Wow, been a
very long time since i've been here. Hey folks!!
Just like the rest of you - my friends and I have been reacting to the new 7th Edition changes (Daemons Daemons everywhere it seems), which of course got us to talking about the changes that Warhammer
40K has undergone throughout the years.......just as a frame of reference, my little inner circle has been playing before 3rd edition dropped the concept of the Emperor onto our laps and
40k was a lot more humorous than Grimdark.
the conversation of course returned back to our little boy on the Golden Throne.
I know thousands of threads have probably been tossed across the internet about as possible
Return of Big E......and probably jsut as many counter-replies about how that's an impossibility, "
40K is a Setting not a Story" etc. etc.
Some would prefer that the Emperor just stay part of the Scenery - for either dramatic purposes (after all, the thought goes a rejuvenated Emperor would overshadow any story one could tell) or because it fulfills a players particular sense of Grimdark (This Shade of Grimdark being "To show even the slightest bit of hope will irrevocably ruin the Fluff Setting")
On the Opposite end of the Spectrum we've got folks who would gladly welcome a Returned Emperor walking about, ready to impose Imperial Truth on the Cosmos, to fix all the Problems of the Imperium (wow, I guess to some he's really playing that role of Savior-Figure eh?), and probably inadvertently end our hobby in the process as they invest the Emperor with such power that his return would probably set everything right.
Then there's Group 3 who want to see the Emperor just go kick some Xenos/Heretic butt...and probably have a tumble with Macha.
Well this thread isn't addressed to any of the groups above (well, maybe group 3 - you folks always had that sense of humor must of us old foggies playing
40K had in the beginning) - simply because those folks in the other 2 groups have pretty much made up their minds about how things will go down.
Instead, i'm asking for those seeking more interesting outcomes to exercise their creative minds and play a little game with me and try to re-imagine what the role of the Emperor could be - somewhere between unreactive Background Scenery or Overshadowing Active Participant.
ie: If you were part of a group in charge of altering the Background material of
40K for.....say....the 25th edition of
40K (i know, sounding hopeful right? XD) and were told to come up with some ideas to re-jig the Emperor for the setting, what would you do?
Some Concrete Assumptions We Ended Up Working With:
1.) No suggestions that would Crash the Tabletop Game. = Its a Fair Assumption,
GW would never conscientiously enact something that would killd the Golden Goose (now making stupid mistakes on the other hand...)
So this Rules Out things like Killing the Emperor and having the Astronomicon go down, or having the Emperor just wake up and Solve Everything.
2.) Any changes must work within the Grimdark Framework = Although the Grimdark-ness feel can go overboard sometimes (actually its gotten to the point of being quite melodramatic), my group acknowledged that the "desperate situation" feel does in fact lend something to the over-all tone of
40K that makes it unique.
So even if the Big E were more active, he's stuck responding to a situation that's less than Ideal to which there is no Magic Solution.
3.) The Emperor as a Character can Change. = This was a preference of my Group. Simply because we all were collectively tired of "Because Writer X wrote _______ about the Emperor, it MUST BE TRUE!!!" Between Mystic/Star Child/Militant Atheist/Farseer/Psychopath/etc.etc.etc. enough writers have written enough contradictory portraits of Big E. And not surprisingly many folks who are attached to those Portraits will swear up and down that this would be the only Outcome.
My own Group, while trying to honor all these different versions of the Emperor, simply went with the idea that a few Eons stuck on the Golden Throne constantly battling Chaos while seeing the Imperium change its shape and form throughout the years might have given Big E sometime to Reflect on where he went wrong with things.
Ultimately we settled on the idea that at heart, the Emperor is a Pragmatist and can in fact learn from his mistakes.
And so onto the Scenario
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The Emperor................... Awakes
Since the Heresy He Has set Brooding on a Golden Throne....the distant father figure of a species constantly on the verge of collapse. Billions of souls have died in his name, for his sake, for the belief in something....something that was Better than they, something that meant more than their Lives.
And it was by a single act that the Cosmos was changed again.
[Insert Single Act -Note: "So this is the part we left open, not due to lack of ideas, but because this is the Appropriate Dramatic Moment. This is the Part where I'd like to ask those playing along to insert something Brilliant"]
The Custodes noticed it first - for while the tech-priests and engineers were busy with maintaining the arcane technologies of the Throne, they paid less attention to the figure atop it. And what the Custodes saw was...a Movement, ever so slight, thought of merely as a trick of the light.
It was weeks later when a large disturbance in the Palace brought the Captain-General to the Throne Room that those who initially saw found themselves vindicated. His Hand...Moved - mottled and dry flesh slowly making a fist. Less than day went by before some of the Other High Lords of Terra found themselves within that sacred hall. Their Reactions were varied.....
[Insert Reactions: We all know the Imperium is corrupt as hell, and an awakened Emperor would not be greeted with universal acclaim. But given that the High Lords of Terra are a varied lot, this is another part where i'd like to see where your ideas take you. For our own part, my friends and I thought of two people who would be most receptive to the Stirrings of the Emperor.
The Captain-General of the Custodes (Whose probably thinking he's the Luckiest Captain-General ever to serve)
And the Fabricator-General of Mars (We did this Based on Irony. So much ado has been made about the whole Emperor/Omnissiah business that we tend to forget that the Emperor = Omnissiah is actually taught as Orthodoxy in the Adeptus Mechancius. So what if we had a Fabricator-General who actually believed in it?.....And whose Tech-Priests service were vindicated as the Awakening of the Emperor was OBVIOUSLY do to Adeptus Mechancius' tending to the Golden Throne ;-)
And that's where we kind of left it..... Any thoughts on what the Other Lords of Terra might be Thinking/Doing.]
Within three months, a different sort of figure sat on the Golden Throne. The Rotting Corpse of a God was Gone, in his sat a man. Haggard, Tired, worn...but a Man nonetheless. And Yet the God-Emperor spoke no words, simply sat silently before the throng of Clerics, Custodes, and Tech-Priests who prayed before him.
Till one Day he Spoke One Word....and Fell Silent Again.
[Insert One Word]
Explanation: So while we wanted to make the Emperor a little more active, we still wanted to keep him in his Box, ie: on the Golden Throne. A fully active Emperor would completely imbalance the game. However, we also wanted to show some sort of Progress has been made - the Emperor is "Awake" - and at least his physical form seems under less strain. And he Occasionaly Gives Cryptic One-Two Word Phrases.
I know, doesn't sound like much - but that's because we're seeing it from the Aerial Meta Perspective.
From those living within the
40K Universe - the Emperor Speaks! (Sort of).
Now this is where we kind of stopped, because well.. you could go anywhere from here really.
Its not so much we
returned the Emperor. Rather we played a little with the current situation and framed his struggle as the beginnings of some sort of Resurgence (one that will of course never reach completion - because that would violate the whle "Avoid crashing the game" business).
So... let's stop here and let me ask: How do you think this might change the Imperium? The God now Speaks (and seems to be a little more active in the Warp).
Where does your imagination lead you from here? (Bearing in mind the Primary Assumptions written above).
What plots do you see occurring?
Who is trying to exploit the situation?
And who might prefer to have Big E go back to his "less verbal" mode?
More later from my end.. but first.... let's see what the DakkaDakka Fluff-Lover community can think of. ;-)
