Imperial Monument

An Imperial Monument is a memorial, usually a large Gothic statue, dedicated to a hero of the Imperium of Man. The history of the Imperium is replete with heroic warriors -- individuals whose noble deeds and sacrifice on the battlefield are the stuff of legends. Though the names of the vast majority are forgotten to the careless passage of time, occasionally a hero has arisen above obscurity to become idolised by the Imperium's populace. A few of these heroes have even been declared Imperial Saints, and great statues were raised in their honour. In the succeeding centuries, it was common for buildings to be built beside, or even around these statues, towering architectures constructed by the Ecclesiarchy to awe the pilgrims flocking daily to pay homage.

Millennia of war, however, have reduced many of these edifices to cratered ruins, artillery shells transforming marble sculpture to shattered rubble. Sometimes though, remnants of ancient statuary remain more or less intact amidst the devastation, their survival seen as a blessing from the Emperor. No citizen of the Imperium who looks upon these honoured monuments is not moved by their holy provenance, and soldiers fighting in the shadow of these memorials to the Emperor's greatest heroes are inspired to near-insane levels of courage as they endeavour to emulate their legendary deeds.