The manifestations of the Emperor

[Sitnam]

I had a thought about the Emperor the other idea, mostly pertaining to Sisters of Battle fluff. In the fluff and the game, the SOB have Acts of Faith, which seem to be miraculous events that assist the Sisters in winning battles. Then we have Living Saints, such as Celestine, who fight for the Emperor with supernatural powers. Now my question is, what do these things come from? Is the Emperor a strong enough warp entity to bless his most sacred warriors in battle, and is he powerful enough to make his own form of Daemon Prince through Living Saints?

[Lerra]

I'd say yes. The Emperor is at least on par with a Chaos God for strength in the warp. His physical body is all that is holding him back from being a fully fledged God.

[Just_Me]

That is precisely what the Thorians believe, and I am inclined to think they are correct...

[Melissia]

The Living Saints are pretty much explicitly stated to be living manifestations of the Emperor's will.

[Nabterayl]

The other possibility is that the Warp is not the only source of supernatural power in the universe. The Sororitas are the most visible example of the power of "faith" (wolf tail talismans being another). It could just be a fact of the 40K universe that "faith" really is its own font of power. Personally I enjoy the ambiguity.

[Melissia]

From my memory, the Emperor's power is somehow much more pure than the average psyker's regardless-- as are the powers of the Acts of Faith. The Emperor's soul, if you believe the shaman theory, came from pure souls of ancient psykers whom were able to walk amongst the Warp unharmed, and draw upon psychic or psychic-like powers without disturbing the Warp.

[Duke]

I like the idea that Living Saints are nothing more than the Emperors Daemon Princes. LOL

Duke

[Melissia]

Which is really untrue. Living Saints are exactly that, living. Daemons are not. To explain from my recollections... Living Saints exist primarily in the Materium, their powers are not psychic in nature nor warp-based (the Ecclesiarchy and Inquisition both have done deep studies on the few Living Saints that appear), and they still have a human mind, human comprehension, albeit raised to saintly levels, but human nonetheless. Daemons, however, exist primarily in thw warp, and find it difficult to manifest in the materium; their powers are, of course, psychic and/or warp-based, especially with mutation, and their minds are warped to match their daemonic cousins.

If the Living Saints really are the Emperor's equivalent to Daemon Princes, then they are so far removed that they truly deserve the different name.

[Just_Me]

The analogy is apt only insofar as Daemon Princes are invested with a small portion or their patron’s power, and living saints are (probably) humans invested with a small portion of the Emperor’s power (at least according to the Thorian hypothesis). However, beyond these broad parallels the similarities end, because the patrons of a Daemon Prince are wholly things of the Immaterium the gift of their power makes a Daemon Prince a thing of the Warp as well. Living saints on the other hand draw their powers directly from the Emperor himself (again, according the Thorian ideas) while the essence of that power remains the Emperor’s, so while they function at a higher level their basic nature is not altered by it.

[Psychosplodge]

In the original rouge trader books, wasn't there a stat line for descendents of the emperor?, couldn't this be the reality of the living saints?