Religion/Faith?

[Joachim]

I have a question: which Black Library novels discuss the transition from the Imperial Truth to the Imperial Cult the most? I sort of ran into the topic while reading "Know no Fear" by Dan Abnett, where it is mentioned from the Ultramarines´ perspective, when confronted to the newfound "religion" of the Word Bearers. I remember that the Horus trilogy also mentions it, characters like Sinderman or obvioulsy Keeler in particular. What other novels go that way? I suppose "The First Heretic" would be of course be among them, but perhaps "The Master of Mankind" as well`?

[Markus]

The Books you mention for sure. Especially the First chapters of Horus Rising, the anaolgy to "I was there when Horus killed the Emperor" as a mirror setup for the whole thing, and the Dialogue between Sinderman and Loken about what the crusade is and does.

I also think "Saturnine" has much when it comes to the foundation building of the myth, that is used to make the whole "Cult" aspect.

The Scouring: Ashes of the Imperium also has lots of in person perspective that can help to understand from which place the "cultification" comes.

I think also the Watchers of the Throne series gives an interesting perspective on the fully flagged out imperial cult vs the rather "traditional" Custodes and especially Gulliman returned. Maybe one could find points that help build the distinction clearer and get more "trennschärfe"/selectiviy.

[Jonas Hermann]

Fulgrim by Graham McNeil (Horus Heresy 5) has a great chapter (No. 9) that basically foreshadows the development of the Imperial Cult. It's a conversation between Julius Kaesoron, First Captain of the Emperor's Children, and the iterator Evander Tobias about the meaning of the word "heresy" (from Ancient Greek "haeresis"), which, at first, does not seem to make much sense in the context of the atheist regime that the Imperium is at the time:

‘Indeed,’ said Tobias, ‘though such a word has more or less fallen out of usage in the Imperium, thanks to the great works of the Emperor. Its etymological roots lie in the ancient languages of the Olympian Hegemony and it simply means a “choice” of beliefs. In the tract, Contra Haereses, the scholar Irenaeus describes his beliefs as a devout follower of a long dead god, beliefs that were later to became the orthodoxy of his cult and the cornerstone of a great many religions.’

The tract in question is real, written by the Church Father Irenaeus around 180 AD. The subtext here is that Contra Haereses is mostly a critique of Gnosticism, which assumes a dualistic cosmology in which a second, evil god (the cosmocrator) begets devils and demons. Unintentionally, Tobias foreshadows the setup of Emperor vs. Chaos that we have in the later Imperium. The Imperial Cult is, after all, a reaction to the Primordial Truth.

Nerdgasm over. I think passages like that are the reason why Warhammer appeals to academics. It has bolter porn but also overeducated references as a sort of academic fan service. It's great pulp fiction (in the positive sense).

[Joachim]

Thank you very much, both of you! That's very helpful, gonna give those a shot!

@Jonas It's fascinating how many references one can find. I always wonder how many I miss. There's a few obvious ones, actual quotes by Nietzsche (quoted as "the philosopharch Nietzsche, circa M2", in the epigraph ofKnow No Fear), but I guess there must be many more. I also recall some hungarian sentences in some of Fehervari's works. Anyway, many of the BL writers have studied something in the humanities, I guess it's a deformation professionelle.

[WBRB-Dimitrios]

Tales of Heresy also has a couple of short stories, one called 'Scions of the Storm', where Lorgar, Erebus and other chaplains arrive at Forty-Seven Sixteen, and they let Sol Talgron in a little secret: Lorgar is writing a new book, one that, as he says, will change everything.

The other, 'The Old Church' (which I don't want to spoil too much) has a lot on faith and the old religion, and an interesting - albeit easy to decipher from early on - twist.

Both have brief mentions in the Lectitio Divinitatus, the world before the Imperial Truth and its involvement in faith, and similar themes. The second story also has another depiction of the Thunder Warriors (which I personally love) and how they acted while they were the 'regular' army of the Emperor.