THE IMPERIUM OF MAN
The Emperor protects!
The vast majority of humans in the galaxy are citizens of the dominant 40K faction known as the Imperium of Man, a galactic empire created by the Emperor, an extremely powerful psyker whose life has been sustained artificially since the mortal wounds he suffered at the culmination of the events of the Horus Heresy some 10,000 years ago.
The Emperor is now worshipped as a deity by the citizens of the Imperium. The Imperium is largely overseen by twelve of the most influential and powerful people in the galaxy, collectively known as the High Lords of Terra.
The Imperium claims lone dominion over the Milky Way and all humanity. It does not recognise other governments, whether human or alien, and maintains that all xenos must be exterminated and all humans brought into the Imperium. It remains united chiefly through religious fanaticism and threats of brutal disciplinary force, but currently teeters on the verge of collapse due to a combination of war, technological stagnation, and bureaucratic inefficiency.
Enlarge Image
Shortly after the galaxy-changing Chaos incursion known as the Thirteenth Black Crusade, Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines and one of the Emperor's remaining loyal sons, was restored from near fatal wounds and became Lord Commander and Imperial Regent of the Imperium - the living voice of the Emperor.
Read More
Adeptus Astartes
And they shall know no fear
The Adeptus Astartes (commonly known as Space Marines) are genetically engineered super-human warriors. Armed and armoured with the best equipment the Imperium can provide, they are the Emperor's most elite fighting forces.
To the Space Marines fall the most desperate and vital of the Imperium's battles, holding the line where all others have fallen, or striking like the Emperor's own blade to bring death to xenos warlords and daemonic abominations alike.
Space Marines are organised into Chapters, each possessed of their own armouries, vehicles, space fleets and towering fortress monasteries. Though there is less than one warrior of the Adeptus Astartes for every planet in the Imperium, it is a testament to their sheer might and heroism that this number is still sufficient to hurl back the enemies of humanity upon every front.
Enlarge Image
The Primaris Space Marine is a new breed of hero for this, the darkest age in the Imperium's history. These new warriors are the next step in the evolution of the Emperor's Angels of Death - genetically altered from their brethren to be bigger, stronger and faster - timely reinforcements to the Imperium's armies as their enemies close in for the kill. To aid them in battle, these new gene-forged warriors are equipped with new arms and armour forged on holy Mars itself.
Read More
Astra Militarum
The Imperial Guard
The Astra Militarum is mankind's primary and most numerous defence. It is a colossal military organisation, consisting of many hundreds of thousands of armies throughout the Imperium. With soldiers, battle tanks and artillery beyond number, they are the sledgehammer force that, though slow to deploy, delivers a devastating payload when its cumbersome blows land.
Soldiers of the Imperial Guard are regular men and women, not gene-enhanced superhumans. They fight not with the most finely crafted armaments in the galaxy, but with weapons and armour that can be cheaply and easily mass-produced.
Imperial Guard regiments are raised from single worlds and number between 500 and 750,000 fighting soldiers, supported by a huge array of light and heavily armoured vehicles. Each regiment often has its own uniform, traditions and entourage consisting of support staff, camp followers, suppliers, tech-priests, medics, religious leaders and the like.
Read more
Adeptus Mechanicus
The Priesthood of Mars
The Adeptus Mechanicus is an ancient organisation of Tech-Priests originating from Mars who venerate the Emperor in the form of the Omnissiah, the Machine God. They are a strange, dispassionate breed, obsessed with the acquisition of lost knowledge.
The fume-choked forge worlds of the Adeptus Mechanicus pump out a constant flow of munitions, weapons and war machines for the armies of the Imperium.
The forces of the Tech-Priests comprise all manner of ancient, arcane technology; maniples of bionically enhanced Skitarii warriors, Dunecrawlers, robots, battle servitors and bizarre processions of Electro-Priests singing atonal, static-warped hymns of praise to the Machine God.
These armies are sent forth to scour the galaxy for forgotten secrets, and will slaughter anything that stands in the way of their holy mission.
Read More
Agents of the Imperium
The Emperor's hidden hand
The Imperium of Man includes many different institutions, from the largest, widely known military and bureaucratic wings to other smaller, more secretive and sinister organisations. Those who serve among the latter include feared lords of the Inquisition, eclectic Rogue Traders, and even expert killers of the Officio Assassinorum. Known collectively as Imperial Agents, they serve mankind through cunning, guile or, should the situation demand it, the full might of the Imperium's military power.
A dark and secretive organisation, the Inquisition moves in the shadows, investigating all manner of threats to the Imperium - alien plots, corruption, mutation, heresy, cults, rogue psykers, and any other matter an Inquisitor deems worthy of scrutiny. Nothing is beyond their authority, no one is exempt from their justice and entire worlds may be destroyed in the fires of Exterminatus by the orders of an Inquisitor.
There are three Ordos Majoris: The Ordo Malleus - destroys daemonic threats and investigates the nature of the Daemon; The Ordo Hereticus - investigates and roots out heresy, mutation, and rogue psykers from humanity, and polices the Ecclesiarchy; and The Ordo Xenos - investigates and eliminates alien influence and plots against the Imperium.
Read More
Where a more insidious demonstration of the Imperium's might is required, the High Lords of Terra can call upon the services of the Officio Assassinorum, a secretive body specialising in assassination - the subtle knife or the shot in the dark.
The Officio Assassinorum is divided into Temples, each with their own assassination speciality. The four most notable are The Vindicare Temple - sharpshooters, specialists in sniping and marksmanship; The Callidus Temple - chameleons, specialists in infiltration and impersonation; The Eversor Temple - berserkers, drug-fuelled killing machines; and The Culexus Temple - pariahs, psykers are their exclusive targets.
Read More
Grey Knights
The incorruptable
Amongst the elite brotherhood of Space Marines, there exists a Chapter destined to stand apart from their battle-brothers, for it is their sworn duty to fight Chaos in its most terrible form. The Grey Knights act as the military arm of the Ordo Malleus, the Daemonhunters who form the oldest branch of the Inquisition.
Founded on an order from the Emperor himself, each Grey Knight is a potent psyker, pure of heart and just of cause. This is essential, for in their battles they confront the most horrible of Daemons wherever the Warp fiends appear.
Privy to the darkest secrets of mankind and armed with deadly Nemesis Force weapons and the most advanced gear in the Imperium, the Grey Knights are the ultimate counter to the Warp-spawned minions of the Ruinous Powers.
Read More
Adepta Sororitas
Sisters of Battle
Chamber Militant of the Ordo Hereticus, the troops of this devout Sisterhood are raised from infancy to adore the Emperor of Mankind and to believe in the utter righteousness of their cause.
Their fanatical devotion and unwavering purity is a bulwark against corruption, heresy and alien attack, and once battle has been joined, the Sisters of Battle will stop at nothing until their enemies are utterly crushed.
The combination of combat doctrine and prayer is most evident on the battlefield where Battle Sisters loudly proclaim their faith in hymn and verse as they march to war, calling upon the Emperor to aid them in the fight against their enemies.
The perfervid, unquestioning nature of this faith is a potent weapon indeed, manifesting as divine inspiration that drives the Sororitas to unprecedented feats of prowess.
Read More
Deathwatch
The shield that slays
Though few realise it, the weight of mankind's hopes against the alien apocalypse are borne upon the broad shoulders of the Deathwatch, the military wing of the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos. These warriors form the Shield that Slays, a noble brotherhood of paragons whose might is sufficient to hurl back a hundred alien invasions and still not seek rest. They are the vigilant few, the watchmen in the void, whose star-borne fortresses stand guard against terrors unimaginable.
The Deathwatch is made up of Space Marines selected from various different Chapters. Though the Deathwatch have always worn sombre black and silver, splashes of colour appear amongst their ranks, for they keep their original Chapter's livery upon their pauldrons.
Arrayed for battle with mighty war engines in support, they are an inspiring sight for their allies, and doom given flesh for the xenos armies they fight across the galaxy.
Read More
Adeptus Custodes
The Golden Legion
The Adeptus Custodes are the personal bodyguard of the Emperor of Mankind, and they continue to protect him in his current immobile state. They represent the pinnacle of the Emperor's gene-craft.
Each warrior is a work of art – pure of body and soul, equipped with beautifully wrought armour and artificer weaponry forged specifically for each individual, and trained from birth as masters of the arts of war. Each Custodian is the equal of the very mightiest heroes of the Imperium, and though their primary duty is to defend the Golden Throne on Holy Terra, when their Shield Companies are mustered for open war, they are nigh unstoppable.
Those Custodian Guard charged with the physical protection of the Master of Mankind spend every waking second devoted to their task, refining their warrior skills and constantly testing and updating their own strategies to ensure the sanctity of the Emperor's throne. Their duty is so sacred, their reputation so profound, that even Space Marines and Inquisitors kneel before them.
The mysterious Sisters of Silence, an all-female order of witch-hunting psychic nulls, are often found alongside Adeptus Custodes forces. Of all the scions of the Imperium, only they and the Custodian Guard are permitted to walk freely in the Emperor's vaults. Those aware of their existence treat them with a mixture of fear and awe, for the stories that surround them are sinister indeed.
Each is psychically untouchable, immune to mental assault and with no presence at all in the mirror dimension of the Warp. To normal humans, these 'blanks' are unsettling, even disturbing. To psykers, they are anathema - yawning voids that drain the soul as a black hole devours light. Yet they are counted amongst the most blessed of the Emperor's servants, and given great respect accordingly by those whom they fight alongside.
Together, the Adeptus Custodes and the Sisters of Silence are known as the Talons of the Emperor.
Read More
Imperial Knights
Questor Imperialis
An Imperial Knight is a towering behemoth, a vast bipedal fighting machine clad in a demi-god's raiment of war. With arms and armour fit to face an entire army of lesser foes, each Knight suit is further protected by a crackling ion shield. Directed by the Knights' noble pilots, these relics of Imperial techno-science can stave off almost any attack amid coruscating showers of vivid sparks.
Forged in the factory-temples of the Adeptus Mechanicus and piloted by noble warriors hailing from proud bloodlines, the Imperial Knights are towering bipedal war machines that bristle with devastating weaponry.
Knight suits proudly display the panoply of the noble house to which they belong. A single one of these monstrous walkers can turn the tide of battle, and an entire army of these vast, glorious war engines on the march is enough to drive many foes from the field in terror.
Read More
