Why the heresy?

[vonny]

I was re-reading fallen angels yesterday, and suddenly it all became clear to me. Bear with me, this may be a long post. Also, there are spoilers in here and I couldn't figure out how to use the black spoiler boxes! BEWARE!

 

In fallen angels it becomes clear that Johnson knew of the corruption/taint at the heart of caliban from the start on, and that the great beasts were what kept the corruption localized. Johnson then started a crusade to kill all the beasts... was he trying to spread the taint from within further?

Whether he did this all on his own or by guidance from the emperor is also up for debate, as Johnson clearly had some form of communication with the emperor (maybe visions or hunches or whatever), as he knows exactly when and where to be for first contact with the Imperium.

Then the Imperium comes, and goes on to stripmine Caliban. they even start to build 12 arcologies, while the population of Caliban (including the off-world engineers and administratum etc.) cannot support even half of them (also all in fallen angels).

Why is this? Was Baal stripmined? Fenris? Prospero? Angron's home planet, Lorgars? no. This whole stripmining is done to bring out the taint of caliban. It's even terran engineers who do the chaos rituals to bring out the taint further. And when zahariel discovers the first hints on the road to knowing that caliban is tainted and the imperium trying to bring forth that taint (in descent of angels), he is mindwiped by order of the emperor himself! "Be sure he remembers nothing of this. No suspicion of any dissent must exist within the legion. We must be united or we are lost."

 

So the emperor is in on the plotting. To what end does he plot? This caliban plot is still beyond me, and I hope it becomes clearer in the futute, but let's see what the emperor's goal is. Many a time it is said in the books that the emperor's goal is uniting the galaxy under one rule. But this is said by space marines and primarchs, and they are just pawns in the galactic game. The Emperor's real, ultimate goal, is the survival of human kind, and as he says himself in the last church (tales of heresy), he has seen the path of human survival, and it is a narrow one.

So then, what is this path? When humanity remains divided amongst the stars, it will slowly be preyed upon and killed by xenos and other deprivations. Enter the great crusade to unite humanity. Then, maybe, there is truth in what the daemons show in 'the first heretic': If humanity succeeds in the great crusade, they will suffer a cataclysm much like the eldar did at Slaanesh' birth, and die out. So enter the Heresy, to have the crusade fail. Maybe the cabal shows the truth as well in 'Legion', and as horus would win, humanity would die out. So horus must rebel, but not win. Enter the emperor's grand plan.

 

And this makes sense in a lot of things suddenly. The emperor was complained about to look like a total d-bag at best, or a idiot with very poor people skills at worst. But in light of this theory, it makes sense.

Why pull angron off his world instead of fighting an easy battle alongside him? the Emperor wants Angron to resent him, so it's easier for him to turn later on

Why allow Lorgar to worship him as a god for 200 years and then humiliate him so utterly? This is actually twofold: those first 200 years Lorgar writes the lectitio divinatus (spelling), which would prove pivotal in mankinds survival after and maybe even durng the Horus Heresy. Secondly, by this utter humiliation of him and his legion in front of Guilliman and his ultramarines makes really sure that Lorgar shies away from the Emperor and right into the arms of chaos - a very important cog in the wheel of the Emperor's great plan.

Why give Pertubaro only the :cussty non-glory tasks? to drive him away

Why leave the crusade at the crucial time he did, and then send civilian administratum clerics to make demands upon an overtaxed warmaster? to make Horus resent the Imperium of the emperor and more suspeptible to thoughts of building his own imperium.

 

Is the emperor a d-bag? Perhaps. Is he an idiot with poor people skills? No, not at all. He knows exactly how he needs to play the chessboard of galactic scale, with the primarchs as his chesspieces. He does what must be done for the continued survival of mankind.

Perhaps that's why he didn't come down to tell lorgar in person in the first place. It hurts the Emperor to see one if his sons humiliated so badly. Inwardly, he sheds a tear. But he does what must be done, and condemns Lorgar. He allows Dorn to feel guilty ever after, and allows Sanguinius to sacrifice himself. This is the guy who just created the largest civil war in humanity's history ever and condemned himself to a minimum of 10.000 years of wasting away on a golden throne just to ensure the continued survival of mankind. And everything else comes second to that.

 

The emperor's ambition is far greater than uniting humanity under his wing - his ambition is orchestrating a plot so unbelievably thick that even the primarchs don't see it coming, and extends far past the emperor gaining godhood or the emperor ruling the galaxy. Yet on the same time less - the most basic of things, yet the most important of all: humanity's continued survival.

[Cyrox]

The other thing that the Lion did in Fallen Angels was

give Peturabo the new super duper siege weapons that he had just found - either he was stupid or he knew the Iron Warriors would side with Horus yet did it anyway

 

 

To use spoiler tags, just wrap the text you want hidden in quote tags, then swap the word quote for the word spoiler - try it and you'll see what i mean :)

[Gv0zD]

Well, I usually do not approve such 'conspiracy theories', as it is complete blasphemy of the chaos-possessed minds  :)

Still, I'd like to motivate my opinion.

I found few examples of Lion's intentions to spread Caliban's corruption.

He learned of it, and sent his most trusted warriors (i.e. Luther) and powerful psykers (Zahariel and Israfael) to keep it under control, to guard the daemon inside the planet and make sure it never breaks free. However, Lion was not a social person, and was sure that he had no need to explain his decisions to his subordinates.

 

 

 

And he might have given the siege engines to Perturabo as he was sure he wasn't a traitor.

Otherwise we may say that Corax, Vulcan and Ferrus were also traitors and descended on Istvaan V to make sure Horus cuts as many loyalist marines as he could.

 

As for the Emperor's involvement in the Heresy... I totally disagree. Do you often tell everything you think to your children when you want them to do or not to do something? Do you tell your children what drugs are when you teach them not to try them? You want to protect them from the negative influence, and not telling the whole story is a part of this protection.

 

I also doubt that what was mentioned in The First Heretic about mankind's fate if they reject the Gods is true. It's Chaos corruption. Do you remember what happened with Horus at Davin? He was shown the future without him, where no one knew of him, and he decided to take action to prevent it. And what happened? Exactly what was shown - he was forgotten (banned if you like), and no one even knew of him being a hero a long time ago. So if the mankind embraced the Gods, they are likely to extinct, than if they followed the Emperor.

 

 

[snorkle]

In Fallen Angels they also have a part about the Lion possibly not being able to read a very easily red human (the Governor guy). Nemiel was very disquieted at it. This points away from the Lion being aware of the Emperor's plan, if the Emperor was even in on the Heresy. Another support for this is that if any of the Primarchs had a connection with the Emperor then it was Magnus and if he wasn't in on it then why would the Lion be?

 

And more likely the Emperor knew where jonson would be and not the other way around.

[Captain Idaho]

I just don't buy that the Emperor wanted the Heresy to occur. He didn't seem to happy about the way Magnus intruded upon his "works" and I believe that is the key to his plans. He had an end game plan for after the Crusade was concluded (well as much as it could be ended) and the Heresy spoilt it all.

[malika666]

Why pull angron off his world instead of fighting an easy battle alongside him? the Emperor wants Angron to resent him, so it's easier for him to turn later on

The Emperor wanted Angron to live. Angron refused to drop the fight, and I can imagine that in his pride he also rejected the Emperor's help, if the Emperor would save Lorgar and his brothers, it would mean that they are indebted to the Emperor. I can imagine that this is something Angron would try to avoid at all costs...

 

Why allow Lorgar to worship him as a god for 200 years and then humiliate him so utterly? This is actually twofold: those first 200 years Lorgar writes the lectitio divinatus (spelling), which would prove pivotal in mankinds survival after and maybe even durng the Horus Heresy.

The Emperor rebuking Lorgar happened somewhere around the 160th year of the Great Crusade. We also don't know when exactly Lorgar was found by the Emperor, and when exactly the Word Bearers were actually participating in the Great Crusade. So the Emperor waiting for 200 years isn;t the case...

 

Why give Pertubaro only the :cussty non-glory tasks? to drive him away

It has actually been speculated that it was Horus who turned the Iron Warriors into a garrison Legion. It was then suggested that Horus indeed did this to drive Perturabo away from the Emperor...