Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned (1990), p174-175 — The New Man

Since the first primitive humans evolved the species had developed a special relationship with the warp. The simple hunters and harvesters of early times recognised the natural forces which flowed through all living things like a great river of life bringing sustenance to the dead earth. Some of these early humans were more sensitive than others to the hidden movements of the warp. They could sense the rhythm of the warp as its energies moved through living things, and sometimes they could predict the future by means of subtle variations in the flow of warp energy. The most successful of these humans assumed the role of shaman or tribal witch, and used their powers to benefit their people.

As human numbers increased and human civilisation grew away from its natural roots the particular warp energies created by humans began to dominate the warp. Where the energies of nature were harmonious and benign, those of man were often disharmonious and dangerous. Power, ambition, greed, lust and a thousand other human feelings took root in the warp and began to grow. As the thoughts and emotions of men became stronger, the natural rhythms of the warp were disrupted and became less accessible to the shamans. Inevitably, the process of civilisation severed mankind's links with the natural forces of the warp, and created new ones based upon his own character. In time these disharmonious forces were to grow into the Chaos Powers.

The Emperor was born while the rhythm of the warp still flowed strongly through all natural things. The old shamans were guided by the warp and in turn guided their people. But even then the growing power of humanity was beginning to make itself felt, and the shamans feared that their knowledge and whole way of life would eventually pass away. The energies they depended upon were becoming increasingly difficult to tap. Worst of all, they were losing the ability to reincarnate. For as long as anyone could remember, when a shaman died his soul had flown into the warp and bathed in its energies, awaiting renewal in another body. Now, the souls were being lost, chased and consumed by the malignant Chaos Powers.

Terrified for the future of their race, all the shamans of Earth gathered in one place and began the longest and most important debate in the history of humanity, lasting centuries and leading to the birth of the New Man.

After hundreds of years of debate and research the Shamans came to the conclusion that they were doomed, and that without them the whole race would soon fall prey to the psychic entities it had created in the warp. At the same time the disruption of the natural rhythm of the warp would result in the inevitable decline of the whole planet. They divined a future when all of creation would be consumed by mankind's greed and ambition.

Although their own power was still strong the shamans realised that they could survive for only one or two further incarnations. They were not men to accept death easily. Many of them could remember the dawn of their race, when in other bodies they had walked under African skies. Having survived so long, for millions of years, it was not their way to die without hope or purpose. They therefore decided to pool their own energies by reincarnating in a single body. In their thousands they swallowed poison, and in their thousands they died, and their kind was gone from the earth.

Within a year the man later to be known as the Emperor was born. As he grew older his powers began to manifest themselves and he gradually remembered the thousands of lives that lay behind him. He was the New Man. But he was also the past. His powerful mind could still sift the natural energies of the warp, enter the lives of plants and animals, promote harmony, and ease the suffering of others. And he remembered how he was made to live forever, so that he would never have to reincarnate, but would survive unchanged for eternity. At last he remembered everything that had led up to his birth, and he left his own people to begin his endless journey around the world and through human history.