Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

== Hive Worlds ==

Imperium is more Art Deco than Gothic in this canon, mimicking vague memories of the grace and absolution of their old technology, so it's aging structures would produce a megalithic Great Depression vibe. I imagine many golden Aquila and skulls would be replaced with gleaming winged humanoids and more varied sculptural conceits devised to fit the ship. The Mechanicus would still provide the hash, mechanical Gothic aesthetics. The millennia the high imperial architecture has stood would produce an appearance of grandly ornamented superstructures studding garden continents, all falling into dilapidation and disrepair but still populated, still functional, and in some places retaining the old luster and gleam, though mostly the beauty of the average imperial city is int graceful aging, being as fine to live in copper green, grown over with ancient trees, and covered with moss as they are in gleaming brass and stark, beautiful architecture. 

As the original, gracefully implemented systems have failed installations needed to either develop the technical know how to maintain and work their systems or turn to the mechanicus of the hadn't already, often leading to the old mechanicus gothic sort of architecture growing out of cities's technological installations and operations. 
A crusade era hive may now look almost like a lonely mountain, terraced with forest and tarnished but gleaming city and ringed with great chasms to its inner metropolis, great men and women in adamantine cast discernible as pillars supporting decks of mountainside, and spires of grey mechanicus machinery emerging from is sides, tending to the ancient generators and automanufactoties. The outlying country still bears the mark of Perturbo or some other artist of continents hand, and still bear monumental arcades and vista spanning leisure gardens, long since put to more practical use or left to grow wild.

Hive Worlds are still polluted and horrible to live in, but not out of indifference. The Imperial era ones are derived from Perty's genius designed hives on Old Earth and the pre-Imperial ones had substantial work done on them. It's still quite shit because 10,000+ years of war economy will do that but it's out of necessity this time rather than indifference. The Imperium would love to renovate the Hive Worlds, but lacks the resources, knowledge, or time to be able to do so. Plus figuring out the reasoning behind anything created by Perturabo is a Herculean feat in and of itself. A lot of the "dark" aesthetic from mainstream Imperium hives in this timeline is supposed to be from a Great Depression-esque aesthetic. Bold and powerful designs that in economically active areas can still shine with its old glory, but which in many areas has become tarnished and fallen by the wayside because society doesn't have the resources to repair them.