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Ciaphas Cain knows a thing or two about daemons... :3

And, I agree with most of you, the whole execution after contact shlick seems dumb to me thus I ignore it. All of the BL writers ignore it too anyway, and that's the only 40k thing I still interact with these days

SylvanaSekNadin wrote:if I remember commissars are specifically trained to know about and resist demons because they have to know about them and how the work to do their job. I dont know if thy would be executed for encountering one, but executing guardsmen who do does not seem so unlikely.

Remember that guardsman's lives are worth less than their equipment. They are called the Hammer of the Emperor, and used for protracted campaigns of attrition for a reason. However, the imperium does not look lightly on simply wasting imperial resources and killing off a largely populated planet would be a tremendous waste.

The more likely scenario is that if demons are encountered (or necrons which the inquisition likes to keep under wraps too, or used to before the new codex), an inquisitor would come along and do the pretty tedious task of scouring through all the soldiers and the general population. If the situation looks salvageable a few questionable people will be executed the rest will be put back to work where they can die another day. If it looks like the rot is a little too deep, then killing the lot is the only real answer.

This is pretty much what I thought. Fighting daemons, you get to live, at the hearth of a warp/realspace explosion that blanket the area you are in in hideous warp warpieness, your most likly going to get executed, if you survive, or recruited into the -I-.

The whole "killing people who know about daemons" (not just guardsmen) thing strikes me as an act of a really fanatical/puritan Inquisitor type - one of those "the slightest hint of knowledge about ANYTHING can be dangerous!" types who would burn a library because it might contain an obscure harry potter reference to witchcraft sort of thing. Earlier fluff implied it was a standing policy, but by more modern fluff you can treat it as more of a guideline or habit of certain factions (Monodominants would be big on that, I suspect.)

It's probably on the same order of "why they don't arbitrarily wipe out planets with massive firepower" and "force entire planetary populations into forced labor camps because you were on the same continent as a Chaos daemon" sorts of things. Politics probably would force such practices into disuse.

I hate this damn piece of fluff. This is what happens (my opinion): Guardsmen- it depends on the regiment. Cadians live like milimeters from the eye of terror so they encounter deamons alot, and whenever theres a black crusade. Space Marines- they know about this and are trained to resist it. High com in the IG knows so they can fight it effectivly (like in the Ciaphas Cain novels. Commissars know because they need to look out for sighns of curruption. its civillians and non mil personel that dont know, or the PDF and lw ranking IG. when GKs get involved then it a different story, and SM get mind wiped of just that event, cuz just think if there entire lives were mind wiped then they lose all there combat expierience and training.

Yeah, I'm fairly certain Cadians know quite a bit about daemons. Just sayin'.

It varies by source. According to certain BL books, daemons are known about but are quite taboo as a subject for conversation.

Whilst others even have simple generals and commissars saying the Chaos gods names out loud without a hint of apprehension (Ciaphas Cain books).

Yup, but i think commissars would have to know so they can look out for signs of corruption within their regiment.

Part of the problem with the whole "purge the potentially tainted" is that it's really hard to know whether people are untainted or not. Chaos can be very subtle, and insidious and it can manifest in lots of dangerous ways (words, geometry, even math and information) and it's hard to predict it with any degree of consistency (It's chaos, it tries to resist order and consistency.) That guarantess that the only way you gain certainty is if you "play it safe". and in the (current canon/modern Imperium) you have a constant desire to 'play it safe' and to not go massacring your populace and planets wholesale (because while you're big, your resources arne't unlimited, and you have alot of enemies.) Alot of this plays into that "Radical vs Purtian" dynnamic that pervades many aspects of Imperial culture.

I think one of the better representations of "Guard being culled because of taint" came from Tactica Imperialis and the Mordant 13th. It was treated as a horrible choice to make, but one that was necessary because they were in fact succumbing to Chaos corruption due to exposure. They might still have been good guys and won the day, but there was no telling if/when they might reach that breaking point. They are, after all, only human. So yeah, it sucks but I liked it because it lacked alot of the sanctimoious BS you'd expect from a mindless fanatical Inquisitor-type.


Commissars and the whole execution thing are in a similar boat. Back in 2nd edition they were more inspirational figures (lead from the front, by fanatical, reckless bravery) and to make sure the Emperor's Holy Army was not being wasted. Executions were considered part of their necessary duties because they were one of the few who could be trusted to best-resist corruption (and to spot it) and because those dangers are real (especially in Psykers.) There was a really good Bill King short story in one of the old anthologies that dealt with a Commissar and Guard regiments in that way that I always liked... Anyhow, the whole execution thing got out of hand, and I was kinda glad to see it toned down in 5th edition (in the fluff, anyhow.)

The way I heared it was they only tend to mindwipe if GK was on the scene.

Look at it this way, GK are the men in black, they dont exist!
cant remember if it was the GK codex where they mind wiped and purge more planets then the enemy was able to corrupt.
Main reason was to hide their existence. not sure, but look it up.

Well, more like the men in grey.

Melissia wrote:Well, more like the men in grey.

hehe true