Editing The God-Emperor of Mankind (section)

==Emperor: Endgame==
[[File:Emperor of mankind flaming sword armor.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Son, I am disappoint.]]
The Emperor's body might be broken and destroyed, and while he's dead by every clinical definition of death, there is sufficiently enough of his consciousness sticking around to still be relevant and extremely powerful. This is at odds with his status as a confirmed [[Perpetual]], but his body has been dead for longer than he's been a perpetual so chalk this up to GW not bothering to account for it properly. Very few people are ever allowed to enter the Throne Room, and accounts differ on what they actually witnessed while in there.

What is perhaps more important is the Golden Throne itself and what the Emperor expected to achieve by maintaining his silent vigil on it for the last ten thousand years. What is known is that the Throne started out as an important part of his Webway project and sit on a long sealed portal to the human portion of it; it also supposedly directs the beacon of the [[Astronomican]]. It might also be somehow enhancing or maintaing his psychic abilities through its connection to his desiccated body and this would be lost when it gives out. It also still requires a constant source of [[Psyker]] fuel to keep running, and that has only increased in demand more recently. What it actually does do now that the Emperor's body is dead and dessicatted is up in the air.

We can only guess what would happen if it ever stopped working; the Imperium might be changed forever. With the mechanism being consistently worn out, and the Tech-priests too power-armour-on-head rebooted to do anything about it (at least until they finish studying Malcador's staff, provided GW doesn't forget that plot point), it is certainly possible that the Golden Throne may stop working entirely. It's also possible nothing would change, seeing as how parts of it keep giving out yet nothing happens.

Suffice to say, no one knows exactly what might happen should the Golden Throne give out, and no one really wants to find out.

===The Nuclear Option===
Ultimately, if the Golden Throne fails (and assuming it's actually doing something), it is possible that Holy Terra might be plunged into the Warp. This is supported by the fact that the Throne was built as a part of a portal to the Webway and was a significant part of the Emperor's ultimate plan for humanity. Unfortunately the psychic wards for the webway were later broken by [[Magnus]], causing a warp tear to open on Terra and creating a whole secret war in the Webway at the same time as the [[Horus Heresy]]. Although the portal was eventually sealed with the direct intervention of the Emperor himself, the fact remains that it still sits on top of a closed doorway with an infinite multitude of daemons on the other side, though it's not been elaborated on as being a part of keeping that door shut.

According to the Old Earth novel, the Golden Throne has a Vulkan-forged device called '''Talisman of Seven Hammers''' that acts as a dead man's switch: it supposedly will destroy all of Terra if the Throne finally kicks it. The Talisman has never been referred to in previous fluff, though the fullest implications of the Throne failing have never been explored either. The effect of Vulkan's talisman is a wildcard, as it was shown to have the capability to annihilate ''(not merely banish)'' a Greater Daemon even '''before''' it was connected to the Throne, and earlier in the same section the ''residual'' energy left over in the Emperor's fulgurite was sufficient to make an army of Bloodletters simply not be there any more. Connecting the talisman to the Throne magnifies its power to the point that the Emperor believes it would not merely deny Chaos their victory on Terra, but can strike a blow against them "the likes of which they will never recover from".

Additionally, the [[Grey Knights]] have a set of instructions called the '''Terminus Decree''' with icons that match that of the Throne itself, and these instructions could either destroy the Imperium, or bring it salvation in its darkest hour, one could speculate that the two outcomes could be linked.

Chaos may still get their chance to destroy Terra and bring down control of the Imperium, but may be burned <u>badly</u> by the Emperor's final "fuck you".

===Regeneration===
As mentioned, the Emperor is a [[Perpetual]], just like John Grammaticus, [[Vulkan]], Oll Persson, [[Alivia Sureka]] and [[Anval Thawn]], all of who were able to survive multiple deaths that completely obliterated their bodies in the process. The question becomes why he hasn't picked himself up and dusted himself off and regenerated yet after long millennia of inactivity.

In any case, if the Golden Throne fails - '''regardless of whether Terra gets nuked, the two outcomes are not mutually exclusive''' - whatever remains of the Emperor likely will have the freedom to recover and lead humanity once again.

All of this is still speculation (duh). Vulkan, for instance, was driven mad by the torturous experiences he had endured thanks to Night Haunter, and they were child's play, compared to sitting in unthinkable agony, unable to move or speak for ten thousand years while feeling Himself rotting away. And don't you forget [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|that nose itch]]. However, a more commonly held belief is that He will get up, re-establish the [[Imperial Truth]], and [[Great Crusade|just be]] [[Commissar|a cool guy]]. Too bad the Warp rift and the Astronomican don't have time to wait for him to do so.

A whole faction of the [[Inquisition]], '''Thorianism''', exists to investigate the possibility of regeneration; looking for possible signs that the Emperor's consciousness can be transferred elsewhere, allowing Him to walk among his children once more. ''(They don't know about the existence of Perpetuals and would rather look for a new body to place the Emperor's soul into.)'' Opponents to Thorianism generally see that encouraging this is a terrible idea, as having the Emperor rise in a physical form would only cause a schism in the Imperium, as many people would not believe it to be true, having been ruled and brainwashed by the Ecclesiarchy over thousands of years, which would lead to another major [[Horus Heresy|civil war]].

A final outcome might be that the Emperor is so far gone that there would be no regeneration for him. He could you know, just be "dead" the same way that Malcador died after his stint on the Throne, though Malcador didn't get to stick around. They were both perpetuals, although the Emperor's orders of magnitude more powerful, Malcador never got up after what might have only been a few hours or days when the Emperor has been sitting there for Millennia. This would also mean the Imperium is absolutely out of luck with the failure of the Astronomican AND the aforementioned warp nuke centered on Terra and their seat of government.

Alternatively it could also be that his connection to the Throne might be the last thing preventing him from achieving true Godhood after ten-thousand years of worship. The destruction of the Throne might by the catalyst of everything that the traitors called him a hypocrite for desiring, ironically causing it to happen with their rebellion and his entombment.

This however is just speculation, so the outcome remains unknown. However, it is confirmed that Perpetuals can still die for real and Chaos does have the ability to do so. Malcador learned this the hard way.

===Beyond the Emperor===
As stated in ''The Master of Mankind'', the Emperor himself considers he already lost the game to save Mankind's from consuming itself into the Warp while attempting to give the evolutionary jump, with the loss of the Webway he seems to have concluded the only thing that remains is a long decline and there is nothing else to do but to wage an ever losing war. Or is it? The Emperor himself recognized He isn't omniscient, His foresight can't reach all. When Guilliman shows up, the Emperor is amazed that humanity has still managed to survive and the Imperium is still alive.

During recent years the writers of Games Workshop have been hinting at a few facts, let us consider the following:
* The future is not absolutely written, and this comes from Chaos itself; even [[Tzeentch]] can't predict everything perfectly, requiring him to ask his [[Kairos Fateweaver|insane bird-oracle to clarify on these events]].
* The fall of the Imperium may be inevitable, but mankind may live on. Given the sheer scope of the human exodus, it's not outside the realm of possibility that some remnant of the Dark Age of Technology has continued unchanged from its original height, though it's very unlikely. For this to be the case it would somehow have to avoid nearly all xenos, chaos influence/worshipers, have its own way of dealing with latent psykers so that they don't be used by Daemons [[Enslavers|or worse]] and never have met any of the other traders, explorators and travelers in general that make up how the current Imperium discovers new planets. 
* The [[Cadian Pylons]], while destroyed, were developed by beings that still exist. The fact the [[Necrons]] are still around opens the possibility that they may yet be capable of building replacements, and thanks to [[Trazyn the Infinite|Trazyn]] we know they are capable of closing of warp storms. Oh, and it seems like [[Belisarius_Cawl|Uncle Cawl]] is working on that.
* The Akashic Records truly exist and are somehow linked to [[STC|Ark Mechanicus ships such as Speranza]], this simple fact means all already existing knowledge is never lost forever, but merely incredibly hard to acquire.
* Creating humans immune to Chaos is a reality, both the [[Exorcists]] and the [[Grey Knights]] are evidence to this, and while the process is excruciatingly slow, highly prone to failure and prohibitive in resources it means Mankind can achieve through artificial means a sort of new evolutionary step.
* Not all Eldar died during the Fall, even if we are talking about 1 percent of the race it's still a great deal of individuals, and the fact they have managed to kick-start [[Ynnead|an anti-Chaos god]] is something no one, not even the Emperor managed to foresee (assuming he did not know that is what the Infinity Circuits were for, which he no doubt did considering how old he is). [[Eldrad]] has ultimately demonstrated there are other ways to fight Chaos (by being a dick).
** And thanks to Eldrad waking Ynnead up early (if only barely), Roboute Guilliman was awakened from stasis. Now he is preparing a [[Primaris Marines|new generation of Super Space Marines]] along with some awesome new gear to help take down Chaos. Plus some of the other loyalist Primarchs are still out there, and there is a possibility that they could return to help lead the Imperium fight it's many enemies.
** And for that matter, Eldrad declared by the end of The [[War of The Beast]] that the futures of Mankind and the Eldar are irrevocably interlinked. But, he did nothing to build on that, the dumbass. Add to that the fact the necrons too have given the Imperium a hand a few times and you suddenly notice there are more parties than the Emperor interested in not letting the human race fall. Despite the Imperium's completely justified hatred of xenos, they may be mankind's best chance of survival. That said, we still do have to remember that both the Eldar and Necrons want the Imperium and each other out of the way eventually in order to rebuild their empires, and the Imperium isn't keen on relying too heavily on the entities who will turn on them in a tip of the hat. On the other hand, desperate times call for desperate measures and who knows what the future could bring? Well, at least the Eldar to have more or less accepted their empire will never return and that sticking with the Imperium is their best bet for survival and power in the universe from now on. Which broke the balance and caused plot progression.
*Nobody saw the Tyranids coming because they hadn't even noticed the Galaxy was inhabited until the whole mess with the Pharos device. Not the Chaos Gods, not the Emperor, not the Eldar (though [[Orikan the Diviner|Orikan]] saw them coming), and the Tyranids are both an outside context issue for the galaxy (being the only faction with galactic pull that is completely and unambiguously disconnected from the War in Heaven or the Horus Heresy that serves as everyone else's origin stories) ties and a wild card in the fate of the Galaxy.
* If the Emperor wasn't a god to begin with, millennia of worship and countless psyker souls empowering him means that he's almost certainly a god now- and he knows it. Even when wielded by a "mere" Primarch his sword alone is capable of permanently destroying Greater Daemons (keep in mind that during Great Crusade and before he seems not to be able to do that), and given enough time his power might eclipse that of Chaos itself. (Though one could argue that Chaos powers up much faster than the Emperor due to having more sources to feed one and possibly having more worshippers) 
	
* Finally, there is humanity itself. While He failed to take into account the fact that humanity is a mass of individuals rather than an abstraction, He also underestimated how this could work for good as well as evil. For every traitor and heretic, there is an equally devoted believer in the inherent goodness of mankind willing to stand against the Ruinous Powers, and it is on the individual level that the struggle between the Ruinous Powers and humanity is ultimately fought and decided upon

Yes, the Emperor failed to avoid mankind's inherent flaws to hinder His Great Work (ironically, because He was guilty of several of them as well), but He also failed to see a lot of the good things mankind can bring in. In yet another twist of irony, his incapability to predict us may even thwart his own prediction of humanity's doom. At the very least, humanity accomplished more and survived longer than anyone expected, even the Emperor. This ain't true, the Emperor predicted Mankind to at least endure for 10,000 years, and the Emperor set into motion an empire who mechanisms could function even without His direct assistance in such a way that it continued to function admirably (the measure of success being survival) for millennia in spite of the galaxy constantly seeking to end it.

Indeed, this is [[Warhammer 40,000]], a cautionary tale about the End of Empires, but so was Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and, although we may not like the AoS-ification of the setting, there may still be more than [[Abaddon|just a complete failure]] for the future of Mankind and the Emperor.