#honestly the orks and tau are my favs in terms of a society in this setting

[twitchesandstitches]

(I’m using the submit obtion, because there wasn’t enough room in the ask.)

There’s sure a lot of talk about Warhammer 40k lately, so why don’t i join in on this cake?

Anyway, what do you think the imperium would have looked like if Horus was still alive and on his father’s side? The reason why i ask this, is because, my brother is reading the heresy-books, and found something interesting. Apparantly, Horus stopped some of his soldiers from killing aliens, and stated that his father wouldn’t be so folish as to wanting to kill all non-humans. The reason why that’s interesting, is because Horus represents The Emperor’s ambition (each primarch represents a part of him. Vulkan is compassion, Mortarion is endurance, Roboute Gulliman is statesmanship, Magnus is his psychic might, Angron is brotherhood (or where supposed to be), Konrad Curze was Justice (though it got a little messed up) and so on). So, if the physical embodiment of The Emperor’s ambition says “don’t kill all non-humans, only a fool would do that”, that’s a hint to that The Emperor doesn’t really mind aliens all that much. I asked my brother, who’s reading a lot of books about Warhammer lately, a few other things about the whole alien thing, and according to him, the only aliens that The Emperor attacked on purpose was those who attacked first or was a threat (such as orks, dark eldars, khraves and hruds) or those who WILL become in the future (such as the warrior race tarellians), but besides that, The Emperor left most of them alone, and most of the people he battled during The Great Crusade, was other humans (though due to how large the imperium was, that where some idiotic generals who attacked non-hostile aliens anyway, which might have made The Emperor facepalm a bit). He and some of his sons even had trades and conversations with the eldar every now and than. (Now i don’t know if this is true, but i heard somewhere that The Emperor made a deal with some sort of giant alien, and the two were allies until the alien fell to chaos, again not sure if that part is true or not.) The imperium in 40k already has some xenos on their side (believe it or not) such as “Watchers in the Dark”, jokaeros and byavoors, and the imperium has been on peaceful terms with aliens before (In the game Fire Warriors, the space marines makes peace with the taus to stop Chaos and even gives them a compliment and allows them to leave unharmed. Not to mention about the time Blood Angels and Necrons teamed up to stop the Tyranids, and the Blood Angels just let them go because they thought it was distasteful to turn on them when they’ve just helped each other out. The imperium and Tau is also on a “Don’t shot each other unless you’re doing something shady on our planet, if it’s not shady, we’ll hear you out” treaty. There’s also something called “sanctioned xenos”.). Anyway, i got a bit away from Horus, so lets go back to him. With all the previous knowlegde in our minds, do you think if Horus had stayed around in the imperium, that the imperium would be less xenophobic, maybe even neutral, or if we steach it a bit, friendly towards aliens? I asked my brother, and he could see Horus make an alliance with the Tau Empire, though he would most likely not approve of how the Ethreal Caste leads them.

Fun Fact: During the 30k era, the imperium came into war with a warrior race, and these people earned so much respect that the space marines not just respected and honored them, but LIKED them, and when they were forced by their surperiors to kill them, the space marines actually cried because the aliens didn’t deserve such a dishonorable death, and went into a small depression afterwards.

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Twitchy Responds:

Huh. That IS interesting!

I do raise some caution regarding the Primarch’s still embodying some aspect of the Emperor’s personality and choices after their creation, however; much as with Fullmetal Alchemist’s Father and the homunculi, while they were made from parts of his mind, they have grown and become very much their own beings. Factor in life experiences, the cultures that shaped them, and their own choices, and the Primarches are very much their own men, often with little common ground between them and Goldy Boy Emps.

It does jive with a lot of the more benign/restrained takes on the Emperor that he might not QUITE be a xenocidal ultra-bastard, though he was pretty explicitly going on a crusade and killing all the aliens they met ‘for humanity to prosper’; his endgame was human supremacy and it inevitably results in evil. IT’s not implausible that he was attacking those he considered a threat, one way or another, but spread his targets unacceptably wide.

Hmm; a lot of times those xenos are treated as second-class citizens or subhuman entities so it likely wouldn’t be a fair shake for them, and you DO get the impression that the Imperium is being pragmatic in not instantly going to war and getting themselves killed. The Blood Angels, however, are right up in there for Salamander-level compassion and goodness, so its noteworthy that they at least showed mercy and honor with aliens.

It’s hard for me to say if Horus would go with this or not; everything I’ve read about him indicates that even before Chaos ate his soul, he was a pretty hard and ruthless man, and would probably make Renegade choices here. I would LIKE to think so, and that this would have ultimately been part of the Emperor’s long term plan Ultimately, the xenos would fare best as equal empires to the Imperium and not members of it, as the Imperium has a bad track record with that; better to be counter balanced than to have it all their own way.

honestly stuff like that 30k detail makes me wish the Imperium would just fragment and die already so something better can take its place!