User blog comment:DirgeOfCerberus111/An Alternate Universe? Let the heresy begin!/@comment-2253300-20110824124948/@comment-2253300-20110824235905

All right. Brace yourself, because this is a long one. The premise behind this alternate timeline is that the Emperor chose not to come into the light and create the Imperium. Instead of stepping forth and conquering humanity as the Emperor he decided to continue his work from the shadows as the Eternity Guide. He masterminded the Unification Wars, this time not as its leader, but rather as the power behind the throne to a Warlord that he felt was suitable to lead Terra, and then arranged that the new King of Terra created an alliance with the Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars. He then left to further his plan. He sought out other Human civilizations that he felt may be able to thrive, such as the Interex and the Auretian Technocracy, and guided them to prosperity from the shadows as well. As a result instead of the single massive Imperium, the Eternity Guide(aka the Emperor) created countless thriving human civilizations. Among these civilizations were the empires of his sons, the Primarchs. Before he left Terra he created them, and scattered them across the cosmos himself. This was because they were not meant to lead his armies, but to create their own Empires that would guide humanity forward. The Emperor taught each of these small empires how to create an Astronomicon Web. Essentially a group of Psykers on each planet would create a small Psychic Beacon. Each of these Micro Astronomicons would be linked to others from the same empire in a web. This would allow humanity to traverse the Warp safely without the huge Astronomicon produced by the Emperor in the main timeline. Naturally some of the Primarchs in this setting turn to Chaos or die. Furthermore in this setting there is alot more room for large Xeno Empires as they no longer have a massive Xenophobic empire looming over their heads, So the Tau Empire ends up much bigger in this setting. The Human civilizations themselves are diverse. The Eternity Guide is secretly working towards unifying humanity through them. He hopes that the strongest of them will slowly assimilate the others either through diplomacy or conquest. In the end one will remain, and end up the galaxy's most powerful intra-galactic empire. In this setting the factions are far more numerous, and the footing is more even. Thoughts?