Editing Nova Terra Interregnum (section)

==Background==
It should be pointed out that the framework for the Imperium was pretty poor during this time and looked ''nothing'' like the 40k Imperium. The [[Ecclesiarchy]] wasn't a unified whole, but the largest faction consisted of the '''Temple of the Saviour Emperor''' which had a seat on the [[High Lords of Terra]] and was leeching power and tax money from the [[Administratum]] (eventually leading into the [[Age of Apostasy]]).

One example of the idiocy of this time is that the Ecclesiarchy nearly bankrupted the Imperium by moving the seat of power from [[Terra]] to '''Ophelia VII''' and then back again, just to prove a point to the Administratum that it shouldn't fuck with the church (hilariously, this is based on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avignon_Papacy a real incident in the history of the Roman Catholic Church]); this really should've gotten them executed but oh well. During that time of separation the church had also built on their ''Frateris Templar'' to the point that it now supposedly rivalled the size of the [[Imperial Guard]].

So while the High Lords of Terra ''might'' have started out by echoing the original '''Council of Terra''' which had managed bureaucracy for the [[Great Crusade]] and had presumably stayed there following the Emperor's enthronement following the [[Horus Heresy]], it was now in a worse state than it would become by the current era since religion was ''even more'' relevant and the actual government had very little power. Since the Emperor approved the creation of the Imperial Senate, this would make everyone who favored the Ecclesiarchy's power over the High Lords' power heretics.

However, it's not clear why the High Lords didn't just murderize any group that gained too much illegal power and request Space Marines enforce Compliance; it would have been easy to point out to the masses that only the Custodes know the Emperor's true will and that the Emperor created the High Lords whereas the Ecclesiarchy was just some dudes claiming the Emperor chose them despite the High Lords having actual ''proof'' of their own Emperor-given power.

Similarly, the [[Inquisition]] was concerning itself with mostly [[Ordo Malleus|Daemons]], [[Ordos Xenos|Aliens]] and [[Ordo Sicarius|rogue Assassins]], since the [[Ordo Hereticus]] wasn't invented yet. So the concept of religious [[Noblebright|"freedom"]] also goes hand-in-hand with [[Slaanesh|excess]].

===The Main Event===
When someone on the planet '''Nova-Terra''' had the wise idea to split from the Imperium and form their own council in the [[Segmentum Pacificus]], we can sympathize with the idea of separating from all of the religious furore spouting from Terra and establishing a government that was of a more appropriate "local" scale. It seems that they didn't want to truly leave the Imperium but rather sever the High Lords' authority from themselves but otherwise remain loyal to the Imperium (like what [[Huron Blackheart|Huron Blackheart]] tried, [[Badab War|with similar results]]).

But this writing comes from [[Games Workshop|GW]] so anything resembling common sense has to be purged with fire - and that's pretty much exactly what happened, though the Ur-Council made a good shot of it and ruled the segmentum for over 900 years. We can infer that the Ur-Council was an attempt in the Pacificus to establish a Council of Terra with actual power, given the name of the planet chosen to capital them was ''Nova '''Terra''''' and all and the council's own name basically means "original council" ('ur' means 'primeval/proto') or something like that. Most likely they believed they had to make a new Council of Terra without the Ecclesiarchy's control as the Emperor was the one who said the Council of Terra should rule the Imperium in his stead. Apparently obeying the Emperor is [[Extra Heresy|Heresy]].

Most of what we know about the Ur-Council tends to be in fluff surrounding the [[Dark Angels]] and there are strong hints that [[Cypher]], supported by other [[Fallen Angels]], was one of the Ur-Council's leaders and the Dark Angels were particularly active during this period. This is also where the [[Crassus Armored Assault Transport|Praetor launcher]] came from.

===The Cataclysm of Souls===
An awesome-sounding but sadly limited piece of fluff, the '''Cataclysm of Souls''' was a period of religious wars at the end of M35 when the [[Ecclesiarchy]] reshaped the Imperium as a religious state, marking the end of the Nova Terra Interregnum. It is not entirely known what happened during this period though it is remarked that it was a time of civil war the likes of which had not been encountered since the [[Horus Heresy]].

The reason the religious wars of the Imperium got the "religion" put in it is because the Emperor set the tone for how the Imperium enforced [[Imperial Truth|official religious policy:]] violent purging of non-believers. [[Irony|So He invented true religious war as a result of trying to end non-existent true religious war through the atheistic version of religious war.]]