"What if ... the emperor as he is immortal, lived a thousand lives, did countless things and if not everything : did not even WANT to be perceived as such. What if, just his life experience was so impactful that, other people just viewed him as such because he unconsciously took the expression suitable to the person and situation. What if, he is just an immortal man that lost his will to live, and is just being - in the sense of just moving his body parts - by the sole will of the human that he his by the sole survival instincts embeded at the atomic level in his consciousness - as if his 40 thousands years of existence where just a sort of bodily reaction to the simple and primal instincts of perpetrating and maintaining his specie - acting as ''The EMPEROR of MANKIND''. What if the Emperor is just an immortal man that lost his will to live and is living on a "lie" that is his Godlike nature by the sole INSTINCT of seeing his specie continue to exist. What about his Administrative Knowledge and competence, might you say ? Well, What if it was just him ''BEING'' as the LIVING god of mankind that brought such thought of administrative skill to his followers ? And his orders ? Were they interpreted as pure instincts of expansionnist desires native to the human mind in his most primal form, and that it was interpreted as such ? " IDK, Honestly it blew my mind that I thought about it -_°0°_-
In the final book from the horus heresy about mortarion, the book about the raven guard and vulkans book all say they catch a glimpse of his form of a normal looking man with intense eyes
Oh really? That's awesome! I haven't read Vulcan or the Raven guards story yet other than the short stories in the anthologies. I think I'm like 30ish books into the heresy so far, but I have to split my time between that and 40K novels.
@@weshammer it's very true. Corvus Corax was one of the very few people that was able to break through the emperor's glamour for a split second and see that he's just a fairly unremarkable looking guy with a complexion that is consistent with what a person from ancient Turkey would look like. Unfortunately it didn't last very long and the illusion reasserted itself pretty quickly.
@@EvilSandwich but he never mentions anything about the emperor being smaller or the like just he's face changing its appearance. Also why make it look like you 18ft tall and marching into battle and swinging swords an killing people like that just to actually be using your mind to make people see that an the thing your killing look like that's how it's died. It's far easier to make it look like your smaller to fit in when not fighting an to blend in with humans. Also surely he's change would of gone while he's been on the throne thru his mind shattering and being pulled all over by what he's trying to focus on. I've ranted more I'm my own comment but I'd like to get some of your guys opinions on it ?
@@darthgorthaur258 honestly, the speculation alone is fun. I love the little tantalizing glimpses that are never 100% confirmed. Because, like you said, what corvus saw might not necessarily be the truth either.
There's one thing that seems fairly consistent about the Emperor's appearances: When he shows his face, he always ends up appearing as the apex example of whatever his audience expects him to be. Sanguinius sees a consummate stranger capable of communicating more than words can say, Land sees a man who thinks and feels like a machine, Lorgar sees a towering god in human shape, Lion El'Jonson sees a cloaked shadow with blazing eyes concealing countless secrets, etc. etc. Every appearance the Emperor makes is a reflection of the person's expectations. Sanguinius probably had the closest to a genuine impression, because he didn't know what to expect other than "he's powerful." Land expected the Omnissiah of the Mechanicum, someone free of the burdens and taint of emotion, and that's what he got. Lorgar wanted a god to worship and to make him feel special, and lo and behold, one appears as Lorgar's own father. Lion is powerful, secretive, constantly suspicious of everyone around him, and so the Emperor appeared as the manifestation of that set of traits for him. It's consistent throughout.
It is. But as he pointed out in the video, the Emperor once asked how they saw him. If they saw his mouth move, if they heard a human voice. So it seems the Emperor has no real control over how he is seen. His power create that image but in the end the image itself is made by the other's mind.
Lorgar even recognized that Magnus, being the most powerful psyker of the primarchs, also has this ability to hide his true face and arguably his true form. Magnus is the only one who has arguably seen the real emperor as he truly is.
Didn't they changed the Emeperor recently to just one of the bounch of powerful psychers and said he didn't make astartes alone but some super empowered wohman did most of the job?
It could also be that the reason he appears in many different forms is becuase he is literally an amalgamation of many different "witchdoctors" or pychers souls, 100s or thousands of souls of these powerful magicians all with different personalities and skills literally bashed their heads in in hopes that their souls would meet in the warp and combine to form this all powerful super being which would later be known as the emperor
@Peniley Majorey It's laid out in several of the HH books that each of the Primarchs were engineered to suit a particular role, not just be 20 (21) clones of him. The fact they were artificially engineered kinda moots the point of using them as a comparison in this respect. Same for the Custodes - who, it must be noted, were not made using the Emperor's "geneseed" but rather are individual custom genetic re-engineering jobs to make them perfect for the job where they might otherwise fall short.
It was not just a Sister of Silence that gave a description like that, so did Corax, once, for a brief moment, he saw through the illusion. One has to wonder, that the reason that the Sisters of Silence were not allowed to talk was because the Emperor didn't want them to explain their experience of him to others.
What I love about 40k, is that the lore reads the same way medieval history reads. It's obviously glorified, missing pieces, describes events differently depending on who is writing etc. The inconsistencies read similar to crusader era history I don't know if that was done on purpose or not, but it gives more life to the universe
What should really fascinate you is the timescale - if medieval history (which is to say, anything from about 500 to 1000 years ago broadly speaking) is so patchy and full of unknowns, and mankind has been around for at least a million years... what have we forgotten? Who's to say that these "fictions" we write aren't inspired by half-forgotten dreams of the actual past? After all, we know... a fair amount, going back about 2000 years. Then it gets patchy. Then it gets outright wrong (for example, it seems Egyptology's traditional timeline is off by at least a thousand years). Then it stops. But huge cities didn't just spring up, 10,000 years ago; that stuff takes time, and progress easily vanishes past a certain point - entire cities can be lost without a trace to the passing of millennia. What if we're missing a lot more than we realise? On a more sober note - yes, it was on purpose. The original head honchos at Games Workshop were history buffs, to the point of some of them being into medieval re-enactment. As a child, I took part in a battle re-enactment in France... and I saw a couple of men get blown up by a backfiring canon (I think the barrel cracked or something?) - they flew through the air. Had to be airlifted out. One of them lost his arm. Years later I find out - he was one of the lead sculptors for GW/Citadel Miniatures.
you can replace "medieval history" with history in general. They are smart in providing viewpoints and contradictions, rather than offering a world from an objective perspective. It is all about creating narratives. Just as with history, there is no objectivism. I totally agree on the notion of the middle ages sources, especially the narration follows the sources on Saints. That is what makes it so great!
@@NicholasBrakespear got a cool ass story there man. Thanks for sharing CANT believe one of their guys blew off his arm I guess you could say that’s… pretty… grim dark
@@NicholasBrakespear About that, we can sometimes cover those patches by using archeological findings. That is how we found out about Akenaton, a ruler of Egypt that ancient Egyptians did everything possible to erase. Thing is, Archeology would be considered a form of heresy in the 40k universe, so they don't even have that.
There's this thing in the sci-fi series of Doctor Who called 'psychic paper". It's basically a piece of paper that the doctor has and it shows the person looking at it would see whatever the user wished them to see printed on it. I think people see what the emperor wants them to see based on what those individuals think he would be.
The Doctor isn't even aware of what it's going to show. It shows whatever will make the person listen to them, drawn from THEIR mind, rather than the Doctor's. "Your Majesty? Who does he think you are?" *checks paper* "The King of Belgium, apparently."
@@williambell3304 Yes true that's what i meant but didn't find the right words for it. The emperor seems surprised when he says "So that's how YOU see me"
That could be true but he's stood infront of thousands of people it's unlikely they'd all see the same thing if thats the case. I think he just psychically projects a given appearance
Best part about the "psychic" paper was that it was just normal paper. It was the intention and confidence of the individual who believed it said what they wanted them to believe.
One thing I am sad wasn't brought up was the fact that Horus uses a very similar ability without any psychic powers. There is a line from one of the earlier Heresy book where Horus comments that he uses complete control of his tone, facial expression and other subtle body changes to give the person he is speaking to the exact impression he wants them to receive, and such skills were vital in his supreme charisma and persuasiveness. Whenever someone spoke to Horus, they got whatever impression he wanted them to get.
I believe that Alicia Domica got a quick glimpse of the throne-bound Emperor. I believe she saw ever so quickly a man writing in pain, burning with and in intense psychic might, constantly dying and being reborn. Of course that could be in whole or in part fan lore. When Corvus Corax first met with the Emperor, for a quick second he was able to see past the glamour and it triggered a memory of when he was still in his gestation capsule. He saw a man of dark complexion, slightly shorter than average, with a thin but muscular build.
@@oldeskul it's definitely that Big E may be large, but rather 5'7 close height or maybe a 6ft height. But since he live in neolithic period and may have been near the middle eastern. He may be tannish pigment like kitten. He's just over juiced in Pyskic powers that he looks different at other people.
Its quite possible that originally the differences in the Emperor’s description were simple different interpretation and lack of coordination between the writers, but at some point GW tried to rectify it and realized they do not need to do anything. That their bug is actually a feature.
I'd like to imagine that the emperor simply adjusts the varied assets of his personality to communicate perfectly with whom ever he is speaking to, hence why in some cases he seems like a caring and proud father while in others he seems like an uncaring and warmongering tyrant. But, all of these are true within him. In other words, he feels love for his sons as much as he sees them as tools or "puppets".
@@SnowyElephant maybe he did that for so long that he did not know if that's him or if he was just pretending to be someone for his counterpart. Maybe like him not knowing any more if he was speaking aloud using his voice and lips or communicating psykic. Among his sons he might really have been the caring father and when looking at the bigger picture of the galaxy everyone and everything was just means to an end.
@@phreakazoith2237Yeah, I like the irony of him seeing everyone as tools or puppets, but then himself has to change himself to suit the person(s) he's presently interacting with. How could you maintain your sense of self if you're constantly changing yourself. Sounds like this was one of the stepping stones to godhood. I'm sure he anticipated that, though. He gave up his self for humanity.
i like the idea that the emperor talks in layers of concepts, like with sanguinius, he sees the primarchs as his sons but also his generals and also his tools and also parts of his plan, all at the same time
But is that just what he wanted to project when talking to Sanguinius? To give the impression that would make Sanguinius want to follow him? When talking to the Mechanicus guy, the Emperor is cold and factual - exactly what the Mechanicus most respects. The Emperor shows everyone the face that will have the most impact and command the most respect and obedience. For Sanguinius, that required a multi-layered approach.
@@StevieB8363 i'm not saying that's how i think it is in canon(i haven't read any of the books), just that i like the idea of that being how big e communicates. it's an idea i think would be neat to see explored
Read fury of Magnus and he was able to pull himself apart and he made himself look completely different he could have two working eyes and pristine normal the works but he prefers his own “true” form but the emperor does the same and actually had multiple avatars that showed different facets of himself like revelation in the last church
Oh that's awesome! I have not gotten to fury of Magnus yet. I was trying to avoid anything that takes place during the time of the siege until I had finished all of the horse heresy books, but I'm starting to think I might need to skip ahead so I can be caught up on it when the final book drops
If I remember correctly lorgar actually doubted whether Magnus "normal form" was his actual form or an illusion he even confronted Magnus about it and Magnus just smiled slyly instead of answering.
@@weshammer I know it was just a typo but I'm dying laughing at "horse heresy". Just the idea of a single, completely normal horse leading the traitor legion's All part of the plan
@@adc1222 you know what's funny? the horse heresy has been an inside joke with me and my buddy's for a hot minute since it always auto corrects to that when using voice to text!, I'm not even gonna go back and edit it haha.
I 100 percent agree that the sister of silence never saw the real thing. It doesn't seem like any being does. She saw what she needed to fit her worldview, what was needed to ensure she is able to fulfill her purpose. I really enjoy this video and this aspect of the setting
Malcador and the other perpetuals probably saw the real thing. Uncle malcy and a lot of the perpetuals were older than the big E. He'd have no reason to really hide from them since they probably saw him from the beginning. More points towards them seeing him as he truly is is the fact almost all of them decided to tell him "no" when he wanted them to be his generals so he created the primarchs. They're probably some of the only beings in the 40k universe to not only tell him no, but live to tell the tale. They all saw him in a negative light as the warmonger he was but not negatively like chaos does, which is a supremely powerful negative entity from their pov. The emperor wouldn't want them to see him in such a way if he had a choice in the matter As for Malcador, there is no reason to hide from your oldest most loyal friend. He wouldn't care what the emperor looked like. He is probably the only person to follow the emperor because of who he is as a person and their shared vision of the future. Everyone else followed because of the aurora he cultivated. If the emperor wasnt psychic at all and just a perpetual he and Malcador would still be friends
Someone told me that the Sister did see his true form. The Emperor wanted her to see his true form to show that he is not a God, but a man (to inspire more hope/faith).
@@TheBacknblack92this only rings true if the emperor was indeed at some point human and if his ability is something he controls but rather passive…it’s very likely he simply appears as whatever the perceiver expects him to appear as…the other perpetuals maybe older sure but this doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve seen his “true form” as this is based on the notion that there even is a true form to see
It's one of those cases where 'Less is More' and the ambiguity of it makes it far more interesting then a definite answer, no matter how simple or convoluted the answer would be. One of the more interesting things about the Emperor also comes from the book "Master of Mankind" where, near the end, one of the Custodes condemns the notion that others would view the Emperor in the myriad of different ways that they've rumored to see him. To the Custodes, who I think is Ra, they've always only seen him as their General, Lord, and Master, BUT during the book's climax The Emperor suffers a grievous wound and Ra finally begins to understand as his own perspective of the Emperor shifts dozens of times from the image of a small boy to the that of a scientist to the Emperor and everything in between.
When the Emperor met Magnus, the books say it was like two old friends meeting again after a long time apart. They had communicated through Warp for years.
I quite like the idea that the aura he was used to using to perfectly tailor his communication to the individual was on the fritz when Guilman had his meeting after his return. That Guilman got a lot of the messages tailored for others.
It's implied in some books, that the "lack of caring" from Emperor is a consequence of Molech. To get the power he needed, the Emperor needed to trick the Chaos Gods. But in stealing their power he gradually lost his humanity. Even more interesting, the Big E *started* calling them his sons after Molech. Like, he knew they weren't...but started pretending they were, to hold on to his humanity.
It's this kind of "The Emperor said my son but he also silently said, Primarch, Ninth General, component of the great work and stolen by the enemy and might have been changed by them" communication that I think the writers could really play with for Guilleman and the little chat he had with the Emperor. The Emperor was already conveying multiple trains of thought and meaning in single statements to individuals, Primarchs in particular, way back when he was first finding them. Guilleman himself isn't sure the entire breadth and depth of what was exchanged there. It's easy to imagine that after 10,000 years of spreading his psyche across the galaxy from the Astronomican, then suddenly trying to narrow his focus down to conversing with Guilleman, he'd convey a ton of parallel thoughts and instructions to Guilleman without him even being aware of it at the time. Who's to say that after the right time has elapsed or he encounters the right environmental trigger Guilleman "remembers" something his father had instructed him to do, which he then did, without even being aware of. And to tie that back to your video, it's all just sensory perceptions that are being manipulated.
I would also like to believe that Guillemans perception of the Emperor and what he has became since mounting the throne is a result of his own guilt. He failed to arrive at Terra at the crux of the Horus heresy, thus damning the entirety of the imperium to a slow and painful death. I’d wager that guilleman perceives the emperor as something so different from what he used to know as Father due to his own self Blame and strong guilt. The emperor will never be the same, it’s only a matter of course that things turned out this way, that his father is so cold, so warped, so different. It was all his fault. The weight of his own sin might impact his vision due to the expectations he would have of a father reuniting with his failure of a son, much like how a member of the mechanicus would expect the omnissiah to be a basically a robot as highlighted in the video. At least that’s my theory, I guess the only real way to tell is if another primarch meets with him. Im a firm believer that the emperor is not as weak as he might let off, that he’s waiting for the right moment to enact some sort of grand plan.
@@adamplentl5588 I doubt it, although that would be interesting. I just don’t think 40k would last very long without the Big E. iirc he’s holding back chaos and preventing humanity from being insta fucked by the warp, could be wrong though. Maybe one way they could take it is killing the emperor and having him reincarnate in some form, similar to how he was born from the shamans. Not sure if that’d work though considering that his soul is all fragmented and stuff
Yeah, and with all the pain and worship the Emperor has had to deal with over the course of ten thousand years, there's a good chance he's just too tired and burnt out to be anything other than bluntly honest with his son, especially since Malcador and pals observe that his humanity waxes and wanes with time.
I don't think he accidentally let all of those thoughts slip in, I'm pretty sure he's the type now that he's on the throne to go ahead and have the full conversation and convey his meaning in a very few words. Being that it requires immense focus for him to communicate, best to get it over with quickly since that focus undoubtedly weakens some other arm of his control.
I think that the emperor started out as a victim of lazy writing, but it kinda worked out for his character, because now we have this huge mystery thats fun to wrap your head around. I cam just imagine some people discussing the emperor when it first started and just saying "nah, i will figure this out later" but later never really came and it just worked out. Same with a lot of faceless characters like the rookie from halo 3 odst or jack from Bioshock
Which is probably accurate considering there's a whole religion in the setting centered around him (even if he kept insisting that it shouldn't be the case)@@-Siculus-Hort-
I think it’s one of the instances in fiction where the lore is built based on plot convenience, but it actually benefits the lore rather than take away from it.
Exactly! kind of like a Deus Ex Machina built in to avoid writing them selves into a corner by allowing the emperor to be fluid and what ever the story and the fans need him to be thus allowing it to evolve more naturally.
This one is one of the best way to deal with inconsistency in shared universe franchise. The bad way was probably just by saying "it's in other universes in the multiverse" kind of thing.
it makes sence in WH40, with the golder age of humanity long gone and reaching legendary and mythical status among the people from the 40k, many things have been forgotten forever, and all that remains are legends and rumors. Emperor was last seen 10k years ago.
I personally think that the God Emperor in the purest sense is a Chaos God. Like he always has been and everyone sees him differently like he's less of a physical being but rather an idea. Always changing but never concrete as a singular thing
@@dubstepXpower I've heard control and or order taken to the extreme which sort of makes sense. Perhaps he's an amalgamation of all the aspects, a rogue chaos entity who revolted.
For what the Emperor represents: the pure, indomitable collective will of the human spirit to survive and persevere against impossible odds and challenges. For what the Emperor IS: maybe a computing analogy would be fitting. The Emperor is like a psychic server cluster formed by a thousand pure consciousnesses of ancient human psykers, which form a kind of virtual computing cloud having willingly sacrificed their physical forms to gain immortality. In this cloud, there runs a virtual machine forming the meta-consciousness of the being known as the Emperor. This virtual meta-consciousness can access the shared psychic and intellectual processing power of the entire collective and can run multiple sub-algorithms parallel. But it is bereft of human emotion like an organic human individual, being pure intellect and will, making it immune to the corruption of the Warp, which manifests out of emotion and the subconscious desires and fears of living beings. But disembodied consciousness has no need for desires, fears or emotions born out of biological drives and limitations. It only requires reason and purpose. It's purpose being to guide humanity and secure its perpetual survival against the threats of both the Immaterium and other alien dangers of the physical reality of the Galaxy. Which is why the Imperium was originally founded on pure reason and purpose as a tool to that end and a manifestation of that ancient collective will. The physical body known as the Emperor is merely an avatar of this psychic computing cloud and functions as its terminal with input/output functionality to interact with the physical reality, as well as anchoring it in it. The cloud-consciousness of the Emperor can project psychic illusions onto its physical terminal like changing skins on virtual video game characters or changing the appearance of an UI on a computer screen, in order to facilitate beneficial interaction with other receptive living beings. It doesn't even have to do that consciously, as one of its sub-algorithms automatically takes care of that. But since that physical terminal was critically damaged by the powers of the warp and reliant on the machinery of the Golden Throne to retain basic functionality, most of the psychic processing power of the cloud has been diverted to generating the Astronomican beacon, limiting its intellectual processing power and communication capabilities, since that is momentarily the most beneficial function to the survival of humanity in its current form of the Imperium.
@@axelhopfinger533 he isnt reliant on the golden throne at all. if they would destroy his body for good he would ressurect himself wich is kinda funny considering how they do everything to preserve his body.
Basically he is a normal man, juiced with such an unbelievable amount of warp power, that he can mind control anyone and almost any thing and appear as he wishes at all times. A master of Biomancy, he can change his appearance at will.
This does create the interesting possibility that the emperor may not in fact be in quite such a bad state after the Horus Heresy and merely wishes to appear so. The King moving his pawns across the board 🤔.
Or perhaps there's always the faint possibility that he's physically fine, but from the way the sister of silence described him, still in mental anguish and laser focused because of how much he's trying to hold back the warp, I think.
I personally believe that the Emperors chameleon nature was simply a method of delaying/not needing to write a definitive story, so what started as a cop out became a fascinating backstory with an ambiguity that perfectly fits the grimdark
Yeah I basically completely agree with you on this. I just hope that some of the future books narrow the scope of possibilities of who he is by giving us a few tiny pillars of truth as lighthouses to guide us towards the possibilities that make the most sense. I don't want answers but I want the ability to make a real educated guess, you know?
Interesting that he makes the Pinocchio reference but fails to mention the Blue Fairy that gave life to the puppet. Similarly he carved the bodies of the Primarchs but had to go elsewhere for the souls
Or the fact that Pinocchio was given life because Geppetto really wanted a son he could dote and take care of, not because he needed a war machine for galactic conquest. Like, my dude, your example is about loving your creations as if they had a life on their own-
You honestly made me feel much better about Big E's encounter with Land. I was really put off by it when I first read it, but your take on it makes it a lot better. Thanks. My personal favourite encounter of anyone with the Emperor is the first meeting of Big E and Corvus Corax in "Deliverance Lost". Definitely worth a read.
I think it was in the first custodian book, where a powerful psycker was flanked by 4 blanks at once just so his psychic presence wouldn't overwhelmed others. And at one point, still being flanked, he used his powers seemingly without much effort. So I would guess that someone as powerful as big E, would need like an army of blanks surrounding him to dull the effect enough. Unless it was his direct will
It might bemore likely that he has sufficient degree of control to dial himself down to not overwhelm others. I imagine if he relaxes those controls, he could pop your skull like a grape.
Actually there was an comparison used by MajorKill where he basically explained blanks to be small vortexes and of course if there's a small Flame then it will suck it in and no problem, but no matter how many of those small vortexes you have they can't suck a literal Sun. He kinda said it like that do not really remember it anymore
i always imagine a netflix series based on warhammer and the different factions in the universe. I always thought a cool aspect for the emperor would be to have him show up like 3 times and henry cavil play him when you first see him, and different actors every other time he’s shown having an interaction with someone and acting differently according to whom he’s talking to.
If it was Netflix the twist would be that the Emperor was a young woman of color but the patriarchy overthrew her and rewrote the history books to make her a white guy. Then they made up the shape-shifting rumor to cover for it.
Netflix is probably gonna ruin it like they ruined the Witcher. Cavill is certainly an amazing choice for the Emperor or Valdor or even the Lion though.
I remember an interview with one of the writers who suggested no one other than the Emperor has seen the actual golden throne. They said it was the psychic version of a colossal nuclear furnace and no entity other than the emperor - not even the chaos gods - could survive inside it. Any time someone is said to have entered the throne room, it was just a psychic construct. That said I can’t remember where I saw this or who the writer was so I could be way off base here 😅
Makes one wonder if the Emperor ever actually fell at the end of the Horus heresy. What if hes projecting himself to be a corpse while being in perfect health and getting even more powerful by absorbing the 1000 psykers a day, using the chair as a beacon to basically be omnipotent within the range of the holy beacon. Star child might very well be his astral projection being witnesses when directly interacting with those he needs to help.
This doesn't make sense as the chair was literally shown to shred fuckin Malcador like a drywall tile Emperor may be powerful but what's actually harmfull will still, to a lesser degree be harmful to him.
Cabal doesnt think so, because in their "Oracle Eye" they saw him losing this mental warfare with chaos gods eventually, which led to destruction of humankind as biological creatures, which led to death of chaos gods (because, well, any emotions are their food...)
If I'm being totally honest, with my limited experience within the universe of 40K at this point, being limited to having read one book and watched the entire TH-cam library of Wesshammer, Majorkill, and Adeptus Ridiculous, I feel confident in saying that the Emperor of mankind is one of the most interesting characters in fiction.
I wonder if this puts his connection to Malcador under a different light - he was an extraordinarily powerful psyker that the Emperor could not do this mental trickery so he had to engage the man by being entirely himself.
It just struck me that if the Shamen theory proves true and the idea the emperor has been hanging out in the background of humanity since it climbed down from the tree's - the ability to *will* people not to see him (which is precisely the ability that Corax displays as his most obvious Primarch Talent)
Big E was born around 7000 BC. So still a blip on the radar of the existence of humans that came around 250-300kyrs ago depending on who you ask. A minuscule nothing compared to when hominids came down from trees and started walking upright. That happened like a million years ago On the scale of humanity emps existence is a blip in time. If the shaman theory is true then he was the result of human civilizations leaders at the time realizing theyd go extinct and humanity would be screwed if they didn't all become one entity. He probably did hide himself like corax though. Compared to humanity the emperor is nothing. Also since time perception is relative to the amount of life lived, the older you are the faster it feels its moving, the emperor is around 48k years old. From his perspective him being on the golden throne is like a normal 48yr old man being tourtured for 11 years. It sucks and it's mentally draining but hes probably in a lot better shape than he lets on I think he chooses to appear as a corpse as part of his plan. From his pov the primarchs are a blip in time and the great crusade was a few days of work to a normal person. He's so old that his grander scheme is like planning a decade into the future for a normal guy. He knows he'd be stuck on that throne suffering for a good bit of time and he chooses to appear like that. His reasons for wanting to appear like that are unknown but it might be so he can continue getting power boosts from sacrificed psykers by creating a sense of urgency at his current state. When he does stand up he'll be many many times more powerful than when he sat down and that'll allow him to wipe away humanitys foes in a way that he couldn't during the great crusade. He doesn't want to be a God, he wants to be greater. Most people suffer and work hard to save money for retirement. Big E surffers and works hard to save up souls for retirement.
Climbed down from the trees? Why is there no evidence of this? And how is that a viable evolutionary path? Have you ever studied evolution at a level higher than apple news articles? It's all very questionable
I know many have seen him as "Just a regular man", but I somehow doubt his SIZE is only an illusion. His war gear, his throne, his day to day items are all suited for a person of immense size and no one has ever called into question his stature. So I do believe that he is still a Primarch sized godlike human.
The golden throne wasn't built for the emperor. It was built for Magnus, the original plan was that after the crusade was finished, he would stick his psychically strongest son in it top function as a battery. That's why it's so huge.
@@randombencounter263 And yet in his mummified state he fits in the golden throne like he was of a similar size akin to a primarch, unless his curent decayins state is also an illusion.
Some old 40k art of the 80's paint the real state of the emperor in a more...medical state, Wich machinery and everything else maintaining him alive, with his corpse hanging in a tube, and i saw some interpretations that this and his classic art we all know are both true His real body is in a decrepit state inside a lab while the emperor used for propaganda is in the golden throne
One of my favorites is in the story "the last church" where he appears as a humble man looking to have a conversation with the priest. One of my favorite short stories.
I love the thought of "what would the Necrons see when speaking to the Emperor"? It would probably have given some insight into how they communicated with the C'tan at first contact
It's interesting how the Emperor never shows his true nature or appearance to anyone and is therefore attributed many different and even conflicting traits. While the Chaos Gods are brutally honest, yet still lend themselves to interpretation because of how unsettlingly simple their nature is.
Good point on that curious thematic juxtaposition Sort of like .... ??? how each of the chaos gods can represent a "finality" of clear understanding about the aspect of reality (from whence they were born by). While the Big E (specifically representing humans, or humanity) shows a fluid spectrum of ..... possiblities through potential and greatness mixed with being part of the root that feeds or gives the chaos gods their existence. Ultimately representing humanity as laying a path of the unforeseeable futures of shear and utter demise from itself all the way through to the heroic strife of grand impossiblity and supreme, divine "victory" of all. hope that made any sense whatsoever.
The idea of a character so impressionable that even his base presence imposes his will is the most god like thing you would wright for an imposing individual, its almost something out of H. P. Lovecraft
Mate this isn't just a 40K video you know? These fictions we create with our imaginations are literally the boundaries of reality, and you are contributing to that in a way that genuinely made my spine tingle. Bravo dude fantastic video.
Knowing how he's old enough to come from humanity when we were much, much shorter on average, I'd say that he originally was probably a slightly short dude, maybe something like 5'5" - 5'10" depending on 40K's sizes. After becoming emperor though, I could definitely see him altering his body to be as big as the primarchs.
Apparently there is a book where Corax remembers seeing the Emperors true form when Corax was still in his pod and he says the Emperor was shorter than average so I dont think he altered his body much if at all
I love the thought of the Emperor showing himself as the person the observer needs or wants to see at the time they see him. An imperfect perfection that does everything necessary to make all things come to close without being a complete cop-out.
It would make sense why primarchs turned after he left the front line for terra. His influence was no longer present to cause the perception they needed to ward off chaos.
I always thought that the emperor just passively mind controlled people to his will. Hence why half the imperium joined Horus as soon as the rebellion started. Which may be how the imperium is holding together currently with the emperor constantly projecting himself outward.
That ending idea about "a weapon out of its box" is such an interesting idea, like the Emporer is just another Dark Age abomination for the Custodes to keep and the throne room is his cage. I wonder if anymore stories explore such a view point?
Bamboozled? Done over? Steimied? Deceived? Tricked? LIED TO? Oh man... all of this lore, to me, is so exciting and new and I so verily enjoy listening to you teach us, Wes. Thank you, man. Im glad youve been at it for so long because you have so much content to browse. 😊
I always liked the idea of the Emperor starting as a nobody who had ambition and a plan and used the power of stories to ascend to a level of power that rivalled the Chaos Gods themselves.
The idea that the Emperor "stole" all his powers seems to be getting more popular, but it runs against a lot of the lore. Such as him defeating the Void Dragon shard and whatever else he got up to in pre-history.
What's more, given the nature of the warp, over time, it would BECOME true He could have been a gene modded immortal with a very long lifespan, but through millennia of worship by countless trillions has given him power through the warp, making an entity that latched onto his should and merged to basically make him a god, like how a mortal becomes a Daemon prince
@@ragnarian to make it more of a mind trip his future godlike self could be guiding him towards the desired outcome. I've always liked a good bootstrap paradox.
Your comment reminds me of Braveheart. William Wallace: Yes, I've heard. Kills men by the hundreds. And if he were here, he'd consume the English with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his arse.
@@ryanfoster2869 you mean like in the 40k history he was considered to be Jesus himself but he lost all of his faith centuries later, as in he realized who he has been worshipping was himself from the future, though this is told from the perspective of Ollanius Piersso who was a Catholic in pre-history times living alongside the emperor, so there are two possibilities one being what I just said did happen or Ollanius Piersso depicted him as a heretic because of his faith contradicting that of emperor's plans. i like the second one because it fits the theme
He looks like a man from the Mesopotamian area, possibly a bit taller than average and better built due to being from a better-off family. He also looks like whatever he believes is most useful at the time. Often, when he does so, he lets your own mind work out what that is. Speaking in any language sounds as if he is communicating directly into your mind. This is what I think.
No, canonically he was made from Shamans around the Turkey area around the time it was inhabited by early Indo Europeans. He'd look dark straight haired with a lean build and pale. You know kinda like he literally looks lmao. If he was mesopotamian he'd look curly haired and bushy bearded
@@danjoredd if im not wrong the Emperor during the Age Of Strife was waiting Slaneesh to be born so the Warp Storms will end and he will take the power
Yep the Master of Mankind, book 41 of the Horus Heresy perspective. I do like the mind-melded-shaman story (it makes his origin fully human and explains his great wisdom and unusual mind) over 'he was always a god/alien' or 'he was created in labs' ideas. Though I suppose the idea of demonic possession, of ancient shaman(s), by a non-evil warp entity of extreme power would make similar or greater sense.
But if the Emperor is siphoning off the psychic energies of the Warp/humans praying to him, literally making him what they think he is, wouldn’t that mean he literally is - if not paradoxically - what they perceived him to be??
@@thegreatpepsiman given the main 4 abstract concepts that are the chaos gods are on the spectrum of chaos and call him "The anathema", it is actually very possible the emperor is the abstract concept of order. This is even reinforced with big E telling kai after their game that you can't "be both omnipotent and omniscient at the same time" or at least not in an avatar. If you want a science to this, look into platonic concepts mixed with string theory and it'll start to explain alot when you combine it with the big E is order theory. Not only that, but look at the lengths the emperor took to keep order: he straight up destroyed man's spiritual health and denied them their own mental needs, all so the worship doesn't "run the risk" of giving other abstracts (mainly chaos) more power in physical reality and inadvertently fucking his plan over. Hell he even went as far as denounce worship of HIMSELF even tho it would've given his avatar a HUGE boost and let him make daemons and daemon princes (living saints are his princes FYI) just because he had to be 100 percent sure as shit that chaos gained nothing at all and his species would prosper into a technological golden age again, without any superstious nonsense.
Aaron Demski-Bowden is rapidly becoming my favorite 40K author... Notice how many of the coolest concepts about the Emperor, Chaos and the history of mankind are from his books. (I suggest "Talon Of Horus" and "Black Legion" to any fan of 40K)
Personally, I like to subscribe to the theory that the Emperor was actually the last of the Old Ones who stumbled or sought out humanity and chose to raise them to greatness as a last ditch effort to save the Galaxy. I think his ever-shifting form is clever writing and good character design for what he needs to be, however, I think it takes away from ever ending or concluding the Warhammer 40k story. Drawing a conclusion to the story of Warhammer 40k would inevitably require that some truths about the Emperor be revealed and I fear that might actually diminish his character in the end. Sometimes the mystery is so good and interesting that any answer at all is disappointing. That's why I was always a bad writer. I had great concepts, but no idea how to come to a conclusion. Lol.
@@ShalashakaDS True, but it needs to move forward. And it can't do that indefinitely. There needs to be conclusions. And that besides, you have a universe ending precedent in Fantasy and their End Times.
Kinda like how Mass Effect trilogy was the single best piece of storytelling even to date, but the journey was the reward. Not the rather disappointing destination :D
I hope they keep the Emperor as huge question mark but give us lot of little snippets to how he might be shown. In the final battle with Horus I wish they add little scene where he is just glashing with Horus and the visage of Emperor flickers through every spectator who happens to be there, everyone seeing something different
I think the fanmade "last church on earth" depicts what Emperor looks like very well. He can change his form depending on who he talks to, and what he wants to convey.
Corvus is I think the only one of the primarchs able to see through emperors projections. And the description fairly well matches with the images presented of him. Basicly corax says he saw his face in tge capsule and its the same face thats here on deliverance and Big E is actually suprised that Corax can see him as he is.
I remember a piece, where one of the Primarchs, I think Corvus Corax, maybe, saw the Emperor's true face in the warp. And it shocked him, struck him with fear as one side of the emperor's face was that of a monster.
I'm sure someone has already said this but the big E gives off an aura of inspiration. Meaning that anyone who sees him will see him differently based on what's most inspirational and most valued to that person or group of people viewing him at that time.
Love the vid Wes, and I adore the concepts you covered. Especially the idea that the emperor is this psychic, being made of a massive conglomerate of ancient human psykers. But i do reeaaaly like the idea that you went over in the sisters section. That the emperor is that, just man, tired, in pain, for something so much greater than himself. Even if he his the greatest psker EVER He seems cold and he might be, but his want for humanity to thrive, has always been a constant. just my take, ur the best 40k tuber wes, to me.
The thing about the Emperor is, that he's not just a person, but a hive-mind like amalgamation of many souls and possibly also personalities. So it's not inappropriate to assume that all those different personalities, which have shed all mortal and material attachments tens of thousands of years ago, have become purely intellect-focused, also because the Chaos Gods are formed mainly by and sustain themselves on emotional psychic energy. Imagine the tumultous churn inside the Emperor's head, if all those different personalities and their various passions and quirks, vices and virtues would still somehow want to live out their emotions. Instead, they shed all their individuality and emotional attachments (like Zen/Nirvana) when they created the Emperor as a being of pure psychic power, contained in an immortal physical body (which may or may not be a Perpetual) as anchoring vessel, driven by incorruptible intellect and overwhelming will alone, to guide the path of mankind and serve as a bulwark against Chaos. As the Emperor makes it quite clear on multiple occasions that he is really not one being, but many merely sharing the same avatar and purpose.
@@axelhopfinger533 No wonder when Sanguinius refers to him as such, or smthn close, he smiles and questions him. He is amused his son has 'that' much foresight
This is an awesome video. The enigmatic nature is what makes the Emperor so dang interesting. I love all the evidence to show the complicated nature. This has me wondering so many things!
I would just like to say that you have a easy to listen to voice that makes the content even more exciting than it originally would have been. I'm just now dipping my toe into the Warhammer 40k universe. That is because of you. I am completely and utterly overwhelmed, but I will find a starting point and begin my journey. Thanks for everything you do!
What I'd be absolutely fascinated to know would be what Erda, Ollanius, Astarte, and the other Perpetuals saw him as. Some of them knew him long before the Unification War (It's strongly hinted in a couple books that wars between the Emperor and other Perpetual factions were the cause of several major historical events, and it's explicitly stated that Ollanius was the Emperor's original Warmaster the first time he tried to conquer the planet back in the days of ancient Rome.) If anyone would have a real perspective on the true nature of the Emperor, it would be the people who knew him personally since before he rose to power.
I think it can be genius and lazy writing at the same time, but given how enigmatic he is and is supposed to be, I think it's perfect for the Emperor's character to be like this. I think it would also be kinda neat if he really was just a normal sized human projecting his psychic self as he does to instill authority over all of humanity. It's easier to follow this giant golden man than a normal looking man when looking at their appearance.
Wes, I gotta say, you have the absolute best content for 40k lore. So approachable and so well researched, digested, and presented. This video especially is a great example. You found interviews and used them to support your point. Amazing stuff
16:20 If the Emperor projects false images of himself to impress the viewer, then in the case of the Sisters of Silence, he failed to impress them at all. They saw the real Emperor. My conjecture: The Emperor has no clothes. His only real power is the power of persuasion, which is why he could never show his true face.
Personally I think this is really cool idea for a character, and an amazing way to allow both for inconsistences between writers, and for highly different stories to be told while all fitting together seamlessly.
You really should have covered the experience of Corax, upon his first viewings of the emperor on Lycaeus. Furthermore the emperor being unsettled (though only briefly) after hearing Corax remembering him from within his gestation tube on Terra prior to the scattering of the primarchs.
I think it started as lazy writing, an easy explanation for the different ways he acted from story to story, but then they started to wright him with that in mind and it has developed as an amazing and unique aspect of his character.
I think it's fantastic writing. I mean, yes, 40k is not known for its consistency, but that's part of the appeal. There are no simple truths in it. You can say "That's just a lazy way to avoid plotholes", and sure, it kind of is, but at the same time, it's an incredible feat of writing to present people with a mystery that will never be solved and still have them care to speculate and debate about it.
Brilliant video. I also think this feeds into the much larger question of the Heresy as a whole: Why did so many Primarchs and luminaries follow Horus? The Emperor always /appeared/ to be what people wanted and needed. But when he was no longer around, when he failed his sons and his Imperium, how much farther would he have fallen in their minds? He appeared as a god to Lorgar, then punished Lorgar for his worship. He appeared as a great Warrior to Angron who prevented him from fighting with his brothers. He appeared as a scholar and a powerful teacher to Magnus, then banned the practice of acquiring certain lore and abilities. He appeared as a bringer of truth and mercy to Horus, who abandoned the Crusade, [REDACTED] two of his brothers, and kept dark secrets from Terra. Realizing your parents are just regular human people marks the end of childhood for most. It may be no wonder the Imperium split up the middle once the Emperor's facade began to show some cracks.
I think he's supposed to be ambiguous and varied. He can be anything or anyone. His character or sense of person is vast and deep. Kinda reminds me of Henry VIII. He had a lot of different characteristics. He could be angry, benevolent, cunning, honest, seemingly a fool, and then a genuis all before morning tea.
3:15 The Emperor Of Mankind didn't steal powers from the Chaos gods. This is Horus’ interpretation. All we know from the book is that Horus was led to believe this. What we know for sure is that Big Daddy E entered the Warp through the portal on Molech. What he did then remains a mystery, it is speculated in the fluff that he stole some secrets. Considering that Chaos considered the Emperor anathema from the beginning a deal is very unlikely. Sadly, in many wikis Horus' belief was carelessly accepted and proliferated as fact.
Big E was at least a demi-god when he faced off against, and beat the hell out of, the C'tan void dragon and then buried it on Mars. So he's probably been one all along, whether by the shaman power infusion or just some once-an-eternity kind of luck.
I get that that's a cool idea at times, but I feel like Galactus just being a giant dude in a purple hat because that's what he looks like makes more sense than Humanity's closest approximation of the true form of an unimaginable monstrosity being... a giant dude with a purple hat.
@@RorikH well there is that one time he look like a giant ameoba. so far there are only 2 instances where he the audience got to see what he truly looked like. His original form was named galan and he was a scientist trying to his his world and people from the big crunch and is the only survivor of his dead universe. His somewhat true form is where we the audience see him interacting with the cosmic heirachy as a this silhouette of energy because his purpose in the universe is to be a stockpile of energy when the current marvel universe goes through heat death. Eternity may be nigh omnipotent but he has limits, hence the word "nigh". Franklin richards was supposed to be his successor without the burden of the cosmic hunger as some protector. Mr immortal is franklin's backup.
@@jonathanathor117 Is a reservoir of energy his cosmic purpose? I've only read about his purpose in Earth-X, which is not in the 616 universe, and where he stopped celestials from spreading too much by eating the planets they had put their eggs inside.
@@RorikH It's also cannon in earth 616 as well. Basically the current incarnation of the marvel multiverse (7th/8th) is destined for heat death so eternity made galactus from the survivor of the sole survivor if the 6th incarnation of the multiverse galan to act as essentially as a catalyst for the big bang. That's why he consumes planets. He can consume stars, however if he consumes stars, however that would resultin having less planets. It's kind of like milking a cow. If titan could have an advance civilisation despite being far away from the sun then it's also posssible for other celestial bodies to have life on them. Since planets are the result of star; you do the math. One reason why there are infinite versions of galactus is because eternity created infinite copies of the same earth 616 galactus as a means to protect the multiverse from within in case of any treats such as power hungry civilisations, malevolent treat. In a messed way the guy with the funny hat is a means of population control and can fight against entities like annihilus, thanos, the celestials etc. He's the physical embodiment of fermi paradox or at least 1 solution to the paradox. Sometimes marvel could go from being goofy to dark to existential like that.
Hope you are ok, Wes, not seen you in a bit. Anyways, great topic! I love off the beaten path topics. Also, I am requesting this from you now because I feel you will do it right. Be ready to break apart and analyze the King in Yellow once we have more information on the topic. I am one of those types that like things completed, no lose ends. With that said, I would not be disappointed if the truth of the Emperor were to be known, but done in such a way that mystery still remained. I do not think it would be hard for any of us to envision a definitive version of the emperor that was left open ended. That is what would please me the most about almost all things 40k. Give me a definitive starting point and then move forward into the unknown. As a follower since the late 90's it is the inconsistencies that drive me off the genre the most.
Oh yeah don't you worry! I'm doing just fine. Hit a rough patch a few weeks back, lost a pet and took it really hard. But I'm kind of a private person and didn't really want to make a post about it. But I appreciate you checking in! And yeah I'm super excited to cover it! I'm pretty convinced it's Valdor, But I feel like we're going to be getting solid answers real soon.
I think having the Emperor on life support is probably the worst decission for humanity. In their efforts in keeping their beacon alive, they're restraining him to his broken form. If he really is such a powerful psychic being, maybe even a god, he could reemerge from the warp after properly dying.
Personally I like the description of him as a normal lucking man with intense eyes. In a world full of chaos, demons, god like beings and super soldiers twice the size of a normal man. It just seams more badass that a normal dud with powerful abilities and a well thought out plan just stomps trough it. It's like if you sea a army of space marine's and then you see a 14 feet tall guy in golden armor and a fucking halo standing amongst them you are like, yep that's the boss. But if you see an army of space marine's and some normal lucking guy amongst them with a eyes that pierces every fiber of you being. I would be a lot more intrigued and scared. If this normal lucking dud bosses demigods around the size of giants that call him papa, then what the fuck can he do to command such respect.
It would be cool if the Emperor truly was a shriveled man all along. But his powers were so insane that he passively manipulated everyone around him into seeing and hearing exactly what their hearts and minds desired.
I would say he was a god after he was interned. Before he was an ancient individual who has extremely powerful warp powers. I like the idea that there are no true gods just individuals who fead off emotion that makes them more powerful over time.
It sounds like the Emperor is a chaos God with all the war suffering it seems he is feeding it into the warp. That's why the future is dark. He lived during tech age knows the secrets yet he doesn't teach them how to build it properly.
I think that without that armour the Master of Mankind is like average human at least in size to blend in with pre Age of Strive Human sociaty. When it comes to his face and overall apperance I think he changed over time to never look twice before his reveal to Mankind in order to maintain his cover. It just makes sense for a person like him. The Emperor protect´s
I don't think he's necessarily even wearing anything. Why would he need to? What point would there be to wearing physical armour? He may still have clothing, but I can't suspect it is truly that much, when he can be perceived as anything, and be anything.
I keep hearing about how the Emperor “stole power from the Gods,” but I don’t know what it’s referring to. You mentioned it in this video, so I think a dive into that and Horus’s reasons to betray his father would be an interesting video
It’s referring to the emporer steeling power from the choas god on a planet i forgot the name of the chais gods are emotions and fears of the beings of the galaxy korne slannesh nurgle and tzeenth.
So, he either stole, or made a deal with the chaos gods, to create the primarks. There's a bunch of theories as to why, but I think it's as simple as "for all his power and abilities, no matter how many genetic experiments he made, they all lacked a fundamental aspect of humanity. A soul. He can create the body, the mind, and the neurons, but he couldn't fill those bodies with the thing that makes them truly alive, and independent."
It was on the world of *Molech* . The planet was home to the ancient Knight House of Devine, who worshiped a *snake-like god* . Sometime during the Dark Age of Technology, it is said that the Emperor along with several other Perpetuals such as Alivia Sureka traveled to Molech on a one-way spacecraft. There, they found a gateway into the Realm of Chaos which the Emperor entered, making *a bargain* with the Dark Gods (ala "Dormammu, I've come to bargain." )and becoming imbued with new powers and the knowledge to create the Primarchs. Molech itself was brought into the fledgling Imperium during the Great Crusade by a combined force of Dark Angels, Luna Wolves, *Emperor's Children* , and White Scars each led by their respective Primarchs, who banned the worship of their serpent god in favor of the Imperial Truth. The Emperor accompanied them, and *erased* from each Primarch's minds the planet's significance. (Horus would regain his memories, and enter the Gateway himself)
He is a godlike being, so powerful that any who see him, form in their minds eye their version of how they see a perfect being. He isnt hiding his form. Our minds just cant comprehend his true form and make up the next best thing of a perfect form that they can understand.
Although he acts with absolute authority, he always doesn't act... human. Arguably his most human form was the Last Church. Where he is trying to absolute authority but argues with the last priest as if trying to convince himself that he does have absolute authority. I really like the theory he is Malice as both are against the four chaos gods and the Imperium isn't a place of laws and orders, but more anarchy and convoluted mazes. A mockery of organization. He only emerged when humanity was at its weakest point making sure they were weak after the golden age... not stopping the collapse but perhaps encouraged it. A tyrant for power sake. It really fits that grim dark everything is terrible motif. However, with GW re-introducing the Primarchs; advancing the timeline; allowing hope to grow... I think they are moving away from an absolute evil humanity that was so twisted it wasn't really recognizable as humanity. To something a bit more human and I think the stories with the Emperor will reflect that. And I can't be sure, but with Guilliman and other Imperial leaders becoming more well-known and heroic; I think humanity will be moving beyond the Emperor. Leaving the Emperor to scream into eternality on the golden throne.
I’m reminded of something that transpired in Danzan Ryu Jiujitsu: our particular lineage from Okazaki came through a very psychically powerful man named Professor Bud Estes who did all kinds of nearly impossible psychic feats. He was one of Okazaki’s first students. Our professor was one of Estes’ students. Anyway, He became very very dogmatic about what needed to be done to “ascend” if you will and utilize your full psychic potential in the art of Jiujitsu. One day a fellow student was asking and questioning about the journey. He noted that what Estes taught to specific students was not meant as dogma for all but was meant and said to that specific student in that time to speed them along their path and thus each message was different. He said straight to our teacher: “what was said to you would NOT have been the same thing said to me, because I’m different than you are and I don’t need your message to help me along my journey.” Minds were blown that day. Perhaps obvious in retrospect, but it reminds me of the concept of the emperor in WH40K.
This is the single most interesting ideas surrounding the emperor that I’ve ever heard! To think that there is a method to the madness that explains away the inconsistencies from story to story. Furthermore, it makes more sense that this is how the emperor functions than the other conversations.
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that vpn animation was grabing somthing
@@Nishom0926 maybe one day we will get another season...
@@weshammer hope dies last.
"What if ... the emperor as he is immortal, lived a thousand lives, did countless things and if not everything : did not even WANT to be perceived as such. What if, just his life experience was so impactful that, other people just viewed him as such because he unconsciously took the expression suitable to the person and situation.
What if, he is just an immortal man that lost his will to live, and is just being - in the sense of just moving his body parts - by the sole will of the human that he his by the sole survival instincts embeded at the atomic level in his consciousness - as if his 40 thousands years of existence where just a sort of bodily reaction to the simple and primal instincts of perpetrating and maintaining his specie - acting as ''The EMPEROR of MANKIND''.
What if the Emperor is just an immortal man that lost his will to live and is living on a "lie" that is his Godlike nature by the sole INSTINCT of seeing his specie continue to exist.
What about his Administrative Knowledge and competence, might you say ?
Well, What if it was just him ''BEING'' as the LIVING god of mankind that brought such thought of administrative skill to his followers ? And his orders ? Were they interpreted as pure instincts of expansionnist desires native to the human mind in his most primal form, and that it was interpreted as such ? "
IDK, Honestly it blew my mind that I thought about it -_°0°_-
The empress is basically jesus & the story is Christianity.
In the final book from the horus heresy about mortarion, the book about the raven guard and vulkans book all say they catch a glimpse of his form of a normal looking man with intense eyes
Oh really? That's awesome! I haven't read Vulcan or the Raven guards story yet other than the short stories in the anthologies. I think I'm like 30ish books into the heresy so far, but I have to split my time between that and 40K novels.
@@weshammer it's very true. Corvus Corax was one of the very few people that was able to break through the emperor's glamour for a split second and see that he's just a fairly unremarkable looking guy with a complexion that is consistent with what a person from ancient Turkey would look like.
Unfortunately it didn't last very long and the illusion reasserted itself pretty quickly.
@@EvilSandwich but he never mentions anything about the emperor being smaller or the like just he's face changing its appearance. Also why make it look like you 18ft tall and marching into battle and swinging swords an killing people like that just to actually be using your mind to make people see that an the thing your killing look like that's how it's died. It's far easier to make it look like your smaller to fit in when not fighting an to blend in with humans. Also surely he's change would of gone while he's been on the throne thru his mind shattering and being pulled all over by what he's trying to focus on. I've ranted more I'm my own comment but I'd like to get some of your guys opinions on it ?
@@darthgorthaur258 honestly, the speculation alone is fun. I love the little tantalizing glimpses that are never 100% confirmed. Because, like you said, what corvus saw might not necessarily be the truth either.
@@EvilSandwich wtf is ancient Turkey? Turkey is less than 200 years old and even the Ottoman empire was found in the middle age.
There's one thing that seems fairly consistent about the Emperor's appearances: When he shows his face, he always ends up appearing as the apex example of whatever his audience expects him to be. Sanguinius sees a consummate stranger capable of communicating more than words can say, Land sees a man who thinks and feels like a machine, Lorgar sees a towering god in human shape, Lion El'Jonson sees a cloaked shadow with blazing eyes concealing countless secrets, etc. etc.
Every appearance the Emperor makes is a reflection of the person's expectations. Sanguinius probably had the closest to a genuine impression, because he didn't know what to expect other than "he's powerful." Land expected the Omnissiah of the Mechanicum, someone free of the burdens and taint of emotion, and that's what he got. Lorgar wanted a god to worship and to make him feel special, and lo and behold, one appears as Lorgar's own father. Lion is powerful, secretive, constantly suspicious of everyone around him, and so the Emperor appeared as the manifestation of that set of traits for him. It's consistent throughout.
It is. But as he pointed out in the video, the Emperor once asked how they saw him. If they saw his mouth move, if they heard a human voice.
So it seems the Emperor has no real control over how he is seen. His power create that image but in the end the image itself is made by the other's mind.
Lorgar even recognized that Magnus, being the most powerful psyker of the primarchs, also has this ability to hide his true face and arguably his true form. Magnus is the only one who has arguably seen the real emperor as he truly is.
Didn't they changed the Emeperor recently to just one of the bounch of powerful psychers and said he didn't make astartes alone but some super empowered wohman did most of the job?
It could also be that the reason he appears in many different forms is becuase he is literally an amalgamation of many different "witchdoctors" or pychers souls, 100s or thousands of souls of these powerful magicians all with different personalities and skills literally bashed their heads in in hopes that their souls would meet in the warp and combine to form this all powerful super being which would later be known as the emperor
@Peniley Majorey It's laid out in several of the HH books that each of the Primarchs were engineered to suit a particular role, not just be 20 (21) clones of him. The fact they were artificially engineered kinda moots the point of using them as a comparison in this respect. Same for the Custodes - who, it must be noted, were not made using the Emperor's "geneseed" but rather are individual custom genetic re-engineering jobs to make them perfect for the job where they might otherwise fall short.
It was not just a Sister of Silence that gave a description like that, so did Corax, once, for a brief moment, he saw through the illusion. One has to wonder, that the reason that the Sisters of Silence were not allowed to talk was because the Emperor didn't want them to explain their experience of him to others.
i think they can write?
@@ThePerfectchris 😂
@@ThePerfectchris
And they can communicate with sign language.
Women being silent is it’s own reward, don’t look too much into it.
@@N0TYALC Hilarious, you think of that one yourself?
What I love about 40k, is that the lore reads the same way medieval history reads. It's obviously glorified, missing pieces, describes events differently depending on who is writing etc. The inconsistencies read similar to crusader era history I don't know if that was done on purpose or not, but it gives more life to the universe
What should really fascinate you is the timescale - if medieval history (which is to say, anything from about 500 to 1000 years ago broadly speaking) is so patchy and full of unknowns, and mankind has been around for at least a million years... what have we forgotten?
Who's to say that these "fictions" we write aren't inspired by half-forgotten dreams of the actual past? After all, we know... a fair amount, going back about 2000 years. Then it gets patchy. Then it gets outright wrong (for example, it seems Egyptology's traditional timeline is off by at least a thousand years). Then it stops. But huge cities didn't just spring up, 10,000 years ago; that stuff takes time, and progress easily vanishes past a certain point - entire cities can be lost without a trace to the passing of millennia.
What if we're missing a lot more than we realise?
On a more sober note - yes, it was on purpose. The original head honchos at Games Workshop were history buffs, to the point of some of them being into medieval re-enactment. As a child, I took part in a battle re-enactment in France... and I saw a couple of men get blown up by a backfiring canon (I think the barrel cracked or something?) - they flew through the air. Had to be airlifted out. One of them lost his arm.
Years later I find out - he was one of the lead sculptors for GW/Citadel Miniatures.
you can replace "medieval history" with history in general. They are smart in providing viewpoints and contradictions, rather than offering a world from an objective perspective. It is all about creating narratives. Just as with history, there is no objectivism. I totally agree on the notion of the middle ages sources, especially the narration follows the sources on Saints.
That is what makes it so great!
@@NicholasBrakespear got a cool ass story there man. Thanks for sharing CANT believe one of their guys blew off his arm I guess you could say that’s… pretty… grim dark
@@lokiofasgard312 Has a happy ending incidentally - from what I read, he learned how to do his sculpting and whatnot with one arm.
@@NicholasBrakespear About that, we can sometimes cover those patches by using archeological findings. That is how we found out about Akenaton, a ruler of Egypt that ancient Egyptians did everything possible to erase. Thing is, Archeology would be considered a form of heresy in the 40k universe, so they don't even have that.
There's this thing in the sci-fi series of Doctor Who called 'psychic paper". It's basically a piece of paper that the doctor has and it shows the person looking at it would see whatever the user wished them to see printed on it. I think people see what the emperor wants them to see based on what those individuals think he would be.
The Doctor isn't even aware of what it's going to show. It shows whatever will make the person listen to them, drawn from THEIR mind, rather than the Doctor's.
"Your Majesty? Who does he think you are?"
*checks paper* "The King of Belgium, apparently."
@@williambell3304 Yes true that's what i meant but didn't find the right words for it. The emperor seems surprised when he says "So that's how YOU see me"
That could be true but he's stood infront of thousands of people it's unlikely they'd all see the same thing if thats the case. I think he just psychically projects a given appearance
Best part about the "psychic" paper was that it was just normal paper. It was the intention and confidence of the individual who believed it said what they wanted them to believe.
@@isaacchirgwin5943 and a lie can actually be too big for it.
Specifically "I'm certified as a responsible adult" just produced gibberish
One thing I am sad wasn't brought up was the fact that Horus uses a very similar ability without any psychic powers. There is a line from one of the earlier Heresy book where Horus comments that he uses complete control of his tone, facial expression and other subtle body changes to give the person he is speaking to the exact impression he wants them to receive, and such skills were vital in his supreme charisma and persuasiveness. Whenever someone spoke to Horus, they got whatever impression he wanted them to get.
It's implied that is his psychic gift. Every primarch is a psyker. Most of the primarchs have some level of this but Horus seems to be made for it
Yeah but that's a psychological impression... Not a physical one per se.
Every primarch got a slew from all the different sides of the emperor. Horus got his charisma.
Horus mewing w rizz
I believe that Alicia Domica got a quick glimpse of the throne-bound Emperor. I believe she saw ever so quickly a man writing in pain, burning with and in intense psychic might, constantly dying and being reborn. Of course that could be in whole or in part fan lore.
When Corvus Corax first met with the Emperor, for a quick second he was able to see past the glamour and it triggered a memory of when he was still in his gestation capsule. He saw a man of dark complexion, slightly shorter than average, with a thin but muscular build.
54 like and no comments lemmi fix that
"with a thin but muscular build"
So like Bruce Lee? 😳
@@SetuwoKecik That wouldn't be that far off as the Emperor grew up in the late neolithic period.
@@SetuwoKecik by that definitely he meant Fit and Lean not your European Buff gigachad but a Lean and we'll built peak fit hunter physique.
@@oldeskul it's definitely that Big E may be large, but rather 5'7 close height or maybe a 6ft height. But since he live in neolithic period and may have been near the middle eastern. He may be tannish pigment like kitten. He's just over juiced in Pyskic powers that he looks different at other people.
Its quite possible that originally the differences in the Emperor’s description were simple different interpretation and lack of coordination between the writers, but at some point GW tried to rectify it and realized they do not need to do anything. That their bug is actually a feature.
That tends to be how GW runs their lore - "everything is canon, not everything is true"
@@spiritvdc5109 "no such a thing as a reliable narrator" every 40k writer
This is what I believe. Cause his giant ass corpse on the throne aint gonna be a projected image.
Sure
I'd like to imagine that the emperor simply adjusts the varied assets of his personality to communicate perfectly with whom ever he is speaking to, hence why in some cases he seems like a caring and proud father while in others he seems like an uncaring and warmongering tyrant. But, all of these are true within him. In other words, he feels love for his sons as much as he sees them as tools or "puppets".
@@SnowyElephant maybe he did that for so long that he did not know if that's him or if he was just pretending to be someone for his counterpart. Maybe like him not knowing any more if he was speaking aloud using his voice and lips or communicating psykic. Among his sons he might really have been the caring father and when looking at the bigger picture of the galaxy everyone and everything was just means to an end.
@@phreakazoith2237Yeah, I like the irony of him seeing everyone as tools or puppets, but then himself has to change himself to suit the person(s) he's presently interacting with. How could you maintain your sense of self if you're constantly changing yourself. Sounds like this was one of the stepping stones to godhood. I'm sure he anticipated that, though. He gave up his self for humanity.
i like the idea that the emperor talks in layers of concepts, like with sanguinius, he sees the primarchs as his sons but also his generals and also his tools and also parts of his plan, all at the same time
But is that just what he wanted to project when talking to Sanguinius? To give the impression that would make Sanguinius want to follow him? When talking to the Mechanicus guy, the Emperor is cold and factual - exactly what the Mechanicus most respects. The Emperor shows everyone the face that will have the most impact and command the most respect and obedience. For Sanguinius, that required a multi-layered approach.
@@StevieB8363 i'm not saying that's how i think it is in canon(i haven't read any of the books), just that i like the idea of that being how big e communicates. it's an idea i think would be neat to see explored
Read fury of Magnus and he was able to pull himself apart and he made himself look completely different he could have two working eyes and pristine normal the works but he prefers his own “true” form but the emperor does the same and actually had multiple avatars that showed different facets of himself like revelation in the last church
So you say big tiddy Emperor of Mankind is technically lore-friendly?
Oh that's awesome! I have not gotten to fury of Magnus yet. I was trying to avoid anything that takes place during the time of the siege until I had finished all of the horse heresy books, but I'm starting to think I might need to skip ahead so I can be caught up on it when the final book drops
If I remember correctly lorgar actually doubted whether Magnus "normal form" was his actual form or an illusion he even confronted Magnus about it and Magnus just smiled slyly instead of answering.
@@weshammer I know it was just a typo but I'm dying laughing at "horse heresy". Just the idea of a single, completely normal horse leading the traitor legion's
All part of the plan
@@adc1222 you know what's funny? the horse heresy has been an inside joke with me and my buddy's for a hot minute since it always auto corrects to that when using voice to text!, I'm not even gonna go back and edit it haha.
I 100 percent agree that the sister of silence never saw the real thing. It doesn't seem like any being does. She saw what she needed to fit her worldview, what was needed to ensure she is able to fulfill her purpose.
I really enjoy this video and this aspect of the setting
Malcador and the other perpetuals probably saw the real thing. Uncle malcy and a lot of the perpetuals were older than the big E. He'd have no reason to really hide from them since they probably saw him from the beginning. More points towards them seeing him as he truly is is the fact almost all of them decided to tell him "no" when he wanted them to be his generals so he created the primarchs. They're probably some of the only beings in the 40k universe to not only tell him no, but live to tell the tale. They all saw him in a negative light as the warmonger he was but not negatively like chaos does, which is a supremely powerful negative entity from their pov. The emperor wouldn't want them to see him in such a way if he had a choice in the matter
As for Malcador, there is no reason to hide from your oldest most loyal friend. He wouldn't care what the emperor looked like. He is probably the only person to follow the emperor because of who he is as a person and their shared vision of the future. Everyone else followed because of the aurora he cultivated. If the emperor wasnt psychic at all and just a perpetual he and Malcador would still be friends
Someone told me that the Sister did see his true form. The Emperor wanted her to see his true form to show that he is not a God, but a man (to inspire more hope/faith).
@@TheBacknblack92 As far as I know only Ollanius Persson is suggested as being older than the Emperor.
@@mjohnsimon1337but he is a god... Sooo...
@@TheBacknblack92this only rings true if the emperor was indeed at some point human and if his ability is something he controls but rather passive…it’s very likely he simply appears as whatever the perceiver expects him to appear as…the other perpetuals maybe older sure but this doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve seen his “true form” as this is based on the notion that there even is a true form to see
It's one of those cases where 'Less is More' and the ambiguity of it makes it far more interesting then a definite answer, no matter how simple or convoluted the answer would be.
One of the more interesting things about the Emperor also comes from the book "Master of Mankind" where, near the end, one of the Custodes condemns the notion that others would view the Emperor in the myriad of different ways that they've rumored to see him. To the Custodes, who I think is Ra, they've always only seen him as their General, Lord, and Master, BUT during the book's climax The Emperor suffers a grievous wound and Ra finally begins to understand as his own perspective of the Emperor shifts dozens of times from the image of a small boy to the that of a scientist to the Emperor and everything in between.
When the Emperor met Magnus, the books say it was like two old friends meeting again after a long time apart. They had communicated through Warp for years.
I quite like the idea that the aura he was used to using to perfectly tailor his communication to the individual was on the fritz when Guilman had his meeting after his return. That Guilman got a lot of the messages tailored for others.
It's implied in some books, that the "lack of caring" from Emperor is a consequence of Molech. To get the power he needed, the Emperor needed to trick the Chaos Gods. But in stealing their power he gradually lost his humanity.
Even more interesting, the Big E *started* calling them his sons after Molech. Like, he knew they weren't...but started pretending they were, to hold on to his humanity.
It's this kind of "The Emperor said my son but he also silently said, Primarch, Ninth General, component of the great work and stolen by the enemy and might have been changed by them" communication that I think the writers could really play with for Guilleman and the little chat he had with the Emperor. The Emperor was already conveying multiple trains of thought and meaning in single statements to individuals, Primarchs in particular, way back when he was first finding them. Guilleman himself isn't sure the entire breadth and depth of what was exchanged there. It's easy to imagine that after 10,000 years of spreading his psyche across the galaxy from the Astronomican, then suddenly trying to narrow his focus down to conversing with Guilleman, he'd convey a ton of parallel thoughts and instructions to Guilleman without him even being aware of it at the time. Who's to say that after the right time has elapsed or he encounters the right environmental trigger Guilleman "remembers" something his father had instructed him to do, which he then did, without even being aware of. And to tie that back to your video, it's all just sensory perceptions that are being manipulated.
I would also like to believe that Guillemans perception of the Emperor and what he has became since mounting the throne is a result of his own guilt. He failed to arrive at Terra at the crux of the Horus heresy, thus damning the entirety of the imperium to a slow and painful death. I’d wager that guilleman perceives the emperor as something so different from what he used to know as Father due to his own self Blame and strong guilt. The emperor will never be the same, it’s only a matter of course that things turned out this way, that his father is so cold, so warped, so different. It was all his fault. The weight of his own sin might impact his vision due to the expectations he would have of a father reuniting with his failure of a son, much like how a member of the mechanicus would expect the omnissiah to be a basically a robot as highlighted in the video. At least that’s my theory, I guess the only real way to tell is if another primarch meets with him. Im a firm believer that the emperor is not as weak as he might let off, that he’s waiting for the right moment to enact some sort of grand plan.
@@SnowWhite-mi8mk I bet Guilliman is going to kill the Emperor.
@@adamplentl5588 I doubt it, although that would be interesting. I just don’t think 40k would last very long without the Big E. iirc he’s holding back chaos and preventing humanity from being insta fucked by the warp, could be wrong though. Maybe one way they could take it is killing the emperor and having him reincarnate in some form, similar to how he was born from the shamans. Not sure if that’d work though considering that his soul is all fragmented and stuff
Yeah, and with all the pain and worship the Emperor has had to deal with over the course of ten thousand years, there's a good chance he's just too tired and burnt out to be anything other than bluntly honest with his son, especially since Malcador and pals observe that his humanity waxes and wanes with time.
I don't think he accidentally let all of those thoughts slip in, I'm pretty sure he's the type now that he's on the throne to go ahead and have the full conversation and convey his meaning in a very few words. Being that it requires immense focus for him to communicate, best to get it over with quickly since that focus undoubtedly weakens some other arm of his control.
I think that the emperor started out as a victim of lazy writing, but it kinda worked out for his character, because now we have this huge mystery thats fun to wrap your head around. I cam just imagine some people discussing the emperor when it first started and just saying "nah, i will figure this out later" but later never really came and it just worked out. Same with a lot of faceless characters like the rookie from halo 3 odst or jack from Bioshock
he's a copy of the dune emperor. and the anti christ...or any religious bad guy/good guy.
Heresy.
Which is probably accurate considering there's a whole religion in the setting centered around him (even if he kept insisting that it shouldn't be the case)@@-Siculus-Hort-
I think it’s one of the instances in fiction where the lore is built based on plot convenience, but it actually benefits the lore rather than take away from it.
Exactly! kind of like a Deus Ex Machina built in to avoid writing them selves into a corner by allowing the emperor to be fluid and what ever the story and the fans need him to be thus allowing it to evolve more naturally.
This one is one of the best way to deal with inconsistency in shared universe franchise.
The bad way was probably just by saying "it's in other universes in the multiverse" kind of thing.
it makes sence in WH40, with the golder age of humanity long gone and reaching legendary and mythical status among the people from the 40k, many things have been forgotten forever, and all that remains are legends and rumors. Emperor was last seen 10k years ago.
It’s done because the writers aren’t smart enough to figure it out
I would love to see a story describing the same interaction with the Emperor from the points of view of multiple people.
That would be fascinating! Same event from the viewpoint of a Space Marine, a Custodes, a Sister, an Inquisitor, an Arbites, etc...
I personally think that the God Emperor in the purest sense is a Chaos God. Like he always has been and everyone sees him differently like he's less of a physical being but rather an idea. Always changing but never concrete as a singular thing
Yeah clearly and like the chaos god's he feeds on psychic energy. Not entirely sure what he represents though
@@dubstepXpower I've heard control and or order taken to the extreme which sort of makes sense. Perhaps he's an amalgamation of all the aspects, a rogue chaos entity who revolted.
All Chaos Gods have two side, positive and negative. So the emperor would be something alone the line of order and domination
For what the Emperor represents: the pure, indomitable collective will of the human spirit to survive and persevere against impossible odds and challenges.
For what the Emperor IS: maybe a computing analogy would be fitting. The Emperor is like a psychic server cluster formed by a thousand pure consciousnesses of ancient human psykers, which form a kind of virtual computing cloud having willingly sacrificed their physical forms to gain immortality. In this cloud, there runs a virtual machine forming the meta-consciousness of the being known as the Emperor. This virtual meta-consciousness can access the shared psychic and intellectual processing power of the entire collective and can run multiple sub-algorithms parallel. But it is bereft of human emotion like an organic human individual, being pure intellect and will, making it immune to the corruption of the Warp, which manifests out of emotion and the subconscious desires and fears of living beings.
But disembodied consciousness has no need for desires, fears or emotions born out of biological drives and limitations. It only requires reason and purpose. It's purpose being to guide humanity and secure its perpetual survival against the threats of both the Immaterium and other alien dangers of the physical reality of the Galaxy. Which is why the Imperium was originally founded on pure reason and purpose as a tool to that end and a manifestation of that ancient collective will.
The physical body known as the Emperor is merely an avatar of this psychic computing cloud and functions as its terminal with input/output functionality to interact with the physical reality, as well as anchoring it in it. The cloud-consciousness of the Emperor can project psychic illusions onto its physical terminal like changing skins on virtual video game characters or changing the appearance of an UI on a computer screen, in order to facilitate beneficial interaction with other receptive living beings. It doesn't even have to do that consciously, as one of its sub-algorithms automatically takes care of that.
But since that physical terminal was critically damaged by the powers of the warp and reliant on the machinery of the Golden Throne to retain basic functionality, most of the psychic processing power of the cloud has been diverted to generating the Astronomican beacon, limiting its intellectual processing power and communication capabilities, since that is momentarily the most beneficial function to the survival of humanity in its current form of the Imperium.
@@axelhopfinger533 he isnt reliant on the golden throne at all. if they would destroy his body for good he would ressurect himself wich is kinda funny considering how they do everything to preserve his body.
Basically he is a normal man, juiced with such an unbelievable amount of warp power, that he can mind control anyone and almost any thing and appear as he wishes at all times. A master of Biomancy, he can change his appearance at will.
nah its rather that you cant understand what or how he is so you see what ever your mind projects as perfection.
He's actually 20 men (sorcerers) from ancient times that meditated in a circle and came together into one form.
@@theophrastusbombastus1359 a bunch of Malcadors merged into one
@@theophrastusbombastus1359 It was way more than 20, more like a few thousand, all of them alpha or alpha plus level psykers
@@theophrastusbombastus1359 that is a good point. i forgot about that.
This does create the interesting possibility that the emperor may not in fact be in quite such a bad state after the Horus Heresy and merely wishes to appear so. The King moving his pawns across the board 🤔.
Things Are Going Just. As. Planned.
Came here to write this exact idea. ;)
Or perhaps there's always the faint possibility that he's physically fine, but from the way the sister of silence described him, still in mental anguish and laser focused because of how much he's trying to hold back the warp, I think.
I personally believe that the Emperors chameleon nature was simply a method of delaying/not needing to write a definitive story, so what started as a cop out became a fascinating backstory with an ambiguity that perfectly fits the grimdark
Yeah I basically completely agree with you on this. I just hope that some of the future books narrow the scope of possibilities of who he is by giving us a few tiny pillars of truth as lighthouses to guide us towards the possibilities that make the most sense.
I don't want answers but I want the ability to make a real educated guess, you know?
@@StrengthScholar0 agreed
Fun ambiguity > Boring Disappointing Answers
So the writers aren’t smart enough to write the backstory wouldn’t catch Tolkien doing this
Interesting that he makes the Pinocchio reference but fails to mention the Blue Fairy that gave life to the puppet. Similarly he carved the bodies of the Primarchs but had to go elsewhere for the souls
Or the fact that Pinocchio was given life because Geppetto really wanted a son he could dote and take care of, not because he needed a war machine for galactic conquest. Like, my dude, your example is about loving your creations as if they had a life on their own-
Or that cricket that was always following him around for some reason
@@JDogTBDhe was consciousness
You honestly made me feel much better about Big E's encounter with Land. I was really put off by it when I first read it, but your take on it makes it a lot better. Thanks.
My personal favourite encounter of anyone with the Emperor is the first meeting of Big E and Corvus Corax in "Deliverance Lost". Definitely worth a read.
I think it was in the first custodian book, where a powerful psycker was flanked by 4 blanks at once just so his psychic presence wouldn't overwhelmed others. And at one point, still being flanked, he used his powers seemingly without much effort.
So I would guess that someone as powerful as big E, would need like an army of blanks surrounding him to dull the effect enough. Unless it was his direct will
Dude the big E in my mind is beyond blanks. It seems farfetched something so small would affect him when hes on grounds with chaos gods.
It might bemore likely that he has sufficient degree of control to dial himself down to not overwhelm others. I imagine if he relaxes those controls, he could pop your skull like a grape.
Actually there was an comparison used by MajorKill where he basically explained blanks to be small vortexes and of course if there's a small Flame then it will suck it in and no problem, but no matter how many of those small vortexes you have they can't suck a literal Sun. He kinda said it like that do not really remember it anymore
In the first heretic, he appears to Lorgar as a "simple man" but to the word bearers present he appeared as a giant in power armor.
0:28 HERESY
Hahaha I was thinking that when your comment pop up 😂
i always imagine a netflix series based on warhammer and the different factions in the universe. I always thought a cool aspect for the emperor would be to have him show up like 3 times and henry cavil play him when you first see him, and different actors every other time he’s shown having an interaction with someone and acting differently according to whom he’s talking to.
Bro great casting choice.. pretty surenhenwould do it in a heart beat
If it was Netflix the twist would be that the Emperor was a young woman of color but the patriarchy overthrew her and rewrote the history books to make her a white guy. Then they made up the shape-shifting rumor to cover for it.
Henry Cavil is the emperor of man, you so can not change my mind now.
Netflix is probably gonna ruin it like they ruined the Witcher.
Cavill is certainly an amazing choice for the Emperor or Valdor or even the Lion though.
I would go for Anthony Starr, his subtle facial expressions are cool
I remember an interview with one of the writers who suggested no one other than the Emperor has seen the actual golden throne. They said it was the psychic version of a colossal nuclear furnace and no entity other than the emperor - not even the chaos gods - could survive inside it. Any time someone is said to have entered the throne room, it was just a psychic construct. That said I can’t remember where I saw this or who the writer was so I could be way off base here 😅
It seems to me the Golden Throne is actually a form of a soul furnace from the Necrons.
Dan Abnett said that.
@@hawk4192 The Emperor was the Silent King all along!
Makes one wonder if the Emperor ever actually fell at the end of the Horus heresy. What if hes projecting himself to be a corpse while being in perfect health and getting even more powerful by absorbing the 1000 psykers a day, using the chair as a beacon to basically be omnipotent within the range of the holy beacon. Star child might very well be his astral projection being witnesses when directly interacting with those he needs to help.
this makes sense , big E being able to draw more power without being seen as cruel
This doesn't make sense as the chair was literally shown to shred fuckin Malcador like a drywall tile
Emperor may be powerful but what's actually harmfull will still, to a lesser degree be harmful to him.
Cabal doesnt think so, because in their "Oracle Eye" they saw him losing this mental warfare with chaos gods eventually, which led to destruction of humankind as biological creatures, which led to death of chaos gods (because, well, any emotions are their food...)
If I'm being totally honest, with my limited experience within the universe of 40K at this point, being limited to having read one book and watched the entire TH-cam library of Wesshammer, Majorkill, and Adeptus Ridiculous, I feel confident in saying that the Emperor of mankind is one of the most interesting characters in fiction.
If you are interested in great lore, look up Luetin09. Just awesome lore :)
Luetin09, for sure.
Luetin09 sleep club here!
Luetin club whats up
Watch *Luetin09* as well, and *40kTheories* .
I wonder if this puts his connection to Malcador under a different light - he was an extraordinarily powerful psyker that the Emperor could not do this mental trickery so he had to engage the man by being entirely himself.
It just struck me that if the Shamen theory proves true and the idea the emperor has been hanging out in the background of humanity since it climbed down from the tree's - the ability to *will* people not to see him (which is precisely the ability that Corax displays as his most obvious Primarch Talent)
Big E was born around 7000 BC. So still a blip on the radar of the existence of humans that came around 250-300kyrs ago depending on who you ask. A minuscule nothing compared to when hominids came down from trees and started walking upright. That happened like a million years ago
On the scale of humanity emps existence is a blip in time. If the shaman theory is true then he was the result of human civilizations leaders at the time realizing theyd go extinct and humanity would be screwed if they didn't all become one entity.
He probably did hide himself like corax though. Compared to humanity the emperor is nothing.
Also since time perception is relative to the amount of life lived, the older you are the faster it feels its moving, the emperor is around 48k years old. From his perspective him being on the golden throne is like a normal 48yr old man being tourtured for 11 years. It sucks and it's mentally draining but hes probably in a lot better shape than he lets on
I think he chooses to appear as a corpse as part of his plan. From his pov the primarchs are a blip in time and the great crusade was a few days of work to a normal person.
He's so old that his grander scheme is like planning a decade into the future for a normal guy. He knows he'd be stuck on that throne suffering for a good bit of time and he chooses to appear like that. His reasons for wanting to appear like that are unknown but it might be so he can continue getting power boosts from sacrificed psykers by creating a sense of urgency at his current state. When he does stand up he'll be many many times more powerful than when he sat down and that'll allow him to wipe away humanitys foes in a way that he couldn't during the great crusade. He doesn't want to be a God, he wants to be greater. Most people suffer and work hard to save money for retirement. Big E surffers and works hard to save up souls for retirement.
Climbed down from the trees? Why is there no evidence of this? And how is that a viable evolutionary path? Have you ever studied evolution at a level higher than apple news articles? It's all very questionable
I know many have seen him as "Just a regular man", but I somehow doubt his SIZE is only an illusion. His war gear, his throne, his day to day items are all suited for a person of immense size and no one has ever called into question his stature. So I do believe that he is still a Primarch sized godlike human.
The golden throne wasn't built for the emperor. It was built for Magnus, the original plan was that after the crusade was finished, he would stick his psychically strongest son in it top function as a battery. That's why it's so huge.
@@randombencounter263 And yet in his mummified state he fits in the golden throne like he was of a similar size akin to a primarch, unless his curent decayins state is also an illusion.
i personally like the idea that big e is such a powerful psyker that he can literally shapeshift at will
@@Skywolfhd20 I mean it has been confirmed he can do that.
Some old 40k art of the 80's paint the real state of the emperor in a more...medical state, Wich machinery and everything else maintaining him alive, with his corpse hanging in a tube, and i saw some interpretations that this and his classic art we all know are both true
His real body is in a decrepit state inside a lab while the emperor used for propaganda is in the golden throne
One of my favorites is in the story "the last church" where he appears as a humble man looking to have a conversation with the priest. One of my favorite short stories.
I love the thought of "what would the Necrons see when speaking to the Emperor"? It would probably have given some insight into how they communicated with the C'tan at first contact
It's interesting how the Emperor never shows his true nature or appearance to anyone and is therefore attributed many different and even conflicting traits. While the Chaos Gods are brutally honest, yet still lend themselves to interpretation because of how unsettlingly simple their nature is.
Good point on that curious thematic juxtaposition
Sort of like .... ??? how each of the chaos gods can represent a "finality" of clear understanding about the aspect of reality (from whence they were born by).
While the Big E (specifically representing humans, or humanity) shows a fluid spectrum of ..... possiblities through potential and greatness mixed with being part of the root that feeds or gives the chaos gods their existence.
Ultimately representing humanity as laying a path of the unforeseeable futures of shear and utter demise from itself all the way through to the heroic strife of grand impossiblity and supreme, divine "victory" of all.
hope that made any sense whatsoever.
The interpretation is wrong chaos gods deceive all the time and try to backstab each other for power also so try better
The idea of a character so impressionable that even his base presence imposes his will is the most god like thing you would wright for an imposing individual, its almost something out of H. P. Lovecraft
Mate this isn't just a 40K video you know?
These fictions we create with our imaginations are literally the boundaries of reality, and you are contributing to that in a way that genuinely made my spine tingle.
Bravo dude fantastic video.
Way better than some shitty flying spaghetti monster
@@bounceday I bet there was some race, to which the Emperor appeared like that xD
Knowing how he's old enough to come from humanity when we were much, much shorter on average, I'd say that he originally was probably a slightly short dude, maybe something like 5'5" - 5'10" depending on 40K's sizes. After becoming emperor though, I could definitely see him altering his body to be as big as the primarchs.
Apparently there is a book where Corax remembers seeing the Emperors true form when Corax was still in his pod and he says the Emperor was shorter than average so I dont think he altered his body much if at all
I absolutely love your lore videos! Very well scripted and entertaining
I love the thought of the Emperor showing himself as the person the observer needs or wants to see at the time they see him. An imperfect perfection that does everything necessary to make all things come to close without being a complete cop-out.
0:50 easy he looks like Henry Cavill obviously
It would make sense why primarchs turned after he left the front line for terra.
His influence was no longer present to cause the perception they needed to ward off chaos.
Among the weaker minded of them.
I always thought that the emperor just passively mind controlled people to his will. Hence why half the imperium joined Horus as soon as the rebellion started.
Which may be how the imperium is holding together currently with the emperor constantly projecting himself outward.
That ending idea about "a weapon out of its box" is such an interesting idea, like the Emporer is just another Dark Age abomination for the Custodes to keep and the throne room is his cage. I wonder if anymore stories explore such a view point?
Bamboozled? Done over? Steimied? Deceived? Tricked? LIED TO? Oh man... all of this lore, to me, is so exciting and new and I so verily enjoy listening to you teach us, Wes. Thank you, man. Im glad youve been at it for so long because you have so much content to browse. 😊
I always liked the idea of the Emperor starting as a nobody who had ambition and a plan and used the power of stories to ascend to a level of power that rivalled the Chaos Gods themselves.
The idea that the Emperor "stole" all his powers seems to be getting more popular, but it runs against a lot of the lore. Such as him defeating the Void Dragon shard and whatever else he got up to in pre-history.
What's more, given the nature of the warp, over time, it would BECOME true
He could have been a gene modded immortal with a very long lifespan, but through millennia of worship by countless trillions has given him power through the warp, making an entity that latched onto his should and merged to basically make him a god, like how a mortal becomes a Daemon prince
@@ragnarian to make it more of a mind trip his future godlike self could be guiding him towards the desired outcome. I've always liked a good bootstrap paradox.
Your comment reminds me of Braveheart.
William Wallace: Yes, I've heard. Kills men by the hundreds. And if he were here, he'd consume the English with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his arse.
@@ryanfoster2869 you mean like in the 40k history he was considered to be Jesus himself but he lost all of his faith centuries later, as in he realized who he has been worshipping was himself from the future, though this is told from the perspective of Ollanius Piersso who was a Catholic in pre-history times living alongside the emperor, so there are two possibilities one being what I just said did happen or Ollanius Piersso depicted him as a heretic because of his faith contradicting that of emperor's plans. i like the second one because it fits the theme
He looks like a man from the Mesopotamian area, possibly a bit taller than average and better built due to being from a better-off family. He also looks like whatever he believes is most useful at the time. Often, when he does so, he lets your own mind work out what that is. Speaking in any language sounds as if he is communicating directly into your mind.
This is what I think.
No, canonically he was made from Shamans around the Turkey area around the time it was inhabited by early Indo Europeans. He'd look dark straight haired with a lean build and pale. You know kinda like he literally looks lmao. If he was mesopotamian he'd look curly haired and bushy bearded
@@danjoredd if im not wrong the Emperor during the Age Of Strife was waiting Slaneesh to be born so the Warp Storms will end and he will take the power
Huh, I always thought he looked like a buff Native American guy
@@danjoredd it was not mesopotamia it was literally written as Turkey lmao
Yep the Master of Mankind, book 41 of the Horus Heresy perspective. I do like the mind-melded-shaman story (it makes his origin fully human and explains his great wisdom and unusual mind) over 'he was always a god/alien' or 'he was created in labs' ideas. Though I suppose the idea of demonic possession, of ancient shaman(s), by a non-evil warp entity of extreme power would make similar or greater sense.
But if the Emperor is siphoning off the psychic energies of the Warp/humans praying to him, literally making him what they think he is, wouldn’t that mean he literally is - if not paradoxically - what they perceived him to be??
Sisters of silence: *"this looks like a job for me."*
They would kill him
I dont think even they can see his true form .
@@licensed_beheaderhis form is beyond their comprehension
Don't you mean:
Sisters of silence: " ... "
@@thegreatpepsiman given the main 4 abstract concepts that are the chaos gods are on the spectrum of chaos and call him "The anathema", it is actually very possible the emperor is the abstract concept of order. This is even reinforced with big E telling kai after their game that you can't "be both omnipotent and omniscient at the same time" or at least not in an avatar.
If you want a science to this, look into platonic concepts mixed with string theory and it'll start to explain alot when you combine it with the big E is order theory.
Not only that, but look at the lengths the emperor took to keep order: he straight up destroyed man's spiritual health and denied them their own mental needs, all so the worship doesn't "run the risk" of giving other abstracts (mainly chaos) more power in physical reality and inadvertently fucking his plan over. Hell he even went as far as denounce worship of HIMSELF even tho it would've given his avatar a HUGE boost and let him make daemons and daemon princes (living saints are his princes FYI) just because he had to be 100 percent sure as shit that chaos gained nothing at all and his species would prosper into a technological golden age again, without any superstious nonsense.
I can't help but think of the Bard everytime I hear, "look at the muscularity".
Aaron Demski-Bowden is rapidly becoming my favorite 40K author... Notice how many of the coolest concepts about the Emperor, Chaos and the history of mankind are from his books. (I suggest "Talon Of Horus" and "Black Legion" to any fan of 40K)
Personally, I like to subscribe to the theory that the Emperor was actually the last of the Old Ones who stumbled or sought out humanity and chose to raise them to greatness as a last ditch effort to save the Galaxy. I think his ever-shifting form is clever writing and good character design for what he needs to be, however, I think it takes away from ever ending or concluding the Warhammer 40k story. Drawing a conclusion to the story of Warhammer 40k would inevitably require that some truths about the Emperor be revealed and I fear that might actually diminish his character in the end. Sometimes the mystery is so good and interesting that any answer at all is disappointing. That's why I was always a bad writer. I had great concepts, but no idea how to come to a conclusion. Lol.
the point of the warhammer lore is to be an open ended background for the games, its not supossed to have a "proper" conclusion
@@ShalashakaDS True, but it needs to move forward. And it can't do that indefinitely. There needs to be conclusions. And that besides, you have a universe ending precedent in Fantasy and their End Times.
Kinda like how Mass Effect trilogy was the single best piece of storytelling even to date, but the journey was the reward. Not the rather disappointing destination :D
@@JokeeGA5 the ending probably would have been a lot better if EA hadn't let the lead writer go for the 3rd game.
That’s OLD stuff there .
I hope they keep the Emperor as huge question mark but give us lot of little snippets to how he might be shown. In the final battle with Horus I wish they add little scene where he is just glashing with Horus and the visage of Emperor flickers through every spectator who happens to be there, everyone seeing something different
I think the fanmade "last church on earth" depicts what Emperor looks like very well. He can change his form depending on who he talks to, and what he wants to convey.
Corvus is I think the only one of the primarchs able to see through emperors projections. And the description fairly well matches with the images presented of him. Basicly corax says he saw his face in tge capsule and its the same face thats here on deliverance and Big E is actually suprised that Corax can see him as he is.
Doesn't Corvus see him as a fairly average Ancient Sumerian?
Sumer was the birthplace of human civilization, so it would make sense!
I remember a piece, where one of the Primarchs, I think Corvus Corax, maybe, saw the Emperor's true face in the warp. And it shocked him, struck him with fear as one side of the emperor's face was that of a monster.
Surely Magnus also saw the emperor in the warp?
THIS! This is the media medium iv been looking for to understand Warhammer. brb bingeing your channel
I'm sure someone has already said this but the big E gives off an aura of inspiration. Meaning that anyone who sees him will see him differently based on what's most inspirational and most valued to that person or group of people viewing him at that time.
Love the vid Wes, and I adore the concepts you covered. Especially the idea that the emperor is this psychic, being made of a massive conglomerate of ancient human psykers. But i do reeaaaly like the idea that you went over in the sisters section. That the emperor is that, just man, tired, in pain, for something so much greater than himself. Even if he his the greatest psker EVER He seems cold and he might be, but his want for humanity to thrive, has always been a constant. just my take, ur the best 40k tuber wes, to me.
The thing about the Emperor is, that he's not just a person, but a hive-mind like amalgamation of many souls and possibly also personalities. So it's not inappropriate to assume that all those different personalities, which have shed all mortal and material attachments tens of thousands of years ago, have become purely intellect-focused, also because the Chaos Gods are formed mainly by and sustain themselves on emotional psychic energy. Imagine the tumultous churn inside the Emperor's head, if all those different personalities and their various passions and quirks, vices and virtues would still somehow want to live out their emotions. Instead, they shed all their individuality and emotional attachments (like Zen/Nirvana) when they created the Emperor as a being of pure psychic power, contained in an immortal physical body (which may or may not be a Perpetual) as anchoring vessel, driven by incorruptible intellect and overwhelming will alone, to guide the path of mankind and serve as a bulwark against Chaos. As the Emperor makes it quite clear on multiple occasions that he is really not one being, but many merely sharing the same avatar and purpose.
@@axelhopfinger533 No wonder when Sanguinius refers to him as such, or smthn close, he smiles and questions him. He is amused his son has 'that' much foresight
This is an awesome video. The enigmatic nature is what makes the Emperor so dang interesting. I love all the evidence to show the complicated nature. This has me wondering so many things!
I would just like to say that you have a easy to listen to voice that makes the content even more exciting than it originally would have been. I'm just now dipping my toe into the Warhammer 40k universe. That is because of you. I am completely and utterly overwhelmed, but I will find a starting point and begin my journey. Thanks for everything you do!
Your videos always exceed expectations. Next level stuff. You take lore videos to new level. GW should hire you.
What I'd be absolutely fascinated to know would be what Erda, Ollanius, Astarte, and the other Perpetuals saw him as. Some of them knew him long before the Unification War (It's strongly hinted in a couple books that wars between the Emperor and other Perpetual factions were the cause of several major historical events, and it's explicitly stated that Ollanius was the Emperor's original Warmaster the first time he tried to conquer the planet back in the days of ancient Rome.) If anyone would have a real perspective on the true nature of the Emperor, it would be the people who knew him personally since before he rose to power.
I think it can be genius and lazy writing at the same time, but given how enigmatic he is and is supposed to be, I think it's perfect for the Emperor's character to be like this. I think it would also be kinda neat if he really was just a normal sized human projecting his psychic self as he does to instill authority over all of humanity. It's easier to follow this giant golden man than a normal looking man when looking at their appearance.
Wes, I gotta say, you have the absolute best content for 40k lore. So approachable and so well researched, digested, and presented.
This video especially is a great example. You found interviews and used them to support your point. Amazing stuff
16:20 If the Emperor projects false images of himself to impress the viewer, then in the case of the Sisters of Silence, he failed to impress them at all. They saw the real Emperor.
My conjecture: The Emperor has no clothes. His only real power is the power of persuasion, which is why he could never show his true face.
Personally I think this is really cool idea for a character, and an amazing way to allow both for inconsistences between writers, and for highly different stories to be told while all fitting together seamlessly.
You got me into 40K lore with your shorts! You're my favorite TH-camr right now!
You really should have covered the experience of Corax, upon his first viewings of the emperor on Lycaeus. Furthermore the emperor being unsettled (though only briefly) after hearing Corax remembering him from within his gestation tube on Terra prior to the scattering of the primarchs.
I think it started as lazy writing, an easy explanation for the different ways he acted from story to story, but then they started to wright him with that in mind and it has developed as an amazing and unique aspect of his character.
He sure sounds like a chaos god. Imagine if his dead body on the throne just another imprint and he's not dead at all.
20:37 bro doesn’t even use his lips he speaks with raw aura. His Rizz is boundless.
I think it's fantastic writing. I mean, yes, 40k is not known for its consistency, but that's part of the appeal. There are no simple truths in it. You can say "That's just a lazy way to avoid plotholes", and sure, it kind of is, but at the same time, it's an incredible feat of writing to present people with a mystery that will never be solved and still have them care to speculate and debate about it.
Brilliant video. I also think this feeds into the much larger question of the Heresy as a whole: Why did so many Primarchs and luminaries follow Horus?
The Emperor always /appeared/ to be what people wanted and needed. But when he was no longer around, when he failed his sons and his Imperium, how much farther would he have fallen in their minds?
He appeared as a god to Lorgar, then punished Lorgar for his worship. He appeared as a great Warrior to Angron who prevented him from fighting with his brothers. He appeared as a scholar and a powerful teacher to Magnus, then banned the practice of acquiring certain lore and abilities. He appeared as a bringer of truth and mercy to Horus, who abandoned the Crusade, [REDACTED] two of his brothers, and kept dark secrets from Terra.
Realizing your parents are just regular human people marks the end of childhood for most. It may be no wonder the Imperium split up the middle once the Emperor's facade began to show some cracks.
Fascinating stuff. I'm into the Grim Dark Lore but I love it. Thank you for the work you put into your videos!
I think he's supposed to be ambiguous and varied. He can be anything or anyone. His character or sense of person is vast and deep.
Kinda reminds me of Henry VIII. He had a lot of different characteristics. He could be angry, benevolent, cunning, honest, seemingly a fool, and then a genuis all before morning tea.
like magnus, in Ahriman its said everyone who looks at magnus sees a diffrent figure
That lasted up until that absolute jackass Aaron Demski-Bowden named him in Master of Mankind. One of the most braindead things GW has ever done
So dummy thicc female God emperor is canon
@@randomasian8715 Yes, if you want to be canon that si.
3:15
The Emperor Of Mankind didn't steal powers from the Chaos gods.
This is Horus’ interpretation. All we know from the book is that Horus was led to believe this.
What we know for sure is that Big Daddy E entered the Warp through the portal on Molech. What he did then remains a mystery, it is speculated in the fluff that he stole some secrets.
Considering that Chaos considered the Emperor anathema from the beginning a deal is very unlikely.
Sadly, in many wikis Horus' belief was carelessly accepted and proliferated as fact.
Big E was at least a demi-god when he faced off against, and beat the hell out of, the C'tan void dragon and then buried it on Mars. So he's probably been one all along, whether by the shaman power infusion or just some once-an-eternity kind of luck.
4:20 so the god emperor is basically galactus in that he doesn't have a true form but merely how we the audience perceives him.
I get that that's a cool idea at times, but I feel like Galactus just being a giant dude in a purple hat because that's what he looks like makes more sense than Humanity's closest approximation of the true form of an unimaginable monstrosity being... a giant dude with a purple hat.
@@RorikH well there is that one time he look like a giant ameoba.
so far there are only 2 instances where he the audience got to see what he truly looked like.
His original form was named galan and he was a scientist trying to his his world and people from the big crunch and is the only survivor of his dead universe.
His somewhat true form is where we the audience see him interacting with the cosmic heirachy as a this silhouette of energy because his purpose in the universe is to be a stockpile of energy when the current marvel universe goes through heat death. Eternity may be nigh omnipotent but he has limits, hence the word "nigh".
Franklin richards was supposed to be his successor without the burden of the cosmic hunger as some protector. Mr immortal is franklin's backup.
@@jonathanathor117 Is a reservoir of energy his cosmic purpose? I've only read about his purpose in Earth-X, which is not in the 616 universe, and where he stopped celestials from spreading too much by eating the planets they had put their eggs inside.
@@RorikH It's also cannon in earth 616 as well.
Basically the current incarnation of the marvel multiverse (7th/8th) is destined for heat death so eternity made galactus from the survivor of the sole survivor if the 6th incarnation of the multiverse galan to act as essentially as a catalyst for the big bang. That's why he consumes planets.
He can consume stars, however if he consumes stars, however that would resultin having less planets. It's kind of like milking a cow. If titan could have an advance civilisation despite being far away from the sun then it's also posssible for other celestial bodies to have life on them. Since planets are the result of star; you do the math.
One reason why there are infinite versions of galactus is because eternity created infinite copies of the same earth 616 galactus as a means to protect the multiverse from within in case of any treats such as power hungry civilisations, malevolent treat. In a messed way the guy with the funny hat is a means of population control and can fight against entities like annihilus, thanos, the celestials etc.
He's the physical embodiment of fermi paradox or at least 1 solution to the paradox.
Sometimes marvel could go from being goofy to dark to existential like that.
Hope you are ok, Wes, not seen you in a bit. Anyways, great topic! I love off the beaten path topics. Also, I am requesting this from you now because I feel you will do it right. Be ready to break apart and analyze the King in Yellow once we have more information on the topic.
I am one of those types that like things completed, no lose ends. With that said, I would not be disappointed if the truth of the Emperor were to be known, but done in such a way that mystery still remained. I do not think it would be hard for any of us to envision a definitive version of the emperor that was left open ended. That is what would please me the most about almost all things 40k. Give me a definitive starting point and then move forward into the unknown. As a follower since the late 90's it is the inconsistencies that drive me off the genre the most.
Oh yeah don't you worry! I'm doing just fine. Hit a rough patch a few weeks back, lost a pet and took it really hard. But I'm kind of a private person and didn't really want to make a post about it. But I appreciate you checking in! And yeah I'm super excited to cover it! I'm pretty convinced it's Valdor, But I feel like we're going to be getting solid answers real soon.
@@weshammer so sorry to hear. Pets passing is a heartbreak. Hope you're keeping as well as ya can
Funny to know that he was keeping his ilusion all along even while fighting Horus and half dead on the floor
I think having the Emperor on life support is probably the worst decission for humanity. In their efforts in keeping their beacon alive, they're restraining him to his broken form. If he really is such a powerful psychic being, maybe even a god, he could reemerge from the warp after properly dying.
he doesn't even have to come out of the warp if I'm not mistaken because he's a perpetual he just kinda respawns when he dies.
Personally I like the description of him as a normal lucking man with intense eyes. In a world full of chaos, demons, god like beings and super soldiers twice the size of a normal man. It just seams more badass that a normal dud with powerful abilities and a well thought out plan just stomps trough it.
It's like if you sea a army of space marine's and then you see a 14 feet tall guy in golden armor and a fucking halo standing amongst them you are like, yep that's the boss.
But if you see an army of space marine's and some normal lucking guy amongst them with a eyes that pierces every fiber of you being. I would be a lot more intrigued and scared. If this normal lucking dud bosses demigods around the size of giants that call him papa, then what the fuck can he do to command such respect.
He is God. And God is perfection but we *CANT lay our eyes on him because our mind can't comprehend his actual form.
It would be cool if the Emperor truly was a shriveled man all along. But his powers were so insane that he passively manipulated everyone around him into seeing and hearing exactly what their hearts and minds desired.
I would say he was a god after he was interned. Before he was an ancient individual who has extremely powerful warp powers. I like the idea that there are no true gods just individuals who fead off emotion that makes them more powerful over time.
It sounds like the Emperor is a chaos God with all the war suffering it seems he is feeding it into the warp. That's why the future is dark. He lived during tech age knows the secrets yet he doesn't teach them how to build it properly.
I think that without that armour the Master of Mankind is like average human at least in size to blend in with pre Age of Strive Human sociaty. When it comes to his face and overall apperance I think he changed over time to never look twice before his reveal to Mankind in order to maintain his cover. It just makes sense for a person like him. The Emperor protect´s
Probably more like he kept mind-wiping the entirety of Earth before it became Terra, seeing as that's something he could undoubtedly do.
I don't think he's necessarily even wearing anything. Why would he need to? What point would there be to wearing physical armour?
He may still have clothing, but I can't suspect it is truly that much, when he can be perceived as anything, and be anything.
He has to be a certain size and be fitted with power armour sockets to fit into his Tactical Dreadnought armour to fight Horus
Does he?
@@abacusite nope his armour was custom built by himself so he could make it any size he wants/needs
So glad I subbed… love listening to your uploads..
I keep hearing about how the Emperor “stole power from the Gods,” but I don’t know what it’s referring to. You mentioned it in this video, so I think a dive into that and Horus’s reasons to betray his father would be an interesting video
It’s referring to the emporer steeling power from the choas god on a planet i forgot the name of the chais gods are emotions and fears of the beings of the galaxy korne slannesh nurgle and tzeenth.
So, he either stole, or made a deal with the chaos gods, to create the primarks. There's a bunch of theories as to why, but I think it's as simple as "for all his power and abilities, no matter how many genetic experiments he made, they all lacked a fundamental aspect of humanity. A soul. He can create the body, the mind, and the neurons, but he couldn't fill those bodies with the thing that makes them truly alive, and independent."
It was on the world of *Molech* . The planet was home to the ancient Knight House of Devine, who worshiped a *snake-like god* . Sometime during the Dark Age of Technology, it is said that the Emperor along with several other Perpetuals such as Alivia Sureka traveled to Molech on a one-way spacecraft. There, they found a gateway into the Realm of Chaos which the Emperor entered, making *a bargain* with the Dark Gods (ala "Dormammu, I've come to bargain." )and becoming imbued with new powers and the knowledge to create the Primarchs. Molech itself was brought into the fledgling Imperium during the Great Crusade by a combined force of Dark Angels, Luna Wolves, *Emperor's Children* , and White Scars each led by their respective Primarchs, who banned the worship of their serpent god in favor of the Imperial Truth. The Emperor accompanied them, and *erased* from each Primarch's minds the planet's significance. (Horus would regain his memories, and enter the Gateway himself)
He is a godlike being, so powerful that any who see him, form in their minds eye their version of how they see a perfect being. He isnt hiding his form. Our minds just cant comprehend his true form and make up the next best thing of a perfect form that they can understand.
Although he acts with absolute authority, he always doesn't act... human. Arguably his most human form was the Last Church. Where he is trying to absolute authority but argues with the last priest as if trying to convince himself that he does have absolute authority.
I really like the theory he is Malice as both are against the four chaos gods and the Imperium isn't a place of laws and orders, but more anarchy and convoluted mazes. A mockery of organization. He only emerged when humanity was at its weakest point making sure they were weak after the golden age... not stopping the collapse but perhaps encouraged it. A tyrant for power sake. It really fits that grim dark everything is terrible motif.
However, with GW re-introducing the Primarchs; advancing the timeline; allowing hope to grow... I think they are moving away from an absolute evil humanity that was so twisted it wasn't really recognizable as humanity. To something a bit more human and I think the stories with the Emperor will reflect that. And I can't be sure, but with Guilliman and other Imperial leaders becoming more well-known and heroic; I think humanity will be moving beyond the Emperor. Leaving the Emperor to scream into eternality on the golden throne.
I’m reminded of something that transpired in Danzan Ryu Jiujitsu: our particular lineage from Okazaki came through a very psychically powerful man named Professor Bud Estes who did all kinds of nearly impossible psychic feats. He was one of Okazaki’s first students. Our professor was one of Estes’ students. Anyway, He became very very dogmatic about what needed to be done to “ascend” if you will and utilize your full psychic potential in the art of Jiujitsu.
One day a fellow student was asking and questioning about the journey. He noted that what Estes taught to specific students was not meant as dogma for all but was meant and said to that specific student in that time to speed them along their path and thus each message was different. He said straight to our teacher: “what was said to you would NOT have been the same thing said to me, because I’m different than you are and I don’t need your message to help me along my journey.”
Minds were blown that day. Perhaps obvious in retrospect, but it reminds me of the concept of the emperor in WH40K.
Your stuff is just awsome man! Thanks for your dedication you brought the 40K Universe closer to me and i freakin love it
This is the single most interesting ideas surrounding the emperor that I’ve ever heard! To think that there is a method to the madness that explains away the inconsistencies from story to story. Furthermore, it makes more sense that this is how the emperor functions than the other conversations.