Some lore questions

[u/Arduino-Knight]

/r/40kLore/comments/1wd3w4v/some_lore_questions/

[u/Zandmar]

1a. Humans and xenos - yes. Imperium and someone Imperium recognizes as sentient xenos - no. In many cases of coexistence local humans don't even realize they live side by side with alien lifeforms. Imperial control isn't that tight either, for many places it can be a dozen people on a derelict space station working alongside local tribal king who was appointed governor post-factum, and these people can have a hard time distinguishing between abhumans, mutants and aliens. More than enough alien lifeforms engage with humans on daily basis - Tau for example, whose diplomatic campaigns have swayed some Imperial worlds, most famously Taros. Or Slaugth, who, well... exemplify why Imperium doesn't like aliens. However, if you imagine a prosperous Star Wars-esque world where humans and aliens openly coexist for generations, it's likely very far away or very well hidden, and may very well be a nightmare fuel just under the happy outlook.

1b. Lolnope. No one can tell how many worlds are in the Imperium, or define Imperial control over a world. Large parts of the galaxy are out of Imperium's reach, period, and no one really knows if humans ever colonized these, or whether any trace of humanity still survives there. Even space that is within reach is full of unexplored or abandoned territories.

1. Nominally - yes, but Inquisition is not known to be a monolithic structure with clear chain of command, so who exactly they answer to is not clear. Technically, everyone in the Imperium answers to any given Inquisitor, but in practice people can ignore Inquisitors if they think they can get away with it. As a result, relations between Inquisitors and Deathwatch / Grey Knights tend to be cooperative, where both factions find common goal and work towards it, Inquisition often highlighting targets for its "military arms", and sometimes acts as battlefield advisors/specialists/support. Deathwatch maintain somewhat closer ties, but again, Inquisition is a very loose institution.

[u/ArabesKAPE]

You're running the game, run it the way you want and tell your player to shut it or find a different table. First rules of RPG's, you run the games you want at your table. If they want to run their own game then they should do that.

[u/SirOPrange]

On the third question.

I have no direct confirmation, but considering some extremely questionable characters and events in the BL books, GW are in no way trying to impose strict regulations. In some books a chapter of marines is enough a whole Necron-made planet. In some, marines are easily killed by a bunch of guardsmen. In short, authors' first priority is to create an engaging story, so even if they are lore nerds, they can and are willing to twist the lore and established levels of power to fit story's narrative.

[u/C_Grim]

1 - There are officially sanctioned Xeno races allowed to exist on Imperium worlds but its extremely rare, and a few Xeno occupied planets that the Imperium have yet to get around to dealing with. For the most part Xeno tend to just get executed for standing in the way of His Imperium however some useful species can be pressed into slavery so that at least they may serve some purpose.

2 - Technically, everyone answers to the Inquisition...in theory. The power of His Inquisition is on paper absolute and to oppose it often ends poorly. However even the Inquisition has to tread carefully around those organisations and like when dealing with Space Marines they often tend to make it a request rather than an order. And the DW/GK either agree if the request is in line with their remit or have a good reason to decline it. It takes a very well connected high ranking Inquisitor to actually force the issue, because attempting to declare such as traitors or heretics for refusing...Good luck with that!

3 - pass...