Why does no one kill the God Emperor? (40K)

[Stravo]

I know next to nothing about Warhammer 40K so forgive the ignorant question. Most of what I know has been gleaned off of here and the variety of threads I've read so I checked up on wiki to see if I could get all the backstory together and read up on the God Emperor of Man and the Horus heresy. Great story by the way - but here's the question. It says the God Emperor is essentially in some sort of coma induced by his wounds and he is stuck on the Golden Throne as a sort of life support system ala Darth Vader.

Now it says the Golden Throne is in the Himalayas somewhere and he's guarded by an army of warriors and attendents in a palace that also doubles as some sort of hyperspace beacon that allows FTL in the Empire. You wanna talk about a prime target.

What bugs me about that is if Chaos could corrupt his finest son (Horus) why not some of those close to him? I mean you can't ask for an easier target, a guy on lifesupport comatose and oblivious to the world. With one fell swoop you can claim the Empire for yourself or at least go down forever in history as the man that slew the God Emperor.

So what gives? Is the God Emperor actually not comatose and can defend himself thus discouraging assasination attempts? What stops other Primarchs from visiting the emperor and put a sword in his ribs?

I'm asking because the setting seems to be dark and treachorous and yet you have the Emperor able to just lie there unmolested.

And what exactly is his power level considered in terms of most everyone else in the setting? Is he just a powerful Psyker or much more than that?

[HRogge]

The consciousness of the Emperor is alive... but he is a little bit busy to hold Chaos back to interact with the normal stuff on terra.

[18-Till-I-Die]

The Emperor is more than a Psyker, which is why killing him is bad.

He's a kind of living god, a Warp entity in human form whose sole purpose is to defend human civilization. And there is a theory if he dies, it could indeed destroy Chaos forever for he would be freed from his mortal body and become a real Warp God and destroy the Chaos Gods. So thus, they dont kill him.

Also he has massive psionic powers even in his injured state. Screwing with time and space and such. Even if you could get to the palace, which would mean going past thousands of ships, the entire Moon turned into a fortress, and slogging through a palace the size of Eastern Europe filled with traps, soldiers and even Titans...

You'd have to face down him eventually which would probably spell your doom. Its an 'easy' target in that he's stationary and seemingly vulnerable, but its kind of impossible to actually get to him without a massive force.

I get the impression, you'd need another Horus Heresy level of uprising to pull it off, and even then the benefits for Chaos are questionable.

[Black Admiral]

To start with, the GEoM's personal guard, the Adeptus Custodes, literally cannot conceive of betraying him (Visions Of War describes them as being possessed of "unbreakable devotion to the Emperor").

Also, the Chaos powers aren't sure what will happen if the GEoM dies; He may simply die, or might ascend and kick the hell out of them. Most likely, there'll be a massive battle between the Emperor and the Chaos Gods, and who wins is anyone's guess.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Basically its a "Strike me down, and Ishall become more powerful then you can imagine"

[Stravo]

When did this "If the Emperor dies he becomes a God" idea surface? After the heresy? Because if Horus was acting on behalf of Chaos and tried to kill him then either he was deluded or crazy or Chaos was ignorant of the consequences at the time. Or is it a smokescreen by his advisors to help deter attempts on the Emperor's life?

EDIT: Or it just occurred to me - Horus was doing what the Emperor wanted. Either he meant to place the Emperor in that state so that he could become more powerful or the Emperor chickened out at the last second and didn't want to die and achieve possible Aptheosis and slew Horus and directed Russ to get him in that Golden Throne right quick.

[Teleros]

Even before the Heresy he was being worshipped as a God, but he's basically a human with godlike psychic abilities. I remember reading 2nd Edition time that the Chaos Gods actually feared him, which isn't too shabby if you ask me .

The problem of course is that nobody's sure what'll happen if his body dies. He might ascend, he might die - in which case bye-bye Imperium .

[Lost Soal]

I know next to nothing about Warhammer 40K so forgive the ignorant question. Most of what I know has been gleaned off of here and the variety of threads I've read so I checked up on wiki to see if I could get all the backstory together and read up on the God Emperor of Man and the Horus heresy. Great story by the way - but here's the question. It says the God Emperor is essentially in some sort of coma induced by his wounds and he is stuck on the Golden Throne as a sort of life support system ala Darth Vader.

Now it says the Golden Throne is in the Himalayas somewhere and he's guarded by an army of warriors and attendents in a palace that also doubles as some sort of hyperspace beacon that allows FTL in the Empire. You wanna talk about a prime target.

The Imperial palace occupies Europe. His personal protection is a Leigion of Marines called the Adeptus Custodes, whichare more powerful than normal marines, there are two Titans standing guard outside the throneroom and no-one gets in without special authority. That includes, I believe, The High Lords of Terra who are the defacto rulers.

The Palace itself is also protected by a shield so powerful, that dispite continual bombardment from during the months long seige of Terra, it was still standing.
The planet itself is also the home base of Battlefleet Solar (one of them anyways), satalite defences and more. In short, Terra is the most highly defended world in the Imperium, it is far from an easy target.

What bugs me about that is if Chaos could corrupt his finest son (Horus) why not some of those close to him? I mean you can't ask for an easier target, a guy on lifesupport comatose and oblivious to the world. With one fell swoop you can claim the Empire for yourself or at least go down forever in history as the man that slew the God Emperor.

Horus was possessed by a deamon, and although we'll have to wait for the next part of the Horus Heresy Trillogy it looks like he was set up by the Word Bearers. Whiles information is sketchy, I believe the Custodes are above corruption, much ike the Grey Knights.

So what gives? Is the God Emperor actually not comatose and can defend himself thus discouraging assasination attempts? What stops other Primarchs from visiting the emperor and put a sword in his ribs?

I'm asking because the setting seems to be dark and treachorous and yet you have the Emperor able to just lie there unmolested.

And what exactly is his power level considered in terms of most everyone else in the setting? Is he just a powerful Psyker or much more than that?

First off, there are no more Primarchs running around freely. The surviving Chaos Primarchs are depended on the Warp, much like normal deamons.
Second, The Emperor has a very strong presence. An event called the Age of Apostace (Sp?) a couple thousand years ago, where the Head of the Ministorum, Lord Vandire, siezed control of the palace using his personal guards the Daughters of the Emperor, originators of the Adeptus Sororitas, to protect him. The Sisters were utterly loyal to him. Although he controlled the Palace he could not get to the Emperor.

The Custodes had sealed themselves off to stay out of the affairs, but seeing that it was tearing the Imperium apart, the Captain of the leigion went out and invited the leader of the Sororitas to come before the Emperor himself.
Naturally, she agreed.
When she came out after seeing him, she killed the Lord Vandire and proclaimed that they had been betrayed.
Any who comes before the Emperor with the intent of killing him, would likely be burnt to cindars.

[Lost Soal]

When did this "If the Emperor dies he becomes a God" idea surface? After the heresy? Because if Horus was acting on behalf of Chaos and tried to kill him then either he was deluded or crazy or Chaos was ignorant of the consequences at the time. Or is it a smokescreen by his advisors to help deter attempts on the Emperor's life?

EDIT: Or it just occurred to me - Horus was doing what the Emperor wanted. Either he meant to place the Emperor in that state so that he could become more powerful or the Emperor chickened out at the last second and didn't want to die and achieve possible Aptheosis and slew Horus and directed Russ to get him in that Golden Throne right quick.

Its likely the Emperor himself didn't know what would happen if he died. That, and he doesn't want to die.

[Stravo]

Keep in mind that I didn't imagine a betrayal in the sense of storming the palace. I mean more of a enemy within type situation where Chaos corrupts one of his close advisors or care takers and they kill the Emperor because they see him every day or something - of course me being unaware of the fact that he seems to be segregated in the palace and obviously no small feat to go see him now see how much harder that scenario would seem.

[18-Till-I-Die]

The impression i got, by the fact they kept insisting Rogal Dorn, the Emperor's "most loyal Primarch" made the throne for him...

Is that some of the higher ups of teh Imperium were too scared he might not actually be a god so they did this to keep him alive weather he wanted to or not. Supposedly the Emperor "instructed" Dorn to do this but as Starvo pointed out, that doesnt seem to make sense. I doubt the Emperor was completely ignorant of his own origins and purpose.

Also, there was a story where the uppers of teh Imperium basically said, there is nothing wrong with the Emperor anymore. But theyw ere afraid if he ever got up again it would cause an "uprising"...meaning he would outlaw the Imperial Cult and they'd be shit out of luck.

This is of course speculation but i just figure, it makes sense.

[Setzer]

The Necrons might be capable of mustering a fleet strong enough to overwhelm Terra's defenses, but their C'tan masters want the Imperium in place, since it keeps Chaos tied up.

Plus there's that little deal with the Coggies and Mephetran

[speaker-to-trolls]

Horus was possessed by a deamon, and although we'll have to wait for the next part of the Horus Heresy Trillogy it looks like he was set up by the Word Bearers. Whiles information is sketchy, I believe the Custodes are above corruption, much ike the Grey Knights.

That and Horus went galavanting around the galaxy leading the Emperors armies, there's a whole lot more opportunities for corruption there than in the life of a Custode who basically just stands guarding the Emperor with occasional breaks for training, praying and contemplating the Emperors divinity.

[NecronLord]

The Emperor is a god with foresight equal to or greater than the Chaos God of Change, and he can kill anyone this side of another god - Abaddon, Horus, you name it - he likes with a thought. He would know about an effort to assassinate him by infiltration centuries before it happened, and the second such an agent arrived, he'd tear their minds apart and leave them a dribbling vegetable at best.

[DocHorror]

One of the reasons, I believe, that the Emperor had the Golden Throne built was because the Imperium was in total chaos.

Horus had been killed, sure, but the Imperium was still practically torn in two & the Emperor was worried that Chaos would rally quickly & finish the job. Don't forget that for a good while after entering the GT he could still communicate & was technically still 'alive'.

[White Haven]

Of course, if you take the events in the Inquisition War trilogy as accurate, the Emperor is also rather impressively schizophrenic. At one point, Jaq is in the throne room, the Emperor conversing with him telepathically...and he's arguing with himself over whether the Hydra plot was his own idea or not. While he is undoubtedly frayed around the edges, that does demonstrate that he has psychic awareness blanketting the throne room at the very least. I seem to recall that the conversation took all of an instant, but I'd have to go back and double-check.

[SCVN 2812]

I'm no expert but it sounds like the mounting threats to the Imperium, Abaddon, the Tyranids, the Necrons and all the rest that I'm overlooking is requiring perpetually more of the Emperor's attention to hold the Imperium together. At last count the Imperium was in danger of being wiped out by all consuming aliens from another galaxy, their own people possessed by entities from another dimension.. I know there's at least another half dozen or so neigh unpreventable apocalypse scenarios running concurrently that I can't recall.

[Stark]

This thread reminds me of why 40k was a better setting before GW decided to lock everything in stone. Back in 2E, you could argue that the Imperium was corrupt and worthless, propped up by the person of a dead Emperor, controlled by ridiculous stories and fantastic tales about the Emperor and his men. Now, he's an uber-god who does everything all at once, he's 40,000 years old, and Chaos' original plan would have saved us all a lot of time.

[DocHorror]

This thread reminds me of why 40k was a better setting before GW decided to lock everything in stone. Back in 2E, you could argue that the Imperium was corrupt and worthless, propped up by the person of a dead Emperor, controlled by ridiculous stories and fantastic tales about the Emperor and his men. Now, he's an uber-god who does everything all at once, he's 40,000 years old, and Chaos' original plan would have saved us all a lot of time.

Uh, this has been the Emperors story since Rogue Trader, if anything there is less about in the Emperor in subsiquent editions.

[Stark]

That's my point. The basic fluff was lame but at least interesting: now that they've churned out dozens of books, all the interesting part is gone. It's just another crap scifi universe.

[Jason von Evil]

Think of it this way: If Jesus were on life support with no hope of returning to normal, do you think Christians are going to pull the plug?

I rest my case.

[fgalkin]

Keep in mind that I didn't imagine a betrayal in the sense of storming the palace. I mean more of a enemy within type situation where Chaos corrupts one of his close advisors or care takers and they kill the Emperor because they see him every day or something - of course me being unaware of the fact that he seems to be segregated in the palace and obviously no small feat to go see him now see how much harder that scenario would seem.

Plus, those who do have regular access to him are psycho-indoctrinated to be absolutely uncorruptible.


Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Uraniun235]

If it were really in humanity's best interest for the Emperor to die and ascend into total fuckin pwnage mode, why hasn't he commanded his boys to do so yet?

[Ghost Rider]

If it were really in humanity's best interest for the Emperor to die and ascend into total fuckin pwnage mode, why hasn't he commanded his boys to do so yet?

Real Answer: Because the cash cow would die, and then GW would have to actually invent new stuff. Bad, baaaaaaaad.

In Universe answer: Because they really have no idea whatsoever. It may, it may not...better err on the side of caution.

[Stark]

GR, that's why I'm not a fan of - as far as I can tell - GW filling in the blanks over the last decade. It *used* to be - from my limited exposure - possible to conjecture, and be uncertain, etc. Now, everything is laid out, and it's going to become increasingly stupid that the C'Tan plan never actually happens. We'll all be here in ten years, saying 'LOLZ NecronLord, your Necropansies STILL haven't done shit all yet' and that weakens the whole thing.

I liked being able to say 'people saying whats-his-face is healing, but that's bullshit and ignorance'. Now, he really IS healing, in a stasis field, and the Emperor really IS still alive, and he really IS Jesus, etc.