Hello!

I've been trying to come up with some scenarios for Dark Heresy and there's one thing that I keep wondering about... And I could use some input from people more versed in the WH40K setting.

Basically: how much diversity is there between the various Imperium worlds? The DH books (as well as other WH40K stuff I've read) state that the worlds could be very diverse, with drastically different cultural norms, technological levels, details of religion etc. Still... if I understand the setting correctly, there *have* to be some constants, right?

For instance, Imperium as a whole isn't keen on education, as knowledge can lead to dangerous ideas. So... I guess that an Imperium planet with a really well-educated population seems to be out of the question, then? Even if this planet used to have such an educated population between joining / being conquered by the Imperium, then the Imperium administration would've suppressed such tendencies. Am I right?

Similarly, while there are worlds with high technology etc., even such worlds would be marked by some technophobia, right? And the world's technology would be kept under the Mechanicus' watch. So, there would no place in the Imperium for a planet modelled after Star Trek's Earth: with millions of tech-savvy people using replicators or teleporters on everyday basis...

Am I correct? Or am I misreading the setting somehow?

The only true constants would be worship of the God-Emperor (in some way, there's thousands if not millions of methods of veneration), ignorance of the true threats to Mankind (no widespread knowledge of Daemons, actual Xenos threats, the truth behind the Warp, etc.) and the 'understanding' of technology being in the Mechanicus' hands. Some planets might have a vast history of philosophers, or massive libraries of their planet's or sector's history. Business schools could be a thing. Provided you cut the science, limit the math and censor the history, a planet can be very 'advanced.'

As far as replicators and teleporters... Teleportation technology is extremely rare, finicky and utilizes the Warp. That isn't widespread by any means and the risks keep it from regular use. I don't think full-on replicators are a thing, except maybe on a lost planet with the STC for it or something.

Certain classes within society would be well educated, if specialized on their given tasks. You want at least passably competent people in the various Adepta.

Exactly so. "Well Educated" depends on your scope of definition.

Mathematics and economics are hardly forbidden sciences, and every great noble house or commercial guild will have people trained as accountents.

Imperial History is carefully 'massaged' by the Inquisition to remove....inconsistencies, but there will be historians - of a given world's history, if not necessarily the imperium as a whole.

Artists and literature students even more so. Whilst acceptable subject matter is limited, assume a world produces one really great work of art or architecture - a Sistine chapel/Works of Shakespeare-level thing - once every century or so. How many "you must see this before you die" sights do you imagine there are in even a region of a few sectors?

The Imperium wouldn't dismantle an education system, it would use it. Competent bureaucrats are valuable, as are engineers and leader. What would happen is that the imperium would take control of the syllabus, and any undesirable subjects would be eliminated. Slowly, the system would probably fall apart - or at least regress to the level common for 'normal' imperial worlds, but it would be a gradual thing unless there was something actively 'tainted' in the planet's philosophies (like religious tolerance or the idea of unsanctioned technological innovation).

You can assume that any world with regular contact with the imperium will have some constants, but even they aren't necessarily planet-wide. On a primitive/feral world, there will be an imperial outpost somewhere - maybe in a single spaceport-city, maybe in orbit. There, if nowhere else, expect to find lasguns and vox-casters.

Even a high-tech world will indeed not be 'star-trek' esque. The higher-end technology gets sequestered by the mechanicus, and the rights to make a lot of it are sold to worlds, or to manufactories on worlds. Forge worlds turn out much of the imperium's needs, but individual worlds do manufacture technology - but rarely on a par with the mechanicus. Being able to match forge-wrought quality is the 'mark of excellence' of a master gunmaker on a hive world.

The higher a world's tech level, the more you'll see a mechanicus presence - because if it had that tech base before imperial compliance, the mechanicus would have been involved in the compliance and heavily seeded the world with explorators looking to understand their technology and recover any lost STC elements - which, once matters settle down, would translate to a world partially governed by the mechanicus (a bit like Vostroya)

Okay, thanks. This was very helpful.

I have two semi-related questions:

1. How big are the sectors? How many star system do the consist of, on average?

2. How long does Warp travel take? Let's say I want the PCs to travel from one system in a sector to another one in the same sector - how long would it take: hours, days, weeks..? What about the inter-sector travel?

Sectors have at least a hundred or more star systems and are a few dozen light years across each (for more accurate data see Battlefleet Gothic). Warp travel tends to take between a few days for short jumps to several weeks for more distant systems. Then remember that in system travel takes weeks as well as the ships sail from the edge to the various planets.

Inter sector travel takes from a few weeks to months and traversing a segmentum can take many months at a time. Also of note is the fact that time flows differently inside the Warp than outside and while time usually passes faster in the Warp the time dilation may vary significantly. Warp routes tend to have fixed travel times as the route connects two places of space and time but some esoteric tech can shorten or lengthen this as well.

Regarding the in-system travel: so, the ships don't make Warp jumps at a planet's orbit?

Also: so, a ship travelling from, say, Terra to Jupiter, will always make it the conventional way? Couldn't it just make a short Warp jump from one planet to the other one?

Attempting a Warp jump within system is a reckless and highly dangerous maneuvre as large gravity wells distort the fabric that seperate realspace and the warp causing turbulence within the warp itself that can rip a vessel apart.

See Mandeville Points for more information.

Attempting a Warp jump within system is a reckless and highly dangerous maneuvre as large gravity wells distort the fabric that seperate realspace and the warp causing turbulence within the warp itself that can rip a vessel apart.

See Mandeville Points for more information.

Exactly so. Any large body messes with warp transit within its gravity well. The larger the object, the larger the danger region.

Any planet has a safe 'height' you need to be above it to jump, which is called the Mandeville Point. Theoretically you could jump from world to world within a system, but the problem is that a star also has a Mandeville Point - and a star is so large that most of the inner system is inside its 'no-jump zone'. So whilst you could get up to a safe jump distance from Terra, you still couldn't use a warp engine to an outer planet until you're most of the way there anyway.

I think Jupiter might be outside the sun's Mandeville Point. Saturn is a major Navy base, and Jupiter the operating base for a lot of the Inquisition's facilities - both of those strike me as the sort of thing you'd put somewhere ships can jump out without cruising in real space for days.

Plus, warp jumps are scary, unreliable things, and drives are expensive, temperamental devices. As a result, a real-space journey of a couple of weeks is probably a more sensible idea and a hell of a lot cheaper.

Also, note that the Mandeville Point is not an absolute limit but a balance of risk; the better your navigator (or sorcerer), the more powerful your warp engine, and the more risk you're prepared to accept, the deeper into a gravity well you can enter or leave the warp. Kor Phaeron nearly gets away from the Macragge's Honour by pulling a jump well short of the Mandeville Point by using warp-sorcery to supplement the engines.

If you've got archeotech engines, a superlative navigator, no fear of the warp, and a death wish - say, a Grey Knight warship, you can probably bust out of the warp right into low orbit and start launching gunships before anyone even knows you're there.

Okay, thanks. This was very helpful.

I have two semi-related questions:

1. How big are the sectors? How many star system do the consist of, on average?

2. How long does Warp travel take? Let's say I want the PCs to travel from one system in a sector to another one in the same sector - how long would it take: hours, days, weeks..? What about the inter-sector travel?

It's mentioned in several of the books in each setting that an average sector has approximately 200 inhabited worlds. In addition, there will be entire regions within the sector which have not been explored or only very cursory which can be filled with additional planets.These can range from "worthless" planets empty of all life, to pocket empires filled with xenos or even humans who have never heard of the Imperium. If human, they can range from very advanced (dark age of technology) to feral, stone age and anything in between.

If a sector manages to develop more than the 200 inhabited worlds, it will be split up in two sectors so a single sector lord doesn't become too powerful.

Okay, thanks again!

Coming back to education... so, how much does an average person in the Imperium know of the state of the universe? I understand that anything related to Chaos is censored, but do average people know about, say, the Orks? I'd risk saying that they do, because the Imperium *is* recruiting soldiers because of the xenos threat - but again, maybe I'm wrong...

BTW. Is there such a thing in this setting as sector-wide or Imperium-wide news networks? I suppose that some sort of TV might exist on reasonably advanced worlds - but would such news station cover stuff from other planets or other sectors?

Unless exposed, I'd say they wouldn't know of Orks. Basically, the Imperial propaganda says 'we've crushed most alien threats, we need YOU to help us mop up!' when they snag people. And then they get taken off planet to fight the real threats. Sure, you're surviving Guardsmen who muster out might tell the war-stories or know a glimpse of the truth, but that's not getting spread quickly (and if it did, you know the Arbites would crush it).

Variable, but if a world is advanced enough to have a world picture including the whole imperium, then it will include "and there are xenos threats out there that humanity needs to be guarded from". The perspective of any individual threat is vastly understated - Waaaggh! X or Hive Fleet Y is invariably being "pushed back", but enough generic and nebulous threat is passed on to create a feel of 'siege mentality'.

Chaos is an odd one. Note that the idea of daemons is not completely suppressed; "From the begetting of Daemons, Our Emperor Deliver Us" is a line from the Fede Imperialis - the Ecclesiarchy equivalent of the Lord's Prayer or Al-Fatihah, and will be said every day by a good half of the galaxy's population.

What's suppressed is the fact that daemons are real, as opposed to a vague religious concept, can enter real space, and that the warp contains gods as powerful as the emperor, who can potentially grant mortals immortality.

There is no single 'news network' ever mentioned. Holodramas are mentioned (one following fighter pilots in the Gothic War was apparently called Attack Run ) - so logically there must be a network to carry it, but I'd expect to see it more like pathe news in public cinemas than home televisions; high tech is public property because there's at least a lay member of the mechanicus behind the scenes somewhere.

There isn't 'live news' in the way we think of it today. World-wide, maybe, but any news received from elsewhere in the imperium is passed on by astropaths in bursts of a few sentances at great cost, and is a few days out of date, or carried from world to world by starships and be months or even years out of date. Part of the reason the Imperium is so feudal in nature is that the man in the post has to have the authority to make decisions without consulting higher authority - sending off and receiving a response to any detailed question could take months.

The closest to public address you'd be likely to see is the name of the new lord sector or cardinal-astral, or ecclesiarch, or the fact that he's coming to your world on a pilgrimage, or the news that there's a regimental founding going to occur.

Wars elsewhere in the imperium will be over before you even hear of them.

I have a slightly different take on this:

It should be noted that 'knowledge of' and 'understanding of' are two different things. On Higher tech Imperial worlds, the people with access to technology would certainly know how to use it. They wouldn't necessarily know how to repair or reprogram it, but that's different. Think of most people today and their almost ubiquitous smart phones. How many people do you think actually understand the inner workings of these devices? Add to that the belief that all of these machines have an inherent sentience.

With subject other than technology it's much the same: An Imperial citizen could be highly educated in their specialty while only having a smattering of other knowledge. For example: A Chiurgeon will have every bit as much training and knowledge as a modern day doctor (Probably more at higher lvls!) but will likely not know any more than the average manufactorum worker about other subjects. As has been noted before, Knowledge of Xenos and Chaos are inherent tenets of the Imperial Creed. In depth understanding of the warp or the Tau greater good philosophy is another matter entirely! Chaos will be presented as Allegory without detail as in, The Story of Horus is taught as a lesson in the dangers of betraying the God Emperor! It is highly unlikely however, that the average citizen knows how close Horus actually came to winning!

Subjects outside a citizens normal purview are treated with a great deal of superstition and fear that may have very little correlation to actual facts. Again, a good modern example of that is the way most people view Nuclear power. Few understand it and many actively oppose it's use without understanding the first thing about it!

Anyway, hope this helps!

Also consider that the typical way the Imperium converts a human planet into an Imperium controlled planet is to change the big details while leaving minor details alone. For example:

- They arrange for the revelation that the god of a monotheistic religion on the planet is really the Emperor and the people had the name wrong. While there are some other changes, most of what changes for how people of that planet worship is the change of the names of a few things. Their day to day practises remain unchanged. Most probably don't even know that other planets worship the Emperor differently because the Imperium only tells those who need to know (but doesn't care if anyone else finds out).

- The planet must have a single human who is in charge and will be held responsible for any failings. How that ruler is selected and how they rule is unimportant.

- Tithes are probably the biggest change. The Imperium demands them. The planet must supply them.