Q about TSon gene-seed from "A Thousand Sons" (spoilers)

[Midwest]

Still reading ATS, just finished the Council of Nikaea/Trial of Magnus, but a couple questions been bugging me since the dust-up between the Thousand Sons and Space Wolves over the Heliosan library incident.

 

1. Stability of the Thousand Son Gene-Seed

 

Given how obviously unstable the T-Son's gene-seed is, how did the Emperor ever allow the Legion to be released into Magnus' care, so to speak?

 

Given that the book indicates that the mutations were rampant and overpowering them prior to Magnus' experiments, and given that they must have fought alongside the Emperor during the Unification Wars and early Crusade prior to their reunification with Magnus, the Emperor must have seen that the T-Sons experiment was failing, and failing wildly, given the apparently extreme mutations the (worst) sufferers were experiencing.

 

A Thousand Sons has been a completely awesome read so far, but it's been a nagging stick in the mud for me to accept that the Emperor would release the Legion, even if Magnus claimed he could fix them, given the apparent nature of their genetic weakness/curse.

 

 

2. Their Psychic Ability and the Emperor's Genetic-Engineering

 

The Emperor seems quite aware of the inherent psychic abilities of the Legion. Not only does he show the "Great Ocean" to Magnus, but psychic ability itself must have been part of the genetic engineering that went into Magnus and, through him, the Thousand Sons, given their apparent capabilities for it. Granted Prospero is a psychically-charged world, but their abilities (or Magnus' in particular) cannot solely be the product of their environment.

 

So, having said that, in the Trial of Magnus, the verdict that the Emperor delivers indicates that he originally intended for no psychic ability amongst the Astartes, only relenting after the Legions were already established, and three of them (Magnus, Khan, and Sanguinius) ask to be allowed to develop and organize the Legionnaries that are beginning to show such abilities.

 

If his original intent was to keep the Astartes away from 'witchcraft', so to speak, why would the Emperor have allowed the Thousand Sons gene-seed, or perhaps even Magnus himself, to be developed? I can only think of two scenarios:

 

1) The Magnus/TS gene-line was intentionally made to be psychically capable. This explains their genetic basis for these abilities, but makes no sense given the Emperor's words at Nikaea.

 

2) The Emperor did not intentionally engineer such abilities into the Magnus/TS gene-line, but either the difficulties of the gene-engineering, mutation, or something else led to these abilities, in which case it begs the question of why the Emperor did not either terminate the gene-line or fix the problem (and terminating if he couldn't).

 

All in all, I guess I'm just very confused as to why the Emperor would have engineered a psychically-attuned Primarch and Legion with a crippling gene-fault, if he had no desire for the Primarchs and their Legions to be dabbling in such arts.

 

Even if they were spared destruction because Magnus promised to fix things, surely the Emperor had to know what Magnus has apparently done (again, still reading ATS, but it's clear from the mental overload Ahriman suffers and the information of his twin that Magnus has resorted to some kind of pacts or bargains - even if temporary tests - when he sought a fix for the issue.

 

Can a Primarch, even of Magnus' ability, shield his thoughts/the truth from the Emperor?

[Raven Angel]

This is a question that can only be answered if you know for ceitain what the Emperors true motives are. I think in truth it is somthing you will have to decided for yourself.