u/Selenite_Cults

I was reading through some books recently, particularly after the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum and the resurrection of Roboute Guilliman, and I realized that there are multiple Imperial entities who consider the survival of the Imperium of Man to only be ancillary to their main goals.

For example, in Blood and Fire, Grimaldus states;

>There is a reason the Adeptus Astartes stand apart from the Imperium – autonomous; loyal to the empire’s ideals, but rarely its function.

Then in Chris Wraight's Watchers of the Throne series, a topic that comes up frequently is how the Custodes *must* stand apart from the Imperium as a whole, so as to not sway the judgement of the populace, and that their only true goal is the safety and survival of the Emperor.

Then there's the Adeptus Mechanicus, who enjoy a lot of freedom from the Imperium and still chafe under its rule. There are even factions who consider the Emperor and the Omnissiah to be separate beings.

With all this said, I don't think that many powerful people in the Imperium would care if the Imperium died anytime soon.

I've been reading up a lot on Ork lore recently, and two characters really stood out to me. Particularly because of how different their views in fighting humies are.

The first is Taktikus/Biter, who's on Ghazghkull' Counsill of Warbosses as the Blood Axes representative. His short story, the enemy of my enemy showcases him fighting *alongside* Imperial forces on a world that is under attack by the Tyranids. And to his credit, they worked really well as a team. Up until he betrayed them. He is still an ork after all.

This is in direct contrast to Snikrot, who's known as the Green Ghost in Armageddon by Imperials. He's recently also been killing other orks, particularly those who had teamed up with Imperials to fight against chaos. This is because he seems such team ups unorky.

Now what does this mean for Armageddon?

Both are Blood Axes and both are very kunning, but their values obviously don't match up, meaning that when they meet up at Armageddon, there's going to be a ton of friction. Because while Biter may be one of Ghaz's own Warbosses, Snikrot's actually been fighting on Armageddon while the others went off on their own Waaaghs!

This can lead to a split in Blood Axes leadership, with some orks distrusting Taktikus' humie lovin ways and others disliking how Snikrot's all to willing to krump other orks instead of focusing on their enemies.

This has a few outcomes;

1. Their split leads to Ghaz losing on Armageddon

2. Snikrot wins the favor of most Blood Axes and takes Biter's place on the Counsill

3. Taktikus wins favor and the Blood Axes start teaming up with Imperials against chaos more often.

Now, obviously I don't expect any of these plot lines to be given too much weight, this fight is mainly between Ghaz/Yarrick and the various Space Marine factions after all, and GW probably won't be interested in focusing too much on xenos' internal politics.