Chapter 44 - 44: History is a Meat-Grinder

The rebels stared at Kian, then at each other, their eyes clouding with the bewildered confusion of those who had never been granted the "privilege" of a basic Imperial education.

"What in the Warp is 'Promethium-waste Starch'?" Elder Varick asked, scratching his head.

In the 41st Millennium, humanity could cross the stars, but the average citizen was kept in a state of carefully curated ignorance. On a million worlds, the Imperium practiced "Obscurantism"—the belief that a mind without knowledge is a fortress against heresy. A farmer planted seeds until he died; a worker turned a single bolt for eighty years. They were never told how the rest of the universe functioned.

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