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Father, Protector of Mankind, God Emperor, The Golden God, and source of Human salvation, many are the names of the Emperor inWarhammer: 40K. This ageless, hyper-intelligent, psychically gifted, and towering giant of a man is the “god” or adopted patriarch of humans in the dark unending cataclysm that is the far future of 40K.
Entire books have been written cataloging this god-like being’s impact in the Warhammer universe over the years and there’s quite a lot to get through. But, we’ve condensed it all into a manageable, and brief, rundown. So here’s everything you need to know about the Emperor in Warhammer: 40K.
Who Is The Emperor?
A gigantically tall male with raven black hair, seemingly perfect features, and supposedlymillions of years oldand eternally young if not at leastaging extremely slowly, the Emperor has been around for a very long time. But he was not born normally, instead, this messiah being was birthed from thevoluntary sacrifice of thousands of powerful Shamans on Earththousands upon thousands of years ago duringthe Neolithic Period.
The massive release of psionic energy from their passing allowed the Shamans tocollect their consciousness together into a gestalt beingthat then formed into a person. This new man retained all of their strength, wisdom, experience, andunfathomable psychic powerand was almost immortal, with the end goal being to “save” humanity from the perils of the Warp and guide it into the future. Especially after the tumultuousDark Age of Technologyhad left humanity scattered to the solar winds, technologically regressed, or both.
For example, when the Emperor rose to power,Earth was wreathed in constant civil waras warlords and bitter rivals with enough firepower fought it out for years over every square inch of land.
Whilst in the dark reaches of space the far-off human colonies created during humanity’s Golden Era wereleft to fend for themselves for thousands of years. All was not good, andsomeone needed to fix it.
The Emperor’s Rise To Power
The Earth was in turmoiland the would-be Emperor had quite the task ahead of him. But over the centuries he had managed to amass wealth, influence, and a modicum of power. Using hisadvanced intellecthe devised designs for powerful weaponry andgenetically enhanced soldiers known as Thunder Warriors.
These massive men wereencased in near-impenitrable armor and wielded advanced weaponrythe likes of which no human army had encountered before. The slaughter was fast, brutal, andcompletely one-sidedin most engagements.
As the last War Lord fell, the Golden God leading the conquering forcestook up the mantle of Emperor Of Mankindand united the last remnants of Earth under one banner, whether they wanted to or not.
Thunder Warriors werethe original design for Space Marines. But they were outlawed and hunted down after the Unification Wars due to theirpropensity for psychotic instability.
With the Human race all now aimed as one, the Emperor began his grand plan as heturned his gaze to the black void above. He wouldreconnect with the far-off lost coloniesand establish agrand galaxy-spanning Imperium for Humanity.
Many of these lost worlds would join the new Imperium,but many would not. Those that refused were obliterated orbeaten down and kept firmly under the bootheelof the Imperium.
It was quite the undertaking, andthe Emperor badly needed helpin building and then maintaining this grand idea. He had plans and achieved so much,but he was just one man.
The Primarch Project
You can’t talk about the Emperor without mentioningthe Primarchs. Genetically engineered offspring that were originally created with the purpose ofleading the grand armies of the Imperiumdeep into space. Where more worlds would be brought under the control of mankind, with anylocal alien population or “Xenos” being culledas an affront to the purity of mankind. Bit fascistic, but what can you do.
There were18 Primarchs created in artificial wombsin a secret research bunker under the Himalayan Precinct of the Imperial Palace. However, due to the machinations of the Chaos Gods, these bottled babies wereteleported randomly across the galaxy.
Each child was raised in a different world, with different peoples, climates, andextremely differing childhoods and circumstancesthrust upon them. Some became great leaders, brutal conquerors, champions of the people, or groundbreaking architects of their adopted homeworlds and that’s all most of them needed in life.
Then good old biological dad turned upand things got pretty complicated and messy. All the Primarchs were visited, one by one by the Emperor whosought to reclaim his lost offspringand bring them and their worlds back into the rather slightly too tight embrace of the Imperium. Some went willingly, others begrudgingly, andone or two were taken against their will.
There’s a reason there’s a running joke in the Warhammer Community aboutthe Primarchs having “Daddy Issues”. The rocky reunion and subsequent meddling of their Patriarch would cause a lot of issues going forward.
Space children returned and a fractured family reunited once more, the Emperor would quicklyput his children to work as the leaders of his new Space Marine Chapters. Grand armies ofgenetically enhanced ubermenschwere the final culmination of the now-ancient Thunder Warrior research program.
The Crusades
Building a galaxy-spanning Empire of “enlightenment” wouldn’t be an easy task. Grand military operationsknown as Crusadeswould be launched. Vast armadas would stab out into the inky blackness of the void toreconnect with other lost coloniesand expand the Imperium’s realm of influence.
It went well for a time andlarge swathes of space fell under the banner of the Imperiumin the following centuries. Worlds would be brought into the light of the God-Emperor and in return, he wouldensure the galaxy cast down every church, its stones, and its priests, with the goal of advancing past religion and into logic and science. Sadly mankind has done quite the U-Turn on that one.
The Webway Project
The Emperor was a busy boy and wasalways working on some grand plan. The biggest of which was the attempt atcreating a connection to theEldar Webway system.
The original idea was to use it to allow humanity tobypass the need to use the Warp for space travel, and over time this would substantiallyweaken the Chaotic entitiesin the Immaterium.
Unfortunately, it was a project that wouldnever truly come to fruitionas the Horus Heresy kicked off and the Webway Portalbecame a direct gateway for the forces of Chaosinto the heart of the Imperial Palace. That is if it wasn’t for thenoble sacrifice of Malcador The Sigilatein keeping it locked from the other side.
The Horus Heresy
Whilst the Crusades were in full swing, The Emperors projects that he had going on under his belt kept him very busy. So he was a little distracted and couldn’t quite keep an eye on his genetic super sons as closely as he should have.
If he had, the God-King wouldhave seen that all was not well, some of his sons, mainlyHorus, Lorgar, Angron, Mortarion, Conrad Kurze, Alpharius, Fulgrim, and Peturburabodecided they knew better. Amassive civil warwould occur between those still loyal to the Emperor and those who had signed up under the banner of Chaos.
It was a conflict that lasted a very long time, destroyed thousands of worlds, killed trillions of people, and shattered the galaxy in half with theopening of gigantic Warp Rifts. The effects of this conflict are still felt today, and worst of all, it led to the “death” of the Emperor and some of his sons.Ferrus, Horus, and Sanguinus.
Where Is He Now?
Currently,The Emperor is sitting dormant on his Golden Throneat the heart of the Imperial Palace on Terra. There he sits on his chair that’s been converted into a now ancient life-support machine thatprojects the Emperor’s psychic will across the galaxyin the form of the Astronomicon.
A skeletal, rotting figure of a man, it’s aliving deaththat should he succumb to, willspell the doom for the human raceas Warp Travel will become almost impossible. To keep him going, Tech Priests regularly attempt to repair the aging Stasis Device, but unfortunately,it’s so old that the tech, knowledge, and parts have been lost to time.
For now,the Golden Throne is fed a steady supply of Psykersfrom the Imperium Black Fleets in order to keep it operating.These human batteries don’t last long, with 500 often being burned through in a day if not a few minutes. And worst of all, the Throne just isn’t cutting it anymore,The Emperor is slowly dyingand it won’t be long until he’s gone for good.
The Future Of The Emperor
For now,the future of the Emperor is slightly up in the airas Games Workshop and its Black Library writers try to figure out what to do with him. So far everything seems to besetting him up for either dying or potentially returningin a new form.
That form is known asthe Star Child, though there areconflicting theories and discussionson what that could actually be. Either the Emperor reborn, some new savior, or the birth of an Emperor-esque deity within the Immaterium itself that couldfight the Chaos Gods directly. Until then,the big Golden Guy is on a time limit.
