Question about the golden throne in the Heresy series

[jcflanker]

It is my understanding that the novel A Thousand Sons takes place before the novel Mechanicum.

In A Thousand Sons the Golden Throne is already up and running in the Emperor’s palace.

However, in Mechanicum which seems to take place after A thousand Sons the Golden Throne is being constructed.

Can someone please explain this to me?

[Grailkeeper]

In the original fluff it was made post heresy, based on instructions whispered to Dorn by the emperor as he rescued him from Horuses flagship.

In Thousands Sons it was being used just as a webway access doodad, and didn't have its full life support system etc in place. Maybe it was built and operational but not fully functional which is why they were still working on it?

[Psychosplodge]

Maybe it's original purpose was not the same as it's currant one, and the instructions Dorn received were a quick bodge conversion...

[Drew da Destroya]

Yeah, the original purpose for the Golden Throne was to protect and open the Emperor's Webway Portal. The life support system, and likely link to the Astronomicon, happened later, and are probably related to the Reader we saw in Mechanicum.

[wittdooley]

In the original fluff it was made post heresy, based on instructions whispered to Dorn by the emperor as he rescued him from Horuses flagship.

In Thousands Sons it was being used just as a webway access doodad, and didn't have its full life support system etc in place. Maybe it was built and operational but not fully functional which is why they were still working on it?

Man, I know there's a Billy Dee Williams quote in here somwhere.....

[Drew da Destroya]

Man, I know there's a Billy Dee Williams quote in here somwhere.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og9tIQtmxko&feature=player_detailpage#t=277s

Got your back, buddy.

[mstingray]

I read that the emperor left Horus in charge to construct the golden throne to root the elder out of the webway, however when Horus landed the near-killing blow it was modified to be a "life-support" chair for the emperor. One that requires the sacrifice of thousands of psykers every day. I read this on lexicanium or 40k wiki I think

[wittdooley]

So... I guess I'd never really asked this before...but why isn't he simply in stasis like Guilliman?

[Denzark]

Needs to be conscious for the Astronomican? Also he was still able to speak for brief periods after the internment, unlike the 'hive mind' state described in The Inquisition Wars by Ian Watson.

[Just_Me]

So... I guess I'd never really asked this before...but why isn't he simply in stasis like Guilliman?

Because if he were, then he would basically be completely static. Stasis fields wrap the subject up in a little bubble of stopped (or at least radically slowed) time, in essence they are in their own tiny little temporal universe within our own (that's why they are so rare, they are a really complex piece of tech). If they did that to the Emperor then he would not be able to interact with our universe, so no Emperor's Tarot, no guidance to the Astronomicon, no Imperial "miracles"(i.e. the Emperor reaching out and psychically exerting influence on our universe from the Warp), no shield for the souls of humanity from the Warp, no new Astropaths, nothing holding the Emperor's ruptured Webway portal closed (thus probably endangering the Webway in its entirety as Daemons have free access), in short no Imperium.

As for that Webway gate of his, it used to strike me as a fairly... bogus reason for him to withdraw from the Crusade, just seemed so anticlimactic for his super-awesome top-secret game changing project. I mean, yeah it would make travel easier, faster, and safer (radically so) which presents some huge advantages to a galaxy spanning power, but if you think about it the Eldar could and still can do this, and it hasn't made them (or their old empire) untouchable or all-powerful. Recently however it occurred to me that what he was working on was subtly but SIGNIFICANTLY more important than merely gaining access to the Webway, he is testing the ability to alter and expand it, he didn't simply kick in the door and gain access to a preexisting network, he created a new link in that network of his very own. This is something that (as far as we know) NO ONE since the Old Ones who originally created it have had the ability to do. If he could do it once on a small scale, then in time he could work out how to do it again and on a much larger sale, reshaping the Webway however he needed it, creating new paths of any desired size between any desired locations, enabling humanity to travel from practically any point in the galaxy (or perhaps the entire universe) to virtually any other.

[Grailkeeper]

I think he occasionally still talks to the custodes, but this is an exceptionally rare event, It may have happened (its deliberately shrouded in the fluff) during the age of apostasy when the sisters of battle were brought to face him by the custodes. Sebastian Thor's era.

[Mananarepublic]

SPOILERS!!!








The emperor constructed the golden throne as a means of harnessing Magnus' (whom it was originally constructed for) psychic power to help the human species rule the warp. In a Thousand Sons Magnus sees this when he is trying to warn the emperor - he has to open up the emperors protective psychic barrier to contact him (and subsequently lets demons attack by mistake.)

But when Magnus travels he does it in the past present and future so who knows when it really takes place :-)

/M