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I know it used to be the emperor, but with him in his current state incapable of communication, who leads humanity? I get the individual Primarchs get to do there own thing, but who leads the rest of man?

The High Lords of Terra

 Vash108 wrote:
The High Lords of Terra

Oh, the space Popes, thanks.

 Hive Fleet Cerberus wrote:

 Vash108 wrote:
The High Lords of Terra

Oh, the space Popes, thanks.

Hey hey hey! There is only ONE space pope. Geez get it right guys!

All glory to the hypnotoa- er....I mean Greater Good.

This pretty much covers it:



Basically, the High Lord of Terra are the acting leaders of the Imperium. However, it's important to note that the Inquisition acts independently of their bureaucracy.

 Darth Bob wrote:
This pretty much covers it:



Basically, the High Lord of Terra are the acting leaders of the Imperium. However, it's important to note that the Inquisition acts independently of their bureaucracy.

I thought Rouge Traders acted independently as well, being free to sell chaos and xenos goods.

 Hive Fleet Cerberus wrote:

 Darth Bob wrote:
This pretty much covers it:

*snip*
Basically, the High Lord of Terra are the acting leaders of the Imperium. However, it's important to note that the Inquisition acts independently of their bureaucracy.

I thought Rouge Traders acted independently as well, being free to sell chaos and xenos goods.

Not at all. The Adeptus Administratum regulates and distributes the Warrants of Trade and other documents that establish the freedoms and restrictions which a Rogue Trader has access to. No member of the Imperium is free to sell Chaos and Xenos goods without risking the prying eyes of the Inquisition. They have extraordinary freedoms when compared to most branches of the Imperium, but they are not independent from standard Imperial bureaucracy.


When I say the Inquisition is independent, I mean that they are completely independent in their own governance. The only authority an Inquisitor answers to is a higher-ranking Inquisitor and the Emperor.

No one suspected the inquisition!

Surely the Custodes should be a dire report to the High Lords seeing as their Captain General has a seat?

But failing that their job is to protect The Emperor so they probably should be beneath him as they all have high authority.

The Primarchs are all dead or missing so they get to do their own things as far as most corpses get to do their own thing.
The Custodes are the Emperor's personal bodyguard. no one gets to order them around barring the Emperor. I guess that's why they have that seat.
The astartes also consider themselves outside of the administratum as far as the chain of command goes they consider themselves to only answer to the Emperor. This has been a point of contention among the Imperium.

Some Space Marines might consider themselves that, but given that there's a thousand Chapters, all with their own take on things, it's hard to speak for them collectively.

For every Space Wolves, there's a dozen Minotaurs and similar Chapters that support the body politic of the Imperium.

 purplefood wrote:
The Primarchs are all dead or missing so they get to do their own things as far as most corpses get to do their own thing.

In case anyones' curious, some loyalist primarchs were still around when the current day Imperium's chain of command was established. Roboute was the Master of the Administratum and a High Lord of Terra. ...the rest just stuck to leading their space marines (as Chapter Masters, I suppose) until they were lost, far as I know. Course, the only ones left besides Roboute probably weren't interested in administrative duties in the first place (Dorn, Russ, Corax, Khan, and in old fluff, Vulkan)

None of them survived to M40, however.

 Psienesis wrote:
None of them survived to M40, however.

We don't really know whose alive anymore. Except the Lion he's alive.

None of the ones that could possibly, maybe, be alive, Lion included, are doing much of anything, anything at all, to run the Imperium. They might as well be corpses for all the action they take.

Pretty sure it's the Alpha Legion.

Remember, folks. Alpharius isn't Tzeentchian. Tzeentch is an Alpharian.

 Psienesis wrote:
None of the ones that could possibly, maybe, be alive, Lion included, are doing much of anything, anything at all, to run the Imperium. They might as well be corpses for all the action they take.

Unless they come back which could easily happen so they are still relevant. Plus Alpharius or Omegon is probably ruling something.

 Psienesis wrote:
None of them survived to M40, however.

My point was regarding where the primarchs would lie (based on where they DID lie) in today's chain of command for the Imperium. So anyone who wants to extrapolate a "What if some loyalist primarchs came back or were still around after the Heresy regarding where they'd be in the Imperium chain of command?", they kiiiinda can deduce that based on the fact that some really were still around after the Heresy when the High Lords of Terra existed, even if not for that long.

Granted, there have been a few changes since then (mainly the Ecclesiarchy being officialized) that could throw things off.

Just a note, none of the loyal primarchs are still in active service to the imperium.

At least one of the Primarchs of the Alpha Legion is running around somewhere.

 Hive Fleet Cerberus wrote:


I thought Rouge Traders acted independently as well, being free to sell chaos and xenos goods.

Depends on what the make-up cartels let them.

Hollismason wrote:
At least one of the Primarchs of the Alpha Legion is running around somewhere.

We don't know that for sure. Or has some hint been dropped somewhere?

 Troike wrote:

Hollismason wrote:
At least one of the Primarchs of the Alpha Legion is running around somewhere.

We don't know that for sure. Or has some hint been dropped somewhere?

Well, since we only have confirmation that one of them may have been killed, it's reasonable to assume the other one is still alive. Of course, we aren't even sure if one of them was killed; the Inquisition and the Ultramarines have their suspicions.

Alpharius has been confirmed dead 5 times IIRC...

 purplefood wrote:
Alpharius has been confirmed dead 5 times IIRC...

Source?

Tzeentch is in charge. Unless Tzeentch has been replaced with an Alpha Legion operative. In that case, Alpharius is in charge. And who is Alpharius?

I am Alpharius!

Everyone is Alpharius!

Hydra Dominatus!

The Alpha Legion has been confirmed wiped out "no less than three times" only to resurface again later on. No mention of Alpharius but with tons of Alpha Legionaires saying they're Alpharius even in the present 40th millenium, confirming that guy's death is kinda hard to do.

 Darth Bob wrote:

 purplefood wrote:
Alpharius has been confirmed dead 5 times IIRC...

Source?

Urgh...
Let me go find it...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

TiamatRoar wrote:
The Alpha Legion has been confirmed wiped out "no less than three times" only to resurface again later on. No mention of Alpharius but with tons of Alpha Legionaires saying they're Alpharius even in the present 40th millenium, confirming that guy's death is kinda hard to do.

Ah this is it.
It's not 5 times but this is what I was thinking of.

I want to say it's from either the 5th ed rulebook or the 5th ed SM codex but I honestly don't recall where it's from.

 purplefood wrote:

 Darth Bob wrote:

 purplefood wrote:
Alpharius has been confirmed dead 5 times IIRC...

Source?

Urgh...
Let me go find it...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

TiamatRoar wrote:
The Alpha Legion has been confirmed wiped out "no less than three times" only to resurface again later on. No mention of Alpharius but with tons of Alpha Legionaires saying they're Alpharius even in the present 40th millenium, confirming that guy's death is kinda hard to do.

Ah this is it.
It's not 5 times but this is what I was thinking of.

It's entirely possible that he is dead, but the mention of the Ultramarines not being entirely convinced that he is dead in Index Astartes IV could lend credence to him still being alive. Regardless, it's a tossup at this point since there's no 100% confirmation on either side. It's also possible that Omegon was killed and not Alpharius, since no-one would be able to tell the difference. Or it could be that the individual thought to be the primarch was actually just a really tall Legionnaire; especially when there have been a number of Legionnaires that were much taller than average. Or it could be that Alpharius was killed and Omegon is still around. It's one of those things that GW has neither confirmed nor denied.