Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Psienesis wrote:

 Sturmtruppen wrote:

Hierophant wrote:
And this is disregarding the ultimate contingency - a Custodes pops out of secret door in your beadroom one day, that you didn't know existed, and hasn't been opened in 10,000 years, and impales you on a power spear.

Official cause of death: slipped down the stairs.

Nah...

"Cause of death: Failure to protect neck. Also, the record indicates that the body had been wrecked, possibly as a result of failing to check himself."

And that's a rap!

 LumenPraebeo wrote:
I don't think so. I think there will be just as many people fighting for me as going against me. And I think I may have a chance of winning.

You know, except for the screaming quintillions screaming "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!" you might be half right. But, alas, Chaos, Necrons, Tyranids, Tau, and half a million pocket empires would anally rape the Imperium and nuke the remains if a civil war of that magnitude were to occur. The Heresy was different, the IoM had just exterminated every major threat for 2 million lightyears around, whereas, now, there are major threats everywhere you look.

1. Have my arms and skull replaced with bionics and adamantium plating respectfully.
2. Tattoo all my skin green.
3. Gather as much teeth as possible.
4. Bribe local Orks to join my warband.
5. Hold an arm wrestling contest and/or headbutting challenge to convince those who will inevitably call me too weedy to lead a warband.
6. Start a Waaaaagh.
7. Prosper.

Assassins or Inquisitors can only kill you if you have a body.

If you've uploaded your mind into one of those planet-sized battle stations the Adeptus Mechanicus still makes, there's not much they can do to touch you. Rather die from so many simultaneous lance volleys that they'd make a space marine go blind for a year.

A lot of answers in this topic do kind of all come to the same point - nobody is actually in charge of the Imperium.

It's like a gigantic oil tanker that's out of control, with too much momentum for anyone to change its path. There's so many different power bases that have checks and balances on each other that the only things the person that's nominally in control of day-to-day affairs (the Master of the Administratum) can do are very minor policy adjustments, some hiring and firing, and the launching of crusades (manpower permitting).

The Inquisition, the Custodes, and the Astartes, all answer to nobody but the Emperor. As does nominally the Ecclesiarchy (which in practice it's just an excuse to make sure they only answer to themselves) On top of that, you have the Assassinorum, who are regulated by the Inquisition, and require a 2/3rds vote from all the High Lords before they can be used.

Lastly, as Goge Vandire demonstrated, the person in charge of the Imperium is not necessarily the person with the most power. While they don't have the authority to exercise it without being declared a heretic and causing a civil war, the Ecclesiarch actually holds far more powerful than the Master of the Administratum due to the sway he has on the faithful.

So... the real answer to the question is... absolutely nothing. The Imperium is far too big and far too byzantine and far too inertia filled, with power far too distributed, for the person in charge to have any real influence. You couldn't even reliably start a civil war to try to change that state of affairs unless you were the Ecclesiarch, but he isn't in charge of the Imperium, and you'd likely not live long afterwards.

Since the Imperium is too large to truly control I would :

Draw 1,000,000 IG from every planet in the Imperium. I would double the number of SM. I would have every forge world build and deliver a titan legion. Every major planet would build ship yards to produce new fleets. The new fleets would transport this new force. I would then use this force to clear out the xenos closest to Terra. I would keep building this force every decade until there was no more Xenos in the Imperium. Once the Xenos are cleared out, Creat Crusade MK2 begins.

Javin wrote:
Since the Imperium is too large to truly control I would :

Draw 1,000,000 IG from every planet in the Imperium. I would double the number of SM. I would have every forge world build and deliver a titan legion. Every major planet would build ship yards to produce new fleets. The new fleets would transport this new force. I would then use this force to clear out the xenos closest to Terra. I would keep building this force every decade until there was no more Xenos in the Imperium. Once the Xenos are cleared out, Creat Crusade MK2 begins.

You just described the Great Crusade in detail. Are you sure you don't mean Great Crusade MK3? Because the first 3 quarters of what you said was a Great Crusade in and of itself.

Javin wrote:
Since the Imperium is too large to truly control I would :

Draw 1,000,000 IG from every planet in the Imperium. I would double the number of SM. I would have every forge world build and deliver a titan legion. Every major planet would build ship yards to produce new fleets. The new fleets would transport this new force. I would then use this force to clear out the xenos closest to Terra. I would keep building this force every decade until there was no more Xenos in the Imperium. Once the Xenos are cleared out, Creat Crusade MK2 begins.

Two problems here;

1) This is assuming that the Imperium isn't already close to peak capacity with all the current threats around. Sure, they could convert totally to a war economy, but that isn't sustainable in the long term.

2) With a Great Crusade Mk2, how are you going to prevent the inevitable Heresy Mk2? Once you create such powerful armadas, you also create ambitious generals, and targets for corruption. Once the Xenos are gone (and you forget that the likes of the Eldar and Necrons would not go quietly, and have incredible doomsday tech) you're left with an Empire ripe for Chaos to tear apart.

IMO aliens are not the threat (the Tyranids and Necrons are still unproven as existential threats) The threat that humanity poses to itself is.

But I dont care about the emperor or heresy or any of that crap. Ill kill all the vindicares if I have to. Im going full mengsk here. Because the emperium is stupid. Im more than willing to purge out a few trillion zealots. And any puny marine chapters that get in the way.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Psienesis wrote:
There's only so much power in meta-awareness. What, would you wave your hand and say "Poof! You're disbanded!"? That's not going to get you anything except a visitation from the Moritat or the Vindicare.

Not disbanded. Eliminated. There is great power in zero feths given.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Hierophant wrote:
They Grey Knights and Inquisition were created by the Emperor's command. Being in charge of the Imperium is not the same as owning the Imperium. You're simply running it in the Emperor's stead.

If you chose to destroy institutions the Emperor himself personally founded, you'd be guilty of the worst kind of Heresy possible, and dead by the afternoon. Remember, the Inquisition serves the Emperor, and nobody else. Try to disband them, and they'd have the power and the authority to disband you first.

Dont give a feth about the emperor. Hes a dead loser.

Martel732 wrote:

Dont give a feth about the emperor. Hes a dead loser.

Said the Blood Angel. Its like you get more cynical with every post

Ad Hominem aside, not caring about the Emperor is not going to prevent you from being murdered by a Custodes.

 Selym wrote:

Martel732 wrote:

Dont give a feth about the emperor. Hes a dead loser.

Said the Blood Angel. Its like you get more cynical with every post

Ad Hominem aside, not caring about the Emperor is not going to prevent you from being murdered by a Custodes.

Until I kill all of them as well. As I said, full Mengsk. Any planets that resist, I'll build a Tyranid summoning device and just have the Hive Fleets do my work for me. That's the kind of leadership the Imperium deserves.

Just because I play Blood Angels, doesn't mean they wouldn't be better off working for someone else. Not named "Incredibly stupid Imperium run by know-nothings that don't believe in science".

And with what army are you going to do all this killing of powerful organizations in the Imperium?

Who is going to build this "Tyranid Summoning Device" for you?

The AdMech absolutely believe in science, and they know that Human Science reached a pinnacle of near-utopian perfection over 10,000 years ago, which is why they're trying to get back to that state without repeating the same mistakes as before that nearly wiped Humanity out.

Me? I'd just go off and start my own Imperium, with hookers and blackjack.

Martel732 wrote:
Until I kill all of them as well. As I said, full Mengsk. Any planets that resist, I'll build a Tyranid summoning device and just have the Hive Fleets do my work for me. That's the kind of leadership the Imperium deserves.

Just because I play Blood Angels, doesn't mean they wouldn't be better off working for someone else. Not named "Incredibly stupid Imperium run by know-nothings that don't believe in science".

And just how do you intend to achieve these things? How are you going to kill the Custodes? Magic?

The Inquisition won't do it. The Space Marines won't do it. The Assassins won't do it - none are under your direct control. And that's not even considering whether they could do it, when you understand that the Custodes essentially run the Imperial Palace - the most heavilly fortified location in the Galaxy, and your home.

Your only chance would be to leave the planet and start a civil war, with the only forces you have direct control over - The Imperial Guard and Navy - ordered to attack Holy Terra. Neither of which is likely to obey such an order considering 1) it's suicide, b) it makes no sense, and c) the Imperial Cult would certainly side against you and order them all to lay down their arms.

I also like how you attack the Imperium for knowing nothing about science when your plan partially revolves around "building a Tyranid summoning device" to attack loyal planets... If such a device existed, then your plan to restore the Imperium would be much better using such magical devices to send them all directly into the Eye of Terror.

The best thing about your post though is that it shows how and why tyrants and incompetent rulers still exist and still try to enact their plans, despite them being self-defeating and doomed to failure. It's not poor writing - people like that actually exist. They just genuinely don't recognise how bad their plans are.

It's called lampshading how bad the Imperium is. As I said, it's the leadership the Imperium deserves.

That being said, you don't get in charge without having your own people somewhere. There's a lot of factions within the Imperium that humanity would be better off without. At least from my understanding of the fluff. My first job would be to get rid of those factions entirely, no matter the cost.

As far as I can tell, Chaos deserves the win over the Imperium.

"The AdMech absolutely believe in science, and they know that Human Science reached a pinnacle of near-utopian perfection over 10,000 years ago, which is why they're trying to get back to that state without repeating the same mistakes as before that nearly wiped Humanity out. "

They are failing miserably. In this genre, humanity deserves to be wiped out. Because they are dumb.

 Psienesis wrote:
Me? I'd just go off and start my own Imperium, with hookers and blackjack.

Go to your local underhive. It's like you did that, but without the effort

There's nothing dumb at all about the Imperium. They're like water flowing down a series of rocks, following the optimal path. The Imperium is in such a state because the Galaxy is in such a state, and their current organisation is simply close to the optimal method of survival for them. They've actually evolved into a pretty efficient society in terms of survival. That's why they're currently the top dog.

Even the anti-science elements make sense. AI almost destroyed the species once, so they do everything they can to avoid making the same mistakes again. This expressed itself as a religion, which while having the unfortunate nature of stagnating associated sciences, provided a valuable bullwark against Chaos.

If you want to know stupid though, you only need to look at Chaos for the most self-defeating, idiotic faction around. The four Gods are constantly bickering and undermining each other, and are guided by nothing other than opetty, base, short-term desires when they aren't. The mortal followers are a mixture of the stupid, the greedy and the gullible, who have achieved pretty much nothing in 10,000 years, other than Failbaddon shouting "just as planned!!!" at himself in order to deflect attention from his many failures.

Being stupid doesn't mean you deserve to die, but if it did, then Chaos would be first on the chopping block.

 Selym wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
Me? I'd just go off and start my own Imperium, with hookers and blackjack.

Go to your local underhive. It's like you did that, but without the effort

That's true. However, it would be karmic retribution for so many jerks within the Imperium for themselves to get purged.

I'd sever all ties with the Ad Mech and imbrace AI as the Tau have. Sure that would run the risk of a second war with the machines, but that's a risk worth taking. As for how the Imperial forces will be able to kill off all the titans (before building new ones of course), I guess we'd get alot of Tech-marines and other trusted visitors to do an Order 66 on the titan's crew along with other methods of sabotage such as "transportation accidents".

 TheCustomLime wrote:
Organize a massive Crusade into the Tau Empire. I don't care if it dooms the Imperium. If the Imperium is going to die we are taking a xenos race with us and the Tau are the easiest target to stamp out.

Agreed! KILL THE GASH FACES!