Imperium of Man (30th Millennium–Present) National anthem: "We are one"

The Imperium of Man is a galaxy-spanning interstellar Human empire, the ultimate authority for the majority of the Human species in the Milky Way Galaxy in the 41st Millennium A.D. It is ruled by the living god who is known as the Emperor of Mankind.

However, there are other humanoid species classified as Imperial citizens, mainly mutant offshoots of genetic base-line Humans who are known as Abhumans and include such Human sub-races as the Ogryns, Ratlings and Squats.

The founder and ruler of the Imperium is the god-like Emperor of Mankind, the most powerful Human psyker ever born. The Emperor founded the Imperium over 10,000 Terran years ago in the late 30th Millennium during the Unification Wars on Old Earth following the terrible period in Human history known as the Age of Strife.

The Emperor continues, at least nominally, to rule the Imperium as both its political master and its primary religious figure. However, His badly damaged body is interred within the cybernetic life support mechanisms of the arcane device known as the Golden Throne following His mortal wounding during the ancient interstellar civil war of the Horus Heresy.

Because of this terrible fate, the Emperor is incapable of interacting with others on a day-to-day basis and has left the basic governance of His Imperium to the Senatorum Imperialis, an oligarchic ruling council of the most powerful noble lords and adepts in the galaxy. The Senatorum Imperialis is currently led by the Emperor's genetic son, the Primarch Roboute Guilliman, who chairs the council and directs Imperial policy as the lord commander of the Imperium and Imperial Regent.

The Imperium of Man is a war-torn stellar empire, teetering on the brink of collapse. For 10,000 Terran years it has been ruled by the deathless Emperor, a being of almost limitless psychic power, to whom thousands of souls are sacrificed daily to provide Him the psychic strength to maintain the Imperium's lines of communication and transport.

The peoples of the Imperium live in a galaxy where Daemons are real, mutation is frequent and death is a constant companion. To be alive in the 41st Millennium is to know that the universe is a terrifying and hostile place. It is a place where you are but one amongst billions and, no matter how heroic your death, you will not be missed.

A truly vast domain, the Imperium is spread amongst the many stars of the galaxy. Its territories encompass untold millions of stars and countless more Human lives.

In its name, terrible wars are fought and desperate sacrifices made, yet even this river of carnage and blood is a small price to pay, for the Imperium is the guardian of Humanity. Were it to pass into nothingness, so too would the Human species, destroyed by enemies uncountable, to the braying laughter of the Dark Gods.

The Imperium is the largest and currently most powerful political entity in the galaxy, consisting of at least 1,000,000 Human-settled worlds dispersed across most of the Milky Way Galaxy. Consequently, an Imperial planet might be separated from its closest neighbour by hundreds or even thousands of light years.

However, despite its myriad problems, without the admittedly authoritarian and often harsh protection of the Imperium, Mankind as a whole would have fallen prey to the countless perils that threaten it. Without the Imperium of Man and Mankind's faith in the Emperor who guides it, the Human race would have become extinct long ago.