A/N
An Extremely AU Warhammer 40k meets Mass Effect. Influenced by Imperium Effect: Terra Rising, The Divergent Empire, and Nobledark Imperium. I do not own Mass Effect or Warhammer 40k, those belonging to Bioware and Games Workshop respectively. This is my first fanfiction and fiction story in general, so constructive criticism is welcomed.
Chapter 1: Setting the Stage
Prelude
It is the dawn of the 42nd Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor and Empress have been joined in their holy union. He is the Master of Mankind, a beacon of hope and wisdom to his long-beleaguered subjects. She is a goddess made manifest, a mother to her dying children brought low by their own hubris. They are the Eternal Lord and Lady of the Imperium for whom trillions of souls serve every day, so their dream for a better future may never truly die.
For in the past ten millennia, the Emperor and Empress have waged a war against very warp itself. Mighty battlefleets sought and destroyed the vessels of the servants of Chaos and their demonic allies. Vast armies gave battle in his and her name on uncounted worlds. Their enemies were legion: the hordes of traitors and cultists corrupted by their dark masters and the twisted denizens of the warp. But for all their multitudes, they were ultimately not enough to hold off the forces of the Imperium. Despite this victory over the hated arch-enemy, there was not to be peace amongst the stars. For the jealous eyes of the xeno came to rest on what was rightfully the Imperium's. The Orkish hordes, led by savage beasts, throw themselves at the Imperium uncaring of all but the glory of slaughter. The ancient Necrons, long thought dormant, have begun awakening and enraged at the primitives who dare ally with their greatest nemesis the Eldar. The Dark Eldar, fallen far from grace and their goddess' light, see the alliance between Man and Eldar as the greatest betrayal and have sworn to destroy these usurpers of the Eldar's legacy and their primitive lackies. And the Tyranids sweep across countless worlds in their unending quest to satiate their insatiable hunger.
To be a man in these times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the last bastion of civilization in a galaxy of unending terrors. These are the tales of those times. Remember the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, but can still be re-learned. Remember the promise of progress and understanding, for in the 42nd Millennium there is still hope, and the silence of vanquished gods.
State of the Imperium
The Imperium is the successor state to the Imperium of Man (itself a successor to the Human Federation and colloquially known as the Old Imperium) and the Aeldari Empire. With the union between the Emperor of Mankind and the Goddess Isha, the name was changed to simply the Imperium, as although the Imperium is the successor state to the Aeldari Empire, humans make up the vast majority of the population. The capital of the Imperium is Terra (Holy Terra to those following the Imperial Faith) and known alternatively as the Throneworld. The Eldar homeworld, unfortunately, was totally lost to the warp during the Fall of the Aeldari. The Imperium controls most of the Milky Way Galaxy, with new planets being colonized or rediscovered every year to replace the planets constantly lost to the xenos invaders.
Unlike the Old Imperium, the Imperium is no longer hampered by the unpredictability of the warp. Since the fall of the Chaos gods, the warp has calmed significantly, greatly increasing safety of warp travel, though Eldar ships still travel via webway. The Emperor has expressed interest in the renewal of his webway project, but the relative calm of the warp and subsequent defeat of the Chaos Gods has placed this lower on his priorities list. This, coupled with the Astronomicon being magnitudes more powerful due to the presence of the Empress Isha, means that long-distance warp travel has never been more viable. Despite all this, the warp is still the warp, and accidents and Gellar field failure within the warp still often have fatal consequences.
The Imperium is ruled by the Emperor and the Empress. The organization of the Imperium itself has largely remained unchanged from the Old Imperium, though there are certain exceptions. The Emperor had made sure to review, streamline, and modify the byzantine labyrinth that is the Imperial Government as he saw fit. For starters, he had forced reform upon the Adeptus Mechanicus. No longer were they a separate political entity from the Imperium. Nor were they to be allowed to hoard valuable technologies to the detriment of humanity as a whole. The Priesthood of Mars had nearly declared war then and there, but a combination of threats, bribes, coercion, and the odd assassination had kept them for the most part compliant.
In a startling move, the Emperor had revoked his ban on religion in the Imperium. None can say exactly why the Emperor would change course and allow the very thing he had sought to exterminate, but many believe the wars and subsequent victories over Chaos had taught the Emperor the value of unwavering faith in benevolent deities. However, he along with his wife have completely banned the worship of any god that could be construed as a Chaos god. From this point on, all deities worshiped by the citizens of the Imperium and religious organizations human and Eldar alike would be subject to regular review from Inquisition to ensure no Chaotic influences were present. The largest religious belief in the Imperium by far is the worship of the Emperor either as a god or as the Omnissiah, something he himself is quite against, followed by the worship of the Empress, mainly by the Eldar citizens not pledged to Cegorach or Khaela Mensha Khaine. Contrary to belief, the worship of their Imperial Majesties does not create tension between their followers, as the Emperor is worshiped as the god of humanity whilst Isha is worshiped as a goddess of the Eldar. This, coupled with the fact that both are coupled through their holy union prevents any animosity between the two. However, the followers of other religions such as the ancient Catharism are still often ostracized and in some particularly insular planets, persecuted against.
The Adeptus Astartes
At the dawn of the Horus Heresy, the Adeptus Astartes, known colloquially as the Space Marines, were the main armed body of the Imperium. They were organized into Legions numbering in the tens of thousands, and sometimes up to two hundred thousand. They were the ultimate warrior, their weakest equivalent to a hundred mortal men and the strongest equivalent to thousands. They were death incarnate. They were the Emperor's ultimate weapon against the horrors the galaxy had to throw at humanity. Unfortunately, fully half of all the Astartes in the galaxy pledged allegiance to the Arch-Traitor. The destruction wrought was devastating. Even ten millennia after the fact, some worlds have yet to recover from the devastation the Heresy wrought upon them. In a short nine years, the Adeptus Astartes, once seen as the Emperor's Avenging Angels, were suddenly seen as monsters. Even those whom remained loyal to the Emperor were viewed with suspicion and fear by the ordinary people of the Imperium. In the end, it was decided to reorganize the Astartes from their Legions into smaller chapters so in the event one would turn traitor, the damage they would be able to deal would be both limited and easier to counter. The Adeptus Astartes are still viewed by the vast majority of imperial citizens as the Emperor's Chosen, and are still deployed to wherever they are needed, but their role as the main fighting force of the Imperium was theirs no more.
The Astra Militarum and the Navis Imperialis
The Astra Militarum and the Navis Imperials, known more commonly as the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy respectively, are the two main fighting arms of the Imperium's Armed Forces. Whereas pre-heresy the Imperial Army (the predecessor to both organizations) was relegated mostly to garrison duty, the shear brutality and grinding nature of the Horus Heresy had forced the Emperor to supplement and eventually replace the Adeptus Astartes as the main fighting body of the Imperium. Made up untold billions of men and women loyal to the Emperor, the Empress, and their Imperium, the Imperial Guard and Navy stood as the bulwark of the purge of the Eye of Terror, and serves to this day as the bulwark against the growing xenos threat. Although elevated to the primary force of the Imperium's armies, the Imperial Guard and Navy did not come out of the Heresy without their own reorganization.
Despite generally being given more leeway for their actions against the Emperor due to them being mere mortals in a war dominated by demi-gods, demons, and actual Chaos gods, the Imperial Army was broken into its two constituent parts; the Imperial Guard and Navy. The Imperial Guard was forbidden from utilized combined arms regiments so as to prevent any one regiment from having too much power should it turn traitor. Their regiments were thus organized as pure infantry, artillery, or armored regiments*. Despite this significant handicap, the Imperial Guard continues to hold the line against all that the galaxy throws at it.
Compared to Imperial Guard, the Imperial Navy got off relatively lightly. The only real change was the severance of the Guard and the Navy command structure. Ground commanders would no longer be able to directly control naval assets including the ships themselves as well as their air/void craft contingents. Much like how the Guard defends the planets of their Majesties subjects, the Imperial Navy is the first line of defense against any xenos invasion.
The inclusion of abhumans into the Astra Militarum and Navis Imperialis was met with no shortage of derision, but ultimately was accepted as it was a direct command from their Emperor. Along with the abhumans, certain xenos auxiliaries were also utilized, most often in the form of mercenaries, but also in permanent formations for species found amicable to the Imperium. This most notably includes the Tau, whom although in their brief history with the Imperium had attempted to subjugate imperial worlds, had ultimately proved far too small of a threat to spend the resources to exterminate. Instead, the Imperium had decided to let them live, albeit with the constant reminder that their continued existence depends on them not attacking or subverting imperial worlds as well as concentrating their forces on their mutual enemies in the Orks and the Necrons. This state of affairs should not be confused for an alliance with the Tau, however. Opportunistic Imperial and Tau commanders still engage in low-intensity skirmishes against each other across the systems that make up the Imperium-Tau border.
The Eldar are a special case in terms of military service in the Imperium. They technically have their own semi-independent forces, most notably their Aspect Warriors, but with the union between their Goddess Isha and the Emperor of Mankind, the ranks in Imperial Guard and Navy were opened to the Eldar. Due to this, many eldar who wish to serve but do not wish to devote centuries to a single path of the Aspect Warriors have joined the ranks of the Imperial Guard and the Imperial Navy. Their extremely high skill level often means they are placed de facto into elite units or positions, and those trained in the psychic disciplines tend to act as refined and reliable regimental psykers in the Guard or even as astropaths in the Navy. Unlike their human counterparts, the Eldar are equipped with Aeldari-specific gear so as to not hamper their combat effectiveness.
Regardless of the regiment or species in question, every Imperial Guard and Planetary Defense Force regiment, Imperial Navy ship, and xenos mercenary outfit is issued at least one commissar. A commissar's duties include ensuring morale is sufficiently high, instilling discipline, administrating punishments for infractions, and in some more pious regiments to act as a chaplain and confessor should a regimental priest be unavailable. Commissars also act as a source for an objective and unbiased viewpoint, often times from the viewpoint of the Imperium as a whole. Amongst the diverse ranks of the Imperial Guard, the commissar is always easy to identify, with every commissar being adorned with his or her distinctive greatcoat and peaked cap. The commissars of the Imperium are technically outside the ranks of the Guard and Navy, but most settle into roles of roughly equal authority to the command they are assigned; regimental commissars being equal to the colonel of the regiment while commissars assigned to a company being the equivalent of the captain of the company.
Within the Commissariats purview lies the Legions Penetante, known more commonly as the Penal Legions. The Penal Legions of the Imperium are divided into two tiers. The first tier is for repeated offenders of minor crimes, desertion, and cowardice to name a few. These legionnaires serve a limited sentence and are offered their freedom after their sentence has been served. This tier is overwhelmingly filled with former soldiers of the Imperial Guard, and as such they are returned to their regiments should they fulfil their sentences. The second tier is significantly worse as it is for the worst offenders in the Imperium. The legionnaires within this second tier are often guilty of capital crimes and are seen by Imperial commanders as a massive reserve of expendable manpower. As such, legionnaires of the second tier tend to be placed in the worst conditions during a battle. Penal Legions are commanded by a commissar acting on behalf of the regimental or army commander.
*Special exceptions for mechanized regiments and siege regiments.
The Inquisition
The Inquisition was formed in the immediate aftermath of the Horus Heresy. Founded by the Emperor's closest advisor and confidant, Malcador the Hero, the first Inquisitors were men and women of an inquisitive nature who could search out the enemies of the Imperium, both within and without. Unlike many other organizations within the Imperium, the Inquisition was designed from the ground up to employ both Human and Eldar as inquisitors. They have near-absolute authority over any servant of the Imperium from the lowest criminal to the highest administrator on Terra. Inquisitors may even requisition any military force in the Imperium, though they are not a part of the command chain and must relinquish control after their mission is complete. They are only outranked by the Emperor and the Empress themselves, and as such answer directly to them.
Perhaps the most infamous authority the Inquisition was given was the ability to order an Exterminatus upon a world. This order is given only in the direst of circumstances, and when it is, thorough investigation is conducted to conclude whether or not the order was truly warranted. Inquisitors who misuse their authority and power are swiftly dealt with. What happens to inquisitors who fail in their duty to their Imperial Majesties remains a secret only known to themselves, and the few loyal guardians of the Imperial Palace who were sworn to secrecy after witnessing it.
The Adeptus Mechanicus
The Adeptus Mechanicus, previously a semi-sovereign power with the Imperium, is charged with the safekeeping and study of technology. However, with the Emperor's orders to Adeptus Mechanicus to end their hoarding of technologies beneficial to the Imperium for themselves, various technologies from the Dark Age of Technology have been recovered from the depths of Mars. This was due to a large portion of the Mechanicum of Mars siding with the Arch-Traitor. Because of this, at the end of the Horus Heresy the Emperor demanded to redress of the Treaty of Olympus Mons. In the redress, the Mechanicus would lose their semi-independence from the Imperium and be integrated into the wider Imperium. The forge worlds of the Imperium would now also no longer be under the sole control of the Mechanicus, and while the Mechanicus would be in charge of the manufactorums, they planet itself would be under the control of a planetary governor. Finally, the Mechanicus would no longer be allowed to hoard technologies for themselves at the expense of the wider Imperium, and the act of harboring lost technologies was a capital crime.
Despite this, the majority of the Adeptus Mechanicus was untouched, as the aforementioned decree only applied to the Mechanicus' highest ranks, as they were the ones most likely to keep recovered knowledge secreted. The Mechanicus as a whole still performs its duties as caretakers of the Imperium's machines and factories, as well as being the most proactive at recovering lost STC's.
Due to the Imperium's focus on advancing and recovering knowledge, the innovation went from being a heretical crime to being merely taboo. As the centuries went on, that taboo gradually become more and more accepted, to the point where in the 42nd millennium it is much more commonplace, though it's still not embraced. This has resulted in many of the Imperium's various machines and weapons getting small but noticeable upgrades over the millenniums, as well as the creation of new machines based on pre-existing tech.
Life in the Imperium
With the Emperor's orders to Adeptus Mechanicus to end their hoarding of technologies beneficial to the Imperium, various technologies from the Dark Age of Technology have been recovered from the depths of Mars. Among those found were research into abominable intelligences, despite the Emperor's earlier ban on abominable intelligence research. However, many of the Emperor's previous stances from the beginning of the Great Crusade have shifted, no small part due to the influence of the Empress Isha and the knowledge she carried. This has led to the Emperor allowing the research in semi-autonomous machines. This is notable as although these machines are not fully self-aware (and therefore not a true abominable intelligence), they are capable of limited programmed functions. This has led to a great deal of automatization within the Imperium.
Whereas once a menial labor force was needed to operate various machines, often to the detriment of the menial's short-term survival, autonomous machines have replaced the jobs of armies of menials. Most notable of these include the automatization within manufactorums, but the Imperial Navy also benefits greatly from this advancement of technology. Imperial Navy ships once required AI to do many jobs like loading the ship's guns. With the Cybernetic Revolution, a human labor force was required to do the hazardous jobs AI once did. Now, the job of loading the Macro Cannons and moving cargo around their ships is relegated to dedicated machines instead of expendable human labor.
On most planets, the quality of life for the average imperial citizen is a marked improvement from the Old Imperium. That isn't to say that people live in a utopia, far from it in fact, but the populations on most 'civilized' planets live in 'adequate', if a bit monotonous, conditions. On heavily industrialized worlds and forge worlds, the quality of life is only marginally better off than in the Old Imperium, as even though the worst jobs are now taken by machines, the planets themselves tend to be quite inhospitable due to the heavy industrial pollution. This is the same with hive worlds, as although the inhabitants of the high, middle, and even the lower spires experienced an increased standard of living, those living in the underhives rarely stand to benefit. Feral and feudal worlds are for the most part the same, as the resources needed to modernize these planets are needed elsewhere in the Imperium, and these planets don't contribute enough to warrant the diversion of said resources in these current times.
It must be remembered that the Imperium is not a highly-centralized state. Indeed, the systems governors and planetary governors have a great deal of autonomy in how they run their planets. So long as the core Imperial laws are followed, their tithe is paid, and their loyalty is sworn to the Emperor and Empress, they can generally governor/rule their systems however they see fit. This means there can simultaneously exist planets that value freedom and individual liberties and planets that value strict hierarchy and authoritarianism within the same sector. Though, it must be said that in recent centuries the more brutal of planetary governors tend to have very short tenures. The Old Imperium was rife with brutal governors who viewed and treated their people as little more than slaves, but governors of that line of thinking are becoming rarer and rarer as the centuries go on. Another often overlooked topic is the enslavement of fellow humans. The Old Imperium utilized slave labor extensively, and the Emperor himself often enslaved his conquered enemies in his Great Crusade. However, over the ten millennia he has ruled over the Imperium, many of his previous stances have shifted. The Emperor now generally discourages the practice of enslaving humans (and Eldar, but Eldar tend to not find themselves in a position to be enslaved), but still sees the utility in enslaving the populations of planets who rebel against his rule and xenos who have proven to be incompatible with coexistence. Nevertheless, slavery, as whole, has slowly been disappearing from the Imperium as the centuries have gone by, no small part due to the need for slave labor decreasing steadily due to the automatization of menial tasks within the Imperium.
The Imperium's Relations with Xenos
The opinions on xenos varies from person to person within the Imperium, but overall, the Imperium is a deeply xenophobic state. Although tempered by the introduction of the Eldar into the Imperium and their Emperor's divine union with the Eldar Goddess, humans nonetheless attempt to avoid all contact with xenos if at all possible. The Eldar similarly see the species of the galaxy as little more than primitives at best and beasts are worst. When referring to humanity, Eldar old enough to remember a time before the union of Man and Eldar only begrudgingly accept parity between their two species, and generally tend to look down on their kinsmen who view humans as an equal to the Aeldari. That being said, no hostilities exist between Man and Eldar, as both, regardless of their opinions towards each other, recognize the importance of remaining united in the face of the usurper races attempting to claim the galaxy as their own. The Emperor and Empress' union also helps to ease any tensions between their subjects.
While not as fanatically xenophobic as the Old Imperium, the Imperium still regards xeno life as something to be ignored at best and exterminated at worst. Among those xenos viewed to need exterminating are the Orks, the Necrons, and the Tyranids chiefly amongst the hundreds upon thousands of xenos species in the galaxy. When the Imperium discovers a xenos world inhabited by clearly intelligent xenos, the Imperium will first investigate whether or not these xenos are an immediate threat, and if so, purge them before they can become an even greater threat. For those who do not pose an immediate threat, they are usually cordoned off in a small area of space, and if possible rendered terrestrial-bound, until the Imperium can reevaluate their species at a later date. Contrary to belief, there exists a not-insignificant number of xenos enclaves within the borders of the Imperium, usually no more than a handful of systems large (if that). While even ten or so systems within the Imperium being used as containment for xenos enclaves may seem like a lot, one must remember that conservative estimates place the number of stars in the galaxy to at least 100 billion and likely up to 400 billion. Even a hundred-system xeno empire would be a drop of water to the ocean of the Imperium, especially the further away the xeno empire is to Segmentum Solar. These xenos enclaves are considered as tributary states, and are tithed by the Adeptus Administratum.
Should any xenos species be considered by the Imperium to be trustworthy enough to consider coexistence (albeit as lesser beings compared to the humans and Eldar), they are then labeled as 'sanctioned xenos'. These sanctioned xenos are still viewed with great suspicion and sometimes outright hostility from the more extreme elements in the Imperium, and the likelihood of ever gaining the acceptance from the Imperium on a species-wide basis is so close to non-existent it might as well be*. Sanctioned xenos are allowed to offer their services as mercenaries in the Imperium's never-ending wars with the traitors and xenos. These mercenaries are only permitted to use their own equipment, and are forbidden from being given human or Aeldari equipment or technology. The only time a sanctioned xenos is given Imperial equipment is if said xenos is judged to be too primitive to be useful in engaging the Imperium's enemies. Even then, the only military equipment given would be what was judged to be the bare minimum required, often being autoguns or rarely las-lock weapons. This equipment is expected to be returned at the end of the mercenary's service.
For xenos judged to be incompatible with the Imperium such as the Megarachnids, Orks, or Drukhari** to name a few, a policy of extermination is used to remove these species from the galaxy. These tend to rank fairly high in the threat level, and as such are the focus of the Imperium's war machine at the present date. Every effort is made to cleanse the galaxy of these xenos, and any of their former planets are thoroughly cleansed of any remaining influence before Imperial settlers are permitted to arrive.
*The only recorded species to be treated as an equal by humanity and the Emperor has been the Eldar, and even then, only through monumental effort from the Eldar in assisting the Emperor during the darkest days of the Horus Heresy and through the marriage of Isha and the Emperor.
**Although the Drukhari are generally killed on sight, there have been a few recorded instances of former Drukhari being 'rehabilitated,' though this is an extremely rare occurrence.
A/N
I wasn't really satisfied with the original length of this chapter, with it being only 1300 words, so I decided to continue expanding the background information on this universes Imperium. The next chapter will be the actual story.