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Hey! New to the forum but been reading lots here without posting for quite some time.

Anyways. After reading a thread about the potential death of the emperor I got an idea for how it could play out. Would be intresting to get your input. A subject no doubt beaten to death over and over. Sorry to frustrate anyone.

So the scenario I got in my mind is this: The biggest roadblock for the Chaos gods is the Emperor and his psychic power. So his death should enable a jolly good time for the Big Four to just randomly rape the universe in every imaginable form.
But lets say the emperor retains a sort of consciousness. Viewing everything from the warp but hindred by his weak physical, dying, body.
The Chaos Gods plot together, pooling their strengths into one single idea to kill the emperor. They infiltrate Holy Terra itself, centuries goes by and their agents, growing by the days, comes closer and closer to the golden throne. Exactly how they get past the custodes becomes a problem.
Here is the twisty part. The Emperor knows all about it and allows it. He knows the only way for him to regain power is to die and force his own rebirth from the warp. So he manages to trick even Tzeentch, his main foe in this cosmic drama. As the chaos agents crawl closer and build up their strength the Emperor manages to manipulate the custodes to allow a small team of chaos agents to get to the golden throne. At this point the emperor fully lets down his guard and the custodes are to late and focused ellswhere. Tzeentch sees this finally, realising he has been tricked by the emperor and roars in fury, he of all beings tricked and blinded by the emperor. As the assassins reach the golden throne Tzeentch sees the future as the emperor has seen it. Without the emperor and light of Holy Terra to focus chaos against, the forces of chaos will collapse upon themselfs. Tzeentch tries to halt the assassination but is unable.
As the emperor dies the forces of chaos, under the leadership of Abaddon, bursts out of the Eye of Terror and ravaged the Segmentum, cutting a bloody path to Terra. But what is there to claim now? What is there to kill? Time is on the side of chaos. There is no arch-enemy for them anymore. The forces of chaos halt and every would-be warmaster of any significant part of the black crusade hurl themselfs upon each other. Caught in the center of it all Abaddon roars in anger as his ship is blown to pieces as it more or less turns into a every-man-for-himself kind of fight. The weakness of Chaos shows its true face.

So the result would be that chaos would at its greatest moment implode and destroy itself, weakened. Those that stand to gain are mainly the elder, Tau, Orcs (ofcourse) and the Nids. Chaos slowly regain its strength but now more spread out, growing like cancers upon the empire that is slowly falling apart.

But the emperor is reborn, somewhere, deep down in an underhive of some planet, climbing his way up.

(written, fueled by red wine, sorry if that shows to much )

Frankly, I think with how the Big E is worshiped, he'd easily become twisted into a deity of utter obedience and authority. Not exactly a pleasant god to be around.

 King Pariah wrote:
he'd easily become twisted into a deity of utter obedience and authority

Although it's a pretty accurate portrayal, just like he was in life -- expecting utter obedience to his command that no one worship him as a god.

Well my idea of it was that in his semi-death he had allready set up the plans for rebirth. So his death would just propell him into the warp into the womb of a woman to give birth to him. He would not be a god in the end, just redonkulusly powerfull as before. True to his anti-theism

The main point being that the emperor is needed as a fixed point for chaos to aim for or ells they fall apart and implode. Chaos needing an arch-enemy more then anyone ells or they just spin into an never-ending cycle of self-destruction. The emperor blinding Tzeentch to this truth being his greatest victory post-HH. =)

Surely trillions of humans worshipping him as a god would turn him into a God within the warp anyway.

If this were to happen it would be rather interesting to see what chapters are lost utterly and which survive. I would not be surpised if this occurs and the Emperor units the colonies of man once more and proceeds to end the Nid threat and Chaos regains power once more and we come back to 6th ed once more....wait.

Ivan Issaccs wrote:Surely trillions of humans worshipping him as a god would turn him into a God within the warp anyway.

I do not think this is how it works in 40k (it does in settings like D&D), though I could be mistaken. But from all I've read, what does create "gods" in the Warp is emotion. Ideas convey emotion, but generally some powerful being tries to claim it all regardless of what it is actually directed at. It's why, for example, Nurgle can draw power from a bunch of Orks accidentally venerating one of his shrines when they think they're praying to Gork or Mork, or why Khorne can draw power from being venerated under a totally different name and domain by some frontier cult.

I suppose it all depends on whether or not the Emperor's presence in the Warp would be able to claim the power that the Adeptus Ministorum's organised worship and proclaimed lifestyle are evoking throughout Imperial space. So ... I suppose you could be right, if in a roundabout way. It might even tie into my own theory about the nature of Living Saints. Hmmh, need to spend some more time thinking this through.

Boreal wrote:As the emperor dies the forces of chaos, under the leadership of Abaddon, bursts out of the Eye of Terror and ravaged the Segmentum, cutting a bloody path to Terra. But what is there to claim now? What is there to kill? Time is on the side of chaos. There is no arch-enemy for them anymore. The forces of chaos halt and every would-be warmaster of any significant part of the black crusade hurl themselfs upon each other. Caught in the center of it all Abaddon roars in anger as his ship is blown to pieces as it more or less turns into a every-man-for-himself kind of fight. The weakness of Chaos shows its true face.

I believe this is the weak link in your thesis. Chaos does not care who fights against whom, as long as there is struggle. And by the nature of the Imperium, it would likely take a very, very long time until it is entirely conquered. Only when there is no Imperial world left within reach of the forces would I expect the infighting to surpass the lower ranks and reach the upper echelons, splintering the forces of "Chaos Undivided". By this time, the Imperium lies in ruins and mankind is a pale memory of its former glory. Those amongst the conquering Chaos forces who still remember might feel betrayed, but the mass of cultists and demons would simply turn against each other and still have fun.

On the long term, Chaos would lose influence as the gigantic battles against the Imperium, which used to galvanize the loose confederation of Chaos followers into a single vengeful force, are a thing of the past - but there would be a million conquered worlds full of slaves and sacrifices to feast on for many centuries to come. The existence of Demon Worlds within the Warp, as well as a twisted form of civilian life on many cultist-dominated planets, means that Chaos would not simply cease to exist but merely scale down its activities.

And the worst thing - if the Emperor actually manages to get reborn somewhere untouched, there won't be many human colonies left to reclaim. Just a barren wasteland of a galaxy full of demons and mutants.
And Nids, of course.

Also, this is entirely ignoring the possibility that the Eye of Terror itself will grow and swallow the entire galaxy. I recall GW sources mention how it increased in size each time a major incursion was imminent - and a gigantic crusade of Chaos Forces rampaging through the entire Imperium, slaying, enslaving, torturing people left and right ... frankly, I cannot imagine a better boost for the powers of Chaos, weakening the veil everywhere they appear. Reality itself would be torn asunder.

Warp Gods are just the collective emotional psychic consciousness of a race. Humanit's Warp-entities are the Chaos Gods, who fed off humanity and other psychic races such as the Eldar.

The Emperor is a powerful psychic but only that. He will not become a god upon death.

He will becaome a god when his body dies, i would say that most of his energy is spent keeping his body together rather than guiding the astronomicon. If he could guide it without the support of trillions of worshipers, than he can do it with them.