The Immortal Emperor of Mankind, Part 3: Resurrection?
For our final (for now) look at everyone’s favorite divinity on life support, let’s take a brief look at the various tales and predictions for the Emperor’s possible return.
Like any good messianic figure, the God Emperor just refuses to stay down, and his potential resurrection or rebirth has been mentioned in a number of different was. As with so much of what we have been told about the Emperor, much of this comes from obscure older sources, but is nonetheless worthy of consideration.
The first scenario for the Emperor’s resurrection is probably familiar to many of us, the Star Child theory. According to this potential, when he “died” the soul and consciousness of the Emperor became dispersed throughout the Warp, anchored still to his body, but spread thin in his efforts to protect his species. One part of this prodigious essence however remained largely intact, the germ of everything he was, the seed of his consciousness if you will. This kernel of the Emperor’s mind is known as the Star Child, a new godling, different from the Emperor yet still him, awaiting its chance to be born. Perhaps this could be a holdover from the Emperor’s Shaman origins, the drifting soul of the deceased being awaiting the final death of his body to be reborn into a new mortal shell. Or perhaps the new entity would be one born entirely of the Warp, a new god of the Immaterium unfettered by physical flesh standing as a counterpoint and equal to the four Ruinous powers.
The second projection is still in some versions tied to this first scenario, and centers around a group of individuals known as the Sensei. The Sensei are post human beings who live amongst humanity, men and women who, by perhaps eons of descent, have the blood of the Emperor in their veins. As might be expected in these individuals, this atavistic trait affords them great power, including the Emperor’s immunity to the ravages of time. In connection to the resurrection of the Emperor, the Sensei will themselves ascend and merge with his essence, or that of the Star Child, and the incorporation of their powers will be the final catalyst that allows the Emperor’s rebirth. A shadowy organization known as the Illuminati (first appearing in all but the oldest incarnations of 40k lore and notably absent from more recent incarnations), seeks to safeguard this event by gathering and sheltering the Sensei, to ensure their survival and availability when the time comes. It has even been suggested that they might be able to jumpstart the event by slaying all of the gathered Sensei in the immediate vicinity of the Golden Throne immediately prior to the Emperor’s final expiration. In more recent lore however, the only mention of these groups is in a brief tale of the eradication by the Inquisition of a subversive Tzeenchian cult centered on beings known as the Sensei. Whether this official story is the truth, or a gross miscalculation on behalf of the Imperium is not clear (or perhaps it is simply a rather more clever than usual retcon on GW’s behalf), and all we know about the Sensei and Illuminati must be taken with a grain of proverbial salt.
Finally there have been a number of concepts of the Emperor’s resurrection tied with that most secretive of bodies within the Imperial organization, the Inquisition itself. Indeed, we know from shadowy events immediately following the Emperor’s death that the then fledgling Inquisition believed that a true reuniting of the Emperor’s body and soul, restoring him as he was, was not only a possibility, but one that was within their grasp. How this might have been accomplished is anyone’s guess, but it lead to a vicious schism within the Inquisition between those who desired to make the attempt and those who feared the possibility of failure, or even the potential repercussions of success. Though the original method has been lost, the concept has survived to this day amongst the Thorian sect within the Inquisition. This philosophy is concerned with the ways in which the Emperor acts upon his realm, particularly through his Saints. According to one of their myriad theories these individuals are those in whom the Emperor has invested a portion of his mighty will so that he can act directly on the mortal world, and that this process might hold the key to finding or engineering the perfect vessel for the Emperor’s will to fully reenter the mortal plane. Though considered a puritan sect among the Inquisition, some of the methods and subdivisions within the Thorians themselves dabble in what can only be considered radical acts, researching dark sorcerous methods of binding soul and body, or forbidden alien and lost technological methods of creating similar effects. Tantalizingly, there is always the potential that the original method for effecting a true resurrection is still viable, if only it could be rediscovered.
Whatever the truth of the Emperor’s resurrection, if indeed it is possible, the close of the 41st millennium must stand on the cusp of discovering the truth, as the spectacularly complex arcane technologies of the Golden Throne have begun after 10,000 years, to slowly fail. These failures are said to be beyond all the skill of the tech priests to halt, or perhaps even to delay. If this happens without the resurrection or rebirth of the Emperor, then, Imperial propaganda aside, it seems unlikely that humanity will survive a new Age of Strife, while his return might usher in a golden age whose promise was cut short by treachery 10,000 years before. The doom of humanity is inextricably tied to the doom of the Emperor.
References:
Realms of Chaos
Inquisitor Rulebook
Inquisitor: Thorian Scource
Warhammer 40,000 5th edition Rulebook
What are your takes on the Emperor’s return? How will it come about, if at all? Have you heard scenarios other than those I have touched on?
If you have a favorite corner of the 40k lore that would like to see featured, or just a lore question you think would interest the community, let me know, you can even PM me on the forum if you like. New ideas are always welcome.
