General Question: What is the status of the Star Child Theory in 5th edition Warhammer 40,000?
The older readers among you may recall a time in the Rogue Trader / Realms of Chaos era when the Star Child Theory was all the rage. If you've not heard about it before, then I'll provide a brief over-view.
The Emperor, in all his long years of living on Earth, was a man. Like other men, he fathered children. And plenty of them since he lived for so long. These offspring are known as Sensei. They have inherited immortality from the Emperor and are untouched by the taint of chaos (they don't take perils of the warp tests). They are also blanks - other psykers cannot "see" them. This means that they largely don't know of their connection to the Emperor. Still, the inquisition hunts them down as dangerous heretics when they have an opportunity.
In addition to the sensei, there are a group of radicals known as the Illuminati. They know of chaos first hand, having been daemonically possessed and subsequently able to cast out the daemon. They know of the fall of the Eldar and the fate that awaits human kind unless the Emperor is renewed. Hence they strive bring this about by sacrificing the sensei at the point in time when the Emperor finally lets go of his remaining dying cells within the golden throne. This will bring about a new Emperor - the Star Child, who will physically reincarnate as the new Emperor (slightly dissimilar to Ynnead, as Ynnead is envisioned as a new god; the new Emperor is to be made corporeal in the same manner that the original Emperor came about from ancient shamans).
On the flip side, I've read that all of the above could be a Tzeentchian manipulation. (What a great trap-door that is for many warhammer story lines!; Almost as good as entire races being devoured by Tyranids!). So, my question is this: what is the status of the Star Child Theory now? Is it still "cannon"?
The older readers among you may recall a time in the Rogue Trader / Realms of Chaos era when the Star Child Theory was all the rage. If you've not heard about it before, then I'll provide a brief over-view.
The Emperor, in all his long years of living on Earth, was a man. Like other men, he fathered children. And plenty of them since he lived for so long. These offspring are known as Sensei. They have inherited immortality from the Emperor and are untouched by the taint of chaos (they don't take perils of the warp tests). They are also blanks - other psykers cannot "see" them. This means that they largely don't know of their connection to the Emperor. Still, the inquisition hunts them down as dangerous heretics when they have an opportunity.
In addition to the sensei, there are a group of radicals known as the Illuminati. They know of chaos first hand, having been daemonically possessed and subsequently able to cast out the daemon. They know of the fall of the Eldar and the fate that awaits human kind unless the Emperor is renewed. Hence they strive bring this about by sacrificing the sensei at the point in time when the Emperor finally lets go of his remaining dying cells within the golden throne. This will bring about a new Emperor - the Star Child, who will physically reincarnate as the new Emperor (slightly dissimilar to Ynnead, as Ynnead is envisioned as a new god; the new Emperor is to be made corporeal in the same manner that the original Emperor came about from ancient shamans).
On the flip side, I've read that all of the above could be a Tzeentchian manipulation. (What a great trap-door that is for many warhammer story lines!; Almost as good as entire races being devoured by Tyranids!). So, my question is this: what is the status of the Star Child Theory now? Is it still "cannon"?
I never was a big fan of the whole 'starchild' theory - it well all feels a little 'crowbar plot device' to me. I am interested however in the Emperor Creation Myth, and the Eldar Webway on Earth - now that's interesting...
ReplyDeleteAlso the whole Fabius Bile and Black Library story is intriguing...
I've only heard faint chatter of the 'star child' theory beck in the 2nd edition days. I'd have to say that I know even less of it now than then. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteHey Oni -- I guess I'm showing my age :-)
ReplyDeleteGenerally, it seems that whole "star child" thing has been swept under the carpet, along with the stunties-that-shall-not-be-mentioned...
ReplyDeleteI suppose the problem with that plot line is that it explicitely tells you that there is hope for humanity - a notion which, beyond the ususal cypher, etc... conspiracy theories, GW do their best to disabuse you of.
I suppose it no longer fits into 40k canon because of this.
I've not seen a lot of mention of it as of late.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I think the strategy now is to leave much about the Emperor shrouded in mystery. Look at the Horus Heresy series, and we get...2...mentions of him directly.
In Mechanicus, we see him apparently be accepted (by some of Mars) as the Omnissiah after laying hands on a mech and telling it to work.
In Legion, someone mentions having met the man once, and he's an ambitious monster.
I think the new strategy is to leave it shrouded in mystery because trying to define much about the Emperor gives them less mileage than leaving it ambigious. It's kind of like a good horror movie (a la the original Alien): you never see the full picture, so your imagination does the work and it ends up being far more vivid than any actual truth could be.
There a 'stunties that shall not be named' Squat in Mechanicus... he's a pretty cool machinist.
ReplyDelete