He was a fedoraclad, Reddit-atheist, autocrat with delusions of grandeur, a messiah complex, and a love of violence without regard for the agency or even the sapience and will of other people long before he was installed on the chair and became a god.

“The Last Church” is a story from during the Unification Wars on Earth, which long predate the Crusade and Hersey (and therefore are more than 11,000 years before the setting of 40k), which provides some insight into what a douchecanoe Big E has always been.