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Can the Emperor still communicate with people?

LightKing wrote:
Can the Emperor still communicate with people?

... Maybe?

the setting has been purposefully vague on that. we know where are people whom CLAIM to have been spoken to by the emperor, the last source of someone talking to the emperor was Alica Dominica. and we have no idea what happened. for all we know she was shown a corpse by the custodes and told (in truth or lie) that Vandire had actually killed him. but they needed to keep that secret

I wonder what he did with all those women around when he woke up?

I suspect Guilliman walks in, gets his expectations confirmed that Emperor is VERY dead and decides to have a nap. It sound like he's had a busy few weeks

I'm having a good time imagining that when the doors closed, Guilliman just plopped himself down, pulled out a bunch of power armor drawings, some crayons and started humming soft upbeat alternative rock to himself while coming up with a new batch of color schemes for the next founding of successor chapters.

 NH Gunsmith wrote:
I'm having a good time imagining that when the doors closed, Guilliman just plopped himself down, pulled out a bunch of power armor drawings, some crayons and started humming soft upbeat alternative rock to himself while coming up with a new batch of color schemes for the next founding of successor chapters.

GIVE THIS MAN A SUCCESSOR CHAPTER!!!!

 NenkotaMoon wrote:

 NH Gunsmith wrote:
I'm having a good time imagining that when the doors closed, Guilliman just plopped himself down, pulled out a bunch of power armor drawings, some crayons and started humming soft upbeat alternative rock to himself while coming up with a new batch of color schemes for the next founding of successor chapters.

GIVE THIS MAN A SUCCESSOR CHAPTER!!!!

And a little blue here... and a little blue here... aaaaannnd a little blue there...

BrianDavion wrote:

LightKing wrote:
Can the Emperor still communicate with people?

... Maybe?

the setting has been purposefully vague on that. we know where are people whom CLAIM to have been spoken to by the emperor, the last source of someone talking to the emperor was Alica Dominica. and we have no idea what happened. for all we know she was shown a corpse by the custodes and told (in truth or lie) that Vandire had actually killed him. but they needed to keep that secret

Jaq Draco Spoke with him in novel inquisitor, and there have been other instances of warp entities speaking on his behalf. So taken literally yeah he is still around, but I suppose it could be argued that there is an immerging warp entity created from the human worship of the emperor, which may or may not be the same entity as the moldering corpse sitting on the golden throne. If they are separate, then it's very likely Robby G tried to talk to his father for a day, failed, and then took the emperor's sword and set out to save the mankind.

Emperor: Please tell me everything hasn't gone to gak.
Guilliman: Hehe, you see, Daddy...

If it was me, it'd be Robby G calling emps out on all the negligence and manipulation he put his sons through that led to his whole plan for the galaxy going belly-up.

"Seriously Dad, for someone who is supposed to be a living God and an unbeatable warlord, I would have thought you'd be smart enough to recognise the importance of basic stuff like having the trust and respect of your generals?"

A cursory memo to his boys about why he did some particular things could have saved us all a lot of trouble.

Heck, if he's been around for as long as Ollanius, then he would've seen first hand how this very thing toppled empire after empire all through our history...

 Jambles wrote:
If it was me, it'd be Robby G calling emps out on all the negligence and manipulation he put his sons through that led to his whole plan for the galaxy going belly-up.

"Seriously Dad, for someone who is supposed to be a living God and an unbeatable warlord, I would have thought you'd be smart enough to recognise the importance of basic stuff like having the trust and respect of your generals?"

A cursory memo to his boys about why he did some particular things could have saved us all a lot of trouble.

Heck, if he's been around for as long as Ollanius, then he would've seen first hand how this very thing toppled empire after empire all through our history...

To be fair though, the ease with which the Primarchs lost faith and started acting like spurned children is pretty disturbing. All he really did to kick things off was go back to Earth to work on a super secret, super important project. That on its own should be enough for professional demigods of war to buckle down and say, "Right, it's up to us now so let's do our job and do it right."

 Luciferian wrote:

 NenkotaMoon wrote:

 NH Gunsmith wrote:
I'm having a good time imagining that when the doors closed, Guilliman just plopped himself down, pulled out a bunch of power armor drawings, some crayons and started humming soft upbeat alternative rock to himself while coming up with a new batch of color schemes for the next founding of successor chapters.

GIVE THIS MAN A SUCCESSOR CHAPTER!!!!

And a little blue here... and a little blue here... aaaaannnd a little blue there...

I can see him being the Oprah of successor Chapter colors. Everybody gets blue!

 Luciferian wrote:

 Jambles wrote:
If it was me, it'd be Robby G calling emps out on all the negligence and manipulation he put his sons through that led to his whole plan for the galaxy going belly-up.

"Seriously Dad, for someone who is supposed to be a living God and an unbeatable warlord, I would have thought you'd be smart enough to recognise the importance of basic stuff like having the trust and respect of your generals?"

A cursory memo to his boys about why he did some particular things could have saved us all a lot of trouble.

Heck, if he's been around for as long as Ollanius, then he would've seen first hand how this very thing toppled empire after empire all through our history...

To be fair though, the ease with which the Primarchs lost faith and started acting like spurned children is pretty disturbing. All he really did to kick things off was go back to Earth to work on a super secret, super important project. That on its own should be enough for professional demigods of war to buckle down and say, "Right, it's up to us now so let's do our job and do it right."

Now see, that's what the Emperor would be saying back

"Well BOBBY, I guess I figured that you living Demi-Gods wouldn't start having tantrums like spoiled babies, killing each other off over petty personal squabbles, and turning to the worship of ancient star-gods, if I left you alone for like two minutes."

 Jambles wrote:

 Luciferian wrote:

 Jambles wrote:
If it was me, it'd be Robby G calling emps out on all the negligence and manipulation he put his sons through that led to his whole plan for the galaxy going belly-up.

"Seriously Dad, for someone who is supposed to be a living God and an unbeatable warlord, I would have thought you'd be smart enough to recognise the importance of basic stuff like having the trust and respect of your generals?"

A cursory memo to his boys about why he did some particular things could have saved us all a lot of trouble.

Heck, if he's been around for as long as Ollanius, then he would've seen first hand how this very thing toppled empire after empire all through our history...

To be fair though, the ease with which the Primarchs lost faith and started acting like spurned children is pretty disturbing. All he really did to kick things off was go back to Earth to work on a super secret, super important project. That on its own should be enough for professional demigods of war to buckle down and say, "Right, it's up to us now so let's do our job and do it right."

Now see, that's what the Emperor would be saying back

"Well BOBBY, I guess I figured that you living Demi-Gods wouldn't start having tantrums like spoiled babies, killing each other off over petty personal squabbles, and turning to the worship of ancient star-gods, if I left you alone for like two minutes."

Seriously though, that's pretty lame. You can't genetically engineer good help these days.

 Luciferian wrote:

 Jambles wrote:

 Luciferian wrote:

 Jambles wrote:
If it was me, it'd be Robby G calling emps out on all the negligence and manipulation he put his sons through that led to his whole plan for the galaxy going belly-up.

"Seriously Dad, for someone who is supposed to be a living God and an unbeatable warlord, I would have thought you'd be smart enough to recognise the importance of basic stuff like having the trust and respect of your generals?"

A cursory memo to his boys about why he did some particular things could have saved us all a lot of trouble.

Heck, if he's been around for as long as Ollanius, then he would've seen first hand how this very thing toppled empire after empire all through our history...

To be fair though, the ease with which the Primarchs lost faith and started acting like spurned children is pretty disturbing. All he really did to kick things off was go back to Earth to work on a super secret, super important project. That on its own should be enough for professional demigods of war to buckle down and say, "Right, it's up to us now so let's do our job and do it right."

Now see, that's what the Emperor would be saying back

"Well BOBBY, I guess I figured that you living Demi-Gods wouldn't start having tantrums like spoiled babies, killing each other off over petty personal squabbles, and turning to the worship of ancient star-gods, if I left you alone for like two minutes."

Seriously though, that's pretty lame. You can't genetically engineer good help these days.

From my reading of the HH, the real chump of the lot was Fulgrim. Even Lorgar had misgivings at first about Chaos and the rebellion. Fulgrim goes from devout servant to absolute murderous traitor seemingly overnight.
The real moment is when he recognises that he is hearing voices in his head after getting a fancy new sword from a super normal and not at all messed-up temple, evil voices telling him all sorts of nasty things. Does this cause him distress, concern? Of course not!
"Oh wait, I'm PERFECT, so this is clearly just my PERFECT sub-conscious telling me things the way they really are!"
Herp, derp, corrupted. Barely put up a fight.

 Jambles wrote:

 Luciferian wrote:

 Jambles wrote:

 Luciferian wrote:

 Jambles wrote:
If it was me, it'd be Robby G calling emps out on all the negligence and manipulation he put his sons through that led to his whole plan for the galaxy going belly-up.

"Seriously Dad, for someone who is supposed to be a living God and an unbeatable warlord, I would have thought you'd be smart enough to recognise the importance of basic stuff like having the trust and respect of your generals?"

A cursory memo to his boys about why he did some particular things could have saved us all a lot of trouble.

Heck, if he's been around for as long as Ollanius, then he would've seen first hand how this very thing toppled empire after empire all through our history...

To be fair though, the ease with which the Primarchs lost faith and started acting like spurned children is pretty disturbing. All he really did to kick things off was go back to Earth to work on a super secret, super important project. That on its own should be enough for professional demigods of war to buckle down and say, "Right, it's up to us now so let's do our job and do it right."

Now see, that's what the Emperor would be saying back

"Well BOBBY, I guess I figured that you living Demi-Gods wouldn't start having tantrums like spoiled babies, killing each other off over petty personal squabbles, and turning to the worship of ancient star-gods, if I left you alone for like two minutes."

Seriously though, that's pretty lame. You can't genetically engineer good help these days.

From my reading of the HH, the real chump of the lot was Fulgrim. Even Lorgar had misgivings at first about Chaos and the rebellion. Fulgrim goes from devout servant to absolute murderous traitor seemingly overnight.
The real moment is when he recognises that he is hearing voices in his head after getting a fancy new sword from a super normal and not at all messed-up temple, evil voices telling him all sorts of nasty things. Does this cause him distress, concern? Of course not!
"Oh wait, I'm PERFECT, so this is clearly just my PERFECT sub-conscious telling me things the way they really are!"
Herp, derp, corrupted. Barely put up a fight.

Come on, poor Fulgrim. Who would have known that taking an sword that was perfectly put in the middle of an epileptic temple with a lot of worms procreating in the middle while monaning could be harmful? He was just a poor victim of...

Nah. He was just a pompous, arrogant so-called artist guy.

The emperor did worse than just ignore the primarchs, he actively did stuff that makes you think how were there any loyalists in the first place?

 Luciferian wrote:

 NenkotaMoon wrote:

 NH Gunsmith wrote:
I'm having a good time imagining that when the doors closed, Guilliman just plopped himself down, pulled out a bunch of power armor drawings, some crayons and started humming soft upbeat alternative rock to himself while coming up with a new batch of color schemes for the next founding of successor chapters.

GIVE THIS MAN A SUCCESSOR CHAPTER!!!!

And a little blue here... and a little blue here... aaaaannnd a little blue there...

Loving the responses, guys!

Earth127 wrote:
The emperor did worse than just ignore the primarchs, he actively did stuff that makes you think how were there any loyalists in the first place?

HERESY!

As the doors shut behind him, silence descended. Roboute's eyes instantly adjusted to the dim light. As he walked forward, he glanced left and right. Banners and standards hung along the walls. Some familiar. Most were not. The last time he was here, he was carrying a palanquin, heavy with the life support equipment and almost corpse of his father. He felt mixed emotions at the time. Certainly, his love for his father was unquestioned, but looking back, he saw so many mistakes and missed opportunities. Withdrawing back to his Palace on Terra and naming Horus the Warmaster seemed like a good idea at the time, but looking back now, he could see the corruption as it entered into his brother's soul. Roboute sighed, and remembered how he mourned the loss of Sanguinious more than his Father, and how guilty he felt about that. Sanguinious was the best of them all. If anyone could have led the Imperium after those dark days, it would have been him. He had no illusions about his ability to inspire people the way his brother could. It was why he offered him a place in his Second Empire. Those days... so much still had to be done. His Codex written, trying to forge a new government to rule the sprawling Imperium without the Emperor- and their were still the Traitors to deal with. There was so much to do... and then to be struck down by such treachery!

A small pain made him hesitate a step. This armor might be the only thing keeping him alive now. Much like the Golden Throne for the Emperor. But what is life? For someone like Roboute, who was created for one thing, and one thing only, it was an easy question. When the purpose of that question was taken away, then what? This question had been preoccupying him greatly. In those days before his own entombment, he could see that he was merely going through the motions, doing what was expected of him, trying to hold a crumbling Imperium together. 10,000 years after all his efforts, this is the Imperium he comes back to. A people worshiping a corpse on a Golden Throne that never wished to be worshiped. Following the edicts of a book that was heresy and one of the root causes of The Great Betrayal. They looked upon with awe, and the hope that he would restore the Imperium to it's former glory! He would defeat all the enemies, strike down all the Xeno's, purge the Heretics... the list went on and on. Very troubling that so many have to so much faith in him. He could use that faith though. He could forge his own destiny, make his own dreams a reality. A perfect Imperium that only he was qualified to rule...

Shaking his head, he realized he had stopped and been gazing at the Standard of the Third Legion. It was an old standard, from the early days of The Great Crusade. In a few swift steps, Roboute reached up and tore the standard down. Was that amusement he felt in his mind? Looking around, he saw other Banners of the Legions. Quickly, he tore down all the Traitor Legions banners. They would need to be destroyed. Such influence, here of all places over 10,000 years... there would be much, much more to do over the coming days. Returning to the main walk, he continued toward the soft light that bathed his father on his Golden Throne.

Approaching the throne, he could feel the psychic presence of his father. He did not have that particular gift like some of his brothers. No, Roboute was made for another purpose, one that he would have to fulfill if he was going to repair this shattered Imperium. The presence though... it was different. The same, but different. Perhaps one of his brothers could have defined it better then him, but it felt almost sickly... like water with an oily stain running through it. Maybe it was the Life Support equipment. The Golden Throne was never meant to contain him this long. It was to be a temporary measure until the Medicade and Tech-Engineers could bring Him back to life. Who did this? Why was he still on the Golden Throne? The soft hum of the machinery could be heard as he strode forward.

Finally, after reaching the bottom step, Roboute looked up in the soft light. Above him, all he could see was the wires, and tubes and other machinery plugged into a... corpse. A very desiccated corpse. If he hadn't felt the slim thread of his Father's presence, he would have said he was dead.

"Father..." Roboute whispered. There was no reply.

Roboute stood there, contemplating the nature of life, his place in it. At some point he began to plan...

Excellent, Tamwulf! Is it actually official? Really nice read, thanks for sharing

Emperor: Take my deck Rowboat, you must defeat Abaddon and save the universe.

 BobNT wrote:
I suspect big E explained that Cypher must be allowed to kill E with the special sword that he brought to Terra, so that big E can finally die and reborn.

I keep reading this idea but NONE bother to explain why Emperor would have wanted to delay that until now. Emperor WANTED to be enthroned into golden throne. HE ordered it. HE told how to do it. If he hadn't specifically instructed how they couldn't have plugged him into life support.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Luciferian wrote:
Assuming he actually did have some kind of meaningful interaction with the Emperor, which mechanism would have facilitated such an exchange?

Emperor is known to have talked with people who have entered his throne room. Inquisitor trilogy.

tneva82 wrote:

 BobNT wrote:
I suspect big E explained that Cypher must be allowed to kill E with the special sword that he brought to Terra, so that big E can finally die and reborn.

I keep reading this idea but NONE bother to explain why Emperor would have wanted to delay that until now. Emperor WANTED to be enthroned into golden throne. HE ordered it. HE told how to do it. If he hadn't specifically instructed how they couldn't have plugged him into life support.

Perhaps He did so as an emergency stop-gap to plug the Daemon flood and hold the Imperium together, or as a temporary life support system. The Throne is failing after all, it could be that it intended to keep him aliv and strong to heal but the energy requirement instead drained all of his strength which is why He rotted.

tneva82 wrote:

 BobNT wrote:
I suspect big E explained that Cypher must be allowed to kill E with the special sword that he brought to Terra, so that big E can finally die and reborn.

I keep reading this idea but NONE bother to explain why Emperor would have wanted to delay that until now. Emperor WANTED to be enthroned into golden throne. HE ordered it. HE told how to do it. If he hadn't specifically instructed how they couldn't have plugged him into life support.

Well, it's a nice cliché, isn't it? The throne becoming a prison? I wonder how many 'all powerful rulers' have the same experience.

I agree with the idea that it was initially a stopgap, but for whatever reason, outside forces may not have done all they could to keep the throne and the emperor functioning perfectly during his period of vulnerability.

nareik wrote:

tneva82 wrote:

 BobNT wrote:
I suspect big E explained that Cypher must be allowed to kill E with the special sword that he brought to Terra, so that big E can finally die and reborn.

I keep reading this idea but NONE bother to explain why Emperor would have wanted to delay that until now. Emperor WANTED to be enthroned into golden throne. HE ordered it. HE told how to do it. If he hadn't specifically instructed how they couldn't have plugged him into life support.

Well, it's a nice cliché, isn't it? The throne becoming a prison? I wonder how many 'all powerful rulers' have the same experience.

I agree with the idea that it was initially a stopgap, but for whatever reason, outside forces may not have done all they could to keep the throne and the emperor functioning perfectly during his period of vulnerability.

As with many things we've probably only been told part of the story. Maybe E told them both how to install him into the throne but also how and when to remove him from it. However over the years the message has been lost or more likely misinterpreted.

Maybe the instructions were to find or build something specific in order to release him from the Golden Throne but E didn't know the exact scale of the impact the HH had on Mars. Maybe his plan relied on some special technical skills or equipment that had been safely stored on Mars but were then subsequently destroyed or locked away in the faults deep under Mars and with the decline in technological advancements they've been unable to produce another *insert name of thing*.

Maybe the secrets are in a fully functioning STC but again no one has found one that's not been corrupted in one way or another.

Maybe they have the technology to unplug E but the high lords of terra have conspired to keep him locked into the Golden Throne in order to protect themselves and the power they have.

Maybe E has been asking the custodes to kill him for centuries but because they are sworn to protect him they have ignored this order, concerned it may be a trick.

Many ideas and questions but so few answers...

 BobNT wrote:

Maybe they have the technology to unplug E but the high lords of terra have conspired to keep him locked into the Golden Throne in order to protect themselves and the power they have.

That idea was given in the old Inquisitor game in one of the fluff pieces at the start. One of the characters says outright that they have the ability to revive the Emperor from the Golden Throne to which one of the others replies that it would snuff out the Astronomicon and cause the Imperium to disintegrate. What the Emperor's opinion was on the subject is not mentioned.

As to what happened when Roboute entered the throne room, we can determine a few things from what did NOT happen. There is no mention of the Astronomicon going out or orders not to bring any more Astropaths for Soul-binding. This means the Emperor is no more dead than he has been for several millennia (i.e. nearly but not quite). Roboute comes out and decides to "get stuff done".

This probably means that Emperor communicated with him (I am imagining a psychic conversation like Corax had in Deliverance Lost) and told him something that was sufficient to get him motivated. This could have been anything from "there's a light at the end of the tunnel" to "Illegitimi non carborundum".

Very curious if we'll see Guilliman slowly start removing more of the corruption in the Imperium.

Very very curious what's gonna happen now that Cypher is on Terra.

Guilliman got everything he needed: purpose.

From a military perspective though, Guilliman would need to be brought up to speed with current Imperium deployments, doctrines, on-going conflicts, logistics etc.

I imagine that the Emperor wants Guilliman to slowly impliment the changes to the Imperium that the Emperor couldn't achieve or chose not to at the time for whatever reasons/political I assume.

E:.....
G:father....
E:......
G:Brah....what happened?
E:All I'm going to say, never suggest being kept on life support with out the ability to talk via a vox
G: you know they are worshiping you right?
E: that stupid sissy son of mine Logar fethed this all up. Listen go punch those highlords in the balls and also my son, why did you think breaking up the legions was a good idea, I mean I gave you the best fighting force and what do you do, say oh let's gimp them for unknown reasons.