"The state religion has a great deal of autonomy, and they may not be willing to obey the orders of adults." Fikris said with some concern.
Guilliman smiled. "I will make them listen to me. I am the Emperor's biological son and the best spokesperson for the Emperor. Even the Saints of the State Religion cannot claim to be more qualified than me to be the spokesperson for the State Religion."
“What if they feel their interests are being harmed and they take a tough stance?”
"Then tie those heretics to the stake." Guilliman paused and looked at Fikris. "Speaking of stakes, ask the ship's technical sergeants to help me weld a few. Perhaps we need a few stakes to tell those bishops what will happen if they disobey me."
"Sir." Fikris hesitated for a moment, "Is this really okay? It doesn't seem to be in line with your usual style. Don't you advocate that everything should follow the rules? Pursue rational thinking?"
"When it comes to you, we advocate rational thinking. Everything must be done according to the established framework, because you are rational and know how to think about what is right and what is wrong. Rules can help you restrain your inner arrogance and laziness, and let you understand the purpose of everything you do.
But those fanatical believers do not have this awareness, they only fanatically follow the beliefs in their hearts and are willing to become tools of religion. "
Guilliman moved around, arranging his words before continuing, "What do you think my success rate is in persuading them to give up their faith? Be honest, Fikris, and don't flatter me. Just speak according to your previous understanding of the state religion."
"Let them give up their faith." Fikris fell into deep thought. He had quite a few contacts with the state religion, such as the self-abusing ascetics, the killing of sinners, and all kinds of crazy behaviors.
After various reflections on the behavior of state religions, Fikris came to his answer.
"The success rate is 0. They will never give up their faith. Faith is everything to them. It is much easier to persuade those believers to give up their lives than to persuade them to give up their faith."
"That's the problem. I can't persuade them to give up their faith, nor can I ban the state religion with a ban. Then the measures I can take are very limited. Controlling them is the safest way. As long as I control them, I can carry out a new round of reforms to the state religion, just like I reformed the administrative system and the imperial army, limit the power of the bishops, and guide those believers onto the right path."
"If I want them to willingly accept my reforms, then I must have a legitimate identity that will allow the believers to feel that I am one of them. Only in this way will they believe that my reforms are correct and that the Emperor is guiding me to do so. Those who oppose are the enemies of the Empire, their enemies, and Chaos's undercover agents."
"My Lord, this is a bit overly complicated."
"Fikris, you have to continue learning. In addition to fighting, you have to learn other things. Only in this way can you help me better. We are not only facing the battlefield on the surface, but also those invisible battlefields. We have to win all the victories to save mankind. Otherwise, salvation is just empty talk."
"Chaos will interfere with us, traitors will deceive us, and those who are dissatisfied will also become our obstacles. Some of them are in the open, and some are in the dark. Use strength to deal with the enemies in the open, and then use our minds to deal with the hidden enemies. Only in this way can we save the empire."
"I understand, my Lord."
"Understood, just get out of here. I need some quiet time. Report back to me in ten minutes about other matters."
Fikris nodded and walked out.
Guilliman remained alone in his chamber, thinking about Espandor, and how to control the Ecclesiarchy.
... ... ... ... ... ... .
The fanatical beliefs of the state religion are terrible, but they are not without their benefits.
Guilliman can use this faith to help him promote the new system and fight against demons.
Of course, this is just a stopgap measure.
A state religion cannot exist forever; it can only exist temporarily.
When all areas of the Empire burst into vitality under his new technologies and new ideas, the belief in the Emperor will naturally die out.
In the Middle Ages, during the Dark Ages of church rule, the power of the Pope once expanded greatly.
Eventually, it gradually declined due to the Renaissance.
After the Renaissance, people's attitude towards God was more towards scrutiny, criticism and spiritual comfort, rather than fanaticism and ignorance.
In the Warhammer universe, it is unrealistic to deny the existence of gods.
But the status of humans and gods should be equal, and people should not just kneel down and flatter.
Guilliman does not have the skill and courage of the Emperor to directly destroy all religions and tear down those temples and shrines.
The only thing he could do was to take it step by step and adopt the method of boiling the frog in warm water.
... ... ... ... ...
Under Guilliman's orders, the fleet realigned its course and turned toward the missionary world - Espandor.
A week later, the fleet emerged from the Warp and emerged outside the Espandor system.
Preacher communications satellites are suspended throughout the galaxy, beaming out coded Imperial poems and prayers at all times.
These satellites are not only sent in the real universe, but also sent into the subspace using auspicious instruments.
The fleet received a large amount of communication information before entering the real world.
After entering the real world, one is overwhelmed by the ocean of electromagnetic communication signals.
The thinker who was processing the communication information had an expression of pain on his face, and the machine slaves that were broadcasting and doing calculations were twitching because of the huge amount of computing power.
The secondary system was jammed by the huge amount of communication, emitting a noisy and piercing warning sound.
Most of these communications were useless, consisting of nothing more than the faithful's fervent prayers and poems.
This forced the fleet to choose to block most of the information to avoid overloading the meditators and servitors.
There are dozens of pilgrim arks tens of kilometers long in the Espandor system. They tow Emperor sculptures hundreds of kilometers high and cruise around the system.
The Ark was filled with fanatics and ascetics crawling on the ground, whipping themselves day and night to show the glimmer of the Emperor's light.
The Espandora system has two Earth-like planets.
The planet Espandor I is the main population center of this galaxy.
On the surface of the planet, there stood more than a dozen statues of emperors that towered into the clouds and broke through the sky.
The planet's atmosphere is filled with the smell of burning incense, and giant cities are full of devout believers carrying censers and sacred flags.
Among these believers, there are many fanatics.
The way these fanatics express their piety is extremely extreme.
Some wealthy fanatics not only have scriptures engraved all over their bodies, they are crazy enough to use the technology of the Mechanicus to engrave scriptures all over their bones.
There were also some who whipped themselves with thorns until their bodies were covered with bruises and blood, and in some places even white bones appeared, but they were unwilling to stop, and blood dripped as they walked.
There are also some iron cages hanging in front of the door of the Imperial Cathedral.
Those iron cages hold those who believers consider to be heretics.
The heretics were tied to iron pillars, and the bruises and blood on their bodies showed that they had suffered long-term torture.
There is a flamethrower in the middle of the iron cage, which is turned on with the screams of the prisoners.
The high temperature melted part of the iron pillar, and the molten iron flowed onto the heretics' bodies, causing them to scream in pain.
Some heretics had their throats slit by the fanatics and fell to the ground twitching, their blood soaking the land. Some believers smeared the blood on their faces, knelt on the ground and declared that they had cleared the enemies of the Emperor.
It’s a crazy world out there.
This is a world that has lost its mind.
The scenes captured by the radar array and the auspicious instrument made Guilliman feel anxious.
The madness of the state religion was even more terrifying than he had imagined.
"I hope everything goes well." Guilliman thought to himself.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... .
As soon as Guilliman's fleet appeared, it was discovered by believers in the Espandor system.
The news of the Primarch's arrival spread throughout the galaxy within a few hours, and countless believers cheered for it, regarding it as the Emperor's reward for their piety.
A grand welcoming ceremony was held an hour after Guilliman's fleet entered the Espandor system.
A large number of pilgrim ships joined Guilliman's fleet as a display of their piety.
Several bishops even expressed their desire to board the Macragge's Glory and meet the Primarch.