There are those whose value to the Imperial Guard outweighs the rabid moral repugnance
they evoke. Most notable amongst these are the Warp-sensitive psykers of the Scholastica
Psykana. The untrained psyker is a beacon to the Daemons of the Warp, his lack of control
and improper absence of self-loathing presenting a deadly danger to all. To counter such
hazards, the Black Ships of the Inquisition ply the space lanes of the Imperium, endlessly
harvesting nascent psykers and proven witches to take back to Terra for assessment and
classification. The fate of many is to feed the infernal mechanisms of the Golden Throne or
be yoked to the blazing beacon of the Astronomican. The most stable find a different calling,
fighting amongst the ranks of the Imperial Guard as Wyrdvane Psykers.
There are numerous Scholastica Psykana training facilities in remote locations across the
Imperium, isolated from populated systems and known Warp anomalies. Security at such
facilities is nigh impenetrable, intended as much to keep the students in as to ensure outside
threats are repulsed. Within the austere surroundings of these psionically shielded scholas,
the Wyrdvane Psykers meditate. They gain understanding of and train to control their potent
abilities, learning how they may better serve the forces of the Imperium. Alongside their
mental and spiritual training, those psykers marked for service are taught the basics of close
quarters combat and battlefield survival, but it is the Warp-fuelled devastation these
individuals can unleash that has won the Imperial Guard so many battles.

An institution that has stood for thousands of years, the Schola Progenium is
nominally an offshoot of the Departmento Munitorum, though in practice its
facilities are staffed by hard-line brethren of the Adeptus Ministorum. Housing the
orphans of Imperial worthies, the Schola strives to ensure that children born to
those of quality are neither abandoned, nor squandered as a potential resource.
The Schola has many fortified facilities, scattered in secret locations across the
galaxy. It is the belief of those who maintain these institutions that, through
sufficient rigour, any youth of appropriate origins can be turned into a valuable
servant of the Imperium. Each Schola Progenium facility is run according to
meticulous strictures applied by Departmento Munitorum officials. The Schola’s
orphan wards must undertake a punishing daily routine of prayer, lessons, combat
drill and chores that leaves them hollow-eyed and exhausted.
Every Emperor Day, all wards are assessed for aptitude, piety and dedication. Those
found to excel in a particular area are split off into special classes, teaching them to
become elite troopers of the Militarum Tempestus or even Cadet Commissars ready
for transference to the Officio Prefectus. Upon coming of age, most students are sent
on their way, unquestioningly adopting the role they have been conditioned for.
Those without the aptitude for a role in the wider Imperium form a staff of menials
and guards who can look to the needs of their founding orphanage. A very few
vanish altogether, swept away under the auspices of mysterious Imperial officials to
provide altogether more secretive services to the Imperium.

The Astra Militarum, also known as the Imperial Guard, is the largest coherent
fighting force in the galaxy. Billions of men supported by legions of heavy armour
and thundering artillery, the Imperial Guard fight a never-ending war for the
survival of Mankind. It is by their sacrifice that the Imperium has endured for ten
thousand years...

The Imperium is vast on a scale incomprehensible to mortal man. Communication and travel
between the glinting motes of this far-flung empire are laden with risk. The inimical realm of
the Warp provides the only conduit for interstellar movement or messages yet it also taints or
temporally displaces much of that which plunges into its depths, confounding the
Imperium’s attempts at centralised control or unified strategy. On every border and every
battlefront, Humanity’s worst nightmares press ever inwards, and are held at bay only
through vast and constant sacrifice. In these dark times, warfare on a galactic scale is a
matter of soulless, grinding logistics. Only the Astra Militarum can marshal the manpower to
fight such a war.

The Imperial Guard fights punishing battles of attrition in which incalculable lives may be
expended for each objective achieved. An Imperial Guard army must utilise the twin
advantages of vast numbers and overwhelming firepower to annihilate its foes. Where xenos
aircraft dance and weave with impossible grace, the Imperial Guard simply fills the sky with a
thunderstorm of munitions from which no amount of aerobatic skill can save the foe. Where
heretical bastions stand defiant, Imperial Guard commanders call down artillery
bombardments that reduce all to rubble with their apocalyptic fury. The greatest enemy
threats are torn apart in the crossfire of thousands of heavy weapons, or smashed aside by
the gallant charge of hundreds of Imperial tanks. The enemies of Mankind may employ dark
sciences or alien weapons beyond Humanity’s ken, but such deviance comes to naught in the
face of honest human intolerance backed by a sufficient number of guns.

For all the might of its armour and artillery, the true backbone of the Astra Militarum is the
countless waves of infantry who take to the field. The sheer scale of the battles fought by the
Imperial Guard is dehumanising in the extreme. Entire regiments of brave warriors are
reduced to statistics upon the scrolling screens of Imperial strategoes, grains of sand sliding
through the fingers of greater and more privileged individuals. Yet every single company,
every single squad, every single Imperial Guardsman who lifts their lasgun and takes a stand
in defence of their race, is crucial. Without a constant deluge of new recruits, the Imperial
Guard would cease to function.

A battle may see the deployment of millions, yet time and again it is a single heroic company
who carry their charge to secure a crucial gatehouse or pivotal objective. Squads of desperate
men battle impossible odds, with nothing but their courage and faith driving them to hold the
line while their valuable betters are evacuated to safety. Every day that the Imperium
endures, Imperial Guardsmen stand in the face of beasts more hellish than their worst
nightmares. Men charge screaming alongside their comrades into the mouth of hell, lasguns
spitting death at the foe even as xenos munitions tear bloodied holes in the human ranks. In
a galaxy of never-ending warfare, what makes the perpetually outmatched men of the
Imperial Guard so admirable is that they know near constant fear, yet they lift their weapons,
plant their feet, and fight on regardless. Their lives may be short and brutal, their sacrifices
insultingly thankless, but it is because of the Imperial Guard that the Imperium continues to
weather the storm of these dark times.