Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

= The Emperor and Isha =

It’s been established that, ironically, despite their disparate origins, Oscar and Isha are almost perfect fit for each other. The Emperor was supposed to be one of many. A Man of Gold network spanning the realms of humanity for not quite instant communication and to act as the go-between and bridge the gap between god-like A.I. and the common man. Isha was one of a Pantheon of her peers whose task, self-appointed or otherwise, was to guide and give direction to the Eldar. Both are relics from broken systems.

Oscar is often deeply lonely over his biological immortality. Isha helps with that. Isha often has PTSD episodes from her time in Nurgle’s garden, having endured tortures that only an immortal being could ever understand. When she does, Oscar is there for her. As an immortal fertility goddess, Isha’s needs are great but simple. Anyone who is not the avatar of a warp god or a Man of Gold would have been killed many times over by now. This may have been one of the reasons why Eldrad married Isha off to Oscar as a form of stability.

Despite originally being a marriage of political convenience, Oscar and Isha have a deep mutual respect and understanding for one another that only two god-like beings devoted to their species could share. Indeed, they possibly do love each other, at least as much as either of them are capable of it, though both of them know that if it came down to it their duty to their people would always come first. They are very thankful that they have not had to make that choice.

Perhaps one of Oscar’s biggest flaws is that he has trouble thinking of himself as a person and of his own needs. This is not leftover Man of Gold programming. Oscar was a blank slate when Malcador found him. Malcador loved Oscar and treated him like a son, but he was also acutely aware of what a Man of Gold could do and was absolutely terrified by the possibility. Oscar was made acutely aware of his artificial nature and the fact that the Men of Gold were meant to serve humanity, not rule it. It seems to have given him a bit of a self-esteem issue. That being said Malcador seems to have kind of gone back on this kind of thinking in his extreme age, based on the “War for Heaven” story.

The fact that Oscar developed the way he did despite being born with literally nothing, not even the base instincts that guide regular humans is part of the overall nobledark theme of this AU. It’s the ultimate argument for nurture over nature, and that people at their heart are fundamentally good, if flawed.

Oscar is a genuinely nice guy, and the type of person who knows exactly what he needs to say to help someone else solve their problems, but he often utterly forgets about his own needs as a person. He sees the way things work, but utterly forgets he is a part of the equation. When Eldrad said Oscar owed him a favor after the WotB, Oscar said "name it", thinking it was going to be something like another great raid on Chaos or some other impossible task. He never expected Eldrad wanted him to get married, because he forgot he was a player in the first place.

Same with the Golden Throne. Oscar constantly did not want to take official charge of the Imperium, because he saw himself as an artificial lifeform that was unfit to rule. The encounter with Sebastian Thor was essentially the Imperium's referendum on what they thought of Oscar. The Imperium had spoken on who they wanted as a leader, and they chose Oscar. Oscar had proved himself time and again an effective leader who at the same time would not abuse his power. So what if Oscar was not born naturally, many in the Imperium were born in-vitro or through other means. It did not matter that Oscar claimed to not be a real person, in their minds he had proven himself as a person, in the only way they felt mattered.

This kind of thing seems harmless at first glance but on occasion has had dire consequences when the Emperor either fails to take responsibility or slips up due to his repressed human desires subconsciously bubbling up to the surface. Like the aforementioned case of the Golden Throne. Or how the Emperor's lasse-faire handling of Ultramar and Titus' Primaris Initiative due to not wanting to be in the spotlight is potentially setting the region up for a civil war. Or when Oscar blew his lid over Lugft Huron due to the latter's policies in Badab hitting his personal sore spots and sent way more troops than necessary to quash the rebellion. Or when the Emperor at first gave Szarekh a lot more opportunity to move than he should have because he was desperate for companionship.

Oscar’s psychological state is getting more inhuman as of M41. With the exceptions of Macha/Isha, Eldrad, Bjorn, and a few others, most of his friends have all passed away, and he is loath to try and make new ones knowing they’ll end up the same. That said, some have still managed to force their way into Oscar’s circle of friends, most notably among the people written so far Sebastian Thor. What’s more, with the exception of Bjorn, all of these surviving friends fall into the “gods and epic heroes” category, something that makes Oscar deeply uncomfortable.

Isha has become a lot more self-confident and canny in the years since her rescue from Nurgle's mansion and subsequent joining to Macha, going from the young mother struggling to find her way in the world to the iron-willed matriarch of an entire galaxy who is willing to make plans and step in to ensure the continuing success of her family, both trueborn and adopted children alike. This is thought to be in part due to selectively absorbing more aggressive personality traits from her avatar Macha. It's agreed that by M41 Macha and Isha are so similar to one another its impossible to tell where one begins and the other ends, but it's still debated in the threads when the two became completely merged into one.

==The Emperor==

The Emperor’s sword isn’t a sword per se. It’s a telekinetic force construct in the shape of the sword that ignites the very air around it through friction burn. Hence why the Emperor can whip it out and put it away while wearing his golden armor without being massively hindered.

===The Emperor's Titles===

For people new to the project, the use of the terms "Oscar", "Warlord", "Steward", and "Emperor", might be a little confusing. So for a bit of clarification...

'''Oscar''' - The Emperor's [[Nobledark_Imperium_Writing#Malcador's_Log|given name]] and the one he considers his personal name. Most people tend not to use it, except for those who know him personally (e.g., Isha, the primarchs, the Custodians) and even then only in private when he's being a regular person and not the Emperor of Mankind.<br>
'''The Warlord''' - The title Oscar adopted during the Unification of Earth. Upon unification he ditched the title and became known as...<br>
'''The Steward''' - Probably Oscar's best known title after "The Emperor of Mankind". After the Fall of Ursh Oscar confiscated an old Dark Age of Technology artifact and set it up as the Golden Throne, and then promptly refused to sit in it. He felt he was not meant to lead mankind (for several reasons, including the fact he felt he was not a real person and Malcador had told him mythologized horror stories of what the other Men of Gold did), he was merely the Steward of mankind until such an individual would arise. Even to this day he still kind of uses the title, signing documents as "Oscar Steward" instead of "Oscar, Steward".<br>
'''The Emperor''' - Eventually, after the Age of Apostasy, Oscar was forced to take up the throne after Sebastian Thor told him to sit on the stupid golden chair or else another Imperial Civil War was going to break out after the ''next'' Emperor he named either went mad or died and caused a succession crisis. Oscar saw his logic and begrudgingly agreed, becoming the Emperor of Mankind.

==What's Isha like?==
Alien motives, incomprehensible intelligence, enormous power, and the feeling of being perceived as less than an insect. The typical report of being in a god's presence. 

Not so with Isha. She is the most accessible of gods, as accessible as any power labeled a 'god' can be, often deigning to go among the common folk of Terra, or traveling the Webway when her homesick feelings grow too great. Most reports of meeting her are glowing. Rarely is there any impression given beyond awe struck benevolence. 

However, another common thread is the brevity of these meetings. Beyond just feeling brief, they actually are. The great black templar hero Tankred earned the honor of one such meeting, but it was timed at approximately 41 seconds. Tankred would later write he did not feel spurned but he felt she was " needed elsewhere." 

Isha has not been front and center in politics. But behind the scenes, she is very busy indeed. Her personal ranger cadre venture the whole of the imperium, found wherever disease and illness reign to return with samples to Isha's sanctum so the goddess might concoct cures. She does not limit herself to ailments of the body either- on occasion, chosen servants of the imperium afflicted by chaos or shattered in mind report feeling the goddess in their thoughts or hearing her words in their dreams. Those she meets in person invariably report a feeling of elation and wholeness afterwards, and typically go on to do good. Not typically becoming extraordinary galactic heroes, but local pillars of the community.

Despite being the galaxy's most overworked and patient social worker, she is still a goddess. Easily forgotten with all of her charity, but brought to a stark reminder when an assassin that was waiting to meet her in a crowd suddenly burst with roots and thorns under her gaze. Described traumatically by all who witnessed it, the screaming elder begged forgiveness even as he was dragged through what was once marble floor as Isha strode by, not sparing a second glance. Her visage then was not the gentle, wise mother's then, but the uncaring gaze of nature, red in tooth and claw.

Isha is also influenced by Macha, once a farseer of Biel- Tan. How much is Macha, and how much is Isha is a mystery for theologians to grapple with. Rumor has her as a daughter of Eldrad (though to be honest cousin is more likely), but then again in Imperial culture, most anything to do with the eldar has conspiracy theorists trying to trace whatever happened back to Eldrad.

Isha sees herself and Oscar as the new Lileath and Asuryan after the Fall. She sees the Imperium itself as her new extended family following the Fall of the Eldar, composed of both her trueborn and adopted (humanity and the rest) children alike and is determined to not let the same mistakes that led to the Fall of the Eldar happen ever again. Asuryan is kind of a broken pedestal for Isha. Asuryan used to make the rules. Those rules prevented the Eldar gods from stepping in and stopping their children from descending into hedonism and debauchery, and directly led to most of the gods getting killed. Particularly her daughter, Lileath, who Asuryan married. Lileath was the first victim of Slaanesh, who subsequently used Lileath's face as a disguise to get the drop on Asuryan and the other Eldar gods by calling a godsmoot. Asuryan isn't around anymore. She won't make the same mistakes he did.

For the exact details of Isha worship among mortals, see [[Nobledark_Imperium_Notes#Eldar_Polytheism|Eldar Polytheism]].

===Macha before Isha===

In the years before the Raid on Nurgle's Mansion, Macha had been depressed. Like really, really depressed. She had once been her aggressive self that people know from vanilla, but that had been gradually overlain by despair as years passed since the Fall and it was clear the Eldar Empire was never coming back. She tried filling the void with Isha worship, Isha being the goddess of healing and theoretically one of the only Eldar gods that could still hear prayers, but it didn't work.

Macha went on the Raid with no expectations. She fully didn't care if she lived or died, she may have even expected to and merely wanted to die in a way in which her death would actually mean something. But then the Raid actually managed to free Isha and bring her back into realspace, and when they made it out of the Webway gate Macha fell to her knees and felt something she hadn't felt in a long time. Hope.

When Isha was brought through the Webway she stood in her full glory for a brief moment before letting out a peal of pure innocent laughter at finally being freed from that fat bastard before vanishing in a flash of light. But then she appeared before Macha. Isha needed a host (she couldn't go back to the Immaterium), and Macha was the best person there in terms of her mindset and openness to the possibility of Isha returning (and being an Isha worshipper, that was also a factor). Macha agreed, and the two basically did a Phoenix Warrior-style fusion dance into the current Isha. This agreement being conducted purely by thought, it took place in the instant between the immaterial Isha vanishing and the new All-Mother arising.

The priesthood of Isha might tell the story of Macha as a morality tale of the importance of keeping faith and hope even in the darkest of hours. Macha's distinctive face tattoos are said to be a symbol of Isha and her priesthood in the modern Imperium.

===Isha's Garden===

Isha keeps a garden (that is, a literal, physical garden, not the metaphorical one that is sometimes mentioned) of plantlife from across the galaxy, either in the Imperial Palace back on Old Earth or aboard the ''Bucephalus''. All of the plants are native species from the homeworlds of the various member states. There are elelasse vines from Shaa-Dome growing around oak trees, flowers descended from the river lotus Por'O M'arc brought as a diplomatic gift from T'au, plants from the homeworld of the Kinebrach, Tarellians, and even a dull grey plant rumored to be a gift from the Watchers of Caliban. She cares for the plants like she would her children. The Shaa-Domean plants are her favorite, but she would be the first to admit that is due to her familiarity and fond memories of them than anything else. Her taste is a little strange sometimes (Cacti? Seriously?), but she manages to make the garden look beautiful, if eerie and alien due to the mix of a hundred biospheres. She mostly tends the garden by hand like a zen exercise. She sows, nurtures, and sometimes, dispassionately, she has to weed.

The comparisons between her garden and the rest of the Imperium are not lost on some. Nor is the fact that with the nature of Isha that garden is the most lethal place for any would-be assassin in the Imperium.

==Reactions to the Marriage==

The marriage happened right after the War of the Beast, so the primarchs had a lot of shit on their plate. Lion was in full on “what I’ve done” mode, Perty was having a mental breakdown, etc. But at the same time you would expect them to have a reaction to what was essentially the biggest political change in recent history.

Angron was dying and Sangy, who would have been the most positive primarch, was dead. Lorgar might have been positive, seeing as at this time he had rationalized Isha as being essentially an archangel sent by God to keep the Eldar on the straight and narrow

Someone suggested Dorn’s reaction. He said they were perfect for each other. But don’t get the “dawws” out yet, because it wasn’t as heartwarming as it sounds on paper. Specifically, he said something along the lines of “she’s weird, you’re weird, you’re perfect for each other” in his typical bluntness. It’s been mentioned Dorn was a proponent of something that was called “psychic apartheid”, though what that is has never been defined (beyond a literal interpretation).

Also keep in mind that this was during the early days of the Imperium, before the Steward and Isha knew each other, and the marriage was very much an arranged marriage in the interest of politics at the time. The Steward would have seen Isha a grand total of once before then, and at that time he was rather more concerned about the Bloodthirster trying to eat his face than making small talk.

The Steward's thoughts when he heard Eldrad's boon were probably along the lines of *what the hell did I get myself into*.

The fact that the Steward had made it clear he was fully intending to step down once a proper Emperor had been found may have alleviated some concerns. Also the fact that Eldrad risked his ass saving the Steward may have won the Eldar some brownie points in the primarch's eyes (though Vulkan would have dismissed it).

One thing that would have really elevated Isha's standing to the human parts of the Imperium would be Isha revitalizing worlds after the War of the Beast.

Orks don't tend to leave habitable worlds in their wake. Anything that was not orkiformed would have been firebombed from orbit. Isha could have taken a lot of those worlds that would have otherwise been written off or taken millennia to restore and have new plant life grow from the ashes, though even with her powers it would be a significant undertaking even for a single planet. This would do a lot to make people more receptive to an alien...what the hell was Isha called before the Emperor took the throne?

The problem is that like the Steward, there is only one Isha. She can't be everywhere at once, something that has been noted before when it comes to curing diseases, solving other problems, and otherwise being extremely overworked.

Lion, if he had time to think about it at all, would have dismissed it all as only right and proper. He was a high functioning autistic and fixated on Franjic fairy stories. When a brave king rescues a fair lady from an den of evil she is supposed to offer him her hand in marriage. Admittedly by then he had long ago seen that the world does not work how it should, but this time it does. Maybe, he would think, there is some small hope left. Then his brother beats him into a coma.

The eldar would have probably initially seen it as Isha taming some fearsome beast-people for use and domestication. The majority of craftworlders of that time would have grown up in the Eldar Empire at it's worst and to have survived would have had to participate at least in some measure of the awfulness.

==Respective Divinity==

I would argue that Isha still made claim to royalty (at very least in title) by divine right (that being her own) even when Oscar was only the Steward. I remember in early threads discussing the marriage we agreed that Isha, and to a lesser extent Ceggorach, would argue that Oscar is a very young god, much to his protestations, and this for his worthiness to lead humanity (as viceroy to Isha’s spiritual rule of the The Eldar). This has absolutely nothing to do with the Old Empire’s belief that the Men of Stone were subservient colonist folk/animals in the Great and Bountiful Human Dominion, and that Iron Minds and Men of Gold were the only children of Sol of any worth, certainly not. 

That probably didn’t stop some of the remembrancers brought up under the pre-unification earth doctrine of Holy Human Form and stories that (truthfully) blamed xenos at large for Old Night from depicting her as something like Lady Macbeth when it came to Imperial Court politics in the early years of the marriage.

By M41 I can almost imagine Isha thinks Oscar is a god in denial (inb4 Necoho) and wishes he'd just admit it so everyone can get on with their lives. This might not be entirely selfless, as some of it probably has to do with her missing Kurnous. She also sees herself and Oscar as the new Asuryan and Lileath (which is weird because she's the latter's mother) after the last top gods screwed up.

On the other hand, she does have a point that he's both vastly more powerful than any mortal human or Eldar, and he's also biologically immortal unlike them. Even with the few survivors since the Great Crusade, Eldrad is old as balls but emphatically not immortal (and unusually old even by that standard), Bjorn and Leithon are a dreadnought/wraithguard respectively, Lion is in a coma, and Galadrea and the Handmaidens use cheat codes due to their connection to Isha. He also has access to a lot of power that he's not using as a symbol of the Imperium and hence civilization (indeed he diffused a lot of that by having people direct it towards multiple entities).

Of course, having been around Oscar for 10k years, she probably knows all he'll do is pick the position with the absolute least amount of responsibility and refuse to be budged from it unless the Warp froze over. Heck, he'd probably take Hoec's old job and become the God of Interstellar Communications, despite the fact that he could easily add "Justice", "War" (as in Athena-style, not Ares-style), "Honor", and "Order" to his portfolio.