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The Master of Mankind (Volume 41) (The Horus Heresy) [Paperback] Dembski-Bowden, Aaron

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The Emperor of Mankind also referred to by the Imperial Cult and the Imperial Ecclesiarchy as the God-Emperor of Mankind is the sovereign ruler of the Imperium of Man, and Father, Guardian, and God of the human race. He has sat immobile within the Golden Throne of Terra for ten thousand years. Although once a living man, His shattered body can no longer support life, and remains intact only by a combination of ancient technology and the sheer force of His will, itself sustained by the soul-sacrifice of countless millions of psykers. [2] In the last days before the gathering storm broke and the Great Rift tore the void in two, a bright light of hope was kindled within the galactic empire of Ultramar. Through great sacrifice and unnatural artifice, Roboute Guilliman, primarch of the Ultramarines, was restored from the brink of death. His coming would herald great changes for the Imperium. When the Traitor Legions fell upon the Imperial Palace at the culmination of the Horus Heresy, Roboute Guilliman and his Ultramarines were too far away to fight in their father's defence. Perhaps, had it been otherwise, the fate of the galaxy would have been very different.

Later Corax, distraught over the disaster on Isstvan V, arrived at the Emperor's palace and demanded audience with the Emperor. Diverting some of his attention to the strenuous task of maintaining the Golden Throne, the Emperor psychically imbued part of the secrets of creating Astartes into his son's mind. Thus, Corax was able to begin rebuilding the Raven Guard. [12] Give thanks to those most courageous and loyal of guardians, the Adeptus Custodes, who stand in constant vigil over the Emperor's palace. A veritable legion of warriors ready to lay down their lives without doubt for the beloved ward of Mankind. None pass through the Imperial Palace without their knowledge; steeped are they in the arcane secrets of that labyrinthine edifice. Ten thousand blades await the call to arms; to defend against any threat, from without or within." From out of the mists of time stride the Adeptus Custodes. Their long path leads from the darkness of Old Night, through the fires of the Horus Heresy, and out of the shadows of ten thousand Terran years of ignorant obfuscation into the cold light of the present. In all of those hundreds of centuries the Custodians have never faltered, and they never shall. The willpower and fortitude of the Adeptus Custodes is such that even the most fiendish sorcerers find their mental assaults rebounding from a wall of sheer conviction. The Custodians share the blood of the Emperor, after all, and their loyalty to their primogenitor is unshakeable. This involves gathering together the Sensei, protecting them from the Inquisition, preparing them for what they claim is "the final war with Chaos." In truth they ultimately plan to sacrifice the Sensei to the Emperor, in the same way so many psykers have been consumed by the Emperor. The Emperor will be renewed, reborn as the Sensei-Emperor to again lead his race in person. [3e] The God-IncarnateAza'gorod • Crimson God • Emberresh • Hsiagn'la • Iash'uddra • Kalugura • Llandu'gor • Mag'ladroth • Mephet'ran • N'phoran • Nyadra'zatha • Og'driada • Stardeath • The Sufferer • Thyssak'lha • Tsara'noga • Yggra'nya • Zarhulash • Zul'channec

With the final abatement of the Warp storms began the Great Crusade. The Emperor's forces rediscovered human worlds, cast out alien oppressors, and claimed new territory aplenty. Perhaps most importantly, the Emperor, leading his crusade, rediscovered his lost sons, the Primarchs. Scattered throughout space, the infants were found one-by-one over a period of many decades, and reunited with their father and their kin. All were placed in command of the Astartes Legions created from their respective gene-seed and played their part in forging their father's Imperium. [3c] [5] From Holy Terra the Emperor of Mankind rules the vast Imperium of Man. Great is His power and great is His Glory, His gaze watches over all. From thousands of worlds, the prayers of countless trillions echo up, bringing glory to His name. But what is His name? Across the centuries He has been known by many different names and many titles, each with its own meaning. Each with their own power and often with their purpose. Today let us take a look at some of the many names He is known by, and where they come from, and what they mean. There are more names than I will mention here, but these are some of the most important. Special offer is good for three months after the first activation of the eligible device. One offer per Family Sharing group. Plans automatically renew until cancelled. Other restrictions and terms apply; visit apple.com/promo for more information. Hundreds of wars have been fought by the Adeptus Custodes over the aeons -- some in Terra's defence, some in secret, and some further afield. Even when the din of war recedes, these warriors work to test and refine the protective aegis they hold before their master, sending agents into the Sol System to divine likely routes of infiltration and assassination so they can stay ahead of even the most inventive enemies. The Adeptus Custodes have long honed strategies and tactics in case they should be called upon to join the frontline fight for Humanity's survival. The day of that remit has finally arrived. The resurrected Primarch Guilliman, restored to his ancient role as the lord commander of the Imperium and Imperial Regent, has met alone with his father, the Master of Mankind, and emerged with a clear vision of Humanity united in battle. The Legio Custodes are by many accounts the Emperor's true firstborn, prefiguring even the gene-crafted Thunder Warriors of the Unification Wars. They are His first genetically-engineered, psycho-indoctrinated warriors, perfected weapons crafted by the Emperor's genius from the dread lore of the Dark Age of Technology.

This city is the focal point of the conflict, the last line of defense the Imperials have to hold before the forces of Chaos would be able to overwhelm them and push into the throne room itself. The Emperor is unable to personally help in the conflict since he is now confined to the Golden Throne, focusing all of his psychic might just to keep the Terran portion of the webway from crashing in on itself. The first major character we are introduced to is Ra, a captain within the Custodes, and someone who is in personal communication with the Emperor. It's really interesting to read about how the Custodes see the Emperor. To most people he is a godlike being, someone they can barely look at for more than a handful of moments. He appears differently to different people, appearing as they would want him to appear. To the Custodes he is but a man. A very important and powerful man, but just a man nonetheless. They do still see a bit of the "holy" radiance around him, but since their entire job is to be around him all the time and personally protect him, they have gotten very use to him. In an interesting bit later in the story we get to see how the Sisters of Silence see him, which is literally just as a man. Since they are psychic blanks, with no soul to speak of, none of his guiles and illusions work on him, and they see him as he truly, truly is. Most of the book is fighting Daemons or the Emperor confiding things to the Tribune. No grand revelations or secrets revealed, which ADB had said would be the case in advance. For the first time in ten millennia, the Adeptus Custodes strike out from Terra to take the fight to the enemies of Mankind. Torrents of chemical fire marked Zhanmadao’s position to Ra’s left. Ra could hear the draconic roar of incendium pikes, burning the still-thrashing creatures that had fallen beneath the blades of the Custodians’ first rank. The Ten Thousand and their golden king were shin-deep in ash, the smoky spectres of daemonic entities flailing as they were swallowed by the Emperor’s fire. When Arkhan Land met the Emperor at one of His labs on Terra, during the Great Crusade, Arkhan saw the Emperor as a scientist, clad as any scientist might be clad, in a protective hazard suit suitable for work in sterile and hostile conditions, and a surgical mask. The Emperor's surgical gloves had minute circuitry on the fingertips which generated an aura of ultrasound. The gloves would transmit crude internal scans of the body of who he was touching to nearby cogitator screens. [14g]

When he first appeared before Vulkan, the Emperor took the form of a humble pale man in outlandish clothing, known as The Outlander. [40] In 2005 the hymn was voted second in BBC One show Songs of Praise poll to find the United Kingdom's favourite hymn. [5] He didn’t speak. He didn’t look at any of His warriors. The sword came down. The webway caught fire.For the rest of the Heresy, the Emperor was forced to deal with the Golden Throne's malfunction, which created a Warp Breach in the depths of the Imperial Palace. As Daemons flooded through the breach, the Custodian Guard and Sisters of Silence held them at bay while the Emperor punishingly exerted himself on the Golden Throne to prevent all of Terra itself from being swallowed. With his attentions turned to this crisis, the Emperor left management of Horus' rebellion to Malcador and Rogal Dorn. During this sad state of affairs, the Emperor engaged in telepathic communications with the lowly Astropath Kai Zulane, who had been given a vision of the Heresy's conclusion. During their psychic communiques, the Emperor revealed he not only already knew his ultimate fate, but had accepted it. [13] In doing so, these organisations also relinquished some of their military strength. The Legiones Astartes were divided into far smaller Chapters of a thousand Space Marines each during the Second Founding. The Adeptus Custodes, for long millennia the bodyguard of the Emperor, were charged with the unthinkable -- to leave His side and strike against those who would see the Master of Mankind dead. Just as a spring tightly wound uncoils with all the more force, the Adeptus Custodes have taken war to the enemies of the Imperium with extreme alacrity and vigour in the Era Indomitus. When Lion El'Jonson sees the Emperor, he appears as a hooded figure, armoured in emerald plate, inscrutable with gilt and filigree and shrouded in robes of gold, wreathed in obscuring light. The Lion feels that this appearance is the "truth". [33] When he first appeared before Leman Russ, the Emperor apperead as a great warrior clad in cloaks and runes. He was fond of games and challenges and bested Russ in combat but failed in drinking and eating contests. [39]

The Emperor prepared extensively for the Great Crusade; he created the special astrotelepath corps to link his eventual dominion together, and caused the creation of the Astronomican, a supremely powerful signal device powered by the Emperor's own psychic might that would allow simplified and safer travel through the Warp. Chief amongst his designs, however, were the creation of superhuman warriors, the logical extension of the gene-troopers already under his command. He had first undertaken the Primarch Project, the creation of twenty infants from his own genetic code, designed to mature into powerful generals for his armies. However, this plan went awry with the intervention of the Chaos Powers. Other sources state that the Emperor's longtime collegue and fellow Perpetual Erda cast the Primarchs into the Warp to deny the Emperor His plans for them. [30] While accounts vary as to exactly what happened, the end of the tale is always the same; the Primarchs were cast into the Warp and thought lost. [4] During the tumultuous event, the Emperor's gene-lab was devastated by the forces that scattered the Primarchs. He held up the collapsing underground roof with his psychic power until the vaults workers and data could be safely evacuated. [29b] Afterwards Malcador and Constantin Valdor believed the Primarchs dead or corrupted. However, the Emperor sensed their echoes in the Warp and knew they were still alive. Malcador was surprised that the Emperor began to refer to the lost Primarchs as his "sons", something Valdor saw as an "ebb" in his attempts to suppress his human emotions. [29a] They are in almost every measurable way superhuman: stronger, faster, more acute of senses and more resilient than even the doomed Thunder Warriors or the Space Marines who would follow them, and so far beyond the limits of an unaugmented Human as to be almost godlike in comparison. Indeed, only the primarchs and above them the Emperor Himself exceeds them in corporeal might, and to meet them in open conflict is to court death for Human or alien alike. Even of this small pool of candidates, survival through the multiple solar decades of alchemical augmentation and psycho-memetic training were far from guaranteed. In this fact can be seen a pattern also replicated in the Space Marine Legions, only to a far greater degree. While the numbers of the Legiones Astartes were prevented from growing beyond perhaps a million at their greatest strength by the limitations inherent in the means of their creation -- a paltry sum compared to the billions of others who took part in the Great Crusade -- the Legio Custodes could never have operated on the scale of the Space Marine Legions, even if the attempt had been made. In the aftermath of these events, the Emperor evolved a new plan. Using genetic material which had been derived from the Primarchs, he created a caste of warriors which would possess some of the qualities of the Primarchs. These successors to the genetically-altered warriors of the Unification Era were the Legiones Astartes, the Space Marines of the First Founding. [3c] After purging the Thunder Warriors and replacing them with these more efficient warriors, The Emperor led the Space Marines into the reconquest of the Sol System. He drove Xenos enslavers from the moons of Saturn and Jupiter and most importantly, achieved peace and eventual integration with the Mechanicum of Mars. This alliance provided the Emperor with much of the means and materiel to extend his crusade into the stars. [Needs Citation] A cryptic account of the Emperor's origins was written by Cripias, the final "Keeper of the Library Sanctus of Terra". This account was later deemed "heretical" and kept from being published. The account was passed down to each Keeper, starting from the First Keeper, Solomon. [7]Apple TV+ today revealed the trailer for season four of “For All Mankind,” the hit, critically acclaimed space drama series from Golden Globe nominee and Emmy Award winner Ronald D. Moore and Emmy Award nominees Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert. The 10-episode fourth season will make its highly anticipated global debut on Friday, November 10, 2023 on Apple TV+, followed by one new episode weekly every Friday through January 12, 2024. Battle of Prospero (734.004.M31) - After the Triumph at Ullanor, the Emperor returned to Terra to apply himself to a task of utmost secrecy and importance. The Great Crusade continued under the Warmaster Horus of the Luna Wolves, but dark powers were at work, attempting to pervert the favoured Primarch's rule and sow discord throughout the nascent Imperium. The first outward sign of the coming catastrophe was the Burning of Prospero. Magnus the Red, Primarch of the Thousand Sons, unleashes forbidden sorceries that wreak havoc upon Terra, though most will never know whether this act was one of aggression or an attempt to deliver a desperate warning of Horus' fall. In the end, the truth is immaterial; the Emperor unleashes a censure force under the command of Constantin Valdor and Primarch Leman Russ of the Space Wolves, charged with apprehending Magnus on his homeworld of Prospero and returning him to Terra to answer for his acts. Matters escalate rapidly due to Horus' malevolent intervention and the mission of capture becomes one of wholesale annihilation, Valdor and his Custodians fighting alongside the Space Wolves to overcome the sorcery of Magnus' sons. Those Custodian Guard known as the Companions -- the three hundred warriors charged with the direct defence of the Emperor on the Golden Throne -- remain by His side, just as the colossal edifice of His palace continues to be bolstered by a standing army of golden heroes. The rest have taken to the stars. They have done so in no small force, for this majestic legion still numbers ten thousand blades and more. The Emperor is on the Throne for much of the story constantly talking to a Custodes Tribune. He confides a lot of his life and thoughts on him and throughout the book the Tribune gets glimpses into the Emperor's memories The immortal being who would become known as the Emperor proceeded to haunt the history of humanity as a ghost; watching, waiting and occasionally influencing. [3c] Living secretly amongst mankind, he developed his abilities until his psychic might allowed him to gain knowledge of not only his own world, but of the dangers beyond it. Aware then of the vast predations awaiting humanity, the being that would become known as the Emperor resolved to guide and protect humanity. The Emperor took many forms during this time, both male and female. Some were brutal conquerors, some became meek to inherit the Earth. [38g] One identity of the Emperor during this time was Alexander the Great, and in an account given by Horus it is said that He wept before the River Hyphasis when He thought there were no more worlds to conquer. Not long after, He discovered what would be named the Golden Throne. [38f]

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