The Master of Mankind (Volume 41) (The Horus Heresy) [Paperback] Dembski-Bowden, Aaron

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Individualistic but united, insular but ever aware of the universe, each is as much a reflection of the Emperor himself as the astartes are their primarch. I'm not sure if we picked a specific reason, but we are not removing the Emperor's more Fatherly/Benevolent moments from our canon. Most times Dembski-Bowden has gotten away with this sort of single-minded approach has been helped by the story being set in late M41 or through the use of unreliable narration. And since we are still trying to mirror canon where it fits in our canon, the thought was did we need to change our portrayal? Throughout its pages we see almost every aspect of it introduced, brought up and considered, but without the definitive or singular focus of other tales.

Also, it is interesting you describe them as predictable as that's not something which occurred to me before. Horus once mentioned that the Emperor lived "in Anatolia, in his own childhood" when describing his own first meeting with the Emperor.

Many of the guises He adopted were humble, others became monumental figures of world history or religion. The first major character we are introduced to is Ra, a captain within the Custodes, and someone who is in personal communication with the Emperor. In truth, the Emperor's origin and history prior to the start of His attempt to unify Terra during the Unifications Wars is largely mysterious and unknown, though His immortality as a Perpetual and extraordinary psychic abilities still define Him.

He has sat immobile, His body slowly crumbling, within the Golden Throne of Terra for over 10,000 standard years. The Master of Mankind is the quintessential Warhammer novel that doesn’t break any new ground, but does what it does so well, it doesn’t have to.

Despite their willingness to strike a bargain with Him early on, the Chaos Gods themselves later recognised the Emperor as their greatest enemy among all the intelligent beings of the galaxy, naming him "the Anathema. There's some suggestions that the Emperor realises they might be linked, or even bend a mind towards, the Ruinous Powers, but does nothing because their failings would supposedly be offset by their killing potential. To most people he is a godlike being, someone they can barely look at for more than a handful of moments. It is for this reason that all of Daemonkind refers to the Emperor as "the Anathema," the embodiment of the metaphysical opposition to Chaos.