Emperor of Mankind (Warhammer 40,000)
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The Immortal God Emperor of Mankind is the leader of the Imperium in the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe, the largest human organization within that universe.
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[edit] Early history
Humanity originally was aware of the Warp and coexisted with it. There were certain gifted individuals who could communicate with the Warp and use it for many purposes - the tribal healers, shamans, medicine men and other spiritual leaders of early humanity. These people's spirits could even flow through the Warp seamlessly after death and be reborn in new human bodies.
However, as humanity gained more knowledge, their secret desires for more power and pleasures grew and corruption began. The spiritual leaders began to notice the changes as their psychic gifts diminished and reincarnation became harder. They called a great council, in which the leaders decided none of them alone could stop this deterioration - but perhaps together they could. They decided that they would take their own lives in order to be reborn as a god of unimaginable power.
Almost a year after this council and the resulting suicides, a child was born - the boy who would become the Immortal God Emperor of all Mankind. His original name is unknown, although there are some references in Warhammer 40,000 canon that he was born in the 8th millennium BC in central Anatolia (Priestley and Ansell, 1990; Abnett, 2006). He grew up in an isolated and poor rural area and it was rumoured that he had the power to stop his own aging and numerous other potent and miraculous psychic abilities.
After many years, as the Emperor grew in wisdom and focus, he intuitively knew of the spiritual corruption caused by human behaviour and set out to correct it. He always remained in the background, facilitating some of humanity’s most important changes and generally guiding and protecting the species. He bore many different names in many different eras of human history, sometimes taking on the identity of men who became great historical personages who directed humanity along a positive track. Other times, he simply took anonymous identities, prodding and pushing humanity along a path that would lead to the greatest enlightenment and happiness for all where and whenever he could.
The first mention of the Emperor in Imperial records is when he unified Terra after the Age of Strife (sometime in the 29th Millennium). The Emperor's use of genetically engineered warriors--the protoastartes, genowarriors, pre-Space Marines-- enabled him to reunite the people of Earth and to set his sights on the stars. With the assistance of the Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars, the Emperor armed his Space Marines and fleets of interstellar ships to carry his armies to the farthest reaches of the galaxy and spread the Imperium of Mankind.
The Emperor also created the superhuman Primarchs from his own genetic template from whom the Space Marines' geneseed was later developed, but an event of unknown cause, most likely the intervention of the Chaos Gods, scattered the Primarchs across human-inhabited worlds in the galaxy from the laboratory beneath the Himalaya Mountains where the Emperor had created them.
[edit] The Great Crusade
The Emperor had a grand vision: to reunite the elements of humanity who had been scattered across the galaxy and isolated from each other during the Age of Strife. In the initial years of the Great Crusade, the Emperor was at the forefront of the fighting, leading his genetically-engineered soldiers into battle. As more worlds came under the control of the fledgling Imperium of Mankind, the Emperor rediscovered the lost Primarchs, whose genetic template was used to stabilise the creation process of the Space Marines.
Following the Triumph at Ullanor[1] the Emperor returned to his underground laboratories on Terra to work on secret projects, including the mapping of the Webway, an entrance to which he had discovered within his mountain fastness.[2] He left his trusted 'sons', the Primarchs, in control of the Crusade, promoting the foremost of these, Horus, to the rank of Warmaster of the Imperium. Crucially he did not explain to anyone, even Horus, what he was planning to do or why he had returned to Terra; this sowed the first seeds of discontent, which would later blow into the Horus Heresy.
[edit] The Horus Heresy
The Great Crusade came to an end with the events of the Horus Heresy, when Horus turned on the Emperor. Under Horus's leadership, nine Space Marine Legions and many Imperial Army regiments turned to Chaos and started a galactic civil war.
Even as Horus' armies laid siege to Terra, the Emperor still believed that Horus could be redeemed due to his love for his son, and he maintained this belief even as he faced Horus in single combat. Due to his unwillingness to use his full power against his surrogate son, the Emperor suffered grievous injuries at Horus's hands. As Horus stood over the Emperor's shattered body, an Adeptus Custode entered the room. Horus flayed him alive with a single look. The Custode's death galvanised the Emperor. He saw how far fallen Horus had fallen and that there was only one way to defeat Chaos: to kill their pawn, his beloved son. The Emperor mustered a psychic lance of unparalleled power and unleashed it upon Horus. As the Chaos gods deserted their pawn, the Emperor sensed the return of Horus's sanity. He knew Chaos might attempt to possess Horus again, and he would not be present to stop them again. Driving all compassion from his mind, the Emperor called on his inner reserves, and obliterated the Warmaster.
For more information on the clash between the Emperor and Horus see Horus's perspective article
[edit] Present day
The Emperor's broken body was discovered by Rogal Dorn who, following the Emperor's instructions, oversaw the Emperor's re-connection to the Golden Throne, an arcane device to sustain his spirit. The Emperor has remained in the Golden Throne since his 'ascension' to this day, neither fully living nor wholly dead. Although initially designed as the hub of the Emperor's project to colonise the webway, the Golden Throne also functions as a complex life support device. The Golden Throne itself lies in the Sanctum Imperialis, which is guarded by the Emperor's Custodian Guard, also known as the Adeptus Custodes. The Emperor's decaying physical form is preserved and his life functions are carried out by carefully maintained machinery.
The Golden Throne is also connected to a massive Warp beacon known as the Astronomican that generates the system of signals making faster than light travel in the Imperium possible by providing a beacon with which astropaths are able to navigate. The Emperor himself callibrates this signal, also known as the Ray of Hope or the Golden Path, but much of the power behind it comes from a "chorus" of ten thousand human psykers. The life force of the psykers is consumed within several months (Priestley, 1998), which means that replacements must constantly be found and brought to Terra aboard the infamous Black Ships of the Inquisition.
[edit] Religious aspects
The Horus Heresy novels depict the early Imperium as almost entirely atheistical. The Emperor himself proscribed religious worship, and demanded that his followers accept Imperial Truth - that science and logic alone was the way for humanity. To many, the Emperor's decree seems paradoxical. The Emperor claimed that there were no gods, and yet had a deep knowledge of the gods of Chaos; he encouraged the pursuit of knowledge, and yet kept his own primarchs in ignorance. Perhaps, by denying the existence of gods, the Emperor intended to weaken the influence of Chaos in the material realm; perhaps, however, the Emperor simply considered the Chaos panetheon as malignant warp creatures, and not true deities.
Today, "The God-Emperor of Mankind", is worshipped as an omni-present deity by most Imperial citizens. Belief and worship is taught and upheld by the Imperium, and disobedience is universally punished by death. Imperial citizens believe the Emperor guides and watches over them, protecting them from the horrors of the Immaterium.
The opening text of the Inquisitor rulebook describes the mixed feelings that surrounded the Emperor's ascension. The Emperor had ordered Rogal Dorn and his retainers to reconnect him to the Golden Throne. While he would never walk among his subjects again, his psychic powers would return in time, the Astronomican would endure, and the webway tunnel would stay closed. Many voiced concerns over the Emperor's self-imposed duty. Without the Imperium's creator to lead humanity in person, they argued, what hope did the Imperium have for survival? Had it been possible for the Emperor to return, members of the newly-formed Inquisition and the High Lords of Terra would have opposed it. They feared such an event, so soon after the Horus Heresy, could destroy the Imperium. They also were afraid of any possible changes to the Emperor resulting from his ascension.
Some within the Imperium believe the Emperor must be allowed to die fully in order to be reborn as a new power in the Warp, the so-called 'Star Child' and if this happened, not one of the Imperium's enemies would be safe from his wrath. Rumours abound that the Emperor walks among his people; on countless worlds he is worshipped as a God. It is highly possible that the Emperor is truly in two places at once, as the man who once was the Warrior-Lord of the Human race, and yet still seated as the Half-Dead God of the Imperium.
[edit] Sensei and the Star Child
The Realm of Chaos books described a couple of extra aspects of the Emperor. Firstly that during his lifetime he fathered a number of children who gained his power of immortality and were empowered by the Mark of the Star Child (see below). These "Sensei" were empowered by the Star Child to fight Chaos. The Sensei were also fighters for justice, and frequently clashed with repressive agents of the Imperium. The second extra aspect is that the Emperor's spirit is trapped by his nearly-dead body and he is unable to reincarnate. His soul, fading in personality year by year, inhabits the Warp, and is known as the Star Child. He intercedes when needed and battles Chaos in the Immaterium. If the throne was destroyed he would be reborn and be whole again and able to protect humanity properly once more.
These aspects are not referenced on the current Warhammer mainstream 40K canon, so it is unknown if they are still part of it. Some of these concepts have been referenced in the Specialist Games game, Inquisitor. Also, there was a reference to an Inquisitor hunting down and killing the members of a "Cult of the Star Child," believing it to be a Tzeentchian cult.
[edit] References
- ^ Abnett, Dan (2006). Horus Rising. Nottingham: Black Library. ISBN 1-84416-294-X.
- ^ Merrett, Alan (2006). Horus Heresy – Volume IV: Visions of Death. Nottingham: Black Library. ISBN 1-84416-340-7.
- Abnett, Dan (2006). Horus Rising. Nottingham: Black Library. ISBN 1-84416-294-X.
- Priestley, Rick (1998). Warhammer 40,000, 3rd Edition, Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN 1-84154-000-5.
- Priestley, Rick; and Ansell, Bryan (1990). Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned. Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN 1-869893-52-2.
