Musings #4: How Many Serfs?

While rummaging through the old Castigators thread, I came across a very nice nugget of meditation by Barret, author of Barret's Privateers and the Knights of the Raven, and probably others that I don't know of. I don't know Barret and have never spoken with him; I don't know if he still posts, but I recognize him as a skilled writer and a great contributor to the Bolter and Chainsword, and I thank him for giving me another aspect of the Dark Swords to think about:

All this talk of serfs has gotten me thinking. The notion of nine thousand seems really quite low to me. These populations have millennia to grow, and a lot of space to do it. Between crewing the Chapter fleet, the basic support staff for a Fortress-Monastery (each of which might be the size of a hive city), providing specialized support for the Chapter (artificers, etc), that population could be in the tens of thousands on its own. Beyond that, there would be families, the support for those who serve the Chapter directly (farmers or other food producers, miners and forgeworkers), as well as any armed forces the serfs provide... And on top of that there would be an entire bureaucracy that governs the population. Administrative staff, police forces, any kind of self-government they have (since I really doubt that Marines would be directly involved in that). Really, I think that serf populations would be more like self-sustaining nations that could reach populations of hundreds of thousands assuming they have the space and supplies to support it.

Between providing armed forces for the fleet and garrisoning any permanent installations a Chapter might control, the serf militia alone could be size of one or more Imperial Guard regiments, and given that they'd be receiving training and equipment from Astartes, they'd like be comparable to Guard elite forces.

There's a whole world of logistics behind a Chapter that hasn't really gotten much thought put into it, in my opinion. Chapters produce their own vehicles. That requires factories. Who is going to work in those factories? Serfs. Factories require raw materials, and unless a Chapter can import them all, which seems unlikely given that the Imperium is already stretched, those materials would have to be mined, processed, smelted, etc. Serfs would have to do all of that, as most Chapter homeworlds have populations that haven't even mastered gunpowder, let alone the technology required to supply a futuristic military industrial complex. Marines and serfs both need to eat. Food must be grown and processed, stored, prepared, served. Again, I don't think imports could explain all or even a large part of that as a Chapter needs to be as independent as possible, especially given how isolated they are in many cases. Schools, both for children and to develop specialized skills would be needed. It's a vast workforce, an entire society, that would be needed to support a Chapter, far more than just crewing space ships and assembling the odd bolter.

We all know the propensity for human mutation in the 41st millennium. I would think a serf population would have to be self-regulating, with its own police forces, along with the facilities and training to deal with nascent psykers, mutants, etc.

So, how many serfs do I need?

• I was thinking that perhaps every single Astartes in the Chapter would have his own serf, or even a team of serfs, doing all the menial stuff that an Astartes can't be bothered with. Basically just following him around, waiting on him, serving him at mealtimes, tidying up after him, helping put on his armor, etc. Perhaps entire families and generations of serfs would be bound to serve the office of Chapter Master and other positions of importance, or are bound to serve a certain squad - so for example the descendants of a number of families would be sworn to serve 1st Company, 2nd Company and so on.
• The Dark Swords are a fleet-based Chapter, so their entire population of serfs needs to fit on their fleet. Supposedly, according to Battlefleet Gothic Lore, Astartes vessels are heavily automated and crewed by just a light force of servitors and serfs, but how much can they really be automated?
• The Dark Swords need to have a lot of tech-adepts. A lot of tech-adepts. These would not necessarily be actually tech-priests from Mars or the local forge world, they could just be people taught by the original Techmarines and then the knowledge is just handed down through generations, which would save the hassle of having to get more from far away planets. The tech-adepts are needed for delicate tasks that servitors obviously cannot do - they need to look after the engines, both realspace and warp engines; they need to perform maintenance for what I can only assume are hundreds of individual systems on a single ship; they need to maintain weapons and armor and construct more weapons and war machines; and there are likely to be hundreds or thousands of other functions that are of course too numerous to be listed.
• There would need to be serfs set aside to work for the Reclusiam, helping the Chaplains with their various tasks; and there would need to be plenty of priests to minister to the serf population.
• Similarly, there would need to be people in the Librarium helping the Librarians record stuff and help out in all of their appointed tasks.
• How many support and noncombat psykers will a Chapter have? There would need at least a couple of Astropaths per vessel in the fleet, to provide an instant, secure form of communication alongside conventional vox. And how many Navigators do I need? There would need to be at least a few per vessel; if I lose the one and only Navigator on a ship, oops! That ship is dead in the water, or Warp, as it were. And how would the arrangements be worked out? Would there be an entire family of Navigators allied to the Dark Swords, who basically live and work on their ships?
• Someone needs to grow crops, raise livestock to feed everyone, Astartes and serfs. Food needs to be processed, stored, prepared, served.
• There might need to be some form of government for the serfs; I doubt the Astartes can really be bothered with having to look after the affairs of their serfs, they need to govern themselves.
• Perhaps most importantly, there needs to be a sizable armed force of serfs. There needs to police to keep order, and a sort of army to defend the ships if and when they inevitably get attacked and boarded by enemies.
• Perhaps a pilot corps? Astartes would be vulnerable in a fighter craft as their unique advantages and capabilities would not matter in a void dogfight, so Astartes should only be going out in their Thunderhawks when absolutely needed. But serf pilots in Furies and Starhawks would be more expendable and can screen capital ships against enemy fighter craft.

As Barret points out, it may be that an entire nation or society of ordinary stand behind and make the war effort of the Astartes possible. 1/14/12