History Characters / Warhammer40000ImperialFounders

* UndyingLoyalty: Many Primarchs questioned his loyalty to the Emperor, but in the end he turned out to be maybe the most loyal Primarch of all due to recognizing the competency and benevolent intent of his father after much careful study. The Ruinous Powers couldn't tempt him with anything. As he tells Curze "loyalty is its own reward".

* BFS: His new Power Sword, Fealty. Any blade wielded by a Primarch will count as this and one of his Watchers in the Dark carrying the scabbard emphasizes how huge the sword itself is.

* ImmotalityHurts: In his private thoughts, Vulkan has lamented the fact that his immortality often results in him being forced to endure the pain of multiple deaths to do his duty. His time as Konrad's prisoner was so terrible that he required the assistance of the Emperor just to keep himself from going insane from the agony he endured.

** He's made a point of calling out the unnecessarily brutal policies the Imperium has developed. For example, he's vocally against the practice of deliberately keeping citizens in horrible condition for the sake of [[TheSpartanWay breeding stronger potential recruits]] that multiple Space Marine chapters have adopted. He sees it as not only immoral to subject loyal citizens to such brutality when they were promised a better life in the Imperium, but wasteful and dangerous. On the macro level, it hobbles any potential the world has for contributing to the Imperium beyond the trickle of recruits for one Chapter and makes defecting to Chaos or Xenos more attractive to the populace as destitute people have nothing to lose in the bargain. On the micro level, the resources required to turn a half-starved, diseased wretch into an functional Astartes make whatever traits a hard life brought to the recruits' initial mental states a negligible benefit at best.

* ImmortalLifeIsCheap: Once his nature as a Perpetual was discovered, Vulkan started finding himself in an improbable number of situations capable of killing a man even more durable than normal for a Primarch. Curze took special delight in [[ImmortalityHurts arranging most of these]], but Vulkan kept finding them on his own later.

* ManlyTears: In ''The End And The Death Volume I,'' it is said that Sanguinius wept as he did the monumentous task of closing the Eternity Gate of the Imperial Palace at the precipice of the Siege, knowing full well that it meant that whatever happened next, it is a acknowledgment of defeat, and a condemnation to all those who couldn't make it to the other side in time to death.

* ManlyTears: In ''The End And The Death Part I,'' it is said that Sanguinius wept as he did the monumentous task of closing the Eternity Gate of the Imperial Palace at the precipice of the Siege, knowing full well that it meant that whatever happened next, it is a acknowledgment of defeat, and a condemnation to all those who couldn't make it to the other side in time to death.

JackOfAllStats: Leman Russ stated that Sanguinius had the perfect blend of martial grace and bestial savagery. He's not as good a fighter as Curze, nor as a good commander as Horus, nor as tanky as Vulkan, nor as fast as Khan, nor as warp resistant as Russ, but by the Emperor, he still has it all.

* ManlyTears: It is said that Sanguinius wept as he did the monumentous task of closing the Eternity Gate of the Imperial Palace at the precipice of the Siege, knowing full well that it meant that whatever happened next, it is a acknowledgment of defeat, and a condemnation to all those who couldn't make it to the other side in time to death.

* TheAce: ExaggeratedTrope. The Primarchs are all impossibly strong, charismatic (well, outside of Angron) and had superhuman learning capabilities, but even so Sanguinius was TheAce above all of them -- as a result, absolutely everyone liked and respected him, Horus felt it was Sanguinius who truly should have been Warmaster when he was at risk of dying, and when Guilliman feared the Emperor dead he chose Sanguinius to lead his Imperium Secondus.

* RedBaron: The Great Angel, The pure One, The Brightest One, [[spoiler: Warmaster.]]

* TheDreaded: Sanguinius is too often considered by others as a respectable,inspiring yet soft Primarch, with too few, especially his foes, knowing little of his martial prowess. There is one being, however, who knows too well of Sanguinius' capabilities: Horus, and when he fell he did his best to orchestrate Sanguinius' death, knowing full well a living Sanguinius, either loyal or traitor, would end poorly for him.
* TheParagonAlwaysRebels: [[spoiler: TWICE. First was when he first met the emperor and dared to ask what would happen if he didn't comply to his father. Second was when he rejected the Emperor's anointing of him as Warmaster and becoming a rally figurehead for the Loyalist forces at the precipice of the siege. Both times he stated his opposition he did coherently and reasonably enough that the Emperor actually gave his sincere assurance.]]

** Angron was considered one of the greatest warriors even before his ascension to Daemonhood. In ''Echoes of Eternity'', an enraged Sanguinius crushes Daemon Angron.

* TheRedeemer: For the Fallen; well, the ones who haven't fallen to Chaos, anyway. Those ones he kills on sight, or else leaves in the hands of the Interrogator Chaplains, but the rest he's been going around and bringing back into the fold, recognizing that most of them weren't traitors to begin with. Azrael is less than thrilled, but he's hardly about to talk back to the man who just pulverized Khorne's personal antichrist.

* CombatPragmatist: How he fights Fulgrim during the Siege of Terra, bashing Fulgrim's face in repeatedly [[TalkingAFreeAction when he tries to talk]].

* CombatPragmatist: How he fights Fulgrim during the Siege of Terra, bashing Fulgrim's face in repeatedly [[TalkingIsNotAFreeAction when he tries to talk]].

* PraetorianGuard: Dorn and his Fists spent so much time as the Emperor's vanguard that they earned a reputation as the Emperor's Praetorians, just as much as the Emperor's actual Praetorian Guard, the Custodes.

* SuperPrototype: Thunder Warriors were stronger and better than Space Marines in most physical respects -- they grew larger, were stronger and more durable than even the superhuman Astartes. In much the same vein as a Marine can kill a human with a hard punch, a Thunder Warrior could cave in a Marine's skull with a headbutt. The reason why the Emperor toned things down with the Astartes, in addition to the mental instabilities of the Thunder Warriors model, was that making entire armies of such powerful and over-engineered soldiers was too expensive to be viable for the scale he needed to work at after Terra's unification.

* IdiotBall: Many of the Emperor's decisions were so obviously wrong it's hard to imagine how a sensible human being could have made them, never mind a supposedly perfect being. Take, as a perfect example, the situation with the rescue of Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters Legion. The Emperor discovers Angron in the final stages of a Film/{{Spartacus}} scenario, poised to be wiped out by a vastly superior number of forces. Having approached Angron in secret, Angron refuses to abandon his comrades and is willing to die with them. The Emperor's options include summoning his own forces to reinforce Angron's, whisking all of Angron's army aboard his massive spaceships, or unleashing an orbital barrage to at least devastate the enemy army so that Angron's force can win. Instead, as Roboute Guilliman had already brought the other side into the Imperium, he chooses to whisk Angron away from the battlefield at the last moment and leave Angron's friends and followers to be utterly wiped out, leaving Angron bitter, resentful, hating the Emperor, and full of rage -- in other words, a perfect candidate to swear allegiance to Khorne in order to take revenge. Some of these decisions are explained as a result of his inability to emphasize with others and his total focus on achieving his dream for humanity's future, but others can't.

* IdiotBall: Many of the Emperor's decisions were so obviously wrong it's hard to imagine how a sensible human being could have made them, never mind a supposedly perfect being. Take, as a perfect example, the situation with the rescue of Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters Legion. The Emperor discovers Angron in the final stages of a Film/{{Spartacus}} scenario, poised to be wiped out by a vastly superior number of forces. Having approached Angron in secret, Angron refuses to abandon his comrades and is willing to die with them. The Emperor's options include summoning his own forces to reinforce Angron's, whisking all of Angron's army aboard his massive spaceships, or unleashing an orbital barrage to at least devastate the enemy army so that Angron's force can win. Instead, as Roboute Guilliman had already brought the other side into the Imperium, he chooses to whisk Angron away from the battlefield at the last moment and leave Angron's friends and followers to be utterly wiped out, leaving Angron bitter, resentful, hating the Emperor, and full of rage -- in other words, a perfect candidate to swear allegiance to Khorne in order to take revenge.

* LackOfEmpathy: Noted both in and out of universe. While the Emperor was certainly brilliant in terms of intelligence, he was rather lacking in his ability to empathize with others, even his own Primarchs. Many of the problems he had with them likely could have been solved or at least mitigated had he actually took the time out of his day to just listen to their issues.

* PowerAtAPrice: Whatever he did with the Chaos Gods to gain enhanced power and knowledge cost him dearly. People who knew him before he entered the portal on Molech claimed that he came out fundamentally changed and somehow less "human". A condition that only worsened with time.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: The Emperor will use anyone as long as they're useful to his plans then disregard them the moment they are not. If they threaten his goals in any way, he'll have them actively and ruthlessly eliminated. Just look at what happened with the Thunder Warriors. The Primarchs and some Space Marines were worried that they would eventually end up on the chopping block themselves after they complete the Great Crusade. [[spoiler:Given that he had the [[DepopulationBomb Terminus Decree]] prepared in case they went rogue, their worries were fairly justified.]]

* CrystalDragonJesus: He may have even associated with the real Jesus. He even looks a little like a combination of a roid-raging Jesus and a Native American, though he was allegedly born in central Anatolia around 8000 BC, so he's probably a member of one of the extremely ancient ethnic groups from that area (one of which built [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Çatalhöyük Çatalhöyük]], an incredibly advanced society for its time).

* IHaveManyNames: While his birth name is unknown, he is variously known as the Master of Mankind, the Outlander to the Salamanders and people of Nocturne, and the [[Myth/NorseMythology Allfather]] to the [[Literature/SpaceWolf people of Fenris]]. The Mechanicus occasionally calls him the Omnissiah, at least officially. Followers of Chaos refer to him as the False Emperor and the Corpse-God, while Daemons call him the Anathema. In addition it's implied that he was several notable historical figures from our time, including possibly Jesus and [[Myth/SaintGeorge St. George]], though his 'dragon' was the [[EldritchAbomination Void Dragon]].

* BeenThereShapedHistory: For most of human history, the Emperor worked in the background, using his psychic power to take a variety of identities, only occasionally acting to direct human history as he felt needed. Some of his most active guises included [[Myth/SaintGeorge Saint George]], [[UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat Alexander the Great]], and he associated with ''Jesus Christ''. However, he turned against Christianity in the end.

* ImmortalProcreationClause: The Emperor designed to be infertile to ensure that their genetic modifications could not enter the gene pool of humanity at large.

* BattleTrophy: Most had some sort of collection of various trophies during the Great Crusade. Fulgrim presented Ferrus Manus' head to Horus during the Heresy and (during 5th Edition) it was implied that Trazyn the Infinite has a primarch in stasis as part of his collection (this turned out to be false).

* BarrierMaiden: Ever since his internment to the Golden Throne, he's been keeping the Astronomican running, which is so vital, that if it ever goes offline, the Imperium would essentially implode on itself within a short time. Many [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny "Who Would Win?"]] discussions agree that most of The Imperium's opponent's only chance is to rush Terra and take out the Astronomican, [[KeystoneArmy underlining its importance.]]

-->-- ''The Book of Vulcan''

** He gives another to [[spoiler:Magnus]] during his attack on the Imperial Palace. [[spoiler:Vulcan tells his fallen brother that he blames others for his own arrogance and self-centered actions. That for all his lamentations and rage for Prospero, much of the blame for letting the situation escalate was on Magnus himself obsessing over his guilt and self-pity instead of thinking of how to save his people or what is best for humanity.]]

* HumanoidAbomination: Not on the level of the Emperor, but the Horus Heresy books show unaugmented humans suffering {{Brown Note}}s upon seeing the Primarchs. It's described as sensory overload for weak willed normal humans to be near them.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Angron loves to talk about how the Butcher's Nails ruined him, only to use them on his own legion.
* ImmortalImmaturity: They all have a penchant for being much more irrational, impatient and petty than one would expect from genetically perfect superhumans. Particularly if it involves someone questioning their authority. The Traitor Primarchs especially having worse emotional issues than their Loyalist brethren. It's implied that this is a side effect of rapidly aging to adulthood: because the Primarchs physically grew so quickly, they all missed the vital emotional and social development that can only properly happen over the period of childhood and adolescence, leaving them far less well-adjusted and mature than they should be.