Editing Lost and the Damned (section)

==And you thought the Guard was rough==
So, you have managed to defect from the Imperium and joined the ranks of the Lost and the Damned. You had been drafted and taken from your dreary but comparatively peaceful home that you shall never see again, taken across the galaxy to a place you have never heard of to die in a war you have never heard of in the name of the Emperor. You have lived off shit rations, been bullied and bossed around and threatened by men in nice [[hats]] and then those voices in the back of your head came offering an escape for all that. And you have managed to somehow switch sides and join up with the local chaos force, everything is going to get better right?

Think again.

First of all, while you have switched heaps, you are still at the bottom. And while your old bosses might have been puritanical callous slave drivers, at least they were sane ([[Meme|ORLY?]]). Siding with [[Slaanesh]] can be rather fun, but you better [[anal circumference|prepare your anus. Literally.]] Sided with [[Khorne]]? Just hope to hell that you don't get set with a delay or have to go on a long march or get pinned down among your fellow psychopaths, because he cares not from whence the blood flows, only that it does. [[Tzeentch]]? Expect to be made an expendable cog in [[Just as Planned|someone's machinations]]. [[Nurgle]]? Hope you like becoming a walking pile of sores, blisters and pustules with random bits falling off, while smelling of a mixture of slaughterhouse runoff, old gym socks and vomit (alright, to be fair you won't care about that, being Nurglite and all).<!--[[Malal]]'s been retconned out of canon for the longest, and I'm pretty sure his page is probably where you want to go for any ideas regarding Cults of Malal, which may or may not already cover said ideas.-->

Actually, life in the Slaaneshi and Nurglite regiments might not be all that different: Everyone's rather cheerful, but you require ample amounts of hemorrhoid cream (if for very different reasons).
Not to mention an actual Khorne renegade guard regiment would find it incredibly fucking dumb to just murder skilled soldiers because muh blood, you moron. ([[Battle of Skalathrax|Skalathrax]] just didn't happen I guess.)([[Kharn]] is an outlier and should not be counted.)

On top of that, your leaders are completely fucking nuts, and you are their literal punching bag. Alright, some are better than others (though the same goes for the Guard that your heretical ass left), but the bottom bar for Chaos leaders is going to be lower since it's more, well, chaotic. It's not uncommon to see someone shot because the boss had one of his little moments, or getting knifed in the back because someone forgot where he put his socks and accuses someone else in your Warband of stealing them. Now, if you are a scheming bastard, a good demagogue, an exceptional fighter and/or simply lucky/favoured by the Gods you might be able to go up in rank (though generals die in the Guard as well, and someone's gotta fill those gaps). That said, this is quite a cut-throat business. On a related note, the forces of Chaos are also opposed to each other. In the absence of loyalists or xenos and the like, a battle between servants of rival Chaos Gods is inevitable. Even if you are fighting a loyalist force or some Orks, you still better keep an eye out for rival Chaos worshipers.

Then there is support. If nothing else, the Imperium has the edge in Industry and general manpower. You will generally have to make do with much less than you did in the Guard, and much of your gear is likely going to be looted from people who don't want you looting their stuff. Now [[Daemons]], some mutations and the blessings of the Chaos gods might be helpful, but that brings up the risk of getting into [[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spa-urh]], going-even-lower-down-the-command-chain-than-you-already-were-while-losing-your-brain-in-the-process-territory. He meant to say Chaos SpawnAAAAAAAAAHH mmbleble gluh! Finally, you've had enough of this? Well, too bad. There is no going back, [[heretic]] scum.

On the other hand, if you survive, have the skills to pay the bills, and satisfy the Dark Gods, the sky's the goddamned limit. You could even be a champion yourself some day, or perhaps even a [[Daemon Prince]]. It's happened before. All it takes is a combination of ruthlessness, ambition and a willingness to survive (and the ability to not die from a [[blam|bolter slug to the face]]). No one said this was going to be easy, but the ultimate prize justifies everything done to obtain it!

===The Other Hand is Just as Rough===
The above is an accurate summary of experiences for those regiments who start on their particular path to damnation firmly for, shall we say, [[Heresy|"religious reasons."]] However, the fact that Games Workshop has rebranded them as "Renegades and Heretics" should give a glimpse into the notion that guard regiments may have more secular or material reasons to rebel against the Imperium. It's not hard to figure out why, either - the Imperium literally spans a galaxy and running an organization that large with that many people can leave some [[Grimdark|"a little neglected,"]] especially when facing alien factions against whom the Imperium threw into a fight with them, what with their whole empire building and all... although at this point it's more empire repair. Not to mention that war is '''CONSTANT''' in the Imperium, not just against aliens or heretics, but against other polities on the planet or on other planets in that particular solar system, all jockeying for favour and resources for their own pet projects. Oh, and if none of those problems materialize for the planet, then another Imperial faction you've also probably never heard of from half the goddamn galaxy away has taken issue with you for any of the most inscrutable reasons and dispatched themselves to your homeworld to straight up wreck you and take all your shit! Remember that for most imperial citizens, there is little difference between a castigation by the Black Templars or being declared Purgatus by the Inquisition and an invasion by the Black Legion. Then there's civilian life, notoriously horrid in the Imperium: working daily double-digit hours at a minimum under certainly unsafe conditions, minimal education loaded with propaganda and outright misinformation ''and'' disinformation, eating rations made from reprocessed waste if they get any at all, where living in a literal cubicle is a luxury and if they are even perceived as stepping out of line or more likely happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, they will be lucky to die quickly from the incident, executed by the strongman breathing down their neck. At least if you live in the lower parts of a Hive World or anywhere on a Forge World. Otherwise, your life is pretty much the same as it was while the Emperor was walking around in 30K.

So let that set the stage: you're alone in a galaxy that's either wholly indifferent or actively hostile against you and the billions of people on your planet, the only reason you're there is because [[High Lords of Terra|some guy you will never meet with the sort of political power you cannot begin to imagine]] thought it would be beneficial to found a colony there and most likely did ''not'' afford enough resources to adequately start one, the bulk of which will get sucked up anyway by [[Planetary Governor|said guy's esteemed acquaintance]] [[Ecclesiarchy|or their favourite bootlickers]] while you get tasked with fighting a proxy war against [[Xenos|literal fucking monsters]] that at any moment can become a planet-wide total war while billions of your fellow man around you live under the most horrid conditions possible. Is it any wonder that, in the absence of [[Space Marines|some]] [[Adeptus Titanicus|serious]] [[Battlefleet Gothic|military]] [[Inquisition|authority,]] that so many planets rebel? Well, yes, actually, since each world has a high degree of independence and just about everything they rebel over is actually under the control of their own planetary governments scheming to increase their personal power, not the Imperium.

However, as the previous section poignantly notes, a rogue PDF can only go so far on its own - farther if they happen to enjoy the patronage of a nearby forgeworld or are on one themselves. Beggars can't be choosers in this particular depth of desperation so they solicit the help of literally anyone who can assist - often times, you have the usual suspects like renegade and heretic astartes or daemons, but allegiance to either certainly won't help in throwing off the yoke of oppression inasmuch as it's just trading yokes. Same goes for any support from Xenos although [[Tau|some are]] [[Eldar|more helpful]] [[Necrons|than]] [[Dark Eldar|others,]] [[Orks|or]] [[Tyranids|most.]] Indeed, carving out a territory in this frankly rather crowded galaxy only means continued participation in the ceaseless resource war in which the galaxy is embroiled and may inevitably lead to a continuous cycle of breaking and forming alliances to fight former allies or new threats. And on top of all that? The people of the planet, the reason for which you may have taken up this otherwise noble project of sedition, will likely be plunged into the same misery they enjoyed whilst you were still loyal to the Imperium in order to keep your now independent war machine rolling. Usually under far worse conditions and far higher casualties due to being cut off from the Imperium's protection, resources, and industry. Thus, planetary insurrection in the Imperium is usually relatively short-lived, though the ones that are most successful are either [[Genestealer Cult|totally subsumed]] [[Daemon World|by a previous benefactor]] and/or require resources to retake that the [[Segmentum#Ultima Segmentum|Imperium has dedicated elsewhere]] long enough to actually enjoy some temporary peace and stability. Most likely though, insurrection in the Imperium is nasty, brutish and thankfully short <s>compared to the agonizing, millennium-spanning, soul-crushing servitude as a pawn in the Imperium's everlasting quest to dominate the galaxy.</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|Heresy!}}