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IMO.

Humanity reached its apex, was an ally of the Eldar empire and had spread throughout the galaxy.

At no point before or since was humanity more perfect, and they were not xenophobically genocidal or war mongering. The great crusade looks like pure barbarism by comparison. The golden age is the only thing in human history that looks like what the emperor wanted.

Also, the myth of the men of gold is him trying to bring the extinct shaman race back to life, recreating the warp tranquil reincarnating species that he was built by. They were his true ideal, not giant warp mutants designed to murder on a galactic scale.

However the creation of the AI and emergence of turbulent psykers destabilized humanity. He probably would have been able to do something about that except the Eldar empire started to decay internally and cause massive warp ructions, which compounded these issues.

The warp instability and demonic incursions through turbulent psykers saw his golden men eaten alive by demons, their souls eternal playthings for the chaos gods in the same way Eldar are to slannesh. He had everything he wanted and it fell through his hands like a castle of sand.

Every action he took from that point on was a zero tolerance no Mercy brutality. He would never again rebuild the golden age. Humanity had died then and his intentions were to have it burn out annihilating everything else in the process.

None of the actions we see the emperor perform after the golden age are meant to build a new golden age. He keeps humanity in the dark, allows techno religion to rule over innovation. His webway project was a paper tiger, it solved none of humanities problems, it just moved them somewhere else. The drukhari know that the webway isn't free from demons.

All the actions that led to the golden age could be done again, nothing had changed in the galaxy that made it impossible for humanity to reach that zenith again. But instead the emperor decides galactic genocide is the best option.

Interesting take.

Maybe its possible that in that period the Emperor had an original attempt at guiding humanity and its just that all the info has been lost in the chaos since. Perhaps the Imperium was his 2nd attempt at conquering the galaxy. I could even see it as a "Man, I tried guiding them from the shadows, but I guess I have to take direct control now". but I don't think the Imperium is some nihilistic burn it all to the ground in frustration event after his real plan failed.

That said, I would be hesitant to actually believe that the "Golden Age" was actually so rosy. Remember that the Dark Age of Technology is one and the same with this Golden Age of Man. Humanity was also definitely not united in any way. There were certainly tens of thousands of kingdoms, empires, etc... that rose and fell in those 28 thousand years prior to the Great Crusade.

The Golden Age was probably just as if not more turbulent than the Age of the Imperium due to the galaxy being a fragmented mess. Thousands of empires, xeno and human alike, struggling together. The only difference was the human technology was better understood and less stagnant than in the Imperium. The Imperium has probably actually brought a relative era of peace since it has unified a large portion of the galaxy under a single banner and it, mostly, avoids attacking itself.

Big issue here is we know so little about how the worlds part of the Golden Age were governed, nor do we really know what The Emperor’s long term goal was.

We can glean some insight from the Votann Codex (at least the original, haven’t bought the new one yet).

They began as colony fleets sent into the deep core, with their STC having the capacity to genetically tailor them to survive whatever was found - and to ensure their main desire was their task. That is extracting, refining and exporting the raw materials they found, less whatever of the same it took for their own expansion.

There’s at least a hint that their ultimate masters may have been the Men of Gold. And, please don’t treat this as a direct quote as I’ve not read the Codex since it first came out? A further implication that their masters were of the Corporate Persuasion.

That raises the question as to whether there was any kind of central authority during the Golden Age, whether a formal government or corporate overlords.

Of course as sources go? That’s tenuous at best. Certainly I’m not presenting this as the only interpretation. But where knowledge is supremely limited? We have to rely on what we do have to inform speculation.

But it still paints a picture of a non-unified civilisation. Like the modern world, with each planet being its own entity with its own goals and trading needs.

Likewise, we can’t necessarily look to the brutality of the Great Crusade as the point of the Great Crusade.

The Emperor, or so we’re told, had the goal of mankind being the dominant species, with all external galactic threats removed. A galaxy spanning culture shriven of religion and the superstitions that can follow. Not just because there absolutely are god like entities, and ones you will never get the upper hand with. But because it would help ensure a culture of self reliance. One where, if something was wrong? The culture itself would actively address it.

A bold ambition to be sure. But if you can feed every mouth, house every family and provide round the clock peace and protection? A lot of humanity’s many downsides have less room to blossom. A content society is a more peaceful society.

Perhaps the Primarchs and the Astartes were intended to survive well into said peace. The Primarchs as regents, each upholding Imperial Law and Justice in a defined area. The Astartes the ultimate sanction against rebellion or outside attack. Certainly the technology that created the Astartes could be preserved, so should something extra-galactic move in, or something else like the Necrons reappear? The tools that won the galaxy would still be available. And possibly even perfected.

 Hellebore wrote:
IMO.

Humanity reached its apex, was an ally of the Eldar empire and had spread throughout the galaxy.

At no point before or since was humanity more perfect, and they were not xenophobically genocidal or war mongering. The great crusade looks like pure barbarism by comparison. The golden age is the only thing in human history that looks like what the emperor wanted.

Also, the myth of the men of gold is him trying to bring the extinct shaman race back to life, recreating the warp tranquil reincarnating species that he was built by. They were his true ideal, not giant warp mutants designed to murder on a galactic scale.

However the creation of the AI and emergence of turbulent psykers destabilized humanity. He probably would have been able to do something about that except the Eldar empire started to decay internally and cause massive warp ructions, which compounded these issues.

The warp instability and demonic incursions through turbulent psykers saw his golden men eaten alive by demons, their souls eternal playthings for the chaos gods in the same way Eldar are to slannesh. He had everything he wanted and it fell through his hands like a castle of sand.

Every action he took from that point on was a zero tolerance no Mercy brutality. He would never again rebuild the golden age. Humanity had died then and his intentions were to have it burn out annihilating everything else in the process.

None of the actions we see the emperor perform after the golden age are meant to build a new golden age. He keeps humanity in the dark, allows techno religion to rule over innovation. His webway project was a paper tiger, it solved none of humanities problems, it just moved them somewhere else. The drukhari know that the webway isn't free from demons.

All the actions that led to the golden age could be done again, nothing had changed in the galaxy that made it impossible for humanity to reach that zenith again. But instead the emperor decides galactic genocide is the best option.

https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th/id/OGC.90701f6e33c5332abb01a9950ef62c1a?pid=Api&rurl=https%3a%2f%2fmedia0.giphy.com%2fmedia%2fkigfYxdEa5s1ziA2h1%2fgiphy.gif&ehk=XRg9Cvfjs8DuLLtsYQow9prP3RkZt1DdiHKzYYmM0bI%3d

An interesting take on the Golden Age of humanities expansion into the stars, and why the Imperium is so dystopian. I like it. Thanks for the input. Now report to your nearest Commissar for illumination, heretic.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Interesting take.

Maybe its possible that in that period the Emperor had an original attempt at guiding humanity and its just that all the info has been lost in the chaos since. Perhaps the Imperium was his 2nd attempt at conquering the galaxy. I could even see it as a "Man, I tried guiding them from the shadows, but I guess I have to take direct control now". but I don't think the Imperium is some nihilistic burn it all to the ground in frustration event after his real plan failed.

That said, I would be hesitant to actually believe that the "Golden Age" was actually so rosy. Remember that the Dark Age of Technology is one and the same with this Golden Age of Man. Humanity was also definitely not united in any way. There were certainly tens of thousands of kingdoms, empires, etc... that rose and fell in those 28 thousand years prior to the Great Crusade.

The Golden Age was probably just as if not more turbulent than the Age of the Imperium due to the galaxy being a fragmented mess. Thousands of empires, xeno and human alike, struggling together. The only difference was the human technology was better understood and less stagnant than in the Imperium. The Imperium has probably actually brought a relative era of peace since it has unified a large portion of the galaxy under a single banner and it, mostly, avoids attacking itself.

We can infer some things based on what we know happened. You can't advance if you're being bombed by aliens back to the stone age. Humanity reached a high tech point, so it's unlikely the galaxy was as riven with war as the current one is. The eldar were also at their zenith with colony worlds along every rim of the galaxy. They don't seem to have populated as densely as humanity, but their influence was found across the whole galaxy. For them to be bored, they need to be unthreatened by external threats. Everyone going to war is definitely going to keep them occupied. So it's implied they either could not be defeated, or their robot armies were just effective enough to lock enemy's in combat and prevent them advancing on the empire. However we look at it, their defences were good enough that they never felt anything but boredom.

That eldar shadow was likely why every non ork alien species even exists in the first place. If you can imagine the 60 million years after the old ones being nothing but orks and krork, the whole galaxy would have been overrun by now. They just swarm everywhere and fight each other. So we can infer the rise of the eldar held the orks at bay to some degree. They don't come out as a galactic threat until the age of strife, when the eldar fall is accelerating.

What descriptions of the golden age we have, are very positive in tone as humanity reaches its full potential and forms mutual non aggression pacts. Very star trek rather than imperium. From the way they use the phrase, Dark Age of Technology seems almost entirely judgemental about their use of AI and blasphemous technologies, rather than literally it being a terrible time. At least that's how it's always come across to me.



The 'burn it to the ground' bit was a little exaggerated because of how ridiculous the great crusade was. Humanity was doing great during the golden age and the reasons it fell apart weren't due to the golden age itself. Certainly running humanity like the imperium wouldn't have stopped the age of strife, it just wouldn't have had an AI uprising, just lots of chaos cultists and traitor breakaway factions instead. The imperium has been highly unstable during its existence and IMO the concept of a unified imperium for 10,000 years vastly over stated. On paper yeah, but in practice it's still a bunch of feudal kingdoms by themselves in the darkness. Only a few things really tie them together, like the tithe. For thousands of years the imperium has also been broken up as well. The age of blood, age of apostasy, time of the 2 emperors.

I expect that humanity was bombing each other as much as aliens.

I suspect that since one of the first actions of the Great Crusade was to liberate our home system of Terra from Xenos might have had an impact on the thoughts about Xenos.