The Emperor of Mankind and King Arthur

     The Emperor of Mankind from the tabletop game, video game, and book series Warhammer 40K shares many key features with the character of legend, Arthur, King of the Britons. While the only visual similarity is that both men seem to have an affinity for gold when it comes to their choice of armor, both do similar things and serve similar functions in their respective
stories. Just as King Arthur united Britain against the Saxon invaders and ended that crisis, the Emperor unified mankind in its darkest hour, an era in which the long standing Human Empire collapsed, leaving millions of colonized worlds and trillions of people defenseless against endless hordes of alien invaders, starvation as there are no longer trade fleets, or at the mercy of anarchy and civil strife. Both men saved their respective nations in their time of need.    
     Even comparable to King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, the Emperor of Man had twenty sons known as Primarchs, who, gifted with the Emperor's superhuman
genetic legacy, served as the champions and generals of the armies of the Emperor's Holy Imperium. And speaking of Holy Imperiums, both men are often referred to in a religious context, where the Emperor is referred to as a literal God-Emperor of Mankind and that humanity itself is inherently holy, even going so far as to see the Emperor's sons revered as literal angels by the common people of the Imperium. While Arthur is in no way held to such an extreme degree of reverence, he is still regarded as a great exemplar of a good Christian king, favored by God, and upholding the principles of Christendom. In addition, both men are often depicted with halos about their heads in various illuminations and iconography of them.
      The two men even share similar figures in their individual retinues of followers. Where Arthur has his magician, Merlin, capable of seeing into and predicting the future, the Emperor has a man by the name of Malcador the Sigillite, who served as the Emperor's chief assistant, but also possessed the ability of foresight into the future as well as the ability to telepathically communicate with others thousands of light years away. Both are also depicted similarly, as a cloaked, wise, and mysterious wizard of sorts.
     Ultimately, both Arthur and the Emperor meet similar fates. Where Arthur is grievously wounded in battle by the traitor, Mordred, the Emperor is mortally wounded by his first and favored son Horus during the final battle of a long and bloody civil war known as the Horus Heresy. Similarly to how Arthur was brought to the Isle of Avalon to live out the rest of his days wounded, the Emperor was interred upon a machine known as the Golden Throne, a machine that maintains the Emperor's "soul" as his body slowly decays. Lastly, both men are fabled to return in the future to serve their nations. Where legend states that Arthur will return to lead Britain once again, the citizens of the Imperium await the return of their eternal God-Emperor, so that he may lead Mankind to a final victory against any that would seek to harm it.