Imperial Cult
From Lexicanum
The Imperial Cult is the cult of veneration that grew up around the Emperor 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 through the most severe means.
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 deity.
Following the Horus Heresy and the Emperor's internment within the Golden Throne on Terra, the Imperial cult exploded. The Emperor's sacrifice to humanity became a central theme to the Imperial cult. The cult was now actively encouraged by the embattled and fragmented leadership of the Imperium, in order to instill loyalty to the Emperor and the Imperium, to hold the line against the forces of Chaos and to tie a battered empire together with a common faith. Following the founding of the Ecclesiarchy soon after, the Imperium became more and more superstitious and the Imperial cult more and more dogmatic. Soon enough the reason and enlightenment of ten millennia past was lost.
