Union Astarte

Union Astarte
Capital	Macragge
Official Languages	High Gothic
Power	Major Power
Size	Nearly the entirety of the Galactic East
Head of State	Supreme Chancellor
Head of Government	Council of Ultramar
Governmental Structure	Military Confederacy
State Religion/Ideology	[[]]
Demographic	Space Marines, Humans, Minor Xenos

This page is part of the Warmasters Triumvirate, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the Warmasters Triumvirate page for more information on the Alternate Universe.

"Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?"

– Luke 6:41

"Ce qui constitue une République, c'est l'extermination totale de tout ce qui lui est opposé. - What constitutes a Republic is the total destruction of that which is opposed to it."

– Louis Antoine de Saint-Just

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."

– Sun Tzu

Culture

The Union Astarte has a strict social structure as dictated by the Council of Ultramar that is observed amongst most Council compliant sectors. The social ranks are divided into the Deformis, the Plebius, the Literatorii, the Arcanium, the Astartes, and the Vox Concilium. Each caste has a few recognized ranks within that enforce a strict social structure, and regional variations on the caste system may add further complexity or simplification to suit the needs of the region.

The Deformis are the lowest of the low, mutants, defectors, slaves, assimilated Xenos, the shamed, the guilty, the Deformis is the designated caste for the downtrodden and outcast, utilized as cheap labour, experimental subjects, cannon fodder, and object of derision from the higher caste. Once one has found themselves amongst the Deformis, there is typically no escape. It is a fate worse than death, for oneself, and their descendants.

The Plebius is the backbone of the Union, standard humans who work, play, fight and die under the watchful eyes of their genetic, economic, and intellectual superiors. Life in the Plebius can range from little better than an Imperial citizens or the Deformis to a grand and lavish life far and away from the horrors of the greater galaxy. The Plebius is often stratified by economic or professional classes, labourers are often separated by those of more skilled professions. Typically the highest house of the Plebius is retained for government roles, families of traditional nobility or royalty, or members of the local guard or PDF, giving them full rights of citizenship and more.

The Literatorii is a recognition that this particular citizen is outside the traditional Union, and is instead a part of a financial, industrial, corporate, scientific, or scholastic institution. Originally the Literatorii was reserved for Magi and Tech Priest defectors from the Imperial Adeptus Mechanicus. As the Union became more settled, an internal economy began to form that outstripped the capabilities of government held means of production. To combat this larger, sometimes Crusade Era, industries and corporations were given the same “outsider” status as the Magi, instead their work was for economic and logistical good as opposed to scientific. The difference between Plebius and Literatorii at the lowest level is simply a matter of being a “public” citizen, or a member of the Union and therefore owned by and subject to its laws, or a private citizen, owned by ones parent institution and subject to their laws and ownership, which often align with the Union but not necessarily. Life at the lowest levels of the Literatorii can be better or far worse than the Plebius, or even the Deformis, as the individual is not subject to the basic rights that the Plebius is guaranteed, but is also free from taxation, drafting, and government screening.

Often called the House of Learning, the Arcanium is the caste of the Psyker, the Magos, and the Scholar. Psykers are a valued resource in the Union, and government screening allows the Union to detect and claim psyker children to grant to the Arcanium. Each region of the Union has at least one world that houses an Arcanium fortress, or Citadel, that trains, monitors, and houses Psykers. Also housed within the Arcanium are the “public” Magi, those who remained loyal to the Union as opposed to sequestering themselves away from the outside world those who prove ample intelligence or knowledge in government screenings are given an opportunity to further their learning, or even teach within a Citadel. There has been many times where scholars have been humbled by a largely illiterate expert in one field or another. The Psykers and Magi work closely to peel away the secrets of the Galaxy, and advise the Council of Ultramar on matters of knowledge, especially when certain truths are found to be too dangerous for the Plebius to know. The Arcanium is led jointly by the Fabricator Primus and the Incantator Primus, a Magos and Alpha-plus Psyker both of extraordinary skill and accomplishment. Both have seats upon the Council of Ultramar as part of the Vox Concilium, the Fabricator Primus leads matters of science and technology while the Incantator Primus dictates to the lesser Psykers matters of the psionic mind. The Arcanium is likewise split in half in terms of rank, Psykers given greater status according to ability and strength, Omicron and Epsilon level Psykers are little better than plebeians, and status is increased steadily according to power, the bare handful of sane and living Alpha Plus Psykers able to survive long enough to attain any political power enjoy some of the most influential lives available to a Union citizen. The Magi and scholars within the Arcanium obtain status from accomplishment and recognition foremost, and seniority second. Massive upheaval can occur when a junior scholar disproves the theory of a much older Magos, and barely contained conflict breaks out when the two switch places. This keeps the Arcanium competitive, but dangerously cut throat. Blanks are a touchy subject and a matter of debate for thousands of years. Many suggest that they should have a college of their own, as the Psykers do, and the most accomplished of them be given a seat at the Council. Most Psykers naturally oppose this, seeing them as a potential tool for further control.

The Arcanium and the Literatorii have a unique and tenuous relationship, as the private caste is loath to give their citizens to the government. Often times the Literatorii Psyker will live and train with the Arcanium to a satisfactory level then returned to their parent organization, unless the individual proves to be too powerful to allow outside of the citadel, or too talented to waste on the private sector in which case the government will buy the psyker from the institution, reparations for “theft”.

The Astartes is the caste of soldiers and the Space Marine. The Union Army, mortals that either by choice or force enlist or commission into the great arm of Union power alongside the chimeric Astartes that serve at the forefront of the Army, as well as Knight Houses, Astartes Legions and Chapters, as well as Literatorii private military groups either hired or bought wholesale by the Government. Typically the greatest divide within the Astartes is between regular human warriors, true Astartes, and everyone else. While given less technical freedom than arcanists or plebeians, they are often given a voice during elections.

The Vox Concilium is the caste of leadership, the lowest rank commands no smaller than a system. The Union Senate is vast web of political power mongering, culminating in the ultimate seats of power, the Council of Ultramar. The Senate has several chambers that each focus on separate issues and draft law and legislation to be ratified by the Council. The Council itself housed the Primarchs and Fabricator General, but has since expanded to include the greatest member of each caste, barring the Disformis, and speaker of each chamber of Senate, small enough to prevent deadlock but large enough to see that the Union is being represented fairly. The leader of the Council is the Potentate, the first being Warmaster Jon-Frederíc Aristide, typically an equal member of the Council but serves as the final say on issues and resolver of deadlock. The Potentate is the ultimate power within the Union. Typically the Potentate has been a Dragoon, following in the Warmaster's example, but members of the Iron Guard have been in the seat, after the Second Potentate Zelbezis Dyestes, as well as several Corsairs and an Astral Warden. The Potentate has no limited term, but the Senate and Council has the means to impeach the Potentate, but the majority vote for such drastic action ensures that such a maneuver is only enacted in the most dire circumstances. Traditionally the Potentate rules until death or they abdicate to a chosen successor approved by the Senate and Council after a century or so.

To a great extent, the Brotherwar was a technological schism as much as it was a political or theological one. The separatist legions battled for independence in the face of inferior leadership and burgeoning theism in the face of Kinnévail's influence. The traitors grand deceit was one of pure religious zeal. The loyalists held to the legacy of the Emperor, despite the corruption of the newborn Imperial cult.

The Mechanicus was likewise divided thricely, with Mars itself a separatist and loyalist divide, while the northern and eastern forgeworlds falling wholesale to Mot Hadad and his Hashut. And as these factions have evolved in the last ten thousand years, so have their technological forces.

The Imperium has resolved much of the theological dissonance between the Imperium proper and the Adeptus Mechanicus, with the forces of Mars no longer an empire within an empire. The ideological differences have long since been resolved, and Tech Priests are given the same heed on shrine worlds as a Deacon, and vise versa. The boundaries of different faiths are hardly as obstructive as if the Emperor had fallen later, or if the Burned Prophet had not reorganized the Martian faith into a larger Imperial Cult. Disagreements and accusations of heresy are still plenty present, but at best those who venerate the aspect of the Omnissiah recognize others who do not as brothers and sisters in faith. Because of the grand efforts to win over Mars first into the Imperial Cult, using Kelbor-Hal as a martyr, amongst the first Imperial Saints, the Mechanicus is as tightly woven into the inner working of the Imperium as the Astra Telepathica and the Adeptus Arbites. Their ministrations of faith are instead handled by the Adeptus Ministorum the premier locus of power in the Imperium. Standardization of various systems is thusly more common, with local religious variation being more common than say technological divergence to the point of different forge worlds having incompatible technology. The famed luddism of the Mechanicus is still in effect, especially in reference to technologies that the Union utilizes or specializations that divorced from the Imperium to join the Union or Chaos, such as the Ordinatus, but while innovation is rare and often heretical, many technologies have survived the Heresy that perhaps would not of with a larger and more diffuse Mechanicus, such as Titan patterns and systems.

Conversely, the Union technological sector is diffuse and scattered, a point the Mechanicus uses to deride the Union. Almost immediately after the self imposed exile of Aristide, the forge worlds and magi that followed him in desertion fell into their own conclaves and colleges. Some retained their Martian Occultism, but most others followed the lead of Belisarius Cawl and created their own traditions, the vast majority of which would be what should be considered private industries. In the decades after the First Golden Crusades the first Union private contracts were drafted, allowing the subsidization of these foundries and think tanks in return for equipment and materiel for the centralized Union Legion. Each state has their own industrial base, either in the form of private companies, state owned foundries such as the Imperium has, or simply relies on the patronage of such entities in return for the protection of the State Legions. Because of this byzantine web of competitors and secretive lab groups, only the Legion of Ultramar and the central Union government has anything approaching standardization. STCs are hotly contested, corporations and independent forge worlds fighting shadow wars over the recovery of lost technology and the intellectual property of new technology. Many a Magos and Grand Technological Officer have been assassinated, prototype plans stolen, and another foundry group sectors away will debut a suspiciously similar product. This outright cutthroat behavior has cost the Union and its states valuable support in times of need, and the damage of outright war between foundries or corporations can be irreparable.

Likewise, the damage from projects gone haywire can be catastrophic. Notable examples are the Great Gellarpox Plague of m39.3, the subversive Shzar menace, and the infamous "Motherworld" of the Hounds Regency. Countless such horrors of unchecked amoral experimentation have left scars and stains on the Union that remain unto modernity, however they aren't perpetrated without resistance. The Dusk Phantom state is small, but highly respected for it is they that guard against the impulses of Magi and think tank engineers. The Phantoms are the most religious technological force in the Union by far, their adherence of the Machine Dharma unshaken since the Great Crusade. They travel across the Union freely, exploring the mysteries of the cosmos both great and small as wandering monks. It is considered polite and proper for forges and places of machinery to host a Dusk Phantom, and refusing to give a traveling monk shelter could prompt the legion to press the matter, and often corruption or dangerous scientific ventures will be uncovered and punished.

Errant Dusk Phantoms have saved countless lives by discovering such threats and dispatching them before they caused greater harm. State Techmarines, should they have them, often are sent to the Phantom Zone to learn the Machine Dharma, as well as the tasks and duties of a Techmarine as per the standard set by the Great Crusade. Often the Dusk Phantoms themselves will be embedded in the State to fulfill those duties, stationed on a Shrine World or in a temple on a suitable Forge World. Rarely do Dusk Phantoms have a permanent presence amongst a private entity, but "heretics" do exist and some abandon the path to lead such ventures. Sometimes a corporation will have endangered the Union such that not only are they sanctioned and fined, but Phantoms will be stationed within them long term so as to ensure no missteps occur again. The adherence to the Dharma in Techmarines varies greatly. In the Legion of Ultramar, the philosophy is understood and respected, but the Techmarines themselves are not ardent practitioners, only performing the rituals and incantations to appease Machine Spirits of older equipment or siezed Imperial technology. The Nova Dragoons, for example, have many temples amongst the Paradise Worlds of Marpiese, with nobles donating generously to the pauper monks and temples, not as a gesture of good will or for good karma, but instead as a competitive show of wealth and performative moral grace. Legion Techmarines on the other hand are quite ardent, the ancient jetbikes of the Dragoons requiring Marines that can soothe their wizened Machine Spirits. Having their own Machine Dharma adherents also allows them to resolve technological crises with a greater degree of tact than if they reached out the Phantoms.

The industry of Chaos is likewise byzantine and treacherous, but much more open and zealous in their conflict and competition. However, there is one indisputed power in the Dark Mechanicus, and the most influential force amongst warsmiths and daemon forges. The Forge Lords control the great Daemonforges of Noageddon, the dark flesh factories of Sylph, the Obliterator Crypts of Mezoa, the Hellkite Eeries of Goth, the Behemoth Pits of Solitude and more besides. The Forge Lords are the indispensable masters of thr Dark Mechanicus, and those who are not scions of Hadad do well to venerate Hashut lest he deem your forges a suitable addition to his covetous horde. Even the great Bloodsmiths of Khorne acknowledge the legitimacy of the Hashutite Eastern Orthodoxy, hated though they are. The great success of the Hashutites is simply in their quality and efficiency. To make enemies of those who worship Hashut is to make enemies with Hashut, and thus the Forge Lords. To do so is to deny yourself and your forces the finest weaponry, armour, and monstrous creatures the Dark Mechanicum can provide. Independent forges exist, most certainly, each God has their own famed tech adepts and forge worlds they can call upon, but the Hashutites are second to none. Uneasy pacts, lucrative contracts, and proxies are all used by powerful warlords to ensure that are recieving the quality of the East. Because of their fame and usefulness, the Forge Lords feel they can berate and bully smaller forge worlds and conclaves with impunity, and to a greater extent, they're correct. However, a callous act of destruction has made fatally powerful enemies for the Forge Worlds, and when all is said and done, when all exchanges are made, the friends of the Hashutites are few and far between.

Legion States

• Emperor's Dragoons
• Astral Wardens
• Iron Guard
• Ussaran Liberators
• Pale Hounds
• Dusk Phantoms
• Corsairs Gallant