Warhammer 40K: The Emperor’s Daemons, Will They Save Or Doom Humanity – PRIME
Today let’s talk about the Emperor’s Daemons.
In the 41st Millennium Mankind stands at the brink. The enemies of the Imperium surround it on all sides and batter its gates. Among all the foes that mankind faces the most deadly and insidious are the forces of Chaos, the Primordial Annihilator. The Archenemy has many faces and its troops are limitless. Hordes of humans, or once human, fight for it, some raised on warp touched worlds, others fell traitors fighting the long war. Yet the most deadly, and the most true, facet of these forces are the Daemons. True beings of the Warp, they breach the veil between worlds to wreak havoc on the meitnerium. Against these dark forces stands the Emperor of Man, someone who must surely be the opposite of the demonic. Right?
The Emperor And The Warp
On the face of things, the Emperor stands opposed to the Warp. Indeed His stated plan was to enterally cut humanity off from the Warp for a time. At first glance, this would seem to make Him an opposing force. And yet this isn’t the case. The Emperor’s powers are closely tied to the Warp, and we know He can manipulate it, even going so far as by M41 being able to calm warp storms. He also has plenty of knowledge of the warp, and according to what He told some of His sons on Molech has traveled to the warp and dealt with the Chaos gods. There are many theories of course on the Emperor’s nature, but a lot of people think that at least by M41 He is Himself a Warp god, just one opposed to the main 4. Along with His powers and mortal servants, He also seems to be served by another class of followers, Daemons. Let us take a look at some of these.
The Emperor’s Daemon Legions, The Legion of The Damned
The Legion of the Damned are a supernatural fighting force that takes the form of powerful Space Marines. They are very psychically active and can appear seemingly at will where they wish. They are a very mysterious force and there are many theories around them, as well as conflicting stories and misinformation. One theory is that they are simply a Marine Chapter, normally named as the Firehawks, who suffered a genetic flaw causing these strange effects. This is a fairly mundane, at least for 40K, explanation.
Two other theories however take things in a different light. One is that the Legion is the result of some shot of psychic backlash, possibly from the Dropsite Massacre, that has left a scar on the psychics of all Marines that manifests as the Legion of the Dammed. Another similar theory is that they are a hallucination/manifestation of the collective unconscious will of Humankind. Now both of these seem a whole like how you might talk about Daemons. Drach’nyen for instance is effectively the psychic scar left from the very first murder. So it seems like a psychic scar from the Dropsite Massacre manifesting through the warp as the Legion of the Damned would be pretty much the same, a kind of daemon.
The Emperor’s Daemon Princes, The Living Saints
Next on the list of the Emperor’s Daemons, we have the Living Saint. A Living Saint is a mortal warrior, and believer in the Emperor, who displays supernatural and miraculous powers (often including wings) during their lifetime. After their death they are reborn, again, and again, and again to fight for the Emperor. Now I don’t know about you, but this sure sounds a whole ton like a Daemon Prince to me.
The most famous of the Living Saint is of course Saint Celestine. Her story is quite telling since we have first person views of her experience. When Celestine “dies” her soul returns to the warp and there she must work to reconstitute herself and return to the material plane, all the while guided by what she thinks is the will of the Emperor. This is pretty much exactly what happens with Daemons and Daemon Princes and their experience and nature seems pretty indistinguishable. Indeed a priest known for being able to spot daemons thinks that Celestine is an enemy in disguise because she appears the same as a daemon to him.
The Emperor’s Demonic Hordes, The Golden Spirits 
Aside from these these two well know groups of what I’ll call Daemons we also have more numerous if less reported sighting. All across the galaxy there are physical and psychic manifestations of the Imperial will taking place. In particular, they showed up during the so called Psychic Awakening. An example of this was at the Miracle of the Saint’s Wall on the Shrine World of Benediction. During the Chaos attack on the world, the faith of the people was said to be so strong that it called up Golden Spirits (gold beings the color of the Emperor and His works), possibly the spirts of fallen martyrs. These manifestations helped defend the world, yet they seem very similar again to how we might think of daemons. Summoned psychic entitles.
Final Thoughts
Seemingly the Emperor commands the loyalty of a great many forces which seem very similar to what we know of as daemons. He and they draw power from the warp and operate in a similar manner. Are these then the same thing? Defined not by what makes them up, but by the side they serve? Angels and Daemons are sometimes described as simply two sides of a coin. Or are they somehow different? Opposite entitles, one born of humankinds darkness and other of our light?
Interesting questions to ponder, but ones that for now at least we don’t have clear answers to.
