2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Imperial Cult

2021-10-23T21:44:35Z

2A02:A03F:C17E:E400:3417:8731:E601:70C1: /* History */

{{Topquote|We are the [[Primarch|Gods]] of the [[Great Crusade|New World Order]]! We are the [[Imperial Guard|Soldiers]], the [[Space Marine|Legion of Light]]! We are the [[Terra|Center]], the [[God-Emperor_of_Mankind|Death of the Sun]]! [[Ecclesiarchy|Fire]] and [[Inquisition|flame]], [[Imperium of Man|We are One]]!|One of many possible hymns of the Imperial Cult, reeking of [[Humanity Fuck Yeah]] and [[awesome]], as quoted from "We Are One" by Triarii, is also the season 2 intro of [[TTS]]}}

{{Topquote|As long as there will be rascals and imbeciles, there will be religions. Ours is without contradict the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and the most bloodthirsty one to ever infect the world.|Voltaire}}

In a broad sense, an '''Imperial Cult''' is any religion in which a head of state is worshipped as (a) God. Examples of real (historical) civilizations with an Imperial Cult include Ancient Egypt and the Japanese Empire. On [[/tg/]], it almost always refers specifically to the state religion of [[Warhammer 40,000]]'s [[Imperium of Man]], and basically <s>Catholic</s> Juche in Space {{BLAM|HERESY!}}{{BLAM}}'''There is no ''filioque'' in the Imperial creed!'''

==History==
{{Topquote|Rejoice, for I bring you glorious news. God walks among us.|The first lines of the Lectitio Divinatus}}

It got its start from the '''Lectitio Divinatus''', a spess bible written by [[Lorgar]], [[Primarch]] of the [[Word Bearers]], on the worlds conquered by his Legion during the [[Great Crusade]] and further perpetuated by believers amongst the crusade fleets. The Emperor, an advocate of atheism, did not approve, and betrayed, attacked, and humiliated Lorgar for it, which pushed his son into the worship of [[Chaos]] instead, which in turn ended up setting the [[Horus Heresy]] into motion. Afterwards, the Imperium worshiped the atheist even more than ever before. [[Just as planned]].

After the Heresy, the Emperor was entombed in the Golden Throne and was not exactly in a condition to stop people from portraying him as a god, and it was soon discovered that [[humanity]] could be united by using this religion to control them far more effectively than the old Imperial Truth ever could. It's unclear if He ever approved of the whole mess, but strange 'miraculous' things keep happening all around the galaxy wherever acts of profound devotion are performed in his name ([[Living Saint]]s, for instance), and faith in the Emperor has been shown to be a powerful weapon against [[Daemon]]s. There is ''something'' to this whole worship thing after all...

==The Imperial Creed==
Though the substance of the Imperial [[Creed]] can vary from world to world as the Imperium is extremely vast, the Creed itself is deceptively simple. This makes life easier for missionaries who are attempting to bring new planets into the fold as the original superstitions of each planet might be fundamentally incompatible with a convoluted religion with too many doctrines.

Regardless of any other deviations in belief, the basic tenets are as follows:

# Worship the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]] as the One-True-God, your Lord and Savior.
# [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|Humanity is perfect]] and are the dominant form of life in the galaxy, [[Chaos|everything]] [[Eldar|else]] [[Orks|needs]] [[Tyranids|to be crushed]] [[Tau|or subjugated.]]

So at its simplest, a world can believe whatever it likes, so long as the Emperor is God or at the very least the head God, so on some worlds he might be a god of [[Thunder Warriors|thunder]] and [[Psyker|lightning]], on others he might be the judge of the dead, on others he might just be an almighty paymaster, whilst on others he might be seen as a god of destruction who must be [[Death Cult Assassin|appeased with death]]... essentially each planet can have its own view of the Emperor. This makes the Imperial Cult an extremely tolerant religion when it comes to expressions of faith, which is ironically [[skub|at odds]] with most observers' opinions on what the Imperial Creed is actually about. In addition, the Imperium is so vast and its history so expansive that just about any belief can be matched with something that already exists within the Imperium. Protector god? Space Marines. God of plenty? Agricultural world. God of fire? Salamanders. God of frost? Some world close to its star. God of light? World with weak atmosphere where they live underground. God of machines? Adeptus Mechanicus. The big guy who the plebs think is a god? Adeptus Custodes. And so on. On top of that, the Imperial Cult is perfectly willing to spend centuries or even millennia very slowly shifting a new world’s beliefs to fit closely enough to be accepted.

==The Imperial Cult and the Imperium==
Where people get confused is with the distinction between the '''Imperial Cult''' and the '''[[Ecclesiarchy]]''', which are distinct from one another; just as the worship of the pagan Roman Emperor was to the specific rites carried out in Rome. Comparisons are often drawn to the Roman Catholic Church, but a more accurate comparison would be to pagan Rome, which tolerated or ignored the various beliefs of its subject peoples, as long as they acknowledged the Emperor as the high priest of their pantheons in his role as Pontifex Maximus.

The "Imperial Cult" is just a blanket term which covers a multitude of belief systems which are compatible with the Imperial Creed and are tolerated by the Imperium, such as the [[Cult of the Redemption]], [[Dark Heresy|Cult of Pure Form]], a large variety of [[Death Cult Assassin|Death Cults]] (but not some of the more [[Khorne|extreme]] ones), as well as a wide variety of Feral or Death world belief systems that have been modified by missionaries to incorporate the Emperor in some form.

The Ecclesiarchy is just the state church, which attempts to bring a level of standardization to how people worship the Emperor and to make relations between worlds relatively frictionless. Unfortunately, even this is a difficult task. The sheer size of the Imperium ensures that various sectors can ''still'' have their own variations on how the creed is interpreted, and may have different doctrines or venerate different canonised saints because no one system can control every form of belief that pops up across the Imperium. Needless to say, this translates into a lot of people calling each other heretics even when their interpretations of the Imperial Cult are equally valid as far as the Ecclesiarchy is concerned. Actual violence (outside of planetary affairs) is rare as the Imperium is willing to tolerate infighting between planets only as much as necessary and sectarian divisions are pretty bad for general stability.

Because of this, the issue of [[Heresy]] can occasionally come about where different factions disagree with each other on what constitutes acceptable worship of the Emperor, though as per the original tenets of the Creed it takes a considerable level of deviation to truly count as abominable. Typically, this is determined either by the adoption of tolerance (or worse, outright subservience) towards [[xenos]] or the outright worship of other deities that are obviously not the Emperor, especially the [[Chaos God]]s. The accusation of heresy still does a pretty good job of silencing debates or threatening people whose views are considered to be too far from the norm, even if they wouldn't actually be viewed as heretics, as it basically means "You are straying too far from the planetary/sector government policy and you need to shut up before we kill you.".

However, it ''can'' and ''does'' go a bit further than this in day to day life. As the state religion, it does its best to cement itself as the only acceptable way to behave. So whereas the Emperor is the only true god, the [[High Lords of Terra]] are the Emperor's living agents, and the Ecclesiarchal priests are the speakers of His word --all of them are to be obeyed without question, no matter how suicidal or pointless their commands may be. Which basically translates as "Do as you are told by your superiors, [[Inquisition | or else]]". This generally involves: [[Hive| Working in horrible conditions]] [[Grimdark | until you die.]] If you don't want to do so and are stupid enough to express your views along those lines, you will quickly find out the hard way that the Imperium considers treason to be the same as heresy, since both of those involve refusing to acknowledge the supremacy of the Adeptus Terra.

The only major deviation allowed in the Imperium is the Cult Mechanicus of the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] (and [[Squats]]), thanks to the original Treaty of Mars allowing them to practice their own faith. Even so, this hasn't stopped tensions from popping up between the Mechanicus and the Ecclesiarchy. The commonly accepted compromise is that the Emperor represents the Machine God's physical avatar, the [[Omnissiah]]. While this compromise satisfies neither side, everyone goes along with it to keep the Imperium functioning as everyone ranked high enough (that is, not a lot) to be able to do something about it being at least somewhat aware of the intimidatingly insane shit they need to stand together to face (there is also the fact that the Emperor intentionally manipulated things so that the Cult Mechanicum was established at the very end of the Dark Age of Technology after the Men of Iron rebellion and before the Age of Strife, and he was probably aware of how exactly he could keep things stable and pre-arranged that as well). Even pious humans outside of the Adeptus Mechanicus, particularly [[Imperial Guard|Guardsmen]], take the Machine Cult's beliefs seriously as their lives depend upon the technology they use. Squats on the other hand are completely exempted and they do ancestor worship, though the Emperor is considered the greatest and oldest ancestor, which he technically is.

===Specific variants of the Imperial Cult===
At mentioned there is a huge variation of the sects and subsects of the Imperial Cult, many of which are officially sanctioned, others less so, and just because an expression of faith is considered heretical or unofficial does make them any less of a faithful servant of the Emperor than the next belief structure. Though some of the bloodier cults are more susceptible to corruption than others.

*'''Confederation of Light:''' aka the "[[Ecclesiarchy]] proper" from M36 onwards. The Emperor sacrificed himself for you and that you should feel bad about it and follow the penitent principles of poverty, generosity and humility. Also heavily linked to the principles of [[Inquisition|Thorianism]]: that the <s>Holy Ghost</s> Emperor can work through inspired individuals and give rise to the [[Living Saint]]s. What the average Imperial who has regular contact with the Adeptus Terra will be believing in as the vast majority of humans never leave their home planet (also home sub-sector or sector if they are temporarily conscripted) and worship one of the many variations.
*'''[[Temple Tendency|Temple of the Saviour Emperor]]''': The old Ecclesiarchy from M32-M36. If the Emperor is a god, and the Ministorum are his divinely appointed agents, then the Ministorum should get all the power and wealth. This belief was directly responsible for causing the barrel of laughs that was the [[Age of Apostasy]]. Some still believe in this doctrine, though they keep their mouths shut very tightly if they don't want a trip to the gallows.
*'''[[Cult of the Redemption]]:''' The Emperor sacrificed himself for your sins, therefore mankind needs saving from its sinfulness; PURGE IT WITH FIRE! Considered too extreme and fanatical for mainstream doctrine, though tolerated as they are willing to go to insane lenghts no normal can handle to squash heretics and aliens.
*'''[[Death Cult Assassin|Death Cults]]:''' There is no single "Death Cult", though most share the common belief that since the Emperor sacrificed himself for your sins, that debt needs to be repaid with sacrifices of Death, Blood or Pain, often in combination. This means their adherents are almost universally incredibly deadly since even the lowest layperson is likely to be able to gut you in any number of imaginative ways. Regularly found engaging heretics in a crusade. The cults who take it too far are susceptible to Chaos corruption.
*'''Cult of the Pure Form:''' Takes the doctrine of human purity very seriously. They believe that any tampering with the human body is a corruption and therefore oppose the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] and reject any form of mechanical augmentation to the point that they will even rip it out of themselves after converting to the faith and causing themselves severe physical trauma. Considering even the most fanatical Sister of Battle can have bionics, this is pretty stupid.
*'''Cult of the Emperor Revenant:''' almost indistinguishable from the mainstream Imperial Cult aside from its focus how the Emperor gained immortality/divinity through his martyrdom. Most servants of the Ministorum can't see a difference between this and "proper" doctrines, although this belief serves as the basis for several [[Death Cult Assassin|Death Cults]] and Funerary Sects.
**'''Night Cult''' also called the ''Temple of the True Resurrection'' in different locations. Believes that you can also gain immortality in death just like the Emperor, but attempts various methods to make it actually happen, including [[Zombie|raising the dead]] through [[Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)|sorcerous]] or [[Heretek|technological means]]. Understandably, the Inquisition and Ecclesiarchy take dim views on this matter.
*'''Cult of the Dead Emperor.''' Main antagonist in the Horusian War first book, they believe that for the Emperor to truly ascend to his divine form, he should die and get freed from his limbo-like-cage. Yeeeeeaaahh... considering what would happen to Terra if this [[Eye of Terror|ever happen]], you can understand that they are usually spited by the Inquisition or almost any other cult, many times be labelled as heretics.
*'''Space Marine Chapter Cults:''' Most Space Marine Chapters reject the Imperial Cult ''(often with with extreme prejudice and gratuitous violence)'' and do not consider the Emperor to be a God, holding instead to local forms of the Imperial Truth doctrine. Therefore they are not actually compatible with the Imperial Creed, though individual Chapters occasionally have "He wasn't a god then but is now." as a sort of midpoint. Their specific chapter cults often spread to their respective homeworlds, with the natives crudely mimicking their masters veneration for their creator.

{{Imperium}}

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Imperial]]

Basilisk Artillery Gun

2021-10-23T08:22:40Z

2A02:A03F:C17E:E400:3417:8731:E601:70C1: Go read an article about AAA, retard!

[[Image:Basilisk.png|thumb|right|It's almost as fuckawesome as the [[Baneblade]].]]

:''This article is about the [[Imperial Guard]] artillery tank. For the creature, see [[Basilisk]].''

{{topquote|Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.|Frederick II of Prussia}}

{{topquote|Though my guards may sleep and my ships may lay at anchor, our foes know full well that the big guns never tire.|[[Lugft Huron]]}}

{{topquote|SHATTER. THEIR. SKY!|Basilisk commander from Dawn of War 1, about to fire the [[rape|earth shaker round]].}}

The '''Basilisk Artillery Gun''' is the iconic [[Imperial Guard]] self-propelled artillery piece. It is based on the versatile [[Chimera Transport|Chimera]] chassis, and it carries a massive [[Earthshaker]] cannon. It dates at least as far back as the [[Great Crusade]], where it was used by the artillery batteries of the [[Space Marine]] Legions and Imperial Army; though they were too slow for the slimmer, faster post-[[Codex Astartes]] Space Marines, they could move at just the right pace to keep up with an [[Imperial Guard]] siege operation.

Of course, given its tremendous range, it doesn't need to move very fast to keep pounding the enemy, and it's not supposed to be at the front line -- rather, the Basilisk crews get told where to shoot, they launch great quantities of shells in that direction, and then they move away before they get hit by counter-battery fire.

== Variants ==

; Standard Pattern: You know'em, you love'em. The OG Basilisk with the famous gun shield. It is by far one of the most iconic vehicles from the Imperium of Man, let alone the Imperial Guard and stands equal with the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank]], [[Baneblade]], [[Land Raider]] and [[Rhino]] as most famous tank.
; Armageddon Pattern : Because [[Armageddon]] is a <s>desert world</s> <s>irradiated, poisonous shithole</s> [[Ork|Ork]] playground, they developed a Basilisk pattern that fully enclosed the entire tank, sheltering the loading mechanism (and, coincidentally, the loader and gunner) from the <s>harsh environment</s> [[Dakka|retarded amounts of small-arms fire constantly filling the air]]. Kallin' Ork gunz small? I oughter give yer a stamp!
; [[Basilisk Magnus]] : A variant of the Basilisk fielded by [[Vance Motherfucking Stubbs]], which seems to be dug into an immobile concrete position. It's like a regular Basilisk, except it can strike targets anywhere within the Imperial Dussala Precinct base, fires an absurdly powerful Earthshaker shell, and has styrofoam for armor. However along with the 100 [[Baneblade]]s, Stubbs lost the targeting matrix for the thing and so it requires a spotter every time it shoots. Its size compared to the turret and crew suggest it would also be as well proportioned for mounting on a Macharius tank chassis as a normal Earthshaker is on a chimera chassis. Dis gon b gud.
; Legion Basilisk : Before the [[Codex Astartes]] reforms, the [[Space Marine Legions]] operated some artillery of their own, including the Basilisk. The gun shield and crew compartment looks beefier, and the engine exhausts run out the sides of the tank.
; [[Solar Auxilia]] Basilisk : Like the Armageddon Pattern, the gun and its crew are entirely enclosed, but the chassis is built around a Leman Russ rather than a Chimera. The gun is placed to the right of driver's compartment while the engine is left exposed behind the driver's compartment like the Mars-Alpha Pattern Leman Russ.
; Vanaheim Pattern : It's the same as the original Basilisk, with a less goofy-looking gun shield which offers additional protection for the gun crew from both the front and sides. Although its overall protection is not to the extent as that of the Armageddon Pattern or the Legion Basilisks.
; Basilisk Anti-Aircraft Emplacement: [https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/10/20/flight-plan-youre-grounded/ It exists]... The Basilisk is a gun that can lob a shell a long distance away, hence it can also shoot it a good distance up in the sky providing the gun can be elevated enough. Which the Basilisk Gun in a fixed emplacement can, there's no gun shield/casemate to hamper it. Now, to make this work, you will need timed fuzes that detonate the shell after a precise time, a ballistic computer to calculate the angle and flight time, and a spotter to feed the computer the enemies' position/heading/speed. At that point, the big gun will send its shells to detonate precisely in the airplane's computed flight path (This is exactly how WWII's 'AAA' (Anti-Air Artillery) worked, by the way). It is true the Imperium [[Space Marine Hunter|already]] [[Whirlwind#Hyperios|has]] [[Manticore Launcher Tank|several]] [[Praetor Armoured Assault Launcher|artillery]] [[Exorcist|pieces]] that can use surface-to-air missiles with much better accuracy than unguided shells, so an AA Basilisk [[fail|does sound stupid]]. But in the end, assuming the place you want to set up fixed emplacements around has a cogitator that can function as ballistic computer and one idiot with a rangefinder to feed data into it, it is just a matter of expediency to have them chuck high-explosive death at flying enemies as long as there's nothing to chuck high-explosive death at on the ground. Against enemies that tend to swarm the skies like [[Tyranids]] and occasionally [[Orks]], every bit of firepower helps.

<gallery>

File:OG_Basilisk.jpg|Standard Pattern Basilisk

File:armageddon-basilisk.jpg|Armageddon Pattern Basilisk

File:SoulstormBasiliskMagnus.png|Basilisk Magnus

File:Legion_basilisk.jpg|A Legion Basilisk of the [[Iron Warriors]].

File:SolarAuxiliaBasilisk.jpg|Solar Auxilia Basilisk

File:Vanaheim_Basilisk.jpg|Vanaheim Pattern Basilisk

File:AntiAirBasilisk.jpg|Anti-Air Basilisk Emplacement

</gallery>

== Tabletop ==

The Basilisk's Earthshaker cannon has the longest range of any Imperial Guard weapon, beating out the Banesword's Quake Cannon by a good 100 inches(the Deathstrike lost its infinite range and the Manticore's was cut to 120"), able to drop a shell anywhere within 20 feet (which is pitifully small when scaled up to real-world dimensions...but so are all 40K weapon ranges). That is enough range to target an enemy on the next TABLE and is more than enough even for apocalypse. Prior to 8th it was possible for a single IG army to have up to nine of these monsters (three per Heavy Support slot, times three Heavy Support choices) for just under 1000 points, which would rapidly turn the entire battlefield into a moonscape.

In the couple of editions leading up to 8th, the Basilisk was something of an awkward middle child between the powerful Manticore and the Infantry shredding Wyvern. The Manticore launcher could provide more destruction pound for pound if you just wanted to plonk 1 ordnance template on the field, whilst the Wyvern (or even mortars) were far cheaper. In 8th, the Basilisk truly shines as it is meant to be played: in groups. An economy of scale with 3 of these boys will cost just over 300 points, but every turn you will likely destroy at the very least a Leman Russ, and at the very best a Baneblade. The Basilisk must take a support role, but when aided with a Master of Ordnance and a cup of hot cocoa, it will make your army suited to dealing with whatever your opponent may throw at you. MEQs, tanks and even Terminators can not afford to scoff at shots that deal 2D6 (pick highest) S9 AP-3 hits with D3 damage (just don't expect to quickly wipe out blobs with a single gun). The Emperor's Wrath Artillery Company specialist detachment makes them even stronger, giving the option for a unit to shoot twice and ''really'' lay down the hate, or else suppress a target of choice, at a fairly low CP cost.

In ''Second Edition'', where it first appeared, the Basilisk featured epic levels of [[RAGE|bullshit]] since it rolled a D3 for damage to vehicles even if it ''didn't'' penetrate armour, and since the template usually hit every location on the vehicle it was statistically likely that anything hit by a Basilisk would be crippled or destroyed even if all AP rolls failed. Thanks to the preliminary barrage rule, it also got to fire a battle cannon round (somehow) before the game had actually started.

== [[Dawn of War]] ==

These babies were in Dawn of War 1 and BY THE EMPEROR they are awesome. They are one of the "must-get" units for the Imperial Guard faction because they make up for the Guards' shitty early game when they don't have more models and plasma gun upgrade, and they are one of the reasons people play IG (the others being THE BANEEEEEBLADE and the Commissar). They are best at blowing up infantry blobs and scattering them like frigging marbles for the Guardsmen to mop up. Most importantly, their Earthshaker round deals a fuck load of damage to ANYTHING.

== Notable Basilisks ==

; Fluffy : The personal attack vehicle/pet of [[Commissar Dan]]. Being the retard that he is, he uses the thing as a front line assault tank instead of a full-time artillery piece.

== Why A Basilisk is The Best Place To Be In The Whole Goddamn Imperium ==

* You're ten miles from the front lines and whatever [[Grimdark|fanged horrors]] or [[World Eaters|berserk]] supersoldiers are invading the [[Imperium]] this week.
* You get to fire a MASSIVE fucking gun and blow shit up. It's one of the best artillery weapons in the galaxy, able to mow down whole swathes of armies in minutes. Thus, the [[Tyranid]]s' numerical superiority is irrelevant.
* If your regiment is commanded by [[Creed]], you're one of a select few that knows how it is possible to deploy a dozen pieces of mobile artillery inside an impenetrable [[Ork]] stronghold.
* All the [[Commissar|commissars]] (save [[Ciaphas Cain|one]]) are also at the front lines, seeing as that is where the business of <s>executing cowa..</s> erm ''upholding morale'' is most wanted.
* You can probably even get away with complaining about the [[High Lords of Terra]] and their general not giving a shit, seeing as there are no senior officers, no [[Inquisitor]]s (since you're probably in a depopulated area far away from Inquisitorial interest), and no fucking [[Commissar|commiss]]{{BLAM}}
* You're not at risk of being blown up when your commander tells the artillery to shoot right in front of his own troops. Though you will probably hear their screams over your vox-unit, and any complaints about your orders will get you {{BLAM}}'med.
* Canon says you're going to go deaf, but whatever right? Hearing problems are the least [[grimdark]] thing in the entire setting. Or just stuff your ears with wads from your [[Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer|Uplifting Primer-]]{{BLAM}}
* Not just anybody can drive one of these, therefore you are not as expendable as other Guardsmen, and Commissars are less likely to shoot you if you start fleeing (which is frankly what you '''SHOULD''' do if the enemy comes close to your art{{BLAM}}

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Imperial Guard]]

[[Category: Chaos]]

[[Category: Lost and the Damned]]

[[Category: Vehicles]]

{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}

{{Template:Imperial-Guard}}

{{Lost-and-Damned}}

Basilisk Artillery Gun

2021-10-23T07:09:37Z

2A02:A03F:C17E:E400:3417:8731:E601:70C1: Fuck off