It is one of the oldest memes from the world of Warhammer 40,000: The Emperor is still alive simply because the Orks believe that he is alive. Recently, new posts on the topic keep appearing. However, this assumption is based on a fundamental misunderstanding and overlooks the true power of the Emperor.
First of all: Anyone who truly believes that will be reported directly to the Inquisition without further ado. Now that that’s out of the way, I’ll answer the question directly: No, Orks cannot keep the Emperor alive with their belief, cannot become alive themselves, and cannot make him rise.
The Emperor has been sitting on his throne for many millennia and fights there against the Warp. Whether he is still alive or not has always sparked debates and has claimed many lives in disputes. His state is one of the cornerstones of the Warhammer universe.
For many years now, the Ork idea has been circulating in the community: Is the Emperor still alive only because the Orks think he is alive? One of the oldest threads on Reddit that I found on this topic is 10 years old.
But why should the wild and combative Orks have any influence on the most powerful psychic of humanity? Even if the theory is wrong, there is a coherent line of thought behind it.
What Orks believe becomes reality – That is true, but …
Orks are strongly psychically active beings in the world of Warhammer. Their power manifests in the “WAAAGH!”, which is both a battle cry and a state, a word for war and a psychic manifestation. A word for everything, as it all somehow means the same thing.
That sounds a bit complicated now, but I’ll try to explain it reasonably:
- Orks possess enormous psychic power, of which they are not consciously aware.
- Their strength manifests in the form of physical changes in the real world.
- A few Orks can direct this power more or less: Weirdboyz, the “sorcerers” of the Orks, whose spells do not always work as intended. Chaotic, indeed.
Simply put: Something that enough Orks believe strongly enough comes to pass. Red vehicles go faster, two glued-together Bolters are twice as powerful as one, yellow grenades explode more violently. However, this all only works for the Orks themselves.
Orks are powerful, but their power has limits
The WAAAGH! field exists only in the vicinity of Orks. They could not influence anything on the other side of the galaxy. Otherwise, Commissar Yarrick would probably already be more powerful than any Primarch: Yarrick is the hero of Armageddon, a planet that represents something like the holy hall of war for Orks, and Yarrick himself is almost worshipped by them, regarded as a legendary opponent.
Admittedly, Yarrick is remarkably old for a human, especially for a member of the Commissariat, but he is certainly not a god. But even if it is possible for Yarrick to gain certain abilities through the belief of the Orks, he is physically much closer to the greenskins than the Emperor on his golden throne on Terra.
Additionally, Orks can only influence what is already present, or bend the laws of physics to a small extent, like the Weirdboyz. However, they cannot create something new, especially not a living god—especially since Orks have their own gods, Gork and Mork, who are even revered by some humans.
Humans are far more powerful than they appear
The fact that the Emperor still holds a god-like status and is very likely still alive is not due to the Orks, but to the people for whom he has always fought: the humans. Humans are, alongside Orks and Aeldari, one of the most, perhaps the most psychically active species in the galaxy. Here I need to elaborate a bit:
Gods in Warhammer 40,000 are entities of the Warp, the distorted “mirror world” of reality. The Warp is the realm of Chaos and is essentially made up of the emotions of all psychically active beings. With enough of such psychic energy, new entities can be created, and that has already happened several times:
- Three of the original Chaos gods were brought into existence through tragedies in human history.
- Slaanesh, the fourth god, was awakened by the pure excess of the (then still) Eldar.
- Humans themselves have already created a new god: T’au, the goddess of the T’au people, who themselves are not psychically active enough to perform such a feat.
Even the Skaven have a god in Age of Sigmar, who recently ascended to the pantheon – and yes, even if Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 are different worlds, they all share the realm of Chaos and its functions in some ways.
The Emperor is still “alive”, but his condition must never improve
Although the Emperor never wanted to be worshipped as a god, but even aimed to banish all gods from the world, he has probably ascended to a new Warp entity a long time ago. This was more or less confirmed by his own son recently.
Ten thousand years and more, during which humans have worshipped the Emperor as a god, ultimately lead to such an apotheosis, even though it remains unclear whether this ascent should be welcomed or not. Because there are several catches to the whole matter:
- The perception of the Emperor varies greatly even within the official faith: some see him as the corpse of one who died for them, others as a still living hero, and yet others know the Emperor only as the perfect machine.
- Thousands of years in which one single soul has been sacrificed billions or even trillions of human lives, just to preserve him, can … provoke changes. Some even fear to see some sort of world-ender manifest in the Emperor.
- The Emperor himself never wanted gods for humanity, so how will he react when he awakens as a god?
Admittedly, he has repeatedly proven that he endorses human fanaticism, for instance through the wonders of the Adepta Sororitas, which are (presumably) enabled by him. That he is still alive is therefore as good as confirmed, but that is exactly the crux of the matter.
For despite his status as a god or god-like being, the Emperor’s condition must never improve – or at least, he must never physically manifest in the world. His last command made it very clear that he must remain on the throne: Games Workshop officially reveals one of the greatest secrets of Warhammer 40,000 and seals a cruel fate for the Emperor.
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