A second civil war in the IOM

[hongi]

The GEoM dies, but not before telling AdMech how to bait, trap and use Enslavers to power the Astronomicon (please ignore the unrealistic mechanics of such a thing, I just need the astronavigation to keep working). The Imperium is swept by panic, desertion and even rebellion. It is a bloody interregnum, and one that the SM chapters see as a dark forewarning for the period to come. With the God-Emperor no longer at the helm, the internecine squabbling and corruption will worsen, and the weight of decrepit beaureucracy will eat at the Imperium from the inside out.

The fate of the Imperium must rest in the hands of the God-Emperor's chosen sons, so that even as the High Lords of Terra publically take on the mantle of the leaders of humanity, the Space Marines plan a civil war.

How does it turn out? Do planets join the Space Marines? Is there defection in the ranks of the Imperial Guard and Navy? Who do the Mechanicus throw their support behind?

[Kuroji]

The Imperium shatters like a brittle sheet of ice in a pothole being run over by a car.

However, this does not necessarily mean that it ends up staying that way. Initially it will be 'every man for themselves' to a certain extent, but this will cause a lot of problems as far as chaos cults and active invasion attempts by Chaos; they might even secure a good number of worlds for themselves. Chances are, however, that you'll get a number of alliances rising from the ashes, if not smaller empires outright -- a lot will inevitably embrace the possibility of advancing science (not to mention advancing the friggin plot) while others will try to find better ways to use the warp safely. Still others will seek refuge under the banners of space marines as their protectors, and instead of constantly running around the galaxy, the marines will be acting either as governments or militaries outright.

Ultramarines will likely carve out their own empire, they have one in all but name already.

It'll depend on how well they can do all of this, but you'll see a little of everything between all the factions. Including some that'll fall to chaos for the sake of maintaining order. (Yeah, that'll work out real well.)

The real winner in this situation will be the non-human civilizations. Except the Tau anyway because they'll run into a giant wall of smurfs... but the Eldar will have more easily manipulable human factions around their space that they might be able to use for various ends, and basically anyone else who finds that they're not suddenly being subject to the old 'purge the xeno' policy might be able to pool their own resources.

The real loser in this situation is the entire galaxy, because without a unified Imperium, resisting the Tyranid invasion is going to be all but impossible, unless the Necrons decide to engage them more directly than they ever have. Otherwise the galaxy is kind of screwed.

[2000AD]

Out of interest what's to stop the High Lords covering it up? You say "With the God-Emperor no longer at the helm" but frankly he isn't at the helm right now, he's a cripple in life support, the High Lords run things in his name, and his only definate contribution to the IoM currently, the Atronomicon, is conviniently taken care of in the scenario in the OP.

And a slight nit pick, there's already been a second civil war (at least one) namely High Lord Vandire's attempt to take over the in the Age of Apostasy.

[Commander Xillian]

So, assume there's a THIRD Civil war, let's break it down... In an Arbitrary system that is.

Currently: From the books and the like, the Imperium is roughly the same size it was and has always been before the Horus Heresy, with little marked loss of land. Tyranids are coming in, and we can assume that the TRUE hive fleet is on it's way. Then, we've got to factor in constant Necron/Eldar/Chaos raids. After this, infighting and beurocracy. Finally, we must add in the Necrons.

I'd say that's a... 10,000 on the "Oh Fuck"-a-meter right there. Let's say the IoM is.. 100% whole.

So to begin, let's divide it by... Let's say five. The segmentums begin to drift apart drastically. Not looking good... Now, we have to factor in the unlikelyhood of groups such as the Ecleasiarchy staying around without their faith to help everyone. After this, they'd likely become isolated. That's open to debate. The Space Marines would very well and likely keep up the good fight.. So let's add about 10 to our meter. Now we have to contend with what is best explained as the pomp of imperial life, something that wouldn't change Emperor dead or rotting. So that's Beurocracy, which would likely divide things up more or less into thirds, but there would still be some unity... Hopefully.
So, that would but us at roughly...

nine and two thirds Of the Imperium remaining, the rest splintering into roughly equal parts. So we have, roughly, nine seperate Human-centered entities all looking out for themselves.

On an arbitrary scale. Bullshit aside, I think that's a pretty good idea of roughly the scale of things splintering, things would shatter damn quickly into very small slices of a large cake, leaving everyone sad.

[Jeremy]

What could the Orks do in against the Tyranids?

[Commander Xillian]

Hmm...

well, again' let's break this down.

Source material states that as Waaagh!'s grow in size, so to do their reproduction rates. Not sure where the individual source was, I think it was something DoW involved, so Canon is dubious..

Let's move on.. Orks also have a connection to the Warp, something they seem to generate like static electricity, which could, if the Orks are in a sufficiently large WAAAGH! over power the Shadow of the Hivemind, allowing the Orks to send the Rippers and lesser Hivebeasts into a frenzy of killing, nearly on-par with the Orks. Last bit is merely speculation.

Also, Ork's are very powerful melee creatures, and built to withstand much, much punishment. They're primitive, and through the power of happy thoughts can make anything from anything, even turning a string, pair of scissors, a finger and some scrap into a working Deff Gun.

So, all in all, a pretty good chance. Provided, they'd still be butchered in the three-way end-war between Necrons and Tyranids... But still. They'd do some major damage to both parties.

[Covenant]

Don't be so hasty. The Ork can't actually "die out" so long as they hold the planet, and if they hold the planet then the Nids basically benefit nothing from it because they aren't harvesting the biomass. And while Ork haven't changed much over the years, there are stories of pre-Heresy Ork Waaghs headed by a Warboss the size of a titan, which was fought with by the Emperor himself with the Custodes at his side. Since there's no Ork Infrastructure that's been lost, unlike the weakening of the IoM, Eldar, and other species, there's nothing saying they couldn't come back to this level of power again.

A battered Eldar manipulating fractured humans as Chaos wets itself in glee, the Tau basically failing to do anything and the Necron ignoring anything with a pulse so long as they can put up their anti-warp Fence, the whole place burning in war, that's good Orky weather. Both the Eldar and the Imperium surmise that the Ork will be running the show some day, and if the Imperium unexpectedly implodes then the Ork might get more than enough time to build up before the nids arrive, and when they do, the green tide might be enough to chew them up as they come. Nids aren't invincible, and while the Ork weakness of being spread out means that they rarely accumulate enough warriors in one area to actually pull a Green Kroo-zade style Waagh, the Nids don't do surgical strikes that much either.

Frankly, the Tyranids are a rather straightforwards enemy that I don't think has the capacity to beat a green galaxy, but in the current map they are more than capable of swamping the place. Assuming there's no longer a functional IoM and that Chaos continues to basically fail at all their major endeavors, you'd be unwise to assume the Ork are going to be on the losing side. While the Eldar are pretty banged up, the Ork were also engineered to battle the Necrons, and it may be that they're up for the job.

[Commander Xillian]

Ah, but we do have to keep in mind that, for the most part, the Necrons won the War in Heaven. And, for the most part, they don't die. I mean, yes, some do get globbed, but they are recycled and turned into a fully functioning Necron later on. So, it's even-keel. But might I add that the Necrons are only about 7% active, and they're already one of the most fearsome armies, In-fluff and on the board.

As for the Orks, the Green Tide is nigh unstoppable, as you said quite eloquently (Middle paragraph made me smile some, nice) however the Tyranids have a whole new Galaxies worth of Biomass, and all it takes is one victory and they regain all their dead, nevermind the additional biomass. So while Orks are awesome stuff, I'm sure that there are still more Tyranid strains out there.

And we must not forget the Tomb Stalkyr! That thing will Fuck! You! UP!

[Feil]

Even without civil war, the Imperium crumbles as a political unit in the space of a few months, and the galaxy falls to chaos and xenos in a century or two. To name only a single issue caused by the loss of the Emperor's presence in the Warp: no soul-binding of Astropaths. No soul-binding, all but the strongest Astropaths get eaten by daemons. No astropaths, no communication except by messenger boat. No communication, no galaxy-spanning empire. Quite frankly, the only hope for the galaxy is if the Eldar decide to give humanity access to their own means of trans-galactic communication.

[Commander Xillian]

And as we all know, the Eldar are Dicks.

Especially Eldrad. They'd give us access to the Webway, only to guide us into the Daemon-killing Clowns that seem to fester in there..

[Night_stalker]

yeah, they're pricks like that.

[Commander Xillian]

Copy-Pasta for great justice.




Probably not very classy... But still, funny all the same. Especially considering that what you THINK is going to happen, is more than likely not going to happen. Even remotely.

[Night_stalker]

Yeah, jsut replace the lollipop with a grenade, and it would be accurate.

[Commander Xillian]

Ah, but that Lolipop, is not a lolipop. It's actually scented to attract Orks, and once ingested will cause one to crap out live Ork spores. However, this is not the end of Eldrad's dickery. Twenty years later, when the Tau are driven off world by the Emperor's Servants, those spores will mature into real Orks, who will raise up a WAAAGH so large it would go on to raid Armageddon.

And all of that, was to ensure that Commissar Yarrick's coffee would splash up into his face during the crusade.

Just as Planned.

[Jeremy]

Are Chaos supposed to be really tough?

[Night_stalker]

Wouldn't put it past them.

[Commander Xillian]

Are Chaos supposed to be really tough?

Chaos-Infused things do tend to be better than the vanilla-standard object, yes, however it is a double-edged sword as corruption from Chaos tends to make one more susceptible to Nulls or Sactified weapons.