Headscratchers / If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device

• Shouldn't there be about five more high lords hanging about? The Grand Master of Assassins, The Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, The Master of the Astronomican, the Paternoval Envoy and one of the temporary seats are all missing.
  • Given how inept most of the High Lords we've seen are maybe they've left out of disgust or simply do not interact with them?
  • It could just be that they're with the High Lords, but are either asleep (well, they are old) or are simply out of focus. Alternatively, the missing ones could just be busy elsewhere, maybe on the 'Old Folks Planet' that gets mentioned by the High Lords at one point.
    • Most likely just busy: Decius doesn't hang constantly with these ones, he just drops in now and then, for starters, and High Lord Kitten accompanies Emps or Magnus most of the time. And despite how the ones we've seen are, the job of High Lord means you are in charge of everything that that job implies. It's likely that they couldn't pull themselves away from the job.
• The Emperor's face is just a skull. If he doesn't have a nose, how is it itching? Phantom pain?
  • Yes, they say it is a phantom itch caused by Nurgle.
• How the absolute hell is Leman Russ hacking up that Pink Horror at the beginning of Episode 24 without it splitting into Blue Horrors? Isn't that the whole point of the Pink Horrors?
• When Kitten plays a certain game with Tzeentch for Magnus' soul, Magnus uses his psyker powers to keep Tzeentch from reading Kitten's mind and seeing what card he is about to draw. Except would Tzeentch have been able to actually do anything about Kitten drawing a Mystical Space Typhoon even if he knew it straight away?
  • Tzeentch is a universal class cheater. Denying him information is always a good idea.
  • Also, Tzeentch is so used to being able to read others' minds that suddenly not being able to would be a good explanation for why he was shaken or at the very least unobservant enough to let Kitten get away with a bunch of questionably legal plays.
• Why does Cegorath let Stern insult him like that?
  • She's there at the Harlequins' invitation, so she is a guest. Plus she's Imperial aligned, and the Laughing God seems to have a thing for the Imperial loyalists, so he's willing to tolerate her.
  • In addition to the above, Stern is simply too damned useful for the war against Chaos to be killed or turned out simply because she's obnoxious towards Xenos.
  • She also clearly has no idea who or what he is, apparently mistaking him for a statue. One assumes he's gone to some lengths to preserve this state of affairs.
  • Episode 29 confirms she's there as an enforcer of some sort, as the Honk God sends her to help ensure that the Ynnead ritual goes through.
• If The Star Child is the Emperor compassion how is The Emperor an Adaptational Nice Guy especially as a dad with all the Primarchs? And have all the dad and son moment's?
  • The Star Child is part of the greater soul of the Emperor. He still possesses some aspects of compassion and empathy, but the Star Child embodies the majority of it.
  • According to this post, per Word of God, Throne Emperor lacks compassion, but still has emotions like joy, sadness, and absolute rage, and is consciously making pseudo-compassion out of those emotions. He's aware of his own limitations, and still cares about humanity and the Imperium, but can't outright empathize. He does enjoy being around his sons, and his Pet the Dog moments could be him making them happy so that they'll stay without actually caring how they feel. Or it could be him trying to remember what a compassionate person would do.
• Why did the Masque of Slannesh seem to think that Kaldor Draigo had some kind of rapport with Slannesh? The Masque seems to think that if Draigo just puts in a good word about her to her god, she'll be freed from her torment. Also when Draigo kills the Masque, she calls him a traitor. Why would she think that about such a high ranking Grey Knight?
  • It's a reference to the Silver Knight of Slaanesh, who is commonly believed to be Kaldor Draigo, due to the Knight being able to resist Slaanesh's temptations and the Knight's general appearance.
• The podcasts, in-universe, are edited in post-production to prevent problems: for example, the White Scars podcast cut the part about battle cant because it only works when nobody knows about it. That insinuates that these podcasts aren't broadcast live. But in the Last Church podcast, Uriah's debate caused mass Choas uprisings all across Terra while the podcast was still going. How is this possible, if it's not a live debate? Big E and the Custodes even decided to cut everything involving Uriah, in the name of public safety.
  • The podcasts are presented live to the Imperial Palace and maybe Terra as a whole. Once they are shown to people of other planets, they are edited.
• What were the other members of the Bro Trip doing during the incident on Jopall? Were they confined to the ship and not informed about what was going on?
• Where can I find the track Hammer of War? It doesn't come up on Youtube or Google.
• According to the latest War Hams episode (an RPG spin off of Bro Trip in the Wrath and Glory system), part of the crusade is breaking off to go to the Ghoul/Ghost Stars, an extremely dangerous part of the galaxy that we don't know much about. But I have absolutely no idea why they would do this. Alfabusa's stated aim with Bro Trip has been to shine a light on obscure Guard regiments, but the only Imperial planet there, the sentinel world Orask, has no guard regiment of its own, instead being guarded by a few generic regiments. Another reason I can think a part of the crusade fleet would go to the Ghoul Stars is to try to find Vulkan, especially because according to the fourth War Hams ep, this is right after Jopallian Japes. But this is odd to me as well, because Orask has only had minor conflicts with Orks, and the only WAAAGH! to happen there was in M41, and it's been established that TTS is currently in M42, so it's a few centuries too late. The last reason I can think of is to try to find a way to turn Vulkan back to normal, but I have no idea what they'd need for that either.
  • Vulkan did state that it is the responsibility of the Primarchs, and those who follow them, to try and protect human life that is within their reach, despite the threat to Terra posed by Magnus the Red. It's why they rescued the Catachans from Daemonic attack, even though they didn't have to... and it allows them to recruit others into their crusade. While Vulkan is still missing, Corvus might have taken these words to heart and launched a side-crusade into the Ghoul Stars so as to accomplish both of these goals.
• So, because of the Star Child's "Compassion Radiation" leaking out into the city, and causing Eldars to die from over-compassion, it was leading to the city being even more destroyed than before. But once Vect played to Fyodperor's weaknesses, suddenly everything's hunky dory for the Eldars as the arena match still goes on. What i'm asking is how is the arena match still going strong even though the Eldars were being melted into nothingness because of the compassion radiation? How is it that an arena match is still scheduled to happen even though before, the Eldar likely present in the stands were being wiped out left and right?
  • The distress caused to the Star Child feeds the Dark Eldar and heals them just as much as the kindness was killing them. So everything returned back to the regularly-scheduled spiky torture frenzy that is Commorragh.
• Linking with the above headscratcher, why did the Imperial forces not take the opportunity to break free, recover their clothing and equipment that were confiscated by the Drukhari and escape while the Drukhari are busy dying from the Star Child's "Compassion Radiation"?
  • They were likely locked up in secure facilities while waiting for the match to be set up. If a door is big enough and heavily locked enough, even a Primarch and Kaldor Draigo might not be able to force it open, regardless of whether or not their jailers are melting.
• Out of universe, which text-to-speech device does the Emperor use?
• What are those weird bits at the end of the main episodes where people scream and mutter things? Why are those there in the first place?