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I know in older additions there were stories about the emperors offspring and that there was even a big theory built around it (starchild??) however I think that’s been done away with. So it is cannon now that the emperor never bothered with any of that kind of stuff and the closest thing he had to kids were grown in test tubes?

And thus I assume that the primarchs were never interested in being dads?

The Illuminati / Sensei / Star Child fluff was dropped in the early 90s.
The current fluff is that he doesn't view the Primarchs as his children, just tools.

Ah, careful now.

Sensei were a different thing to the Illuminati.

Sensei were human survivors of Daemonic Possession, who had the strength of will to kick the Daemon from their body.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Ah, careful now.

Sensei were a different thing to the Illuminati.

Sensei were human survivors of Daemonic Possession, who had the strength of will to kick the Daemon from their body.

Wasn't it the other way round - the Sensei were the Emperor's biological children, and the Illuminati the ex-Possessed?

beast_gts wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Ah, careful now.

Sensei were a different thing to the Illuminati.

Sensei were human survivors of Daemonic Possession, who had the strength of will to kick the Daemon from their body.

Wasn't it the other way round - the Sensei were the Emperor's biological children, and the Illuminati the ex-Possessed?

You are correct.

Remember the mantra of a certain Luetin09- Just because it hasn't been mentioned in a while does not mean it has been dropped.

Now, that being said the last official mention of anything regarding this from GW was in the 3rd ed rulebook that said a certain "Cult of the Star Child" was a suspected Tzeentchian cult. Also, there were sprinkled references in Xenology, but the "canonicity" of that is debatable by some.

The idea appears to have evolved into the Thorian faction of the Inquisition; who believe the Emperor´s spirit can be transferred into another host, referred to as a Divine Avatar.

 Grimtuff wrote:
Remember the mantra of a certain Luetin09- Just because it hasn't been mentioned in a while does not mean it has been dropped.

Now, that being said the last official mention of anything regarding this from GW was in the 3rd ed rulebook that said a certain "Cult of the Star Child" was a suspected Tzeentchian cult. Also, there were sprinkled references in Xenology, but the "canonicity" of that is debatable by some.

The idea appears to have evolved into the Thorian faction of the Inquisition; who believe the Emperor´s spirit can be transferred into another host, referred to as a Divine Avatar.

The 3rd edition thing was an in-universe conclusion by an Inquisitor. Remember characters within the universe can be mistaken and what could be more ironic than Tzeentch manipulating the Emperor's servants to destroy the Emperor's descendants?

The Sensei were written as the Emperor's descendants, not literally direct offspring necessarily. So the Sensei abilities could skip generations. The innate abilities themselves were rather low profile, mainly not dying of old age, being immune to negative excesses of emotion that fed the Chaos gods, and being immune from supernatural scrying. Their main commonality was their opposition to any perceived oppression or societal injustice. Therefore they often found themselves as outcasts or rebels against the Imperium. Any random do-gooder over the ages could have been a Sensei. Corasair with a heart of gold, the wandering gunslinger, the charismatic charity organization founder, etc...

Those Sensei that became aware of the Star Child could become effectively champions of the Star Child, with their boon being a +1 Strength (which is still relatively low key in a universe where all sorts of options exist to boost Strength).

I don't mind the Sensei because they are like tiny sparks of light in the grimdarkness. Any kindness or good they do is really small scale and doesn't really upset the overall galactic status quo.

Didn’t they rerelease the realm of chaos books recently ? Star child fluff is current again

They did indeed! Sadly, just in time for his book being reprinted, and clearly overcome with excite, Nurgle blessed us all!