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A cyber-gothic role-playing game for mature players.
These pages are in no way intended to challange Games Workshop copyright.
Myths and Beliefs
Imperial Beliefs
"Over ten thousand years ago the Great Emperor of Mankind ascended to the Golden Throne of Earth. Of the wars he waged to get there, of the countless agonies of battling worlds, there is no record. Only the Emperor remembers - if indeed even that strange and ancient creature can recall those distant times.
The ascent of the Emperor marked the end of a long era of human history, an age typified by inter-human warfare and a gradual decline of the acculumated knowledge of millennia. This was the Age of Strife. The high point of scientific achievement had occured thousands of years before, in the yet older age known now as the Age of Technology. Through the Age of Technology and the Age of Strife, mankind has come to the present age - that of the Imperium.
In many respects it is a time of superstition, in which a great and unfathomable technology has been enslaved to the forces of mysticism and madness. To the ordinary humans of these times, the peasants in the fields and the warriors amongst the stars, scientific thought represents an abhorrent perversity; a corruption of honour and religious virtue. Even to those few humans who deal with the material of technology, the science and the magic have become largely inseparable; the warp engine must have runes upon its side, the laser gun requires the blessing of the Emperor.
This is a universe in which the gods, mysticism and magic are real. For this is a time of great change within humanity itself, a time when more and more humans are developing powers and a vision far beyond those of their ancestors. Humans developing these abilities are known as psychics, or psykers, and by many less flattering names - the most common being that of witch. Psykers are men and women who have the ability to transcend the normal laws of space, placing them in touch with great universal forces which lie far beyond the understanding of their kin. Their gifts defy explanation; telepathy, telekinesis, illusion, and countless others. Many ordinary humans attribute these powers to a divine origin. Some psykers claim their powers enable them to tap forces which he under the control of entities existing outside of the real universe - beyond normal time and space. Others seek a rational explanation for these phenomena - but this is not a rational age and they are few and their voice is weak." (From "Rogue Trader", copyright Games Worskhop. Used without permission.)
Hiver Myths
Hivers share the typical mindset of the people of the 41st millenium. They are afraid of technology and innovation. They do not understand it and do not dare. Countless of people are killed by tinkering with these techno-forces they do not understand. Those who do deal with these machines are feared techno-mystics. They are said to control the spirits within the engine or gun.
The claustrophobic Hive means that a Hivers horizons are narrow. Many believe the Hive is the extent of their reality, for them the Imperium stretches no further. Having never seen the sky or stars, there is no galaxy. The World is not round but tiered into many levels. There is a natual order, a Great Chain of Being with the Emperor at the top, the Church second, the nobility third and the great teaming masses of gangs fighting beneath them. The outer shell, the walls of a Spire found at the ends of any level are viewed as magical places. They inspire curiosity and fear, they are seen as what separates the Hivers from this world and the next. All know that death ensues when they are punctured by accident or Ash-Storm.
Hivers all know of Earth. It is the great Mecca the Ministorum preaches of, the Throne of the Imperium, the place where the Emperor gathers good souls. It is represented as a round globe of golden, a potent symbol in a hivers mind, echoed by the appearance of the round yellow credits that buy life and weapons in the Hive.
These are some stories about the outside:
Though the outside inspires these feelings, the deeper levels of a Spire also provide food for superstituous imaginations. Lower levels are said to be pitch black (often true), lethal with invisible malignant spirits (actually radiation or toxic waste), full of monsters who want to destroy us (also often true).
On the other hand, higher levels are seen as blessed, clean, comfortable, paved with credits, bullets and whores are free and so on. Though these are exaggerations, they are cleaner and more spacious.
The deformed then, are viewed with abhorrance. "Mutants", "deviants" or "altereds" as they are called are killed. Usually they are lynched or handed over to Venators who then purify them in public burnings at the stake with flame-throwers. The deformed are seen as corrupt in soul and body, turned to Horus. They are blamed for all of the ills of a Spire. Such scapegoating and hatred does drive these wretched people to insanity, chaos-worship and bloodthirsty vengeance. If a woman gives birth to a deformed baby it is usually killed and burnt (never re-cycled). Sometimes it will be abandoned and if it does die or get killed, its pitiful cries can attract the attentions of sympathetic fellow altereds and scavvies (who often tolerate deviants due to their own high rate of corruption & disease).
Genetic deviation can take many forms, from innocent hunch-backs and hare-lips to strange and frightning, unnatural deformities. all are viewed with intolerance. Sometimes deviance develops during a Hivers maturity (at about 8 years of age). This allows many Hivers to hide their shame or to flee. Common deformities are bestial appearances, especially rat-like.
The only creatures that are not a paradigmatic humans that are tolerated are the Caraytids.