A history lesson
Broken from his thoughts by the approach of Thor, who he didn't even smell or hear coming so much was Ragnar's concentration, the marine jumped slightly, looking up from the fire before he smiled at who had disturbed him.
"We call him the Allfather, but he's more widely known as the Emperor. It was he who created the father of all of the Wolves of Fenris, Lerman Russ, our King, our leader over ten thousand years ago. You're not of my Universe, so I will tell you what I know."
And tell him Ragnar did but not before passing him an un-chewed can of beer. Sitting down near the fire, Ragnar told Thor of history, as the Imperials knew it and as he had been taught. Of course so much of this had been lost to the past, or corrupted by allegory and story to be false.
He told Thor of the Great Crusade, of the Emperor's desire to unite all of Humanity under a single banner across the Galaxy. His face soured when he spoke of the Horus Heresy when the Emperor's most beloved son and eight others turned traitor, spitting on their oaths of loyalty and swearing themselves to the Dark Gods. He spoke of the wounding of the Emperor and his internment in the Golden Throne from which he still watches over and protects humanity.
Even through allegory and legend though it was obvious that to a casual observer, the Emperor was a tyrant and Ragnar was repeating learned by wrote indoctrinal lessons. Independent worlds either accepted 'Compliance' or they were brought to it on their knees when the Space Marine Legions of old were unleashed. And this was before the wholesale genocide of Alien races ordered by the Emperor and his sons.. Ragnar explained the Wolves numbered over two thousand, whilst in the distant past, that had been nearly two hundred thousand at its height. What Ragnar didn't know was that the Emperor had never wanted to be worshipped as a god, all he knew was that he WAS a god.
Ragnar's face soured slightly when he spoke of the High Lords, the dozen men and women who ruled as a council in the Emperor's name. He spoke of worlds given over entirely to the worship of the Emperor and the Primarchs although he did point out that the Wolves did not fully worship the Emperor, they reveared him and Russ as great warriors and leaders. The Emperor was the father of them all, from his gene's Russ had been born, and from Russ, each and every Space Wolf that ever had been. So in theory, the term Allfather was quite literal too.
"I could go on about the Imperial Saints and Martyrs...but I am no Black Templar or Chaplain. The closest we get to that is the Honoured Fallen, Dreadnoughts like Bjorn who walked alongside Russ and fought with him in the wars of the past. A living link to our sire." Ragnar said, finishing his tale with a contented swig of his beer.