HH8节译：帝国真理

The Imperial Truth

The Imperial Truth was the rational, atheist philosophy that guided the Emperor's conquest of Old Earth, and the formation of the Imperium through the Great Crusade. At its heart, the Imperial Truth held that the universe was rational, that knowledge defeated fear and brought freedom from the terrors of the Age of Strife. With this assertion went the denial of the irrational and the superstitious, as well as the abandoning of faith in powers and principles beyond the knowable. In the unified Terra and Imperium of Mankind, there could be no mysteries of the soul, no sorcery, no gods. Those who clung to their ignorance were cast down, their lies silenced in the pyre's roar. The terrors of the past had grown in the shadow of superstition and false belief.lf Mankind was to survive its rebirth, it could not tolerate the delusions of the past. That there were other dimensions, alien races and mutants who wielded psychic powers was not denied, only that they were supernatural. That some might call these phenomena 'sorcery’ or attribute them to gods, were simply the symptoms of incomplete understanding. With a foundation built upon the tenets of the Imperial Truth, Mankind achieved greatness, and though it was not destined to last, for two centuries the Great Crusade was beyond reproach in its methods and in its glorious elevation of Mankind to the dominant species of the galaxy.

帝国真理是指导帝皇对于旧泰拉征服行动的理性无神论哲学，以及人类帝国在整个大远征时期的组成部分。帝国真理的核心要义是：宇宙是理性的，知识能够击败恐惧并将人类从纷争纪元的恐怖中解救出来。这一主张否定了非理性和迷信，放弃了对超越认知的力量和信条的信仰。在统一的泰拉与人类帝国中，不能存在灵魂的奥秘、巫术和神明。那些固守自己无知（观念）的人会被击倒，他们的谎言也消失于火刑堆的咆哮声中。往昔的恐怖已经滋生于了迷信与伪信的阴影中，如果人类想要在自己的重生中幸存下来，他们就不能容忍过去的妄想谬见。但其他维度是存在的，使用灵能的异星人和变种人也无法被否认，被否认的只有它们的超自然性质。某些人可能称此类现象为“巫术”或将之归因于神明，但这只是不完整理解所导致的症状。而在拥有了构筑于帝国真理教义之上的基础后，人类是能实现伟大成就的，尽管这种状况注定不会持久，在在那两个世纪中，大远征的手段方法是无可非议的，而且它也将人类光荣地提升为了银河系中的占有主导地位的物种。

Of course, there was a degree to which the Imperium and the Emperor touched upon the irrational and ethereal. The new Imperium had grown from the past, and secular though it might be, much of its power and nature expressed itself in ways that had echoes of the spiritual. In practises such as the taking of Oaths of Moment, the names of the divisions of Imperial power and the symbols of that power, the Imperium wrapped itself in the clothes of authority woven from dreams that were as old as the gods it denied. And Mankind continued to have faith, faith in the omniscience and benevolence of the Emperor and His designs, faith through reason, in the Imperial Truth. Perhaps this was an intended spiritual crutch; that the Emperor in His wisdom saw the failings in the primitive hindbrain of every man and woman in His service, and recognised that He could only cast down the demagogue and the pontifex in this way - that He could only destroy the spiritual by using the language of religion, by preaching the faith of the empirical and the rational.

当然，人类帝国和帝皇是在一定程度上接触了非理性现象和以太界。新的帝国是自过去（的人类社会）发展壮大的，尽管这种往昔可能是世俗化的，但它的很多影响力和特质都会以与精神相呼应的方式进行自我表现。在诸如即刻誓言、帝国权力分支的命名与（确定）此类权力的象征等实践中，人类帝国用权威的外衣包裹起自己，而编织外衣所用的则是那些和诸神同样古老的幻梦——尽管前者是被帝国所否认的。人类仍然拥有信仰，信仰帝皇及其计划中的全知性和仁慈性，并通过理性信仰帝国真理。或许这就是一种有意为之的精神依靠；通过自己的智慧，帝皇看到了所有为其效劳的男女凡人的原始后脑中的缺陷，并意识到要推翻那些煽动家和教宗就只能通过此种方法——他只能用宗教的语言来摧毁宗教，以宣扬经验主义和理性主义的信仰作为自己的手段。

The Great Lie

弥天大谎

From the seemingly endless cycle of tragedy and death Horus unleashed, it has become clear to all that at the heart of the Imperial Truth was a lie. This Great Lie, promulgated by the Emperor who now sits eternal upon His throne, is that of a calculated and hidden ignorance within the doctrine of enlightenment. Those amongst us who had truly seen behind the stars knew that the Lie resided there all along, clearest in the darkness, though we feared to think of it and dared not speak of it: the Warp is alive with malignant sentience, the very essence of which is supernatural. These unquiet spirits, which reside in the Warp, sate themselves upon the souls of mortals. Those of us that remain must examine the consequences of our silence and the toll the Great Lie has taken.

从荷鲁斯释放出的看似无尽的悲剧与死亡循环中，所有人都看清了一点：帝国真理的核心（理念）是一个谎言。这个弥天大谎由帝皇本人传播开——现在他永远地坐在了自己的王座上，是存在于启蒙信条中蓄意且被隐藏的无知。我们当中那些曾真正目睹过群星背面光景的人都知道，这个谎言一直都在那里，是黑暗中最明亮的光点，但我们不敢去思索，也不敢说出这一点：亚空间中充满了邪恶的灵智，它们的本质是超自然的。这些躁动的恶灵栖身于亚空间当中，用凡人的灵魂来满足着自己。存留下来的人类必须审视我们的沉默所带来的后果以及弥天大谎所造成的损失。

The first of these consequences may appear to us now to be the most terrible; that of Horus' rebellion. By turning his face from the light of his Father, Horus not only brought ruin to the Imperium but also empowered the beings of the Warp to cross from their empyreal realm into ours. It is claimed that Horus was closest to his father among the Primarchs, and that the Emperor shared with him all of His accumulated wisdom. This can only be a falsehood, for Horus must have learned of the power of the immaterial from some other source 一 the Emperor would otherwise surely have warned off His son from the dangers of the forces he came to enter into a compact with. The White Scars Legion Primarch, Jaghatai Khan, mused upon returning to Terra that, “It was the knowledge that the Emperor had concealed His true purpose from His favoured son that led to Horus' downfall. In Horus' mind, the suspicion took root that he may not have been his father's favourite; after all, my brother Magnus knew more of the Warp and Corax more of the darkness within Mankind. This must be what broke Horus' will". Captain Loken, a survivor of Isstvan III, is heard to have countered bitterly, "It was simply the realisation that the Emperor was not infallible, as all sons learn of their fathers, which set Horus' heart to fester". It is impossible to say now, for Horus too is dead and his ashes reveal nought.

在那些或许会显现于我们面前的后果中，第一个也是最为可怕的那个便是荷鲁斯的叛变。荷鲁斯背弃了他父亲的光芒，他不仅向帝国带去了毁灭，而且授权那些亚空间生物从它们的至高天领域进入我们的世界。据说在原体当中，荷鲁斯与帝皇的关系最为亲近，帝皇也与他分享了自己积累起的所有智慧。但这只会是一个假象，因为荷鲁斯必定是从其他源头了解到了非物质界的力量，否则帝皇必然会向荷鲁斯警告亚空间势力的危险性——战帅正是与后者签订了契约。白色伤疤军团原体察合台可汗在返回泰拉的路上曾自言自语到：“荷鲁斯得知了帝皇向他青睐的子嗣隐瞒了自己的真实目的，就是这件事导致了他的堕落。荷鲁斯从心底里怀疑自己并非父亲最为宠爱的子嗣；毕竟，我的兄弟马格努斯更为通晓亚空间，克拉克斯更为了解人类心中的黑暗。这些情况必定是令荷鲁斯心灰意冷。”而据说伊斯特万三号的某位幸存者——洛肯连长曾激烈的反驳称：“这仅仅是因为（荷鲁斯）意识到皇帝并非绝对正确，就像所有儿子都会从自己父亲身上领悟出这一点那样，这令荷鲁斯的内心更为苦恼。”但我们现在不可能去分辨孰对孰错了，因为荷鲁斯已经死去了，他的灰烬揭示不出真相。

There have been other costs incurred by the Great Lie which have undermined the Emperor's dream of Imperium. Many billions of lives were lost in the purges required to maintain it. Ancient civilisations, directly descended from Old Earth, who carried with them across the cosmos the torch of religions deemed anathema in this enlightened age were simply murdered for their beliefs. Tens of thousands of cities were burned, cultures were put to the sword and worlds were annihilated in the name of the Truth. Ignorance was promoted hand-in-hand with enlightenment across the stars. The stability and safety of ignorance was used as a tool, an opiate to the blissful masses, through which they would remain unquestioning. With ignorance and death as the tools used to promote wisdom we have made vulnerable the very foundations of our Imperium. Who can say now which among the inheritors of His kingdom will be the first to use the ignorance of blind faith as a weapon?

弥天大谎破坏了帝皇那帝国宏梦的根基，并且造成了其他损失。维持这一谎言所需的肃清行动造成了数十亿人的死亡，（很多）直接来自旧地球的古老文明因为信仰惨遭毁灭——在这个开明的时代，他们在穿越宇宙时擎举着的宗教火炬被（人类帝国）视为诅咒。以真理之名，帝国焚毁了数以万计的城市，用武力毁灭文化并摧毁（诸多）世界。启蒙与无知在群星间携手并进。稳定且安全的无知被用作了一种工具，一种被提供给幸福大众的欢乐药剂——帝国利用无知让人们无所质疑。我们以无知和死亡作为提升智慧的工具，而这也让人类帝国的根基变得脆弱。在帝皇的继承者中，有谁会率先将盲信的无知用作武器呢？又有何人能道出他的身份呢？

There is a final and more dire consequence, one which will reveal itself in the due course of time. While we have ostensibly suffered the treachery of civil war, a greater war has begun which will yet blight the future of Mankind. Now that son has turned upon father, brother upon brother, and the Imperium's greatest defenders have been brought to their knees, we may never attain the greatness of galactic dominance that the Emperor intended for us. Therein lies the problem, for in his reckless ambition, Horus has mortally wounded the Imperium. The Outsider, the alien threat which we spent two glorious centuries casting from our borders has been given reprieve. Moreover,the very fabric of reality has been altered and terrors previously unknown have turned their eyes upon us. The xenos and the Daemon can never allow us to recover our might; they will always seek to harm us, for in our vulnerability they find strength. In our weakened state, these antagonists approach now, encircling their bleeding prey like the ichthyan predators of Old Earth.

还有一个最终且更可怕的后果将在适当的时候显现出来。虽然我们在表面上已经遭受了内战的背叛之苦，但一场更大的战争也已然开始，而且它将损坏人类的未来。现在，父子已然反目，兄弟已然相残，帝国最伟大的保卫者们也已经受创倒地，我们可能再也无法获取到统御银河的伟大成就——这原本是帝皇为人类所做的打算。这就是问题所在，因为荷鲁斯那无所顾忌的野心已经对帝国造成了致命伤害。我们花费了两个世纪的光荣岁月将外种——异星人的威胁驱逐出了我们的边界，但我们现在已经无法将其诛杀殆尽。另外，现实的结构已经被改变，那些之前不为人知的恐怖恶物也盯上了我们。异形和恶魔永远不会放任我们去恢复元气，它们永远都会试图伤害我们，因为它们就在我们的脆弱中找到优势。我们目前处于虚弱的状态，而这些敌人也在接近我们，就如同旧地球的鱼类捕食者包围住它们流血的猎物那般。

The Necessity of the Lie

谎言的必要性

Though the learned now question the complex and delicate balance of philosophies the Imperial Truth put into motion, for all that came to pass the Emperor was no fool. He was without doubt aware of the hypocrisies fundamental to the tenets of the Imperial Truth. That the beings within the Empyrean pose a danger to the Imperium is without question, but to suppress their nature rather than to educate His subjects, to deny enlightenment in the Age of Enlightenment, cannot have been a path lightly trod. It can only be concluded that the Emperor was aware of the risks and enacted a calculated strategy to protect His greater purpose.

尽管当前的学者们质疑着帝国真理所推动的哲学（理念）的复杂性与微妙平衡，但无论如何，帝皇都并非愚者。他毫无疑问地意识到了帝国真理教义的伪善基础。至高天中的存在对帝国有危险性，这一点是无可置疑的，但压制臣民的本性而非教导他们，在启蒙时代否认启蒙，这也绝非是一条可以轻易踏足的道路。我们只能推测帝皇意识到了这些风险，并且采取了某种精心策划的战略来保护自己那些更伟大的目标。

The need for the Great Lie is a matter of some speculation. Some have argued that the Emperor's goal was to defeat death itself by excising the soul and that knowledge of the existence of a soul would be our downfall. Others that He sought to enter the mind of every human being in the galaxy and alternatively impart His phenomenal knowledge or His psychic gifts, creating an ultimate, ascended race of Mankind. Yet others have quietly suspected that He wished nothing less than dominion over all of reality and unreality, and hid the supernatural nature of unreality such that no being would dare challenge His claim upon it. Darker rumours, those which were whispered during the days of the Emperor's seclusion on Terra, surmise that He sought to reach the apotheosis of godhood for Himself;leaving Mankind behind with the cold revelation that the Imperial Truth was a lie and the gods real.

人们对于弥天大谎的必要性有着一些猜测。有人声称，帝皇的目标是通过切除灵魂来战胜死亡，而知晓灵魂的存在将导致人类的堕落；其他人则认为帝皇试图进入银河中所有人类的意识中，或者是将自己的非凡知识与灵能天赋输入到全体人类的脑中，由此创造出最终升格的人种。还有人做出了无声的揣测，认为帝皇只是意图将现实宇宙和非现实宇宙共同纳入自己的统治，并隐藏起非现实宇宙的超自然性，这样便没人胆敢挑战他。而当帝皇隐居于泰拉时，也有流传于帝国中黑暗谣言猜测他是要让自己成神，并留给人类一个冰冷的启示：帝国真理是谎言，众神才是真实的。

Whatever the case, it was clear to the Imperium from His retreat to Terra at the pinnacle of the Great Crusade, the disappearance of his golden legions, as well as the endless parade of men and machines descending into the Imperial Dungeon, that some vast and intensive artifice was underway, which served only to fuel further speculation. It may even have been that the entirety of the Great Crusade served only to acquire the mysteries and materiel required to meet another objective, and that the Imperial Truth was simply a means to an end 一 never intended to withstand a test such as that which the Traitors brought against it. The truth to these rumours and the Emperor's Great Work are matters too weighty to discuss at this juncture and must instead be revealed at a later time.

但无论如何，从帝皇于大远征巅峰时期返回泰拉、他的金色军团消失在众人面前以及无数人员和机械进入帝国地宫等现象上，一件事在帝国（大众）面前变得清晰起来：帝皇在进行某项规模庞大且极为细致的计划，而这只会助长人们的进一步猜测。我们或许甚至可以说，整场大远征都只是为了获取实现另一个目标所需的奥秘和物资，帝国真理也仅仅是（帝皇）达到目标的一种手段——而且从未打算过（令其）经受住叛徒们所带来的这般考验。关于这些谣言与帝皇伟业的真相的内容都是极其重要的，以至于不能在当前这个关头讨论，而是应该在以后的岁月中进行披露。

Knowledge could have been Mankind's greatest weapon. The sword of knowledge racing across the stars with the Great Crusade could have empowered Mankind to know the Daemon and to combat its insidious presence. The shield of ignorance with which the Emperor hoped to protect us could only ever stymie the flood of darkness, never halt its onslaught. It frayed and buckled as any shield is wont to with the hammering of the enemy upon it. His gamble with the fate of humanity was a failure, and His denial of the true nature of the Warp a mistake. The Emperor could have stopped all of this, Horus' rebellion, the ascendance of the Warp and the ruination of the Imperium, if only He had told His sons and His subjects the truth.

知识本可以成为人类最伟大的武器。知识的利剑随着大远征划过了群星，而人类本可以用它来了解恶魔并对抗那些潜藏之物。帝皇原本希望用无知的坚盾保护我们，但这种保护只能阻挡住黑暗的洪流冲刷，却永远阻止不了黑暗的进攻。在敌人重击之下，它也会像任何盾牌那样出现磨损和弯折。帝皇以人类的命运作为了赌注，但他赌输了；他否认亚空间真实本质的行为也是一个错误。帝皇原本可以阻止这一切，荷鲁斯的叛乱、亚空间占据上风和人类帝国的毁灭原本都可以不发生——如果他曾将真理告知给自己的儿子们和臣民们的话。

Though the Emperor's plan may have failed, surely no one, alive or dead, could have known more of the consequences of His decisions? Had we but known what the Emperor did, could any of us have made a wiser choice in His place? Regardless, none can be sure of the ultimate solution He foresaw, only that the threat must be countered. The duty now falls to those few of us who remain with the knowledge required to protect the Imperium; we must illuminate Mankind as to the nature and threat of the Daemon and the Outsider.

尽管帝皇的计划可能已经失败了，但就真的没有人（无论生死）更为了解他的决定所带来的后果了吗？就算我们知道帝皇所做的事情，我们中有人能代替他做出更明智的选择吗?无论如何，没人能确定帝皇所预见到的最终答案，只能知晓我们必须奋起反击的威胁。现在，这份责任落到了我们中的极少数人——那些拥有保护帝国所需的知识的人们身上；我们必须让人类明白恶魔与外种的本质与威胁。