True Purpose of The Emperor | Warhammer 40k Lore

[@InquisitorThomas]

The Emperor was actually created by a bunch of British nerds to sell tiny plastic army men for an unreasonable price in the 1980s.

[@derrickmcbride5922]

It all makes sense now

[@KoDiAk-777]

Heresy! 👆🏻 I think 🤔

[@malusdarkblade1139]

Lol "Nerds" you sound like a cliche child

[@InquisitorThomas]

@@malusdarkblade1139 Dude, I’m not using the term derogatorily, GW was founded by a by a bunch of fantasy fans in the 1970s to publish a D&D and War Game Magazine, they’re are by definition part of the nerd subculture.

[@nobleman9393]

Now that's Cosmic horror.

[@SolxtheUnmaker]

The Emperor is just 20 shamans in a trench coat.

[@glitchquitch]

Good one 😂

[@zeehero7280]

More like a few thousand!

[@thomassmith2605]

Explains his height 🤷‍♂️

[@spicyshoeguy5332]

Ej2weg😢6t​@@glitchquitch

[@theliato3809]

20, 4000, maybe even Ten

[@killerzillavolt2655]

I like that the Emperor, in a way, loved or at least cared enough for his father to avenge his death.

[@Dintinosanto]

Unfortunately for that though, Ra himself didn’t trust the vision as being a reliable, real event.

[@christopheraaron1255]

He cared for order.

[@Psyker_Unredactus]

He was still just learning back then, and had much of his humanity intact.

[@ezachleewright2309]

He was just a boy back then, was he not? He didn't have the memories of his previous lives

[@jumnei5159]

Respect dad emperor of dadkind

[@TheBlackFox666]

That is a bit of a nutty theory Malcador being the last shaman, the one left out for the sole purpose of guiding this new god like being upon his path and becoming a close friend, trusted ally, and insanely talented advisor.

[@nolanbaker2360]

Malcador the Hero is according to records 6000 ish years old upon his death. Perhaps one shaman reincarnated separately to later become malcador Personally I like the therory/current Canon what's the difference anymore He's just such an understanding and wise man that he earned the emperor friendship and was powerful enough to rule beside him Malcador himself states that the emperor wasn't THE emperor until he met and teamed up with malcador

[@MrClarkisgod]

You mean exactly like John the Baptist who was considered insane by many, revered for his truth by others, and was sent to pave the way for the coming of the Messiah who would save humanity??? A man who was executed for his beliefs and made the first martyr in Christianity because nobody believed him. That was.... until Jesus showed up, performed all his miracles, died, and was resurrected 3 days later. As you can see... this is a story many of us have heard before. The one sacrifices themselves for the cause in an effort to pave the way for the next to advance their overall goal.

[@TheBlackFox666]

@@MrClarkisgod No one asked, no one cares, and the correlation is shoddy at best.

[@MrClarkisgod]

@@TheBlackFox666 Cry harder.

[@pieguy2011]

​@TheBlackFox666 seems almost one to one correlation.

[@TheGallantDrake]

People forget that Odin is also characterized as a schemer and trickster. He wanders the earth as an old man, cloaked, with a wide-brimmed hat.

[@Bluepizza1684]

The hat man? That entity people claim to have seen all over the world for who knows how long

[@b3rz3rk3r9]

Lugh is also fairly trickster-like in Celtic myth.

[@chriscortez2036]

Funnily enough, Overly Sarcastic Productions just released a video covering “trickster heroes” like Odin, Loki, Anansi, Hermes, Raven, Coyote, Sun Wukong, etc.

[@nephilexfrost7202]

Gandalf?

[@JacoDeltaco]

Some people even think that Loki and Odin are the same beings

[@Dintinosanto]

Even Ra took his vision of the Emperor’s childhood with a grain of salt. Keep reading and at the end of that exchange Ra says something like, “None of this is real, is it, lord?” And the Emperor just muses about the skull, ignores Ra’s question, then tells him to wake from the vision. If even Ra suspected the vision was b.s., readers should really stop trusting it as reliable lore. Even the Custodians know the Emperor lies, especially about himself.

[@Itisoverthere-rw]

ADB novel. Everything and nothing is canon. This writer is a hack.

[@captain_torket3254]

@@Itisoverthere-rw You're allowed to dislike his work but don't you dare disrespect ADB. His novels are among the most well-written in the entire Black Library stable.

[@Itisoverthere-rw]

@@captain_torket3254 Some of his novels are great and some are garbage. On one hand you have Helsreach, Echoes of Eternity, the Black Legion series etc and one the other you have First Heretic, Spear of the Emperor and Maatee of Mankind. The dude is a mess. He can't keep his politics out of his work and he was kept in check for years, he makes decisions in some of his novels that make me wonder if he is a 15 year old in disguise, he can't hide his bias in his writing and he uses the old and tired "unreliable narrator" bullshit to deflect criticism for the dumb shit he writes.

[@christopheraaron1255]

​@@captain_torket3254he's written some guff.

[@Lomhow]

This right here 🙌 The Arkand Land, guy who rediscovered the Land Raider, had the most telling conversation with the Emperor about the Primarchs. The Emperor tells you what he thinks YOU want to hear. Whatever postures him to be in a better position with you, he will say. Some sociopath shit.

[@goldjaw]

Anathema is a very important word in Warhammer. It has only been used 4 times as far as I know. One is the Emperor, whose very nature is meant to weaken Chaos. Another is Ynnead. He is meant to kill Slaanesh. Then there is the Anchorite, who merely channels the Emperor. Then there is the strangest one. The one who is stated to have invented a way to completely counter Chaos. The most powerful being of his universe. The immortal inventor of Necromancy… Nagash.

[@jonathanathor117]

i always thought sigmar was an anathema of chaos.

[@goldjaw]

@@jonathanathor117 Sigmar is never referred to as an Anathema. He is a potent force against it, but Nagash is explicitly a counter and is called “Anathema” in some of the books he and Mannfred appear in.

[@OljeiKhan]

​@@goldjawwell our Glorius Emperor in 40k is also kind of undead. COINCIDENCE?!

[@goldjaw]

@@OljeiKhan PRAISE FATHER BONES, CURSE SIGMAR THE THIEF GOD

[@ASNS117Zero]

Isn't Aenarion referred to as an Anathema at one point?

[@whysogrim697]

If the Emporer is a weapon its kind of poetic with how Perty wanted make himself into a weapon

[@livefromtheblacklibrary]

TRUEEEE

[@whysogrim697]

Maybe it's an aspect of how the Emporer feels being basically a god amongst men

[@whysogrim697]

Good video 👌🏻

[@dread_pirate_robberts2677]

One must imagine the emperor as happy.

[@dalaminaubis7822]

Isn't there a moment where the Emperor smiles in amusement at something a Custodian says, and the custodian thinks it's the most terrifying thing he's ever seen?

[@nolanbaker2360]

​@@dalaminaubis7822yes it was such an inhuman uncanny valley sight, the custodes felt very uncomfortable and almost dread I'd say

[@Lord_Juvens]

@@dalaminaubis7822coming from a guy that sits three hours in Nurgle farts, I’ll take that as a sound account and believe him.

[@Skelator_Sikelator]

What if the Golden Throne itself was a weapon created by the old ones and C'tan misunderstood throne's presence as Emps? It would be a good choice to spice up the lore.

[@CorvusTheNerd]

That's a thought I had. A literal reading would suggest the Emperor but if we assume the Ctan isn't lying, but instead is just mistaken, the throne would be a good stand in.

[@TheUncivilizedNation]

Whatever it is it definitely isn’t a good life support system. Trazyn thinks the Imperium are a bunch of dumbasses for using it in this way

[@BM-wf9uf]

Pretty sure from memory it's in one of the books that The Emperor thinks the Throne is technology of the Old Ones.

[@TheKlink]

when the medusa v campaign came out and the Necrons were harvesting souls for the c'tan shard they had, it made my head cannon be that the golden throne was repurposed biotransferrence tech. that it had eldar "psychoplastic" in there didn't really even change that much because the Necrons hacked the webway for their dolmen gate ftl travel, so Necrons had already repurposed Eldar tech despite their "hatred" of warp-craft.

[@doragonzx]

maybe some Old ones did suvive The War in heaven, and hid on earth? Like we know some old ones Survived until the birth of Slaneesh.

[@ChaoticTabris]

"He is the first one to show up on the book Know no Fear by Dan Abnett" The hate towards John Grammaticus is so great that Chrono is gaslighting us in forgetting him and another human perpetual show up first in Legion.

[@ratatoskr5561]

Yeah but they aren't natural perpetuals while emps, erda and perrson are

[@mkvenner2]

Well in legion he wasn’t confirmed to be a perpetual.

[@ChaoticTabris]

​@@mkvenner2 Has been a while since I read it but i'm pretty sure he is.

[@Elderahn]

My personal preference for the Emperor of mankind is that he is simply an offshoot of an offshoot. He is to perpetuals what perpetuals are to humans. A double-mutant of the human genome that simply happened because it was possible at one point in time. Simply happening due to an insane lineup of probability at such an early stage of Humankinds development that he was able to lay plans and enact them on a scale of aeons. I just feel like it fits in with how Human species in 40k is capable of having these insanely powerful offshoots like the perpetuals, and the Emperor simply being that concept taken to the nth degree. It gives the species way more agency, and lets us own all of our failures and tragedy wholly.

[@nolanbaker2360]

I like thai idea I kinda like the idea that the universe rebalnced itself by making the emperor after the last old ones died out.

[@derp-construction3341]

I had always just kinda assumed this was the case. *I have read none of the books, never played any of the games, and only know 40K due to its presence in game shops.

[@alexisgill6054]

To be honest, I wouldn't trust much in what the C'Tan says, mostly because he says that base on what it saw in Cawl's mind.

[@RorikH]

Also it saying the Machine God is a lie is clearly just cope that the Void Dragon is in bigger pieces.

[@alexisgill6054]

@RorikH yeah, probably it would have say something else if it have known that fact.

[@matiasnoguera461]

​@@RorikHthen the ctan lies because the last iron man of mars claims to have met the god machine and that he would feel very disappointed to see how the mechanicus despises meat and innovation

[@hobblesofkarth3943]

@@matiasnoguera461 i think given the c'tans arrogance that lying is pretty unllikely. it could be mistaken, but i dont think it was lying. it had ZERO reason to lie. it felt 100% in control, that it would decide cawl's fate.

[@Zimzilla99]

Speaking purely on the Ctan perspective, outside of the machine god which they say is a lie. But I don’t recall them believing in the concept of gods. Since the emperor has chosen to become a thing hinged on the golden throne he can still be seen as a weapon for them but a god for all purposes. Or it could be that since the ctan fought the old ones, they would they closest they’d consider gods.

[@dantereinhardt6911]

Honestly, my personal theory is that the Emperor was never created. Not by shamans, not by the old ones or even Malcador. In fact, he is literally just an anomaly, like perpetuals are. A freak human that somehow developed into a form of super evolved human... With all its flaws. He knows that, which is why he himself made so many rumors about his creation... Because the truth is hollow. He's not a prophesied savior, he wasn't made with purpose and intention to safeguard humanity or the galaxy. He's an accident, without reason or cause, and that thought itself is too terrifying to think of, which is why he didn't want anyone to think of it.

[@Michaeluj]

My initial theory, after reading that line, was that humanity was meant to be a mix of Orc and Aeldari, such that they can be somewhat independently minded while also being capable of WAAAGGGHing, with the Emperor being the center of focus to channel that human WAAAGH energy.

[@doragonzx]

another theory is that mankind was meant to be Improved necrontyr as mankind is very close to what the necrontyr were like

[@honkhonk8009]

@@doragonzx Mankind being a Old-one tech flavored competitor to the Necron's is a much more plausible theory. Also explains why Mankind despite not having dimmer souls like the Tau, arent able to do psychic stuff. Eldar/Ork/OldOne tech is all warp-powered fuckery Necron, Human, and Tau tech actually uses the materium. The Old Ones probably realized they have a severe capability gap in masting the materium, and created the engineering monkeys and the actual monkeigh's. One uses preprogrammed instinctual know how on machines but cant innovate. The other actually learn by itself.

[@hypnotoad5861]

Whether or not Big E is a weapon would, to me at least, be a matter of perspective. To the C’Tan, most likely. The Aeldari were created to be just that, weapons to be used against them. A point a friend of mine made; “Say you were born and died in prehistoric times. Then you were suddenly revived and somebody attacked you with a rusty metal pipe. You wouldn’t know what it was, other than a weapon.” The Emperor might be akin to a ‘weapon’ if he focused his psychic might via the Astronomican, but he still can serve as a psychic beacon. As for how he came to be, I’d rather not know. Keeps things interesting, and it’s more fun to theorize.

[@demiurge9212]

I'm pretty sure the reason the C'tan called the Emperor a weapon is because he sat on the golden throne. think about it, the throne is a mix of xeno technologies which part eldary and probably part old one technology. What if the golden throne is the tool the old ones used to create the Eldar gods (Eldar weapons) to fight the C'tan.

[@TheSpicyLeg]

The Emperor as a weapon is almost certainly meant literally, and refers to the Emperor as he is now. He is a weapon, a part of the golden throne, itself heavily implied to be a weapon. That is what the Emperor does; everything he has ever done is in service to one goal. Destroying Chaos and returning the warp and real space to a balance. I find it much more interesting to believe the Emperor was a creation of the shaman. He was created to be a weapon against Chaos, and to protect humanity. He does this, even as individual humans suffer.

[@OljeiKhan]

The Astronomicon can literally scorch daemonworlds within the eye of terror. The Emperor is THE ultimate dreadnought with extremely powerfull ranged targeting+signaling+scorching in holy flames powers as in the example of some daemon worlds within the eye of terror. Couldn't find the exerpt tho:/

[@TheSpicyLeg]

@@OljeiKhan Yes, and that is the best evidence for the Emperor being a god of “Order” but based in the warp and warp power as is Chaos. The Emperor scorches daemons with the Astronomicon but also creates entities that are functionally similar to daemons. As I recall, it was in the book about Saint Celestine.

[@MetalKing1417]

It copuld be simply that it had encountered multiple similar beings before and was making a geneeralization.

[@commissaryarrick9670]

​​@@TheSpicyLegyou can't have chaos without order and vice versa . There has to be both . If there is no order then chaos becomes the order and that makes it not chaos anymore.

[@RevolverRho]

It’s less of a theory and more of a ‘piece of the larger puzzle’ the emperors name according to most of chaos is ‘anathema’, his creation was literally predicated by visions of humanities doom by pre historic psykers. If we go by this then we have 2 pieces of crucial lore, Anathema meaning someone or something against someone or something, in this case Chaos. His creation was deliberately made by the ancient shamans and could sense our collective downfall or the downfall of humanity. The other thing that makes this less of a theory is that, Warhammer like most pieces of fiction survives on most of its largest pieces being ‘abstract’ for example the Emperor. We know who the Emperor is and we know most of his motivations, but we rarely if ever get anything from his point of view and instead are relegated to the viewpoints of those around him, therefore the bulk of information we have is 2nd and even 3rd hand and these tidbits of information are presented in either hard factoids of abstract points of information ala the C’tan. Therefore we can kinda actually put a lot of those puzzle pieces together to form the ‘truth’ based on what information we do have, although obviously since we’re not being spoon fed the information and outright told we’re left with our ‘theories’ but they aren’t theories so much as uh, pages in a book that’s had its pages and index torn out, we’re left putting the pages back together. IMHO but that in of itself is what makes Warhammer such an interesting world.

[@lamb_link]

I’ve always liked the primarch-Pinocchio theories, that the primarchs were originally tools created by a higher power for a purpose but developed a sense of self and personal goals, in essence becoming “real boys”. If Big E was also a tool created by a higher power, that then found a purpose in being humanity’s protector and guide, I think it would make for interesting symbolism between himself and his sons. Also I never knew that little tidbit of Jesus being interpreted as an avatar of Vishnu. Good video!

[@jackbutt8774]

Why do you call him Big E?

[@Aniket-fl8qk]

Make a video on " what if emperor returns" day - 1

[@livefromtheblacklibrary]

Oh I’ll do that soon 👀

[@akumaking1]

@@livefromtheblacklibrarywill you ever do a Bruva Alfabusa video?

[@dinoz2113]

Hope to see it

[@OljeiKhan]

If he "returns" as a "God" he might instagib and devour all of humanity like Slaanesh did with the Aeldari so maybe it's best that he never returns or never "ascends" at the very least.

[@jerrybelon1]

@@OljeiKhan im a novice with all the lore and stuff but i actually like this....im wondering if the Emperor is actually trying to indefinitely postpone or even halt his own ascension to becoming a god by for the sake of preventing what happened to the eldar.... the golden throne...the sacrificing of the psykers....perhaps its not done to to keep him alive but to be like a physics drug to keep him in that "living death " state as to have some "god-like" ability's but not sacrifice his humanity .... but again like i said i am a novice to all the lore that is out there but that why i love the 40k universe.....hands down the best fantasy universe ever created

[@refurbishedtechpriest9076]

I actually like your theory that the Emperor is basically an avatar of himself. I think that such a theory not only still leave room open for him to still be a "weapon", but also explains his... Well, his personality, how he views things, and why he seems to be so disconnected from humans... Because he isn't really human, he's the essence of a fledgling god sitting in a meat-suit.

[@lincolnosiris3665]

I think, the thesis of Big E. being the Custodian of Mankind, has a lot of merit. As such, you would not only have to plan, develop, constantly scheme and outsmart countless enemies, but also be the warrior and the weapon that is necessary. The concept of necessity is often mentioned by the emperor, especially in "Master of Mankind". His actions in all their scale are necessary, he is necessary in all his bluntness and cruelty at times, and that really is the perspective of someone that is inevitable and knows that he has to be a weapon of mass destruction. The realization is kinda sad...and you can see the sadness in the character, actually.

[@LordOmnissiah]

I am 90% certain the weapon quote referred to him being a weapon created by the shamans. And “something far removed from the plans of our enemies” refers to the fact we came out of left field and were not one of the Old Ones planned creations.

[@lachlanevans5013]

16:18 Think that that might be a bit debatable as he certainly seemed to know about the war in heaven and the old ones. He knew how to use Necron tech(I.E the Callidus phase blades) and he fought and defeated a shard of the void dragon and imprisoned it under Mars knowing the effect it would have. But back on track I think the Emperor might have had some idea of his purpose as a weapon created by the old ones though how much of an idea is debatable.

[@justinweber4977]

I really like the idea of the Emperor as a creation with a purpose in mind. A tool. He's basically someone ELSE'S Primarch (or Custode?), then creates his own Primarchs, in a cycle that, from what we've seen with Cawl and Guilliman could continue for a while.

[@wfstan]

I prefer the idea that the men of gold were the rulers of mankind during the Dark age of technology, and he schemed his way into getting ultimate power through his journey to Molech

[@CyberSlayer128]

Now that I think about it, the Emperor being created by the Old Ones to destroy chaos makes a lot of sense considering he created the Angel. The prototype Primarch he had to lock in a coffin because it just started mass murdering humans due to their natural connection to the wartp and thus Chaos.

[@Joust149]

Issues with all of this. For one, the Shaman Origin is actually as old as 1st Edition and comes from "Realms of Chaos", not his conversation with Ra. It's quite literally the original origin of the Emperor. And if something managed to survive into the modern era from 1st edition, it's probably as close to a dedicated "truth" as we'll get from GW. Second the Old Ones have long been debunked as the creators of humanity, like repeatedly. Or rather, they would have maybe had a hand in creating or modifying some of our earliest genetic ancestors, at best. Primates wouldn't even exist for another 5 million years after the Old Ones Kroak'd (badum-tish). They would have had exactly 0 impact on even so much as the Homo Genus which only cropped up maybe 3 million year ago. That'd be one hell of a genetic and temporal Rube Goldberg to pull off, even by 40K standards. Third that C'Tan is 1) insane, 2) been asleep for eons, it's literally just guessing, and 3) all of its answers are already technically correct. Even characters like Argel'Tal acknowledge that the CG are just cosmic-sized psychic hurricanes, and even question their sentience and self awareness. It's just a matter of if there's really a practical difference between a "God" and an omniscient, omnipotent force of nature. And the Omnissiah is probably one of his fellow C'Tan, or else Vashtorr, or both. So technically a lie in the sense that it's not a benevolent pro-humanity entity, but not in that it doesn't exist per se. Lastly is the Emperor being forged by the Shamans as a weapon against chaos, is literally already his origin story. Fourth Anakin was the chosen one and did bring balance to the force, just not like the Jedi thought he would. TL;DR the Jedi had been corrupted for a long time in the sense that most of their "enlightenment" was just moral posturing by a group of glorified government mercenaries. In other words: ACAB.

[@rdogg114]

One common misconception about star wars is that George lucus's vision for what balance in the force meant was returning it to its natural state with the dark side completely purged the idea behind Lucus's dark side was humanity tampering with a natural force in the universe trying to bend it to there will instead of working with it naturally.

[@tonitapola7811]

@@rdogg114 Thank you, modern material has all kinds of bendus who laugh to the dark and light side, and Mortis gods representing balance, light and dark, but to me it is always light is the balance, dark side is the corruption of that balance. There is nothing they can do to change my mind.

[@fixedG]

The Old Ones creation theory is interesting because it also sort of explains why the Necrons chose to go to sleep. If they were aware that the Old Ones had done something to plant a major seed somewhere across the galaxy but couldn't figure out where or how, it might make more sense to wait the millennia it would take for that seed to sprout and grow. But can you imagine the Emperor leading full-grown, honest to goodness Krorks in battle?

[@dmajor9982]

One theory I have that I’ve not seen mentioned much is that Cain and Able are the emperors father and uncle. Giving extra meaning to Dravhnyen

[@billyherrington5112]

It would compute with some catholic mistics that stated if kain never killed abel, Abel and his descendants would redeem humanity to live in eden again and deluge would never happened

[@Combba6]

Can't be true since Oll is older than Emps.

[@nolanbaker2360]

​@@Combba6Adam? 😂😂😂

[@petra4385]

I personally like him being random chance. Chaos theory doing it's thing. Sure he's better but is it because he's just an exceptional guy who also ended up immortal. He might've just dodge the man of iron thing by being stuck in molek. Maybe he knows about the conflict only from stories. Also we don't know what the men of stone actually are ya goober. It's vaguer than vague

[@DreadNought0255]

There is the option that Emperor became a weapon at some point down the line. He was not made to be a weapon but became one. Either deliberately or by circumstance. While talking to Gulliman, Emperor uses object terms like "Thing" about himself. Itself, now. It could also be the shard's interpretation of how Cawl in some form sees the Emperor. Basically saying out loud what it thinks those things are based on what Cawl has said and it's own knowledge of how the universe operates.

[@grindcoreninja6527]

The Reapers from Mass Effect, Xenomorphs from Alien and Forerunners from Halo all have one thing in common. They were all a little ruined once all their mystic was pulled away and their origins revealed. I never want to truly know Big E's origin, though I assume I'm in the minority, seems like most people want everything explained to them like their children.

[@calebcollins5887]

I think it’s a bit of all of them. I think the Shaman theory was his beginning. An old one might have come across him and imbued him with knowledge and power possibly. Another is that he was upgraded during the golden age possibly, he was involved obviously if not directly he was in the know. It’s fun to speculate.

[@christopheraaron1255]

I didn't think seeing the skull caused the heart attack, I got the impression that the Emperor himself did it.

[@collecter343]

More of just letting his Uncle know that he knew what he did before inducing it.

[@christopheraaron1255]

@@collecter343 exactly.

[@vontheunknown7982]

The emperor is a weapon for humanity, and as a weapon he cannot have any emotions and other things that will hold him down, making him fail. I'm mostly just thinking out loud, but what do you think?

[@livefromtheblacklibrary]

THATS A GOOD POINT!

[@vontheunknown7982]

@@livefromtheblacklibrary Thank you 😁

[@mduckernz]

Hold on, Astartes are also weapons, but have emotions I understand what you’re going for though. Arguably the Astartes are flawed for having emotions, in a way.

[@vontheunknown7982]

@@mduckernz The thing is the Astartes somewhat had a smaller role then what the emperor had, not to mention the Space Marines having a emotions wasn't the problem at all, but loyalty to their Primarches is a different story.

[@CopeSeethorntin]

I think molech and his fight with Horus was the Emperor coming to terms with his purpose and why he exists and likely went through an identity crisis later on in his life. With the fall of DAOT being the breaking point where the Emperor just gave up on himself and most importantly humanity opting to just insert himself and force us to salvation whether we like it or not. The primachs are tools and weapons literaly manufactured in a factory on the moon who desperately wanted to be human. The Emperor was born as both not one or a nother like the primachs but both a weapon and a human. But his human side unable to cope with the responsibility of partley being a weapon and a tool finnely gave in leaving the weapon to steal the show. We know the Emperor at one point was capable of emotion and compassion the star child wouldn't exist if that wasn't the case. But it was essentially stripped out of him after his sketchy activities on molech but than completely removed all together during his battle with horus. leaving what's basically and clinicaly diagnosed psychopath (not in the in the movie trope or mainstream stance as most clinicaly identified psychopaths wernt violent maniacs they were just incapable of feeling of feeling emotion) and what's essentially a psychic man of iron to take over with only one goal of protecting humanity and it would be damhed if it let anything happened to it's species to the point it's willing to burn down reality to make it's mission realised.

[@mkvenner2]

Wait what if the weapon everyone was looking for in the arks of omen is the emperor of man.

[@reidboggs4344]

I have come to believe that the emperor was originally a powerful being from the warp that saw the Tyranid threat and engineered a very dense plan to one day face it.

[@kapistar1]

7:12 an alternative theory would be that - according to "The First Heretic" - Emps promised Chaos Gods that he would reinstate their worship all throughout the Empire

[@Azubrael]

18:00 The real heresy.

[@justinweber4977]

As much sense as keeping the War in Heaven ambiguous makes, I would still absolutely LOVE to have some stories set within it. Maybe not fleshing out the whole thing, but still, a few adventures. Maybe show us some races that the Old Ones didn't create, possibly ones that chose to ally with the Necrontyr the first time around.

[@rumorcontrol7873]

19:00 bingo! I think one of the reasons Big E is so uniquely powerful is that he is channeling his own power as a chaos god from the future, the very future he mentions that he keeps trying to find his way to. In much the same way that The Emperor doesn't know which of his underlings will do as they should so too does The Emperor not know exactly how best to act on the directions of The God Emperor which he sees as his Golden Path towards humanity's future.

[@Gfish17]

Personally I think the "magic of the setting" will be just fine with less ambiguity. A mystery exists to be solved in the story at some point. The warp and psykers will still be there after the mystery gets solved.

[@Crembaw]

He was referring to the literary appeal of 40k as a setting, not the magic that characters actually use in it. And in the case of deities or deific figures, no, it isn’t a guarantee or even very desirable, depending on the story being told, that the mystery of their essence will be solved at all. If the mechanisms of the Holy Trinity were comprehensible by humans, then they wouldn’t be a domain of being and understanding that was unique to Yahweh; the mystery of one entity being three entities at the same time is something that makes God divine. It is something that is fundamentally beyond our everyday experience and knowledge. Every religion has this in some capacity, and it’s not shocking at all to see it in fiction as well. It’s part of the appeal of every enduring fantasy: there are mysteries that we can approach understanding, but never fully know.

[@CrimsonTemplar2]

The Emperor being an avatar of himself is just wacky enough to be a possibility. Having owned a copy of Realms of Chaos: The Lost & the Damned from its initial publication, I still like clinging to story of the shamans mass-unaliving themselves to make an immortal being that eventually became the Emperor. Hopefully we’ll never know for sure because it’s the uncertainty, misinformation, & “a certain point of view” logic that makes the setting such a rich sandbox. There are no retcons, only misunderstandings based on incomplete data.

[@cassdobbins1605]

Loyalist and traitor primarchs have a lot of parity. To the point that if we're given a redeemed traitor primarch (Clone-grim, Omegon (Alpharius), returned Horus), I think you see a loyalist turn or become completely ostracized (looking at you Corax).

[@Skinwalkerwave5115]

The Emperor is the only (human) stable Alpha Plus Pysker to ever exist if that adds anything

[@angelotana3040]

I think that's retconned now....I think he's omega plus plus? Idk it's something stupid, they redid the ratings. It's so dumb and they're changing the lore for BS now. Femstodes and femarines, it's pathetic. Idgaf what you believe, leave my escapist grimdark alone. I just want speesh merins and bolters and catachans and tyranids and boom boom explosions and yellow=fast. Keep it apolitical, like helldivers. There also wouldn't be gender politics in a world governed by the strictest, most powerful religion to ever be conceived. If you said you feel like a woman, and your a man, the inquisitor is pulling out his bolt pistol because that's a demon in you. Man....maybe we need inquisitors to help some of the mentally ill, autogynephilic, "trans" things

[@Kalebfenoir]

I still hold that the Golden God form of the Emperor is the universe's most powerful psychic Glamour. That He's not a 20 foot tall megabeing with light spewing from His eyes... but that He's a slightly-better-than-average sized human, who keeps His true form hidden away with a glamour so powerful it's damned near solid. My subjective proof is that Corax, upon meeting the Emperor when He stepped off His shuttle, was confused by what he saw. At first, all he saw was a mere man, in a white robe with an aquila pendant, with eyes who's iris's had a touch of all the colors: Green, blue, brown, and a hint of gold. And Corax was confused why all the people there, his people, were kneeling and bowing to a man not much bigger than themselves. At that point, the Emperor noticed his gaze, and realized Corax could see right through the glamour. So He upped the power, until Corax thought his mind was playing tricks on him; First it was the normal man, then the Golden God overlaid on him... and then finally all he could see was the Golden God. Emps realized Corax could see HIM directly, and so made it so he couldn't anymore. Then there's the time Russ got drunk and started a fight with one of his brothers. Emps stepped in to mediate and separate them, and Russ, belligerent and in a pissy mood, threw a right hook that could bend a Baneblade. It hit the Golden God in the chin, and didn't even move Him. Rock solid; no inertia transfer. Emps response was a return punch that knocked Russ out for I think 3 weeks. Might have been 3 months. If you keep in mind that the Golden God is a glamour, Russ basically punched something that wasn't real, but was VERY solid, like a psychically generated force field shaped like a human face, and the Emperor knocked him out psychically, though He timed His mental attack with the swing of His glamor's punch. There's also the fact that for millennia the Emperor could easily pass as a normal human in human society, hidden among the masses. Even if He could cloak Himself from sight, it would have been VERY hard to move through buildings and halls and even on the street, if he was 20 feet tall. And it's known that he took on different identities through the ages to further hide within the masses. My favorite personal headcanon is that He's an utterly average, non-descript looking guy who wields His flaming sword and power claw telekinetically, while maintaining a visual image that makes it look like they're being handled by huge dude in golden armor. He might even have a REAL armor Hepuppets around as well. LOL.

[@dudeboydudeboy-zj8kd]

as a christian, the idea of indians seeing jesus as an avatar of vishnu is actually awesome. same thing with buddha.

[@Blackwing2345635]

I'm not religious, but I find it a good thing too. Usually religions are alienating, but this "your prophet is ours prophet too" is a good point for a dialog.

[@unclesam5230]

Doesn’t that literally contradict his teachings?

[@thebeepdrip3154]

A lot of religion's actually saw Jesus in a good light (besides one), Islam while they didn't think he was the son of God still thought of him as a prophet, as one such example

[@joaquinrodriguez227]

​@@thebeepdrip3154only muslims and christians, Jews did the whole crucifying thing and the pagans tried to extinguish christianity and the belief in Christ since Nero

[@jessl1934]

It's really easy to find texts online. It's much harder to describe how to in a comment due to filters however. It is genuinely hard to find a good library, especially one that has 40k books. If you look at the last sentence and take the first 3 characters from the 9th word and the 3rd word, you can find what I'm talking about. (If you need extra help, the next part that comes after it is the 2nd word.) If you need extra help or you can't find the book you are looking for, reply to this comment with the title in question and it will appear in that library provided that it's available on more obscure sources.

[@male272]

Actually...the Shaman theory just got a recent bump in cred by recent mention.

[@nolanbaker2360]

I still hate it lol, atleast how it is currently. It doesn't make sense that enough pyskers of that power were born simultaneously for no reason 10's of thousands of years before any other real precedent for mass populations of them. Something that could pad it out it like all the old ones finally die out, so to rebalance the powers in the galaxy that psychic energies recoalesced on earth into the shamans

[@kwasy7663]

​@@nolanbaker2360 they weren't born at the same time the warp used to be much calmer then, allowing the shamans to reincarnate into new bodies (essentially body snatching a baby) the eldar used to do this too. This meant there was an ever growing number of fairly weak shamans that had 1000s of years to grow their power in a very safe environment. When the warp started to get turbulent many that attempted to reincarnate never came back from the warp. They looked into the future and saw that becoming a single entity was the best option. So it wasn't really a coincidence that they were all around at the same time.

[@nolanbaker2360]

I already knew everything you just said and my point is the same I will say I used poor word choice There was a enough "random" pyskers of enough strength at this prehistoric point but then none for like 40ish thousand years with I doubt the shamans were just low level. They had enough power to reincarnate and to use soulmerging etc.

[@nolanbaker2360]

@@kwasy7663 if it was fleshed out that shamans were the 1 in a thousand year pyskers and they Slowky built there numbers over the hundreds of thousands and of millions of years we've been this species but it just rubs me as extraordinarily lazy writing even by GW standards

[@kwasy7663]

@@nolanbaker2360 I could be wrong on this but I thought the psyker trait was genetic like the ability to awaken the latent power all humans have that is. And so if all the psykers killed themselves it would take a very VERY long time to rebuild the numbers back to a stable point especially if they were being killed for being a devil worshiper for most of human history.

[@SafetyBriefer]

Seems like the Old One' knew they were failing so they became the 'shamans' that merged into a single soul as a weapon against Chaos. And the Old Ones created humanity to use faith as power separated from the Warp.

[@Maskof7eyes2]

Big E as his own bootstrap paradox from a greater godly self is an interesting one

[@GregoryElliott1973]

He's one of the lost primarchs. Sent back in time to Terra.

[@Tetrohedracon]

Ive always thought that the Emperor was the conciousness of the last survivng Old God.

[@dementedp]

These theories make more sense to me than the 20 shamans (Psykers) sacrificing themselves to create one stronger being (The Emperor). Because if those Psykers were able to accomplish that, what’s stopping another race or group of Psykers from repeating the process and creating stronger beings of their own?

[@Crembaw]

The Aeldari used to do that. When the Warp was calmer, they were able to control their reincarnation. It was the ascent of the Chaos gods, especially Slaanesh, that made that impossible for them.

[@mikbdee2186]

I imagine the Warp is to dangerous for that to work anymore. The souls would get eaten before they could fuse. My theory at least.

[@Lornext]

Pretty sure Men of Stone are not AI but the Squats of Leagues of Votann. Simply a subspecies of humanity.

[@josephboustany4852]

The depths of my hatred for "mystery" can't even be described with the word "infinite"

[@Somethingclever2955]

Love the video chrono! Can’t wait for the end of the death volume, and the MAJOR rant you’ll most likely have. Ik I did with WHO lived and WHY someone died

[@jackgriffi7826]

If the Old Ones created humanity, it'd be interesting if they put some type of Blueprint into the dna, similar to the Orks, but on a more subtle level then their ability to instinctively use and make weapons, and it guided humanity in some form, like the markers in deadspace. It's what guided Shamans to create the Emperor, and once that happened, the Emperor became the first one to see the blueprint, only seeing himself, and take the reigns from there. Reason being it's so subtle, and long-term to create a being like the Emperor, is not to draw attention from the Eldar, or the Chaos Gods.

[@jarrakul]

The Emperor is bizarrely powerful and like 15 feet tall (or powerful enough to casually appear so). The notion that he was just some dude, even just some perpetual, doesn't make much sense. And frankly, the composite-shaman theory has always been more than a bit weird. I think it makes a lot of sense if he's a created (super)weapon of some kind, but I'm not convinced he would've been created by the Old Ones necessarily. He has this obsession with supersoldiers and super-generals, which fits the "created weapon" mindset, but it also feels like maybe he's trying to make more of himself? Or at least something in the same mold. Which would imply he might be some kind of proto-primarch from the Dark Age of Technology? I don't know, this is mostly wild speculation based on vibes. I suppose if so, that might lend a hair of credibility to the Grey Knight claim that they're made from the Emperor's geneseed.

[@kazmark_gl8652]

Honestly, ill never abandon my core 40k Emperor theory. The Emperor was just "the guy who unified Terra" he doesn't have a more grand history. a bit like Fallout New Vega's Ceasar, he's just some guy using the Tech leftover from DAoT who invented a more grand past for himself after he won. this has actually happened a bunch in real history. There are lots of late Byzantine emperors, a few Khans and Chinese Rulers who rebuilt after some crisis and used their power and influence to re-write history.

[@mrbuck5059]

I believe the Emporer is hungry for a peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich. I agree with your synopsis.

[@myduckisonqauck7227]

So the emporer is basicly Archanfel from guyver.

[@livefromtheblacklibrary]

Wait what’s that? 👀

[@myduckisonqauck7227]

@@livefromtheblacklibrary Old sci fi series, where the main protagonist gets his hands on bio armor and has to fight an evil organization that utilizes monstrous super soldiers. Spoilers: Turns out humans were created billions of years of ago to be the basis for bio weapons/super soldiers. Archanfel, another creation, was to be their master, but an experiment went wrong, so they abandoned the planet and archanfel. Archanfel saved the planet from destruction, but the fallout caused the ice age, and humans lost the ability to transform into bio weapons. Until Archanfel started recruiting subordinates and created the evil organization. Now he's trying to build the army he was promised, so he can confront his makers.

[@TheBlastmeister]

Just wait until Chrono finds out that the Emperor was created by John Garmmaticus just to annoy Ollianus

[@Healthy-s5k]

I prefer the shaman sacrifice theory. It connects the Emperor directly to humanity, explains the absence of psykers from earlier history, and goes with the themes of sacrifice. The Emperor is sustained by the death of psykers, it makes sense that he was created by it

[@stonefish1318]

15:27 The Golden Path trough Order and Chaos, Expansion and Decay, Live and Death. A holy Halo. Never starting, never ending... Always present.

[@ZeroOmega-vg8nq]

end and the death 3 damn it

[@livefromtheblacklibrary]

IM SORRY ITS COMIMG

[@ZeroOmega-vg8nq]

@@livefromtheblacklibrary you GRR martining my man lol. gunna need to call the weiner party

[@tjpprojects7192]

Or maybe ALL of the origins could be true. 1. Old Ones create the Emperor as a weapon. 2. All of Earth's Shamans see Chaos doing bad things, and ritually kill themselves to fuse with Emperor/Proto-Emperor to either A. Give him physical form (assuming he already didn't have one because he might have just been a warp-borne entity) and or B. To modify his "Old One programming". 3. The Emperor is involved in a Golden Age experiment involving his power some how, whether it's to replicate his power, or strengthen him. Maybe if the last part is true, it could be explained that the True Emperor could have been shattered in the Golden Age to try and replicate his power, and the current Emperor is only thw biggest shard, with the smaller shards being locked away or lost or something, but eventually being turned into the Primarchs.

[@Hellacious-Blue-Liquid]

The avatar link is interesting because it links back to the Primarchs! The Primarchs are a combination of tool and son with crazy warp powers and a purpose embedded into them by the Emperor I really like this idea of him being an Old One weapon, discarded and rampant and, without the direction of the Old Ones, went full Imperial Truth

[@Ozzymandios]

Thank you for having the strength of your convictions enough to enlighten us. I really appreciate your point of view❤

[@theliato3809]

13:20 The Dark King has existed in the human concious for many years. One writer described his form around the turn of the second millennium in such detail it stuck for generations.

[@lorenzosgarallino]

AI so advanced it's indistinguible from life. AI so advanced it' ls indistinguible from magic. From a god.

[@antimuppet]

A last Old One shows up, finds a pod of free Zoats, and decides to turn them into absolute bad-asses to zero the Tyranids.

[@izzymosley1970]

Personally one of the most grimdark things about 40k is how much genetics essentially decide your fate in 40k the emperor is the emperor because he was born/made that way same goes for the primarch's and to become a space Marine no matter how much you train if you're not genetically compatible with the gene seed you'll just die. So essentially genetics something completely out of your control is the determining Factor of your success in life in 40k which to me is one of the most grimdark things imaginable.

[@johncampanella622]

Soon thanks to Amazon and the woke cult we’ll definitely be having wheelchair space marines

[@augustuslunasol10thapostle]

@@johncampanella622 oh f off you conservative nut jobs, you don’t even know what woke means oh and get out of 40k this brand was made by leftist to satirize far right ideologies no matter how you bloody mongrels, cope it wont change jack, that at its core 40k is a leftist joke about the far right.

[@johnndamascene]

​@@johncampanella622✡

[@YourManifoldWorld]

Warhammer 40k is viewed from the perspective of the Human race. Which is why we have a great amount of detail about the Horus Heresy but fragments of information about anything before that time and Xeno.

[@grex951]

I think the fun of The Emperor is that he has no true concrete history. Like he could genuinely just be Jake from state farm. It's fun to theory craft around him and any idea that sounds even a little reasonable COULD work for his backstory

[@lawsonkirkland3718]

I always thought the Emperor was created by John Warhammer

[@dracodarastrix4175]

I'll make an counter argument about whom the C'tan could talk about whom the enemy is. Namely you forgot the Necrons. He's shard, and whom made him into a shard? The Necrons!, so they could also be the enemy he talks about. In the 1st Necron Codex it's hinted that the Necrons created the Phariah Gene that is inside humanity. Though this lore has been ret-conned because the C'tan are now the slaved instead of the Necrons. It could be that they want to bring it back the lore part about how Necrons fumbled with the human genetics.

[@squashbash6408]

Why would the old ones make the emperor to battle chaos / the warp? Chaos was not their enemy at all

[@piotrd.4850]

10:45 - that would be in line with vision of Corax when he briefly sees through Emperor's projected visage 11:26 - nah, it is stated in "Master of Mankind" that she is both bit crazy...but also very well educated.

[@metaleggman18]

Nah, fuck that, I want the old ones to come back from the galactic void. In fact, I want us to have joined up with the eldari and more or less tempered chaos, only for the old ones to come back with a a vengeance thinking they need to cleanse their old experiments. And with it, we learn all the secrets we ever wished. Hell, it'd be hilarious if the old ones left, only to become chaos tainted, and then everyone but the tyranids needed to band together to stop them (hell, maybe even the tyranids). Would make for some awesome fucking video games.

[@pezzleysnipes8110]

I've heard Muslims refer to Jesus as one of Allah's prophets, and Buddhists say that he's one of the reincarnations of Buddha. So I don't think it's offensive to say that some Hindus believe that he's an Avatar. It's just different cultural interpretations.

[@nathandavis435]

I could see how both the 'Old Ones' Weapon' and 'creation of indeterminate number of human psykers' could be blended: the Old Ones, looking to create something to unite and drive humanity to its ends, teaches the early psykers of humanity a way to pool their souls together to create a mighty gestalt being that can lead humanity into a theoretical fight against the Old Ones' enemies. But humanity, willful as it is, had the Emperor go His own way.

[@RawDogAnAeldari]

I think the men of gold were like proto custodes, or at least something the custodes were based on: humans pushed to their peak but too expensive to be used on mass.

[@theskorpian]

His true purpose is to fool everyone into thinking he’s a competent person, lol. Dude mishandled everything he ever did.

[@ItsBertie98]

It literally makes my whole day when bro uploads

[@louieburnham8090]

If you read some stories from the Norse Sagas you’d find that Odin while being a king and warrior is also a notorious trickster. He obtained the mjød through trickery among other things. He is also said to commonly disguise himself as an old man that wanders midgard and often tests men for their hospitality. Where he got “the Wanderer” moniker.

[@paleking2710]

I think The Emperor being created by the Old Ones to clean up their mess makes a lot of sense. Him being created after the downturn of the Aeldari would also explain his xenophobia, as both the aeldari and the orks were running rampant at the time.

[@mateusz73]

and we're back with space clown, webway to webway!

[@UR-025_STC]

I just love your content!!!!!! Thx so much for our work!

[@rickloucofixe]

To be honest, I just want the Shaman theory to be true because I want to have the feeling that Mankind is special in its own right and not a creation/weapon that others wield. Long Live Humanity! FOR THE EMPEROR!

[@arsumbris6392]

@6:00 "Homo Superior seem to be sterile..." -- depends on how retconned "the Sensai" lore is moving forward. The old sourcebooks (Lost and Damned, Slaves to Darkness) say they are infertile direct descendants of the Emperor with mortal women. Some sourcebooks say they are nulls/blanks, other call them powerful psykers. The Inquisition Trilogy seems to mix these conflicting elements of early lore. Lots of rumors that the current authors are going to reboot the Star Child, but no way to know how retconned the idea will be. tl;dr -- there are examples in lore where Perpetuals had children that were semi-immortal or fully so.

[@Louiscypher93]

He is regarded as a weapon by a C'tan that Cawl conversed with. He was also called a weapon by Ra's mother at the beginning of master of mankind. I don't believe that he was a weapon akin to a man of iron or man of gold or anything like that. I think he is a weapon in the sense of how he thinks of the Primarchs. When he first speaks to Sanguinious, when he calls him his son, Sanquinious also hears the word weapon, tool, creation etc. similarly when Gulliman returns and speaks to the emperor on on the throne he regards Gulliman as many things including son and weapon. So perhaps the Emperor is a weapon created by someone in a way the Emperor created the Primarchs. Maybe it was the last influence of the Old ones, seeding him in humanity, perhaps it was Shamans creating a figure capable of fighting against the warp. I've seen people say that the Shamand wouldn't have been strong enough to make the Emperor, but the Emperor hasn't always been the Emperor. He went through the portal on Molech and gained power that way. Also Malcador said he wasn't the Emperor until he met Malcador so perhaps Malcador also imparted power and wisdom to him. We see in Pearsons memories that the Emperor was powerful in ancient history but also wasn't anywhere near as strong as he is now.

[@izzymosley1970]

Personally one of the most grimdark things about 40k is the emperor and to a lesser extent the primarch's existence think about it these are beings they have been created to be better than you in every conceivable way and you are forced to serve them. Without any hope that you could become better than them in any conceivable way.

[@azurewraith2585]

I mean with enough chaos juice Luther was able to beat the lion. But yeah without being given super psychic steroids not much of a chance.

[@Xanthelei]

I actually REALLY like the idea of the Emperor being his own avatar. That would be an actually interesting plot twist that plays with time travel ideas in a way that actually makes some sense.

[@hubertozga7069]

The idea of the emperor being his own avatar is cool as heck!

[@JRBDWD]

Ollanious Pius was a great character, "Ollanious Person" is a disgrace.

[@ronanHanni]

The info about the hindu belifs was like "i came for Warhammer but learnd for real life" Thank you, i like such things

[@warblerblue]

True Purpose of The Emperor : To be a blinking traffic light for a long, long time.