Souls and the Imperium

[CoruwenCaraniel]

So I know that Eldar souls keep their consciousness after death, but I have been told that humans, non-psykers to be specific, do not. Then I was told they do, yet neither side of the argument has a source to provide!

What is the truth?

Thanks!

[dmcq]

Now I'm not an expert but as far as i can tell, in the fluff it talks about the warp being a realm of emotion and soul energy. I also seem to remember in one of the early Space wolves novels, Ragnar defeating magnus just as he and his disembodied thousand sons were emerging from the warp. now magnus aside, the thousand sons would have had to keep their individuality in order to re-materialize in our universe.

[jorz192]

I would love to know the answer too. But it would probably erupt into an argument, at least it would on warseer:p

[Force21]

Hmmmm.... A very interesting question...


All I can think of is that the Imperium believes pretty much the same way people think of heaven...

In the Imperial infantryman uplifting primer...trying to remember... when you die you stand before The Emperor & he judges you if you have served him well & if you did you stand beside him & all that good stuff, heaven like.


& mostly the Warp is thought of as hell....Demons, uncontrollable dark energy, lack of cats... etc...

[Xas]

you have to divide between what mankind just believes and what is the truth in the universe of 40k.

we all know how hard "the truth" is to pinpoint in the grimdark future and this is nothing else.


takeing 20-30% sources (mostly horus heresy and the eldar codex) and the rest pure logical speculation I'd go and say the following:


regardless of your species it is a question of WILLPOWER if your soul stays conscious or if you just dissipate into the warp. If your mind & soul is strong you can keep yourself together against the raging currents of the warp and stay somewhat isolated from the rest. If you are weak the currents just rip your barriers apart and eat you.

This would fit well with the fact that eldar and other psykers usually stay conscious because it simply takes a very strong will to survive as a psyker. If you are genetically able to use psychic energy and have a weak will you will erupt into a deamon-portal or just fry yourself on the first occasion your powers show themselves.


another similar theory is that willpower and psychic potential are one and the same and are caused by the same geneticall dispositiosns. This idea however would have problems with the non-psychic primarchs who are stong willed but not posses psychic powers. However a possible explanation would be that they simply are engineered in a way that they cannot whield their powers in a conscious way but in fact ARE psykers (leamn russ' descritpion from magnus point of view in "a thousand sons" is a strong indicator that this could be right).

however it would clash with the fact that some humans are strongwilled enough to banish deamons but dont posses any other psychic powers. one of those occurs in the first few books where a strong-willed female banishs are pink horror only with the help of a (by then illegal) imperial icon. She could however be simply a blank/pariah (but then the horror wouldnt have been able to see her in the first place which it clearly does).

[Grailkeeper]

The emperor eats souls...

There is a baddy in one of the Eisenhorn books who manages to cheat death, I'mm not entirely sure if he download his personality onto a computer or if it was his soul.

The thousand sons are a good example- the non pyskers are now shambling automatons.

A common religious view- per the guants ghosts and other series is your soul will go to the golden throne to be judged by the emperor after death-altough how this works as the golden throne is real, and has a verifiable location as opposed to being a concept like heaven is another question all together

[Fellend]

Well the Golden Throne exists as a physical object but it's also a permanent (well... sort off) beacon in the warp. In this case they are probably refering to the warp manifestation of it