"The Emperor" description in game

[Enola Gay]

I never noticed this before, but what is the game implying when it says in the emperor description "Most would be driven mad with despair if they knew the truth"

[Toaster Maximus]

He is only a presence in the warp and his body is very much beyond dead, only kept attached to real space through daily offerings to the throne

Basically he is on fed tubes and the food is pyskers

Edit: Black ships are not so much to protect people its only a good cover, but to bring big e dinner

[lentracey]

What! The Emperor uses Uber Eats? That's heresy (I think).

[Balekai]

In addition to the above the implied truth probably also includes:

- The Golden Throne is failing (if not very soon like 80ish years and no one knows about it because everyone who did died in a firefight).
- When that happens it's likely another Eye of Terror will open up across most of the Imperium like it did over the Aeldari Empire.
- As it stands now the hive mind of the Emperor's partial Soul and the gazillion of psykers sacrificed to him, struggle desperately every second of every hour to hold on ans keep the Empire together.
- Best case scenario is that the Emperor's soul is made whole again in the Warp (it's split between the Warp and his decaying Body in reality which is why he's in a coma essentially. Also sort of a Holy Trinity thing going on here with the Imperial Cult). By becoming whole again maybe he can prevent the possible catastrophe as it happens. Hopefully he doesn't become the Chaos God of Tyranny in the process.
- Semi-worst case scenario is the above happens except half the Imperium still blows up anyways and he does become the Chaos God of Tyranny/Order (Ironically), and becomes just as bad if not way worse than the others.
- That the Imperium today is pretty much the exact opposite of what the Emperor wanted.
- That the Emperor is not a God (yet).
- etc etc.

[juk54]

You can defintely argue if the Emperor is essentially not very different from the Chaos Gods, not only the source of power is the same but it all works the same way. Sacrifize poeple to increase the worshipped entities power.

[Mongooses]

Originally posted by Toaster Maximus:

He is only a presence in the warp and his body is very much beyond dead, only kept attached to real space through daily offerings to the throne

Basically he is on fed tubes and the food is pyskers

Edit: Black ships are not so much to protect people its only a good cover, but to bring big e dinner

I mean really it does do both.
Those who are deemed unfit for services are fed to the Emperor.

But there are a lot of psykers that are taken for the guards sactioned psykers, used to make astropaths, inquisitors, given to marines to make librarians, etc.

Those that are too weak to be of good use are used for food. Those that are too strong that they may cause a threat are also used for food.

Making all sort of those "usable" psykers also have a high failure rate, if those who fail survive... well then they're food.

[Mongooses]

Originally posted by Enola Gay:

I never noticed this before, but what is the game implying when it says in the emperor description "Most would be driven mad with despair if they knew the truth"

Don't know the full description of it. But there are a couple of thing with the Emperor that really don't fit into the Imperium as it stands in 40k. By this I mean Big E would not be happy with the Imperium.

Balekai mentioned one theory that lots of fans have. How the Emperor is acting now as a pseudo "chaos" god. Stuff that the Sister of Battle do is a very good example, from their "holy" abilities and even Celestine the Saint. Literally summon by Sisters in their hour of need, who never dies... just keeps returning. Sounds like a Greater Daemon of the Emperor much? =p

That theory is basically that the Emperor being kept alive on the golden throne is the only thing preventing his ascension to actual (Chaos) Godhood.

The other thing that may be referred to, is that the Emperors view for mankind was entirely secular. No religion, no faith, no worship. Everything just based on facts and science. In the unification wars and the First Crusade he made sure to stamp out any religiousness, occult worship or mysticism he encounter. Going as far to raze the home world of a Space Marine chapter (The Word Bearers) because they had the audacity to start to suggest that he was a God and should be worshipped.

Basically the entire thing holding the Imperium of Man together right now is in direct contradiction to what the Emperor stood for. The living masses, hell even most of the leading factions in the Imperium are blind to this. There are those that know better (some Space Marines for example) but they really can't push it too hard without major risk to themselves and all of humanity.

Even now in the lore with the return of the Ultramarine Primarch. He can't come out and condemn the church directly as the Emperor would have wanted. Instead he has to work with them.

So things like the main leading force of the Imperium. High Lords of Terra (many of them are high ranking church members), the Ecclesiarchy itself, the Inquisitors, the Sisters of Battle. All of them are currently rooted around the emperor being the God Emperor of Mankind, which he is deadset against and views as the major weakness of humanity. The need for faith to hold onto hope or explain the unkown.

Knowing that the Emperor would be disgusted and hate what the Imperium has become would shatter the psyche of many people.

[Coldhands]

I assumed it meant if the Imperium today, busily worshiping the Emperor and persecuting learning and knowledge, knew that was the opposite of what the Emperor originally pitched the Imperium as civilization would probably collapse. Mankind ****ed it up, and the first person to tell them that would be their "god".

[Toaster Maximus]

Originally posted by Balekai:

In addition to the above the implied truth probably also includes:

- The Golden Throne is failing (if not very soon like 80ish years and no one knows about it because everyone who did died in a firefight).
- When that happens it's likely another Eye of Terror will open up across most of the Imperium like it did over the Aeldari Empire.
- As it stands now the hive mind of the Emperor's partial Soul and the gazillion of psykers sacrificed to him, struggle desperately every second of every hour to hold on ans keep the Empire together.
- Best case scenario is that the Emperor's soul is made whole again in the Warp (it's split between the Warp and his decaying Body in reality which is why he's in a coma essentially. Also sort of a Holy Trinity thing going on here with the Imperial Cult). By becoming whole again maybe he can prevent the possible catastrophe as it happens. Hopefully he doesn't become the Chaos God of Tyranny in the process.
- Semi-worst case scenario is the above happens except half the Imperium still blows up anyways and he does become the Chaos God of Tyranny/Order (Ironically), and becomes just as bad if not way worse than the others.
- That the Imperium today is pretty much the exact opposite of what the Emperor wanted.
- That the Emperor is not a God (yet).
- etc etc.

Didn'ty the dark elder fix the throne though? If I recall was one of the few times the xenos where brought in since the throne falls well within their tech knowledge but think that was a temp fix

But this guy did give the rest of he theories well my hats off to you

Edit: Kinda makes sense that throne matches some dark elder tech scary to

[SuperBritishQuokka]

The truth is the emperor is an Ork god

[Enola Gay]

Originally posted by SuperBritishQuokka:

The truth is the emperor is an Ork god

then who is the other god?

[Balekai]

Originally posted by Toaster Maximus:

Originally posted by Balekai:

In addition to the above the implied truth probably also includes:

/snip

Didn'ty the dark elder fix the throne though? If I recall was one of the few times the xenos where brought in since the throne falls well within their tech knowledge but think that was a temp fix

But this guy did give the rest of he theories well my hats off to you

Edit: Kinda makes sense that throne matches some dark elder tech scary to

While researching Rogue Traders after the announcement of this game, I stumbled upon a topic somewhere discussing these events. The ending of the events seemed to be that the Drukhari couldn't handle all the suffering on Terra which drove them mad and they couldn't start let alone finish the work on the Throne. Also it seemed like they and the Inquisitor that plotted the conspiracy to fix the Throne in exchange for giving the Drukhari Emperor genome, all died including the interlopers. So no one was left that knew of the imminent failure. Honestly I have no clue if any of that was truly correct if at all.

After doing some more research tonight though (even though I couldn't find what seemed to be the original topic), the entire Timeline, including some other lore i just stumbled on, is very convoluted (of course it's 40K lore). Some of it looks like it's queued for some rewrites and even moving the timeline of some events. Confusing much? lol

It also seems like enough time has passed that "something was done" or "nothing happened" with the Golden Throne. The date of the events in the timeline sounds like the following:

"986999.M41 - Desperate Measures - The Tech-Priest custodians at work in the Emperor's Palace uncover irrevocable failures in the mechanisms of the Golden Throne. A dozen contingency expeditions are immediately launched, including a Xanthite war procession sent through the Exhubris Portal. The Xanthites fight through Harlequins Troups and Daemon hordes alike before reaching their intended destination. In the grave-cold oubliettes beneath Commorragh, a dark bargain is struck."

That's a long time ago from 999999.M41+ Not to mention there are epilogues in game that go way past 80 years and the universe hasn't blown up from the failing of the Golden throne. The timeline of official M42 events don't seem to be too worried about it either.



Now on the Golden Throne itself: My own fan theory is that it dates back to peak relations with the Aeldari when they signed the Non-Aggression Pacts. Remember it was found below a desert and wasn't at the centre of a Palace.

Essentially I believe the Golden Throne was an ancient gift or tool from the Aeldari to amplify a Human psyker's power enough to open and enter a "Neutral Ground" in the Webway. This is why the Drukhari know how to fix it. It's Aeldari tech.

I'm thinking that since no one was really home in the Aeldari Webway since the fall of the Aeldari Empire, the Emperor decided to expand that portion of the Webway into a massive Human exclusive region to unite the Imperium and save Humanity as stated in lore.

Or the Golden Throne was always a Human special ops project with similar goals to that of the Emperor. Basically Dark Age Humans stole Aeldari Tech and were trying to use it to make their own Webway network. Who knows, maybe the Emperor was the Psyker that used to sit on it originally and knew its location all along? (Well someone might who knows more about lore than I do) :p :P

In both cases the Drukhari would be uniquely positioned to help fix the Golden Throne, because of their reliance and know-how around their ancestor's Webway technology.

More on topic: Regardless of everything I listed above, I lean towards the "Most would be driven mad with despair if they knew the truth" referring mostly to what the Imperium is now with its "God Emperor," compared to what was envisioned by the "Iconoclast" Emperor of Mankind for his 30K Imperium. That would be more than enough to drive most faithful mad if they knew the truth. Let alone everything else that's gone wrong lol.

Or he's an Ork god what the WAIT WHO LET ANOTHER ORK INTO THE FORUMS?!?!

[Anaztazioch]

Generally speaking, Emperor is a warp entity with possessed human body.

Origin goes back to when mankind was in nelithic age, and were guided by shamans - psychers, whose souls after death wondered the warp until another psycher drawn its attention and got possessed. They called it ressurection and thus shamans maintained memories of the past and led mankind.

But at some point some shamans didint "ressurect" or their ressurection became rabid, so shamans did a ritual in which they peered into the warp and learned that several powerful being have taken an interest in humanity and started devouring, corrupting or pretending to be shaman souls to gain access to realspace.

Shamans forged an idea and ritual, in which they all suicide, merge their souls into one powerful entity and reincarnate it. This is how Emperor was born, and since than he bid his time until age of strife to resurface him self wth Thunder legions to win back Terrra and launch Unification War.

Being a warp entity, a collective of ancient psychers - he is reinforced by psychic energies from realspace in form of prayer, chants, faith, martydom, glory etc. But after the events of Horus Heresy, his ageless body was mortally wounded by warp infused Horus. Emperors body is fading and so is his "attachment" to realspace.

Now whats keeping him alive is Golden Throne - Mankinds greatest advantage is ability to travel through space unhindered, they dont need to travel to a webway gate, they just open the veil to immaterium and insulate them selves with Gellar Field.
What Emperor wanted to create is an insulation the level of webway, but with freedoom to open it whenever, thus allowing Mankind safe space traven and next to no warp exposure.

But, Horus wounded him before the project was ready, so Emperor ordered him to be placed. Now Big E. soul is in warp - possibly inside an insulation bubble where his soul if protected from direct confrontation with ruinous powers, but his consciousness is with his body in realspace. His body is being kept from dying by psychers constantly channeling their powers until death, in hopes of fixing his body. This channeling possibly is also used to reinforced the bubble, and Astronomical beacon is a side effect.

Astronomican beacon - Unlike Real Space, Warp aka Immaterium has no actual space or time. So if you use the Warp to travel, you have no idea when or where it will spit you out. To rememdy that, Astronomicon is a massive beacon made of Emperors power and psychers channeling their strength to keep him "alive". This beacon is seen in immaterium, possibly because of my mention "bubble" that while attuned to Golden Throne - has fixed spot in both realspace and immaterium. This means you can navigate with it.

But what happens if emperors body fails ?
1) His bubble in warp will pop exposing him to immaterium and everything that is inside. The conflict may leak into realspace shattering reality, forging rifts and "eye of terrors".
2) Mankind will lose its beacon and be incapable to travel long distances, losing ability to reinforce and respond to threat. Also Agri worlds will be incapable to supply Hive worlds with food, leading to mass starvations, Forge worlds without resource deliveries from mining worlds will cease their production and mankind will be incapable to produce arms, ships etc. losing basicly their whole strength.
3) Emperor may maintain his personality, but he isnt really a good daddy, his love for Astartes, Primarchs and mankind is questionable.

And now, with newer editions Eldar go around with Yvrain prophetising rise of Ynnead - God of Death, who will be born if all Elder inside infinity circuts will die.
From how Big E. was born, Ynnead plan to do the same - forge overpowered being from the souls of Eldar, "living" inside soulstones and infinity circutes.

[Coldhands]

I always disliked the theory that the Emperor is an ancient super being walking among us since the dawn of time and somehow not discovered for 25,000 years.

My favorite Emperor origin theory has always been that he was made in a lab near the end of the Age of Technology as part of a program to create superhuman pskyers who could protect humanity from the warp, but wasn’t finished before Earth collapsed into the Age of Strife. It fits 40k’s whole melancholy vibe of humanity’s potential always being unfulfilled because people are flawed and inevitably **** it up in end.

[Balekai]

Originally posted by Coldhands:

I always disliked the theory that the Emperor is an ancient super being walking among us since the dawn of time and somehow not discovered for 25,000 years.

My favorite Emperor origin theory has always been that he was made in a lab near the end of the Age of Technology as part of a program to create superhuman pskyers who could protect humanity from the warp, but wasn’t finished before Earth collapsed into the Age of Strife. It fits 40k’s whole melancholy vibe of humanity’s potential always being unfulfilled because people are flawed and inevitably **** it up in end.

i like your idea better too.

Originally posted by Anaztazioch:

Generally speaking, Emperor is a warp entity with possessed human body.

Origin goes back to when mankind was in nelithic age, and were guided by shamans - psychers, whose souls after death wondered the warp until another psycher drawn its attention and got possessed. They called it ressurection and thus shamans maintained memories of the past and led mankind.

But at some point some shamans didint "ressurect" or their ressurection became rabid, so shamans did a ritual in which they peered into the warp and learned that several powerful being have taken an interest in humanity and started devouring, corrupting or pretending to be shaman souls to gain access to realspace.

Shamans forged an idea and ritual, in which they all suicide, merge their souls into one powerful entity and reincarnate it. This is how Emperor was born, and since than he bid his time until age of strife to resurface him self wth Thunder legions to win back Terrra and launch Unification War.

/snip

I thought I heard somewhere that GW retconned the Shaman backstory? Regardless it's good to include it as lore since it was the initial origin story at the very least and I haven't seen an "alternative" official version yet. Great post too that adds a lot of stuff I and others skipped over. :)

[Sliscus]

Originally posted by Coldhands:

I always disliked the theory that the Emperor is an ancient super being walking among us since the dawn of time and somehow not discovered for 25,000 years.

My favorite Emperor origin theory has always been that he was made in a lab near the end of the Age of Technology as part of a program to create superhuman pskyers who could protect humanity from the warp, but wasn’t finished before Earth collapsed into the Age of Strife. It fits 40k’s whole melancholy vibe of humanity’s potential always being unfulfilled because people are flawed and inevitably **** it up in end.

I prefer the fact that he's a super soul created by multiple people, so he sees himself as "more" which is ultimately the flaw that causes his downfall. His detachment from his sons indirectly causing the Horus Heresy.