tcb40k

[tcb40k]

You can start panicking now.

My apologies for delaying, but TNO released on Monday, and I spent the last few weeks working with the team to make sure it was in a decent state before then.

FAQ

Why doesn't the Imperium just bomb Equestria from orbit/perform Exterminatus?The barrier is impervious to both life, non-living matter and psionics, and the sector otherwise lacks the capacity to perform Exterminatus on the planet.

If the barrier is impervious to matter and psionics, wouldn't this cause *physical/psychic effect*? I am handwaving this. The point isn't to write a detailed work on the physical consequences of the ISOT, but to explore the interactions between Equestria and the Imperium

Will Aliens/Chaos feature in this? No, at least not directly and not in this stage of the project. Here the main focus is Equestrian/Imperial relations.

Credits

HOI4 Icons: https://github.com/Globvs/Ultimate-HOI4-GFX

ocarina0ftimelord

MLPVectors203

andoanimalia

CloudyGlow

Santafer

DaAfroMan

Various Google Image Search stock sites

Others whom I have neglected to name above (if any)

[tcb40k]

"How bad can spreading friendship to the Imperium of Man be? All we have to do is go the human city and convince the Human king about the importance of friendship through a 20-minute adventure. Right? RIGHT?" ---------- As you can tell, this "focus tree" is heavily inspired by TNO, both in graphics and in content, particularly in regards to the now-scrapped focus tree of a certain post-German Civil War regime... external-preview.redd.it/EcnY2…

FAQ

Why doesn't the Imperium just bomb Equestria from orbit/perform Exterminatus?The barrier is impervious to both life, non-living matter and psionics, and the sector otherwise lacks the capacity to perform Exterminatus on the planet.

If the barrier is impervious to matter and psionics, wouldn't this cause *physical/psychic effect*? I am handwaving this. The point isn't to write a detailed work on the physical consequences of the ISOT, but to explore the interactions between Equestria and the Imperium

Will Aliens/Chaos feature in this? No, at least not directly and not in this stage of the project. Here the main focus is Equestrian/Imperial relations.

Credits

HOI4 Focus Tree icons: https://github.com/Globvs/Ultimate-HOI4-GFX

Miscellaneous Vectors: Google Images, Wikimedia Commons, the Pioneer Plaque, etc.

Lustre Dawn Vector 1: :oatscene

Lustre Dawn Vector 2: melisareb

Lyra Vector: the-smiling-pony

Twilight Sparkle Vector: sketchmcreations

[tcb40k]

Nocreature in Equestria would have believed in the early years of the 11th century that they were only one drop in the vast oceanic multiverse. Few considered the possibility of life in other dimensions, nor did they consider what such inhabitants would be like. If ever an Equestrian thought and contemplated this question, the answer they would come from would be the same as the other races Equestria had encountered and gathered into her bosom: a few inhabitants dwelling in a single dilapidated village, lost and in need of the teaching of the magic of friendship. Should they encounter these poor souls, these few thinkers reasoned, they would no doubt accept a helping hoof or claw and be accepted into the fold of Equestria in no short order. However, across the abyss between realities, minds cold and unfeeling drew up plans that would unwittingly and irreversibly bring Equestria and her sister universes together.

And as the 42nd Millennium over the Imperial Agri-world of Boltzmann dawned, so too would the great disillusionment of Equestria.

BOLTZMANN

The Governorate-General of Boltzmann is an agriworld located in Marienburg Sector, a region of space located at the edge of Segmentum Pacificus near the Halo Stars. An agri-world reduced to serfdom after its conquest in the Macharian Crusade, Boltzmann was known for its particular squalour and poverty even before the eponymous Boltzmannian War of M42.

Boltzmann was first colonised in the Dark Age of Technology, the natives of the planet retained their advanced technology even through the Age of Strife. The planet remained isolated until 395.M41 during the Macharian Crusade, when Lord General Konstantin Boltzmann, supported by Imperial Guard troops and Navy assets, demanded the immediate capitulation of the natives and its peaceful integration into the Imperium. The planetary governments refusing to comply with these orders, Boltzmann ordered a full scale invasion of the world. After defeating the primitive space navies in orbit, Boltzmann’s forces launched a planetary assault, their numbers and technology overpowering the native armies.

After the conquest of the world, Lord-General Boltzmann was named Governor-General of the planet that now bore his name. However, though the formal armies of the native states were defeated, vast numbers of resistors remained, both in the southern, habitable zone and as partisans operating in the vast tundras. In retribution, Konstantin I ordered a vast genocide to be carried out. 7/8 of the native population was to be exterminated in death camps and the survivors would be serfs for the guardsmen settled on the planet, who formed the new ruling class of Wehrbauern (or soldier-farmers in the local dialect of Gothic).

Over the course of the genocide, entire cities were levelled and replaced with landed estates. Indigenous cultural institutions, from religious centres to higher institutes of learning down to individual schools were banned, as was all education and literature in the native Boltzmannian language on pain of death. Almost all industry and infrastructure was destroyed, and the planet was officially designated an agri-world to ensure the planet would never be a threat to the Imperium again.

The new order Konstantin I built was one that meant a life of virtual slavery for the surviving enserfed Native Boltzmannians. The Wehrbauern, who owned virtually all the arable land on the planet, demanded harsh tributes from them in the form of a high percentage of their crops that ensured only the barest needs of survival were met. Healthcare and other social services were virtually non-existent save for those provided by the Church, and education for the serfs continued to be prohibited even into the end of M41.

The vast majority of the serfs lived lives of drudgery, spending their days growing breadroot (a tuberous starchy root that was the planet’s main staple), dawnbloom (a flower whose seeds could be processed into a savoury oil) for their landlords in exchange for a meager sustenance. Dissent was punished by heinous tortures, culminating in a tortuous death and mutilation of the body in event of rebellion. The only way to escape this life was service in the planet’s main Imperial Guard regiment, the Boltzmannian Serf-Soldiers, where service was for life and brutal punishments like running the gauntlet were prescribed for even the most mild of offences.

In stark contrast to the squalour of the native serfs, the Wehrbauern lived in obscene luxury, built off the near-slavery the natives were kept in. Vast manors and palaces were erected for these nobles’ own glory, and they adopted ever more ostentatious forms of dress, diet and customs as they grew rich off exports of crops to other planets (the mandatory tithes to Marienburg notwithstanding). The Planetary Diet which elected the Governor-General of Boltzmann was peopled almost exclusively by the Wehrbauern, who proclaimed the planet to be a “Nobles’ Republic”, blessed by a “Golden Liberty” while brutally suppressing any attempt by the free yeomanry, middle classes and especially the serfs at representation.

In the long term, however, the agrarian nightmare created by the Imperium was unsustainable. By the end of M41, the planet had reached its carrying capacity of 4 billion people without alchemical fertilisers (which the serfs were largely unable to afford). The soil being pushed to the breaking point, and much of the planet being deforested to make way for farms, the Boltzmannians were forced to endure cataclysm after cataclysm from mudslides to floods to famine.

The final breaking point was the appearance of the Great Rift, which caused the Astronomican’s light to permanently recede and left the sector isolated, leading to the planetary economy’s collapse into recession. With absolutely nothing to lose, the serfs exploded into rebellion as peasant mystics and radical preachers declared the Ecclesiarchal leaders to be corrupt and the Wehrbauern sinful degenerates.

This first wave of rebellion was crushed unrelentingly by the Inquisition, who conducted uncountable massacres and gruesome executions of its leaders across the planet. At the height of the repressions, the concentration camps of Konstantin I were re-opened and expanded for the mass extermination of rebels. Now bereft of an Ecclesiarchal justification for their cause, the impoverished, desperate peasants of Boltzmann were ready to throw their arms into anyone, no matter how outlandish, who could promise them their salvation.

FAQ

Why doesn't the Imperium just bomb Equestria from orbit/perform Exterminatus?The barrier is impervious to both life, non-living matter and psionics, and the sector otherwise lacks the capacity to perform Exterminatus on the planet.

If the barrier is impervious to matter and psionics, wouldn't this cause *physical/psychic effect*? I am handwaving this. The point isn't to write a detailed work on the physical consequences of the ISOT, but to explore the interactions between Equestria and the Imperium

Will Aliens/Chaos feature in this? No, at least not directly and not in this stage of the project. Here the main focus is Equestrian/Imperial relations.

Credits

 Sci-Fi World Generator: donjon.bin.sh

Konstantin VII Portrait: FFG

TS Portrait: :AndoAnimalia

Aquila: seeklogo.com

Celestial Crown: Wikimedia Commons

Equestrian Flag: dalea1