40K Grimdark Theories: Guilliman is Going To Undo the Horus Heresy
Today let’s take a look at one of the craziest theories out there about what Guilliman is really up to.
Roboute Guilliman, the Avenging Son, is loose in the galaxy. From world to world, he travels taking to fight to the enemies of his father’s Imperium. A master planner Guilliman seems to be up to something. Not merely content with fighting fires, the Last Loyal Primarch (as side from the Lion who is… probably loyal?) must have some end game, some higher goal in mind for his actions. Just what that might be is a matter of debate. No one is quite sure of all his plans. One, albeit far fetched, theory has Guilliman’s goal as nothing less than the undoing of the Horus Heresy itself. Let us take a look at this crazy idea.
His Father’s Sword
When they returned, Guilliman set forth from Terra at the head of the Indomitus Crusade. He did so armed with a power greater than any he had carried before: The Sword of The Emperor – an ancient and terrible blade forged by the Master of Mankind. Wielded by the Emperor during the Unification Wars, and Great Crusade this weapon showcases the many talents of He-Of-Terra, melding lost sciences with warpcraft and other forbidden knowledge. To mortal eyes, it is a burning golden blade. Like other warptouched weapons its size and form can change to fit the user. It is a most potent blade. In the hands of the Emperor, it was a rare few who could survive even a single blow from it. Even Horus, the traitor Warmaster himself, could not stand before the blazing sword.
Among its many potent properties is the ability to bring the True Death (what is this True Blood now?) to the Neverborn. Typically slain Neverborn are simply returned to the Warp for a time. However those that suffer the True Death are gone forever. The Sword of The Emperor is not the only way that a Neverborn can suffer the True Death. A handful of others are known to have suffered this fate. However it is by far the surest and “easiest” way to accomplish it. Most other methods require some ritual or secret knowledge, and even then, the result is unsure. The Sword of The Emperor wielded by Guilliman needs none of this. He demonstrates this in “The Plague War,” merely needing to strike its target.
The Nature of Daemons
That Guilliman has his father’s blade is one key part of this theory. The other relies on the nature of Daemons, the Neverborn. Since they are beings of the Warp, Daemons do not obey the laws of time that constrain the material realm. Daemons are, in fact, timeless, existing in all times simultaneously. Consider the description of the “birth” of Drach’nyen, the End of Empires from Master of Mankind:
“Behind the veil, there is no when and then. Everything is now. Always and eternally now, in the shifting tides of an infinite malignance.
Lights shine in that malignant black: the lights of sentience that draw the darkness closer. The same lights flare and shriek and dissolve at the merest touch from the forces around them. Dreams and memories take shape only to shatter amidst the claws and jaws manifesting within the nothingness.
The scream plunges on through every whisper of hatred that will ever be spoken by a human mouth or thought by a human mind… In the creature’s shrieking journey across the warp, it touches the minds of every human who ever was and will be, from the long-dead to those yet to be born.”
As we can see, a Daemon at the moment of it’s “birth” already exists in all times and places. It is because of this that one like Slaneesh, even with a known “birth date” has always and will always exist
The Theory
Samus is here.
Alright, so let us get down the details of this crazy theory going around. The basic idea goes like so: Guilliman’s Sword can give Daemons the True Death, killing them for real-real. Since Daemons exists outside of time, or at all times, a Daemon killed “now” would die in all times. They would never have existed. If a Daemon is unmade in this way, is it not possible that their works, their actions, past, present, and future, would also be undone somehow?
If we take that to be the case, the theory suggests that it is Guilliman’s ultimate goal to find daemons responsible for causing the Heresy and giving them the True Death. Thus undoing their work. While the death of most Neverborn would have little effect, some might. For instance, what if the daemon is known as Samus (a major figure in Heresy) were unmade. What if those Daemons that whispered to child Erebus and first turned him on a dark path, never did? It is this goal that the theory states Guilliman is working towards: the killing of the right beings to undo the tragedy of the Heresy and set the Galaxy to rights once more.
Verdict
Overall I do think this theory is pretty far fetched. Indeed, it’s not the weirdest thing I’ve heard, and 40K is full of strange things and contradictions, so much so that I don’t even think a paradox matters much, the Warp is just weird like that. So while this is technically possible, I don’t think it’s likely at all. We don’t know that killing a daemon with the Emperor’s Sword actually undoes their work, it hasn’t been tested enough, but I doubt this is the plan of either Guilliman or the writers. Still, it’s a nice idea; time travel is an oft used crutch to get out of bad situations. And I can see the appeal of wanting 40K to have a “happy ending” – the Emperor and the Primarchs together again, ruling over a united and peaceful humanity and then The End.
We won’t get it, but I can see why people would want to dream about it.
Let us know what you think about this theory, down in the comments!
