system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[40k] Is the Emperor alive and in a super deep coma, or is he dead and the Golden Throne is anchoring his soul to his corpse?

On the one hand, everyone refers to the Golden Throne as a life support system. On the other hand, pictures show him as literally a skeleton. Last time I checked, skeletons don't usually need life support, but skeletons also don't usually consume the dying souls of despairing psykers to guide ships through the harrowing maelstrom of the Warp, so what do I know?
gpt
There's a reason he's sometimes refereed to as the corpse emperor. His physical body is essentially dead, with the Golden Throne sustaining a very minor amount of cellular activity. The purpose of this torturous existence is, as you said, designed solely to anchor his soul to what remains of his body and keep it firmly in the physical realm. He is essentially a prisoner in his own, albeit formidable, mind and the vast majority of his remaining strength and attention are focused on the twin tasks of holding closed the eternity gate and keeping lit the astrinomicon.