At first glance, the Imperial Truth seems to be a great contradiction: why would the Emperor of Mankind, an immortal being who had been alive for millennia and who well knew about the existence of the Chaos Gods,daemons and all the other psychically-reactive entities of the Immaterium, promulgate a code of belief that only upheld reason and science? Particularly when the psychic power within the Warp generated by the faith of billions of people could be used to protect them from the influence of Chaos. First, as the priest of the Church of the Lightning Stone, Uriah Olathaire, had correctly surmised at the end of the Unification Wars in the late 30th Millennium, the Emperor, never having been possessed of basic human frailties, simply could not comprehend the human need for faith, for He had never encountered a question He could not answer through the application of His intellect. Bereft of the need for the reassurances only faith could bring to mortal men and women, the Emperor found it a wasteful and extremely dangerous distraction, and did not emotionally understand the comfort it brought to mere human beings, even as he fully understood religion's role in an intellectual way. This was a deadly blindness on the Emperor's part that would lead to many of the mistakes he made that brought on the Horus Heresy and the eventual stagnation of the Imperium of Man he created.
At the same time, the Emperor saw the continued existence of human religion and faith as one of the primary reasons Mankind's very existence was threatened by the hostile forces at work in the galaxy and the Immaterium. The Emperor's entire purpose in initiating the Great Crusade and the creation of a galaxy-spanning Imperium of Manwas to seek the destruction of Chaos once and for all, since it represented the greatest threat to intelligent life in the galaxy. The Emperor, who had Himself been responsible for the development of several of the major religions once prevalent on Old Earth, had dedicated His entire existence to the ultimate benefit of Mankind. Yet time and time again, He had seen the principles He had propounded in the form of religion become twisted by human nature, transforming a faith based on the tenets of love and respect for one another into bloody creeds of violence, repression, murder and holy war that actually strengthened the Chaos Gods.
After the onset of the Age of Strife brought an end to humanity's previous interstellar Golden Age and savagery consumed human civilisation, the Emperor decided that His long policy of hiding his true nature from His fellow men as He sought to guide them towards a better future had failed. He needed to take a far more active role in shaping His species' future, so He created the persona of the Emperor and intended to use His own potent psychic abilities, intellect and extraordinary knowledge to reunite the entire scattered human race, by force if necessary. The Emperor came to this harsh conclusion because He feared that unless all of Mankind was united, it would eventually be destroyed piecemeal by the hideous dangers lurking in the galaxy, including Chaos and the other alien races. By promulgating the Imperial Truth on every world inhabited by humanity in the galaxy, the Emperor ironically hoped to eventually create a psychic well of belief in reason and science so strong that the Chaos Gods, who thrived and grew stronger on Mankind's darker psychic emanations, would be fatally weakened.
Of course, the Ruinous Powers were aware of the Emperor's intentions and they moved from the beginning to destroy this plan and actually make it work in their favour. They first corrupted several of the Primarchs almost at the moment of their birth when they were stolen from the Emperor's gene-laboratories beneath the Himalazian (Himalayan) Mountains and scattered through the Warp across the galaxy. They next corrupted the Primarch Lorgarand used him as their instrument to corrupt Horus and eventually all of the Primarchs and Traitor Legions who turned against the Emperor. Their actions during the Horus Heresy ended His dream of a united Imperium opening a new Golden Age of reason and progress for Mankind. In the end, the Emperor miscalculated, deeply underestimatingMankind's basic need to believe in something larger than itself beyond the stale confines of science and technology. Ironically, what ultimately presented the only hope for Mankind surviving the Age of the Imperium that unfolded after the end of the Horus Heresy was religious faith in the Emperor Himself. Humanity's collective faith in the God-Emperor empowers His psychic form within the Warp, allowing Him to combat the destructive influence of Chaos and providing His servants with the psychic power to defend themselves against the threats of daemons, aliens and Heretics alike. Though the price for the survival of the Imperium has been incredibly high, a cost far greater than the Emperor hoped humanity would have to bear, a new version of the Imperial Truth has become predominant among the million worlds of Mankind. This is a truth whose first principle is found within the cornerstone of the Imperial Creed -- the Emperor protects.
At the same time, the Emperor saw the continued existence of human religion and faith as one of the primary reasons Mankind's very existence was threatened by the hostile forces at work in the galaxy and the Immaterium. The Emperor's entire purpose in initiating the Great Crusade and the creation of a galaxy-spanning Imperium of Manwas to seek the destruction of Chaos once and for all, since it represented the greatest threat to intelligent life in the galaxy. The Emperor, who had Himself been responsible for the development of several of the major religions once prevalent on Old Earth, had dedicated His entire existence to the ultimate benefit of Mankind. Yet time and time again, He had seen the principles He had propounded in the form of religion become twisted by human nature, transforming a faith based on the tenets of love and respect for one another into bloody creeds of violence, repression, murder and holy war that actually strengthened the Chaos Gods.
After the onset of the Age of Strife brought an end to humanity's previous interstellar Golden Age and savagery consumed human civilisation, the Emperor decided that His long policy of hiding his true nature from His fellow men as He sought to guide them towards a better future had failed. He needed to take a far more active role in shaping His species' future, so He created the persona of the Emperor and intended to use His own potent psychic abilities, intellect and extraordinary knowledge to reunite the entire scattered human race, by force if necessary. The Emperor came to this harsh conclusion because He feared that unless all of Mankind was united, it would eventually be destroyed piecemeal by the hideous dangers lurking in the galaxy, including Chaos and the other alien races. By promulgating the Imperial Truth on every world inhabited by humanity in the galaxy, the Emperor ironically hoped to eventually create a psychic well of belief in reason and science so strong that the Chaos Gods, who thrived and grew stronger on Mankind's darker psychic emanations, would be fatally weakened.
Of course, the Ruinous Powers were aware of the Emperor's intentions and they moved from the beginning to destroy this plan and actually make it work in their favour. They first corrupted several of the Primarchs almost at the moment of their birth when they were stolen from the Emperor's gene-laboratories beneath the Himalazian (Himalayan) Mountains and scattered through the Warp across the galaxy. They next corrupted the Primarch Lorgarand used him as their instrument to corrupt Horus and eventually all of the Primarchs and Traitor Legions who turned against the Emperor. Their actions during the Horus Heresy ended His dream of a united Imperium opening a new Golden Age of reason and progress for Mankind. In the end, the Emperor miscalculated, deeply underestimatingMankind's basic need to believe in something larger than itself beyond the stale confines of science and technology. Ironically, what ultimately presented the only hope for Mankind surviving the Age of the Imperium that unfolded after the end of the Horus Heresy was religious faith in the Emperor Himself. Humanity's collective faith in the God-Emperor empowers His psychic form within the Warp, allowing Him to combat the destructive influence of Chaos and providing His servants with the psychic power to defend themselves against the threats of daemons, aliens and Heretics alike. Though the price for the survival of the Imperium has been incredibly high, a cost far greater than the Emperor hoped humanity would have to bear, a new version of the Imperial Truth has become predominant among the million worlds of Mankind. This is a truth whose first principle is found within the cornerstone of the Imperial Creed -- the Emperor protects.
