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How tall is the Emperor? In pictures I have felling that he is much taller than even Custodes.
And what do you think was the Emperor's profession in the golden age of Humanity? I personally think that he was a scientist.

The Emperor was the height of an ordinary man otherwise he would have been picked out throughout history.

Not necessarily.
My understanding is that He is only just taller than the primarchs (1 of them, Magnus I think, was taller). The reason he didn't stand out was because He could hide His size and blend in.
In 'The Last Church' He is speaking with a priest who has no idea who He is thanks to a devise than made him looks human.
He was also the greatest psyker EVA and 'Legion' has alpha legion librarians making people see them and their brothers as human.

Depends on the age of the fluff you read.

SM used to be 7-8ft tall, with terminators being 8-9ft tall, and Primarchs being about 10ft (as they were as big to SM as SM were to regular people).

The Emp is probably somewhere in the 10-11ft range.

However, in newer fluff, Marines are all about 10ft tall, so scale accordingly with SM being 10, Primarchs being 14ft and the emp being 14+.

SilverMK2 wrote:Depends on the age of the fluff you read.

SM used to be 7-8ft tall, with terminators being 8-9ft tall, and Primarchs being about 10ft (as they were as big to SM as SM were to regular people).

The Emp is probably somewhere in the 10-11ft range.

However, in newer fluff, Marines are all about 10ft tall, so scale accordingly with SM being 10, Primarchs being 14ft and the emp being 14+.

Im sure I rwad somewhere that some are 11ft tall, I cant remember the source. But I know the Emperor is bigger than the Primarchs (most any way) and they are bigger than marines.

So Marines are 10-11ft so just add some feet to that.

Marines are around 7' tall, as per Jes Goodwin's statement and scale.

Any source that suggests the average is higher is just wrong.

Daba wrote:Marines are around 7' tall, as per Jes Goodwin's statement and scale.

Any source that suggests the average is higher is just wrong.

I'm afraid that "bigger is better" has infested GW's output, and most current fluff puts them at around 9-10ft tall (which is just stupid as far as I am concerned). However, a lot of their fluff has changed over the years, including, apparently, the height of space marines.

7' is just too small for a marine, guardsmen look up at them and assuming an average guardsman is 6' (1.8 metres), Astartes would probably be around 8' - 9' tall (2.4 - 2.7 metres). Primarchs would probably be around low 10+ feet (3.1 - 3.2 metres). This would make the Emperor a high 10' or low 11' (about 3.3 metres). The tallest man ever was Robert Pershing Wadlow at 2.72 metres and he is exceptionally exceptionally exceptionally tall. Just my estimates, feel free to disagree.

Conservationist wrote:7' is just too small for a marine, guardsmen look up at them and assuming an average guardsman is 6' (1.8 metres), Astartes would probably be around 8' - 9' tall (2.4 - 2.7 metres). Primarchs would probably be around low 10+ feet (3.1 - 3.2 metres). This would make the Emperor a high 10' or low 11' (about 3.3 metres). The tallest man ever was Robert Pershing Wadlow at 2.72 metres and he is exceptionally exceptionally exceptionally tall. Just my estimates, feel free to disagree.

A 6' man does look up to a 7' man.

The problem is, plastic Cadians are giant men, so don't make Marines look as big as they are.

The Emperor is 5' 4", and during the 'Golden Age' was the toilet clerk at the Blackpool Apollo.

Plus 7' is the minimum unarmoured height, with regular marines being 7'-8' plus armour.

And the whole game would be a lot better in true scale

Little off topic but on the subject of the whole true scale thing anyone notice how HUGE guants are? seriously a termie comes up to SM torso.... lol I think thats the biggest scale mess up GW has IMO

Ironically, back when Termagants were small they were 2 wound models.

SilverMK2 wrote:Plus 7' is the minimum unarmoured height, with regular marines being 7'-8' plus armour.

makes sense to me, espcially the part on unarmoured. 7 feet would make them around the same height as basketball players, which is tall.
Anyway the second part of the OP's question came to my mind. Wouldnt the Emperor's profession be the Emperor. While being the Emperor, he does research and planning too, somewhat like Alexander the Great, at the height of world domination, he somehow. Like during the middle of the great crusade the Emperor retired. His Generals took over and split hsi empire (Horus anybody?).

jonolikespie wrote:Not necessarily.
My understanding is that He is only just taller than the primarchs (1 of them, Magnus I think, was taller). The reason he didn't stand out was because He could hide His size and blend in.
In 'The Last Church' He is speaking with a priest who has no idea who He is thanks to a devise than made him looks human.
He was also the greatest psyker EVA and 'Legion' has alpha legion librarians making people see them and their brothers as human.

It's the other way around.

His space magic allows him to conceal his size and appear bigger or smaller than he really is.

He was always normal human height during most of history, or he could not have fitted into houses, cars, clothes, etc.

Possibly after becoming Space Emporer, he used his space magic to actually grow larger, because he could have everything made specially for him.

Also, SMs average about nine feet.

Kilkrazy wrote:he used his space magic to actually grow larger

Oh er!

Wasn't it in A Thousand Sons where one of the marines saw through the Emperor's bright shiny rave glow and described him as a normal man?

Could have been one of the other HH books.

As has been said, the Emperor is known to be able to use his psychic powers to disguise himself. (e.g. going to say hi to Leman Russ). So, he is likely able to change his looks to see fit. If he existed today, you could walk right past him and not even notice, iif that's what he wnated you to see. Or you could see him as a fifteen foot tall demigod, it doesn't matter.

The Emperor appears how he wants to appear.

As for his profession, it's implied that he guided humanity throught its history, so he could be anyone. He could have been Jesus, Mohammed, Kings, whatever he needed to be...as I recall there's even some fluff saying that the Emperor was St. George of St. George adn the Dragon fame.

Yes, he can appear however he chooses but probably is a normal size guy. My favorite is in Tales of Heresy were he uses his powers to appear "Exceptionally unremarkable".

10" - 11" ? Man that is HIGH!!! No wonder that anyone who saw him though he is a god.

Thank you for the answer guys, but only 2 of you told me about his profession before the Fall of Eldar. And I doubt that he clean toilets.
And I also doubt that he represent himself like a god. After all he was against religions. He wanted Humanity to put technology above the religion.
I think that he was a scientist, because when all technology was lost, he used what's left of it and create Space Marines. And it's not simple thing creating Space Marines and Primarchs.

He definitely is sighted as being a warlord in early history.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Emperor

So what does an unemployed Warrior do in an age when anything and everything is so convenient that humans don't need to work?
Rockstar
Geno scientist (as you suggest)
Explorer

I like to think he was a raving prophet condemning the use of machines to do tasks that men could do, and at the same time planting the seeds for the coming of the Omnissiah on Mars.

I reckon Dune and Frank Herbert's original ideas behind the Butlerian Jihad are a good take on what the imaginative minds behind 40k fluff where reading at the time.

What did he do before his rise as an emperor of mankind? I guess it depends on which period of history we are talking about.

I guess during Antiquity, he was one of those great conquerors and generals. Like Caesar or Alexander. he was probably trying to unite Terra and end the rule of despots and tyrants with what little forces he could gather. He might also have been trying to "test" his leading and strategic skills, preparing himself for the real test in M29.

In more modern times, like after the 19th century, he might have tried to better the living conditions of Humanity through other means like becoming a scientist, or a doctor. He might have been behind the creation of vaccination or something like that. Right now, he might be trying to eradicate AIDS.


Or he could have been a selfish prick and taken a break before the Unification Wars. In this case, he could be a rockstar, or an actor, or any kind of rich and handsome man with 3 different girlfriends and outrageous amounts of money in his bank account.

Hm, I like to believe he's physically slightly larger than one of the taller primarchs.

As far as what he was doing before he popped on the scene, I'd say 'passive influencer', doing things like covertly influencing the lives of certain exceptional individuals by ensuring they are 'at the right place at the right time'.

It's also possible that, before he came on the scene, he was not so staunchly against religion, and appeared as Jesus or similar figures(my friend likes to sum it up as the Emperor == 'Chuck Jesus').

Yes, after all, he could be one of those religious figures like Jesus or Buddha. But I guess when he saw what religions could become and do to Mankind (obscurantism, witch-hunt, etc...) he realized religion should be banned from human cultures.

And this is why he implemented his "zero-religion" policy during the Unification Wars.

In arguably his most famous picture, facing up to Horus over sanguinius' corpse on the bridge of the vengeful spirit t he looks to be a foot shorter than Horus, Horus is wearing Terminator armour in this picture so i would say he was at least of equal height to Horus out of armour.

Not to mention the Emperor is a few steps lower.

Ugly Green Trog wrote:In arguably his most famous picture, facing up to Horus over sanguinius' corpse on the bridge of the vengeful spirit t he looks to be a foot shorter than Horus, Horus is wearing Terminator armour in this picture so i would say he was at least of equal height to Horus out of armour.

That "picture" is not a picture but an artist's idea of what the final battle looked like. It's much like how we now have a classic idea of what Jesus looked like (white guy with a beard) but really we don't.

Using the reference from 'Raven's Flight', the Emperor is unremarkable to the extent the mind forgets what he actually looks like.

Corax, who describes himself as having nearly if not perfect recall, cannot remember anything about the appearance of the Emperor with any clarity, except ageless blue eyes.

Would seem to me that he can appear of a difference size as he wishes, but I'd say he's most likely of a 'normal' human height genetically, or at least was, being born of mortal but with a greater mind and soul.