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I've realized that I know very little about the Imperial Cult, so I hope some of you can enlighten me.


First of all, does the religion have a name? "Imperial Cult" sounds like something outsiders would ascribe. And no one would ever call their own faith a cult.

Besides the declaration of the Emperor's divinity (and bashing outsiders), what other beliefs do they have?

Is there a holy book of some sort? In all likelihood there should be one.

What processions and rituals do they follow?

What rules govern their lives? For example, homosexuality is a hot topic today.
But I doubt the Emperor cared much about homosexuality, especially since his Primarchs and Marines weren't the straightest of dudes.

Still, the Imperium probably uses some of his sayings as the basis for their "religious rules".

Very vague.

Technically, the Ecclesiarchy follow the beliefs of the Convocation of Light, as of M.36 - before that, they were the Church of the Saviour Emperor.

There are a great many holy books. Think of it as being like the Bible prior to the First Coucil of Nicaea. Lots of different books, all held true, often contradicting each other, and generally in need of a good cleaning out to get rid of all the dross (and then put some of it back in, inexplicably, like Leviticus, which has nothing to do with the Words of God).

The rules themselves, above adn beyond "Venerate the immortal God-Emperor" and "Purge the alien, the mutant, and the heretic" are highly localised because of the nature of the church. Again, like the Roman church it's heavily based off (pre-catholic in this case), the missionaries adapt local beliefs to make them look more like the Ecclesiarchy beliefs.

You should also not deface monuments raised to the glory of Empy according to the Uplifting Primer.

 Furyou Miko wrote:

The rules themselves, above and beyond "Venerate the immortal God-Emperor" and "Purge the alien, the mutant, and the heretic" are highly localised because of the nature of the church.

Yea, there's basically just those two tenets and... not much else. Beyond those tenets, locals are free to worship the Emperor as they wish, be it as a warrior god, a loving god, or a sun god, etc.

However, Chaos does have no qualms with posing as the Emperor, so the Inquisition and Ecclesiarchy are constantly on the look out for things being too extreme (like people worshipping the Emperor as a warrior god then screaming "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" and slaughtering everything in the "Emperor's" name, etc. Cannibalism and human sacrifice are big warning signs too, albeit not necessarily guaranteed to be cases of Chaos.) The Ecclesiarchy does sometimes sneak into Chaos religions that aren't toooo far gone and gradually try to change them to that of the Emperor, too.

Death Cults are often cannibalistic in nature and they venerates Empy through sacrifice and devouring of more potent foes.

It varies from world to world for sure, but the basics are always the same: Adore the Emperor, serve the Emperor to the best of your ability, be willing to sacrifice your life for the Imperium, death to the alien, the mutant and the heretic.

I find the 40k concepts of stamping out heresy and localizing religion contradictory though.

The whole point of organized religion is to unite mankind, to create some kind of standard. To weaken the impact of other denominations.

Having a local version of the state religion is sure to raise some eyebrows.

Of course, the state church can sanction local faiths, but their overall authority and power would be weakened. Not something a totalitarian empire would do.

That sort of behaviour is more in line with a hegemony or federation. But perhaps the Imperium is not strong enough to be a unified state, just strong enough to be a hegemony.

Worlds lose contact, things water down over time or warp into something else.

Maximus Bitch wrote:
I find the 40k concepts of stamping out heresy and localizing religion contradictory though.

The whole point of organized religion is to unite mankind, to create some kind of standard. To weaken the impact of other denominations.

Having a local version of the state religion is sure to raise some eyebrows.

Of course, the state church can sanction local faiths, but their overall authority and power would be weakened. Not something a totalitarian empire would do.

That sort of behaviour is more in line with a hegemony or federation. But perhaps the Imperium is not strong enough to be a unified state, just strong enough to be a hegemony.

Well both Christianity and Islam has split in two major and likely several minor factions to provide IRL-examples. But i don't think it's wise to go deeper than this for now.

I think you are pretty damn free of choosing how you want the people you are thinking up shall worship Empy.

As long as you serve the Emperor and are willing to die for His cause, nobody is complaining.

Maximus Bitch wrote:
I find the 40k concepts of stamping out heresy and localizing religion contradictory though.

The whole point of organized religion is to unite mankind, to create some kind of standard. To weaken the impact of other denominations.

Having a local version of the state religion is sure to raise some eyebrows.

Of course, the state church can sanction local faiths, but their overall authority and power would be weakened. Not something a totalitarian empire would do.

That sort of behaviour is more in line with a hegemony or federation. But perhaps the Imperium is not strong enough to be a unified state, just strong enough to be a hegemony.

The IoM is,IMHO, best described as a hegemony, with Inquisitors and Adeptus Arbites basically ensuring that the will of the Hegemons is enforced and the hegemony-wide laws are enforced.

Maximus Bitch wrote:
I find the 40k concepts of stamping out heresy and localizing religion contradictory though.

The whole point of organized religion is to unite mankind, to create some kind of standard. To weaken the impact of other denominations.

Having a local version of the state religion is sure to raise some eyebrows.

Of course, the state church can sanction local faiths, but their overall authority and power would be weakened. Not something a totalitarian empire would do.

That sort of behaviour is more in line with a hegemony or federation. But perhaps the Imperium is not strong enough to be a unified state, just strong enough to be a hegemony.

I agree, having localized versions of the state religion would weaken the overall authority of the state church and makes it easier for heresy to take root.

It probably comes down to the vast size of the Imperium and how sporadic contact can be, which makes enforcing a uniform state religion somewhat impossible. A hegemony with certain basic tenets they can enforce is probably the next best thing.