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From what I understand the Emperor is a Perpetual. That being the case, has putting him in the Golden Throne prevented him from coming back to life, or would the weapon that Horus used prevented that?

icn1982 wrote:
From what I understand the Emperor is a Perpetual. That being the case, has putting him in the Golden Throne prevented him from coming back to life, or would the weapon that Horus used prevented that?

I can't remember if him and Vulkan being Perpetuals is still canon, but assuming it still is - The damage done by Horus and his weapon are likely the cause of this since Horus was a Primarch empowered by all four Chaos Gods with a weapon that could (or may even be designed to) kill Perpetuals. If it wasn't for Horus and his weapon, interring the Emperor to the Golden Throne would be useless with regards to saving/preserving his life.

We don't know what will happen if he's removed from the Golden Throne and we probably never will.

Maybe he'll perma-die due to something Horus did to him.
Maybe he'll pop back to life a few minutes later, good as new.
Maybe Terra will be swallowed by a warp storm.
Maybe he'll become a fifth god of Chaos.

As far as I know, Vulkan and Empy being perpetuals is still canon.

I think the problem is if he were even to die for a minute or so the ramifications of his absence for even that brief moment would be catastrophic for the Imperium. The Emperor in his current state is still guiding the light of the Astronomicon and holding back a tide of Daemons from enveloping Terra.

I would imagine that he is aware of his circumstance, that if he were to die he can come back. But as the Emperor of Mankind with the responsibilities he has the problem isn't the coming back, it's the dying.

The reason I was wondering was - had the Imperium made a mistake by putting him in the golden throne without realising it, and his life is being needlessly strung out preventing him from dying, when dying wouldn't have been a problem.

icn1982 wrote:
The reason I was wondering was - had the Imperium made a mistake by putting him in the golden throne without realising it, and his life is being needlessly strung out preventing him from dying, when dying wouldn't have been a problem.

Dying would probably have been a big problem.

^^ Likewise.

I recall something from the Inquisitor rp handbook a short fluff blurb on the first page about the High Lord's interring him on the throne after he was wounded by Horus. The throne successfully healed the Emperor but the Imperium was beginning to worship him and was pretty much the only thing holding things together so they kept him in there and deliberately never woke him up.

This fluff predates perpetuals, but as we haven't actually reached that point in the HH series it is still canon as far as I'm concerned. Horus' empowerment from the Chaos Gods meant that his battle with the Emperor affected both their physical bodies and their souls. The story goes that the Emperor lost his immortality due to both his body and soul being so heavily damaged. The reason he instructed Dorn to setup the Golden Throne as life support was that his body was still the most potent conduit into the material realm for his soul.