Obligatory u/emwattnot summary of their relationship:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdank/comments/157bsj5/the\_end\_and\_the\_death\_of\_the\_greatest\_friendship/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdank/comments/157bsj5/the_end_and_the_death_of_the_greatest_friendship/)
I was sat in a hot tub five foot away from a friend once. I commented that the bubbles felt really good on my balls. My friend agreed and said that bubbles felt great on his toes..... It was at this moment, we realised we fucked up.
Malcador is truly the Emperor's only real friend. He's been at his side for thousands of years, sharing victory, setback, achievement, and disappointment. He gave everything he had to the Emperor and his dream.
The only other unique relationships in this vein that we see are the Primarchs (very obvious, he is their father) and the Custodes and the Sisters of Silence.
The Sisters often just call the Emperor 'Him' while the Custodes never call him Emperor, always 'My King' or 'King of Ages' and are the only group to call him king.
The Emperor's real friends and acquaintances are the Perpetuals. Malcador is the only one left by his side in 31k, but he speaks to them remarkably differently. It makes sense, his super-powered sons are a few centuries old, even Valdor is maybe a millenia old at best, basically infants compared to 36,000+ year old Johnny Space.
Ollanius talking to Big E as he's ascending into the Dark King in EATD gives exactly the same vibes as bumping into an old high school friend at an awkward moment.
Yes, but I discounted the other Perpetuals because they are all gone, dead, or in Oll's case, caused a rift by (temporarily) killing Big E. Malcador is the only one left by his side.
Side note: listening to Malc the hero climb the Throne with Jonathan Keeble narrating was really fantastic.
True enough, but I doubt a simple flesh wound would prevent Big E from taking a Tower coveted in Enuncia, or allow Oll enough time to destroy it with bronze age weapons
Oh hey bud there bud, long time no see. Oh sorry, sorry didn't meant to interrupt your ascension into a horrible otherworldy god there. So, ah... how're the kids?
Oh?
Oh.
Oh sorry, yeah they can be rough. Can't leave em alone with your stuff sometimes, they just break it! Hah! Ahhh. Yeah so. Anyway. Uh.
Well pretty sure Emperor relations with Oll are leaning to the same category. An old grudge, disagreement, stretched to tens of thousands of years, betrayal that Emperor didn't seek to avenge. Still an old friend in the end and he gave his life for.
I wouldn't call Primarchs having same bond with HIm. They didn't share AS much knowledge about universe, history and humanity. Custodes are His doubtless guard.
Perpetuals were those who can have real bond with Him. Primarchs didn't have anough time.
That was what I was getting at. Everyone is under him, everyone should refer to him with reverence. Even if a prince grows up with a friend by the time he becomes a king most likely that friend will refer to him as such and not speak with familiarity. So I found it interesting that Malcador would call him something so simple.
The Emperor wouldn't have it. He treats Malcador as an equal because they are friends.
Just below the highest level of Golden Throne dais was a bench. That bench was for Malcador. No one else. Malcador was closer to the Emperor, even in his most vulnerable physical state than even his life ward Custodes.
We see more of this in the way that they speak to one another. Malcador, on occasion, has even chastised the Emperor. And while Malc often says 'my master' he often in the same sentence also says 'my friend' implying that the 2 are not mutually exclusive.
It is a very interesting dynamic, but I feel like Malcador is necessary to add a more relatable, human dynamic to the Emperor, mostly for us as readers. Otherwise what we are left with is a golden immortal warrior king and its too easy to forget that he's also just a dude from somewhere around Hattusha, in the early bronze age.
Unborn? I'm confused. We don't know too much about Malcador's childhood, but the Emperor had parents as far as we know. His uncle killed his father, and he gave his uncle an aneurysm.
Sorry I meant Perpetual. I must be confusing my lore between different sci-fi universes. My memory of what a perpetual is, and how they came about is a bit fuzzy, but I thought Malcador the sigilitte, was a perpetual, like the emperor, and John and erda, and others. I just don’t understand them that much. First time i encountered them being called perpetuals was the battle for terra books that have been coming out the past couple of years.
Oh, yes. Malcador is a perpetual, born somewhere around 23,300 give or take a couple decades. As far as how they came about, it appears to be just random chance. Many of them have other gifts, like strong psychic affinity. Both Erda and Malcador were incredibly powerful and talented psykers, the likes of which are not naturally seen again. However, as Erda says to John, the Emperor is on a completely different level above them.
In "birth of the imperium", both Malc and Valdor were surprised, when Emps was calling the primarchs his sons, BUT it was also mentioned that his humanity was diminishing over time. I do think he loved some of them to an extent, like he was straight up playing games with a couple of them when they first met. Russ (lost to Russ in a food eating contest), before knocking him out with a punch, went drake hunting with Vulcan, had a wwe match with Manus. The biggest evidence for me is, in "The end and the death vol 3" that the Emp actually removed most of his compassion/humanity from his soul so he doesnt falter in his fight with Horus, and despite that seemed to be a little mad when he saw Sang's hanging corpse and told Horus he forgives him.
There is also another story where Konrad makes a corpse puppet, in the form of the Emperor and the puppet starts talking back and also forgives him (that could be konrad's imagination but also could be the Emp)
Out of everyone ever connected to the Emperor, only Malcador and Oll couldn't be simply tools.
Your opinion is yours, of course, my guy, but I think that's a bad take.
Nope. Malchador truly was the Emperor's right hand man and one true confidant. For all his manipulative nature and distance from humanity, Big E wanted at least one person around who could be friend to understand him. In fact, it was Malchador who pushed him into leaving his place in the shadows of human history and taking the stage as "the Emperor of Mankind" to begin with.
Yes, but he also serves under the Emperor, so you would expect that he would refer to him as lord just like anyone else. Friend really highlights how different their relationship was compared to anyone else in the imperium.
I disagree. Whether it is organized crime, a monarchy or even a dictatorship I don’t think anyone even an advisor would for fear of retribution. Because usually leader in these situations wants to retain fear and intimidation amongst their ranks to sustain their power.
No, but I’ve listened to a bunch of historians and people involved with some of those organizations. The Mafia for instance was controlled by fear and while you may laugh with the boss if he is making a joke you certainly wouldn’t make a joke back at him because if he takes it the wrong way you could be hurt or even killed.
I think, if I may say so gently, that the autobiographies of many former organised criminals will prove you incorrect on this.
Same with royalty, actually. We know Quuen Elizabeth was Lillibet to her friends.
Not at all. The best leaders lead from the front and are in it with you. It's not a coincidence shit went south when Big E left everyone to carry on the Crusade, while he went back to Terra to do.... *stuff*
The Emperor is functionally a God even if he denies it by 30k. Malcador is the one person in the Universe who can look at that... Entity.... And It looks back and sees a friend, not a tool. An equal (or near equal) to save the galaxy with.
It's The Emperor at his most human, because what's more human than you having a best buddy who constantly gives you shit to take on the cosmos with?
I think most people forget or don't know how old Malcador is. It's minimally thousands of years though.
Perhaps in those years, there were times where the Emperor could be as close to human as he ever could be.
And Malcador, aged and wise, could seperate the man, from the Emperor.
We also know that the Emperor worked to purge his emotions, his humanity even, to do what he thought he had to. Malcador displaying friendship could have been a warning that he was straying from the path he had decided on.
At the time of the book Malcador: First Lord of the Imperium, he states he is 6718 years 241 days 11 hours 8 minutes 56 seconds old. He’s been alongside the Emperor much of that and compared to the Emperor, a child.
I always thought malc was on par with the emperor in age, like born 3000 AD or something. Given the time frame of the series, it's astonishing that he was born in a time so far removed from where we are right now
Thanks, that was somewhat where I was going, it’s interesting that he is the only person to ever see The Emperor I guess as a man and could view him as such while still serving his under him
The Sister's of Silence see him physically as just a man, but they still project an aura of awe on to him. He gives them purpose, and they love him for it
A lot of people serve under the Emperor and have been by his side for a long time. Few of them see past the aura and majesty to see a man and even fewer would refer to him in such a common term. Even monarchs in real life had friends but I don’t think those friends would simply call them that if they are under their rule.
That he's the only real human relationship that the Emperor still has. Out of everyone alive, only he shares a connection with Big E as a man rather than the golden demigod everyone else sees him as.
When two people are close to each other they tend to think of the other as a friend. He wasn't an equal to the Emperor. Malcador could not handle the throne, he knew, the Emperor knew, Vulkan and Sanguinius knew, while even mortally wounded the Emperor can handle that strain for ten thousand years.
They didn't have some extremely close relationship that no one else could replicate, Malcador viewed the Emperor as a friend, while also viewing him as the only hope for humanity. The friendship almost certainly played a part in that, but I don't think he would need to be the Emperor's friend to think that.
My working theory right now is that the emperor got with that farseer from the eldar the guy one real fancy. This was a fling. And then he married mcador.
It's likely the only thing we can trust from Malcador. That and his fondness for Russ.
Those two got see a different side of him that was more genuine. But not the same genuine side I reckon. He was always different to different people and same can be said here too.
Everything else he says has triple meanings that were cryptic at best and usually a misdirection to move the progress needle forward some more.
Malcador's chosen seemed to have an incredibly deep relationship with him. So much so that when he sent his final instructions to them and said goodbye that they all ran to the Throne Room, wept, and were bereft. He seemed much like a father figure to them.
It’s different though, the Primarchs call him father yet he isn’t their father nor really tries to be. But him and Malcador can sit around playing Space Primarch chess. And he is the only one like that.
> the Primarchs call him father yet he isn’t their father
I mean...he is though. Like yeah, he's not "their father" in that their creation didn't result from the Emperor having sex and he didn't raise them...but it's still *his* genetic material that helped create them. Plus it was *his* project that created them. He is absolutely the father of the Primarchs
I don't think you understood my quote. Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology was a proponent of dream interpretation as a method of identifying subconscious neurosis, however he was careful to stress that not everything in a dream is a symbol for something or has some subtext. The implication here is that a Cigar isn't some sort of phallic symbol, sometimes it just is what it is. You're asking what the meaning symbolism is when there is no deeper meaning or symbolism. They were friends, that's it. Period. Full Stop. Nothing else.
My question wasn’t about them being friends. It was why Malcador refers to him as such above any other term. I don’t see a friend and say “hello friend!” I would use their name or a nick name given to them.
He could use “My Liege, My Lord, Brother, My King, My Companion, My Emperor” so many ways he could refer to The Emperor. And yet he and he alone calls him “My Friend” which certainly highlights how different his relationship and views are with the emperor compared to anyone else. He views him as an equal instead of revering him as more than which everyone else does.
Look, they were really friends. Emperor loved him.
Don't dig for symbolism where is none.
It's just that, and Malcador realising what powerful and ummeasurable being Emperor is doesn't conflict with that. Still a dearest friend.
It's cus this one time, Jimmy Space and Malc were cruisin for chics at this bar, when Mal sees this 9.5 hottie blazin. He was moving in for the kill, but her 1.2 friend was cockblockin him HARD. Emps comes in and falls on that grenade for Malc and he SEALS THE DEAL BABY.
Ever since then, Emps was his best friend.
It mostly means that unlike basically every other person in the Human Race, Malcador saw the Emperor as a person. A deeply powerful, nigh godlike being, but still a person. Someone with dreams and ambitions but also flaws and shortcomings.
Malcador was also maybe one of three people who actually knew the whole plan. So it speaks to their trust and to their friendship.
I wonder if that’s why they became close or if they became close so he began to see through guise. It’s just interesting he would still follow someone whom he views as an equal even when he can see their flaws. Speaks to his faith in the Webway plan.
Malcador (if I'm remembering correctly) is the last warlord the Emperor conquers during his initial unification of Terra way back in the early 20k centuries.
They've literally spent a thousand years (if not more) as Jeeves and Wooster (if Wooster had the ability to *bend reality*).
So yes, they're friends. Malcador is probably the oldest and best friend the Emperor has and the one person who's closest to being his "peer".
But imagine someone killing your whole order and you serve under him for thousands of years after that. It seems you would bide your time waiting to exact your vengeance. Not develop affection for the mother fucker.
They were literally friends - no one else on Terra had stood by the Emperor simply out of friendship and in agreement for his grand project for humanity. All the other Perpetuals turned against him. Sometimes things really are that simple.
They were the two top psykers on the planet, immune to death by conventional means and therefore thousands of years old - very few people could even think on their level, and even if they did they’d die in a century or so anyway… Just considering *what* they were it’s only natural they’d either be friends or absolutely hate each other.
I love how in a universe of infinite possibilities and endlessly complex interwoven lore that’s generally so dark, the answer here is quite simply, friendship. Kind of awesome imo.
I laughed out loud, imagining the 6700 year old space wizard who can hide a moon in space hell, conjure nuclear fire, and astrally project himself across an entire planet, just lecturing to young Leman Russ about 'the power of friendship, my boy' while making psychic rainbows with his flaming eagle staff.
Take my upvote
Well apparently Malcador was once such a cruel and genocidal maniac many of his crimes are still in memory by the time the heresy rolled around despite attempts to bury them, his first 'death' wasn't even by a traitor astartes hands if I remember right, but a librarian who ended up discovering who he really was and was still so disgusted by him he smoked him on the spot there and then!
The fact the emperor seems to consider this guy an actual personal friend in itself says a lot about his mindset in 30k.
So you know, when you have two old men, who live together and have no woman in their life at the moment, and like antiques and have projects together, and talk about their annoying kids/grandkids they had with their ex, who generally have a gaudy sense of decoration, polite society usually call them "Good old friends".
So more perceptive people would call them "gay as fuck".
Family, friends and a place to call home are some of the greatest gifts in life in this fallen and corrupted world. We don’t know much about the emperor’s parents or uncle. We don’t know if the emperor had any brothers and sisters possibly long since gone. We do know Big E was a polygamist and had many children with many women over the millennia before Horus turned him into a living corpse enduring the slow death of the golden throne like Jesus enduring the sins of humanity, His creation, on the cruel cross of iron-fisted Roman rule and domination of Roman law and order. There could be more perpetuals created and added to the lore than the ones mentioned so far in the general lore. The emperor’s birth children were called the Sensai sp? And they were powerful psykers and possibly perpetuals and they are lost in the early lore but definitely in the early editions of 40K.
Only those who live thousands of years can be confirmed as perpetuals who have bodies with the gift of massive and instant cellular regeneration kind of like the Incredible Hulk.
I don’t know why the mechanicus don’t just give Big E some of the best and high tech parts of Mars to replace his right arm and eye and sustain him like Darth Vader in Star Wars. If the Star Wars universe tech could do do it for big DV than the tech of the Warhammer Universe can do the same for Big E.
The Martian looking emperor might have to do some heavy breathing around some of the virgin sexually suppressed and repressed sisters of silence and sisters of battle, but he might actually get a big E again, and end the pattern of ED and low T. Big E’s mega erection around some of his devoted sister virgin babes that need to feel his special kind of love and have his massive you know what stretching out their you know what’s like nothing ever did before with an explosion of semen gene seed that could be compared to a tall glass of milk in quantity! I’m sure the martians can hook BIG E(rection) up with the needed equipment and he will then be known by the secret sororities as BIG RED baby with the best Warhammer of all time as they orgasmically scream “Hammer meee BiG E! Rip me apart BIG RED! Fill me till I can’t take no more!” As they break their vows of sisterly silence in total orgasmic pleasure!”
Big E wasn't homophobic, his penis was just too big for any butthole to explore, so he became a voluntary celibate to spare mankind the pain. He did it for us. What a dude, what a guy.
They were actually buds. That's what their relationship was.
Unlike Palpatine & Vader. Palpy keeps calling Vader 'my friend,' but it almost seems like a taunt.
Obligatory u/emwattnot summary of their relationship: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdank/comments/157bsj5/the\_end\_and\_the\_death\_of\_the\_greatest\_friendship/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdank/comments/157bsj5/the_end_and_the_death_of_the_greatest_friendship/)
Dang that hit WAY harder than I expected
It's because they're friends
Fellas, is it symbolism to have friends?
No but it is like, hella gay
Two perpetuals, sitting in a hot tub Five feet apart because they're not gay
I was sat in a hot tub five foot away from a friend once. I commented that the bubbles felt really good on my balls. My friend agreed and said that bubbles felt great on his toes..... It was at this moment, we realised we fucked up.
Then Bubbles told you both to shut up cause you were ruining the moment.
Joke's on Malky, Jimmy Space's dick is 6 feet long
But were they gay in every life? Or just the last one
Is it gay if one of them uses their ~~magic~~ ~~godly~~ psychic powers to change into a woman?
No but having a callidus assassin assuming their form so you can get railed is.
Plot twist Macaldor is the REAL mother of the Primarchs, and Erda was just a third wheel
They were obviously room mates.
in the 40k universe? yes
With benefits?
Malcador is truly the Emperor's only real friend. He's been at his side for thousands of years, sharing victory, setback, achievement, and disappointment. He gave everything he had to the Emperor and his dream. The only other unique relationships in this vein that we see are the Primarchs (very obvious, he is their father) and the Custodes and the Sisters of Silence. The Sisters often just call the Emperor 'Him' while the Custodes never call him Emperor, always 'My King' or 'King of Ages' and are the only group to call him king.
The Emperor's real friends and acquaintances are the Perpetuals. Malcador is the only one left by his side in 31k, but he speaks to them remarkably differently. It makes sense, his super-powered sons are a few centuries old, even Valdor is maybe a millenia old at best, basically infants compared to 36,000+ year old Johnny Space. Ollanius talking to Big E as he's ascending into the Dark King in EATD gives exactly the same vibes as bumping into an old high school friend at an awkward moment.
Yes, but I discounted the other Perpetuals because they are all gone, dead, or in Oll's case, caused a rift by (temporarily) killing Big E. Malcador is the only one left by his side. Side note: listening to Malc the hero climb the Throne with Jonathan Keeble narrating was really fantastic.
IIRC it's never said that he killed the Emperor, just that he stabbed him.
True enough, but I doubt a simple flesh wound would prevent Big E from taking a Tower coveted in Enuncia, or allow Oll enough time to destroy it with bronze age weapons
Oll destroyed the tower with Enuncia
>killing big e He got better
Oh hey bud there bud, long time no see. Oh sorry, sorry didn't meant to interrupt your ascension into a horrible otherworldy god there. So, ah... how're the kids? Oh? Oh. Oh sorry, yeah they can be rough. Can't leave em alone with your stuff sometimes, they just break it! Hah! Ahhh. Yeah so. Anyway. Uh.
What is eatd?
The end and the death The last book (actually, it's three) in the Siege of Terra series and the end of the Horus Heresy
Is it canon? I thought the dark king didn't exist yet
It is canon, spoiler: He doesn't become the Dark King. It does come into play though.
Oh okay
it's a must-read
Yes it's canon, the dark king was part of the latter 2 volumes of the book.
Man... it's like lastest lore. It is as canon as it could be.
Well pretty sure Emperor relations with Oll are leaning to the same category. An old grudge, disagreement, stretched to tens of thousands of years, betrayal that Emperor didn't seek to avenge. Still an old friend in the end and he gave his life for. I wouldn't call Primarchs having same bond with HIm. They didn't share AS much knowledge about universe, history and humanity. Custodes are His doubtless guard. Perpetuals were those who can have real bond with Him. Primarchs didn't have anough time.
Prior to Babylon, definitely a similar relationship. After, who knows, but Big E at least respected Oll enough not to hunt him down.
That was what I was getting at. Everyone is under him, everyone should refer to him with reverence. Even if a prince grows up with a friend by the time he becomes a king most likely that friend will refer to him as such and not speak with familiarity. So I found it interesting that Malcador would call him something so simple.
The Emperor wouldn't have it. He treats Malcador as an equal because they are friends. Just below the highest level of Golden Throne dais was a bench. That bench was for Malcador. No one else. Malcador was closer to the Emperor, even in his most vulnerable physical state than even his life ward Custodes. We see more of this in the way that they speak to one another. Malcador, on occasion, has even chastised the Emperor. And while Malc often says 'my master' he often in the same sentence also says 'my friend' implying that the 2 are not mutually exclusive. It is a very interesting dynamic, but I feel like Malcador is necessary to add a more relatable, human dynamic to the Emperor, mostly for us as readers. Otherwise what we are left with is a golden immortal warrior king and its too easy to forget that he's also just a dude from somewhere around Hattusha, in the early bronze age.
Thanks, I’ve never thought of Malcador as a plot device before.
Isn’t Malcador an unborn, like the emperor.
Unborn? I'm confused. We don't know too much about Malcador's childhood, but the Emperor had parents as far as we know. His uncle killed his father, and he gave his uncle an aneurysm.
Sorry I meant Perpetual. I must be confusing my lore between different sci-fi universes. My memory of what a perpetual is, and how they came about is a bit fuzzy, but I thought Malcador the sigilitte, was a perpetual, like the emperor, and John and erda, and others. I just don’t understand them that much. First time i encountered them being called perpetuals was the battle for terra books that have been coming out the past couple of years.
Oh, yes. Malcador is a perpetual, born somewhere around 23,300 give or take a couple decades. As far as how they came about, it appears to be just random chance. Many of them have other gifts, like strong psychic affinity. Both Erda and Malcador were incredibly powerful and talented psykers, the likes of which are not naturally seen again. However, as Erda says to John, the Emperor is on a completely different level above them.
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In "birth of the imperium", both Malc and Valdor were surprised, when Emps was calling the primarchs his sons, BUT it was also mentioned that his humanity was diminishing over time. I do think he loved some of them to an extent, like he was straight up playing games with a couple of them when they first met. Russ (lost to Russ in a food eating contest), before knocking him out with a punch, went drake hunting with Vulcan, had a wwe match with Manus. The biggest evidence for me is, in "The end and the death vol 3" that the Emp actually removed most of his compassion/humanity from his soul so he doesnt falter in his fight with Horus, and despite that seemed to be a little mad when he saw Sang's hanging corpse and told Horus he forgives him. There is also another story where Konrad makes a corpse puppet, in the form of the Emperor and the puppet starts talking back and also forgives him (that could be konrad's imagination but also could be the Emp)
I think he was just another tool
Out of everyone ever connected to the Emperor, only Malcador and Oll couldn't be simply tools. Your opinion is yours, of course, my guy, but I think that's a bad take.
Not to spoil but Malcador's death scene will reset your assumption
Sad af. Truly a hero.
Nope. Malchador truly was the Emperor's right hand man and one true confidant. For all his manipulative nature and distance from humanity, Big E wanted at least one person around who could be friend to understand him. In fact, it was Malchador who pushed him into leaving his place in the shadows of human history and taking the stage as "the Emperor of Mankind" to begin with.
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Uhh they were friends? They’ve known eachother for millennia. Before Malcador was known as The Sigillite.
Yes, but he also serves under the Emperor, so you would expect that he would refer to him as lord just like anyone else. Friend really highlights how different their relationship was compared to anyone else in the imperium.
It's a rare hierarchy where the guy who's worked as your right hand for even a decade can't treat you with familiarity.
I disagree. Whether it is organized crime, a monarchy or even a dictatorship I don’t think anyone even an advisor would for fear of retribution. Because usually leader in these situations wants to retain fear and intimidation amongst their ranks to sustain their power.
That's cultural. In the West (HH is written by Brits), it's very normal to address your boss by his first name and go out for drinks, etc.
Ah, I see
Do you have experience in organized crime, a monarchy or a dictatorship?
No, but I’ve listened to a bunch of historians and people involved with some of those organizations. The Mafia for instance was controlled by fear and while you may laugh with the boss if he is making a joke you certainly wouldn’t make a joke back at him because if he takes it the wrong way you could be hurt or even killed.
I think, if I may say so gently, that the autobiographies of many former organised criminals will prove you incorrect on this. Same with royalty, actually. We know Quuen Elizabeth was Lillibet to her friends.
Autocrats too. Stalin had regular movie nights with members of the inner party to watch stuff like American cowboy films.
Not at all. The best leaders lead from the front and are in it with you. It's not a coincidence shit went south when Big E left everyone to carry on the Crusade, while he went back to Terra to do.... *stuff*
The Emperor is functionally a God even if he denies it by 30k. Malcador is the one person in the Universe who can look at that... Entity.... And It looks back and sees a friend, not a tool. An equal (or near equal) to save the galaxy with. It's The Emperor at his most human, because what's more human than you having a best buddy who constantly gives you shit to take on the cosmos with?
I think most people forget or don't know how old Malcador is. It's minimally thousands of years though. Perhaps in those years, there were times where the Emperor could be as close to human as he ever could be. And Malcador, aged and wise, could seperate the man, from the Emperor. We also know that the Emperor worked to purge his emotions, his humanity even, to do what he thought he had to. Malcador displaying friendship could have been a warning that he was straying from the path he had decided on.
At the time of the book Malcador: First Lord of the Imperium, he states he is 6718 years 241 days 11 hours 8 minutes 56 seconds old. He’s been alongside the Emperor much of that and compared to the Emperor, a child.
In 30k Malcador was like 4500 years old. Just found that out today wtf
Over 6700 guy. Malcador himself confirms his age, and during 'Master of Mankind' Jenetia Krole says he admits publicly to being over 6,000 years old.
Ah ok. I read that book but like 8 books ago lol
I always thought malc was on par with the emperor in age, like born 3000 AD or something. Given the time frame of the series, it's astonishing that he was born in a time so far removed from where we are right now
_You son of a bitch....I'm in_
Thanks, that was somewhat where I was going, it’s interesting that he is the only person to ever see The Emperor I guess as a man and could view him as such while still serving his under him
Ollianus too. He knew the emperor back when E was mostly still a man.
Yeah but right before his death didn’t he begin to view the Emepror as something greater?
To be fair, E was something greater then but Ollianus tried (successfully) to reason with him as if he was another human.
The Sister's of Silence see him physically as just a man, but they still project an aura of awe on to him. He gives them purpose, and they love him for it
It's to signify that they're friends, redditor.
"Friends"? What a weird concept. Probably another trick by Chaos like "touching grass" or "having a love life".
This is a 40k sub. In this community those last two are only experienced by the oddballs and mavericks!
A lot of people serve under the Emperor and have been by his side for a long time. Few of them see past the aura and majesty to see a man and even fewer would refer to him in such a common term. Even monarchs in real life had friends but I don’t think those friends would simply call them that if they are under their rule.
40K fans discovering what friends are
Because they were genuine friends arguably the only real friend the emperor had in a very long time
It’s because the curtains were fucking blue.
That he's the only real human relationship that the Emperor still has. Out of everyone alive, only he shares a connection with Big E as a man rather than the golden demigod everyone else sees him as.
Thanks
When two people are close to each other they tend to think of the other as a friend. He wasn't an equal to the Emperor. Malcador could not handle the throne, he knew, the Emperor knew, Vulkan and Sanguinius knew, while even mortally wounded the Emperor can handle that strain for ten thousand years. They didn't have some extremely close relationship that no one else could replicate, Malcador viewed the Emperor as a friend, while also viewing him as the only hope for humanity. The friendship almost certainly played a part in that, but I don't think he would need to be the Emperor's friend to think that.
That’s an interesting perspective.
Many commenters do not understand literary analysis. "The curtains were just blue!! Get over it!!"
except this is an example where it's literally the opposite, it doesn't take literary analysis to understand why someone calls someone else a friend
Many of them moved this discussion into weird places as well.
Warhammer fans discover mystical concept of positive platonic interpersonal relationships colloquially known as "friends".
They were “roommates “
They were just practicing for a play!
I’ve felt Malcador was gay for a while
When you reach his age, I assume you have expanded your pool quite wide.
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My working theory right now is that the emperor got with that farseer from the eldar the guy one real fancy. This was a fling. And then he married mcador.
Malcador didn’t put up with the Emperors bullshit to not be a close friend
And he is the only one who did that without betraying him I suppose.
It's likely the only thing we can trust from Malcador. That and his fondness for Russ. Those two got see a different side of him that was more genuine. But not the same genuine side I reckon. He was always different to different people and same can be said here too. Everything else he says has triple meanings that were cryptic at best and usually a misdirection to move the progress needle forward some more.
Malcador's chosen seemed to have an incredibly deep relationship with him. So much so that when he sent his final instructions to them and said goodbye that they all ran to the Throne Room, wept, and were bereft. He seemed much like a father figure to them.
I’ve often thought he was a bigger loss to the imperium than even the Emperor himself.
Thanks, I guess I’ve never viewed him in that light.
Perpetuals before hoes dude
Indeed
They were friends. As Freud said, sometimes a cigar is... just a cigar.
It’s different though, the Primarchs call him father yet he isn’t their father nor really tries to be. But him and Malcador can sit around playing Space Primarch chess. And he is the only one like that.
> the Primarchs call him father yet he isn’t their father I mean...he is though. Like yeah, he's not "their father" in that their creation didn't result from the Emperor having sex and he didn't raise them...but it's still *his* genetic material that helped create them. Plus it was *his* project that created them. He is absolutely the father of the Primarchs
I don't think you understood my quote. Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology was a proponent of dream interpretation as a method of identifying subconscious neurosis, however he was careful to stress that not everything in a dream is a symbol for something or has some subtext. The implication here is that a Cigar isn't some sort of phallic symbol, sometimes it just is what it is. You're asking what the meaning symbolism is when there is no deeper meaning or symbolism. They were friends, that's it. Period. Full Stop. Nothing else.
My question wasn’t about them being friends. It was why Malcador refers to him as such above any other term. I don’t see a friend and say “hello friend!” I would use their name or a nick name given to them. He could use “My Liege, My Lord, Brother, My King, My Companion, My Emperor” so many ways he could refer to The Emperor. And yet he and he alone calls him “My Friend” which certainly highlights how different his relationship and views are with the emperor compared to anyone else. He views him as an equal instead of revering him as more than which everyone else does.
Look, they were really friends. Emperor loved him. Don't dig for symbolism where is none. It's just that, and Malcador realising what powerful and ummeasurable being Emperor is doesn't conflict with that. Still a dearest friend.
AwaxC a
Malcador was literally his only actual friend left. Every other perpetual abandoned him but he still loved them enough to not go after them.
It's cus this one time, Jimmy Space and Malc were cruisin for chics at this bar, when Mal sees this 9.5 hottie blazin. He was moving in for the kill, but her 1.2 friend was cockblockin him HARD. Emps comes in and falls on that grenade for Malc and he SEALS THE DEAL BABY. Ever since then, Emps was his best friend.
It mostly means that unlike basically every other person in the Human Race, Malcador saw the Emperor as a person. A deeply powerful, nigh godlike being, but still a person. Someone with dreams and ambitions but also flaws and shortcomings. Malcador was also maybe one of three people who actually knew the whole plan. So it speaks to their trust and to their friendship.
I wonder if that’s why they became close or if they became close so he began to see through guise. It’s just interesting he would still follow someone whom he views as an equal even when he can see their flaws. Speaks to his faith in the Webway plan.
Malcador (if I'm remembering correctly) is the last warlord the Emperor conquers during his initial unification of Terra way back in the early 20k centuries. They've literally spent a thousand years (if not more) as Jeeves and Wooster (if Wooster had the ability to *bend reality*). So yes, they're friends. Malcador is probably the oldest and best friend the Emperor has and the one person who's closest to being his "peer".
But imagine someone killing your whole order and you serve under him for thousands of years after that. It seems you would bide your time waiting to exact your vengeance. Not develop affection for the mother fucker.
They were the best of friends, also probably the only real friend either of them ever had.
You don’t think Malcador got along with the other Sigilites?
It means they were roommates!
Oh my god they were roommates
They were literally friends - no one else on Terra had stood by the Emperor simply out of friendship and in agreement for his grand project for humanity. All the other Perpetuals turned against him. Sometimes things really are that simple.
Sure. I have friends but I’ve never just called them “friend”
It's because they were roommates
They were the two top psykers on the planet, immune to death by conventional means and therefore thousands of years old - very few people could even think on their level, and even if they did they’d die in a century or so anyway… Just considering *what* they were it’s only natural they’d either be friends or absolutely hate each other.
I suppose that’s true. There is only room for one super psyker
I haven't read the Epic of Gilgamesh but, my sense is that their relationship is similar given the Gilgamesh nature of The Emperor.
Thanks im not familiar with it myself.
He was the Emperor's last and truest ***friend*** in every meaning of the word.
I love how in a universe of infinite possibilities and endlessly complex interwoven lore that’s generally so dark, the answer here is quite simply, friendship. Kind of awesome imo.
I laughed out loud, imagining the 6700 year old space wizard who can hide a moon in space hell, conjure nuclear fire, and astrally project himself across an entire planet, just lecturing to young Leman Russ about 'the power of friendship, my boy' while making psychic rainbows with his flaming eagle staff. Take my upvote
Especially when you are referring to a guy who is a genocidal tyrant and the other is a Disney villain who creates an organization of assassins.
It’s because he’s a Quaker. You can tell because of the non-violence.
If emperor why fren shaped?
That they were friends?
Well apparently Malcador was once such a cruel and genocidal maniac many of his crimes are still in memory by the time the heresy rolled around despite attempts to bury them, his first 'death' wasn't even by a traitor astartes hands if I remember right, but a librarian who ended up discovering who he really was and was still so disgusted by him he smoked him on the spot there and then! The fact the emperor seems to consider this guy an actual personal friend in itself says a lot about his mindset in 30k.
Thanks. I guess they were more alike than not
Probably the only friend each other have. There are moments where they play regicide together and probably chilled quite a few times.
So you know, when you have two old men, who live together and have no woman in their life at the moment, and like antiques and have projects together, and talk about their annoying kids/grandkids they had with their ex, who generally have a gaudy sense of decoration, polite society usually call them "Good old friends". So more perceptive people would call them "gay as fuck".
Guys they might be friends, know a lot about each other and developed care for one another, I know it's a lot to take in, easy does it
The Emperor fought side by side with a lot of people though and no one else refers to him as such.
No him
They were friends…
Less triggering to the Warhammer community than calling Him;" My Husband" i suppose.
People in here having to explain to op what a friend is is downright hilarious.
The meaning is friendship.
There just legitimately friends
No, buy you might call him Reggie rather than Mr Kray, sir.
Family, friends and a place to call home are some of the greatest gifts in life in this fallen and corrupted world. We don’t know much about the emperor’s parents or uncle. We don’t know if the emperor had any brothers and sisters possibly long since gone. We do know Big E was a polygamist and had many children with many women over the millennia before Horus turned him into a living corpse enduring the slow death of the golden throne like Jesus enduring the sins of humanity, His creation, on the cruel cross of iron-fisted Roman rule and domination of Roman law and order. There could be more perpetuals created and added to the lore than the ones mentioned so far in the general lore. The emperor’s birth children were called the Sensai sp? And they were powerful psykers and possibly perpetuals and they are lost in the early lore but definitely in the early editions of 40K. Only those who live thousands of years can be confirmed as perpetuals who have bodies with the gift of massive and instant cellular regeneration kind of like the Incredible Hulk. I don’t know why the mechanicus don’t just give Big E some of the best and high tech parts of Mars to replace his right arm and eye and sustain him like Darth Vader in Star Wars. If the Star Wars universe tech could do do it for big DV than the tech of the Warhammer Universe can do the same for Big E. The Martian looking emperor might have to do some heavy breathing around some of the virgin sexually suppressed and repressed sisters of silence and sisters of battle, but he might actually get a big E again, and end the pattern of ED and low T. Big E’s mega erection around some of his devoted sister virgin babes that need to feel his special kind of love and have his massive you know what stretching out their you know what’s like nothing ever did before with an explosion of semen gene seed that could be compared to a tall glass of milk in quantity! I’m sure the martians can hook BIG E(rection) up with the needed equipment and he will then be known by the secret sororities as BIG RED baby with the best Warhammer of all time as they orgasmically scream “Hammer meee BiG E! Rip me apart BIG RED! Fill me till I can’t take no more!” As they break their vows of sisterly silence in total orgasmic pleasure!”
Big E is too homophobic to call him his lover
Ill bite on this.......what makes you remotely think he was homophobic?
He called me a f*g at a men’s only popper party in Vegas 2 years ago for being a limp-wristed fem twink
They boo me because I’m right
Big E wasn't homophobic, his penis was just too big for any butthole to explore, so he became a voluntary celibate to spare mankind the pain. He did it for us. What a dude, what a guy.
The god emperor of mankind was a total bottom, what are you talking about
I don't know. Have you seen the size of him on the cover of The End and the Death: Volume I ?
He's not too homophobic to ask for some more sigil restraints tho uwu
I think the emperor was in malcador’s head.