Illegal Activities and Crime

There are many crimes that a citizen can commit. As noted in the Law and Order section each world has its own local laws in addition to the Imperial Law designating high crimes, policed by the Adeptus Arbites. The majority of Imperial citizens do their best not to stray and breach the law, fear keeps them in line; but desperation can often drive a citizen to break local laws. Sometimes this is simply to feed their family, sometimes it is abuse of restricted substances to escape from the horrors of their waking world. Imperial Law has no mercy for offenders - regardless of their reasoning, the Lex Imperialis is cold and uncaring.

Common Infractions

Theft is by far the most common crime in the Imperium, especially among lowborn citizens. Though the Imperial State provides basic welfare for its citizens, its inefficiency in delivery means that many lowborn citizens barely scrape the resources they need to survive. The majority of thefts are from the workplace, designated as ‘misappropriation of Imperial resources’, but there are plenty of selfish individuals who steal from others in order to survive. The majority of thefts are investigated by planetary law enforcement, known colloquially as ‘Enforcers’. However, major thefts such as mass looting of Administratum Supply depots or weapons thefts are handled directly by the Adeptus Arbites who come down harshly on any major challenges to Imperial authority like these.

Violent crimes are a particularly common problem; riots can be commonplace and in the lower sections of society communities often form into criminal gangs that war for control of various resources. So long as Imperial servants are not directly attacked the Imperium tends to look upon these local conflicts as something to be monitored rather than stopped; situations that spiral out of control lead to clampdowns, but the Imperium has been known to pressgang violent criminals into Imperial Guard units in order to redirect their violent tendencies.

Common minor infractions tend to be focused around lack of official paperwork and sanction; ownership of a firearm, for example, is crime within the Imperium without proper authorisation, usually limited to the rich and those who have done military service, or those in active service to the Imperium in one of its branches. Travelling without proper paperwork is another common crime, as is failure to report to designated work areas or keep to state mandated work schedules.

Smuggling and the Black Market

Without taking the risk of theft, acquiring luxuries and other resources through legitimate channels is difficult for most lowborn citizens. Despite the notable risks in illict ownership of a firearm, there are many reasons for a citizen to want to get their hands on one for self defence, between the constant threats of crime, invasion and aggressive wildlife. The black markets of the Prosperitas Sector are filled with individuals willing to purchase illegally acquired goods

Of all the things on the black market, paperwork is the most commonly sold item. In an Imperium where so many parts of daily life depend entirely on Administratum approvals, stolen and forged paperwork makes it easier for a citizen to overcome the horrendous bureaucracy involved in the most basic of freedoms. There is always a risk, however; the Administratum might seem a dull organisation but it has no mercy when it comes to illegal documentation - ownership and creation of such things is a crime handled directly by the Arbites.

Smuggling goods onto a world is a challenge. Few smugglers have the wealth to own a void ship - the majority operate like parasites in the underbellies of legitimate void ships. It is a major concern for shipboard security of Naval and Trader vessels, and for traders, perceived laxity with smugglers can be mean the loss of a license.

Controlled Substances

The Imperium is flooded with all manner of controlled substances that are often abused by Citizens. In a galaxy riven with horrors, and the pressure that everyday work quotas and shifts place on the average underclass labourer - it is unsurprising that many would find some form of escape in imbibing chems (drugs) the most common of which is alcohol.

The Imperium is well aware of this need, and many chems have their origins in Imperial manufacture and can often be readily prescribed by Imperial Medicae to soldiers and labourers alike. The Imperium sees the value in a population that are too subdued by chems to rise up against its rule. But it is where these commonly available prescribed substances no longer give the escape a Citizen needs that the shadowy clades of alchemists that work alongside the criminal powers of the Prosperitas Sector provide a 'new' escape - and these substances can have a deadly effect both on the abuser and those around them, where they are not properly regulated.

The legality of various substances varies from planet to planet, those recorded beneath are the most commonly encountered substances currently restricted and controlled across the Prosperitas Sector.

Alcohol

Alcohol has been a substance that has lived with humanity since their ancestors first discovered the effect of drinking the juices of fermented fruits. The Imperium is not free from it at all though some worlds have attempted to outlaw it the majority of the Imperium continues to imbibe it. Organic alchohols tend to be more common and popular but require life-supporting worlds or arcology infrastructures capable of growing plants or supporting pollinating arthropods - it tends to be the domain of Guild production and is therefor often quite expensive though on some worlds cheaply produced organic alchohols are possible where production is widespread. Alcosynths tend to be both more common, where produced by Imperial authorities they are almost universally unpopular and bland - illegally produced Alcosynths are rife, produced in illegal breweries, are often cut with more potent substances making them potent at the cost of the users health and life.

Alcohol comes in many varieties across the Imperium, and though illegal production is persecuted by Joy and Alchemists Guilds the majority of legal restrictions on citizens surrounding alcohol are practical ones. Citizens are permitted to imbibe only a set quantity of such drink and being found drunk in a public place is usually illegal outside of Imperial festivals. Both in Imperial Manufactorums and the Military being found drunk on shift or on duty can have severe punishments - for example the recommended punishment for finding someone drunk 'on watch' in both the Navy and the Guard amongst the Officio Praefectus, is to make an example of the individual's failure of duty by summary execution, a rarely exercised punishment but one well known enough to make warriors of the Imperium cautious about their use of drink.

Within the Prosperitas Sector a few forms of alcohol are present, both legal and illegal;

Amasec, is the name for a widespread family of Imperial alcohols, a wine distillate similar to brandy it is often regarded as the drink of the nobility. This reputation is largely undeserved as it is relatively cheaply produced, but has served to make Chartist interests involved in the production and bottling of it very wealthy indeed. Its reputation means that it is often given as a gift to Military Officers by their Superiors as a reward for good service, and allows it to command a price that vastly exceeds the cost to produce it. Within the Prosperitas Sector, in recent centuries however Amasec production has become harder - the majority of worlds capable of producing grape crops in the sector are on the fringes of subsector Tenebris and warp surges have begun to taint crops there to make them dangerous to imbibe. Though the flow of trade from out-sector more than compensates for the loss of 'Prosperitas-produced' reserves, this has not stopped illegal use of tainted crops in production, pursuit of such bottles of Amasec has become an Inquisition concern because rumours of unusual side-effects of imbibing these illegal reserves have made them sought-after despite the fact that these effects are often warp-induced deleriums.

Rotgut is almost a counterpart term to Amasec in the Imperium, while Amasec might be the most 'venerated' form of drink in the Imperium, every planet has its own Rotgut. Be it an alchosynth or of organic origin every word has its own unique local recipe of rotgut. Something that one can get for a handful of labour-chits that on some worlds in its most watered down variety is preferable to drinking from the water supply as it at least sterilises some of the worst quality water. Though Letifer Secundus has as many Rotguts as it has hive clusters, Four Fingered Kiss is perhaps one of the most proscribed rotguts in the sector using a heady mix of local toxins to enhance legally produced alcosynths into a drink so potent that it must be drunk in small quantities otherwise it will cause near-instantaneous liver failure.

Tranq completes three most common drinks in the Imperium, an Imperial-produced alcosynth - Drinking tranq numbs the body and mind, which provides a very different feeling than being drunk on amasec, rotgut, or other spirits. Though similar in the end result, the effects of tranq are unpleasant, depressive, and require an acquired taste.

Jad originates from the prison-mines of the ice planet Lubyanka, a spirit often described as 'as close to pure alcohol as scum think they can get away with drinking' - it has been introduced to the Prosperitas Crusade by Lubyankan Penal Legionaries and has become the widespread popular drink of the enlisted Guardsman. Created by fermenting corpse starch ration packs in a mix of commonly available chems the drink is relatively accessible from a standard guardsman's supplies and a bit of ingenuity. It is heavily frowned upon by the Officio Praefectus and often seen as an expression of defiance given it is in excess of rationed alchohol.

Uisge-beatha is a native spirit in the North-Eastern regions of the Sector; it is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash; many planets have their own variations of differing potency and taste depending on how long it is allowed to ferment, the grains used and method of filtration. Though not explicitly illegal its ties to the Ruwwadi ethnic group have seen more close-minded worlds seek to stamp it out as a product as part of the process of Imperial colonisation of the native sector population.

Llaeth Mwd is the Annwfyn drink of choice, a sweet drink produced from the food product of several hive-based insectoid species in the Prosperitas Sector, usually requiring the digging up of subterranean hive nests to take the product from them the sweet produce is fermented to produce this sweet drink as a bounty 'of the land' by the Annwfyn.

Chems

Chems is generally a catch-all term that the Imperium applies to most non-alchohol drugs - the majority of the legal variants can be found in the Medical Treatment section but this section refers heavily to the controlled substances most commonly abused in the Prosperitas Sector. As noted above, chem use is not always illegal if prescribed by a medicae, but many are unable to access these and seek a greater 'escape' provided by other, less legal, substances.

Lho Leaf is a popular substance across the Prosperitas Sector and the Imperium proper. The original home world of this plant is unknown but crops have spread across the Imperium, including the Prosperitas Sector. The Lho Leaf, when smoked, produces a mild psychoactive effect that in most individuals induces a state of calm and relaxation. Crops are tightly controlled by the Imperium, and manufactured ‘Lho-sticks’ are considered a standard part of Guard and Naval rations. Civilian purchase of Lho-sticks is considered a luxury however, so there are many unscrupulous individuals who grow unsanctioned Lho crops or illegally produce Lho sticks for cheaper prices than sanctioned sticks are sold for. The Imperium has good reason to clamp down upon them - Lho-leaf grown in the wrong environment can be toxic or produce more dangerous effects, and many illicit Lho-sticks are cut with other dangerous substances.

Frenzon and Onslaught are both officially tightly controlled Imperial Military 'Combat Drugs' prescribed to troopers to heighten their aggression, inducing a psychotic state where the individuals natural reactions to pain and psychological terror are all but nullified. In truth the formulas for both drugs, especially Onslaught, more commonly called 'Slaught, have disseminated widely, used to enhance pitfighters for legal gladitorial games and abused by gangers on worlds where utraviolence is the norm. Prosperitan 'Slaught is of specific interest to the Ordo Xenos who believe it is enhanced by a cocktail of Xenos-equivalent drugs producing even more pronounced effects including steroid-like muscle growth and enhanced reactions.

Stimms are fairly commonly proscribed to keep workers and soldiers awake and active during gruelling shift cycles and military campaigns but they are also known to be highly addictive and it is very hard to get off them once you develop a dependency. Where users fail to get access to them legally they most often turn to criminal gangs who sell a variety of illegally crafted stimms to those who cannot escape the high often using them to draw them onto more dangerous recreational chems.

Performance Enhancers are, in fact, one of the most commonly abused substances - while many in the Imperium turn to caffeinated substances like Recaf the demands placed upon Imperial workers are intense. Physical performance enhancements are rarer and most turn towards cybernetics, but those intended to boost brain power and focus are heavily abused in the lower ranks of the Adeptus Administratum. This is a rampant problem as it often leads to blackmail of Administratum scribes by the underworld figures using them. The most dangerous of these in the Prosperitas sector is a neurobooster called Cortexin - sold to the unwary as a synthetic chemical, the Ordo Xenos believes this to actually be harvested from the fluid sacks of the jellyfish-like Xenos of the Cascade - thus poluting the body with xenos biology.

Dryzate comes in a little glass vial, and is the cause of much conflict between its pushers, often known as 'Grave Robbers' and the Corpse Guilds of the Prosperitas Sector. Extracted from the chemicals produced by the human body near death it is both a painkiller and a hallucinogen. Some claim that taking it gives them 'glimpses' of seeing into the afterlife making it popular amongst proscribed Death Cults and a concern for the Ordo Malleus. It is placed into a gun like a battery which is then injected somewhere around the users anatomy - the experience induced is sometimes called a 'spark' and takes the user to a state where they can endure all manner of surgery.

Black Mercy has been a problematic substance in the Sector, derived from the neurotoxin pollen of a carnivorous vine from Midsummer of the same name - small doses are known to increase neural pliability of the user, making them more suggestable while producing sense of euphoria. Though not particularly common in its raw form outside of its origin world traces of it have been synthetically laced into numerous other illegal substances in order to increase the pliability of whole populations. The Ordo Hereticus has firm evidence that this originated the result of the renegade Cardinal Grulge's schemes, but the fact that it continued in circulation suggests that others have taken over production of it. Black Mercy is all the more terrifying because when taken in a high enough dose it is lethal causing the complete cease of neurological functions.

Deepweed is harvested from the lightless depths of Kydos, this aquatic plant is easy to smuggle offworld from the agri-world as it looks and smells like much of the standard aquatic produce from the planet, dried and smoked or consumed the weed produces incredibly vivid and twisted hallucinations and a sense of euphoria rumoured to be extrasensory in nature, it is deemed a moral threat to Imperial citizens and has a destroy-on-discovery order against it.

Obscura is a widespread illegal substance across the breadth of the Segmentum - it produces a pleasant dream-like state which lasts a few hours, but then turns into a deep depression once it wears off unless another dose is taken. It is highly addictive and has been known to be smoked and injected directly into the bloodstream. It is found amongst all classes of civilians and military personal in the Imperium and many smugglers make a good living by importing and selling the illegal substance. Obscura-den's are fairly common in heavily populated areas within Hives, and are notorious for being a frequented area by the less-desirables found in every hive.

Somna is another Segmentum-scale problem - a highly addictive substance that's primary centre for manufacture in the Prosperitas Sector was the former Hives of Korimesta it has become far less available since the sanction of that world which has been a cause for significant disturbances as addicts find their supplies drying up and find themselves preyed upon by criminals offering them dangerous and sometimes heretical alternatives.

Illegal Activities

In addition to approved and sanctioned recreational activities there are a number of activities unsanctioned by the Imperium that citizens have been known to participate in, in contravention of the law. The majority of these are simply attending unsanctioned venues where popular events such as pit-fights are more savage than the legally licenced venues, attending an unlicensed bar or speakeasy, or engaging in unlicensed races. Imperial law prevents unsanctioned gatherings of more than a certain number of individuals so many secret concerts and raves where unsanctioned electronically produced music is played are hot spots of sociable young Citizens, and often targeted heavily by the Adeptus Arbites.

The listening to and possession of uncensored music is also considered a crime in the Imperium, and Imperial law prevents unsanctioned gatherings of more than a certain number of individuals. However many underground concerts and raves were uncensored music is listened to, and popular spots where ‘clubbing’ occurs that are hot spots for sociable young citizens and simultaneously heavily targeted by Enforcers and Arbites. Even ‘ironically’ attending a club where the music played is deemed rebellious or heretical is considered a crime by the Enforcers.

Climbing urban structures and religious locations, the latter of which is considered a minor heresy in the eyes of Imperial law is a regular activity that breaches the law; a handful of young citizens die every cycle attempting to climb the monolithic architecture built by the Imperium to impress their peers.

Because of the sheer variation of local laws, many different things are deemed illegal, but citizens have been known to breach law for enjoyment and personal pleasure.

Genetic Crimes

The genetic purity of mankind is an obsession of the Imperium; there are a myriad of genetic tests for purity. You can read more about the genetically impure here. But there are several crimes a Citizen can commit surrounding this matter that have harsh sentences, including exile and being stripped of citizen status.

Despite the fact that Imperial genetic and biological sciences are quite advanced, the Imperium has a certain obsession with maintaining what it refers to as the 'Terran' form of purity, the concept that there are inviolable features of an individual that, if altered, make them 'inhuman' is core to the belief of the Imperium of a set definition of human. In a universe where the Imperium has encountered offshoots of humanity it labels abhumans or mutants and treats them as inferior to pure humans, even where their natural abilities outstrip those of regular humans, the crime of 'polluting the genetic purity of mankind' is a sinister and cruel one.

This law exists to punish 'humans' who dare to mingle with ahumans or mutants, it is nothing less then effective excommunication from humanity for daring to mingle what is seen as 'pure' human blood with that of a creature defined under Imperial law as little more then chattel. Where it is applied to mutants and abhumans it is an effective death sentence for breaching the segregation and strict laws around reproduction these underclasses experience.

It is also a crime to conceal your own mutations and then go on to have children, relatively more common but still relatively rare given the efficiency of genetic screening. However there have been a number of unique cases where this charge has been levied because of crimes relating to genetic manipulation. The Imperium is concerned exclusively with significant deviation away from the homo sapiens pattern and the strange mutations that arise on distant planets and in the holds of starships; any genetic variation familiar from 21st century Earth falls well below the threshold of “mutation” and accepted without question.

Unsanctioned Gene-Modding and Biological Alteration are rare crimes because the knowledge to alter the human form rarely exists outside of the most powerful Genetors of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Officio Medicae. But where it does exist back-alley gene-forgers and bio-modders are dangerous and hunted individuals because they seek to pervert the human form against sanctioned and agreed templates. Those who make use of these services are often considered to be 'consensually mutating' their forms and are often brutally executed alongside those who have performed the changes on them.

Organised Crime

Organised crime is a constant challenge for Local Enforcers and the Adeptus Arbites. The majority of crimes are committed by individuals, as the constant and brutal vigilance of the Arbites means it is very difficult for criminals to organise. Any large and organised enough criminal gang is treated as posing as much threat to Imperial stability as a rebel movement or a heretical cult, and the Arbites do not need anything more than suspicion to brutally crack down on individuals they suspect of orchestrating a large criminal empire. That is not to say that such syndicates do not exist, but that only the smartest and toughest survive for long. The most successful criminals maintain a respectable front to their operations and are ready to jettison any illegal sidelines where they can or go mostly legitimate to get lenience.

Most organised crime therefore exists at the street gang level, which is a particular issue in the underhives of many hive cities, and tends to be territorial. In the Prosperitas Sector, many of the criminal forces which existed prior to M.41 saw the way the wind was blowing when the Imperium invaded and hashed out deals to support its forces. Pirates still prove a problem, some of which work in mixed crews with xenos species, but the majority of the big criminal organisations have respectable fronts to them now.

Rebellion, Sedition and Defiance of Imperial Authority

The Imperium is a harsh totalitarian regime. Freedom is not something enjoyed by Imperial citizens. Freely speaking negatively of Imperial Officials, even grumbling about a work supervisor, is considered sedition. The Imperium is quick to punish these lesser forms of sedition, and can be draconian in the nature of the punishments - it is the belief of Imperial authorities that laxity on minor sedition only allows it to grow.

As noted above, it is against Imperial law for a large crowd to gather without sanctioned purpose (such as attending a Temple of the Imperial Faith), so any form of protest - even silent and peaceful - is considered illegal and relentlessly clamped suppressed. The Adeptus Arbites are well armed with military-grade equipment, so protests and riots are suppressed with swift and brutal efficiency by heavily armed and armoured Arbitrators. They do however happen; often protests will be against working conditions, the strain placed upon a population by Imperial tithes, or the enlistment of soldiers into the Imperial Guard – very few seditionists are heretics, most remain devoted to the God-Emperor but instead see the Imperial institutions as being corrupt and having failed them. Seditionists are often branded at the very minimum, as a mark of shame.

Though the Imperium hunts for the influence of heretical cults and agents of its enemies behind every rebellion, the majority of uprisings against the Imperium are not influenced by outside agents but are instead caused by upset and anger at Imperial and Local authorities and political misrule. Communities, be they a hab-block, city or even planet, that rebel against the Imperium are treated harshly for their failings. Punishments are usually collective, the entire population may be shipped to a penal world if considered of continued use to the Imperium, or see their world turned into one; the Imperium’s punishments for rebellion are creative and public, as examples must always be set.

Within the Prosperitas Sector, outbreaks of rebellion are a common problem facing the Imperial Governors of worlds in the rimward regions of the sector; some of these are heretical, with the organisers being part of Archenemy cults that existed prior to the arrival of the Prosperitas Crusade or unconverted locals who reject the divine rule of the God-Emperor. The majority are disparate settlers and natives on frontier worlds who are angry at what they see as unfair and uncaring demands placed upon them by Imperial tithes levied against their still-developing worlds – arguably this is the cause of the slow advance of the Prosperitas Crusade, as many forces keep on being pulled from the front lines to suppress uprisings and rebellions.

Heresy

“Purge the heretic, beware the psyker and the mutant, abhor the alien”: this is the third tenet of the Imperial Creed. The crime of Heresy is as rigorously policed as any non-metaphysical crime - a heretic poses a moral hazard to their soul and the souls of those around them."

Minor heresies are treated much the same as sedition. Should the soul of the guilty heretic be deemed worthy of redemption they may be branded and condemned to suffer a punishment deemed sufficient to repent for their crime. The worse their moral transgressions the worse the punishment; nearly always these are a form of corporal punishment such as flogging, the removal of body parts or excruciation (torture) - often involving fire, which is seen as purifying in Imperial lore. The nature of minor heresies are varied, from insulting the God-Emperor's name, to singing the Hymns of the Ecclesiarchy incorrectly with deliberate disrespect, to more severe cases like damaging His shrines and holy places and possession of minor heretical texts (such as those belonging to outlawed sects of the Imperial Cult), practice of false religions deemed to pose no direct taint of the Archenemy, or Atheism; these latter two crimes are a common issue in the Prosperitas Sector where many worlds are recent converts to the Imperial creed.

Those guilty of more severe or repeated minor heresies are often sentenced to a state called ‘Repentia’. A Citizen in Repentia is assigned a duty within the Imperium (often within an Ecclesiarchy-overseen penal unit) where they must serve to redeem their souls. Most often this service is fatal to the repentant heretic but redemption in death is seen as infinitely preferable to dying as a Heretic as one's soul is the Emperor’s to take rather than the daemons’.

Major Heresies are so foul that actual knowledge of most the crimes committed is forbidden, worship of the Dark Gods of the Archenemy is the only well known one, these are the crimes exclusively policed by the Inquisition, for which the minimum punishment is death. In extreme cases and often when a heretic is tried in absentia they may be declared Excommunicate Traitoris - meaning they become a hunted target of the Inquisition, a fate few survive for long. In extreme cases where the potential of taint affecting the Heretic could potentially have compromised the souls of those close to them, entire bloodlines, communities and organisations have been declared Excommunicate Traitoris and put to the torch.

Almost all Heretics guilty of major heresy are graphically executed, usually by burning.

Although an equal Heresy, ‘consorting with Xenos’ and ‘conspiracy to pollute Imperial culture’ are crimes worth noting in the Prosperitas Sector. There are a number of minor xenos species found throughout the sector, mostly in the Rimward regions, some of which hide their natural predatory nature through the guise of ‘trade’. The act of willingly engaging with these foul creatures and bringing traded goods into the Imperium is a heresy in and of itself, righteously prosecuted by the Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos.

There is one form of Heresy not policed by the Adeptus Ministorum and the Inquisition, and that is Tech-Heresy. Within the Imperium, most sciences and all technology are the domain of the Machine Cult, the Adeptus Mechanicus. They sanction who is and is not allowed knowledge and rigorously persecute those who stray from their rigorous conservatism regarding the development of new technologies and the manufacture of equipment.

Some argue this stifling control over technology and its classification as ‘heresy’ is a method by which politically the Machine Cult holds onto power, but regardless of seditionist claims, it is their right and duty to prosecute crimes against their creed. The simple act of stripping the cover off a machine without proper sanctioning and ritual is enough to attract the ire of the Tech-Priests of the Cult, and their punishments are various and harsh. Unlike the Imperium the Mechanicus rarely executes so-called ‘hereteks’; usually they are lobotomised and augmented into menial cyborgs known as ‘Servitors’. Often these drones are assigned to duties within the heretek’s home community where they serve as a grisly warning against transgressions against the machine cult.

Heretekical Bionic Modifications are a common problem for the Prosperitas Sector, illegal Tech-Docs operating out of underhive facilities fitting all forms of unsanctioned bionic modifications are the source of many an enhanced thug in the Prosperitas Sector which often drives coordination between the Adeptus Mechanicus's hunters and the Adeptus Arbites to shut down such illegal 'chop shops' (named for the amputations usually performed prior to fitting bionics).