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I'm not really down with the fluff and background of the IoM but out of interest, which Xeno did they encounter first? I'm guessing it went badly given the IoM's attitude towards Xeno's now.

And when they encountered the first were they the "Imperium" or just like the Russian Space Agency? (Since Nasa's not flying any more)

The Covenant.

Well since much of the knowlege from the Golden age Of Technology is lost who knows?
And why a gap in NASA flying means the RSA will develop into the worlds only spacegoing agency eludes me. An actual international space agency ( you know one that flies and operates it's own orbiters) or a European space agency or even japan developing gundams is more likely than the RSA making first contact with an alien species and remaining the sole space faring agency.

AustonT wrote:Well since much of the knowlege from the Golden age Of Technology is lost who knows?
And why a gap in NASA flying means the RSA will develop into the worlds only spacegoing agency eludes me. An actual international space agency ( you know one that flies and operates it's own orbiters) or a European space agency or even japan developing gundams is more likely than the RSA making first contact with an alien species and remaining the sole space faring agency.

Sorry! It wasn't a digg at Nasa, more of a comment about the craziness of it actually happening. I was just wondering what sort of event could unite humanity to such a degree that it went to war as a species.

I didnt take it as a dig on NASA, it's just highly unlikely a nation with a terrible economy, and a history of incompetent rulers will be the source of our continued space exploration. Look to the EU (bwahahah) or an alliance of brazil, japan, a unified Korea, possibly Germany or Sweden, and the US( maybe) forming a true international space agency.

Weren't the Russian's the first to get a man into Space?

But seriously, I know. I'm not looking to start a which country is the best at Space exploration argument, I was highlighting that when man first made contact, it would not have been the Imperium, right?

According to Galaxy in Flames, the first 'alien wars' followed the creation of the warp drive at the dawn of the Dark Age of Technology around M15, long, long before the Imperium, but likely long after the disappearance of identifiably modern states and cultures on Earth. Who the xenos humanity met were, history no longer records - most likely they have long since been driven to extinction.

Prior to this, however, humanity had been for millennia launching O'Neill-type generation ships to colonise new worlds - the warp drive and the creation of navigators allowed these to be forged into a star-spanning empire by M21, which continued in the 'great diaspora' to expand until M25 and the beginning of the Old Night.

The first xenos humanity encountered was almost certainly Orks. Thus I imagine the first meeting went rather poorly. Which would explain at least somewhat humanity's view of aliens in the 41st millennium.

Harriticus wrote:The first xenos humanity encountered was almost certainly Orks. Thus I imagine the first meeting went rather poorly. Which would explain at least somewhat humanity's view of aliens in the 41st millennium.

They view humanity holds for aliens in the 41st millennium stems not so much initially aggressive species like the Orks, but also because Human empires managed to form treaties and alliances with various alien races though. During the Age of Strife (I think), however, numerous alien factions turned on humanity in their moment of weakness, hence spawning a pretty much racial viewpoint of alien species' being self-serving and untrustworthy. Which is pretty much all true.

I'd forgotten that bit - old background makes reference to treaties between golden age Mankind and various unspecified xenos races/factions. The Interrex-Kinebrach alliance might, hopothetically, be a vestige of one such treaty. It's interesting to speculate that perhaps the galaxy's xenos races view mankind as treacherous for the change in attitude between the golden age and great crusade. Of course, it's equally possible that human distrust of aliens stems from xenos treachery in the old night. I don't have the book to hand, but f I recall correctly, it can be inferred from Eldrad Ulthran's statements in 'Fulgrim' that he remembers mankind's earlier stellar empire.

English Assassin wrote:he remembers mankind's earlier stellar empire.

Wasn't it supposed to be that previously Mankind had had a variety of separate empires, rather than one claiming dominion over all of humanity?

SomeRandomEvilGuy wrote:

English Assassin wrote:he remembers mankind's earlier stellar empire.

Wasn't it supposed to be that previously Mankind had had a variety of separate empires, rather than one claiming dominion over all of humanity?

It was that each colony was in control of itself or the planet that lead the colonisation was, this led to the forming of a patchwork of small seperately governed unions. Most did give alligance to Terra but they were not indebted to it or controlled by it.

DivineSausage wrote:I'm not really down with the fluff and background of the IoM but out of interest, which Xeno did they encounter first? I'm guessing it went badly given the IoM's attitude towards Xeno's now.

And when they encountered the first were they the "Imperium" or just like the Russian Space Agency? (Since Nasa's not flying any more)

M22 ( year 22.000 ) - "Non-aggression pacts are signed between humanity and dozen of alien races."
We had non-aggression pacts with several Alien races ( I imagine that even the Eldar were anong them ).
That all changed with the beginning of the Age of Strife.

I couldn't say where I read this (or whether I have merely inferred it) but I seem to recall reading something to the effect that after the development of the warp drive and navigator gene, that Terrans reunited their colony worlds into a single empire. I have, however, checked all the usual tomes for a reference for that, and can't find it anywhere.

Empire or empires (or anarcho-syndicalist commune(s)) the question of whether the Eldar or other long-established species remembered, in the time of the great crusade, golden age mankind remains an interesting one to ponder.

English Assassin wrote:I couldn't say where I read this (or whether I have merely inferred it) but I seem to recall reading something to the effect that after the development of the warp drive and navigator gene, that Terrans reunited their colony worlds into a single empire. I have, however, checked all the usual tomes for a reference for that, and can't find it anywhere.

I read that they have some sort of Federation. Witch is more logical giving our "want to kick but to everything" nature.

Found it. The timeline in the back of the Horus Heresy books (not exactly the most definitive of documents, I'll admit) includes in M22 - 25 'human worlds unite'. Of course whether this was a monolithic empire like the Imperium or something more decentralised remains unspecified.