Campaign 1 - Part 1
This page summarises the events of Part 1 of the current Death Unto Darkness campaign, which ran from 2016-2021.
Pre-Campaign
Near the dawn of time…
Once, we hid from the darkness, from the shadow, and we prayed for the break of Dawn and the coming of the Light upon the pinnacles of the great pyramids we worshipped.
Until we broke the Sky, until we chained the Night.
And the Dark slept in Its prison, and waited.
Eight years ago…
Our story begins in 586.M41, with a gathering.
On the planet Everholt, a world turned over to the pleasure of the Great Noble Houses of the Prosperitas Sector, and its population reduced to being gamekeepers to uncaring Imperial nobles, a triumvirate of the three great Inquisitors of the Prosperitas Sector gathered. They summoned the spoiled, arrogant and disliked Sector Governor Armelius Durovera to them, as they believed that a changeling daemon of the Archenemy was amongst the Governor's staff. They sought to warn him, but, alas, they were wrong…
The shapeshifter was, in fact, among the Inquisitorial retinues - she had always been, patiently waiting for her chance at freedom. She had worn many names, many faces; long ago, she had been mortal but, now that part of her was lost to the eons and to apotheosis. Everholt turned to chaos, as the changeling daemon turned the assets of each Inquisitor against each other, and, in the confusion, murdered them all, as well as Armelius Durovera, whose shape she took.
Event 1: That Which Has No Name
In the wake of the chaos that ensued came several Agents of the Throne - servants of multiple lesser Inquisitors - to investigate the deaths of the great Inquisitors. They realised too late that the Sector Governor had been replaced, as the daemon bid them farewell and stepped upon a shuttle, believing them stranded on the planet.
The Agents attempted to escape the world, some accepting a ride with a strange breed of Orks claiming to be loyal to the Imperium, and others escaping through an ancient gate into the Aeldari webway, guided by a mysterious woman, who claimed to be an Agent of the Emperor.
Both parties carried a warning to their Masters.
Both warnings came too late.
… five years too late.
The twisting vagaries of the Warp conspired against them, and both groups arrived home five years after they left Everholt.
Meanwhile…
When the Agents ran to the Aeldari gate, they took with them several objects recovered from the personal effects of the Inquisitorial triumvirate. Amongst those was a statuette of some ancient being, rendered with a monstrous likeness. And the statuette was kept in the bag of an Agent.
But as they fled, they were set upon by woodland beasts. The Agent carrying the statue fell upon it, shattering seals not broken since the Old Ones walked the universe. Through the cracks on those seals slithered out a blackness, a black so dark that it threatened to snuff out any light it touched, the sliver of an entity so poisonous it had forced alliances between the most ancient of foes to bind it…
Across the shadows of the Sector, it slithered and, eventually, found its way to the whole.
A heartbeat in the dark, long-stilled in eternal slumber, pulsed once more.
Three years ago…
By 592.M41, the shape-shifting daemon had worn the face of Armelius Durovera for five years, and for five years they had re-written the universally disliked Governor. He had changed, and, so, he was loved - no, surrounded by a cult of personality - and had seized control of the Prosperitas Crusade – he was no longer the Sector Governor, he was the Warmaster of the Crusade.
The warnings brought to the Inquisition about Armelius Durovera were not unheeded or ignored, but since they had arrived so late after he had set himself in power so firmly, acting on them was impossible without evidence of the accusations. Having lost its three most influential members, the Prosperitas Conclave was weak and divided and lacking the strength to just remove an individual as powerful as the Warmaster who had the ear of both the military leaders and the Ecclesiarchy.
So, the Inquisition sought, instead, another avenue to unseat the false-Governor, dispatching a team of Agents beyond the Imperium’s edge to find she who could defy him…
Event 2: Marches’ End
On the distant world of Finisterra, un-graced by the light of the God-Emperor, an expeditionary fleet struggled to pacify the unruly population. It was led by the Rogue Trader, Lady-Captain Hermione Durovera, Armelius’ elder sister, who had forgone her claim to the Governorship, in order to pursue the life of a Rogue Trader beyond the Imperial border - and now wanted the distant world for their own. Countless treasures lay hidden in the planet, and the Lady-Captain was unwilling to risk damaging them by turning the full force of her fleet on it.
Hermione was a clever, dangerous woman, and if she could be brought on board, she could contest her brother’s political hold on the sector - and drastically reduce the Warmaster’s strength and allies.
But the demon soon realized this too, and sent assassins to take her head. The Agents sent by the Inquisition to protect her and sway her to their side had not only to keep her safe from the Eight, but also had to go head to head with agents of the sector-wide rebel alliance, the Rising Flame, who, led by Sharre Ajax, plotted to deny the Imperium the innocent world, and make an example of their hated foes.
The Agents managed to defeat the assassins - even capturing Sharre Ajax - and kill the Rising Flame commanders on-planet, while convincing Hermione of the veracity of the claims that her brother had been replaced; but they still struggled to convince her to let go of her bounty - until a new player joined the board.
Local legends referred to them as the Black Sentinels; they gave no name, and communicated only via radio transmissions, but their vessels were unmistakably that of ancient Astartes. In their messages, they claimed Finisterra was under their protection, and they told the Imperial forces in no uncertain terms that they were to retreat from the system or face the consequences.
Demoralised and battered, Imperial forces and the Lady-Captain’s fleet withdrew, and no Imperial ship that dared to travel to that system since has ever returned…
Meanwhile…
The shadows grew longer…
With the heartbeat came the whispers…
… to the desperate, to the scared, to the lonely…
They preyed upon fears, taking the smallest seed and growing it into a raging inferno. A whole Pilgrim Vessel was turned into a charnel house as the faithful's nightmares were turned upon them in the dark void.
Black ash…
On the world of Butonia, where Witch Finders had fanned the fires of a rebellion of the ‘righteous’, it found fertile ground to spread and influence a new face of the Imperial faith, twisting fanatics so terrified for their lives, that, when they prayed to the God-Emperor in their terror… the Dark listened… and they gave It strength.
Black handprints…
These were the first of the Ashen Cult. Its followers called It many things, but they always called It by the truth: It was the first thing humanity learned to fear while sitting around the flickering firelight in those primitive and long-gone days. It was the dark that no light could escape from. It was the First Fear, the Black, the Endless and Starless Night. It was the End, the Final Breath.
It was Death.
It was the Darkness, and It had awakened.
If not for the actions of Agents of the Throne at both Butonia and the ship, the poison would have spread much faster. By cauterising the wounds, they denied It purchase on the Sector; it was not enough to turn back the dark tide, but it would buy them time…
Event 3 - In the Shadow of the Spire
On the wretched, dying hive-world of Korimesta, an old and ancient rotting spire hid a forbidden secret, using an entire city as camouflage - for, beneath its surface, lay a massive xenos construct - a gigantic Pillar made of the fabled material Blackstone (known as Noctilith in High Gothic).
An Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos, Duplesis, shared with the rest of the Conclave a prophecy that spoke of an xenos artifact hidden beneath the city and how it was tied to the fate of the sector. Several Inquisitors sent their assets to learn more about the pillar, but Korimesta held other interests - and many agents of many masters were in play, as the Spire prepared to celebrate the Ecclesiarchical festival of Khan-Hattilik.
The mysterious woman, who had led the Agents stranded on Everholt to safety though a Aeldari gate, surfaced again - wearing the garments of a Sororitas - and told the Agents a secret: that the Pillar was not a single artefact. Rather, that it was a node in a network made of several (now three) of such devices - all part of something far greater - and she was its guardian. She eventually admitted that, were this network to completely fail, the tides of the Warp would surge and engulf the sector.
Then, death came, and it wore the face of Grandfather Nurgle - the remnant-cult of the Withered Angel erupted in uprising seeking to bring pain and death in the name of their daemonic patron, summoning forth a Herald and its ever-hungry servants. But the Agents of the Throne stood in its way, and through the spiritual blessing of the Emperor’s Saints, the daemonic presence was cleansed.
A warning came from the most unexpected of sources - a possessed Astropath disgorged an image of the Warmaster, who claimed he was just as interested as they were in keeping the Pillars active. The shapeshifter told them that the Archenemy had recently become aware of the location of that Pillar, and one of their battleships was en route to Korimesta to obliterate the planet - and the Pillar with it. After all, were the Eye of Terror to expand, the Archenemy’s work would be made much easier. They needed to destroy the ship before it could destroy the planet. They could heed its warnings or not, but it would be on their heads if they didn’t.
Sensing it was about to be thwarted, the Blood-God sent its servants to attack, which forced the Agents of the Throne to split their forces: some would protect the spire, and some took their battle to the Archenemy’s battleship, the Spear of the Forefather, sabotaging its warp engines and scuttling it before it could reach Korimesta. But their victory would not be without a heavy cost, for while ten went in, only nine came out - and Battlesister Alicia Rose, one of the Emperor’s Daughters, was the one who fell so that others could live.
That was not the only sacrifice that day. Many died, many were broken beyond repair, and an entire noble bloodline was extinguished. But, perhaps, the greatest sacrifice was how the Agents agreed to return home empty-handed - and face their Inquisitors. It was agreed that no Inquisitor should have the Pillar, for it was too vital - and too dangerous. With the help of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the mysterious keeper of the Pillar stabilized the spire, so it would not collapse when she teleported the Pillar using ancient technologies to a new and unknown location.
The Agents had triumphed, Korimesta still stood.
But its death was not long coming…
Meanwhile…
A flicker in the defences of the Pillar, while it rebooted, and a compact between a shadowy conspiracy and the forces of the Archenemy known as the Children of Tain, exploited the weakness in the veil to launch a massive assault on the Crusade Headquarters at the heavily defended Polarnus Station. Infiltrated agents caused the defences to fail or turn on the noble Imperial defenders of the station.
And, in the shadows of this chaos, It grew too, swelling in power and strength. Like a cancer, It spread, more cults growing in the dark, spreading from the bowels of the hive cities to the black bellies of starship holds; In the shadows, It grew, as desperation and fear festered in the sector.
What perhaps was more curious, is that the Warmaster, or the daemon supposedly masquerading as him, took no steps to sow chaos, no steps to bring discord. Instead, she sought to bring hope to the people, sought to combat It -- only fueling the suspicions of the Inquisition that she had a part in all this…
Fires began to spread: small ones at first, but long-dormant fractures between the Great Houses began to re-emerge, ancient hatreds were acted upon once more, and civil war seemed just around the corner.
All it would take was but a spark to ignite it.
The year was 593.M41 and the Prosperitas Sector was beginning to splinter…
Event 4 - On Polarnus Station
There was no doubt that Polarnus Station had to be retaken from the Archenemy. Without it, the Crusade would falter and likely die. But there were other reasons for the Inquisition to send its Agents to the station: hidden within it, an Inquisitorial Black Site, one of the Inquisition’s storehouses of forbidden and confiscated artefacts. Perhaps, more importantly, it now contained a Phylactery, an arcane storage unit believed to contain some component of the false-Warmaster’s soul, the only conduit the Inquisition had to potentially banish the daemon.
But Polarnus was a trap.
For when the fall of Polarnus had been plotted, it had been done so knowing that the Inquisition would want to evacuate the Black Site. Hidden behind the gullible forces of the Archenemy, the conspirator waited for their moment to come.
After infiltrating the station to get to the vault and acquire the Phylactery, the Agents had to fight against not only the Archenemy, but also the Darkness. It had grown strong enough to manifest in the physical space in Its true form, a spreading black shadow that consumed all It touched with growing madness. It was more than a mental change of state, but a physical, festering parasitic fear that erupted from the dead and wore their corpses as its foul puppets to feed on death and fear. It was turned back, after some Agents braved Its grasp to step within It, and see with their eyes for the first time the vast Black Desert in which It was awakening from Its slumber.
Finally, the Black Site was breached, and the precious cargo acquired - and who would have noticed, among all those terrifying and precious things, were one to go missing?
In the meantime, the Inquisition was betrayed both from within their own number and from without, as Inquisitor Alexandros Voss and Arbiter Drusilla Vox, both now servants of the false-Warmaster, took charge of the operation and attempted to abscond with the Phylactery, aided by other infiltrated servants of the Warmaster.
But the other Inquisitors were not as blind as Voss would believe. Their betrayal failed and the Phylactery was destroyed, some say by a miracle of the Emperor, or even by a manifested Living Saint. Still, both of the traitors escaped before they could be brought to justice.
However, the Agents were now in a unique position of being able to take back the station: coordinating their efforts with those of Vice-Admiral Chandier, who had been stranded in the station, they managed to take back the defenses and exorcise the Demon that had been installed inside the station’s mainframe, turning the table on the invaders.
Polarnus stands, the Agents survived, the traitors were exposed and the Warmaster was wounded.
But the siege of Polarnus had served the purpose of its engineer, and the Agents had played their roles beautifully. A vessel sped away from the station, carrying their true target, ITEM-001 PDBX, the first artefact ever stored within the Inquisitorial Blacksite centuries ago - containing an unimaginable treasure…
… a viable genetic sample of the God-Emperor himself.
Meanwhile…
When his phylactery was destroyed, the Warmaster was in a meeting with the Crusade High Command - and the blow forced him to manifest into his true form and kill those with him. It was claimed the Warmaster had been the target of an attempt on his life, that he had barely survived and had claimed the lives of all of his companions. That is why, it was said, the Warmaster became so ill that he retired from public view.
Like jackals after tasting blood, the sudden ‘illness’ of the Warmaster, the Great Houses of the Prosperitas sector made their plays to seize power and grow to new strengths.
In turn, the Rising Flame also rose up in open defiance of the Imperium, with more and more worlds sympathetic to its cause, protecting the local populace even as dangers spilled in from the warp. Their once-captured leader, Sharre Ajax, also apparently escaped his prison on Polarnus during the chaos of the siege.
Though the forces of Chaos had been beaten back, the Imperium could not be saved from itself, as more strife and discord spread…
… and the Darkness continued to swell…
Event 5 - The Forgotten
The Agents were sent to the world of Midsummer, to investigate strange transmissions that were detected by Inquisitorial Auspexes. On the vital agri-world, where nature cults blended with the Imperial cult, something lay: an ancient rift leading to a Realm of Blood and War - the Kingdom of Khorne.
As the Agents found the source of the transmissions, they came upon a lone and wounded sentinel: one of the “Dark Sentinels” of Finisterra, an Astartes of the Second Legion, also known as the Silver Circle.
Long-bound within an ancient axe - known as the Malamawr, and that was guarded by one of the mysterious Astartes that had driven the Imperium from Finisterra - was a Daemon known only as The Red Saint. The Astartes warrior was the keeper of the axe, to ensure that the Red Saint would never be freed.
However, the corrupting influence of blood and slaughter had begun to seep into the world, thanks to agents of the Blood God known as the Red Hand. A blood sickness was spreading slowly, twisting local rites towards the Lord of Skulls, and their sudden attacks had left the Guardian badly wounded - he sent the transmissions for help, for reinforcements of his legion. But who would come knocking if not the Inquisition?
Sensing the rise of the Dark, and the threat that came with a fifth power older than all of the Chaos Gods, Khorne sent forth its servants - not to make war upon the Imperium, but to cleanse the Prosperitas Sector from the influence of the Darkness. Its plan was to have an army of bloody brass daemons march forth from the rift, and remove all life from the Prosperitas Sector. That way, the forgotten waking god would have no fear and no nightmares to prey upon, and no power to reclaim.
The Red Saint was freed from its ancient prison, and found a new vessel. For the Red Hand had brought with them a trophy stolen from the Nurgle battleship Spear of the Forefather: the Sister of Battle who had fallen fighting for the fate of Korimesta - the corpse of Alicia Rose herself. Through bloody necromancy, the Blood God returned the once-pure Soror to life, and rendered her open to serve as the new vessel of its servant.
But the plan of the Blood God ultimately failed. Though the Agents were not able to stop the new Red Saint escaping the surface of Midsummer, they were able to prevent its servants from opening the warp-rift wide, turning the world into a gateway of chaos and immersing it within a new warp-storm.
In doing so, they made valuable allies, in the form of both the mysterious Astartes who came to fight by their side to protect the planet, and the strange xenos known as the Ishari - an offshoot of the Aeldari race that had lived for millennia in the hidden dimensions of the Prosperitas Sector, and who had intimate knowledge of the Darkness - for they were rebels against an oppressive regime controlled by the Whispering God…
Meanwhile…
As the year closed, so did the hope of peace between the Nobility - with the return of Hermione Durovera to the sector at the head of an armada of powerful warships, accompanied by the ill-omened Astartes of the Void Hounds Chapter. These brutal warriors enabled her to conquer the Sector's capital-world of Duroverum from the supporters of her ‘brother’, who was still missing.
As Agents battled the tide of the Darkness by bringing hope to the Sector, others sought to bring some peace, turning to the might of the Ecclesiastical Palace on Terra - and summoning the wrath of the Ecclesiarch against the sector’s Cardinal Grulge who had, for several years now, been gathering a sizable force of Fidelis Militia in clear defiance of the Decree Passive (which forbids the Ecclesiarchy from raising combat forces other than the Battle Sisters of the Adepta Sororitas).
On Persephon, long-held by an Ork Waagh!!, a Kill-Team launched an assault on the Ork Warboss there. Much to their horror, they discovered that the whole invasion had been long-masterminded by the forces of Chaos, and the Warboss Gazbag was little more than the wizened puppet of a warp-entity. Though the Orks vanished from the surface in a sorcerous conflagration shortly after, the Inquisition has yet to celebrate, because the tainted Ork horde may yet appear again.
Refusing to recognise Hermione Durovera as Sector Governor, the Great Houses of the Imperial Nobility began to splinter, with open civil war only held off by the threat implied by the potent Astartes at Hermione Durovera’s command.
In clear defiance of the Imperium, the planet Korimesta rose up and threw off the Imperial yoke. The monstrous Gloriana-class battleship Iron Lady was dispatched to make an example of the world.
Worse still, on the turning of the year and Candlemass’ coming, a threat was exposed within the Commissariat - Archenemy sleeper agents were awoken, and a campaign of sabotage erupted across the Imperium.
The year was 594.M41… as treachery and civil war erupted.
Event 6 - Immersabilis
As the sector crumbled, the Inquisition dispatched Agents to the cruise liner St Sanguinius in pursuit of a new target - a second phylactery of the false-Warmaster – with which they hoped to locate the wounded daemon and end its threat once and for all. The phylactery was brought to be sold in an illegal auction, with the seller clearly unaware of what it truly contained.
Unfortunately for the Agents, they weren’t the only party interested in the vessel, and the terrorists of the Rising Flame made the first move. Overwhelmed by the ongoing siege of Korimesta, the terrorist group sought to turn the St Sanguinius into a deadly missile to destroy the Iron Lady and save Korimesta. Although the Agents put down the hijackers, they had caused enough chaos that the ship, already imperilled, was caught within the edge of the swelling influence of the Darkness - allowing It to consume the ship’s Navigator and turn her into Its thing.
It was in this desperate hour that choices had to be made - and none of them good:
The false-Warmaster revealed herself to the assembled Agents - shedding her disguise as a famous singer aboard the vessel. She pleaded with them to let her help - that she would teach them how to bind the Darkness and escape its realm.
The Chaos Gods manifested their will in the shape of a single unified daemonic herald appearing as four separate entities, the Beast of the Apocalypse. They offered the Agents protection from the Darkness in exchange for the Changeling-Warmaster - who they had tortured for millennia, and allowed to escape for sport, before recapturing her again, in an endless cycle.
The Darkness came too - it had grown in power, spawning mighty ‘Castellans’ as emanations of its will - similar to greater daemons. Speaking though the foremost of these, the Castellan of the North, it informed the Agents that it had no hatred of them, that it was the End, and therefore, like all things, the Agents were Its own, would come to It eventually, and It loved them. And that all It wanted was the Changeling-Warmaster and once they gave her to It, It would free them from Its realm.
Of all the terrible options, a group seemed to choose to go with the devil they knew. But, in the moments before the Warmaster attempted to free the ship from the Warp, others had different ideas, and a dark pact was signed, and an aspect of the Dark God Slaanesh, the Twin Coiling Serpents, stole a mote of power from the Darkness.
Though the vessel pulled free, neither the Darkness nor the false-Warmaster came with it… and both faded back into the Warp - the Changeling seemingly turned to ash, the God wounded.
Aftermath
Immediately after the St Sanguinius Incident…
If the Ordos Prosperitas believed that the ‘death’ of the Changeling - might have bought them respite, they were soon proven wrong…
Auguries upon the state of the imprisoned Ur-Entity known as ‘The Darkness’ or ‘The First Fear’ showed that the actions of Acolytes aboard the St Sanguinius had, in some way, ‘wounded’ it, reducing its ability to extend its influence beyond its prison. But even as nightmares faded from the minds of the innocent, and shadows stopped moving, the augaries detected a new doom approaching: the sign of the Dorghar, the Beast of the Apocalypse, was drawn consistently - for, as Acolytes had wounded the Darkness and the Changeling Daemon Prince aboard the St Sanguinius, someone had let something else in…
The Snake rose in the Warp, and began to weave its sixfold path into the Prosperitas Sector.
Days after the St Sanguinius Incident…
Though the Ordos Prosperitas were soon made aware of the ill portents, things that had been set in motion long before the St Sanguinius left port continued without the hidden hand of the Inquisition able to stay them.
On Korimesta, a world that had very nearly driven off the influence of House Vilas-Lobo and seceded from the Imperium with the aid of the trans-Prosperitas resistance of the Rising Flame, the Imperial forces of the Prosperitas Crusade meted out brutal punishments to the rebels. Turned into a work camp by House Globex, who purchased the world from House Vilas-Lobo, Korimesta was made into an example by the Imperium. While this temporarily damaged morale amongst the Rising Flame, it also furthered tensions between those who identified as Imperials and those who identified as part of the Annwfyn and Ruwwad ethnic groups - with widespread hostility only growing in the aftermath of the slaughter of the rebels-
Meanwhile, the tensions in the ever-chaotic politics of the Noble Houses of the Prosperitas Sector continued to rise: with House Monforte’s Lord missing, presumed dead, and the ailing finances of the house exposed - its debtors and rivals fell upon it, reducing what remained of it to a Beggar House. Its greatest spoils went to the Great Houses of Durovera, Vilas-Lobo and Di Firro, who coordinated the ruin of their once-rival. The greatest of the prizes being the Charters of the House - the contracted essential services of the Imperium. While the two Rogue Trader Houses kept their spoils, House Vilas-Lobo surprised many by granting theirs to the ‘upstart’ nobility of House Ruttyer - a surprising alliance, given that Vilas-Lobo once sneered down their noses at a House with barely a century of history.
With the Inquisition confirming the ‘death’ of Armelius Durovera (while avoiding any tales that could undermine his House), and with no heirs appointed, the Sector Nobility are forced to begrudgingly accept the succession of the Rogue Trader, Hermione Durovera, to the position of Sector Governor. This does not mean peace, though, for while formal civil war has failed to erupt, the ancient War of Blades - hidden beneath an ostensive ‘Cold War’ between the various Houses - continues. Hermione Durovera’s rule is legitimated, but by no means complete: while she can call the major worlds of Subsector Primus largely loyal to her, the other Houses’ influences and territories mean that, ultimately, the situation amongst the Prosperitas Nobility returns to what it has always been - Legitimised Warlords ruling the Imperial Frontier.
Weeks after the St Sanguinius Incident…
Again and again, the sign of Dorghar, the Beast of the Apocalypse was drawn by the Augers of the Prosperitas Conclave. The Inquisition searches madly for the source of the coming threat; there are frantic warnings to keep eyes out along the Eye-wards frontier of the Prosperitas Sector, searching for any signs of warp disturbances - as Inquisitorial forces deploy what meagre resources they can pull together to support dilapidated Arbites and local Enforcers for any coming storm. No risk is discounted, and, yet, the Imperium is still woefully unprepared when the threat does come.
In the weeks that follow, the Eye of Terror - the swirling Warp Storm that the Prosperitas Sector so perilously orbits - ‘opens’. Though the nature of perceiving a vortex into hell is difficult to put into words, the surge in warp energies washed through the Sector. The first signs are the nightmares, as human minds, sensitive to the energies of the warp, are overloaded by hellish visions; the poor unfortunates who are more sensitive than most, and lack training to cope, are driven to madness - between psychological trauma and the increased tension from sleepless nights, violence spills out into the streets. With tensions amongst the various sub-groups of the Prosperitas Sector already high, that’s where civility is the first to break. It takes little effort to ignite riots, and with the worlds of the Prosperitas frontier lacking the garrisons of the mighty worlds of the Imperium, control is hard to reassert.
The Cults of the Archenemy arise in the aftermath, urged on by dreams interpreted as messages from ‘caring’ otherworldly masters - or simply exploiting the chaos. The Terrorist-Cult of the Red Hand is the most widespread instigator of the violence - their song of Khorne-the-Liberator in the avatar of their ‘Red Saint’ has gained them a following of the dispossesed and discarded, and, more worryingly, the war-wounded veterans of the Prosperitas Crusade, who have been cast off for no longer being of use to the Imperium’s wars.
But the threat does not just come from within: without the Weeping Eye and Creeping Death, tribal warbands of pirates and eye-barbarians, whose leaders gave worship to the Plaguefather, and have been harassing the Prosperitas Crusade for years, greatly benefit from favourable warp tides. They cross the border of the Sector and launch an attack that brings Kelper Prime, the stalwart fortress world that has resisted the push of the forces of Chaos for centuries, to finally fall to plague and invasion. Worse still, Olethros Secunda, a world previously believed to be completely safe, also falls to Archenemy invaders. It is only due to the sacrifice of Rogue Trader Lady-Captain Khadija Majid, who coordinated the mediocre system defence fleet (losing her life in the process) that any managed to escape the invasion - and bring word of the regimented Archenemy forces not seen since the days of the Regency, the former traitor rulers of the Prosperitas Sector.
Not all portents pointed to doom, however - Lord Inquisitor Hector Aetós of Terra arrives in the sector, and effectively reorganised the still loyal Inquisitors of the Prosperitas Sector into a formal Inquisitorial Conclave under the title “Ordos Prosperitas”.
At the same time, Emmissarius-Palantine Sylas Derrig Soren van Boren de Toombes, Envoy First Class, Servant of the Master of the Adeptus Administratum, Scion of House Boren de Toombes, Bearer of the Voice of the Throne, representative of the High Lords of Terra, also arrives at the sector - nominally, he is here to formally invest Hermione Durovera with the throne of Sector Governor; but he also represents increased pressure on the Sector Governors to fulfil their duty to Terra - and ensuring that one of the major supply routes into Cadia remains open no matter what. The Space Marines of the Void Hounds Chapter, whose alliance with House Durovera ensured she survived long enough to hold onto her Throne, finally departs the sector after the Emmissarius-Palantine hands them edict from the High Lords - requiring them to return to their chapter fleet with petitions to join another warzone. As a sign of whatever pact Hermione Durovera made with their Chapter Master, they leave an Honour Guard of Battle Brothers to act as her bodyguards.
Months after the St Sanguinius Incident…
Though the Ordos Prosperitas were able to gather their united resources with some donated from the Terran Conclave by Inquisitor Aetos - as well as opening various forbidden vaults provided by Terra - they continue to grapple with strife within the Imperium. At the same time, at the borders of the Sector, the Crusade musters to respond to the assaults on Kelper Prime and Olethros Secunda. In the process, Mawson’s Wake also falls silent, leaving many to believe it has been conquered by the same forces that took Olethros.
Surprisingly, the enemy does not reveal itself on the battlefield, rather in the courts of the Nobles of Subsector Secundus. There, shrouded diplomats, showing not an inch of bare skin, arrive wearing gilded masks adorned with scales like those of serpents. These heralds seem to have no fear in the face of almost certain execution by their hosts - instead, they deliver a plea from their Masters: they claim to represent the ‘rightful’ governors of the Sector, the members of the Archenemy Regency who survived being overthrown in the early years of the Crusade. These diplomats are eloquent, and surprisingly captivating - as many survive to walk out of the glittering halls after giving their tidings;
We will let you Govern, if you simply renounce your God-Emperor; our goals are the same - our duty, sacred.
The Inquisition begins hunting down these emissaries where it can, but it does not have the resources to outright depose and exterminate those who listened to the poisonous message - not without these nobles showing signs of corruption first - for such is the power and reach of those born to heritages of power and tradition. But it is obvious to everyone in the Ordos Prosperitas that the seeds have been planted. Inquisitors send spies, and move kill teams into position to ensure that the damage can be mitigated when this venomous seeding eventually comes into bloom.
However, not all problems are due to the Ruinous Powers. While the Inquisition wearily waits for the dark message to bear fruit, the dance of assassinations and underhanded sabotage between the High-Born continues. In the meantime, the Inquisition’s concern is directed towards the continued entrenchment of Cardinal Ignatius Grulge. Although his opponents and the Ordos Prosperitas have secured a formal Excommunication for his involvement in the proscribed Temple of the Saviour Emperor, the popular support for the Cardinal remains untouched. Imperial Propaganda takes to calling him ‘The Heresiarch’, mocking him for his intention to be opposed to the Ecclesiarch on Terra. Although he is formally identified within the Temple as an ‘Archimandrite’, Grulge owns the insulting title - using it as an example to his followers of how the Ecclesiarchy ‘establishment’ fears their power. It proves exceedingly difficult to turn public opinion against Grulge: the Ecclesiarch is a distant figure on a world near-mythological to citizens who will never see it, while Grulge is right here in the sector, doing what he can for the common man.
The Gearwright Sect - an unsanctioned group of believers who believe in the Sainthood of an Olethran Citizen (and, problematically, an Astropath), Cal Gearwright - have become a strong opposition to the temple, with more moderate ‘traditional’ elements of the Ecclesiarchy increasingly out of touch, and marginalised in the battle for the souls of the God-Emperor’s faithful. By comparison, more established - and with more armed and more militant followers - Grulge and the Temple’s reaction to the upstarts is predictable: Gearwright gatherings are frequent targets of horrendous interfaith violence. As they are unrecognised by the Ecclesiarch, which classifies them as heretics themselves, the Imperial law largely prevents formal intervention to protect the Gearwrights. This causes Arbites and Sororitas interventions to inevitably lead to three-way battles, as both Imperial forces seek to punish all present.
To make matters more concerning, an Imperial Assassin fails to execute Grulge in the waning months of the year - as the Heresiarch seemingly manifests some form of miracle to protect himself from the blade of his killers, and emerging unscarred. Unsurprisingly, this only strengthens the widespread belief in his legitimacy. His power in the Sector continues to grow, and many amongst the Nobility and Commanders of the Prosperitas Crusade hesitate to directly bring the fight to him: their priority is to ensure that the Sector does not fall to the Archenemy first and foremost; committing their already strained resources to an ecumenical squabble does not seem tactically sound.
One Year after the St. Sanguinius Incident…
Exactly six months after their masked Diplomats visited the Houses of Subsector Secundus, multiple fleets in old Imperial Army configurations - and bearing the heretical insignia of the Eye of Horus - arrive to the Prosperitas Sector. These represent the exiled remnants of the Regency. While the enemy forces in the early years of the Prosperitas Crusade were mostly conscripted forces led by those loyal to the Archenemy - the members of the Regency descend from those loyalists - fanatics that were loyal enough to follow their surviving masters into years of exile in the deep void, doing Emperor-knows-what to survive. They are a far cry from the rabble of rebels, pirates and barbarians that the Prosperitas Crusade faced many years ago.
The Regency strikes first at Lerwick and Hellaerus III, where it is met with swiftly organised resistance; but, with the Crusade disunited and in disarray, and lacking a Warmaster for well over a year, it is only the most unexpected of assistance that allows them to weather either assault. At Lerwick, it is believed that Rising Flame infiltrators within the orbital defence grid retask it to intercept the Regency fleet before it translates from the Warp - a manoeuvre that saves the day. That particular bit of information is suppressed by the Inquisition, who, despite their best efforts, find no living Rising Flame infiltrators to interrogate - as all souls aboard the control platform are found dead, with some executed by mass-reactive rounds.
At Hellaerus III, rescue comes from dark-armoured Astartes who only identify themselves as the “Lions of Nemea. Though equipped with weaponry considered outdated by Imperial standards, these marines strike swiftly in support of the Imperial Navy, and manage to destroy several vessels - before fading from the battlefront as quickly as they emerged. They remain distant from Imperial forces in the months that follow, appearing where they are needed, but committing little and communicating even less. Inquisitor Jean Luc Valtrois of the Ordo Astartes and Ordo Prosperitas provides a closed-doors briefing to several major leaders, and silences any suspicions about the Chapter’s arrival.
But the Regency is not without its victories: the lack of Crusade coordination - combined with the infighting between Mechanicus factions on the surface of Henlock - allows the Archenemy forces and their allied Hereteks to retain control of the Titan graveyard. Blame is largely placed upon the forces of Naximus Prime - whether because of long standing prejudices towards Naximus from the other Forges, or because Naximus has spent much of the war focusing its forces on stripping technology from the Graveyard instead of securing their positions. This has seriously strained relations between the Naximus and the sole Knight World of the Sector, Anaximund Alpha - whose loyalties are held by ancient pacts to the Forge World, but who increasingly feel their honour is tested by the dishonourable cold and calculated actions of their Masters.
Months Before the Silence…
In the few months before the Silence, no one, not even the Prosperitas Conclave, had any idea what was coming: perhaps some mysterious alien Seers, always calculating and everwatching, saw what was looming over the Mon’keighs. If they did, they remained silent, and watched only - as they had for centuries before, as they would for centuries after.
It became apparent to all that without an appointed Warmaster, the Prosperitas Crusade was rudderless, and lacked the ability to effectively coordinate. Sarina Khan, Admiral of the Battlefleet Prosperitas was, by merit, the best choice - and, in better times, this would definitely not have been sufficient. Khan is Ruwwad by ethnicity, a native of the Prosperitas Sector, which was the blackest of marks, despite a spotless career record and a list of victories under her belt. Furthermore, the tensions surrounding native Prosperitans and “True” Imperials sparked by the conflict on Korimesta would normally mean that she was politically unappealing to both the Nobles of the Prosperitas Sector, and many in the Crusade. But with tragedy hitting on all fronts, Khan’s enemies were fragmented, and, with the Noble Houses at each other's throats, what influence they might have been able to use to push their ‘preferred’ candidates was too splintered: no House would be seen backing someone that others were backing as well, and the ‘traditionalist’ military faction within the Crusade (which had often relied upon the support of the Houses, with many of them being Nobles themselves) was fragmented. By comparison, the reformist elements of the Crusade, though lacking the power and swing of Noble Houses to support their own candidates, were, by comparison, united behind Khan. In the end, it was Hermione Durovera’s greed that ultimately secured Khan’s succession: the Sector Governor effectively discounted herself from making the appointment of Warmaster by choosing herself. However, lacking the sway her brother had used when he made a similar move, it fell to the Terran delegation and Emmissarius-Palantine Sylas Derrig Soren van Boren de Toombes to make the decision. Seeming to have a talent to spot the sane voices in his delegation, as well as those in the Ordos Prosperitas, de Toombes determined Khan’s ascension.
Warmaster Khan I of the Prosperitas Crusade immediately set to work, by reorganising the campaign against the Archenemy, while also redistributing forces to ensure that the Imperial line held strong. Her position was by no means secure, but she showed admirable ability to flatter and compromise with her opponents to ensure they were both making themselves useful, and were conveniently positioned where they could interfere less in her affairs.
While the Crusade Forces reorganised to face a new threat, the Inquisition dispatched a Strike Force into the Wake - a blighted region of space, and a haven to pirates and other heretics. They sought a missing artefact - a large coffin of unusual origin. The Inquisition forces ultimately manage to throw a wrench into the plans of the Changer of Ways, who was attempting to manipulate the skein of fate to bring forth one of its Champions to unleash upon the Sector. Much to its consternation, the Acolytes manage to rescue an individual thought lost to the tides of history, and kept captive by the Changer - Warmaster Dragos Ulian and his Emperor-class Battleship, the Lion of Terra.
Cleared by the Inquisition of taint and madness, Dragos Ulian is returned to the Crusade, where many traditionalists argue that Khan must stand down and make way for him. But Ulian was very much similar to Khan in his day, and refuses to become the pawn in the politics of the Crusade. So, he steps aside willingly, retiring, instead, to the role of ‘Warmaster-Emmiratus’ - acting as an advisor to the Warmaster but abdicating from any direct control over the Crusade. The return of the Lion of Terra and her Master is totemic, and boosts the Crusade morale, which rallies even in the face of the brutal fighting against the Regency, and the harassment of pirates and eye-barbarians.
And then, Silence…
The Silence
The first signs came when the astropathic Choirs became tranquil, and their songs became whispers, then faded altogether. The courier ships that carried messages from out-sector, soon were carrying them within…
Not long after, Navigators became blind, and could not find their way in the pathways of the stars…
Soon, all warp engines, even those of the mighty warships of Battlefleet Prosperitas sputtered, then went to sleep…
And, in a Sector wracked by war and conflict, there was just… Silence.
At first, the Inquisition dispatched its servants across the Sector, trying to find any clues to explain what was happening: there were concerns about a possible contamination of the Choirs by some unknown means - but, soon, the phenomena intensified and went past the quieted voices. Little by little, a veil was drawn around the sector, as the Navigators were next, grounding countless vessels, and forcing a few others to ‘warp skips’.
When, suddenly, the veil between warp and reality hardened entirely. Not even the warp drives of battleships could breach it, and go to warp.
The Sector was still, and its worlds completely cut off from each other.
In active warzones, the fighting continued, with the phenomena striking the enemies of the Imperium equality harshly, with neither side having hopes of reinforcements. A myriad of planetary wars continued, but the sector-wide theatre was painfully slow. Without astropaths, communications had to happen through more ancient, slower forms of transmission - taking weeks, months even, depending on the quality of broadcast. But, for every beleaguered Imperial force, there were Archenemy advances that stuttered to a halt, as daemon-touched war-engines suddenly went quiet, with the neverborn within ceasing to exist.
Those left stranded in realspace were the lucky ones - because those travelling in the warp when the Silence fully fell found themselves trapped in a sterile and timeless otherealm, detached from time and space, completely oblivious of what was going on around them.
And although all was quiet, there were still predators…
A Time of Stillness
For one long year (Terran Standard), the Prosperitas Sector was affected by the Silence, with communication between worlds reduced to primitive methods for all but those with access to the most potent techno arcana. This isolated the sector, but also slowed the forces of the Archenemy who faced similar - if not worse - disruption. Though Psykers remained able to call upon the energies of the warp, the barrier was so thickened that it weakened their power too, while preventing anything from the other side from passing through.
The Silence was exploited by those in power - especially Hermione Durovera - to ignite passionate Imperialist sentiments in the population, and encouraged a banding of all those who considered themselves loyal to the Imperium. This isolated those who stood apart, especially the Annwfyn and Ruwwad social groups, which, in turn, led to increasing tensions. Even when the warp suddenly came back in Mid-596.M41, the popular rallying cry of “Imperium Prosperitas” remained in use.
The Tide Comes In
It would have been poetic if the Silence had ended with some fanfare, tragedy or Chaos…but in truth, it was nothing as dramatic.
At first, nobody was aware the Silence had ended - until the first Astropathic messages reached the unprepared and idle Astropaths. It was a slow, sleepy awakening for those who had spent nearly a year with little news from the great outside, and little to fear but the threats inside.
The Ordos Prosperitas sought answers, but, to this day, are still no closer to working out its cause. The commonly held belief lays blame on a Warp Surge, suggesting that perhaps the strange realm that houses the Darkness, and is informally known as “the Prison”, had reacted to the tidal energies of the Eye, and projected a Sector-wide anti-Warp field, to protect itself from intrusion. Such a reaction would imply some degree of guiding sentience behind the workings of the Prison, making the Ordos have resolutely decided it would be better if the Adeptus Mechanicus not bound to the Inquisition were not informed of this particular theory for a myriad of reasons.