The Madministratum

The concept of an ancient progenitor race who seeded the galaxy/universe hundreds of thousand or millions of years ago is hardly unique to Warhammer. The general idea was evident in Scifi and Fantasy before the Slann were incorporated into Warhammer in such a role (because, of course, Warhammer lore was shaped by nabbing ideas from various sources of inspiration, sometimes quite wholesale, and mixing them together), and we have seen it become an ever more prominent trope, especially in computer games, what with the Precursors of Halo, the Xel'Naga in Starcraft, and many more besides. The Slann in Warhammer, who were the ancient precursors on both the Warhammer World of Fantasy and in the 40k galaxy (with the former being stated to be situated within the latter in the early lore, just isolated by Warp storms) were quite distinctive, though, in part due to their relationship to the Warp (and various hints their empire may have spanned different realities and across time). But also be...

I feel like is worthwhile to post a reminder (or perhaps an explainer, for those who are unaware of the relevant lore) about the nature of the Warp (also called the Realm of Chaos, the Immaterium, the Sea of Souls etc), with some supporting quotes. It is very common to see people online claiming that certain things related to the Warp aren't true or cannot be true because they are illogical and/or don't seem coherent and consistent. But this misunderstands the whole point of how the Warp is conceptualised and goes against what the lore actually says and has said. Many times. Over decades. And some of the things people claim aren't or cannot be true are in fact very much a part of the lore. The Warp has consistently and explicitly been stated to defy our expectations of notions of cause and effect, of temporality, to be formless and infinitely malleable, and to be ultimately incomprehensible - even if it sometimes has some relation the laws of reality, at least when the dime...

Daedalon is a moon which serves as a cemetary for the Gilead System, which now lies in Imperium Nihilus. Continuing a tour of the worlds and moons of the Gilead System (having already covered communities on the agriworld of Ostia, the shrineworld of Holy Enoch and the Forgeworld of Avarchus), let's take a look at Daedalon and see what we can learn about moon itself, what this suggests about the nature of the Imperium more broadly, and the impact of the Great Rift (with some key passages highlighted in bold). Let's start with a general overview: The surface of Daedalon, the Gilead System’s cemetery, is almost entirely covered in graves, tombs, and skyscraper-tall mausoleums. The revered bones of the System’s most celebrated heroes and saints are interred on holy Enoch, while the remaining trillions are sent to Daedalon to be processed. Daedalon’s skylines are a constant reminder of the moon’s designated purpose. Noble families build ever taller and more complex burial housings i...

Continuing a series of posts on how the opening of the Great Rift has affected the Gilead system, which has ended up in Imperium Nihilus, let's turn our attention to the state of Holy Enoch, a shrine world: Holy Enoch Picture an emerald whose lustre has faded. A world of vast oceans and narrow desert land masses entirely covered in temples and shantytowns, with whole mountain ranges carved into the likenesses of heroes and saints. The 4th sphere spinning about Gilead’s sullen star. Holy Enoch: a shrine world, one teeming with life… too much life. Enoch was once a pilgrimage destination that oversaw the passage of billions of off-worlders every decade. At any given time, millions of wayfarers travelled between Enoch’s many holy sites from the shoals of Inish to the Temple of the Emperor’s Archangel, Tygranas Dalir. When the Great Rift opened, millions of pilgrims were suddenly trapped on the surface, even as millions more were stuck in their transport vessels in the midst of either ...

This post explores some which lore which provides an interesting insight into how the emergence of the Great Rift has placed massive strain on the Imperium's resources and logisitics, via the case study of a Servitor factory - the Pakthertius Manufactorum - on the Forgeworld of Avacharus in the Gilead System, with has found itself in Imperium Nihilus. The context: Once, the Pakthertius Manufactorum provided a vital output of quality Servitors, augmetically enhanced mind-wiped humans prized for crucial labour and myriad other uses in the Gilead System. But now the manufactorum has fallen silent. There is no sign of life from the outside, and heavily armed Servitors prevent all but the most determined from entering. ... Just like the rest of Humanity, the Pakthertius Manufactorum suffered greatly in the wake of the Great Rift. Cut off from the rest of the Imperium, and facing wars on all fronts, the manufactorum was met with increased demands for its primary export — Servitors. But a...

This is the first post in a series exploring the worlds and societies of the Gilead System, as covered in the wonderful Wrath & Glory RPG - a masterwork of grimdark 40k worldbuilding. I thought I'd share this description of Ancra, a region on the Agri-world of Ostia in the Gilead System (which has ended up in Imperium Nihilus), as it nicely showcases how many of the broader conditions and dynamics we are told characterise the Imperium play out in practice, on a local level - while it also provides interesting details about the impact of the Great Rift: Honest Toil Ancra is a small farming zone in a valley of the Kharnuk Mountains. The highly fertile lands of the valley are accessible only via a narrow track or by airdrop, meaning the fruitful fields must be worked by hand as opposed to the colossal servo-tractors used elsewhere on the mega-acreages of Ostia. Despite this, the land has been farmed efficiently since its colonisation, it’s simple labourers pushed to the limit by t...

The simple answer the question in the title is: no, the Imperium is not monolithic, and is full of diversity. This, however, is actually itself an oversimplification, and misleading. Because (and apologies for the unwieldy phrasing here) the Imperium is defined by a range of characteristics and themes which serve as broad parameters in which most of the diversity plays out. I will call this dynamic of how the lore functions ‘bounded diversity’ – and will explain what it means in more detail and with reference to specific illustrative examples (religious faith, technology, notions of purity/treatment of mutants) to make the concept as easy to understand as possible. Now, the Imperium is absolutely massive and some worlds may be particularly remote and isolated or have specific historical quirks, and so exceptions to this general dynamic and the broad parameters can and do exist within it. But in general, the key point is, there are certain characteristics and themes which shape most of ...