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So we know from Mechanium that the ol empy was about during the middle ages and such and we know he was god awful powerful even then (binding the dragon on mars) but what on earth was he up to since then? if he was so powerful why did he let the age of strife (or whatever it was, the dark age of technology) .m a hell of a lot of work reunifiying first eart, then the solar system then the galaxy

Because even with his mighty psychic powers he couldn't disperse all warp storms in the galaxy,but I think that with his powers that he could disperse warp storm around Sol,build his forces for some 5k years and then launch great crusade.

He's been sitting on a gilded toilet for 10,000 years. The answer is obvious, he's INCREDIBLY lazy.

I always understood he had always acted as a guiding hand to humanity. Humanity did pretty well for itself up to the age of strife, and the Emperor was most likely there helping from the background and intervening when necessary to ensure humanities survival.

But crazy powerful as he was he could not do much about the Eldar mindpoop. At this point his intervention was necessary to unsure humanities survival, though from his past actions it seems that he may not have ever wanted to be a crusading Emperor.

Once the storms started to die off he went about uniting humanity.

Personally, I wonder how much is still going "according to plan". A lot of literature implies that he is still very active in humanities defense, weather it is by fighting the daemons off in the warp, or once again subtly guiding from behind the scenes. I think an argument could be made for him having an overarching plan, and the current state of the Empire is a necessarily craptastic sacrifice for humanities long term survival. Kind of like going to grad school.

The Emperor was born in 8000BC and was active by the time He became an adult. Whilst He was born to ordinary human parents He is the re-incarnation of the shamans of Old Earth, their combines souls re-born in the body of the New Man. The New Man wandered the Earth helping out wherever He could from things like better agricultural techniques, technology, diplomacy et cetera, He always presented Himself as an ordinary man when dealing with humanity. From the background it is hinted that He could have been anyone from Merlin to Einstein, Jesus to Hitler. The New Man presented Himself as whomever He thought best to help guide and steer humanity and sometimes He messed things up pretty badly, afterall the Shamans created the New Man as a weapon against Chaos so He hasn't done too badly.

The slow creation of Slaanesh cut Earth off due to massive warp storms but these storms also protected humanity from Chaos and so the New Man used this time to prepare for the eventual birth of Slaanesh. His main plan was to create an entire new race of beings able to let the pure warp flow through them just as He did, the Primarchs but obviously that plan went awry and so He went to Plan B which saw the creation of the Space Marines from the left-over genetic material of the Primarchs and the start of the Great Crusade.

Given the information presented in the HH novel series it seems that the Emperor cuased the eventual creation of the Mechanicus and the Age of Strife plays a large part in their background. It could also be said that the Emperor allowed the Chaos Powers to scatter the Primarchs when He could have stopped them. Horus is shown a glimpse of the present Imperium and starts the Heresy to stop it (being led to believe it is because the Emperor has betrayed him) but of course the Heresy causes that future to come into existence.

My interpretation is that the Emperor was able to predict an outcome, far, far into the future that might see Chaos thwarted and Mankind dominate the galaxy and the Heresy was integral to that future and so He allowed it to happen.

When the Emperor was interred on the Golden Throne He was literally a talking corpse. Like all recently deceased persons some of His cells still lived and the Golden Throne keeps those few cells alive and allows his spirit (greatly deminished and cast adrift on the warp, known as the Star Child) to communicate with the physical world. The forces of Chaos are slowly driving the Emperor mad but the hope is that when humanity is ready the Star Child will be born into a new body that wil extinguish the Chaos Powers in an instant and unite Mankind. It could be that the Star Child will manifest as a single being or it might well manifest through all of Mankind making everyone an Emperor but that is far off.