Whose in charge of the Imperium?

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**Lathe Biosas**

I know the God-Emperor is the go to answer, but who is really in charge?

The High lords of Terra would be an appropriately decent response, but it appears that the favored son (good o' RG) seems to be calling the shots now.

Or is the best response no one? That the Imperium is just too big to govern appropriately.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

It’s the High Lords.

Even Guilliman can’t directly overrule them. I mean, he technically could, but y’know, Now Is Not The Time To Kick Off A Civil War, Even If You Personally Would Most Likely Win.

Guilliman is the Regent. But, like pretty much every Regent, has very limited executive power.

**Gert**

The real answer is as you have said, nobody.

The ultimate authority is the Emperor, but he's a corpse on a throne and doesn't speak to anyone except through super cryptic psychic attacks and dreams so it doesn't count.

The High Lords are what could be considered top of the bureaucratic dogpile. They make the laws and hand down the big sanctions on people being naughty at the top end of the food chain like rogue Planetary Governors or Space Marine Chapters.
Each organisation theoretically has the chance to be represented on the council but generally speaking, nine offices are essentially permanent fixtures. These are the Master of the Administratum, Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum, Inquisitorial Representative, Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, Paternoval Envoy of the Navigator Houses, Provost Marshal of the Adeptus Arbites, Fabricator-General of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Master of the Astronomican, and Ecclesiarch of the Adeptus Ministorum.
The other three seats are generally considered rotational depending on the political power of the office at the time or if there is a particular crisis that would require them on the council.

Below the High Lords are the representatives of the many other offices and organisations in the Imperium in the wider Senatorum Imperialis.

As Lord Commander of the Imperium, Guilliman theoretically holds power over every office in the entire Imperium, barring the Adeptus Custodes who answer only to the Emperor himself. If he wasn't stuck being a campaign commander, Guilliman would lead the government of the Imperium.
When he took office, he removed four High Lords and hundreds of lesser lords of the Senatorum, then instigated a great purge across Terra of everything from Xenos and Chaos Cults to corrupt local officials.
Guilliman's power is very much real, he just can't use it because he isn't there to do so.

However, with the Imperium being as big as it is, the supreme executive doesn't really hold much real power outside of the most dire of matters.

**Iracundus**

Iracundus wrote:
The Imperium is like a great ship or plane on autopilot. The institutions of the Imperium have their mandates and most actively try to resist change and restore the status quo even without direct command from above. The decentralized nature of the Imperium and its myriad instituations along with their web of feudal obligations and infighting and politicking means the Imperium isn't a true nation state as understood by modern 20th century people. All the singular individuals with the power and force of personality to impose galactic scale changes (such as the Emperor or the Primarchs) are long gone, and the Imperium was restructured after the Heresy to deliberately prevent individuals from having such power in order to reduce the risk of rebellion. The down side of this is of course they also lack the power to enact beneficial sweeping reforms or take major decisions that actually alter the status quo.

The High Lords reign...they don't rule. Although they may issue sweeping decrees, like increasing mobilization to fight the Tyranids as depicted in the Tyranid Codex, these come off more as general ideological mission statements rather than concrete policy. The actual enforcement of these decrees can also be highly variable as these directives can be distorted, minimized, or perhaps even outright ignored as they propagate down the Imperium's organizations. There are numerous vested interests within the Imperium, and anyone threatening these interests may also provoke a backlash such as assassination. So my view is the High Lords of Terra are ineffective no matter who they are because of the very way the Imperium is structured.

The idea that NO ONE at all is truly in charge of the Imperium is an even scarier and more depressing state of affairs than the simple idea of the High Lords as evil corrupt power mongers deliberately twisting the Emperor's ideas: The Imperium as a system given a life of its own, as a blind unthinking beast, in which the uncounted quadrillions of humans in the galaxy are trapped with no hope of escape.

That was my post from long ago. The return of Guilliman hasn't really changed things that much. Even though he purged the High Lords and installed his own replacements, I suspect they will accomplish little real fundamental reform, though they may keep the supplies flowing for Guilliman to continue on his Indomitus Crusade. One of the High Lord allies even said he supported Guilliman's Crusade in order to teach the Primarch humility, because he thinks the Primarch will fail and will return to Terra humbled as the Imperium is too vast even for Guilliman to change (and because this High Lord thinks the Imperium is the way it is because the Emperor wished it so).

The High Lords reign but they don't really rule in the fashion of a 21st century nation-state. They may issue sweeping directives but this gets filtered through the labyrinthine bureaucracy and either dies in red tape or is far too little too late by the time anything gets implemented. Guilliman's talents in administration are also IMO being wasted on his Indomitus Crusade. Sure, he's running around defeating various threats but he's had to make compromises and delay the reforms and tasks he was hoping to do, beyond the bare minimum necessary to get more resources to keep the Crusade war machine running. The necessity of having to run off to put out the next fire means he never has time to settle down in a region he's pacified in order to make true fundamental reforms. Though he leaves behind garrisons or other staff, I suspect they just return to the status quo under sheer inertia from the rest of the system.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Did he purge them?

I know he promoted a couple of folk to vacant seats - but even then I was under the impression he still had to make his case for the nominees?

**Iracundus**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Did he purge them?

I know he promoted a couple of folk to vacant seats - but even then I was under the impression he still had to make his case for the nominees?

The most stubborn ones were pressured to retire. They subsequently tried to launch a coup to retake power after Guilliman left Terra, but he had foreseen this and his countermeasures resulted in these rebellious former High Lords getting killed. More reform minded High Lord replacements had been installed by Guilliman, supposedly to keep on doing the work he started while he is away, but I doubt they will succeed in his absence. One of them, Morvenn Vahl, is High Lord representing the Ecclesisarchy but she is off fighting in the Indomitus Crusade.

**Lathe Biosas**

How does Lion El'Johnson fit into this system, or is he essentially a rogue asset right now?

**Iracundus**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
How does Lion El'Johnson fit into this system, or is he essentially a rogue asset right now?

I'm not necessarily fully up to date but my understanding is he is basically acting on his own.

Obviously having these Primarchs wandering out fighting threats is for the purposes of the game setting, rather than sitting put and becoming ruler and administrative reformer. That is an OOC reason. I see both of them essentially being tar pitted in dealing with one threat after another and so the Imperium doesn't really alter its overall nature or trajectory.

**Gert**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Did he purge them?

I know he promoted a couple of folk to vacant seats - but even then I was under the impression he still had to make his case for the nominees?

There was a big purge on Terra after Guilliman took his role as Regent.

Nominally it was to get rid of Cults and recidivists but it ended up getting rid of a huge number of corrupt politicians, overseers and officials all across Terra.

The High Lords he removed were the biggest deal though and he very much did remove four of them while one of the Psychic ones died after the Rift ripped the galaxy in half and Guilliman just replaced them with an ally.
Then there was the Hexarchy Coup which he not only knew was happening but had specific instructions for the Assassinorum to let happen so he could get all the people opposed to him rounded up and killed in one swift strike.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Lathe Biosas wrote:
How does Lion El'Johnson fit into this system, or is he essentially a rogue asset right now?

He's just kind of messing around in Nihilus killing stuff and redeeming the Fallen.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Iracundus wrote:
One of them, Morvenn Vahl, is High Lord representing the Ecclesisarchy but she is off fighting in the Indomitus Crusade.

Vahl is Abbess of the Adepta Sororitas and she's not the only High Lord out and about.
Trajan Valoris, the Captain-General of the Custodes, is also not on Terra.