An Imperium Alone (RAR!)

[Zor]

In this scenario, the entirety of the Imperium of Man is one day scooped up and transported into a parallel universe. And by the way, this universe is basically the universe that they wanted to be in as until their arrival (at least the milky way and the surrounding cluster) completely devoid of sapient life. The most advanced creatures are the evolutionary equvielents of Tiktaalik of said worlds. There is something subtly diferent of the warp, which basically means that Chaos Gods can't form. Any necrons that were unwittingly brought alone shall remain dormant. The Eldar had enough forsight to get their people off Imperial Worlds.

There was only one casualty of the transition, the Emperor. He does not ascend to godhood or cause a warp storm or anything silly like that, he just quietly expires exausted from the effort of making sure that no one else was harmed during the transition.

What happens to the Imperium?

Zor

[KhorneFlakes]

Well, I suspect that the more fanatical elements of the Imperium will be in uproar. With the EMPRAH dead, a lot of religious imperials will probably be shaken. I wouldn't be surprised if the Inquisition went on a witchhunt for suspected EMPRAH-killers.

Meanwhile, a number of SPESS MURHREEN chapters go batshit, because their father is dead.

[Number Theoretic]

Balkanization, almost instantly. Because not only the Emperor, the most important binding element of Imperial culture and religion is gone, but also a common enemy. Expect civil war breaking out between every Space Marine Chapter or any Imperial Guard regiment who had beefs with other units in the past.

In the long term however, i suspect that the Adeptus Mechanicus is in a strong position: their religion is somewhat independent from standard Imperial cult, they don't have to deal with the problem that their god is dead and they have control over the Imperium's most advanced technology.

[Purple]

So the emperor is dead? Would anyone even know? I admit my fluff is out of date but is there any real reason why the fact could not be concealed from most if not all the people in the Imperium? I mean sure the Custodes would know, and maybe the High Lords but that's it.

After all, most people in the IOM have no way of knowing one way or the other anyway as they have no signal from the Emperor what or ever. And the few psyhers, navigators and similar folk that can sense the Astronomicon could easily be told that without chaos in this new world the emperor simply chose not to burden him self with it any more. And that is if he is the one maintaining it and not the hordes of psyhers they sacrifice to it each day. The only other manifestations of imperial power are very few and far betwen like say living saints. And these again would be easily retconed as something no longer needed in this peaceful world.

As for having no external enemies any more I ask you again why should the people be told? Most people and indeed planet or even sector governors don't get any more information than they need to anyway. For all they know and would be told what they are experiencing is just a momentary pause and nothing more.

So my prediction is that no one is told. The imperial cult goes on as usual. The IOM becomes a safer place but remains much the same. The various chaos cults, xeno vorshipers and the like would continue praying to what ever they want only to get as much attention as they did before from their patrons (as in, not much or in this case none at all) but who would believe them? And things go on as usual.

[bilateralrope]

With the Astronomicon gone, warp travel has been significantly slowed. How many planets will starve when their food shipments don't arrive on time ?

How many planets will declare themselves independent when they realise they have more time to fortify themselves against any reprisal ?
How many of them will get away with it ?

The Imperium will fall apart.

[Number Theoretic]

The question of whether it would make any difference if the emperor died or not is interesting. After all, he is in an unconscious stasis state anyway and the day-to-day government operations of the Imperium are run by other people. I suspect that these people will have the strongest interest in maintaining the status quo but they can't do that forever. Rumors have a way of spreading that is very difficult to contain and as soon as there is no common enemy, some planets may see little reason to stay in the Imperium.
Bottom line: i think the Imperium will balkanize, but how fast and into which fractions remains an open question.

[Zixinus]

The real question is the Astronomicon (Sp?). That is not only one of the most direct manifestations of the Emperor, but also the basis of the Empire.

If the Astronomicon fails due to the Emperor's death, the whole Imperium will fall apart.

If not, then the Imperium has a chance in hell to survive.

Neither possibility will go without civil wars (or even much larger wars) erupting or everyone going batshit (which may not be much of a change of mind for some). Every power play (such as between the Navigators) will go unleashed, meaning that there will be a lot of blood.

Also, there is one very disturbing and frigtening question: what about the Trynanids and the Orks? Infiltrated planets and whatnot will probably come along and Orks cannot be completely wiped out (at least, the Imperium hasn't managed it) without destroying the very world they pop up on.
Unless these go magically away, the Imperium might manage to just shift focus a bit and go on its endless wars all over. Sure, without the Hive Fleet, the genestealers are less of a threat but are still dangerous. Orks can still manage to build up armies, although they start at a disadvantage.

In an ideal transition, the Space Marine chapters would still have something useful to do. The question is, will they.

[Connor MacLeod]

Without the Emperor, several important things the Imperium relies upon cease to be a factor:

1.) The Astronomican is gone. 2.) Astrotelepathy no longer works as designed. 3.) The Emperor's Tarot doesn't work. 4.) The Emperor is no longer holding closed the warp portal the Golden Throne is linked to. 5.) The Emperor can no longer provide any shielding/protection from adverse effects of the warp.

Point one is up for debate: It depends entirely on what the state of the warp is. without daemons to mess it up, it is arguably 'calmer', and so it should be at least possible to navigate with some level of effect. It is at least possible to set up an alternate means for navigators to home in on (that's what astropathic relays are, after all.) But it would take time to put into place.

Point 2. Is actually a bigger problem, becuase interstellar communications are an even more important factor unifying the Imperium. And without the Emperor

Point 3.) Probably not as important as others, it still is a complication because Tarot divination is a significant from of prediction for the Imperium.

Point 4.) is up in the air. Even if there are no more daemons around, having raw warp blast out onto Terra is not exactly a good thing. What would happen I wouldn't know, but its going to have adverse effects on Terra (and the High Lords, Navigators and the like, although with interstellar communications at least temporarily severed that isn't going to be a problem.) It could have nasty effects for Terra but every other system out there won't immediatley suffer for it.

Point 5.) is perhaps the least important. The Emperor is no longer around to guide/support or reinforce psykers, nor is his plan to shepherd humanity into the psychic Golden Age no longer under his control (and noone else knows about it anyohw.) Again this may not be a big issue because daemons are no longer a problm (and presumably nor are other warp predators like Enslavers) but its still possible for psykers to fuck up in other ways (Draw too muhc power, go crazy etc.)

[Purple]

With the Astronomicon gone, warp travel has been significantly slowed.

How so? I thought the only reason why humans needed it was becouse it was a safe beacon to guide them through a turbulent and dangerous warp. In this scenario, there are no chaos gods and presumably no serious demons. Hence the warp is clear and safe so arguably it is not needed any more. And that is assuming the whole it's actually powered by all those sacrificed psyhers thing has been retconed away since I last checked (quite possible).

1.) The Astronomican is gone.

As I said, not such a big deal as it might seem without chaos to pose a danger to warp travelers.

2.) Astrotelepathy no longer works as designed.

I have to ask why. Arguably with no danger in the warp to make psyhic powers unsafe the galaxy would see a renaissance of telepathy and not its death.

3.) The Emperor's Tarot doesn't work.

Is it really that important to offset all the benefits of this situation thou?

4.) The Emperor is no longer holding closed the warp portal the Golden Throne is linked to.

Considering the OP mentions no Chaos Gods so would there really be a serious presence to actually make said portal a danger? I mean, for all we know no Chaos Gods might mean no demons and the portal could just be bared up by a geller field.

5.) The Emperor can no longer provide any shielding/protection from adverse effects of the warp.

Again, with no chaos gods to speak off would the greatest danger in the warp (the gods and more importantly their offshoot demons) be eliminated? Under such conditions the warp might not be any more dangerous than a turbulent sea.

[Ahriman238]

Well, the Emperor is an integral part of the astropathic process, each aspiring astropath is brought before the Emperor and "soul-bonded" with Him. This protects Astropaths from corruption (which won't be needed) and boosts their powers so they can make contact at vast ranges, which is. I suspect without the Emperor you'd have merely sector-range astropaths, and have to pass messages down a long and uncertain chain.

The Astronomicon, being a fixed reference point does allow navigation of dangerous Warp Storms. It also removes the need to drop into sublight every so often, fix your position, and have the Navigator head off on his best guess of the appropriate direction and distance. It's a huge time-saver, and one of the few lasting improvements the Imperium can claim over it's DoaT predecessor.

Without external enemies, the Imperium either balkanizes or turns inward. Without the pressing need for survival, more weapons, more soldiers etc. people will start wondering why their lives have to be so crappy. The Inquisition and Arbites and other mechanisms of state will try to clamp down on anything vaguely rebellious, and will likely succeed in the short term. Long term, the forecast is poor.

Of course, it will take a very long time for to confirm that ALL the alien menacces and Dark Gods are gone. Longer still for people to believe it, and to believe that they're gone for good.

[lordofchange13]

1.) The Astronomican is gone.

As I said, not such a big deal as it might seem without chaos to pose a danger to warp travelers.

From my understanding of fluff: it's not so much chaos gods being the reason for the Astronomican, it instead acts as a sort of northern star so that star ships can tell which direction they need to travel, this is needed because the realm of chaos is... chaotic.

The heavily oppressed masses will rise up against the asshole leaders!

[NecronLord]

The Astronomicon is not necessarily gone. The Heresy artbooks confirm that it is a machine and that only due to the influence of the warp storms during the heresy (IE the chaos gods) did the Emperor have to personally link with it. If that machine still operates, then the lack of chaos gods would cancel out the lack of Emperor.

[Simon_Jester]

As for having no external enemies any more I ask you again why should the people be told? Most people and indeed planet or even sector governors don't get any more information than they need to anyway. For all they know and would be told what they are experiencing is just a momentary pause and nothing more.

So my prediction is that no one is told. The imperial cult goes on as usual. The IOM becomes a safer place but remains much the same. The various chaos cults, xeno vorshipers and the like would continue praying to what ever they want only to get as much attention as they did before from their patrons (as in, not much or in this case none at all) but who would believe them? And things go on as usual.

Chaos cults and xeno-worshippers often got real, tangible attention- you can in fact summon demons in 40k by chanting.

As to the rest, the Imperium will start to fall apart very quickly- not because God-Emperor reverence disappears, but because the ruling elite of the Imperium (the informed few, the inquisitors, the Space Marine leadership, the seniormost military officers and governors) will see no harm in outwardly revering the God-Emperor while doing whatever the hell they want.

The main thing holding the Imperium together is the need for collective defense against outside attack. The complex, quasi-feudal, decentralized structure of government would break up into a loose confederation of much smaller states if it weren't for the routine need to squawk for help from half way across the galaxy.

[Purple]

Chaos cults and xeno-worshippers often got real, tangible attention- you can in fact summon demons in 40k by chanting.

The serious ones do. But my guess would be that for every serious cultist there is a lot more idiots painting them self with blood or what not and not really getting the whole picture while only registering a "who gives a shit" on their chosen gods priority list. And those serious enough to actually get attention and get noticed by their gods of choice are the ones least likely to come forward and inform the holy inquisition of it.

As to the rest, the Imperium will start to fall apart very quickly- not because God-Emperor reverence disappears, but because the ruling elite of the Imperium (the informed few, the inquisitors, the Space Marine leadership, the seniormost military officers and governors) will see no harm in outwardly revering the God-Emperor while doing whatever the hell they want.

Don't they do that already? I mean, as far as I remember empy has not exactly been big on talking in the last 10kyears.