So this video is taking a foray into the dark lore of Warhammer 40K, which is an incredibly expansive
topic covering a multitude of media dating back over 3 decades. So this is quite honestly going
to be a surface and light overview of one of the players in this turmoil-ridden universe,
the Imperium of Man. By itself, this is a massive interstellar power, numbering millions of worlds
spanning all across the galaxy, so there are numerous factions, divisions, legions and branches
of government within its shifting territories. This means that I am going to be unable to address
them all and their differences in a single 10 to 15 minute video, making this more of an overview
of the Imperium as a whole as it presents itself in the lore, spoiler alert, it’s not looking good.
The primary thing to understand about the Imperium of Man, is the history of their Emperor. This
giant of a man was alive in the 30th millennium and by all accounts a glorious and driven leader
of humans who did much to expand the reach of the Imperium, founding the Empire at the end
of the Age of Strife (25th millennium-30th). He himself was an immortal human and the most
powerful human psyker to have ever existed. Psyker’s are basically creatures that have the
ability to tap into the extradimensional realm called the Warp, which is basically a subspace,
slipspace, underspace realm where faster than light travel is possible. It’s also literally
made from the psyches of living beings and a sea of random psychic currents and actual demons.
Then came an event known as the Horus Heresy, where a faction, led by his own progeny turned
against the Emperor and attempted to assassinate him. The attempt was not completely successful and
the wounded, dying but-immortal body of the Emperor was placed onto a golden throne, an
invasive life support system that maintains him, even 10,000 years later, so long as 1000 people’s
life energies are sacrificed to it, every day. There is more to his importance than just his
legacy however, as it is his mind that projects a means of navigation through the Warp, called
the Astronomican. Without this, the Imperium of Man cannot travel throughout warp safely,
so that would pretty much mean the end of their interstellar empire. Following his “not-death”,
the Imperium began to decline, innovations of technology were forgotten, colony’s levels of
society fractured and the Empire became less about moving forwards and more like maintaining a
crumbling hold on the feats of the past. What rose in its place however was an increasingly zealous
and strict adherence to the notion that the Emperor was divine, and by the 41st millennium,
he was seen as the God-Emperor of Mankind, whose will was law and rule a divine right.
One thing that I want to highlight, is that not every human is a soldier in one of the Imperium’s
various factions and that while an incredibly skewed amount end up as part of a military,
because of the nature of the time they live in, there are still civilians.
They live across the numerous worlds under Imperium control,
but the level of development, technology and involvement in Imperium affairs varies wildly,
some have basically been ignored so completely that over time, the colony and its inhabitants
have devolved to early states of pre-civilisation savagery. Most worlds that are still frequented by
the Imperium, or have ties to the greater Empire, continue to fulfil a purpose,
(farming or mining for example), while adhering to the one religion of the Imperium and avoiding all
subjects that could land them and their world in trouble or accused of heresy. These worlds
pay a Tithe towards the Imperium, set by the Adeptus Terra (more on them in a minute)
which is in the form of resources towards the war effort and maintaining their defenders.
No world however, is truly safe, even vital suppliers guarded zealously as any could
become a target from the forces of Chaos in the ceaseless warfare of the 41st millennium.
Civilian life is not a focus of Warhammer as a hobby and therefore not readily fleshed out
as the universe itself is a hyper-exaggeration of differing militaries built on centuries of
conflict, but this sort of fits with the setting. Civilian worlds are resources to be managed,
or assets to be denied in this dark future and generally only serve as the background
or objective for a conflict, which is probably how your average Space Marine views them anyway.
The ruling body of the Imperium of man is collectively known as the Adeptus Terra or
the Priesthood of Earth and it answers only to the Emperor of Mankind, although he rarely
(arguably if ever) interposes his will on them. It encompasses several bureaucratic branches
which are overseen by the High Lords of Terra. Only the Inquisition, Adeptus Mechanicus and the
Ecclesiarchy lie outside of the Adeptus Terra and serve critical functions to the Imperium,
answering only to the will of the Emperor, or at least those who speak to and “for” him.
The Adeptus Mechanicus are an odd bunch that revere the spirits of technology, and pretty much
an entirely separate culture within the Imperium, so if needed, I’ll cover them separately. The
Inquisitors are those responsible for rooting out heresy within the Imperium’s own forces and
because they answer to no-one, sorry, the Emperor, they have practically unlimited access to all
levels of society, and a high degree of autonomy and authority, making them incredibly feared.
The Ecclesiarchy, or the Adeptus Ministorum, is the organised state church of the Imperium of
Man. Its missionaries are all across its territories and do adapt the Imperial Creed for
the varieties of cultures it finds itself in, so the details may vary, but the core of the Imperial
Cult is the same. The Emperor is the only true God of humans and any other faith is simply untrue.
Heretics are to be put to death, while anything that is different is to be regarded
with suspicion, while aliens are to also be killed. Your loyalty is only to the Imperium
and you are to obey unquestionably all commands because ultimately they come from the Emperor, and
he is divine. If this seems like an overbearing system of control, you’d be correct, and it’s
been this way since at least the 32nd millennium. The various interpretations of the Imperial Creed
don’t even share a unified vision of the afterlife, because details like that are not
as important as ensuring control and obedience. This is not just a view held by the state
religion, entwined as the Ecclesiarchy is with then governance of the Empire.
Most communities within the Imperium are effectively ruled by a higher social class that,
in imitation of the structure of the Adeptus Terra, places select nobility
over the greater populous. Generally straying from this example is treated as heretical.
Technologically, the Imperium of Man pretty much relies on the devices and designs of millennia old
weapons and infrastructure. This came primarily from the Age of Technology, around the 15th
millennium to 25th. It was during this era where Warp Travel was perfected, colonisation became
an attainable goal, and the creations of STCs ensured a repeatable way to construct new devices.
Standard Template Constructs were effectively AIs combined with fabrication machines that
could construct anything needed, and to this day, continue to be prized assets, bolstering
the Imperium. Extensive genetic engineering and bio-mechanical augmentation were also commonplace
by the end of the age of Technology. At the end of this age, much was undone
by the collapse of interstellar travel along with numerous other ill-timed calamities,
this turmoil ending only when the Emperor ascended to control and unify the shattered
remains of humanity’s interstellar empire. As he set about resorting humanity, he began to lay the
founding for what would become the Imperium and at the same time, the Warp realm was restored,
thus allowing for easy interstellar travel once again. Many began to whisper that this was not
coincidence, but divine intervention, proving that the Emperor himself was divine. After all,
he was immortal, the most potent Psyker ever seen and restoring the glory of mankind. However,
he refuted such labels, which makes it even sadder that on his near-death, he was thrown into
a golden chair, deprived of direct contact with his people, and eventually worshiped as a God.
In many ways, much of the history of the Imperium is no longer known, or if it is,
it is by a select few who do not share it. This is because of three main factors, the first
simply being time, 10 millennia makes the Imperium the longest single government of the human race.
Secondly, the constant warfare has destroyed libraries, cultural sites and entire planets.
Thirdly, the Imperial censor has taken a torch to records it disagrees with, and sealed away others,
altering its own records as it sees fit. What seems to be the case however,
is that the Emperor of Mankind genuinely wanted to restore humanity to peak, as it was in the
Age of Technology, and decried being proclaimed anything divine. However, with every achievement
attributed to him, from the unification of the Adeptus Mechanicus, to the formation of
his Primarchs and Space Marines, his legend grew and humans became ever more enamoured with it.
When he would have died, he was instead forced to persist and maintain the Empire he helped create.
Those formerly under his charge lost their way, perverting his vision of unity
into one of conformity, their faith into zealotry, their respect of new innovations
into fear and stalling the forward momentum that the Imperium had been making in restoration.
Ideals of valour, duty, honour and saving human lives still exist, but what the Imperium is now,
is a twisted, decaying mirror of what it was supposed to be,
much like its Emperor. While there exists good in the hearts of those individuals within it,
culturally the Imperium abhors development and growth. Unless it is in service to
killing the other, the daemon and the Xeno. There is an argument to be made however,
that the Imperium has to be like this, because the forces its faces are literally demonic horrors of
twisted flesh, equally xenophobic space elves and reanimated techno-zombies intent on conquering
all. The Imperium of Man cannot afford to stop and examine itself because in that time,
its enemies would exploit it and then there would be no more humans. The problem
is that after countless millennia, this state of affairs has continued, and in the 41st millennia,
there is still only war, and humans are in danger of forever forgetting their humanity,
as they have already lost so much else. Thanks for watching this foray into the
bleak future of Warhammer 40K. It’s not an optimistic view but that sort of gives it
this grim tragedy and makes those heroes who do exists stand out even more. Ultimately,
it’s a setting for a franchise based on war, so I doubt it’s ever going to change, but personally,
if were able to peer into the far future of this universe, I think the Empire would be long gone,
and the only vestiges of humanity would be those forgotten worlds, that were lucky
enough to be ignored by not only the alien forces, but by the Imperium of Man itself.
This one took a long time to script, so thank you for your patience and as usual, I’ll leave
the vote to you guys what sci-fi culture I’ll tackle next, so, the choices are to continue in
the Warhammer vein with the Adeptus Mechanicus as alluded to earlier, or the more benign Betazoids
of Star Trek. Votes are over on the community tab, so thank you again for watching, I’ve been Ric
and until the next time, goodbye and I’m going to hide from the Imperial Inquisitors!