Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-29025531-20170413061825/@comment-71.215.147.39-20180528150952

In The Master of Mankind theres a flashback to a conversation between Arkhan Land and the Emperor about Angrons Butchers Nails.

Arkhan had expected the Omnissiah’s dispassionate demeanour, but to witness it in so intimate a context was inspiring in the extreme. So neutral. So inhumanly neutral. ‘Divine One,’ he said, before he knew he was going to say anything at all. ‘A compromised primarch is still a primarch,’ the Emperor mused, still distracted. ‘What is it, Arkhan?’ Land hesitated. ‘You are more sanguine than I would have imagined in this moment, even knowing of your holy detachment from emotion.’

‘What would the alternative be?’ The Emperor laid the bloodstained gloves on a nearby surgical trolley, where red-marked knives and other instruments lay wet and freshly used. ‘That I might mourn the Twelfth as though it were my injured son, and I its grieving father?’ ‘Never that, Divine One.’ Arkhan chose his words with care. ‘Though some might expect that.’ The Emperor unlocked the sealed vambraces of His hazard suit, then removed the surgical mask that had covered His face until now. ‘It is not my son, Arkhan. None of them are. They are warlords, generals, tools bred to serve a purpose. Just as the Legions were bred to serve a purpose.’