first of all: 41.millennium and Astronomican

5.event: back in 41.millennium after 10 000 years in which the Astronomican sheltered Malcadors soul there have been 1000 psykers that were sacrificed to the Emperor every day and countless more that gave their souls to actually keep the Astronomican alive ( so doing a little round up we have 1000 every day being 365 000 a year makes a total of 3 560 000 000 souls that were sacrificed + lets say 1 000 000 000 more that died during their regular duty at the Astronomican ) the story says that their souls/vital energy is literally sucked out of their body whilst providing their psychic power to maintain the Astronomican …so lets assume those souls werent lost but merged together with the Emperor during this progress , the Original soul of the Emperor was born after the last remaining shamans on earth realized that their number is decreasing because more and more souls didnt returned out of the warp to be reborn because the warp has become a more and more hostile place inhabited by more and more demons that simply feasted on these souls , so after centuries of debating ( in which their number decreased further ) they all suicided at the same time to enter the warp together some of them sacrificed themselves to the demons to protect the others so that they could merge into one powerful soul now known as the emperor …so the story reads more ore less like there havent been much shamans left …lets assume there have been a few dozens or hundreds of them …just a few hundred had the power to form such a massive entity as the Emperor the strongest psyker in there realspace. so Imagine what Billions of psyker-souls could have formed

SO THE ACTUAL 5. EVENT would be that he ( the Emperor ) sees that now is the right time to unfold his plan that he has planed and arranged for the last millennia and sends back Malcador to the real space to get the things in motion that will finally lead to the reincarnation of the Emperor.

6. event: Malcador gets in contact with the Grey Knights and the puritanical fraction of the Inquisition called the Thorians ( hope the translations is right the German term is “Thorianer” ) – the Thorians are a a fraction of the Inquisition ( there are many believes and fractions in the Inquisition how the will of the Emperor should be construed see explanations beneath) that believes that the Emperor is no longer bound to the corpse that is embedded in the golden throne but a free soul that travels along the Empire and has different incarnations altering the fate of the Empire through the ages. Their goal is to provide a body that is strong enough to receive the soul of the Emperor

7. event: Malcador also gets in contact with some people of the Rekongregator-fraction ( sorry simply couldnt translate that :-/ ) they are a radical fraction of the Inquisition, their believe is that the Empire is at its end, its a corrupt, stagnating colossus that needs to be burnt down and be rebuilt anew. they try to achieve this goal by killing corrupt and tory people in charge, replacing them with radical and progressive ones.

He would also get in contact with the Space Marine chapters.

So all in all Malcador starts to gather those Elements in the Empire that are ABSOLUTELY loyal solely to the Emperor as a “person” not the Empire as an institution

8. event : after a few years of planing and gathering on behalf of Malcador the second step would be put in motion Malcador would gather all elements he could make certain would be loyal to him and the Emperor and would lead them as close to Terra as possible at the same time the Emperor would finally lead Surtur and his capsule back into the real-space. His capsule would land on Mars . After being 10 000 years in the warp he would land fully grown ( unlike the other primarchs that were still babies when they were found ) and unlike the other primarchs he was also provided with armour and weapons that were incorporated in his capsule. Whilst growing up in the warp the Emperor watched over him and talked to him so he knew what to do .

9.event: after landing on Mars Surtur would fight his way to Vaults of Moravec and open the seal he enters the Vaults and releases the Void Dragon from its duty giving him the last order to head to Terra, he then takes over the command over the 21. Space Marine Legion ( still thinking of a fitting name so for now just the 21. Legion ) 10 000 Marines all clad in Armour made by the C`tan known as the Void Dragon and armed with weapons that are technologically more advanced than the weapons of the Tau; Eldar or Necrons.

within the vault would be two more things : a body that was crafted by the Emperor 10 000 years ago and than developed further by the Void Dragon being partly human and partly C´tan and a prototype device that allows to travel trough space within the glimpse of a second without entering the warp – again partly finished by the Emperor before the Horus Heresy and than finished by the Void Dragon

10. event: would be that Surtur uses the devise to jump right into the heart of the Imperial Palace which is the warison for Malcador

11. event : Malcador and his fleet begin their attack on the orbital defense of Terra, Grey Knight Terminator Squads teleporting into the orbital platforms and taking over control immediately adjusting them to attack the sorounding defense systems opening up a corridor for Malcador to manoeuvre his ships through

12. event: at the same time Surtur and his legion fight their way through Imperial Guardsmen, and the Adeptus Custodes ( a sacrifice that really hurts the Emperor because he knows that they die defending him ) to reach the Gate of Eternity

13. event: the fleet of Malcador reaches the Imperial Palace and releases thousands of Marines, Grey Knights and Inquisition-troops he follows in the wake of Surtur they both reach the Gate of Eternity at the same time Surtur hands over the body found in the Vaults of Moravec to Malcador and the Thorian-Inquisitors

14. event Malcador opens the Gate of Eternity with sheer willpower. Malcador, Surtur and a few Inquisitors enter the room the Army is left behind to guard the Gate. they walk up to the Body of the Emperor ( what a freakin epic moment this would be ! ) to finally fulfill his plans. they have to place the Body into the throne, Surtur knows that his short live would end now, because he has to rip out the old corpse that has once been the Emperor, but in this short moment all the energy that is the Astronomican, the soul of the Emperor and the thousands of psykers that form the Astronomican will be channeled through his body evaporating him, but he knows that the reward for his sacrifice will be that he becomes a part of the Emperor itself. so he rips out the body and Malcador places the body inside the throne.

15. event: the Emperor starts to transfer his essence into the body a very time consuming and dangerous process , the orbital defense systems captured by the Grey Knights form a ring of fire around the Palace so that they are mostly protected against attacks

16. event : with the last drop of his soul being transfered into his new body the Emperor awakes and stands up – The end of the Old Empire. the Astronomican collapses leaving the former heart of the Empire exposed to the warp and all the ships of the Old Empire lost within the warp.

17.event yet being very weak from the transfer Malcador and the Emperor have to flee as the warp already starts to seep into real space and Demons manifesting all around they fight their way back to Malcadors flagship and escape from Terra. At that precise moment the Void Dragon reaches Terra and starts to feast on the billions of souls slaughtered by the demons then entering the Warp trough the colossal tear left behind by the Astronomican collapsing ( concerning event 2 where I said I dont know how the Emperor forced the Void Dragon to help him I figured out this would be a good way to handle this, 6 hours of train ride are a lot spare time to think ^^ more in the notes beneath )

SOOOOOOO this would be it just one possible way of developing the story further with the Emperor returning just by connecting some loose ends that were already there and filling the gaps with some rather plausible stuff.

so some notes maybe: What would be the Aftermath of this situation ?
1. The Old Empire would pretty much fall into anarchy first , they lost their ability to travel through the warp and they lost the Emperor . What would be next ? I think first of all they would try to establish a substitute for the Astronomican, they would try to work arund the systems in the golden throne and link the throne to thousands of normal psykers instead of the Emperor …but this substitute would be by all means less efficient than the old one so all worlds far away from Terra wouldnt see it anymore and desert from the Empire .

The next step would be : they have to lie ! Nobody still being part of the Empire could possibly know about the truth that the Emperor has left ! Those in power would like to keep it that way so they lie the shit out of it and fake it. At the same time to establish order they have to be even more draconic and arbitrary than ever before.

2. At the same time the Emperor would flee to the outer worlds of the Old Empire to fully restore his power, the 21. Legion now being under the command of Malcador would conquer some of the rebelling systems to establish a new Empire …OR they could flee to Ultramar first as the Ultramarines would stand aside the Emperor and at that point it would be the best fortified system of all ( after the destruction of Terra, and Cadia surely being overrun after the creatures of the warp would have realized what just happened )

3. about the Void Dragon and his duty for the Emperor : I think it could be an arrangement that the Emperor promised him the souls of the billions living on Terra and the possibility to enter the Warp through the tear left behind by the collapsed Astronomican in exchange for his work. After entering the Warp and feasting on billions of normal souls and billions of demon souls the Void Dragon would finally reach its next evolutionary level and become what was foretold – the Deus Mechanicus , this event would lead to the following:

4. The Adeptus Mechanicus would grow more and more important under the Influence of their newly born god they would take over control over the Old Empire .

SO IN THE END: We would have a Universe torn even more apart – with the Empire being divided, the Emperor being reborn, a new God born, a new Empire rising up , the Old Empire been overtaken by the Adeptus Mechanicus and transformed into something even more bizarre than ever before fighting against the new Emperor ( calling him a fraud ) and many many more ! the possibilities this event would open up are endless !!!

so …sorry for the wall of text and I think Ill write a whole story around this possible move forward but it will be in German so I dont think youll ever read it :-/ sorry for that but as you see my English skills are pretty limited.

so long
Seb