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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
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The '''Emperor of Mankind''', is the leader of the human [[Imperium]], and Father, Guardian and God of his race. He has sat immobile within the [[Golden Throne]] of [[Terra]] for ten thousand years. Although once a living man, his shattered body can no longer support life, and remains intact only by a combination of ancient technology and the sheer force of his will, itself sustained by the soul-sacrifice of countless millions. His immense psychic powers constantly keep the [[Chaos|chaotic powers]] of the [[warp]] at bay, preventing their intrusion into the material universe and protecting his people throughout the [[galaxy]].<sup>1</sup>
The Emperor has not moved or spoken since his interment in the Golden Throne, his consciousness incapable of ordinary communication with the masses of mankind. In the millenia millennia since, the Emperor has become as a God to his people, his worship uniting humanity across the length and breadth of his Imperium, superstition and dogma replacing his doctrine of [[Imperial Truth]].<sup>1</sup>
==History==
Little is known about the majority of the Emperor's life; of who he was and what he did before he emerged as the great Emperor of Mankind, only the Emperor himself remembers.<sup>2</sup> A few pieces of information have come to light, from various different sources, and present some small parts of a coherent whole; however, their reliability is often disputed, especially as the Emperor's tale changes somewhat with each retelling.
The oldest information given on the Emperor's origin relates that he was born to mortal parents many, many millennia ago, manifesting his powers as a youth. One account of the Emperor's origin goes so far as to say that he had mortal brothers and sisters and details the time and location of his birthplace - eighty thousand years before the forty-first milleniummillennium, in the region of Terra then known as Central Anatolia. This account also claims that the Emperor's birth, while a natural process, was actually the result of a scheme created by the wisest and most powerful of living humans at that time; the conclave of shamans. These men, termed 'shamans' by their society, were powerful psykers with great experience of the warp. Finding their souls - and those of humanity - endangered by the growing perils of the warp-gods, these psykers decided to pool their power into one human, a being they called 'the New Man'. Already having gained the power to reincarnate themselves (upon death, the shamans' souls would transfer to the warp, accumulating power enough to reincarnate as human) the shamans entered a suicide-pact. Thousands of them drank poisoned themselves and sped their souls to the warp at the same time. Presumably pooling their soul-energy and using their reincarnation ability, they brought about the birth of their New Man - the Emperor - one year later. This New Man, once he had learned of his special nature, proceeded to haunt the history of humanity as a ghost; watching, waiting and occasionally influencing.<sup>3</sup>
Living secretly amongst mankind, he developed his abilities until his psychic might allowed him to gain knowledge of of not only his own world, but of the dangers beyond it. Aware then of the vast predations awaiting humanity, the being that would become known as the Emperor resolved to guide and protect humanity. Eventually, over ten-thousand years before his current circumstances, he took his struggle out into the open, primarily because of the ever-increasing number of [[psykers]], whose very existence endangered their species.<sup>2</sup>
It is generally agreed that the being named 'the Emperor' first appeared as a feudal warlord of Terra during the [[Age of Strife]]. The Emperor undertook a series of campaigns against all the other warlords on the planet that would later become termed as the [[Unification Wars]]. During these wars the Emperor employed several military formations - such as the [[Geno Five-Two Chiliad]] - that consisted of genetically altered/engineered warriors, who played a significant role in his eventual victory. With this victory, the planet and population of Terra were at last unified under one rule; that of the Emperor. With this achievement behind him, the Emperor then set in motion his plans to take his purpose of uniting and guarding mankind out into the stars, to unify with the bastions of humanity scattered across the universe. This undertaking would become known as the [[Great Crusade]].<sup>4</sup>
The Emperor prepared extensively for the Great Crusade; he created the special [[Astropaths|astro-telepath corps]] to link his eventual dominion together, and caused the creation of the [[Astronomican]], [[Image:EmperorwLegions.jpg|thumb|left|250px|The Emperor during the Great Crusade]]a supremely powerful signal device powered by the Emperor's own psychic might that would allow simplified and safer travel through the warp. Chief amongst his designs, however, were the creation of superhuman warriors, the logical extension of the gene-troopers already under his command. He had first undertaken the [[Primarch Project]], the creation of twenty infants from his own genetic codes, designed to mature into powerful generals for his armies. However, this plan went awry with the intervention of the Chaos powers. While accounts vary as to exactly what happened, the end of the tale is always the same; the primarchs were cast into the warp and thought lost.<sup>4</sup> In the aftermath of these events, the Emperor expanded his genetics program, using the data obtained from the primarchs as a means to create a caste of warriors notable for their strength and loyalty. The initial, relatively small number of soliders soldiers were used in the reconquest of Terra. For the Great Crusade, these small regiments were expanded into much larger formations. These successors to the gene-altered warriors of the Unification era were the [[Legiones Astartes]], the [[Space Marines]] of the [[First Founding]].<sup>6</sup>
The Emperor led the Space Marines into a reconquest of the [[Solar System]], driving [[alien]] enslavers from the moons of [[Saturn]] and [[Jupiter]] and most importantly, achieving peace and eventual integration with the [[Mechanicum]] of [[Mars]]. This alliance provided the Emperor with much of the means and material to send his crusade out into the stars. The Emperor's forces rediscovered human worlds, cast out alien oppressors, and claimed new territory aplenty. Perhaps most importantly, the Emperor, leading his crusade, rediscovered his lost sons, the primarchs. Scattered throughout space, the infants were found one-by-one, over a period of many decades, and reunited with their father and their kin. All were placed in command of the Astartes legions created from their respective [[gene-seed]] and played their part in forging their father's Imperium.<sup>5</sup>
The Emperor now resides upon the Golden Throne. It is a complex device located in the vast complex known as the Emperor's Palace, and located on Terra. There the Emperor's physical form is sustained by carefully-maintained machinery. The Golden Throne is connected to a massive warp beacon known as the [[Astronomican]] which generates a system of signals making faster than light Warp travel in the [[Imperium]] possible.<sup>2</sup>
The Emperor is at the very center centre of the Imperium, simultaneously carrying out a multitude of vital tasks. Although he is not directly involved in the day to day running of the Imperium, he dictates to the High Lords the most important and far-reaching decisions. All at once he guides his race through the Emperor's Tarot, soul-binds psykers, holds audiences with his most important servants and beams the Astronomican beacon.<sup>2</sup>
A controversial belief amongst Imperial scholars, the Star Child Theory has two aspects: the first is that the Emperor's soul is currently forming as a new entity (the Star Child) in the warp and that he will be reborn, and the second is that the Emperor had children.<sup>3</sup>
After the defeat of Horus, most of the Emperor's soul is said to have dispersed from his body, merging into the warp in much the same way as that of the shamans, so many millenia millennia before. It is believed that the Emperor - while apparently designed and empowered by the shamans to live forever - also possesses their ability to reincarnate, and that this would be his eventual goal. Avoiding discovery by the Chaos powers, it is believed that the Emperor was able to plant the seed of his reincarnation, a potential new soul awaiting birth: The Star Child. However, it is also believed that this new soul cannot be born while the Emperor is still tied to the Golden Throne, no matter how tenuously.<sup>3</sup>
A hidden group that call themselves the [[Illuminati]] have learned of this apparent truth, and patiently await the birth of the second New Man, doing what they can to bring it about. This involves monitoring the mortal descendants of the Emperor, otherwise known as the [[Sensei]]. It is believed that the meaningful deaths of powerful Sensei empower the Star Child, and so the Illuminati - while normally protecting them from the Inquisition - ultimately plan to sacrifice the Sensei to the Emperor; he will be renewed, and be reborn as the Sensei-Emperor to again lead his race in person.<sup>3</sup>
==Additional Information==
The account of the Emperor in Third Edition was written by the final "Keeper of the Library Sanctus of Terra", Cripias as included in the Rulebook. This account was later deemed "heretical" and kept from being published. The account was passed down to each Keeper, starting from the First Keeper, Solomon.
In the beginning, the "First Age of Man", the Emperor was hidden. It was the Golden Age and the Emperor prepares Earth for mankind. The people that existed with the Emperor before Mankind were called the "Golden Race". The second group were called the "Stone Race". The Stone Race then built ships that took both races across the galaxy. The Golden Age ends in the 21st MilleniumMillennium.
Until the 26th MilleniumMillennium, also called the Dark Age of Technology, the Stone Men were busy creating many things, such as the "Iron Men", or robots. Soon after, the Stone Men and Iron Men fight amongst themselves. The Stone Men eventually defeat all of the Iron Men.
After this "win" against the Iron Men, the Age of Strife comes and the Stone Men fight amongst themselves. After five thousand years of conflict, the Emperor finally emerges. He conquers and combines the race of men together, leading them. After creating the Space Marines, the Emperor crusades across the galaxy and reclaims Man's former glory. Soon after, the Horus Heresy occurs and the Emperor ascends.
