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In the grim darkness of the far future, the worlds of mankind stand on the precipice of destruction.

Beset on all sides by predatory alien empires and threatened from within by heretics, mutants,

traitors and worse.

Yet even in this dying galaxy, in a time when peace has been forgotten and every hope seems

lost, there stands a great bulwark between humanity and that which would destroy it.

It is a power of unimaginable scale, in command of inexhaustible armies that hold back the

eldritch terrors that await beyond.

It is a regime built on benevolence and cruelty, repression and stagnation, irrational superstition

and bureaucratic corruption; a nation tempered in the fires of endless war.

It is the 41st Millennium and rising from the light of Ancient Terra stands boldly the

great work of the Emperor: the Imperium of Man.

It is a commonly said that the Imperium presides over a million worlds, but the truth is far

less simple.

Every year its dominion waxes and wanes as new systems are colonized or conquered and

lost worlds are brought back into the fold, while elsewhere across the galaxy, planets

are isolated and lost, taken by xenos or brought to ruin by rebellion.

The Imperium carries on only through the weight of its own immensity, ever expanding and ever declining.

To think of it then as a single realm of defined borders and united territories is a fallacy.

Against the enormity of the universe, even the Imperium is spread thinly, and its worlds

might be separated by hundreds or even of thousands of light years.

Planets within the Imperium are separated as much by technology as distance.

Even within a single system one world might be home to advanced industries and enriched

with great wealth brought about by interstellar trade while another might exist in squalor,

its medieval population worshipping Imperial administrators as divine emissaries.

This disparity is as much by design as by circumstance.

There exists a great fear of technology that borders on superstition, and planetary governors

might insist on restricting certain knowledge in order to keep their populations docile

and subservient.

The disparate and widespread nature of Imperial holdings makes cataloging them completely

unfeasible, although entire armies of administrative staff spend their lifetimes attempting to do so.

Instead, the Imperium is divided into five administrative zones known as Segmentums.

The Segmentums of the Imperium span the entire galaxy, with the only limits to the Imperial

domain imposed by the range of the Astronomicon, an immense psychic beacon projected by the

Emperor of Mankind from within the Golden Throne.

The beacon provides the means for the ancient families of the Navis Nobilite to plot a course

through the otherwise incomprehensible dimension known as the Warp.

This nightmarish realm is the primary method used by the Imperium for faster than light

travel and remains so vital that should the Emperor fail and the light of Astronomicon

be severed, then the Imperium would quickly collapse into Chaos and darkness.

The Emperor of Mankind remains the formal sovereign of the Imperium, although in the

millennia since his body was shattered and entombed within the Golden Throne, the rule

of mankind has fallen instead to the Council of the High Lords of Terra.

Entrusted to interpret and enact the will of the Emperor, the High Lords carry out the

day to day decisions necessary to govern the Imperium.

Judgements of the High Council affect the lives of endless trillions but the nature

of the Imperium prohibits any centralized governance from being universally enforced.

Instead, the Imperium makes use of countless organizations to keep the wheels of bureaucracy

and war moving.

Perhaps the largest of these is the Adeptus Administratum, teeming with countless scribes

and petty officials.

It administers the Imperium at every level, collecting tithes and taxes, performing censuses,

and determining which threats to the Imperium must be dealt with and by which of the Imperium’s

myriad of military forces, alongside a thousand other chores and duties.

The Administratum is a maze of subdivisions, departments and offices, some conducting programs

that are no longer needed, while others may have been abandoned entirely, its clerks doomed

to perform a menial task that’s purpose has been forgotten.

On Mars dwells the headquarters of the Adeptus Mechanicus, an ancient priesthood of technicians

and engineers responsible for the construction and maintenance of all Imperial technology

and equipment.

Granted a level of independence unequalled within the Imperium, the Mechanicum is viewed

with suspicion by the rest of the Imperial Administration.

Their Forge Worlds operate without oversight, and their religion is viewed as almost heretical.

Above all, the Priesthood of Mars covet knowledge, and they guard their discoveries with jealousy.

Binding the Imperium together through faith is the Adeptus Ministorum, the ecclesiastical

hierarchy of the Imperial Cult which spreads the universal worship of the God Emperor of Mankind.

Known commonly as the Ecclesiarchy, the organization wields considerable power, for it derives

its authority from the common belief in the Emperor’s divinity.

Even by Imperial standards, it is a complex and baffling hierarchy of Priests, Confessors,

Cardinals and dozens of other ranks and titles.

All across the Imperium, its agents guide the soul of mankind, purging heresy and inspiring

true devotion.

Of all the Imperial organizations however; the Sanctioned Psykers of the Adeptus Astra

Telepathica, the guardians of Imperial Law in the Adeptus Arbites, the royal guardsmen

of the Adeptus Custodes, or even the vaunted killers of the Officio Assassinorum, no single

institution holds greater power or instills more fear across the galaxy than the Imperial Inquisition.

Inquisitors are charged with protecting the Imperium against the malevolent influences

of the galaxy, whether they be the allure of alien philosophies or the machinations

of the ruinous powers.

Its members may pass through doors that would be closed to all others and there are very

few in the Imperium who can refuse to execute their orders without complaint or delay.

The Inquisition operates outside of the control of even the High Lords of Terra and answer

only to the Emperor and themselves.

While such organizations have wide-reaching authority, their direct involvement in the

governance of individual planets and star systems is relatively uncommon.

For as long as the Imperial tithe is paid and obligations and responsibilities are met,

the Imperium is content to allow various Imperial Commanders and Planetary governors to rule

their worlds, systems or even sectors however they see fit.

In this way the Imperium resembles some manner of feudal confederacy, with a hierarchy of

lords and vassals stretching from the lowliest page to the Emperor himself.

Such a system, while effective at maintaining order and enforcing Imperial authority, means

that very few worlds are governed in the same manner and mobilizating these discordant vassals

and feudal lords is often taxing and slow.

In a galaxy of carnage it is by the will and strength of humanity’s armies rather than

its bureaucrats that has allowed the Imperium to endure for so long while other powers have

withered and failed.

Mankind has always excelled in warfare and the Imperium commands a vast array of powerful

forces rivaled by nothing else in the universe.

The backbone of Imperial strength is the Astra Militarum, also known as the Imperial Guard.

Consisting of countless millions of trained men and women, often armed with nothing more

than a lasgun, a bayonet and their faith in the Emperor, Imperial guardsmen can be found

in nearly every garrison and battlefield.

They are the first line of defense and the focal point of any Crusade.

While the Imperial Guard musters countless armies, certain worlds have won great acclaim

across the Imperium for the quality of their soldiers and the heroics of their regiments,

their deeds and commanders entering the Imperial pantheon of legends.

It is the superhuman Adeptus Astartes who have come to symbolize the might of the Imperium

however, elite warriors gifted with immense strength, size, resilience and intellect.

These Space Marines have inherited the traditions of the Emperor himself and are one of the

few forces available to the Imperium that can rapidly respond to a developing threat.

The Astartes are divided between roughly 1000 chapters, each with their own storied history

and proud traditions.

Though few in number, a squad of Space Marines can turn the tide of battle, while an entire

Chapter can shift the balance of a war.

In space, the Imperium calls upon the great warfleets of the Imperial Navy.

The starships it operates are legion, ranging from single man fighters and bombers, to ancient

battleships capable of terrible displays of destructive power.

In addition to its armadas, the Navy also operates colossal space stations, great

ports, and distant anchorages, always at the ready to deliver the forces of humanity to

the next grand battlezone.

The enemies of the Imperium are simply too many and too varied for any single organization

to effectively combat and there exist a great many specialized orders and detachments used

in only the most specific or dire circumstances.

The Grey Knights, the Deathwatch, the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas, the Skitarii

Legions and Collegia Titanica of Mars, the forces of the Imperium are as innumerable

as their foes and it is only through their ceaseless vigilance that the Imperium is sustained.

In spite of its unlimited military potential, during extreme circumstances when the price

of retaking a world is simply too high or the risk of spreading mutation, disease or

heresy too great, the highest authorities in the Imperium can order Exterminatus.

Through orbital bombardment, virus bombs, cyclonic torpedoes or other instruments of

extermination, a planet’s biosphere is completely destroyed, along with all life on it.

This terrible order is rarely given and only as a last resort.

If the Imperium has ever known an age of peace then it is an era long forgotten.

It was in war that the Imperium was founded and through war it has endured.

In the 30th millenium, from the terrors of the Age of Strife, when anarchy, war and destructive

technological regression brought man to the edge of extinction, there arose the Emperor.

He served as a guiding hand that brought man back from the brink and ushered in a new golden

age for all humanity.

Using his legions of Thunder Warriors, the ancient precursors of the Space Marines, global

order was restored across Terra and once again the planet became a hub of unceasing activity,

production and planning.

Aligning himself with the Tech Priests of Mars, the Emperor and his legions set off

across the galaxy in search of the Primarchs, 20 beings of extraordinary power crafted from

the Emperor’s own genetic material.

Seized and hidden by the dark gods of Chaos, over time each primarch was found and they

joined the Emperor’s Great Crusade as his most capable commanders, diplomats and warriors.

Thousands upon thousands of human worlds were liberated and united under the Imperium, but

in this moment of triumph, as the Emperor worked in secret to bring about his greatest

gift to mankind, the galaxy descended once more into chaos and war.

Warmaster Horus, the favored son of the Emperor and greatest of his generals was manipulated

by the dark gods of Chaos and together with nine of his brothers split the Imperium in two.

When the Horus Heresy finally came to an end after nine years of civil war, the traitor

legions had been beaten and Horus slain.

But the effort had laid waste to much of the Imperium and the Emperor, mortally wounded

in his last great confrontation with Horus, was sealed inside the Golden Throne now physically

broken with only his immense psychic will remaining.

In the millenia since, the dream of the Emperor has wilted and died.

The promise of knowledge and understanding has been replaced by ignorance and fear.

Endless war is now the purpose of the Imperium and each century brings grave new threats

and short lived triumphs.

Ork warbands spread unchecked across the stars, Tyranid hive fleets circle the galaxy like

predatory sharks all while ancient and young races alike work to usurp the Imperium’s

position of superiority.

Even the light of the Astronomicon has begun to flicker and fade.

In the aftermath of Abbadon the Despoilers 13th Black Crusade and the fall of the Cadian

Gate, unprecedented warp storms now stretch across the galaxy and the Imperium is once

more split in two.

Traitor legions and alien armies besiege countless worlds, entire sectors have disappeared into

the abyss and few dare speculate what nameless horrors run rampant in the weakened and isolated

corners of the galaxy.

Worse still is the knowledge secretly reported to the High Lords of Terra that the mechanisms

of the Golden Throne have begun to fail and the knowledge necessary to repair them has

been lost.

Before being executed for their heresy, prophets across the galaxy say now is the time of ending,

when the Imperium will finally collapse into a trembling collection of shattered realms

before being swallowed up by the encroaching darkness.

Yet rumors abound that legends thought lost to time have been reborn.

There are whispers that hidden vaults on Mars have been unlocked and powerful new soldiers

and armaments are now fighting across the galaxy.

If now is truly the time of Ending then the Imperium is not content to stand idly by.

Across the worlds of the Imperium new Crusades have been proclaimed, great armies raised

and mighty battlefleets armed and sent forth against the enemy.

For in the grim darkness of the far future there is only war.

The Templin Institute investigates alternate worlds and realities.

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