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Imperium of Man

The majority of humans exist within the Imperium of Man. The Imperial Cult preaches that humanity has a Manifest Destiny to conquer the entire galaxy, to the point where intelligent alien species are seen as inferior and worthy of nothing but extinction.

The Lost and the Damned
The next greatest concentration of humans in the galaxy after the peoples of the Imperium exist as the Lost and the Damned of Chaos, and reside primarily, though not exclusively, within the Warp rift called the Eye of Terror. Not a coherent civilization as such, they exist as part of a diverse and infinite collection of warbands and hosts under the leadership of Chaos Champions. Due to the nature of the Warp, some of these humans are the original Imperial subjects who sided with the Warmaster Horus during the Horus Heresy over ten thousand standard years ago, though their number has been greatly supplemented by more recent humans who have turned to the worship of Chaos, or slaves captured as part of the many Chaos raids out of the Eye into Imperial space.

Tau Empire
Less xenophobic than the Imperium, though no less convinced that it should dominate the galaxy, the Tau Empire has no qualms about letting other intelligent races join it. Whilst few in number, some humans have done so and exist within the Empire where they are known as Gue'vesa. These humans, for the most part, are the descendants of Imperial Guard troops who were abandoned in Tau space during the Damocles Gulf Crusade; however, it is not unheard of for Imperial planets like the desert mining world of Taros to want to secede from the Imperium to join the Tau Empire.

Independent Civilisations

Other human civilisations in the Milky Way Galaxy are extremely rare. This is mostly due to the fact that the Imperium of Man considers itself to have an automatic right to rule all of humanity wherever humans live in the galaxy, and it ruthlessly suppresses any attempt to secede from it. Similarly, any lost human colonies that are rediscovered from the Dark Age of Technology are also incorporated into the Imperium whether they want to be or not. Despite this, a few independent human civilizations have been known to exist in the furthest reaches of the galaxy.

Lost Colonies

When the Age of Strife descended on the galaxy and Warp travel and astropathic communication became impossible, the majority of human colonies were cut off from Terra and forced to survive on their own. In some cases this meant that they devolved into considerably more primitive societies as the knowledge to create and maintain much advanced technology was lost. The Great Crusade reunited many thousands of lost human colonies back into the Imperium of Man, yet every now and then changes in the flow of the Warp mean that new human colonies are unexpectedly discovered. Whilst nobody can know for sure how many, there are almost certainly more colonies still cut off from the rest of humanity, waiting to be discovered.

Rebellious Planets

The Imperium keeps a tight grip over its planets, yet every now and then a world does attempt to secede from the Imperium. This may be the result of the Planetary Governor believing he can get away with independence, or it may be the result of a revolution that deposes those in power. Many of these seccessions are orchestrated by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos, and the humans that are part of these rebellions should be counted as the Lost and the Damned, though there are also occasions when a planet decides it wants to be independent of the Imperium through its own volition. Regardless of the cause, these independent realms rarely last for long as they are swiftly and brutally subjugated back into the Imperium, even if it takes decades for the ponderous Administratum of the Imperium to get around to assigning the necessary military forces to suppress the rebellion.

Pirates

The only independent human civilization with any real sustainability outside the Imperium of Man, some humans evade the Imperium's clutches and live outside of its reach in bands of starships existing through raids and piracy. Often allying themselves with Eldar or other xenos, these humans are swiftly executed as heretics or traitors if they are caught by the Imperial authorities.

Other Human Species

Throughout the long history of the Imperium and before, the human race has mutated into a variety of different stable species as a result of different populations' adaptation to various environments across the galaxy over the millennia. These variant human species are known as Abhumans. Abhumans are tolerated to a varying degree within the Imperium due to the fact that they are seen as being close enough to the baseline human genome to still be accepted as children of the Emperor.


Dark Age of Technology

A human colony word during the Dark Age of Technology in the 16th Millennium

The Dark Age of Technology was the zenith of Mankind's scientific knowledge and technological power in the Milky Way Galaxy, which lasted from the 15th Millennium until the onset of the Age of Strife in the 25th Millennium. It saw the development of the first true human interstellar civilisation and the birth of a united human stellar confederation centred on the human homeworld of Terra. Even tens of millennia later, Mankind has not been able to equal or regain its former height of achievement. This age occurred long before the current Age of the Imperium and knowledge of this time period is now incredibly sparse, and many "facts" about it are no more than legend.

Although a "golden age" for humanity in terms of scientific achievement, because of the catastrophic effects of the following Age of Strife in which so many of the technologies developed in this era were used to cause massive destruction and suffering on countless human-settled worlds, mankind has since come to regard scientific knowledge as an abhorrent and dangerous commodity. The lost Age of Technology is thus considered "dark" in the Imperium's current era. It is also considered a dark age in the minds of the priests of the Ecclesiarchy because Mankind in the Age of Technology had come to worship science as its God, and the God-Emperor had not yet revealed himself as the saviour of humanity.

Ok.

So?

Very impressive.

It is a well put together post, but you're not making any argument based on what you've laid out.

Throne of Terra....
And wonder ask why all the Tau hate...

I have been explodes to 40K universe since end of 2nd edition, when I joined gaming with some friends that have been playing 40K since the 80s in 1st edition, They helped educate me on all the hidden fluff, and how the 40K universe worked, how the Eldar was a dying race, how Humans and space marines were losing technology and forgetting how their technology worked, and how Orks were a race that was dumb psychers that are almost impossible to wipe out once they first are encountered on a planet.

I was interested in Chaos, but the Chaos player showed up at every game, and the Nids player never showed up, so I decided to play nids. well when I started playing Epic 2nd Space marine, there was no Nids army so I played chaos.

95% of the new fluff in 40K is wrote by writers that have never even seen any of the fluff that was wrote before 2002. ignoring 15 years of the foundation of the 40K universe.

Yeah....40k changed a LOT in the last 10-15 years...

I gotta ask though, was there a goal to this post, a question to be asked? This rambling, while accurate and decently put together, doesn't seem to serve much of a purpose.

I must admit. I was not expecting a well thought out accurate post based on the title.

Ignatius wrote:I must admit. I was not expecting a well thought out accurate post based on the title.

This...
As soon as someone messes up their title it goes downhill...
As to the OP...
I mirror other peoples' question of: So what?
Incidentally the title seems to have little to do with the OP...

You don't require a great degree of technological savvy when you can throw a billion humans with laser guns at a problem.

I kinda have to agree with everyone elses post... What was your point?

This thread did disappoint me a little bit :(
But well written!

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:I kinda have to agree with everyone elses post... What was your point?

The Point is 19 out of 20 people who play 40K think of the imperial guard to be as technologically advanced personally as there advance weapons make them seem, but most Imperial guard people would fail 3rd grade science class.

The IG is technologically advanced... as an organization. The common infantryman, however, has no understanding of how his weapons function or how the various warmachines he operates are created or maintained.

This is not so very different from modern militaries, really,

daniel79 wrote:

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:I kinda have to agree with everyone elses post... What was your point?

The Point is 19 out of 20 people who play 40K think of the imperial guard to be as technologically advanced personally as there advance weapons make them seem, but most Imperial guard people would fail 3rd grade science class.

Is that any different from fire warriors? Are the fire warrior caste capable of building, maintaining and modifying their own weapons? And know how they work?
I doubt that for some reason. It just seems unlikely.

And where are you getting your figures? Where is this 19 out of 20 people you speak of? I see no evidence of such people.

Who cares how it works, as long as it does work!

The "so what?" response really doesn't come off as particularly relevant here. This is a fluff section where we debate the minor nuisances of a fictional universe for weeks on end. Making points like this is a point in and of itself, especially since a lot of people here try to make it seem like the Tau are so technologically inferior to the Imperium.

The Tau are fairly technologically inferior to the Imperium.
The thing is though the Tau technological caste understand their technology and it's arguable that the Priesthood of Mars do not. Also, the Tau have a better distribution of technology whereas the Imperium hordes it...
Go figure...

daniel79 wrote:

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:I kinda have to agree with everyone elses post... What was your point?

The Point is 19 out of 20 people who play 40K think of the imperial guard to be as technologically advanced personally as there advance weapons make them seem, but most Imperial guard people would fail 3rd grade science class.

I normally would be happy to discuss this position with you. But seeing as how you already went about labeling Imperial Guard players as "failing 3rd grade science class", I can only imagine where you would take a conversation. You want to be taken seriously? Act your age.

Private_Joker wrote:Who cares how it works, as long as it does work!

Isn't one of the ideas behind imperial tech that is dosen't work. At least it dosen't work well.

Ignatius wrote:

daniel79 wrote:

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:I kinda have to agree with everyone elses post... What was your point?

The Point is 19 out of 20 people who play 40K think of the imperial guard to be as technologically advanced personally as there advance weapons make them seem, but most Imperial guard people would fail 3rd grade science class.

I normally would be happy to discuss this position with you. But seeing as how you already went about labeling Imperial Guard players as "failing 3rd grade science class", I can only imagine where you would take a conversation. You want to be taken seriously? Act your age.

I think he means in-universe Imperial Guardsmen...

Ignatius wrote:

daniel79 wrote:

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:I kinda have to agree with everyone elses post... What was your point?

The Point is 19 out of 20 people who play 40K think of the imperial guard to be as technologically advanced personally as there advance weapons make them seem, but most Imperial guard people would fail 3rd grade science class.

...But seeing as how you already went about labeling Imperial Guard players as "failing 3rd grade science class"...

I think he meant the Imperial Guardsmen not the IG players. Ninja'd!

And to the discussion: maybe an average Guardsman would fail 3rd grade science class, but a Fire Warrior would fail even a 1st grade science class. Because science is an Earth caste thing, and thus forbidden to the Fire caste.

purplefood wrote:The Tau are fairly technologically inferior to the Imperium.
The thing is though the Tau technological caste understand their technology and it's arguable that the Priesthood of Mars do not. Also, the Tau have a better distribution of technology whereas the Imperium hordes it...
Go figure...

Tau are inferior to the imperium? you sure about that?

Tau have plasma weaponary that is infinitely superior, and they safely navigate the warp. Plus they develop technology all the time... the imperium on the other hand has sat in a stagnant state for millennia due to their reverence and worship to a machine...

purplefood wrote:The Tau are fairly technologically inferior to the Imperium.
The thing is though the Tau technological caste understand their technology and it's arguable that the Priesthood of Mars do not. Also, the Tau have a better distribution of technology whereas the Imperium hordes it...
Go figure...

Really only in terms of Warp-based technologies (Warp Drives, Void Shields, etc.) are they inferior. In which case the Tau really can't use things like Warp Drives due to an absence of psykers anyway. Tau don't have FTL travel, true, but nowadays not even the Necrons have that.


Tau have mastered things that are considered arcane dying arts in the Imperium. Anti-grav technology, plasma weaponry, etc.. Their tech also comes off as much more efficient, and unlike the Imperium they're improving their tech whereas the AdMec is slowly losing its capability.

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:

purplefood wrote:The Tau are fairly technologically inferior to the Imperium.
The thing is though the Tau technological caste understand their technology and it's arguable that the Priesthood of Mars do not. Also, the Tau have a better distribution of technology whereas the Imperium hordes it...
Go figure...

Tau are inferior to the imperium? you sure about that?

Tau have plasma weaponary that is infinitely superior, and they safely navigate the warp. Plus they develop technology all the time... the imperium on the other hand has sat in a stagnant state for millennia due to their reverence and worship to a machine...

The Tau don't navigate the warp.They skim it but they haven't developed the tech to either stay in the warp or navigate it.
Their plasma weapons are safer but less damaging.
The Imperium has numerous arcane weapons and technology they never use because they worship it...
The Imperium doesn't develop things nearly as fast but for the moment they have superior tech but rarely use it.

purplefood wrote:

Ignatius wrote:

daniel79 wrote:

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:I kinda have to agree with everyone elses post... What was your point?

The Point is 19 out of 20 people who play 40K think of the imperial guard to be as technologically advanced personally as there advance weapons make them seem, but most Imperial guard people would fail 3rd grade science class.

I normally would be happy to discuss this position with you. But seeing as how you already went about labeling Imperial Guard players as "failing 3rd grade science class", I can only imagine where you would take a conversation. You want to be taken seriously? Act your age.

I think he means in-universe Imperial Guardsmen...

Fair enough. That's my fault then. For the record, be a little bit more specific next time to avoid making other people look like jerks (me).

purplefood wrote:

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:

purplefood wrote:The Tau are fairly technologically inferior to the Imperium.
The thing is though the Tau technological caste understand their technology and it's arguable that the Priesthood of Mars do not. Also, the Tau have a better distribution of technology whereas the Imperium hordes it...
Go figure...

Tau are inferior to the imperium? you sure about that?

Tau have plasma weaponary that is infinitely superior, and they safely navigate the warp. Plus they develop technology all the time... the imperium on the other hand has sat in a stagnant state for millennia due to their reverence and worship to a machine...

The Tau don't navigate the warp.They skim it but they haven't developed the tech to either stay in the warp or navigate it.
Their plasma weapons are safer but less damaging.
The Imperium has numerous arcane weapons and technology they never use because they worship it...
The Imperium doesn't develop things nearly as fast but for the moment they have superior tech but rarely use it.

I have to agree with purplefood. The Tau are always thought to be much more technologically advanced than the Imperium, but there isn't much for that arguement in the fluff.

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:

purplefood wrote:The Tau are fairly technologically inferior to the Imperium.
The thing is though the Tau technological caste understand their technology and it's arguable that the Priesthood of Mars do not. Also, the Tau have a better distribution of technology whereas the Imperium hordes it...
Go figure...

Tau are inferior to the imperium? you sure about that?

Tau have plasma weaponary that is ARGUABLY superior, and they FAIL TO USE THE WARP, they DO develop technology all the time... the imperium on the other hand has sat in a stagnant state for millennia due to their reverence and worship to a machine...

The tau have better tech availablility and develpoemnt, but you shouldn't boast without a wellthought basis. ninja'd

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:Tau are inferior to the imperium? you sure about that?

The Tau tech is inferior to the IoM tech. It is shiny and techy, but their most advanced stuff is only good for laughs when compared to the most advanced stuff of the IoM.

AnUnearthlyChilde wrote:Tau have plasma weaponary that is infinitely superior, and they safely navigate the warp. Plus they develop technology all the time... the imperium on the other hand has sat in a stagnant state for millennia due to their reverence and worship to a machine...

This plasma superiority always comes up, but is there any official fluff for this? I mean, i know that the Tau's most badass plasma weapon is the big, heavy, vehicle-only version of the humble IoM plasma cannon...

The bigest problem with the rapid advancment of the Tau is that they have ridiculous ammount of technology to cover up if they want to challange the IoM in that field. So yeah, they advance rapidly, but so what? There was a time when humanity advanced just as rapidly (and for a much longer time) and you can ask them how that felt (and how it ended!)....

hmmm fledgling race who is constantly developing new tech or a race that has remained stagnant for millennia....

hmmmmmmmm

difficult one