Telstein

Sectatus Imperialis Ky'Telstein
Seal of the Sectatus Imperialis
National Words Salus Imperialis Suprema Est
Sector Capitol	Telstein
Largest City	Hive Uttica
Ethnic group	Human 100%
Languages	High Gothic Low Gothic Countless Local Tongues
Demonym	Imperial Telsteinian
Governing Structure
Emperor Jimmy Space
Dominus Sectatus Kari Sejanus
Cardinalis Sectatus John Smith
Prefectus Primus Sectatus John Smith
Fabricator-General John Smith
Population
Total (Est.)	17 Trillion
Area (Est.)	400 Settled Worlds
Date	Check/Segment/Year/.Millennium

Telstein, officially known as the Sectatus Imperialis Telstein (Telsteinian Imperial Sector) is a former constituent region of the Imperium of Man that stretches over 400 settled worlds throughout an approximately 200ly³ area of space in the Galactic West. Telstein was formerly an Administrative subdivision of a wider galactic empire until an unknown phenomenon resulted in its dimensional translocation during Night of a Thousand Rebellions in 992999.M41 according to the Imperial Calendar. It now finds itself in the 21st Century CE in a reality that is entirely unrecognieable from the one which it departed.

The Capital of the Sector is the planet of Telstein in the eponymous System and Sub-Sector, which is also the personal domain of the Sector Lord, Dominus Sectatus Kari Sejanus. Responsibility for governance of the Sector is split between local Planetary Governors and the remains of the Imperial galactic administration. As a successor to the Imperium of Mankind, Telstein is a highly autocratic state where human life is intrinsically worthless and the concept of inalienable rights is unimagineable. Daily life in the Imperium is typically marked by staggering levels of inequality, corruption, and cruelty. Democratic principles are unheard of, and the Imperial Adeptae only interfere with the privileged upper classes where their behaviour affects the orderly administration of the Sector or conflict with the central tenets of its official faith, the Imperial Cult.

History

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Recent History

The Telstein Sector vanished from all Imperial Record during the Night of a Thousand Rebellions in 992999.M41. Considered to have been destroyed by a chaotic rebellion, those within the Sectatus Imperialis still labour to discover how they have found themselves entirely separated from the Light of the Astronomicon in an alternate universe.

Astrography

Location of the Sectatus in relation to Holy Terra.

The Telstein Sector is a three-dimensional area of space with sides roughly 200 light years long. Its borders correlate roughly with the Pre-Starshift Telstein Sector insofar as Imperial Adminstration would be concerned - though since the Starshift there have been territorial gains and losses which have resulted in minor but noticeable changes. The Telstein Sector sits to the West of the Milky Way Galaxy. It is positioned on the outer edge of the Perseus Arm, which is to the Galactic South-West of the Orion Spur wherin lies Holy Terra. The Sector was formerly seen as a bulwark against the Northern edge of the Veiled Region. The Telstein Sector sits at a longitude of 237° and at a latitude of 12° above the galactic plane according to the Galactic Coordinate System. It is approximately 18,000ly from Earth.

Whilst the Starshift has entirely removed Telstein Sector from the dimension of reality in which the remainder of the Imperium of Mankind lies, those concerned with its governance still consider Telstein a part of the Segmentum Pacificus, one of the Imperium of Mankind's Segmentae Majoris. The names of the Segmentae are also used commonly to describe the vast reaches of galactic space which they were responsible for administering. Within the Segmentum Pacificus, the Telstein Sector sits between the notable Macharian Sector and Chiros Sector, tending toward the border with the Segmentum Tempestus.

Administrative Divisions

The Telstein Sector consists of around 400 settled worlds with countless settled moons, man-made satellites, minor celestial bodies and void-stations. Whilst populations can rise to sit in the hundreds of billions on the largest of Hive Worlds, the majority of human-controlled planets are sparsely populated and the average population of a planet is in the tens of millions. These worlds of the Sector are principally divided into Sub-Sectors, Systems, Planets, and Inter-Sectors. The various governmental organisations possess their own administrative sub-divisions, but aside from differing terminology their boundaries typically correlate with these standard areas.

Sub-Sectors, also known as 'Clusters' are areas of space approximately ten to twenty Light-years in diameter. Rather than being a universal feature within the Sector that subdivide its entire space, they are instead centered on densely populated clusters of stars, important worlds, and convergences of stable warp-currents. Given inter-stellar travel for the Imperium relies heavily on these warp currents it is common for exploration and colonisation to cluster around such convergences, with key worlds forming thereafter. There are seven designated Sub-Sectors within the Telstein Sector. The largest consists of ten systems spread in a three-dimensional wish-bone shape at the point that the Haelian Warp Corridor bifurcates into the Upper Haelian Reach and the Capacitan Spur. The smallest consists of a single System, and was only elevated to the status of a Sub-Sector following the Starshift to recognise the importance of the Adeptus Mechanicus within the Sector's administration. Sub-Sectors are firmly claimed as Imperial Territory, with the borders of even the largest such divisions being something vessels of the Imperial Fleet can comfortably patrol. Despite this however, it would be incorrect to claim that Imperial Hold on territory within a given Sub-Sector is absolute. There are countless worlds visited and deemed unsuitable or irrelevant to Imperial colonisation efforts, and countless more that have yet to be visited by a vessel of the Imperium. Whilst it is exceedingly rare for an interstellar empire to unknowingly co-exist with the Imperium of Man, entire interplanetary civilisations, both alien and long-lost human in origin exist within so-called Settled Space. This is to say nothing of those worlds which hold life but claim no dominion over the stars: either that which has yet to step foot in the void, or small settlements that fail to recognise Imperial Authority.

The strength of Imperial Control weakens considerably outside of such Sub-Sectors, in what is referred to as Intersectional Space. Whether due to conventional distance, capricious warp currents, or even due to a parity opponent of the Imperium, these areas are not as tightly controlled by the Imperium. Naturally the proliferation of Imperial Colonies diminishes quite proportionally to how easy a given area of Inter-Sector is to reach from Settled Space. For this reason, Intersectional Space is often referred to as Wilderness Space. The vast majority of the Telstein Sector is made up of Intersectional Space, and it would be fair to say that more than half of the settled worlds within the Sector sit without of a Sub-Sector.

Below the grade of a Sub-Sector, comes that of a System. As with standard astrographical terminology, a System consists of a Star or system of clustered stellar objects which are orbited by non-stellar objects bound by the gravitational pull of the system's star. A system need not necessarily contain a Planet but it is exceedingly rare for such a locale to become so noteworthy that it is worth designating as a System. All Planets governed by an Imperial Commander will exist within a System, though if the System only holds one Imperial Planet then the difference between the two entities is minimal.

A Planet is defined astrogeologically as a rounded sub-stellar body. This is a wide definition that includes satellites of other sub-stellar bodies. Insofar as Imperial Bureaucracy is concerned, a Planet is a celestial body settled by Humankind and showing both fealty and worship to Him On Earth. Administratively speaking, a Planet will have an Imperial Commander or Planetary Governor appointed. Under the Lex Imperialis this figure holds absolute authority over that world so long as they meet their obligations to the Wider Imperium. The geological mass, environmental conditions, political landscape and population size of any two planets will differ - in some cases so wildly that one would struggle to conclude that they exist as part of the same Empire. It would be fair to say that due to the erratic and often glacial pace of travel, communication, and bureaucracy within the Imperium of Man, the Telstein Sector hold countless Planets it does not yet know it controls. As Rogue Traders, Explorator Fleets, Colonial Crusades and even private corporate efforts expand the borders of the Sector, civilisation can spread across entire systems - and die screaming centuries later - before the Administratum recognises the laying of the first foundation stone.

Planetary Classification

All Planets, even those Sub-Stellar Celestial Bodies which are not formally 'accepted' as Planets by dint of not possessing a Planetary Governor, are classified by the Administratum to allow Imperial Authorities to better understand the space they control. Classifications exist on a variety of different scales including those which divide them by their tithing requirement or their function within the wider Imperium. Whilst there are countless planets, the majority of them, which are classed as Gamma-Class Civilised Worlds, many others are highly specialised and could not survive for long if cut off from the wider Imperium. These include Alpha-Class Agri-Worlds given over entirely to farming practices often so monstrous they would be unrecogniseable to a modern farmer, Delta-Tau-Class Death Worlds so inhospitable to human life that daily survival is near-miraculous, Eta-Class Hive Worlds so overpopulated and overpolluted that a single late food conveyor can starve millions, and Phi-class Forge Worlds given over entirely to industry and worship of the Omnissiah.

Government

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The government of the Imperial Sector is a highly conservative autocratic system riven with wastefulness, inefficiency, mutual exclucivity, bureaucratic inertia and - in some cases - open warfare. It is functionally a now-isolated microcosm of the wider Imperium of Man and exhibits most, if not all, of the failings of that empire's wider administration. Responsibility for governance is split between the Imperial Commanders who are responsible for specific territories, and the local remnants of the three Adeptae Majoris which constituted the interplanetary Imperial state.

As a part of the Imperium of Man, in theory the Head of State is Him on Earth, the Master of Mankind, God Emperor Jimmy Space. An immortal psyker personally responsible for the unification of human colonies accross the Milky Way through his Great Crusade of the 30th Millennium. Whilst functionally catatonic within a life-sustaining sarcophagus named the Golden Throne, his psychic abilities enabled him to communicate with suitably attuned individuals through premonition and diviniation. However, the government of the Imperium continued in his name through a council of the executives of the Adeptae Majoris and other important governing bodies known as the High Lords of Terra. Even now all contact with the wider Imperium has been categorically severed, the Imperial Sector does not regard itself as an independent state. Various organisations have adapted to this new reality with differing levels of ease heavily dependant on how much they in turn depended on direction from superior officers of state to function.

Many of these organisations are or were functionally independent from their peers, being beholden only to their own superiors until the highest levels of Imperial Bureaucracy - far higher than that which remains extant in the Sector. Some of the bloodiest conflicts of the Post-Shift Century were caused by jurisdictional grievances between Adeptae or through power-grabs initiated as soon as a given Department felt it was without supervision. The political situation within the Sector has now reached its calmest since the Starshift. The heads of all major Adeptae now acknowledge the Dominus Sectatus as a notional first-among-equals who intercede in and arbitrate disputes at the highest levels of the government as well as speaking for them as a collective. In practice however, all of them, many subordinate yet-still-senior officials, and other more obscure officeholders like Imperial Inquisitors claim authority in certain matters from non-existent higher authorities - in some cases from the Emperor himself.

Imperial Commanders

The Imperial Commanders are officials who govern Imperial territories. The term does not refer to anyone who oversees a settlement or even a world, but specifically those officers personally commissioned by the High Lords of Terra to exercise control of their domain in the Emperor's name. They enjoy an autocratic absolute authority to rule as they see fit so long as they meet their tithe quotas and they effectively suppress heresy, mutation, and disorder. Their relationship with the Imperium is set out by the Lex Imperialis. Imperial Commanders are responsible for the provision government services on their world, though there is no requirement for them to meet the personal or societal needs of their citizens. The form these governments take, their effectiveness, and their organisation all varies depending on the circumstances of their world and the whim of its ruler. Imperial Commanders are hugely privileged individuals who enjoy immense personal power and wealth by virtue of their office, which is frequently an inherited position.

Meeting their world's obligations to the Imperium is the personal responsibility of the Imperial Commander which can be a difficult and onerous duty. Failure to fulfil these obligations is almost universally met with death or worse, to say nothing of the punishment meted out on the institutions and populations of the world. This is usually the reason given by holders of such offices as why their position, status, and power is a curse rather than a privilege. It is often explained as a charitable act that the burdens of leadership are not shared amongst the citizenry of a planet - of course the myriad opportunities for self-enrichment available to such people is purely coincidental.

The juniormost grade of Imperial Commanders are those who oversee entire worlds, and they are called Planetary Governors. In addition to their role overseeing the administration of their worlds they act as the commander-in-chief of the local military - the Planetary Defence Force. They are universally regarded as immune from local laws, but are bound by the Lex Imperialis as enforced by the Adeptus Arbites on their world. Planetary Governors are traditionally addressed as Lord or Lady Planet.

Above Planetary Governors come System Lords who are addressed comparably to their subordinate Commanders. This position is usually held by the foremost Planetary Governor in a given star system in addition to their responsibilities to their world. The position frequently involves acting as commander-in-chief of the naval warships and defence platforms that patrol space within the territory under their control - the System Defence Force.

Due to the nature of the Imperium, appointment as a Sub-Sector Lords is more of a sinecure post that carries comparatively little additional authority and privilege. As with System Lordship, Command of a Sub-Sector is usually bestowed on the foremost System Lord who is the foremost Planetary Governor. There are no corresponding military organisations established by default, and there are only few administrative responsibilities that come with it. This does not prevent them from founding personal military households or leveraging their position for self-enrichment, but any such official would need to be careful their actions do not affect Imperial Administration in their domain lest the Administratum remove them from post as swiftly and surely as they would do a 'mere' Planetary Governor.

The senior-most Imperial Commander in the Imperial Sector is the Sector Lord of the Telstein Sector, known as the Dominus Sectatus Telstein in High Gothic. Prior to the Starshift this figure had a similar level of responsibility to the Sub-Sector Lords, but since that time their resonsibilities have changed. Lady Kari Sejanus is the fourth Sector Lord following the deaths in-office of Lord Menini who was Sector Lord at the time of the Starshift, and of Kari's father and elder brother who held the post prior to her investiture. Lady Kari Sejanus's shrewd diplomacy between the Adeptae Majoris and Minoris as well as prominent Sub-Sector Lords is largely credited with ending the widespread high-level conflict that had ensued since the Starshift. As a result of this, the position of Sector Lord was notionally as the foremost figures amongst the Sector's Adeptae executives with a general presumption of decision-making authority unless expressly retained within a specific Adeptus. In practice the myriad Imperial Adeptae remain in conflict and will frequently attempt to subvert the authority of the Sector Lord to their benefit if they believe they can get away it.

Adeptus Terra

The Adeptus Terra, also known as the Priesthood of Earth or erroneously conflated with its largest constituent body - the Adeptus Administratum, represents the incalculably vast secular bureaucracy of the Imperium of Mankind. Due to its nature as thousands of Adeptae Minoris, Departmentos, Ordos, and Officios, there is no one executive decision-maker for the Adeptus Terra, or even the Adeptus Administratum. All personel within the Adeptus Terra above the grade of Menial are referred to as Adepts. Employment within the Adeptus Terra is commonly seen as a great honour and something to be aspired to, as the quality of life and status that comes with being an Adept is often quite unattainable otherwise for the common Imperial Citizen. In spite of this, due to the generally untravelled nature of the Imperial Citizenry and the fact that much of the Adeptus Terra is responsible for interplanetary or esotetic affairs, it is common for roles and departments within Planetary Administrations to be erroneously be regarded as part of the Adeptus Terra. Among the most common of these mistakes is believing that all Imperial law enforcement are Arbitrators of the Arbites, when in fact that body only busies itself with threats to the machinery of Imperial Government rather than with crime under local laws.

The bodies of the Adeptus Administratum were among the easiest to coalesce under the authority of the Sector Lord as they are principally accounting and administration bodies which would rarely be responsible for dynamic decision-making on their own. The Adeptus Administratum in the Imperial Sector is now headed by the Sector Administration Board which reports to the Sector Lord. It has authority to make many decisions on its own, but will typically refer to the Sector Lord or the Sector Council for decisions that would have required a higher level of authority before the Starshift.

The Adeptus Arbites is the Adeptus responsible for enforcing the Lex Imperialis. They do not usually trouble themselves with petty local crimes such as rape or murder, but instead protect the wider functioning of the Imperium from threats as serious and varied as obstruction of Administratum vellum supplies, circumvention of Offico Agriculturae manure taxes, and anti-Imperial vandalism. Due to Imperial policy of secrecy on matters relating to Witches, Aliens, and the Arch Enemy, where such threats appear they are usually passed to the Inquisition to manage. Arbitrators are usually recruited from the Scholae Progenium of the Adeptus Ministorum, but are also known to be recruited from experienced and skilled members of comparable organisations such as the Astra Militarum or Planetary Enforcers. The Adeptus Arbites has considerable military might under its Marshalcy Divisions that operate from Precinct Fortresses on settled worlds or which form part of their independent fleets. These Arbitrators can be employed to maintain order on betroubled worlds where local enforcers cannot handle a situation, act as the final bastion of Imperial Authority in the event of a planetary rebellion, or even depose the Governor and appoint a replacement should the wider Adeptus Terra deem them to have failed in their obligations. The Judges are a parallel hierarchy of senior Arbitrators alongside the Marshals who specialise in encyclopaedic knowledge of the Lex Imperialis. They assist investigations by identifying complex offences, prosecuting cases, judging guilt, assigning punishment, and hearing appeals.

The Adeptus Astra Telepathica is the Adeptus responsible for locating, capturing, and training psychic individuals. It is comprised of two main divisions, though only one formally exists within the Imperial Sector. The first is the Scholastica Psykana on Earth itself, which is where Psykers underwent assessment and if they were deemed to have the fortitude to do so, were trained in how to control their powers. Following this, such individuals would be sent to serve throughout the Imperium in roles ranging from Inquisitors and Adeptus Astartes Librarians to soulbound Astropaths and Sanctioned Psykers in Militarum or general service. The second body is the League of Blackships, which is a small fleet of voidships that constantly travel from world to world collecting untrained psykers and conveying them to Earth for training, or destroying those unsuitable for transport. Other elements of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica include the Astropathic relay stations responsible for interstellar communication, containment facilities on the largest of worlds which take responsibility from the Governor's administration for holding Psykers until the Blackships arrive, and Witchunters who assist the Inquisition, Planetary Authorities, and the Adeptus Ministorum in tracking down nascent Psykers to take them into Containment. The Adeptus Astra Telepathica and its mission to preserve, assess, and train Psykers regularly conflicts with the often uncompromising and homocidally conservative Ecclesiarchal views on psychic mutations. The Adeptus Astra Telepathica is different to the Adeptus Astronomicon which maintained the eponymous psychic beacon on Terra itself and was essential for safe travel through the Warp.

There are many other Adeptae Minoris in the Priesthood of Earth who are represented within the Imperial Sector, ranging from the Intelligence gathering Synopticon and the star-mapping Astra Cartographica, to the highly independent, genetically modified warriors of the Adeptus Astartes Chapters and the secretive-to-the-point-of-being-unknown agents of the Officio Assassinorum.

Adeptus Ministorum

The Adeptus Ministorum, also known as the Ecclesiarchy, is the State Church of the Imperium. It is largely independent from the Adeptus Terra, and is an incredibly powerful organisation in its own right. The Ecclesiarchy preaches a faith known as the Imperial Cult which teaches that the Emperor is a divine figure and that mankind is a chosen people whose destiny is the stars and whose purity of thought and form must be maintained at all costs. It is therefore a significant factor in the Imperial culture's commonly homicidal hatred of aliens, mutants, psykers and non-believers. Whilst disbelief is not contrary to the Lex Imperialis, the Adeptus Ministorum has its own martial might to enforce the creed of its Imperial Cult. Apostasy and Heresy are punished by death at the least, and many other crimes against public morals are punished through Ecclesiarchal courts.

Each major settled world is encompassed within Ministorum organisation by a single Diocese overseen by a Cardinal. Multiple settled worlds with smaller populations may together be grouped into a diocese, whilst some frontier worlds may go decades or even centuries as a mere unincorporated parish. Below Cardinals are Pontifexes - senior priests whose authority extends over multiple parishes. Below them are the preachers of a parish - the juniormost ordained ranks of the Priesthood who form the Curacy. Rectoral Curates are the lead priests within the Parish while Vicarius Curates assist them. The Ministorum also directly oversees a number of Cardinal Worlds where the Cardinal also acts as the Planetary Governor.

Before the Starshift, the Adeptus Ministorum hierarchy continued through ever more grandiose ranks until one reached the Cardinals Palatine and the Ecclesiarch himself on Holy Terra. Below these came various lesser forms of cardinal, the most numerous of which were the Cardinals Astra. Following the Starshift, the Cardinals Astra within the Telstein Sector held a synod and determined that the foremost among them must be elevated to the position of Arch-Cardinal to speak on their behalf. Arch-Cardinal Calleb Eos is typically seen as equal to the Sector Lord and Fabricator General of Ky in power and influence due to his singular authority over the wider Ministorum.

The Ministorum is also formed of a variety of other bodies:

• The Creed Temporal is the bureaucratic, logistical, and administrative arm of the Adeptus Ministorum. It is staffed by countless lay scribes and menials, overseen by the Deaconry - priests who undertake duties as senior administrative officers within the Ministorum.
• The Adepta Sororitas is a collection of all-female monastic orders who dedicate their lives to glorifying the Emperor through carrying out their selected role with a fanatical fervour. These range from the power-armoured Sisters of Battle of the Orders Militant and the beloved healers of the Orders Hospitaller to the window cleaners of the Order Fenestrus and the Orders Famulous that serve as governesses and maajordomos for the nobility.
• The Missionaria Galaxia is the division of the priesthood responsible for spreading the Imperial Cult throughout the galaxy. They accompany exploratory fleets and help establish new shrines on frontier worlds.
• The Schola Progenia are academies run by the Ministorum to educate the orphaned children of the nobility, Imperial Officials and military officers, selected worthies, and commoners adopted on scholarship programmes. Students are taught general topics, strictures of the Imperial Cult, and specific vocational training that leads to them taking up posts in various Imperial organisations.

Adeptus Mechanicus

The Adeptus Mechanicus, also known as the Priesthood of Mars, is technically an independent technocratic, theocratic empire of planets united in worship of technology through a religion called the Cult Mechanicus .

Economy

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Demographics

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Psykers

See Also: Psykers

The Adeptus Astra Telepathica has spent much of the century since the Starshift attempting to compensate for its inability to send Psykers to Earth. In times of great tumult this included mass culling of individuals with psychic potential, as is often standard practice when a world is cut off by warp storms and unable to be reached by a Blackship. However, as the political situation has calmed, three Scholasticae Minoria have been founded within the Sector, two of which remain today. As yet their alumni are generally held to be inferior in technique and control to those who had been trained on Terra itself, but this is considered an acceptable price to pay for continued provision of Psychic capabilities. Unfortunately two of the most important abilities are those which are not able to be replicated by these Scholasticae Minoria - the Navigators and the Astropaths. The former is based purely on genetic inheritance and has been affected greatly by low breeding rates and internecine feuding between those members of Navigator Houses who are active in the Imperial Sector. Regarding the latter, no adequate replacement has been identified for the Soulbinding Ritual carried out on Earth itself, and the proportion of Psykers capable of acting as Astropaths without that ritual is so small that the population cannot currently be sustained.

Culture

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