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Let's assume that GW FINALLY advances the storyline and the Emperor returns, or is on his way to returning via the Star Child theory...

How long would it take him to clean house and set things back in order?
What would his first order of business be?
Which change in the imperium of man would he actually approve of?

My guess is it would take him centuries to weed out the corruption that is present at every level before he could even think about expanding again.

FallenHero32 wrote:
My guess is it would take him centuries to weed out the corruption that is present at every level before he could even think about expanding again.

This.

Priority one though: Remove the Ecclesiarchy. Good job on doing exactly what the Emperor DIDN'T want there...

I think he would eliminate the grey knights as they use what could be called 'Sorcery ' which is the same sort of powers which the thousand sons had, and I think you know how that ended

*cough Prospero Burns cough*

AlmightyWalrus wrote:Priority one though: Remove the Ecclesiarchy. Good job on doing exactly what the Emperor DIDN'T want there...

No, the Ecclesiarchy is not what the Emperor wanted BUT it is one of the biggest reasons why the Imperium still exists. When the Emperor was placed upon the Golden Throne worlds began to worship and revere him as a God. The Ecclesiarchy, expanding out of the underground cult that it was at the time, took advantage of this and thus worship of the Emperor as a God spread through the Imperium to become something that bound the Imperium & it's citizens together. I find it a wonderful piece of irony.

Thing is though removing the Ecclesiarchy could do more harm than good. Humans and religion are an interesting thing, how people would rather have blind faith than true facts. Facts will never answer every question, will never explain everything, but the will of the God-Emperor? Ah, well if it happens then He decreed it to be so. Nothing to explain, just mutter an extra prayer that He may look kindly upon you in the future.
By yanking out the Ecclesiarchy from under the Imperiums feet the Emperor could cause it to fragment, to split asunder as across the Imperium citizens are left stumped with what to do next. The figure they've reverred as a God for so many millenia is now telling them he is not a God and that they should not worship him, but...they only know to worship him but he's powerful enough to be worshipped as a God, therefore they should worship him but he's told them not to. Heads will explode.

Frankly I don't think the God-Emperor could clean up 'this mess', or at least it would take him millenia to get anywhere. The Imperium is vast, relies heavily upon the workings of the Administratum & Munitorium, as slow & inefficient as they can be, whilst it's citizens are inurred in the Imperial Cult. I reckon it would take him forever to sort out the Ecclesiarchy, Administratum, Munitorium, Astartes, Sororitas, Inquisition, Imperial Guard, Imperial Navy, etc. If I were the Emperor, sitting on the Golden Throne, I'd be tempted to throw in the towel and say "Sod it, leave the buggers to it."

FallenHero32 wrote:Let's assume that GW FINALLY advances the storyline and the Emperor returns, or is on his way to returning via the Star Child theory...

Good luck seeing this in our lifetimes...

How long would it take him to clean house and set things back in order?

Centuries. He must literally rebuild Imperium all over again.

What would his first order of business be?

Trying to heal Guiliman and wake up Lion. Then to rebuild Legions and start conqering again.

Which change in the imperium of man would he actually approve of?

Imperial Guard.

And to add to this, I think that now he would accept to be venerate as a God. He was using the energy he was gained from his people praying to him to better aid the Imperium and protect them against Chaos. He would approve of Ecclesiarchy and Battle Sisters, for the time being.
And why would he dissolve Grey Knights? A special anti-Chaos unit that he himself order to be founded ( Grey knights 5e codex ).

Whilst I dont think he would be too happy with the Ecclesiarchy, I dont think he would make him a priority.

First and formost I think he would put the Legions back together. I think he would would then look for the lost Primarchs.

Plus you haveto add in the added threats of Nids and Crons.I think eventually he would be able to sort it out but it would take a loooong time.

He couldn't clean up anything. By now it is doubtful if the Emperor would even be recognised as what he is.
Civil war would be the most likely result of the Corpseemperor's return.

The Carrion-lord shall return, and bring about a new age of death.

KingDeath wrote:He couldn't clean up anything. By now it is doubtful if the Emperor would even be recognised as what he is.
Civil war would be the most likely result of the Corpseemperor's return.

Sure he can.

And who is this 'corpseemporer' ?

1hadhq wrote:

KingDeath wrote:He couldn't clean up anything. By now it is doubtful if the Emperor would even be recognised as what he is.
Civil war would be the most likely result of the Corpseemperor's return.

Sure he can.

And who is this 'corpseemporer' ?

I assume the'corpseemperor' is the reanimated, likely corpse-looking, emperor.

1hadhq wrote:

KingDeath wrote:He couldn't clean up anything. By now it is doubtful if the Emperor would even be recognised as what he is.
Civil war would be the most likely result of the Corpseemperor's return.

Sure he can.

And who is this 'corpseemporer' ?

Bah, the imperial Carriongod barely managed to unite the galaxy once, with the help of all of the Primarchs and the unbroken spacemarine legions in a time of relative peace.
There is no imperial institution which would willingly give up it's power, least of all the ecclesiarchy whose God-Emperor is definately not the corpse that rots within the
dusty walls of the Imperial Palace. With large parts of the Mechanicus not even recognising the Emperor as their Omnisiah all the ingredients for a glorious imperial civil war are there.
A single human psyker, even an alpha+, will have a hard time to once again " clean up the mess" before everything finaly goes to hell.

If he came back, I'm pretty sure he'd revive all the primarchs and then go flying into the eye of terror with them and curbstop all forms of chaos. Just my thought.

He and Creed would tactical genius the gak out of chaos.

I imagine it would take a couple thousand years, and even then there's a good chance he'd have another Horus Heresy type event on his hands where a bunch of guys betrayed him.

But that don't matter, since he isn't getting up. The Starchild Cult was discovered to be comprised of Tzeentch Cultists and were all executed by the Inquisition.

I'm going with the Civil War option, too. The myriad complexities of the Imperium and it's vast collection of Ordos, Institutions, Cults and other such bodies of clashing authority, would all be turned on their head. Chaos (if you mind the expression) would ensue and the Imperium would tear itself apart. At the very least it would crumble and weaken itself enough for true Chaos and the multiple xenos threats to finally fall on them and finish the job.

The ideal (human) senario would of course see Him rise up in galaxy-wide glory, revive and reform all Primarchs, gather His Legions and march into the Eye of Terror. Then, once Chaos is brought to it's knees, the Imperium will enter a new golden age as the other xenos threats quake with fear at humanity and it's God-Reborn.

The galaxy as it stands, however, is not ready for such an event, and probably never will be.

Emperor gets up, has a snack, digs up leman Russ, they have a pint, a laugh, then in a weird bit of meta recursive irony, actually just play a few games of whfb then go back to sleep.

The Emperor would need to take swift control and then refocus the efforts of the IoM at something while he further resolidifies his power.
But as in an interview with Aaron Dembski-Bowden, he said that he does not see the GW studio 'ever' moving the timeline further forward than it is.

LoneLictor wrote:I imagine it would take a couple thousand years, and even then there's a good chance he'd have another Horus Heresy type event on his hands where a bunch of guys betrayed him.

But that don't matter, since he isn't getting up. The Starchild Cult was discovered to be comprised of Tzeentch Cultists and were all executed by the Inquisition.

You fail to notice the report on that Star Child cult was the in-character in-universe report of one Inquisitor's opinion. As an in-universe viewpoint it is fallible. What could be more ironic than Tzeentch manipulating the Emperor's minions to destroy the Emperor's own sons and their own hope?

As for the original OP, much would depend on how exactly the Emperor "returned". If he actually got up off the Golden Throne, then he might have a slightly easier time of getting himself accepted. If he incarnates himself into a new body elsewhere, there would likely be civil war as the Inquisition and the rest of the Imperium try to stop what they perceive as a heretical mad psyker with delusions of grandeur. They crack down on all sorts of heretics, prophets, and rogue psykers so what's one more to them?

Also, do not underestimate the ability of people to deny evidence when confronted with facts contrary to beliefs. That has been seen in real world doomsday cults before where the world didn't end when predicted. Some lost faith, but others became even MORE steadfast in their faith and invented all sorts of reasoning to justify why things hadn't gone as originally predicted. When faced with a super powerful individual with clearly supernatural/psychic powers saying he is the Emperor and telling them to stop worshipping him or that the Imperium's way of doing things for millenia was not what he wanted, many people will reject him as false because "clearly the Emperor would never say such things."

How smart is Big E? Sometimes he seems like the wisest human that ever was. Other times he acts like a complete and total idiot. Could he have managed Angron, Lorgar or Magnus in a more counterproductive manner? If Big E is smart it would take a century or two to reform the IoM to what he wants. If Big E is a moron his return will just result in civil war and a quicker end to the IoM.