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I've been wondering, why does the imperium still hold on to the christian calendar? What importance does Jeebus still hold?

My thought is that if the Emperor is the most important figure in mankind ever and saved it from the dark age of strife, shouldn't it be like the 11 Millennio Emprah rather than 41 Millennio Domini?

What makes you think they're not the same person?

Hmm, I don't really know

=?

Maybe because the immortal god-emperor of mankind has a thing or two against lamb-cuddling hippies

They DO look rather alike...


Besides, it was said that the Emperor masqueraded as various religious and political figures throughout history guiding humanity towards his vision of the future before he finally came out as the Emperor.

Then why hold on to the, in that case, rather arbitrarily chosen Jeebus?

TiB wrote:Then why hold on to the, in that case, rather arbitrarily chosen Jeebus?

Why not? Jeebus was obviously important to the Emprah given how long he's managed to kick around as a legend in our world.

Pff, two millenia and he is already starting to fade!
That wouldn't seem so much in his time where there are battletanks driving around that are older than that.

They do both have hippie hair though...

And haven't you heard? It's apparantly CE now, not AD.

TiB wrote:Pff, two millenia and he is already starting to fade!

R you cereal?

Tell that to the bible belt...

They do look similar and I always lliked to think that they were one and the same as well as other prominent figures. Maybe the Emperor first tried the lamb hugging hippy thing then after that failed thought "Feth this, I'm conquering the galaxy with super soldiers."

As to the calender (since I'm sure most people in the 41st milllenium don't make this connection or even know about Jeebus), I'm sure changing it is a pretty low priority for the Emperor at present. Either that or its a mechanism to help remind us that 40k is supposed to be our universe in the future.

The Imperium doesn't even know what the year signifies anymore. It's just been going for so long there's no real reason to change it.

As with all uncertainties of Imperial 40K:

It was lost in the Age of Strife.

Melissia wrote:They DO look rather alike...

i was thinking this as i saw the pics

CE? Are you serious? What's that stand for?

And honestly, this is a good question. I would assume that the timeline of years is just that: a way to measure chronology. The Imperium may not even know what their calendar is measured from, and is probably not aware of Jesus in the slightest.

CE stands for Common Era and we should change it to that.

The Imperium has never heard of Jesus. In fact in one book Ragnar sees an ancient painting of the Archangel Michelangelo on Terra and assumes its Sanguinus.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:CE stands for Common Era and we should change it to that.

I don't see why it should be called Common Era since it doesn't see anymore common than any other timeline.

In regards to being all the previous prophets, when you suddenly pop up and begin saying "I was all those other Prophets" everyone is going to nit pick and bicker at you for it. Then your credibility goes down the chute, because everyone says something else, and they say that you said something else in the previous ages. And it takes far too much time to train new High Priests after you blast the old ones for annoying you.

"What was said in the past, it's sun has set. The sun dawns for my words now."

Much easier to get everyone to your banner when you tell them to set things down, rather than bring them together and someone's holy relic poked out someone's eye. Priests can be so childish about an eye for an eye.

Regarding the calendar: As others have stated: They've forgotten what it means. Or, the Emperor had a Babes and Hotrods in his bedroom and someone decided it was his will to be the calendar.

I thought it was 63.M1, 799.M2, etc...they just started calling it the modern era. I understand they pretty much use real life continuity, but is Jesus included?

Check out the Paladium Rifts universe; they use the Calendar dates in PA(Post Apocalypse) and I can never remeber what year the Apocalypse happened to get my character straight when rifting about in time.

It is just gw doing that so we understand how much time that is. also it may make since. keep it simple and no change so you can understand how far ago this was.

I think using BC, AD (or CE for those of you that seem to think changing it will matter as both CE and AD use the Catholic Gergorian calendar anyway)is for us and our perception in 2010, rather than them and theirs in Lorgar only knows when(Your false God will burn in the fires of our wrath as we are Chosen to Deliver the Word).

I personally would hate dating my documents as such: December, 18th, the 41,012th year of our Lord Lorgar. I prefer the much simpler method of dating the calendar, who gives a gak the Warp messes it all up anyway.

In science, temperature is properly measured in Kelvin, not Celcius (Fahrenheit is a lingering folk residue still grimly clinging to life in backwards parts of the world and will hopefully pass). Yet one degree K is the same difference as one degree C, because we're accustomed to the latter and it is easier to keep the scale.

In some sources, CE is now being used instead of AD to remove the religious factor and because refering to a date relative to the birth of a historical figure who was actually born three years earlier (or was in later?) is a bit silly. It's the same as how computer dating runs from January 1970 00:00:00 (mostly). Doesn't matter where the start date is as long as everyone knows it. We currently have a solid, well defined starting time that has been in use for roughly two thousand years, it is going to take a cataclysm for us to change it to another fixed point and have to renumber everything. If it survives, why wouldn't it be carried over?

Although how do we know it has? <.< We're talking tens of millenia into the future, it isn't going to be obvious if that it plus or minus a few thousand years. Something could have happened that has become the new fixed point.

Morgrim wrote:In science, temperature is properly measured in Kelvin, not Celcius (Fahrenheit is a lingering folk residue still grimly clinging to life in backwards parts of the world and will hopefully pass). Yet one degree K is the same difference as one degree C, because we're accustomed to the latter and it is easier to keep the scale.

In some sources, CE is now being used instead of AD to remove the religious factor and because refering to a date relative to the birth of a historical figure who was actually born three years earlier (or was in later?) is a bit silly. It's the same as how computer dating runs from January 1970 00:00:00 (mostly). Doesn't matter where the start date is as long as everyone knows it. We currently have a solid, well defined starting time that has been in use for roughly two thousand years, it is going to take a cataclysm for us to change it to another fixed point and have to renumber everything. If it survives, why wouldn't it be carried over?

Although how do we know it has? <.< We're talking tens of millenia into the future, it isn't going to be obvious if that it plus or minus a few thousand years. Something could have happened that has become the new fixed point.

What he said :-) And indeed we cannot know that they didn't switch their starting point to some date centuries away from Rabbi Yeshuas birth. Personally I like to think the Imperial Calendar starts with the founding of Rome or Alexander the Greats birth... much more appropriate imo.

BTW, hi guys - a long time lurkers first post :-D

User: thats easy because
sister of battle burst from door
sister: this user is unclean
pulls out flamer
user burns to death


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So it doesnt get too complicated. They probably use something like CE anyway, because using AD (anno domini or year of the lord) would be viewed as heretical, but using the modern time scale would be much simpler. Plus, "In the Grim darkness of the 41st millenium" sounds cooler than "in the grim darkness of their eleventh millenium but our 41st mellenium". And Jeebus, if you insist on calling him that, was not born exactly 2010 years ago, nor was he born on the 24th of December (if you read the bible you'll find there's no reference to a specific date)

In fairness, all we know is that it is the 41st millennium.

We have no idea what that millennium is actually based off. It's more than likely arbitrary.

Hmm, hadn't looked at it that way yet. Seems fair enough.

Still doesn't explain though why, being so emperor bothering in every other way, the higher-ups of the imperium don't let something as important as time begin with the emperor.
You'd think people would be racing each other just to be able to say to the emperor:"I changed time for you my lord, have I been a good boy?"

TiB wrote:Hmm, hadn't looked at it that way yet. Seems fair enough.

Still doesn't explain though why, being so emperor bothering in every other way, the higher-ups of the imperium don't let something as important as time begin with the emperor.
You'd think people would be racing each other just to be able to say to the emperor:"I changed time for you my lord, have I been a good boy?"

In case you haven't noticed, change is not something the imperium is wont to do, especially since the emporer was golden-throned. Who knows, maybe changing the dating system was on the emporer's mind and he never got around to it? It's not like it's really that important, not as important as building a webway gate of recovering lost human colonies around the galaxy.

Another theory, maybe games-workshop just uses it because we use it today. If the dating system was completely different from ours, it would be harder for us to place the 40k universe relative to us. Not impossible, mind you, but more difficult. No-one at GW really cares enough to make the extra step. Most of the fans dont care either.

Tbh, I'd assume that they just kept Jesus' birth as the same point, but forgot about Jesus or any relevance to that date, except possibly for a legend or something. They also kinda changed how the date is written, so you have to think a bit more. And the Emperor, who's been around awhile, would have kept a record of the date and whatnot, and when he revieled himself, he would have set right any inconsistencies, no?