40K Lore: Meet the High Lords of Terra
Hey everyone, Just_Me again with a new Warhammer 40k background-fluff piece for you folks to consider, let’s give some thought to the High Lords of Terra.
We all know that the Emperor is the head of the Imperium of Man, but the Emperor has not spoken or moved in ten thousand years. In his name the Imperium is ruled by 12 individuals who wield power beyond imagination. At their word billions live or die, whole worlds burn to cinders, and vast fleets of city sized ships sail through to void to make war upon alien empires. But who are they? Who are these 12 men and women that have power and influence to make Caesar blush?
Let’s first take a few moments, for those who might not be familiar with it, to get some background out of the way. The fact is, we don’t know much about the High Lords, what we do know is very slim and gleaned from many different sources, any particulars must be deduced from what little we have been told. The Senatorum Imperialis, also known as the Council of the High Lords of Terra, is a cross section of the Imperial elite; each High Lord represents one of the great Imperial institutions, and the power of each seat is directly related to the power of their institution. Nine of these seats are all but fixed; the positions always held by the same representatives, their organizations representing the cornerstones of the Imperium. A fair part of what follows is supposition, as for many of the High Lords all we know is the title of their office:
The Master of the Administratum: the head of the massive bureaucracy that makes the Imperium function. In some sense this position is and ex officio “head” of the council. While strictly speaking all of the council members are equal and the Emperor is the head of the council, all other Imperial organizations must pay their tithes to the Administratum, and no action in the Imperium, great or small, can take place without budgeting of the clerks in the Administratum. Hence the Master of the Administratum is often a primus inter pares.
The Ecclesiarch: High Priest of the Cult Imperialis and spiritual guide to the masses in their worship of the God Emperor. Due to the considerable influence this organization has among the masses, the Ecclesiarch is one of the most influential positions on the council; when Goge Vandire was able to assume the mantle of both Ecclesiarch and Master of the Administratum he was able to completely ignore the council and all but declare himself Emperor.
The Inquisitorial Representative: unique amongst the High Lords, this position is not held by a specific individual. Instead a senior Inquisitor will be nominated to act as the voice of that mysterious organization when the High council is convened based on their proximity to Terra and the freedom their duties afford them. How this is regarded depends on the Inquisitor, some see it as an opportunity to further grand political goals, others see it as an unwelcome diversion from their other concerns and cannot wait to be done with the responsibility.
The Fabricator General: master of the Mechanicus and one of the most aloof and powerful of the High Lords, his organization is all but a sovereign power within the Imperium and without them the machines that let the Imperium wage war and function day to day would fail. It is not at all uncommon for the Fabricator General to be unwilling to leave Mars for long periods of time, and sometimes attends the council by proxy.
The Paternoval Envoy: the appointed representative of the Paternova, the head of the Navigator clans. The Envoy will be chosen from amongst the most trusted lieutenants of the Paternova’s own clan and will represent his will to the council while the Paternova himself is occupied with the labyrinthine concerns of preserving the navigator clans and the viciously cutthroat internal politics of the clans. The influence of their institution is subtle but considerable, without them long distance Warp travel would be impossible and the Imperium would wither and die.
The Grand Provost Marshal: head of the Adeptus Arbites, the judicial branch of the Imperial hierarchy. It is they that keep the peace on Imperial worlds and enforce the laws, dictates, and will of the Council within the Imperium. Without them the Imperium would dissolve into anarchy as each planetary governor carved out his own pocket dominion, with whatever laws and agendas he saw fit to enforce.
The Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica: head of the organization which regulates and trains the psykers that are essential to so many branches of the Imperium. Psykers are both the greatest threat and the greatest aid to the Imperium, they work in nearly every branch of the Imperium, wielding their otherworldly powers either blatantly or subtly, and they could as easily tear it down as support it if left unchecked and untrained, and that is the duty of this organization. Perhaps most important of all their responsibilities are the duties of the Astropathic network that is the only way to communicate across the interstellar distances of the Imperium.
The Master of the Astronomican: in some sense subservient to the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, the Astronomican is the psychic choir that guides Imperial travel through the Warp. Closely tied with both the Navigators (who can use the Astronomican to guide themselves) and the afore mentioned Adeptus Astra Telepathica the importance of the Astronomican is in some sense the most pivotal of all components making up the Imperium, but is also one of the least visible and most removed.
The Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum: a shadowy organization that has incredible reach. The subtle influence of the Assassinorum is considerable, with a single well placed death (or and handful of them) they can accomplish more than whole armies. While they may not wield the same scale of blatant power that the other great organizations do, their brand of power is no less formidable. It has never escaped the powers that be in the Imperium that they would be exactly the sort of targets the Assassinorum would eliminate should they ever slip out of control (indeed, on at least one occasion an overly ambitious Grand Master did just that), making them one of said powers is in some sense an act of self protection.
The remaining seats are determined from among the following officials based on the wax and wane of their organization’s influence, it is important to note that all of these positions already exist whether or not their holders are High Lords. The title of High Lord and its additional powers and responsibilities may be bestowed on any among the following high officials of the Adeptus Terra:
The Lord Commander Militant: head of the Imperial Guard, and the highest military office in the entirety of the Imperium they command billions or perhaps trillions of men and women in arms. Their institution is both the first and last defense of humanity, and though there is nothing subtle about the way this organization wields its power it can grind to dust anything that opposes the will of the Imperium. Technically not one of the fixed seats, the Lord Commander Militant is almost always on the council by dint of the sheer power and vastness of the Imperial Guard.
The Cardinals of the Holy Synod: when the power of the Ministorum is at its peak the Ecclesiarch may be joined on the council by one or more of the Cardinals. When this occurs the Ministorum represents a formidable power bloc in the Senate, and it would require the opposition of several of the other High Lords to oppose their agenda.
The Abbess Sanctorum: leader of the Covenant Sanctorum on Holy Terra itself, and spiritual head of all the Adeptus Sororitas. The Sororitas orders are a powerful force within the Imperium, both symbolically and literally, and at times they have been influential enough that their leader is accorded a seat on the Council.
The Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes: the Custodes are the Imperial Praetorians, the guards and constant companions of the Emperor. They and they alone determine who may see the God Emperor, and no force in the entirety of the Imperium can contest their decisions in these matters. A mysterious organization with little or no political aspiration, their power within the Imperial Palace proper is absolute, and is all but nonexistent beyond it. Indeed, it is doubtful that many average citizens beyond Terra know of their existence at all. If the Emperor does indeed remain at all conscious, then it would be to the Custodes that he would communicate, and they are a direct extension of his will as they are an extension of his flesh and blood. Given that the eternal seat of the Council is in the Palace, it has sometimes been prudent for the Captain-General to have a seat on the council, and should he request it, it would likely be granted him, for who could say what secret knowledge prompted such a request?
The Chancellor of the Estate Imperium: the head of the records department of the Administratum, and keeper of all the vast data on the functioning of the Imperium. While a subtle influence, it has always been true that knowledge is power, and few could ever hope to control a greater store of raw data than the Estate Imperium, and it occasionally warrants a seat on the Council. Similar to the Cardinals, the appointment of this seat would give the Administratum tremendous influence within the council.
The Speaker for the Chartist Captains: the representative of the vast merchant fleet of the Imperium, they are perhaps the greatest economic power in the entire Imperium, and this power has earned them a seat on the council at times.
The Lord Commanders: the five Segmentum Lords who each command one the divisions of the Imperium and its associated fleet. Each is a person of extraordinary power and influence within the Imperium, though the lordship of Segmentum Solar, political and spiritual heart of the Imperium, is seen by most as the most prestigious of these positions. One or more of them may hold a seat as a High Lord, if any of them hold such a title the Lord Commander of the Segmentum Solar will be among them, further underlining the prestige of that office. Technically Administratum officials they are also military governors and the supreme commander of their Segmentum Fleet, in many ways they are each powers unto themselves, absolute rulers within their Segmentum domains, and will undoubtedly have their own goals and agendas.
The Adeptus Astartes: the Emperor’s Angels of Death have no centralized leadership or unifying organization, and are never represented by a seat on the High Council. However, each Chapter Master is a Peer of the Imperium with near total self agency, and could in theory treat with the High Lords as an equal, a fact that has always made the High Lords wary of them. Few Chapter Maters indeed would be so rash as to flaunt that power to the Council, chapters have been annihilated for hubris in the past, and indeed it is all but unheard of for a Chapter Master to entertain such political aspirations, they would be seen as a betrayal of duty by his brethren, and a glaring warning sign to the powers that be. The Imperium is ever wary of another Badab War, or worse still another Heresy.
There you have it, the 12 High Lords who rule in the Emperor’s name.
Now, beyond the identities of its members, we have very little information on how the High Council actually functions. However, several of the offices seem to be closely related enough to suggest that their holders would be more or less allied in their actions on the council. One of the most interesting power rifts that seem likely on the council is that of church and state. While in the Imperium these domains blend together quite a bit (not surprising, and the nominal leader of government is also their deity), there does seem to be a fundamental divide between these spheres of influence, even if it is not as formalized as we might be used to in a contemporary democracy or constitutional monarchy. We have been given plenty of reason to believe that the Ministorum and Administratum (and their due representatives on the Council of Terra) frequently clash on the question of the appropriate distribution of power. As evidence of this, the most fundamentally destabilizing event in Imperial history since the Heresy occurred when a certain mad dictator held the position of head of both organizations. Into this mix is thrown the Military, while not truly a military state, in the Imperium the Military is a considerable power (but then, what are we to expect in a galaxy where there is only war?). As a result the Lord Commander Militant is an obvious addition to the High Council, even though this seat is not one of the permanent ones. It seems quite likely that the wax and wane of the political power wielded by the Imperium’s military determines the presence of the Lord Commander and one or more of the Segmentum Lord Commanders on the council. Given that the Imperium has been on constant war footing for more than ten thousand years, we might reasonably imagine that the High Council is rarely without a military representative. Around these “big three” powers of church, state, and military orbit the other Imperial institutions, all of which wield considerable political power in and of themselves.
Another hint at the possible political organization of the Imperium is in the fact that the Council of High Lords is called the “High Council.” While hardly definitive, it is possible that this means that the Imperium has a larger senatorial body (a “low council” so to speak) made up of the higher officers in the imperial organizations, including those who can potentially be High Lords. In this way the Imperial government would be broadly analogous to the original Roman republic, with the “senate” and the High Lords in the roles of procounsels or praetors.
So what do you folks think? How do you imagine the High Council working? Do you think it is part of a larger governmental body, or the sole ruling body of the Imperium? Who do you think its “current” members are and who are the real “powerhouses” on the council?
If you have a favorite corner of the 40k lore that would like to see featured, or just a lore question you think would interest the community, let me know. Ideas are always welcome.
