Imperial Cult - A Life of Worship: The Emperor has a profound effect on the lives of the people He protects. To most, He is everywhere and everything. Part of every citizen's life is to honour the Emperor, often on a daily basis, for the protection and guidance that He provides. How they honour Him, however, will of course vary depending on where they live and just how they choose to view the Emperor.For example, on the world of Acreage, the priests of the High King teach that the Emperor is the "King of the Sky"; sky-mill workers must keep their eyes averted from the heavens when they work high above the ground, lest they anger Him with their impudence. Villages often make "candle-balloons" in which to offer their prayers.On the Mining World of Luggnum, the pit-shafts are so dangerous that all miners undertake hour-long blessings by the station abbot before they descend. Miners that have refused or avoided such blessings are scorned (or even killed) by their co-workers, lest they bring ill-luck to all, proving that perhaps the blessing does in fact protect from harm. Then there are worlds like Dwimlicht, a Feral World far from the civilized core of the sector, where primitive locals see the Emperor as a mighty star-god and shave their heads so that at night He might look into their minds with His million eyes and see that they are faithful.Whatever the world's particular teachings, almost universally, citizens pray before work, before meals and before downtime. They thank the Emperor for what they have and pray to Him for what they desire. As most citizens of the Imperium are poorly educated, often knowing only what they need to do their jobs, prayer and the teachings of the Ministorum are all they know of the galaxy or world beyond their homes.They often believe wholeheartedly that if they do not pray to the Emperor and follow the instructions of His clerics, they risk their very souls (a belief unfortunately justified on many worlds). Over time, citizens become entwined in the rituals of worship, so that daily prayers to the Emperor are as natural to them as breathing. For most, this is as far as they come in their religious observance, convinced of their faith, living and dying without ever questioning the Ministorum or the god it serves.Of course, there are those who stray from the path. Paying no more than lip service to the Imperial Creed, these people forget their faith (if indeed they ever had it) and instead choose to see the Emperor as a distant overlord, ruling an empire that He will never see from a state of neither death nor life. Such folk choose to live by their own set of morals and ethics, though usually they have little of either. On many advanced worlds these kinds of people thrive. Where the rise of technology has overshadowed spirituality and wonder, so too does it undermine the belief in a power greater than Mankind.Such places can be breeding grounds for the faithless or for those that would scorn the power of the Emperor for more tangible and immediate rewards. For many citizens, however, the truth is, as always, somewhere between fevered worship and the brink of heresy. Most citizens pray at their local shrine once a ten-cycle, and invoke the Emperor's name to protect them from evil; but beyond this they go about their daily lives like everybody else.