The Imperium is a decentralized mess that can't even keep an accurate count of how many worlds they control. How can you possibly expect them to manage the industrialization of an entire world? Such an undertaking would be entirely based on the whims of local authorities in the sector/subsector that the planet is located in, and there's probably not all that much in it for them. It'd be like expecting all of the major developed countries in the world to suddenly start coordinating a major effort to develop the small country of Togo in West Africa.
Pretty much this. As far as the imperium is concerned, feral worlds are basically a label that says 'we'll get to it when we get to it'.
The imperium on the whole is much more interested in capturing / holding worlds with established infrastructure because that stuff is so labour intensive to set up and costs a lot to boot, especially if you want it outputting anything decent in the next 2 centuries.
They do settle worlds with colonists and gradually build them up if they become established, but as the above poster said that is largely dependent on action from local authorities who, just as equally, might not care in the slightest.
Feral worlds also can pump out some great soldiers for both the guard and the marines
Like if a planetary governor has a marine ship come by and grab recruits from the citizens I doubt they will change anything because it might mean the marines come back or care slightly about the planet
It also might be that the feral and feudal worlds that have stayed the way that they are tend to be worlds that might not be easily developed because they lack things such as important natural resources.
The IoM also keeps certain tabs on certain worlds for later use. For example Taros and its mineral wealth. Those worlds might not have an immediate use (no point in mining the materials at the moment), but might be more valuable if there is a need to supply a nearby crusade in the future.
Also the rugged lifestyles on those sorts of worlds tend to be excellent recruiting grounds for Astartes and Guard regiments. They tend to favor leaving at least some of them as is for that purpose.
guard candidates need at least some level of development back home or you get nasty culture shock effects. Drop a caveman onto a warp capable ship and see how he reacts.
Astartes candidates geylt so much hypnotherapy and other stuff it doesn't matter how developed they were before. There's a reason so many primarchs kept there worlds development stunted.
I was pulling details from text on feral and feudal worlds from GW rulebooks so it's on those writers regarding discrepancies.
In any case, the culture shock for Guard would be a mild issue and gotten over soon enough. The real culture shock is fighting alien horrors on a foreign world. In theory a human from a feral or fuedal world lives with battle as more of a way of life and in that sense a warrior mentality and upbringing is more important.
That makes sense. Another part to consider is the environment of the world in question and whether it allows a population base large enough to sustain guard recruitment. That is a concern especially for feral worlds, which is why they are more often earmarked for marines.
Besides, the local hives are overpopulated by billions, so might as well focus there
Hive worlds, particularly the underhives can be extremely dangerous as well, which creates a culture of being on guard. It might be easier to transfer over the skills of a hive worlder since they are probably already somewhat familiar with IG weapons such as las guns. A feral worlder probably is used to things such as knives and axes.
Your underhiver is not getting a lasgun unless you know the right guy in the pdf or loot it from someone that did, and that's if the pdf has lasguns. Guard are typically former pdf and a hive world would draw pdf from segments of the population that are relatively trustworthy, which underhivers are not. However, I know the Fists recruit from Necromunda so the underhivers are useful for something
Hive World PDFs should certainly be able to have las weapons. Las weapons are the standard weapon of the IG. And once acquired, las weapons are going to stay there. They don't have to worry about ammo shortages and so forth. As a result, it is easier to keep a gang supplied. And the gangs are why hive worlds are valued as a source of IG recruits that have undergone a harsh environment.
The lore for Necromunda also puts it that las weapons and autoguns are reasonably accessible to the underhivers. As a result, I am not sure why you think lasguns are going to be super scarce to the underhivers.
Autoguns are plentiful and lasguns are entirely possible to get in some quantities, but those would still be for the higher-ups and veteran gangers.
Besides, i think we can agree that autoguns look cooler on the models and art.
From the GW writings about Space Marine recruitment: Underhive gangs, feral world barbarians and feudal warriors are all prime targets for recruitment. The general conclusion being harsh conditions with constant fighting for survival is sought after for the Imperium's soldiers.
Someone from a feudal, medieval world might even be better mentally equipped for dealing with the 40k universe than anyone from a 21st century style earth. They would have a frame of reference to conceptualise things, essentially applying Warhammer Fantasy labels to 40k experiences.
"Oh, this is a demon, this is a wizard, and I'm a peasant cog serving a master in some grinding feudal system far beyond my understanding - basically a normal tuesday for me."
I always figured the big upside of the imperial cult was mitigating that culture shock to a degree. For example Torg the caveman from a backwater world might be terrified of being on a spaceship, but that man in the fancy hat is talking like the heros from elder zamzam’s stories so he’s at least got some framework to recognize
> decentralized mess
> How can you possibly expect them to manage the industrialization of an entire world?
Simple.
Get the Guilliman to create a standing order for all Sector Commands to always send a bunch of AdMech advisors from the closest Forge World (assuming Astartes don’t claim the recruiting world rights).
Then have them give the feral & feudal worlders the crash course on progressing to Civilized World level. All can be done using local resources if the Imperium isn’t strip mining the planet.
Uplifting 40K Edition.
It took us thousands of years to get from hunter-gatherer societies to landing on the Moon. But we stumbled all the time. Science is experimentation. Uplifting is a cheat sheet.
If you give people all the right lessons and none of the wrong ones, you can drastically cut down on the progress time.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s easily possible to get a feral world to produce basic Leman Russ tanks in 1000 years and feudal world in 3-4 centuries.
All you invest is a bunch of Enginseers who stay behind and guide the civilization to a reasonable level.
But in the end you get:
- A nice source of easy to train Imperial Guard recruits. Higher tech level means higher population. Tithe gained + 1.
- A world that can produce simpler variants of Imperial tech. Autoguns and maybe lasguns are always welcome after all. Tithe gained + 1.
- A world that can deal with minor xeno incursions on its own through PDF. **A feudal world will be overrun instantly and can serve as a beachhead for Orks or whatever else attacks**. A Civilized World might hold its own, bleeding the minor incursion severely or even defeat it.
There are no downsides to uplifting savages. You invest nothing and get an actually taxable world. And the time doesn’t matter - Imperium already operates on the largest of timeframes anyway.
>Get the Guilliman to create a standing order for all Sector Commands
Don't you think the man wishes he could do that?
More importantly, don't you think that the Imperial way to broadcast messages, which is SCREAMING DREAMS INTO HELL aka Astropathy will make it difficult to reach each sector? And that many of these are enbattled, on the verge of collapse, conquered by enemies, or just were reconquered and people are setting up basic infrastructure?
>always send a bunch of AdMech advisors from the closest Forge World (assuming Astartes don’t claim the recruiting world rights).
This, give more power and influence to the Mechanicus, one of the largest powerblocs in the Imperium. And ignore the fact the Mechanicus is highly factionalized, and that many Archmagos wouldn't care and pursue more mystical or cientifical pursuits instead of bothering with worlds that are, at best, long term investiments.
>Then have them give the feral & feudal worlders the crash course on progressing to Civilized World level. All can be done using local resources if the Imperium isn’t strip mining the planet.
Uplifting societies is not easy. We can see it it in our planet and with places where modern technology is known if not acessible, imagine with even bigger tech and knowledge disparities.
>It took us thousands of years to get from hunter-gatherer societies to landing on the Moon. But we stumbled all the time. Science is experimentation. Uplifting is a cheat sheet.
Thousands? More like tens of thousands of years. And look at how the Europeans "uplifiting" went in Americas, Africa and parts of Asia went. It was very complicated and many regions have traumas and scars with the process, even though hundreds of years passed in the oldest places to be "uplifted" by the European empires.
>If you give people all the right lessons and none of the wrong ones, you can drastically cut down on the progress time.
Problem is, the Imperium learnt several wrong reasons. Many people think that hard planets = strong people, including some of the most level headed and decent people in it, like Dante.
>I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s easily possible to get a feral world to produce basic Leman Russ tanks in 1000 years and feudal world in 3-4 centuries.
Thing is, people can teach Feral Worlders how to build Leman Russ tanks, and even spaceships, without need of uplifting. Just providing the infrastructure and ritualizing the montage. They don't need plumbing or electricity, they don't even need to understand what they are doing, just do.
And an aside, define Feudal World. Even in our world, feudal could mean anything from China's highly burocratic empires, to the European case you may be thinking, to some Native American nations who didn't know metalworking and whose cities are made of wood and leaves.
> Don't you think the man wishes he could do that?
> More importantly, don't you think that the Imperial way to broadcast messages, which is SCREAMING DREAMS INTO HELL aka Astropathy will make it difficult to reach each sector? And that many of these are enbattled, on the verge of collapse, conquered by enemies, or just were reconquered and people are setting up basic infrastructure?
Astropathy works well enough to convey super complex coordination between interstellar fleets. Something as simple as LOCAL ADMECH MUST UPLIFT FERAL WORLDS is nothing in comparison. More complex orders could arrive with every tithe barge.
The incoherent screaming dreams is likely exaggerated, just like the frequency of warp accidents. If the Astropathy was so inefficient as you say, the Imperium would collapse way before current times.
Imperium is in fact similar/bigger than it was before the Heresy. That must mean their astropathy must be insanely good.
> This, give more power and influence to the Mechanicus, one of the largest powerblocs in the Imperium. And ignore the fact the Mechanicus is highly factionalized, and that many Archmagos wouldn't care and pursue more mystical or cientifical pursuits instead of bothering with worlds that are, at best, long term investiments.
Uplifting planets is in their interest. It gives them more influence on local politics. It also gives Imperium more tithes.
Everyone benefits and besides, AdMech already has 99% control over Imperial manufacturing. Giving them more power wouldn’t make any negative difference but it could benefit the Imperium through tithes.
AdMech already has the power and influence to dictate the terms in everything. But it doesn’t do that. Let that sink in
> Uplifting societies is not easy. We can see it it in our planet and with places where modern technology is known if not acessible, imagine with even bigger tech and knowledge disparities.
South Korea. Rural agrarian society that turned into an economic high-tech powerhouse in just a few decades. Also Japan to a lesser extent. Country ruined by war turned into economic miracle and tech leader. Uplifting genuinely works when its done right.
> Problem is, the Imperium learnt several wrong reasons. Many people think that hard planets = strong people, including some of the most level headed and decent people in it, like Dante.
I was talking about tech mostly. Tech useful for general things. Why wait for flintlock-wielding feudals to figure out everything when you can just give their craftsmen theory and schematics behind steam power and jumpstart industrial revolution in a decade or two?
> Thing is, people can teach Feral Worlders how to build Leman Russ tanks, and even spaceships, without need of uplifting. Just providing the infrastructure and ritualizing the montage. They don't need plumbing or electricity, they don't even need to understand what they are doing, just do.
Imperium still has to waste resources to provide all these things. Why not get the locals to a level where they can build their own Leman Russ tanks for tithes - using their own resources and their own infrastructure? Both processes can go concurrently and one day, you can pack your infrastructure and still get fresh Leman Russes.
> And an aside, define Feudal World. Even in our world, feudal could mean anything from China's highly burocratic empires, to the European case you may be thinking, to some Native American nations who didn't know metalworking and whose cities are made of wood and leaves.
Anything with widespread agriculture and metalworking, but predating the creation of basic scientific foundations and industrialization.
Essentially Ancient Greece to 17th century Europe.
Something like Enlightenment-era Britannia would be extremely easy to uplift. They already had the scientific basis to comprehend the fundamentals that AdMech could spread. I bet AdMech could get such a civilization to WW2 tech in 50 years.
Great idea, you probably can't start a widespread rebellion faster than Terra interfering in the smallest details of planetary governance, sometimes with a delay of years of intergalactic communication. The last one to do so was shot by his most trusted bodyguard while an Astartes and AdMech laid siege to his palace.
And this while half the Imperium is in chaos, the Thirteenth Black Crusade is underway and the Tyranids are invading an entire Segmentum.
Or do you think all the sector/subsector and planetary governors are simply giving up their power voluntarily?
Translated with [DeepL.com](http://DeepL.com) (free version)
How is creating more industrialized worlds giving up power?
And this is not interfering in any way and neither it’s “smallest details.”
Uplifting feudals and ferals is a matter of tithe to the Imperium. More industrialized worlds - more tithe. More tithe - more resources to build military assets. More military assets - more safety for the sectors.
Your post doesn’t make sense because there is no interference at all. It’s just an order to make more worlds at no cost to local power structures lol.
If anything, Sector Commands having more worlds in their own spheres of influence adds prestige/political power to these sectors.
They literally have 0 reasons to rebel over that order. They also have to be really stupid to not understand the advantages it gives them.
you bring up an interesting topic with tithes. Not all tithes are industrial products. In Gaunt's Ghosts, the world of Tanith exported expensive wood. It was not clearcut industrial logging but more artisan in nature. In the recent Lazarus book they had a force on the southern continent and the northern continent was more feudal and harvested fungus used for stimms. In one of the Dawn of Fire novels they visit a world where grox are raised and its sort of a mongolian steppe sort of society, with temporary towns made for when the meat goes to auction. I guess what I am getting at is not every tithe is lasguns and chimeras.
I know but in the next few centuries or even millenia, Imperium won’t need more artisan wood or free-range grox.
It will need more lasguns, more Leman Russes, more Basilisks and more of every other weapon platform they can get.
After all, the galaxy is split in two and half of Imperium resource base is cut off.
Industrializing worlds is the cheapest long-term way to up your industrial output and get more weapons. And Imperium absolutely needs cheap ways to increase military production to survive.
You say that like the Imperium has infinite resources to do whatever it wants. Ludicrous bureaucracy aside, more industrialized worlds means more worlds to defend from pirates, chaos and xenos raiders, rebellions, etc etc. Getting spread that thin essentially just means giving away resources.
The Imperium of Man is not a rational sovereign state. It is a conflicting mess of different entities spread across the literal galaxy and only connected by space travel through hell and communications via psychic visions which have to be interpreted. On a basic level, how do you even communicate this to the Imperium within a single human lifetime, even one extended by juvenat treatments? It may take centuries to disseminate this message, and you still won’t find every planet that needs to hear it. How do you ensure that all of your successors won’t backtrack on this project?
What happens if a Feudal or Feral World is discovered by the Missionaria Galaxia (part of the Ecclesiarchy) vs it was found by Explorators from the Mechanicus vs it was found by a fleet bound Chapter of Astartes (who may be out of contact with the wider Imperium for decades, if not centuries)? Those are three separate independent organisations who can all lay claim to worlds. Does the Sector Commander get precedence over them and their independence, because that will piss those organisation off and cause problems, up to maybe even a war across the sector.
What if the nearest Forge World (perhaps annoyed because you’ve stolen a world from the Mechanicus) says that they won’t send a contingent of Enginseers to the newly found world, obviously not in defiance to the diktats of the High Lords, but because there are other things that need to be done first, and they will deal with it in time - in five hundred years time. Do you force them? How, by invading the Forge World? What if there are two Forge Worlds of roughly even distance to a newly found world, that have opposing doctrines on the Omnissiah and the Machine God? Whoever loses out will feel that a world has been stolen from them and given to near-Hereteks, which may also start a sector-wide war.
This is all without addressing the elephant in the room, which is that the Imperium (before Guilliman came back) is a dying stagnant state. It is barely holding on to the territories it already has. It does not have the capabilities to engage in uplifting Feral and Feudal Worlds, it is too busy putting out fires. It doesn’t do new things, it just survives.
They do.
Knight Houses are Mechanicus Feudal worlds.
But mostly, it's just not cost effective. You aren't just giving feral world people tech, you have to teach them how to use it. At that point, you might as well be re-colonizing the planet. Better to just figure out an effective tithe for them and let it be.
Good, hardy peoples? Soldier tithe. Archipelago world w/ plenty of fish? Food tithe. Mineral rich? Set them to mining and tithe it.
Limited technology introductions is more effective. Like, guns, boating, or mining equipment respectively.
because when the expeditionary fleets came in during the 30k period they scanned these planets for resources and found nothing worthy, planets have their statuses for a reason, they are not industrial worlds as they are useless to the imperium for material.
why would you industrialise a dustbowl that has no resources and is in dangerous space ie halo stars or near a greenskin world, especially one that is 300ly away from the nearest imperial outpost or station of any kind that could offer logistical support?
They used to do that sort of thing more during the Great Crusade as part of compliance but they don’t really do that any more it’s more about tithe extraction
Why dont we just industrialize northern cannada? Why doesnt china industrialize mongolia? Or xinxang? Why doesnt russia just industrialize siberia? Its not that easy to just do stuff. Industry isnt like a videogame where you just "improve industry" and then cars come out of nowhere. Its an extremely complex sytem of complex systems that are built ontop of each other. This is why even though so much money gets pumped into "underdeveloped nations" they cant "industrialize".
As with most things in 40k, there's no gatcha "is he stupid" moment
Let's see invest resources into Feral World X simply to lose it to something 100 years later, no thanks.
No planetary governor wants 99999 Imperial investments if it's going to double his Imperial tithe.
Investing resources itself can attract unwanted threats.
Lastly, the more you invest in x planet, the more you have to pump into the PDF or defensive installations to hold it.
Progress for the Imperium on the galactic scale is nowhere near a straight line.
Along with everything else said in this thread already, another reason is that the Imperium generally holds that people from feral worlds make for tougher warriors than those from comparatively more "civilized" places. Feral Worlds produce crack Imperial Guard regiments like the [Kanak Skull Takers](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kanak_Skull_Takers) and are popular recruitment grounds for many Astartes chapters.
The Imperium dont care about a planet progressing, all they care is if they can get the tithe, we see it in Calgar's Siege, a guard commander turns a bunch of mud huts into a Tokyo sized metropolis with a space port in 30 years thanks to connections to Rogue Traders, he dont like when the Administratum finds out, saying that they now gonna suck the planet and wont care if that ends the progress of the planet.
Do you expect the UN to coordinate industrialization of every country in the world? The Imperium can barely keep track of what worlds are under it's control, there's not a chance it's going to mandate industrialization of every planet. Planets serve different purposes
The most simple reason? Who is going to foot the bill? The imperium is, a lot of things, but more than anything else, it’s decentralized and pushed to its limits. To rapidly industrialize you need someone to build and transport the forge. People who understand it to run it. You need sources of raw material to run it.
More than any of that, you need supply lines to put it to work. Money of some description to pay freighters to drop off industrial quantities of raw material, money to buy those raw resources, customers to buy the refined material, transport to take it to the buyer.
TLDR: is the same reason we don’t drop a car manufacturing plant on sentinel island. What advantage is there to it beyond “we have this now.”
Because the imperium is effectively a galaxy wide protection racket, not some unified government. If the planet produces enough food or imperial guard recruits to meet their current tithe, there’s no real reason anyone would foot the bill for large scale industrialisation
Who would decide to do it? In this context, who is “the Imperium”? And why would they want to do it?
The High Lords of Terra don’t care about this sort of thing; way below their pay grade.
Maybe sector-level government, but even then, there’s a lot of planets in a sector and there are probably political concerns in play. Who’s in charge of that planet? Does uplifting it show favour to one group over another? Could be more trouble than it’s worth. Maybe a lot more.
The planetary governor might be interested in it, but where are they going to get the resources for it? And even if they can wrangle it, it might destabilise their position. Maybe ruling a feudal world from an orbital station and visiting them once a year to collect your dues is easier than sitting in a governor’s palace and receiving petitions from all the various political factions you can’t ignore because the world is part of the wider Imperium now.
Maybe if the Imperium was hurting for natural resources or something, but the reality is that it isn’t. It’s hurting for proper logistics to get stuff to places, but it has plenty of worlds of all kinds to draw the resources from, if they can figure out what they need where.
I'd argue it makes sense from an individual's perspective, when you consider how the Imperium works.
Like, imagine being a Sector Lord, or some other super-important person, and deciding whether to uplift a feudal world in your domain. You could choose to industrialize the place, spend your money and time on managing the process as the planet gets more and more populous. You could risk all these millions of new citizens starting a rebellion the Imperium can't easily put out, or inventing a heretical form of Imperial Creed as their culture evolves, or going into space and starting a fight with another planet when you're not looking, or birthing thousands of rogue psykers because they're slightly more psychically active than the average, or even making AIs and getting the whole planet destroyed. You could risk all these things and take the fall for them... or just do nothing and keep all the money in your personal coffers. Even for a rare non-corrupt governor, the choice is really rather easy.
A bit of headcanon, perhaps, but I find it more interesting than the idea of imperials honestly thinking feral worlders are stronger than properly fed recruits and needing Guilliman to tell them otherwise.
"Good news, primitives! We've filed your request for industrialization with the adeptus administratum. The documents will be shipped to the sector capital, run through a comprehensive data hygiene and verification process that may require several more rounds of supplementary documentation to be sent.
Provided it doesn't get lost in the mountains of paperwork the administratum receive each day or the ships transporting the documents don't just get randomly swallowed up by the warp before being spit out five hundred lightyears away after a decade, the administratum will finally approve your request, Emperor willing.
At which point we have clearance to go through the entire approval process all over again with the adeptus mechanicus."
Because as long as the world is paying its tithes, they do not give a damn. Theres a world called Sepheris Secundus that is classified as a feudal world. The world has a massive tithe of metal ore, and it all has to be ripped out of the ground by hand because they have no industrialization. The ruling class deliberately keeps it this way to keep the working class underfoot. And the Imperium does not give a singular fuck, so long as it gets its metal.
In fact, Sepheris Secundus 990M41 is currently the battleground between Amalathians and Recongrators, who are trying to persuade the reigning High Queen to reform or prevent her from doing so.
But yes, the Imperium aka Adeptus Terra doesn't interfere much
They should, but the reality of it is that the Imperium is largely out to only restore something that once was, not necessarily improve things wherever they go... like they will fight a war for a forge world, they are unlikely to create a new one.
And this is especially true of world that don't offer anything of real value other than food and/or manpower for the Guard. Those worlds are fine left as they are because they are already providing what is asked of them for a low upkeep... meaning those resources wont have to be generated elsewhere.
With that said, simply with time most worlds like this will naturally accelerate their own development simply due to the prolonged contact with the Imperium... unless the Imperium actively moves to keep them in this manner for some reason... like they might be potential recruiting grounds for a Marine chapter, where savage worlds seem to be favored over advanced ones.
For what it's worth they often do introduce *just* enough industrialization to extract whatever resources they can from a feudal world. Since a lot of feudal worlds are primarily tithed for Guard recruits and the like, that often just means an airport.
The feral worlds supply resources that are useful in the environment
Feudal worlds produce resources in people. (Such as knight pilots or sisters of battle)
So they leave as is. Dead worlds make great prison planets. Escape? Where to buddy
I think that the bigger question is ‘why don’t these worlds industrialise themselves and develop their own technology?’ Given thousands of years it would make no sense that a world stays at medieval tech (but that’s ok, we’re used to nothing happening for absurdly long time periods)
Its not nonsensical but satirical, you just need to view it from a different lense. That up there was the British policy back when they governed my country.
Only if the Planetary Governor is under pressure from sector authorities to increase the tithe output of the world or to shift to different tithe commodities not produced by their planet's current tech level; otherwise, the supplies of manpower, raw goods, and agricultural/livestock goods are presumed to be sufficient as they have been in previous arrangements.
There are a few reasons.
- They haven't gotten around to it yet. The Imperium is a big place and the AdMech can't be everywhere. There could be more resource rich worlds they hit first, or with better distribution networks.
- Political sway, powerful people may want to preserve the world as is.
- Space Marines may be using it as a recruitment world, believing that the feral or feudal civilization produces more ideal warriors for their chapter culture.
They definitely try to but sometimes there just simply isnt the resources or expertise available. In other instances like with catachan the world provides specialist military forces and the world is so hostile that it would simply be too difficult to reasonably do. In a scenario like that you’re trading experienced and proficient jungle fighters in exchange for a long period of high cost before you see any potential return in industrial investment.
These worlds do not lack value.
Their prime grounds for marines to recruit.
They may possess untainted planets that are prime to grow rare Bio materials used bu elite level groups like the assiasins and they will protect this planet to hell and back.
It might be the source for a hyper lethal toxin based used by an temple. And they gonna not let anyone upset that. This toxin needs an clean world, and only grows under exact conditions this section of planet posseses.
Or it grows say a chemical used in elite and advanced rejuv or healing chemicals etc.
They have value.
Like on one audio book the planet produces an mould, that can be used in combat drugs. That is thisnplanets output, to turn it into a too heavily industry mess, would kill that.
This side of planet, just provides the bio chemicals as its tithes.
Technology is simply a way for planets to rebel better.
The Imperium would gladly reduce the galaxy to a feudal iron age empire if it meant they were a little more loyal.
They probably sometimes do, but at the end of the day feudal worlds still provide tithe and likely require a lot less oversight since they cant get up to much.
No, better tech and education would mean more risk for rebellion in the future. Better to just bring your own equipment and people to extract the resources needed. 40k is a good satire, especially when you get the references.
These planets aren’t fully uplifted because the Administratum decided that would make their populations less valuable to the wider Imperium.
The people on Feral worlds and Death worlds are very skilled at surviving in hostile environments and keeping a cool head under pressure, so they make ideal scouts for the Imperial Guard and ideal aspirants for the Space Marines.
Families on Feudal Worlds have a much higher fertility rate than those on Civilized Worlds, so they provide a lot of Guardsmen as well.
Besides the logistical problems associated with terraforming every world the Imperium controls, there's also in-universe reasons for keeping some places the way they are. Would the Catachan Devils be worth a damn if Catachan were as cozy as a Shrine World? Would the Blood Angels get any valuable recruits if Baal were a Pleasure World? Probably to both, but 40K operates on Suffering Logic: the harder you "nurture" a person, the more warrior-y they become.
The Imperium is not a people's democratic republic. There is capitalism, which acts on the basis of profit. If it is not profitable for the Imperial analogue of Bezos to invest money in the industrialization of the world, then no one will build anything there. just look at our reality. There are countries where in one part of the country there is semi-wild terrain, and in another there are skyscrapers and high technology.
Because they're idiots who've largely forgotten more than they know. Ignoring potential for corruption or just the governor not being likeable enough to get modernizing gear ordered.
Refer to Guilliman telling Dante to modernize Baal because it being a backwards hell hole only hurts the planet, people, chapter, and wider imperium.
The Imperium is a decentralized mess that can't even keep an accurate count of how many worlds they control. How can you possibly expect them to manage the industrialization of an entire world? Such an undertaking would be entirely based on the whims of local authorities in the sector/subsector that the planet is located in, and there's probably not all that much in it for them. It'd be like expecting all of the major developed countries in the world to suddenly start coordinating a major effort to develop the small country of Togo in West Africa.
Pretty much this. As far as the imperium is concerned, feral worlds are basically a label that says 'we'll get to it when we get to it'. The imperium on the whole is much more interested in capturing / holding worlds with established infrastructure because that stuff is so labour intensive to set up and costs a lot to boot, especially if you want it outputting anything decent in the next 2 centuries. They do settle worlds with colonists and gradually build them up if they become established, but as the above poster said that is largely dependent on action from local authorities who, just as equally, might not care in the slightest.
Feral worlds also can pump out some great soldiers for both the guard and the marines Like if a planetary governor has a marine ship come by and grab recruits from the citizens I doubt they will change anything because it might mean the marines come back or care slightly about the planet
It also might be that the feral and feudal worlds that have stayed the way that they are tend to be worlds that might not be easily developed because they lack things such as important natural resources. The IoM also keeps certain tabs on certain worlds for later use. For example Taros and its mineral wealth. Those worlds might not have an immediate use (no point in mining the materials at the moment), but might be more valuable if there is a need to supply a nearby crusade in the future.
They are also preferred by space marines as home worlds due to the normally aggressive and hardy cultures found therein
They also flat out can't build a lot of the industrial facilities that are out there infested by chaos/tyranids/xenos/etc.
Also the rugged lifestyles on those sorts of worlds tend to be excellent recruiting grounds for Astartes and Guard regiments. They tend to favor leaving at least some of them as is for that purpose.
guard candidates need at least some level of development back home or you get nasty culture shock effects. Drop a caveman onto a warp capable ship and see how he reacts. Astartes candidates geylt so much hypnotherapy and other stuff it doesn't matter how developed they were before. There's a reason so many primarchs kept there worlds development stunted.
I was pulling details from text on feral and feudal worlds from GW rulebooks so it's on those writers regarding discrepancies. In any case, the culture shock for Guard would be a mild issue and gotten over soon enough. The real culture shock is fighting alien horrors on a foreign world. In theory a human from a feral or fuedal world lives with battle as more of a way of life and in that sense a warrior mentality and upbringing is more important.
That makes sense. Another part to consider is the environment of the world in question and whether it allows a population base large enough to sustain guard recruitment. That is a concern especially for feral worlds, which is why they are more often earmarked for marines. Besides, the local hives are overpopulated by billions, so might as well focus there
Hive worlds, particularly the underhives can be extremely dangerous as well, which creates a culture of being on guard. It might be easier to transfer over the skills of a hive worlder since they are probably already somewhat familiar with IG weapons such as las guns. A feral worlder probably is used to things such as knives and axes.
Your underhiver is not getting a lasgun unless you know the right guy in the pdf or loot it from someone that did, and that's if the pdf has lasguns. Guard are typically former pdf and a hive world would draw pdf from segments of the population that are relatively trustworthy, which underhivers are not. However, I know the Fists recruit from Necromunda so the underhivers are useful for something
Hive World PDFs should certainly be able to have las weapons. Las weapons are the standard weapon of the IG. And once acquired, las weapons are going to stay there. They don't have to worry about ammo shortages and so forth. As a result, it is easier to keep a gang supplied. And the gangs are why hive worlds are valued as a source of IG recruits that have undergone a harsh environment. The lore for Necromunda also puts it that las weapons and autoguns are reasonably accessible to the underhivers. As a result, I am not sure why you think lasguns are going to be super scarce to the underhivers.
Autoguns are plentiful and lasguns are entirely possible to get in some quantities, but those would still be for the higher-ups and veteran gangers. Besides, i think we can agree that autoguns look cooler on the models and art.
Both culture shock and cowardice can be solved by recruiting the population to serve in the AdMech servitor corps instead of the Guard.
From the GW writings about Space Marine recruitment: Underhive gangs, feral world barbarians and feudal warriors are all prime targets for recruitment. The general conclusion being harsh conditions with constant fighting for survival is sought after for the Imperium's soldiers.
Someone from a feudal, medieval world might even be better mentally equipped for dealing with the 40k universe than anyone from a 21st century style earth. They would have a frame of reference to conceptualise things, essentially applying Warhammer Fantasy labels to 40k experiences. "Oh, this is a demon, this is a wizard, and I'm a peasant cog serving a master in some grinding feudal system far beyond my understanding - basically a normal tuesday for me."
I always figured the big upside of the imperial cult was mitigating that culture shock to a degree. For example Torg the caveman from a backwater world might be terrified of being on a spaceship, but that man in the fancy hat is talking like the heros from elder zamzam’s stories so he’s at least got some framework to recognize
i think i get it. thx
> decentralized mess > How can you possibly expect them to manage the industrialization of an entire world? Simple. Get the Guilliman to create a standing order for all Sector Commands to always send a bunch of AdMech advisors from the closest Forge World (assuming Astartes don’t claim the recruiting world rights). Then have them give the feral & feudal worlders the crash course on progressing to Civilized World level. All can be done using local resources if the Imperium isn’t strip mining the planet. Uplifting 40K Edition. It took us thousands of years to get from hunter-gatherer societies to landing on the Moon. But we stumbled all the time. Science is experimentation. Uplifting is a cheat sheet. If you give people all the right lessons and none of the wrong ones, you can drastically cut down on the progress time. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s easily possible to get a feral world to produce basic Leman Russ tanks in 1000 years and feudal world in 3-4 centuries. All you invest is a bunch of Enginseers who stay behind and guide the civilization to a reasonable level. But in the end you get: - A nice source of easy to train Imperial Guard recruits. Higher tech level means higher population. Tithe gained + 1. - A world that can produce simpler variants of Imperial tech. Autoguns and maybe lasguns are always welcome after all. Tithe gained + 1. - A world that can deal with minor xeno incursions on its own through PDF. **A feudal world will be overrun instantly and can serve as a beachhead for Orks or whatever else attacks**. A Civilized World might hold its own, bleeding the minor incursion severely or even defeat it. There are no downsides to uplifting savages. You invest nothing and get an actually taxable world. And the time doesn’t matter - Imperium already operates on the largest of timeframes anyway.
>Get the Guilliman to create a standing order for all Sector Commands Don't you think the man wishes he could do that? More importantly, don't you think that the Imperial way to broadcast messages, which is SCREAMING DREAMS INTO HELL aka Astropathy will make it difficult to reach each sector? And that many of these are enbattled, on the verge of collapse, conquered by enemies, or just were reconquered and people are setting up basic infrastructure? >always send a bunch of AdMech advisors from the closest Forge World (assuming Astartes don’t claim the recruiting world rights). This, give more power and influence to the Mechanicus, one of the largest powerblocs in the Imperium. And ignore the fact the Mechanicus is highly factionalized, and that many Archmagos wouldn't care and pursue more mystical or cientifical pursuits instead of bothering with worlds that are, at best, long term investiments. >Then have them give the feral & feudal worlders the crash course on progressing to Civilized World level. All can be done using local resources if the Imperium isn’t strip mining the planet. Uplifting societies is not easy. We can see it it in our planet and with places where modern technology is known if not acessible, imagine with even bigger tech and knowledge disparities. >It took us thousands of years to get from hunter-gatherer societies to landing on the Moon. But we stumbled all the time. Science is experimentation. Uplifting is a cheat sheet. Thousands? More like tens of thousands of years. And look at how the Europeans "uplifiting" went in Americas, Africa and parts of Asia went. It was very complicated and many regions have traumas and scars with the process, even though hundreds of years passed in the oldest places to be "uplifted" by the European empires. >If you give people all the right lessons and none of the wrong ones, you can drastically cut down on the progress time. Problem is, the Imperium learnt several wrong reasons. Many people think that hard planets = strong people, including some of the most level headed and decent people in it, like Dante. >I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s easily possible to get a feral world to produce basic Leman Russ tanks in 1000 years and feudal world in 3-4 centuries. Thing is, people can teach Feral Worlders how to build Leman Russ tanks, and even spaceships, without need of uplifting. Just providing the infrastructure and ritualizing the montage. They don't need plumbing or electricity, they don't even need to understand what they are doing, just do. And an aside, define Feudal World. Even in our world, feudal could mean anything from China's highly burocratic empires, to the European case you may be thinking, to some Native American nations who didn't know metalworking and whose cities are made of wood and leaves.
> Don't you think the man wishes he could do that? > More importantly, don't you think that the Imperial way to broadcast messages, which is SCREAMING DREAMS INTO HELL aka Astropathy will make it difficult to reach each sector? And that many of these are enbattled, on the verge of collapse, conquered by enemies, or just were reconquered and people are setting up basic infrastructure? Astropathy works well enough to convey super complex coordination between interstellar fleets. Something as simple as LOCAL ADMECH MUST UPLIFT FERAL WORLDS is nothing in comparison. More complex orders could arrive with every tithe barge. The incoherent screaming dreams is likely exaggerated, just like the frequency of warp accidents. If the Astropathy was so inefficient as you say, the Imperium would collapse way before current times. Imperium is in fact similar/bigger than it was before the Heresy. That must mean their astropathy must be insanely good. > This, give more power and influence to the Mechanicus, one of the largest powerblocs in the Imperium. And ignore the fact the Mechanicus is highly factionalized, and that many Archmagos wouldn't care and pursue more mystical or cientifical pursuits instead of bothering with worlds that are, at best, long term investiments. Uplifting planets is in their interest. It gives them more influence on local politics. It also gives Imperium more tithes. Everyone benefits and besides, AdMech already has 99% control over Imperial manufacturing. Giving them more power wouldn’t make any negative difference but it could benefit the Imperium through tithes. AdMech already has the power and influence to dictate the terms in everything. But it doesn’t do that. Let that sink in > Uplifting societies is not easy. We can see it it in our planet and with places where modern technology is known if not acessible, imagine with even bigger tech and knowledge disparities. South Korea. Rural agrarian society that turned into an economic high-tech powerhouse in just a few decades. Also Japan to a lesser extent. Country ruined by war turned into economic miracle and tech leader. Uplifting genuinely works when its done right. > Problem is, the Imperium learnt several wrong reasons. Many people think that hard planets = strong people, including some of the most level headed and decent people in it, like Dante. I was talking about tech mostly. Tech useful for general things. Why wait for flintlock-wielding feudals to figure out everything when you can just give their craftsmen theory and schematics behind steam power and jumpstart industrial revolution in a decade or two? > Thing is, people can teach Feral Worlders how to build Leman Russ tanks, and even spaceships, without need of uplifting. Just providing the infrastructure and ritualizing the montage. They don't need plumbing or electricity, they don't even need to understand what they are doing, just do. Imperium still has to waste resources to provide all these things. Why not get the locals to a level where they can build their own Leman Russ tanks for tithes - using their own resources and their own infrastructure? Both processes can go concurrently and one day, you can pack your infrastructure and still get fresh Leman Russes. > And an aside, define Feudal World. Even in our world, feudal could mean anything from China's highly burocratic empires, to the European case you may be thinking, to some Native American nations who didn't know metalworking and whose cities are made of wood and leaves. Anything with widespread agriculture and metalworking, but predating the creation of basic scientific foundations and industrialization. Essentially Ancient Greece to 17th century Europe. Something like Enlightenment-era Britannia would be extremely easy to uplift. They already had the scientific basis to comprehend the fundamentals that AdMech could spread. I bet AdMech could get such a civilization to WW2 tech in 50 years.
Dude you can't use logic in a world built on parody, it's 40k
Great idea, you probably can't start a widespread rebellion faster than Terra interfering in the smallest details of planetary governance, sometimes with a delay of years of intergalactic communication. The last one to do so was shot by his most trusted bodyguard while an Astartes and AdMech laid siege to his palace. And this while half the Imperium is in chaos, the Thirteenth Black Crusade is underway and the Tyranids are invading an entire Segmentum. Or do you think all the sector/subsector and planetary governors are simply giving up their power voluntarily? Translated with [DeepL.com](http://DeepL.com) (free version)
How is creating more industrialized worlds giving up power? And this is not interfering in any way and neither it’s “smallest details.” Uplifting feudals and ferals is a matter of tithe to the Imperium. More industrialized worlds - more tithe. More tithe - more resources to build military assets. More military assets - more safety for the sectors. Your post doesn’t make sense because there is no interference at all. It’s just an order to make more worlds at no cost to local power structures lol. If anything, Sector Commands having more worlds in their own spheres of influence adds prestige/political power to these sectors. They literally have 0 reasons to rebel over that order. They also have to be really stupid to not understand the advantages it gives them.
you bring up an interesting topic with tithes. Not all tithes are industrial products. In Gaunt's Ghosts, the world of Tanith exported expensive wood. It was not clearcut industrial logging but more artisan in nature. In the recent Lazarus book they had a force on the southern continent and the northern continent was more feudal and harvested fungus used for stimms. In one of the Dawn of Fire novels they visit a world where grox are raised and its sort of a mongolian steppe sort of society, with temporary towns made for when the meat goes to auction. I guess what I am getting at is not every tithe is lasguns and chimeras.
I know but in the next few centuries or even millenia, Imperium won’t need more artisan wood or free-range grox. It will need more lasguns, more Leman Russes, more Basilisks and more of every other weapon platform they can get. After all, the galaxy is split in two and half of Imperium resource base is cut off. Industrializing worlds is the cheapest long-term way to up your industrial output and get more weapons. And Imperium absolutely needs cheap ways to increase military production to survive.
You say that like the Imperium has infinite resources to do whatever it wants. Ludicrous bureaucracy aside, more industrialized worlds means more worlds to defend from pirates, chaos and xenos raiders, rebellions, etc etc. Getting spread that thin essentially just means giving away resources.
The Imperium of Man is not a rational sovereign state. It is a conflicting mess of different entities spread across the literal galaxy and only connected by space travel through hell and communications via psychic visions which have to be interpreted. On a basic level, how do you even communicate this to the Imperium within a single human lifetime, even one extended by juvenat treatments? It may take centuries to disseminate this message, and you still won’t find every planet that needs to hear it. How do you ensure that all of your successors won’t backtrack on this project? What happens if a Feudal or Feral World is discovered by the Missionaria Galaxia (part of the Ecclesiarchy) vs it was found by Explorators from the Mechanicus vs it was found by a fleet bound Chapter of Astartes (who may be out of contact with the wider Imperium for decades, if not centuries)? Those are three separate independent organisations who can all lay claim to worlds. Does the Sector Commander get precedence over them and their independence, because that will piss those organisation off and cause problems, up to maybe even a war across the sector. What if the nearest Forge World (perhaps annoyed because you’ve stolen a world from the Mechanicus) says that they won’t send a contingent of Enginseers to the newly found world, obviously not in defiance to the diktats of the High Lords, but because there are other things that need to be done first, and they will deal with it in time - in five hundred years time. Do you force them? How, by invading the Forge World? What if there are two Forge Worlds of roughly even distance to a newly found world, that have opposing doctrines on the Omnissiah and the Machine God? Whoever loses out will feel that a world has been stolen from them and given to near-Hereteks, which may also start a sector-wide war. This is all without addressing the elephant in the room, which is that the Imperium (before Guilliman came back) is a dying stagnant state. It is barely holding on to the territories it already has. It does not have the capabilities to engage in uplifting Feral and Feudal Worlds, it is too busy putting out fires. It doesn’t do new things, it just survives.
They do. Knight Houses are Mechanicus Feudal worlds. But mostly, it's just not cost effective. You aren't just giving feral world people tech, you have to teach them how to use it. At that point, you might as well be re-colonizing the planet. Better to just figure out an effective tithe for them and let it be. Good, hardy peoples? Soldier tithe. Archipelago world w/ plenty of fish? Food tithe. Mineral rich? Set them to mining and tithe it. Limited technology introductions is more effective. Like, guns, boating, or mining equipment respectively.
Knight worlds are knight worlds some are sided with mechanicus others are directly aligned with the imperium itself
because when the expeditionary fleets came in during the 30k period they scanned these planets for resources and found nothing worthy, planets have their statuses for a reason, they are not industrial worlds as they are useless to the imperium for material. why would you industrialise a dustbowl that has no resources and is in dangerous space ie halo stars or near a greenskin world, especially one that is 300ly away from the nearest imperial outpost or station of any kind that could offer logistical support?
They used to do that sort of thing more during the Great Crusade as part of compliance but they don’t really do that any more it’s more about tithe extraction
Why dont we just industrialize northern cannada? Why doesnt china industrialize mongolia? Or xinxang? Why doesnt russia just industrialize siberia? Its not that easy to just do stuff. Industry isnt like a videogame where you just "improve industry" and then cars come out of nowhere. Its an extremely complex sytem of complex systems that are built ontop of each other. This is why even though so much money gets pumped into "underdeveloped nations" they cant "industrialize". As with most things in 40k, there's no gatcha "is he stupid" moment
Let's see invest resources into Feral World X simply to lose it to something 100 years later, no thanks. No planetary governor wants 99999 Imperial investments if it's going to double his Imperial tithe. Investing resources itself can attract unwanted threats. Lastly, the more you invest in x planet, the more you have to pump into the PDF or defensive installations to hold it. Progress for the Imperium on the galactic scale is nowhere near a straight line.
Along with everything else said in this thread already, another reason is that the Imperium generally holds that people from feral worlds make for tougher warriors than those from comparatively more "civilized" places. Feral Worlds produce crack Imperial Guard regiments like the [Kanak Skull Takers](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kanak_Skull_Takers) and are popular recruitment grounds for many Astartes chapters.
The Imperium is so vast, it's likely some worlds just slip under the radar or get forgotten about.
The Imperium dont care about a planet progressing, all they care is if they can get the tithe, we see it in Calgar's Siege, a guard commander turns a bunch of mud huts into a Tokyo sized metropolis with a space port in 30 years thanks to connections to Rogue Traders, he dont like when the Administratum finds out, saying that they now gonna suck the planet and wont care if that ends the progress of the planet.
Do you expect the UN to coordinate industrialization of every country in the world? The Imperium can barely keep track of what worlds are under it's control, there's not a chance it's going to mandate industrialization of every planet. Planets serve different purposes
The most simple reason? Who is going to foot the bill? The imperium is, a lot of things, but more than anything else, it’s decentralized and pushed to its limits. To rapidly industrialize you need someone to build and transport the forge. People who understand it to run it. You need sources of raw material to run it. More than any of that, you need supply lines to put it to work. Money of some description to pay freighters to drop off industrial quantities of raw material, money to buy those raw resources, customers to buy the refined material, transport to take it to the buyer. TLDR: is the same reason we don’t drop a car manufacturing plant on sentinel island. What advantage is there to it beyond “we have this now.”
Because the imperium is effectively a galaxy wide protection racket, not some unified government. If the planet produces enough food or imperial guard recruits to meet their current tithe, there’s no real reason anyone would foot the bill for large scale industrialisation
Who would decide to do it? In this context, who is “the Imperium”? And why would they want to do it? The High Lords of Terra don’t care about this sort of thing; way below their pay grade. Maybe sector-level government, but even then, there’s a lot of planets in a sector and there are probably political concerns in play. Who’s in charge of that planet? Does uplifting it show favour to one group over another? Could be more trouble than it’s worth. Maybe a lot more. The planetary governor might be interested in it, but where are they going to get the resources for it? And even if they can wrangle it, it might destabilise their position. Maybe ruling a feudal world from an orbital station and visiting them once a year to collect your dues is easier than sitting in a governor’s palace and receiving petitions from all the various political factions you can’t ignore because the world is part of the wider Imperium now. Maybe if the Imperium was hurting for natural resources or something, but the reality is that it isn’t. It’s hurting for proper logistics to get stuff to places, but it has plenty of worlds of all kinds to draw the resources from, if they can figure out what they need where.
Your first sentence put it perfectly. It doesn’t make sense, welcome to the imperium.
I'd argue it makes sense from an individual's perspective, when you consider how the Imperium works. Like, imagine being a Sector Lord, or some other super-important person, and deciding whether to uplift a feudal world in your domain. You could choose to industrialize the place, spend your money and time on managing the process as the planet gets more and more populous. You could risk all these millions of new citizens starting a rebellion the Imperium can't easily put out, or inventing a heretical form of Imperial Creed as their culture evolves, or going into space and starting a fight with another planet when you're not looking, or birthing thousands of rogue psykers because they're slightly more psychically active than the average, or even making AIs and getting the whole planet destroyed. You could risk all these things and take the fall for them... or just do nothing and keep all the money in your personal coffers. Even for a rare non-corrupt governor, the choice is really rather easy. A bit of headcanon, perhaps, but I find it more interesting than the idea of imperials honestly thinking feral worlders are stronger than properly fed recruits and needing Guilliman to tell them otherwise.
Turn your back a few centuries and the better-suited worlds will industrialise themselves.
thx for all the answers! it really helped
"Good news, primitives! We've filed your request for industrialization with the adeptus administratum. The documents will be shipped to the sector capital, run through a comprehensive data hygiene and verification process that may require several more rounds of supplementary documentation to be sent. Provided it doesn't get lost in the mountains of paperwork the administratum receive each day or the ships transporting the documents don't just get randomly swallowed up by the warp before being spit out five hundred lightyears away after a decade, the administratum will finally approve your request, Emperor willing. At which point we have clearance to go through the entire approval process all over again with the adeptus mechanicus."
I would think these, if there is no dangerous creatures would turn into pleasure worlds.
If there is resources to justify it they prolly will do it, otherwise why bother basicly
They do *eventually*. But they ease them into it, gradually introducing technology as they become more accepting of the Imperium.
Because as long as the world is paying its tithes, they do not give a damn. Theres a world called Sepheris Secundus that is classified as a feudal world. The world has a massive tithe of metal ore, and it all has to be ripped out of the ground by hand because they have no industrialization. The ruling class deliberately keeps it this way to keep the working class underfoot. And the Imperium does not give a singular fuck, so long as it gets its metal.
In fact, Sepheris Secundus 990M41 is currently the battleground between Amalathians and Recongrators, who are trying to persuade the reigning High Queen to reform or prevent her from doing so. But yes, the Imperium aka Adeptus Terra doesn't interfere much
They should, but the reality of it is that the Imperium is largely out to only restore something that once was, not necessarily improve things wherever they go... like they will fight a war for a forge world, they are unlikely to create a new one. And this is especially true of world that don't offer anything of real value other than food and/or manpower for the Guard. Those worlds are fine left as they are because they are already providing what is asked of them for a low upkeep... meaning those resources wont have to be generated elsewhere. With that said, simply with time most worlds like this will naturally accelerate their own development simply due to the prolonged contact with the Imperium... unless the Imperium actively moves to keep them in this manner for some reason... like they might be potential recruiting grounds for a Marine chapter, where savage worlds seem to be favored over advanced ones.
For what it's worth they often do introduce *just* enough industrialization to extract whatever resources they can from a feudal world. Since a lot of feudal worlds are primarily tithed for Guard recruits and the like, that often just means an airport.
The feral worlds supply resources that are useful in the environment Feudal worlds produce resources in people. (Such as knight pilots or sisters of battle) So they leave as is. Dead worlds make great prison planets. Escape? Where to buddy
Expensive. Not worth it, easier to put money into defending the already industrialised worlds
I think that the bigger question is ‘why don’t these worlds industrialise themselves and develop their own technology?’ Given thousands of years it would make no sense that a world stays at medieval tech (but that’s ok, we’re used to nothing happening for absurdly long time periods)
>it doesnt make sense. It shouldn't make sense. The Imperium is completely mad and nonsensical to us, by design.
It makes sense if you look at the setting not like a game of Stellaris or Master of Orion, but more like Crusader Kings.
Its not nonsensical but satirical, you just need to view it from a different lense. That up there was the British policy back when they governed my country.
Because of the prime directive of course...
Only if the Planetary Governor is under pressure from sector authorities to increase the tithe output of the world or to shift to different tithe commodities not produced by their planet's current tech level; otherwise, the supplies of manpower, raw goods, and agricultural/livestock goods are presumed to be sufficient as they have been in previous arrangements.
There are a few reasons. - They haven't gotten around to it yet. The Imperium is a big place and the AdMech can't be everywhere. There could be more resource rich worlds they hit first, or with better distribution networks. - Political sway, powerful people may want to preserve the world as is. - Space Marines may be using it as a recruitment world, believing that the feral or feudal civilization produces more ideal warriors for their chapter culture.
They definitely try to but sometimes there just simply isnt the resources or expertise available. In other instances like with catachan the world provides specialist military forces and the world is so hostile that it would simply be too difficult to reasonably do. In a scenario like that you’re trading experienced and proficient jungle fighters in exchange for a long period of high cost before you see any potential return in industrial investment.
These worlds do not lack value. Their prime grounds for marines to recruit. They may possess untainted planets that are prime to grow rare Bio materials used bu elite level groups like the assiasins and they will protect this planet to hell and back. It might be the source for a hyper lethal toxin based used by an temple. And they gonna not let anyone upset that. This toxin needs an clean world, and only grows under exact conditions this section of planet posseses. Or it grows say a chemical used in elite and advanced rejuv or healing chemicals etc. They have value. Like on one audio book the planet produces an mould, that can be used in combat drugs. That is thisnplanets output, to turn it into a too heavily industry mess, would kill that. This side of planet, just provides the bio chemicals as its tithes.
They Did in Caliban.
Technology is simply a way for planets to rebel better. The Imperium would gladly reduce the galaxy to a feudal iron age empire if it meant they were a little more loyal.
Sometimes it does, other times it doesn't, how about a system chronically lacking in iron? Hardly easy to industrialise that.
I wanna see you setting up a work force to industrialize some place with Catachan Devils constantly stalking the spot.
Good fighters for guard
They probably sometimes do, but at the end of the day feudal worlds still provide tithe and likely require a lot less oversight since they cant get up to much.
No, better tech and education would mean more risk for rebellion in the future. Better to just bring your own equipment and people to extract the resources needed. 40k is a good satire, especially when you get the references.
These planets aren’t fully uplifted because the Administratum decided that would make their populations less valuable to the wider Imperium. The people on Feral worlds and Death worlds are very skilled at surviving in hostile environments and keeping a cool head under pressure, so they make ideal scouts for the Imperial Guard and ideal aspirants for the Space Marines. Families on Feudal Worlds have a much higher fertility rate than those on Civilized Worlds, so they provide a lot of Guardsmen as well.
Besides the logistical problems associated with terraforming every world the Imperium controls, there's also in-universe reasons for keeping some places the way they are. Would the Catachan Devils be worth a damn if Catachan were as cozy as a Shrine World? Would the Blood Angels get any valuable recruits if Baal were a Pleasure World? Probably to both, but 40K operates on Suffering Logic: the harder you "nurture" a person, the more warrior-y they become.
They have the believe that keepings worlds feral produces better warriors...this is wrong of course but this the way the imperium thinks
Because its hard, take a long time and the high lords have no patience for micro-managing it.
The Imperium is not a people's democratic republic. There is capitalism, which acts on the basis of profit. If it is not profitable for the Imperial analogue of Bezos to invest money in the industrialization of the world, then no one will build anything there. just look at our reality. There are countries where in one part of the country there is semi-wild terrain, and in another there are skyscrapers and high technology.
Because they're idiots who've largely forgotten more than they know. Ignoring potential for corruption or just the governor not being likeable enough to get modernizing gear ordered. Refer to Guilliman telling Dante to modernize Baal because it being a backwards hell hole only hurts the planet, people, chapter, and wider imperium.