repairing the thing but wanted to instead marvel upon the largest and greatest psychic pain machine ever constructed, one that made even a Haemonculus stand in utter awe, and look the cadaver buried within right in the eye sockets before both it and the machine ultimately died.
 This article contains spoilers! You have been warned. |
However, with the introduction of Godblight, several nuclear-sized bombshells was dropped. Turns out, the massive vaginal axe wound originally created as Chaos' biggest victory during the fall of Cadia was changed into being an Imperial victory in the end. With the barrier between the Warp and Realspace further weakening, it created a psychic boost to the Empra's power a thousand fold. Oh yeah, and the worship of trillions being supercharged because of the Great Rift is making E-Money actually physically move. Holy shit boys! IT'S HAPPENING! We're in the endgame now!
Anyways, other bombshells include Golden Big Dick Energy suggesting that the Daemon Primarchs could still be redeemed, which kind of kicks Chaos corruption in the dick. Moreover, there is also the fact that the Emperor kicked Grandpappy Nurgle in his STD-ridden nuts where he possessed a dying Grandpa Smurf during the Plague Wars on Iax and set the whole fucking Garden of Nurgle on holy fire, thereby wounding Nurgle and kicking the Chaos Gods several levels down the curb.
As you can imagine, though well-received by many, and especially by Imperium fans, this revelation did not go well with fans of Chaos, as the perceived nerfing of Chaos being the main threat and Big-E literally giving Papa Smurf Plot armor was a tad-bit too much.
Alternatively, rather than a nerfing of the Ruinous Powers, it could just as easily be argued to be a display of the might of the gods of the Warp other than those of Chaos which has been said to be growing of late, in this case, a demonstration of Big-E's increase in power, in particular.
Furthermore, Godblight is far from the first contemporary novel to establish that the power of the Emperor has been growing, but while previously it had been only hinted at, or shown as more minor asides, this is just the first time an overt, overwhelming display was made. It therefore stands to reason that such a powerful blow would be unleashed by Big-E, as this has been building up consistently for years (in and out of universe), and has been a long time coming both thematically and narratively, so take that as you will. Moreover, lest any Chaos fans forget, the ruinous powers regarded the Emperor as an existential threat before the Horus Heresy and feared His power and intentions even then; so much so that they even agreed to work together to fight him. Chaos, pretty much by definition HATES working together, and The Four hate each other to a ludicrous degree and typically wish for nothing more than the demise of each other. A group like that doesn't work together unless there is absolutely no other choice. That was before Big-E became a god, and it's not as though he's gotten weaker in the 10,000 years since.
On top of this, it can be argued that Chaos hasn't been nerfed at all. Nurgle, who had held reign in ten thousand years of stasis, is now returning to a lower place as a great change has come. Tzeentch, Khorne and Slaanesh are certainly stronger than ever (especially Khorne after the recent Arks of Omen campaign, with his Murder Curse). Besides, Chaos has been enjoying boons by their gods and guest appearances by demons for ages. The difference now is that The Emperor has become powerful enough to hit back at the Chaos Gods hard enough to inflict truly substantive damage, and give His followers the same buffs/plot armor (not that this should become some sort of plot armor arms-race). Whether or not that will actually occur remains to be seen however, especially as the Chief Deity would never let one side truly gain the upper hand, for fear of something interesting happening, but with the field levelled now, the potential to do so exists.
Oh, and He might be frequently psychically communicating to this random psyker on Atoma Prime that was abruptly rescued and recruited into an Inquisitor's warband as they go on missions to fight to cleanse and retake the world, according to Warhammer 40K: Darktide...but that psyker's probably just crazy/has daemons talking to them...probably... Then again, some of the tidbits the psyker(s) get are awfully nuanced and insightful (not to mention fucking funny), so probably beyond the repertoire of what a daemon might say, especially about Big-E.
With the conclusion of the final Siege of Terra book. Malcador makes a speech where he claims that the Golden Throne is actually healing him up slowly and he is now basically just waiting for someone to wake him up. Why, then, is his body still mummified and what will happen to the Warp-breach at the Golden Throne should he get off it, and whether it is possible to wake him without ruining the Golden Throne are questions that remain to be answered.
The State of His Gear[edit]
Of course, since the Big-E has been chairbound for millennia now, His gear had also been left in various states of repair and with the return of multiple Primarchs, it leaves one to question their states.
- Armour: Likely damaged and disassembled in some state, since various things from the Crux Terminatus of every suit of Terminator Armour to certain Sororitas relics all claim to house shards of the Emperor's armor. There's no clue how much of it still remains, or how possible it would be to repair it to any state of functionality without Him.
- The Burning Blade: Showed up as a relic in the 6E and 7E Marines Codex, but eventually would be bequeathed to Guilliman after he returned to Terra for his heart-to-heart with Daddy. This was later changed to Guilliman receiving it from Valdor shortly after Big E was interred and Gorilladude assumed the position of regent until he got dunked on by Fulgrim. It's unclear if it entered stasis with him or was unaccounted for in the meantime, but that would only help handwave it as the relic of elden editions. Guilliman notes at one point that it changed sizes.
- The Emperor's Shield: While we have no clue when he used one, if he ever did, it managed to end up in Mirror-Caliban, where it was discovered by the Lion as part of his recovery quest before returning to the Imperium.
- It's possible that given the similar design, it's the tilting shield around his left shoulder in some pictures such as in the Emperor: Endgame section. If so then this highlights the size difference between the Emperor and even a Primarch like Lionel Johnson, or some warpcraft that allows his gear to change size.
- The Emperor's Talon: Uncertain. Ideally, Corax might have it, but we have no clue for sure.
- Given Dorn's lack of a left arm, he might be a candidate for this weapon if he returns. It could be modified into a permanent prosthetic. But Dorn has not shown any affinity for claws before, favoring a chainsword and bolter.
- That would imply Dorn's lost arm wouldn't simply grow back thanks to Primarch's healing factor, like when Nykona Sharrowkyn shot Fulgrim right in his left eye socket but then later on it simply grew back.
- Given Dorn's lack of a left arm, he might be a candidate for this weapon if he returns. It could be modified into a permanent prosthetic. But Dorn has not shown any affinity for claws before, favoring a chainsword and bolter.
- The Emperor's Bolter: According to Master of Mankind, the Emperor has an ornate bolter that fits at his hip. A progenitor of its kind. Nothing else is known including its current status. The Emperor certainly didn't use it very often given his sword, claw, psychic powers, and lack of mentions elsewhere.
- Given the Emperor's massive size, it can be assumed either its grip is proportionally massive or he psychically levitated it to fire. In any case, even an Astartes or Custodes would need Power Fist sized hands to even hold it properly. If Dorn returns and gets a large prosthetic hand, this may be his new left hand weapon. That is unless it has similar size adapting capabilities like the Sword.
- Veracity: Known as the Sword of Oblivion, a two-handed Execution Blade which big E once wielded before giving to Jenetia Krole. Now a relic of Sisters of Silence.
- Bucephelus: Big E's super duper golden Battle Barge. Its status is currently unknown, but if it survives then a chapter that has lost their Gloria battleship like the White Scars or Raven Guard might be allowed to use it.
The Emprah Himself[edit]
- – The Emperor (maybe) to Konrad Curze
- – Roboute Guilliman giving a short, yet accurate, biography of the Emperor.
- – Montu Plays
After He shaved His goatee, His chin radiated a brilliant light through the Warp. The Imperial Navy uses this light as a beacon to guide them through that beautifully terrible place. He is sometimes referred to as the Emprah, a joke derived from the voice acting in the Dawn of War game, Soulstorm, specifically Indrick Boreale's final speeches.
It is common knowledge that the Emperor is the most powerful psyker alive around, humbling even the Eldar. The Emperor is said to be so powerful that He could destroy suns with ease, though He has never actually done so (However, he made a golden sun which he put in the middle of his broken Webway gate to prevent daemons from spilling through, albeit needing to concentrate on powering it for the next ten thousand years. This would indicate that the Emperor does indeed have the power to destroy stars). The Chaos Gods are scared as fuck of the guy, calling him "The Anathema", as in the polar opposite to Chaos. Their fear of him cannot be overstated: during a discussion between Ku'Gath and Mortarion, you'd think Ku'Gath was referencing Morgoth. The idea of his gathering strength terrified Ku'Gath to the point he feels they're dead if he's active and won't even say his name; whatever Emps is, Chaos is THAT scared of him. The Eldar fear that if the Emperor were to die, a new Eye of Terror would pop out with Terra at its center and possibly a new Chaos God would be born.
He was also capable of summoning what can only be called an army of human souls (including every soldier who had died for him, Ferrus Manus included) to fight for him, an ability utterly unseen in the 40k universe and suggesting that he has some fundamental connection to human souls in the afterlife - a comforting thought compared to dissolving into the Warp to be eaten by daemons and giving some credence to the 40k era theory that when the Time of Ending ...ends... the Emperor and all loyal human souls will join in one final battle against Chaos.
It is also suggested that He has guided humanity in a guise of people like Julius Caesar, Conan the Barbarian, Chuck Norris, Christopher Lee, Tommy Wiseau, Keanu Reeves, and Jesus.
Overall the Emperor has always had a strong desire to protect and shepherd humanity, even if his methods are a bit... unorthodox. His desire to guide and protect humanity in addition to his power and foresight made the Emperor as close to a Farseer as humanity was ever going to get. He declared humanity to be superior to all Xenos which was fair enough considering the collapse of the Eldar, planned to destroy every shard of religion by force of arms if needed in order to protect them from the whispers of Chaos (though at the time he got the whole thing backwards, since said religions were starving the Chaos gods), planned to reunite humanity under His rule no matter what anyone else wanted/thought of that (again by force of arms if needed), loved the Primarchs as his sons (, carried out many unorthodox, morally questionable experiments and much much more... all because this was the only way He could foresee humanity surviving the threats to come. Also known as the "Golden Path".
His reign killed more humans (some of whom were unfortunately either innocent or collateral damage in His wars) than the entire total of all of humanity's dictators in history (ironically that may have been past personas of the Emperor). Even during the Unification Wars, several Terran cultures were wiped out completely (Orioc on Antarctica, for example, was razed to the ground for being religious, just to make a point, after greeting a join-or-die overture by the Imperial Heralds with gunfire). Because THAT is just how damn important and dire the circumstances were. An entire galaxy spanning empire needed to be constructed in little under two centuries when the cataclysm was foreseen to occur. He and (most of His commanders tried peace whenever it was an option, but He wasn't gonna lose any sleep if He ever had to come to blows with those who refused His Imperium.
Contrary to popular belief, he really did think the post-Ullanor phase through to some degree; Horus was the right choice as Warmaster for no other could command the respect of nearly all his brothers better than Lupercal the First, and Dorn as Praetorian was as correct a decision as was possible to make considering that his talents were put to good use throughout the Heresy that followed. There was no need to put a Primarch in charge of the Council of Terra for the Primarchs were not made to rule, but to serve as generals in retaking the galaxy since his goal was for humanity to be governed by humanity (as he clearly said to Lorgar in "The First Heretic", "This is not my Imperium, it is humanity's". Primarchs like say, Guilliman, though perfect as administrators, were better suited and needed as generals for the Great Crusade. Additionally, the whole theory that the Emperor wanted to dispose of the Primarchs and Astartes once they ceased being useful is utter horseshit. For starters, the Siege of Terra series has pointedly states Big E's intentions for them post-Crusade. Secondly, Emps built 20 living rooms for his sons in the Imperial Palace. Lastly, it's laughable to assume that the Emperor would put as much time, effort, and resources into the Primarchs only to kill them off once the war was over. Either way, it's bewildering that no one in the military saw the need for human administration; having godlike Primarchs in charge at the top only serves to increase superstition in a secular galaxy when the idea was to rid humanity of religion and superstition in order to better protect it from warp predation (no matter how bad that idea played out in practice).
After Big-E was nearly killed by his favourite son, He was placed upon the Golden Throne and hasn't moved for the past 10 millennia, presumably because he later died (why he hasn't come back to life despite being a perpetual is a highly debated topic). Most of the fluff maintains that His mere existence since then has been living hell (by comparison, the torture astropaths go through when becoming one would be like a trip to the dentist). It's the mother/father/uncle/2nd Cousin of all mindfucks, so bad that even an Inquisitor would likely go insane as a result (or anybody else for that matter)... and yet He carries on. Why? He may be the universe's most powerful vegetable, but that doesn't mean that he will just sit there and remain dead. Oh no, it's exactly the opposite and death's not the handicap it used to be, because it gives Him a fuckton of work to do. Along with being THE lighthouse in the Warp, guiding the Navigators, he also needs to make the aforementioned astropaths, as well as keeping all the nasties of the Warp where they're supposed to be (i.e. not invading realspace to make the lives of all living things miserable). He also does it for the good of humanity (sounds kinda familiar, doesn't it?).
While interred on the Golden Throne, the Emperor's psychic-essence prevents daemonkind from directly assailing Terra through the broken remains of the Imperial Webway (in the form of a golden sun), while additionally sustaining and managing the psychic-beacon known as the Astronomican, that makes warp travel within 50,000 light years around Terra possible.
An interesting theory is that if Emps was born of a group of psykers combining their might and souls in one ritual act then maybe Empy has gained all human souls since he got put on that Throne {see: leveling in Dark Souls), as he is the afterlife now, provided one excludes the veritable Hell that is the Warp (and all that stuff the Eldar get up to).
A question that remained unanswered for a long time is that, is the above thing the only thing he is capable of doing these days? Or can he communicate with others? In the past few supplicants were allowed an audience with the Emperor though the fluff's always been iffy on whether or not they talked, or if it was more a spiritual visit to a shrine. The recent advance in the timeline revealed that the newly revived Guilliman had an audience with him for a whole day in which they did talk (and he still seems to have some sort of connection to the Custodes), so yes, he can. But then, what is he waiting for before waking the sleepy beauty up? It could be that he literally couldn't talk to anyone before that, considering that even Guilliman shuddered at the thought of the mental sandblasting that was speaking with the Emperor. It's possible the same communion might destroy a mortal, or kill the comatose Lion by accident. Perhaps the only thing stopping the Emperor from direct governance of the Imperium is his psychic voice delivering the equivalent of an Ordinatus blast every time he uses it, so he cannot chastise the incompetence of the High Lords for fear of killing them outright.
Speaking of talking to him, when Roboute was revived from stasis and finally got to Terra to talk to dad, Roboute noted the Emperor regarded him with the interest one would regard a tool. He also reflects on how he feels that the Emperor's psychic might has grown since his death, but that his humanity has gone as well, to the point that Guilliman thinks that even if he is a god he doesn't deserve to be worshiped. However, following the Plague Wars Guilliman has considered the possibility that his ascension may have been a plan B for humanity following the failure of the Imperial Truth, and both Mortarion and Ku'Gath believe the Emperor is gathering energy to create what they call an "Unliving Legion".
- – Magnus the Red
In contrast to the above quote, the Emperor (and the Imperium as a byproduct) fucking hates aliens, for good reason. During the Age of Strife numerous Xenos races exploited humanity's trust and either raided, lollygagged, looted or all of the above and were generally a nuisance the entire time. Then the Emperor comes along and decides that the best way to stop all that from happening again is to wipe out all Xenos that might even think to pose a threat to the fledgling Imperium. However, those few Xenos species that did not pose an immediate threat to humanity were usually made protectorates similar to the Tau government (unless they resisted, were in the way, or influenced human culture at all). Ever since His ascension, the Imperium mostly forgot about the part where harmless aliens could be tolerated, but on the other hand, the most common xenos are massive dicks and aren't exactly willing to buddy up with the Imperium themselves. Plus, at least according to Horus Rising, the idea of letting Xenos exist and then eventually grow stronger is wrong on every level to the Imperium (hence the whole mess with the Interex/Diasporex).
To be even more fair (and meta), the triumvirate of Horus Heresy authors tend to have their own interpretation of the Big-E. Graham McNeill generally portrays Him as competent and benevolent (if flawed), Dan Abnett portrays Him as competent but bloodthirsty, while Aaron Dembski-Bowden portrays Him as a vicious, needlessly cruel imbecile (and even this is counterbalanced by his portrayal in Master of Mankind, where he's interestingly a mixture of all the previous portrayals at once - which is kinda of appropriate really). Chris Wraight, as far as he has portrayed Him, has done so through the eyes of Jaghatai Khan, showing Him as deeply flawed and distant from His own sons, but also countering that He was working towards goals even the Primarchs couldn't fully grasp. Even in Path of Heaven, where the Khan gets close to learning the secrets of the Webway project, he's shown to not have all the cards (the Emperor's knowledge that humanity is evolving into a psychic race, for example).
On His Strengths and Flaws[edit]
- – The Emperor arguing with Uriah Olathaire, proceeding to be wrong
The Emperor is a hardcore utilitarian who believed that the ends justified the means, with an iron will and singular dedication to His goals. These traits created an empire that elevated an entire species into a galactic power and have put up quite the fight against galaxy-level threats. Unfortunately, it also contributed (though not entirely) to alienating many of His trusted comrades.
- The Emperor's plan (and its approach) belied a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature and an insufficient ability and/or desire to properly understand it. He could never truly understand that Mankind wasn't just a species, it was a group of infinitely varying individuals each with their own goals. He also failed to take into account that the species He loves cannot see the future like He sees it. He's an immortal being with near-infinite knowledge making plans for very flawed, short-sighted mortals who each act independently and have very different ideas from Him about what they actually want in life. That's always going to be an impossible task to foolproof, and even if it was possible it would end up shackling people's needs, wants, and desires to a "collective good" with a dubious connection to the people it allegedly represents. In the pursuit of Mankind’s salvation just about anything and anyone was expendable, including Big-E Himself. While this extreme devotion to Mankind is great for forging it into the empire it needs to be to survive a hostile universe, such singular dedication isn't suitable for those who aren't ready or willing to pay such a price, especially to those without the vision Emps had. The only empire that can inspire such fanatical devotion to the cause so uniformly is a tiny one led by a few people who're effectively using mind control by unknown means. Emps didn't have access to this and for very good reason didn't want that to apply to His creations. Emps was asking people to pay a steep, immediate price for a long-term and functionally invisible good; a good that only distant authorities are trusted to define, and to compel others to pay for. Even before the Heresy began, it was clear that this approach was far from universally popular, especially among those who survived the Age of Strife just fine. He didn't know how to smooth over this plan (or care enough to do so) to His detractors in any way other than demanding total obedience as a result, which caused growing pains throughout the Crusade in many regards. In all fairness to Emps, He wasn't really capable of showing much particularity by the time the Crusade began because as mentioned before, He's a Perpetual who lived for tens of thousands of years. Even if He wasn't the leader of a galactic empire spearheading a plan for an entire species, the ability to live forever would seriously fuck with His ability to care for any one person (an issue that any Perpetual was explicitly shown to have faced). And while Emps was still capable of showing individual love and tolerating the quirks that made humans unique (even in cases where it wasn't crucial to His Great Work), by the Siege of Terra He had to largely remove such emotional attachment or else it would get Him killed or driven insane, hence His apparent demeanor towards Guilliman and The Lion. 10,000 years of excruciating pain doesn't help much either. Lastly, to His credit, most of His predictions did come to pass (while some of His greatest fears were averted due to His actions). He was on the right track, but how He went down said track caused Him problems.
- His hostility against religion was a mistake. The Last Church had the Emperor justifying much of His anti-theism with r/atheism-tier arguments. These have been debunked with extreme prejudice, and making matters worse is that Emps lived through the historical periods that demonstrated the falsity of His arguments. In a hilariously ironic twist, Emps and His early Imperium have contributed to the fact that state atheist regimes have far more innocent blood on their hands than ALL theocratic regimes in all existence COMBINED! Additionally, IRL state atheist/anti-theistic regimes have a batting average of 0 when it comes to civilizational health and longevity. The Imperium wouldn't have been exempt from this. If Emps and His government waited too long to decide Mankind no longer needed to be sheltered by this 'noble lie', humanity was looking at the total societal collapse awaiting every atheist regime, or everyone ignoring the rule and calling Emps a god instead. Either way, it never would've stuck. The other major issue is that the Imperial Truth was a lie. Deities, their underlings, and the supernatural exist. That toothpaste was never going back in the tube after Old Night, and even Emps admitted that much of the Warp's deleterious effects were public knowledge already. Trying to gaslight the public into thinking it didn't exist left them caught with their pants down when Chaos made its move centuries later during the Heresy. And Chaos is dangerous even if you don't know about it. Perhaps, ESPECIALLY if you dont know about it. Last but certainly not least, religion (specifically the Imperial Creed) turned out to be a crucial ace in the hole AGAINST Chaos. It's long since been established lore that the Imperial Cult is the only thing keeping the Imperium unified and functioning. The End and the Death Part III went a step further and made that strength boost granted by the prayers of all humanity the reason why Emps even won the duel and saved Mankind at all! Don't go around giving Lorgar too much credit, though. He might've made the religion that kept Mankind alive up until now, but his actions also created the very situation that made the Lectio Divinitatus necessary in the first place. On a side note, Emps hated religion, but behaved and functioned exactly like the gods He told Mankind to stop worshipping (obey me or you're a heretic who will be smote) and used religious terminology on several occasions. For an atheist, He played the part of a god hilariously well. Just in case there wasn't enough irony already.
- While the atheism/anti-theism was a total failure built off of faulty premises, the censoring of Chaos wasn't as much of a mistake as detractors claim it is, largely because they're missing critical information. What they don't know -but the Emperor does- is that Chaos is a memetic hazard. Even knowing about it puts you at risk of corruption. If Emps decided to tell everyone the truth about Chaos, nobody would be able to stop thinking about the fact that 4 evil gods are real and can influence reality. He'd also have to gamble the fate of the entire species on each and every one of them having the strength of character to deny the whispers of Chaos no matter their personal circumstances, emotions, and flaws. All of which the Dark Gods exploit for fun. How many people do you think are gonna fail that metaphysical vibe-check? Now anyone who's read the lore, used social media, or has life experience knows the darker aspects of human nature quite well. The Emperor has seen the bad shit Mankind is capable of for THIRTY THOUSAND YEARS! Why would He ever trust people with such dangerous information? Telling everyone about Chaos might be an option in a tiny, hyper advanced and/or post-scarcity empire of highly trained psykers with warp-dampening gear/techniques, midgets genetically engineered to resist Chaos, or a human-xeno faction tutored by the Eldar and ripped out of star trek. It is NOT an option if you're in a mad dash to reunite a flawed, traumatized, galaxy-spanning species brought to the brink by several internal and external threats before they go extinct. Knowledge of Chaos also doesn't have the track record that advocates of such a strategy are hoping for. There were people in 40K who knew of Chaos, but knowledge didn't stop them from being witting or unwitting pawns of Chaos. Hell, those individuals did catastrophic damage just by themselves. 'FUCK EREBUS' is one of the most popular phrases in the fandom as proof of this, but there's plenty of others. The Cabal knew about Chaos, and ended up duping two Primarchs, their legion, and almost handing Chaos the W as part of their fucked plan to kill Chaos via accelerationism. Erda knew about Chaos but knowingly aided The Four to such an extent that it made the Horus Heresy possible. Magnus the Red knew about Chaos (though he and his advocates wrongly claim otherwise) and fucked up the Webway project, permanently destroying Mankind's one chance at a better future. Typhus knew, and arranged the corruption of Mortarion (who himself got more corrupted by studying it) and the Death Guard to Nurgle. Lorgar learned about Chaos and what would happen if he served it, and his reaction was to chug that Kool-Aid by the gallon before arranging a scheme to serve it to others or drown them in it if they refused. Those are just the most famous ones, but there's far more. Point is, a few people can condemn an entire species. What happens when thousands get corrupted? Millions? Billions? Chaos presents a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' scenario. If you tell everyone a truth they're not ready for, you supercharge beings empowered by simple awareness of them and make it easier for one bad apple to spoil the bunch. If you keep it a secret, you leave your forces ill prepared to fight against the bane of sentient life. The Imperial Truth was a way to minimize the possibility that people even know how to follow Chaos, and deny the Chaos Gods some of the power they so desperately crave. It left Mankind unprepared for the fight of its life, but adopting the opposite strategy would've cost them the entire war before it ever started...
- On a side note, religion and the Imperial Creed can be co-opted by Chaos. The most prolific example is the Siege of Terra with Cor'Bax Utterblight using the Lightbearers to physically manifest into the Palace by subverting their Emperor worship towards Nurgle instead. That scheme could've brought Mankind to its knees right then and there, and Chaos has kept trying to pervert the Imperial Creed to its own ends ever since. In the Emperor's mind, worship of Him is not a viable long-term strategy because Chaos could hijack such (or any) worship for its own ends. Thats why Big E pushed so hard for the Imperial Truth. Additionally, Emps actually hated playing the role of The Emperor, much less making people worship Him.
- For a guy who says He's trying to avoid the same mistakes the Eldar made, His obsession with human supremacy and the supposed "purity" of the human form (as defined by what, His own opinion?) are almost indistinguishable from the pre-Fall Eldar's certainty that they were the rightful rulers of the galaxy. His 'my way or the highway' views regarding Human supremacy made the fight against Chaos and objectively evil alien species much harder than it needed to be. While the Emperor's xenocidal HFY policies were an understandable (and arguably justified) reaction to the fuckery of Old Night that aliens heavily contributed to, it also made enemies of alien species that could've been reasoned/allied with like the Eldar and Tau, along with the Interex and Diasporex. Each of these species (and others briefly mentioned or ones we didn't even know about) have massively aided the Imperium's efforts against the galaxy-level threats, or at least had this potential before the Imperium killed them. Unfortunately, this isn't Star Trek, and many of these aforementioned species except for some like the Diasporex all had their own aspirations of Empire and/or retard moments. And to be fair to the Imperium, the Interex could've been allies if it wasn't for Erebus' fuckery and the Interex's inability to distinguish who actually was corrupted.
- Whether due to a need for expediency and/or an inability to understand a different perspective, the Emperor played some part in driving away the lynchpins who were His sons.
- Lorgar knowingly and directly disobeyed the Imperial Truth, and continued to do so for a century even after being personally ordered to stop by a man he sees as GOD. The fact that this led to a pathetically slow rate of conquest that Emps could NOT afford meant that censure was the only way to send a message. That being said, the Emperor chose the worst way possible to chastise someone with a fanatically misguided way of demonstrating loyalty. It was such a colossal failure that the incident can be identified as a point of failure that caused the heresy. What might be completely inexcusable was how someone as drenched in corruption like Kor Phaeron, or someone as darkly anointed as Erebus, could have escaped the Emperor's attention on Monarchia. The whole thing surrounding this is pretty dumb when one examines it closely, but the plot had to happen and Aaron Dembski-Bowden was writing it.
- The Emperor forcibly teleported Angron away from his comrades and left them to die before telling him to move on, even when a vastly better solution was easily achievable. Then, He put someone with terminal cybernetics-induced brain damage and a grudge against his father in charge of an Astartes Legion. All of the World Eaters' many victims would pay the price for such recklessness. Once again, take one guess as to why Emps made such an uncharacteristically Stupid Evil decision. While Emps' actions as written are inexcusable however, so was Angron's treatment of his sons and civilians.
- While Fulgrim (like every Primarch) received a rudimentary education on the Warp and learned more about it by virtue of being in contact with it every time they travelled it, such education was nowhere near enough to help him know the nature of the Slaaneshi demon-sword he was picking up. However, Fulgrim lacked the sense to drop a sword that's suddenly giving him intrusive thoughts he never heard before. Worse, he was arrogant enough to let Fabius Bile experiment on III legion gene-seed with Laer genes instead of tossing anything associated with that into a sun BEFORE he ever found the sword. The latter revelation makes his fall to Slaanesh look dangerously inevitable.
- Konrad Curze was obviously insane and Emps should've given him help (an opportunity which was present for 100 years) rather than leadership. Much of this blunder boils down to the fact that Emps was on a deadline to make the Imperium strong enough for what was coming, or else it was game over. Communications also became more difficult as time went on and the borders expanded, meaning information on how Konrad was holding up barely reached Emps. Hell, comms and the tides of the warp were known for being fucky and unreliable even at the best of times. He had to rely on Fulgrim being a good tutor to Curze, and by all accounts it appeared that this tutelage worked if his crusade record was anything to go by. By the time any concrete bad news would emerge about Curze, it was far too late. The Night Haunter for his part wasn't making things any easier, between his evilmaxxing, absolute belief in fate, his methodology, and the extreme misanthropy that justified such behavior. And thanks to his support of the rebellion that would tie up his father and enthrone Him, Konrad ensured that he'd never get the help he needed.
- Perturabo is a cold, spiteful monster with a siege mentality and martyr/victim complex only rivaled by Magnus the Red. The Emperor not gleaning such a dark personality from his psyche earlier and putting him in charge of the Iron Warriors was a mistake that humanity would pay dearly for. The Emperor giving Perturabo some more credit for his efforts in the crusade wouldn't have hurt. Then again, Perty not being petty enough to have a nice-guy™️ personality reliant on praise (along with doing more to earn said praise than demonstrating a horrific disregard for life and comradeship) would've been nice.
- Horus had a number of concerns regarding the post-war Imperium, particularly the fate of the Primarchs and Astartes along with mortals ruling the empire. None of them were valid, and could've been easily dismissed with some logical reasoning and emotional maturity. Emps deigning to loop in His most favored son wouldn't have hurt, either. But that vanity, pride, and desire for other people's adoration brought to the fore by the murder-poop knife on Davin turned Horus's concerns into a justification for a full-scale betrayal. Making this even more fucked is that he KNEW the Chaos Gods were deceiving him but sided with them anyway.
On another note, the fact his ossified self has managed to shed tears and there was an incident where everyone across the Imperium saw statues of the Emperor weeping tears of blood due the incoming disasters of the End Times means that He is either weeping upon reflection of His mistakes, weeping for the fate of humanity, weeping for the dream that was lost, or weeping from the pain of being enthroned. Which one is the case is up to personal interpretation. Roboute Guilliman after his revival met the Emperor and feels He treated Guilliman as a mere tool without showing even the faintest display of affection or care for him as a person. It later turns out in Godblight that Guilliman's meeting with the Emperor was what can only be described as fractally confusing in nature. You see, when referring to Guilliman, Emps uses all sort of descriptions, from "my son" "my last hope" to "betrayer" and "failure"- all in the same exchange, making it impossible to tell what, if anything, the Emperor actually feels towards him. In every single novel of the Horus Heresy we see E-Money seen differently through the eyes of different characters. To the Adeptus Mechanicus he acts like the epitome of passionless logic to the point of seeing his own offspring as disposable tools. A similar thing happens with the Custodes, where they see him as their king, with them being His favorites above the Primarchs. On the other hand to Malcador he acts like an old friend who he can confide with, and we don't even need to begin with the Primarchs and the Space Marines, being a father-figure and patriarch to them, or the citizens of the Imperium, whenever he appears to one of them he looks like what they want him to look like, a glorious superb leader, a kind if stern master (Uriah Olathaire, Kai Zulane, etc), the incarnation of all that is good in mankind. Point is, The Emperor is largely mysterious both in and out of universe; who/what He is and what He's thinking is mostly an enigma and trying to figure it out is exhaustive. God (Emperor) works in mysterious ways.
A god you say?
We may consider the following: every single human group has a tendency to see the aspects they feel most appealing in their deities; the Emperor can make people do exactly that, and unlike Belisarius Cawl who needs to upload the specific personality in his databanks for the specific situation the Emperor's glamour automatically makes most people see what they wish in him. Simultaneously, back to Guilliman's pointing out what's going on, Emps is simply trying to be cool with everyone, even if that means falling to each specific group's personal antipathies and prejudices, since he has to be the god... like ruler of mankind of course he had to do this; he is playing the politician, the manager, the candidate, the family guy, the not-priest of the congregation, and while he may still have some personal preferences and quirks TTS-style back in 30k he had to put them aside (loves no man), and by 40k it seems there is barely anything left of his original personality when occupied with his main task (loves mankind, and mankind needs him to be their god). It may be that even back during the Great Crusade this attitude is what ended up allowing the followers of the Lectitio Divinitatus to pull the miracles they did; He just provided the psychic equivalent of earthing for mankind to start creating a real god out of him and ultimately it may be he ended up running along with not really many options left. But then this leads us down the theological and philosophical debate that's raged in the Dark Imperium series: what makes a god a god? Is worship all that's required? Is power and worship? Is it just power? Is it results, power, and worship? Is it none of it? When the man says he isn't a god, is he still a god? If Mankind has forgotten that he is just a man and has worshipped him for longer than civilization has existed in real life, does that make him a god nonetheless? If he is a god, he's an incredibly flawed god, hardly benevolent, arrogant and cruel, and couldn't make a divine plan to save himself. If he's not a god, then he's a tragically complicated almost unknowable person that had plans that exceeded his considerable ability, and a man of such vast power and near incalculable knowledge as to be far removed from anything remotely human. Is he a god or is he not a god? That decision is ultimately yours to decide.
tl;dr He was a horribly flawed but still well-meaning OCD workaholic with a "The needs of the many" outlook on life meaning he couldn't afford to show trust, love or compassion to anything but mankind as a whole (and even that in only the most abstract sense), not even his "sons". Ultimately his inhuman perspective prevented him from understanding the human condition, and his inhumanity was a large contributor to the Horus Heresy being as terrible as it was. If you have experience in pedagogy, he is your typical working dad who can't spare time to raise sons and makes *very* bad, fatigue influenced decisions, and after they grow up, wonders why they grow to hate him/be distant. Add the lack of a loving mother figure for the kids, and well... Though to be fair to Big E, that previous bit was not his fault, and having no mother figure for the Primarchs was way, waaaaay better than the alternative.
Planning for the Horus Heresy[edit]
- – Horus to 'Garviel Loken'
There's a popular fan theory that alleges the Emperor planned the Horus Heresy. Between some interesting developments/dialogue and the blatantly retarded decisions by Emps, the explanation that this was a part of some 4D-Chess plan is far more compelling than 'Golden Man bad' or shit writing. However, Black Library's hostility to the concept of internal consistency means that there's also plenty of evidence against this theory.
On the ‘Just As Planned’ side, there's lots of intrigue. In the Constantin Valdor novel during his first interaction with Emps, Valdor realizes that His grand bargain is deceiving infinite power rather than overcoming it. The Emperor would go on to dupe Horus into shedding his infinite power so that he could be killed. This conversation takes place during the Unification Wars!
The Siege of Terra series itself throws yet more suggestions of planning, with an enthroned Malcador in particular stating that he and Emps created many plans/contingencies that all failed barring one. This is a very interesting statement- not just because it comes from Malcador, nor is it because it's his internal monologue which means he has no reason for lying, but because the Throne gives him an omniscient perspective. There’s a bunch of other quotes that make similar claims, albeit ambiguous ones. Note that the scope of said plans are unclear; it could mean the entire Shining Path, the Heresy, the Siege, or simply the fateful duel between Emps and Horus.
Knowledge of the 'Lantern Gambit' makes things more interesting. In short, the Lantern Gambit is seen when Emps and Horus are in the Tarot phase of their duel. At the end of it, one of the cards Emps plays is 'Lantern'. This is later signified by the re-ignition of the Astronomican thanks to Euphrati Keeler leading a prayer to the Emperor, which gives Big-E the power He needs to fight a de-powered Horus and incapacitate him long enough to kill him. Emps knew that the Astronomican would be re-lit, and how important that would be. But the real kicker is how this gambit came to pass. On Ullanor during the Triumph, Emps shakes Sigismund's hand and he has an Emperor-induced vision that conveys his purpose and shows his pre-Astartes life. Here, Emps tells Siggy that he will not have a peaceful life because he will have to take a stand, since someone must. While one would obviously wonder how Emps knows Siggy's fate and what's needed of him, or why Emps is speaking to this particular Marine of all people, the real question is why Emps would tell Siggy this. Especially since He said this at a time when the Crusade is winding down and the Imperium is running out of enemies to conquer. What kind of foe out there did Big E know about that would make the fate of an Astartes He specifically spoke to be a lifetime of war? And most of all, what are the implications for the fact that Emps correctly predicted such a fate? In addition, that same vision shows Siggy is fated to get the Black Sword. It can't be a coincidence that this thing was made by Emps Himself during Terra's ancient past, with the Big Man wanting Siggy to use it during the Siege. The sword has supernatural properties that strengthen the user so that he can go on a tear against enemy champions, along with some other spooky shit. This would come in mighty handy when Siggy needed to make a stand at the Hollow Mountain, buying the time for Keeler to lead the faithful in that all-important prayer. Euphrati Keeler on the other hand manifests miracles based on her faith in the Emperor, starting early in the Heresy. Her biggest miracle would be performed at the Hollow Mountain during the Siege. In short, Sigismund and the Black Sword were, along with Keeler, fated to be major factors in the success of the Emperor's Lantern Gambit, which bore fruit during His fateful duel. Given this information, it's all but certain that the Lantern Gambit was set into motion from anywhere between the Triumph of Ullanor to ancient human history.
Of course there's also many problems with this theory. The Board is Set (the short story widely cited as proof for the entire theory) takes place at the tail end of the Heresy and just before the Siege of Terra, not before both events. In that story the Emperor wasn’t arranging for the Heresy to happen or planning out how it could go, He was strategizing with Malcador for the coming Siege. Malcador's inner monologue states his strong belief that their board game isn't the Emperor's way of communicating His strategy for the coming battle, but a means of devising a strategy in the first place. The reason Emps purposefully pisses off Mal in the story is because He needs Mal to hate Him enough to think like Horus. In a game like this where Mal is thinking like the Warmaster, it's the only way the Emperor's thinking could be properly tested and allow a workable strategy to defeat the enemy. Without Malcador being in such a mindset, the Emperor might not be able to brainstorm His way to victory and all would be lost.
Additionally, Malcador thinks that Emps 'was moving into uncharted waters as ignorant of the outcome as the rest of them.’ It turns out that would be correct. During their game the Double Edged Sword, The Uncrowned Monarch and The Angel spent most of the game off to the side, and the Emperor had no idea what they were actually doing until Malcador relayed the message from Leman Russ. Malcador was also surprised to find out that the game could be changed by factors they might be unaware of, such as the "Corruption" of the Lord of Clouds in the mid-game when they had expected him to resist like he had in their previous playthroughs. The Emperor appeared genuinely saddened by this change, hinting that He either still cared about them even when they had already turned against Him, or that some Primarchs could have potentially been recovered and returned to the fold after the conflict had ended. Malcador was also shocked to think that the Emperor could be blind-sided by such an alteration; with Malcador only beginning to see the game for what it truly might have been, rather than simply a means of testing strategy. Perhaps the two were seeing what might've happened if they did things differently (and if the story is any indication, little to nothing at all), but they only discovered this information in retrospect, not out of foresight.
There’s some other tidbits revealed from the story. The fates of the Primarchs weren’t fixed, and some actions could’ve led to unforeseen consequences (like why the "Invincible Bastion" is not used to take the "Lord of Hearts" early on in the war, since it would force both of the "Twin" pieces to switch sides to the Warmaster and be able move on the Emperor's home space and cause the game to be lost). It is important to note that from the beginning of the game, the "Primarch" pieces were essentially blank slates, and only gained their unique shapes and identities as part of their first activations after the Scattering, possibly indicating that the Primarchs could have potentially switched roles with one another depending on the first few moves. (Perhaps Sanguinius could have become the Lord of Hearts? Or Perturabo become the Invincible Bastion?) Before the first move takes place, the pieces were arranged ten per side, which was more than available Primarchs at the time. The Emperor had His own golden piece but the "Lord of Hearts" began the game in blue and became switched in the first move (giving the Warmaster eleven pieces after the first move) while the "Twins" would not be divided until the second move, providing twenty-one pieces on the board. Ignoring the additional piece "the Fool" that Malcador had never seen before, this means that there must have been one other significant player somewhere that we are not aware about. That and the division of units under the control of the "Emperor" and "Warmaster" in the game would have been very different from the apparent division of Loyalist/Traitor Primarchs in the actual conflict, meaning that the roles they played and were expected to play did change drastically as the game progressed.
Lorgar is an interesting issue: Malcador once claimed that if he could have saved just one of the traitor Primarchs, it would have been Lorgar. However, from The Board is Set, the Emperor points out that game doesn't start with any piece other than the "Chosen", strongly hinted to represent Lorgar with his initial swaying of Horus and thus beginning the Heresy. This implies that no matter what moves are planned for, or what Primarchs ended up on either side; Chaos will always have a "Chosen" piece to start the game with. If Horus had been protected, Lorgar might have simply started the conflict with someone else, making Chosen/Lorgar perhaps the more crucial piece. Though keep in mind that Malcador speaks with the benefit of hindsight, and as mentioned previously, the Emperor was not omniscient, it is possible that neither of them were to fully realise that Lorgar was the Chosen until the first move of the game had already been made. What is most tragic is that Lorgar really wanted the love and approval of his father and was probably the most fanatically loyal to him in the early days, so turning him into Chaos' most pivotal piece is a cruel irony. If it were possible to have actually saved Lorgar before the conflict started, it would have probably unbalanced the game as Chaos would have been forced to find a different Primarch to fill the role of "Chosen", potentially upending the game altogether.
Until the end of the Heresy, Malcador was not actually aware of how the final conflict actually played out; having seen himself only as an advisor, he was ignorant of his own role. The Emperor showed him in the final days that his piece, "The Fool", would switch places with the Emperor to snatch victory and allow the "Uncrowned Monarch" to play his "Salvation" strategy and win the game against Chaos by tearing the throat out of the serpent. Malcador's "lie" to his servant was most likely to provide the illusion of control; when in fact the Emperor and Malcador were desperately seeking to find an alternate solution that would not doom everyone. But pretty much like the Emperor stated in The Outcast Dead: "Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning.".
Speaking of The Outcast Dead, the Emperor revealing His stalemate strategy to Kai isn't proof of Him knowing the Heresy's outcome or planning it ahead of time. He didn't reach this conclusion in a vacuum; after the Webway Project was destroyed and the Heresy escalated, stopping Chaos from winning was the only move left to Him. Emps never would've thought that stalemate was the only viable strategy remaining if He had far more loyal legions and a functional webway! Kai was also inadvertently trauma-blocking crucial information that Emps needed to know (and didn't yet possess) regarding how the end of the Siege of Terra could go. The Emperor not knowing this until Kai got his mind right enough to reveal it is far from proof that Emps was 'Just as Planning' this shit.
Now why does the text say 'could go' rather than 'would go'? Because that vision Kai gave to the Emperor is false prophesy! Sanguinius never ended up dying to put a chink in Horus' armor that Emps could exploit. The Warmaster was completely invincible during both duels, meaning that a chink in his armor would be meaningless. Horus needed to be tricked into giving up his power before there could even be a chance of the Emperor killing him. Emps also says that He doesn't know if He can defeat Horus in Outcast Dead, and says that He cant yet see the outcome of their fight. Aside from the obvious implication that Emps is flying blind, it also corroborates Malcador's thoughts regarding how the game is a means of devising a strategy to stop Horus. He doesn't yet have a plan; Emps is still trying to create one and obtaining a piece of prophesy from Kai Zulane is part of that process.
Then there's Malcador's 'admission' to his dying friend in Malcador: First Lord of the Imperium. Malcador tells his dying confidante Sibel Niasta that the Heresy was all part of the plan. Specifically, the Primarchs were designed as nothing more than conquering tools, set on course to fight for dominance and eventually turn on both each other and Emps directly. These primarchs were manipulated against each other with unequal favor, with jealousies stoked in order to achieve this. Lastly, Primarchs who wouldn't be manipulated would never reach the endgame. The major revelation at the end? He was lying. About what? All of it. Even before the Siege of Terra lore came out it was known that Emps didn't actually factor the Heresy into His Great Work. He loved His sons, and saw a future for all of them. He built quarters for all of them in the palace. He designed all of them to fulfill critical functions, and their scattering wasn't part of the plan. The SoT itself would just hammer this home even further, with statements that Emps loved His sons and envisioned a future with all of them.
There's a bunch of other tidbits that cast serious doubt on the possibility that Emps planned the Heresy. In no particular order, there's:
- Emps saying 'I don't know' to Ra Endymion's question of 'What now?' after the Shining Path is lost to Mankind. Emps is depicted to be downright butthurt and depressed here and as this takes place in a psyker dream between just the two of them, there's nobody to fool, other than the reader.
- The Council of Nikaea ending up being a massive hindrance to the loyalist war effort to such a degree that Emps might as well have been tricked into making that ruling.
- The lack of preparation for what would happen if the Heresy ever took place.
- And the lack of preparation for the Heresy.
- Emps intended for Magnus to be a lynchpin to His plans, not the downfall of them. He showed a vision of this to Magnus.
- The Imperial Palace wouldn’t have initially been built so glamorously if Emps knew that it would be besieged.
- The lack of a backup plan for the Webway project.
- If Emps knew that the holder of the ‘Warmaster’ position would get corrupted, why give that title to the best man for the job rather than anyone vastly less qualified?
- In desperation to defeat Horus, Emps absorbed so much warp power that He nearly OD'd and became a Chaos God known as the Dark King. Only Ollanius Persson talking down the Emperor prevented this. The Dark Gods were very close to tricking Emps into becoming a Chaos God and wiping out His species.
- Emps seems pretty sad at Alpharius' betrayal. 'Alpharius, my son, what chance did you give my dream?'
- The Emperor's foresight was not perfect and it did not necessarily marry up with his practical knowledge. His psychic foresight seems to have been shrouded in allegory and symbolism, rather than concrete certainty. ‘’Master of Mankind’’ explains this in detail. Bottom line, He’s not omniscient, and this theory attributes such ability to Him.
- The Primarchs and Marines were built with capabilities that would have incredible long-term usefulness, even before factoring in the advantages their gene-quirks endowed. These include lifespan, mental acuity, physical strength, mental strength, and more. This means Emps had plans for them in a post-war Imperium, suggesting He did NOT plan on a civil war to cull their ranks.
- The Watch Packs being assigned to the loyal legions, along with said packs being sent too late to watch the traitors.
- The Drop Site Massacre. If Emps was secretly grooming those additional legions to betray Him, then such treachery would've been predictable and could've been countered.
- The combat strength of the soon-to-be traitor legions weren't undermined, and they were allowed to get away with shit like Mk 4 armor shipments being redirected to only them, and 3 Abyss-Class Battleships being made in total secrecy for the Word Bearers.
- On a meta level, many people fear the Emperor planning the Heresy would cheapen the entire setting, and all the tragedies/grimdark up to this point.
Based on this information, we know that while the Heresy was NOT part of the plan (or something that He arranged), Big E foresaw the possibility of such a disaster taking place. We don’t know just how many details He was aware of, like the timing, who turned, and why. Nor do we know what He truly did to prepare for said possibilities, but we do know that there was a Cabal of alien and human psykers manipulating humanity and Chaos for their own outcome, immortal humans that interfere with predictions of the future, an alien god pulling switcheroos, and extradimensional beings trying to stop the primordial annihilator from manifesting all by making their own moves and causing more complications. Not to mention the fact that the Chaos Gods were acting as well. They can play the long game. It may very well be the case that everybody had their plan and did what they thought would be the key to their success, but they had to make changes as each person made their move and sudden wildcards changed the game. We may never know for sure.
Worship of the Emperor[edit]
We believe in one Lord, Emperor of Mankind, the only Lord of creation, eternally begotten of Humanity, Human from Human, Light from Light, true Lord from true Lord, begotten, not made, of one Being with Humanity; through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and came among us.
For our sake he has faced down Chaos; he withstood death and was enthroned.
To this day he lives on in accordance with the Scriptures; he resides upon Mother Terra and is seated upon the throne of Humanity.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Emperor, the giver of life, who proceeds from Humanity and from Terra, who with Humanity and upon Terra is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy true and divinely guided Ecclesiarchy.
We acknowledge one path for the defense against Chaos.
We look for the justice for our dead, and the life of the worlds to come.
++ Ayhmen ++"
"I said no to Him. And He might even have been worth it."
- – Erebus and Erda
The Imperium advocates worship of the Emperor as the one true God through the Imperial Creed. This creed is propagated and its adherence is enforced by the Adeptus Ministorum and the Inquisition. All citizens and fighters of the Imperium have little-to-no say about their choice in faith (or lack thereof); they must worship the Emperor through the various Ministorum-approved faiths throughout the galaxy (due to varying cultures, many planets have their own way of worshiping the Emperor. Although these are heavily regulated by the Ministorum to weed out any heretical influences.), there is no middle road or compromise that doesn't involve the apostate being on the receiving end of a state-sponsored public lynching. Anyone who defies or deviates from the teachings of the Imperial Creed (or even is just perceived to defy it), whether willingly or unwillingly (after all, incompetence is inexcusable in the eyes of the Emperor), is condemned as a heretic and is executed (whether its going to be fast or excruciatingly slow is dependent on the person judging the condemned). Even if someone hasn't disobeyed the Imperial Creed but is deemed to have will be treated as if they broke the Creed. Forgiveness for one's sins is possible, although these cases are exorbitantly rare (at least the ones that doesn't end with the accused being condemned to a glorious death, and it usually is extremely painful.). It doesn't help that some of the members of the Ecclesiarchy and Inquisition are so batshit insane that they are killing countless innocent followers of the Imperial Creed for no reason.
Now, the only reason the Imperium worships the Emperor is that after His fight with Horus and His internment into the Golden Throne, the religion that Lorgar founded on the Emperor had already begun to run amok before the Heresy had even ended. Without the Emperor to specifically demand it be rooted out, and with the unifying effect it appeared to have on the population of the galaxy who rallied behind its banner of salvation, the Imperial Truth slowly lost its foothold for secularism. The Imperial Truth kept on teaching that there were no other gods (for modern Imperial citizens are forbidden from knowing of the Chaos Gods even existence) and was corrupted to espouse that there is only the God-Emperor. Ol' Empy did not actually tell anyone of the Chaos Gods, withholding the information even from the Primarchs in hopes of protecting them from corruption by hoping that ignorance is bliss, unfortunately, this became part of why the Horus Heresy happened in the first place. Some saw that the Emperor lied to them by holding the truth hidden, some did not know how to handle the temptation the Gods conveyed, some did not even know that they were manipulated all this time and by whom, some would try to seek out something to place their faith upon, not realizing what would needed to be done to become chosen in the eyes of the Gods. Plus, it's pretty damn hard to fight against something if you don't know that it exists. The Horus Heresy novels also mentioned the Interex, another atheist empire who understood that threat of Chaos, but treated that information secularly and scientifically: they told every citizen everything that was known about "Kaos", and thus resisted the taint altogether (though this is an example of what's possible on the micro scale, unlikely to have worked on the macro scale considering Chaos was already waiting for the Emperor on Colchis in the form of Erebus and Kor Phaerom who'd have found a way to fuck things up one way or another). Unfortunately this still made them targets and the Imperium was used by Chaos as a cats-paw to wipe them out.
In the Emperor's long game, he knew that humanity was evolving into a psychic species with even more potential than the Eldar, and look what happened to them? E-money wanted mankind to be a utopia of science and reason, by eliminating religion (and thus preventing the temptations of daemons), controlling psykers (and thus preventing random daemonic possessions), and eliminating warp travel by creating the Human Webway (and thus eliminating all human contact with Chaos when traveling through the Warp). He wanted to isolate humanity from the Chaos Gods, cause who gives a shit about the Ruinous Powers if they're stuck in the Warp with no way of getting out?
However, He made a critical mistake in disregarding the human need to believe in something greater than oneself, and despite His best efforts, nothing was enough to fill the place of religion in human society. Ironically, left without supervision, faith has proven to be an effective shield against Chaos. After He went off being the most powerful psychic cucumber in the universe, and lost direct control of the Imperium, belief in Him sort of helped the Imperium stand together against all odds. With the Warp being what it is, the act of worshiping the Emperor supercharged His power in the Immaterium to the point of being truly godlike, even while His body shut down and died. The Imperium's faith in the Emperor is basically their biggest anchor of bravery and perseverance in a universe where humanity is constantly beset by:
- Unimaginably massive swarms of voracious space locusts who exist only to feed and multiply their biomass...
- Older-than-Chaos-itself zombie-terminator robots set on culling all life from the galaxy...
- Diabolical celestial beings literally as old as the stars, whose single desire is harvesting all living souls...
- A race of nigh-unkillable barbarians, genetically engineered to have pastimes, ambitions, job skills, and dreams only be about rip and tear...
- Technologically superior but naive and dangerously unaware fish people wanting to assimilate everyone into their hierarchical caste system...
- Humanoid wingless bird men cannibals who absorb traits from what they eat
- Humanoid insects with claws capable of ripping through the toughest armour
- Snooty and uncaring space elves that can read minds and who eat, sleep, and have Heterosexual Sex in the Missionary Position in planet-sized battle cruisers...
- Psychotic, hedonistic space elves who routinely torture others to the point of death for sheer amusement before grinding their remains into refined cocaine and are callous enough to taunt their normal cousins over having to ally to survive...
- A diverging offshoot from humanity that are now clones bio-engineered for their job and that are led by A.I.'s; and while willing to negociate/cooperate at times, are just as whimsically able and not particularly shy about killing everyone present in order to harvest all the resources off a planet if it serves their interests better...
- Fanatical zealots that knowingly devote themselves to all that is insane or arrogant fools who think not being devoted makes their souls safe...
- Nightmare horrors made real who will rape and eat, usually simultaneously, any sentient being they get their goat-hooves on...
- Deformed, demented traitors clad in power armor and aided by the evilest forms of weaponry and sorcery ever conceived...
- Traitors who turn their backs on the Imperium and try to destroy it, perhaps out of legitimate causes being coopted by the aforementioned infohazard horrors or out of shits and giggles...
- Homicidal alien, lizard, insect, cyborg type monster-pirates that horribly kill you for fun (and who may be the puppets of an older and even more malignant civilization)...
- Giant swarms of worms in cloaks who might be older than the Old Ones, are more sadistic than the Dark Eldar and more manipulative than regular Eldar, and feed on humans in the most disgusting and painful way imaginable (it involves maggots.)...
- Huge floating obese octopi that eat psykers souls and use theirbodies into warp portals...
- Massive insectoid hive mind filled to the brim with heavy firepower and has a slow but growing empire that is one of the largest in the galaxy, dwarfing the Tau several hundred times over and is seen as the next successor of galactic domination after humanity's potential fall (if the traitors don't take over, which isn't exactly better for the average human...
- Humanoid rats that cause anything, living or not, to rapidly decay through touch...
- Powerfully psychic humanoid bats that feed on the minds of sentient beings, that can possess people from far away, and forge weapons from slid warp matter...
- Malignant, omnipotent intelligence from beyond the cosmos, exerting all the power at their disposal to prevent any faction from breaking the stalemate or upsetting the dreadful status quo...
- And fuck knows who the guy in the cardboard box is...
Without their faith in the Emperor after His internment into the Golden Throne, the fragments of the Imperium would inevitably sought to change the mechanisms the Emperor set in place that keep the Imperium running to this day, not to mention the inevitable conflict that would've erupted over a militant athiest empire allied to a very religious technocracy. Much like IRL religion, whilst it can give hope and courage to fight on and survive in a universe that leaves the grimdark faucet running everyday and night, it also causes as much harm to the everyday mans lot through intolerance, having atrophied any possibility for change.
It's worth noting that good ol' Empy wouldn't have had nearly as much of a problem with all this unwanted worship if He hadn't, just as a quick example, insisted on wearing horrifyingly ornate solid gold armour and a big glowy halo at all times. Or on carrying a flaming sword of righteousness. Or on building continent-sized monuments to His vanity. Or on decking all His personal troops and favored genetic experiments in as much bling as they could possibly carry. Or on shapeshifting being eleven fucking feet tall. Or on creating a functional pantheon of genetically engineered demigods, one of whom looked like and was referred to as a literal Angel. If you look like space-Jesus and act like space-Jesus, people are going to take those observations to their extreme conclusions, like what Lorgar did when he wrote the Lectitio Divinitatus, which can be summarized as "Ordinary men can't blow up suns and carry big glowy halos at all times, only a God can, therefore the Emprah is God." This is made even more relevant given that the fluff very strongly implies that the Emperor was Jesus. But you could also argue that when a man says I'm not a god, and I'm as close to one as you'll ever meet, you gotta admit how stupid mankind has got to be to ignore his advice entirely. Mankind is such that if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck even after being told scientifically that it is human fecal matter, when he's hungry enough he is willing to tell himself it is a duck and will taste like one.
That said, to Games Workshop's credit His being buttfucked by His own hubris and disregard for the humanity He claimed to be guiding in this manner was probably intentional as a classic tale of Greek Tragedy or in an absolute grimdark alternative him having the foresight to see there really was no other option but an eternal stalemate. If ever there was a greater example of the man being just a man and not a god, you couldn't find it anywhere else than here.
Emperor: Endgame[edit]
The Emperor's body might be broken and destroyed, and while he's dead by every clinical definition of death, there is sufficiently enough of his consciousness sticking around to still be relevant and extremely powerful. This is at odds with his status as a confirmed Perpetual, but his body has been dead for longer than he's been a perpetual so chalk this up to GW not bothering to account for it properly. Very few people are ever allowed to enter the Throne Room, and accounts differ on what they actually witnessed while in there.
What is perhaps more important is the Golden Throne itself and what the Emperor expected to achieve by maintaining his silent vigil on it for the last ten thousand years. It is known that the Throne started out as an important part of his Webway project and sits on a long sealed portal to the human portion of it; it also supposedly directs the beacon of the Astronomican. It might also be somehow enhancing or maintaing his psychic abilities through its connection to his desiccated body, which would be lost when it gives out. It also still requires a constant source of Psyker fuel to keep running, and that has only increased in demand more recently. What it actually does do now that the Emperor's body is dead and desiccated is up in the air.
With the mechanism being consistently worn out, and the Tech-priests too power-armour-on-head rebooted to do anything about it (at least until they finish studying Malcador's staff, provided GW doesn't forget that plot point), it is certainly possible that the Golden Throne may stop working entirely. It's also possible nothing would change, seeing as how parts of it keep giving out yet nothing happens.
Suffice to say, no one knows exactly what might happen should the Golden Throne give out, and no one really wants to find out.
The Nuclear Option[edit]
Ultimately, if the Golden Throne fails (assuming it's actually doing something), it is possible that Holy Terra might be plunged into the Warp. This is supported by the fact that the Throne was built as a part of a portal to the Webway and was a significant part of the Emperor's ultimate plan for humanity. Unfortunately the psychic wards for the webway were later broken by Magnus, causing a warp tear to open on Terra and creating a whole secret war in the Webway at the same time as the Horus Heresy. Although the portal was eventually sealed with the direct intervention of the Emperor himself, the fact remains that it still sits on top of a closed doorway with an infinite multitude of daemons on the other side, though it's not been elaborated on as being a part of keeping that door shut.
According to the Old Earth novel, the Golden Throne has a Vulkan-forged device called Talisman of Seven Hammers that acts as a dead man's switch: it supposedly will destroy all of Terra if the Throne finally kicks it. The Talisman has never been referred to in previous fluff, though the fullest implications of the Throne failing have never been explored either. The effect of Vulkan's talisman is a wildcard, as it was shown to have the capability to annihilate (not merely banish) a Greater Daemon even before it was connected to the Throne, and earlier in the same section the residual energy left over in the Emperor's fulgurite was sufficient to make an army of Bloodletters simply not be there any more. Connecting the talisman to the Throne magnifies its power to the point that the Emperor believes it would not merely deny Chaos their victory on Terra, but can strike a blow against them "the likes of which they will never recover from".
Additionally, the Grey Knights have a set of instructions called the Terminus Decree with icons that match that of the Throne itself, and these instructions could either destroy the Imperium, or bring it salvation in its darkest hour, one could speculate that the two outcomes could be linked.
Chaos may still get their chance to destroy Terra and bring down control of the Imperium, but may be burned badly by the Emperor's final "fuck you".
Regeneration[edit]
As mentioned, the Emperor is a Perpetual, just like John Grammaticus, Vulkan, Oll Persson, Alivia Sureka and Anval Thawn, all of who were able to survive multiple deaths that completely obliterated their bodies in the process. The question becomes why he hasn't picked himself up and dusted himself off and regenerated yet after long millennia of inactivity.
In any case, if the Golden Throne fails. regardless of whether Terra gets nuked - the two outcomes are not mutually exclusive, whatever remains of the Emperor likely will have the freedom to recover and lead humanity once again.
All of this is still speculation (duh). Vulkan, for instance, was driven mad by the torturous experiences he had endured thanks to Night Haunter, and they were child's play compared to sitting in unthinkable agony, unable to move or speak for ten thousand years while feeling Himself rotting away. And don't you forget that nose itch. However, a more commonly held belief is that He will get up, re-establish the Imperial Truth, and just be a cool guy. Too bad the Warp rift and the Astronomican don't have time to wait for him to do so.
A whole faction of the Inquisition, Thorianism, exists to investigate the possibility of regeneration; looking for possible signs that the Emperor's consciousness can be transferred elsewhere, allowing Him to walk among his children once more. (They don't know about the existence of Perpetuals and would rather look for a new body to place the Emperor's soul into.) Opponents to Thorianism generally see that encouraging this is a terrible idea, as having the Emperor rise in a physical form would only cause a schism in the Imperium, as many people would not believe it to be true, having been ruled and brainwashed by the Ecclesiarchy over thousands of years, which would lead to another major civil war.
A final outcome might be that the Emperor is so far gone that there would be no regeneration for him. He could you know, just be "dead" the same way that Malcador died after his stint on the Throne, though Malcador didn't get to stick around. They were both perpetuals; although the Emperor is orders of magnitude more powerful, Malcador never got up after what might have only been a few hours or days when the Emperor has been sitting there for Millennia. This would also mean the Imperium is absolutely out of luck with the failure of the Astronomican AND the aforementioned warp nuke centered on Terra and their seat of government.
Alternatively it could also be that his connection to the Throne might be the last thing preventing him from achieving true Godhood after ten-thousand years of worship. The destruction of the Throne might by the catalyst of everything that the traitors called him a hypocrite for desiring, ironically causing it to happen with their rebellion and his entombment.
In fact, he might be clinging on for exactly this reason, not wanting to become a God of the Immaterium. Even though he'd get superdupercharged by all the worship he's been receiving, he'd ultimately end up as just another face of mindless Chaos, just another player in the Great Game. His form in the Materium is his only chance of escaping that fate.
This however is just speculation, so the outcome remains unknown. However, it is confirmed that Perpetuals can still die for real and Chaos does have the ability to do so. Malcador learned this the hard way.
Beyond the Emperor[edit]
As stated in The Master of Mankind, the Emperor himself believes he already lost the game to save Mankind from consuming itself into the Warp while attempting to give the evolutionary jump; with the loss of the Webway he seems to have concluded the only thing that remains is a long decline and there is nothing else to do but to wage an ever losing war. Or is it? The Emperor himself recognized he isn't omniscient, his foresight can't reach all. When Guilliman shows up, the Emperor is amazed that humanity has still managed to survive and the Imperium is still alive.
During recent years the writers of Games Workshop have been hinting at a few facts. Let us consider the following:
- The future is not absolutely written, and this comes from Chaos itself; even Tzeentch can't predict everything perfectly, requiring him to ask his insane bird-oracle to clarify on these events.
- The fall of the Imperium may be inevitable, but mankind may live on. Given the sheer scope of the human exodus, it's not outside the realm of possibility that some remnant of the Dark Age of Technology has continued unchanged from its original height, though it's very unlikely. For this to be the case it would somehow have to avoid nearly all xenos, chaos influence/worshipers, have its own way of dealing with latent psykers so that they aren't used by Daemons or worse and never have met any of the other traders, explorators and travelers in general that make up how the current Imperium discovers new planets.
- The Cadian Pylons, while destroyed, were developed by beings that still exist. The fact the Necrons are still around opens the possibility that they may yet be capable of building replacements, and thanks to Trazyn we know they are capable of closing of warp storms. Oh, and it seems like Uncle Cawl is working on that.
- The Akashic Records truly exist and are somehow linked to Ark Mechanicus ships such as Speranza; this simple fact means all already existing knowledge is never lost forever, but merely incredibly hard to acquire.
- Creating humans immune to Chaos is a reality; both the Exorcists and the Grey Knights are evidence of this, and while the process is excruciatingly slow, highly prone to failure and prohibitive in resources it means Mankind can achieve through artificial means a sort of new evolutionary step.
- Not all Eldar died during the Fall; even if we are talking about 1 percent of the race it's still a great deal of individuals, and the fact they managed to kick-start an anti-Chaos god is something no one, not even the Emperor managed to foresee (assuming he did not know that is what the Infinity Circuits were for, which he no doubt did considering how old he is). Eldrad has ultimately demonstrated there are other ways to fight Chaos (by being a dick).
- And thanks to Eldrad waking Ynnead up early (if only barely), Roboute Guilliman was awakened from stasis. Now he is preparing a new generation of Super Space Marines along with some awesome new gear to help take down Chaos. Plus some of the other loyalist Primarchs are still out there, and there is a possibility that they could return to help lead the Imperium fight its many enemies.
- And for that matter, Eldrad declared by the end of The War of The Beast that the futures of Mankind and the Eldar are irrevocably interlinked. But he did nothing to build on that, the dumbass. Add to that the fact the necrons too have given the Imperium a hand a few times and you suddenly notice there are more parties than the Emperor interested in not letting the human race fall. Despite the Imperium's completely justified hatred of xenos, they may be mankind's best chance of survival. That said, we still do have to remember that both the Eldar and Necrons want the Imperium and each other out of the way eventually in order to rebuild their empires, and the Imperium isn't keen on relying too heavily on the entities who will turn on them in a tip of the hat. On the other hand, desperate times call for desperate measures and who knows what the future could bring? Well, at least the Eldar to have more or less accepted their empire will never return and that sticking with the Imperium is their best bet for survival and power in the universe from now on. Which broke the balance and caused plot progression.
- Nobody saw the Tyranids coming because they hadn't even noticed the Galaxy was inhabited until the whole mess with the Pharos device. Not the Chaos Gods, not the Emperor, not the Eldar (though Orikan saw them coming). The Tyranids are both an outside context issue for the galaxy (being the only faction with galactic pull that is completely and unambiguously disconnected from the War in Heaven or the Horus Heresy that serves as everyone else's origin stories) and a wild card in the fate of the Galaxy.
- If the Emperor wasn't a god to begin with, millennia of worship and countless psyker souls empowering him means that he's almost certainly a god now- and he knows it. Even when wielded by a "mere" Primarch his sword alone is capable of permanently destroying Greater Daemons (keep in mind that during Great Crusade and before he seems not to be able to do that), and given enough time his power might eclipse that of Chaos itself. (Though one could argue that Chaos powers up much faster than the Emperor due to having more sources to feed one and possibly having more worshippers)
- Finally, there is humanity itself. While He failed to take into account the fact that humanity is a mass of individuals rather than an abstraction, He also underestimated how this could work for good as well as evil. For every traitor and heretic, there is an equally devoted believer in the inherent goodness of mankind willing to stand against the Ruinous Powers, and it is on the individual level that the struggle between the Ruinous Powers and humanity is ultimately fought and decided upon
Yes, the Emperor failed to avoid mankind's inherent flaws to hinder His Great Work (ironically, because He was guilty of several of them as well), but He also failed to see a lot of the good things mankind can bring in. In yet another twist of irony, his incapability to predict us may even thwart his own prediction of humanity's doom. At the very least, humanity accomplished more and survived longer than anyone expected, even the Emperor. (Is this true? The Emperor predicted Mankind to at least endure for 10,000 years, and the Emperor set into motion an empire who mechanisms could function even without His direct assistance in such a way that it continued to function admirably (the measure of success being survival) for millennia in spite of the galaxy constantly seeking to end it.)
Indeed, this is Warhammer 40,000, a cautionary tale about the End of Empires, but so was Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and, although we may not like the AoS-ification of the setting, there may still be more than just a complete failure for the future of Mankind and the Emperor.
The Emprah's daily rituals[edit]
3:00 - Reveille. The Emperor awakens from his slumber prematurely, usually due to some new pain or itch popping up in his rotting body. Since most of the Palace serfs and Custodes are still asleep, The Emperor is stuck sitting in the dark for a few hours until dawn breaks.
5:00- Breakfast. Big E is given his typical meal of 1000 helpless Psykers for brekky. Consuming a Psyker soul is like swallowing a dirty rag that's been used to clean up shit and vomit, but the Master Of Mankind must endure for humanity and his Imperium. He just wishes his Custodes would feed him more than 1 soul at a time.
9:00- Morning Shit. By the time The Emperor has gone through his daily meal, he is very much ready to use the bathroom. Fortunately, the Golden Throne comes equipped with a toilet seat. Unfortunately, Psyker Souls are just as unpleasant going out as they are going in. The echoes of human consciousness trying to escape feel like 1000 tapeworms desperately wriggling out your asshole (Which could collapse at any moment due to being over 10,000 years old.)
10:00- Bathtime. Using only the finest brushes, The Custodes carefully maneuver around the Emperor to scrub off any gunk or mould that may have grown, taking superhuman care to not make any sudden moves that would destroy his physical body. (Brushing inside the nostrils is often the hardest part.) Afterwards, a fresh coat of preservative spray is applied to his every pore.
1:00- Free Time. Being the Master Of Mankind, The Emperor has no real duties that he can't do sitting down. Instead, he spends the majority of the day being bored out of his exposed skull, having nothing to do. At the risk of fracturing his soul further, he once sent a psychic message to his Custodes begging for a flatscreen TV. Unfortunately, once it arrived, he realised his eyes and ears were too decayed to enjoy anything that was on. Many psychic tears were shed that day.
7:00- Bedtime. After an exhilarating, action-packed day, The Emperor is now ready to hit the hay. Unfortunately, sitting idle all-day leaves him feeling wide awake. Counting grox, having a psychic glass of warm milk, getting told a bedtime story by his Custodes- nothing seems to work. Eventually, The Emperor manages to achieve a restlike state by mentally collapsing out of sheer boredom.
Emperor's nicknames[edit]
Like Roboute, his central status in 40k has spawned a plethora of nicknames:
The Emprah, Emps, Big Daddy Emps, The Motherfucking Emperor, Big E, Mr. Xeno Destroyer, Chaos Fister, Golden Daddy, E-Money, The Chad-Emperor of Chadkind, The Bling-Emperor of Mankind, Chad Thundercock, Augustus Imperator, Deus-Imperator, Him Upon the Throne, Primogenitor, The Outlander, Him on Earth, All-Father, Rangu, Imperator Mortifex, Master of Mankind, Revelation, Neoth, The Immortal Emperor, The Golden King, The Omnissiah, King of Ages, The Cartomancer, The Empinator, Jimmy Space, The Fresh Emperor of Sacred Terra, That guy with the bigger gun than you, Golden Boy, Space Jesus, /tg/, The Man-Emperor of Mankind, Glorious Overlord, Lord of Bling, My Manly Man-peror, Lord Sovereign of the Imperium, Starman, Mega Dick Daddy , Ya Boi, The King of Terra, Boney-Em, Carl Sagan, Alex, George, and James Workshop, or if you are of different inclinations, The Carrion Lord, The False Emperor, The Corpse Emperor, The Corpse God, Oathbreaker, That Twat with the Chair, Space Hitler, Space Stalin, That Loony Shaman-Chassis, giant crunchy psychic sandwich, the Anathema, Dat Big Shinny Git, Professor Utonium, Doctor Fate, The Immortal, Leto Atreides, Vandal Savage, Manji, Shigeo Kageyama, Tetsuo, Conan The Cimmerian, Maximilian Zelevas, Gilad Anni-Padda, Henry Cavill, Great-Grandpapa Smurf, M. Bison, Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod, and many more.
And now for some tabletop rules...[edit]
These are rules I thought of. They are not meant to actually be used, and they will put the Emperor at a position where He can easily shit on any Primarch. Like, seriously. These rules will make the destroyer of fluff's rules look mega-balanced in comparison.
The Emperor of Mankind is a single model equipped with: The Emperor's Sword, the Imperialis Bolter, psychic focusing prism. Your army can only include one The Emperor of Mankind model. If this model is part of your army, you may not take any models with the Primarch keyword.
| Name | M | WS | BS | S | T | W | A | Ld | Sv | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Emperor of Mankind | 16" | 2+ | 2+ | 8 | 8 | 20 | 7 | 10 | 2+ | 1000 pts. |
Weapons:
| Name | Range | Type | S | AP | D | Abilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Imperialis Bolter | 36" | Rapid Fire 6 | 5 | -3 | D3+1 | |
| Psychic focusing prism | 50" | Assault 14 | 4 | 0 | 1 | Whenever an attack with this weapon is allocated to a Psyker unit, the Damage characteristic of that attack is changed to D3. In addition, if a Psyker unit is not destroyed by an attack from this weapon, that unit immediately suffers Perils of the Warp. |
| The Emperor's Sword | Melee | Melee | +2 | -4 | 3 | Any unmodified hit rolls of 6 deal d3 mortal wounds in addition to any other damage. |
Other Wargear:[edit]
Aegis of the Emperor: This model has a 3+ invulnerable save.
Relic Teleport Homer: This model has the Judgement has Come ability.
Abilities:[edit]
The Master of Mankind: If your army is battle-forged, this model must be your Warlord. If this model is your Warlord, then gain 3 CP. While this model is on the battlefield, any units with the Imperium keyword gain +1 to their Move, BS, WS, and A characteristics. They also gain +5 to their Ld characteristic. Any units with the Adeptus Custodes and Anathema Psykana keywords, in addition to these benefits, can reroll all failed rolls, can ignore mortal wounds on a roll of 5+ and become Fearless.
The Anathema: While this model is on the battlefield, any units with the Chaos keyword get -3 to their Ld.
God of the Immaterium: Add 3 to Psychic tests and Deny the Witch tests taken by this model. This model never suffers Perils of the Warp. Whenever this model manifests Smite, it does 7 mortal wounds instead of d3.
Master of the Blade: This model may make two hit rolls per attack made with the Emperor's Sword if the target has the Daemonic keyword.
Master of the Bolter: This model may triple the number of shots it makes with the Imperialis Bolter if the target is within half range.
A God made Manifest: The first time this model is slain, roll a d6. On a 1, this model releases a psychic shockwave before returning to the Imperial Palace. If this shockwave is released, then every unit within 12" takes d6 mortal wounds. On any other result, set this model up anywhere on the battlefield that is 10" away from any enemy models. The next time this model is slain, this model releases the psychic shockwave and leaves.
Perpetual Healing: At the beginning of each of your Command phases, this model regains d3 lost wounds.
Graceful Movement: Add 2 to armour saves taken by this model on a turn in which it moved more than 10".
Judgement has Come: This model can start the battle in a teleportarium chamber in the Inner Palace. If it does, then in any of your latter four Movement phases, this model can teleport anywhere on the battlefield that is at least 5" away from enemy models.
Psychic Dome: Any units wholly within 6" of this model have a 5+ invulnerable save against ranged attacks.
Enjoy![edit]
Thought for the day: "The man who has nothing can still have faith."
Gallery[edit]
 This section contains PROMOTIONS! Don't say we didn't warn you. |
-
Put this everywhere to praise him, on your windows, the neighbours, just all your hive city. -
Son, I am disappoint.Empy's disappointment occurred well before this moment. -
Now in animated ultra HD for your heresy needs. -
The Big-E upon the Golden Throne (before the decay set in) -
The guiding light in the Imperium of Man shines forever bright. He's also Arnold Schwarzenegger. Try unseeing that now bitches. -
The Emperor protects man from all. -
Yearbook photo. -
His groove, do not throw it off. Or you'll get schooled. -
Emps laying down some rules, mid combat from the looks of it -
That is EXACTLY the same look that's on Batman's face when he's about to put the beatdown on some little bitch! -
He makes for one helluva action figure -
The Em-purr-or of all Catkind! Nyah! -
Death is no excuse to stop bein' pimp. -
Thinking to himself, "I really, REALLY hate Horus!" Then again he never liked Horus in the first place. -
The Emperor isn't looking good here. -
Roll d6; stays on the field on seven or less -
A real man never dies, even when he's killed. -
Down but not out. -
In all His miniature glory -
The Carrion Lord with his two left arms.*BLAM* how the fuck did that heretic get past the custodes? -
This painting sold for $900, that lucky ca/tg/url... -
Probably the best model of him yet -
Oh God-emperor, how did this get here? I am not good with computers. -
Search your feelings, you know it to be true. -
You all know you wanna see how this pans out! -
The same situation, but improved! *BLAM* Silence Heretic! -
How do you kill what can not die? -
-
Not actually the God-Emperor; besides it is Heresy to believe that The Immortal God Emperor looks like Cher. *BLAM* HERESY!, no make that extra Hersey -
Oh, give it a fucking rest... -
I don't know if this is Heresy, but I don't care. -
So, who want's to visit the Golden Throne? -
-
Yeah. We get it. The Emperor sits upon the Golden 'Throne'. -
Unbeknownst to many 40k fans, ol'Emps is actually fairly amicable when he meets an elf/eldar who isn't a complete and utter failure. -
The Emperor in Rainbow Form, and his theme tone!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDZoyNzuWbQ&t=10s -
The symbol of the town Konya in Turkey. In Central Anatolia. Emprah's birthplace. CONNECTION, BITCHES! -
The symbol of ancient (1600BC) Hittite Empire from Anatolia, which, unknown to many, is Emperor's first try at conquering the world. -
The Emperor has just discovered Rule 34. -
The Emperor is a man of simple tastes. -
The Emprah is watching you Masturbate! -
The very first image of the Emperor, dating back to Rogue Trader. -
-
Perhaps with a better armor design (or if he actually cared about him), The Big-E might not have been late for all of Horus's after school soccer games and things might have turned out a lot differently. -
Just imagine what would've happened ifthe Chaos Godsfucking Erda didn't scatter the primarchs across the galaxy and The Emperor didn't have to start the Great Crusade to go and look for them... Wait a minute, where is that little scamp Omegon? (he's just off picture, sneaking up behind Guilliman.) -
"Why IS IT that hot dogs come in packs of 8, and hot dog buns come in packs of 12? So people will have to buy 3 packs of hot dogs and 2 of hot dogs buns, hereby promoting imperial production of course! Ketchup sold separately!" -
Having him look at you like this is a reliable indicator of how soon people are going to start referring to you in past-tense. -
He is the ultimate Chad. Look at him. (He also proves that he doesn't just look good with the Talons of the Emperor by rocking that Bolter.)
See Also[edit]
- The Imperium, for the empire he founded.
- Malcador the Sigillite, the Emperors best bro.
- The Primarchs, the Emperor's sons.
- Sigmar, his Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Age of Sigmar counterpart (especially in the latter).
- Emperor's To-Do List
This thread which makes the Emperor even cooler.
- If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device
- Heresy from the Emprah’s point of view
- A mod in Elden Ring depicting a faithful recreation of the Emperor
