Imperium (Warhammer 40,000)
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| Imperium of Man | |
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| Form of Government | Oligarchical Dictatorship; Strong elements of Theocracy |
| Official Language | Imperial Gothic, Lingua Technis- see Languages of the Imperium. |
| Capital | Holy Terra (Earth) |
| Head of State | The God-Emperor of Mankind |
| Governing Body | High Lords of Terra |
| Population | Hundreds of Trillions |
| Military Forces | Primary
Other |
| Establishment | pre 30,000 A.D. |
The Imperium of Man is a fictional galactic empire of millions of star systems that contains the vast majority of humanity in the forty-first millennium, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe created by Games Workshop.
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[edit] The Imperium in the 41st millennium
In the 41st millennium, [1] the Imperium is nominally ruled by the "most beneficent God-Emperor of Mankind". However, since his ascension to the Golden Throne following his confrontation with Warmaster Horus, the duties of actually ruling the Imperium are carried out by the Senatorum Imperialis, the twelve High Lords of Terra. The identities and precise responsibilities of these High Lords vary, but members include a representative of the Inquisition, the Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum, the Master of the Administratum, the Fabricator General of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Lord Commander Militant of the Imperial Guard, the Paternova of the Navigator Houses (Navis Nobiltae), the Ecclesiarch of the Adeptus Ministorum, and the Grand Provost Marshal of the Adeptus Arbites (Interplanetary Police).
Ultimately, the High Lords are in control of the entire Imperium, and are responsible for maintaining the functioning of the Imperium through the Adeptus Terra and the Imperial Commanders. In practice, given the galactic size of the Imperium, many worlds are left to fend for themselves without any direct involvement of the central government. Indeed, on some "Imperial" worlds, the last visit from Imperial officials may be only distant history or legend.
While most of the Imperium is dystopian, the empire is so massive and sprawling that it includes countless different worlds, ranging from neolithic jungles to polluted ecumenopoleis (Warhammer 92-3). For example Gudrun, a world mentioned in the Eisenhorn Trilogy by Dan Abnett, is similar to an idyllic 18th century Merry England, with stately manors controlling vast estates of rolling green hills studded with small villages, while Catachan is a hellish Death World filled with carnivorous plants (see Planets of Warhammer 40,000).
[edit] The Adeptus Terra
The Adeptus Terra is the enormous priesthood and bureaucracy of Earth, whose scriptoria, continent-sized archives and pilgrimage sites occupy nearly all of the holy hiveworld of Terra that is not taken up by the Sanctum Imperialis, the Emperor's own resting place, which itself takes up the better part of the northern hemisphere. The Adeptus Terra is so immense, and operates so slowly, that whole departments of it still service agencies which no longer exist and worlds dead for thousands of years.
[edit] The Administratum
The Adeptus Terra's main bureaucratic body and largest division is the Adeptus Administratum. This organisation's main purpose is the assessment of planetary tithes: the goods, war materials and Guard regiments each Imperial world is regularly required to provide for the Imperium. However, it has also acquired many other interplanetary organisational duties.
[edit] The Ecclesiarchy
The Adeptus Ministorum, also known as the Ministorum or Ecclesiarchy, is the Church of the God-Emperor. The Adeptus Ministorum exists to regulate the many faiths that exist throughout the vast Imperium and ensure that the values of Emperor-worship are protected from perversion, while other faiths are violently stamped out. Most versions of the Imperial faith encourage productivity ("Work is Prayer"), adherence to duty ("The Loyal Servant Learns to Love the Lash"), obedience to authority ("The Dissident invites only Retribution"), and thankfulness to the Emperor ("The Emperor's Judgement is a Blessing for the Faithful"). Although the Ministorum allows for variations of the Imperial faith to flourish, the division between heresy and pious zeal can be hair-thin and malleable to those with power.
It is worth noting that the Ecclesiarchy did not exist formally until about 3,000 years after the Emperor's incarceration in the Golden Throne. Prior to this it was The Church of the Savior Emperor, one of the largest and strongest of the various Emperor-cults in the Imperium, which eventually grew to absorb or destroy competing cults. Once several High Lords of Terra converted and joined this cult, it was only a matter of time before it became recognized, adopted, and eventually declared the state religion of the Imperium.
Ironically, the Emperor himself did not wish to be seen as a god, rather as a great man. "The Emperor, for his part, suffers from no illusion about his humanity and sees himself only as the first servant of mankind (Rogue Trader, p 268)." In fact he abhorred religion and forbade its practice before his ascension to the Golden Throne. He believed that it was the power of science and logic, rather than of faith, that would allow the human race to survive in the galaxy. The Adeptus Mechanicus venerate him but mainly follow their own belief in the Machine God. The Adeptus Astartes worship the Emperor, believing him to be the greatest Human to walk the universe, but a Human nonetheless. This causes an uneasy tension between the Space Marines and the Ecclesiarchy who see the Emperor as above and beyond Human.
However there is a wide variety of source material relating the Imperial Cult, much of which is contradictory. For example the Gaunt's Ghosts series of books makes frequent use of an Imperial Saint, and one also appears in the Horus Heresy series of books. These occurrences would cast doubt upon the assertion that there is nothing to the Imperial faith beyond simple dogma. The way the Space Marines of today relate to the Emperor might also be thought by many to be tantamount to worship, although it is stated they do not explicitly worship the Emperor as a god, but merely see him as their ultimate father; a great warrior to be emulated through deeds in battle and piety.
Faith in the Emperor has been used multiple times in the lore as defence against Chaos; thus it would seem unlikely that there is absolutely nothing other than politics to the Imperial Cult's insistence on absolute devotion to the Emperor above all things.
However, one must consider that as Mankind is a psychically attuned race, the mass belief in things such as angels and saints could cause them to be manifested in the Immaterium, and hence also in the Material Realm such as in the case of Saint Celestine during the Palatine crusade.
[edit] The Departmento Munitorum
The Departmento Munitorum is the central command of the Imperial warmachine, organising the logistics of planetary tithes, troop movements and troop deployment. The Departmento is far more decentralised than the other divisions of the Adeptus Terra, establishing a presence on any world with a significant tithe-grade. Distress calls from an invaded world are processed by the Munitorum, and will be passed up the ladder of system-subsector-sector-Segmentum-Imperium HQ until a division with enough reach can raise the armies needed from neighbouring systems and respond. Thus, the harder a foe strikes at the Imperium the greater the retribution will be.
Due to the vast distances of Space, combined with the internal bureaucracy of the Departmento Munitorum, decision making tends to be very slow, and calls for help may not be acted on for years or even centuries. It is not uncommon for war fleets to arrive at warzones to discover that the war they were dispatched to fight is long since over.
[edit] The Adeptus Mechanicus
- See main article: Adeptus Mechanicus
The Adeptus Mechanicus, the Tech-Priests of Mars, are the engineers and technicians of the Imperium, and create most of the Imperium's more advanced machinery and weaponry, build and maintain the Titan Legions, among other things, despite the fact that their understanding of the technology they use is limited at best, with much of their procedure based on ritual and religious dogma rather than genuine engineering or mechanical skill. They are in effect a political entity by themselves, containing their own hierarchy of laws and armies.
Prior to the founding of the Imperium, the tech-priests were an independent entity unto themselves, and had already settled various worlds throughout the galaxy with seed worlds of their own planned Empire. Their alliance with the Emperor was dictated by their own religious doctrines in which the Emperor occupies a messianic position of authority.
The Adeptus Mechanicus believe that all knowledge already exists and that humanity only found it. They also see technology as a sort of life form, preaching that the Imperium's machines possess a sort of spirit known as a "machine spirit" which serve humanity.
[edit] The Inquisition
- See main article: Inquisition
Independent of the rest of the Adeptus Terra are the Holy Orders of the Emperor's Inquisition. They are the ultimate judicial and police authority in the Imperium, second only to the Emperor himself.
They are divided into three divisions, each one specialized in a general classification of threat against the Imperium. Each with their own special armies (example: the Grey Knights chapter in the Ordo Malleus, or the Adepta Sororitas in the Ordo Hereticus), they are:
- Ordo Xenos or Xenohunters
- Ordo Malleus or Daemonhunters
- Ordo Hereticus or Witchunters
[edit] Officio Assassinorum
- See main article: Officio Assassinorum
An inconspicuous but vital part of the Imperial machinery of war, the Officio Assassinorum trains and deploys assassins all over the galaxy, to seek out and exterminate dangerous individuals. The deployment of one of their operatives must be sanctioned by the High Lords of Terra. In times of war (which is constant), assassins are typically deployed under the watchful eye and nominal command of an Inquisitor.
[edit] The Imperial Commanders
In addition to the Adeptus Terra and the militaries, the High Lords also command the Segmentum Commanders, who each oversee one of the five galactic regions known as the Segmentae Majoris: Segmentum Solar, Segmentum Pacificus, Segmentum Obscurus, Segmentum Tempestus and Ultima Segmentum. Each Segmentum Commander oversees his sector Commanders, who in turn oversee subsector Commanders, who oversee Imperial Commanders, also known as planetary governors. The higher ranks in this system are usually combined with a basic planetary governorship as well as interplanetary duties. This system is the means by which the Imperium, which is largely a confederacy, maintains control of the separate planets that make it up.
An Imperial Commander is the Imperially-instituted ruler of a world. However, because of the distances involved, and the unstable nature of Warp-based communication, Commanders generally operate nearly autonomously. This allows for quite a lot of variation between the governments of different Imperial worlds. The majority of governorships are hereditary (examples of this include Segmentum Commanders of Segmentum Tempestus and the royals of Volpone), though it is also not uncommon for a planet to have an elected Commander (such as the Electors of Tanith), a tyrant Commander who rules by force of arms, or anything in between. So long as the Commander fulfills his duties to the Imperium, his rule will generally go unquestioned by central authorities.
A rare few Commanders preside over feral or medieval worlds where the Imperium has not seen fit to introduce modern technology. These Commanders usually remain distant on orbital installations, only occasionally visiting the planet to police their subjects' physical status and their religious fervour (the twin threats of mutation and heresy are of prime importance to their Imperial authority), as well as collect the comparatively modest tithes these planets pay to the central government.
The Imperial duties of a Commander include paying the planetary tithe to the Administratum, controlling mutation, insurrections and heresy on his world and maintaining a Planetary Defence Force (PDF) capable of defending the planet in the event of invasion. The PDF should be able to halt attacks from most foes, or at least hold out until reinforcements arrive, which could take a period of months or even years.
A relatively small number of Imperial worlds are not ruled by a Commander, but are overseen by an alternate organisation such as the Adeptus Terra, Imperial Guard or Space Marines. These include the forgeworlds of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Cardinal worlds of the Ecclesiarchy, fortress worlds of the Imperial Guard (such as Cadia), and many Space Marine homeworlds.
[edit] Forces of the Imperium
In the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the Imperium represents Mankind's only hope for survival in a grim, merciless future set in the forty first millennium. The Imperium is surrounded by alien species, and is also under continual attack by the forces of Chaos, and extragalactic species such as the Tyranids.
The Imperium's defence forces consist of the:
- Imperial Guard
- The Holy Fleet (Imperial Navy)
- Adeptus Astartes, a.k.a. the Space Marines
- Adeptus Custodes, the Emperor's bodyguard
- Adeptus Arbites, the police force of the Imperium
- Adepta Sororitas (female warriors belonging to the Ecclesiarchy)
In addition, every populated world in the Imperium is required to possess its own government military forces for the planet's own defense. Individual Planetary Defence Forces vary widely from planet to planet, even more so than Imperial Guard regiments, because they adhere far more to the culture and traditions of their homeworld.
The effectiveness of individual PDF forces is limited by their own planet's ability to equip and train them, meaning they are often inferior to Imperial Guard regiments. Some PDFs have equal if not better armed and trained forces to the Imperial Guard; the Vostroyans are an excellent example: their homeworld's many forges and manufactoria provide the Vostroyan army with a steady supply of tanks and ammunition, each firstborn male of Vostroya is required to serve in the military, and every other Vostroyan is required to dedicate one tenth of their day to tending to their arms and armour. Thus each soldier is armed with a well calibrated lasgun and finely crafted carapace armour.
The Inquisition has absolute authority to requisition Imperial forces outside their own organization to combat any threat to the Imperium. Most Inquisitors belong to one of three Orders:
- The Ordo Malleus, or Daemonhunters, including their Chamber Militant, the Grey Knights
- The Ordo Hereticus, or Witch Hunters, including their Chamber Militant, the Adepta Sororitas
- The Ordo Xenos, or Alien Hunters, including their Chamber Militant, the Deathwatch Space Marines
The Adeptus Mechanicus also contribute to the defense of the Imperium
- Titan Legions
- Skitarii, a.k.a. the Tech Guard, infantry who have undergone significant bionic implants, such as guns fused to their wrists in the place of hands, implanted breathing apparatus or targeting arrays
These forces combat the Imperium's various enemies, which include:
- The renegade forces of Chaos
- The Dark Eldar and sometimes Eldar
- The Tyranid Hive Fleets
- The various Ork 'Waaagh!'s
- The Tau Empire
- The Necrons
[edit] Background to the Imperium in other Science Fiction
The Imperium itself, keeping with the dystopian themes of Warhammer 40,000 is a highly oppressive techno-theocracy very similar to the Padishah Empire found in Frank Herbert's Dune. It also closely resembles Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire in the Foundation Series, with millions of star systems only loosely connected with the governing center, where technology is becoming a myth rather than a science, with extreme persecution of those questioning the morality or validity of the endless conflicts and divine rule of the Emperor.
[edit] Notes
- ^ In Games Workshop published materials, the Imperium denotes years by the notation <year of millennium>.M<millennium>. For example, the year 40,999 would be 999.M41, while 41,002 would be 002.M42. However, 41,000 would be 000.M41, since the millennium starts on 001.M##.
[edit] References
- Warhammer 40,000. Glen Burnie, MD: Games Workshop, 2004.
- Chambers, Andy, Haines, Pete, and Hoare, Andy (2003). Warhammer 40,000 Codex: Imperial Guard, 4th Edition, Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN 1-84154-410-8.
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