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Games Workshop loves analogies and borrowing from real life cultures, people, etc. That being said the Emperor could be seen as Julius Caesar, who was betrayed by his senators (aka the Primarchs and their Legions) by being stabbed to death. Upon his death, the Roman population believed that he was so great that he had ascended to be a god and live amongst the pantheon of the Greco-Roman gods. Now enter 40k, where we see that belief, emotions, actions and sacrifices can create and empower warp entities. The Emperor, already a extremely powerful psyker, would leave an imprint in the Warp, but being powered by faith, emotions, actions, and sacrifices would empower him even further. Thoughts?

Ummm he already has a massive presence/imprint in/on the warp.
Depending on how pedantic one wants to be it can be argued he already is a warp god.

What do you believe he is currently?

I currently think he is still alive as a physical creature, that is waiting to become a warp god upon his death. Once his "soul" or "spirit" is severed from the body, he may claim ascendency.

There are several possibilities and Guilliman considers several of them in Dark Imperium.

1. The Emperor has always been (to all intents and purposes) a god. His own denial of divinity was a necessary lie.

2. The Emperor was not a god originally but has become one since the Heresy due to the massive worship of trillions of humans.

3. The Emperor is not but the focused worship of trillions of humans has created a new god in the Warp shaped in the image of the Emperor.

4. The Emperor is not a God but will ascend to godhood once his physical body finally dies (possibly the Starchild theory).

GW have not given a lot of information on the condition of the Emperor's psyche so we are free to draw our own conclusions and tell our own stories.

As a long-time player, I have a soft spot for the old Ian Watson Inquisition War trilogy and the Starchild storyline. I would like to see that revived some day.

No way! The Emperor is not never gonna be a Chaos God, all they want to do is feed on the raw emotional power of millions of devotees, and devour the souls of countless psykers fed to them continuously...

Hang on a minute...

and herein lies the total hypocrisy of the imperium

A man who is so far removed from men that even in his lifetime he was viewed as a god is chained to a device that requires ever increasing sacrifices to keep his immortal spirit alive.

And he said he wanted to free mankind from religion and reliance on the warp

The Emperor essentially already is a warp god, same with Gork and Mork. His nature is a bit different to something like Khorne or Nurgle, but about on the same level, just...somewhat occupied and hamstrung by duty at the Astronominican and being bound to the Golden Throne. I think the issue is just they don't really touch on it in newer fluff, but older books and fluff have the Emperor being much more active in the Warp. The first big fluff piece on Gargants has the Emperor noticing Gork and Mork are rousing from their slumber and essentially reading the Imperium for a Waaaagh and bellowing warnings to the Chaos gods through the warp and the like.

 Karhedron wrote:


As a long-time player, I have a soft spot for the old Ian Watson Inquisition War trilogy and the Starchild storyline. I would like to see that revived some day.

I'd like to think that he's becoming one, i mean slaanesh was murder-fethed into existence and the Emps has TRILLIONS of lives worshipping him as a god. Combine that with his already impressive impact he has on the warp and BAM new god. Celestine is already pretty much a Daemon Prince and if the emperor lets say had a son he loved the most and that son's body is still preserved-somewhat and that emperor/god WANTED his son back...BAM we get sanguinius as a new warp gods daemon prince esc. thing. Then new emps makes his way out of the warp, wiping away with his old body and starting up a big ol' fight.

In the Black Crusade book 1 Abaddon meets Imperious when he flies straight into the light of the Astronomican. Could be an emissary of the BigE, the gestalt conciousness of all those sacrificed to maintain the Astronomican, etc.

Personally, I think Imperious was the Big E emploring Abaddon to succeed and destroy his corporeal form so he could be reborn ala perpetuals.

Julius Caesar wasn't accredited as a god by the populace of Rome or anywhere else. He was voted divine status by the order of the Senate under the watchful eye of his heir, Octavius.

Nurglitch wrote:
Julius Caesar wasn't accredited as a god by the populace of Rome or anywhere else. He was voted divine status by the order of the Senate under the watchful eye of his heir, Octavius.

Deification was also pretty common for the Republic, and later Empire.

Sterling191 wrote:

Nurglitch wrote:
Julius Caesar wasn't accredited as a god by the populace of Rome or anywhere else. He was voted divine status by the order of the Senate under the watchful eye of his heir, Octavius.

Deification was also pretty common for the Republic, and later Empire.

Yes, it was a weird political thing because the Republican Romans (and sporadically the Imperial Romans) were very pious, so voting divine honours to the dead was political correct if you wanted to keep your life and wealth.

I have and will maintain that the Emperor most embodies Alexander the Great, who also had the whole God thing happen, and set that template for the Roman's to follow.

Carlovonsexron wrote:
I have and will maintain that the Emperor most embodies Alexander the Great, who also had the whole God thing happen, and set that template for the Roman's to follow.

Alexander the great is already a 40k character though? And he only got Sainthood.

AdmiralHalsey wrote:

Carlovonsexron wrote:
I have and will maintain that the Emperor most embodies Alexander the Great, who also had the whole God thing happen, and set that template for the Roman's to follow.

Alexander the great is already a 40k character though? And he only got Sainthood.

I always thought of Lord Solar Macharius as more akin to Belisarius than to Alexander, unless they're going to have Cawl live up to his namesake.

Arcanis161 wrote:

AdmiralHalsey wrote:

Carlovonsexron wrote:
I have and will maintain that the Emperor most embodies Alexander the Great, who also had the whole God thing happen, and set that template for the Roman's to follow.

Alexander the great is already a 40k character though? And he only got Sainthood.

I always thought of Lord Solar Macharius as more akin to Belisarius than to Alexander, unless they're going to have Cawl live up to his namesake.

Macharius was Alexander. He had the whole naming conquered places after himself repeatedly, going so far into the unknown his troops revolted against going further, then he dies, followed by his successors fighting each other like the Diadochi.

Nurglitch wrote:

Sterling191 wrote:

Nurglitch wrote:
Julius Caesar wasn't accredited as a god by the populace of Rome or anywhere else. He was voted divine status by the order of the Senate under the watchful eye of his heir, Octavius.

Deification was also pretty common for the Republic, and later Empire.

Yes, it was a weird political thing because the Republican Romans (and sporadically the Imperial Romans) were very pious, so voting divine honours to the dead was political correct if you wanted to keep your life and wealth.

Source material from the Roman period suggests they weren't very pious at all. The writings that survived are amazingly cynical about divinity and religion in general. As does the general trend of treating foreign gods as merely ignorantly-named aspects of Roman gods. That's planning for cultural superiority and assimilation.

Though the latter is quite true- but that goes with a cynical political outlook. 'Vote appropriately or else' is very Roman, but has little to do with piety. And a lot to do with favors or threats from families or allies of the deceased.