Tithe Grade - Tithe Grade: The Tithe Grade, also called the Imperial Tithe, and the Great Tithe, is a bureaucratic designation of the Adeptus Terra that determines the amount of raw materials, strategic resources, manufactured goods and/or soldiers an Imperial world must supply to the Adeptus Administratum as taxes or tithes to keep the Imperium of Man's interstellar government, military and economy functioning.The tithe also legally includes in its purview each world's requirement to fill the ranks of the Astra Militarum or provide Human psykers to the Black Ships of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica who will be transported to Terra where it will be decided whether they should be trained as Sanctioned Psykers or offered up as sacrifices to the Emperor to power the Astronomican.The size and nature of the Imperial Tithe depends on the type of world it is applied to, as a large Hive World like Necromunda will be expected to provide a much larger tithe than a pre-industrial Feudal World. A tithe can be any type of resource native to the world: food, weapons, minerals, manufactured goods, soldiers, psykers, etc.Space Marine Chapter Homeworlds and Forge Worlds do not normally provide tithes to the Imperium since their resources are to be used to maintain the Space Marine Chapter that controls them or to provide manufactured military goods and vehicles to the Imperium, respectively, so both are given the tithe grade Aptus Non. Agri-world tithes generally refer to what percentage of the planet's food production must be supplied to the Imperium.Also called "Terra's Due" or the "Grand Harvest," the Imperial Tithe is a complicated contract worked out according to each planet's ability to pay. A great many branches of the Adeptus Administratum are involved in the process, and different organisations might be tasked with sacred duties such as assessing tithe rates, measuring collections, and monitoring any fluctuations.It is the duty of each planetary governor, also called an Imperial Commander, to ensure the Imperial Tithe is paid. Such ministrations can be tyrannically enforced, but as long as all tithe responsibilities are met and enemies of the Imperium are rejected, a planetary governor may rule their planet in any fashion they see fit with little or no interference from Terra. In return for this fealty, the planetary governor can call upon the Adeptus Terra in times of need to request aid.Over the long centuries, many planets have established their own unique customs and traditions for how they supply their tithes. For instance, Vostroya, a manufacturing planet, supplies every firstborn son to service in the Astra Militarum, while the four planets of the Nepstrum System take volunteers from the established family-holds for the Imperial Navy and press-gang the remaining numbers from the worker class.Failure to deliver the Imperial Tithe is met harshly. Even the slightest breach in protocol will often result in the execution of the planetary governor and a swift and thorough regime change.Despite the number of adepta tracking planetary tithes, sometimes it takes time for discrepancies to surface and be acted upon. This is inevitable given the difficulties of interstellar space travel and communications, to say nothing of the vast bureaucracy within each of the many organisations that make up the Adeptus Administratum.Once tithe anomalies are spotted, however, the Imperium moves with brutal finality. None can say how many worlds' rulers are unfairly replaced due to minor accounting errors, but the Imperium is at war, battling not for planets or even star systems, but for the survival of the Human race itself. The selfishness of the few will not be tolerated in the drive to stave off the extermination of Mankind.