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Aflame (40k)

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And here, we, go.

Yeah, I think I see what happened here, preacher wanted to see things settled down, the Arbites taking a swing at the guy he was bringing was interpreted as an attack on him and thus the preacher's bodyguard blew them away because autopilot zealotry.

This? This is how a revolution starts. By counting on the oppressors to fuck it up and counting on their escalation.

And the hilarious thing?

The Ecclesiarchy by definition cannot be Heretical.

So by choosing to be weak, we effectively co-opted the Eccleisarchy into backing the shitstorm that's about to unfold because they can't back down any more without showing weakness themselves--and the very culture they contribute to forbids them from exhibiting that.

Normally--normally, things would go in the background, a few scapegoats would be lined up to be shot and everything would settle down. But they can't do that any more because this was entirely public, the Ecclesiarchy's will was openly defied by the law enforcement (Even if no real compassion was intended, it was still open defiance of one of the control mechanisms of the Imperium), and the Arbites are just as axiomatically incapable of backing down from a challenge as they represent the other pillar of Imperial Social Control.

And by choosing to be weak in public, we ensured that neither side can make it go away, too many people saw the firestorm start to bury it.

This is the real secret towards winning a popular revolution in Warhammer 40K. Counting on the very fact that nobody can show weakness to get them to turn their social control and enforcement mechanisms on each other, and creating an opening to get some actual shit done.

Of course, it's still going to be nasty as fuck, non-violence resistance requires your opponents to be capable of empathy--and the enforcement mechanisms are intentionally cultivated to be free of such weakness. But their pace is entirely dependent on preventing firestorms from spreading beyond a planetary level, because while the Imperium can afford to burn one world to the bedrock if things go utterly beyond control--they can't afford to burn an entire sector or more without calling in allies--and that's hard to justify. Much easier to give concessions to settle things down as long as the revolters don't take their revolution as an excuse to praise chaos and summon infinite daemon hordes and then just bury it.

After all. From the grand, absolute, eagle's eye perspective of the Imperium? The only thing the Imperium Requires is resources--and as was established in the literal opening post?

The massive oppression is actually wasting the majority of the output that any given world is technically capable of. Meaningful reforms pushed through when the Imperium lacks an excuse and political capital to purge all of the revolters and start from scratch, then leveraging those reforms to meet tax demands, and The edifice as a whole does not care. And maybe these reforms spread a bit further given time, because now you're capable of outcompeting everyone else who's still cracking down.

And that's how you win the game. From a broad framework perspective anyway.

[X] The Last Person He Wanted To See
 
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Ok Aca theres this thing I've noticed in your forays into 40k is you have this way of injecting humanity into it even with the petty stuff like how they're arguing over jurisdiction.

I especially love how you trend towards the ecclesiarchy being filled with people who genuinely care.

Its nice.
 
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