Why can’t firstborns adopt primaris tools and strategies

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**Insectum7**

Voss wrote:
Insectum7 wrote:
Voss wrote:
Insectum7 wrote:
BrianDavion wrote:
the Imperium ISN'T "suddenly kicking ass" they're still losing more ground then they're gaining. people need to read the data themselves and stop relying on 1d4chan memes for their information
That doesn't change the general gist of the statement. Never before has there been this central figure to rally behind, and that was kinda the point.

A setting in which the "great heroes are dead" is marred by the sudden return of one of those heroes.

It was never that the 'great heroes are dead.' It was that 'great heroes' don't matter. Everyone dies alone and unremembered.
Disagree, the "great hero" Primarchs were remembered. Guilliman was a shrine that people made pilgrimages to.

Not originally. Guilliman doesn't come into 40K for quite a while. Even the concept of primarchs takes a while to be introduced [In Realm of Chaos I, Horus is just 'a general,' the finest military commander of the time, and that's why he became Warmaster, and given 5 Chapters under his direct command] and Roboute isn't even one of the handful that get named in RoC volume 2. The ultramarines themselves have to be revisited and changed to be made a first founding chapter at all.

Russ is the only 'primarch' introduced in Rogue Trader, and he's just an Marine Commander, born in M32, and appointed commander of the world Lucan. The sample space marine fortress buried in the middle of the book mentions he's the founder of the space wolves, but also says he's a pilot of the spacecraft 'Medusa,' which hangs in their great hall. And died in the battle of 'Rising Fell,' whatever that is. The concept of Primarch just isn't there and the transition to it is just a sudden jump years later. The original Russ wasn't even born when the Heresy happens, and isn't even vaguely recognizable as Wolfy McWolf-face. He's got gills, for one thing, and apparently drove spaceships around.

The 'whatever happens, you will not be missed' was a big part of the 40k setting. Even heroes were transitory and replaced, and usually forgotten. It was part of the point, and there lots of quotes in the book to reinforce that.
"For every battle honour, a thousand heroes die alone, unsung and unremembered"
"Every man is a spark in the darkness. By the time he is noticed he is gone forever. A retinal after-image that fades and is obscured by newer, brighter lights"
"As all men must thank progenitors obscured by the past, so we must endure the present that those who come after may continue the greater work"

Lost and forgotten is one of the primary themes of the setting.

Even in the RT days, the Great Crusade, Horus Heresy were things in the lore, and the Daemon Primarchs were playable in the Epic system.

But like I said, even if you go with "lost and forgotten", Guilliman waking up to talk with the Emperor and become the figurehead for the Imperium goes straight against it.