Editing The Imperium of Man (section)

==A Limit to Grimdark: Is Life in the Imperium Always Awful?==
[[File:8eb60203712e469761aeba78ec3c78ec-d7904b7.jpg|350px|thumb|left|Because the only way to keep a [[Roman Empire|stagnating empire]] alive is with excessive force (Ah, but where's the Roman Empire now?) Also, note the [[Imperator Titan|walking cathedral]] several miles in the background that's still bigger than the [[baneblade]] at the front.]]

{{Topquote|[[Noblebright|A line must be drawn between what is good and what is evil]], for if the [[Chaos|Great Enemy]] comes with offers of power to a wretch, what reason does he have to refuse hell if he dwells in it already?|[[Roboute Guilliman|Robu]] telling [[Dante|Luis]] the most obvious thing yet apparently missed for ten millennia of imperial history while channeling [https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/franklin_d_roosevelt_138856 the FDR].}}

However, as said before, if you excuse GW's initial promotion that life in the Imperium must be "Tough and Dark", then average life in the Imperium for the common Joe on a planet not actively engaged in war is for all intents and purposes, uncomfortable and highly unpleasant, but ultimately tolerable for its people (as opposed to those of us in M3 who would likely lack the temperament or the constitution to do well in such a life). This can be further explained below....

===The Reality of the Imperium===
Throughout WH40K, nearly every-single grimdark example in the fluff is shown through the narrative perspective of either Space Marines and Inquisitors whose primary job is to fight against [[Chaos|WTF-Horror Eldritch Abominations]] and [[Orks|genocidal aliens]] for every single day of their lives, or of criminals, crooks and scum such as those living within the darkest pits in Hive Worlds like [[Necromunda]]. Of which, there are only about thirty-two thousand and something hundreds in ratio to the several hundreds of thousands of Civilized Worlds which are the planetary majority in the Imperium - the odds of being born in a desolated dump is actually quite low, and if you are born there, the only thing you need to be wary of are Gang fights and Mutants, and that's only if you are dumb enough to venture in the Underhive or unlucky enough to be born <s>poor</s> there (the poor can still get labor jobs in manufactoria or wherever else or enlist in the PDF and such; worlds are never lacking for jobs needing filling or soldiers to hold the fort). Life as a Middle-Class Imperial (which are the majority in Hive Worlds) is often plain and simple (if boring, repetitive, and lacking in freedom- though the same can be said about its real world equivalent) with your average wage, average working job and with your average necessities in life such as TV (level of propaganda vary) or food (might be artificially processed), and since there is always a demand for workers at some level, unemployment ratios would actually be quite small (unlike real-life, you don't have to fear automation and new technologies taking your job and the Imperium always needs more menial laborers). If you're in the Imperial Guard, the chances of being sent into an eternal meat grinder depends very much on the planet you come from and whether someone else got shipped there first, if the Imperium's size and speed is taken into perspective. Although some policies within the Imperium would be regarded as immoral or "Crimes Against Humanity" in today's world, take note that what the Imperium does is a necessary evil. They know what they're doing is morally questionable if not outright atrocious, but they have to do it since they have no other choice and in the grim setting of WH40K, this is the only solution to be dealt with for the betterment of Humanity as a whole. Unlike every single other being in the entire setting, the Imperium (or at least Guilliman) actually knows its necessary evils ''are'' evil and bemoans this fact but grits its teeth and does it anyway, determined to make sure what was done has meaning and was never in vain. This is why, outside of mainstream Sci-Fi where we see Aliens or some entities destroying a planet full of people for no other reason but for the [[Lulz|evulz]], in the Imperium, you see none of that, as in their point of view, to destroy a planet without a justified cause is seen as incredibly wasteful and sinful as you are technically "Wasting the Emperor's resources" (which, ironically enough, can lead to you getting executed, so it's something most people try to avoid). There is even a small Ordo of the Inquisition whose job is to investigate exterminatus (planet boom) events and determine whether or not it was justified. About eighty percent of the Inquisitors who order exterminatus are executed by this Ordo for not having sufficient justification. Keep in mind that it is almost (''almost'') unheard of for exterminatus being declared unless really anyone even in the modern day could agree the planet totally needed to die.

The Imperium is also remarkably egalitarian, if only out of necessity. For the most part, regardless of the circumstances of your birth, you can reach unimaginable heights if you have the right combination of smarts, strength, faith and luck. Space Marine chapter masters may once have been feral tribesmen or underhive scum, great heroes of the Imperial Guard have come from death worlds, prisons or dead end jobs in hives. Inquisitors come from almost any background imaginable, and are some of the most powerful individuals in the Imperium, and can even sit as one of the High Lords of Terra. The only thing that actually blocks social mobility is the difficulty of standing out against countless trillion (within the sector at least) other humans on a million worlds (that said, this depends on the planet you were born on a lot: an underhiver will have a bad life, a deathworlder is lucky to make it to like 15, and a noble is likely to have everything they might desire presented to them on a silver platter). This is implied to be partially intentional as a way to get the very best of humanity in positions of power, or at minimum a concession to the fact that humanity isn't in a position to be picky.  By and large, it works.  Incompetence appears to be very rare in the Imperium given the sheer amount of cracks left in human civilization not being able to bring it down (which is why it stands out so dramatically). Unfortunately, due to the scale of everything, an incompetent in the wrong place can cause a lot of disastrous effects: an average Administratum adept messing something up has a decent chance of nothing happening as his department is working on century old minor archives, but if a Departmento Munitorum official accidentally issues two mass mobilization orders or receives miscommunication and sends a wiped out regiment as reinforcements, that's where the problems start (not helped by Astropathic communication being what it is as said official might not even be aware that the unit ordered to another system is dead).

===Foreign Policy on Xenos===
For those that complain of the Imperium's genocidal stance against Aliens (especially prior to the Emperor getting stuck on the golden throne), remember that during Humanitiy's earlier years, virtually every xeno they encountered were either genocidal dickheads or sadistic assholes, so can you really blame them? Take for example, the Craftworld Eldar. On the surface, they may seem benign and offer their hand in friendship, just so you are the ones who walk into a Necron Tomb-World and lose millions where they could have done the same and possibly only lost a few hundred. Regardless, this is easier said than done and they prioritize hostile races over occasional allies. Add to that, Big.E wanted an atheistic empire starving the Chaos gods out with science (although given that the Chaos gods thrive on ''emotion itself'' just as much as worship, Big E was probably doomed from the start) all without falling into '[[Men of Iron]] II: Revenge of the Machines', and those xenos that weren't deeply religious and/or psykers tended to go the A.I. way. So in order to avoid any [[Mortarion|unnecessary questions]] and [[Magnus the Red|unhealthy curiosity]], he basically got a standing order to purge everything on sight in place. Said order was duly followed during the Great Crusade proper, but now that the expansion is over, it is applied much less zealously (except when it is, the Imperium is BIG and very decentralized and a lot of the time it's busy with its own problems). 

Overall, the tolerance of xenos vary on their threat to Humanity in the first place, mostly since the Imperium does have not enough resources to even deal with those that possess an actual threat (hence why Ork Charadon and Sautekh Necron empires flourish, and no new crusades are sent to bring down the Tau, despite all three being almost next door to Ultramar). If the Imperium encounters another alien civilization that's only interested in trade and does not pose an obvious threat, then the Imperium (although still strictly supervised by the Inquisition) will trade to a certain extent, via [[Diplomacy]] and the [[Rogue Trader]]s. Put in the fact of the Imperium's "I don't disturb you and you don't disturb me" policy to outsiders, with the fact that there are actually '''A LOT''' of Xenos living within multiple Imperium Worlds contrary of popular opinion, and the fact that the majority of the wars that Humanity has fought was on the defense then the offense (of course this depends wholeheartedly on the Imperium's mood in the first place); you would then realize that on a whole, the Imperium is actually tolerant insofar as it doesn't destroy xenos races right away if they aren't an immediate threat. Granted, they probably would do so if they had the chance and the resources, but right now they have neither and so have learned to just begrudgingly put up with them for the most part. 

An excellent way to understand the Imperium's policies toward aliens is seen in the [[The War of The Beast]] novel series, as it portrays some xenos-sympathizers and populations subjected to them. Ultimately, with threats like Chaos, genestealers, and countless other malevolent forces at large in the galaxy, the Imperium's intolerance is born of crucial necessity, with the xenophobia growing out of it as a by-product. The Imperium cannot afford to be accepting of alien influence and ideas, because you just never know what might be sneaking in with it, and they learned that through painful experience. What might be dismissed as innocent and inconsequential can (and often does) lead to the downfall of entire worlds. The only reason the Tau can act like they can openly befriend the whole galaxy is because they are naively unaware of all of what's out there and what they're potentially inviting in and run the risk of learning the same lessons the Imperium did the hard way. That much has been pointed out by both [[Farsight]] and [[Ciaphas Cain]]. Even with all the above, the Imperium is focused on survival above all else, and if that means working with xenos they may very well do so. [[Roboute Guilliman]] can testify to that, given that said xenos played a major role in his revival.

Besides all of this, the Imperium isn't going around just blamming every species even when it can for a simple reason: the Imperium is cruel and callous, but it is not evil. The Imperium is not a murderer, it is not insane, and it tries to be honorable or at least pragmatic as much as is feasible. Killing a species when it is unnecessary is a waste of resources, if nothing else. The Imperium is a civilization, and is as “civilized” as it can be in the reality it finds itself in. They hate all aliens, even those whom they have accepted as protectorates, allies, neutral, or simply "we live on the same planet, don't mess with us and we won't kill you". However, the Imperium understands the difference between understandable hatred and actually acting on that hatred against beings whose extermination is not necessary. Heck, there are plenty of people whoever is reading this might hate, but you don't go around kill them, do you? Exactly. Not to say the blind fanatics and bloodthirsty zealots don't do that, but any competent sector government runs on cold hard realpolitik. Is it any wonder that the blindly fanatical kill them all groups are always the problem when looking at Imperial campaigns and politics?

===Governmental & Ideological Structure of the Imperium===
Additionally, while the Imperium, as referenced above, looks like a merciless and oppressive empire and certainly functions as one on paper, it is in fact a confederation of several powerful organizations and a million planets. It occupies a strange place in between a libertarian paradise (as planets have a fair bit of autonomy, more than GW would like to admit) and oppressive theocracy, (as shown all over this page) as the Imperium's main policy for what a world does under their control is "Pay the tithe, send your psykers over when the Black Ships show up, and don't make me come over there." Each 'normal' planet in the Imperium (besides specially classified planets like Forge Worlds, Fortress Worlds, Death Worlds...) has its own laws, Government, culture and social order that can [[Attilan Rough Riders|differ]] [[Tallarn Desert Raiders|from]] [[Salamanders|one]] [[Ultramarines|another]] [[Catachan Jungle Fighters|by]] [[Vostroyan Firstborn|A]] [[Space Wolves|LOT.]] Just like today's countries some have merciless dictators (North Korea) and some have democracy to an extent where citizens can choose their own head of government (UK) and a majority are in between absolute tyranny and (some) democracy (you can only have so much democracy when someone with near monopoly on space warfare assets is concerned with you filling up production and/or manpower quotas and doesn't want you to fall into daemonic corruption when the literal souls of billions to quadrillions are on the line). Furthermore, each planet itself is actually quite independent to the extent where they can have their own armed forces and even wage their own civil wars. Due to this, the Imperium only cares when some serious shit happens (like xenos invasion, [[Chaos|corruption by Oh-God-What-The-Fuck eldritch horrors from beyond space and time]], when the aforementioned civil wars disrupt the military supply chain, harm Imperial officials on the planet or compromise the Imperial Cult, or when a Planetary Governor decided to declare himself independent of the Imperium), and given that this is the Imperium, these kinds of things vary from "happening by on a regular basis" to "Not seeing an actual war for multiple millennia". They have to be- even at the height of the Great Crusade there was no way for any sort of centralized government to keep control over thousands of worlds at once. The stand out example is [[Ultramar]], which is legally completely autonomous and can tell the government to get bent as long as the Gene Seed tithe is provided.

[[File:Tumblr nnrqjzAyKm1si96eio4 400.jpg|thumb|400px|right|A sprawling Imperial city. That ship's around two miles long, by the way. In Rogue Trader, anyway. In the novels more like ten to twenty.]]
Of course, in a few cases where a Planetary Governor or planet does declare independence, it is usually listed as [[HERESY]], however most Governors don't do this kind of thing because [[Chaos|they]] [[Necrons|know]] [[Orks|what's]] [[Dark Eldar|out]] [[Tyranids|there]] and that the Imperium is the only thing that [[Imperial Guard|can]] [[Space Marines|protect]] [[Imperial Navy|them]], because the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]] and the system of the [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica]] provides a cheap system of FTL and communication through the horrors of the [[Warp]] that cannot be replicated, and because the Merchant Fleet enables intergalatic commerce. There is also the reason that they have so much autonomy already that there isn't really a reason to leave the Imperium that can justify the risks in most cases. If a planet declares independence, it loses the right to FTL and trade with the Imperium, and that's bad for Hive Worlds that need Agri-Worlds in order to survive, meaning the Imperium doesn't even ''need'' to send in their military since ''they'' know that the young usurper would most likely peacefully surrender in that prospect. The reason why the loyalty of some planets differ in question varies over the Imperium's history. During the Great Crusade, most worlds were extremely loyal to both the Imperium and the Emperor because it rescued them from all sorts of indescribable horrors that had plagued them for the thousands of years of the Long Night (Age of Strife). After the Great Crusade, the Imperium remained (mostly) cohesive as a whole due to both a remaining sense of loyalty to their savior and for mutual survival in the face of a severely fucked up galaxy, not the least of which include the multiple doom counters running such as the Rangdan conquering too much or the Orks hitting critical mass without the Eldar Empire and old human federation + allies purging infestations. After a few thousand years of that, the Imperial Cult had gained sufficient strength that the reasons for remaining loyal to the Imperium and the Emperor expanded from just mutual survival to a shared religion where loyalty between each planet must be routinely checked to prevent separatism or [[Horus Heresy|another civil war that essentially kicked the Imperium in the galactic nuts.]] [[Derp|However, even then,]] [[Age of Apostasy|some religious asshat decides to do it all over again]] [[lulz|for the lulz,]] the aftermath of which persuaded some Planetary Rulers to question the legitimacy and thus loyalty to the Imperium. This is why you see that although most planets would never dare to even break away from the Imperium, a certain few that do break away is either due to the above questioning, your typical [[Just as Planned|Chaos hijinks]], xenos manipulation (as is frequently the case when the Tau or Genestealer Cults are involved), or just a Planetary Governor who's either arrogant enough to think he can get away with it or desperate enough to believe his world has nothing to lose from rebellion. 

Therefore, the loyalty of most to the Imperium is not just out of an ideological obsession to stamp out HERESY, but of pragmatism and necessity in order to survive in the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium as Protectorates. This real-life perspective again, is then supported in WH40K where the Imperium, being a decentralized but powerful semi-autonomous group of Corporate entities, have different ways of pledging allegiance to the Emperor himself rather than the State: the Inquisition stamps out anyone caught separating from or perverting the Emperor's rule of conduct as Heresy, the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] worships the Emperor as an aspect of another pagan Machine-god called the Omnissiah and benefits from an ancient pact of alliance dating to the Great Crusade, and the [[Adeptus Astartes]] are altered transhumans who merely view the Emperor as an exemplar of humanity, but were created by the Emperor himself and so can claim a closer connection to him than the other above-mentioned organizations via their genetic descent from the Primarchs. They all might just as well declare each other's ideologies as HERESY but each of them are personal Protectorate vassals to the Emperor himself, and both know that they need to work together lest humanity as a whole goes extinct. Thus, as said multiple times before, the Imperium is not a centralized superstate despite what it tries to portray itself as, and more akin to a Coalition of Confederated Mini-Empires that's disguised as a Galactic Superpower (though the Imperium has its independent military and technological might with which to enforce its laws); or in real-life examples, the Imperium is more of a mixture between the "Protectorate" system like the Roman Empire, which allowed local governments to exist as Protectorates as long as they pay taxes and say that the Emperor is all "Good and Dandy", and today's UN which allows member nations to join while still keeping their national/cultural dignity, along with the Veto Powers between the founding members of China, US, Russia, France and Britain so they can keep each others powers in balance (Similar to the equal powers between the High-Lords of Terra). Essentially, its a demented combination of feudal Europe, Mandate of Heaven China deifying its ruler, Shogunate Japan where the Emperor isn't actually in direct control but the Shogun (High Lords of Terra) is, NATO/Warsaw Pact and the United Nations, with all flavors of cultures dotted around from Vikings in Fenris, Romans in Ultramar, Mongolians in Mundus Planus/Chogoris, repeats and variations on basically every human culture, any primitive tribe in Feral Worlds, Australia in Death Worlds, North Korea in Penal Worlds and so forth.

Additionally, while chastity and prudence are technically heralded as virtues by [[Sisters of Battle|some]] organizations and planets within the Imperium, the Imperium as a whole is decidedly pro-sex. The reason is more utilitarian than [[Slaanesh|hedonistic]]; more babies means more soldiers. Even in the smallest sectors, there are always more planets to colonize (even if it's on the ruins of some other civilization) so space is seldom a concern. Imperial citizens are encouraged, by most local customs, to be fruitful so that the tithes may be paid. If you'd ask "why not just clone more soldiers?", the reason the Imperium doesn't do that (at least excluding their black projects like the [[Afriel Strain]] soldiers and the [[Death Korps of Krieg]] which is an extreme exception) is because it's considered a perversion of the holy human form (hence it's labeled as heresy). Plus, attempting to clone regiments of soldiers on a rapid basis is likely to come with a variety of genetic problems that would hinder the Imperium rather than help it. Then there's the problem that the technology to clone a full human with a functioning mind (as opposed to a brain-dead clone fit for making into a servitor) is extremely difficult, to say nothing of how the clones' souls seem to be inherently abnormal for reasons nobody can explain. 

And if anyone still complains that the Imperium is still 'dark and miserable,' (at least to the memetic extents, it is still not a good place to live but is understandable considering the state of the Milky Way in the 41st Millenium) just shove Stephen Baxter's [[Xeelee Sequence]] down their throats, portraying a human empire that is so downright evil and malicious that you will actually applaud their [[rape|cosmic butt-whipping]] by the nigh god-like Xeelee. Seriously, the Interim Coalition of Governance is what happens when the [[Marines Malevolent]] becomes a pan-galactic empire that has no qualms in sending over [[Grimdark|200 trillion child soldiers to die in a rather hopeless and pointless war;]] they make the policies of the Imperium [[Noblebright|look like the]] [[Star Trek|United Federation of Planets]] [[BrightHammer40k|in comparison.]] Were the Imperium truly as bad as GW tries to hype it up as being, it wouldn't have been able to survive 10,000 years in the first place without disintegrating. 

As a side note, the Imperium doesn't give a flying fuck about your sexual preferences and gender (excepting the Sororitas, legally only women as a specifically crafted loophole to let the loyalists continue to exist and to give the Ecclesiarchy some military force, Astartes, who are genetically required to be men and the Emperor may have intentionally failed to make sure they didn't replace humanity, and the [[Callidus]] assassins because the polymorphine drug works better with women, oh and individual planets may have different cultural values, though any random shmuck attempting to tell off an Imperial official for gender etc. is getting a power maul to the face courtesy of the nearest Arbitrator), so that automatically places it above a good chunk of real countries on this count.

===IoM in contrast to True Totalitarian Regimes===
Whilst it ''is'' true that the IoM combines many elements from all of the dictatorships on Earth, the key word you are looking for is <u>elements</u>. All of the dystopian tropes in the IoM are nitpicks from great dystopian classics. They aren't a true mixture of various authoritarian tropes, but are mere themes to set up the atmosphere of the Imperium. The presence of authoritarianism is there all right. However, it is not outright enforced outside of specific circumstances; the Imperium doesn't care how your planet is run as long as the tithes come in on time and there's no outright heresy to be found. Imperial law focuses on best practices, security against subtle enemy attack methods, and anti-Chaos related manners of thinking (like a distinct lack of questioning the unknown because it could enter you and play havoc with your world). Basically, as long as you have laws that don't leave you wide open for the horrors in space and don't get uppity when it comes to paying the tithe, the Imperium is fine with you. And as mentioned before, the dystopian elements varies between planets to planets with the fact that you could actually ''leave'' the planet if given money and time. The reason why places like Oceania from [[1984]], North Korea, and the aforementioned Interim Coalition of Governance are terrifying is because they are actually true totalitarian governments with extremely nihilistic attitudes. These are totalitarian regimes done horrifyingly right. These are governments which pride themselves on their malevolence and power; in which an ordinary person has little to no chance of leaving the hell hole they are born into. Their governmental and ideological structure is done in such a way that the mere act of pragmatism will be condemned for [[Heresy|HERESY]]. Places like these are concentrated and true dystopias in which control is so absolute that you live in a personal prison for all eternity. These governments make the raging incompetence of the Imperium look like Fantasia. Furthermore, the Imperium has one thing these governments do not have: a sense of humanity and heroism. Throughout all the GW works on the Imperium, we have characters who show remarkable amounts of [[Sanguinius|selfless]] [[Ollanius Pius|heroism,]] [[Ciaphas Cain|courage,]] [[Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt|and]] [[Saint Celestine|intense]] [[Vulkan|humanity]]. The protagonists (and general "good guys") in these stories consistently try to move heaven and earth to [[Logan Grimnar|protect the weak]] against all odds. We almost never see that kind of optimistic effort in the aforementioned dystopian works. This is why [[1984]] and the [[Xeelee Sequence]] are so horrifying: there is no hope, no epic struggle, no grandeur... just a collapsing social reality where the very concept of humanity is treated like a nonexistent joke.

Essentially, what we are trying to say here is that the worst thing the Imperium can do is not out of outright malice (barring some rare exceptions like the Age of Apostasy), but out of desperation, incompetence and necessity. For example:

''"We are forced to commit exterminatus on a billion souls because we have no choice and the [[Chaos|alternative]] [[Xeno|outcome]] would be much worse. I pray that these innocent souls would meet peace with the Emperor.''

In contrast this with Oceania which go along the lines of:

''"We torture you not because of some politically motivated means or a necessary evil. We do so because we want to exercise our power. We do so because we can."''

Or the Interim Coalition of Governance:

''"We are ready to send over a untold number of kids to die against the Xeelee. Why you ask? Because it is more economically viable to protect our sweet, sweet moolah and we need something to cover up our deep insecurities and spite."''

The bottom line: the IoM embodies not perpetual evil and suffering for its own sake, but desperate measures taken in desperate times, exacerbated further by inefficiency and human error that has built up for millennia in end. It may be shit by our standards, but considering all the other alternatives that would actually stand a chance in the grim darkness of the far future, it's pretty clear the Imperium is the ''least horrible'' alternative for humanity.

In a way, this makes it worse than the full dystopias as those guys have no one but themselves to blame. The Imperium simply cannot afford anything better.

===Character development at meta level===

From a meta point of view the evolution of the Imperium reflects that of the franchise and the company's interest and capabilities, back in the 80s during the Rogue Trader GW writers didn't bother too much about the possible ramifications of their character profiles, they were after all doing things for kids which wanted something cool and funny; morality, rationale and introspection didn't really have that much of a priority, at best there was a lot of parody with a pinch of political commentary inherent in british pop culture.

As editions moved the Imperium went from a glam-coloured 80s feudal cyberpunk place for adventures, fun and profit to the stage were the "Grimdark" entered in full effect, think of it a bit like a child turning into a teenager who wants to sound cool a deep, edginess was the order of the day for the Third Edition, this is from where a lot of the dystopian stuff we all know and love came from, Battlefleet Gothic with their slave-powered ships is a great example, the original portrayal of the necrons as eldritch horrors directed by the C'tan are born from this edition too, it was the lowest point of characterization for the Imperium in terms of dark induced apathy.

Gradually, thanks in great part to the efforts of Black Library writers and the simple fact many fans were already adults who wanted something more "elaborate" the Imperium started to gain their humane elements, the Gaunt Ghosts and Ciaphas Cain put in evidence that no, not everyone in the Imperial Guard were zealots and jerkasses, Uriel Ventris and other SM portrayals allowed the Adeptus Astartes to win back their heroic aspect and while Matt Ward broke a lot of the old fluff he allowed for factions such as the Necrons to become something more than a horde of metallic zombies.

The case of commissar Cain is special, some people didn't like to consider him canon as he broke with the overall idea of grimdarkness, he starts as an anomaly, a secretly epicurean, self-loathing character capable of decent and even heroic acts as well as abject fear who visits worlds which suddenly are not hells on earth, through his eyes we see both military and civilians who are, despite the obvious and obligatory cultural dissonances, humans with their loves, hatreds, good intentions and limitations, enjoying life whenever they can and showing commodities and services which shouldn't exist in the grim darkness of the far future, this sudden injection of humanity shakes a great deal of the fanbase perception of the Imperium, they suddenly discover this galactic warring monster is quite more than a stage for endless dystopian war, suddenly imperials have a great deal more to fight for than debased ideology, they are fighting for survival, and that survival can allow for something more than slave-work at factories alternated with unending sermons, behind the facade of the fanatic and the mad you find  reality ensues, ruthlessness with your own is a ticket for friendly fire incidents, even the staunchest sororitas has a pension to think of and the administratum is not totally filled of incompetent people.

Gaunt's Ghost work in tandem with Ciaphas Cain to add more humanity to the Imperium, the Tanith First and Only are people, they remember their world of forest and stone cities destroyed, they clearly see their memory as something worth fighting for, and while they are loyal to the Imperium they will notice when there is something unfair and, if possible, deal with it, even at terminal strength, while Colonel-Commissar may be in the minority of competent commanders he and other characters in HQ put in evidence you can't run a military force purely with lash and bolt-pistol, at least not totally, like many real-life regimes you still need a sandwich as well as a shotgun to deal with people, remove the sandwich, use the shotgun too much and you will eventually find the dog bitting back.

The Horus Heresy series helped too, as the origins of the Imperium were vastly expanded and explained, allowing for a better understanding of the choices taken by both loyalists and traitors, the Emperor in particular lost their portrayal of a perfect being and finally was revealed to be a more human character, with great inentions but ultimately flawed and capable of failure. This also allowed for a better understanding of how the Imperium became so religious, repressive and authoritian despite, or perhaps, because Big E original plans to fight the Chaos Gods by starving them, the primarchs background was further explored and the tragedy behind their fall became now a known narrative, all these aspects adding a "depth of field".

With the return of Guilliman in the last editions we finally come to a point where the Imperium as an entity recovers, or more exactly gains, its capability for self-criticism, and with it a gut-punching self-awareness, we see through Guilliman's eyes the vast gears of traditionalist government, the monumental historic inertia pushing things to the brink, the continuous and terrible technological, economic and social degradation mankind has been subjected for centuries fueled by terrible wars of extinction.

From such capability to see these flaws is that the desire to break with this unending cycle of darkness is born, for the first time we see the chance of reform not born from Tzeentchian influence or Xenos infiltration, stable (so far) technological advancement finally happens, the character of Belisarius Cawl comes to mind, he is certainly a maverick, his relation with Guilliman and his subordinates is interesting, he knows his own value and dares others on the Imperium's side in a way which reminds a bit of the oldest editions where Rogue Traders went to strange and extravagant adventures, but we also see his backstory, what eventually shaped in his current self, his manias and hopes, no longer just "the tech support guy who knows how to fix the server", but a person, someone who can go talk face to face with Guilliman.

Speaking of both, of late some major game changers have been introduced or gone from hinted to explicitly stated, along the new technologies developed by Cawl in order to reverse the damage done by the Tyranids and Chaos we have finally have the first explicit manifestation of the Emperor through Guilliman, with the Emperor outright stating he is fighting the Chaos Gods in their own terms and actually wounding Nurgle (Despair) in the process and warning the material universe too can have a handle in the balance between it and the Warp, in other words, we can actually talk a real war between the Imperium and the other factions instead of just a galactic sized carcass ready for the picking.

And hence in the Imperium of this modern age ancient traditional powers both imperial and from the outside and beyond find themselves checked or at least confronted, not to say our brave new messiah in blue is not without his limits and contradictions, more than once Guilliman has to recognize his own mistakes, and he is still blind to other mistakes, and some things he attempts don't end well, and while the situation has become more critical than ever since, perhaps, the Horus Heresy, the Imperium and characters such as his "Uncrowned King" as narrative entities finally recover their potential for the humane. The Imperium is still a place of unending war and misery, an epic saga with many elements of cosmic horror history, but with a glimpse of a path to, in words of Black Library "Salvation".

===In Summation===
To put it simply, the Imperium is more or less a Feudal society rather than an "Empire" in the modern sense like is seen in Star Wars or a thousand other Science Fiction/Space Fantasy stories. You have a central authority in the Adeptus Terra and a unifying religion in the Imperial Creed, but the assorted fiefdoms of the Imperium generally are left to rule themselves without that much oversight from the central authority as long as the taxes come in on time and no open rebellion is occurring. Given that the Imperium is 40k's counterpart to the Empire in Warhammer Fantasy which is more or less the medieval/renaissance era Holy Roman Empire but bigger and more technologically advanced, this isn't all that surprising. And much like those feudal era societies you have some parts which are much better off than others, in agriculturally rich land with ample access to trade and developed cities feudal societies could rival anything that the earlier societies of antiquity could make in terms of sophistication. But poor provinces mostly made out of useless swampland and rocks are of course going to be poor hicktowns (somehow their ancestors thought settling in said swamp and rocks was a brilliant idea). Furthering the parallels to feudal Europe is that the Imperium is built atop of the corpse of an older and more urbane society; Rome for Medieval Europe and Dark Age humanity for the Imperium, and emerged out of a prolonged dark age following the collapse of that old empire. And the most important thing to note is that Feudal governments did not exercise absolute control, for a feudal peasant your local Baron had far more influence over your life than the King or Emperor would, and how harsh or kind your life was depended largely on the nature of your local overlord. Similarly, some places would have elected heads of local government like mayors in many cities, some would be ruled directly by the church, and even the laws and customs could vary dramatically between the domains of the various nobles. In essence, the Imperium is a space medieval society that due to the original generation of games workshop writers being history nerds with degrees and shit, actually resembles a medieval society much better than stories supposedly set in faux-medieval times. The Imperium has much more in common with the Empire of Charlemagne (during the Great Crusade) or the Holy Roman Empire than it does with any of the expansionist and/or authoritarian regimes that arose from the 1700s and onwards.

You could also hand the whiners the Ciaphas Cain books, which repeatedly showcases Imperial worlds that are actually fairly decent places to live, with planetary governments that actually give a shit about their people, and are perfectly capable of surviving an invasion or two (or several, in the case of ork threats) and still returning to a state of normalcy after the organizations whose purpose is to deal with these threats does their jobs (who, by the way, eight times out of ten are usually able to do so without leaving the planet in question a smoking ruin).

Space feudalism is even implied in the way the people in the lore speak of the Imperium. For instance, a politician might tell his fellow "watch what you say or the Imperium will come" or something. The Imperium is an outsider to most of the worlds it is made of, not an immediate presence. This is, like real life, out of necessity. Real life feudalism was due to social breakdown following Rome's collapse, and technology limited just how much one group could control. The Imperium is much the same, this time due to sheer scale involved and the collapse of order following the Iron War and the Age of Strife.

===Tl;dr===
[[Tl;dr]] the Imperium of Man has [[Lulz|more in common with the]] [[Star Trek|United Federation of Planets]] [[Derp|in terms of government structure than it does with the]] [[Star Wars|Galactic Empire.]] They're allowed to rule with relative independence, as long as they pay their tithes and obey the [[Imperial Cult]]. This does, of course, lead to many worlds being shitholes ruled by greedy homicidal tyrants, but there are plenty of examples of peaceful and even prosperous worlds. It really depends on galactic location and just chance. As long as you're not a xenos race or attempt to [[Badab War|cut ties]] [[Macharian Crusade|with the Imperium]], you have a chance of living a life that at worst is difficult rather than outright hellish. And with millions of worlds with ''trillions'' of people inhabiting them, those chances might actually be decent. The vast majority of worlds are Civilized Worlds (also known as "Imperial Worlds", but that is a stupid and confusing name so fuck that) and the vast majority of Civilized Worlds are quite pleasant places to be and are still pretty much what the Great Crusade created barring the addition of the Imperial Creed over the Imperial Truth. Most of the grimdark happens on a handful of worlds in the Imperium and even then only specific spots (like the Underhive of a particularly harsh Hive World or worlds that end up stuck in the front lines of the newest war). For all but a minuscule number of humans, life in the Imperium isn't necessarily the hell on Earth it's made out to be in the fluff. You have a guaranteed job (that is not going to hurt you, unlike working on a Forge World), a higher standard of living than a modern first world country (civilian technology is quite advanced still since nearly every world produces it so it can't really be lost, unlike advanced military tech), easy access to extremely cheap transportation, etc. Oh, and a military network that helps with the literal swarms of actual monsters running around, let alone psychic infohazards that want to eat your soul for eternity. So, as long as you can dodge the draft into the Guard, you'll be totally good (until the Commissar or local priest comes looking for you for dodging).  Although, there aren't drafts for the Guard (depending on world, but it's rare).  Conscription is performed on rare occasions to provide manpower to nearby warzones temporarily and once that battle is over the survivors are usually returned home, and if said battle didn't have conscripts deployed on it your home would likely be the next on the menu.  This might seem oddly generous, but remember: '''the Imperium isn't oppressive simply because it can be.''' That isn't to say it's the "good guy" by a long shot, but it's far from being outright villainous, at least by the standards of it's contemporaries. The fact this nightmarish slice of the worst periods of human history is still the best, or at least the only viable, option shows exactly how horrible and [[awesome]] 40k is in comparison to other settings, not a tale of good vs evil as idealized by so many writers but a magnum opus on the matter of a war for collective survival, a more sincere narrative of our own species seeing through a false mirror, mixing up sheer ridiculousness with satire and still being able to produce compelling stories within. Don't take this shit as real life gospel and remember it is fictional. Yes, [[That Guy]], we mean you. Please be more like [[This Guy]].

In short: Big tank cool. Real life politics outside of polling booth not cool. Got that? Then you're good.