Re: Brief history summary

From: Luca Lettieri <magnus_at_...>
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 10:27:40 -0000

> Your work is based on original fluff but did you extrapolate
something? If
> yes some of the following questions could be useless...

I certainly extrapolated much; the original discussion stemmed from
my total disbelief at the "10.000 years of utterly frozen history"
crap GW is used to blather about.

> Could you tell us more about the Illuminati faction and the
Senseis?
I
> didn't hear about them until now...

The source for the Illuminati are the two original chaos books,
Slaves to Darkness and The Lost and the Damned. Probably the two best
GW publications ever.

Basically, the Illuminati are those extremely few humans who survived
possession by a Greater Daemon retaining [most] of their mental
health. The intimate joining with the daemon gave them great insight
into the nature and scope of the Warp and everything related.

Those exceptional individuals began to share knowledge among them and
created an extremely secretive sect in the Imperium, i.e. the
Illuminati. Most of them belong to the highest echelons of their
respective organizations; maybe even one or two of the High Lords of
Terra are amongst them. My extrapolation was in the fact that it is
this sect which is behind the Star Child project (more on this
later), which, in the original fluff, was just a super secret
project, whose ideators were left unknown.

> I thought that the Emperor could not communicate at all (except by
psychic
> way) since its fight against Horus?

Not immediately; in the first period after its entombment in the
golden throne, the emperor still had a firm grasp on material
reality; with the passage of time, this grasp faded progressively.
Currently, it's almost impossible for him to communicate even by psy.

> This is a surprising point. I thought that the first human to be
able to
> access the Black Library was an Inquisitor...

This is entirely possible. There are Illuminati Inquisitor; as a
matter of fact, probably the majority of them belong to the
Inquisition. They would be viewed, after all, as extremely powerful
(or resilient, or both) psykers. Thinking about it, the Illuminati
probably make for the ultimate demon hunters. No fear as they know
them, ultimate willpower...

But, as far as access to the Black Library goes, I'm almost positive
only Illuminati and Eldar Harelquins are freely allowed in.
The rationale is: they are the only ones to have enough willpower and
mental stability to be able to read those books without the risk of
going crazy. For the Illuminati, the proof is, of course, their very
survival; Eldar Harlequins I'm not sure about, but it has something
to do with their role in Eldar society and their link to the Great
Harlequin (the only Eldar god to truly survive the Fall).

> Star Child Project?

A project to genetically devise a new perfect physical body for the
Emperor to reinhabit material space. In the original fluff, it is
said such a secret project exists, along with another, diametrally
opposed one (to shut down the Golden Throne, finally severing
whatever tenous link the Emperor psyche still holds on material
reality, thus allowing him final Godhood).
It is not noted who or what is behind these two opposing projects. I
surmised the Illuminati are behind the first one, with the Senseis
behind the second.

Oh about the Senseis: those are the immortal biological sons of the
Emperor. It is noted that the Emperor is the oldest sentient being in
existence, predating even the Chaos Gods (he was created by
shamans 50.000 years ago as opposed to 48.000 years for Khorne, first
of the Chaos Gods, if I remember correctly). During this period, the
Emperor had various sons, who are immortal and, while not having any
psychich power, are "psychic blanks" i.e. they do not register to
warp entities' sensory scans and are utterly immune to them and any
warp-related power. Many of them don't realize their nature for a
long time; when they do, they usually rise to great prominence in
their local solar systems.
The most exalted of them (Grey Senseis, if I remember correctly? or
were those White?) are able to directly commune with the Emperor
and/or to join him in the Warp. They are also noted to sometimes came
back in material reality to help humans. Basically they are to the
Emperor what greater daemons are to Chaos Gods.

I remember the experience tables for Sensei characters.. ahh, those
were the times :-)


Luca Lettieri
Received on Thu Aug 10 2000 - 10:27:40 UTC