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Leaving out Gods, The Emperor and Tyranids all together for obvious reasons, who do you see as the Top 5 people with the most influence on the WH40K setting. The most Influence doesn't mean physically powerful, but means the people who have the power to control the most amount of powerful resources that could shape the universe in one way or another. It's not as easy as you'd think, because while lots of people would say Calgar due to having influence on maybe hundreds of Space Marine Chapters, does he truly have more resources then the Lord Milliant sitting on the Table of High Lords? Maybe he does, because Marines are much better then Guard, even by the thousand.

Anyway, here is mine.

1) Abbadon. Despite being a failure, he somehow holds influence on almost all of the major Chaos Players. Anyone on top of a Galaxy-Wide faction has to be here.
2) Master of the Administratum. As close to a Galaxy wide regent of the Imperium of man, due to almost everything being based in the Administratum. Remember the mischiefe Vandire made when someone in this position went rogue?
3) Vect. The Dark Eldar are much more numerous then people know, number in the Billions or Trillions. And this guy single-handedly keeps them all on a leash, be it invisible or not. Probably the smartest person on the list, but also the least likely to try re-shape the galaxy.
4) Ghazskull. Not sure on this guy, but he is running around with the largest WAAAGH! under his banner. That must be Trillions of Orks. I'd say this guy has some of the worst resources on the list, but most likely to make a dent in the Galaxy when he gets there.
5)Calgar?. Our Spiritual Liege controls the Ultra-Marines, by extension has influence on the Hundreds of Successor Chapters, as well as having control over an entire Sector. That, my friend, is a lot of Space Marines.

Who fits on your list?

pretty much same list except remove admidistratum and put in one of the tau etherals, they are responsible for bringing together an entire covenant and bringing OTHER races into the covenant at later expansions

Calgar and the Ethereals are nobodies in the grant scheme of things. They control what, a handful of systems? There's something like twelve significant planets in the Tau empire. Twelve!

In terms of absolute influence, I would have to say that my list would be;

#1) Eldrad Ulthruaan. Show me a pie, and I'll show you Eldrad's finger.

#2) The Ecclesiarch. If it wasn't enough that he had the loyalty of every faithful Imperial in the galaxy through church membership, he also has the Orders Famulous of the Adepta Sororitas micro-managing every planetary governor and major noble in the galaxy for him.

#3) The Fabricator General. If he doesn't want something to happen, it doesn't happen. He's only placed below the Ecclesiarch because while he has absolute veto via cutting off resupply, the Ecclesiarch is also in a position to force things to happen, as well as not happen.

#4) The Changeling. He can be anyone, anywhere. He can steal the authority of any other figure in the galaxy. The only reason he's all the way down at #4 is because he can only be in one place at any one speed.

#5) The Silent King. Not yet. But he's getting there.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:

1) Abbadon. Despite being a failure,

He's a 'failure' yet also the most influential figure in the galaxy? Interesting logic.

Vect, Calgar and Ghazzy don't belong on a top 5 most influential list.

I believe the Tau have more than 12 planets as they own 12 systems of planets as a Sept isn't always just one planet.

1) Horus (you didn't say no Primarchs). He made 40k what it is today; without him, AM wouldn't be IoM's main defence and Ultramarines wouldn't be poster boys etc.
Even though he died, he still has power as Abaddon has taken over from him.

2) Guilleman. He created the Codex Astartes which is still in use.

3) Euphrati Keeler. She created the Lectio Divinatus (I believe that's what it is called) which portrays the Emperor as a god.

4) and 5) are insignificant compared to the first 3, so lets just say Longstrike and Sgt Tellion.

Keeler did not write the Lectitio Divinatus. Lorgar wrote the Lecitio Divinatus. Keeler just proved it right.

1) Royal Court of Thanatos

2) Malcador the Sigillite

3) Horus

4) Grandmaster of Officio Assassinorum

5) Eldrad

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Keeler did not write the Lectitio Divinatus. Lorgar wrote the Lecitio Divinatus. Keeler just proved it right.

Cool, didn't know that. Make Lorgar no. 3 and Keeler no. 4 then.

Erebus should be up there. He showed Lorgar the Primordial Truth, causing the Primarch to incite the Horus Heresy.

If we allowed gods, it would be Slaanesh by a long stretch, the birth of which directly responsible for the vast majority of the setting.

It's amusing how consistently people label Abaddon a failure yet he hasn't failed in any of his objectives really.

None of his Black Crusades were really trying to overthrow the Imperium as their end goal as of yet, they each had different objectives. The twelfth for example was launched to capture the blackstone fortresses and just generally weaken the Imperium, and he succeeded. The thirteenth was never concluded and now GW appears to want to rewind and rewrite that entirely and go a different direction the way they are with Fantasy.

I wouldn't really count the Primarch's or the likes of Melcador, the question was the most influential person in 40K, not 30K, which leaves them outta the question. I guess you could include the Daemon Primarchs that still live, but to my eyes they seem to get to little done to be on there.

I'll be honest, i did forget about the Silent King, he would replace Ghazzy for me. And all of the Big 3 of the High Lords (mechanicus, administratum and the Faith) are basically interchangeable, none being much more powerful then the other.

I don't understand the Eldrad love, he has control over a single Craftworld of Ulthwe, with some leverage over the other ones but nothing concrete. He sees the Future, and he can effect how it plays out, but only if the thing he is trying to change starts small and then goes big so he can cut it off while it's not a threat.

Eldrad's influence goes far beyond his direct ability to control people.

He canonically has agents spread across the entire galaxy. He is so wise and respected that even though the Craftworlds don't get along with each other, Farseers from Biel-tan go to him for advice. If you only listen to his own fluff, he can pull strings anywhere in the galaxy to react to his Farseeings, and the only time he's ever mentioned outside Eldrad fluff it's in the kind of "but did someone make this mistake to some greater goal?' way.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Calgar and the Ethereals are nobodies in the grant scheme of things. They control what, a handful of systems? There's something like twelve significant planets in the Tau empire. Twelve!

In terms of absolute influence, I would have to say that my list would be;

#1) Eldrad Ulthruaan. Show me a pie, and I'll show you Eldrad's finger.

#2) The Ecclesiarch. If it wasn't enough that he had the loyalty of every faithful Imperial in the galaxy through church membership, he also has the Orders Famulous of the Adepta Sororitas micro-managing every planetary governor and major noble in the galaxy for him.

#3) The Fabricator General. If he doesn't want something to happen, it doesn't happen. He's only placed below the Ecclesiarch because while he has absolute veto via cutting off resupply, the Ecclesiarch is also in a position to force things to happen, as well as not happen.

#4) The Changeling. He can be anyone, anywhere. He can steal the authority of any other figure in the galaxy. The only reason he's all the way down at #4 is because he can only be in one place at any one speed.

#5) The Silent King. Not yet. But he's getting there.

Don't forget Belakor or Abaddon, but ultimately Belakor is a much, much greater potential influence who could even end up puppeting Abaddon.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
I wouldn't really count the Primarch's or the likes of Melcador, the question was the most influential person in 40K, not 30K

Yeah, good question: are we talking only about character still alive? What about characters that lived long after 30k but also quite long before 40k, like Sebastian Thor? Certainly he had a HUGE impact on the Imperium.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
I wouldn't really count the Primarch's or the likes of Melcador, the question was the most influential person in 40K, not 30K

Yeah, good question: are we talking only about character still alive? What about characters that lived long after 30k but also quite long before 40k, like Sebastian Thor? Certainly he had a HUGE impact on the Imperium.

Based on the OP's list, it seems reasonable to assume he meant living.

The God-Emperor of Mankind of course shouldn't be on any list, because the Imperial is just about the opposite of what he intended it to be.

#1 Rick Priestley

everyone else is figments of imagination....

1) Alpharius/ Omegon - the twin Primarchs (not sure if a stunt double was the one killed by Guilliman) have literally more agents throughout the galaxy than any other force in the galaxy. They could kill the Emperor if they wanted to, and, if not for the IoM's plot armour, they would have already toppled the imperium. With literally any event that occurs, you can never be sure if it was put into motion and directed by the Alpha Legion.
2.) Eldrad Ulthran - Ulthran has agents all across the galaxy, is by far the oldest,wisest and most respected Farseer in the Galaxy, and he can change literally any event that will happen, and could no doubt destroy the Imperium should he decide to do so.
3.) Asdrubael Vect- see the post after this.
4.) Abbadon - has the support of Chaos Undivided, and every Crusade he mounts ends in the small successes he intended them to be. However, he is in command of fractious, rebellious, greedy, unreliable Chaos Astartes. On the up-side, he has insane amounts of Daemons ready to support his Warbands
5.) Fabricator General - This is the de facto leader of the Mechanicum, he can start or end any event in the Imperium simply with adding or withdrawing Mechanicum support. If he wanted to, he could end the Imperium and start anew. He is also the one in charge of manufacturing EVERYTHING the IoM uses in its military

EDIT: Changed #3.

 dusara217 wrote:
1) Alpharius/ Omegon - the twin Primarchs (not sure if a stunt double was the one killed by Guilliman) have literally more agents throughout the galaxy than any other force in the galaxy. They could kill the Emperor if they wanted to, and, if not for the IoM's plot armour, they would have already toppled the imperium. With literally any event that occurs, you can never be sure if it was put into motion and directed by the Alpha Legion.
2.) Eldrad Ulthran - Ulthran has agents all across the galaxy, is by far the oldest,wisest and most respected Farseer in the Galaxy, and he can change literally any event that will happen, and could no doubt destroy the Imperium should he decide to do so.
3.) Marneus Calgar - Calgar has a command of an entire system of self-sufficient planets capable of manufacturing nearly anything he needs, he wields considerable influence over at least half, but closer to all, Astartes Chapters (they would do almost anything he asked). He also has command over a fleet of hundreds of warships, AND he commands more Ultramarian Guard regiments than the amount of total Cadian regiments in existence. AND he is widely respected and loved throughout the Imperium, and his forces are utterly loyal to him.
4.) Abbadon - has the support of Chaos Undivided, and every Crusade he mounts ends in the small successes he intended them to be. However, he is in command of fractious, rebellious, greedy, unreliable Chaos Astartes. On the up-side, he has insane amounts of Daemons ready to support his Warbands
5.) Fabricator General - This is the de facto leader of the Mechanicum, he can start or end any event in the Imperium simply with adding or withdrawing Mechanicum support. If he wanted to, he could end the Imperium and start anew. He is also the one in charge of manufacturing EVERYTHING the IoM uses in its military

I would agree with this list, except Calgar would be swapped for Asdrubael Vect. Simply put, despite what Black Library wants you to believe, the current loyalist Space Marines aren't a large faction at all. Let's go on the Inbetween and assume Calgar can call upon 3/4 of the Marines, of which their is around 1000 Chapters give or take a few hundred, each containing up to a thousand Marines give or take a few. He can call upon 750,000 Marines, and on top of that he has the resources of his sector. That is great, and i would put him in the top 10, but Vect has access to WAY more bodies, far more advanced Tech and can strike almost anywhere in the galaxy. Their are Billions of Dark Eldar on his leash, the best Tech the Old Eldar Empire had to offer (Including stuff like turning off suns, Black Holes in boxes and Mirrors that transport whatever is reflecting in them into the middle of a sun) and the entire webway to strike through. Calgar ain't got nuthin' on the supreme pimp.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:

 dusara217 wrote:
1) Alpharius/ Omegon - the twin Primarchs (not sure if a stunt double was the one killed by Guilliman) have literally more agents throughout the galaxy than any other force in the galaxy. They could kill the Emperor if they wanted to, and, if not for the IoM's plot armour, they would have already toppled the imperium. With literally any event that occurs, you can never be sure if it was put into motion and directed by the Alpha Legion.
2.) Eldrad Ulthran - Ulthran has agents all across the galaxy, is by far the oldest,wisest and most respected Farseer in the Galaxy, and he can change literally any event that will happen, and could no doubt destroy the Imperium should he decide to do so.
3.) Marneus Calgar - Calgar has a command of an entire system of self-sufficient planets capable of manufacturing nearly anything he needs, he wields considerable influence over at least half, but closer to all, Astartes Chapters (they would do almost anything he asked). He also has command over a fleet of hundreds of warships, AND he commands more Ultramarian Guard regiments than the amount of total Cadian regiments in existence. AND he is widely respected and loved throughout the Imperium, and his forces are utterly loyal to him.
4.) Abbadon - has the support of Chaos Undivided, and every Crusade he mounts ends in the small successes he intended them to be. However, he is in command of fractious, rebellious, greedy, unreliable Chaos Astartes. On the up-side, he has insane amounts of Daemons ready to support his Warbands
5.) Fabricator General - This is the de facto leader of the Mechanicum, he can start or end any event in the Imperium simply with adding or withdrawing Mechanicum support. If he wanted to, he could end the Imperium and start anew. He is also the one in charge of manufacturing EVERYTHING the IoM uses in its military

I would agree with this list, except Calgar would be swapped for Asdrubael Vect. Simply put, despite what Black Library wants you to believe, the current loyalist Space Marines aren't a large faction at all. Let's go on the Inbetween and assume Calgar can call upon 3/4 of the Marines, of which their is around 1000 Chapters give or take a few hundred, each containing up to a thousand Marines give or take a few. He can call upon 750,000 Marines, and on top of that he has the resources of his sector. That is great, and i would put him in the top 10, but Vect has access to WAY more bodies, far more advanced Tech and can strike almost anywhere in the galaxy. Their are Billions of Dark Eldar on his leash, the best Tech the Old Eldar Empire had to offer (Including stuff like turning off suns, Black Holes in boxes and Mirrors that transport whatever is reflecting in them into the middle of a sun) and the entire webway to strike through. Calgar ain't got nuthin' on the supreme pimp.

I'd say that there are far more than 1000 SM Chapters -probably closer to 5000. It has been 10000 years, and there have been many Foundings. Plus, the Administratum's records are crap.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Eldrad's influence goes far beyond his direct ability to control people.

He canonically has agents spread across the entire galaxy. He is so wise and respected that even though the Craftworlds don't get along with each other, Farseers from Biel-tan go to him for advice. If you only listen to his own fluff, he can pull strings anywhere in the galaxy to react to his Farseeings, and the only time he's ever mentioned outside Eldrad fluff it's in the kind of "but did someone make this mistake to some greater goal?' way.

Too bad, then, that he's pushing up daisies these days.

 EmpNortonII wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Eldrad's influence goes far beyond his direct ability to control people.

He canonically has agents spread across the entire galaxy. He is so wise and respected that even though the Craftworlds don't get along with each other, Farseers from Biel-tan go to him for advice. If you only listen to his own fluff, he can pull strings anywhere in the galaxy to react to his Farseeings, and the only time he's ever mentioned outside Eldrad fluff it's in the kind of "but did someone make this mistake to some greater goal?' way.

Too bad, then, that he's pushing up daisies these days.

The Eldar codex retconned his death.

 EmpNortonII wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Eldrad's influence goes far beyond his direct ability to control people.

He canonically has agents spread across the entire galaxy. He is so wise and respected that even though the Craftworlds don't get along with each other, Farseers from Biel-tan go to him for advice. If you only listen to his own fluff, he can pull strings anywhere in the galaxy to react to his Farseeings, and the only time he's ever mentioned outside Eldrad fluff it's in the kind of "but did someone make this mistake to some greater goal?' way.

Too bad, then, that he's pushing up daisies these days.

Not yet, he's not. He doesn't die until the closing scenes of the 13th Black Crusade, and the current time line is set at the opening of it.

 Wyzilla wrote:

 EmpNortonII wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Eldrad's influence goes far beyond his direct ability to control people.

He canonically has agents spread across the entire galaxy. He is so wise and respected that even though the Craftworlds don't get along with each other, Farseers from Biel-tan go to him for advice. If you only listen to his own fluff, he can pull strings anywhere in the galaxy to react to his Farseeings, and the only time he's ever mentioned outside Eldrad fluff it's in the kind of "but did someone make this mistake to some greater goal?' way.

Too bad, then, that he's pushing up daisies these days.

The Eldar codex retconned his death.

...and that sucks more dick than Jenna Jameson.

Maybe when GW's bottom line keeps tanking they'll move things forward again.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
I wouldn't really count the Primarch's or the likes of Melcador, the question was the most influential person in 40K, not 30K, which leaves them outta the question. I guess you could include the Daemon Primarchs that still live, but to my eyes they seem to get to little done to be on there.

I'll be honest, i did forget about the Silent King, he would replace Ghazzy for me. And all of the Big 3 of the High Lords (mechanicus, administratum and the Faith) are basically interchangeable, none being much more powerful then the other.

I don't understand the Eldrad love, he has control over a single Craftworld of Ulthwe, with some leverage over the other ones but nothing concrete. He sees the Future, and he can effect how it plays out, but only if the thing he is trying to change starts small and then goes big so he can cut it off while it's not a threat.

Even though none of the people in my list (Horus, Guilleman, Lorgar and Keeler) are alive in 40k, they are still the most influential in 40k as they shaped it. Everyone in 40k is insignificant to the Primarchs in 30k.

1.) Goge Vandire (The damage he did to the imperium alone is probably second only to Horus and he contributed to the crisis that led to the age of redemption which is implied to have exhausted the imperium's army's, leading into the age of waning. He also inadvertently created a new chamber militant and a new inquisitorial branch was founded to safe-guard against individuals like him.)

2.) The Beast (Legendary ork warboss that united a large portion of the ork race and devastated the Adeptus Astartes).

3.) Bel'akor (Is implied to be behind Abbadon's rise to power.)

4.) Kryptman ( May have possibly set off a chain of events with Octarius that cant be stopped.)

5.) Cypher: (Few individual can move an entire string of chapters to action. Fewer still can be enemies and do it. )

The Imperial Answer wrote:
1.) Goge Vandire (The damage he did to the imperium alone is probably second only to Horus and he contributed to the crisis that led to the age of redemption which is implied to have exhausted the imperium's army's, leading into the age of waning. He also inadvertently created a new chamber militant and a new inquisitorial branch was founded to safe-guard against individuals like him.)

2.) The Beast (Legendary ork warboss that united a large portion of the ork race and devastated the Adeptus Astartes).

3.) Bel'akor (Is implied to be behind Abbadon's rise to power.)

4.) Kryptman ( May have possibly set off a chain of events with Octarius that cant be stopped.)

5.) Cypher: (Few individual can move an entire string of chapters to action. Fewer still can be enemies and do it. )

Are you people stupid? The OP said that he wanted the most influential 40k characters, not 30k characters. He wants most influential characters as of 999.M41, not M31. And characters are not influential if they have had considerable influence in the past , only in the present aka M41.

Azrael truly commands a legion, More so than Calgar.

Some truely bizarre nominations in here, Im confused. did anyone read the OPs criteria?

 EmpNortonII wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:

 EmpNortonII wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Eldrad's influence goes far beyond his direct ability to control people.

He canonically has agents spread across the entire galaxy. He is so wise and respected that even though the Craftworlds don't get along with each other, Farseers from Biel-tan go to him for advice. If you only listen to his own fluff, he can pull strings anywhere in the galaxy to react to his Farseeings, and the only time he's ever mentioned outside Eldrad fluff it's in the kind of "but did someone make this mistake to some greater goal?' way.

Too bad, then, that he's pushing up daisies these days.

The Eldar codex retconned his death.

...and that sucks more dick than Jenna Jameson.

Maybe when GW's bottom line keeps tanking they'll move things forward again.

No, it's good that they're ignoring or retconning the events of the 13th Black Crusade given there was no way to ever verify the player campaigns, and it it didn't turn out purty at all.

Fabius? This guy cloned Horus steals things from Dark Eldar and is generally hated by everyone. He's much more influential than Abbadon in my eyes