thor2006 said:

I'd think the Imperium would think the western religions were all based on the creed long ago and the easterns are all heretics in need of purging to save the rest.

 I don't think eastern religion is in need of purging (for example there are cases when the Emperor is the head of pantheon of Gods and the Church is ok with this). Buddhism without the near chaos star is in the same boat with western abrahamic religions. 

Hinduism will need to adopt a centrelized pantheon to survive, and I don't know too well the other eastern religions to see how they fare.

Despite the best efforts of some in the Ecclesiarchy its preachers and rabid nutters of every stripe can twist the religious dogma anyway they like and one man's heathen is another man's hero. And more often than not priests, or more importantly the Imperial officials above them who really run things, are quite happy for people to pay lip service which could further distort 'Imperial Truth'. I don't imagine the Imperium would be very interested in wiping out Hinduism or Christianity. All those masses of deluded potential servants who already understand the concept of blind obedience? Jackpot well, unless they became a nuisance of course, but then thats what the Exterminatus button was made for!

DW

you think the internet exists in the imperium? if so I'm sure it'd be limited to each planet, ship, station etc. but on the other hand it seems like it could be labeled tech heresy. or even standard heresy if there was ever just one heretical post. Could even be lost archaeotech, destroyed after Mars was corrupted via thousand viruses.

If so then as soon as it gets hooked up, the Tech Priests of Mars will discover the gift that is p0rn.

She-Who-Thirsts is pleased.

Cornwallis said:

Two comments, mate.

First, if you consider Black Library novels canon, then the mechanicus do have this technology, or at least they did…  Graham McNeill's Mechanicum features a device called a noosphere.  It is remarkably internet-like, and tech priests can interface with it directly to access all kinds of interesting data.  Of course, Mechanicum is set on Mars during the Heresy, and the noosphere gets well and truly trashed along with many, many other things.

Second, are you familiar with the Eyes of Wrath in Deathwatch?  Long story short, it's a surveillance network established by the paranoid Commander Ebongrave to root out Tau sympathizers.  It has many pict recorders and other surveillance devices all feeding into a central headquarters, and the net is interstellar in scope, covering multiple star systems.  The central HQ has a legion of telepathic servitors to maintain the necessary data connections over interstellar distances.  Of course, I'm now having visions of a daemon, particularly one of Tzeentch's, possessing a servitor and making a few small, subtle alterations to the data…

Cheers,

- V.

 Well first of all i think its important to note that the Emperor was definitely around and active on Terra during M3, in fact he had been active from 8,000 BC to M25, when he became a public figure as a warlord during the age of strife. This means he spent 33k years preparing himself for what was to come. You can assume that if you were to encounter him in M3 he would be terrifically powerful still

 As stated, a Rogue Trader beyond the Imperium who found an equivalent to our contemporary earth, could do as they pleased.  Our earth is clearly post-atomic but not capable of more than elementary space travel - which to a Rogue Trader would mean, it is quite capable of ruining many profitable endeavours almost instantly but blowing itself up.

The value of the world, without having detailed information, is its relatively clean environment that can sustain its large population, and its population itself - making it useful as an agricultural world and a potential source of human labour/workforce/military.  The technology is effective, but primitive - but for its easy and most valuable resources it does't need to be changed.

A charismatic and pragmatic Rogue Trader could focus his diplomatic efforts on empowering the United Nations.  Missions for the Imperial Creed would also be sewn, but there is no real need to force compliance quickly beyond the Imperium.  

To turn a quick profit  you could levy large numbers of volunteer "space soliders" and then bring them back to the Imperium.  Likewise, you could start developing your private army of soldiers (since the vehicles aren't worth it) via your empowered UN in quick order.

All in all, if you could keep its location secret it would be very valuable for foodstuffs and people.  The nuclear weapons and most planetary nations could be controlled through your UN agency.  Considering the amount of people here, you could export huge amounts of infantry as a tithe at almost no effort on a regular basis.

On a personal, if I were the RT note:  I would start work on creating an official bastion for myself, which would be the new UN headquarters and training facility for my new soldiers,  and the planetary spaceport.  To shift the balance of political power I would start it "in the cradle of civilization" in Africa: mostly because it's a good excuse to be some place warm, and with the least amount of hassle from other governments.  Only my grand palace and select facilities would demonstrate the "true" power I have (ie. really big, spires - start of a Hive).

For purposes of propaganda, and to dis-empower other nations peacefully - I would paint a perfectly accurate description of a Galaxy at War - and have a nice little zoo and museum filled with footage of horrible monsters and a zoo of scary monsters.  Teach them to fear the psyker - to help empower the Creed and its eventual global dominance.  I'm reasonably confident you could get the Pope on your side very quickly.

I'd give you +5 Profit Factor, for the food and troops, mostly a diplomatic effort with creed.

I wonder what would be done about our view on technology. Most of what we know is an instant tech-heresy, because anyone who knows anythig about how computer works, knows there are no machine spirits (just nasty gremlins :)
Quite a lot of knowledge would have to became limited and the internet would meet with a purge on a big scale.

Rogue trader discovering us… Interresting … for him, the worst for us.

First of all the Rogue trader will be so happy a whole planet to sell to the imperium and a new title to him to bear, contract to be made and lot of money coming right in the pocket..

Second What a paradise world those retards down stair are quite boring steriliezed them, make them work to built palace and great domains then cut the land in kingdom and rent it to noble or high ranking member of church or administratum;

Third, that could become a really nice new home for my dinasty, just hope for us that the rogue trader is a kind ruler.

Fourth, investigfating on the world, reclaim intelligence about the planet, goverment, military asset and poxer and just let the IG come after selling all the infos to the administratum, and only because our world wouldn't be that interrresting for this rogue trader.

 How bout this: How do you think our governments would react to a Rogue Trader showing up? How much resistance would we put up to things such as a planetary ruler, an all encompassing religion, not being allowed to know how our technology works, even though we already developed it ourselves, etc?

The first thing I thought of was that Earth currencies would almost be completely useless for a Rogue Trader. The same adamantium ingots that could be used to buy a Sollex Pattern-IX "Death Light" Lasgun in Hive Magnagorks on Fenksworld could also be used to buy voidsuits on Footfall, or as stakes for gambling on Port Wander, or to buy Carapace armour from the forge world Lathe-Hesh.

On the other hand, the words "this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private" only apply to a single world, and not even everywhere on that world. No Rogue Trader worthy of the name would accept some worthless pieces of linen/cotton as payment when he could demand precious metals like gold or silver.

As far as how first contact would go, it depends a lot on the Rogue Trader's personal inclination and ship. A Rogue Trader with a Carrack-class transport might be content with filling his holds with goods that would be thought of as exotic and valuable in Imperium space and dropping of some missionaries, while a Trader Militant with an Overlord-class Battlecruiser equipped with Bombardment Cannons, bays filled with Attack Craft, and barracks filled with regiments of loyal soldiers, might not settle for something short of total obedience.

Another thing worth considering is that a Rogue Trader would be very unlikely to accept the authority of Earth governments. Not just because Rogue Traders are used to being the most important people in the room, but because many Rogue Trader would wear clothes older than most Earth governments. "My ancestors were traveling the stars before yours discovered the wheel. Who are you to make demands from me?"

Finally, the Imperium is not a big fan of democracy. Sure, they might be fine with different systems of rule as long as Psykers are culled and the tithe is paid, but with the memory of the recent Fourth Quadrant rebellion (around 775.M41 to 780.M41), where a quarter of Segmentum Solar turned against the Imperium in favour of their own elected officials, tolerance will be in short supply.

I second it would be considered a Developing World… look at the images of 'Developing World' in the books that mention them; they are ~20th century tech…

The endgame of my first Rogue Trader campaign had a similar situation. The party followed their Arch-Magos ally to a previously unknown world within the Hecaton Rifts, a colony of a branch of humanity that had kept and improved upon Dark Age technology. They're a bit slower, and the Arch-Magos got there first.

I show the players the map of the planet - and it's exactly the same as modern day Earth. Which caused some reaction! The Arch-Magos is bombing the inhabitants systematically, convinced they're going to hand over the STC once he breaks their spirits. They being nation-states. Namely: the Empires of the Romans, Mongols and Chinese, the African Union, a vast corporate state covering much of the Americas descended from the Aztecs and the melting pot nations of Oceania and Babylon.

The natives called the planet Terra Nova and had early to mid twenty-first century levels of technology, though they had begun to reverse engineer bits of Adeptus Mechanicus tech. Hypersonic fighters, non-sentient but powerful AI, some nanomanufacturing. No void shields but excellent anti-ballistic weaponry because every nation is armed to the teeth with excellent ICBMs. Sufficient numbers to threaten a battleship in orbit, which was the reason the Arch-Magos had only wiped out two thirds of the planets cities in a year.

In the end, the party and the Arch-Magos found the STC and wiped out the natives to prevent a future threat to the Imperium.  Far too clever by half and not loyal to the Emperor.

Decessor said:

Awesome, it's like my favorite episode of classic Star Trek. I hope you had the explorer party represented on Terra Nova as their peace-loving far-less filthy alter egos; maybe the Lord Captain without his a goatee or ceremonial ghost dagger?