40K: The Gathering Storm – The Emperor Is Dead; Long Live Mankind!
If I had a wish list for Gathering Storm, this would be at the top: the Emperor of Mankind dead and buried.
For those who don’t already know, I have played Imperial armies since the start of the new millennium: Space Wolves, Grey Knights, now Iron Hands/Admech. However, I am also a Horus Heresy fan, and believe me, this Emperor guy has screwed things up so many times. The last thing I want is for him to get his sorry ass out of that life-support system he sits in. This guy has absolutely no real interest in the future of humanity, only his ego and pet projects. Frankly, the more I read, the more I realize the Horus Heresy was little more than an inconvenient sideshow to him; a distraction. Funny thing is, his own actions are what even allowed the Heresy to take place. The Emperor is directly responsible for, or at least allowed to happen, several significant events that directly led several of his sons to follow the Chaos Gods.
The Council Of Nikaea: That worked out well. Leaving the Ultramarines almost helpless against the Word Bearers when they invaded Calth. Interesting how Guilliman, the straight arrow, was one of the first loyalist Primarchs who said “bugger off” and allowed his boys to use their psychic powers. Eventually, most of the loyalist chapters realized the idiocy of Nikaea, and gave up on the Emperor’s great edict. Then there’s the Golden Boy had a hissy fit when Magnus tried to warn him about Horus. Sure, he violated the Nikaea Edict, but more importantly, it interfered with the Emperor’s lab experiment. Speaking of which…
The Great Work: The Emperor left the Great Crusade to dig holes in the basement of his castle. He was so sure that he could make the Eldar Webway buried under the Imperial Palace on Terra work for the benefit of Mankind. What an arrogant idiot. Let’s be honest, he had no real clue as to what he was dealing with. His eternal arrogance and hubris opened the way for the disaster that almost destroyed Terra before Horus even arrived. Sure, the message Magnus sent acted as a catalyst and allowed legions of deamons to pour into the real world beneath the surface of Terra. But let’s be clear; if the all-powerful Emperor had not dug up the Webway in the first place, Magnus would have had to seek another path for his message to reach the Holy Planet.
Eat Me Lorgar: I know the Emperor didn’t want to be worshipped. Hell, he didn’t want any kind of non-secular religious activity at all. But, because he wasn’t in the mood for Lorgar’s “foolishness,” he rhetorically beats the guy about the head and shoulders, causing him to worship Chaos instead. If the Emperor is so intelligent and omnipotent, couldn’t he have at least tolerated Lorgar’s adoration?
Unleash the Hounds: Magnus breaks the rules, and the Emperor orders him brought to Terra for judgement. Granted, his orders to Leman Russ were manipulated by Chaos so that the Thousand Sons were destroyed, not just brought to heel. But without the Nikaea Edict, none of this would have happened. Lest we forget, it was the Emperor himself who first taught the psychic arts to Magnus. Just another hypocritical move by the Master of Mankind.
Horus the Warmaster: Who chose Horus anyway? Golden Boy of course. I mean, it’s not like he’s supposed to be prescient. Oh wait. How then could he not know what was going to happen? He could have chosen Sanguinius, or Guilliman…someone without Horus’ overbearing ego. First among equals? Yeah, that worked out pretty well there, Master of Mankind.
Tyrant/Xenophobe: Yes, both of these words describe the “Immortal” Emperor perfectly. If they are human and won’t join the Imperium, wipe them out. If they are a xenos race, wipe them out. What a great diplomat and visionary, uniting all of Mankind on Earth under an adamantium lined boots. Now let’s go out and do the same to the rest of the galaxy.
Tyranid Bait: Well at least there’s the Astronomicon. Wait a minute…why is my brain itching? Could it be a “shadow in the warp?” Most of the backstory confirms that it was the light of the Astronomicon that first drew the attention of the Hive Mind. Overloading the Pharos surely helped things along, but Golden Boy lit the first candle.
These are just some of the reasons to kill his sorry butt off. Moreover, if the Emperor returns, it will set the storyline back so far, it may never recover. It won’t be about defeating Chaos and saving Mankind. That was always just a hobby for the Emperor. He had all of the loyal Primarchs to do the heavy lifting. He will want to set things back to the way they were…the world clock will be reset by ten millennium in a heartbeat. And you can bet the Master of Mankind will make the same arrogant mistakes he made before. Wait, Stormy. What about the Astronomicon? The Light of the Emperor that allows warp travel? What if that disappears? he story writers already created the Pharos as an acceptable alternative. Difficult to believe they can’t/won’t do the same again. By the way, if Eldrad and his Aeldari buddies get their way and bring the God of Death into existence to fight Slaanesh, this is supposed to extinguish the Emperor’s light anyway.
Finally, the most important reason to kill him off is that as a martyr, he will be a driving force to all of the forces of the Imperium. Martyrs in history have always provided their followers with fanatical passion and motivation. He is much more valuable dead than alive.
With the Emperor really gone, all of the dead wood and fallen rigging can be cut away. The storyline will have so many possible paths…not all of them good perhaps, but at least moving away from the Emperor’s failures of the past. Bringing back long “dead” or missing Primarchs, from both sides, is something that would add so much more to the 40K Universe than raising the Corpse Emperor. So long Master of Mankind. I’d like to say I’m going to miss ya, but then I’d be a hypocrite just like you.
Emperor…Dead or Alive, what’s your verdict?
