# The Corpse Emperor and the Golden Throne



## Brother Lucian (Apr 22, 2011)

I came to wonder. Is the Emperor's body actually in stasis on the Golden Throne? Much fluff have described him as decaying for ten thousand years. But some fluff describes the golden throne as keeping the Emperors slowly decaying and dessicated body in time frozen stasis. How do you reconcile those 2 thoughts?












Guiliman in comparison was perfectly preserved in time-frozen stasis. The killing wound still seen glistening on his throat as he sat in his own bubble.












I recall once reading a depiction of the battle between the Emperor and Horus. When Horus finally fell after his deathblow, the Emperor's psychic power fled him as he could no longer maintain his own physical form with warp energy due to blowing everything on Horus. And the full crushing weight of nearly forty thousand years of existence came crushing down on him and reduced him to a withered husk, before his internment into the golden throne. Would that be the plausible explanation for his state as 'corpse emperor' in stasis?


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

The throne might actually be draining what little life remains in the Emperor, be he in stasis or not. Remember what it did to Malcador, one of the most powerful human psykers ever, and he was only on the throne for a matter of hours. 

The Emperor, however powerful, was placed on the throne while mortally wounded, and even though he was in stasis, 10,000 years is still a long time if something is leeching your life force all that time.


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## Brother Lucian (Apr 22, 2011)

But physical changes cannot happen in stasis. People thought guiliman was healing, despite the impossibility of it in stasis.

And the Sigilite was never placed in stasis while he sat on the golden throne.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Brother Lucian said:


> But physical changes cannot happen in stasis. People thought guiliman was healing, despite the impossibility of it in stasis.


Stasis doesn't stop time, it slows it down to an almost imperceptible level, but as I said 10,000 is a long time, even in stasis. If you go by Master of Mankind, even when he was hale and hearty, sitting on the throne proved taxing even for him. 

The impossibility of Guilliman healing was that people were looking at it the wrong way. He was put in stasis to stop him dying from the wound, not to give it time to heal. Time keeps moving forward, so he was still dying, just much more slowly.


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## Brother Lucian (Apr 22, 2011)

Khorne's Fist said:


> Stasis doesn't stop time, it slows it down to an almost imperceptible level, but as I said 10,000 is a long time, even in stasis. If you go by Master of Mankind, even when he was hale and hearty, sitting on the throne proved taxing even for him.
> 
> The impossibility of Guilliman healing was that people were looking at it the wrong way. He was put in stasis to stop him dying from the wound, not to give it time to heal. Time keeps moving forward, so he was still dying, just much more slowly.


By that logic Guiliman should have crumbled as well like the Emperor.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Brother Lucian said:


> By that logic Guiliman should have crumbled as well like the Emperor.


Not really. Girlyman had a single wound, while the emperor was completely ravaged and blasted by the powers of chaos during his battle with Horus. On top of that, as I stated, the throne itself would appear to be leeching life force from him. Girlyman didn't have that.


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## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

Interesting. My presumption would be that Guilliman was not healing, that was just superstition. The emperor was burnt and blasted, much of his power fleeing to the warp, but now the imperium is feeding him and the throne psykers to keep him going. 

Obviously, I don't know the mechanics but it seems possible that either those psykers go directly to reducing the psychic cost of the throne OR they are added to the emperor's psychic might - continuing the aggregation of the shamans so many years ago.


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## Brother Lucian (Apr 22, 2011)

So you folks think the Emperor was reduced to his corpselike state as seen in the top image prior to entering the stasis of the Golden Throne? Makes me wonder how he was capable of speaking at all as described in the collected visions, even with Malcador's infusion of power.

Alternatively: Being more fleshy and capable of speaking before he was bound in the golden throne. But no stasis, and his physical remains slowly decayed over ten thousand years.


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## Kharn The Complainer (Aug 19, 2015)

The truth is, the guy on the Golden Throne isn't really the Emperor at all. The Emperor, blessed be his name, was tired of all that fame. At the last moment, when flashes of light were flying around after Horus was killed, The Emperor quickly swapped bodies without anyone seeing. He stuck some dead legionnaire into his armour and he animated the corpse for a time with his psychic powers, before making the corpse 'die' on the throne.

The Emperor is now chilling out on a paradise world somewhere, pretending to be a waiter called Jose. He's much happier in his job, especially the lack of responsibility. He only has to remember drink orders, not run an entire galaxy. Also, his cocktails are amazing.


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## desperad0 (Apr 9, 2017)

I like to think of it more as partial stasis than complete stasis. Remember that the Emperor had to give Dorn instruction to modify the golden throne and make it into the life sustaining machine that it now is. If it was simply a matter if being a stasis chair, than when it was discovered that the golden throne was failing wouldn't the AM be able to do some sort of repair on it?

Now if the golden throne wasn't just keeping the Emperor in stasis, then that might mean its doing something beyond the AM's means to comprehend.

As far as the Emperor's appearance; never forget that the golden armored warrior/god is supposed to be something of an outward projection. Considering everything that happened to him during the final fight with Horus, his energy would certainly not be well spent maintaining an image of himself. So maybe he always looked like a nondescript frail man, but projected the image of perfection because that would be easier to follow.


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