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His current state aside, has the Emperor ever shown any remorse, or even gratefulness, for the countless imperial citizens whom have given their lives in his name?

Well, he *does* maintain the Astronomican and allow the Imperium to have interstellar travel and trade.

Those he is fed are psykers too weak to be allowed to live, too weak in power and in will to resist the lure of the Daemonic. Him devouring them is actually doing them a favor. Have any of them ever thanked the God-Emperor for that?

Symbolically, maybe. In Dark Heresy, Critical Hits are explained as being something only PCs get, because the Emperor smiles on them or something. I dunno.

... though the GM can permit bad guys to get them, too (and should, otherwise PCs can become nigh-unkillable).

I do, and I call such a roll a "Fury of the Dark Gods".

Storm Shadow wrote:
His current state aside, has the Emperor ever shown any remorse, or even gratefulness, for the countless imperial citizens whom have given their lives in his name?

He prevents every human head from exploding by daemons. He also sheds tears for his fallen warriors.

I think the very existence of the Emperor, a collective being of all human history basically created to unite the galaxy makes him unlikely to focus too much on 'little stuff'.

That said I doubt he's emotionless or anything but he probably follows the 'ask not what your country can do for you' approach.

He never was exactly a touchy feely guy, even when he was alive. He was distanced from mankind, being an immortal being with godlike powers yet having sprung from mortal origins will tend to do that to you.

Ultimately, he cares for humanity, but any individual is disposable.

Mankind needs to be grateful to him, what is the life of any individual in contrast to his sacrifice and burden. He has to hold back the powers of the Warp while also ensuring Interstellar travel is not interrupted or compromised. You think the Imperium is bad? Imagine what it would be like without him.

He does directly intervene sometimes with his subjects. The Sororities and their acts of Faith are the best example. But its not necessarily because he cares for them as individuals, but because they are crucial to his plan for humanity. The Emperor would have ceased to form any emotional attachments long ago, outliving anybody around you will make emotional attachments unpleasant. the Primarchs were probably his first true companions in thousands of years.

Expecting the Emperor to act in any way resembling a normal person is a bit far fetched if you think about it. He's immortal, impossibly powerful, and as of right now, a vegetable.

His sole existence is to be an anathema to Chaos, to combat the Chaos Gods wherever/whenever/whatever they are. I think that goal alone sort of eliminates the need to care about the billion or soul folks annihilated every day in his name.

On a sidenote, I think if he stood up and walked around outside for a bit, he would be PISSED at how things are run now.

By M42, and probably long before, the Emperor is what we call an empty signifier.

Post-Heresy, if we assume Imperial Propaganda is true, he does shed tears for his fallen warriors even in his corpse state, and he's ordered the Bell of Souls be tolled and candles lit for fallen warriors as well.

...that's assuming Imperial Propaganda is telling the truth when they make those claims.

Pre-Heresy? I dunno. Well, he did realize Horus had completely fallen after Horus had vaporized that custode/Ollonius, so if that's true, then he did always believe it was important to care for the little guy (in Pious's case). Course, that whole event's so ret-conned that we won't know exactly what happened there until BL's Horus Heresy series finishes in a century or so.

 Grey Templar wrote:
The Emperor would have ceased to form any emotional attachments long ago, outliving anybody around you will make emotional attachments unpleasant. the Primarchs were probably his first true companions in thousands of years.

I’m quite certain that as far as we know, Malcador the Sigilite was the first true companion of the Emperor. Also, Malcador has been described in HH series to possess some kind of immortality, so for all that we know their friendship could date back thousands of years, if not ten thousands of years!

 Psienesis wrote:

Him devouring them is actually doing them a favor. Have any of them ever thanked the God-Emperor for that?

Propoganda worthy of the North Korean state news agency

 Storm Shadow wrote:
His current state aside, has the Emperor ever shown any remorse, or even gratefulness, for the countless imperial citizens whom have given their lives in his name?

Why would he show remorse? He is doing Mankind a favour!

As noted above the fluff has him shedding tears for the loss of his subjects. I can't remember if there is an allotment for normal troopers and citizens, or if its just for the loss of particularly noble or heroic types.

Originally, it was for every Space Marine who died, he shed a tear.

 Psienesis wrote:
... though the GM can permit bad guys to get them, too (and should, otherwise PCs can become nigh-unkillable).

I do, and I call such a roll a "Fury of the Dark Gods".

I call it Khaine's Wrath! Of course, I do like bringing in the Eldar and their Dark bretheren around a lot.

He's eating psykers and being worshipped in an attempt to become a true god of the warp. Its the only thing grimdark enough to fit in the setting. Whether chaos will shut him down before this happens or if it does happens whether or not it will be good for humanity is unclear.

JubbJubbz wrote:
He's eating psykers and being worshipped in an attempt to become a true god of the warp. Its the only thing grimdark enough to fit in the setting. Whether chaos will shut him down before this happens or if it does happens whether or not it will be good for humanity is unclear.

It also adds a great slab of millenarianism to the setting's apocalyptic tone.

 Redcruisair wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
The Emperor would have ceased to form any emotional attachments long ago, outliving anybody around you will make emotional attachments unpleasant. the Primarchs were probably his first true companions in thousands of years.

I’m quite certain that as far as we know, Malcador the Sigilite was the first true companion of the Emperor. Also, Malcador has been described in HH series to possess some kind of immortality, so for all that we know their friendship could date back thousands of years, if not ten thousands of years!

Malcador could have always been one of the GEOM's biological children, who, IIRC, were all immortal.

 Psienesis wrote:
... though the GM can permit bad guys to get them, too (and should, otherwise PCs can become nigh-unkillable).

I do, and I call such a roll a "Fury of the Dark Gods".

Even when Necrons are making the attack?

Then you can call it 'performance above calculated expectations'

lots of good input, thanks guys.

 BrotherHaraldus wrote:
Then you can call it 'performance above calculated expectations'

Or 'Statistical outlier of a favorable nature'

If he see,s anything it's the giant picture, not hive dweller delta 3 million and 73 point necromanda hive alpha bravo level 568.

He will see eve and flow of gods, the mass combat, the mipultiple scenario's that could develop. The long term fate not the average guy in the hive

Emperor of Mankind provides for all of his people.

Heck, I am still not convinced that is the Emperor on the throne and not just some random body or Horus' body.

In one of the books when he went to the emperors chambers it showed the emp had some regret but had moved past most of his humanity really. The emp. was fading and waiting for the one to take over? Didn't he spread his essence into certain pskers? Wasn't a warp creature showing someone the true state of the empire?

The emp is really a failure. He wanted to bring an age of reason and and end to all gods. He failed at both. He also lost the 1000 sons and Magnus due to him not making his Primarchs aware of the true nature of chaos and the stupid edict.

The edict he put out ended pskers in the imperium we see how that worked out. It only lost the Imperium the Sons/Magnus and now Psykers abound. You tell your Psykic research chapter of space marines they can no longer be what they are at their core? How anyone with half a brain not know how that was going to turn out?

Didn't Chaos even admit that they couldn't have taken on the Imperium w/ the 1000s Son and Space wolves?

That whole Magnusordeal often is depicted wrongly. He did not prohibit the use of their abilities, neither did he WANT to. He DID however prohibit the use of the sorcery they were practicing. They were actively summoning demons (which they called Familiars) which amplified their powers.
If they only had used their own powers, he would've had a stronger point in their defense. But they went overboard and reckless (as seen with Magnus and his damn pride) and therefore had to have a limiter placed on them.

A limiter, yes, but he went from giving them free reign to saying "No, nothing, ever."

He did ban them from using their powers completely. His literal words were "... and no Astartes shall utilise psychic powers."

 Thairne wrote:
He did not prohibit the use of their abilities, neither did he WANT to. He DID however prohibit the use of the sorcery they were practicing.

Furyou Miko wrote:He did ban them from using their powers completely. His literal words were "... and no Astartes shall utilise psychic powers."

If I recall correctly the Horus Heresy series retconned it from the banning of sorcery only to the banning of Astartes using Psychic powers at all. I am unsure as to what was supposed to happen in regards to training Astartes who developed Psychic powers. I feel that the older version made more sense.