Why the Emperor did not reveal himself until the time he did

[Just123456]

It's not that complicated why the Emperor did not reveal himself until the AOS. His hand was forced with the AOS screwing up humanity, the rest of the galaxy and turning Earth into a hole. He merely guided from the shadows prior and it's because things went to crap on Terra the way they did that he stepped in. And dropping in just when humanity needs a saviour, that is in character for him.

 

And it's ridiculous people think he and plausibly a few of the Perpetuals who served him would give two craps about the world wars. The 60 million dead is nothing compared to the amount of people the Emperor slaughtered during the Great Crusade. And what is the worst that would happen with the Axis winning? The world becomes fascist? That is basically what the Great Crusade is.

 

And the Perpetuals such as Oll Persson show he was around back then. And there is him fighting Gog in the Athame short story during antiquity.

 

And he technically did have STCs in the form of the Dark Cells. The Dark Cells have technology that can end the whole galaxy.

 

I have seen people say on Reddit and other places it's confusing why he revealed himself at the time he did and let things get crappy on Terra.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Just123456

[MegaVolt87]

It's not that complicated why the Emperor did not reveal himself until the AOS. His hand was forced with the AOS screwing up humanity, the rest of the galaxy and turning Earth into a hole. He merely guided from the shadows prior and it's because things went to crap on Terra the way they did that he stepped in. And dropping in just when humanity needs a saviour, that is in character for him.

 

And it's ridiculous people think he and plausibly a few of the Perpetuals who served him would give two craps about the world wars. The 60 million dead is nothing compared to the amount of people the Emperor slaughtered during the Great Crusade. And what is the worst that would happen with the Axis winning? The world becomes fascist? That is basically what the Great Crusade was.

 

And the Perpetuals show he was around back then. And there is him fighting Gog in the Athame short story during antiquity.

 

And he technically did have STCs in the form of the Dark Cells. The Dark Cells have technology that can end the whole galaxy.

 

I have seen people say on Reddit and other places it's confusing why he revealed himself at the time he did and let things get crappy on Terra.

 

Because technology and science had hit a point that humanity would wipe itself out much quicker than in the past, not to mention more psykers/ chaos manifestations. Everything prior was small potato's to what was going on Terra at the time he stepped up when he did. One could argue also the world needed conflict to accelerate the technology base to where it was before the Emperor revealed himself. 

[Just123456]

 

It's not that complicated why the Emperor did not reveal himself until the AOS. His hand was forced with the AOS screwing up humanity, the rest of the galaxy and turning Earth into a hole. He merely guided from the shadows prior and it's because things went to crap on Terra the way they did that he stepped in. And dropping in just when humanity needs a saviour, that is in character for him.

And it's ridiculous people think he and plausibly a few of the Perpetuals who served him would give two craps about the world wars. The 60 million dead is nothing compared to the amount of people the Emperor slaughtered during the Great Crusade. And what is the worst that would happen with the Axis winning? The world becomes fascist? That is basically what the Great Crusade was.

And the Perpetuals show he was around back then. And there is him fighting Gog in the Athame short story during antiquity.

And he technically did have STCs in the form of the Dark Cells. The Dark Cells have technology that can end the whole galaxy.

I have seen people say on Reddit and other places it's confusing why he revealed himself at the time he did and let things get crappy on Terra.

 

 

Because technology and science had hit a point that humanity would wipe itself out much quicker than in the past, not to mention more psykers/ chaos manifestations. Everything prior was small potato's to what was going on Terra at the time he stepped up when he did. One could argue also the world needed conflict to accelerate the technology base to where it was before the Emperor revealed himself.

Those types of manifestations did not start until the AOS. And with his God level power, he can stop those extinction conflicts.

[Arendious]

Hmmm... Funny way of spelling 'Moonreaper'...

 

The Doylist answer is, of course, because that's when Andy, Jes, and Rick decided made sense.

 

The Watsonian answer is likely, 'that's when sufficient humans and/or human psykers existed to make his plans work'. Or perhaps, 'that's when he finally felt humanity needed him'. Or "that's when whatever event on Molech occurred was feasible".

 

Or, most likely, some of all the above.

[Just123456]

It was the AOS that forced his hand.

[Bryan Blaire]

Because the plot of the story dictates that’s when he revealed himself.

 

It’s made up and subject to the story having been written before the history of the story actually being written, so there’s likely to be some inconsistencies and things that just won’t make sense.

[Karhedron]

Prior to the birth of Slaanesh, the Eldar were the top dogs and the Emperor knew that even with DAOT tech, Humanity could not overthrow the Eldar. Remember that at their height, the Eldar regarded controlling the (kr)ork as nothing more than more than pest control. If humanity tried to threaten the Eldar in any sort of concerted way, the Eldar would simply have wiped them out.

 

But the Emperor also knew the Fall was coming for them so all he had to do was wait. The Fall of the Eldar created a window of opportunity for humanity to become the major race in the Galaxy but they had to act fast before another race like the Orks become predominant. He unified the Sol system, created the Custodes and Astartes all so that the Great Crusade was primed and ready to go the moment the Warp storms cleared. The end of the AOS was moment of maximum threat but also maximum opportunity.

 

Now you could argue that it is convenient that the story was written that way but at least its internal logic is consistent.

[Indefragable]

I personally like to think there's always an element of propaganda mixed into things. It could simply be that rather than the Emperor being this super powerful being that waited 30,000 years to do anything, he was instead a being that took 30,000 years to become super powerful. 

 

But that's just me. 

[Marshal Rohr]

He did reveal himself over and over again throughout history. He did not seek to begin his big project until a thousand years before the great crusade. As powerful as he is, him showing up and saying ‘I am the Emperor’ doesn’t make him the Emperor. He had to fight his way to the top like everyone else.

[The Scorpion]

Probably because of the Alan Bligh theory: Big E was actually a weapon or experiment from the DAOT only released halfway into the AOS. In which case, he actually started his 'mission' as soon as he could, which go a long way to explain the many oversights of the Crusade-Era.
 

Of course, there are alsothe testimoies of the HH Perpetuals, but every last one those should be taken with a grain of salt.

Edited May 3, 2021 by The Scorpion

[Just123456]

Probably because of the Alan Bligh theory: Big E was actually a weapon or experiment from the DAOT only released halfway into the AOS. In which case, he actually started his 'mission' as soon as he could, which go a long way to explain the many oversights of the Crusade-Era.

 

Of course, there are alsothe testimoies of the HH Perpetuals, but every last one those should be taken with a grain of salt.

He merely digged that notion. He did not think it was plausible. And ADB discredited it on Reddit over two years ago. And the notion is from an unreliable narrator in the books.

 

And the Perpetuals such as Oll Persson and the Athame short story show its wrong.

[Just123456]

Because the plot of the story dictates that’s when he revealed himself.

 

It’s made up and subject to the story having been written before the history of the story actually being written, so there’s likely to be some inconsistencies and things that just won’t make sense.

Other than the fact that everything went to crap around the galaxy.

[Bryan Blaire]

 

Because the plot of the story dictates that’s when he revealed himself.

 

It’s made up and subject to the story having been written before the history of the story actually being written, so there’s likely to be some inconsistencies and things that just won’t make sense.

Other than the fact that everything went to crap around the galaxy.

 

Yes, in a fictional setting where the story of what happened was written before things that discuss how we’re actually fleshed out.

 

The story of when the Emperor revealed himself and got things going is over 25 years old now - the material going into detail about how that happened/started to happen and why is very recent and having to be written to take the old fiction into account.

 

Of course there’s elements that don’t make sense, or “Why didn’t the story have X instead...”  It’s fiction, so it could have been anything.  You are much more likely to get satisfying answers on “how” by looking at the actual way the story was written than you will “why”, which boils down to “because it’s what the author(s) chose.”

[Just123456]

Everything about why the Emperor revealed himself when he did makes reasonable sense. 

[Pacific81]

Prior to the birth of Slaanesh, the Eldar were the top dogs and the Emperor knew that even with DAOT tech, Humanity could not overthrow the Eldar. Remember that at their height, the Eldar regarded controlling the (kr)ork as nothing more than more than pest control. If humanity tried to threaten the Eldar in any sort of concerted way, the Eldar would simply have wiped them out.

 

But the Emperor also knew the Fall was coming for them so all he had to do was wait. The Fall of the Eldar created a window of opportunity for humanity to become the major race in the Galaxy but they had to act fast before another race like the Orks become predominant. He unified the Sol system, created the Custodes and Astartes all so that the Great Crusade was primed and ready to go the moment the Warp storms cleared. The end of the AOS was moment of maximum threat but also maximum opportunity.

 

Now you could argue that it is convenient that the story was written that way but at least its internal logic is consistent.

 

I think this is it. Quite an old piece of background actually, warp storms were stopping any inter-system travel. It needed the fall of the Eldar and birth of Slaanesh to create the psychic shockwave that cleared the storms and allowed the Great Crusade to commence. 

[Gorgoff]

What a strange conversation.

 

I think he revealed himself because he knew that Slaaneshs birth will blow out the raging warpstorms.

Edited May 27, 2021 by Gorgoff

[Xenith]

The Emperor revealed himself when the Birth of Slaanesh blew away the warp storms/turbidity isolating Terra from the rest of the galaxy. The time was right when it became possible for humanity to reach out into the stars, relatively safely again, and reunify worlds that had been cut off.

 

As you can also see, Big E tried to harness the webway also, so humanity wouldn't have to rely on warp travel, and if warp storms ever caused problems again, it wouldn't effect human webway travel, resulting in a unified Imperium [forever]. 

[Karhedron]

As you can also see, Big E tried to harness the webway also, so humanity wouldn't have to rely on warp travel, and if warp storms ever caused problems again, it wouldn't effect human webway travel, resulting in a unified Imperium [forever].

The Webway plan was looking really promising until Magnus "did nothing wrong".

[Xenith]

As above, I forgot to mention, from the literature, it seems Big E was looking for specific things in the Galaxy for the Webway/Golden Throne project that he couldn't access due to the storms (c.f. Molech, Magnus the red's novel, other stuff). As soon as they abated, he acted fast to try and complete the webway project, freeing humanity from warp travel. 

[Karhedron]

One of the books also implies that he left a C'tan shard of the Void Dragon imprisoned on Mars deliberately to cause the Mechanicum to develop along certain lines. Possibly he knew that the increasingly psychic human race would need a logical mechanistic counter-balance. Presumably he needed to wait until the seed he planted grew sufficiently to be able to put his plans into action.

[Marshal Rohr]

I can’t recall the Void Dragon on Mars to influence the Mechanicum ever coming back as a major plot point and doesn’t particularly make much sense as none of the mechanicum archeotech approximates Necron tech.

[Karhedron]

I can’t recall the Void Dragon on Mars to influence the Mechanicum ever coming back as a major plot point and doesn’t particularly make much sense as none of the mechanicum archeotech approximates Necron tech.

And now C'tan shards of the Void Dragon have turned up without any apparent impact on the fluff. I realise that C'tan shards are dime-a-dozen slave beasts now and not the fearsome star gods that they were in 3rd edition but I still feel releasing the model without picking up some of the fluff about the Noctis Labyrinthus was a missed opportunity.

[Gorgoff]

 

I can’t recall the Void Dragon on Mars to influence the Mechanicum ever coming back as a major plot point and doesn’t particularly make much sense as none of the mechanicum archeotech approximates Necron tech.

And now C'tan shards of the Void Dragon have turned up without any apparent impact on the fluff. I realise that C'tan shards are dime-a-dozen slave beasts now and not the fearsome star gods that they were in 3rd edition but I still feel releasing the model without picking up some of the fluff about the Noctis Labyrinthus was a missed opportunity.

 

The narrative in 40k matches the rules.

Streamlined and nothing to complex.

Don't want to open a can of worms here, but I made the mistake to read one of the last codex books and that's the impression I got. 

But to be honest I re-read the fluff of codex Skitarii 7th edition and the fluff in that book was at least as shallow. 

[Karhedron]

Yes, less fluff is in the Codices these days and more in the BL novels. Edited May 28, 2021 by Karhedron

[Scammel]

Mild speculation incoming, but it's becoming increasingly mild at this point (it's a suspicion I've had ever since Master of Mankind that has since gained credence).

 

The Emperor didn't reveal Himself, as first hinted at in MoM (the line escapes me, but in the prologue a character suggests that the Emperor was 'awoken', or 'discovered'). The Emperor has never possessed an off-switch and would never willingly take a step back from proceedings.

 

Instead, He was rendered comatose by His first Warmaster, Oll, who decided to use an anathame to put a stop to His ambitions. Post-Strife, the barbarians of Earth seem to have found a way to end His sleep, or it was otherwise coincidence that He recovered when He did.

Edited June 1, 2021 by Scammel