In the world of Warhammer 40,000, there is hardly anything that is clearly black and white – all morality is more a different shade of gray. However, one person stands out: the shining Emperor, who is seen by humans as a divine, radiant savior. But is he really?
The Emperor is perhaps the most important figure in Warhammer 40,000 and the man who ensured that humanity has a common world in such a distant future. Yet he is not even human, but an immortal being who was born eons ago.
The entire Imperium of Man, as you know it now, could only come into existence because the Emperor united it. To that end, he keeps the chaotic powers of destruction from fully invading our world, and his soul has such a strong radiance that it serves as a fixed point for navigators throughout the galaxy.
The strength of the Emperor is considered unmatched, and he himself is regarded as the greatest psyker of all time. A god for humanity – and apparently a benevolent one, since they all still live. But is he really?
The question of how “good” the Emperor really is has occupied fans for years, and many agree that he certainly does not embody moral goodness. However, the situation is much more complicated, as a recent discussion on Reddit shows.
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“The road to hell is paved with good intentions”
A user summarizes the entire rise of the Emperor by stating that he wanted the best, but failed due to his own mistakes. Now he sits in a “self-made hell” due to his overconfidence, pride, and stubbornness.
Throughout the discussion, dozens of fans talk about what exactly went wrong. And these are not just isolated points, but many that have their origins in good ideas, but then went completely off the rails due to different circumstances:
- Ending the war on Earth was a good idea, but to do so the Emperor had to become a dictator himself and suppress dissenting opinions.
- He wanted to save humanity, but he is merely an observer – without a true understanding of human needs.
- Developments that take millions of years – such as the psychic awakening of humanity – he wanted to achieve in just a few millennia.
Especially the last point is important here. That the Emperor pursued his doctrine against warnings and ignored the danger of chaos set off a series of events. Only then could characters like Erebus even come into being, who were significantly responsible for the greatest tragedy of the Imperium: the Horus Heresy.
Humans see Big E as “good” because they know nothing else
So why is the Emperor perceived by many as the “good god”? Fans explain: Because humans do not know any better. And that is true in a quite literal way.
Any criticism of the Emperor is viewed as heresy today and is punished with death. This is ensured by institutions like the Ecclesiarchy, the Inquisition, or fanatical Space Marines. Any dissenting voices have already been silenced during the Unification Wars, as they stood in the way of a united Imperium.
Even this religion has something underlying that originally had good intentions: the “Imperial Truth”. This creed by the Emperor himself was meant to empower humanity and show them that they are powerful enough to withstand any darkness. However, as is often the case in Warhammer, a few people have indeed gone overboard…
Warhammer knows not “good and evil”, only “order and chaos”
The entire discussion about the Emperor and his morality is characteristic of the world of Warhammer. There is nothing that can be called good or evil without limitations. That is why the driving forces of the war are also order and chaos, not light and dark gods.
That the Emperor cannot be morally good is already evident from his methods. For example, before the Space Marines, he had already created super soldiers – with the plan to sacrifice them again directly after the war. Like tools that you throw away.
Even the chaos gods are not inherently evil. They offer a truth and a salvation that simply oppose those of humanity (and other races). Whether one engages with this is a decision everyone must make for themselves.
An excellent insight into these moral dilemmas is provided by the role-playing game Rogue Trader, which extensively explores many facets of the various alignments – and shows why the world of Warhammer 40,000 represents the “horrifically dark” future: Even the “good” ending in the new Warhammer role-playing game is terrible, but somehow just right
