So, a question was raised regarding how the Emperor did things like sparing Franc after they killed a few Custodes, or the mention of the Viet regiment of the Pan Pacific being integrated. It's just like with Albia in canon. The Emperor is currently not in a position where he can say no to groups like that offering good deals and bargains in exchange for joining the Imperium. He will try to get people on his side with diplomacy and is not above blatant bribing.
Something I have been playing with, is the extent to which the Emperor needed to make compromises and get the loyalty of Terra's rulers to achieve what he wanted. It's not a coincidence that a lot of rich Terrans are preparing for the Great Crusade with eagerness, that people are trying to put relatives in positions to rake in the rewards, etc.
The Emperor NEEDS the armies of the Unity States. He needs their resources, their administration. And if that means overlooking human rights violations or having his subordinates playing some politics and corruption to get what they want, he'll allow it.
Well this was the early Imperium. The same one that negotiated with the Mechanicum and the Saturnyne Ordos and integrated the Jovians with minimal conflict!I mean, that DOES run counter to his portrayal in the Horus Heresy and some of the short stories like The Last Church, but then, Canon Emps was a gigantic egotistical asshole who cut away his humanity and tossed it into the void.
Canon Emps would brook no other power structures than his own in his Imperium and frequently decimated existing elites if they tried to negotiate. To the point where he straight up told Horus that he shouldn't be negotiating with the Interrex, he should be wiping them out, when Horus called him for advice on the matter.
An Emperor more willing to work with existing power structures, even if only in the Enlightened Self-Interest route you're talking about actually makes me feel less like a dick for participating in a Pro-Imperium Quest.
Other examples include the Manachean Commonwealth. This was a multi-system human polity under occupation by the Mitu Conglomerate, a Xenos species that used psi-active biomatter in a lot of their technology, and actively culled human Psykers. Even in the most pessimistic view, the Manachean just changed their flags, gained leaders of the same species, and were formed into a semi-autonomous Imperial vassal.Even the modern novels support this, Blood Games just has a semi-autonomous state on Terra shortly before the Heresy itself.
It's not even AU, as Big E regularly tried to get other polities, states, and so on to join peacefully and incorporate them into the developing Imperial bureaucracy, especially so in Terra when there were PLENTY of them that wouldn't and he couldn't afford to be the 'muh uber authoritarian' strawman that plenty like to tilt at him being.It's not that much of an AU, just using the more modern interpretation of The Emperor instead of the really early one.
I mean, that DOES run counter to his portrayal in the Horus Heresy and some of the short stories like The Last Church, but then, Canon Emps was a gigantic egotistical asshole who cut away his humanity and tossed it into the void.
Canon Emps would brook no other power structures than his own in his Imperium and frequently decimated existing elites if they tried to negotiate. To the point where he straight up told Horus that he shouldn't be negotiating with the Interrex, he should be wiping them out, when Horus called him for advice on the matter.
Not just the Rangdan, the Orks were at a near critical mass point not to mention there were a LOT of post Humanity fall polities that were around Imperium sized that could have grown as fast as it did or slower. It's why the scattering of the Primarchs was such a messed up move, it threw off Big E's timetable and forced him to go without proper preparation of the sol systemThe Great Crusade fundamentally is a psychotic mad dash to prevent the Rangda from hitting critical mass and bulldozing everyone or Orks (specifically, Gharkul Blackfang's WAAAGH and/or the Ullanor Empire) building back up to Krork and bulldozing everyone. If the galaxy in absolute chaos (lower c) is conquered enough to hold the line against Chaos (capital C) later all the better.