Threats of the Prosperitas Sector
The Galaxy is dark and full of horrors.
Though the Imperium controls the majority of what was once known as the Milky Way Galaxy, that doesn’t mean that it has rendered it safe.
The Prosperitas Sector is a good example of that. As a recent addition to the Imperium – with only five hundred years of occupation – many of its outer limits have gone untamed, many dangerous flora and fauna roam the wilds, and, most insidiously, rebels and heretics plot the downfall of what they view as Imperial tyranny even as other foes seek to destroy it from without.
The astrography of the Prosperitas Sector does not make this any better. It is a frontier sector. Barring two fluctuating corridors leading to the Segmentum Solar and the Cadia Sector, Prosperitas is bordered by wild, untamed, and unexplored space. To make matters worse, fluctuations in the nearby Eye of Terror in 328.M41 – just under three hundred years ago – resulted in a tendril of the infamous storm consuming part of the sector.
Now, the border of the lesser Eye stormfront dubbed ‘Tenebris’ corrupts worlds along the border of what was once Subsector Quartus, and unleases hellish horrors and hordes of warp-tainted foes from the storm’s depths. With the coming of the storm has also come madness. The Imperium has done its best to maintain control of the Sector, but sometimes its grip is too tight, and things begin to splinter.
Dangers of the Prosperitas Sector
Not all threats to life in the Prosperitas Sector are malevolent, or sentient. Despite Imperial opinion that is humanity's manifest destiny to conquer the stars, there are plenty of worlds hostile to human life, and plenty of dangers that will see a ship never reach its destination.
Flora and Fauna of the Prosperitas Sector
Most of the planets capable of supporting life in the Prosperitas Sector possess some form of native life. Though sentient xenos lifeforms might once have been supported upon them the majority of xenoform life in the present day comes in the shape of non-sentient fauna and flora. Though the Imperial creed exposits hatred of Xenos, it is rather more flexible about xenos beasts and plantlife, with the Imperium co-opting many xenos creatures and plants as food sources, working animals and even pets and ornamentation. But for every benign xenoform, there are as many dangerous and unique threats; predator-animals that cannot be tamed by Imperial colonists, or carnivorous plants that prey upon them.
Enemies of the Imperium
The 41st Millenium is not a peaceful place. Though the Imperium is the dominant power of the Milky Way, it is not without those who would challenge that dominance – from xenos races that seek to reclaim long-faded glories, to wayward human worlds that refuse its rule, the Imperium has been in a near-constant state of war since its creation. New wars break out almost daily, while Imperial authorities fight threats emerging within their own ranks.
Foes of the Ordos Prosperitas
The following individuals, active and deceased, have attracted the attention of the Ordos Prosperitas as particularly prominent foes in recent years.
Ignatius Grulge, the former Cardinal of the Sector, declared apostate and heretic in 593.M41 when he was unmasked as a member of the heretical Temple of the Saviour Emperor. He fought a bloody sectarian war against Canoness Dinah and the orthodox Ecclesiarchy in the Sector until 597.M41, from his base on Nivalis, sending Fidelis Templar forces across Subsector Secundus to oppose both the Archenemy and Ecclesiarchy forces. He was arrested and officially executed in 597.M41.
Former-Inquisitor Alexandros Voss, the former Inquisitor-Militant of the Conclave, and previously renowned as a hero who had prevented Waaagh! Gazbag from ravaging the Eastern Prosperitas Sector by trapping them on Persephon IV. Voss was exposed as a traitor working for the Ruinous Powers in 593.M41, and declared Excommunicate Traitoris by the Prosperitas Conclave – in turn the rogue Inquisitor declared his colleagues Excommunicate Traitoris and a number of Inquisitorial Agents and Stormtroopers allied themselves with the renegade. Since then Voss has been a high-priority target, and a significant thorn in the side of the Inquisition.
Sharre Ajax is the leader of the Rising Flame. His background has been slowly pieced together over the years – over four decades ago, he was a talented and beloved Military Officer, a ethnic Annwfyn serving in the Defence Forces of his homeworld, Steela, in Subsector Tertius, a minor independent world that had largely escaped Imperial attention until 551.M41 when the Imperium invaded. Subjected to the full terrifying might of the Imperium of man, Ajax witnessed the worst terrors it was capable of, before his planet was shattered, its people shackled and forced to strip-mine their homeworld for Imperial greed under cruel masters.
Ajax survived only via sheer luck and the willing sacrifice of every other member of his unit to protect him. As far as is known, he is very likely the last free native of Steela. This fact has shaped a determination to demonstrate to the Imperium that his people will not go quietly into the night, and it didn’t take long for him to join up with the rebels in the Rising Flame. With a keen intellect, and a ruthlessness born of loss he quickly gained power and followers within the Flame, turning the movement to even more spectacular and grandiose acts of violence. Captured by the Imperium on Finisterra, Ajax would have likely been condemned to arco-flagellation, but after the siege of Polarnus in 593.M41 he was rumored to have escaped, and retaken control of his faction of the Rising Flame.
Herforingi (Black Speech.n: War Leaders) Arnkatla Tain and Greppur Tain are Archenemy warleaders from the blighted warp-wracked worlds of the Ættin Heima dedicated to the Ruinous Powers. The twins have led barbaric Archenemy warbands on multiple raids against the Imperium from Subsector Tenebris. Arnkatla is renowned as the more deadly of the pair, a martial leader of considerable skill and a deadly combatant whereas her brother is unimaginative and prone to wasting his forces in grinding attrition warfare. Arnkatla masterminded the capture of Polarnus Station in 592.M41 and likely would have used it as a foothold to strike deeper into the Sector had she not been foiled by Imperial forces and the agents of the Inquisition. Since losing Polarnus the two turned their attention to Kelper Prime where their forces finally broke the Imperial defences of the world and took the planet.
Gazbag, Prophet of the Twin Sunz is a leader-beast of the greenskin Ork Waagh! that smashed into the Eastern Prosperitas Sector in 563.M41 and occupied Persephon. Unlike most Ork leader-beasts the ‘Prophet’ has not been seen in battle many times. Unlike many Ork leaders, the evasive ‘Prophet’ commands an almost-fanatical control over his servants that has never been seen in similar Ork forces, accompanied by the xeno-cultist ork-worshipping human ‘Konskripts’ that have joined the Waagh! as fanatically as his greenskin warriors. The reason for this was revealed in 594.M41 when an Ordo Xenos strike team discovered that the beast was in fact possessed by a Warp Entity. Said Warp Entity, seemingly unwilling to surrender its host, subsequently drew every Ork on Persephon into the Warp, to emerge who-knows-where.
Armelius Durovera [Missing– 586.M41] [Daemonic Imposter Banished - 594.M41], Head of House Durovera and Sector Governor. Never intended to inherit, he was thrust into the position in 569.M41 when his sister Hermione, the Heir, took the family’s Warrant of Trade and House Fleet but refused the Governorship. Initially dismissed as inept and unprepared for the position, Armelius’ fortunes appeared to change in 586.M41, when after surviving an assassination attempt, he successfully appealed to the High Lords of Terra for the position of Warmaster; he was confirmed in this position in 589.M41.
In truth, known only to agents of the Inquisition, Armelius went missing or was killed by a shape-changing warp entity in 586.M41. The entity proceeded to win favor amongst the common folk and anti-Crusade elements by promoting a ‘peace doctrine’ that has preserved lives and ensured the security of the Imperium for an unknown purpose. The creature exercised considerable control over the family’s Vassal Houses and was the de facto head of Crusade High Command until recently. It was officially banished from this realm of existence by members of the Ordo Malleus in 594.M41.