Timeline of the Prosperitas Sector

This page contains a timeline of events in the Prosperitas Sector from before its foundation to the start of the Death Unto Darkness campaign in 595.M41. You can read more about events since that date in The Story So Far.

Pre-M41

Mid-M25 - Early Human Settlement of the Prosperitas Sector -

Archaeological and archival evidence suggests that humanity first arrived in the Sector in mid-M25. It is presumed these craft were early warp vessels, or perhaps sleeper vessels, travelling on sublight drives - little is known about this early settlement. Scholars have long attempted to study the older native archives of the sector but many of these were destroyed during Regency occupation.

M25-M29 - The Age of Strife -

Warp storms cause massive rifts in real and warp space making space travel nearly impossible and cutting off entire regions. On Terra, civilization regresses as techno-barbarians fight for survival and for dominion of the wasteland that was once a green and wonderful Earth.

M30-M31 - The Great Crusade -

The Emperor unites Holy Terra and sets out across the Galaxy, founding the Imperium in His name. At some stage during this period, fragmentary records point to the unification and official designation of the Prosperitas Sector as a sector of the newborn Imperium. The names and titles of those responsible for its foundation are unavailable due to corruption in Crusade-era data recorders. It is uncertain how long initial Imperial contact with the Prosperitas Sector lasted, but it was long enough for the surviving maps within the Archives of Terra to have been created.

M31 - The Horus Heresy -

The Emperor and his nine Primarchs are opposed by the Arch-Heretic, Horus, one of nine Daemons in the service of the Archenemy, Chaos. In the resulting war Terra is besieged and, through a combination of destroyed charts and shifting warp tides, the Prosperitas Sector becomes one of the forgotten, lost regions of the galaxy. Local legends suggest that invading forces came from the Eye of Terror and took worlds in the Easternmost regions of the sector. From amongst these, a dark follower of the Archdaemon Horus was appointed to rule the sector - and so began a period (and government) that would last between M.31 and early M.41. This was known as the Regency.

M31-013.M41 - The Regency -

The Imperium specifically destroyed the majority of archives detailing the history of the so-called ‘Regency’, the Archenemy-aligned occupying government that ruled the Sector in the absence of the Emperor’s Light. What is known is that it laboured in the foolish belief that Horus won the Battle of Terra.

For over ten millennia the Sector was ruled by a ‘Regent of the Emperor’, an Archenemy tyrant. There is significant evidence of native resistance during this period, which is why a considerable number of native populations have been spared immediate extermination in the years since reconquest of the Sector has begun.

Most of the history of the Regency period was lost by extensive purges by the Holy Ordos and the Imperium, but some knowledge of this period was recorded by the native human inhabitants. Both the Annwfyn and Ruwwad were placed under the dominion of the invading forces under the so-called Regent of the Warmaster, and rule of the sector's worlds fell to various Priest-Kings of a heretical religion known as the Covenant of the Way, the strongest of whom would be the next Regent. During this period, the sector was not particularly stable. Both the Annwfyn and Ruwwad have a history of resistance (which has, in some problematic instances, continued under Imperial rule) and many worlds were already independent of the Regency when the Imperium first arrived.

000 to 100.M41

009.M41 - The arrival of the Durovera Expedition -

A fleet of Imperial ships led by Rogue Trader Jacinta Durovera, in search of a new passage to the Cadia Sector through the minor warp storms surrounding that sector, discovers a stable warp passage from Segmentum Solar into the Prosperitas Sector. There, she discovers a stable Sector occupied by a people who believe she has come as an emissary of the Emperor on Terra.

Affairs are cordial until Durovera’s reception on Legio Venia, when the ‘Emperor's Regent’ rolls out banners displaying the Eye of Horus, deeply heretical to the Imperial delegation. Despite herself, Durovera masters her doubts and remains cordial, and the unsuspecting Regent goes through formalities oblivious of how the Sector has been misled.

Returning to her ships, Durovera takes advantage of the fact that she has the benefit of surprise and launches an immediate bombardment of the Regency's government buildings, before ordering the ground forces accompanying her fleet to launch an all-out attack on the sector capital. After a successful conquest of the capital, the Rogue Trader hunkers down, sends astropathic messages to Terra requesting assistance and prepares to weather the coming counter-attack and siege by the Regency Fleet.

013.M41 - 101.M41 - The Prosperitas Crusade Begins -

Four years after Jacinta Durovera conquered Legio Venia, Imperial forces arrive there to relieve the Rogue Trader. They bring with them heralds of the High Lords of Terra, who proclaim Durovera to be Warmaster of the Prosperitas Crusade. Armed with astro-navigational knowledge she has plundered from Regency data vaults beneath the surface of Legio Venia, Durovera launches a lightning campaign against several major staging worlds for Regency forces, crippling much of the Regency Fleet, and what little nominal leadership survived her attack on the capital.

She is supported by numerous forces including the nomad Titans of Legio Ferraeus, to whom she grants the Forge World that will eventually come to bear their name. In addition, she is supported by local fighters known as the Rising Flame who have fought an armed if nebulous resistance against the Regency for millennia.

In her later years as Warmaster, Durovera became obsessed with hunting down the flagship of the Regency fleet, the ancient Gloriana-class battleship Manifest Destiny. From her flagship, the Nemesis-class fleet carrier Stormchaser, the Warmaster hunts the huge warship down over a series of engagements, damaging it heavily with waves of fighter craft.

The Stormchaser is last seen translating to warp without her flagship’s escorts, and no sign is ever seen of her or Jacinta Durovera again; however, the Manifest Destiny is discovered several months later bearing heavy damage and with all onboard dead or evacuated. It is brought under tow back to Legio Venia and remains there undergoing re-sanctification. When Durovera is eventually declared missing in action by Crusade High Command, the vessel is re-christened Iron Lady and Legio Venia is officially renamed Duroverum, in honour of the fallen Warmaster. House Durovera are granted the seat of Sector Governor by right of blood, and one of the Warmaster’s cousins takes the throne.

100-300.M41

101-196.M41 - The Crusade Stalls and the Strife -

Without an obvious heir to the Warmaster, Crusade progress stalls, and the lack of guidance as to how to divide the holdings already taken by the Crusade fragments the alliances formed by Jacinta Durovera in her quest to take the Prosperitas Sector. Terran nobles and their families, who were promised riches and worlds to establish themselves beyond the reach of their parents, war amongst themselves, and military commanders bicker over their rights of control over the Imperial parts of the Prosperitas Sector.

Though the Imperium has a hold over most of Subsector Primus and has broken most of the Regency's greatest armies, local populations are found to be non-compliant - either dogmatically continuing to follow the heretical religion practiced by the Regency or being of Annwfyn or Ruwwad descent and difficult to control. In perhaps the greatest reversal of Jacinta's policies, Imperial commanders decide that the Rising Flame are dangerous and must be snuffed out. The insurgents realize the threat too late and the Imperium is able to deal devastating blows to the rebellion before it can withdraw and hide from persecution; this 'betrayal' turns the focus of the Flame away from the Regency and begins hundreds of years of resistance against the Imperium.

An assembly of Witch Hunters from the Ordo Hereticus arrive in 142.M41, forming the first iteration of the the Prosperitas Conclave of the Inquisition. Witch-pyres burn hot, with entire heretic populations put to the flame. While military leaders squabble amongst themselves, the Inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus make themselves busy, spreading across the sector. Some travel beyond Imperial lines even, bringing their shadow war to non-compliant worlds beyond the Imperium's light.

139.M41 - [Outside Sector] The Gothic War -

The Crusade deadlock is made worse by the invasion of the Gothic Sector by the most hated Despoiler, Warmaster of the Archenemy. Forces originally intended for the Prosperitas Sector are diverted eastward to the Gothic Sector instead, leading to massive supply shortages which will dog the Crusade long into the present era.

197-304.M41 - The Folly of Warmaster Monforte -

Eventually Warmaster Monforte, an unobjectionable if unimpressive leader, is selected from amongst the available candidates.

On the border of what will be designated Subsector Tertius, the remaining forces of the Regency proper gather to mount a major counter-attack against the Imperium. Made aware by spies, Warmaster Monforte throws everything he has against the gathered forces. Because of the difficulty navigating the asteroid field in the system, the fighting is long and harsh, and what is supposed to be a surprise attack drags into a long-term attrition war in the field, with the Imperium eventually winning a pyrrhic victory after ten years of conflict and innumerable losses

Made worse by political friction between House Durovera from the Sector Governor's throne and Warmaster Monforte, the Crusade forces fall into a lull nearly a hundred years long. While this allows for Subsector Primus to be stabilized and fully tamed by the Imperium, the lack of progress frustrates House Durovera and many Imperial commanders, who believe the aging Monforte to be growing incompetent as his age advances - more so than many already did. Unlike his ill-fated predecessor and those who will follow, the Warmaster dies of old age at the end of this century, free of regrets. On his deathbed, he swears that he will never apologise for consolidating the Imperium’s victories and avoiding overstretching his forces.

300-400.M41

304.M41 - The Victories and Fall of Warmaster Ulian -

Warmaster Ulian, the third individual to carry the title of Warmaster and the youngest yet, enjoys unparalleled success opening both the Secundus and Tertius Subsectors to Imperial expansion. Though the Regency is largely defeated, many of the worlds are home to non-Imperial, Archenemy and xeno-worshipping cultures. These enemies reel before his advance. Many of their forces are driven out of Imperial space and into the currently lawless regions. Buoyed by success under Ulian’s leadership, Imperial forces prepare a three-pronged assault on the trailing regions of the Sector that lie close to the malevolent light of the warp storm known as the Eye of Terror.

Tragedy strikes as the Eye, always in flux, bursts its borders, with splinters of the storm ripping apart realspace in their wake. One such tendril, known as the Lash of the Eye, surges through Subsector Quartus. Imperial forces flee the storm while many of the Archenemy joyfully meet it, some even driving fleets into the maelstrom . The storm devastates the Crusade forces as it swallows the whole Subsector. In the aftermath Warmaster Ulian is missing, presumed dead, and the Crusade reels and stalls as it loses much of its fighting strength.

331.M41 - The Tenebris Arm -

Even as the Eye wanes, the storm consuming the lost regions does not abate, creating an uncrossable region of space for Imperial forces and a haven for the forces of the Archenemy. The Arm of the Eye is named Tenebris and is declared lost. It is ruled impassable, and many forces are dedicated to worlds like Strayvia on the borders, to act as fortress-worlds to hold back any Archenemy who might emerge from the storm. This loss is devastating to the Ruwwad people, who are native to the region claimed by the Eye ,and scatters their populations amongst the other worlds of the Sector.

349.M41 - Warmaster Fassir -

Nudara Fassir, a Terran-born General, is appointed by the High Lords of Terra to take over the Prosperitas Crusade, after they grow tired of the petty squabbling of the Crusade command and their inability to agree upon a leader. Fassir is a veteran of the Solar Regiments and a talented warrior. She is a conservative commander, but is also a veteran of Terran politics, and does well holding the Crusade together during the long years of doubt that will follow. Once again the Crusade’s progress slows, but she mitigates frustration amongst her commanders by assigning forces to expeditionary fleets, probing the more stable warp-routes in the Rimward Marches of Subsector Secundus. Her reign as Warmaster lasts long into the later years of her life, but ends in tragedy and betrayal.

392-399.M41 - [Outside Sector] The Macharian Crusade -

On Terra, a brilliant Imperial Commander, Macharius, is appointed Lord Solar, and launches a brilliant crusade into Segementum Pacificus. Many commanders of the Prosperitas Sector claim Warmaster Durovera inspired the Imperium to support commanders like Macharius, but the Crusade also hails the waning interests of the High Lords in the Galactic north and further crippling reductions in resources available to the Prosperitas Crusade.

400-500.M41

439.M41 - The Assassination of Warmaster Fassir -

Warmaster Fassir is assassinated in her command quarters on Polarnus Station. Her wife, Majal, is the sole witness to the crime, and gives an account of a skin-changing woman who struck Fassir down. Her testimony is ruled unreliable, as Crusade High Command refuses to accept such a thing would have spared her life. Agents of the Inquisition take Majal away for interrogation, and she is never seen again. Accusations of betrayal and treachery fly freely in the years that follow as squabbling over the position of Warmaster intensifies.

444.M41 - [Outside-Sector] The Armageddon War -

A large Archenemy force launches an assault on Armageddon, a major manufacturing world in Segementum Solar. While the actual account of the war is sealed by Inquisitorial record, the loss of a supply world has serious consequences across the Imperium. It could not come at a worse time for the Prosperitas Sector, where strained tensions are already close to breaking point.

446-484.M41 - The Inheritance War and Censure -

The conflict for the position of Warmaster intensifies into open civil war between three Imperial commanders (whose names are later struck from record). Imperial forces clash with Imperial forces over a period of twenty years. Most of this fighting occurs away from the eyes of others, and many of them are honour battles, but the infighting utterly paralyses the Crusade once again. In some cases, it leads to opportunistic pirate raids and rebel uprisings on planets left poorly defended by the distracted Imperial forces.

Belatedly, the High Lords of Terra deliver a Proclamation of Censure ordering the execution of those commanders involved in the Inheritance War, suspending the Crusade indefinitely, and re-deploying the grand majority of non-native forces from the Crusade to other Sectors in need of reinforcement, reducing its strength to the weakest in its history.

500-586.M41 - The Era of Stagnation

553.M41 - The Cadian Corridor, and the rise of Warmaster Hroth -

The High Lords repeal their censure after ships from House Majid's fleet discover the Cadian corridor, a warp passage that effectively grants Imperial reinforcements for the Cadian Gate a five-year shortcut on the journey to the Cadian Sector. This heightened strategic importance, in addition to the sector Geosurvey's discovery of rare resources in the Rimward Marches, leads to the High Lords appointing Janus Hroth as Warmaster. Hroth is a Munitorum Administrator with very little tactical aptitude which leads to several very near strategic disasters as he attempts to command Imperial forces like a civil servant.

563-566.M41 - Waagh! Gazbag -

Smashing out of wildspace between the Gothic Sector and the Prosperitas Sector, Waagh! Gazbag crashes into the exposed flank of the Imperium on the Galactic East. The Greenskins, not previously seen in sector, tear through several Imperial worlds in the space of a few years. The tide is turned when Arch-Militant Voss deploys a strategy of funneling the Orks towards Persephon IV where they are bogged down and a stalemate is reached. For his part, Voss is inducted into the ranks of the Inquisition - becoming Inquisitor Voss, and is granted considerable support from Crusade High Command.

566.M41 - A New Warmaster -

With Warmaster Hroth’s failings exposed, he is forced to resign his post in shame, and Warmaster Ilenyós is appointed in his stead. He is exactly what the Crusade needs, being ready to knuckle down to work, and takes the lead on a number of major strategies to return the Crusade to action.

570.M41 - The Unwanted Governor -

Long ignored, and long treated as the lesser rewards of the House, the seat of Sector Governor is taken up by Armelius Durovera after his sister abdicates the position in order to take control of the family's Warrant of Trade so she might lead the House fleet out into the Rimward Marches in search of treasures beyond Imperial battle-lines. Armelius is a vain man, not prepared for the position of Sector Governor, and relies heavily upon his aides. He quickly develops a friction with Crusade High Command, and makes an outright political enemy of the Warmaster. This marks the beginning of a period of upheaval and great loss for the Prosperitas Sector.

577-582.M41 - The Great Losses -

A formerly productive and reliable agri-world supplying crops to feed many Hive-Worlds across Subsector Primus, Strayvia suffers near-total economic collapse through the mid 570s as a great portion of its able-bodied youth are shipped off to newly-founded Guard regiments to defend the Tenebris border. The resulting mutiny among the population springs into a fully-formed insurgency with reported Archenemy links, and the planet is virus-bombed in 577.M41 as part of an Exterminatus by Inquisitorial decree. The remnants of the Strayvian regiments remain committed to Battlegroup Hesperidus, embittered and downtrodden after massive casualties at the front and the loss of their homeworld.

In 582.M41 both Korimesta and Caudica Secundus suffer tragedies;

The Hive World of Korimesta sees several months of panic after the entirety of Hive Secundus is destroyed by an atomic device with the loss of billions of lives. When no further attacks are forthcoming things quieten down, but the planet remains on high alert and those behind the attack are never identified.

A thriving cultural and economic centre, the Hive World of Caudica Secundus sees a resurgence in fanatical religious activity among the miners of its southern continent. This quickly reveals itself to be a facade over an outright heretical uprising. After local authorities fail to contain the growing threat, the planet is interdicted and subjected to Exterminatus by orbital bombardment. Caudican refugees spread across the mining colonies and vessels of the sector, carrying dread tales and fear with them.

580.M41 - Massacre of Blackstation 101 -

A hidden Inquisitorial fortress is hit by an agent of the Archenemy while many of the sector’s Inquisitors are gathered in conclave. The resulting massacre leaves a handful of survivors - a few who were there, and some who were lucky enough not to have been present. Without weight of numbers, the surviving Inquisitors are increasingly dependent on empowering their Agents to act for them, and calling upon the aid of other factions.

583.M41 - The Death of Hroth -

The planet Henlock, a Mechanicus colony in the Rimward reaches of the Sector, comes under attack from Archenemy forces. Imperial forces are caught completely off guard, and to make matters worse, a Titan of the Demi-Legion Custodii Incudatem is captured by the Archenemy. This marks the Imperium’s first encounter with a unified Archenemy force for centuries; these forces bear the insignia of the Regency and are believed to be the remnants of that former power.

In response, Crusade High Command launches the disastrous ‘Operation Righteous Fury’, intent on blunting the so-called Talons of the Way before they can capitalize on their success at Henlock. Crusade forces easily overwhelm the Archenemy's picket fleet, but this turns out to be a trap, as a massive fleet of Archenemy vessels drops out of warp several days later. Most of Crusade High Command - including the Warmaster - and much of the Crusade Fleet are destroyed or captured in the subsequent chaos, with talk of Imperial vessels turning on each other in the midst of the battle.

584-586.M41 - The Rise of Cardinal Grulge -

In the aftermath of Henlock, the disruption of sacred ceremonies on Nivalis caused by heretic Navigators sparks sector-wide unrest and attacks upon the abhumans, especially those of House de Sousa, who are blamed for the chaos. Imperial forces scramble to stop the sector falling into total anarchy as they stave off assaults from rebels, heretics and xenos alike. The arrival of reinforcements from beyond the sector and the pacification of Nivalis by the Battle Sisters of the Order of His Sanguine Tears provides stability at the end of 584.

With this force of Holy Warriors comes a new figure, Cardinal Ignatius Grulge. The charismatic and ruthless Cardinal takes control of the leaderless Ecclesiarchy and sets about disciplining wayward and apostate Priests. His actions provide the sector with further stability, and spiritual guidance.

586.M41-595.M41 - The Reign of Falsehoods

Detailed in The Story So Far and summarised in Campaign 1 - Part 1

As far as the wider Prosperitas Sector knows - on Everholt an attempt is made on the life Sector Governor Armelius Durovera. The Governor, once a craven and foppish layabout and entitled child of House Durovera - seems to experience a complete change following this experience, applying himself to becoming a better ruler to his Sector. Thanks to this - and because the role within the Crusade remains absent - Armelius is able, after several years of political manuevering, to position himself Warmaster of the Prosperitas Crusade, gaining the ascent of the High Lords and enough senior Crusade staff to be the first since his ancestor Jacinta, to hold both the titles of Governor and Warmaster under once office.

It is only six years later in 592.M41 that the Inquisition becomes aware of what has occurred on Everholt - that a shape-shifting Daemon Prince known only as the 'Faceless Regent" has managed to replace the Sector Governor and gain control of the Sector. For the next three years while battles against the Archenemy rage along the Sector's Borders and internal strife threatens to tear the frontier sector apart, the Inquistion works to undermine the rule of this false-ruler lacking the resources or evidence to remove him in a bolder move, having had its power weakened over the years prior to 586 - likely due to the machinations of this same creature. In 594.M41, Inquisitorial Servants are no closer to working what the creatures ultimate goals were, but successfully banish it from reality while it apparently aids them against a far greater threat.

However over the course of the years from 592.M41 Inquisition Agents become increasingly aware of another powerful entity working quite literally in the shadows of the Prosperitas Sector. This creature, an Ur-Entity, a "Warp God" that predates known history has been trapped in a xenos-construct prison that the Imperium settled and called the Prosperitas Sector. Hemmed in by ancient machinery, the entity begins to slip its bonds. Born of the firstborn fears of all sentient life, this creature begins to induce nightmarish hallucinations and madness across the Sector. With the aid of the Faceless Regent the Inquisition are able to, apparently, drive the entity back in 594.M41 though knowledge of its existence significantly increases the interest of the wider Inquisition in the Prosperitas Sector - leading to the arrival of Lord Inquisitor Hektor Aetós in the sector and the formal formation of the Ordos Prosperitas.

Alongside these esoteric threats, the Sector is attacked within and without, cult uprisings and rebellions mark these latter years of M.41 with victories and defeats for the Crusade coming over the years - the appointment of a new Warmaster, Sarina Khan I and the recovery of another Dragos Ulian I coming as major boosts to its morale in 595. Though the return of the exiled remnants of the Regency's Military forces in the same year presents new challenges for the campaign to conquer and tame the frontier space in the Prosperitas Sector.

Internal strife comes from Warp Cults and the insurgents of the Rising Flame who both enjoy victories and defeats over these years. But there is no internal threat greater than the rising up of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor under Cardinal Grulge who, despite being excommunicated for his membership of this proscribed sect, manages to hold onto spiritual power and authority and, without Ecclesiarchy power to challenge him, remains in power at the end of these years forming his own religious state and seeking to gain influence over the remaining Imperial worlds of the Sector.