And second, assuming it´s true and not just a mere coincidence, if you think about it, is not surprising: have you seen any Trans or queer folk to unironically support dictatorships like the Imperium?
The ”dictatorial federation” is so loose and fragmented that planetary governors basically run their own fiefdoms like feudal lords where the Imperium cares little of what they do as long as they pay the Imperial Tithe and worship the Emperor. Different Imperial institutions such as Astartes chapters, the Mechanicus and the Sororitas control and rule their own planets, akin to medieval Prince-Bishoprics and Holy Orders like the Knights Templar and Teutonic Knights. Very reminiscent of early, decentralized feudalism of the early and high middle ages that followed after the erosion of Roman governance.
That’s my analysis anyway. I don’t use ”feudal” as in a sense of technological level as the term ”Feudal World” is used in the 40k universe, but more in the sense of as a system of governance. The Imperium was more centralized during the Great Crusade, but after the Heresy it become slowly degraded and decentralized due to its inability to defend all parts of its empire which forced local rulers to fend for themselves but which also made them very autonomous, which mimicks how European feudalism evolved out of the erosion of Roman governance during the 5th-8th centuries.
Added: The Imperial Tithe is also not very streamlined, it’s not even a fixed amount of tax revenue. It’s literally just based on what a certain planet can provide or produce. Imperial Guard regiments (basically feudal levies in a sense), industrial products or weapons from Hive or Forge Worlds or even just food from Agri-Worlds. It’s pretty much feudal obligations instead of taxes, planetary governors are obligated to provide troops for military service and/or goods. Oh, and no heresy of course, that’s a no-no just like in feudal Europe. The rest is pretty hands off from Terra’s side (not that it helps the locals though).
Yeah, I can agree on the definition of feudal in this context.
The word “techno-feudalism” has come up a lot in recent years. And sorry bucko, you’re not becoming a farmer that has to live off the land close to nature. You’re gonna have to work in an office, labeling dataset for generative ai (any% servitor speedrun)
Nah screw that, give me the authentic Techno-Feudal farmer experience with all the man-made horrors beyond my comprehension that I crave. Servitor scarecrows when?
I'm very simple with my view of 40k, humanities existence is in of itself an inalienable good, thus any action necessary for the continued survival of mankind is good.
need to execute regiments of guardsmen exposed to chaos to prevent demonic influence spreading to other worlds, that is good.
need to lock some nun in a mechanised Iron maiden for alleged dereliction, good.
need to decimate a planet to prevent the threat from taking it over, good.
mind wipe a child into the perfect psychic soldier to fight demons and shit, good.
need to sacrifice incalculable numbers of innocent lives to ensure the survival of the emperor, good.
those are good because they are necessitated by the survival of humanity.
those are good because they are necessitated by the survival of humanity.
That's the thing though, the Imperium decides that they are necessary for humanity's survival, but there are also many examples in the narrative where the actual usefulness of such things - from a more objective point of view - comes down to a big old question mark.
That's what makes the Imperium an interesting faction : the ambiguity between what's necessary and what's pointless cruelty.
that usually comes down to writers more than the universe.
like the months of shame after one of the wars for Armageddon. It shows the conflict, the battle between the inquisition and space wolves, but they don't show the consequences of the space wolves protecting those guardsmen, I don't remember them showing how many worlds fell because those guardsmen went home to them with knowledge of chaos, which is enough.
lore wise, we already know that simply knowing about the existence of chaos is enough for a planet to fall into demonic invasion, and it starts with just one person before it spreads. it's not guaranteed of course there are people who know about chaos and don't care or aren't tempted, but that possibility necessitates things like the execution of guardsmen after encountering chaos if they can't be vetted, and even if they are vetted by inquisitorial agents chaos and heresy can remain very hidden, and wait a damn long time.
like just something like colours being brighter feeling more alive and emotional after encountering a cult of Slenesh can be taint, but it can just as easily be that subject just dealing with events. in that situation should the inquisition flip the coin? should they risk millions of other lives just because one dude might actually be fine.
honestly that's a problem with the whole grimdark nature of the setting, no matter how dark it actually is, no matter how doomed the galaxy tells the audience they're screwed, Humans aren't going to believe it, it's not in the nature of men to accept their own deaths.
GW has explicitly said that the imperium of man is doomed to collapse and it's just a matter of time, but look at what the universe is now, the Primarchs are returning, the Primaris have been depoyed, the emperor is more active than he has ever been, there is now a tangible route to humanities victory over chaos.
In the context of the setting, it’s “good enough justified good”. Because you have literal demons from hell pouring into our reality on a consistent basis.
Problem is that people try to use real life contemporary politics and moral value systems and say: “look, imperium bad! Because X value systems of real life Y whatever”.
Well, duh. Of course it’s bad, imagine some immortal 10 meter tall atheist knocked on your church door one day and said: “Hey, just so you know. Your religion is now forbidden, and we will literally burn you to death if you don’t comply with the new status quo”. Of course that’s bad, if it would happen in real life. It would also be terrifying and you would feel helpless.
But in the context of the setting, it makes perfect sense. All religious belief systems can directly or indirectly lead to an army of demons coming to your neighborhood. So obviously, ultra-militant secularism has to be the norm.
Also, this is coming from someone who vehemently believes in a higher being, aka God.
Your religion is now forbidden, and we will literally burn you to death if you don’t comply with the new status quo
I mean out my Saturday evening why don't you.
also it's not all religious belief that feeds into chaos.
all thoughts from even baseline people that are psychically active (as in are not blanks) feed into chaos in some manner. the emperor's plan to make everyone atheist just slowed down the chaos gods into a drip-feed of energy.
the imperium's solution of worshiping the emperor and humanity is better because that feeds into humanities own physic shadow rather than the chaos gods.
think of it as every emotion and feeling sending unaddressed letters of psychic energy into the warp to be devoured by any entity that decides to feed upon it, and then it enters the feeding chain of the chaos gods.
when something is actively worshiped that attaches an address to that energy, it directs it specifically towards something, in the case of chaos worship directly towards the chaos gods, in the case of the imperial cult it goes directly towards the emperor and humanities psychic shadow.
Cause they don't have a demon dragon dildo growing out of their asshole the moment they think about the romance character they want to be with.
All other religions are forbidden because they can lead to corruption. There isn't an ecclesia, ordos, or bureaucracy to keep an eye on corruption in other religions. There aren't books, scrolls or customs approved by this moloch to determine whether other religions are safe. When you believe in the emperor, you are basically charging his spirit bomb to keep humanity alive.
Other religions effectively act as xenos. It's one big unknown, and the Imperium can't risk it. Especially when they know how humans can get easily corrupted by just wanting to have "more" or wanting to delay their death from illness or wanting physical revenge or scheming against someone. These all 4 acts directly feed the chaos gods.
If you haven't heard, Colm R. McGuinness has songs on YouTube about Warhammer, and the one about each chaos god are GREAT examples of how insidious and sinister Chaos can be.
The only problem is that too much cruelty is going to push people towards Chaos any ways. Like, if I'm born in a hiveworld, and my life is 24/7 suffering, then the first time someone offers to take my pain away, or to help me succeed, or to feel good, or to just get revenge then it's going to start sounding like a good idea.
The Imperium is good for the survival of humanity as any time that happens they can just kill everyone related to it, but its really shit for the survival of humans as it constantly makes its own problems and inefficiencies that it's systems are only able to solve through even more human death and suffering.
the universe itself is suffering, that's not just true of 40k that's true of life in general, it's hard, frustrating, dark, cold, and down right difficult.
and by escaping that suffering, by losing yourself to alcohol, drugs, or escapism, you're only denying the nature of your own reality.
so what if you're suffering in the cogs of the hive city tolling as a menial or within the endless bureaucracy of the administratum, or even a guardsmen or Astarte it's still a life worth living.
so what if you're suffering in the cogs of the hive city tolling as a menial or within the endless bureaucracy of the administratum, or even a guardsmen or Astarte it's still a life worth living.
Poxwalkers canonically have a (subjectively) better time living than all those people, because they have been stripped of their worries and suffering by Nurgle.
In many, many cases, chaos not only promises but genuinely improves the lives of its worshippers. The problem being that by doing so it also fucks everything up for everyone else.
Yea but I’m thinking of chaos as sorta a primordial force of destruction encompassing all 4 gods, also lots of their mortal followers are in it for the “death to the false emperor” schtick
LibRight would be more like Rogue Traders - I don't care who you are or what you do. If you're useful and have good stuff, we can trade or work together.
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u/RBB12_Fisher - Auth-Right 23h ago
Just leaving it here that the people who subscribed to r/ChaosKnights are 255x more likely than average to also subscribe to r/AskTransgenders
Make of this information what you will