Emperor of Mankind - 41st Millennium: As mentioned above, the Emperor's shattered and mortally-wounded body was discovered on the bridge of the Vengeful Spirit by the primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion, Rogal Dorn, who, following the Emperor's instructions, oversaw His internment within the Golden Throne, the arcane psychic amplification device modified at the Emperor's own direction to also sustain His mind and decaying body.The Imperial Cult, after its establishment as the state religion of the Imperium in the 32nd Millennium, would later claim that this internment within the Golden Throne had been necessary so that the Emperor could leave the physical plane behind and "ascend" once more to His proper place in the Immaterium as the one, true god of Mankind after sacrificing Himself to save Humanity from the Traitor Horus.The Emperor has remained in the Golden Throne since His "ascension" to this day, neither fully living nor wholly dead. Although the device was initially intended to be used as the nexus of the Emperor's secret project to utilise the Aeldari Webway for the good of Humanity, the Golden Throne also now functions as a complex life support device and psychic amplifier, projecting the Emperor's mind into the Warp and across the galaxy.The Golden Throne itself lies in the Sanctum Imperialis, the great hall at the heart of the Imperial Palace guarded by the  Companions of the Emperor, a special and highly elite bodyguard contingent of the Adeptus Custodes.The Emperor's decaying physical form is preserved by the vast arcane machinery of the Golden Throne, which itself is maintained by a legion of Tech-priests from the Adeptus Mechanicus. His psychic essence is spread out across the whole of the galaxy through the Warp, watching over as much of Humanity as He can manage in His current depleted state, in order to keep the Ruinous Powers at bay.The Golden Throne is also connected to a massive psychic beacon known as the Astronomican, which makes faster-than-light travel possible for Imperial starships outfitted with a Warp-Drive by generating a telepathic signal by which the specialised mutant psykers known as Navigators are able to navigate through Warpspace.The Astronomican signal is originated and directed by the Emperor's mind, but is amplified and powered by a choir of 10,000 Human psykers. These individuals are selected for their psychic prowess, their ability to control their power, and are put to the task only after undergoing a rigorous process that includes their soul-binding to the Emperor to strengthen their minds against possession by daemonic entities.The life force of these psykers is consumed over the course of several solar months, 1,000 of whom die every day, which means that replacements must constantly be found and brought to Terra aboard the infamous Black Ships of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, the Imperial organisation responsible for regulating Humans who possess the psychic mutation.The selected psykers are, for the most part, indoctrinated to accept their fate as their sacred duty for the Imperium, for they are too dangerous to those around them to be allowed to live, and the sacrifice of their life is the greatest good that they can do in service to the God-Emperor.Those who prove less willing to give themselves for the glorious cause of Mankind are sedated and their psychic lifeforce fed to the power collection mechanism of the Golden Throne regardless. The Imperium must survive, regardless of the daily cost in lives.It is said that the Emperor's existence is one of endless pain and suffering, and that it is only His utter devotion to the Human race that keeps Him from accepting the death He now desperately longs to embrace.Should the Emperor die, then the Astronomican will become useless, and Humanity will no longer be able to safely travel through the Warp using its current technology (although this may be disputed by the fact that Humanity travelled the stars before the Emperor sat upon the Golden Throne, during the Dark Age of Technology).The Imperium would then become fractured and disintegrate into civil war. The reliance on the Emperor's life force for guidance and protection, and the dedication of His subjects to prevent his death, is the foundation for the Emperor's divinity as held by the Imperial Cult and countless billions of Human beings across the galaxy.Only the Astartes of the Space Marine Chapters do not openly believe the Emperor is divine, instead dimly remembering and honouring His determination to free Mankind from the shackles of superstition and organised religion even as they revere Him as the founder of the Imperium and the greatest Human leader in history.Yet something unexpected has happened. As the Imperium came under assault from the greatest conglomeration of the forces of Chaos since the Horus Heresy with the unleashing of Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41 and the fall of the Fortress World of Cadia, unleashing the Great Rift across the galaxy, one of the Emperor's sons, Primarch Roboute Guilliman, has been reborn.Resurrected from the dreamless sleep of stasis in the Temple of Correction on his homeworld of Macragge during the Ultramar Campaign by the technological genius of Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl and the power of Ynnead, the Aeldari god of the dead, Guilliman returned to the Throneworld during the Terran Crusade.He entered the Imperial Palace and spoke with his father the Emperor for the first time in ten thousand standard years. What passed between them remains unknown, but when Guilliman emerged, he took up the burden of leadership once more, becoming the Lord Commander of the Imperium, the de facto master of the High Lords of Terra.He launched the Indomitus Crusade, spearheaded by the newly-created Primaris Space Marines, to ensure that his father's empire would survive the coming of the Noctis Aeterna.Yet time may still be running out. In 999.M41, the Adeptus Mechanicus reported a terrible secret to the High Lords of Terra and the Adeptus Custodes. The highly advanced life support mechanisms of the Golden Throne have begun to fail and the Tech-priests no longer possess the knowledge necessary to repair them.Unless some solution can be found or some miracle intervenes, the Emperor's mummified body will eventually die and His mind and spirit will gutter out like a candle in the wind amidst the madness of the Warp, leaving Mankind all alone in the darkness. And then the predators will feast...