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Made in gb
Preparing the Invasion of Terra






Its interesting to note that with Krieg it took 500 years for the Administratum to not only notice the lack of tithes but then assemble a group ot administrators to go to Krieg and tell the government off. They showed up and the newly raised Death Korps had like 50 Regiments ready to ship out so the Administratum just went "OK then, reclassify the planet and change its tithe status", then went on with their business.
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





If IOM showed up to todays earth the powers that be and the very wealthy, faced with overwhelming supremacy would hand over the planet in exchange for protection their position as the planets aristocracy.

What would be interesting would be the struggle to take over as planetary governor between those that already have power and influence.

I’d assume in the first instance a planetary governor from off world would be put in place whilst those world leaders that all ready have an iron grip over their populations try and show off how good they are at maintaining compliance.

The liberal democracies would suffer worse as either an internal struggle takes place to turn them into dictatorships or foreign powers are given approval to invade and take over.

I imagine that the only losses that the occupation forces from the IOM would suffer would be from local resistance groups.
   
Made in fr
Inquisitorial Keeper of the Xenobanks





France

There would be little to no resistance and people would quickly get used to it.
People adapt to everything. Slavery and dictatorship is and has always been so common, that's no big deal, even if it's extra terrestrial dictatorship. And in the few democratic countries, there would be even less resistance as people are even more afraid of war, death, and are always so compliant, afraid of losing what they have. As long as the Imperium brings a few technological toys, people will fall for it
And after a generation or two, our sons and daughters will grow not in an invaded world, but in an imperial world full of propaganda and will never understand why some would be unhappy

   
Made in us
Focused Fire Warrior




Les Etats Unis

 techsoldaten wrote:
That is, if the other horrors of the 40k universe don't get it first. Could easily see Word Bearers / Alpha Legion operatives gaining the upper hand and turning it into a Chaos world. Or Earth preparing for another Imperial invasion, only to confront a large Ork army that showed up at the gates.


New argument: If any reasonably competent cult heard about Earth's existence while the Imperium was colonizing it, we'd be living on a Chaos world within five years.

Dudeface wrote:
 Eldarain wrote:
Is there another game where players consistently blame each other for the failings of the creator?

If you want to get existential, life for some.
 
   
Made in us
Daemonic Dreadnought





Eye of Terror

 Flipsiders wrote:
 techsoldaten wrote:
That is, if the other horrors of the 40k universe don't get it first. Could easily see Word Bearers / Alpha Legion operatives gaining the upper hand and turning it into a Chaos world. Or Earth preparing for another Imperial invasion, only to confront a large Ork army that showed up at the gates.


New argument: If any reasonably competent cult heard about Earth's existence while the Imperium was colonizing it, we'd be living on a Chaos world within five years.


While I don't dispute that, I'm not sure what Earth has to offer to a Chaos cult.

I could see a Legion competing with the Imperium for territory, I could see Orks bashing it for the teef, I could see Tyranids devouring it for food, I could see Drukhari raiding it for slaves.

Each of these scenarios turns Earth into a planet to be exploited for part in a larger game. A Slanneshi cult infiltrating a backwater planet, corrupting the existing power structure... not sure why they'd bother. For Slannesh, I guess.

   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran





 techsoldaten wrote:
 Flipsiders wrote:
 techsoldaten wrote:
That is, if the other horrors of the 40k universe don't get it first. Could easily see Word Bearers / Alpha Legion operatives gaining the upper hand and turning it into a Chaos world. Or Earth preparing for another Imperial invasion, only to confront a large Ork army that showed up at the gates.


New argument: If any reasonably competent cult heard about Earth's existence while the Imperium was colonizing it, we'd be living on a Chaos world within five years.


While I don't dispute that, I'm not sure what Earth has to offer to a Chaos cult.

I could see a Legion competing with the Imperium for territory, I could see Orks bashing it for the teef, I could see Tyranids devouring it for food, I could see Drukhari raiding it for slaves.

Each of these scenarios turns Earth into a planet to be exploited for part in a larger game. A Slanneshi cult infiltrating a backwater planet, corrupting the existing power structure... not sure why they'd bother. For Slannesh, I guess.


Khorne: cares not from where blood flows, only that it does.

Nurgle: would just be happy to have another planet to spread his "gifts"

Slannesh: would be happy with the prospect of new "toys", as well as filling the planet with corruption and debauchery

Tzeentch: something something Just as Planned....
   
Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






Well, several billion human souls with no knowledge of who’s just come a-knocking.

What happens then is gonna depend on just who found us.

Alpha Legion would act very differently to World Eaters, for instance.

As another new and isolated biome, Nurgle might find novel and interesting plagues to play with (mmm! Topical!)

Legions might well take advantage of our untainted nature to get a load of not even vaguely mutated and generally speaking pretty healthy recruits. This would likely make us an appealing recruitment world for any Astartes really. We’re physically and spiritually uncorrupted right now, and may remain that way if they’re careful.

I suspect it would take a generation or two to get kids able to undergo the trials, as that requires a cultural shift to athletic and combat excellence.

The other factor there is we’re also a world of diverse environments, a curiously unusual thing in SciFi. We’ve got arctic, highland, lowland, swamp, sand desert…basically all of it.

Sure our flora and fauna remain pretty inoffensive, but that’s not a hard problem to fix if you wanted to should the recruiting chapter find it essential to the candidate selection process.

And if we’re found by an adventuring, non-Astartes Chaos Cult? Well, we have cults of our own they could subvert. And that’s as far as I’m going on that particular bit!


   
Made in us
Pious Palatine




 Flipsiders wrote:
 techsoldaten wrote:
That is, if the other horrors of the 40k universe don't get it first. Could easily see Word Bearers / Alpha Legion operatives gaining the upper hand and turning it into a Chaos world. Or Earth preparing for another Imperial invasion, only to confront a large Ork army that showed up at the gates.


New argument: If any reasonably competent cult heard about Earth's existence while the Imperium was colonizing it, we'd be living on a Chaos world within five years.


I'm with this one. To be clear, not because of a rebellious spirit or anything, but because we're all really, really stupid and would absolutely choose the greater of two evils if given a chance.


 
   
Made in ca
Storm Trooper with Maglight




I have nothing to add but this is an awesome thread so I wanna see it kept up with!

123ply: Dataslate- 4/4/3/3/1/3/1/8/6+
Autopistol, Steel Extendo, Puma Hoodie
USRs: "Preferred Enemy: Xenos"
"Hatred: Xenos"
"Racist and Proud of it" - Gains fleshbane, rending, rage, counter-attack, and X2 strength and toughness when locked in combat with units not in the "Imperium of Man" faction.

Collection:
AM/IG - 122nd Terrax Guard: 2094/3000pts
Skitarii/Cult Mech: 1380/2000pts
Khorne Daemonkin - Host of the Nervous Knife: 1701/2000pts
Orks - Rampage Axez: 1753/2000pts 
   
Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






There was a post earlier that mentioned relative autonomy from The Imperium.

That’s actually really quite Imperial in approach. This is best seen in the ongoing Necromunda expansion books. Those make it clear that even a lynchpin world such as Necromunda is pretty much left alone, provided the Governor keeps the tithe coming.

Yes certain things will be enforced (Official Religion, Arbites etc), but otherwise the Imperium tends to be pretty hands off, as it’s simply more efficient. When you’ve millions of worlds in your Empire, trying to enforce any particularly exacting standardisation seems a fools errand at the end of the day.

But even with the Official Religion? It’s adaptive in its nature.

Governorship would almost certainly not be left to a native however. Far more satisfactory to install someone already long standing in The Imperium to better ensure loyalty and ongoing compliance.

I do now start to wonder just how belligerent world leaders would end up being in the face of the frankly ludicrous force The Imperium can muster.

Populist Leaders for instance largely depend on at least appearing strong and tough and uncompromising. That’s easy enough to project when you’re objectively one of the bigger fish in the sea. Now. Suddenly introduce a fleet of space borne battleships of staggering size, with weapons of unfathomable range and power? How do you rattle your sabre against that? How many disastrous military actions, lost due to sustained orbital bombardment would your leadership survive?

When our biggest and besterest toys are Nukes, and the newcomer considers those ultimately useful, but really rather quaint? What does that do to us as a global society?

How long might it take before us Mere Plebs demand compliance to stop the slaughter? How quickly might Generals begin refusing to squander their troops into one-sided losing fights, especially when those they’re being told to fight started off offering friendship and brotherhood?

To us Mere Plebs, how much would it really matter who ruled our planet? I’d wager most of us just want full bellies, warm homes and assorted other creature comforts.

Sure, eventually we’d likely end up just another hellish dystopia in a hellish dystopian Empire, but that’d be over generations as we inevitably become Just Another World.

   
Made in gb
Regular Dakkanaut





 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Perhaps I’ve just not read the right books (I have read all the earlier Heresy novels though), but GC Imperium feels a very different beast to the modern Imperium.

Whilst they absolutely would take what they wanted by force, an untainted world like ours (no Xenos, no psykers, no concept of Chaos etc) would at least be given a chance to achieve Compliance peacefully. Indeed, even if one nation state did resist, it strikes me that they would be punished, but not everyone else?


In broad strokes, I disagree. There's a short story, Wolf at the Door that highlights this. 30k Imperium only cared about compliance and was always quick to use violence to achieve that end. Any notions of the betterment of humanity was just pretty wallpaper to cover up the genocides and dictatorship. I do agree that modern day earth would be a prize worth taking with as little damage to the plant as possible, as we are a borderline paradise world as far as the Imperium is concerned. So there is room for a particularly savvy modern day world leader to negotiate a peaceful surrender in exchange for them being named governor.

After that any local resistance would be their problem, with the Imperium only showing up again if the tithes every stop, and even then probably several hundred years after the fact.
   
Made in us
Damsel of the Lady




I imagine we'd diplomatically submit fairly quickly. Then any resistance just turns into XCOM2 except you're fighting Arbites and Ogryns instead of snake people and sectoids.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/02/01 15:08:12


 
   
Made in us
Hardened Veteran Guardsman




Well, it IS possible that the Sisters Sabine have already been prepping for the inevitable Imperial arrival.

Just as likely that all the Illuminati types also pop out the woodwork and all the NWO stuff was true and boom...compliant world.

A small elite running the world as they see fit via a huge amount of pervasive and total surveillance, armed drones and mercenaries whose loyalty is ensured via cybernetic parts with kill switches, etc. All of that power for the small price of a few million humans getting shipped off world as cannon fodder every year? Think of what you could do with all those pesky political prisoners or criminals? Just chop them up, turn them into servitors, pack them off to some ridiculous war the other side of the Galaxy.

Yeah, most governments would sell out pretty instantly...selling their own populations to get all that sweet sweet tech.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2022/02/01 17:29:02


Grey Knights 712 points Imperial Stormtroopers 3042 points Lamenters 1787 points Xenomorphs 995 points 1200 points + 1790 points 770 points 369 points of Imperial Guard to bolster the Sisters of Battle
Kain said: "This will surely end in tears for everyone involved. How very 40k."

 
   
Made in us
Ancient Venerable Dreadnought




San Jose, CA

Wait, you literally described any form of government.
   
Made in us
Hardened Veteran Guardsman




Racerguy180 wrote:
Wait, you literally described any form of government.

Yes...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Fergie0044 wrote:
 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Perhaps I’ve just not read the right books (I have read all the earlier Heresy novels though), but GC Imperium feels a very different beast to the modern Imperium.

Whilst they absolutely would take what they wanted by force, an untainted world like ours (no Xenos, no psykers, no concept of Chaos etc) would at least be given a chance to achieve Compliance peacefully. Indeed, even if one nation state did resist, it strikes me that they would be punished, but not everyone else?


In broad strokes, I disagree. There's a short story, Wolf at the Door that highlights this. 30k Imperium only cared about compliance and was always quick to use violence to achieve that end. Any notions of the betterment of humanity was just pretty wallpaper to cover up the genocides and dictatorship. I do agree that modern day earth would be a prize worth taking with as little damage to the plant as possible, as we are a borderline paradise world as far as the Imperium is concerned. So there is room for a particularly savvy modern day world leader to negotiate a peaceful surrender in exchange for them being named governor.

After that any local resistance would be their problem, with the Imperium only showing up again if the tithes every stop, and even then probably several hundred years after the fact.


The world is a great place, the people are just a bunch of humans. The Imperium would want as little damage to the planet as possible, but if a few billion people gotta get killed...well, that's the price you pay to ensure compliance.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/02/02 07:21:10


Grey Knights 712 points Imperial Stormtroopers 3042 points Lamenters 1787 points Xenomorphs 995 points 1200 points + 1790 points 770 points 369 points of Imperial Guard to bolster the Sisters of Battle
Kain said: "This will surely end in tears for everyone involved. How very 40k."

 
   
Made in us
Guard Heavy Weapon Crewman



Some where in the Canadian deathlands

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
How do!

Here’s a bit of a speculative thread. And it’s the old scenario of “we are not in fact Terra. Instead we’re a lost world from the Golden Age of Technology, and the Imperium just rocked up”. Rather than looking for people to simply discuss and debate things as I see them, I also want folk to provide their own hypotheticals.

Now, being baseline humans, and pretty much free of Chaotic taint, I’d see our world a prime candidate for Imperial Compliance. There’s a few billion of us, and natural resources waiting to be properly properly plundered. Indeed, flaws and polluted as our world is, it might even be considered something of a Paradise World compared to the wider Imperium.

Without any intent to insult our militaries, I just can’t see how we would be able to resist Compliance. Because we’re not talking a single Starship arriving. We’re talking a fleet (either Explorator or Rogue Trader actively seeking new worlds, or a Battlefleet dropping out the Warp far off course.

Yes. We do have weapons of mass destruction. And in numbers which, frankly, don’t make a lot of sense to me. But…that’s about it. I don’t know for sure if they’re capable of being targeted at something in high or low orbit. One suspects some can, some can’t? Let’s just say it’s not something I want to be Googling, because algorithms. But that Fleet? Yeah it’s got a wider range of weapons. And assuming it has some kind of fighter support, I think any Ground to Space/Space to Ground conflict would be embarrassingly one sided (the Fleet at least having some chance of intercepting incoming ICBMs etc).

And that’s even assuming any given country, pact or organisation thinks it’s even remotely worth trying to resist. I mean, let’s say Russia or the USA tries it. It’s….it’s them (assuming the Imperium bothered to suss out the geopolitical situation, which isn’t exactly a given) that’s going to get the orbital kicking. I feel like even a single such kicking would bring about peaceful compliance relatively quickly, because nobody wants to invite that sort of heat unless they’re really, really crazy.

Because no matter how upset Earth as we know it might be about this monolithic civilisation taking over? We’d be the scrawny kid being told “give us your dinner money” by the bizarrely huge kid in class that may or may not have started puberty around the age of 6. There’s just nothing we could realistically do to resist it.

Even if we could manage some kind of early stage global military resistance? The Imperium has time and resources we simply don’t. Think about the lives and matériels it spends in a given war zone, and realise we are frankly laughable. Doesn’t matter how passionate, righteous, well armed and well trained a given military is or isn’t? The Imperium could, and would, bleed us dry. Or, at absolute worst, just decide “well, it’s worth it for the resources, let’s just drop some Virus bombs and call it a day”.

But. Let’s go back to Crusade Era Compliance. Unless actively hostile from the off? Human held, ostensibly untainted worlds were invited to become Compliant. The fleets and forces potentially arrayed against them more than capable of providing really rather persuasive. And it doesn’t seem much has changed since those days, though the fleets may well be somewhat smaller. Negotiations were held, and the frankly inevitable did happen without much bloodshed.

Now of course, we cannot and will not bring specific politics nor religions into this. This is Dakka, and let’s not give the Moderati a headache, yeah?

Right, discuss and contribute as you may.


Talk about a rude awakening from hell, given how we human beings are all the Imperial forces would have to do is sit back and watched as humanity lost it's collective gak from the shock of not only knowing we are not alone in the universe but also that one of the most grim dark settings every created by human was really and that one of those faction had stopped by to *borrow* a cup of sugar and once the chaos was over with the Imp's would have a fairly easy time being us into the *fold.*


Automatically Appended Next Post:
In regard to the OP what would happen if the Tau where the ones to make contact with us?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 godardc wrote:
There would be little to no resistance and people would quickly get used to it.
People adapt to everything. Slavery and dictatorship is and has always been so common, that's no big deal, even if it's extra terrestrial dictatorship. And in the few democratic countries, there would be even less resistance as people are even more afraid of war, death, and are always so compliant, afraid of losing what they have. As long as the Imperium brings a few technological toys, people will fall for it
And after a generation or two, our sons and daughters will grow not in an invaded world, but in an imperial world full of propaganda and will never understand why some would be unhappy


Well said and so very true given human nature.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2022/02/22 18:05:28


" For every Guardsmen lost a trillion more will take his place and deliver the Emperor's wrath upon the scum of the galaxy, be it heretic, xenos or the dirty traitors to humanity. " 
   
Made in gb
Battlefield Professional




Nottingham, England

We’d capitulate , fast. Our religions would be compatible with the Imperial Creex as essentially most come down to worship of one deity or aspect thereof. Resource wise we probably have useful stuff , like water for starters.

Average person it probably benefits - you’ve not really got any conflict now so we’d be likely able to fill any tithes for troops , and we’d likely be a garden world rattler than industry given our, compared to most 40K worlds , untouched nature.
   
Made in pl
Longtime Dakkanaut





slade the sniper wrote:
A small elite running the world as they see fit via a huge amount of pervasive and total surveillance, armed drones and mercenaries whose loyalty is ensured via cybernetic parts with kill switches, etc. All of that power for the small price of a few million humans getting shipped off world as cannon fodder every year? Think of what you could do with all those pesky political prisoners or criminals? Just chop them up, turn them into servitors, pack them off to some ridiculous war

And that's before Imperium even arrived

 TwilightSparkles wrote:
Resource wise we probably have useful stuff , like water for starters.

Eh, not really. One comet can have as much water as a small sea. Hydrogen and oxygen aren't really hard to find.

Ironically Imperium would just shoot 40K fans first (really, all of them are Chaos cultists waiting to happen), followed by AI scientists (unless our efforts are too primitive for the AM ban, but they would do it anyway just to be sure) and funnily enough, now that I think about it, probably disease deniers. Imperium has to have some laws against that given one of the big four.
   
Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






I think the question of “what would the Imperium do with us” is a pretty interesting part of Compliance.

We absolutely, 100% would be tithed. That just goes with the territory.

Now in terms of tithes, we need to case our eyes across the entire Solar System, as shonky as Imperial Tech is in SciFi terms, it’s still plenty enough to enable an existing population start to exploiting the other celestial bodies.

The Moon and Mars both likely have some kind of mineral wealth. And with no existent population to worry about, full scale “Ever Lasting Gobstopper” strip mining might be the order of the day.

Certainly in that respect, we may see less exploitation of Earth’s natural resources, at least at first, because we simply have other places to strip bare.

I imagine that beyond soldiers our tithe might be fairly low at first, simply because it will take time to get us used to and fully au fait with their methods.

Then, over probably a fairly few generations (we at least have a largely educated population, with automation making things far easier, especially if they can drop off some STC copies etc) and the industrialisation of of solar system expands, it may be reviewed. Though given the lunacy of the Adeptus Terra it may not be terribly soon.

But what of Earth? As already covered by 40K standards, despite the damage we’ve wreaked in out industrial infancy, the planet is still a relative paradise. And we’ve certainly got a lot of land going unused (deserts etc).

The Imperium seems one to make the pips squeak. Yet….is there much sense in squeezing hard straight away? As I illustrated earlier in this post, our entire solar system is completely virgin. And we’re numerous enough as it is to have enough folk to start the exploitation pretty much en masse, given conveyance to the stars.

Certainly our world, once trade routes are established could become wealthier than any of us can currently imagine. True intergalactic trade. The wealthiest of The Imperium going on Safari to this interesting and relatively uncursed World.

Because remember, The Imperium is actually kind of capitalist. As ever in the worst “what exactly is wrong with slavery?” way. Even then, most folks can draw some kind of wage.

   
Made in ca
Troubled By Non-Compliant Worlds






I say we fight. You don't get a one or two paragraph blurb in a codex if you just submit. Besides, one of us might be Straken material. I say we find a giant croc, let it tear us up a bit and then we kick it's ass. Who knows, maybe the Emperor will notice and we'll get to hang with him and his sons while they bicker about everyth... No wait. Compliance, I choose compliance.
   
 
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