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The God-Emperor of Mankind

2016-12-07T23:51:33Z

2605:6000:8C9F:E000:9165:A486:1C29:E8DA: I liked the Primarch quotes, I thought this would be relevant to the Emperor.

[[File:Lord of Mankind.jpg|400px|right|thumb|Liberating the galaxy is one thing, but he was so powerful he never once stopped looking ''fabulous'' while doing it.]]
<div style="text-align:center;font-size:1.10em;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-family:serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em"><span style='color:gold;font-size:100%'> I have come to eradicate Religion as it is the bane of Man, warped in superstition, ignorance and fear! - The Emperor before the Treason of Horus'''</span> </div>

<blockquote><i>We believe in one Lord, the Emperor, the Almighty, ruler of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Emperor of Mankind, the only Lord of creation, eternally begotten of Humanity, Human from Human, Light from Light, true Lord from true Lord, begotten, not made, of one Being with Humanity; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and came among us. For our sake he has faced down Chaos; he withstood death and was enthroned. To this day he lives on in accordance with the Scriptures; he resides upon Mother Terra and is seated upon the throne of Humanity. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Emperor, the giver of life, who proceeds from Humanity and from Terra, who with Humanity and upon Terra is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy true and divinely guided Ecclesiarchy. We acknowledge one path for the defense against Chaos. We look for the justice for our dead, and the life of the worlds to come.
<br>++ Ayhmen ++</i><br>
-- the [[Imperial Cult|Creed]] of the Mankind's Council of Nicene of Holy Terra</blockquote>

''"Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please."''<br>
— Niccoló Machiavelli

The '''God-Emperor of Mankind''', also known as '''The Emprah''', '''Emps''', '''Big E''', '''Augustus Imperator''', '''Master of Mankind''', '''Space Jesus,''' and also sometimes called '''The Anathema''', '''The Carrion Lord''', '''The False Emperor''', '''The Immortal Emperor''' or '''The Corpse on the Throne''' is the figurehead ruler of the [[Imperium of Man]] in the [[Warhammer 40k]] universe and is the only sustaining [[Tzeentch|Hope]] for Humanity as Faster than Light Travel is [[Astronomican|entirely dependent on Him]]. The [[Administratum]] He established, continues to govern the [[Imperium]] in His name, but it is generally accepted that the absence of the Emperor's proper guidance is what has turned the Imperium into the [[/b/|hellish mess]] that it is. In the [[Imperium]], questioning whatever your superior yells at you, is "moronic" and [[heresy|heretical]], and is typically punished by [[blam|peace]] (at least in the material realm). He created the 20 primarchs, who viewed him as their "father". However, he saw them more as tools, and instead of names, referred to them by numbers. *Dick*. It goes without saying that would The Emperor be up and about in the 41st millennium He would be very disappointed. Most fa/tg/uys expect Him to [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0191520/bio speak in a generic deep, stentorian voice].

==The Entire History of the Emprah==
[[File:Majestica.jpg|250px|left|thumb|Big E gets all the bitches.]]
The Emperor is a [[Perpetual]]; an immortal psyker with countless lifetimes' worth of knowledge and power and the ambition to use it. According to the fluff, the being that would eventually become known as The Emperor was born in 8000 BC in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) on the banks of the Sakarya river. From his own account, his path towards greatness was spurred on when his uncle murdered his father; so kid-Emps did the responsible thing and gave his uncle a myocardial infarction. Kid-Emps then realised that humans needed laws, and good laws needed to be given by good leaders: setting him on the xeno/geno-cidal path of self-righteousness and conquest that would continue for the next 38,000 years.

Allegedly, ''(according to 1st & 2nd edition fluff)'', his birth was the result of hundreds of human shamans committing ritual suicide to be reborn as a single individual capable of protecting humanity from the [[Chaos Gods]]. However, [[Skub|the validity of this fluff is frequently questioned]], given it hasn't been "official" since second edition. However, this theory seems unlikely, especially given that other Perpetuals are known to exist, [[Ollanius Pius|some of which]] may be even older than the Emperor, and they don't have godlike powers. The Chaos Gods apparently view the Emperor as an equal/rival due to his acquisition of powers at a later point ''(see below)''.

The 1st & 2nd edition fluff also mentions that He guided humanity throughout history under a number of guises, such as Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Randy 'the Macho Man' Savage etc. And, it ''has'' to be assumed, [[Conan the Barbarian]]. ''(It is also possible that He was Russian emperor Peter I, purely based on the fact that imperial Russia's symbol was the two-headed eagle, and Peter I was considered huge (or great, depending on translation))''

Sometime around the 11th or 12th century, He battled a shard of the [[Void Dragon]] in modern-day Libya. He eventually defeated it and locked it on [[Mars]], allowing the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] to control machines... eventually. Of course, it's not entirely clear whether this is true or not -- it's entirely possible that ALL of the Emperor's history is a lazily-crafted lie He throws around because no one can debunk it. Although given how [[Awesome]] it sounds, we're going to say it is. Either that, or it's just another example of how [[Games Workshop|Geedubs]] can't be bothered to keep their stories consistent even about the most important parts of the setting.

Whatever his actual origins might have been, for the most part He more or less stayed out of the way of humanity's progress during the next 30,000 years of history, including the [[Dark Age of Technology]], though hot-off-the-press fluff indicates He might have been traversing outer space in old-style NASA rockets with the other Perpetuals, to eventually coming to find the planet '''Molech''', where He passed through a gateway that led ''directly'' to the fortresses of the four [[Chaos Gods]]. Here He either challenged, bargained, or stole portions of power from a source claimed by the gods as their own. This would earn Him the ire of the duped/defeated Ruinous Powers, who consider him as some sort of usurper or that he reneged on some kind of undisclosed deal we haven't been made aware of yet.

===Unification Wars===
He returned to Terra at the closing years of the [[Age of Strife]]. With Terra cut off from the rest of the Human empire and the Terra itself ruled by warring "techno-barbarians", in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the E-money decided to reveal Himself, using His mastery of genetic engineering to create the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodians]] and cheaper, easier to make [[Thunder Warriors]] ''(the predecessors of the Space Marines)''. Using "join-me-or-die" tactics, He managed to conquer the entirety of Terra during the event called Unification Wars. Then, He made contact with the Mechanicum of Mars and calling Himself the [[Omnissiah]], convinced them to build Him weapons and space-ships. Around this time, He also created a doctrine, the [[Imperial Truth]], which states that religion, faith, and superstition must be all banned, because they have never succeeded in unifying the human race during all of Emp's lifetime. Simply put: the whole "Peace, Love, and Religion" mumbo-jumbo has never worked and now must be eradicated.

Exception where's He's not a perfect badass? [[The Last Church]]. It is permissible to substitute the voice of whatever angry militant atheist appeals to you most/least for the duration of this one (short) story. Also, according to that same story, this asshole wiped out Scandinavia, [[Viking|right when Scandinavia was getting fun again]]. According to the Horus Heresy books that mention the Unification Wars, He burned down a lot of things on a partially recovering Terra.

===Great Crusade===
But, before He set out to conquer the stars with the newly-formed Imperial Army (which contained both [[Imperial Guard|ground forces]] and [[Imperial Navy|space-borne fleets]]), He decided to create the twenty [[Primarch]]s, using Himself as the genetic template, while splitting the additional power He ''stole'' from the Gods into 20 portions, infusing each piece with a fragment of His own personality, to allow them, in turn, to congeal and gestate (just like how daemons are born!) into the indomitable souls of His future Primarchs. Then, He bound each such vessel/soul to their godlike bodies/shells as they formed in their gestation capsules. Let this sink in: each primarch is basically a unique daemonic soul, bound to a super awesomely tough material body. Though with this power ''apparently'' stolen, The Big Four will inevitably and continually be pissed at Him for using their power for His own ends. So the Chaos Gods snatched the primarchs away (via time-travel-as-a-vision shenanigans, don't even try to explain it here, just read ''The First Heretic''), inside their incubator pods and all, from the secret lab underneath the Himalayas, to scatter them away across the galaxy. Luckily for the Emperor, some genetic code was left over from each primarch, so from that He created 20 Legions to serve as the elites of His army: The [[Space Marine|SPEHSS MEHREENS]]. So, with His armies and space-ships complete (minus the Primarchs, which He hoped to find), He embarked upon the [[Great Crusade]], to once again make humanity great again.

However, the Emperor himself states to Arkhan Land ''(the guy who discovered Land Speeders/Raiders)'' that he never considered the Primarchs to be his sons and saw them as well-crafted tools so he could get his work done. Likening himself to Geppetto ''(from 'Pinocchio')'' in that it is only natural for 20 wooden boys to think of their creator as "Father" even if he felt no sense of kinship towards them in return.

As He found each Primarch, He assigned them command of their respective Legions and to act as His generals, warlords and pantheon of heroes that humanity were meant to emulate, in the quest to unify humanity in the Great Crusade ''(although, at some point, one of them was executed and the other disappeared, leaving only 18 Primarchs and Legions after 100 years of the Great Crusade).''

A military campaign of a grand scale, this is also when the SPESS MEHREENS were most awesome and at their peak. [[just as planned|Just when things seemed to be going well]], the [[Horus Heresy]] took place, where 8.5 of the Primarchs and their respective legions rebel against the Emprah. In the end, the Emperor fought and slew [[Horus]] (who was daddy's favorite) but at a great cost. The Emperor was mortally wounded to the point that He had to be put permanently on a life support system known as the [[Golden Throne]]. On that day, an untold amount of manly tears was shed.

==="Modern" Day===
Subsequently, 10 thousand years later, without the Emperor's leadership, the Imperium eventually degraded into the theocratic, [[grimdark]] empire we all know and love today, in the 41st millennium. In the 500th year of the 41st Millennium (the exact middle of the millennium), which is a few centuries before the Time of Ending began, visions and signs reach out to all walks of life and social status to the Imperium of the Emperor crying, whether it's to lowly denizens of an underhive having dreams about it, to respected sanctioned psykers reading it from the Imperial Tarot, to shamans on feral planets instinctively knowing that the extra rain pouring down lately are tears of sadness from their "sky god".

While interred on the Golden Throne, the Emperor's psychic-essence prevents [[daemon|daemon kind]] from directly assailing [[Terra]], while additionally sustaining the psychic-beacon known as the [[Astronomican]], that makes warp travel within 50,000 light years around Terra possible.

It is common knowledge, that the Emperor is the most powerful psyker alive, humbling even the [[Eldar]]. It is also suggested that He has guided humanity in a guise of people like Julius Caesar, [[Conan the Barbarian]], [[meme|Chuck Norris]], Christopher Lee and Jesus. It is uncertain as to whether or not His internment on the Golden Throne is a good thing. Some believe that if He were to die, the [[Imperium]] would be truly fall into darkness, whereas others believe that if allowed to finally die, He would reincarnate and return to unify the galaxy once more, stronger than ever. Whatever the truth, [[Games Workshop]] are probably never going to advance the story, so speculation has little worth. Unless you take Warhammer Fantasy as an example, where the time-line ended. Badly.

==The Emprah Himself==
:''"The Emperor was a brilliant scientist, a powerful warrior, and great psyker, but he was a terrible [[Venus' Burn|father...]]"
:-[[Roboute Guilliman]], giving the most short yet accurate biography of the Emperor.

[[File:Climax.jpg|250px|right|thumb|A typical father-and-son chat between Empy and Horus.]]
After He shaved his goatee, His chin radiated [[Astronomican|a brilliant light]] through the [[Warp]]. The [[Imperial Navy]] uses this light as a beacon to guide them through that beautifully terrible place. He is sometimes referred to as the Emprah, a joke derived from the voice acting in the ''[[Dawn of War]]'' game, ''[[Dawn of War: Soulstorm|Soulstorm]]'', specifically [[Indrick Boreale]]'s final speeches.

The Emperor is said to be so powerful that He could [[C'tan|destroy suns with ease]], though He has never actually done so (he however, ''made'' a golden sun which he put in the middle of his broken webway gate to prevent daemons from spilling through, albeit needing to concentrate on powering it for the next ten thousand years. This would indicate that the Emperor does indeed have the power to destroy stars.). The [[Chaos Gods]] are scared as fuck of the guy, calling him respectively "The Anathema", as in the polar opposite to [[Chaos]]. The [[Eldar]] fear that if the Emperor were to die, a new [[Eye of Terror]] would pop out with Terra at its center and possibly a new Chaos God would be born.

After He was nearly killed by His son, He was placed upon the Golden Throne and hasn't moved for the past 10 millennia. Most of the fluff maintains that His existence on a day-to-day basis since then is a living hell (by comparison, the torture astropaths go through when becoming one, would be like a trip to the dentist). It's the mother/father/uncle/2nd Cousin of all mindfucks, so bad that even an Inquisitor would likely go insane as a result (or anybody else for that matter) and yet He carries on. Why? He may be the universe's most powerful vegetable, but that doesn't mean that He will just take a sit and die. Oh no, it's exactly the opposite. It gives Him a fuckton of work to do, and along with being THE lighthouse in the Warp, guiding the Imperial Navy, He also needs to make the aforementioned astropaths, as well as keeping all the [[daemon|nasties]] of the Warp where they're supposed to be (i.e. not invading realspace to make the lives of all living things miserable). He also does it for the good of humanity (sounds kinda familiar, doesn't it?). In the last year of M41, tech-priests discovered that the Golden Throne is failing and the Emperor is dying. There is a chance of the Emperor returning to life, as well as the risk that He will die forever. If the latter would be the case, then everyone in the galaxy will become a Chaos sex toy/punching bag/plague vector/science experiment. Note that if the Emperor recovers, He'd be several hundred times more powerful. Emps was born of a group of psykers combining their might and souls in one ritual act. Maybe. Since then, Empy has probably gained about 365 gigafucktrillion souls since he got put on that Throne (see: leveling in Dark Souls), as he ''is'' the afterlife now, provided one excludes the veritable Hell that is the Warp. And all that stuff the Eldar get up to.

:''"He's been up to all sorts of things, our beloved father. Consorting with xenos, resurrecting ancient technology. Don't believe that he is blameless in this...''
:-Magnus the Red

For all His desire to guide and protect humanity, there is a lot of proof, particularly from the Horus Heresy books and some short stories, that the Emperor was not Space Jesus, but Space Hitler. He [[Nazi|declared humanity to be superior to all xenos]] (setting the basis for our genocidal xenophobia and the hatred of nearly every xenos race by default), planned to destroy every shard of religion by force of arms if needed, planned to reunite humanity under His rule no matter what anyone else wanted/thought of that (again by force of arms if needed), cared little for the primarchs being His actual sons (thinking of them as generals and tools rather than biological offspring, and screwing over several of them in His efforts to recruit them / making them follow orders (hence causing some of their later betrayals)), carried out many unorthodox, morally questionable experiments and much much more...
For example: He helped Corvus Corax turn his home-world (and moon) into a great place to live, but for some reason didn't bother doing this for [[Iron Warriors|Olympia]] or [[Night Lords|Nostramo]]... in both cases this contributed to the Primarchs of those worlds to turn traitor. Plus, while He kept the already moral-as-fuck Vulkan at His side for decades, risking the Salamanders' existence in the process, He totally neglected His least stable sons, i.e. the ones who really needed at least [[Magnus|SOME]] [[Angron|level]] [[Perturabo|of]] [[Lorgar|fatherly]] love/guidance. And that whole sorcery issue that divided the Primarchs, kept Mortarion estranged from Him and led to the [[Space Wolves|Wolves]] destroying Prospero? Could probably have been avoided if He'd listened to [[Jaghatai Khan]] and a) told His sons the truth about the Warp and His plans with the human Webway (we don't even know what the lost Primarchs are called, isn't that enough proof that they can all keep a secret?) and b) explained that they all had psychic potential and c) showed them all how to use it responsibly.

His reign eventually [[Inquisition|killed more humans]] (not even counting those who were innocent) than the entire total of humanity's dictators in history. Even during the Unification Wars, several Terran cultures were wiped out completely (Orioc on Antarctica, for example, was razed to the ground for being religious, just to make a point, even after its forces were defeated and its people ready to surrender), while simultaneously being pretty terrible at incorporating non-Terran elements. For example, there's basically no trace left of the Interex, Auretian Technocracy and Diasporex.

His flawed nature is most infamously apparent in Graham McNeill's short story "The Last Church", where this unfathomably wise, all-knowing superhuman presents his ironclad argument against organized religion which ultimately consists of cherry-picking, liberal use of straw-men, and an overall theme of "I'm right, you're wrong. Shut up." Not that his opponent, Uriah Olathaire, fares much better, as he responds with the equally ironclad intellectual rebuttal: "Well, that's just your opinion, man." and "Stop hurting my feelings!" so maybe it's just bad writing. 13 year-olds on Reddit have had more substantive and productive debates about theology than these two. In the end, the Emperor announces his intent to bring down organized religion [[Derp|WITH A FUCKING CRUSADE]], completely undermining the entire point of the argument that he had literally been having five minutes ago, under the justification "It's okay when I do it." To be fair to McNeill, there are many fans who hold that the author was intentionally writing a subpar argument for the Emperor in order to show that in spite of all his brilliance and wisdom, even he can be a bit of a tool.

No matter with whom your allegiance lies, you, the reader, you can't deny that the Emperor's mentality of believing that "small (small as in billions versus trillions, though the death toll of the Imperium's wars are probably in the untold bazillions by now) sacrifices are all made for the greater good" is kinda asshole:y? ([[Tau|Now where have we heard that before?]]) All of this is still excluding the genocides and culling of untold number of alien civilizations, empires, kingdoms, communities, species and races since the start of the Great Crusade... that ended abruptly anyway, with Horus taking up the rebellion and initiating a human genocide on a galactic level. So indirectly, alien justice was served, when humanity got the same treatment as the aliens they invaded earlier.

Plus, He really didn't think the post-Ullanor phase through at all, except for appointing Horus as Warmaster and Dorn as Praetorian. At the very least, He should've had Guilliman take over administrative duties to avoid taxes being imposed prematurely on newly compliant worlds, seeing as the civilian administrators helped to alienate a lot of his soldiers. And let's not even start talking about the alienation and His utterly incompetent and pinheaded mismanagement of the Word Bearers, that led to the Chaos Gods taking root in the ranks of the primarchs to start with... But maybe He planned for The Heresy to start, [[Tzeentch|who knows]]?

To be fair, the whole reason humanity (and the Emperor) hates aliens is because during the Age of Strife, numerous xenos races exploited humanity's trust and made raids, lollygags, loots, and generally were being a nuisance. Then the Emperor comes along and decides that the best way to stop all that from happening again is to wipe out all xenos that might even think to pose a threat to the fledgling Imperium. However, those few xenos species that did not pose an immediate threat to humanity were usually made protectorates similar to the Tau government (unless they resisted, were in the way, possessed a planet, influenced human culture at all, or were intelligent at all, in which case [[Exterminatus|the results]] were predictable). Ever since His ascension, the Imperium forgot about the part where harmless aliens could be tolerated. But on the other hand, [[Orks|the]] [[Necron|most]] [[Tyranids|common]] [[Tau|xenos]] [[Dark Eldar|are]] [[Eldrad|dicks]] and aren't exactly willing to buddy up with the Imperium themselves. Plus, at least according to ''Horus Rising'', the idea of letting xenos exist and then eventually grow stronger is wrong on every level to the Imperium (hence the whole mess with the Interex/Diasporex).

To be even more fair (and meta), the triumvirate of Horus Heresy authors tend to have their own interpretation of the Big E. Graham McNeill generally portrays Him as competent and benevolent (if flawed), Dan Abnett portrays Him as competent but bloodthirsty, while Aaron Dembski-Bowden portrays Him as a vicious, needlessly cruel imbecile. Chris Wraight, as far as he has portrayed Him, has done so through the eyes of Jaghatai Khan, showing Him as deeply flawed and distant from His own sons, but also countering that He was working towards goals even the Primarchs couldn't fully grasp. Even in Path of Heaven, where the Khan gets close to learning the secrets of the Webway project, he's shown to not have all the cards (the Emperor's knowledge that humanity is evolving into a psychic race, for example).

Ironically, the whole hatred-of-all-xenos thing helped to tip the Word Bearers into Chaos worship, as Chaos' emissaries presented themselves as mankind's only protection against aliens.

==Worship of the Emperor==
[[File:646545.jpg|thumb|300px|What the Emperor looked like before Horus decided to [[Rip and tear|bitchslap]] Him. Notice the giant skull. How did that skull get so big? Is it a plastic faux-skull, or is it an alien skull? (What He doesn't want you to know is that The E is actually a midget, the armor is a mech and that that's a regular-sized skull) Anyway, back to the topic. You don't get to see the Emperor out of armor very often.]]
Humans worship the Emperor as the one true God. Now, the only reason the Imperium worships the Emperor is that after His fight with Horus and His internment into the Golden Throne, they pretty much forgot what the Emperor taught them when He preached the Imperial Truth. Ol' Empy did not actually tell anyone of the Chaos Gods, withholding the information even from the Primarchs in hopes of protecting them from corruption by hoping that ignorance is bliss. Unfortunately, this became part of why the Horus Heresy happened in the first place. Some saw that the Emperor [[Mortarion|lied to them by holding the truth hidden]], some did [[Magnus|not know how to handle the temptation]] the Gods conveyed, some did [[Fulgrim|not even know that they were manipulated]] all this time and by whom, some would [[Lorgar|try to seek out something to place their faith upon]], not realizing what would needed to be done to become chosen in the eyes of the Gods. Plus, it's pretty damn hard to fight against something if you don't know that it exists. The Horus Heresy novels also mentioned the [[Interex]], another atheist empire who understood that threat of Chaos, but treated that information secularly and scientifically: they told every citizen everything that was known about "Kaos", and thus resisted the taint altogether.

In the Emperor's long game, he knew that humanity was evolving into a psychic species with even more potential than the Eldar, and look what happened to them? E-money wanted mankind to be [[Star Trek|a utopia of science and reason]], by eliminating religion (and thus preventing the temptations of daemons), controlling psykers (and thus preventing random daemonic possessions), and eliminating warp travel by creating the Human Webway (and thus eliminating all human contact with Chaos when traveling through the Warp). He wanted to isolate humanity from the Chaos Gods, cause who gives a shit about the Ruinous Powers if they're stuck in the Warp with no way of getting out?

Regarding the religion angle: the Emperor very much realized that Chaos runs off emotion, all everyday emotion, and not ''just'' worship; the stronger the emotions, the stronger the Gods get. The problem with religion is that it allows too many avenues for Daemons to exploit: a whisper here and a miracle there, then you get people praying to them, then shortly afterwards you get a planet turned inside out. His plan was not to starve the chaos gods of sustenance and ultimately defeat them, he knew it was impossible, his plan was just to prevent them from touching humanity ever again.

However, He made a critical mistake in disregarding the human need to believe in something greater than oneself, and despite His best efforts, nothing was enough to fill the place of religion in human society. Ironically, the best solution would be not to suppress faith but to redirect it towards something else, but because of his natural awesomeness, unmatched psychic powers and enigmatic nature, that "something else" ended up being the Emperor himself. After He went off being the most powerful psychic cucumber in the universe, and lost direct control of the Imperium, belief in Him sort of helped the Imperium stand together against all odds, even if it basically dropped 99.9% of humanity's IQ in the process. With the Warp being what it is, the act of worshiping the Emperor supercharged His power in the Immaterium to the point of being truly godlike, even while His body is still stuck in it's current physical state of near-death. The Imperium's faith in the Emperor is basically their biggest anchor of bravery and perseverance in a universe where humanity is constantly beset by:

*[[Tyranids|Unimaginably massive swarms of voracious space locust who exist only to feed and multiply it's biomass]]...
*[[Necron|Older-than-Chaos-itself zombie-terminator robots set on culling all life from the galaxy]]...
*[[C'Tan|Diabolical celestial beings literally as old as the stars, whose single desire is harvesting all living souls]]...
*[[Orks|A race of nigh-unkillable barbarians, genetically engineered to have pastimes, ambitions, job skills, and dreams only be about rip and tear]]...
*[[Tau|Technologically superior space communists wanting to assimilate everyone in their quasi heirarchical-Communist empire and who take after Billy Mays]]...
*[[Eldar|Snooty and uncaring space elves that can read minds and who eat, sleep, and to have Heterosexual Sex in the Missionary Position in planet-sized battle cruisers]]...
*[[Dark Eldar|Psychotic, hedonistic space elves who routinely torture others to the point of death for sheer amusement before grinding their remains into refined cocaine]]...
*[[Chaos|Fanatical zealots that knowingly devote themselves to all that is insane]]...
*[[Daemon|Nightmare horrors made real who will rape and eat, usually simultaneously, any sentient being they get their goat-hooves on]]...
*[[Chaos Space Marines|Deformed, demented traitors clad in power armor and aided by the evilest forms of weaponry and sorcery ever conceived]]...
*[[Rak'gol|Homicidal alien, lizard, insect, cyborg type monster-pirates that horribly kill you for fun]]...
*[[Slaugth|Giant Swarms of Worms in cloaks who might be older than The Old Ones who are more sadistic that the Dark Eldar and More Manipulative than regular Eldar and Feed on Humans in the Most Disgusting and Painful way imaginable (Hint it Involves Maggots.)]]...
*[[Q'Orl|Massive insectoid hive mind filled to the brim with heavy firepower and has a slow but growing empire that is one of the largest in the galaxy, dwarfing the Tau several hundred times over and is seen as the next successor of galactic domination after humanities potential fall]]...
*[[Games Workshop|Malignant, omnipotent intelligence from beyond the cosmos, exerting all the power at their disposal to prevent any faction from breaking the stalemate or upsetting the dreadful status quo]]...
*[[Sly Marbo|And fuck knows who the guy in the cardboard box is]]...

Without their faith in the Emperor after His internment into the Golden Throne, the fragments of the Imperium would have fought against each other again like in the pre-Great Crusade days and subsequently devolved into what they were before the Emperor revealed Himself. So yes, much like IRL religion, it gives them hope and courage to fight on and survive in a universe that leaves the [[grimdark]] faucet running everyday and night.

It's worth noting that good ol' Empy wouldn't have had nearly as much of a problem with all this unwanted worship if He hadn't, just as a quick example, insisted on wearing horrifyingly ornate solid gold armour and a big glowy halo at all times. Or on carrying a flaming sword of righteousness. Or on building continent-sized monuments to His vanity. Or on decking all His personal troops and favored genetic experiments in as much bling as they could possibly carry. Or on being eleven fucking feet tall. If you look like space-Jesus and act like space-Jesus, people are going to take those observations to their extreme conclusions, like what Lorgar did when he wrote the ''Lectitio Divinitatus'', which can be summarized as "Ordinary men can't blow up suns and carry big glowy halos at all times, only a God can, therefore the Emprah is God." This is made even more relevant given that the fluff very strongly implies that the Emperor '''was''' Jesus.

That said, to Games Workshop's credit His being [[Ultramarines|buttfucked by His own hubris and disregard for the humanity He claimed to be guiding]] in this manner was probably [[Grimdark|intentional as a classic tale of Greek Tragedy]].

==The possible death of the Emperor==
[[File:Emperor of mankind flaming sword armor.jpg|500px|right|thumb|Badass and glorious.]]
With the Golden Throne being consistently worn out, and the Tech-priests too power-armor-on-head rebooted to do anything about it, it is certainly possible that the Emperor may die one day, which will obviously result in all of the Imperial worlds and factions to cry tears of disappointment and subsequently devolve into chaos (maybe even with a capital "C"). There are however, 3 possible outcomes of what can happen if the Emperor eventually dies:

===The new Eye of Terror===
Conventional wisdom and the [[Eldar]], says that in the event that the Emperor dies, a new Eye of Terror will be created with Terra at it's center, plunging Holy Terra and all nearby planets/systems(?) into the Warp. The current main rulebook says that all of reality will be plunged into the warp if the Emperor dies. Even the [[Ecclesiarchy]] agrees that if the Emperor were ever to die, humanity would be FUCKED at the barest minimum.

This is supported by the fact that the '''Golden Throne''' ''(itself a portal to the Webway)'' was broken by [[Magnus]], causing a warp tear to open on Terra, which the Emperor has had to spend every second for the last 10,000 years concentrating on to keep from getting any bigger (while the [[Adeptus Custodes]] have spent the same amount of time chopping up daemons that slip through the crack). They will not be able to stop a full daemonic invasion if the rift would open fully.

Additionally, a new Chaos God could be created (just like with the Eye of Terror and the Eldar), which will most certainly be a God of all the Grimdarkness in the galaxy, ensuring that it would eclipse all of the powers of the other Gods, as the Emperor would finally be the God of all. This is especially true, since nearly everything that is grimdark stems from Chaos and the entire WH40K setting is itself a massive pile of it... That or Malal would burst back into existence, which does have some possibility of happening, since Malal was/is the Chaos god of Atheism, which was the "truth"-part of the Emperor's "Imperial Truth" doctrine.

Some also fear that a fifth Chaos God's presence would just crush reality by merging the Materium (reality) and the Warp into a singular dimension. But that's unlikely, since the birth of the latest Chaos God, Slaanesh, did not destroy reality and he/she/it/xe was fueled by the near extinction of a race far more psychically powerful than humanity. On the other hand, Slaanesh was forced to battle Khorne and most of the Eldar Gods during it's first birth moments. That would not be the case if the 5th Chaos God would be born.

===Regeneration===
No, not the [[Doctor Who]] kind. The Horus Heresy novel 'Vulkan Lives', heavily implies that the Emperor is a [[Perpetual]], just like John Grammaticus, Vulkan, Oll Persson and [[Anval Thawn]], all of who were able to survive deaths that should have completely obliterated their bodies. So all He simply needs to do is for his current material body to die normally, and wait a couple of hours/days and He'd be reborn again (in the "get up off the ground and dust Himself off" sense (Though one has to wonder why the Emperor would have had Himself interred in the Golden Throne in the first place if He thought He'd heal. Probably to power the Astronomican?)). 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]].

In fact, a whole faction of the [[Inquisition]]: '''Thorianism''' exists to investigate this possibility; looking for possible signs that the Emperor's consciousness can be transferred elsewhere, allowing Him to walk among his children once more. (That said, 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]].

But think about it: when Malcador took up the Throne so that the Emperor could fight Horus, the device consumed his vitality; and Malcador was not as blessed as the Emps with regen abilities to recover. Now imagine a weakened, crippled being, who's top priority immediately after killing His son is to stop the Webway gate from spilling forth. You don't have time (and nor does the galaxy) to recover from your wounds. So you sit upon the Throne and it consumes you slowly from that point onwards. The chair is stopping any sort of healing factor.

===The Star Child===
Although years of GW-marketing and [[retcon|fluff "upgrades"]] have made the third claim rather dubious, many fa/tg/uys and optimists still hold out on the theory stating that when the Emperor screwed Horus's soul to the wall, part of the Emperor's soul was also cast into the Warp. This Soul Fragment is called the Star Child, a god waiting to be reborn, or perhaps be reincarnated back into a human body (anyone call for one scout Mkvenner). If the remains of the Emperor were ever to die, the tiny spark of soul left in his body would re-unite with the greater whole within the Warp, and according to [[fluff|prophecy]], for the four Chaos Gods into stalemate, while the races of the galaxy would be left to battle it out in one last great Ragnarök scenario (called the End Times).

This theory is tied closely to the Illuminati, a group of either supremely enlightened individuals or dangerous mutant heretics (depending on which side of the [[Inquisition]] you're on). The Illuminati plan to catch all of the Sensei and sacrifice them upon the Golden Throne at the moment of Emperor's death.

In a bizarre fusion of new and old fluff, it has been revealed that the Illuminati were a minor Tzeentch cult and the Sensei were effectively brainwashed soon-to-be sacrifices in an attempt to bring Tzeentch to the materium. Needless to say, they have been purged by the Inquisition. The fluff in the Jac Draco books revealed that the Ordo Hydra (a small splinter faction of the Illuminati who seek to turn humanity into a psychic hive-mind) is a Tzeentch cult, but that the general Illuminati population - including many Ordo Malleus Inquisitors and the Exorcists [[Chapter]] (as well as their unknown successor chapters) are genuinely incorruptible by Chaos and are freely permitted to access the Black Library along with Harlequin Solitaires. The Inquisition Trilogy was retconned away.
It's just like that frustrating moment you experience when you don't know if the Squats have been nommed by Tyranids or have never existed in the first place.

== Gallery ==
<center><gallery>
File:Golden Throne-Imperial Webway.jpg|The Big E upon the Golden Throne (before the decay set in)
File:Emperor of Mankind Classic Portrait face.jpg|The guiding light in the Imperium of Man shines forever bright. He's also Arnold Schwarzenegger. Try unseeing that now.
Image:1220179589932.jpg|The Emperor protects man from all.
Image:Horus and the Emperor.jpg|Son, I am disappoint.
Image:Wh40k-emperor.jpg| Yearbook photo.
Image:When you ruin his groove by Lutherniel.jpg| His groove, do not ruin it.
File:Emperor_Decree.jpg| Emps laying down some rules, mid combat from the looks of it
File:Go Ahead Make My day Emperor.jpg|That is EXACTLY the same look that's on Batman's face when he's about to put the beatdown on someone!
File:Emperor of Mankind model action figure.jpg|He makes for one helluva action figure
Image:8.jpg|The Em-purr-or of all Catkind! Nyah!
Image:God-Emperor_Goldlich.jpg|Death is no excuse to stop bein' pimp.
File:God_Emperor_Interred_On_Golden_Throne.jpg|Thinking to himself, "I really, REALLY hate Horus!"
Image:The Immortal Emprah.jpg
Image:Emperor_miniature.jpg|Roll d6; stays on the field on seven or less
Image:emperor_old.jpg|A real man never dies, even when he's killed.
Image:emperor.png|Down but not out.
Image:Emperormini.jpg|In all His miniature glory
Image:Carrionlord.jpg|<strike>The Carrion Lord with his two left arms.</strike> {{BLAM}} how the fuck did that heretic get past the custodes?
File:Painting.jpg|This painting sold for $900, that lucky ca/tg/url...
Image:Emperor_model.jpg|Probably the best model of him yet
Image:slowemperor.jpg|Oh God-emperor, how did this get here? I am not good with computers.
Image:Emperor_Sagan.jpg|Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
Image:EmpsVSigmar.jpg| You all know you wanna see how this pans out!
Image:Emprasque3.jpg|How do you kill what can not die?
Image:Slavegirl Emperor.jpg|Emperor [[Rule 63]]! NO EXCEPTIONS!
Image:Femprah.jpg|Not actually the God-Emperor; besides it is Heresy to believe that The Immortal God Emperor looks like Cher.
Image:Femprah_by_Mr-Culexus.jpg|Oh, give it a fucking rest...
Image:Emperor_upon_his_other_throne.jpg|Yeah. We get it. The Emperor sits upon the Golden 'Throne'.
Image:1377291976783.jpg|Unbeknownst to many 40k fans, ol'Emps is fairly amicable when he meets an elf/eldar who isn't a complete failure.
Image:First_Founding_Problems.jpg|Perhaps with a better armor design, Emps might not have been late for [[Horus]]'s after school soccer games and things might have turned out differently.
File:Rainbow Emperor.gif| The Emperor in Rainbow Form
Image:Konya.jpg|The symbol of the town Konya in Turkey. In Central Anatolia. Emprah's birthplace. CONNECTION, BITCHES!
Image:Hittite eagle large.jpg|The symbol of ancient (1600BC) Hittite Empire from Anatolia, which, unknown to many, is Emperor's first try at conquering the world. CONNECTION, BITCHES!
Image:Emperor mao.jpg|In alternate universe 32-B, Mao Zedong rules the People's Republic of Mankind
Image:NotSureIfWant.jpg|The Emperor has just discovered [[Rule 34]].
Image:Emperuh.jpg|The Emprah is watching you Masturbate!
Image:Emperor blackwhite.jpg|He might be the most powerful psychic vegetable in the universe but the Custodes can't give him a decent hygiene program.
Image:1271118030729.jpg|Just imagine if the Chaos Gods didn't scatter the primarchs through out the galaxy... Wait where's that little scamp Omegon? (just off picture, sneaking up behind Guilliman)
File:Emperor of Mankind Contemplation.jpg|"Why IS IT that hot dogs come in packs of 8, and hot dog buns come in packs of 12? So people will have to buy 3 packs of hot dogs and 2 of hot dogs buns, hereby promoting imperial production of course!"
</gallery></center>

==See Also==
* The [[Imperium]], for the empire he founded.
* [[Sigmar]] Unbroken, his [[Warhammer Fantasy Battles]] counterpart.
* [[Emperor's To-Do List]]
* [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/25959559/ This thread] which makes the Emperor even cooler.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_2nM1GEllg/ A series on Youtube, it shows what would happen if the Emperor had a Text to Speech device.]
* [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device]] article in 1d4chan.

{{Imperium}}

[[Category:Gods]]

Corvus Corax

2016-12-07T23:39:56Z

2605:6000:8C9F:E000:9165:A486:1C29:E8DA: Relevant quote for Corax

[[File:Deliverance_Lost_cropped.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Corvus Corax, the Deliverer. He is black ops BraveStarr.]]

''“Say 'Nevermore,'" said Shadow.<br>
''"Fuck you," said the Raven. <br>''
— Neil Gaiman

''"When lives are on the line, there is no such thing as a fair fight."''<br>
—Anon

''"When you're on your own, behind enemy lines, no artillery, no air strikes, no hope of an evac, you don't fight dirty. You do things that make dirty look good."''<br>
— The Punisher

''"You cannot see the future with tears in your eyes."''<br>
— Navajo Proverb

Not to be confused with the awesome Neo-medieval band of the same name.

'''Corvus Corax''', the Common Raven, also known as the Northern Raven, is a large, all-black passerine bird and is the [[Primarch]] of the [[Raven Guard]]. Corax was big on fast assaults (and screamo music; it's a surprise his chapter motto isn't Blood on the Dance Floor lyrics) and is notorious both for being the head of one of the hardest-hit legions during the [[Horus Heresy]] and for the steps Corax took to try to help the Imperium, as well as the self-imposed exile he put himself to in an attempt to atone for what he had caused. Whilst [[/tg/]] often jokes that he's emo, he's also a complete badass, like a lot of the Primarchs, and unlike [[Lion El'Jonson|this fucker]] actually [[/tg/ gets shit done|got shit done]].

He also had some kind of super-secret psychic-invisibility. He was reportedly able to walk among people and pass completely unnoticed. It doesn't work on machines or any other kind of mechanical device, due it not being actual invisibility, but more like being really, really forgettable despite being 10 feet tall and with a jump pack almost as big as Russ' ego. However, he hid this ability even from his own Legion, being quite aware about the Imperium's attitude towards psykers.

==The Liberator==
[[File:Corax.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Poor guy got fucked nearly as hard as the [[Lamenters]].]] Like all the Primarchs, Corax was scattered by [[Chaos]] to prevent the [[Emperor]] from destroying their plans. Corax wound up on Lycaeus, a dry, dusty moon with no atmosphere, orbiting the planet Kiavahr. At this time the planet was a technologically advanced Forge World, providing Kiavahr's gigantic manufactorums with minerals extracted from Lycaeus by slave labor.

The slaves of Lycaeus were mostly regular people - inhabitants of the moon, as well as criminals, political opponents of the wealthy aristocracy on Kiavahr, and Kiavahran workers who had done crimes such as [[PROMOTIONS|failing to meet quotas or taking one too many bathroom breaks]] - in essence, Lycaeus was an unlimited source of free, exploitable manpower, which they kept in line with hired guns and openly executing anyone who tried to escape.

When the people of Lycaeus found Corax as an infant, they were mystified - no one could identify where he had come from and yet all could tell there was something unearthly - and extremely important - about the child. They named him Corax - "The Deliverer," in their language - and in spite of the risks and drain on resources, they took him in and kept him safe from their masters. Believing that Corax was their salvation from the Kiavahrans' tyranny, they began training him in the various skills he would need both as a leader and as a warrior: urban warfare, close combat, and demolitions work as well as political and philosophical training and analysis - ultimately Corax's abnormally-fast maturation (being a Primarch and all) comforted the slaves and united them in believing that Corax was the savior that as a people they had waited ages for.

Finally the day came when Corax was old enough to assume leadership and fulfill his destiny. He began his task by quietly organizing the workers into fight teams, promoting the best, smartest, and strongest to squad leaders. He began using the mines' fabrication tech to create weaponry, and then hid stockpiles of equipment in strategic positions throughout the mines. Corax took full advantage of the environment the Kiavahrans had set up, doing a bang-up impression of [[Anonymous]] and staging strikes, sit-ins, and riots in strategic spots, knowing that the Kiavahrans would deal with them harshly and feed the flames. Finally things reached their breaking point and Corax's forces launched their attack, taking key positions. With a combination of sabotage, strategic demolitions, and access to manufactured/stolen weaponry, Corax's forces killed the occupation force to the man and the moon of Lycaeus declared its independence.

When Kiavahr's rulers struck back with their armed forces, Corax was ready for them, having seized the equipment of the defense forces Kiavahr had left behind, and used the fabrication equipment to make demolitions-grade ordnance for the battles to come. At every battle, the Kiavahrans found battle-hardened warriors who were exceedingly skilled in urban and hit-and-run warfare - guerrillas that constantly ambushed and outmaneuvered their heavily-armed and armored forces, whittling down their ranks. With Kiavahr's forces already demoralized and destabilized, Corax pulled a [[Awesome|MacGuyver-esque]] feat of legerdemain and sent a set of nuclear mining charges along the gravity tethers used for moving supplies and ore shipments to Kiavahr, blowing the Kiavahran manufactorums to hell and guaranteeing that the Kiavahrans couldn't produce a thing. The tech guilds who ran Kiavahr plunged into civil war, and with this, the conflict for control of Lycaeus was won.

In celebration, they re-named the planet [[Deliverance]].

That very day, the [[Emperor]] arrived, apparently pleased with what Corax had accomplished, and after the two spent a day and a half together, he appointed Corax head of the newly-formed [[Raven Guard]]. Nothing is written regarding what Corax and the Emperor discussed that day except for Corax's sole condition of acceptance: that the Emperor help restore peace on Kiavahr. The Emperor agreed and the Adeptus Mechanicus took control of Kiavahr, rebuilding it and turning it into a glorious shard of the Imperium. Deliverance, meanwhile, was reinforced, and the citadel that had once housed the guards the Kiavahrans had deployed to maintain order was now, ironically, the headquarters of the Legion, dubbed "the Ravenspire." In contrast, many primarchs preferred to leave their home planets as Feral or Death Worlds.

Some of the older rebels were left to help government their planet. However, like many of his brothers Corvus allowed the younger ones to become Astartes, and they became the template for the revamped, more idealistic Raven Guard. They formed the core of the Legion's Mor Deythan elite.

==Great Crusade==
[[File:Corax_Portrait.png|400px|thumb|left|Corax is not a happy man, and it shows.]]
Little is spoken of Corax's role in the Great Crusade, though his contributions were many. A firm proponent of mobile strikes, tactical planning, and careful sabotage, the Raven Guard excelled at lightning fast strikes and covert operations, but several of the Primarchs were not quite so sold on it. [[Rogal Dorn]] disliked the combat style of the Raven Guard, though the two purportedly respected one another and made ''hilarious'' jokes about [[Roboute Guilliman]]'s retardation, causing the [[Ultramarines|Smurf]] to go cry [[Butthurt|into his big blue pillow]]. Corax would have likely gotten along swimmingly with [[Alpharius]] and [[Konrad Curze]], due to similar tactical doctrines, but the three Primarchs would be deployed to opposite sides of the Imperium during the great crusade, and would never really manage to hook up. Then again, it's implied pretty strongly that Corvus always hated what Kurze stood for, no matter how similar their tactics were.

One person who Corax flat-out didn't get along with was [[Horus]]. The pair never saw eye-to-eye, with Corax being too humanitarian for Horus' tastes and Horus being too much of a [[Creed|cockmongler]] for Corax's liking. The two also disliked one another's tactical choices, and on at least one occasion, the two nearly came to blows after Horus ordered Corvus' Legion into a frontal assault on a heavily defended fortress. A little strange, given that the Iron Warriors and Space Wolves were present and much better-suited to these tactics, but it basically boils down to Corvus' big brother being a prick. The pre-Corvus legion served under Horus, and rolled more like the Night Lords than the emo ninjas we know and love today. Corvus, who saw some uncomfortable parallels with the slavers of his homeworld, promptly set about changing this, which undoubtedly pissed off Horus. Big brother decided to flex his Warmaster muscles, and when Corvus proposed a sensible alternative Perturabo called him a big pussy. The result was a pile of dead ravens, millions of civilian corpses (who hadn't rebelled willingly, but were under the control of alien parasites), and ''Leman Russ of all people'' breaking up a fight between Corvus and Peturabo. It's suspected that Perturabo played a major role in giving the Ravens the job of trialing the Mark VI "Beakie" armour, [[Power armour|believing it to be inferior]].

Being the bigger man, Corax said "fuck this" and left Horus' command, hooking up with some kindred spirits in the form of [[Ferrus Manus]] and [[Vulkan]]; the three hit it off pretty well and found their forces worked really, ''really'' well together. They then went and continued the Great Crusade without having to deal with Horus' acting like a [[furry|shit]]. The one upside from the Gate 44 debacle was that the Terran marines in the Legion had been largely wiped out in the assault, taking the warrior lodges with them.

==The Horus Heresy==
[[File:GoldenDemonCorax.jpg|200px|thumb|right|A model of Corax. This one won a [[Golden Daemon]].]]
When the Horus Heresy occurred, the Raven Guard, [[Iron Hands]], and [[Salamanders]] were all on the front lines on [[Horus Heresy|Istvaan V]]. Each faction was well-suited to lead the vanguard of the attack, but they would wind up getting trapped and pinned down in the worst part of the fighting; when [[Horus Heresy|4 more Legions turned traitor and joined Horus' rebellion]], the three Legions already in the thick of it wound up in a bitter fight which cost them scores of men - as well as the Iron Hands' Primarch, Ferrus Manus. During the battle Corax engaged [[Lorgar]] in personal combat after shredding the Gal Vorbak, giving his sons a chance to run for the hills. Kind of like the huntsman scene in an ultra-gritty reboot of Bambi. Corvus quickly overwhelmed Lorgar, demanding answers to why he betrayed them. Lorgar tried to tell Corax of the [[Chaos|truth]] he had discovered, but Corax's responses amounted to "heresy is bad and you should feel bad", and he said it with lightning claws. Corax was just about to behead Lorgar when [[Konrad Curze]] intervened. At this point, Corax's resolve broke, for he looked into the eyes of the Night Haunter and finally knew fear: not the fear of death, but fear that but for chance he could have turned into something as twisted as Curze (particularly when you think of the repressive origins of his legion). Retreating, Corax's forces, primarily [[Dark Eldar|designed for quick insertion and covert-ops duty and ''not'' sticking around in a meat-grinder]] suffered [[grimdark|the heaviest casualties]] - and though they fought desperately alongside the Salamanders and Iron Hands, killing countless traitor marines in turn, the loyalists were still slaughtered wholesale, forcing all three legions to withdraw, and leaving them largely unable to stop Horus' advance.

Corax realized how dire the situation was, and returned to Terra to give the Emperor his report. [[DOOM: Repercussions of Evil|His warnings to Cernel Joson were not listened to and now it was too late. Far too late for now, anyway]]. The Imperium was collapsing, with the loyalists outnumbered and Guilliman [[Alpha Legion|chasing Alpharius halfway across the galaxy]] and/or [[Imperium Secundus|building his own empire]]. The Emperor needed warriors, and Deliverance had none to spare. Searching for a solution, Corax, knowing his Sons lacked the manpower and expertise to be of much use in the coming [[Siege of Terra]], and seeking absolution for running from Curze and Lorgar, beseeched the Emperor (who was already spending all his time and most of his psychic strength on the [[Golden Throne]] to prevent a [[Warp]] gate from opening at the bottom of the Imperial Palace) to spend Corax and his Legion in a suicide-or-glory plan: to send the Raven Guard out to disrupt traitor supply lines, buying [[Rogal Dorn]] time to fortify Terra and the Emperor time to regain control of the [[Webway]]. Agreeing that the Raven Guard should continue their lightning-strike and covert-ops tactics, but unwilling to send one of his last loyal Legions to almost-certain death, the Emperor decided to give Corax a dangerous, but potentially game-changing, gift: access to the Emperor's memories on the creation of the Primarchs, and the location of the original complex where they were made, including the knowledge of how to use the long-dormant equipment there. Using the ancient books of research notes the Emperor had left behind when making the first batches of Space Marines and the original genetic sample that the genomes of all Primarchs were derived from, Corax began essentially cloning marines at an alarming rate.

He did not heed the book's warnings however, feeling that the urgency of his mission was of more import. After a fair amount of fuck ups, a solution was found and Corax had discovered a way to make stronger, faster, and more quickly-maturing (physically) Astartes out of toddlers. There were those that opposed this amongst the legion, stating that if it were right to give a five-year-old that much power and produce them that quickly, then the Emperor would have done so, but Corax maintained that they were in dire straits, which called for an exception. Then the Alpha Legion laid the FUCK down on that entire plan, and corrupted the gene-seed that the entire project was and ever would be using. While the earlier products were basically functional (if not exactly well-adjusted) Space Marines, the final batch were a horrible mess of mutants. Corax made the best of a bad situation, arming the viable Marines and using the rest as [[Space Sharks|berserkers]]/meat shields. He led attacks against the Traitors and [[Anal circumference|penetrated the rear area of the Chaos forces' supply lines]] before destroying them, which slowed their advance considerably.

After the Horus Heresy, Guilliman came back and had a sudden surprising outbreak of common-sense (this is a source of hot debate, many view this decision as the highest degree of fucktarded), demanding that the legions subdivide so that no one person could ever hold the kind of power that led to Horus [[FATAL|butt-fucking]] the entire Imperium. Corax hesitantly agreed, and split his forces, but he remained wracked with guilt; he could not forget what he had done to help save the Imperium, and was left with the horrid choice of what to do about the shambling abominations he had created. After pondering for hours as to what should be done he decided to send the mutants off on a battle barge, praying for their souls - and for his. Surprisingly they [[Raptors (Chapter)|fared quite well, and eventually grew into a chapter of bolter-worshipping marksmen]]. For [[Space Sharks|Others]] he threw away to wander the edges of the Galaxy. He then locked himself in Ravenspire, and for nearly a year, did not came out, having spent most of that time in lamentation and the rest playing [[Dwarf Fortress]]. When he did emerge, Corax left Deliverance and made a bee-line for the Eye of Terror, heading there to settle the score.

Quoth the Corax: ''"[[Awesome|Nevermore]]."''

It is believed that like [[Leman Russ]], [[Lion El'Jonson]], and [[Vulkan]], Corax will return in the final apocalyptic battle versus Chaos, when the Emperor returns - and that then, and only then, will he have the absolution he sought. /tg/ often jokes that on that same day, [[Indrick Boreale]] will talk normally.

But after all those time in eye of terror he might as well have became daemon pri-

{{BLAM|//Historitor 109.163.233.200 decommissioned by Inquisitorial decree.//}}

==Tabletop==
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left"
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Corvus Corax:''' || 450 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+/5+
|-
| '''During Istvaan:''' || 350 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 7 || 5 || 10 || 3+/5+
|}<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" /><br>
[[File:Cringecorax.jpg|I FIND YOUR LACK OF LOYALTY CRINGEWORTHY|400px|thumb|right]]
The Raven-Lord deserves to go solo like the Primarch of an independent legion should be. His Raven Lord rule state that, unless the unit targeting him is a psyker/daemon OR Corax is in a unit OR he is the closest unit to them, they can only snap-fire at him. ''(note: this makes him IMMUNE to [[Demolisher Cannon|Blast]] & [[Flamer|Template]] weapons, unless they hit him by accident!)'' He may also [[Swooping Hawks|remove himself from play and return to reserves, even while in close combat]]. Furthermore, his Sire of the Legion gives him [[Awesome|old-school]] Furious Charge and his entire legion get acute senses for outflanking and always roll 6s on run moves.

On defense he has the '''Sable Armour''', that gives him a 2+ armour save along with a 5+ invulnerable save ''(3+/5+ after Istvaan)'', making him one of the more fragile Primarchs; however he does cause Deep Strike mishaps on doubles to units within 12" and teleport homers just don't work around him. Coupled with his speed and his snapfire defense means the enemy is unlikely to get close to him. He also has the '''Korvidine Pinions''' ''(Loses this at Istvaan)'', that makes him jump infantry (of course) and let him reroll deeps strike scatter, [[Flying Circus|Vector Strike]] and gains D3 hammer of wrath hits at S5 AP3. If a mishap occurs, it will always cause the "delayed" result. Lastly he's got Shroud Bombs, for when he's the one getting charged (Not likely, but possible).

On the offense there's the '''Panopoly of the Raven Lord''', an AP2, shredding, blinding weapon set that takes up two hands. Can choose each turn to add D3 attacks / gain +3 to vehicle pen and auto-wound on a 5+ / impose -1 to enemy To Hit rolls (Making him capable of taking on virtually anything, especially on the charge). Lastly there are his two S6 AP3 Master-Crafted '''Archeotech Pistols''': while surely not the strongest ranged weapons for a primarch they get their job done. They get exchanged for an assault 3 Heavy Bolter which also grants him Hatred (All Traitor Legions which participated in the Drop Site Massacre) after Istvaan. After Istvaan and his rendezvous with the Emperor on Terra, he get's his toys back. Somehow.

He also has two profiles, representing him before Istvaan and during/after the battle. After the battle he loses quite a few of his toys (notably his korvidine pinions and archeotech pistols) and has a lower statline to represent the injuries he sustained, although he also costs 100 points less while gaining Infiltrate and Scout.

==Corvus Corax VS other Primarchs:==
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying. With that in mind this section is about how Corvus Corax fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. In essence, the fights are supposed to happen in a "Vacuum" for simplicity, but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also all of the Primarch use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?).
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

* Corvus Corax VS Horus
**Horus hits 4 times (Talon), wounds 3.556 times, 2.37 after saves and IWND will take that down to 2.037 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1 wounds (Scourge)/0.75 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.667/0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Horus practically stomp over Corax. Also, he is practically immune to Blind and could use Worldbreaker to Concuss him to initiative 1 so as to not let him escape.

* Corvus Corax VS Angron
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333/4.5 times, wounds 4.444/3.75 times, 2.963/2.5 after saves, and IWND take it down to 2.63/2.167.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4/3 times, wounds 3.333/2.5 times, 2.222/1.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.889/1.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1.25 wounds (Scourge)/0.9375 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and FNP and IWND will take that down to 0.917/0.604 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron wins really easily as Corax is simply too frail for him.
**Note: Corax would actually have the edge on the charge thanks to his Sire of the Raven Guard rule and his Hammer of Wrath/dual Archeotech Pistols, but would still lose unless Blind comes into play. He would strip Angron of almost all his wounds, though.

* Corvus Corax vs Mortarion
**Mortarion hits 2.5/1.666 times, wounds 1.666/1.11 times, 1.11/0.74 wounds after saves and 0.777/0.407 wounds after IWND.
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 2.221 times (Scourge)/1.666 times (Shadow-walk), 1.11 wounds (Scourge)/0.833 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.556/0.278 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Mortarion wins either way in this fight, he causes more overall damage, has more wounds, and regenerates faster. In addition even if Corax runs away Mortarion's ability to teleport will mean he'd catch Corax very quickly after he re-appears so he cannot run away to heal which would render this a stalemate.
**Note: Corax could attempt to "cheat" his way to victory thanks to his special rules, especially Sire of the Raven Guard (which grants him Super-Furious Charge) and Hit & Run. With this he could disengage at the end of Mortarion's assault phase, in order to charge him again during his turn. Using this tactic he would Shoot with his pistols for 1.9444 hits, 0.648 wounds, 0.108 wounds after saves, then charge in with Hammer of Wrath gaining 0.333 wounds, and 0.0555 wounds after saves, then attack with the Panoply which hits 4.5 times (scourge), wounds 3.375 times, 1.6875 after saves and 1.132 with IWND for a total of 1.296 Wounds. This, combined with Shadow-walk during Mortarion's assault phase in order to mitigate his retaliation barely lets Corax win if he goes charging scourge in round 7, then scourge again in round 8 as he strikes before Mortarion, compared to 8 rounds needed for Mortarion to kill Corvus (this is including Overwatch with The Lantern).
**Though this looks like a close fight at first glance, this tactic relies completely on Hit and Run (which is more akin to Corvus's fighting style), as well as assumes the Charging always works out in Corvus's favour and so the strategy will mathematically fail over the eight rounds needed to kill Mortarion (as there's mathematically one turn that either Hit and Run or Charging will fail when Mortarion consolidates away from Corvus's consolidation) giving the victory to Mortarion again. But that's actually the same chance of Corax Blinding Mortarion (Not included in the fights), so the odds are still the same.

* Corvus Corax vs Fulgrim
**Fulgrim hits 4.667/3.5 times, wounds 3.111/2.333 times, 2.07/1.555 wounds after saves and 1.737/1.222 wounds after IWND.
**Corax hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1 wounds (Scourge)/0.75 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.667/0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax lose.
**Note: even with Hit & Run and Sire of Raven Guard Corax cannot win this fight, unless he get lucky with Blind.

* Corvus Corax vs Ferrus Manus
**Ferrus hits 2.5/1.667 times, wounds 2.083/1.389 times, 1.389/0.926 wounds after saves and 1.056/0.592 wounds after IWND.
**Corax hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 2.222 times (Scourge)/1.667 times (Shadow-walk), 0.741 wounds (Scourge)/0.556 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.408/0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax lose.
**Note: as always if Corax can pull off his tactics of Hit & Run he can close the gap, doing a lot more damage on the charge, but Ferrus' Hammer has Concussive AND Strikedown, and even if Corax uses Shadow-walk there is a 93% chance he will receive at least one wound, making it almost impossible to rely on this tactics and assuring Ferrus victory.

* Corvus Corax VS Vulkan
**Vulkan hits 2 times/1.333 times, wounds 1.667 times/1.111 times, 1.111 wounds/0.741 after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778/0.408 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 2.222 times (Scourge)/1.667 times (Shadow-walk), 0.741 wounds (Scourge)/0.556 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185/0 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax lose as Vulkan is too beefy.
**Note: even with Hit & Run Corax will struggle to keep up with the damage output of Vulkan, and if he uses Scourge (the only way to really do more damage than him) chance are pretty high that Vulkan will Hammer him to I 1, thus making almost impossible for him to escape.

* Corvus Corax VS Lorgar
**Lorgar hits 2.5/1.666 times, wounds 2.083/1.388 times, 1.388/0.925 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.055/0.592 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax Round 1: hits 4.741 times (Scourge)/3.555 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3.16 times (Scourge)/2.369 times (Shadow-walk), 1.58 wounds (Scourge)/1.184 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.247/0.851 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax Round 1: hits 5.333 times (Scourge)/4 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3.999 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), 1.999 wounds (Scourge)/1.5 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.666/1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax win.
**Note: as always, no psychic powers.
**Note: doesn't include "Marked By Dark Fates" which makes Corax re roll 5's & 6's for one round.

* Corvus Corax VS Perturabo
**Perturabo hits 2.667 times/2 times, wounds 2.222 times/1.667 times, 1.481 wounds/1.111 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.147/0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1 wounds (Scourge)/0.75 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.667/0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax lose.
**Note: Welcome to Corvus Corax fist nightmare-city, population: Perturabo. He would mostly like to Hit and Run, but then again, with strikedown, concussive and blind, how can he do that? Also, Perturabo is immune to Blind. Yeah, he is like Corax natural enemy and then some...

* Corvus Corax vs Konrad Curze
**Curze hits 4 times/3 times, wounds 3 times/2.25 times, 2 wounds/1.5 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.667/1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1.5 wounds (Scourge)/1.125 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167/0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax lose.
**Note: even though they both got Hit & Run Konrad doesn't get +1 attack to charge Corax, 'cause he has Shroud Bombs, and also doesn't get +1 S ans I, making Corax considerably stronger when he charge all things considered. All in all, a pretty balanced fight, even if the above stats don't say so.

* Corvus Corax vs Alpharius
**Alpharius hits 2.92/1.944 times and wounds 1.701/1.134 times, 1.134/0.756 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.801/0.423 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1.5 wounds (Scourge)/1.125 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167/0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax wins.

* Corvus Corax VS Rogal Dorn
**Dorn hits 2.667/2 times and wounds 2/1.5 times, 1.333/1 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 1/0.667 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1.5 wounds (Scourge)/1.125 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167/0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax wins.

* Corvus Corax VS Roboute Guilliman
**Guilliman Round 1: 2.5/1.666 times, wounds 2.0833/1.389 times, 1.389/0.926 wounds after saves and 1.055/0.593 wounds after IWND.
**Guilliman Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3.333/2.5 times, wounds 2.963/2.083 times, 1.975/1.389 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.642/1.055 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), causing 1 wound (Scourge)/0.625 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.667/0.292 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Corax lose badly. What did you expect? No one can win against [[Matt Ward|YOUR SPIRITUAL LIEGE]]!!!
**Note: Corax could still try to use his Hit and Run tactics to even the odds, but from the second time they fight (whether Corax charges or Guilliman catches him) Guilliman will have him concussed (He's using his fist for a reason) for the rest of the fight and will kill him before Corax can escape again, thus making the strategy not viable against Papa Smurf.

* TLDR version: Although Corax can put out more damage than most other Primarchs, especially on the charge, where he is almost on par with Angron full charged, he is even frailer than Angron himself, with is weak as ass 5+ invulnerable save that really doesn't help when you are fighting your demi-god brothers. Also, he is extremely vulnerable to Strikedown and Concussive! Still, he can win some fight, or, better, escape from most of the fights he wouldn't love, while being one of the more resilient Primarch when in the open (for his Shadowed Lord rule). In his case, Primarch fighting is really stupid, as he would like to charge and charge and charge again and again until he has killed everything in sight that is not a Primarch. Then, you can focus them when everything else is down...

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[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]][[Category:Primarchs]]