The Emperor

*This article is about the character. For the ending, see The Emperor Reversed.*
**Overview** Dialogue Gallery

## The Emperor

### Aliases

Daddy
Snake Eyes
Nameless God

### Status

Active

**The Emperor** is a character that appears in *Who's Lila?* and is mentioned in *Schastye*. He is implied to be a high-ranking and powerful noosphere dweller, whom the player can encounter in the Forest during the Emperor Reversed ending.

## Appearance

The Emperor is a strange, somewhat humanoid creature. He has a large smile with buck teeth and appears to have a mustache or large, protruding fangs. His eyes are large and his pupils are vertical slits, described as snake eyes. He also has a mushroom shape protruding from the top of his head that is implied in *Schastye* to be a hat.

*Schastye* further expands on his appearance, describing him as being somewhat monkey-like, and having blue lips and large yellow teeth.

Despite the Emperor's strong resemblance to Garage Heathen's mascot character, he has stated that the entity is not connected or representative of himself in any way.

## In *Schastye*

Although not explicitly referred to as the Emperor, there is a character mentioned in *Schastye's* story that is very likely one and the same with the Emperor. During Ivan Yatuow's dream, he found himself in the Forest. He eventually walked to its edge, and stepped off and fell down into the void below it. During the descent, he looked up at the Forest's underside to see an "enormous creature, sitting in an insect-like pose". He went on to describe the creature's appearance, which bears a strong resemblance to the Emperor's.

After waking up from this dream, Ivan found himself in Ryibkin's Apartment. There, he saw a strange statuette sitting on a column whose appearance is also similar to the Emperor's. He also conversed with Fedor I. Ryibkin and eventually learned about the Dogon tribe of West Africa, and Marcel Griaule's study of their mythology. They had a "Nameless God", whose appearance was represented by the aforementioned statuette. The tribe would use Teth Mushrooms in order to commune with this Nameless God, and even Griuale himself supposedly did this as well and recorded the conversations they had. Ivan and Ryibkin then began consuming the mushrooms regularly in order to meditate and eventually go back to the Forest to meet the Nameless God themselves, using Griaule's extensive notes as a guide.

Ivan encountered the Emperor once more after successfully arriving in the Forest with Ryibkin. He described the monster as terrifying, much moreso than the statuette could accurately portray. Ryibkin moved to kneel before the Emperor, but Ivan was unable to do so, as he lacked a body. Then, something strange began happening to Ryibkin as his face "looked just like the sound of a blue car horn" and his body contorted into a long, spindle like shape with the focus of the Emperor causing a halo of golden light to form around Ryibkin's head. The light then intensified into an infinitely bright point, after which there was a loud snap and Ryibkin disappeared.

Afterwards, Ivan and the Emperor shared a conversation, but not in the literal sense of it; rather, they both existed only as the World's essence, on a ribbon that comprised existence and simultaneously did not exist itself. The only thing keeping Ivan from being completely eroded by this was an overwhelming wish for everyone to share the "godly blessedness" that he was experiencing in that moment. The Emperor replied back to Ivan with Ryibkin's voice, telling him about the Prophecy. The Prophecy was a set of words which, when read by any person regardless of background, will enlighten them in the way that Ivan had been, by activating the right neuron pathways in the right order. This would eventually cause them to vanish, and Ivan would also vanish as soon as he finished writing down this set of words. He memorized the words of the Prophecy that the Emperor dictated to him and became determined to spread it to anyone he could.

Ivan awoke again in the living room of Ryibkin's apartment and quickly went to the computer in one of the rooms to begin typing the Prophecy on a word processor. True to the Emperor's word, Ivan vanished as soon as he completed writing it.

## In *Who's Lila?*

The Emperor can only be met during the Emperor Reversed ending, after checking The Stranger. He appears shrouded in shadow and bobbing up and down slightly. He asks someone what they want (it is ambiguous who, it could be William, Lila, the player, or someone else entirely) and grants them their desires by giving them access to the DAEMON, whom he calls his servitor. The Emperor seems to have intense psychic/telepathic capabilities, as the conversation occurs without the other character even having to speak; they merely have to think and he instantly knows of their thoughts and desires. After putting the DLC link to the DAEMON on the player's clipboard and hinting to use it on the phone in the Burned Apartment, the game returns to the main menu.

The Emperor can also be seen after accessing the Forest via the Veil. If the player slips through a gap in the boulders that surround the forest, they can then walk to the edge of the map and fall off of it, just like Ivan had done in his dream. As the player falls, the Emperor becomes visible on the underside of the Forest. He appears absolutely massive, and it is difficult to have a full, close view of him.

## Trivia

* The way Ivan describes what happened to Ryibkin in the Forest is similar to what is seen happening to Strupnev when he gets killed by The Empress. This, as well as their names being opposite gender counterparts, implies some sort of connection between her and the Emperor.
* The exchange that occurs between Ivan and the Emperor and the unknown "vessel" and the Emperor have strong parallels, in that there is a sort of shared consciousness between the Emperor and whomever he is conversing with, and also that he is happy to grant any wish that a person has.

## Sources

1. ↑ Garage Heathen's statement on the Emperor's design