Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-24821739-20140604204305/@comment-3416287-20140613165802

In order for the Imperium to recover the Emperor must first die, so that he can be reincarnated. For that to work every planet must prepare itself for the isolation that come afterwards. Humans would be unable to travel though the warp, making it so that only nearby star systems could maintain contact. A lot of planets would erupt into riots as food from farm planets wouldn't reach them. Communication could still be maintained, albeit difficultly. Some planets will go rouge and begin building their own empires, some will be destroyed by aliens and daemons, because military forces wouldn't be able to reach them, and because the military wouldn't be able to get weapons and munitions from forge worlds. It would be the age of strife all over again, but once the Emperor returns to life he could begin the process of slowly rebuilding the Imperium. When the astronomican is turned on again, there will be Imperial warlords who would fight the Emperor because now the fact that the Emperor has returned means that the Inquisition is now beneath somebody else, a lot of inquisitors and eccleisiarchs will declare the Emperor a heretic, and there would be a second Age of Apostasy, but once the Emperor makes his presence known, all loyalist Astartes will flock to join him in another Great Crusade.