#''brothers! this hair gel has been passed down from the days of Sanguinius himself! No Blood Angel may go into battle without it!''

[stainlesssteellocust]

I know the aesthetic is "everyone is filthy and bleeding and the worlds are all polluted and rotting and everything is awful all the time" but considering one of the Ruinous Powers is literally the god of filth and disease, it would make sense for the Imperium to have a culture of purity and cleanliness actually

"To despoil the Emperor-given body of humanity is heresy of the gravest order! You wash your face young lady or the pox-father will strike you down with zits before the Sanguinalia dance!"

People on ships probably have ritual cleansing periods based on the Terran day-night cycle, Ultramar has Roman-style public baths where the Ultramarines hang out

Of course since this is 40k they're going to be absolutely unhinged about it

Commisars shooting soldiers because they're not keeping clean enough when there's mud and blood and death everywhere and they've been fighting orks for the last solid day

Men dying of thirst so the general can have his twice-daily bubble bath to show his piety

The Sisters Hospitaller do canonically daube their armour in 'protective' incenses and ointments, either for genuine protective reasons, weirdass Imperial superstitions or maybe just so they can smell pretty while they're stalking through crowded wards saving lives or torturing injured heretics before executing them with bolt pistols I don't know (her ass has NOT agreed to medical neutrality!)

so I like to think that, like we say "sing yay many verses of this song while washing your hands to make sure you've done it long enough" they're doing the same with Imperial hymns

(not sure about the Militarum's doctors since they sometimes lean into "ghastly WW1 field hospital" vibes, but the SH's actually study new things and have access to medical texts and research mutation and xenobiology so I think they have a grasp of medical sanitation and PPE, most Astartes probs do too)

Picture a Astra Militarum doctor, Sister Hospitaller and Spess Mehreen Apothecary all stood by hand-sinks singing as they wash their hands:

Happy those who do not follow the counsel of the wicked, Nor go the way of sinners, nor sit in company with heretics. Rather, the law of the Imperium is their joy;    the Emperor’s law they study day and night. They are like a tree planted near streams of water that yields its fruit in season...

Some Astartes or Battle-Sisters do the whole "fight gloriously for days without rest against impossible odds until relief comes" thing that happens every week or so like clockwork and realistically come out the other side absolutely filthy and rancid, so they flagellate themselves half to death for failing to meet the ritual bathing criterias needed to maintain their divinely-granted human forms because they're terrifying religious fanatics

#maybe this is why the Astartes look so cool and the Sisters keep being drawn like they just stepped out of a spa day before fighting #''brothers! this hair gel has been passed down from the days of Sanguinius himself! No Blood Angel may go into battle without it!'' #whoever designed that ridiculous Sororitas boob-plate has also shoved automated perfume dispensers into the shoulder pads #the Tau ar out there screaming WHY IS THIS THE HILL YOU CHOOSE TO DIE ON WHAT IS YOUR ACTUAL PROBLEM #warhammer 40000 #warhammer 40k #warhammer 30k #warhammer 30000 #adeptus astartes #adepta sororitas #space marines #sisters of battle #games workshop #worldbuilding #war crimes #somewhere there's a forge world with an STC for head & shoulders and they're making bank