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A lot of threads end up about whats going to happen to the Imperium. So, instead of derailing those threads I figured I'd create a new thread about it.

In my personal opinion the Imperium is on the decline. Its losing territory and its enemies are growing stronger. The 13th Black Crusade, Hive Fleet Leviathan and various Waaghs! are ripping the Imperium apart. Ever day planets are lost and billions die to defend a Corpse (more about the Emperor being a corpse later). In addition, the Space Marines are becoming more independent of the Imperium. Look at Ultramar. Eventually I think the Imperium will shatter. Most Space Marine chapters will secede and planets rebel as its control weakens. Finally, either the Black Legion or Leviathan will reach Terra first and utterly destroy it. The Emperor will die the Astronomicon will be destroyed, stranding humans in their own colonies and solar systems. A lot of people think that the worship of the Emperor is going to it and when it dies it will be free of its body and become a God. However, its canon that the Golden Throne sustains his mind in addition to his body and it stills requires 10,000 pyskers a day to keep his body and mind alive even with the device. Once the Golden Throne is destroyed and they stop feeding his psykers, his mind will die and he'll be dead as a... dead thing. However, despite the shattering of the Imperium and the Death of the Emperor, I think humanity will survive. Like the Orks they'll become a system of smaller, diverse societies mostly isolated form eachother. Someone will continue to be fanatical dictatorships, other may even ally with Xenos for their own survival. So, what do you think will happen to the Imperium?

We will emerge victorious as our magnificent Emperor rises and strides the galaxy as a God.

The Imperium will cease to exists as it is now, that is for sure.

It will be destroyed. The Emperor will be re-born, like the Shamans before him, and the process will begin anew, although it will be slightly different. Less Primarchs, but I believe he will find them again, those loyal ones that are alive.

Just like everywhere else:

Brother Coa wrote:


Just like everywhere else:

Two Steps From Hell, and Immediate Music. Always a good choice : )

Brother Coa wrote:Snip

You've posted that video about the Imperium at least a million times by now, right?

The Imperium, despite its devotion and fanaticism, can't survive. It's built on an insustainable model of having to always purge the Xenos and fight at all costs. If they tried to just live in mostly peace (complete peace is impossible in 40k, lol) in a small, mostly uninhabited area of space they might have a chance but as long as they continue their aggression and holding every planet, regardless of worth, at all costs, they're hopeless. However, any deviation from this would be regarded as Heresy (example; the peaceful democratic mixed human xeno society that was purged).

However, humanity easily adapts and has impressive technology. Though the Imperium is doomed, humanity isn't.

LoneLictor wrote:

Brother Coa wrote:Snip

You've posted that video about the Imperium at least a million times by now, right?

The Imperium, despite its devotion and fanaticism, can't survive. It's built on an insustainable model of having to always purge the Xenos and fight at all costs. If they tried to just live in mostly peace (complete peace is impossible in 40k, lol) in a small, mostly uninhabited area of space they might have a chance but as long as they continue their aggression and holding every planet, regardless of worth, at all costs, they're hopeless. However, any deviation from this would be regarded as Heresy (example; the peaceful democratic mixed human xeno society that was purged).

However, humanity easily adapts and has impressive technology. Though the Imperium is doomed, humanity isn't.

Depending on how serious you take the current Necron/ Tyranid fluff then humanity ( and pretty every other species ) is doomed if the Imperium falls.
For all it's faults, our beloved empire of hardcore space fascists is still the only organisation which has both the required unity ( as fractured as the imperium is, it is still more unified then the orks or eldar ) and
numbers to actualy fight said threats with at least a small chance of success.

I think our only hope is to stick by the Imperium. Maybe the invasions will get so intense that a lot will be destroyed, but you have to have ashes in order to rise from them. Just like after Vandire and the Age of Apostasy, the IoM has to come to the brink before it changes. And it will come to the brink. It is weakening. But once it gets there, I think the HLoT will figure out that they need to get their gak together.

And, of course, there's always the hope that the Emperor will come back.

Might be interesting:

'hi i'm back... sorry i was gone so long.. (looks around)............


WHAT THE LIVING FETH HAVE YOU DONE TO MY EMPIRE! IT'S A FETHING MESS! THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE....*RANT* '

*rolls up sleeves* Right then...

I'm a xenos player, but even I can get behind this

*Omnomnom* Goes the tyranid.

The end. Of everything. Ever.

Except necrons.

Idk, I think the Necrons would kill off the remnants of the current hivefleets, then go to sleep. Wake up a couple dozen millennia later and find that 10 hive fleets have entered the galaxy. Then we see just how good the Necrons are.

Either way, looks pretty bleak for us people-folk. Of course, in the far future of the 41st Millennium, there is only Grimdark.

Well, I don't think the 'nids will come back, since they're following the emperors psychic powers.

Maybe once they found all the biomass for the taking they would come anyway. Use the Waaagh field as a guiding psychic beacon.

Either way the Imperium would live because look there was the fall at the dark age of technology from the robots then there was the horus heresy and then the age of apoctasy the imperium and humans will still survive no matter what

Or not

Humans may survive. The imperium...not so much.

The Ctan, for example, have no problem with having human herds to snack on

LoneLictor wrote:
The Imperium, despite its devotion and fanaticism, can't survive. It's built on an insustainable model of having to always purge the Xenos and fight at all costs.

They've been around longer than the real life version of recorded human history. That's fairly durable.

Like all empires it will fall and fade into memory

The Golden Throne will suffer an irreparable malfunction, thus the psychic beacon in the warp will be lost. The Imperium will cease as a major power and instead fracture into galactic Empires.

Everything will die in a catastrophically awesome clusterf**k of a battle.

Sounds about right

LoneLictor wrote:

You've posted that video about the Imperium at least a million times by now, right?

The Imperium, despite its devotion and fanaticism, can't survive. It's built on an insustainable model of having to always purge the Xenos and fight at all costs. If they tried to just live in mostly peace (complete peace is impossible in 40k, lol) in a small, mostly uninhabited area of space they might have a chance but as long as they continue their aggression and holding every planet, regardless of worth, at all costs, they're hopeless. However, any deviation from this would be regarded as Heresy (example; the peaceful democratic mixed human xeno society that was purged).

However, humanity easily adapts and has impressive technology. Though the Imperium is doomed, humanity isn't.

And what is that having to do with my faith and devotion?
Imperium is now in dire situation, and may not survive. But that doesn't mean that I will start supporting Tau ow because their situation is way better. And who doesn't say that situation won't improve? They started to lose war and just then the GW stop the time, so that mean that something may happened that will change the course of the situation, who knows? But that's just my theory as it is your that Imperium will fall in the end.
I already said, no matter how dire is the situation, in what century, what place, and against who I will always be with my race.
And admit it, no race has that many awesome videos as the Imperium does

Well... I can go with either my gut feeling or common sense. The first say that you loyalist dogs will burn, and you false emperor will finaly be crushed. But my common sense tells me that GW will never let that happen so I think the status quoe will be the fate of the imperium.

Trondheim wrote:But my common sense tells me that GW will never let that happen so I think the status quoe will be the fate of the imperium.

Exactly, people in GW are believers in the Imperial Creed. You think they will let the Imperium fall? Imagine the profit lost to that...

The Imperial Army will be on the verge of defeat and just as the Chaos crusade appears to have been successful. Down comes Wazdakka and Ghazzy to kick some serious Chaos ass and allies with the Imperium!

(Main reason being Ghazzy knows if the Imperium fell, there would be one less enemy to fight!

This topic sounds like... Heresy!!!
*Blam!* *Blam!* *Blam!*

I think if the Imperium went down, the Tau would get obliterated with a century. I mean, they have all of a dozen worlds or so. How well is that going to stand up to a Waaagh as big as the one on Armageddon? They'll hold out for a little while using the patient hunter, but all it takes is one mistake and they're done. Even worse for the if the Tyranids show up to the party.

But I think the Imperium will persevere. It's got problems, sure, but a lot of those problems are what keep the IoM alive. With humanity rapidly evolving into a purely psyker race, the Imperium only has to hold out for another thousand years. And if the IoM does anything, it holds out.

ShatteredBlade wrote:The Golden Throne will suffer an irreparable malfunction, thus the psychic beacon in the warp will be lost.

The Astronomicon and the Golden Throne are two separate machines. They draw off the same battery of psykers, but they aren't related otherwise.

DarknessEternal wrote:

ShatteredBlade wrote:The Golden Throne will suffer an irreparable malfunction, thus the psychic beacon in the warp will be lost.

The Astronomicon and the Golden Throne are two separate machines. They draw off the same battery of psykers, but they aren't related otherwise.

You sure? I thought they where the same thing.

The Astronomicon isn't a machine, is it? I thought it was just a manifestation of big E's psychic will.