[Ecclesiarchy] Early history of the Imperial Cult

[Lumey]

For a quick primer on the Cult, try the 40k wiki page.

We need to settle a few things about the origins of the Cult:

1. I suggested to Golgothos that Obitus could pen an equivalent of the Lectitio Divinatus, and there don't seem to be any other good candidates for that role.
   
2. The next step is settling on an appropriate origin for the Temple of the Saviour Emperor.  My view is that this is an extension of the "hands of the Emprah" policy: an Imperial Army trooper fights on Terra and renames himself Fatidicus when he finds religion.
   
3. The vectors of the Imperial Navy and Imperial Guard are probably fine.  Although the Astartes reforming the Imperium are very secular, the same could be said of Blue Bobby.  Gaspard Lumey's attempts to inoculate part of the imperial population against religion only go so far, taking hold largely on worlds on which the Primarch had a certain cult of personality.
   
4. However, if there are hard-headed Imperial Truthers out there to fight against the Imperial Faith, there might be clashes in M32.  The appointment of the Ecclesiarch need not be so automatic in the Hektorverse.
   

I have a feeling that 1-3 are going to be "sure, why not?"s. Regarding (4), my feeling is that we should take a steer from the Reformation in Germany - have the High Lords of Terra beset by foreign threats as the Imperial Cult takes hold, then confronted by a defensive alliance of faithful governors when the time comes to attempt a purge. (Particularly dangerous to the High Lords is the establishment of the Cult on Terra itself, which has me thinking about a temporary relocation of the Imperial Government to the Atalantos Worlds.) Although the military forces pushing the Imperial Truth - especially the Space Marines - are able to force a military settlement on the Governors converted to the Imperial Cult, the broad mass of support makes their position untenable.