Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-24821739-20140604204305/@comment-6078851-20140616134008

SanguiniousLives wrote: The Emperor's not coming back, he's a god now and gods can't exist fully in the real world as per the chaos gods. i would disagree on emps being a god (and i think emps himself would still say that he isn't). at best he could be described as a god-like being, but not an actual god.

one thing that defines a god is the ability to create life, and that's something that emps can't do. the chaos gods can, and do, create life, and while it may not be life as we know it it's still a form of life, and daemons are created from nothing more than the will of the gods. while emps created the primarchs and astartes (as well as others) he wasn't, and still isn't, capable of simply willing beings into existance. while they were the result of an unprecedented amount of work, effort, and vision, in genome manipulation, they were modified from already existing life.

so emps isn't a god, but technically the chaos gods aren't bona-fide gods either because a true god would have no issue existing in any realm it chose to visit. and emps knew/knows that they aren't actual gods but simply god-like entities, but they are far closer to true god-hood than emps will ever be.