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Idle musings for a future project.

A group of Imperium people-Guard, perhaps a few Marine Chapters, that kind of thing-are growing more and more disaffected with the Imperium. When Guilliman returns, they see hope-but in the past century, with little changed for the better, they decide "Feth it, the Emperor is dead, Guilliman ain't fixing anything-time to secede."

They do so quietly, just stopping sending their tithes, ignoring messages, and possibly capturing/killing anyone sent to investigate, and set up their own little place in a quiet corner of the galaxy.

Does that sound like a reasonable thing in the fluff? Or am I crazy?

 JNAProductions wrote:
Idle musings for a future project.

A group of Imperium people-Guard, perhaps a few Marine Chapters, that kind of thing-are growing more and more disaffected with the Imperium. When Guilliman returns, they see hope-but in the past century, with little changed for the better, they decide "Feth it, the Emperor is dead, Guilliman ain't fixing anything-time to secede."

They do so quietly, just stopping sending their tithes, ignoring messages, and possibly capturing/killing anyone sent to investigate, and set up their own little place in a quiet corner of the galaxy.

Does that sound like a reasonable thing in the fluff? Or am I crazy?

It happens, works, until the munitorium finds out.
Then the collector ships show up.
Then it either get's very fast messy or they wait until the right time to rid themselves off their visitors..

Of course there also maybee with their faith shattered the slow corruption torwards Chaos.
Especially in sm and IG veteran regiments.

as not online hapened, this is pretty common, a world for whatever reason loses faith in the Imperium and decides they're gonna go italone, then the next tith ship shows up, is told to go away and the world gets invaded.

sometimes the world even gets forgotten about for a few centuries and thinks they've gotten away with it

In the grimdarkness of the future there is still only death and taxes.

BrianDavion wrote:
as not online hapened, this is pretty common, a world for whatever reason loses faith in the Imperium and decides they're gonna go italone, then the next tith ship shows up, is told to go away and the world gets invaded.

sometimes the world even gets forgotten about for a few centuries and thinks they've gotten away with it

Over the age of the Imperium, sure. But in Imperium Nihilus? These days? The imperium is dealing with earthshaking crises every 0.02 seconds and whole sectors have been cut off since the rift opens. It's become quite reasonable that no-one might notice a small cluster of systems has stopped answering their mail; depending on how contact was lost, the administratum might well incorrectly write the region off as destroyed... and a smart rebel might even stage it that way.

locarno24 wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:
as not online hapened, this is pretty common, a world for whatever reason loses faith in the Imperium and decides they're gonna go italone, then the next tith ship shows up, is told to go away and the world gets invaded.

sometimes the world even gets forgotten about for a few centuries and thinks they've gotten away with it

Over the age of the Imperium, sure. But in Imperium Nihilus? These days? The imperium is dealing with earthshaking crises every 0.02 seconds and whole sectors have been cut off since the rift opens. It's become quite reasonable that no-one might notice a small cluster of systems has stopped answering their mail; depending on how contact was lost, the administratum might well incorrectly write the region off as destroyed... and a smart rebel might even stage it that way.

sure and this is the case even prior. you'll occasionally in the fluff hear of worlds literally forgotten for thousand sof years who decide (not unreasonably so) the Imperium has abandoned them, only to have the IoM show up and suddenl;y demand back taxes

I mean, in the case of guardsmen, the issue with them going rouge if in transit or space, they'd need to eithr turn the crew or some of it, or take over and by shere luck manage to learn how to fly.

Or they end up stuck for whatever reason on a giant spacehulk with functioning gellar field parts.


If on a planet though: multiple regiments might become warlords.
Think China but in SHPACE.
Or switzerland but in medieval ages.

Then they would be in it for the money. and you can make a lot of money as a warlord.

Isolated pocket empires would IMO be what Imperium Nihilus is these days, as individual worlds, subsectors, and sectors look to themselves even though they might profess loyalty to the Imperium.

Such an isolated sector is in fact my own personal homebrew campaign setting: An isolated reasonably prosperous sector at the end of an long unreliable warp route. The Great Rift occurs and the sector is cut off entirely for more than a century. Eventually somebody gets through, claiming to be here to collect back taxes. Faced with the choice of either having the sector gutted by ruinous taxation (and full scale revolt by the nobles and populace), the sector governor rebels and declares himself regent of the sector, arguing that a functioning sector is more useful than one reduced to destitution. A bit of aid from the local Recongregator faction of the Inquisition results in institutions like the Arbites failing, and the tax collector gets liquidated. Years pass, and a punitive fleet arrives to take back the sector and get those taxes, but then the tides of the warp cut off its line of communication and reinforcement. Setting allows for Imperial vs Imperial, with RPG intrigue in the background by Inquisitors fighting a shadow war between themselves, with the Recongregators seeing the Great Rift as their great opportunity to reform the Imperium (at least sections of it) now that the existing power structures are shaken or cut off from calling for support to enforce the old status quo.

This is kind of the basic idea of a project I'm slowly working on at the moment in between other stuff. A planetary lord having found himself cut off/abandoned and striking out on his own, working for the highest bidder to further his own ambition. Sometimes they work with agents of the Imperium who are unaware of their sedition, other times they might ally with xenos worshippers to destabilise the Imperium (and put the focus on a more obvious threat) whilst other times they might lend their services to a Chaos lord. Guard/Brood Brothers/R&H in one army.

Wasn't this more or less the story of Krieg?

It is easy to characterize rebellious planetary governors as simply power hungry or corrupted, but I see the situation was far more complicated. Rebellion is common because the Imperium is an often remote idea that the people of a planet or sector have little contact with. Imperial institutions are just the thin layer on top of local institutions. Sectors are the largest unit of government for the Imperium, existing as oases of human civilization in a sea of wilderness space. Local leaders can rebel because they genuinely care about their planet or sector and see resources just being siphoned off to effectively disappear forever, by authorities that are human and therefore fallible or corruptible themselves.

The rigid nature of the Imperium's bureaucracy may also put local rulers in a hard place. Meet the demands of the Imperium even if it means devastating your own planet and have the local population take your head in revolt? Faced between the demands of distant foreign overlords and their own loyalties to the planet of their birth, it is easy to see why so many rulers choose to rebel.

This holds even more true with the current situation of the Imperium, being cut in two, and with warp travel and communication so unreliable. How do does a planetary ruler know that person is really the Imperial representative he is claiming to be? I see it all too possible for planets, subsectors, or sectors to make demands of others, while claiming to represent the will of the Imperium for the duration of the emergency.

craggy wrote:
This is kind of the basic idea of a project I'm slowly working on at the moment in between other stuff. A planetary lord having found himself cut off/abandoned and striking out on his own, working for the highest bidder to further his own ambition. Sometimes they work with agents of the Imperium who are unaware of their sedition, other times they might ally with xenos worshippers to destabilise the Imperium (and put the focus on a more obvious threat) whilst other times they might lend their services to a Chaos lord. Guard/Brood Brothers/R&H in one army.

honestly that doesn't really work, if you work with a genestealer cult it's because you've been suborned,. they're absolutely horrifying, no one would willingly work with such a force. (especially as they're always a local insurgancy)

and if they start working with chaos, well.. they're going to be corrupted.

now if you wanna paint your Guard the same colour scheme as your GSC stuff that's easily done. "the GSC are the traitors who split from the regiment"

BrianDavion wrote:

craggy wrote:
This is kind of the basic idea of a project I'm slowly working on at the moment in between other stuff. A planetary lord having found himself cut off/abandoned and striking out on his own, working for the highest bidder to further his own ambition. Sometimes they work with agents of the Imperium who are unaware of their sedition, other times they might ally with xenos worshippers to destabilise the Imperium (and put the focus on a more obvious threat) whilst other times they might lend their services to a Chaos lord. Guard/Brood Brothers/R&H in one army.

honestly that doesn't really work, if you work with a genestealer cult it's because you've been suborned,. they're absolutely horrifying, no one would willingly work with such a force. (especially as they're always a local insurgancy)

and if they start working with chaos, well.. they're going to be corrupted.

now if you wanna paint your Guard the same colour scheme as your GSC stuff that's easily done. "the GSC are the traitors who split from the regiment"

GSC maintain a front for many years and others may work with them, unaware of what they are. Codex GSC for example shows how Ghosar Quintus was regarded as a model mining world with a hard working compliant population that required only the bare minimum to survive. As a result their ore and workers were exported all over, spreading the cult. Elsewhere in the Codex, a similar export driven model is given as an example of how GSC can spread from agri-worlds.

A GSC that has taken over a world or mercantile organization might offer seemingly good deals to a harried planetary lord. Beset by problems on many fronts, such a lord might take the offer, thinking they haven negotiated a good deal, and on the surface it might very well be a good deal if it allows the lord to get ore or food or whatever in large quantities or cheap prices. That's because the GSC doesn't ultimately care about such things.

Iracundus wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

craggy wrote:
This is kind of the basic idea of a project I'm slowly working on at the moment in between other stuff. A planetary lord having found himself cut off/abandoned and striking out on his own, working for the highest bidder to further his own ambition. Sometimes they work with agents of the Imperium who are unaware of their sedition, other times they might ally with xenos worshippers to destabilise the Imperium (and put the focus on a more obvious threat) whilst other times they might lend their services to a Chaos lord. Guard/Brood Brothers/R&H in one army.

honestly that doesn't really work, if you work with a genestealer cult it's because you've been suborned,. they're absolutely horrifying, no one would willingly work with such a force. (especially as they're always a local insurgancy)

and if they start working with chaos, well.. they're going to be corrupted.

now if you wanna paint your Guard the same colour scheme as your GSC stuff that's easily done. "the GSC are the traitors who split from the regiment"

GSC maintain a front for many years and others may work with them, unaware of what they are. Codex GSC for example shows how Ghosar Quintus was regarded as a model mining world with a hard working compliant population that required only the bare minimum to survive. As a result their ore and workers were exported all over, spreading the cult. Elsewhere in the Codex, a similar export driven model is given as an example of how GSC can spread from agri-worlds.

A GSC that has taken over a world or mercantile organization might offer seemingly good deals to a harried planetary lord. Beset by problems on many fronts, such a lord might take the offer, thinking they haven negotiated a good deal, and on the surface it might very well be a good deal if it allows the lord to get ore or food or whatever in large quantities or cheap prices. That's because the GSC doesn't ultimately care about such things.

right my point is that a GSC isn't going to approiuch a lord governer and say "ohh hey we're a genestealer cult, wanna help us on planet X?"

even CHAOS Humans tend to not be willing to work that far with xenos

BrianDavion wrote:

Iracundus wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

craggy wrote:
This is kind of the basic idea of a project I'm slowly working on at the moment in between other stuff. A planetary lord having found himself cut off/abandoned and striking out on his own, working for the highest bidder to further his own ambition. Sometimes they work with agents of the Imperium who are unaware of their sedition, other times they might ally with xenos worshippers to destabilise the Imperium (and put the focus on a more obvious threat) whilst other times they might lend their services to a Chaos lord. Guard/Brood Brothers/R&H in one army.

honestly that doesn't really work, if you work with a genestealer cult it's because you've been suborned,. they're absolutely horrifying, no one would willingly work with such a force. (especially as they're always a local insurgancy)

and if they start working with chaos, well.. they're going to be corrupted.

now if you wanna paint your Guard the same colour scheme as your GSC stuff that's easily done. "the GSC are the traitors who split from the regiment"

GSC maintain a front for many years and others may work with them, unaware of what they are. Codex GSC for example shows how Ghosar Quintus was regarded as a model mining world with a hard working compliant population that required only the bare minimum to survive. As a result their ore and workers were exported all over, spreading the cult. Elsewhere in the Codex, a similar export driven model is given as an example of how GSC can spread from agri-worlds.

A GSC that has taken over a world or mercantile organization might offer seemingly good deals to a harried planetary lord. Beset by problems on many fronts, such a lord might take the offer, thinking they haven negotiated a good deal, and on the surface it might very well be a good deal if it allows the lord to get ore or food or whatever in large quantities or cheap prices. That's because the GSC doesn't ultimately care about such things.

right my point is that a GSC isn't going to approiuch a lord governer and say "ohh hey we're a genestealer cult, wanna help us on planet X?"

even CHAOS Humans tend to not be willing to work that far with xenos

You realize there were and still are Chaos gsc right?
I mean there is even now a nurgle one.

I see it more like sending a few guardsmen to an insurgent planet to buff up their forces and take the attention to the real work being done by the rest of the army to stabilise and fortify their own region of space, and maybe reap some rewards in xenos or Heretic weapons if anyone survives.