Their ways are considered extreme - and they would be the first to agree. Extremism is sanctioned, they would say. Extremism is required. Are the enemies of the Imperium concerned with moderation? With liberalism? Of course not!
- Elucidium (short story) by Simon Spurier, from What Price Victory (anthology, 2004)
+++++
Imperiumism better known as Imperial Faith is the ideology of the Interplanetary state called Imperium of Mankind in the Warhammer 40k Universe. It is an extremely authoritarian, ultranationalist, militarist, monarchist and theocratic ideology practicing the cult of its Immortal God-Emperor.
+++++
"Love the Emperor, for He is the salvation of Mankind."
"Obey His words, for He will lead you into the light of the future."
"Heed His wisdom, for He will protect you from evil."
"Whisper His prayers with devotion, for they will save your soul."
"Honour His servants, for they speak in His voice."
"Tremble before His majesty, for we all walk in His immortal shadow."
- Imperial hymnal
Overview
God-Emperor
The God-Emperor is a powerful, immortal 
psyker that founded the Imperium of Man and citizens of the Imperium worship him as their God. The Emperor himself wanted to eradicate religion and create a rationalist society under his rule (allowing only for the practice of the Machine Cult, due to the powerful technology in their possession). After one of his lab-grown sons, Horus lead a rebellion against him, The Emperor was gravely wounded and had to seclude himself in his throne room connected to ancient piece of technology - "The Golden Throne" that keeps him alive. In his absence a powerful cult formed around his person, that later became the Imperial Church. It is thanks to the Emperor's psionic powers that human starships can access interstellar travel.
The Two State-Religions
Imperiumism believes in and enforces two state-religions that both venerate the Imperium's immortal Emperor.
Imperial Church
The Imperial Church believes that the Emperor of Mankind is a living God of Humanity and enforces fanatical worship and veneration of him wherever their priests are able to reach. Based on the holy book the "Lectitio Divinitatus", Imperial Church's beliefs soak into every part of Imperial society. Imperial Church very often adapts local beliefs and incorporates them into their church, proclaiming local deities of newly conquered planets to be merely aspects of the God-Emperor as long as they're not daemonic in nature.
Machine Cult
The Machine Cult is a religion originating on the Forge-World of Mars, its believers worship a deity known as the Machine God and believe that the Immortal Emperor is its living avatar known as the "Omnissiah". The Machine Cult believes machines have souls just as beings of flesh, often seeing those "Machine-Spirits" as more important than souls of humans. In spite of that the Machine Cult believes that true Artificial Intelligences or "Abominable Intelligences" as they call them, do not possess souls and creating them is a "Tech-Heresy". The Priesthood of the Machine Cult, The Adeptus Mechanicus composed of so called "Tech-Priests", hold virtually complete control over Imperial technology and industrial production. Priests of the Machine Cult often replace their natural bodies with machinery, believing it to bring them closer to their God.
Extreme Militarism
Imperiumism is an extremely militarist ideology and it promotes a culture glorifying military service and conquest. Imperium of Man keeps a vast array of military organizations like the Imperial Guard, Imperial Navy and Space Marines Chapters.
Fatalism
"It is better to die for the Emperor, than live for yourself" is a common motto of Imperiumism. Imperiumism promotes a form of extreme fatalism and culture gloryfying self-sacrifice. The idea of dying for greater good is present in every part of imperial society, from religious texts to even art and architecture, where the symbol of a skull symbolizing self-sacrifice is one of the most commonly used themes.
Practical Inefficiency
Imperiumism believes that the use of advanced technology should be limited to worthy and loyal people, usually high-rank military officers, aristocrats, Inquisitors and Tech-Priests. Imperiumism often advocates the use very archaic technology that needs large amounts of people to operate. While this may seem inefficient to some, it is in actuality a defence against Data-Daemons. Due to the nature of how Data-Daemons operate by infecting Tech in a similar way to how Viruses do in the modern world, except far more intelligent and malevolent, Imperiumism has to dumb down and break up it’s own tech to avoid catastrophic random betrayals during battles with Chaos worshipers.
For this reason, any true A.I.s are forbidden, and marked for destruction as soon as they are found.
Human Supremacy over the Galaxy 
Imperiumism believes that Mankind is the supreme race, chosen by the one true God, their Emperor, to rule over the stars. All other intelligent races should either become subjects to humanity or be completely exterminated from existence.
Organization of the State
The Emperor
Even in his poor state, Emperor remains as unquestioned head of the Imperial government and Master of Mankind
Adeptus Custodes
The Adeptus Custodes are the personal bodyguards of the Emperor, and it is usually they who spread his will, through force or otherwise. They also keep the Emperor company, and are loyal to him to a fault. Each Custodian was hand-crafted by the Emperor himself from his own genetic pool, and as such, are immortal, extremely intelligent, unable to fall or be tempted by Chaos, and are very, very, very deadly. In fact, they are to Space Marines what Space Marines are to regular guardsmen. As such, they operate outside of the bounds of Imperial authority, including the Imperial Church and Inquisition, as there would be no need to persecute one of the Emperor's actual children, because there is no way in hell that one of them would ever commit heresy. As a result of all this, their Captain-General (the commander of the Custodes) holds a seat equivalent or even above the High Lords of Terra in Imperial politics, although since the Horus Heresy, they have secluded themselves in the Imperial Palace, standing ever-vigilant against those who would threaten to do the Emperor harm. That is, until, the giant fucking Aryan kid in Smurf armor was revived and decided that the galaxy needed a thorough cleansing.
File:PCB-AristocracyIcon.png High Lords of Terra
The Senatorum Imperialis, also known as the Council of High Lords of Terra, it is composed of two different Bodies, the first among them is the High 12, who are the heads and representatives of the most important imperial institutions, with 9 of the 12 being (semi) permanent members, these 9 are the Master of the Adeptus Administratum, Ecclesiarch of the Adeptus Ministorum, Fabricator-General of the Adeptus Mechanicus, The Inquisitorial Representative, The Grand Provost Marshal of the Adeptus Arbites, The Paternoval Envoy of the Navigators, The Master of the Astronomican, The Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum, and the Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. While the rest are usually filled by 3 of the following representatives and heads, Lord Commander of Segmentum Solar, Lord Commander Militant of the Imperial Guard, Cardinal(s) of the Holy Synod of Terra, The Abbess of the Adepta Sororitas, Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes, The Chancellor of the Estate Imperium, and The Speaker for the Chartist Captains. High 12 meet occasionally, usually only a few times per decade, as they only meet to discuss the most dire threats to the Imperium of man, such as the Various Black Crusades, Major Tyranid Hivefleets, and Ork WAAAGHs.
The Second Body is Officially Known as the Senatorum Imperialis, or the Imperial Senate, and while it does Include the High 12 it unlike the First, is not exclusive to them, but instead made up of Tens of Thousands, if not Hundreds of thousands, or even Millions of Representatives, Of Planets, Systems, Sub-Sectors, Sectors, and more, they also include Administratum lords of Subsectors, Sectors, and even Particularly powerful planets, representatives of Forgeworlds and Mechanicum Ordos, individual Sector And Segmentum Battlefleets, heads and representatives of lesser Institutions etc. This Body of the Government is the Body that does most of the work, such as creating new laws, organising Crusades, sending Aid to Systems, creating new chapters of the Adeptus Astartes etc.
The Inquisition
The Inquisition is an autonomous organization operating in the Imperium, divided into different "Ordos" they handle the matters of inner security, treason, investigation and destruction of major threats. They answer only to the Emperor himself, and high-rank Inquisitors have enough authority to order complete extermination of planets.
Administratum
Adeptus Administratum is a giant bureaucratic apparatus of the Imperium that handles its administration
Ecclesiarchy
The Ecclesiarchy, officially the Adeptus Ministorum, is the official Imperial Church that maintains the worship of the Emperor. The Ecclesiarch, it's head, is a High Lord of Terra. It runs certain military forces, most notably the Sisters of Battle (a branch of the all-female Adepta Sorotitas). It also maintains educational and medicinal institutions, such as the Scholia Progenium (Imperial orphanages).
Adeptus Mechanicus
The Adeptus Mechanicus, or the Priesthood of Mars, is the organization that maintains the Machine Cult.
Arbites
Adeptus Arbites is a law enforcement force of the Imperium. Its "Arbites" serve as police force, prosecutors, judges and executioners in one.
Adeptus Astronomica
The Adeptus Astronomica has the duty of maintaining the Astronomican for the Imperium of Man, the psychic beacon in the Warp directed by the mind of the Emperor that provides guidance for the mutant Navigators that pilot all Imperial starships in the galaxy.
Planetary Governors
While the Imperium's government is strongly authoritarian, due to difficulties in space travel it remains strongly decentralized and local planetary governments are strongly autonomous and enjoy vast freedom in the way they rule over their worlds as long as they pay their taxes and fill in production and/or military recruitment quotas.
Personality
Imperiumism is an extreme religious zealot, suspicious of everyone, even his friends, constantly looking for signs of "heresy". He spends most of his time either praying to his God-Emperor or fighting in holy wars against Emperor's enemies. He hates occultism and would be willing to completely destroy entire cities or even worlds where "heretical" cults are found to "purge" them from corruption. He's also extremely xenophobic and paranoid of everything he considers "abnormal".
How to Draw
- Draw a black (#171717) ball
- Draw a golden Imperial Aquila symbol on it
- Draw one cybernetic red and one normal eye
- Done
Relationships
Friends
- Human Nationalism - Glory be to mankind!
- Enlightened Absolutism - Without the Emperor, we would be lost!
- Religious Transhumanism - Techpriests can be a little disturbing, but at the end of the day they are loyal servants of the Emperor.
Xenospeciesism - Yes! Suffer not the alien to live!- Imperium Xenospeciesism - My ancient Terran counterpart from M3.
- Angry Marineism - Calm down, son ...
Frenemies
- Necrocracy - The God-Emperor is not a corpse! Stop calling me a necrocracy!
Anonism - /tg/ are big fans of me.
Speciesblind Imperiumism - Walking contradiction
Enemies
Demonocracy - We will slay you warp-abominations!
Khorne - Foul warp-spawn, die!
Misanthropy - Death to the enemies of mankind!
Cult Anarchism - Slaaneshi heretic! Die!
Cult Egoism - Heretic! *BLAM*
Xenoequalism - Equality with filthy Xenos scum? Heresy! Die!
Chaosism - Heresy incarnate
WAAAGH!ism - VILE XENOS!
Tau'va - VILE XENOS!
External Links
Wikis
- Imperium of Man (Lexicanum) (Archive)
Imperium of Man (Warhammer 40,000 fandom.com) (Archive)- Warhammer 40,000 Imperium (TVTropes) (Archive)
- Imperium of Man (1d4chan) (Archive)
Imperium (Omnis Bibliotheca) (Archive)
Videos
Imperium Introduction Cinematic (by Chapter Master Valrak on YouTube)- Imperium of Man (by The Templin Institute on YouTube)
- The Emperor of Mankind (by The Templin Institute on YouTube)
- Every single Warhammer 40k (WH40k) Faction Explained | Part 1 (by Bricky on YouTube)
- (PLAYLIST) Loyalists (Adeptus Ridiculous on YouTube)
Fan Opinion/Discussion
- The Imperium Is Driven by Hate. Warhammer Is Not. (Warhammer Community, 19th of November 2021) - Official statement by Games Workshop
(Excerpts) The essense of the Imperium and what it's like. Reflections and justifications from the in-universe Imperials. (by u/crnislshr)- (Excerpts/Explanation) The Imperium is not just corrupted, the "corruption" is how the Imperium works (by u/crnislshr)
- THE IMPERIUM HAS DONE NOTHING (morally) WRONG (by JustTheFacts on YouTube)
- Why the Imperium of Man is Right (by General Films on YouTube)
- The Imperium Is NOT Driven by Hate. Warhammer Is.
- Warhammer 40k Imperium / Headscratchers (TV Tropes)
- Tabletop Games / Alternative Character Interpretation (TV Tropes) (scroll down for Warhammer 40,000 discussion)
The Imperium of Man: A Path for Modern Politics and Faith (tradyouth.org) (Archive)
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
<comments />