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So, the Imperium comes upon an independent human world, the world for this situation sake is free of chaos taint and made up of several independent countries. What would the Imperium do when making first contact? Who would negotiate with the world? Would they negotiate with the world as a whole, each country, or only the bigger countries? Who would be the first sent in if the world refused to surrender? How long after the world is annexed would it start paying thithes (would they be given a few years to prepare, or will their existing armies just be drafted into the Guard and shipped off)? What would the Imperium do regarding conversions?

Could you please specify which imperial organization is encountering the World?

Expeditions of the crusade era were combined efforts and it would depend on the leader of the fleet how they deal with the world, but the general goal is compliance and IMO this didn't change.

So basically if the Mighty Imperium made first contact with earth, how would the Imperium deal with us?

I think UN would be called in on this one and if an agreement (One in which the Imperium completely dominates.) cannot be made then then they would probably send in IG and the like.

The Imperium may not even act imediately when they uncover a new world: They may dispatch the Sisters of the Order Sabine:

Sisters of the Order Sabine operate at the very edges of human space on newly rediscovered human worlds. They specialising in infiltrating the regressed and primitive societies which may oppose the imminent arrival of the Imperium. The Sisters often set themselves up as prophets of the Emperor and foment revolt against the religious leaders of a world. When the Missionarus Galaxia arrives, the Sisters Sabine will have prophesised such an event, and lead those natives sympathetic to the Imperial Creed in a sudden and deadly coup. The Sisters Sabine are often cut off from the Imperium for a great many years, and many have the appearance of having 'gone native', adopting the clothing, language and manners of the culture they are infiltrating.

The Missionarus Galaxia also deals with new worlds:
There are still countless worlds yet to see the light of the Emperor and it is the goal of the Missionarus Galaxia to bring the Imperial Creed to these lost worlds, spreading the wisdom of the Emperor whilst expanding the reach of the Adeptus Ministorum. The Ministorum seek to send at least one Missionary with every exploratory vessel and should a lost community be discovered, learn their culture and forms of worship before teach the doctrines of the Imperial Creed to the natives. This can be a long process, substituting the Emperor for the natives own dominant deity or deities, removing the more barbaric and less desirable aspects of the native creed. The Missionarus Galaxia is considered one of the most free and undisciplined parts of the Ministorum valuing initiative, courage, and intelligence above raw faith and inflexible dedication to the word of Ecclesiarchal lore.

Rogue Traders and Explorators are so very diverse that the world takes pot luck in how they are treated and contacted - it may be a brutal invasion, diplomatic envoys or merchantile missions. If the planet is to be abosrbed into the Imperium then it will be assessed by the Adminstrautum, Church and Mechanicus to decide what elemetns can be kep, what elimiated - although this again would depend on the resources that each could muster to deal with the world.

short answer - its 40K it depends

I imagine they'd do a "take us to your leader" thing, and then we'd get the head of the UN talking to them.

The Imperium of man would tell us how it's going to be. They'd likely reform the UN into a traditional planetary government.

If I were the Imperium of man, I would then import as many billions of workers and tech adepts as a could, and export as many billions of earthlings as I could, and exterminate those that resisted. Leave no one on the planet to actually raise an insurgency.

Then that would pretty much be that.

Mr Morden wrote:
short answer - its 40K it depends

This right here. Mr Morden's post hit the nail on the head.

The Imperium is incredibly diverse, the various internal organizations are also very diverse, and given almost complete freedom in how to approach problems. To top it all of, Rogue Traders, the most diverse group of all, are going to be responsible for most new contacts. Anything could happen. Full scale assaults, diplomatic discussions, business partnerships, proselyting.They may hurl an asteroid at the planet and then come in offering assistance or they may get the whole planet addicted to drugs.

It's a very open ended situation.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The main thing to note is that the Imperium ISN'T totalitarian in their approach to governing worlds. They pretty much let worlds do what they want as long as they pay the tithe and revere the Emperor. It's the governor that will determine what things are like.

The appointed governor may very well allow things to continue on as they did before. Or they may decide they are the local king and rule as absolute monarchs. Or they may convert the entire planet into a factory.

It's really not the Imperium that determines what life will be like, but the local governor.

We might be classified as a resort planet.
Or because we have an abundance of resources, enslaved mining.

Seriously...the UN will more then likely bolo the talks with the Imperium. Some of the UN members will go ballistic because its the "Emperor" thats viewed as a God.

Jihadin wrote:Seriously...the UN will more then likely bolo the talks with the Imperium. Some of the UN members will go ballistic because its the "Emperor" thats viewed as a God.

The Imperium is pragmatic at most, they would most likely speak the dominating countries of each continent or hemisphere.

China for Eastern Hemisphere and USA or NATO for Western Hemisphere.

i think they would try peace with a big stick method sorta like

"hey bra, were the big Dawg in the universe at the mo and we want peace and you want to join us cos look at all these big guns we can give you to protect you.. "

And if they didnt want to join, well things may get smashed see

There would still be a borderline that the Imperium would not cross when it comes to converting worlds. I can't imagine them doing something they consider Heretical... Well at least not on purpose.

Of course Chaos is just as likely to discover our planet as the Imperium.

The Imperium would come in and the following would happen.


After a few years of tenious contact, missionaries, maybe some trade, they would essentially give an ultimatium to all the various countries. Pay the Tithe, worship the God-Emperor, and obey a few overarching Imperial Laws, or be destroyed.

The various governments would remain in position, they would still administrate their territories and such(under supervision) and would just have to pay the Tithe. The Imperium is a dictatorship, but they manage things on a galactic scale. There is no micro-managing of day to day affairs even by the Planetary Governor, whose job is basically keep the peace and gather the tithe.


We would probably have a Governor assigned to us, who would operate from an orbital station(or one on the moon)

He would recieve the Tithe expectations from his higher ups and would divide it out to various countries(those that were left after the inevitable rebellions of some) depending on what they could give.

Earth would probably export Imperial Guardsmen and/or food. We would probably also be expected to help develop the rest of the solar system. Asteroid and planetary mining operations and such. Possably even some Ship Yards eventually.

Mr Morden wrote:The Imperium may not even act imediately when they uncover a new world: They may dispatch the Sisters of the Order Sabine:

Sisters of the Order Sabine operate at the very edges of human space on newly rediscovered human worlds. They specialising in infiltrating the regressed and primitive societies which may oppose the imminent arrival of the Imperium. The Sisters often set themselves up as prophets of the Emperor and foment revolt against the religious leaders of a world. When the Missionarus Galaxia arrives, the Sisters Sabine will have prophesised such an event, and lead those natives sympathetic to the Imperial Creed in a sudden and deadly coup. The Sisters Sabine are often cut off from the Imperium for a great many years, and many have the appearance of having 'gone native', adopting the clothing, language and manners of the culture they are infiltrating.

The Missionarus Galaxia also deals with new worlds:
There are still countless worlds yet to see the light of the Emperor and it is the goal of the Missionarus Galaxia to bring the Imperial Creed to these lost worlds, spreading the wisdom of the Emperor whilst expanding the reach of the Adeptus Ministorum. The Ministorum seek to send at least one Missionary with every exploratory vessel and should a lost community be discovered, learn their culture and forms of worship before teach the doctrines of the Imperial Creed to the natives. This can be a long process, substituting the Emperor for the natives own dominant deity or deities, removing the more barbaric and less desirable aspects of the native creed. The Missionarus Galaxia is considered one of the most free and undisciplined parts of the Ministorum valuing initiative, courage, and intelligence above raw faith and inflexible dedication to the word of Ecclesiarchal lore.

Rogue Traders and Explorators are so very diverse that the world takes pot luck in how they are treated and contacted - it may be a brutal invasion, diplomatic envoys or merchantile missions. If the planet is to be abosrbed into the Imperium then it will be assessed by the Adminstrautum, Church and Mechanicus to decide what elemetns can be kep, what elimiated - although this again would depend on the resources that each could muster to deal with the world.

short answer - its 40K it depends

That sounds very much like the Ori from Stargate SG-1.

Oh Hi guys. I see your humans too!
Now.... You are to worship the Emprah, pay taxes to the Imperium and all sorts of other stuff too! alright? no one gets hurt.

If you don't do all this stuff then we will send millions of troops,tanks and space ships to crush you and grind you to dust then we will take your stuff.

So how about them prayers to the Emprah?

I imagine they'd bring it to its knees then negotiate.

I.e. "look, we're from the IoM. Therefore we have ludicrous amounts of firepower. Still want to argue?"

Two words: gunboat diplomacy. Followed by religious and technological infiltration and subvertion. Christianity and Islam are somewhat compatible with the Imperial Creed, but others might prove troublesome. Human rights go out the window though, as would innovation, though I see the Mechanicus trying to gather as much talented individuals as possible and educate them in the proper way of things. Capitalism though would be chained, as its volatile nature makes it very dangerous. Socialism would be the rule of the day, which could cause problems - nothing a few Guard Regiments, a Navy Task Force, and maybe some Sisters can't deal with. Worst-case scenario, the planet is conquered by force. Those who sided with the Imperials would become the new nobility, rewarded for their foresight in siding with the Imperium by staying (and ruling) to perpetuate the myth the planet was long since an Imperial world to a new, memory-altered, imported, off-world population. The surviving indigenous population would at best be memory-altered before being sent to another planet to colonize, or at worst, be sterilized and placed in Penal Legions.

What? No. Tadashi, you usually have a pretty good handle on Imperial fluff, but you are way off on this one.

Tadashi wrote:Two words: gunboat diplomacy. Followed by religious and technological infiltration and subvertion.

As was mentioned earlier, maybe, maybe not. Depends on who is doing the diplomacy. There is infinite room for variation between the factions. An Ad-Mech exploratory fleet, an Ecclesiarchy missionary fleet, an Imperial Navy fleet, and a Rogue Trader are all going to handle the situation in diverse, unique ways. It's pointless to speculate on the most 'likely' scenario, as there isn't one. Diversity is the name of the game in the Imperium.

Human rights go out the window though

Human rights and other laws are a local matter. The Imperium doesn't care, they don't have time to worry about such things. The new local governor may curtail human rights, or he/she may not. The governor may just allow things to continue largely as they did before.

Capitalism though would be chained, as its volatile nature makes it very dangerous. Socialism would be the rule of the day, which could cause problems - nothing a few Guard Regiments, a Navy Task Force, and maybe some Sisters can't deal with.

Way, WAY off on this one. Laissez fair capitalism is MUCH more common in the Imperium than socialism, as the Imperium is disinclined to interfere much in local matters. This idea people have that the Imperium is an invasive, totalitarian government is WAY off. The Imperium isn't a hellhole because of Imperial interference. It's a hellhole because the Imperium lets local governors do whatever the heck they want, and so long as they meet their tithes they have Imperial support.

The surviving indigenous population would at best be memory-altered before being sent to another planet to colonize, or at worst, be sterilized and placed in Penal Legions.

You're giving the Imperium WAY too much credit. They mind scrub Astartes on occasion when they are exposed to something they shouldn't have been because they are too valuable to execute. They wouldn't bother with regular humans. And colonization just isn't something they do very often by anyone but Rogue Traders.

As is always the case in the Imperium, the answer to the question is "it depends". It depends on who is making contact, and who the local governor is. One could reasonably ask "what would first contact with the ad-mech" be, or the ecclesiarchy, and you might be able to get a decent answer. But the Imperium is too big and diverse a place to deal with generalizations.

Xendarc wrote:So basically if the Mighty Imperium made first contact with earth, how would the Imperium deal with us?

Ideally, first they'd send the Missionarius Galaxia to subvert our religions in to the Imperial Faith, to ready us over a few generations for the unification with the Imperium. Then they'd send the diplomats and attempt to unify peacefully, while picking a defensible location for an Imperial capital (possibly an already existing city, possibly in an uninhabited but defensible area like a mountain range).

If we did not unite peacefully, they'd bring the Imperial Navy and Imperial Guard, and conquer us, granting privileges to nations which united peacefully with them.

Regardless, they'd likely introduce the Mechanicus and induct our scientific populace in to it, granting us access to some basic technologies to encourage us to develop interstellar trade and allow us to defend ourselves (las weaponry, flak armor, basic Imperial vehicles, possibly merchant vessel schematics and the ability to produce them, etc), and then ask for tithes and taxes occasionally. Eventually, the political class would probably form in to a noble elite (as if they haven't already), and we'd become a true imperial world.

Given our scientific nature, the Mechanicus might create a research station somewhere in our star system (yes, the Mechanicus DOES in fact run research stations, despite their reputation-- the Mechanicus VASTLY prefers rediscovering old technology, but it is very willing to accept new technology that has been properly tested over decades or even centuries of stringent and thorough testing) and attempt to make use of that inquisitiveness in a controlled, safe fashion before we do something stupid like open up the warp and engulf the world in daemonic energies.

Mind you, this is the ideal scenario. There's plenty of ways it can go wrong.

We might be considered tainted by Chaos.....Lady Gaga and her antics....Slannesh comes to mind....US Congress be Tzee....Bush and Obama be Khorne worshipper....damn...we're screwed...

I think you're getting overly confused there.

Warmongering is a highly beloved Imperial hobby, and isn't linked directly to Khorne. What IS linked to Khorne is bloodthirstiness-- spilling blood for its own sake. Neither Bush nor Obama have shown such desires, nor for the most part do most professional soldiers in first world countries (in countries such as Syria, one starts to wonder... and let's not get started on terrorists). It could be that terrorists eventually become chaos insurgents though.

Similarly, there are ambitious people within the Imperium as well, and they are for the most part untainted by Tzeentch. Its schemes for the sake of schemes are inscrutiable of course, and its own designs confound themselves, but still. Some likely could become Tzeentchian worshippers covertly, but it's unlikely as our world is as yet untainted by the psyker gene, and thus Tzeentch is likely not much interested in us.

And, quite frankly, Lady Gaga would feel right at home amongst Imperial nobility in terms of fashion. Collectively, our societies are rather prudish enough, for the most part, for the Imperium to not be bothered.

What Melissia said. Earth is fairly conservative compared to many Imperial hive worlds.

Because we don't really have any major mineral deposits(on a galactic level) or the ability to export large amounts of food we would basically just be viewed as another Civilized World who supplies Imperial Guardmen.

We would be used to develop our star system as I said before but beyond that we arn't anything special.

If we were discovered, it would likely be by a Rogue Trader(who would begin trading with us)

the imperium are mobsters lol "pay protection see and no one gets hurt"

Glad to see a few others agree lol

By that definition, all governments are mobsters.

Melissia wrote:By that definition, all governments are mobsters.

Initially most governments involve people volentarily participating, but at least once they reach sufficient size and disposition to be self perpetuating, yeah, there is very little difference. There are places in the world where the mobsters form a more recognizably legitimate government than the organizations that ostensibly govern the area.

That's a rather pointless definition of organized crime.

Regardless, the Imperium is an actual bona-fide government. It's not a democratic one in most places (not all, there's some democratic worlds that elect their governor, IIRC), but it's still a government rather than an organized crime ring. It is wholly unconcerned with profit, instead concerned with protecting its citizens and expanding its territory.

Not interested in monetary gain of course. Not all profit is monetary. Anything that's good can be considered profit.

I really fail to see the difference here. They demand tithe in exchange for protection. If the 'client' world declines they are forced to accept under threat of violence. The vast majority of worlds did not choose the Imperium, they were conquered and coerced.

Unconcerned with profit? They are entirely concerned with profit. The tithe is their #1 concern, far beyond the individual lives of those they rule. The tithe and maintaining their power.

Note, this isn't a condemnation of the Imperium, as I'm in the 'it is a necessary evil' camp, but the Imperium, and many real world governments, behaves exactly as an organized crime ring does.

As I noted earlier, there are many places in the world today where the local crime rings do more for the citizenry than the local governments, where the local mob bosses are gone to before the magistrates, and made men solve and discourage more crimes than the police. It's merely a question of scale.

Ideally a truly virtuous government is a voluntary organization representing citizens banding together for mutual protection and benefit. That form of government is a wholly different thing from a crime ring, but that is not the form of government the Imperium (or most modern governments) practice.

Again, I'm not condemning either the Imperium or modern governments. But in their method of demanding payment an control in absence of consent of the governed, they are very similar. Modern goverments to a small degree, the Imperium to a great degree.

riplikash wrote:What? No. Tadashi, you usually have a pretty good handle on Imperial fluff, but you are way off on this one.

One thing I am sure off: no innovation. Although given the Mechanicus' pragmatism, it's likely they'll at least try to educate any scientists and engineers they come across in the proper manner of things.

As for government, we'd probably be left alone, but there will be some resistance. Not everyone wants to be part of a single government, especially a theocratic oligarchy despite all its benefits and technological advantage. If the worst happens, well, the ones who sided with the Imperials will be rewarded I'm sure by becoming the new ruling class. They may or may not memory-alter and/or deport them but the new ruling will need lots of off-world troops to maintain order for the first few decades.

riplikash: I fail to give a gak. It's a pointless semantical argument at best and I can't help but roll my eyes.

So let's talk about 40k instead.