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Big E is the central figure of the 40k setting, which makes sense given the game's human-centric perspective. He founded the main human faction and led it to galactic hegemony. He also inadvertently played a part in making Chaos the threat it is today, by creating conditions that led to the Chaos gods gaining countless mortal followers. Not to mention his vast psychic power, next to which even Eldar farseers pale in comparison, and which allows him to keep the Chaos gods in check even while comatose.


Szarekh, though...

Szarekh does not just keep the gods in check.

Szarekh declared war on the gods... and won.

He shattered gods who were far older than the Chaos gods, older than any sentient races. Then he imprisoned and enslaved their remnants.

All without an iota of psychic power. Without any gift of precognition.


Granted, it was really the Necron race as a whole who accomplished this great deed, and they did so at the height of their power, which was millions of years ago. It's also been said (though it might be false) that the mysterious weapons they used to destroy the C'tan no longer exist. Even if those weapons could be recreated, they are not guaranteed to be of much use in this age of the universe—they were intended specifically to destroy the C'tan, whose nature is wholly different from that of the psychic gods who now steer the galaxy's destiny.

Still... I think that in terms of accomplishments, Szarekh dwarfs the Emperor. It is him that Abaddon and the Traitor Primarchs should worry about, not the corpse on Terra, and they'd realize that if they got over their daddy issues. The Silent King is the true ruler of the Materium, and perhaps the galaxy's best hope against outside threats such as Chaos and the Great Devourer.

.

That's a much nicer way of describing the fluff than I would have gone with, but yeah he's described as being so ludicrously powerful that you have to wonder why we should care about anything else in the galaxy.

Bah, give me a Grey Knight written by Mat Ward for the win.


In all seriousness (as seriously as I can be), The Silent King is too much of a badass... it just seems implausible that this guy is galactic equivalent of the meme version of Chuck Norris... no one can compare.

The C'tan had been weakened by both the War in Heaven and the conflict that occurred amongst themselves.

There's a reason only the Deceiver, Nightbringer, Void Dragon and The Burning One are left. The C'tan turned on each other as soon as the Old Ones were defeated.

Szarekh also had the entire Necron race at his command thanks to the command codes. Codes that are now gone. He has to compete with the self interests of the many overlords and rulers of the various Dynasties now, and it's already resulted in civil war against Imotehk.

Besides, the going theory is that Abaddon doesn't care what happens after the Emperor is toppled. With the Emperor gone, the Imperium collapses and Abaddon wins. He has no interest in ruling the ashes of mankind's empire.