Edict of Obliteration

An Edict of Obliteration otherwise known as Damnatio Memoriae (High Gothic phrase literally meaning "condemnation of memory," in the sense of a judgment that a person must not be remembered) is the deliberate destruction of icons and other symbols or monuments pertaining to the damned individual and is a frequent component of major political or religious changes. The term encompasses the more specific destruction of images of a ruler after his death or overthrow. This form of dishonor that can be passed by the Emperor of Mankind or the ruling council of the Senatorum Imperialis—the High Lords of Terra themselves upon traitors or others who’ve brought discredit to the Emperor and His Imperium of Mankind. The result of an Edict of Obliteration is to have the offending individual effectively erased from history.

The sense of an Edict of Obliteration and of the sanction is to cancel every trace of the person from the life of the Imperium, as if he had never existed, in order to preserve the honour of the Emperor; in a galactic-wide empire that stresses fealty and loyalty, respectability and the pride of being a true subject of the Emperor is a fundamental requirement of every Imperial citizen - perhaps being one of the most severe punishments. This is especially true of those oranganisations that directly served the tenants of the Emperor, to include such venerable institutions as the Ecclesiarchy, the Inquisition, and members of its military forces such as the Space Marines and the Imperial Guard.

In the Imperium, the practice of using an Edict of Obliteration is most often used in the condemnation of Imperial elites and Imperial Governors after their deaths. If the High Lords of Terra or the Emperor did not like the acts of an individual, they could have their property seized, their name erased and their statues or other images reworked. Imperial historians and archaeologists have had difficulty determining when official Edicts of Obliteration have actually taken place. Imperial Scholars sometimes use the phrase, "de facto damnatio memoriae" when the condemnation is not official.

Any truly effective Edict of Obliteration would not be noticeable to later historians, since by definition, it would entail the complete and total erasure of the individual in question from the historical record. However, since all political figures have allies as well as enemies, it is difficult to implement the practice completely. For instance, when the High Lords of Terra condemned the memory of the traitorous actions of Chapter Master Lufgt Huron (better know as the Tyrant of Badab) of the renegade Astral Claws Chapter, despite extreme censure, there were those whom still harboured forbidden items that escaped the Edict of Obliteration. An example of the Tyrant’s endemic cult of personality within the Badab Sector was such that one of the noble houses who supported the Tyrant managed to hide one of the finest extant portraits of the Tyrant during the war within their family manse.

Source

 * Horus Rising (Novel) by Dan Abnett
 * Legion (Novel) by Dan Abnett
 * The Lightning Tower (Audio Book) by Dan Abnett
 * Mechanicum (Novel) by Graham McNeill
 * Prospero Burns (Novel) by Dan Abnett