The Great Schism

[Sigismund229]

This is a series of stories I've been working on about an event I had the idea for a while ago. Amd yes it's big and not canon but I'm not forcing you to read it. It's set just before the Age of Apostasy.

 

Chapter 1

Lord Commander Korin Thule of the Imperial Guard looked about the vast chamber the Senatorum Imperialis convened in. With its enormous gold domed roof through which the light shone down onto the mosaic of the senatorum floor, the chamber resembled several of the structures that once existed upon Terra, in times long before the rise of the Imperium. Within this vast space were over 300 individuals, each one representing some function or other of the Imperium. Yet of all of them, only 12 really mattered and it was those 12 who sat at the long crystal table placed in the centre of the dome, beneath the light that shone through the hole in the domed ceiling. These 12 were the High Lords of Terra and every decision they made effected the lives of countless numbers of the Emperor's subjects.

 

As commander in chief of the Astra Militarum, more commonly known as the Imperial Guard, Korin Thule was entitled to a place amongst them. Sat next to him was Goge Vandire, the youngest and most recently appointed of the High Lords. While his finely cut and washed hair as well as brilliant smile and unnaturaly healthy skin gave Goge Vandire the appearance of an innocent and trustworthy young man, Thule was well aware that Vandire was one of the most corrupt individuals presently seated at that table, no small feat. Vandire had no scruples and was insatiable in his quest for power and had achieved his present rank through a mix of good connections, bribery and assassination. However, compared to those used by the other High Lords, the assassins used by Vandire were incompetent and obvious while his bribes were pathetically small at this level of play, a sign of just how little money the Administratum possessed. At present Goge Vandire was in the process of glaring at the cause of that lack of money, as he often did in these meetings.

 

Ecclesiarch Benetus IX sat on the far right of the crystal table and he was a stark contrast to the relatively young Lord of the Administratum. Where Vandire was dressed in simple clothes, Benetus was dressed in his full Ecclesiarchal vestments, a rich red robe with a purple lapel and a white miter, with gold thread woven into all of it. Of course, the fanciful nature of his grab that wasn't just caused by vanity. It was a display of the power and influence of the Ecclesiarchy, increasingly one of the dominant organizations of the Imperium, causing some to call the Ecclesiarch the Emperor. This display of power was designed to keep all the other High Lords in their place and remind them that challenging the Ecclesiarchy would likely be the last thing they did, as evidenced by the fact that Benetus IX had been a High Lord for well over 200 years and while his age was beginning to show, he was still as wily as ever. At present, Benetus was deep in conversation with High Admiral Thela Oskova of the Imperial Navy, probably trying to persuade her to fork over the ships to support yet another War of Faith.

 

Thela Oskova was probably one of the least corrupt of the High Lords as she didn't have to be. Before becoming a High Lord she had built up an extensive network of allies amongst the Rogue Trader Houses and Merchants of the Imperium and such allies were not wanting for funds. Add into that the tithes she had wrangled out of the High Lords to enable her to pay the upkeep of the Imperial Navy and the Navy had almost as much funding as the Ecclesiarchy. Using these funds she had greatly expanded the Navy and correspondingly its power within the Imperium meaning that she didn't need to be corrupt to get her way. At present she seemed to be giving the Ecclesiarch all of her attention but Thule knew it was just an act. She was only vaguely listening and the rest of her mind was on other matters, fleet assignments and thousands of requests for protection or aid from all over the Imperium.

 

Next to her, looking disgustedly at the Ecclesiarch and the Master of the Administratum was Lord Inquisitor Kantrell of the Ordo Xenos, the representative of the Inquisition in the Senatorum. Of all the High Lords, it was Kantrell that Thule feared the most. With the Inquisition having the power to perfectly legally execute anyone in the Imperium or co opt entire armies to aid them, Thule would have been a fool not to be afraid of the Inquisition. While the Inquisitor outwardly appeared to be not paying any attention to the proceedings, Thule guessed that like the High Admiral the Inquisitor was putting on a show, putting the other High Lords off the scent of his investigating them.

 

Next along was Grand Master Natalina Uraskov of the Officio Assasinorum. Startling beautiful, Natalina was a former Callidus assassin and a High Lord of whom Thule was wary. Her allegiance was an ever shifting thing and wasn't determined by any rationality that Thule could discern other than who paid the most for her agents services, meaning she was at the moment alligned more towards the Ecclesiarchy than any other faction.

 

Sitting nervously next to her was Iryian Hote, speaker for the chartist captains. He didn't represent any singular entity but instead a collection of merchant cartels that stretched all across the Imperium. When united, they were so wealthy even the Ecclesiarchy seemed to have just a drop in the ocean, while the Administratum and Adeptus Arbites didn't even show up. Luckily for the High Lords, they very rarely did and the only reason Hote was on Council was to speak out against any non mercantile actions the High Lords wished to pass and due to the vast amounts of money he was backed with none of the High Lords wished to anger him. Thule knew that he certainly couldn't as he regularly had to ask Hote to loan him sufficient funds to pay the forges of Mars and various other Forge worlds for the equipment used by his troopers, as the funding he was given by the Administratum was laughable. All the major money that the Imperial Guard used was acquired from loot siezed om crusades and even that wasn't sufficient as the Administratum had gradually demanded that more money be paid to it by planets and less be used to equip the Imperial Guard.

 

Gazing across the chamber, Thule was decided. Something had to be done in order to safe guard the Imperium and it wasn't going to be done by this collection of buffoons. The Imperial Guard was going to ruin, its influence and military might declining as it had done terminally over the past peaceful centuries. If any major threat were to appear to the Imperium, the Guard lacked the strength to repel it and he lacked the influence on the council to rebuild the Astra Militarum. Change was needed. However, to bring about change he would need allies.

[Sigismund229]

Chapter 2

"Did you see the Ecclesiarch today?" said Vandire bitterly "He must have spent more on that attire than the rest of us earn in a decade". Thule nodded and sipped his wine, a particularly fime vintage he noted. Evidently the Administratum wasn't so strapped for cash that its head couldn't still satiate his more expensive desires. "And the way he and the High Admiral are colluding? Planning Wars of Faith? He's not even using the money for the good of the Imperium!" said Vandire at which Thule let a small smile cross his features as he thought Like you would. The absurdity of that idea was almost enough to make Thule roll on the floor laughing.

 

"You intend to decrease the Ecclesiarchy's importance I presume?" replied Thule. "I intend to serve the Imperium" said Vandire. Ah so you're not inept after all thought Thule Good. "For that you'll need allies on the Council" said Thule, sipping his wine again "And I can't see the Ecclesiarchy running to join you and the Assassinorum neither, not for the amount you can pay". Vandire nodded and said "And yet, there are others who also wish to serve the Imperium on the council are there not?". Thule simply nodded and gestured for Vandire to continue. "The Ecclesiarchy has money, manpower and the power to levy the aforementioned two. You have manpower. I have the power to levy money. I understand the Imperial Guard has been somewhat short of that recently" said Vandire with a wolfish grin. Refusing to rise to the bait, Thule could hardly deny it. He'd just taken a loan of several trillion throne gelt from the merchants in order to equip the Imperial Guard regiments of the Segmentum Pacificus. "How much?" he asked simply. Instead of speaking, Vandire simply pulled out a data slate from a drawer in his desk and slid it across the desk to Thule.

 

Looking at the slate, Thule was sure that his eyes must have shown some elemet of surprise. One tenth of all incomes of the Segmentum Solar and one twentieth of all incomes in every other Segmentum. Vandire grinned again and asked "Do we have an accord?". Thule was awestruck. With that much money the Imperial Guard would become one of the pillars of the High Lords. Its position would be unassailable. He could displace the Frateris Templar as the principal fighting force of the Imperium's offensive wars and once he did that he wouldn't need the Administratum's support any more. The loot from those offensive would provide sufficient finances to keep his organization going all by itself. He only thought about it for a second before he said "Agreed. Long may we stans united in our service of the Imperium" to which Vandire grinned wolfishly again. Thule knew what that grin denoted. They wouldn't stay allies any longer than strictly necessary.