Who Are the Main Characters of Warhammer 40,000?: The Imperium of Man

There aren’t really major main characters in 40K. Each faction has important figures and leaders that serve as hero units in the tabletop game and star in its fiction, but the universe is largely about those broader factions rather than the events of particular individual’s lives. You can broadly split the factions of 40K into three groups: the Imperium of Man, the Armies of Chaos, the Imperium’s even darker foil, and the Xenos, the unaligned alien races that also want to wipe out everyone else. There’s a lot to cover here, so let’s kick off with a quick lowdown starting with the forces of humanity:

The Adeptus Astartes, more commonly known as the Space Marines, are the elite footsoldiers of the Imperium, and the faces of the Warhammer 40K franchise. They are genetically enhanced to be turned into giant, muscle-bound superhumans and clad in gigantic suits of power armor. They’re split into multiple “chapters,” each with their own heraldry and color schemes, but all untied in service of fighting the alien and purging the heresy perceived by their Emperor. Adjacent to the Astartes are the Adeptus Custodes, the gold-armored personal bodyguard chapter of the God-Emperor, and Henry Cavill’s army of choice. Don’t be surprised if they appear in the Amazon show he’s starring in.

The Astra Militarum, or the Imperial Guard, is the Imperium’s rank and file military force made up of regular unenhanced human conscripts and recruits from across its multiple colony worlds. They largely exist to be fed into the grinder of endless war—an Imperial Guardsperson’s career is rarely a long one.

The Adepta Sororitas, or the Sisters of Battle, are an all-female religious-warrior force, essentially the battle nuns of the Imperium’s faith.

The Adeptus Mechanicus, the technological and research branch of the Imperium, is home to its giant mechanized war machines, the Imperial Knights, and the cyborg forces of the Tech-Priests and the Skitarii. The Mechanicus believe that a psuedo-heretical alternate deity, the machine god known as the Omnissiah, powers and fuels the Imperium’s weapons technology.

There’s also the Inquisition, the religious police that roots out corruption from within the Imperium’s borders. It’s broken up into three branches, each targeting a specific kind of heresy: Ordo Malleus, which targets corruption by the forces of Chaos; Ordo Xenos, which targets corruption from alien influences; and Ordo Hereticus, the catch-all branch that roots out disobedience, rebellious elements, and rogue agents that don’t adhere to the strict, brutal doctrines of the Imperial Cult.