I'm participating in a long-term campaign, playing as a Cleric. I have a pretty strong understanding of the world of 40k, despite only having read the Eisenhorn series.

I'm having difficulty maintaining a sense of strong faith in my character in the way I speak and act, however. Most of that difficulty is stemming from a lack of holy scripture or tales or saints to cite. As a religious studies student, I could quote real-world religious texts for hours, but 40k seems to offer close to nothing in terms of stories or ideas to be repeated in terms of everyday citizens' creeds. The Ecclesiarch Quotes on the Lexicanum can only take me so far.

This is more than a long winded request for quotes regarding the Imperial Creed. I'm looking for more - for information on anecdotes, on moral teachings, on lessons that can be taught or emulated through day-to-day work. Although quotes are nice, too.

P.S. - I can bull my way through moral teachings or creeds fine, but I'd rather there be some validity to them. Perhaps there are certain books I should read? Etc?

There are numerous variations on the Imperial Creed. Some cults or sects see worshipping the God-Emperor in terms of sacrifice. Others feel that finding joy and happiness pleases the God-Emperor. When many feudal or frontier worlds are brought into the Imperium, their own primitive beliefs are used as a metaphor for the Emperor, rather than trying to change their beliefs entirely - an example of this would be the Emperor as the Sun, for heliocentric belief systems.

Depending on the world where your Cleric was raised, it's really up to you do decide what his understanding of the Imperial Creed is.

My husband plays a Redemptionist Firebrand, and he keeps a running tally of how many heretics, xenos, and daemons he purges with flame. Not just killed - he doesn't keep a kill count when he uses his chainsword or another weapon. Only the cleansing fire of the Emperor will do. And yet - the oppression of the slaves on a mining world really bothered him.

My Sister of Battle is fairly ruthless in fighting the enemies of the Emperor, and she prays quite often... but she still behaves a bit like a female merc, and she has a sense of humor.

How do you want to play your cleric?

in my mind a cleric should be a large ham, if you see heresy you point it out and you don't let anyone forget

i wouldn't be too concerned about saints, keep a couple in your roladex and keep to them, and the ever glorious emperor

if you do a sermon, every single one should be "sinners in the hands of an angry god" style, all fire and brimstone,

let no one be above your suspicion, you are not friar tuck you are the pitiless hand of his holy vengeance carrying a brazier of his holy fire so that you can burn away the flesh of the heretic and expose his soul to the light

yeah, large ham

and remember my sig quote, i havne't had a chance to use it yet, but it is truly most awesome

Cleric Cromwell said:

-If you're a Redemptionist. Not all Imperial Clerics are going to be like that. Ours, for example, was a slightly rotund, jolly voidbaring sort who wore boarding armour over his robes and never complained one bit (until another acolyte ate him - long story), seeing everything as a test sent by the Emperor. Even the time the party was sent on an errand by a daemon in their minds, he saw it as 'a test'.

My point is - there's a lot of variety within the Ecclesiarchy based on the ways in which pagan faiths are incorporated into the fold by the Commissariat and Missionarius Galaxia. So pretty much everything's fine as long as you support the idea of The Emperor(-sun, -warrior, -mother-spirit or whatever) being above all else and that the planet should contribute its resources appropriately. So without knowing how your priest ticks, I can't offer anything specific.

On the other hand, I've got some half decent general advice! First thing I did when creating my Sororitas was read through the Saints section (IH I think), and find a few my character could identify well with. In this case Saint Aret, the saint of lost knowledge, for her lack of remembrence of her family, Saint Nog, for showing that a simple go-getter can still change the galaxy, and Saint Dominica (wider 40kverse, I cheated a bit) for, well, being a Sister of Battle. So picking a personal saint or two (Saint Uther's a great one ) can easily shape your character subtly.

A second thing I'd do, especially if you're filling 'party preacher' role, is find a bunch of sermons/phrases that can be warped into incorporating 40k elements( "Kill them all. God will recognise his own" etc), and use a rough latin translator to 'High Gothicise' them a bit. This shouldn't be too hard for you since you mentioned Religious Studies, and it shouldn't matter if your character doesn't speak High Gothic; he's probably memorised what it means without knowing how exactly the words make it so anyway (it works for the mechanicus ).

Anyway, that's my two thrones on the matter. I can help more with a more detailed description of the character if it helps.

GW has published an exceptional fluff book called The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer. There you can find some examples for The Benedictions of the Emperor, Inspiration Source and Uplifting Creeds.

As for the actual imperial faith, the situation is far from simple. In the scale of the whole imperium the Ecclesiarchy is founded upon the concept of "smallest common denominator". Pretty much every religion currently found on modern earth could be accepted by ecclesiarchy as long as they would say that their God (or in case of pantheons, their highest god) is actually one aspect of the Emperor.

The line between heresy and ecclesiarchic canon is very hard to define if actuall chaos worship is excluded.

Personally, my Adept venerates the Emperor, followed by Rybel Gorth the Watcher in the Darkness ( IHB pg. 207) followed closely by Drusus the Warrior ( IHB pg 206). His personal beliefs very from those of his militant noble family, though he still pays homage to their chosen saint.

-=Brother Praetus=-

The Inquisitors handbook has some information about how to run a faithful servant of the Emperor. I think overall GW and FFG leave it a bit nebulous so that you can inject your own take into what imperial faith is all about.

1. Venerate the Emperor above all.

2. Teach the tenets of imperial faith.

3. Minister to the faithful.

For those of a more militant bent. (most people playing the game. )

4. Bring the emperor's vengeance upon his enemies.

5. Root out heresy.