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It looks like the cannon is building up to the return of the primarchs and the death of the emperor and his ascension into the warp to become a full warp entity like the chaos god and gork and mork.

I like this idea and I like the idea that the emperor would be powered in the warp by the devotion and belief of the empire in the material universe.

However, if this happens doesn’t this just prove Horus right? And give credibility too all those who turned against the emperor? The vision chaos showed Horus of the future and the false god emperor being worshiped by humanity was what convinced him to start the heresy.

Magnus tried to warn Horus this vision was false and we know Horus was tricked into a self fulfilling prophecy, but now it seems the emperor will accept his godhood

My understanding was that the vision Horus was shown was never false, the Chaos gods were just careful not to show Horus that by rebelling he would be causing that future not preventing it.

It’s the classic trope of the devil not lying.

Wrapping a lie inside a truth makes it easier to swallow.

It is not clear what will happen if/when the Emperor dies. He might ascend as a true god in the warp. He might reincarnate. He might just die. It is not clear if even he knows.

One thing is clear, he spoke to Guilliman after the fall of Cadia and he didn't tell him to pull the plug. This suggests the Emperor thinks he is better off where he is.

Of course even if he could ascend in some way, the death of his body on the Golden Throne would trigger Vulkan's failsafe which would annihilate Terra to prevent it being flooded with daemons. This would destroy the Astronomicon and primary astropathic choir which would pretty much spell the end of the Imperium as long range communication and travel would become almost impossible.

 Karhedron wrote:
Wrapping a lie inside a truth makes it easier to swallow.

It is not clear what will happen if/when the Emperor dies. He might ascend as a true god in the warp. He might reincarnate. He might just die. It is not clear if even he knows.

One thing is clear, he spoke to Guilliman after the fall of Cadia and he didn't tell him to pull the plug. This suggests the Emperor thinks he is better off where he is.

Of course even if he could ascend in some way, the death of his body on the Golden Throne would trigger Vulkan's failsafe which would annihilate Terra to prevent it being flooded with daemons. This would destroy the Astronomicon and primary astropathic choir which would pretty much spell the end of the Imperium as long range communication and travel would become almost impossible.

Lol. Let me tell you about this McGuffin that our friend Cawl has invented that makes the throne, the choir and the astronomicon obsolete.

Cawl didn't invent the McGuffin, the Old Ones did.

Nurglitch wrote:
Cawl didn't invent the McGuffin, the Old Ones did.

No, I mean they will pull some new fancy FTL drive that Cawl will invent, which doesn't require entrance into the warp.

 Togusa wrote:

 Karhedron wrote:
Wrapping a lie inside a truth makes it easier to swallow.

It is not clear what will happen if/when the Emperor dies. He might ascend as a true god in the warp. He might reincarnate. He might just die. It is not clear if even he knows.

One thing is clear, he spoke to Guilliman after the fall of Cadia and he didn't tell him to pull the plug. This suggests the Emperor thinks he is better off where he is.

Of course even if he could ascend in some way, the death of his body on the Golden Throne would trigger Vulkan's failsafe which would annihilate Terra to prevent it being flooded with daemons. This would destroy the Astronomicon and primary astropathic choir which would pretty much spell the end of the Imperium as long range communication and travel would become almost impossible.

Lol. Let me tell you about this McGuffin that our friend Cawl has invented that makes the throne, the choir and the astronomicon obsolete.

What's the McGuffin?

When the Cicatrix Maledictum opened the Emperor's light was temporarily extinguished. This made galactic travel all but impossible, crippling the Imperium's ability to respond to threats. Nothing can match the Emperor's level of psychic power so if he dies then the Imperium dies with him and 40k is over.

To be fair, they "sacrifice" thousands of psykers to the Golden Throne every day. That much concentrated psychic power in one place, with or without a Big E on the Throne, should still make for a decent beacon in his absence.

I see a form of parallelism of the space marine line in general with the evolution of the emperor:
In order to for a an old space marine to "ascend" or more basically upgrade to Primarus, he has to die... for a bit.

I am sure that it may not fit into GW's plot device to have the Emp. come back and stomp around the cosmos or be some big bad warp entity because he would then be the same as everyone else's "god".
I could see a special chamber (in the core of Mars?) or purpose built Titan (The Orks would approve) would be prepared to house his consciousness which would be viewed as a chrysalis.

I honestly could not see them killing him off (at least permanently) or sending him to the warp retirement home.
With the way things stand now, GW will have to pull out a "McGuffin" to address the issue that there are warp tears everywhere and the psychic choir is just not up to the task of being a beacon for the imperial navigators.
Yeah, the "specially prepared chamber" is looking more the way to go so it can act as a big amplifier for the choir "in these troubling times", I am sure a few special abilities will be gained in the process (Emperor "manifestation", hand of Gor... er, "Fist of the Emperor"!).

I somehow expect some other twist of weirdness where the "actual" reformed living breathing emperor exists in the black library and the Harlequins were involved in assisting with this.
Of course he cannot leave, but he has many avenues of involvement available.
One of the last things the Emperor was heavily involved in when alive was a ton of activity in the webway (some say a hidden war going on in there).

Lots of possibilities.

Or the Big E does die but forewarns he will re-incarnate and return bigger badder stronger.

All the SM/Imperium goody goody boys then have to drop everything comb through the galaxy to find him. As the imperium crumbles and burns without the Big E psychic catalyst the remnants manically search for his reincarnations which they have to protect until his powers mature and his memory comes back.. or something.

I thought the Emps was a Perpetual? Or is that the guy who stood up to Horus? Anyway, it talks about how he's been alive since there were literal Catholics, so he's essentially immortal as far as aging is concerned.

Isn't there also a giant "Reset" button currently on Titan?

 FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
I thought the Emps was a Perpetual? Or is that the guy who stood up to Horus? Anyway, it talks about how he's been alive since there were literal Catholics, so he's essentially immortal as far as aging is concerned.

Isn't there also a giant "Reset" button currently on Titan?

I think both the Emperor and Pius were perpetuals, but its also possible that whatever Chaos did to Horus gave him the ability to remove that ability. Considering he completely obliterated Pius I'd say there is some scope for that.

The reset button you mention, or the Terminus Decree, doesn't have a clear nature. THe box has never been opened and no-one knows what is inside or what it will do. Its possible, given the name and the fact the box has sigil that only appears on the golden throne, that its to shut off the Throne and let the Emperor perish.

 Deadshot wrote:

 Togusa wrote:

 Karhedron wrote:
Wrapping a lie inside a truth makes it easier to swallow.

It is not clear what will happen if/when the Emperor dies. He might ascend as a true god in the warp. He might reincarnate. He might just die. It is not clear if even he knows.

One thing is clear, he spoke to Guilliman after the fall of Cadia and he didn't tell him to pull the plug. This suggests the Emperor thinks he is better off where he is.

Of course even if he could ascend in some way, the death of his body on the Golden Throne would trigger Vulkan's failsafe which would annihilate Terra to prevent it being flooded with daemons. This would destroy the Astronomicon and primary astropathic choir which would pretty much spell the end of the Imperium as long range communication and travel would become almost impossible.

Lol. Let me tell you about this McGuffin that our friend Cawl has invented that makes the throne, the choir and the astronomicon obsolete.

What's the McGuffin?

Have you read Unremembered Empire? It's the Pharos on Sotha. Incidentally also the Necron solution to non-Warp FTL.

Nurglitch wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:

 Togusa wrote:

 Karhedron wrote:
Wrapping a lie inside a truth makes it easier to swallow.

It is not clear what will happen if/when the Emperor dies. He might ascend as a true god in the warp. He might reincarnate. He might just die. It is not clear if even he knows.

One thing is clear, he spoke to Guilliman after the fall of Cadia and he didn't tell him to pull the plug. This suggests the Emperor thinks he is better off where he is.

Of course even if he could ascend in some way, the death of his body on the Golden Throne would trigger Vulkan's failsafe which would annihilate Terra to prevent it being flooded with daemons. This would destroy the Astronomicon and primary astropathic choir which would pretty much spell the end of the Imperium as long range communication and travel would become almost impossible.

Lol. Let me tell you about this McGuffin that our friend Cawl has invented that makes the throne, the choir and the astronomicon obsolete.

What's the McGuffin?

Have you read Unremembered Empire? It's the Pharos on Sotha. Incidentally also the Necron solution to non-Warp FTL.

What? How did the Pharos give Necrons better FTL? Or is it another Dolmen gate piece of stupidity?

pm713 wrote:
What? How did the Pharos give Necrons better FTL? Or is it another Dolmen gate piece of stupidity?

The Pharos, and similar beacons in that network, allows instantaneous movement between beacons via a mixture of blackstone, quantum entanglement, empathetic technology, and some non-zero number of C'tan shards.

Nurglitch wrote:

pm713 wrote:
What? How did the Pharos give Necrons better FTL? Or is it another Dolmen gate piece of stupidity?

The Pharos, and similar beacons in that network, allows instantaneous movement between beacons via a mixture of blackstone, quantum entanglement, empathetic technology, and some non-zero number of C'tan shards.

Do they actually say what blackstone is or when the Necrons built them? It seems a strange thing for them to build and also survive the War in Heaven and the immediate aftermath.

pm713 wrote:

Nurglitch wrote:

pm713 wrote:
What? How did the Pharos give Necrons better FTL? Or is it another Dolmen gate piece of stupidity?

The Pharos, and similar beacons in that network, allows instantaneous movement between beacons via a mixture of blackstone, quantum entanglement, empathetic technology, and some non-zero number of C'tan shards.

Do they actually say what blackstone is or when the Necrons built them? It seems a strange thing for them to build and also survive the War in Heaven and the immediate aftermath.

Fun fact! Thanks to the Horus Heresy novel of the same name we now know that the Pharos being overloaded by marines during the heresy is what alerted the Tyranids to the existence of our galaxy...

Blasphemy! The Emperor will never die! Ave Imperator et Sanguinius! lol