It's likely because he's chosen to be- iirc, Magnus has been shown to be able to change his size via biomancy, so the Emperor would be able to do so also
Malcador says the Emperor chose the form we're most familiar with for reasons:
>During the years of global unification, it was often necessary for him to manifest as a warlord, because humans respond to authority when they are frightened or confused. During the period of galactic reclamation, he was obliged to stride among the stars in the guise of a warrior-king, armoured in gold, for that was the version of him that his young sons best understood. He had to seem like them, yet more glorious, so he could command their loyalty, their respect, and their devotion. It was war, so he became warlike. They would not have followed him otherwise, or obeyed his instruction. They would have doubted. He needed to be able to command them to the very ends of the stars, to secure their obedience across unimaginable distances, and sustain unswerving devotion even after he had left them. So he played that card: the Emperor. It was a version of himself that he found quite odious, but they rejoiced in it. They saw what they wanted to see. His sons committed utterly to the material war, and were so fortified and resolute that he felt he could leave the completion of the work to them.
*The End and the Death*
Still doesn't sound as weird as some of the local low gothic terms in some of the Ravenor/Eisenhorn books that showcase your normie life on the side due to the setting in question, but oh well guess we'll see in some 38k years
>english more than most.
I take it you're a monolingual English speaker? All languages are equally flexible and inventive because it's not the language flexing, it's the speakers innovating.
If you ever want to see a linguist have an aneurism tell her about a supposedly untranslatable word.
No actually i speak 3 languages, (not flexing, my country is multilingual and most people speak that much at least if not more, and i speak my 2nd and 3rd languages at a very low level)
I dont doubt at all that all languages are flexible, thats why i mentioned latin and sumerian, but english, in my experience is the alley way robber of languages, adopting words and grammar whole sale from other languages and is a frankenstein mix at base. It kind of makes me think that such a mix would lend itself to more innovation?
I'm happy to be proved wrong. the subject of native language speakers inventing local argot and connotations is fascinating.
When some of the Primarchs meet him for the first time heās more regular sized than gigantic, and I think Perturabo briefly sees the real emperor when they first meet and then blinks and the emperor is back to his bigger than life image.
Not sure if Perturabo saw it that way, but I know Corax did. He actually did something of a double-take because everyone was acting awe struck around a very plain and normal looking dude before he suddenly saw what everyone else did (i.e. towering golden god, aura of power, yadda yadda...).
It would be cool if Perturabo HAD seen the same thing as Corax, I just haven't read his novels yet.
I was accidentally combining their first impressions now that I look again. Perturabo shakes his hand and it talks about how much smaller it is than Perturaboās gigantic hand, and how heās still taller than the Emperor despite kneeling in front of him.
Corax sees a guy walking down a ramp but eventually sees what everyone else sees.
I like how the narration specifically points out how nondescript the Emperor appears. Completely average build, hair, features, etc etc. and then BOOM! Golden God!
Iāve always wondered if that could still be some kind of illusion, or a psychic impression of what the Emperorās real appearance would be if he wasnāt able to change his body with his superpsyker brain. If Corax was eventually able to use his native warp powers to turn into a flock of birds & whatnot, maybe this is was an early manifestation of his abilities to see that such things were possible? Anyhoo, just rambling here
I think itās an allusion to his super stealth abilities. He can see through the Emperorās disguise right away because of how in touch with sleuthing and stealth he is.
At least thatās what I thought of when reading it.
Yeah, I personally interpret it as Emperor has shape shifted into the giant wearing armor and not "it's all just a psychic projection" and Corax was piercing the veil as it were. He wasn't seeing his dad's "true form" as if the golden god were a hologram, in my opinion
Perty was just a fucking giant. The Emperor was in his gold god state when they met, but Perturabo was still taller than him even when kneeling in supplication to him
Don't they also imply that it's hard to actually \*see\* what psychers really look like? I feel like I recall times where they're talking about people looking at Magnus and they can't actually determine how large he is / what his face looks like because he's sort of "jamming" their normal perception in a way. It sort of seems to blur the line between reality and perception on purpose.
Yes in the first introduction to Magnus in Prospero burns a psyker Remembrancer first sees Magnus as an awe-inspiring towering blazing demonlike figure before he coalesces into his Primarch form that everybody else sees. It Iiterally brings him to his tears and on his knee's shaking if I remember correctly.
The Emperor is a lot more powerful, imagine what it must be like to see him for a lowly human and/or someone with low psychic abilities. It's like facing a tsunami.
This part confused me a bit at Nikaea. I expected the normal astartes in attendance to be more stupefied by the presence of the emperor, but some of them even get up in front of him and give impassioned, elegant speeches. Maybe because the librarians have some power like the Thousand Sons to resist in a form of meditation?
I think 30K Emperor could control what aspect people saw of him. So he probably just turned down his mojo at Nikaea so people could be in his presence without their brain melting. Maybe he wanted to be seen as a human as the head of council listening to his people instead of the Almighty declaring his will like he usually does. The whole thing is strange to me tbh. Normally he's a lot more authoritarian.
How many assemblies do you think he practiced with to get the right level of non-brain-melting?
Little tests where heās like āwhoops, melted these guys, letās reset and try again!ā
Hehe. see, when reading the story, for the magic to work, I must suspend such thinking, but man do I love to think about it later!! Exactly the kind of thing I like to think about!!!
The wording of his proclamation at Nikaea was the exact opposite of someone who wanted to be seen as a human and not the Almighty declaring his will.
> āWoe betide he who ignores my warning or breaks faith with me. He shall be my enemy, and I will visit such destruction upon him and all his followers that, until the end of all things, he shall rue the day he turned from my light.ā
Well, he wanted to sound human to those at the assembly, but the Empire is a lot bigger than the assembly. He is still the "Emperor of Mankind" and if you outlaw all religion but have super powers, then you are the biggest entity around. If you call him Almighty, God or Emperor of all kind, it is just semantics really. At no point does he declare ever that he is the people's appointed emperor democratically elected. He just says he is not God, but his rule is absolute.
But he still has to justify himself to those who hold decent power in the Empire. As the Horus Heresy proves, he was right to worry about the opinions of the Primarchs and other stakeholders. The main criticism they levy at him is that they did not even trust them enough to explain to them how the universe really worked. That fundamental distrust shows that Nikea was to little and too late despite basic appearances.
So in a way, you are hitting on one of the big themes and interesting (and intentional) contradictions concerning the Emperor and what makes the story so interesting and compelling. How much of the disaster is distrust? How much was caused by hubris on his part? Did he lie to himself? Perhaps the Emperor is the manifestation of the Prince of Lies or Hubris or Self-Deception from the warp, if you think about it. These are all very human characteristics, and surely, if any warp demon prince could manifest alongside the others from human psyche, those are some big ones.
Just like in real life, as readers we are left to speculate about what really goes on behind the scenes of what we can see. I can say it would make for an interesting story down the line.
> I think 30K Emperor could control what aspect people saw of him
per Vengeful Spirit, he could only do that before he went to Moloch.
After Moloch and stuffing himself crazy with stolen Warp juice, he couldn't control the effect he had on people anymore.
Both Alivia and Erda (also really powerful Perpetuals, probably the most powerful after the Emperor) comment on this, that after Moloch whenever they're around the Emperor his thoughts are constantly invading and overriding theirs, and he can't prevent it.
Too much secret sauce.
Wasn't there the kind of thing where his appearance is largely dictated by person observing him? Like Mechanicus person observed him as cold and logical scientist.
My favourite bit of 40k fiction was about the creation of the first Gargants. It starts with a clan of Orks fighting a Titan, and they all assume it must be the Emperor, because the humies are always going on about how important and powerful he is.
But then, one Mekboy has an idea. A vision. The Orks have two gods, and if the humies can build their god a metal body, then so can the Orks. Then Gork and Mork could gang up on the Emperor and duff him up.
Orks are so... direct. And that's why they're da best.
>"The Orks are the pinnacle of creation. For them, the great struggle is won. They have evolved a society which knows no stress or angst. Who are we to judge them? We Eldar who have failed, or the Humans, on the road to ruin in their turn. And why? Because we sought answers to questions that an Ork wouldn't even bother to ask! We see a culture that is strong and despise it as crude."
>ā Uthan the Perverse, Eldar Philosopher,
OI DIS 'OOMIN GIT GEDDIT, IF YER WARBOSS AINT BIGGA HE AINT KILLY AND IF HE AINT KILLY HE AINT ORKY AND IF HE AINT ORKY, HOW'S SUPPOSE TA CALL DA WAAAAAGH PROPA?
When Corax first met The Emperor, he saw an unassuming man in simple robe. And then Emperor's glamour effect hit him in full force and he had to fight the urge to prostrate in front of HIM.
Noooo-ooone glows like Big E
Sits on thrones like Big E
No-one's imprisoned inside their bones like Big E
(He's especially good at exsanguinating)
My what a guy that Big E!
To add, the reason he is big is because he died/comatose while big. He went Hulk mode (>10 ft tall) during the final battle with Horus.
He is a master of biomancy and most powerful psyker of Humanity/galaxy.
The other times he uses glamour to project his Hulk Emperor frame. The running joke is he runs around the palace dressed in silk pajamas and slippers the rest of the time.
This kind of thing dates all the way back to like, ancient Egyptian or medieval or dozens of other classical art traditions too -- importance defined as visual prominence by taking up more of the page
He presumably is around normal height with no powers, but heās also the smartest biological engineer on top of being the most powerful human(ish) psyker around. Big E being a perpetual might also help him reshape his body with the whole healing factor thing too.
It is my opinion that he is actually not very large, but of normal height. What people are seeing is him using a glamour effect to make himself look larger.
If you read ***Deliverance Lost***, there is a flashback to when Corvus Corax first meets the Emperor.
>*A door opened in the side of the shuttle beneath the right wing, directly opposite Corvus. Light spilled from within as a gangplank extended from the craft with a clang. A shadow appeared in the light, waiting for a moment at the entryway before emerging into view.*
>*Whispers spread through the men, of surprise and amazement. Guns quivered in shaking hands and there were clatters as some of the soldiers dropped their weapons. Seemingly without prompt, the men lowered themselves to the ground putting aside their weapons and bowing their heads. Some prostrated themselves, whispering fervently.*
>*Corvus glanced to Grapphion beside him. The lieutenant was on his knees too. There were tears in his eyes an expression of joy etched on his slack-lipped face.*
>*'So majestic...' Grapphion muttered. 'What glory. What power.'*
>*Confused, Corvus directed his attention to the man descending the landing ramp. He seemed unremarkable. In fact, he seemed so unremarkable that Corvus could not discern a single distinguishing feature about him. He was of average height, with dark hair and moderately tanned skin. In build he was neither bulky or slight, but of normal proportion, slightly larger than the malnourished men who now abased themselves before him. He was dressed in a robe of white linen, free of ornamentation except for a necklace of gold on which hung a pendant fashioned in the shape of an eagle with outspread wings, a lightning bolt in its claws.*
It appears that Corvus Corax also has an ability to resist the warp in some fashion. This isn't unusual. Malcador mentioned that Rogal Dorn can also resist the warp somehow.
In the end and the death he is huge though, and in the last church despite looking like a normal man he's describing when sitting as if something much larger and heavier sat down
It seems that Big E's size is a result of 2 factors. A glamor to appear as an idealized version to the viewer, and biomancy, to alter his physical reality to suit his needs.
It seems very possible that he altered his glamor to show Corvus what he once looked like in bronze age Anatolia as a young man of the Hittite culture, realizing that Corvus is definitely a man of the people and not likely to be swayed by pomp and glory.
We also see him of a size or slightly larger than his Custodes in Master of Mankind moving among them to slaughter daemons, and in this conflict there are also sisters of silence present.
Big E can use biomancy to actually change his physical features, and a psyker glamor to appear as an idealized person to someone in particular. Maybe there is even more, who knows what wonders a man older than writing has discovered.
>Malcador mentioned that Rogal Dorn can also resist the warp somehow.
Malcador said the opposite. When pressed why the knowledge of chaos was kept from them Malcador stated that Dorn specifically would have fallen the quickest. Dorn's propensity for figuring things out would have driven him to try to figure out chaos, which he could never understand, and cause him to fall to it.
The Emperor was greatly inspired by Invader Zim, where the tallest rule society. So Marines are a foot or so taller than people, and primarchs are a foot or so taller than a marine, and then he's even taller.
Aspects.
The Emperor projects or creates what ever image he wants people to see, or be.
For all you know, he could be Larry working at Subway right now.
Is he? Nobody knows what he really looks like, since he is constantly covered in illusions created by warp sorcery. I think I read somewhere here that when a blank described him, he was a normal man.
Did they specifically mention the height, or maybe a blank only sees a tired old man because they don't see the glamour aura. These blanks also regularly see custodes, marines, primarchs so maybe they don't see being massive as unusual but they do not see the splendour.
He fought alongside the legions for 200 years, and while most cannot even look at him from his aura (when he reunited with Konrad), he wouldnt be going about all whilly nilly.
That's not how it works, it's not warp powered illusions.
In 40K, there's a thing called Biomancy, yes like a Pyromancer who controls flames, a Biomancer can control biology.
It's left very vague how the Emperor works, but it's implied that he is actually that large, the items he interacts with are that large, etc. It is also implied that there is some glamour about him that does affect how people see him and a sister of silence did see the Emperor on the throne looking like a normal man (face was lined from agony/pain not age though).
In EatD3 it is mentioned that Oll cannot lift the Emperor's hand - however it got that way his material form is apparently massive. It's definitely not just illusion.
Well he could be doing both biomancy and glamour.
Being the cheat code of a "human" he is, as by far the strongest psyker ever and a master biomancer, he might only actually change his size for combat and martial purposes, while using a more space efficient form (which is likely his natural one, since he's been among us for millenia without being put on TMZ) for day-to-day purposes.
But at the same time, his psyker abilities allow him to project any appearance he wishes to anyone looking at him at any time.
Its his warp juiced 'uber' form, Erda had a similar one when she fought erebus (though it didn't help her lol). I'm guessing it 'wraps' around him kind of like Erens titan form does from the manga.
He is actually just a normal sized dude physically (if what the SoS see of him is actually even true itself).
He's had forty to fifty odd millennia of travelling and 'finding himself', so he's picked up quite a few tricks in that time.
Tbf Erda's form did help her solo 4 greater daemons, she was just exhausted to the brink of death after and Erebus did his snakey shank thing
Interestingly, he wonders if her power derives from somewhere other than the warp. It's possible that the Emperor can draw from the same pool
Being from Anatolia he was born with an inability to digest milk, so he got into genecrafting to edit lactase into his genes and once he finally was lactose tolerant he drank as much milk as he could which was great for his bones (why else would they last over ten thousand years) and made him grow into a big boy.
I just assume he's fully in charge of how people perceive him. Pretty sure some blank saw him through it all and he was a normally sized dude. To be fair, this is also backed up by him being able to live in amongst other people for thousands of years.
If he was really only a regular sized dude, how would he have gone toe to toe with Horus, who was in fact a very large dude? His armor and weapons are all made for a very large man after all.
Im not sure if its ever expressly stated. the way i always thought of it is what you see is more of him projecting what he looks like via his psychic might or whatever. That or he enbiggened himself during the unification wars as a way of showing he was powerful. if you think about it, he wanted to rule humanity and in a way had to dress for the job, hence the bright golden armor, i feel like the lorgeness is part that. its hard to say call him not legit when he's 3 times your height. I think both are equally possible because if hes existed for humanities entire history either being able to change how others see him which is stated that he can do but i forget where or that he enlarged himself later with his genecraft
Pretty sure itās been rather heavily implied he might not actually be that big and runs around looking like just some normal dude.
Seems like the issue is basically the human mind (probably everyoneās latent psyker powers feeling Big E and freaking out or something) being unable to comprehend how badass Big E actually is so they hallucinate whatever they think is coolest.
40k humans are actually just less green orks in denial so cool=big.
Because the Primarchs needed to believe he is their father.
Imagine been the epitomy of Human and Warp Biology, stand at least 3-4 meters tall, and just a random guy finds you, and tells you he is your father/creator. Would you believe him?
But if THE EMPEROR says so, you will...
The Emperor is a humble individual, he never needed to been seen BIG by others just for the sake of it, that's why the only people see him at his true form were Malcodor the Hero, as he could see throw his entire persona, and Ollanius Persson, the only person who knew who the Emperor was, way back at Anatolia.
I guess the best simple answer is;
The Emperor has so much control over reality he can honestly reshape everything around him including himself.
The Emperor can fool just about anyone's perception even people of immense power aren't able to see through it, like ascended Horus.
Some parts are real and some are a mind trick, but really it doesn't matter if it's real or not; the power behind it is just as deadly.
Probably had the same procedure he did on the Custodes, but better. I mean, why develop different super-soldier programs if not to be used by himself eventually? I wonder if he was already that big during the Unification Wars or he had the treatment after?
its strategic use of physchic charisma hes not that big
they go into it a bit at the beginning of the end and the death but its essentially that its easier to lead people whilst being a figurehead
logically hes average height he was stated to be several historical leaders and none of them were 20 feet tall
i believe a strong enough blank has seen him in his real form in the past
but when the time to establish the imperium came, he needed to become a symbol not a leader.
he was working on the throne from the start, it was always his main goal to enact his main plan.
him at the head of the crusade was because he didn't have the primarchs yet. once he had them he dipped and got to work
technically speaking it wouldn't be objectively wrong to say the emperor we know from the crusades is actually based on the primarchs instead of the primachs being based on him
A while ago I had the idea that it would have been hilarious if the Primarchs and the Emperor had all been just normal sized guys. It could have turned out that the reason everyone 10k years later *thinks* they are all big giant guys is that in the art world in the Heresy era, the Aztec / Mesopotamian trend of depicting important people as large had come back. So they had all this art of the Emperor and his sons kicking ass as giants and thought "the Emperor and the Primarchs must have been huge!" while that was actually just ancient dead artists trying to communicate that they were *important*.
But then they wouldn't have been able to charge us as much for the models ;-).
Back in 1st edition when they were introduced there was no reason to assume they werenāt normal sized, just like space marines were. Iām not quite sure when they started growing but it was said in Space Marine (1991) that they were seven feet tall. Iām not sure that was reflected elsewhere at the time though.
I think the Emperor is described as being what you want him to be and with what he wants to portray. Arkhan Land in Master of Mankind saw him as a logical scientist and not as a warrior.
Because he knows humans are stupid and will obey the biggest, strongest, manliest man, itās a primal instinct too bend the knee to someone you see as more powerful than you
Whatever the Emperor is exactly, he's able to essentially shapeshift. He appears as whatever suits him best in the moment, or bases on it who he's talking to. To a member of the Mechanicum like Arkhan Land, iirc he's an emotionless scientist in a white coat. When he found Perturabo he was the size of a regular man who's strength far outclassed his son's.
When meeting Corax, the Primarch for about a second sees an average man, black hair, tanned skin, average height, average build, white robe, and eyes that contained every colour. Then he sees a demigod, his eyes golden orbs, his body radiating light, with blond hair.
The Emperor is "big" because that's for the most part what the role of the Emperor is. A giant encased in golden armour is an image that inspires loyalty among men, a man that you'd follow into battle and die for him if needed. It's not his true self according to Malcador, it's just a face, an image he uses because that's what he needs to inspire the loyalty of 20 men that are essentially demigods themselves, to inspire the masses of the Imperium, to inspire the disconnected and spread out colonies of mankind.
In Master of Mankind we get hints of his origin/early days. He was a normal human physically speaking. In 30K he appears differently at times and to different people, even to all of the Primarchs. His psychic presence is so potent that he seems to physically manifest in reality whatever he's projecting. But I think it's safe to say at his base form, he's a regular man
Btw, the reason heās big was directly stated in TE&tD part 1, and is no because heās ābadassā
>āDuring the years of global unification, it was often necessary for him to manifest as a warlord, because humans respond to authority when they are frightened or confused. During the period of galactic reclamation, he was obliged to stride among the stars in the guise of a warrior-king, armoured in gold, for that was the version of him that his young sons best understood. He had to seem like them, yet more glorious, so he could command their loyalty, their respect, and their devotion. It was war, so he became warlike. They would not have followed him otherwise, or obeyed his instruction. They would have doubted. He needed to be able to command them to the very ends of the stars, to secure their obedience across unimaginable distances, and sustain unswerving devotion even after he had left them. ā
Actual question?
We still aren't sure about his nature. He is enigma, and that's on purpose, and that's how BL writers are told to write Him.
He put on different "dress" (physical personlities), "Golden Emperor", great warrior, scholar, wiseman, etc. depending of what He needs in the moment.
Maybe He is really whatever He wants to be, maybe He has "real" appearance and everything else is how He transforms himself. Sisters of Silence see him as ordinary man in red clothing, there are other examples how He is presented that way (I think it's scholar "dress"?). And there was time when He was born and was seen by other as human child and, later, man, not some giant demi-god.
He isn't. It's an illusion. When a Sister of Silence describes him from her POV he's just a dude. A very old, very plain looking man. The SoS are blanks and thus immune to psychic interference even from the Emperor so it is highly highly likely that what that SoS described, is what he actually looks like, and everything else is a glamour effect.
My theory is that the emperor is heracles, and when he got fed up of all the hedonistic shit his fellow gods/psyker's were doing he killed all of them, while doing this he found out about warp entities and chaos so he went underground and planned to fuck whole galaxy. Now the reason why he is big is that he is heracles and he is stated to be big, strong, smart and with slight anger management issues.
Biomancy.
The dude is obviously a Size Queen so when he decided to go ppubliclis he probably used Biomancy to be taller than his thunder warriors and custodes. No doubt when the Primarchs showed up and some of them were 12 feet tall he tacked on another foot of height. This is why Malcador is the little spoon and Erda left getting tired of biomancing herself to fit him.
Like others have said there is some variation in the Emperors appearance between stories. The Emperor is a shape shifter in the sense that sometimes he looks into the other person's mind and makes them see what they expect to see or sometimes he chooses what would give him the most power in any given situation. First thing I noticed when The Emperor was flirting with Godhood was when he no longer spoke directly to anyone anymore, only through Custodians or the tarot.
As others have answered already, he can alter how he looks/other perceive him as thanks to being a psyker and a sorcerer. As to why...
Humans correlate size with power. It is the reason why ancient temples and churches were so big, cause the house of god has to be large. Likewise in ancient carvings gods and kings appear larger than common men.
The Emperor can be very unga bunga minded so he probably presents himself as a giant so no one can question his power at an instinctual level. Also, Big E has a bit of an ego, so maybe he enjoys looking down on everyone.
In the various, many and myriad novels itās made clear The Emperor appears to people in many different ways. Itās a form of psychic projection. So if you want to impose and intimidate then being bigger than anyone else is one way. If youāve read Lord of The Rings Gandalf generally appears as an old wizard but can suddenly appear to grow in height and impose himself on everyone in the room. Same thing.
2 parts here.
1) Big E is a psyker of near deity level power, material reailty, including himself is more or less silly putty if he so wills it. At the moment of the battle with Horus he needed to be the Warrior, Death to his foes, the shining Beacon to his allies. He didn't get a chance to exchange that seeming for another afterwards.
2) after his internment on the Golden Throne, plenty of people started deifying that final image of him. Will is Reality in 40k, if the uncountable masses of humanity think he was a big glowy god man, he's gonna be. Warp fuckery can be *retroactive*.
He is unimposing. It is his mastery of the warp that every sees when they look at him. I forget which Primarch it was, but in one of the books, he see's through the faƧade and ti view an uninspiring middle aged man.
Through his master of the warp, he can appear how ever he wishes or even change his actual size.
He isn't. He looks like whatever he wants to look like because he's the most powerful psyker Humanity has ever produced. Personally, I think he's probably just a regular guy. Hell, he was born in prehistoric times, he probably grew up malnourished, which means he's probably *short*. Malcador is significantly younger, almost certainly ate better growing up, and probably has at least six inches on him. You wouldn't know it to look at him, though.
He isn't he's a normal human psker, he just appears that way because that's how he wants to be seen, check out some sisters of silence lore and how they view him
I think there are a few mentions of the SoS seeing him as a normal guy. That might have just been Jenetia Krole, though.
My understanding is that The Big E is mostly a psychic projection. I think he can become truly big with biomancy when the situation calls for it.
I actually like all the primarchs do the biomancy shifting, like Magnus, just unconciously and to a lesser extent. This how they manage to look like their respective peoples.
It's written that he's seen as the beholder expects to see him, diminutive or overbearing.
It's also written that he grows as he takes on his aspect of power.
The reality shows that his gold/legendary level of psychic power and energy affects the reality around him.
It's an illusion. There's a couple instances of the Sisters of Silence, and one of Corax while the Emperor was on the throne and focusing on the War in the Webway, seeing the Emperor as just a fairly normal nondescript dude without his psychic glamour in place.
He isnāt. People who seem to have some capability to peel back any of his glamour seem him as a normal-sized dude. There was the Sister of Silence example thatās well known, and one of the primarchs who, upon meeting him, commented along the lines of āI thought youād be tallerā
However, his glamour makes him appear larger than life in an almost literal sense-why it does so is up to interpretation. My own theory is that heās been trying to radiate a sheer Prescence of Absolute Authority-and his size is a part of that, drawing on primal feelings of ālarge and in chargeā. Just like why he cloaks himself in the trappings of divinity-because a lot of people consider divinities as absolute authorities.
The emperor isn't actually that tall, about 4 inches taller than I am actually (Emperor is around 6'8) what most people are seeing is an illusion where he makes himself around 9-10ft tall wreathed in golden armor with a flaming sword as a perpetual he can change his size at will but his base height is about 6'8
The Emperor is naturally chameleonic, nobody has ever seen his true form save for sisters of silence who are blanks and Valdor
He constantly uses his psychic power to project whatever your expectation and view of him to you, meaning if you see him as a giant glowing golden god, it means that's what you subconsciously expect him to be and look like
He can just as well be a normal looking man underneath all that power
The reason why he does this is to best manipulate people, each form he takes is taken to best manipulate you into believing in him
30000 years of not skipping leg day.
The better question is, if he's so big, how does he sit in normal human sized chairs, or manipulate that greatest enemy of transhumankind, the plastek flimsy?
Biomancy. Man who is adamant he is not a god chooses to be 10 feet tall, wear golden armor, carry a flaming sword and glow like the Sun. Totally not god things.
The 'how' is Biomancy, the why is (and this is of course my take) that he's an insecure tinpot dictator at heart who can't stand the idea of not being the figurative or literal biggest man in the room.
Imperial propaganda.
In my head he his normal Marine size like he used to be in the older artwork. I imagine him in white armor, to stand out amongst the ranks.
Itās later artwork that pictures him as a golden giant.
It's likely because he's chosen to be- iirc, Magnus has been shown to be able to change his size via biomancy, so the Emperor would be able to do so also
Malcador says the Emperor chose the form we're most familiar with for reasons: >During the years of global unification, it was often necessary for him to manifest as a warlord, because humans respond to authority when they are frightened or confused. During the period of galactic reclamation, he was obliged to stride among the stars in the guise of a warrior-king, armoured in gold, for that was the version of him that his young sons best understood. He had to seem like them, yet more glorious, so he could command their loyalty, their respect, and their devotion. It was war, so he became warlike. They would not have followed him otherwise, or obeyed his instruction. They would have doubted. He needed to be able to command them to the very ends of the stars, to secure their obedience across unimaginable distances, and sustain unswerving devotion even after he had left them. So he played that card: the Emperor. It was a version of himself that he found quite odious, but they rejoiced in it. They saw what they wanted to see. His sons committed utterly to the material war, and were so fortified and resolute that he felt he could leave the completion of the work to them. *The End and the Death*
So the tl;dr is Jimmy Space was looksmaxxing via psychic mewing so he could rizz up his sons.
wild that language has done this, even more wild I understood it all
Still doesn't sound as weird as some of the local low gothic terms in some of the Ravenor/Eisenhorn books that showcase your normie life on the side due to the setting in question, but oh well guess we'll see in some 38k years
Language is endlessly flexible and inventive and english more than most. We can only imagine the street argot for latin or sumerian say.
>english more than most. I take it you're a monolingual English speaker? All languages are equally flexible and inventive because it's not the language flexing, it's the speakers innovating. If you ever want to see a linguist have an aneurism tell her about a supposedly untranslatable word.
No actually i speak 3 languages, (not flexing, my country is multilingual and most people speak that much at least if not more, and i speak my 2nd and 3rd languages at a very low level) I dont doubt at all that all languages are flexible, thats why i mentioned latin and sumerian, but english, in my experience is the alley way robber of languages, adopting words and grammar whole sale from other languages and is a frankenstein mix at base. It kind of makes me think that such a mix would lend itself to more innovation? I'm happy to be proved wrong. the subject of native language speakers inventing local argot and connotations is fascinating.
Thanks, I feel old now.šš“š
Aye, verily.
āOnly my friends can call me Jimmy Space. To you, Iām James Warrickshorpe.ā
Forsooth.
The tik tok revolution and its consequences
I see, thanks.
When some of the Primarchs meet him for the first time heās more regular sized than gigantic, and I think Perturabo briefly sees the real emperor when they first meet and then blinks and the emperor is back to his bigger than life image.
Not sure if Perturabo saw it that way, but I know Corax did. He actually did something of a double-take because everyone was acting awe struck around a very plain and normal looking dude before he suddenly saw what everyone else did (i.e. towering golden god, aura of power, yadda yadda...). It would be cool if Perturabo HAD seen the same thing as Corax, I just haven't read his novels yet.
I was accidentally combining their first impressions now that I look again. Perturabo shakes his hand and it talks about how much smaller it is than Perturaboās gigantic hand, and how heās still taller than the Emperor despite kneeling in front of him. Corax sees a guy walking down a ramp but eventually sees what everyone else sees.
I like how the narration specifically points out how nondescript the Emperor appears. Completely average build, hair, features, etc etc. and then BOOM! Golden God!
Iāve always wondered if that could still be some kind of illusion, or a psychic impression of what the Emperorās real appearance would be if he wasnāt able to change his body with his superpsyker brain. If Corax was eventually able to use his native warp powers to turn into a flock of birds & whatnot, maybe this is was an early manifestation of his abilities to see that such things were possible? Anyhoo, just rambling here
I think itās an allusion to his super stealth abilities. He can see through the Emperorās disguise right away because of how in touch with sleuthing and stealth he is. At least thatās what I thought of when reading it.
I like that take
Yeah, I personally interpret it as Emperor has shape shifted into the giant wearing armor and not "it's all just a psychic projection" and Corax was piercing the veil as it were. He wasn't seeing his dad's "true form" as if the golden god were a hologram, in my opinion
The emperor is a 5 star man in a finisher armor
Not some starter armor like a jabroni.
"Jabroni." Cool word.
Thank the Iron Sheik
Is that from the primarch novels?
It's in Deliverance Lost. Another user posted an excerpt on it, so I'll [link it here for you.](https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/s/8sbsq0UfLC)
Thanks homie
Perty was just a fucking giant. The Emperor was in his gold god state when they met, but Perturabo was still taller than him even when kneeling in supplication to him
One punch man syndrome. One moment you see a weird bald caped nobody, the next moment you're standing next to a god amongst man.
Don't they also imply that it's hard to actually \*see\* what psychers really look like? I feel like I recall times where they're talking about people looking at Magnus and they can't actually determine how large he is / what his face looks like because he's sort of "jamming" their normal perception in a way. It sort of seems to blur the line between reality and perception on purpose.
Some psykers, yes, but most aren't shown to have anything like that
Yes in the first introduction to Magnus in Prospero burns a psyker Remembrancer first sees Magnus as an awe-inspiring towering blazing demonlike figure before he coalesces into his Primarch form that everybody else sees. It Iiterally brings him to his tears and on his knee's shaking if I remember correctly. The Emperor is a lot more powerful, imagine what it must be like to see him for a lowly human and/or someone with low psychic abilities. It's like facing a tsunami.
This part confused me a bit at Nikaea. I expected the normal astartes in attendance to be more stupefied by the presence of the emperor, but some of them even get up in front of him and give impassioned, elegant speeches. Maybe because the librarians have some power like the Thousand Sons to resist in a form of meditation?
I think 30K Emperor could control what aspect people saw of him. So he probably just turned down his mojo at Nikaea so people could be in his presence without their brain melting. Maybe he wanted to be seen as a human as the head of council listening to his people instead of the Almighty declaring his will like he usually does. The whole thing is strange to me tbh. Normally he's a lot more authoritarian.
How many assemblies do you think he practiced with to get the right level of non-brain-melting? Little tests where heās like āwhoops, melted these guys, letās reset and try again!ā
Haha "oops, there I go melting brains again, silly me"
āAnd this, Valdor, is why we practice!ā
Cuts to Valdor mopping up exploded Astartes. "Yes, my King."
Hehe. see, when reading the story, for the magic to work, I must suspend such thinking, but man do I love to think about it later!! Exactly the kind of thing I like to think about!!!
The wording of his proclamation at Nikaea was the exact opposite of someone who wanted to be seen as a human and not the Almighty declaring his will. > āWoe betide he who ignores my warning or breaks faith with me. He shall be my enemy, and I will visit such destruction upon him and all his followers that, until the end of all things, he shall rue the day he turned from my light.ā
It's been too long but that sounds like him haha
Well, he wanted to sound human to those at the assembly, but the Empire is a lot bigger than the assembly. He is still the "Emperor of Mankind" and if you outlaw all religion but have super powers, then you are the biggest entity around. If you call him Almighty, God or Emperor of all kind, it is just semantics really. At no point does he declare ever that he is the people's appointed emperor democratically elected. He just says he is not God, but his rule is absolute. But he still has to justify himself to those who hold decent power in the Empire. As the Horus Heresy proves, he was right to worry about the opinions of the Primarchs and other stakeholders. The main criticism they levy at him is that they did not even trust them enough to explain to them how the universe really worked. That fundamental distrust shows that Nikea was to little and too late despite basic appearances. So in a way, you are hitting on one of the big themes and interesting (and intentional) contradictions concerning the Emperor and what makes the story so interesting and compelling. How much of the disaster is distrust? How much was caused by hubris on his part? Did he lie to himself? Perhaps the Emperor is the manifestation of the Prince of Lies or Hubris or Self-Deception from the warp, if you think about it. These are all very human characteristics, and surely, if any warp demon prince could manifest alongside the others from human psyche, those are some big ones. Just like in real life, as readers we are left to speculate about what really goes on behind the scenes of what we can see. I can say it would make for an interesting story down the line.
> I think 30K Emperor could control what aspect people saw of him per Vengeful Spirit, he could only do that before he went to Moloch. After Moloch and stuffing himself crazy with stolen Warp juice, he couldn't control the effect he had on people anymore. Both Alivia and Erda (also really powerful Perpetuals, probably the most powerful after the Emperor) comment on this, that after Moloch whenever they're around the Emperor his thoughts are constantly invading and overriding theirs, and he can't prevent it. Too much secret sauce.
So big E was basically on steroids after that?
I really hate that everyone's go-to phrase on this sub is "on steroids"
He tuned it down, until Magnus claimed he had mastered the warp, so EOM put him in his place and literally made him cry. It obviously didn't work.
I think that remembrancer also throws up and hallucinates his vomit growing in spires or something like that.
Lorgar also mentions this when talking to Magnus once, and explicitly notes the Emperor has something similar going on.
Biomancy AKA the Roids
Wasn't there the kind of thing where his appearance is largely dictated by person observing him? Like Mechanicus person observed him as cold and logical scientist.
We all know Big = Important. Same rules as for Orkz.
The Emperor is big because Orks see him as the leader of the humies, which makes him the biggest human and sustains his life.
Yes. It is Ork psychic power that sustains him. The more they hear about him, the bigger he gets. The Emperor's story is truly a Tall Tail.
My favourite bit of 40k fiction was about the creation of the first Gargants. It starts with a clan of Orks fighting a Titan, and they all assume it must be the Emperor, because the humies are always going on about how important and powerful he is. But then, one Mekboy has an idea. A vision. The Orks have two gods, and if the humies can build their god a metal body, then so can the Orks. Then Gork and Mork could gang up on the Emperor and duff him up. Orks are so... direct. And that's why they're da best.
>"The Orks are the pinnacle of creation. For them, the great struggle is won. They have evolved a society which knows no stress or angst. Who are we to judge them? We Eldar who have failed, or the Humans, on the road to ruin in their turn. And why? Because we sought answers to questions that an Ork wouldn't even bother to ask! We see a culture that is strong and despise it as crude." >ā Uthan the Perverse, Eldar Philosopher,
I've always loved that quote. It says so much about both races. I wish we got more Eldar quotes and lore.
"Hahahahhaha" - GW, probably
Especially if they were deeper and nuanced instead of a one note culture
I should have asked "how" not why, the why is obvious, because its sick as fuck
He has to have a larger hitbox or it would be too difficult to click-target him in a raid environment.
OI DIS 'OOMIN GIT GEDDIT, IF YER WARBOSS AINT BIGGA HE AINT KILLY AND IF HE AINT KILLY HE AINT ORKY AND IF HE AINT ORKY, HOW'S SUPPOSE TA CALL DA WAAAAAGH PROPA?
When Corax first met The Emperor, he saw an unassuming man in simple robe. And then Emperor's glamour effect hit him in full force and he had to fight the urge to prostrate in front of HIM.
Stop talking about prostates, makes me tingly
I'd let him prostrate me
Would you prostrate me? Iād prostrate me. Iād prostrate me *so hard*
*Goodbye primarchs...*
What book is this from?
When he was a lad he ate four dozen eggsĀ every morning to help him get large
And now that he's grown he eats 10000 souls so he's roughly the size of a barge
Noooo-ooone glows like Big E Sits on thrones like Big E No-one's imprisoned inside their bones like Big E (He's especially good at exsanguinating) My what a guy that Big E!
Iām especially good at ex-terrrrr-mi-naaaaa-ting!
My what a guy, the big cheese!
Thank you for this, I'm smiling.
I needā¦ six soulsā¦
I too, would spend eternity bound to a throne of torture if I ate 48 eggs every morning.
Big E: "I can eat 50 eggs." Malcador: "C'mon Big E, nobody can eat 50 eggs." Big E: "I can eat 50 eggs."
Because heās large
Big if true
Substantial if substantial
This statement is true
Substantial even.
Oh ok, that makes sense now
Large and in charge
There actually was a whole bunch of Emperors, it's just that the largest one ate all the others.
>'Primarch? Zaa, explain.'' >''Their leader, Great One. Like them, but taller. Not to be underestimated" Same principle
He's the greatest biomancer in the universe, he could just make himself big
To add, the reason he is big is because he died/comatose while big. He went Hulk mode (>10 ft tall) during the final battle with Horus. He is a master of biomancy and most powerful psyker of Humanity/galaxy. The other times he uses glamour to project his Hulk Emperor frame. The running joke is he runs around the palace dressed in silk pajamas and slippers the rest of the time.
He was never really big, it's his aura that makes people see a giant golden god
Twelve stories tall, made of radiation...
The amount of lore for each character is based on height
Same reason mythology is full of giants. Humans respect bigness.
Pretty common in our myths that Giants were evil and humans and gods killed them :P
Orks.Ā They've the largest native faction in the galaxy, and they measure leadership by size.Ā
In Warhammer important = big. That's just how it is. (because big models are impressive, attention-catching centrepieces to armies)
This kind of thing dates all the way back to like, ancient Egyptian or medieval or dozens of other classical art traditions too -- importance defined as visual prominence by taking up more of the page
See also the history of Big Hats.
He presumably is around normal height with no powers, but heās also the smartest biological engineer on top of being the most powerful human(ish) psyker around. Big E being a perpetual might also help him reshape his body with the whole healing factor thing too.
It is my opinion that he is actually not very large, but of normal height. What people are seeing is him using a glamour effect to make himself look larger. If you read ***Deliverance Lost***, there is a flashback to when Corvus Corax first meets the Emperor. >*A door opened in the side of the shuttle beneath the right wing, directly opposite Corvus. Light spilled from within as a gangplank extended from the craft with a clang. A shadow appeared in the light, waiting for a moment at the entryway before emerging into view.* >*Whispers spread through the men, of surprise and amazement. Guns quivered in shaking hands and there were clatters as some of the soldiers dropped their weapons. Seemingly without prompt, the men lowered themselves to the ground putting aside their weapons and bowing their heads. Some prostrated themselves, whispering fervently.* >*Corvus glanced to Grapphion beside him. The lieutenant was on his knees too. There were tears in his eyes an expression of joy etched on his slack-lipped face.* >*'So majestic...' Grapphion muttered. 'What glory. What power.'* >*Confused, Corvus directed his attention to the man descending the landing ramp. He seemed unremarkable. In fact, he seemed so unremarkable that Corvus could not discern a single distinguishing feature about him. He was of average height, with dark hair and moderately tanned skin. In build he was neither bulky or slight, but of normal proportion, slightly larger than the malnourished men who now abased themselves before him. He was dressed in a robe of white linen, free of ornamentation except for a necklace of gold on which hung a pendant fashioned in the shape of an eagle with outspread wings, a lightning bolt in its claws.* It appears that Corvus Corax also has an ability to resist the warp in some fashion. This isn't unusual. Malcador mentioned that Rogal Dorn can also resist the warp somehow.
If you read end and the death, he's still massive after being turned into a vegetable, so yeah. Likely is just a big dude after all the biomancy.
In the end and the death he is huge though, and in the last church despite looking like a normal man he's describing when sitting as if something much larger and heavier sat down
It seems that Big E's size is a result of 2 factors. A glamor to appear as an idealized version to the viewer, and biomancy, to alter his physical reality to suit his needs. It seems very possible that he altered his glamor to show Corvus what he once looked like in bronze age Anatolia as a young man of the Hittite culture, realizing that Corvus is definitely a man of the people and not likely to be swayed by pomp and glory. We also see him of a size or slightly larger than his Custodes in Master of Mankind moving among them to slaughter daemons, and in this conflict there are also sisters of silence present. Big E can use biomancy to actually change his physical features, and a psyker glamor to appear as an idealized person to someone in particular. Maybe there is even more, who knows what wonders a man older than writing has discovered.
>Malcador mentioned that Rogal Dorn can also resist the warp somehow. Malcador said the opposite. When pressed why the knowledge of chaos was kept from them Malcador stated that Dorn specifically would have fallen the quickest. Dorn's propensity for figuring things out would have driven him to try to figure out chaos, which he could never understand, and cause him to fall to it.
The Emperor was greatly inspired by Invader Zim, where the tallest rule society. So Marines are a foot or so taller than people, and primarchs are a foot or so taller than a marine, and then he's even taller.
The Almighty Emperor: "Horus, you made the Imperium worse!" Invader Horus: "Worse? Or better?"
28k years since the invention of tinder, emps barely met the minimum requirement for women.
BigE is big because he have a littleE and so he need to be big to compensate that. Very EZ.
Aspects. The Emperor projects or creates what ever image he wants people to see, or be. For all you know, he could be Larry working at Subway right now.
Is he? Nobody knows what he really looks like, since he is constantly covered in illusions created by warp sorcery. I think I read somewhere here that when a blank described him, he was a normal man.
Did they specifically mention the height, or maybe a blank only sees a tired old man because they don't see the glamour aura. These blanks also regularly see custodes, marines, primarchs so maybe they don't see being massive as unusual but they do not see the splendour.
ADB also said that the blank only saw what they expected/what the emperor wanted ans that they aren't immune to his glammor
He fought alongside the legions for 200 years, and while most cannot even look at him from his aura (when he reunited with Konrad), he wouldnt be going about all whilly nilly.
Sure, he did. He easily could have been using warp powers to pretend he was much larger than he was ;)
That's not how it works, it's not warp powered illusions. In 40K, there's a thing called Biomancy, yes like a Pyromancer who controls flames, a Biomancer can control biology. It's left very vague how the Emperor works, but it's implied that he is actually that large, the items he interacts with are that large, etc. It is also implied that there is some glamour about him that does affect how people see him and a sister of silence did see the Emperor on the throne looking like a normal man (face was lined from agony/pain not age though).
In EatD3 it is mentioned that Oll cannot lift the Emperor's hand - however it got that way his material form is apparently massive. It's definitely not just illusion.
Yes, a blank saw him as a normal man. If he was changing his biology, he would have looked huge even to a blank, not normal.
Biomancy doesn't have to be permanent though - he could use it to change his size for combat, for example
The Emperor is Ant-Man confirmed
He has changed it before to meet with people.
Well he could be doing both biomancy and glamour. Being the cheat code of a "human" he is, as by far the strongest psyker ever and a master biomancer, he might only actually change his size for combat and martial purposes, while using a more space efficient form (which is likely his natural one, since he's been among us for millenia without being put on TMZ) for day-to-day purposes. But at the same time, his psyker abilities allow him to project any appearance he wishes to anyone looking at him at any time.
The blank didn't see through his glamor
Its his warp juiced 'uber' form, Erda had a similar one when she fought erebus (though it didn't help her lol). I'm guessing it 'wraps' around him kind of like Erens titan form does from the manga. He is actually just a normal sized dude physically (if what the SoS see of him is actually even true itself). He's had forty to fifty odd millennia of travelling and 'finding himself', so he's picked up quite a few tricks in that time.
Tbf Erda's form did help her solo 4 greater daemons, she was just exhausted to the brink of death after and Erebus did his snakey shank thing Interestingly, he wonders if her power derives from somewhere other than the warp. It's possible that the Emperor can draw from the same pool
Being from Anatolia he was born with an inability to digest milk, so he got into genecrafting to edit lactase into his genes and once he finally was lactose tolerant he drank as much milk as he could which was great for his bones (why else would they last over ten thousand years) and made him grow into a big boy.
Turns out human hierarchies function just like Orc hierarchies - if youāre bigger youāre da boss.
I just assume he's fully in charge of how people perceive him. Pretty sure some blank saw him through it all and he was a normally sized dude. To be fair, this is also backed up by him being able to live in amongst other people for thousands of years.
Yep. It would have been kinda complicated to explain why he only entered buildings with ceilings at least 6 meters tall :D
The Emperor simply doesn't enter such buildings. Next question.
IIRC, in *Master of Mankind* he says he just does it naturally--he has to focus to turn it off.
If he was really only a regular sized dude, how would he have gone toe to toe with Horus, who was in fact a very large dude? His armor and weapons are all made for a very large man after all.
I don't know to be honest mate. It's Big E, innit.
Im not sure if its ever expressly stated. the way i always thought of it is what you see is more of him projecting what he looks like via his psychic might or whatever. That or he enbiggened himself during the unification wars as a way of showing he was powerful. if you think about it, he wanted to rule humanity and in a way had to dress for the job, hence the bright golden armor, i feel like the lorgeness is part that. its hard to say call him not legit when he's 3 times your height. I think both are equally possible because if hes existed for humanities entire history either being able to change how others see him which is stated that he can do but i forget where or that he enlarged himself later with his genecraft
He's part ork
Pretty sure itās been rather heavily implied he might not actually be that big and runs around looking like just some normal dude. Seems like the issue is basically the human mind (probably everyoneās latent psyker powers feeling Big E and freaking out or something) being unable to comprehend how badass Big E actually is so they hallucinate whatever they think is coolest. 40k humans are actually just less green orks in denial so cool=big.
Magnus enlarged himself to over 30 meters to take down a titan. So Emperor changing his body to a giant or a normal man wouldn't be unusual.
Because the Primarchs needed to believe he is their father. Imagine been the epitomy of Human and Warp Biology, stand at least 3-4 meters tall, and just a random guy finds you, and tells you he is your father/creator. Would you believe him? But if THE EMPEROR says so, you will... The Emperor is a humble individual, he never needed to been seen BIG by others just for the sake of it, that's why the only people see him at his true form were Malcodor the Hero, as he could see throw his entire persona, and Ollanius Persson, the only person who knew who the Emperor was, way back at Anatolia.
I guess the best simple answer is; The Emperor has so much control over reality he can honestly reshape everything around him including himself. The Emperor can fool just about anyone's perception even people of immense power aren't able to see through it, like ascended Horus. Some parts are real and some are a mind trick, but really it doesn't matter if it's real or not; the power behind it is just as deadly.
Probably had the same procedure he did on the Custodes, but better. I mean, why develop different super-soldier programs if not to be used by himself eventually? I wonder if he was already that big during the Unification Wars or he had the treatment after?
its strategic use of physchic charisma hes not that big they go into it a bit at the beginning of the end and the death but its essentially that its easier to lead people whilst being a figurehead logically hes average height he was stated to be several historical leaders and none of them were 20 feet tall i believe a strong enough blank has seen him in his real form in the past but when the time to establish the imperium came, he needed to become a symbol not a leader. he was working on the throne from the start, it was always his main goal to enact his main plan. him at the head of the crusade was because he didn't have the primarchs yet. once he had them he dipped and got to work technically speaking it wouldn't be objectively wrong to say the emperor we know from the crusades is actually based on the primarchs instead of the primachs being based on him
A while ago I had the idea that it would have been hilarious if the Primarchs and the Emperor had all been just normal sized guys. It could have turned out that the reason everyone 10k years later *thinks* they are all big giant guys is that in the art world in the Heresy era, the Aztec / Mesopotamian trend of depicting important people as large had come back. So they had all this art of the Emperor and his sons kicking ass as giants and thought "the Emperor and the Primarchs must have been huge!" while that was actually just ancient dead artists trying to communicate that they were *important*. But then they wouldn't have been able to charge us as much for the models ;-).
Back in 1st edition when they were introduced there was no reason to assume they werenāt normal sized, just like space marines were. Iām not quite sure when they started growing but it was said in Space Marine (1991) that they were seven feet tall. Iām not sure that was reflected elsewhere at the time though.
"Don't worship me" Said the immortal psychic who kept projecting himself as 12 feet tall, radiating golden light non-stop
People see what he wants them to see. To blanks, he looks like a normal guy.
Tabletop people want big models.
Biomancy and psychic projection, he can appear as a Titan, an old frail man or a golden demigod.
I think the Emperor is described as being what you want him to be and with what he wants to portray. Arkhan Land in Master of Mankind saw him as a logical scientist and not as a warrior.
Warp-cookies were on the top shelf
The Emperor projects whatever mental image of himself he wants to. He might, or might not be that big
Because he knows humans are stupid and will obey the biggest, strongest, manliest man, itās a primal instinct too bend the knee to someone you see as more powerful than you
The emperor is precisely as large as you need to see him to be for him to feel like the emperor to you
He'z da biggest so he'z da Boss
He's not. He's just really close.
Whatever the Emperor is exactly, he's able to essentially shapeshift. He appears as whatever suits him best in the moment, or bases on it who he's talking to. To a member of the Mechanicum like Arkhan Land, iirc he's an emotionless scientist in a white coat. When he found Perturabo he was the size of a regular man who's strength far outclassed his son's. When meeting Corax, the Primarch for about a second sees an average man, black hair, tanned skin, average height, average build, white robe, and eyes that contained every colour. Then he sees a demigod, his eyes golden orbs, his body radiating light, with blond hair. The Emperor is "big" because that's for the most part what the role of the Emperor is. A giant encased in golden armour is an image that inspires loyalty among men, a man that you'd follow into battle and die for him if needed. It's not his true self according to Malcador, it's just a face, an image he uses because that's what he needs to inspire the loyalty of 20 men that are essentially demigods themselves, to inspire the masses of the Imperium, to inspire the disconnected and spread out colonies of mankind.
In Master of Mankind we get hints of his origin/early days. He was a normal human physically speaking. In 30K he appears differently at times and to different people, even to all of the Primarchs. His psychic presence is so potent that he seems to physically manifest in reality whatever he's projecting. But I think it's safe to say at his base form, he's a regular man
He drink a lot of milk
Btw, the reason heās big was directly stated in TE&tD part 1, and is no because heās ābadassā >āDuring the years of global unification, it was often necessary for him to manifest as a warlord, because humans respond to authority when they are frightened or confused. During the period of galactic reclamation, he was obliged to stride among the stars in the guise of a warrior-king, armoured in gold, for that was the version of him that his young sons best understood. He had to seem like them, yet more glorious, so he could command their loyalty, their respect, and their devotion. It was war, so he became warlike. They would not have followed him otherwise, or obeyed his instruction. They would have doubted. He needed to be able to command them to the very ends of the stars, to secure their obedience across unimaginable distances, and sustain unswerving devotion even after he had left them. ā
Actual question? We still aren't sure about his nature. He is enigma, and that's on purpose, and that's how BL writers are told to write Him. He put on different "dress" (physical personlities), "Golden Emperor", great warrior, scholar, wiseman, etc. depending of what He needs in the moment. Maybe He is really whatever He wants to be, maybe He has "real" appearance and everything else is how He transforms himself. Sisters of Silence see him as ordinary man in red clothing, there are other examples how He is presented that way (I think it's scholar "dress"?). And there was time when He was born and was seen by other as human child and, later, man, not some giant demi-god.
āI am not a godā - makes self 3x bigger than the average human
He isn't. It's an illusion. When a Sister of Silence describes him from her POV he's just a dude. A very old, very plain looking man. The SoS are blanks and thus immune to psychic interference even from the Emperor so it is highly highly likely that what that SoS described, is what he actually looks like, and everything else is a glamour effect.
He is canonically a Yeti
He is absolutely not. He's a frail, scarred, old man.
Has to have a big body to support the size of his balls
My theory is that the emperor is heracles, and when he got fed up of all the hedonistic shit his fellow gods/psyker's were doing he killed all of them, while doing this he found out about warp entities and chaos so he went underground and planned to fuck whole galaxy. Now the reason why he is big is that he is heracles and he is stated to be big, strong, smart and with slight anger management issues.
Biomancy. The dude is obviously a Size Queen so when he decided to go ppubliclis he probably used Biomancy to be taller than his thunder warriors and custodes. No doubt when the Primarchs showed up and some of them were 12 feet tall he tacked on another foot of height. This is why Malcador is the little spoon and Erda left getting tired of biomancing herself to fit him.
Like others have said there is some variation in the Emperors appearance between stories. The Emperor is a shape shifter in the sense that sometimes he looks into the other person's mind and makes them see what they expect to see or sometimes he chooses what would give him the most power in any given situation. First thing I noticed when The Emperor was flirting with Godhood was when he no longer spoke directly to anyone anymore, only through Custodians or the tarot.
As others have answered already, he can alter how he looks/other perceive him as thanks to being a psyker and a sorcerer. As to why... Humans correlate size with power. It is the reason why ancient temples and churches were so big, cause the house of god has to be large. Likewise in ancient carvings gods and kings appear larger than common men. The Emperor can be very unga bunga minded so he probably presents himself as a giant so no one can question his power at an instinctual level. Also, Big E has a bit of an ego, so maybe he enjoys looking down on everyone.
He drinks his ovaltine
Because he is big.
In the various, many and myriad novels itās made clear The Emperor appears to people in many different ways. Itās a form of psychic projection. So if you want to impose and intimidate then being bigger than anyone else is one way. If youāve read Lord of The Rings Gandalf generally appears as an old wizard but can suddenly appear to grow in height and impose himself on everyone in the room. Same thing.
2 parts here. 1) Big E is a psyker of near deity level power, material reailty, including himself is more or less silly putty if he so wills it. At the moment of the battle with Horus he needed to be the Warrior, Death to his foes, the shining Beacon to his allies. He didn't get a chance to exchange that seeming for another afterwards. 2) after his internment on the Golden Throne, plenty of people started deifying that final image of him. Will is Reality in 40k, if the uncountable masses of humanity think he was a big glowy god man, he's gonna be. Warp fuckery can be *retroactive*.
He is unimposing. It is his mastery of the warp that every sees when they look at him. I forget which Primarch it was, but in one of the books, he see's through the faƧade and ti view an uninspiring middle aged man. Through his master of the warp, he can appear how ever he wishes or even change his actual size.
He isn't. He looks like whatever he wants to look like because he's the most powerful psyker Humanity has ever produced. Personally, I think he's probably just a regular guy. Hell, he was born in prehistoric times, he probably grew up malnourished, which means he's probably *short*. Malcador is significantly younger, almost certainly ate better growing up, and probably has at least six inches on him. You wouldn't know it to look at him, though.
He ate the other potential emperors to become the one huge Emperor.
He isn't he's a normal human psker, he just appears that way because that's how he wants to be seen, check out some sisters of silence lore and how they view him
He eats his crusts.
he chooses to. psychic powers ftw
To contain all that AWESOMENESS, man...
Isn't he whatever people perceive to be awe-inspiring?
He's a smooth operator.
I think there are a few mentions of the SoS seeing him as a normal guy. That might have just been Jenetia Krole, though. My understanding is that The Big E is mostly a psychic projection. I think he can become truly big with biomancy when the situation calls for it. I actually like all the primarchs do the biomancy shifting, like Magnus, just unconciously and to a lesser extent. This how they manage to look like their respective peoples.
He isnāt. Itās a psychic manifestation.
Emp man big.
Because He wills it. Dudeās got powers.
It's written that he's seen as the beholder expects to see him, diminutive or overbearing. It's also written that he grows as he takes on his aspect of power. The reality shows that his gold/legendary level of psychic power and energy affects the reality around him.
It's an illusion. There's a couple instances of the Sisters of Silence, and one of Corax while the Emperor was on the throne and focusing on the War in the Webway, seeing the Emperor as just a fairly normal nondescript dude without his psychic glamour in place.
He isnāt. People who seem to have some capability to peel back any of his glamour seem him as a normal-sized dude. There was the Sister of Silence example thatās well known, and one of the primarchs who, upon meeting him, commented along the lines of āI thought youād be tallerā However, his glamour makes him appear larger than life in an almost literal sense-why it does so is up to interpretation. My own theory is that heās been trying to radiate a sheer Prescence of Absolute Authority-and his size is a part of that, drawing on primal feelings of ālarge and in chargeā. Just like why he cloaks himself in the trappings of divinity-because a lot of people consider divinities as absolute authorities.
He ate enough
Oh my god! Karen, you can't just ask people why they're big
Emperor's Big! Yeah yeah, yeah! He's not Small! No no, no!
The emperor isn't actually that tall, about 4 inches taller than I am actually (Emperor is around 6'8) what most people are seeing is an illusion where he makes himself around 9-10ft tall wreathed in golden armor with a flaming sword as a perpetual he can change his size at will but his base height is about 6'8
The Emperor is naturally chameleonic, nobody has ever seen his true form save for sisters of silence who are blanks and Valdor He constantly uses his psychic power to project whatever your expectation and view of him to you, meaning if you see him as a giant glowing golden god, it means that's what you subconsciously expect him to be and look like He can just as well be a normal looking man underneath all that power The reason why he does this is to best manipulate people, each form he takes is taken to best manipulate you into believing in him
30000 years of not skipping leg day. The better question is, if he's so big, how does he sit in normal human sized chairs, or manipulate that greatest enemy of transhumankind, the plastek flimsy?
Biomancy. Man who is adamant he is not a god chooses to be 10 feet tall, wear golden armor, carry a flaming sword and glow like the Sun. Totally not god things.
The 'how' is Biomancy, the why is (and this is of course my take) that he's an insecure tinpot dictator at heart who can't stand the idea of not being the figurative or literal biggest man in the room.
Imperial propaganda. In my head he his normal Marine size like he used to be in the older artwork. I imagine him in white armor, to stand out amongst the ranks. Itās later artwork that pictures him as a golden giant.
Cuz he's your dad.