"The Imperium as it was. The Imperium as it must be. Imperium Eterna."
- —Former Master of the Administratum and leader of the Hexarchy plot Irthu Haemotalion
The Imperium Eterna is the High Gothic term that has become current on Terra in the Era Indomitus for the political and religious status quo of the Imperium of Man before the resurrection of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman and the many changes and reforms he began as the Imperial Regent and lord commander of the Imperium.
In the wake of these changes, there were many in the highest eschelons of the Imperial government, even among the High Lords of Terra on the Senatorum Imperialis, who believed that the previous status quo of the Imperium under the original Imperial Law, the Lex Imperialis, represented the perfect expression of the God-Emperor's will.
These conservative reactionaries believed that Guilliman's reforms had altered the Emperor's divine design for Humanity and that his Indomitus Crusade was a failed endeavour that would bleed the Throneworld of the resources and troops needed to defend it from Mankind's enemies.
This opinion was strikingly inward-looking and Terra-centred, for believers in the Imperium Eterna blamed the lord commander for ignoring the violent strife that continued to roil the Throneworld's population in the wake of the birth of the Great Rift and that he was more concerned instead with using the Imperium's resources to defend thousands of other, less-vital Imperial worlds.
Perhaps the strongest criticism of Guilliman's reforms was that once made by the Emperor Himself. The believers in Imperium Eterna claimed that the prior Imperial government had allowed mortals to rule themselves as the Emperor intended, rather than be governed by superhuman primarchs who barely understood the limitations and lived experience of ordinary Humans.
An attempt to reestablish the Imperium Eterna was made by a secret cabal of current and former High Lords of Terra while Guilliman was away from the Throneworld directing the Indomitus Crusade. The "Hexarchy" was a group composed of both current and former High Lords of Terra, many of them removed from office by the Lord Commander of the Imperium Roboute Guilliman after his resurrection, who had refused to accept the reforms the lord commander began to make in the Imperium.
The Hexarchy was led by Irthu Haemotalion, a former Master of the Administratum who had been removed by Guilliman and the deposed reactionary Ecclesiarch Baldo Slyst. The group also included the still-seated High Lords Aveliza Drachmar, the Grand Provost Marshal of the Adeptus Arbites, the Lord Commander Militant Mar Av Ashariel, Lord High Admiral Merelda Pereth and the Grand Master of Assassins Fadix.
Using the vast resources at their command as the leaders of the Imperium's government, the Hexarchy attempted to forcibly take back control of Terra while Guilliman was away from the Throneworld. Once Terra was under their control, the Hexarchy intended to take control of the rest of the Imperium and roll back Guilliman's reforms, ensuring that the unchanging status quo of the Imperium Eterna was restored.
The Hexarchy ordered the Minotaurs Chapter of Space Marines, known for its extreme loyalty to the Emperor and the High Lords, to the Throneworld to aid their plot. The Astartes arrived on Terra believing the heart of the Imperium was under siege from enemies within.
However, the plotters' attempted coup ended in failure after it was revealed that Fadix's loyalty to the Hexarchy's cause had always been a ruse, arranged from the start by Guilliman to ensure the loyalty of the High Lords he left behind on Terra. Once a signal was given by the grand master of assassins, each of the Hexarchy's members were killed by Fadix's well-placed Imperial Assassins.
Sources
- Watchers of the Throne: The Regent's Shadow (Novel) by Chris Wraight, Chs. 14, 16-17, 20-22, 28