The Imperial Faith

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There are two state religions within the Imperium, the Machine Cult (or Credo Omnissiah) and the far more dominant Cult Imperialis.

The Cult Imperialis is dedicated to one universal truth: That the God-Emperor of Humanity is the one true god and all other Gods are falsehoods.

All humans born on worlds that are in the thrall of the Imperium and do not owe a close relationship to the Adeptus Mechanicus (who follow the Machine Cult) are indoctrinated in some form or another in the tenets of the Cult Imperialis.

The Cult is also known as the Imperial Cult or Imperial Creed. These terms refer to the Religion itself, not the Priesthood. The title of that organisation is the Adeptus Ministorum, sometimes simply referred to as the Ministorum, or the Ecclesiarchy.

The History of the Cult Imperialis

This section represents the “Truth” as taught by the Imperial Cult. Like much of Imperial history, it may be unreliable.

The Imperial Cult rose during the dark times of the Horus Heresy, as the Arch-foe Horus attacked the Imperium, followed by eight daemons. The people were defended by the Emperor and Their Nine Children, the Primarchs. In this time of terror and darkness, the people came to see that their Emperor was in fact much more than the human they had believed Them to be, and the one true God of Humanity.

As of the 41st Millennium the cult has weathered a number of schisms and events that have challenged Imperial belief. Despite these trials it has come to permeate the Imperium, of all elements it is the strongest example of a monolithic ‘Imperial culture’ directing the styles of art, architecture and music common to all citizens of the Imperium – all of these transmitted through religious beliefs and Ecclesiastic declarations to the furthest corners of the galaxy. Even on the most strange and hostile planets in the Galaxy, there is a comforting familiarity to the nature of the Cult there for all Imperial Citizens.

The Core Tenets of the Cult Imperialis

The Imperial Cult experiences variation across sects and Sectors, simply because of unreliability of long-distance communication within the Imperium. Reforms and proclamations made on Terra by the Ecclesiarch might take hundreds of years to reach an outlying sector at the edge of the Galaxy.

What follow are a rough list of the core tenets of the Cult Imperialis, the Imperial Creed that are all-but universal and have stood for millennia.

The God-Emperor of Mankind once walked among humanity in Their mortal form; but They are and always have been the one, true God of Humanity.

The God-Emperor of Humanity is the one true God of Humanity, regardless of the previous beliefs held by humanity. To recognise any God but Them is Heresy.*

It is the duty of all Imperial citizens to stand against Their foes and remain vigilant against all threats to the Imperium, the following three ‘Catechisms of Hate’ are known by all humanity;
- Purge the Heretic
- Beware** the Witch*** and the Mutant
- Abhor the Alien****

Every human being has a place within the God-Emperor's divine order. All human souls belong to Them and Them alone, it is the manifest destiny and divine right of the Imperium to rule over all of humanity in Their name.

It is the duty of the Faithful to unquestionably obey the authority of the Imperial government and their superiors, who speak in the Emperor's name.

* This is a cause of considerable conflict with Machine Cult who worships the ‘Omnissiah’ or ‘Machine-God’ – especially with those factions of the Machine Cult who view the Emperor as a separate entity to the Omnissiah. Because of the Adeptus Mechanicus’ value to the Imperium, this deviation is largely ignored, despite more fanatical elements of the Ecclesiarchy decrying the Machine Cult.

** In some more fanatical elements of the Imperial cult ‘Beware’ is replaced with ‘Burn’, this tenet is a core factor in the discrimination received by mutants, abhumans and psykers. The Creed is very quiet on the subject of Navigators.

*** The definition of ‘Witch’ is a difficult one to pin down, the Adeptus Ministorum tells followers that Sanctioned Psykers and Astropaths are sacred tools of the Imperium confirmed by Holy Terra, and that ‘Witches’ are renegade and xenos psykers who use their foul powers on the Imperium. The average Imperial citizen struggles to tell the difference between the two, and many legally sanctioned Psykers have lost their lives to mobs that couldn’t differentiate them from Witches.

**** This does not simply refer to the Imperium’s xenophobic hatred of all Xenos life forms but also the universal rejection of any ideas, technology, culture and philosophy brought from ‘without’ – this is a major reason for the conservatism of Imperial society, which treats ‘new’ ideas with immense suspicion.

Beyond these Tenets, the Cult Imperialis begins to deviate. The subject of the Emperor's gender, for example, is not universally accepted. Many elements of the Cult point to writings that suggest that when They walked amongst humanity, the Emperor identified, and was written of, as male and so they identify Him as such. Others argue that They transcend all boundaries of humanity and thus represent all genders at once, and use neutral pronouns – while further more might argue that one’s experience of the true God of Humanity is experienced through the lense of your personal experience, and choose to gender Them as they perceive them. It depends on the individual, and is not a subject of great controversy for an Imperium that largely considers gender identity a personal choice.

There is considerably more debate surrounding the existence of an afterlife. Many teach of the existence of an afterlife where the souls of the Faithful join the God-Emperor in eternal struggle against the Archenemy. There are some who argue that this afterlife is a paradise, an elysian field of rest, but these are often decried as soft, that the TRUE Faithful lend their strength to the God-Emperor in battle. There are detractors, who believe that few receive such a gift, who point to the ‘Living Saints’ of the God-Emperor to show that only the strongest continue after death, and it is the duty of citizens to give their all NOW without questioning what lies beyond.

It is notable that the Imperial Cult strongly believes in the concept that a human’s soul can be damned by failing to give worship to the God-Emperor or led astray by false beliefs, or simply by failing to follow the tenets of the Cult and Imperial Laws. What happens to the damned when they die is a much more unified message, that they are dragged screaming into the depths of the Hells to suffer in damnation.

Almost universally, the Imperial Cult does believe in an event known as the ‘End Times’ when the God-Emperor will arise from the Golden Throne, when great heroes of the Imperium will return to it, and when the final battle against the Archenemy will take place and the God-Emperor will sit in judgement of all souls, and those found unworthy will be consumed by holy flame. The signs of the End Times are a subject of argument, some say that they will only come when the Imperium falters… others see signs around them now, in the 41st Millenium. Whatever the time to their arrival preparing humanity for these times is a core focus of Cult doctrine.