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Nowadays, GW typically portrays Chaos as marauding bandits and barbarians who carry out acts of wanton cruelty against the civilian populace, pillaging, slaughtering and ravaging.

However, last time, they focused a lot more on corruption and betrayal. Including the Forces of Chaos raising a 5th column of sympathetic Imperials to betray the Imperium and to wreak havoc from the inside. I wish GW would focus more on such stories instead of all that Failbaddon barbarity.


Anyway, let's compare the Imperium with IRL human history. If the Forces of Chaos were to recruit traitors to their cause, what kind of groups would join them?


Note that people who join Chaos may not be strongly corrupted at first, but are simply relishing the opportunity to revolt against the Imperial dictatorship.



First, we should expect marginalized groups, worlds etc. to revolt, while worlds which were well taken care of would rally around the Imperial Cult and condemn the revolutionaries as traitors.

Socialist revolutionaries, tired of Imperial ineptitude, might join the traitorous cause. Downtrodden working class might join them. The ranks of the middle class, alarmed at these revolts, might rally around the fascist ideals of the Imperium. Could become a left-wing vs right-wing thing.


Both sides would definitely use utmost and violence against each other. Think of the Spanish Civil War.


What do you guys think? Could modern politics describe the allegiances of Imperials to their empire or Chaos? Imperial citizens resembling both leftists and rightists?

The reason this isn't talked about is because of how incredibly common and mundane this is from the perspective of the Imperium. Worlds revolt all the time. Hundreds of them. Some of these are political, some are religious, some are driven by natural disasters, and some are racially driven. Some may have had chaos involvement from the start whereas others may only court chaos when they grow more desperate. And some will never involve chaos because there's no one on the planet knowledgeable enough to do so. Dealing with revolts, is very much the bread and butter of the Adeptus Arbites, especially on more populated worlds.

while worlds which were well taken care of would rally around the Imperial Cult and condemn the revolutionaries as traitors.

Something to remember is that communication within the Imperium, between planets, is very VERY slow and only decently reliable at the best of times. It is complete strangers interpreting one another's dreams, most likely re-translated through a series of astropathic intermediaries. News does not travel fast and by the time a world that is communicatively "close" hears about an uprising, not as part of some classified briefing, but as normal "tidings from around the sector" the revolt is likely to have already been put down.

keep in mind the imperium tries its best to keep chaos a secret,

Maximus Bitch wrote:


What do you guys think? Could modern politics describe the allegiances of Imperials to their empire or Chaos?

basically the way i look at it chaos is space isis, and imperium is space north korea. irl north korea and in space north korea as long as you do your job and publically do the minimum to tow the party the line, youre okay and life goes on - start gak then everything goes to hell and you and your family disapear. now the occasional official thinks they can get away with something, until the inquisition/state security show up.

where as irl isis and space isis, its just best to hide.

The emperor and his followers are the ones betrayed humanity. Any decent human splinter empire has been completely crushed by this maniacal evil scientist, his army of super humans and his personal cult.
Choas preys on those who are brave enough to rebel but not educated enough in the dangers of the flesh made nightmares hiding in the warp. This again is the IoM's fault decent education would be more than adequate for the majority of the rebels not to fall into the hands of the forces of chaos.

jareddm wrote:
The reason this isn't talked about is because of how incredibly common and mundane this is from the perspective of the Imperium. Worlds revolt all the time. Hundreds of them. Some of these are political, some are religious, some are driven by natural disasters, and some are racially driven. Some may have had chaos involvement from the start whereas others may only court chaos when they grow more desperate. And some will never involve chaos because there's no one on the planet knowledgeable enough to do so. Dealing with revolts, is very much the bread and butter of the Adeptus Arbites, especially on more populated worlds.

while worlds which were well taken care of would rally around the Imperial Cult and condemn the revolutionaries as traitors.

Something to remember is that communication within the Imperium, between planets, is very VERY slow and only decently reliable at the best of times. It is complete strangers interpreting one another's dreams, most likely re-translated through a series of astropathic intermediaries. News does not travel fast and by the time a world that is communicatively "close" hears about an uprising, not as part of some classified briefing, but as normal "tidings from around the sector" the revolt is likely to have already been put down.

This pretty much sums it up.

As for different classes having a different affinity for Chaos, the terrible communication means that there isn't really such a thing as an Imperial working class. Each planet has its own peasantry, sure, but they have no communication with the peasantry of other planets, so they can't make a difference on more than a planetary scale, and in most cases I gather they're isolated to their own communities (hive blocks, towns, farm complexes, tribes, etc) with no means of mass communication, no twitter in the grim darkness of the far future (unless it's, I don't know, skeletal bird cyborgs tweeting hymns at you in the morning ).

I'm not sure if there's an Imperial middle class. There are merchants, certainly, but from what I understand, they're merchant houses, so really they're another part of the aristocracy, probably with trade charters that they've held for generations. This is another reason that a popular revolt would be so difficult on any important scale, warp capable vessels are all controlled by either the aristocracy or one of the big organs of the Imperium; the Administratum, the Church, the Navy, the Mechanicus or the Inquisition.

Speakeasy wrote:


As for different classes having a different affinity for Chaos, the terrible communication means that there isn't really such a thing as an Imperial working class. Each planet has its own peasantry, sure, but they have no communication with the peasantry of other planets, so they can't make a difference on more than a planetary scale, and in most cases I gather they're isolated to their own communities (hive blocks, towns, farm complexes, tribes, etc) with no means of mass communication, no twitter in the grim darkness of the far future (unless it's, I don't know, skeletal bird cyborgs tweeting hymns at you in the morning ).

I'm not sure if there's an Imperial middle class. There are merchants, certainly, but from what I understand, they're merchant houses, so really they're another part of the aristocracy, probably with trade charters that they've held for generations. This is another reason that a popular revolt would be so difficult on any important scale, warp capable vessels are all controlled by either the aristocracy or one of the big organs of the Imperium; the Administratum, the Church, the Navy, the Mechanicus or the Inquisition.

That's why I placed it in the context of a massive co-ordinated Chaos invasion that actually has the chance to topple the Imperium. A Chaos force who is seeking to recruit fresh traitors to swell the ranks of their armies and to form a 5th column to destroy the Imperium from within.


Anyway, the main question is what kind of people would be more likely to side with or against the central Imperial government.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

jareddm wrote:
The reason this isn't talked about is because of how incredibly common and mundane this is from the perspective of the Imperium. Worlds revolt all the time. Hundreds of them. Some of these are political, some are religious, some are driven by natural disasters, and some are racially driven. Some may have had chaos involvement from the start whereas others may only court chaos when they grow more desperate. And some will never involve chaos because there's no one on the planet knowledgeable enough to do so. Dealing with revolts, is very much the bread and butter of the Adeptus Arbites, especially on more populated worlds.

while worlds which were well taken care of would rally around the Imperial Cult and condemn the revolutionaries as traitors.

Something to remember is that communication within the Imperium, between planets, is very VERY slow and only decently reliable at the best of times. It is complete strangers interpreting one another's dreams, most likely re-translated through a series of astropathic intermediaries. News does not travel fast and by the time a world that is communicatively "close" hears about an uprising, not as part of some classified briefing, but as normal "tidings from around the sector" the revolt is likely to have already been put down.

I was talking about a Chaos force which has the tools and an arsenal which rivals the Imperium's. With their own agents, communication networks.

I'd rather we stay on topic and not discuss how likely a successful revolt is, but what kind of people might side with or against the Imperium?


I've got the feeling that the 40k lore can mesh very well with the contemporary politics in our modern world. Like the 40k stories could be seen as a grim reflection of our modern world, on a larger scale.

 oldzoggy wrote:
The emperor and his followers are the ones betrayed humanity. Any decent human splinter empire has been completely crushed by this maniacal evil scientist, his army of super humans and his personal cult.
Choas preys on those who are brave enough to rebel but not educated enough in the dangers of the flesh made nightmares hiding in the warp. This again is the IoM's fault decent education would be more than adequate for the majority of the rebels not to fall into the hands of the forces of chaos.

but they can't educate them for fear of corruption