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Would things have been different if the Emperor had told his subjects that Daemons and the Chaos Gods actually existed? Would the Heresy have happened at all?

He did inform his sons partially, but kept a lot unsaid.
Maybe if Horus had made contact with the interex without violence ( because of Erebus thievery ), the shared info could have changed things.
As is, we have to assume the Emperor thougth the absence of religion would keep the warp off..

Also, you have to remember when the Emperor returned to Terra and named Horus warmaster, that in itself created a schism internally that Horus never dealt with, which was exploited later on. It also created a jealous atmosphere involving some of the primarchs; that alone would be enough fuel a Chaos god would need to sow dissent.

You'd think everyone would be on their guard more if the Emperor told them, "Yes, there are evil things that will corrupt you and want to kill/enslave/whatever humanity." But if there is one thing we know about the Big E, it's that he keeps his cards close to his chest... More fool him.

Chaos works the same way as Freddy Crougar, if no one knows it exist, it has very little power. Only when you know it exists and believes it exists does it gain power.

well IMHO the whole horus heresy could have been prevented if the emperor hadnt been such a . i mean lets count the mistakes on his part:
1 letting the primarchs get stolen in the first place
2 leaving the crusade and making horus warmaster
3 banning sorcery
4 not listening to magnus
the list goes on and on.




jeez how did this moron NOT see this coming?

Necrongd, add to that, not going "Oh, hey my sons, listen, I've got like, this super secret project going on, I can't tell you what it is but trust me, It's going to be big, and while I am leaving the field and wanting you to carry on, I'm not abandoning you, cause what I'm working on is going to benefit you, me and humanity as a whole in a way you've never imagined"

Maybe then not all of the traitor legions would have turned as readily against him.

He also (seemingly) forgot that he created the primarchs as tools, not sons.

necrongod wrote:
1 letting the primarchs get stolen in the first place
2 leaving the crusade and making horus warmaster
3 banning sorcery
4 not listening to magnus
the list goes on and on.

1. I'm pretty sure that the Emperor couldn't do much about it really. The Chaos Gods wanted the Primarchs out of the picture for awhile so did what they could. If the Primarchs weren't separated the Great Crusade would've been over before it had finished.

2. He left for the benefit of humanity to work on the Webway project. He trusted his favorite son to act in is stead, which proved to much for Horus. You can hardly blame the Emperor for doing what he thought was the right thing. Who else would he have trusted? Ok so keeping the secret from them might have been a bit of a dumb idea but the Emperor doesn't do anything without a reason. Imagine if the webway project had been discovered, that's a nice great big portal directly onto Terra.

3. Banning sorcery was a good thing, banning use of psychic powers maybe not as we can see the benefits. But look at the trouble that allowing the Thousand Sons free reign caused? If the use of powers, apart from the likes of Astropaths, were banned from the start then Magnus and his legion would not have got in to trouble.

4. Ok, so the Emperor tells Magnus do not use your powers any more. What does he go and do? Casts one of the most powerful spells he has ever done, breaks every single ward in the palace and wreaks the webway project. He appears before the Emperor as a great big swirly warp thing, luckily enough the Emperor recognises him, no one else does. I bet the Emperor wasn't sure what to think? Do I believe Magnus that my favorite son Horus has betrayed me without any evidence or do I believe the great big swirly warp thing that is my son Magnus who has clearly disobeyed me.

we all know that the heresy happened because the imperium ran out of cookies. Secret knowledge about the warp wouldn't have changed that.

In fact, knowledge about the warp wouldn't have changed anything. Everyone KNOWS that tobacco is bad for you, but lots of people choose to light up anyways because smoking is fun, just like chaos.

Endless dull crusading, or unlimited power to do whatever you want at the cost of ultimate self-destruction? I'd bet on the latter every time.