Lightbringer said:

An interesting theory, it is. I only wonder, how it is in reality.

It's not Bob, it's Bill.

Green Knight said:

HERETIC!!! Flame the heretic!

@Lightbringer: But, all humor aside, I like the Malcador theory. It leaves a lot of room for intrigue and conspiracies, for one thing. That's always a good thing in DH.

Sister Cat said:

A little story on Malcador:

In the days before the final confrontation between the Emperor and Horus, the Emperor told Malcador to summon "men of character, skill and determination" who would be tested and trained to become an elite group of investigators with the task of rooting out treachery and heresy. This marked the founding of the Imperial Inquisition. Among the first Malcador approached for this duty were Death Guard hero Nathaniel Garro and former Sons of Horus Marine Captain Iacton Qruze.

Though he was a powerful psyker in his own right, Malcador's mental powers were nothing compared to that of the Emperor, and so when Rogal Dorn brought the severely injured ruler of mankind back to the Golden Throne, he found Malcador sitting wasted, energy lashing across his shriveled body, tortured by the psychic bombardments of the webway. He was almost dead. Techpriests then made the exchange - disengaging Malcador from the machine. As he was removed, the last flicker of life left him and the dust of his corpse blew across the stone floor.

At the instant of Malcador's death, the Emperor awoke from his coma - Malcador had saved a last kernel of strength and passed it on to the Emperor so he could give his servants their final orders.

Now this is seriously interesting stuff... The Inquisitions official history (or one version of it) says that Inquisition was founded by Emperor himself personally and now this story says it was Malcador. But then again if Malcador was the real Emperor, and Inquisitors of the old time knew it... Well, that would explain this, too

Besides it would quite nicely explain the peculiar circumstances surrounding the death of Malcador (bolded above).

That's the thing...the beauty of the theory is that it's unprovable either way based upon the background presented so far. Every item in the Horus Heresy could either support or rebut the theory. It's a classic conspiracy theory, made all the more devious by virtue of the fact that everyone knows the 40k universe is rife with intrigue.

To be honest, I'm sure the GW 40k overlords never actually intended the history of the Imperium to include this particular conspiracy theory: it's a fan creation, but I wouldn't put it past them to steal the idea and build it into the fluff, because it's such a neat idea. 40k is nothing if not a multi-authored mythos, good ideas SHOULD be stolen and used by everyone!

Solomon Kane said:

It´s from the novel Legacy, from Calpurnia serie by God-Writer Matthew Farrer ,-) And it will be featured in upcoming Shira Calpurnia Omnibus titled Enforcer. Charter Dynasty of Phrax was given to them by the Emperor himself, at earlier stages of Great Crusade, when Hydraphur was just a border planet. It´s end with signiture of ornae "I" which I guess stands for "Imoperator" (in czech translation I read it it was ornate "C" as in czech, Imperator/Emperor is translated as "Cisár") and of his blood. Which is/was, at least according to some stories, realy miracleous.

@Polaria: Thank you for the additional fluff ... er, lore. Just more seeds to spawn inspiring nastiness.

@Lightbringer: Yep, exactly as you say. And that's why I love it.

I quite like the Malcador theory, - I came up with it myself at one point but discounted it after a Q&A with Dan Abnett at Gen-Con UK a couple of years ago, when he was talking about the Heresy books. He's just finished writing Legion and was pretty much rubbing his hands with glee at all the curveballs they'd let him throw in.

Somebody asked him about how he was planning to write the Emperor when it got to the end of the series, and he mentioned a theory that someone had posited in one of the meetings that he really liked, and personally favoured: That the Emperor not only is 38,000 years old by this point, but actually looks his age - a shrivelled, mummified near corpse animated only by his immense psychic power. The 'golden giant' is merely a psychic illusion which he projects into the minds of everyone who looks at him.

Presumably if this is the case he has to be pretty careful not to go too near too large a concentration of Sisters of Silence though. It might be a tad embarrassing to have his projection drop in the middle of a state function.

PGMason said:

Wardrobe Malfunction! The Emperor of Mankind walks too closely to Sara Davis, a fashionable Sister of Silence in a stunning diamond necklace and gown by Versace. Unfortunately for our Glorious Emperor, he doesn't realize that this has caused his psychic projection to slip -talk about the Emperor's new cloths.

A little bit more seriously, but not by much, I've always viewed the depiction of the Emperor as The Giant Golden Manliest Man's Man as more propaganda then anything. After all, most of history and figures in it have been exaggerated to one degree or anouther by the winning side of that particular chunk of history. The reality is always muddled a bit and rarely what we have come to expect. Most in the Imperium would expect the Emperor to have been that big golden testosterone factory, therefore, that has to have been exaggerated over the 10 thousand years or so.

That aside, I rather like the Malcador conspiracy theory as well. It fits into grimdark politics rather well. After all, the fella that actually sits on the throne, any throne, is usually an incredible assassin magnate -best to put a different more disposable target there to keep the assassins busy while you do your ruling from behind it ;-)

Jephkay said:

hey could you go out and check that out? i have only the rules and not the latter imperium sourcebook and this sounds like great little piece of trivia to put in my game.

PGMason said:

I'd actually forgotten about that Q&A session; some good stuff came up there. That was GenCon UK 2007, if memory serves... I was there courtesy of Black Industries, as I was one of the GM's demoing Dark Heresy that year.