How powerful is the Emperor really?

[A D-B]

Didn't A DB once mention that the exact reason he doesn't view most of the Primarchs as sons is because he wanted generals? I'd extrapolate from that, because Horus was the only one raised by the Emperor, that is the foundation of their special relationship.

 

Which would go a ways in explaining why his relationship with the others tended more towards commander and subordinate than father and son.

 

Just a note to address that, as it'll inevitably get misconstrued otherwise. I was referring to Master of Mankind, where various perspectives from various characters will probably come into play, and one of them is the idea that the Emperor didn't want sons, he wanted generals and weapons. I was mentioning it as something someone close to the Emperor will think, among many conflicting opinions.

[Marshal Rohr]

 

Didn't A DB once mention that the exact reason he doesn't view most of the Primarchs as sons is because he wanted generals? I'd extrapolate from that, because Horus was the only one raised by the Emperor, that is the foundation of their special relationship.

 

Which would go a ways in explaining why his relationship with the others tended more towards commander and subordinate than father and son.

 

Just a note to address that, as it'll inevitably get misconstrued otherwise. I was referring to Master of Mankind, where various perspectives from various characters will probably come into play, and one of them is the idea that the Emperor didn't want sons, he wanted generals and weapons. I was mentioning it as something someone close to the Emperor will think, among many conflicting opinions.

 

 

Understood, my mistake. 

 

Standard case of 'Character's Perception/Reader's Reality Confusion' :D

[DarKnight]

My alternate theory:  The Emperor's power level, or mana points, or whatever isn't the limiting factor.  It's how much of his power he can channel without destroying his mortal shell.  Even with whatever gene hacking he's done both in the womb and over the millenia, he's still flesh and blood.  So while his mind might be without limits, his actual body might not be up to the task of holding together should he cut loose.

 

This also helps smooth out the issue of why he didn't burn Horus out of existence the second the Emperor saw him standing over Sanguineous' corpse.  He didn't hold back because he hoped he could save Horus or something, he held back because the level of power necessary to burn Horus would have caused immense harm to himself.

Would definitely add an interesting wrinkle to things, perhaps too late now to throw into the lore?

[SteelPaladin]

My alternate theory:  The Emperor's power level, or mana points, or whatever isn't the limiting factor.  It's how much of his power he can channel without destroying his mortal shell.  Even with whatever gene hacking he's done both in the womb and over the millenia, he's still flesh and blood.  So while his mind might be without limits, his actual body might not be up to the task of holding together should he cut loose.

 

This also helps smooth out the issue of why he didn't burn Horus out of existence the second the Emperor saw him standing over Sanguineous' corpse.  He didn't hold back because he hoped he could save Horus or something, he held back because the level of power necessary to burn Horus would have caused immense harm to himself.

Whoa, that's actually a really interesting theory. Pretty sure this is going to be in my personal cannon from now on. 

[Unintentional Batman]

My alternate theory:  The Emperor's power level, or mana points, or whatever isn't the limiting factor.  It's how much of his power he can channel without destroying his mortal shell.  Even with whatever gene hacking he's done both in the womb and over the millenia, he's still flesh and blood.  So while his mind might be without limits, his actual body might not be up to the task of holding together should he cut loose.

 

This also helps smooth out the issue of why he didn't burn Horus out of existence the second the Emperor saw him standing over Sanguineous' corpse.  He didn't hold back because he hoped he could save Horus or something, he held back because the level of power necessary to burn Horus would have caused immense harm to himself.

 

Yep. This is pretty much how I have always seen it. The Emps did not release his Utter Soul Obliteration power until he was pretty much beat up AND finally saw that Horus' Chaos Infested Self was utterly irredeemable, because he knew it would brun away his mortal shell, more or less. The same reason he didn't use this power to save himself from the SUPA-ORK! before Horus invervened.

 

It was the death of Ollanius Pius that made Emps decide that it was worth dying to destroy Horus. Good old Ollanius Pius.

 

Of course then Dorn happened by and stuffed Emps' corpse into the Golden Throne.

 

Then Jaq Draco talked to the Emps. Good old Draco :)