I have two questions concerning the setting/background of the 40k universe. Just to let you all know, I really have no experience from 40k, other than the two Dawn of War pc games. I just recently started buying the Dark Heresy books, though (but I have read ZERO 40k novels).

1. Is there any info out about the Emperor? How he ascended, how he is still "alive"? What exactly is the Golden Throne?

2. Is there any connection between 40k and Warhammer Fantasy's The Old World? I read somewhere that it may have been assumed that the Old World was, or could be, a lost planet from the Imperium. How true is that? I am assuming not at all, but I would like to read up on that kind of stuff, if possible.

Thanks

Chris

Most of the answers to your first question can be found on the Lexicanum.

For the 2nd question: aside from both setting sharing many concepts and motifs, Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 are two separate settings. However, they are quite compatible, and crossover campaigns have been discussed, most often involving the Warhammer Fantasy world as a planet just beyond the border of Imperial space.

The short answers:

1)The Emperor is mostly dead. The golden throne was cobbled together to keep him from dying completely. Depending on what sources you believe he still guiding the Imperium from the throne, or he is basically an undead/comatose psychic light house.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Emperor

2)Early fluf had the warhammer world as a planet caught in the Eye of Terror. Current info from GW is that they are different universes. They do however share a lot of things.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Eye_of_terror

I thought early (defunct) fluff had it that it was caught in an area of warp/realspace overlap which could have been the Eye of Terror but was implied to be the Maelstrom?

The emperor is all but dead, his body is loong dead, but his will keeps him alive. His mind is like a lighthouse, navigators throughout the galaxy can see this lighthouse (called the astronomican) and can use it to triangulate their position.
The Golden Throne is a vast well....throne the emperor has been entombed in for 10 millenia. There's no precise picture of it, but I believe the cover picture for Chapter 8, Life in the imperium (DH corebook) is the emperor. The throne itself, from what I've managed to grasp of it, is shaped like a pyramid, absolutley vast with the emperor sat atop it. I don't think there's a pic of it in the DH corebook, but I've guessed that's what it is. (That meshes with the idea of a star child, which I don't fully understand, something about the emperor being reborn. With a pyramid, which was part of the journey to the afterlife for Egyptians

Officialy (currently that is) the warhammer world and the 40k verse are seperate universes, but they used to be one and the same, with much speculation that Sigmar (god of the empire in warhammer) was one of the Emperors missing Primarchs. The universes share many similarities, Orc(k)s are in both, as is chaos. High Elves= Eldar. Dark Elves= Dark Eldar. Empire=Imperium of man.

this kind of stuff is so interesting to me....not sure why, but I enjoy reading about this type of stuff.

Chris

Same Though I should really be revising for my Physics GCSE :/