If the Emperor Hadn't Been Mortally Wounded....

[Eldartank]

Here's an interesting alternate scenario: Suppose the Horus Heresy happened exactly in all the stories except for the climactic battle between Horus and the Emperor. Suppose instead of being mortally woulded and put on the golden throne, the Emperor succeeded in killing Horus without himself suffering any serious wounds. What would have happened after that?

[Bannik]

Here's an interesting alternate scenario: Suppose the Horus Heresy happened exactly in all the stories except for the climactic battle between Horus and the Emperor. Suppose instead of being mortally woulded and put on the golden throne, the Emperor succeeded in killing Horus without himself suffering any serious wounds. What would have happened after that?

Depends on the fluff really, if the golden throne is a webway portal he would have made a powerful human empire with no need for warp travel..

[Hendarion]

Or his Webway Gate would have been sealed off by Eldar, who knows?
Surely the Emperium would look different, especially the religious part of it.

[Pooky]

The Emperor goes into Warp space and calls the 4 major Chaos gods over for some tea. Once everyone is sitting around the table and the tea is poured the Emperor stands and tells the Chaos gods that they tried their best and failed. He then gives them all the middle finger salute and walks off laughing.

[Hendarion]

Aww... I thought you where going to say he poisoned their tea.

[Eldartank]

Aww... I thought you where going to say he poisoned their tea.

Apparently you didn't notice what happened next - The Emperor killed the 4 major chaos gods by shooting fireballs out of his eyes and lightning bolts out of his ****....

[Shadow Lord]

Well, he still had to worry about the Traitor Legions first...and the Chaos Gods wouldn't just roll over and die because the Emperor still lives...they would probably try some other evil plan to bring the Emperor down. And just maybe some of the other Primarchs would ask the Emperor why he deemed it necessary to keep this big secret from them (there are monsters in the Warp...). If he had been honest with them (especially with Horus) then they would've know that Chaos existed and that they had to be on the watch for them...now, they really got caught with their pants down (still powerpants, but you get the picture) and they had to kill friends and family because of it. Me thinks that the initial unwavering faith in the Emperor would be shaken just a little bit by this and maybe the Primarchs wouldn't be so eager to believe every word he said...thus making this an ideal situation for the Chaos Gods to set up the Primarchs against the Emperor and against each other...

[Ozeryk]

If my aunty had balls she would have been my uncle

[DietDolphin]

What if the Emperor wasn't mortally wounded? I'm sure he would have found a new way to screw over the humanity... "hmmm maybe if i create 20 more primarchs to combat these ones...."

[Shadow Lord]

What if the Emperor wasn't mortally wounded? I'm sure he would have found a new way to screw over the humanity... "hmmm maybe if i create 20 more primarchs to combat these ones...."

Yea, he probably would do something like this...would be very hard on the loyal Primarchs tho...They would get replaced by newer, more trusted versions of themselves, thus proving the point that all Primarchs are expandable weapons created for the sole purpose of conquering the galaxy in the Emperor's name and that the Emperor really doesn't give a s*** what happens to them as long as the job gets done...mmmm...as a follower of the Chaos Gods I can only dream of such an ideal breeding ground for desinformation, lies and manipulations!!

[blackcherry]

I think the Imperium would have fractured by quite a bit. Certainly the legions wouldn't trust him as much as they did and had the Emperor around to air their grievances to. The Imperium would then have two paths it could go down. They deny it all happened and don't teach the people about whats out there (which would probably lead to the current setting, perhaps slightly different). Or they could launch a new great crusade, this time against the legions and the forces of chaos.

Overall though, I can't see there being much actual difference to the modern setting. The Imperial Cult was still established, it just would have taken root a bit later on. Most of the radical and forward thinking members of the different Imperial organizations left with the forces of Chaos, which would still set the Imperium on the course of stagnation. The break up of the legions and how the Imperial Army is organised would still have happened. The Emperor would still be killed/mortally wounded at some point.

It would have just been put off or delayed for a bit with perhaps a few of the darker days of the Imperium that followed the Heresy being avoided due to the big E still being alive. But one of the themes of 40k in that everything is cyclical.

[Eldartank]

I think the Imperium would have fractured by quite a bit. Certainly the legions wouldn't trust him as much as they did and had the Emperor around to air their grievances to. The Imperium would then have two paths it could go down. They deny it all happened and don't teach the people about whats out there (which would probably lead to the current setting, perhaps slightly different). Or they could launch a new great crusade, this time against the legions and the forces of chaos.

Overall though, I can't see there being much actual difference to the modern setting. The Imperial Cult was still established, it just would have taken root a bit later on. Most of the radical and forward thinking members of the different Imperial organizations left with the forces of Chaos, which would still set the Imperium on the course of stagnation. The break up of the legions and how the Imperial Army is organised would still have happened. The Emperor would still be killed/mortally wounded at some point.

It would have just been put off or delayed for a bit with perhaps a few of the darker days of the Imperium that followed the Heresy being avoided due to the big E still being alive. But one of the themes of 40k in that everything is cyclical.

I'm actually interested in what people think would happen if the Emperor never got mortally wounded or killed, as in if he managed to still be fully alive even up to the 41st Millenium.

[pointyteeth]

I think his mind and will would have been altered by his confrontation with Horus. I expect that either
A) he would be crippled into inaction, leading to things much as they are now but with less religious belief and possibly with Guilliman taking over much of the running of the Imperium (seeing as the Ultramarine Primarch already had a nearly independant empire going himself)

B) he would be driven into a fury to annihilate the traitor primarchs and their legions. Eventually; the galaxy falling apart due to their being nothing but fanatical attacks against the traitors; the other astartes chapters would start to falter and abandon him, heading off to their own regions of the galaxy to take care of their own. I expect the Wolves would remain loyal to him though.

[Buddha777]

Well the problem is that even if not mortally wounded the big E still likely would have been forced to stay on the golden throne to keep the webway portal closed. Remember, Magnus' warning irreparably damaged the webway and the only thing literally keeping the doors close, and the demons in the webway back, was the emperor's psychic might. When he went to battle horus Malcador took over but even he, considered the most powerful human psychic, did not last long. So even if he came back alive and well he still would have had to use the golden throne.

Now this may not mean that the 40k we know would have resulted, considering that with some effort the emperor could leave the throne for a short time might mean he could have given commands, but ultimately the big E would likely have ended up in the same place, the golden throne, even if he was not mortally wounded by horus.

[The bearded one]

He would've continued doing stuff up to a point where it'd make an interesting status quo for GW to halt the timeline

That might be the big issue with the emperor. If he's up and about, stuff is happening.

The emperor facilitates development of plot. In the few hundred years he was busy, he transformed a planet of technobarbarians into a teeming capital hiveworld, reconquered half the galaxy, created primarchs, created 20 legions of space marines, started building a webway portal and fought a major civil war. So if the emperor is up and doing stuff, he should be continuesly pumping out major projects of awesomeness and a productive emperor doesn't really allow that well for the suspension fo disbelief of a status quo in which you are playing your game. At least now we have a status quo where everything remains roughly the same a couple thousands years, in which time you can place your battles. This also allows the timeline to crawl forward, without you expecting significant progress. However if the emperor is doing stuff, the timeframe for a status quo is significantly reduced, and you should be experiencing rapid plotdevelopment continually, making the lack of plotdevelopment all the more acute. Right now we the timeline is "roughly there, or there, somewhere around 40.999 anyway, give or take half a dozen centuries..", while with an emperor we'd know with certainty that the timeline is indeed "2-3 years after the emperor's great kitten-projectile plan".

[Grit]

Well the problem is that even if not mortally wounded the big E still likely would have been forced to stay on the golden throne to keep the webway portal closed. Remember, Magnus' warning irreparably damaged the webway and the only thing literally keeping the doors close, and the demons in the webway back, was the emperor's psychic might. When he went to battle horus Malcador took over but even he, considered the most powerful human psychic, did not last long. So even if he came back alive and well he still would have had to use the golden throne.

Now this may not mean that the 40k we know would have resulted, considering that with some effort the emperor could leave the throne for a short time might mean he could have given commands, but ultimately the big E would likely have ended up in the same place, the golden throne, even if he was not mortally wounded by horus.

Thought he was only keeping it closed while they fixed it,so they could close it off again.

[Buddha777]

Thought he was only keeping it closed while they fixed it,so they could close it off again.

Humm are you sure? I believe HH: Collected Visions pretty much said that someone must always occupy the golden throne after magnus' "warning" as only psychic might could actually keep the webway closed.

[ryng_sting]

Straight back to the Golden Throne. Malcador couldn't man it indefinitely.

The Emperor had hoped to keep things stable until his workers could repair the damage, so the project could continue. When it became obvious that was impossible, the Emperor realised only he could keep it shut indefinitely.

This, of course, assumes the Eldar have never bothered to stop by from the other side of the gate in 10,000 years and seal it shut themselves.

[CaptainGallas]

Apparently you didn't notice what happened next - The Emperor killed the 4 major chaos gods by shooting fireballs out of his eyes and lightning bolts out of his ****....

Thats Braveheart

[Grit]

Humm are you sure? I believe HH: Collected Visions pretty much said that someone must always occupy the golden throne after magnus' "warning" as only psychic might could actually keep the webway closed.

ah haven't read that so wouldn't know that part.