Magnus the Pious
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If asked to make a list of the top three Emperors of the Empire of Man, the list will invariably comprise of three members: At number one is (of course) Sigmar himself. The other two slots, however, tend to be interchangeable between then-current emperor Karl Franz and Magnus von Bildhofen (Better known as Magnus the Pious), a legendary priest who assumed the rulership of the Empire during one of its darkest times.
How He Became Famous
During 2301 IC, the Old World was in some serious shit. Chaos had united under the Everchosen named Asavar Kul and began conquering everything, the Druchii decided to wage a war against their Asur brethren and Kislev was getting their shit royally kicked in. All together, this would later become known as the Great War against Chaos
When Kislev tried asking their Imperial neighbors for assistance in repelling the chaos legions, the various elector counts either ignored the requests or began amassing their own legions and fortunes in the vain hope that they would be able to weather the coming storm..if they didn't outright go full heretic. The churches of Sigmar and Ulric similarly began squabbling, as each side wanted the glory that came with leading such a vital campaign.
During this time, Magnus was a Sigmarite priest of noble birth from Nuln. During this time, Nuln was under the sway of a sneaky cult of Tzeentch, but there were still those who held out hope that their manly god would save them and not some eldritch horror that might look like a blue bird. One night, the twin-tailed comet appeared in the sign, a sure omen that Magnus took as a sign to begin the uprising. Using his noble influence, he managed to assemble an army that began liberating the cities they passed through. This force grew to such prodigious size that it managed to sway the various elector counts to join forces with him. By the time he reached Middenheim, he only needed the backing of the church and asked the Ar-Ulric for his support. Said priest said "Fuck off you Sigmarite fraud!" Magnus sought to convince him to join and thus walk into Ulric's flame and left unscathed (And proved that men were better than those pansy-ass High Elves who needed mages to constantly heal them while being burned alive) he gained the total support of the church of Ulric.
Just as this happened, two major things happened: The barbarians of Chaos ripped their way to the Empire's doorstep and Magnus met the famed elf archmage Teclis. Aware that the forces of Chaos utilized daemons not native to the mortal plane, he decided to ask Teclis for assistance in establish a magic system that would break down the overwhelming bias against any wizard while also training them to resist the influences the Dark Gods exerted. This force would come to the Kislev and help the beleagured natives and a throng of dwarfs from Karaz-a-Karak in blunting the hordes by striking the invaders in the rear. When Asavar Kul tried to escape this by splitting some of the legions to strike the gates, the Imperial forces got a sudden reinforcement unit that had tried to relieve the city of Praag that struck this detachment. This marked the end of the Everchosen's reign and the effective end of the Great War Against Chaos. After Kislev, Magnus walked back to blow up Mordheim and liberate Ostland.
This whole event was overwhelming proof of Magnus' competence as a commander and he was unanimously crowned Emperor. His reign was considered one of the best periods to be alive in the Empire, seeing the continued purgation of the forces of Chaos, the founding of the Colleges of Magic, the entirety of Middenland unified under Todbringer grafs and various other influential changes.