Imperial Cult
From Lexicanum
The Imperial Cult is the cult based on the worship of the Emperor as Master, Defender and Father of Mankind, developing following his internment in the Golden Throne. In the 41st millennium the Imperial Cult has almost unrivaled power and influence within the Imperium. Heresy against it is punished severely. The religion is administered by the Ecclesiarchy.
The Imperial Cult is the Imperium's state religion, and in many ways the religion is the state itself; it binds humanity together in the service of the Emperor and the Imperium4.
The precepts of the Imperial Cult, called the Imperial Creed, include the belief that all of humanity must be brought into the Imperium, the abhorrence of aliens, the realization that psykers and mutation among humanity is a dire threat which must be controlled. All of these precepts have their origins with what the Emperor himself preached during the Great Crusade.2
History
While the ordinary citizen believes that the Emperor has always been venerated as an immortal and omnipotent god, this was not always the case. At the beginning of the Emperor's Great Crusade the Imperium functioned very differently. Firstly there was no Ecclesiarchy and the veneration of the Emperor, in the form of a cult known as the Lectitio Divinitatus, was frowned upon. The official Imperial doctrine was that the Emperor was an extremely powerful being, rightful ruler of all mankind, and the perfect image of humanity, but no matter how supreme, still a human being. During the Great Crusade however, many ordinary Imperial citizens found that the light of reason and truth brought by the Emperor was not enough, and they took to worshiping him as a deity1.
The Emperor became an object of general veneration following the Horus Heresy and his internment within the Golden Throne on Terra. Over the following decades many individual Imperial cults sprang up throughout the Imperium, with their central theme being the redemption of humanity through the Emperor's self-sacrifice. After a few hundred years a single cult known as the Ecclesiarchy was formed from the unification of a number of smaller cults, which gradually absorbed the main body of believers. In M32 this cult became the official religion of the Imperium, gaining the title of Adeptus Ministorum. Remaining cults were persecuted and mostly destroyed.2
Related articles
Sources
- 1: Horus Heresy Series
- 2: Codex Imperialis, p. 38
- 2a: p. 32
- 3: Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, p. 268
- 4: Realm of Chaos, Slaves to Darkness, p. 214
