The Battlefleet Prosperitas
The High Guard, the Void Nobility: the Imperial Navy is a culture unto itself. Many of its Officers and Crew are born aboard the vast city-sized Battleships, and the leadership of many vessels is often determined by a combination of merit, breeding and heritage. Every ship has its own community, and every Fleet its own culture. The Ships of the Imperium are truly deadly things, each carrying enough firepower to utterly destroy anything from a city, to an entire planet.
Five Things To Know About the Imperial Navy They are traditional. The Imperial Navy is home to a myriad of ancient and often incomprehensible traditions, superstitions and obscure piece of etiquette, many varying from vessel to vessel. They love their ships. The crew of a Voidship have bonds as close as any Imperial Guard regiment, and their first loyalty is to their vessel. When two Navy crews meet on shore leave, one can expect sharp banter at best; open brawling is not uncommon. Ratings often sport tattoos or uniforms bearing the name or insignia of their home vessel, though this habit is considered gauche for officers. They are technical specialists. The complex and ingenious machinery which keeps a Voidship flying through the Warp They have the big guns. No matter what massed ground power the Imperial Guard can bring to bear, or what strange and deadly weapons the Inquisition or fabled Astartes boast, it is the Imperial Navy who hold the greatest firepower in the Imperium of Humanity. The destructive power of a massed macrocannon broadside or the planet-burning might of a cyclonic torpedo fusillade outweighs any mere ground armament by several orders of magnitude. Their ships are vast. The smallest scout-ship in the fleet has a crew of some seven and a half thousand souls; the crews of battleships can number into the hundreds of thousands. More akin to vast, ancient void-capable cities than oceangoing vessels, every Navy vessel has its quirks – its bad neighbourhoods, its darkholds, and its hidden secrets.
The Ships of the Imperial Navy
The vast cathedral-like edifices of Imperial Navy ships mare machines dedicated to two overriding tasks of awesome difficulty: to bring the Imperium’s terrible firepower to bear against the Enemies of Humanity, and to keep the thousands of human souls within safe from the hostile Void and the even deadlier depredations of the Warp. Most Imperial Ships are hundreds or thousands of years old, born in the shipyards of distant Sectors or even the Rings of Iron around Holy Mars itself. Designated HIMVS (His Imperial Majesty’s Voidship), they often bear grandiose, pious or boastful names commemorating Imperial saints, famous victories or phrases from Ecclesiarchy scripture.
The ships of the Navy fall into three broad categories:
Battleships and their smaller cousins Battlecruisers and Grand Cruisers, usually between 6 and 8 kilometres in length, with crews usually over 100,000 souls. These ships are usually escorted by a mass of escort and tender vessels; while they are astonishingly powerful fire platforms, or carrier bases for vast fleets of attack craft, they rarely travel anywhere alone – with rare exceptions such as the Exorcist class Grand Cruiser, optimised for deep-void solo missions. Cruisers, usually 5-6 kilometres long, optimised for firepower and durability, with a usually complement of 50-100,000 souls. A Cruiser Group is a deadly void force in its own right, often enough to quell most pirate incursions or enemy raids. Escorts, usually 3 kilometres long or smaller, are rapid and aggressive vessels which protect and screen the slower Capital Ships to allow the larger vessels to get into position and use their devastating heavy weapons. Escorts almost always operate in squadrons, sometimes called “Wolf Packs”, and are vulnerable alone. Frigates and Destroyers are the most common, but this category also includes Scout Sloops, Corvettes and other specialist vessels.
The Captains and Bridge officers of Imperial Navy ships are often augmented, either through the efforts of their ship’s assigned Magos Biologis – aboard larger vessels – or from personal funds. These augmentations can range from variations on the typical cosmetic enhancements found amongst terrestrial nobility, to complex and substantial nervous system modifications which allow the officers to interface directly with their vessels through a Mind Interface Unit. Whether such direct interface substantially improves one’s ability to helm a Voidship, or comes at the cost of reducing situational awareness and a dangerous reliance on the Machine-Spirit over good old-fashioned human intuition and Naval training, is a matter for vigorous and heated debate in a hundred clubs and wardrooms across the Sector.
Rank and Status in the Imperial Navy Much like the Imperial Guard, the Imperial Navy is divided into officers and enlisted ranks, the latter often referred to as “sailors”, “rates”, “ratings” or simply “crew”. The system is designed to provide the vast mass of humanity required to operate a warship with oversight, leadership and discipline from a highly-trained cadre of expert commanders. At its best, the courageous, self-sacrificing and diligent officer corps work tirelessly to hone their subordinates into a perfectly cohesive and pious crew who demonstrate absolute loyalty to their peers and commanders; such a crew will fearlessly overcome privation, isolation, the horrors of the Void and the depredations of the Enemy. At its worst, the system of patronage, nepotism and privilege means that the younger sons and daughters of wealthy houses enjoy the luxuries of the Officers’ Wardroom in idle bliss while the miserable half-starved and semi-literate wretches of the underdecks toil ceaselessly in unspeakable and often lethal conditions to keep the ship afloat.
With many ships employing pressed or penal ratings among their crews, often negotiated or purchased from colonies such as Lubyanka, mutiny is always a danger aboard such vessels. The Captain of even the most loyal crew will rarely leave her quarters without a bodyguard, and the work of the Ship’s Commissar and Security Officer is an unending struggle against the criminals, cowards, would-be mutineers and lurking horrors of the darkholds.
The precise names for different ranks can vary from vessel to vessel – much like Guard regiments, every ship has its own ancient traditions. The one constant, however, is that the commander of a vessel is always referred to as its Captain; the title is always correct, even if the commander’s actual Naval rank is different. Below are some examples of the most common ranks.
Officer Ranks
An Admiral oversees fleets of warships and command whole Salients, often deputising individual actions to Vice-Admirals and Rear-Admirals. Beneath the Admiral, their Commodores command squadrons of several ships. The Captain is the master of a Voidship, and absolute ruler of all they survey aboard. Their word is law, and the hold powers of summary execution aboard their vessel. When serving on detached duty away from the main fleet, the elevated rank of Flag-Captain (sometimes, confusingly with the Rogue Trader title, Lord or Lady Captain) may be granted. Commanders and Lieutenant-Commanders serve as subordinate officers aboard large capital ships, or command their own smaller Frigates or other escort vessels (rarely found apart from their Capital-class mothership. Junior officers in their hundreds attend to the day-to-day leadership and command of the vessel’s crew. Lieutenant, in a variety of grades and designations is the most common, while younger junior officers still in training for their role might be called Midshipman, Ensign or Sub-Lieutenant. Flying officers, in charge of a carrier ship’s deadly waves of small attack craft, often have their own parallel rank structure, and might be called Flight Lieutenant, Squadron Leader, Group Captain, Wing Commander etc. Enlisted Ranks
The Warrant Officers of the Navy are senior and experienced enlisted crew, using their decades of technical expertise to guide and advise the vessel’s most senior officers. While not Commissioned, these subject matter experts attract substantial respect even from the officer classes. Petty Officers (including grades such as Chief Petty Officer, Master Chief &c.) sit in the same space as Non-Commissioned Officers in the Guard, providing leadership and oversight for groups of tens or hundreds of junior ratings. Some ships call these ranks “Crewboss”; specialists might be called Boatswain, Yeoman, Caulker etc. Ratings, often called “Voidswoman”, “Voidscrew” or “Voidsman” – with designations such as “Ordinary” or “Able” appended based on seniority and expertise. Crew specifically trained in close-quarters combat and boarding actions are often called “Arms-crew” or “Armsfolk” (Armsman, Armswoman) and may be led by a Sergeant-at-Arms.
Specialist Crew
Every Ship has a number of personnel who sit slightly outside the Naval hierarchy, but who are vital for its continued function. These include the Astropathic Choir, the Navigator, the Enginseer and her staff, the Chaplaincy, the ship’s senior Chirurgeon and medicae staff. Larger vessels will also have a bevy of Administratum and Munitorum staff to ensure the smooth running of the vessel, and record births, marriages, ident changes and deaths. These attachments are usually granted courtesy ranks and treated with the same respect as senior Naval officers. While etiquette varies with ship, most Naval officers find they can overcome their natural squeamishness around Navis Nobilite and Psykers when reminded that it is only by the good offices of the Navigator and Senior Astropath that a void craft enjoys reliable communication in the deep void, and safe travel in the warp.
Battlefleet Prosperitas Proud, noble and often considered to be backwards by their peers, Battlefleet Prosperitas is a bastion of the highest Imperial Culture in the Prosperitas Sector. Maintained by those of good breeding, the Battlefleet sneers with disdain at the ‘ground pounders’ of the Crusade and often believes itself a separate entity from the Crusade’s ‘lesser’ forces.
In truth the Battlefleet is one of the worst equipped in the Imperium, with many vessels being ancient long before the start of the Prosperitas Crusade; they are old venerable models of vessels, but with their own severe limitations. For example, the “Iron Lady”, an ancient Gloriana-class Hull, is a potent and deadly Battleship, but due to the long-distant failure of her maneuvering thrusters, she is now unable to turn under her own power – dependent on assistance from other vessels, or the pull of stellar bodies to alter her course.
Though it is easy to dismiss the Navy as hiding behind the hulls of ships and the gigantic guns of its vessels, Naval Officers and Armsfolk are no less deadly in a fight than a member of the Imperial Guard. Often they make excellent close quarters fighters, and are incredibly dangerous melee opponents.
You can find out more about these Naval Traditions and Slang
Ships of Note
Iron Lady, a Gloriana-class Battleship once the flagship of the Regency fleet. The hulk was found following Warmaster Jacinta Durovera’s disappearance and rehulled, losing its old name the Manifest Destiny. Its maneuvering thrusters permanently damaged and off-line, it was recently removed from Salient command and re-tasked to the defence of Polarnus Station.
Word of Despite, an Exorcist class Grand Cruiser recently fully refitted by the shipyards of Ferraeus. Serves as Warmaster Armelius Durovera’s Flagship.
Stormchaser, Warmaster Jacinta Durovera’s Nemesis class fleet carrier. Still On Patrol with all hands as of the Warmaster’s disastrous final voyage hunting the Manifest Destiny, when it translated into the Empyrean without its escort vessels and was never seen again.
Lion of Terra, Warmaster Ulian’s flagship, an Emperor class Battleship. Still On Patrol since the Lash of the Eye and the loss of Subsector Tenebris.