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It seems that most of the Imperium's greatest figures are psykers or otherwise superhumans. I'm curious: who can lay claim to being the most influential "vanilla human" in the history of the Imperium? I'm excluding psykers, Astartes, perpetuals, blanks, living saints, and anyone capable of performing miracles through faith. People with bionic enhancements (such as Yarrick) or longevity treatments do count as vanilla by 40k standards.

Lord Solar Macharius is often cited as an extraordinary individual, though I'm not sure he was all that influential. The 1,000 worlds he reconquered are only 1/1000th of the size of the Imperium, and I remember seeing at least one vignette in a codex mentioning the same number of worlds being wiped out by some kind of psychic phenomenon or Warp storm; essentially negating Macharius' life work in a single footnote.

Sebastian Thor may have more of a claim to "most influential", given his role in ending Goge Vandire's Reign of Blood and reforming the Ecclesiarchy.

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Euphrati Keeler (if she counts), and Kyril Sindermann.

Sindermann's a pretty good one, given what we learn of his later life, but I think I'd lean more towards Sebastian Thor when it comes to shaping the life of the Imperium in M41.

beast_gts wrote:
Euphrati Keeler (if she counts), and Kyril Sindermann.

Had to look them up because I had never heard of them before.

Euphrati Keeler is a living saint with supernatural daemon-banishing powers, though, so I would say she doesn't count as a vanilla mortal.

Sindermann seems like a valid candidate.

I'd say both Goge Vandire and Sebastian Thor. The two were on opposite sides of one of the biggest mess in Imperial history (that didn't involve chaos supermen).

Macharius ?

Inquisitor Kryptman?

I’d say Kryptman.

I would say either Kryptman, Thor, Vandire or Dominica. I would be tempted to say Thor above all the others since he is an actor in everything Vandire and Dominica made of note and his reach was far more profound than Kryptman whose greatest achievement was simply to discover everybody was going to die (which still big).

Thor wasn't just one side of the age of apostasy, but he was the leading figure in the reforms that followed it: he is largely responsible for the ecclesiarchy as it looks today - and was the inspiration for a major Inquisitorial faction!

 godardc wrote:
Macharius ?

a great general and held up as a cause of inspiration for the guard but if you look at what he actually did to nfluence the Imperium....... it was precious little

I tend to agree with those who say Sebastien Thor, he's proably the most influential statesman to grace the IoM since Gulliman after the Heresy