I'm currently planning in the works a Dark Heresy game for a bunch of players who are most certainly
not 40k players. One played the tabletop but knows nothing about the lore; the other two never played the tabletop yet have been heavily indoctrinated by ITEHTTSD memes or Krieg shovel memes respectively. The latter two players in particular present a unique challenge, because their perspective of the Imperium is so laser-narrow focused on the expectation that the entirety of the Imperium is Kriegers charging trenches or Ultramarines doing tactical deep strikes. I already had to tell my player that I could not let him RP as a Krieger, because he would have to roleplay as a mute 12 year old boy soldier and he does not have the ability to do so entertainingly over discord.
But it is also an opportunity! Because I am going to throw them into a feudal swamp world where there is almost no Imperial presence at all.
Easily the thing I find coolest about the Imperium of Man's government is that it is a hegemony composed of factions upon factions, all of which have similar levels of authority and power. Interservice rivalry & wasteful duplication of responsibilities is standard practice, even within organisations. Most of all, the majority of the citizens of the nations that make up the planets that make up the Imperium are capable of living their entire lives without ever noticing the presence of the Imperium unless;
-They are subject to the tithe
-Their planet belongs to the direct control of an Imperial faction (e.g. ecclesiarchal world, administratum world, forge world, astartes recruitment world)
-Psykers & the black ships
-The planet is invaded by chaos or xenos, or rebels against the Imperium of Man
The way I interpret it, is similar to the frontiers of the Roman Empire in the England frontier, the Upper Nile frontier or the Euphrates frontier. Roman citizens living in any of these frontiers would only have the loosest sense of belonging to an Empire; few may notice at all the scant signs of authority. Roman coins. The occasional fortress garrisoned by Imperial soldiers. A wealthy plutocrat's foreign styled roman villa. A vague understanding that all their English tin or Egyptian wheat is being bought from somewhere.
But if the Sassanids advance down the Euphrates or a rebel pretender uses Britannia as their base of operations, suddenly Rome mobilises its legions and the common man becomes absolutely aware that they are living under Roman "protection."
So!
The players live in the Kingdom of Kitslevraya, which is itself situated on a planet called Chersonese. Almost all of the planet is shallow ocean water or marshy mangrove, there is very little in the way of true "dry" land. The primary mode of transport is canoe or canoe with outrigger, and everyone is a skilled navigator and swimmer from childhood onwards. The Chersoneseans navigate by the stars, and their oral traditions record that two of the stars they use for navigation are young (<4,000 years old), and appeared at the same time as the far-people. These two "stars" are actually orbital fortresses installed by the Imperium to safeguard Chersonese and control who goes in, and who goes out.
Imperial presence is minimal, and what few times a rogue trader or bold merchant shows up on-world every century or so, the people assume they have sailed from a far-away nation, not from another planet. Explorers from Kitslevraya occasionally set sail to try and find where the Imperium of Man is to try establish official relations, but Kitslevrayans to this day have failed to locate this powerful Empire. The world produces valuable resources; adamantium can be found in the ocean shelfs, the world is abundant in saltwater and wild sea-herbs have been known to enhance or suppress witch-craft on the planet. However, 4,000 years ago the Imperium sent an administratum explorator fleet which concluded the planet was uninhabited and useless, fit only for water harvesting. The paperwork for approving the tithe was however corrupted by unknown agents, resulting in the world of Chersonese being declared unpopulated
and bereft of resources, with its status remaining unchanged even after the Imperial Admiralty and the Ordo Xenos took an interest in Chersonese.
The two orbital Fortresses, Chersonese I and Chersonese II often receive visitors from other Imperial factions, but few visitors are ever permitted to land on-world, or have any
legitimate interest in doing so. Occasionally when a wrecked spaceship crashes into the planet, it is considered a gift from the God-Emperor, whose cult has spread amongst the local henotheistic pantheon which predates the Imperium's religion. The ecclesiarchy has no permanent presence on Chersonese, so there has been no real effort to stamp out the worship of "other gods."
The lone permanent Imperial presence on Chersonese is a beleaguered Magos Biologis from the Adeptus Mechanicus and her small coterie of tech-adepts and servitors. She is referred to the locals of Kislevraya as the "Oracle." The "Oracle" is deemed such, because she knows everything and can commune with the heavens (she has a powerful vox-caster). She and her group will look more like 19th century divers (think bioshock), with their augmentations looking more rubber and steel than the usual iron and flesh the mechanicus rock (rust / water pressure resistant augmentations). They are there to study the unusual warp-affecting sea herbs and
really hate when the locals waste their time with stupid questions. What they consider stupid questions are subject to vast tirades of binaric screeching.
My players will be thrust into this world, in service to King Mana Oo'oo. King Mana Oo'oo's daughter has lost her dog (dog in this world = leopard seal descendent), and he wants them to find her seadog. Some people blame the neighbouring Kingdom of Parabang Brabant. Some blame a coven of witches. One local drunk claims he saw the dog taken by aliens from beyond the skies. Maybe the dog just got lost.
On a perhaps unrelated note, I love deploying bodysnatcher murder mysteries! Demonic possessions,
intellect devourers,
skin walkers and my all time favourite depiction -
the bonethief! I'm sure they'll be fine though. Even if I need more names for skin snatchers. Soul swappers. Nerve puppets. Head warmers.