Politics in the Imperium

[orzolaser125]

What is the political situation on Terra like? They have never fleshed this out in the fluff and I've always been curious. How is the Imperium governed? How about the political rivalries (Administratum vs Ecclesiarchy) and how those disputes play into the events in the 40k universe?

[Canadian_F_H]

Wow... Way to big to answer. But I'm pretty sure there are a lot of sources on how the imperium is (mis)governed.

 

Hopefully somebody with the resources can point you in the right direction but you can get the jist from the 40k wiki and a few other online sources that escape me at the moment.

[WarriorFish]

A lot revolves around the High Lords as you'd expect, but in something as massive as the Imperium and all the various elements you're looking at a very complicated network of power, control and everything else! The different entities will all be looking out for their own interests as much as the Imperium's (or perhaps more so...) and various events and such will put different High Lords in ascendency. Like much of politics much comes down to theoretical power as actual power.

 

As Canadian said there are so many large factions at play (not to mention the time scales!) that it's an impossible question to answer. Look at the Reign of Blood for an example of when one's power gets too much - and the results when it is proven to be only so much real power. After all with the various wings of power being potent military bodies how much can they really be told what to do if they don't want? With so many powerful in their own right factions it often seems like a very delicate balance. Again not unlike real politics :P

[Sororita Katya]

The main group is the High Lords who do their best to run the Galaxy of human controlled space, next are the different factions that do not have a seat on the council, these change constantly, such as the Ecclesiarchy, Navy, Ordos Assassinorum, etc. The Custodes and Arbites come into this equation also, along with the occasional word in from a messenger of the Emperor.

Next are the Inquisition, police given full authority throughout the Imperium and any means they wish to exact vengeance with very little to answer to.

 

At a relatively equal tie come the Adeptus astartes who generally follow the will of the High Lords but do their own things as well, most notably the space wolves, and the cult mechanicus who are generally left to their own devices.

Followed up by the governors of different parts of imperial space, most of these are policed in some way shape or form, but the outer regions get less policing and so therefore become corrupt more commonly, although this can happen in any system, all the groups above this point are practically in place to stop this from happening and keep them within the fold.

After these are local government forces such as state police and the imperial guard, it's high commanders being above that of governors but with most brigades being commanded by their systems lords.

[Sororita Katya]

then comes the common man. :P

[*Furyou Miko]

Uh, Katya, the Ecclesiarchy has two seats on the High Lords, kind of.

 

It's actually pretty detailed how things work.

 

It's a very devolved bureaucracy.

 

At the top, you have the High Lords of Terra. The Council of High Lords is made up of the leaders of the major organisations as follows;

 

The Master of the Administratum

The Inquisitorial Representative

The Ecclesiarch of the Adeptus Ministorum

The Fabricator-General of the Adeptus Mechanicus

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

The Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica

 

There are then three more seats, which at various times have been filled by one of the following;

 

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

The Speaker for the Chartist Captains

Lord High Admiral of the Imperial Navy

 

These three additional seats are held by whichever leader is most powerful at the time - which generally means whoever is contributing most to the safety and wealth of the Imperium. For a very long time, one of these seats has been held by the Abbess of the Adepta Sororitas, although the current Abbess has been missing for some time, leaving the seat claimed but vacant.

 

Under the High Lords, you have the Administratum taking care of taxes and tithes.

 

Under the tax office, you then have Sector Governors, who rule over a group of planets. Sector Governors are usually elected from the Planetary Governors of the region based on the prosperity of the various worlds.

 

Under the Sector Governors, you then have the Planetary Governors, who are usually hereditary unless their replacement by the Adminsitratum is necessitated (for example, because they've been dethroned by the Arbites).

[orzolaser125]

Well thanks for the answers. I am a big Game of Thrones fan, and whenever I see 40k, I feel like if they went more in depth about the politics on Terra and the political struggles going on. Yes I know of the reign of blood and I've read everything on the wiki, but still I feel like it is one of the great black holes of 40k. I was even thinking of creating a blog similar to the Philverse (I personally don't like his theories, but the fact he tries to tie some loose ends in the fluff inspired me) to flesh out the Political and administrative features of the Imperium of Man. Your thoughts

[*Furyou Miko]

The thing is, there isn't really insane Game of Thrones style politicking. It's more like the Vatican.

[Demus Ragnok]

Sometimes mystery is what makes something interesting.

[Lord Commander Scrymgeour]

what Demus said. Why do we need a definitive answer to everything? 

[orzolaser125]

What are you talking about? No insane politicking? How about the Beheading or reign of blood? There are few examples of insane politicking in the imperium and why not more? This is the darkest millennium in history, why not go into the inner struggles on Terra. It would add more back round to the mass carnage and unending war of the 41st millennium.

[*Furyou Miko]

Because when there is insane politicking, the 40k universe is so lethal and the High Lords so fragile that it only lasts a decade or so at most and that's literally ignorable in the grand scale of things.

 

Besides, there hasn't been a major upset since M36 saw two Internal Affairs units set up to prevent stuff like that happening. The Ordo Hereticus and the Adepta Sororitas are very good at their jobs.

[Plasmablasts]

As intriguing and enticing as the idea of seeing the High Lords of Terra together is, the reality might be a bit of an anticlimax. Given the colossal power each represents but also the interdependence of each faction, I imagine they would spend their time being very polite to one another.

 

Also, I suspect policy is probably not changed terribly frequently.

 

Master of the Administratum: "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very pleased to present our new five year plan. Actually, it's the same as the previous two thousand five year plans."

 

Fabricator-General: "Approved. Now, where are the biscuits?"

 

Additional thought that just occurred to me. The list of representatives with permanent or temporary seats in the council pre-dates Codex: Imperial Knights. The Knight Houses are depicted as a third estate within the greater Imperium, smaller but on a similar standing to the Terran and Martian factions. They would seem to qualify for representation in the Council.

[orzolaser125]

I would agree with you Plasmablasts, all of the imperial bureacracies are interdependent: They all need each other to run the imperium and to survive. That being said they do not have a harmonious relationship, after all the Ecclesiarchy and Admech are two different religions, although the Ecclesiarchy depends on the Admech technology l, their beliefs are totally different. You can definitely see them as rivals. And yes while there has been little to no change in the imperium, there has been little to no change in the US the past twenty years, yet republicans and Democrats still struggle for more votes. In a galaxy with soooo many problems as in 40k issues will always come up and considering how different the different Imperial factions are there will always be disputes and struggles.

[WarriorFish]

I think the details of political shenanigans are too small for the scale of 40k, which is best thought of as "OTT" :P However that doesn't mean it's not possible to play out some meddling and plotting, perhaps as part of a greater event such as a war of some kind? It's not really 40k unless someone is shooting a gun or waving a chainsword in the air after all :lol:

[Sororita Katya]

If you want to know what the High Lords of Terra are up to, look up "Question Time" on YouTube for australian politics.

Every time they say Australia change it to the imperium and when they say "Mr.Speaker" change it to "The Holy Emperor"

[orzolaser125]

Well of course, the High Lords are always part of larger wars. Think about the Tyrranic wars. Although the imperium is reletively decentralized the high lords have to make decisions things such as the movement of men and resources to the front. The High Lords are always involved in any major war, so the fluff about their struggles must be connected in some ways (even things such as economy, taxes, etc.) to the unending war that is 40k. 40k isn't 40k unless there is bloodshed, but without any sort of central leadership, all of these wars would end in disaster for the imperium. After all even a full chapter of space marines would have (realistically speaking, considering Khaldor Draigo went around the warp slaughtering daemons by himself) no chance against a full hive fleet. Without the High Lords directing the imperial fleet and armies of human meatshields, with all the resources and ammo needed, our beloved Ultrasmurfs would have been lovely snacks for ravenous bugs.

[Arkangilos]

Crusades are all launched by the High Lords and stuff like that. But they usually delegate power to segmentum and sector lords. 

 

But I'm sure they politic to determine who gets put in charge of sectors and stuff like that.

[*Furyou Miko]

I doubt it, actually - who governs sectors is entirely the remit of the Administratum, who know that they don't have any say when it comes to Forge Worlds.

 

It's a bureaucracy.

[orzolaser125]

The Admin would probably have control over the appointment of sector, segmentum and in the appointment of important planetary governors (such as hive worlds and agri worlds) but out side of these blocks of centralized control the imperium is pretty fuedal. Developing worlds (civilized, feral and fuedal) would pretty much be left to their own devises until the Admin comes to collect the tithes. Then you have independent worlds, like cardinal worlds, forge worlds and space marines home worlds which are under the control of other powerful imperial adepta, and have very little to answer to other than once again the allocation of resources, even if the world in question is an adeptus none tithe grade. Forge world's are duty bound to produce the machines the imperium needs for example in spite of the adeptus non tithe grade and space marines must respond to distress calls from other worlds. Everything is connected in some way or another. As you said it is a bureacracy.

[Plasmablasts]

The strength and weakness of the Imperium is its inertia, due to the partitioning of its resources into huge, inward-looking but mutually interdependent power blocs. The system trades efficiency for stability and resilience (which translates into the design ethic of Imperial models on the tabletop), and is there really to stop another Horus or Vandire getting their hands on too much power.

 

It follows that probably the "liveliest" meetings of the High Lords will be when they choose a Warmaster to lead their next Crusade. A lot could go wrong with that choice...

[Void Knight]

I feel like the High Lords act more like the US Supreme Court.  Whenever something with galactic sized consequences happen in the Imperium, the High Lords discuss what to do to deal with the problem at hand, using the vast resources each High Lord has at their disposal.  The Administratum runs the day-to-day operations within the Imperium (as well as they can), while the High Lords convene to deal with events such as a Black Crusade, Tyrannic War, ect.

[Warhawk Shizu]

Might be because I am a historian but I must say I find comparing the Imperium of Man to a modern state in most regards a rather poor comparison. (Though of course, with so many different writers etc and the ethos of “the galaxy is vast, do what you want” it is something of a mish-mash hodge-podge, fill with what you want setting.)

As was mentioned the Imperium is very feudal, which is certainly true, though it is perhaps even better compared with a late medieval or even ancient republic. (Ala Firenze, Venice etc at various points. But perhaps also pre-imperial Rome.) You have a multitude of powerful factions, the adaptas, various military commanders, navis nobilite, inquisition etc etc, all vying for power within a system rigged to keep the power shared, creating (ideally) a balance of sort.

In that sense I would say there probably is a lot of politics on Terra, though certainly not in the way we see in the modern world. Rather I imagine it as when the High Lords gather it is something akin to the roman senate/signoria, a not too frequently convened council which selects and/or sanctions important officials (Warmasters etc), make large scale decisions about direction of policy, sanctions major war efforts/expeditions aka crusades but most importantly act as judge and jury on each other, keeping each other in line and making sure no one oversteps their bounds. Indeed I imagine most of their time is spent on the last point. Thus very far from the decision making bodies of modern general assemblies who work with everything from broad strategies to detailed one off cases. They would probably also be very ritualized and formalized meetings filled with endless speeches about the "unity", "shared concerns" etc of the members.

The details, day to day running etc I imagine is given over to the various factions and/or the most powerful group within a given sector/field/area. Thus, if there is a war ongoing and a Space Marine chapter shows up I’d imagine they simply take control over all operations by dint of share power (and threatening to withdraw if not), rather than asking the High Lords.
Similarly, who gets to be Imperial Governor is not decided by Terra but rather by a combination of local customs, the adaptas present and often by right of conquest/might. (Aka, Imperial Guard Commander given his own world after a successful campaign)

Spice this up with endless rituals, faked/sincere deference to the Emperor, certainly faked unity of purpose, political murders, assassinations, trade/private wars, the uncertainties of Imperial shipping and communication, an insane bureaucracy and, last but not least, a super-paranoid Inquisition lurking about and you have the Imperium. Controlled and somewhat functional chaos XD

If taken back to historical analogues I believe this would fit far better with a premodern, even antique, state, as what the Imperium really is all about is a lack of centralized power, while centralization is what characterize modern once =P
Sorry if it turned into something of a wall, but I find this topic highly interesting!

[walter h]

I would tend to agree with , Warhawk. Pre- Imperial Rome, would probably be closer.

[Vorenus]

If you are interested in reading stories that involve a lot of politics and intrigue in the Imperium of Man, look no further than the EISENHORN, RAVENOR, and BEQUIN books by Dan Abnett.  You have intra-Inquisition intrigue (see what I did there?), Inquisition/Ecclesiarchy tension, planetary and sector government corruption and politicking, Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy factionalism, etc.  Excellent books in their own right, they also have a lot of politics and intrigue.  (The GAUNT'S GHOSTS series has some politics in it too, but it is more along the lines of Imperial Guard/Imperial Navy factionalism.  But those books are excellent, too!)

 

Also, if you have access to any of Fantasy Flight Games' licensed WH40K roleplaying games (DARK HERESY, ROGUE TRADER, DEATHWATCH, and ONLY WAR) you can really delve into the politics of the Imperium and of particular sectors in extensive detail.  You would do well to invest time in reading and playing those games.