Editing Ecclesiarchy (section)

==The Church Itself==

The Ecclesiarchy itself is, officially at least, the one true faith of the God-Emperor. It is the organization dedicated to teaching His truths and His will to the vast masses of humanity, and all are united under its banner. Therefore, no matter where you go in the Imperium, the Cult of The Emperor can be found uniting its masses under His benevolent rule. The reality, of course, is a bit more complex. The problem is that the Imperium is vast. Like, really vast. So much so that no one really knows how big it is, and an empire that big couldn't even begin to manage a galaxy wide faith. Therefore, what actually happens is that the Church of the God-Emperor is split into many faiths that don't actually resemble each other in any way.

On some worlds, the Emperor is worshiped as a distant father, watching over his children from far away. Others associate Him with a force of nature, believing that the wind is His voice and when He is angry He shouts at them causing great winds. Others assign some sort of totem animal, usually a predatory bird, that is considered sacred in His eyes. Some practice hymns and chants that wouldn't be out of place in our modern age, others prefer ritualistic dances and animal sacrifices. Despite all these varied and at times bizarre forms of faith, one thing is certain; there is only one god, only one Emperor, and they are one and the same.

The Ecclesiarchy attempts to promote and maintain the Cult of The Emperor wherever it can, if it is possible, to shape the local faith into something a bit more orthodox. As such, any planet with an Ecclesiarchal presence will eventually begin to resemble other faiths. Chapels will be built, a hierarchy of priests will emerge (what that hierarchy or even the priests will look like is a different thing altogether), and more extreme or shocking practices slowly weeded out or shaped into different forms. Even human sacrifice is re-purposed for the Emperor's benefit, as a culture that practices such things is much more willing to give up psykers to the Black Ships. It also helps that the Ecclesiarchy is willing to take the very slow, very long conversion route and accept even remote or vague Emperor worship under different names (such as Fenris's Allfather view of Him) so long as they follow a few basic rules. Very much like how the Imperium itself is structured, really.

Ironically, this makes the Ecclesiarchy oddly tolerant and open minded as they travel across worlds. They are trained to see past the individual beliefs to examine the core of the faiths they encounter, and therefore are unexpectedly tolerant of opposing sects, where more close minded citizens would be quick to denounce them as heretics and traitors. After all, the Emperor is a wise and benevolent god who loves all his subjects regardless of who they are, and the Ecclesiarchy follows His example. Seeing as the average citizen does ''not'' view other forms of Emperor-worship as heretical or blasphemous, someone must be at least somewhat educating them on the idea that any form of Emperor worship is acceptable if the Ecclesiarchy (*cough*Inquisition*cough*) approves of it and so should they or else ''they're'' the dirty heretic and will be "corrected", although this doesn't stop religious civil wars from being waged on occasion which nicely explains why Sisters of Battle might be fighting ''other'' Sisters of Battle.

The one area the Ecclesiarchy tends to butt heads is with the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]]. On the surface, the Cult of the Machine God runs completely counter to worship of the God-Emperor, especially since the Mechanicus' religion predates the Imperial Cult (and the Imperium itself) by a few millenia. However, there is little that the Ecclesiarchy can do about it, since 1. The Treaty of Mars guarantees not only autonomy, but religious exemption to the Mechanicus, and 2. Pissing off the Mechanicus is a bad idea since they control all the ships and tech. Because going to war with half of the Imperium would be monumentally stupid, they came up with a compromise that the Emperor is the physical avatar of the Machine God, bringing the Mechanicus closer in line to the Imperial Cult. This compromise isn't very satisfying for the more extreme fanatics on both sides, which can and does form conflict between the institutions beyond the political strife of two powerful organizations arguing over jurisdiction but at least it prevents the Thirty Years War: Galaxy Wide Edition. Rather obviously, this comes down to the Ecclesiarchy being both jealous and fearful of the Mechanicus. Because the Machine Cult alone has the Emperor's personal approval. The Ecclesiarchy can claim to all it wants, but the Emperor in person gave his approval of the Machine Cult and even signed a document proving it. Making claims of visions or whatever is nothing compared to that. This makes the Mechanicus not only a direct rival on the religious beliefs of the Imperium, but also means the Mechanicus very likely could use that simple fact to completely overthrow the Ecclesiarchy and all of its power and wealth at any moment. Especially since they both know who the Astartes and Imperial branches of government would side with (because duh for the former and because "they build literally all our everything" for everyone else).

Less tense are the relations between the Ecclesiarchy and the [[Adeptus Astartes]]; Most Space Marines, the [[Black Templars]], [[Red Scorpions]], [[Fire Angels]] excluded, do not officially embrace the Imperial Cult, having followed the older [[Imperial Truth]] that the Cult eventually supplanted. Instead most view the Emperor as a father figure than as a God. The Ecclesiarchy allows this since, in a manner of speaking, it's true that the Emperor is their father and they're not stupid enough to start a holy war against one of the most powerful military assets the Imperium has to offer; not to mention that few priests have the sheer balls to argue faith with a ten foot tall giant in heavy armor, although anyone else who denies the divinity of the Emperor is fair game. Well, that and claiming that the Emperor's own Angels can't view him as a man and not a god would be blatant heresy so their own followers would rip them to shreds with their bare-hands. Still, as a show of good faith, the Ecclesiarchy presents [[Rosarius|Rosariuses]] to [[Chaplain]]s to demonstrate the supposed relationship between the Imperial Cult and the ancient spiritual traditions of the Astartes. The only exemption are the Iron Fathers of the [[Iron Hands]], who worship the Machine God of the Mechanicus instead, something that bitterly annoys the Ecclesiarchy.