Headers and Footers for Imperial Guard Correspondence? 1st draft scan done, what do you think?

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**Alex Kolodotschko**

How would a few official letters to an Imperial Guardsman be headed/footed?
I have been asked to write a few fluffy pieces of correspondence from a rather stern Commissar for a friend's Dark Heresy campaign. I have been given free reign of the guardsman's details in terms of names, numbers, rank and he is from the Vostrovian XII.

I assume it wouldn't be.....
Darling Private Bonko Jones #23757 of the XII Vostrovian PDF regiment.
Blah blah blah, good luck with the tea party, blah blah, well done with the shooting, blah blah, sorry about the whole aliens shooting back thing, blah blah blah.
Here's your last paycheck and stuff. Blah blah.
All the best, Commissar Bastardo.
Kisses. Xxx

Does anyone have any reference to some letters from existing fluff, ideas or even real life military documents that I could base the format on?

**Psienesis**

There's all kinds of images on the internet for various communications found in 40K sources, as well as actual military correspondence from historical sources. I assume you know how Google works.

Usually, the header will be something like this:

An Imperial Aquila is centered at the top of the page. Three spaces, then the below left-aligned.

FM: (This is the "From" line. It details the name, rank, Regiment or office of the sender)
TO: (This is the "To" line. It details the same information above of the recipient)
DATE: The Imperial Date, usually expressed as a 5 to 8 digit number, followed by M and then the millennium. So, 12345678.M41. The numbers before the M are a complex combination of the year, the location of the sender, and how many "steps" removed from the incident the reporting person is. Basically, just throw numbers here.)
RE: (This is the "Regarding" line, which is now known as "Subject" in modern emails. Works in exactly the same way)
Imperial Thought for the Day: (An auto-generated "inspirational" quote from one of the many organizations in the Imperium, such as "Death in the Emperor's Service is the greatest of rewards". Take one from another source or make one up.)

Body of the message goes here, just like in an e-mail or letter

Followed by the official seal, signature, whatever of the sender.

Another, smaller aquila is centered at the bottom of the page, possibly with the addition of the Adeptus symbol in the left and right corners, pertinent to the part of the Imperium the sender is from (the Ecclesiarchy, the Inquisition, the Departmento Munitorum, etc.).

**Warboss Gorhack**

If by letters you mean official memoranda, Psienesis has your answer above.

Most likely every sector, sub sector, command and regiment has their own watermarks and stationary, which would be the Aquila Psi cites. They might well have their own letter/memo formats within general guidelines set by the Administratum. Quite probably the Munitorum, Ministorum and other agencies have distinct variations as well.

The key is to have correspondence come off as painfully bureaucratic, impersonal and directive, yet fractured and insular, in keeping with the nature of the Imperium of Man itself.

My two cents.

**dusara217**

Congratulations, this might be the most original question I have ever read on this forum. Have a cookie, my friend.

**chromedog**

Also, anything even remotely suspect would be redacted.

So expect to see anything regarding postings, casualties, morale, etc blanked out with a black bar.

The Imperium doesn't care if it's soldiers are happy - only that their bodies are still warm enough to pull a trigger.

**Ratius**

What are the views on your average IG soldier being able to read?
Would the order communique perhaps not go their CO who would relay it verbally?
I second the view the language would be verbose, impersonal and with a minimum of actual information given.

**Alex Kolodotschko**

Thanks for the help on this guys. I've made a start on some of the actual meat of the letters and had a bit of a play with the format. I'll post more as I get further along with them.
One detail that I thought would be nice would be barcodes or similar. I'd also imagine the imperium to love a bit of bureaucracy so those seem to fit.
The idea that a barcode could be scanned or torn off a perforated strip and fed into a machine then the message is narrated, translated, read out loud for the illiterate, attachments opened, notification of receipt sent or whatever seems pretty cool. It's got a kind of backwards tech feel about it, I'm sure emails would work better but there's something clunky about this that I like.

**AndrewGPaul**

Ratius wrote:
What are the views on your average IG soldier being able to read?
Would the order communique perhaps not go their CO who would relay it verbally?
I second the view the language would be verbose, impersonal and with a minimum of actual information given.

The imperium isn't generally that backward. I can't think of any regiments depicted in any of the fiction where the majority were illiterate, although I'm sure there's a few around the place. Every trooper gets issued an Uplifiting Primer - the assumption must surel be that most of 'em can read the thing. Even in the case of pre-industrial men lifted from a feral world, there's the period of basic training onboard the ships en route to the warzone. They can be taught to read and write there, as well as how to shoot a lasgun.

**Ratius**

Good point about the Primer.

**SagesStone**

I don't think they'd care enough if they could read it or not to be honest, it's just one of those things they shove at every guard who joins. Be useful to read since there's a punishment for losing it which isn't so great.

**Psienesis**

The pages also serve as emergency rations.

**EngulfedObject**

dusara217 wrote:
Congratulations, this might be the most original question I have ever read on this forum. Have a cookie, my friend.

The "Is Azrael Bald?" thread came pretty close too

But yea, if you want more specific in-universe examples, I think any 3ed codex would be a good place to look. Fluff in those (thinner) codices mostly consists of in-unverse reports, recordings, letters, quotes, and so on (mostly from inquisitors but also from other perspectives, including IG and Orks).

**AndrewGPaul**

Forge World's Imperial Armour books, too. Especially The Anphelion Project, Siege of Vraks and Doom Of Mymaera (1st printing with "Volume x" in the title or the reprints). A lot of those are actually Inquisition memos, but the format will be similar.

**Alex Kolodotschko**

Sorry it's been a while guys.
There was no actual rush for these so I put them on the backburner for a bit.
What do you think of this?
The bulk text has just been grabbed from somewhere but is slightly relevant.
What are your feelings on the overall look of the document, font, layout etc?
I obviously have to make up a stamp for the aquilla and practice Commisar Bastardo's signature with a thicker pen.
Any ideas what should go there?
Am I missing anything?

**oldravenman3025**

I like the set-up. The letterhead looks especially cool and fitting.

**Psienesis**

Looks spot on.

**GoonBandito**

The biggest thing I see is the Barcode and QR link - that doesn't strike me as the type of technology the Imperium would be using. Imperial tech would be more like a punch card fed through a servitor, or a long set of numbers laboriously copied out by a scribe (with all the typos that entails).

**Nerak**

Great job. I would add a sentence as a footnote. Something like "Thought for the day: Service is it's own reward" or "the good servant learns to love the lash" or something, but looks great.

**Alex Kolodotschko**

oldravenman3025 wrote:I like the set-up. The letterhead looks especially cool and fitting.

Psienesis wrote:Looks spot on.

Thanks guys.

GoonBandito wrote:The biggest thing I see is the Barcode and QR link - that doesn't strike me as the type of technology the Imperium would be using. Imperial tech would be more like a punch card fed through a servitor, or a long set of numbers laboriously copied out by a scribe (with all the typos that entails).

Alex Kolodotschko wrote:The idea that a barcode could be scanned or torn off a perforated strip and fed into a machine then the message is narrated, translated, read out loud for the illiterate, attachments opened, notification of receipt sent or whatever seems pretty cool. It's got a kind of backwards tech feel about it, I'm sure emails would work better but there's something clunky about this that I like.

Yeah, exactly my earlier thinking, I'm having some trouble implementing this though, maybe If I could find some fax paper or something. If anyone has any practical ideas about how to implement a perforation on a small scale that'd be ace. Maybe i'll take a look in the card making section of the craft shop and see what's available???

Nerak wrote:Great job. I would add a sentence as a footnote. Something like "Thought for the day: Service is it's own reward" or "the good servant learns to love the lash" or something, but looks great.

I should do that, but will probably need to change a few bits of the layout to fit it in as it's getting a bit busy down at the bottom. Feel free to submit your thoughts for the day in this thread as i'll need quite a few of them for the letters as they get finished.

Cheers guys and thanks for sticking with this. It's already becoming more of a project than I expected but I'd like to do this nicely as I'm thinking of more and more applications for the template for campaigns etc so it makes sense to get it right.
I'll keep you posted.

Edit: I've just realised that the letter isn't dated either. Way to drop the ball guys!

**Nerak**

Nerak wrote:Great job. I would add a sentence as a footnote. Something like "Thought for the day: Service is it's own reward" or "the good servant learns to love the lash" or something, but looks great.

I should do that, but will probably need to change a few bits of the layout to fit it in as it's getting a bit busy down at the bottom. Feel free to submit your thoughts for the day in this thread as i'll need quite a few of them for the letters as they get finished.

Cheers guys and thanks for sticking with this. It's already becoming more of a project than I expected but I'd like to do this nicely as I'm thinking of more and more applications for the template for campaigns etc so it makes sense to get it right.
I'll keep you posted.

Edit: I've just realised that the letter isn't dated either. Way to drop the ball guys!

An Excuse to write Imperial propaganda!?

Stay tuned for top twenty lines to drop on loyal imperial Citizens, around this time tomorrow.

This might help with the date: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Imperial_Dating_System

**Alex Kolodotschko**

Awesome.
Were I a lowly guardsman i'd be very worried.
In my salubrious position as Commissar Bastardo I'm sadistically looking forward to it.
That date thing is great. Thanks.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
So I've gone ahead with it and ordered some stamps.
They're coming from Poland but hopefully they won't take too long.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/gringoscustoms?ref=l2-shopheader-name
Looking forward to stamping these all over my real life paperwork.

**Psienesis**

There is a list of Imperial Thoughts for the Day on Lexicanum.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Thought_for_the_day

With regards to barcodes and QR codes... the Imperium is a vast region with all kinds of technological levels on its million worlds. Some worlds are feral and barbaric, some are unimaginably advanced. It is not difficult to assume that the letter originates from some Departmento Munitorum facility where QR and barcodes, and the technology to read them, are as common as dirt.

**Alex Kolodotschko**

So my order of stamps arrived today.
I'd placed it on the 25/02/16 so that's a bit over 2 weeks for delivery to the UK which isn't bad at all.
One thing I would be wary of is that some of these stamps come with plastic handles and some with lovely wooden ones. This is not that easy to see on the shop photos so do check carefully if you're ever thinking about ordering. I was a little disappointed as the wooden ones are far nicer and I had intended to use them for Larp at some point, i'll just have to modify them a little as the blue and yellow handles are a bit naff.
The quality of the stamps is, however, great and I would recommend.
Just waiting on some certificate paper to turn up and I can go to town with a few teabags, some bloodstains and a candle to get these looking like proper documents.