Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

What's the purpose of Erda?

Her actions are so impactful, for such a short living character.

It's as if GW think having Chaos time travelling is too op. So, let's confirm that the Chaos's visions are outright lies, but then her receptions weren't well. So, let's kill her out.

learningduck wrote:
What's the purpose of Erda?

Her actions are so impactful, for such a short living character.

It's as if GW think having Chaos time travelling is too op. So, let's confirm that the Chaos's visions are outright lies, but then her receptions weren't well. So, let's kill her out.

It's possible that she is a plot-hook for stuff that is yet to come, or was such a hook for a plotline that did not work out / was cancelled / never got really developed. GW and its authors are very fond of putting such plot-seeds everywhere, and taking them up years, or even decades, later. Since 'seeding' such hooks is much easier than actually developing them, and just due to their number, most hooks get left dangling forever, so in most cases the boring, simple explanation is that they just haven't got around to doing anything with it yet, or don't actively plan to at the moment.

Behind every male Emperor is a completely out of nowhere new female character...

She fleshed out how Chaos managed to teleport the primary out. She also fleshed out part of the emperor's background. And showed some skills that had not yet been seen in the setting.

In the books she probably also was a good character to write to make the story make sense.

A shoehorned and poorly-thought out attempt at making 40k seem like less of a boys' club by retroactively making a female character as important in the backstory of the Emperor only to be hastily shelved and forgotten about.

I wouldn't count Chaos out as the root cause too soon. Just because Erda wasn't a Chaos worshiper doesn't mean she wasn't influenced by those who were or even by the whispers of the Gods themselves.
Doubts about her role in the coming Imperium could easily have been exploited by the Dark Gods, Tzeentch especially and IMO could explain why the Emperor was lenient with her punishment.
He knows all too well the machinations of Chaos and combined with his affections for her, this could have led to the decision to exile rather than kill her.

The whole point of her is too be mysterious and subversive to events of the setting (The Primarch's origins, creation, and scattering). However, they (GW) decided to do this at the literal ASS end of the series and it wasn't even that interesting. In all consideration, this is Dan Abnett we are talking about though. He's like the Ridley Scott of Warhammer writing. Made some masterpieces back in the day and has been stumbling down a flight of stairs since then.

I'd call her more of an "Anti-Malcador" showing that not all perpetuals thought Emps was the best since sliced bread. But, she saw which way the wind was blowing and Big E needed a womb.

She's also akin to the Greek Mythological tenet where the main Hero is helped by an "Older Mother" figure type (Zeus with his mother Rhea to kill Cronus, Athena helping Odysseus, Madea helping Jason, etc). And though the Imperium is obvs a rip off of Roman culture (Minotaurs marines notwithstanding), they were in fact a rip off of Greeks.

-And, last but not least, this is me spitballing here, but maybe she's a revamp of the whole "Starchild" plot line where Emps had to rip out the compassionate part of his soul? She acts more as a conscience than Malcador does, at least.

I also interpreted her bodyguard with the "II" tatoo as either a marine of the lost/ forgotten 2nd legion, or it's primarch.

 TheChrispyOne wrote:
I'd call her more of an "Anti-Malcador" showing that not all perpetuals thought Emps was the best since sliced bread. But, she saw which way the wind was blowing and Big E needed a womb.

She's also akin to the Greek Mythological tenet where the main Hero is helped by an "Older Mother" figure type (Zeus with his mother Rhea to kill Cronus, Athena helping Odysseus, Madea helping Jason, etc). And though the Imperium is obvs a rip off of Roman culture (Minotaurs marines notwithstanding), they were in fact a rip off of Greeks.

-And, last but not least, this is me spitballing here, but maybe she's a revamp of the whole "Starchild" plot line where Emps had to rip out the compassionate part of his soul? She acts more as a conscience than Malcador does, at least.

I also interpreted her bodyguard with the "II" tatoo as either a marine of the lost/ forgotten 2nd legion, or it's primarch.

Good points about the mother. I still felt like they could've use Arivia to fill the time thought.

She and Olly are perpetrators who disagree with Big E already.
I felt like they could have used these 2 without having to shoehorn a new perpetual this late.
We also have Amar Astarte as the mother of astartes project and she never mention about Erda even once.