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Emperor knows that the citizens of the Imperium have no lack of legitimate reasons to revolt—massive wealth inequality, ruthless resource extraction, the Ministorum's religious extremism, conscription for wars many lightyears away, the general apathy and incompetence of the authorities, etc. Yet in the fluff, whenever there is an uprising trying to overthrow a planetary governor, no matter how justified, it always turns out to have the taint of Chaos, genestealer cults, or something similar.

Next thing you know, the oppressed citizens are now blood-thirsty monsters who can be butchered without guilt so that the status quo may be restored.

I think it would be plausible for a planetary governor's propagandists to deceptively paint a revolution as being Chaos-influenced, in order to obtain military support from off-planet under false pretenses to help the governor deal with the fallout of his own failed policies. It would certainly fit GW's political satire about tyranny, instead of coming across almost as an endorsement of the Imperium's tyranny.

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Going back to Rogue Trader, governors went rebellious all the time. Warp storms can leave worlds cut off for generations, so by the time the Imperium can return to a world it's been autonomous for so long they reject Imperial authority entirely. Worlds can fail to fulfill tithes for any number of reasons as the Imperium has to reconquer the planet to install a newer, more compliant governor. Planets get neglected for 'more important' worlds and go rogue.

This happens all the time, it just doesn't fit the narrative of a besieged humanity compared to chaos cults, genestealers and the like.

By no means is it always Chaos and Xenos behind it.

But, I’d argue the inclusion of those makes any uprising far more likely to succeed, simply because no matter how popular your uprising? The Governor and associated forces will likely outgun you, and have means to cut the head off the rebellion when it’s just human vs human.

Because no one cares about unaligned rebels while cultists have ties to existing armies you can play

Also GW has shown rebels and cultists in positive and sympathetic light. My favorite example being Day of Ascension that is mostly told from a Genestealer Hybrid pov (who has very passionate views regarding how bad the IoM is).

Some of the recent Black Library novels like King of the Spoil and Iron Kingdom sort of start that way, with the locals rising up against Imperial tyranny or unreasonable resource extraction. This is admittedly spoiled by the OP's point that these rebellions are then revealed (at least to the reader) to have some nefarious plotter being behind it all, and this being xenos or Chaos related. This kind of spoils the ideology of the rebels.

I would argue the vast majority of rebellions are human on human and if played out in 40K would be IG vs IG or SM vs IG.

I personally would argue that with the return of Guilliman there could be plenty of shadow wars between the Recongregationist faction of the Inquisition and its more conservative Amalathian faction. The reformers sponsoring rebellions in order to overthrow hidebound and unresponsive Imperial governors, or equally, a counter-revolution by those wanting to restore the status quo, perhaps in response to a reign of terror like Robespierre's or simply to restore the previous vested interests.

If played out, Genestealer Cults could be used to represent oppressed mutant uprisings or just underclass uprisings if any overtly alien units are not used, although units like the Kelermorph could still be explained away as just an especially talented gunslinger.

The background lore talks about separatist type movements but I think from a narrative point of view GW sees more value in providing stories about Xenos and chaos influenced rebellion. It supports their other products.

I doubt a non choas or Xenos supported revolution would last long against the night of the empire. Perhaps if the ultramar sector went rogue…..

The only imperial rebellion I’ve read about that lasted a decent amount of time was the blood pact.and they loved chaos

There have been a fair few instances of non-Chaos/Xenos uprisings:
- The Sons of Salinas rose up when an Imperial Guard Regiment installed themselves as the rulers of the planet. The Regiment had become corrupt and brutal over its occupation of the world and slaughtered an entire town just to kill the family of the rebellion's leader. This rebellion was given amnesty by the Grey Knights.
- There were a lot during the Great Crusade from disgruntled rulers whose power had been effectively supplanted by the Imperium. The Proximan Betrayal saw the population attempt to assassinate the Emperor himself and was the event where the Emperor's Children earned both their name and the right to bear the Palatine Aquila.
- The Badab War was not orchestrated by the servants of Chaos but it is believed that agents of Chaos did intervene when hostilities seemed to die down and a truce was underway.
- A fair whack on this list are not Chaos or Xenos based: https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/List_of_Anti-Imperial_Rebellions

The problem with rebellions is that generally they come from the most disenfranchised of a population or they are led by the highest echelons. Incidentally, this also happens to be the areas where both Chaos and Xenos corruption tend to present themselves.

Genestealer Cults largely operate in the poorest areas of a given world because it is much easier to hide the Hybrid children of Cultists in areas with huge populations that see little to no oversight from local government and enforcers.

As for Chaos, well there are many reasons for both extremes.
For the lower echelons of society, a trodden underclass that has gladiatorial combat as its entertainment and a way to earn money/food/water can easily be the start of a Khornate Cult, while the unwashed masses are the perfect breeding ground for a cult dedicated to Papa Nurgle, and unregistered Psykers often hide among the lowest levels of society away from the prying eyes of the enforcers which can lead to gangs or cults forming around prophets and mages. As for Slaaneshi cults, when life is at its worst sometimes all that's left is getting pleasure.
With the upper echelons that's where you're really going to find Slaaneshi cults built from the wealthy elite who live opulent and decadent lifestyles. If the society is warrior-based then cults to Khorne could spring up but for Nurglites it's going to be pretty rare unless the whole world suddenly gets plagued up. Tzeentian cults can arise on worlds that horde knowledge for those who have the wealth to do so and can lead them on a path to seeking ever more esoteric or forbidden texts.
Chaos as a whole has the remarkable trait of turning causes with the best of intentions into more playthings for the Pantheon, which is the main reason why so many uprisings tend to be Chaos Cults.

You also have the monolithic nature of Imperial Hierarchy to overcome.

You may gain fairly widespread popular support in your immediate area. I mean, there’s no shortage of things to dislike about when you’re an Imperial Pleb.

To be a credible threat to the status quo, and get yourself wearing the Boss Trousers? You need planetwide support.

GSC of course have that down pat. And Chaos Cults have their own way of spreading and retaining loyalty.

But…Just Humans? Less so.

Everything GW writes is an attempt at marketing, branding, and cross promotion. For the most part that means referencing xenos or chaos influence as a means of connecting two parts of the brand to drive sales. Writing about the Imperium vs guys you've never heard of before and will never hear about again after doesn't move plastic or books.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
You also have the monolithic nature of Imperial Hierarchy to overcome.

You may gain fairly widespread popular support in your immediate area. I mean, there’s no shortage of things to dislike about when you’re an Imperial Pleb.

To be a credible threat to the status quo, and get yourself wearing the Boss Trousers? You need planetwide support.

GSC of course have that down pat. And Chaos Cults have their own way of spreading and retaining loyalty.

But…Just Humans? Less so.

I would disagree about that point of "just humans". There can be all sorts of reasons why a purely human rebellion might gain and retain support. Religious schism for one. The Ecclesiarchy is not homogenous and what might seem a variation in local doctrine can be magnified and condemned as heresy. In turn, the local religious movement can portray itself like the Confederation of Light did as an honest uprising of worshippers against the corrupt Ecclesiarchy that is perverting the Emperor's will.

Local (as in planetary) nationalism from the populace and rulers is another I would say common reason. Local leaders could genuinely empathize with their population and resent sending vast manpower and resources off to places they have never heard of, never to be seen again. Not every ruling class has to be a greedy decadent Slaaneshi worshipper in disguise. A genuine Emperor worshipping governor might still object to seemingly ruinous taxation, or argue that such resources might be more helpful if spent locally. The Iron Kingdom appendix gives some examples of the Indomitus Crusade ruining certain worlds with excessive demands, even if such demands are nominally to be offset in the future with promised waived tithes. An example is given of a world that a crusade group commander gives a 20 Terran year waiver from tithes, but in return for completely depopulating and stripping the world of all people and equipment. In other words, there was nobody left for the waiver to apply to.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
By no means is it always Chaos and Xenos behind it.

But, I’d argue the inclusion of those makes any uprising far more likely to succeed, simply because no matter how popular your uprising? The Governor and associated forces will likely outgun you, and have means to cut the head off the rebellion when it’s just human vs human.

Mostly this. Human uprisings are implied to happen quite a bit, but even when they do happen they're just not very likely to spill out onto the galactic stage.

When your GSC rise up, they might spread and splinter to continue being a problem for the whole sector. Ditto chaos, plus, warbands have a habit of scooping up "recruits" and turning the conquered planet into a source of resources for their next campagin. Even guavesa can bolster tau numbers and resources.

But humans who rebel against the local planetary governor? Even if they win, so what? They're probably not going to be able to conquer other similarly-equipped/supported planets in the region. They're probably not going to go out and start picking fights with the larger factions in the galaxy. And if the new guy in charge doesn't pledge loyalty to the imperium (essentially returning to the status quo), then the imperium will send guard regiments, etc. to the planet until it's beaten back into compliance.

So if you want to do a campaign where your plucky rebels manage to overthrow their imperial overlords and somewhat improve the quality of life on the planet, you totally can. But that's probably where the story ends.

I feel like it's important to note two things with regard to Chaos and Genestealer Cults.

The vast majority of Chaos Cults are wiped out before they ever get far enough to threaten a planet. Most will get discovered by local authorities, wiped out by gang warfare, or end up killing themselves in some ritual gone wrong.

For GSC, if a Cult gets noticed then the chances are it's too late to do anything about it anyway. It's only down to pure luck that a Genestealer infestation will get noticed by anyone with the power to destroy it quickly enough.

 Gert wrote:
I feel like it's important to note two things with regard to Chaos and Genestealer Cults.

The vast majority of Chaos Cults are wiped out before they ever get far enough to threaten a planet. Most will get discovered by local authorities, wiped out by gang warfare, or end up killing themselves in some ritual gone wrong.

On the other hand, most imperial worlds with a reasonably large population have a background noise of cults dabbling in all sorts of things with varying amounts of success, and many of them aren't exactly philanthropic towards their society: as such, they have no qualms about starting a rebellion within the rebellion and usurp legitimate public uprisings if the opportunity presents itself. They're opportunistic predators, if they can get closer to their overall goals by beheading and capturing a rebellion they'll absolutely try to. Same for Genestealer cults, although they're usually more content to play the long game and only strike when they're either poised to do so perfectly, or in immediate danger of being discovered and rooted out.

When a state-mandated religion with a thousand different creeds, cults, and denominations is the day-to-day, a non-Imperial religious group is easy to hide.

The Emperor with four arms holding the galaxy together, the image of a loving grandfather figure, a warrior god with a great sword, all could easily be hidden.

Heck in Darktide one of the voice lines for the Zealot when it activates its ability is "Blood for the Emperor, skulls for the Golden Throne". That doesn't necessarily mean that all Darktide Zealots are Khornate but that we as an outside perspective can see similarities between the worshippers of the Blood God and the Emperor is sort of the point of religion in 40k IMO.

There are likely on high populated worlds any number of heterodox cults of the Imperial faith. These can be genuine or fronts for Chaos or Genestealer cults and it would be difficult to investigate all of them on something like a hive world. The Genestealer cult on Ichar IV posed as a local variation on the Imperial cult and operated charitable organizations for years. Imperial authorities might well overlook such similar cults as just a harmless local variation and one that reduces discontent might be viewed as helpful even. The cloak of public approval can shield cults from investigations and crackdowns.

Exactly. A Governor isn't going to launch a really expensive investigation into a sect when all the workers who belong to that sect are by all accounts exemplary citizens who don't cause trouble and are diligent in their work just because they all happen to be bald or sponsor underhive gladiator games.

Genestealers cults in particular tend to do a lot of charity work. They also tend to produce excellent workers and soldiers which further helps them slowly claw their way into the higher echelons of their host world.

That's part of the reason why they are so hard to detect, they usually aren't criminals and agitators but the best and brightest. If given enough time, they will take control over the planetary governor and nobility and go interstellar.

 Gert wrote:
When a state-mandated religion with a thousand different creeds, cults, and denominations is the day-to-day, a non-Imperial religious group is easy to hide.

The Emperor with four arms holding the galaxy together, the image of a loving grandfather figure, a warrior god with a great sword, all could easily be hidden.

Heck in Darktide one of the voice lines for the Zealot when it activates its ability is "Blood for the Emperor, skulls for the Golden Throne". That doesn't necessarily mean that all Darktide Zealots are Khornate but that we as an outside perspective can see similarities between the worshippers of the Blood God and the Emperor is sort of the point of religion in 40k IMO.

More so given knowledge Chaos is even a thing is so heavily repressed. Which perversely makes it easier for a Cult to draw otherwise innocent people in, as the symbology and words used just….won’t mean anything to your average Imperial Citizen. And so the corruption is slow.

-Guardsman- wrote:


Next thing you know, the oppressed citizens are now blood-thirsty monsters who can be butchered without guilt so that the status quo may be restored.

You got the in-verse lore right.

 Adeptekon wrote:

-Guardsman- wrote:


Next thing you know, the oppressed citizens are now blood-thirsty monsters who can be butchered without guilt so that the status quo may be restored.

You got the in-verse lore right.

And keep in mind, just because a 40K Witch Hunt might be exactly that, it doesn’t stop modern vernacular witch hunts also being a thing. Getting a bit uppity in the lower echelons? Send in the brute squad, because they’re obviously heretics and brought this on themselves.

It is also worth noting that rebellions without those elements often get co-opted by Xenos or Chaos agents. Look at Vraks. it started as a loyalist effort by a Cardinal of the Ecclesiarchy, who wanted to launch a crusade, an effort which the Ecclesiarchy and the Administratum wasn't authorizing. so in his religious zeal, he started organizing one in secret, using the Administratum armory world Vraks as the rallying point for a 'peoples crusade' of religious pilgrims in arms.
this secrecy is what turned it into a rebellion, because it became known to the inquisition, which accused the cardinal of heresy, tried to assassinate him, and then his followers (believing the assassin was sent by heretics) took over the planet from the Administratum and other imperial agencies.
leading to the miltiary response and the siege. it didn't end up as a chaos related campaign until some alpha legion showed up disguised as loyalists, offered to aid the cardinal in his crusade agaisnt the 'heretics' besieging the planet, and lured them down the road of chaos.

and wouldn't be hard to imagine that genestealer cults wouldn't similarly exploit normal rebellions, riots, and uprisings and manipulate them from the inside towards their own ends. or a xenos faction like the tau finding out about a rebellion, and sending troops to the world to back one side or the other in a bid to gain influence over the planet. or the orks deciding to drop in for a bit of a scrap. or the dark eldar exploiting the conflict to raid both sides. etc.

mithril2098 wrote:
and wouldn't be hard to imagine that genestealer cults wouldn't similarly exploit normal rebellions, riots, and uprisings and manipulate them from the inside towards their own ends. or a xenos faction like the tau finding out about a rebellion, and sending troops to the world to back one side or the other in a bid to gain influence over the planet. or the orks deciding to drop in for a bit of a scrap. or the dark eldar exploiting the conflict to raid both sides. etc.

The odds of external enemies exploiting internal Imperial dissent is 100%.

The one element I haven't seen people bring up is the pyschic angle. As people turn away from the Emperor, as rogue psykers use their power to commune with whatever spirits, as prayers go up to...something not the Emperor, others will hear it.

To put it another way: given the nature of the 40k universe, for humanity there is no other good than the Emperor. (Yes, tech priests are the thing, but I don't think they lead bloody uprisings demanding more gears and sacred lubricants. Then again, I don't follow the lore that closely. But I digress.)

The core point of the 40k universe is that it is a grim darkness, and other than the utterly out of place shiny happy Tau people, all the menu options are pretty terrible.

So while there is fluff about honestly aggrieved people overthrowing a tyrant (a relative term, no? Can anyone list all the participatory democracies of the Imperium?) the fact is that expelling/overthrowing the Imperial garrison creates a gap for all sorts of even worse people to come in.

 Tyran wrote:
Because no one cares about unaligned rebels while cultists have ties to existing armies you can play

Also GW has shown rebels and cultists in positive and sympathetic light. My favorite example being Day of Ascension that is mostly told from a Genestealer Hybrid pov (who has very passionate views regarding how bad the IoM is).

Wait till he meets his new masters......you know as they eat him along with the planet he is on. That has to be one of my lovecraftian aspects of 40k, "Our saviors are here!" NOM NOM NOM.

I can't remember the names of them, but there have been plenty of human rebellions in 40k where it was a small difference in faith beliefs that caused huge interstellar wars. You don't really need much of a reason the fight in 40k, As the saying in goes, There is only war.

Huge volumes could probably be written about the pastoral life on some Imperial planets......but who want to read those unless its a set up for violence? KIL KIL KIL.

 Andrew1975 wrote:

Wait till he meets his new masters......you know as they eat him along with the planet he is on. That has to be one of my lovecraftian aspects of 40k, "Our saviors are here!" NOM NOM NOM.

She does get to see her gods eat her world. She is sad she wasn't eaten too (as she was send off world to spread her cult just as the Hive Fleet was arriving).

It was a fun example of how to present a very alien worldview in a positive light.

 Tyran wrote:

 Andrew1975 wrote:

Wait till he meets his new masters......you know as they eat him along with the planet he is on. That has to be one of my lovecraftian aspects of 40k, "Our saviors are here!" NOM NOM NOM.

She does get to see her gods eat her world. She is sad she wasn't eaten too (as she was send off world to spread her cult just as the Hive Fleet was arriving).

It was a fun example of how to present a very alien worldview in a positive light.

She is still just biomass to be consumed by the hive in the end.

Even on this planet most uprisings once the gain popularity or momentum get usurped by some group or another. Thats the real danger of Xenos and Chaos, your uprising as legitimate as it started could end fighting for them and not even know it. Also most uprisings are done by desperate people with nothing left to lose grasping at straws....Chaos offers the best straws.

I mean, they're not. Yes, the fluff does often focus more on the chaos or alien influences, but they are far from the norm. I would argue that generic rebellion would be the norm as opposed to always having chaos as its originator.

But chaos is everywhere and it wouldn't take long for a new rebellion to have some new benefactors coming to offer assistance.

As an example of a rebellion that wasn't, at least initially, Chaos originated would be the Siege of Vrax. It was only after the siege had gone on for a while that Chaos showed up. It was originally just a Cardinal that was defying the prohibition on the Ecclesiarchy having armed(male) soldiers.

I would say that most of the time a rebellion is portrayed in 40k lore, it is usually a revelation to the loyalists that it was Chaos causing it. the fact that, in-universe, it is usually a hidden fact till a certain point implies that Chaos corruption is not the default suspicion of Imperial authorities. Yes, from our omniscient perspective of the lore it is chaos a lot of the time, but I think that is simply observational bias. A generic rebellion for mundane reasons of tyranny and oppression and nothing more sinister is... boring. At least from GW's perspective, gotta sell more than 1 miniature range with each product afterall.

Same thing with how we don't hear about the thousands of planets in the Imperium that manage to exist fairly peacefully all things considered. It's not flashy and doesn't sell, but it is presumed to be there running in the background.

Even in the lore in the RPGs, most "Cults" that form in the Imperium that even are actually trying to follow nefarious powers are nothing more than charades. Con artists scamming followers with tricks and fake heretical tomes. Deviant to be sure, but no real warpcraft or daemonic influence.

These uprisings happen on the daily. It's one of the main things the Imperial Guard respond to.

The main issue is GW doesn't sell models of them. So they never get the spotlight, only background details.

There can easily be many religious uprisings that have nothing to do with Chaos. Just think back to how the Confederation of Light rebelled against the Ecclesiarchy, which at that time was the Temple of the Savior Emperor. Dark Heresy described how remnants of the Temple persisted at least in the Calixis Sector, but likely elsewhere as well.

Similar religious schisms can occur with local cults rising up against what they perceive as a corrupt Ecclesiarchy, while the Ecclesiarchy condemns these as heresies.

I remember reading ages ago though I honestly don't remember where, about in-universe disputes about the nature of the Emperor (meant as a historical reference to early Christian heresies), such as whether the Emperor was divine before his sacrifice or whether he became divine as a result of his sacrifice. Similar kind of theological hair splitting can easily result in armed conflict given the zealotry within the Imperium, and none of it has to do with Chaos or any aliens.

Badab war had quite good GW support. That was an imperial internal debauckle.

There is one other aspect of it, from a meta-perspective:

The imperials are the good guys. Especially space marines and custodes - these guys are very, VERY rarely portrayed in anything but a straightforwardly heroic light by games workshop, and when they are its generally either hidden in the deep lore, or pulled out when they have a story starring another faction that in that moment, youre supposed to view as the good guys.

You can say the setting has no good guys until you're blue in the face, but GW's writing is not that complicated, and generally relies on the simple expedient shortcut of look at an image, see good guy, see bad guy, based on aesthetics, tone, and basic descriptors ("the heroic defenders of humanity versus the perfidious, vile, slimy, disgusting etc etc etc")

The "changing" of the 40k setting from this brilliant satire to a straightforward hero vs villain narrative is not some new recent thing that was different recently. Its been since like. Rogue trader. Space Marines have basically never been like...the evil super hero from Megamind type 'theyre dressed like a hero but its made very clear that theyre a villian by the story' at MOST theyve been like Judge Dredd, Robocop, the main cast from Starship Troopers, whoever. The kind of sort-of-kind-of satirical characters where occasionally you laugh at them for a bit of dramatic irony and occasionally you acknowledge their society is bad but theyre individually heroic and you root for them consistently in the narrative.