40K Charted: Structure of the Imperium – Part One
January 11, 2016 by warzan
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The current coverage for 40k has been great, but honestly, when I came on this morning and saw that it was another Imperial centric article, I don’t even want to watch it. I’m gonna lose interest in the 40k stuff as, with the exception of the Chaos articles which touches a little on the Imperium, its been: Emperor, Carcharadons week, Mechanicus week. Its all been too Imperial focussed.
When theres the likes of Tyranids, Orks, Eldar (Harlequins, Craftworld and Dark), Daemons (the armies themselves as opposed to Chaos gods in general) Necrons, Tau (as well as Kroot and Vespid) and so much else in the background, more Imperial stuff is a tad overkill. Even focusing on a traitor legion of Chaos Marines would have been different enough.
It’s a journey and I’m trying to get the basics under my belt. so I have a better grounding for the other topics as they come up. 🙂
Yeah, pretty sure the loyalist primarchs are venerated as saints, Sanguinius in particular as he gave his life in the defence of the Emperor. You het that whole if Horus is Lucifer and the Emperor is God, if Sanguinus died for our sins does that make him the ultimate martyr? If so, makes sense that they’re venerated. A feast day of St Sanguinus sounds cool but I imagine a feast day to Leman Russ has more drinking. Spent my Christmas bonus on the cathedral box from GW, instead of an alter I want to use a scibor mini as a great statue of St Sanguinius hehe
@warzan – fair enough, just felt like expressing myself. Really loved the battle reports format and Carcharadons weekend was my favourite so far. On a completely bipolar note please do the badab war as a series down the line 😀
@bigdave I think Sanguinius is probably the most revered of all the Primarchs, amongst the common Imperial citizen, region dependant. Kind of like a Jesus prophet saviour equivalent. I remember in an old white dwarf they made their own Sanguinius statue from Wings and Inquisitor Covenant from Inquistiors 54mm line.
Yes to the primarch’s being saints. I believe it is in the novel False Gods, when Horus is “on his death bed” from the wound from the Anathame, that Erebus gives him a vision of the future of the imperium. One of those visions involves a shrine world. Thousands of pilgrims are flocking towards a central square, and in that central square there are about a dozen giant statues that take Horus a while to recognize. After a while he finally realizes that they are statues of the emperor and the (loyalist) primarchs. The issue is after 10,000 years they now appear as almost caricatures of their actual selves, rather than being appearing as Horus new them.
Part of what enrages Horus is why he is not represented there. Why he, as the warmaster of his father’s armies, has been left out of history. Why is the emperor, and the likes of Sanguinius and Dorn being worshiped but not him. It reinforces for Horus the lies being told to him by Erebus that the emperor has abandoned him and gone back to Terra to seek his own godhood.
The issue, of course, is that the future Horus is shown is the future that will result from him turning against the emperor, NOT the history if he remains loyal. Statues of Horus and many of his brother primarchs are not present in that square due to their traitorous acts.
The interesting thing is Sanguinius probably isn’t revered for saving the Emperor during the heresy, because I am not sure the Heresy is actually a part of the imperial cannon in terms of religion. “Turning from the Imperium” is not something they want the general Imperial public to even think of as a possibility. Worlds and space marine chapters that turn traitor are often eliminated and stricken from Imperial records, so its entirely possible that, from an imperial cult point of view, there was no Heresy and were no “traitor primarchs” or “traitor space marines”. 10,000 years ago the primarchs, space marines, and emperor forged the Imperium, the emperor ascended to his golden throne, and that led to the Imperium as they know it today.
That is actually the case in your last paragraph. Its a rumour to the Imperial citizens, a sort of urban legend that isn’t talked about. In Ben Counters Grey Knights series, the second novel I believe, a bad Inquisitor rouses a population by revealing that there were indeed traitor marines who turned to chaos and he says the Grey Knights are one such group.
Great episode guys 🙂
This is why I love 40k, because the background is so detailed and fleshed out. Yet at the same time the universe is so vast, it gives us almost unlimited scope for creating our own story’s, forces and army’s, within the 41st Millennium. Or as Warren would say “gaming in the gaps”.
Great episode guys, I look forward to the next.
Gaming in the gaps for the win!
great report even though its on the imperium it got me invigorated with 40k again. spent this weekend painting my elder 1 wave serpent 3 falcons 20 guardians they only been sitting on the shelf for 4 years haha . so thanks for the motivation.
I love this series, and can’t wait to see more, but, something is bothering me. On the shelf behind Ben, you have the Republic Commando series, and they are out of order and you are missing Order 66. That is all. Love the series so far and can’t wait till you get to some of the xeno’s races.
Absolutely love this show! Looking forward to the next.
Bought some Judge Dredd minis few weeks ago for using them as Adeptus Arbites in our Deathwatch RPG group.
For a minute I thought he was going to quote the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy ,,,
“Space,” it says, “is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindboggingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space …
Excellent series! 40k is back on the painting schedule for this year :p
An interesting aspect of the Adeptus Ministorum is why they have the sisters of battle. Originally they had a regular army, but a few millenia ago the head of the Adeptus (I believe he was also a High Lord of Terra) declared that he was a new Emperor. The Imperium began to fall into civil war until an alliance of Space Marine chapters arrived on Earth and disposed of the offending High Priest.
It was then declared that the Adeptus Ministorum “shall never again have men-at-arms”.
They got around this a few centuries later by only recruiting women.
How the Sisters of Battle were created is indeed an interesting story. As I have understood it, it happened a bit differently. Goge Vandire did grab power in both the Ministorum and the High Lords and declared himself a new Emperor, causing the Age of Apostasy. To enforce his rule he needed an army, but the Ministorum were already prohibited from having men-at-arms. So he created and indoctrinated an order of women soldiers.
Eventually through the machinations of the Inquisition and others the Sisters realised their folly. And the matriarch turned on the spot and beheaded Vandire with her power sword.
Now that you mention it that does sound familiar. I can remember the bit about the Sisters turning on Goge.
The formation of the sisters of battle is a mystery, they were discovered by Goge Vandire who tricked them into believing he was blessed by the Emporer and so they sided with him; at the time they were known as Brides of the Emporer. He then diverted resources to improve their training and give them the best equipment possible. During the following civil war, the head of the Adeptus Custodes allowed some (or maybe just one) of the most senior Brides of the Emporer into the inner sanctum of the Golden Throne to see the Emporer himself. After that, although no-one knows what transpired, the leader of the Brides of the Emporer marched straight into Vandire’s chamber and lopped off his head.
Following the civil war, the Ecclesiarchy was forbidden from maintaining men under arms, but they retain the Sisters of Battle on a technicality (i.e. they maintain a force of women under arms).
If Games Workshop ever decide to update the SoBs I would be very tempted indeed. I love those models (although the Sisters Repentia and the Penitent Engines look a bit gash).
@warzan
If you’re interested in getting some proper insight into the Adeptus Arbites then you’d be well served grabbing some of the Black Library Novels. Both ‘Nightbringer’ and ‘Execution Hour’ have strong Arbites characters and the ‘Enforcer’ omnibus is entirely about them. All three are easily some of the best books to come out of the BL.
And if you can get some of the old Necromunda rulebooks then they have some great pieces of background material in them.
The Inquisition does have a host of sub-structures. Even though its members are very individual the organisation as a whole is quite organized. There are three main Ordos: Malleus, Hereticus and Xenos. Overtly each Inquisitor belongs and fights for the tenets of one of these Ordos. But they might have some hidden agenda as well. This causes a lot of spy and counter-spy tactics among Inquisitors and their disciples.
Then another way of dividing them is by general belief structure. There are many different doctrines about how the Imperium would be served best. The story around the Illuminati being one of them. Regardless of their Ordo an Inquisitor will follow one of these beliefs. Some beliefs are more prevalent among a certain Ordo though. Somthing to do with alien tech will find most of its adherents belonging to the Ordo Xenos for example.
And then there are the Inquisitorial Conclaves. These are tactical groupings trying to achieve a certain goal. It can be a short term alliance to avert a certain crisis, or be a lasting pledge of allegiance to achieve a hidden and complicated goal. A Conclave can consist of a variety of Inquisitors, but it is likely that they have befriended each other through earlier missions or have a master-student relationship. External help can also be brought into a Conclave.
I would be in favor of a show concerning the Inquisition, as I think that next to the Adepta Sororitas it’s the most interesting part of the Imperium.
nice one guys.
& we think the council is slow, if you go to the local office to get an answer in the 40K you would probably be dead before they get back to you?
I can’t remember where I read it but I’m sure I’ve come across a piece describing Arbites precincts as having so many petitioners that it was possible for people to die before they got before a judge.
@warzan you guys need to do an episode on the Inquisition, it’s probably the most interesting aspect of the 40k lore! It certainly makes the best stories. If you haven’t read them, read the Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett; speaking as someone who is very critical of the quality of Black Library novels, I can’t recommend Eisenhorn highly enough
Seconded, the Eisenhorn series was fantastic. Really worth reading, probably the most enjoyable series in 40K or 30K.
With regard to the Custodes you could do a daemon invasion through the portal on Tera that the Emperor is keeping shut. I don’t think it’s ever said that nothing gets through and it would be a cool scenario.
Also the C’tan on Mars, the void dragon, was planted there by the emperor in order that the culture of the mechanicus would develop. It is associated with machines and influences the dreams of those on Mars. I’m not sure that many in the mechanicus actually know it’s there though.
10:59
According to Forces of the Imperial Inquisition Collectors’ Guide the one with the combi-melta is Inquisitor Morteshadow and the other one is Inquisitor Lord Aris.
Although in the Codex Witch Hunters these two are unnamed inquisitors.