Slaanesh (all of the Chaos gods really) only exist because of living beings and their psychic connection to the Warp
This is the reason why the war is eternal, because to stop it, you'd have to sever every living things psychic potential somehow and so far, that means killing them
This is the problem with 40K, they want to sell stuff and the easiest way to sell stuff is to have Good v. Bad
This is why there is very little material outside of lore snippets where the Imperium is unapologetically bad
You'll never see a video game where the Imperium puts down a planet for refusing to pay tithes, you'll never see a movie where a Space Marine eats the brain of a suspected cultist to find out the truth and you'll never see a TV show where political dissidents are lobotomized and turned into servitors
A lot of the T'au book has abject horror in reaction towards the Imperium. I sort of understand and like (not their execution of) the idea that this shit has been going on for so long it's so "normalized" that when you read outside of the "Imperium books" it shows their nature. You read some of the T'au stuff and it really does shine.
Rogue Trader: Faith and Coin has some absolutely brilliant excerpts that show how fucked up humanity really is at this time. A Rogue Trader with a damaged ship landing on a world ruthlessly exploiting a primitive, stone-age species and forcing the entire planet of theirs to give tribute while indoctrinating them into the Imperial Creed so that they are so religiously blinded to the exploitation that is occurring. The crew then disappears into space entirely with a ship full of goods. These "Anthropolatrists" would now be taking their first steps into the stars, using human design, technology and first meeting the IMPERIUM believing that they were their beneficent gods.
That right there is a lore snippet, yes; a heavily paraphrased and shortened version but it truly shows the absolute evil that the Imperium is. How horrible the universe is that this young species will meet their "gods" they've worshiped for thousands of years only to be exterminated entirely in a vile hatred of the "xeno".
Another one with an Inquisitor literally using Nazi-style propaganda to turn the humans on a world that they existed on peacefully with DAoT tech and other xenos into literal zealots that tore apart their entire fully developed, peaceful civilization that existed for thousands of years for the sake of a "God-Emperor" that only appeared in their minds decades earlier.
That's the kind of shit that's fucked up to me and they don't hold back on that sadly, you're right. They will never show that kind of shit on TV or in movies. It's gonna be generic shit that depicts the Imperium as "DAE STARSHIP TROOPERS BUT GOOD!!!"
Slaanesh (all of the Chaos gods really) only exist because of living beings and their psychic connection to the Warp
This is the reason why the war is eternal, because to stop it, you'd have to sever every living things psychic potential somehow and so far, that means killing them
This is the problem with 40K, they want to sell stuff and the easiest way to sell stuff is to have Good v. Bad
This is why there is very little material outside of lore snippets where the Imperium is unapologetically bad
You'll never see a video game where the Imperium puts down a planet for refusing to pay tithes, you'll never see a movie where a Space Marine eats the brain of a suspected cultist to find out the truth and you'll never see a TV show where political dissidents are lobotomized and turned into servitors
A lot of the T'au book has abject horror in reaction towards the Imperium. I sort of understand and like (not their execution of) the idea that this shit has been going on for so long it's so "normalized" that when you read outside of the "Imperium books" it shows their nature. You read some of the T'au stuff and it really does shine.
Rogue Trader: Faith and Coin has some absolutely brilliant excerpts that show how fucked up humanity really is at this time. A Rogue Trader with a damaged ship landing on a world ruthlessly exploiting a primitive, stone-age species and forcing the entire planet of theirs to give tribute while indoctrinating them into the Imperial Creed so that they are so religiously blinded to the exploitation that is occurring. The crew then disappears into space entirely with a ship full of goods. These "Anthropolatrists" would now be taking their first steps into the stars, using human design, technology and first meeting the IMPERIUM believing that they were their beneficent gods.
That right there is a lore snippet, yes; a heavily paraphrased and shortened version but it truly shows the absolute evil that the Imperium is. How horrible the universe is that this young species will meet their "gods" they've worshiped for thousands of years only to be exterminated entirely in a vile hatred of the "xeno".
Another one with an Inquisitor literally using Nazi-style propaganda to turn the humans on a world that they existed on peacefully with DAoT tech and other xenos into literal zealots that tore apart their entire fully developed, peaceful civilization that existed for thousands of years for the sake of a "God-Emperor" that only appeared in their minds decades earlier.
That's the kind of shit that's fucked up to me and they don't hold back on that sadly, you're right. They will never show that kind of shit on TV or in movies. It's gonna be generic shit that depicts the Imperium as "DAE STARSHIP TROOPERS BUT GOOD!!!"