What the imperial aquila stands for

1 head tells the truth and the other head tells lies

One head is the Imperial army, the other is the navy.

the eye'd head is looking to the past for wisdom, the blind head is looking forward to avoid innovation, I believe?

The Imperium and the mechanicus.

One was Terra, the other Mars. Remember how it was one eagle with lightning bolts during the Unification Wars?

Either way, the Opener of Ways screams JUST AS PLANNED!

>blind head is looking forward to avoid innovation

The future is unknown (until HH novels implied the Emperor orchestrated the Heresy and everything is going according to plan).

I keep reading about people making 'the sign of the Aquila' with their hands in BL novels.

I know this is the 40k equivalent of making the sign of the cross, but how exactly do you do it?

...

Yeah, that was my first thought.

But how do you do it with one hand? Ciaphas Cain does that a few times and has one of his hands occupied by a gun or chainsword at the time.

Probably just do do one half of it.

Isn't that basically this?

Basically that, but I think you're supposed to really hook both thumbs together so they're pointing in opposite directions.

One head looks to the past, The other ,blinded looks to the future.

Like that?

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I don't think so...there was one in...I think it was Cain's Last Stand...where he had a gun on someone while doing it.

Wouldn't make sense for Cain to take his gun off a guy who needed covering just to make the Aquila. He doesn't bother the Emprah that much.

I read somewhere else that it's a different, one-handed gesture representing a single wing, but I haven't got the books yet to check the description myself.

That's what I thought. No idea how you'd do an eagle with one hand.

Wait, what?

Certainly seems fitting for Cain.

Humanity needs enemies, and instead of all the aliens and Chaos in general, lets have half of our empire turn bad, so we'll have an eternal enemy to fight and keep us focused.

Tragedy of failing in your grand plan and the Imperium being the result of hubris? Boooooring! All the cool kids plan everything out and if something bad happens, it's all according to that plan. What a twist!

Heh, yeah.

How do you determine which one is which?

In Cain's they sometimes "palm their thumb" when they can't make a full aquila. I suppose it looks somethink like that.

That makes no sense since the AdMech isn't formally part of the Imperium.

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I want to be shouted at by a cute female drill instructor

Wrong

Confirmed (at least in the HH series) to be representative of the union between the Adeptus Terra and Adeptus Mechanicus

Normal eagle head is humanity, blind eagle head is the psyker. The purpose of The Imperium is after all the ascencion of mankind to The Emperor's level.

The admech is formally part of the imperium. The high lords of Terra have direct authority over them.

The Mechanicus is part of the Imperium, the Mechanicus isn't part of the Adeptus Terra.