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.

I've been wondering, from his position on the Golden Throne, can Big E communicate with the outside world in any way? What originally got me thinking about this was the early history of the SoB, where Dominica goes into The Emperor's Throne room, and exits with a murderous intent towards Vandire. Obviously it's ambiguous what happened in there, could well be that Dominica was just moved enough by seeing her God in person to reconsider her position, but I see a lot of people theorising that he spoke to her. Any weight to this theory? The moment with Dominca aside, it also has a lot of interesting implications, like if he's influencing his Empire's people, or still has some hand in the running of the Imperium.

I did hear about an old BL book where an Inquisitor speaks to him (and finds out that he has gone insane, would like the name of this story if anyone has it), and I recall reading somewhere that he can supposedly communicate through tarot cards (this was from a FF game, I think). Any other accounts of The Emperor communicating, or any theories on the matter?

Well, if he can communicate, it must be really limited and obscure, as otherwise this wouldn't even be a question.

As for people who think that they've communicated with him (with Tarots, voices in their heads, etc.) that really proves nothing, as in real world people 'communicate' all the time with entities that I'm pretty damn sure are imaginary.

So, maybe? It is possible that he is able to communicate in some limited fashion, in manner that is pretty much indistinguishable from some people being crazy and/or deluded.

Yes, at least as late as the Age of Apostasy, when he communicated with Alicia Dominica and her bodyguards.

The book is called Draco by Ian Watson, when first published it was called Inquisitor. He does 'talk' to the emperor, weather he has become insane or just that Draco can't understand a being that is millions of years old and has a mind spread across the warp and the time/space changes that brings.
The Tarot is believed to tell the future and guide the reader of the cards, working via possable a connection Astronomican.
The emperor is also meant to guide and talk to the saints, but equally they could just be mental...

Some of the unexplainable things in the imperium eg legion of the damned are apperntly the emperors doing.

Its one of those fantastic little details in 40k that will never be answered, its exactly the same as today and throughout history where many claim or have claimed to have been contacted by god, but at the end of the day noone knows for certain whether its lies, insanity, or the real deal.

Yet another layer of grimdark mystery

any individual that is cunning enough could convince a group of people that they have talked with him .. in order to get that group to do what the individual wants ..

According to a very old book (I forget which... I believe it was a 2nd edition book... either the rulebook or the Black Codex) stated that the Emperor could communicate with his subjects for some time after being placed in the Golden Throne, but that he did so less and less frequently, until he stopped altogether. The line I remember is "...that silence has been unbroken for ten thousand years..."

Of course, this pre-dates the 2nd Ed Sisters book, and specifically the bit about Dominica being brought before him in the Age of Apostasy, so it may have been retconned.

Although, I personally think that he cannot communicate in any understandable fashion. If he could, why would he let the Age of Apostasy get as bad as it did before intervening? Why not just tell a few Custodes to kill Vandire and replace him with another High Lord? Why wait so long? Because I don't think he had anything to do with Dominica's change of heart. I honestly think when the Custodes took her to see the Emperor it was they who sat her down and explained why she was wrong and why Vandire had to die, and not the Big E.

If the Emperor's Tarot counts then yes he does, but he can probably talk to something via psychic powers if he needs too and they are important enough.

Never states that Dominca spoke to the emperor, just that she entered the throne room and came out all pissed.

Now there is supposedly some significance to the sigil she took for her order after that day. A skull filled flaming ebon chalice.

My guess is that the Emperor's mind is no longer his, but has broken up into the many shaman that sacrificed themselves to make the emperor.

"The thousands of shamans, as one, took poison, and as one, they died, their souls flowing into the Immaterium in a rush of psychic power that overwhelmed those daemons who sought to feast upon it with a cleansing, purifying fire, a flame imperishable that became one soul out of many." -taken from warhammer wiki

So you have many skulls in one cup on fire.
Many souls in one body, burning as a beacon of psychic energy.

As for Draco, a bunch of dead shaman yammering at you would sound pretty crazy to an inquisitor no doubt.


I might be kinda reaching here, but there is my theory.
.

Depends what fluff your reading, some fluff says that he's already dead.

There are several fluff things that say "allegedly ordered by the Emperor, himself". One time was after/during the first Black Crusade, but I forget what (maybe the fortificaion of that inquision world in the Eye of Terror that the Relictors invaded). Another time was the loss of the Fire Hawks (Legion of the Damned), where the Emperor himself "allegedly" ordered the bell of lost souls be tolled for each marine lost.

So at least the Imperium claims he can still give direct orders. Of course, it's always "allegedly"...

Emperor's Champions from the Black Templars get visions before getting the job, don't they?

The Emperor's Tarot seems to work. The Legion of the Damned is stated to use it as an explanation for why the Legion of the Damned is always there when needed the most in desperate situations. Granted, I heard that the Emperor's Tarot was designed initially by LORGAR of all people, but I'm not sure if that's true and if the person who said that was just mistaken. Then again, even that wouldn't technically contradict anything if Lorgar really was right about the Emperor being a god even back then.

The Emperor's ability to interact with and influence his Imperium is, or so I believe, deliberately kept vague and unclear, specifically because this is one of the many aspects of the setting where GW would like us to think for ourselves and interpret the material in a way that makes this setting look cool to us as the individual gamer/reader.

Certainly there is a ton of references, such as the High Lords supposedly meditating in their chambers to receive inspiration from and then issueing decrees on behalf of the Emperor (literally speaking for him), or the Ecclesiarchy teaching that the Emperor may act through the hands of His servants (divine intervention). And then we have the Imperial Tarot, or the Astronomican.

Yet at the same time, one could debunk all of this as a mixture of the galaxy's greatest scam and mere superstition. Perhaps the High Lords simply claim to speak for the Emperor because this is how they get to exert their power. Perhaps divine intervention is nothing but an individual human being displaying a particularly notable case of ability and coincidence (see Acts of Faith = "miraculous to the unschooled"). Perhaps the Imperial Tarot works more by the universal psychic gestalt of mankind as a whole rather than the Emperor. And perhaps the Astronomican is powered directly by Psykers channeling their energy through a technological conduit, rather than being steered or controlled by the Emperor.

Hell, we could take the story about Dominica and her Sisters and speculate about the Custodes fooling them with a tape recorder placed behind the Golden Throne! So many possibilities ...

Imho, this uncertainly is (part of) the beauty of it all.

LordFilth wrote:The book is called Draco by Ian Watson, when first published it was called Inquisitor. He does 'talk' to the emperor, weather he has become insane or just that Draco can't understand a being that is millions of years old and has a mind spread across the warp and the time/space changes that brings.

In that novel, it was less about the Emperor's age (which was given as "countless millennia" rather than "millions"), but more about him suffering from a sort of split personality. As Draco communicated with him, he noticed different splinters of that mind focusing on different things all across the galaxy, and some of these "sub-personalities" not even being aware of what another part of his mind does. I vaguely recall Draco thinking about the Emperor seemingly plotting against himself on some things, even, though I'd have to re-read the book for specifics. It was quite a bit creepy!

But yeah, of course that's just what one freelancing author thought would be cool. Let's keep in mind that everything we read in the fluff is just "possibilities", and should not be taken as gospel.

 Melissia wrote:
Yes, at least as late as the Age of Apostasy, when he communicated with Alicia Dominica and her bodyguards.

We don't know that he did. The latest fluff just says something like what happened in there was "lost to history" and the only thing we know is that a "great truth was passed" to Dominica. It could well be that just seeing her God in person had a profound effect on her, and let her see how wrong she was in serving Vandire. So perhaps he did communicate with her somehow, perhaps he didn't.

brother marcus wrote:
Some of the unexplainable things in the imperium eg legion of the damned are apperntly the emperors doing.

Some people also explain Celestine and the other Living Saints in this way. But Celestine especially, given her magical powers and Legion of the Damned-like ability to appear when needed and subsequently vanish. It's quite easy to view them as "Daemons of the Emperor" of sorts, if you want, which would certainly imply some awareness and communication on Big E's part. But of course, this isn't necessarily true. The Legion of the Damned could just be crusing around the warp on their own somehow and Celestine could just be a conduit for the collective psychic energy given off by the Imperium's faithful. Still, it's an interesting possibility.

On a related note, Celestine's latest fluff does say something like "she will only die when the Emperor wills it". Obviously we can take that at face value and infer that the Emperor himself has some hand in giving Celestine her power, but it's equally likely that that part was from an Ecclesiarchial viewpoint, and they certainly aren't an unbiased source.

Vraksian Defender wrote:
Depends what fluff your reading, some fluff says that he's already dead.

IIRC, the latest studio fluff on the matter says that his actual body just has a few living cells left in it (so I guess he would be considered "dead"), and these anchor his spirit so that he can keep the Astronomican going. But yeah, this varies between sources.

TiamatRoar wrote:
Emperor's Champions from the Black Templars get visions before getting the job, don't they?

That could well be a case of sheer belief influencing their minds and bodies, though. They really believe that they can get a vision from their Emperor, and they really want a vision, so they could well be driven to hallucinating a vision.

 Lynata wrote:
The Emperor's ability to interact with and influence his Imperium is, or so I believe, deliberately kept vague and unclear, specifically because this is one of the many aspects of the setting where GW would like us to think for ourselves and interpret the material in a way that makes this setting look cool to us as the individual gamer/reader.

I know, and I wasn't really expecting some final answer on the matter. As you said, it's just interesting to speculate about.

Probably.

He isn't considered the most powerful human psyker to ever live for nothing.

Yes.

He talks like Theoden when he was under Sarumon's spell.

I like how Imperials can think they're getting communication from the emperor (tarot etc), but we aren't certain if it *is* the emperor or if it's Tzeentch, though the Imperials themselves will be certain it's Big E. Just as we're not certain if the Emperor *is* fighting chaos in the warp to protect human souls, or if he's fighting them to be the sole power and his goal all along to become basically a god due to the worship of humans. Or if he's dead or basically dead.

The mystery in 40k is a big part of the allure imo strangely enough. Normally us viewers are omniscient, it's nice to not know, or to be able to "believe" what you want.

LordFilth wrote:The book is called Draco by Ian Watson, when first published it was called Inquisitor. He does 'talk' to the emperor, weather he has become insane or just that Draco can't understand a being that is millions of years old and has a mind spread across the warp and the time/space changes that brings.

In that novel, it was less about the Emperor's age (which was given as "countless millennia" rather than "millions"), but more about him suffering from a sort of split personality. As Draco communicated with him, he noticed different splinters of that mind focusing on different things all across the galaxy, and some of these "sub-personalities" not even being aware of what another part of his mind does. I vaguely recall Draco thinking about the Emperor seemingly plotting against himself on some things, even, though I'd have to re-read the book for specifics. It was quite a bit creepy

I read that book some 2 weeks ago, and that pretty much sums it up. HE claims it a necessary thing, how else could HE light the Astronomican, Safeguard Mankind, guide the Tarot and do all the other important stuff all at the same time?
Basically, he "suffers" from a bad case of split personality, but this was most likely intentional by his part.