I wonder if...

[Coryphaus 101]

Sure it does. What did Chaos tell Horus the Emperor was doing on Terra to corrupt him? They said he was laying the foundation to become a god. The best lies have a kernal of truth. The Emperor planed the GC for thousands of years. He diliberately backed Chaos into a corner and gave them the means to stike back and in doing so was able to dictate where and how the blow would come. He let them overreach and expose their true nature to mankind insuring that much if not all of humanity would never willingly side with Chaos ever again. And he set the stage for a final confrontation sometime in the years to come. In the quest to destroy Chose even Primarchs and legions of Astartes are considered expendable to complete his goals. If their corruption and fall from grace couldn't teach the lesson to mankind of the danger Chaos represented than nothing could.

 

Far too much holes. You're not proving anything, you're just saying what you think. I will give you the most plausible explanation : The Emperor didn't see it coming. That explain why he was so affected by the fall of Horus that he was almost killed on the Vengeful Spirit (hesitating to fight Horus at full strenght). That explain why he was close to be annihilated on Terra (if Horus choosed to continue the siege), that explain why he hasn't let any direction for the post heresy imperium, it explains the whole WB thing, and about everything else. The whole thing went out of control, and he wasn't able to hold it. The fight with Horus would have looked like something else if what you said was true. In fact, it seems not.

 

I know the thought that the Emperor actuall planed for and maybe even set the events of the HH in motion is very hard to swollow at first, but it is both plausible and logical. I for one have no idea how Horus' fall effected Big E. He never says to my knowledge. Really if you look at the whole thing Horus is kind of a secreat hero here. The Emperor need Chaos exposed in the vilest way possible. He needed humanity to fear the corrupting power of Chaos. He needed to be wounded nigh unto death but not killed out right. Horus delivered for his father in spades. Think about it if the leader of the rebelion can't wound the Emperor severly the plan fails. If He kills the Emperor outright in that moment the plan fails. Horus became the most hated figure in Imperial History but may in the end be the one person who has insured the master plan actually works. You keep pointing thing out like the Great Crusade was suppose to have a happy ending. I contend just the opposite. The Emperor never planed for a happy ending. He knew without a doubt that Chaos would seek to corrupt his designs and so he created a path of least resistance. He spacificly chose which primarchs and which legions he wanted Chaos to go after. He baited them by giving the appearence of weakness and counted on them to take advantaqe. This is why he slighted Mortarion, why he dishonored Angeron, why he left a Chaos trained religious nut in command of an army and then publicly humiliated him. These wern't accidents or acts of ignorance. They where calculations to insure he knew exactly who could be counted on to rebell and therefor who would be vulnerable to the temptations of Chaos. What you see as stupidity or blindness I see as carful planning.

Interesting idea but wouldn't the Emperor prefer to keep all his sons, forging them into an undefeatable defence for humanity? Then he could have Magnus on the Throne (this is generally accepted as the Emperors plan) and have humanity using the web way (and why would he even create a portal to the webway if he was planning a heresy?) for travel. I'm sure that if he could have planned out a way to cause a heresy, he could have planned out a way to prevent one and make humanity all the stronger.

 

Plus, there are still plenty of willing devotees to chaos.

[Vesper]

You know, I see the logic you want to build here, but it's not backed enough by actual proofs and statements in the fluff.

[Raven Angel]

I admite that it looks a bit thin but when everything is taken into account it is the only solution that makes since.

 

Interesting idea but wouldn't the Emperor prefer to keep all his sons, forging them into an undefeatable defence for humanity? Then he could have Magnus on the Throne (this is generally accepted as the Emperors plan) and have humanity using the web way (and why would he even create a portal to the webway if he was planning a heresy?) for travel. I'm sure that if he could have planned out a way to cause a heresy, he could have planned out a way to prevent one and make humanity all the stronger.

I'm sure he would have prefered it but there is no way to fight Chaos in the material realm that doesn't include wiping humanity out. The only way to beat Chaos once and for all is in the warp. This plan is the only one I see that can beat Chaos and keep humanity alive in the process. The Emperor's web way project was no where near complete. I not saying that he saw everything or planed every microscopic detail but the major broader strokes I think he set things in motion st create a very high liklyhood of them playing out in this specific way.

 

You know, I see the logic you want to build here, but it's not backed enough by actual proofs and statements in the fluff.

 

I can't argue that, but then again how exactly would put that in the fluff? The notion that the Emperor planed this all wouldn't exactly be great publicity in the Imperium of Man and I doubt Choas would go around telling all their troops "he played us". The HH books are the only place you can hide a nuget like this and it probably won't come until the end of the story and Bige E will probably only tell Horus before killing him.

[Vesper]

Kill the Chaos gods ? Pointless as long as mankind lives on. There was a topic about that, a few weeks ago.

But anyway, as long as there is no proof, all your theory is nothing more than fantasies. Occam's Razor.

[Raven Angel]

I understand. Its alot to swollow amd not the easiest leap of logic to make. I feel very confident in my conclusions and wait to see when the conferming peice of evidence will surface

[Amadeus Baal]

It's an interesting theory Raven Angel but it's the timing of it and the method used that makes me think twice about agreeing with it.

 

I do think it could explain a few things that we have been told so far in the novels, such as the myopic way he handled Lorgar in TFH. However I put this down to the Emperor's arrogance and his belief that everyone would just follow his word blindly. From what I have read so far it does seem he makes some questionable decisions. He must know that the forces of Chaos would react to his activities, it had no choice, especially with the creation of his webway for obvious reasons. It does seem with him leaving the crusade when he did and the events leading up to that point he opens a massive window of opportunity for the denizens of the warp to act. I just think he doesn't consider it possible for his sons to go against him and they will follow his word to the letter. I just can't see why he would do it this way and why at that point in time. Surely he would have completed his webway first, or waited until the crusade had progressed further to reduce any external threat to his Imperium. I think circumstances dictated he had to leave the crusade and attend to more pressing matters, perhaps engineered by the forces of Chaos, they saw their opportunity and took it.

 

I must admit I wouldn't put anything past the Emperor. He is very single minded in his pursuit of his vision. He seems to have no qualms disposing of a few Thunder Warriors for the want of a better headline for example. Let's face it he's pretty much the biggest genocidal maniac in history. I do wonder why he chose to "emerge" when he did. Why not during the Dark Age of Technology, when humanity began to colonise the stars? Was it that he had to wait for his full power to manifest itself, or to acquire the technology he needed or did he have to wait for the Age of Strife to occur so that humanity would be of the correct mindset to follow his vision. If it's the latter then that would add a little weight to your theory. Also what would his plan be once the great crusade is over? We know he doesn't plan to sit on the Golden Throne but he doesn't seem like the sort of guy just to put his feet up and retire. So what would an immortal super being do next? I don't think he plans to destroy the Gods of Chaos, I think ATS tells us he knows that is beyond him. I think he plans to diminish them. He can use his webway to circumvent the influence of the warp on humanity. If his crusade is successful, he builds his Imperium and creates a utopian human dominated universe. If his belief in the human heart being essentially "good" is true then he can steer and control that, making the influence of Chaos negligible. Basically locking it into it's box. I think that's more likely.

 

If he did plan to become a god, surely there is an easier way of doing it? I'm thinking of Ahriman and the Black Library here. Though how someone actually becomes a God is anyone's guess. It's true the Emperor is hugely powerful but I think he's a long way from becoming a god. It's one thing to be worshipped as a God, another to actually become one.

 

Blimey I didn't intend to write so much. Essentially I think the Heresy is as it is written. That the depth of betrayal of humanity and the Emperor by one of his own sons is so colossal it's difficult to do it justice in one sentence. That the sheer magnitude of it made it unthinkable and so no measures were ever taken to prevent such an eventuality. It's far too destructive to be part of the plan. That's my opinion. It's an interesting theory Raven, I like it!

[Dark Apostle Thirst]

6 He had Dorn put him in the Thrown because He had to wait for the religion he already knew was there to grow and feed him enough power to make the transformation.

 

Didn't The Big E state he was no god? And declined all offer of worship? Hence the rebuke to the Word Bearer's.

 

So did Jesus Christ

Not going to start a religious debate, but Christ stated that He was the Christ, Son of God, the Messiah, etc etc etc and was sent to save the world multiple times. It's in all four books of the Gospel - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

 

Back on topic.

 

I agree with what you say, Id love the series to end with Lorgar revealing that how the heresy ended was the result the Chaos Gods showed to him if they win the Heresy in Aurelian :P.

 

I haven't read Aurelian yet, but a conspiracy theory comes to my mind. What if Lorgar had already knew that he wouldn't win the heresy and his true purpose was to make the Emperor a God by turning the Imperium to a theocratic state and making emperor worshipping an obligation via Horus Heresy? Lorgar's work, Lectico Divinatus, was made Imperium's Bible after the Heresy. Couldn't Lorgar be the ultimate loyalist?

 

No because Logar still lives and is a Deamon Prince now. Chaos didn't trick the Emperor; He tricked Chaos. He needed to Die to get into the warp to kill them and they have abliged he nicely. Now when the Golden Thrown fails and his body dies He will have the accumularted power of 10,000 years of worship and an army made of all the fallen heros of the Imperium to fight at his side. Chaos is screwed and they don't even know it yet.

No. Just, no.

 

1) Didn't you yourself say that worship would strengthen the Emperor? So wouldn't his theory make total sense? Lorgar being a daemon primarch instead of the one who re-organizes the Imperium to give the Emperor all that strenght is a loss on the Emperor's part, not the other way around.

 

2) Why would the Emperor go through all trouble if he could just have the Imperium worship him enough that he got the strength to ascend himself? Think about it - daemon princes are formed when the Chaos Gods pour enough psychic power into the champion. So the Emperor just gets all that worship strengthening his Warp power until he can ascend himself. The Emperor doesn't need to be dead to ascend any more than Chaos Champions do, in fact, dying prevents you from ascending because then the Chaos Gods eat your soul instead of empowering it. I'm pretty sure that if the Imperium just gathered all of it's worship and sent the strength to the Emperor he'd be able to rival the Chaos Gods pretty quickly.

 

But he can't.

 

The Webway could have truly threatened the Chaos Gods, yes. But this idea that the Emperor was just this bossness who could have taken on the Chaos Gods anytime he wanted is utterly ridiculous. He would have done so already. Similarily, the idea that he could outsmart beings who existed in an infinity loop is also ridiculous, especially when they were required to create the primarchs and subsequently corrupted half of them within forty years. The Emperor himself kicked it off when he rejected Lorgar - the one person, by your logic, who could have given the Emperor truly unrivalled power. He did the same thing for Magnus - who went on to destroy his Webway project, by Tzeentch's prodding. The Chaos Gods, both in the intellectual and power scales, completely overwhelm the Emperor.

 

The Emperor didn't plan this fate out. He simply played to the Dark Gods' tune by creating the primarchs, and thus, his downfall. And he didn't even know it until Horus himself knocked on his front door.

[Kol Saresk]

To be honest, I don't think the Emperor really cared if people worshiped him, so long as they did not worship Chaos. Looking at TFH, Lorgar's retribution wasn't about the religion. If it was then every planet the Word Bearers had been too would have been put under the torch, including Colchis and every sign of the fledgeling Imperial Cult would have been stomped out, even those on Terra. But he didn't. Instead he took one planet, killed its capital city. And told Lorgar that he was moving too slow and this is why he was moving too slow. And that he needed to get a move on. Now, the Custodes who were left behind interpreted this as "Stop spreading religion and conquer planets." Although they did manage it under their noses. But looking at everything, the religion was simply used as an excuse to say "Move it or lose it."

 

Like Raven Angel pointed out, the worship would have made him more powerful. But I think the warp scared him just as much as it empowered him. He had to make deals in order to obtain the power necessary to create the Primarchs. He hid the true nature of the warp from humanity. The common person just thought the warp was an unstable dimension. The common psyker knew there were creatures in the warp. The uncommon psyker knew those creatures were malevolent.(higher-level sanctioned psykers) Those on the strangest of frontlines or dealing with the warp directly(some of the Space Marine Legions since in Horus Rising, Loken seemed to be ignorant of the warp's inhabitants but the Dark Angels, Thousand Sons, Space Wolves and Death Guard didn't, the Sisters of Silence, Navigators, Astropaths and the Custodes) knew that those inhabitants could manifest through the possession of unstable souls. A higher level of the intelligence heirarchy would know that the power of the inhabitants could be marshalled and used to channel the warp.(Thousand Sons) At least one person on an even higher scale knew that there were benevolent creatures hidden in the depth of the warp.(Magnus) But only one person knew that the most malevolent of the warp creatures were the equivalent of gods who ruled the lesser creatures and that he had made a Faustian deal with them. And that he had broken it. But the Emperor kept everything he could secret from everyone he could. That was his downfall. He started the Apocalypse. And instead of preparing for it, he thought he had escaped it. He left humanity wide open to the four beings in the entire universe who would take advantage of it on a level that makes overkill look like a bacteria cell. And they were smart enough to trick him into making sure the future they wanted happened.

[Raven Angel]

It's an interesting theory Raven Angel but it's the timing of it and the method used that makes me think twice about agreeing with it.

 

I do think it could explain a few things that we have been told so far in the novels, such as the myopic way he handled Lorgar in TFH. However I put this down to the Emperor's arrogance and his belief that everyone would just follow his word blindly. From what I have read so far it does seem he makes some questionable decisions. He must know that the forces of Chaos would react to his activities, it had no choice, especially with the creation of his webway for obvious reasons. It does seem with him leaving the crusade when he did and the events leading up to that point he opens a massive window of opportunity for the denizens of the warp to act. I just think he doesn't consider it possible for his sons to go against him and they will follow his word to the letter. I just can't see why he would do it this way and why at that point in time. Surely he would have completed his webway first, or waited until the crusade had progressed further to reduce any external threat to his Imperium. I think circumstances dictated he had to leave the crusade and attend to more pressing matters, perhaps engineered by the forces of Chaos, they saw their opportunity and took it.

 

I must admit I wouldn't put anything past the Emperor. He is very single minded in his pursuit of his vision. He seems to have no qualms disposing of a few Thunder Warriors for the want of a better headline for example. Let's face it he's pretty much the biggest genocidal maniac in history. I do wonder why he chose to "emerge" when he did. Why not during the Dark Age of Technology, when humanity began to colonise the stars? Was it that he had to wait for his full power to manifest itself, or to acquire the technology he needed or did he have to wait for the Age of Strife to occur so that humanity would be of the correct mindset to follow his vision. If it's the latter then that would add a little weight to your theory. Also what would his plan be once the great crusade is over? We know he doesn't plan to sit on the Golden Throne but he doesn't seem like the sort of guy just to put his feet up and retire. So what would an immortal super being do next? I don't think he plans to destroy the Gods of Chaos, I think ATS tells us he knows that is beyond him. I think he plans to diminish them. He can use his webway to circumvent the influence of the warp on humanity. If his crusade is successful, he builds his Imperium and creates a utopian human dominated universe. If his belief in the human heart being essentially "good" is true then he can steer and control that, making the influence of Chaos negligible. Basically locking it into it's box. I think that's more likely.

 

If he did plan to become a god, surely there is an easier way of doing it? I'm thinking of Ahriman and the Black Library here. Though how someone actually becomes a God is anyone's guess. It's true the Emperor is hugely powerful but I think he's a long way from becoming a god. It's one thing to be worshipped as a God, another to actually become one.

 

Blimey I didn't intend to write so much. Essentially I think the Heresy is as it is written. That the depth of betrayal of humanity and the Emperor by one of his own sons is so colossal it's difficult to do it justice in one sentence. That the sheer magnitude of it made it unthinkable and so no measures were ever taken to prevent such an eventuality. It's far too destructive to be part of the plan. That's my opinion. It's an interesting theory Raven, I like it!

 

Heres how I see it. He knew that Chaos would act to corrupt his work. He also know that there is no meaningful way to defeat Chaos in the material world. The warp is their safe haven and the force of Chaos would return time and time again to plauge him if he fought them only here. I suspect he observed the groth of Slanesh from Terra and this is when he formulated the final version of his plan to destroy Chaos. Basicly there are to asspects of humanity that the plan henges on. First is our capacity to pull together durring times of adversity. Such times quickly seperrate out the weak and though with ill intent and leave a strong core of individuales that can be direct to a common goal. The second is our need to belive in somthing outside ourselves. This usally takes the form of religion in most cultures. Timing I think was a combination of technology and waiting for an institution that he could controle and direct in the manner he wanted. The Mechanicum was his creation as he subdued the shard of the Void Dragon and stashed it on Mars. Also even before the start of the Crusade He presented himself to the Mecanicum as the living imbodyment of the Omnissiah. So here we see him taking on the mantle of a god. Second is the complete and sistimatic destruction of all forms of religion during his rise on Terra and later during the Crusade. This had several effects. 1 It allowed him to root out Chaos cults and weaken their material support, there by weakening them in the warp. 2 It placed Chaos under pressure to strike back at him directly. However in order to do that they would have to revel their true natur and intention to humanity which upto this point they have avoided doing. 3 it created a vaccum of belife of sorts in place of the traditional religions. While the Imperial truth was given as the philosiphy to replace religion, and it may well have worked give enough time, it wouldn't have been all that comforting for the common man. Now as the Emperor move out to establish the Imperium He finds each of the primarchs in turn.and begins to set his plan in motion to expose Choas and direct there aggression through agent of his own divising. The Crusade progresses quickle and the Emperor now sees that the time is right to bait the trap. The Young Imperium is at its most vulnerable point and he knows the agents of Chaos have already begun to infiltrate the army and those Legions that he maid vulnerable to such manipulation through their Primarchs. He returns to Terra to work on the webway project and while this could be a great boost to the Imperium its succses is not needed. In his "absence" Chaos makes their move taking not just the bait of time but also place in that they use the pawns the Emperor offered up. Now the great tragidy of betraly plays out and all through it the Emperor remains out of touch completely out of sight. Now I know how Magnus damaged the Machine and all but I really think the Emperor would have found another way to power and control the machine if fate of the Galaxy had really hinged on defeating Horus and his boys as quickly as possible. The Emperor could repair Machines with a touch as evidenced in Mecanicum. Fixing the web way portal should have been a simple task. Once the pinical monent was reached then and only then did the Emperor "interven". Now all of the tails told of that confrontation say it was the Emperor who hesitated but what if it was Horus. The Emperor has played his game up to this point but now inorder to win this fight and set the stage for the final battle he needs to trust that Horus will wound him without killing him. So as the battle is joined on the Vengful Spirit the Emperor does not hesitate, he diliberatly gives Horus the opening to strike. This is the moment of truth. According to accounts Horus wounds the Emperor but does not finish him. Then Big E takes Horus out. Now in this moment Chaos knows they lost not because Horus is dead but because the Emperor is not dead.

 

When I say he's becoming a god id don't mean in a religious sincce as there a lost of ways to do that quick. What I'm refering to is in the since of becomming a massively powerful warp being like the Chaos gods. Know all of my resurch indicates that this is a long drawnout time consumming process. However it was the Emperors apparent messianic sacrifice whiich ultametly sealed it for the people already beleiving the Lecto Divinatus Thus insuring the Energy need for the process would be directied at the emperor in ever increasing ammounts.

 

6 He had Dorn put him in the Thrown because He had to wait for the religion he already knew was there to grow and feed him enough power to make the transformation.

 

Didn't The Big E state he was no god? And declined all offer of worship? Hence the rebuke to the Word Bearer's.

 

So did Jesus Christ

Not going to start a religious debate, but Christ stated that He was the Christ, Son of God, the Messiah, etc etc etc and was sent to save the world multiple times. It's in all four books of the Gospel - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

 

Back on topic.

 

I agree with what you say, Id love the series to end with Lorgar revealing that how the heresy ended was the result the Chaos Gods showed to him if they win the Heresy in Aurelian :P.

 

I haven't read Aurelian yet, but a conspiracy theory comes to my mind. What if Lorgar had already knew that he wouldn't win the heresy and his true purpose was to make the Emperor a God by turning the Imperium to a theocratic state and making emperor worshipping an obligation via Horus Heresy? Lorgar's work, Lectico Divinatus, was made Imperium's Bible after the Heresy. Couldn't Lorgar be the ultimate loyalist?

 

No because Logar still lives and is a Deamon Prince now. Chaos didn't trick the Emperor; He tricked Chaos. He needed to Die to get into the warp to kill them and they have abliged he nicely. Now when the Golden Thrown fails and his body dies He will have the accumularted power of 10,000 years of worship and an army made of all the fallen heros of the Imperium to fight at his side. Chaos is screwed and they don't even know it yet.

No. Just, no.

 

1) Didn't you yourself say that worship would strengthen the Emperor? So wouldn't his theory make total sense? Lorgar being a daemon primarch instead of the one who re-organizes the Imperium to give the Emperor all that strenght is a loss on the Emperor's part, not the other way around.

 

2) Why would the Emperor go through all trouble if he could just have the Imperium worship him enough that he got the strength to ascend himself? Think about it - daemon princes are formed when the Chaos Gods pour enough psychic power into the champion. So the Emperor just gets all that worship strengthening his Warp power until he can ascend himself. The Emperor doesn't need to be dead to ascend any more than Chaos Champions do, in fact, dying prevents you from ascending because then the Chaos Gods eat your soul instead of empowering it. I'm pretty sure that if the Imperium just gathered all of it's worship and sent the strength to the Emperor he'd be able to rival the Chaos Gods pretty quickly.

 

But he can't.

 

The Webway could have truly threatened the Chaos Gods, yes. But this idea that the Emperor was just this bossness who could have taken on the Chaos Gods anytime he wanted is utterly ridiculous. He would have done so already. Similarily, the idea that he could outsmart beings who existed in an infinity loop is also ridiculous, especially when they were required to create the primarchs and subsequently corrupted half of them within forty years. The Emperor himself kicked it off when he rejected Lorgar - the one person, by your logic, who could have given the Emperor truly unrivalled power. He did the same thing for Magnus - who went on to destroy his Webway project, by Tzeentch's prodding. The Chaos Gods, both in the intellectual and power scales, completely overwhelm the Emperor.

 

The Emperor didn't plan this fate out. He simply played to the Dark Gods' tune by creating the primarchs, and thus, his downfall. And he didn't even know it until Horus himself knocked on his front door.

 

The Web way was no threat to the Choas gods. I don't know where everyone has come up with this. The webway is an alternet means of travel that is much more reliable then warp travel. Not using warp travel however does nothing to weaking the forces of Chaos.

 

Logar's loss on the surface seams like a blow to the Emperor but at the point where the Emperor slaps him down he has already completed the task of founding a religion around the Emperor and as we can see itr has florished just fine with out Logar. Besides it was through Logar and his minions that Chaos was able to infiltrate the Legions. As such in my veiw it was neccisary that the Emperor drive Logar into the camp of the enemy as this was the first peice of bait he dagled infron of the Dark Gods.

 

First of the Emperor is not trying to become a mere Demon Prince. Second if he tried to set himself up as a god from the start it would have made the job of conquoring the galaxy much harder and in many ways would have made his job much more difficult from the start. I personally have no information that leads me to belive that the Chaos gods had a hand in the creation of the primarchs. Please sight your source material.

 

To be honest, I don't think the Emperor really cared if people worshiped him, so long as they did not worship Chaos. Looking at TFH, Lorgar's retribution wasn't about the religion. If it was then every planet the Word Bearers had been too would have been put under the torch, including Colchis and every sign of the fledgeling Imperial Cult would have been stomped out, even those on Terra. But he didn't. Instead he took one planet, killed its capital city. And told Lorgar that he was moving too slow and this is why he was moving too slow. And that he needed to get a move on. Now, the Custodes who were left behind interpreted this as "Stop spreading religion and conquer planets." Although they did manage it under their noses. But looking at everything, the religion was simply used as an excuse to say "Move it or lose it."

 

Like Raven Angel pointed out, the worship would have made him more powerful. But I think the warp scared him just as much as it empowered him. He had to make deals in order to obtain the power necessary to create the Primarchs. He hid the true nature of the warp from humanity. The common person just thought the warp was an unstable dimension. The common psyker knew there were creatures in the warp. The uncommon psyker knew those creatures were malevolent.(higher-level sanctioned psykers) Those on the strangest of frontlines or dealing with the warp directly(some of the Space Marine Legions since in Horus Rising, Loken seemed to be ignorant of the warp's inhabitants but the Dark Angels, Thousand Sons, Space Wolves and Death Guard didn't, the Sisters of Silence, Navigators, Astropaths and the Custodes) knew that those inhabitants could manifest through the possession of unstable souls. A higher level of the intelligence heirarchy would know that the power of the inhabitants could be marshalled and used to channel the warp.(Thousand Sons) At least one person on an even higher scale knew that there were benevolent creatures hidden in the depth of the warp.(Magnus) But only one person knew that the most malevolent of the warp creatures were the equivalent of gods who ruled the lesser creatures and that he had made a Faustian deal with them. And that he had broken it. But the Emperor kept everything he could secret from everyone he could. That was his downfall. He started the Apocalypse. And instead of preparing for it, he thought he had escaped it. He left humanity wide open to the four beings in the entire universe who would take advantage of it on a level that makes overkill look like a bacteria cell. And they were smart enough to trick him into making sure the future they wanted happened.

 

Here again it comes down to whether you think the Emeror is an idot or not. When I started to reason this out I looked at all of the supposed act of stupidity the Emperor commited leading up to the HH and had to ask my self "Can He really be the dumb?" Most people just say "Sure he was, look what he did." but to be as old and experianced as he was and to have come this far would he really make such fundamentaly simple mistakes. So if the larger picture going back more then 30,000 years does not suport the Emperor being an idot the only other logical answer is that he is upto somthing. This is when I began pooring over all the 40k fluff and determined that the only other reasonable course of action is that he is planning to take on Chaos directly and the only way to do that is from inside the warp. While the beings of Chaos my think of themselves as timeless and invulnerable to harm the fluff showes that a being inside the warp empowered properly by emotion and belif from the material world can grow strond enough to destroy other godlike warp beings and the Emperor has seen this first hand. This is I beleive his ultamate plan for defeating Chaos. A repeat of the kind of events that lead to the fall of the Eldar gods and the birth of Slanesh. Only thistime it is the Emperor who will rise and if he is correct the chaos gods who will fall or in this case be consummed by the Emperor.

[Vesper]

Heres how I see it. He knew that Chaos would act to corrupt his work. He also know that there is no meaningful way to defeat Chaos in the material world. The warp is their safe haven and the force of Chaos would return time and time again to plauge him if he fought them only here. I suspect he observed the groth of Slanesh from Terra and this is when he formulated the final version of his plan to destroy Chaos. Basicly there are to asspects of humanity that the plan henges on. First is our capacity to pull together durring times of adversity. Such times quickly seperrate out the weak and though with ill intent and leave a strong core of individuales that can be direct to a common goal. The second is our need to belive in somthing outside ourselves. This usally takes the form of religion in most cultures. Timing I think was a combination of technology and waiting for an institution that he could controle and direct in the manner he wanted. The Mechanicum was his creation as he subdued the shard of the Void Dragon and stashed it on Mars. Also even before the start of the Crusade He presented himself to the Mecanicum as the living imbodyment of the Omnissiah. So here we see him taking on the mantle of a god. Second is the complete and sistimatic destruction of all forms of religion during his rise on Terra and later during the Crusade. This had several effects. 1 It allowed him to root out Chaos cults and weaken their material support, there by weakening them in the warp. 2 It placed Chaos under pressure to strike back at him directly. However in order to do that they would have to revel their true natur and intention to humanity which upto this point they have avoided doing. 3 it created a vaccum of belife of sorts in place of the traditional religions. While the Imperial truth was given as the philosiphy to replace religion, and it may well have worked give enough time, it wouldn't have been all that comforting for the common man. Now as the Emperor move out to establish the Imperium He finds each of the primarchs in turn.and begins to

 

He couldn't witness the birth of Slaanesh because of the tempests surounding Terra by then.

The Crusade mainly fueled Chaos by spreading mankind in great proportions. And so, it made the Chaos Gods stronger than ever. I think Chaos enjoyed it and decided to play with it.

He took the "mantle of a god" just because he needed the mecanicum to support his crusade. Otherwise, Mankind would have been stuck in the solar system forever. Nothing more.

The rest is fanfic.