Emperor's Bane

Chapter 755: The Wisdom of Horus

Chapter 755: The Wisdom of Horus
"Guilliman, my brother."

"Before we get started, let me ask you a question."

"What do you think: Is the current human empire a universal empire?"

Even when discussing the most serious-sounding political topics, the proper smile never left the wolf-god's face: the empire's warmaster stretched his limbs lazily on the cream-white stone chair, as if he had just asked a very ordinary little question.

Compared with most of his brothers, this almost eternal calmness is undoubtedly one of Horus' greatest advantages: in the eyes of outsiders, the wolf-shepherd god is always so calm, and when he speaks, he can easily take control of the topic.

Even other Primarchs found it difficult to defend their ideas in front of the Warmaster.

This is especially true of Guilliman.

"Universal Empire?"

The Macragge rubbed his chin, where the stubble was soft as grass: whatever he had been thinking about, Guilliman had now followed Horus's lead.

He really liked this topic.

"Let me be clear, Horus: Universal Empire is not an auspicious term."

"Do you still believe in luck?"

"No, it's just that as an archon, there are certain words that must be avoided at all costs."

The primarch smiled.

"But to be honest: universal empire is indeed a more appropriate adjective."

"For the current empire."

"but……"

"But it feels like there's something missing between the Human Empire and the Universal Empire?"

Just as Guilliman was hesitating, the Wolf Shepherd smiled and supplemented for him: Horus must have been well prepared this time. Before stepping on Guilliman's flagship, he had already guessed every possible reaction of the Macragge people to this brotherly conversation.

"Yes."

Guilliman nodded, and then launched into a long string of political terms, speaking at random.

"In simple terms, the so-called universal empire is more like a philosophical concept: it believes that there are certain values in the world that can be discovered, understood and obeyed by everyone, and with this concept as the core, plus a strong or flexible ruling body, a theoretically boundless empire can be established."

"For a long time, the concrete manifestation of the universal empire was a monarchy that ruled multiple nations at the same time, and the universal concept in their eyes was often a unified religion: the imperial subjects from different nations believed in the same religion and submitted to the same royal family. This was the beginning of the universal empire."

"Typical examples are the Roman Empires in human history: the ancient Roman Empire is self-evidently a long story, and the Catholic Holy Roman Empire can also be understood as a one-sided universal empire, but the most typical example is the Ottoman Empire."

"In the later stages of development, the universal empire can even accommodate different religions into its own values, and its concept has become more up-to-date: the monarchs and nobles who originally served as rulers can be replaced by democratic regimes or committees, and religion gradually gives way to the same ideology, or some more illusory common concepts."

"But fundamentally, the basic concept of a universal empire has never changed: it requires a ruling group that can transcend concepts such as region, religion, and race, and it also requires a core value that everyone can agree on, so as to tolerate and suppress the conflicts caused by different cultures and cognitions within the empire."

"Please put it more simply."

“The philosophy of governing a country is applicable everywhere.”

“Nice summary.”

Horus nodded, stood up and poured himself a second glass of wine: It must be said that Avalon's star product can be sold all over the galaxy, it has its own unique features, even the Wolf God is smitten by this unique sweetness.

"So do you think that the current human empire can be considered a universal empire?"

"..."

Guilliman thought for a moment.

"It doesn't count...it doesn't count..."

"How to say?"

The wolf-herder stood, his shadow looming over the thoughtful Macragge.

"First, a universal empire requires a ruling group that is above all things: this is something that the current empire can satisfy."

"You mean the High Lord?"

Horus laughed.

"I remember that most of those high lords were Terrans, right? Is this considered transcendence?"

"This is different, Horus."

The Primarch shook his head and looked at the Warmaster in some disbelief.

"Or rather, you don't really think that the High Lord is the true ruler of the empire?"

Horus stopped talking. He silently took a sip of wine and motioned for his brother to continue.

"Horus, we all know that the High Lords are just servants of the Emperor. They do not have more power of their own. This is also the fundamental reason why I will not hate these High Lords because of the Badab Crisis, because I know that they are just a group of high-level workers."

"A wage earner?"

"A word from Avalon: Dawnbreakers always have some strange habits."

"Let's continue with the previous topic: If we look behind the High Lord, we will find that whether it is the Sigillite or the High Lord, their power ultimately comes from our Gene Father, and their ruling area is limited to the Solar Star Region."

"Elsewhere in the galaxy..."

"This is our world."

The Wolf Shepherd God added with a smile.

"so what?"

"So, the people who actually rule this human empire are the Emperor and his descendants, that is, the [Emperor's Family] composed of us, the Primarchs. This fully meets the first necessary condition of a universal empire."

"It's just a little behind..."

Guilliman muttered quietly.

"What about the second point?"

Horus continued to ask.

“The second point is the problem.”

Guilliman sighed.

"To be honest: if you choose to view all of humanity as a whole, then the Human Empire is definitely not a universal empire: judging by the Emperor's strictness regarding bloodlines, we are more like an extreme nationalist country that emphasizes racial purity..."

"You're wrong about that."

Horus interrupted him.

"Guilliman: The concept of nation disappeared tens of thousands of years ago."

"Humanity is humanity: as long as it is pure humanity is a group."

"However, humans themselves cannot see themselves as a group: more than 99% of the Empire's citizens in the galaxy will only see the world they live in or even the interior of the hive city throughout their lives. It is a bit presumptuous of you to expect them to raise their heads and see the other world on the other side of the galaxy as their own kind."

"Back on Terra, a small continent could be divided into hundreds of completely different and even hostile nations: how can you expect the current one million worlds of the Empire to unite as a collective? We are by no means a nationalist country. What we are facing is a universal empire."

"This is reality, Guilliman: not something we can alter by imagining things."

"You have a point."

The Primarch nodded, but he was not entirely convinced of Horus's point of view.

"But in this case, it will be even more difficult for us to find a common set of values for a million worlds: the Great Crusade was only a special case, a gift left to us by the tragedy of the Age of Strife, and this gift will certainly not last forever."

"Tell me more details."

The Warmaster took an involuntary step forward.

"To put it simply, the universal concept of the Empire before this was actually [security]."

"Safety?"

The wolf god chewed on the word.

"Yes. Remember how the Emperor described the Great Crusade?"

"While one world was ravaged by war, hundreds of fellow humans on other worlds were waiting anxiously for news from their home planet in the chaos of the Age of Strife. Their suffering was the reason why the Great Crusade was so successful along the way."

"Compared to the suffering caused by the aliens and pirates during the Age of Strife, submission to the Empire was a very attractive option: the military security that the Empire could provide was our greatest universal value during the Great Crusade, and in order to be protected under the wings of the Empire, different worlds chose to submit to the Emperor."

“This is indeed a universal value: even if it looks a little strange.”

“But the problem is that universal empires have a bad reputation because they are often destined to disintegrate or perish: universal values will eventually fail and be replaced by something more narrow. In the past, it was nationalism, and in the future, it’s hard to say.”

"Why is this again?"

The Wolf-God asked humbly like a proper student, realizing that Guilliman was indeed qualified to be his teacher when it came to human history: it was not shameful to ask his brother for advice.

"how to say……"

Guilliman scratched his head.

"The universal empire is like a fragile glass bowl. At the beginning, it can hold enough cake to allow different groups to share the benefits in its big bowl and build a harmonious society."

"But as time goes by, due to aging political structures, internal corruption, foreign invasions and many other reasons, the pie of benefits will always become smaller and smaller: when various groups can no longer benefit, universal ideas will naturally no longer have value."

"That makes sense."

The wolf shepherd god smiled.

"During the Great Crusade, the universal value of the Empire was to protect their safety, but a sense of security is something that people get used to: when the people of later generations forget the pain that the Age of Strife brought them, and take the peace brought by the Empire for granted, they will naturally notice the injustices hidden under the universal value of [safety]."

“Taxes, for example.”

Guilliman added.

"After people forget the chaos of the Age of Strife and the necessity of the Great Crusade, and after security is no longer their top priority, they will naturally notice how unreasonable the taxes collected by the Empire are. At that time, universal values will collapse: countless worlds will think that staying in the Empire is a worse option for them."

“It’s really troublesome.”

The wolf-god swung his wine glass.

"After all, there is no other way to make these mortals realize the importance of safety. We can't let them experience a war from time to time, and then let the imperial army rescue them to let them know the universal values of the empire, right? That would be a waste of resources."

"Horus!"

Guilliman raised his head sharply: this plan was somewhat beyond his spiritual bottom line.

"Just kidding, bro."

The Shepherd God nodded.

"But, what you said are what I thought before."

He became serious.

"It is that the sense of belonging that unites millions of worlds in the galaxy is gradually disappearing."

"This is the most secret and greatest problem before us, and it is also the problem that my Imperial Federalism needs to solve the most: I am glad that we agree on this point, my dear brother Macragge."

"We are all wise, after all."

Guilliman absentmindedly took Horus' words of enticement.

He was more concerned with another issue.

"In that case, Horus: how does your doctrine propose to solve this problem?"

"Strictly speaking..."

The Wolf Shepherd God paused.

"do not know."

"..."

Guilliman's eyes widened.

"What?"

“I haven’t thought it through completely: there are a few key points that I can’t resolve.”

The Warmaster added slowly.

“First, a successful universal value has two necessary elements: one is that it is widely applicable, and the other is that it can bring benefits to all groups. To some extent, the latter is even more important than the former, because no group will say no to the benefits.”

“Individuals do, but groups don’t.”

"And this second point is also the reason why the Emperor's Imperial Truth is doomed to fail."

The Wolf God shook his wine glass and said something that made Guilliman break out in a cold sweat.

"Advocating rationality and progress, not believing in gods in the galaxy, not believing that there are things worth worshipping in the void, and believing that secular progress is the most worthy of pursuit: frankly, these words are all very correct."

“But: does assent to these views bring any benefit to humanity?”

"If civilians sing the Imperial Truth, will their lives improve? If governors and nobles sing the Imperial Truth, will their families prosper? If soldiers on the battlefield pass on the Imperial Truth, will they have a greater chance of surviving death?"

"Why would people buy into all this rhetoric if there's no benefit?"

The wolf-god looked at his brother.

"What do you say?"

Guilliman did not reply, but his silence was the best answer. "So, Guilliman, we cannot make the same mistake as our father on this issue."

The Wolf Shepherd smiled.

"He has a lot of things to deal with every day. Whether it's the war of unification or the great expedition, they are all great undertakings that ordinary people can hardly imagine. When dealing with such things, it is inevitable that there will be omissions. Since we want to fill this gap, we must be extremely cautious on this issue."

"After all, we have to come up with a set of values that will allow us to last for thousands of years."

"It must be accessible enough, and it must also be able to bring tangible benefits to everyone in the empire."

"..."

Guilliman crossed his hands, frowned into a small hill, lowered his head, and fell into a typical state of thinking: this state lasted for three or four minutes, and finally ended with a sigh from the Primarch.

"Horus... Horus..."

Guilliman sighed again and again.

"You have raised a very difficult question for me."

"Who says it isn't?"

The Wolf Shepherd God sat down, demonstrating the closeness between himself and his brothers.

"Now you know why I can't make up my mind?"

"determination?"

The Primarch caught on to the word.

"what do you mean……"

"Yes."

Horus nodded seriously, staring at his brother closely.

“This is a hard question: but we just happened to see an answer that works.”

"You know, Guilliman..."

"You mean... Luo Jia?"

The Macragge paused.

"You want to use Luo Jia's religion?"

"Perfectly satisfying, isn't it?"

Horus asked back.

“Existence is reasonable: Why did the earliest universal empires generally choose religion as their core value? Even an empire as powerful as Rome eventually had to choose to accept Christianity, and their descendants would rather choose to perish in order to defend the power of their own religion.”

"But...but this is different!"

Guilliman simply stood up, tossing around anxiously.

"Besides: The Emperor will never allow us to use religion to ..."

"He won't allow it?"

Horus interrupted him.

"Has Luo Jia been punished?"

"..."

Guilliman was speechless.

"Guilliman, my brother, religion is one of the trump cards left by our father."

"But this trump card is not safe."

After a moment of panic, the Lord of Macragge quickly regained his consciousness.

"Let's not talk about anything else: Do we dare to relax restrictions on religion today? In a few years at most, at least tens of thousands of sects will spring up all over the galaxy. Even if they all believe in the Emperor, the unified god, they will fight each other because of their different doctrines, which is exactly contrary to our original intention."

"It is indeed a problem."

The Wolf Shepherd God did not deny this.

“So I was thinking: Can we be a little bit leaner?”

"streamline?"

"My point is: we don't have to invent a religion out of thin air."

Horus held up a finger.

"Think about it, Guilliman: what is it about religion that appeals most to mortals?"

"..."

"shelter?"

“And worship.”

The Wolf Shepherd God added.

"Human beings, by their very nature, need to worship something, and they need a stronger will to guide them: scientists will worship science, atheists will worship their rejection of gods, and materialists will fanatically believe in their own philosophy: this is actually the same as religion."

"Of course, there are always some great people who can transcend this magic circle."

"And if mortals can do this, are they still called mortals?"

"In other words, the human spiritual world needs an anchor that can help humans, who are extremely fragile as individuals, to persist in this bizarre world: religion is just the most attractive of all types of anchors."

"That is, if we can choose an anchor for them, we don't need to create a religion at all, and this anchor already exists: an object worthy of worship for everyone, a spiritual symbol that we can rely on with confidence."

"…Emperor?"

"Yes."

Horus nodded.

"Besides, don't we have an Imperial Truth at hand?"

“It can be recycled.”

"It is not difficult to stitch the worship of the Emperor into the Imperial Truth: there is no god in the galaxy that deserves to be worshipped, but the Emperor who saved the world for the entire human race, isn't his spirit and will worthy of our worship? Isn't the noble ideal that supports him to accomplish these great deeds worthy of our following?"

“Do you think this is religion?”

"..."

"Of course not."

Horus showed his beautiful teeth and answered his own questions with satisfaction.

"This is just a reformed, new generation of Imperial Truth."

"..."

Guilliman was silent, then sighed.

“That’s what religion is: it can morph into something new at any time.”

"You are deceiving yourself, Horus."

"I know."

The Wolf Shepherd God was very calm.

"But my vision and perspective can only take me so far, brother."

"For me, a stitched imperial truth may not be the best way, but it is indeed the most appropriate way and the one with the lowest probability of failure. My ability limit can only support me to this point, so I did not throw out my concept immediately, but chose to discuss it further with you."

"Not only you, I will also go to Morgan and Luo Jia, and perhaps Chagatai Khan and Perturabo. The wisdom of all of us should be gathered together. This is not a cause that belongs to only one or two people. Every brother must work hard for this."

The Wolf-God stood up and walked to face Guilliman. He patted the Lord of Macragge on the shoulder earnestly and asked his brother with his eyes to lend him a hand: for the sake of a great ideal that had already occupied Guilliman's mind.

How could the Primarch possibly refuse?

"..."

"you're right."

Guilliman heard himself sigh: was he sighing too often today?
"But I still don't think the New Imperial Truth would be a good idea."

"It's ok."

Horus nodded.

"The glory of the Great Crusade will affect mortals for at least two or three generations. We still have enough time to weigh our plans. I have only put forward the most basic assumptions. Further supplementation requires the efforts of all of us."

"So now: let's talk about the remaining two questions, bro?"

Horus extended the invitation: Guilliman could choose the next topic.

The Macragge thought for a moment.

"First, tell me, how do you plan to deal with the relationship between Astartes and mortals?"

The Wolf-God smiled: he did not seem surprised by Guilliman's choice.

"Remember what I just said?"

"coexist."

“That’s right: coexistence.”

"That is too general, Guilliman: allow me to be more specific."

The Primarch cleared his throat.

"I personally believe that mutual compromise, mutual concessions, mutual assistance and support, while tolerating differences, finding as many similarities as possible, and building a good mutually beneficial model: this is the correct way for the Astartes and mortals to get along, and it is also the path that the Empire should take in the future."

“That’s what we call: coexistence.”

“Nice summary.”

Guilliman nodded.

"I'm sure even the high lords of Terra would not deny this statement."

“But the question is: How do you build this mutually beneficial model?”

"You know, on this issue, mortals are more difficult to convince than Astartes."

“It’s just a draft.”

At this point, even Horus himself felt a little embarrassed.

"In general: I have summarized four core slogans."

"tell me the story."

Guilliman smiled.

He increasingly felt that the Wolf Shepherd God was a partner worthy of long-term cooperation.