The Administratum

The Adeptus Administratum is, in many ways, the Imperium. It is everywhere, recording each datum of Imperial life and ensuring proper adherence to its strictures. Without it, the essential tithes that allow the Imperium to exist would falter and fail. A world bereft of the Imperium is likewise doomed, for every system is dependent on others —something senior Gileadian Adepts fear that despite their desperate efforts may come to pass.
The Administratum is often the first organisation established when a new planet is recognised. So it was on Gilead; immediately after the crusade ended, its adepts began calculating tithes and asserting Imperial control. Soon gigatonnes of food, minerals, and processed materials, along with billions of regimental troops, were extracted in regular, stable operations to serve elsewhere in the galaxy.
The Great Storm disrupted all this. Tithes are collected never to leave planetside; most now stagnate in vast pools of rotting organics and mountains of decaying resources, such as the infamous Grey Wastes on Ostia. Others are sequestered in hidden vaults, secretly used to ensure loyalty of wavering nobles. Some question continuing the old practices, but adept masters insist that any deviation would be an affront to the Emperor’s Will. With each day, though, long-established order is breaking down and soon may be too great for Gilead to ever recover.

Training

It would be easy to believe the adepts of the Administratum school themselves only in intellectual manners such as record keeping, history, lineages, bureaucratic processes, tithe assessments, and other menial but still essential matters. And it is true to a great degree; the vast majority of these functionaries know little else but such matters and never venture outside massive datavaults or transcription opticons. Senior adepts, though, must learn to deal with the Emperor’s subjects through persuasion and cunning – and also intimidation and deception should those prove more effective. Anything that ensures Gilead remains functioning is permissible for the Administratum.
Politics In the past, the Administratum devoted itself to tithe processing, overseeing logistical matters, and overall ensuring the system operated in concordance with Imperial decrees. Now, the closing of Gilead has meant the agency has two main goals: maintaining order to prevent the system from falling into lawless barbarism, and maximising productivity in a system cut off from outside support.
Still, the Gileadian Administratum wields enormous, if not direct, power. It allots resources to the Astra Militarum and many other Imperial agencies. Its adepts are on every world and in every city, with historical records and procedures to conduct every facet of Imperial life. It dominates Ostia, the breadbasket of Gilead, even as the Ecclesiarchy’s rule over the shrine world ensures that the populace’s primary loyalty is towards the Ministorum. Its decrees are still followed ... for now.

Relationships

The Administratum has always had a strong working association with the Astra Militarum and Adeptus Ministorum in Gilead. This is more so now, especially with the former’s Lord-Militant acting as system governor. It has less benign connections with those who operate outside of its authority, such as Rogue Traders, Adeptus Astartes, and to a lesser extent the Adeptas Sororitas.
The Administratum is often the face of the Imperium, and thus it has bitter enemies: insurrectionists, scum, tithe-protestors, and others actively seek ways to disrupt its practices and destroy precious data. Many adepts still shudder when recalling the Zeroing of Datavault Lamba, or the Fellscriber’s Dawn. One might think it had allies to call upon, but this is not the case. Few Imperial subjects have any appreciation for its efforts; no Guardsman, for example, has ever rejoiced in the Wargear they are issued. The Administratum’s worst relationships are internal, however. Fierce debate rages over maintaining the standards that have guided the system for millennia when more flexibility seems the only path that avoids Gilead’s utter collapse or eradication by xenos or worse.

Important Writings

Index Administratum
Producto Gilead, a record of all tithes, materiel production, and populations across system, stored in its own dedicated city
Rites of Recording, a 122-volume (and counting) list of all authorised terms and approved methods for transcribing data

Symbols

Double-handed Aquila
Administratum icon
palms vertical held together then opened like a book

Heroes

Prefector Scriptus Quintos Galleen
Master of the Scrolls Finnea Caveros
Datavault Rampartus Radeer U’mlo

Type

Political, Faction / Party

Duties and Strictures

• We must continue to assign tithes to each world and dominion, even though they cannot be collected. Failure to do so is failing the Imperium and the Emperor.
• Our records must be pristine and without error, for those will be our means of judgement when the system is freed.
• Similarly, we must ensure all records are maintained and updated for when tithes can be properly collected again.
• So many things are happening! We do not fear them, but we fear we cannot properly record everything.
• All data is Essential, Waste it not.
• As it Was, So it Shall Be.
• The Letter of the Writ is All.