Favorite "Secret of the 40k Universe"

[Emperorsmercy]

Ynead, the Eldar god of the dead waiting for the death of the Eldar race in the Infintiy circuit who will rise up and beat Slannesh once and for all, then wander off somewhere.

[Fantomex]

Erm..I always thought they were the Inquisition's founders. Garro and Qruze aren't psykers and all Grey Knights are. Also I thought the Sigilite said they'd form a group to combat Xenos, Traitors and witches....which leads me to say Inquisition.
I could be talking out my backside of course.

I am of two decisions here..
The whole Council of Nikea notwithstanding, at the end of the heresy, the Emperor obviously realises that psykers are needed, and it's this part of the Horus Heresy Collected Visions that strikes me most..

Before Malcador the Sigillite ascended to the Golden Throne he had one last duty to perform. As he stood before the Emperor he was accompanied by a group of twelve hooded attendants. Malcador looked up at the Emperor and the machine to which he was bound.

"Sire, when we last met you commanded me to gather together a group of people whose loyalty to you and to the Imperium was unquestioning. This I have done. I have worked long and hard to find those I thought would suit. I have personally overseen every aspect of the exhaustive tests to which they have been subjected and can vouch for their character, loyalty and strength of mind. They have many skills and will serve you well."

Malcador gestured to the hooded figures behind him, as he did four of them stepped forward and knelt before the Emperor. The Emperor nodded an acknowledgement of their show of fealty to him.

"Sire, these others are known to you. Each of them is a Space Marine. They have cast aside their alleigance to Primarch and Legion who have sided with Horus and pledged themselves anew to you, their Emperor and father. I have chosen these eight since allied to their unflinching loyalty they are each blessed with paranormal skills, kept dormant in respect of your previous commands. However these skills are most apt in combating the horrors that have recently emerged from the warp and I know they will be needed in the coming years."

"Malcador you have judged well, these eight Space Marines do indeed have a vital role to play in the future of the Imperium, though veiled in secrecy they will be."

So, only eight marines?
Nine legions rebelled, though only eight marines? So which legions are these marines members of? Which legion/s had no psyker loyalists remaining? Intriguing to be sure, not to mention the fact that these powers have been kept dormant.. Would this be like a lightswitch, or more like "I have powers, but I'm not using them.."?
Obviously this is where I would pop Garro in, but without any past proof of psychic ability it is a tad confusing..
However, I'd definately say it's the origin of the Grey Knights. Veiled in secrecy is pretty much their motto.
Being designated Chapter 666 though, somewhat hintingly religious of the Emperor, eh?

The other four individuals are not mentioned as being Space Marines. Making assumptive connections, could these four individuals be the humans at the start of the Inquisitor rulebook, Moriana, Promeus, and the two unnamed characters, collectively the beginning of the Inquisition?

Ah, speculation, I love it!

As for other best secrets, I've always thought that symbolic reflection is hidden throughout the 40k universe. Take, for example, Fulgrim.
He was good, and got possessed by a daemon.
I'm sad enough to say that all the Primarchs really literally are like sons of the Emperor, each a little reflection of his entirety.

Now, in Legion, John Grammaticus is shown as meeting the Emperor. He shakes his hand, and is given a brief glimpse at... we don't know.
However, the implication is that it is something pretty damn bad. Given that Grammaticus is meant to be quite the powerful psyker, I wouldn't just say it's the Emperors awesome psychic might.
Throughout the book, Grammaticus is shown literally recoiling, vilified, at Chaos and daemonic influences.

Given the tastiness of the prize, I'm bagging that the Emperor is under constant and direct predation from the warp.
Sure, now he's on the Golden Throne he is constantly fighting the daemons in the webway from entering the Imperial Palace, but I mean before this, Fulgrim-style.
I think the Emperor may be fighting Chaos from within.
He's beating/beaten it, but it's still there, and he's keeping it under guard..

Could be bull, could be truth. I just look forward to the ranting!

[Inquisitor McSagington]

World Eaters had no Psyker loyalists or Psykers. Such weakness is blasphemy to Khorne!!

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Qah splitting into a new race called the Umbra which the Hrud worship, its like what happened to the Eldar god/Avatars but 1000 times more interesting.

[Magos]

Hmm, the other thought about the 8 Space Marines who formed the Grey Knights, well, the missing one could be Thousand Son, as the Thousand Sons loyalists could become the Blood Ravens.

[DevilUknow]

The Dark Angel's dark secret is homosexuality...

I've actually heard that is more or less confirmed.

Want proof. Look up Lionel Johnson (aka Lion El'Jonson) and read his poem[URL="http://www.thedarkfortress.co.uk/librarium/lionel_johnson.htm"] "The Dark Angel"[/URL] and its interpretations.

EDIT: ಠ_ಠ person_person beat me too it.

My favorite secret is the (now retconned?) stuff about the Sensai, the Illuminati, the Ordo Hydra and the Star Child (aka Chaos Child) and the idea that the Eldar Harlequins are behind it.

[Steakhouse]

Just a heads up, I'm gonna be dropping SPOILERS like bombs in this post so if you haven't read the following library of books and and don't want anything given away, please skip over this post:

Legion
Mechanicus
Necron Codex
Xenology

It was revealed in Xenology, well more implicitly implied then actually stated, that the Emperor is actually one of the old ones. A tablet toward the end of the book tells the tale of the War in Heaven. At the end of the war many of the surviving Old Ones took on weakened forms to elude the C'Tan and their Necrontyr minions. A final piece of the tablet clearly shows an Old one taking on the form of a human infant. The Emperor was one of them, and he's guided humanity from their birth (which was likely also his doing).

This is also obliquely corroborated in Legion, where the Eldar leader of the Cabal, a group of like minded alien interests have attempted to steer the course of events in the galaxy to stymie the Ruinous Powers wherever possible. Humanity they learned through their scrying, would be pivotal in either leaving chaos weaker then ever before, or handing them their ultimate victory. No matter how much they meddled and applied their influence to the fledgling species however they could not alter humanity's path toward the future, describing their actions as being "like telling the tide to turn back". Either that was a fate beyond even the Eldar and Cabal to meddle with, or a vast power was protecting and guiding them. I lean toward the latter, though I'll admit one could claim Tzeentch's hand was at work.

It is already known via a vision in the book Mechanicus that sometime in the middle ages the Void Dragon descended to Earth, looking to use the planet as a safe haven while it went dormant along with the rest of the surviving C'Tan. It was wounded, or damaged, though I don't recall the book stating why. At any rate and knight in the service of a local lord rolls up on it and appears to slay it. I'm gonna say that again, a KNIGHT, as in a dude in 14th century plate armor, battled and defeated the VOID DRAGON, a star devouring GOD with LIVING METAL FOR A BODY. It was clearly alluded that the knight was in fact a younger Emperor, though if I'm right he had already eons, epochs if you will, under his belt. The Emperor then delivered the near dead Dragon to Mars and sealed it away, knowing that in another fifteen or so centuries he would have a group of people who had been listening to that monster's cybernetic dreams and could create the fantastic technology needed to power his crusade into the stars.

Do you understand how INSANE that is? How far sighted the Emperor must be to plan out even that single step in a plan that would eventually lead to the uniting of the entire galaxy? In Legion there's a moment where John Grammaticus, an alpha grade Psycher, though possibly higher, meets the Emperor face to face. John brushes against the God's mind briefly and describes him as being the most bloody minded psychopath the universe has ever produced. The Emperor thinks, if it can be called that, in terms of entire planetary populations for cost/benefit analysis. He's willing to throw away trillions to achieve even simple but necessary goals. He is not human, he does not think in human terms or time spans.

So lets talk about those plans. At this point I'm going to be deviate from actual sources, for the most part, and start laying out where I see the Emperor and his strategy going. If you guys see any flaws in my logic, please point them out.

The Emperor developed the pre-heresy version of his Imperium as a secular society, where fantasies such as magic, spirits, religions, gods, and even himself, were not to be worshiped. They were to be be cast aside in favor of the "Emperor's Light" which at the time meant the "Light of Reason". Science. Prosperity. Things that a people clawing their way out of a dark age of technology could get behind. This version of his empire was, whicle not exactly a lie, was a falsehood meant to jump start what would eventually come. He obviously knew of the creatures in the warp, and the faith/strength of will needed to combat them directly. However if the grand majority of your society 1) doesn't know about the threat, and 2) denies the threat the belief and worship it requires to be potent, then you have effectively stymied the opponent, at least for a while while greater progress is made. Of course this strategy wasn't going to last forever. The further flung the crusade became, the more and more likely it was going to be that it was going to encounter some form of warp taint, and once that taint takes root there's very little you can do to burn it away aside from weaponing your people with the strength of faith they would need to survive EN MASS. not on the individual scale mind you, not even on the planetary scale, but once again in terms of whole star systems. I believe the Emperor always intended to make the switch from secularism to an ecclesiastical society when the need presented itself. His vision/knowledge of the future and what will come to pass has proved itself too potent for too long not to buy into this theory. Afterall it's not like he stopped being the all powerful Emperor once the Crusade got underway, hell he didn't stop once he was mortally wounded by Horus.

Which brings me to the Heresy itself. Based on that previous assumption that the Emperor is an Old One, with the the ability to predict and influence future events on a galactic scale, it seems nearly impossible to believe that he didn't see Horus's betrayal coming. In fact I believe, much like everything else he had accomplished over the last thirty centuries, the Emperor knew about it because he had planned it himself, and groomed Horus for that very role. To understand why the Emperor would want to see the galaxy burn, to provide the very real possibility that chaos could rise acendant over all, you have to go back to WHAT HE IS! In the Necron Codex the Old One's are described by the short lived Necrontyr as ultra intelligent mystics with immense longevity. The warp itself was at their beck and call allowing them to cross the incredible distances in the universe with but a step. These beings did not fear the warp, and likely still dont even though it has now become a boiling ocean filled with dangerous entities. The only thing they likely fear are the C'Tan and their Necron armies.

Everyone knows the Second War in Heaven is coming. The Necrons are rising once again. They wiped out the Old One's civilization once before and nearly hunted their species to extinction. They forced the Old One's to weaponize the races they had given rise to, creating psychically attuned races to counter the warp null C'Tan. The Eldar, the Krork and the Jokaero were all hastily developed and released on the galaxy at large in an attempt to slow the advance of the C'Tan and while it wasnt them, but the newly birthed warp nightmares that ended the war, it still shows how much Life the Old One's were willing to sacrifice to achieve victory.

So what if the Emperor planned it all? Not just the Void Dragon and the Mechanicus, not just the beginnings of the crusade and it's possible downfall, not even just his own downfall, but the preparation of the entire galaxy as a weapon to stand against the Necrons. A swirling, starry vortex filled with psychers, chaos marines, and possessed nightmares, walking a tightrope between being swallowed by the ruinous powers and standing as a bulwark against the soul destroying plans of the C'Tan.

That's the big secret that I love, and I hope to god GW likes it too because I can't think of anything more epic then that.

[ThePov]

Well, as amazing and well thought out that line of logic is (which it is, really. Bravo.), and as much as it explains everything, it does depend rather heavily on one central assumption that is by no means set in stone, only implied in very round-about means, that being that the Emperor is an Old One. It's possible, it's epic, and it would explain a lot, which is precisely why GW won't use it. It's not in the interests of the company to essentially close the book on the 40K story like that, because they can instead just keep making money by giving us one teaser after another (and I'm not complaining, I personally fin the whole process very fun.).

So yeah, you have a very well developed theory that is entirely plausible, but will likely never be confirmed for the simple reason that GW likes to suck as much money out of your wallet as possible.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Well, as amazing and well thought out that line of logic is (which it is, really. Bravo.), and as much as it explains everything, it does depend rather heavily on one central assumption that is by no means set in stone, only implied in very round-about means, that being that the Emperor is an Old One. It's possible, it's epic, and it would explain a lot, which is precisely why GW won't use it. It's not in the interests of the company to essentially close the book on the 40K story like that, because they can instead just keep making money by giving us one teaser after another (and I'm not complaining, I personally fin the whole process very fun.).

So yeah, you have a very well developed theory that is entirely plausible, but will likely never be confirmed for the simple reason that GW likes to suck as much money out of your wallet as possible.

I'd say further its a good thing because the individual can really pick/choose ideas/storylines/concepts ect he/she likes and go with that..it isnt wrong, but it isnt right either, its just up to the individual. That why I like 40k backround really, its very much up to the individuals perspective.

[The Undying]

While I like what has already been posted here I feel the need to post one of my own.
It says on Lexicanum that Abaddon was guided to the resting place of his daemon sword by a Gold-Skinned Stranger now who do we know with gold skin cough* deceiver cough*, and what does this mean. Why do the C'tan want to help Chaos when they hate it as much (possibly more) as everyone else.