..." Though I knew that i was in mortal danger, I could not turn. I knew, with every fibre of my being, that I could not stay, that my life was forfeit if I did.

But I stood, rooted to the spot, my eyes fixed on the iron giant in front of me. Its face an angelic mask smeared with blood, a spiked halo adorning its head, wings of bloody spikes trailing behind it as it stepped up to me, its clawed, brazen hands extended. much like a preacher before his flock.

At last its shadow fell over me. As I felt something inside me give way and die, I was forced to look up at the dreadful, leaking visage looming above me. It waited, bathing me in dreadful silence for eternity before it spoke, the mask, even though it was of hammered iron, moving just like a face. And yet, unlike anything I had ever seen before.

' Why so much fear', it asked, each word like rusted blades cutting into innocent flesh, ' I would expect adoration from one of my most devoted servants.'

I shook my head, my words flowing out of me like air from a pinstruck balloon. ' I am not your servant...I only serve the Emperor of Mankind and by His might....'

Then, the thing drowned out my words in laughter. It said no further thing and why should it? This laughter finally made me understand.

It let me live, but it knew only too well, that I would not survive writing this. Even now, memory besieges my mind and my life has to end. I would commend my soul to the Emperor, but now I am afraid I might get my wish." - Found in a remote monastery on Sepheris Secundus, author unknown. The building was razed and destroyed to the last stone.

The prophecy of the Tyrant Star have troubled Inquisitors across all Ordos and factions for a long time. Some see it as a way to power, a tool to be used, while others can only see it as a dire threat. Sadly, none know the truth and they all sleep better because of this.

The Eldar know that the Calixis Sector will be the cradle of a great and dire threat and have thus placed warnings on several planets so that their fate will never intertwine with it. Their prophets have glimpsed a dark sun and something 'born of Man, a Father of Darkness, a King on a Corpse Throne, the Stealer of Destinies'.

They might know more if they delved into their own past. But they prefer not to and so, humanity is free to tumble to destruction, bound by powers they barely understand.

How could they know that, when the Emperor of Man opened eyes for the first time, His mind ablaze with power and possibility, a black sun shone down on Anatoly? How could they keep count of the number of times the Emperor of Man and His creation is cursed by those crushed under brutal governors or innocently tried for the faults of their betters? How could they understand that for many, the Imperium has become a symbol for oppression and tyranny?

The Tyrant Star is only the herald of something far worse. He heralds the coming of the Emperor. A dark Emperor, born from the Warp and His own dark psyche, nurtured by the curses and dying screams of the saintly and sinners alike. He is Komus, the True Tyrant and if He ever fully wakes, mankind will beg for its enemies to destroy it before falling under His sway. For now, He has become a true god...

Ok, maybe a bit heavy-handed, but the idea hit me today and I could not help but write it down. Basically, the misdeeds in the name of the Imperium have almost repeated the mistake of the Eldar and created a Chaos God, a dark reflection of the Emperor, a part of him much darker, yet as alive as the Star Child, adrift in the Warp. The prophecy speaks of him arising in the Calixis sector and if he does, the Imperium will face times a thousand times darker than even the most paranoid of Inquisitors can imagine, for His power, nurtured by billions, will be nearly limitless.

The question i now have for you folks is the following...how can the acolytes stop the birth of a god? Any ideas to flesh out this campaign outline will be greatly appreciated.....

Well, a devoted guardian might be able to become a sort of messiah/martyr to seal the thing away from the mind and will of humanity, in a much smaller manner than the way the Emperor placed his soul against the warp and chaos. Basically snuffing out their own lives to become a spiritual barrier between Komnus and the feelings of humanity that feed it, until eventually after eons of starvation, Komnus consumes itself and the barrier.

Personally I'm running with the theory that Komnus is not truly unique, and is just the first of it's kind. That each failing in the golden throne generates a sort of warp-hole in reality where the Emperor cannot reach, and the imbalance forces too much pressure on one spot of the materium, forming a tyrant star.

Well my first thought is, you can't, at least not at Dark Heresy levels. It would take a crusade at the least, and the crusade may actually feed the unborn Emperor.

The big question is what emotion is feeding the birth of this dark Emperor? Slaneesh didn't just pop into existance, it took thousands of years of complete and total decadence to create him/her/it, and it took on the characteristics of the emotion that created it.

Since this Dark Emperor is a product of the warp, something needs to be fueling its creation, so that's the first thing that needs to be addressed and the first question as an investigator I'd ask after finding out what was going on.

The next thing I'd do is track down the Eldar and learn from their mistakes, going heretic if I had to. Simply put, the Eldar understand the devistation caused by the birth of a dark god, and what went into creating that dark god, and what they would have done different had they understood the signs better then any race in the galaxy does.

After studying at the knees of the Eldar, I'd come back and put my plan into action. There is one other option... you enlist Chaos to do your dirty work for you. Sure I'll be corrupted in the process, but I can guarrentee that the Chaos Gods don't want another godling mucking up what they have going for them, and by pointing out what was happening they'd probably be more willing to do your work for you.

That's what I do at least.

If we go by how the last god was born Slaanesh...

It took thousands of years and was because the emotion/cause was so widespread.

Sooo...

Step 1 is find out what is feeding the birth.

Step 2 is find out how far along it is.

Step 3 Realize that this is not a "local" problem. Quite literally it would effect/destroy the entire imperium.

Step 4 Whatever was feeding it would have to be cut off imperium wide.

Step 5 Realize the only one who could possibly give an order to change the basic nature of the imperium in some way and have it stick is the emperor (and not even he may be able to pull it off depending on what exactly needs to be changed)

Step 6 Get the emperor healed and off the golden throne.

Step 7 Emperor realizes the chance of stopping the birth are slim so he goes and opens up a can of divine whoopass on the unborn god.

Step 8 Profit!!

Whew!! you have a impressive campaign ahead of you!

This is a really cool idea (or at least I think so). If I ever run a follow on campaign to my current one, I may steal err.. borrow this as the crux.

One question you have asked is what is feeding Him/It. I looked at the way how Slaanesh was born and I noticed that He/She/It was born both from emotion (pleasure addiction) and acts (unspeakable excess). Sure, the Eldar are much more sensitive and had this being a long time in the making. However, no one knew of Slaanesh before.

The Emperor, on the other hand, IS already a god, at least seen that way. From early sources, we know of the Star Child - the Emperor's soul drifting in the Warp, ready to become a god if needed. It feeds on the worship man grants it. The Dark Emperor does exactly the same, feeding both on It's name ( since it IS the Emperor, or rather a facet of it). It basically steals worship and, on the other hand, grows stronger from every act of tyranny and oppression in His name, from every needless sacrifice. Both the corrupt Governor, who hides his ineptitude behind needless acts of cruelty to keep the population from rioting and the general who cares nothing for the lives of his guardsmen, sending thousands screaming to their deaths just to further his own career feed the newborn god, for what they do they at least pretend to do in the name of the Emperor, thus further associating Him with tyranny, painting Him as a harsh and cruel taskmaster who only wants obedience, caring nothing for those beneath Him.

I am currently trying to flesh out the budding Chaos God humanity is creating and I stumbled upon something...what would the lesser and greater daemons of Komus, the Dark Emperor, be? From what I have right now, he is the god of tyranny, but also of blind, mindless obedience and senseless sacrifice...what could the daemons associated with this god be like? Any ideas?

Perhaps the enslavers would be enlisted under this budding chaos god. Perhaps the Cult of the Redemption is the thru cult of the Dark Emperor. FIre, chains, and enslavement would probably be the themes of such demons. Also blind adoration, So one demon could be the 'angel of justice' blinded to the truth and handing out swift painful justice. The demons would also probably be very human in a way.

Salcor

An idea to keep it away:

A confrontation in a bubble within the warp (, created of course by the D. E.) and a sacrifice embodying everything the true emperor stood for that weakens/ destroys/ seals the entity away for ever. I ould implement this by having the D.E. be "reminded" of what he was, of what he should have been. Along with the realization that he is only a shadow.

Oh, to those who say it could not happen. Belief in decadence and a darkness of spirit created all the other Chaos gods. The people of the Imperium have been suffering for about 10,000 years now, and there are trillions and trillions of them. I could see the despair forming into a warp entity. A mockery of the real emperor.

However, I seriously doubt it has anything to do with the Tyrant Star.

HeirofNagash said:

What Salcor said sounds good. Let them be like literal saints with a dark streak, maybe even like angelic Primarchs in outlook, but cruel and oppressive in attitude. Maybe hooded (like Dark Angels), with black angelic wings (sort of like the Sanguinor) and wielding flaming swords and chains for greater daemons. For lesser daemons perhaps something like eyeless and bare-foot preachers wielding huge flaming Eviscerators and for daemonic beasts something like vile cherubim or these gothic gargoyles so abundant on imperial architecture.

I would probably take the stance that humanity is funnelling power into two budding, but opposed warp powers.

The first is the Star Child that we know of. The second is the Dark Emperor detailed here...

If that's the case, it would be pretty easy to delineate which acts empowers the two. Essentially, the Star Child and DE both represent what the Emperor (and by extension...mankind) could become. On the one hand we rise to the occasion, battered but bound by duty and with an unbreakable will to do what must be done, the first warp power not inherently evil. On the other, we fall into a tyranny and slavery so profound that it appears mindless in its ferocity, and the souls of billions are chained in torment fuelling the rise of a new, dark warp god.

My take on it would be that the Star Child and the Dark Emperor are the same entity, and the Hereticus prophecies and dark omens are all warning us that the Star Child's power (and possibility) is waning, as the Dark Emperor continues to grow in ascendancy...

Quite an interesting and incredibly complex campaign possibility. I'll have to think about it some more...

A problem here is that there aren't any new Chaos gods. Slaanesh was birthed from the Eldar, but "after" that she had always existed due to the Warp being outside of time and all. Or something like that.

Mhmm, not the first time I've read about the whole Emperor = Corpse God = 5th Chaos Power arc, though I've never seen it fleshed out like OP did. Kudos! I'd buy the novel if you'd write one.

But yes, this sounds like a setting-changing epic campaign that should see millions die and planets burn, some sort of "Endgame" for the Imperium at which end lies the prospect of a bright future or eternal darkness. I have seen such campaigns been pulled off in other franchises, and in essence there is nothing wrong with it!

DSA/TDE (a fantasy P&P extremely popular in Germany) did something like that with the "Sieben Gezeichneten" (The Marked Ones) campaign, where up to seven veteran characters were to embark on a journey to prevent the ascendance of the risen arch-magician and daemon-master Borbarad (one of the most legendary antagonists of the setting), whose forces had, at that time, conquered large parts of the known lands throughout publications made over several years - so the "7G" campaign really was the climax of an extremely long build-up (something 40k still failed to try, being stuck in the year 999 and all). And it delivered, by plunging the entire setting into a state of epic war similar to, say, the Lord of the Rings (just more grimdark) and culminating in several adventures that really took their toll on all the Marked Ones. Whoever would survive the campaign was supposed to retire, so the 7G campaign was pretty much seen as a "finisher" for old high level characters by everyone.

I believe a campaign with a story arc such as the Dark Emperor and an accompanying crusade could be pulled off in a similar way for Ascension characters. Heck, include Rogue Trader rules for ship combat and planetary invasions, and the Horde rules from Deathwatch for personal combat involving localized fights on platoon-level.

Woo, somebody else who runs with "The Emperor is the Fifth Chaos God" as their personal canon (although I tend to just flat out assume that it's specifically the Emperor himself, rather than a dark reflection of Him).

Have you considered simply *not* making the problem solvable, or at least not having a specific solution in mind? I mean how would you have stopped the fall of the Eldar? The problem here kind of boils down to "the Imperium has deep-seated social injustices which by their very nature are fuelling the birth of a Chaos God". It strikes me that this is a perfect opportunity to leave things entirely in the hands of your players and see how they react - do they despair, do they not care, do they decide (as would in some ways be entirely reasonable) to turn to Chaos out of spite?