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Age of the Imperium - 8th Black Crusade: In 999.M37, Abaddon the Despoiler launched the 8th Black Crusade of Chaos out of the Eye of Terror into Imperial space.During this incursion into the realms of Mankind, Abaddon completed a complex series of ritualistic massacres known as the "Skullgather" in the name of Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways.On worlds throughout the Segmentum Obscurus, Imperial citizens were slaughtered in precise numbers using esoteric rituals.Only when the Inquisition finally broke the code of damnation was the Imperium able to bring an end to the Black Legion's rampage across the segmentum in time with these mysterious attacks, but not before countless worlds had been saturated in death and Abbadon's true aim -- to gain access to the favour of Tzeentch -- had been achieved. |
Age of the Imperium - Abyssal Crusade Returns: Having purged more than 400 worlds within the Eye of Terror, the survivors of the Abyssal Crusade returned to Imperial space in 112.M38.Without pausing to claim the honours due for such a successful and protracted Imperial Crusade, Chapter Master Konvak Lann of the Vorpal Swords declares the now-ancient Saint Basillius a false idol and adoration of him tantamount to betrayal of the Emperor.In less than a standard year, every known sepulchre and shrine dedicated to the false saint is destroyed. After his execution, his bones, along with countless relics, books of doctrine and thousands of living worshippers, are placed on a derelict bulk-freighter and launched directly into a nearby star. |
Age of the Imperium - The Waning (ca. M38 - ca. 744.M41): With the Imperium's military forces in every branch utterly exhausted by the continuous Imperial Crusades of the prior Age of Redemption, star system after star system fell to Ork invasion, Chaos insurgence, xenos infestation or sheer rebellion.Anarchy throughout many sectors of the Imperium was rife during a dark period in Imperial history that is now called "the Waning."Ever more star systems were turned over by the Administratum to direct rule by Space Marine Chapters to preserve stability as only the Astartes possessed the inviolable military strength required to restore Imperial control in the more lawless regions of the galaxy.To combat the spreading anarchy, the Adeptus Terra imposed ever-stricter rules, doling out ever-harsher punishments. Portents of doom were both incessant and relentless. The prescient foretold of great ripples in the Warp, like a swell in the water disturbed by some colossal but unseen menace. |
Age of the Imperium - 9th Black Crusade: The 9th Black Crusade of Abaddon the Despoiler and his Black Legion launched out of the Eye of Terror in 537.M38. Intending to bring about the demise of the naval fortress of Cancephalus, Abaddon led his forces against the heaving populations of the nearby world of Antecanis.The seventeen-standard-year-long war that ensued robbed both Antecanis and Cancephalus of their most precious resource -- manpower. Without the fleets of Cancephalus to stop him, Abaddon was able to ravage the rest of the sector at will , and his Sorcerers were free to conduct the rituals required to weaken the walls of reality in that region of space with impunity. |
Age of the Imperium - Grim Harvest: During the "Grim Harvest" in 666.M38, a great armada of misshapen space hulks drifted out of the Warp near Terra. Some of the twisted and fused starships could still be identified as transports carrying pilgrims from the Lost Crusade.The Lost Crusade had begun in 754.M37, when, on thousands of planets, menials rebelled against their dreary drudgery with wild-eyed leaders espousing a better way of life -- a galaxy of tolerance. The movement had been especially popular amongst the youth of the Imperium, earning it the title of "Children's Crusade."Billions of earnest pilgrims were lured to seek transport to Terra; some were waylaid by pirates, but the majority disappeared into the Warp. They became known collectively as the "Lost Crusade."The Inquisition worked feverishly to cover up the Grim Harvest fleet's existence and its cargo of mutant and daemon-possessed abominations. |
Age of the Imperium - 10th Black Crusade: The 10th Black Crusade, also known as the "Conflict of Helica," was a joint campaign of the forces of Chaos that was led by Abaddon the Despoiler and the Daemon Primarch Perturabo of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion. Launched out of the Eye of Terror in 001.M39, both the Black Legion and the Iron Warriors struck against the Helica Sector.While the Black Legion attacked the capital world of the sector, the Hive World of Thracian Primaris, the Iron Warriors focused their own assault against Medusa, the homeworld of the Loyalist Iron Hands Chapter, to fulfil an old blood debt. In a series of bitter sieges, the Iron Warriors assaulted the Medusa System's worlds and pushed the Iron Hands to the brink of destruction.Only when the Loyalist Chapter received heavy Imperial reinforcements did Abaddon and the Iron Warriors retreat back to the Eye of Terror, taking with them valuable information about the world of Medusa and its defences to be used at a later and more opportune time. |
Age of the Imperium - Mausolean Cataclysm: In 103.M39 the Mausolean Cataclysm struck the Imperium. |
Age of the Imperium - Redemption Crusades: In 131.M39, the so-called "Redemption Crusades" began. In each of the segmentums of the Imperium a great hero emerged. Like unto the Primarchs of old were these warriors, and the combined efforts of their Imperial Crusades push back the borders of the Imperium further than they have been for nearly 500 standard years.And then, 50 Terran years later, the five heroes vanished without a trace, spurring Ecclesiarch Inovian III to declare them Imperial Saints returned to the Emperor's side. |
Age of the Imperium - 11th Black Crusade: In 301.M39, Abaddon the Despoiler launched his 11th Black Crusade, also remembered as the "Doom of Relorria," out of the Eye of Terror. In an attempt to break through the cordon of Warp Storms surrounding the Eye into Imperial space, he employed a captured daemon to navigate for his Black Fleet.The effort proved fruitless, and instead the daemon warped the Black Legion's Black Fleet directly into the path of the Orks of WAAAGH! Murgor. In the ruins of the Cardinal World of Relorria, the Black Legion brought the Orks to battle, Bolter rounds and Chainswords tearing into the green-skinned xenos.After solar months of bloody warfare, Abaddon decided to leave Relorria to its fate and the Black Legion returned to the nightmare realm of the Eye of Terror -- but not before the Warmaster of Chaos filled the holds of his Black Fleet with a multitude of captured Ork Weirdboyz.In conjunction with a coven of his most powerful Sorcerers, he used the volatile psychic energies of the Greenskin abductees in a daemonic hybridisation ritual that weakened the fabric of reality across the Relorrian System, part of a wider plan to find ways to break down the barriers between the Immaterium and realspace and so aid Chaos' assault on the Imperium. |
Age of the Imperium - Gothic War (12th Black Crusade): In 139.M41, the 12th Black Crusade, better known as the "Gothic War," was a vast campaign launched by Abaddon that engulfed the Gothic Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus after that sector was cut off from Imperial reinforcements and communications by a series of massive Warp Storms produced by the will of the Ruinous Powers.It consisted of hundreds of planetary invasions and naval battles spanning the time period 139.M41 - 160.M41 and only ended when Abaddon and his Chaos Space Marines, Renegade Chapters, daemonic hosts and rebellious Chaos Cults were forced to retreat into the Immaterium with the arrival of Imperial reinforcements as the Warp Storms that had provided cover for their invasion finally dissipated just as mysteriously as they had begun.On the Imperial side, dozens of Space Marine Chapters, nearly 100 Astra Militarum regiments and the better part of three Titan Legions took part, along with every naval vessel the Battlefleet Obscurus could muster.The conflict saw the destruction of several planets and four of the six irreplaceable ancient alien artefacts known as the Blackstone Fortresses as well as the deaths of millions, if not billions, of Imperial citizens.Most significantly, the events of the Gothic War revealed the true nature and purpose of the ancient spaceborne alien artefacts known to the Imperium as the Blackstone Fortresses, which had been created by the Old Ones to be used against the Necrons and were capable of destabilising stars and destroying entire solar systems.Most importantly, Abaddon and the forces of Chaos were able to escape back into the Eye of Terror with two of the Blackstone Fortresses, their future purpose unknown. |
Age of the Imperium - Macharian Crusade and Heresy: This period saw the Macharian Conquests (also called the Macharian Crusade) of 392-399.M41 during which Lord Commander Solar Macharius, the Lord of the Segmentum Solar, mustered the greatest Human army the galaxy had seen since the Great Crusade.In only seven standard years, Macharius reconquered a thousand worlds on the western reaches of the Imperium and his glory carried him into the darkest sectors, places where the Emperor's light had never been known.Upon his death, the whole Imperium wept for the lost commander, but Macharius' conquered territories soon collapsed into rivalry and civil war. The Macharian Heresy, as this time is now known, lasted for seventy standard years and was only ended through the combined efforts of one hundred Space Marine Chapters. |
Age of the Imperium - Tears of the Emperor: In 500.M41, in an event known as the Tears of the Emperor, the Imperium was swept by visions of the Emperor's tears.From backwards Feral Worlds to the most densely populated Hive Worlds, a million versions of the same story are told by holy men, street agitators, shamans, priests, and mystics. Primitives point to storm-filled skies, claiming that the drops falling from them are the tears of their mighty god.Upon Ecclesiarchy Cardinal Worlds, Arch-Deacons to lowly pilgrims claim to have seen statues of the divine Emperor shed tears. Chapter Masters and hive city urchins alike have visions of the Emperor stirring upon His throne, tears running from His empty sockets.Although the dreams take myriad forms, all know that the Emperor weeps not for Himself, but for the plight of Humanity. |
Age of the Imperium - The Time of Ending (ca. 744.M41 - ca. 999.M41): As the threats to the Imperium grew in the last centuries of the 41st Millennium, Humanity stood on the precipice of utter extinction. The "Time of Ending" was the era of Humanity's judgement, where faith was tested by fire and every man or woman's courage was pushed to its limits -- and well beyond.By this time, secession, rebellion, Chaos corruption and heresy were now rife within every corner of the Imperium. Sensing weakness, alien empires ancient and new to Humanity's experience -- Orks, Aeldari, T'au, Necrons and perhaps worst of all, the Tyranids -- closed in from every side.Zealots ranted that the xenos were Mankind's punishment, its just consequences for straying from the Emperor's guidance. The rise of mutants and witches was yet another sign of Humanity's sin. Desperate messages from across the galaxy echoed through the Warp.Astropaths worked feverishly to pull the transmissions from the Immaterium and translate them, to sift the meaning from the garble. The messages were increasingly dire: Planetary Governors sent desperate pleas for aid, Astra Militarum officers called for reinforcements, fleet commanders issued ominous warnings of enemy starship movements.The forces of the Imperium fought with the valour of ancient heroes, defending Humanity from within, without and beyond -- but they could not be everywhere at once.The Space Marines and Astra Militarum were at war as never before, even during the Horus Heresy.The news grew worse daily, the attacks on the Imperium steadily increasing. Most ominous of all, the prescient foretold of great ripples in the Warp, like a swell in the water disturbed by some colossal but unseen menace in the depths below.Fell things were gathering in that dread realm, straining as never before to break the bounds of reality. |
Age of the Imperium - Damocles Gulf Crusade, 742-745.M41: The Imperium made official first contact with the T'au during the Damocles Gulf Crusade, also called the Damocles Crusade, which was the first military conflict fought between the Imperium of Man and the rapidly expanding T'au Empire in the Lithesh Sector of the Ultima Segmentum in the Eastern Fringes during the late 41st Millennium.The crusade was initiated after the T'au Water Caste had established trade agreements with Imperial worlds on the frontier of the T'au Empire, near the Damocles Gulf region in the galactic east, and exchanges of goods and technology were common.Alarmed by the threat of alien contamination, the Administratum readied a suitable response and almost a Terran century later, the Damocles Crusade smashed into T'au space, destroying several outlying settlements and pushing deep into the T'au Empire.When the Imperial fleet reached the T'au Sept world of Dal'yth Prime, however, the crusade ground to a bloody stalemate as the formidable numbers and high technology of the T'au and their Kroot allies thwarted every attempt to capture the world or its star system.Many solar months of terrible fighting ensued with nothing gained on either side. By late 742.M41 the crusade's commanders eventually agreed to requests from the Water Caste for peace talks.The negotiations were successful and the Imperial fleet withdrew from T'au space unmolested, primarily due to the impending approach of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth. |
Age of the Imperium - A Foretelling, 744.M41: The Time of Ending earned its name in 744.M41 when Taggarath, the Seer of Corrinto, proclaimed the approach of the End Times. He prophesied a time of unprecedented upheaval, in which even the light of the Emperor was eventually swallowed in darkness, perhaps a premonition of the Noctis Aeterna to come.Taggarath was swiftly executed by the Inquisition for heresy -- and to keep his prophecies unknown by the wider Imperial public, but the doomsayer's cry was picked up by other psychic sensitives on planets beyond count across the Human-settled galaxy. |
Age of the Imperium - Hive Fleet Behemoth and the Battle of Macragge, 745.M41: In 745.M41 the Tyranids first entered the galaxy and the Tyrannic Wars began. Hive Fleet Behemoth destroyed the Imperial star systems of Tyran (for which the Tyranids are named) and Thandros. Later that same year, Hive Fleet Behemoth descended upon the Realm of Ultramar, the fief of the Ultramarines, laying waste to several worlds and badly damaging the Space Marines' greatest Chapter.The bold deeds done during the Battle of Macragge are one of the most enduring of the many legends of the Ultramarines. Chapter Master Marneus Calgar was gravely wounded by the horror known as the Swarmlord, and the Ultramarines' Veteran 1st Company were slain to the last man, but their sacrifice bought time for two Imperial Navy battlefleets to converge upon Macragge and finally end the Behemoth's threat.Still reeling from the terrible wounds, Imperial Commanders across the Ultima Segmentum looked to their borders with growing unease. |
Age of the Imperium - Blood Star Campaign, 748.M41: The Blood Star Campaign unfolded in 748.M41, when the star Ares turned blood red. It heralded increased daemonic activity in the Scarus Sector. Before the brutal campaign ended, it claimed untold lives, including three Chapter Masters and the Fleet Admiral of the Segmentum Obscurus. |
Age of the Imperium - Great Exodus, 750.M41: In 750.M41 the Great Exodus occurred. A strange swirling phenomenon in the Argos System was only a curiosity until the sudden appearance of six Aeldari craftworlds.By the time the Imperial Fleet arrived, both the swirling mass and the Aeldari were gone, yet in their passing all prime suns within sixty light years were extinguished.The Imperial Fleet and innumerable transports attempted to ferry the countless billions of Imperial citizens to neighbouring star systems, in what was the largest exodus ever attempted by the Imperium.It is estimated that nearly 12% of the population and 32% of the heavy industry of the region were safely removed. The ring of dead planets and suns is now known as the Deadhenge, a salvager's paradise and refuge of pirates. |
Age of the Imperium - Zombie Plague, 757.M41: The year 757.M41 saw the first recorded incidence of the dread Zombie Plague erupting on the world of Hydra Minoris. A quarantine was imposed by the Imperial Navy, trapping 23 billion uninfected people alongside a rising tide of the hungry, contagious and mindless undead children of Nurgle. |
Age of the Imperium - Aeldari Troubles, 766-795.M41: In 766.M41, many Imperial watch stations and listening posts in the Catachan and Ryza Systems are attacked by Eldar pirates under the command of Yriel. Without their early warning "eyes and ears," this leaves both star systems vulnerable for decades to come.In 783.M41 Aeldari Asuryani from the Ulthwé Craftworld destroyed an Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleet above the Dead World of Maedrax, but not before several probes were released and a distress hymnal despatched.Some solar months later, Space Marines from the Blood Angels' 3rd Company arrived at the point of the fleet's disappearance and became embroiled in the ongoing war between Ulthwé's forces and the Necrons that the Explorators inadvertently awoke on Maedrax's surface. |
Age of the Imperium - Krandor Rebellion, 795.M41: An uprising in the Krandor System in 795.M41 was harshly put down by the 23rd Cadian Regiment. Several of the Chaos Cults involved in the rebellion, notably the followers of the Shining Deity, the Cult of Many Tentacles and the red-robed "Brotherhood," had not been seen since the Fourth Quadrant Rebellion.Although both military and civilian losses are high, the Krandor Rebellion's quick subjugation is vital. The Imperium could ill-afford to lose the resource-rich Krandor System, which held planets strategically vital to the whole of the Segmentum Obscurus. |
Age of the Imperium - Ork Troubles, 797.M41: Throughout the Segmentum Ultima, in 797.M41, countless Ork invasions threaten to mass into a single colossal WAAAGH! The forces of the Imperium are stretched to their utmost to contain each individual war zone.Notable actions include Marneus Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines, holding the gate alone for a night and a day against the greenskin hordes during the Siege of Zalathras and the 2nd Company's utter devastation of Warboss Brug's planetary stronghold. |
Age of the Imperium - Astronomican Weakens, 801.M41: In 801.M41 a brief flicker in the Astronomican throws thousands of ships off course, dooming them to destruction in the Warp. The incident indicates that the Emperor may be weakening. |
Age of the Imperium - Siege of Vraks, 813-830.M41: The lamentable campaign known as the Siege of Vraks occurred from 813-830.M41. The Apostate-Cardinal Xaphan leads the Armoury World of Vraks Prime into the service of the Ruinous Powers. As the forces of the Imperium arrive to quell the rebellion, they are immediately met in battle, followed by a rapid escalation of forces on both sides. The seventeen-year-long campaign ends in a full-scale daemonic incursion and, finally, the intervention of the Ordo Malleus and the Grey Knights. By the end, Vraks is entirely laid waste, its entire population exterminated. |
Age of the Imperium - Raid on Ildanira, 822.M41: In 822.M41 the Warmaster of Chaos Abaddon the Despoiler raids the Aeldari Maiden World of Ildanira, seeking a long-lost Chaos artefact. He is driven away by the forces of the Alaitoc Craftworld. Such an action is only minor compared to the many wars consuming the galaxy at this time, but its portents loom large in hindsight. |
Age of the Imperium - Return to Krandor III, 853.M41: By 853.M41, the uprising against Imperial rule on Krandor III, thought to have been successfully suppressed over fifty standard years previously, had once more grown strong. Mutants, psykers and all manner of outcasts had been nurtured in darkness and corruption by the whisper of cowled Chaos Cultists.Even as the surging rebellion takes over the planet's surface, hive city by hive city, the orbital sentinel stations and moon-based defence lasers are captured by Chaos Space Marines accompanied by loathsome creatures, neither man nor mutant but wholly daemonic.Three Space Marine Chapters, led by the stoic Imperial Fists, secure resources, Imperial artefacts and a few Adeptus Administratum officials before an Exterminatus is mercifully delivered. Some 42 Astra Militarum regiments from Krandor III still exist, the only survivors of their lost and benighted world because they had been shipped to distant war zones before the rebellion began. |
Age of the Imperium - Saint Cyllia Massacre, 863.M41: In 863.M41 the Saint Cyllia Massacre occurred when the Adamant Fury Titan Legion betrayed the Emperor and fell to Chaos. The Traitor Titan Legion turned its guns upon Loyalist regiments of the Saint Cyllian Planetary Defence Forces before making good their escape off-world.The loss of a full Titan Legion sends ripples of concern through the Imperium and great effort is exerted to find and destroy them, particularly by the Mechanicus and its Collegia Titanica. |
Age of the Imperium - The Bloodtide, 876.M41: In 876.M41 Chaos came to the world of Van Horne in the event later known as The Bloodtide to the Inquisition. The Bloodthirster Ka'jagga'nath, Lord of the Bloodtide, broke free of his bonds and unleashed a tide of gore that corrupted everything it touched.For eight solar days and nights, the orgies of blood continue, each fresh death luring yet more daemons to the mortal world as the barrier between the Materium and the Warp breaks down on Van Horne. Only when the Grey Knights' 4th Brotherhood arrived was the Bloodtide abated, and then only at great cost.Ka'jagga'nath was cast back into the Warp. The psychic backlash also banished the Bloodtide and the daemons it had drawn forth. |
Age of the Imperium - Battle of the Planus Steppes, 883.M41: In 883.M41 the 423rd Cadian Regiment's spearhead, led by Knight Commander Pask, was the largest armoured assault undertaken by the Imperium since the Battle of Tallarn during the Horus Heresy. Over 8,000 Imperial tank companies and 35 super-heavy tank detachments were annihilated during the nearly total destruction of the Renegade Adamant Fury Traitor Titan Legion upon the Planus Steppes. |
Age of the Imperium - Crusade of Wrath, 888.M41: In 888.M41, during the Crusade of Wrath, the Black Templars Chapter inflicts heavy losses on the Word Bearers Traitor Legion, reclaiming several star systems previously lost in the Maelstrom. |
Age of the Imperium - Long Midnight, 891.M41: In 891.M41 the worlds of Persya suffer attacks from Aeldari Corsairs during the Long Midnight, who swathe their targets in utter darkness before pillaging and slaughtering at will. The vicious raids only cease upon the arrival of the Praxion Patrol. |
Age of the Imperium - First Necron Assault on Imperium, 897.M41: In 897.M41, the fortress-convent known as Sanctuary 101 is destroyed, with all the Sisters of Battle within, by the Necrons. No survivors or signs of the perpetrators are left behind. Some few savants in the Imperium begin to understand the vast threat that the awakening Necrons might become to Mankind. |
Age of the Imperium - Hive Fleet Gorgon Approaches, 897.M41: In that same year, 897.M41, a new Tyranid menace, code-named Hive Fleet Gorgon, is spotted by Imperial outposts, heading directly for the growing T'au Empire in the Eastern Fringe. No warnings are given to the T'au of what is to befall them. |
Age of the Imperium - The Badab War, 901-913.M41: In 901.M41 the terrible civil conflict known as the Badab War begins when Lufgt Huron, the Chapter Master of the Astral Claws Space Marines, refuses to hand over his Chapter's tithe of gene-seed to the Administratum and instead announces his secession from the Imperium, declaring himself the "Tyrant of Badab."Twelve standard years of intersystem war follow, wreaking havoc on shipping lanes in the Maelstrom Zone and embroiling more than a dozen Space Marine Chapters. With much loss, Badab Primaris finally falls to the Loyalist forces, but Lufgt Huron and some 200 of the Astral Claws escape to take refuge in the Maelstrom of the Ultima Segmentum.There, they become Heretic Astartes and change their name to the Red Corsairs. They become dreaded pirates and raiders of Imperial commerce. Huron adopts the title of "Blackheart" and continues to recruit more Astartes Renegades to join his growing Chaos empire. |
Age of the Imperium - Ork Activity Increases, 907.M41: In 907.M41 Ork WAAAGH! activity rises throughout all five Segmentums of the Imperium, forcing the Novamarines, Raptors and Howling Griffons to be redeployed away from the Badab War to counter the growing greenskin threat. |
Age of the Imperium - Sack of Jollana, 913.M41: In 913.M41 the disciples of the Thousand Sons Chaos Sorcerer Ahriman sack the Librarium on the world of Jollana. |
Age of the Imperium - Attack on the Black Ships, 920.M41: In 920.M41 Aeldari pirates attack the advance escort of a fleet of Black Ships as they exit Warpspace in the Thanos System. The pirates destroyed three frigates and captured the troopship Emperor's Faithful.The pirates quickly disappeared, taking with them a vast complement of Astra Militarum and Imperial Navy personnel. As a result, the fleet of Black Ships is left vulnerable and is picked off one by one in further raids. |
Age of the Imperium - The Worldengine, 925.M41: In 925.M41, the Necron Worldengine is revealed as the architect of the destruction of the Vidar Sector. It is finally destroyed, thanks chiefly to the sacrifice of the entire Astral Knights Chapter. |
Age of the Imperium - Vaxhallan Genocide, 926.M41: In 926.M41 during the Vaxhallan Genocide, a Chaos Space Marine warband known as The Purge slaughtered over 14 billion Imperial citizens and claimed the planet Vaxhall as their own. Vaxhall served as an Astropath relay hub and as an Imperial Fortress World, the buttress of the Herakles System. |
Age of the Imperium - Empire of the Red Corsairs, 937.M41: In 937.M41 Inquisitor Pranix led 5 companies of Space Wolves and units of the 301st Cadian and the 14th Tallarn Astra Militarum regiments in an attempt to reclaim the 9 Hollow Worlds from the clutches of the Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart and his Red Corsairs warband.The Imperium's forces are stunned to see how quickly the Red Corsairs have expanded and how vast their Renegade empire of pirates has grown. |
Age of the Imperium - Second War for Armageddon, 941-943.M41: In 941.M41 the Second War for Armageddon began when the largest and most powerful Ork in millennia, the Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, led a vast WAAAGH! that, after much rampaging, met its match upon Armageddon, a Hive World of vital strategic importance to the Imperium in the Segmentum Solar.The Orks are defeated only by the stubborness of the defenders, the combined might of three Space Marines Chapters and the legendary heroics of Commissar Yarrick. Ghazghkull escapes and vows to return one day. |
Age of the Imperium - The Enemy of My Enemy, 963.M41: In 963.M41 the Imperium ran afoul of the T'au Empire when the Ultramarines clashed with a T'au expeditionary fleet for control of the cursed planet of Malbede. When the conflict awakened the Necrons whose tombs were hidden beneath Malbede's surface, the Ultramarines joined the T'au in a temporary alliance to defeat the emerging Necrons.In the wake of the battle, Exterminatus was proclaimed on Malbede by the Ultramarines' Chapter Master Marneus Calgar, but he generously allows the T'au to evacuate before the surface of the planet is destroyed. The planet's destruction sets off a brief flicker of unknown energy on dozens of planets throughout the galaxy.Many fear that more Tomb Worlds are awakening. Unfortunately, the Imperium of Man now finds itself facing two more alien enemies -- the humanoid T'au who seek to expand their growing interstellar empire to "serve the Greater Good" and the Necrons who seek to reestablish their galaxy-wide empire of ages past. |
Age of the Imperium - Plague Ship, 969.M41: In 969.M41 the ancient starship Blade of Eternity was once again sighted, this time near the Cando System.As it was approached, the ship was mysteriously replaced by the infamous Death Guard plague ship Terminus Est.The Zombie Plague sweeps across the system. Infected refugees carry the Chaos foulness far and wide across the Imperium. |
Age of the Imperium - Infernal Dreams, 973.M41: In 973.M41 a violent Warp Storm troubles the dreams of people across the galaxy -- for those more psychically aware, the storms proved catastrophic.Nightmares cracked the barrier between realspace and the Warp, slaying many psykers and creating rifts between the Immaterium and reality.Although brief, thousands of daemonic incursions cause untold damage and many dark seeds of corruption are planted. |
Age of the Imperium - Curse of Lutoris Epsilon, 975.M41: In 975.M41 the Bloodthirster Skarbrand materialised on the Cadian Fortress World of Lutoris Epsilon.His berserk rage infected all he surveyed and soon the fortifications were drenched in blood as the Imperial Guardsmen turned upon each other in crazed bloodlust.Lutoris has since been considered cursed and is currently classified as a quarantined Forbidden World by the Inquisition. |
Age of the Imperium - Greenskin Assault on Ryza, 976.M41: In 976.M41 a massive Ork invasion smashed into the western sector of the Segmentum Ultima. WAAAGH! Grax is denied taking the Forge World of Ryza, but the surrounding sectors suffer great devastation. |
Age of the Imperium - Invasion of Rynn's World, 989-991.M41: In 989.M41 WAAAGH! Snagrod rampages across the Loki Sector, culminating in an assault on Rynn's World that nearly wipes out the venerated Crimson Fists Chapter of Space Marines when an unfortunate accident destroys their fortress-monastery.Imperial forces retake the Agri-world in 991.M41 and the Crimson Fists begin the long process of rebuilding the Chapter back to full strength.Though the Orks were finally driven off Rynn's World, Chapter Master Pedro Kantor declines the opportunity for pursuit, instead throwing his efforts into rebuilding the Crimson Fists to their former glory. Snagrod himself escapes, and proceeds to wreak further havoc across the sector. |
Age of the Imperium - Battle of Aurent, 992.M41: In 992.M41 Eldar forces attack Cadian holdings on the world of Aurent, only to be utterly defeated through the inspired tactical genius of Ursarkar E. Creed. |
Age of the Imperium - Second Tyrannic War, 993.M41: In 993.M41 the Ultramarines crushed a rebellion on the industrial world of Ichar IV, only to find themselves in the forefront of a desperate defence against the arrival of the Tyranids' Hive Fleet Kraken.Elsewhere, the Aeldari Craftworld Iyanden was simultaneously ravaged by other tendrils of the Kraken. Two Space Marine Chapters -- the Scythes of the Emperor and the Lamenters -- were all but wiped out by the hive fleet and hundreds of Imperial worlds were lost to the ravenous Tyranids before the incursion later known as the Second Tyrannic War was finally halted. |
Age of the Imperium - Third Tyrannic War, 997.M41: In 138.997.M41 Humanity peers into the abyss when the twin tendrils of Hive Fleet Leviathan emerged from intergalactic space and strike at the underbelly of the Imperium from below the galactic plane, cutting a swathe of truly horrific destruction through Segmentum Tempestus, Ultima and Solar in what is sometimes called the Third Tyrannic War.It becomes clear that the two previous Tyranid incursions into the galaxy were only reconnaissance expeditions for the main hive fleet. From Macragge to Ultima Macharia, the forces of the Imperium hurry to confront this new threat, leaving many sectors open to attack by other enemies. |
Age of the Imperium - Ghazghkull Returns, 997.M41: In 221.997.M41 the world of Piscina IV is invaded by Orks under the joint leadership of Ghazghkull Thraka and the Bad Moons Warboss Nazdreg.Orkish teleportation technology is employed in a surprise attack and only the stout defence commanded by Master Belial of the Dark Angels Chapter and the timely arrival of reinforcements ends the Ork threat.Although the Imperial victory is great, several Imperial commanders, including Belial, feel that Ghazghkull has another trick up his sleeve. |
Age of the Imperium - Battle of Tarsis Ultra, 997.M41: In 509.997.M41 elements from the Ultramarines and Mortifactors Space Marine Chapters make a stand against one spur of Hive Fleet Leviathan on the world of Tarsis Ultra. The defenders defeat this tendril with the use of a genetically-engineered biological plague, but the remainder of the enormous hive fleet rampages on unaffected. |
Age of the Imperium - Battle of Golgotha, 997.M41: In 601.997.M41 Ghazghkull Thraka comes face-to-face with his old Human nemesis, Commissar Yarrick, on the battlefields of the world of Golgotha.Yarrick is captured by the Orks but ultimately released as Warlord Ghazghkull is planning to invade Armageddon once more and wants to ensure a good fight. Greenskins flock to Ghazghkull's WAAAGH! in even greater numbers. |
Age of the Imperium - Third Sphere Expansion, 997.M41: In 977.997.M41 the small but vibrant T'au Empire begins its Third Sphere Expansion. The T'au forcibly captured half a dozen more Imperial worlds on the Eastern Fringe near the Damocles Gulf and several more joined the T'au Empire willingly as Gue'vesa to serve their Greater Good.The war with the T'au suffered several lulls and escalations and the xenos showed no sign of relenting in their drive for further expansion even as Imperial resistance increased in the region. |
Age of the Imperium - Cryptus Campaign, 998.M41: As Hive Fleet Leviathan moved ever closer towards their Chapter homeworld of Baal, the Blood Angels mobilised to stop the Tyranids in the Cryptus System. Also known as the "Cryptan Shield," the binary system served as a primary strategic defence of the approaches to Baal.The Blood Angels and their Successor Chapters were forced to forge an alliance with the Necrons of the Mephrit Dynasty to unleash an Exterminatus-class Necron weapon known as the Magnovitrium across the system.The ancient weapon ignited the core of the gas giant Aeros, unleashing a miniature supernova which scoured the Tyranids from the system, though also at the cost of many Imperial lives.But the Leviathan was only delayed by this campaign, and continued its inexorable movement towards Baal. |
Age of the Imperium - Third War for Armageddon, 998.M41: In 757.998.M41 Ghazghkull Thraka finally returned to Armageddon for his long awaited rematch in the Third War for Armageddon at the head of a new, even greater Ork WAAAGH!.Ghazghkull had further perfected the teleportation technology that he experimented with on Piscina IV and began the campaign with devastating victories over the Imperial defenders.Imperial Commanders, having learnt from their previous encounters with this wily Ork warlord, committed massive numbers of troops and quickly sent out the call for the aid of nearby Space Marine Chapters and further reinforcements.Several solar months into what rapidly became a battle of attrition, Ghazghkull grew bored with the grinding stalemate that had developed and left his minions behind to finish the fight while he set off to conquer the surrounding planets.He was pursued by Commissar Yarrick and the Black Templars, who swore an oath to finally bring the greenskin commander to heel. |
Age of the Imperium - Octarius War, 999.M41: In 718.999.M41 Hive Fleet Leviathan invaded the large Ork Empire based in the Octarius System, unleashing the Octarius War.The battle between Tyranids and greenskins raged on with no signs of stopping. Imperial Navy scout patrols kept a close eye on the conflict, for should a victor emerge, there were precious few forces of the Imperium on hand to counter whichever enemy should arise out of the sector-wide bloodbath. |
Age of the Imperium - Battle for the Hellfire Stone, 999.M41: In 884.999.M41 the Dark Angels' 5th Company battles elements of the Crimson Slaughter Chaos Space Marine warband for the control of the artefact known as the Hellfire Stone. The Nephilim Sector trembles as the hated foes clash... |
Age of the Imperium - Astronomican Weakens Further, 999.M41: In 975.999.M41 the light of the Astronomican grows noticeably dimmer, while contact is lost with Ultima Macharia and is intermittent with Macragge and Cypra Mundi. Some Imperial savants theorise that this is because of delays and losses amongst the Black Ships, while others point to omens of impending doom and the weakening of the Emperor. |
Age of the Imperium - Drukhari Raid on Bakka, 999.M41: In 978.999.M41 Drukhari raiders cripple the massive Imperial Navy moorings at Bakka, leaving many Imperial star systems vulnerable to attack. |
Age of the Imperium - Battle of Chogoris, 999.M41: In 980.999.M41 the Red Corsairs launched a major raid from out of the Maelstrom into the Yasan Sector, bringing the Chogoris, Kaelas, Gartuli, Thaxis and Sessec Systems under siege.Rumours reported that Huron Blackheart had grown his group of Renegades as large as the full Space Marine Legions of ancient times. The Chaos Lord now wields military power unseen since the time of the Heresy. |
Age of the Imperium - The Great Awakening, 999.M41: In 982.999.M41 "The Great Awakening" occurs, when a ripple of psychic activity passes through the Imperium, awakening the dormant powers of countless latent psykers. The resulting backlash creates innumerable Warp rifts and a thousand worlds are lost, hopelessly embroiled in daemonic incursions. |
Age of the Imperium - Necrons Strike Cypra Segentus, 999.M41: In 987.999.M41 the Necrons rise to strike the Cypra Segentus System -- the first recorded Necron attacks within only 2,000 light years of Terra. |
Age of the Imperium - War of the Rising Sons, 999.M41: In 989.999.M41 the Ultramarines' 3rd Company liberates the Lagan System from the T'au Empire during the conflict known as the "War of the Rising Sons." Even while they do so, several key worlds of the neighbouring Dolmac System capitulate without firing a shot to T'au ambassadors and join the T'au Empire. |
Age of the Imperium - Devastation of the Octarius Belt, 999.M41: In 990.999.M41 the Devastation of the Octarius Belt occurs when Aeldari from the Biel-Tan and the Saim-Hann Craftworlds assault many worlds surrounding the Octarius System with the intent of denying crucial biological resources to Hive Fleet Leviathan. Many are Ork-held worlds, but quite a few were colonised by the Humans of the Imperium. The loss of Human life is substantial, as is the loss of tithes that the planets would have paid to the Imperium in its time of need. |
Age of the Imperium - Night of a Thousand Rebellions, 999.M41: In 992.999.M41, the Night of a Thousand Rebellions occurs. Uprisings and discord strike countless planets across the Imperium. Unrest races like wildfire, consuming many outlying planets, but also supposedly secure worlds like Enceladus, Darkhold, and Minisotira.Even the homeworld of the Lions Defiant Space Marine Chapter is lost to anarchy caused by secret cults and frenetic agitators. Contact is lost between Terra and large swathes of the Segmentum Pacificus. |
Age of the Imperium - Astropaths Overwhelmed, 999.M41: In 993.999.M41, wave after wave of astropathic pleas for help flood at once from all across the galaxy, though there is only an eerie silence from the Segmentum Pacificus.So powerful is the influx, so overbearing is the psychic current, that the Adeptus Astra Telepathica suffers serious personnel losses amongst their Astropaths.Whole choirs collapse at once, driven mad or slain outright, their minds bursting. Vast breakdowns in Imperial communications ensue, increasing both anarchy and panic as the endless psychic screams for help echo across time and space. |
Age of the Imperium - Siege of the Fenris System, 999.M41: In 999.M41 the Thousand Sons effected their return to realspace when the Legion launched the Siege of the Fenris System in ca. 999.M41. The attack drew the Space Wolves back to defend their homeworld, allowing the sons of Magnus the Red to wreak vengeance upon them.The scions of Leman Russ were forced to join with their longtime rivals the Dark Angels and other Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes to cleanse their system of all Chaos taint.But first they had to overcome a plot of Tzeentch unleashed by its daemonic servant the Changeling intended to make the Dark Angels think that the Space Wolves had fallen to the Ruinous Powers.Unnatural footsoldiers from the entire Chaos pantheon joined in the slaughter before Magnus himself stepped forth from the Warp onto the surface of Fenris, there to face the Chapter that had thought to execute his sons on Prospero ten thousand years before. Space Wolves, Dark Angels and Grey Knights champions fell to Magnus' psychic might, their minds and bodies dashed to particulate matter.But the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar was able to land a blow on the Crimson King, allowing the Daemon Hunters of the Grey Knights to work their rites of banishment.Though the invasion was driven back, its purpose had been achieved. The psychic anguish of a billion deaths rippled through the Immaterium, providing the final component in a ritual millennia in the making.The power taken from the worlds of the Space Wolves saturated the Thousand Sons homeworld in the Eye of Terror, the Planet of the Sorcerers. It vanished from the Warp only to burst violently into realspace, appearing near the burnt husk of lost Prospero.The old and new homeworlds of the Thousand Sons now orbit the same cursed star -- a star that has become an omen of doom in the skies throughout the Imperium. |
Age of the Imperium - Baal Prepares for Invasion, 999.M41: In 999.M41 the Blood Angels are tested as never before. A tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan is judged to be on a direct course for their homeworld of Baal even in the wake of the delaying action successfully unleashed during the Cryptus Campaign of 998.M41.Worse, the dread Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha returns from the darkness of the Warp with a daemon army at his command, his first blow striking against Ammonai, outermost planet of the Baal System.Faced with a terrible war on at least two fronts, Lord Commander Dante of the Blood Angels makes swift preparation, uniting many Imperial and non-Human worlds under the banner of survival. Even some former foes can be counted in Dante's alliance, though whether or not they can be entirely trusted is another matter. |
Age of the Imperium - 13th Black Crusade, 999.M41: In 995.999.M41, Abaddon the Despoiler, the Warmaster of Chaos, launched the 13th Black Crusade out of the Eye of Terror with the intent to seize the world of Cadia and the surrounding worlds of the Cadian Gate it defends. This would allow the forces of Chaos to assault the heart of the Imperium for the first time since the Horus Heresy.The forces of the Chaos Gods read like a roll call from epic battles of past ages. Always in the vanguard are the Black Legion, followed by the Death Guard, World Eaters, Alpha Legion, Thousand Sons, Night Lords and others from the annals of the Imperium's blackest days. Legions and Renegade Chapters of Space Marines long thought extinct renew their assaults on the realm of the hated Corpse Emperor.Before them run infected, plague-ridden Chaos Cultists, deranged mutants and traitorous scum in numbers too great to be counted. Behind them tower Daemon Princes, Daemonhosts and other Warp creatures eager for the slaughter to be found in the mortal realm.Astropaths everywhere cringe to open their minds to receive messages, for the Empyrean rings with mind-splitting peals, possibly the sound of the myriad tears ripping in the barrier between the Materium and the Warp, or perhaps it is simply the laughter of the Dark Gods.The Imperium is forced to mobilise the largest military force in its history since the Heresy to meet the massive Chaos assault. After a gruelling campaign with a death toll that spirals into the trillions, Abaddon the Despoiler succeeds in tearing down the strange pylons that for millions of standard years had held the Cadian Gate as a stable region of space by using the damaged Blackstone Fortress Will of Eternity as an artificial meteorite to assault the Fortress World.Despite the best efforts of the Imperium's staunchest defenders -- including the Black Templars, Imperial Fists, Dark Angels and Space Wolves -- the Fortress World of Cadia, lynchpin of the defences surrounding the Cadian Gate, eventually falls and a wave of Warp Storms roars into being across the length of the galaxy.Though reinforcements continue to arrive for both sides, Imperial forces begin a great exodus while battles still rage throughout the sector.Strange events, the appearance of the ancient Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl and a cryptic alliance with a mysterious Aeldari religious faction known as the Ynnari conspire to awaken the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman from his millennia-long slumber in a stasis chamber during the Ultramar Campaign of the 13th Black Crusade.The Primarch is immediately embroiled in battle as a Chaos assault by the Black Legion as Abaddon attempts to prevent his return, though Guilliman successfully drives the servants of the Dark Gods from Ultramar, for a time. |
Age of the Imperium - Terran Crusade, 999.M41: Guilliman embarked upon the successful Terran Crusade through many tribulations to return to Terra and meet with his father the Emperor for the first time in ten thousand standard years.What passes between them is unknown, but when he emerges from the Imperial Palace, Guilliman initiates plans for Imperial survival, such as the creation of the Primaris Space Marines, that he first set into motion in the days immediately after the end of the Horus Heresy. |
Age of the Imperium - The Great Devourer Comes, 999.M41: But even as Cadia falls and a Primarch returns to the Imperium, the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan march ever closer to Terra, drawn by the light and power of the Astronomican in the Warp inevitably towards the heart of the Imperium.The heroism of the Space Marines and the Inquisition manage to slow down the progression of the massive hive fleet, but its ultimate objective is never in doubt. |
Age of the Imperium - Threat to the Throne, 999.M41: With doom looming over the Imperium, the Adeptus Mechanicus learned a terrifying secret in 986.999.M41: the mechanisms of the Golden Throne have begun to fail and they no longer possess the knowledge required to repair that ancient piece of technology.Unless something can be done, the God-Emperor will die and then Humanity will face the coming darkness alone... |
Age of the Imperium - The Great Rift Opens: Soon after the fall of Cadia, reality tears itself apart from the Hadex Anomaly at the core of the Jericho Reach in the Eastern Fringe, to the furthest star system of the Segmentum Obscurus. From that hole come Warp Storms not seen since the Age of Strife, cutting off the galactic north from Terra and initiating a new historical era later named the "Era Indomitus."The initial period, known as the Noctis Aeterna -- or the Blackness -- is terrible indeed. For a time, all Warp travel is impossible and the far-spread planets of the Imperium are isolated, with no travel or astropathic communication between them. Worlds in their hundreds fall before the ensuing Chaos onslaught. The pulsing Cicatrix Maledictum spreads like an impenetrable curtain, robbing entire systems of the holy light of Terra.A chain reaction of Warp cataclysms rips across the Imperium, plunging its worlds into disaster and awakening the dormant powers of latent psykers across the galaxy. Countless civilisations are lost to daemonic incursions as the galaxy burns. To those on the Terran side of the rift, it is a tainted scar stretching across the sky. To those unfortunates on the far side, in the region now named the Imperium Nihilus, the "Dark Imperium," it is something much worse -- the very gates of Hell.No one fully understands the origins of the Great Rift, though there are many theories: the breach of the Cadian Gate during the Despoiler's recent 13th Black Crusade, the sorcery of the Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red during the Thousand Sons' invasion of the Fenris System, catastrophe in the Webway, the birth of Ynnead, the Aeldari God of the Dead, mass bloodshed and fire in the Damocles Gulf, the resurrection of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman -- all may have caused or contributed to it. |
Age of the Imperium - The Battle of Lion's Gate: As the first Warp Storms broke over Holy Terra, its pollution-filled skies turned a roiling crimson. Khorne, heedless of the plans of his brothers and hungry to prove his superiority, sent forth eighty-eight cohorts of his daemon legions to assault the Imperial Palace. The Blood God wanted the glory of tearing down the Golden Throne for himself, and so the skies of Terra congealed into bloodclouds that deployed the Red Host directly before the Lion's Gate.The gun batteries of the Imperial Palace are second to none, yet they alone could not halt this red tide. Led by Roboute Guilliman, the newly reappointed Lord Commander of the Imperium, the Primaris Space Marines, Adeptus Custodes and Sisters of Silence fought side by side. Although the rash Chaos assault was turned back and broken long before it could reach the Eternity Gate to the Inner Palace, the High Lords of Terra were shakenat the boldness of the foe. Without the beam of the Astronomican, their arcane machinery and protective devices were not enough to halt the fell powers from materialising even on Holy Terra. Khorne, upon receiving the returning forms of his slain, grew so apoplectic in his rage that his fortress in the Realm of Chaos trembled. So great was the heat from his outburst that the essences of the eight Bloodthirsters that led the failed attack were wholly obliterated. |
Age of the Imperium - Indomitus: After his defence of Holy Terra, Roboute Guilliman gathered a new armada that he named the Indomitus Crusade, the largest concentration of Imperial military forces seen since the original Great Crusade over ten thousand standard years before. Along with elements of the Adeptus Custodes, a small contingent of the Silent Sisterhood, and a vast war host of Primaris Space Marines from many newly founded Chapters and the Legions of the Unnumbered Sons, the Primarch set a winding course.Strike forces from over a dozen pre-existing Chapters of Space Marines, led by the Imperial Fists, joined the fleet. Thus began many new legends as Guilliman travelled to aid beleaguered planets, breaking sieges and sweeping away Chaos and xenos invaders alike to bring hope back to the desperate defenders. It was not long before word began to spread, as all those planets that could still receive astropathic messages hailed the return of a hero out of myth.Once more, one of the demigods of the past fought for the Imperium of Man. The Indomitus Crusade would reach its end over a century into the 42nd Millennium at the Battle of Raukos. Afterwards, Guilliman would turn his attention to helping his Realm of Ultramar defeat the forces of the Death Guard Traitor Legion and the servants of Nurgle in the Plague Wars. |
Age of the Imperium - War of Beasts: The strategically located Hive World of Vigilus linked the Imperium Nihilus with the Imperium Sanctus through the Nachmund Gauntlet, one of the only known stable passes through the Great Rift.Realising the importance of this planet to the survival of the Imperium, it was assaulted by multiple xenos and Chaos forces, including the Black Legion under the command of Abaddon the Despoiler. The conflict became known as the War of Beasts.Though the Despoiler's invasion was ultimately defeated by warriors drawn from multiple Space Marine Chapters under the command of the Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar, Vigilus remained a world largely under siege from Ork, Drukhari and Genestealer Cult factions. |
Age of the Imperium - Devastation of Baal: After sacrificing the Shieldworlds of the Cryptus System to fend off the xenos' earliest advance on the Baal System, the planet of Baal itself came under intense attack by Hive Fleet Leviathan. The Tyranid Hive Fleet was of such mass, even after its considerable losses, that it blotted the stars from the skies. Lord Commander Dante bolstered the formidable defences of the Blood Angels' homeworld and its moons like never before. Not one to await attack, he also sent forth scores of preemptive strike forces to delay, mislead, and whittle down the living armada. Hundreds of splinter fleets were thus defeated. Dante's call, beseeching the Blood Angels' Successors to send immediate aid to their parent Chapter, did not go unheeded. The Flesh Tearers were the first to arrive, and ultimately all the Successor Chapters save the Lamenters answered the call. Even the Knights of Blood, who had been declared Excommunicate Traitoris by the High Lords of Terra, arrived to bolster the defences. It was still not enough.Learning at an exponential rate, Hive Fleet Leviathan could not be thwarted by the same strategy twice. Advancing steadily, their superior numbers cleared the entire surrounding sector of life before the xenos made planetfall upon Baal and her twin moons. The first nineteen waves, each larger than the last, were driven off at great loss to the Blood Angels and their Successor allies. Five Chapter Masters fell in that bitter fighting, three in the Battle at the Dome of Angels alone. The Tyranids began the process of absorbing all biomass from Baal and its moons, absorbing even the radiation-poisoned deserts of Baal Secundus. With their defences in ruin and Baal's moons stripped and broken, the remaining Space Marines retreated back to the rubble of the Blood Angels' sprawling fortress-monastery. There, they prepared for a last stand as the next wave swept downwards. Doom, it seemed, had at last come to the Sons of Sanguinius.It was then that the Great Rift cracked open the galaxy in the wake of the fall of Cadia to the 13th Black Crusade, and the withered Baal System was blasted by the aetheric storms. Although no further attack waves came from the Leviathan Hive Fleet, not a single Imperial defender remained alive upon the last moon, Baal Prime. On Baal itself there were already enough Tyranids there to destroy the Imperial troops many times over. Even with no chance of victory, Commander Dante led his troops, each fighting retreat seemingly more hopeless than the last. As the final perimeter was broken, the stars reappeared. Looking skywards, the Tyranids on the surface of Baal sought contact with their Hive Fleet, but it was gone, replaced by a newly arrived Imperial fleet. Like an angel of vengeance came Roboute Guilliman and his Indomitus Crusade. After many more battles, Baal was finally cleared of the xenos threat. A great rebuilding of both world and Chapter was undertaken, for the Blood Angels and their Successors were sorely needed elsewhere in the beleaguered Imperium. What became of the Leviathan is a mystery, although a clue was found upon the now-barren moon of Baal Prime. Xenos skulls were piled impossibly high in the much-reviled, eight-pillared symbol of one of the Blood Angels' most terrible and ancient nemeses: the Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha and his army of Khornate daemons. |
Age of the Imperium - Talledus War: The Talledus War was a War of Faith fought in the Era Indomitus between the forces of Chaos and the Imperium of Man to defend the Shrine World of Benediction in the Talledus System of the Veritus Sub-sector.Though Benediction was the Chaos forces' primary target, all the inhabited worlds of the system faced a large-scale assault led by the Dark Apostle Kor Phaeron of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion.The Word Bearers, as always, sought to convert the bulk of Humanity to the service and worship of the Chaos Gods. They took great pleasure in furthering this agenda by attacking a world and system that was of such importance to the Imperial state religion that they deemed a fraud.The fall of Talledus and Benediction to Chaos, and the conversion of its people to the true faith of Chaos, were deemed a potentially major milestone in the Word Bearers' plan to throw down the Corpse God of the Imperium and claim Mankind for the Dark Gods.The war proceeded on three fronts, on Benediction, on the Astra Militarum Fortress World of Ghreddask and in the void surrounding the asteroid belt called the Tears of the Emperor at the very edge of the system.On Benediction, the Word Bearers forces commanded by Kor Phaeron nearly seized control of the Grand Honorificum cathedral-city complex. The Loyalists were saved by an unusual phenomenon that was part of the Psychic Awakening when the faith of those gathered in the cathedral summoned forth from the Warp the protective spirits of the sacred Imperial dead.This supernatural force, later remembered as the "Saints' Wall," surrounded the Grand Honorificum in a protective psychic shield and extinguished the grip on reality held by many of the Daemons making up Kor Phaeron's attacking army. This miracle allowed a demi-company of Salamanders Astartes to cut the remaining force of Chaos troops in two and establish a new defensive perimeter for the cathedral complex.On Ghreddask, the intervention of a Black Templars strike force destroyed the Soul Harvester mobile fortress-factory that had left the Imperial defenders at a loss, though the suicidal counterassault cost the life of the Astartes commander, Castellan Dramos.In the void, within the Tears of the Emperor, a piratical Night Lords fleet commanded by the battleship Nightmare of Celyx sought to draw in Imperial military and commercial shipping translating into the system from the Warp by using captured Imperial astropaths to throw off their Navigators' abilities. The Night Lords then took the spoils and reaped with great pleasure the terror of their victims.The arrival of Vanguard Marines from the White Scars' 10th Brotherhood turned the tables on the Heretic Astartes pirates. Their hit-and-run strikes soon transformed into a vicious, void-based guerilla war as each side tried to lure the other into ambushes. The White Scars succeeded in blunting the Night Lords' attacks on incoming Imperial shipping, but were unable to annihilate the Chaos raiding force entirely.Though the Imperium has so far managed to blunt the Chaos assault on the Talledus System on every front, the conflict is far from over. |
Age of the Imperium - The Plague Wars: The Plague Wars were an attempt by the Daemonic and Heretic Astartes forces of the Chaos God Nurgle, including the Daemon Primarch Mortarion and his Death Guard Traitor Legion, to conquer the Realm of Ultramar and add it to the Plague God's growing realm in realspace. The Plague Wars began at some point after the birth of the Great Rift and the onset of the Noctis Aeterna and ended in ca. 012.M42, after Primarch Roboute Guilliman successfully ended the first phase of his Indomitus Crusade to stabilise the Imperium Sanctus at the Battle of Raukos and brought Imperial reinforcements to defend Ultramar.To the galactic north of Ultramar, the followers of the Chaos God Nurgle first established dominion in the Scourge Stars soon after the success of the 13th Black Crusade in precipitating the fall of Cadia. From this hive of corruption, armies of Nurglite daemons poured forth, accompanied by the traitorous Death Guard Legion along with Renegades and Chaos Cultists beyond count. Three loathsome spearheads pushed into Ultramar, attacking along a hundred fronts and bringing with them unnatural pestilence. The defenders of Ultramar -- Astartes and mortal alike -- fought bravely, but quickly lost ground. Ultramarine Primaris Space Marines of the Ultima Founding arrived not long after the successful completion of the resurrected Primarch Roboute Guilliman's Terran Crusade from Terra aboard Fleet Avenger to reinforce their brethren, but even these transhuman reinforcements could only slow the attackers' progress.By ca. 012.M42 the Imperial defenders all across Ultramar were depleted in dozens of ground campaigns, while a Plague Fleet systematically destroyed the realm's Ultramar Defence Fleet and star fortresses. Guilliman returned from the Indomitus Crusade after over a standard century of campaigning to stabilise the Imperium, and his deft and defensive manoeuvres bought time to launch what became known as the "Spear of Espandor" counterattack. The combined plague armies were eventually fought to a standstill amongst the ruins of Iax, before the Death Guard Daemon Primarch Mortarion escaped with his forces back to the Scourge Stars under cover of a Virus Bomb attack, both because of his brother's staunch defence and because Nurgle's realm in realspace had come under assault by the forces of the Blood God Khorne.In a brief respite from the work of safeguarding the Emperor's realm after Mortarion's defeat, Guilliman ordered the rebuilding and decontamination of Ultramar, as well as the establishing of new procedures for creating further Ultramarines. It was not long before new Imperial Crusades called the Lord Commander of the Imperium away from Ultramar and back out into the dark galaxy. The Ultramarines then began the work of preparing their vengeance against the servants of the Dark Gods. |
Age of the Imperium - Fourth Tyrannic War: The Fourth Tyrannic War began in the Era Indomitus, when the largest mass of Hive Fleet Leviathan yet encountered attacked the Western Reaches of the Segmentum Pacificus, seeking to strike at a relatively undefended region of the galaxy while the defenders of the Imperium were otherwise engaged with the forces of Chaos emanating out of the Great Rift.The great Tyranid assault began with the coordinated attack from above and below the galactic plane by three new tendrils of the Leviathan dubbed Hive Fleet Nautilon, Hive Fleet Promethor, and Hive Fleet Grendyllus, respectively, by the Imperium. The two tendrils were moving in parallel towards their ultimate goal of Terra in the Segmentum Solar, and with the Imperium distracted by the demands of the Indomitus Crusade few Human forces initially were available to stand against it. |
Aggressor - Aggressor: An Aggressor, who is usually a member of an Aggressor Squad, is an Adeptus Astartes fire support specialist unique to formations of Primaris Space Marines.Aggressors are tasked with close-range fire support and have been outfitted with modified suits of Mark X Gravis Power Armour refitted to carry a shoulder-mounted Fragstorm Grenade Launcher.They also wield Flamestorm Gauntlets that unleash blazing streams of promethium upon any foes that get in close -- or can be used to wade into the mobs of the enemy and unleash an inferno that burns them all to ash.The Space Marines in a Chapter's fire support squads have a vital role, for they provide covering fire to their battleline and close support brethren. This could be in the form of assassination of prime targets, counter-battery volleys, or the destruction of enemy armour. By their target selection, marksmanship, and the timely application of firepower are countless battles won.Clad in heavy Mark X Gravis battle-plate, Aggressor Squads advance upon the foe as walking fortresses of ceramite. Each member is equipped with a pair of Boltstorm Gauntlets, meaning an Aggressor Squad can lay down a hail of bolt fire.Aided by back-mounted Grenade Launchers, an Aggressor Squad can wade into oncoming enemies, mowing a bloody path through even the largest of hordes. Should a foe actually have enough bodies to sacrifice so that living members can finally reach the source of the onslaught, they are met by Space Marines swinging paired Power Fists. Very few live to tell the tale.More mobile than the heavily armoured Centurions due to their sophisticated Gravis armour, Aggressors are better able to negotiate rough ground. This makes them a more versatile troop type; while they are often employed in specific circumstances or on certain terrain, Aggressor Squads are also used as reserves to plug breaches in gun lines or to spearhead an advance.In dense environments, such as within a hive city or under the canopy of a forested area, Devastator Squads would find their long-ranged weapons of little value. Such terrain suits Aggressor Squads to a tee, however, as they are perfectly suited to firing on the move. The range of their weaponry is not long, but when they get close enough to open fire, the result is a sweeping fusillade of large-calibre Bolter shells that can shatter enemy charges.For especially dense terrain, or when facing foes that cover the ground in great number, Aggressor Squads will wear paired Flamestorm Gauntlets. When equipped this way, their armour's raised shoulder guards protect against the inevitable flame backwash as they stride forward, their arms sending sweeping arcs of fire billowing out.Fire flickers like a hellish wreath about their armour as the Aggressor Squad advances, their weapon barrels glowing like embers in the smoking gloom. Ork hordes and Tyranid swarms alike are incinerated, their brittle and blackened bones crackling to dust underneath the tread of the Aggressors as they march straight into where the fighting is thickest. Some have said the Aggressors live for such moments, and dwell over-long upon them.Since being introduced during the Ultima Founding and Roboute Guilliman's reworking of the Codex Astartes after his resurrection in ca. 999.M41, the Aggressor Squads have proven themselves as a devastating force many times over.The Iron Hands were quickly converted after they witnessed an Aggressor Squad attached to their 2nd Company wade into a sea of Greenskins, their blazing guns stitching patterns of death that riddled mob after mob with fist-sized holes. The Black Templars, ever eager to advance upon the foe rather than sit back and shoot, have had great success fielding Aggressor Squads alongside their Crusader Squads. |
Aggressor - Role: Living up to their designation, Aggressors form the most belligerent of all Primaris Space Marine squads. Their hulking suits of Mark X Gravis Power Armour and resilient physiques allow them to withstand punishing hails of enemy fire, into which they typically advance with complete disdain. Indeed, the relentless advance of an Aggressor Squad is a psychological weapon in its own right, for panic spreads quickly through the enemy ranks when these walking tanks stride inexorably through the heaviest fire the foe can muster without so much as slowing.Though slower than their Intercessor brethren, Aggressors excel in short-ranged firefights, where their pugnacious suite of weaponry can pile the bodies high in a matter of moments. When equipped with Boltstorm Gauntlets and Fragstorm Grenade Launchers, the Aggressors sow rippling explosions through the enemy lines, shredding the foe in a blizzard of blood and shrapnel.Conversely, when armed with Flamestorm Gauntlets the Aggressors engulf their victims in a point-blank inferno that can clear a bunker complex or scour a trench line in solar seconds. In either case, their crushing fists make short work of those enemies foolish enough to engage them hand-to-hand, while also allowing these warriors to stave in a ferrocrete bulkhead or crush a tank's tracks with a single thunderous punch. |
Aggressor - Salamanders Aggressors: No Chapter has made better use of Aggressor Squads than the Salamanders. On the battlefields of Tulsar, it was an Aggressor Squad that ensured Captain Tu'shan did not meet his end at the axe-blade of Khaz'khul.In the Prime Hive of Ultak, it was the 3rd Company's Aggressor Squad that pitted their flames against the blue fire of Tzeentch's Horrors, allowing the planetary governor and his council to escape to safety.Like the fabled reptilian creatures of Nocturne after which the Salamanders were named, the Aggressor Squads of the Salamanders emerge out of their own flames, their weapons, armour and red eyes glowing bright. One squad assigned to the 3rd Company -- the Pyroclasts -- has already earned their squad's honorific name in the fires of war. While combating the Ork WAAAGH! of Warlord Gharka, this Aggressor Squad used their Flamestorm Gauntlets to ignite an entire mob of onrushing Ork Skorchas.The Greenskins' crude flamethrowers could not stand the heat, and their tanks of promethium exploded in a conflagration that spread across the battlefield, engulfing Orks by the hundreds. In the gloom beneath that mushroom cloud the ash fell like a black blizzard, but emerging from that hell, still wreathed in flame, were the Pyroclasts' Aggressor Squad. In the wake of their victory, the squad were rechristened as "the Infernal." |
Aggressor - Unit Composition: 2-5 Aggressors1 Aggressor Sergeant |
Aggressor - Wargear: Mark X Gravis Power Armour (Modified) - This variant of Mark X Gravis Power Armour has been modified to include a shoulder-mounted Fragstorm Grenade Launcher and the ammunition feed mechanisms for Boltstorm Gauntlets or the promethium feeder mechanisms for Flamestorm Gauntlets.2 Boltstorm Gauntlets - A Boltstorm Gauntlet is a Power Fist that incorporates a bolter and is used by the Primaris Space Marines, combining a potent melee weapon with the capacity for excellent ranged damage.Fragstorm Grenade Launcher - The Fragstorm Grenade Launcher is deployed for use as an anti-personnel fragmentation weapon by squads of Aggressors from shoulder mounts affixed to their Mark X Gravis Power Armour.2 Flamestorm Gauntlets (Optional replacements for all other armaments) - Flame Gauntlets are a new type of Flamer Weapon developed for use by the Primaris Space Marines. Flame Gauntlets are designed to unleash blazing streams of Promethium upon any foes that get in close, and are a weapon often used by Primaris Space Marine Aggressor Squads. Though their units are intended to provide heavy, long-range fire support, Aggressors use Flame Gauntlets to slay any foes who move into close combat range. |
Aggressor - Sources: Codex Adeptus Astartes - Deathwatch (8th Edition), pg. 39Codex Adeptus Astartes - Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 76-77, 157Codex: Space Marines (8th Edition) (Revised Codex), pp. 75, 140Dark Imperium (Novel) by Guy Haley, Ch. 18Warhammer Community - Primaris Space Marines: GamingWarhammer Community - A New Breed of HeroWarhammer Community - Primaris Space Marines: FAQ.Codex: Space Marines Primaris EditionBell of Lost Souls - Using Aggressors the GW Way |
Aghoru Campaign - Aghoru Campaign: The Aghoru Campaign was an Imperial Compliance action carried out by the then-loyal Thousand Sons and a small contingent of the Space Wolves Legion in the waning years of the Great Crusade, sometime in the early 31st Millennium. Though Imperial Compliance was successfully accomplished through diplomacy and considered a success, some notable combat action took place between the Thousand Sons and an apparent Warp denizen infestation (beings known to the local population as "Elohim") within the subterranean passages of a titanic peak known as "The Mountain") which the Space Wolves helped to put down. |
Aghoru Campaign - History: The world of Aghoru was the fifth planet in a star system of otherwise Dead Worlds, discovered by the Thousand Sons' 28th Expeditionary Fleet at the height of the Great Crusade. Aghoru soon proved to be home to an underdeveloped culture of human inhabitants, also known as the Aghoru, who possessed little to no knowledge of science. The Imperial Compliance of Aghoru (officially codified in Imperial records as planet 28-16) was an action carried out by units of the Thousand Sons Legion that was achieved through diplomacy and was considered a success. Interestingly, the human population possessed ancient legends of a race of elder beings known as the "Elohim" (which might be analogous to the Eldar). According to their mythology, a perverted and corrupt daemonic force, known as the "Daiesthai," who had succumbed to the corruption of the Elohim's self-obsession and hedonistic excesses, was imprisoned within the massive, artificially-constructed peak, designated by the Thousand Sons as "The Mountain." This titanic peak was set in a salt plain at the edge of a valley and rose larger than the tallest peak of Olympus Mons on Mars. Surrounding the base of The Mountain were scattered circles of raised stones, designated as "deadstones," each rising taller than three men. These deadstones served as a tool to blunt the psychic forces surrounding the artificial peak.The Thousand Sons Primarch Magnus the Red was enthralled by the planet's mountain and the tomb of the dormant Daiesthai. Upon further investigation within the artificial mountain, Magnus discovered that it was some kind of gateway with a web-like network of conceptual conduits, containing billions of pathways between worlds. Unfortunately, Aghoru's link to the network had become corrupted by the Warp and was ultimately sealed.During the Thousand Sons' time on Aghoru, somehow Khalophis, a Captain of the Thousand Sons 6th Fellowship (Company), seemingly awoke the mysterious force when he struck the base of one of the mountain's guardian Titans (which resembled Eldar Titans, though this has not been explicitly confirmed). Roused from their millennia-long slumber by the corrupt force of The Mountain, the valley's guardian Titans awoke and began to attack. The Titans were only defeated through the combined efforts of the Crimson King, his Thousand Sons and a contingent of Space Wolves, who had recently arrived to support the campaign in the Ark Reach Cluster. In the battle's aftermath, Magnus explained that the Warp denizens they had encountered were, in reality, daemons, among the most dangerous of the inhabitants of the "Great Ocean". |
Agoniser - Agoniser: An Agoniser is an extremely sophisticated Drukhari weapon that drives a victim's sensorium haywire, causingexcruciatingly severe pain as nerves burn out from bioelectrical overload. Though Agonisers come in a variety offorms, the most common are toxin-soaked whips or barbed flails.The larger the creature, the greater the potential for pain-infliction. Agonisers have the ability to harm vehicles as well, potentially disabling the crew or disrupting the vehicle's electronic systems. |
Agri-World - Agri-World: An Agri-World is a planet of the Imperium of Man entirely dedicated to the production of agricultural products. Many planets of the Imperium, such as Forge Worlds and Hive Worlds, are completely incapable of sustaining the sheer number of people who live and work on them.To feed these people, as well as the vast armies of the Astra Militarum, many planets have been completely transformed into giant farms. Most of these planets have populations of less than 100 million people and possess only a few major cities.These farming planets, in their own way, are as vital to the Imperium as its hive cities. They are given over entirely to the production of food, which Hive Worlds cannot produce in sufficient quantities to keep their huge populations from starving.Many a world has whole continents given over to livestock or fields of crops. Some Agri-Worlds are covered in oceans teeming with fish and a few are far stranger -- worlds covered in edible fungus, scoured by swarms of nutritious insects or are gas giants whose upper atmospheric layers are home to flocks of edible or egg-producing flying creatures.A few planets are used solely to provide clean, potable water to nearby Hive Worlds. Agri-Worlds are sometimes ruled directly by the Adeptus Administratum rather than by their own local planetary government, to help ensure that their produce is grown and harvested with maximum efficiency. |
Agri-World - Life on an Agri-World: Those who toil on Agri-Worlds provide the Imperium's countless billions of subjects one of their essential resources: food. The Adeptus Administratum classifies planets to this task based on desirable climates, native livestock, or other natural factors.On other Agri-Worlds, artificial aspects dominate, such as sheltered hydroponic lakes, floating fields suspended in hollowed-out planetoids, or algae vats buried deep within irradiated mountains. In all cases, their populations are devoted to a single cause: feeding the Imperium.Even the slightest crop failure or livestock plague can doom other worlds to horrific starvation or collapse an Imperial warfront, thus making their often-overlooked efforts vital for humanity's survival.Though Agri-Worlds are each devoted to growing and gathering foodstuffs for a ravenous Imperium, each is unique in the ways it goes about this, as well as the actual items it produces and exports. Many rely on staples though, as these are relatively simple to grow, store, manipulate, and process into a variety of forms for human consumption across the galaxy.Some concentrate on rarer items and delicacies that can only be produced on that planet, foods bound for the tables of the connected and powerful. In time, most become renowned for certain exports, as Kalto is for padonus rice or Cel is for its mhoxen.Few Agri-Worlders, however, share in these bounties from their cultivated fields or packed corrals, and often subsist on discarded grains or meats unsuitable for processing. Agrarian workforces can be anchored to working a single field, often developing such devotion to their produce that new religious sects can spring up like the plants themselves.Others might continually travel the surface, following local growing seasons to descend like attacking armies on fields ripe for harvest, and scouring the landscape to remove every morsel of grain, stalk, or other edible life. More voracious than any swarm, they leave behind nothing but barren soil before marching off to eradicate the next territory.On some planets, especially where there is a strong Adeptus Mechanicus presence, labourers with bionic scythe-limbs might work alongside monotask harvest Servitors while Combat Servitors patrol the fields and use their Heavy Stubbers to discourage marauding creatures.Produce fields vary in size and shape, including precisely-designed acreages based on ancient decrees, patterns to venerate revered Imperial Saints, or wild forms based on the seasonal whims of their rulers. Some fields are not on the land at all, such as plankton farms that reap the oceans or underground fungi caverns.Other Agri-Worlds instead specialise in livestock creatures, from the ubiquitous Grox to unique native beasts that cannot thrive anywhere else. Like the flora these need not be terrestrial, and could include gargantuan sea-beasts larger than starships, or sky-blackening clouds of protein-rich insects. In some cases these planets might import base fodder, or cultivate hydroponic algae and vat-grown lesh, just to feed these fauna until the beasts are harvested.Working on any Agri-World, no matter its produce, is harsh and remorseless. There are always fields to till, crops to tend, harvests to conduct, or beasts to oversee. Even in artificial pastures, algae vats must be seeded and skimmed of their precious yields in continual cycles.This subservience to natural processes breeds strong individuals who readily apply their muscles to any problem. It is somewhat rare for them to leave their homeworld, but those who do can find many new uses across the Imperium.Agri-Worlds often supply the bulk of their Imperial Tithes in edible produce rather than manpower, given their relatively low populations and the importance of their exports. Still, the Astra Militarum is known to draw in Agri-World natives, especially in times of invasion for nearby planets.Some Agri-Worlders might develop an affinity for machinery, after much experience working with auto-scythes or harvest crawlers, and could be noticed for recruitment into the Cult Mechanicus. The Ecclesiarchy calls to others, from their years spent intoning prayers to the God-Emperor for successful harvests.The endless tabulations of harvest output, seed usage, or other essential organisational recording can indicate a talent perfectly suited to the Adeptus Administratum and a vital posting anywhere across the Imperium.The curse of mutation is also present, though less often confronted and eradicated. Agri-Worlds, with lower population densities, allow the afflicted to more easily hide deformities or elude watchful eyes. |
Agri-World - Notable Agri-Worlds: Planet NameSegmentumSectorSub-SectorSystemPopulationAexe CardinalSegmentum PacificusSabbat WorldsUnknownUnknownUnknownAcreSegmentum ObscurusGothic SectorPort MawUnknown3,000,000BalaamSegmentum ObscurusGothic SectorBhein MorrUnknownUnknownBadlandingSegmentum TempestusLoki SectorUnknownUnknownUnknownBellis XIVUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownBoonhavenSegmentum PacificusUnknownUnknownCabulis SystemUnknownCalthSegmentum UltimaUnknownRealm of UltramarVeridia SystemUnknown, in the billionsChirosSegmentum PacificusUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownColchaSegmentum PacificusUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownCurwenUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownCyrus VulpaSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorGolgenna ReachUnknownUnknownDanik's WorldUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownDenerairSegmentum ObscurusGothic SectorBhein MorrUnknown5,000,000Dinorwyc ClusterSegmentum ObscurusCadian SectorUnknownUnknownUnknownDreahSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorMarkayn MarchesDreahUnknownDrakuluSegmentum ObscurusGothic SectorGethsemaneUnknownUnknownEden PrimeUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownElectrisSegmentum ObscurusGothic SectorPort MawUnknown3,000,000EpirusSegmentum TempestusOrpheus SectorUnknownUnknownUnknownErebusSegmentum ObscurusGothic SectorGethsemaneUnknown4.5 millionFleishgateUnknownUnknownUnknownMawdlin SystemUnknownFlintSegmentum ObscurusScarus SectorAngelus Sub-sectorUnknown28 millionFourthedenSegmentum ObscurusFourtheden SystemPeriphery Sub-sectorUnknownUnknownGathSegmentum ObscurusGothic SectorGethsemaneUnknown3 millionGereonSegmentum PacificusSabbat WorldsKhan GroupUnknownUnknownGheistosUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownMillionsGravalaxUltima SegmentumUnknownDamocles GulfUnknownUnknownHagiaSegmentum PacificusSabbat WorldsUnknownUnknownUnknownHesiod's WorldSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorHazeroth AbyssUnknownUnknownHilarionSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorHazeroth AbyssUnknown750,000,000IaxUltima SegmentumUnknownUltramarIax SystemUnknownIocanthosSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorGolgenna ReachUnknown5,000,000,000Jumael IVUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownKabaal IIUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownKaggeranSegmentum UltimaJericho ReachArkalas ClusterUnknownUnknownKaltoSegmentum ObscurusAskellon SectorUnknownUnknownUnknownKeffiaUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownKerrackSegmentum UltimaVarsavus SectorUnknownUnknown19,500,000Khai-ZhanSegmentum ObscurusCadian SectorUnknownUnknown4,000,000KroolSegmentum ObscurusGothic SectorBhein MorrUnknown1,000,000MagogSegmentum UltimaJericho ReachCharon StarsMagog SystemUnknownMasaliUltima SegmentumUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownMalvolionUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownDeadManuxetSegmentum UltimaJericho ReachUnknownUnknownUnknownMasaliUltima SegmentumUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownNethamusSegmentum UltimaUnknownUltramarKonor SystemUnknownNovabellaSegmentum ObscurusAskellon SectorThule Sub-sectorUnknownUnknownNuminalSegmentum ObscurusCoronid DeepsCoronid ReachNuminal System40,000,000NumitorSegmentum ObscurusGothic SectorBhein MorrUnknown5,000,000Orbel QuillSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorMalfian Sub-sectorUnknownUnknownPearl MoonSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorMarkayn MarchesKarrik System3.5 million (Humans and Abhumans)PercipreSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorHazeroth AbyssUnknownUnknownPeregrim's WorldUnknownAffluix SectorUnknownUnknownUnknownPicusSegmentum ObscurusGothic SectorOrar Sub-SectorUnknownUnknownQuintarnUltima SegmentumUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownRegulusSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorHazeroth AbyssUnknownUnknownRynn's WorldUltima SegmentumLoki SectorUnknownRynnstar SystemUnknownSamax IVUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownVery SmallSan LeorUltima SegmentumUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownSaras VIISegmentum PacificusSaras SectorUnknownUnknownUnknownSharlorUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownSiculiSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorAdrantisTephaine SystemUnknownSigma-AgriusSegmentum ObscurusAgrippina SectorUnknownUnknownUnknownSilvanos IIUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownSovereignSegmentum UltimaJericho ReachUnknownUnknownUnknownSpectorisSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorDrusus MarchesUnknownUnknownStygian PrimeSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorHazeroth AbyssUnknownUnknownTanithSegmentum PacificusSabbat WorldsUnknownUnknownDeadTarentusUltima SegmentumUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownTarsis UltraUltima SegmentumUnknownUnknownTarsis Ultra SystemDeadTephaine MinorSegmentum ObscurusCalixis SectorAdrantisTephaine SystemUnknownValleninUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownVerdan IIIUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownVerstapSegmentum ObscurusGothic SectorCyclop ClusterUnknown4.2 million humansVespasiaSegmentum UltimaJericho ReachCharon StarsUnknownUnknownViridiaUltima SegmentumUnknownDamocles GulfViridia SystemUnknownVictrix SonoraSegmentum SolarUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownYama EndaSegmentum ObscurusGothic SectorGethsemane Unknown1.2 million Humans |
Agripinaa - Agripinaa: Agripinaa, known as the "Orb of a Million Scars," is an Imperial Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World located in the Agripinaa System of the Agripinaa Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus of the Milky Way Galaxy. Virtually the entire surface of this world is covered with industrialised infrastructure, pipelines, factories, mines, refineries, processing plants, and manufactorum cathedrals.Like most other planets in the Agripinaa Sector, this world primarily provides materials for the Cadian front and its industrial heartland is solely engaged in the production of ammunition. Its hive cities are sealed due to the world's highly toxic atmosphere, a result of the extreme industrial pollution. Located near the Eye of Terror and assaulted by the Chaos forces of Abaddon the Despoiler during the 13th Black Crusade, Agripinaa did not weather the attacks of the forces of Chaos well and much of its industrial heartland was laid to waste.As Agripinaa exists upon the threshold of the Eye of Terror, it was long protected by the Fortress World of Cadia and its bastion system of well-garrisoned planets. With the Fall of Cadia, however, those days are gone. Since Chaos forces stormed into the sector following the opening of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus, Agripinaa has been besieged dozens of times.The Forge World and its technological marvels have long been coveted by Warpsmiths of the Traitor Legions, and its surface bears the wounds of untold clashes with Obliterator Cults, Daemon Engines, even the grotesque Chaos Titans. Although the entropic forces of Chaos have always been the enemy of the Imperium, the defenders of Agripinaa reserve a special hatred for the twisted minions of the Dark Gods.Despite its Tech-priests having become experts in defensive warfare, the Forge World has only managed to fend off the relentless invasions thanks to a massive expansion in its ranks of Skitarii and Battle Servitors and the heroic aid of its native Titan Legion, the Legio Praesidium Vortex. Most of these reinforcements are recruited from those fleeing the destruction of the Chaos attacks. Cut off by rampant Warp Storms, entire fleets of escape craft often arrive in Agripinaa's orbit.Of course, many choose starvation over the cruel machine fusions of the Cult Mechanicus, but still millions of new troops are being recruited -- fresh legions to stave off the assaults and to join the battles that continue to rage throughout the system. |
Agripinaa - History: The early history of Agripinaa is not well known to Imperial scholars, but it was likely discovered and colonised like most other Forge Worlds by early Mechanicum Explorators some time during the Age of Strife and not rediscovered by the Imperium until the Great Crusade era.Agripinaa has always been at the forefront of the Imperium's wars against the encroaching darkness of Chaos. Agripinaa exists upon the threshold of the Eye of Terror, located in the Agripinaa Sector, one of the closest Imperial sectors to the once vitally important Fortress World of Cadia before its fall in ca. 999.M41 and the Cadian Gate, the only stable Warp route that led out of the Eye of Terror and into the realm of the Imperium.Whenever a Black Crusade surged forth from the Eye of Terror, Agripinaa met it with all the tremendous firepower at its disposal. Despite having committed a large portion of its strength to the war for the Cadian Gate, Agripinaa's duties were not purely those of a shield for the wider Imperium. The Forge World's Tech-priests have plunged the spear of their fleets deep into the Eye of Terror, seeking to undermine Abaddon's power by razing the soul forges -- the worlds of the Dark Mechanicum that stand in stark mockery of the Omnissiah's creed.Within the Eye, upon the mind-bending cog plateaus of the Dark Mechanicum world of Temporia, Agripinaa's Cohorts Cybernetica and conclaves of Electro-priests trade blasts of lightning with the mechadaemons of Warpsmith Valadrak. The size of Temporia's blasphemous monstrosities beggars belief, but the war machines of Agripinaa are many in number and indomitable in faith. For every wave of terrors the twisted planet heaves into the path of Agripinaa's faithful, another cohort makes planetfall to repel it. Here the might of the Adeptus Mechanicus is tested against a bleak reflection of its own manias and obsessions.Were it not for the stout defences of the Cadian System, Agripinaa would have fallen to the powers of Chaos more than once. The Warpsmiths of the Traitor Legions, long denied the technological wonders unearthed since the Horus Heresy, have led raids beyond counting to Agripinaa -- including several full-scale invasions. The world's once-golden surface bears the wounds of war with Obliterator Cults, Daemon Engines, and even the grotesque Chaos Titans. The aegis of Cadia was not a one-way shield, of course. Agripinaa not only provided arms and armour enough to equip the entire Cadian System, but also committed one of the largest Skitarii Legions in the galaxy to the war effort. |
Agripinaa - 13th Black Crusade: In ca. 999.M41, war came without warning to the Agripinaa Sector during Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade, and the opening moves by the forces of Chaos saw large numbers of plague-ridden space hulks entering Imperial space. Though many were intercepted by the Space Marines and destroyed, some managed to escape the Astartes' attention.Some of these foul vessels of contagion found their way into the Agripinaa Sector, spreading their disease and pestilence amongst the masses throughout the sector. Along with the adjacent Belis Corona Sector, they were some of the first to bear witness to the rise of hordes of infectious, undead zombies that threatened billions of people on many of the Imperial worlds within the sector. This plague was later named the "Plague of Unbelief."Rumour has it that the recent upswell of numbers in Agripinaa's Skitarii and Battle-Servitors is directly connected to a large-scale evacuation from the prison planet of St. Josmane's Hope. Officially, the planet's subsequent Exterminatus expunged every trace of its heresy once and for all.However, there are those who believe Agripinaa's famed Ironstrider Cavalier hordes boast many convicts and rebels, each given one final chance to serve the Omnissiah with their glorious death. |
Agripinaa - Battle of Agripinaa: Four companies of Blood Angels answered the call to defend the Cadian Gate, arriving towards the middle of the conflict. A significant force of Blood Angels immediately fell upon the Chaos hordes assaulting the world of Agripinaa, and they sought out the leader of the attacking forces, the notorious Chaos Champion of Khorne Kossolax the Foresworn and his World Eaters warband, the Foresworn.In an epic confrontation likened to the mythic conflict between the Blood Angels' Primarch Sanguinius and the mighty Bloodthirster Ka'bandha at the closing of the Ultimate Gate of the Imperial Palace during the height of the Horus Heresy at the Siege of Terra, the Blood Angels took the fight directly to the enemy.Kossolax, fully aware that his bodyguard was no match for the frenzied sons of Sanguinius, called upon the slavering Daemons of Khorne for aid. The summoning rite was an act of wanton, traitorous carnage, as the warlord ordered his World Eaters to sacrifice the lives of their Chaos Cultist allies in order to gain the favour of the Blood God.Uncounted thousands were slaughtered in mere solar hours, their blood flowing in rivers through the corridors of Agripinaa's primary hive city, and cascading from ventilation grills as waterfalls of gore. The sacrifice had the desired result, and as the first of the Blood Angels' Veteran Assault Squads screamed into battle, a blasphemous avatar of the Blood God, a Bloodthirster, ripped its way through the skein of reality to confront the sons of Sanguinius.The first Blood Angels to meet the Greater Daemon were torn limb from limb, the beast devouring their sundered bodies as a taunt to their battle-brothers. The remaining Space Marines were sent into paroxysms of rage at such desecration, and threw themselves at the Daemon with no thought for their own safety. At the height of the battle, the Sanguinary High Priest Numitor confronted the Daemon, and dealt it a blow that stunned it for a brief moment. Seizing the advantage, the brothers of the Death Company leapt upon its back, but the Daemon recovered, and severed the high priest's arm with a crack of its long whip.The priest was holding one of the sacred Chapter relics known as a Blood Chalice, which bore an infinitesimal amount of the blood of the Chapter's primarch, and the blessed liquid was spilled across the tarnished paving.At that moment, a deathly still overcame the scene, as the Blood Angels were momentarily shocked beyond action at the sight of their primarch's sacred blood seeping into the ground. Then, the silence was broken, as Numitor staggered to his feet and bellowed the words of the Rite of Exsanguination.The assembled brethren of the Death Company were overcome with visions of the last time their primarch's blood had been spilt by a servant of Chaos, when Sanguinius had fallen at the hands of the Arch-Traitor Horus.The Death Company went berserk. They hacked down the Bloodthirster in a savage, rage-fuelled frenzy, oblivious to the fact that it dragged half their number down with it, before turning their hatred upon the warband of Kossolax the Foresworn.The World Eaters were expelled from Agripinaa at great cost to the Blood Angels, though the annals of the Chapter's history celebrate the casting out of the Greater Daemon. The Chaos Champion Kossolax was not found among the remains of the Heretic Astartes who fell at the hive city, and the Sanguinary High Priest Numitor vowed to hunt him down, no matter the cost. |
Agripinaa - Fleshlings of Sensoria: The Sensorians, a newly formed warband of Slaanesh-worshipping Chaos Space Marines, treated with the Dark Mechanicum in an attempt to pioneer Daemon Engines equipped with suites of Sonic Weapons. In doing so they learned of the sombre Skitarii of the Forge World of Agripinaa, ancestral enemies of the Eye of Terror's Hereteks.Appalled by the notion that the Skitarii voluntarily exchange their flesh for cybernetic replacements, the Emperor's Children staged a grand raid upon the planet under the cover of a Dark Mechanicum invasion. They captured several maniples of Skitarii, overloading their circuits with barrages of intense noise and deafening scrapcode, before bearing them back to the Eye of Terror.There they cut out the Skitarii's bionics and replaced them with fleshy equivalents taken from mutants, from corpses, even from fallen Chaos Spawn, until barely an ounce of metal was left. These so-called "Fleshlings of Sensoria," though driven mad by the process, proved a potent asset in the Long War. |
Agripinaa - Era Indomitus: Agripinaa, the industrial heartland of the Cadian Gate region, lay in ruins by late ca. 999.M41. Though the Imperial Navy controlled its space, many worlds of the surrounding Agripinaa Sector had been lost to anarchy and destruction. By the end of the 13th Black Crusade, the planets Albitern, Amistel, Lelithar, Malm's Reach, Ulthor and Yavor lay in ruins, and a number of other key star systems hung in the balance.Though Agripinaa itself still stands, without the Agri-worlds of Yayor, Ulthor and Dentor, its populace may yet starve to death, and without the vital materials provided by the Hive Worlds of Albitern, Amistel and Tabor, its mighty forges may yet fall silent.Many refugees from the numerous campaigns find temporary safety on the Forge Worlds of Agripinaa and Stygies VIII, where their numbers help repel the Chaos attacks that soon follow. The loss of dozens of Titans, fleets, robots, and entire armies is a devastating and irreplaceable blow. In the wake of the disaster, the High Lords of Terra themselves decreed that all Imperial Forge Worlds were to increase production by any means necessary.The so-called "Herald of Nurgle," Typhus of the Death Guard Traitor Legion, claimed the now-blasted world of Ulthor as his own realm, and the nightmare visions of a thousand astropaths told of the birth of a new Daemon World within the realm of Mankind.Further unconfirmed reports state that one of the Blackstone Fortresses was destroyed by Necron raiders off the shoulder of the Lustitia Belt. Senior members of the Ordo Xenos are en route to the area, and Deathwatch strike cruisers are already engaged in ensuring no vessels other than their own enter the region.Following the Fall of Cadia in the 13th Black Crusade, the forces of Chaos launched a second assault on Agripinaa. Daemon Engines led by many Warpsmiths invaded the Forge World, diseases and maladies ravaged its population, released on the surface from the space hulks that continued to emerge out of the Eye of Terror and then later from the Great Rift after its formation.Hordes of shambling undead crawled from the vents and cog clusters of the world's forge cities. Later the battle was joined by Chaos warfleets of the World Eaters, Night Lords, Black Legion, Thousand Sons and Death Guard Traitor Legions under the command of the World Eaters Chaos Lord Kossolax the Foresworn once more aboard the ancient World Eaters flagship the Conqueror. Even Daemons were now able to manifest at will on the planet due to the proximity of the Cicatrix Maledictum.However, despite all this, the Cadians who had survived the destruction of their world, many of whom dispersed to star systems surrounding the Cadian System like Agripinaa, proved to be the decisive force in once again keeping the Forge World out of the hands of the Ruinous Powers, beginning with a victory in the Battle of Faith's Anchorage. |
Agripinaa - Staunch Defenders: Battle-hardened by constant clashes with the horrors that issue out of the Eye of Terror, those from Forge World Agripinaa have learned the lessons of defensive warfare well. |
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