Imperial Literature

“They have cast a fire of sin on the land, and are guarding it until it is an unquenchable inferno. Bring forth the waters of hell…”         Inquisitor Kalhn, at the outset of the Purging of Demelor IV
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“My Brothers! Never has our faith encountered so insidious an enemy! Never have we had to fight so bitter a threat. The dark minds of the aggressor will not rest until they have destroyed the memory of our enlightenment utterly; or until they themselves are brought to faith! To arms my brothers, to arms!”

Final words of the demagogue Ihran Veil, as recorded by the sensor array on the Vindicare assassin’s headset prior to Veil’s subsequent elimination.

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“Who can say what drives them? We can only say that any planet overrun by them is seemingly annihilated, and that a terrible hatred is said to be imbued into their very being. A hatred of all things warm and living. Rumours are spoken in fearful whispers about the Old Ones, ancient, mad gods from the dawn of time; leading these cold killers from silent tombs. Personally, I see little to fear. We are protected by a planetary defence system unrivalled in this sub-sector, and over one hundred thousand members of the PDF stand between any incursion and this hive’s occupants. The Governor’s main concerns are mostly regarding “Ogshnak Grishtak’s” marauding Orkish fleets, not a half-imagined legion of long-dead ghosts. Don’t worry my friend, you can sleep peacefully I am sure.”
Extract of a letter from Jaynor Fi-Quin, first assistant to the Governor of Condor Prime’s Secretary, to a personal friend (both resident in Condoria Magna). Twenty-seven hours later several Necron vessels of varying size and class rapidly penetrated the defence ring. The ruined remains of Condoria Magna, not to mention several other sizeable hive-cities, were discovered when the first PDF detachments finally arrived on the scene of the landings. Of an estimated 145 million residents, only 47 have thus far been found alive, and a further 79 million found dead. Of the 47 survivors, only 8 were capable of coherent speech, amongst them Jaynor Fi-Quin. All were absolved by the Ecclesiarchy through death.

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“In my right hand I carry the Emperor’s justice! With my left I enforce His will! Above me flock His Angels of Fury! And you think I fear you? The Emperor has no place for abominations in His universe!”

Grand-Master LePole of the Blazing Fists Space Marine Chapter, in challenge to the Chaos war leader Malcoer Ceth on Arca Tertiary.

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“Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen! The time has come! No longer will we wallow in obscurity and watch our illustrious heritage waste away into dust. No longer will the masses rule our streets and despoil our land. No longer will we, the true un-tainted elite, be cast aside as worthless scions of a long-gone age! Tonight the new order begins! Tonight, Taransa will taste order! Raise your glasses for one last toast, and then load your weapons. Tonight, we hunt.”

Quintinian Fellio Nagaram DiTaransasai, 1412^th Marquis of Taransa, at a dinner-party hosted by the Duke of Carvel, addressing a party of high-class land-owners. Hours after this was recorded, DiTaransasai began a two-year long mass program of murder, killing over 65% of the working class population of the northern continent of Taransa – a total of almost 128 million Imperial citizens. The governor of the system, Elebe Dirai, applauded his actions; citing the longstanding disobedience of the populace as excellent grounds for mass execution*. However, since the sheer volume of deaths caused a 15-year long economic depression across the whole system, Dirai was forced to place DiTaransasai under permanent house arrest in his 445 room mansion, and to pay a heavy fine. A Ministerium report recorded just punishment.

*Interestingly, only 5 years after this campaign, a large-scale uprising in the northern continent by the people had to be put down by almost three regiments of Guardsmen. Evidently in this region the use of extraordinary force is not entirely effective, or needs to be applied more judiciously.

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“4: And so the Valiant Ares passed out of Herosh Gitam into the Linithean Gulf, with all the vessels of Cedus in her wake. 5: Through Linithea to Manit-Ko’aon called the Refuge the fleet did pass, where they rested for a month. Manit-Ko’aon was called the Refuge for here they did rest. 6: It was at this time, in Manit-Ko’aon which was called the Refuge, where the IMPERATOR first passed his wisdom down to Baa’t, son of Hura of the line of Nathaniel. 7: “Go unto the Ceduans and tell them that they are to travel without Geller Fields as far as Nen-Hud in the Dominica Sector. For I am around them and among them and shall protect them” Said the IMPERATOR unto Baa’t. 8: Baa’t was afraid and cried out in anguish to the Light; “Light of the Darkness how can I do this that thou ask? How will they know I speak truth from thee?” 9: The IMPERATOR said unto Baa’t “They shall know by the fire of thy tongue and the force of thy hand. When they say ‘Thou speak false and shall be killed for thine blasphemy’ say unto them ‘The Light is in me’ and a fire shall spring from thy tongue. 10: When they say ‘Thou art a demon or are possessed and shall be cleansed by destruction’ reach out thine hand and speak my NAME so that they may feel my power through thee.’ 11: And so Baa’t went forth unto the Ceduans and said ‘Listen to me for I speak truth! Rely not on the Geller Fields, but rely on the IMPERATOR for thy defence!’ 12: When the people heard what Baa’t said, they were afraid and made accusations against Baa’t to quiet him. They said ‘Thou art a liar and shall be killed.’13: But Baa’t said ‘The Light is in me’ and fire sprang up from his tongue and the people were quietened. 14: Amongst the people some remained who turned from the Light’s truth and said of Baa’t ‘He is a demon or else possessed by demons, and we must cleanse him through destruction as the Constitutions demand’. 15: But Baa’t put forth his hand and spoke the NAME of the Light, and the people felt the Light’s power through Baa’t. 16: And so the Ceduans set out from Manit-Ko’aon without Geller Fields, and came unto the system of Nen-Hud. Not one ship was lost or damaged; no engine or hull-plate attacked. 17: For the IMPERATOR was with them and among them and was their defence from the Warp.”

Extract from Chapter 7 (vv. 4-17) of the Book of Baa’t from the Ekhad Cycle, a religious book mostly suppressed in the Imperium by the Inquisition due to heresies within its pages. However for various reasons, and after much debate and extensive defensive editing, extracts were released for scholarly study to certain trusted individuals in the Ecclesiarchy’s upper echelons. This passage has come into slightly wider use as an example of how faith in the Emperor’s divine power and presence can overcome anything, even the immesurable power and menace of the Warp.

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“Give me an Imperial Man’o’War, and I’ll give you the universe”

Flag-Captain Jaystor DeMiglio to Admiral Velik Van der Hugot at the outset of the Ecran Crusade

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“Bayaatu Mayellati! Siniata Kama Bayaatu! Akwanolo mi walu Bayaatu.”

Common worshipful chant, in the local dialect, from Mbinguni III. A rough translation runs something like ‘The Emperor Protects! Praise the Great Emperor! Indeed we have the Emperor’s love.”

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“I feel a new dawn rising. Tomorrow we will step forth onto that blasted plain, everyone of us, and march forth towards glorious victory or else to oblivion. Tomorrow, we will decide the fate of our people. We stand on the brink of annihilation; to fail here is to condemn everything we have worked for. To succeed is to pass into history in a blaze of glory. I will not send you out to your deaths alone – I will lead you forth. None can avoid this final test. I shall not try to.”

Final address of Marshall Kyson before the Battle of Pollifar Green, notorious in the history of the Fallas Conflict as the bloodiest battle in terms of militia and conscript deaths. Although few records survive from that region after several Chapters of Astartes wiped out the Chaos invaders in the system over the course of a few years, tentative estimates suggest that Marshall Kyson led over four hundred thousand infantry, perhaps half of them actually armed with weapons, across the 15 kilometre long strip of land just 800m wide between the Jury’s Redoubt and Pollinear Ridge. Unsupported by armour, artillery, air cover or orbital bombardments, the attack was a disaster. The few reports that made it out of the area suggested that the estimated thirty thousand traitors stationed along the length of Pollinear Ridge simply set their weapons to auto and stepped back to watch the massacre. Although horrifically expensive in terms of loss of life, Kyson’s desperate gambit allowed the Techpriest Fitzlear Gaon to escape with the Veruy Key, preventing a cataclysmic collapse of the system’s star.

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“Come to me, oh Bretheren! Build together a temple of bones and an altar of skulls! Lift your lips to the red rain and sate the unquenchable thirst! Come to me and praise Him by my side! We offer worship and devotion to the Blood-drinker! We offer our own bodies and blood to the ultimate honour of sacrifice – come now with me Brothers to the White Plains, and await the benediction of the Feasters!”

Last address of the heretic and psyker Juran Ho’pau to the so-called “Convocation of the Brothers of Asinis” before the whole Convocation (around 240,000 former residents of Kattimar Secondary, converts to the heretical teachings of Ho’pau during the –BLOCKED- system uprising) marched over 30km to the edge of a small desert where the local predator called a Boneworm proceeded to devour all of them. Pict-drones watching from high altitude recorded the whole event and it is astonishing viewing: not one person tried to escape the rampaging creature, who rose up out of the dust (later testing has shown that the dust is in fact millenia-old bone, ground to powder by the elements and the digestive systems of the Boneworms) swallowing hundreds of people at a time, or slither across the surface with its large mouth wide open to scoop its prey up as it went. Rough estimates suggest that from the size and average depth of the ‘White Plains’ that there are the powdered remains of upwards of 960 million humans in the bone-dust desert. At the time of writing, the planet in question, -BLOCKED- was facing an Exterminatus Extremis order by both the Ecclesiarchy and the Inquisition.

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“Cancers are excised wherever they are found. If they are found early, they can be removed by a surgeon’s scalpel and the patient saved. If they spread far and wide around the body however, then the patient may die. If the cancer is allowed to grow unchecked for too long there is no saving the victim, and they surely die – their body consigned to the flames. The same can be said of heresy. Catch it early in the mind of a man, and he may be saved, through quick and decisive action, and only if he is willing to be saved. The same can be said of any society – catch it early, in a small number of individuals and it can be excised carefully and quickly without harming the whole. Unnoticed heresy will spread and fester, growing in strength and passing to others with ever increasing speed. Eventually it will take over and whole planets can be lost to its insidious embrace. The Inquisition is a physician with a scalpel. Where we find heresy we cut it out and destroy it. We work carefully and with the same delicacy as a surgeon – and by acting so we save the whole. But sometimes we are too late, or heresy goes un-noticed for too long. And then the time for the scalpel ends, and we must bring forth the torch.”

Inquisitor Joranati Payquelle D’Anzia, minutes before she ordered the Battlecruiser Justice of Pyron to commence a void-bomb bombardment that annihilated the entire population of Chernobak VI.