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Personally I really liked Keeler in the opening few Horus Heresy novels and it is a slight shame they haven't been able to incorporate her more fully into the ongoing narrative.

- Shes the first Imperial Saint.
- Shes the first person to manifest the God Emperors power. Even Lorgar did not do this.
- She gives Sigismund a nudge that is arguably going to snowball into the Black Templars.
- She obviously influences Garro.
- They are setting up that she has a major impact on spreading the early Church.

Since we are getting close to the end game this makes me wonder how they are going to tie up the story of one of the original character which started the Horus Heresy. Personally I think it should be something suitably major and that ties into 40k. They have done this before:



Which makes a lot of sense. At its core the Horus Heresy is a prequel novel so it makes sense that the roots of a lot of things we see in 40k would get explained here. So what could they do?

1) Keeler founds the Ecclesiarchy

Outside of any prior lore this sounds pretty straight forward. However, in the old Sisters of Battle codex its stated that the Church was founded by an Imperial Army veteran who fought at Terra. Who was a dude. So you would have to put in quite a major retcon for that to work. Since they did an Eisenhorn short story where Keelers images were considered holy icons this means they can't chalk this down to distorted history. People knew who that historical figure was. Now, they could have it where she is the reason and inspiration why this Imperial Army guy goes on to found the Ecclesiarchy (BTW I am not 100% on all the short stories so let me know if this has happened), but I feel that wouldn't conclusively end her story.

2) Keeler somehow founds the Sisters of Battle

I know I know. But hear me out. Shes a woman and manifests an act of faith. This is something that SoB do. That's a pretty solid connection. We know that the SoB are found by Goge Vandire 5000 years after the Heresy. Theres nothing to say that Keeler didn't go to San Leor. Shes currently on Terra, but that seems to be because its where shes needed. For example she appears to have become ethereal and sort of aware of future events such as the betrayel at Istvaan and saying that Sigismund would be needed. So, if she knows that going to this backwater world and creating the SoB will eventually have big repercussions down the line that would IMO make a lot of sense. If Keeler can see the future then she has reason to do this since she would be aware of the butterfly effect these actions would have.

3) Keeler is Celestine

Aside from the aforementioned parallels between her powers and those Sisters of Battle manifest theres a few things which point to this.

Her role in the Horus Heresy has been exactly the same as how Celestine was depicted during the Gathering Storm. She is this ethereal individual who is being guided by the Emperor and trying to bring events to a preferred outcome . Keeler is also referred to increasingly as "The Saint" the Horus Heresy. Now Celestine isn't the only Saint but she is by far the most prominent and they have already done similar origin stories . This tendency makes me feel its less likely that they would make her her own character whose role would play out.

Celestine is also immortal. This makes it certainly possible that she could have been alive for that long. Why would the Emperor only decide to have such an agent doing his will in the 41st millennium and wouldn't have done this when he was about to be interred on the Golden Throne.

So its possible that Celestine is simply a title that Keeler has taken for herself. That she lived so many lives and become so dedicated to the Emperors cause that he former life and identity fell away from her. The fact she is called the Saint instead of Keeler is pretty significant.

This wouldn't be inconsistent with the Sisters of Battle lore. All that was known about Celestine was that she was a Sister Repentia who died and was reincarnated. Theres nothing to say that she had actually been doing other things.

Also, the subject of immortality and individuals being empowered by the Emperor has been a plot point, one quite notable in fact, in the Horus Heresy. Celestine is, pretty much the only Imperial character who has similar abilities to that. Which would suggest that the writers might be building up to turning Keeler into Celestine origin story.

Something I haven't particularly seen a lot of people bring up (and maybe I'm not looking hard enough) is that the first daemon that Keeler vanquishes using the "power of the Emperor" is quite clearly, from it's description, a Horror.

This is something that's really stuck with me from the first time I read that scene, and I'm honestly surprised that - from what I've read online - Keeler as a character hasn't really gone anywhere.

My personal theory about Keeler is that her first act as a "saint" was simply a Tzeentchian ploy. It would be just like Tzeentch to play the long game, and completely screw with humanity and The Imperial Truth as a means of destabilizing them - ultimately, I think the Ecclesiarchy is a bad thing, and that's Tzeentch would've known this.

I think Keeler will go on to have an impact on founding the Ecclesiarchy in some manner, and I fully believe this was a "just as planned" approach from Tzeentch.

Have you read/ listened to The Keeper Image?
Confirms Keeler as one of the first saints and founders of the imperial religion.

Captyn_Bob wrote:
Have you read/ listened to The Keeper Image?
Confirms Keeler as one of the first saints and founders of the imperial religion.

I haven't read that one.

I guess there can be more than one founder however I assumed they would give her a more central role. Although they could retcon the 2nd ed SoB codex on who founded the Ecclesiarchy.

Not necessarily, the cult of the god emperor was around before the Ecclesiarchy

 Haanz wrote:
Something I haven't particularly seen a lot of people bring up (and maybe I'm not looking hard enough) is that the first daemon that Keeler vanquishes using the "power of the Emperor" is quite clearly, from it's description, a Horror.

This is something that's really stuck with me from the first time I read that scene, and I'm honestly surprised that - from what I've read online - Keeler as a character hasn't really gone anywhere.

My personal theory about Keeler is that her first act as a "saint" was simply a Tzeentchian ploy. It would be just like Tzeentch to play the long game, and completely screw with humanity and The Imperial Truth as a means of destabilizing them - ultimately, I think the Ecclesiarchy is a bad thing, and that's Tzeentch would've known this.

I think Keeler will go on to have an impact on founding the Ecclesiarchy in some manner, and I fully believe this was a "just as planned" approach from Tzeentch.

I don't think that adds up.

We know people can manifest the power of the Emperor in 40k. Her doing that is part of the book unraveling the falsehood that they live in a rational universe where there aren't Daemons and Gods.

A key theme of the Heresy is that the Imperial Truth is a lie and its one of the prime reasons why the Heresy happens. Trying to impose secularism on Lorgar leads to him falling to Chaos and then turning Horus. Not telling Horus or his brothers meant they were more easily manipulated and less aware of the nature of the threat they were facing. Would Fulgrim have attacked clearly Slanneshi world and took Daemon Sword had he known the nature and corruption of chaos. Sanguinous in Ruinstorm laments that his father did not warn them. In Master of Mankind the Emperor tries to justify this by saying, essentially, they didn't need to know and he couldn't have foreseen what them not knowing would cause.

Also, much of the technological regression of the Imperium is the fault of the Admech who are not part of the Ecclesiarchy and their beliefs predate the Emperor. Plus the damage done during the Heresy did a lot to regress Imperial technology and can't be blamed on the Ecclesiarchy.

Plus its been insinuated that people who have religious beliefs have more protection against the influence of chaos. In Ruinstorm, a world is consumed by the warp and the only people left alive are those who worship the Emperor as a God. Why would Chaos knowingly allow the Imperium to gain protection. Again, in Ruinstorm, Sanguinious sees the future and it makes clear that Chaos IS playing to win. They want the full on End Times and for the Galaxy to be eaten by Chaos. They have no desire for some kind of stalemate. It makes far more sense to kill Keeler. Tzeentch also, must have assumed that Horus was going to win; so whatever plan he had failed.

Also, if they had conspired for the Imperial Religion to flourish then they wouldn't have turned Lorgar and would have kept him on the board.

Given what happened with Sindermann, anything's possible...

Captyn_Bob wrote:
Not necessarily, the cult of the god emperor was around before the Ecclesiarchy

Exactly. She's St Peter - Fatidicus is Emperor Constantine I doubt they'd write him out.

It's not impossible she might also be moriana - one of the founding inquisitors with initially resurrectioninst tendencies