The Principles of the God Incarnate

 The Emperor really is a god, His ascension after the fight with Horus is very real. Like the other gods He exists within the Warp and in essence He is the god of Humanity. The one limitation to any god is that to have power over the physical world, they must rely upon mortals to do their work. The Emperor is in fact the greatest example of this – the galaxy spanning Imperium is merely the material instrument of the Emperor. In a similar fashion, the Chaos gods must have Champions, possess worshippers or temporarily create physical manifestations in the form of Daemons. At the bottom line, the Warp is merely a reflection of the material world, and without mortals, none of the gods would exist. All of the existing background points towards the gods, and other Warp entities, craving after the physical universe.

 However, what if a god could become a physical incarnation? As a man (the Emperor) can become a god, it stands to reason that a god could become a man. This is the idea of the God-Incarnate, the physical vessel for a god in the material world. The idea of the God-Incarnate is that there will be a certain individual (or individuals) who will allow this to happen - a god could invest their power into the mortal body and literally become a living god (commonly known amongst Thorians as Divine Avatars). Without being restricted to the Warp, and therefore restricted to the manipulation of crass, mortal pawns, what power would a god have?

The Implications of the God Incarnate

 One can imagine that Humanity would be doomed if one of the Divine Avatars were to become the incarnation of a Chaos god. Similarly, the idea of the God-Incarnate is not restricted to Humans - the Eldar are striving to create a new god to defeat Slaanesh, while a God-Incarnate of Gork or Mork would be terrible. However, possibly an even greater threat to the

Imperium, and the reason why the God-Incarnate is such a secret that only the Inquisition know of it (not even the High Lords of Terra know) is that it would be possible to reincarnate the Emperor into a living being again.

 As far as the many of the Inquisition are concerned, the 'second coming' of the Emperor would be a bad thing. This is quite an understandable position really, and springs from uncertainty. If the Emperor were to become God-Incarnate, what would happen to the Astronomican? What would be Humanity's reaction to having their god walking among them? Would the Imperium be torn apart by war, as believers and unbelievers in the second coming clashed? If the Emperor were in physical form, could He be killed again, and if so would He be destroyed forever, exposing Humanity to the many perils that the Emperor protects them from? Would the Emperor be destroyed if things went wrong, if the Divine Avatar was unsuitable? All in all, many of the Inquisition would rather see the status quo sustained.

The Inquisition and the Magi

 It is the real task of the Inquisition to seek out possible Divine Avatars and either kill them, control them or study them according to their personal philosophy. Over ten thousand years they have gathered information about what to look for to indicate a possible Divine Avatar (see Signs and Portents below). Under the cover of rooting out heretics, witches and mutants, some Inquisitors are searching for individuals that show signs of Divine Avatar-like properties.

The Magi (the original philosophical descendants of Moriana) are doing the same thing, only rather than wishing to suppress the God-Incarnate they want to bring it about. Some of the Magi may be trying to create a God-Incarnate of the Choas gods, out of selfish hope to either be the Divine Avatar themselves, or by earning eternal favour of their god for being the most loyal of servants. Others may be trying to reincarnate the Emperor, seeing this as the true way forward for Humanity. So we have the Inquisitors and the Magi both questing after the same thing, but for very different reasons - an eternity of secret conflict.

Signs and Portents 

The myths and legends surrounding the God-Incarnate tell of the coming of the new god amidst great upheaval, strife and war. Just as Revelations lays down the horrors of the second coming or Ragnarok heralds the end of the world, so too will the God-Incarnate's arrival be preceded by momentous events. There are many Inquisitors that believe the end of the 41st millennium is just such as time with such tumultuous circumstances - Ghazghkull's biggest Waaagh! the multiple hive fleets attacking the Imperium, the reawakening of the Necrontyr, and a growing Adeptus Mechanicus schism - all indications of growing turmoil and strife.

 Similarly, there are indicators that point towards who the Divine Avatar/s will be; shrouded in myths and legends as you'd expect, some of them as simple as 'Ten ways to recognize the Divine Avatar':

 “He shall have a great doom upon his brow, he shall be a witch of great power, he shall be altered in the physical form, he shall be able to talk and walk with the animals”

 Nobody knows all of the signs, and part of the reason for the Inquisition hunting down all the psykers, aliens and mutants they can is to study them, to find out what they can about these individuals so that they might better understand the type of person who would become a Divine Avatar.

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