The Imperium vs Chaos: is there be a middle ground?

[DBadger]

The universe is pretty vast, and even the mapped out WH40kverse is pretty damned big. Considering how big Earth is itself, it's not hard to imagine that the Imperium's grasp isn't entirely all encompassing.

 

We currently have pretty well defined Good vs Evil. Blurred a little with aliens and different warring factions, but for the most part it's Imperium vs Everything Else.

 

I'm wondering, has anybody ever considered a human uprising against the Emperor?

 

Obviously if the Inquisition found out about it it would be instantly crushed, but perhaps they haven't yet. If WH Fantasy world is protected by a warp cloud, maybe other worlds are too...

 

Even if they would be instantly defeated I'm having a lot of fun imagining a scenario like the student revolt in Les Miserables - the uprisers all optimistic and idealistic, only to be crushed in a second's notice by a planet strike. These people have never seen a Space Marine. The Imperium is all but mythology to them. So they pitch a revolution not knowing the scale of the battles going on in the universe.

 

What is civilian life like on a non-hive, non-agriculture, non-forge world. Do we have pubs and shops and places for people to congregate and inevitably share ideas? Do workers ever strike?

 

Guard rebel, even if it's just getting cold feet, which is why we have commissars for doctrine. But it wouldn't take many guard to overthrow a commissar, not when we have these numbers.

 

I'm not implying a fall to chaos. In fact they'd probably look down on chaos in the same way. I guess what I'm after is neutral humans. Atheist humans, who don't believe in the God-Emperor, but aren't heretics, not believing in the false gods either.

 

Or even hipster humans who "worship" Slaanesh ironically, in the same way a Satanist might. Chaos symbols working their way into pop culture on a forgotten hive world.

 

Does anything like this already exist in the WH Universe?

[Lord Marshal]

Separatists with zero connection to Chaos worship do exist, but the Imperium is structured to make such efforts incredibly difficult. They're usually crushed swiftly and without mercy so that nowhere else gets it in their clever heads that separating is even possible. Most planets and even sectors rely on others for basic necessities such as food, weaponry, raw materials, etc, so in the long-term it's almost impossible, but in theory not completely.

 

I believe the only real in-depth and recent example of this is the Severan Dominate from the Only War RPG.

[MARK0SIAN]

There are lots of examples of planets rebelling in the lore without any connection to Chaos, the Ultramarines novels by Graham McNeil alone have two examples of it.

 

Any idealistic uprising is generally crushed pretty quickly. Although it’s probably fair to say that some planets only have a vague connection to the Imperium for most of their population, those planets are still controlled by a planetary governor appointed by the Imperium and have some outside framework at the higher end such as the administratum or the arbites.

 

The governor is important because he is answerable for that world meeting its tithe (all worlds except dead ones and some rare, specially exempt ones like Space Marine homeworlds have a tithe to meet) and any uprising would threaten that tithe. The governor can call in Imperial Guard support and has authority to do whatever is necessary to meet his tithe. This would likely see any uprisings crushed pretty quickly.

 

It’s possible that worlds could be cut off for long periods and develop a different kind of society but once they’re rediscovered they’ll be reabsorbed into the Imperium. Some good examples of this can be found in the Horus Heresy novel series.

 

There’s a reason most of the rebellions fall to Chaos, it’s because chaos offers some measure of protection/help against the Imperium.

 

Something to bear in mind though is that so long as the tithe is met and the citizens worship the emperor in some way the Imperium often works with whatever societal structure a planet already has so really, any type of society you want to imagine is possible :)

 

If you want to see what life is like on various planets in the Imperium I would recommend the Eisenhorn and Ravenor series of novels, they showcase real societies of the Imperium very well, as do some of the Ciaphas Cain novels.

[Kinstryfe]

I would imagine that most uprisings would only last as long as it takes the next ships arrived to collect their tithes. Once the world doesn't meet those, it's only a matter of time until things start going south. So rebellions are absolutely possible, and probably not all that uncommon, but highly unsustainable in the long term. You may win, but your great grandchildren will pay the price.

 

As for what worlds are like, I would imagine that they are as varied as the worlds themselves. Some are nightmares where the trees try to eat you, some are sprawling hives with people packed in like sardines, and occasionally there is probably the odd world where things are pretty nice and most people live pretty happy little lives.

 

Lastly, the chaos angle. It's been shown in various places that chaotic symbols are themselves just wrong in real space. Chaos runes can buzz and shift and have a power all their own. Pronunciation of chaos runes can cause tremendous damage. It seems that there's not really a way to ironically worship chaos, as what would start as using a cool rune you found somewhere would eventually turn into outright worship or enslavement unless you were of particularly strong will (like the more heretical Inquisitors). To the warp, symbolism is what is real, and simply coming to identify the rune of a god as part of your own identity should be enough to let them in. That's part of why chaos is probably able to so easily corrupt those fostering rebellion. The rebels, no matter their intentions, feed the eagle with their plotting, the hound with their anger and bloodshed, the crow with their hope and despair, and the serpent with their willingness to devote everything to the cause.

[Urriak Urruk]

I'm pretty sure Krieg became a death world because it rebelled, but I don't think it was a Chaos rebellion just a straight secession attempt. It didn't work obviously.

[Plaguecaster]

There is the Inperial Guard novel Rebel winter where the main enemy are separatists (as well as Orks) quite a good read, it is possible but most cases are usually dealt with pretty quickly by the Imperium as the longer the revels resist the Imperium the more easier it becomes for them to be subverted by outside forces either chaos or even xenos in the case of the Tau Etc

[Bryan Blaire]

There are probably human controlled planets (heck, likely entire systems and clusters/sectors) out there in the galaxy that have never been found by the Imperium. Depending on how much they've held on to, they could even be as technologically advanced as the Imperium, or more so, but lack the capability of warp travel for some specific reason. They wouldn't be an uprising, but if they were found somehow, the story of their integration or refusal to the Imperium would probably be an interesting read.

 

But as others have said - if it was already a world part of the Imperium, rebellion is going to be ended, one way or another.

[DuskRaider]

There was a MASSIVE schism in the Imperium in M35, the Nova Terrum Interregnum. A huge amount of the Imperial was sick of the High Lords and their inefficiency so they split and created a whole new Terra and everything, the civil war lasted for quite some time. Our own Apologist is currently doing a project based off it HERE.

[Moonreaper666]

Soul Drinkers and Blood Gorgons stradle the line between the two forces