40K Grimdark Theories: The Imperium Are Actually The Good Guys
Let’s talk about another harebrained theory, this time that 40K’s Imperium of Man might be… good guys?
We’ve discussed a few really out there ideas and theories here before. Some of them are pretty plausible, while others haven’t a chance of actually being confirmed. Many of them even if true wouldn’t have that big of an effect on the game as we know it. Today however lets look at an out there theory. If true, and it has good support, would force us to entirely rethink the 40K setting. What if the Imperium are the good guys of 40K! (Yes know I that in the past I’ve said that Chaos was right and Imperium wrong, well the re-education camps are really effective. )
The Accepted Truth
For thirty-ish years the Imperium of Man has quite clearly been the major villain in the 40K setting. This is after all a fascist totalitarian dictatorship bent on galactic domination. No deed is too dark for the Imperium to carry out, countless races have been exterminated under its heel and one of the core tents of its enforced state religion is that any deviants, be they those who think differently or where born differently are purged by those who “just follow orders”. Even those who have but come into brief contact with anything considered deviant suffer the same fate. This is a amazingly xenophobic nation-state, that actively works to perpetrate countless genocides and to destroy the great balance of sentient beings in the universe. Even when olive branches have been offered they have been met with fire and death.
40K’s Imperium of Man is based around a literal death cult that sacrifices people in their thousands to an uncaring god. It is built upon the backs of countless trillions of slaves, many of whom have been so lobotomized that they do not even recognize that they are slaves. This is a society that glories in its own ignorance and stagnation. One that feels it owes nothing to the people that make it up.
The Good Guys
You find the darndest things on Pinterest…
Set against this obviously evil empire are a handful of good factions. We have:
- The desperate bands of rebels who tried and failed to stop the take over of the evil empire and now resist it from the shadows. Not unlike the Jedi of Star Wars.
- A race of beings who are the original owners of the land now trying to reclaim their homes from the evil imperialist colonizers.
- A collectivist society that seeks to find the (greater) good in everyone and actively offers a better and peaceful path for humanity.
- Some rogue plants, just trying to have a good time.
- A bunch of clowns that just want to make the galaxy laugh.
- The last remnants of a dying race led by those who actively have worked to save humanity and yet are still hounded to extinction by the Imperium.
- Homeless refugees from a dead galaxy just looking for some lodging and food.
- An underground counterculture movement based on free sex, drugs and metal music living in the shadows and just trying to be free. Big into arena sports and female empowerment.
- Multidimensional tourists fighting for their literal right to life.
- Space miners / tech-hobbyists who pretty much want to be left alone.
Set against this group of innocent and pure factions it’s blindingly obvious the Imperium is evil. This crazy theory however tries to argue that we’ve got it all wrong. Lets take a look.
Rethinking the Imperium
According to this out there theory the Imperium has actually been the good guys all along. The core ideas behind this is that the theory that the Emperor was really a good and ultimately honest person all along. That in the rare time’s He talks about His plans, such as in Master of Mankind, He is being 100% honest. That everything He ever did was for the good of humanity and with the goal the building a perfect utopia. That in fact the Emperor did know best all along, that the other races had to be destroyed, not just for the good of humankind, but for the protection of the very galaxy. That despite some appearances the Emperor had no ulterior motives and if His plan had not been foiled we would now have a peaceful prosperous galaxy where all humans are equal and free.
Continuing the theory there are two main thoughts. The first is that despite falling away from the Emperor’s plan as a result of the Heresy, the Imperium has still always been the good guys. This theory posits that the path the Imperium took was not only necessary, but good and the best path. That its actions have been justified and were the right ones given the foes it faced. Indeed it recasts the Imperiums many victims as vicious warmongers who cannot be reasoned or bargained with bent on galaxy destruction. This branch of the theory says the Imperium have always been good guys and we should look up to them.
Just Doing the Best They Can…
The second branch of the theory acknowledges that the Imperum started off as good. Then, due to circumstances, entered a dark age where it was less good, though still at its core good. The fallen Imperium did some bad stuff. It fell in with a bad crowd and maybe got a little addicted to public burnings. Then the great and honorable Roboute Guilliman returned from beyond death to take the reins. Guilliman, a good and heroic person, is in the process of reforming the Imperium back to his father’s original image. This rehabilitation of the Imperium has turned them back into the good guys. At the same time recent events have exposed the other races as the truly evil factions they are. Indeed a lot of recent evidence does seem to point towards the Imperium being the good guys. Perhaps they are role models we should follow.
Still to me I think this theory might just be a little far fetched.
Let us know what you think of this theory, down in the comments!
Xenos Cartoon art by miracle32
