Is practically every institution within the Imperium of Man closed off for the common man?
It seems that nearly everything is open only to:
1. Schola Progenium Students (Progena); Picked from Orphans of Imperial Servants who have the Privilege (or Burden) to receive the strictest and finest education of the Imperium. They usually are the only ones who can enter the Adeptus Terra.
2. Hereditary Positions; Some positions (Especially in the Administratum and Rogue Traders) are mostly hereditary inherited from the son of the predecessor adept.
3. Highborn Only; The Nobility of the Imperium Monopolize all Business and Planetary Government. They are the only ones, other than the Progena, who can enter serious institutions such as the Imperial Guard and Navy as Officers, Ministorum Priest, Chartist Captains, and Obtaining the Warrant of Trade (New Rogue Trader Status)
4. Extraordinary Skill; Space Marines, Inquisitors, and Officers of the Imperial Guard can be obtained by anyone but their level of skill is near incomprehensible to any common man (or unbelievably lucky)
NOTE: I still can't find information on how the Adeptus Mechanicus recruits more Tech-Priest
It seems the only Option for the Common man is to toil for life, become an outcast ganger, or die as a soldier (usually PDF).
The only options that have potential to get power would be to start your own Chaos Cult or your own Sect of the Imperial Cult in which if you successfully recruit enough people to join you and make you wealthy you can either:
1. be subjugated by the traitor legions once you summon them as a Chaos Cult because you are a stupid human who must submit to superior Heretic Astartes or Die (Chaos Cult Route)
2. Achieve a Quasi-Highborn Status and get more privilege since your Successful Sect has built you wealth (Imperial Sect)
Is practically every institution within the Imperium of Man closed off to* the common man?
Misspell
Parker Bailey
40k is a knowingly absurd setting. The Imperium is the "cruellest and bloodiest regime imaginable" after all.
Kevin Carter
>marry and have children >join imperial guard >die in battle >wife sends children go to schola progenium >become low ranking administratum scribes instead of a commissar or ministorum priest >mfw
Nathan Anderson
If commoners were worth anything, they'd pull themselves up by their bootstraps and be born into better status.
Brayden Jenkins
Depends on the planet. Some are market liberal hellholes where it's theoretically possible to rise in status but de facto is not. Others have entrenched nobility. Others may have rather egalitarian means of stepping up the ladder. The Imperium as a whole does not hive a shit. If you have the political influence and competence you get the job. Maybe you have to arrange a couple of early deaths. AdMech generally recruits out of their own communities. Billions of flesh bags pray soley to the Omnissiah. If someone else shows promise I guess they get the "join or die by accident" deal.
Joshua King
There are plenty of ways you can climb the social and political ladder in the 41st Millennium;
1. Don't know enough about the Schola Progenium and their quota's, but aren't the positions they usually fill quite niche anyway? Administratum dudes, Praefectus, etc?
2. In real world terms, it's not unheard of for the gentry to marry commoners, through a combination of genuinely loving or being attracted to someone, to just wanting to fuck with dad, or whatever. Can't imagine 40k teens to be too different
3. In "Dead Men Walking", the main character is portrayed as a middle-management type, who are usually common men who have found a niche role and become so good that their superiors pay them more to tell other people how to do it, and thus elevated their status.
4. By virtue of being so fucking huge, the law of probability tells us that the amount of guardsmen who survive and are given wealth/glory for their deeds in battle would be significant. The men who might try and return home or whatever would, while small, still exist.
And don't the Tech-Priests recruit on a similar basis to Inquisitors? They find people who are useful, take them under their wing, teach them, and get promoted mostly on the basis of survival? Citation fucking needed.
Keep in mind, the Imperium is huge and diverse - it's very possible there's a commie planet where everyone's equal, or a democratic planet where people vote for the governor - as long as everyone pays their tithe, no one on Terra cares what they do. So rising in prestige/power isn't impossible, it's just that there aren't many legit sources for it in 40k.
Jose Lopez
Depends on planet.
Juan Collins
>It seems the only Option for the Common man is to toil for life, become an outcast ganger, or die as a soldier (usually PDF).
Didn't Sebastian Thor began as a commoner? And he became a High Lord of Terra. Religion is probably the easiest method to ascend on the social rank.
Jack Thompson
Sounds like real life really. Despite what my public school teacher told me there was exactly zero percent chance I would ever become president.
Brayden Scott
>but aren't the positions they usually fill quite niche anyway Not really.
Liam Roberts
But he rose in exceptional circumstances -a civil war- and therefore he was an extraordinary individual and lucky enough to survive and make his cult prevalent
Anthony Robinson
Well yeah. I mean, for example, chaos says >join us and commit a crime so serious that if the imperium finds out about it they'll send 1000 genetically modified super soldiers to kill your entire planet ...and still manage to start cults. That can only happen if the alternative is really really shitty.
Anthony Green
>And he became a High Lord of Terra And then he became a trophy for an ancient alien
Benjamin Parker
Commoners are not authorized to know about chaos and most commoners are badly educated. Chaos cults can pop up mainly without people knowing they are in a cult until they are too into it to quit. I don’t think chaos daemons directly whisper to every single asshole in the cult.
Jose Jenkins
They may not know about chaos but they (should) know that they are committing heresy
Blake Roberts
Be cunning/tough/stupid enough for crime or the Imperial Guard, have the technical aptitude to become a manufactorum overseer or Cult Mechanicus initiate, have the intelligence for a minor position in the Administratum, have the charisma to lead a religious sect or labour union... There's plenty of ways for lowborn humans to rise to some position of prominence, even if nobles have a massive advantage. And if push comes to shove, no man is bulletproof.
Adam Lee
>I still can't find information on how the Adeptus Mechanicus recruits more Tech-Priest It's simple. Techpriests are taken from the population of Forge Worlds, Mechanicus enclaves on other worlds, and starships. Everyone from the relatives of powerful Magi to exceptionally intelligent and faithful among the common factory labourers stands a chance of achieving if they're adept in their respective field or some great warrior on the battlefield. After all, that's what the Auxilia Myrmidon are for.
Jaxon Rogers
Considering the stuff that's fine on most planets. No they do not until demons run around.
Juan Gomez
They probably witness stuff in violation of imperial law long before then.
Austin Ramirez
Not all that is illegal is heretical. Just look at hive gangers, most have faith in the God-Emperor or couldn't really care either way but they still do a lot of illegal shit.
Ayden Wilson
Of course. But there is also a difference between kidnapping/robbery/random violence, and seeing the local cult priest do some faith healing.
Ayden Allen
>3. Highborn Only; The Nobility of the Imperium Monopolize all Business and Planetary Government. They are the only ones, other than the Progena, who can enter serious institutions such as the Imperial Guard and Navy as Officers, Ministorum Priest, Chartist Captains, and Obtaining the Warrant of Trade (New Rogue Trader Status) Related to this, does anyone know if there are some sort of regional hierarchy within the imperium? Is a native planetary leader from bumfuck nowhere treated worse than a lower rank noble from terra?
>Is practically every institution within the Imperium of Man closed off to* the common man? Aren't there alot of democratic planets in the empire? Seems like those kind of places would offer the greatest opportunity for the common man as a top job there would likely lead to further interplanetary opportunities.
Michael Thompson
I have a feeling those "Democratic" planets let you elect which noble family gets to rule for this term.
Hunter Stewart
High Nobles can buy themselves a good field generator. They are almost bulletproof.
Liam Smith
>2. In real world terms, it's not unheard of for the gentry to marry commoners, through a combination of genuinely loving or being attracted to someone, to just wanting to fuck with dad, or whatever. Can't imagine 40k teens to be too different Don't forget the ever-occuring instance of destitute gentry marrying rich-as-fuck commoners.
Ryder Wood
Not every democracy is Rome.
Matthew Miller
When in doubt, stolen haywire grenades should do the trick.
Anthony Brooks
You seemed to have left crime and underworld activities off entirely from your list which is actually one of the most common modes of social mobility. Clawing your way to the top of a Hive's underworld and then using bribery, murder, and blackmail in order to "go legit" is a tried and true method.
You could also just become the biggest baddest motherfucker around until an Inquisitor or rogue trader takes notice and hires you into their retinue.
The mechanicus is a pure meritocracy, if you're born on a forge world and are brilliant/crazy enough to catch their attention you will be able to climb the ranks although there's a lot of competition since it's one of the best jobs to have in the imperium.
Robert Moore
Ok, but that's actually a great concept. Guy joins Guard not out of patriotic fervor, but because he knows that by martyring himself he will give his children a shot at decent, peaceful lives.
Plot twist: they get selected for the Storm Trooper corps. They go to their glorious and honorable deaths, not realizing that their father desperately wanted them to never endure the horrors of war.
Noah Parker
The worlds of Ultramar base a lot of their culture around the concept of meritocracy
Provided you can prove yourself it’s very likely that you could get your family to the very top, it just might take a few generations
Honestly, if you can get over the whole secret police thing, Macragge is probably the best place to live in all of 40k
Easton Martin
Progena who join the Administratum are usually high ranked. That's basically becoming petty-nobility.
Kayden Hall
They might think that power comes from God-Emperor.
Zachary Clark
That would be extra heresy. Unless it would be true, of course.
Aaron Perez
>anons say that Imperial civies don't know about Chaos
How does the Imperium explain away the Great Rift which can be seen from EVERY PLANET in the Imperium? Also the fluff says that looking at the Great Rift for too long causes madness and visions of terror and violence.
Robert Ortiz
Exactly.
Aiden Murphy
Saying it's he heretics fault isnt the same as explaining chaos.
Owen Perry
I would imagine the baddest hive ganger and his gang can become an Imperial Guard regiment or perhaps a new family of highborn, though similar to the Mechanicus it has extreme competition, and one that is deadly.
Chase Watson
What are you talking about? The admech would never willingly issue faulty, highly dangerous plasma guns to individuals they don't particularly like....
Christopher Cox
> All your heresy has scarred the very heavens > You’re all fucking terrible, go pray more
Religious institutions have always blamed various disasters on something the people have been doing
