Erda (The Primarchs' Mother) is a Horrible Character 

“She took the kids, Malcador”

>Primarchs scattered >Years of buildup of the mystery >Lots of red herrings, from Horus yeeting them into the warp to Word Bearers time travelling and smashing up the lab >Siege of Terra >Erda throws the primarchs into the warp because of a custody battle Thanks Dan

I just headcanon'd that everything we know of Erda is just Lorgar's coping fanfiction "We had a mommy, who loved us and did everything in her power to keep us away from the false emperor who destroys all our hard work"

I really liked when Primarchs had no mother, and were practically Emperor's modified clones. Literally created in labs, unnaturally. It made the Primarch's sometimes childish behavior more understandable, since they were cloned from flesh of the Emperor and not from a pair of parents. Hence the primarchs with healthy parental figures being more stable. Also it made the Chaos forces more scary and impossible to get rid of, considering they managed to infiltrate Emperors most important labs and stole his sons right under his nose. Erda's existance removes all of this. Infiltration of emperors currently most important project? naa Erda did it lmao, no biggie

The problem with Erda is that she's a late "update" to the lore. There is no real explanation to where she came from or what she's been doing. Her motivations are really inexplicable.

Erda was so swiftly kicked out of cannon it was hilarious. Everyone even Imperium haters all just collectively said no.

Me mum was a tube! A tube on Mount fucking Everest! Mum-Everest

Editor should have just said "If you are gonna write such a hollow character might as well say The Emperor just harvested egg cells from women with the most promising/desirable qualities for his project."

>Agrees to the Astartes and Primarch project >Suddenly regret descision for no logical reason >Thinks Astartes will malfunction without their Primarchs >Scatters Primarchs across the galaxy so that they be raised on unhinged planets >Leaves Astartes without their primarchs for a long long time This truelly is a woman moment if i ever heard about one in fiction holy hell this is cursed. This is the equivellant of a mother telling the father of her children that their kids will become poor adults if they ever got raised without their father. So than she decides to leave the kids somewhere in the forest, so that it could be raised by beasts or wild men..... This makes Horus and Peter Turbo look more reasonable and logical.

I liked the idea of the Primarchs having a mother, adding a whole different level to their existence. But like you said, she came at the end of the series, didn't do much and died. It was pointless.

Eras: I’m a good mother. *Yeets 20 of her kids through hell on a gamble on where here kids land* Big E: Just as planned.

Erda was a mistake swiftly written out again. I am sad that she got past the editors. Both male and female characters need to be well-written and, for the reasons you've outlined here, Erda is not that. If the intention was to simply "add more girls" then again, this was a failure. We have great examples like Tarasha Euten, Lotara Sarrin, and Golconda Pyke. They have depth, motivations, and traits of many kinds, like their male counterparts, and don't seem tacked on. Erda does not seem to have anything to say. It feels as if we are meant to think that she is great, because she has double-x chromosomes; none of the examples above would even think of trying that angle. They are great _and_ female. "Look a female character" is not by itself either a victory, a plot point or a characterisation. As a woman I am not flattered by the inclusion of Erda. It doesn't fill a previously unseen need. It's not even as if she is a heroic figure - as you point out, she ruins many, many lives. I had always assumed that the Emperor got 20 donor ova for his test tubes, which is one reason why the Primarchs all look different (except the twins). There was no lore gap where a single mother figure was needed. The development of the Primarchs without mothers (mostly) was always an interesting facet of the story. The Emperor's character was explored through his decisions, and this was a crucial one of them. Thank you for a well-reasoned answer to the "Erda Question".

Erda and Amara Astartes shouold have been one character. They have basically one story.

So Erda is the Horus heresy equivalent of the emperor's bitter ex wife who lost the divorce case but decided to fuck over big E by taking the kids far far away? "You might get the house but I'm dropping these little brats in the woods!"

GW writing is simply bad. Honestly, it's often more engaging and fascinating to hear people talking about lore than reading actual 40k books. Often, general ideas are good and interesting, but when you go to the down level, page to page, scene to scene narration, it's very lackluster. As fascinating as 40k universe is, as captivating concepts, factions and ideas are, when you actually read stories from the Black Library, most of it is dogcrap in terms of writing, when you need to actually write a concrete story set in the setting. How many stories about 1 space wolf conquering the planet and floating in space boarding chaos cruises did we have? Or stories where people on the ship bridge sip coffee and do smalltalks like if they were normal modern people, not imperial citizens? I'm not entirely blaming writers for it, 40k setting is very stiff and it's hard to make a compeling story in it, because things are repetetive and most characters/factions should not even interact with each other, blocking out some interesting possibilities and simple confrontation of ideas.

The only good thing about GW messing with it's 40k lore is that it has created a new generation content creators who wish to keep the record straight and protect what is uniquely good about 40k.

At least Erebus did one thing right.

Pre-retcon - chaos gods realized it would be an issue fighting twelve well adjusted demi gods and threw them through the warp. Everyone blames chaos for the mess today. After retcon. Erda throws a fit and dooms her children by throwing them blindly through the warp. Yes... She is half the reason why galaxy is totally messed up. I can see why the inquisition did their best to delete her name from history. The chaos gods were probably laughing at victory was tossed right on a silver platter for them.

The "Primarchs Mother" is a Karen throwing a tantrum

This isnt about erda tbh. This is about the ruination of big E for all his so called projects gets delegated into either being a group project, women moment or just finding it before instead of creating it. Nvm that she fucking further ruin characters like mortarion whose whole aspect is hating their father. She was a pointless add-on if not entirely a hostile element to the lore continuity.

I love how Erda's actions in the scattering of the primarchs were the epitome of a woman moment and how the author didn't even realize it at the time lmao.

No Roboute Gulliman only has 1 mother, Tarasha Euten the one and ONLY Gullimum.

Without a real useful reason to be created, they really ignored other better characters just because... who knows, and even Erebus becomes likeable at her side.

Here is my greatest problem with Erda. Her two actions of actual importance are neither important nor actually hers. The idea that the Primarchs would have a genetic mother as well as a father is intriguing, but no attempt before or after is made to portray this as relevant. Many of the Primarchs despise their father for a variety of reasons yet none of them feel anything for their mother. No abandonment issues, no hatred for her part in their dispersal, nothing. She is a non entity shoe-horned in at the eleventh hour to do something we all already know was and “in the context of the story” must be done. The scattering of the Primarchs had to occur in the Horus Heresy. Erda doing it feels less like a character fulfilling her arc and more of a plot device doing its job. Had she been corrupted, been shown realizing the callous cruelty of the Emperor over time, stated that the Primarchs would be better off scattered then with Him, I would have cared. As it is, she, essentially, does nothing. Nothing new, nothing of note, nothing that has not already existed within the lore in a simpler and more believable format. She shouldn’t exist because she adds nothing and does nothing and is nothing

I said this before and I said it again: The Scattering of Primarch done by Erda is the most useless retconned EVEN WHEN COMPARED to a Mechanicus Magos easily introduced a range of countless marines and armouries, but this is about Erda so I will set it back a bit To my opinion, the Scattering caused by the 4 Chaos Gods, decided to stop their Game for a minute and accepted to make a plan to throttle Big E Primarch Project is much much more powerful, mysterious and interesting than a woman throwing tantrum at Big E and for some reason thought what she did was correct. Thank ALL the 40k Gods for giving Erebus a character redemption arc

"I worry about my kids...let's yeet them into literal hell!"

This has the feel of a character introduced in a filler episode of a television show. They appear and disappear in a single episode, their actions have no bearing on the ongoing story, and changes little to nothing about the story before.

Erda/Amara are both characters retroactively inserted into the story (a stupid practice that rarely works). And let's be honest Big E would never forgive Erda's betrayal. Primarchs do not have biological mothers, only egg donors.

She's mentioned in one book and to my knowledge never mentioned again (meaning the reaction to her was so bad GW ignored her afterwards)

Erda has almost as much of a wasted potential as Fulgrim, but in a different way

They had a mother? I thought the Emperor just kind of clone himself in 26 different ways.

The idea of the primarchs having a mom (or multiple different ones) isnt a bad idea but the execution just sucked making her a god tier psycher like Big E was unnecessary it was only done cause a certain demographic would have bitched about her being "weak" compared to the emperor it would have been better if the emperor just chose normal women who proved themselves exceptional in more mundane fields to have kids with in an attempt for the primatchs to have different skill sets or outlooks

Did they actually change the established lore _again_ ? What next, she was the actual leader and The Emperor was just a figurehead?

Love how she was initially introduced but the more I grew to know the more I grew to hate her.

Astarte: tragic concern as a mortal is played as a toolby a god-like being. Erda: Angry perpetual Karen.

You’re goddamn right she does and for the record GW has shit all over The Emperor for the last couple of years and it’s Reprehensible.

Erda was simply a writer's pet and was a retcon... Worst of all she was a modern "strong independent women" type that is used as a mark of a bad written story/character. TLDR the black library writer's got high of their own farts and thought that they could piss the fans.

The weird thing is that in the book "The first heretic", it is hinted that Argel Tal, through a massive amout of Warp-fuckery, was the one responsible for the obduction of the Primarchs. In the book, a powerfull demon who was representing all 4 Chaosgods, send Argel Tal and his men into the eye of terror and ordered him to deactivate the Gellar field. After a bit of hesitation they turned it off and the demon transported them back in time to the Emperors secrete lab in the Himalayas. None of the scientists noticed them in the room which led Argel Tal to believe it´s an illusion, but the demon told them not to interact with anything or else "he" (probably the Emperor) will notice their presence there and intervene. After telling the soon-to-be Gal Vorbak how the Emperor betrayed the Gods, the demon enraged Argel Tal enough for him to cut through the pipelines, which fueled the Gellarfield protecting the Lab from the gods and his dual blades shattered while the field generator exploded. A moment later he sees visions of the Incubators crashing on the Primarchs respective Homeworlds before he found himslef back on his ship with his shattered swords lying infront of him, hinting that it wasn´t just an illusion.

When Erda was first hinted at I knew they were going to screw something up with her (GW/writers). But when her full story was reavled. I realised I hadn't full appreciated how much of a screw up they could have made. Erda & Astarte have done a huge amount of damage to 30 & by extension 40k. They've taken away the achievements of the Emperor, or Neoth as he's known. And they rob the Chaos powers or some of their involvement as well. Their great plan to stop the Emperor hinging on the stupid actions of a female. The rest is just childs play for them. Erda can't be redeemed. None of what she did help or was motherly either. As one of the Eighth. I know the suffering of my Primarch too well. And I can confidently say. We were better without him. His return poisoned snd corrupted the Legion irrevocably.

what's most frustrating about Erda is how easily fixable it could have been, imagine if the four chaos gods simply gave her glimpses of the horus heresy, just enough to make her misunderstand that them being with the emperor resulted in the downfall of mankind, or better yet actually write more about her so that we can symphatize with her wanting to be a parent then gave her those visions and made her think that her sons must never meet each other or they'll kill each other under the emperors orders.

I'm gonna go out there and say that Erda was just a pointless retcon added because GW and whatever writer first introduced her wanted to pander to modern day feminist crap. The Heresy already established that it was the Chaos gods, with the help of Argel Tal, that scattered the Primarchs, so Erda just isn't needed.

The amount of times Disney thinks they are writing a competent and loving woman figure and end up creating some of the most useless and twisted creations of all is astonishing

The frustrating thing with Erda is that she is written with wasted potential. Like she could be an awesome character, she could be a great foil to the emperor and a greater character in the lore and for understanding the history of the setting. Arguably there still is the possibility of exploring the idea or making her somewhat justified in her decision, but all we get, is just that the primarchs had a mother who gave birth to them and then she died, without anyone ever mentioning her again! And the most frustrating part is, even though there probably is a way for her to get actually mentioned in a story or that we actually learn more about her that will probably be never really explored, because all GW cared about was her scattering the children! She could have been more and again can still be retroactively made better, but all we get is a character that's as quickly out of the story, as she gets in the story and that's it!

Funniest thing with emperor was that he was too permissive, he trusted primarchs too much and was too lenient with punishments. if guilliman was once in his life told that hes an idiot maybe he wouldnt push for codex astartes or at least listen when half of his remaining brothers told him its a stupid idea and wouldnt break the biggest military force imperium had. If he bombarded prospero to oblivion due to people there being open rogue psykers who frequently mutated and gaslighted magnus into believing psychic powers have nothing to do with mutations and then kept close watch on magnus he wouldnt fall to chaos. Hell even after everything he sent russ to bring him back not to destroy that place till horus changed orders. If he just let angron die not only his legion would be more effective, its unlikely they would rebel. If he just stripped lorgar of command or just killed him due to flagrant disregard of direct orders entire horus heresy would be unlikely to happen. Entire point of introducing erda and astarte is to diminish emperor.

Even the smartest and most powerful woman like erda can't avoid a "Women ☕" moment. It's honestly pretty hilarious.

I mean what did You expect from usual Abnet's "world building" antics when given no restrain?? No to mention stretching the last book in to 3 volumes was simply absurd and the two first are already padded to the brim with superfluous content. She is just another pointless character in the perpetuals and Alpha Legion arc that should have never been implemented in the first place to begin with.

Erebus did nothing wrong

Wait hold on, is this a new thing? I've never heard of Erda before, I thought the primarchs were all test tube babies. They really tried to give them a mother?

I think what really sank her character was Abnett's unwillingness to confirm that the Heresy or even the state of the ascension of the Emperor was predicated and planned in advance (even as a "best worst" outcome type deal) rather than just leaving it up to interpretation and guesswork. If Erda had unapologetically and bluntly dropped the cold fact that The Emperors intent was to manipulate events and his sons relationships so that the redundant ones fell to chaos and his best tools stayed loyal her decision to throw his proverbial cards up into the air and ruin his plans wouldve made infinitely more sense. She could have been despondent and despairing that despite her best efforts, exactly what she tried to prevent came to pass anyways or even torn apart by guilt and shame at the idea that in fact shes the one responsible for it the end. Trying to prevent a future that is in the end caused exclusively by your efforts to stop it is the exact same arc that her son Horus goes through. Attempting to defy a safe but suffocating organized nightmare by embracing the terrifying and dangerous freedom of chance and unrestrained will is the bedrock moral dilemma of warhammer 40k. The thematic relevance and narrative parallels write themselves. We could have got a meaningful, profound criticism of at once the emperors philosophy and the traitors motivations in her actions and conflict over them, instead we get an arrogant farce that only serves to prompt endless "haha, woman moment! based big E betrayed by a karen!" spam, its such a heartbreaking waste.

It was better when the scattering was a mystery. Weather by the Word Bearers time travel or Horus discovery of the truth.

Its always difficult to make stuff happen well after the fact, but introducing a new uber powerful character about ten thousand years too late and then kill them off was the biggest wtf moment I'd seen since The Emperor just ignoring Angron's loyalty to his people and letting them all die while he just teleported Angron to him. Hell the idea that he somehow couldn't do it all over again when he made the Custodes and it was all his idea to begin with is asinine. But they retconned Emps a lot. No idea why they wanted to nerf him when he's already stuck on the Golden Throne. Basically they introduced an uber powerful woman who fucked everything up and decided never to bother trying to fix it. Because if she did, trying to find the Primachs herself or something, it would retcon at least a few of their backstories(limited as some of them are).

"Karen took the kids, mal" 😭

I remember a word bearer or someone actually pointed out that it was her fault Angron and other primarchs ended up the way they did and she just hand waived it away.

This is a mainly a joke, but maybe baby Fulgrim psychically messed with her.

The Erda concept can be interesting. There's actually a fanfic out there that makes her a compelling character.

Two thoughts. First think about the character of the Amazonian Queen Hippolyta who married Theseus. But when Theseus set her aside to marry another woman, she murdered Theseus' children with her. Hippolyta is deliberately inhuman and an anti-woman in the story. As Amazonians in Greek myth are something similar to a monster. Second, read Dune if you want to understand the Emperor and his ability to predict the future. I think that Paul is the most like the Emperor before he becomes the God-Emperor, and the God-Emperor Leto II is the most like the God-Emperor post assention. Frank Herbert does a good job at showing the limits of foresight, as well as the imperative of furfilling prophecy instead of fighting it to ensure the survival of Man. The emperor protects

Erda is a terrible character and her worst crime isn't the terrible retcon of throwing the primarchs into the Warp. It's making me like Erebus for a moment when he kills her.

Sadly, they could have "fixed" most of the issues with the idiocy on Erda's part by simply giving precognition like many of the Primarchs. Have it to where she bases most of her stuff on said precognition, and make it to where it's super accurate pretty much all the time and so she just naturally goes with it. Then, at the 11th hour, have all four chaos gods unite and show her a vision of the future that Big E will create, show her the legions fighting each other, show her the worlds being purged, show her all the insanity, the darkness, the suffering without end or reason. Then, through the united power of the dark gods show Big E ordering the death of the two legions, and asking Magnimagic to purge his children the space marines. Just bits and pieces that we know to be a fact in the future, but missing the context of why those things happened. Then, overwhelmed with guilt and anger at herself, her husband Big E, and the pain she thinks they will bring about because of their perceived misguided efforts to unite humanity, she yeets her kids into the void using her psyker abilities to try and scatter them with the hope that at least a few will be safe from her, and her husband. She then realizes what she has done as Big E finally breaks the cursed visions of the dark gods, their laughter echoing in the lab she is in, and they reveal the truth. That none of those horrible things would have been possible had she simply ignored them. They played the long con of giving her visions knowing that if they made her powerful, made her have foresight to rival even Kairos, she would be drawn to the side of Big E, and then they could use that to break his project he would work on. In a fit of terror and sorrow for what she did, she throws herself unprotected at all into the warp to be destroyed, as she can't look at her husband, and she'll never be forgiven by her children for what she did. As a result of all of this, Big E orders Malcador to purge all records of his with so that he alone can take the blame for not being strong enough to protect her from what he sought to war against. Done.

This video stands on a number of assumptions: 1) Horus' time travel was real and not symbolic. 2) The Emperor didn't want the primarchs scattered (an issue even Guilliman speculates was intentional) As a side note Konrad tells Sanguinius he thinks the Emperor engineered Horus' fall during their fight on McCragg/Imperium Secundus. 3a) Erda wasn't influenced by chaos to do what she did, which Erebus implies before he believes he killed her (he probably didn't) 3b) We're not going to see her again both later in the timeline and in pre 30k stories (spoiler: we probably will)

Ollanius Persson was also retconned to be the oldest and first Perpetual, One part of his retconned backstory that I found sort of funny is that he was the Emperors first Warmaster/General until the Emperor wanted to keep a bunch of chaos junk found in Mongolia but Ollanius Persson instead shanked the Emperor and went his separate way.

I just pretend she doesn't exist...

The Horus Heresy being turned from a shadowy myth into just a series of books was the worst decision. But hey, they sold a lot of books I guess.

Do a video on all the niche things that aren’t for sale. Been waiting six months or more on arbites, inq retinue, shapeshifter assassin, etc. I waited most of the year for a restock, eventually just went with RagingHeroes inquisition set and got them all for a tenth of the price. Frustrating because I’d have bought the originals.

New viewer. Great summary and take on the topic

I heard a theory that the Emperor knew that Erda would do this and let it happen so the Primarchs could learn important stuff by growing up in wildly different places so that they may draw upon these experiences and be better generals.

an Ultramar secretary and a random Fenrisian wolf was a better mother then some OP perpetual side chick

I hit like just because of the title. This level of retconning was really frustrating to me, especially because the narrative was so clumsy. I also just despise the perpetuals, at least the way they've been used. Erda came out of nowhere and read as a self insert to me. Great video, you included a lot of details I appreciated.

Okay so, I initially agreed with this until I read Warhawk, where Erebus shows up and lays out how she was unknowingly doing the will of the chaos gods. And that she was blinded by a fear of the emperors plans would accidentally destroy humanity (much in the same way Horus saw visions of 40k and figured it was what the Emperor wanted). She scattered them as an act of desperation, but ultimately was just being manipulated by the chaos gods. To me this explanation fits perfectly well, and I think isn’t a ret-con since from interviews we know that the whole siege of Terra series and plot points were mapped out before it was released. Additionally I think it’s a suitable explanation because Erda has the power to scatter the Primarchs she serves as a perfectly serviceable tool for the chaos gods. I also think that we should hold her to a consistent standard with other important characters who were corrupted by Chaos like Horus, the other traitor Primarchs and a few of the perpetuals who fell to chaos. Is she a fool for doing this? Only as much as Horus is for disagreeing with the emperors vision. I’m open to being wrong about this though, but if you think I am please cite some in lore sources.

Her very actions embodys the term "hell hath no fury than a womans scorn",totally shat on the emperor's super bowl weekend,...she was not supportive🤣🤣😂

Erda's death = rare Erebus win.

Nailed it. Imagine making a character so detestable that rooting for Erebus feels like the right thing to do. Dan Abnett is one of those coin toss authors. Sometimes, you get Eisenhorn or Gaunt's Ghosts. Sometimes, you get the Ultramarines movie. The Heresy series contains so many contemptable retcons, acknowledging any of it as canon would be... well... heresy.

It would've been nice if Erda was manipulated by the Emperor as an emotional attachment to the Primarchs in order to sway them from not turning against the Imperium. I think the Emperor would've understood that though he created the Primarchs for controlling the Legions on his behalf, treating them as tools would ultimately cause them to turn against him , especially if they were yeeted to other worlds where they might've understood the concept of family and love. Using Erda to keep the Primarchs emotionally attached to her and thus unable to raise a hand against the Emperor without putting her in harms way would've been a fantastic plan, a plan that could've gone wrong when Erda became too attached to the Primarchs. Not wanting to see the Primarchs used and possibly killed by the Emperor, like two of her sons already, Erda could've been the root cause as to why Horus ultimately chose to go against the Emperor and lead his brothers into Chaos. Whilst Chaos is debaucherous and possibly straight up evil, Erda's attachment with her sons and growing hatred for the cold hearted Emperor would've accepted the influence over Chaos as a better thing for her sons over the Emperor. I think Erda would've worked better as a character who was initially manipulated into stabilizing the emotions of the Primarchs, ultimately becoming too attached to them, so much so that she would willingly let the galaxy burn if it meant their freedom and an end to the danger the Emperor posed to them. As for why the Primarchs were yeeted through the galaxy... idk Tzeentch did it - dude's insane enough to do that for legit no fucking reason anyways.

They could salvage it by combining both Erda and the chaos gods in to one story. For example they manipulated her motherly nature to scatter the primarchs. Yes she knew about chaos but we’re talking a bigger step of the grand plan here all the chaos gods would be collaborating to some capacity to ensure this.

I do not dislike Erda as a character, I actually like the fact that she is present in such moments and I find her "mom's instinct" kicking in something cool since it is a cool counterbalance to the cold and tactical mind of the Emperor, however, I do think that she was badly written and many of the flaws you pointed it out for me can be explained by simple lack of a clear aim for this characters existence. It would be far cooler if she was in fact influenced by chaos to do what she had done, or actually she started to foresee something that the Emp seems to not have seen or is choosing to blatantly ignore. She then decides to pursue changing this possible outcome due to this upcoming catastrophe, this could set a lot of drama and theories without sounding dumb or without reason, and also explain why even though she feels like their mother still decided to yeet than into the warp.

Honestly most GW content is subpar and poorly thought out. Seems like the premise is that if they make enough, eventually some of it will be good. The concepts the content is based on is more interesting than the actual content. I don't think things like this slip past the editors, it's just their bar is so low.

I think Erda existing nullifys the threat of chaos as a power

I had no idea these characters existed, but I see they were only added a few years ago so no wonder. And further to that they were added along with the Belisarius "I've been conveniently stashing gene seed all this time, oh and here's Space Marine 2.0" Cawl explains why they're so terrible. God, never thought I'd miss the days with the lore was basically stagnant and not progressing.

"Let's have a discussion." Like we're reasonable people, or something. Dude, we're 40K fans. We're a lot of things... Reasonable isn't one of them.

Tarasha Euten, Roboute Guilliman's adoptive mom was pretty cool

When was this character added I've never once heard her mentioned

When was this written?

Personally, when erda was introduced, i was thinking gamesworkshop was up to something. The reveal of her murder by the one who took Erebus' name, especially so soon after her reveal, makes me ESPECIALLY suspicious. If I had to describe it....a illusionist does a trick while standing in front of a curtain...and you wanna know whats behind the curtain but youre also distracted by the tricks....does that make sense

Gamesworkshop are brilliant at keeping us hooked to their lore we have no description of how the missing Primarchs look like none zero about their mother it's ridiculous and yet hooked we are

TLDR, warhammer is grimdark bc karen took the kids

I think Erda could've been interesting, and could have shown how uncaring the Emperor is, perhaps even reflecting back to the dreaded Daemonculaba. With how the emperor treats other people, when I first heard about her, I assumed she was going to be a "lover" that was tricked, and used as nothing more than a natural incubator for the primarchs. As disgusting of a concept as that is, it would've shown how, once again, the emperor isn't a "good guy" in the slightest. Instead we get Karen taking the kids.

Excellent. Well reasoned and thought out.

The entire Horse Heresy is horrible, without exception. This is a completely commercial project for selling tons of graphomania books and more Space Marines models for those who already have tons of Space Marines models.

I am the 1000 sub and you deserve more.

I still like in the 2nd Horus Heresy book that Horus basically "dies" and in some sort of warp fever dream, scatters the Primarchs. Thats the greatest irony of all I think.

"Woman...am I right guys?" ...the Emperor probably.

Erda had potential, but that potential was wasted

One: Lorgar and Angorn are the prefect examples of why Erda is unredeemable. Two: She damned billions to a fate far worse than death for the sack of 21 bioengineered sons. Three: She caused what she feared, fatherless astartes, and no one to blame except herself. Off Topic: The two sons that are not named, my theory is that they knew about Erda or they grown attached to the world they grow up on and it's people. The Only reason why I say this is because If I was the Emperor's Son than I would of rejected his offer of trading one tyrant for another.

Erda wouldn't be so bad if only her plan wasn't so stupid or she at least had been manipulated into doing so. You could still make the character and story-line work, but not as it currently stands.

I like the idea of a “mother” it could be used to introduce the two reducted primarks as well

Erda's existance also kinda explains how people like Bile and Cawl were able to crack the geneseeds and create their own beings

Erda Seems to be a character that has been reckoned due to the events of argel tall and the other ward bearers with them. I do not think Erda is a strong character due to the fact that we didn't get enough time to see develop, and your points helped with this argument.

I agree that Erda's addition to the lore was not only jarring but abrupt, however her addition to the lore is something of a sign that some of the other lore not for as long as memory serves opens up new and well frankly old narratives. One such narrative is that of the Scions, for those who don't know and to make a long story short the Scions are rumored and later retconned actual children of the emperor. We are talking not primarchs but flesh and blood children of the emperor and there is some old lore about them such as cultists among the empire that seek them out to either protect or kill depending on the cult. There is also the conflict of as to why Erda and Astarties choose when they did betray GOM (God of mankind) and exactly what caused it as Erda's reasoning is some one maternal but absolutely ludacrous to think simple that GOM would be a bad dad then tossing children into the warp to sent across the galaxy is a bit short sighted if her fear was rational simply killing them in there cradles would be adequate and calling the reason she scattered them a weakness of maternal instinct wasn't exactly a good idea point or rationality. However such little is known about Erda that not only is it safe to say that she may have been only chosen because she was a perpetual and a psyker on par with GOM would amazingly upset people like Astarties for the lack of a better term she was not chosen. There is much that should be and can be answered with a deeper look into this idea however it is Games Workshop and like much of the WH40K universe it can be said that non-cannon and cannon things can both exist simultaneously and as well as not at all. My Head cannon for this may be a bit strained and completely absurd to other more aware fans and heralds of the lore. It is my belief that the Scions are real but they are not Erda's children but Astartie's child with the Emperor where as the Primarchs are the Children Erda wanted with the Emperor to aid in the reunification of Earth's now Terra's Former empire. Astartie was jealous that the emperor turned away from his actual children and Erda was upset that the Emperor was looking to her children as tools and not there children so the Scions were quickly whisked away by the help of the other perpetuals aiding in the Primarch project where as Erda was listening to chaos for to long as they spoke horrors to her and she opened the warp and shoved the young primarchs though. However this is head cannon and may not at all adhere to any official cannon.

They had the opportunity to bring an interesting concept like "What if the primarchs had an actual mother?" and they managed to execute the concept so poorly that I can't imagine a worse character that what they created for this concept Imagine the primarchs interacting with an actual motherly figure (well, a second motherly figure for Guilliman, which would bring other questions) that legitimately cared for them, including Angron and Curze? It would make the Heresy even more tragical. I hope that Erda gets retconned and something else takes her place

meh "chaos manipulates time" is as absurd as erda's decision. Infact if the erda's decision and why she did it was fleshed out properly it would be perfect. Her destroying the knowladge to create the primarchs could also explain why emperor didnt bother to make another set of 20 in Terra.

could have integrated erda so much better if she'd been responsible partially for the scattering (say her life being threatened by chaos agents diverts custodian squads that would otherwise report to the labs) make her the driving force behind the crusades accelleration, the emperors got her up his ass about finding them but when he does hes hesitant to introduce them to her till he knows what their heads look like, angron murders several custodians and astartes when hes retrieved and perty decimates his legion.make her significantly less resilient than E and the emperor being cautious about her would make sense, and later books could include primarchs that have met erda but are worried their legions quirks might hurt her(sanguinius nearly murders one of his own librarians during a temporary fall to the black rage.) have her on terra desperately looking for cures to the primarchs aliments. but shes been out of touch so when she actually gets attacked its confusing for her and her death takes legitimate solutions completed a day late and a dollar short with her.