Worlds of the 42nd Millennium

So, you have come to look at the background information on the 42nd Millennium: aka WH40K...

We will start off with a version of the basic opening statement from almost every 40K book, then move on to a series of pages about ever more specific subjects, such as an overview of the galaxy, then each segmenum, then relevant sectors, then subsectors, then worlds, and so forth down the chain. Many times at the end of a chapter you will be given chances to switch back to other topics relevant to what's been being talked about, such as a world where the Ecclisiarchy is prominent having a link back to the top page for their own section. However, if perusing in game mode, (as you should be,) each page can only be read once, so don't skim, read carefully and commit the contents to memory...

It is the latter half of the 42nd Millennium of recorded human history.

Much that we know today is long forgotten, but the endless tide of years from that first moment of our being able to count that slow grinding of the spirals of time has been faithfully accounted from then to now in the musty record rooms of Holy Terra, and it is by the edict of the God-Emperor of Mankind that we know today is the dawning of 812.M42.

For more than a hundred times a hundred years the God-Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile in the Golden Throne of Earth. After being near fatally wounded at the hands of the Arch- Traitor Horus, he was inhumed into it's techno-magical life support systems. He has been unable to heal himself to this very day, hanging eternally poised on the threshold between life and ****.

Yet even in this state of horrid eternally-undying-near-**** the God-Emperor guides and defends humanity still! Though he must consume the very souls of a thosand psychics every day to continue his unending battle with **** ITSELF it is only through his eternal vigil that the Imperium, and by extension the human race, continue to maintain and expand their dominant position in the galaxy.

The reasons for this are two fold: first: the God-Emperor controls and directs the Astronamican, the immense psychic beacon broadcast from Holy Terra by the Scholastica Psycana. Without that beacon it would be unspeakably more difficult and dangerous to cross the Hell-dimensions of the Warp, which is the only feasible way for human ships to traverse the incomprehensible distances between star systems, and without the Emperor, broadcasting the Astronamican would doom Earth to destruction in a matter of days, hours, or perhaps mere seconds. The Astronamican is generated by thousands of Sanctioned Psykers blasting raw psychic energy into the center of a vast chamber hollowed out of the living rock under the Himalayas, only the Emperor’s own power prevents this summoning countless Legions of daemons from the warp.

This is the second reason that without the Emperor the Imperium is doomed. Only through the process of sanctioning can a psyker's powers be controlled, and only by the grace of the God-Emperor of Mankind can those possessing psychic 'gifts' be sanctioned. To be sanctioned, a psyker is taken to one of the millions of viewing rooms that surrounds the chamber of the Golden Throne and the occulus window is opened for a hands count of seconds. Those strong in their Faith and Will are gifted with a spark of the Emperor's power which enhances their powers and binds their soul to the God of Mankind, protecting them from the horrors of the Warp: which is the font of the energy that powers their abilities. The rest die, go mad, or are severed from their bodies, the mind and soul sucked up into the techno-arcane engineering of the Golden Throne to sustain the Emperor. Those that survive often are struck blind by the experience, but they emerge stronger for it; especially those who's 'Gift' is telepathy. Almost all telepathically gifted individuals emerge from the sanctioning chambers as Astropaths, who have the unique and unenviable position of being the most reliable and fastest means of communication across interstellar distances. Fortunately Telepathic ability is the most common type of psychic gift for humans to have, this means that there are millions of Astropaths created every day. This is fortunate because at least one Astropath must be dispatched to every single planet and starship in the Imperium. Even with millions created each and every day there never seem to be QUITE enough, not to mention that Astropaths work BEST as a group, so more important planets and ships will have several, even if that means others, especially on the fringes of the galaxy, go without...

Thus it is that the Emperor is kept alive, and the Astronamican fueled, though combine the two burn out and consume almost a million people's very souls every year.

The Emperor is master of Mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is the Carrion-Lord of the Imperium: standing an agonizing vigil at the threshold of ****'s eternal realm so that the human race, the last thing he holds dear, can carry on until the day finally comes when we are finished evolving into our full psychic gifts. More and more are born with such power each and every day, not just in number, but percentage as well. Not only that but their average strength of ability is steadily increasing as well. When the day at last comes, aeons from now, that we have no further need of Him, the Emperor will exercise his titanic WILL one final time, using his telekinetic power to press a button hidden inside the very titular throne of the immense mechanism that sustained him all those years of hellish endurance, and it will shut down, allowing him to die at last...

That day will be long in coming however, humanity is still in its infancy as a psychic species, it will be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years before the human race is ready to stand on its own two feet without the God-Emperor's guiding light, and should that obdurium will ever break and His light be snatched away before that day comes to pass: the human race is doomed.

In the 42nd Millennium of human history life is cheap and talk is worthless. To be a person from this distant future era is to be one amongst untold trillions of individuals, living on worlds scattered across the length, breadth, and depth of the galaxy. If you live outside of the Imperium your life is probably banal and monotonous, living at a medieval level of technology or less, until the day when your world is assaulted by Tyranids, Orks, Rak'gol, Dark Eldar, Necrons, Chaos Raiders, Daemons, or the 'Civilizing' armies of the Imperium Itself and it ends abruptly and violently.

If you live within the Imperium things are likely to be much similar, though the risks associated with your life are different. Instead of starvation, plague, and inter-tribal warfare being the uppermost threats in your life you have to worry about offending someone rich and powerful, getting caught up in a pogrom against psykers or mutants, and being 'impressed' into a work crew for one of the major industrial production and operation details of the Imperium's starships, major factories, or the Imperial Guard. The threat of invasion remains a constant danger, but it's worse for you because you are aware of the danger, yet also better, because, being aware of it, you can prepare. The imperium is notably lax in its policy regarding personal weapons: the nobility of the Imperium are a warrior elite, and protect themselves with both hypertech armor and personal forcefields every waking moment, so they are unconcerned with the average citizen possessing firearms.

However, I am afraid this account has veered excessively verbose: to discover more go to the next layer of pages...