Imperium (Warhammer 40,000)

In the fictional universe spun by the GAMES' WORKSHOP crew to form the base of their top-selling tabletop miniature game WARHAMMER 40,000 (WH40K for short) the IMPERIUM represent's mankind's only hope for survival in the grim, merciless future of the forty first millennium. The IMPERIUM was founded by the EMPEROR (Master of mankind, ruler of humanity and God of the human race) at the end of the AGE OF STRIFE, a period of anarchy, lawlessness and senseless destruction that lasted for dozens of centuries and during which all but the faintest traces of the vast, advanced galactic civilization built by men in previous eras disappeared. The AGE OF STRIFE was in turn a result of the terrifying WARPSTORMS generated by the awakening of SLAANESH, chaos god of hedonism and perverted pleasure, whose birth dealt a most severe blow to the ELDAR civilization too; forcing that people to leave their home worlds (sucked into the warp/realspace overlap created by Slaanesh' arise...now known as the EYE OF TERROR) and to begin an endless pilgrimage aboard of their CRAFTWORLDS. However when the WARPSTORMS did subside the EMPEROR set forth to unite mankind under his rule: he unified earth defeating the many warlods and tyrants that carved petty kingdoms in the times of anarchy (Kalagann of Ursh, Cardinal Tang, Narthan Dume and so on...), then he set to the task of turning his hordes of techno-barbaric warriors into the epytome of the fighting man, thus creating the first SPACE MARINES. After having secured the ancient fleet docks of Luna and the factories and weaponshops of Mars the EMPEROR had a huge warfleet built with which he sailed for a SPACE CRUSADE that lasted two full centuries and ended with the formal estabilishment of the IMPERIAL RULE over all but the most scattred and distant human colonized worlds. The IMPERIUM, though, ain't as stable and/or monolithic as it pretends to be, each planet is virtually property of its governor (often called imperial commander, too) which rules and administrates it to his whim and is left largely undisturbed as long as:

                              -he pays his tithes and provides the quota
                               of goods requested by the Adeptus Administratum
                              -he mantains the anti-mutant and psyker control
                               measures effective
                              -he keeps the Planetary Defence Force to a 
                               minimum of efficiency (to safeguard his own
                               position too!)
                              -he meets the periodical draft requests from
                               the IMPERIAL GUARD with an adequate number
                               of recruits.
 
                               

The IMPERIUM true strenght is made up of some key organizations that do grant it the strenght and resilence to face the many threats and dangers that could permanently seal humanity's fate in a peril-laden galaxy of hostile aliens and daemonic intruders.

the ADEPTUS ADMINISTRATUM provides the bureaucracy needed to scan, scrutiny and keep in line most systems and commanders.

the ADEPTUS ASTRONOMICAN redirects and magnifies the psychic beacon projected by the EMPEROR himself, forever sealed in his biomechanical GOLDEN THRONE, thanks to its efforts human NAVIGATORS can risk longer jumps through WARPSPACE than could be feasible if unassisted...this miracle has a grisly price though, since each psychically gifted adept encased in the magnifying dome is drained of his spiritual and mental energies til reduced to a dry, lifeless husk.

the INQUISITION is a loose organization of investigative agents, troubleshooters with licence to do almost anything in order to counter menaces to the imperial order and mankind's welfare (PRECISELY in that order, note...).

The ADEPTUS ASTARTES or SPACE MARINES is an elite body of troops (1,000,000 in the whole of the galaxy) used to swiftly react to rebellions, insurgency and invasions.

The IMPERIAL GUARD is a much more standard body of troops slow to react but ponderous and nigh unstoppable in its march, used for longer lasting conflict than the MARINES' blitz actions.

the OFFICIO ASSASSINORUM is a top secret organization whose members work undercover, unbeknown even by high ranked imperial officiers they are nija-style infiltrators and killers used to remove key individuals whose actions could endanger the IMPERIUM.

(all of these info were based on the 'old edition' of the WH40K rules -an

hardback book with breathtaking cover light on rules but heavy on back
ground and diverse info- and from the articles and expansions put forth
by GW prior than the release of the infamous 'big box' edition...it could
be that some of the facts or events cited here have been modified during
later releases of the game...)