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Does the Imperium still stuff like movies and TV shows?

For example; would there ever be a movie that portrays the events of the Horus Heresy?

maybe a TV series about an Imperial Guard regiment or perhaps a Space Marine chapter?

maybe a Sitcom about an Ork warboss and his waaagh that obviously makes fun of the Orks the same way South Park makes fun of bigots and terrorists?(da fresh nob of waaagh air? Rotarg Oggog's waagh of pain? Da boy in da middle)

also a bit off topic but what is the extent of the Freedom of Speech in the Imperium? could citizens make a comedy that pokes fun at the Emperor or something without denying the fact that he's a god?

yes, there are movies and TV shows.

No, the Horus Heresy would NOT be shown. The majority of the population isn't even aware of the existance of Traitor marines.

There would definitly be warfilms with IG and Space Marines in them.


Xenos would never be used as the main characters. If they appeared they would be horribly slaughtered.


No, anything poking fun at the Emperor is Heresy.

I personally like to think of 40k TV/films being like the pathé news reels of the 30s/40s, showing how "...the Imperial war machine just keeps grinding on!" with shots from 'battlefields', more likely mocks with actors playing the heroic Guardsmen, and bits of manufactorums/agrifarms showing how your work helps the Imperium to keep on fighting!

Be interesting to see a Necromunda version of Eastenders - now -that- would be a 'soap' worth watching.

There's no intergalactic TV network/entertainment venue like you might find in Mass Effect or Star Wars or the like. Whatever TV channels/movies exist are likely localized to that planet or system, though propaganda films may find their way around the galaxy. Astropathic communication is really the only way for interstellar communication and this itself is unreliable so it's left only to matters of the great importance.

Given how much in the dark Imperial citizens are about just about everything beyond their own world I doubt very much is shown. Talking about defeat of any kind would be forbidden. They hate the Xenos, the Mutant, the Heretic without really knowing what any of those truly are.

Grey Templar wrote:yes, there are movies and TV shows.

No, the Horus Heresy would NOT be shown. The majority of the population isn't even aware of the existance of Traitor marines.

There would definitly be warfilms with IG and Space Marines in them.


Xenos would never be used as the main characters. If they appeared they would be horribly slaughtered.


No, anything poking fun at the Emperor is Heresy.

so would they get real Space Marines to play in them or a bunch of guys in fake power armor?

PresidentOfAsia wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:yes, there are movies and TV shows.

No, the Horus Heresy would NOT be shown. The majority of the population isn't even aware of the existance of Traitor marines.

There would definitly be warfilms with IG and Space Marines in them.


Xenos would never be used as the main characters. If they appeared they would be horribly slaughtered.


No, anything poking fun at the Emperor is Heresy.

so would they get real Space Marines to play in them or a bunch of guys in fake power armor?

Computer Graphics

I doubt they'd have Marines of the Adeptus Astartes on film - most humans have no idea what an Astartes is when they first see them - they'll have -heard- tales of massive super humans fighting for the Imperium, but they're just stories that have been passed down through the generations, as in folklore. This is why Imperial citizens are so scared of Marines even though, essentially, the Marines are there to protect them & the Imperium. They probably wouldn't be able to tell them apart from Ogryns.

Imagine it, coming across an 8' 6'' tall behemoth in huge, thick armour, painted in solid colours, with a faceless helm covering their heads and huge weapons in their hands - for the very first time. They'd be terrified of them!

The average joe knows what space marines are and what they look like. He may not really believe they exist, but he knows what they are. there are statues to famous marines all over the place.

Marines are basically things of legend to most people, sometimes even tripping over into the realm of myth.


But no one would mistake them for anything else. Everyone knows what a Space Marine is when he sees one.

There might be statues of Astartes on planets but not everyone will live near or ever go near them. So far as the planets inhabitants will know there could be an enormous statue on the other side of the planet, if they're versed well enough in their planets geography, of which they might have seen pict images, but its just a statue to them. Unless someone tells them "That is a statue to a member of the Adeptus Astartes, the God-Emperor's Angels of Death". I doubt if even then they'll take it seriously. Super-humans? Get real! All these people have ever encountered are their workmates, friends & family. They've never seen 8' tall super-human warriors on their planets - just a bunch of stories.

The point I was making about knowing what a Marine looks like is that Ogryns are alien to most people, as they live on worlds where gravity is of a 'high-density', so they are far bigger and broader than a human - if a human sees one on their planet, without someone telling them what it is they're seeing, they could assume that it's one of the Space Marines from the stories, out of its armour. How are they to know any different?

The citizens of the Imperium aren't informed about anything beyond their world, essentially. They live, work & die in ignorance about the universe. They know only what they're told, what is preached at them and what folklore is passed down through the generations. That's pretty much it.

Most imperial citizens don't know about the Marines really, yeah. To the average Imperial their life is what goes on on their world, the Governor, and how great the Emperor is.

I remember in this 40k short comic this Agri-World gets invaded by Tyranids and Space Marines show up to kill them all. This farmer dude doesn't know anything about either faction and thinks the Astartes are actual angels, but they end up causing so much collateral damage and then suddenly leave. The guy concludes that they were punishment from the Emperor and he prays to never have to see them again.

I think imperial citizens are much more aware of Spacemarines that what people seems to think. Sure many will not have seen one but these are the legendary warriors of mankind. Also on space marine worlds you do see them all the time. In Ultramar the space marines constantly are visiting/governing the planets (and the citizens throw them parades)

Do people have sources for the lack of knowledge regarding Space Marines?

I would have thought that, living under the iron fist of the Imperium where ignorance is bliss, the few accepted facts that citizens possess include;

- the Emperor protects,
- heretics, xenos and mutants are to be purged,
- Spesh Mahreeens are the Emperor's righteous deliverance,

Remember that many Chapters have recruitment worlds and // or even sectors. I don't think it's that much of a push to accept that most citizens would be aware of Space Marines. It's the counter to the Marines that they wouldn't be aware of; traitor legions, heretical cults, the un-godly and the unclean.

Aware that Space Marines exist? Yes.
Have first-hand knowledge of what one looks like? Not really.

The Space Marines are preached about from the pulpits of your local Imperial Cathedral as the Emperor's Angels of Death, and are often depicted in the stained glass artwork found in such places. However, if you have ever seen what the depiction of a person in stained glass looks like, you would not really recognize them if they suddenly appeared in front of you.

It's like.... let's say you were an alien and had never before seen a human, but had seen them depicted in stained glass. You get a basic idea of their general shape, but nothing really telling about their size or dimensions, or the fact that they're not 2-dimensional.

The shape of Power Armor can be conveyed easily enough through stained glass. Its not an easily mistaken outline.

The Imperium really has very little unified culture and ways of doing things. Even the technology level varies dramatically from world to world. There are worlds where SM are popular figures of propaganda (SW), worlds where they partake in military parades (UM), worlds where they have FAMILIES (salamanders), words where they are seen as literal angels and demi-gods, and worlds where they exist only as myth and legend.

Same with entertainment. Everything you can imagine and beyond. Government intervention is done at the planetary level and will vary accordingly. Same for free speech.

The most popular quotes and cultural icons mainly come from the important, populated worlds that are at the most risk and get involved the most in wars: ecclesiarchy worlds, forge worlds, hive worlds, etc. There things are going to be much more closely watched and regulated because the risk of having so many resources, potential psykers, cultists, and enemy infiltrators is so high. They will closely align with your traditional imperial depictions.

But your bog standard, unimportant imperial world with a population of less than, say, 10-20 billion? Pretty much anything you can imagine.

Eiríkr wrote:Do people have sources for the lack of knowledge regarding Space Marines?

I would have thought that, living under the iron fist of the Imperium where ignorance is bliss, the few accepted facts that citizens possess include;

- the Emperor protects,
- heretics, xenos and mutants are to be purged,
- Spesh Mahreeens are the Emperor's righteous deliverance,

Remember that many Chapters have recruitment worlds and // or even sectors. I don't think it's that much of a push to accept that most citizens would be aware of Space Marines. It's the counter to the Marines that they wouldn't be aware of; traitor legions, heretical cults, the un-godly and the unclean.

Brothers of the Snake (and yes I'm sounding like a broken record... but do look at my s/n) gives a clear portrayal of this. On Baal Solock the inhabitants regard the mentioning of the Iron Snakes as myth. Children's stories. They do know of them, but they haven't been seen in some 632 years (correct me if I'm wrong). So memory fades and myth takes the place of reality.

Off the top of my head I can remember a few ongoing "pict" series from some guard novels. One, mentioned in Cainpahas Cain, is about the exploits of flight wing of Imperial Navy Thunderbolts and airs weekly across the sector. Its also mentioned that the soldiers are acting "just like pict characters" (or a variant of that) during certain action scenes, infering that there's a few shows about guard regiments. There's programs about space marines kicking mutant butt (and holo games too, though the marines always win no matter what the odds), whilst there's also programs about the everyday life of citizens (propoganda films about hard working factory workers etc, or the loving mother of guardsmen etc). The guard have acess to information films on military subjects, as are films about what to do in case of an invasion or other such subects probably played on public pict screens throughout the Imperium. On the subject of public pict screens, these appear to broadcast daily news, propoganda or just daytime tv to the poplulace (and are usually either destroyed or repurposed by the enemy for propoganda and display warning messages during invasion). Pornographic films are widely available...and I think I'll leave the matter at that.

There won't be films on any subjects like the Inquisition, Chaos, Xenos (unless they're very Xenophobic and full of lies), Liberalism, etc. Everything's got a hint of propoganda to it, and they'll always be a show about the war effort available. Yes pre-recorded films are widely used (but in the fluff holograms are much more common). Oh and the term "pict" seems to be a catch all phrase for both video programming and actual pictures. =P