[Alta]

I was writing up the backgound story for my first Inquisitor character and I got really stuck when I got to the point "His father earned a living as a ...". I have no idea what jobs would be around in the 41st Millenium.
Does anyone have any ideas or know?
(I'm actually looking for some sort of rural job, but an urban one could work too) (also male or female jobs, as I might write about his mum's background)
...

[DapperAnarchist]

The Imperium makes extensive use of menial labour - don't think modern Western society, more like current Third World or 1300's Europe. Is he supposed to be rich or poor? He could be a Groxhand, or a menial harvester. Wealthier, he could be a bailiff, or a local lawman of some sort. At the top, he could be the child of a local lord, which would put him in the leisured or military class. Course, there would bars and restaurants of various kinds, so there would be a service industry. What you probably wouldn't get is something like Galaxybucks - the Galaxy's Favourite Provider of Recaff, or insurance companies, financial services, anything like that - the Imperium is not a capitalistic society, and so lacks this idea of investment or economic expansion of a brand.

oh, and - Welcome to the Conclave!

[Dexter]

Also take into mind the different types of worlds that exist in the Imperium.  If he was raised on a Forge World, his father was almost certainly a factory laborer or supervisor.  On an agri-world, his father would likely be a farmer of sorts, working with livestock or operating farming machinery.  Another possibility is one that I never see touched on much in any 40k literature.  Every Imperial world (as I understand it) is engaged with importing and exporting goods.  Hives import massive quantities of food.  Forge worlds export nearly every weapon they make, and import the raw resources to continue functioning.  There is hardly a self-sufficient planet in the Imperium, meaning that every Imperial world has a space port.  And that means every Imperial world has to have dock workers.  If you are looking for a humble, everyman way to cast your Inquisitor's father, making him a dock worker is a good way to go.

[Morcus]

I would think financial industry would be very important in the 41st millenium, though granted not every where. Moving a space ship must cost a huge amount of money so there'd surly be alot of people backing and insuring things like that. I've always got the impression that the Imperium is a fairly Litigious society and that there would be a huge amount of people employed in the Legal sector. All of the above is based on my interpretation and I'm not saying its right, You sort of have to make up your own mind.

Is his parents proffession important or is it just about having a 'complete' background? What kind of character is his father? Where do you want him to fall within the class system? If you wanted him to be Rural and Middle Class (Just as an example) You could make him some kind of Overseer, or a doctor. If working Class he could be a Farm Hand or a builder.

Class and background are where you should be thinking.

[Shannow]

I personally think you can come up with anything to be a job really (within reason), but given the mass, complex and diverse population within the imperium as well as the large amount of red tape and paperwork that is involved everywhere, it is not hard to imagine that some lowly person may have the job of making sure the screws being used on a construction line are the right ones.... boring but entirely believable! And of course you can do the opposite end as well with people being massively well paid just to do something fairly pointless (nothing springs to my travel tired mind...)

Rob

[Heroka Vendile]

the Imperium is not a capitalistic society, and so lacks this idea of investment or economic expansion of a brand.

The imperial organisations might not be, but the imperium at large most certainly is capitalist. The Administratum on the whole does not concern itself with how a planets economy works, only that the appropriate volume of tithes are collected on schedule. This leaves scope for all sorts of different economic models to be in use from planet to planet - sure there will be some consistency across well developed sectors featuring upper-end technology on most planets - but world-to-world there can easily be vast differences.
eg on one feudal world every single citizen may well be considered the property of the King, and only he profits from selling excess produce to other planets - while on a Hive world there will be thousands of individuals doing business and trading stock and supplies on a daily basis.

[Alta]

Thanks for the welcome.
I decided to go with a simple farmer, and to make things simpler, I made his mother die when he was young. The actual profession wasn't vitally important, it was just to give him a complete background.
...

[Alta]

I didn't want to take up board room by making another thread, so I thought I'd ask it here...

Knowing nothing about the Imperial Guard myself, does anyone know if it is possible to leave the Imperial Guard voluntarily? Or would someon have to leave it by either retirement / deserting?
...

[Dexter]

Well, induction into the guard usually isn't voluntary.  To my knowledge most worlds have a draft or lottery in place to pay the tithe, and on some worlds everyone must serve in the Guard (Cadia, for example).  I don't think there are many, if any, worlds where enlistment is 100% voluntary.
I have read about "former" guardsmen in various sources throughout GW fiction, so I know it's possible to leave the Guard legally and continue to pursue a "normal" career.  My guess would be in most regiments, members of the Guard serve for a pre-determined amount of time.  That time could be stretched indefinitely if the guardsmen were fighting in a long campaign.  After that time, I would imagine the guardsmen would be given the Imperial equivalent of an honorable discharge, and returned to their world.
I also imagine that the Guard does not have use for individuals past a certain age.  Their brand of war requires a fair bit of physical strength and endurance that you won't find in the elderly.  I'm guessing that when someone reaches their mid-40s, the Guard won't have much use for them on the battlefield. 
It's safe to assume that there is no other way to leave the Guard other than a discharge, or desertion (which would put a bounty on your head).

[DapperAnarchist]

You get into the Guard either by a population-wide draft (often excluding the nobilty, those who can buy out, etc, with numbers made up by the poor) or by a draft of the elite of the PDF. You get out in a number of ways - death, promotion to a point where you can retire (usually staff officer level), desertion, incapacitation, or winning a campaign of conquest, where you get to keep a chunk of the land you fought for.

[MarcoSkoll]

Pretty much as above said. Being inducted is usually involuntary - although not always, of course. Some individuals may be brainwashed enough to believe the "Become a hero of the Imperium" stuff and actually offer to join.

Still, leaving the guard is usually also decided for you. If you need someone who's left the guard and who isn't being chased down by the Munitorum for desertion, they'll probably either be a veteran of many years who's served their time (but wasn't that important - see below), or they'll probably be missing a number of body parts - which may have been replaced with poor bionics, if they're lucky.

As far as what DapperAnarchist says about promotion - maybe. I imagine that, often, if the Imperium gets their hands on someone really good, said individual is going to get rejuvenat and kept in the service for centuries.

[DapperAnarchist]

Well, I meant if you end up like Captain Darling, secretary to the General, you might be able to retire to civilian life in the Administratum or something after that particular war is over. The usual "War is great! Everyone should be involved in war! Oh, you're my secretary and I actually know you? Well, off you go to civvy town once I don't need you" stuff.

[Morcus]

I would image most of the officers would be volunteers, thus you'd be unlikly that you'd become an officer if you were conscripted, and if you did you'd more than likely want to remain.

I was under the impression that sometimes Units reduced to small numbers were just disbanded and sent home rather than the usual mix and match units being made from the remnants.

[Alta]

My character joined voluntarily.
Hmm... this is going to make it rather difficult...
What about if the regiment suffered such heavy losses that it had to be disbanded... Do you think he would be able to leave then?
Otherwise he could desert, but then I'd have to incorporate him running from the law,  and he's meant to be a very law abiding citizen...

[DapperAnarchist]

Well, what is he doing now? Who is he working with? Could he still be under the theoretical jurisdiction of the Guard, but working alongside someone else - an Inquisitor, the Arbites, the Administratum, the Ministorum, something like that?

Disbanding a regiment... It probably appears here and there in the background, but not that often. More often you hear of Veteran units, or combined Regiments.