The Imperium of Light

OOC: Strongly inspired by other SciFi settings like 40k, Dune and Eclipse Phase, this worldbuilding project was nevertheless worked out on its own level by me and has no claims to represent or even copy any setting. An index of all articles related to the Imperium can be found here or in the Library Tab, further ideas here or in the OOC Tab. Explore the multiversum, glory to the Imperium and make sure to keep your weapon at hand!

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The Imperium of Light, also called Imperium Humanum or the Human Realm is a galaxy-spanning human federation for unity and protection from outside threats. A futuristic civilisation on countless planets with diverse political entities and power structures that opposes the chaos, darkness, xenos and human traitors of the entire multiverse. In the midst of this endless sea of violence and brutal hatred shines the light of humanity, whose birthright to the stars is fought for with sword and blood. At the head of the gigantic bureaucratic apparatus of Militarum, Administratum, the planets and trillions of human lives stands the sacred planet Omnius. The birthplace of humanity from which the gods helped mankind in their birthright to the stars. Now bound in their own divine dimension, only the Deities of the third generation can help humans personally. Led by the Divine Imperator himself, son of the King of the Gods bound to the throne of the stars, the Imperium is led. With trillions of human lives in the factories of the great industrial planets, trillions in the Administratum and millions in the Imperium Militarum, the remnants of the Imperium stand against the categorical arch-enemies: the Aliens (Xenos), the Darkness, the Chaos and the human Heretics. The time of the humans seems to be drawing to a close, but no one can ever underestimate them.

The Multiversum

This setting takes place on an intergalactic plane of unknown size. In addition to infinite planets in the normal universe or the "Realm of Humanity"/"Human Realm", there is also the multiverse. The theoretical construct of the Scientificum Imperialis of overlapping and crossing as well as theoretically infinite universes, also called realms or dimensions, which is represented in the human universe by time-space rifts. These rifts break open at various points for various reasons and grant permanent or temporary access to other dimensions, also differering in size. The largest reams only consist of a few accesible planets, while dimensions are entire systems and universes itself exist. Cataloguing this is incredible difficult, so only one official universe "The Imperium Humanum" is recorded. The Imperium has various extradimensional colonies in different rift realms. The Scientificum Imperialis and the Imperium Militarum are constantly working to maintain control of the rifts and to counter the dangers of the emerging dimensions, the xenos, the darkness and chaos.

History

main article: History (IoL)

The history is written in the form xxx.MXX. The first three indicate the centuries and years, the last two the millenia of the chronology.

The history of the Imperium Humanum spans millennia of war and destruction into the darkest ages of known history. As a beacon of light and bastion of humanity in the multiverse, the entire construct has served its purpose for more than 50,000 years. But to understand the Imperium, you first need to know its prehistory. In the billions and billions of years before the existence of mankind, before the existence of the planets themselves, there was only darkness. It was called Nyx, and when the light appeared, it became the eternal arch-enemy. Lux, the light, shone into the universe and life began. Envious of a splendor beyond her reach, a first clash ensued, attacking the very foundation of reality and pushing the rifts, the dimensions, into each other. The multiverse was created and both forces retreated to a truce that lasted millions of years. Life sprouted and the first civilizations grew, chaos emerged from these psychic urges and the darkness worked on its terrible creations. The time had come when the gods stepped out of their own dimension on Omnius and created mankind. The age of light, the golden age, had arrived and projected its power into the multiverse. Under the guidance of the gods, humanity blossomed and created impossible inventions of unbounded proportions. Humanity reached for the stars and was destined to rule the multiverse as it was born to do.

But in those uncounted decades of thousands, the darkest hour fell. In their terrible creations, the tide of chaos poured down upon the human realm, in their shadowy drive, nightmares infiltrated systems and in their endless lust for power and pride, brothers tore themselves apart. The war of the gods had begun, the human realm crumbled and chaos and darkness took over. The sad climax of the story was the fall of Omnius and the great duel between Light and Shadow, between the King of the Gods, incarnation of Lux, and Nyx, Darkness itself. Severely wounded, the King overcame the Shadow and banished Nyx to the farthest dimensions of the multiverse. The second generation of gods, born in this shadow, who knew only war and destruction, were left behind by the first generation and now set about a new task.

The founding of the Imperium - the unity of mankind under the banners of the great ages, to protect the endless horrors of the multiverse and to recolonize the stars as befits the human birthright! In its splendor, in its perfection, the Empire was created amidst the mindless chaos that infested the universe. The age of Imperium began and humanity did not yet give up. In the millennia of history from yesterday to today, humanity re-established itself as the power of the universe, in its trillions and trillions of past lives, humanity immortalized itself as the most glorious race in the universe, in its countless battles and campaigns, in its endless crusades, humanity showed itself to be resilient and dangerous. The long crusade began, reintegrating steadfast bastions and eradicating chaos, illuminating the darkness and eliminating the traitors from the history books brought mankind back. Never again to its former greatness, but the goal has not yet diminished - and never will.

Gods and Deities

Gods are sacred servants of light, revered by the Imperium Humanum and sanctified by the Church. Through strong aetheric connections to the energies of the multiverse, they possess powerful psychic and physical powers. The gods have their sacred seat in the dimension of the gods, which is connected to the moon of Omnius - Elysium - by a transplanetary rift. The Golden Palace of the Emperor, the imperial seat of the gods, is located there.

The first generation of gods emerged after the duel between Light and Darkness, Lux and Nyx in the Realm of the Gods. This dimension has strong aetheric connections to the Light, and became the birthplace of the first of all gods - the King of the Gods, who is considered to be the direct incarnation of Lux. There he created the other gods of the first generation - his wife, the queen, the four gods of heaven, the god of knowledge, and 5 other gods. This first generation came to Omnius and created mankind. With their help, humanity reached for the stars and its boundaries expanded throughout the multiverse. Gods and humans worked together and even intermingled as demigods were born, new gods emerged from the energies of the multiverse and the souls of humanity and the gods did what they do best - love. The second generation was born.

And then the darkest hour in history came when the War of the Gods began. Chaos, treason and darkness reclaimed the galaxies and for long millenia, hatred, death and destruction swept through the universes. In this hour, however, the sad fate of the second generation triumphed. Born young, this generation knew only the times of war and embraced it. Gods died, worlds fell and entire systems were destroyed. Until the King of the Gods, severely wounded, was able to banish Nyx in a personal duel - saving humanity. Left behind on his golden throne in the midst of the heavily destroyed divine dimension, his first-born son - the Divine Imperator set out into the universes on a long crusade and founded the Imperium Humanum, the Imperium of Light.

With the new age of Imperium and the end of the dark period, the third generation emerged. The Deities, bound by the Rift, became the new presence among humanity. They formed and shaped the Imperium and led humanity into the stars once more. The Deities - unlike their predecessors - are not bound to their extra-dimensional god realm. They can move freely through the multiverse and do not have to rely on avatars. The few surviving parts of the second generation have also been detached from the dimension and can support humanity. The survivors of the first generation, on the other hand, have remained forever in their destroyed dimension and protect the King of the Gods in his White Palace for all eternity. To this day, the First Generation serves as a beacon of humanity in the universe, making Elysium the most sacred place in the Imperium.

Nowadays, in ecclesiastical circles, there is even talk of a fourth generation, which stands out significantly in that it is all the Deities who were born in the age of the Imperium and are still being born. By far the largest generation of the gods.

Government and Structure

The Divine Imperator

The Administratiis (Imperialis, Planetaris, Militarum, Divine, Inquisitoris)

Omnius and his place in the Imperium - the local planets and government systems

Influence of the Gods

Influence of the Militarum

Church and the Inquisition

Role of the Officio Administratum of the Inquisition

The Scientificum

The Imperium Militarum

Role of the Militarum

The Legions

The Regiments

The Religious Orders and the Mass

Planetary Defense

The Fleet

The Administratum Militarum

Notes of Lore

• Cyborg Amalgamation (Humans with cyborg implants, not in side with the church = heresy, less control over their body)
• The "Humanity" flagship of the Divine Imperator, one of the 8 legions, Ark of Omnius comment on reddit
• Officio Relicta (office of the archivum preserving and collecting relicts, also giving them to the Scientificum for research and for the Militarum to utilize)
• The Golden Suit golden suit
• Exite (Exite making the base of the suit as one of the hardest materials)
• Illuril (illuril as a wonderous solid light-liquid alloy capable of strong psychich use)
• The Nomadic Aliens of the Xi'Shauri (living in space stations)
• Aethers as (psykers, magicians)
• The Ether = A dimension, spanning the entirety of the multiverse, just as the real world does, its basically a layer of reality, together with real world, when first battle of darkness and light shattered the multiverse, it also extracted the energies of the multiverse into a new layer, letting life be on the real side and reflections of it (like souls) on the other layer
• How does this entire magic stuff work? Aether as home of etherial energies, with so called Spirits (concentration of etherial energy), from there darkness, chaos and light get their powers, AI = artificial intelligence, prohibited but are being considered as spirits, working on etherial energy forming its own consciousness, a maschine is working through spirits, not technic, its necessary to chant prayers and summon those energies for it to work, Everything in the Imperium utilizes those maschines and its spirits to communitate, send data and to give to the Archivum
• The AI = Archivum Intelligence, is the most important core of the Archivum, its a mix of an old grand AI of human knowledge and the God of Knowledge himself in his ugly technical-divine amalgamation of body and maschine, his spirit is mixed with the AI and took over it, spreading his knowledge through marschines with certain incantations (called computers = nowadays just altars and shrines to the Knowledge God)
• Part of the Archivum: Archivum Administratum, the Head Archivum, the Archivum Intelligence, the Officio Relicta, strongly collaborating with the Scientificum, the Archivum collects knowledge of the Militarum, the governments, planets (as of the Scientificum)
• Operations of the Inquisition are even more secret, and its own AI = Archivum Inquisitorum saves that secret data
• there might not exist something like darkness and light, its all the same energy after all, its just thinking and interpretation, there might not even be a first battle but instead its just a storm of the multiverse, a big bang of sorts
• Theory of two Ethers by a Sect in the Scientificum (heretical!!!): Our ether is the ether of light, and there is another ether for darkness, though there are some things against it: First of the theory of there not being a darkness and light, second that heretical so called dark objects are utilizing the same form of spirits from our either
• Siegfried of Knowledge (Scientificum Researcher, Archivist and more, a human-technical amalgamation of immense knowledge, observing the universe and noting everything, loyal part of the Imperium having knowledge behind the Church and holy Inquisition, about the theory of the universe of one, not fourth layer breaking but looking behind everything of the Imperium and still being loyal)
• Recoding Divice: Spirit implemented into brain like a chip, utilizing a vox unit without sending the voice outwards, just keeping it inwards and saving it
• Scientificum: three branches (branch of the collectors with the archivum, branch of the Administratum Scientificum, branch of the Researchers and branch of the Exploratus)
• Points of Interest (in Space)
• The Grand Map of the Multiverse (Project)
• Classification of worlds (Hiveworld, Holy world, militarum world, dead world, industrial world, trade world, ship world, paradise world, etc.)
• Colonial Fleets