I was thinking a bit about the use of real world political ideas and ideologies from the recent, or relatively so, past in Dark Heresy. I do reall that there's a mentioning in the Radical's Handbook that there are forbidden texts that talks about ideas of a lack of interfierence from the state in the individual's life. The question is then on how these may be used in Dark Heresy and if anyone has any experience with running it? Or would such a thing suit itself bad as in changing the Medieval feeling of the Imperium to much to be used?

Naturally I'm not talking about mutants waving Socialist flags. But perhpas a mutant "cult" that thinks that they should take over the world from their human oppressors and then share everything equally with their own.

A scenario I'm thinking on for my own part is to have my dear band of Acolytes be shipped to a frontier world and there discover that its situation is more or less that of anarchism or a mixture of anarcho-capitalism (Wild Western style) and collective anarchistic collectives, who are often in friction over tithes and interfierence with the governor and local Adeptus Terra. And some hidden xenos secrets waiting to be discovered and the recent arrival of a warband of Orks set on causing carnage to spice things up, of course.

Mixing in some political concepts "foreign" to the 40K-universe is (in my opinion) a good start of an enemy cult or "heresy".

I was lately toying with the idea of mentioning a "Militant Workers Union" that deem "indentured labour" to be slavery and strikes out against the supression of the "working class" by Clergy, Nobility and the Guilds & Merchanthouses. A little bit like early socialist movements at the brink of 19th.

But as far as I read it, not everything in 40K-universe is "medievial". Take Solomon, for example. It reminds me of the world during the later period of the industrial revolution. But lacking any democracy.

Material I've read says that, on a planetary level, the Imperium doesn't really care how things are run so long as tithing proceeds without any problems, notwithstanding any political connections the governor might have or whether the revolution accidentally messes with the local Arbites precinct fortress (which police Imperium-related laws, not planetary ones), Sororitas temples, manufactorums, etc.

It also varies to which degree mutation is considered evil and what kind of talk is heresy.

It's fair to say that if the local population — especially mutants — feel they have any right to even speak up at assembly that it's a fairly progressive planet.

What I've learned about WH40K is that the words are used for the feeling they give, rather the meaning.
So, it's written Heresy, but it is crime most of the times.
It's written medieval, but it is soviet.

Gregorius:I like your idea of a "Socialist" movment and it looks pretty cool, and I agree that modern ideas can be used to form heresies and cults.

Trodamus: Good point about the diverse state of planetary conditions, as well as that its true that local revolutions are usually not anti-Imperial but rather anti-governor.

Sebashaw: True about the feeling, although I would still think that its more Medieval than Sovjet due to the feudal nature and the lack state control on the details of people's lives.

Hallo Gurkhal,

Gurkhal said:

This reminds me of the Pale Throng, described in "Disciples of the Dark Gods" (pagg 52-60).

And, as far as books go, the libel that's propagating unorthodox ideas such as anarchy could be modeled upon the Ateanism (pagg.132-136 of the same handbook): the planet has gone mad because of a book that, when read, spreads folly and subversive behaviours. The source of the book hasn't to be necessarily Chaos: it could even be related to those "hidden xenos secrets waiting to be discovered" you wrote about.

Here's a concept similar to the one you mention that I wrote up a couple of years ago:-

The Democratists

Imperial Governors are given free reign to run their own planets in any manner they choose, provided they pay the Imperial Tithe. A huge variety of planetary governmental systems exist: constitutional monarchies, self perpetuating oligarchies, tribal elder councils, dictatorship by lottery, military juntas, fanatical theocracies….

And yet true democracies are rare in the extreme. This system of government – believed by many scholars to have been widespread during the Dark Age of Technology – has been discredited, in part, by its association with the fanatical Democratist movement.

Originating in the Segmentum Solar from a string of major democratic hive worlds, this ancient subversive sect is notorious for its absolute dedication to the cause of spreading its insidious and arrogant teachings to the far corners of the galaxy, irrespective of the harm it may do to the Holy Realm of the Emperor.

For over 9,000 years, the Democratists have argued, basing their arguments upon proscribed and heretical antique texts, sometimes openly, sometimes secretly, that the Emperor originally dreamed of creating a truly democratic galactic government that would allow mankind to live in peace and harmony forever. Despite millions of executions and the torture of thousands of elected Democratist leaders, the sect continues to advance this scurrilous agenda.

Many Inquisitors believe that in fact the High Electors of the sect seek no less than the removal of the Emperor from the Golden Throne and His replacement with a council of democratically elected Governors from regional assemblies across the galaxy. Such Heresy will not stand!

Whilst not itself illegal, democracy is regarded with suspicion by the Administratum: democratic planetary governments are perceived as slow to react to major crises, reluctant to send their youth to die in the glorious battlefields of the Emperor and prone to internal civil upheaval in regular electoral 4, 5, 8 or 10 year cycles, which can interfere with the Tithe. The High Lords of Terra are far more comfortable dealing with ruthless and single minded planetary despots than with an ever shifting and fickle council of elected peers.

It is common for the Imperium to step in and implement systematic “regime change” to democratic governments in order to protect the rights of the servants of the Pax Imperialis from the tyranny of their elected overlords. As servants of the Imperium, you will be expected to assist in this process. Praise be to Him on Earth, who shall overcome all “democracies,” “elections” and burn every sinful “ballot box” to guide the destiny of mankind!

The Democratists seem determined to spread this sickly and inefficient form of government to every Imperial Segmentum.

Operating in a cell system, the Democratists have had, for centuries, a remarkably consistent modus operandi: they install themselves as “freedom fighters” on non democratic Imperial worlds with harsh and despotic regimes. They incite the local population to rebel against their “cruel overlords.” They preach about humanity’s “manifest destiny.” They set up front organisations, often religious in nature, and ostensibly respectful of the Emperor, and argue for a division between secular and religious authority within the Emperor, a heretical doctrine known as “separation of powers.” Such is the audacity of the blasphemer.

Whilst ranked as a lower priority for Inquisitorial investigation than, say, Warp tainted cults or Xenos artefact smugglers, the merchants of this infamous sedition remain important targets for the Inquisition, particularly for the Ordo Hereticus. Death is too good for those who seek to impose democracy upon the vulnerable in the Imperium, and the Inquisition is well placed not only to track this inter-segmentum conspiracy, but to deliver a fate worse than death to its misguided agents.

Democratists in the Calixis Sector

To the relief of the traditionally minded Lord Sector Hax, democracy is a rare system of government within the Calixis system. In general, only a few planetary systems operate as democracies, and usually only at continental or regional level, rather than planetary level.

However, the sector is a hotbed of democratist activism due to its relatively peaceful backwater status. Over three hundred democratist cells have been eradicated by the Ordo Hereticus in the last century, and if anything this number increases by the year.

Large cells are active on Sephiris Secundus (especially amongst the poorer workers and mutants) Malfi (though they tend to be rather ineffective and baffled by that world’s Byzantine internal intrigues) and Barsapine.

Baraspine in particular is seen as a democratic hotbed: although not a democratic regime, a number of democratic regional assemblies operate. Until he was executed for heresy ten years ago, the previous planetary governor often spoke in terms of “devolution,” a sinister process by which centralised power would be passed to regional assemblies and local parish councils, many of whom had their own native languages and insisted upon erecting multilingual signposts.

Fortunately, a Inquisitorial strike force carried out crippling simultaneous raids on hundreds of local parish council headquarters before this conspiracy could be implemented. The planet is currently under limited interdiction by Imperial Navy fusion bomb orbital strike platforms in order to prevent the threat of future parish council uprisings.

Using the Democratists

The Democratists are designed to give players a moral dilemma. They are not pawns of chaos gods, or Xenos collaborators. They are genuine believers in their political system, and seek to spread it across the entire Imperium. On the whole, they are reasonable and serious minded individuals who prefer to play a long game in inciting dissent rather than creating terror or acts of violence: however newer and more passionate members often get their hands dirty in an attempt to get their message across sooner. However, they all know that the Inquisition would dearly love to rack and/or burn them at the stake at the first available opportunity, and are more likely to run than fight.

There is also something pleasingly comic about hunting down liberal flag wavers and local councillors using all the firepower of the Imperium. Don’t skimp on this angle!

Adventure hooks

- Have the players chase down a group of democratists. Have the players come to respect their ingenuity, faith and passion. Then have the acolyte’s Inquisitor order them to burn the democratists at the stake. Reward players for roleplaying the confusion and suspicion they should express at dealing with the controversial views of these heretics, especially if they all seem so nice….

- On an important hiveworld, an election is taking place. Perhaps it’s a continental super-election with billions of voters, or perhaps an illegal trade union election in an important factorium. The important thing is that the players need to embarrass the principle candidate with some nasty scandal (adopted to local morality) without revealing who they are…

- The players are called in to discredit democracy itself. They must carry out ingenious atrocities to incite the mob against the very concept of free elections: how they achieve this is up to them. How far will the players go to curry favour with their masters?

One of the groups current targets is a cleric who organises union uprisings of workers in between running away from the authorities. At the start he was simply a good ol fashioned agitator with well meaning ideas to alleviate the temperal suffering of imperial citizens, but in order to survive he's picked up a bit of sorcery to even the odds... while its kept a secret, the spiral down is going to be much nastier for those in contact with him!

It'll hopefully be another vicious moral dilemma for players that have already had to face down the Temple Tendancy in a deep cover mission. They didn't much like having to shoot up, nerve gas and blow away a lot of otherwise, god emperor worshipping yokels, faithful clerics and benevolent charities. Being the morally bereft imperial lapdogs that they are, they just took it, did their job and spared none... like state sanctioned terrorists.

Berengario: Hello! Nice to see you too. Your right it got similarities with the Pale Throng, with the biggest difference probably being that the Pale Throng has a wider goal in their great war between mutants and humans. An interesting scenario is of course what would happen if the mutants on a planet rose up, overthrew the humans, and then continued to deliver the tithe. Would the Imperium send an invasion or would they let it slide as long as the psykers were kept under control, tithes delivered etc.

Lightbringer: Insightful and productive post as usual. I like the idea of democracy being seen like a plauge. If one wanted to make it more sinister one could emphatize that the democratic movement gives a great oppertunity for cults, xenos and warp-tainted to gain influence or even acceptance among the population. It does however offer alot of interesting morale questions regarding if things really need to be as oppressive as the Imperium would have it and I can see the Radical Inquisitor faction that wants to bring on change having a hand in spreading the democratists' ideals.

MKX: Sounds like a fun scenario. Still if I know my players right most of this I would need to hammer down on their heads as they are pretty good Imperial lapdogs without any morale save obedience to the Golden Throne. But you never know for sure untill you've tried.

I'd like to add that while I didn't mention it, Xenos influence could very well work as a good idea to explain the anarchistic leanings of the population on my little frontier world. Thanks, Beregario.

Gurkhal said:

If they did it openly (you can get away with much stuff if its covered and the Psyker- and Tithe-levies keep rolling), i´d think that the Ecclesiarchy would throw a fit as this Blasphemy against the Sacred Human Form, and the Administratum would be divided in the small "Tithe keeps coming, thats important" and the bigger "Eradicate the Example"- Faction.

Oh, and also several Monodominant Inquisitors who would let the Cyclonic Torpedos be warmed up in transit once they heared about this.

I'm extremely sure that the tithe faction is the biggest of Administratum.

Remember: the rulers of the Emperor rarely agreed with his self called-priests.

Gurkhal said:

Noctus said:

Sebashaw said:

I think too the rebellious mutants wouldn't be allowed to rule the planet for long: indeed should they be ignored by the sector's constituted authority - and should the rumour about their successful rebellion spread (it surely would) - the Imperium would soon face many other mutant rebellions on several worlds.
Therefore, the Imperium's reaction had to be quick, deadly and exemplary.

Moreover, should the humans be used as slaves by the mutants now-turned-rulers, even the accountants in the Administratum would keep silent, or else they'd be risking of being deemed in league with the heretic mutants.

I'll agree that the priests and the more devoted Adeptus Terra will be horrified by mutants ruling a planet although it could of course also take many decades before this information spreads out if the planet is a bit of a backwater. But you are right that at least parts of the Inquisition would take measures to make things return to its previous forms.

An argumenting between "the tithe" faction and the "burn the mutants" faction however sounds very likely to happen, and I can also see senior military commanders be skeptical about sending in troops to another war for a planet which is paying its tithes and keeping the psykers under control, if there are other military dangers that are more threatening at the moment. Of course it things would get peaceful and silent the poor mutants might find themselves be elevated to a higher priority, unless some radical Inquisitor would take a fancy to them for some reason. A Recongregator might for example take it on as a kind of pet project for a model on how to populate planets unsuitable for humans with mutants loyal to the Imperium and keep a system like that working.