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Okay so I'm a traitor scumbag, fair enough. But there is a reasoning behind it.
I wouldn't want to fight for a God (because he basically is one...), and the conditions are terrible.
People live in slums, Inquistitors hae the right to conscript any Imperial citizen into the army, Commisars kill anyone that ignores his commands, and I don't want to know about the income of the basic imperial soldier. I know Space Marines fight because of honor, their faith in the emperor and for glory.

But seriously, why would you want to fight for the Emperor?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Because otherwise you and all your family will be shot and turned into Soylent Green.

Conditions are less horrible in the Imperial Guard.

Orkeosaurus wrote:Conditions are less horrible in the Imperial Guard.

I don't think so...

Well humans brains are more morally controlled then any other being or thought, so a human would fight for the emperor because by doing that he know's that humanity (and family, friends etc) will be kept safe. Why would you fight for a chaos God when all he's gonna bring is total destruction to the universe, then you would be out of the whole original business. At least with the emperor you know that everything will be good once they win and who knows, maybe even peace (hopefully one day, Death of the emperor thread anyone?)

While I am a tau player, a sisters army is in the works for next year. So my reasons for fighting for the Emperor and not for the chaos gods.

Nurgle: While pap nurgle might be a good jolly guy, I am not that keen on hanging out with a guy who's idea of a gift is turning me into typhoid mary.
Khorne: The man just wants skulls, any ones. I like having my skull thank you very much.
Tzeench: My favorite god of the bunch, the fact that he like to mutate and turn you into a spawn kind of kills any chance of me severing him. I like have two arms, two legs and a normal body.
Slannesh: The sex god is not very sexy looking (granted a corpse on a machine is no winner either), but I am not a person for excess, believing in moderation, so our ideals do not mesh.

As for the God emperor, while the Imperium is not the best place to live, to me it is better than working for chaos.

Humans are social creaures and social motivated. Almost every madman, dictator, and tyrant honestly believes he/she is serving his society. Deep down our primary concerns are survival, first for our family, second for our tribe/city/country, and finally for our race.

Sometimes people ask, "Why doesn't everyone join the Tau? They have better living conditions?" Modern people try very hard to be "open", but this gets easier and easier the smaller the world gets. We even begin to allow feelings of kinship with other cultures that may or may not exist. That was broken down in the age of strife. Everything else was once again "alien".

The Emperor IS survival. Living conditions can be bad, planets may be destroyed, corruption may run ramp, and the enemies may be a the gates, but this only reinforces imperial authority. Catholic dominance could not be overthrown in the middle ages. Safety and prosperity were necessary for hope for change to take root. The worse things get, the less people can hope for something better. Once you get down to it, we MUST survive.

In the end, the Emperor offers hope for survival, spiritually and physically. And tangible hope. We know his power, we know he is there. To you imperial fleets represent oppression, to the planets of the imperium, they represent survival.

Because of the cultural effects of the age of strife, most humans are understandably incapable of mentally accepting xeno into their "tribe". So the Tau are out. Chaos is out for obvious reasons. Revolution is a death sentence, from aliens if not from the imperium.

And then there is this:

"Oh noes!!! Teh Orks are attacking!!!1!"
"Pray to the the 300ft golden idol, it will preserve us!"
"Shut up old man, we need tangible results, not faith!"
"But the 300ft golden idol has laser eyes and lance cannons!"
"Oh yea...PRAY TO THE EMPEROR FOR SALVATION!!!" pew pew pew

My point is, today the effects of prayer are more intangible, but in the often backwards imperium, prayers for salvation are answered with lasers.

Why should you have faith in the emperor? Because he answers with lasers. What are the tangible rewards for your faith? FRIGGIN LAZER BEAMS!!

r3n3g8b0y wrote:

Orkeosaurus wrote:Conditions are less horrible in the Imperial Guard.

I don't think so...

In the grim dark future, any organization that provides food and clothing on a regular and recurring basis certainly counts as less horrible.

You make the assumption that the IG manage that.

'cus he's 'Tah Emperah'

P=

vleermie wrote:'cus he's 'Tah Emperah'

P=

Exactly.

'Cos he said so.

2 main reasons IMO:

1) He's a god basically. Vicars/bishops basically work for god, its thier job, people sing songs about god, prophets etc, people make buildings/shrines for gods, people will tatoo themselves etc. all in the name of god. Its all perfectly normal. For the imperium its the same, except another step further, they lay down thier lives for him.

2) You'll probably get shot, imprisoned or tortured (or all of them) if you dont, especially if you live in a Imperium owned area.

Well why do christ followers fight for god? Muslims for Allah? They believe in the Emperor and that he will save their souls.
Which is fair really.

Thanks for all the feedback guys! Yes, I thinkso too but you can be a traitor without an alegiance to chaos, so you're basically just a pirate, which is exactly what I'm doing...

Ideology doesn't matter - it's because everyone you know is with the Imperium.

Sure, I could see an educated person in 40k disagreeing with the Imperium on many levels. But if you turn your back on the Imperium, you also turn your back on everyone you know.

It's not like you can expect to walk up to your family and friends one day and say to them, "Yeah, the Imperium sucks, so I'll be joining Chaos. You guys should come too, so that I don't have to maybe-indirectly-result-in-your-death later."

This thread.




In all seriousness, what are the alternatives? The Imperium is the only force that can offer a semblance of protection, splinter human empires don't fare too well when the need to take on a massive force like 'Nids.

Tau? Co-exist with the xeno? Tried that. We got enslaved. That won't be happening again.

Chaos? No thanks, heretics.

Rebels/Traitors? Only united does humanity stand a chance.

Everyone else (Orks, Necrons, 'Nids) is honest enough in it's intent to kill, eat destroy us.

r3n3g8b0y wrote:Okay so I'm a traitor scumbag, fair enough. But there is a reasoning behind it.
I wouldn't want to fight for a God

The ironic thing is you fight for Chaos...

JEB_Stuart wrote:

r3n3g8b0y wrote:Okay so I'm a traitor scumbag, fair enough. But there is a reasoning behind it.
I wouldn't want to fight for a God

The ironic thing is you fight for Chaos...

Thats another thing about fighting for anyone, AFAIK, no matter who you pledge allegiance to, you gonna have to kill, contribute to the killing, live in paradise (excess and pleasure), do something that involves change or die eventually which makes chaos that much more powerful.

Besides family, friends, home and humanity, I'd go anywhere else anyday.

person person wrote:
Thats another thing about fighting for anyone, AFAIK, no matter who you pledge allegiance to, you gonna have to kill, contribute to the killing, live in paradise (excess and pleasure), do something that involves change or die eventually which makes chaos that much more powerful.

The third one doesn't sound so bad...

But what I mean is, I don't like the Imperium and it's ideaology. I'm not saying that I want to tear it down in flames, no. All I'm saying is thatI don't want to be part of it...it's like being an American citizen and moving to England, you guys get my point?

The thing about fighting for the Emperor is that, well, he's basically the advocate for humanity.

In a galaxy where Eldar, Orks, and Chaos Marines would love nothing more than to rip ten feths outta humanity, Humanity kinda has back up in the form of a dying corpse god.

Cryonicleech wrote:The thing about fighting for the Emperor is that, well, he's basically the advocate for humanity.

In a galaxy where Eldar, Orks, and Chaos Marines would love nothing more than to rip ten feths outta humanity, Humanity kinda has back up in the form of a dying corpse god.

yeah but you could still have your own empire, you know

Right.

But think about it this way. What if a man wants to do good? What if a man wishes to help his fellow man, rather than stick it out for himself.

Chaos does not offer this. Chaos appeals to the individual. Chaos appeals to those who crave power. Chaos appeals to mankind's selfishness, their negativity. Chaos takes all that is human and twists it, creating a grotesque parody of what humans find as good, wholesome values.

Yes, why would you fight for the Emperor? Who are you? What do YOU want? The Four can give it to you. The Emperor is nothing but a corpse worshipped for that little sliver of hope that people know deep down will not be relevant. The Chaos gods offer protection, and can give you what YOU want, not what pompous Inquisitorial fools tell you what you want.

Well, what if I want to protect those that I care about from the horrors of an uncaring universe.

Chaos does not offer me that. Chaos does not offer any mercy, or pity. Chaos does not appeal to my sense of logic. Chaos is utter emotion, letting them guide you rather than what YOU know is right. Chaos twists, it perverts, it never gives you anything as it is.

@ZacktheChaosChild: That is so fething heretical I...if only there was some way to summary execute THROUGH the monitor...

@r3n3g8boy: Splinter Human Empires, as I've said, would be crushed swiftly by the vast forces up against them without support.

I for one would never fight for the emperor.
I am too selfish for my own survival, Thus I would Join the forces of Chaos and most likely I would Join Either Slaanesh or tzeetch. Nurgle seems like a good choice but he would just give me Aids,Cancer,Lepracy AND Ebolla and see what happens to me, Khorn would give me power but I would have to fight. The other two would be the better choice for survival and servitude towards.

The human race does not care for its own survival as a whole but rather a survival as the indevidual, Thus we do not fight for family we fight to keep ourselfs alive...but Vasarto! That is rather conflicting right?

Well yes but you see my friends we are also social beings and are desperate for attention and the need for others to be around us so our primal instincts along with our ability to work with each other allows us to fight for each other or a single belief or person that we believe will preserve us or others. So by fighting for others survival, others around us is fighting for OUR survival thus simply fighting for family will protect not only them but others will be around to protect them.

An emperor who sends people blindly in to battle with a closed mind and a society that looks down on everyone and everything that is not them is not protection from anything. If I simply remove myself from the threat of law, Government and the emperor, MY survival will be great so long as I do not anger only but a single person. I.E the god I worship. Anyone else of that faction is my friend and so long as I do not dishonor the GOD of that realm then my Life is preserved forever without so much as lifting a single figure

Yay chaos!

I would fight for the Emperor because it's the right thing to do. It's pretty much that simple.

Granted, the beaucracy of the modern Imperium is more or less a bastardization of what the Emperor strove for, but if you break everything down, the Emperor is, imo, the only truly "good" deity in the 40k universe.

Personally, I like to believe that the Emperor in the 40k universe is himself not a singular deity, but the physical manifestation of a greater power(to make parallels to Christianity, Christ ~> Emperor; Holy Spirit ~> Emperor's Light+conscience in general; Creator ~> ??).

And of course, it really depends on the author of the fictional work on how good and god-like the Emperor is.

Good work, loyal Imperial Citizen.

Propaganda. The average imperial citizen is probably told his entire life what an honour it is to fight for the God-Emperor in the glorious and mighty Imperial Guard. Having been told this his entire life, he or she would probably leap at the chance, only to regret it the instant he or she saw the opposition (How would someone living at the bottom of a hive world know what they'll be up against?). But thats what commisars are for .